Awakening: Reincarnating With the SSS-Level Extraction Talent-Chapter 291: The Layers of the Abyss, The Traps

Alex closed his eyes, letting the steady hum of notifications wash over him.

The endless Ding of monsters meeting their end filled the dark abyss around him, but none of it touched his thoughts.

He was focused on one thing: the gains.

In the void of the abyss, time felt irrelevant.

The darkness tried to press in, but Alex remained calm, waiting as the chorus of system messages continued to echo in his ears.

Eventually, the frantic sounds slowed, and then, silence. The monsters were gone.

Alex opened his eyes.

"Remove all kill notifications. Keep only level-ups."

The system responded immediately, clearing the clutter from his interface.

And then, the numbers rolled in.

[+114,000,000,000 experience points.]

114 billion experience points from a single attack.

A smirk tugged at the corner of Alex’s lips.

That was satisfying but he didn’t dwell on it, right after, the level-ups started pouring in.

[You have reached level 806, gaining 4 stat points to all attributes and 5 free points to assign.]

[You have reached level 807, gaining 4 stat points to all attributes and 5 free points to assign.]

[You have reached level 808…]

The notifications continued, each one stacking his power higher and higher.

[You have reached level 822, gaining 4 stat points to all attributes and 5 free points to assign.]

Finally, they stopped.

Alex glanced at his status.

[Level: 822 (5,850,000,000/7,100,000,000 experience points.)]

He’d made serious progress.

Level 1,000 wasn’t far off now.

But in this vast, seven-layer abyss, he still felt like he wouldn’t reach it even if he reached the bottom.

Even if he faced the [God of the Abyss].

Ding!

A fresh notification popped up.

[You have extracted: 372 Strength, 284 Agility, 128 Spirit, 291 Vitality, +9 Darkness Cores, +37 Abyss Fragments.]

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Alex’s eyes narrowed.

"Abyss fragments…?"

He understood everything else, basic stat boosts and familiar materials, but the abyss fragments were new.

[These will be useful if you manage to reach the bottom of the abyss.]

"Oh," Alex mumbled, brushing it off for now. "Alright."

Without wasting more time, Alex moved forward.

The [Eternal Flame] still burned bright in his hand, casting long shadows against the cavern walls.

Its flickering light was the only thing pushing back the suffocating darkness.

Time to summon.

"All Elements Fox Summons! Arise!"

Alex raised his arms, channeling his energy into the summoning spell.

Seven foxes materialized around him, their elemental auras crackling in the air.

Three were missing, casualties from the trial, but he’d just need to wait for their cooldowns to reset.

Alongside them, Alex summoned a horde of normal skeletons, one hundred in total.

[-100,000 mana.]

It barely made a dent in his reserves. For the power these summons packed, the cost was laughably low.

Each summon boasted over a million attribute points in every stat, boosted by Alex’s own skyrocketing power.

They could easily handle the abyss monsters that lurked ahead.

[A-Level Advancement Task: Defeat 50,000 monsters with your undead.] (41,948/50,000)

Alex glanced at the task tracker.

Almost there.

"Stretch your bones, my warriors," he whispered.

The skeletal warriors stirred, their green eyes flickering to life.

They surrounded him, a protective ring of bone and steel.

"Get rid of anything you see. No exceptions."

They nodded, staying close.

If they strayed too far from Alex, they’d despawn, and none of them wanted that.

Their sole purpose was to protect him, and they would do so relentlessly.

With his undead army at his side, Alex pressed into the second layer.

It wasn’t much different from the first.

The same endless labyrinth stretched out before him, the oppressive darkness broken only by the faint glow of the [Eternal Flame] and the fiery body of his [Fire Fox].

But the enemies here? They were something else.

Monsters ranging from level 800 to level 1,200 prowled the shadows.

Each one was buffed by the [Abyss Spell], their stats inflated to monstrous levels.

But even then, they were no match for Alex’s summons.

He didn’t even need to lift his staff or cast a spell.

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His undead did the dirty work, tearing through the abyssal creatures with ease.

Still, Alex wasn’t complacent.

He made sure to personally strike down a few enemies here and there, not because he needed to, but to keep his [Destiny Points] maxed out, just in case.

[Destiny Points: 150/150]

Perfect.

His limit had increased.

That meant he could use [Fated Cataclysm] twice in quick succession or even fire off a devastating [World Cleaver] and still have points to spare while it recharged.

Alex’s grin widened.

This was going better than he expected.

For an hour, he and his undead carved their way through the abyss.

The monsters fell like wheat before a scythe, their bodies piling up in the dark corridors.

Then, Alex found it.

Another hole in the ground.

[You have found the exit of the second layer!]

He stared at it, skeptical.

"..."

Something didn’t feel right.

"Hey, you," Alex pointed at one of the skeletal warriors. "Jump."

The skeleton didn’t hesitate.

It leapt into the hole, vanishing into the darkness.

A moment later—

Splash! CRACK!

The sound of spikes echoed up from the depths.

The skeleton was dead.

Alex’s eyes narrowed.

"..."

The more he explored this abyss, the more he understood why no one ever made it out alive.

A skeleton with over a million attribute points had been killed instantly by a simple trap like this.

That meant Alex wouldn’t have survived it either.

You might wonder why, after all, Alex had [Destiny Shift], a skill that could rewind time and undo fatal mistakes.

But there was a problem.

A very specific line in the skill’s description.

[Will not work if the attack is much stronger than the Destiny Shift.]

"Will not work if the attack is much stronger than the Destiny Shift," Alex muttered.

He needed to test this.

Staring into the hole, Alex activated [Destiny Shift].

[Undoing skeleton warrior’s death…]

For a moment, it seemed like it might work.

But then—

Beep!

[Cannot be undone.]

Alex’s blood ran cold.

As he feared, there were traps in this abyss that even [Destiny Shift] couldn’t save him from.

If he fell into one of these, that was it. Game over.

At least he had his summons to scout ahead. But still, the realization left a pit in his stomach.

The silence pressed in on him.

"Alphox?" Alex called out, hoping to hear the familiar voice of his dragon ally, "You here?"

"..."

No response.

For some reason, Alphox couldn’t answer him down here.

Alex had strutted into the abyss with confidence, fueled by his anger at the [God of the Abyss].

But now, the reality of his situation was sinking in.

He was in the God’s domain.

And down here, he was at the mercy of whatever the abyss threw at him.

He needed to be careful.

Eventually, Alex found another hole.

This time, he didn’t rush. He sent another skeleton down first.

Nothing happened.

No splash. No crack. Just silence.

This was the real exit.

Taking a deep breath, Alex jumped.

[You have reached the third layer of the Abyss.]

The moment he landed, Alex felt it.

A crushing weight pressed down on him, stealing the air from his lungs.

His breath became ragged, and every movement felt like wading through quicksand.

[The God’s gaze is intensifying.]

The deeper he went, the more unbearable the pressure became.

But Alex clenched his teeth.

He wasn’t stopping now.

No matter how heavy the God’s gaze became, he would keep going.

Because at the bottom of this abyss, Alex would face the [God of the Abyss].

And he would win.