After his stunt, Lucas considered finishing off the man for a split second before deciding to run away. He had expected the man to die once he hit the floor, but that didn’t happen. Although Lucas could use the experience from the kill, he had already decided he would run right after taking the bracelet.

It turned out to be a good decision, too, because even with his head start, it didn’t take long for others to start chasing him. Apparently, he hadn’t been fast enough when leaving the crime scene, and a few of them had seen him running away. They quickly noticed their target’s bracelet was gone, and they shouted a warning to the others.

Just after Lucas left the unconscious man on the ground, he started healing his sprained ankle with his aura. He knew it would consume his stamina, but it was necessary; with a sprained ankle, he couldn’t run properly, which would be even more dangerous.

The only problem was that before his ankle was fully healed, he was unable to run at full speed, as much as he tried to ignore the pain. It felt like running on nails, and it gave the others time to catch up. Fortunately, a sprained ankle wasn’t a big deal for his aura to fix, and after about twenty seconds, he was back at top speed

The majority of the others were forced to descend through the stairs to avoid getting injured like Lucas had, giving him some time to get back to his best form. However, a few of them had methods to descend directly from the second floor.

Lucas didn’t actually look back to see, busy as he was running through the streets, but he didn’t have to, because one specific person—a woman wearing some type of coat that helped her glide through the air—soon caught up to him.

When she was side by side with him, instead of making a move to attack, she unexpectedly spat in his direction. By now, dodging was second nature to Lucas, and he instinctively lowered his head the moment he saw the green liquid flying out of her mouth, just barely avoiding it. Glancing in the direction the liquid flew, he briefly saw it simply melt away a part of the concrete wall beside him. Not waiting an extra second after seeing that scene, he jumped towards her with his blades first.

He didn’t intend to show her any mercy. He had learned his lesson during the prior floor; he had to properly understand what the tower wanted for him from each challenge to improve his overall points.

On the third floor, he just needed to survive, quite like this one, but there was a catch, and he would probably receive some bonus points if he wasn’t the only one standing in the end. The fourth floor, however, told a completely different story. The tower had been clear; he needed to be the last person standing. Therefore, there was little to gain befriending these people, and probably much to gain from killing as many as he could.

Apart from the spit, the girl didn’t seem to have much going for her. She was caught completely off guard after his dodge and, unable to stop her flight quickly, became an easy target for Lucas, who slashed her apart. After confirming his kill, Lucas quickly grabbed her ring and stored it in his pocket before starting to run again.

Fortunately for Lucas, that girl was the only one capable of completely ignoring the debris scattered around the streets. Considering he was already a few seconds ahead of the others, it didn’t take long for him to disappear into the maze of buildings that made up the city.

A few minutes later, he finally found a suitable hiding spot inside an abandoned building, in an empty office room. He hadn’t gone far, but he doubted they would be able to find him quickly. There were simply too many places where he could hide for them to search through them all.

There was also another reason why he chose not to go too far: he was dead tired. Despite already being aware that the life aura expenditure wasn’t cheap, it still took more than he was expecting for a twisted ankle. He couldn’t complain; however, if it wasn’t for his aura, he would be forced to stay behind and fight, likely against more than one person at a time.

Finally managing to catch his breath, Lucas sat on the dusted floor and inspected the bracelet, keeping a sharp eye and ear for any approaching danger.

The bracelet was simple in design, black, with a few engravings he didn’t understand. There was one familiar thing, however: right in the middle of the bracelet, where it was slightly broader, was the exact same symbol Lucas found on the waiting room console.

Lucas had already sketched the symbol for further consultation after leaving the waiting room, but that only made him even more curious about its meaning. Putting the bracelet on, Lucas felt a strange connection to it, almost like the one he felt when trying to reach the orb. He wondered what that was about. He even took out the orb to see if anything would happen, but it stood as silent as ever, and he stored it back in his ring.

Mimicking the old bracelet owner’s movements, Lucas closed his fists and made a motion to move his hand closer to his body. He didn’t know how he could tell, but he was sure it worked. However, a holographic green light appeared on top of the bracelet: 42%.

Is that the battery? He wondered for some time. He then tried different things in an attempt to figure out more about the gadget but didn’t have much luck. Ultimately, he decided to try out Faruk’s method to take things from the tower, hoping for some useful information.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

Fortunately for him, he had already thought of something he could do with it, though he wasn’t sure if it would work. He took the staff out of his ring and attached the bracelet to the wooden stick it was made of. Crossing his fingers, he used identify.

Dark Wooden Staff (Common)

A magic staff made with a fine wood with a good level of mana conductivity, combined with a rare dark-affinity stone, making it optimal for the use of dark magic. This staff has been further improved by the addition of a temporary force-field apparatus.

Required level to use: 10

The name remained the same, but the description had somewhat changed, clearly acknowledging the addition of the bracelet. This outcome, in normal circumstances, would’ve been a cause for celebration. However, the mention of the word “temporary” left him concerned.

If the percentage the bracelet had showed was indicative of its battery, then it might be possible for him to recharge it through some means. If that were the case, he believed the system wouldn’t have deemed it temporary, like it had in the staff description.

The way things were, however, left him with only one possibility: the percentage wasn’t a battery, but more like a life expectancy. Once it had taken a certain amount of damage, it would simply cease to work.

Lucas sighed a little after realizing that. Everything had gone perfectly; his plan had worked out great, and against all odds, he managed to steal the bracelet that could make his life in the tower much easier, only to find it wouldn’t last long.

He tried not to feel too discouraged. Even if there was only 50% left, that could be enough for him to get through this floor, and once he did, his rewards would probably be incredible, considering the amount of points he would gain.

Trying to cheer up, Lucas went through the girl’s spatial ring to see if he could find anything worthwhile. Apart from some potions, he didn’t find anything of note except for one Perception Elixir.

The quality was the same as his, and it gave him a 5+ in Perception. The girl had been an archer, so it made sense for her to carry one of those. Normally, Lucas would be over the moon for finding such a treasure, but the problem was that, he needed to bring that elixir to the waiting room to make the best use of it. His plans for the elixir involved his studies, and there was no way he was going to waste time studying on the fourth floor. He needed to hunt to gain his bonus points, after all.

So he tried. He spent precious minutes going through everything he could do to bring the elixir with him, even considering a potion necklace before being rebuked by the system and ultimately ending up with nothing. Instead, he found a less-than-ideal compromise.

Theoretically, he could drink the elixir just before he killed his last opponent, and since he could wear other people’s rings, that shouldn’t be much of a problem. He just needed to find the right time to do it. This way, when he was transported to the waiting room, he would still be under the elixir’s effect, as long as he didn’t take too long to kill the last person.

His problem with this plan, however—ignoring the difficulty of stopping mid-fight to drink an elixir—was that he had no idea if it would even work. He knew by now that objects he took from the floor would disappear if he didn’t use Faruk’s method, so what prevented their effect from working as well? Nonetheless, it was his only idea, and he thought it was worth a shot.

Lucas then took the bracelet off the staff and placed it on his left arm. Since he probably wouldn’t be taking that thing with him after he left that floor, there was no point in keeping it on the staff; instead, he preferred to have it in his arm, where he could use it at all times.

Making sure he was ready to leave his hidden spot and start to actually hunt others, Lucas decided to drink one of that girl’s stamina potions. It would be a waste to just leave them there, and he had no intention of waiting for his energy to come back the regular way. In this place, time meant points, and he was missing out on all the fun.

Quickly leaving the building after confirming his stamina was back to its max, he started to scout his surroundings. There was no sign of people in the vicinity of the building he had been hiding, as far as he could tell.

Lucas assumed they had grown tired of waiting for him to show his face and gone their separate ways. He had only taken the bracelet after all, and despite a being pretty good defensive device, it wasn’t as deadly as the fire weapon and didn’t require such extreme methods, or at least that was what Lucas expected.

After all, as soon as they realized no one was getting the bracelet, they were probably more likely to start killing each other than forming a hunting party. It didn’t matter who got the bracelet; only one would be left in the end.

Confirming his thoughts after walking through a couple of blocks in deadly silence, Lucas relaxed a little. One of his main concerns for this floor was the level of his opponents. He was sure the tower had no intention of going easy on him by sending people to the same level as his. So that could only mean they were not ordinary in the slightest, and each one of them had the means to surprise him.

Despite all of that, he was still confident when it came to facing someone in a one-on-one battle, but he definitely wasn’t confident about facing a furious horde of them. That’s why he had to run. However, it seemed like the situation in that Survival Showdown didn’t remain the same for long, and the chaos from earlier had pretty much dissipated by now.

Lucas walked another couple of blocks, being cautious not to stay long in the open and always keeping a sharp ear for any sound that might appear. But pretty soon after starting his walk, he started to have an odd feeling of déjà vu.

Didn’t I already go past this building? Lucas thought, inspecting a partially destroyed façade. He hadn’t been paying too much attention to the buildings before, but he was pretty sure he had already seen that one. It wasn’t only the color or the graffiti, either; even the smallest details of the debris spread around the sidewalk looked the same.

Realizing that, his heart started to pound heavily in his chest, and he subtly turned around, trying to find some explanation for it. What he found instead was a very small dart crossing right in front of his face.

In a second, his entire surroundings changed, including the very building he had been looking at just a few seconds ago. There, on the second floor of another building just across the street, was a man, crouching near the edge. A creepy smile spread wide on his face. But the most disturbing of all wasn’t his smile—it was his dark purple eyes filled with mockery.