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Arya, Aetherius, and Rohan fought against the ghouls, killed them, and passed the monster wave. Since both Arya and Aetherius were stronger than the ghouls, they easily defeated them.
When the three were teleported here, the tower system put them in a single party. And when they killed the monsters, everyone received a part of the total XP.
Though most of the work was done by Arya and Aetherius, Rohan also received quite a lot of XP points.
The monster waves continued for the whole day, with a time gap between the consecutive waves where they rested. Soon the sun set, and night began.
The party was tired from all the fighting and was resting on the tower while discussing how they would proceed from here on out.
"So, what's the plan with the night shift? Since we're not sure if these monster waves will stop during the night," Rohan inquired.
Aetherius pointed towards Arya and said, "You are the leader. You make the decision."
This made Arya chuckle as he remembered something from his previous life Aetherius had never been the strategic type. He was a battle junkie, who liked to fight stronger opponents. This was also why they were best friends, as they used to spar with each other a lot in his previous lives.
"Well, since there are three of us, one can stay awake while the other two sleep. If the waves come, the awake person can alert the others. If not, we can switch when that person gets sleepy. I'll take the first watch for the next two hours or so, and then one of you can take over," Arya explained.
Both Aetherius and Rohan agreed with the plan and started sleeping on the tower platform while Arya stayed awake.
'Last time I was in the trial, there was an announcement in the blue gate during the night as a resting time. But there's no such thing here. So, there will be monster waves during the night. Well, what can you expect from nightmare difficulty,' Arya thought.
As Arya expected, after two hours, he woke up Aetherius and Rohan when he heard the shouts of ghouls.
*Gahh!*
*Gahh!*
"Ooi, wake up! We're under attack."
"*Yawn!!* What do you mean?"
"It's a monster wave. Get up and get ready to fight."
As soon as they heard about the monsters, both Aetherius and Rohan got up and prepared for battle. They soon started fighting.
As they had decided earlier, Aetherius and Arya would fight at the front, below the tower while Rohan would stay on the tower.
The tower they had to defend wasn't very tall, just 10-15 feet. The ghouls could easily climb it.
Their plan was simple: Aetherius and Arya would kill most of the ghouls, while Rohan, who stayed on top, would kill the few that slipped past and tried climbing the tower. Since they would be undefended and easy to kill for him.
After killing the monsters, the monster wave ended, and they rested on top of the tower.
"The gap between these consecutive raids is approximately two hours. So, the next one will likely be in two hours," Arya mentioned to his teammates.
Aetherius and Rohan both nodded, having noticed the same pattern.
"Then let's rest in shifts. Two of us should sleep while the third stays awake for the night watch. If our prediction is correct, the next raid will be in two hours. The third person will wake us up."
After they agreed to the plan, Rohan suddenly volunteered to stay awake.
"You both did all the fighting, while I just stayed in the back. You two should rest and recover your strength. I can do the night watch. It's the least I can do."
Arya found this odd. Since the beginning, Rohan had been acting a little cold. Now, for him to suddenly volunteer seemed strange. But he let it slide, thinking even Rohan knew that if he sabotaged them, he would also die, as he wouldn't survive alone in the trial.
Once they agreed to the plan, Arya and Aetherius started resting while Rohan stayed awake, sitting quietly and looking at the big core they had to protect from the monsters. It seemed like he was thinking about something, and soon a grim smile appeared on his face.
...
After two hours, as they had expected, another monster wave started, and Rohan woke up both Arya and Aetherius.
They both quickly jumped from the tower and started fighting the ghouls, noticing that the number and level of ghouls were higher this time.
Previously, the ghouls were at level 15, but now they are at level 16. Additionally, there was a new monster among them.
[Red Ghoul Soldier Level -15.]
'This sure is nightmare difficulty. The elite monster that joined at the end of the second day in the Blue Gate is here this soon,' Arya thought after seeing the new monster.
"Aetherius, deal with this monster swiftly. Move away as soon as you kill it," Arya shouted.
Aetherius, fully trusting Arya, did as he said. He jumped back as soon as he killed the monster and soon understood why Arya said so.
*Boom!!*
The dead body of the Red Ghoul Soldier exploded, killing all the ghouls in its vicinity. The explosion was strong enough that even though both Aetherius and Arya had high levels and constitutions, they would have been injured if they had taken it head-on.
Despite the explosion killing many, there were still plenty of ghouls remaining. Arya and Aetherius continued fighting.
During these waves, they earned a lot of XP. Both Arya and Aetherius leveled up once, while Rohan leveled up twice. As he was low level he needed less XP to level up.
And since he was part of their party, so he got a share of the total experience points. He also killed a few of the ghouls that managed to slip past Arya and Aetherius and reach the tower, easily dispatching them.
In this manner, they faced many monster waves, resting in the two-hour gap between each monster waves . With each consecutive wave, the difficulty increased. The ghoul's levels rose, elite monsters were added, and the number of ghouls also increased, with the monsters starting to come from all directions.