The First Store System

Chapter 1455: Dungeon(5)

The smile on Aakesh's face disappeared after Lily and Khaval left for Panagea. He then turned around and walked toward the portal room.

As his habits had changed, he looked at the two leaderboards. There wasn't much change in any of the two tables for the past month, so he immediately moved his eyes away and walked to the nearest virtual portal.

When he touched the portal, a suction force stronger than anything he could handle appeared and sucked him inside. Following that, the countless shiny dots turned gray.

After entering Panagea, Aakesh found himself in front of a wall with a mural painted on it.

For the past several months, Aakesh has been clearing one challenge after another in the dungeon, resulting in him gaining heavy rewards as well as reaching close to ruin.

Aakesh touched the mural-painted wall, and the next moment, an orange light devoured him. Following that, Aakesh found himself in a lava-rich area. He was standing on lava as well, but since its temperature hadn't reached a level where it could hurt Aakesh, he didn't feel anything.

There were pillars made of molten crystals emerging from lava at regular intervals, and they seemed endless as Aakesh was unable to see the end of it.

Aakesh's eyes were cold and indifferent, and he walked toward the nearest crystal column. After taking a few steps, he reached the pillar and touched it.

The next moment, the pillar exploded into orange particles, and before Aakesh could react, they merged into him.

Aakesh's skin was dark blue, so what was happening beneath his skin wasn't visible, but at that moment, lava was flowing through his veins, replacing his blood.

The next moment, his blood revolted, not appreciating lava trying to replace it. Following that, a wave of steam emerged from Aakesh, engulfing the area of a few hundred sq. yards. In no time, lava evaporated, and his blood retook its place.

At the same time, a new piece of information appeared in Aakesh's head. He had already gotten used to learning about the quest midway, so he didn't feel surprised.

The information detailed what Aakesh needed to do to clear the lava dungeon and return to the main dungeon. Aakesh didn't waste a moment and immediately walked to the next pillar.

He touched it, and at the same time, he was ready for what was to come. The orange particles tried to melt into him, but he released an invisible aura, and sounds of burning repeatedly rang in the area.

The lava particles were unable to win over Aakesh's strength, and they were getting evaporated into nothingness.

When the process came to an end, a glow surrounded Aakesh, and soon it materialized into a key, flying into Aakesh's hands.

The key felt hot to touch, but Aakesh kept holding it, focusing on the details.

Aakesh's eyes remained indifferent, and he threw back the key to the spot from where the pillar had risen. The next moment, the key exploded with the touch of the lava, and the familiar crystal column rose from it.

Aakesh's mission was to find seven keys. Each pillar referred to one key, and all had different abilities.

The seven keys Aakesh needed to find had the unlock ability, and once he gathered all seven of them, the dungeon would be forced to unlock itself. It was up to Aakesh's judgment to choose all seven.

Time flew by, and after going across seventy plus crystal columns, Aakesh finally had seven keys. All seven of them were orange in color, with an incomprehensible golden pattern engraved on it.

Since Aakesh had found all seven keys, he didn't have to do anything extra and ask for them to merge. After Aakesh thought of the keys merging, the seven keys flew out of Aakesh's hands and formed a rotating circle.

As their rotation speed grew, it seemed only one key was rotating, and a moment later, the rotation came to a stop, leaving only one key floating in the air. The next second, a blinding glow emerged from the key, and in no time, the glow devoured Aakesh as well.

Following that, Aakesh found himself back at the starting point of the lava, with the endless crystal columns still there for him to find the seven keys. At the same time, Aakesh found that his level had decreased by 1, and similarly the rewarded attributes for the level breakthrough had also disappeared.

Aakesh didn't care about the loss of attributes, since 25 units didn't make much of a difference to his 7500+ units of strength and agility. He frowned because he was confident that the seven keys were the chosen ones.

But since Aakesh was wrong, he didn't waste much time frowning over it. He could feel that the lava below his feet was hotter than before.

Aakesh then walked to the nearest crystal column and repeated the scene he had played out several times. Soon after the disappearance of the orange particles, a key formed in the air and flew to his hands.

Aakesh captured it and looked at it. He didn't throw it immediately but kept it in his hand and walked to the second column. The key couldn't be stored inside any storage item, and at the same time, Aakesh couldn't hold more than ten keys at once, so Aakesh needed to find the solution in ten attempts.

After getting the second key, Aakesh studied the difference between the two. They were the same, but the patterns engraved on each of them were different. Aakesh had thought that he needed to find seven keys and complete the pattern, but that wasn't the case, and he found it on his second attempt.

After finding seven keys forming a complete pattern, he was still returned to the initial point, with another decrease in his power level.

But by that time, Aakesh had found the solution. When the key was glowing, a reddish-orange tint emerged around the key. Aakesh decided it would be his next target. It happened for less than the visual capture rate, but Aakesh still noticed it due to his unlimited intelligence.

After looking across ten columns, Aakesh finally found a ket that was reddish-orange in color.