Chapter 209: Lobby #111 has gone live on the Third Floor

"No one should look away for even a split second. That’s an order. There are three of them, and many more where we lost our scouts. I need one of you to shut your eyes and turn your head towards my voice before opening them back up."

Like a mental agreement had been made, one shadow summon at the rear shut their eyes and turned their head towards the sound of Kaelen’s voice before slowly reopening them.

Worst-case scenario, a new one would be formed. Best-case scenario, the shadow summon could relieve Kaelen of the colossal knight glaring down at him.

It worked. A new final boss wasn’t given birth to after the shadow summon precisely opened their eyes to the colossal knight before Kaelen, and Kaelen slowly slipped out of its path while keeping an eye on it.

He knew better than anyone that if he looked away now, he’d be doomed to create another one. After moving out of its way, Kaelen decided to use Heaven’s Window on it.

Contrary to his expectations, there was no sign indicating that it was merely a clone of the real one. Both its description and skills, which confirmed Kaelen’s speculation, hinted that it was real and had the ability to multiply everywhere the target looked, as long as they’d set their eyes on it.

"What’s the plan, milord?" SKD asked in a serious tone.

"The plan...?"

The fact that they’d unintentionally created several more was already a serious problem, and that was the plan of the tower masters. Luckily, he was only here to scout the floor and draft a strategy to clear it next time.

As for now... there was no plan. If retreating could be considered a plan, then that was the plan.

"We’re done here. I’ll slowly back away till I hit the end of the hallway, then bolt with my eyes closed to lose lingering aggro. Once I’m in the safe zone, I’ll leave the dungeon and recall the rest of you."

"Sounds like a plan to me, milord. Go for it."

"Very well, then." Kaelen took out the Hearthstone and backtracked to the end of the hallway. Nothing happened. Everyone was frozen in place, caught in a deadlock.

Then he swiftly snapped his eyes shut and waited for another moment. Nothing happened. Then he shadow-stepped all the way back to his spawn point with his eyes still closed before immediately activating the Hearthstone.

Glowing runes materialized under his feet, and Kaelen was swallowed by a blinding light before it slowly faded.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence before he heard the familiar sounds of birds chirping, and the fresh breeze brushed against his skin. It was only then that he opened his eyes.

He was back in his lobby, and fortunately, the colossal knight couldn’t follow him there. He swiftly recalled his shadow army to the shadow realm and returned to his castle in the World Authority Fragment.

The final boss had skills similar to those of the undead knights, which only permitted them to move when unseen, but it was much stronger and faster than the undead knights and became indestructible when observed.

This made it extremely difficult to fight because the second you closed your eyes, it was already before you, unlike the undead knights. Even if you were to somehow evade the first attack, if you opened your eyes once more and it wasn’t at the exact spot where the colossal knight was standing, another would be formed, leaving the fighter—if solo—with two final bosses they had to constantly keep an eye on. And that was dangerous.

If anyone else jumped into the third floor without prior knowledge of what they were getting into, they’d be caught off guard like Kaelen and might not make it out alive. The third floor was going to be ending a lot of parties, and that would be the end of their Heralds as well.

"It’s good to see you back in one piece. The tower masters would’ve ripped my head off if you ’mysteriously’ lost a limb," the Herald said as they floated down from above.

"Send me back."

"What?"

"Send me back right now. For real this time. We’ll go live, and I’ll clear it as fast as I can."

The Herald was taken aback. "Why are you in a hurry to go back? Didn’t you just come out of there? With what you saw, I was expecting you’d take at least a few days to prepare accordingly."

"Me too. But if someone tries to claim the first clear, they’d be caught off guard and might not make it out alive."

The Herald was stunned for a moment. "Are you sick or something? Did the final boss scramble your brains? Since when did you start caring about the welfare of others?"

He didn’t.

Kaelen didn’t reply and went straight to the media page, where there were a bunch of livestreams now on the second floor. It was a long scroll down, but Kaelen eventually found Emir’s party stream, which had ended 16 hours ago.

There was no doubt she wouldn’t attempt to make her party enter the third floor that night because, if she knew Kaelen well, she’d know he’d be entering that night as well, so the odds were high.

If her party lost, she might die. Kaelen didn’t want to find out if that was possible in her case, but he needed her if he wanted to climb to the top. Her influence was too good to pass up. She was the only reason Akkad hadn’t been invaded in his absence.

"I can’t do that."

The Herald’s words disrupted his train of thought.

"What?"

"You can’t enter the third floor again till around this time tomorrow."

Kaelen’s eyes widened. "Are you saying..."

"There’s a full-day cooldown for the floor to reset. So if you think you have it figured out, let it marinate in your head till tomorrow night. No need to rush. The first clear will definitely be yours because I doubt any Herald in their right mind will jump into the third floor in less than a day after clearing the second floor."

[Lobby #111 has gone live on the Third Floor]

Both Kaelen’s and the Herald’s eyes widened in surprise and disbelief for different reasons.

For Kaelen, it was because Lobby #111 belonged to Emir.