“Sir, what is this place?” A girl with short red hair asked as she looked at the giant tower in front of her. The tower seemed like it was reaching the sky. The pitch black tower was standing proudly as if nothing could faze it.
“It is our destination. Look alive, people!” Merlin shouted with authority. He was the leader of the expedition, so he was more careful than ever.
Two weeks ago, a person approached him when he was hunting alone. What surprised Merlin was, that he failed to feel man’s existence didn’t matter how close he was. It wasn't an assassin technique nor Veil, but a superpower or an ultimate. Otherwise, he would be able to feel at least a little bit of man’s energy.
The man informed him of this tower, and what was inside of it. He wouldn’t believe him if the man didn’t offer him his superpower. At first, Merlin still had some doubts, but after finally copying the man’s superpower for more than five minutes, he accepted the man’s offer.
“Yes, sir!” The forty-nine soldiers saluted silently and walked behind Merlin. There was a 50-meter radius circle around Merlin, removing their presence. This was the power he copied. So long as the owner of the power didn’t want to, no one could feel those in the circle.
Merlin used this power to sneak his men out of the stronghold to the tower. Not that he had to, it was only a facade.
When they were at the foot of the tower, he looked at the weird entrance. It had strange drawings resembling runes, but not anything he saw before. He had seen monster runes and rune orbs. But this wasn’t similar to either of them. But he still could feel the power inside the carvings.
Merlin pointed to one of the soldiers who was standing not far from him. The soldier nodded and approached the doors cautiously but firmly. When he was in front of the doors, his hands changed into a pair of crowbars. He placed them at the door jambs and pushed them. The doors creaked and groaned but no one could hear it besides people in the circle.
In no time at all, the locks got destroyed and the doors opened. The man’s hand returned to normal as he grabbed the heavy-looking doors and placed them at a side. He then turned to look at Merlin and nodded his head.
Merlin walked to the door and entered and looked inside. His eyes were keenly looking around without missing any detail. After looking for a short while he gave a signal with his hand, and soldiers started to fill the tower. Merlin waited for all of them to enter, and looked afar for a short second, before entering too.
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Merlin walked to the soldiers' side and started to climb the spiral staircase. “If the information is correct, the first floor will be full of monsters. Keep your eyes open. No accident.”
“Yes, sir!” Soldiers greeted at the same time. Merlin and his followers reached the first floor and saw the monsters waiting. They were all different, but they were acting in accordance. Merlin ignored it and attacked with the spear in his hand.
His group also followed him and started to kill monsters. All the monsters on this floor were low-tier, so the fifty-odd soldiers following Merlin could kill them easily. Merlin himself killed more than twenty of them.
“Keep moving,” Merlin ordered after soldiers cut open the monsters’ bodies to take cores and orbs. They were too valuable to leave behind.
The second floor wasn’t much different from the first one. Except the monsters were a bit stronger. On the first floor, there were mostly weaker monsters with common elemental abilities, while this floor housed rarer elements or elemental forms. There was a monster with an explosion sub-fire element for example.
They were still not too strong for Merlin and the soldiers. They swept through the floor with ease and kept on moving. Until the 10th floor. There, for the first time, a monster with a truly dangerous element appeared. It was a frog-like monster with a colorful body.
“Be careful. It is a rare type of poison element and can corrode whatever it touches. Including your lungs.” Merlin warned. “Create an air bubble around your head lest you breathe it in.
“Yes, sir.” Soldiers saluted and formed air bubbles with energy, before approaching the monster. The monster in question was looking at them with hatred. Purple gas was seeping through his body and mouth. Wherever it hit, it would melt everything. Be it hard metal the ground was made of, or the trees around.
Merlin looked at the monster with a grin and attacked without any prior action. He appeared beside the monster and the spear in his hand shone with red fiery energy. When it was in front of the monster, the orange light mixed with a fire element and pierced through the monster from its head. Merlin looked at the monster and smirked. “Is this the 10th-floor boss?” But the next second, he realized the monster was expanding.
“Fall back!” Merlin shouted and dashed away as fast as he could. But he was still too late. Just when a big amount of corrosive liquid was about to hit him, a purple barrier came out of his ring and stopped it in front of him.
Merlin looked at the ring with a sigh. “Would have never thought you would save me, brother.” He muttered under his breath. Although the monster was just a middle-tier monster and couldn’t damage Merlin seriously, the final attack was strong, and his body was weaker than Frenzy-Rank monsters.
“Sir, be more mindful.” One of the soldiers said while looking defiantly at Merlin. Merlin nodded and walked towards the stairs.