As soon as Nox climbed onto the stone platform, a message appeared before his eyes.

[Would you like to challenge the second floor?]

'Yes!'

Within the time span of a blink, Nox's surroundings changed. The uneasiness he felt while teleporting had disappeared.

Trees and shrubs were the only things visible around Nox. A passing cloud partially veiled the brightly shining sun.

Unlike on the first floor, Nox wasn't alone. About fifty people surrounded him.

**********

[The Second Floor's Main Challenge]

[Clear conditions: Earn a minimum of a hundred contribution points

Time limit: Five hours

Rewards: Permission to Ascend to the Next Floor

Failure: The player will be teleported back to the zeroth floor]

**********

[Contribution points can be earned by killing monsters or completing side challenges!]

A roar of chatter spread throughout the crowd.

"Looking for a healer for our party!" yelled a man.

"Accepting all rangers and warriors in our party!" another man shouted.

Soon, all the players started gathering into different groups.

'Getting into a group would be too hectic. Plus, I will probably be able to obtain more contribution points if I hunt alone.'

If Nox was the same as before, he would have undoubtedly gotten into a party to minimize the risk. But Nox had changed. He had started to believe in himself more.

Plus, he wasn't alone as long as his shadow slaves accompanied him.

Other than Nox, only a handful of people decided to stay solo. Soon, everybody started disappearing into the forest.

Nox didn't move. He stayed at his place, observing his surroundings.

Most people had moved the same way, while the others had scattered throughout the forest.

"I won't benefit from going the same way the majority of them went," he thought, taking the opposite path.

Through the thick forest, Nox effortlessly sprinted, easily dodging the shrubs and a few fallen logs on his way.

Although the trees were tall and thick, they didn't form a canopy, allowing most of the sunlight to fall on the forest floor.

He ran for around half an hour before taking a closer look at his surroundings.

"What's this," Nox mumbled as he halted in front of a tree and began examining it.

Huge claw marks could be seen on most of the nearby trees.

'This isn't a hoof or a paw mark. Judging by the size, it belongs to a human-sized animal... a bear!'

Bears were extremely territorial animals, and Nox was in their territory. Even the weakest bear was at least five times stronger than the average human back on Earth.

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Grrrr!

A creature growled, appearing from behind a tree, twenty metres away from Nox.

Nox stiffened his muscles and took out his moon dagger.

It was a black-furred bear, at least seven feet tall. Although the trees were packed considerably close together, it was able to easily make its way towards Nox.

[Giant Arkouda]

The bear sprinted towards Nox and slashed its claws at him.

"Anatomical Liberation," mumbled Nox.

Dodging the bear's strike, Nox crouched, getting under it. From underneath the monster, he thrust the dagger into its throat, killing it instantly.

'It's weak? Shouldn't the strength of monsters increase with each floor?'

Nox thought for a few seconds before finally reaching a conclusion.

'I guess, unlike the first floor, the hardness of this floor didn't increase for me. That's a good thing.'

[You have slain a giant arkouda]

[You have earned 20 CP!]

'Twenty contribution points for a single bear? How interesting…'

"I may as well scan my surroundings right now," Nox mumbled, jumping up on a tree branch.

Bringing calm to his mind and body, he spread his arcane throughout the region. Even with his eyes closed, he could sense the different flora and fauna of the region.

Using his arcane to scan the surrounding area, he was able to pinpoint a location, a few kilometres away, where the concentration of arcane was greater than its surroundings.

Jumping on the ground, Nox began sprinting towards it.

On his way there, he encountered a couple more bears but could easily slay them.

Just as Nox was about to reach the location with the high concentration of arcane, he arrived at a clearing where about twenty bears were blocking the way forward.

"This is a pain," he said under his voice, coming to a sudden halt.

All the bears looked the same, with their huge black-furred bodies and brown eyes.

Readying a dagger, he muttered, "Dash!"

Using his inhuman speed, he weaved himself through the monsters, slicing the throats of each one of them.

Although the skin of the monsters was really tough, with the help of the arcane-coated moon dagger, slicing it became almost effortless.

Suddenly, one of the bears appeared behind him and swung its paw at him.

'Shit! I don't have enough time to dodge!'

But before the bear's paw could even graze Nox, it fell lifeless to the ground.

Behind the bear's corpse stood his shadow assassin, holding its dagger in one hand. It had sensed the threat and had forcibly exited Nox's shadow without him calling it.

"Thank you," Nox said as he resumed hunting the remaining bears.

Offering Nox a bow, the shadow assassin returned to Nox's shadow. Although, with the help of his shadow slaves, Nox could end the fight faster, he wanted to hunt the monsters himself. After all, Nox wasn't sure if he would obtain experience points if his shadow slaves were the ones who slayed the monsters.

'Having shadow slaves is really useful,' he thought, slicing the head off of a monster.

All the monsters lay lifeless on the ground within a few seconds.

[You have levelled up!]

"Thank you, Moon," said Nox, thanking his dagger before sliding it back into its scabbard.

As if replying to Nox, the dagger slightly glowed for an instant.

This battle would have been harder without the moon dagger and the shadow slaves. I need to make myself stronger,' Nox thought, understanding his own weakness.

Although the dagger and skills were his own, he didn't wish to depend too much on them. But, he still needed them.

'But won't these guys be a good addition to my army? They are moderately strong too,' he thought, 'Well, there isn't much to contemplate about it.'

Raising his palm towards the corpses, he ordered, "Arise."

Black fog enveloped the corpses before shadows finally started emerging from their bodies.

A few moments later, two shadow bears stood in front of Nox. Other than their glowing red eyes, their entire bodies were pitch black.

[Shadow Slaves: 5/5]

'Will the number of shadow slaves keep indefinitely increasing? Just how powerful will I get?' He thought as the shadow bears disappeared into his shadow.

Nox resumed sprinting towards the mana-concentrated region without wasting any time resting.

The soft wind pressed against Nox's face as he swiftly ran through the open field, which wasn't blocked by any trees.

Even though Nox had constantly been sprinting since he entered the second floor, he didn't feel the fatigue overcome him. For him, it was a strange but welcome feeling.

After running for another ten minutes, he halted, sensing the arcane behaving strangely.

'It's close!'

A line of trees in front of him blocked him from seeing beyond them. Slowly, he walked the rest of the way forward.

On passing through the line of trees, he was faced with a cave on a cliff's side. The bulk of the strange arcane was coming from within the cave.

A small open field was outside the cave, where a dozen beautiful flowers had grown from the ground.

'Either the being inside the cave can fly, or it hasn't exited the cave for quite some time,' the man thought, examining the flowers that were standing upright.

It was a weird sensation for Nox. Although he could sense the monster inside the cave, he couldn't tell just how powerful it was due to his lack of proficiency in 'arcane sense'.

"This will be interesting," he mumbled, heading inside the dark cave.

[You have entered a dungeon!]