The stone golem's eye flickered red as it raised its massive hammer and struck down. Ace rolled to the side, his shoes scraping against the marble floor of the boss chamber. He'd just blown its head clean off, but the monster kept regrowing from scattered stone fragments. This thing just wouldn't stay dead.
After killing it for the sixth time, he started scanning the boss to find the trick behind its survival. He'd been fighting this golem for about an hour now and was starting to grow tired from the constant fighting.
The golem's chest cavity glowed with a pulsing orange light every time it regenerated. Ace had noticed this already, and so he'd blown up every spot of its chest to destroy the core if it had one. He never found a core, so he assumed it was some ability making it glow orange.
But as the fight dragged on, he had an idea that probably explained why he didn't find the core earlier.
"The core is freaking moving every time I'm about to hit it."
Realizing this, Ace focused intently the next time he attacked the golem. The golem let out a loud roar that sent some of the stones attached to its body flying. Ace dodged these as he sprinted toward the golem. At the last second, he dropped into a slide, passing between the golem's legs. Behind the golem, he punched its back as hard as possible, causing his hand to go through its entire body.
When he punched it, he felt a faint pulse shifting in its body and immediately punched there. When it moved again, he punched that place again and kept doing that until it had nowhere else to go.
He finally hit and destroyed the core, causing the rocks that made up its body to crumble and drop to the ground. This battle had been significantly harder than the other floors. It seemed that every ten floors there was a significant increase in difficulty.
[Congratulations! You have cleared the 10th Floor!]
[Reward Unlocked: Skill Book: Harden – Greatly increases your physical defense while stationary.]
[Reward Unlocked: 600 Tower Coins]
[Bonus Reward: Difficulty Token]
[Review the token to be moved to a waiting room]
[Congratulations, first clear of beginner floors (Normal Difficulty)]
[Title Earned: Pioneer- Without help, without pause, you charged through the Tower. Your speed carved the trail others now follow. Grants a 10% boost on all stats]
Ace collapsed to his knees, breathing hard. "Finally. That took way too damn long."
The air in front of him shimmered, and words appeared in golden text that seemed to burn themselves into his vision:
[Performance is being evaluated]
[Evaluation complete]
[Deciding appropriate gift]
[Gift is chosen- Difficulty Token!]
Ace blinked, wiping dust from his eyes. "Wait, what?"
The text continued, each word appearing with deliberate weight:
[Standard protocol prevents difficulty changes. Your performance has been evaluated by the Tower and deemed worthy. Your performance has earned an exception.]
[Available Difficulties]
[Normal]
[Hard]
[Hell]
[Warning!]
[Difficulty increase will reset all stats and skills]
[Choose wisely. This opportunity will not be repeated]
Ace stared at the options floating before him. Normal was what he'd been doing, but it was getting too easy - he found no challenge there. Hard seemed like the logical next step, but if he was going to challenge himself, he may as well pick Hell. Only one other person has survived the Hell first floor from talking in the forums. Although that may sound like a death sentence, the challenge was what invigorated him. Plus, his titles and class would help him increase his strength.
Although it was pitiful to lose all the skills he'd built up, he could just build them back just as fast. The system would help fill the gaps in his misunderstandings.
He thought about Aasal, wherever he was, and wondered if his original was still alive. But considering I am him and he is me, he'll most likely survive no matter what.
"Screw it," he said aloud. "Hell mode."
[Selection Confirmed]
[Transferring to Hell Difficulty]
The God of Adversity acknowledges your resolve
A God?
Before he could think on that, he could feel his power and strength drain out of his body, and then the world went white.
When Ace opened his eyes, he was standing in a waiting room that looked all too similar. The air felt heavier here, though, more serious.
He flexed his hand and could immediately feel the difference. His strength, speed, mana capacity, weapon proficiency, and so much more was gone. He was level 1 again. But with the knowledge and experience of someone who had cleared ten floors, it shouldn't be hard to pick it back up.
Checking the forums, he found that one person was online and messaged him:
[Hell Floor 1: Ace: Hello Marcus, it's me, Ace from normal difficulty if you remember]
[Hell Floor 5: Marcus: Ace? How were you able to switch difficulties, that shouldn't be possible]
[Hell Floor 1: Ace: I had an opportunity and I took it]
[Hell Floor 5: Marcus: You shouldn't have done that. This is a difficulty no man should be able to do. I barely survived on the first floor by skill but mostly luck]
[Hell Floor 1: Ace: How is it possible for hundreds of players to not even be able to clear the first floor. What is the first floor on?]
[Hell Floor 5: Marcus: I would tell you but I can't. I will tell you to try to end it as fast as possible.]
[Hell Floor 1: Ace: End what exactly?]
There was no response after that...
But after that, something shocked him. He was wondering when he cleared floor 10, when the outside people would pick their difficulty. But now it seemed like they had...
The participant counter in the corner of the screen next to the forums was climbing rapidly. When he'd first looked, it showed 2 active climbers - him and Marcus. Now, it was up to 47,892. Then 52,341. Then 61,027. 93,241. 224,131. 1,231,872. 19,213,141... The active user count was still climbing up.
He realized that most people overestimated how powerful they were, and something especially named Hell would make people want to pick it. Since he was the first one to clear it, no one had warned the world that Hell Difficulty was a near-impossible difficulty.
They weren't in the chat yet because they first had to clear the first floor, but Ace would look at the numbers after he came out of the first floor alive. Luckily, the tower put him in the first floor waiting room, which wasn't really a thing in the tower since you normally go straight to the first floor.
He walked toward the floor entrance portal swirling with dark energy and stepped in.
The dark energy engulfed him, and he was gone.