Mountain Of Flesh

[Welcome to the second floor, Mountain Of Flesh]. 

Steam came out of my mouth due to the freezing temperature of the mountain. The snow felt like I was barefoot, even though I had boots on. The cold air sprung into my ears, plunging them with its wrath. 

I had to take deep breaths, as the amount of oxygen in the air was low. I was already red from the snowflakes falling on my sensitive skin, my nose was red like a specific reindeer.

The ice around me made walking dangerous, so I decided to sit for some time. 

While the last floor was full of amazing smells, I couldn't even smell anything here.

'Can I go back? Or just leave? Return.'

[Error. Unable to return the user to the human world.]

'Why did I think it would work?'

Mountain Of Flesh huh, well there wasn't any flesh here so I guess we could change the name to Mountain Of Nothing.

This was confusing, I had no idea where the beast could be. The mountain prolonged itself until eternity, and there was no clue of anything. Just the snow.

On the last floor, I at least had a guess, being inside that district I had an idea of what was going on, and where the supposed beast could be hiding. 

There weren't even any animals here. 'Just me and Mother Nature.' And a memory beast, hidden somewhere in this infinite mountain. 

I prepared my balance for my walk on the slippery ice, then started my search for a clue.

'Why can't these be like my trial where the beast would come to me? I mean it's annoying having to search fo-'

My complaint was soon answered, as I felt a strong power launching me into the ice wall. As I hit the cold wall, I painted it red, from the blood spilling out of my mouth. I looked over at my creation proudly. 'Can I sell this as modern art?'

Then, the wall started being covered black on the edges, and this black paint continued to cover the blue canvas until it went fully black.

Ah, I'm such a dumbass, it wasn't the wall being corrupted by the black paint but my vision.

...

When I woke up I found myself in an ice cave. Sharp stalactites roamed the ceiling, making it feel like I was about to die any moment. Around me, I found many skinless bodies, the flesh frozen by the cold and frightful temperature.

'Aha, the name makes sense now.'

Hearing my voice, the beast turned to me. Its gigantic body towered over me, its human-like figure, covered by some flawless white fur, gave me a clear indication of what it was. Its tusks, covered in spilled blood, and its blue eyes. 

I had found the beast, and this time it came to me. Looks like the system listens. But why wasn't I happy? Maybe because of the not-so-warm welcome? Or the fact that I was about to be skinned to death?

'I still can't understand how the human body handles emotions.'

This thought angered me, and a big frown formed on my face. 

Seeing this, the beast thought I was provoking it, so it roared in my face, getting my face full of saliva.

'You dare spit on your king?' I said while a stalactite flew into its ugly face.

[You have slain a pawn class beast, Yeti]

I felt a little disappointed, I always imagined yeties as smart creatures. But this one was as dumb as a rock. I wasn't talking about its negligence on the whole spitting thing. But how did he not notice me move my hand to guide the spike into its thick skull?

And because of his stupidity, he had paid the price.

I looked over at his face, blood had burst out whenever the stalactites hit his face, red blood. 'At least his blood is normal.' So he was a memory beast, no false creature like inside the trial. I wasn't able to see if the spider was real, but since he is, I'll assume she was too.

'So these floors really are infected memories. But how? I doubt the association would allow this, and if they did, they would have assigned testers. 'Or maybe they did? Was the stack of flesh, and the humans stuck inside the web of the spider real humans?'

I felt a shiver run down my spine. 

The majestic screen of the system appeared again. Only fueling my theory, why was it referring to the memories as floors? Were they able to control it? No that's not possible, if they were, I wouldn't be stuck here. Damn it—it didn't make any sense.

[Would you like to ascend to the third floor?]

'Do I want to? I don't even know myself.' It was risky ascending, I had defeated these two floors with [Kings Authority], but I am not sure how many times I can use it before I run out of energy. Staying here meant I was safe, and I could wait for the error to be fixed. And if it doesn't, then I'll go whenever my cooldown for my other ability is over.

'Speaking of cooldown, how long was I unconscious?'

[You have three hours until [Pawn Of Despair] is available again.]

I raised my eyebrow. 'I was asleep for two hours, it's a little disappointing.' Still, three hours wasn't that much, I could definitely wait for it to finish and then ascend...

I looked at my hand for a second, my face serious. Then my eyes locked onto the screen.

'Yes, I wish to ascend.'

If I feared being killed by pawn class beasts, I could never survive The Core. I couldn't waste three hours after the reason I came here was to not waste any time in preparing for The Core. I had to ascend, and even if the error was fixed, I would still ascend. Until one of my skills would level up.

...

[Welcome to the third floor, Castle Of Armor]