"If it's not Solomon Apollo himself. Long black hair and sharp amber eyes. You're one good-looking lad, if not for that tongue of yours." After walking through a long hallway, Solomon arrived at the reception area. Standing in front of the desk were three people. One was burly and huge. His skin was tanned, while his hair was blonde and curly. He looked like a Greek demigod, if you add his blue eyes to the mix.
He was wearing a plain white shirt that seemed a little too small for his size, paired with black cargo shorts and a pair of sandals. He almost looked like he just arrived from the beach.
The other was a woman with a short bob cut. All of her clothes were purely black; even the coat that was on top of a black shirt was black. She looked very strict and quiet.
The last man was around the same age as Solomon; unlike him, though, his hair was brown and well kept. He didn't look as good as Solomon, but his overall appearance was fairly clean. He had some satchels on his waist and a long brown jacket that covered his white shirt.
"It's nice to see Mr. Undying is still… well, undying." The burly man speaks out.
"Ryan Sho, I see you still look like you eat slippers for breakfast. You look good, pal." With a mischievous smirk on his lips, Solomon placed his hands on his pockets as he teased the massive dude in front of him.
"You haven't changed, you sneaky bastard. You still get on my nerves." Although he was still smiling, Ryan was visibly annoyed as veins started to pop up on his head and arms.
"Oh, did I get it wrong? was the menu shoes for today?"
Splat!
The moment those words escaped Solomon's mouth, the room that was made out of brown wood turned crimson in a blink of an eye.
Blood splattered all over the place, and small bits of flesh littered the reception desk. Solomon, or what was left of him, stood still with only his legs left standing.
Though the scene was gruesome, no one batted an eye; even the receptionist only had a look of dismay and annoyance on her face.
"You are one annoying bastard… If you weren't a freak, I would've found some way to kill you." With his arms still pulsing in anger, Ryan gritted his teeth.
"Hah, it's quite easy to steal your money, isn't it?" With the same sarcastic tone, Solomon's body surges as chunks of flesh start to gather directly at the top of his legs, making it up from his torso to his head. In a span of about 30 seconds, his body had completely recovered.
"Hey, Kate. Tally up all the damages for Mr. Ryan Sho here. Oh, don't forget psychological damage; that was quite a scary experience for me after all," Solomon says with a smug expression.
"You really want to go, you bastard?" A vein popped from Ryan's forehead.
"I got my money already; I'm ready when you are," Solomon retorts.
As the tension grew stronger, they were stopped by the other two individuals inside the room.
The woman raised her hands, causing massive arms the size of a human's thigh to form from the ground and restrict Ryan's movement.
On the other hand, the man about the same age as Solomon grabbed Solomon's shirt. Vines made of thorns started to grow out of his sleeves, enshrouding Solomon's entire body.
As the thorns dug deep into his flesh, he suddenly found it difficult to move.
"Relax, we're here for official business. " The woman whispers.
"… Tsk. Let go of me." As Ryan calms down, the arms restricting his legs vanish just like the way they appeared.
The vines that restricted Solomon also retracted to the man's sleeve, giving them both the freedom to finally speak.
"The Trailblazers tasked us to gather the top 300." Brushing off some of the flesh that flew to his shirt, Ryan finally explains their purpose.
"And why is that?" Solomon asks.
"We're doing a floor rush for Floor 60."
As the news came out of Ryan's mouth, a sense of foreboding echoed throughout the entire room.
The blink wasn't the end of life, as many theorists back then assumed. The moment one falls victim to the blink, you find yourself in the vast landscape of the place everyone calls, The Labyrinth of the Dead. Due to the fact that they thought they had died and found themselves here, at least until ten years ago at floor 40, this is what people have been calling this place.
The labyrinth of the dead is a deep underground structure that people expect to reach around 100 floors. No one is still sure of this theory, but it is the most accepted one out of any other.
After floor one, challenges—either physical, mental, emotional, or even something to test your morals—would face humanity, trying its best to kill everyone one by one. Millions of lives have been lost throughout their journey here, and millions would be lost trying to reach the ending of this place.
Separating these floors are what they call districts. Floors 1 to 10, Incipio, A district that is similar to medieval times, where creatures such as goblins, slimes, and other weird monsters unique to only this place are found.
Floors 11 to 20, Alfheim, The Elven Kingdom, and so on. Not everyone tries to kill you within these floors; some are your friends, while some are not. Regardless, the ending would still result in death. Trust is easily misplaced; thus, it's easily broken.
Thankfully, as the presence of fantasy distorted all common sense, the limits of humans followed suit. As the fresh blood of one of these creatures dripped down the fingers of its human killer, the abilities that humans once dreaded became their own, marking humanity's descent downwards to the unknown.
The first Manifester was born, stealing the power of the first creature they ever killed. Once this information was made popular, every human rushed out to kill their first, looking for the strongest creature they could find. They ranked the creatures within five categories: Common, Elite, Epic, Legendary, and Mythical, with mythical being the strongest and the rarest. Only one mythic would show up every five floors. While only every two floors would a Legendary creature show up. Mythic remained the strongest creature ever seen until everyone encountered their first Harbinger. A calamity that killed four of the strongest Manifesters, but still a calamity that you could manifest.
The only constant in this wretched place are the Harbingers. Gamers would call them Bosses, but since these special creatures could speak, they never failed to call themselves Harbingers.
Due to this and the fact that you'd obtain only the power of the first creature you killed, it was basically impossible to hunt Epic and up creatures alone.
Thankfully, there was a perishable resource in Incipio, capable of turning you into a clean slate, resetting your manifestation. The only issue is it's perishable. Now that humanity has reached all the way up to the sixtieth floor, no one has ever seen one ever again, since the last one had been used.
Thus, all the way back then, when everyone realized that there was no way to reset your manifestation anymore, Guilds started to become popular. This is due to the fact that once you apply in one, multiple Manifesters would weaken a Legendary monster, giving you leeway to kill the weakened monster and, in the end, become stronger.
These limitations make manifesters of Legendary-tier creatures an instant powerhouse. Thus, it resulted in multiple wars and altercations, as people fought for these manifestations.
And through a series of blood feuds, it is found that the moment a manifester of a creature that is limited in numbers dies, his manifestation is immediately revived and is available for killing once more.
Despite this flexibility, there's truly only one way to clear one's manifestation, through the void stones. Unluckily, Solomon fell victim to the blink late and showed up in the Labyrinth of the Dead when these perishables have become expensive and limited.
Thus, he was stuck with a Common Monster. One of the workers in the Immortal Jellyfish colony. Regardless, through his sheer talent and perseverance, he found himself among the top. He became a well-known figure among the manifesters despite not having a good manifestation.
But that was the highest he could reach. Past the ability to manifest the powers of creatures are people called Shifters. A strong technique that forms one's body into that of the manifestation, pulling out the strength the beast had in its prime, granting it to the manifester's strength. In simple terms, instead of manifesting their power at their strongest, the creatures begin to help you, resulting in double the strength you normally have. One of the biggest regrets Solomon had.
…
"It's a pity, Undying; if you had Mythical Manifestation, there is no doubt you might even beat those Trailblazers. Regardless, decide if you're going or not; I have a lot of things to do." Ryan turns his head away from Solomon before raising his right arm to signal his exit.
"Yo," Solomon, who had been quiet, suddenly calls out for them, stopping them in their tracks. Ryan tilts his head towards him, wondering why he was called.
"You haven't paid for the damages yet."
"This piece of—"