CHAPTER 140.

How is this possible?

Agnis hit the wall, hard. Her bones creaked as the wall shattered. She fell to the ground, panting and with tears in her eyes. She couldn’t understand why this was happening.

Why was there a demon inside the Fallen Tower?

She coughed up blood as she heard the screams of her companions. She was a Healer by trade so she was no stranger to gore, nor was she stranger to misfortune or calamities, but this? This was too much even for her.

Agnis raised her head, looking on with bleary eyes, and the first thing she saw was a decapitated head. She almost threw up from the sight; not because it was disgusting but because of what it represented. Thomas was dead. Her gaze moved on and landed on a mage, Rakan, raising his staff towards a twisted being of black skin. He seemed to be preparing his ultimate attack; he had been this entire time.

But it was futile. Even though the demon’s level was higher than that of their group, the demon was still even more powerful than what the System indicated. It was a doomed scenario.

[Demon of Darkness. Lvl. 252.]

If it was actually level 252 maybe we would’ve stood a chance. Agnis gritted her teeth as she looked at Rakan preparing his spell, golden light enveloping his staff. Next to Rakan was Winlar and he was panting, his sword was down. They were the only surviving people. But soon they would all die. The demon hadn’t spared a second thought in killing them, and while Rakar almost had his spell ready he wouldn’t get it off, not in time.

If only… Agnis closed her eyes, and then, heard the demon speak.

“So weak,” it croaked, its husky voice reverberating throughout the cave. “So disappointing.”

Agnis paused as she raised her head. The demon was taking his time? It seemed to just be walking forward slowly. She looked at Rakar who was glaring at it, stalling time, and after a few seconds he finally replied.

“Just go die, bastard.”

“We will all meet our end.” The demon chuckled. “Unfortunately, mine isn’t any time soon.”

Following those words, it leaned forward and Agnis couldn’t help but wonder if it was enough time for Rakar to finish his spell. The monster dashed towards their mage and she looked on as Rakar raised his staff, its magic reaching a new crescendo.

It’s enough…

“Cleansing Light!”

White light engulfed the demon as it let out a screech. The powerful beam tore through the ground and ceiling of the cave, the moss on the rocks immediately melted away. And Agnis found herself slightly grinning.

Rakar did it. She didn’t think he’d get the spell off, but he did. And now, the demon was in agony; its twisted screeches were like music to her ears. Soon, it’ll die⁠— And the dying throes turned into a husky laugh.

“It’s futile.”

With a clap the light vanished and Rakar dropped to the ground, darkness binding his limbs as he fell.

Impossible. Agnis’ eyes widened as she watched the demon walk out unscathed, its black skin smoking.

“I gave you a chance, but even then you people still disappoint me.” The demon sighed. “Oh, my great god, how will I gather the power to summon your army with these weaklings, I wonder?”

Army?!

“You people want to invade Vir?!” Rakar asked, struggling.

The demon arrived before him and raised its foot before stomping, Rakar’s arm immediately exploded as he screamed.

“We don’t want to invade it,” the demon said, standing straight as he raised his clawed hand, preparing to swing down. “We want to destroy it.”

Rakar’s eyes widened and the demon grinned, its pearly whites showing before he swung. Agnis closed her eyes and heard a clink⁠— there was no loud crunch, no sound of blood splattering; there was none of that.

“And who might you be?”

She paused and re-opened her eyes only to see a woman with brown hair and a gigantic sword, one she was holding over her shoulder in a relaxed manner. And she was…

[Warrior. Lvl. 207]

Far too weak.

“I’m Amber, and you are uh… the Demon of Darkness.” She cocked her head.

“Indeed.” The demon lightly nodded as it raised its⁠ amputated arm.

Agnis blinked as he saw the demon’s arm lying off to the side, but a moment later he regenerated it as if it didn’t matter.

“Why that name, is it just like what you people specialize in?” she asked, confused. “I mean, there is the Demon of Wind, Demon of Brutality, Demon of Genesis, and Demon of Chaos.”

Hearing that the Demon of Darkness seemed to pause, Agnis and Rakar did too. What was the woman talking about? But finally, the demon grinned.

“It is deeply connected to our nature, yes. And taking a better look at you, it seems that you’re much stronger than all of these weaklings. Your death will be quite useful.”

“Is that so?”

“Just kill him!” Rakar screamed. “The more you wait the more traps he lays in the darkness.”

“Oh I know,” the warrior said. “But with me here he won’t be able to kill anyone else; besides, it’s a good opportunity to get information about demons.”

Agnis found herself agreeing with Rakar. What was she doing?

The Demon of Darkness laughed. “Beings and their hubris, I never understood it.” It raised its hand. “After all, it only gets them killed.”

It gripped and a moment later the warrior woman was chained by hundreds⁠— no, thousands of binds. In a single moment she was bound, and now the battle was over; she couldn’t move. The battle was over.

Agnis gritted her teeth. What an idiot.

“Any last words, lesser one?” the demon asked, walking forward.

“Hypothetically speaking, right? If I were to beat you within an inch of dying would you serve me, or would you never betray your Demon God? Does that apply to all demons?”

Agnis couldn’t believe it. Even in this situation the warrior still insisted in talking with the demon? It was hard to believe. The grin from the demon disappeared and turned into a deep frown as it stood in front of the woman.

“Only those that have nothing would accept such a thing. However, enough of that, it is time to end this.”

She sighed. “Indeed it is.”

The woman tried to move for the first time and⁠— the bindings snapped as if they were made out of normal rope. Agnis and Rakar paused, meanwhile the demon backed off as it raised its hand; darkness gathering, at its palm.

“It seems I underestimated you⁠—”

The warrior slashed its entire arm off, appearing underneath him; her body faintly glowing with blue light, and then grinning she repositioned her sword and slashed again as the demon was split in half across the torso. Blood splattered and everyone’s eyes widened.

What? Agnis gaped.

“You…”

The demon hit the wall breaking through it and the woman grinned. “I’m done playing.”

“Impossible!” the demon screamed, regenerated in a single moment. “You shouldn’t be able to use that power.”

The woman pointed towards the demon. “Battery.”

In an instant the demon exploded into pieces, curses breaking through the room as the ground trembled and Agnis squealed. Rakar’s mouth dropped open as the bindings around his body disappeared, and the demon⁠— its head went flying. In an instant, the demon was blasted apart. How was that even possible?

“You are…” the demon’s red eyes widened. “Amber.”

“Uh that’s what I said.”

Its head hit the ground as he croaked. “You are the human the Demon Gods want dead, the one fav⁠—”

And his head was stomped with a loud crunch, blood bursting everywhere as a silence descended on the room.

“How did he even get in the tower anyways?” she asked.

The demon was dead.

Winlar had already fainted, but Agnis and Rakar, who were still conscious, were looking at the woman with disbelief. Not only did the woman kill the demon effortlessly, but the demon also recognized her.

“You are⁠— the Demon Gods want you dead?! Those are real!?” Rakar freaked out.

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“Guess so,” she answered simply looking around. “Sorry I didn’t get here earlier.”

Agnis flinched as she remembered the death of her companions, but a moment later she recovered and healed herself with her meager mana before slowly getting up. She had a lot of questions towards the woman. Ranging from; “how the fuck did you do that?” to “how the fuck are you so strong?” but in the end, none of them were appropriate.

There was only one appropriate thing to say in this situation.

“Thank you…” Agnis said, still in deep pain.

The woman, Amber turned to face her, and nodded with a small smile.

“Well, I’ll go now.” With those words the warrior turned and Agnis paused.

“To where?”

Amber glanced back. “To descend the tower of course, unless you know how the demon got here? Then I guess I can stay to talk.”

“We don’t know how they got here,” Rakar said, getting up panting. “But, if you run into another demon alone you may die; there is no way to know their strength. I suggest you return to the surface along with us. Even if you’re that strong it’s not wise to tempt death.”

Agnis nodded, agreeing with what her companion was saying.

The woman blinked and tilted her head. “Unless it’s stronger than the Demon of Genesis I’ll be fine, thanks.”

Stronger than the Demon of Genesis? Agnis paused. Isn’t that the demon that wrecked the entire republic?! And she is saying that’s her only worry!? That was absolutely ridiculous. But somehow, she felt inclined to believe that. Still, she couldn’t just let this woman go. Agnis gritted her teeth.

“Will you at least stay with us until we return?”

Amber glanced back and smiled.

“No, I’m sure you’ll be more than fine without me.”

With those words, the warrior disappeared, and Agnis was just left staring. Not only had this woman arrived and made casual chatting with the demon that was about to kill them, she also instantly killed it.

And once she did that, she just left? Unbelievable.

Agnis didn’t even want to acknowledge it actually happened but it did. And not only did it happen, she also got to witness incredible strength that she found hard to believe. She committed the warrior’s name to memory; the warrior that the Demon Gods wanted dead, she just had a feeling about her.

Amber huh…?

Did she just witness the beginning of a legend?

No, that’s impossible. Agnis chuckled and dismissed her thoughts. Instead, she moved to help her companions. For now, I just have to focus on living.

* * *

The demon was in all honesty, disappointingly weak. He was slightly weaker than the parts of the Demon of Brutality, but at least he provided useful information.

[You have defeated a [Demon of Darkness. Lvl. 252].]

For defeating an enemy 45 levels above your own, you have received bonus experience!

Amber stared at the skill level ups from now and the battle with the Demon of Brutality, there were quite a lot all things considered.

[Accursed Reignition has leveled up from 4th Rank level 7 to 4th Rank level 9.]

[Quick Dash has leveled up from 5th Rank level 1 to 5th Rank level 3.]

[Inexorable Momentum has leveled up from 5th Rank level 1 to 5th Rank level 2.]

[Inexorable Body has leveled up from 5th Rank level 1 to 5th Rank level 2.]

[Accursed Strength has leveled up from 4th rank level 3 to 4th Rank level 7.]

[Accursed Recovery has leveled up from 5th Rank level 1 to 5th Rank level 2.]

[Accursed Battery has leveled up from 5th Rank level 1 to 5th Rank level 2.]

[Crimson Fervor has leveled up from 3rd Rank level 1 to 3rd Rank level 2.]

[Crimson Fuel has leveled up from 3rd Rank level 1 to 3rd Rank level 2.]

[Crimson Sense has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 8.]

[Crimson Destruction has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Crimson Break has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Blood Catalyst has leveled up from level 1 to 4.]

[Demonic Frenzy has leveled up from level 1 to 4.]

I’ll have to focus on leveling up my skills soon, Amber observed before finally turning to look at her final notification.

The demon might’ve been weak and disappointing, but at least he had given her a level.

[You have reached level 208. 15 stat points awarded.]

+5 Vitality +5 Strength +5 Dexterity.]

She smiled at that but still felt a bit troubled by the things the Demon of Darkness had mentioned; namely the fact that almost no demon would serve her.

I wonder why… Maybe the Demon Gods were just that awesome? That was certainly doubtful, they were probably tyrants. Yeah I guess you can’t escape a tyrant, huh. Still… destroy Vir? Well I guess that’s not a surprise either. It was kind of implied at this point.

Amber tilted her head as she thought about the adventurers, they wanted her to accompany them but… well, there was honestly no incentive for her. Plus, this was her damn solo adventure, she wasn’t going to tag with some mercenaries even if they begged.

And if they were dying she’d save them just like before, before leaving. While a point could be raised about taking care of them until they were safe, there was also the assumed risk while going into the tower. The fact that she saved them was more than enough⁠.

Well, that’s just a justification, I’m just being selfish now.

But she didn’t really care too much. In the end, she shouldn’t be responsible for the lives of the people she saved after she saved them.

Amber looked on as she continued traveling through the cave system, guided by her map to avoid dead ends. Any monster she passed seemed to already be dead, which was disappointing.

She continued on until she found a doorway at the end of the floor, one that led to a room reminiscent of the one in the entrance.

“Wait, this is the entire floor?” Amber blinked.

Sure it was quite big, but she didn’t find a single monster aside from the demon. And here she was itching to fight and push her limits. The tower was supposed to match her strength after all.

A sigh left her before taking out the notebook that she had gotten from Frei and finding a place to sit. It was a magical artifact that was basically linked with a counterpart, sharing the same content. So with it, they could communicate with each other, and with it they could also progress through her body enhancement thing.

First, Amber read Frei’s update, and how she set up camp with Aveline. After doing that, she wrote about the demon a bit and what she heard, before finally moving to the schematics of her bones and the runes.

It was daunting to be honest, just her hand alone was meant to have well over fifty intricate runes, and that was keeping it on the low scale. But it was something that needed to be done.

Amber revised the additions that Frei did for around twenty minutes before finally writing some runes on her own and adding notes; mainly how she was unsure about the function of the rune she added but that it felt right. Something that Frei would always facepalm at, but in the end it was just how intuitive things worked.

A lot of the runes were ‘precision’ runes leading into ‘strong’ runes, all intertwined with ‘constant’. Since it was all for bodily enhancement the theme was rather simple, but there was the occasional ‘flaring’ or ‘divide’ rune that confused her. And also runes she didn’t even know existed. But those were revised by Frei.

Amber spent about an hour adding to the runes on her legs and torso⁠— given the arms were done at this point ⁠— before finally getting up. All that was left on her schematics were her thighs, back and ribs, which was going to be an experience.

She got up and walked towards the room.

“Well, time for the next floor I guess.”

She wasn’t all that excited now all things considered. Though as soon as she stepped into the room, something unexpected happened; a notification came.

[You have cleared the anomaly in floor 31 in record time. Your strength has been re-evaluated, please wait while a suitable floor is found…]

Amber blinked before smiling. “Something unexpected, but also totally welcomed.” The tower seemed to be running on autopilot, just like Val’leri’s. “Wonder what floor it’ll be.”

After all, the tower sought out to give her hard floors, or places where she would struggle. And now, finally she would have a worthy challenge.

[Re-evaluated: Set to fight the floor 50 boss.]

“Exciting.” She grinned as she was teleported with a burst of green light. “How strong will they be—”

And a gigantic fist hit her, breaking all of her bones as she hit a wall at supersonic speeds. She coughed up blood as she laughed. That wouldn’t have even hit her if the teleportation hadn’t disrupted her senses.

“Still, that was a good punch.”

Amber landed on the ground, her bones clicking into place as she looked forward, and there, she saw a giant rushing towards her. It was akin to a human but hundreds of times her size, and he had a long white beard and bulging muscles⁠— and also a single eye.

Oh it’s a cyclops.

[Lesser Cyclops. Lvl. ???]

[Appraisal has leveled up from level 3 to 4.]

She blinked, but the Cyclops still remained nothing but question marks, meaning it was above level 247.

Amber dodged as it split the ground with a punch and she couldn’t help but frown. I’ll ask Frei how to level it, I should’ve done so ages ago.

She took out Cursewelder as the cyclops let out a deep bellow.

[In the presence of a rampaging Fledgling Cyclops all movement skills are shut down⁠—]

[As a Fledgling Primordial Human you’re only partially affected.]

Amber blinked at that. Huh, interesting. The second teleport of Quick Dash was unusable now, but that didn’t matter too much. It looks like she could now ignore the effects of the System to some extent.

The cyclops charged after her and Amber grinned.

Though I guess there is no problem with giving it a fair fight.

She unsummoned her sword and immediately charged to meet the cyclops, her stats flaring to the max as she punched towards the burly being. The monster met her punch and⁠— Amber’s arm shattered before she was thrown into the wall, shattering right through it.

She landed rolling before finally, landing on her feet and grinning. It was strong. The question was, how strong?

Amber shut down the curses on her body as she felt temporarily weak, and the cyclops smashed right through the wall in front of her; its body emitting a red heat. And Amber grinned as she cast her skill, pressing her hand on her chest.

Accursed Reignition.

Curses burst in all directions and her strength increased considerably as she got up and punched the cyclops. This time⁠— it lost the battle as it bounced back, breaking through the wall.

So just a single use is all it took, lame.

Amber jumped forward, then teleported onto its face and slammed down, her two hands balled up.

Blood and dirt exploded, and the cyclops bellowed as it tried to swat her away, but Amber just slapped its arm away and punched again. In a single moment, the monster was trapped in a one sided battle as it tried to fight back. But it was fruitless.

Amber continued to overwhelm it in strength until⁠—

[You have defeated a [Fledgling Cyclops. Lvl. 270].]

For defeating an enemy 60 levels above your own, you have received bonus experience!

It died.

[You have reached level 209. 15 stat points awarded.]

+5 Vitality +5 Strength +5 Dexterity.]

And I got a level up.

Amber smiled, with this tower, she was going to grow so damn much. She chuckled as she got off the lumbering body of the cyclops and took out her map instead, using it to guide herself to the ending of this floor. It was a bit disappointing that she hadn’t struggled, but the levels were nice.

Finally, after taking a deep breath, she stepped into the room as green lines lit all over it. Then, a notification came.

[You have cleared the boss on floor 50 in record time. Your strength has been re-evaluated, please wait while a suitable floor is found…]

Oh. That fight had been easy, but she didn’t expect it to re-evaluate again. However, she was glad that she was wrong. With this, I’ll find a proper challenge.

[Fledgling Primordial Human detected…]

“Oh, it can tell.”

Amber felt glad about that, and a moment later, a follow up notification came.

[Finding a worthy match up…]

So it’s calculating my strength properly…

If that wasn’t exciting then, she didn’t know what was. While she hadn’t exactly come to the tower to push her limits, it was also an implied part towards growing stronger. And it was happening.

So damn exciting…

She stared at the system window before her as the ellipsis in the text went from 3 to 1 to 2 back to 3 and so on, in a loading animation.

And the more she waited the more excited she felt.

Finally, a minute later it finished.

[Finding a worthy match up for a wielder of Primordial Power…]

What will it be?

[Re-evaluated: Set to fight the boss of floor 101.]

Amber blinked.

“Wait, weren’t there only 100 floors?”

And she was teleported into a dark room as her hairs stood on end, and she looked on as she sat a pair of yellow eyes staring at her. And then the monster took a step forward, sharp winds cutting through her skin.

[Fledgling White Starling. Lvl. ???]

Amber paused, from the danger and also⁠—

The entire room lit up as she saw a creature she had never seen before, one with pulsating blue lines. One that was sure to be an actual challenge for her, and that was because of one simple reason.

The monster can use Essence.