Re; Hell Gate

Chapter 11 : The Faceless Puppets

35 minutes or so passed, Leiu's Health and Stamina fully recovered, he equipped the old beginner's armor, which was totally useless, at least it wasn't totally destroyed like the newly bought one, as he saw the state of that armor, Leiu could only feel sadness and grief, he lost a whopping 3 silver for it, yet it didn't even last an hour!

After taking a breath of fresh yet cold air, Leiu got up and headed upstairs, there is really no use staying here, he tried roaming the manor and inspecting the other rooms, but he couldn't step in them, as if an invisible force was not letting him pass.

it's a pity as he was curious about this place, maybe there is a hidden treasure, but his hopes were crushed when he fount out he was unable to enter any room.

With one last look around the place, he climbed the stairs slowly, he was wary of his surroundings, you never know when an enemy would jump at you, hopefully, the lights won't go out, it's true he got used to fighting in darkness, but having some light is never bad.

As he climbed all the stairs and gazed around, he saw many doors, all of them were closed, the atmosphere on the second floor seemed completely different. If the first floor seemed gloomy, this one felt creepy and extremely cold, it's as if it was snowing.

Leiu roamed around the broad floor, he counted at least 20 doors, but he couldn't open a single one, all of them had the same repelling force as downstairs.

After spending 10 minutes roaming all the floor, it was huge, for a floor in a manor, of course. It may even be a castle, he tried opening every door he stumbled upon, but none opened until he encountered a room, without a door.

First, he gazed at it from outside, a bit suspicious and cautious, but after pondering for a minute, he decided to enter it, and to his surprise, unlike the other rooms downstairs, which also had no doors, this one didn't have a repelling force.

As his foot stepped on the room's ground, a message popped up.

You have entered the second Trial's ground, the test will begin in 30 seconds, please prepare yourself.

'!!'

Although he somehow expected it, he never imagined it will only give him only 30 seconds, furthermore, it didn't even give him an explanation about the trial, again!

Leiu could only grit his teeth and unsheath his sword, while tightly holding it, he looked around, inspecting the room.

The room looked decent, it's like it was someone's office, there was a wooden but luxurious desk, and what seemed like a comfortable wheelchair near it, there was also a sofa and a small table in front of it too.

Apart from that, there was nothing else that caught his attention, until his eyes landed on a painting. It took a large portion of the wall.

It a fine piece of art, truly, although it's only a painting and Leiu was not an artist or an expert in those things, he was sure that such paintings would attract anyone and everyone's attention even in reality.

A man, with long black hair and a long dark sword behind him, were on that painting, he was on his knees while holding a silver-haired woman in his arms, she seemed to be unconscious and blood was on her white dress, as for the background of the painting, there were countless dragons, giants and other weird beasts coming toward the man's direction.

A sunset was also drawn, the picture looked so realistic and filled with life, yet at the same time, it excluded a bit of coldness, it's like it had emotions.

30 seconds passed in the blink of an eye, Leiu's attention was drawn toward the painting that he didn't notice that the time was up.

Nothing happened for a second, however, all of a sudden, his surroundings changed, he now was on a dark space, much like the first trial, but there was a bit of light, like a sun.

The place was weird, although it's dark, there bright light high above, providing enough light for him to see his surroundings, there was nothing special to gaze at, only normal ground which was the same as the one in the manor, apart from that, there was literally nothing.

After 5 seconds, something happened, more precisely, something appeared, approximately 10 meters from Leiu.

A wooden puppet, the height of a normal person appeared, it had no features, no nose or ears, neither did it have a mouth of eyes, just a normal wooden puppet, although it was bigger than usual, that was it.

It took a weird stance, like a martial artist and faced Leiu, who was momentarily startled by its appearance.

But that shock only remained for a second before he held his sword and charged, at least, this trial was better, it presented an enemy in front of him, so he had to defeat it.

With fast speed, he rushed at the wooden puppet and slashed with his Steel Sword, the enemy was not able to react in time as the sword easily penetrated the wooden pupped and cut it in half.

Maybe it was just a weak opponent, at least that's what Leiu thought.

As he got rid of the enemy, he looked around to see if there was any other, but there was none, fortunately.

He stood there for some time, waiting, and just as he guessed, after 30 seconds, 2 wooden puppets appeared.

Wooden Puppet Fighter Lv11

As he gazed at their health bar and Level, Leiu felt a bit relieved, they were not that strong, compared to him that is, like the previous one, those two took a fighting stance, but before they could launch their attacks, Leiu was already next to them, with clean and precise sword strikes, he finished them. They were even easier to kill than the black beasts.

As for the amount of experience they gave, it wasn't that much, only 2% or less, and he couldn't even loot them, so it was a bit disappointing.

Speaking of looting, he didn't loot the dark beasts too, it's not like he tried and failed, but he never tried as he couldn't, they didn't give him time to loot, it took 2 to 3 seconds, but even those seconds were important and crucial.

30 more seconds passed and 4 wooden puppets appeared, all of them were fighters too, as he gazed at the enemies, a crazy yet logical thought struck his mind.

'Please don't tell me it's what I think it is, please....'

He read far too many stories that had things like this, the enemy would duplicate when you kill them, it the most annoying and hard trials one could face and here he is, probably doing it.

First, he didn't think like that, but as he saw the 4 wooden puppets, how could he not think like that.

Be it 10 or 20 similar wooden puppets, he could deal with this amount, they were not that hard to begin with, and easy to kill, but what if there were hundreds? He was not superman or a cheat like character, he only began playing a few hours ago.