The Mysterious Hidden Grounds

 

A few hours went by as the evening arrived. 

Tongqiu was still asleep when the bed suddenly sunk a little as he then felt the back of someone else's finger caress his cheek as if they were treating him the same one to their treasure. His eyes slowly opened to reveal the image of a flowery dress and a beautifully Natalia with her ponytail almost falling down on him as well.

"Wakey, wakey you big dumb sleeper." Natalia softly whispered to Tongqiu before taking his little arms into an embrace as she fell down on the bed to cuddle him from the front. 

Facing each other, Tongqiu gratifyingly smiled in form of a greeting as he started narrating his recent ongoing events. When he told her about the fall in the chasm, she frowned as her lips puckered in rebuke, Tongqiu triggered a nagging woman and there was nothing he could do to stop it, nor did he wanted to. He felt at ease every time this gentle woman before him would take her time and waste it on him just so that he would take more care of himself.

"Ah, look, you even broke them. I didn't even know they could be broken. You really messed up! If you see a nice looking semi-naked lady trying to draw you closer while there's an obvious mountain made of swords and a lake of fire, would you still go towards her?!" She scolded him as her face turned pinkish, but as soon as her words came out of her mouth, she realized what was to come.

Sure enough, Tongqiu didn't waste such opportunity as he innocently talked back: "Mm... is that lady you? Or, could it at least look exactly like you? Then yes~. I'll go traverse such endless amount of torture just for such a lady then, no question no doubts. Why?"

As for his finishing words, Tongqiu was already looking at Natalia with his iconic devilish smile.

"Mo! Why don't you ever stop bullying your own woman!? What kind of depraved evil thoughts rule that mind of yours, hmm?" Natalia 'forced' an eskimo kiss right then, right there as she also took advantage to ruffle his hair coquettishly before she hastily retreated away leaving a dumbfounded Tongqiu. Now feeling used, he moved his feeble body towards the dinner room. He knew it was time to eat again, and to call Diana once again perhaps.

For this evening, Natalia had already come back an hour and a half ago before she woke up Tongqiu. When she arrived and saw how those gauntlets themselves were actually even broken, she was obviously worried 'bout him. There is no good reason for something good to happen. But with her experience in medical issues she easily saw through his body with a mere glance, she then proceeded to close the curtains to not let his closed eyes notice the change from slightly illuminated to complete darkness so as to let him sleep much more.

Once she was done with her cooking and woke him up, she uncovered all the plates as an unreal aroma besieged the entire dinner room. On one of the plates there had a few very normal looking hamburgers, another one had a big bowl with chicken soup that had an overwhelming delicate touch which Tongqiu couldn't tell what it was; finally, there was an enormous plate that had a gorgeous looking roasted chicken.

Tongqiu had no idea if this was someone he should actually have right now, in fact, the roasted chicken may get him worse... IF he was a normal person and had no taken in an extremely valuable medicine from the most advanced powerhouses existing, that is.

Relying on his mental prowess to arduously resist the need of gobbling it all down in an instant so as to avoid a self-brought calamity, Tongqiu commenced his eating of this meal that'd at least take him an hour to finish. To not lose himself in boredom of just moving around to keep eating. A good natured Natalia was there to accompany the fat belly growing little Tongqiu. Truthfully, what he body needed the most was a strong and abundant amount of nutrients, so even if he would get a little bloated, which he couldn't, it was worth it.

She would occasionally take a bit every now and then, she had already eaten before so she wasn't hungry. Telling him again and again that all this was for the sake of growing into a fatty in many different ways, Tongqiu desisted from feeding her instead. After all, her thickness was already well-formed, no point in overdoing it.

As in response to intelligently discovering Tonqiu's thoughts, Natalia stuffed a great amount of food as he hopelessly let himself be bullied back by this 'not even able to harm a fly' woman of his.

Halfway through the meal, Tongqiu casually took out the abused cellphone as he patiently waited for Diana to answer.

*Beep*: "Ah, Mr Yun, how opportune! I just finished preparing all the necessary information, would you like to know about it?" Diana answered with a somewhat tired voice. She was still polite but her try at hiding her tiresomeness made Tongqiu not fool around and respectfully answered back: "No need I'm too lazy. You can brief me face to face, I'm very distracted otherwise... ehem, at which hour should I receive you?"

"Oh, well... the thing is, the most appropriate for our training to be successfully realized is that I figured out that me staying at Mr Yun's villa would be the greatest method. After all, since I've become the personal trainer of such an unhealthy and neglected body, there's a high need of monitoring Mr Yun's body. For an example, when waking up as well as before going to sleep, I'll need to do check-ups at least twice a day, you... understand?"

Tongqiu silently jumped his eyebrows as his voice became more easygoing than formal, then he spoke to the phone: "Mm! I think it's alright, eh. How about telling me if we're gonna need some special type of training? Ehem, don't misunderstand, it's more like those 'devices' that create a mini gravitational field or whatever they're called, ehm... yeah, how about it?"

Though there was not a response after a couple of seconds, the sharpness of Tongqiu permitted him to hear a inaudible 'Pfft' before Diana's voice came out again: "Oh, no need, no need. We could talk about those once Mr Yun's body has genuinely recovered. How about... tomorrow at 12 am, yes? But... If Mr Yun would like to keep me as his personal trainer I promise I'll do great in training you to the best of my capabilities..."

Her voice became extremely soft by the second half of her words. At this moment, even Natalia felt the bizarre atmosphere between this two 'employer and employee' conversation as she lifted her left brow and tilted her head in inquire towards Tongqiu. Her eyes were spilling everything needed to be said right now 'are you word-fucking or what'.

Tongqiu smiled in embarrassment before replying to Diana: "F- I think I will, ehem, goodnight Miss Diana."

"Goodnight, Mr Yun." A not so soft as before voice emerged from the phone as he panicky ended the call.

"Ah, I don't, ah, this, ah-" Tongqiu's stupidity was thankfully cut off before it could go anywhere further as Natalia's hand was pressing his lips. "You're lucky I know her and know that she is nice. Otherwise... hmph! Otherwise you'd receive a spanking! Let's go to sleep right now! You'll cuddle me and whisper me tenderly to sleep, or else!"

Tongqiu: ◉_◉

Natalia rebuking Tongqiu while pointing her finger at him was certainly a piece of art in itself. Anyway, how could Tongqiu refuse punishment from his wrongdoings? He begrudgingly resigned himself to fate as he was lead by the hand by Natalia, ever so close walking behind her while their entangled hands were infinitely close to her ever mesmerizing buttocks.

'Fantastic.' Thought Tongqiu with a face of having had his proper meal and about to get dessert.

Tongqiu could simply enter Rising Essence while sleeping like many others, but he really wanted to have his time in the real world while Natalia's body was completely surrendered to his embrace during the night. And as such, after passionate flirting, they each slept comfortably at each others touch.

***

At the morning, an elegantly dressed Natalia was looking through the enormous window from the side of her bed, the left, which she always liked to be whenever Tongqiu was also in bed. Seeing her always ponytailed hairstyle remain even in such a suit, turned on, fast, Tongqiu as he reached out to grab her wrist and with his newly recovered strength pulled her for a few kisses in the nape.

A purring Natalia accepted the free Tongqiu's caressing like a champ before unwillingly parting away after a few peck yet moist kisses.

Today, Natalia's mother and herself would have their annual meeting. She didn't tell much to Tongqiu except that they may as well have that part in common where family isn't their a proud word for them, despite the impact each of their family actually had. Still, it was not to the point of what happened to Tongqiu, but it was nonetheless abnormal.

At the door of the villa, a chilling Tongqiu was watching the departing for the mid-day Natalia wave at him with a big heartfelt smile.

***

'Log in.'

As soon as Tongqiu's body was formed inside the game, he felt excruciating heaviness forcing him down on the ground. After seconds trying to compose himself, he took his hands to his knees to support his intent at getting up.

Once he stabilized himself, he took a look at his surroundings. First of all, the ground was completely cracked as if it was made of ceramic with a pentagonal pattern. The whole floor was just like sandstone would look like with a big touch of a powerful orange color all over the entire ground. And the space of such a room encompassed an entire area of a kilometer. There was an immense statue at least 20 meters large of a humanoid body bending over completely while also having one of, what seemed to be, its arms over their head. It looked as if it was deeply regretting, mourning on to something.

Merely understanding the emotions and thoughts of a statue was enough to let Tongqiu understand that whatever he had done before in the game would either be put to the test in an extreme level or might as well be entirely useless. Fortunately, he still had confidence in himself.

On the other end of the room, there was what seemed to be a kind of cleanly cut off wall. Merely leaving two solitary columns-like walls at each end of the left and right side. And what was behind them was precisely darkness, as if this whole room was also trapped in the falling chasm that he barely got out alive from before. In the middle of such cleanly cut off wall though, there was a double door made of a kind of durable and tampered brown stone which was completely devoid of any light. The doors were around 4 meters wide while barely 2 meters large each.

'Oh, that's right. Can I still log off if I wanted to and whenever I want to?'

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*PING*... host can log off as long as it isn't in the middle of a battle. If hosts dies, he would be revived in the initial room. Items or skills of teleportation cannot be used.

Tongqiu: ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ

Thinking 'it's whatever' Tongqiu rested at the spot to recuperate from his weakened state, which would probably take him around that of 15 minutes or so.

After getting rid of the weakened state, Tongqiu started wandering around. He got close to the state and touch it, see if anything unusual happened but everything remained still and lifeless. 

After looking around through all places and finding nothing, Tongqiu then headed towards the doors, although he had to admit that he was afraid of any possible return towards such unlikable environment of the 'falling chasm', but it was the only way to advance. There was no other possible way out or method of teleportation.

Determined, Tongqiu moved towards in front of the double doors as he ultimately simply pressed on the handle before slowly opening the door. Indeed, what awaited before him was complete darkness only. Fearlessly, Tongqiu stepped forward as he crossed the boundary between the 'normal' floor and the 'formless' floor made of pure darkness.

Unlike his previous experiences, he didn't fall down nor was he forced upon the never-ending darkness. His sight was instead blinded for an instant before recovering, and what he saw was unquestionable different from the room from before or the chasm. There was mist everywhere he looked and as he looked around him completely, he could barely make out colossal walls in the distance, Tongqiu calculated that they were at least 50 meters tall. The ground in this new room was completely flat and made of stone, the same kind of material in which he inferred the walls were made of. 

He began walking to try find out how big this room was, because if the walls were already so enormous, he wouldn't dare imagine what kind of empty space he'd entered with nothing in it. It would also be a pain in the ass to search everywhere for a way out. 

Fortunately, he didn't had the time to despair as the mist suddenly lowered to the level of his feet, letting him see around that of 15 figures in the distance, as well as some quite close to him. He approached the nearest figure and when he arrived close enough to see what it was, the 'thing' also saw Tongqiu.

*PING*... anomaly has been detected... recollecting data...

*PING*... this is a mysterious trial grounds, it is made up of many different floors in which the player must pass the test before advancing.

*PING*... this floor's objective is to 'kill all 15 Fallen Summoners'. To continue no the next floor, please complete the objective.

Without the need to think too much of it, Tongqiu merely pulled out his bow as he aimed at the 'thing' before him.

[Nameless Fallen Summoner]: Type: Fallen (Human), Grade: Lord, Level: 42, HP: 1/1. It is unknown how or why this previously extremely strong summoner abandoned its path for. But their mana is the only lasting living characteristic of themselves. It uses all of its mana to create an impenetrable shield, should the Fallen Summoner spend all its remaining mana pool, it'll be defenseless to an easy death.

The figure had a long white robe that should have been extremely luxurious and of high status in the Fallen Summoner's epoch or era, but now, it is only capable of fueling the creepiness of its appearance. It had long hair yet seemed to be lacking hair itself, and their skin was just like an old tree's- withered and also of a darker navy blue color. It had no eyes for it also had no mouth, ears nor nose.

Fiuush~

As an arrow aimed at it was then about to hit it, an unremarkable and colorless barrier simply defected the arrow though the explosion did made the summoner stagger backwards a little.

Now with the Fallen Summoner's full attention, it began to elevate itself in the air as a short crosier with a gem the size of a baby's head was embedded at its end was materialized in its right hand. It then made a gesture with its left hand before his crosier started shining.

Illuminating lights suddenly appeared in their surroundings as what came after such lights was the sound of something heavy hitting the floor. Being at still a long enough distance, Tongqiu wasn't able to see clearly what they were, he could only see a shape that seemed to come from that of a beast as it suddenly stood with its two legs. There were other figures shrouded by the mist which seemed to have multiple arms as well as extremely long 'legs' yet a tiny torso.

*PING* ... the Nameless Fallen Summoner has used up 10% of its mana to summon its undying Fallen Summons.

Without a clear vision he couldn't see what exactly they were, nor their stats, so Tongqiu took out his dual swords Sunfacing Brilliant Gladiuses as he understood that he could do nothing to the Fallen Summoner unless he made it deplete all of its mana pool before being able to give it the final blow that they'd been waiting for all this unknown amount of time.

As he first got closer to the bestial-humanoid shape, he finally got a glimpse to what it actually was. It had pure white fur, an anthropomorphic  full head coming from that of a canine and a large wolf-like tail.

[Bloodstained Wolf]: Type: Fallen Summon (Beast), Grade: Lord, Level: 40, HP: 120,000. When a being becomes Fallen, they either lose their physical form, experience a change of destiny to that of inauspicious or malignant and finally, they may also receive a metamorphosis in contrast to their previous true nature. This summon has completely lost its own Will and had become a puppet for the ??? and ???, like many others to be taken advantage of.

Before, he had already needed a lot of time to actually be able to effectively kill the Demonic Scorpion-Rose which also had 120,000 HP, now that he was against another such BOSS and... for the looks of it, not only one, Tongqiu didn't wanted to bet if he would be able to get rid of this fellow first. Without an ounce of hesitation, Tongqiu pulled out his essential bow and arrow and without further ado, wide-shot aiming at the Bloodstained Wolf, he shoot!

-2,918, MISS, MISS, -3,140, -7,812, -3,089, MISS, -3,052, -3,620, MISS, MISS, -2,978, -3,500.

Instantly downing its HP bar to [89,891/120,000] by merely shooting at it for less than 10 seconds, still a little bit far away from taking down 40% of its total HP! Like this, he'd be able to get rid of these BOSSes real fast in 4 continuous bombardments to the very least. And even more so with his Hit Rate, Critical Hit Rate and Pierce Rate being at quite the modestly high numbers. Also, every time he made a critical attack, the extra 25% crit damage was much more deadly than imagined, if he was lucky enough so that half his attacks in a burst of damage were critical hits, he'd might even be able to down its hp by 60,000 or more! 

Besides that, he could use his Tongqiu's Rain Showdown every 8 seconds, which is after every bombardment. This allowed Tongqiu to make an overkill over these little pets, and these little pets we're talking about are actual Lord graded BOSSes and each of them are probably more than 10 levels above him!

And as such, he used Tonqiu's Rain Showdown right after his first bombardment on the Bloodstained Wolf.

Tongqiu pointed to the sky with his bow and arrow as shadows started emerging from an invisible 'portal', each shadow becoming two arrows identical to that of Tongqiu's, they then took aim and went for the kill! All of this happened in a mere 2.5 seconds, by the time the explosion from before had already subsided and the Bloodstained Wolf was recuperating, it suddenly found itself in the middle of a rain of shadows intending to destroy him!

-37,500.

An astonishing number appeared. Since there was no nearby enemy close for Tonqiu's Rain Showdown to equally distribute itself, his skill was absolutely focused in one sole objective, making the damage be thoroughly counted as one. In between all the shadows Tongqiu's Rain Showdown creates, as well as the fact that each shadow counts as two since the mimicked item in question is the wide-shot style of attack Tongqiu used, 7 out of 36 missed, that being 29 out of 36 attacks landing successfully on the Bloodstained Wolf. But because it was skill which did not specified that Critical Hit Attacks -or Pierce Attacks- were possible, they only managed to do some solid 1,250 damage for each arrow taking in consideration the level, grade and defense difference. 

The only downside being that such a heavy stress of Mental Power caused the skill to cost 20 times that of a normal use. But it was hella worth it as the Bloodstained Wolf now had HP: [52,391/120,000].

Tongqiu's senses may be affected somewhat in this space, but he could easily sense how many figures covered by the mist were infuriatingly heading straight towards him right at this moment.

 

...

 

---

Author's Note: If you see any typos, at any time, please do tell. I rather have embarrassing moments than those of ignorance. I do my best to do it myself as I write, but sometimes I get too absorbed in writing and... oopsie.

 

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