[3rd Floor — Gullimber's Arcade Arena]
After the pillar of light sent him upward, he arrived on a strange cliff in what seemed like outer space, and in front of him was a massive screen displaying various Arcade Games.
[ As you are the only one on the final floor right now, you may proceed to set the scores of the five Arcade Games before reaching the floor boss. ]
[ In duel mode, which will forcefully occur when there are multiple people on the floor, the one who scores higher between the two would get the opportunity to challenge the floor boss. ]
'So this is also a duel-type floor. Solo fighting boss sounds fun.'
Lord Black chuckled. 'Once you defeat that final boss, be prepared to get a good surprise.'
'Well then, let's go for it.' Ainen pressed the big [ Start ] button blinking in front of him, and began the first Arcade Game. 'As long as I kill the floor boss, they can't invert the Labyrinth.'
Ainen had already gotten all the information and the plan of this Cradle group.
They had the means to make their method come true. Usually, the Labyrinth's exit would only manifest once the final floor boss is defeated. But this group used a certain method to force open that exit BEFORE killing the final boss, and this would only happen when the Labyrinth inverts because people failed to clear it.
So, the final floor boss would be unleashed outside through the forced open exit, officially starting the inversion as monsters would spawn in abundance.
But as long as Ainen killed the final boss, their plan would fail.
[ Arcane Game 1# — Obstacle Destructor ]
— You will fly at the constant speed of 3000 meters per second in a large spatial tunnel filled with a variety of obstacles.
—Destroying obstacles will give you points.
—Requires at least 100,000 points to win and proceed to Arcane Game 2#.
'Well then, let's start.'
Ainen pressed the [ Go ] button after arriving in the spatial transparent blue tunnel that was one kilometer wide.
'Are they going to fly me randomly?'
Ainen found out in the next moment as he shot forward, not in a straight line, but indeed randomly moving around in zig-zag and such format while going forward at the speed of 3000 meters per second.
Ainen instantly started his AOE, but then quickly noticed that the scores were dropping and rising both.
'Obstacles give positive points and negative points. Those with red skull marks must be negative.'
'Now we are talking. This is more fun.' Ainen grinned. 'Didn't expect my super sophisticated AOE skill to be used already.'
Lord Black chuckled. 'Play this game again after finishing this round. You have to get a perfect score.'
Around Ainen, a veil in the shape of a hexagon formed with countless holes in it.
This shining hexagon also released a blanket of heat sparks with itself as the nexus, not for attacking, but to make its actual attacks reach the target at the most optimal speed.
All Ainen would have to do is mark the Obstacles he wished to destroy, which he could do at a single glance.
Every second, despite crossing 3000 meters per second, he marked all obstacles that didn't have a red skull mark.
And this super sophisticated AOE skill in the form of a shining, rotating hexagon would form, compress, and manifest a spiraling bullet capable of instantly hitting any targets within its blanket of 1 kilometer radius.
This ultimate AOE skill was Ainen's idea to make an AOE skill that kills enemies in a large area while also sparring all allies within the area.
Usually, AOE attacks would cover everything, but Ainen wanted to cook something better, and so he did.
The deadly part was that Ainen could also mark someone with Flame Hunter's Mark and do concentration fire to unleash bullet hail on a single target.
Attributes: Fire, Wind, Sand, Mystic (Veil)
Arcane Path: The Storm That Burns, Yet Never Touches the Unchosen.
—Ainen unfolds a rotating hexagonal veil of translucent glass structure made with synergy of flame and sand, spinning around him like a cosmic sigil. Each face of the hexagon becomes a focus lens with 50 launches, drawing in surrounding heat, particles, and microcurrents of wind. The Veil refines every fragment into spiraling bullets with veil-coating—turning them into solar motes that move faster than sound, inbound to those marked by Ainen's will. Within a 1-kilometer radius, every marked target is struck simultaneously and instantaneously with ultra-selective precision and vaporizes the target in a localized implosion, affecting only a 1 to 10-meter radius around the target, depending on the selected radius.
The only problem was that this skill had the highest Mana Consumption of all skills he created so far—500 Mana per second.
But it wasn't really a problem thanks to Ainen's new pair of Mana Gourds that were capable of instantly sucking 5000 Mana from the atmosphere in each, so he had 10,000 Mana per two seconds, as it would take 0.5 seconds of buffer time when filling and emptying.
So as long as there was no lack of Mana in the atmosphere. And fortunately, there was no lack of it in this Labyrinth, all stages, be it dueling rings or this arcade game dimension, Ainen didn't have to worry about his Mana. He could spam his skills freely as long as the overall consumption didn't exceed 5000 Mana per second, and he would never have to reach that, not in this Labyrinth.
[Congratulations, you have scored 754,290 points and passed the Arcade Game with flying colors. ]
'So a single run lasts for five minutes.' Ainen grinned and saw options appearing in front of him. "Well, flying colors are not enough."
Ainen stretched his hand and pressed [ Restart ] instead of [ Arcande Game 2# ] in the options before him.
This time, Ainen activated Solar Hex Temptest instantly and started destroying all obstacles without missing any or hitting any with skull marks.
[ Congratulations. You have scored 1,000,000 points and passed the Arcande Game with flawless performance. By achieving this, you have access to the true Arcande Game 1#. Make your score in it and compare yourself with other exceptional individuals across the cosmos who have participated in this Labyrinth before. ]