“What the hell?!” Leon bellowed as he ran right behind Jet. Behind them was a rumbling wave of pink and brown flesh in the form of the Giant Worms. Wind whipped around him as his Gravity and Wind magic skills gunned at their maximum strength, propelling him forward at an even faster speed than when they had ran past those who were blocking the entrance to the Tower of Trials.
At first, they had simply killed the monsters coming their way easily, but as their location became more and more swarmed by the hardy worm monsters, they had taken to fleeing, instead of standing their ground.
“The only safe place right now is the boss room! Unless we can get there first, we need to focus on finding a passage to the next floor!” Jet said with a determined look on his face.
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion rocked the walls and sent wind whipping through the tunnels. Most likely Kaladin and Grokus’ work. Leon could faintly hear the yells and war cries of Nero over the rushing wind, but he did not pay them too much attention. Even if they were destroyed by the overwhelming number of enemies, they would return to his embrace.
Just as another explosion rocked the tunnel, Leon spotted something up ahead.
“I see something!” Jet also voiced his findings.
Up ahead, a section of space seemed to shake and waver, like the optical illusion generated whenever heat was concentrated on a spot.
“There!” Leon yelled, and adjusted his course. In the next seconds, he and Jet flew through the phenomenon, and their senses told them that they were in a different place. Looking around, they found that unlike the earthly tunnels that they had just been running through, they were now standing in the middle of a large hallways that was made with stone blocks. Large windows were placed on either side of the walls, giving it a breezy feeling.
[Welcome to the Second Floor of the Tower of Trials, the Knight’s Abode! Defeat the Floor Boss to advance!]
The same notification popped up in front of him, and Leon waved it away. “The Knight’s Abode. What should we expect on this floor?” He wondered out loud, already too used to it to help himself. But Jet thought Leon was talking to him and answered.
“No idea, but we should keep our guard up nonetheless.” The dark haired man replied.
Leon took the lead this time, summoning his armor to cover up his smooth robes. The halls were quite wide, much wider than the tunnels of the first floor, so he did not hesitate to summon a spear from the Abyss Set. Walking at the front, he was able to spot the lines of shiny silver armors first.
The hall turned a corner, and the duo were met with lines of silver armor standing on both sides of the hall, with weapons held in their grasps.
“I can bet all I’ve gotten on this island that these armor sets will attack us.” Leon cursed, but he did not retreat. Instead, using his spear, he reached out and nudged an armor set that was equipped with a long sword.
The moment the tip of the spear touched the armor, the creature sprung into action, raising its sword to slash at Leon, but Leon was already a step ahead. Fire bloomed from the tip of the spear, super heating it in a single moment, and the spear melted through the armor, and into the head of the creature hiding underneath it.
[Level 14 Armored Sentinel killed!]
The creature died instantly, but Leon did not gain a level. Ever since he had reached B rank, it had become harder for him to gain levels, even when he killed creatures of higher levels. All this time, and he was only still at level 9.
With the death of one armored monster, the others were roused. The sound of clanking metal rang out through the hallway as dozens of armored monsters suddenly started rushing forward with all sorts of weapons in their hands. Some wielded swords, some used spears, while others held up ranged weapons.
“Let me handle this!” Leon’s eyes burned with excitement as he thought of how to utilize his magic skills to fight these monsters. He had an excellent choice in mind too.
Whoosh!
An expanding sphere of purple mana spread out, and pressed onto the bodies of the armored monsters.
Bang!
The closest one to Leon was pressed into the ground with a loud sound, leaving it open for Leon’s next attack. His spear with its heated tip stabbed into the back of its head gear, making a squelching sound that pleased Leon. A notification popped up in front of him, but he did not pay it any attention as he prepared a large fire ball that was quickly tainted with purple light. The purple fireball flew forward, and when it crashed into a spot in the middle of the hall, it exploded, growing in size, until it had consumed multiple armored monsters.
Leon was like a reaper as he reaped the lives and experience of the armored creatures. Jet was surprised by how effective Leon’s tactics were, but he left Leon to fight as he wished. Up ahead, he noticed a few more monsters that had escaped the fireball attack, and were also outside of the range of Leon’s gravity space, so he teleported in the middle of their ranks, and began his own rampage.
With his rare and unique affinity for Space magic, Jet was able to create spatial cracks that gouged out parts of the monsters’ bodies, and he was able to kill them quite quickly.
Before long, they had killed all the monsters in the hallway. Leon’s helmet vanished into black flames, revealing his grinning skull. It had been fun to let go like that, and he was now assured that even at the Low B rank level, he still remained a menace.
“Alright, let’s go. We need to hurry up before anyone else from the first floor arrives here.” Leon said, resting his spear across his shoulders.
“Alright.” Jet nodded, and the two continued through the hallways, killing and slaying whatever monsters they came across. The Knight’s Abode was much more straightforward when compared to the Giant Worm Nest, and at the rate they were moving at, it would not be long before they found the boss room.
As they went, a petite person wearing a hooded robe remained just at the corner of the first hall where they had encountered the armored monsters. Pulling down the hood, the person revealed bright red hair, with two pointy, red, furry ears sitting above the head of red hair. Beneath the robe, a fluffy red rail was wrapped tightly around her waist.
The eyes of the young lady glowed with an eerie red light as she exerted herself to find out what had happened here. In her vision, the fight between Leon, Jet, and the monsters replayed itself, looking as if it was happening in real time.
“Just two of them did this much? They seem strong. Perhaps Mid B rank at the least.” The petite lady rubbed her chin in thought.
“Maria, what did you find?” Two people suddenly appeared beside her. In their hands were two glowing coins, which were the trinkets that linked the three together. The other two had just passed through the portal that led to the second floor. They had been part of the group that was stuck outside the tower before Leon and Jet had come running through.
The reason why the trinkets were active was because the Tower of Trials spawned people around the floor in different places, so it allowed people to spawn together. It was the same thing that participants of Divinity’s Bout used to spawn in the same place if they were in a team together.
“From the traces I can find, it seems only two people have come through this route, and I believe they are the same people that ran past the blockade outside the tower.” Maria replied, turning around to face the two men.
If Leon was present, then he would be shocked. That was because Maria looked exactly like Elena! The only difference was the fact that she was obviously older then Elena. Not only that, but the two men that had appeared behind her also bore slight resemblances to the young female Beastkin that Leon was familiar with.
The reason why these people bore such a close resemblance to Elena was because they were indeed her family!