I Became a Ranker Before Rankers

Floor 14

A large yellow screen quickly shot in front of my face after I had left the waiting room. Behind the screen I could see large brick buildings painted a pure white with dark wood window sills and framed by pots of flowers hanging. The city emanated an aura that was remanicant of a small European city that I remembered traveling to once when I was just out of college. The only thing that set this place apart from the town in my memory were that the streets were completely empty. There were no traces of humans ever living in the surrounding area and I could not even see a bee buzzing around the flowering plants. 

I looked back to the screen and read:

Floor Quest: Unlock Time Gate

The city of Florencia that resides on the 14th floor was once a hustling and bustling society until it was attacked by "Shijian"(时间)—a famous demon who was able to control time. Shijian was once in love with a young boy who resided in one of these very houses, and he waited for the little boy to grow up. Once the boy had turned 16, Shijian came from the underworld in hopes of dragging him back to live with him forever. After waiting hopefully for many years, Shijian was greatly angered when he saw that that cute boy had been left to die on the streets after his parents were killed and none of the villagers had helped. Shijian then used his powers to trap the city in an endless time loop to torture the villagers who would have to relive their worst nightmares over and over again. 

Find Shijian and make him unlock the spell that keeps Florencia in a time loop for eternity. 

Time Limit: 3 months

Rewards (Vary based on completion and accomplishments): Teleportation to Floor 15  and ???

Penalty for Failing: Revert 2 Levels and Lose 1 Skill

When reading the novel, this floor had shocked many readers along with the players. The requirement to move on in the previous floors was solely based off a player's kill count and the difficulty of those kills. Floor 14 was instead a "Quest Floor", meaning that players had to complete the given quest in order to move on, otherwise they would suffer extreme punishments. 

This new challenge did not seem tedious to many players as the demons on the previous floor had all been low level or low enough that a high level team could easily take them down if they worked together, so many quickly decided to proceed on. What they failed to realize until later on was that only high level demons could climb up from the underworld freely, meaning that Shijian had to be at least level 112. After learning this fact, it still took the top rankers around a year of earth time to complete and this floor ended up causing around 10,000 deaths which discouraged many Challengers from across the world. Many of the leading guilds spent a fortune on weapons and other gear, eventually ending in the level clear, but all of that was later found out to be unnecessary.  

I closed the notification window and began to walk around. It took me 30 minutes to reach the very edge of the town. Looking around in the forest I could see a small dilapidated wooden hut. The roof was slightly caved in and was covered in a thick wet moss. The door of the house was partially opened, and only hung from one rusted hinge that seemed close to breaking at any moment. As I approached I saw another notification pop up. 

You have reached the house of the abandoned villager. 

!WARNING! A creature of significantly higher level is lurking inside, proceed with caution.

After all this time Shijian had been waiting for the boy within his house. I took another step up.

What are you doing? Do you think that you can defeat a monster with that high of level?

It was that person talking to me again through the system. 

"What does it mean to you? You didn't seem worried even when I was dying on the floor of that cave."

Ouch! That really hurt my feelings, I have been so nice to you so far. 

The sarcastic tone of his words reached me even though I could only read the text and not hear him. I ignored him and continued to walk along the stone path leading to the house.

Okay, fine. Don't blame me when you die though. 

I could feel my hands trembling and my body seemed to tense up uncontrollably. My fears were basic as I knew the world was that of a dream purely, but I could still feel pain and my hand was still bleeding from a tree branch that pricked me as I was wandering around. I took a deep breath and opened mana sense to try and understand the situation within the hut to sooth my anxiousness. I could not sense any hostility towards me, only a thick feeling of sadness and grief which seemed worrying. 

My hand reached out to grab the decaying metal door handle that was pasted on the door. The coldness was slightly shocking, but I yanked the door twice to open it enough to enter. 

The hut was very small and very dark, only illuminated by rays of light that were let in through the cracks within the wall. In the corner I saw the outline of a small boy, maybe 9 years younger than me, his limbs were very frail who looked like only skin and bones. It was the first human or non human being that I had seen. I took another step forward and I heard the boards under my feet screech causing the boy in the corner to flip his head quickly. His deep yellow eyes resembled a cats staring at me and examining me almost as if he was seeing if he could approach or attack me. I knelt down to my knees and I took out a half eaten apple that I had picked up from one of the trees and stored for later use. I held out the apple like an offering. They boy crept slowly on his hands and knees toward me then pounced to grab the apple almost as if he thought I would have stolen it from him. He quickly gobbled the entire apple down and I once again took out more food from my bag. I could see his eyes sparkling as he ate. He reminded me of a stray cat that used to live in front of my house when I was younger and how he would wait by my window until I fed him daily. 

I quickly snapped out of it and realized that I had not found that demon that they had mentioned so heavily in the book. I remembered that the author described the demon as a muscular man who would lure both men and women with his looks and then kill them, only to reveal his true self later which was a giant dog like creature who would proceed to eat his victims. 

I scanned the area, but I could only see the boy. The boy continued to creep closer and closer to me and sat himself directly beside me. I instinctually placed my hand on top of his head petting him like an animal as he drifted to sleep on my shoulder. I could feel his cold breath tickling the skin on my shoulder and I watched as he slept, until another window popped up. 

SIDE QUEST: 

The kid has been starving for many years alone and has lost his memory. Nurse the kid to health with the help of MANA SNAKES to unlock his full potential and help him escape his hell by offering companionship.

Reward: Demon's Blanket and Golden Key.