Ascension of Chaos

Elena Silvers grits her teeth as she goes flying through the air until she slams into the wall of the massive labyrinth that makes up the Domain she and the rest of the people with her were dragged into. But she doesn\'t let it keep her down and instead uses her nature magic to heal her body while creating vines to catch her fall. Then she focuses on all the others in the Domain with her. All sixteen of them.

Elena has always been the type who couldn\'t ignore others in trouble. It\'s gotten herself into more trouble than she can remember, and it\'s something that has bothered her parents for a long time as well.

Because, as her mother often says, they\'re a top elite family and shouldn\'t have to bother themselves with the \'lowly trash of society\'.

But Elena can\'t just ignore people in trouble. She has to help them.

After all, she was given her powerful ability for a reason. Her nature mana manipulation skill as the System seems to call it.

And she refuses to believe that the reason was just because she was born into a powerful family.

So even as she coughs out a mouthful of blood, getting rid of the remnants of the wounds she healed, and looks up at the massive, black and green scaled serpent in front of her, she still doesn\'t feel any regrets. As the other people in the Domain fight, with her best friend Adrian sending several bolts of lightning at the serpent, her boyfriend Jason using his shadows to protect the children in the back of the Domain, and her second closest friend Elizabeth fighting fist to scales against the serpent.

Because Elena never regrets.

Elena rushes forwards at the massive serpent, slamming her palms together as she casts several spells, summoning forth one vine after another from mid-air behind her. Meanwhile Elizabeth rushes forwards again and grabs onto the twenty-meter-long serpent and shouts, "Do it nooowww!!!!"

Elena doesn\'t need any more push as she lets out a shout, sending all of the vines straight towards the serpent\'s head while the creature focuses on trying to shake Elizabeth off. Meanwhile Adrian and several other fighters who their group had met within the third phase of the tutorial – most of whom are enforcers they found along the way – send one attack at the serpent after another. Chipping off scales, slowly opening wounds, and distracting it all at once.

Until Elena\'s vines finally pierce straight into the eyes of the serpent while it\'s distracted, puncturing through to its brain.

In moments, the serpent\'s movements slow down before stopping entirely. Then it falls down to slam into the ground while everyone tenses up, not taking their eyes off of it.

Silence fills the massive chamber at the center of the Domain\'s labyrinth for several seconds as everyone participating in the battle pants in exhaustion, just staring at the serpent. Only for everyone to let out a collective sigh of relief and collapse into sweaty messes on the ground when a System Message plays out all around them. Almost like it was being announced to everyone there instead of in a personalized message.

Objective 3 complete! You have participated in the slaying of the Serpent of the Maze! Now bask in your rewards!

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 9. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

Elena smiles as she looks up at the ceiling of the labyrinth\'s center. A center in the shape of a large circle with a spiral pattern moving across both the floor and the ceiling, and one entrance at the far back of the chamber.

Another System Message appears flashing across her vision that makes the college-aged girl smile.

To all the participants of the quest, Conqueror of the Maze, the quest has been updated!

Conqueror of the Maze

Objective 1: Kill the Goliath of the Maze

Objective 2: Kill the Wraith of the Maze

Objective 3: Kill the Serpent of the Maze

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The sight of the third objective being crossed out makes her feel even more relieved, so she rises into a sitting position, her long brown hair falling over her shoulder, the braid it was in before this battle having come undone at some point. And when she sets her sights on the large serpent, she sees her reflection in its glossy scales, making her realize just how messy she\'s gotten over the past couple days.

Her hair is all over the place, and sweat is caked all across her casual clothes, staining them. Meanwhile any makeup she had on before the tutorial is long since ruined, not that she particularly cares about that. She already knows she\'s beautiful enough not to need makeup, especially with her vivid green eyes resembling gemstones.

The only reason she\'s always put on makeup anyways was due to her mother.

She turns her attention towards all her friends along with the enforcers, and all of them are in the same situation as she is. Covered in sweat and exhausted.

Many of them have pretty severe injuries though, so she quickly gets up and moves to heal them.

Feeling proud of herself and her friends for having taken down a monster this powerful, utterly uncaring of the rapidly increasing number of people following her according to the number in the corner of her interface.

Then a menu appears in her vision talking about the rewards she\'s earned for this battle. Rewards split up between the various people who participated in the killing of the serpent.

And rewards are nice too.

A Few Hours Later

Alexander Winters glares at the mini boss in front of him with all the anger left inside of him. The creature has a layer of black mist covering its appearance, making it hard to determine what exactly it looks like. But every now and then, hints of red and purple leak in through the black mist. As if the thing was letting out blood.

Which it better be, considering how many enforcers Alexander has already had to lose to the bastard of a monster.

When Alexander first found the strange pattern on the floor of one of the rooms within the tutorial, he was overjoyed. Until the thing activated on its own, sucking in both him, his three teams of enforcers, and all of the many civilians he had taken under his wing in the hopes of getting a promotion after all this.

And now half of those enforcers and three quarters of the civilians are lying around the chamber at the center of the mist-filled maze in pools of their own blood.

"Commander!" One of his enforcers – a third tier enforcer – shouts, making Alexander briefly glance at him, only to find the middle-aged man pointing behind Alexander. But when Alexander\'s gaze turns away from him again, he comes face to face with a black blade appearing from the nearby mist heading straight for Alexander\'s face.

The commander spits out a mouthful of blood before raising a hand that\'s dripping blood and sweeping it horizontally in front of him, sending blood flying towards the blade. And he immediately uses his Blood Thorns root skill to turn his blood into thorns that he wraps around the blade before twisting the blade around and sending it straight at the Wraith of the Maze.

Alexander feels a strong sense of satisfaction the moment he hears the sound of the blade piercing through flesh as red and purple mist shoot out of the wraith and a loud screech echoes across the entire chamber. Then he raises one fist and shouts, "Fiiiiire!!!!"

And all at once, every one of his remaining enforcers uses their root skills to attack the wraith, sending one attack after another through the air to bombard the wraith.

The moment every hit lands, Alexander holds his breath while breathing heavily and holding his stomach with one hand, still bleeding from a wound the wraith gave him. A wound he is pretty sure is poisoned somehow judging by the black energy coating it, and the black tint his blood has taken on around the wound.

But none of it matters. What matters to Alexander is whether or not they succeeded in killing the sneaky bastard of a mini boss.

He waits for a few seconds as the mist, dust, and smoke from the attacks begins to clear. But no message about the quest being updated like what happened when the update about the Serpent of the Maze rang out while they were fighting the wraith\'s little minions earlier.

So Alexander begins to ready another attack, only for the sound of something collapsing to echo from within the smoke and mist as it begins to clear. A sight that makes him relax ever so slightly.

Which turns out to be a terrible mistake when three black blades emerge from the smoke and mist heading directly towards him.

It takes him one second too late to prepare, leaving him unable to block all three of the attacks. So he ends up taking the third blade straight through his chest even after he sends the other two back at the wraith itself before he collapses onto his knees, coughing out more blood.

Black blood.

He looks down while System Messages play out in his vision to see strange black veins stretching across his skin from the wound.

Objective 2 complete! You have participated in the slaying of the Wraith of the Maze! Now bask in your rewards!

{Congratulations, you have now reached level 8. Your PHY and MEN have increased by 1 point, and your MAG by 2 points. Please choose where you wish your 1 Free Point to be allocated.}

A faint smile stretches across his face. A twisted smile that represents the man\'s own cynical feelings towards dying in the line of work. Dying to protect his soldiers.

All for nothing more than a bonus.

To all the participants of the quest, Conqueror of the Maze, the quest has been updated!

Conqueror of the Maze

Objective 1: Kill the Goliath of the Maze

Objective 2: Kill the Wraith of the Maze

Objective 3: Kill the Serpent of the Maze

Alexander\'s eyes slowly close as he hears the shouts of his subordinates, the surviving civilians, and sees the second objective of the quest crossed out in the message.

Damn. If only I could have one last beer before I die.