MMORPG: Rebirth of the Mortal Online - Chapter 156

Chapter 156: Worthless Genius
Third Volume: Eldertree Institute.

…

Ilkin opened a door and took a hold of a lantern hanging by the door, then, with a flick of a switch, a small, gentle fire lit up inside the lantern.

It gave enough light to cover the small room.

The room was slightly bigger than a bathroom, with two small sofas pushed up against the walls.

There was another door in the middle of the two sofas. It was closed. However, there was a sign on top of the door that read “Culling Chamber,” and its letters were made of timber.

“Please wait here.” Ilkin said with a smile. “Your partner will soon join you.”

‘Partner?’ Adam raised an eyebrow, nodded, and entered the small room, then took a seat by one of the sofas.

Ilkin and Willibert left, closing the door behind them.

‘Eldertree Institute, I have heard a great deal of stories of this place.’

Adam looked above the door at the lettered word. It made him frown.

‘Culling Chamber. That doesn’t sound nice.

‘I’ve heard both good and bad things about this place. It’s a very secretive place, but the public knows that it’s a place where talented people go if they want to push their talent to the limits.

‘It’s definitely a good place to grow strong; unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to experience it myself.

‘I did take a test, which was quite boring, but this is the first time I’ve heard about this culling chamber. I wonder what it entails.’

While waiting, Adam quickly took out the auction window to see the current highest bidder.

Before leaving for the Eldertree Institute, he decided to put the dagger up for auction and see how much he could get for it.

He came to the conclusion that he didn’t want to rely too much on the dagger for his fights, as it would ruin his fighting style.

For the short term, that dagger was life-saving, but it would just hinder him in the long run.

He had many golden opportunities, some of them being weapons of very high rank. Some being higher than the legendary rank.

When’s the time, he would go seek them out and take them for himself.

Therefore, he wasn’t too worried about not having that good of weapons, but he still needed armor. That’s why he put the dagger for sale to get enough Shinecoins to buy armor that was equal to that of Crimson Armor or even better.

Creak—the door began to open.

‘Finally.’ Adam removed the auction window from his eyes and looked over to the door. ‘Who’s this partner they were talking about?’

As soon as the door opened, Ilkin pushed a young man inside the room and closed the door—then they both heard the door being locked with a loud click.

It sounded like a key was turning in a lock.

The young man was scrawny. There was a slight bruise over his eye; it looked like he had applied some makeup to cover it up.

It was clear he was nervous, his eyes swimming all around the place, as if he was allergic to looking someone in the eye.

Adam stood up and offered his hand. “Name’s Adam. Nice to meet you.”

‘A hand? He wants to shake hands?’ Terry gulped and hesitantly reached out to shake Adam’s hand. “T-Terry Kingston.”

“Well then, Terry, are you a student here?” Adam asked.

“Y-yes, I am in my second year.” Terry nodded and finally looked high enough to see his face.

At first, he thought that Adam looked quite ordinary, but then he noticed that certain tint of navy-blue in his eyes that made them stand out.

‘He is carrying himself with such confidence.’ Terry gulped.

“I was wondering about this.” Adam pointed at the sign on top of the door. “Culling Chamber, what is this?”

Terry paled and stammered, “It’s where the weak go to die.”

“Huh?” Adam frowned and was about to ask what he meant by that, but then the door opened.

“Eek!” Terry backed away in terror.

This time, it was the Culling Chamber’s door that opened.

Adam lifted his feet and stepped through the opening of the door.

The room was white. That’s it. It was empty, white and bright.

However, strangely enough, there was some kind of die hanging by the ceiling, but instead of it having numbers, it had images that were constantly changing and shifting.

“Please, no Kerobites or Deadlings, please.” Terry prayed with his hands tightly clasped together.

“Kerobites, Deadlings?” Adam frowned and looked at him. “Why did you say those names?”

Terry didn’t answer and just kept praying to any God that would be listening.

“Terry, answer me.” Adam grabbed him by the throat and pulled him close. “Why did you say those names?”

Terry looked at the die with a shaky gaze. “This is the Culling. The weak are eliminated, and in this case, we’re the ones getting culled. The die decides which monster they’ll send to cull us.”

“And you can get Kerobites and Deadlings from that?” Adam asked with his face also changing shades.

“In very rare cases.” Terry said with a gulp. “I’ve heard them appear a couple of times, and when they did, everyone in the Culling died.”

Adam removed his hand from his collar and turned to the dice with a serious look.

‘Of course they’ll die. Kerobites and Deadlings are only found on floors above fifty. So, the die decides our faith; what a fucking joke!’

At that moment, the die started moving on its own, spinning up, down, and sideways, and continued doing so until it moved at such speeds that it was a blur of colors.

Adam and Terry continued to stand still, looking at the moving die.

At last, it came to a stop, and only the bottom half of the die was glowing.

The image was that of a skeleton key, and the background looked like a cemetery on a foggy night.

“Singing Skeletons!” Terry exclaimed, looking scared.

“Whew.”

On the other hand, Adam breathed a sigh of relief.

It was much easier to deal with.

Singing Skeletons were the boss minions of the fifteenth floor!

At that moment, the place changed rapidly.

It turned from that dull white, empty room to a cemetery covered in fog and gravestones.

The ground below Adam’s feet turned from solid to soft grass that seemed to pull him down into the earth.

The gravestones had the names of every student that was once culled.

“Oh god, they’re coming!” Terry paced back and forth in a panic. “We’ll need to run! But where? We can’t leave this cemetery, and it’s not like this place is big either!”

“Calm down.” Adam patted him on the shoulder, which caused him to jump in panic. “Why are you so scared? We could’ve gotten much worse!”

“It’s still dangerous!” Terry cried out. “Singing Skeletons is not something we can deal with!”

“Aren’t you a student of this school?” Adam asked with a frown.

“Y-yes?”

“Then why are you so afraid?” Adam asked. “You’re a genius, are you not?”

Terry lowered his head and shook it. “I am worthless genius. I can’t do anything right.”

Adam frowned and smacked him in the cheek with an open palm.

Smack!

“Ah!” Terry’s eyes widened in shock, and he touched his stinging cheek. “Y-you slapped me?”

“A worthless genius is still better than none at all.” Adam said, feeling genuinely angry.