《Climbing the Tower to Be a God With 10x Gacha System》 Chapter 1: Youve Been Chosen! [The fallen, the near extinction, those who wish to die, the rich, those who have been loved by life, and those who have been chosen. Are you ready to leave everything you have behind? Are you, the ones chosen by the gods themselves, ready to write history? Are you, the reason for creating the line between life and death, ready to become holy beings? Are you ready to climb alongside Zeus, Odin, Archangel Michael, Lucifer the Fallen Angel, Buddha and others? Are you ready to become a God?] On 23 March 2033, unexpectedly, these writings appeared before a small minority of people and a gigantic call was conveyed to them. The towers in the perfect architecture formed around the Earth had called them, never to come out again. These individuals had nothing left to lose, and these calls for those who had everything attracted many people. James could be counted as one of these people. Unlike those who were devastated and lost everything, he was just chosen. Of course, he had lost many things, but unlike others who had fallen into darkness, he was not yet on that side. This story happened just before he planned to leave himself in the darkness. ----- ----- "Shit!" James'' shout echoed through the void, he was standing on the terrace of the building on the concrete at the very edge of the building and staring straight into the living night light, it was obvious that he was going to drop himself down and end his life. It had been almost 3 years since he had lost his parents in a car accident and now his lover, who was everything to him, had broken up with him because of his lack of financial means. "It''s not my fault I''m not rich!" James suddenly exclaimed, the emptiness in his gaze seemed to indicate that he wanted to end it all. He hadn''t been chosen at all. He wished he could get into any of the towers that had miraculously started to appear almost four years ago, but it was impossible, if the tower hadn''t chosen you, you wouldn''t be able to get into it. James knew this too. What he wanted most was to enter the tower with his lover and leave this damned world behind them. No one knew what was inside the tower or what was going on, but the only thing that was known was that unless you were chosen, you could not enter the tower, and each chosen individual had to agree to go there once and for all. On top of losing his family and loved ones, James thought he was incompetent. In fact, unlike most, he was an intelligent and practical thinker, he was not athletic but he did not have a terrible body, he was not handsome but it would be foolish to call him ugly. He really could have been the most average person one could see. "I''m fed up... I''m fed up with everything....." James said suddenly, the light seemed to have gone completely out of his face, and he could now let himself down from the end of the building. He was about to take a step when the sign he had always expected to see appeared in front of him: [You have been chosen! Dear James Arthur Black, I am honoured to inform you that you have been elected by one of the directors of the tower! The tower is calling you because the eyes of several gods are upon you. I hope you will not refuse this offer and agree to join the game of the gods and take a step towards becoming a god! JOIN/ REJECT] James jumped for joy when he saw the writings in front of him and when he stepped back on the floor, his foot slipped awkwardly, it seemed to be the end of him. "AAAAAAAAAAA!!!''" James, who had started to fall from the top of the 18-storey building as he screamed, was distracted and his eyes watered from the incoming airflow. Wherever he looked, the invitation sent to him turned towards the place he was looking at and the invitation began to fade, even if slowly. "I CAN''T LET THIS THING I''VE BEEN WAITING FOR GO SOON!" James screamed in his mind, but he managed to force his hand to the text in front of him and pressed the "JOIN" option. With that, James stopped in mid-air. Everything around him began to disappear and every colour faded away. In just a few seconds, all the colours of reality disappeared and everything turned white. "What-what''s going on?" James muttered and at that very moment, as if in answer to his question, something else appeared in front of his eyes: [Welcome! James Arthur Black, I am proud to welcome you to the tower. There are exactly 3 gods who have their eyes on you, I hope you make the right choices and manage to remove all obstacles on your way to becoming a god. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. To close the window, click on the cross at the top right, this will direct you to the next action.] James took a deep breath and exhaled as if he could not believe his eyes when he read these writings in front of him. "I''m really in the tower...Haha...HAHAHA...HAHAHA!" he shouted and stopped where he was, he didn''t need to think about the world he was in before. After a few seconds of waiting, looking around but seeing nothing, James scratched his head and then noticed the small print at the bottom of the text in front of him: [To close the window, click on the cross at the top right, this will take you to the next action.] "So these things [windows] huh? Got it." James said to himself and then closed the window just as instructed, at that very moment a light appeared in the centre of the white area in front of his eyes and things started to come out of the light. "Are these things....cards?" asked James. Six dozen cards had formed in front of his eyes. [Time to choose! James Arthur Black, please make your skill selections. You have a total of 2 cards to choose from. The cards will be shuffled and coloured [orange]. The ranks are in the colours [green], [blue], [purple], [red], [yellow], [black] and [#####] respectively.] When James closed the window in front of him, he looked at the cards in front of him in a confused way and thought the following words while scratching his head: "Green? But these cards are different colours?" James could see the colours of the cards in front of him. They had clearly said that each one would be orange, but he could see everything. "42 of the green cards, 9 of the blue cards, 8 of the purple cards, 6 of the red cards, 4 of the yellow cards and 3 of the black cards." James thought calmly, constantly looking at the cards and wondering how he could see them. On the other hand, he was incredibly happy. If the cards in front of him were not mocking him with the colours, he would be able to get two of the three black cards. With a deep breath, he reached for the first card he wanted to take and grabbed it. As soon as he took the black card in his hand, the card flashed with a light and disappeared, just at that moment, the numbers appeared in front of James'' eyes in the lower right: [1/2] "Huh...That makes sense," James said, and then he began to look deeply at the two black cards in front of him. Even though he was acting as if he could see what was written on the cards if he looked seriously enough, he suddenly stopped thinking and picked up the other card. "I hope I chose the right option..." James muttered. [2/2] As soon as James saw that the number in the window to his right had gone up to the next level, that window closed and a completely different one opened in front of him: [Congratulations! You have taken your first step on your journey to becoming a god. The most important thing about a god is his abilities, a god who is not known for his abilities can never become a god. To see your abilities, just say [profile].] Having finished reading this window, James smiled and then closed the window, immediately after which he said ''profile'' in a calm voice. Suddenly another window opened in front of him and he looked at it: [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level 1 Class: - Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+) [Statuses] Strength: 5 Agility: 7 Endurance: 6 Luck: 2 Intelligence: 9 Charisma: 5 Status Points: 0] James took a deeper look at his profile and was very disappointed in himself, he hadn''t expected to be so weak but he was sure that he could still get stronger, that''s why he looked at what he should be focusing on right now. "[0x Gacha (Godly) Even Hermes himself, who has been gambling with his life since he was a baby, daring to steal Poseidon''s Trident and Artemis'' arrows, would not attempt such a big gamble. Choices that will surprise even Hermes, known as the master of gambling, are waiting for you! Depending on the number of monsters killed, you will have a chance to flip Gacha.] James smiled as soon as he read the ability and then said, "Haha...Asking someone who has nothing left to sacrifice what he has earned...somehow I get excited...." It was impossible to find out exactly how the ability worked without using it, but that was not what he had to do now, he had to observe his other ability. [Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+) May your glory be as great as Galahad''s, mortal, who was one of the Three Holy Knights who took part in the Holy Grail quest and had the honour of sitting on the dangerous chair of the round table, and who was also lucky enough to attain the swordsmanship of Galahad, one of the 6 great swordsmen of the realm of the gods! 50% increase in understanding of sword techniques. 10% chance for sword strikes to deal critical damage. A 0.5% chance that sword piercings will cause a bleeding effect. An increase of 0.01% for practising the aura of the sword.] After the explanation of the skill, James stood still for a few seconds and then smiled and said, "Swordsmanship of the great Galahad for an Englishman? Hallelujah!" and closed each window in front of him. As soon as he closed those windows, another one was revealed: [Excellent! Congratulations on completing the mini-tutorial. It is possible to earn skill cards along with special quests, special-secret-normal achievements, secret boss monster hunts, epic monster hunts, etc. Select the difficulty of the main tutorial: Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard, Hell. After you have made your choice, if you say [continue], the tutorial will begin.] As James looked at the window in front of him and read what was written, he considered his options. He had wanted to enter the tower for almost 4 years, he had heard people talk about becoming a god, but that was not what interested him. He just wanted to leave the reality he no longer felt and now he was given a choice. "Of course....I''ll choose the hardest one," James said to himself, and after tapping [Hell], he smiled and said, "Go on." With that, the whole area in front of him began to change, the whole area was painted black and the following appeared in front of him with white writing: [Good Luck.] ----- --- - Chapter 2: Hell Tutorial - --- ----- When James opened his eyes again, he realised that he was on a wall. The sounds of agonised shouting, metal clashing, cannons exploding and hundreds of growls echoed in his ears. While he was still trying to understand what was happening, a huge window appeared before his eyes: [Protect Persephone''s Statue Persephone, the precious daughter of Zeus and Demeter, left a statue in the tower many years ago. This statue provided perfect fertility to the huge city in which it was located. The precious statue of Persephone, the goddess of fertility, has protected this gigantic city for thousands of years, but it has also attracted a curse to the city. A curse that Persephone put without knowing it. Monsters are targeting the statue of the great goddess to enter the path of godhood. Eliminate the monster threat and protect the statue. Mission Reward: ? Mission Penalty: Death.] Before James could realise what was happening, a voice came from his right: "SIEGE TOWER!!!" Turning towards the man from where the voice came from, James saw where the man was pointing and saw two siege towers approaching the city walls. While he was trying to understand what was happening out of fear, the doors of the siege towers opened and green, short, ugly, smiling and strange creatures with strange bodies began to come out of them. These were goblins and their numbers were quite high. [Goblin (Level 5)] [Goblin (Level 3)] [Goblin (Level 8)] James seemed to freeze as he saw the flesh and blood monsters in front of him and realised that their level was many times higher than his own. One of the goblins, which had begun to attack the people on the wall, suddenly turned towards him and began to move slowly. Even as James realised that the focus was on him, he stayed where he was out of fear, he could feel his blood freeze. "Is that a tutorial? There are monsters many times stronger than me at the beginning of the tutorial, I can''t even imagine what will happen when I get near the end....it is hell." thought James, trying to move but failing. The goblin chuckled a little when it saw that James wasn''t trying to escape and then lunged at him, a huge blow was about to end his life when a sudden shout and a huge sword stabbed in front of the area James was at. "HUAAGGH!''" A huge man stood in front of James and held the goblin by the throat with his hand and lifted it into the air. "You piece of crap, are you the bastards who tried to approach Persephone''s statue?" As soon as the man spoke, his thick but low voice echoed off the wall. Without even shouting, that side of the battlefield paused for a second. "Kueghh..." The goblin, struggling to break free, had stopped where it was, and in a few seconds, the goblin had suffocated to death. "What are those levels even?" James realised that his blood had thawed and he could move. He was breathing deeply and trying to relax himself. Just then another window opened in front of him: [Rare Achievement Won! For the first time, meet someone who has received a blessing from the god. You get a chance to choose a card.] As James read the window and closed it, three cards appeared in front of him. The cards were [green], [blue] and [green] respectively. He, of course, reached for the blue card without thinking and took it. [Calm Mind (Rare) It''s easier to keep your sanity in dangerous situations.] "You are a smart man, high levels are not everything all the time but that does not mean you won''t be able to do anything to them! Go use your brain, use your body. GET UP SOLDIER!" James looked up from the ability he had gained with the voice he suddenly heard and then looked at the man in front of him: [Leno (Blessed by Persephone)(NPC)] "Yes, sir!" James suddenly pulled himself together and looked around, finding a sword with scratches on it he reached for it and gripped it tightly before looking back at Leno. "Well done soldier, now go and do your best to save this city blessed by the goddess!''" With Leno''s words, James seemed to realise what was happening around him. When he looked inside the city, he realised that the city was literally in smoke. Thousands of people were in the city, maybe tens of thousands of people were in the city, from the people running around to those trying to protect them. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, James was sure of one thing, what he had to do now was not to freeze, but to go through this hellish tutorial. The more he killed the more he would win and he would finally be able to take that gamble: "Wait for me gacha!" James suddenly said and with that, he started down the stairs of the wall. There were already too many soldiers on the wall and the soldiers below looked like they needed help. The mission was clearly to protect the statue but he didn''t know if he was strong enough for that right now, that was why he had to get stronger, whatever he did had to be his goal right now. "Kyaaaa!" James looked up to where the scream had come from and saw one of the goblins coming through the city gate. He couldn''t quite understand why there were siege towers despite the shattered city gate, but that wasn''t something he needed to worry about right now. Looking towards the goblin, James saw the inscription on the monster and smiled. [Goblin (Level 2)] This was a monster he could handle, and knowing that made everything easier. Suddenly he lunged at the goblin and with a shoulder blow knocked the goblin to the ground. As the fallen goblin writhed in pain, James jumped on top of the goblin and raised his sword in the air and pierced the goblin''s head. The goblin died before it could even make a sound, revealing something James had not expected to see: [Common Achievement Won! For the first time ever, the kill achievement has been earned. Unfortunately, this achievement does not grant an ability. Instead, the tower will grant you [1 power stat] to congratulate you on your achievement. +1 Power.] As soon as he read what was written in the window in front of him, he felt something changed in his body, and when he looked at his arms, he could see them growing. "Th...thank you, Mr Knight, thank you very much!" James shook his head as he looked carefully at the woman screaming and saw the crying baby in her arms. The realism of it all reminded him once again: He might have left his previous life behind, but everything that was happening now was real, he was thinking it so, and if he failed, the statue might fall, and when it fell, the people here might fall to their deaths, including himself. The statue had to be protected. He had to protect the statue. Chapter 3: Courage James was trying to help other knights with each step he took. He had managed to kill almost 6 goblins so far, but there was no sign of levelling up. He hadn''t even realised that leveling up would be this difficult, if he was going to continue in this state he might actually die here. "I need to get more achievements, if I do that I can gain status points." James suddenly thought and with that, he stabbed the other goblin in front of him through the heart. "7" said James calmly, it was wonderful to see that he was no longer the same man he had been only ten minutes ago, the fact that he was improving every second gave him hope. He was out of breath but he knew that if he stopped now his life would be over, that''s why he turned round and looked at the knights and the few hunters around and shouted "TAKE THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO SAFETY!" There were a lot of civilians around, the main purpose of the mission was clearly to protect the statue, and even if he was getting close to the statue, he still couldn''t do anything about leaving the civilians. He might have entered the tower, he might have gained good skills, he might even have been mad enough to choose the hellish difficulty for the tutorial, but he wasn''t going to do the dishonour of leaving defenceless people behind. Everything here was as likely to be real as it was to be a tutorial, and he didn''t want to look back tomorrow and find that he had travelled a path made of the blood of innocents. The knights and hunters paused for a few seconds when they heard what James had said, there was a huge horde of goblins still closing in on them. The corpses of knights and hunters on the ground made everything miserable. James, of course, was planning to run away from the goblins after everyone had moved away, he had incredible confidence in his ability to run. "Hunters, you are the people and demi-humans of the guild, your job is to protect the people and ours is to fend off the monsters, you have sacrificed enough for us, take the people to safety and we will stay." James had begun to stir as he heard these words coming from behind him, clearly aware of the sound of armour, despite all the bodies on the ground and at least two dozen goblins slowly coming towards them, these weak knights still wanted to stay here. "Take this, master knight, you don''t have armour, at least you have a shield." one of the hunters said suddenly and handed James a round wooden shield that was just over half a metre long. James just shook his head as he took the shield and looked at the hunters, a small smile formed on his face and then he turned back to the goblins saying "Persephone bless you". There were twelve of them, ranging from the rough-looking to the scrawny, from the scrawny to the huge, and from the huge to the frightened. Unlike the war within the city and the war within the city walls, this was a peaceful place, yet all was still at stake. "So, worthy knights, may Persephone enlighten your courage. REMEMBER, COURAGE IS NOT BEING FEARLESS, IT IS STANDING UP TO YOUR FEAR EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE AFRAID!" With James''s shout, all the knights charged forward, shouting, and the sounds of metal clashing reappeared on the field: ''Cling!'' ''Shing!'' ''RUAAAGH DISHONOURABLE GOBLIN!'' ''DUCK!'' Amidst the succession of metal sounds, sometimes some of the armour sounds paused and sometimes the sound of rotten flesh falling to the ground like a bag full of garbage could be heard. Both sides were taking casualties. James was facing a goblin that was a little bigger than normal goblins. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Warrior Goblin (Level 1)] James, who had stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that the goblin had another appendage, saw that another window had opened, recognisable on the right side of his eye: [Common Achivement Won! This is the first time you have seen an evolved version of a race. This achievement is too common to give you an ability card. Instead, the tower congratulates you and grants you [1 power stat]. +1 Power.] As James quickly read and closed the window, he noticed the change in his body again, but he still couldn''t overcome his pause. Unlike the others, the goblin before him had armour and a helmet, his body was bigger and his eyes were crazier. Even if he was scared, James was clearly aware that he could not stay where he was, holding the shield at chest level and gripping the sword in his right hand tightly. He had the great skill of Galahad''s Swordsmanship, he could do it. Suddenly the warrior lunged at the goblin and tried to pierce it. The warrior goblin was surprised as if it had not expected this, but it managed to retreat, or so it thought. Even though the sword was tiny, it managed to pierce the warrior goblin in the shoulder, that was enough to bring the luck factor into play, even if he was very unlucky, Galahad''s power would not let him down. [Penetration successful, the enemy will bleed continuously! 0.5% casualties per second.] James took a few steps back when he read this window, there was no reason for him to focus on the warrior goblin now. Bleeding continuously and losing 0.5% of life every second...this seemed to tell him that the warrior goblin would eventually die. Again, James wasn''t exactly willing to take any chances, the luck that had given him the chance to bleed was the same luck that had caused him to lose everything. Taking charge of his destiny was what he wanted. After his retreat, he realised that the light of life in the warrior goblin''s eyes had disappeared, and then he rushed at the warrior goblin with all his speed. The warrior goblin stumbled in fright and fell to the ground, presenting James with an open-attack opportunity. With a sudden swing of his sword, James slashed the warrior goblin''s throat and looked around at the other goblins as green blood rained down on him. He had taken a huge step towards becoming a god. Chapter 4: Gacha In Middle Of The Battlefield Seeing what had happened, the goblins were suddenly frightened and started to run away, but they did not know that the knights were coming towards them. Almost 17 goblins who were left behind just died. [Rare Achievement Won! Kill a member of an evolved race for the first time. You get to choose a card.] Without James having to close the window, the window closed itself and three cards appeared in front of him as usual. All three cards were blue. Without thinking, he took the rightmost card and then another window appeared in front of him. [Pierce(Rare-Upgradeable) If you haven''t learnt the beginnings and basics of sword techniques, you haven''t even used a sword! Piercing attacks and techniques will gain 1% attack power. To upgrade the rank of the skill, it is enough to survive a critical battle or have an epiphany on sword arts.] While he was standing with the happiness of gaining a new skill, another window opened in front of his eyes: [Levelled up. A random +1 stat point has been added to the [Agility] stat.] James had a perfect smile on his face as he read this window. He had killed 7 goblins and managed to kill a warrior goblin. He had also managed to gain skills and level up. He was glad that he had chosen the tutorial on Hell difficulty. On other difficulties, he might not have been able to see Leno and gain skills, or he might not have encountered a warrior goblin, but knowing that he did not regret his choice made him feel good. "My friends...." Amid all this happiness, the hoarse voice behind him caught his attention. Turning around, he saw that the surviving knights and the knights who had come to help were carrying the bodies. The battle was not over, and it was raging, but it was wonderful to see so many knights making their friends proud. "I don''t know exactly who Madam Persephone is, but her soldiers are truly honourable creatures," James said in his thoughts. At that very moment, something seemed to occur to him, despite all the monsters he had killed, there was an ability he had forgotten to control. [10x Gacha] As soon as he said these words inwardly, a huge screen opened in front of him. He was familiar with these images from the games he had played on Earth. "Gacha screen?" James muttered, he hadn''t even thought about the existence of these screens before because he knew there was no way he could use them at that moment. Things were different now though, he had killed 8 monsters, that should at least give him some credit, right? Looking at the big screen in front of him, he felt like he realised how random his gacha ability was. It seemed that it was necessary to have one right and ten rights to turn the gacha. It was like a classic gacha game. James was happy to know that he was going to work in a system he knew, unlike his life, he had always been lucky in gacha games and that was a good thing...at least he thought so. He was trying to realise if he had a right when he saw what was written on the top right of the screen: [80 Spins]. When he looked at the dialling rights, he hesitated for a moment, he thought that he had misread what was written in front of him because of the adrenaline he was experiencing and rubbed his eyes, but nothing changed. "Didn''t I kill 8 monsters?" questioned James and suddenly something came to his mind, he could feel his heart smiling. "10x Gacha...Every monster I kill will give me 10 rights. Isn''t this thing....too powerful?" After these words, the wheel in the screen in front of James, who touched the [ten-turn] option without stopping, started to spin, after almost 10 seconds of spinning, the wheel stopped spinning, and then a card appeared in the space between the spin options and the wheel just below the wheel. As soon as he touched the card, his eyes were dazzled and there were exactly 10 cards in front of him. James thought that he would choose cards again and realised that he could find the valuable ones. He rubbed his eyes again after looking at the cards continuously, it was obvious that each card was green in colour. "Holy crap," James thought, "Have I lost my chance at Gacha?" but there was no point in crying, after all, crying was not going to change the colour of the cards. That''s why he touched the cards one after the other and waited for what was coming to him. After a few seconds, he was disappointed again. [Beef jerky 7x] That''s seven green cards. Of the seven cards, he officially only got beef jerky. At least the other three weren''t too bad. [Auto-healing Bandage(1x)(Lowest Tier)] [Solid Iron Sword(1x)(Lowest Tier)] [Steel Breastplate(1x)(Lowest Tier)] James thought it would do him no good to be upset at the moment and then turned around and asked, "Would you like some food?" It made the most sense to give the beef jerky to the knights, he didn''t feel hungry at all. "Go on then," James muttered to himself and then pressed the [turn of ten] option once more, he still had 70 more to go. --- -- - S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Haha...hahaha...." James was literally on his knees, swords, dried meat packets and more lying on the ground in front of him. He had used exactly 60 rights and only 1 useful thing had come to his hand: [Void Ring (Unusual) Erases your presence for 10 seconds, up to two uses per day. Your enemies will not be able to sense you, no matter where they are or even if they are in contact with you. This is a set item: 1/3] This was the only decent item James had ever won. Aside from the food, drink and rubbish that was constantly thrown at him, it was the only thing he could win. It was a set piece. If there was a ring, maybe there was a necklace and an earring, or James was stupid and only had two more rings to find. However, James realised very well that he only had 10 more spins left, he could go around killing more monsters, but what he wanted now was to get his hands on something that would make killing monsters easier. With this hope, he moved his finger to the [ten-turn] option and closed his eyes. Good things had to come out of this ten. Chapter 5: Legendary Sword Clarent "God, Buddha, Odin, Zeus, Satan, whatever is up there, I beg you to let me win something good just once please!" James had been praying for almost fifteen seconds, clearly afraid to open his eyes and touch the cards. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He took a deep breath and suddenly opened his eyes, saw the same card scene in front of him and touched the card. At that moment, what he had hoped for was realised: "I have a golden card...yellow...I have won a legendary card." James could clearly see the yellow card shimmering between the green and blue cards. He didn''t need to rub his eyes or anything, he could see everything clearly and distinctly. "Please...something good," James said in a low, steady voice as he slowly reached out and touched the card. A weapon fell in front of James after the deep light that had suddenly risen in the area where the knights were. [Clarent(Replica-Legendary---) King Arthur''s sword of peace. Called the coward''s sword, this legendary sword is the supreme sword used to award knights their titles. It is also known as the sword used to kill King Arthur. A symbol of peace, the sword pierced the heart of the King. This sword is a heavy replica, its powers reduced by 98%. It provides a 20% damage bonus to slashing blows. It provides a 5% damage bonus to piercing attacks. Allows you to command knights of honour (Active for an hour). Grants 50% charisma to the wielder. There is a 50% chance of covering the targets it attacks with fire.] "Haha...HAHAHAHAHA! I won Clarent...This must be a dream...I won one of the King''s swords!" shouted James, he really did not expect such a thing. However, it became clear why cards of red colour and above never appeared. If a yellow card could give someone such enormous power, what could a black card give James? Even if red was inferior to yellow, wouldn''t it still have an enormous effect? James managed to get to his feet, even though he was about to go mad, he had only equipped himself with sturdy armour from the trash items in front of him and had sent a few food items to the sub-space that had come to him from the system, the smile on his face made him look like he was not on a battlefield. "Mr Knight, are you all right?" One of the knight captains who had come to help had heard the news and had heard how bravely James had rescued people, and his shouting now must have alarmed the knights around him. "Forgive my rudeness, sir! I was just thankful to be alive and useful," James said, and with that, the knight captain nodded in relief and then put his hand on James'' shoulder. "I''m proud of you soldier, and that sword...what is that, your magic or something? Or did you win a gift from the gods, honourable knights can win such things after all." James was happy when the knight captain said these words, it was a relief to have a system in place that the knights could rely on even in strange situations, after all, he did not wish to face heroes like Leno in addition to the enemy monsters. However, the knights seemed to have finished resting and gathering and burning the dead. Every one of them stood at attention, ready to move. When James noticed their badly damaged armour, he pointed to the armour he had left on the ground and said that they could use them, that each one had its own magic. The battle was in full swing and James, who was now incredibly strong, could continue to fight, he had very little to fear. The group began to move forward, there were screams, shouts of fear and growls of monsters as images of large and tall beings could be seen in the distance. "TROLLS!!!" shouted one of the knights, pointing with his hand to where the figures were. Almost a dozen of these large figures were walking around. Some of them were attacking those around them, while others were spinning around and looking around like fools. It was obvious that the intelligence of these creatures was not high, but what was written on their heads was very dangerous. "Cave Troll (Level 9)" "Cave Troll (Level 12)" "Cave Troll (Level 6)" Even though the levels were too high for James, he had already learnt that it wasn''t all about the levels. He was able to defeat the warrior goblin, a superior evolution of the goblin. On top of that, thanks to his ability to calm his heart, he didn''t even think about being scared, maybe a little stressed, but there was no compulsion not to cross this obstacle. "Let''s go, captain, if we don''t stop those bastards, who will!" James said suddenly, and with that, the Clarent in his hand started to glow, and the sword''s ability seemed to start working. "THAT''S RIGHT SOLDIER, FULL SPEED AHEAD, TIME TO DESTROY THOSE BASTARDS!" The knight captain''s voice literally echoed through the collapsed buildings as every single person began to make their way out, including the hunters who were hiding and even the knights who were too tired to continue. Even some of the civilians were coming out with clubs and knives and everything else. James didn''t realise what was going on, he was just looking for a reason to dive at the monsters, he never thought that the power of the sword was so huge. I mean, technically, Clarent was Excalibur''s twin, and that made it a huge powerhouse, but still, the knights were getting very, very fired up. Still, this was going to work in James'' favour, after all, there was not a great distance between them and the statue, even if he did not know exactly how to complete the task, even if he had no idea what he would face, a voice inside James was telling him to reach the statue as soon as possible. This meant they had to get past the cave trolls. Chapter 6: Power of the Great Sword The assembled populace began to overwhelm the surrounding goblins. Never before in the history of the city had such a thing happened, there were of course ex-soldiers among the civilian population, but never before had the people tried to fight alongside those who were many times stronger than them, like knights. It was like a new era. Clarent seemed to have perfect authority, as if his command power had become a force of will and he had convinced the knight captain. After arriving at the area where the Cave trolls were, the trolls around seemed to have become even crazier. The cave trolls, who had previously fought with a maximum of 5 or 6 people, now saw a huge army coming at them. At least a hundred knights and hunters were marching towards them, and fast. "FORWARD!" the knight captain suddenly shouted, and the trolls seemed stunned by the shout. The Cave trolls may have been stupid enough to have difficulty understanding what was going on around them, but the fact remained that they were still monsters. All the soldiers were on the attack, James and the knight captain in the lead. Every strange sound of battle rose from the field, including sword blows, the sound of arrows piercing the air, and even the incantations of the mage hunters who had managed to cast spells and restrict the trolls'' movements just a little. James could realise in a rather gigantic way that his blood was boiling and that the adrenaline was making him even worse. His movements were literally restricted, he could feel the sweat pouring down his face, the immense heat provided by his armour and the immense pressure of the replica of Clarent''s great aura in his hand. He could feel this immense pressure as well as the troll in front of him, the aura emanating from Clarent was enormous. James realised that the troll was hesitating and suddenly attacked. His steps were not very fast but each step was calculated, he was being careful and not taking too dangerous steps because of the possibility of the troll attacking. After the troll, which was almost 3 metres long, was at the level of his legs, James lifted it deeply and made a quick cut to target the troll''s tendons. The cut must have been successful because a huge mass of blood suddenly gushed out from the area where the tendons were. "RUUAAGHHHH!!!" The Cave troll''s instantaneous shout echoed through the area. The troll had fallen to one knee and was literally screaming in pain, but it was all in vain, a monster could never be forgiven, and James had to continue the mission. James, who had managed to climb up the troll''s knee by leaping, lifted Clarent with both hands and then pierced the troll''s head. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Guuuuuuu..." The troll fell to the ground with a small thud and James, who had lost his balance, fell with it a little further away. James was uninjured, but his arm started to ache a little, though he didn''t seem to be able to get up for a few seconds. When the knight captain came to his side, he took James by the hand and pulled him to his feet. The smiles on the captain''s and the other men''s faces were priceless, each of their eyes shining with pride. At that very moment, a window appeared in front of James'' eyes: [Rare Achievement Won! Earn the respect of 100 Knights. You have won the chance to choose a card.] As soon as James read the window he saw in front of him, the classic image reappeared. There were three cards in front of him. These cards, which had the colours [purple], [blue] and [blue] respectively, of course, told James what he had to choose. James, of course, for some reason unknown to him, could see the colours of the cards as usual, he didn''t even know who to ask for the reason, but whatever it was, it certainly helped him a great deal. Touching the purple card, another window appeared in front of James: [Auto Heal (Unusual+) This ability would allow the user to heal automatically, even if it is incredibly slow. Healing does not cure amputations.] James smiled as he read the specs of the ability and realised that the slight pain in his arm from the fall had already disappeared. Even though the ability was very slow, the fact that it was of such high quality seemed to show why it came from a purple card, a rare-level card. "Let''s keep going captain, the hunters and knights have already taken down 4 of them, with the one we killed 5 are gone, 7 more!" As soon as James said that, Clarent glowed again and the knight captain''s eyes sparkled with a light again. "THAT''S RIGHT! SOLDIERS FORWARD WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!" When James heard this shout, he looked at Clarent with a smile and then said, "So you''re mind-controlling, are you?" The effect of the sword on people was mind-boggling, and it was a perfect coincidence that the sword was given to him by the gacha on such a mission, that is, in this city where the knights had a huge number. The Tower certainly seemed to want him to fight. James was ready for it. "ATTACK!" "WIZARDS CLOSE IT!" "ATTACK! MAKE SURE TO BURN THEIR SOULS!!!" The battle cries and shouts were incredibly high quality and reassuring. James was filled with confidence that he would not be injured in any way, it was perfect that he had found such a time to test the sword. ----- After only 10 minutes, all the cave trolls in the area had been killed. James had managed to take care of one troll on his own and had managed to kill the remaining six. The trolls in the square were destroyed and the window that James had been waiting for a while finally appeared in front of him: [You have levelled up! A random +1 status point has been added to your [Luck] stat.] James smiled as he read what was in the window in front of him and said, "So even my luck can increase, I was scared to death." The fact that he could get stronger like this was excellent news. Chapter 7: High Chimera (1) James and the knights travelling with him had finally made it to the statue. James realised that the moment he saw the statue of Persephone, his heart skipped a beat. He suddenly wondered if he had ever seen such a beautiful woman. Her golden hair and blue eyes resembled the sky and the sun, and the sharpness of her gaze seemed to represent her authority. It was only a simple statue of Persephone, the queen of the underworld, but even that seemed omnipotent. [The main part of the mission has begun! S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. You who succeeded in reaching the statue! This time you have to succeed in your mission to protect the statue, the enemies are tearing down the city barricades, the majority of the people are hiding underground, and they... the monsters are coming! Protect the statue, no matter what.] James held Clarent tightly as he read the mission and then shouted to the knights around him: "WATCH OUT, THEY''RE COMING!" With that, the monsters approaching in the distance became visible. Someone inside the monsters was fighting and coming towards where James was with them. "Captain Leno!" one of the knights shouted, and the morale of the whole group soared. James was amazed to see the man''s fighting stance, he didn''t even need to use his sword, every time his fist hit the monster, the monster''s body seemed to explode. His strength must have been at an excellent level. However, Leno was not the only one who attacked, there was something else chasing Leno from behind, it must have been the cause of the scars on Leno. It looked like Leno had been massively injured. Even if the bloodstains on Finn were from goblins and trolls, Leno must have fought against something much more dangerous, something that was still chasing him. As Leno, the powerful thing and the army behind them drew closer to the statue, and therefore closer to James and the knights, a window appeared that made James tremble with fear: [Leno (Level 46)] [High Chimera (Level 37)] James was frozen with fear behind these windows, and another window opened in front of his eyes to calm him down a little: [Unique Achievement Won! Encounter a superior evolved race for the first time. You have won a card selection.] James, who had only one card in front of him after reading the window he saw in front of him, took the card without thinking and a new window opened in front of him: [Guaranteed Attack Card (Unique++++) This card will ensure that any of your attacks (spell, aura) will hit the target guaranteed. 1 use.] As he read the window in front of him, it became clear that this time it was not an ability or an item that had been gained, but rather a card to make an attack that could reach the enemy completely. James was scared out of his mind despite his Calm Mind ability, he hadn''t stopped shaking even a little bit, he needed to talk to Leno somehow, if he could hold the High Chimera for even a few seconds he could land a guaranteed attack on him. He wasn''t very strong, but if you cut the heart or throat of any living creature, it should die, right? The beast army was closing in and James suddenly pulled himself together, raised his sword and shouted with enormous courage, this time without even leaving room for the knight captain: "FORWARD PERSEPHONE''S BLESSED ONES, FORWARD CAPTAIN LENO''S KNIGHTS, FORWARD GOD''S FOLLOWERS, FORWARD TO DEATH AND SUNSET!!!" With this shout, all the knights began to run. There was no end to the arrows and spells flying in the air. A perfect mana was travelling in the air and the ground was trembling because of so much hustle and bustle. After the sudden sound of metal clashing, James had already managed to kill three goblins and was ready to kill more. There were almost 150 metres between him and the place where Leno and High Chimera fought, but there were dozens of monsters in this 150-metre area. Moreover, these monsters were not only goblins and trolls. Small Chimera and slime-like monsters were trying to walk in between. A strange group of people were here for the sole purpose of targeting one thing: A statue of the Goddess. James knew that this was just a tutorial, but the fact that the infernal challenge was so monumental didn''t make him squirm. After all, what kind of reward would it bring him to complete such a challenge without dying? With this excitement and the fear and adrenaline provided to him by the huge army in front of him, he continued to take his steps quickly and swung the sword in his hand, Clarent, at the monsters with full effort. "Skyaaaa!!!" The moment Clarent cut the arm of one of the goblins, the goblin started to burn, while James was trying to understand what was happening, he suddenly smiled and shouted "GOOD JOB DEAR CLARENT!". His sword was trying to clear his path as if he wanted him to live. The goblin was moving left and right, crashing into other monsters and causing them to burn, in just a short time, 9 monsters whose bodies had been burnt to ashes were stuck to the ground. "Twelve monsters have already fallen...120 rights? After thinking these words, he managed to pass through the monster corpses and dodge all the remaining monsters thanks to the flames that formed around them. He managed to see James Leno and High Chimera very clearly. The two were fighting in a huge empty circle. None of the knights around dared to join the battle, and the monsters that tried to join were hissed back by High Chimera. The scene was perfect. The sound of the Chimera''s claws colliding with Leno''s gigantic sword sounded like serial music. The blood flowing from the duo''s bodies seemed to draw a picture on the ground. It was like looking at a live painting. "MASTER LENO!" shouted James suddenly, he had to be quick, it would be much easier to stop the monsters that had lost their commander, he had to bring down the High Chimera. "YOU!" shouted Leno, he had seen James before. Even if he didn''t know who this young man was, something in his heart told him that he had to be protected. No one knew what was going on. Chapter 8: High Chimera (2) "MASTER LENO I BEG YOU PLEASE KEEP THE BEAST IN PLACE FOR A FEW SECONDS!" shouted James. Leno, who was already struggling to fight, continued to fight as if he didn''t know how to do it, he didn''t think it would work, he was a great warrior, the only one chosen by Persephone, he couldn''t put anyone in danger for no reason, and this thought just lingered on the surface, until suddenly the voices rang in his ears: "COMMANDER LENO PLEASE LISTEN TO HIM!" "PLEASE, COMMANDER!" "I''M SURE HE''LL HELP YOU!" Leno seemed to be trying to understand what was happening. He had never seen the Knights like this in almost a month since the war had started, almost a month of constant defence of the city, but in just one day the barriers had collapsed and the city gate had been breached. This had caused Leno to see a lot of deaths, even such an excellent commander was about to lose his mind, but this young man just to his left somehow gave him perfect confidence, on top of that, the fact that the knight captains around him were shouting at Leno to trust James gave the commander a strange feeling. "Oh....this feeling...I can understand it," Leno suddenly thought. He clearly remembered the last time he had felt this bright feeling of excitement. "Lady Persephone....you want me to listen to him?" said Leno in an incredibly small voice. With that, a sudden energy began to rise in the centre of the battlefield. Most of the monsters fell to the ground and the knights were shaken. High Chimera had to jump back a few steps and fear filled his eyes. Leno was burning with an incredible aura. Unlike Persephone''s hair, this golden image seemed to resemble not the sun but the golden wheat in the harvest season. Nevertheless, while this image frightened the hearts of all monsters, it managed to set the hearts of friends on fire. The fallen monsters began to be killed one by one. It had all happened so fast, perhaps over three hundred monsters had been killed in just fifteen seconds, and every one of them had been thanks to whatever Leno had done. Yet there was a sudden pessimism in James'' heart because he didn''t think such power would come for free. He didn''t believe that he couldn''t. "I mustn''t let what you''ve done go to waste!" James thought, and with that came the expected shout: "GET READY YOUNG MAN!" The moment Leno uttered those words, he had reached the High Chimera with incredible speed and pinned him by the shoulders onto Persephone''s statue. It was so fast that Leno managed to reach the statue even though they were almost 200 metres away from where they were fighting. "SKYAAAA!!!" High Chimera was screaming but to no effect, trying to injure Leno with its claws but to no effect. Leno literally wouldn''t let go of the High Chimera. James followed them and soon arrived at the statue, took out the card from his sub-space and tore it. Realising that his sword was glowing, James grabbed Clarent incredibly tightly and then ran towards the High Chimera. He used the ability from the void ring and accelerated his speed. However, there was so much blood on the ground that his footprints were leaving footprints where he stepped, his eyes were shining with perfect determination and his blood was exploding with perfect adrenaline. "PIERCE!" James suddenly shouted and plunged Clarent into the High Chimera''s throat. Even though Leno couldn''t understand what was happening, when he looked at the sword stabbed into the throat of the High Chimera struggling for life, which he was holding in front of him right next to him, he could see a power just like his own blessing. It was obvious that the sword was blessed, and the possibility that the one belonging to this sword might also be blessed made his heart race, but unfortunately, just like the High Chimera, his life was nearing its end. The High Chimera suddenly burst into flames and stared at the statue where it was impaled with a sword like Clarent. He was trying to get rid of the sword, but every time he tried to touch Clarent, his screams increased several notches and his claws dried up and fell to the ground. "What''s going on?" James muttered calmly, as the sword''s description said nothing of the sort. After a short time, the expected happened, the High Chimera stopped moving and windows opened in front of James that he had not expected to see: [Unique Achievement Won! Hunt a member of a superior evolved race for the first time. You get a chance to choose a card.] [Rare Achievement Won! Witness the Blessed one''s fight for life. You have earned the chance to choose a card.] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve Leveled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve leveled up!] James was trying to close the windows, two cards had already formed in front of him and on top of that he had managed to pass 12 levels in a row, a huge number, even with all the monsters he had killed he realised how difficult it was to level up. He had no idea how many times the High Chimera had evolved and reached that level, but since he had managed to jump 12 levels in a row, this monster he had managed to kill must have been something of enormous power. "4 points went to the Agility stat...3 points went to the Luck stat and 5 points went to the Endurance stat, with James could feel the muscles in his whole body changing again, his body ached tremendously, it was as if all his muscles were changing. Meanwhile, looking at the cards in front of him, James realised that this time, unlike before, there were three cards in front of him. There were 3 purple cards from the Rare achievement and 2 red and one purple card from the Unique achievement. James couldn''t quite understand what was going on, only one card from his previous achievement had popped out, and he was very confused. However, he realised that he shouldn''t be worrying about it right now. He chose a purple card and a red card, and two items appeared in his hand. This was something he had never expected. Chapter 9: Administrator Leyla [Void Necklace(Unique) The presence of this necklace will protect you from enemies trying to search you. Increases concealment by 70%. This is a set item: 2/3] [Void Pen(Ender) This item grants you a special ability to speak into people''s minds up to three times a day, to use the ability to simply think of the item by its full name and say [use]. This is a set item: 3/3] As soon as he put on the necklace and put the pen into his sub-space, James could completely feel that the area had changed, and after this momentary sensation, another window appeared in front of him: [Ability Gained [Inventory(Legendary++++)] Thanks to the combination of void items, an incredibly large sub-space [Inventory] was gained.] It was only then that James, who had suddenly fallen to the ground after these windows, realised how tired he was. It was as if all the adrenaline in his body had suddenly disappeared, his eyes were blurred and his whole body was covered with perfect pain. Just as he was about to close his eyes and let himself rest, a sudden voice brought him to his senses: "COMMANDER LENO!" James, who had suddenly fixed his eyes on Leon, tried to understand what was happening. Standing up and running towards Leno, James realised what had happened. Leno was vomiting blood in a gigantic way. His eyes looked like they had drained his life force. This huge man now looked smaller than everyone else. There were still the sounds of monsters being hunted and the voices of the knights in full swing, but the calmest place in the entire battlefield seemed to be the place where victory had been won. "Master Leno..." James said suddenly, obviously upset. "This...good young man...I don''t even know your name but thank you, I was sure it was all over but your help saved the people, saved the hunters, saved the knights, saved my lady''s statue." Leno''s words pierced everyone''s heart like a dagger. James had never expected to feel so sorry for someone he had never met, but seeing this man with such a huge honour start to die seemed to be a huge blow to him. "I...I''m...sorry, there had to be another way, forgive me," James said, his thoughts racing: "If I had used the ring, would I have been able to hunt the High Chimera? No, the two of them were too fast, it was hard to even see them collide..." "It''s not your fault, it was the best thing to do...my life is nothing compared to the statue of Lady Persephone," said Leno, he thought it was a sacred thing to die for his goddess. "I''m ....." James said suddenly, he was about to say something but at that very moment everything came to a halt. James, who was trying to look around carefully and quickly, realised what was happening at that very moment. The time around him had stopped, the image that started to disappear from the horizon seemed to tell everything. The mission was complete. "Thank you for everything," James said suddenly, looking at Leno, whose life force had diminished in his eyes, it was sad enough to think that he was dead. What comforted him was that nothing was real, none of it was real, was it? "Congratulations Mr James, it was a great pleasure and honour to watch you." James suddenly heard a voice speaking towards him and turned his head sharply in that direction. There stood a woman with dark blue hair, teal eyes, horns and wings, pointed ears and white skin, wearing a blue dress. When James scratched his head as if he did not understand what was happening, the woman suddenly spoke. "Nice to meet you, Mr James, my name is Leyla, and I am one of the managers of the tower, you can say that I am one of the administrators of this tower, a high-ranked one. What a pleasure to see the person chosen by Chaos himself." James, whose eyes widened at these words, took a good look at the woman in front of him and then said, "One of the tower managers? Chaos? Can you explain a little more clearly, please?" James had not yet recovered from Leno''s collapse, so the more he remembered that image, the more he was upset and this was affecting him badly, it would not be a good thing for him to be confused at the moment. "Yes, I am the one who invited you to the tower, and yes Chaos...you call it by another name, but it is enough if you know him as one of the creators," Leyla said in reply. "Well, I don''t want to be rude, but I don''t really care about any of this right now, I have a few questions." James suddenly said. Leyla looked at this man for a few seconds as if she did not expect these words and then smiled and said, "Of course, please go ahead." "This place I''m fighting in...it''s instructive, it''s all a lie isn''t it, it''s like a game, it''s just a super realistic experience, it''s instructive after all isn''t it?" James'' questions had wiped the smile off Leyla''s face, she didn''t seem to expect to hear such questions in the more instructive part of the tower. "Not really, Mr James. Everything you saw was real. The people you fought alongside, the monsters you killed, the civilians you saved, the Leno you saw die, and the High Chimera you managed to kill in an astonishing way. They were all real." It was possible to see the surprise on James'' face when Leyla gave these answers. "So... I saved people... a city?" James suddenly said, more of a way of comforting himself than a question. Leyla''s face looked incredibly sour after these words as if there was a hidden answer, and this answer was something that James did not know, or even if he knew it, it would hurt him. "This thing....those humans and half-humans...You couldn''t save them, remember this is just a tutorial. No matter how many people are summoned to the tower, whenever one of them chooses the [hell] challenge, these people always go on that bad day without any memory." "I beg your pardon? Are you kidding me? How could you do this to them? Why doesn''t Lady Persephone try to stop it?" James suddenly snapped and shouted at Leyla, but what he was about to hear was none of what he had expected. "It''s not that she doesn''t...she can''t." S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 10: You Are The Only One Who Passed "It''s not that she doesn''t...she can''t." Leyla''s words seemed to leave a bigger question mark in James'' mind. "Those people, they are the people and creatures who betrayed the goddess, the people, not the monsters, destroyed the statue. Every one of them was cursed by the tower itself. Except for Leno, a few knight captains and hunters, every one of them is completely cursed, their souls are being destroyed more and more with each death." James'' legs had practically stopped working when Leyla uttered these words, his body seemed to remind him of his fatigue. "The tower...is far more criminal and dark than I expected, but it is not like I don''t understand what the tower did. The criminals should be punished, after all, the law is full of loopholes even if it works concretely." James said, even though he was sad, it still made him sad that Leno was always experiencing these things even if he didn''t know it. Acting as if something suddenly came to his mind, James grabbed his chin and said, "At least Leno must not have died every time, considering the people who cleaned the hell difficulty." Leyla tilted her head a little when she heard these words and then said, "I don''t know what you mean." James paused for a few seconds after these words and asked, "Madam...How many people chose this challenge?" in amazement. "Fourteen hundred and twelve people," Leyla replied. "How many...managed to pass?" asked James, hoping that he hadn''t thought of the answer correctly. Leyla smiled at this question but said "One. You are the only one who passed." in a serious manner. James put his hands to his head and rubbed his face, all this information seemed to overwhelm him. "By the way, wouldn''t you like to receive the reward for completing your mission?" Leyla suddenly said. James looked at Leyla as if he had completely forgotten about it and then said, "Please." With that, Leyla raised her hand a little and opened her palm, causing a window to open in front of James: [Gold Master (Legendary++++) Each monster the user kills will earn them gold. This gold can be used to trade with NPCs, players, and gods.] James grimaced when he read this ability, he couldn''t understand how this ability could be ranked Legendary++++. "I can see the confusion on your face, Mr James, but rest assured, you can only earn gold from guild quests on the floors or special quests like this one. Unfortunately, the reward for this quest was not gold, so you could not earn gold, but with this ability, it is not difficult for you to become one of the richest people in the tower, and you will be happy to know that this ability was created for you." As soon as Leyla''s words passed James''s ears, it was possible to see the silent happiness on his face, maybe he was not speaking, but James''s eyes were dancing. "Thank you then," James said gently and then started to speak again with a small cough: "I have a question. About Clarent. After the sword sliced through the neck of the High Chimera, the monster tried to pull it out by holding the sword, but every time, the monster''s claws dried up and started to disappear. I don''t understand what''s going on, I mean, the sword burns the monsters, I understand that, but there was no explanation about them holding the sword." James''s questions must have been very high quality because Leyla nodded her head as if in approval. "Look, Mr James. This tower is alive, every single part of it. A very high number of floors, an infinite number of regions, an infinite number of processes and creatures from different worlds, universes and realities live in this tower. You earthlings are not the only creatures trying to become God." Leyla smiled and took a deep breath after saying this, and then continued her speech: "In that case, here''s what you need to know. Gods can choose you, just like the creator Chaos, who is literally the highest-level godly being, a creator. NPCs can choose you. Human friends and even enemies can choose you. This means that mystical beasts, armour, fairies and weapons can choose you." "Clarent is one of the holiest swords in existence. It was one of the swords of King Arthur, leader of the Round Table and leader of Britain. It was literally the sword that gave the knights their honour and rank. It was a perfect-looking sword made of volcanic stone." "Can you understand? Clarent chose you even though it was just a replica. It''s not your [10x Gacha] ability that gave you this sword, but Clarent''s true form, King Arthur himself." James didn''t know what to say after these words, he kept blinking his eyes and didn''t know whether to smile or faint. "King Arthur...chose me? Why?" "Can''t you see?" A pure-blood Englishman, about to commit suicide, is summoned to the tower by an order from Chaos, whereupon he acquires the sword arts of a holy swordsman like Galahad. The Black and Yellow cards are not like the others, they only give the user the abilities or items that best suit them. Galahad did not give you that ability. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The Tower saw you as someone with enough honour to have Galahad''s power that the Tower chose you." "An honour so great has been bestowed upon you that you cannot even know it. So Clarent chose you while you were with King Arthur, and the replica was given to you by King Arthur himself. You, James Arthur Black, have been chosen, and you can be sure that this is the most important thing for the tower. Everywhere you step, there will be creatures trying to be chosen by the tower. Even most of the gods and legendary heroes were like that." "This means that if anyone other than the one chosen by the holy sword tries to hold it with evil deeds, it will burn, and the volcanic essence containing the essence of the sword will dry up the person holding it until they die." "Remember James, you may have chosen to enter the tower to escape reality, but now that you are here, you have a destiny to write, the destiny of yours, you can rise as high as you can and go beyond eternity. You can become one of the gods whose stories you have heard." "You have been chosen." Chapter 11: The First Floor These two words would be the most James would hear from gods, mystical beasts and rulers in the entire time he would be climbing the tower. James, who had another question in mind at that moment, shook his head carefully and then said, "The first time I got a Unique achievement, unlike the other achievements, only one card fell in front of me as if someone wanted me to defeat the High Chimera." This question made Leyla smile as if it was a question she had never expected, and she revealed the following answer to James: "You have attracted the attention of many of the Olympus Gods. Of course, you have the attention of many Gods and Goddesses, but Olympus is looking at you carefully. Hermes didn''t want you to die let''s say." James smiled and said "I''m glad, they are the only gods you know something about from my world, although I do know something about people like Odin, but it''s nice to have so much help...I should go now, I need to rest." It was time to go, he wanted to go somewhere to rest as soon as possible because he realised that he could faint at any moment, and he did not want that. That''s why James, who had stood up, bowed his head and then said, "Thank you very much for your help and explanations, madam, I have learnt a lot thanks to you, I will try to live worthy of what I have learnt." Hearing this, Leyla smiled and then said, "You are a good person James, but remember that not everyone can be trusted, never forget this while climbing the tower, goodbye for now. Let the destiny show us if we can meet again." James shook his head and closed his eyes after these words, and Leyla, who stayed behind, said the following words: "So this is the one you have chosen, Lord Chaos, since this is the first time you have personally summoned someone, the eyes of many gods will be on him, especially your daughter Nyx and your son Erebus, I hope you will not disappoint him and he will not disappoint you. He wants to rest, huh? There are very few places to rest in the tower, I hope he doesn''t fall into the illusion and can live...." ----- ----- James opened his eyes to find himself in a room. There was a bathroom in front of his eyes, a bed to his right and nothing else in the room, it was like some sort of recreational facility. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He immediately stripped off his armour and sent each of them to his inventory, throwing his belongings aside and jumping into the shower, turning the water on full blast. After all he had been through, having clean water touching his body reminded him that he was alive, and at that moment, a window opened in front of his eyes: "[Legendary Achievement Won! Get the attention of 1000 Gods. You get to choose a card.] James closed all his private areas as soon as he read the window in front of him and then said "Gimme a break!", he was strangely embarrassed by the possibility that the gods were watching him. Being chosen by someone like Chaos, as the administrator had said, had worked out in James'' favour in an unbelievably gigantic way, because James had earned a Legendary achievement just for attracting the attention of the gods. As James touched the card in front of him, a key formed in front of him and suddenly fell to the ground, he couldn''t understand what it was, but as soon as he picked up the key, the window that appeared in front of him seemed to tell him what was happening: [Catacomb Key (Legendary++) When this key reaches a certain number of fragments, it will lead the user to a mysterious dungeon with great rewards. To complete the key''s extract, 3 copies of the key are required. Copies possessed are : 1/3] James knew he had to finish his shower and go to sleep after all that had happened, so he quickly finished and got out of the shower. He saw the thin clothes lying on the bed and then put them on and lay down on the bed, after only a few seconds his eyes closed and he fell asleep. ----- ----- When James opened his eyes, he realised that everything was dark. He could feel his body, so there shouldn''t be a problem from this side. [Welcome! Congratulations on finishing the tutorial, Mr James Arthur Black. We are honoured to inform you that you have arrived on the first floor of the tower. I am Emma, one of the tower''s sub-administrators, and it is my job to let you know what is going on. From now on I will be responsible for every window that is sent to you except for special occasions, I am proud to say that I want to get on well.] James rolled his head as he read the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and asked worriedly, "I thought this was a resting place, what''s going on?" "[his is the first floor immediately after the tutorial, sir, it''s called [sea of rascals]. This is known as the place where users and players earn their classes. Players choose the path they want and go that way. It is best to be careful, though, as there are sure to be trials along the way. The more difficult the path you follow, the harder it will be to deny the deepest desires of your heart. Good luck!] When James read the other window opposite, the place he had woken up suddenly lit up. He could clearly see that he was in the bed he had slept in. It was up to him where to go. There was some kind of remote control on the bed, and on the remote control, there were 8 buttons. This button seemed to indicate which way to go. When James pressed one of the buttons, he moved slowly to the right and his path was illuminated. When he pressed another button to go backwards, he realised that he was where he had just been, because nowhere else was illuminated and the illuminated path was extinguished. It was a gamble, James thought, but he closed his eyes and then breathed deeply as he realised that there must be a clue. James had to find the dangerous path. Chapter 12: Sea of Rascals Because of the darkness, his body seemed to have lost count of how many minutes had passed, he realised there was nothing he could do, and then he opened his eyes. What he saw was not what he expected. Like the grades on the cards he had chosen, there were the same colours here. 6 paths in total. In the colours green, blue, purple, red, yellow and black. It was like just because he was focused he could see them. James, of course, immediately realised what was going on and looked straight ahead at the black path. It seemed very easy to distinguish the black path thanks to the colours the other paths showed him. James, who had started to move forward by using the remote control, seemed to have the mentioned tests in front of him. Still, what he saw seemed to make him question whether this path was the black path, the divine path. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Ummm...I don''t think these are my desires at all. I mean, I like dancing and I''m pretty good at it, but since when did this become my desire?" As soon as James said that, he started to focus on the images in front of him. He was dancing with someone, someone whose face he could not see at all, but it did not take him long to recognise her. "Lady Leyla?" As soon as James realised who she was, his face flushed slightly and he shouted as if he were a child, "WE''RE TRYING TO BE GODS, WHAT THE FUCK IS THE PROBLEM WITH THIS TOWER!" In his mind, this test was going to be quite difficult. Maybe he could see a large sum of money, maybe his ex-lover, maybe images of him living a perfect life, but no, the tower was showing him illusions of him dancing with one of the tower managers. Having managed to recover his nerve and calmed down, he pressed the buttons again to move forward and this time he saw that he was on a Ferris wheel with Leyla, he immediately threw the remote back on the bed and then shouted "I''M NOT A PERVERT OK?!". There was no way he could tell the tower how annoyed he was, he really would have preferred the embarrassment of reliving his hellish tutorial. He picked up the remote control again, which he had thrown on the bed, and then continued to press the buttons continuously to pass this place quickly. Amid all this embarrassment and anger, he began to see things he didn''t want to see. He was sitting with Lily and laughing, but James wasn''t bothered by it. He felt no attachment to his lover who had left him for something like money. It was clear from this that this test did not take the desires out of the heart, there should only be things to pass because the only real desire in James'' heart was that he wished to be something and nothing else. "Empty events, I can''t believe I''ve been in a relationship with a woman like this for years, the tower is playing tricks on me and it''s obvious, it''s obvious that this is not the test. Although maybe this is the test and I''ve become heartless because this is nothing to me, this is not the best you can do tower, hit me hard so I remember why I want to be something again." As soon as those words were out of his mouth the lights around him went out again, only the lights of the footpaths came on and a completely different image formed right in front of James. James had lost his mum and dad in a very frightening way. He had managed to get out of the car when they had a car accident, but his mum and dad were not so lucky, the car had exploded very badly. When the ambulance, fire brigade and police arrived at the scene, nothing happened except the burnt bodies of his parents were pulled from the wreckage. James was lucky, it wasn''t a trauma for him because it hadn''t happened at such a young age, he was just desperate to hug his family one more time...he had to be because you could see the two of them in front of him. "Son, dear son, come to us, let''s get out of here..." James heard his mother''s voice constantly, the emptiness of his mind as if the superficiality of truth and lies had vanished. This seemed to be the true test of the tower. The bed, floating in the water in the shape of a boat, slowly moved towards the light, all of James''s thoughts went blank and he let himself go as if his mind was being controlled. His hand began to move further and further towards the light, each passing second bringing him closer and closer to the light and strangely enough the light itself was becoming darker and darker. "D...." James suddenly felt like he heard a voice, but he couldn''t understand where it was coming from, all he could hear at that moment was his mum calling him. "Din....!!!" When James heard this voice again, he didn''t care about anything and continued to move towards the light as if he were mesmerised. "DING!!!!" Suddenly, a loud sound appeared right inside James'' head. Shaken with a sudden shock, James realised that his hand was in the water he was draining on his bed. Suddenly jumping backwards, James saw his family again and gasped. "Note to self...never make fun of the tower or get angry with it." he suddenly said and shook his head as if trying to understand how he got rid of this illusion. At that very moment, he felt a vibration just to his right. "CLARENT!" he shouted with a smile as he looked towards where the vibration was coming from grabbed the sword and gave her a big hug. "And how did you save me?" James muttered, but at that very moment, he smiled and said, "You used your control on me, didn''t you? I''m a knight if I wield the sword of one of the greatest knights in existence...haha....." After these words, Clarent glowed subtly and then disappeared, James, who checked his inventory in a hurry, smiled and then said "I can''t believe you''re smart enough to get out of my inventory....". There seemed to be more to this replica than meets the eye. Chapter 13: Floor Manager Ronald James hugged Clarent tightly while looking at the image of his mother and father. Of course, what he saw made him long and squeezed his heart, but there were more important things to do. He had set a goal for himself and he couldn''t throw it all away when he had made such a good start. "I''m sorry mum...dad...I may have missed you a lot but I have more important things to do than being sad, I may not have been able to do anything but I can at least try to make you proud. Haha...so clich¨¦..." Immediately after James uttered these clich¨¦d words, he picked up the remote control and pressed the button again to go forward. With the press of a button, he passed through the illusion that had formed in front of him and when he turned around, he saw that there was nothing there anymore. "My mental strength is almost non-existent, if it wasn''t for Clarent, I would be at the bottom of the water..." said James, not entirely wrong. Although Clarent was a replica, it certainly contained a small version of its original self. The sword that had taken the life of its owner was now trying to work to protect its owner. It had saved James only moments before. With that James began to feel the grains of light coming into his eyes, after a short while it felt as if the bed had hit something, no matter how many times he touched the control button the bed didn''t move. "We seem to have arrived Clarent, I hope we were successful." With these words, James, who set foot on land, realised that the land he stepped on was endless. When he looked behind him, it seemed as if there was a barrier between the place he stepped on and the [sea of rascals]. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At that moment, James started to realise the sound of footsteps behind him. The light but loud footsteps stopped after a while and then the following words were heard: "Pleased to meet you, Mr James Arthur Black. My name is Ronald. I am the manager of all floors from the first floor to the fifth floor. I must inform you that I am one of the three main staff of the tower, and I am here to give you your reward." When James heard the words and turned round, he saw an unusual character in front of him. A rabbit was standing in front of him. So it wouldn''t be wrong to call him a rabbit man. After all, it was a rabbit that looked taller than James and was dressed in a suit. "I understand your surprise, all participants from your world have the same reaction, if you want to touch my ears, I can let you, I heard you world-folks love it." When this rabbit, who introduced himself as Ronald, said this, James had to hold himself back from laughing, it was possible to understand what this rabbit had been through so far. "Thank you for your offer, but I must decline for now, and I have a question if I can ask. When I chose this path, the Tower showed me things I never wished for, until I saw my family. Do you know what happened?" Ronald looked serious as James spoke these words and then shook his head and began to speak: "A lot of things in this tower are graded, Mr James. Skills, items, choices and even gods. You may have noticed that the path you chose is jet black. You chose a path of godly rank, which was quite surprising because you must have felt it. In a game of chance with 6 choices, you managed to choose the most difficult one." As soon as James heard these words, he realised that his talent was invisible to the gods, floor managers, lower-level managers and even the main managers. This should have made him an outlier, he realised at that moment that no one should know this power except him. "The black path, that is, the area with the divine level the godly level, was different from the others, but it was not because it was divine. It was different only because the tower was not lying. The tower deceives the users and, in other words, [the players] at every step. The other paths were full of these deceptions." "Deceptions?" "Oh yes...deceptions. Big or small lies. The other 5 paths were full of lies. When users choose those paths, they see gold, power, possession, ancient, immortality, revenge, carnage and divinity. These are all lies of the tower, after all, showing them as desires takes everyone a notch higher, but the black path is not like that." "The black path shows only the truth. It shows the filthiest or the best feelings and desires in living things. The desire to commit massacres, the desire to have everyone worship them, the desire to have all the power in their hands, the desire to have all the riches in their hands, and much more.... in short, the black path, unlike other paths, reveals monopoly. It is a disgusting feeling in all living beings, and I can assure you that the people of your world are the filthiest in this regard." "But I haven''t seen such things....I don''t understand, there can''t be anything wrong with me, you said that there is no lie on the black trail..." "That''s right, the black path or trail as you say is the path of righteousness and that''s what makes it difficult, the other paths push the creatures a little bit and give them a class without harming them and on the contrary strengthening their mentality, but the black path reveals the greatest possible criminality, that is, the true faces of your desires. Like the dark desires of a murderer, who can act out his most psychopathic ambitions without being caught." "You, it seems, had no real desire until you joined the tower. Therefore, you had a childish desire to spend time with Mrs Leyla, who was perfect enough to be desired. Until your last desire, I would like to ask you...what exactly did you see?" "What did I see? Of course, I saw my mum and dad...I saw my mum shouting at me and calling me, and I followed my mum''s call until Clarent woke me up, I chose to move towards my mum." "I see....interesting....very interesting....." James frowned as he heard these words and watched Ronald with an expression of incomprehension, and in just a few seconds he said the following words in a calm voice: "What''s so interesting?" Chapter 14: Piercing The Tower "What''s so interesting?" James''s question seemed to attract Ronald''s attention again, Ronald, who had been observing the sea behind James until then, became as still as the sea itself and suddenly spoke: "As I said, there is no room for lies on the black path, only truth and the desires of the truth...The interesting thing is that you are Mr James. From the moment the Tower was created by Chaos itself, it has always worked in the same way, it was a system Chaos put in place." "But you are so naive, open to lies, unable to see the truth, and having wanted nothing or lost everything you wanted, unfortunately I am not capable of seeing the memories outside the tower or inside the tower, so I would like to ask you...what is your desire?" When Ronald uttered these words, James was about to speak when he suddenly fell silent. Only the sound of breathing was heard in the white space. "I don''t have an answer...." When James voiced this answer, Ronald spoke again with a smiling face: "Innocence, lack of desire, and being lost. These three things are the main things that will kill you in the tower. Trusting everyone completely, not finding the reason to continue and finally losing yourself, these three things are the things you must escape from, Master James." At Ronald''s words James realised that the way he had expressed himself had suddenly changed, the floor manager seemed to be looking at him positively. "The Tower is out of its system because of your innocence. Your desire to see your family was not an absolute desire. In your heart, you already knew they were gone and you would never come back. While you thought that the tower was punishing you, the tower was desperately thinking about how it could test you. The black path lied for the first time since the creation of the tower. With the black path, it has ceased to be [the path of the righteous]." "Master James. I am almost two billion years old, the tower has been around for such an enormous amount of time and even longer. I have seen what many worthy warriors and even gods have gone through after losing their desires. If I have to give you certain advice, find out what you want to do right away because hundreds of hundreds of thousands of things that will exploit your innocent heart will be waiting for you on the upper floors of the tower." James had been writhing in strange emotions ever since he heard that he was [chosen]. Maybe Chaos had brought him to this tower to make him suffer, or just like in the films, a strange story of heroism lay behind this reality. Nevertheless, there was one thing that even James could not deny. He had lost his family and cut them out of his heart because he thought they would live better in heaven than on earth. His girlfriend had probably cheated on him many times, but because he loved his girlfriend, he didn''t think about anything and was just happy to have her. Maybe it was his desire, but he was very good at letting go of his attachments, maybe that''s why when the tower called him, all the desire he had for his girlfriend disappeared. To live a good life? To give in to emotion? James didn''t care about that, he just wanted something he could connect with. sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He needed to be ruthless. Having enough desire. "My desire...In my world, there is such a thing as games, Mr Ronald, as I''m sure you''ve heard. Some of the games have characters based on the gods here, or using their direct natures. Perhaps I might wish to become one of them." James''s words seemed to fill the rabbit man''s eyes with light as if this man had been waiting to meet such a person for a long time. "Your wish...?" "When the Tower summoned us, humans, when the towers appeared in our world, it explicitly told us that we could enter the game of the gods, that we could become a god. The tower makes this clear enough to us both on the outside and the inside and who knows, maybe to me too...." "It''s a hard road, Master James. The tower loves to tell such lies to the living, as I said, the whole tower rewards the competent and deceives the incompetent with lies. Do you believe that you can enter places like Olympus, and Valhalla, where there are high Gods and Goddesses?" After these words, James paused for a few seconds and just looked at Ronald. At that moment, he shook his head and said the words that all the gods and goddesses would hear and that would be engraved in the history books and even on the walls of the main castle of Olympus: "Who knows, maybe I''ll reach the top of the tower and pierce it, wouldn''t it be great to meet Chaos?" These words literally echoed in the white space. Ronald did not know what to say and smiled in amazement, and after only a few seconds, laughter rose in the whole area: "PUHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAA!!! 2 BILLION YEARS! 2 WHOLE BILLION YEARS AND I MEET SOMEONE LIKE YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!" James couldn''t stand this huge decibel sound and plugged his ears, he couldn''t understand what was going on. "Right...why come to the tower if that''s not what the users...no the players want! Master James, I adore you, I will watch every step of your journey, every battle you fight, everything you lose, everything you win, every moment of happiness and every point of sadness." These words were spoken in a gentle voice and turned James into a bewildered creature. The rabbit''s ears were constantly moving and its eyes were shining with a rust-bright light. "Please choose a card and move on, I have stolen enough of your precious time." James thought that everything was happening too fast and with that, he looked at the cards in front of him. He had never thought that he would choose his class by cards. Yet there were more cards in front of him than he could have ever imagined, strangely enough almost every single card was either yellow with a golden glow or velvet red. There were only a few black cards among them. James had no idea what to choose and on top of that the words that would require another wait rang in his ears: "Remember, Master James, each class on these cards is a gift from the gods, so choose accordingly, though everything will be random, but be careful." Chapter 15: Nyx, The Mother Of The Night "Remember Master James, each class on these cards is what the gods will bestow upon you, choose accordingly, although everything will be random, but be careful." As soon as these words entered James'' ears, it dawned on him that the gods were divided into tiers. That meant that every red card around was a class of the lowest to maybe the middle tier. The others should be the classes given by the high and really [top-tier] gods. James was incredibly confused, he didn''t know what to choose. There were exactly 7 black cards that he could count, and two of them were so black that the colour itself was barely visible, and if the surrounding area wasn''t so white, he wouldn''t even be able to see the cards. Scratching his head in exasperation, James took a deep breath and looked towards the blackest cards. "I think you''ve got your eye on those two cards, Master James, but I''m not quite sure why those two." James, who had heard Ronald''s sudden curiosity, calmly replied, "I have a feeling that I should choose one of those two, but I can''t choose which one." "A feeling huh? Interesting." Ronald retorted, sounding a little sarcastic. James chose to ignore it, even though he could feel the eyes of many gods on him. When he looked right above him, it was as if thousands of eyes were fixed on him and watching his every move. This strange feeling gave him goosebumps, it was very aggressive, but not flattering. James paused for a few seconds as he moved his hand to the second card from the left of the row, the left one of the black cards. Something inside him seemed to be telling him that he would regret choosing this one. He instantly turned to the card on the right and after waiting for a second, he shook his head left and right, his heart was pounding, it was obvious that this was the right choice because his mind was very, very clear, as if someone was stroking him by the hair with motherly love. "I choose this one...." James said aloud and then picked up the card. At that moment, all the cards in front of him disintegrated and disappeared with a small glow, creating a window in front of him: [Class- Warrior of the Night[Godly++++] You are the chosen one, the real chosen one. Have you ever heard of the daughter of Chaos? Have you ever heard the name of the might that Zeus, the god of gods, trembled before? Have you heard the name of the greatest goddess of reality and distance? Nyx, Mother of the Night will always watch over and protect you, as her warrior you must honour her. All status points will increase by +10 from midnight to the morning sun. The user will be 80% more stealthy during night hours. Users will gain a 20% critical attack chance during night hours. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The user has gained the [Exploit(Godly+)] ability. The user gains the [Night Vision(Legendary++++)] ability. The user has gained the [Thread of Fate(Godly)] ability. The user has gained the [Dark Step(Legendary-improvable)] ability.] When James read the writings in front of him one by one, he turned left and right as if he was confused, and when he finally couldn''t stand it and turned to Ronald, he saw something he never expected to see. Ronald''s mouth was open to the floor, his hunchback was protruding, and you could tell he was sweating with surprise. "Ummm...what the hell happened?" asked James suddenly, not expecting to win what the daughter of Chaos had sent him. He had an unlimited number of gods or goddesses to choose from. Selene, Zeus, Hadur, Ma''at and many more. Out of the hundreds and thousands of gods and goddesses that could have been chosen and found by chance, she was one of the three most powerful figures in Greek Mythology and literally the strongest Goddess in all mythologies. Nyx, Mother of the Night. She is the daughter of Chaos and the wife of Erebus, the son of Chaos. She is the mother of Aether, Hemera, Moros, Keres, Thanatos, Hypnos, Nemesis and many other high gods and goddesses. She is a goddess that even Zeus trembles in front of her, cannot look at her sideways and cannot even look her in the eye unless Nyx allows it. She is the only holy being who can control Erebus, the god of darkness, and the only one who connects day and night. She is the most powerful there is. "Lady Nyx.....Someone managed to choose Lady Nyx...Am I dreaming? Is it true?" Ronald was delirious as if he couldn''t believe what he was seeing and holding his ears, he instantly started laughing like crazy and the following words came out of his mouth: "Oh great Moirai! Oh Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, do you choose this young man to be your mother''s warrior and best friend? Can you see so much potential in him, O great fates? O Moros, the supreme fate itself, if ever you see him so great, what can we say!" After these words, James looked at Ronald with concern as if he did not understand what was happening, but at that very moment, he felt all the hairs on his body stand on end and looked up at the dark sky. Thousands, tens of thousands of eyes were looking at him, and right in the centre of them was a pair of violet eyes looking at him. The pupils of the eyes were made of stars, these purple eyes seemed to be looking into James'' soul. Around these eyes, 26 large eyes suddenly opened, representing 13 people. Even though each of these eyes was watching James with different emotions, James''s eyes could only fixate on those black and blue stars, he could not take his eyes away from them in the sense of the word. Worry and fear disappeared from his body and were replaced by compassion, joy, happiness and hope. Two words came out of his mouth for everyone and everything to hear: "It''s beautiful..." Chapter 16: Second Floor "It''s beautiful..." With those words he said, all eyes disappeared, the dark sky returned and only the eyes of Ronald and James, who were amazed by everything that just happened, were left in the field. "Umm...Ronald?" When James pulled himself back together, he looked at the rabbit before him and called out to him. When Ronald heard this call, he turned to him quickly recovered from his embarrassment and continued to speak: "I''ve never seen anyone as lucky as you in my life.... no, it''s not luck, you said that you felt that if that was something special. Lady Nyx''s card, the other one must be Master Erebus''s. You''re a man of strong feelings. It''s ironic, the one who wants to meet Chaos will have the power of Chaos'' daughter." Ronald seemed to have completely recovered himself, he was still wiping his face with a cloth and taking deep breaths. "Umm...Is this also the first time?" James suddenly directed this question to Ronald and then smiled a little. "All these classes are what the gods give to people they think can be like them. It is only given to those who have chosen the black path. Neither Lady Nyx nor Master Erebus has ever asked to give up any of their powers. You must have caught their attention, you are a very strange person, Master James." James smiled genuinely when he heard those words. It seemed strange to him that he had been through so much in the last two days. Still, the fact that he had come to a place where he could feel special might be the only thing that mattered to him. "I suppose I should say thank you," James said suddenly, scratching his chin in embarrassment and then looking at Ronald, "what do I have to do to get to the next floor?" He wanted to get to the next floor as soon as possible and get stronger, he couldn''t wait to use the power he had and make it pay off. Immediately after James asked the question about getting to the next floor, Ronald raised his hand and a passage opened up almost three metres away. It was nothing like anything in the tutorial or anything else he had ever seen. He was just staring at a white sheet of black smoke with its interior visible through the black smoke. "I hope to see you again, Mr Ronald," James said suddenly, standing in front of the portal. "When you reach the 5th floor and open the recreation facility you will be able to meet not only me, Master James, but many others. It was an honour to meet you, I will wish you not to die." When Ronald uttered these words, James nodded his head and then passed through the passage without thinking. After only a second or two, the environment he was in changed. The surroundings were covered with greenery and trees, it was obvious that he was in a forest. The sounds of birds were ringing in his ears and sunlight was hitting his face through the tree branches. James, who suddenly stretched himself, said "10x Gacha" and the skill panel appeared in front of him. With the High Chimera he had killed, he had a total of 130 rights, and he could not wait to spend these rights. Just as he was about to press [turn ten], something caught James'' attention. Just to the right of the gacha area where the ability appeared, there was an arrow key. James, who instantly realised what it was, immediately pressed the arrow key and said "Limited time event!" with a happy expression. The gacha panel in the window in front of him seemed to have changed. Unlike the other panel, it became clear what the main event of the gacha was. "Clothes?" questioned James, as dozens of clothes were constantly changing on the panel in front of him. When he looked at the bottom of the panel, he realised that there was a [hundred dial] option instead of a tens dial option. The fact that there was no other option worried him. He did not want to spend 100 of the 130 rights he had barely saved here. At least that''s what he thought. Despite all this, when he took another look at himself, he realised very clearly that everything was disgusting. He had clean clothes in the room, but the durability of the clothes was beyond terrible, even his armour was in a terrible state, and he had been a fool and distributed all the armour to the knights. "I think I have to do this," James said, and then, without thinking, he pressed the [faceted spinner]. After spinning for a while, the wheel stopped spinning and 100 cards appeared in front of James. One of the cards was surprisingly red, and there was only one other card with a purple colour. Even if he hadn''t realised that the outfits would have ranks, a high-ranked outfit should be good. After opening all the green cards, he sent each outfit to his inventory and then looked at the two remaining cards in front of him. Without thinking, he flipped over the purple card: [Griffon Feather Sleeve Shirt A garment made of feathers and the cotton of the great farm, given to its owner by the Griffons, creatures of legend. Even swords made of Wywern tooth cannot harm it.] James shook his head when he read the window opposite him and then threw off his armour and clothes and put on his shirt. James, who had turned the red card without wasting any time, smiled and was happy to see the name of another goddess in front of him: [Selene''s Boots (Replica) The Moon Goddess Selene''s boots are made from the essence of moonlight. Your steps will be as light as a feather. When worn, your speed will increase by 10%. Since it is a replica, its powers and ability slots have been reduced by 90%.] S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Shaking his head with happiness, James was happy to have such valuable items. Although they were a pair of boots and a long-sleeved shirt, it was obvious that they would help him. However, he had used the remaining 30 of his remaining points in normal gacha without stopping, but he had gained nothing but a few pieces of armour and a poison packet. Just as he was changing his armour, the window he had been waiting for opened in front of him, the mission had already begun. Chapter 17: Talents Of The Class [Welcome! Congratulations on passing through the most difficult games of fate and the worst of living hearts, the test of desire! Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. We congratulate you on making your choice of class and strengthening your power! The second floor will be about slaughter. From this moment on, each deed, kill or murderous slaughter will be added to your end-of-level score. The mission is based on the constant destruction of the goblin tribe. Constantly plaguing the cities of the Empire, this goblin tribe may look small, but it is home to hundreds of goblins. Clear the goblins and pass the floor. Good luck.] As soon as James finished reading this window, he put Clarent in the scabbard around his waist and then yawned and began to step slowly. His steps were indeed light, he had not expected such a performance as this was a weakened replica. Although he stepped on the branches on the ground, the branches did not break and left behind an almost invisible footprint. It looked like Selene''s Boots would be the main protagonist of this mission. After realising that he was in such a good situation, James accelerated, observing the surroundings while examining the abilities given to him by his class: [Exploit(Godly+) Nyx, the great mother of the night, loved to destroy all light except moonlight. The image of the stars reflected from the solar system and the perfect light of the moon will be reflected in the tower. The unworthy will not escape the warrior''s exploitation, just as Nyx exploits all light. The user can absorb the energies of the dead and add their power to himself. Every 100 monsters killed and exploited will grant +3 random status points.] [Night Vision(Legendary++++) Just as Nyx can watch the tower and its creatures in the dark of night, as her warrior you will be able to see everything, even in the pitch black of night. Increases night vision by 150%. Increases normal vision by 75%.] [Thread of Destiny (Godly) Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, daughters of Nyx and sisters of fate, will have their eyes on you. +20 points to your Luck stat.] [Dark Step(Legendary - Upgradable) The user will be able to use the 12 moves of Dark Step at any time. These moves will increase attack chance by 60% while the ability is in use. The user will gain 20% speed for each hour of the day when the ability is in use. When the user puts the ability into use, each step will become completely silent.] When James read these abilities one by one, he was surprised by many things. He realised that the Void Ring, which was only used three times a day, copied part of the Dark Step ability. However, knowing that he could now be fully vigilant during the night hours made him feel very comfortable, and less afraid of being ambushed by monsters or other creatures in the future. It only took one glance to realise why his exploitation ability was at [Godly+] rank. Given the length and size of the tower, it would be incredibly easy to kill only 100 monsters. This gave him unlimited development potential. Last but not least was the enormous benefit of the ability called Thread of Fate and the magnitude of the surprise it gave him. Of course, it made him feel strange that the Goddesses of Fate, who had appeared to him through the games he played or the research he sometimes did for fun, were watching him. These goddesses had increased his luck and touched his heart, after all, who wouldn''t want to be watched by such gigantic forces? After seeing all of the abilities, he closed the windows and stood where he was, hearing a few voices, the voices of individuals who could speak just like him. "Kiek, the lord is putting a lot of work on me, Kiek!" "Kiek! Speak properly about the lord you idiot, do you want to be eaten kiek!" James turned in the direction of the voices and saw the goblins, who were a maximum of fifty centimetres shorter than him. [Warrior Goblin (Level 11)] [Archer Goblin (Level 8)] Smiling at what he saw, James glanced around slightly and then found that there were no other goblins around. This seemed to give him the necessary time. Having dislodged Clarent as quietly as possible, James slowly made his way out of the trees and then charged at the archer goblin. "KIEK WATCH OUT KIEK!" Even as the warrior goblin shouted these words, it was too late, James had made an incredibly steady and decisive intersection with Clarent and the archer goblin''s head was severed from its body. When the head of the archer goblin fell to the ground, the warrior goblin collapsed in fear, trying to crawl away. James stabbed Clarent right next to it and asked, "Where is your tribe?" without harming it. The warrior goblin was trembling with fear, James couldn''t understand why this monster was so insanely afraid of him, even if he had grown stronger, he still couldn''t have grown so monstrously strong. The warrior goblin was surprised by the question but shakily pointed in one direction. When he raised his hand and pointed towards the north, James, without thinking, took Clarent out of his place and killed the warrior goblin right there. It didn''t make much sense for him to directly attack a tribe that was home to hundreds of goblins. He needed a plan, but he still didn''t have any information about what kind of plan he should set up without seeing the tribe. That''s why he hid the goblin corpses among the leaves, just in case, and then set off. It didn''t take him that long to reach the tribe, after a short run of almost 15 minutes, James was able to see the huge compound of the tribe. It wasn''t surrounded by any kind of shelter, they hadn''t even bothered to build a wooden fence. Still, James could see the wells all around. The 75% increase in normal vision from his night vision ability had served him well, even though it was only the middle of the day he could count exactly 7 wells around the huge tribe. Still, there was a lot of action around. Hundreds of goblins could be seen running about and going about their business, he had to wait for the night hours, when he would be most active. The poison packet he had won from Gacha would certainly come in handy in the wells. This gave him the idea of climbing a tree, it took him a while as the trees in the forest grew to almost 20 metres tall, but at least he had a sure way of hiding as no one could see him here. Now he could wait for the night hours. ----- ----- Chapter 18: Tribe Extermination After almost 10 hours of James'' waiting, the moon had risen overhead. He realised that there was hardly any light left except the light of the moon and the stars. After coming down from the tree, he placed Clarent in his inventory and started running. There were goblins around, of course, guarding in shifts, but those were the only ones, walking around with torches and just wandering around, I guess none of them thought that a human would attack such a tribe. "Dark Step" James thought suddenly, he had activated his ability and was silently travelling at an increased speed. Everything was speedy, thanks to both Selene''s Boots and the ability from Nyx, but James knew that he wouldn''t be able to stay inside the tribe for very long. That''s why he''d managed to get to the nearest well as fast as he could, pulling the poison packet out of his inventory and emptying the entire package into the well. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Now all he had to do was to manage to leave the tribe. He quickly prepared to go back the way he had come when he realised that many goblins had gathered where he had come from. He realised that there were big goblins among the goblins, just like Cave Trolls, and he could not understand what was going on. Someone must have realised that he had entered the tribe. There was only one way for him to get out safely. "Void Ring" After activating the ability, he started running fast, he had only 10 seconds and there was a distance of 20 seconds between the forest he came from and the tribe. He didn''t know if he would be able to defeat all these goblins alone because even with a single glance, it was possible to see goblins of 20 and even 30 levels among them. With each step, his heart rate increased exponentially, and even though it was incredibly annoying, there was no way he could stop his pounding heart. He had already passed almost 100 goblins gathered in front of him and was close to the forest. In just three seconds he had managed to enter the forest. His body was sweating like crazy as if 10 High Chimera had chased him. Still, he had achieved what he wanted to do, maybe this well would not be able to affect the whole tribe, but if the well systems were completely connected, the poison he poured would be able to destroy the whole tribe. He just had to wait for a while, he didn''t know how long, but he had to keep going until he saw the tribe panicking, no matter what, he would finish this floor as fast as he could because he wanted to see Ronald again. He had some questions for him and he wanted to go somewhere where he could sleep soundly. This was already giving him the necessary motivation, the sleep flowing from his eyes and filling his pupils with a sense of carnage. James was not a good person, maybe not in the category of unbelievably bad, but he was not a good person, he was ready to do anything for his interests, literally everything. It was a miracle he wasn''t caught. If he had tripped or stumbled for a second, perhaps more than a hundred goblins would have chased him at full strength, and he couldn''t help but feel relieved at how he had escaped. ----- ----- It had been almost 3 days since James had emptied the poison, and as he had expected, the whole tribe was writhing in pain. The poison was much stronger than he had expected, for every hour or so news of one or two deaths came through the window. It was obvious that every goblin was weak, James could even see their levels dropping as he watched the goblins, a very incredible thing in his eyes. This seemed to tell him that he had to act, after all, his goal was to slaughter every single goblin in the tribe. That was what the mission was telling him. After coming down from the branch he had been sleeping on for three days, James thought he could now enter the tribe normally and finish the job. With each step, he was met with another death, which seemed to tell him that every goblin had been poisoned. James was lucky, the gacha had given him a great chance and now it would come in handy in cleaning the second floor of the tower. The goblins suddenly panicked as they saw him approaching the tribe. There was no sign of the courage of the goblins who only three days ago had tried to hunt him out of the tribe at night. James smiled when he realised this and then began to chase the goblins one by one as they fled into the tribe. Of course, this was a chase for the goblins, James was walking in a relaxed manner and looking around. He took Clarent out of his inventory and started to move forward, after only five minutes he stopped where he was and said "You are really intelligent creatures". It didn''t take him long to realise he was surrounded. "IT''S YOU! YOU POISONED OUR TRIBE!" The look of anger and exhaustion on the goblins'' faces was plain for all to see. James may have done a bad thing by poisoning them, but he had already become too full of himself to care. James was surrounded by at least 200 goblins that could be counted by eye alone. The purple spots on each of them seemed to indicate that the plan had been a complete success, even the big goblins that had been waiting for him in front of the tribe the other day were incredibly weakened. One of them had dropped to almost level 10. "What the hell poison is this?" James suddenly thought, the last time he had seen that goblin it was almost level 50. He had to reach floor 5 as soon as possible. Chapter 19: Goblin King "Yes I am, are you going to talk or are we going to fight?" James thought he should let it all go for the moment and sarcastically voiced the question. His pupils were jet black. It offered him an incredibly dark air at night. The reason why he attacked at night was of course the positive effects his class gave him. He had incredible items that gave him power, he knew that no player who had joined the tower had such a huge power at such an early level. The ability to see the colours of Gacha and the cards and pick the ones that were guaranteed gave him immense power at such an early level, and he was sure that this power would increase exponentially before he reached the 5th floor. Each time he used Gacha, he would gain even greater power, and even the worst items would put him ahead of the others. "YOU BASTARD!" one of the goblins suddenly shouted, and with that, all the goblins charged towards James. Even if James hadn''t thought about each of them suddenly jumping on him he had decided that it would be much better, the more they jumped on him the less energy he would lose, after all, 3 kills with one slash were better than 1 kill with one slash. "PIERCE!" shouted James and he pierced a goblin right through the throat with Clarent, the next moment he swung the sword as easily as if he were cutting a straw and slashed the goblin''s throat, cutting another goblin in half right next to it. He was happy when he thought of the spinning rights he would gain from this, and this gave him even greater determination. With each move, another goblin died, and the ones James couldn''t kill died on their own, collapsing to the ground from the poison. It was at that moment that what James had been waiting for finally happened. Heavy footsteps were coming from beyond the tribe, something seemed to be running towards James, causing another window to open in front of him: [Legendary Achievement Won! Encounter an enemy of [king] rank for the first time. You get to choose a card.] [You have earned Healing Potion(Highest Level) from the card.] James closed the window as soon as he saw it, since he got his reward he didn''t need to look at it and stared at the incredibly overweight and fast monster coming at him. All the goblins who saw him instantly retreated and James and the Goblin King faced each other. James was surprised by what he saw: [Goblin King (Level 34)] The goblin king had more purple spots than any goblin he had ever seen, it was obvious that he had been poisoned the most, but the poison could only weaken him so much. This didn''t make sense, what kind of monster was this? "YOU!" James realised that every hair on his body stood on end as soon as he heard that voice, he was relieved that he had Clarent braced to meet the attack and firmly planted himself on the ground. He had both uses of the Void Ring, and the Void Necklace would give him a huge advantage if he tried to dodge and attack. He had no definite idea what he should do. At that very moment, he began to look at the corpses around him. "Exploitation." he thought and put Clarent in his inventory and started running. One by one the corpses around him began to dry and each time this happened James felt his body grow a small amount stronger. "The exploitation of 100 monsters has been completed. +3 will be added to your power stat." James felt every muscle in his body grow instantly, his muscles had grown, and even though they still looked the same size as before, it wasn''t hard to tell that they had grown. "More!" shouted James furiously, as he continued to exploit the corpses of all the dead goblins in each area he passed and moved on to the next. It was wonderful that he was doing this while he was still running away from the Goblin King who was chasing him furiously, he could feel the blood pumping from his beating heart and the adrenaline surging through his body with each step. "The exploitation of 100 monsters has been completed. +3 will be added to your Agility stat." As soon as James saw this notification, he changed his path and started running backwards, surprising the Goblin King. It was possible to see that all the goblins around were dead, but it was not possible to say the same for the Goblin King. The Goblin King looked healthier than James'' normal state, maybe he had internal wounds and his level had dropped, but it would be completely normal to say that he was still very strong. After a short run, the third manifestation appeared in front of his eyes, adding 3 points to his power stat. Knowing that this was the maximum he could get at the moment, James decided that there was no point in running away. He took out Clarent and instantly turned around and directly countered the Goblin King. The moment the club in the Goblin King''s hand collided with Clarent, James was dragged back a few steps. He had no advantage in strength, and none in endurance. His intelligence may have been higher than the Goblin King''s, but one thing was for sure, his agility stat was higher than this monster, after all, he couldn''t escape from it otherwise. He had to use it to his advantage, as fast as he could. "I WILL KILL YOU! YOU DESTROYED MY REIGN!" Amidst the Goblin King''s shouts, James used his Dark Step ability and suddenly accelerated, trying to cut off the monster''s leg. With each step, his speed increased exponentially, but the impact on his body was just as great. The 12-step movement held a huge aura, even the user himself had difficulty using it. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nevertheless, thanks to his use of the ability, his attack was successful. "RUUUUAAGGGHHH!!!" A gigantic shriek echoed in James'' ears and stunned him for a few seconds. When he looked back at the Goblin King after a few seconds had passed, he could see that one of his legs was on fire. "This is my luck!" thought James, he never knew he could be so wrong. Chapter 20: Ranking Of The Floor The Goblin King tried to extinguish the fire in his leg, but there was not enough material to do so. The water from the wells was poisonous and he dared not pour it on his leg wound. Suddenly he threw himself to the ground, James narrowly avoided the move and stared at the monster in amazement. The Goblin King began to roll on the ground to stop the burning. The king was so large that the already ruined houses around it were crushed and the dried goblin corpses were dust. It was strange, yet incredible, that this monster, almost 25 metres and who knows how wide, had such potential for destruction. When James realised that this huge rolling monster was approaching him, he turned around and started running again. The fire in the king''s leg had already been extinguished, he was just trying to kill James by rolling around a bit comically like a hunter playing with his prey. "DAMN IT!" shouted James suddenly, the whole thing was getting on his nerves so badly he couldn''t explain it. It didn''t last long though, the beast stopped dead in its tracks and suddenly its nose began to bleed. The poison was destroying the Goblin King from the inside, it would only be a matter of time before the beast died in earnest. In just three days, the entire goblin tribe had been wiped out, and the king and an ordinary man trying to become a god were trying to put an end to this war. "You damned human...I will pray to the gods to kill you, I swear that you will not have peace until you die!" The Goblin King suddenly uttered these words and James'' face went numb. His eyes narrowed and he said in a steady tone: "I don''t really care, they don''t need to come, I''m going there myself." James''s words seemed to express the desire he had gained, after all, the only thing was clear, he had to get off this floor as soon as possible. "I was lucky this time, if I hadn''t had the poison, I wouldn''t have been able to destroy you or your tribe." With that, James walked over to the Goblin King, who had suddenly collapsed on the floor. Even if his gaze was filled with a little pity, he was still certain that this was what he needed to climb the tower. He gripped Clarent tightly and then, without a second thought, slashed the Goblin King''s thick throat. This was a clear sign that the mission was over. [Congratulations! James Arthur Black, I am honoured to announce that you have accomplished something that only 4 people have ever done before! Apart from Nyx, Erebus, Hermes and Loki, no one else had managed to completely clear this floor. I am pleased to announce that you are now the fastest to clear this floor! [Ranking] 1-James Arthur Black 2-Nyx of Chaos 3-Hermes of Olympos 4-Erebus of Chaos 5-Loki of Asgard As your achievements are huge, it will take a long time to calculate your rewards. I would like to apologise in advance for the delay. "You have been awarded entry to Floor 3.] James smiled as he read the window opposite him and then spoke as gently as he could: "I feel very proud but also very humiliated to have broken the rank of Mistress Nyx, forgive me if you can hear me, my lady, as your warrior I should not have behaved in such a way." James knew that it was his "Dark Step" ability that had helped him most in conquering this floor. The help it had given him was so immense that it had helped him escape after poisoning the well, as well as dodging the Goblin King''s tremendous speed. If he didn''t die here today, it was only because he had chosen Nyx''s class, and he owed the lady a huge thank you. James smiled at those words and another window opened in front of him, something he had been waiting for. [Legendary achievement has been won! Kill an enemy of the [King] rank for the first time. The key to the Catacombs has been won.] James smiled as he read the reward for this achievement and then smiled as he said, "Just one more." He thought that with one more key, he would be able to enter the catacomb, and he was both worried and happy at the same time, he had no idea how much the place would bring to him. Nevertheless, he looked at the passage to the third floor in front of him and then stepped inside without a second thought. The 3rd floor was waiting for him. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ----- --- - As soon as James passed through the passage, he saw that the surroundings were completely covered with darkness. It was so dark that James thought that even his mind was black and that he might even be blind. He couldn''t even see anything with his class ability. He realised that he was on an icy floor and then shook his head and muttered "Should I go on?", just at that moment the expected window opened brightly in front of him. [Welcome! Welcome to the 3rd floor, the [Endurance and Dream] floor, Mr James Arthur Black. This is a floor that will directly increase the mental endurance of your body and will freeze you to death if you fail to pass. Remember that the danger of this floor only exists when you are asleep! DO NOT SLEEP! I wish you good luck. Quest Time Minimum Limit: 1 Day Task Time Maximum Limit: Unlimited To finish the floor, simply say "next floor" after 1 day. The longer you stay here, the bigger your reward will be.] James, who had already read this window, was surprised to learn that the ice beneath him was capable of freezing him completely and thought about the strangeness of the task. He could not understand how sleep and mental endurance could be linked. Still, he knew that complaining would do no good. That''s why he shook his head and then sat down on the ice. The floor task began at that very moment. Chapter 21: Gaining The Sword Aura James didn''t know how long he had been sitting in the same place. He could no longer feel the coldness of the ice he was sitting on. How many hours had it been? 1? Maybe 10? Maybe it had already been days. It was clear that no thought had crossed his mind. He was well aware that his mind was completely empty. It was very clear that not only the place where he was sitting but his whole body did not feel anything, only his eyes were too sleepy to stay open anymore. He knew that he could faint at any moment, but he wanted to push himself to his limits. He remembered that he had stayed awake for almost 4 days without sleeping, but these were all things that happened when he was at the computer or watching something in front of the television. Every time he blinked his eyes it hurt so badly, as if he had run out of eye fluid. He knew he would rather fight three Goblin Kings than such a painful task. "I''m fine," James said suddenly. He kept trying to think about what he had been through, but his mind was blank. In just one week, all these events had happened. His lover had broken up with him, he had entered the tower, he had gained amazing abilities, he had grown enormously stronger, and each time he had encountered something more dangerous. Increasing danger and the creatures that conquered them were like the foundation of the tower. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After a while, James, who had begun to think that his thoughts were becoming more and more absurd, suddenly let himself go and sat down in a cross-legged position. He thought he could focus better if he meditated and closed his eyes. Suddenly he realised he could feel his heartbeat. "Badump....badump...badump...." He didn''t know what was going on, but he could see that something was beginning to exist in his empty mind. Not only that, he realised that Clarent, who was hidden in his inventory, suddenly appeared and fell in front of him. His ice was trembling and shaking in a way that almost made him scream. It was as if Clarent was taking rhythm according to James'' heartbeat. However, his body suddenly began to warm up. James, who had strangely stood up, somehow found Clarent with his hand and realised that the connection between him and the Holy Sword had increased tremendously. He didn''t understand exactly what was going on, but right now he was eager to shake Clarent. The feeling of drowsiness in his body had diminished, and on the contrary, his energy had increased. After taking a position, he swung his sword. As soon as he swung his sword, a small light appeared in the area. James was really in a very strange feeling, it was as if he was talking to Clarent.... no, it was as if he was giving orders to Clarent. Smiling to himself, James gripped the sword more seriously and then suddenly swung it. The mysterious little light reappeared and disappeared, and he couldn''t even describe how much fun it was. It was as if James was playing a rhythm game and the music was the sound of his heart beating. "How amazing...." Whatever it was, James had found something fun to do and he wasn''t about to stop now, this was a great chance to improve with the sword. A very big chance. ----- "Haha...HAHA!" James was sitting on the ice again, preparing to cry tears of joy, though he had no eye fluid left to shed tears. What made him laugh so much was the huge improvement he had shown in just luck, even in such a situation. [Lowest Level Sword Aura You have accomplished a great feat, user. You have gained an aura that you could not have gained unless you had incredible skill in the way of the sword. However, it is too early to be happy, this lowly aura is just a baby, it is up to you to develop it!] James didn''t know exactly what aura was. Of course, he had a little bit of knowledge from the books he had read and things like that, but this was real life, he did not know what could happen. Still, there was one thing he did know about: The biggest factor in obtaining the aura was the [Galahad''s Swordsmanship] skill. As stated in the skill, for each practice of the sword''s aura, there would be an increase of 0,01 per cent. James had been swinging his sword for a long time. He was very tired, he could see it amid all this joy, he had a definite feeling that he couldn''t take much more of this and that''s why he thought it was time. "Go to the next floor." As James uttered these words a passageway opened in front of him, James, who had closed his eyes to protect them from the large amount of light coming in, took slow steps through the passageway and squinted as he looked around. "No, I''m not falling for that again!" James suddenly muttered as he looked around and saw the familiar place. A bed, an open shower and clean clothes. This was where he thought he would rest before entering the [sea of rascals], the first floor. He had no intention of falling for this thing again. 8Congratulations! Congratulations on cleaning the 3rd floor, Mr James Arthur Black. [Ranking] 1-Chronos of the Titans(349 Days) 2-Odin of Asgard(113 Days) 3-Sun Wukong of Heavens and Sages(112 Days) 4-Nyx of Chaos(14 Days 21 Hours) 5-Erebus of Chaos(14 Days 20 Hours) 6-James Arthur Black (11 Days 23 Hours 47 Minutes) I am proud to inform you, sir, that you have completed your mission with high honours. As your rewards have been calculated, they will be given to you when you enter Floor 5.] When James read the window that had formed in front of him, he was astonished. First of all, it was a huge surprise that he had stayed awake for 11 days, although he was a human being, he was able to make such a degree and who knows how many hundred thousand gods he had ranked 6th. However, this was not what surprised him, what surprised him was Chronos, who was able to reach a gigantic amount. Of course, the titan of time was able to stay awake for 349 days, what an irony it truly was. Chapter 22: Council of Olympus After closing the window, James looked around again and then took off everything he was wearing and went under the water to take a shower. He couldn''t even describe how relaxing it felt to feel the hot water hitting his body. After a short shower, James, dressed in clean clothes and sitting on the soft bed, looked around for a few seconds and then asked the question: "Emma...are you there?" After this question, a half-minute silence was broken by the window that had formed in front of James: [Yes, Master James.] James was happy to finally be able to talk to someone else and then uttered the following words: "Like what happened on the first floor, is this bed part of the test? I really need to sleep." These words managed to make thousands of gods laugh, even if James did not realise it, James was not like them. Many of the personalities who managed to become gods were already the children of the mating of the gods. Indeed, there were only a handful of creatures who came to the tower from outside and became gods. This reminded all the gods that he was indeed human, a human in need of sleep. [This is a real area, sir. This is a player area. Due to the difficulty of the 3rd floor, it is designed for resting purposes, do not worry, it is all real and has no connection with the next floor, please rest.] As soon as James read what was written in front of him, he lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, he did not even try to close the window, he did not want to miss this chance, he had to enjoy his sleep. While he slept, a deep conversation was taking place in a place he could not even dream of reaching with his current power, in the realm of the gods, in the heart of Olympus. "Many gods will try to take him, my lady, and you know it, look around you, even my brother Hades, who never wants to come out of the underworld, is here waiting for your orders. Asgard is our ally and even Sun Wukong, Archangel Michael and Fallen Angel Lucifer are willing to help us. With just one of your orders, we can bring all the gods to their knees. Otherwise, in the next class election, it will not be one of your people who will be chosen, but rather a god who will be forced to withdraw." It was Zeus himself who had fallen to his knees in the centre of the realm and was speaking aloud. From the moment James had made his choice, he had been making efforts to persuade Nyx. Olympus had an enormous number of allies from the moment Nyx was chosen. The game of the gods was bigger than thought, and many gods had declared Olympus their enemy, not wanting anyone else to join their ranks. A gigantic war was about to unfold, and the reason for this was that James had somehow managed to choose Nyx. "If this isn''t fate itself, oh Lady Nyx, I beg you, it''s only an order. It''s not just me, it''s not just Olympus, it''s my father Chronos and the other titans and many other godly realms that are seeking to help us. We have been at war for a long time, and since James chose you, the number of those who have declared war on us has increased by almost 1200 per cent. If we are pushed back, we will never recover. I''m sure those who have chosen other god classes will target James, but you, Lady Nyx, who swore to protect him, can continue to protect him with just one command." "Tell me how I can be sure you don''t just want this for the good of Olympus, young Zeus. Why should I trust you when I can destroy you and your family at will when I can drag other gods to their deaths? You do know it too, we do not fight only because we have no desire, it wouldn''t even take a second for you to die." When Nyx uttered these words against Zeus'' words, Zeus brought his hand to his chest and then uttered the following words: "It is not that I do not have the interest of Olympus in my heart, my lady. Indeed, every god and goddess in the tower knows that you can destroy us whenever you want, but every one of them knows that no one fights except Nemesis, one of your other children. Still, we worship you, and we can do nothing unless you command it. It is an order that must exist, both for the safety of Olympus and for the safety of James, who has attracted everyone''s attention." At Zeus'' words, a huge darkness swirled through the palace and then appeared behind Nyx, staring at Zeus. This was Erebus, the darkness itself. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Seeing Erebus had appeared, the Olympians suddenly began to talk, as if they had not expected to see him in such a place. "What is Master Erebus doing here?" "It''s been almost ten million years since he last appeared!" "Could Lady Nyx have summoned him?" "You silly Lady Nyx has no use for Master Erebus! If anything was going to be done, Master Erebus had already done it. She does not even need to tell him, he knows his wife''s desires." "That''s right, someone who can take care of everything without Lady Nyx even having to tell him, what a gigantic love...." One after the other, the words caught the attention of the pale yet bright eyes of Nyx and Erebus. The majesty, nobility and beauty of the two of them together could not be expressed in words. Still, Erebus, who had been caught in the middle of many words, agreed with Nyx that the matter should now be clarified, and after a small glance at the gods and goddesses around, his loud and majestic voice echoed in every corner of the palace: "SILENCE!!!" After this single word, silence dominated the palace, and then Nyx''s soft and gentle voice was heard again: "O young and powerful Zeus, tell us your true will, we all know you want to protect James, we can see your heart. What do you want, what do you want from me and my beloved Erebus?" Zeus paused for a few seconds after these words and then spoke for the first time, looking into her eyes as if Nyx had permitted him: "Olympus has always been strong, but because of your soft and stable heart, we have accepted to stay behind. We have suffered too many losses, my lady, give us orders...let us rebuild the tower with all our friends who have joined us. Protect James and ourselves." As these words echoed through the main hall of the palace, Nyx''s smile was obvious to all. No one except Erebus and his children realised that they had never once seen Nyx smile. This brought a few more words out of Nyx''s caring voice: "Very well then, young Zeus, have it your way. I and my family will support you, and I look forward to the tower you wish to create." The realm of the gods would be shaken by these words and the game of the gods would now begin in full, and the initiator of events would be the now sleeping James himself, an ordinary human being, strong as a splinter, who needed to be protected. Chapter 23: Where The Gods Create A Talent When James opened his eyes he suddenly looked around and realised that what Emma had said was true. It was strange that he had suddenly woken up from his strange dream, he had heard the voice of a woman he didn''t recognise, incredibly gentle, soft yet authoritative. It was impossible not to fall in love with the voice, it was as if his mother was caressing his head. When he stood up and washed his hands and face, he changed her clothes without stopping and prepared himself to go to the 4th floor. "Emma, send me to the next floor." James asked for permission to go to the next floor without delay and another one of the passageways that always appeared in front of him appeared. It was quite absurd and stupid for him to go to the next floor without organising everything he had. He had killed exactly 357 goblins and one Goblin King. He had exactly 3580 gacha rights, it was impossible for him not to win a nice item from these rights. He didn''t think about it in his sleepy state, he only had the thought of going to the 5th floor and relaxing for a while. When he passed through the passage, he saw 3 statues in front of him. James, who was surprised by what he saw and could not figure out what the floor was really about, suddenly spoke: S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Emma...Can you tell me the floor''s mission please?" After his words, a classic window appeared in front of him: [Welcome! For billions of years, the tower has had different ways of training players. The first floor to test and develop their hearts, the second floor to test their desire to destroy and progress, the third floor to streamline and develop their mental stamina, and finally the fourth floor. The fourth floor of the tower exists to realign and develop one''s full potential. Many sculptures display a [ability] that the user, the player, can create at will. Ares'' Call to War, Sun Wukong''s Cloning, Zeus'' Dominion, and many other abilities were created on this floor of the tower. The ability you create allows you to develop and even create your potential. Mr James Arthur Black, this is one of the most difficult tests you will face inside the tower. A single miscalculation could leave you behind every other player despite everything you have, so please make the right choice.] When James read this window, he learnt that the 5 simple floors of the tower with the tutorial floor were a test of the tower. I mean, it sounded strange to have both a tutorial floor and to be inside a tutorial, but the tower itself was already strange, what could he say? With that, of course, it was clear what she was going to do. In the window Emma had sent, he had learnt that even the gods had created one of their abilities here, and who knows what level those abilities were at now. This meant that no matter what James did, he could never create a low-level or low-grade ability, it was never supposed to happen. After one more look at the 3 statues in front of him, he saw that there were words on the statues: "Offensive, Defensive and Mental?" James muttered, clearly indicating the zones of the abilities he could create. James stopped where he was and began to read the three words in front of him over and over again, over and over again for several minutes before he suddenly moved his head and spoke as he looked at the statue on the far right: "Swordsmanship of Gallahad, the Dark Step and Clarent himself. I''m already offensive enough. With the clothes I''m wearing and the gachas I''ll be spinning, my defence will improve tremendously. So I need to create something for my mentality, which is at an incredibly low level." After these words, he touched the statue on the far right, the one labelled Mental. He seriously had no idea how to create an ability, but he had to do it. After he touched the statue, the other two statues suddenly shattered and the Mental statue glowed. James saw dozens of images in front of his eyes, he was watching his memories in his real world as if the answer he needed to find was in these memories. After almost 5 minutes of the memory segment, James suddenly stopped and closed his eyes. "A mind palace...This is what I need to create!" he said as he sat down on the floor. He leaned his back against the Mental Sculpture and took a deep breath in a cross-legged position. "I may have found the lowest form of the sword aura through such an epiphany, but this is different...I need to create a place where I can store my memories, thoughts and even feelings, and where they cannot tamper with them." James was becoming aware of the deep ache in his head after each of his speeches, this ability was one of the rare but beautiful techniques that some people in his world could do, so it shouldn''t be difficult to turn it into a skill. After all, he was an intelligent person, even if he was not very, very intelligent, he knew he could do it. Maybe he should have imagined a folder or a deep box that could hold all these things. It took him a lot less time than he had expected because he could feel huge energy starting to build up in his body, a feeling he had felt a few weeks ago when he created his Sword Aura. This must have signalled that the ability was beginning to form. There wasn''t just one folder he had imagined, dozens of folders had formed around him in just a few minutes, James could see each of them in his mind and he was able to shuffle through each folder. It was as if he was travelling through his mind with his body and with each second he was able to control it better and better. "This is what I need to do," James said suddenly, indicating that he was certain that he could create this ability. Floor 5 seemed to arrive sooner than he thought. Chapter 24: Mind Palace It had lasted 4 hours and was still going on. James had been shuffling through his memories for almost 5 hours, filling folders with everything he had learnt and experienced so far, the last memory he had was the memory of when he had chosen Nyx''s card. As soon as he placed this memory in a folder he had created, the energy in his body began to burn and he opened his eyes furiously, seeing the window he had expected to see in front of him: [Mind Palace (Legendary++++ - Upgradeable) A sacred ability created by James Arthur Black. Charged with protecting the mind against certain abnormalities, this ability also lightens the user''s mind, allowing them to acclimatise to dangerous situations more quickly. Provides 100% protection against temptation abilities. Provides 100% protection against Sleep abilities. Provides 25% protection against stun abilities. Increases poison resistance by 5%.] James, who had stood up happily after reading this ability, laughed showing his teeth and then clasped his hands and was proud of himself that his potential was good enough to create such a thing. [Congratulations! James Arthur Black, I am proud to announce that as of today you have passed the final tutorial on the tower. As of today, you will enter the tower''s fifth floor, the Imperial floor, where it is possible to create places to rest, join a compound, fall in love and marry, and do anything else your mind can conceive. Each of your quest rewards will be given to you the day after you enter the floor, please stand by.] James smiled as he finished reading the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and then said "How nice, I''ve come a long way, I have a goal and a friend to meet, even if I don''t know what kind of wall awaits me from now on...?" Just as he uttered these words, another window appeared in front of him: [The first time you enter the 5th floor of the tower, you have the right to choose a nickname for yourself. This nickname will be the name that will be written in your ranking history that you have achieved in the missions. Please choose carefully. --...--] Pausing for a few seconds after reading this window, James smiled and then spoke calmly: "Since I am Lady Nyx''s warrior, I must have a name that will not disappoint her ladyship." At these words, his smile grew even wider, and then he said, "Umbra." [The nickname change is accepted. From now on we will refer to you as Umbra.] After the windows closed one after the other, James was about to enter the passage that had formed opposite him and go to the 5th floor when he suddenly paused. "Emma, I should have earned a lot of gold from my Gold Master skill, right? But how do I use my gold?" S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When she suddenly voiced this question, another window appeared in front of her: [You only need to think about it to extract your gold sir.] This signalled the end of the tower''s trials, the end of the main tutorial, and he could now pass to the real side of the tower. When he entered the passage that had formed in front of him, the landscape in front of him changed completely. There were tens and hundreds of creatures around him. Creatures with cat ears, those with wings or horns and many more were standing around and with something in their hands, as if they were trying to attract people to their restaurants. At that very moment, the words that neither James nor anyone else in the area expected to hear rose from the crowd: "OLYMPUS! OLYMPUS IS HERE!!! WHAT''S GOING ON EVEN ASGARD IS HERE!!!" James paused after hearing these words and wanted to leave the area in a confused way, he did not know what was going on, but he wanted to rest even if he was not very tired. Just as he was about to turn around and leave the area, the voice that had risen again behind him caught his attention: "Mr James!!!" When he turned around again after hearing his name, he saw people holding spears in their hands and a flag with a lightning crest at the end of their spears. "Yes?" James suddenly said. At that moment, when he saw other people holding a flag with a crow crest, he found everything strange and scratched his head. "Pleased to meet you young master James, please follow us." James scratched his head awkwardly as he looked carefully at the people who had suddenly appeared in front of him and rolled his eyes and said "Well then, let''s go.", it made perfect sense for him to follow them since he knew nothing about this place. With those words spoken, the group started walking and soon came to the front of a huge building. James could see the inscription in front of him. "Olympus Guild". "Please come in, sir." When James realised that he was being spoken to again, he nodded and went inside. As he walked through the door, he was greeted by many people, each of them seemed to be looking at James carefully, as if they were all dreaming. People with snake heads, people with wings, almost naked people, people who were covered in scars, and many more. "The rumours are true...Look at the aura around him...The darkness and the night." When these words came from the crowd, everyone realised that the rumours were true. Even if James didn''t realise it, he had become the symbol of the war. He had simply wished to reach Chaos, but he had indeed become the main target of the war. Olympus needed an excuse, and the fact that James had chosen Nyx had completely ignited that excuse. The battle began and all eyes were locked on James, as they were now in the guild. "I''m sorry Mr James, they''re all here because of you. There are even rankers from the 50th floor here right now." When the person who had brought James into the guild spoke again, James suddenly took off his armour, he thought he could relax here, after all, what maniac would try to harm Nyx''s warrior in the Olympus guild? "I didn''t ask your name, do you mind if I know it?" When James'' sudden question caught the attention of the man in front of him, he smiled and calmly spoke the name: "Theseus." Chapter 25: Nemesis Protects Him "Theseus." James seemed surprised to hear the name, every single person around realised that his eyes had widened. "Theseus? The child of Poseidon? King of Athens?" When James uttered these words with the astonishment that had formed in him, the attention of the people around him was centred on him in a greater dimension. "Yes, sir.... but aren''t you from outside the tower? Did Ronald tell you about me?" Theseus, on the other hand, was more surprised than James, as if he had never expected such words. "My friend, you are a hero in my world. Your stories have been told since ancient times, you have a place in books. The man who slaughtered Minator, the man who founded Athens." S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James had said these words with a smile, indeed, although he had a little mythological admiration he had gained from the games, he was a hero of legends...a god, he could not express how excited he was. Theseus was on the verge of tears of joy. "I don''t know how my deeds have reached your world, but I am honoured, sir." Theseus was talking more than was necessary and James was well aware of this, after a few seconds of thought he shook his head and then put his hand on Theseus'' shoulder: "Call me Umbra, I changed my nickname to be a shadow of Lady Nyx, you deserve to know." Then, without even waiting for Theseus to say, he yawned deeply and sat down at a table with a few steps. "Here Theseus, please sit down, I want to hear at length how you slaughtered the minator." With these words Theseus removed his armour and handed it to the servants beside him, he slowly sat down in the chair in front of James and at the other end of the table and began to speak. It was going to be a very long conversation, but none of it seemed to matter, and what was happening on the other side of the 5th floor seemed to be a deeper indication of James'' future dangers. "Nyx''s dog finally finished the tutorial." "We realise, he seems to have made a big noise. He even changed his nickname, Umbra. It''s weird to know he''s ranked so high in the ranked system." "Yeah. Finishing first on the second floor. The shitty psychopath actually killed a Goblin King, a full-blooded Goblin King in full power." "We must be careful, we don''t know what Nyx has given him, Nemesis is watching us, Nemesis is protecting him." "Isn''t it frightening to have the eyes of the Goddess of Vengeance, War and Balance upon us?" "I think it''s exciting. The war has begun, and anything goes. Either we kill Umbra or we will get punished, we can''t let him go to the upper floors." One after the other, the words seemed to express a deep hatred for Nyx and thoughts about killing James. Neither Nyx nor James knew what was going on, but Nemesis, one of Nyx''s daughters, was watching these gods, which was why they couldn''t get their way in so many things. The eyes of the Goddess of Chaos were on them. It was both a great honour and a great misfortune. "So... Tell me Sopdu, what are you planning?" When one of the gods uttered these words, the god called Sopdu took a medallion to the table and showed it to each of them. "This is my plan, we will wait for him to reach the 10th floor. There are already thousands of gods targeting him, if he lives until the 10th floor, my warrior will kill him." When the god called Sopdu uttered these words, the others smiled with relief, if the medallion on the table was real and his warrior was allowed to use it, none of them needed to think about James, he would die anyway. All the while one of the gods among them suddenly spoke up, looking flustered. "What about Ra? If he finds out what you have done, he will destroy you. The Egyptian gods are friends with Olympus, you know that, and Ra himself has been friends with Chaos for a long time." Sopdu trembled for a second as he said these words and then said, "I realise, I am flustered and that is why we must not get caught by Nemesis under any circumstances, if he finds out what we have done, Ra will destroy not only me but all of us." These words seemed to have caught the attention of every single god, if something went wrong and the effects of this mysterious medallion failed, if James survived, they would be destroyed. This alone seemed to show the destructiveness of war and betrayal. Theseus, on the other hand, seemed to be nearing the end of his story. "So I was able to kill the Minator, it was very difficult and as I said, I had to betray someone, of course she is now my wife, but you know what I mean." After Theseus'' words, James yawned where he was and then said, "If the people in my world heard that I listened to the story of one of the heroes from his mouth, they would either call me crazy or worship me. It was worth the whole hour we sat here." James, who stood up after all this, looked deeply at Theseus and then asked, "Is there a place where I can stay around here, Master Theseus?" These words seemed to surprise everyone in the guild. "I''m sorry, Mr Umbra, don''t you want to stay in the Olympus Guild?" These words seemed to make James smile, it seemed to push him to speak again: "Oh no... As I said, my name is Umbra. I gave it that nickname for my lady and I have no plans to stop until I reach her or even Chaos. It should not be Umbra of Olympus, it should be Umbra of Chaos." Theseus, the Asgardians, and the rest of the guild shuddered with astonishment as he uttered these words. Even if it wasn''t an ordinary player, the fact that a player made it clear that he would join Chaos like this made them all tremble with fear. What title had Lady Nyx, the Mother of Night, given him that he could say such things? Chapter 26: Why Shouldnt I Make One? "But Mr Umbra, there is no such place as the Chaos Guild. The name Chaos, the nickname Chaos, cannot be taken at will. You need the bond of its existence, the bond of blood." James frowned as soon as he heard these words and looked deeply at Theseus again, and after scratching his chin for a few seconds, he smiled and uttered words that would surprise not only them and all the gods watching him but even Nyx and Erebus itself: S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Who cares? I am the warrior of my Lady, I''m pretty sure she won''t be mad at me for creating the Chaos Guild. There is Olympus, there is Asgard, pretty sure there should be Chaos Guild too. It is pretty disrespectful to Chaos since it does not exist. Imagine you create the tower and they are just afraid of you, they should honour you by giving your name to a precious place." After these words, many people in the guild fell from their seats to the floor. No one thought that any player... no, not even a god, could even think of using Chaos'' name to do such a thing. Chaos was a creator. You were either related to him by blood or you knelt before him. Apart from a few creators like Ra, there weren''t many who could stand by Chaos. James was indeed too bold, but the blood of Chaos loved boldness. "I understand sir...I will help you, you will need a large amount of gold to start a guild. I will ask my father, please follow our Asgardian friends, they will lead you to a place where you can stay, I need to go talk to my father." When Theseus uttered these words with his eyes wide, not only him but even the Asgardian friends seemed to be watching James in this way. James left the guild with the Asgardian guards and settled in a nearby hotel. Still, he had a question in his mind, "I wish I had asked Theseus before I left." he said to himself. What he wondered was whether Theseus was a god or not. After all, he said that many people were in the guild until the 50th floor, so the meaning that something came after the 50th floor was attributed to this sentence. It was like a huge curiosity for James at the moment. When James went to the hotel room, he seemed shocked by the size and luxury of the room. The room was really big, it seemed to be at least 10 times bigger than James'' single flat house. "I''ve come a long way, but it feels strange to know that this is only 5 floors of the tower," he said as he sat on the bed after changing into the clean clothes in the room. "Everything has just begun. Chaos Guild huh? I hope I can be a worthy one." he added, and then lay down and voiced a few more things: "I wonder if any of Lady Nyx''s children are in these parts, like Theseus? Would they like to join the guild? Just a second...." After these words, he stood up again and then scratched his head and said, "Wait the heck up...They won''t kill me, will they?" His worries were on a slightly strange level, of course, but he didn''t want to make enemies with people who should be considered friends, and he didn''t want to get into such a situation with the Moirais and Moros watching him. He had no intention of disappointing Lady Nyx or the personalities of fate. However, something seemed to have suddenly occurred to him. Perhaps one of the things he needed to take care of before entering the 5th Floor. "Gacha..." he muttered. With the panel above the system window that suddenly opened in front of him, his face smiled: "So even if they died by poison, death is death...I still win the dialling rights, huh?" he thought. He had 3580 rights. The 358 tens that would have existed in normal dialling...This was a truly gigantic amount, an amount James never thought he could reach. "Well, let''s get started then," James said to himself, not going to lie, he was indeed feeling a level of laziness creeping over him. After all, he was going to have to organise his inventory after all this translating. "Whatever," he added, and then, without waiting, he pressed the [dial ten] button, which would indeed start a long gacha adventure. ----- James had been pressing the same button for almost 4 hours, the tip of his finger had turned red, and he was sucking his finger and looking at his inventory. He still had 20 more to go. He already had some pretty good stuff, and he knew that if he tried to sell it, he would make a lot of money. Still, he hadn''t come across any Legendary items or anything of the sort. He had a lot of Unique items. Weapons, armour that he could wear, food that he could eat, drink that he could drink, and even a few items called [Skill Book] that could give him abilities. With that, he finished blowing his finger, and then in desperation, he pressed the [turn of ten] option again, and what happened this time made him suddenly stand up. There were ten cards in front of him as usual. He was quite used to it by now, there was no way that other players could come across so many cards like him. He was sure that, apart from achievements earned and special monsters killed, it was unlikely to come across cards. Gacha was the thing that broke this reality. Looking carefully at these 10 cards, James could see what was happening. After rubbing his eyes for a while, he turned back to the cards and said the following in a puzzled manner: "So I guess I can''t deny that it was better than I expected. At least I''ve earned this much, so I suppose I should say thank you?" "Three yellow cards...." Chapter 27: Book of Magic Status "3 yellow cards...." James couldn''t even rejoice because of his astonishment, this was the first time this had happened and even just one legendary item had a huge value. Looking at the description of the [Health Potion] that James received, it was even written that it could restore a limb, or even revive someone whose heart had stopped a few seconds ago. Clarent''s replica and other items were a big plus. These three yellow cards, or "golden" cards as James called them, would put him ahead of the pack, even if he was only just realising it. What Sopdu and the others didn''t realise was this. James was already euphemistically beyond the tenth floor. Sitting back down, James positioned himself as comfortably as possible and clasped his hands together: "I don''t know how to pray, but Moros, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, I beg you to give me a chance." Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James took a deep breath as he uttered these words, and then, with a slight tensing of his body, placed his finger on the yellow card in the upper left: [The Bell of Hypnos (Legendary) The sacred bell of Hypnos, the god of sleep and dreams. According to the gods within the tower, Hypnos put a piece of his divinity into this bell. The bell has the capacity to put anyone to sleep, including holy beasts and even some gods. It also puts the user to sleep. It cannot be blocked by any god or item, not of the same divinity as Hypnos. Usage right 3/3] James stood still for a few seconds as he read the item in front of him, neither standing up in excitement nor feeling any emotion other than happiness: "I think I''ve attracted the attention of those with Chaos blood... The fact that Master Hypnos sent me an item shows that... Of course, I may have won this item by chance." After these words, when he carefully read the characteristics of the bell, James could see that this item could be used very clearly and powerfully. After all, his [Mind Palace] ability defended him against all sleeping abilities, which meant that when the bell was used, he would not sleep as it was written in the properties. After that, another window opened in front of James, who touched the other card with great hope: [Loki''s Mask(Legendary++++) This mask is an image-changing item that encapsulates Loki''s magic. Whoever wears the mask can transform their image into any person, item, monster, or even god they wish, up to 3 times. One of God of Mischief Loki''s favourite things to do was to disguise himself as other gods and move the realm of the gods between his hands. Usage Rights 3/3] After seeing this item, his excitement began to increase, he did not expect such a plus to be given to him. He was already strong enough, and he was relieved to be able to get his hands on such items. Even as he thought about what kind of mayhem he could cause by using the Bell of Hypnos and Loki''s Mask at the same time, he was trying not to laugh inside, it was incredibly difficult to restrain himself, but somehow he managed. With that he put the mask and the bell away in his inventory and stared at the last card, his happiness was going to be enormous as he had just won something that would be of enormous use to him. His hand trembled a little, his excitement was high and it scared him, he didn''t want to be disappointed. Nevertheless, he was well aware that waiting would not change anything, which is why he suddenly touched the card and stood in front of the window that had appeared in front of him. He seemed shocked, he had no idea whether what he saw in front of him was real or not. Even if he didn''t realise it, the whole of Olympus and Asgard was completely shaken by what they saw. Players were brought to an inaccessible point by the tower just after the training floors, and only their bodyguards, the holy beings of their chosen class, were allowed to watch the player and that made the whole Olympus tramble. Even if James hadn''t realised it, the window that had formed in front of him was something that even Chronos, let alone Zeus and Odin, had achieved when he had approached the very end of the tower. [Book of Magic Status (Godly---) This is a book created by the hands of Chaos himself, which can be obtained with luck in the most difficult parts of the tower and incredibly hidden areas. The book grants the player the [Magic] stat. This stat increases the power, casting or casting speed, casting time, and even the capacity of the spell. For every 100 points added to the [Magic] status, the player gains protection against [Dark and White] spells, respectively. Protection is granted at 5%. Every 50 points added to the spell stat will increase understanding of the magic overall by 1%]. By the time James had finished reading this window in its entirety, he was able to fully appreciate the value of the book. Who knows, maybe Theseus didn''t even have this status. What he did not know was that Theseus, who had not yet managed to reach the god realm, did not even have this status, let alone Athena, Thor, Amun and many other gods in the god realm. This was officially a gift that Chaos gave to James with his own hands. It was priceless, by any means. However, James did not stop at all and took the book in his hand and opened it. As soon as he opened the book, the book withered and disappeared and suddenly something that no one expected happened. "ARGHH!!!" James started to writhe in pain and fell off the bed he was sitting on. He was writhing on the floor like a dying lamb. He felt his body burning and blood was pouring from his eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth. He didn''t know what was happening and had no idea what to do. All he knew was that the pain was unbearable, that if he didn''t solve this soon he might die, and that frightened him. It was as if every cell in his body was falling apart. Even the naked eyes would reveal an image that would not look like a horror film. It was awful. Chapter 28: Unexpected Turn James could barely see with his eyes and tried to understand what was happening. He could hear the bones in his body breaking and feel what was forming around his heart. The energy in his body was burning, he couldn''t understand what was happening. He had been dealing with this event for almost 5 minutes. His heart was squeezing and breathing was becoming difficult, he could feel his bones cracking and breaking, and he was writhing on the floor. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It would not be wrong to say that the whole floor was in blood and he was writhing on the puddle of blood. Indeed, everything was getting more difficult with each passing second. At that very moment, a window appeared in front of him: [Calm down, try to sit cross-legged and sit properly.] James, who tried to sit up somehow when he read the window that had suddenly formed in front of him, managed to do so despite his broken bones. As soon as he got into the cross-legged position, he realised that the pain in his body had decreased slightly, but he still had no idea what to do. [Breathe in and out deeply. The two forces in your body are at war with each other. Magic and Aura cannot exist in the same body, we have to try to expel one of them]. As soon as James read the window, he followed the instruction and breathed deeply, even if it was difficult. He was bleeding internally and every time he breathed in, he was in greater pain, but when he breathed out, the pain in his body disappeared, even for a few seconds. [Sighs... Keep going like this. Your body will decide what it needs to be, pick whichever one you''re more in tune with, and discard your value like rubbish. I can''t understand why you''re trying to have magic status when you have aura in your body, it''s a stupid choice.] James managed to relax a little after the succession of windows formed in front of him. His body felt light, but he was still trying to cope with the same pain and writhing. It was such a strange feeling, as if the power coursing through his body, through his veins, and the power around his heart were colliding. Yet James could clearly realise that something was not trying to be expelled. It was as if these two forces were strengthening each other as if they were trying to reach an agreement. Whatever it was, it kept on happening, and with each passing second the pain continued to increase exponentially. Half of the room was covered in blood, it was strange for James even to think that there was so much blood in his body, but thanks to his automatic regeneration ability, he had managed to survive so far, otherwise it would be a matter of time before he bled to death. After a sequence of almost 15 minutes, James realised that the pain in his body had completely disappeared. There was only great pain and aching inside his body. Almost all his bones were broken, it was a miracle that he was even sitting in the position he was in now. It must have been a miracle indeed that he had suddenly collapsed, the auto-healing would help him, of course, but it seemed a certainty that such a slow healing would not be able to heal him so quickly. Before he fainted, however, he saw a window in front of him, albeit a blurry one, and he smiled at what he saw as if all the pain he had suffered had been rewarded, and his eyes closed and he fainted on the spot. Olympus, on the other hand, was in great confusion again, Chaos'' decision seemed to confuse them. "I don''t understand mum, why did Grandpa make such a decision? James doesn''t know anything, you even spent a lot of energy trying to help him, but what happened? Why did Grandfather grant the status of magic to someone with an aura?" It was Thanatos himself who spoke. The child of Nyx and he alone is the god of death. "I don''t want to lie, my dear Thanatos, I have no idea. For some reason, my father, who has not been in the tower or its contents for a very long time, has been paying close attention to this small, weak, newly important boy. Yet he sends him something that could kill him, perhaps James should never have had the aura." When Nyx looked at Thanatos and voiced these answers, every one of the surrounding gods fell silent. The fact that Chaos had deliberately given this book to James would of course silence them. After all, how many people were there who were not afraid of Chaos? On the other hand, Apollo had been silent since the beginning and had been watching James carefully. He seemed to be trying to analyse what had happened. Apollo, the God of Knowledge, watched James in depth. "My lady, please look at him carefully." Apollo suddenly said, speaking towards Nyx. After he had said this, every god and goddess in the hall turned back to the window near the ceiling and began to look at James carefully, and each of them managed to be surprised again. "I ---Impossible!" exclaimed Nemesis suddenly, one of the biggest aura users. "Impossible indeed, how did it happen?" muttered Hypnos, never expecting to witness this. "I...I don''t...understand?" replied Nyx, in all the chaos, it was clear that even she hadn''t expected this. James had finally managed to wake up, even though he knew little of what had happened. After 5 hours in his dreams, he finally woke up and looked at the window in front of him again. "Haha...I didn''t see it wrong...I really did it." What was written on the window seemed to have made him extremely happy, the excitement in his body had reached the ceiling, and he was surprised even to himself that he did not cry from happiness. At that very moment, the person who had helped him came to his mind and then he did not even care about the window and uttered the following words: "I don''t know who you are, but you saved my life today, I swear I will pay for it, I''m sure you are stronger than me, but there will be a day when I will surpass you, I swear you won''t have to lift a finger the day you need my help." Those words were like his oath. James'' oath to his lady Nyx, is basic yet incredibly strong. Who would have thought that could happen? Chapter 29: Godly Achievement Won [Godly Achievement Won! You have accomplished something that has never been achieved since the tower was created! The living body cannot accept more than one power. Darkness can merge with light, and day with night, but aura and magic cannot be linked. You, Mr Umbra, have achieved something that has never been achieved before and you have managed to unite Aura and Magic. Your Magic Status has increased by 100. Your Intelligence Stat has increased by 30. Your understanding of Aura has increased by 5%. The lowest Level Sword Aura has evolved into Middle-Level Completed Aura. You get a chance to choose a card]. [Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary++++) The player''s understanding of weapons has been increased by 50%. The player can now use aura on all weapons. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The player''s Strength stat has increased by 10. The player''s Agility stat has increased by 10. The player''s Endurance stat has increased by 10]. James was about to lose his mind when he looked at what he had gained. He had grown enormously stronger. On top of that, his low-level aura had evolved into a complete mid-level aura. He had no idea how the two powers had merged in his body, but he felt like he had to pray to the gods for this, he had indeed come back from the brink of death. He tried to scratch his head and then realised that his hair was sticky. Looking carefully around and in the mirror in front of him, he saw that there was blood everywhere and he prayed that he had gained the ability to heal automatically, it was indeed great luck that he had it. Nevertheless, he got up, albeit with difficulty, and despite all the pain in his body, he somehow managed to get into the shower at the other end of the huge room. Every time he stepped on the floor he realised that the floor was damaged, as if he had to learn to control his suddenly increased strength. Of course, he hadn''t forgotten about the dark card in the bottom right of his eye. He would be able to possess something in the Godly tier. With that, he washed himself nicely and got into the bathtub. There were a thousand thoughts in his mind. Who had helped him? Why had they helped him? Could it have been one of Nyx''s children? He knew the way Emma talked, so it wasn''t her. But how had someone else spoken to him? He had even considered the possibility that it could have been Leyla, but the name Nyx, who had sworn to protect her, had never once come to mind. There was a limit to being stupid. [I''m glad you''re okay.] James saw another window suddenly appear and realised that the person who had helped him was trying to talk to him again. "Thank you, for everything. May I know who you are?" Lying comfortably in the tub, he answered the person speaking to him and was greeted with a name he never expected to see: [Nyx]. After reading this name, he suddenly tried to straighten himself and started to sit respectfully, even if he was in the bathtub. "Forgive me, my lady, I didn''t realise it was you, thank you very much indeed, I''m sure I''ve caused you a great deal of trouble." James couldn''t help but smile and bow his head humbly at the honour bestowed upon him by Nyx, it was ironic that the very woman he had wanted to reach out to had saved his life. [I just wasted my energy, you have nothing to worry about, your well-being is more important than anything else.] James smiled as he read the window in front of him and then got out of the bathtub. He seemed to think that since all the gods were watching him, he had nothing to hide anymore. After getting dressed, he left the bathroom and saw the dried blood and other things in his room. After shaking his head for a few seconds, he suddenly left the room and saw the guards in front of the room. "Well, the room needs a bit of cleaning, good luck to whoever cleans it." After these words, he walked forward and left the hotel without looking back for a second. There was only one thing to do now, and that was to meet Theseus and establish the Chaos Guild. Of course, all this thought was looking at the possibility that Theseus had somehow collected the money. After leaving the hotel, he walked around for a while and came to the front of the Olympus Guild again. He saw the same flags that he had seen when he first entered the floor, it was like a parade, horse carriages were coming one after the other and each of them was moving at a constant speed. These flags belonged neither to Olympus nor Asgard. "Excuse me, can I ask what''s going on?" James asked one of the spectators with great curiosity about the reason for the parade. "Don''t you know, today is the anniversary of the founding of the Solar Empire, and preparations have been going on for almost a month. On top of that, even the Popes of the Church are coming today." When James heard this answer, he continued to watch the parade carefully. He could very clearly see the people watching the people outside from inside the horse carriages passing one after another. The carriages had different coats of arms and each coat of arms had a different pattern. There was a dragon made of gold in the carriages that went in the front and followed from the back. The dragon''s eyes were jet black and its horns were white, and every other scale seemed to be made of gold. It was the symbol of the empire. They must have been the imperial family. The chariot of the people coming behind them had the symbol of a crow. The crow''s eye was made of gold and its tail was a white colour, the rest was as dark as the night itself. James had no idea who these people were, but he knew one thing, the colours were arranged according to the symbol of the imperial family, and the families were very close. However, after almost 5 minutes of progress of other carriages entering, soldiers started to enter from inside the gate. Each soldier was wearing a moon symbol. A white moon with stars around it and black clothes. This was the church. "An...Umbra?" When James had given himself that nickname, his thought was to be the depth of Nyx''s night, to be the lady''s shadow. What surprised him was exactly that, he was seeing something that had already been formed. Which god exactly did the Church worship? Chapter 30: Literally The Shadow Of Nyx James thought to himself that Nyx was still watching him and asked quietly, "My lady, do you have any connection to these people?" and the window in front of him confirmed it. [The Church of Night. The official religion of the Empire of the Sun, I am the goddess they worship. The greatest power in the empire, the power that even the imperial family depends on.] James was ready to turn and leave after closing this window abruptly when he saw Theseus and slowly started to walk towards him. He wanted nothing to do with church or religion. "Mr Umbra, good morning, I''ve had some reports that you must have struggled last night," Theseus said in a very friendly manner. "Don''t ask, it''s the talents, they''re annoying," James replied, preparing to enter the Olympus Guild, but at that very moment, something happened that even Theseus did not expect. The church carriage and all the soldiers around it came to a sudden halt. The carriage door opened and a man and a woman got out. These two seemed to be quite old people, at least 60 years old. James was about to enter the guild without a care in the world when suddenly the old woman shouted at him: "Young master, can we have a second please?!" Shaking his head in boredom, James realised that there was no way out of this and turned to the old woman and asked, "Yes, madam?" As soon as the woman heard these words, James was aware of the crowd around. Even the Imperial family and the family behind them seemed to be watching him from behind the old woman. "Are you a worshipper of our goddess?" James shook his head and then said, "I''m not sure I know who your goddess is, ma''am." He was trying to disappear. It didn''t seem to work on this old woman, though. "Nyx. Our goddess is the mother of the great night." When these words reached him, James made a face of ignorance and then said, "Nyx? Never heard of her." and entered the Olympus Guild. Theseus realised what was happening and couldn''t understand why James had lied to them, it was the same for every single person connected to Olympus and Asgard. As James entered the guild hall and took his seat where he had sat yesterday, Theseus and the others, followed by two elders and the imperial family, entered. Theseus politely walked over to James and stood to his left. "Won''t you sit down, dear Theseus?" James suddenly said, and Theseus, hearing this, gently approached his ear and said, "I don''t know what you are trying to do, but it is obvious that you are trying to establish your authority, let me help you, I have a good place in the empire." With that, James smiled crossed his legs took a glass of ice water out of his inventory and put it on the table. "I''m not quite sure why you''re following me, ma''am, I didn''t think you had any more questions," James suddenly said. With that the old woman took a few steps towards James and a few of the soldiers followed her. Theseus seemed ready to unsheathe his sword just in case. After all, James''s safety was more important than both the empire and the Church of Night, and he would endeavour to destroy each of them. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Of course, the powers of rankers like Theseus would hurt them when used on lower floors, but he had received orders from Nemesis himself to protect James, and even if he died, what had to be done would be done. After all that was a direct order from Nemesis, the one that got full authority from Nyx. Seeing Theseus reach for his sword, the old woman gestured for the soldiers to retreat and then took a few more steps before she reached the front of the table. "I was wondering why you were lying. The aura on you is almost 20 times more than the night aura I have collected in my 1143 years of life, but you don''t even look over 30 years old." When the old woman said these words, James made the same expression again and then said, "I don''t know what you are talking about. I don''t know your goddess, nor do I have any connection with her." It was amazing how old and well that woman was. These words alone ordered every ranker or normal climber in the guild to shut up. "Maybe that is the case but I am refusing the believe that. I have worked for my goddess all my life, and as I said, for 1143 years of my life. My loyalty to my goddess has caused me to hear her voice more than once, which is why the empire has grown to such a gigantic size." A few seconds passed over these words of the old woman and then she asked "So I can realise, who exactly are you?" without stopping. At these words James realised that there was no way out of there, so he scratched his head and then spoke as gently as he could, but with enormous authority: "I am a man who has high loyalty for his lady. For you, she is a goddess that you kneel before but for me, she is a goddess that I admire, love, desire to reach and like to pass. I am literally her shadow, warrior and perhaps maybe even more." With these words, every single person in the church began to tremble. Even if James didn''t know what was going on, Theseus, the guild members and everyone else who had entered could clearly see what was happening. James'' shadow was reflected on the wall behind him. A female figure stood in the shadow, a figure caressing James'' head. Purple shining eyes, jet-black hair with star-like features, a body of enormous beauty with perfectly slim and regular facial features. The shadow painted the Nyx herself. James was Nyx''s shadow and Nyx was what symbolised James. Their bond had reached an insurmountable level when James chose that card. "My Goddess..." the old woman suddenly said and fell to her knees. All the members of the guild knelt, even the members of the imperial family and the family with the crow crest. Even Theseus was about to fall to his knees when James stopped him and shook his head, turning round he saw what had happened and realised that Lady Nyx had helped him once more. Theseus shouldn''t have knelt, James was going to use him authoritatively. Chapter 31: Birth Of Chaos Guild After only a few seconds of waiting, James, who had begun to look at the old woman carefully, suddenly smiled and then said his last words: "I am not a religious man. I have a greater bond with my lady than you realise. I live as her warrior, the one and only true one. There are thousands of gods and tens of thousands of religions, believe me, the last thing you want is to be in a religion in a situation like this." With that he suddenly clapped his hands and rose from his seat, he could use the church for his pursuits, and he realised that the church was already tied to him. "Come on dear Theseus, we have things to do, I am assuming that you are ready no?" With a small chuckle, Theseus took out a cheque from inside the jacket he was wearing, handed it to James and said the following words: "15.000.000 Gold Mr Umbra, I have already done all the work for you, you just need to set the name of the guild and make the payment." James, who smiled after these words, could not hold back his excitement and happiness and touched Theseus'' shoulder and said "Thank you very much, brother, I will never forget your help, I swear, wait for me to climb the floors." With that, a window opened in front of James, who was holding the cheque: [Guild Name "....."] James saw the window, said "Chaos" in a kind, respectful and happy voice, and accepted the transaction. With that, the window that attracted everyone''s attention opened in front of each player, and a rare guild notification appeared in front of everyone: [As of today, the [CHAOS] guild has been established on the 5th Floor. Congratulations to the guild leader Umbra!] This was the article describing the birth of the Chaos Guild. As of today, the biggest guild of the future was established. It would be a guild that even Gods and Goddesses would be dying to enter. However, James thought that this floor was the end of what he could do now, he had no desire to wait anywhere for a long time, what he wanted was to make progress and become a god as soon as possible. "I''m going to the next floor Theseus, enough rest." James suddenly smiled and with Theseus'' satisfied expression he added "Come on Emma let''s go." After entering the passage opened in front of him, he opened his eyes to a cemetery, but the more important thing was that the thing he had suddenly forgotten came back to his mind. "Oops, I forgot Ronald." As James said this, Ronald fell to his knees and began to cry, clearly feeling bad that he wouldn''t be able to see James again until he came back to the 5th floor. He seemed to think that James wouldn''t forget him. Whatever it was, James had now entered the 6th floor. It was very clear that the location of this floor was a graveyard. James tried to guess more or less what was going to happen. "Maybe skeletons? Oh oh! Or maybe ghosts? How am I going to fight against ghosts, though?" After a few questions he asked himself, the answer from Emma didn''t seem to be too late: [Welcome! Welcome to the 6th floor of the tower, the Gate of Illusions! The purpose of this floor is to find three objects hidden among the illusions and put them together to obtain the key. Please remember to kill the enemies you will encounter as you progress towards this goal. Protect yourself and try not to die. Remember that getting rid of monsters will be more difficult than finding items. We wish you good luck!] After this short explanation, James seemed to understand the structure of the floor he was currently on. In short, he had to find the items hidden behind the illusions and leave this place. However, he had no idea what the monsters he was going to fight were. That''s why he took Clarent out of his inventory just in case and grasped the sword. He could feel the fluctuation in his body after grasping Clarent. "Is this part of the completed aura? Even though it''s only intermediate level, look at this feeling!" After a little exclamation and vicarious excitement, James heard rustling noises that had suddenly started to appear. These rustling sounds were coming from gravestones. This strange sound, caused by the crumbling of the dried vegetation on the graves, suddenly stopped as if to reveal the underlying fear and created an event that made James smile. "No shit, they''re zombies!" sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When James saw the 2 zombies in front of him, he paused for a few seconds and then suddenly jumped forward. He killed both zombies with simple moves and then jumped with excitement and shouted: "WHO HASN''T DREAMT OF KILLING ZOMBIES?!" With that, he spun around and then realised that no zombies existed. Only the two corpses on the ground and himself were standing in the cemetery. Since he did not know when the monsters would come, he thought that he had to start the process immediately, so he started to find the items. Just as he started to work, that strange sound came from behind him again and was cut off, and after he turned around, he realised the 4 zombies standing in front of him. After quickly slaughtering the zombies, when he started working again, the sound repeated itself and now 8 zombies were standing in front of James. When he thought, "What''s going on?", he had already slaughtered eight zombies and started to wait where he was, but now the alarming event he saw was repeated. James, who managed to grasp what was happening at that moment, started pointing at the zombies one by one and counted them: "1,2,3,4.....14,15,16? 16 Zombies? Are these increasing exponentially?" This floor could be more dangerous than he expected, this was worrying. Chapter 32: Praise Nyx For Giving Me This Talent As soon as James saw the zombies increasing exponentially, he started to check them carefully. The zombies were not slow, so they could catch up with him by running, but he was of course many times faster than the zombies, so he had little to fear. This meant that there was no reason for him to kill the zombies. That''s exactly why he thought he had to take action and started running around. He was constantly looking left and right and looking for something that caught his attention. There were three items he had to find, even if he didn''t know what they were, he had to reach them immediately. After a short while, a shiny object caught his eye about 15 metres away. After running towards the object, he picked up a hollow triangle. [1/3] When he saw this window in its usual place his eye fell back on the black card beside him, he didn''t want to use it right now, whatever would come out would change the way it currently functioned and it would be more useful for him to open the card after he passed this level. He seemed to have found a piece of the key, the key seemed to have a different shape than he had expected and that changed everything. Just then something else unexpected happened. "ARGH!" James felt something prick his leg and he turned round. A zombie had grabbed him from the ground, its claws digging into his leg. He suddenly plunged Clarent into the rotten earth and took the zombie''s life. [You have been poisoned. You will feel dizzy for 10 seconds.] After this window formed in front of him, James thought he had to act quickly and suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground. His vision was normal, he didn''t feel dizzy, but the poison seemed to be affecting him. It was as if something that wasn''t there had infected him and was affecting him without him realising it. Whatever this poison was, it had to be incredible. Knowing this, James turned back and cut off the zombie''s hand and threw it into his inventory, there was a chance that this thing could be useful. With that, the poison left his body and James started running again. As he killed one more zombie, the number of zombies increased to 18. He realised that he was being surrounded. Many of the hands that had just come out of the ground were standing around, and the zombies following him had already caught up with him. The zombies were intelligent, they could work together, it was an incredible sight. James thought that there would be no escape from them now. Another piece seemed to have caught his eye and he had to get past the zombies and get to it. After carefully grabbing Clarent, he activated his dark step ability and quickly destroyed the 4 zombies in front of him. Moving quickly, he took the cross on a tombstone and then started running again, he had one last piece left. [2/3] The difficulty of this dungeon seemed to vary from person to person. After all, unless someone realised that what was being killed was increasing exponentially, they would keep on attacking, which of course would lead to their death. So there was no difficulty for James. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With each step, he covered a greater distance and before long he managed to find the third piece, which was a drop mark. In his opinion, the difficulty of this floor was the number of monsters that could increase exponentially. Looking around after he had the third piece in his hand, James suddenly realised that there was a light stretching towards the sky, when he ran to the light and reached the place where it came from, he saw that all three objects could be placed in the gaps and just as he was about to place them, something came to his mind. A zombie corpse was standing right next to him. "Exploitation," James said, if exploitation worked on zombies, there was no limit to the power he could gain from it. [Zombie Corpse x1 exploited]. James smiled frighteningly when he saw this window and grabbed Clarent tighter. "Let''s go Clarent, we have a tonne of zombies to kill." he suddenly said, and without waiting, he attacked. Every time he swung his sword, at least two zombies died, but he didn''t stop killing the zombies on the ground. He had already killed 30 zombies and the next stage had begun, this time 60 zombies were coming towards him at a faster pace. James hadn''t broken a sweat. "Thank you very much, my lady, thanks to you I will become insanely strong," James said and with that, he moved towards the zombies. The increasing speed of the zombies seemed to show James that more and more powerful ones were coming at each stage, but he didn''t shed a drop of sweat, he was shaking with excitement as he thought about the stat points he could gain here. Even if those stat points came to charisma status, it would still be a good thing, after all, that status increased his influence over others. "On the right! A monk from above!" With his self-talk, he made his moves and continued to mow down the zombies. 60 then 120, 120 then 240. With each kill, their numbers doubled and James continued as if he was happy about it. It seemed like there were many more zombies to kill, he had to move forward.... ----- Almost three hours had passed. James was drenched in sweat, the zombie blood on him seemed to have reached a gigantic size, with each step he took, half of Selene''s boots were soaked in blood. "How many have I killed?" James questioned himself as he looked around to see another horde of zombies coming towards him. [Stage 6 is starting. There will be 1920 upgraded zombies.] Immediately after reading this James spread his palms out to the sides and then shouted "Exploit!". Immediately after he activated this ability, darkness enveloped the area and the zombie corpses dried up and turned to dust, as it was normal for undead bodies to die and disappear differently from goblins. As soon as he realised that the exploitation was over, he ran to insert the keys and then quickly inserted them, when he entered the passage in front of him, he entered a white space and saw two more passages in front of him, but before that, he wanted to look at his profile to see how strong he had become. But suddenly the windows in front of him stopped him. Chapter 33: Elevated Stats [6th floor completed, your rewards will be added to the first 5 floor rewards and delivered to you.] [960 Zombies killed.] [Unique Achievement Won! Dominance over the Undead has been established. You will now deal 10% more damage to Undead monsters. You get to choose a card.] "I completely forgot about the rewards for the first 5 floors, Emma, what happened?" James thought he should ignore the other windows for a few minutes and asked this question. Emma gave him an answer he hadn''t expected. [It''s your fault, Mr Umbra! Who told you to break records in order? You have broken records that have not been broken for millions of years and now you are scolding me, please have some mercy!] When James read these texts, his face looked a little awkward and then he shook his head and said "Sorry, my mistake...". He really saw Emma as a desk worker, he seemed upset. However, he had killed 960 zombies, and he really couldn''t find anything to say; it was a huge number. That meant he had 27 status points to earn. "Profile." he suddenly said, and the image that opened before his eyes made him very happy: "James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 34 Class: Warrior of the Night Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++) [Statuses] Strength: 30 - Way above the average human. Agility: 40- Way above the average human. Endurance: 21- Way above the average person. Luck: 26- Way above the average human. Magic: 100- Way, way below the average holy man. Intelligence: 39- Way above the average person. Charisma: 12- Above the average human. Status Points: 19" He had reached 34 levels, and it was clear that the zombies had given him many experience points. However, 19 points from skipped levels were set aside. In addition to the 10 points from Completed Aura, there were other points from exploitation. When he put all of the remaining 19 points into his Agility stat, he noticed that his body felt lighter. His Agility stat was now 59 points. His Magic stat was fixed at 100 and just stood there. James'' eyes widened as he thought back carefully to his weakened state when he had first entered the tower. "It''s only been a few weeks...." James said and without waiting, he entered the passage that would take him to the 5th floor. With each step he could see the people around watching him, it was as if what he was doing and saying had created a very big event. "It took you longer than I expected to complete the 6th floor, Mr Umbra." James suddenly heard a voice coming from his right and turned his head. He met the person with sea-blue eyes and hair again. "I was trying something, dear Theseus, I had already collected the three keys," James replied, his smile seeming to pierce the heavens. "You seem happy Umbra, if we''re going to see you like this forever, tell us how you''re doing so we can help you," Theseus said, chuckling. "You''re telling me, Theseus, really? You''re about to fly into the sun like Icarus, don''t let your wings come off with joy," James replied, his eyes watering with laughter. "Hahaha, you may be right, sir. Not bringing me to my knees gave Olympus enormous authority. Lady Nyx rarely lets her worshippers or others know she''s on their side. The Church of Night has been kind to Olympus and Asgard. The authority of the 5th Floor was divided between the guilds of Chaos, Olympus and Asgard." Theseus''s words made James smile. Lady Nyx''s authority was truly enormous, and James seemed to have a great place as her warrior. "What about those two elders? I hope nothing happened after I left?" Theseus'' eyes seemed to sparkle at James'' question. "They gave us permission! We got permission from the imperial family to enter the imperial library! The empire has been around since before my birth, Umbra, literally hundreds of millions of years. Even my father, Poseidon, spent several dozen years as an imperial guard, all to gain access to the library, but was able to only once. The guilds of Chaos, Olympus and Asgard are now approved for entry. sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. That''s something everyone wants!" Theseus uttered these words in just one breath and fixed his smile on James. "Even Master Poseidon? Why is this library so valuable? I understand you say hundreds of millions of years, but what is the real reason? Does it have information about the tower, maybe something from the upper floors?" "No sir, that sort of thing is already pretty well known, if you know anyone. The real reason is that there are billions of books in the library, it''s a vast subspace, just like the inventories, but alive people can enter. Which means that there are millions of no...tens of millions of talents waiting to be found, lost since antiquity." James seemed to realise the true value of the library after these words, he nodded and got a reason to go to the library, maybe he needed something to increase his power. "And sir, you have been given the highest access, even though it is vast, it is divided into three floors. The top floor is said to have the fewest books. Olympus and Asgard have been granted access to the second floor. Of course, you can enter the lower floors, you know what I mean." After these words, James shook his head and then said, "If I thought that introducing myself would create such a scene, I would go directly to the 6th floor, they won''t follow me, right?" "Cough.... Well, sir, they''ve already started following you, look around you...It looks like they want to protect you." Upon Theseus'' words, James looked around in detail and saw 5 women looking at him with shining eyes and smiling faces. He squinted his eyes and turned to Theseus and then said, "To tell you a lie, even if I wanted to be chased by women, this is not what I thought at all. They don''t see me as lady Nyx, do they?" he said. After these words, Theseus, shrugging his shoulders as if he did not know, just looked at James, there was nothing he could say. Chapter 34: Imperial Palace "What the hell?" James muttered, and Theseus, hearing this, said in a serious tone, "Umbra, you may not realise it, but you are of a higher rank than the popes of the church. Warrior of Nyx, who knows, maybe you can be considered in the rank of the lady''s children, in terms of rank, of course." James was not convinced by these words, he did not believe that he would have the same rank as the children of Nyx. The window that appeared at that very moment would prove him incredibly wrong. [What Theseus said is true, James. My mother''s orders were to see you as our equal, after all, the fact that you were able to choose my mother means that you are enough for that, and the loyalty you have, why should we not see you as our brother?] James scratched his chin as he read what was written in the window and then asked "Who are you?", Theseus seemed surprised by the question. "Is someone sending you a message, sir? That is a very difficult thing, almost impossible unless you are a high god like Lady Nyx, Sir Erebus or someone like my father." After Theseus'' words, another window opened in front of James, who was preparing to answer him: ["I, Moros, am known as the hateful form of doom. You may know me as the god of fate, I am the third-born child]. James smiled as he read the window and then said aloud "MOROS? Oh my God, what an honour it is to meet you! It was written that you helped me with my class skills, thank you very much!" These words seemed to surprise Theseus even more. He had not expected James to meet one of the top gods like Moros. He usually wandered around the tower and watched the creatures, and even liked to collect mystical beasts. It was unheard of for him to speak to one of the players in person. Even if James didn''t know it, Moros was smiling in a way that even his entire family had never seen before, he didn''t seem to expect such a pure answer and a happy face from James. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Haha...what an interesting boy," Moros said, even Nyx had never seen her son like this before, it was a smiling moment. [I''m the one who''s honoured, I just wanted to tell you so you wouldn''t worry. Don''t care about the church, they have to do whatever you say, you can even get them to join the guild.] After another message from Moros, James smiled and then scratched his chin again, this time with a huge smile on his face as he seemed to be thinking. "Huh....I''ve got a much better idea.....I''ll have the guild''s building built by the church. If they can control the imperial family, they can build a building. I feel like a bad person right now, but it''s worth it! Not like I have money for it ey?" Moros couldn''t hold back his laughter after saying these words, the duo of Hypnos and Thanatos even thought that his brother was going crazy. "PUAHAHAHA, what a strange person you are!" Even if James didn''t realise it, the Chaos descendants were preparing to make him the first person to make Moros laugh. With that he looked again at the women around him and then gestured for one of them to come over, the woman who had come to James with great haste clasped her hands together and waited for what he was going to say with her eyes shining. If James had said that he was not afraid, he would certainly have told a lie, he looked at Theseus and then at the woman with a strange expression on his face. "How can I meet those two old people?" James suddenly asked, and the woman suddenly whistled. After an ear-piercing whistle, a carriage came in front of James and Theseus at an incredible speed. Theseus seemed to be trying hard not to laugh, which was understandable, and James, who realised this, looked at him and said, "I swear the god Theseus don''t laugh." Theseus, who heard this, bowed his head and with his thin voice due to holding himself, said, "With your permission, Umbra, I''m going to do my daily work." and left the environment without even giving James the right to speak. James looked at the carriage in front of him and had to squint his eyes because of the high amount of brightness. Each of the women following him was standing around the carriage, and when James looked again at the woman who was looking at him with her bright eyes, he saw that she was pointing at the carriage. She seemed to be a very kind woman. "Thank you," James said, and then he got into the carriage. When he entered the carriage, he sat on one of the seats inside and his whole body trembled very badly. "Is there a problem, sublime one?" The woman who got into the carriage with him seemed surprised by James''s sudden trembling. "Nothing is wrong, I am surprised at the comfort of the seat, it may be the most comfortable thing I have ever sat on in my life." With this answer from James, the journey started. They would go to the centre of the city, where the imperial palace was. The church was inside the palace. So wherever you look, they had about an hour''s drive, and James used this chance to close his eyes. Despite the dirt and filth on him, he had to rest, even if he was ashamed of dirtying this carriage, which was perhaps very valuable here. When he opened his eyes again, an unexpected sight would greet him. ----- "What the hell is this?" James looked out of the cariage and saw over a hundred people gathered in front of the palace. Sleep was flowing from his eyes, even if he had slept for close to an hour, he was still tired, having slept for close to 10 hours maximum in recent days. The bruises under his eyes were already caused by this. When the carriage door opened and the woman inside got out, James followed her and left the vehicle. "Welcome, honourable Umbra! The holy one!" When James looked where the voice came from, he saw the old woman who had spoken to him only half a day ago, at least she seemed to have an easy job here. Chapter 35: Chaos Guild Building "I know I told you that I wasn''t going to come here or will not choose to be near the church, since I have better ways to show my faith." As James said these words he saw the eyes of more than a hundred people in front of him light up and then he scratched his head and said, "But I need your help." That was reason enough for the church, everyone was ready to sacrifice themselves. They were nothing but a bunch of fanatics. "Come in, sir, please let''s talk inside," the old woman suddenly said, and with that, they all went to the meeting room of the palace. There were several people in the meeting room. The Emperor, the Empress, a prince and a princess. Also present were the two popes of the church. "First of all, please tell me your names, I will try to remember them even if my memory for names is terrible," James said, addressing those sitting around the table. Those who heard this started to introduce themselves one by one: "My name is Ahil, Emperor of the Sun Empire, this is my wife Wish, next to her is my son Enel and my daughter Lila sir." "And I am Datura, one of the two popes." James, who scratched his chin when the woman introduced herself with this name, smiled and then said, "The name of a flower with high poison, huh? The devil''s drums. What a beautiful name." Datura smiled when she heard this, bowed her head, and said, "Thank you, sir, I am honoured." "I am Aether sir, the second pope of the church." "Do you know where your name comes from, old man?" James asked with a twinkle in his eye. After the old man shook his head no, James smiled and then spoke calmly: "Aether. The name of Lady Nyx''s first child. Also known as the god of space and heaven. Your name carries great weight, and I hope you have lived well enough to make it worth it." After these words, each individual in the room swallowed once, obviously surprised. James yawned as if nothing had happened and then added "Whatever, Mr Aether''s a nice bloke, blah blah blah, never mind that we''ve got work to do." and then sat cross-legged in the large chair he was sitting in. Even these words were enough to make Aether laugh. Sitting normally next to Nyx in the centre of Olympus, he laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes. "Work to do, sir?" Datura said as James turned to her and said, "Yes, I need a building for the Chaos Guild. As you can understand, it is a newly established guild, it has neither a building nor members." After these words, a discussion arose within the group. The prince and princess said that even the guild''s name was superior to the church, and therefore the church should be demolished and rebuilt. Of course, the main building of the church was not the imperial palace. It was located on the top of one of the famous mountains outside the city. The purpose of this was for the church to serve as Nyx''s soldier in a sense, but this was not the most important reason. The church wanted to choose the place closest to the sky, in short, they wished to reach the night of Nyx. The popes of the church, on the other hand, argued that this would not be the right decision, that instead of demolishing it, the church should be restructured and the change of ranks should be reviewed. This meant that James should become a member of the church and appoint him as the new pope. The Empress, as James realised, was looking deeply at the Emperor. It was clear that the emperor was deep in thought. "What is your opinion, Ahil?" James suddenly asked, and the room fell silent. When Ahil heard this question directed to him, he looked deeply at James and then calmly said, "If you wish, we can declare the entire imperial palace as the Chaos Guild building. Is Chaos not our creator? Father of our Lady Nyx, I can think of no greater honour than to host a guild named after him." Hearing this answer, James took a deep breath. The imperial palace was a huge place, seriously so big that it was impossible to describe it in words. There was no other way to describe it except to say that it was gigantic. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At Ahil''s words, the popes of the church nodded their heads and inwardly approved. After all, the church was born with the imperial family, even if they controlled them, they were aware that this was a respectable behaviour. "It''s... acceptable," James said suddenly. Inwardly he was trying to hold back his laughter. Of course, he couldn''t afford to build a building for the Chaos Guild and so he had tried to get the church to pay for everything. In doing so, though, he had made a bigger profit than he had expected. He had always been allowed access to the imperial library, and even he had no idea what he would be able to do if the guild''s main building was the imperial palace itself, after all, it would be beyond limitless. "What do you think, Master Moros? Is the imperial palace enough?" James asked as the older duo stood up and tried to realise what was going on. "Moros? The child of Nyx, sir?" asked Datura. "Mhm exactly. Shut up for a second and let me hear what the man has to say," replied James and with that he read the window that had formed in front of him: [That''s good enough, James. Even if you choose an ordinary house as a guild building, I don''t think they will say anything, enjoy yourself.] James smiled when he read this window and then said "Well, we got the approval" and entered the guild panel. When the guild panel opened, an open map of the 5th floor appeared in front of him and he paused for a few seconds after seeing the enormity of the map. He was excited to see the empires and kingdoms outside the Sun Empire. However, he chose the area where the imperial palace was located. A paper suddenly appeared in front of him and he handed it to the emperor. As soon as the emperor signed the paper, another window appeared in front of James: [Are you sure you want to make the Main Palace of the Solar Empire the territory of the CHAOS Guild with all its borders? YES/NO] The answer was already obvious, his hand reached for yes, and a notification window appeared on the entire 5th floor: [The CHAOS Guild''s main building has been designated as the boundary of the Imperial Palace. Congratulations to Umbra on his monumental achievement. Guild honour has increased by 100,000 throughout the 5th floor]. Chapter 36: Floor Rewards [The CHAOS Guild''s main building has been designated as the Imperial Palace grounds. Congratulations to Umbra for his huge achievement. Guild honour has increased by 100,000 along the 5th Floor]. With this notification window, everything was complete, there was nothing else James could do at the moment. Perhaps he could go to the imperial library, but he was certain that he would spend a very long time there. Which left him with only one answer. "I need to go to rest for the day. When I get my floor rewards, I will leave for a while. I need to go to the 10th floor." Saying these words, James stood up with the looks of those around him and then asked, "Can you show me a place where I can rest, master Ahil?" After these words, Ahil immediately called a servant and with this, James entered a room that was at least 10 times more luxurious than the hotel room, he had neither a shower nor anything else, he buried his head in the pillow and then closed his eyes. He planned to sleep for at least a few hours. ----- "What do you mean the guild honour has increased by 100,000? Even Olympus took years to get anywhere near that level of honour..." Artemis turned to her father Zeus in a dazed manner and spoke. Honestly, even Zeus himself did not expect this event. When he founded the guild, he had been trying to reach this honour point for almost 1000 years. "The Church and the greatest empire of the fold have accepted him. The guild territory is the imperial palace itself. It''s safe to say that the majority of the 5th Floor will fall under James'' control." When Zeus gave this answer, all the gods in the environment could do nothing but shake their heads. Nevertheless, a seed of fear had fallen into Zeus'' heart. Having such an honour meant that many guilds would target James. It was possible to stop the gods in this realm, but it was impossible to stop every single guild. After all, once he got to the realm of the gods, that is, above the 75th floor of the tower, it took a huge amount of energy to get down. He did not have the power to do it himself. This power was only available to those honed by war, such as Nemesis, or perhaps his son Hermes, who had sufficient speed. He may have been the owner of the lightning, but he was using this power against the gods, he was already low in energy. He could not afford more. He couldn''t do this. Their only recourse was Theseus himself, he had to protect James, Poseidon''s son. Umbra had to be protected because Zeus knew that if Umbra, James, died, there would be no reason to fight. Of course, this was in a scenario where Nyx didn''t get angry. Each of them had to believe in Theseus. ----- It had been almost half an hour since James had opened his eyes. He had slept well, and when he checked the system he realised that he had slept soundly for two days. You could tell how tired he was. The good news was that the floor rewards had been delivered. There was a gift box where he kept the cards, that is, in the area that appeared at the bottom right when he checked the system with his eyes. He had finished enjoying a nice bath and the meal that followed and it was finally time to get his rewards. When he pressed the gift box, the box glowed in a way that forced James to close his eyes. After a few seconds, the glow disappeared and James was left with a knife and an egg, perhaps the size of a football. Unable to believe that these were his prizes, James checked his inventory and found that he had nothing but these two. Even though he couldn''t understand what was going on, he still tried to check the items: [Selene''s Knife(Replica)(Godly-) Some people used to say that the Moon Goddess liked to carve moonstones. Well, of course, the truth of that has existed as long as Selene wanted it to. This little knife has gone through a transformation upon throwing. It was bestowed to Umbra by Selene herself after the agreement with the Tower. It has been renamed /Selene''s Throwing Knife\\. It will always be a knife that can be summoned by the player with the energy of the moon as long as the player''s will is sufficient. The piercing probability has been increased by 40%. The bleeding probability has been increased by 40%. Attack damage increased by 40%. When equipped with Selene''s Boots, the player''s speed will increase by 70%]. When James closely examined this knife, he had a great idea of why it had only received two awards. He was certain that he could be satisfied with this prize alone. Still, he couldn''t forget the egg the size of a football. When he touched the egg, another window opened in front of him: [Mystical Beast Egg(Godly++) The stories told by the gods say that Moros, the God of Fate and Sorrow, likes to collect mystical monsters inside the tower. This egg, the result of the mating of two Supreme Dragons, was bestowed upon Umbra by Moros the Bizar. The egg will grow with the player''s abilities, elements and personality. Moros has bestowed this egg to you in the hope that the child that hatches from this egg will help you for eternity, please take care of it, it is one of the last of his race. Growth rate 0/100 %] James, who smiled after receiving his awards, scratched his head and then said, "The Lady of the Moon and the Man of Destiny must have liked me very much. Look, they even made a deal with the tower managers. Thank you very much indeed." and bowed his head respectfully. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. There were only 3 things left. Gacha and the 2 card options left in his hand. There was a dark card and a crimson card next to it. It was time to use these cards, he was aware of this because he would enter the 7th floor shortly, and he had to be fast and decisive. That''s why he took a deep breath and touched the red card, hoping that the cards would give him something good. Gacha time had started again. After all even the cards were counting as the gacha. The only thing he needed was luck and he knew that luck was something he had. After all didn''t the fates make him have it? Chapter 37: Another Limited Time Gacha [Poison Resistance(Unique-) Basic level poison resistance. Provides 100% resistance to low-grade poisons]. James, who was staring at the ability that came out of the card, smiled and rejoiced. He seemed to be happy to have an ability like poison resistance. After all, he had been poisoned many times even while fighting zombies on the 6th floor. Of course, this poison was only related to dizziness, but something a little more serious could hurt him, so it was a good thing that he had such an ability. However, he looked carefully at the dark paper and then took a deep breath and touched the paper, something important had to come out of such a dark paper. [Deep Loyalty(Godly++++) Inside the tower, betrayal is something that comes from the top of the structure. Players neither see betrayal as bad nor hate betrayal. Deep loyalty will ensure that everyone who doesn''t directly hate you will treat you impartially. Proximity with NPCs increased by 50%. The probability of controlling NPCs increased by 10%. The probability of getting discounts in NPC Shops increased by 70%. The tax on sales in the Auction House has decreased by 30%. A 5% discount has been applied to your purchases in the Auction House]. It would be an absolute lie to say that James wasn''t upset when he read the window in front of him, after all, he deeply wanted to have a talent for fighting. The Tower was practically trying to turn him into a merchant. He was forming a bond with NPCs, gaining abilities such as gold master. Still, it wouldn''t be fair to say that he was completely disappointed, after all, this ability would have created his authority not because of Nyx, but because of his existence. On top of that, there was the fact that no one who didn''t harbour ill feelings for him would ever betray him. "Very good," James said and then paused for a few seconds. One eyebrow went up when he read again the purchases in the Auction House. "Emma, where''s my gold?" he suddenly asked. He had neither won a gold prize from the first floor nor did he have the gold from the monsters he had killed so far. [Again, please give me a break, sir! We were able to arrange the rewards quickly because a high god and a goddess helped us. You''ll get your gold sooner or later!] James, who coughed slightly after reading the window that suddenly appeared in front of him, said "sorry." and then opened the gacha panel. When he opened the panel, he saw that a limited gacha was on the panel, just like the clothing gacha. "Magic Gacha." James suddenly said, and couldn''t help smiling at what he saw. It had been a while since he had magic status and he was very happy with it, now he was standing in front of a gacha where he could officially gain magic, there was only one problem. "1000 rights for every ten flips?" James had 9600 rights and of course, he wanted to put them to good use. "Should I do it?" he muttered, and then sat down, officially distressed. His eyes kept going back to the normal gacha, but the limited gacha was only 15 hours away. After a few minutes of waiting, he put his finger on the panel and then took a deep breath, said "I have nothing to lose", and pressed the [turn ten] option. The wheel was spinning as usual, but this time it seemed to be faster. After almost half a minute of spinning, the wheel slowed down and then stopped and the usual 10 cards appeared in front of James. James was stunned, something that had only happened on his first gacha spin before: "All green cards...." When James looked at the cards in front of him, he did not care about any of them and touched each of them one by one without waiting. One of them caught his attention. [Lowest Level Water Element (Common---) You can create as much water as you can fill a glass with for when you''re thirsty! The element can evolve as you continue to use it. The element will be destroyed when it encounters a higher tier]. "Huh...At least we''ve solved the water issue, I''ll always be able to create it even if I run out of water." James suddenly said he hadn''t expected to encounter such a spell. However, he still had 8 more to spend, and knowing this, he pressed the [turn of ten] option again. This time, just like the last time, simple abilities appeared in front of him, but nothing really changed. Breathing spells, fast running spells, jumping spells and other ridiculous spells were given to him. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James realised that he had only 1 spell left after he had used 7 spells in a row, and then he shouted angrily "WHAT SPELLS ARE THESE!!!". With this anger, he pressed the [turn of ten] option again and started to wait for the disappointment he would experience again, but this time he would not be disappointed. [High-Level Fire Element (Legendary++++)] When James touched the gold card that had suddenly appeared in front of him, he saw this inscription and trembled deeply. He came from a very hyperactive world. Of course, he had seen such things in the hundreds of fantasy books, TV series and films that existed. After all, what maniac hadn''t fantasised about controlling the elements even once? [High-Level Fire Element (Legendary++++) The player will have the ability to control the fire at will. Before this ability reaches the final level, the player must reach a great enlightenment. Fire-based abilities will deal 70% more damage. Fire-based abilities will eat 30% less energy. Predisposition to fire is increased by 90%. Proximity to fire element-based monsters increased by 100%]. When James read the gift in detail, he smiled, bowed his head and covered his face with his hands. Suddenly he jumped to his feet and then shouted: "HAHAAAA FIRE!!! MY CHILDHOOD DREAM!" Chapter 38: Floor 7 When James read the gift in detail, he smiled, bowed his head and covered his face with his hands. Suddenly he jumped to his feet and then shouted: "HAHAAAA FIRE!!! MY CHILDHOOD DREAM!" He was going crazy in the huge room, the smile on his face was brighter than it had ever been in his entire life, indeed, the element he had dreamed of since childhood by asking the question "How would it be?" was now in his palms, it was impossible not to be happy like a little kid who got himself a new toy. After calming down, he sat back in his seat. He laughed so much that his ears were red and his eyes were teary, no one, including the gods, had expected him to be so happy. [Have you calmed down yet? I don''t think anyone thought you''d be this happy.] When James read the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, his smile widened a notch and he spoke, pretending to understand the way it was written: "I came from a world without magic, my lady, and of course, I would be so happy to fulfil my childhood dream." After James said this, it became clear that there was no point in waiting on this floor anymore. He had 600 gacha points left, but there was no point in using them now. "Emma, send me to the 7th floor." he suddenly said and entered the portal that opened in front of him, he had no intention of returning to the 5th floor for a while. As soon as he entered the floor, he realised that the surroundings were just like on the 6th floor. He was in a cemetery again, but this time he was in a mansion area. [Welcome! Welcome to the 7th floor, Mr Umbra! The quests on floors 7-9 are not shared with players, so players must explore them themselves. Please take care of your sanity and complete the quests. Good luck!] When James read and closed the window, he started to move towards the mansion with calm steps. There was no noise around, the zombie seemed to have left the floor, which meant that whatever he had to do, he had to do it inside the mansion. With each step he took in line with this information, his attention began to be drawn to other details. After looking at the tombstones around, he saw that there were names on each tombstone compared to the previous floor, he could not quite understand what was going on. S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Maybe this was a functioning region just like in the ancient times of the world. The tombstones of the poor did not have their names written on them, so maybe the 6th floor could be the area symbolising the lowly people. That''s why the mansion looked so luxurious. "Elanor Rosewell, Rigby Rosewell, Amber Rosewell, Dick Rosewell...Is the whole family buried here?" He had passed almost 40 gravestones, but after a while these four names caught his attention. It was obvious that they were family, but he didn''t know what killed each of them in the same year. "They all have the same anniversary of death. Year 197." With these words, James, who had approached the door of the mansion, gently pushed the door and entered. It was colossally colder inside than outside, James could feel his bones shaking. As he entered, a melancholy piano began to play, a violin sounded, and people began to gather around. "Ghosts? Really? Bunch of ghosts, that was not what I expected at all." James said suddenly and reached for his inventory to grasp Clarent, just as another window appeared in front of him: [Mission Information Updated Find the real Elanor Rosewell!] After reading this window, James put Clarent back in his place and then started to look carefully at the ghosts around. All the female ghosts around had the same face. Each of them happily danced with their partners in harmony with the music. When James went up to a dancing couple, he bowed his head politely, looked at them, and asked, "Excuse me, are you Mrs Elanor?" Hearing this question, the female ghost turned to James and said, "No dear, that''s not me, you have to be quick." As soon as the female ghost''s words were over, her face faded and she had someone else''s face. When James saw this image, the astonishment on his face reached a gigantic size. "Quick?" he thought, not understanding what was going on. As he asked himself this question he realised that the area was getting hotter, he closed his eyes again and when he opened them he saw that the whole room was on fire. "KYAAA!!!" "HELP PLEASE!!!" "WATER, PLEASE WATER, I''M ON FIRE!!!" The sounds of screaming were piercing James'' ears, it was impossible to understand what was going on. That melancholic piano and calm violin sound was still going on and the flames around were getting bigger and bigger. It was even possible to see ghosts running around to escape the flames. They must have thought they could save their lives even though they were dead. "This tower must be out of its mind..." said James suddenly, but at that moment it occurred to him that he had to move. With quick steps, he stopped the female ghosts around and asked them the same question and got the answer "no" from each of them. All the female ghosts in the room had already changed, there was no other woman in the area. At that very moment, the door in the very corner of the room caught James'' eye. Something inside him gave him the feeling that he had to break the door and move forward. He moved towards the door and forced the door, but there was no passage through the door as if someone had nailed the door from the inside. He suddenly took Clarent outside and without waiting, he cut the door, the door was shattered into pieces. He managed to keep the flames approaching him away from him with his newly acquired Fire Elemental mastery. Yet despite all this, the flames were growing stronger every second, the room that had just been bone-chillingly cold was now hot as hell. After passing through the door, James looked around and saw a path leading downwards. The road was dark and there was an air coming from below that squeezed James'' heart. It was as if someone was calling him down, James had to go there. Chapter 39: That Was Way Faster Then I Expected James had to go down there. He realised this himself, and that was why he activated his Night Vision and started down the stairs. The fact that he had been down the stairs for almost half a minute seemed to tell him how deep he had reached. There was a door in front of him. The door seemed to be made of iron, it was a very suspicious door with no visible back. Grasping Clarent tightly, James kicked the door open, his strength too great to be stopped by such a door. After entering the door, he saw the blood pool around. The dried blood stains around were at least 30 times more than the blood stains that would have formed when James had almost died, it was very, very clear that this was a torture chamber. With slow but quick steps he made his way to an area where the blood was getting thinner and thinner and then he saw a cage. The cage was huge, it would be absolutely normal to say that it was almost 5 metres long. After watching the cage carefully, he realised that a woman was sitting in the cage, covered in blood. Seeing the woman, James stopped where he was for a few seconds and then tears began to flow from his eyes. "You found me..." James paused and stared at the bloodied woman as the thin female voice rose from the field. "Elanor..." he said calmly. Still, the answer he expected in return did not seem right at all. "Watch out for them. They came, they slaughtered my entire family, my entire home, my entire lineage, my entire people, every one of them, turning them into horrible monsters." These words shocked James once more as if they had snapped him straight to attention and made him ask the question: "Who are they?" "Shapeshifters. Necromancers. Please be careful, please save them." These words seemed to have touched James'' heart deeply, he felt as if he had seen a friend he hadn''t seen for a long time. James took a deep breath and paused as if he was about to say something when he saw that Elanor had removed a necklace from her neck and was holding it out to James. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Please take this, I''m sure it will protect you," Elanor said and that gave James enough confidence. "I''ll...I''ll save you, I promise...." said James suddenly and with that, Elanor and every single one of the flames around them stopped. [7th Floor Completed = Find the Real Elanor Level 8 unlocked. The rating of the deep battle has been unlocked. 15,000 Gold earned]. The 7th Floor was completed, quite quickly. James suddenly fell to the ground with that, his mental strength had indeed strengthened tremendously, but what he was going through now seemed a little difficult to him, Elanor was a girl who seemed to be almost James'' age, and her being in such a state seemed to remind him of how difficult life was. Elanor must have been through the same thing a billion times by now, being on the 7th floor itself, while he was inside this tower, playing at being a god. It might have been real, it might have been like a memory that could change, but one thing was true...Elanor was acting like a real person....as if every letter of every word had caressed James'' heart. "I have to save her...." said James suddenly and with a light step he moved forward. He had to go through one of the two passageways that had appeared in front of him, even if he was scared for a few seconds to move forward with his current minor mental damage, he also realised that retreating at such a level would set him back from the others in the future. He made his way to the 8th floor passageway and suddenly he was through it. James was about to find himself in a much more complicated situation than he had imagined. He could not even imagine what was about to happen. When he passed through the passage, he found himself in the ballroom he had just been in, and the people around seemed to be real people this time, not ghosts. Yet James realised very clearly that some of the people around him were different from the others. He didn''t even want to lift his eyes to look at them, his stomach felt disgusted by them. "Shapeshifters..." thought James, he had enough perception to recognise them. These abominations were a race of monsters that had existed in the tower''s early history but were later wiped out by the union of Erebus and Ra. They were a dangerous race, and a visit to Chaos by Erebus himself had led to the acknowledgement of their extermination and a definitive acceptance from the creator himself that they had been destroyed. This meant that James was in a way involved in the [bridge of truth and lies] inside the tower. Like on the 6th-floor mission, he seemed to be able to see through the curtains. It was like he had a pair of eyes that could see through illusions. It must have been something strange like he could see the colours of graded cards. Maybe it was a strange ability, but it was in his favour that this ability worked this way. With a few steps, James began to walk around, often greeting people respectfully and talking to them. He even tried to get close and talk to them. He had recognised some of the women from their ghostly forms on the previous floor, he had even seen the woman he had first asked a question of, but neither Elanor nor any other Rosewell family member seemed to be around. In fact, except for Elanor, he didn''t even recognise the others. Still, he thought that he might have a purpose to save each of them, after all, Elanor had asked him to, it was a big gap for the 8th floor''s mission, he might be dealing with a different subject, but he still had a purpose to take the woman''s words seriously, James thought to himself. "Members of the Rosewell family entering the lounge." With a sudden voice, the door in the room where the stairs to the ballroom were located opened and four people entered. Chapter 40: What Is Trully Happening? When James saw these people, he stayed where he was for a few seconds, he couldn''t believe his eyes. He really couldn''t figure out what was going on, how was he going to get out of a place like this, how was he going to clean this floor? Rosewell waited for a while after the family members came down the stairs and took a chance to get closer to Elanor. "I don''t think I''ve seen you before, thank you so much for coming to my birthday party." When Elanor uttered those kind words, the grimace on James''s face had reached a colossal level, it was impossible not to feel sad. The bloodied young woman he had seen only a dozen minutes before was now bowing her head in thanks. "Lady Elanor, forgive my rudeness, but please follow me, I have some very important information for you." James gave Elanor this rude greeting as politely as he could and confused the woman in front of him. "You say you have information for me, sir, but I have never seen you before, why should I believe you?" Elanor retorted, not knowing what was going on any more than James did. "I beg you, my lady, if you don''t like the information I bring you can kill me with your bare hands, I only need five minutes of your time." James'' words and the look of bitterness on his face must have pricked Elanor''s conscience as the two managed to retreat to one side of the hall. "Well? So tell me then," Elanor said with a smile. James wasn''t quite sure how to explain it. He never thought he would be able to convince Elanor so quickly, and when he realised that it would be best to tell her the truth, he uttered these words: "You do not recognise me now because I was sent here by you from the future, my lady." Elanor giggled a little when she heard these words and then tried to leave by saying "Haha...I didn''t know my father had invited a comedian, thank you." but James managed to stop her at the last moment. When James took out the blood-covered necklace from his inventory and showed it to Elanor, her eyes widened and she stared at James. "This necklace belonged to my grandmother, she always said she hoped it would protect me from all evil, but I''m wearing it now, how is that even possible?" Elanor uttered these words in astonishment, upsetting James one more notch. Unfortunately, the necklace did not protect Elanor. "My lady, I wasn''t lying when I said I came from the future. This necklace is yours, you gave it to me, to save you and your loved ones. We must leave, the shapeshifters...they are already here." As James spoke these words, Elanor paused for a few seconds and said with a smile, "They were all destroyed by the god Erebus, did they escape and come here?" These words made James think. He had no idea that the Shapeshifters were being destroyed by Erebus himself. "Now that you understand the situation, please allow me to protect you, we must leave immediately," James suddenly said, and Elanor, hearing these words, turned around and said, "Then I must inform my family, we all must leave together." At that very moment, James gently grabbed Elanor by the arm and shook his head left and right after getting her attention. This was the frightening sight James had seen when his family members first arrived in the parlour. All family members except Elanor had been transformed into shapeshifters. When James looked at them, he saw twisted faces, bodies with missing parts, long tentacles, dozens of eyes, and as many other disgusting things as possible. It seemed to tell him that he had to save Elanor as fast as he could. Elanor understood what James meant and somehow managed to keep a smile on her face. She could feel her heart-shattering. Her little brother Rigby, her mum Amber and her dad Dick were no longer with her, it was a miracle she could even handle it and not have a breakdown. "Let''s go," Elanor said suddenly, as if ready. With that, the two slowly made their way to the door of the mansion. The parlour was in the same place as the door to the mansion, it may have been an odd piece of architecture, but in this case, it would have been more massive than they had thought. The duo somehow managed to get out of the mansion door, but what they saw outside did not bode well. The human bodies around were something that even James had not expected. Some black-robed people seemed to be busy drawing runes, James could not understand what was going on, and Elanor was like him. The two of them passed through the black-robed figures as if nothing was happening and they seemed to attract no attention whatsoever. Even Elanor could tell that they were necromancers, one of the few powers that were not recognised even inside the tower. It wasn''t because they were evil or anything, but because in the eyes of the gods, necromancy depended on gaining power the easy way. "What''s going on?" Elanor asked in a low voice, but unfortunately, James had no answer, he really couldn''t understand what was going on. After a while, they came to a place where there were no more people and not even a sound. It all happened so fast, a window suddenly appeared in front of James and he saw Elanor freeze. "Are you kidding me? All of that sadness I have lived was for this? I am so gonna lose my fricking mind!" James muttered, unable to understand what was written on the window in front of him: [8th Floor Cleaned. Elanor Rosewell successfully cleared the mansion and the dangers outside the mansion. 15,000 gold won] "My lady, what''s going on?" James asked suddenly, he needed answers, he had no idea what was going on. The possibility that the tower had pulled a trick had occurred to him but he restrained himself, he knew he wasn''t going to get any answers from anyone but someone like Nyx right now. It would be cheating a little, but he wasn''t going to take a step forward or return to the 5th floor without knowing what was going on, he had a right to know what was going on. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 41: The Tower Is Trying To Adapt "My lady, what is going on?" At James'' question, a window opened in front of him after almost half a minute: [I somewhat concealed your presence, there were too many necromancers and shapeshifters. Even if you are strong for this floor, you tried to complete the task in a very wrong way. You shouldn''t have taken that necklace and you shouldn''t have convinced Elanor. On the 8th floor, you and Elanor should have escaped through the secret passage in the mansion, but you walked out of the mansion''s door. On the 9th floor you will be alone, I beg you, please be careful, without my help, you would have died a painful death that you can''t imagine]. James buried his head between his knees as he read the paragraph in front of him in-depth and then inhaled and exhaled deeply. At that moment, he straightened up as if something had come to his mind and then said, "I couldn''t get any sense of your power, how did you hide me?" [Haha...You may have become stronger, but you don''t even have as much power as a strand of my hair, sweetheart. You won''t feel anything if I don''t want you to, you can be sure of that.] Finding a great deal of truth in Nyx''s words, James bowed his head and then lay down on the ground, the fact that he was in such feelings every time made him wonder if his mind was getting stronger. He didn''t want to get into such feelings. "So, in a way, I disrupted the functioning of the mission, did I, my lady?" When he asked this question, which suddenly came to his mind, he received an answer he did not expect: [Yes, I don''t know what will happen on the 9th floor. To put it simply, the tower gives different tests to almost everyone, on every floor. I mean, the quest on your 6th floor could have been somewhere else, not in the graveyard, but since you''ve finished the [Hell Difficulty] tutorial, you''re faced with more difficult and complex quests than usual.] [I was a Hard Difficulty player, James, and you have finished a place that is at least 100 times more difficult than mine, and the tower is trying to adapt to you and present you with tests that will push your limits too far. My daughter Nemesis did the same task on this floor as you, as did many gods and goddesses. While my daughter''s mission involved only ten shapeshifters and a few necromancers, yours involved fifty or even sixty. You wouldn''t have made it out of there alive.] Reading Nyx''s words seriously, James paused as the awkwardness of almost dying hit him. "I''ll be here for a few minutes if you could give me some copies. Don''t get me wrong, it''s not about how to clear the mission, just tell me exactly how careful I need to be with the level of difficulty given to me." James suddenly uttered these words and then another message window popped up in front of him: [Technically speaking, you are not going to the mansion this time. Floor 6 was based on breaking the necromancers'' illusions. The 7th floor was there to gain information from the shards of the future. The 8th floor will be based on using this information to escape and the 9th floor will be based on fighting. So the only thing you have to be careful about is not to die]. After closing this window, James took a deep breath and then briefly organised his inventory. He had a superior Health Potion in his hand, and since the time to use it was now, he placed it at the top of his inventory. Then he looked at the Mystic Beast Egg as if something caught his eye, and then smiled and said, "So you have grown already." [Growth Rate: 0.739%/100] However, James, who had already started to hold Clarent tightly in his hand, moved towards the passage of the 9th Floor and entered it. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he was in the same place as Elanor. The tiredness in Elanor''s eyes was obvious. James didn''t know how long she had been awake or where they were. One thing he did know, though, was that if Elanor looked this exhausted, it must have been a long time since they had left the mansion. He pulled two sandwiches out of his inventory and handed one to Elanor, not forgetting a water bottle. "We must use caution, but eat and get some sleep, my lady," James said suddenly, and with that, Elanor rose from her seat and sat down next to James. After Elanor had eaten the sandwich with great appetite, she put her head on James'' shoulder and then closed her eyes, you could feel her tears falling and even her body trembling. "It''s a shame..." James suddenly thought it seemed strange to him that this sort of thing was happening, after all, it could have been him instead of Elanor. Before long, however, the young woman had fallen asleep and James was the only one left awake. As James looked around, he was experiencing many thoughts. Nyx had told James that the 7th floor was a piece of the future, but James couldn''t make up his mind. This meant that James was living deeply in the past. The person who was with Elanor when these events happened in the past should have been killed and Elanor should have been imprisoned again. But then how could they get themselves out of this filth? How would James clean the floor? After all, it was clear that fighting alone would get them nowhere. "The Bell of Hypnos!" said James suddenly, the colour draining from his face. Yes, maybe he wouldn''t fall asleep himself, but if he managed to use it at the most dangerous time, he might be able to force Elanor and all the other dangers to fall asleep. Still, he didn''t know at what time he should use the bell. After all, going to the mansion and shouting "Your enemy has arrived!" would not accomplish anything. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Who knows how many shapeshifters were there, who would show their true colours to anyone who did such a thing? Nevertheless, the main event of the plan was decided in James'' mind, now he just needed something to hide Elanor for a short time...And what could it be? Chapter 42: The Attack "What should I use?" James muttered, the question seeming to occur to him when he saw Elanor leaning against his shoulder. At that moment, though, a smile rose to his face. It was obvious that he could use the item he had obtained with the Bell of Hpynos right now. He looked at his inventory with a smiling face and then calmly said, "Loki''s Mask." He had thought about where he could use this item when he had won it, but he had not reached any answer, who would have thought that his gacha ability would have saved him while the tower was beating James to the ground? All he had to do now was wait, when Elanor woke up he would give her another meal and then he would tell her the plan. For now, he would have to wait... ----- It had been almost 20 minutes since Elanor had opened her eyes again, and even though James had told her that they had to be careful with their meals, there was now a table of food in front of her that would have looked like the food in the mansion. "Please eat and listen carefully my lady, I will tell you what we are going to do," James said and Elanor''s attention turned to him. Seeing the young woman begin to consume the food, James leaned his back against the wall of this strange place they were in and then began to speak: "If you know of a safe place, a place where no one can find you, get in, or even smell you, please tell me, we have to go there." Elanor swallowed the morsel in her mouth after uttering these words and then said, "This is such a place, equipped with sacred power, based on black magic, no one can even feel the existence of this place, we are underground, there is no safer place than here." When James heard those words, he thought that Loki''s mask would be of no use, after all, he had intended it to get Elanor out of where they were and as far away from danger as possible. "Very well then, it''s up to me, we don''t even need to put you in danger," James said suddenly. These words seemed to make Elanor think. "I''m going to leave here and go straight to the mansion, I''m going to take as many shapeshifters and necromancers as I can, and then I''m going to slaughter them all." "You may be wondering how I''m going to do that." After speaking one after the other, he took out the Bell of Hypnos from his inventory and continued his speech with a smile: "This bell belongs to a god, and believe me a strong one too. When used, I can put anyone at any distance into a deep sleep, a sleep so deep that even if they fall into the lava, they will not wake up from the shock of pain. Since I am completely impervious to sleep spells, I will be able to kill any enemies I gather, so all I ask is that whatever you do, don''t leave this place." As James finished speaking, he saw tears falling from Elanor''s eyes. He didn''t know what had happened, and he stood there as if he had no idea what he was supposed to say. "Thank you very much...Thank you very much indeed, please avenge my family, I beg you." James had only the faintest idea of what he should say when Elanor uttered those words, but they weighed enormously for him, but for Elanor they weighed everything. "You know, my lady...I lost my parents when I least expected it. It was a normal accident, but I wasn''t even of legal age, I was all alone, my relatives pushed me away and I had to work from a young age.''" "Maybe I can''t fully understand what you are going through, after all, even if my parents died a painful death...even if I lost them in front of my eyes, I was still well brought up, to survive.'' "I already knew the realities of the world, but you are all alone, just like me. As I said, I cannot possibly understand what you are going through, but rest assured that I grieve for you." These words stopped Elanor in her tracks and made her cry even more deeply, maybe she was silent, but the tears that fell from her eyes said it all. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Yes...let it flow...." James thought of something he had not been able to do in his time. With that James stood up and then looked at the clock hanging on the wall, it was night-time, the time when shapeshifters and necromancers were most active as far as he knew. Yet it was also the time when James was least worried. James was a warrior of Nyx and the night served him, the moonlight loved him and fate itself had his back. He had nothing to fear. "How far is it from here to the mansion, my lady?" James asked suddenly and Elanor replied, "Almost half an hour, we arrived last night, don''t you remember?" James shook his head when he heard these words and then smiled and said, "I''m just having problems with time, Chronos must have something to do with it." He had no idea how these simple words had made Chronus laugh. As calmly as he could, he left the underground and emerged into a wooded area. He could hear owls hooting all around him. After a deep yawn, he pulled out the Clarent he had put in his inventory when he had crossed the passage and equipped Selene''s Throwing Knife in his other hand. The moon was high, the moon was full, his will was now at its peak and the light of the moon reflected the will in his eyes. Even he had no idea how much this knife would help. He saw a footprint on the ground that had not been completely erased and knew instantly that this was the way they had come, he started to move quickly and soon realised that the view in front of him had changed. He could see the mansion very clearly. He could see the handcuffed people around and could visualise the necromancers whipping them. The battle could now begin. Chapter 43: New Grade 3 necromancers seemed to be digging a few graves, it was obvious that the whippersnappers were shapeshifters, which meant that James would at least be able to kill a few monsters while managing to hide under the moonlight. James gripped Selene''s Throwing Knife tightly and then activated the ability, saying "Pierce!" With incredible speed, the knife stabbed into the neck of one of the necromancers and pierced his neck and entered the ground on the ground. Seeing this, the other necromancers and shapeshifters suddenly started to look around to find out what was happening, but they could not see anything. After that, dozens of human-looking monsters suddenly emerged from the mansion. James could see the true image of each one of them and his stomach was rising enormously, he was about to vomit. He waited until no one else came out; when that happened, it was time to start. Nevertheless, James knew that this was the time to act. He acted immediately and used all the abilities he could to accelerate. On top of that, using the Void Ring, he appeared in front of the crowd, reaching a speed factor that could indeed be considered gigantic even on this floor. To the amazement of all the monsters, he took out Hypnos'' Bell from his inventory and then shouted: "RUN!!!" James paused for a few seconds after he had shouted and realised that nothing had happened, the monsters in the area had attacked as soon as they realised this and at that moment James saw another small system window to the right of his eye: [4 seconds to activation]. "COME ON YOU NOW!" shouted James as dozens of shapeshifters swooped down on him. James managed to dodge a few of the attacks but it was then that he realised a claw was digging into his arm, even though he was about to scream in pain he grabbed Clarent tightly and slashed the shapeshifter''s throat. [Item Activated.] When James saw the window that had suddenly formed in front of him, he suddenly saw the entire place fall to the ground. [You resisted the sleep spell.] When he read the window, he fell to his knees and then took out a low-level health potion from his inventory and planted it on his head. His arm healed in a short time and he stood in the field as the only one left standing. He began to move around quickly, killing Clarent the shapeshifter and the remaining necromancers one by one. This took a very short time, and when James was done killing, he looked around and realised that the floor-cleaning window was not in front of him. "What''s going on?" he muttered. [I have no idea, there should only be shapeshifters and necromancers on this floor, I don''t know what''s going on, be careful James]. James suddenly saw the window that had formed in front of him and then realised that the ground was shaking. Suddenly he started running backwards and saw the ground start to split open. The handcuffed people were being pulled into the hole by something and James realised that something was approaching him at great speed. He grabbed Clarent tightly and swung the sword towards where the strange sensation was coming from. "CHING!!!" The sound of a huge metal clash echoed in James'' ears, and it was impossible to describe how much pain and ringing his ears felt. The strange thing was that none of the lower or higher gods could see what James was fighting against. On James'' side, everything was becoming clear. With his eyes wide open, James was preparing to meet the attacks of what he saw in front of him. [JAMES WHAT DO YOU SEE? WHAT''S GOING ON? WE''RE BEING CUT OFF!] What stood before James was a strange black-and-white substance. He didn''t know exactly what it was, but he knew that it looked like a person. At that moment, a window opened in front of him, glowing with a crystalline light: [Creator Grade Achievement Won! You have earned a grade achievement that only a handful of people have earned since the creation of the tower. Encounter a creator-grade monster for the first time. You get to choose 2 cards]. James looked at the notification in front of him and seemed to understand why Nyx''s image started to cut out, the monster in front of him seemed to be from a race of equal power to Nyx. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "MY LADY I NEED HELP!" James suddenly shouted, the fear coursing through his body was palpable, and he was shaking. Even the ability he had gained earlier, which had given him courage, could not help him. It was as if every second was a step closer to death. "Are you the one I''m supposed to kill? I know you, Nyx." James took a few steps back with these words he suddenly heard and tried to understand what was going on. "I''m living pieces of the past...the dead ones. So Master Erebus and the others weren''t just here to kill shapeshifters...." As he uttered these words, a portal opened next to James. A woman in crystal armour emerged from it. Black patterns on her armour. Silver-coloured eyes and hair. The woman next to him looked like someone Chaos had created with his own hands, her beauty was immense. Just by looking at her, James could feel the fear in his heart disappear. "Just stay away, this will be easy anyway." When she said these words in a rude tone, as if she was giving orders, James stood up and walked as far away as he could. The woman looked around and couldn''t find the person who had attacked James, but at that very moment she heard James'' voice: "IN FRONT OF YOU!!!" As James shouted as loudly as he could, the woman raised the black crystal sword in her hand and suddenly swung it. "RUAGGHH!!!" A shout, raised in pain, rang in the ears of both the woman and James. She was seeing blood pouring out of an unseen person, so she couldn''t quite understand what was going on. [Can you see what''s happening?] James suddenly appeared in front of her, read this message and then said, "Yes, I can see, my lady." The woman, who had somehow managed to hear this, suddenly turned her head and said, "Then tell me." The battle began to move in an unexpected direction. Chapter 44: Creator Grade Talents "This thing, it suddenly woke up and attacked me. It calls me Nyx, my lady, perhaps because of my energy, as if it recognises Lord Erebus and Lady Nyx." James'' words resonated not only with the woman who had been fighting but also with Olympus, who had regained the image. "So that''s it," she said abruptly and then plunged her sword into the ground. "Mirage of Battlefield," she said suddenly, her words echoing throughout the floor. With these words, the floor began to tremble again and the huge area opened on the floor was closed. A crystalline floor began to move from James'' feet to the very edge of the floor. Thousands of swords stuck in the ground appeared all over the area, and as soon as the area was formed, the following words were heard: "The game of the gods is cruel. The children of the creators may be in the upper echelon, but you think too highly of yourself. I am a Chaos-Born, I will not be crushed under a lowly one like you. After all, you, born of the blood of Eternus, lost to my father when he was still on the 9th Floor. As a god, you died to a boy climbing a tower. Fallen gods should not choose to rise and fight." After these words, James closed and opened his eyes again and realised that he could see the whole body of the black-and-white substance normally. A man with horns and crimson hair stood before him. [Stand as far back as you can, James. I, Nemesis, am still no god, even if I can ascend to the realm of the gods. The battle will escalate, this is a high god, just like my mum and dad]. When James read the window that had appeared in front of him, he moved as far away as he could and then climbed a tree, even though he could see what was happening thanks to the abilities Nyx had given him, the only thing on his mind was this woman who introduced herself as Nemesis. Her beauty seemed to make his heart skip a beat. Falling in love was the last thing he wanted. Yet it was clear that this was more respect and tolerance than love. He never thought he would see a descendant of Nyx with his naked eyes, especially this early. If her daughter was this beautiful, how beautiful was Nyx, who was recognised by Chaos as being handcrafted down to every hair on her head? "Perfect..." James muttered, learning more and more with every second he looked at the battle before him. James looked at the bottom right of the system panel with his eyes and saw the card made of white crystal. When he touched the card, 36 cards appeared in front of his eyes and the panel clearly stated that he could only choose two. James thought that now was not the time, but he realised that there was nothing else he could do, after all, he knew there was no such thing as joining the battle that was almost 10 minutes away. As he looked at the 36 crystal cards in front of him he realised that they all glowed with the same brightness, indeed it was clear that whatever was chosen was going to have the same level of chance. Still, James knew there was no point in waiting. By the time he had selected two of the cards, all the rest had been torn and burnt before his eyes, something that had never happened before. "Different animation? What the fuck is this, a computer game?" James muttered. When he turned over the first card left in front of him, a window opened in front of him as usual: [Way to Be a God(Creator+++) S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With this ability, the player will gain an extra attribute for every 5000 people who believe in him. The new status [Holiness] has been unlocked. Player''s holiness increased by 2500]. When James looked at this window that had formed in front of him, he smiled and scratched his head as if he couldn''t understand what was happening. [Seriously, I''ve lost the possibility of watching you for just a few seconds and you''re telling me that you''ve gained the ability to become a God?] James read the window that had appeared in front of him and it was clear that it was Moros, the only two people who had ever spoken to him in such a friendly manner. "I got the achievement when I saw that monster or god or whatever, I got another card. Do you want to see it?" James had no idea how lucky he was. Even Nyx wasn''t that lucky and she was the one who gave life to the goddesses of fate and the mother god of destiny. [I do, no, everyone wants to see that, you have no idea what was the last time someone got an achievement worth of Creator-Grade.] Taking a deep breath after reading this window and touching the card in front of him, the smile on James''s face had suddenly risen to the realm of the gods, the opportunity to help Nemesis, which was now beginning to be suppressed. Suddenly he leapt down from the tree and began to run across the crystal field. With each step, he was getting closer and closer to the battlefield, and he was welcoming the impact rising from the field with his whole body. "PERFECT!" James exclaimed, and then added, "IT''S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO ADMIRE NEMESIS!" As Nemesis and the person he was fighting came into view, he waited, and after a few seconds of breathing, he caught the attention of the pair: "YOU IGNORANT I TOLD YOU TO STFU!!! YOU''RE GONNA GET YOURSELF KILLED!!!" shouted Nemesis, but it was too late, the monster he was fighting had suddenly attacked with a tentacle-like thing. James grabbed Clarent tightly and used all his speed abilities again to counter the tentacle. Nemesis, who had taken advantage of this position to attack, managed to push the beast back with only a few moves and then stepped back to protect James, although he did not realise that this was unnecessary. James suddenly stabbed Clarent into the ground and opened his hands to make the move to end the battle: "AURA OF CHAOS!!!!" Chapter 45: Aura of Chaos "AURA OF CHAOS!!!!" As soon as James uttered the words, a huge darkness spread around. Even the stars of the night seemed to disappear. James was glowing brightly and trying to figure out what was going on with Nemesis and the other gods. James pulled Clarent out of his stalk and suddenly leapt forward. He darted past Nemesis at incredible speed and charged at the beast. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "KUAGHHH!!!" The monster met the attack and tried to counterattack, Nemesis and the others thought James had killed himself at that very moment, they had lost James in just 5 seconds. But something happened that no one expected. The beast god''s attack did no damage to James, and on the contrary, his attack literally bounced off James'' body. At that very moment, James'' voice echoed in the area: "COME ON DEAR NEMESIS! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? I''M COMPLETELY UNTOUCHABLE FOR A MINUTE!!!" When Nemesis heard these words, she started running, pulled a pair of swords from the ground and attacked the monster. Every time the beast tried to attack Nemesis, James would step in front of it and meet the attack. It had only been ten seconds, but the beast god was already covered in blood. Almost every one of his arms had been severed. The beast god had fallen to his knees. "DAMN YOU! I WILL NOT LOSE TO EREBUS AGAIN! I WILL NOT LOSE TO NYX AGAIN!!!" As these words echoed across the field, James smiled and then said, "You bastard, it''s easy to attack the weak, start crying when you''ve been beaten to a pulp, that''s why you died, you loser." None of the gods could officially believe that these words came out of his mouth, after all, James was an incredibly respectful person in their eyes. With those words, he lifted Clarent into the air. "Pierce." Then he pushed Clarent into the heart of the beast god. When blood began to flow from the mouth of the beast god, the following words were spoken towards James: "Oh young one...I won''t be the last one. The more you go up the less help you will be able to get and the more you go up the more of us you will see. That might be an easy win for you since I have no idea why you are so powerful, the rest of us will. We shall not stop until all the Chaos-Born and Chaos-Power User dies. You will perish, I give my name on that." When these words were finished, the light in the monster god''s eyes began to disappear. The monster god was dead. [Creator Grade Achievement Won! Kill a race member with Creator blood for the first time. 100 stat points have been added for you to randomly distribute]. [9th Floor Cleared! You have earned two Philosopher''s Stones for clearing the floor on high difficulty. Chaos Guild has earned 10,000 Honour points. You lost the chance to receive consecutive increased rewards for having help clearing the floor on high difficulty]. James suddenly collapsed as he read the windows in front of him. The darkness in the area was completely gone and the energy in James'' body was drained. "What''s going on, are you alright James?" Nemesis asked, dropping to her knees and grabbing James'' head. "I''m fine, m''lady, it''s just the skill I''m using...even moving now feels like I''m being cut," James replied, even as he breathed he could recognise the pain in the depths of his being. "You did very well, I mean I could have killed him myself but it would have taken a bit longer, I don''t even know why you jumped forward..." When Nemesis uttered these words, James smiled and said, "I didn''t want your beautiful face to be harmed," as if he couldn''t find a reason. This seemed to touch Nemesis'' heart, and she smiled as James patted her on the head and kissed her forehead. "Then this is my thank you," she said as she stood up and looked towards the open passage. James, on the other hand, tried to stand up, even if it was with difficulty, but he was unsuccessful, and after a careful look at Nemesis, he said, "Can we go to the 5th floor together, if possible? I can''t walk." Nemesis smiled as she heard this and then lifted James with one hand, holding him by his clothes. She carried him like a princess. After passing through the portal, James opened his eyes on the 5th floor and saw Theseus and Datura. When Theseus realised that it was Nemesis who was carrying James, he fell to his knees and said, "Forgive me, my lady, I did not know what had happened in my confusion." Even if Datura didn''t realise what was going on, she had the idea that Theseus was serving James, and if he was treating someone with respect, he should do the same. "Get up Theseus, since when I am making you [heroes] kneel before me?" Nemesis suddenly said with a smile. James was about to fall to the floor in embarrassment, standing there more like a baby than a princess, he could feel his ears flush red. He was just dying. When Nemesis realised this, her smile widened and she handed James to Theseus and said, "Take him to a place where he can rest, he almost died." Theseus, hearing this, nodded and replied, "As you command, my lady, you can trust me." As soon as James was given to Theseus, Theseus began to carry him. James noticed the expression on Theseus''s face that he was not laughing, after looking deeply at his face, he said "It happens again Theseus, I swear the god if you laugh...''" In the area where Nemesis was, it seemed that she was trying to get information, not even those in the realm of the gods knew what was going on, after all, it was the first time that the incredibly aggressive Nemesis had shown any interest in anyone. "You, old woman. Are you one of the worshippers of Nyx?''" This question would be the thing that would completely change the fifth floor. It was as if Nemesis had met someone to whom he could completely bind his authority. Chapter 46: Desire Of Nemesis "So you''re telling me you''re Nemesis. The daughter of my goddess?" When Datura said these words she still could not believe what was happening, she was sure her head was spinning with excitement. The imperial family, important families in the empire and important people of the church had arrived at the palace almost 4 hours ago, all here to see Nemesis. "That''s right, can''t you feel the aura around me?" Nemesis said, and as soon as she said this, the entire palace and even the 5th floor began to shake. The pressure was so enormous that more than half of the people in the palace had already fainted. Almost every one of those inside the room fainted and those who managed to stay standing started to hold their throats. It was as if they were drowning. At that very moment, Nemesis'' head moved a few centimetres and all the pressure on the 5th floor disappeared. "Come on Mother, it is not like I killed people, it will not affect me that much, I am your daughter no?" After speaking these words, she smiled and snapped her finger. "Snap!" After this finger snap, every single person in the room woke up and looked at Nemesis with fear, it seemed to indicate that every single person on the entire 5th floor had woken up. "Oh my Goddess..." said Aether, catching Nemesis'' attention at that moment. "Hah...the one with my brother''s name, how ironic...." Smiling at these words, Nemesis looked around the room and then began to speak seriously: "Something that should never have happened in the 9th Floor''s exam. Umbra almost died, but through luck or skill he managed to survive for a few seconds, and I, with the power of my mother, managed to descend from the 79th floor. Exactly 70 floors." Every single person who heard these words swallowed, albeit shyly, and it was impossible not to be amazed by Nyx''s enormous power. It was already difficult enough for a superior god to descend to the lower floors, but the fact that he could send someone else was truly an expression of unlimited power. "The moment I landed on the 9th floor, I felt something. Someone or something somehow intervened with the tower and made something that should not exist on the 9th floor, at least not anymore. This intervention was made from the 5th floor. This thing was maybe a person or a piece of treasure, after all, the gods have some pretty strange things, to intervene in other things." When these words entered everyone''s ears, Datura fell on both knees with a very serious expression, not in admiration this time, and then said, "What are your orders, my lady, please tell me." Nemesis smiled and nodded her head proudly when she heard this, then spoke towards Datura: "I want you to find that person, people or thing and I want you all to bring them to me. Whatever it takes or however you guys do just find them and bring them to me. Even if it takes for half of the Empire to die, make sure they are kneeling before me because I assure you young women whoever tries to hurt what I want to make mine will be killed by my own hands. Got it?" When Nemesis uttered these words, Datura nodded and said as if she understood the orders, "The Church and the Empire will carry out your orders, my lady. It is an honour to serve you and the warrior." Yet, as in the realm of the gods, no one seemed to question the phrase "What I want to make mine", it was a strange phenomenon. "I''m glad to hear that, I know you will do your duty well, my work here is done, get to work at once," said Nemesis, standing up and then opening his palm and pointing it forward, in a short time a portal appeared and disappeared through it. Nemesis, who had indeed come like a storm, disappeared as if nothing had happened. The moment Nemesis left the room, every single person in the room was panting, their whole bodies drenched in sweat. "OH MY GODDESS, WE SEE A REAL GODDESS! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THIS HAPPENED?" the empress said. "Nothing like this has happened since the Empire was first founded, it was unbelievable, did you see the pressure? If Lady Nemesis is that powerful and she hasn''t even made it to the end of the tower, what about our Goddess Nyx?" replied Aether. They were indeed miserable, the exhaustion in their bodies beyond comprehension. On James'' side, things were different. [James] Aren''t you going to tell me what happened? Why did I feel my father''s energy in you, what happened?] James smiled as he looked at the window in front of him and then opened the ability panel by saying "That''s what happened, my lady." [Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++) The player can borrow the Aura of Chaos at any time for one minute only. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. While the aura is in use, the player cannot be harmed by anything, cannot be poisoned in any way, and cannot be affected by any magic. The opened area of the aura will be exactly 30 metres wide and the status of allies within the area will increase by 50%. The player''s powers will increase by 100% within the area, and the enemies powers will be reduced by 10%. This ability has a cooldown of 1 month]. James smiled again as he demonstrated the ability, and smiled at the fact that he had obtained an ability of such enormous power. The possibilities of using the ability were so great that he did not even know exactly how to explain it. The only thing he did know was that even if he was pursued by a top-tier god, not someone like Nemesis, he would be able to become completely resistant to them for a full minute. The only shortcoming of the ability was that there was a waiting period of one month. Of course, this was understandable, after all, the ability was really, really powerful. One thing was certain, though, and that was that James had acquired two priceless abilities. They were worth tens of times more than the abilities Nyx had given him. Chapter 47: Nemesis Did Changed [Excellent, you''re very lucky indeed. All those lucky status points that my son and daughters wanted to bestow upon you, and that I accepted, are working in your favour. I''m very happy for you, you''ve managed to acquire a truly enormous power]. This window reminded James once again how lucky he was, and it wasn''t just that he had such abilities, or that he had the gacha system, or that he could see the true nature of anything. He was lucky that huge guilds like Olympus and Asgard were behind him, and on top of that, all Chaos-Born cared about him. It was a perfect irony. All the gods and goddesses that people worshipped were now willing to go so far as to sacrifice themselves for a mere human and even give up their energy. Indeed, he was able to attain all of this thanks to this special ability Chaos had given him, and somehow he had the strange ability to see the realities of beings. If this wasn''t pure luck, what was pure luck? "Thank you, my lady," James said suddenly, his smile so pure and genuine that even he couldn''t remember the last time he had smiled like that. Just then there was a knock on the door of the room and then Nemesis himself walked in. "Hmm...the pain in your body should be gone, the way you''re moving." As Nemesis uttered these words, James suddenly wrapped a blanket around his body. Even though he was wearing a pair of knickers, it was a woman, he couldn''t even describe how embarrassed he was, he was like a child. "You can stop hiding it, it''s nothing I haven''t seen before," Nemesis suddenly said, looking like she was about to laugh. Hearing this, James immediately reached into his inventory and pulled out some tracksuits and put them on. Then he gestured to the seat and said, "Please sit down, my lady." Nemesis did exactly as James said and sat down. "I just wanted to check on you one last time before I went back to my floor, to see if you were all right." James smiled when he heard these words and then said, "Thank you very much, my lady, thank you for coming to help. I really would have died if it hadn''t been for you." After these words, Nemesis got up from where she was and sat down next to James, then kissed James softly on the cheek and spoke seriously: "The Tenth Floor will be a different kind of test. A tournament. You must win if you want to see me again." James was already busy being embarrassed when he heard those words, but the question still arose in his mind: "I don''t see what you have to do with the tournament, my lady..." Nemesis smiled as soon as he heard this sentence and then said, "If you win the tournament, you get a ticket. You can go anywhere with this ticket only once. In this case, Olympos is also among these places. So you will have a chance to meet me, my mum, my dad and everyone else." When James heard these words, he suddenly jumped into the air and jumped with happiness as if dancing. "Am I going to get to meet my lady"'' he suddenly said, and Nemesis, who heard this, grumbled a little, "Aren''t you excited to see me again? Not even when I''m so interested in you?" Hearing these words, James averted his eyes and then Nemesis laughed before he could say anything: "Hahahahah! You''re interesting, I''m sorry for making fun of you, it was fun." Nemesis said and with that, she created a gate again before entering the gate, she turned around and added "Whatever you do, James, win." and entered the gate. And all that was left behind was a red-faced James. "Weren''t you too hard on him, Neme?" The moment Nemesis stepped out of the portal, a voice called out towards her. The smile on Nemesis'' face suddenly vanished and her face turned in the direction of the voice. "Apate," Nemesis said suddenly. Apate was known as the Goddess of Betrayal and the embodiment of deception. She was one of the spirits in Pandora''s box, one of the last children born to Nyx, and her favourite activity was to annoy Nemesis and Thanatos with her little sister Philotes. Which meant that Apate always had Philotes with her. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Come on, sis, you know who I am. They don''t call me the goddess of compassion, friendship, gender and infatuation for nothing. I can see you''re head over heels in love with him. If you only knew how angry you get at the mention of our mother''s name!" As Philotes spoke these words, Nemesis shook her head as if she didn''t care about them and then began to walk towards Nyx, who was sitting on the throne opposite her. Suddenly kneeling in front of Nyx, Nemesis said, "I have completed my mission, mother." Hearing this, Nyx, with a big smile on her face, asked, "You''re in love with him, aren''t you?" Hearing these words, Nemesis replied with great embarrassment, "I may be a little interested in him, that''s all." After these words, Erebus stepped forward and said, "The person I want to make mine, huh?" Even the God of Darkness seemed to be trying hard not to laugh. Hearing these words, Nemesis rolled her eyes amidst the laughter of the family members around her and then said, "It could have happened, I''m a living person, I want to taste love and he is more than enough so can we let it go?" These words suddenly silenced all the laughter, it was like a slap in the face for them to see Nemesis being so serious. No one had expected a goddess as serious and down-to-earth as Nemesis to agree to such a thing, after all, she was a woman who would even disregard her family''s orders to do what she thought was right. Who would have believed she was in love? Chapter 48: Finally, My Golds! "So you fell in love with him?" Nyx suddenly said, unable to hide her surprise. "Perhaps I did Mother, you are acting like you haven''t fallen for Father so hard that you fought off all of the women that were approaching him. I am your daughter no?" When Nemesis said these words seriously, Nyx smiled and remembered the past and said, "Yes, I was young once, spiritually, well, I won''t make fun of you, I''m happy enough that my little girl is old enough to fall in love." When these words were heard in the hall, everyone nodded solemnly in agreement. Even a personality like Apate was happy for her sister. First Moros changed and laughed for the first time, then Aether laughed even though he hadn''t been interested in anything for a long time, and Nemesis fell in love for the first and indeed the last time. Even if James didn''t realise it, Chaos-Borns began to change from the bottom up. Still, there was some time before James would be able to attend the tournament, after all, he still had to meet Ronald, enter the imperial library and then ascend to the 10th floor. He didn''t know, though, that every moment he waited, he was in greater danger, because it wasn''t just a handful of gods targeting him on the 10th floor, there were thousands of them, and that number was growing every day. Thousands of settlements were uniting against Olympus and Asgard. Everything was starting to heat up... ----- "Are you sure you''re all right, Master James?" "I''m fine, otherwise why would I have come to see you?" James had managed to fully recover after three days and as he walked around the city, he finally made it to Ronald''s area. It was quite interesting that he was meeting one of the three most authorised people in the tower again. "Well then, please come and sit down and I''ll offer you a cup of tea," Ronald said, like the gods, he had always watched James and his admiration for him had grown exponentially. "Thank you," James replied, smiling as he took a sip of tea: "What am I to make of you taking such an interest in me, Master Ronald?" After this question, Ronald calmly sat down on the seat in front of James and then revealed a box, after a short time, he began to speak: sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "We have already given you your rewards, but since you have again achieved great success, the committee has decided to hand over your accumulated gifts to you later." Ronald''s words seemed to have caught James'' attention enormously, his gaze became serious but also emotional. "I wanted to personally deliver the gifts of the seventh, eighth and ninth floors to you, along with your accumulated gold rewards." James, who seemed confused by these words, shook his head and then said, "Wait a minute...It was clearly stated in the cleaning window of the 9th floor. It was clearly stated in the cleaning window of the 9th floor that I would not be given successive rewards for getting help, if this is a joke, it''s not very funny Ronald." Ronald smiled and spoke after what he heard: "Yes, that''s what should have happened, but after a thorough investigation we''ve found out that what happened on the 9th floor shouldn''t have happened, the delegation is upset, we''re doing a big investigation, what happened on the upper floors, someone or something is targeting you, well, of course, you''re known to be the one who chose Mistress Nyx." James looked genuinely shocked at these words, he had just learnt that his life was being targeted for no reason. "Is that why you changed your mind?" James suddenly asked, and the answer he received made him smile more than it shocked him: "Not exactly, we were planning to give your rewards differently, like doubling the gold for example, but Madam Nemesis is very good at persuading others, we should point that out." Ronald''s words seemed to make James happy. "Haha...I guess I should thank Nemesis, it''s amazing that she saved my life and did something like this even though we''ve only just met...." James uttered these words and then took another sip of his tea. He could realise that his heart was pounding. Ronald, on the other hand, easily realised this and said, "Well, well...Would you look at this." in a voice so low that even James could not hear it. "She told us that what happened on the 9th floor was a mistake and that it was our fault, well of course it was, we had to do a better inspection after all. After a hundred things he said we were convinced and we put your prizes in this storage box you see here, there are only two prizes and a pouch of gold. Please check it." Saying these words, Ronald pushed the box towards James and as soon as James touched the box, it glowed brightly. After this gigantic light, a window opened in front of James: [Man] Sachet of Gold Used! 79,031,782 Gold Earned!] As soon as James saw this gold number, he looked at Ronald without even observing the items given to him, and then asked, "Are we sure there''s no mistake here?" Hearing this, Ronald shook his head from side to side and spoke: "A monster that shouldn''t have died in a tutorial that shouldn''t have been defeated was killed, and you shouldn''t have earned gold there, but that happened because it was a huge achievement. The second floor should not have been completely cleared, as a secret mission, 10 goblins should have been killed by surviving only 7 days, you slaughtered the Goblin King, this was a huge achievement. And to top it all off, you killed a Monster God, something that hasn''t been achieved this early since the time of Master Erebus, it''s been a long, long time." Those words alone made James shut his mouth. He had achieved more than he had ever thought or remembered. Chapter 49: Preparing For War He had achieved more than he had ever thought or remembered. James was silent for a few seconds after hearing those words, he didn''t know what to say, but he was still excited to think what he could do with the amount of gold he had. However, he now had two items to look at, so he checked his inventory. After searching for a while, he found the first item and took it out, and when he read the description of the item, he couldn''t help but smile: [Monster God''s Fang(Creator-) The Monster God was not a very powerful Creator-Born, but he was certainly one of that race. This meant that when used for crafting, this tooth could produce something very, very useful. Its use is left entirely up to the player]. When James had finished examining this item, he smiled and then shook his head and said, "Isn''t that ironic?" Ronald, who listened carefully to James, shook his head and then asked, "No sir, can you enlighten me?" James shook his head in a way that meant yes and then said, "I''ll do it right away." "This scum who tried to kill me and shouldn''t be there dies in my hands and I get his tooth as a reward, do you know what I''m going to do with this, Ronald?" "No sir, can you let me know?" Ronald said with the great wonder he had in his eyes. After waving the tooth in his hand from side to side, he said, "A fishing rod, who knows, maybe it will work as a fishing rod, fishing is fun after all." After these words, the eyes of Ronald, who held the seat tightly in his seat, widened. Not only his expression, but the expressions of all Olympus and even all Chaos-Borns became the same. A youth not born with God''s blood had killed a Creator-Born, even with help, and now he was mocking him. "What an excellent idea sir, if you give it to me I''ll be sure to come back with the best fishing rod." Ronald suddenly said and held out his hand, and James, who handed her to him, found the other item in his inventory and took it out. After carefully observing the item, he smiled again and had a sudden idea of where he would use it: [Empty Crystal Necklace(Godly----) This Necklace is the lost treasure of the Rosewell family''s ancestors, and it is the treasure that protected one of the family members. It is the original version of the necklace that Elanor thought would protect her on the quest. Provides 40% physical and magical defence to the wearer. It creates a one-time-only protection field that will protect the wearer from any attack for half a minute. This Necklace was bestowed upon the Rosewell family by Chaos]. When James had read the properties of this item, he opened his inventory and took out one of the philosopher''s stones, another prize from the quest. He handed both items to Ronald and said, "Can you put these together? I will give them as a gift to someone." When Ronald heard these words, he took the items and put them in his inventory, then tapped his finger on his nose as if he understood something and said, "Lady Nyx seems to be getting a nice gift." Still, no one but James realised that this gift wasn''t going to Nyx. After all, even if he played a big role in completing this mission, the main hero was Nemesis herself, not Nyx, at least he could do that much for her. James didn''t think that someone like Nyx, who could have anything she wanted, would be upset that she didn''t get a necklace. However, knowing that he was finished here, he stood up and Ronald, realising this, did the same. James approached Ronald and hugged him deeply and then said, "Thank you Mr Rabbit, you''re a very nice man." and left. He left nothing behind but a laughing Ronald. ----- "Have you come across any clues?" Ahil was the one who spoke. For 3 days, they had slept only two hours, constantly working on the mission Nemesis had given them and trying to gather information. Still, nothing had come of it. "No, Father, spies have infiltrated other countries, using the priests'' abilities to inform us every hour, yet we have no information." As Enel uttered these words, Ahil struck the table with his palm and stood up abruptly. "WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE SPIES DOING?!?!?!" he shouted, just as Empress Wish''s voice was heard: "Go and get some sleep Ahil, you''re exhausted, you know that." At these words, Ahil breathed in and out for a few seconds and then raised his head and said "Yes, you''re right, I have to take a nap for a few hours." and prepared to leave the room, just at that moment, the door of the room suddenly opened violently: "DAD!!! INFORMATION!!! WE''VE GOT IT!!!" Lila had suddenly entered the room, she was incredibly sweaty, and it was obvious that she had been running for some time. She was holding three pieces of paper. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Give it to me now!" Ahil answered his daughter, frowned as he held the papers and then shouted: "GET THE ARMY READY ENEL, INFORM THE CHURCH LILA! THE SUNEMPIRE IS GOING TO WAR, WE''RE GOING TO DESTROY THE 5TH FLOOR!!!" These words echoed throughout the palace, and with blood pressure rising every second, the army would prepare to mobilise. A great war was at the door, and it was caused by an official assassination attempt on James on a floor that was not to be entered or traded on. The Sun Empire would never forgive a wrong done to them, they have never done it until now. As of today, the fifth floor would be bloody. War would officially begin. ----- James, unaware of everything, entered the imperial library and was astonished by the sight before him. Anyone who looked at him could tell that he had not expected to encounter such a sight. It was like it was time for him to study. Chapter 50: Emperial Library and the Creator-Grade James felt like he was going out of his mind when he entered the imperial library. From the first floor, he could see the enormity of the library. A white floor and a sky reminiscent of outer space stretched endlessly, and he knew it was impossible not to be mesmerised by the sight. He had grown stronger lately, to an unbelievable degree indeed, but it was still not enough. He had been dying only three and a half days ago. If he hadn''t called out to Nyx at the last moment and Nemesis hadn''t come to his aid, he would have died. Yes, he had managed to choose Nyx when he entered that tower, but it had been both an achievement and a poison for him. James himself was just beginning to realise that he had made hundreds of times more enemies than friends. He had to grow stronger. Still, with the Creator-Grade abilities he had gained, he was in a pretty good position. Although he still couldn''t feel it, he had gained the [Holiness] status at the very top of the tower. As people of other races trusted him, this rank would continue to increase, the status would evolve. In short, James had taken an unimaginably big step towards becoming a god, even if it was a baby step. "My lady, when I first entered the tower, I was told that there was a tiered form only up to the Godly tier, that is, up to the black cards, what is the reason for this?" James asked this question with great curiosity, he was curious about it. [There''s a pretty big reason for that. How many people do you think enter the tower every year?] James thought for a few seconds as he looked at the window opposite him and then said "I don''t know...maybe a million or two million people?", he had no idea how wrong he was. [That''s more than half a billion people, James. The question now is how many people do you think manage to complete the tutorial?] James scratched his chin, a little surprised at what he had just heard, and then said, "Half of them, I suppose?" [That''s right, about half manage to complete the tutorial from easy to hard. Remember, not only your world but millions of worlds from millions of universes are participating in this tower. Only half of them manage to pass the tutorial every year and progress towards becoming gods. Only one thousand or two thousand of these people deserve the respect that can be tangible, and only ten or twenty of them manage to achieve Legendary or, even if rarely, Godly achievements like you]. James'' eyes widened a little and he smiled as he read this message deeply, then he looked back at the message window Nyx had sent and spoke softly: "So the rest don''t even need to know Creator-Grade. After all, out of those ten or twenty, at most one or two of them will be on their way to becoming gods. Even they will barely be able to reach Creator-Grade." Even though he couldn''t see it when he said those words, Nyx nodded her head proudly. "Hah! Who would have thought that the person or people who tried to kill me would make me so much stronger? Puhahaha! What irony! The ability of gacha that Chaos gave me actually did save me huh?" S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James laughed as he saw another window forming in front of him: [So you did know what was happening.] "Of course, I knew, my lady, come on, I''m not an idiot...the moment I heard what Nemesis had done for me, something clicked in my head, and after a little thought, I realised that, of course, I was being targeted. Anyway, let''s start exploring the library, shall we?" [I''ve set the library so that no one can see it except the external Chaos-Borns inside, so we''ll be watching you just in case]. A sly smile formed on James'' face as he read the message window that suddenly appeared in front of him. Seeing this smile, James began to speak before Nyx and the others could even think about what was going on: "Then tell all your kids to sit down, they''re going to want something from this library! Order them and I''ll read all the books and make copies, I''ll deliver them to you when I get to Olympus. Nobody told us we couldn''t make copies, did they? After all, the entire imperial palace belongs to the CHAOS Guild." Nyx and her family all burst into laughter at his words, James'' occasional sneakiness was indeed a huge personality disorder, but James didn''t have that...he was just plain a little crazy. After his words, he went straight up to the third floor of the library and looked around, shook his head for a moment and then said ''Well, we can start now''. Even though he didn''t realise it, the preparations for war had begun outside the library. All guilds on the 5th floor that were affiliated with the empire had agreed to participate in this war. The Church of Night, the Olympus Guild and the Asgard Guild would lead the war. Nemesis would follow this war closely, or rather, Poseidon would be watching Theseus and she would be near by Poseidon. However, James would try to fulfil his duty inside the library unaware. Or rather, what he knew as his duty. He wanted very much to find a talent, a talent that would suit him, a talent that was very likely to help him, a talent that would make it a little easier for him to avoid future dangers. This was his ultimate goal and desire during his time in the library. That''s why he had gone up to the third floor of the library as soon as he finished his speech. After all, whatever he was going to find, he was going to find the highest-ranked thing here, which meant that even if he could not examine all of them, he could still manage to see the necessary ones. The colours of the books were different, which was a huge stroke of luck for James. His progress would go up another notch. This was the way. Chapter 51: Finding Nothing About It [Isn''t it time for you to leave now?] James'' gaze left the window as it appeared before him and then he said, "I think it might be time, though it wouldn''t make much sense to leave without tidying up." James had been inside the library for almost two and a half months, not once had he been outside. He had gone through a long training sequence. It was safe to say that he had come a long way, the first thing he had done was to find all the legendary grade books he could find, unfortunately, he had only seen two in two and a half months and both of them were nothing more than potion recipes. The recipes were priceless, but still not what James was looking for. He managed to find quite a lot of Unique degree books. However, only one of these books was on abilities, it was quite obvious that it was a useful ability, just what he expected was to have dozens of abilities and he could only find one. [Brain Power(Unique++++) The player will find it easier to learn everything they want to learn. There will be a 70% increase in learning other languages. Your language and accent will attract people''s attention 10% more]. The ability seemed weak, but in short, it played a big role in increasing James'' brain capacity. So the ability was not weak, it was not a priceless ability, of course, but it was sure to help James. During this time, he had not only buried himself in the search of books, but also tried to train himself a little in the way of the sword, so he was able to achieve another ability with enlightenment: [Basic Weapon Mastery(Rare+++++) The player''s control over weapons will increase by 10%. The player will use weapons more gracefully. Power loss when using a weapon will be reduced by 10%. The chance of fatigue will decrease by 70%]. This ability he had gained was actually what made him happy. The only thing that forced him into his current state was the uncomfortable feeling when using Clarent. The sword might have chosen him, but James could not use the sword properly. With this ability, this discomfort would disappear. Unfortunately, the ability to use any weapon from the Aura ability did not help this discomfort. However, James did not neglect to use the 100 distributable stat points given to him when he killed the Monster God. His Strength stat increased by 20 points and reached the limit of 50. His Agility stat increased by 20 points to 79. The same number increase applied to Endurance and Intelligence, both of which increased to 41 and 59 respectively. He added the remaining 20 points directly to his Magic stat, and his magic increased to 120. James was enormously powerful for someone who had only made it to the 9th floor. Floor 10 should not have been too big a problem for him. However, James had come to the same conclusion as Nyx that there was nothing else for him to do in the library. He stood up and snapped his fingers, and one by one all the books on the floor slid back into place. "I have to say, using the library is quite fun," James said suddenly, as another system window opened in front of him: [I realise, I haven''t forgotten you snapping your fingers in amusement.] This window made James smile when he saw it, he was tired at the moment so he planned to rest for a day and then climb up to the 10th floor. He left the library and made his way down the corridor, luckily it was only about five minutes from his room to the library, so that made it easy. He quickly entered his room and, after a short shower, buried his head in the pillow on his bed. Soon his eyes closed and he fell asleep, and in the realm of the gods, something else was happening.... "So it''s you, is it?" When Nemesis uttered these words, someone was kneeling in front of her. All the gods and goddesses of Olympus were now standing in the hall. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nyx and Erebus were sitting on their thrones, and Nemesis was interrogating the man with the crystal sword he was holding tightly in his hand like an executioner. "Puhahaha...It took you so long to find me, I thought you would have found me a month ago, after all, you swallowed the bait I threw like a fish." The man who uttered these words was suddenly punched by Nemesis. The sound of the punch seemed to echo throughout the mountain. Despite the blood coming out of the man''s mouth, the man did not stop smiling and continued to look Namesis in the eyes with a grin. Nemesis, enraged by this sight, grabbed the man by the hair and suddenly slammed his head into the ground. This attack was so heavy that the entire mountain trembled, Nemesis'' anger was enormous. "Nemesis, your mother has questions," Erebus suddenly said, and Nemesis grabbed him by the hair again and pulled him into a sitting position. Nyx exhaled deeply after seeing this and then said, "Are you the one targeting the life of my dear warrior? I don''t remember seeing you before, are you one of the losers'' fallen gods trying to come back again?" she asked. The smile on the man''s face suddenly vanished after that question and he spoke, not even bothering to give Nyx the answer she wanted: "That was only the beginning, you damned woman...I assure you, we will be taking your lives very soon! Not just Umbra, but ALL OLYMPUS AND ASGARD!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!" After these words, Nemesis was about to hit the man when a sudden attack came from the area where the throne was. The man''s body suddenly fell to the ground and his head was in Nemesis'' hand. Nyx killed the man without even moving. "Mum....I thought we were going to gather information..." Thanatos suddenly said, putting his hand to his head and marvelling at what had happened. Nyx''s retort seemed to remind everyone once again why she was the strongest. "Oh my dear Thanatos, I have been living for a long time. The amount of corpses that I stepped on is way more than you can ever imagine. If I see someone I''ll know if they will tell me what I want or not, don''t you forget that ever." "Get ready Zeus, I''m going to give you a bit of a headache. Go and gather information, tear down the entire realm of the gods if you have to. You said you wanted to fight and I said I would give you my power, I still haven''t seen any results yet, be quick and don''t disappoint me again." Each person who looked into Nyx''s eyes at these words could see the ruthlessness in her face, Nyx had given a firm order and it had to be done. The small battle on the 5th floor may have ended for the moment, but another one was about to begin again. This was the true face of the most powerful woman in the realm of the gods. Chapter 52: Getting Ready For The Big Event James had been awake for an hour or two and had already received the news of what had happened. Still, it was strange to him that things had become so complicated. The Sun Empire had declared war on the four surrounding kingdoms and the 5th floor was soaked in blood. With a military operation of almost 12 million, the four kingdoms had literally been razed to the ground. The agreements made by the royal families were found, and the name of a man named Omur appeared on all the papers. This was the same man Nyx had killed with her own hands. As soon as Nyx realised that she couldn''t get any information out of him, she decided it was a waste of oxygen to let such a bastard live and killed him. However, it was learnt that all the profits of the war were given to the Olympus and Asgard guilds. In short, Olympus and Asgard had two kingdoms each. Of course, the kingdoms were not that big, they were regions consisting of four cities each, but still, even this settlement could not account for the gain they would give them. More settlements meant more training grounds and opportunities to offer, something both guilds wanted. Afterwards, he used his gacha rights and got two good items that he did not expect: [Abraham''s Armbands (Legendary) These armbands were created by the ancient high wizard Abraham to protect the arms, the most valuable body parts of wizards. When the player wears the armbands, his spellcasting speed will increase by 15%. The armbands will reduce damage to the arm area to 0 up to 3 times per day]. [Black Rose(Legendary++++) This rose is a decorative item. The aura around it indicates that it was created by its merging with the light of the night, it is one of a kind]. The first item was of course a very nice defence and attack item, and James was quite happy with it, the second item was a gift, even if he had a gift for Nemesis, he didn''t have one for Nyx, so he wanted to give it to her. With that, nothing was preventing him from getting to the tenth floor. He had taken care of all his business and stored enough food and drink in his inventory. After a double-check, she realised that there were no more problems and then said, "Emma, 10th floor please." Then the usual passageway opened in front of him and James leapt forward, opening his eyes again to find a strange crowd. The sounds of merriment, the sounds of metal being hammered, shouting restaurant owners and many more were rising in James'' ears. "Eastern architecture huh?" James said when he saw the houses around. Although he did not know exactly where the architecture came from, he could not help thinking that it might have a connection with his world. As he started to move along the road, he noticed that the energy of the people around him was very high, he could not guess the reason for this in any way. Entering a nearby restaurant, he went upstairs and sat down, ordered a dumpling, and waited where he was. The restaurant was packed, and the cheerful chatter and gossip of the people around could be heard to the fullest. "Did you hear he''s coming?!" One of the young men sitting at the next table started talking. "Come on, I could have sworn it was a lie, don''t talk rubbish," the other young man retorted. "I''m telling you the truth, we''ve been waiting for almost three months, but someone saw him coming out of the imperial library!" said the first one to speak. "No way...this tournament is going to be exciting then, the guy who managed to pick Nyx is coming? We know where to place our bets!" said the young girl. "Puhahaha, it''s really obvious. Nyx must have given him massive powers, didn''t you hear he even managed to kill a Monster God!" "We know he''s not exactly real, he''s a person from outside the tower, how could he kill another god without being a god? And we know Nemesis helped him, he can''t be that powerful!" As James listened to these words in silence, he had the idea to ask about himself, so he approached the people at the next table and asked, "Can you tell me a little bit about him?" After these words, the young people paid attention to James and said "Yes, but it will be expensive". After these words, James smiled and took out a box with 1000 gold coins from his inventory. Seeing this box, the faces of the young people brightened and then one of them got up from his seat and said, "Here, sit down." "Now tell me..." said James again, he really wanted to know what effect his actions had. "They call him Umbra, even though those close to him can call him by his real name, most choose to call him by his nickname. He is known to be the first and only person who has managed to choose Nyx. He founded the Chaos Guild, a monumental achievement. No living being, or even those who have died and become spirit beings, can simply utter the name Chaos. He founded the guild and raised the guild''s reputation to a gigantic position. In addition, he has managed to take first place in one of the rankings within the first five floors, and in some of the others, he has managed to enter the ranking easily." S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When one of the young men said this, he fell silent, and then another one spoke up: "It is also rumoured that all Chaos-Born look upon him with awe, respect and love. Some even say that Nemesis herself is in love with him. They say this because they saw Nemesis carrying him around the 5th floor like a princess, with a smile on her face. NEMESIS'' personality known as the goddess whose face never smiles, can you believe it? I wouldn''t believe it even if I saw it with my own eyes..." After these words, two people entered the upper floor of the restaurant, two people with the logo of Olympus hanging on them. As they made their way to the table where the teenagers and James were, the teenagers were startled for a few seconds, and then the two Olympians leaned in, surprising not only them but everyone on the second floor of the restaurant. "You''re late, I thought you would have noticed my presence earlier," James said, never expecting to be scolded by an Olympian. Chapter 53: Start of the Tournament "You are late, I thought you would have noticed my presence earlier." At these words, the two Olympians, who had already bowed, fell to their knees and then said "We apologise, sir, forgive our rudeness". After these words, James smiled and stood up, turned to the young people and said, "Thank you for your stories, even if it was only for a few minutes, it was fun." and started walking. To everyone''s amazement, he paid for the food he hadn''t eaten and then left the restaurant with the Olympian duo. "Sir, if you want, we can take you to one of the Olympus Guild headquarters." one of the duo said. James shook his head after hearing this and then said, "No, take me to where the tournament will be held, I need to register, right?" Hearing these words, the duo suddenly shook their heads and then one of them moved forwards while the other moved behind James. "Let''s stay in this position just in case sir, we''ll have a long way to go, the guild headquarters is right next to it." the former Olympian said and with that, they set off. James could feel the eyes on him as he travelled down the road, each member of each race looking at him and keeping their eyes on him. It was clear that no one recognised him, the fact that only two Olympians were accompanying him seemed to have caught their attention. After a short time, James arrived at the registration area in front of the tournament grounds, James went up to the registration clerk, paid his registration fee and was about to give his name when the clerk stopped him: "You don''t need to tell me, sir, Mr Ronald told me you were coming a long time ago, have a nice day." James shook his head and then asked, "Do you know exactly when the tournament will start?" The attendant tilted his head and replied, "Two days sir, you''re just in time." "Very well, thanks," he replied. James smiled as if he was satisfied with this answer and returned to the duo behind him and started to go to the headquarters of the Olympus guild. He was not planning to leave here for two days. He knew very clearly that he had to wait here for a while. ----- The day of the tournament had come. The clock read 11:50 in the afternoon. The sun was almost directly overhead and the tournament was only 10 minutes away from starting. James just stood in the tournament waiting room and sat there with his eyes closed, wishing he could calm himself down, after all, no matter how strong he was, he desired to secure a decisive victory. "Hey, you!" Suddenly his eyes widened at the sound of a voice in front of him, a man was standing in front of him. He was a rather large man with a rough beard and jet-black hair. "Yes?" James said, realising the rudeness of the man in front of him with just one look. "That''s you, isn''t it? The warrior of Nyx, the only one who could choose the mother of the night." The man spoke these words as if he already knew who James was, not as a question or curiosity, but as a desire to attract the attention of those around him, in short, with malicious intent. "So what if I am?" James suddenly asked, his gaze not shaken one centimetre. The man paused for a few seconds and then put his hand to his chest and said with great pride, "My name is Elian, don''t forget that because I''m the one who''s going to kill you." James smiled after these words and said, "I didn''t know that killing was allowed in this tournament, good to know." At that very moment, a voice was heard in the waiting room: "Warriors who are waiting, please move to the preparatory positions, the tournament will begin shortly!" James yawned at the sound of that voice and the sentence it uttered and then stood where he was, he had a small idea of how the tournament worked, the people in the Olympus guild had given him a small amount of information. It would have been impossible for him not to have learnt, since Nyx had been practically badgering James with her words. Which meant that James would have the right to go up when his name was called. The waiting began and after a short time ended. After almost twenty minutes of waiting, the voice from earlier was finally heard again: "Umbra of Chaos and Rico of Light, please come to the arena!" At the sound of these voices, James got up from where he was and began to slowly climb the stairs, he could hear the sound of cheers rising with each step. After a short while, he felt the light hitting his face and he was able to see the arena in front of him, and as he stepped out the cheering grew to an enormous number. "UUUAAAGGGHHH!!!" "UMBRA I''M YOUR FAN!!!" "PLEASE SIGN MY BELLY!!!" S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "LET ME BE YOUR SLAVE!!!" Some of the chants managed to frighten even James himself, the races here had really strange personalities. The fact that there was such a huge difference between the 5th floor and the 10th floor was not entirely wrong. There were more races here and people were freer, even James himself liked it on a higher level. As James looked around the spectator section of the arena he saw the people in the restaurant and raised his hand in greeting. Young ones waited for a few seconds with their mouths agape at the sight of James and then each of them turned their heads away in embarrassment, embarrassed of course that they had met the person they gossiped about in the restaurant they went to every day. When James saw his opponent, he bowed his head in respect and saluted his opponent, then he thought that Clarent would be too much for this tournament, so he took out one of the normal swords from his inventory. When he realised that Clarent had four swords in his inventory, he smiled and said, "Relax Clarent, if we meet an opponent worthy of you, you will show up." The referee of the tournament smiled as he saw the two opponents take their places, and then he withdrew from the arena and raised his hand in the air. "The 11th match of the tournament will be between Umbra of Chaos and Rico of Light. I wish the participants good luck." As soon as the referee finished speaking, the hand he had raised in the air descended downwards. This signalled the start of the tournament for James. Chapter 54: Start and the End of the First Match James had only activated a small part of his aura when he gripped the sword tightly in his hand. His gaze shifted slightly as he realised that the person standing in front of him was not too frightened: "Of course, it wouldn''t be only those who made it up to the 10th floor who would be fighting here, there are also those from higher floors, aren''t there?" he said to himself. After these words, he took a step forward activated his dark step ability and disappeared from where he was. While his opponent Rico was trying to understand what was going on, he suddenly felt a coldness coming from his right side and put the sword in his hand into position to protect himself. "CHING!!!" The sound of a loud metal clash echoed throughout the arena and the sparks from the collision scattered and disappeared. Rico dropped to one knee and tried to realise what was happening. Not only him, but the referee and all the spectators had the same question on their minds: "How could someone who had just stepped onto the 10th floor be so strong?" Rico stood up, and then his shadow started to move, James took a few steps back when he realised that his opponent''s shadow was coming towards him, and then he noticed that the shadows on the ground started to take human shape. "What the heck is this?" he questioned, there were shadow clones in front of him, clones attached to their owners. While he was busy being surprised by this, all the clones suddenly attacked and swooped down on James. James took Selene''s Knife out of his inventory and threw it at a clone, but the blade went right through the clone. It was clear that the clones were not targeting his vital areas, Rico just seemed to want to win. James didn''t know what to attack the clone with, but oddly enough he wasn''t afraid of them. When Rico saw James'' face, he felt his soul tremble from the bottom of his soul...James was laughing. "HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!!! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!" Rico suddenly shouted, and each second the clones'' attacks got faster and faster. James was dodging all the attacks when suddenly his whole body was covered in aura and he lunged at Rico, if he couldn''t catch the clones he would have to defeat the owner of the clones. With his swift movements, he raised the sword in his hand to his inventory and then threw Rico, whom he had grabbed by the arms, out of the arena, he did not need to kill an opponent who only wanted a gain against him and did not wish for his death. Rico, having been thrown out of the arena instead of dying, looked up and looked at James, seeing his smiling face again he shook his head, he had not expected to be defeated so quickly. "Why am I smiling? It''s the first time I''ve been able to duel someone else since I entered the tower and the person I''m duelling is of a strong calibre, how can I not enjoy myself?" At James'' words, Rico and everyone else shut up. They couldn''t remember the last time they had seen a match won without being killed in this arena known as the arena of death. It was at that moment that the sound of the crowd erupted into an explosion of cheers, one after the other, filling the ears to overflowing. At that moment, James crouched down, looked at Rico and calmly uttered the following words: "This clone ability of yours, can it be improved?" When Rico heard these words, he nodded his head in the affirmative and James smiled and said, "Go to the 5th floor and visit the Church of Night, tell them that I sent you and take this as proof, they will help you." Then he took out a pen and paper from his inventory and wrote a small note with his signature on it, handed it to Rico and then prepared to leave. At that moment Rico''s voice was heard: "I don''t understand, you''re sparing my life and helping me...why?" James smiled when he heard this question and then uttered the following words, which reassured everyone: "Well you are not half-bad you know? Also, we all trying to be gods and goddesses here, not like we need to kill each other right? If you were trying to kill me it would be different of course but now there is no need, just grow up and fight me again." The smile on James''s face was not one of contempt, it was like a ray of sunshine that all the blood that had been spilt in this arena over the years needed to see. It was as if all the spirits in the arena were having fun with this. "Hahaha....what an honour it is to meet you, Umbra of Chaos." Rico said and with that, he stood up, bowed his head and then left the arena. James turned to the referee to a chorus of cheers and then asked, "I can fight until I''m beaten or until I want to use my timeout, right?" The referee shook his head and James, hearing this, took his seat again and said "Then please put the next opponent forward". The tournament was huge, almost a month-long tournament, with almost 10,000 people fighting every day, and more than half of them dying in it. That meant that if James rested for even a second, it would be to his detriment. After all, there were millions of different people in the tower, and fighting against them would make James stronger, and hone his skills. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He couldn''t just throw away this opportunity. Once he did, he would have no honour to say he would reach Chaos, no reality to hope he could surpass even Nyx''s power. All he wanted to do was take one more step forward every second until the time came when he couldn''t. James was lost in such thoughts when the referee''s voice suddenly sounded: "Umbra of Chaos and Kres of Aria to the arena!" Match 2 was about to begin. Chapter 55: What an Honour to Fight Against You The second match was about to begin. "I have just watched what you have done Mr Umbra, what an honour it is to fight with such a great man, please let us have a good fight." When Kres said these words, he bowed his head and drew the knives at his waist. James smiled after these words nodded his head and said "Let''s have a good match." and took the sword out of his inventory again. His aura covered his whole body, it was clear that he wanted to finish this fast, so he put his Dark Step ability back into use and then rushed towards his opponent. His speed was enormous, he disappeared from the ground, just like Rico had done. Still, he could sense that something was different. Every attack he made on Kres was met, every step he took was read in advance and Kres was able to counter-attack. James realised that after a few of his attacks, he was being pushed backwards, his opponent was managing to outpace him, if only slightly. Realising what was happening quite early, James suddenly used his ripping ability and charged in with a sudden attack. Kres met the attack but was almost thrown out of the arena, the impact of the strike knocking her to the edge of the arena. Both opponents looked at each other. James''s face was smiling with excitement, while Kres'' face was awkward. As soon as James recovered himself, he took a deep breath and gathered all the aura in his body to his feet this time, he wanted to increase his speed as much as possible, there was no need to gather aura on his sword. With a sudden leap forward, he began to attack Kres repeatedly as she tried to retreat from the edge of the arena, and even if Kres could not meet all the attacks, he still managed to survive with only two attacks. After the constant exchange of attacks, it was clear that Kres was very tired, while James was not tired at all. James had a strange feeling that his opponent was so tired and nothing had happened to him. After all, Kres was not even a human, more like a werewolf, his endurance should be more than James...well, logically. As he was wrapped up in these thoughts, he realised that Kres had started to run at him. Kres'' speed was worrying James. The attacks he was constantly making from the sides were making James quite difficult because he was carrying a single sword. Thinking that he wanted to relieve himself a little, he suddenly turned his head and took out Selene''s Blade from his inventory again. He suddenly threw the knife and it went into Kres'' leg at an incredibly high speed. When James recalled the knife, it was bloody in his hand again. There was nothing on the ground but Kres''s bloodied body, her blades flying aside. As soon as James realised this, he put his sword to Kres'' neck and then said, "Surrender, withdraw from the tournament and I will spare your life." Kres was not screaming even though he was in immense pain, he was a strong fighter, but he was aware that he could no longer fight. That''s why he turned to the referee and said "I withdraw". As soon as the referee heard this, a whistle sounded in the arena and the bout was declared complete. When James saw that the fight was over, he put his sword in his inventory and hid Selene''s Knife in the small bag around his waist. He then pulled a mid-tier bandage with auto-heal from his inventory and wrapped it around Kres'' leg nicely. "You''ll be fine in an hour or two, don''t worry," James said suddenly, and Kres nodded, then crawled out of the arena, albeit with difficulty, and went back the way he had come with the paramedics. James then extended his hand towards the referee and said "Next opponent?". The referee then shook his head in disgust and shouted: "Umbra of Chaos and Liam of Fairy Alliance to the arena!" After these words, a huge person came to the arena, unlike where he came from. What was meant by huge was that someone with wings almost 4 metres tall entered the arena. James'' mouth was agape as he looked at the man in front of him, it was strange enough to think that he was a fairy and not a troll. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "P...please don''t go too hard on me!" James shook his head and stayed where he was for a few seconds, his mouth agape at the sound of such a voice coming from the 4-metre-tall giant fairy in front of him. "No problem, same goes for you?" he said, his surprise written all over his face. James wasn''t the only one surprised, the referee''s face turned sour. "Aaaah...start?" the referee suddenly said and Liam, hearing this, suddenly attacked. James was surprised at how fast his opponent was with that body. Liam connected his fists in the air and like a meteor, he hit the ground from the air with incredible power. James dodged at the last moment and was thankful he had done so because the place he had dodged was pierced, it was such a hard hit that some pieces of stone flew out of the arena, and the arena was shattered. James shook his head for a few seconds and then reached into his inventory and pulled out Clarent, he didn''t know who else but this fairy would be suitable for Clarent and oddly enough this opponent wasn''t aiming for his life either. It was clear that most of those who had come to the arena only wanted to win. How could James kill them? After all, there was no logic to what happened. Of course, James didn''t want to take the lives of people who weren''t considered monsters just because they wanted to win, but this was called the "arena of death", wasn''t it? Chapter 56: Start of the Plan James shook his head as he tightened his grip on Clarent again and realised that there was nothing more he could do. Suddenly he lunged forward and slowly but steadily began to deliver thin slashes at the giant fairy in front of him. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After a few seconds, the fairy was pulled backwards, and the sound of crying could be heard in the centre of the arena. "Uh...Why are you hurting me?!" James'' eyes narrowed as these sudden words rang out in the arena, an extraordinary expression on his face and thoughts that he could not solve in his mind. "Ummm...Sorry, I guess?" James suddenly said, and then he went into the attack position again, but this time he did not have the conscience to attack. After seeing this, the referee stopped for a few seconds and asked, "Does anyone want to withdraw from the duel?" as if he could think of nothing else. Hearing this, the giant fairy raised her hand and then said, "I''ll withdraw...", instantly walking down the arena and disappearing. "Aaaah???? I think I won?" With these words James, the whole arena fell silent, none of them expected to see such a ridiculous duel. Fairy came in, made an attack and received several attacks, then left the arena crying. Truly, this could have been the silliest event in the history of the arena. "Ummm...I''d like to take a break, please continue with the next participants." James suddenly said, coughed a little and awkwardly walked out of the arena. No one could argue with his behaviour, I don''t know why, but everyone seemed fascinated, James seemed to be questioning whether or not he had beaten a child. When he entered the waiting room he saw that everyone was looking at him strangely. "Don''t look at me, I have no idea what''s going on, okay?" When he uttered those words, every single person in the room looked away from him and went about their business. [It might have been the weirdest match I''ve ever seen in my life, it was really weird, so weird that I couldn''t even tell if that fairy was a real boy or not]. James shook his head as he looked at this window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and read it, and then he thought once again about the millions of strange personalities that existed in the tower. Of course, there would be such types. However, he wanted to rest even for a while because even if he was not physically tired, he was in a strange remorse of conscience. While he was in all these thoughts, he was busy cleaning Clarent, far away...on the upper floors of the tower, things were happening that he would never think about. ----- ----- "He''s already on the 10th floor. He''s already won three battles. He seems to know how the arena works. "Of course he does, you idiot! You don''t think Nyx or anyone else is going to tell him how things work?" "Calm down, even if he knows everything, we still have leverage, I''ve already gifted my warrior the medallion, there''s no way that Umbra bastard won''t die." A group of gods seemed to be talking and commiserating among themselves. One of these gods was Sopdu, the one who had originally initiated the plan to kill James. "We''re lucky, though. The probability of the mission succeeding is enormously high and no one will even suspect us!" one of the gods said. "I don''t understand, isn''t every single point of suspicion going back to Sopdu?" another one of the gods asked. "Come on, are you stupid? Do you really not understand?" another god complained, busy insulting the questioner. "I don''t know, just tell me, damn you!" he shouted, and after these words, Sopdu spoke: "That incident on the 9th floor. We don''t know who or what did it, but whatever we do, there is a personality we can blame. My warrior was not a very aggressive person, but the magic on the medallion made him terrible. I don''t even know where the medallion came from, so we will get rid of Umbra and get rid of the accusations against us." When Sopdu said these words, every god in the room nodded their heads and everything seemed easy to them because they understood the situation completely. The only thing they could do was wait for James and Elian to confront each other. "What about Nemesis? Everyone knows Nemesis has a crush on the boy. It''s even rumoured amongst some of the Olympians. It''s the first time Nemesis has ever been in front of a screen and just watched what Umbra was doing, some even say her pupils have become heart-shaped." There was a small silence in the room after these words, and then Sopdu''s voice rose again: "Yes, I really don''t think she will let it go, and even if she doesn''t, we can always blame it on the medallion. Of course, it will be a certainty that I gave my warrior the medallion, you just have to defend me." "Defend?" one of the gods asked. "Exactly. When Nemesis finds and destroys my warrior, she will come for me. When that time comes, she will say that I gave the medallion in front of you and you will defend me, we need to convince her that we know nothing ourselves." Sopdu replied. Of course, he had bigger plans, but he did not need to discuss them with the gods. After all this talk, the room was silent again, even the sounds of breathing did not seem to rise in the room. None of the gods made a single sound. Nemesis was a personality that frightened everyone, because, unlike other Chaos-Borns, that strange woman never retreated from battle, although there were dozens of wounds on the front of her body, her back had no wounds at all. Nemesis was a person who never ran away from battle. At that moment, a voice finally rose from one of the gods at the other end of the table: "I don''t know how dangerous it will be, but you can count me in, ready to do whatever it takes to destroy the bastard Nyx and his warrior." These words signalled the flames that would rise and the blood that would be spilt in the confrontation that would take place in just a few days. No one could expect the gods to be so foolish. No one could resist the Chaos-Borns. Chapter 57: High Vampire Slaughtered Before the tournament started, James was sitting in his room, chatting with Nyx as usual, or rather, Nyx was nagging James as usual. [Remember what I said. In one day alone, over 10,000 warriors fight inside the arena. Duels normally take so short because of the power distribution that I can''t explain it. Since there are different areas of the arena, the screens can show 120 battles at the same time, and the audience can watch what they want]. James had heard these words at least ten times in just one day and was getting sick of it, he spoke after scratching his head in annoyance: "Yes, my lady, I understand, I must put up a good fight for the audience so that attention is drawn to me so that I can exert my authority." [Good for you. I hope you haven''t forgotten the rest of what I said, do I need to go over it again?] "No m''lady, I remember exactly what you said, please calm down," James replied, feeling as if he was talking to his mother. [Then tell me, tell me what I told you.] When he saw this window in front of him, he took a deep breath and began to speak again with a pout: "With every match I win, the prize from the arena will increase. Not only the first prize but also the duels I win will benefit me. With every match I win, I will have a chance to skip rounds, or rather, I will be faced with stronger people who have participated in the tournament before, or rather their shadows. Kind of like an artificial intelligence." [Well done you, I mean you know everything you need to do, I''m proud of you.] James scratched his head again when he saw another window protruding in front of him, but this time it was out of embarrassment, not annoyance, then he took a breath and said one last thing: "I just have to run them over." ----- ----- "Umbra of Chaos and Laura of Uprace to the arena!" When James heard these voices again, he stepped into the arena as usual. A woman stood before him, a very beautiful woman, very elegantly dressed. She had a fan in her hand and her eyes seemed to be looking at a vile creature. "You''re disgusting...Oh, humans, just looking at your faces makes me sick." the woman suddenly said, James frowned at what he heard and then said, "Gosh lady, you are mad ugly no?". These words made the whole arena burst into laughter. "You vile creature, I''m a vampire, how dare a lowly race like you speak to me like that!" the woman suddenly shouted, suddenly her fan disappeared and her hands became claw-like. James glanced at her briefly, shook his head and then snapped his fingers and said, "Ooooh, so that''s why you call yourselves Uprace!" which made the viewers even laugh more. With those words, he removed Clarent from his inventory and then relaxed his shoulders, just as he was about to attack, the vampire disappeared and suddenly appeared in front of James. James crouched down with incredible speed to avoid the blow to his throat, and then, as hard as he could, using every muscle in his body, he delivered an uppercut to the vampire''s jaw. The vampire flew several metres away and then stumbled to her feet. James had attacked her so heavily because she was trying to deliver precise strikes at vital points. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, madam," James said suddenly, and the energy around the vampire changed completely. James'' eyes suddenly widened, he could see that the woman in front of him had an aura on the same level as his. "You inferior race, I am a member of the high vampire race! I made it to the 48th floor, you idiot! HOW DARE YOU HIT ME!" After the woman''s sudden shouts, the aura around suddenly turned towards James. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You still lose most of your power when you are here though no?" said James. James realised that he was being pushed backwards by the impact as if the weight of the aura was pushing him backwards by grabbing his arms and legs. James was not going to be defeated though, as he spread a massive sum of aura over his entire body, as much as he could use, and was instantly freed from the impact. The vampire was surprised for a few seconds when she saw this aura level and suddenly asked, "How can a piece of rubbish like you have such a huge aura when you only made it to the tenth floor!" Hearing this, James replied with numbness on his face, "Maybe because this piece of rubbish is superior to someone like you." However, James, who was holding Clarent tightly, suddenly attacked. The sounds of collision were rising in the arena and the sounds of cheering from around gave strength to both the vampire and James. At that very moment, James took a few steps back and then opened his palm towards her. When the vampire saw this, she protected himself with her aura and smiled as if she was convinced that any attack that might come at her now could not penetrate her aura. "You can use magic, huh? I''ve heard a few rumours about that. Someone who can use both aura and magic was realised by someone from the scout guild when they watched your body from a distance. Still, it''s foolish of you to think that a low-level magic status can surpass my blood aura!" The vampire who had spoken those words suddenly saw the smile that had risen on James'' face, instantly felt every hair on his body stand on end, and then, in an attempt to protect himself, he immediately formed a barrier of blood in front of him. It was too late, a massive wall of flames had burned through her blood barrier and started to burn her aura with it. At that moment, James'' voice was heard: "Well, that all changes when it comes to the legendary grade of fire elemental, doesn''t it?" Chapter 58: Who Told You I Was Merciful? "Well, that all changes when it comes to the legendary degree of fire elemental, doesn''t it?" At these words of James, the eyes turned to the vampire on whom the gigantic spell had been cast. "KYAAAAAAAAA HELP!!!!" The vampire writhed in pain and tried to free herself, but everything she did was futile. She took out enough water from her inventory to fill dozens of buckets and poured it on herself, but the flames did not stop. "HELP!!! PLEASE!!! I APOLOGISE!!!" The female vampire suddenly screamed and fell to the ground, crawling towards James and begging for mercy. James...he wasn''t that merciful. Even the dumbest person in the world knew what happened when they forgave people who tried to hurt them, and in the tower, it was a daily occurrence. Betrayal was the foundation of the tower, and even when there was no betrayal, there would always be death. The entire history of the tower was written in blood after its creation. The son would kill the father, the mother would throw her child in the garbage, the father would not blink an eye as his family was killed, and the daughter would drain her family dry. The tower had always loved to watch this and rewarded these events. James was not such a merciful person. "You know what, normally I would forgive you but not today. I am here to show that mercy and respect that comes from it needs to be earned. Your existence is not fair, you did look down on me and the first thing you did was aim for my throat." As those words echoed through the arena, James'' expression was visible on screens all around the 10th floor, dark enough to darken the four corners of the realm of the gods. They could feel James'' shadow growing deeper, they could see it. James held Clarent tightly and then said "Oh no, neither you nor your group will be forgiven believe me." then he lifted Clarent and stabbed it into the back of the vampire woman who was trying to crawl on the ground. Every single person who watched what happened was surprised, no one thought that he would attempt such an act. Duel 4 was over. "Next match, please." When James turned to the referee and uttered these words, the referee just swallowed and then shouted to start the next match. In Olympus, different things were happening. All eyes were on the Chaos-Borns and Nyx in particular, every single person in the hall staring at the mother of the night. The peace and smile on Nyx''s face was incomprehensible, and it didn''t stop there. Even Erebus had that peace and smile on his face. After only a few seconds, Nyx threw her hands up and stroked Erebus'' cheeks, who was standing like a guard behind her seat, and the words that surprised everyone came out of her mouth: "Erebus, my love...See, you were so worried, you thought he was so merciful and shy to finish things on his own, isn''t it nice that he doesn''t make the same mistakes we do?" Erebus gently took Nyx''s hands on her cheeks as Nyx finished speaking and said, "I agree with you as always, my love, I thought James was so pure that he would forgive his enemies. I was never so wrong." he said, kissing Nyx''s hands gently. With that, he walked over to Nyx and sat down, then turned to Moros and spoke: "My dear son, make the preparations, it is obvious that he will win, I thought he was weak, but I was wrong, we will see him at the end of this month, decorate the whole of Mount Olympus for his arrival." After these words, Moros bowed his head and then smiled again, much to everyone''s surprise, and said, "I will carry out your orders immediately, dear father." and left the hall. With his departure, a few Olympians followed him and 5% of the hall was officially empty. At that very moment, Hades'' voice was heard: "Do you think James can win, Master Erebus? After all, even creatures that reach as high as the 60th floor will be in the arena, and you know they won''t take him lightly after what he just did." After these words, neither Nyx nor Erebus answered the question: "Don''t think he''s that weak, he''s spent a lot of time in the library, the ability my grandfather gave him has already been reset, and he has a philosopher''s stone. He has the opportunity to take down at least two powerful people." Nemesis'' voice echoed throughout the hall as if warning Hades to shut up. "Hoho... Look at that love bird..." Nemesis was angry as soon as she heard those words and turned round to be angry until she realised it was Artemis. "Not you too Artemis, at least you watch my back!" she said with a little anger. Nemesis had friends in Olympus, of course, and Artemis was one of them, of course, Artemis making fun of her was not going to make her angry. "Come on Nemesis, you''re falling in love for the first time, why am I here if we''re not going to make fun of it?" Artemis said jokingly, then sat down next to Nemesis and pointed to the window they were watching. "I''ll let you do it this one time, but y''all watch your backs and I''LL PUSH YOUR EARS IF YOU DON''T!!!" said Nemesis as everyone burst out laughing and then everythink fell silent. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. All eyes turned back to James, his struggle had just begun, and there were still 29 days to go. "Umbra of Chaos gets their 25th consecutive win!" Thousands of cheers erupted from the arena at the referee''s shout and all eyes locked on James. Holding his knees in a bent position, James could see the sweat pouring down his face from exhaustion. After only a few seconds of breathing in and out, he straightened up looked at the referee and said, "Next opponent please." There was no way he could stop now, he could feel it, he was so ready to break through his boundaries, that he couldn''t leave it here. Chapter 59: Ariel the Strong "Umbra of Chaos and Ariel the Strong to the arena!" When James heard that name, he took up his fighting stance again and looked at the woman who had stepped into the arena. The woman''s muscles and curves were clearly visible in the clothes she wore, it was possible to see how hard she was a hard-working lady. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Her gaze was like the stab of a knife. The woman was not tall, she was almost the same height as James and did not have a large build, she was just like James, whose muscles were visible in the clothes he wore. Considering that James already had a strange face that could be as beautiful as a woman, it was as detailed as possible that the woman standing in front of him looked like him in many structures. "You don''t seem to belong to a guild, ma''am," James said suddenly, seeming to take a moment to catch his breath a little more. "That''s right, I don''t trust whoever I''m around, I''ve never met anyone in my life who could provide trust," the woman called Ariel replied. With these words, James, who had consolidated his position, realised that the woman in front of him was stronger than him despite the limitation of her powers, which was a bad sign. When Ariel realised that James had consolidated his position, she flexed her shoulders and then covered her fists with aura. Then the duel began. James, with Clarent covered in aura, was trying to counter Ariel''s series of punches and mostly succeeded. When he failed, he tried to use his speed and avoid the attacks. If Ariel''s attacks didn''t work on him, James couldn''t even find a gap to attack, it was as if the woman in front of him was on the defensive in an offensive situation. She was experienced. "May I ask what floor you went up to, madam?" James suddenly asked. Hearing this, Ariel stood where she was and took a few steps back and said, "It depends on why you''re asking that." James smiled when he heard this question and then said, "You haven''t used everything against me." This answer seemed to surprise the majority in the arena, most of them thought that Ariel was struggling, after all, James easily managed to avoid or counter every attack, they all thought that James was playing Ariel like prey. "Puhaha...you''re quite interesting, I didn''t expect to laugh at all and to answer your question, I only made it up to the 34th floor, anything more is impossible for me at the moment," Ariel said with a very polite and smiling face. It was as if she enjoyed duelling with James. James smiled and then said, "Then I have a proposition for both of us." Ariel frowned and became serious when she heard this, she obviously wanted to hear what was going on but she had to be prepared for anything. "Tell me," Ariel said suddenly. "I know you''re restricted, I mean you can''t use all of your power, but I propose that you use everything you can, we''ll both use everything we''ve got, let''s make it an honourable duel." Ariel seemed surprised by James'' words, surprised that the young man in front of her could be so fearless. "Why not," Ariel said, her smile showing that she was having fun. "I am honoured ma''am, my name is Umbra, it is an honour to meet you," James replied. With that, the aura around him began to change completely and became more serious. It was no different for Ariel, her whole body was covered in a lush green aura, a very relaxing sight. James suddenly lunged forward and Ariel followed him. When Clarent hit Ariel''s fist, a huge sound like a hammer hitting a sword rang out. The entire arena floor shuddered and the two took a few steps back with smiling faces, at that moment Ariel''s voice was heard: "I''ve never been hit so hard in my life, and I can assure you that the idiots upstairs won''t get anywhere near you!" Ariel had been upset for a long time about the awfulness of the warriors upstairs. After all, unlike the stupid warriors, she barely used her class abilities and tried to crush everything with her own strength. This was a new experience for her, facing a real warrior. After these words, Ariel attacked again without stopping, and the exchange of attacks began again. "CLING!!!" The strange metallic sound was getting louder and louder, and with each collision, merging auras were spreading around. James felt his body being beaten with each collision as if he was getting stronger. This duel was many times more useful to James than that stupid female vampire he had fought. Indeed, with each collision, his body was becoming more and more fit to fight. This was thanks to Ariel, who was many times stronger and had fought more than him. James didn''t realise it, but he was having his first encounter with one of his greatest future friends. A friend to whom he could surrender his life for. A friend with whom he would constantly have disagreements, but who was inseparable at the same time. Yet the two continued to attack each other, unaware of this. James was using his dark step ability and Ariel was blocking James with her own ability, the image was as if the two were dancing, really a perfect image and the process was standing in front of them. "JUST LIKE DANCING DON''T YOU THINK SO YOUNG FRIEND!!!" screamed Ariel. The feeling of pleasure and fulfilment was evident in every inch of her face, Ariel was in a very happy state indeed. James, who had heard this, smiled and shouted back "THANK YOU FOR TRUSTING ME ENOUGH TO GIVE ME AN HONOURABLE DUEL, DEAR LADY!!!" Of course, Ariel wouldn''t trust anyone that much, but she couldn''t tell anyone the excitement and pleasure that this duel was giving her, she could fight like this for dozens of hours. Only the gods themselves could understand how much the duo enjoyed it. Chapter 60: It Is Almost Like Looking At Her Eyes "AREN''T YOU TIRED UMBRA!?!?!?" With a sudden shout, the exchange of moves came to an abrupt halt and the two in the centre of the arena stared at each other. As James looked at the woman in front of him he saw that she was not tired in the slightest, even if he was a little tired himself he still had no intention of backing down, he was certain that there was a way for him to defeat the woman in front of him, Ariel. He hadn''t used Selene''s Throwing Knife yet, and there were plenty of other things he could throw or restrain Ariel with, it was just that almost everything hhe could use needed a little bit of waiting. After all, he couldn''t shout "STOP FIGHTING I WILL PUT TRAPS!" at Ariel, could he? "I''m not tired, Madam Ariel, don''t worry," James suddenly said, completely lying, although he wasn''t very tired, after 22 consecutive battles he was now on his 25th battle, or rather duel. It was impossible not to be tired fully tired. He took out an "Energy Potion" from his inventory and then planted it on his head, such potions were not forbidden in the tournament as there were alchemist warriors in the tournament and it was for everyone''s benefit. James hadn''t consumed any of the potions so far, as he saw such things as cheating. "Look at that, you''re not tired hahaha!" Ariel burst out laughing when she saw the potion James was drinking, of course, no one would expect James not to be tired. After all, everyone realised that he had already achieved a huge amount. No one would duel like an idiot, it would increase their chances of dying, and that was exactly why none of them wanted to be in such danger. After all, this was known as the arena of death, James may have only killed one person, but thousands would die and perish every day that passed in the arena. That made Ariel not angry, after all, what James had done was like being normal in an abnormality, she couldn''t be angry with him. "Forgive my rudeness, I just got to the 10th floor, you know, I don''t have such great endurance, unfortunately," James said, obviously embarrassed. "You don''t have to stop like that, if you''ve recovered, let''s continue, it''s time to finish this, I believe we''ve already passed an hour." Ariel suddenly said this and seemed to tell James that the woman in front of him was seriously going to use everything. James was kind of scared in a way, he really couldn''t even tell what kind of rating he had on how much he respected the woman in front of him. It was at that moment that James agreed with Ariel that he needed to use everything he had. He wanted to revive that strange light that burned in his body and soul, and after only a few seconds he seemed to lose himself. It was almost like he was in a trance. The light inside him flared up and the aura of James'' sword spread through his body again, but this time something was different, a difference that no one had expected. Not only Ariel but the whole arena and even the gods watching them noticed this difference... James'' aura was burning with a colourful flame. Everyone in the realm of the gods was astonished, it seemed like they hadn''t seen such a powerful flame for a long time. "What the hell is that?" asked Ariel herself, and her eyes were transfixed on the aura around James, like a moving portrait. James'' aura was burning with colourful flames, mostly dark, with an air of dominance that seemed to command those around him to retreat and flee. Even Ariel couldn''t help but be excited by this flame. After that, Ariel was surrounded by aura just like James, but this time the layer of aura was incredibly thick, so thick that Ariel''s fists were practically invisible in the aura. However, James'' aura was no ordinary aura, his aura was an aura with magic in it, something unprecedented and never existed before. It was something with no known weaknesses or advantages, and James had somehow managed to use it, as if he wanted to crush the woman in front of him, without killing her of course. With that, the duel was reignited. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With a single step, James had disappeared from where he had been and swung Clarent from the bottom up as if he were slashing, and the moment the sword struck Ariel''s aura, a gigantic source of light appeared in the arena. The depth of the flames from James'' attack and the depth of Ariel''s aura had collided so perfectly that they created the brilliance of light, a sight so perfect that there was no way to explain it. Each collision revealed a different colour of light and the flames that spread around the arena from James seemed to resemble a battlefield. "YOU ARE AMAZING UMBRA!!! I''VE NEVER ENJOYED FIGHTING SO MUCH IN MY LIFE!!!" shouted Ariel suddenly, no one expected to hear those words but it was clear that they loved what they were hearing, it gave everyone watching goosebumps. It seemed like it was time for this duel to end. The aura around Ariel suddenly exploded and sent James flying several metres, he hit the arena floor with all his weight and looked at the woman in front of him. A huge smile formed on his face, he was so, so happy to have met one of the most wonderful people he had ever met in his life. However, he was also aware of the weight of his body, this attack would be the last for both of them and the outcome would decide the fate of the duel. Ariel had given James enough time to get to his feet, she could indeed be one of the most honourable female warriors in existence, in James'' eyes she was no different in honour to Nemesis. Focusing on Ariel after she stood up, James uttered the following words before making his final move: "It''s as if I''m looking at Nemesis herself, though she is a hundred times more beautiful, but I see the same warrior eyes, I can''t tell you how sweet it feels!" Chapter 61: The End of the Duel and the Big Mistake "It''s like I''m looking at Nemesis herself, though she is a hundred times more beautiful, but I see the same warrior eyes, I can''t tell you how sweet it feels!" Ariel smiled and then said, "I can''t tell you how honoured I am that you are talking about me with the person I respect the most." Once those words were out of their mouths, the arena was silent for a few seconds and then the two were on the move. They were almost 40 metres away from each other and were running at average speeds. All the power of both of them was in their attacks and the auras surrounding them. After only a few seconds, they were incredibly close to each other and finally, the event that everyone was waiting for happened. "CHING!!!!!!!!!" An incredibly ear-splitting sound echoed through the arena, and the inside of the arena became so dusty that it could not even be seen through the screens. The arena was so thick with dust that some of the spectators had to close their eyes and even the referee himself could not see. Only 10 metres separated the referee from the arena. "What''s going on?" shouted one of the spectators. "WHO WON!!!" screamed another spectator. When the dust started to clear, all eyes were focused on the arena. All of Olympus was watching together, none of them could have known what was going to happen, for the woman James had fought was indeed one of the most promising to ever climb the tiers. Dust slowly descended to the floor and then the image of flames reappeared, one lying on the floor of the arena and one standing. No one could tell who was who, as the figures of the two were only slightly similar, and even their heights were almost identical. After only a few seconds, the dust cleared and everyone took a deep breath and looked around the arena. Ariel was lying on the arena floor, her eyes blurred and looking like her nervous system had collapsed, there was a gash in her chest, she wasn''t going to die, but the wound was enormous. James was no different. Looking at him, it was possible to see that his whole body was full of aura cuts. He wanted a fair fight and that''s why everything turned out the way it did, or rather, using his strongest ability would make it unfair and that''s why he didn''t want to be untouchable. He clenched his hand into a fist and clutched it to his chest, Clarent in the other hand, pointing to the air, to the stars of the darkening evening. "NYX IS WITH US!!!" he suddenly shouted, and at those words all of Olympus paused, and then the outcome of the match was decided: "The winner of the 9173rd Duel of the Day is Umbra of Chaos, his 26th win of the day!" With the referee''s shout, the entire arena, the 10th floor, and every single person watching from the upper floors went wild. No one had ever seen a battle this binding. Amidst all the cheering, amidst all the words of love and admiration shouted at him, James began to step forward, even if slowly and painfully, and approached and knelt beside Ariel. "I''ll win next time, Umbra..." Ariel said, smiling, blood pouring from her mouth. James respected her again, he could only imagine how much pain she was in right now, but Ariel''s smile never left her face. He realised at that moment that he had earned the respect of a woman who trusted no one. He lifted Clarent into his inventory and then pulled out one of the medium health potions, gently lifted Ariel''s head and said, "Please drink, madam." His chivalry and honour made everyone admire him once again. Ariel smiled and then drank every last drop of the health potion, the huge gash in her chest closed and the blood stopped leaking out of her mouth. James gasped for breath and then stood up, looking at the referee and saying, "I demand a time-out." He smiled as he saw the referee shake his head and then collapsed to the ground. Every single person in the arena was amazed at what had happened, the referee suddenly jumped from his side and entered the arena, everyone thought something had happened to James, but as soon as the referee checked James'' pulse, he smiled. "Hohh.....He''s just fainted, the silly boy scared the life out of me, how will I answer to Master Ronald or Lady Leyla if you die?" the referee said in a very small voice, indicating that even inside the arena James was protected. With that James was finished in the arena, even for the day. With that, the only thing that could be done was taking James to the Arena Hospital. ----- Elian walked through the door of the room where James had been laid to rest and saw James sleeping soundly, if not peacefully. He was scared and it was obvious, if he didn''t finish his work quickly he would die and he couldn''t afford that, yet he didn''t dare to refuse his god when he asked him for something, he had to get it done. "Don''t blame me for this, you stupid boy! You''ve attracted too much attention, you have to die." James was lying in the hospital section of the arena, still unconscious, the fact that he had somehow used both aura and magic, and used them at the same time continuously, had crushed his body like crazy. He may have cut Ariel deeply in the chest, but he had suffered many deep cuts from Ariel''s attack, and aura cuts would not heal with potions so he really needed to rest. He needed to heal. The gods could not watch when the users were knocked out, incapacitated and blocked by the tower itself, and that was what was happening in the horrible event that was happening now. Elian stood in front of the unconscious James with the medallion in his hand. He placed the medallion on James'' chest and then raised the knife in his hand. Suddenly the knife went through the locket and plunged into James'' chest. However, Elian wanted to flee the scene and tried to leave, and when he opened the door to the room where James was staying, he saw someone he had never wished to see. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You did something very wrong, young man." Chapter 62: Furious Ronald "You have done something very wrong, young man." Elian stared at the huge figure before him, his whole body trembling. This was a man who had seen every one of the gods rise, seen every one of the great heroes die a painful death, created by the Creator himself to be a watchman, and fulfilled his duty. This man was Ronald himself. Ronald''s eyes were different than they normally were, glowing with a crimson colour, the wrinkles in his face and the furrows in his brow told you how angry he was. He grabbed Elian by the throat and lifted him upwards. Elian struggled in agony and tried to break free from Ronald. "You are lucky I don''t have the right to kill you young man, I can assure you that if my creation had allowed it I would have cut out your tongue, ripped out all your fingernails, pulled out your teeth, gouged out your eyes and slaughtered you. Not only that, I would do everything in my power and, with the help of Lady Leyla if necessary, I would revive you again and again with all your memories and repeat the process over and over again." sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After Ronald said these murderous and blood-curdling words, he threw Elian to the floor and then said, "Now get out of my sight." Elian fled the room with fear and even left the arena. There was only one reason why Ronald didn''t kill him, and that was the Philosopher''s Stones. Ronald and Leyla had thought about the possibility of such a situation in great detail, so they had agreed to give one of the Philosopher''s Stones, which were limited in number even in their own hands, to James as a reward. Philosopher''s Stones were incredibly rare, and there was a reason for that: The living souls. The only reason the Philosopher''s Stones could be created was because of the deaths of players who existed inside the tower, or users born inside the tower. Since the tower''s creation, over a million Philosopher''s Stones have been created. This may seem like a large number because the Philosopher''s Stone is a stone that automatically activates when its bearer dies and miraculously brings that person back to life, but the stone has a test and the person has to pass that test. For more than two billion years, only a little over a million Philosopher''s Stones had been produced. Almost all of these stones had been given as gifts to people with truly enormous potential, including Moros himself. Ronald knew that the stone had already been activated because he had given him one of these gifts, so he let Elian go and let him go because even the tower itself knew that if someone Ronald and Leyla had set their eyes on together had been killed, the person who committed the murder and those behind it would wish to die, let alone live. The existence of their creation and the urge to protect people would not give a damn about the rulers. Someone who had chosen Nyx could not die so easily, which is why when there was trouble on the 9th floor, Leyla herself gave Nyx access to the floor so that Nemesis could come to help. The administrators were giving him special treatment. As Ronald slowly walked up to James, Leyla suddenly appeared, the two of them standing just in front of the young man, Ronald reached for the knife and the medallion, and without touching them, took the two items in a bubble. Ronald then turned to Leyla and said, "We have to wait, it''s up to him whether he comes back or not." ----- "HUAH!!!" James suddenly opened his eyes and jumped up. Suddenly he stood up and looked around him. He saw the green grass stretching endlessly and a person staring at him from a few metres away. When he went towards the other person, he saw himself and stopped for a few seconds and then said, "Ok that is the weirdest dream ever." After these words, the thing or person standing in front of him suddenly said "This is not a dream, you are dead you know?" with the same tone. James shook his head and stood where he was as if he didn''t understand what was happening, as if he didn''t believe what was happening, and then he sat down and asked, "And what are you?" As soon as this question was said, James'' copy was disfigured and suddenly took the form of a stone in the air, James instantly realised what was happening and then asked, "The Philosopher''s Stone, is it?" When the stone glowed with a bright light, James closed and opened his eyes and then asked, "So send me back, what are you waiting for?" As soon as those words were out of his mouth the space around him changed, he found himself in an unfamiliar place, he was confronted with a strange sight, he was seeing people he expected to recognise. "What''s that?" asked James. He was frowning, clenching his teeth, even the veins in his throat were visible with anger. "As you can see, your future is a future where you don''t exist," the stone itself said. James shook his head at the words and then grabbed the stone hard. "If you are here for me, you must know me, didn''t anyone ever tell you that I will destroy what has happened?" he suddenly said. The stone disappeared from his hand and appeared on the other side of James, James was constantly looking at the images in front of him and his anger was increasing. "It''s like I told you, James. The Philosopher''s Stone can see the past and the future, we are beings made up of millions of souls, we are used once and discarded, so what you see before you are the future." The stone repeated its words again and then James shouted as if he couldn''t take it anymore: "HOW CAN A SCENE WHERE MY FAMILY IS KILLED BE MY FUTURE!!!" Chapter 63: Agreement with Stone "HOW THE HECK CAN A SCENE WHERE MY FAMILY IS KILLED BE MY FUTURE!!!" James turned back to the image next to him after his sudden shout and watched it carefully. Indeed, the sight before him made his hair stand on end. He never thought he would see such things in his life. Of the people he had seen, he had only met Nemesis face to face, and he really could not accept such a thing. He was seeing people he had never met and didn''t even know the look of, and Nemesis. Every one of them was tied up, blood pouring from their bodies, some had their heads on stakes and some were being burned. In short, it looked like a slaughter zone. "The war of the gods is a very serious matter. That''s why you weren''t supposed to die." Philosopher''s Stone said suddenly, and James, hearing this, was surprised and questioned, "Is this my fault?" "Technically, in a way, this is the future that will exist when you die." said the Philosopher''s Stone and James, who heard this, said, "Please send me back. I haven''t been in this Tower for long, not even half a year, but they''re already everything to me, I can''t let this happen." The Philosopher''s Stone didn''t seem to care though, it transformed back into James'' form and stood there sulking, only to speak after a few seconds: "What about us? All the souls in our creation, what have we done? Those who were betrayed and murdered, raped and murdered, beheaded and destroyed, struggling below while these gods watched from above? What was our offence? Weren''t they the ones who filled our heads with the idea of becoming gods and took everything from us?" As soon as the Philosopher''s Stone had finished speaking, James stayed where he was and then looked at the image again, this time not angry, but with a steady thought, then turned back to the stone and spoke again: "Look, I really don''t give a damn about what happened to you all alright? Yes, you guys died like everyone can, that is not my problem, but since I died I am begging you to send me back if that is the future that is waiting for my family. I know deep in my heart they do not deserve this." At these words of James, the eyes of the body formed by the Philosopher''s Stone widened and it was obvious that he was surprised. "So you do not care if we did die or not huh?" the stone suddenly asked, and James, hearing this, shook his head and began to speak: sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Yes, I wish you had a Philosopher''s Stone so that you could live, but you never had that chance while I had a new one, so please let me go, I have to go back if I''m going to approach this future every time I don''t get stronger or if this is what happens when I stay dead." As these words came out of his mouth, the body formed by the Philosopher''s Stone disappeared and then the stone fell to the ground right in front of James, at that moment, more souls than James could count flew out of the stone and began to disappear one by one. "We just needed to be sure..." said the first soul came out. "Now you can take revenge on the tower for us!" said one of the souls. "We couldn''t, but please destroy all the evil you saw!" shouted another. "I miss my daughter and my wife very much, I would like to tell them again that I love them, never forget to say that to those you love!" said another. These kinds of conversations came up every now and then, they were constantly saying things to James as if they were burdening him. However, it was slowly getting darker, James had passed the test, and he had no idea what the purpose of the test was, even though it was clear what kind of test it was. As a result, he had managed to come back in a strange way. When he opened his eyes again he realised that all the pain in his body had disappeared and he looked to his right and saw Ronald and Leyla. Both executives were quite surprised, it had been almost 20 minutes since they had arrived here, but James had already woken up. "How come?!?" Ronald suddenly muttered and continued to gently look at James. James straightened up took out a bottle of water from his inventory and drank it, he felt as if he didn''t have a drop of water in his body, was this what it felt like to come back from the dead? "I really died, haven''t I?" James suddenly said and Leyla, who heard this, spoke up: "In a way, James. You went into a trance the moment you took the killing blow, and if the Philosopher''s Stone hadn''t accepted you, you would have died." James rolled his head when he heard these words and then said, "So I wasn''t dead?" and was surprised. "Yes, exactly," Ronald said in answer to this question. "Well, let''s get to the point, how did I end up dying under your care? I knew I wasn''t that injured, do Lady Nyx and the others know anything?" James asked again. Ronald and Leyla looked at each other and Ronald said, "Elian tried to kill you and no, Lady Nyx has no idea about this, so please don''t tell her." James smiled slyly as he heard those words. Even the dumbest person in this creation could tell that something sly was going on in his mind. That was exactly why Ronald and Leyla were a little worried. After all, no one would try to piss off someone like Nyx who literally born from the person that has created them. That was why James yawned and then looked deeply at Ronald and Leyla, then pulled another bottle of water from his inventory, drank it, and then spoke: "I know what my lady is like, I''ve got a few ideas of what she''s up to, I suppose you could give me something to keep my mouth shut." Chapter 64: Even the Admins Thinks Twice "I know what my lady is like, I have a few ideas of what she''s up to, I suppose you could give me something to keep my mouth shut." At James'' words, the two admins looked at each other again and then back at James. It was clear that the duo were worried. Chaos-Borns had dominion over the tower upon their presence. Each of them was the heir to the tower. Of course, none of them would attempt something as arrogant as taking Chaos''s tower, but the admins created by the creator himself were terrified of these people. It wasn''t because they thought they would die or for any other reason, they just had a huge respect for them, and angering them scared the admins who were practically rulers. "Sigh...What do you want?" Leyla suddenly asked, in a way she was proud of the young man in front of her, it was quite astonishing how well he was using the position he was in, it was beyond perfection how much he had changed and developed in such a short time. "A favour. A favour that will not force you to kill when the time comes, or a favour you can refuse in exchange for your wishes." James replied. Leyla, who smiled after these words, asked, "You have no idea what a favour is, do you?" James, who heard them, sneered and then replied, "Not really, that''s why I said you can refuse it." Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ronald, who had listened to what had happened until that moment, nodded his head and then said, "I agree. If we are not forced to kill someone and we can refuse the request, there is no reason for me not to accept." Leyla, who was caught in the middle after these words, put her hand on her face and said, "Alright, it''s okay for me too." James was happy seeing that what he said was accepted by the admins themselves but at that moment he suddenly remembered something: "Oh by the way, we still have to inform Lady Nyx, after all, we have to catch the criminals. If instead of saying I''m dead, you say I survived the assassination attempt, it will be enough to drive Olympus and the Chaos-Born mad." James suddenly said, and with these words, the two administrators seemed to nod in agreement. With that, James, who had smiled, got up from the bed and changed his clothes, of course, he told Leyla to turn around first. After getting dressed, he turned round again and asked, "Then I think this day is over, don''t you?" When he saw Ronald nodding, he suddenly left the room and saw the message window immediately opened in front of him: [I WAS ABOUT TO LOSE MY MIND!!!] James stopped for a few seconds when he read what was written and then laughed out loud: "PUHAHAHAHAHA!!!" When this laughter was reflected in the entire hospital corridor, he wiped the tears from his eyes and then uttered the following words that would make all Chaos-Borns connect to him: "Gosh I really do not want to die, I am afraid that I will lose you beautiful people!" For several minutes after those words no message window appeared in front of James'' eyes, it was like a silence where he was truly on his own, yet even if he didn''t know it, Olympus was in an uproar, his words had caused more realisation than he had expected. ----- "He died, hasn''t he?" Apate asked, her brow furrowed. "He must be, should we ask him if he has the Philosopher''s Stone?" added Hades with great surprise. "I don''t know, but if he doesn''t want to tell us, there must be a reason, it''s not something we should be involved in no?" said Hypnos. After that, all eyes turned to Nyx, what she would say was very important. Nyx paused for a few seconds, opened a window to send a message to James, and then spoke: "Is there something you want to tell us, James?" ----- [Is there anything you want to tell us, James?] James scratched his head as he looked at another message window that had appeared in front of him and then smiled and said, "No, my lady, I was just worried since I was very injured, everything is fine." However, the gods watching him could tell that James didn''t want to talk about it. That''s why each of them shut their mouths and chose not to talk about it even for the moment. After all, if James didn''t want to talk, there was no point in forcing this issue on them. [Alright then, what are your plans now?] When another window opened in front of him, James smiled and then said, "I want to find Miss Ariel for the moment, I need to talk to her and consult with her about what is going on...Ah! In the meantime, please wait for the news that will come to you, Ronald will come to you with news that you will not like." No one understood what he was trying to say with these words, but when James said this, a passage formed in the hall. When Ronald came out of the passage, everyone seemed surprised, no one expected him to come after what James said. "Ronald?" When Nyx said his name in surprise, Ronald dropped to his knees and bowed his head, then said, "I have some news for you, my lady, and I hope you won''t be too angry with me." When Nyx heard those words, her eyes turned to the void itself. Every single person in the room, including her own children, turned their eyes away from Nyx. The goddess was clearly upset. "You will tell me everything that happened Ronald, if I see that you have missed a single thing I will do everything in my power to finish you, never forget that." Nyx suddenly said, and even these words were enough to frighten Ronald. He might be stronger than Nyx, but the child of Chaos would always be the child of Chaos. That meant Nyx could stand up and go to Chaos and beg his father to kill Ronald. The fact that even this was a possibility was one of the main reasons why the rulers feared Chaos-Borns. Ronald was very clearly aware of this. Chapter 65: Preparations for the Traitors And Ronald was acutely aware of that. He couldn''t lie. He had already reached an agreement with James so if he lied and it was found out he would be in a lot of trouble. Indeed, Ronald had never felt so trapped before. Ronald realised that he couldn''t escape Nyx''s gaze, not when even his husband Erebus had averted his eyes from Nyx''s gaze and chosen not to get involved. "My lady...James was murdered about an hour ago," Ronald suddenly blurted out. Upon hearing these words, every single person in the hall gulped. Nemesis''s nerve coefficients had increased to an enormous level, she was clenching her hands so hard that her nails were piercing her skin, and the blood flowing from her hands had already formed a puddle. Artemis was trying to calm Nemesis, while Thanatos sharpened his scythe. When Nemesis turned to him, she heard these words: "Don''t look so grumpy Neme, aren''t we going to kill everyone?''" At Thanatos'' words, everyone paused, each person in the hall began to sweat, they could feel every hair on their bodies prickle, and they were aware of every blood flowing in their bodies, every heartbeat beating. The Olympians dropped to their knees as eyes turned to Nyx, even in fear. There was no accounting for the aura spilling out of Nyx. Such a gigantic energy, such a gigantic aura had overflowed that the entire mountain of Olympos was trembling. Each layer of the 150th floor began to tremble one by one. He could have used a method like this to explain the enormity of Nyx''s power. Under the laws of the tower, those who reached the 75th floor would acquire a small shred of divinity, which would increase their power many times over, making them once again the most powerful of the gods under the laws of the tower. When they ascended to the 100th floor, they became demigods. The 100th floor was basically the last floor of the tower that people could reach because the following parts were the lands where the gods lived and the places that Chaos added to the tower later. Mount Olympus, Asgard, Atlantis, Niflheim, Nirvana, Jade Mountain and many other special places were located on these floors. From the 100th floor to the 150th floor, each region worked on these kinds of things. In a sense, each floor after the 100th floor is where the gods live and where battles are fought non-stop. There was no need for a special test to pass the floors, on the contrary, the gates could be opened with special items that had to be found. These floors are designed in such a way that they will never collapse despite all the wars that will certainly exist. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nyx was strong enough to completely shatter the 150th floor, just below the tower top area where Chaos lived. She was emitting such a gigantic aura that the entire floor was shaking, the hall was dust. Nyx was mad as hell. "Mother, your orders," Moros said suddenly, dropping to his knees at the foot of the stairs below the throne so that he was standing directly in front of Nyx. Nyx, on the other hand, calmed down as soon as she heard her son''s voice and instantly realised that there was no reason to be so angry. It was a good thing that a few words from her son had been so calming. She had already thought that James was dead and had come back with the Philosopher''s Stone, every one of them had thought that, after all, it didn''t bode well for James to be so emotional with a message that only she had shown him. "Wait a bit Moros and you Ronald, tell me the story quick." Nyx suddenly said. Hearing this, Ronald shook his head and then began to speak: "When the young master was injured we sent him to one of the hospital rooms, it was all our fault, we took our eyes off him for a second and one of the arena competitors entered his room and killed him, I secured the weapons and released the attacker." Nyx shook her head as Ronald said these words and then said, "It''s good that you released him, gather information on who he is and then come back. Moros, Nemesis and Apate, you will observe the higher gods, look for any connections, and report anything you find." The three brothers nodded and left the hall, each eye turning to the weapons of offence Ronald had produced. When the shattered medallion and the knife were laid out in front of the eyes, everyone could see that the knife was completely normal, but everyone who looked at the medallion was puzzled. "This is the work of one of the Egyptian Gods..." Erebus suddenly said he was one of the people closest to the Egyptian Gods. "I realise, the medallion has my father''s power in it, I''m hoping you''ll go to Great Uncle Ra and ask him, darling," Nyx replied. Erebus shook his head after what he heard kissed Nyx on the lips and said, "Calm down, we will eventually put them all in front of you." and left the hall under Nyx''s smile. With that, Zeus gave orders to all the Olympian gods in the hall and told them to inspect all the Egyptian Gods on the 150th floor, and with that, every single person in Olympus, down to the laziest god, took action. The game of the gods was already quite an escalating event, but this was the final point in the eyes of Nyx, the goddess who was passive in everything. If someone or some people thought to attack someone Nyx already considered her child, and even did so, they would not be able to live. Who they were, or what they were trying to do, was unknown, but anyone who sensed Nyx''s aura could only think one thing for certain: "We really screwed up. We truly screwed up and we will die for this." Chapter 66: We Found the Traitors Already the light of the next day had dawned and the new day of the arena had begun, James had already fought several battles. Still, he hadn''t achieved what he had set out to do yesterday, since he hadn''t found any trace of Ariel during the long search for her. So it would be much better for him if he was constantly fighting and winning duels. "CHING!" The sounds of metal clashing again rose from the arena and the duel between James and another figure became apparent. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You are very good, young master Umbra! It is an honour to be able to hold my own against you, even if I am nowhere near the strength of the one called Ariel." James smiled as the man opposite James said these words and then said, "Do you realise that you are a better swordsman than me? I still have a lot to learn!" he said. Hearing these words, the man smiled at what James said and said, "I have been in the tower for almost 70 years, at least let me use a sword better than you." The arena was constantly merging the sounds of the clash and the cheers of the spectators rose to an excellent level. Blood was pouring out of both combatants'' bodies, but both of their faces were smiling with happiness and excitement. These expressions seemed to drive the spectators to even greater enthusiasm. When the two stood face to face, the man was seen breathing madly, while James just stood there in a normal state. "I''m old now, I''m not as tough as I used to be, at least I have money and stamps so I can live comfortably until I die, I hope you can forgive this old man for fighting against you." When the old man said these words, James shook his head, smiled and said, "It was a good enough duel, you fought well, sir." The old man burst into a deep laugh at these words and then looked at the referee and said, "I withdraw, sir." When the referee accepted the request, there was a great booing from the audience, but the old man did not even choose to wear any of these words, it was easily seen from his looks that he was too old to care about the young people. James, on the other hand, realised that his sword skills had improved slightly in this duel as if he needed only a small push to move to a new level. So another duel ended and the referee''s usual line came out: "Congratulations to Umbra for completing their 72nd match. The winner of Umbra of Chaos and Aury of Unknown is Umbra." With those words, Umbra exited the arena and then made his way to the arena''s dormitory, his popularity soaring so high that he had to sign autographs for dozens of people just to get to his room. Still, he somehow managed to get into his room and lay down on the bed. He was really tired, until today''s encounter with the old man, he had managed to defeat every single person he had faced in just a few moves, leading him to his 72nd win. [I didn''t expect you to be this tired.] When James suddenly saw the window in front of him, he closed it and then said, "That''s what happens when you fight in like a billion duels in a row, my lady." These words made him quite right, he had not rested much the day before and had started duelling from the early hours of this morning, so his fatigue was at its peak. Still, duelling was not the only thing he was going to do, at least not today. Right now he was going to get some rest and then try to find Ariel, again. He didn''t want to let everyone into the Chaos guild, so he was looking for people with excellent potential, people who wouldn''t trust others completely, but who could trust him. In a way, he was looking for loyal people who could only trust him. Ariel was the only person he knew who met that criteria. According to what she said, Ariel didn''t trust anyone around her, but she still wanted to trust what he said in the duel with James. It meant that there was a chance if he could get Ariel on his side, things might get better. He realised instantly that he needed to put his head down and sleep for an hour or two, knowing full well that this was what he had to do. Closing his eyes, he was asleep in an instant, while upstairs something else was going on. ----- "The plan has failed, Sopdu! Today he fought in duels!" One of the gods slammed his hand down hard on the table and rose to his feet, trembling with fear. "I realise that! How was I supposed to know he had the Philosopher''s Stone?!" shouted Sopdu suddenly, his hand balled into a fist and slammed on the table, it was a great evil for them that the plan had failed. "What do we do, we have to defend you, lie...we need lies." another god said. "Just say that I found the medallion on one of the lower floors, they won''t suspect us," Sopdu said suddenly, but suddenly they heard a knock on the door of the room they were sitting in: "Thud-thud-thud!" Three knocks were enough to throw their hearts into the sea. Every one of them was trembling and no one even went to open the door. Every god and goddess, including Sopdu, was pinned in place. At that moment, an aura of enormous magnitude rose from behind the door. It was such a gigantic aura that the gods and goddesses in the room were almost unable to breathe. "CRUSH!!!" With a sudden sound, the door of the room was shattered, and through the dust and smoke, a pair of crimson eyes began to watch Sopdu himself. Sopdu fell from his seat to the floor and stayed where he was. Only a second ago he had felt his head being separated from his body. "So it is you." said the red-eyed figure who entered. Those who saw him were surprised, clearly not expecting to see the person who had not left his mother''s side for even a second for a very long time. Here was the person who could be recognised as the most frightening of the Chaos-Born in the only sense of the word. They were going to die, they had to do something. Chapter 67: Holy Moros Sopdu suddenly recovered his senses and then fell to his knees and began to prostrate himself. "Lord Moros, what an honour it is to see you!" As soon as he uttered these words, all the gods and goddesses in the room fell to their knees. No one knew how Moros had found this place, but there was one thing they did not realise. Nemesis had suddenly entered the room and looked at Sopdu and the others. Nemesis was almost always watching them because they were acting very suspiciously, which meant that it had been very easy for Moros to find the room. "Damn it!" Sopdu suddenly thought he had to calm down, he had to lie. "May we ask why you have come, holy one?" Sopdu suddenly asked, directing his question to Moros. Hearing this question, Moros suddenly took a few steps, and when he was in front of Sopdu, he raised his foot in the air and suddenly stepped on the little god''s hand. Sopdu gave a small push, not even daring to shout aloud, thinking that he should keep his mouth shut out of fear alone. "Brother, you don''t even have to bother if you want, we can summon great uncle Ra." As Nemesis uttered these words, every god and goddess in the room trembled once more. Ra was a creator, he was not the creator of the tower, he was someone Chaos had created to observe his children, he had not climbed the tower, but he had made his creatures climb it, and those people were the main sources of Egyptian Mythology. In this case, Ra, Erebus and Nyx were partly siblings even though it is not like with the mythologies. This meant that Ra was the great uncle of people like Nemesis and Moros. "I don''t think we need great uncle. Look around, they''re all weak, incompetent losers with inferiority complexes. They''ve passed the 100th floor and think they''re gods. Even you could easily kill them, my sweet sister." Moros said suddenly, the cruelty in his gaze reaching a new level. He continued to step on Sopdu''s hand with incredible force. Sopdu''s hand began to bleed and the sight became ugly. "Please wait, Master Moros! Sopdu is not guilty! We know what happened, please let us tell you!" One of the gods had somehow managed to say these words in a way that belied his fear, the gaze suddenly turned to him and Morus took his foot off Sopdu''s hand and took a few steps back. "Speak," Morus said suddenly, it was a direct order. "I found the medallion on one of the lower floors, I swear! You know that in the communities on many floors there is the Church of the Night. Even if the main church is on the 5th floor, many churches are scattered throughout the floors." When Moros heard these words, he realised that Sopdu had started to say what everyone already knew and he took a deep breath and exhaled, clearly getting angry. "I went into one of the church buildings that had been closed and relocated, and I swear I had no evil intentions, but I did find that medallion. I managed to find not only the medallion but also a buckle. Both items had the power of our creator, the great Chaos, and a few other pieces of power I did not know about." Moros, one eyebrow slightly raised at these words, realised that the man in front of him was not lying, but there was something else he needed to know. "Give me the buckle," Moros said and after taking it from Sopdu he stopped for a second and then spoke again: "What about Elian, he was the one who took James'' life, tell me what happened?" Moros said and Sopdu spoke with relief: "Elian was the only one who chose me. When we became demigods, we had the right to choose, so he chose me, and that''s why I tried to help him a lot. What kind of a fool wouldn''t give his follower something that had the power of the creator on it?" sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Hearing these words, Moros leaned in close to Nemesis'' ear and then asked quietly, "That fits, can you think of anything?" Nemesis nodded and then spoke: "The question is, why did Elian want to kill James?" When Nemesis uttered these words, Sopdu''s face pouted and he said the following words: "I don''t know why Elian would do such a thing. Even before we entered the waiting room of the arena, Elian showed aggression towards Mr Umbra and said that he would kill him during the duel. I thought it was just a sense of struggle, I never realised how wrong I was, please forgive me.''" Nemesis shook her head as she heard these words and then placed the crystal sword in her hand against Sopdu''s throat and said, "That''s no reason why I shouldn''t kill you." Just as he drew his sword back and prepared to strike, both Moros and Nemesis were shocked, even Apate, who had been standing silently behind them, stopped. Nemesis raised his sword to his inventory as if something had suddenly happened, and then turned away, saying, "Lucky for you, we''ve decided you''re not so wrong." With that, the trio left the room, and shortly afterwards, they left the place altogether. No one understood what had happened, they thought Nemesis was going to kill Sopdu, but nothing happened. While every god and goddess in the room was laughing comfortably, two people suddenly entered the room. As soon as the gods and goddesses in the room saw them entering, they prostrated themselves again, this time they could not even make a sound. They didn''t even dare to tremble, even breathing scared them, if they made a single move, they wouldn''t have enough strength to endure this time, they would die instantly, and this scared them insanely. They couldn''t make a single mistake. One real mistake would kill them all, forever and would not let them born again. Chapter 68: Ra and Chronos One mistake would have killed them all. There were two men who entered the room. One was a very young-looking man with white hair and red eyes, maybe 1.90 metres tall and incredibly handsome. The other, like the sun, had golden hair and golden eyes, was almost the same height as the person next to him and was even more handsome than the person next to him. These people were Chronos and Ra. Chronos was not a creator, unlike Ra. He was the embodiment of time, and like the other titans, they were high-ranking beings. He was a being that could not be stopped in any way, he was time itself. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ra, on the other hand, was a personality sitting in the upper echelon of even the creators, he was a guardian, a guardian of the Chaos-Borns, and he had come here at the request of Erebus. This was the reason why Moros, Nemesis and Apate suddenly left the room and then the place. Ra had asked them to leave because he was the one who would punish them all at that moment. "I know exactly what you did, Sopdu, and I am ashamed that you could so easily betray the purpose of your creation." Ra suddenly said, and without even listening to what was to be said after that, every god and goddess in the room fell to the floor. The lifeless bodies of each of them were in the centre. There was neither a sword blow nor any such attack, Ra only uttered a few words and each of them died. Then Ra turned to Chronos and said, "Turn back their time." After these words, Chronos flexed his fingers, turned his palm to the side of the dead bodies and started to rotate his hand counterclockwise. One by one, each dead body seemed to be returned to its owner. The gods and goddesses were shedding tears and marvelling at how much pain they had experienced in just 15 seconds. Ra stood still and then a knife appeared in his hand. As soon as he threw the knife, the heads of all the gods and goddesses in the room began to be pierced one by one, revealing a mark on each body large enough to kill them. "Again," Ra said, and each of them came to life again. This time their bodies were riddled with holes. "Again," said Ra. This time hundreds of snakes had invaded the room and bitten each of them to death in every possible place. "Again," said Ra. This time lava poured over each and every one of them. "Again," said Ra, but this time Sopdu''s raised voice was suddenly heard. "PLEASE OH CREATOR HAVE MERCY! " When Sopdu uttered these words, Ra approached him and said, "What about you? Did you have mercy when you did such an evil deed to an unfortunate child who was not at fault and whose life was miserable?" Ra''s eyes were literally like his symbol, the sun itself, looking so brightly into Sopdu''s eyes that there could be no explanation for it. "I..... did wrong, please forgive me..." Sopdu said again, but at that very moment, he saw the area around him begin to change. After only a few seconds, he appeared in front of the throne of Nyx and Erebus with all the gods and goddesses. In just a few seconds Chronos had teleported them away. "These are the criminals, Nyx," Chronos said suddenly and yawned, sitting down on one of the steps in front of the throne. Nyx smiled and then said, "Thank you, Ra, for coming to my aid as always." When Ra heard these words, he smiled and then said, "It was my fault that this happened, I should have trained them better, forgive me sister." and stepped aside. Sopdu, as if he could not believe what he was hearing, prostrated himself again and shouted: "PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON US OH DEAR ONE AND ONLY DAUGHTER OF THE GREAT CHAOS!" Hearing these words, Nyx made a gesture with her hand and Sopdu''s lifeless body, which died instantly, flew to the huge doors of the hall and fell to the floor like a fly. After Chronos exhaled tiredly, he looked at Nyx as if he was frustrated, and Nyx, who noticed this, averted her eyes and said, "You cried a lot, Chronos, just help me." Nyx was acting like he was talking to a family member. With that, Sopdu was reanimated and stood there, unable to say anything, and then Nyx seemed to have an idea, she could do something by asking James a question instead of taking it out on him like that. "All right, I can forgive you, but on one condition," Nyx said suddenly, hearing this Nemesis and the others started to look at Nyx like she was crazy, but then each of them had to hold themselves back from laughing at what they had just heard. "Please tell me, my lady!" said Sopdu and Nyx smiled as she heard this: "I''ll ask James, and if he tells me to forgive you, we''ll pretend nothing happened. You will still be punished for stealing from one of the old churches." Hearing these words, Sopdu suddenly prostrated himself and banged his head repeatedly on the floor, shouting "THANK YOU, MY LADY!" over and over again. However, the fact that James was awake seemed to work in Nyx''s favour, as James had already managed to find Ariel. This time he made the message window big enough for everyone to see and spoke: "James, we''ve found the perpetrators who killed you, they''re begging for your mercy, what do you want us to do?" ----- [James, we have found the perpetrators who killed you, they are begging for your mercy, what do you want us to do?] James smiled as he saw the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and his face turned rather grim, then he shook his head and simply said: "Hell no! Do they really expect me to forgive them? What do they think this is a game?" ----- Chapter 69: Punishment and Ariels Life These words were heard by every single person in the hall, and then every single one of them laughed, there was no way for the traitors to survive. At least that''s what everyone thought. "I''m punishing you, you will spend eternity in hell under Lucifer''s command, on the glaciers above the Sea of Souls. Each day your hearts will be pierced by the demons and each time you will be revived and scorched by the pain of the soul-burning glaciers. You will wish to die, but this will never happen. Take them away!" With these words of Nyx, the whole hall fell silent, after a long time, one of the most severe punishments that could be given to a god was given. Indeed, no one would wish to be in Sopdu''s and the others'' shoes, even death was an easier escape. Yet Nyx did not want to leave them with an easy death. The severe punishment meted out here on this date was a message to their enemies. Whoever wanted to attack Nyx and her family could try, but whoever tried to kill her warrior would be given one of the harshest punishments possible, they would wish to die every second of every minute of every hour of every day. That was a certainty. "It was the perfect punishment," Erebus said suddenly, and Nyx, hearing this, turned her head to her husband sitting next to her and gave him a big kiss on the lips. It was good enough to drive Erebus mad with happiness. "Our work here is done, all we have to do now is watch what James is going to do, he''s already talking to Ariel, let''s see what''s going on," Nyx said suddenly, and with that, voices could be heard again through the large window in the lounge: ----- "You know what I''m saying, if the Chaos Guild is going to recruit its first member, it should definitely be you." James was sitting and talking with Ariel inside a cafe. Ariel didn''t seem to be very happy, it was obvious that she didn''t trust James like that, and it was just the reason that confused James. After all these thoughts, Ariel suddenly turned her head and looked at the sun, which was already setting. "Do you know why I never trust those around me?" Ariel asked and James shook his head, "No, but I''d be honoured to know and listen." Ariel took a deep breath and then finally began to speak: "I didn''t have a very good life when I entered the tower. You know the classics. My boyfriend was a banker, he was killed in a robbery, I was left alone with my daughter, my daughter was 18 years old, a legal age...I still didn''t want to leave her." "My daughter didn''t think the same, she left the city to go to a university. Unfortunately, my daughter disappeared, and it was obvious that she had been kidnapped, I searched for her for almost two years, and I contacted the police, but she was never found...my daughter." As James listened to Ariel''s speech, a strange sadness continued to fill his heart every second. "After almost three years, one day my phone rang, and when I answered it, I learnt that a diver had found a dead body in the river," Ariel said, and her eyes welled up with tears. "That body...." James said, his teeth clenched in anger. "Yes, it was my daughter''s. The autopsy gave us a few answers, but it was obvious that it was a rape and a big investigation was launched to find out who did it. The houses in the area where the river runs were checked one by one, just in case, and in one of the houses they found photos and videos, in short, concrete evidence of how my daughter died." "I understand...I can''t imagine what you''re going through," James said, not even in a way to comfort the woman in front of him. "No Umbra, I wasn''t in pain at the time, I was angry. I was angry because I knew the people who did it, it was my uncle and his wife who owned the house. I saw in the videos that it was my aunt who raped my daughter and my uncle who killed her. Then I killed them in a way you can''t imagine, and then I got an invitation from the tower and the rest is history." As soon as James heard this, he could no longer hold back the tears and they finally rolled down his face, luckily there was nothing around to listen to them, James had rented the place. James didn''t know what to say after this heavy story, and Ariel smiled seeing James crying. "I''m not much different. I saw my parents get blown up in a car accident, my girlfriend probably cheated on me and broke up with me after a long relationship, and I got an invitation from the tower when I was suicidal. We''re not so different, but you''ve suffered a lot more," James said suddenly, it sounded like something he was telling Ariel to calm himself, not to comfort her. "I won''t bother you anymore, please forgive me, I didn''t mean to bring up bad memories, I just wanted someone I could trust," James said suddenly. Ariel''s eyes lit up when she heard that. "Aren''t you going to ask how old I am? I mean, you were talking like we were the same age at the time of the duel. I know you are curious, you should''ve seen your eyes when I said I had an 18-year-old daughter," Ariel said as if she was trying to deflect the subject. "Well...it''s not that I''m not curious, but I didn''t mean to be rude," James said, and Ariel, hearing this, said, "I''m forty-one." James smiled when he heard Ariel''s age and said, "Haha...you''re the age my mum died, what a strange irony." After all that, he stood up and prepared to leave the place, not wanting to cause Ariel any more trouble. Just as he was about to leave, he heard a call from behind him and turned around, saying, "Yes?" He saw Ariel smiling, he couldn''t understand what was going on, but at that very moment he heard the one thing he wanted to hear: "This Chaos Guild...what exactly do I have to do to join? And what will my rank be?" "You want to join?" James suddenly said, there was no way for him to express his surprise. Hearing this question, Ariel said, "I don''t fully trust you, it''s impossible for me right now, but I believe that two individuals who have been through the same path can be good friends with each other. If you allow me, yes, I would like to join the guild." This was the day when the second member of the Chaos Guild joined the guild, the day when the pain and evil were remembered and finally the glimmer of hope and happiness was felt. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Indeed, life was treating everyone strangely. Chapter 70: 1st Guild Commander "You''ll join? Seriously? Haha...HAHAHA REALLY?" James seemed to freak out after hearing these words, jumping up and down in the air like a child, and it was possible to see that this sight even touched Ariel. James paused when he saw Ariel''s face and asked with a smile, "You look upset, did I do something wrong?" the answer he received was the answer that ordered him to keep his smile on his face at all times: "You laugh like my daughter, you''re like a copy of her." "Well...I''m honoured!" James suddenly said and then smiled as he sat back down in the chair, before looking at Ariel and saying "I cannot offer you the position of Vice-Guildmaster, Lady Ariel, but I can offer you the rank of First Commander." Ariel accepted with great happiness and then asked the question on her mind: "But why not the position of Vice-Guildmaster?" Hearing this question, James shook his head and then replied, "That position is being held for someone very important and it will be a very, very long time before I get there, although by the time I get there, she will have already passed the 100th floor." Ariel asked with a small chuckle, "Who''s the lucky person?" and James replied, "Nemesis of course, who else could it be?" He had no idea how much this pleased Nemesis, but he couldn''t even try to think about it right now, which is why he immediately opened the Guild Panel and sent an invitation to Ariel. When Ariel saw the invitation that had suddenly appeared in front of her, she immediately pressed acceptance and then smiled and said, "Let''s get along, leader." It was obvious that she said this jokingly. James had an even bigger smile when he heard those words and realised that Ariel''s name was shining in the commander''s area of the Guild Panel, there was no way to describe his happiness. With that, he stood up and then said, "Then let''s rest, shall we? Tomorrow is going to be a very challenging time for me and I have a task for you to do tomorrow, don''t worry, you won''t have to fight." Ariel stood up when she heard those words and then said, "Sure, just say the word," and accepted the task without hearing it. "I died, you know, just the day before, and the perpetrator escaped, and Lady Nyx took care of things in the god dimension, but she didn''t take care of things on this floor, so I''ll leave that to you." Ariel''s eyes became emotionless as James spoke these words and then asked the following question: "What was the reason he tried to kill you?" "I think it''s because I have a better life than he does, I don''t know what to tell you," James replied in surprise. The anger on Ariel''s face was clear and unmistakable, I think she was really starting to see her own daughter in James. "I will accomplish the mission Umbra, don''t worry." said Ariel abruptly and prepared to leave the area, just then James pulled out some nice armour and weapons from his inventory for Ariel to choose from and to Ariel''s surprise he said, "Call me James, it''s my real name." Ariel quickly grabbed a few pieces of armour to equip and then smiled and said, "Well, good luck with that, Little James, I''ve got to get moving." She soon left the coffeehouse and disappeared. James was left with the words ''Little James'', he couldn''t help but laugh. Now he could return to the arena, that was what he had to do. ----- "Awhhh...Look at him, saving the position of Vice-Guildmaster for you, Neme." As Hemera said those words, Nemesis turned round and looked at her eldest sister in anger, though she couldn''t say anything because she didn''t want Hemera to beat her up. However, Nemesis was happy, after all, it was the first time she had ever loved someone, and the first time that person had at least said something in return. That was enough for Nemesis herself. ----- "Umbra of Chaos and Leon of Olympos to the arena!" James heard this call from the waiting room and was surprised, everyone in the room was looking at him, it was possible to say that they were as surprised as James. "I mean...there is a possibility of that happening, after all, how many people are fighting in the arena, right?" James said, and then he got up normally and climbed the stairs. When he reached the arena, he saw the strange expression on Leon''s face, as if he was apologising. "Don''t hold back Leon, let''s have a good duel," James said respectfully the referee''s voice sounded and the match began. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Leon suddenly lunged forward and swung his huge sword at James from above. Even though Leon, a huge man, seemed to be slow, James could clearly understand his speed. He seemed to be slowing himself down to change his attack. It was exactly what James had expected because the moment James tried to dodge the attack, Leon changed the direction of his attack and managed to push James back as far as possible. The attack was not intended to kill, Leon was trying to attack with the side of the sword. "So you''re trying not to hurt me and I understand that, but please calm down, you can fight as you like." James looked at the man as he said these words and saw his expression turn serious and then he heard these words: "I would be honoured, young master, if I may." At these words, the aura of the man before him thundered, as if lightning was flashing around him. Leon instantly disappeared from where he was and appeared just to the right of James, his sword was in the air and descending very quickly towards James'' body. James instantly used his dark step ability and avoided the attack. It was as if he was facing a duel he could enjoy again. Chapter 71: Just like the Gods and Goddesses of Fire When James avoided the attack, he put Clarent in his inventory to try a new type of attack and then took out a pair of knives. Seeing the knife, Leon was surprised and then said, "I thought your main weapon was a sword, sir." Hearing this, James said, "Let''s just say I''m trying to figure out what the best weapon is against large-sized warriors, and since you are a fast man, I think the knife will help me, we won''t know until we try." After James'' words, the aura around the arena began to change, Leon''s aura seemed to weaken, or rather his aura seemed to be swallowed by James'' aura. The arena was once again engulfed in flames, James looked around and realised that this time he was more lucid, he had been in a trance at first when the way his aura worked changed. With that, James flexed his body to take action and then lunged forward, saying "I''m coming Leon." The flame-covered aura at his feet literally increased his speed at least twice as much as his normal aura. With each step, he saw Leon trying to keep up with him. Leon really seemed to be a very strange personality. He wielded an incredibly offensive sword, but he wore unusually huge armour, but most importantly, his aura was lightning-focused, that is, it focused on speed. These three components really didn''t fit together at all, even James himself could see that, but this gigantic man in front of him was able to use all three components together. This deserved a great deal of respect. When James activated his dark step ability with his aura, the flames around him turned completely black, it was actually quite a frightening sight, but James was constantly changing his movements and attacking Leon as if he had no plan. Leon could follow James clearly with his eyes, his body was a little weak compared to his eyes, but there was nothing to stop him from moving in unison. James was constantly scratching at Leon''s armour and taking his chances, yet he did not cause any damage to the huge man in front of him. "HOW MANY FLOORS DID YOU CLIMB?" James suddenly shouted, Leon and the onlookers seemed surprised by the question, no one seemed to think Leon was strong enough to need to be asked that question. "17th FLOOR SIR!" shouted Leon in answer to this question and James instantly stopped his attack and stepped back, the onlookers were wondering what was going on. James raised his hand and held the knife in his hand towards Leon, and then said the following words that would touch Leon: "Even though I made it to the 10th floor, I have a class where I had help from someone as great as Nyx. You made it to the 17th floor, and despite your weight and the weight of the weapons and armour you wear and equip, you can keep up with me, while I wear light things. Olympus has found itself a perfect member, I hope you have chosen one of the high gods or you will have this chance in the future because I am sure that your potential is at least as great as mine and even greater than mine. I think we will be close friends in the future." The smile on James'' face grew even wider as he said, "But it is time to end the duel, for the more I defeat, the more I will gain." Immediately after he finished speaking, the aura of flame around him began to swell even more, making those who saw it tremble with excitement. It was as if James resembled Agni, Hephaestus, Zhurong, Amaterasu and many others. However, he charged forward in earnest and instead of dodging the incoming sword strike, he deflected it with one blade and then used his other blade to deliver a serious attack on the armour. "CRUSHCH!!!" A strange piercing sound echoed through the arena and Leon flew out of the arena at an incredible speed, as he sank to the ground the referee ended the match and James'' voice could be heard: "Please take him away to heal him, I''ve pierced his armour, I may have damaged the inside." With those words, several doctors and officials came out into the arena and saw that Leon was injured, though not seriously, and that, James took his place back in the arena and then turned to the referee and said, "Please let''s move on to the next match." Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. While James was busy with the matches, Ariel was busy with something completely different, she had been trying to find Elian, as James had requested. Unfortunately, she had not been able to find the existence of such a person on the 10th floor in her research for the last 11 hours. There were too many people she knew around, she had made a long investigation, and as a result, two options had emerged: Either Elian was very, very well hidden or he was not even on the 10th floor anymore. If Elian was very well hidden, it would not be a bad thing because it would mean that he was still in an area where a search could still be carried out. If he somehow managed to get out of the 10th floor, that''s where the real trouble would be, because when the tower doesn''t give you a special helper, a little admin like Emma, you have to go all the way to the gates. In other words, it was close to impossible for Elian to leave the 10th floor while Olympus and Asgard were watching the gates. Ariel continued her search with all these thoughts and was constantly moving around in order to find the perpetrator. She only stopped for a few seconds and sat down on the floor between the two buildings to rest, closed her eyes and tried to relax herself. Just then, a window appeared in front of her: [Hello Mrs Ariel, can I have a few minutes of your time please?] Ariel shook her head when she saw the message and then spoke gently: "In my world, my calls to God have never been heard, I refused to choose a class inside the tower, my name is Ariel, and I have nothing to do with gods so leave me alone." Ariel suddenly replied and with that, she closed the window in front of her. It was hardly a way to describe the shock of the onlookers. Chapter 72: Moros Plan When Ariel uttered those words, every single being in Olympus was shocked enough, even if the Chaos Guild was connected, there was still no way to stop watching Ariel, so Ariel, who had all eyes on her, officially challenged Olympus and every other being. Especially Moros, who was watching what was happening, was very attentive to what was happening, everything was very interesting and a little funny to him. The only thing Moros wondered was, if Ariel knew who the person who sent him a message was, would he have responded in this way? After these thoughts, Moros opened the system window and sent a quick message to Ariel: "I must say it''s nice to meet you, Lady Ariel, I''m Moros, Nemesis'' big brother." When Ariel saw this message in front of her, she read the name Nemesis and her eyes widened, she immediately stood up and smiled and said, "Nemesis? The Nemesis we know? The Nemesis who has not yet become a goddess, but has already been called the goddess of war and many other things?" When Moros heard this, he turned to his mother and said, "If you want to get someone''s attention, you have to go towards their interests, mum, it was ridiculous to try and talk to her by texting her directly." Nyx snorted at Ariel and didn''t even try to reply to Moros, turning her head the other way, away from Moros, and listening to the conversation. "That''s right, Lady Ariel. We want to talk to you because you are connected to James. If you will listen to me for a few minutes, I can put you in touch with my little sister Nemesis, of course when she is free." Ariel''s eyes lit up when Moros sent this message and she said, "Of course, if I can talk to Lady Nemesis for even a minute, I''m all for it!" Sitting on the floor again, Ariel waited for the next message. When Moros was satisfied with what he heard, his hand went back to the letters in the message window and wrote the following: "As you know, when you go to the 20th floor, you have the option to choose a class that will never be lost. You have made it to the 34th floor without a class, and you know what a great achievement that is." Ariel scratched her head as she read the message in front of her, she didn''t think she would encounter this kind of message, it was strange that a high god like Moros had noticed it. "I understand what you are trying to say but I really don''t trust the gods, even if it is Lady Nemesis, in my darkest hour I searched for a long time for a cure but I couldn''t get anyone to help me, I tried everything even if you are not the god I pray to." When Ariel''s words were heard, not only the gods of Olympus and the gods within, but even James'' enemies were saddened, many of them remembered praying to gods, and many of them remembered how hard they had been through. It made everyone sad and a little proud that Ariel was able to endure so much hardship, even though she didn''t have the same powers as them. As Moros closed his eyes calmly, he realised that Ariel needed to hear the truth, so he wrote another message as if he didn''t think there was anything to hide anymore: "Look, Lady Ariel, I can''t fully understand your suffering, it''s impossible, but there is someone I want to protect right now, and that someone happens to be James himself. You have already come a long way by joining the Chaos Guild. There isn''t a single person left in Olympus or Asgard who can say anything against you, but you remember why you can''t go beyond the 34th floor, don''t you?" When Ariel saw and read this message, her face appeared on the screens in the hall, her sadness visible. "Yes, I need a team member and I didn''t do anything because I didn''t think I could trust anyone, I''ve been standing still for two years, I guess I wasn''t that eager to become a god or goddess," Ariel said suddenly and Moros, who read this, smiled and sent another message: "No. You just haven''t met someone who deserves your trust. I have a proposition for you, go to the 20th floor, that is, after you have done your business. I have been a god for a few million years, so I have enough experience. The system of the 20th floor is very different from the first floor, there is no chance factor here, and you have the opportunity to choose the god you want by searching for him. Search for my name, find me and send a request, even if you don''t trust any god, please believe in me one last time." When Moros sent this message, Ariel herself paused, for a few seconds, and then her silence was broken: "It takes a long, long time for me to trust someone else, to trust them completely. Still, it''s obvious that I''m no longer the only one, that I need a partner and a class for the next floors... Maybe I should stop being stingy for once and accept what''s happening." Ariel had a smile on her face as she said these words, a bitter smile. "My daughter is gone, I lost her, maybe I could have prevented what happened if I had been able to see the dangers in front of me, but I failed... Nevertheless, it is clear that I have gained a son, a son who is very similar to my daughter, a partner and a friend, who understands me." With these words, the bitter smile on Ariel''s face disappeared and was replaced by a rust-bright one. This image was enough for everyone and everything. "I guess I have to accept that I''m not alone anymore. It will take a long time for full trust, but Master Moros I choose to believe you and I hope you will not let me down. That is the last thing I want." S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With those words, Ariel stood up and then moved to finish the task James had given her. "I have a mission and James is the last person I want to disappoint. Please continue to follow me, Master Moros." Chapter 73: 60th Floor? More Like You Are Stupid Seeing this image, Moros and the others remembered the day James had found his passion of his own volition. "Humans...strange beings indeed, and those in James'' world are strange indeed," Moros said suddenly, the smile on his face was a very strange sight, indeed it was unheard of for him to smile so often, even smiling at his mother was unheard of. First James came and gave Moros his smile and then Ariel came and polished it. "What''s strange about them, big brother?" Hypnos said suddenly, and Moros, hearing this, replied with these pure words: "When they are in the void when they are dancing with the void, they are very lonely, they look exhausted, too exhausted...But when a light of hope shines on them, when there is a single gleam in the darkness of the void, the whole world, stars, planets, galaxies and universes seem to be theirs...Hypnos, don''t you think humans are strange?" Moros'' words seemed to make everyone smile, yet Erebus spoke up before Hypnos could answer: "I mean, Ronald said it, didn''t he? The people from James'' world were the most ruthless, vile, nasty, nasty, greedy people. Yet Ronald must have overlooked the good among them because there are some incredibly good people among them, seeking happiness, chasing hope, overflowing with passion." With these words it seemed that the matter was closed, just a few dozen Olympian gods and others, fascinated by both sides, fate was indeed working strangely, even if James and Ariel did not know that they came from the same world, fate had united them in this tower, amid gigantic powers and as the founders of a perfect game. It was as if someone had planned everything for them. It was as if fate itself had even designed Moros and his scribes, the Moirai. Maybe it was Chaos, maybe it was some other person or thing, but whatever it was, it was something perfect. After all, the tower would be literally covered in chaos, and it would not be the creator. ----- "SHIT!" James was looking around and trying to think of a way to counter the attack, he really couldn''t believe that he couldn''t keep up with the speed of his opponent. "You can''t keep up with me, honourable Umbra, to tell you the truth it would be strange if you could keep up with me, I didn''t climb to the 60th floor for nothing." said the woman in the darkness. When James heard this, he was surrounded by his aura in flames again. This aura was not a low-level aura and the fact that it contained a different element, an element like flame, was a real danger, which meant that his opponent had slowed down a little, even if James still could not see him. With that, James'' voice was heard: "THIS TOWER IS BULLSHIT! THEY SHOULD HAVE MADE IT 50 AT LEAST! WHAT THE HELL IS MAXING OUT AT 60!" James had learnt a long time ago not to talk back and forth about the tower like that, but he was frustrated because the power level here was enormous. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The levels and powers of the people on the high floor may have been restricted, but the abilities they used and the experience they had were not diminished in the slightest. James had been a broken man, down on his luck and close to death just a few months ago, and even with Nyx''s help, there was no way he could have withstood such an experience in such a short time. His opponent had been climbing the tower for who knew how long. "THESE NUMBERS WILL NOT STOP ME UMBRA!" shouted the opposing side and then disappeared again. A few seconds later, the next thing James remembered was that he was on his knees on the floor. He had been punched so hard that he thought his jaw was dislocated, he hadn''t fainted, and that was a good thing because with that punch he realised that he could no longer run away and that he had to finally use that ability. "Aura of Chaos," James suddenly said. With those words, a huge darkness enveloped the arena. James'' opponent seemed to be trying to understand what was happening. "You feel weak, don''t you?" James said and suddenly disappeared. When he reappeared he appeared in front of his opponent and then punched him incredibly hard. After flying several metres in the air, the opponent somehow managed to land himself neatly on the ground and then lunged towards James. James was still not as strong as his opponent. His powers may have increased by 100% and his opponent may have weakened by 10%, but his opponent was still a monster up to the 60th floor. James knew this, so he had to use his ability to his advantage. He used his dark step ability and for the first time since the duel began, he managed to avoid the other side''s attack. After exchanging a few steps and successive movements, James suddenly did a small somersault backwards and then picked up his blades again, lifting Clarent into his inventory. As he lunged forward, the flames in his aura became even more intense. After all, Aura of Chaos was strengthening not only him but also his abilities. This meant that his aura could be seen as being on the edge of the next tier, perhaps not permanently, but even in its current state it gave him enough information to take his aura to the next tier, or at least a copy from the doorway. As the flames roared and went pitch black James appeared in front of his opponent, who smiled as if he had been expecting it and lunged for James'' torso. The move did nothing, the opponent''s blades leaving scratches on James'' skin, James took advantage of the surprise and suddenly struck a blow. He had made it to the 60th floor and was left bleeding on the arena floor. James had won the duel, the value of this skill was truly immeasurable, a foolish opponent had given him the victory. Chapter 74: Adamant Armor The audience was stunned, it was incredible that James had defeated an opponent who had made it up to the 60th floor with virtually untouchability, and not only defeated him but killed him on top of that. It really should have been impossible. This was a great situation because it was absolutely strange and perfect that someone who had just reached the 10th floor could defeat someone who had reached the 60th floor, even though his abilities were suppressed and impossible. This strange situation had worried the climber rankers who were likely to face James. It was obvious that each of them would retreat. They could not really throw their lives away like fools when they were so close to becoming gods. Not when James had an ability that made him untouchable. When the referee signalled the end of the bout, James stepped down from the arena, the blood pouring down his face showing the depth of the beating he had taken before using his immunity, the Aura of Chaos ability. His face was really dishevelled. The area under his eye was swollen, his body was cut like crazy, and the blood flowing from his nose and mouth formed a small puddle. Slowly but surely, he still managed to descend the stairs of the arena and finally made it to the waiting room. He pushed the door of the hall and managed to enter even if he was limping. As soon as he entered, he encountered an unexpected crowd: "What the hell was that!!!" "All support to you, Umbra!" "I''ve never seen such a duel in my life, it was at least 100 times more fun than the duel with Ariel!" James was dumbfounded by the sound of voices and applause, he was really having a hard time understanding what was going on, yes the achievement he had won was huge, but it seemed strange to him that the opponents he would most likely fight were behaving like this. "I will withdraw from the duel, Mr Umbra, if I am to face you. You''re trying to get on Lady Nyx''s side, aren''t you? At least I''ll have one more win to your name." James smiled when he heard these words and was touched by the behaviour of the people around him, indeed, for once he was surrounded by people who were happy and enthusiastic, not because he had chosen Nyx, but because he had done a good job. There was no way to describe this beautiful feeling. Shaking his head and gently moving through the crowd, James soon made his way to the door at the other end of the hall, where the dorms were, and made his way to his room. After a short time, he managed to enter his room and threw himself directly under the water. [Are you all right, love?] When James opened his eyes and looked at the message window in front of him, he shook his head and then said, "I''m fine, my lady, I''m just angry with the way the tower works. 60th floor is really too much, if it wasn''t for my Aura of Chaos ability, I would have died." He could feel the adrenaline still flowing in his body. He quickly got out from under the water and threw himself on the bed after putting some clothes on, his body was very heavy. He wanted to rest again, so he closed his eyes, but suddenly he heard a sound, like some kind of notification: "Ding." [The Way to Be a God ability is activated. The player gained a total of 83,247 believers/people who trust him. The Holiness stat is increased by 2500. The Player is awarded 50 status points. A Godly ranked card was gifted. A piece of the Catacomb Key (Legendary-) was gifted]. James opened and closed his eyes several times involuntarily as he opened his eyes and read the texts in front of him, he seemed to be thinking whether what he saw in front of him was real or not. "Ummmm...this ability isn''t supposed to be something like this, is it? Or am I out of my mind?" As James said these words, he immediately saw the black card in the system at the bottom right of his eye and scratched his head, wasn''t this ability only supposed to give attributes? [I have no idea about this, most people who pass the 75th floor have this ability, but I have never encountered such a thing, James.] After reading the message window that appeared in front of him, James scratched his head and said "Aaaah, well?" in surprise and added the 50 status points he had gained for free directly to his Agility status. His Agility status increased to 129 points, and he realised that his whole body felt tremendously lighter. After that, his eyes turned to the black card and he tapped on it to use it, and the moment the card was opened, James'' swollen lip curled upwards: [Lux(Godly+++++) This armour was forged by Hephaestus in the River of Styx. It is made of 24 kilograms of Adamant, and its durability and lightness were increased by Atlas and Hermes themselves. There are 4 gods and a goddess who have blessed the armour, namely Hephaestus, Hades, Atlas, Hermes and Athena. Hephaestus blessed the armour to make the wearer more sensitive to fire. Hades blessed the armour to comfort the wearer in moments of death, and to calm the wearer''s mind. Atlas blessed the armour to protect the wearer from the impact of attacks. Hermes blessed the armour to completely protect the wearer from Adamant, which is heavy when the wearer is not a god. Athena blessed the armour to reflect the wearer''s superior charisma. The armour can be changed to suit the wearer. It is one of Hephaestus'' masterpieces, designed by Hephaestus over 12 million years ago to be worn all over the body and to be as thin as paper. The colour of the armour is all white to reflect its name]. As James read the window in front of him, a white breastplate appeared in front of him, he couldn''t believe the window he was looking at, but he was very happy to see the armour in front of him with his eyes. "Well...That was something I didn''t expect...." Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 75: Catacomb Key "Well...That was something I didn''t expect...." After James said these words calmly, he opened his inventory and then took out a few health potions, when he drank all the bottles, it was possible to see that his face had recovered, but there were still places that needed to be bandaged because the potions he drank were at the lowest level. It would not be wrong to say that the health potions were over. He stood up and bandaged the parts of his body that needed bandaging, then pulled the armour over his chest. With that, the armour suddenly began to cover every part of James from the throat down. It was like some kind of nanotechnology, like one of those things in the movies that suddenly strengthens the whole body. When this coating was finished James noticed that the armour was flexible like a suit of clothes, even the texture of the armour felt incredibly soft and good. After a few stretches, he decided to test the armour to see if it was any good and pulled Clarent out of his inventory. After that, James, who had lifted Clarent into the air, suddenly lunged towards his own arm. "CHING!" An ear-piercing sound emerged in the room and stunned James for a few seconds. [ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?] James looked at the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and then shook his head and said, "Well, not really, my lady." [What if the armour wasn''t tough enough? Do you want to drive me crazy, James?] James was being bombarded by the messages Nyx was sending him one after the other, yet for a few seconds he had chosen to pull Nyx''s jaw like he had pulled his mother''s, and when the messages stopped coming, he spoke: "I mean there are 4 gods and one of them is literally a Titan and Athena a goddess whom I respect who blessed this thing, you expect me not to trust this armour, my lady?" After these words, the conversation seemed to stop, both sides were speechless, James was expressing heartwarming words, these words officially meant that he trusted Olympus completely. [Well, don''t do something stupid like that to show your trust. Also, you may have drunk the heal potion and closed most of your wounds, but you still need to rest]. James shook his head after reading this message and then said, "You''re right, we can already consider the arena won for me, I don''t think anyone will fight against me, not after seeing my ability." What James said was true, no one was going to fight against him, the respect for him had risen to an enormous level and as we have seen before, no sane high-level climber would want to die after they had reached that point. They would have been foolish to risk it. So James had to rest, be at his best, and then wait for the arena to end because there was work to be done. First, he would go to Nyx and whatever the others were, and then he would use something else that had been gifted to him to increase his power even more: "Catacomb key pieces...now numbering three." As James uttered these words he had taken out all three items from his inventory and placed them side by side, after a few seconds of staring he was able to put them together and then shielded himself from the large amount of green light that came into his eyes. When the light went out, there was a lush green key right on his bed. [Key to the Jade Palace Catacomb (Godly-) Jade is an artificial portal full of monsters that will remain open for 72 hours, where you can earn infinite gold and a high level of experience points. There is an unlimited number of treasures inside the Catacomb and you are only allowed to take 3 of them. Each treasure will be of the ''Godly or High-Legendary'' grade. If you try to extract additional treasure, you will have to face the guardian of the catacomb. The catacomb greets you with respect]. James smiled as he read the properties of the key and read what was written on the second to last side. "I think we''ll go to this catacomb in a month when my ability''s cooldown expires, so how about we defeat this guardian and steal all the treasures?" The moment he uttered those words, every god and Chaos-Born in Olmypos smiled slyly. The look on James'' face and the thought of a catacomb guardian being defeated excited them all. Catacombs were incredible things in the eyes of the gods. The treasures that could come out of them could help most low-level and even some high-level gods to become stronger. No one knew exactly what the catacombs were. From Nyx and Erebus, even the duo had learnt that they were not created by Chaos. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The tower was alive, it had a soul, and players and users could be thought of as living organisms inside. Some gods and famous thinkers argued that these catacombs created by the tower were in a sense spirit houses. In other words, it was something that existed in the same logic as the Philosopher''s Stone. The only difference was that the Philosopher''s Stone was designed and created as special gifts by the administrators in the tower, while the Catacombs were thought to have been created by the tower itself. Maybe the catacombs had a bigger story, maybe they hadn''t even been created by the tower, but one thing was for sure, and that was that the rewards of entering these places were incalculable. James absolutely could not miss such a thing, and when I say he could not miss it, he absolutely and absolutely would not leave without exploiting everything inside the catacomb. After all, James'' personality had undergone a major change in this direction, his goal was to meet Chaos, and he was willing to go to great lengths to do so. The catacomb would only be an improvement and a place of great entertainment for him. Chapter 76: Found The Hunt "PAT" The door was kicked in hard, and a woman with red hair appeared to have entered. It was Ariel herself, and she had been tracking Elian for almost 28 days. All the information she could find had pushed her to one place, and the place she had come to was an ordinary inn on one of the extreme points of the 10th floor. The 10th floor was so large that even with Ariel''s contact with people she knew, it had taken a long time to get a few decent pieces of information, and it had taken even longer to process the information properly and finally get to the position she was in. It was approaching 28 days. Today was the last day of the arena, and Ariel wanted to throw Elian in front of James before the end of the day. "Oooh! If this is not the great lady Ariel." When the elderly receptionist uttered those words, the people around seemed to startle. Ariel''s fame seemed to have spread far and wide, and what was more frightening to them was that Ariel had destroyed six assassin headquarters just to achieve her goal. They shouldn''t have taken her on as an enemy. "I need information, what I have learnt led me here, give me what I want and I will leave," Ariel said suddenly, her face so emotionless and cold that it was impossible not to freeze under that gaze. "I don''t think I have any information about what you want, madam. Forgive my rudeness, and please leave my workplace if you are not going to stay here," the old man replied to Ariel in a rather rude tone. However, with a very polite choice of words, it was quite possible to see that the woman was getting angry. Ariel, who had started to take light steps, had one of her knives in one hand and a scroll in the other. After the old man came in front of her, she handed the scroll to him and then stabbed her knife into the table, then took a deep breath and began to speak: "I can kill you, old man, I will get a small punishment for it, but you will be dead. I give you a choice, either you give me what I want or you lose a finger every ten seconds." As these words came out of Ariel''s mouth, the old man leaned a little closer to her and then chuckled and asked, "Do you think everyone is afraid of you, young lady?" As soon as Ariel heard those words, she grabbed the old man''s head and slammed it down hard on the reception desk. "SMASH!" The old man''s face was crushed, but that wasn''t enough for Ariel, she held her knife properly and held the old man''s hand in such a way that he couldn''t move, and then she said the following words: "Oh I don''t think everyone is afraid of me, you''ve got it all wrong. I am only doing my duty and if you have heard my name even a little from the upper floors, you know how merciless I am. Even if I kill you, the guild of Olympus and Asgard will understand, after all, it was someone standing above them who ordered the target to be found. You are still alive because my guild leader asked me not to kill anyone who is not a fault, so do your job and tell me what you know." S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With those words, she let the old man go completely and then showed him the parchment again, even though the old man was bleeding from his nose, he still seemed to be frightened by the fact that he might die if he was any more stupid, which is why he started to speak: "He came two days ago, he''s staying in the master suite, you should go up there, I don''t know why you''re chasing him, but he paid me extra money to keep quiet.''" Ariel shook her head at what she heard and then put the scroll back into her inventory, she then took out a small health potion and handed it to the old man. "That''s all you had to do," Ariel said and then looked at the stairs and muttered, "Stupid architecture, it''s so old it doesn''t even have an elevator, the tenth floor is so fucking stupid!" and then started up the stairs. After almost three minutes, she came to the corridor where the master suite was and started to move towards the room. When she arrived in front of the room, she waited for a few seconds and then kicked the door open. When she entered with a few light steps, she saw that everything was tidy. At that very moment, she felt a bloodlust coming from behind her and then she took her other knife out of his inventory and made a move towards the back. "CHING!" Elian tried to attack Ariel, but his sword strike was deflected by Ariel''s block. Ariel moved her shoulder a little and then twirled the blade in her left hand like she was twirling a pen and looked at Elian. Ariel''s main weapon was her knives, even when James asked her to use everything she used her fists because she wanted to get better at fighting unarmed. So she didn''t fight James using everything. Ariel was at least three times a better fighter when she used a knife. Elian felt his whole body tremble as he looked at the woman''s hand in front of him. The aura reflected in Ariel''s blades was so sharp and determined that a weak person like Elion couldn''t understand how strong the aura was. Ariel suddenly lunged forward and struck Elian as hard as she could. Although Elian tried to counter the attack, the sword in his hand was cut in half like a piece of paper, surprising Ariel as much as Elion. She had checked the knives she had taken from James one by one while tracking Elian. She was satisfied with what she had found. When Elion saw what had happened, he realised that it would make no sense for him to run, and then he fell to his knees and said: "I surrender." Chapter 77: Perseus of Olympos "I surrender." As Elian said those words, Ariel sent the knives into her inventory and then raised her hand and punched Elion in the face as fast as she could. Elion seemed to faint instantly, blood pouring from his mouth and lying there with his eyes closed. Ariel grabbed him by the hair and dragged him out of the room, only to return to the entrance to the inn a short time later and, after everyone had seen him, tossed a money pouch to the old man. "25,000 gold coins can pay for what was distributed in the master suite and what I did to your table many times over." S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With those words, she left the inn, and then, setting Elian down, opened the message window and said aloud: "I have caught the prey." ----- [I''ve caught the prey.] As James stepped out of the arena, he saw this message window in front of him and then his gaze turned dark. He turned to the referee and then said, "I''ll stay here, no one is fighting me anyway, someone I know is bringing an enemy here until then I''m here." The referee nodded his head, to the astonished looks of everyone around, and emphatically stated that he agreed. James then returned to the arena and sat down on the floor, placing Clarent next to him and then going to the message window and sending a message to Ariel: "Bring him to me now, I''ll kill him." ----- [Bring him to me now, I''ll kill him.] When Ariel read what was written in front of her, she bent down and picked Elion up again by the hair. "Did you hear that? You''re going to die, let''s take you to your death." Ariel suddenly said, and with that, she turned around and realised that someone was coming towards her. Pulling her knife from her inventory, Ariel suddenly saw the cloak of the person coming towards her billowing. It didn''t take her long to recognise the flag on the cloak. "Olympos," Ariel suddenly said, and with that, she realised where the person had come from. "Pleased to meet you, Lady Ariel, my name is Perseus, known as the slayer of the mystical human monster Medusa." When the man who introduced himself as Perseus said these words, Ariel''s face smiled, she could not believe that she had met a holy hero. Perseus was one of the heroes in Greek Mythology. He was the son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of Eurydice, whom Orpheus was passionately in love with but could never reach. He is the grandson of Acrisius, the king of Argos, whom he hated his grandson and daughter because of a prophecy, and he was the person who was locked in a chest with his mother and thrown into the sea. With the help of Athena and Hermes, he is the one who killed Medusa, the only mortal from the Gargon race. He is the only rider of Pegasus and the love of Andromeda. He had a great love affair with Andromeda, whom he saved in Aithopia, which was expected to be destroyed by Poseidon, but unfortunately, he was tried to be detained by Phineus, the former fiance of the young woman. Some say that Perseus defeated Phineus and his whole group with his sheer strength, some say that he turned the whole group into stone by using Medusa''s head and left, and others say that Andromeda died during this battle. Perseus tries to go to his sister Athena because he does not want to leave his only beloved, but on the way, he is trapped in a room full of water due to an unknown trap, he stays in that water-filled room forever with an undead body, a holy will and a perfect sorrow. He is one of the greatest heroes of Greek Mythology. "I have to say this Mr Perseus, in the books of the world I come from, they keep saying what a great hero you are, because of my daughter who is interested in mythology, I have heard your name quite a lot of times, as well as your story." Ariel suddenly said it was possible to say that Perseus'' face cheered up when he heard this. "Same as James..." Perseus suddenly said and Ariel shook her head and said, "I don''t know what you''re trying to say." "James met Theseus when he first reached the 5th floor, he told him that his name was written in the books in his world just like you said, and I was honoured to be on the same level as a hero like Theseus." Ariel was surprised to hear those words and shook her head, wondering for a moment if she and James were from the same world. What exactly were the chances of such a thing happening? "Shall we go then?" Ariel asked, pulling herself together quickly, when she got the nod from Perceus, she prepared to move but was suddenly stopped in her tracks by Perceus. "I was sent here by my father, he gave me a device to teleport us, please hold on tight because you may feel a little nauseous." Perseus suddenly said and took out a pen with a lightning symbol. When he held the pen up in the air and wrote the word ''Arena'', it went dark. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck them and when Ariel opened her eyes again, they were inside the arena, inside the waiting room. Ariel looked around and then smiled and said, "Well, I''m not a big fan of gods, but I have to admit this is pretty cool." With that, the people in the waiting room saw Ariel, and each of them stood in a daze. Ariel was somehow feeling James'' energy from above, he must have been sitting in the arena waiting. The arena itself sends the people coming out of the waiting room to different smaller dimensions inside the arena, and in this way, more than 10,000 people could fight in a day. So there were hundreds of waiting rooms and things like that, and Ariel was able to get to the small dimension where James was with the help of Perseus. Elian hadn''t woken up and Ariel had to drag him upstairs. Climbing the stairs with Perseus at her side and Elion by the hair, Ariel finally noticed the sunlight in her eyes after a while and then saw the young man sitting in the arena. "Umbra, we brought him." Chapter 78: The Truth About Elian "Umbra, we brought him." When Ariel said these words, James'' body, which had not moved at all, suddenly woke up and James stood up. Ariel threw Elion into the arena with a big smile, and then James looked at the referee and asked, "Aren''t you going to wake him up?" The referee came to Elion with great surprise and woke him up by grabbing his head, it looked like he had used a spell. When Elion saw James in front of him, he looked at Ariel and then at James and then asked, "What the hell is going on?" When James heard this question, he started talking without stopping: "When I chose Lady Nyx''s class card, people who already disliked my lady decided to target me. A great plan was put into use because they knew they couldn''t kill me this early. That''s why they waited for me to come to the 10th floor, after all, they really couldn''t attack me on the floor where the Church of Night was most active by coming to the previous floors and especially by going down to the 5th floor." When James said these words, the expression on Perseus'' face was visible to everyone watching, indeed there was not a single god on Olympus who did not like James, and of course, these gods had said good things about him to their children. "After I arrived on the 10th floor and entered the arena, while I was standing in the waiting room and maintaining my sword Clarent, this bastard you see in front of you came and said that he was going to kill me. Quite normal according to the rules of the arena, don''t you think?" Elion''s expression seemed to grow more and more angry every second James spoke. However, James had no intention of stopping. "I didn''t take his words too seriously, after all, there have been plenty of people who have wanted to kill me. The High Chimera on the tutorial floor, the Goblin King on the second floor, the High Being on the ninth floor, and then Elion himself. So I thought I wouldn''t die." These words seemed to anger the people in the arena, every single thing James said really increased their anger quotient because each of them somehow managed to understand what James was going to say, even if it was just a little bit. "I was injured after a great duel with Ariel, most of the wounds were wounds that couldn''t be healed with health potions, unless they were high-level. I was locked in one of the hospital sections of the arena, where only the administrators could see me, not even my goddess could see me." James'' features contorted incredibly as he uttered these words, his nerves seeming to be at their peak. "And this bastard, even if he didn''t know it, entered my room and managed to kill me when Ronald took his head off me for a second." Elion then stood up and looked round at the onlookers and said, "Indeed, I don''t like him, but to kill him? HOW CAN YOU BE HERE?! ARE YOU DOING ALL THIS BECAUSE I SAID I WILL KILL YOU BECAUSE OF THE ARENA RULES UMBRA?!?!?" he said. The people around had fallen silent, no one seemed to be hoping that James wasn''t lying, but James had concrete proof. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You know how I survived Elion, I used the Philosopher''s Stone." said James and with that Elion smiled and said "Haha...But you don''t have any proof, do you? I didn''t know you wrote the book on lying." After these words, James threw his hand into his inventory and took it out of his inventory by making a fist in front of everyone''s eyes. Elion''s eyes widened to the size of the Philosopher''s Stone. When James slowly opened his hand, all those around him, including the referee himself, who had been an intermediate for a long time, were surprised. The remains of the Philosopher''s Stone lay in James'' hand. A stone that had been shattered into pieces of a rust-bright blue colour. "This... can''t be the Philosopher''s Stone, it''s a different colour!" shouted Elion suddenly, and the referee himself, who seemed to be bored with what was happening, spoke up: "You know how the Philosopher''s Stone is made. It is a stone that the fallen spirits endow to give hope or lead to death to the one who possesses it, in short, a single stone contains hundreds of thousands or even millions of spirits. It turns crimson, the same colour as blood, but when the stone loses its function and the spirits are released when the spirits accept the user or the player, the stone reverts to its familiar worthless block." Those around listened to these words directly and quite seriously, and then James turned to the referee inquisitively and asked, "Worthless? Are you playing word games?" The referee smiled when he heard these words and then said, "Lapis Lazuli was chosen because it is a stone that is very common in the tower. If you are not an artisan or are not engaged in alchemy at a certain level, it is a completely worthless stone." James shook his head as he heard these words and thought to himself how logical it was, after all, if the resource was plentiful, it would make sense to make it functional. Immediately he frowned and it was as if he had an epiphany as he was going through these thoughts, he smiled as he thought about what he had the most of and then made the decision to leave it for later. What he realised, though, was precisely what would make him stronger. As those words echoed around the arena, James had put Clarent back into his inventory, stripped off all his armour in front of everyone and even put Hephaestus'' masterpiece into his inventory. He stood in front of everyone in just his normal clothes, and for a few seconds he turned to the sky and said these words above the daylight: "I may be protected by Nyx at night, but I''m sure Hemera will help me in the beautiful daylight. I don''t need armour or weapons, you''re not even worth it." Chapter 79: Terror Incarnate "I may be protected by Nyx at night, but I''m sure Hemera will help me in the beautiful daylight. I don''t need armour or weapons, you''re not even worth it." With those words, his hand went back to his inventory and pulled out the most powerful weapon he could find after Clarent and Serene''s Throwing Knife and threw it in front of Elion. "Third most powerful weapon I have come on, you tried to kill me in my weakened state but I was unconscious, what happens if I''m conscious the next time I''m weakened?" James'' words had shut everyone up, just like in his duel with Ariel, not a peep was heard from anyone, it would not be wrong to say that it was a rather strange sight. James wasn''t afraid, he had actually passed the stage of being afraid of something on the 9th floor. The fear he felt at that moment when he tasted the difference between him and the gods, was enough for him. Elion was not a fallen god, he was just an idiot who had ascended a few or two dozen more floors than James. He was a man after his god''s own heart. Elion swallowed, sheathing the sword that lay on the ground in front of him, he could see that he was happy, he was foolish enough to think that James had surrendered himself. "If I win, what will happen?" asked Elion, to which James replied, "If you win, my lady, Ronald, Leyla, let this scum go, if such an arsehole can beat me, he can be God." This was the very phrase that stated that Elion was worth less than a grain of dust in James'' eyes. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Elion attacked as soon as he heard this. He descended on James at a fairly rapid pace and delivered several blows in quick succession. James could see where the blows were coming from, their arrival patterns, their speed of arrival and so on. His Agility stat had passed 100 points, his speed now showing that he was more than human. From what he had read in the Imperial Library, this kind of speed was considered the lowest level for elves, dwarves and such races. This meant that James had now reached the level of the successive and superior races, and only on the 10th floor. It was quite normal that he had dodged all of Elion''s attacks one by one, after all, he could calculate the entire pattern of the attacks. The numbers appeared in front of his eyes, he could see when he had to dodge, when he had to move, he could see it all. After a few dozen attacks Elion was looking at James with fear, everyone was still silent, but every one of them, including Perseus and even the referee himself, was scared. James'' face looked strange. Many people had seen his expressions since the arena had started. They had seen him laughing, getting angry, hating, hating, sad, hurting, pretending, and many other things. Yet James'' expression now was different, strange, incomprehensible. It was as if James''s face did not harbour any expression. Elion was panting on the ground, tired, he had been running for a long time, from someone very dangerous. Now he was fighting someone as strong as he was, and possibly stronger. And this person was treating him like he was nothing. James approached Elion slowly and then looked down at his hand, balled it into a fist and then punched Elion as hard as he could. Elion instantly sank to the floor of the arena, and when he tried to get up, James threw another punch into his face. "Kuagh..." Elion had vomited a large amount of blood and several of his teeth had come out of his jaw. He was trying to move, but someone was not letting him. James grabbed him by one arm and put him on his back. Placing his foot on Elion''s head, James watched the dying man and then uttered these words: "I was given a second chance to make everything right, I have a desire and until I do reach that point whoever stands in my way and tries to hurt me like you did will have the incredible chance to die by my own hands." As soon as the words were out of his mouth James kicked Elion in the pit of the stomach, leaving him in agony. Taking a few steps back, he reached into his inventory and pulled out Selene''s Throwing Knife. "It is time for you to die, you will serve as a warning to all, unfortunately, you were nothing more than a godless dog. What you must realise is that it was not the gods who chose you, it was you who chose them, along with luck. You always have a choice inside the tower, even I, who only made it to the 10th floor, can see that." After he uttered these words, flames covered the entire arena. The inside of the arena became invisible, but just before the image closed, everyone could see one thing, James'' foot was right above Elion''s head. When the image was obscured by the flames, everyone realised what had happened. Elion had indeed been brutally murdered. When the flames dissipated again, the blood on the Selene''s Boots that James was wearing became visible, just like Elion''s dead body. All the onlookers around, Ariel herself, Olympus, Asgard, Lucifer, Michael, Sun Wukong, and even all the Chaos-Born could see his expression. His face was like the abyss itself, just looking at it brought tears to the eyes. It was very, very scary, as if people who had been watching him for a month were now seeing his true nature. This would be the day he would receive his second nickname. Elion''s death would go down in history as the day he showed his power and threatened everyone in the tower. From this day forward, those inside the tower would call him: "Terror Incarnate". Chapter 80: Winner of the Arena "Terror Incarnate." James would be known by this name for a very, very long time, of course his original nickname was Umbra of Chaos and that would never change, but this little revenge duel after the arena, which had already ended today, made James'' reputation even bigger. Elian had made a foolish choice and suffered the consequences. When the arena was cleared, the referee called a few people into the arena. A small podium appeared in the arena and then, at the referee''s request, the contestants were placed on the podium. There were a total of 7 people on the podium, lined up in the order of the podium, with James himself standing in the first row. After the referee congratulated all the contestants, he presented them with their awards and then it was James'' turn. When the referee stood in front of James, he had a pen in his hand, and as he held it out to his right a few dim lights formed in the centre of the arena and then a ticket appeared. The ticket made its way to the referee and fell into his hand, it must have been the ticket Nemesis had been talking about. The referee suddenly handed the ticket to James and said, "I have a pretty good idea of what you''re going to do, so take it for what it''s worth." James then reached for the ticket and took it, and at that very moment a window opened in front of him: [Space-Time Teleportation Ticket(Creator+++++) This ticket is an incredibly powerful object created by chaos itself. To use the ticket, think of the destination. When the ticket is used, wherever the user is, whatever they are doing, they are entitled to any point on any floor of the tower, one way and one way back. The ticket consumes a very small amount of body energy. The ticket will send the user directly back when the departure time is up. Duration of stay is exactly 1 week]. Reading the window, James smiled and realised that he had indeed won the ticket to reach the gods for a short time. After all this, the referee turned around and spoke inside the arena, looking at the window right in front of him. "This year''s arena champion is Umbra of Chaos with 7973 wins, we wish them continued success." With those words, one by one, the spectators of the arena began to disappear, while Ariel and Perseus looked towards James and smiled. With that, it was clear that the arena was over, James had won, as many gods had expected, and now there was only one thing for him to do, rest. Therefore, Ariel and Perseus left the arena, albeit slowly, and then returned to the 5th floor with joy. After returning to the 5th floor, the person who welcomed them was Theseus himself. Theseus seemed happy to see his cousin Perseus, and as soon as he gave his cousin a big hug, he turned to James and gave him a big hug, even if it was a little disrespectful in the eyes of the gods. "We love you too Theseus, but please leave us, we need to get some rest, me and Ariel," James said suddenly. The tiredness in James'' eyes was obvious to everyone. James and Ariel were greeted by the cheers of a different person every time they took a step. James, who had managed to reach the imperial palace after a short time, was greeted by a large crowd as usual. The surprise on Ariel''s face was clear, of course, she knew that the Church of Night controlled almost the entire 5th floor, but she was surprised to see James being greeted like this. When James introduced Ariel, the looks of the imperial family and the church changed instantly. Both the church and the empire had learnt that the Chaos Guild had grown, there was now a commander, and according to James, she was more powerful than he was. Ariel was given a private room, right next to James'' room, though. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. However, just resting seemed to be the only thing to do. As James lay on the bed he closed his eyes and managed to fall asleep in just a minute, when he opened his eyes again he realised that he had only had a few hours of sleep and when he checked the system he noticed a few notifications. As soon as he tapped on the notifications, several windows opened in front of him. [The Necklace of Life (Godly-) was gifted by High Admin Ronald]. [Rewards for defeating the Arena without being defeated will be delivered now. 50 million gold coins were gifted. The fame of the Chaos Guild has increased by 10,000. The player received the Intuition(Unique++) ability. The player gains experience potion]. James scratched his head as he finished reading the windows in front of him and put his head back on the pillow to go back to sleep as if he was tired of what had happened, but his curiosity would not let him sleep. He immediately stood up and then went to his inventory and started looking for the item called ''experience potion''. After finding the item, he smiled and looked at the properties section: [Elixir of Experience(NO TIER, NO GRADE) This potion was created for Umbra by High Admin himself. Drinking the potion will give the player 50% more experience points for each monster killed or quest completed]. James thought that he would be able to examine the ability he had gained when he put the item in his inventory, so he took the ticket out of his inventory, he had to get ready, so he got up, took a short shower and then dressed nicely and held the ticket. He smiled, knowing exactly how to use the ticket, and then began to think about Nemesis. He didn''t know where Olympus was or where Nyx was, but he had physically seen Nemesis, so it would certainly be easier to get to her. After a short while, a window appeared in front of him: [Do you wish to teleport to Floor 150? YES/NO] James smiled and then as if he knew what the answer was, he pressed yes without waiting, a portal opened in front of him and then he realised what he had to do. He was going to go up to the house of the gods, if only for a week. Chapter 81: Mount Olympos As James walked through the portal, he saw Nemesis. The sight of Nemesis smiling seemed to put him in a strange frame of mind. "Welcome, James." Suddenly, because Nemesis had spoken to him, he pulled himself together and approached Nemesis with a smile. It was only when he gave Nemesis a huge hug that he realised what was going on around him. "Well...Welcome son." James gently stepped away from Nemesis when he heard this and left her in her confused and embarrassed state. When he turned his head, he saw a throne and two people sitting on it. James'' smile seemed to have gone through the roof as he ran quickly and then stopped in front of one of the two people on the throne. This person was Nyx. When James stopped in front of Nyx, he gently took her by the hand and lifted her from her seat, gave her a big hug, and then pulled out a rose from his inventory. Nyx looked surprised, thinking she was going to get something other than a rose. Everyone''s mouths were agape, no one had thought that James would hug both a high woman like Nemesis and a fierce goddess like Nyx the moment he stepped out of the portal. James had a lot of nerve. Nyx had a little "why?" look on her face after taking the rose, and when James realised this, he spoke: "This rose reminds me of the first time I saw you, my lady, or rather the first time you pierced the sky and watched me on the first floor. A huge darkness descending to a white field, a pair of eyes with pupils shining with perfect beauty. The beauty and colour of the flower reminded me of you, so I wanted to give you this as a gift." As James finished saying these words, Nyx smiled and hugged him even tighter than the one James had just given her. As soon as James was released, he turned his head to Erebus and said, "Pleased to meet you, sir, you''re a bigger man than I thought." Erebus was shocked at the audacity of the young man in front of him and a small laugh echoed through the room. After that, James had climbed down from where he had been standing and was back at Nemesis'' side. Nemesis''s ears were red, she looked embarrassed, and she was still frozen in place, she was actually acting like a teenager. James turned to Moros and then asked, "Master Moros, is Nemesis all right?" S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Moros shook his head from side to side, James gently took Nemesis by the shoulders and shook him several times. When Nemesis somehow came to, he pulled the Necklace of Life from his inventory. In front of everyone, James gently handed the necklace to Nemesis and then said, "I don''t know how much use it will be to you, my lady, as you are already a goddess, but the Philosopher''s Stone may help you, and I present you with this gift in the hope that you will never leave me." Nemesis seemed to stay where he was once more, James was beginning to wonder if they were in a comedy film, but he chose to ignore it all the same. He gently pushed Nemesis'' hair aside and put the necklace on her, before looking around and asking, "So? What do we do now?" As James asked this question, Nyx descended the steps one by one and then came over to James and patted him on the cheek. James didn''t realise what was going on until Nyx suddenly spoke: "First of all, let me apologise. My job was not only to give you your class but to look after you and make sure you were safe. I failed, and I hope you will forgive me for that." When James heard these words, he seemed to have a strange expression on his face. "Well...I mean, I''m not dead so don''t be ridiculous. I''m my own man, if I die it will be because I let my guard down." When James said those words out loud, the others around him chuckled and especially Nyx let out a deep breath. James didn''t understand what was going on. "Normally I''d be the one to surprise you, my lady, but this time I''m the one surprised, can anyone explain what''s going on?" asked James suddenly, wondering what was going on. With that Nyx took James by the hand and began to walk gently, James of course did not resist and walked with Nyx. James'' eyes widened as Nyx brought him in front of one of the huge windows in the lounge. "I''m the reason they attacked you, James. I protect this landscape, this beauty and so much more with my presence alone, I haven''t fought in a physical battle in a very long time, more like my presence prevents battles. This means that when I send you a card to choose a card and you choose me, those who dare not fight against me are drawn to you, someone who will be harder for me to protect." James shook his head when Nyx said those words. "Well...My Lady, I understand, but these were not things I did not know, you know...Even in the world I came from, the only person known to be stronger than you was Chaos himself. That''s why when I had the chance to talk to Leyla, I asked about Chaos and a few other things. I had to find out if the gods here were the same as the ones I knew. I mean, I already knew what was going on at the moment I chose you, and for you to blame yourself is, to put it mildly, silly, even with all the respect I have for you." Even Erebus cringed when James uttered those words, how ridiculous it was for a mortal to insult Nyx. Nyx, contrary to everyone''s expectations, looked relieved, even teary-eyed. "Silly huh? Hahahaha...You don''t even know how happy I am that I sent you the chance to choose me...So what do you say, wanna go for a walk outside?" James'' eyes lit up with excitement and happiness when Nyx said these words, and after shaking his head in disbelief, he said, "If I answer no to this at any point in my life, please throw me off the mountain." Mount Olympos trip was starting. Chapter 82: Three Gods of Olympos With James holding Nyx''s hand, he left the hall and walked out of the palace at the top of Mount Olympus. As soon as he breathed in the air around him, he realised that his whole body was on fire, and when he stumbled for a few seconds and realised that the Chaos-Born following them wasn''t helping, he knew that this wasn''t a bad thing for him. However, James tried to pull himself together a little and began to breathe more regularly. It was not hard to notice that the magical energy in his body was developing rapidly as if his Magic status was improving. Once he had recovered he was able to stand properly and froze at what he saw with his eyes. James looked around cautiously and saw that they were above the clouds, but there were so many buildings and such that it was impossible not to get excited. "I''m in a place I''ve seen in books at school or watched documentaries or even watched films and played games, and I can see everything with my naked eyes." When James said these words in a very normal voice, it silenced all the voices around, all the Chaos-Borns and all the gods on Olympus seemed to be wondering how they were. Even though Hades was a little far away from James, he still asked curiously, "What was I like? In the books, I mean." When James looked at the man in front of him, he didn''t seem to realise who he was. "Aaah...If you don''t tell me who you are, it won''t be easy for me to tell you." James said, and Nyx, who heard this, approached James and said, "That''s young Hades." James looked at the old man in astonishment after these words and then said, "You, sir, are my third favourite god in all Greek Mythology." Hearing these words, the gods seemed to be quite surprised, even in the tower, Hades was one of the most unpopular gods, the aggressiveness of his personality and the nature of his magic alienated everyone from him. "For me, it''s Nyx 1, Nemesis 2 and Hades 3, it''s always been that way and fate helped me to choose Nyx," James said and continued to speak without stopping: "Zeus inherited the clouds, Poseidon the waters of the earth and Hades the underworld. The three great regions of Tartarus, Asphodel and Elysium, which signified death, regret and purity, were called by Hades'' name." With these words, James turned around Hades and then added, "He married his niece in a strange and, in my opinion, disgusting way, and while he lived as if he was imprisoned in such a way that he could never get out of the underground, he was still the person who did his duty in the most superior way." Just as Hades was about to speak, James spoke again: "Zeus and Poseidon are not worth much in my eyes next to you, sir, after all, one of them rules the seas and tries to destroy everyone beautiful from the seas by being jealous, just like Andromeda. The other one tries to have intercourse with all the women who come his way and ruins the lives of many of them and continues to play god when there is a superior power." With these words, Poseidon immediately accepted that James was right and stepped aside, while Zeus stepped forward and dared to ask, "Isn''t that a little disrespectful, Master James?" James smiled a little when he heard these words and then said, "I mean, if you stop jumping on every woman you see next time, you might earn my respect, if you think I''m going to respect you just because you''re a god, you''re very wrong, we humans are notorious for easily gaining faith but instantly turning away from it." S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James shrugged his shoulders as Zeus shamefully stepped aside and said, "I''m sorry, but you should all understand, those of you who were born and climbed inside the tower already had godhood, most of you wouldn''t even be able to play god if your parents didn''t want you to climb and taste power." He looked at the gods around him, including Chaos-Borns, and then said the following words: "You want respect, perhaps from me, perhaps from those below, perhaps even from those around you. Then work for it. Respect is earned, you can''t just expect it to come. Especially you Zeus and people like you, I am a monogamous person so you can''t expect me to love or respect you that easily." Having finished his words, James stopped caring about Zeus and turned to Hades and said, "That''s it, to tell you the truth, if I have the chance to go and see the underworld, I would like to go." "I don''t understand, is it because I''m not like my brothers that you love me?" Hades asked and James, hearing this, shook his head left and right and said, "No, the reason I love you is that you fulfil your responsibilities, unlike your brothers. One is a jealous murderer and the other is a pervert of sorts, you do your job and unlike them, you know how precious love is too even if it is for your niece..." This seemed to put an end to the matter, all the gods around them fell silent, and the Chaos-Borns and especially Apate could hardly keep themselves from laughing. With that James started walking, he could see many temples around and he could tell what was going on by the statues in front of them. "Huh...the temple of Poseidon...I saw it in a documentary, I never thought it would be the same." James suddenly said, touching the statue and looking at the huge temple behind it. As James was watching the temple, he suddenly saw a road running alongside the temple, he was confused because he remembered this road. The Philosopher''s Stone had shown him not only the place where Nyx and the rest of the family had been slaughtered, but also the path to it, and he couldn''t believe that he had found it. Suddenly he turned towards Nyx and asked her the question: "My lady, do you know where this path leads?" Chapter 83: The Time Works Different James "My lady, do you have any idea where this path leads?" All the gods around tried to understand what was going on when they saw the tense expression on James'' face, it seemed to them that James knew something or was genuinely curious in a really big way. "That''s the way to my temple, James," Nyx replied, and James swallowed, averting his eyes from Nyx. "May I speak with you and Master Moros, please? In private." As soon as James uttered these words, Nyx gave an order to all the gods to leave with his hand and only Nyx and Moros himself remained in the area, the two higher beings looking at James and wondering what was going on. "Is something wrong, James?" Moros asked suddenly, seeming to be getting worried. James, upon hearing this question, said the following words. "I''m not sure, but it has something to do with the Philosopher''s Stone..." As James uttered these words, both Nyx and Moros looked at each other, and then Moros turned to James and asked, "Did you see the future?" Hearing this, James asked, as if he didn''t know, "According to the Philosopher''s Stone, yes, but I don''t know what''s going on, can I see the temple?" The two holy beings nodded as they heard those words, Nyx grabbed James'' arm and in just two seconds the trio appeared in front of the temple. James was looking around. The Philosopher''s Stone had shown him the torture chamber, but it had been entered incredibly quickly, so James had seen very little of the path. He had seen so little that it could only be called a recollection. Incredibly colourful flowers had withered in the future James saw, trees had lost their leaves and some trees had even been cut down. As he walked towards the temple, he saw that everything was spotlessly clean, and then he pushed the doors of the temple and went inside. Inside the temple was a huge statue of Nyx, and when James saw the statue, the worry in his heart suddenly seemed to disappear. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are, Lady Nyx?" James suddenly said, even though Nyx was standing next to him in the flesh, he was so excited that he had never opened his mouth about it until now. Nyx smiled when she heard those words and hugged James, kissing him on the forehead as a thank you. James looked around, it was clear that what he was seeing was not a torture chamber, what he was seeing were Chaos-Born imprisoned and even killed in front of the destroyed statue of Nyx. "Now, I must tell you what happened---" James was about to get to the point when suddenly another figure entered the temple, James looked at the clothes of the intruder and suddenly realised who it was. "Don''t even think about telling what happened kid." S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The person who had entered was Chronos himself and he was looking at James in a very angry manner. "Chronos?" Chronos didn''t even pay him any mind when Nyx said the old man''s name in surprise, he just walked over to James and then said, "What the hell do you think you''re doing trying to tell them about your possible future self?" Nyx and Moros seemed to be trying to figure out what was going on, and Nyx suddenly realised what was going on as she stroked her forehead with her hand and said, "You were going to break the timeline." Moros shook his head at his mother''s words and said, "James, you can''t do that unless it''s the gods of fate or time itself," and it was clear that Moros understood what was going on. James glanced at the trio with a puzzled look and waved his hands as if he didn''t understand what was going on. Chronos seemed very disappointed that the boy in front of him was so clever and yet so stupid. "Look, young man, I will explain it to you as simply as possible. Time is a line, every action you take moves along this line, in your world people call this pure fate. There are two ways out of this mystical phenomenon, one is to know your destiny and tell other people about it, and the other is to know the future and tell people about it." When Chronos said these words, James held himself for a few seconds and then asked, "So, should I just keep what I know? Does time work the same in our world or is this something special to this idiot tower?" Chronos shook his head and said, "Yes, it is indeed something special to the tower. Look, young man, it is dangerous to play with time, it is dangerous to play with destiny, that is why Moros and the Moirai are so powerful. Even they can''t make major changes to the concept of destiny, but a slug on the tenth floor can''t do anything." James didn''t understand anything, he sat on the floor of the temple and then took a deep breath and let it out, he still had a lot of confusion in his mind, the fact that he didn''t have a clear idea of what was going on was what scared him. "So I''m just going to wait? I''m just supposed to accept the possible future?" he suddenly asked. A mistake James almost made may have been the precursor to the realisation of that future. The fact that Chronos had stopped him in his tracks had indeed been a bigger help than he had expected. James had never felt so stupid in his life, and even though he didn''t really understand what was going on, he could tell by the expressions on Nyx and Moros'' faces that he had almost screwed up. Chronos'' answer was something that made him think a lot, but it was quite true: "Kid, you can pass the time but remember you will never be able to stop it, you do not have the power, even I don''t and I am practically the time itself." Chapter 84: Story of Death "Kid, you can pass the time but remember you will never be able to stop it, you do not have the power, even I don''t and I am practically the time itself." With these words, James lay on the floor and looked up at the ceiling of the temple. There were beautiful carvings and paintings on the ceiling. Beautiful drawings and beautiful images with function. It was even possible to see Nyx and her family on the ceiling. James relaxed for a few seconds and then stood up and spoke: "I guess you''re right, after all, it''s not like it happened. I was stupid, I was scared." James seemed to accept what had happened too easily as if he was using this positivity to escape, but it was enough for the three holy beings. Chronos scratched his head and thought that James would be more concerned about what had happened and wanted to leave, after hugging Nyx and stroking Moros'' hair he left Mount Olympus in a flash, he would be back here later of course, it would be a feast for James after all. ----- When Nyx and Moros took James to the other Chaos-Borns, the group began to talk and have fun, James'' fatigue had officially disappeared, and on the contrary, everyone started to enjoy the fun. Even Chronos and Ra had joined in. Nemesis did not leave James'' side for a second, it was clear that the two had a very strange relationship. Even if the laughter of Philotes and Apate occasionally drove Nemesis mad, she still kept her mouth shut, clearly not wanting to look bad to James. "So, tell me what your life was like in your world before you came here," Erebus said suddenly, and with that Nyx''s hand landed hard on Erebus'' back. "SLACK!" A very thin sound echoed through the room and Erebus shut up, but James didn''t seem to mind. "It''s a simple story, sir, lose family members, have your lover leave you because you don''t have any money and you''re sure she''s cheating on you, blah, blah, blah, blah, classic stuff," James said suddenly and Erebus shook his head, remembering that he had heard the story before, it was a very silly thing to do. "But don''t you feel sad? Don''t you hate death? Maybe you have a grudge against the gods of death? Very possible no?" When these words appeared on the left side of the table, everything became a little strange, it was Thanatos himself who spoke them. "Do you know, master Thanatos, you are the fourth of my favourite gods?" James said, and Thanatos, hearing this, asked "Why?" with great curiosity, and James said the following words: "My mum once told me that when I asked her why death was so painful, only my hamster had died. Kinda funny yeah?" James seemed to catch his breath after these little words, but the peace on his face was evident. "One day a woman was in the prime of her life and unfortunately she was killed in a car accident. Staring at the shadow of death and the shadow of life that followed her, the woman did not want to disappear without satisfying her curiosity." The gods around and especially the Chaos-Borns began to listen to James with rapt attention. "Oh death itself I ask you, why are you so bitter when life is so sweet?" said James and looked at Thanatos. "And what did death say?" Thanatos asked with great curiosity. "Death approached the woman gently, then lifted her humble body and began to carry her like a princess. Then he brought her in front of the most beautiful view and showed her life itself. Then he said these words: Life always lies. When you are born, you cry and grow up, learn the language of the country you stay in, make friends and enjoy your life. Poor or rich, you always know how to savour something. You jump from side to side as if nothing will ever end. Life is full of lies. It shows you happiness, joy, family, friends, love, passion and so much more." James was silent for a few more seconds after these words and after drinking water from the glass on the table, he discovered the curiosity of those around him, then he continued to explain with a chuckle: S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Death is pain. It shows the inevitable. A painful, sad, maddening and disgusting experience that you can never escape. I am old, young lady, older and more tired than you can imagine, older than everyone, including the creator of this universe, and one day I will reap even him." After these words, he stopped again and looked at Nyx and said, "Even the gods will not escape death, there is only me and someone else with absolute power, you would not recognise me even if I told you." When this speech was over Thanatos couldn''t take it anymore and pulled up a chair and sat down, he didn''t seem to think that the speech would interest him so much. Chronos instantly realised what James was trying to do and got angry, but he still had to wait until everyone had dispersed, James looked like he was going to be in a lot of trouble. After he had finished speaking, James turned to Thanatos again and said, "Now back to your question. Yes, perhaps I am angry and resentful of death, but to tell you the truth, I don''t care. My parents may have died painfully, but even if they survived that accident, they would have had a bad life, so it is better for me to think that they are in heaven." With that, the night was over, everyone, including the Chaos-Borns, dispersed, and James was left alone with Nemesis. At that moment, as expected, Chronos was standing in front of James. Knowing his mistake, James stood up and after asking Nemesis for permission, he left with Chronos, he was going to have a terrible headache. Chapter 85: Confession (1) "Have you gone mad?!" Chronos said suddenly, the anger clear on his face. He was in such an angry state that even James'' expression turned to one of disbelief, he didn''t know whether to be proud or sad that he could make someone as lazy as Chronos act in such a way. He was really filled with a strange feeling, he had no idea what to do. James realised that he had indeed made a mistake, but he had no desire to stand by and do nothing. "I can''t officially tell them something that could happen to them, am I crazy? It''s not my fault if this is how fucking time works," said James, and Chronos, hearing this, grabbed James by the suit he was wearing and pushed him against the wall. "Look, kid. You don''t seem the understand. The things that you have seen when you were in the stone, they are not real, they have never been." Chronos was angry and this was his most natural right. "What do you expect me to do? What if something like that happens!? What are you going to do then?!" shouted James and Chronos, hearing this, put James down and continued his speech: "Perhaps something like that has a huge possibility to happen in the future, after all, even though there is destiny there are still infinite possibilities. Yet, it is up to you to choose your way so you can end your journey with whatever you saw inside the stone or you can change it." This time his anger seemed to have subsided, more like a state of anxiety. "Time is a foolish thing to manipulate, you shouldn''t do it, as I said even I can change small things in time, very small, and that is how I avoid the wrath of the tower and am protected by the laws of Chaos," Chronos added. When James straightened his suit, he looked at Chronos seriously and then said, "Well, old man, then tell me, what should I do? What should I do when the future holds enormous dangers and there is only the tiniest possibility that the things I have seen could happen?" Chronos looked at James with great curiosity and then spoke as if he thought he would regret this: "When you go to the 20th floor, you will come across a temple, where players or users choose their second class. Look for my name there, choose me and a situation will arise where I can help you with time." Hearing these words, James shook his head and asked, "You''re going to train me?" as if he didn''t understand what was going on. Chronos looked at James in a rather annoyed way and said, "Yes, we will, we will start tomorrow, we will deal with this until you come back, at least you will get something before you go." James shook his head as he heard those words, he could never pass up a chance to learn from the man of the hour himself. "Since the purpose of this training is for me not to ruin everything, it''s going to be a long one, I''m pretty confident about ruining things," James said, the smile on his face making Chronos want to punch him. Nevertheless, the deal was done, James left Chronos and went back to Nemesis. Nemesis smiled and realised that Chronos had just beaten James up a little. "Are you alright?" Nemesis asked, to which James replied, "I feel as excited as the first time I saw you." When Nemesis heard those words, she stopped sitting across from James and then moved to the couch next to him and snuggled into his right side. When Nemesis put her head on James''s shoulder, James held his breath tightly and didn''t utter a single word, just waited. "How do you do it, James?" Nemesis asked suddenly, sounding slightly upset. "How am I doing what?" asked James curiously, Nemesis took a deep breath and then said, "How come you feel free enough to tell me that you can reach my grandad?" S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James smiled when he heard that question and then lifted Nemesis'' head off his shoulder and laid her on his lap. Nemesis took a deep breath as she looked at his face. Then James started to speak: "I haven''t been free all my life, maybe I fell in love with someone who didn''t want me, wasted my life and got a second chance, I wish I could spend this chance to meet the person who gave me this chance. However, at the end of the day, it may be what I want most to enjoy being free." James said, Nemesis was about to say something when James stroked his hair and spoke again: "You love me, don''t you?" When Nemesis heard this question, she nodded her head and answered yes to James. James smiled and said, "I admire you very much, the doors of love and love itself have just closed to me, but if you can wait, I would like to belong to you as soon as my heart opens again." At James''s response, Nemesis got up from his lap and sat down, then asked, "Does this mean I''ve been rejected?" James smiled when he heard this and then said, "No, just give me some time. It''s been half a year since I''ve been in this tower, there are still many things I can''t get used to." Nemesis, as if he could not accept these words, said, "You said on the first floor that you had already forgotten the woman you loved, can you not give me a chance? With the help of my mum, I can always come to you, I can be there whenever you want, can''t you love me?" James was stunned by this question, it was clear that he didn''t think Nemesis was taking the matter too seriously. Still, he wanted a clear answer, so he turned to Nemesis and asked: "Why are you so in love with me?" Chapter 86: Confession (2) "Why are you so in love with me?" Hearing James'' question, Nemesis shook her head and tried to avoid the question as if she couldn''t answer, she stood up and tried to walk away, the subject of love was new even for Nemesis who had lived for millions of years. Nevertheless, James gently took her by the arm and guided Nemesis back to her seat. Even though Nemesis was averting her eyes from James, she still felt certain that she had to answer. "I was there the day you chose my mother''s card. My mother was always a loving woman and, my father was the same way, but we brothers couldn''t get along no matter how much we depended on each other. When you came along, Moros started to laugh, Thanatos started to show emotion, and Olympus'' presence began to change. What I felt for you at first was a great admiration, y great admiration. I couldn''t help but admire someone who had managed to change everything so much with his mere presence." Each of Nemesis'' words seemed to caress James'' heart, and he honestly didn''t think he would be this surprised. "However, as the days went by, I realised that this was not the case, I didn''t admire you, I was really in love with you. At first, I didn''t think it was true, I had never felt anything but brotherly love in my life, but you...the feelings that rose inside me every time I looked at you made me sure of it, I was deeply in love with you." As Nemesis said these words it was possible to see tears welling up in her eyes, James took a napkin from his inventory and then used it to wipe away the tears. "You were on my mind every day, every step you took, every breath you took, some days I even stopped sleeping, I was watching you. The day your life was in danger, my heart fell into darkness, that''s when I realised I was in love. My mum was going to send my brother to help you, but I ran into the portal she opened, the opponent didn''t seem very strong anyway." James really couldn''t help feeling embarrassed, it was very special that Nemesis held such a special place in his heart. "However, I did see the way he looked at me. Those admiring glances were more beautiful than I had ever imagined. My heart was pounding but I had no idea what to say, I thought of myself as an idiot for a very long time after I told you to get out of there." Nemesis, who closed her jaw for a few seconds after these words, took a big breath again smiled and said, "I entered a period that started from admiration and never left my mind. I fell in love with you because I wanted to be a part of your freedom. I didn''t want you to be the only one when you stood at the top one day tomorrow because I wanted to be with you as your family, as your wife, just like my father and mother''s relationship." James stood up when he heard those words, He didn''t know what to say, Nemesis'' thoughts about him were even bigger than he had imagined. After taking a deep breath and locking onto Nemesis, Jamey wanted to get away from there instantly because he thought that he could not climb the floors risking his life in the responsibility of someone who loved him so much. After all, you couldn''t risk your life if you had someone in your life unless it was for them. Still, he thought it would only be foolish to run away, and then, shaking his head, he grabbed Nemesis by the hand, pulled her to her feet, and said these words: "I will never regret what I am about to do." And with those words, he was glued to Nemesis'' lips. If he couldn''t tell Nemesis what was on his mind, what he was thinking, he could express it through actions. After a kiss that lasted almost a minute, the two panted, and then Nemesis asked, "So does that mean yes?" James smiled and said, "You are silly, aren''t you? What part of monogamy don''t you understand? I''m not going to kiss every woman that comes my way." When Nemesis heard these words, she fell back in her seat. Nemesis''s legs, which had gained the rank of the goddess of war in addition to the goddess ranks bestowed upon her by Chaos at her birth, had officially released themselves from weakness. "I love you too, I thought exactly what you think of as admiration. That''s why I gave one of my Philosopher''s Stones to Ronald and asked him to make you a necklace. I didn''t want you to be harmed." S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nemesis didn''t know what to say at James''s words, and at that very moment, someone''s voice rose from a corner of the room: "You''re already late, it should have happened as soon as you met." The voice came from Moros, he was looking at the pair with a coffee mug in his hand. James and Nemesis couldn''t help but start laughing and even giggling at the sight, neither of them had thought this would happen just a few minutes ago. "I have to go and rest now tomorrow morning we have the training and then the feast in the evening," James said suddenly, catching the attention of both Nemesis and Moros. ''What training?'' Moros asked, and hearing this, James said, "Chronos wants to train me." Moros paused for a few seconds and then said, "Well, this is a big opportunity, seriously." Nemesis was just as puzzled as Moros, it was popular knowledge that Chronos had never even taught his children, and the fact that he now wanted to train James would indeed become a major talking point on Mount Olympus. However, there was nothing more to be done on this day. In just one day he had learnt a great deal about time that he did not know and had found himself a lover who was serious about him. Now he had to rest. There were exactly 6 days left to leave Mount Olympus, he had to make the most of every second. After all, James'' wish was to get as strong as he could before leaving the mountain, before coming here he had only wished to meet Chaos-Borns, but now he had more hope than he had ever hoped for. He had a real opportunity to get stronger. Chapter 87: Training (1) "As I said, sit down on the floor and sit cross-legged, and today, until the feast, we will try to develop the idea of time in your mind and consider how it should be constructed in Chaos'' eyes." As soon as the light of the next day dawned, Chronos entered James'' room in a dawn raid forcibly detained him took him back to the place where he had first arrived and spoke to him the words he had just heard. James didn''t even get a chance to wash his face and somehow managed to wake up and do as Chronos told him, and then Chronos asked: S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "What is time in your eyes, James?" James shrugged his shoulders when he heard this question and then said, "Something that cannot be stopped? That is if you don''t have absolute power as you say." Chronos shook his head at this answer and then said, "Yes and no. Look around you, what do you see?" he replied and asked. When James heard this question, he stopped where he was for a few seconds, and then he looked carefully at everyone around him, including the Chaos-Borns watching them. At that moment he said "Elements?" as if something came to his mind. Everyone noticed that Chronos smiled when he heard this answer from James. "Actually, you''re not that stupid, that''s a good thing," Chaos said, and then reached into his inventory and pulled out a piece of dry wood. "Look James, everything you see around you is made of elements. Our bodies, the ground we walk on, the air we breathe, and so much more. Time and space are elements just like the rest." When Chronos heard these words, James scratched his head and then said, "Are you sure you want to say that in public?" When Chronos smiled, he said, "Yes, no one can attempt anything without my permission, the element itself will not accept them, so I told you to choose me." and then continued his speech: "When I look at the others I see an hourglass, I can see the slight changes in the single timeline I told you about yesterday, increasing or decreasing with each step they take, this element helps me to see everything faster and that''s why I perform better even in battles." James shook his head as he heard the words and then asked, "And what exactly am I going to do about it?" Hearing this, Chronos smiled and then said, "Close your eyes, think about the past, the future and the present. You will see how many possibilities there are. But you need to feel the specialness of this timeline." James was very, very confused, he could not suddenly feel something he had never felt before. But he closed his eyes and started to think. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes...No matter how long he thought, nothing had changed, he could not see what could happen. "Not working, I am so gonna lose my mind." James said, opening his eyes and instantly seeing the surprise in Chronos'' eyes, then he asked "Did it work?". "Surprisingly faster than I thought it would, though there''s still one more obstacle before you can fully access your thoughts and start to see everything," Chronos said. When James curiously asked Chronos, "What exactly is that obstacle?" Chronos replied, "Let it flow, let it go, let your bad past leave your thoughts so you can be the best." When James heard these words, he turned his head directly to Nemesis, Nemesis'' smile surprised all the gods around, and James had already closed his eyes back. "We are so gonna talk about this later little girl." Nyx suddenly said, and then all eyes turned back to James. A thousand and one thoughts ran through James'' mind. The memory of his family''s death was constantly flashing before his eyes and the worry in his heart took a different turn. Nevertheless, what Chronos said was true, if he didn''t let them go, he would be left just like on the first floor. He was constantly thinking about different moments and started to think about how his life would have gone if something hadn''t gone wrong that day when they were in the car. Maybe if his father and mother hadn''t died, he wouldn''t have been poor, he would have been rich. Maybe he would have never met Lily and would have met someone who loved him, maybe even married. Nevertheless, what was done was done and there was no need to fight between what was done and what was done. James took a deep breath and let it out as he went through all these thoughts one after the other. His heart was pounding, he didn''t know what was going on, but he could feel a different energy around him. "He did it." Chronos suddenly said and reached out his hand towards James and began to gather the energy around him, if the energy had got out of control James would have gained nothing and might even have lost something. As the energy around him gathered, many of his memories became visible. There was a slight twinge of bitterness as those around began to watch the memories with naked eyes. They could see James as a little boy, his first kiss, his first betrayal and many other things. Even Chronos was saddened that a little human boy had suffered so much, that his life had developed strangely. After a while, James'' memories began to change and show his later times. The happiness he felt when he first entered the tower, the love he felt for the believers he had, the fact that he saw the Chaos-Born as family, and the fact that he saw Nyx herself as a mother, touched everyone. "Huag....." James suddenly opened his eyes with a choked breath, he looked sweaty, he didn''t know what was going on but he could see the window in front of him very clearly. His smile widened, this was very good news. Chapter 88: Training (2) "What happened?" asked Chronos, not understanding why James was smiling. "Uhhh...I''ve won the time element," said James. Hearing this, Chronos'' eyes widened to the size of the Philosopher''s Stone. "Come again?" Chronos said, and Chronos was stunned for a few seconds when the awkward James said again, "I won the time element." "You managed to do that in just fifteen minutes? Are you kidding me?" Chronos asked and James shook his head, making his ability visible to everyone. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Time Elemental (Godly-/Lowest Level) You have succeeded in grabbing one of the fundamental concepts of time, one of the 4 main powers Chaos used to create the tower! Chaos is very happy about this achievement, time is on your side and use it well. The player''s thoughts will become 20% faster. The player can be faster than everyone else for only 1 second at any time. The player''s ability cooldowns are reduced by 1%. The player''s ageing speed has decreased by 5%. The player''s skin beauty is increased by 100%. The player''s internal damage is cancelled]. When the people around read these words, they looked at James again and realised that he had indeed become even more handsome. "I didn''t expect you to turn into a girl," Apate said jokingly, and Chronos stood there in amazement while everyone held on to laughter. "Kid, do you have any idea what you have just done?" asked Chronos, the surprise on his face clear for all to see. When James shook his head left and right Chronos smiled and then said "Chronos created me with the pure form of time when he created me, but even though I took a long time to gain this element, you did it in just 15 minutes, don''t you realise what is going on? Time has chosen you." James smiled and rejoiced at this and then said, "Maybe it''s because I had a good teacher huh, what do you think?" Chronos smiled and reached into his inventory and pulled out two wooden swords. "I normally use a scythe and staff, but if the sword is your main weapon, this is the way to go." As James stood up and picked up the sword, Chronos suddenly disappeared and James realised that his eyes had gone black, he had fallen to the floor and fainted. When he opened his eyes again he realised he was laying down on Nemesis'' lap, the Chaos-Borns standing around him. The last thing James remembered was being hit on the head with a hard object. "I fainted, didn''t I?" James suddenly asked, and when he saw Nemesis''s expression, which made it hard not to laugh, he said, "Well...That was embarrassing." and stood up. The moment he saw Chronos, he got angry and said, "What the heck old man? I thought you were gonna train me not beat the crap out of me!" Chronos looked at James with a small chuckle and then said "I''m going to lie, I thought you were going to use your ability." James, hearing this, said "What kind of ability can stop a god''s attack? Are you out of your mind?!" Chronos shook his head and said, "The time element makes you one second faster than everyone else, in case you didn''t realise, it partially stops time for one second, if you were fast enough and could see those around you, you could easily escape my attack." When James heard these words, he said "Huh...Interesting." and stood up and then took the sword in his hand again and said ''Let''s try again, at least don''t aim for my head this time.'' James started to watch Chronos carefully and then tried to activate the Time Element when he saw him disappear, but there was only one problem...James did not know how to activate the element. When Chronos reappeared, James was struck in the stomach and fell to one knee, trying hard not to vomit, when Nemesis suddenly came to him and tried to lift him. As James forced himself to his feet, he realised that he was already starting to recover. The automatic healing ability he had gained in the tutorial seemed to be working for him. When Chronos looked at him and asked, "Why didn''t you use it?" James smiled awkwardly and then said, "Umm...I don''t flipping know, maybe because I don''t know how?" and looked at the man in front of him in confusion. "PUHAHAHAHAHA!!! That''s right, I didn''t tell you how to do it, it''s all my fault." he laughed, and just at that moment Nyx''s laughter was heard: "Hahaha...Chronos please stop messing with my child." At Nyx''s words, Chronos gently stepped right behind James put a hand on his back and said, "Feel my energy, you will get a little idea about using time, and the rest will be up to you to handle." At that moment, James felt an insane sense of energy spreading through his entire body. When he looked around he couldn''t see anyone, he was literally in space itself. He could see many things happening around him, he was about to faint, and the feeling and all the information that entered his mind started to make his nose bleed. After wiping his nose, he started to take steps. In the world outside, other things were happening: "Chronos, is he going to be okay?" Nyx asked suddenly, seeing Nemesis'' worried expression and feeling the need to ask. "No, he only sees things about the beginnings and ends of the stars. If you want to use time, you need a superior intellect and a deep state of mind." Chronos replied, and Erebus, hearing this, shook his head and said, "Huh, so you''re developing his brain? It''s normal to bleed, it''s automatic healing, so this process will be quite easy." Chronos nodded his head and said, "Yes, that''s right, if it wasn''t for the auto-healing I would never have chosen this form of training, but it has enormous potential, fire and time, it''s ironic really." Nyx and the others seemed quite surprised by this choice of words, Nemesis looked at James for a few seconds and then turned to Chronos and asked, "What''s ironic?" The answer he got surprised them all. Chapter 89: The Story of Creation "8 Sacred Fire, Time, Space and Reality. These four concepts are the four concepts that created the tower. In my last conversation with the Honourable Chaos, he explained a few things to me, how he created the tower, would you like to hear them?" Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Chronos said these words, even Nyx and Erebus suddenly realised that a story they had never heard existed. "Yes, I would like to hear it, if I may," Nemesis said, and Chronos, hearing this, began to speak: "Before Chaos gave the tower a mind, a personality, he wanted to create the dimension, the universe in which the tower would exist. 1 is an ordinary dimension below the main reality. However, instead of creating this dimension in a normal way, he wanted to do a deep, good job because he wanted his precious children to grow up here." Every word Chronos spoke seemed to touch the hearts of Erebus and Nyx, making them happy that they were loved by their father. "Then, after he had created enough territory, he began to create dimension. He created the 8 sacred fires. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white and black, represented life, warmth, beauty, the dryness of nature, the majesty of space, the pain of the reality to be created, cold and eternal death." When Thanatos heard the word death, he took a few steps forward and sat down next to Nemesis, the subject catching his attention instantly. "He threw each of these fires into the dimension he was going to create and then used time as the frame of the dimension, like the sands in an hourglass. The fires hardened and strengthened the frame." The gods, who had paused at the beauty of the story, crowded around Chronos like a picnic table and began to listen. "Then he put the concept of space within this framework, and then the 8 Sacred Fires, which can create mother life and mother death by merging, merged with space and time, and worlds, galaxies and universes began to form one after another. These formed the concept of reality in which we are now living." "So you are saying that we are here today thanks to the 4 main [elements or concepts]." Moros suddenly said, and Chronos, hearing this, nodded his head and then replied, "That''s right, at least that''s what master Chaos told me." "Father, what about James? What exactly is he seeing right now?" Zeus asked and Chronos replied: ''''He had a high level of fire element thanks to his gacha ability, but no one can combine an element with their aura that they cannot master or have a high level of intimacy with, even Amaterasu which might be the best fire elementalist can not do it this perfect. Think of it as vampires cannot combine any element other than blood with their aura." Immediately after Chronos'' words, Nyx stood up and then said, "If James is so susceptible to both fire and time...I understand you''re showing him parts of creation, that''s what you called the beginning and the end." Everyone realised at that moment that James had a predisposition to two main laws. It was a known fact that Chaos had summoned James to the tower, which meant that Chaos had not summoned him for fun, James had been summoned because of the depth of his potential. "Exactly. I loaded him with an incredibly small fragment of my own time so that he could nourish himself and increase his brain, intellect and will. Time is a single line, Nyx, and there are very few who can change it for good, and who knows, maybe James will become an even greater time god than I am." Chronos said suddenly, clearly expecting too much from the boy in front of him. On James'' side, everything was strange. He really couldn''t see anything around him. He could see a few patches of flame, feel fragments of time and walk in the deep void of space. Indeed, he could see the moment when stars are formed when they flash for the last time. He could even see black holes and huge stars going supernova. He had a massive headache as if something wanted to drive him out of here, yet James had no desire to step back. With each set, his headache increased and the blood flowing from his nose accelerated a small amount. James was not complaining about this, indeed he had no desire to be angry at anything when he was faced with such a beautiful sight. His eyes were wide open, he felt as if the image of space was penetrating his retina. He could feel the sensation coursing through his body growing and developing strangely. He didn''t know where it was developing and how far it was going, but there was one thing he knew for sure: The images he saw were more beautiful than all the landscapes he had ever seen, all the truths he had ever heard, all the women and men he had ever seen, all the food he had ever eaten, all the air he had ever inhaled, all the rain he had ever soaked in, all the sea he had ever swum in, and all his experiences. At that very moment, he realised that his body had started to shake, the blood was pouring from his nose, from his eyes and even from his ears and mouth. He was instantly brought back to reality and almost fainted. Just then Nemesis took off the necklace she was wearing and put it on James. The necklace was covered in blood drops and dirt, it might have been the first gift she had ever received from James, but it made more sense to make him to wear it just in case. After a few minutes of trance, James, who had started to come to after a few minutes of trance, looked at himself and saw that there was blood all over him and even filled the floor of the hall with blood. "What happened to me?" James asked. He could see Nemesis crying, Chronos let out a deep breath as if relieved, and Nyx herself was berating Chronos. It was then that Chronos'' voice was heard: "Open your profile and take a look for yourself young man, you''ll be quite surprised, I assure you." Chapter 90: The Way to Use Time "Open your profile and take a look for yourself, young man. You will be quite surprised, I can assure you." At Chronos'' words, James looked at the old man in surprise and then shook his head and opened his profile tab, what he saw surprised him as Chronos said: [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 36 Class: Warrior of the Night Title: Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Complated Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++) [Statuses] Power: 50- Far, far above the average human. Agility: 129- Above the human race. Endurance: 91- Far, far above the average human. Luck: 26- Above average. Magic: 620- Far, far below the average holy. Holiness: 5000- Vastly below the average holy man. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Intelligence: 159- Above the human race. Charisma: 12- Above the average human. Status Points: 35] When James read his profile, he saw that two of his statuses had increased enormously. His Intelligence had improved by 100 points and his Magic status had risen by 500. Not knowing much about what was going on, he turned to Chronos and asked, "Do you have an explanation?" Chronos smiled and then shook his head and said, "I gave you a taste of time, I don''t know exactly what you saw because it''s not a place I look at anymore, the last time I was in there I was just a kid, one of them trying to become a god of time." James took a deep breath and then said, "I saw many stars forming, I even saw supernovas, they were really beautiful." Hearing these words, Chronos'' smile grew even wider and then he said, "So I sent it to the right place, that''s a plus, good to know!" and threw the wooden sword in front of James again. "This time you will use time and try to oppose me," Chronos said and got into a fighting stance and waited for James. "I still don''t know how to use it, old man, are you out of your mind?" he asked when James shook his head again in a strange way. At James'' words, Chronos pointed his sword at him and suddenly disappeared. When James thought he was going to be beaten again, he suddenly closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he realised that everyone and everything around him was frozen. "Woah...." James suddenly said and suddenly everything sped up again. James was confronted with a sword standing right in front of his eyes. "CHRONOS HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!" shouted Nemesis suddenly, hugging James tightly. Seeing James smiling, Nemesis was confused and then asked, "Are you alright James?" just as Chronos'' voice was heard: "So, how was it? How did it feel to have everything stop for a second, to be faster than everyone, to be faster than even the most powerful goddess?" At these words of Chronos, everyone in the hall turned into a dazed state. It was obvious that Nyx and Erebus had felt something, which was why they turned and stared at James. "Did you manage to use it?" Nemesis asked, looking pleased. "I mean, I think it was because I was scared of passing out again, I don''t understand... I just used it." James said, and then added, "It felt fucking amazing." When Chronos heard these words, he took a few steps back again and then said, "Then stand up. Each time you use it, your energy will get lower and lower and eventually you will pass out, until then I will attack you again and again and again." James'' expression was all smiles, the young man was enjoying himself. Gently disentangling himself from Nemesis, James stood up and then picked up the sword in front of him, shifting from an offensive to a defensive stance and then inhaling and exhaling deeply. "There''s a feast today, I think we should leave before we pass out," James said with a smile but Chronos had already disappeared, James felt the element of time again in every cell of his body, this time he could see everyone and everything more clearly. It was as if he was getting used to the power. He could see Chronos smiling right in front of him, the sword aimed right at his neck. It was as if one second of ''stopping time'' took tens of hours. Every detail around, the characteristics of each detail had become visible to James. At that very moment, James ducked, but still, his reflex was not enough for that. "AGHK!!!" As James ducked, the sword strike hit his head, spinning left and right on the ground and holding his head in pain. Nyx and the others were about to get angry at Chronos when the look of surprise on the old man''s face became visible. "You are far, far more skilful than I realised young man, get up, we will continue again and again and again. Each time I will use my time element to push you harder and harder, you may take a lot of hits, but things will get better." Chronos said suddenly, his grip tightening on the sword in his hand, clearly intrigued by James. James was on his feet a few seconds later, his head was swollen, looking like a scene from a cartoon series. He picked up his sword again and took up a defensive stance, he was aware that his head ached enormously, not from the blows he had taken but from the exhaustion of his energy. As he breathed deeply again, time slowed and stopped for him, but this time Chronos was faster, as if Chronos was using the time element to neutralise James. Such an elaborate use would never have occurred to James, it was as if he was trying to neutralise water and fire, but this time it was time neutralising another time. It was really an incredible sight. Chapter 91: Ancient Gods are Weird A few sentences could have been written about the beauty of the image because when James looked at the old man in front of him, he could see the energy around him. It was as if hundreds of hourglasses were around Chronos, there was a sundial in the shadow of Chronos, and the old man''s eyes were shining in the stars like the antiquity of space. James was so mesmerised by the sight that he forgot to run away from the attack, as if mesmerised. At that very moment, time began to flow backwards and James stumbled. Chronos stopped his attack and looked at James with a strange expression. "Why didn''t you try to dodge?" Chronos asked, and James, hearing this, replied, "To tell you a lie, I''m amazed that the time element revolves around you, you are time itself, old man." Chronos was surprised again when he heard this, but this time he did it with a huge smile on his face. "You''re talented, huh? I think you should stop using the fire elemental and focus on the time James, you have just gained the element and if you can already feel it being used by those who are sensitive to it, then your body is already used to it." When Chronos uttered these words, James shook his head and then said, "I can think about it, but I like the fire element." "Why do you love a destructive force?" Thanatos asked, and James, hearing this, began to speak proudly: "I think all elements are special in their way. The relaxing feeling of water, the freedom of air, the durability of earth, the majesty of lightning, the fearfulness of blood, the purity of light and many more, but I don''t think any element is alive. Fire, on the other hand, feels like it could burn the whole universe if you let it loose. Alive, awake, as if it has a soul." At James'' words, Chronos turned to Nyx and pointed two fingers at him, an expression that seemed to indicate that Nyx should speak to Chaos. "Interesting point of view, but now that you know that time itself is an element, fire is no longer the only living element, is it?" Thanatos asked. James shook his head and then said, "Yeah, you''re not wrong. I just love the element, and if I have to give up one thing to gain another, I might as well get away from it. No rule says I can''t have both time and fire, is there? Even if there was, the same would apply to aura and magic, but I''m standing in front of you, not in the grave, don''t you think?" Thanatos smiled at those words and then nodded his head and shut his mouth, what James had said made perfect sense and was, everyone would agree, special. After all, James was constantly achieving the impossible, many situations seemed to be subjective to him now, the tower had even lost the ability to lie inside the first floor, and the only reason for this was James himself. After these words, James stood up again and then said, "I can do this one more time, old man, I don''t want to faint, Moros and the others have made all these preparations just because of my future." "How did you know we were doing it for you?" Moros asked, sounding surprised. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James smiled and said, "The gods like to gossip, Moros." and turned back to Chronos. Chronos could see that James was ready, so he put himself in a ready position and suddenly jumped on James. James used the time elemental one last time and instantly saw that Chronos was in front of him, still at the same speed as before, and the time elemental around him looked just as beautiful. James, who had ducked at that very moment, somehow managed to dodge the sword blow, at that moment the elemental expired and James gasped for breath. ''Clap-clap-clap-clap!'' Suddenly there was a round of applause from the throne, Nyx''s satisfied face was visible to all, and the same was true for Chronos. "I used a worse elemental grade than the one you used, but you managed to dodge that attack, even if it wasn''t serious, I applaud Nyx, you did well, but this is only the first day of your training, you still have 5 more days to go." Chronos suddenly said the look of pride on James'' face was something to behold. Chronos seemed to bring the first day of training to an end, after almost two hours of training James was feeling exhausted, he was sweating profusely and his clothes were all covered in blood, at least the armour Hephaestus had made was dirt-free. Meanwhile, James was eager to meet him but unfortunately, he was not at Mount Olympus, he seemed to be forging iron somewhere, at least that was the rumour James had heard from the other gods. With that, James stretched his whole body and then said, "I wonder if there''s a hotel in the tower that offers massages, my whole body is cramped." He then nodded to Nyx and Erebus and asked, "I need to get myself ready for the feast, can I go?" When the two nodded, James turned to leave, and just then Nemesis appeared beside him. James still couldn''t seem to believe that he was with Nemesis, it was obvious that no one was going to believe it. He wondered how Ariel would react to all of this when James returned. With that, James entered his room and Nemesis followed him in. "Umm...is there something you wanted to say?" James suddenly asked, and Nemesis, hearing this, replied, "I was thinking we could take a shower together." James shook his head as if he couldn''t believe what he was hearing and then said, "I don''t know exactly why you think that." Nemesis said, "It''s quite normal, everyone does it together here." James slapped himself across the face with his hand, then shook his head and said, "The ancient Greeks were really strange people, even their gods bath together. I''d forgotten that there was no bathroom segregation back then." "So does that mean no?" Nemesis asked and James said, "You''ve already seen me shower a few times, you''ve all seen me shower, so I have nothing to be ashamed of." The feast was a few hours away anyways, he needed to get ready. Chapter 92: Lovers on Distant Floors (1) James and Nemesis were immersed in the water in the huge bathhouse, the steam from the hot water making everything hard to see, though Nemesis'' silver hair and eyes were clearly visible. "I actually thought you were going to take me into the guild when you got here," Nemesis said suddenly, sounding slightly offended. "To tell you the truth, I completely forgot I was coming here, which is why I said I would give you that position when I got on the same floor as you, but there''s no reason why I can''t do it now," James replied, smiling and realising that Nemesis had suddenly lost all of her former coldness. Nemesis was now moving a little erratically even though she still had the same expressions, he had to say it was a strange feeling, it was as if James was excited to see her in a different state. At James''s words the whole bathhouse fell silent. The sound of the taps running and the water moving sounded like music. After a while James heard the sound of moving water coming towards him, he looked back and saw deep silver eyes and shining silver hair moving towards him. James thought his heart would burst, he could see the figure of Nemesis in the vapour. He even thought that Nemesis was working a love spell on him because James had no bad thoughts in his mind, he was just focusing on Nemesis'' eyes in the vapour. Even if he was occasionally distracted, he was still confident that he was very much in love. "I''d appreciate that," Nemesis said suddenly, finally making it through all the steam and standing in front of James. James no longer knew where to look with his eyes, he turned his head and felt his ears begin to flush deeply. "Are you ashamed?" Nemesis suddenly asked, pretending not to know how perfect her body was. "I''m overwhelmed by your beauty but I can''t look at you, we''ve only been together for a day, you mustn''t put evil thoughts in my head," James said, Nemesis might be a goddess but he was still a human being, everything was moving too fast for James. "You say one day, but in my eyes I have already spend an eternity with you. And I have an eternity to live. An eternity that I will never leave your side, one that I will want to hug you and never want to let go." Nemesis said with a smile. Holding James'' chin and turning him towards herself, Nemesis smiled and then said, "There is nothing you shouldn''t see, we won''t do anything you don''t want to do, but I want you to know that I am ready to do anything for you. Fight, live, lie down or die. Anything you can think of." After these words, James looked at Nemesis once more from bottom to tip and then said, "Every time you tell me that you love me or indicate it in some way, I fall more and more in love with you." After these words, James, who got up from his seat, grabbed Nemesis by the waist and then said, "If you are casting a spell on me, I wish you never stop, I want my love for you to grow more and more every day, I want to have you until I can''t get you out of my mind." and he kissed Nemesis'' lips. Nemesis instantly gave herself to James and closed her eyes. As the vapour from the hot water closed the pair, their love for each other grew stronger, and the fact that nothing but their love for each other was visible seemed to make up their story. Time would pass very slowly for them. ----- It had been almost 3 hours since the feast started. The gods and goddesses of Olympus and Asgard were in attendance, and even personalities such as Archangel Michael, Fallen Angel Lucifer, and Sun Wukong had chosen to attend the feast. The fight between Michael and Lucifer was constantly escalating and the two were being stopped by Moros, Sun Wukong was trying to devour all the food at the feast by himself, and the Chaos-Borns were surrounded by a single question: "Where are James and Nemesis?" This question was literally being muttered one after the other. Nevertheless, Erebus and Nyx were quite happy, it was a day of celebration for them. They weren''t the only happy ones though, Philotes was sitting on the floor with her head in her mum''s lap, smiling and humming constantly. It was as if this humming was being uttered by Eurydice. It was as if Orpheus and Eurydice had come side by side and were singing, it was such a pure melody, so full of love that even the Chaos-Borns and all the gods around were listening attentively to this humming. After a short time, the doors of the hall suddenly opened. "Don''t be surprised if we have a grandchild soon," Nyx said to Erebus as Nemesis and James entered. Everyone''s eyes turned to the couple as they walked in, Nemesis'' arms locked around James. James was dressed in a white dress, a black belt covered the dress, a jade buckle was on the right side of his chest and it looked like he was wearing a shoulder pads, a white flower was just below the jade buckle. His green hair and eyes seemed to glow with the colours of the dress. Nemesis was dressed in jet black. Her silver hair and eyes emphasised the dress she was wearing. Her hair was tied with a green flower hairpin, as if Nemesis was trying to reveal her love and devotion to James with his colour. The couple''s beauty seemed to remind all who saw them of a young Nyx and Erebus. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The head of the feast and his mate were in the hall, and as the pair came before the throne of Nyx and Erebus, they bowed respectfully, and then James spoke: "We pay our respects to our parents." Chapter 93: Lovers on Distant Floors (2) "We pay our respects to our mum and dad." When James said these words with a smiling face, everyone was quite surprised. Even Nyx and Erebus didn''t seem to expect this outcome. Of course, both high gods knew that sooner or later James and Nemesis would want to claim each other, but neither of them thought it would happen on their second day together. The pair seemed to be trying to gain Nyx and Erebus'' approval by addressing them in this way, which was quite clever, after all, it was common knowledge that Nemesis loved James, so if James wasn''t against it, approval had to be given. After a few seconds of silence, Nyx smiled and then said, "Welcome, my precious children. You''ve been in the shower longer than I expected, who would have thought you''d have to shower together to cement your love." After these words, it was obvious to everyone that James was embarrassed, unlike Nemesis, he did not expect such jokes to be made, he seemed to have taken the gods very lightly. After everything that had happened, Moros climbed a few stairs towards his mother''s throne and then drew everyone''s attention with the sound of a spoon being tapped against a glass. "Now that the main character of the feast has arrived, we can start the feast in full. We would like to announce that we have named the feast Green Star Rain. Would the main character like to say a few words about the feast itself?" James gently released Nemesis when he heard Moros'' words and then turned to the gods around him, smiling deeply and then speaking: "From the moment I entered the tower, I encountered many things. When I chose Lady Nyx''s card by chance on the first floor, I never thought that my life would change so much. I met many strange people, and one of the strangest of them was Ronald, one of the smartest people I have ever met. It''s a pity I don''t see him here, it''s a bit sad." James''s words made a few people laugh about Ronald. "I would like to say that the conversations I had with my lady on the next floor, the things others said to me and the mental help you gave me are incalculable. The fact that so many of you thought well of me made me happy enough." He had a very happy expression on his face when he said these words, and he continued his speech, looking carefully at the Chaos-Born around him: "I have received hundreds of messages of constant support, especially from Lady Nyx and Master Moros, helping me, worrying about me and telling me that they love me. I cannot repay them, I am truly grateful to all Chaos-Born." With these words, all Chaos-Borns raised their glasses and saluted James. "Afterwards, I would like to mention about my friends from Olympus. I may have been rude to you, I may have rejected your ethical considerations, and I may even be seen as disliking you, but I am grateful for your help. I am especially very, very happy for the amount of gold that Poseidon gave me to establish a guild. Although I could get this money from Nyx, he still did not break me and delivered the money to me through Theseus. What I am trying to say is, dear Olympians, I love you and honour you, even if not all of you." However, these goblets were raised this time by the gods and goddesses of Olympus. Finally, James focused on Nemesis and then began to speak deeply: "I''ve known the name Nemesis since I was little, of course, I know the names of many gods and goddesses, thanks to the games I played, the books I read, the documentaries I watched, and my mother''s mythology mania. Of course, I don''t have very advanced knowledge, but I think what I know is enough." "The first memory I have of the name Nemesis is as follows. I remember my mother reading me an encyclopaedia, she was reading me Nyx, Erebus and their children from the words of Hesiodos. It went just like Moros, Keres, Thanatos, Hypnos, Oneiroi, Momos, Hesperides, Moira and after all these names I heard the name of Nemesis." "This name seemed different to me, like a name I had been waiting to hear for a long time. I wondered what it was, who it was, I was quite young at the time, if I remember correctly I was 9 or 10 years old, I remember my mum telling me who Nemesis was." "Oh, it was a beautiful time. [Meet Nemesis, the goddess of justice, revenge and balance, James], my mum said. When I looked at the drawings, I remembered that every day I would open that page of the book again and again, and again I would look at the same drawings of her, I guess I was like that with all the things that interested me." "She was called the daughter of Night and Darkness, and although she was a respected goddess, it was written all over the encyclopaedia how cruel she was, oh how interesting it was when I was at that age. In Roman times she was the patron saint of gladiators and hunters who fought wild beasts in the arena." As they listened to his every word, they realised the depth of James'' interest in this woman. "Since that day, apart from Nyx, who has absolute power, my favourite person has been Nemesis herself for literally my whole life. Of course, under no circumstances did I ever think that I would end up with Nemesis, not even a day ago, no matter how much I loved her." "I was wrong. My love was not unconditional. I express my love to Nemesis, the love of my life, who protected me on the 9th floor, then carried me to the 5th floor, took my revenge for me, and watched me every second of every day before she even knew me." After these words, James slowly descended the stairs and then proceeded to kiss Nemesis on the lips once more, and then said the following words: "Maybe if I''d never seen your name I wouldn''t even dream of seeing your eyes right now, but fate, Moros, really works strangely, doesn''t it? I''ve had the woman I''ve had thoughts for most of my life." Even if James didn''t realise it, he had declared his love in big words, the gods were already gossiping, and strangely the two had even acquired the name [Lovers on Distant Floors]. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Fate seemed to work strangely. Especially for both of them. Chapter 94: Black-Magic (1) "Madame Ariel, what are your orders?" While James was having fun and enjoying his holiday on Mount Olympus, strange things were happening on the 5th floor of the tower. Sun Emperor Ahil was sitting at the same table with Ariel, the guild commander, who had just spoken the words that had just been heard to her and was waiting for the time when he would take it back. The 5th floor was in complete chaos. Even if the Olympus and Asgard guilds were doing their best, it was still known that the power levels of all the higher beings, the climbers, who descended to the 5th floor were incredibly reduced. This meant that even heroes like Theseus or Ingeld were at a low level, no matter how high their powers were. It meant that outside of the Church of Night and the Empire, there was nothing but the possibility of help available. Of course, that didn''t mean Theseus and the others couldn''t do anything. After all, while James had been inside the imperial library, they had taken it upon themselves to destroy those who posed a threat, one by one. Several kingdoms had been destroyed in the process. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Now, however, an unknown force had indeed begun to engulf the fifth floor. It was like some kind of virus, some kind of parasite, something that devoured everyone and everything, but could fully utilise those with intelligence. It was just like a pure black magic. Which meant that there could have been hundreds of traitors involved. "We know there''s nothing that can''t be stopped, and on top of that, every one of the priests in the Church of Night can see anomalies, so we need to close the empire''s borders and monitor private passages. Do the priests have a cure?" Ariel''s words seemed to warn Ahil. "There is a cure, divine power can fix them, and even if the source of the virus has not been found, we still think that this black magic is coming from the north, from the frozen mountain. Our priests are already investigating," Ahil suddenly said, and Ariel, hearing this, shook her head: "That''s strange, something that didn''t show up until James left...what''s going on?" When Ariel said these words, Ahil shook his head left and right as if he didn''t understand anything and then said, "I don''t understand, madam, we can''t reach Lady Nyx either..." When Ariel heard these words, she suddenly stood up and then said, "Of course...When James used the ticket, the attention of all the gods turned to James who went to Mount Olympus. Even Theseus couldn''t reach Poseidon, as if something was blocking the communication, and the absence of James made everyone think that there was no problem." Ariel had a solution for this, though, which is why she turned to Ahil and said, "Take full control, use as many people as you can, call the priests upstairs if necessary, and try to save the 5th floor. I''ve got somewhere to go." Ahil expressed his understanding with great surprise and then asked, "What about you, madam? Where are you going?" "I''m going to the 20th Floor to sign a contract with Moros, it''s the only way we can get their attention right now," Ariel replied. Ariel''s goal was to get the attention of the Moros, if possible to come up with a way to help those involved. Since James wouldn''t be back until the 7 days were up, Ariel could at least lead someone in his place. She hadn''t been given the rank of commander for nothing. Ronald had arranged for Ariel to have a special guide manager, and Ariel was able to get to the 20th floor in no time. The 20th floor was a bit special. A white space covered the entire floor, and the only thing visible was a temple. The temple looked more like a Greek Mythology temple and was radiant with beauty. When Ariel saw the temple, she directly entered the temple and encountered the interior architecture, she saw this place again, which she had not seen for a long time, she could not even remember the last time she had been there. The inside of the temple was filled with hundreds of statues, some of which were familiar to Ariel and some of which were incredibly unfamiliar. On a small pillar in the centre of the temple was an open book and next to it was a quill and ink. Ariel slowly walked over to the pillar and picked up the quill and dipped it into the ink, then gently wrote ''Moros of Chaos'' in the book. As Ariel wrote the name and nickname in the book, the book glowed with a great light and levitated, and the page where Ariel had written Moros'' name was suddenly torn out of the book and disappeared, leaving Moros to do the rest: ----- ----- "Moros, are you alright?" Nemesis suddenly asked, the words turning all eyes at the feast to Moros and everyone saw his smiling face. Nyx and James, who had been talking to him, seemed to be trying to figure out what was going on. "Ariel sent me a class request," Moros said, and James said, "I didn''t even know that, so Ariel has chosen you, Master Moros, that is great to know." James''s words made Moros smile even more deeply and then his expression turned serious. Looking carefully at the piece of paper flying in front of him, Moros took it in his hand and then signed the paper with the help of a pen that he suddenly took out of his inventory. The paper then suddenly burnt and fell to the floor as ashes, the deal was signed and Moros seemed to have accepted the request. Every person who went up to the 20th floor received dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of such papers, but tore each one up and threw it in the rubbish bin. In short, Moros had accepted someone for the first time in his life. Chapter 95: Black Magic (2) As soon as Moros accepted this request, a huge message window opened in front of him. Sending messages from the upper floors to the lower floors might have consumed a lot of energy, but in the opposite case, the tower itself provided this energy, in a sense, it was as if the users or players were fed by the tower. It was precisely for this reason that Ariel managed to send a message to Moros from the 20th floor. As soon as Moros saw the message, he frowned and became angry, even he could not understand what was happening, but he managed to think of something with Ariel''s words. When Moros saw the way the others were looking at him, he switched the message window around and then enlarged it so that it was visible to everyone, making them all, including James, worried: "HELP NEEDED!" "5TH FLOOR ABOUT TO FALL!" "WE''RE HOLDING ON AS LONG AS WE CAN!" "THE CHURCH OF THE NIGHT IS HELPING AS MUCH AS IT CAN, BUT THE NUMBER OF PRIESTS IS LIMITED, THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH PRIESTS FOR THE WHOLE FLOOR!" "MASTER MOROS, PLEASE HELP, SOMEHOW!" These messages, one after the other, seemed to frighten everyone. When Moros managed to gather his thoughts, he tried to connect to the big screens in the banquet hall, the palace inside the palace of Mount Olympus, he had to watch Ariel and see what was happening with his own eyes. He couldn''t do it though, it was as if something was blocking his ability to watch. "What''s the matter Moros, won''t you connect?" Erebus suddenly asked and Moros, hearing this, answered Erebus by saying "It is not that I am not connecting, Father, I can''t connect, something is blocking me,". When Erebus and the Nyx next to him heard these words, they tried to connect to the screen and saw that even they could barely get through this strange barrier. Still, the fact that they were able to get through the barrier was a plus for them because Ariel was now visible. With James by their side, the two were able to connect to Ariel through the Chaos Guild infrastructure, watching her from above. When Moros saw Ariel, he realised that what had happened was very serious and then said, "Calm down and go to the 5th floor and show us the situation, we somehow managed to connect." As soon as Ariel heard this, she said, "Luro, send me to the 5th floor, please." She entered the white portal that had suddenly formed and the screens began to show Ariel on the 5th floor. Ariel looked around and saw Theseus, obviously worried. "THESEUS!" Ariel suddenly shouted, and Theseus, hearing her, rushed to her side and asked, "Ahil told me you went to the 20th floor, I still can''t contact my father, I thought he wasn''t paying attention because of the feast, but my messages seem to be blocked, it''s not the same with you, is it?" Ariel shook her head at these words and then said, "Moros and the others are watching us, report back." S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Theseus let out a deep, relieved breath and then began to speak: "We have good news. First of all, we were able to identify this virus, or rather, we are now completely sure that it is not a virus. It is a black magic that carries deep hatred and greed as if Bephomet and Mammon themselves had cast this black magic, madam." After these words, he paused and then said, "The bad news is that this black magic comes from the frozen lands in the north. The exact location is the summit of the frozen mountain, which is almost 7,000 metres high and completely frozen. It is incredibly difficult to climb, it is completely covered with black magic too." He then fell silent and waited for a few seconds, then leaned in close to Ariel and said worriedly: "And there''s something else we suspect. Like it was on the 9th floor, we''re worried that there''s a remnant of the Fallen God that attacked James or someone similar. Only Baphomet and Mammon themselves can spread such hatred and greed, and outside of them, the Fallen Gods. If this is indeed a Fallen God and not just a black magic spell, we are in great trouble, we cannot kill them unless we get help from the upper floors, our power will not be enough." Ariel''s face looked devastated at those words. "We can''t get help from the upper floors, they can''t even see this place, they can''t even send a message, there''s no way they can open a portal and come here, and unless there''s someone who can override the emotions of hatred and greed, we won''t be able to do anything. Somehow we have to save the connection to the outside." Theseus paused at Ariel''s words and after a few seconds said, "James can do it. My father said he had a barrier protecting his mind, umm...just like a spell or a talent? He''ll be back in five days, and if he doesn''t do it alone, if he hugs someone or carries someone through the portal, they can come here." Ariel''s eyes instantly lit up and she said, "Of course! I never thought of that! Very clever, Theseus, well done!" Still, the real question was reflected to the gods who were now at the feast, who would go back with James? After all, the higher they climbed, the weaker they became the lower they descended, and there were only one or two people in all of Olympus who had not passed the 100th floor. All eyes suddenly turned to Nemesis. Although Nemesis was not the youngest girl, only her younger sister Eris was just like her, they both hadn''t climbed through the 100th floor and everyone knew that Eris acted like a lunatic, so there was only one choice. "I''ll go, my mind is not in such a good state, after all I don''t have talents like these, but at least I can save someone, after all, once the source is gone, the dark magic will dissipate, and everything will return to normal, we''ll just have to be quick." Nemesis suddenly said, after which all eyes turned to James. After all, James himself had the final say in this matter, what he would say would perhaps change the fate of the 5th floor. Chapter 96: Last 4 Day "Are you telling me that the only person in all of Olympus whose life could be in danger and who is likely to die is the woman I have just fallen in love with?" James suddenly said, and even though it made Nemesis happy and her family proud, it was clear that this was the truth. "It''s our only option," Nemesis said, the seriousness in her gaze saying it all. James stood where he was for a few seconds and then said a little playfully, "I mean, okay, if I tried to stop you, you''d knock me out and force me to come with you, I should make it clear that I''m scared." Nemesis smiled at these words and then gently held James by the cheek and said, "You know that no one else can come. Something is blocking the others and preventing teleportation. Look at Moros; he is still busy trying. That means that only the lower levels can go back with the energy of the ticket. That leaves just the two of us, me and Eris, but there''s no need to jeopardise her." This made sense to James. After all, the ticket had energy from the tower. After all, Chaos had created the ticket in this way, which meant that the ticket that could only take one person could perhaps take a second person, one of the people whose energy was not so high. James shook his head and then said, "Well, even if I don''t fully approve of this, I''m not someone who can stop you, I''m neither your mother nor your father, but since you are my future, I have to ask you to be careful." Nemesis''s eyes lit up a little when she heard the word ''my future'' and she suddenly latched onto James''s lips, James of course tried to calm herself down and after a few seconds, he was hugging Nemesis. "Cough...Sorry." James said suddenly, seeming to avoid the moments when Erebus and Nyx were trying hard not to laugh. "That''s more like an excuse to train, James, no more rest, we must leave the feast," Chronos said suddenly, and what he said was quite true, if there was a chance of encountering a Fallen God, it would be quite dangerous. James shook his head, he hadn''t expected to leave a feast he had only been at for an hour so easily, he hadn''t even rested yet, but he had to start training again. "I''m sorry James, we''ve put so much effort into this feast, it''s just my stupidity that we didn''t realise," Nyx said suddenly, all eyes turned to the great goddess and her sad expression was visible to everyone. James smiled when he heard those words and then said "150th floor, my lady, if you could see it all you should be working as a creator in Chaos'' place, you may be a goddess but you are not an all-seeing creator." His words seemed to comfort Nyx strangely. With that, the feast was over for James, Nemesis and the others would remain inside the feast while Chronos and James would train. So the pair left the banqueting hall and entered another room within the palace. Once James had changed into something more comfortable, he stood before Chronos and pulled out the wooden sword he kept in his inventory. "I was hoping we could work on my control over the time element," James suddenly said, but Chronos'' response was not at all what he had expected. Chronos slumped to the floor and then sat cross-legged, gesturing for James to sit down, James re-inventoried the wooden sword and looked intently at the old man before him. "I''m going to use the time element, all the time, no sleep, no distractions, I''m going to slow down time here as much as possible, since we''re on the 150th floor I can slow it down twice, so a day will be 58 hours. I''m going to get pretty tired as a result of this because I want you to know that stopping time in a field is strangely more difficult than slowing it down, so the element of time is a precious thing." James had begun to listen carefully when Chronos suddenly said these words, though he seemed quite confused. "You''re telling me that stopping time is easier than slowing it down. How is that possible?" James suddenly asked, and Chronos'' answer worked quite well: sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Look, James. Time is a straight line, as long as there are people to regulate destiny, this line will not be broken, and that is why Moros and the others did not know what you were trying to say because as long as I allow it, as long as I claim the time of this tower, destiny will continue to be written. This means that I can stop time in the same way that I can stop destinies with the tower itself, but what we call slowing it down, especially when it is done to multiple targets, depends entirely on the energy of the person." "So you are saying that stopping time is done with the energy from the tower due to the law of time, but slowing it down is done with personal energy." "Exactly," Chronos replied. "And why are you choosing to slow down time right now instead of stopping it?" asked James, a little awkwardly. "Because we need to familiarise you with the time element as much as possible. You may have gained the element, but you can''t use it to its full potential unless you use it or get used to it. Think about your aura. The more you used aura and fire, the more they merged and without you realising it, your aura turned into fire, a precious fire, like the 8 sacred fires." "I understand, but since I don''t know exactly what the 8 sacred fires are, what you''re trying to say doesn''t make much sense," James said. Hearing this, Chronos shook his head and said, "You can think of it as one of the 4 main forces in the creation of the tower, the fire element you use has its qualities and now you have the time element, Chaos must plan many things for you." James seemed even more confused, but he really couldn''t question what had happened, he had to start training again. Chapter 97: The Time-Line "So let''s begin James, the moment I slow down time, focus on me, set up scenarios in your mind, and understand how to adapt time to you, it''s not about the views I have shown you before, it''s about your gain and how to use your attention. You have to embrace time itself." Chronos'' words put James under pressure even if he didn''t want to, they had limited time, even if a day lasted 58 hours, it was still up to him how much he could grasp time, which meant he had to do his best. "Yes, Master," James suddenly said, Chronos'' smile suddenly widened and James was overwhelmed by an insane amount of energy. James'' eyes widened as he looked at the old man in front of him and felt every nerve in his body being pressed down by a force, his body trembling and breathing becoming more and more difficult. "It''s very different from what I do, it''s not like this when I slow down time, is this... real-time?" As James watched Chronos carefully he could see his shadow, the two seemed to be in space, but Chronos had a shadow, covering all of space. When James looked at the shadow he seemed to be able to see the past, he didn''t dare look into the region of the future and he could see all the possibilities that encompassed the present. It would be fair to say that his heart was pounding, his gaze and expressions were filled with fear. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. In the pasts and possibilities he saw, he could see every single thing he had ever done and every single thing he could ever do. Thousands of scenarios where he died to the Goblin King, hundreds of scenarios where he drowned in the sea of rascals, scenarios where he chose Erebus'' card over Nyx''s, scenarios where he killed Ariel, scenarios where he didn''t listen to Chronos, and even scenarios where he rejected Nemesis'' love. He could see hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of scenarios. He was going out of his mind. He was going livid. The time elemental imprints around Chronos were slowly beginning to cover Chronos'' shadow, James could breathe more easily now and the trembling in his body had officially left him. "What did it feel like? How much did you see?" Chronos said suddenly. "It was scary...The past...The possibilities...Is this what you were talking about when you said you control destiny?" James suddenly asked, even though fear had left his body, his mind seemed to say otherwise. "Exactly, I can see destiny, everything that can and will happen, how much of the future have you seen?" Chronos asked and James, hearing this, said "I didn''t even dare to look there." and fell silent. Chronos could hardly keep himself from laughing at these words and then started to speak: "Now do you understand why I told you not to talk about the future?" Hearing these words, James smiled, albeit involuntarily, and then said, "Yes, very clearly, it has never been so clear." Chronos said, "The future is variable, James, as I mentioned before, each step taken and even each breath taken can lead to different results, this is what I call the probability direction." When James heard the probability direction, he asked "Spacetime flow?", Chronos was surprised when he heard these words and said, "Exactly...how did you?". James smiled and then said, "If you knew how many films and books have dealt with this subject in my world, old man, you''d lose your mind." "Can you tell me how time works in your world?" Chronos asked, suddenly very interested, and James shook his head: "It''s a concept with three zones, past, present and future. In my world, if it was possible to go to the future, it was thought that if something was done in the future, it would not affect what is called the present. If it was possible to go back to the past, there would be two different concepts and beliefs. Firstly, changing something in the past would not affect the events, it would only affect the current situation, in other words, going to the past and changing someone''s death would not change the future you live in, but it would create a different timeline." "The second belief is that in a situation where it is possible to go to the past if you change something or an event, you create another universe, another reality, another universe instead of another timeline. Some people say that if you go back in time, you can stay in the same universe as long as you change small things." "In my world, Space and Time is a concept that consists of 3 regions and progresses as two changes and one future." Chronos shook his head as James finished his words and then said, "Well, they''re not entirely wrong, in a situation not under the control of fate or the direct control of the gods, it might work as they say." "Focus, now you know what you need to do, my time element needs to be combined with yours," he said, closing the subject. James did as the old man said closed his eyes and then began to allow his time element to match with his. He could feel a higher concept surrounding his body like an aura comforting him, it was a very strange feeling. It was as if someone was giving him a big hug, he didn''t even know how to describe the relaxation in his body. In the end, it was obvious that it was working because James could feel his mind speeding up tremendously. The speed at which he was thinking now was not something he normally had. He was experiencing dozens of thoughts at once, trying to grasp the possibilities and the moves he could make within the possibilities. However, with a sudden pain in his heart, he opened his eyes, and Chronos suddenly stood up and stayed where he was. "Calm down and let it, let it embrace you," Chronos said it seemed that there was a lot to be solved in his teachings. Chapter 98: Third Magic Ring "Calm down and let him, let it embrace you." sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. In Chronos'' words, James suddenly let go of his tightly clutched chest and began to realise the strange sensation that had entered his body. He realised in a subtle way that the magic in his body was becoming more complex as if something inside him was beginning to evolve, he was able to understand the source of the pain he was feeling directly. The ''magic'' rings around his heart were the main source of the magic in his body and James could now recognise that they were developing and becoming more complex. As soon as he was back in the cross-legged position and able to relax and focus, he felt that even his breathing could be pleasurable as if every nerve in his body was being activated. The magic rings and his aura were not clashing and instead were trying to help James. His skin seemed to attract the magic itself, the aura in his body transferred the magic drawn from the outside into his heart and the two rings around his heart vibrated. After almost an hour of meditation, James slowly became aware of a third ring forming around his heart. He breathed deeply, inhaling and exhaling, drawing the magic from the field Chronos had created into his body without stopping for an hour. It seemed to take a tremendous burden on James to force a force so superior to him into his body, to acclimatise him to it. It was at that moment that he became aware of a hand on his back. "Stay focused, you''re doing well, all I ask is that you keep doing what you''re doing. If you manage to create the third ring, you will have a small chance against the Fallen Gods." Chronos suddenly said, and as his hand touched James'' back, the magical order around James seemed to be fully restored. James could now feel the enormity of the magical energy, or ''mana'' in the language of the world, entering his body, and even though he was doing his best to relax himself, the enormity of this energy was still overwhelming him. After a short period of time, James realised that the third ring around his heart was slowly becoming more and more tangible, or more precisely, distinct. Realising what was happening, James suddenly increased the circulation of the aura in his body to a higher level and increased the amount of magical energy coming in succession to an even greater amount. Chronos was shocked by James'' bravery, he didn''t expect anyone to knowingly put themselves in a situation that could jeopardise their life and burst their heart. Not since Erebus, a strange character, had he encountered someone capable of such foolish behaviour. "Well done James, you are doing very well, make the last move, and transfer all the energy you have gathered now to the third ring!" Chronos suddenly shouted, and James, hearing this, suddenly sucked all the energy he had gathered around him into his body. Blood was pouring out of all the holes in his body, no words could even be created to describe how much pain he was in, yet he could only imagine how much good it would do him. The third ring officially began to revolve around his heart and joined the first two rings. A ring was formed that was many times stronger and larger than the first two rings. James suddenly fell to the ground, albeit involuntarily, and Chronos stretched out his body to comfort him. James could feel the blood flowing from his body, but the smile on his face seemed to indicate that he didn''t care. In just an hour and a half his body had formed a magic ring. "I''m proud of you, who would have thought that the aura itself could help gather magical energy," Chronos said suddenly, his smile showing how much he was enjoying what was happening. James laughed, showing his teeth, the blood seeming to stop coming out of the holes in his body. "We still have to stop this, we have inadvertently created a magic ring, what you needed to do was absorb the time element, not create a magic ring," Chronos said, and James seemed confused by these words. James, his brow furrowed in confusion, turned to the old man who was trying to heal him and then said, "But all I did was absorb the time element, they entered my body as magical energy." Chronos looked at James as if surprised by what he had heard and then said, "I need to check something." As he said these words, he placed a gentle hand on James'' chest and closed his eyes, James could feel the magical energy gently entering his body, his body was instantly free of all pain and relaxed. "How come?" Chronos said suddenly, the surprise in his eyes was indescribable. "Did I do something wrong?" James asked, not realising what was going on: "I have been living for a very long time, but this is the first time I have encountered such a thing, James. The first ring has no colour, the second ring burns with a colourful flame and the third ring glows with the law of time. The elements you use are engraved into the magic rings. It is incredible." James smiled when he heard these words and then asked, "How exactly will this help me?" Hearing the question, Chronos shook his head and said, "I have no idea, I seriously have no idea." Even a being like Chronos, who could be assumed to have a mindset since the beginning of time, was encountering such a thing for the first time. Chronos didn''t know when he had last been so shocked, yet he was very happy to have this young man standing next to him as his pupil. His gaze turned to the young man lying next to him with his eyes closed and he smiled, it was impossible not to smile. James was far too interesting. Chapter 99: Maybe This Will Save the 5th Floor James was very interesting. From the moment this young man entered the tower, the rules of the tower began to change inexplicably, the laws of the tower were shifted and had to be rewritten for him, he was gaining more and more achievements, and the degrees of achievements were so high that even the frequency of achievements had dropped. Chronos himself, who had always been lazy and bored with life, even if James hadn''t realised it, had started to behave as he had in his youth, just to train him. He was smiling, having fun, laughing, using his strength, in short, not afraid to use everything at his disposal. This was very different from the normal behaviour of the ageing Chronos. "I need to talk to Chaos..." Chronos suddenly thought he was quite right in his thoughts, there were indeed things they wanted to do, things they needed to discuss, and since he was one of the few people who could reach Chaos, it would not be awkward to do so. At least Chronos wasn''t going to bullcrap as James did and say that he was going to pierce the tower and reach Chaos, there was the fact that he could talk to him with messages as he always did. That''s why he grabbed James''s forehead and somehow managed to lull him to sleep, then opened the message window and sent a message to Chaos, hoping he wouldn''t regret what he was about to do: "We need to talk." When Chronos sent this message, things were heating up on the 5th floor. On the 5th floor, the black magic outbreak had receded from its serious state. The black magic had become strangely stable, and the kingdoms around the glacier mountain and the people controlled like zombies by the black magic could be restored. Thanks to the [Star Fragment], one of the sacred treasures of the church, a large-scale purification was able to be carried out, unfortunately, due to this situation, the energy of the sacred treasure, the Star Fragment, was depleted, and this treasure had been in a state of constant recharging for tens of thousands of years. Even though the 5th Floor was in a better condition, it still suffered a great loss of power. Ariel, Theseus, Perseus and a few others were sitting in the meeting hall of the imperial palace. Many people, including the high nobility of the empire, were in attendance. There was a great division of labour, Ariel had imposed an incredibly high level of responsibility on the Church of Night with his orders, and because of this, the way many priests used their powers, or rather their efficiency, had decreased. "I think my plan makes sense, Ariel. As soon as the Olympus Guild is blessed by the priests of the church, we can help the church to progress and suppress black magic a little." Perseus said. Every single person in the hall knew that Perseus was telling the truth. Looking at the history of the plans, transactions and guilds, it could be seen that Olympus was much better at purifying people and purifying things, unlike in mythologies, after all the legacy of Mount Olympos was written with war. Asgard within the 9 worlds of Yggdrasil was constantly at war due to the existence of the other 8 worlds under the gigantic branches and had to fight constantly in a search for dominance. In a way, Olympos fits the support criteria, while Asgard fits the position of a tank or a warrior. "You''re talking about something that will change depending on how many people they bless, Perseus." Theseus suddenly said, and he had a point. The priests of the Church were not weak. The priests of the Church of the Night were those who had worked for decades to become priests and had perfected the use of dark magic. Not only black magic but also the elements of darkness, light, mist, fog, fire and music. Their numbers may have exceeded millions, but the 5th floor was a gigantic place, as it has been said before. While there were millions of priests, there were billions of people. This made everything more troublesome. As soon as the priests of the Church of the Night blessed Olympus, it would be strong enough to surround the mountain, but the danger would envelop the rest of the 5th floor. The Church of Night was not the goddess they worshipped, they were powerful people who worshipped Nyx. So when their ability to protect was lost, the church would collapse. Ariel had already thought of that. This woman''s intelligence was enormous, and she had an ability called [Strategic Genius(Godly-)], which she gained thanks to her choice of Moros. Ariel, who had such a high intelligence, was able to instantly see many possibilities in front of her eyes when she had such a powerful ability. "Lady Ariel, what are you planning?" Wish suddenly asked, as if no one had expected the empress to speak. Ariel turned to Wish and then to the rest of the group, looking at Aether, one of the church popes, and asked, "Do you have any other items like the Star Shard? A treasure that can divide and distribute power, or add to it?" S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Aether didn''t seem to understand the purpose of the question, but he closed his eyes for a few seconds and thought about it, then stood up abruptly and replied, "Yes, my lady, we have an item called the [Tear of the Goddess], it is famous for dissipating the power put into it, it has been recharged for the last 550 years." Ariel shook her head and then asked, "What if you, Aether, and you, Datura, together cast a spell to spread a blessing and put it in the tear? Wouldn''t it be stronger than any priest''s blessing?" Hearing these words, the two high-ranking people suddenly got excited and left the room, Ariel''s plan was very simple. If the Olympos Guild wanted to be blessed, it had to be done, and if there was an item that could gather and trap a sudden power and then disperse it, it had to be used. Now there was only one thing left to do, Datura and Aether, who were powerful enough to make this item work, had to work together and cast the most powerful blessing spell in existence. No dark magic could overflow from the Frozen Mountain. It shouldn''t have. Chapter 100: The Barrier It had been almost four days. The priests of the Church of the Night continued to guard the borders of the empire well. The weakening of the Church seemed to have alerted the other kingdoms, it was like a chance for them to attack the empire. That''s why the sacred item [Tear of the Goddess] was filled with blessing magic only by Datura and Aether, the heads of the church. The Asgard Guild had already begun to protect the borders of the empire. There was talk of a not-so-hot war. "Do we know when the holy item will be ready?" Ariel suddenly asked, to which Ahil replied, "It''s almost ready, madam, we just need half an hour." Ariel and the others were now within the boundaries of the Frozen Mountain, and thanks to a few sacred treasures they had taken from the church, a huge barrier had been erected inside the huge camp. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The distance between the camp and the Frozen Mountain was almost 45 minutes, there were little camps at the final point, and the camp was busy fighting against the ice monsters that were coming towards them from the mountain, Ahil said that there was only half an hour left to make the raid on the mountain and prevent any monsters from forming. Even the Emperor himself had joined the camp in this endeavour. [Everything seems to be ready, you will be able to cover the mountain in a short time.] Ariel suddenly looked at the message Moros had sent her and then nodded her head and said, "We''re going to do it, that''s for sure, but I have a bad feeling, something is watching us, something alive, I just learnt the concept of Fallen God and I can''t help but be afraid." When Ariel uttered these words, the people in Olympus agreed with all these words. Fallen Gods were the names given to the gods who died in the game of the gods. These gods were those who had passed the 100th floor and had not managed to ascend further and usually died frighteningly. Who they were, what gender they were, and what community they belonged to was meaningless, whether they were the children of creators of other universes or the children of Chaos itself, each of them could die and become a Fallen God. The strange being James had encountered on the 9th Floor was a Fallen God. It was one of Nyx''s enemies in the tower, which is why Erebus and several other gods and goddesses had killed it on the 9th floor. He was the child of another creator, but he was a fool. He thought he could go around harassing and killing whoever he wanted, and he saw himself as Chaos. When this bastard''s eyes turned to Nyx, his head was stepped on like an ant, and if he had been spotted earlier, his death would have been much easier, it was Nyx''s and Erebus'' fault, and there were great losses until the culprit was caught. After these events, the Church of the Night was founded, and the person who founded this church, which had been going on for millions of years, was so powerful that he had conquered the entire 5th floor, and under the name of Nyx, he had taken every resting floor from the 5th floor to the 75th floor under his command. That''s why there were abandoned churches on the other floors. Unfortunately, most of the church''s power had disappeared into the dusty pages of history. If the Church had its former power, that is, the power of its first generations, some of them could even challenge the gods who had passed the 100th floor. The Church of the Night was such a gigantic organisation and power centre that even in its current state they have a say over the entire 5th floor. [You need to calm down, James is only a short time away from returning, I am sure he will return stronger than before, he is training with Chronos himself]. When Moros sent this message, Ariel''s expression brightened considerably. "The Time Titan? I''m a big fan, I still can''t believe he lost to an arsehole like Zeus, mythology is a funny thing." Ariel suddenly asked if she could have seen Zeus'' expression, and the ancient god blushed, he even started to think that no one in the world James and Ariel came from liking him. [I don''t think it''s necessary to be so hard on Zeus...] "I mean, I don''t really care, but you can''t expect me to like someone who walks up to every woman in sight, and even if it was the other way round, I still wouldn''t like that person," Ariel said abruptly, yawning as she left the tent she was in. Ariel had left Olympus in a state of shock, but she had work to do, and showing interest in Moros would only slow things down. "Theseus!" Ariel suddenly shouted, waving to Theseus, who was a few dozen metres away, indicating that they needed to talk. Theseus was soon at Ariel''s side and looking at her with curious eyes. "The Tear of the Goddess is almost complete, get ready to move, get everyone on board and remember we are going to disperse to 8 magic points, what is the situation in the other camps?" Ariel asked. "The other camps are ready, we have managed to completely seal off the mountain, and even though the black magic has surrounded the camps, the 8 people to whom we will give the blessing energy from the Tear of the Goddess are scattered around the camps. We only have to wait for Lady Datura and Sir Aether," Theseus replied, looking very hopeful. Still, Ariel felt that everything had to be perfect. When James suddenly disappeared and went to Mount Olympus, everything had fallen under Ariel''s responsibility. With the rank of First Commander of the Chaos Guild, Ariel had the power to command the Church of Night, the Olympus Guild, and the Asgard Guild. Currently, from the 5th floor to the 75th floor, there was no woman more powerful than her. "Check everything again, Perseus is controlling the 4 camps on the other side of the mountain, I know you have already checked this place, so go to the other three camps and take a look, nothing can go wrong, Theseus, don''t forget," Ariel said the seriousness on her face reminded Theseus of his father Poseidon. Suddenly Theseus shook his head and left the camp with a sacred item to fulfil his mission successfully. "Everything has to be perfect, we have to protect the Church of Night and the empire," Ariel suddenly said, not realising how much those words had touched Nyx. Chapter 101: Arriving Back [I thought you had nothing to do with the gods?] When Moros sent a message to Ariel with these words, she frowned and then said, "The only reason I''m doing this is because James, even if you can''t get in, we can get out and get in, strangely, and I could leave here in an instant, but James wants me to protect this place, I''m sure of it." Even if Ariel didn''t realise it, with those words alone she had gained the favour of Nemesis and the other brothers, she wanted to protect James, whom she hadn''t known for a very long time, just because he looked like her daughter. Her love and respect for James had grown to a gigantic level. In Ariel''s eyes, James was clumsy, and a little silly, but incredibly talented and well-meaning. He had to be protected, he was too innocent for this tower. [As you say, we think you can hold it until James arrives, good luck Ariel.] With that message Ariel closed the window and then waited, they would have to wait until the Tear of the Goddess was ready. ----- Exactly 35 minutes had passed, and the Tear of the Goddess was waiting in a ready position, this sacred object was almost the size of a human skull and perhaps as thick as a human arm. The sacred object glowed with a gigantic brightness and the sacred energy within it made those around it breathe easier. "ARE YOU READY?" Ariel suddenly shouted and 8 windows opened in front of her telling [Yes ma''am!]. The first camp began to glow with a piece of the barrier that would be opened by Datura and Aether. The Olympian sorcerer in the camp was filled with insane holy energy, a sudden energy that began to move towards the mountain and after a while, it stopped and rose to the sky like an abstract window. Then the energy in the Tear of the Goddess began to dissipate. 7 gigantic rays travelled around the mountain to the other camps, and then each camp began to glow with a part of the barrier. After a short period, the whole mountain and its surroundings were filled with the energy of blessing and the sacred energy in its context. There was energy in the Tear of the Goddess that could make at least 15 more of this barrier. With the gathering of this energy, the barrier was formed and a deep yet muffled sound rose from the mountain. "OUGHOUAA!!!" The sound was at such a high decibel that even Ariel, Theseus, Perseus, Datura and Aether had to cover their ears even though their ears were protected. Immediately after the deep, muffled voice stopped, a dark, shadowy silhouette rose towards the barrier and began to strike it, forming a huge figure. The barrier glowed with each blow and the figure''s voice became even more vivid: "NYX!!! BRING ME NYX!" S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As the muffled voice said these words, Ariel glared at the figure and then said angrily, "What the hell kind of a bastard like you would use that name!" Ariel hated himself for her weakness and for not having the ability to protect her brain, after all, if everyone, not just her, could protect their minds, everything would be easier. Everyone was doomed to divine power. [Don''t be nervous young Ariel, James and Nemesis are on their way, we can start the attack.] Ariel read the message window that had suddenly opened in front of her and was glad that James had arrived, her whole body trembled when she saw the name Nemesis, she was so happy to meet the only goddess that interested her. After a short wait, Nemesis and James entered the camp. Nemesis was carrying James on her back like a baby, James suddenly got off Nemesis'' back and tried to hide his embarrassment by saying "Nemesis is faster than me, there is nothing to do". The others burst into laughter as if they hadn''t expected it, and with that, Ariel approached James and said, "I did my best." Nemesis and James smiled at these words and then reassured Ariel by saying, "We know, don''t worry, you did a good job." With that, James and Nemesis started heading towards the other side of the camp, the path towards the mountain. "You stay here, we don''t know what will happen when we enter the barrier, we don''t know what the other kingdoms will do even if they can stop the Fallen God, don''t forget to watch your back." James suddenly said that everyone knew what he said was right, they needed to protect themselves. Nemesis stroked James'' cheek and then said, "I can take you halfway up the mountain, we''re talking almost 7,000 metres, even if there are paths wide enough for you to climb, it''s still a huge distance." "Don''t worry about me, even if you are still stronger than me here, you are still weak compared to your true strength, please don''t let any harm come to you," James said and kissed Nemesis. Even though the people around could not understand what was going on between the two, they still chose not to question it. With that, the duo of James and Nemesis were on the move. They had already started moving along the path of the mountain and had managed to reach the entrance to the mountain. The barrier was right in front of them. James knew his heart was pounding with fear, Nyx had said that whatever was inside was far more powerful than anything they had fought on the 9th floor. James, who hadn''t felt pure fear in a long time, could now clearly feel his entire body being flooded with adrenaline from fear. Shaking his head left and right, he took a step forward but was suddenly stopped by Nemesis holding his hand. "Are you alright Neme?" James asked, but Nemesis'' face was filled with fear. "To tell you the truth, I''m scared, even if I didn''t want to show it in the camp just now, I''m very scared. I am scared to lose you." Nemesis said and James smiled and said, "Me too, but we''ll support each other, you''ll get halfway up the mountain and then leave the barrier, protect yourself and help me move forward." When he saw that Nemesis'' fear was not going to subside, he moved closer and gave her the most passionate kiss he could give her and then said, "Hey...We''re going to succeed, we''re not going to let anyone down, we''re going to live." He had no idea how much those words meant to Nemesis. Chapter 102: Access to the Mountain It had been almost twenty minutes since the duo entered the mountain path. So far, they had not encountered any monsters, and they were travelling relaxed yet alertly. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Climbing 7,000 metres would not have taken that long because the mountain was not just vertical; it was a spiral, as if someone had pulled the mountain from the earth and raised it to the sky. So the duo of James and Nemesis continued on the path through the mountain, sometimes zigzagging and often circling. "Are you all right, Neme?" James said suddenly, already worried about Nemesis turning back halfway up. "Not really, thanks to the ring I got from my mum I can hold on a little, but the dark magic is really strong, it makes me nauseous and dizzy," Nemesis replied. Many gods and goddesses had the ability to protect their minds at higher levels, but Nemesis still did not have one of these abilities. Even if the ring that Nyx had given him helped Nemesis a little, it was still impossible to completely stop the hatred in the dark magic. James was incredibly lucky to have the Mind Palace ability. If he had wanted to create another ability instead of this ability, the 5th floor would fall. Of course, he was not the only one with the Mind Palace ability, but he was the only one with 100% protection against sleep, enchantment, etc., at least below the 75th floor. This seemed like it would help him tremendously in such a situation. "If you feel really bad, you come back instantly, got it?" James suddenly said. Hearing these words, Nemesis nodded her head and indicated that she understood, at which point her eyes widened and she suddenly moved past James, blocking an attack with her crystal shield. The glacial energy swept past James and Nemesis, several ice golems and, strangely, ice goblins stood before the pair. "Let''s get started then," James said, and suddenly he pulled Clarent out of his inventory and began to run. With each step, he avoided the ice arrows coming at him and approached the ice goblin in front of him. As soon as he was in front of the ice goblin, he activated his aura, and dark flames surrounded an area of almost 5 metres. The surrounding ice was melting a little, but it was not enough to stop these monsters. James suddenly swung Clarent and the head of the ice goblin in front of him cracked open, the body fell to the ground and James tried to move towards the next target. Just then Nemesis was in front of him again, killing 7 targets in almost half a minute. "You mustn''t tire yourself, James, let me fight," Nemesis said, her gaze full of concern and worry, the more James tired himself the more dangerous whatever was on the hill would become. "I''m sorry Neme, please be careful," James said suddenly, there seemed to be no reason for him to fight anymore. "Do you have any idea how far up we are, Neme?" James suddenly asked, and Nemesis shook her head and said, "We must be at least 500 metres up, the mountain is not like Mount Olympus, it''s a spiral, I can''t imagine how it was created, it''s incredibly easy to climb." When James nodded his head as if he understood, he said, "Then we have to speed up, we have to speed up." As soon as Nemesis said she understood, she grabbed James and started running, this wasn''t what James was talking about, but the fact that Nemesis was faster than him made everything easier. It was as if he was sitting in a racing car and the car was travelling at maximum speed without ever losing control. It would be wrong to say that James was not dizzy, the diameter of the mountain skirt may have been large, but it did not cover the upper parts of the mountain. Even if he was still in possession of something wider, it was clear that he was still moving incredibly fast. Nemesis came to an abrupt halt, put James down, and then lunged forward, gripping her crystal sword tightly. A huge icy golem stood before the pair, a golem so large that to the naked eye alone it could have been as much as 10 metres tall. Nemesis suddenly plunged her crystal sword into the ground and started running, as James tried to realise what was happening Nemesis leapt into the air and started punching the golem in the face while holding the ice golem''s head in one hand. "Woah...." James involuntarily said in an admiring manner and continued to watch Nemesis with his eyes wide open. ''POW!'' ''POW!'' ''POW!'' The sound of punches echoed up and down the mountain. After a short time, the golem could no longer stand and fell backwards. Nemesis threw one last punch out of anger and went back to James looked at him and said, "We can continue." James shook his head from side to side and then smiled and said, "I am so in love with you." Nemesis had a strange expression on her face, but she smiled as if she liked these words, then embraced James again picked up her sword and started running again. Not long after, after an hour of running and climbing the mountain, Nemesis stopped and looked at James, panting as if his movement was restricted. "I can''t go any further than this, it''s like my mum said, the ring she gave me is a weak item because of how quickly she created it, it can only block dark magic for so long." When Nemesis said these words, James nodded and said, "Be careful on your way back." and turned around, he would be the only one from here on. After that it was up to James, even if it wasn''t really long or dangerous, it was obvious that he would eventually face the god of danger. Just as he was about to start moving, Nemesis'' voice was heard once more: Chapter 103: Aunty Emily? "Please be careful James, I beg you, if you realise your life is in danger run, don''t look back, please live." Nemesis'' words made James'' heart skip a beat, for the first time Nemesis, who was almost always said to have an emotionless expression, looked incredibly sad. Wrinkles had formed on her forehead and the colour of her eyes had officially changed to a bluish silver, her lips were trembling and she seemed to be trying hard not to cry. Nemesis, who had come to be known as the Goddess of War, had such an expression that even James, who was supposed to be her closest friend, her love, was deeply moved. James shook his head and said, "I love you," then turned and started to run. He didn''t know what dangers awaited him at the top of the mountain, he had no contact with Nyx, no one in Olympus could watch him, the entire floor was locked, and James was truly on his own. He was ascending through the Ice Mountain, battling glacial monsters born of dark magic and beginning to realise that he was no longer alone. He knew that once he entered the tower and found a purpose on the first floor, he would meet many people, including Nyx, but he didn''t know if he could commit to anyone with certainty. The presence of Nemesis, on the other hand, had managed to bind him to one place instantly. James had decided that his life was no longer his alone. This made him extra careful. Nemesis'' concern was the very thing that would make James more careful. James felt that with each step he took he was getting closer to something he recognised. He was climbing the mountain fast, not as fast as Nemesis, so it would take him two or three hours to reach the top of the mountain. Not as fast as Nemesis, but still incredibly fast for someone who had only made it to the tenth floor. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. His stamina was not bad, his strength was good and his energy was high. With each step, he continued to ascend the hill, strangely, no monsters appeared in front of him, only the cold that penetrated him with each step he took began to increase exponentially. "What''s going on?" James thought he had almost reached the top but he hadn''t expected such cold, he was being affected by the cold even though he was constantly working his aura around him, indeed it was possible to say that his body ached enormously. Yet the cold didn''t seem to be trying to kill him, it seemed to embrace him somehow, it was a strange feeling, he felt like he was freezing but felt no pain. "Welcome." A sudden voice came from his left side and James stopped abruptly and grabbed Clarent tightly, carefully putting his foot on the ground and taking his guard down. When he looked carefully in the direction of the voice, he saw that the plants were covered with hoarfrost, there shouldn''t have been hoarfrost in such cold weather, because this cold was heavy enough to turn the plants directly into ice. "WHO ARE YOU!?" James suddenly shouted, and then a woman emerged from where the voice had come from, out of the green plants that were covered with hoar frost and hanging overhead. James was surprised when he saw her face, she looked strangely like the aunt his mum had shown him in a photograph a long time ago. "It''s been a long time James, I don''t think I''ve seen you since you were a baby, come and talk to me"'' the woman suddenly said, and James, hearing this, let his guard down and then set off to climb, just at that moment the woman''s voice was heard again: "Okay! You need to listen!" "Nuh-uh..." James said and then turned to start up the road, but the woman suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him. Even though James was shocked by her speed, he still didn''t hesitate to shake Clarent. After the woman avoided James'' blow, she shouted again: "I''M YOUR AUNTIE, ISN''T YOUR MUM''S NAME LEONA BLACK?" James suddenly heard his mother''s name and then stopped dead in his tracks, his Mind Palace ability made it impossible for others to read his mind and he had never told anyone his mother''s or father''s name before, not even Nyx. And how did this woman know about it? "Aunty Emily?" James suddenly said, he only knew her as well as his mum had told him and that made it all the more strange. "Yes it''s me, you don''t know me very well but I know you, I know why you went into the tower and I know what you''re trying to do now, we need to talk. Before you go and face that piece of crap on the top of the mountain." the woman called Emily replied. "I''d love to but I can''t, I''m not going to stand here with the whole of the 5th floor looking over my shoulder, even if the barrier holds, one false move and I''d be endangering everyone''s lives," said James, thinking he had to move. "The Tear of the Goddess is not an item that will last so little, James, please, I just need a few minutes of your time, I will tell you about our family history," Emily said and James nodded with great curiosity. Seeing James''s approval, Emily took a deep breath and then started walking towards where she came from, James followed her and after a short time, she came to a cave-like place. The inside of the cave looked strangely modern, James was about to ask what was going on when Emily started to speak: "It''s all about your destiny, James, the destiny of our bloodline. Do you know who we are? Do you know who you are?" Hearing these questions, James shook his head as if he didn''t know, and seeing this, Emily said, "I see...My sister didn''t tell you anything, but you still managed to get into the tower, so the prophecy must have started to come true." James didn''t seem to understand what was going on, he shook his head strangely and then said, "I don''t understand what you''re trying to say, my name is James Arthur Black, I''m human, what prophecy, what destiny?" He paused for a few seconds after what he had said and then clearly saw the expression on Emily''s face, she had a sad and resentful expression, James could not know that it was not because she was disappointed or anything like that, but because she realised the path James had taken without knowing anything. "I''m a human....right? That''s what it says on my profile..." James blurted out, not even knowing what to say. He just thought that seeing a literal soul of her aunty or perhaps the real body of her made him think that he was just like her. Chapter 104: The Fallen God Knows "Profile huh...James, you''d be surprised how easily the tower and the system inside it are fooled...Think about it, in a world where everything is normal, a child with lush green hair and green eyes deeper than nature itself is born. He has a feature that is contrary to the DNA of humanity, he has white skin, but his body is just as strong." Hearing Emily''s words, James shook his head for a few seconds as if he didn''t really believe anything and then asked, "Then what am I?" Emily turned her head after these words and looked from inside the cave to the top of the mountain. "I''m afraid we can''t talk right now James, I''d like to, but that piece of rubbish up there doesn''t seem to be letting you go, it''s sensing Nyx''s energy, it''s desperate to kill you, please be careful." Emily suddenly and then pointed to the ring on the table inside the cave and said, "This ring will allow you to talk to me, in a way, we will be able to talk to you from inside your mind. My soul will be trapped in that ring, Nyx can recognise the energy but you can dismiss it as an item, if you want to know everything wear the ring but remember James, I''ve been hoping for you to come here for a long, long time." When James took the ring on the table and looked at its features, he realised that what Emily had said was not a lie: [Black Family Heirloom A ring forged from a soul stone that has been waiting for the right person for generations and has the chance to obtain the souls of the Black bloodline. Terms of Use: Chosen by the Ring] When James read the trait, he began to think that he had not been chosen by Chaos by chance, he realised that his aunt''s spirit was moving towards the ring and he put it on without thinking. There seemed to be a world of things he didn''t know about his family. "I hope you tell me everything Auntie, I''m happy to meet you, to know that one of my family is kinda alive..." James suddenly said, that even if there was no return from the ring, the heat emanating from the ring seemed to tell James that he was not the only happy one. As he stepped lightly out of the cave, James realised that the cold outside no longer affected him to such an enormous extent that it was as if the ring he was wearing was fighting the cold instead of James. There was a distance of almost 10 minutes between James and the top of the ice mountain. James didn''t stop at all and managed to reach the summit with quick steps. Even if the summit of the mountain was piercing the sky, even if the clouds themselves were now passed, the summit was officially as big as a football field and James could easily see what was happening. A man was sitting on a throne of ice and looking at James with an angry expression on his face. "Sup?" James suddenly said. The man smiled at this and said, "No way...Are you the one harbouring Nyx''s energy? I know you, your expression is quite familiar, who are you?" he asked. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James looked at the ring when he heard these words, and the man who saw what he was doing turned to where James was looking and was suddenly surprised. The man suddenly stood up and shouted "BLACK!". Before James even realised what was happening, the man had disappeared, James had reflexively used the time element after all his practice with Chronos and then avoided the move coming towards him. "What the hell is going on?" James thought, and his thought was instantly answered: "I was wondering why your face looked familiar! You bastard, we may not have killed your ancestor, but we can try to wipe you out." James seemed genuinely stunned by what he was hearing, how many unknown mysteries were there in this ring and bloodline? Still, he knew he should try to fight instead of having these thoughts. He had a firm grip on Clarent and in his other hand, he wielded Selene''s Throwing Knife. At any moment, he might have to respond to the attack and counterattack. "I don''t even know who you are, but you keep talking about my ancestor, what stupid beings you all are!" James suddenly attacked instantly. They were on the 5th floor and the only one who could use all of his power right now was James himself, whether it was the Fallen God or Nyx himself, whoever it was, they would lose that much power every time they descended each floor. This meant that there was a huge difference between James, who was powerless on the 9th floor, and James with his current level of power, and this was the difference between the two Fallen Gods. The only change was that James became stronger and the Fallen Gods lost their powers. This meant that James had a chance, even if it was small. Pausing at James'' words, the Fallen God carefully looked at the young man in front of him and said, "You don''t even have a clue who you are, you want to attempt what he did when you are so weak but guess what''s different? You''re not even 0.000001% as strong as him." After these words, he lunged at James again, but this time James was able to follow the Fallen God with his eyes, the fact that he had just been caught off guard was what put him in danger. He met the attack of the man coming towards him with Clarent and realised that he had been pushed back a few steps. James had no intention of asking questions at the moment, there was already someone inside the ring who could answer his questions, that''s why James instantly lunged forward and tried to stab Clarent into the Fallen God by using his Pierce ability in a way that even exceeded his speed. Fallen God blocked the attack with his hand and then tried to grab James to attack back. "AUUUUUGH!!!" Fallen God suddenly realised that his hand was on fire. "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS MAGIC?!?!?!" shouted Fallen God, while James was quite happy with what was happening. "Haha..." he laughed, smiling at his sword. Chapter 105: A Life Saving Suprise "Haha...Clarent, you''re the best." James suddenly said, his gaze painting a bright image. It was obvious that Clarent was trembling, it couldn''t wait to clash with the Fallen God''s attacks. It was indeed King Arthur''s weapon, the weapon of peace, but he was eager to fight. As the old saying goes, "When a sword is forged, it must draw blood". When James realised that the Fallen God was writhing in pain, he leapt to continue the attack. Again and again, he slashed his body with Clarent, and some of his attacks were successful, even if they were only tiny cuts. "What kind of sword is that?!" the Fallen God suddenly shouted and suddenly opened his arms, unleashing a huge amount of energy. James was sent flying back almost 10 metres, the impact of the energy was so huge that even breathing was difficult for a few seconds. "It''s not that strong, the tower works in my favour, even if it''s the first time I can still beat it." thought James, he might still be weaker than the being in front of him but that didn''t mean he was the weakest. James stepped harder and more determinedly on the ground as his aura once again surrounded him. His magic overflowed from his body again and strengthened the flame quality in his aura many times over, the Fallen God could not help but be surprised by what he saw, the anger on his face was very clear. "YOU BLACK BLOODLINE BASTARDS, YOU''VE NEVER GOED TO EXTINCTION, NOW YOU''RE USING MAGIC AND AURA AT THE SAME TIME, YOU FLIPPING TWATS!" shouted Fallen God suddenly, but James didn''t give a damn what he said. He suddenly stopped time for a split second and ran, a normal run for him, but for the Fallen God, it was like James had teleported. Nevertheless, the Fallen God managed to move a little at the last moment and avoided the attack on its heart. Clarent suddenly stabbed the Fallen God right in the stomach, and then James drew the sword and blood began to gush out incredibly quickly. James smiled, very pleased with his attack, but was shocked by the sight he suddenly saw. The place he had pierced with Clarent had suddenly healed. "Did you think you could kill me with something like that? Didn''t you realise? I''m pure black magic." the Fallen God suddenly said, the contemptuous smile on his face unbelievable. James realised that this attack had only worked for a second. The small portion of the time elemental James was using, contained in his aura, could damage things like black magic. It was only one of the 4 main powers Chronos said, but James'' level was not enough to kill him. If he could have the power of the flames that Chronos mentioned, this battle would have been very easy, Chronos had mentioned something about a part of those flames being inside James in the drill they finished before returning to the 5th floor. His exact words were: "Look James, strangely enough, you have a huge ability to the Element of Time, and as I saw when I checked your aura, you also have a piece of the 8 sacred fires, just an incredibly small piece of it. I don''t know how it is like that because the only person who has these powers must be the creator, Chaos must know something since he is the one who invited you to the tower. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The reason I am telling you this is that the person you are going to fight now is probably someone you cannot kill in your human form, with normal powers, without these powers because your holiness is incredibly low, the only thing you can hope for is that you will be able to properly use the time element that has begun to be engraved into your aura and hope that the fire element will support you." These words made perfect sense to James now that he saw them with his own eyes. After all, James had been able to confirm what Chronos had said, even if the wound he had inflicted with Clarent had closed immediately, it had been possible to inflict a wound in the first place. But what would have happened if he had succeeded in delivering this attack to his heart? Could this attack have killed the Fallen God? After all, black magic came from the magic rings around the heart, so destroying the heart would release the magic and the caster would be destroyed. After all, most of the Fallen Gods were not alive, almost every one of them had been killed in the past so they were basically memories, and the Fallen God currently facing James was in this category. After all, if there was a living one, the 5th floor would have been destroyed a long time ago. Even if the tower had weakened them, they were still true gods, gods with a high degree of divinity. "I thought I was going to kill you, to tell you a lie, I guess it was worth a try." James suddenly said, and the smile on the Fallen God''s face suddenly fell. The Fallen God seemed to have James under its control as the energy it was radiating around had increased to an even greater degree, James couldn''t move an inch, he realised that his whole body was writhing in pain. All his muscles were tensing one by one and his nose was bleeding, it wasn''t the dark magic that was affecting him but the enormous amount of energy that was being released. It would have been fine if it was the spell itself, but it was the energy of the Fallen God itself that was spreading over James, the enormity of the mana energy was oppressing James himself. Even though James was trying to get rid of this pressure, he was unable to do so, at that very moment he realised that something in his inventory had started to move, and cracking sounds started to form in his mind. At that moment, the Mystical Beast Egg in his inventory had just popped out of his inventory, just like Clarent had done before. Fallen God paused when he saw the egg and then said, "A Mystical Beast Egg?" The kind created by the Supreme Dragons, the kind that no one knows what will come out of it, and you''re giving it to me as a farewell gift, Black?'' Yet at that very moment, something that no one had expected happened, in just a split second, the Fallen God was pinned to the wall a few dozen metres away. The energy surge was gone, what was going on? Chapter 106: Baby Supreme Dragon Stunned, the Fallen God detached itself from the wall and looked towards James with its eyes wide open. James was looking at the being standing right in front of him. A small child had hatched from the egg. "Nemesis?" James suddenly said, and with that, a notification window appeared in front of him: [Congratulations, Mr Umbra! You have succeeded in hatching a mystical monster egg, something no one has been able to do for a long time. The hatching entity''s loyalty to you has increased by 100%. The hatching being will have the image of you and your love. If you want to name it, go to the character section of your profile and give it a name. The gender of the entity is female. The Age of the entity is set to 1. The entity''s current level is set to 1. The entity has a status average of 100. The entity''s elemental predisposition is "Time, Fire, Space and Darkness". The entity belongs to the Supreme Dragon race, which stands above all races]. When James read the window in front of him, he paused for a few seconds and shouted "EMMA ARE YOU THERE?" but he didn''t get any message back, he realised that even Emma couldn''t see what was happening right now. As he looked at the being...child...thing standing right in front of him, he could feel the aura coming from it perfectly. This child had managed to throw the Fallen God several dozen metres the moment it hatched to protect James. "Dad?" the girl suddenly said, James would have made a strange face if he hadn''t read the window, but now it all made sense. It was like a duckling adopting the first thing it sees as its mother the moment it emerges from its egg, yet this girl seemed to be intelligent enough to distinguish between father and mother, of course, she would be, after all, nothing less could be expected from a monster with a status average of 100. The Fallen God seemed to attack as soon as it realised what was happening, James saw it attacking and rushed forward picking up Clarent who had fallen from his hand, he had to stop the Fallen God from attacking the girl. James suddenly lunged forward and blocked the punch that came to the little girl with his sword. When the dragon he was trying to protect saw this, the energy in her eyes changed, the energy level around her increased to a gigantic level and her claws appeared in human form. The dragon''s azure hair reflected the image of the surrounding sky and its golden eyes were wide open as it watched the spirit of the Fallen God. The she-dragon looked so angry that the ice around her seemed to have been lost to her darkness, and she had even managed to melt some of it with just his normal breathing. James suddenly realised that he was starting to feel better, he couldn''t understand what was happening but he could feel the aura and magic in his body starting to develop. Suddenly he stood up and made a sudden move with Clarent. "KUAGH!" Fallen God screamed in pain, his chest was cut in half, he might have healed, but he could still realise that something was wrong with his body, his ability to heal was incredibly slowed down. [Target subjected to bleeding effect]. James smiled as he read the notification that suddenly appeared in front of him and then said, "So? I wonder how useful your healing ability from your black magic will be now." Fallen God couldn''t understand what was going on, but his eye was caught by James'' shadow. James'' shadow was moving in a gigantic way as if it reminded him of the person they had always feared. The Fallen God was not going to fall so easily, he had no desire to do so so he quickly backed away and began to gather as much magical energy, mana itself, as he could. James couldn''t understand what was happening but he had to protect the girl behind him, the moment Moros handed the egg to James the egg and what came out of it became his responsibility. As James stepped in front of the girl and surrounded them with aura, the massive amount of magical energy that the Fallen God had gathered began to come towards the duo, and James hoped that they would not die as his eyes flickered with fear. At that very moment, the dragon stepped in front of James and stopped with an open palm. James wanted to pull the girl away but it was too late, he hadn''t even thought to use the time element at that moment, no matter how skilful he was, no matter how much potential he had, the person in front of him was a god, everything seemed to disappear in his mind from fear. Suddenly the spell struck the dragon and spread out across the mountain. The barrier set up by the Church of Night cracked and then shattered. As the barrier was rebuilt, the peak of the mountain, which had been covered in dust and smoke, began to scream. Thunder rumbled, and a huge snowfall seemed to have suddenly begun. Nemesis, who was standing next to Ariel outside the foothills of the mountain, seemed to show concern in her eyes. When Ariel noticed those eyes, she asked, "Lady Nemesis, what''s going on?" but there was no answer from Nemesis, only a growing concern in her eyes. Even the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus had noticed this energy. "What kind of mana energy is this? I don''t understand, neither the Fallen God nor James can emit such energy, it''s the same as...." Zeus said and before he could even finish his sentence, Moros'' voice was heard: "The mana of the Supreme Dragons..." Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "That''s impossible! Even if it is a Supreme Dragon egg, the higher beings are things that shouldn''t exist in the tower, they are creators! They mate and make the eggs that will give other creatures no?" shouted Thanatos suddenly, even though he was looking around in disbelief. "They don''t count as creators, my son, my father created them to protect the universe in which the tower exists, not creators, just higher beings like me and Erebus," Nyx said, surprised, as if no one understood what she was trying to say, and then Moros'' voice was heard again: "What are you trying to say, Mum?" Chapter 107: Supreme Dragons "What are you trying to say, Mum?" Nyx shook her head at Moros'' question and then said, "The Supreme Dragons were created by Chaos as our protectors. Guardians of the tower. Most of them used to live their own lives inside the tower, but when my father wanted them to fulfil their guardian duties, they forbade their kind from living inside the tower." Everyone seemed even more confused. At that moment, Erebus tapped Nyx on the shoulder and said, "You''re making it too complicated, my dear." He stopped Nyx and began to speak: "In a way, our father created them to keep the other creators from touching the tower. Of course, Chaos himself is the one who created the other creators, but he''s a bit...Cough...He''s lazy, so it was easier for him to create others instead of protecting things himself, someone who could compete with the power of the creators, the Supreme Dragons." He paused for a few seconds and then said, "Just as Nyx had said, the Supreme Dragons had banned their kind from entering the tower to prevent any attempt at dominance. By their very nature, the eggs from their matings would give birth to a creature according to the potential of the person who raised them." Hearing this, Hades was surprised and said, "So you are saying that.....James'' potential is enough to create a Supreme Dragon with the mana contained in the egg?" Erebus shook his head when he heard these words and said, "It was Nyx and me who gave the egg to Moros, as a birthday present, after all, our child is a mystical monster fan, so it was necessary to make him happy, we simply asked two Supreme Dragon to make us one. He gave James a gift, the hatching process of the egg was very different from normal, the only thing that could bend reality in any sense of the word was the eggs of the Supreme Dragons." "I thought I found the egg myself?" Moros said in surprise, and Nyx turned to him and said, "Really? You thought you found a Supreme Dragon egg?", Moros shook his head sheepishly and fell silent, and then Erebus continued. "During incubation, the egg takes on the energy of its caretaker, moulded by the attack patterns and elements it uses, in short, that''s how potential is measured. Then the egg owner is expected to find a mate just like Supreme Dragons, someone they can love and protect with their life, even if the egg does not hatch until then, even if it has an incubation period of 100%. The Supreme Dragon''s magic, mana energy, binds the pair together and the three of them can sense when one of them is in danger or well, a very nice feature if you ask me." "So the egg was ready to hatch when James accepted Nemesis and wanted to claim her for himself?" Apate asked. "Exactly, James may not have realised it, but the incubation period must have been incredibly close to completion and the egg hatched on the mountain, and what came out of it must have been a Supreme Dragon. A race that hasn''t emerged in millions of years, a member of the blessed race that even outside the tower there is only a handful left," Erebus replied. "This is what Supreme Dragons are all about. They are known as the most perfect race created by the Creator, their beauty, their power, and even their function, sad as it may be, must be admitted...more perfect than me and Nyx." Erebus added, and with that, the entire hall fell silent. After a few seconds, Moros shook his head and then said, "Then I''m glad I gifted the egg to James, I am, if such a huge mana energy was released, then the dragon is fighting, and James'' life might have been saved..." sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Nyx heard Moros'' words, she stood up and walked down the stairs in front of the throne, stroked her son''s cheek and kissed him on the forehead. "I''m proud of you, my son, for not letting jealousy get a foothold in your heart and instead being happy about James, well done," she smiled and then added, "Connect to Ariel, we need to see what''s going on, even from a distance." Moros nodded his head and immediately connected to Ariel to see what she was seeing and the whole hall began to watch intently. The lightning that was flashing all around the mountain was a perfect yet frightening sight, the sudden blizzard that had suddenly appeared had begun to cover the mountain in a strange vapour, and nothing could be seen. "James!" Ariel screamed suddenly, only to realise that the worry in Nemesis'' eyes had dissipated. "He''s fine...I can feel it...somehow..." Nemesis said suddenly and those who heard it were stunned, it was clear that no one knew what was going on. James could barely open his eyes because of the ice dust that was in the air at the time. "ARE YOU OK, GIRL?!" he shouted, and suddenly he saw golden eyes staring at him. He fell to the ground in fright and then hugged the little girl, smiling as if he was so glad that she was safe. James looked very relieved indeed. It was at that moment that James realised that his back was getting wet, a warm sensation had touched his clothes and felt even on the Adamant Armour. James stopped hugging the girl and looked at her hand and saw that it was bleeding profusely from the attack, he instantly took out the highest level health potion from his inventory and gave it to her, and with that, her hand was healed. James patted her on the head and was able to relax for a few seconds, at which point he felt something coming at them and jumped to the left, embracing her. As the ice dust fell back to the ground, the incoming attack was obvious, the Fallen God seemed to be looking at James rather nervously. James smiled as he looked carefully at the Fallen God, the Fallen God was missing an arm and his whole body was covered in blood, it seemed strange that the Fallen God, who was dead and formed by the embodiment of spirituality, had fallen into this state. This battle could have been won. Chapter 108: Killing the Fallen God "That''s enough help, go and hide, I''ll do the rest, I''ll finish this quick," James said as he set her down. He then stood up and grabbed Clarent tightly, suddenly lunging forward and attacking the Fallen God. With each attack, he made several more slashes and managed to push the Fallen God backwards. Fallen God was injured by his attack. As the Dragon blocked and reflected the spell, it ricocheted off the caster and severed his arm, affecting the magic circle. There was no way for the Fallen God to recover. His heart, where the black magic was coming from, was damaged and Fallen God''s ability to heal was indeed destroyed due to James'' bleeding ability. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "YOU, DAMN YOU!!!" the Fallen God shouted, but it was too late, if he hadn''t bothered to humiliate James in the first place and used everything he had and had done so before the egg hatched, James would have been dead already. He was going to die because of his stupidity. James suddenly used his time elemental and in just a second, he stabbed Clarent into the Fallen God''s heart. "It''s not over yet!" shouted the Fallen God and suddenly the entire mountaintop began to tremble. James instinctively jerked backwards and suddenly realised the huge amount of magical energy rushing towards him. Fallen God seemed to use every last drop of magical energy he had, his body practically glowing. James started running as soon as he saw what was happening, he had to run, he found the girl hiding on the road and embraced her and started to run away from the area quickly. Everything happened so fast, James was constantly using the time element and trying to run faster for a few seconds, even if he was dizzy, even if his nose was bleeding from the depletion of his magic energy. "BOOM!!!" A sound of enormous decibel suddenly passed through James'' eardrums and made his head feel like it was going to explode, an incredibly high heat started to move towards James but he could no longer move, he suddenly realised that he was at the entrance of the cave where he had found his aunt''s soul and he went inside with the girl. It is not known how it happened, but all the heat just passed by the cave without even entering the cave, after almost thirty seconds of heat dissipation, everything seemed to be over, just at that moment, several notifications appeared in front of James: [You have levelled up 14 levels. You have earned the title of Fallen God Slayer]. [Fallen God Slayer(Title) This title will allow you to deal 1% more damage to those counted as Fallen God]. [Way to Be a God ability is working! You have gained 217,538 believers! Your Holiness stat has increased by 25,000. You have gained 50 distributable status points. You have gained 17,793,883 gold. You have attracted the attention of the remaining 6 major sins of Hell. The angels of Heaven are now watching you with even greater scrutiny.] [Archangel Michael is enormously proud of what you''ve done.] [All of Olympus thanks you.] [Fallen Angel Lucifer says he will find the tower recordings in private and will monitor the battle from Chaos'' hands through the tower recordings if necessary.] [You have reached Level 50! The Tower offers you 20 status points to distribute for this special achievement]. James smiled as he read all these notification windows one by one and tried to control his breathing deeply. When he looked at the girl standing next to him, he smiled and patted her on the head, saying, "You worked a miracle today, little one." James was already starting to heal, his healing ability was healing him as best it could, but he didn''t have a health potion in his inventory and that made everything difficult. He thought that he would have to wait here for a few minutes, just then, as if he had thought of something, he opened his profile and entered the girl''s profile, clicking on the name change, "Haha...What else would you call a miracle worker?" and typed [Miracle] in the name change. [Are you sure you want to change the female Supreme Dragon member''s name to ''Miracle''? YES/NO] When James was presented with the option, he pressed yes and turned to the girl next to him with a smile. "From today, your name will be Miracle, I will be your father," he said. Hearing these words, Miracle hugged James with a smile and closed her eyes, lying on his lamb like a cat, her body suddenly shone and turned into a dragon form. Miracle was as small as a kitten, with a purplish lower body and an upper body of bright purple that looked like it was on fire. Miracle looked like a masterpiece and was considered James'' child. James now had a second reason not to do anything stupid, not to die. [You''ve done a great, important and beautiful thing, James.] James looked at the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and then realised that the barrier between the floors had been lifted. "The Fallen God blew himself up, my lady, he blew up the circles in his heart with the last shred of mana he had left, I almost died," James said. [Nevertheless, you were able to realise this in a short time and managed to escape, you have improved a lot, James, and we are very proud of you]. When James read this message, he smiled and closed his eyes. "I''m going to need to rest for a little while, and then we can start climbing the floors, my lady, with the Arena and all, I''m starting to lose track of the goal I set for myself," James said he wanted to fulfil his goal of meeting Chaos. After all, he had a purpose and a passion for this purpose. Then he patted the head of Miracle, who was sleeping on his lap, and said, "I''m not going to live for myself anymore, after all, I have Nemesis and Miracle." James could not have known how much these words moved Olympus and made them proud. This was over. The Fallen God was dead. Chapter 109: Seems Like a Happy Family James had been sitting inside the cave for almost thirty minutes, most of his wounds had closed, but as usual, some had not. However, he started to hear footsteps coming from outside, his smile grew and he turned his head towards the entrance of the cave. "James are you here?!" came a shout from outside the cave. "Yes!" shouted James and then four people entered the cave. Nemesis, Ariel, Theseus and Perseus were standing just to the left of James. When the four of them looked at James, he was in a completely relaxed position, Ariel fell to the ground as if her legs were no longer holding her and Theseus put one arm around Perseus and smiled. Nemesis just stood there with a perfect, cute and refreshing smile. "You look good," Nemesis said, and James smiled and replied, "I was a mess, auto-heal is a useful thing." Nemesis couldn''t hold himself back any longer as she walked over to James and then sat down next to him, resting her head on James'' shoulder. "You have no idea how scared I was..." Nemesis said, and James, hearing this, smiled and said "Yeah yeah I love you too." and fell silent. Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, he said, "Ah! By the way, we have a daughter, Nemesis." Nemesis and the others seemed quite surprised by this. James calmly woke Miracle, who was sleeping on his leg, and then said, "Would you please transform into human form?" Miracle''s body glowed again as soon as she heard this, and then she stood in front of James and Nemesis as she had first hatched from the egg. "Is this THE Supreme Dragon?" Nemesis asked, and hearing this, James said, "Yes, it''s mine and yours, our daughter." Nemesis looked at Miracle with great surprise and said, "Umm, does this girl look like me or am I imagining things?" "She looks like both of us, the Supreme Dragon egg looks like its owner and owner''s mate," James said and Nemesis realised that her heart was pounding, she didn''t know whether to be happy that James saw her as his mate or happy that there was tangible proof of it. "At least you gave her some clothes...We still need to find better quality ones...I guess I''ll have to go to Hephaestus." Nemesis said, and James, hearing this, shook his head and said, "I don''t know if you believe it, but she hatched with these clothes." These words seemed to surprise everyone once again, even James was still puzzled about it, but everyone seemed to know that this strange conversation had to end. James took Miracle gently by the hand and then said, "Miracle, this is your mum." Miracle looked at Nemesis for a few seconds, then slowly walked over and sat down on Nemesis'' knees. The little girl looked a little uncomfortable, after all, Nemesis was wearing her crystal armour. James, however, slowly tried to get to his feet and realised that his head was spinning massively, he had lost a lot of blood and it was not a good thing that auto-healing was not working. Seeing that James had lost his balance, Theseus suddenly lunged forward and took James gently by the arm. "Thank you Theseus, I''m sorry, you''re seeing me at my weakest..." James said and Theseus smiled and said "Are you kidding? This is the strongest you have ever been." trying to explain to James the enormity of what he had achieved. "Hah! Indeed it is like that! We can''t even tell you how many gods and goddesses are looking in your direction, Master James! Even the enemies of Olympus are on their knees thanking you! It turns out that everyone has a few pieces of what they hold dear on the 5th floor, yet the fact that no one but the likes of us can leave this floor is a death sentence for them!" Perseus suddenly said with a bright smile on his face, and then gently began to carry Ariel, who was sitting on the floor, like a princess. "Then let''s go! Lady Nemesis will carry young lady Miracle, Theseus will carry James and I will carry Lady Ariel, we have a long way to go." Perseus added, his face radiating happiness, he had a very strange yet funny personality. When Theseus took James on his back, James involuntarily lost his ability to endure and closed his eyes, he was so tired that there was no way to explain it. He had trained with Chronos for 5 days, but because of the time slowdown in the time field, James had tried to gain mastery over his time element for almost 290 hours without sleeping. He was very tired indeed, and all that training and fighting, with all the attention and magic and mana energy he had expended, had left him close to death. There was no need to describe how much blood he had lost, he was really in a terrible state. While James fainted and people were returning, at the top of the tower, in what the gods called the void, Chronos was talking to the supreme being himself. "I don''t understand, you blocked everyone''s memories, including your own daughter? You have wiped the man''s face. Chaos, are you telling me that you''ve erased from the records someone who''s killed more gods than I, Ra, Erebus and the others?!?!?!?" Chronos had been talking to Chaos non-stop for almost two hours, he had learnt, or rather remembered, secrets he should have kept and truths he should not have known. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He understood that all of this was being kept for James, but not all of Chronos'' questions had been answered by Chaos, there were still dozens of mysteries and just as many questions. It was inconceivable that Chaos and that man had worked together to erase the memories of all the gods and even the tower itself. What exactly was the Creator trying to do? What was the all-purpose of doing those things? Chapter 110: Truth Behind The Black Familys Bloodline (1) Chronos paused after his questions, he was angry with Chaos, after all, Chaos was loved for giving free consciousness to his creations, and now that he knew that he had erased everyone''s memories, or rather structured them, he was maddeningly angry, he could not make sense of what was happening. "WON''T YOU ANSWER OH CHAOS?!" Chronos suddenly shouted into the void of space, but there was no answer coming his way, Chaos seemed to be exercising his right to remain silent. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chronos didn''t even know what he was supposed to say, he had managed to learn James'' identity almost exactly, but he had no idea if he was supposed to tell Nyx and the others. "He had become one of the closest in power to me, the creator, a friend that I can look up to. Even when he lived on the lower floors of the tower, he had more power than my daughter Nyx on the highest floor. He was like a monster, living in nightmares, but even to him something bad happened.''" Chronos was surprised when Chaos suddenly uttered these words. "What could have happened?" Chronos asked, and Chaos, hearing this, said, "He contracted a disease that I refused to cure, after I gave him a warning that this might happen one day, he didn''t care, and although he was not a god, killing so many gods had poisoned his body with magic." Chronos was surprised and wanted to know more. "That''s all I can tell you Chronos, forgive me, but this is a promise, a promise I made to him, I can''t break this promise because I owe him." Chaos suddenly said, Chronos seemed to be left in the middle of the road. Still, old Chronos knew that he could not go against his creator''s word, he was just afraid of the shock, excitement and confusion that James would experience when he learnt of such things. "I will protect James whether it is because of him or not, and if you made a promise to his ancestor, then I must protect his bloodline." Chronos suddenly said, and with that, he opened a portal behind him, bowed to Chaos, and walked through the portal back into the hall of Olympus. As soon as he entered, the eyes of those around turned to Chronos, even if the old man was trying to avoid the eyes, he could not succeed. "Where have you been, Chronos?" Nyx suddenly asked, and for the first time, Chronos seriously rebuffed Nyx: "It''s something you don''t need to know, Nyx, believe me, not this time," Chronos said, and with that, he left the hall and started heading towards his place. What he left behind were dozens of bewildered gods and goddesses. James woke up during this process. There was no one in the room he woke up in, it didn''t take him long to realise that he was in his room. When he tried to move his body, he felt a strange body pain and realised that the pain was hitting him just as much. "Agk..." After a small groan, he realised that he shouldn''t move and let himself go, then he thought of his aunt, so he thought calmly: "Aunty, are you there?" As James was thinking these thoughts, the ring on his finger suddenly glowed, the spirit of his aunt materialised and sat down on the armchair next to the bed as if she was alive. "We can talk now, James," Emily suddenly said, and James, hearing this, said in his mind, "Someone might come in the room, they''ll see you," he didn''t want to tell Nyx and the others, who were probably watching him, what was going on. "Don''t worry, only you can see and hear me. Now to the point, do you remember what your mum said to you the day she died?" Emily said suddenly and James paused for a few seconds as he heard Emily''s words, he could feel a deep ache in his head after those words. "James...live a good life, my son..." James suddenly felt a throbbing pain in his mind and realised that a memory had formed in his mind. He seemed to hear the words his mum had said to him when they had been in the car accident. "Do you remember, James? Do you hear my sister?" Emily said and James, hearing these words, looked at her and said: "What are you trying to say, I don''t understand?" James replied. Emily looked at James when she heard these words and then started to speak: "A lost warrior, a warrior who worshipped Nyx, the supreme goddess, but who saw that after long battles the fights of that time would not be extinguished, a warrior who fell ill, a warrior who begged Chaos to create a prophecy and made his own soul wait millions of years." "A worshipper of Nyx?" James thought, his mind wandering to what Emily had said in that short sentence. "A warrior who founded the Church of the Night, the one who created the Sun Empire, a supreme being blessed by Chaos himself, who can kill gods and destroy their souls with just his gaze. A bloodline forgotten by Chaos until its time, the highest human bloodline that has ever existed." James was shocked frozen where he was for a few seconds and asked, "So you''re telling me I''m someone from the tower, that my ancestor is the same one who founded the Church of the Night, that he''s Nyx''s greatest follower, and that he planned everything with Chaos?" There were dozens of questions in his mind. "No, our ancestor was someone from the tower, we were born outside, but yes to all other questions," said Emily. "But does that mean my fate is sealed? What about Chronos then? Does he know something? Is the fate and the line of time he tells about some kind of nonsense? Was everything written? Was I playing?" Emily smiled and said, "No James, the prophecy was only meant to protect you until you entered the tower, to be honest, the prophecy was there to protect the one will be enough for the tower and killing gods which in this scenario it is you. Your parents are dead aren''t they, don''t you remember? You don''t recognise any relatives or anything, don''t you find that strange? Your mum must have shown me to you, do you remember your dad''s face, do you have your memories?" When James heard the last thing Emily said, he took a few steps back to his memories and tried to remember his father''s face. "Leon Black...He does not exist does he?" he suddenly asked. The questions in his mind were increasing. Chapter 111: Truth Behind The Black Familys Bloodline (2) "Yes, he never existed. James, you were always in control of your life, with only minor tweaks to keep you from dying, to get into the tower and start the prophecy, to finish what your ancestor started. Why are you here? Why did I want to talk to you just before you faced a Fallen God? Why did I wait for this exact moment, the one moment when no one could watch you... Didn''t you ever think about that?" Emily suddenly said. After these words, James stood where he was took a deep breath and said, "To finish the work my ancestor started...But it was Erebus, Nyx and the others who created the Fallen Gods, or rather made them fall..." Hearing these words, the smile on Emily''s face grew even bigger and James, who saw this smile, said, "But even before the war they fought, our ancestor had already slaughtered the gods even before the church was founded..." He seemed to be trying to understand a few things. "So you''re saying Chaos made everyone forget all this? But why?" James suddenly said, and just then he was stopped by Emily. "Look, James, your ancestor...or rather our ancestor has a strange, deep and kind of bad and good past. His name was Desmond. Desmond Black. When the tower was created, several beings were put inside the tower, with hidden blood, and hidden races. Like elves, dwarves, demons and more...Humans have always been considered the inferior race, weaker than all of them, more fragile than all of them." Emily said. "But all that changed when Desmond was born. He had a perfect life, maybe he wasn''t born into a family with such a good financial situation or great power, but he was happy. However, a god saw this happiness as too much for them and slaughtered his family, leaving him alone. Desmond had to climb the tower and become a god, he had to destroy those who had caused him and many others pain." Emily added. "So that''s how our blood was born?" James suddenly asked. "Yes, it was, but there was a different and sequential sequence of events. Desmond stopped just before he got to the 75th floor, just as he had cleared the 74th floor. [If I''m going to become a god to slaughter gods, it''s no use giving up my humanity!] he said to himself, which resulted in him never achieving divinity." "But he couldn''t give up, he wanted revenge, he wanted humanity to be above all races, for even the gods to be unable to do what they wanted." "Desmond had caught the attention of Chaos after dozens of battles and the banishment of several high-ranking gods to the upper levels." "Chaos asked him what his purpose was, but Desmond chose to spit on him Chaos liked our ancestor so much that he blessed him. That day Desmond gained a great power, the power to get as close to the creator as possible. He met Nyx, and they became close friends, he saw Erebus as his brother, and he saw the goodness of Nyx''s heart as a lady he could worship. For the first time, he found holy beings that were not bad." "Nyx and Erebus knew our ancestor?" asked James, sounding quite surprised. "Of course. With the blessing from Chaos, Desmond was able to add even more to his incredible potential. He created a church that would only accept humans and named it "The Church of Night" in honour of his beloved brothers and sisters, Nyx and Erebus, a church that could worship them. He had developed the humans so much that every level of society and unity from the 5th to the 75th floor had been conquered by them." "So many gods were killed James, like you wouldn''t believe, even I don''t know exactly what happened, but in this connection, a rule was made that no gods and goddesses could come down from the 75th floor except for the ones Desmond allowed, Nyx, Erebus and a few others. Sun Wukong, Lucifer, Nyx, Erebus, Ra, Chronos and many others accepted and signed this agreement. They could not go down from the 75th floor except in very abnormal situations." Emily was silent for a few seconds. "So...the battlegrounds of the gods have been fixed as only the 75th floor and above," said James, there was no way for him to express his surprise. "Exactly. But there was a side effect to all this James, Desmond got sick, and the many gods he fought and killed were on his neck, fully magic, mana and black spells had a side effect on him, he had killed so many gods, and so many had escaped him but were slaughtered that his body changed. He was dying." Emily said and then continued to speak: "When he realised that he was dying, he left everything to his student and went to Chaos, who was the only remedy, at first he wished to be cured, but Chaos refused because the creator himself had warned him beforehand that something would happen to him if he slaughtered the gods in his human form, and he wouldn''t get healed unless he wanted to become a god." "It was then that a deal was struck. Desmond offered Chaos to create a universe, an infinite number of galaxies and a solar system, a world where he could live and make a life. That''s how our blood was dispersed, that the Black family would not be allowed back into the tower until a certain time until someone with enough potential came along. A potential bigger than Desmond" "That someone...." James said, his eyes flickering. "It''s you, James. You''re the one Desmond told Chaos to protect until the time was right. You were chosen, James, chosen to put an end to it all, to end the tyranny of the gods that is still going on even tho they can not go down." "Even though I know everything, I don''t understand. You say our blood is strong, but why not my mum? Why not you, my aunt? Why me and not any of our ancestors?" James asked, genuinely stressed by what he was hearing. He was sick of hearing that he had been chosen, he wanted to think that he had achieved something. "Who knows, neither I nor any of our ancestors were called to the tower, but the tower appeared in your time, it called you, Chaos thought you were suitable." Emily answered and James, who heard this, closed his eyes and asked, "So he is already waiting for me?" "Yes James, you must not make the mistake our ancestor made. There are not only a few gods in the billions of universes in the 24 main realities outside the tower, but as Desmond wished, we could not return to the tower until enough potential was found, and you were here. That means you can destroy the awful gods and goddesses inside and outside the tower," Emily replied. That alone was enough to put an enormous burden on James. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 112: Getting Ready For the Next Floor James paused after all he had learnt, he had no idea what he was supposed to say, but something seemed to have suddenly occurred to him. "If Chronos doesn''t know, if Chaos destroyed everything, does that mean no one, including Nyx and Erebus, knows what happened?" James asked suddenly, knowing the answer but wanting to ask it anyway. "Exactly. No one heard the Fallen God''s conversation with you because their vision was blocked. Next time everyone will know, unless you want to tell them now," Emily said, and it seemed to have strangely sunk into James'' mind. James didn''t want to tell Nyx or anyone else about all the things he had learnt, he was distraught that everyone''s view of him would change after they found out. After all, Desmond was feared, maybe Nyx and Erebus would be angry with him, but they wouldn''t change their view of James, but it would be hard to say that about the other gods. He couldn''t fully understand what had happened or what would happen in the future, he couldn''t even think about it, but he knew one thing, if his ancestor had left him a job and it was for the benefit of humanity and those he cared about, he had to finish it. "It''s quite strange though, aunty. A tower appears in our world for me to enter, but others manage to get in before me, I hope I can meet them." James said suddenly, smiling. "Ummm...isn''t one of them already in the guild you founded?" Emily suddenly asked and James, hearing this, asked "Ariel?" with his eyes wide open, he seemed to have asked this question to himself. "I mean, your energies are similar, that''s what happens when you''re from the same world, didn''t you know?" While hearing this, Emily said, and James silenced her by saying, "Auntie, it''s been half a year since I entered the tower. I guess I will ask this after clearing some floors." Emily seemed surprised when she heard these words, shook her head left and right a few times and then asked, "You managed to kill a Fallen God in half a year?" "Not one, but two," James said when he heard this question and saw Emily come up to him and look at him. "James...Do you know how old our ancestor was the first time he killed a Fallen God?" she asked. When James sneered as if he didn''t know, Emily patted his head and then said, "He was 58 years old. It took you half a year to kill two..." When James heard these words, he said, "More than twice my age...But I wasn''t alone, remember Miracle?", these words seemed to tell how much James''s potential was enough. "Unbelievable, it still is unbelievable," Emily said, she really couldn''t understand what was going on, it was one of those stories that had progressed steadily from family stories and had progressed to their generation, what Emily had said, Desmond had killed the first god at the age of 58. "Didn''t you know how old I was?" James suddenly asked and Emily, hearing this, laughed and said "I knew, I just didn''t know that you had already killed two of them..." and fell silent. However, the conversation seemed to have come to an end, the sounds of shouting coming from the corridor were clear to James'' ears, and even Emily sat back in her seat at such strange noises. The voices grew closer and closer and then the door to the room suddenly opened. "James!" Nemesis suddenly called out, her expression relieved. Ariel was holding Miracle in her arms and trying to keep Miracle from pulling her hair. "I''m fine Neme, it''s just my body''s a mess," James suddenly said and Nemesis sat on the edge of the bed and patted James on the cheek. "That''s good to know, can you get up? Should I get you something to eat?" Nemesis asked and James said, "If you know of any way to relieve the pain in my body, please do that, I don''t need anything else." Nemesis thought for a few seconds and then said, "I can ask my mum, we can move freely now, we had to force her not to come here, I can tell she''s still trying to come." James laughed deeply and then said, "If Lady Nyx knows anything, it might be good, I need to keep climbing now." With that James shifted his gaze in the direction of his aunt and smiled, Nemesis was trying to figure out what was going on when Emily''s voice was heard by James: "You found a good girl." At those words, James had to hold himself back from laughing, but he eventually let out a loud laugh: "Puhahaha!" At this laughter, the people in the room were surprised, James even realised that his eyes were teary from laughing. "What''s wrong?" Nemesis suddenly asked, and hearing this, James said, "Nothing, I was just thinking about what a beautiful family I have, so different from my life before I entered the tower. Nemesis, whom I admire, is my wife, the Chaos-Borns are my family, and Ariel, who is as dear to me as my mother, is now carrying my daughter in her arms. You have no idea how happy I am." Every single person who heard these words was deeply touched. None of them had expected to hear such sweet words from someone who had killed a Fallen God on his own just a few days ago. However, the day was coming to an end, James was tired and needed to recover quickly, and when he opened his eyes again he should be ready to climb the tower. Perhaps the dangers of the floors he would climb in the future would not be so challenging now that he was stronger, perhaps the tower would make the floors more difficult, the opposite of what he thought. He was not at a level to know the future, after all. Still, whatever was going to happen was going to happen, and James wanted to be ready for any of it. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It had been a long time since he had used his Gacha and climbing another floor meant killing more monsters, it was hard not to get excited. There was only 65 floors to the 75th floor. Chapter 113: 11th Floor James was in his room, it had been almost an hour since he had said goodbye to Nemesis, and after talking to Ariel it was time to move to the next floor. No matter how many times he had tried to give Miracle to her mother, Nemesis, the little girl had chosen to stay with her father, and there was little chance of whatever was inside 11th floor harming her unless they attacked her directly. This meant that Miracle, with an average status score of 100, was as strong as her father. Still, James had also gone through a huge power increase. [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 50 Class: Warrior of the Night Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++) [Statuses] Power: 75- Far, far above the average human. Agility: 178- Above the human race. Endurance: 150- Above the human race. Luck: 26- Far above the average human. Magic: 620- Far, far below the average holy. Holiness: 30,000- Vastly below the average holy man. Intelligence: 159- Above the human race. Charisma: 12- Above the average human. Status Points: 0] After he had distributed the 125 status points he had gained after certain achievements and other things to his main statuses of Strength, Agility and Endurance, he could clearly see that his body had become insanely strong. With that, he was now ready to go to the next floor. On the 11th floor, he managed to get a little information about what it was like, it was said that the tower gave everyone the same test on this floor. You are thrown into a valley and try to make it to the finish line while killing the monsters in the valley. If you think you can''t make it, you can even return to the 10th floor. This meant that this was one of the few places where the tower, which could be considered dishonourable, was kind to the creatures inside. There was only one difference, and that was that the contents of the valley changed according to the difficulty level chosen. According to what Nyx told him, the information he received from Chaos was as follows: [The easy level valley was white, the normal level was red, the hard level was black, and the Hell difficulty was green]. That''s how the difficulties were determined, at least according to what he was told. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After all this, James straightened his Adamant armour, put the ring on his finger in a proper shape, tidied up his inventory, took Miracle in his arms and said, "Emma, I want to go to the next floor." After these words, James passed through the portal that opened right in front of him and came to a completely different place. He realised that he was in a different place than he thought. "Ummm...Dear Mother Nyx...Are we sure that is not a Canyon?" James asked the valleys he knew were much different. [The valley is the beginning of the floor test, each step puts pressure on the body and when you enter the canyon, you encounter monsters and then the test continues in that area, you are in the valley now, that''s where you need to go.] James suddenly saw the window that had formed in front of him and read it, then he shook his head and said "Makes sense." and put Miracle down. "Be careful Miracle, if you feel bad go back to your dragon form, remember what your mum said, you''re much stronger in that form." James suddenly said, Miracle nodded and the pair started to move forward. James realised that everything was indeed as Nyx had said. Maybe it was because his stamina had increased, but he realised that he felt good despite the pressure and weight on him after each step he took. Still, even with a distance of almost 300 metres, he could hear the growling coming from inside the canyon, and the fact that he was trying to walk while hearing disgusting sounds was the hardest thing. "Zombies?" James said suddenly and suddenly two system windows appeared in front of him: [Yes, I remember how much this floor disgusted me.] [They''re pretty disgusting aren''t they, not like normal zombies.] James suddenly appeared out of nowhere and saw that one of the windows was coming from Nyx and the other from Nemesis, he smiled and said, "You used to be one, what happened, did you two fight?" He meant it as a joke, what Nemesis was doing was going through the 75th floor, she was just watching James in the meantime, and since the 75th floor required different materials from everyone, Nemesis wished to make progress in this regard. After all, she hadn''t tried to cross that floor in almost a hundred years. With that, James and Miracle in hot pursuit reached the entrance to the canyon. James had a clear view of the zombies inside, and could instantly see why Nemesis and Nyx had called them abominations. Most of the zombies were walking around normally, but dozens of zombies were digging into the canyon walls with their hands. It looked like they were trying to climb the canyon walls. The sounds of fingernails and hands hitting the walls had already made James'' stomach turn, and if it wasn''t for the stamina the Mind Palace had given him, he would have thrown up somewhere. [The zombies on the wall will never attack you, but watch out for the ones on the road, they will attack you.] James nodded as he read another message from Nyx, indicating that he understood. He started to move forward with slow steps and carefully tried to take his steps as accurately as possible. He could see the zombies clearly, even some of the ones on the road seemed to move away when they saw him. "Oh yeah...the Undead were afraid of me..." James suddenly said, and everyone, including Nyx and the others, seemed to have forgotten that. Even though they were still early in the level, James was quite comfortable that he had an advantage in this regard, even if they were to fight them, they still wouldn''t be that hard to defeat. It looked like they were going to get through this floor quite quickly. Chapter 114: Arcana (1) James and his daughter Miracle who follows him had indeed travelled through the canyon as fast as expected, or rather, they had made it almost to the end of the canyon. According to Nyx, they would have to fight a boss monster at the very end of the canyon. It was going to be a good workout for James, after all, it wasn''t his goal to get through the floors fast, he wanted to get as strong as he could and progress until the floors were literally watered down. He had already accumulated quite a lot of material for his gacha ability. What he meant by this was that there were almost 300 zombies following him slowly and stealthily. Hundreds of zombies had fled from James because of the title of terrorising undead he had won, but none of them were afraid of Miracle, which meant that Miracle seemed to have become a decoy for James. Of course, it was a bit strange and rude that he seemed to be using his daughter as bait, but there was no need to worry about Miracle, after all, with or without James, this little girl could at least climb up to the 30th or even 40th floors, thanks to the durability of her skin alone. However, James realised they were finally making their way towards the canyon''s end. The wall around them was now practically flat and smooth, and the stones on the ground began to take on strange shapes. "Are those runes?" James suddenly asked. ["Exactly, after the tenth floor you are introduced to new styles of magic and aura. Like adding an element or style to your aura, runes are one of the branches of magic. Since your aura already has the weighted flame attribute, the tower is trying to show you the rune style, you''ll have to kill the boss monster to find out]. James realised again how interesting the tower could be when he read what was written in the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him. "Alright then...Where''s the monster?" James suddenly asked as he took a few more steps and suddenly saw the runes around him begin to glow and a bluish, electric-like energy began to gather in the empty space in the centre of the runes. "What the hell is that?" James asked. [Arcana energy. The reason the floor is crawling with zombies. Known as the energy of death, decay, or life and flourishing. It can go both ways, either killing you or turning you into a perfect being. Just like the zombies outside and the boss monster in front of you]. After reading this message window, James shook his head and then said, "So you need to have this energy to use the runes, it''s partly a modified form of magic." The being before him had a heart of stone, just like the golems, and the energy around it seemed so detailed and functional that James could not help admiring the sight. He felt as if he was now seeing something on par with the beauty of the scenery on Mount Olympus. It was as if the thing before him had been created out of nothing as if the arcane energy from the runes had created it. The energy travelled so turbulently towards the stone that it was as if the arcana energy itself was painting a portrait. After a few minutes of waiting, the formation of the boss monster seemed almost complete. James wanted to wait because he wanted to fight the monster with all his might. After removing Clarent from his inventory, he turned to Miracle and then said, "Hide behind that rock over there and watch me fight." The little girl nodded and ran behind the rock. As soon as James saw Miracle hiding, he rushed towards the zombies behind him and started mowing them down one by one. Even though some zombies needed to be mowed down more than once, the fact that he spent a maximum of two seconds on each one seemed to indicate that the 300 or so zombies would disappear quickly. As he did so, he was aware of the electric energy coming from behind him. Every time there was a surge of energy, he could hear the rhythm behind him. It was a very strange feeling, on the one hand, he was killing the zombies one by one, and on the other hand, he was waiting for the form of the boss monster behind him to be completed. It had only taken him five minutes to kill each of the zombies, and it looked like he was trying to give Miracle a lesson in attacking by staying as fit as possible. When James had completed all this, he turned around and realised that the boss monster was staring at him. The arcana energy around the stone had managed to revitalise the boss monster. It had a pair of eyes and a humanoid body, but the lack of any extra features made it look like a slightly different creature. James didn''t know exactly what the arcana energy could do, so he stood still. Even with help, he had killed two Fallen Gods, he was not going to be defeated against such a monster. Still, there was no harm in being in a determined and serious stance. He made himself as relaxed but determined as possible and then waited. He was breathing deeply and trying to wait for the first attack to come. Even if Miracle had done well against the Fallen God, he still had a lot to learn, just like his father James. James'' goal was to teach his little girl how to counter attacks. Just as expected, the boss monster formed from the arcana in front of him suddenly attacked and a deep energy covered the entire area. Chains of arcana were placed on the walls of the canyon, and it seemed that the boss monster was trying to stabilise itself. In the aftermath, a huge wave of magic formed in the boss monster''s chest and fired like a beam towards James. James instantly dodged the beam and then pulled out Selene''s Throwing Knife and threw it at the beam''s centre. "SHATTER!" sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 115: Arcana (2) A sudden shattering sound echoed through the area and the beam suddenly dissipated. James had somehow managed to disperse the gathered arcana energy. This meant that the arcana energy could be shattered, which meant that the heart of the boss monster, the stone around which the arcana energy was gathered, could be destroyed. James thought he had already found a way to kill the boss monster when he exhaled deeply, and then he was surrounded by his aura, although he could see that his aura was unstable. It was as if the arcana energy that was spread around with the chains was suppressing James'' aura, the fact that a mid-level completed aura could be suppressed so easily seemed to explain why mages were more revered in the tower. It was a strange phenomenon indeed, but James realised at that moment that he had to fight magic with magic. If the aura wasn''t working, he could send the fire element directly into the arcana energy. He took a deep breath and then began to heat his sword. Clarent began to glow bright red as James waited for the boss monster to attack. Suddenly the boss monster raised its arms and refocused a huge amount of energy on James as dozens of thin beams of energy began to shoot towards him. James took a few steps backwards just as these attacks were happening, and then swung Clarent as hard as he could, releasing the flame elemental he had gathered on him. The energy from the sword took the shape of a quarter moon and travelled towards the boss monster in front of him, and then cut through the arcana energy and cut straight into the heart of the boss monster, the shiny stone. Suddenly, a wonderful energy appeared, and then each of the chains of arcana hanging on the wall began to fall. After a short time, the arcane energy around the stone began to flicker and James, thinking he recognised the image from somewhere, ran towards Miracle. When he took shelter behind the stone, he held Miracle tightly and waited. "BOOOM!!!" A huge explosion travelled through the canyon, not a hot explosion, but one loud enough to hurt the ears and even deafen for a few seconds. When he looked out after a few seconds, he saw that the boss monster was completely gone and realised that every single rune in the area was in decent shape. "That...wasn''t that hard," James said suddenly, it was indeed much less difficult than he had expected. After looking around, he let go of Miracle and then stretched his whole body. He could see the admiring eyes on the little girl''s face. "What happened?" he asked, only to be met with nothing more than Miracle hugging his leg. James smiled, patted the little girl on the head and then said the following words to get to the main event here: "So, Lady Nyx, how do I use the arcana energy?" There was no answer for a few seconds after he had asked that question, after the long wait he looked around and read the message window that had suddenly appeared: [Sit in the centre of the runes, where the boss monster was born, spread your magical energy around and wait for the runes to accept you. You need to put Miracle aside again, if you are disturbed it will only take a few minutes for you to turn into the zombies outside. You must enter a perfect energy trance]. After reading the message James turned to Miracle and asked, "Can you wait for me a little longer Miracle?" Miracle stepped aside as soon as she heard the question and James was left alone. Sitting down in the centre of the runes, James took a deep breath, closed his eyes and got into a cross-legged position and then activated all the magic circles around his heart, releasing all the magical energy he could use outwards. One by one, each of the runes on the stones on the ground around him began to glow, even if he couldn''t see them. The runes that had glowed with an azure light when the boss monster was born now glowed with colour. Each stone glowed in a different colour. It was just like 8 sacred fires. Miracle was very interested in the sight she saw, she began to approach the runes, albeit involuntarily. Miracle, who had suddenly entered the area, approached James. Seeing what happened, Olympos and those inside thought that James was doomed, but that was not what happened. The arcana energy from the rune had increased tremendously, and all the energy began to enter James'' body. The energy was so great that the vibrations from the energy lifted James about a metre into the air. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Miracle was feeding James'' energy in a gigantic way, even though no one noticed. "Of course!" said Nyx suddenly, she seemed to have forgotten like everyone else, she didn''t think she could be so silly. "What''s wrong, Mum?" Apate suddenly asked, and Nyx, hearing this, said, "Miracle is a Supreme Dragon, the magic itself, remember? Someone who can feed Arcana energy.''," James had indeed gained a great advantage. Miracle''s energy fed the runes around him so much that the rune stones rose from the ground, each stone circling James in a circle. The energy of each of them continued to charge James with a visible electrical charge. As James closed his eyes and began to unleash his magic, he had not expected such a large return of magical energy, the arcana energy was so great that he could feel his magical status begin to improve. Still, the pain in his heart, or rather the strange sensation coming from the vibration, was dragging him in a bad direction, not knowing how long it would last. This feeling seemed to be giving him shortness of breath, and the arcana energy entering his body every second was making him even more strange. He had no idea where this would end up. Chapter 116: Arcana (3) He couldn''t quite understand what was causing the pain in his body, or rather the pain around his heart. The fact that another magic circle was not forming around his heart seemed to indicate that the energy of this arcana was working differently. On the contrary, the circle was not forming and the three circles around his heart were becoming of better quality. It was as if the circles were becoming smoother, and thinner, but containing a greater amount of magical energy. James didn''t know what to say about the perfection of the sight, he could almost feel and indeed see, with his eyes closed, the circles around his own heart getting thinner and thinner. It was as if he had somehow managed to shrink down and enter his own body and was watching his heart, strange but marvellous. However, he noticed that the arcana energy around him was beginning to diminish slightly, of course, there was still a huge amount of arcana energy entering his body, but there didn''t seem to be much left to energise it. After a short time, he realised that his body was once again connected to the ground, which meant that he could now cut off the mana, or magical energy. When the energy was disconnected, he opened his eyes and began to breathe deeply. He took out at least ten bottles of water from his inventory and drank each of them one after the other, most of the fluids in his body seemed to be officially gone, such a great fatigue had descended on him that there was no explanation for it. [Beginner Arcana Energy (Normal) gained.] James smiled as he read the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, happy that he had succeeded. Then his eyes fell on Miracle, who was right next to him. "You''re really doing great, little lady," James said and lay down on the floor, he was really tired. Still, he wanted to move on to the next floor, so he closed his eyes and focussed on his own body to feel the energy he had gained just before. The magical energy was provided by the circles around the heart, the aura was imprinted and manifested in the veins themselves, and the arcana energy resided in the mind. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James was actually aware that his brain and surroundings were surrounded by an enormous amount of energy, I think the arcana energy that had been gathered in his chest had settled in his skull as soon as it was disconnected from the magic. Despite this, James could feel the slight connection between them. Arcana energy was, after all, a sub-grade, or rather another branch, of magical energy, the mana around the heart in the body. This meant that even if he cut the bond, it would continue to exist in an incredibly small way. With that, James clicked on the ability he had gained and began to read what was written in the description: [Beginner Level Arcana Energy (Normal) The user gains the ability to use rune arts. The casting time of rune arts is accelerated by 5%. Rune arts functioning time increases by 5%]. James paused for a few seconds, looking confused as he read the ability''s specs, and then asked, "Lady Nyx, aren''t the lowest level abilities supposed to only run in-ability functions?" [Exactly, I don''t quite understand what you''re trying to say.] "Why does a beginner-level ability strengthen the ability?" he suddenly asked and was surprised by the message he saw: [It''s because the arcana energy entering your body is higher thanks to Miracle. You felt pain in your body, didn''t you? That''s because the arcana energy you gained increased, in short, you gained a beginner-level ability at the lowest level, the so-called ''Broken Level''. Remember, when it comes to magic, when the elements are not in play, you can only know the basics of what we call ''Broken Level'']. James sat up and scratched his head, happy to have learnt something else that might help him, but even more confused about something else. "My lady...how do I use the rune arts exactly?" James suddenly asked. [For that, you need to enter one of the magic shops on the 20th floor. If you''re lucky you''ll need to buy a runic arts book, not all of the ones in Olympus are at a level you can use, sorry.] James shook his head after these words and grumbled, "The Tower is making fun of me again, giving me a power I can''t even use yet. Very funny." However, there was nothing else he could do on the 11th floor, he embraced Miracle stood up and said, "Emma, next floor please." The usual white passageway opened up in front of him again and James stepped into it, looking around. They were in a strange place, it looked like a maze. Turning to Miracle, James said, "Never leave my side, do you understand?" he paused for a few seconds as he saw the little girl nod and then said, "Even change into your dragon form and sit in my hair, I need to keep you safe." Miracle paused as she heard those words and then her eyes lit up, the little girl was overjoyed as she transformed into her dragon form as small as a kitten and sat on James'' head. James began to move forward slowly, making sure to check the surroundings carefully every second. He knew very clearly that he was in a dark place, it seemed as if they were under some kind of spell. Or rather, it was as if the spell was trying to get into his head, Mind Palace saving him as usual. Nevertheless, James knew very clearly where this magical energy was coming from. Slowly and as carefully as he could, he began to make his way towards where the energy was coming from. He could hear some ugly noises in the distance as if something was screaming. He didn''t know exactly what they were, but he could hear words like ''Kiek'' in between the screams, and he suspected they were goblins. He wanted to find out what was going on as if that was the floor''s mission. Chapter 117: Chimera Creator (1) James had managed to get to the source of the noise, stood calmly by the door of the room from which it had come, and peered into the room a little. He could hardly keep himself from vomiting at what he saw. He was so sick to his stomach that he even wanted to close Miracle''s eyes, but he saw that the little girl was watching what was happening with a strange expression on her face. James seemed to have forgotten that Miracle looked like both him and her mother, of course, she would have the personality of her mother Nemesis. A man with a strange puckered skin and a strange face seemed to be performing live surgery on the goblin lying on the table in front of him, James'' stomach seemed to get worse and worse every time he looked at what was happening. [Watch out, he''s a pretty tough opponent for your current strength, the tower may have treated everyone equally on the previous floor but this floor will be extra tough for you]. James suddenly read what was written in the window sent by Nemesis, nodded and stepped into the room. As soon as he entered the room he stepped on fresh blood on the floor, many human bodies, goblin bodies, druid bodies and even demon and angel bodies were lying around. Many merged bodies were hanging on the wall, it was only when James entered the room and got a better look inside that he realised who the man before him was. "The Chimera Creator," James muttered, his expression suddenly falling. He could have been one of the people who had formed the High Chimera that had fought Leno. Perhaps he belonged to the same profession as them. James, who had suddenly taken Clarent out of his inventory, cautiously and as quietly as possible approached the man in front of him, he noticed him but did not react, he was too relaxed. James didn''t realise what was happening, he suddenly began to burn his surroundings with his aura and Miracle, who had noticed this, probably used his ability and his whole body began to burn with a black flame. James suddenly realised the enormous danger approaching him and jumped quite high. Several chains passed by him at an incredible speed, James suddenly activated his time element and was able to accelerate for a second, using this ability both to attack and to understand what was happening. He realised that the things around him were not chains but long arms. James suddenly began to radiate all of his aura into the room, he hadn''t expected to find a room like this in this labyrinthine place and encounter such a disgusting sight. James quickly charged towards the Chimera Creator and began to unleash attack after attack. Each of his attacks bounced off the disgusting-looking man in front of him and he literally couldn''t even attack him. "What''s going on?" he thought, as he struggled with his life, different things were happening in Olympus. ----- "Has the Tower lost its mind? Using a Chimera Creator as a boss monster, even though he cleared the Hell Tutorial, even though he was able to clear some pretty powerful enemies and get stronger? Is there any way for James to defeat him?" Zeus screamed, looking genuinely surprised and a little worried. "There''s nothing to do, there''s no way he can defeat him right now. Maybe he can use the Miracle and destroy the Chimera Creator''s defences, but he doesn''t have enough knowledge to do that," Thanatos replied. "Then it is we who must help him, he must use the element of darkness on the Miracle right now, if he succeeds he can reduce the Chimera Creator''s defences to zero. Do any of you know how to use the element of the Supreme Dragons?" Nyx suddenly asked and the room fell silent. After only a few seconds, a god appeared from the crowd, speaking with a few steps: "Lady Nyx, my name is Tiamat, one of the gods of Mesopotamia. I have known a Supreme Dragon in the past, he was quite old and I learnt how to use fire from him. I don''t know if it would work on a young dragon, but the only technique I know of is to have James charge the elemental in his body into Mistress Miracle and an elemental reaction can be performed." Tiamat suddenly appeared, she was one of the gods who had already attended the feast, she had received an invitation because she was a close friend of Ares of Olympus, it could be said that she was one of the limited friends of Olympus. "If this works, my dear Tiamat, whatever you wish, I''ll owe you, I promise to give it to you," Nyx said suddenly, and with that, she opened the message window and began to speak: ----- [James, you must charge Miracle with the darkness in your body, the dark energy you took from me, and awaken the elemental in his body. One of the Chimera Creator''s few weaknesses. The energies and elements of Ice, Fire, Darkness and Life. Neither you nor Miracle''s fire element is strong enough, so you''ll have to use darkness]. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. While James was dodging the attacks coming at him from around him, he read the messages Nyx had sent. Her eyes suddenly widened as if he understood and he stepped backwards, holding the Miracle on his head. "Now it''s your time my dear girl, I want you to spread all the energy I''m sending you, do you understand?" James asked, and as Miracle nodded, all the aura around her faded and the room began to turn into a dark, star-filled night. The room that had been a disgusting sight a few seconds ago was now as beautiful as night. "You can''t defeat me so easily, youngsters, I come from an ancient lineage." the disgusting-looking man said, and magic shields began to form around him. It was a very strange and disgusting sight, several shields made of literally rotten skin formed around the man. It absorbed the darkness and the rotten skin became even more hideous. "A Supreme Dragon? Puhahaha! The perfect subject for my experiments!" the disgusting-looking man said, looking like he was about to start attacking. It looked like the life-and-death battle was about to begin. Chapter 118: Chimera Creator (2) James was incredibly angry at the words of the disgusting-looking man in front of him, though the fact that the technique Nyx had told him was working made it all the better. The only thing on his mind was to kill the bastard in front of him. He didn''t have the power to do that, of course. After all, the chimera creator wasn''t such a loser creature. A chimera creator was not counted as a normal monster, one of these monsters could destroy an entire army with just their creations. Their defence was excellent. They had such a strong defence that even James himself would not have been able to kill it with normal attacks. He knew very well that his aura was useless, he should have done as Nyx had said. And that meant James needed to destroy Chimera Creator''s defence with the amazing darkness attribute. There was a way to defeat the other man, he had to use a class ability he hadn''t used in a while and find a way through the other man''s defences. ''Dark Step.'' he thought, suddenly dropping Miracle into a position where she could fly and using his time elemental to unleash an incredibly fast attack on the Chimera Creator''s shield. "SHING!" Clarent''s slashing sound suddenly echoed throughout the room, surprising the entire Olympus and even the Chimera Creator. One of the Chimera Creator''s shields had been sliced in half and crumbled to dust on the floor. The ability James had used, Dark Step, may have been the most powerful ability Nyx had ever given him. Of course, there was an ability that helped him steal status and strengthened him, such as exploitation, which he often forgot to use, but there was a feature that distinguished the dark step ability from such abilities: [Ignoring Everything]. This ability caused the attack to ignore all shields 60% of the time, something James didn''t know. That''s why the Chimera creator''s shield was cut. His shield had been ignored. As if happy to see what had happened, James reactivated his dark step ability and then launched another attack. This time his slash bounced off the shield, perhaps doing a little damage, but the shield was neither cut nor pulverised. He had to use his magic to the limit. After jumping on the chimera creator again, he activated his dark step ability and attacked the disgusting-looking old man, the chimera creator. "60% chance." James thought he could ignore the shields in front of him with a 60% chance, Nyx knew what a powerful ability she had given him, but the only reason this ability could be so powerful was that James was now becoming adept at using the ability and his own power. After all, he didn''t know what the ability, or rather the 60% probability, meant, at least until now. In short, if the other person''s stamina was high, even if he activated this 60% probability every time, he might not be able to kill the person he attacked. This meant that for someone like the Chimera Creator, who had run out of life energy, he was using a lethal ability. James took a few steps back after this attack and looked at the still dumbfounded Chimera Creator''s face, the man''s expression seemed to say it all, as if his defence had never been breached before. It was at that moment that he felt a renewed sense of energy that caused James to pull out Selene''s Throwing Knife and suddenly hurl it towards the dark area to his left. "Skriiiiii!!!" A sudden scream echoed through the room, and a body fell to the ground in the dark space, reaching for the light. A chimera even uglier than James Chimera Creator seemed to have fallen to the ground. Something that was a combination of a goblin and an ivy-like monster had fallen to the ground. The monster''s hands were so long, the monster was so disgusting that James almost vomited. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James realised at that moment that there were more chimera in this room than he thought. From the hands that attacked him and tried to hold him to the chimeras that made strange noises, many things were in the area. Still, James was sure that if the man in front of him died, it would all be over. After all, the other chimeras were easy pickings, but this man was a terrible creature. "MIRACLE NOW!" shouted James, and with that, an incredible darkness filled the room. All the light sources in the room disappeared, James'' eyes glowed brightly in the darkness, and Nyx''s night vision seemed to be working. James could see clearly into the entire room. He could see the Chimera Creator''s puzzled expression. The only reason the Chimera Creator was a danger to James at current levels was because his defences were impenetrable. The abomination''s defences were so gigantic that he could be considered a boss monster even without the chimeras he created, much less a high-level one. Still, there was nothing that some elemental reactions and massive magic power couldn''t crush. That''s where Miracle, a Supreme Dragon who was magic itself, came in. The purity and degree of the magic in Miracle''s body were so great that when her own dark element merged with a small part of James, it created the perfect darkness. This reduced the Chimera Creator''s defences to almost nothing. Of course, this didn''t mean that the battle was won, after all, as James knew, the hideous-looking man in front of him was many times stronger than him, and lowering his defence only gave him a small advantage. But while the hideous-looking man was dumbfounded he had a chance. Plunging everything into darkness might have weakened the Chimera Creator, but it had strengthened the corrupted chimeras. It was indeed a strange relationship of creator and creature, the weakness of one was the strength of the other. James was acutely aware of this, and so he began to do his best to pay attention to his surroundings, even if his main focus was on the Chimera Creator. Selene''s Throwing Knife returned to James'' hand and he threw it at another chimera he could see. He quickly parried the attacks coming at him and continued to close in on the Chimera Creator, who was moving away from him each time. The disgusting-looking old man was well aware that he was weak now. Just now, night had taken over the room instead of darkness, and so he was still able to use his defensive abilities to a higher level. Now, however, the situation was very different, for the young man he saw before him had literally darkened the entire room beyond the reach of light or even sound. There were only two sources of light in the room and those two sources were none other than James'' two eyes. It was such a frightening sight that James seemed to deserve his title of Terror Incarnate. Moving towards the Chimera Creator with each step, James suddenly used the time element again and then appeared in front of the hideous-looking old man. He lifted Clarent and cut him. In just a second, the Chimera Creator''s head fell to the ground. James smiled and stood still for a few seconds, thinking he had killed the Chimera Creator, just as another message notification from Nyx appeared in front of him: [YOU MUST BURN HIS BODY, NOW!] As James read all of this, he suddenly felt a massive shiver run through his body, the body of the Chimera Creator was literally on its feet, trying to walk towards James. James paused for a few seconds, not realising what was happening, and then he managed to make his magic even more layered, powerful and steady, sending several flame attacks from Clarent. The flame attacks hit the body of the chimera creator and the whole body was literally on fire. The body slowly started to come towards James but suddenly it fell, the body didn''t move or anything, all the shields rotted into dust and disappeared, just as the head and body were becoming now. James had a very strange expression when he saw what had happened. "What happened?" he asked, but the moment the message window appeared in front of him, he was stopped in his tracks by the energies rising around him. Without even trying to read the message window, he instantly closed it and started to run, holding Miracle, who was still trying to hold the spell steady by flying. The darkness in the room disappeared and James left the room with his daughter Miracle, whom he held gently but firmly in his hand. Immediately dozens of Chimera seemed to burst out of the room, James had a fed-up face at the sight, but he chose to walk away instead of talking. He could have killed every single Chimera, but the fact that more were coming out of the room every second meant that he needed an open space. He had to escape, even for a while. Chapter 119: Finishing the Job After a not very long time, James had managed to get quite far away from the chimera group following him and Miracle in his arms. Thanks to the size of the labyrinth, he was really able to dodge them to some extent. With the traps he had taken out of his inventory, he had set enough traps in an area of almost 400 metres to send him to prison in the real world. Chimeras were living beings, and so James'' title of scaring the undead was useless to them. Unlike their creators, darkness made them stronger, and it was in James'' favour that the maze was always light. On top of that, James had one of the chimeras'' two greatest weaknesses, ice and fire, which meant he had a huge advantage. "Listen to me carefully, Miracle. When the traps I''ve set are activated, I want you to breathe as much fire as you want, fill that corridor you see over there with flames." James suddenly said the help of a Supreme Dragon was not to be missed. James'' hand was full of advantages, but that didn''t mean everything would end. Just by the sight of them, it was easy for James to realise that hundreds of them would come against them. In short, an army of chimera, an army as powerful as the one that attacked Leno, was coming towards James and Miracle. Okay, that was a bit of an overstatement, after all, as James realised, the chimera that attacked and killed Leno was a High Chimera. According to the monster catalogue James found and read in the imperial library, High Chimeras were the masterpieces of Chimera Creators. In short, dozens of Chimera Creators would come together to create one of them. So it would be foolish to say that the army coming towards James was full of such beings, but that did not mean that they were not close to those beings. Maybe they weren''t High Chimera, a higher race, and maybe they could have been killed in a single blow with Selene''s Throwing Knife, but it should be known that there were many of them and the types of monsters were different. This meant that James had to fight against an army of hundreds of races combined at once. Again, this did not mean the end, the traps set, Miracle''s presence and James''s fire element. They could get out of this danger. James'' words seemed to enter the mind of his little girl Miracle as she stood in her dragon form and waited in a seated position on the ground. James seemed to have taken the right side and Miracle the left. They were either going to get out of here or they were going to die here. It was impossible for them to kill Miracle, but it would be quite easy for James to die. The young man James took a deep breath, he had no fear or anything. He was actually glad that he was going to get more gacha chances, he had managed to gain 3000 rights just from the zombies he had killed, and now all he had to do was cross this floor and wait in the white area for a while and he would use all his rights. ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' One after the other, the sound of the tumping echoed through the labyrinth and the voices were getting closer and closer. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Get ready, Miracle!" James said, and as he uttered those words, dozens of chimera began to emerge from the folds at the end of the corridors. Each of them saw James and Miracle behind him and suddenly started running. The sickening sound of their blood-filled feet hitting the ground was truly nauseating. James waited a few more seconds for them to arrive and then sent his magic back to Clarent. A flame spell the size of a huge quarter moon travelled at an incredible speed and then literally cut several chimeras in half and dropped them on the traps. "NOW!" James shouted and activated the traps on his side. Immediately after James shouted this, a huge amount of mana gathered behind him and a beam of light flared up and began travelling towards the chimeras on the left. James was acutely aware of the heat source rising behind him, his back was literally sweating. However, every one of the traps had worked. In the corridor to the right, flames were bursting into flames and the screams of mindless monsters trying to run over them could be heard: "HIIELP MEEE!!!" "SWAAVEE UUGHSSS!!!" "TUAKE OUR LUIFEEEEEEE!!!" "END IT OULLL!!!" "FINISHG THIS PAIN!!!!" The screams were so frightening and blood-curdling that James couldn''t help but pause. The souls inside the chimeras, or rather, each of the souls were screaming for help, James'' blood froze, and his whole body trembled. However, these spirits could be free now, James knew that killing them was the only favour he could do for them. James paused as the flames slowly began to die down. On Miracle''s side, it was already over, over three hundred chimera had been reduced to ashes as they came towards the little girl. On James'' side, there seemed to be nothing left, as the notification window that suddenly appeared in front of him showed him: [12th Floor Cleared! Congratulations on clearing the 12th floor, Mr Umbra! You have been awarded the floor reward of choosing an Unusual card! 150,000 Gold prize awarded]. When James read the notification he saw in front of him, he took a deep breath and then smiled and rejoiced that he had indeed succeeded. He had done an excellent job setting the trap and getting Miracle''s help. [Well done James, it was a beautiful sight.] James smiled as he watched Nyx''s message to him and then asked, "Emma, can you send me to the white space please?" When he noticed the gate opening in front of him, he picked Miracle up and then said to his little girl, "Good girl." and walked through the gate. After entering the passage, he sat down on the ground and began to breathe in and out continuously to relax his mind. The sounds of the Chimera seemed to affect him. Chapter 120: Gacha Time (1) James calmed himself for a few moments and then sat up straight and said "It was very realistic, I mean yes it was real, but it still gave me goosebumps, they still do." [There''s nothing to be done, you''ve faced many dangers since you entered the tower, but the chimeras enter another dimension of fear. The High Chimera that fought Leno had a huge intellectual capacity due to its high race, so fear is not something you think about, but these are a bit....creepy, even for me.] James chuckled as he read what was written in the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him. "No kidding? Mother of the night shudders at a few chimeras? Lady Nyx, stop joking." James said, and he said it so sarcastically that even Nyx herself couldn''t stop laughing. With these words, there was only one thing left to do. "10X Gacha." James suddenly said, and a huge panel opened in front of him. As soon as James saw the panel, he smiled widely and then said, "I miss you, my dear Gacha!" He saw that the panel now had not one but three parts, which meant that there were two extra gacha. James, who had immediately looked at the other parts of the panel, smiled and then said, "Huh...So that''s it." When he observed the three panels in front of him separately, he saw that the gacha panels named ''Magic Gacha'' and ''Clothing Gacha'' had returned. This was really good news. He had exactly 12000 rolls in his hand and both panels were asking for 1000 rolls per turn of ten. James thought that he should use 6000 rights to both panels, of course, he didn''t even need to use the simplest gacha ''Normal Gacha'', after all, two more valuable than him had returned again, albeit briefly. When he looked at the remaining time, he saw that Magic Gacha had only one hour left and immediately pressed the button with the intention of making ten turns one after another. A jackpot machine appeared in front of him and then James shook his head, thinking that this was different from previous times. The system seemed to have changed, but that didn''t matter to James, he only cared about his winnings. As he grabbed the handle of the jackpot and pulled it down, the separated wheels began to spin and after a long spin of only twenty seconds, they stopped. Three asterisks lined up and began to glow black, and then a notification window popped up in front of James: [Star Magic(Godly) Star Magic is a meditation spell created by monks who have long worshipped the stars themselves. When this spell is used, it is possible to harness the energy of the stars. After the use of the spell, the user can use the star energy to overcome hunger, thirst, insomnia, and even passive emotions. When the spell is upgraded to the next level, Star Magic can unlock offensive, defensive, and mental spells; the earliest to reach this level was Monk Umma, who spent only 13 years]. James looked down at his hands as he read the window that had formed in front of him and then said, "Lady Nyx, can you ask Master Moros and the fate sisters if they have increased my luck?" He hadn''t expected to gain a Godly tier ability from his first turn, indeed he hadn''t achieved such a thing in a long time. On top of that, when he looked carefully at the ability, he saw that he had something that could be very helpful not only for the attack but also for his own mentality. The biggest problem James suffered from was sleep. James was human and no one could deny that. No matter how strong he was, when he did not pass the 75th floor, every race would need sleep. This race could be angels, demons, elves, dwarves, pixies or other races, but there was nothing that could change this. Each race had basic needs. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Eating, drinking water, having a toilet break and much more, but at the very beginning of all these needs was sleep, which was slightly damaging to the mind. Sleep was something that had to be maintained or eliminated. The funny thing was that the Mind Palace ability couldn''t help with the sleep thing. After all, James was not being attacked from the outside, or the only thing directly affecting him was the inside of his own body. In short, sleep deprivation could damage him physically as well as psychologically, and James felt this most keenly during his training on the tutorial floors. Standing sleeplessly on the cold ice. With that James smiled and closed the window, then he saw his little daughter Miracle sitting next to him in human form. The little girl''s face showed a look of enormous curiosity. "Would you like to try it?" James asked and the twinkle in Miracle''s eyes seemed to answer him. James lifted the little girl up and then said, "I need you to pull this lever," and as Miracle tried to pull the lever, the panel closed and a notification appeared in front of the pair. [10X Gacha can only be used by the owner]. James read the window and saw Miracle looking upset, he patted the little girl on the head and said, "I''m sorry, I''ll buy you some candy later instead." The little girl''s energy was restored very quickly. With that James opened the gacha panel back up and then opened the jackpot to use Magic Gacha again. After that, he paused for a few seconds, something seemed to have suddenly occurred to him, his face had a strange expression, and then he uttered the following words: "Ummm...Didn''t I do a tens roll? Why did I only get 1 talent?" He doubted himself about the reality and truth of this question. After all, he was tired and questioned himself about the fact that he might have missed something. The answer he would find back would make everything strange. Chapter 121: Long Live the Gacha!!! "Ummm...Didn''t I do a tens dial? Why did I only get one talent?" James was genuinely intrigued when he asked this question, thinking that he might have missed something or that the jackpot had been processed differently. That''s why he closed the jackpot panel and started to look carefully at the gacha panel. After only a few minutes of staring, he looked at the Magic Gacha in surprise and then shook his head and asked, "So there''s only one spin, not ten?" He didn''t even know how he had missed such a thing. The fact that there was really only one spin for 1000 spins was harrowing, but there was nothing to do, what James had gained back was a skill that could be quite perfect, so there was no reason for it to cause any trouble. Grumbling, he pressed the spin button to open the jackpot section back up and then stared at the huge jackpot machine in front of him for a few seconds, he had three spins left so he wanted to get through everything as quickly as possible. When he lowered the handle of the jackpot machine, everything proceeded normally and a diamond and two asterisks appeared on the jackpot. [Seduction(Unique-/Passive) This ability will permanently increase the proximity of surrounding players and users to the player by 5%. The ability does not work against the mentally tough]. James sneered when he read about this ability and thought that he had indeed gained an unnecessary ability, even if he would realise how wrong he was about it in the future, the fact that it was useless to him now really prevented him from seeing it as good. He grabbed the handle of the machine again and pulled it downwards without waiting. The cogs of the machine began to turn again and after a short time, three light symbols came together. Even though James couldn''t really figure out what these symbols were, he was still deeply curious about his future ability. After a short time, these icons glowed just like the ability he received on his first spin, and then a window opened in front of him: [Beginner Level Light Spell (Legendary) When the user uses the spell, they have the power to command light. Light magic is incredibly difficult to get used to and to use fully. It requires deep training and even deeper meditation. It is the very magic that even Apollo spent millions of years trying to reach Godly status]. James smiled as he looked at the ability he had gained and realised that this time he had managed to get something good. This was a very happy thing. With this, James thought that he was going to be doing gacha for a really long time. The fact that he knew he had to get on with it without waiting made all the difference. He grabbed the lever of the machine and then pulled it downwards in order to carefully engage in the process, which would be the function of the next three hours. ----- James had been fiddling with the gacha for almost three hours, and he had been able to get more flips and other things than he had thought possible. Firstly, the system seemed to be bugged. Just like with the jackpot, the Clothes Gacha had a ten-turn option, but he was only given 100 cards. On top of this strange feature, James managed to get some really excellent items. After a long period of gacha, he had not been able to get anything useful from the Magic Gacha he had opened afterwards. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. But the things he had gained from the Clothes Gacha were incalculable, and he had indeed managed to acquire quite a lot. [Epsilon(Legendary++++) Epsilon is a jewellery. It can transform into the jewellery decided according to the user''s desire. Using the jewellery gives the user a 5% movement speed. Using the jewellery gives the user 5% attack power. Wearing the jewellery gives the user 5% magic speed. Wearing the jewellery gives the user an extra 2% experience points]. When James saw this jewellery, he immediately picked it up and made a brooch out of the flower and put it on. When he put it on, he could feel the energy circulation in his body speeding up, he could feel himself becoming one of those losers who got stronger by paying for the game. With that, he returned to the other thing he had won: [Pearl White Tracksuit(Legendary) This is a suit made from the extracts of the white pearl, one of the eyeballs of the sea, and the cotton of the mountains of paradise. The suit is designed to be highly flexible, organised, and fully suitable for combat or rest. Wearing the suit gives the wearer 5% movement speed. Wearing the suit increases the wearer''s flexibility by 40%]. This was the second useful thing he had won, and then he moved on to the last thing he had won that could be considered good. This was one of the most interesting things he had ever had, so interesting that James had no idea what he had officially won. [Sword Scabbard of the Unknown(Godly++++) The Scabbard of the Unknown was made at an unknown time by ##### for #####. This scabbard was made for #####, one of the most powerful swords ever forged inside all of the 24 existences. According to legend, the sword''s power, fury, majesty and beauty were so perfect that no scabbard could hold it and its power would disturb nature and even the tower itself. This scabbard was made for such a sword. This scabbard can change shape, size and level according to the sword it is worn on. This scabbard has the ability to feed sword spirits. This is a set item: 1/3] James did not know who this object was or anything like that, what struck him as strange was the familiarity of the energy coming from the object, from the scabbard. He couldn''t seem to remember where this energy came from. Chapter 122: Vlad Black He could not seem to remember where this energy came from. Yet he could feel an incredible affinity with the energy. Maybe it was arcane energy or something, but he still had no answer. At that moment, James realised that his family''s treasure had begun to vibrate, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown suddenly seemed to vibrate to the same rhythm. Immediately he realised that his aunt''s soul was coming out of the ring, his aunt Emily was as surprised as James was. "James...How can this be?" Emily suddenly asked and James''s confusion increased. "What''s going on, Auntie?" James asked from inside his mind, and Emily, who heard this, muttered, "A piece of our family is there...how can it be?" With these words, a spirit from the Sword Scabbard moved outwards. An old man was standing in front of James and Emily. An old man with snow-white hair, a snow-white beard reaching to his chest and a strange moustache just stood there sulking. "So you''re the chosen one, young man. Oh, that old bloke, that must be right considering Chaos sent me to you." the old man suddenly said, and a great deal of confusion was thrown at James. "Oh my god...You''re Vlad Black? Unbelievable! It''s such an honour to meet you!" Emily suddenly said, and even though James still couldn''t understand what was going on, the fact that he was seeing his aunt being so respectful made it all the more confusing. James shook his head for a few more seconds, trying to make sense of what was going on, and then interrupted the two who had started talking to each other, "Can someone tell me what''s going on?" With that question spoken in his mind, both Emily and the man called Vlad turned to James. "Nice to meet you, James. I am the first child of Desmond Black, one of the five children." the old man suddenly said, and with that, his appearance began to change. Each time the old man''s appearance changed, he looked more and more like James, only coarser. The old man''s beard became very short. He had a full beard, his gaze became incredibly sharp. "Nice to meet you, my ancestor... Forgive me, I didn''t know." James suddenly said, bowing his head. Everyone watching what was happening from Olympus was trying to understand what was happening, and the images of Chronos, who was watching everything, seemed to be obvious to everyone. ----- sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "What''s going on, Chronos!" Nyx suddenly shouted, "That has something to do with you ignoring me doesn''t it!" she added. When Chronos heard this shout, he looked around and said, "Only Chaos-Borns will stay here, everyone else leave the hall." At first, no one realised what was going on, but the energy emanating from Nyx caused everyone to leave the hall in a short time. Chronos immediately got up from his seat and walked in front of Nyx and Erebus and gently touched their heads. "Remember what I have remembered," Chronos said suddenly. Nyx and Erebus'' bodies literally froze, their pupils seeming to turn white. Even if the other Chaos-Borns couldn''t tell what was going on, it was clear that something serious was going on. "UAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Erebus suddenly shouted, screaming and shrieking, hitting his fists to the ground. Thanatos, Moros and all the other children seemed to be trying to understand what was going on. It was the first time they had seen and heard their always-calm father let out such a blood-curdling scream. Erebus suddenly burst into tears, no one else could see what Chronos had shown him. When eyes turned to Nyx, everyone realised the enormity of the situation. Nyx''s eyes seemed to widen. The divine woman had officially lost all composure, she was sweating profusely, and her eyes were teary, but no tears were streaming down her beautiful face. Only the anger, sadness and disappointment on Nyx''s face was evident to those around her. "How could...?" Nyx suddenly said, turning her face to Chronos and searching for an answer. Chronos shook his head and said, "Chaos. He erased our memories...or rather sealed them, and Desmond is the one who asked him to do it.''" Nyx looked around for a few seconds, not knowing what to say when she heard those words, seeing the fear and worry on her children''s faces, watching the tears her husband Erebus was shedding, watching his fists pounding the floor. "James is...Desmond''s descendant? What''s going on?" Nyx questioned, seeming to realise and question things she had actually seen, remembered and would rather not remember. "The game of the gods has been going on for a very long time, Nyx. Remember why we can''t get off the 75th floor unless there''s a reason? Normally I had forgotten too, but when I went back in time a little, I was able to access the erased fragment and remember everything." Chronos said the weight of those words alone was enormous. Thanatos and Moros tried to stop their father Erebus'' grief. Even if none of them could understand what was happening, they still had to accept the fact that something bad had happened. "Mum...what''s going on?" Eris suddenly asked, even Eris, who had been called the goddess of strife, seemed incredibly worried. The things Nyx was about to tell them were things no one was supposed to know. The possibility of such things spilling out right now would get James killed. Every single person in the tower who was hostile to Olympus and the Chaos-Borns would be all over James. This time it was not just a few warriors, but hundreds of thousands of enemies below the 75th floor. Who would have thought that the unknown past would suddenly come to the fore for them? ----- "I am the one who adopted my father''s sword technique. Each of my brothers took different techniques, I inherited weapons and attack and Desmond Black''s most powerful technique [the sword]." Vlad suddenly said, as if he was trying to tell James something with these words. "So what you''re trying to say is that you''re going to teach me, my ancestor?" asked James, as if these were the words the old man wanted to hear. It was as if Chaos was prepared to finally clean the dusty pages of history and show them to everyone. Chapter 123: Nyx Against Chaos (1) This question asked by James really sounded like the words Vlad wanted to hear. It looked as if he was going to start telling a story, but at the last moment, he restrained himself and said, "This is what my father wanted. I was going to pass on everything I learnt from him when he came, who had even greater potential than him." Hearing these words, James did not know what to say. He was really overjoyed, his eyes widened, and all his hair stood on end. "Thank you very much, my ancestor!" James suddenly said, and the smile on his face grew even bigger as he said these words in his mind. With that, James stood up and gently sheathed his sword. "You are becoming more and more like my father, young man. As you can tell from seeing me, our DNA is so dominant that our bloodlines are very similar," Vlad suddenly said, and strangely, these words made James happy. Even though he had never met Desmond, he still knew something about him. [We need to talk.] James was smiling with happiness when he suddenly saw Nyx''s message in front of him, he instantly realised what was going on. Emily had made it clear that the next time they spoke there would be nothing to block them and that Nyx or the others would be suspicious if James revealed anything. "About what, m''lady?" James had asked, and the message he was about to receive would change everything for him. [About Desmond]. The smile on James'' face vanished when he saw the message. He was sure that Nyx knew what kind of person he was, so he made sure that no one would hear about this. "So you remember, my lady," James said. [I remembered less than half an hour ago] Nyx replied. James had no idea what to say, he just stood where he was, breathing in and out in a normal tone. [Aren''t you going to apologise?] The question that appeared at the bottom of the message window made James strangely angry. However, despite all this anger, it became quite difficult for him not to be in deep sadness. "You''re the one who forgot your best friend existed...mum." James suddenly said, the word mum at the end of his sentence seeming to tell not only Nyx but all Chaos-Borns how angry he was. [You should have told me anyway...] Nyx said, still looking incredibly upset. "What, I''m supposed to try to tell you everything when I can''t even give you proof that I am descended from someone you''ve forgotten about for an incredibly long time? I''ve only just found out myself. I learnt as I approached the top of the mountain on my way to fight the Fallen God," James had replied, and Nyx, hearing what he had said, had agreed with him. After all, there was going to be quite a difference between them loving James and this incident, one was the old family and the other seemed to be showing him Nyx''s newly acquired family member. [I''m sorry...I didn''t mean to forget everything...I''m incredibly angry with my father, massively angry] Nyx said, wanting to go and talk to Chaos. "It doesn''t matter to me, my lady, what you need to understand is that I''m not the guilty one here. I''ve only just found out who I am, what kind of beings my mother and ancestors were, and so much more. I''ve been incredibly happy since you, the Chaos-Borns, became my new family, but now I''m not even sure if Chaos orchestrated everything that happened till now." James said suddenly, unable to comprehend how much those words had affected all the Chaos-Borns. "It''s like I''m an actor playing out a script written by Chaos, I don''t understand what''s going on," James added, which seemed to give Nyx all the more reason to talk to Chaos. ["Whatever happens, James, never forget that we love you. We don''t care if you''re a descendant of our best friend, we love you, you''re part of our family, you''re my son]. James couldn''t help but take a deep breath when he saw this message written in front of him, he had no idea what to say, but he knew he had to say thank you. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Thanks, Mum..." James said and then stood up shaking his head. "Emma, let''s go to the next floor please," he said as he picked Miracle up. Nyx''s eyes were glued to the portal as she entered, and after a few seconds, she saw the image change and turned back to Thanatos, closing the window. "I won''t be here for a while, I''ve got a few words to say to my father, son," Nyx said abruptly and then left the hall. The gods and goddesses of Olympus were visible all around. Every one of them had heard Erebus'' screams from inside the hall. Even if no one knew what had caused Erebus, whose entire being trembled with fear, to become like that, it was still clear to them that things were serious. On top of that, every single personality who saw Nyx''s facial expression was freezing. Nyx''s expression, who loved to spread happiness and embraced everyone like a mother, was killing everyone without killing them. "Lady Nyx...Are you alright?" Demeter suddenly asked, but she received no answer in return, Nyx''s anger was enormous and there was only one person to whom this anger was imposed: [Chaos] When Nyx had come to her temple, she had opened a portal that led to the house of Chaos, to the top of the tower, to the place James had intended to reach one day. Passing through the portal, Nyx looked around for a while, she couldn''t see her father anywhere, but it was impossible not to feel his presence. "Father," Nyx said in an angry tone, the depth of her speech evident even in her simple tone. Chaos appeared after those words, looking strangely sad, as if he didn''t want to have this conversation at all. Chapter 124: Nyx Against Chaos (2) Nyx paused as she caught sight of her father, Chaos, with her naked eyes and then said, "Dear creator, you must already know why I''m here." Chaos paused and was surprised by Nyx''s words, it was the first time his little girl had ever called him anything other than father. "Sit," Chaos said, and a room formed in the spatial space, two armchairs and a table formed in the room, and Nyx''s place was revealed. Once Nyx was seated, she began to speak: "Why did you dare to do such a brazen thing, father?" Nyx asked, the hatred in her heart so great, the sadness so deep and the disappointment so loud that there was no way to express it. It would not be wrong to say that Nyx and Erebus had started their journey with Desmond. Desmond himself was young but old for human life when he felt the presence of Nyx and Erebus and met them. Yet the two loved Desmond so much and cared for him so much that Nyx named the masked statue in front of her temple Desmond. Desmond meant Gracious Defender, and with his name alone, he had declared to all the gods and goddesses that he was the protector of mankind. The lives and honour of Nyx and Erebus had been put in jeopardy many times, after all, many gods and goddesses had been hunted by those who rallied around Desmond, and these two towering beings were not always sources of power at the top. While Nyx and Erebus were hunting above the 75th floor, in what is now the god realm, Desmond was busy hunting the gods on the lower floors. As a result, with all the attention and so on, Desmond had saved Nyx, Erebus, and even Chronos on several occasions. Not only that. Desmond had founded the Sun Empire and, as James had learned earlier, created the Church of Night, each to protect the existence and honour of Nyx. These were two regions that were still trying to fulfil their mission after millions of years. Whoever knew what had happened, including Chaos himself, could not ignore what Desmond had done. Desmond was the greatest man who had ever been born, lived and died. And his descendant were now in the family of Chaos-Borns inside the tower. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nyx was incredibly angry about this. She could forget her best friend, she could do it for billions of years, but James should be under her protection, and his descendants should be under her protection. Nyx knew how lazy her father was, and there was no way Nyx could forgive herself if Desmond''s legacy had been damaged. It was the first rule of the family code. Family was more important than her own life. ''"I warned him, he was the one who didn''t listen," Chaos said. Nyx could hardly keep herself from going insane, her hands and feet were shaking, even her eyes were teary, and she couldn''t understand how her father could say such stupid words. "What the hell are you talking about, how are you any different from those gods Desmond chose to give his life to kill when you refused to help the one you blessed?!" Nyx suddenly shouted. "Those were the words I said to him before I blessed him when I asked him what more he wanted to do, girl. I told Desmond in no uncertain terms that he was going to die, that if he refused to become a god, he would die. Humans...they never listen to us, gods." Chaos replied, his sadness evident in his words. When Nyx heard these words, she squinted her eyes and said, "Show me...Show me the time he spoke to you." Chaos shook his head as if he didn''t want to do this when he heard his daughter''s request, but then he couldn''t resist and handed a window in front of her. Nyx could see Desmond through the window, seeing how much his best friend, whose face she barely recognised, looked like James. Or rather, it was astonishing how much James looked like his ancestor. ----- "No one can know Chaos, you can''t tell them, you have to erase everything, they mustn''t remember me," Desmond said suddenly, the tiredness and sadness in his gaze seemed to be destroying Chaos. "I don''t understand why you want to do this, you know you''re the only person I''ve blessed, whose heart I can''t read, what are you trying to do?" asked Chaos. "You know them, old man, Nyx and Erebus, Ra and Chronos, Gaia and Atlas, the others. They won''t understand, they will try to find me and bring me back, they will try to force me through the 75th floor." Desmond said, the fatigue in his body becoming more prominent. "I''m tired, old man...I''m a human being, one who doesn''t want to be a god. I''m insanely tired and I just want to close my eyes and move on, never to open them again. I want a wife I''ve always dreamed of, children, sons and daughters I can teach. I want my presence erased from the tower until the time comes until you find one even brighter than my soul." Desmond added, the smile on his face stabbing Chaos, who was watching what was happening, in his heart. "I see...What is your plan? Tell me." Chaos said, that as much as he did not want to admit it, he could not heal him, it was obvious that he was ready to refuse. "Create a reality, a universe for me, stars, planets and a world, people, the beginning of everything," said Desmond, the brightness in his eyes shining blindingly. "I should give you a longer life then, such a long life, till you want to die, a young body, one that is not sick but will die at a certain time, one that you can earn on the condition that you cannot return to the tower as you wish, one that can be your family, one that no one can reach you." Chaos replied and Desmon smiled and said, "Yes, just like that." "Nyx and Erebus, Chronos and Ra, Gaia and Atlas, all the remaining titans, all the gods who want to follow you will go mad when they find out what happened, you know that, don''t you?" Chaos asked, and the answer he would hear behind him would be what comforted him. Desmond was smiling, closing his eyes and looking around. "That''s why you should erase everything until the time comes," he said. Chapter 125: Nyx Against Chaos (3) "That''s why you have to erase everything until the time comes," Desmond had said. Hearing these words, Chaos could see that the man in front of him did not say such words sincerely, so even if he could not read his heart, he did not need to try to do so. The great bitterness in Desmond was evident. "Explain your plan to me, Desmond, everything must be perfect," Chaos said, and Desmond, hearing these words, began to speak: "Create the place I said, give me a long time, from the creation of the world to the rule of men, no other race will live in that world. Elf, dwarf or any other race, nobody, nobody will live there." Hearing these words, Chaos shook his head and then asked, "Is it your hatred for them that makes you want this?" Desmond shook his head, explaining that it was nothing of the sort with these words: "I want to fall in love, old man. I want to find the love of my life, I want to have children and I want everything I know to continue for generations. I wish to die exactly 80 years after my first child is born, I want to be immortal until then and I want to make everything I have the most perfect. Any other races will only devour that happiness." At Desmond''s words, Chaos shook his head and then asked, "Giving you immortality means I forbid you to enter the tower, are you sure you want to approve this?" Seeing Desmond nod, Chaos added another question: "That means you won''t be able to see Nyx or Erebus, or their children, Demond, are you sure?" Desmond''s eyebrows shot up at this question, his expression turning to one of immense sadness, one might have thought he was close to rejecting his plan and crossing the 75th floor. "They''ll be very angry with me, I''m sure of it, they''re my brothers and sisters...But yes, I''m sure, if they forget about me, there''ll be no problem, make me an unknown person, so that everyone can be happy." Desmond said. "Do you think they will be happy, don''t you think how disappointed they will be if they find out what you did?" Chaos asked. "It''s going to be a long time. If I have my way and you find someone brighter than me and they find out then, I''m sure they''ll take it all in their stride, I''m sure they''ll understand what I want to do," Desmond said and chuckled, then continued: "They will cry, Erebus in particular will be devastated, but I''m sure Nyx will do her usual good job of pulling it all together." Desmond paused for a few seconds, then shook his head and spoke one last time. "If they remember me, show them what I have to say, old man," Desmond said and looked at Chaos with a smile. What Nyx was watching was suddenly being watched through Chaos'' eyes, and Desmond''s words were heard: "Nyx, Erebus, Chronos and the others. It doesn''t matter where I am, it doesn''t matter what kind of life I''m going to live. What matters is all the moments we had and the life we lived. Maybe we didn''t live the best life, but I''m sure we had the most marvellous moments. I devoted my life to killing evil gods and goddesses, but eventually, I found people I could love. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. You are the best thing that ever happened to me, remember that I will always love you all." At the end of Desmond''s words, he clapped his hands and then said, "All right, old man, send me away!" ----- At that moment, what Nyx was watching was over. Chaos looked down at his only daughter and was saddened, as he had said eventually, Desmond''s actions were beginning to break everything. Nyx was crying, silently, not breathing, her eyes wide open and tears falling to the floor. She couldn''t think of anything to say, or rather, Nyx had a thousand things she wanted to say, she didn''t know how. She could feel her heart pounding, knowing that Desmond, whom she considered her brother, had ended up like this made everything strange, Nyx was truly broken. "He was human Nyx, he wasn''t like you or me, I did what he wanted and here we are, are you still mad at me, are you still mad at Desmond?" Chaos asked. Nyx''s face turned to her father after hearing that, she said nothing and then stood up and opened a portal. Nyx quickly left the place that had been her father''s home and walked back into the parlour with eyes watching her. She looked at her husband Erebus, who had just managed to pull himself together, Chronos standing beside him, and the other titans, gathered together for the first time in a long time. "I don''t know what you''re going to do after what I''m about to show you, but you''d better be ready to give your life for James," Nyx said, her words alone telling them how serious an event was coming to them. The Chaos-Borns in the room were stunned and the Titans were saddened as each of them began to have flashbacks of Nyx. They had heard and seen Desmond, what he had said, what he had done, and the apology he had made. Before Nyx''s memories faded to black, James''s memory was revealed to everyone, leaving the Titans angry and upset. Even Chronos hadn''t learnt that much, he had only seen Desmond leave and a few other things, and he was going mad at what he was seeing now. "How could he do this?" Atlas suddenly shouted, his massive body shaking the hall. "I don''t understand...We could have forced him to go through the 75th floor, that''s for sure, but that''s still no reason for him to leave!" said Themis, the titan of the law. "I can''t believe he would leave us so easily! I can''t believe that Desmond, who has been with us through all the hardships we have suffered together, who has been with us through the weakening and increasing of our powers, who have helped us to cleanse all evil, is gone so easily!" cried Gaia, and it was possible to see tears in her eyes. It seemed only a matter of time before the Titans began to argue. Chapter 126: Weeping Angels It had been almost half an hour since James had entered the 13th floor with Miracle in his arms. He hadn''t been sent any floor assignments or anything by Emma like on the previous floors, James was beginning to think that such things happened on the first floors. James could see very clearly that the part they were in was a modern world, it was as if he was back in his own world. What made everything difficult, however, was that he didn''t know what to do. They were inside a building and unfortunately, it was not possible to get out through the exit door of the building. There was no one outside or inside the building except him and Miracle. The outside world was flooded with light, and the buildings shone brightly, but there was literally no sign of life as if everyone in the world had suddenly disappeared. Despite all this, James felt that someone was watching them. He thought it was because he was lonely, and frankly, it was a bit creepy. Miracle had transformed into a dragon and landed on James'' head as usual, it would be fair to say that the duo tried to walk around the entire building. They were ransacking every room, every area, they didn''t seem to know what was going on or what they were supposed to do. "Alright, this is too weird, Emma aren''t you going to give me a clue?" James suddenly muttered, he really had no idea what was going on, he and Miracle were in a building all alone, that was all. [The only clue I can give you is don''t wink at them, find a way to kill them.] James saw the window suddenly open in front of him and shook his head, he didn''t know what he was supposed to kill and he couldn''t understand why he shouldn''t blink, but at least he had a purpose to do it. He continued to walk around, he was really confused, he literally couldn''t find anything to kill unless it was a ghost. Even the Titans arguing on Olympus had stopped, the floor James was now on was far too dangerous. James was in a bad situation again, the tower seemed to have adapted a floor for James that he should have been in much later. Suddenly James could hear rattling coming from upstairs, downstairs and literally from the rooms next to him. He realised that the glow had gone from each of the buildings outside and the electricity had returned to the building he was in. "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" The unbelievably heavy "foot-stomping" sounds, one after the other, confused James. If such monsters existed, they must have weighed a lot, as did their size, how could they fit in rooms? Suddenly James felt something coming towards him from behind him, incredibly fast indeed, rising towards him: "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" Suddenly turning around James saw a female figure appear in front of him, he instantly realised that the voices from downstairs, upstairs and the room next to them had been silenced. In front of him was a sculpted female figure with a demonic expression. The statue woman appeared to have wings, claws and white skin. "Miracle, how long can you keep your eyes open?" James suddenly asked and his little girl replied, "A few minutes if I use magic, Dad." "Then start using it, never close your eyes, do you understand?" James said and got a yes back. James knew very clearly what the statue, or rather the monster, was in front of him. "Is that a flipping Weeping Angel?" James suddenly muttered and with that a window opened in front of him: [You should never blink in front of these monsters, if there is no one else looking at it, your neck will break and you will die on the spot]. When James read what was written in the message window, he nodded his head as if he understood and then said, "These are different from what I know, they break necks instead of sending you back in time?" James now realised what was happening and what those voices were. "I think they''re waiting for me to come," James said and then he equipped Clarent. With a single move, the Weeping Angel was cut in half. James thought he had made a successful kill, but suddenly he heard the sounds that had just disappeared start to reappear: "THUD!" "RUHAA!" "THUD!" "COME BAGHK!" Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "THUD!" "THUD!" Occasionally James heard humanoid voices and realised quite clearly that they were trying to lure him towards them, in short, he wasn''t quite sure what he was supposed to do, but he decided to ignore them and then started to make his way quickly up the stairs. He hadn''t tried it before, but maybe he could make it to the roof of the building. James had assumed that every single Weeping Angel was right on his doorstep because of the constant sounds that were getting louder and closer. Still, he was comforted by the fact that Miracle was constantly looking around, so he was able to continue his run. After a short while he managed to get to the door of the penthouse, he kept pushing on the door but he could see that some force was blocking it. "Welp...That is weird." James said and grabbed Clarent tightly, cutting the door. The door was indeed cut open, and as soon as James stepped outside, the door was fixed. James didn''t know what to do, thanks to Clarent, he had seen that the Weeping Angels could be killed, and he started to think of a way to kill the groups in all the voices instead of killing each one individually. In short, he needed a little brainstorming, and he needed it as fast as possible. He really had to find a method as quickly as possible, finish the job, move to the next floor and move on. He didn''t know how to do it though, he couldn''t look at too many enemies all the time, and he didn''t have thousands of eyes. Chapter 127: Well, That Was Hell "Aaaah...well they''re weak, very weak indeed. Fire might work, but I don''t want to burn the whole building down. Do you have something in mind Miracle?" said James suddenly, the little girl was looking at her father with blank eyes. James shook his head and then asked, "Ummm, Nemesis...I can''t say the others are trying to help me much, do you have anything in mind?" After a few seconds of waiting, a message from the person he had been waiting for appeared in front of him: [Pure power. You don''t need an element or anything else. The reason you can kill the first Weeping Angel you come across is because you find the spot on the statue where your soul exists. So you were lucky enough to land an attack on the spot that could partially break the statue. Be careful, just because you killed one, you''ll be fighting against dozens of them, not just one]. After Nemesis'' words, James paused for a few seconds and then asked, "But how am I supposed to find the point where I can break the statue?" [They''re statues, James, are you crazy? You will feel the presence of the mana that binds the souls inside, it''s as simple as that.] "Huh...So that''s it..." James said and then nodded and stood up, took out a bottle of water from his inventory and after drinking it, he cut the door of the terrace floor and entered back into the building. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He could hear the rattling coming from the lower floors, still chilling. On top of that, he could hear them getting closer and closer: "THUD!" "THUD!!!" "THUD!!!!" "THUD!!!!" "THUD!!!!!!" The sounds were getting closer and closer and with it James'' heartbeat was increasing insanely, it was like a combination of fear and adrenaline, thanks to his Calm Mind ability James was alive right now and he was sure of it himself, he knew that what he had to do now was to stay calm but it was not that easy. In other scenarios, he could dodge the monsters he was facing, or rather he was fast enough to dodge them. The Goblin King, Fallen God, and the like were all able to avoid him in one way or another, but not this type of monster. Weeping Angels could break his neck when he wasn''t looking, and without him even realising it. The creator of the Weeping Angels would have been shocked to see what had happened, these perfectly frightening beings with the ability to send him back in time, only to be turned into killers. Still, James knew he had to remain calm, he had somehow managed to get his breathing back to a fairly normal pattern. Once he was sure that Miracle was resting, he slowly waited where he was. His eyes were closed, trusting his little girl Miracle. "THUD!!!!!!!" An enormous number of too-heavy sounds echoed in James'' ears again, and then a single normal voice reached him. "THUD!" James was completely sure that when he opened his eyes, he would see one in front of him. He opened his eyes quickly and then he saw the statue that had managed to come right in front of him, with angel wings but with a facial expression even more horrible than the devil, and dozens of statues standing behind it. These statues were truly frightening as they moved down the stairs, dozens of them standing where they were, most of them with their faces covered. James suddenly added the magical energy in his body, the mana itself, to his eyes. The world he saw began to change, he could see the spirits of the beings in front of him. The spirits standing inside the statues were screaming, they seemed to be begging for help, James could feel all the hairs on his body standing straight up. He began to see the mana traces, the locks, standing on the statues. Glowing with a blue light, James chose to use Selene''s Throwing Knife instead of approaching them with Clarent. After all, even if the stairs were not very narrow, there were quite a lot of statues, he needed a large area to make his slashing attacks, and he did not want to do anything wrong, the attacks had to be precise. James took a few steps back and leaned his back against the door to the penthouse, then threw out the knife he was holding. "CRUSH!!!" There was a sudden burst of average sound and James saw the spirit in front of him fade away with a smiling face, the statue shattered into pieces and then vanished into dust. "Well...That was flipping cool!" James said suddenly, he was out of breath but he was sure it was the adrenaline in his body, all his fear was gone. "Miracle, tell me when you can''t take it anymore," said James and then one by one he began to attack the mana points of the statues in front of him. Each time he could see the laughing spirits being released and the statues crumbling to dust. He quickly descended the levels, releasing as many souls as he could. Occasionally he would let Miracle rest and they would take turns destroying the statues. They had reached the ground floor after almost 15 minutes, and James and Miracle were exhausted. The two stopped for a few seconds and listened to the sounds around them. Neither Miracle''s superior senses nor James'' hearing could hear anything, it was as if all the Weeping Angel statues had been destroyed and the spirits inside had been released. "Thank you Nemesis, I don''t know what I would have done without you." Then he realised that the door of the building was opening with a thin sound, and James, who walked towards the door after this ear-splitting sound, realised that there was no problem and passed through the door. [Congratulations! Congratulations on cleaning the 13th floor! You have earned 500,000 gold for fast clearing! Since the level gain is blocked on this floor, you earn 1000 gold per soul you release! 536,000 gold!] Chapter 128: New Business When James passed through the passage that had opened in front of him and reached the white room, he stopped where he was, as if confused. "Was that it? No boss monster battle? They weren''t that tough...I don''t get it," James muttered. The fact that he had no idea how narrowly he had dodged the bullet was what made it all the funnier. [What the hell are you talking about? Thank our daughter, if it wasn''t for her you''d be dead already. All of Olympus was on standby, just in case.] James suddenly read the message sent by Nemesis in front of him and then waited for a few seconds with a frown, tapping the white space he was in and muttering "IS THIS TOWER MOCKING ME?". He instantly realised the seriousness of the situation, Nemesis'' seriousness was enough to tell him. [There''s nothing to do, James. Like I said at the beginning, you''ve passed the Hell Tutorial, the tower is relentless, it did something that''s barely even normally difficult, and it made the already difficult floors even more difficult for you]. When Nyx''s message appeared in front of James, James sat down on the floor and then took a deep breath and said, "You''re right, he is joking, to tell you the truth, sometimes I wish I hadn''t chosen Hell Tutorial, but what''s done is done, there''s nothing I can do, there''s no remedy for the dead and the living." Then he was back on his feet, stretching his body as much as he could, and then he opened the gacha panel, stunned by what he saw in front of him. "The heck?" he suddenly shouted. "WHERE ARE MY GACHA RIGHTS?!" he screamed. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was written on the panel that he officially had no rights. He had zero rights, he couldn''t understand what was going on. Didn''t he kill 536 Weeping Angels? [You have to kill monsters for your ability to kick in, sir.] Suddenly there was a text from Emma and James became even more angry. "Emma, haven''t I already killed 536 Weeping Angels?" he questioned. [Sir, you released the souls sealed inside the Weeping Angels, causing them to be purified. The ability specifically says that you will be granted the right to kill them.] At Emma''s words, James made an enormous grimace, indeed he frowned and pursed his lips. "So now you''re right, but it still doesn''t change the fact that I''m upset...There''s nothing to be done yet I want them, what the fuck!" James said and then said, "Emma, send us back to the 5th floor, I''ve got a bit of work to do." When the portal opened in front of James, he quickly entered with Miracle and then appeared in front of the palace. Since James appeared in the square near the Olympus guild every time he passed through the portal, he was surprised where he was now. "Lord Umbra!" one of the guards had said, James'' authority and fame were growing, especially as everyone in and around the palace began to worship James himself. In short, even before James became a god, those who began to see him as a god began to spread around. "Good morning, it is a great day isn''t it?" James suddenly said. "Yes sir, it is a great honour!" the guard replied with a quick nod, even if he was surprised by the question. At that very moment, several nuns appeared in front of James. James realised that the nuns in front of him were the ones who had brought him to the palace in the carriage when he had returned from climbing the storey, each of them looking at James with bright eyes. "How good it is to see you all again, I was hoping you could take me to the hopping rabbit cafe," James said suddenly, he had to go to Ronald. "Do you remember us sir?!" one of the nuns said, each of them surprised. "Ummm...I''m not supposed to remember?" asked James, and with a nod from the nuns he got into the carriage. After almost two hours, James had made it to the hopping rabbit cafe at the other end of town. He ordered the nuns to leave him alone for an hour and waited for Ronald inside the caf¨¦. Ronald seemed to have given strict orders to the staff because as soon as James appeared outside the coffee shop he was taken to a special place. After a short while, Ronald came to the table in the corner where James was sitting and said, "It''s been a while, James, I hope you''re as well as ever." James smiled as soon as he heard these words and replied, "I see the first friend I made when I entered the tower, how could I not be fine?" With that, Ronald sat in a chair and waited for James to speak. "It''s something I''ve wanted to do for a long time and Ronald, I need your help to do it. You know I have a really large amount of gold, enough to start a new guild and create a luxurious guild hall, and then there will be money left over for me." James said, and with these words, he seemed to have Ronald''s attention incredibly. "Go on," Ronald said. "I''ve heard some rumours. More precisely, I heard from the goddesses with open mouths when I was in Olympus, I heard that you can gain authority with the help of tower managers, more precisely, domain authority." James said, and he could easily see the growing smile on Ronald''s face. "Please make it clear what you want from me, James," Ronald said. James chuckled after hearing those words and pulled out a cheque, wrote the number of gold coins in his possession on the cheque and then signed the cheque and handed it to Ronald. "I want you to buy a place in my name, that mountain, the mountain of ice. I know that money won''t be enough, but you know my skill, there is nothing I can''t win, and as far as I know, the outside of the empire is full of monsters. You know what I mean, don''t you?" James said. Ronald clenched his hands into fists after these words. "You''re very clever Mr James, I''d forgotten that." Chapter 129: Sea of Stars Is Here "You are very clever, Mr James, I had forgotten that." James smiled at these words and then shook his head and said, "It is an unlimited way of earning gold. I don''t even know if there is a limit to my skill, but even the lowest level armour or sword I can get is better than the ones sold at the blacksmith''s, as long as they don''t come broken or rusty." "Though of course, I can''t always be here to use the ability," James added, and Ronald realised that James had other ideas. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "What exactly do you want to do, young master?" Ronald asked, his interest growing by the second. "What I want to do, Ronald, is to move the guild building to the ice mountain. To build a huge compound there, of course, a place like the imperial palace directly implies authority, but what I want is different. Creating a home is my main goal." James replied, and that was enough for Ronald. "Then let me help you, although the amount of gold you gave me is not even enough to buy the land around that mountain...But the owner of that mountain is neither a god nor a man. I need to talk to a manager." Ronald said. These words seemed to make James deeply curious, who should he mean by manager? "Oh! Right, it''s normal to be surprised, after all, you''ve met me and Leyla, but there are three of us, you know that, don''t you?" Ronald added, and with that James shook his head, indicating that he had no idea. "Cain young master. The third head administrator is called Cain, nicknamed the tailor, he''s a rather shady character so I''ll have to deal with him for a while. Of course, it will be easier if I have the word of Lady Nyx." Ronald said and with that, he stood up. James stood up with Ronald and then said, "Then show me a place where I can leave the extra things I have, believe me, I have a lot of things." Ronald smiled at these words and after a short while the two went to the huge space at the back of the cafe. Ronald hadn''t expected James to have so much stuff so he waited with relief, after only thirty seconds his backyard was filling up with armour, clothes, weapons and the like. Ronald was surprised. "Aaah... May I ask how many times you''ve used gacha, young master?" Ronald suddenly asked, and James shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don''t know a few thousand times?" There was no way to describe how big Ronald''s smile was. It had taken James almost fifteen minutes to unload his entire inventory, eventually, he''d finished what he was going to do and then he said, "I''ve got to be on my way now, you know, the 14th floor is waiting for me or something." After she had Miracle back in her arms, she told the nuns that she would come with them and entered the passage created by Emma. It didn''t take him long to clear the 14th floor, he solved a huge puzzle in almost an hour and moved to the 15th floor. It was a little sad that nothing James had expected was happening. After all, James was looking for civilisation itself here, just like on the 5th and 10th floors. Nevertheless, he easily realised that this was not a normal floor, but a floor without war. He was only waist-deep in water. There was endless water all around as if he was in the middle of an ocean. As he was trying to understand what was happening, he looked up and then he saw the stars in the sky. It was as if he could see galaxies, it was a perfect view, it was so beautiful that it was impossible not to get emotional and shed tears while looking at it. [Welcome! Welcome to the 15th floor, the Sea of Star area! Each floor from this floor to the 20th floor will be connected. To pass the floor, you need to successfully pass the meditation state and reach enlightenment. This floor will serve the purpose of highlighting users and players on their journey to godhood. The water you are in will increase according to the user''s battle styles, status weight and utility. Good luck]] James shook his head when he saw the notification window that appeared in front of him and more or less understood what had happened. Just as he had created the Mind Palace on the tutorial floor, where he was going to improve his status possibilities by focusing his attention. What he didn''t understand was what was meant by ''battle styles''. Still, he knew there was no point in thinking about it right now. He sat carefully on the floor and realised that the water was up to his chest. He realised that while Miracle was asleep in James'' head, James himself was becoming insanely peaceful. His mind had officially recovered, he hadn''t even felt such peace of mind since he gained the Mind Palace ability. It was a strange feeling as if all the pores in his body were opened one by one. It was like the water of the sea was entering his body. [You have gained 1 Intelligence Status point!] James looked at the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, and when he read what was written on it, he opened and closed his eyes slightly. Even if he understood what was going on, it seemed to be driving him mad that everything was happening so fast. There were still three more of these floors to go and it excited James. He closed his eyes and then let himself fall into the water. Miracle woke up suddenly and went back to sleep, lying on his father''s stomach as he lay in the water. James now had a good moment to develop Star Magic, he could recognise the star energy travelling through the sky. His eyes were closed, floating in the water, the water seemed to carry him phenomenally, even though it was not deep. It was unclear how far he could develop. Chapter 130: Cain the Tailor James floated on the water with his eyes closed for longer than he could remember. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that the vast expanse of water around him was covered with stars. It was as if he had been thrown into a magical scene, like a main character who had been thrown into a magical scene without knowing anything about it, it was quite strange, to say the least. James was out of breath, but this was not due to adrenaline or anything else. James was trying to get used to his own body, a strange feeling of purity pervaded him and it was dizzying. He inhaled deeply as he gently picked Miracle up and placed her in the water, and then smiled as he saw the girl in dragon form floating in the water. He wanted to go into his System Profile and see what had changed. "Profile," he said, and a huge window opened in front of him: [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 50 Class: Warrior of the Night Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++), Star Magic(Godly), Beginner Level Light Spell(Legendary+++) [Statuses] Power 75 Agility: 211 Endurance 150 Luck: 26 Magic 1433 Holiness: 30.000 Intelligence 274 Charisma 12 Status Points 0] When James saw the state of their status, he just stood where he was without saying anything. "Ummm...Lady Nyx, if you''re watching, I have a question. Exactly how long have I been here?" he suddenly asked, and depending on the answer to that question, the value of the floor would be realised in his eyes. [Almost 20 days James, you''ve been floating, or rather meditating, for a long time, with a method we''ve never seen before.] James blinked when he saw this and then muttered "In 20 days I''ve gained about 100 intelligence, over 700 spells and over 70 agility stats?", this was even more valuable than 50-60 level-ups. James continued to be amazed, it was a big deal, meanwhile, on the 5th floor, different events were taking place. Ronald and the person called Cain finally came face to face. "Why did you call me here, Ronald? I refused every time, but to call me for 20 days in a row? Don''t you have anything to do?" These words came from Cain. Cain looked to be about 30 years old, with sharp ears, pitch-black hair with a good posture. Indeed, Cain was an incredibly beautiful being, after all, he was the greatest of the race he entered into. He was a completely different person created by Chaos. Cain was a High Arch-Elf. He was the greatest of his race, the most beautiful, the most skilful in craftsmanship and intellectually the best of the three main admins. It would not be wrong to say that he owned 20% of the buildings on the 5th floor, and his wealth was enormous thanks to his craftsmanship. He was such an excellent craftsman that the dress worn by Nyx, the strange garment on Erebus and even the clothes worn by all Chaos-Born were sewn by Cain. He was the only one in the tower to be called a tailor, an odd nickname, and perhaps not the most perfect one for one of the three main rulers, but Cain himself was honoured by it. Ronald was looking at Cain. "Thank you for coming Cain, I have a request, that''s why I called you," Ronald suddenly said. It was possible to see Cain''s surprised expression, Leyla had always asked him to make clothes for her, but Ronald had only made this request once, more than two billion years ago. It would be safe to say that Cain, nicknamed the tailor, was intrigued, because he grumpily sat up and looked directly into the eyes of Ronald, the rabbit man, and said, "I''m listening." When Ronald heard this word, he took a paper from his jacket and handed it to Cain. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Cait took the paper and started to read it, he smiled and then looked at Ronald and said, "You''ve got to be kidding me." He was surprised to see the serious smile on Ronald''s face and thought about the truth of what was written on the paper: [An agreement with one of the three main admins Cain over the purchase of the mountain, now known as Glacier Mountain, which can be seen with the naked eye north of the imperial capital inside the 5th floor at the request of James Arthur Black, nicknamed Umbra of Chaos. The details of the deal have been approved by Nyx, the most powerful goddess known as the Mother of the Night, and the following amount of gold will be given by her, and James Arthur Black will never be told that the amount of gold is paid by Nyx as a result of this deal. The amount of gold to be paid is exactly 2.000.000.000.000. The amount of gold to be taken from James will be exactly 350,000,000 gold. This agreement has been approved by Chaos himself on behalf of Nyx and his contractor, James Arthur Black. Signed:] When Cain read what was written on the paper in his hand, he took a pen out of his inventory and instantly signed next to the signature section. Ronald was surprised that Cain was so easily convinced. After all, Cain was a grumpy personality who sulked even at Chaos-Borns. "I guess the creator''s guarantee made you relax," Ronald suddenly said, and Cain, hearing this, smiled and said, "Actually, no, I owe James a debt, after all, I have a fairly large property on the 5th floor, he saved everything by killing the Fallen God. On top of that, I''ll get a massive amount of gold, so I think it''s a good deal all around." Another aspect of Cain was his love for gold, and this was a reality that spread throughout the tower. This elf was so rich that if a floor in the tower was destroyed, Cain could pay for all the damage and rebuild that floor. This was the third of the tower''s main administrators, Cain the Tailor. Chapter 131: 19th Floor (1) "Thank you so much for selling the Ice Mountain, I really do," Ronald said, the smile and look of relief on his face striking Cain as very strange. "Gosh, I have never se you like this before. You really like the kid huh?" Cain said, that ev with these words, he showed his grumpiness, but he was pleased that Ronald had turned into a more lively person. He had a strange feeling. "James is really special, I''m not sure what kind of person he is, after all, I don''t know him incredibly well, but he deserves the necessary respect and a lot of love," Ronald replied, that ev these words increased Cain''s respect for James. If Ronald praised someone so much, that person must have had a very high pottial. "The last person you praised so much was Odysseus himself, wasn''t it? Although it is unclear where he is," Cain questioned. "Yes...That Odysseus, indeed, the sorrows and evils and foolishness of the gods and the arrogance of Odysseus, ev if he deserved to be cursed, were too much...I don''t ev know where he is. At least his wife Pelope is protected by Nyx, so that''s a plus." Ronald replied, his sadness evidt on his face. "You''re right...the gods were young and greedy Ronald, especially Zeus himself, their greed at the time made Odysseus'' life hell, though that''s not something we can talk about, except to say that the mighty Chaos will allow us to see him again," Cain muttered as he stood up and took out a scroll from his invtory. Handing the scroll to Ronald, Cain said, "The deed to the mountain now belongs to James, the deal will be done, everyone knows where I am, so I believe I will get my gold in a short time, Ronald." and th a gigantic gate oped behind him, and Cain, who passed through the gate, disappeared with the pessimism he had come. Ronald sat back in his seat after putting the scroll into his invtory and th took a sip of his tea and closed his eyes to wait for James to return. James had his hands full, he had somehow made it to the 9th floor, he had countered strange sights and his body had indeed developed a good amount. "Is that what this floor wants me to do? To choose a path? Are we sure we''re not on the first floor?" James muttered, clearly seeing the three paths in front of him. [The three paths you will choose will be very useful to you no matter what you choose, but be careful because the dangers here are more than you think, I assure you]. James shook his head as he read the other message from Nyx and stood where he was. He hadn''t earned an achievemt in a long time, or rather an achievemt that allowed him to choose a card, but he was still happy to find a place that reminded him of those times. The reason for this thought and feeling was the three paths he saw in front of him. These three paths glowed with gre, red and black colours respectively, and James of course understood what was going on. §®¡Ì?¦¥?§²??.§³?? The difficulties seemed to be divided into thirds, and Nyx had warned him in detail that all three paths were very difficult, but if the colours betwe the difficulties were distinct, it meant that ev the difficulties were increasing in degrees. Gre had to be the easiest of the incredibly difficult paths, red had to be the medium-difficulty path, and black had to be the most difficult of the paths. This meant that the black path was the most difficult of the difficulties, but it was also the one that would bring the most reward, or the one that would develop James the best. James took a deep breath and th stepped out onto the glowing black path. He started walking, and as soon as he tered the path, everything wt silt. The stars in the sky were clearly visible. Indeed, it was understandable that this place was called the Sea of Stars. The image in the sky, the stars, planets and ev galaxies were visible, and all this image was reflected in the puddles in the path and ev strangely in the tree leaves. James did not know anyone who would not admire this view. He took his steps calmly on the path and wondered how it was that no sound could rise to the sky. Except for the sound of his own footsteps, no sound was coming out, not ev the sound of breathing, it was a very strange phomon. His footprints were being erased with each new one and each step was getting heavier and heavier. As James struggled with this ssation, he suddly realised that there was something following him somewhere he couldn''t quite understand, it was an incredibly frighting ssation, the fact that he didn''t know what this person or thing was and the feeling of heaviness in his body and especially in his feet could lead him to death. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. In short, his guard was at a very low level. "Hello?" James said he had no inttion of letting his guard down, ev if he was a little relieved that the thing looking at him was not attacking him. While he was carefully examining the surings, he started to take his steps again. It was as if he was in a swamp, after each movemt it was getting more and more difficult to move. He took a deep breath and th activated his dark step ability, his steps became much lighter and he realised that he could walk comfortably for at least a few seconds. James realised that a great power, a great authority was really watching him, but he could not really understand what was going on. Still, he needed to move and go further. However, an incredibly thick and headache-inducing voice rose from the wooded area in front of him: "NYX?" Chapter 132: 19th Floor (2) "NYX?" James grabbed his head tightly at the sound of the voice and began to moan in pain. "UAGGHHHHHH!!!" Wh James screamed, he realised the blood on the floor. Wh he touched his face with his hand, he saw that his nose was bleeding. [Protect your head with mana!] James suddly saw the message from Nyx and directed his mana to the head area, seeing the pain in his head suddly disappear. At the same time, Miracle, who had tered James'' invtory to sleep undisturbed, suddly came out and looked angrily in the direction of the sound. James had discovered this method while trying to strgth his body on the 7th floor and realised that he could sd Miracle into his invtory to sleep. This proved quite useful. The little girl Miracle''s gaze did seem to radiate death. "Hmm, come, cross the forest and reach me, I''ll be waiting for you, avoid danger, kill and come to me!" James heard that perfectly weighted voice again and this time avoided harm by protecting his head. However, he realised that the weight on his body had completely disappeared and as he tried to think about what had happed, he gtly held Miracle and th said, "You may have saved my life, little lady, well done." Miracle gave her father James a big hug and th wt back to the invtory with slow steps and wt back to sleep. [He can''t kill you ev if he wanted to, he''s not authorised to kill you until you''ve failed his test]. James found another message, tilted his head to the right in surprise and asked, "What do you mean, my lady, what was that thing?" [That person, James, is your examiner. Three paths, three differt attdants, and three tests of varying difficulty. Butterfly, spider and snake, the three masters of poison. I can''t believe this is the test you have be giv, I can only say good luck, please be careful, you have chos the hardest one]. James took a deep breath wh he read this message and th started to move forward with light steps. The fact that there was no weight on his body made everything ev easier. He didn''t know exactly what the test would be or how tough it would be, but he had a guess, ev Nyx herself had made it clear that she would have no choice but to wish him good luck. James had to be careful, or he would lose his life. As he tered the forest, he realised that he could hear voices this time, and as he looked back at the forest behind the clearing he had come through, he realised that the clearing must have served as a boundary. I think the examiner had already put James through the first test, to see if he could withstand it, or rather to see if he could withstand the boundary itself. James smiled and realised that he was starting to joy himself, he didn''t know what kind of person the examiner was, but he was sure that he was a respectable person, with a valuable personality. ??¨N¦®???§Á.?§°§® Having abruptly removed Clart from his invtory, James had his sword and guard in good condition and was moving forward, constantly looking a and checking for any approaching noises. After only fifte seconds he realised that something was approaching and th he was in a position ready to attack. Suddly out of the trees came a gorilla, taller than him, quite large in stature and looking like a goofball. Ev though James could not understand what was happing, he could still feel the feeling coming from the gorilla very clearly. The gorilla was saying, "I''m dangerous." As soon as James used his dark step ability, the gorilla realised what had just happed and jumped at James with an angry expression. James was thrown into the trunk of a tree before he ev realised what was happing. "Puah...." Wh James spat the blood flowing from his mouth on the g, he started to look at the gorilla with surprise, he was able to realise how fast the other personality was. There was ev a small spark from the friction where the gorilla stepped. James had activated the Void Ring he wore with it, the gorilla seemed to have be fooled this time, and James'' presce was completely erased. He activated his dark step ability and th stabbed the gorilla in the chest with his Clart. "GUUOOOO!!!" The gorilla fell to the g with a great scream and th lost its life. James took a deep breath, thanks to his automatic healing he was already healed, but the fact that his body hurt so badly did not change. After stretching his body, he started to move on and th he heard a voice. "Two done. Four to go, you''re close, young man!" sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The big voice was coming from the examiner, James heard it quite normally and continued onwards at full speed, he didn''t know what it was, it was ev harder than some of the high-grade climbers he had fought in the gorilla ara he had just fought in. It deserved the title of the most difficult path. After a short while James came to a clearing, and this time he saw two tigers. The tigers with their fur were looking at James. One tiger quickly moved to the back of James and the other waited where he was, ready to attack to hold James in place. James started to hold the sword Clart ready to attack and waited for the tigers to attack. He waited where he was and watched the movemts of the two tigers with such atttion that he could ev hear the sound of water falling from the suring leaves. The two tigers were circling James as if they had found a prey, James seemed to realise that they were not going to attack and so he started to use his dark step ability again and attacked. He started to fight with the tigers, which were many times stronger than the gorilla just now. Chapter 133: 19th Floor (3) James started the attack with the tiger, who was behind him first. Each step seemed to take the tiger by surprise. The tigers were fast but not as fast as James, so while the gorilla he was fighting represted speed, these tigers must have represted something else. James tried to thrust Clart into the tiger, which he attacked with great ferocity and speed, the tiger bit Clart the holy sword itself. Wh James realised the differce in strgth, he freed Clart from the tiger''s mouth as fast as possible and avoided the attack that suddly came from behind him. The tigers collided, and James had just ough time to recover. "Well, you two must represt strgth," James said, and he had to think of a way to kill the tigers. The tigers attacked as soon as they were on their feet, James was almost twice as fast as them, after all, he was activating his dark step ability, still, he had spt almost % of the magical ergy, mana, in his body, he had three more tests after this, making everything dangerous. He could use his aura if he was in a bad situation, but he didn''t know how useful it would be. He was constantly avoiding the tigers'' attacks and trying to find a way to hurt them in the process. Suddly, he pulled Sele''s Throwing Knife out of his invtory and threw it at one of the tigers, the blade bouncing off the tiger''s skin and falling to the g. "C''mon, you''ve got to pierce it!" James shouted. He had special skills in piercing, and if he couldn''t pierce a tiger''s skin with a knife, there was no way he could kill it that way. He was constantly sorting through his thoughts and wondering what he should do. After a short while, he charged his aura into Sele''s Throwing Knife and th tried to throw the knife that way. This time the blade seemed to damage the tiger''s skin. However, the blade did not pierce the skin. A medium-level completed aura and an aura with an elemtal in it only made the skin bleed, it didn''t make sse. James th realised that the tiger''s data was slightly burnt. This seemed to give him a good idea. James suddly wt straight to activating the flame elemt itself. The whole area was covered in flames. He th activated his aura and the flames began to burn bigger and stronger. "ROUARRR!!!" "ROARR!!!" The tigers were suddly writhing in pain. James watched them and to tell the truth, he looked a little sad. Of course, everything was a test and they were monsters, but it was horrible and more than horrible, it was sad to see living things burned to death. After almost two minutes the tigers had fall to the g and perished, James shook his head, turned and took a deep breath before saying "Welp, my stomach is getting better at handling this I assume." James started walking again after this, he still had three more exams to take, after all, the person who called out to him said that two were over and three were left. He continued on his way cautiously, the sounds were quite remarkable this time. There seemed to be quite a lot of birds a, parrots were in the trees a. "Ummm...What is this? Is this a flying test or something?" questioned James, the reason for this thought was of course that he had countered birds. §®??¦®????.§³§°§® Behind his strange look, another message suddly appeared in front of him: [Be careful. The first test is speed, the second is strgth, and the third seems to be durance]. James shook his head as he read the message from Atha and wondered how birds and durance were related. "That''s the first time you''ve st me a message and you did it to help me, thank you, dear Atha." James suddly said and th continued to pace slowly. The parrots seemed to be talking normally. Suddly, as James walked among them, all the voices were silced, all the parrots turned towards James and started to watch him with their big eyes. James automatically ssed that danger was approaching, it was a very strange feeling, he knew that danger was here but he did not know what kind of attack was coming. Suddly his whole body shuddered, suddly he began to protect his head with all the mana in his body, what he had be waiting for had come: "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" All the parrots suddly started screaming, each one of them looking at James and screaming and screaming madly at him. The screams were so powerful that it was possible to see with the naked eye where they were coming from and ev the impacts hitting James'' body. It had to be admitted that it was a very strange but fascinating sight. James had collapsed to his knees from the force and pressure of the impact. This time he was not vomiting blood or bleeding anywhere on his body, he had be able to foresee this situation because of the pressure the examiner had put on him beforehand and was able to protect his head. While he was protecting his head with his magic, he was protecting his body with his aura, so there was no great harm to him. Nevertheless, the fact that he was nailed to the floor did not change. He had started to crawl on his knees. He thought the test would be over wh he got to the clearing. Some parrots were flying right up to James and directing the screams in that way. James could not quite understand how to get out of there, he had no idea, these were birds, so ev if he used the fire elemt, the parrots would escape. He was stuck where he was for a minute, but during that time he realised something. The parrots would stop for a second every few screams. James seemed to have found the answer to the question through a tiny hole. Chapter 134: 19th Floor (4) "The time elemt!" thought James suddly, in that split second of space, if he could use the time elemt, he could find a way to escape from where he was. James waited cautiously, perhaps the pressure and pain in his body was at a high level, but evtually, he would escape. "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" One after another, the screams and impacts from the sound waves started again, and th silce descded on the area. James took advantage of that momt. He suddly used his time elemt and simultaneously used his dark step ability to move forward. He quickly passed the vines in front of him, the thorny plants a him and everything in front of him, and moved forward without ev looking back. The gap ahead was visible, James could get out of it. The one-second gap was over, the one-second from the time elemt was gone, the birds started screaming again wh they realised James had disappeared, and they quickly followed him: "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" James was running, not ev looking back, wh he suddly remembered how to avoid danger altogether. He had already used this item against the gorilla before, he couldn''t believe he had be so stupid as to forget that he had three per day. "Void Ring!" he thought furiously as the parrots behind him stopped calling and wh they looked a to see where James had disappeared to, they didn''t realise that he was already out of the jungle. James suddly let himself drop to the g, releasing the mana puddle he had be holding in his head and the aura that had veloped his body. He was breathing heavily, his whole body drched in sweat. [It was incredible, you''ve come a long way in using the time elemt, James, well done.] James smiled as he looked at the message Chronos had suddly st him, "Thank you my master." he said as he breathed in and out deeply. After a few minutes of rest, he remembered that he only had two exams left and th stood up. He took out a piece of bread from his invtory and after eating it, he started on his way. "To tell you the truth, I want to get Star Magic back to its best as soon as possible, the hunger, thirst and sleep have to go, it''ll make me less human but I don''t care, look at me." James suddly said, and he was right, of them could remember James being this messed up since he tered the tower, except for the part where he almost died in the ara. With that, he tsed his body and took one last deep breath before tering the forest again. "Puff...Let''s go." ???¦¥??£¤?.?§°? After uttering these words, he stepped into the forest. As soon as he started moving through the forest, he came across an owl, the owl was staring at him and James was trying to understand what this test was. sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Welcome," the owl with feathers suddly said. James shook his head wh he heard this and th said in surprise, ''Well, thank you.'' He couldn''t understand what was going on, but he still had to pass the exam somehow. "I am here to represt the intelligce test, as you can see, you have passed the first tests and you must pass the test I will give you before you reach my master." said the owl, and James said, "Well... I apologise for killing your frids." The owl stood still for a few seconds after these words and looked into James'' eyes, th said, "You are truly sorry...Hmph, interesting.". Th the owl, which had flapped its wings, spoke again. "I, Mr Owl, the represtative of intelligce, will prest you with three riddles, if you give the wrong answer to the riddle you will die, you will get one answer per riddle." James was trapped in a transpart barrier before he could respond, he could have tried to escape but it would not have be a wise thing to try. "All right, ask right away," James said the fact that he considered himself intelligt made everything easier. "Cough-cough. So here''s the first riddle. I am not alive, yet I grow. I do not have lungs, yet I need air. I have no mouth, yet I can drown. What am I?" James shook his head as he heard the question, the riddle was incredibly easy. "Fire. It was quite easy, are we going from easy to hard? You know, I am good with riddles, my mum would make me go crazy with them all the time." James said, the owl waited where it was as if surprised wh it heard these words and th coughed and moved on to the next question. "Cough...Well that was pretty easy, I DID IT ON PURPOSE!" he said and continued: "The person who makes it sells it. The person who buys it never uses it. The person who uses it, never knows they''re using it. What is it?" James sat down on the floor wh he heard the question, it seemed that he had countered a riddle that was not easy. "Hmm...He makes it and sells it, the one who buys it never uses it and the one who uses it never knows they''re using it?" James suddly said he was thinking deeply. Seeing that James was deep in thought, the owl puffed out its chest and th tried to say, "I told you I was asking you an easy riddle as a joke, and I---" but his words were interrupted by James: "A coffin. It is a coffin." Wh James asked the owl this answer, the owl''s nerves seemed to jump, as if it wanted to kill James. "OK, this time I''m going to ask one so difficult that you won''t be able to answer it ev if you think about it for a hundred years." the owl said and th asked the question: "You can see me in water, but I never get wet. I can follow you everywhere, but I''m not alive. I vanish wh light leaves, but I always return. What am I?" James started to laugh wh the owl asked this question. Those watching him from Olympus, those watching him from Asgard, and ev Nemesis herself could not understand why he began to laugh, and at that very momt James'' voice was heard: "It''s funny that you''re asking me one of the riddles my mum used to ask me!" James said and th answered: "A reflection. Are you sure you are the [riddler] or intelligce?" Chapter 135: 19th Floor (5) "A reflection. Are you sure you are the [riddler] or intelligce?" After James'' words, the owl seemed to become quite angry and upset. "Why does everyone know the answer to my riddles?!" he exclaimed, his shriek rising into the starry sky. "I mean, normally I could help you improve your riddles, but I can''t because you''re here to kill people," James said wh he heard this question. Hearing these words, Mr Owl shook his head and said, "Please tell me! I swear I won''t kill anyone anymore!" James who heard this said "Nuh-uh, I don''t believe you." and shrugged his shoulders. Wh the owl heard these words, it flapped its wings and th a scroll fell in front of James. "What am I supposed to make of this?" James muttered and took the scroll and read over it, after a short while he smiled and said, "You want to be a good riddler, don''t you?" After Owl nodded, he took a quill and signed the scroll. On the scroll was writt exactly the following: [I, Mr Owl, will never, ever after the time that I have be giv the hancemt on my life and existce, injure or harm any living creature unless they attack me. This contract is only valid if the Umbra of Chaos helps me. Signed: Mr Owl Signed: Umbra] The scroll was quite small, like a tiny agreemt, yet James seemed to be sure that anyone coming after him would not be harmed. As he signed the scroll, it flashed with a small light and disappeared, and th Mr Owl''s voice was heard: "All right! There''s no reason why you shouldn''t teach me now, is there?" James shook his head as he heard these words and th coughed and began to speak, "You''re not wrong, there''s a certain piece of advice I can give you, and that advice is this:" "A strange and unsolvable riddle for you to ask. You may think that a riddle has to be solved all the time, but no one can say that it is bad to have riddles with no definite answer and therefore you don''t want to accept them." Hearing these words, the owl, as if confused, used its wings to cover its eyes and th shook its head and said, "I don''t understand! I don''t understand!!!" James asked after these words: "I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have nobody, but I come alive with wind. What am I?" ???¦¥§®¦Ñ?§Á.??§® The owl smiled wh it heard this riddle and th said "An echo!" but was disappointed wh James shook his head. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You''re right, but not, as I said, it should be a riddle that can be solved but you didn''t make me solve it. The answer to this riddle is fourfold. An echo, the wind itself, dreams or thoughts and finally a spirit or a ghost. Do you understand now?" James said. After these words, the owl happily shook the branch it was on and th said, "I have to get them into a dead d!" James shook his head and th said, "Well? Can I go now? I must have passed your exam, right?" The owl nodded, excited and happy, and th said, "Yes, you can go! I swear I won''t take anyone''s life! I may take gold or goods instead. Please be careful with my master, he is not a bad person but he is grumpy!!!'' After these words, James waved goodbye to Mr Owl left the forest and came to the place where the last test would be held. James started to look a after coming to the area, he did not see anyone, anything or any being. The surings were completely flat, the back was a forest and the front was a plain with no d in sight. James scratched his head and couldn''t understand what was going on, so he sat on the g and waited, thinking that the examiner was at least a hundred times stronger than him, because he almost died with just his voice. So he thought it would be foolish to go against him and he waited for the examiner to come. He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to meditate on Star Magic. Oddly ough, not only James but also those watching him closely did not know where the examiner was. "Hah! He''s doing it again!" Apollo suddly said, and all eyes in the hall turned to him. "Doing what, Apollon?" Erebus suddly asked, and Apollo, hearing this, said, "I chose the hard way like some of us, of course, luck, so there was nothing to do. Somehow I managed to pass the exams and finally, I arrived at the field. Watch carefully, I hope he doesn''t hurt James, he''s playing hide and seek. How can he play games with such a big body!" he shouted. Apollo, the true owner of the light, could not believe that this strange being was doing all these things. Still, there was nothing to be done, Nyx would have to step in, after all, Nyx, like Apollo, had tak the test, and unlike Erebus, Nyx had countered this strange behaviour of the examiner. Wh Erebus heard these words, he said, "I have never expericed anything like this, the test he gave me was a fight, he beat me for a long time and th he let me go, saying that I passed." Wh everyone turned their heads back to James they realised what was going on. The examiner was hiding, smiling and moving strangely behind a tree. After a short while he slowly approached James and James started to hear voices. Wh he suddly oped his eyes, he saw the creature standing and crawling on the g in front of him. "No kidding? Are you the exam little thing? Tell me what I need to do, please, I want to get to the next floor quickly." James said these words, not knowing how gigantic the being in front of him was, ev the being itself was surprised, he did not think that anyone would speak to him like that. Chapter 136: 19th Floor (6) "PUHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The tity began to burst into loud laughter, James suddly realised he had a headache and th directed his mana at his head. "Well, I had no idea you were going to be the examiner, I''m glad, I guess..." James said suddly, the examiner started to crawl backwards wh he heard this. "Though I was expecting you to be more... how should I put it, bigger, your voice and size don''t quite match," James added. The being in front of him was a snake, a snake whose skin moved like space and looked incredibly beautiful. "If you want me to grow, that''s quite doable," the snake said, and th it began to glow all a. After only twty seconds the snake had grown to a gigantic size, so big that James couldn''t ev see the snake''s face anymore. "Well? Does this fit in your head?" the snake suddly said, James covered his ears with his hands at the sound, his head hurting incredibly despite all the mana. The examiner was about to burst out laughing wh the snake pulled back and looked into James'' eyes wh James suddly shouted: "PLEASE DON''T LAUGH, YOU''LL MAKE MY HEAD EXPLODE!''" After these words, the snake fell silt and James spoke again: "AMAZING!" shouted James, "You really are one of the most beautiful things I have ever se! I''ve se Mount Olympus, I''ve se Aphrodite, the most beautiful of the Greek goddesses, and I''ve ev se Nyx herself, but you...you''re the only thing ev remotely close to Nemesis." James tried to protect his head and th stood up and said, "Tell me my test." The snake smiled as he heard these words, his big smile was visible, his tongue literally stuck out of his mouth and the hissing sound spread all over the floor. The snake smiled and said, "My name is Noah, I am known as the Serpt of the Stars, I was created by the Supreme Dragons and placed on this floor of the tower as an examiner. I give differt tests to each visitor, presting them with difficult or impossible tests according to their pottial. Your test will be poison." James shook his head wh he heard the word ''poison'' and asked "Poison?" as if he did not understand. Ev if James himself didn''t realise it, everyone watching him was about to lose their heads, of them thought James would get out of there alive. Noah the snake was about to answer wh he suddly appeared in front of a system window, the snake smiled and th said "Don''t worry Nyx, I wouldn''t have offered this test if I thought you were going to die, I don''t want Ra to come and kill me, at worst he''ll be paralysed for a few months." After these words, James smiled and th said, "I mean... I''m glad that my lady is protecting me, if it ds with paralysis for a while and there is no death, I will do anything." Noah could hardly restrain himself from laughing wh he heard those words. However, a huge cauldron suddly appeared in front of James, and wh James looked at the cauldron, he asked, "You ain''t gonna cook me up right?" §®?????¦´?.?¦¨? Noah was embarrassed wh he heard this and th shifted into his smaller form and shouted, "I''ve got nowhere else to put you in! I swear!!" Noah''s voice was much thinner now, he sounded like a normal person. At his words, the transpart cauldron filled with an incredibly dark gre, James looked into it, turned his head towards Noah who was crawling on the floor and th said, "I don''t trust that this will not to kill me." James'' expression was incredibly worried and sceptical as he stared at Noah with pursed lips. "I swear to you you will not die, this is literally the lowest level of poison, I will increase it and if you are paralysed you will fail the exam. And I won''t ev kill you! As I said, I don''t want Ra to come and turn me into a snake kebab." snake Noah said suddly, as if trying to comfort James. "Now take off everything you''re wearing and get inside, quickly." James still couldn''t believe it, but he paused and before he took off his clothes he said, "Everyone stop watching! There''s no one but Nemesis who needs to see me naked!" With those words, he took off his top and jumped into the cauldron. As soon as she tered the cauldron she realised that her whole body was on fire, ev breathing was incredibly difficult. "This... thing will be useful for me, right? If I pass the exam, I mean." James said and with that he saw Noah nod his head. It wasn''t long before James realised that he was getting dizzy, his vision was becoming restricted. His breathing was so restricted that he felt like he was going to faint, he could really only breathe every five seconds. It was so strange that there was no way to describe it. He seemed to be getting used to the poison though because the burning ssation in his body had lessed slightly, of course, it still burned a huge amount but with each passing second the ssation became less painful. James realised that he needed to focus and stay awake, so he closed his eyes and got into a cross-legged position and began to feel the ergy of the stars in the sky. He began to work on developing his Star Magic ability again. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Noah had just realised that James had Star Magic and felt stupid for not realising it wh he was watching him from the trees. "This kid really has too many surprises, interesting," Noah thought. The poison in James'' accidt was the lowest grade poison he had, but it was a basilisk''s poison, a poison that could knock out a minator and kill a cyclops. The fact that James was holding up so well was something to be respected. Noah had to accept it. Chapter 137: Poison Master (1) James had withstood the poison for almost three hours straight. According to Noah, he would be exposed to the poison many times over the next days, and ev if he didn''t know what the outcome would be, he was sure that it would befit him. However, James wanted to reach the 0th floor, he was filled with great hope and excitemt. After all, there were abilities he could get from Chronos, and the fact that Chronos had a special window where he could watch him at all times, or that the old man had a definite reason for coming to James'' side, made it all the better. Of course, he couldn''t go down from the th floor, that was the deal after all, the only reason James thought that way was because Chronos was time itself, which meant that Chronos could somehow create a lower time zone and keep James training going. "Ready, James?" James suddly heard this question along with a hissing sound coming from his right side and th he asked, albeit fearfully: "Ready for what?" James knew very clearly what the answer would be wh he asked this question and he was waiting for the answer in a very unpleasant way. "I''m going to increase the level of the poison, this level can knock a Wyvern down and knock it unconscious in seconds, be prepared," Noah replied. At Noah''s question, James began to breathe deeply and shook his head, "Don''t hold back, Mr Snake!" he said sarcastically. Noah smiled involuntarily at these words, and th the liquid in the cauldron began to change. The whole of Olympus was in a state of stress, of course, the fact that Nyx was influcing the test due to someone like Ra exercising his authority had saved James'' life, but that still didn''t mean that James couldn''t be paralysed. There were only a few poison masters in this tower, to be exact only of them existed and Cain the High Arch-Elf was one of them. Of course, millions of gods used poison, but of them were like the first three. In first place was Cain the High Arch-Elf, and in second place was Noah the Devourer. The man in the third place was now forgott, the only thing remembered about him was that he had a high degree of closess with Thanatos and Loki and only two of them knew where he was. All of which meant that the poisons Noah was going to administer to James were going to be far too dangerous, and ev Nyx''s palms were sweating with stress as these words were spok or these concerns made themselves known. After all, ev Nyx could not affect this tower created by her father in such a way, yes, maybe in places where death was not necessary, just like in Noah''s test, but there would be places where ev Nyx would have no effect. For example, areas such as the [Conscice of the Clouds] on the 40th floor or the [Slaughter Pit] on the 90th floor were places that Nyx could not affect. §®¡Ì??????.??§® The Conscice of the Clouds would test the hearts of users and players and show their true colours to everyone on that floor. Blue clouds existed for the good-hearted and red clouds existed for the bad-hearted. If a bad-hearted person stepped on the blue clouds, they would either fall from the clouds or be teleported to the red clouds, it all depded on luck. So it was a test of reality for them to be se from the point of their so called comrades. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The Slaughter Pit, on the other hand, was a place where the gods constantly fought it was se as the floor where the game of the gods, or more accurately, the war of the gods began. The 80th floor became a completely lawless place after the gods made a pact on the th floor, and the floor was completely changed after an offer was made to the consciousness of the tower. The test of the floor was to be victorious in the battle in the gigantic ara or to collect items to pass the floor, just like any other floor. "Th start James, this poison is three times stronger than the other one, be careful not to faint and if you can, try to use your aura despite all the poison in your body, you will surely improve." Noah suddly said, helping James. "Understood!" said James, and with that he tried to use his aura again, along with the immse pain from his burning skin. However, no matter how hard he tried, nothing changed. It was as if his aura was being blocked by the poison. James could realise that ev his magic rings were filled with poison, and he could ev feel his magic in a tiny way. So it was normal that he could not recognise his aura wh the poison was coursing through the veins his aura was based on. Nevertheless, James kept trying, constantly trying to feel the aura in his body and trying to push his luck. Each time he tried he seemed to feel a differt kind of poison tering his body, or rather his body was burning differtly and his pores were hurting in differt ways, it was a strange and painful ssation indeed. He began to sweat unbelievably, occasionally his skin would break off and heal because of the automatic healing, and his skin would vanish into dust in the poison. The sight was incredibly disgusting, but the onlookers still chose not to look away. Noah was incredibly shocked, wondering how James was holding up so well. "You''re holding up much better than I thought young man, did you have something to do with the poison?" Noah suddly asked. James thought he couldn''t speak as he struggled to hold on and continued to breathe deeply, but evtually, he managed to op his mouth and say, "I have an ability that protects me from 0 low-level poisons." Noah''s surprise was evidt in his expression, ev if he was a snake. He seemed to have a lot to say, and what he wanted to teach seemed to be ev more than what he had to say. Chapter 138: Poison Master (2) At James'' words, the poison seemed to begin to change again. As Noah began to change the poison, another message notification appeared in front of him: [Are you out of your mind?! He''s not ev ready for the next poison, are you trying to kill him?!] Noah frowned wh he read the words on the message from Nyx and th closed the message window with his tongue and said, "Your job is to be the mother of the night and mine is to be the master of the poison, do not question my thoughts and professionalism in my work, that is the only thing I won''t accept from you old Nyx." He was angry. With these words, the colour of the poison in the transpart cauldron began to turn greyish, and at that very momt, blood began to ooze from James'' closed mouth. Noah seemed excited by this sight. "I just gave you a poison at least 50 times stronger than the poison I gave you five minutes ago, but you just waited with blood oozing out of your mouth, it doesn''t make any sse, I can''t understand how you can be so susceptible to poison?" Wh Noah uttered these words, his excitemt began to increase involuntarily, wagging his tail left and right like a dog and expressing his excitemt in this way. However, something very differt was happing in James'' body. James realised that the burning in his body was no longer an issue, instead, he noticed that his aura was getting heavier. The fire in his aura was fighting against the poison itself, as if his aura, which had just be afraid to come out, had begun to counterattack. Basically, his aura and slight point of his magic were fighting and combining with the poison. James could feel the veins in his body being squeezed and attacked every second, but luckily his aura was strong ough that it was becoming stronger and stronger. The magic rings a his heart were being protected by his aura, so he was not in any danger to his life, yet his expression was twisted with pain. He didn''t really know what was happing, but instead of his aura, the outside of his body was protected by another ergy, and ev though he didn''t know what was happing, his power was undergoing a great change. It was as if the strgth of his body was constantly increasing. Not only that, but he seemed to be starting to feel quite comfortable himself, after only a short time the blood stopped flowing from his mouth and James began to heal. "Unbelievable," Noah said, and not only him, but all the Chaos-Born and the rest of the Chaos-Born watching him agreed. Nyx and the others had se James'' profile and especially what his stamina stat was, something like his body withstanding such a poison shouldn''t have existed. Every single person prest seemed to be watching a miracle. Noah had locked his gaze on James, crawling left and right and wagging his tail left and right, thinking about how much pottial James had and wishing he could teach him. ???¦®????.§³?? While Noah was thinking these thoughts, he suddly transformed, and after his transformation into his human form, he sat on the g and th wrote a message to Nyx: [I see the 8 sacred fires and the traces of time in his aura, and the aura of his body and the magic itself accepts the poison. O holy Nyx, I think we are witnessing the birth of a new poison master, I think the th poison master is born.] This message appeared publicly in the Hall of Olympus. Achlys, one of the poison masters inside the tower, suddly stood up and began to read the message window with a big smile. Achlys was a great goddess, indeed there was no one better than her in Olympus in terms of poison, and she was ranked 4th in the list of poison masters. According to the ancit writer Nonnus, Hera herself wt to Achlys only to buy poisonous flowers from the goddess and turned Dionysus'' nurses into horned ctaurs. In short, Achlys was a great goddess, whether it was to start a fight, kill someone or make someone crawl. "You look pleased, young Achlys." Nyx suddly said, and Achlys, who suddly stood up after these words, said shyly, "Forgive me, my lady, it has be almost 300 million years since the birth of a poison master, this is exciting. The fact that Master Noah is saying this makes it all the more certain," she said and sat back down. Nyx clched her jaw wh she heard those words and th asked, "Huh...Achlys, Noah told you the same thing, didn''t he? He ev trained you to be an amazing one." Wh the young goddess nodded, everyone smiled and rejoiced with great joy that James would grow stronger. James growing stronger meant that Olympus would grow stronger, James growing stronger meant that the Chaos-Born would grow stronger, James growing stronger would, as always, threat to dislodge those in power inside the tower. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. All this meant that he gained more emies than he gained frids. After all ev tho Nyx can block the views for some certain point it wouldn''t always work, that means the strong gods and goddesses that can somehow pierce Nyx''s magic can see what is happing with James. "The poison masters will love him, my lady, don''t worry. As you know, each of us, myself included, are mad creatures. Cain, one of the three main admins, my master Noah, and many others." Achlys said, and Nyx laughed wh the young woman said those words: "Hahahaha! Isn''t that so? Indeed, those with power are absurd personalities. Masters of death like Thanatos, masters of lightning like Zeus, masters of water like Poseidon, and many more. With all due respect, you are all mad. Poison masters are the least predisposed and complete mastery style after the masters of time and fate, which makes it a really big deal, I have to hand it to you Achlys, you deserve respect." These words spok by Nyx were indeed words of great respect and thoughtfulness. After all, time and fate were elemts and laws that you could not learn unless those who used them taught you, ev if they were difficult to use, but the poison was not like that, it was an elemt that you would never succeed in using if you did not have the will to use it with pottial and the intelligce not to kill yourself. That''s why there were only masters among millions of users. And today, the birth of the th was being witnessed. Chapter 139: Poison Master (3) The birth of the th Poison Master was going to be a big deal, after all, it wasn''t every day that someone with such great power was born. Ev if James was unaware of it, he had a great predisposition to poison, which was the only reason he was able to withstand such a powerful poison so easily. Ev if he was writhing in the accidt, ev if he was trying to keep himself awake, he had managed to get used to this poison after almost an hour, James, who still thought that he was still spinning betwe poisons of the same strgth, had no idea how powerful of a poison was now tering his body. Of course not! After all, his aura and magic protected him in such a way that there was no way to explain it with the laws of the tower. Poison started to disappear as soon as it reacted with magic, rotting and turning to dust, so most mages tried to avoid poison as much as possible, but James, of course, did not know that. So James had be exposed to such poisons one after the other for almost 7 hours. His magic had stopped running away from the poison and started to attack the poison, becoming accustomed to it. This was the thing that helped him the most in becoming the th poison master. After all, poison was a type of magic and once you started to control it and somehow saved yourself from dying, you could master it. It was considered a miraculous evt, and it was se as something of great beauty. Noah was preparing to give James the next poison, yet at the same time, he seemed to be hesitant, unsure if he was changing poisons too fast because he was excited. [What is it? Isn''t it too late to hesitate?] Wh Noah saw the message window from Nyx, he tossed his hair back with his hand and th said with an angry expression, "I was hoping it would be a little quiet, I was wondering if I was increasing the level of the poison too fast." Suddly, however, the liquid in the cauldron began to change. His anger at Nyx seemed to have forced Noah to make a sudd move. James''s expression showed the pain he was in, red as a tomato from squeezing himself. The poison in the cauldron was bubbling, and a lot of vapour was coming out of the poison. This liquid had such a disastrous and disgraceful appearance that anyone looking at it could recognise that it was poison just by looking at it, ev if they did not know what was inside. James was writhing in the cauldron, it was such a bad pain that James would prefer to be punched a thousand times by the Fall God than the pain he was suffering right now. At the same time, he began to exhale audibly for all to hear and realised that his magic and aura were slowly beginning to fade as he began to fuse with the new poison with each passing second. "HAH!" "HAH!" "HAH!" "HAH!" §®¡Ì?¦®??¦´?.??§® "HAH!" His breathing was getting louder and louder each time and it was drawing all the atttion to him, yet Noah was sure that James would make it, he just had to hang on. The poison Noah had giv him now was almost five times stronger than ever before, the poison itself could knock a Behemoth down and kill it. Ev if James wasn''t in that state, he was still in a terrible state, it was just that his body, or rather his aura, his magic and his accompanying body were adapting to the poison incredibly fast. This was what prevted him from dying at the momt because this was the poison that Noah had planned to maximise and that would paralyse James, although now Noah was busy preparing a bigger poison. James looked like he was going to suffer a lot more. ----- Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "He''s already killed two. How many more do we need to bring back to kill that bastard Nyx''s dog!" In the darked room, glowing pupils constantly looked a and spoke as if they could see others. Ev though the room was in darkness, other glowing eyes appeared and the voice of one of them could be heard: "If that idiot Sopdu hadn''t made him more promint, if he hadn''t gott stronger, we could have killed him! Stupid low-level gods meddling in our business as usual!" Wh someone else said these words, there was a growling sound in the whole room, and after a few seconds another voice was heard: "There''s nothing to do. If we want to control the gods, this is what we have to do, we can''t ev go down to the th floor because of some deal we don''t ev know where it came from. To take control we must destroy the lower floors, we have only used two but there are thousands more waiting to be used." As this voice rang out in the room, no one made a sound, and only the glowing eyes moved. These seemed to be the people who used the Fall Gods. ----- "Are you sure you want me to increase the poison? This is the third most powerful poison I have, this could kill you James, I''m serious." Noah said suddly, seeming to shock James, who had oped his eyes to look at him. James was breathing in and out deeply and wondering whether he should accept this or not. He thought that he should accept the possibility of such a developmt because he did not know wh he would catch such a developmt again, but at the d of the day, he could not accept that there was such an evt as a vegetative state. It had be almost 5 days, it would be the last time this poison was used, James had be travelling above the th floor for 4 or ev 5 months, so long that he had already turned 4 years old, the fact that so much time had passed since he tered the tower filled him with pride. It must have suddly occurred to him that he had never run away from any danger in all that time, for he looked at Noah with shining, lively eyes and shook his head. He wanted to embrace the poison. Chapter 140: More Dangerous Than The Others Seeing James shake his head, Noah had an incredibly big smile on his face. It was quite possible to say that Noah himself did not expect such an answer, indeed, the shock expression on his face and the seriousness of his appearance seemed to emphasise everything. "Have it your way, whatever you do, don''t faint, if you faint you''ll die, this is not like other poisons, one drop of the poison I''m going to give you right now is enough to dry the forest you see over there. If you accept this, Nyx will retreat, you will be completely alone, and at the end of the test, it will be determined whether you will die or not." Noah suddenly said, and with that, a bottle appeared in his hand. "Send it over," James said, and Noah nodded solemnly and moved off. The water in the cauldron was clear, Noah unscrewed the cap and dipped a toothpick into the bottle and pulled it out, the moment he dipped the toothpick into the water the water turned the darkest green colour there was. It was only a drop from the toothpick that had coloured the water like that. James suddenly realised that he was dizzy, blood was pouring from his nose, eyes, ears and mouth and he was choking. He tried to use his aura but in vain, he tried to bring out his magic but in vain, it was useless, it was as if both his aura and his magic were afraid of this poison. The smell emanating from the poison was so deep and awful that the trees at the edge of the forest, almost 50 metres away from them, began to rot. James could feel his whole body starting to rot like these trees. His automatic healing ability was doing its best, doing everything it could to keep James alive. James wanted to close his eyes, but the pain was so great that his body seemed to be warning him not to close his eyes. Every nerve, every vein in his body was glowing a dark green colour, the bright green colour in his eyes and hair had turned into a glowing dark green. James felt like he was on the 15th floor as he looked up at the sky. "Sea of Stars," he said, spitting blood. He was officially starting to hallucinate. He could see black holes, stars, and planets appearing to his right and left, on the side of his face and in front of his eyes. His whole body felt like it was underwater, heavy and sinking to the bottom of the sea, it was just a cauldron, a cauldron filled with deadly poison, it shouldn''t feel like that, but James felt like he was passing out. He felt like he was floating in space, he was starting to lose himself, his eyes were closing and he was starting to collapse. Suddenly the sound of a text message caught his attention. When he barely managed to open his eyes fully, he managed to see the message in front of him: [DON''T BE RIDICULOUS! STAY AWAKE JAMES!!! DON''T DIE WHILE I''M WAITING FOR YOU!] This message was coming from Nemesis. When James saw the message his head fell back, he realised that he was indeed submerged in the water in the huge cauldron and then he stood up and grabbed the cauldron by one side. With that, James closed his eyes and began to meditate in a standing position. He realised that the enormous amount of Star Magic energy entering his body from the sky was relaxing him. The pain and aggression from the poison was so great that it had even crossed his mind that he could meditate for Star Magic, even though he had done so with previous poisons. The poison was such a terrible thing that even the material the cauldron was made of was corroded, even if only slightly. What was even more surprising was that this poison was not the strongest one Noah had, if this poison could do such a terrible thing, how could the other two? Could these poisons kill gods? Could this be how the future James saw had been shaped? After all, what kind of power could have put Nyx in such a state? With all the questions in James'' mind, time was passing even if he didn''t realise it, what had been a few seconds for him had already turned into a few days, and the pain in his body hadn''t diminished in the slightest, but his addiction to the poison had indeed increased tremendously. Suddenly he felt a force enveloping him and in the next seconds he felt that he was lying on the ground. The cold floor seemed to give him a strange sensation. "Try to open your eyes, James," Noah suddenly said, and when James opened his eyes, he saw the sky again and marvelled at its beauty. Then, with great pain, he managed to smile and uttered the words that would make all the onlookers burst into laughter: "O Nemesis my dearest one, I am so in love with you." "We need to get out the part of the poison that you can''t assimilate," said Noah, who approached James and pricked his index finger with a needle. James thought he had succeeded and smiled, and indeed, after a very, very long time, tears began to stream down his face. A dark green puddle of blood began to run down to the ground and into the forest. "Why is the poison that just killed everything now making the forest green?" James asked, surprised to see that everything in the forest was starting to turn green. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Noah heard this question, he said, "The poison could be an antidote, James, the poison just now was an untamed one, but you managed to tame it. Which means that we are releasing an antidote, the antidote you couldn''t assimilate." James turned his head at this question and then said, "I want to rest, I want to rest badly, I hope I passed your test, Master Noah." Noah couldn''t stop laughing when he heard those words: "Puahahahahaha!!! You were just dying, you idiot! You just meditated for 7 days, even exceeding the 21-day limit, and you struggled with death and you''re wondering about the exam?! PUHAHA YOU''RE SO INTERESTING, YOUNG MAN!" These words alone were enough for Noah to tell James that he loved him. The two would become better friends than they thought. Chapter 141: Prizes When James opened his eyes again, he realized he had woken up in a room. His body hurt like crazy. It didn''t take him long to realize that his body, blood, mana, and aura were still trying to fuse with the poison. When he found the strength to sit up in bed, he did so and then looked out of the window next to where he was lying. Outside the window, he saw the gorilla he had killed, the tigers, the parrots he had passed and the owl he had taught. "You''re alive...what good news," James said suddenly, he kept thinking that these creatures were more special than they looked, he wasn''t lying, he was delighted they were okay. After a short while, multiple notification windows appeared in front of him: [Master Level Poison Element(Godly++++) Understanding the element of poison is everyone''s dream. Fate, time, poison, darkness and light are considered the most powerful among the laws of the tower. Of course, each law is incredibly difficult to develop, but poison is the only one that, unlike the other laws, yearns to kill its user. It is alive, just like fire itself. Even if the degree of this elemental law is high, the training that is put upon it must be thousands of times higher than the degree itself. O great spirit, I hope you do not fall prey to the poison itself and bring about your doom. -Cain the Tailor] James'' eyes widened as he looked at the first notification window, it seemed that Cain, the third and most powerful of the main admins, had written this notification with his own hands, the talent had been handed over to James and the name of the admins had been specially written. James was overjoyed as he closed the notification and pulled it in front of him with a smiling face as he read what came next: [The title of Poison Master has been earned! This title has only been given to 10 people in the history of the tower. It can be earned through the constant purification of the body with poisons that can be considered the most powerful and is earned by being chosen by the elemental law itself, despite the user or player''s desire to stay alive and tame the poison itself. The title will have positive effects: +500 to the Magic stat. Intelligence stat +200. Endurance stat +100. Susceptibility to the poison element increased by 500%]. After reading this notice, James was at a loss for words for almost a minute, seeming to understand why Noah, the examiner, had gone to so much trouble for him. First, he had discovered that he had a predisposition to the element of fire, then thanks to Chronos he had discovered a predisposition to the element of time, these two laws were the laws of creation, but the law of the poison element didn''t fit anywhere. It was not a law of creation like the other two, but of destruction. James had more potential than he realized, the blood in his body, the blood of his lineage and the greatness of his ancestry had given him these gifts. It was indeed enough for him to fall on his knees and beg with joy. However, he saw that there were two notices left to look at, so he closed the window with the Poison Master notice and pulled the other one in front of him: [Congratulations! You have managed to pass all floors between floors 15-19! You''ve managed to secure a position in the race to complete floors fast and earn extra rewards! 17,500,000 Gold has been added to your account. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. A low-level experience point boost potion has been added to your inventory. (Floor Total Rank) 1-Chronos of the Titans 2-Apollo of Olympus 3-Nyx/Erebus of Chaos 4-Zeus of Olympos 5-Enlil of Mesopotamia 6-Umbra of Chaos] James rejoiced at the speed with which he had completed the floor and began to think that this was probably because he should have been given an easier test. Little did he know that the test he had taken was almost 50 times harder than Chronos'' and even Apollo''s, which annoyed the examiner. With that, it was time for the last notification, and after closing the ranking notification, he pulled the last notification in front of him and began to read it: [Congratulations on passing the exam of Noah the Devourer, one of the examiners on the 19th floor for a very long time! At the examiner''s request, the following award has been presented to you: {Noah the Devourer''s Tooth(Creator-----)} The examiner is confident that you will put this tooth to good use]. After reading the last notification, James nodded and happily opened his inventory to find the tooth. It seemed to work in his favour that Ronald had emptied almost all his inventory for him to sell. Having found the tooth, James gently removed it from his inventory with a cloth and saw that it was the same size as Selene''s Throwing Knife. With that, he placed the tooth in his inventory and stood up, albeit with difficulty, as soon as he realized that he was naked, he put some clothes on and did not forget to put on the Adamant armour called Lux. After he was barely out of bed, he realized that his whole body was out of balance, his head was spinning extraordinarily. When he opened the door to her room, he saw Noah standing in the doorway, and to say he was a little scared would be an understatement. "Nyx and the others have been bombarding me with messages, I''m glad to see you''re awake. Nyx would have been mad at me if you were dead, but at least you accepted the poison so I wouldn''t be to blame." Noah said suddenly, and James didn''t know whether to be happy or sad. "Thank you for your help, even though I ended up dying I still managed to live, it was supposed to be a test but I didn''t expect it to be so easy," James said. The audience didn''t know what to say, everyone was silent, no one should have told James how stupid he was. "PUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You are gonna kill me little dude of mine!" Noah suddenly shouted, surprised by the sound and the reaction, James shook his head and then asked, ''Did I say something wrong?'' not understanding what was going on. Chapter 142: Time Wraith Class When Noah heard this question, he gently placed his hand on James'' shoulder and then said, "The test I gave you, James, was almost fifty times harder than the hardest test I''ve ever given, even the one where I beat the shit out of Apollo, I may have killed millions of people in my time for getting on my nerves, but I''m known as the kindest examiner. And you passed my hardest test." James didn''t know what to say, his cheeks were swollen from holding his breath, his head bobbed up and down, and then he said, "Wow." Even this reaction was enough to make everyone laugh. "So whatever happened, I''m a lot stronger as a result of the job, I''m going to do better in the future and it''s all thanks to you, thank you very much, thank you very much indeed, Mr Noah," said James, suddenly hugging Noah and then his stomach growled loudly: "GRUMBLE!!!!!!" The whole house echoed with this stomach rumbling, and then James stopped hugging Noah and embarrassedly said, "I haven''t eaten in days, I''m sorry." After making the audience and Noah laugh once again, everything was over for that day, at that moment, James had things to do. After eating his meal, apologising to the animals he killed and saying goodbye to Mr Owl and Noah for a while, he went to the 20th floor. James had indeed heard a lot about the 20th floor. It was known as the second floor where the Church of Night was most active, and not only that. The 20th floor was where players and users chose their second class. The difference with the first floor was exactly this: On the first floor, the gods would send you cards according to your potential and their willingness to choose you, and you would choose your god or goddess by chance, but this would differ according to the card and contact situation. On the 20th floor, things worked differently. In the temple on this floor, you would send a declaration to the god or goddess of your choice that you would choose them, and if they accepted, you would contact them. The choice was entirely yours. Another difference of the 20th floor was the area that made it known as the [Resting Floor]. Until you chose a god or goddess, the floor seemed to be in outer space, you could not come into contact with anyone, no one could hear you, and no one could even watch you. The beauty of the floor was that you could leave this floor without choosing a class, meaning that you could go to the next floor and come back and choose someone whenever you felt like it. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As soon as you chose someone, the floor would change. This floor was the second floor where the Church of the Night was most active, it was a huge area, a huge area. When you chose your god or goddess, the spatial region collapsed and you were teleported somewhere around the temple, a huge city was waiting for you and you could move to the next floor or stay here. The 5th and 20th floors were where many couples who could not become gods or goddesses stayed because they were safe, so it was possible to find many things there. The 20th floor was such a valuable place. After this information he learnt from Ariel, James walked towards the temple and entered this temple, which looked like a region from the ancient Greeks. After taking a few steps into this perfectly beautiful temple, he came to the place where the altar was located, when he typed "Chronos" in the search field on the system window that opened, an option appeared in front of him. When James clicked on the option and pressed the confirmation button, he said, "Come on, master, let''s see what you can do." [Your election request has been sent to Chronos of the Titans.] [Chronos of the Titans has approved your request.] James smiled after seeing these notification windows in front of him and then said, Well, can we see what I won?" [Class- Time Wraith(Godly++++) Have you ever heard of how time works, of the thoughts of many to go back in time and save their dreams, of the future and the past being irrelevant? Chronos, the titan of time, shows you the absurdity of these possibilities and wishes to offer you the happiness of being a Time Wraith. The user''s stamina will drain 30% slower. The user''s mana capacity has increased by 100%. The user has gained 500% affinity to the law of time. The user has gained the [Destiny(Godly++++)] ability. The user has gained the ability [Vision(Godly++++)]. James couldn''t help but smile as he looked at what he had gained, he had gained fewer abilities than the Class Nyx had given him, but even that was extraordinarily good, so he chose to rejoice rather than cry. He pressed the [Destiny] ability to check the abilities and began to read what was written in the window that appeared in front of him: [Destiny(Godly++++) It is an ability created by Chronos, hand in hand with his Moros. Every 6 months you are granted the ability to see an event that is likely to occur in the future, by the titan of time and destiny itself. Cooldown: 6 months] When James read about this ability, he understood why Chronos and Moros had given it to him, James had learnt about it through the Philosopher''s Stone and now he had this ability. This was good news, every six months he would have to see if the fate of Nyx and the other Chaos-Borns had changed. After closing this window, James wanted to check his other ability, so he pressed the [Vision] ability and started reading what was written in the window in front of him: [Vision(Godly++++) This ability allows you to use the element of time to make predictions, allowing you to see your opponent''s moves on a timeline for three seconds in battle. This ability was created specifically for you by Chronos to prevent you from dying, the original version of the ability consumes a huge amount of magic energy, mana]. Chapter 143: The Throne That Waits Its Owner James was pleased as he looked at the abilities he had gained, as soon as he smiled he realised that his surroundings had started to change and then he started to notice the changes with his naked eyes. Ariel couldn''t see these differences because it was more important to try to save the 5th floor and Moros'' help had made that possible, at least until James arrived on the scene. Now James could see the banners of the Church of Night forming inside the temple and the priests on their knees in worship. Each of the priests and priestesses looked at James with bright eyes, and James soon realised why. When he looked at his own shadow, he saw that it was covering the statue of Nyx that had formed just behind him, he couldn''t hold back a smile and then said, "Right, I mustn''t forget who I respect, who I am." "Could you please take me to the main church? I''d like to talk about some things," he asked, he was not going to continue on his way immediately, he would first rest in the area of the church and then buy hundreds of bottles of strong to weak poison to train himself on poison. As the priests and nuns around heard these words, several suddenly started to move, and only one stopped in front of James. The man was on his knees with his hands clasped together, worshipping James like a god. James smiled as he saw what was happening and pulled the man to his feet with his joined hands. "Please stand up, Master Priest," James said, and with that the man nodded excitedly, almost not knowing what to say. "I would be happy if you would introduce yourself," James suddenly said and the man bowed to James and said, "My name is Leon, Lord Umbra." James couldn''t help but be surprised when he heard these words, he had a smiling face and at the same time, he seemed to be surprised. "I didn''t know you called me lord even here, I''m honoured," James said, and with that the man who introduced himself as Leon bowed again and said, "Our great goddess Nyx told us what you were like, how you saved the fifth floor and everything else, we''d be fools not to call you that, my lord!" With that, several of the departing priests and priestesses returned, pointing outside the temple. James turned one last time to the statue of Nyx and then bowed his head gently and left the temple, saying, "I know you''re watching me, my lady, but I still felt like I had to do this." He had a lot to do, but after a not-very-long time, he arrived at the main church area, where he saw Ariel greeting him. "You''re late, James," Ariel said. Every priest and priestess was surprised to hear the name James, they knew that Ariel was the commander of the church, but no one had thought that he was so close to the lord. ??¡Ì?¦®§®?¦Ñ?£¤? "I am still wondering if I should call you mother or big sister my dear friend Ariel." James suddenly said, Ariel chuckled and then said "You told it yourself no? My dear friend Ariel." With those words, James and Ariel entered the church building and James muttered: "I''m not going to lie, this church looks great," James said. Everyone had to admit that he was right. The church was huge, but in the main hall, or rather in the throne room of the church, everything could be seen easily. There were pictures of each Chaos-Born on the windows of the room or hall, they looked as if they were made together with porcelain glasses. James was amazed that the people in the church recognised the Chaos-Borns, indeed every single glass looked perfect. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. In addition, dozens of paintings were hung on the walls. Thinking about who was skilful enough to draw these paintings, James was stunned by what he saw. "It is said that every single painting here, my lord, painted almost a million years ago, was done by an artist to remind people of what the church was when the power of the church sadly began to weaken. The craftsmanship and power of the artist was immense, he was even rumoured to have been a priest of the church, it is a pity that his name or reputation is now forgotten. At least these paintings bear that honour where we can see it." Leon suddenly said, James nodded his head when he heard these words, he didn''t even need to say anything, Leon had said it all for him and praised him. With that James'' eyes turned to the far end of the hall, what he was looking at could be seen by everyone who had started to follow behind him. James began to walk with slow steps towards the throne at the far end of the hall where the stairs led up. With each step, he seemed to indicate to those in the hall that the owner of the throne had returned. James, who started to climb the stairs one by one, began to think with each step that his ancestor was sitting on this throne a long time ago. With each step, he kept imagining whether he had lived up to this honour or not. He heard the sound of footsteps behind him, and Ariel suddenly passed James and stood by the throne. "I''m training myself in the use of the sword, Moros says I have a lot of potential, which means your head guard should be at your side, and the one the paladin serves should be in his place," Ariel suddenly said. Hearing those words, James made it up the stairs, touched the top of the throne once and stood waiting, as if arguing that this beautiful throne should be praised. Now he would be able to claim another of his ancestor''s legacies. The Black bloodline was officially back in the tower. Chapter 144: The Things James Had Forgotten James looked at the throne for a few seconds, smiled and then sat down. Inhaling deeply, he looked at the dozens of priests and priestesses gathered in front of him. "You didn''t sit on the throne of the Empire, but you wanted to sit here, is there a reason?" Ariel suddenly asked her curiosity piqued. James shook his head and said, "The Empire already has an Emperor, but the Church of Night does not. The throne has been mine for a long time, I just haven''t sat on it, but it''s time to show everyone the might of the Church." At these words some of the priests and priestesses seemed to be unable to hold back their tears, neither James nor Ariel could understand the effect James'' words had on them. For too long they had been under two popes who could not even hear the voice of their goddess. Of course, each of them loved and respected the two, but they needed a true leader. Even if no one remembered, they had a strange feeling that their true leader had returned. In the large glass behind the throne was a drawing of Nyx, like those made for all Chaos-Born, but huge. The light coming in through the glass took on an almost black colour, the colour reflecting off the throne James was sitting on, and the perfect image became apparent to everyone. James looked like Nyx. All the priests and priestesses began to worship again and James, as if he was tired of it, said, "Lift your heads, I am still not a god or goddess." After these words, each worshipper stood up again and seeing this, James said, "I have a job for you, listen carefully." Everyone, including Ariel, began to listen to James. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I want you to find any poison you can find on the 20th floor in the city or wherever we are," James suddenly said, and with that, he pulled a cheque out of his inventory and wrote 25,000,000 gold coins on it. "What are you planning to do with all this poison? Are you crazy?" asked Ariel with a puzzled expression after handing the cheque to Ariel, it was not difficult to see that everyone had the same question. "I thought Moros would have told you, I''m a Poison Master now, I need to improve," James said, and with those words, everyone''s eyes widened. Ariel opened her mouth but didn''t seem to know what to say. A poison master was seen as a superior personality on his name and rank. James had first chosen Nyx, then he had managed to save the fifth floor and kill a Fallen God, and now he had the rank and title of a poison master. There was no way anyone could believe that. [He''s telling the truth, Ariel, I didn''t say that just to see your surprised expression.] Ariel suddenly saw the message from Moros and then said with an angry expression, "If you keep hiding such things from me, I will give you a good slap in the face when I pass the 75th floor and you come to meet me, Master Moros." It was obvious that all the onlookers were surprised, Moros didn''t know what to say, and it was clear that Ariel wasn''t just angry that something was being kept from him. Being a poison master was a lot of work, Ariel could only try to imagine how much pain was involved, but even that seemed to be failing. Ariel''s expression was filled with sadness as she looked at James'' face. Even though James was looking at Ariel with a smile, there was only so much he could say. ¡é*?§Ñ+§â-¦Ó+?§Ô-§ß@¦Ò#¡Ò§ä?@?$-&§à§á!- "Never mind Ariel, it was painful but the reward was good, now I need all the poison we can find, we need to do it before we start climbing." Ariel nodded with a sad expression as James said this and handed the cheque to Abbot Leon to cash it. "The lord''s will is clear, it must be done quickly, Leon," Ariel said, and with that, he bowed to each of the priests and monks and shouted, "Your wish is our command, commander, lord!" Suddenly the huge hall emptied and it was just Ariel and James. "That was stupid, didn''t you know you could die?" Ariel asked. "I mean I knew, or rather I didn''t know until the end, Noah told me that he would only give me the poisons that he said would paralyse me, but I accepted the last poison. After I accepted it, even Nyx couldn''t do anything, it was my choice to die if I did die." James said and Ariel, who heard this, could no longer hold her nerves and hit James hard on the head. "OUCH! What was that for!" James muttered and when he looked at Ariel he felt like all time had stopped. Ariel''s tears were streaming down her tired face. "I care! Are you stupid? If I didn''t care about you as my son, would I tell you my life story?! Are you stupid enough to try to die?! After so long I wanted to trust someone and he''s stupid enough to go and use a deadly poison?!" Ariel suddenly shouted, James didn''t know what to say. In just a few moments, Ariel''s smiling and happy face was replaced by a sad expression of devastation. James seemed to have forgotten. He may have learnt who he was, he may have realised what fate awaited him, or he may have known that he had taken a huge step forward in his adventure of meeting Chaos, but he had forgotten the one thing he shouldn''t have forgotten. James had a big family, a family he couldn''t explain or even remember everyone. Ariel was one of the main members of that family, one of the reasons James had to live. James had witnessed and admired Ariel''s fighting style and composure, but that wasn''t the only reason he invited him. Ariel was like James himself, alone, abandoned. Ariel saw James as his son, and James saw Ariel as a mother figure, just as he saw Nyx, after all, Ariel was the one who took care of everything under the 75th floor and inside the Church of Night, which the gods could not touch, instead of his ''son''. Like a mother protecting her son. These were the true feelings of Ariel, who was an excellent warrior and frightened almost everyone below the 25th floor. James had every reason to try not to die, and even he seemed to have forgotten that. He may have been a Black descendant, but he wasn''t Desmond. He was James Arthur Black, he was the Umbra of Chaos, he was the Shadow of the Goddess, he was the leader of the Church of Night....he was the head of this huge family. "I''m sorry...Ariel." Chapter 145: Three Old Friends "I''m sorry, Ariel, I am. It''s what I had to do to pass Noah''s test, I swear. If I hadn''t agreed I wouldn''t have passed, I had to take that gamble." James said, and it seemed to hurt Ariel even more. "I don''t care, I have no intention to lose another child of mine, not again," Ariel said it was obvious that these words stabbed James'' heart. James didn''t think he would be so sad on such a beautiful day, he thought Ariel would be happy for him. "Look James, I didn''t join you to go through the pain of having a child again. I didn''t want to watch you from afar and watch you go and kill yourself and regret it, so I joined you. You may be cruel, but you''re also a very kind and innocent child, and you forget that. The Tower is full of cruel, disloyal and disgusting people. You can be sure, that even the demons are better than most angels, that''s how stupid this tower is." Ariel said and continued without even giving James a chance to speak: "I''ve told you many times that I consider you my son, and I don''t want what happened to my daughter to happen to you. You''re strong, you''re even strong enough to fight me at my full power right now and kill me, but you''re not a god, you''re not a creator, and you can die, James." "Ariel...." James could only bring himself to say the name of the sad old woman in front of him. "You gave me not only a reason to live but also Miracle who I can love like a granddaughter and Nemesis who I can love like a daughter even though she''s way way older than me, strangely Nemesis treats me like I''m your mum, well technically I could say that. How can I face them if you go and die? How can I face them when I''m the one who should be there for you?" James took a deep breath as Ariel finished, he seemed to know what she was going to say, but he refused to speak. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He pulled a cloth from his inventory, wiped Ariel''s tears away, then smiled and said, "Both you Ariel...and Nyx, I have two mother figures in my life. I have met many people and made many family members, but I must have forgotten...how those around me cared for me. Forgive me, I will do things like this again in the future, there will be events like this, but you all will not leave my mind for a second so I will always come back, I promise." James said. When Ariel heard these words, the sadness on her face began to disappear and then she hugged James, saying, "This...is acceptable." Everything seemed awkward between the two of them for a few minutes after that, James trying hard not to laugh and shaking his head slowly up and down. Amid all this awkwardness, the doors to the parlour suddenly opened and Theseus walked in. James and Ariel suddenly turned to each other and a small laugh broke out between them, Theseus smiled awkwardly and asked, "I can''t look that funny, why are my two best friends laughing at me?" "It''s not because of you Theseus, I''m glad you''re here, I really am glad that you''re here." Ariel said, and although she didn''t quite believe it, Theseus shook his head and said, "I came at your request James, I heard you had something to tell me." James shook his head when he realised that the two had finished talking and then said, "I was going to ask you to find me as much poison as you can find on the 5th floor, and since I haven''t seen you face to face in a long time, I wished we could meet and have dinner." Theseus seemed surprised by what he heard, he did not know why someone like James wanted poison. It seems Poseidon had not informed his followers like Moros. "Poison Master," Ariel said, pointing to James with her head, a mixture of concern and anger evident on Theseus'' face. "Have you gone mad? How could you even try to do something like this?!" Theseus shouted, he had the same reaction Ariel had. "Don''t even try Theseus, I went through the same thing before you came, thanks to Noah the examiner." Ariel said and with those words, Theseus moved his head to the right in a strange way and said "If you say so Ariel." and sat down on the floor. James got up from the throne and went down the stairs and sat down opposite Theseus, took out a few pieces of food put them on the cloth he had put on the floor and signalled Ariel to come. Ariel had become close friends with Theseus during the battle of the 5th floor and the pair were among the closest to James, which meant that the three friends were reunited after some time. Conversations and laughter echoed through the huge hall and the trio enjoyed the fun, while in the empty hall of Olympus, other conversations were taking place. ----- "I don''t know who they are, but we''re sure they''re on the move, they''re somehow managing to bring the Fallen Gods out of the forgotten time," Gaia said suddenly, as all the titans seemed to have gathered and entered into a meeting. "Yeah, and we can''t even find out who they are!" Coeus muttered. "This is ridiculous! I''ve scanned the entire tower from top to bottom, the first floor and even the tutorial floor, nothing!" shouted Hyperion. "We know what they''re up to, we shouldn''t leave him alone, are we sure Theseus will be enough?" asked Phoebe. "I don''t know, it''s obvious they''re after James'' destiny, they''ve managed to move the fifth floor, which he''ll come back to in a heartbeat, and the ninth floor, which he has to pass through. The person Nyx killed was one of them, what was his race?" Theia said with great curiosity. Eyes turned to Nyx with that question, each one of them had to watch this great woman, the strongest of them all, with curious eyes. "He was human." Chapter 146: So It Was Nyxs Fault? "He was human." At Nyx''s words, everyone except Erebus seemed stunned, even Chronos seemed unaware of what had happened. exclusive-content-MvLeMpYr "A human? Those greedy beings!" Mnemosyne shouted, about to go mad. "Was he as dangerous as Sopdu, Nyx?" Chronos asked calmly. "More than you can imagine, when I looked into his eyes I remembered the darkness when I first met Desmond, not as compassionate as the darkness of Erebus...That man was evil," Nyx said. Even those words were enough for each of them. "Should we send Hecate away? If she reduces her form to low, she might be able to make it down to the 75th floor," asked Hestia. "No way, James won''t forgive us," Erebus muttered. Every titan in the hall knew that every one of these words was true, many gods and goddesses were waiting to go down to the 75th floor, if someone like Hacate crossed that border, it would mean that everyone could cross it. This seemed to emphasise another of the main aims of those who were trying to revive the Fallen Gods. All the titans paused in great surprise, each of them suddenly thinking the same thing, the purpose of those bastards and their whereabouts suddenly dawning on everyone. "I may need to ask my father," Nyx said suddenly, and Chronos, hearing this, said, "I''ll come with you, Erebus watch the hall, the rest of you please watch James, no one should approach him right now. Either there is a traitor in Olympus or these bastards are from there..." Hearing those words, the aura around Hyperion seemed to suddenly rise. "You mean those bastards are from outside the tower?" asked Hyperion, asking something that everyone else was thinking but didn''t want to admit. The only reason they wouldn''t want to admit it was that if that were the case, Nyx and the Titans, Leyla, Ronald and Cain, and the Supreme Dragons outside the tower would have destroyed the security of the tower. None of them could accept such a thing. "I''m going out of my mind. You''re telling me that they managed to get past us, who are always on guard? I can understand that in a way, but they can''t get past the Supreme Dragons!" Crius was quite right, every single Supreme Dragon was always alert in the only sense of the word, they did nothing else, and with their long life spans, millions of years seemed like just a day to them. "In that case, we can agree that there is no way in from the outside, maybe they somehow managed to send a message from the outside to the inside," Chronos said. "It''s not unreasonable, but it''s also not logical, the tower''s system has intelligence and will, and the tower we are in is alive Chronos, is there anyone who can break this system other than Chaos?" asked Hyperion, but as soon as they asked this question, everyone thought of one person. "We know he didn''t do it, but...." Erebus said. "James...the return of the Black bloodline to the tower must have opened a gap in the tower''s will," Nyx said, taking a big deep breath and putting her hand to her forehead, starting to worry about the possibility of that. "So basically they don''t know who James is, if our theories are correct. Maybe he had nothing to do with the people outside the tower, it''s not like it''s the only sacred place in 24 existence, they wouldn''t have the guts to come and kidnap him just because someone broke causality. Especially with Chaos watching them." Hyperion added he was right. "Like I said, it''s best to ask my father, it''s obvious what needs to be done." Nyx said and stood up, turning back before he and Chronos passed through the passage he had opened in the hall, "Let''s hope that what happened was just a result of finding old spells in the tower, otherwise, this will no longer be a game for us gods. Remember...as murderous as the tower may be, this place is for those who have given up hope." With those words, the duo''s surroundings changed again as they passed through the portal, this time Chaos seemed to be hiding from Nyx. "I''ve been waiting for you, I know you have questions, come, let''s talk," Chaos said suddenly, this time looking much younger and more imposing than before. "Father, you know what our questions are, we just want to take precautions, we have high hopes that you can give us the answers." said Nyx, after these words, Chaos opened his eyes wide in shock and then smiled and said, "You already know the answer, but I think I can tell you, you look very worried." With that, an image appeared in the upper part of the environment they were in. "No kidding..." Chronos said, and it was obvious why he was surprised. They both knew what they were looking at, they didn''t even know if Chaos was joking, but they hoped it was a joke. "Are you kidding me, dad?" Nyx asked, not expecting to see this item here. "I mean, it''s not a joke, they found it and removed all the harmless dark magic from it before putting it back, and the result is something that could attract the hatred of the Fallen Gods." "NYX!" shouted Chronos, seeming to blame the whole thing on him in a way. This item was like a piece of Nyx''s destroyed churches, Nyx didn''t know what to say. "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO YOU DUMB CHRONOS!?" shouted Nyx, as if the brothers were fighting. "I don''t know maybe be better and make some people check the ruins of old churches?" said Chronos and suddenly Nyx was silenced. This item, or piece of item, carried a tiny fragment of Desmond''s aura, which explained why the Fallen Gods'' hatred had grown so enormously strong. Thanks to this hatred and the black magic stolen from the item, the spirits of the Fallen Gods were able to feed themselves even though they were dead inside the tower. It was up to the gods to find the item. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 147: Starting the Lessons "Alright, it''s my fault, but it doesn''t change the fact that we can find the item, we just have to move quickly and surely," Nyx said, clearly trying to avoid a rebuke, but the rebuke hadn''t even begun. As if not wanting Chronos to speak, Nyx turned to Chaos and asked, "Dear father, can you tell me where to find the shard?" Chaos chuckled awkwardly after these words and then replied, "That is one of the things I will not do, my dear daughter." Chaos''s words seemed to surprise the duo. "Why exactly? If you tell me where the piece is, no one will have to die," Nyx added, and with that, Chaos opened his arms wide, looking intently into his daughter''s eyes: "Where is the fun in that?" With those words, Nyx and Chronos seemed to remember who the creator of the murderous tower was, and of course, the creator of the tower would have an even stranger personality than the tower itself. At Chaos'' words, a portal opened into the hall of Olympus and Nyx and Chronos returned. As they stepped into the hall, all eyes turned to the duo. Looking at Chronos'' face, the Titans saw the expression on the time titan''s face and instantly realised that Nyx had done something wrong. As each of them turned to Nyx, Nyx realised that she could no longer escape without being scolded, and with that, she said, "Alright, my father has shown us what the problem is. Cough...it could have been me, there''s a small chance." Chronos shook his head when he heard these words and then said, "The blame lies entirely with Nyx. In short, a piece of an item found in one of the destroyed temples that contained both Desmond''s aura and Nyx''s dark but pure magic was left, or rather forgotten, and guess what?" As the titans around them heard these words, they each looked at each other for a few seconds, and a shout came out of each of their mouths at the same time: "NYX!" After this shout, Nyx sat back down in one of the seats around the table and then said with a sweet expression, "I hope you can help me." At these words, the Titans looked at each other again, and then old Hyperion''s voice was heard: "Of course, we will, but you have to be careful, there are hundreds of churches in ruins and who knows what treasures are in them, the priests have to step in, and you have to tidy everything up before the same thing happens again." Hyperion''s words seemed to have everyone in agreement, and with that, there was no more to talk about. After Chronos'' brief explanation, the idea that these events had nothing to do with the exterior of the tower was burned into everyone''s minds, which meant that somewhere inside the tower, things were moving further and further every second. Still, the fact that James was being targeted did indeed demand greater vigilance. Also, the fact that the Fallen Gods could remember Desmond and that the people who brought the Fallen Gods back could use his aura posed a great danger. Each and every one of the titans, each and every power point in the vast hall, was certain that if this danger did not end soon, James would not be the only one in danger, precautions had to be taken, and they had to be taken quickly. ----- It had been almost thirty days, James was constantly purifying the poisons he had put into his body and with each passing day his hair and eye colour began to glow a brighter green, a strange sight indeed, but it was far too cool for the poison to have such an effect. Still, James could clearly recognise that the poison in his body had become much purer, even if only slightly. The blood of the Black bloodline in his veins was officially accepting the poison directly, however, it was time for real action, James knew there was something else he had to do before he could climb above the 20th floor. He had Desmond Black, the most powerful man who had ever existed, who wanted to teach him the art of the sword directly, and James had to learn that art. If he didn''t want to see Ariel cry again, and even worse, if he didn''t want Nemesis to go through the same thing, it had to happen. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was because of this desire that James had wished that Desmond would stop anyone who didn''t know about it from watching him, he just thought it had to happen so that no one could see his strange behaviour. With that, James waited in the huge throne room, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown in front of him, and after a short time, the person he was waiting for, Vlad Black, appeared in front of him. The old man had a large figure, one could say that he was twice the size of James in terms of figure. He looked like an old but strong man with broad shoulders and a determined figure. MVLEmPyR-your-story-source Vlad stood solemnly and sternly in front of James and looked at the young man in front of him. "My dear ancestor, please tell me what I must do, I swear I will do my best," James suddenly said. Vlad shook his head proudly and said, "Take out your sword," as if these were the words they wanted to hear. James stood up after these words and took Clarent out of his inventory. As Vlad examined the sword in the young man''s hand more carefully, he shook his head and then said, ''Weak.'' James seemed surprised at what he was hearing, the sword in his hand was one of a kind in every sense of the word, a holy sword. "I don''t understand, it''s a special sword, how can it be weak? Seriously though, it does not make sense." James suddenly asked. His curiosity was piqued. Chapter 148: What Clarent And You Can Become "I don''t understand, how can a special sword ancestor be weak?" James suddenly asked. His curiosity seemed to be piqued. At James'' question, Vlad shook his head and then said, "It is a beautiful sword, but it will be weak, if not too weak, for the enemies you are likely to fight in the future." The old ancestor''s words made perfect sense to James, but planning to throw Clarent into a corner was the last thing he wanted to do, and so he felt it necessary to say something, even if it was disrespectful. Just as he opened his mouth and was about to speak, Clarent suddenly began to tremble. Seeing Clarent shaking, Vlad smiled and then looked at the sword and said, "That''s what you have to do, it doesn''t matter that you are a replica, you have a soul, don''t forget that." and continued to speak without stopping: "The blood spilt on you, the hearts you pierced, the monsters you made cry, the beings you left to die and the gods you managed to kill! Remember every one of them! Remember all those souls that you hacked and slashed, who rushed forward cruelly to take the life of their master. Thrive and continue to make your master proud." Vlad said, his spirit growing more and more euphoric with each passing second. "If you do these things, one day you will cease to be a replica, your name will no longer be Clarent, but your own personality, your own image and your own consciousness. You will want nothing more than to be your devoted owner instead of what you remember in your original body, that will be your commitment." "But if you refuse to do these things, all you will see in the end is to be cast aside, do not be so foolish as to wish only for your master, young sword spirit, you are Clarent now, but you can become a thousand times the true Clarent." Vlad fell silent as he uttered these words and then the Clarent in James'' hand stopped vibrating, seeming to settle down. "I thought the lesson was supposed to be for me," James suddenly said, a little jokingly of course. "Your sword needed to understand something, you don''t want to be separated from it, and if it doesn''t want that to happen, it needs to come to some realisation." At Vlad''s words, James nodded as if he understood and waited, ready to learn. "Your aura is quite different from my father''s and mine James, my father had a huge amount of light aura and that''s where his power came from, it was much easier for him to cut down the bastards who mostly used [evil] black magic. Still, with your aura it''s not that hard to teach this art, it''s just going to require a slightly heavier training style." Vlad said suddenly, James was taking notes in his mind while listening to the old ancestor. "This sword art is divided into 3 parts. The first one works on slashing, which you do very well. As you can see in Unknown''s Sword Scabbard, the scabbard is made for a very thin sword, a very sharp sword, and a sword that requires a particular mastery of piercing." "What you need to do is to refine your aura. I have been able to get a few ideas about your aura based on the information I have observed myself and the information I have received from your aunt, both in the later and on the previous floors. Aura is a power that you cannot easily master even if you have it to the highest degree, which is why it is much less preferred than magic and only a very small part can use it in the best way." "So what I am going to teach you is to maximise that potential. Start using your aura for me and we''ll go through it in detail." James had his sword in a ready position for slashing after all he had heard and then he released his aura and great flames appeared in the hall. It was handy that the flames couldn''t do any damage unless the owner of the aura gave permission. Vlad shook his head in disappointment as he watched the young boy in front of him use his aura. "Look James your aura is special. There are several reasons for this, but before I explain it, let me tell you exactly what aura is, I''m sure Chronos and the others have explained it to you properly, but the use of aura in this art is more special, so you should understand that." Vlad coughed and started to continue his speech. "Aura is a force that penetrates all the blood cells, veins, bones and even the skin in your body, all your nerve cells are affected by this force. thanks-for-using-MvLeMpYr.com The reason why you are using your aura incorrectly is that you are releasing the aura from your body, you are only able to use a small part of the released aura to use that power, this is the reason for the flames and small particles of time around you." "What you need to do is to feel that aura in every cell and atami in your body, borrow that aura and spread it completely to a single point and when you master it, spread it all over your body. If I were alive, I could demonstrate it live, but all I can do now is tell you." "Now, if you have understood even a little of what I have said, stop letting the aura out of your body, let it burn inside your body, let it run and benefit you, and when you have succeeded in doing so, pierce the aura itself and pass through it." Having heard Vlad''s words, James closed his eyes, trying to feel the aura inside his body, of course, he was succeeding, but every second he did it, it was as if the aura in his body was leaving him. With just a few simple words James realised the mistake, he could see how he had misused the aura. He didn''t know what to do to stop letting the aura out and that was the main problem, that''s why he immediately stopped using his aura, sat down on the floor and started meditating after getting into the cross-legged position. When Vlad saw this, he shook his head up and down with pride and confirmed that James was on the right track. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 149: The Story Vlad Creates James may not have known it, but he was trying to accomplish one of those things that were even more difficult than the time elemental he had just gained, and if he could do it, and even if he couldn''t do it fully, the benefit to him would be enormous. As James was filled with these thoughts and trying to meditate at least and try to keep his aura under control, Vlad''s voice was heard again: "There was one thing my father always wished for. He hoped that one day there would be someone who could use magic and aura at the same time, or rather he hoped that there would be someone stupid enough to try to do it, after all, what kind of maniac would try to get magic and aura at the same time?" James felt strangely embarrassed and hurt by these words, but what could he say? After all, James had unknowingly done it. "So while I learnt the aura style and the sword, one of my siblings learnt the magic style and the art of the spear. My father hoped that when the time came, the two powers could be combined into one weapon, and since my sister and I trained in the same place and at the same time, I know everything, so I will teach you." "Your aura protects your body, and your heart itself is protected as all the blood cells are involved James, so you can survive even if your magic rings explode, that''s what I''m going to teach you, that''s exactly the style my father had in mind." "My father kept thinking of a way to use magic in a fiery or pure explosive way, or as a beam of light, and when he finally succeeded, he ended up with an excellent magic user like my sister." "If you can channel aura and magic into your sword at the same time you can do something that no one else can do James, I''m not talking to you about casting a beam of magic through the sword or using a little of your aura to support your magic, I''m talking to you about a technique my father called [Magical Weapon Mastery]." "I''m talking about a style, an art, where there''s no limit to what you can do. Think! There is a Fallen God in front of you, and you have a tired body. Your aura, your magic and the Clarent you hold in your right hand are all you have left. You activate the magic rings that surround your heart, the magic flows through your veins like aura, invades all your blood cells and merges with them." James heard Vlad''s every word, and because James had allowed them to, Nyx and the others were able to hear them too, in a way, they were watching everything from James'' body, not from above him. Maybe they were seeing darkness, but every word they heard made their blood boil and sent shivers down their spines. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I''m not just talking about merging with fire and time, your mastery of aura is so perfect that you can feel the magic merging with it. Like the heat energy from the lava advancing every second in your tired body, mana merges with aura and finally manages to flow into Clarent." "Clarent has encapsulated his soul and is no longer a replica, he has become so thin and so durable that he can carry this energy, this aura, this power that comes out of you." MVLeMpYr-novel-source Each of Vlad''s words made the heartbeat of the audience accelerate, it was so exciting to listen to! "Suddenly you pull Clarent, your sword, backwards and then lunge forwards to slice it open. You failed to reach the target, you are too weak, your body is too tired, but you have done everything necessary. Your sword is so thin that the combination of your magic and your aura vibrated and vibrated in the sword itself, reaching its final form." "You were able to use the formula of creation as the creator himself. You were able to combine aura, the energy of life, and magic, the energy of nature. You who had the aura of 8 sacred fires and you who could use the energy of time were able to combine everything, the energies of all the poisons you drank were added to your attack and time stopped even though you attacked from hundreds of metres away." "You used your aura so well that the enemy has nothing left to do. You are weak and this may be your last attack, but your last attack will hit, unless Chaos himself comes and stops the attack, that attack will hit the target." "Time has stopped, but as your bleeding tired body pulls you to your knees it will feel like hundreds of years have passed, the desire to return to your family, the desire to live and the desire to exist for what you want to protect will give you that feeling!" "BOOM!" Everyone jumped at the sound of this explosion, even the Titans couldn''t help but do this, everyone was listening so attentively to the story that it was hard not to get scared and jump. "You have done it James, you have learnt an art so perfect, you have entered that small part of yourself that manages to use your aura in a gigantic way, and you have managed to use your magic positively. You became the first Magical Weapons Master in existence. Your target, your enemy, fell and lost his life, you won the battle." "And James, this is exactly what I am going to teach you, get up and feel your aura, transform it in your body, let it disturb you, let it take you over, let your aura use you, James!!!" At these words Vlad, James jumped to his feet in just half a second and felt the aura that started to rotate in his body within a second. The aura automatically flowed to Clarent as if it started to act according to James'' will and Vlad''s command, and then a very thin but very powerful aura flew out of the tip of the sword. The aura dissipated without damaging anything, but James had succeeded. Chapter 150: The Art of Piercing "Well done, James," Vlad said. James fell to his knees and, with sweat dripping from his head to the floor, he barely looked up and looked at his old ancestor one more time. All the Titans and Chaos-Borns watching the scene were thinking the same thing as James: "So this is Vlad Black, the first of the Black bloodline, perhaps the purest since Desmond. The child of the God Killer." "I''m not sure I can do all that you say, my ancestor, I barely managed to spin my aura and there wasn''t even any magic involved," James said, his words were very matter of fact, it was only with that gesture that he was pinned to his knees. "Did you think you were going to become a master with your first move, James? What we are doing now is combining my father''s sword art with magic, you will hardly feel the magic itself until you have done it a hundred times. Remember, one drop will make a watermark but hundreds of them can fill a bucket." Vlad replied the truth in his words was enormous. After all, James had been consistently successful in whatever he had ever tried his hand at, and of course, he wanted to be a quick success in this business. There was no way he could do that, and he was only now realising that reality. He had only just learnt how to spin his aura around a little bit inside his body instead of releasing it from his body, and it was difficult for him to understand how to do that, let alone how to combine his aura and magic. Of course, his aura could possess the magic he possessed, but that was only when James was releasing his aura outward, releasing both his aura and the energy in his body, the mana, giving him the power to use magic and aura at the same time. But what Vlad wanted to do was different. Vlad wanted to perfect the young boy in front of him, James, he wished to raise him to a higher level than his father''s greatness. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. His use of aura and then his use of magic had to be so perfect that he could do everything in Vlad''s imaginary story in a matter of seconds. His power had to build so quickly that even at his worst, he had to be able to do it with the last bits of aura and magic left in every cell of his body. This was exactly what James Vlad wanted to create. Get up and do it again, you''ve got the basics down, even if you can''t put it into practice yet, you have to do it until you pass out to become perfect. Vlad suddenly said, and James, who was still breathing deeply at these words, looked at him. He didn''t even have the strength to get up and take a step, he was broken, there was no pain in his body, but every muscle was hurting and he felt the pressure of his heartbeat in all his veins. "I don''t have the energy to move, even if I knew what to do," James said, and then he heard Vlad''s calm but deep voice: "Is that what you''re going to say when it''s your family you have to go back to on the battlefield? Wasn''t it Nemesis who woke you up in that cauldron of poison? Stand up and do what I have taught you again, this is only the first stage of the piercing style. There is another style of piercing you will learn, a style based solely on the aura." the-place-MVLeMpYr At Vlad''s words, James was surprised to learn that one of the three main styles he was going to learn, the slashing style, was divided into two, he had not expected to find such information. He told himself that it was time to learn all the styles now and get stronger and use them to improve in battle. Vlad was clever though, he could see what James was thinking with a single glance and then said, "First things first young boy, now get started.". James had somehow managed to get to his feet, he didn''t know how. He had pulled Clarent back and stopped on that move he had made to pierce something, to pierce something, in short, to destroy, and he was about to start spinning his aura when suddenly Vlad''s words were heard: "Keep your feet firmly on the ground. You rely on your speed and that''s why you look ready to attack or ready to dodge, but that''s a weakness, James, keep your feet firmly on the ground and let the ground help you as you rotate your aura in every cell, you will be less tired of sure." James closed his eyes as soon as he heard these words and began to use the entire sole of his foot instead of the tips of his toes to make his stance more stable. As soon as he started to rotate his aura, he discovered that he was indeed expending much, much less energy than before. As he was used to radiating his aura outwards he was unable to stop it completely and this caused a slight slowing down, although compared to earlier times he still had an incredibly small amount of aura radiating outwards. However, James began to save himself for when he felt he was ready, a second, two seconds, half a minute passed and then he opened his eyes and thrust the sword forward intending to use it to slice Clarent. "SWOOSH!" It sounded as if the air had been cut off. The aura was nowhere to be seen, and even when James opened his eyes, there was no sign or glow of any kind. "What happened?" James asked and Vlad heard him and said, "What do you mean what happened? You failed," was Vlad''s reply. James couldn''t understand what he had done wrong when he looked at Vlad he realised he wasn''t going to get any answer and then he started to think, after all, he had just repeated what he had just done. He swirled the aura that was constantly moving around inside his body, after only a few seconds he looked at Clarent with the sword in his hand and then asked, "I forgot to add my aura to the sword, didn''t I?" Throughout the entire 150th floor, all the Titans and Chaos-Borns could be heard in the hall, each of them tapping their hands on the back of their faces. Not only James, but even the high gods and titans seemed to have forgotten about it, as they were strangely excited, and the fact that everyone was stupid seemed to raise the issue of how they were still alive. Chapter 151: This Is How You Can Go Perfect When James stood up again after his stupidity, his ring suddenly began to tremble, after a small flash, Emily stepped out of the ring and said, "I''m bored, I want to watch from outside." After these words, James took a deep breath and then closed his eyes and began to rotate the aura in his body in the same way. After a short time, the aura managed to flow fully into the sword this time and that sound appeared again: "SWOOOSHH!!!" This time the sound of the air being cut off was more detailed and serious, and an incredible energy travelled to the door of the hall and dissipated. Anyone who saw Vlad''s expression could see that the old man was filled with pride, James seemed to be able to do it of his own volition. "You have done well enough, even if it is something that needs training, get some rest and then I will show you the second style of slashing, I assure you it is dozens of times more difficult than what you are doing now," Vlad said and suddenly his spirit vanished and this time the sword did not enter the scabbard but the ring James was wearing. James collapsed to the floor, James was close to fainting from exhaustion as his aunt disappeared, grumbling that she had just left the ring to watch them. His eyes blurred and then he disappeared. ----- "I don''t understand, the words that the old ancestor said, the imaginary story that he wrote in an instant, it was as if it was very, very real. I felt like I was in the middle of a battlefield." Thanatos said, his hair still standing on end. "I agree, I''d like to ask James for permission to practice this art myself, my aura is huge and now that I have a way to make it stronger, I''m sure I''ll get even stronger," Nemesis said as she got bored and went out to her family and joined the squad watching James. "He may not let us, but he''ll let you, Neme," Morus said suddenly, and with that, Nyx''s words were heard: "So he''s our Desmond''s son, still it is weird to know, we are seeing the son of our best friend, huh?" find-more-stories-on-MVLeMpYr S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. There was no accounting for the pressure those words put on everyone. Everyone could see Nyx''s face in great detail, and it was impossible not to feel sad. "Come on Nyx, don''t worry, we still have work to do, tell the church leaders to search the ruined churches and pick up their belongings, I''m sure there are hundreds of them still in ruins," Hyperion said, his mind still troubled on the other side. Nyx nodded when she heard those words and then stood up, saying, "You''re right, we have work to do." Nyx soon left the hall and then the palace, and then entered her temple. As she descended to the lower part of the temple, she came across an altar, which was connected to the altar of the main temple on the 5th floor, so when Nyx wanted to communicate with her followers, she did so from there. When Nyx stood before the altar, she raised her hand and then began to speak. As the massive 5th-floor altar began to glow, the duo of Datura and Aether soon reached the altar and began to listen to Nyx''s words: "O my great followers. Though we have not been able to identify those who started the war, those who wreaked havoc, and those who attacked, we have found where they gained their power." As Datura and Aether prayed and the other priests and priestesses prostrated themselves, everyone became curious, and Nyx''s voice was heard again as the imperial family entered and began to pray as Datura and Aether did: "The dishonourable infidels are unfortunately damaging the tower with my power. I want you to go and check all our ruined churches as soon as possible. Search every ruin and find the artefacts left behind. I can sense many sacred items, we need to retrieve them, we have to do it before things get worse." By the time Nyx''s words were heard by Datura and Aether the duo had finished praying, the light and sound from the altar had disappeared, signalling that the mission had been handed over. As the pair stood up the priests and priestesses stood ready for battle, after all, most of the destroyed churches were located in dangerous places. "You have heard the order of our goddess! It is clear what you are to do! Go and fulfil the mission," said the old woman Datura, every second counted for them, they had to be fast and serious." With that, the mission began. James was in training time, the Titans were in the process of finding the perpetrators and the Church of Night was in the search for artefacts and artefacts left behind. ----- "Are you awake?" James looked up when he heard those words and opened his eyes, realising the moment he saw the throne lying in the middle of the living room and his curiosity was piqued when he saw Ariel''s strange expression. "I don''t suppose you have any idea how long I''ve been asleep?" James asked and Ariel shook her head and said, "You were asleep when I checked on you three days ago, you were still asleep when I came in here this morning, and now that it''s evening time...let''s say four." James tried to stand up when he heard those words and struggled with the pain that suddenly shot through his body, it couldn''t just be from his training. He turned to Ariel and said while holding his own neck: "Hey Ariel, if you find me sleeping in a place like this, please ask someone to carry me to my room, my whole body is stiff." These words forced Ariel to giggle and then she said, "There''s nothing I can do, I would if that ring didn''t glow every time I got close to you." James shook his head, looking at the ring on his finger after these words. "Thanks anyway, there''s nothing to do," James suddenly said and then stood up and said, "I''ll continue my training, please continue to make sure no one gets in here." Seeing Ariel''s approval, he yawned and said, "My ancestor, we can continue." Chapter 152: The Second Part of Piercing "Now I can teach you the second style of disembowelling," Vlad''s spirit said as he and Emily emerged from the ring James was wearing. When James nodded his head in agreement, Vlad''s voice was heard again. "The first of the three parts of my father Desmond''s sword art is the slashing, which you have already learnt, but the style of this part, of course, does not consist of a single style. My father called them [dances]. The first art and the second part, the Piercing, is made up of two styles, two movements, just two of them." "The first movement is known as the finisher, which you can learn the basics of and put into practice in a small way, and the second movement is known as the wounding, which is much easier to use but much more difficult to professionalize." "Wounding?" James asked, listening to Vlad while trying to learn the styles of course. "Exactly. The finisher allows you to attack by releasing all the aura you''ve gathered by spinning it into your sword or any weapon, but wounding is not like that. Again, you spin your aura to gather it and transfer it to your sword, but you don''t release the energy in a single strike. What you need to do is release the energy bit by bit in successive slashing attacks and keep the enemy as far away from you as possible, or kill them if you''re lucky,'' Vlad said. "So you are saying that what I need to do is to keep the aura I have gathered in my sword Clarent for as long as possible and release the aura gathered in a small way in my serial stabbing movements?" James asked. When he saw Vlad''s confirmation, he moved back to the ready position and then, taking a deep breath, he swirled his aura and transferred it to his sword, then he quickly pierced the air and pulled it back, trying to do this repeatedly. After doing this only twice, he realised that all the aura in the sword had dissipated and the aura swirling around his body had disappeared. Curiously looking at Vlad, he wondered what was going on. He didn''t want to give up and wanted to try to understand what was going on before he asked Vlad questions, so he did it again, but this time the aura disappeared as he made the second piercing motion. He had no idea what was going on, wasn''t this style supposed to be easier than the first one? "Do you know why you failed?" Vlad asked, and as James shook his head from side to side to indicate no, he exhaled deeply and began to speak. "You can spin your aura well, you''ve picked up what you''ve been taught quickly. You can inject your aura into the sword well, and that''s good, but you can''t release the aura from the sword properly. The aura should be in such a tense state that when you release it, the effect should last. Why do you think only a small fraction of aura users can do that?" Vlad continued when he noticed James'' curious and uncomprehending eyes. "Look, James. The reason why you need to rotate your aura is not only to keep it from escaping out of the body but also to turn your aura into a tense state so that your attack can go beyond the concept of aura and act just like a spell, which is what you did in the first style. Doing it 6 times in a row corresponds to this, each time you release some of your stored aura with all its tension." As Vlad finished speaking James put his free hand to his chin and then squinted his eyes at Clarent as if deep in thought, after a short time he said: "So what you''re saying is that I''m not stretching the aura enough?" Hearing James'' question, Vlad nodded his head and then said, "Exactly." After a short time, he went to James'' side and put himself in the same attack position as James and then a sword formed in his hand. James assumed that since his ancestor wasn''t alive, he couldn''t make a live demonstration, at least that''s what Vlad had said. "How come you?" James said questioningly, obviously surprised, how could he not be? "Come on James, I tried to teach you by pressurising you and it worked, of course, I can make my soul seem alive in a way, I just can''t affect reality," Vlad said with a mocking expression. James had indeed chosen not to say anything out of respect, but looking into his eyes Vlad could see the disappointment in the eyes of the young boy looking back at him. With that, Vlad stopped where he was and then said, "Watch carefully." Then something that emitted no sensation at all made Vlad''s soul glow, and after a short time, in just half a second, six piercing movements were performed by Vlad. MVLeMpYr-unofficial-chapter Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. A gigantic glow immediately travelled to the throne of the hall and passed through it. James and everyone else watching everything through his eyes seemed to be quite surprised. In a world where there were no real monsters, it was quite intriguing that a man who could evolve so gigantically could exist. He was Vlad Desmond''s son, though, so the man who was scarier than the gods should have been able to train him well enough. "Did you see? Did you notice how I did the attack, how much aura I used each time?" Vlad suddenly asked, the words alone were enough to stun everyone. How could James himself have seen this? Well, James was indeed a fast man, but not as fast as his ancestor, such as the monster in front of him. There was no way that was even remotely possible at his current level. "Of course I didn''t see it!" James suddenly shouted, seemingly unable to stand it, he couldn''t imagine seeing such an attack. Chapter 153: Piercing Is Done, Now It Is Cutting James had never realised that what his ancestors had taught him was so destructive. He thought that if he could influence reality, Vlad could break through the 20th floor with just a few moves. If Vlad was so powerful, how powerful could his ancestor Desmond, who was feared by everyone, be? Amid these thoughts James had something he needed to know, he wasn''t going to ask Vlad, but one day he thought he would ask Nyx and Erebus, who had watched him most closely. He wondered how powerful Desmond was, of course, he realised that he was indeed powerful, after it wasn''t every day that someone could build a system of church and empire that would last millions of years, it wasn''t every day that someone could go out and slaughter thousands of gods by his hand. James didn''t know exactly how great the Black bloodline was, even if he realised it. When Vlad realised that James did not see what was happening, he took the same position again and then said, "I will show it much slower this time, carefully watch how I make each move, how much power I divide and release out tensely." James shook his head when he heard these words and then began to watch Vlad carefully. Vlad again gathered that ''aura'' that did not give out that outward sensation and then made 6 different moves as fast as James'' speed. powered-by-MvLeMpYr Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Each of the moves was made in different places in different ways. After the moves were made, it looked just like a hexagon. With each attack, a certain amount of aura was released, and the subtlety of these moves made it look like he was sending out a beam. "So that''s how!" James suddenly realised what was going on after seeing the attack more slowly. He could see why this style of attack was easier than the first style of finishing, indeed after watching it, it was too easy even for James. After that James started to hold Clarent tightly in his right hand, he wanted these 6 moves with the holy sword to be perfect. He didn''t close his eyes this time, he wanted to watch everything he was going to do. Vlad smiled when he realised James'' eyes were open, the old man''s smile seemed to tell all the Titans and Chaos-Born who could see him that James had already succeeded. James carefully felt the aura swirling around his body and then managed to swirl every bit of aura from the tip of his toes to the tip of every hair on his head, swirling as much aura as he could manage at the moment. All the aura in his body suddenly began to charge Clarent, but nothing was released, not a single aura was released. Vlad marvelled at the skill of the boy in front of him, he seemed to want to praise James with laughter. "It''s like I''m looking at my father," Vlad said suddenly, and even if James hadn''t heard it, the audience had, and it filled the Titans who had known Desmond for a long time and the Chaos-Born who had just met him with pride. James, in his perfect focus, thought everything was ready, and suddenly the attack was on. He was making a piercing thrust every second and delivering a different point each time: "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" His six thrusts cut through the air at the same volume, each time James managed to split his aura in detail and use it. Patterns of flame were travelling towards the throne. James had controlled his aura so well that even when the black-coloured flames hit the wood, they did not cause any damage. At that moment, the sound of applause was heard: "CLAP!" "CLAP!!!" Both his Aunt Emily and his ancestor Vlad were seriously applauding James, the pride on Vlad''s face and the joy on Emily''s face was the best thing James had seen in the last month. "Well done James, my father would be enormously proud to see you," Vlad said and Emily''s voice was heard as James was overflowing with perfect happiness: "My sister would cry with joy if she saw my little nephew." James smiled when he heard these words and said, "If you are trying to make me cry, you are on a good path, dear family." "Well? How do you feel?" Vlad asked as if he already knew the answer to that question but wanted to hear it from James himself. James looked at his own hands when he heard this question, he seemed to know what to say, and that''s why he smiled and spoke, looking at his precious sword in his hand: "I...I feel...I feel comfortable, there is no fatigue in me, the pains in my body seem to have been expelled, and I feel quiet....Free." At these words of James, Vlad could not hold himself back and laughed loudly enough to deafen the ears: "HUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!" After this laughter, Vlad''s smile became visible to everyone and then he said, "We can move on to the next part of the sword art, the [Cutting] part." James was proud of himself for having learnt both styles of slashing. As James was filled with these thoughts, he suddenly heard his ancestor''s words: "The cutting part is very different from the first part, James. While piercing can be used at both close and far distances, cutting is an art that can only be used at close range." "Of course, that doesn''t stop you from discovering things. If you can use the magic that you are likely to use in the future in the piercing section in the cutting section, who knows, you may be able to create a long-distance style." "As you can understand, this means that the cutting section has only one style, and that style is called [Serial Cut]." At his words, Vlad raised the sword in his hand and showed James that he would have to figure it all out himself, and then he continued to speak: "This is where the element within the aura, not the aura itself, will come into focus. This is the first thing you must learn." Chapter 154: Something That Can Everyone Use "This is where the element within the aura will come into focus, not the aura itself. This is the first thing you need to learn." At these words of Vlad, James was caught in a great curiosity, it was difficult for him to understand how this style was used, since using an element was part of magic outside the aura. "How exactly is this going to work sir?" James asked with great curiosity. "Before I explain this, I want everyone who is watching to listen carefully, especially as I realise that Nyx is watching you every minute like a pervert, so listen carefully," Vlad said, shocking everyone watching. "This part was developed for everyone to use. The first and third parts were created just for the hoped-for future arrival, or rather, they were structured and created as a new art, separated from my father Desmond''s sword art." "That means that no matter what weapon you use, no matter what kind of god you are, you can use the cutting style, you just have to have a predisposition to one element, and according to my father, there is not a single human being without a predisposition to any element." As Vlad finished these words, a message window popped up in front of James'' eyes: [Can you ask him if this style has any restrictions, James?] MVLeMpYr-com-story Upon receiving this message notification from Nyx, Vlad suddenly came over to James and read the notification, then said, "No, Lady Nyx, there are no restrictions. My father created this style specifically as a power against the Fallen Gods. As a power against black magic." The onlookers seemed pleased to hear this. If a warrior like Desmond created something, even if it was the simplest thing they could see in life, it would be as dangerous as the most powerful techniques they had. That''s how huge Desmond''s presence was to all the Titans, never to be underestimated. "I didn''t know you could see my message windows or anything, sir," James suddenly said, looking genuinely surprised. Vlad''s face turned into an expression somewhere between surprise and sourness as James said these words, he looked at James for a few seconds and then said, "My soul is locked in your magic, what exactly did you expect? I can even see your inventory." James'' goofiness was surprising Vlad. Vlad was constantly thinking about how James could be so silly and accomplish so much, it didn''t make sense to the old man. With that, James stood up and then said, "Please, let''s begin, sir." Vlad stood next to James after these words and began to speak: "Now James, here''s what I want you to do. Start using your aura and your magic at the same time. You don''t need to spin or stretch your aura, you don''t need to turn your magic into a huge mana, just activate both at the same time. We do this because the audience is not just aura users, or so I think." With those words James did as Vlad had said and colourful flames filled the entire hall, the magic particles floating around reminded one of the snowflakes suspended in mid-air. "Well done, now I want you to keep this sensation going and make your aura so tiny that it can be considered both unused and unspelled, and then somehow extract the element of your choice from it," Vlad said he had no idea how confusing this was. James looked at his ancestor, old Vlad, with an expression as if he didn''t understand and tried to figure out how to do what he was saying. The elements were simply marvellous things that were created with the basics of aura and magic. In other words, it was not possible to unleash them by using aura and magic sparingly. Even James himself knew that it wouldn''t work like that, and he didn''t even have complete control or knowledge of magic or aura. "Umm...Okay, but how do I do this?" James suddenly asked and Vlad, hearing this, said "Close your eyes, feel your aura and the mana in the magic rings around your heart. See the elements in them, take out the one that wants to live the most, for you, it will be the fire that represents life." Vlad said and continued his speech without stopping: "All those things that you feel will show you that thin, tiny and delicate side of the element, the core, and as soon as you see that core you will grasp the core with every thought of your mind, you will want to absorb it and borrow it. That kernel will allow you to build upon your intimacy with the element, something that grows stronger every day, something that grows stronger every day, and you will use it and you will draw out the element, and then you will be qualified to use this sword style." At Vlad''s words, James looked at the old ancestor with great surprise and amazement, he didn''t know what to say, he didn''t know what to do, and even if he had learnt what to do, he couldn''t think how to do it. Amid all these thoughts, James sat down on the floor and then thought that he had nothing to do with his sword at the moment, after all, he did not think that he could do it in a standing position ready to attack. He closed his eyes and then began to meditate. He was inside his own body, standing in front of his heart and seeing the magic rings around it. He could see the different coloured aura of the veins to which his heart was connected, the bright light that burned every time his heartbeat dazzled his eyes, he could not help being amazed by the beauty of the human body, it was indeed a perfect sight. Still, he wasn''t sure how to get to what he needed to do. He was breathing steadily and trying to use his aura and magic at the lowest level so that he could reach the elemental core, but he was still unable to see anything. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 155: Almost Dying, Again Still, he wasn''t sure how to get to what he needed to do. He was breathing properly and trying to use his aura and magic at the lowest level so that he could reach the elemental core, yet he was still unable to see anything. To say that James was at a dead end would certainly be an accurate answer. He was constantly looking around, watching every blood cell coursing through his veins, seeing the details of the magic rings around him come to life and fade with every beat of his heart, and marvelling at their beauty. Yet he could not find the elemental core. It was possible that he could see his heartbeat speeding up, he could not understand what was happening, but his body seemed to be having some kind of reaction. He tried to wake up and open his eyes but failed, he could not understand what was happening and he was still panicking despite his ability to calm himself. His heart had reached an incredible rate of beating and was getting faster every second, it had reached such a serious and complex pattern that it was as if the colour of the aura in his veins was changing after each heartbeat. After a short period, and through the pain, James saw something glowing, tiny and minuscule on the left side of his heart. James instantly realised what it was, but then his eyes snapped open. "JAMES! ARE YOU OKAY?!" James looked up to see Ariel and Theseus, their worried expressions and the tears welling up in Ariel''s eyes. He realised his face was in heat, when he looked at the tears that were going down Ariel''s face he saw his own face with a blood-bath. story-source-NovelFire His whole face was covered in blood, his face was covered in blood with a shade of black, James couldn''t understand what was going on, he was just trying to meditate, where had all this blood come from? "Even if you told me you were going to do something like this, it''s too much!" Ariel suddenly said as she gave James a big hug and then James looked at Vlad standing behind Theseus. "I was just... meditating," he said, that must be what he was doing, what could have gone wrong? Ariel and Theseus hurried James to one of the rooms in the church and then forced him into bed. The fact that Vlad was following them normally and looking solemnly at James at every turn told them that he had really messed something up, only a short time ago he had nearly died in the cauldron of poison and now one mistake had brought it all to a close. When Ariel and Theseus had made the necessary arrangements and left the room with the priests and priestesses who had come to James'' aid, James turned to his ancestor Vlad and asked: "Sir, what exactly happened?" Vlad, who hadn''t taken his eyes off him for a second when James asked this question, shook his head and said, "You pushed yourself too hard. I don''t mean in a spiritual or anything like that, you pushed yourself too hard, literally." James still didn''t seem to be able to wrap his mind around what was happening, he immediately looked deeper at Vlad and said, "I can''t make up my mind, I was just meditating and looking for the core in my body, that''s what I always do, I just wasn''t looking for the core at that time." Vlad seemed annoyed by the noise, he frowned and yelled at James for the first time since he had met him: S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" James felt his heart skip a beat at that shout, he was scared out of his mind. "James, have you forgotten what I told you? Not one drop or water, but hundreds of thousands, millions of drops make up a lake, and if you make a lake directly, it will only cause you losses." Vlad added and continued speaking without stopping: "It has been three days since you started meditating. As soon as I noticed the blood flowing from your nose, I called Nyx and she was able to send you help thanks to her son. Lucky for you, Poseidon''s son Theseus was coming to visit you and that''s why he and Ariel were able to help you." The more these words entered James'' mind, the more confused he became as to what was going on, had he been meditating for three days? What about the elemental core? Had he managed to get it? "I didn''t do anything dangerous, I was just looking for the elemental core, I swear!" he said, shaking his head, and at that moment he saw Vlad''s expression. It was blood-curdling, and the blood-curdling didn''t seem to come from fear, but from worry and frustration. "James, if your friends hadn''t been nearby you would be dead today. You need to take baby steps, and you''re trying to run fast enough to cross universes in a second like Hermes when you should be taking it slow. This is the last thing you need to do. I told you to remove the core, I didn''t tell you to force the core using every aura cell and every bit of mana in your entire body." Vlad added it didn''t take him long to realise what those words meant. "What you''re saying is that I went a little overboard with using my aura and magical energy, my mana, and forced the core out when everything was depleted, causing my body to overload." Vlad shook his head at James''s words and this was a great shock to James, he looked around as if he suddenly thought of Nemesis and then said, "Forgive me Neme! I let you down, I swear I didn''t mean to do it this time!" No one blamed James, after all, before something like this happened the body would usually eject the user or player, so everyone and everything would be safe, but James had gone so far that even his body and the powers within it didn''t want to deal with it. James had killed himself but revived himself, which was stupid but also strange. Chapter 156: Just Let Me Go to the Next Floor "I''m still struggling to understand," James said, his body should have been waking him up when he started to push himself, but that hadn''t happened, and he had indeed come back from the dead. He said these words in the throne room where he had returned after somehow surviving Ariel and Theseus, and then Vlad''s words were heard: "You said you saw the core, right?" "Yes, what''s that got to do with it?" James asked, shaking his head. "You were able to see the core when your aura and magical energy in your body were depleted, you were as if you were bewitched before you achieved your goal, after all, all that time you wanted to reveal the core, you were so focused that you refused to wake up against all the warnings from your body and tried to fulfil your goal," Vlad replied. "Well...why didn''t you try to stop me?" James asked, and it was a reasonable question. "I didn''t feel the need to wake you up or call for help until I felt you were close to death, after all, you have a lesson to learn, James," Vlad said to the young boy''s question. With these words, it was not only James who became angry but every one of the onlookers. "And what exactly was that lesson? I don''t think I fully understand." James said with his eyebrows arched. "The lesson was to show you what happens when you focus too much on one thing and ignore everything else. You were so focused on the core that you didn''t realise you were draining both your aura and your magical energy, you literally ignored the warnings your body was giving you, and you partially killed yourself," Vlad said. This-is-a-NovelFire-special James'' gaze became more serious and angry with each of the old man''s explanations. "Okay, fine, but couldn''t you have said it with your words?!" James shouted, and Vlad, hearing this, opened his arms just like Chaos did to Nyx and said the following words: "Where is the fun in that?" With these words, James shook his head and said, "Oh come on!!! Can we just move on to the last part of the sword art? I don''t think I can get used to the second part, the cutting, I have a better idea, I think we should take a short break from training, let me climb to the next floors, Ariel is already waiting for me." Vlad waited for a few seconds at James'' words and then shook his head and said, "It''s not unreasonable, while climbing the floors, you can also manage to train the first part of my father''s sword art so that it will be good for you." Even if James had come back to this hall to train, he had to get to the 24th floor quickly, anything beyond that required at least a teammate, making everything more complicated. As James stood up from his seat he walked to the door of the lounge and then pulled one side of the huge door open and stepped out. "Wait for me Ariel, I''m going to climb the floors quickly, I''ll see you in the last lobby of the 23rd floor." James said, and with these words, not even waiting for Ariel to say, he said, "Emma, please open the portal to the next floor!" With those words, he saw Ariel''s smiling face and heard the voice of his dear friend and perfect mother figure before he passed through the portal: "Be careful." This would be the last human voice he would hear before several exams in a row. After certain puzzles, rescue missions and many more, he had managed to reach the last section of the 23rd floor, the lobby, in just a month. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This was the area between the 23rd and 24th floors, also known as the area James had entered with Emma''s help. James had recently sent a request to Ariel to set up a party with the window opened in front of him and the request had been accepted instantly, another passage opened behind James and Ariel, wearing her armour, appeared. "You look pretty cool in that armour set," James said, he hadn''t seen her dressed like that since the arena. Hearing these words, Ariel smiled shook her head and said, "Each floor from this floor to the 30th floor requires a suit. We''re pretty comfortable that we''ve met the minimum limit, so let''s get this done quickly and decisively, I''ve got a date with someone." James nodded his head as if he understood these words and said understandingly, "Yes, thanks to Nemesis, I''ve learnt how much tooling is required from where to where...wait a second?" his surprise seemed to have caught up with him. Seeing Ariel''s expression, James shook his head and then asked, "Wait, you have a date with someone?" Ariel shook her head and then put her hand on James'' shoulder and said, "Theseus can be quite persuasive." James paused for a few seconds and moved his head from side to side like a surprised cat, he didn''t really know if what he was hearing was real or not, but he was confused. Suddenly he crossed the passage in front of him and came to Ariel and asked "Theseus? Our Thes?" he asked. When he saw Ariel''s nod, James really didn''t seem to have anything to say, but he had to voice the questions in his mind. "So the legend of his wife Antiope''s death was true? What about the cruel Faidra, what happened to that cruel woman?" James asked, and Ariel, hearing this, looked at James and spoke: "She wasn''t a god, she chose to die, and the cruel woman died with her stupid mind." James nodded his head up and down as if he understood and then said, "So Theseus, you''ve been alone all this time, just like you, so I can say I''m happy, those closest to me are getting closer. I just love you both a lot, like seriously a lot." Of course, what James said would change depending on how the date went. Chapter 157: Bugs and a Monkey? James and Ariel had made it through the portal and were moving forward. According to the floor mission they had received, it was something that James especially liked. The floor quest specifically stated that the monsters would come in different numbers and races in each stage, just like when James first encountered the zombies. This meant that it was possible to fight a dragon in stage one and a goblin in stage seven. Nevertheless, whatever it was, the duo wanted to pass this floor and they knew that there were 8 stages to pass. As the duo waited, ready for attack and defence, huge gates began to open around them. James shook his head when he saw them coming out of the gates and shouted, "Come on, for fuck''s sake!'' Ariel didn''t seem to understand why James was shouting like that and asked, ''Did you forget something?" and she was shocked by the answer. "No...Have I ever told you how much I hate bugs?" At James'' words, Ariel''s eyes were drawn back to the monsters emerging from the gates. These monsters were spiders, giant centipedes, huge cockroaches and many more, insects might be the only phobia James had in this life. Of course, it wasn''t right to call it a phobia, he wasn''t scared of them...it was just that bugs really grossed James out in a huge way. "Oh, for fuck''s sake! Be a man of your mould, James!" shouted Ariel, and if they had been in a church she would have had to restrain herself from laughing. With that, the first stage began. Nearly three hundred huge insects emerged from the passageways. When James picked up Clarent, he activated his dark step ability to make his own body incredibly fast and then, as if on a whim, opened his inventory and brought out the sleeping Miracle. Miracle was James'' child, taking on the personality of her mother, Nemesis, as well as the personality of James. James'' personality was one of disgust for insects, a great destruction was on its way towards these dishonourable insects, but none of them were even aware of it. Miracle slowly opened her sleepy eyes and then looked around and suddenly recovered herself and turned her eyes to James. "You know what you''re going to do, girl," James said, and it was like a confirmation of total destruction, Miracle shook her head and then her whole body changed. chapter-source-NovelFire After shifting into her dragon form, she flew into the air and borrowed the mana from James'' body and activated his own magic. After all, Miracle, who was a baby at the moment, did not have unlimited magic power, otherwise James would have already managed to pass the 75th floor with Miracle alone. The energy, the mana in the defence spells Miracle used on the mountain, and the mana in each of the abilities Miracle used in all the events that happened afterwards were borrowed from James and combined with the pure mana in Miracle''s body and released to the outside. And the little girl Miracle''s father gave her an order at this moment. Even the words [You know what to do] told Miracle was enough to make her understand. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Suddenly the place began to heat up, James gently grabbed Ariel and as she tried to realise what was happening, she was met with a sight she could hardly believe her eyes. "BURN THEM ALL!" James shouted and with that, incredibly hot flames shot out of the little girl Miracle''s mouth. Clouds of flames were burning the surrounding trees, huge black smoke was rising into the sky, and most importantly, it didn''t even leave the bodies of the insects behind. After a short while, Miracle, the little girl, landed on her father''s head and waited. "Are you tired?" James asked as he stroked Miracle''s head with one hand. "Yes, I used some of my own magic I''ve saved up so as not to give you fatigue, I only borrowed a little mana, I want to sleep." Miracle said and then suddenly jumped into James'' inventory. James realised the reason for the lightness in his body with those words, after all, when Miracle drew a lot of magical energy, mana, from him, he would be weak for a few seconds, but right now his body was very energised and light. "So, that wraps it up," James suddenly said as he noticed Ariel standing next to him with her mouth open, "What''s wrong?" he asked as she grabbed him by the throat and started shaking him and then shouted, "WHAT?!". After a few seconds, Ariel let go of James and said, "If my granddaughter has such powers, why don''t you try to improve her? She can take care of this entire floor, it will increase her level." Hearing these words, James shook his head and then said, "She''s just a baby, Ariel, of course, I won''t be too hard on her unless there is a very troublesome situation - situations like this - I shouldn''t disturb her, she should sleep in my inventory and grow up as soon as possible." The words made Ariel pause for a few seconds, and the fact that James was right seemed to irritate her just a little. "We''ll have to take the rest of the floor then, I was just getting ready to attack," Ariel said and saw the gates of the next stage begin to open. James looked surprised again at the monster in front of him, rubbed his eyes as if wondering if it was real, and then turned to Ariel and asked, "Is that a monkey?" Ariel made an even more puzzled face than James and said, "No way, he looks so goofy, maybe he''s a uhm...secret boss monster or something." What the duo didn''t realise was that the monster standing before them was indeed a monkey, a monkey that was quite fast but not impossible to catch, a monkey that was quite ordinary but had to die. The 24th Floor seemed to be getting on the duo''s nerves more than they expected. Chapter 158: Unexpected Monster The duo of James and Ariel were staring at the ape and the goofy ape was staring back at them as seriously as possible. A wild west aura seemed to permeate the now burnt-out jungle, the duo didn''t dare attack the monkey because they were strangely worried that something was wrong and the monkey seemed to be trying to figure out what was happening. After a few seconds, the monkey suddenly became insulted. It jumped, bypassing all the burnt parts, and set off to the other side of the forest, where it was still alive. Shocked by the monkey''s speed, the two suddenly lunged forward, unable to let the monkey getaway. "You son of a!!!" James suddenly shouted. "Well...we agree that it''s not a monkey, how do we catch it?" questioned Ariel, as the two seemed to be discussing what to do while moving forward. "I don''t know, try to trick it with a banana?" James suddenly asked, not understanding how they could handle a monkey, well the monkey that was now running away from him was many times faster than the gorilla that was Noah''s servant. "Uhhh...maybe time element? What do you reckon?" Ariel asked as she ran, and James, hearing those words, shook his head and said, "Good thinking, Ariel. If we manage to stop him somehow, I can try to attack by stopping time." James said and after these words, the plan was defined. The two were moving at a fast pace and at the same time they realised something was different. "The monkey has disappeared, watch out," James said, and with those words, with swords drawn again, the duo began to advance cautiously. James carried Selene''s Throwing Knife in his left hand, just in case Ariel needed protection, which was why he had begun to look carefully, especially around Ariel. He saw Ariel looking at him and shook her head, and that''s when he saw the eyes of the woman in front of him widen: "DUCK!" Ariel shouted and hearing this, James instantly reflexively activated his time element. He spun around and saw the monkey coming slowly towards him. As he threw the knife in his left hand, he realised that he had hit the monkey and at that moment time returned to normal, and when Ariel saw the monkey on the ground, she realised that James had succeeded. It had been quite easy, though. James approached the slumped monkey and then bent down a little to check if it was dead, at that moment his whole body shuddered, he suddenly jerked backwards and was very grateful indeed that he had done so because the monkey suddenly turned round and tried to aim its claws at James'' throat. The monkey was trying to run away with a nasty grin on its face when suddenly a large knife, almost a small sword, sliced through its chest. Ariel looked at James and then said, "You can thank me later," and pulled the knife out of the monkey''s chest. With this, the second stage came to an end, the passages for the next stage immediately started to open and huge bears started to come out of them. When I say huge, they were quite big. They were even bigger than the trolls James had encountered before. Two bears, almost ten metres long, had suddenly appeared. It was obvious from everywhere that the two bears were bleeding, but something else had happened. James opened and closed his eyes, his head ached a little, and when he closed and opened his eyes one last time, he saw two things glowing blackly behind the bears, even beyond the passageways, just like in the card selections and other places. Whatever those two things were, they must have been Godly tier, and that increased their value enough. The fact that each stage was coming one after the other was a bit of a challenge, but the duo was lucky that the monsters passing through the gates were not particularly powerful monsters. discover-NovelFire-novels Apart from the monkey from earlier, none of the monsters were that strong, the bugs were disgusting and had been destroyed by Miracle, the monkey was fast and of average intelligence. The two gigantic bears standing in front of the duo were of average strength. "I''ll take the one on the right," James suddenly said, and Ariel, hearing this, said, "What''s the big deal? I''ll take the one on the right." Upon these words, the two were about to change places when the bear''s fur started to burn on their right. After Ariel saw what happened, she sniffed once and said, "All right, the one on the right is yours." and started running. James smilingly started to move forward and quickly approached the bear, which had started to burn a little in front of him. With a firm grip on Clarent in his right hand, he began to spin the aura around his body, wanting to use the wounding slash. After all, the target in front of him was huge, so there was no way he could miss his attacks. The bear seemed surprised that James had suddenly stopped, but that didn''t mean he had to wait, the bear suddenly charged. The huge 10-metre-long bear was running on all fours. James waited where he was, in a proper position, and adjusted everything in the hope that his attack would be successful. As soon as the bear was within a dozen or two dozen metres of him, he suddenly brought his slashing technique into use, and with it a skill he had not used for a long time: "PIERCE!" James shouted, now realising how much he had missed it. The 1% attack power from his ability, when added to such a technique, offered a huge amount of destructiveness. The resulting image would be perfect. When James activated his ability and put the art he had learnt into use, six consecutive moves cut the air, and then not one big beam, but six different beams moved towards the bear running towards him. After a short time, James realised that his move had pierced the bear in front of him and chuckled, "Wounding, eh? More like instant kill." he said with a smile. Unable to avoid this massive attack, the bear fell to the ground, pierced in six different places. When James was sure that he had killed the bear, he turned to help Ariel and saw the perfect image. Ariel''s knife glowed with an azure light and sliced through the skin of the huge bear, the huge light on Ariel''s knife seemed to show how fluffy and perfect her aura was. James couldn''t help but admire the woman in front of him. As soon as Ariel knocked the bear to the ground, one after the other, she began to slice the bear with the knives in her hands, and the bear''s screams echoed throughout the forest: "URUAGGHHH!!!" "KRUUUAGHHH!!!" The high-decibel sounds coming from the successive screams were ear-splitting. James thought that it would be much better if the bear''s pain was over and started to move forward with the sword in his hand to use Clarent, just at that moment he saw that the aura on Ariel''s blades became even bigger and sharper. In just a second, the huge bear in front of her was stabbed almost ten times. When Ariel killed the bear, she stood up and then looked at James and shook her head. "Umm...Note to myself, never piss Ariel off." James suddenly said and with that, he looked towards the reopened passageways. Ariel was busy wiping his bloodied hands when he came up to James. James shook his head at Ariel''s actions and watched the gates in disbelief. After only a short time, a hand grabbed the portal, and after only two or three seconds, a woman with horns stepped out of the portal. This was stage four. James instantly realised what this woman was and turned to Ariel. When he saw Ariel''s face, he knew instantly that what he had thought was true. "She''s beautiful..." Ariel said. James could see that the pupils of the woman next to him were turning into hearts. She was charmed. The monster in front of the duo was a succubus. After looking at the duo, the succubus focused her eyes on James and said in an incredibly gentle way, "You are not affected by my magic. How can a man withstand this magic? A succubus'' magic?" she asked. James shook his head, not even a succubus, and then frowned, pointing Selene''s Throwing Knife at the woman in front of him disrespectfully, and then said the following words: "I don''t flipping know, maybe it is because I am loyal to my own love Nemesis and her only? Dumb monster." Hearing these words, the succubus rolled his head in amazement and then said, "I''ve never seen someone as young as you so resilient, you must be loyal to the one you love. I still have to kill you though, you know, quite the pity." With those words, James gripped Clarent tightly in his right hand and then used his dark step ability to unleash the time elemental on top of it. He wished to kill the Succubus quickly. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 159: New Maid Moving towards the succubus, James used the element of time to close the distance of perhaps a hundred metres between them in just a second and was about to thrust his sword at the succubus when his whole body trembled. Immediately turning around, he swung his sword and the sound of metals colliding rose into the air: "CHING!!!" "No..." When James said these words, Clarent shuddered, the precious sword seemed to be getting nervous. Ariel had attacked James. The Succubus'' spell seemed to have worked on Ariel in great detail, which was not good news. James took a few steps back as he carefully parried Ariel''s attack, he had to be careful as if he tried to attack the succubus he might get another attack from Ariel. The smile on the succubus''s face seemed to grow wider and wider, and when Ariel stepped in front of the monster to protect her, James shook his head and said, "Don''t be mad at me if I hurt you, Ariel." He looked at his inventory and saw the life potions and bandages, if he could somehow immobilise Ariel he could kill the succubus and survive, and he could do it without causing Ariel any great harm. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He thought he would have to use the time element, for no matter how powerful Ariel was, the time element itself was a huge trick. The distance between the two was almost fifteen metres, a second''s pause from the time element would be enough, but the question was: How could he slow Ariel down without causing her hereditary damage? James was filled with these thoughts and tried to find an answer. Unfortunately, he could not help him restrain someone. James smiled as he suddenly had an idea and remembered that he didn''t need the time elemental, it was time to use the item he hadn''t used in a long time. He suddenly reached into his inventory and Ariel rushed forward and the race against time began. James was dodging Ariel''s attacks on the one hand and searching for the item in his inventory on the other. His inventory wasn''t that complicated, but dodging Ariel''s attacks, who was almost as strong as him, while searching for an item in the inventory was quite challenging. Nevertheless, after a not-too-long time, he found the item and took it out of his inventory. "The Bell of Hypnos," he said. As before, the countdown began. "Tick." "Tok." "Tick." "Tok." "Tick." "Tok." After the three ticks and the three tokes, a huge energy spread around and Ariel fell to the floor. It was like she was knocked unconscious. James carried Ariel safely and as fast as he could into the woods and then came back out of the woods to kill the succubus he thought had fallen to the ground. Yet the succubus was standing over James, making that beautiful face as if nothing had happened. "I didn''t know succubus were sleep-resistant," James said, intending to finish everything rather quickly. James started to hold Clarent tightly in his hand and then started to spread all his aura around. Now that his control over the aura had increased enormously, he was able to burn things with his aura. I guess it helped that he was somehow using his magic in tandem, of course, it was a wasted use of magic and aura, but no one could say it wasn''t cool. experience mvle,mp|y|r James began to move towards the succubus with heavy steps. The woman in front of him seemed to have accepted death, knowing that there was nothing she could do. James stopped where he was and waited, frowning and getting a little angry. "Why don''t you try to fight? You were just trying to kill me you know?" James suddenly asked a question that seemed to surprise the succubus. "I''m not stupid enough to try to run away or fight someone as fast as you, my speed isn''t fast enough for you. If I was an incubus, things would be different. Succubus are prone to magic and incubus are prone to aura." James heard this information for the first time, twisted his lips, nodded his head and then said, "Well, I have to kill you then, I wouldn''t want to kill a life form as intelligent as you, but we have to pass the floor." With those words, the succubus closed its eyes and waited as if accepting death, at that very moment a message window opened in front of James: [I can send you a scroll, James, if you want to make him your servant. The scroll is a slave-master pact, but I can turn it into a servant-master scroll if both parties agree]. When James heard that the message was from Thanatos, he thought he could trust him and shook his head, "I don''t mind, in fact, a servant would be great." After only a few seconds, James had a scroll in his inventory and a system notification from Emma in front of him: [You have received a gift from Death Incarnate - Thanatos of Chaos! Number of gifts you can receive this month: 0] "To tell you the truth, I didn''t even know we could receive gifts," James suddenly said, and the message he received in front of him seemed to tell him why. [It takes an enormous amount of energy to send a gift James, it''s not mana or aura energy, it''s holy energy, Thanatos is currently unconscious.] James shook his head in disbelief as he looked at this message from Nyx and then said ''"The next time I see Thanatos I''m going to give him a big hug." he then looked at the woman who had moved closer to the succubus and was now trembling with fear. "Sign this parchment and I won''t have to kill you," James said suddenly and the succubus opened her eyes. When the succubus took the scroll in her hand, she signed it without reading it and then, gasping for breath, she was finally able to free herself, James hadn''t even read the scroll, after all, he trusted Thanatos. Still, it made sense to him to take one look at the scroll before he put it in his inventory. Chapter 160: That Is Truly Dangerous [Maid-Master Agreement Party X, who will sign the scroll in the role of servant, will not harm Umbra of Chaos/ James Arthur Black in any way. Party X, who will sign the scroll in the role of servant, will serve the person deemed Master forever. Following this contract, the Master will ensure that Party X is not harmed to the point of death during this time and will provide food, shelter, and other necessities. Servant Succubus Elise Master:] As James read the contract, he signed it with the pen he had taken out, and with that, the succubus in front of him began to glow. James couldn''t understand what was happening, but he realised that it wasn''t bad, as if a hierarchy had been established between him and the succubus. "Thank you very much for not killing me, sir!" the succubus said politely, and James, hearing this, said, "You can call me normally, call me Umbra. On top of that, you''re too smart and you can see what''s going on around you, it would be really bad if you died." With that, the passageways began to form around them again, James shook his head, realising that he had succeeded in saving the succubus, and thanked Thanatos profusely for that. Quickly walking over to Ariel, James saw that she was still asleep and said, "Welp...I never thought about how to wake her up." At that very moment, the succubus gently approached Ariel, closed her eyes and put his hand on her head. Ariel woke up instantly and jumped up. Seeing the succubus, Ariel suddenly pulled James to her and then said, "Stay behind me." James could hardly stop himself from laughing and then gently held Ariel and said, "Calm down, she''s become my servant." Ariel asked "How?" as if she didn''t understand what was going on and James took a breath and said "Thanatos." Ariel stated that she really understood in a way that she would never question, and then she began to prepare to leave the forest. At that very moment, voices began to come from outside the forest: "AWOOOOOOO!!!" "OWOOOOOOO!!!" "AWOOOOOOO!!!" "OWOOOOOOO!!!" "AWOOOOOOO!!!" "OWOOOOOOO!!!" James shook his head and said, "No way, wolves? Didn''t we go to Stage 5?''" Ariel said, "It''s all random, stop talking bad, you want to fight a dragon?" James thought what Ariel said made sense and then agreed to shut his big mouth, just in time to hear the voice of Elise the succubus: Latest chapters on mvle-mp _yr. "Mr Umbra, my spell doesn''t work against wolves either." James shook his head as if he didn''t know why, and Ariel''s voice was heard again: "Wolves are worthy and loyal creatures, most male wolves stop eating after their mate dies and wait to die." James shook his head at these words and then said, "They can''t all have a mate, can they? It''s worth a try, Elise." he and the succubus had become close like they were in a master-servant relationship for 10 years in ten minutes, this social skill was a real headache, and it was a relief to Nyx and the others that there was a rule that he could not be betrayed. Since none of them wanted James to live the pain that comes from betrayal. With that, the group was out of the forest, Elise instantly activated her magic and directed it towards the wolves, leaving Ariel unaffected. "Grrr..." "RUFF!!!" Several wolves suddenly turned on each other and lunged, a dozen of the almost ninety wolves in front of them fighting each other and the others moving towards James and Ariel behind him. Elise stood at the front of the forest, just in case, waiting to climb a tree in case they escaped. Of course, seduction was not Elise''s only spell, but to use her other spells she had to seduce the person she was using. Controlling Ariel''s body was one of those spells. With that, James and Ariel charged forward, ready to go. They were killing one more wolf every second, moving at such a speed that half of the wolves were already dead. They didn''t even need Elise to use her magic. After only three or four minutes there was only one wolf left, and when James had killed it he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, that was easy enough." Ariel shook her head and then said, "We shouldn''t underestimate the tower." With that, Elise left her position and joined the pair, and at that moment another portal opened, this time in the sky. When Ariel saw the monster coming out of the portal, she turned to James and shouted "JAMES I''M GONNA MURDER YOU!" James, after seeing the monster and hearing Ariel''s shouts, replied, "I swear it''s not my big mouth''s fault!" The monster flying through the air was a small dragon, and it looked like James and Ariel had summoned it. When Elise saw what was happening, she immediately activated her magic and tried to control the dragon in the sky. When her spell backfired, her nose began to bleed, but that wasn''t the only spell. Suddenly purple chains began to emerge from the earth, each one heading towards the dragon, and some of them managed to hold it by some part of its body. James and Ariel saw the dragon slowly approaching them, they couldn''t ignore the chance Elise had given them. James took a few steps back, closing his eyes and trying to concentrate fully as the dragon moved to the side where it could hurt him. Even if Ariel didn''t know what James was trying to do, she knew she had to hurt the dragon as much as possible, and if possible, somehow pin it to the earth. When Elise''s chain spell managed to keep the dragon on the ground, Ariel climbed on top of the dragon and then pulled a large knife from her inventory. One after the other, she started stabbing the dragon with the knife covered with her aura. "RUUGUAHHHH!!!" Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The dragon was screaming in pain and breathing fire, one of Elise''s chains started to burn and broke off, but another chain took its place. Everything seemed to be up to James. Chapter 161: Vlads Teaching Succeeded James wanted to finish the dragon off in just one hit, so he wished he could use a little bit of the finishing slash, which he couldn''t quite manage. The Wounding Pierce was too easy, but James was not sure if he could kill a dragon with it. The dragon in front of them did not seem to be mature though, even Ariel''s blades somehow managed to wound the dragon. That meant that if James could somehow manage to use the finishing slash or unleash some small part of the power of that technique, he could kill or disable the dragon in a single blow. James was well aware of this, he knew what he had to do, he realised what had to be done and that was why he had started to prepare. He only had one chance, the dragon was destroying the chains one by one despite all the damage it was taking, Elise''s magic would not have lasted that long, without Elise they would have been in a deadly battle. Without Thanatos'' help, there was even a chance that Ariel or James might have died. In short, this change had to be utilised well. "JAMES, HURRY UP!" Ariel suddenly shouted, quickly stabbing the same spot each time, the dragon''s boiling blood spilling out and Ariel using as much aura as she could to protect herself. It was admirable that she had the strength to continue after the awful sensation of the heat coming from her aura into her body. James had heard Ariel''s voice, though he still needed a little more time. He could see inside his own body. He could see the blood flowing in his body and the aura that had settled in the cells in the blood. He could see the aura that wrapped his veins with cobwebs. He could see the madness of the aura that permeated his skin. His aura was spinning around his body at a gigantic speed, and he could also attribute a little bit of his magic to it. In short, his magic could merge with his aura, just as Vlad had said, even if it was an incredibly tiny amount. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, it was not enough, he needed a little more time. The aura in his body was constantly swirling and compressing, almost ready to be transferred to Clarent, but after only twenty or thirty seconds everything would be ready. Suddenly, from James'' right side, where the forest was, there was the sound of someone vomiting. The sound of chains snapping spread through the forest, and Ariel''s heavy footsteps and the sound of her attack on the dragon came through loud and clear. Elise''s spell was at an end, and Ariel was too busy holding on. Five seconds had passed. Ariel had to constantly change where her blades were striking. The sound of the dragon''s screams and the vibrations of the earth vibrating with its heavy footsteps were distracting. Fifteen seconds had passed. "JAMES YOU GOTTA HURRY!" Ariel''s voice rose and disappeared into the woods, she was begging for help in her struggle with the dragon in space. Even though James couldn''t see what was happening, Ariel''s aura was filled with the dragon''s blood, even though James couldn''t see it, Ariel was starting to lose her vision, she had only been fighting the dragon for a minute, but even that was too much for her. This was just the power of a normal and immature dragon, the sacred creature of mana was not to be trifled with and Ariel understood that very clearly. Throughout her battle with the dragon, Ariel''s mind wandered from the will to live to the question of how powerful the Miracle could be. After all, Ariel knew or rather had learnt from Nemesis, that Miracle''s descendants, the Supreme Dragons, were beings as sacred as the lower creators and even more sacred than most. Discover gems at m|v|l|e|mp|y|r. Twenty-five seconds passed between these questions and the stabs. James suddenly opened his eyes and then shouted, "GET OUT OF THERE!" Ariel tried to pull away as soon as she heard those words, but her aura was starting to fade and she seemed to have no strength left. Just then, another chain suddenly rose from the ground grabbed Ariel and threw her into the woods. Ariel landed right next to Elise. At that moment, a huge brightness dazzled Ariel and Elise. The fluttering dragon itself and the onlookers closed their eyes for a few seconds, only Apollo himself, the light himself, was smiling and watching everything. A gigantic beam was gathering on the legendary holy sword Clarent, the mana and the aura within it were suddenly released and the beam suddenly left the sword and started to move towards the dragon. The beam was ablaze in colourful flames, this was not what Vlad had taught James, this was James'' aura going mad and wanting to come out, such pressure, such a phenomenon, that everywhere the beam passed, flames rose like a dragon. In less than ten seconds the beam had reached the dragon, in just that short time the dragon had been hit in the head. When the dust cloud returned to the surface, the corpse of the headless dragon lay on the ground, and beyond it was James, on his knees, vomiting blood like mad, his entire face covered in blood. By the time Ariel and Elise rushed to James'' side in horror, the gates to the next stage had already begun to open, leaving only two stages remaining. James knew he had to recover, his auto-heal had already kicked in, but the aftershock to his body was insane. He knew that all the aura and magic in his body was frantic to get out. "Fine, I''ll let go." James suddenly said and then every single tree and plant that was left of the forest started to burn, Elise seemed to come to her senses as the plants and trees were burning in colourful flames and releasing mana all around her. "Please protect my master, I can absorb my master''s mana, I can protect us until my master recovers," Elise said. However, Elise would probably have saved their lives twice already. Chapter 162: 24th Floor Has Been Conquered The creatures emerging from the passageway were turtles with spines on their backs, their appearance was strange and...disgusting. Elise began to hold the turtles with the chains she had pulled from the ground, while James began to pull himself together and Ariel stayed around him to give James enough time to recover. The group was functioning well and quickly. Both Ariel and James agreed that they needed to rest a little before proceeding to the 25th floor, which they would enter after this one. Still, killing a dragon was quite an achievement, and James was surprised that he hadn''t even received an achievement for it, it was a little strange that he hadn''t received any achievements for quite some time. In any case, it was still quite special. After almost three or four minutes, James managed to stand up and smiled as he looked at the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him: read first at m,v,l,e,m p _y,r [I am so proud of you love.] Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After this message from Nemesis, James officially realised that his whole body had healed, after a big smile, he said "Let''s continue, Ariel." and with Ariel''s chuckle, the battle began again. The last two stages were not very difficult, it was possible to complete the two stages after only ten or fifteen minutes. Of course, things could have been faster, but James Ariel, and Elise on top of that, had chosen to rest and get through the stages. [Congratulations on passing Floor 24! You have earned 12,500,000 gold! You''ve obtained the dragon''s poisoned heart! The door to Level 25 is now unlocked!] [You have earned a legendary achievement! You have earned 1,500,000 gold. You got the achievement of killing a young dragon for the first time! You get to choose a legendary card!] James shook his head as the windows opened in front of him and then muttered, "I''m getting achievements after floors now, am I?" However, he immediately touched the golden card that had formed in the lower right corner of his eye in the system. [Beginner Level Ancient Rune Arts Manuscript (Legendary/Godly) In the creation scenes of the tower before the creation of the gods, there were energies scattered around. Mana, Arcana, Aura, Star, Element, Element, Holiness, Dark energies and many more were scattered around the tower. Each floor had different properties and structures, but very few people could comprehend them. I, Cain the Tailor, have written this manuscript for those who can think logically and will be intelligent enough to leave the fighting to Arcana energy. I hope that the teachings in the manuscript will be of sufficient help to the owner of this item]. James smiled as he looked at the very high-quality book that had suddenly fallen into his hand and then said, "Huh...The third main admin wrote this, huh?" and then shook his head and asked, "You all don''t think Cain himself gave it to me, right?" [Impossible. Cain is known for his intelligence and good use of his life, he is good at fighting and using other powers. Admins are not counted as players or users, they are even higher in rank than the creators. Therefore, it is a piece of cake for them to use different energies together. Cain, on the other hand, is a former war maniac and as the most powerful of the three main admins, of course, he scattered maybe millions of books he wrote. So one of them came to you by chance with the achievement]. When James read the message sent to him by Apollo, he smiled and then said "Haha...Master Apollo, you seem to know quite a lot about admin Cain, thank you." With these words, Olympus burst into laughter and Ariel looked at James with a strange expression. "Normally I would have gone to Theseus after clearing the 25th floor, but we both need a rest, I won''t be climbing for a while, I''ve only just started climbing after all these years, but even that was too hard," Ariel said suddenly, James agreed with every word, they had indeed come back from the dead. "Elise is the only reason we didn''t die, we should thank her," James suddenly said, and Elise, who was sitting on the floor, shook her head in surprise and then said, "You''re welcome, sir! Thank you very much indeed for forgiving me." and bowed down in front of James. When James heard these words, he said, "You have to worship Thanatos for this, if he hadn''t known a way, I would have had to kill you." As Elise nodded her head as if she understood, a white portal suddenly opened in front of the group, James moved forward to enter the portal he had seen and returned to the tenth floor, taking Elise and Ariel with him. He was about to tell the priests who had come to greet them to arrange a room for Elise when suddenly a message window opened in front of him: [If you permit me to call your servant, we can summon her to Mount Olympus. It will be easy to train her.] When James read this message window from Apollo, he tilted his head and then said, "I didn''t know anyone from here could come there, Master Apollo." The answer he got back instantly made sense to him. [Elise is not a human like you or a race living in the tower, even though Elise is a succubus, she was created as a monster by the tower using the power of Chaos. So that makes her special any monster made into a contract is special like that, so it is possible to take them away or train them instead of their owners as long as their owners allow it. All I need is permission and I can train it with people who know the magic in depth. She is practically a pet that is in a servant-master contract.]. James sneered as he read the message window but inwardly rejoiced, after all, Elise had proved to be a very good sorceress, if not very powerful then she was working wickedly well. The fact that Apollo or anyone else could train her was truly priceless. "Sure, you have all the permissions," James said, and with that, Elise disappeared in a flash, when Ariel looked back at James, James just said, "Olympus," and Ariel''s gaze disappeared. And with this, the 24th floor was completely conquered. Chapter 163: Rune Art It had been alost an hour since James and Ariel had left each other. Ariel had an appointment to get ready, and James had some things to do. James remembered he needed to get his hands on something he had left behind for a long time. With enough preparation, he would finally be able to use the item he had completed so long ago. When he opened his inventory, his eye was caught by the item that was directly in the third place in the first row of his inventory. Sitting in his room, he took the item out of his inventory and then waved it in his hand several times. [You''re finally going to use it, huh?] James suddenly observed the message window from Nemesis and smiled as he read it, "Soon, darling." The object in James'' hand was the completed Catacomb Key itself. James thought it was finally time to enter the catacomb, and there was no better time than now, which meant he had to enter the catacomb as soon as possible. There was one last thing he had to do before he could use the key though, he wanted to read the Beginner Level Ancient Rune Arts Manuscript he had obtained through the achievement from cover to cover and this would give him a bit of a workload. In a way, it would be much easier for James, as he was a fast reader, and now that his intelligence had increased to a gigantic level, it wouldn''t be so difficult for him to understand things anymore. Immediately after returning the catacomb key to his inventory, he took out the manuscript lay down on the bed and opened the book. [Hello, congratulations on getting your hands on this manuscript, whoever you are. My name is Cain. I am the strongest and wisest of the tower''s three greatest admins, and I have been in existence longer than the first two. I spent my youth learning from the laws of the tower and seeking out the beings and energies that our creator Chaos provided the tower with. After I acquired these teachings, I turned them into manuscripts and later into books. This book, known as the 5th manuscript I wrote, is a book focused on the Rune Arts created with Arcana energy. The book is divided into three main parts. The first part contains information on what runes are, the second part contains information on how to transfer arcana energy to runes, and the third part contains information on how to draw runes, that is, the rune language. You may have found this manuscript, but if you are not serious about it and do not think that you can devote your mind to it, you will only harm yourself. Stay updated with _emp _yr. If you consider all this danger, turn to the next page]. When James read the first page of the book in his hand, he closed the book. He took a deep breath and was literally crushed under the heavy words on the first page of the book. The words may not have seemed so heavy, but James could see that even within each handwritten letter there were runes, maybe not runes, but each one had a huge amount of arcane energy, even if the manuscript had been written who knows when. It was completely impossible for James to even imagine how powerful Cain was, it was as if he was reading something from the hand of a real god. It wasn''t like one of those who climbed this tower and became a god, it was like the work of one of those beings like Ra or the Supreme Dragons. [I thought you wanted to learn how to use arcana energy.] When James read this message from Nemesis, he shook his head and then said, "Just turning the pages of the book is too difficult, Nemesis, give me a little time." Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With these words, he closed his eyes and breathed in and out deeply, and when he opened his eyes again, he was on the second page of the book: [What is a Rune? An individual with Arcana energy has surely asked himself this question once or maybe twice, perhaps the god or goddess who loves you has given you a little explanation. But what is a rune? Many races think that runes are used to create and collect. For example, creating a monster with the arcana energy you collect in runes. However, runes are not limited to these. Runes are something we can use everywhere in our lives. When you manage to use arcana energy correctly, it is possible to do everything from breathing to walking, from walking to eating, from eating to sleeping with runes. Runes can bind monsters, restrict movement, and kill them. At the same time, runes can enrich nature, nourish and produce. When you want to explain the runes briefly, a sharing can be made in this way. For a more detailed explanation, read all pages from this page to page 147]. James had spent almost two days after reading this page, reading as slowly as possible, carefully reading each letter Cain had written, and had managed to reach the end of the first chapter, that is, page 148. He had managed to learn everything from the history of the runes to the purpose for which Chaos might have created them, much of it was mind-boggling but all of it excellent information. Still, James finally managed to work up the courage to move on to the next chapter. James could barely turn the page. After turning the page, he could deeply feel the magical energy in his body and the arcana energy in his lower level. These two energies were growing and growing, and James began to realise that a fourth ring was beginning to form, albeit a small one, around his heart. After all, his magic was evolving, which of course affected the development and growth of the magic rings. Just moving on to the next chapter had done that much good. [The second chapter is full of questions and explanations as to how arcane energy can be utilised in a greater than elementary way. How is it that the energy of arcana can acquire great beauty and power only when it is transferred into different forms? How can those inscriptions come to life and live and die according to the wishes of the person who releases the energy?] [These were questions I had been asking myself for quite a long time. I asked myself these questions even before there was such a thing as rune arts. I asked myself all these questions even before I taught arcana energy to the angels of heaven such as Gabriel, Metatron, Michael and Lucifer.] [I thought it would be very logical to create a language in which I could transfer this existing energy. Yes, I, Cain the Tailor, am the one who created the rune language. I worked as hard as I could to create the rune language in such a way that it would best absorb the arcana energy. I did this with such determination and seriousness that it took me millions of years to create just one letter.] [However, at the end of the work, I realised that the 21 letters I had created were not very useful. More precisely, I watched with my own eyes that even if these letters were useful, it still made a huge difference to use arcana energy with combined letters. This meant that the rune arts and the letters in which the arcana energy was placed worked with the law of randomness.] [Of course, you could give a rune any element, any effect, and any harmful or harmless form, but in the end, doing things randomly made the letters I created much more powerful. I called this the use of superior runes. There were incredibly few people other than myself who could master this art. Even Michael and Lucifer, whom I trained with my own hands, managed to grasp this art to a small degree]. When James reached the end of the page, he shook his head left and right. He was hearing things he never thought he would hear, and he was looking around with strange thoughts. It was marvellous that Cain had personally taught the two Archangels to a superior degree, and even more marvellous that Cain had created the rune arts with his own hands. Whether there was any way for James to understand this, no one knew. James scratched his head, took another deep breath and tried to turn the page of the book to read. However, no matter what he did, he could not open the page of the book. It was as if some force was holding the page of the book with his hands and James wanted to ignore that force and look at the next page. [Sir, your current level does not seem to be sufficient to see beyond the manuscript]. James shook his head as he read the system notification from Emma and pretended to understand, instantly removing the book from his inventory, not expecting to be so surprised in just two and a half days. Nevertheless, what was done was done, the next thing to do was to enter the catacomb. Chapter 164: Lucifer and Michael Jaes took the catacomb key out of his inventory again and then thought about how to use it for a few seconds. James'' thoughts must have been reflected to those watching him from Olympus because after only a few seconds, a message window popped up in front of him: [You need to transfer your aura or mana energy to the key James.] James, who had smiled at this message from Nyx, nodded and did as he was told, and after a few clicks of mana to the key, an excellent door made entirely of jade opened in front of him almost three metres. After looking at the door, James found the doorhole after a very short time and smiling, he got up from his seat and approached the door. As soon as he inserted the catacomb key into the doorway and turned it to the right, the door glowed. Once James closed and opened his eyes, he realised he was in a completely different place. Looking around carefully, James admired the architecture of the dungeon he was in. The place he was in strangely resembled the churches in his world. There were sculptures of angels and, strangely, demons, and each painting gave James goosebumps. "Isn''t that Sebastiano Ricci''s painting of Archangel Michael''s battle against the rebel angels? I could have sworn I saw it on the internet," James suddenly said, and with that, a message appeared in front of him. [It''s good that you know something about me, young man.] James'' eyes widened when he saw who the message was from and then he said: "I knew you were watching me but I didn''t expect to see a message from you, what an honour Sir Michael!" James, of course, knew that many gods and goddesses were watching him, he had even seen the writings from the system that Michael was watching him, and he even remembered the notifications when the tower first appeared. The names of Buddha, Lucifer, Michael, Zeus, and Odin were written in that notification, and James had already had the opportunity to meet two of them. [I can''t give you spoilers, but be careful and make good choices]. James shook his head when he saw another message and then frowned as if he didn''t understand what Archangel Michael was saying and said, "Alright." With that, James discovered one by one the paintings on the walls of the ''church-like'' room or parlour he was in and then sniffed and tried to steal one of them. James couldn''t know how much laughter was coming from everyone watching him now, he still wished he could get his hands on everything in the catacombs, he was sure he already had the power to kill the guards of this dungeon. "Hmm...it was worth a try," James said suddenly, and then his eyes fell on the painting hanging above the broken throne at the far end of the hall. He could see Archangel Michael''s imposing yet sad expression. Beside him stood someone else, blackened gold, just as imposing as Michael, but just as sad. "So this is...him? Fallen Angel Lucifer?" At James'' words, each of the great angels and great demons sitting in the same hall looked at each other in surprise, no one and by that I mean no one expected someone, especially someone from outside of the tower to know Lucifer, the myths in James'' world must''ve been amazing. Just as Lucifer was about to say something, James'' voice was heard again: "Lucifer...You are as beautiful as it is said in books and stories, you must be so beautiful to be the embodiment of pride. Neither ugly nor beautiful, the fallen angel who is said to have no form, if only they knew how beautiful you are." With these words, James approached the painting and tried to steal it this time, and the audience, who only a few seconds before had been in awe of his words, burst into laughter again. Discover more at m-vlempy _r. However, James knew there was nothing he could do now, so he turned around and went to the door of the hall and opened it, before leaving the hall, he turned back to the painting he had seen before and said "I''ll come back for you! I''ll give up Godly stuff if I have to, I swear!" and then he left the parlour. Just then, Emma''s system notification popped up in front of her: [Throughout history, an infinite number of people have entered the catacombs, but most of them have died just like the beings buried here, leaving everything behind, even their souls. This is a dangerous place. It is a place where angels and demons cannot pass by and is seen as a simple reflection of the most horrible regions of hell. After your challenges, choose your three treasures and leave, if you aim for more than three treasures you will be targeted by the catacomb guardian. Good luck traveller]. When James read the notification, he smiled and then pointed his middle finger in the air and said, "Let the guardian eat my dust, I will kill him if necessary." At James'' words, Lucifer and Michael burst into laughter, it was obvious that this young man was far more interesting than they had thought. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Michael couldn''t seem to take it any longer, he spoke up instantly: "Ruler, can you hear me?" At Michael''s words, a small doll suddenly appeared in the centre of the silver hall. As the doll nodded, Michael reached into his inventory and pulled out a ring. Lucifer and Gabriel, Beelzebub and the others were surprised to see the ring, and Lucifer, feeling he couldn''t be left behind, reached into his inventory and pulled out a ring as well. "Amber, come here!" Lucifer suddenly said and a cute little doll with long hair appeared. There was no way for the angels and demons around to understand what was going on. The gaze of Sun Wukong, who was sitting behind Lucifer and Michael in the hall, or rather in a cloud in the middle, seemed to reveal the strangeness of everything. Sun Wukong literally seemed like he was babysitting those two high beings. "No way. You two must be out of your minds." Gabriel said suddenly, his surprise obvious, of course. "I can''t believe you''re competing for James, Lord Lucifer," Asmadeus added. Still, the two great ''angels'' seemed to stand by their words, the two looked at each other with a scowl as they spoke at the same time: Chapter 165: Magic, Above the Human Limit "I wish to bestow this ring on James, specifically!" said Archangel Michael. "I wish to bestow this ring on James, specifically!" said Fallen Angel Lucifer. At these words, the two stood up and tried to move to grab each other by the neck. While Michael was being held by Gabriel himself to keep him from fighting, Lucifer was being held by Beelzebub. Although these two brothers were on very good terms, they were also in a terrible state. However, the dolls had taken the rings and disappeared, and while Michael and Lucifer were trying to fight, the dolls had already appeared in front of James. James suddenly took out his sword Clarent from his inventory and while he was trying to understand what was going on, the male of the dolls, Ruler, started to speak: "Hello, great Umbra. My name is Ruler, I''m the junior admin of Master Archangel Michael, and this is Amber, the junior admin of Master Fallen Angel Lucifer. We are here to bring you gifts, and with your permission, we would like to present them to you before you begin your adventure." James paused for a few seconds after these words, and then a personal message from Emma appeared in front of him before he could ask anything: [Sir, they are administrators like me, they are lower level than me, but you can trust them]. After this message, James nodded his head and then said, "Sure, I''d be happy to." Ruler, one of the dolls, waved his hands at these words and a ring far, far beyond the ordinary, covered with a white light, appeared just above his hand. When Amber, the other doll, waved her hand, another ring, far, far beyond the ordinary, covered with a dark light, appeared. When James took the rings in his hand, he checked their properties and was amazed by what he saw: [The Ring of Divine Power (Godly-) It is the ring that Archangel Michael had forged by Tubal-Cain, the first blacksmith, and then blessed by himself, Gabriel, Raphael and finally Uriel. Increases the wearer''s personal healing by 30% when worn. Increases the wearer''s mana recovery by 100% when worn. Grants the wearer a 10-strength stat when worn. Grants the wearer 20 endurance stats when worn]. When James read the description of the ring from Michael, he slipped it on his finger without a second thought, it was impossible not to be excited by what he read, he was sure that with this ring alone, he would gain the respect of most angels. However, it was time for the next ring, the ring bestowed by Lucifer: [Ring of Holy Magic (Godly++) Fallen Angel is the ring that Lucifer had forged by Tubal-Cain, the first blacksmith, and then blessed to be used intermittently for hundreds of years. This ring was created by Lucifer after being jealous of Michael, which is why the ring has so much power and has been blessed for hundreds of years. Increases the wearer''s mana recovery by 100% when worn. Grants the wearer 500 magic stat when worn. When worn, the wearer can empower low-level demons at their disposal]. When James had finished reading the description of this ring, he stayed where he was for a few seconds and then inhaled and exhaled deeply. These two rings that were now in his hands were completely priceless. James realised this very clearly and his heart was pounding. The moment he put on the ring sent by Lucifer, he realised the magic power that had changed in his body. His magic power had surpassed 2000 status points and he had managed to surpass the magic power of an ordinary elf, let alone a human. This was a gigantic number. James was able to see runes, everything related to magic, and even the tiny magic cells in dolls with just a single closing and opening of his eyes. James was now at his most gigantic as a three-ringed wizard, and if he wanted to sit down and create a fourth ring, it would be a piece of cake. Enjoy reading at m-vle-mp,yr. With that James shook his head and then said, "I...Thank you very much, I am very grateful indeed, Master Michael and Lucifer, I am very grateful that you have honoured me with these gifts," he didn''t know what more he could say. The dolls disappeared instantly, leaving only a message from Nyx: [I''ll thank those two for you, it''s been a long time since I left Olympus]. James smiled when he read this message window and then said, "As you wish, my lady, I must be on my way, we are in a huge dungeon after all." After these words, the atmosphere became silent, James could now continue on his way, or rather his adventure had just begun. He said nothing and moved very quickly, constantly looking around, but even in the rooms he entered and the small passages he passed through, there were only the skeletons and skulls of hundreds of people. James kept coming across the same type of room, it was quite frustrating, he could feel that something was wrong. He cautiously left the room he was in and then looked around, his eyes widened as he realised that he was indeed in a trap. However, he could see the exit of the trap quite clearly. James could see a path glowing with mana, or magical energy. He began to follow the path at a leisurely pace, each step producing a rattling sound around him. It was indeed an ear-splitting sound, but James overcame it and tried to understand what it was. It didn''t take James long to realise that something, or things, were nearby, though he had a very clear idea that the being he was about to encounter was far weaker than he was. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After all, James'' power had indeed been doubled with the ring he had received from Lucifer alone, at least that was the case with his magic. He knew he was ready for whatever he was going to face. Chapter 166: The Rotten Angels As James followed the mana trail or rather the mana path, he came across closed doors. He looked at the rotten wooden doors themselves and thought he had come to the ''entrance'' of the dungeon. After all, while perfect designs surrounded the hall he had left before, this door was surrounded by a broken-down appearance. He could even hear the rattling noises around him stop, as if the noises that had just been there had disappeared. James breathed calmly and then, smiling, pushed the rotten door open. James had to hold his nose as the doors opened back. The odours that came to his nose were so awful, so disgusting and intimidating that he could hardly keep himself from vomiting right now. Everything in James''s stomach was going upwards. [Poison Master] read first at m,v,l,e,m p _y,r [Poison Master title purged mid-tier poison.] sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James suddenly saw these system notifications that appeared in front of him, shook his head and said, "I didn''t know Poison Master could do such things...I didn''t even see such a thing written in the title description." With these words, a message appeared in front of James from a person he did not expect: [Sometimes not everything is revealed James, you have to go with the flow and discover, why didn''t you see any effect when you used other poisons. I can''t believe you never thought about it]. James smiled when he saw this message from Noah, but his smile instantly faded. He took a cloth from his inventory and wrapped it around his chin, his stomach couldn''t take it any other way. Even though he could still smell that disgusting odour, he had managed to get to a point where he could stand it. However, it was time for James to move on. "Selene, I apologise for getting your boots dirty, I know it was the system that gave them to me, not you, but even if they are replicas, they belong to you and this place is really... disgusting, forgive me," James said and started to step lightly. There were rotten and even skeletal corpses everywhere, it was such a disgusting sight that James''s face turned sour. Nevertheless, he continued to move forward with firm and determined steps, he came across many ruined places and passed through puddles of blood, very rarely, but sometimes he encountered traps. Once in the five minutes he travelled, he even encountered a trap with hundreds of arrows coming at him. He thought he was in for quite an easy journey. After a short time he came across another rotten wooden door, but this time there was a change. Strange noises were coming from behind the door, James paused for a few seconds and then said to himself, "Zombies again?". There was indeed a different level of noise coming from inside, but it sounded as if people were talking. He slowly approached one of the ajar places of the door and then tried to observe the inside through that hole. Of course, he was surprised by what he saw. Rotten bodies with white wings were crawling around inside. "What the fuck?" James said suddenly, clearly unable to stop himself from swearing, he had never expected to be confronted with such a beautiful yet disgusting sight. As he took the sword Clarent out of his inventory, he grabbed Selene''s Throwing Knife in his other hand and then kicked the rotten door in. "CRASH!" With the sound of the rotten door breaking, James managed to dive inside and then attacked towards the zombie-like beings consisting of white wings and rotten bodies. James was avoiding another attack with each step, unexpectedly, these three beings he had just watched through the doorway got on well with each other. It was as if they had fought and died shoulder to shoulder for a long time. With each attack James dodged, he watched the trio''s movements and tried to commit each one to memory in case he had to fight against these monsters in the future. James was in a big room, so it seemed quite normal to him that the trio around him were wielding spears, but what was strange was how easy their attacks were, yet how heavy they were. James felt that he could learn about the art of the spear just by watching these three, even though he had the ability to use any weapon, but there was still something different about what was obvious and visible. Still, James knew he couldn''t leave everything waiting for too long, he had to act, because he still had a huge dungeon to clean. That''s why he filled Clarent with his aura and then, with incredible speed, he jumped on a monster, ripped through its heart, pulled Clarent back out and spun around, killing the two remaining monsters with just one move. [Unique Achievement Won! Kill a rotten angel for the first time. You get a chance to choose a card]. James couldn''t stop his eyes from widening as he read the notification in front of him, he had half-guessed what these monsters were, but the last thing he expected was for it to come true. Turning his gaze back to the corpses, he clasped his hands together and then said, "I don''t know exactly where the souls go in this tower, but I hope you are not used to making philosopher''s stones and that you go only to wherever your paradise is." He could not have known how much those words meant to the angels watching him. They had not heard such words for a long time. No one acknowledged the names or the existence of their fallen brothers or sisters or prayed for them unless it came from other angels and sometimes other demons. James didn''t really know, but these words were priceless to all the angels and demons watching him now. As the angels looked at each other and Michael was about to bestow another gift on James, suddenly the whole hall was plunged into darkness. Michael, Lucifer and the others knew instantly who had arrived. Chapter 167: Heaven and Hell Will Be Needed "Lady Nyx, welcome and it is wonderful to see you our dear lady," Michael suddenly said and rose from his seat and graciously offered his seat to Nyx, who was worshipped or "forced" to be worshipped by all the gods and goddesses in the tower. When Nyx accepted the offer, she sat on the throne and then glanced around at the angels and demons around her, before turning her gaze to Michael and Lucifer, who were standing in front of her, bowing their heads in respect. A long conversation seemed to go on. "I think you understand why I''m here," Nyx said, her expression not angry, not sad, not upset, not angry at all, but rather trying hard not to laugh. "Cough...we may have been a little overzealous, my lady, we sent a gift to your child in your place." When Michael uttered these words, Nyx couldn''t hold herself back any longer: "Hahahaha! Do you think I''m here because I am mad at you two?" Nyx said after a small laugh and added, "Of course I''m here to scold you, after all, just like me and my family, you were created by Chaos, just like your own father Michael, so it is my responsibility to monitor your mistakes or successes." At these words, Archangel Michael felt his face begin to flush with embarrassment, while Lucifer had to hold himself back from laughing and turned his head away from his twin brother. "Forgive me, my lady," Michael said sheepishly, his curiosity piqued, "May I ask why you''re here if it''s not rude?" read first at m,v,l,e,m p _y,r Nyx smiled at this question and pointed to all the demons and angels around her, then pointed to the duo and said, "All these demons and angels in the hall are your responsibility, and that includes the others in the tower. Why don''t you remember that some gods or goddesses used his gacha ability to send gifts to James?" Michael and Lucifer couldn''t come up with an answer, they just assumed it was because they wanted to. Nyx was about to add something to her own words when suddenly Gabriel''s voice was heard: "If I''m not mistaken, my lady, the reason the other gods and goddesses do it is that sending the gift through an ability does not consume any energy whatsoever, in the only intelligible sense of the word." Nyx smiled at Gabriel''s words and then said, "Well done Gabriel, I''m proud of you as always." When Gabriel looked around with a proud look and bowed his head, Nyx''s voice was heard again: "Children, listen carefully. Lucifer joined us too late because of his selfishness and offered his alliance to Olympus, but the rest of you know this. We are going to have a great battle and it is imminent, not a battle of Olympus or others for a few places, but a battle that could shake the entire tower and perhaps even the outside of the tower." S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. These words seemed to suddenly fill the room with seriousness. "You two goofy but lovable duo shouldn''t waste your energy, you''ve already made it past the 150th floor, almost everyone in this hall has, so what you need to do is conserve your energy. We''re going to need the help of the armies of Heaven and Hell, more than you ever thought possible." Sun Wukong yawned as Nyx finished speaking and then said, "Come on old lady night! Give the young ones a break, their energies are close to the highest in the tower, close to the Titans, close to me and even you, well that was a little bit too much but at least to your children haha!" Nyx smiled as she heard Sun Wukong''s voice behind her and then said "I realise that they have indeed grown stronger." then added, "Still, I don''t want them to die in this war like my own children, unfortunately, there will be casualties and who knows, maybe even I will lose my life, but their deaths should not exist." All the demons and angels around them were visibly moved by Nyx''s words, they had known for a long time that Nyx and Erebus, and especially Ra, were looking out for them, Erebus had even gone to his aid a few times when Michael was in danger. After Nyx waited a few seconds and saw that Sun Wukong had gone back to sleep, she turned back to Michael and said, "Do you have any idea where your father is? I haven''t seen him or heard from him in millions of years." and it sounded like she was talking about that god. When Michael shook his head from side to side, Nyx frowned and then said, "There''s nothing to be done, let''s hope he''s not dead." and then continued: "You heard what I said guys, if you want to send a gift, contact Ra, he''s a creator, so he can go downstairs, at least there will be no energy loss, let''s not use James'' gacha chances so he can get stronger not only with the things we send but also with his luck which is high, remember luck upper 20 is pretty high." After these words, Nyx looked carefully at Michael and Lucifer, who nodded their heads, and then spoke again: "You two are stronger than my son Thanatos, even Michael is close to the power of Moros, even fate itself, so you are strong, we need you, you must protect the tower, don''t forget that." Both Michael and Lucifer seemed surprised at Nyx''s words, neither of them seemed to have expected such words, their surprise was on a gigantic surface. "What you say must be a joke, my lady, we have seen how Thanatos and Moros fought, it is unbelievable to be stronger than death, and there is no way we can be stronger than fate itself." Michael said, and Nyx, who heard this, smiled and said, "Trust me." After Nyx said these two words, the whole room was plunged into darkness again, and when the darkness disappeared, Nyx disappeared and only Michael and Lucifer, who were wide-eyed with astonishment, were left in the hall next to the angels, demons and sleeping Sun Wukong. They had a very good idea of how many millions of gods and goddesses had perished to receive such compliments from Nyx. Chapter 168: Going Inside the Choice Room "No way!" James suddenly said, smiling as he saw what was on the card he had received from his achievement. [Jade Extract(Unique++++) This extract is one of the few ingredients that users or players have used since creation to improve their body endurance. While its value and quality are less than other materials, it is much rarer than other enhancement materials. When used and meditated upon, it will provide the user or player with 50 endurance stat points]. James smiled and realised that he had acquired a pretty good item, he was really happy, after all, what maniac wouldn''t want to improve his body even more? With that James checked the room he was in from top to bottom, he could see traces of mana but it seemed to be scattered all over the wall. When he carefully tried to feel the mana itself, he realised that it was coming from the bookcase to his right. As he approached the bookcase, he smiled and then said, "Holy shit, it''s a movie cliche." As he pulled one of the books from the bookshelf, rattling sounds, or rather the sound of a wheel turning, began to emanate from the wall to his left. When James looked at the wall, he said "Wicked." and started to descend the stairs down the opened wall. When he descended the stairs, he saw an unexpected sight. The statues were around, James knew they were not Weeping Angels, but he still watched them without blinking, or rather, without blinking. James saw statues of angels all around him. The first statue he saw was of a radiant angel, full of life, smiling and showing his strength. The second statue showed this angel looking weakened and his face was stoic. The third statue showed the angel''s neck bent downwards and tears streaming down his face. The fourth sculpture...that sculpture made James feel overwhelmed. "Angels decomposed like this? They''re not zombies, are they?" James said, his eyes tearing up as he looked at the state of the angel statue, the sight was truly wrenching. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The fourth statue was on its knees, the feathers on its snow-white wings beginning to fall to the ground, pointing to the huge heart on its chest where the heart should have been, and an expression of devastation. James didn''t know who or whoever had made this statue, but his heart was broken. Only four sculptures gave it all away. In the fourth statue, the angel''s body had begun to decompose a little, and the rejection of life in his gaze seemed to tell how terrible things had been. Find more at m-vle-mp _yr. [Both angels and demons decompose in the same way, James, as a huge event in their lives affects them in this way. It''s not like the rebellion of Lucifer and the others, it doesn''t show betrayal, it shows angels or demons rotting and losing their minds. Almost every one of them were mighty warriors, almost every one of the corrupt ones]. James had decided to move on when he read this message from Gabriel, he really had no idea what he was supposed to say, he had just had the chance to see the rotten angels in the flesh and he already had an idea of what kind of life they had lived. James wanted to leave the room calmly, he saw the door that was there for him to leave the room and he opened it and left the room. In front of him, he saw more than a dozen rotten angels and rotten demons. He activated his dark step ability and chose to give a proper death to the "enemies" in front of him, holding his sword Clarent tightly. "Rest in peace," James suddenly said and in just five or six seconds the bodies of all the "enemies" fell to the ground, James had a strange feeling even when he thought about what these "enemies" that the catacomb had shown him might have gone through. Even if James had never recognised them, he realised again that the tower was indeed a cruel place, even for angels and demons. [Unique Achievement Won! Kill a rotten demon for the first time! 15,000,000 Gold!] James couldn''t even manage to smile after receiving his achievement and gold reward, and then he left the room. Every few minutes he would move to another room and each time, even if he was getting used to it, he would kill more and more rotten angels and demons, it was heartbreaking, but there was nothing he could do. After a short time he realised that he was in a huge chain space, the catacomb he was in seemed to have only just begun to open. It seemed as if there were dozens of them waiting for him outside the room he was in. James looked around him and saw that the door in front of him was not rotten like the other doors and that it was the jade door he had used to enter the catacomb in the first place. He didn''t think he could finish the catacomb so easily. After he approached the jade door, he pushed the door and saw that the door started to open, even if it was tiny, despite all its weight. He was literally putting all of his strength into pushing the door, sweat started to flow from his body, and after almost three minutes, he managed to open the door and entered inside. Immediately after the door closed, he saw that behind the door was one of the halls, just as it had been when he had first entered the catacombs. He looked around in awe, it didn''t take him long to realise what was different from the hall he had been in when he had first entered, his gaze fixed on the perfection around him. James had an idea of what he was going to say this time, he was smiling, and the brightness in his gaze was reflected in everyone watching him, James was glowing with life, just like the first time he saw Nyx''s statue. "Woah...I didn''t see them at the feast, I didn''t get to meet them because of the training and the danger, but I believe it was them, after all, that''s what that big portrait showed. I choose to believe so." Chapter 169: What If I Choose Both? What James saw in front of him was the sculpted likeness of Michael and Lucifer in the portrait he had seen in the parlour. James could see that they both looked proud, and their gazes were almost identical to the way James felt when he listened to the heroes in the Greek mythology books his mother used to read to him on rare occasions. Yet James found nothing he could do, there was no door to this room, nothing but the door he had entered through, and James scanned each room he had been in before with his own mana, looking for traces of mana throughout. And yet the fact that he found nothing seemed to tell him that there was something he needed to do here. That''s why he looked around in confusion and then said, "Okay, does anyone know what I''m supposed to do here? I mean, considering that this catacomb is full of angels and demons, Michael, Lucifer or others must know." Soon after this question, a message appeared in front of him: [You have to choose one of us by touching the statue of either me or Michael. Then you can enter the prize room and choose your prizes under the guard''s supervision]. James shook his head when he saw this message from Lucifer and then was surprised to learn that he had to choose a side. "I have to choose a side. Then I don''t want to choose any of you, you know I''m with the Chaos-Borns." James said, not knowing the effect these words had on all Chaos-Borns after they had learnt about Desmond. [The side you choose will have more influence over the ''heaven and hell'' you think of. So if you choose me, my control over hell and therefore my ability to harness the energy of hell will be enhanced, and I will be able to gift you an ability. If you choose Michael, he will enhance your ability to harness the energy of heaven and gift you an ability. You can see this as a kind of... sponsorship]. James read Lucifer''s message again and then said, "Huh...It makes sense and it works in my favour, so that''s why you started sending me messages the moment I entered the catacomb. Were the gifts part of the plan?" he asked. After these words, another message appeared in front of him, this time from Ra: [This catacomb has not been entered by many people throughout history, most catacombs are formed only once and do not disappear until the person inside dies or gets out. This catacomb was created by the tower specifically for Michael and Lucifer. To show their failures and successes, and those who enter here will receive nice gifts at the end and can help them by choosing Michael or Lucifer]. After reading Ra''s message, James nodded his head in understanding, but he still had a few questions. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I mean I do not need to choose, do I? I already have my guild, I have my family and such. What if I choose both of you? I can help both of you no? Perhaps I can be the lil-bro of you two with this who knows." After James suddenly said these words, everyone paused for a few seconds. After just a few seconds, everyone who had been watching what had just happened had managed to break down in laughter, everyone was laughing so loud and so fast that it would not be wrong to say that it was a little annoying. [It''s possible, the reason why you can''t do that is that when you choose someone, the energy goes out of your body. Aura holders can help Michael more because Michael is an aura user and Lucifer is the opposite, so usually people who come here choose according to their style. Which means you might be the only one who can choose between the two statues]. After this message from Nyx, James smiled and then said, "Well, see?", followed by, "So what am I supposed to do? Touch the statues?" he asked. After this question, two system notifications popped up in front of him. One notification was on the right and the other on the left. [Do you wish to support Archangel Michael? YES/NO] [Do you want to support the Fallen Angel Lucifer? YES/NO] When James read these system notifications, he raised his hands held them in a proper position and pressed yes on both panels at the same time. After that, he felt a huge amount of energy drop out of his body, and a strange feeling came over him, as if he felt his brain shaking as if he felt the blood in the veins in his body disappearing. After almost a minute of this strange sensation, James stumbled, landed on his buttocks and then closed his eyes as he felt dizzy, he tried to get rid of this sensation by breathing deeply, and then he saw two different pieces of light in front of his eyes, the fact that they could be seen even with his eyes closed told James that they were notification windows. Experience the best on NovelFire _emp _yr. James opened his eyes to see two notification windows forming in front of him and realised that these were the abilities that Michael and Lucifer had bestowed. Before James started to read the abilities, he pressed the underscore button just to the left of the cross to underscore the notifications and then said, "Michael and Lucifer, I hope what I tried to do worked." With those words, two message windows popped up in front of him: [We will repay you for this not only with abilities but also in the future, you can be sure of that. [I swear that when you get above the 75th floor, whenever you need help, you won''t need Lady Nyx or any Chaos-Born, I''ll be there for you before Olympus or Asgard even takes action,] Lucifer said, and it was possible to understand how happy he was just from what he wrote. Now all that was left was to see the gifted abilities and fulfil his purpose by choosing his rewards. That is, to kill the guard steal all the rewards and get out of here. Chapter 170: Precious Rewards [Transition(Legendary+++++) This ability was created and developed by the Fallen Angel Lucifer. After much effort, he achieved a power similar to teleportation by instantly dissipating the mana in the body and releasing it elsewhere. The user''s speed will increase to such an enormous speed that the audience will think he has teleported. When the user uses the ability, his speed will increase by 3x for only one second. Cooldown Time: 10 minutes] James was amazed when he read about this ability in detail, it was almost like stopping time and starting to run, yes, maybe there was a waiting period, but the fact that his speed would increase by 3x even for a second was a big deal. James'' agility stat was exactly 211 points, making him stronger than humans and even stronger than the basic capabilities of some other races. The fact that this speed stat increased to 633 points meant that James would be on the same level for a second as an assassin who had perhaps made it to the 60th floor. This was true, beyond any words that could be spoken, beyond any words that could be uttered, colossal. It was totally colossal. This speed was incalculable by the human mind. James knew that it was impossible for him not to rejoice when he read about this ability, the smile on his face was incalculable, it was a wonderful ability. He had closed the window of this ability because he wanted to check the next one, and when he read the ability Michael had given him, he smiled and said, Well, this will be very useful." [Heaven''s Call (Legendary+++++) This ability was created and developed by Archangel Michael, one of the highest angels in heaven. The ability is based on summoning the gardens of heaven. When the ability is used, a flower garden that extends for almost fifty metres opens. Depending on the user''s wishes, these flowers have different effects on the user and others. The effects will increase the user''s status by 20% for 3 minutes. This is an aura-based ability, so make sure your aura is at a sufficient level before using the ability. Rose - Power Lily- Speed Violet- Endurance Cooldown Time: 1 Month] When James had finished reading this ability in its entirety, he realised that he had gained another ability, Aura of Chaos. He saw that he could increase the power of the flowers for three minutes. Even if it was a 20 per cent power increase, it was a huge number. After all, the increase in their status would bring with it great power. On top of that, James could feel a slap in the face from reality. He had always wondered why he hadn''t acquired more Creator-grade abilities and items, but it was only now that it dawned on him. The ability he had was a legendary grade ability, and even that could only increase a stat by 20% for three minutes. James was getting a huge surprise even with this ability, and on top of that, what he was thinking about now was completely different. James remembered the power of the Aura of Chaos ability once again. The Aura of Chaos ability was a Creator-grade ability. This ability increased the status of all allies within a 30-metre radius by 50%. On top of that, it empowered the user of the ability, James himself, by 100%, and on top of that, it reduced the power of all enemies by 10%. James was really in for a reality check, he should have fallen to his knees and prayed to the tower that he had received such an ability, instead of being greedy all the time and feeling sorry for not getting Creator-grade abilities. "Thank you both very much, I''ll be sure to put these abilities to good use," James suddenly said, and with that, a system notification appeared in front of him: [Do you wish to go to the Catacomb''s reward room? YES/NO] James looked at the notification in front of him ignored the messages that were coming to him and pressed yes directly. His body turned to dust and disappeared, and as he closed and opened his eyes, he came into a white, stark white hall covered with stuns and furniture. He was looking around, and after a short time, he saw the presence standing in the centre of the hall. "That must be the guard..." said James, the size of the guard was like a giant. He must have been maybe 30 or 40 metres tall. He didn''t even know how wrong he was. James instantly realised what was going on, he had three prizes to choose from, and after all, he was entitled to them. However, James knew he was going to get more than three, that''s why he tried to look around to see how many prizes there were and realised that there were six prizes, one on each of the six pillars. James looked around the prizes and realised that each prize was a stone. The description of the stones said that each stone added 60 points to a stat, and just seeing those words gave James a reason to kill the guard. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He couldn''t walk away from the chance to add 60 points to his Power, Agility, Endurance, Magic, Intelligence and Charisma stats. Each level gave a user five favourites, and each of these stones was worth 12 levels, none of which he could leave behind. That''s why he grabbed the Agility, Endurance, and Intelligence stones from the prize place in the first place, just in case. As he took each stone from the pillars, the room grew darker and darker. James realised that this loss of light represented luck, or rather permission to take the rewards. He knew he shouldn''t care, after all, he was going to get every stone in the hall. When he activated his dark step ability, he took each of the remaining stones from the pillars, stepped back and waited. A mechanism was activated in the area of the pillars, and just like in the library area at the beginning of the catacombs, the sound of cogwheels began to rise all around. After only a few seconds, the pillars disappeared into the floor and only James and the guard opposite him remained in the darkened hall. Chapter 171: Breakthrough (1) [Be careful James, you must be ready to use the Aura of Chaos ability at any time, catacombs usually start to appear after 50 floors, just to give you an idea of the difficulty level]. James nodded his head as he read this warning from Moros and realised that this was the first time Moros had explicitly warned him about something and he had the intelligence to listen when fate himself warned him. Immediately he switched on his night vision and was astonished by the sight he saw. Standing in front of James was someone or something, perhaps a metre or two taller than him. Its eyes were as black as its body, it had no feet or hands, and it looked incredibly similar to the Fallen God he had seen on the 9th floor, but it was not a Fallen God. James paused to realise what it was and leapt forward, his sword held tightly in Clarent''s grip. He was fast, he was strong and had a lot of stamina, his magical energy, and his mana, were enormous due to both his Magic status and his Intelligence status. In short, he was ready to fight to the death. He swung Clarent a few times, the fact that he could see his target precisely made everything perfect. Every second he swung his sword, he could see the dark being countering his attacks. It was at that moment that James saw something begin to change in the being before him, suddenly the ugliest smile possible appeared on the dark being''s face with white teeth. It was as if the being in front of James was underestimating him, or rather provoking him. James, of course, was not going to fall for it, he had realised something for the first time, he could not kill this being in a normal way. This being had to have a weakness, after all, everyone except the creator had to have a weakness, everyone. James, knowing this, started to try different things. He used the water element he had gained earlier and made an attack, although not very powerful. A small ball of water travelled towards the being and hit it, knocking the smile off the dark being''s face. It was clear that the being was angry, and it took the damage, the darkness on its body was broken, even if it was tiny, and James realised what its weakness was. "So I''ll be able to hurt you on the elements, not on abilities," James said. With that, he instantly emitted all the aura energy in his body, but this time was different from all other moments. Before releasing this aura energy, he had tightened the aura in his body as much as possible, which meant that the flames of different colours that formed around him were formed with a single purpose: Destruction. James was grateful for what Vlad had taught him, after all, the flames that had previously formed around him were unlikely to do much damage, but thanks to the sword styles he had learnt, James had learned how to bring destruction to his surroundings using only his aura. The dark being seemed to be frightened. It had no particular facial features, yet the smile on its face not only did not disappear, but it was almost grimacing, and its fear was evident in the fact that it was trembling. James realised at that moment that he had an advantage, perhaps he should have used his aura attack. However, he knew he couldn''t use these attacks while moving, he couldn''t risk dying, but he knew that by using the Aura of Chaos ability only the ability would give him immunity for a minute, so he could use the sword style. Aura of Chaos was indeed an excellent skill for situations like this. Even after the one minute of immunity was over, James would still be a stronger man. "Should I use it?" James suddenly thought, but instantly Vlad''s voice rang in his ears: "Don''t use it, this is a real war for you, you can''t use an ability that makes you untouchable. In the future, you will face Fallen Gods who can destroy you instantly and you must have experience if you don''t want them to destroy you when that time comes." When James heard these words, all thoughts in his mind stopped. At that moment, it occurred to him that he could use the second part of Desmond''s sword art in the slashing style while moving. Perhaps he could have used only the element of fire to carry out this attack, that is, instead of using his aura and magic to create a beam, he could have sent a sea of fire at the dark being. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, it should have been...impossible. Even if James had both aura and magic, using them at the same time would have meant making Desmond''s Sword Art into something he had fully mastered, or at least creating the magical swordsman thing Desmond wanted. Of course, he couldn''t master that sword art by getting good at just one thing, but at least he would have taken all the steps in one part. James knew Vlad was right in what he said, he had to be fast, detailed and serious. He had to go beyond his limits. As soon as James put these thoughts into his mind he realised that he had perhaps adopted a terrible idea, it was eating him up inside knowing that he felt the need to do something that even Desmond couldn''t do. If Desmond couldn''t do it, there was no way he could he thought. [Calm down James, I don''t know what you''re thinking but I know you can do it, make up your mind.] Nyx must have seen the sweat pouring down James'' face as she watched him because she became worried and felt the need to send a message, Nyx may or may not have known, but the message was like a slap to James'' face. Inhaling deeply, James suddenly began to run around the dark being, he could divert the angry being''s attention in several directions by pointing to his plan, which he could provoke by showing what he was doing rather than just focusing on him. James''s plan was in motion. Chapter 172: Breakthrough (2) James kept circling the being, or guardian as he called it, for every second, the onlookers could see why he was doing this, the being he was fighting was not very intelligent and would be easily confused. With each step James was spinning the aura in his body, as the spell merged back into his aura in a tiny way James felt like he was going to die, his whole body was hurting like crazy. It was indeed a difficult process, James was trying to focus his elemental energy by separating the energy from his aura and magic, it was very similar to his death march in search of the elemental core. Only not as dangerous. James knew what he had to do. He gathered his aura again, and as the flames died down, he released it, this time more frenzied and wild. The whole room came alive with his colourful flames. The guardian himself seemed to be panicking, there was nowhere for him to run because of the flames around him, he was limited in what he could do, he had to attack James, but even if this young man''s speed was fast enough for him to reach, he did not have enough intelligence to understand what was happening. The guardian was confused. James, on the other hand, was aware of what was happening, he could see that the guard, this being in the darkness, was being penetrated. After he had dispersed his aura, he saw that the aura energy in his body had decreased enormously, while he was trying to understand what was happening, he suddenly realised that the pain in his body had also started to decrease, indicating that the magic was starting to fuse positively with his aura. James couldn''t understand what was happening, something was pushing the magic in his body to fuse with his aura and it wasn''t James himself. It was only when he was running and focusing on his body that he suddenly realised what was happening. "This..." James thought and smiled as he began to increase his speed even more, now he could make the attack. With each step, the flames around him grew larger and more vibrant. James could clearly recognise the magic in his body, he saw again that the elements in his body had gone mad and a part of him was clinging to the magic with a tightly coalesced aura. This was the real reason for his smile, an element in his body was literally going mad to attack. James was about to take the last three steps, he was going to make the attack, when his sword suddenly flowed at Clarent, the magic-aura combination and the elemental itself clinging to the duo made the sword glow with a dark, green colour. He had taken the first step, he could feel every muscle in his body twitching. He had taken the second step, and he could feel all the blood vessels going crazy, his eyes were bleeding and blood was pouring from all the holes in his head. He took the third step, stopped abruptly turned to the guard, the dark being, and made his move. He thrust the sword forward over the slash and then everything stopped. Everyone watching could hear the heartbeat, even James himself could barely keep himself from fainting. He wished he could do what Desmond wanted, what Desmond hoped, and he would. His sword, Clarent, glowed with a jade light, the brightness drawing all eyes to it, representing the dryness and poison flame from the 8 sacred fire. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James''s hair burst into flames and the attack began to move forward. A flame of green poison suddenly shot out of the replica of the legendary sword Clarent like an atom bomb. The flames travelled straight towards the guard and did not stop there either. The lush green flames almost hit the walls of the catacomb and the image of the flames showed the burn marks in the hall it illuminated. "UGUUHHAAAAAGGH!!!!" The guardian''s screams reached everyone''s ears, everyone saw what was happening and trembled with excitement. James had achieved something that had never been achieved in history, he had managed to use aura and magic by adding elements to them, even if he could not combine them completely. Even if James hadn''t realised it, he had achieved something a million times more perfect than Desmond ever could. The lush green flames did not stop, the aura-magic and the combined poison element charged into the legendary sword Clarent was so massive that the attack was still going on after almost thirty seconds. In an instant, the lights in the auditorium came on, and even though the attack was still in progress, James and the onlookers realised in that instant that the guardian was already dead and gone. James had completely cleaned the catacomb. Not a grain of dust or ash was left of the guard''s body, everything, and when he said that he meant everything, everything was gone. When James looked in the direction of his attack, he stared at the wall of the hall that his attack had reached and then realised that the wall had disappeared. He could see the space itself behind the wall. At that moment, James''s head began to spin. He fell to his knees and realised that blood was pouring out of all the holes in his head, at that moment he heard Vlad''s voice in his mind. "Nice one James." James smiled when he heard those three words, he was looking up at the ceiling of the hall, with the green flames around him and his hair in flames, he seemed to be showing the starry cosmos, although this cosmos''s teeth were red from the blood, the smile he showed his teeth seemed to show that the cosmos was a very dangerous person. At that moment James fell to the ground, and he fainted. It was quite natural, after all, what he had just done would have been a near-death experience for James, and as usual, Ariel would have chastised him. Nevertheless, he had succeeded, he had indeed managed to do something that even Desmond could not have dreamed of doing. For the first time since the tower''s creation, James was the only one who could use magic and aura at the same time. Chapter 173: A Small Page of His Story When James opened his eyes again he realised that he was still inside the catacomb, he didn''t know how long he had been unconscious, but he knew that he had succeeded. He had succeeded in destroying his enemy, and he had done it perfectly. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [You''re finally awake, I couldn''t come to the catacombs because I don''t have access to the catacombs, but nobody does, except people like Ra]. James smiled as he read this message from Nyx with his eyes barely open and looked around, he looked at the wall to his right that had been burnt down and saw that he could still see beyond it. It was as if James was an astronaut and had made it into space, and the sight was so beautiful that for a few seconds, James could only stare into the void. He was distracted by another message window opening in front of him: [I haven''t seen anyone damage the catacomb itself since the beginning of my life.] This message from the Titan Hyperion caught James'' attention instantly, it made him smile knowing that he had achieved another first, he still had work to do, and trying to talk was not what he should be doing. He tried to get to his feet but he couldn''t, he fell to the floor with a sudden dizziness and then he heard the sound coming from his stomach: "GROOOOOOOWL!!!!" The sound echoed through the hall as if a wolf had started to shout next to James and then disappeared through the wall and disappeared into nothingness. James seemed to have forgotten that he was a human being amid all the action. He quickly took out a protein bar and a drink from his inventory and then destroyed them in ten or fifteen seconds. He knew his body couldn''t recover that fast, so he sat where he was, after all, he might be able to do one of the things he was going to do here. He opened his inventory again and then pulled out a coffee table, he didn''t even remember why he had a coffee table in his inventory but it would come in handy eventually. After removing the coffee table and laying a blanket over it, James took out the stones he had sent to his inventory, which could add 60 points each to his Power, Agility, Endurance, Magic, Intelligence and Charisma stats. Each of the stones was different but strangely the same colour and James'' strange ability worked again. He could see that these stones, each in a different colour, glowed jet black, which seemed to tell him that these stones were Godly ranked. [Power Stone(Godly+++++)] [Agility Stone(Godly+++++)] [Endurance Stone(Godly+++++)] [Magic Stone(Godly+++++)] [Intelligence Stone(Godly+++++)] [Charisma Stone(Godly+++++)] James looked at each stone and then took the Power Stone from the coffee table and closed his eyes. Immediately after closing his eyes, the stone miraculously turned to dust and disappeared. Before James opened his eyes again, he touched the other stones on the table with his eyes closed and the same reaction happened with each stone. James could feel the changes in his body. Anyone watching him from the outside could also easily recognise these changes. His body hadn''t grown, but the increasing quality of his muscles was evident in the adamant armour called Lux. The increase in his Charisma was deepening everyone''s gaze on him, and even if James didn''t realise it or didn''t know it, a Charisma stat of over 60 already made him as beautiful as an elf. His leg muscles were massively toned, this was a combination of Agility and Power statuses, and the increase in Endurance Statuses brought with it a great deal of strength. James in his current state was indeed equal to the strength of an elf or a dwarf who had reached the 40th floor, he had been beyond human limits for a very long time, even defeating Ariel would be very, very easy now, and he could do it with his constant strength. James opened his eyes again and saw the notifications forming in front of him: [Power stat increased by 60 points.] [Agility stat increased by 60 points.] [Endurance stat increased by 60 points.] [Magic stat increased by 60 points.] [Intelligence stat increased by 60 points.] [Charisma stat increased by 60 points.] James realised that his dizziness was gone after he turned off these notifications one by one. His body seemed to have recovered for the moment as his stats increased. "Now, here''s the thing, you know that painting I saw when I entered the catacomb, I want it." James suddenly said that was the other thing he had to do. As James uttered these words, the onlookers began to refuse to believe that this young man was the same one who had fought for his life a few hours earlier, a few laughed at the look on James'' face and the seriousness of his request, while Michael and Lucifer hoped to fulfil it. [We''ve already made a special request to Mr Ra, you''ll be receiving the painting shortly.] James smiled as he looked at this message from Michael and then said with a smile, "Wicked, literally the only thing I wanted the most." James''s callousness was truly monumental. After a short while someone materialised in front of James, James had seen this person with golden hair standing in front of him before at the feast, of course, he recognised him. Ra quickly handed the painting to James and James sent it to his inventory so that no damage could be done to it, however, there was nothing more to be done here. "Emma, get me out of here, I am so done for a while," James said and with that, a portal opened up in front of James. James stood up and then looked at the puddle of blood he had left behind him, he realised that he had taken a huge step forward, even better than Desmond had wanted him to. It would be one of those rare moments when he could be completely proud of himself, it was all thanks to his hard work. James had managed to kill one of the catacomb guardians who hadn''t been killed in a long time. This was but a small page at the beginning of his legend. Chapter 174: Big Plans Almost three months had passed since the Catacombs had been cleared. During that time, nearly no major events had occurred. James and Ariel had passed the 27th floor together, and then one thing had happened that could perhaps be considered a ''big event'' in a small way. The Church of Night began to expand. The powers below the 75th floor were, of course, shaken by this, but most of the higher gods were unable to make a decisive attack because of their respect for Nyx and the fear that accompanied it. In the meantime, James had gathered artefacts from the ruined and now ancient Church of the Night and placed them in the main guild building on the 5th floor. Some of the artefacts were not suitable for James to use at the moment, most of them were broken and disassembled, and of course, it was obvious who had destroyed the churches, even James himself knew that, let alone Nyx. The gods and goddesses who hadn''t fallen, and especially those who hated Nyx among them, had destroyed the churches and stolen most of the ruins when they were close to crumbling, which told some of the story of how the Fallen Gods had returned. James had made his plans for the Church of Night known, in short, he planned to complete everything, restoring the church to its former strength was his main goal. In the meantime, Nemesis herself had come to the main guild hall to collect the broken artefacts or relics and take them to her mother for repair. Almost every one of the artefacts had been created by Erebus and Nyx specifically to help Desmond. This meant that James himself was the rightful owner of the artefacts. Datura and Aether had successfully fulfilled every single order that had been given to them. Emperor Ahil gave the rank of Archduke to James within the empire. The only reason for this was that James would not accept the rank of emperor under any circumstances, and it was made clear by Nyx to the goddess-worshipping Ahil and his family that James was the rightful holder of the throne. Desmond''s name was not revealed, and not many gods knew, but the Church of Night, and subsequently every human being who worshipped Nyx, understood the lineage of James. Everyone knew he was a descendant of the one who founded the Church of Night and the Sun Empire, and Desmond''s identity was, of course, kept secret for James'' safety, as stated. This caused every single person connected to the imperial court to begin worshipping James. James'' Holiness status suddenly doubled to 60.000. After this point, James was strangely only able to win one item: [Crystal of Life(Godly+++++) This Crystal contains one of the essential essences of the tower, reality. It has been created by the hands of the creators throughout history and has become a Crystal that can be obtained by the most valuable people. It must be known to the user that the use of the crystal is to turn it into a jewel. In the hands of the wrong person, the crystal will become a piece of rubbish. When the crystal is used, it increases the user''s vitality by 100%. When used, the crystal increases the aura of authority around the user by 100%. This crystal can only be used by the leaders of all things]. When James obtained this crystal, he knew who to give it to. He somehow managed to get the crystal to Athena in a short time. He could have given this crystal to Ronald, but he knew that the best person for this job was Athena, who had gained a rank in handcraft. On top of that, James was constantly taking lessons from Vlad himself. As his mastery of the elements had increased during his battle with the catacomb guardian, he had, without realising it, come a long way in the second part of Desmond''s Sword Art, the cutting. Vlad had intended to make this path iron so that James would never regress. According to Vlad, Desmond had mastered ''Disarm and Bluff'', the two styles in the ''Capture'' section of the Sword Art that were the easiest to learn. James, on the other hand, was able to master these two styles in two months, practising for almost ten hours every day. Still, things were the same in the first part, the piercing part, James hadn''t improved that much since his last ''epiphany''. Of course, he was still improving, every day he was getting better and better and more consistent in his attacks, but that didn''t mean anything. He still wanted too much, it was greed, he was trying to develop too fast, but he was not ''strong'' enough to do it, after all, enlightenment was not so easily achieved. These were the events of the last three months, and James looked up at the mountain, no longer made of ice, but permanently in possession of a cold ecosystem. After he had paid the asking price, he owned the mountain itself, and with the orders he had placed, the construction of the huge palace had already begun, James wanted this to be the place where his family would live in the future and where the Church of Night would have its headquarters and the guild would have its main building. In short, this would be the place where the Black bloodline would continue. To do this, though, he had to create a rule that Nemesis could stay here, in short, he had to bend the 75th-floor-down rule set by his ancestor. He had a long, long way to go. "I never thought I''d come back to this mountain," Emily suddenly said, and the smile on James" aunt''s face was obvious. With these words, James asked Emily a question that he had been wondering for a long time but had not had the opportunity to ask: S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Really, you are my aunt, so you can''t have died a long time ago, so how come you appeared on this mountain trapped in a ring?" After James'' question, Emily''s spirit turned towards him and said "Of course it''s Chaos, he already realised your potential and asked me and I agreed, our whole bloodline agreed, everyone is waiting in various parts of the tower to pass on to you the experience they have gained from certain things. And you found me, your aunt, by chance." Upon Emily''s words, James suddenly realised that the Sword Scabbard to which Vlad''s soul was bound had come to him by Chaos. Chaos himself must have tied the souls of all his ancestors and family members to an item and put it on the tower floors for James to find them. James was not only surprised when he realised these words, of course, he hoped that one day he would meet his other ancestors, but he still wondered what would become of those he would not find. After all, James had only reached the 28th floor and he did not know where to find them, after all, he could not find all his bloodline members, his ancestors, by chance any more than he could find his aunt by chance. "Master Umbra, a message from Mistress Ariel." James had suddenly heard what Datura had told him, and even if he didn''t understand why Ariel hadn''t sent him a message directly, he was still curious about the content. "Tell me," James said, and with that, Datura spoke: "20. 22:00, same." James smiled when he heard these numbers and the word same. There was one more thing James had done in the last 3 months. It was to find someone, James realised that one of the paintings inside the church on the 20th floor was missing. It was not one of the paintings in the main throne room, but it was one of the paintings that was still a gift to the church. A direct order had been given to Ariel and a few others, and after clearing a few more floors with Ariel, James was completely focused on finding that thief. What Ariel sent as a message was the floor, time and the place. Still, punishing the thief was not what he wanted to do. Even if the stolen painting was not very well guarded, it was still a painting in the second most active church in the Church of Night. It would have required perfect secrecy for someone to enter the church, pass unseen through all those rooms, all those priests and all those nuns, unlock the locked room and steal the painting. And to slip out of there unnoticed would have required even greater skill. James was well aware of this, what he wanted to do was to find the thief and make himself a new comrade. In the last three months, James had begged Thanatos to give him a few more servant-master contracts, and in the end, James had received two more. If he could get the thief to sign one of these contracts, James would have one of the most perfect spies he could ever have. In short, James would have a shadow. A shadow that will hunt for him, search and perhaps steal information for him. Chapter 175: The Second Dream (1) After a short time, James arrived at the appointed time on the appointed floor and the place indicated only by the word ''same''. On the 5th floor, he had a tonne of work to do, but there was only one thing bigger than all that work, and it was here now. The yet James had arrived in was a lodge belonging to the church, one of the houses formerly inhabited by the human witches who were an important part of the church''s power. The person who lived in this large house was now none other than Ariel. When James arrived in front of the house, he knocked on the door and after a few seconds the door was opened by Theseus. "I didn''t know you lived here, Thes," James said, walking in, and seeing Theseus'' smiling face. "You''re finally here, I can''t believe it took you two hours to get here, what in God''s name were you doing?" said Ariel who was sitting on the sofa with one leg over the other. "You know, trying to get a house built for Nemesis, Miracle, you, Theseus and many others." Ariel shook her head from side to side as James said these words and then stood up and motioned for James to follow her. After a short while Ariel and James made their way down to the basement of the house, and when James saw that it was a torture chamber he shuddered at the thought of the witches of the Church of Night, not that he knew much about torture. "I told you to just catch her, there was no need for torture," James had said, strangely he had thought Ariel was capable of such things and he was right, after all, Ariel could be quite brutal when she needed to be. Ariel paused when he heard those words and then pointed his finger somewhere, James looked curiously at the spot shook his head from side to side in disbelief and then asked, "Is this a new method of torture?" Ariel smiled and then said, "You told us never to hurt her unless she tried to kill her pursuers, so we didn''t hurt her, we locked her up and took good care of her until you came here." James looked where Ariel was pointing and saw a place surrounded by iron bars. Inside was a very comfortable armchair, a place to take a shower, and the thing that surprised James the most, was a refrigerator. "I didn''t even know there were refrigerators in the tower." James suddenly said, and Ariel, who heard this, turned to James as if surprised and said, "The tower is not uncultured, James, there are industrial creatures here." James could not express how embarrassed he was. However, James approached the iron bars and then started to look at the person sitting on the seat. The person in front of him looked like a female elf of about 16-17 years old, but the appearance of elves could be a deception, the person in front of him could be 1600-1700 years old. "Pleased to meet you, my name is James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos.''" James suddenly introduced himself and then waited for an answer, when the woman sitting on the sofa closed the book in her hand, she looked at James and then said, "I don''t have a name, as you can see, I am a Dark Elf, we are not very popular, I was thrown out when I became an orphan." When James heard those words, he realised that it would take a little longer to gain the trust of the other person, after all, it would be many times more difficult for an outcast to open his feelings to the outside. sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After a few seconds of standing still, James suddenly sat down on the floor and said, "I am the current leader of the Church of Night, which means that I will be the one to punish you." After James'' words, the dark elf had waited without saying anything, she had thought that she would be sentenced to death because the punishments given by clans or other groups were always like that, it was almost impossible to make an exception. The people in the tower were quite ruthless. "You''re lucky, though," James said, and the dark elf''s attention turned to James as he heard those words. "If you had harmed anyone, I would have killed you without blinking an eye, but you managed to escape despite being chased for almost two and a half months, and you never once tried to kill anyone in the process. You just stole. And why did you do that?" When James said these words, the dark elf''s eyes widened. It was a great shock to the female dark elf that the direct leader of the Church of Night, which had a huge, deep-rooted and incredible authority, did not give her the death penalty. "I...Well, I needed money, I have people to look after and that''s why I needed money." James smiled when the female dark elf uttered these words. "I know the feeling, though it wasn''t because I needed to look after someone, it was because I needed to fill my stomach, I wasn''t in the best of shape before I entered this tower if you know what I mean. Still, you should have tried to work properly." At James'' words, the dark elf''s ears drooped as if she were a dog, a very funny but sad sight at the same time. "I used to be a slave, I''m a Dark Elf, they don''t give us work, even if my carers aren''t Dark Elves, they''re orphans, they can''t find work, I have to look after them as the eldest, one of my carers got sick and I was trying to sell the essence of the monsters I normally hunt and suddenly I needed a lot of money since she became sick." James''s face fell at the female dark elf''s words, the person in front of him had stolen for a higher purpose than he had thought. James suddenly seemed to have determined the punishment of the female dark elf in front of him, and when the smile reappeared on his face, he uttered the following words: "Still, theft is theft, no matter what your motive and you must pay the penalty. I will now announce your punishment." Chapter 176: The Second Dream (2) "Nevertheless, theft is theft, no matter what your intentions were, and you must pay the penalty. I will explain your punishment now." At these words of James, the female dark elf got up from where she was came to the iron bars and fell on her knees. "Please don''t keep me for long, I didn''t sell any paintings and I have to go, please, I swear I will come back in a month and do my punishment, even if it is death. I just need a month." At the female dark elf''s words, James took a deep breath and then spoke: "This tower is far too cruel. War, pain, cries and pleas float everywhere. Betrayal, sadness and trauma are everywhere, whether you are born inside the tower or come from outside. You are young, are you not?" The female dark elf shook her head at James'' question and then said, "I am 16 years old, sir." James continued his speech with these words: "I lost my parents at a young age, I was about your age, yet the tower gave me a purpose, a deep and functional purpose, yet not everyone is as fortunate as I was, not free, not bound to life or able to think about their desires." "I have been filled with such thoughts lately. Would you like to hear the first purpose, the dream the tower gave me?" The female dark elf shook her head and looked at James with curious eyes. "To pierce the top of the tower, to reach Chaos himself." At these words, Ariel smiled, Theseus'' goosebumps rose and the female dark elf''s admiration increased. "Of course, the main thing I wanted to do was to reach Chaos, but I managed to find another purpose," James said, his smile growing even wider, and then he said the following words. "Relationships filled with war. Pain, lamentation, betrayal, sadness and trauma. All of it reaching out to the likes of you and yours, and the gods and goddesses don''t even attempt to do anything, and those who do are labouring like the church of the night, and it''s not enough." "My ancestor wanted human perfection and freedom. I want something different, young lady. I want to create a tower where all races can live together without war, where there will be no more prayers. It is a situation where I am willing to kill the gods." When James said these words, he reached his hand into the iron bars, gently took the hand of the female dark elf on the other side of the bars and then said the following words that would make him admire everyone watching him: "A tower. A tower where you and people like you will never have to cry. This is my dream. Every child''s smile I saw in the city on the 5th floor told me how many children grew up in wars. How many heroes, thieves, murderers, painters, kings, queens, priests, nuns, musicians, actors, and how many other potential children were lost." "My dream and second goal is to create a tower where no child needs to cry." At James'' words, tears began to stream down the face of the female dark elf standing in front of him. "I can not do this alone and I need the help of people like you. Behind me is Theseus, the son of the god Poseidon, the killer of the legendary monster Minator. Next to him is Ariel, one of the two people I consider as my mother, and perhaps one of the greatest female warriors I have ever known." "Datura and Aether, the two popes of the church, one female and one male, strangely the most energetic elders I have ever seen. Ahil and his family, who try to protect every child, woman, man or elder on the 5th floor." "My daughter Miracle and her mother, the goddess Nemesis. My other mother figure is Nyx and her love Erebus. Aether, Hemera, Moros, Keres, Thanatos, Hypnos, Oneiros, Momos, Hesperaides, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, Nemesis, Apate, Philotes, Geras and Eris. They are all children of Nyx and my family, but I can only get a little help from them." "In this case, it will be you who will step in. I can''t realise my dream alone. Even with the help of all these people I''ve listed, not everything will be possible." "Therefore, young lady, my punishment for you will be that you and the children in your care must attend the Church of Night." No one knew what to say to these words of James, even these words of James were against the existence of the tower, and the cruel tower could never change. "I will take you as my shadow, you will develop and who knows, maybe you will become my spy, maybe you will kill, but I swear that a day will come and when you look back, it will not be the bodies of those you killed. What you will see when you look back will be millions, billions of smiles that will greet you. That is my dream." When James finished speaking, the female dark elf bowed her head, she did not have the strength to lift her head, her sadness was enormous, but her joy was even greater. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Can I be someone like you say?" asked the female dark elf. Hearing these words, James said with a smile, "Look at me, I was nothing but a person who was trying to kill himself before getting invited to the tower." when all eyes turned to him on these words, he said these words with a big smile: "But now, I have the biggest family that a person could ever ask for, I might not have a lot of money yet I am the richest man alive." After these words, James signalled Ariel to unlock the iron bars and then turned to the little girl and said, "Go get your little brothers and sisters, your new home is waiting for you." Then he climbed the stairs of the basement and left the house with Theseus. "I leave the care of the children to you, brother." James said, and Theseus, who heard these words, smiled proudly and said "No worries brother, I got you." and went back into the house. James, with a big smile on his face, entered the passage opened in front of him to return to the 5th floor and left the 20th floor. Chapter 177: Slyvia Hunt James had been busy with imperial business on the 5th floor for almost three days, often going to the construction site and strangely enough, he kept seeing Ronald having tea with Leyla in front of the construction site. However, he couldn''t waste his time hanging out with the duo. After all, Ahil was asking James about the most important things concerning the empire, even though James was not trained in these matters. It was precisely for this reason that he had managed to convince himself that he needed to step away from it all, the responsibilities he had were too much. He could not take care of the Church of Night, construction and the affairs of the empire at the same time, he could not do so at the moment. Knowing this, he had spoken to Ahil and had finally managed to return to the 20th floor. The incredibly high-quality goods that he had bought very cheaply thanks to Ronald were being used in the construction. So he was able to leave the construction to Ronald and Datura who was with him. With that, James was seated on his throne in the throne room of the main church on the 20th floor. It was almost two hours since he reached the 20th floor and sat on the throne, and because of the size of the throne, he found it convenient to meditate cross-legged. As he sat there meditating, after a while he realised that a few voices reached his ears, he opened his eyes suddenly and smiled when he saw the people in front of him and then he spoke: "I hope your brother is well, young lady." James said these words looking at the dark elf in front of him. The smiles on the faces of each of the children, young and old, were visible, each of them staring at James and the large window behind him with Nyx''s image etched into it. "Thanks to you sir, we came here to thank you, sister Ariel told us you were here." James smiled when he heard the dark elf''s words and his eyes locked on Ariel waiting behind the children, "Big sister? Do they know how old you are?" he asked. He was joking, of course, but the anger on Ariel''s face was becoming evident. "You don''t need to thank me, it''s nothing more than me trying to correct mistakes that have been made for a long time," James suddenly said. The children in front of him looked embarrassed at his words, each of them following behind Ariel, with only the female dark elf herself making it to the front of the stairs leading up to James'' throne. "I will never forget the right you gave me and my brothers to live and I will never be able to repay that debt, my lord, but I will still be honoured to be your shadow, and I hope you will give me the chance to do so, as you told me before." James smiled widely as the female dark elf spoke these words and then said, "That chance belongs to you," and then pulled the contract from his inventory and handed it to Ariel. Standing behind the children, Ariel quickly walked over to the throne took the contract or by the other name "pact" and handed it to the female dark elf. The female dark elf signed the agreement without even trying to read it, and then the agreement glowed and disappeared. James smiled, coughed a little and then said, "You need a name now, you all do." S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The children''s faces lit up when he said those words, they had never thought they would hear such a sentence, all these orphans, most of them former slaves, had never had anyone but each other all their lives, and finally there was someone who wished to adopt or accept them. Even if they knew such a thing, no, they wished not to wake up even if it was a dream, let alone to hear it. "We would be honoured, sir," the female dark elf said and bowed her head. James already had a name for the female dark elf, after all, after hearing that this girl did not have a name, he had chosen to approach this event quite seriously. Smiling nicely, James said, "Your name will be Sylvia starting today. You will take the surname Hunt, indicating that all my shadows are a family." After these words, the female dark elf named Sylvia suddenly glowed, and while James was trying to understand what was happening, the same system notification suddenly appeared in front of the two: [Erebus the God of Darkness and Shadow blesses Sylvia Hunt]. When James read this notification, he smiled and then laughed, saying, "I wouldn''t expect anything less from old Erebus." Sylvia shook her head as if she didn''t realise what was happening, and in just a few seconds, more than a dozen abilities appeared in front of her. Even though each ability was at maximum Unusual-Grade, Erebus had officially blessed someone who had not voluntarily chosen a class. All of Olympus was in an uproar, even the Titans and Nyx herself had not expected this to happen. "Erebus! Have you gone mad?" Hyperion''s shout echoed throughout the hall as he, like every god and goddess in the room, focused on Erebus. Even Nyx''s bewildered eyes were on her husband, and even this great woman could not understand why he would do such a thing. "I don''t understand why you are so surprised," Erebus suddenly said, and Gaia, hearing these words, spoke up: "Everyone knows why you and Nyx didn''t share your powers. Nyx did it because someone managed to choose her, but this girl...you know...she is a dark elf." Erebus frowned as he heard Gaia''s words. Many races in the tower were unfairly persecuted, the dark elves'' past was indeed very dark and evil, but it was very stupid to be treated like this just because someone was of their blood. After all, Desmond himself had almost brought about the end of the dark elves and many other races, everyone knew why they were racist, even those who did not know about Desmond justified the founder of the church. Chapter 178: Another Member "The founder of the Church himself focused on black magic and destroyed the Dark Elves who were in league with the enemy, but Sylvia is just a child. An outcast, no one knows what she''ll do, but as soon as James chose to take her in, I had to support her, just as I would support James." Erebus suddenly said. At his words, every single person in the hall fell silent, and Athena''s words instantly broke the silence: "We know that the founder of the church, the worshipper of Lady Nyx, rewrote the concepts and rules of the tower. Dark Elves, Red Devils, Shaman Druids, and many other races worshipped the Fallen Gods, and they met their end as a result. They were lucky enough to be forgiven by the founder of the Church, but that was a long, long time ago." When Athena said these words, everyone''s eyes locked on her, even the Titans had to listen when the Goddess of Wisdom uttered such words. "My opinion is that this racism must come to an end, even tho it has a main and true point it should end. If James, the current leader of the church, is willing to forgive them, I am personally ready to forgive them. Forgive my rudeness, I was not even born in a time of war so I can not possibly imagine what all of you went through, but I ask that this anger, this grief, this resentment be on the sinners and not on their children." When Athena had finished, silence fell over the hall once more, all eyes turned to Ouranos or by the main name Uranus, one of the greatest of the Titans, and even Nyx herself wondered what he would say. Uranus stared unblinking for a few seconds, and then as if he had had enough, he said, "I have been in the battle myself, I have watched with my own eyes how many have fallen, but even I realise that time is running out. If the others are ready to forgive, I am ready to forgive, I think the Titans understand what I am talking about." These words were one for all, Athena could not even understand what she had achieved, perhaps she had managed to find a way to completely stop the future that would be formed with blood, she could even end the wars with just a few words she said. With those words, he had given James the ability to create an army. Eyes turned back to the screens, the images of Slyvia crying with joy were visible to everyone, each of them had heard only words about how much this child had suffered, and each of them had seen with their naked eyes what war brought. "I hope you like old Erebus'' gift for you," James said suddenly. Sylvia wiped the tears from her eyes and then said, ''I am very happy, sir...." "Go and get some rest, each of you, I''ll give you a name tomorrow," James said and was about to send the children off when his heart started to pound. Vlad and Emily instantly jumped out of the ring James was wearing and started looking around. While those watching were trying to figure out what was going on, Nyx and the other Titans understood what was happening a little bit and then cleared the Olympus hall again and sent a message to James: [Did you find another soul fragment?] When James read this message from Nyx, he shook his head and then stood up from his seat, saying, "Wait guys." After gently approaching the children, he looked at them one by one, no one, including Slyvia, could understand what was going on, but they could understand that something serious was happening from James'' facial expression. "Sir, is something wrong?" Sylvia suddenly asked and James, hearing this, asked the question: "Do you have any of your family''s possessions? Anything, any one of you. This black ring you see on my finger belonged to my ancestor, it warns me when our family belongings are nearby, so one of you must have something." As James voiced this question and the words that followed, a little girl from the group of over a dozen children came up to James and then took off the necklace she was wearing around her neck and said, "This was given to me by my mother before she was killed as a slave, she said it was given to the family leader by someone a long time ago." "You have no idea how much this means to me, young lady," James said as he patted her head and gently took hold of the necklace. As James held the necklace a glow dazzled everyone in the room, after a short time the glow faded and a spirit appeared in front of James. When James saw the spirit, he suddenly saw Vlad appear in front of the spirit, when Vlad gave the spirit a big hug, James turned to the children and said, "I will reward you for this, don''t worry, but for now you all have to leave this place." Everyone, including Ariel, left the hall. There were only James and Vlad and Emily''s spirit in the hall, and a mysterious female figure whose face was not even visible. James was about to ask who this female figure was when Vlad''s words were heard: "My little sister! Look at the play of fate!" S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Upon Vlad''s words, James realised that the female figure in front of him was Vlad''s sister, which meant that this woman was one of the 5 siblings, a daughter of Desmond. When James''s gaze focused on the female figure, the woman''s face began to become visible. She had red hair, jet black eyes, wore glasses with round lenses and was dressed in an incredibly beautiful outfit, she was by any means gorgeous. "It''s been a long time, dear brother, I can''t tell you how happy it makes me to see you," she said, and then she turned to James and continued: "So it is you, the chosen one, the one to whom we must pass on all my father''s teachings, and upon whom we must place all the hopes of our lineage." James didn''t even know what to say, his eyes widened in shock and his gaze locked on the woman in front of him. Chapter 179: The White Witches "Pleased to meet you. I am Abby Black, the fifth and last child of Desmond Black. My father named me with this name because I was the last child he wished to have." When the red-haired woman introduced herself as Abby, James stood where he was for a few seconds, puzzled, and then bowed his head and said, "Pleased to meet you, my name is James Arthur Black, and it is a great honour to meet you." and fell silent. All the Titans and Chaos-Borns who watched Abby''s gaze from James'' eyes were astonished. The love in Abby''s eyes was enormous, the old woman gently approached James stroked his cheek and said, "You have no idea how much you look like my father, I feel like I''m looking at him, it''s been so long since I''ve seen his face." James could recognise the happiness in the old woman''s words, but he could also see the sadness in every word she spoke. "Well, thank you, I guess?" James said and then smiled and asked, "Master Vlad represents the sword and the aura, and what do you represent, my lady?" Abby smiled at this question bowed gently to James and then said, "I represent ethics and knowledge of the races. I was taught almost every spell my father Desmond encountered in the tower, the basic ways to get rid of them, the languages of the races, and many more. In short, I am the main knowledge." James looked at Vlad when he heard those words and then turned back to Abby saying, "See, that''s how you introduce yourself." Vlad''s gaze dropped and then James'' voice was heard again: "So, my lady, what you''re trying to tell me is that I''m going to be taught by you as if I were officially in school?" Abby nodded her head after James''s questions and gently said, "I will help you teach each of them whenever you want, however, it took me a long time to learn everything, but your intelligence status must be at a high score, if so, you can learn even if you are in the war, you just need to listen." James nodded and twisted his lips as if he realised what he was saying and then said, "All right, that''s understandable." then he put the necklace in his inventory and said, "Then welcome to your new home." and showed the ring to Abby. Abby smiled and then entered the ring, Vlad and Emily followed the old woman, James took a deep breath and said, "I have found the soul of the first and last child, Lady Nyx, three to go." [I didn''t expect it to be so easy, who would have thought that one of Slyvia''s siblings would have ties to Desmond. We should do a background check on that girl, maybe she''ll turn up someone who can be of use to you.] James saw the message from Nyx after his words and shook his head after reading it and added, "It''s not unreasonable, although I won''t be able to send the little girl to you, after all, she''s not a monster like Elise." After these words, the messages stopped and silence prevailed. What James said was true, it was quite easy to take a monster above the 75th floor when it wanted to, but according to the agreement, even if Nyx had the power to go down, she would not take anyone above the 75th floor except monsters and spirits. Nyx may have been one of the holiest and most powerful goddesses, but she could not break the pact, for it was sealed by Chaos himself. "I suspect the little girl is a descendant of the White Witch," Gaia suddenly said, and the Titans'' brows furrowed as they heard this, each of them annoyed. "The bastards who almost killed Hyperion?" Theia suddenly asked, and Gaia nodded in agreement. "Why do you think that?" asked Hyperion, not angry, just curious. "The pupils. The girl''s pupils were stellar. It was born as a curse after the White Witches confused black magic with white magic. In short, it stuck to their bloodline as a result of being cursed by the two laws of the tower, black magic energy and white magic energy. They cannot use anything other than these two laws." When the Titans heard these words, they tried to remember the pupils of the little girl''s eyes, and each of them was suddenly surprised. "Won''t that put James in danger, Mum?" Moros suddenly asked, and Gaia jumped into the conversation: "No. The White Witches were bound to Desmond like the forest witches in the forests on the 20th floor. Every one of them was either half-human or directly human, which was the only reason Desmond accepted them, even though he was an incredibly racist man, even if we considered him our brother. Desmond had sent them to the other side as spies, that''s when the lineage of the White Witches was cursed when they got involved in black magic." At Gaia''s words, all Chaos-Borns were confused. If the lineage of the White Witches was on such a sacred mission, why had they tried to kill Hyperion, or had black magic possessed them? "I can see the questions on your minds, children. It happened exactly as you thought. There were many of the White Witches on Desmond''s side, but they were wiped out because of the traitors among them, and the remaining ones collaborated with them on the enemy front. Hyperion didn''t know this and was ambushed, and almost killed. After all black magic can make a person go mad if used wrong and the Fallen Gods knew how to make people believe in them." Eyes turned to Hyperion after Gaia''s words. "I''m not angry with them, lads. Desmond wasn''t the only one who sent the White Witches there. This order was given to them by me, Erebus and Desmond. It is ridiculous to see them as demons, I am officially one of the three biggest reasons why they have become like this." Hyperion said it was impossible not to feel the sadness in these words. Nevertheless, what was done was done, and now it was up to the person who would be sent to find out where this little girl''s lineage lay. Everyone knew who would be the best person for the job. All eyes turned to Moros. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 180: Is She a Descendant of Juliet? Nevertheless, what was done was done, and now it was up to the person who would be sent to find out where this little girl''s ancestry could be traced. Everyone knew who was the best man for the job. All eyes turned to Moros. Moros took a deep breath when he saw the eyes on him and then asked, "Shit. What now?" he asked, shaking his head as if he realised what was happening, and then opened the message window, saying, "All right, I''ll let Ariel know." [I need you to look into the background of the little girl James took the necklace from, Ariel, it''s really urgent.] While Ariel was putting the children in their rooms, she saw this message window in front of her and looked at the little girl who was still standing next to her when she read the message from Moros. She seemed to wonder what the identity of this little girl was, which made even fate itself curious. "Leave it to me, Moros, it''s okay," Ariel said, and with that, her mission began. After placing all her children in their rooms, Ariel finally placed the little girl in her room and walked in with the little girl and asked, "Can you tell me about your mother, little lady?" When the little girl heard this question, the light in her pupils changed, and her star-green pupils, which had been shining with a white light, turned blue. Quite the stellar. Even if Ariel didn''t understand what was happening, it wasn''t something she needed to question. "My mum was the best! She always told me that our bloodline was made up of heroes! We are what we are because our bloodline made mistakes in the past, unforgivable mistakes. I don''t know what happened, I apologise." Ariel shook her head as she heard those words, just as a message window popped up in front of her: [Can you ask the girl her mum''s name?] Reading the message from Moros, Ariel shook her head from side to side and then turned to the little girl and asked, "Do you remember your mum''s name?" The little girl shook her head from side to side to indicate that she didn''t know, and then said, "My mum was a slave, slaves don''t have names..." the little girl''s eyes welled up with tears, and you could see how much she missed her mum. Ariel thought it was over, she was about to tell the girl to go to sleep when another message popped up in her window. [Did the mother tell the little girl who got the necklace first? This question is very important.] This time it was from Nyx herself, and Ariel realised that the girl she was questioning was a hundred times more important than she appeared. "What about that necklace, did your mum tell you about the first person who bought it?" Ariel asked. The little girl paused for a few seconds and had just nodded her head when she suddenly spoke, looking at Ariel as if something had suddenly occurred to her: "When my mum showed me the necklace, she told me about a beautiful woman, a woman who signalled darkness and light, she said that she was our ancestor! I can''t remember her name..." At the little girl''s words, everything seemed almost certain. "Can you try to remember it for me, please?" Ariel asked, and when the little girl nodded her head in the affirmative, she waited. After a minute or so, the little girl smiled and then said, "Juliet! My mum called that woman Juliet." Now everything was finalised. "Are you kidding me, Juliet was the one Desmond gave the necklace to?" Hyperion was suddenly on his feet, shocked by what he had just heard, he had never thought he would hear that name. All the Titans were in the same shock as Hyperion, Juliet was one of the people who was on Desmond''s side no matter what she was the only one who managed to become the head of the White Witches, yet that woman had been dead for a long, long time, a woman who had sacrificed her life for Desmond before the main war had even started. It was incomprehensible that this woman could even have a child. "I don''t understand, that woman didn''t choose a god or goddess just like Desmond, so there''s no way we can find out what happened?" said Rhea. "What about Chaos? What is his purpose? What''s his purpose in putting Abby''s soul in that necklace?" Chronos asked, time itself unable to comprehend what kind of event was unfolding. "Could it be that he wanted James to create an army? James is not like Desmond, maybe he wants the White Witches to exist again." Erebus said, making sense to everyone. "It''s not unreasonable, after all, the White Witches were split in two, it was a tragedy that those who remained loyal to Desmond died, and those who broke their allegiance and betrayed them were just puppets. Either Chaos wanted to give James a chance, or we''ve got it all wrong," Hyperion said. Nyx shook her head, and after a few seconds, she said, "If the little girl is Juliet''s descendant, one of us must bless her. If my father wants the army to come back, or rather, if he wants James'' army to be created, then we cannot withhold our help in that endeavour." Hearing these words, Themis shook her head and said, "Times have changed, it has been a long time since the fate of the tower has moved. We can no longer behave as we used to, we have been at the top for too long, and we have forgotten that those below can live." and made it clear that she supported Nyx. With those words, everything became clear, if what the little girl said was true, and it was very likely that it was, this was a huge deal. If Juliet''s lineage was still alive and she was not the only one left, James could have one of the most powerful armies he could ever have. The White Witches could take on the warriors of Olympus, the Valkyries of Asgard, and even the followers of the Chaos-Born, which was what had nearly killed Hyperion. In Desmond''s hands, they were one of the three most powerful armies that had ever existed, which is why the betrayal had been so severe. S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 181: Am I a Puppet? [James, this is serious; you must keep the little girl with you no matter what.] James read Nyx''s message, confused as he tried to figure out what was going on. He then asked, "What''s going on?" [The little girl is a direct descendant of Juliet. Desmond''s best friend and the woman who sacrificed her life for Desmond, Juliet herself was the main reason why the ancestor lived without dying]. After reading the message, James stopped as if he couldn''t hide his surprise. His eyes widened, and he shook his head meaninglessly. "So you''re saying Desmond gave you the necklace on purpose? In that case, he must be trying to tell me something, since Chaos is the one who transfers the souls of my descendants into things." James said suddenly, holding his chin in curiosity. ["We don''t know that either, I need to tell you what happened quickly so you can understand everything.] James shook his head when Nyx sent this message and then said, "Please. If there is something planned, I need to know." [To put it briefly, Juliet was a White Witch or rather the best user of sacred magic, and that''s why she managed to become their leader. She was very well known for being extremely loyal to Desmond, you can even see her name mentioned in the church records, she was one of the names that helped found the church]. James stared at the message he had read, he had suddenly learnt someone else''s name, the fact that she was becoming a leader was a matter of great curiosity. [The White Witches had gone as friends to spy on the enemy, telling Desmond that they had betrayed him. The espionage had been successful, but those you know as Fallen Gods had somehow poisoned their minds, almost every one of them doing what Juliet had tried to do, trying to master the white magic of holiness and the black magic of destruction]. After reading this message, James was sure that a story like this would never end well. [They were cursed. The two laws of the tower cursed the White Witch bloodline, and upon this curse, star pupils were engraved into them. They became a race unable to use any law except white and black magic. More than half of them betrayed Desmond, and they were so powerful that they almost drove a titan like Hyperion to his death, but it was an ambush. Remember, even the gods are not omnipotent.] "I see...So the little girl is descended from those who did not betray? Even Juliet''s own lineage...There are many more powers in this tower that I don''t know about. But what if they remember Desmond, the spirits still exist, don''t they? Where do they go when the Philosopher''s Stone or something isn''t created? If Chaos is collecting them, it must be planned, right? In that case, what did Desmond and Chaos plan?" James suddenly said, and he was right. Some powers still retained their memories because Chaos had not erased them. Even the White Witches had not forgotten them, but Juliet had somehow separated her lineage from the main force and changed fate. All three powers under Desmond''s command remembered her existence, but Chaos and Desmond had different plans. The memories Chaos showed Nyx weren''t even a quarter of what they should have been. The game Chaos was playing was a game to get James to the top, even the creator himself didn''t want his tower to be destroyed and wanted someone to protect it. That was Desmond, and now it was James himself. [There is so much we don''t know, James, both you and I. And yet we have no way of knowing right now. Juliet, like Desmond, didn''t choose a god or goddess, and didn''t cross the 75th floor, and that means we have no way of tracking her or finding her spirit and asking for help.] James shook his head up and down as he read the last message in the message window and then said, "That means my ancestor Desmond and the creator Chaos have a lot planned for us. It''s as if I really am on a chessboard. Neither my fate is in the hands of Moros, nor my time in the hands of Chronos, but as if I am a puppet of Chaos." The anger and grief in those words were incalculable, the look on James''s face made all the Titans tremble from head to toe, and each of them felt as if they were looking at the same Desmond. [I''m going to ask my father if he''s what you say he is, I''m going to refuse to leave the field until he gives me an answer, I swear to you I''ll be here with a straight answer]. James took a deep breath at this message, it would do him no good to jump to conclusions, the truth could not be found by the human mind alone or a superior mind. After all, every step taken and every breath taken had a logic and a process. Fate was a changing thing, at least in this tower. With that James thought it was time to sleep, he had slept maybe four or five days in the last month, and he could only hope that when he rested and opened his eyes again he would be greeted with good news. After a quick change of clothes and a shower, James lay down on his bed and managed to close his eyes and fall asleep, despite all the thoughts and curiosity in his mind. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At the top of the tower, outside the tower, something else was going on. ----- ----- "We need to talk, Father," Nyx said, not alone this time, but with every titan and Erebus in the field. "What do we need to talk about, my children?" Chaos asked, the look on his face telling me he knew everything. "You are the creator, we all know it is you who must tell us," Erebus replied. Chapter 182: We Couldnt Be More Wrong "I believe you are here at Desmond''s request, my children," Chaos said, knowing everything but not wanting to say anything. "Dad. Please stop joking, you know the question we are going to ask, please give us a definite answer." Nyx suddenly said, not even angry, her expression seemed to show Chaos that her daughter was looking at him with disappointment. A small smile appeared on Chaos'' face and then the entire area was filled with windows. The Titans and Nyx and Erebus looked at the windows and seemed to be trying to understand what was happening after what they had seen. "These are our memories, our past. Great creator, why are you showing us these things?" Gaia suddenly asked, and Chaos, who heard these words, started his speech by saying, "I have told you many times to call me your father." "So much of what you have done, so much of what you have created, and probably so many dangers that would have cost you your lives." As Chaos spoke these words, all the windows shifted and the same memories, ending in death, appeared. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The Titans and Nyx and Erebus began to tremble at what they saw. "This is mostly what was meant to be. I removed your destinies and the times when your last breath would be lost. In short, I changed their destinies slightly so that you would not die," Chaos said, and just as Nyx was about to speak, he gestured for her to stop talking and continued: "Only two people, only two people in the history of the tower that I cared about and wanted to protect as much as you did, one is Desmond, who was your best friend, and the other is James, whom you now love as your son or nephew." When Chaos fell silent, he lowered his hand and allowed Nyx and the others to speak. "But James has had help from you many times. Ummm, like the Book of Magic Status? What are you going to tell him?" said Hyperion. "Helping is not changing fate, my dear Hyperion. I helped James, yes that''s true, but I did not directly change your destiny, in one or two cases I used you as a puppeteer as you think, and I did it so that you would not die. But James only received help, he was the one who managed to survive all the dangers he faced, although creating and giving him an ability like Gacha can be seen as playing with his destiny, but since I did not directly change it, it is what you say it is." At Chaos''s words, everyone fell silent, it was enough for them that James'' fate was not controlled. "What about putting the spirit of your ancestors into certain items? Or the fact that Desmond got his Sword Scabbard from the gacha?" Gaia asked, and Chaos, hearing this, twisted his lips and said, "Of course it was luck, what were you thinking? I mean, yes, I put the souls because James will need an army sooner or later, I just put the dots, whether he can draw a path to those dots is up to James. Still, the gacha was pure luck, normally he should have found that item on the 60th floor, that is, if he had looked for it." At Chaos''s words, those around him were surprised, it was clear that no one expected such an answer. "Luck, huh?" Oceanus said, as surprised as everyone else. "Exactly. I may be creative, but I don''t have the energy to organise everyone''s destinies, so I''ll choose to rest instead." Chaos chuckled a little at these words and then opened his hands and asked, "Do you have any other questions?" Those around him shook their heads as they heard those words, and then Hyperion looked at Chaos as if something had occurred to him and spoke: "With so much going on, with the possibility of everyone dying, including your children, why don''t you stop everything at once? You''re not watching what''s going on inside the tower, Dad, so why don''t you destroy all the bad guys?" At Hyperion''s words, everyone''s gaze turned to him, and Chaos'' gaze turned to the surrounding windows one by one: "If I wanted something to constantly control, I would control every move of every one of you, as has already been said and known, my son Hyperion." Chaos took a deep breath after saying those words and spoke again: "Push or pull, bright or dark, life or death, yin or yang, good or evil. My son, one can not exist without the other." At Chaos'' words, each of them stopped in their tracks, they had heard these words before, but they could not remember where they had heard them. "Evil or goodness can only be seen as a concept. Evil becomes evil because you see it as evil, and vice versa for good. But who gives you this power?" Chaos said, and Hyperion stood where he was. "I...I don''t know, I just choose to believe what I believe." Hyperion said, and Chaos, hearing this, smiled and said, "See, you have the answer, so evil and good remain relative concepts, and I should not control them, if I try to control them, I will become a puppeteer and each of you will turn into a puppet." These were the words that ended the conversation. There was no need to say any more, it had been learnt that James was not a puppet, or rather that his destiny did not pass through the arrangement, yes Chaos had made small touches, but each of those ways was something James could refuse. The only thing to do now was to inform James, though the Titans and Nyx and Erebus knew the boy needed to rest. That was why they would wait a short time and then go back to their own business with the news. After all, the Titans were still searching for those who had tried to revive the Fallen Gods. Even if they didn''t come to much of a conclusion, the fact that they were still looking didn''t change, of course. Chapter 183: Gacha Never Fails "So I''m not being used? Are we sure about that?" It had been almost half a day since James had woken up, Nyx and the others had been so busy they had barely had time to tell him. Both Nyx and the others had expected James to be sullen, but he didn''t seem to care about anything, they could all see how much he had matured. Nyx remembered how childlike and innocent he had been when he first entered the tower, but now that innocent child had been forced to become what he had become because of the mistakes Nyx and the others had made. That was the bitter truth. [Exactly like that, just like we told you, just a few signs for the paths you can take. Everything is random and lucky, but there is little help time to time, just like what was done to Desmond back in the day.] James shook his head as he read what was written in the message window in front of him, closed the window, and left the room, saying, "So be it." It had been almost five hours since he had named all the children adopted by the Church of Night. Each child he had named had received blessings from gods and goddesses large and small. It seemed that the gods and goddesses wished to help these children in James'' hands. James also chose to name the star-eyed little girl after his ancestor. The little girl was named Juliet and Juliet was blessed by the god Apollo. Apollo said that he had blessed the little girl because she had an excellent aptitude for high white magic, that is, magic that usually has the properties of holiness, light, healing, and so on. This was an excellent thing, as the little girl''s future was now as good as Sylvia, who had received a blessing from Erebus. Then James had asked Hyperion himself a question, and Hyperion himself had called Chaos ''father'' as he explained, but James knew that he was the child of Uranus and Gaia, just like the rest of the Titans. The answer he got back was "Chaos...You know him, he basically created our souls after our bodies were happening inside the womb of our mother. He calls himself [all-father] because he basically created our souls." James was strangely satisfied with this answer, the fact that there were so many things he did not know and that he could learn them made everything more interesting. After James had sorted everything out, he finally got to the main event, he knew something he could relieve all this stress, and after a long time, he opened the gacha panel. The number of spin-rights he had in his possession was almost 12,000. A truly enormous amount. He was starting to get confused though, there was a limited-time gacha in front of him as usual, a gacha that wanted 10,000 spin-rights for just one spin. When James analysed this limited-time gacha panel, he realised that this gacha was indeed worth 10,000 spin-rights. This limited-time gacha included guaranteed Legendary-grade and above Legendary-grade items, potions, minerals, weapons, and clothing. It would be quite accurate to say that it was definitely a gacha worth spending 10,000 spin-rights on. Knowing this, James took a deep breath, really praying for something good to come out of it. He was about to press the spin button when suddenly a message window popped up in front of him: [Do you really want to spend 80% of all your accumulated rights there? If you try your luck in the other panel, you can get more than one legendary.] Reading this message sent by Moros, James smiled and then said, "Dear brother Moros, if you knew how many games I''ve played in my world, you''d lose your mind. You should have seen me using the normal gacha system and using all my diamonds, I assure you that almost anything with limited time is always the best." At James''s words, another message fell in front of him: [You know, I just wanted to warn you, I''m fate or something...]. James smiled as he read the message and then pressed the button to switch it on. A huge beam of light flashed across the room, James literally closed his eyes and shielded himself with his arm to avoid being blinded. When the light went out after almost thirty seconds of brightness, James saw another window open in front of him and smiled. "Fate itself, eh Moros? You may be destiny, but I''m a fool who invests even the small amount of money I earn in games, it was my fault I didn''t get rich." James suddenly said. What he saw in front of him was enough to knock him out: [Destruction(Godly++) Have you ever wished to create earthquakes and shake the earth with a single step? Have you ever wished to strike down your enemies with a single step? Perhaps you have wished to create volcanoes and bring magma to the surface of the earth with a single step. This ability will allow you to do so. The ability''s destructive power will increase based on the magic energy/mana you pour into it during its use]. James read the ability over and over again and was ecstatic just thinking of the possibilities this ability could give him, he really loved the gacha ability, the things he got from it were usually excellent. [I''m not always going to be right]. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James smiled as he read the message that had suddenly appeared in the message window and then closed the gacha panel, saying "I''ve never seen anyone backtrack like that." He wanted to keep his remaining two thousand rights. However, there was only one thing left to do and that was to continue climbing the tower. It had been a while since she had sent a message to Ariel to get ready, and Ariel herself was already ready since she was waiting for her, spending time with the children. It was time to continue by cleaning the 28th floor. Chapter 184: Tower Itself Made It "Are you ready, Ariel?" James asked, waving to the children as he came up to Ariel, who was playing with them and trying to teach them something. Ariel nodded and suddenly her whole body was covered in thin armour. James was filled with curiosity because he had never seen these armours before. "I see you got new armour, congratulations." Seeing James'' eyes filled with curiosity, Ariel smiled and then said, "Moros gave me the armour he didn''t use, he is a dagger user like me, did you know that?" James smiled when he heard these words and then said, "I didn''t think that someone like Moros would still have equipment that is not connected to his soul, if it comes from a god, it must be powerful." "My chest armour is Godly-Grade and the rest is low-level Legendary-Grade," Ariel said as she put her hands on her waist proudly, she really had no idea what James was wearing. James realised that there was no point in worrying about Ariel anymore, after all, it was rare to encounter monsters that could do direct damage to Legendary-Grade and above. Of course, with James clearing the Hell Tutorial and Ariel clearing the Hard Tutorial, the difficulty level they had was massively higher, and that was exactly why more monsters could harm them. They had no idea what the 28th floor would be like, but the fact that they knew they would be ready no matter what made it all the better. After James said goodbye to the children, he called out to Emma and, as usual, he and Ariel entered the white passage that opened in front of them. When the two opened their eyes again, they were mesmerised by the sight before them. "It''s perfect..." Ariel suddenly said, and it was obvious that she wasn''t lying because James had the same expression. A world of ice seemed to stand before them. The snow was falling incessantly, and there were pine trees tens of metres tall and thickly covered with snow. The snow covered the earth in white, and the sky was covered with white clouds, showing only the green colour of the pine trees and the whiteness of nature. [Survive! Your mission to survive between floors 28-35 begins now! You will only have the right to use the food part of your inventory, you will have as much equipment as you can live on and you will be able to use your weapons, but do not take this ice-covered world lightly. Once every 20 days you will be counted as travelling up one floor for one time only, and it will stop when you reach the 35th floor. This is a SPECIAL mission created by the tower for Umbra of Chaos and Ariel of Chaos. Upon completion of the mission, you will have each of the floors 28-35 subjectively. This will be made possible by the tower creating a subspace and only a limited number of people will be able to enter these areas. Guild honour points must be spent to unlock the area]. James and Ariel looked at each other after seeing this mission window. They had weapons, food, and equipment they could use, but when they looked at their inventory, they could see that most things were indeed locked. [Something we haven''t seen in a long time, James. The last time we saw it was when my daughter Eris was climbing the tower. Despite its stinginess and cruelty, the tower must have admired the excellence of the two of you because it gave you a special assignment]. When James read the message from Nyx aloud and announced it to Ariel, the surprise of the duo increased. "What exactly is this about the tower creating subspace for us, my lady? We''d like to know before we move forward and perhaps fight the monsters." James said suddenly, despite his confusion, he knew they had to survive, they had to get information. [The Tower has done this many times throughout history. For the likes of Thor, Loki, Demon Crowley, and my daughter Eris, the tower has created sub-space and duplicated and modified layers of itself and made it available to climbers. This is partly a reward that the tower offers to the climbers by using all its laws and exhausting their consciousness. So the reward for clearing these floors will be that the floors will be given to you two]. "I thought more than one person could take the floor exams after the 20th floor, but why did Eris do it alone, or any of the others?" James asked, and received the following answer: [It''s been almost 16,000,000 years since Eris has been above the 75th floor, the tower often changes the style of exams for some floors, from the twentieth floor to the thirtieth floor, this is the style of exams that exists now]. James raised his eyebrows in surprise after hearing this answer and then asked, "Wait a second...If Eris is older than 16,000,000 years, how old is my wife Nemesis?" [You''d better ignore that question]. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James was surprised when he read this message from Nyx, but he smiled. "Wicked, she is an ancient being, how cool is that? I never thought about it, now she is even more cooler than before." James suddenly said, which seemed to be an answer that no one expected. James tensed his whole body after these words and then said, "We have to start moving forward Ariel, we''ve already stopped too long." Ariel instantly agreed with him, wishing to move forward in the daylight, of course, she was aware of James'' night vision and they would have no trouble in the dead of night, but there was no harm in being careful. With these thoughts in mind, the pair set off. Because of both of their abilities, it was incredibly difficult for them to sink in the snow, indeed they were sinking maybe a centimetre maximum on the snow, and even the softness of the snow seemed to be evident in this way. They did not know where to go, but they still had to keep going. With the cold air hitting their faces, the snowflakes falling on them and the white light in the beautiful sky, they were taking steps. Now only time could tell where these steps would take them. Chapter 185: Elf Village James and Ariel had been walking for almost two hours, nearly 30 minutes since they had left the wooded area, most likely the forest they were in. The two of them had little trouble with their high energy levels, and James kept himself and Ariel warm by constantly keeping his aura open. However, as the time ticked on and it got closer and closer to nightfall, even James'' high-level fire elemental was beginning to wear thin, and even though he was using his aura, a protective force and elemental, it was getting so cold that nothing was quite enough. James pulled some clothes out of his inventory and handed them to Ariel, wanting her to be warm. After fifteen minutes of walking through the woods, they came to a place where there were some wooden houses. James looked around and realised that something was being watched through the windows of the houses. He could realise that deep blue eyes of ice were watching them. "We''re not here to fight!" Ariel suddenly shouted, seeming to make a brief peace gesture. With that shout, the eyes that had been watching them disappeared and the windows of the houses were curtained off, revealing nothing. Then the door of the house at the far end of the area opened and a man came out, and James and Ariel were surprised to see him. He was tall, with pointed ears, a very fair complexion, and pupils of deep blue ice. "An elf," James said, and with that, the man came to a stop almost five metres away from them. "State your purpose, please." the man said, and as he spoke, the curtains in all the houses opened again, and the gaze turned back to them. "We have come to look for a place to stay if you have permission and if there is an empty house or a hut, we would like to stay." At James'' words, the elf looked around at the surrounding houses and then asked, "Are you strong?" James nodded, pointed to Ariel and said, "This woman may be the strongest woman under the 30th floor. And I am strong too so yeah." When the elf heard these words, he took a deep breath let it out and said, "If you protect our village from the ice giants, you can even stay here forever." The elf had met humans before and knew their greed and even recklessness, so he did not expect to hear a positive answer, but he would do his best to negotiate. "Sure, no problem for us." James had higher plans already. The elf shook his head when he heard those words and then began to tremble as if he had lost the strength in his legs. "Really? The frost giants are very powerful, we can''t even repel them without the help of the dwarves, but they have their own families, so they can''t always help." the elf said. Hearing this, James replied, "As I said, both this woman and I are quite strong, fighting is not a problem for us, and I have hunted giants before." Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With that, Ariel stepped forward and then said, "I''m Ariel and this is Umbra. What is your name?" The elf managed to regain his strength with these words and then said, "My name is Narbeth, I am the leader of this huge elven village." With these words, Narbeth raised his hand in the air and then released his mana. With the release of this great mana, it was as if illusions began to disappear. Dozens of stone and wooden houses began to appear around. Children, women, and men, old and young stood around James and Ariel. "I apologise for the illusion, even though they are no longer extinct on this floor, humankind were cruel, they made everyone slaves and many other things, and we had to keep the illusion active all the time," Narbeth said. Hearing these words, James said, "That''s pretty cool," and said that he didn''t care about what happened. With these words, Narbeth gestured to her own house and then said, "Please come with me, my wife will make the best food you will ever eat in your life, even if we have a food shortage, my wife is the best cook." When James and Ariel heard the words about the food shortage, they looked carefully at Narbeth and the elves around them, and then they both noticed the exhaustion on the faces of all the elves, each of their bodies seemed to be slowly collapsing. The two of them looked at each other after seeing the surroundings and then James scratched his head and reached for his inventory. "Can you open up a bit?" Ariel asked, and with Narbeth''s order to retreat, James began pulling closed crates from his inventory. While the elves around were trying to figure out what was going on, James had already dropped over a hundred crates into the snow-covered square. After yawning, he asked, "There are many kilos of meat, vegetables and drinks here, I don''t know how many people live in the village, so I took out this much, do you need more?" James saw Narbeth''s shocked expression as he said this, and then he saw that the people around were watching him with their mouths open. James approached Ariel in surprise and then asked, "Did I do something wrong?" Ariel smiled and said, "It would be better to do this in a private place, you shouldn''t get carried away so fast." James looked at the people around him and then said, "I will be in charge of this floor, in the future Ariel and I will be the ones to run it, I am stating this on the mission the tower has given us, we will show the mission to everyone and gain your trust." Narbeth and the others were about to speak when they heard these words when James'' voice came again: "With me and Ariel here, no one will ever die of hunger or cold again, no one will fall victim to frost giants or any other monsters. I swear to you on the honour and majesty of the Chaos Guild." Chapter 186: Lets Upgrade the Village "With me and Ariel here, no one will ever again die of hunger or cold, no one will fall victim to frost giants or any other beast. I swear to you on the honour of the Chaos Guild." It had been almost an hour since James had uttered these words, and now they were busy eating the food made by his wife in the cosy house, Narbeth''s mansion-like house. Narbeth''s wife worked wonders with the food James had brought, especially since James had never seen Ariel behave like this before. Ariel was consuming the food like an animal, and James agreed with Ariel a little, the food they were eating was as good or better than the food James had eaten on Olympus. "Narbeth, I''ve shown you the task, I want you to summon every race or community on this floor." Narbeth looked surprised when James said these words, shook his head as if he could not understand why the young man before him would ask such a thing, and then asked, "What is the reason for this, young master?" "You are a small community, the races and individuals of the entire floor should unite so that you can form a community. What you all are doing is sheer stupidity, living separately when you can save everyone." Narbeth nodded at James'' words and then stood up and said, "With your permission, I will fulfil your request, my wife is the second leader of the village, if you want to do something, you have full authority." With those words Narbeth left the house, James turned to his wife and said, "Ma''am, I didn''t ask your name." She bowed politely and then said, "My name is Elenor, sir." James smiled when he heard the name Elenor and then said, "You are the second Elenor I know, the first one was incredibly brave." Elenor smiled after these words and asked, "What do you want from me, young master?" The woman seemed to realise that James was going to say something. James was surprised that she had realised he was going to ask for something and looked at Elenor with admiration. "I don''t think you''ve been able to get anything done because of the cold, is that right?" James asked, and hearing this, Elenor nodded her head and confirmed James. After these words, James stood up and then said, "Please take me to a huge piece of land that can be considered sheltered. And please call the architects and engineers in the village, if there are any." Elanor''s eyes lit up at James''s words, not quite understanding what he was trying to do, but realising that something big was about to happen. When Elanor left the dining room to get ready, Ariel turned to James standing next to her and then, with a mouthful of meat grease and greasy hands, asked the question as she continued to eat: "Are you thinking of building a greenhouse?" James took a few steps back as if disgusted by the Ariel he was looking at and then said, "I''m thinking of building greenhouses, not just one greenhouse." After a few minutes, Elanor came back into the room and said, "Please follow me, young master." James nodded and left the room with Elanor, and as he walked out the door of the house, he realised that several male and female elves were standing in front of him. "I have summoned all the architects and engineers using magic, young master," Elanor said. With those words, the group had walked for almost twenty minutes before James arrived at the huge estate he had asked for. The land was not far from the village, but it was not close, it was about 7 or 8 minutes away from the last house in the village. James turned to Elanor and said, "It''s a perfect field, please stand behind me, what I''m about to do won''t hurt you, but you still need to be careful." As the elves quickly turned behind James, he closed his eyes and then took a deep breath and began to release his aura. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The elves were incredibly surprised, the snow burst into flames. Every puddle of snow around him was melting. When James let out the most powerful flame he could use, jet black flames, the snow began to melt deeply, and after a short time, almost ten metres of snow had melted away. Perhaps not even a snowflake was left in the five hundred metre area. James then took out from his inventory a desk, a large sheet of paper, a pen and pencil, and a ruler. "Are you an architect, sir?" one of the elves asked, to which James replied, "No, but I know an architect, I have learnt a little. I will draw you a template, give you the necessary materials and you will build it." James learned a lot when Ronald made him learn by force while they were on the 5th floor building the main house on the mountain. With these words, James quickly managed to draw the greenhouse template, wrote explanations on another piece of paper, whether the elves knew how greenhouses worked or not, and then gave these papers to the elf who had just spoken to him. When the elves gathered and read and analysed the papers, Elenor was surprised and said to James, "The young master must know a lot, he even came up with a solution for growing plants." When James heard these words he smiled and said "I watched a lot of documentaries.". This explained where all his knowledge came from. Neither Elenor nor the other elves understood what he was talking about, but they did not think to question him. However, James left all the items he thought he would need in the field, but he was missing one thing. He turned to one of the elves and said, "I don''t know how to solve the glass problem." Glass was essential for greenhouses. "Ah! We can do that, young master. There is a wizard in our village who knows sand magic." One of the elves said, and with that, probably the last material was found. The only problem was the sunlight, James didn''t know exactly how to solve it. "I don''t know how to deal with the sunlight..." he muttered to himself in a very low voice. When he said this a new window opened right in front of him. Chapter 187: The Little Three James was surprised to see the message window pop up in front of him and then asked, "Do you mean what you say, Apollo?" [I''m serious, this village, or rather most of the floor, worships the gods of Olympus, as you can understand, this floor, like the tutorial, is a floor that has already existed and remains as a memory, while the tower has permanently revived everyone, that is, before the frost giants and other monsters destroyed everything. Which means you are in the village of the elves who worship me, the light itself]. As soon as James had said Apollo''s name, at least three or four elves had turned to him in surprise, all of them astonished that Apollo, who was a saviour to them, could be so easily named. "Do you know our god, young master?" Elanor asked suddenly and James smiled and replied, "He is a dear friend of mine." Elanor and the others did not know what to say to these words. "Apollo said that there is someone in the village who can use his light, is that true?" Elanor nodded when James asked this question and then James snapped his fingers and said "That''s good news, I''m glad Apollo wasn''t lying, we need a battery for the person with the light element when the construction is finished. This can be done easily, we have engineers after all." In short, James was planning to get the required sunlight from Apollo''s light. Of course, it would not be as perfectly nourishing as the energy of sunlight, but it was still more than enough. James had already thought of a method of generating the necessary heat and had added it to the plan, it was just a matter of finishing the construction. As James continued to unpack the materials a question suddenly seemed to occur to him. "Apollo or the others, I have a question. When we enter the tower, we choose a class immediately after the tutorial, and then we encounter another class selection on the 20th floor. What about the gods and goddesses blessing others? If there is such a thing, why do we need to choose a class?" When James voiced the question in his mind, there was no answer for a few minutes. He seemed to be taking out the desired materials from his inventory on the one hand and waiting for an answer on the other. After almost four minutes, a message fell in front of him: [Selecting a class binds the chosen deity directly to the user or player. This means that the god or goddess cannot be bound to ANYONE else in any way. Poseidon''s power is bound to his son Theseus, and Demeter''s power is bound to her daughter Persephone. Blessing, on the other hand, means that the gods or goddesses divide a part of their power and give a part of their power to the person they bless. Until that person chooses another god or goddess, their powers remain as they received them from the beings who blessed them. Of course, the blessed can gain other abilities, but no other god or goddess can bless them. So while blessing is the gods or goddesses lending their power, the user and player''s choice of class is what binds them to the user or player]. James nodded as he read this detailed message from Zeus and then seemed to realise what the differences were. "Thank you, Zeus, you''ve been very helpful," James said and with that Elanor''s face turned sour. "Even our god Zeus is your friend, young master?" Elanor asked, to which James shrugged his shoulders in reply. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Well, so-so," he said after shrugged his shoulders. However, in the distance, several figures could be seen coming fast. James saw three people running fast and coming towards him and the group of elves with him. Unable to tell whether they were friend or foe, he pulled his sword Clarent from his inventory and stood at the ready. A huge aura surrounded the area, and even if the black flames that had formed on the snow did not melt the snow, they still presented a frightening sight. After almost ten seconds, James realised that Narbeth had brought them. Returning his sword Clarent to his inventory, James smiled and then bowed his head in respect to Narbeth and the others who appeared before him. "Young master, since the villages are not far away, I was able to gather the leaders quickly." As James heard these words, he looked at the two men standing behind Narbeth. One of them was a dwarf. The dwarf''s long, coarse beard, thick eyebrows, tired expression and rather stern posture seemed to indicate that he was the man''s favourite. The second person was a woman, a tall woman with horns, a little dark skin and muscles on her body. Even though he couldn''t quite make out the race of the woman, James still realised that she was someone to be respected, even though her gaze was full of majesty. James introduced himself after looking at the pair: "Nice to meet you, my name is James. I go by the name Umbra of Chaos. I am the warrior of Nyx and the favourite of the Chaos-Born. I am the wife of Nyx''s daughter Nemesis and the leader of the Church of Night." Narbeth and everyone around him were surprised at James'' words, neither the leader of the elven village nor the elves around knew who he was since James had not introduced himself in such detail. With this introduction, everything became clear. "My name is Dandelion, leader of the Half-Devil village. Next to me is the dwarf Luke. It is a great honour to meet the warrior of the goddess...on top of that, you are the wife of Nemesis, the daughter of the goddess, what an honour." Dandelion suddenly said, and with these words, James'' approval was evident from the smile on his face. "The honour is mine. If you are free I would like to talk to you about my plans. I hope Narbeth has already told you something about my mission," James said and with that, it was indicated that a break was needed, at least for James and Elanor. Chapter 188: The Treaty "I understand who you are, but what about Mistress Ariel? Is she a goddess too?" Narbeth suddenly asked, and James, hearing these words, smiled and said, "No. Ariel is my knight, the first commander and first warrior of the Chaos Guild, one of the two people I consider my right arm and my mother." With these words, James turned to Ariel, who was still eating and then asked, "Like...Can you stop?" He was embarrassed, Ariel''s eating style made him nauseous, but on the other hand, it seemed to increase the dwarf and half-devil''s respect for him. It was a very strange situation. When Ariel shook her head no, James turned to Elanor and said, "I swear she''s one of the nicest people you''ll ever meet, your cooking has done that to her, ma''am." Elanor smiled proudly and James turned his head to Narbeth and the other two and began to speak: "Narbeth told you about my mission. Ariel and I will be the owners of this floor after a while. We are not like the people you have seen before. Believe me, I know how strange, cruel and greedy my own race can be, but if you worship Olympus, you know who I am, or rather who the woman I am a warrior for is. I and my subordinates are unlike any human you have ever seen." With these words of James, Dandelion''s voice rose: "We understand that, but you need to understand that even if we want to believe you, it is very, very difficult for us to trust humans." S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Hearing Dandelion''s words, James shook his head and then said, "That''s understandable. Rest assured, even I don''t trust humanity, and if I''m going to trust anyone other than my subordinates, I choose not to do so without investigating everything they''ve done so far. As I said, humanity is strange, cruel and greedy, but even they have their good sides. They can put everything aside when necessary, they can choose to fight, and they will do anything to protect something they care about, even if it means death. Could you do that?" he said. No one could say anything in response to his words and James'' voice rose again: "Would dwarves who worship jewels be willing to give them up and save all their people? Would elves, devoted to their lives and beauty, stop thinking of themselves and come to the aid of someone other than, perhaps, their own family? What about half-demons? How long can they stop boasting of their powers and run into danger to fight for other?" The trio looked at each other as James uttered these words, his point was quite clear. Every race, every monster, and even every god and goddess had a minus point. It was true that humans had more minus points than other races, but that did not mean that other races were perfect. "I...I already said I would follow you, sir. You gave to us when others had stolen from us, and in just the day you have been here you have been working to improve the village. I can''t think what I should be doing instead of following you." Narbeth said suddenly, looking at Elanor and trying to remember how long it had been since his wife had had such a pure smile on her face. If she was smiling like that only because of the hope James had given them, Narbeth would be proud to fight in James'' footsteps. "If old Narbeth has that much faith in you, I might as well try to have a little faith in you," Dandelion said, and then eyes turned to Luke. Luke shook his head, he had never in his entire life thought he would ever encounter anything like this, but he still wished he could trust Narbeth, whom he considered his friend, and Dandelion, whom he considered his nephew. "If what you are about to do is right and proper, young master, I would rather follow you than see the end of my lineage and my village." At Luke''s words, James reached into his inventory and pulled out a scroll and a quill. He began to scribble on the parchment. After almost three minutes, he handed the scroll to the trio and then said, "These are the things I plan to do and the things I swear I will do and sign. Please check it." Narbeth took the scroll in his hand and then began to read it aloud: "James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos, swears to always protect the three villages against the frost giant and other dangers, to protect the village against hunger and thirst and to always provide provisions, and that the Church of Night will especially protect the village if the three villages are united. It is specifically stated that the races within the village will not be considered inferior to the people in any situation. It is specifically stated that everyone will have equal rights. With the union of the three villages, three leaders will be placed in the council and will receive counselling from the Church of the Night, while one of the three will lead the people of the united villages, changing annually." When Narbeth had finished reading the parchment, the trio took the quill from his hand and signed the parchment without even turning their eyes to James, and when James did the same, the parchment glowed and disappeared. "The agreement was made on the scroll given to me by Themis, Goddess of Justice. There is no way to break this agreement, those who break it will face death, I pray that this union is good." James suddenly said and with that, he stood up and shook hands with the trio one by one. After this handshake, James paused for a few seconds and then realised that a message window had opened in front of him: [I am sending you four scrolls of my acceptance of the deal, give three to the others]. Three small scrolls appeared in his hand and he handed three of them one at a time to the three people in front of him. "These scrolls are the scrolls created with the approval of Themis, they have been checked by the goddess and no problems have been found. Congratulations on the merger of the three villages, friends." Chapter 189: Yetis (1) It had been exactly 20 days since James and Ariel had arrived on the floor. They were finally counted as having passed a floor, which gave them access to the 29th floor. James and Ariel could not make any purchases because the system''s shopping panel was completely closed. This feature was fully opened after the 20th floor. The large-scale auction panel that James wished to make in the future was located at the bottom of this market panel. In short, James or Ariel could not buy supplies or anything else. Since James liked to be prepared, he still had hundreds of parcels of supplies in his inventory, but they would only be enough to feed over a thousand creatures for a while. After the merger of the three villages, James planned to enter the mountain with the help of the dwarves to fence off the entire village and protect it. The dwarves would protect them until they had the necessary supplies. Ariel stayed where the old elven village, the newly united community of villages, was and guarded it, while James guarded the mines. "Master James, we have managed to extract 40% of the minerals we want, but we would like to stay here longer. If it is possible, we can move the mines further, and with more minerals, we can make the fortifications stronger and better serve those who will protect the village. We just need your approval." The dwarf, the best miner under Luke''s command, was leading the dwarves in digging the mines, and since James, the guardian, was the main decision maker, he needed to consult. "We can stay here as long as you like, it could be days, go ahead and keep digging without thinking, but protect yourselves, we don''t want you to be buried under the mountain," James said suddenly and the dwarf who heard this nodded, turned round and went back into the mines. After only a few minutes the voices were heard again: "CLINK!" The sound of each digging hit the cave walls and travelled up the mines, creating a ringing sound in the ear. "CLANG!!!" The sound of the blows grew louder and louder, showing how fast and serious the dwarves were digging. "CLATTER!!!" With each stroke, James slowly began to realise the seriousness of the situation. Of course, he was serious to some extent, but the hard work of the dwarves seemed to indicate how much they wanted to protect the people of the village, and since he was to be one of the new owners of this huge floor, James had to come to his senses. As James was filled with these thoughts he suddenly noticed several figures in the distance. These figures, perhaps two or three metres taller than James, were growing taller as they approached. When James realised this, he suddenly brought out the holy sword Clarent from his inventory and then stood at attention. "DO NOT LEAVE THE CAVE!" James shouted, and with that, the fences in front of the cave were instantly closed. When James realised that the dwarves were safe, he slowly made his way through the snow. It was snowing heavily, but every snowflake that entered James'' aura field became water and fell on the snow on the ground. It would certainly help to say that the snow masses around James were also slowly melting and evaporating. As James began to approach the beings, he realised that Narbeth''s ''Frost Giant'' statement was completely false. He had never encountered these beasts before, but he had read about them in the imperial library of the Empire of the Sun. "Yetis," James said suddenly. Each of the yetis was almost 8 or 9 metres taller than James, indeed it would have been quite normal to see them as giants, and if they didn''t have the name Yeti they certainly deserved the name Frost Giant. They stood with crimson eyes and white fur, their hands and feet were greyish, and the thickness of their fur seemed to explain how they survived in the cold. With almost fifty metres between him and the yetis, James took a deep breath. James was fast, his greatest advantage over the larger figures was his speed, not counting his abilities. It was precisely because of this that he suddenly lunged forward. The holy sword enveloped Clarent in its aura, and then, cautiously, he began to run towards the nearest yeti. Each of the yetis saw James running towards them and rushed forward to attack. James, of course, was not going to be knocked down. As soon as he rushed forward and started to close the distance, the yeti closest to him suddenly attacked. The yeti raised its hands to the sky, and then, joining its hands together, swung them to hit the ground. James leapt into the air at that very moment and avoided the yeti''s attack with a leap of almost 10 metres. Swinging Clarent, the holy sword covered with his aura, James separated the huge yeti''s huge head from his body in just a second. "thud." S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When the huge head fell to the ground, it landed on the snow mass in a place where James'' aura did not reach, and the snow absorbed all the sound and eliminated the frightening image. James stepped on the shoulder of the yeti, which had started to fall towards the ground because it refused to fall to the ground, and then almost flew towards the yeti that was furthest away from him, almost 60 metres away. In just three seconds, the holy sword Clarent had plunged into the yeti''s heart and James had fallen to the earth and waited under the hot blood splattering from the yeti. When the yeti''s body fell backwards, this time the snow mass could not swallow the sound and a huge sound rose to the sky: "THUD!!!" James, covered in blood, looked towards the other six yetis around him and said the following words while he seemed to have no emotion in his eyes: "You all are a hundred times weaker than I thought. Pathetic." Chapter 190: Yetis (2) "You all are a hundred times weaker than I thought. Pathetic." At these words of James, the yetis seemed to get angry. The eyes of the yetis, which had red eyes, turned black. James suddenly realised that every hair on his body was standing on end as if his body was warning him to back off. James suddenly backed away a few metres and as he did so a great weight fell on his body. It was a good thing he had backed up only a second ago. The entire body of the yeti on the ground was crushed by the pressure and disappeared. "Gravity?" James muttered, and with that, he saw the yetis starting to move towards him. As the yetis began to run towards him, James ran away without a backward glance and then chose to use Desmond''s Sword Art. His magic which is mana and aura in his body began to spin. Since he was facing multiple targets, he chose to use the wounding piercing style from the piercing part of the sword art. When the mana and aura in his body began to spin and combine, he turned around without thinking and began to release the recovered aura one by one. One by one, the great degree of accumulated magic and aura began to be released from the sword. This time, however, instead of dividing this power into six in a single area, James scattered it around. Six pieces of small power were divided into six different parts and scattered around. The energy emitted from the holy sword Clarent was quite weakened as it did not hit the target at almost the same time by merging in one place. Still, only three of his attacks managed to hit the targets, and even if the three yetis were not killed, they were greatly weakened. James saw that the yeti that had applied gravity had also been injured, the other yetis had also applied the ability, but the one that had applied it first was stronger than any of them. James took a deep breath as he jumped back a few more steps and then decided to try something. He figured it wouldn''t do him any harm to try since the target in front of him was big. He pulled Selene''s Throwing Knife from his inventory while dodging the huge yetis coming after him. As soon as he managed to transfer his aura to the blade, he began to spin the aura. He hadn''t dared to try anything since he hadn''t managed to add the mana, but he realised that at least he could successfully spin the aura on the blade. "Well done James." He smiled as those words suddenly rose in his mind, and then he realised he was on the right track. He ran quickly and then when he was about forty metres from the yetis, he stopped, turned around quickly and threw Selene''s Throwing Knife at the nearest yetis. "Whikt!!!" A long sound piercing through the air, almost slicing through the air, echoed through the air and hit the yeti closest to him at an incredible speed. The falling snow stopped there for a second, and without realising it, James saw that he had used a bit of the time element in his aura. "BOOM!" As that second passed, the sound of the explosion echoed through the sky, and then a huge, round cavity appeared in the yeti''s chest. Not even blood flowed from the yeti''s body, the yeti just fell to the ground and James smiled as he realised that he had successfully done what he had thought he had done. "I''m proud of you James, you don''t even realise how far you''ve come." James smiled as he heard his ancestor Vlad''s voice in his mind again and then the holy sword in his hand filled Clarent with the aura and mana he had returned. The holy sword Clarent burst into flame and as James thrust it forward it roared, making dragon patterns as it travelled towards the yetis and then began to burn the yetis. James had no idea what he had done, but it was obvious that whatever he had done, it had been quite perfect. As the yetis fell to the ground one by one, James took a deep breath and realised that it was finally time to use that thing he had won so long ago. Taking the Void Pen out of his inventory, he squeezed it carefully and then spoke in his mind: "Ariel, 9 yetis came to the mines, I managed to kill every one of them, be careful, they use gravity magic when their eyes turn black." He had long ago acquired this void pen, which he could use up to three times a day, but he had never had a reason to use it, and now it was useful, he could speak directly into Ariel''s mind instead of opening the system panel and trying to send a message. Inside the united village, however, something different was happening. Ariel had already taken care of five of the six yetis that had come through the village and was trying to deal with the last one. Ariel''s blades were being thrown with perfect strength, and each blade drove deep into the yeti''s body, sending roars into the sky. The yeti realised it had no more power and fell to the ground, seemingly accepting death, its gravity ability gone, and as soon as Ariel realised this, she pulled another knife from her inventory and threw it at the yeti. In just a few seconds the yeti fell to the ground, stabbed dozens of times, and after a while, it stopped moving. As Ariel jumped down from the yeti''s body into the snow, she felt the gaze of the village. The three leaders were stunned, it would take an entire village of dwarves or demi-demons to kill just one of what they considered to be frost giants, but Ariel had destroyed six of them in almost ten minutes. "What happened?" Ariel asked suddenly, and Narbeth and the others couldn''t say anything. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 191: Mines "You''re amazing, Master Ariel, you are as strong as you say," Elanor suddenly said. Ariel, hearing this, said, "Well, of course, I didn''t become the commander of the Chaos Guild for nothing." and then opened the message window as if nothing had happened and sent a message to James, "I''ve already done it." With that, there was nothing else to do, and as Ariel stretched her body and yawned, many elves passed by her and then began to carry the bodies of the yetis. Ariel couldn''t understand what was going on, so she turned to Narbeth and the others and received the following reply: "Yeti feathers are very luxurious materials and their blood has healing properties, very healing for half-demon children born weak." However, Ariel realized that she needed to send another message to James and wrote to him that she needed the yeti bodies. "The bodies of the other yetis will be here, no problem, let''s get on with our work." Ariel suddenly said and everyone started to get on with their work, happy to be out of danger. James, on the other hand, had already sent the bodies of the yetis to his inventory and managed to return to the mine''s door. When he asked for the door to be opened, the dwarves who had come out saw that James was covered from head to toe in blood and shook their heads in disbelief, trying to understand what had happened. No one seemed to believe that James could actually kill Yetis, which must have been why the dwarves were grumpy, each of them must have thought they were on a killing mission. "Are you all right, sir?" asked the leader of the mine and with a nod from James all the dwarves were ordered back to work. Several crates full of ore were placed on the snow drifts in front of James, along with the wagons coming down the tracks. James was sending perhaps a tonne of ore to his inventory, never had it worked so well for climbers to have unlimited inventories. James had so far filled 23 pages of the sixteen rows of inventory sheets, with eight empty spaces in almost every row. This meant that James had exactly 2944 crates of various types of ore in his inventory. Since each crate was capable of holding exactly 10 tonnes of ore, he had exactly 29,440 tonnes of ore in his inventory. James was very pleased with this development, he now understood why certain regions were important to the guilds. That was why the two kingdoms claimed by Olympus and Asgard in the war that broke out during his time in the Imperial Library were so important to them. Both kingdoms were rich in minerals. When the dwarves went back to their work, James took off his thick clothes full of blood in the middle of all the snow and then put on new clothes and continued to observe his surroundings. He had managed to get the blood off his head on top of the snow and had chosen to go about his task with what he considered to be almost complete cleanliness. "You have done an excellent job, James. It was genius of you to think of using my father''s sword art in that way. Of course, I would have told you about such use when you mastered the art of the sword, but the fact that you thought of it before I told you was brilliant. I''m proud of you." James smiled as he heard Vlad''s voice echoing in his mind and then let the praise from his ancestor make his heart skip a beat. "I''m full of pride too, little one, Emily too, well done, you''ve done very well," Abby said and with that, she added, "We can start your lesson now," and James'' energy instantly collapsed. "Do we have to do this now? It''s already cold..." As James made his excuse, his ancestor saw Abby''s spirit emerge from the ring and saw the smiling face of the red-haired woman. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Abby smiled as she looked gently at James and then said these words that made James smile with excitement: "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, but the second best time to plant the same tree is now. Remember that, James." When Abby had finished, James nodded his head up and down with an excited smile on his face and then asked, "Well then, what am I going to learn?" Abby prepared to speak and began to speak. James was going to stay in the mines for a long time and take as much material as he and the dwarves could back to the village. As time began to tick by, everything began to change. In the blink of an eye, almost a week had passed and James and the dwarves had finally made it back to the village. They had managed to extract over 20,000 tonnes of ore in almost half a day''s work, and in one week James had added almost half a million tonnes of ore to his inventory. Everything necessary to protect the village was ready. The structures and tasks of the walls had already been drawn by elf and dwarf engineers and the areas had already been marked. James took some time to rest after returning to the village and after leaving 5% of the mines where necessary, he went to clean the marked areas. Even though everyone, including Ariel, told him that he should rest, he still chose not to leave today''s work for tomorrow and aimed to finish his work at full speed despite all the rumours. Knowing that the village was going to grow in the future, James had argued that there had to be an area almost as big as the imperial palace, and that was precisely why such a huge amount of ore had to be mined. In short, James would have to devote many hours to a clean-up and would have to help everyone with all his strength to build that area. The power level of the demi-demons was excellent. With his power status, James was able to carry thirty tonnes of ore with difficulty, but the half-demons were not even sweating, let alone struggling to carry a hundred or two hundred tonnes of ore. This was an incredible event. Chapter 192: Palace Walls When James saw the differences between the races again, he remembered that Abby had taught him not to underestimate any race. His ancestor Abby had been right. James had seen the difference in power status between other races. Still, James knew that with his abilities and other trump cards at his disposal, he could kill anyone at any time, so he was still stronger, but he had been crushed in status. Therefore it was showing that the levels weren''t everything once more. By the time he had cleared the place where the construction of the walls was to begin, he had completely forgotten that he was busy giving his approval to the talk about the length of the walls. "Master James, we ask you." James, who had suddenly been roused by a voice from Narbeth, turned round. Looking at the drawings on the scrolls, he said, "This length is good, we will need way more mines than a wall to be built for almost 70,000 square metres, but this is the length required for the yetis, or ice giants, as you call them." and approved the project. Even with all the ore they had, they would still have to fortify an area as big as the Sun Empire''s massive palace, but it was clear that it would not be a good idea to do it all at once, which is why Luke seemed to have an idea. "Young Master James, isn''t the palace you told us about, with all its gardens and beauty and training grounds and everything, just that big?" When James shook his head at Luke''s question, Luke began to speak again. "If we use the minerals we have extensively, we can enclose the village with walls of the same length to include the agricultural areas. This will allow us to spend more time on the next mining operation." When Luke''s words were heard, James waited for a few seconds and then asked, "It might look like different tiered zones, how do we solve that problem?" After James'' question, Luke shook his head and then said, "We can make a section with four entrances, we can create a huge section in the middle of the village where we will build a castle or palace by dividing the walls, we can have free space since we will cut the wooded areas and plant them in the distant areas." James smiled as soon as he heard these words and then said, "A palace that stands behind the walls and extends away from the same walls? I like this plan." He said and indicated that he gave his approval. After these words, all the positions were withdrawn, the signal flags were moved to an area well back, to the agricultural fields outside the village, and James began to clear that area. The rampart frames, made of the minerals the dwarves had brought from their own villages, were already in place. After James had melted the snow with his flames destroyed the underlying ice layer and dried the soil, the rock mixture that would stabilise the ground to some extent was poured on the ground. After waiting for it to dry, the small frames, which were the first part of the wall, started to be erected one by one. At that moment James felt that someone was watching them from the distant woods, something was watching them. After calling Ariel to his side, he took Miracle out of his inventory and ordered her to protect Ariel, telling Ariel to keep an eye on the woods. With that, Ariel and Miracle entered the forest. As the blue-haired woman entered the forest, she realised that what James had said was true, someone was indeed watching her and Miracle. Ariel, who had begun to look around cautiously, took out her knives from her inventory, raised her eyes towards Miracle, who was sitting on her head, and then said, "If you hear or see anything, tell me directly." "Okay, Grandma." Miracle said, and with the seriousness of a child, Miracle started to check the surroundings and tried to hear the sounds with her constantly moving ears. After only half a minute, Miracle said in a low voice, "They''re to our right, Grandma"'' and Ariel, hearing this, suddenly turned to the right and ran. After a few seconds, Ariel encountered several beings and saw the silence and fear on their faces. "Pixies..." Ariel said. She realised at that moment that there was no reason to fight. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Please don''t hurt us, my whole tribe has come to ask for help..." said the largest of the Pixies, almost forty centimetres tall. "We came here to spy on you because we thought you were enemies, if you want help, why didn''t you come and ask?" Ariel said, and the female pixie who heard this tilted her head and replied, "The demi-demons are big, we are afraid..." "Haha...You can come with us, there is not much to be afraid of, pixie spells will help us a lot." Ariel said, and with that, the pixies were happy, but they were still afraid. Ariel smiled as she saw the gaze fixed on Miracle, the little she-dragon, and then asked, "Miracle, honey, would you please change into human form?" When the little girl Miracle nodded her head and transformed into human form, the pixies looked at the little dragon transformed into human form with admiration and hugged her. Almost two hundred pixies were flying around and some of them were hugging Miracle. With that, it became clear that there was no danger and they returned to the village under construction. The demi-demons, elves and dwarves were shocked. "I thought you were extinct, oh dear pixies," Narbeth suddenly said, surprise written all over his face. James smiled when he saw the pixies and went to the eldest one and said, "My name is James, nice to meet you, you must be the leader." Pixie shook her head and held her face with an embarrassed look and then landed on James'' shoulder and then waited there. When James thought he had made new friends and smiled, he saw a message in front of him that he had never expected and that made him tremble from his toes to every hair on his head. [Nemesis looks like it''s going to kill you, James.] Moros played the role of the bad messenger again. Chapter 193: It Has a Cost When James read this message from Moros, he shook his head and clarified that there was no problem. "It''s ridiculous that you even think I''d cheat on you Neme, you shouldn''t be jealous," said James, having no idea that Nemesis had been blowing smoke out of his head with those words. With that, he gently picked up the pixie on his shoulder and then placed it on the closed metal crate beside him. "Little lady, everyone knows that pixies excel in aerial magic, and if this is true for your tribe, we will ask for your help. It will not be a problem for you to stay here," James suddenly said, and with those words, the leader of the pixies smiled and introduced himself: "Forgive my rudeness, I am a fairy queen, we pixies have no names. Nice to meet you, we will work hard and pay you back." said the pixie who introduced herself as the queen. After these words, when James was about to speak, the pixie queen flew from where she was and then whispered something in James''s ear. James shook his head when he heard these words and then turned to Dandelion and said, "It seems that they are a little afraid of half-demons." Dandelion was about to explain how they shouldn''t be afraid when one of the demi-demons next to him suddenly shouted: "HOW CAN THEY BE AFRAID OF US? WE ARE THE KINDEST CREATURES!" With that shout, over two hundred pixies flew behind the little dragon Miracle and the pixie queen stood behind James and looked at the demi-demons. "IDIOT!" shouted Dendalion and slapped her sidekick on the head quite hard. As the half-devil fell to the ground, Dandelion gently walked towards the pixie queen and said, "I don''t know why you are afraid of us, but don''t worry, I will do my best to protect you." Hearing these words, the pixie queen came out from behind James and then landed on Dandelion''s shoulder. The remaining pixies, as if realising that there was no point in hiding after their queen''s actions, came out from behind Miracle and covered Dandelion. At that moment, James'' voice was heard. "Let''s call you Sophia, that''s your name." When James heard these words, the pixie queen and everyone else turned to him and then James said these words: "She looked like Sophia, so there''s nothing wrong with her, she should have a name, right?" [You don''t even know what you just did, do you?] James shook his head as he looked at the message from Moros, and then the pixie queen, who had been given the name Sophia, smiled and flew into James'' face and stuck there. "Master gave me a name!!!" She screamed suddenly. James, trying to figure out what was going on, somehow pulled Sophia out of his face and then looked at the other message Moros had sent: [Pixies are in the service of the people who name them, I hope you don''t call me names when you pass out soon]. James was trying to work out what the message meant when he suddenly felt a huge pain in his head. His nose began to bleed and he felt all the mana in his body being sucked out of him. Even though his aura was trying to keep his body afloat, the sudden loss of mana was taking James to the brink of death. While Ariel was trying to understand what was happening, just like James, a message appeared in front of her: [James named a pixie and made it his servant. The pixie she named is a queen, a very powerful being, one of the closest to perfection, one of the purest beings, one might say on the same level as an Archangel, on the side of purity. It takes an enormous amount of mana to name such a force. James is going to faint, get him to safety]. When Ariel read this message, she ran towards James and then started running towards the village, carrying him like a princess. Ariel herself could feel the mana disappearing from James'' body, Ariel wasn''t even a mana user, but even her body started to tremble out of fear. The first thing that surprised him was that James had such a mana reservoir in his body, the second thing that surprised him was how fast it was being depleted. James was just about to faint, he wasn''t going to die because of his aura, he would die if his mana continued to dwindle and deplete like this, but the fact that he had both the aura and the magical energy, the magic itself, the mana in his body was what would keep him alive. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Sophia flew as fast as she could and managed to grab onto Ariel''s shoulder. Arriving at Narbeth''s house after a short time, Ariel put James, whom she had carried, on the bed and then began to clean the blood from his nose. After cleaning the blood from James''s nose, Ariel reached for her inventory and somehow found the bottle she was looking for in her chaotic inventory, and then opened the cap of the bottle and threw the dust in it on James. It was a sleeping powder. James fell asleep in a very short time, almost five seconds later, and the blood stopped flowing from his nose. Looking back at Sophia, Ariel shook her head and then smiled and said, "You made a big scene, little one." and petted the pixie queen''s head with her finger. Sophia looked up at James and seemed upset, clearly not thinking that taking a name would create such a situation. "I''m sorry..." Sophia said, and Ariel''s expression came to life. "I don''t think James would be mad at you, he''s too soft-hearted to do something like that, it''s surprising that someone with the ability to kill a Fallen God would be like that, but it is what it is. Don''t worry about it." Ariel said and with that, she saw a message window appear: [When James wakes up, I want you to smack him upside the head, Ariel.] Ariel''s smile widened when she saw this message from Nemesis and then the following words were heard: "You should feel sorry for your husband''s suffering, Mistress Nemesis." Chapter 194: Time Passed Pretty Quickly Ey? When James opened his eyes again he noticed the sunlight coming in through the window in the room, he saw that there was no snowfall today and he tried to move, hoping that things would be easier. When he tried to move, not only did he fail to do so by even a centimetre, but he also noticed the enormous pain in his body and especially in his heart. James had no way of describing the pain in his body. Even when Noah had trained him in poison, or when he had fought the Fallen God to the point of death on the ice mountain, he had never experienced such immense pain. He could feel everything from his toes to the hair on his head, but this time it wasn''t excitement, adrenaline or fear, but pure pain. "Argh..." With a small whimper, he stared at the message window that opened in front of him: [How are you feeling my not-so-smart husband?] When James looked at this message from Nemesis, he smiled and then said, "I''m just a little sore." At that moment, the door of the room he was in opened and Ariel entered. When Ariel saw that James was awake, she said, "You had us quite worried." and then pulled up a chair and sat down. "Can you tell me what happened?" James suddenly asked, not in a humorous mood. Ariel giggled at the question, and after a few seconds of waiting, she spoke, making James look like an idiot: "I didn''t know that many monsters or races recognise you as their master when you name them, so when you named the pixies, you bound the pixie queen Sophia to you, just like Elise, your succubus servant, was bound to you." When James heard these words, he made a face as if he didn''t understand anything, and then he said, "What?" in surprise. He refused to believe that he had fainted just because he had named her. "You named a being as pure as a pixie queen, literally as pure and perfect as the Archangels. Do you know how many days you have been asleep?" sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At the end of Ariel''s words, James replied, "I don''t know," and Ariel replied back, "60 days, exactly 60 days you''ve been in this bed." James couldn''t help but be surprised when he heard this number. "If we add the previous 20 days, we''ve already quadrupled the floors that we meant to move? That means we only have 60 days left..." James said and Ariel''s angry expression appeared when she heard these words. "Everyone was so worried, not even Nemesis or Lady Nyx herself could come here unless this floor belonged to us. Even Ra, who is considered as a creator, can''t get in here, so you were dying James, you were dying as usual, you lived with a tiny fraction, if you didn''t have both magic and aura in your body, you would have died." Ariel suddenly said, frowning, clenching her teeth and expressing her anger with her worried pupils. James was silent for a few seconds when he heard those words, and then he began to say things that would silence the gods watching, let alone Ariel, and make them agree with him: "We often try to map everything out, setting everything up, how we know to do things. But the tower, it traps us and it does it all the time. Different traps always, different dead ends. In our world Ariel, we might have the chance to restard, leave the city and try to do things but in the tower...no---nothing changes." With James'' words, Ariel''s anger began to fade, but her anxiety began to rise even more. "Only when I started walking towards what felt the only right for me without trying to rationalise everything, I found the exist. In this tower, it always worked like this for me. So from time to time, I am not thinking, especially if we are in a safe place. I find my exit just like this from almost every danger." "But what you''re doing is dangerous...I understand, I really do, after all, the things we''re fighting, the scenarios we''re escaping or surviving...some of them are quite dangerous even for the people inside the tower, I really do get it. You''re not the only one though, we''ve talked about this before." Ariel was able to understand what James was saying, like most gods, though like most gods, Ariel herself knew that it wasn''t always the best option. "Sometimes everything you do know means nothing in the face of a new problem. But you should just keep moving towards what feels right. Pretty much, think hard but do not think hard at the same time, do you get me?" Ariel was about to respond to these words when James'' voice was heard again: "After all, as long as you move to what''s right for you, the exit will be clear ey?" As James said these words, Ariel stood up and then pulled a bottle out of her inventory and gently gave James a drink. James wanted to vomit as soon as the disgusting taste touched his tongue, but he restrained himself, and after he had somehow drunk the liquid in his mouth, he asked "What was that?" and received the answer "Medicine." "You need to rest now. For 55 days your body was in deep sleep and pain because every drop of mana in your body went to Sophia, you spent 5 days recovering your magic rings, and now you drank this medicine to recover your mana faster. You''ll be as good as new in a day or two." After Ariel''s words, James indicated that he understood by closing his eyes, but a completely different question appeared in his mind: "What about the mines? The construction of the walls must have slowed down while I slept. You can''t go and protect the mines when you''re protecting the village." When James asked this question, Ariel smiled and gave the most ridiculous answer she could give to James'' ears: Chapter 195: Uranus Moves "I left Miracle in the village and I guarded the mines." James, who didn''t seem to understand Ariel''s words, raised an eyebrow, looking annoyed. "Did I get that right? You left a little girl in the village to protect everyone from all dangers?" Ariel shook her head from side to side in disappointment as James asked this question, and then let out a deep breath and said, "I apologise for leaving a small female dragon to protect the village when she can destroy the entire floor if she has enough energy." James shut his mouth as soon as he heard those words and then coughed his jaw shut without even trying to say anything. "I don''t think I''m going to be able to sleep, sprinkle some of that sleeping powder on me," James said, and Ariel did as he said and poured every single grain of powder from the bottle she had taken out of her inventory on James. When James'' eyes closed, Ariel got up from where she was and went outside. Ariel saw Miracle and the others waiting outside the house and then said, "He''s fine, he just needs to rest for another day or so. Get back to work." After Ariel''s words, the others did as she said and left, leaving only her and the little girl Miracle. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ----- Things were different on Olympus. Nyx, Erebus, and the Titans met in Nyx''s temple. The seriousness on each of their faces was evident. "Do you mean what you say, Nyx?" Erebus asked, even though he was having trouble believing his wife Nyx. "It would seem so," Nyx replied. "We couldn''t locate our enemies, but we were able to find the likely location of where they had information?" grumbled Gaia. Even to her, it seemed ridiculous that Nyx could find everything so fast. "That''s right. There''s a huge trove of information on the fortieth, thirty-fifth and twentieth floors. Exchanged. One of the Church Cardinals alerted me as soon as he realised, and after a little processing, I found out it was real," Nyx replied as she pulled a few papers out of her inventory and placed them on the table. Hyperion reached for the papers before anyone else and was surprised when he read them, "Are we sure the information on this paper is true?" he asked. "That''s right, it seems they''ve managed to set up barriers that even those in the Church of Night won''t notice. Unlike the fifth floor, on the twentieth floor, the church''s activity did not spread to the whole floor, so they settled there too. You already know the thirty-fifth and fortieth floors, the territory of the outlaws, the church has declared those two floors sinful and refused to enter them." Nyx replied and Hyperion shook his head. "I''ll delegate a few people, but everyone still needs to come to a decision. According to the paper, my dear siblings, father and mother, those bastards are trying to conquer the floors of the tower from the dark areas," Hyperion said. Hearing these words, Chronos frowned and then said, "So they are trying to start that war again. They are trying to bring back the era that caused the deaths of many of our friends..." With these words of Chronos, everyone fell silent and for a minute there was not even a sound of breathing in the area, as if they thought that they had to respect their dead friends. When the minute was over, everyone stood up and then the voice of Uranus was heard: "Careful then, let''s leave the twentieth floor to Datura and Aether, and the thirty-fifth floor to Hyperions. I will take care of the 40th floor myself, I will send everyone under my command there." The Titans and Erebus and Nyx, who looked at Uranus as if surprised by his words, did not know what to say. Uranus himself, which had not moved since Desmond had disappeared, or rather since the end of the war, seemed to be on the move, and this alone seemed to indicate that a new war was about to break out. What needed to happen was for James and all those under his command to regain their strength after so many wars and troubles, before the danger and one of the great extinctions occurred. After all, if a war was to be ''decisive'', the right side had to be strengthened, and in this case, the right side would be James and everyone who watched him and wanted to follow him. The Titans dispersed and Nyx and Erebus returned to the main hall and sat back down on the throne. Everyone''s eyes were on the two huge screens showing Ariel and James. James seemed to have woken up. ----- The first thing James did when he woke up was to get into the hot water. He went into the ''bath house'' section of Narbeth''s house, washed himself and then got into the hot tub. Even if the pain in his body was not completely gone, it would still be fair to say that all the pain was gone. Coming out of the bath, James was greeted by the smiles of many elves, dwarves and half-demons. Many pixies greeted him and the rest went about their business. Beyond the white earth, James managed to see the tall black thing in the area towards the woodland. It was clear to James at that moment that the walls were complete. Surrounding the whole village, the ramparts were indeed perfect, the beauty of the dwarf''s workmanship was truly as it was said to be. James slowly made his way through the village and even though he had been asleep for a long time, he managed to notice the changes. House styles and the like were no longer even in the same places, the behaviour of the elves and other races was quite different, each seemed to have colour in their faces, to have come alive. His steps stopped after a while, he came across a construction site and he could understand why the houses in the village had been moved. James realised that a building was being constructed right in the middle of the village, a building of enormous size and appearance, whose roads seemed to stretch to the outside of the walls. The sight made James smile, clearly not expecting such a thing. Chapter 196: Direct Action James smiled broadly as he saw the building in front of him, which had already begun to be constructed. What he was looking at was the palace under construction, or rather it looked like the construction of the church on this floor. "MASTER!" James suddenly heard the shout from behind him and turned round to see Sophia flying at him at full speed. "SLAP!" Sophia seemed to be crying as she slapped James across the face, and James realised that his face was getting wet. After somehow separating Sophia from his face, he wiped his face with a cloth he had taken out of his inventory and then asked, ''What happened?'' Sophia spoke with a crying face: "I''M JUWST HAPPY DAT YOU ARE ALIVE!" The fact that Sophia was crying and shouting at the same time made it difficult to understand her, but James realised what had happened. "So, dying is not in my plans Sophia," James said and with that, he realised that his body was shaking. Something was making his blood boil. "DING-TING-DING!!!" Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Suddenly the sound of bells echoed from the far side of the village and someone''s shout rose into the sky: "LOOK OUT, THE ICE DRAGON IS COMING!!!" James shook his head as soon as he heard these words and said "Oh fuck off mate!" and started running towards the walls of the village. Just over an hour after waking up, James was in a situation where he had to fight. His body was still quite sore, but strangely he was moving more freely than he had been before he passed out. He couldn''t understand what was going on for a few seconds and then realised that Sophia''s hair was glowing with a dim light as she clung tightly to his shoulder. "Sophia what are you doing?!" James shouted as he ran from one side and back "I''m speeding you up! I''m Pixie, I use air, remember?!" came the reply. However, even though James had suddenly activated his dark step ability and was going to waste magical energy for nothing, he still tried to test his speed. Although his Agility stat was the same, his current speed had indeed increased to a gigantic size. With each step, he almost passed five or even six houses. After only a minute of help, he managed to reach the walls of the village and then saw the chaos outside. He could see an azure blue dragon standing on the earth. Next to the dragon stood dozens of yetis and hundreds of ice goblins. James suddenly reached into his inventory and pulled out the holy sword Clarent. He could easily see elves and dwarves trying to flee. Half-demons seemed to be trying to fight. He could see his daughter, Miracle, in human form, digging her claws into the ice goblins and Ariel trying to kill the ice dragon with all her might. James suddenly stopped where he was and closed his eyes. The elves and dwarves running past him and entering the village were admiring him. This was because the aura and magic around James was going crazy. He was still unable to fully hold the aura and magic that he was entangled in his body. Every second he was releasing time element, fire element and poison element. Nevertheless, the aura and magic he was spinning around in his body were incalculable. The aura and magic overflowing out every second was increasing, and even this seemed to understand how great power James was playing with. It was at that moment that Ariel realised the huge amount of energy behind her, the last time she had felt it was during that strange attack James had made on the 24th floor. At that moment, Ariel stopped fighting the ice dragon and started running to the left. The half-demons who were still fighting were trying to figure out why Ariel would do such a thing when they heard her voice: "EVERYONE GO BACK!!! COME NEAR ME!!!" shouted Ariel. With this shout, every half-demon remaining in the area moved as far away from James as possible. James opened his eyes at that moment. The aura swirling around his body was so gigantic that flames were rising from his eyes. The holy sword Clarent was perfectly heavy due to the huge amount of magic and aura contained in it. The air element Sophia was using to support James was literally helping James lift the Clarent holy sword, which had become heavy. James gritted his teeth and despite all the weight, the holy sword stabbed Clarent forward six times in a row and pierced the air itself. "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" Six different changes in the air in succession produced the same degree of sound and tore the air itself, showing how well James'' power and control over his swordplay had increased. As the Hexagon mark formed in the air, the mark formed a lush green beam and began travelling straight towards the dragon. Just in one split second the green beam from the hexagon hit the dragon. A huge plume of green smoke billowed out and Ariel, noticing this, ordered everyone to run towards the village. "GROHGK!!!" One by one, the yetis began to collapse. The sound of their massive organs exploding echoed across the snowy ground. The little girl Miracle was standing next to her father James, helping him to restore his mana. After only a short time, the sound of crying began to rise from an indistinct distance. As the lush poison smoke began to dissipate, it became clear that these sounds were coming from the ice dragon. The ice dragon writhed on the ground, blood pouring from its eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth. The poison released from James was no ordinary poison. Even if James had not managed to fully train the poison in his body, he was a Poison Master, and even this indicated the degree of untrained poison in his body. After all, someone didn''t just become a Poison Master. Although it was not a poison that would not kill or paralyse even an advanced dragon, James was carrying a poison that could injure that dragon. This meant that this young ice dragon would not last. It was impossible for him not to die. Chapter 197: Literally Priceless Items (1) James walks over to the young dragon writhing on the ground, leaving his little girl Miracle in the back area. He approaches it with the sole purpose of taking the dragon''s heart.Almost everything that came out of the dragon''s body was worth huge money. A young dragon''s eyes were worth a hundred million gold pieces each and each claw was worth almost six hundred million gold pieces. That was why he had to take the most valuable part of the dragon for his use. When the holy sword Clarent flashed again, the sword pierced the dragon''s neck and in a few seconds, the dragon stopped moving. James already had a dragon heart in his possession, and on top of that, he had a poisoned dragon heart, which could be of most use to him. Now he would have a dragon heart that was likely to be poisoned. He had sent the dragon''s body to his inventory, and later he would give the body to the elves and ask for things like the dragon''s blood and the dragon''s heart. What he had to do now was to kill the monsters that were around. Even though dozens of yetis and hundreds of ice goblins had fallen to the ground, the monsters in the forest were still visible. The only reason why these monsters were so easy to see was James'' attack, that is, when Desmond used the second part of the Sword Art, the slashing style, a part of the forest was destroyed by that huge release of power. The sword trail was perhaps a hundred metres wide, and the damage went as far as the eye could see. The monsters that were still coming included wizard goblins, ice orcs, frost devils, and many other types of monsters. When James made a gesture towards Ariel, it meant that the battle was about to begin. Even if the danger of the young dragon was gone, they still had a village to protect. When James signalled to his daughter Miracle, the little girl transformed into her dragon form and then began to anger the mana around her. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. On her father''s orders to attack, she wanted to find a way to kill the enemy without destroying the surroundings and thought it would be a good way to do this by angering the mana, the magical energy itself. When the little girl started to anger the mana around the miracle, many flame patterns began to form around it, and each pattern took the shape of a knife and began to move towards the ice goblins and other monsters. When James looked at the shape of the blades, he saw that each flame blade looked exactly like Selene''s Throwing Knife and smiled and said, "Look, Selene, your presence is everywhere." Even if every god and goddess could see the smile on Selene''s face, James was not even aware of it, he was busy being proud of his daughter Miracle. Knowing that he had nothing more to do on the battlefield, James turned and walked back to the village, where he was greeted by eyes filled with amazement, enthusiasm and admiration. He couldn''t think of anything else to say as he saw hundreds of villagers cheering him on, at that very moment the window opened in front of him and James smiled as he saw it and was filled with happiness at seeing something he hadn''t seen in a long time: [The Way to Be a God talent is working! After the last time the ability worked, exactly 16,971 people believed in you with all their heart and soul. The user''s Holiness status increased by 1697. The user has earned 15,000,000 gold. The user has earned a Taming Pill. The user has won the Blacksmith''s Handbook. The user won a Beginner Level Moon Archer Skill Book]. The villagers who saw James smiling didn''t know what was going on, they must have thought that James was smiling at them, and their enthusiasm became even more gigantic. [Taming Pill(UNKNOWN) This pill is the third of twelve sacred objects created by the third Poison Master #####. The twelve sacred objects created by ##### are rumoured to be lost and hidden in certain parts of the tower. If the user manages to get someone to swallow the pill, whether that person is a mortal or a god, they will still fall under the user''s dominion. To gain full possession of the pill, a drop of blood will suffice]. While James was moving through the village, he was trying to read the information of the items that came to him. The fact that this Taming Pill was made by the third poison master, whose name was not even remembered, was enough to indicate its enormous value and the contents of the pill made everything more complicated. As long as James somehow managed to feed this pill to a god, he could indeed have heavenly or hellish, void and divine power. He had the perfect opportunity. [Blacksmith''s Handbook (Creator+++) The Blacksmith was created by the Creator #####. The Blacksmith''s Handbook permanently gives the user a 25% chance of forging. This processing chance is used to refine the purity of iron minerals. It is unclear who or what wrote the manual, but even the high gods are willing to start a war to obtain it]. After reading the properties of this item, James closed the properties section and prepared to look at the properties of the last book he had won, he stopped where he was with a message from someone he never expected. [If you give me the Blacksmith''s Handbook, I swear on my honour that I will create a masterpiece for you.] James was really shocked when he read the message and saw the name of the person who sent him this message. He was sure that the last time he was this surprised was when he found his Aunt Emily for the first time. After all, the person who sent the message and said that he would create a masterpiece was none other than Hephaestus. Chapter 198: Literally Priceless Items (2) Ten seconds after James read this message and stayed where he was, he started to run towards Narbeth''s house by using his dark step ability. S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.After only a minute, James, who had managed to enter the house, asked "Do you mean what you say, old man?" about the message from Hephaestus. Just ten seconds later, another message appeared in front of him: [I am deadly serious, I will forge you an armour even more perfect than Lux, the body armour I made from the same Adamant. I will finish it in just one year and I swear to you that I will have that armour blessed by the Titans even if I have to beg them for it]. Reading the sentences in Hephaestus'' message, James did not know what to say, he put his hands on the table in front of him and took a deep breath. "Is what I have really worth that much? I mean, the specs said something about its value, but those specs can sometimes have exaggerated descriptions." As James uttered these words, a message appeared in front of him, telling him how valuable the thing in his hand was: [James, I''ve been alive for millions of years, I''m almost to the billion mark, but so far I''ve only got a 7% chance of winning a trade, and I''ve managed to raise it this high by acquiring rare items. I thought the item you won was just a legend, if the blacksmiths in other regions could follow you, you would have received thousands of offers]. Reading this message, James took a deep breath to calm himself down, shook his head and then said, "Alright, I accept, I have no desire to become a blacksmith or anything else, I trust you since you are the best blacksmith I know. I will get that masterpiece from you in 1 year." However, he touched the Blacksmith''s Handbook and started to think about how he could send this book to Hephaestus when suddenly a scroll appeared in front of him. On the scroll was an agreement that Hephaestus would make a masterpiece item in exchange for the Blacksmith''s Handbook. As soon as James signed the agreement, the Blacksmith''s Handbook crumbled into dust and the scroll disappeared in a perfect flash. James smiled at another opportunity and began to tremble with excitement. Sophia, who had watched the whole thing over James''s shoulder, could not understand what was going on, but she was happy for him, and surprised by his happiness and amazement. James, however, looked at the features section to examine the "Beginner Level Moon Archery Skill Book", the last of the rewards that had come to him from his talent: [Beginner Level Moon Archery(Legendary+++++) It is said that long ago on the moon, an ordinary archer in a now-forgotten kingdom wished to prove himself to the queen, the love of his life. After a long time of training and battles, he succeeded in creating a technique that could hold the beauty of the moon. However, although the love of his life loved him, he was stabbed in the back in battle by his dearest friend. A now-forgotten creator admired this man''s love and wanted to eternalise this technique and trapped it on the edge of space. This is all that remains of that now-forgotten little archer''s love, and perhaps one of the most powerful archery techniques in existence]. James smiled after reading the content of this talent book and opened the book and used it without thinking. When he looked back at his system profile after all this, he realised that there was nothing he could say anymore. With all this excitement and adrenaline, he sat in the chair behind him and relaxed himself and then thought about how far he had come. [James Arthur Black Age: 24 Race: Human Level: 59 Class: Warrior of the Night, Time Wraith Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer, Poison Master Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++), Star Magic(Godly), Beginner Level Light Spell(Legendary+++), Transition(Legendary+++++), Destruction(Godly++), Beginner Level Moon Archery(Legendary+++++) [Statuses] Power 135+10 Agility: 271 Endurance 260 Luck: 26 Magic: 1993+500 Holiness: 31.697 Intelligence 434 Charisma 72 Status Points: 45] With the battles he had fought and the monsters he had killed recently, he had jumped 9 more levels. Indeed, there was a world of difference between the first time he entered the tower and now. [You''ve improved a lot, James, we''re proud of you.] James smiled as he read Nyx''s message, though the fact that he had been asleep for so long had probably slowed his rate of progress a little, after all, all the time he could have improved in just 60 days had slipped away. "I haven''t developed sufficiently, my lady. If I want to put the Fallen Gods back in the hole they came out of---no, if I want to kill them, I have to be much stronger than I am now." James said. [You are doing very well right now, you have to be careful and push yourself slowly. It''s hard to say how much more won''t hurt you]. James shook his head when he read this message and then said, "But there is nothing to say that more will hurt me." He was speaking from the bottom of his heart when he said these words, he really knew where he could reach and realised the potential he had. "We still have 60 days left, I need to train continuously, especially in the sword art I have. Maybe I can look at the Moon Archery I''ve acquired, but I still need to improve enough, I need to catch up." James said. [I can''t even understand what exactly you''re trying to catch up with.] Nyx sent a message, and James, who read this message, said, "Whatever the future is." and fell silent. Chapter 199: Deep Meditation It had been almost two hours since the attack on the village had concluded. Back at the house where James was staying, the three village leaders, Ariel and her pursuer Miracle had finally managed to sit down to rest.James had asked Narbeth for an in-depth report and had learnt the following information: Exactly 18 greenhouses were built within the walls of the village and the seeds of the existing fresh fruits were planted in the greenhouses. According to James'' instructions, the greenhouses were properly heated and the light source was projected linearly onto the greenhouses. Strangely, the soil in which the greenhouses were planted caused the plants to flower and bear fruit at a much better rate than necessary. In just one week a tomato seedling could produce a crop. In short, the village''s food shortage was completely corrected. Because of the size of the greenhouses, a food supply for two thousand people could be gained. At the same time, the construction of the fortifications was finished and the construction of the outer walls for the next layer began. Since those walls would be much longer and larger, the mining was carried out at top speed and completed. Almost four million tonnes of minerals and minerals had been extracted, which would be enough for the second outer wall layer, and even the third outer wall layer, which was planned to be the final line, would have a completion rate of between 5% and 7%. All was going well in every sense of the word. The construction of the church for the priests of the Church of Night had begun and was half completed, as James had seen. He was certain that if they had tried to build such a church in the world he had lived in before the tower, thousands of people would have died in its construction, James knew that it was truly one of the most perfect buildings he had ever seen. After giving the dragon''s body from his inventory to the elves, he sent the ice dragon''s heart, now covered in poison, to his inventory. With that, many of the demi-demons began to level up, and the pixies warmed to them quite quickly indeed. It would not be wrong to say that almost every half-devil had a pixie on his shoulder at all times. After hearing all these reports, James left the house and travelled a little distance from the village and then crouched down cross-legged on the ground to practice. There was a deep snowfall, and when James sat down on the snow, of course, he wanted to meditate. He knew that he had improved a lot this time and perhaps, just maybe, he would manage to find the elemental core for the use of the second part of Desmond''s Sword Art, the Cutting. This was still difficult for him to do, he still had a lot to do, and he still had to finish his meditation and then consume the dragon hearts. It was a disgusting step, but Abby had told him that dragon hearts were most effective when they were raw. James consumed these hearts because he was trying to create the fifth magic circle. It was common knowledge that a creature could create a maximum of twelve simplified mana circles, but once these circles were created, another twelve could be made around them. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. For that, James had to create twelve circles as soon as possible, and that meant he had to eat raw dragon hearts. As he sat cross-legged on the floor he realised that he didn''t even feel the cold of the snow. His body had managed to recover a huge amount of his mana, but there was still a huge gap that needed to be replenished. Since his aura had diminished slightly, now was the best time to find the elemental core. He closed his eyes and began to focus on his own body, his inner self. After only thirty seconds of focus, he opened his eyes again in front of his heart. He smiled at the beauty of the magic circles and became excited at the thought that another one would soon be added here. After all, his magic rings, or magic circles as they were also called, were different. As he had seen many times before, the first magic circle was colourless, the second glowed with colourful flames, the third was overflowing with the law of the time, and the fourth waited surrounded by the darkest green clouds. Each magic circle seemed to represent an element. As James stood in front of his heart he began to focus on his own body, this time he had no intention of letting himself die, but he was careful not to dissipate either his aura or his magic. In short, waiting for the elemental core to find him upon meditation was his goal. When he waited in front of his heart and closed his eyes, he realised that he was much better at feeling the energy in his body. It was as if he was trying to meditate again in the place where he was meditating as if he was adding the meditation he was doing with his soul to the meditation he was doing with his body. It was quite complex, but strangely enough, James found that he could sense the presence of the elemental core much, much more easily. Previously he had searched for the elemental core on his own and when he had found it he had squirmed for a very long time just to see it, almost dying because of it. Now he could feel the elemental nucleus coming towards him. When he took a deep breath and continued his meditation, he felt that the aura and magical energy he felt around him had indeed begun to dissipate. This was almost the same as when he had tried to reach the elemental core before. The only difference was that this time the two energies dissipated on their own. Both aura and magical energy seemed to be trying to make their way to the elemental core. It could be said to be an extraordinary situation. Chapter 200: I Gained WHAT? After a short time, James felt a wonderful heat begin to build up in front of him. He could feel his whole body burning from head to toe. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.He could feel himself getting strangely wet, something like sweat was coming out of his body, it was an incredibly strange sensation. The heat was increasing with each second and getting closer and closer to James. Unable to bear it any longer, James opened his eyes and saw that the elemental nucleus he had seen earlier was waiting just to the left of his heart. He slowly reached out his hand to the element core. When he started to approach the elemental core, the heat had officially risen to an unbearable temperature, but James managed to hold the elemental core as a last resort, and then the heat gathered around him began to burn him. "GUAH!!!" James was suddenly out of his meditative state. He was surrounded by a dark liquid and all the snow in an area of almost half a kilometre around him seemed to have melted. Even though he couldn''t understand what was happening, the pain in his body was exquisite, his heart was pounding and he was losing a lot of blood, even though his auto-healing ability was trying to help him. Suddenly James reached into his inventory, looking for something. After a short while he pulled a pill out of his inventory and suddenly popped it into his mouth and swallowed it. After only half a minute, he was spinning like crazy. His head seemed to be beginning to return to normal. The pill he had swallowed was a pill that helped his blood to clot and regenerate and it was very valuable indeed, James even had close to twenty pills in his hand. James slowly realised that his breathing was starting to return to normal and he began to sit calmly in his seat to regain consciousness. Just then a notification window opened in front of him: [High-Level Fire Elemental has evolved!] When he read this notification window, he blinked his eyes as if he couldn''t understand what was going on, and then clicked on the notification, perhaps an explanation could be found in the properties section of the notification: [High-Level Fire Elemental has evolved! After the user''s deep meditation, the user has now been able to access his elemental core, which is the main foundation of the element. The fire element, the element that the user is most compatible with, has evolved with the cultivation of this core. By training the core, it is possible to evolve more elements. High-Level Fire Elemental ability has evolved to 8 Sacred Fire(Sealed)]. James was dumbfounded again, remembering that the name of the ability he had just gained was no different from the flames of creation in the story Chronos had told him. They officially had the same name. [James, read the description of the ability now.] It wasn''t long before he received a message from Chronos, just as he had expected. "Yes, master," James said, and opened the ability''s features section to observe the ability: [8 Secret Fire(Creator+++++)(Sealed) Do you want to know how the creation came into existence? Don''t you want to know how all beings came into existence, how all existences, all universes, all galaxies, all stars and all planets came into existence? Chaos had been looking for a long time for someone to bless these 8 Sacred Fires he used in creation, but it was obvious that no one could do it. From the weakest insect to the holiest goddess, no one''s body could handle this power. The ability to create new life was inherent in the element itself. The ability has the [SEALED] property because it will exert enormous pressure on the user, forcing his body to strain and explode, and can kill the user instantly. The user is simply too WEAK to use the full ability. Therefore, the grade of the ability, the element, has been reduced from [Creator+++++] to [Legendary-----]. The ability''s powers have been reduced to its lowest level and the powers are as follows: The user''s flame attacks will increase by 300% depending on the mana level applied. The user''s fire attacks will consume 500% less mana. Anything fire-based found in nature or the vicinity of living creatures will have its susceptibility increased by 50% against the user. Fire-based abilities will be 50% easier for the user to master. The user''s Charisma stat has increased by 50. The user''s Magic stat is increased by 500. The user''s Luck stat has increased by 30. User''s Intelligence stat increased by 300]. James'' eyes widened when he read this ability, he had forgotten to breathe, message window after message window was opening in front of him, and James really agreed with each of them. Zeus had sent a message saying [FUCK YOU!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?] [Is the Tower kidding?] Hecate muttered. [Did you just gain the flames of creation?] said Hera. When James read each message one by one, he saw that neither Chronos nor any other family member had sent a message, and it was obvious that they were as surprised as James. After a few minutes of silence, the expected message came: [James...Your luck status is almost equal to a lowest-level god...It seems to me that from now on you will only get legendary-grade things from the gacha]. When James looked at this message from Moros, he saw that his Luck status had increased by exactly 30. The function of the luck statuses given to people in the tower was quite strange. Even just one point of luck status increase could make a huge difference, but the fact that he suddenly gained 30 status points was a huge event. James was almost always unlucky, and that''s why he started the tower with a luck status of 2. At first, since the points from the levels earned were distributed as one point, his luck status increased a little more, and then he had excellent luck with 20 luck status points from the class he received from Nyx. This was probably one of the biggest reasons why he hasn''t died so far. Still, the fact that his Luck stat had exceeded 50 points was bringing James closer to a god, even only with his one status. Indeed, it was possible to say that this was the first step into the realm of gods. Chapter 201: Expect the Unexpected James wanted to utilise this magical ability he had acquired before returning to the village. It would be wrong to say that it was a magical ability, after all, the so-called elements did not exist through magic, otherwise, aura users would not be able to connect with the elements in any way.This was a superior form of the fire element he had already acquired. He had expected his legendary-grade fire elemental to evolve to a godly-grade after an evolution, but instead, he had a creator-grade elemental, even though it came sealed. "Believe me, I don''t know what''s going on either, I was just looking for my elemental core, this black liquid flowing out of my body is just like the day I got my magic status, it''s all meaningless, but I''m sure I''m getting an insane boost." James suddenly said. The fact that there was no message from Nyx, the person he expected the most messages from, seemed to tell him that something was wrong. Although this could have been a completely wrong idea that James had. After looking around, he frowned and then said, "By the way, Zeus, you didn''t have to get so angry." As his confusion slowly began to fade, he remembered what Zeus had said. With these words, the incredibly serious and tense atmosphere dissipated, and it was a fact that the huge group, including Zeus, burst into laughter. "I want to use it," James suddenly said, and with that, he began to focus. It didn''t take long for him to realise the sounds around him. When he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the flames in front of him, he was just as surprised as those watching him. There were eight different coloured snakes in front of James. It was a strange sight, but it would be fair to say that each snake was very cute. These snakes looked like the flames of creation themselves. "Well, this is something I didn''t expect," James said to himself and then decided to improvise. "Come here!" he said, looking at the jet-black coloured snake. The flame suddenly turned to him and then leapt at James. The snake wrapped itself around James'' arm as if trying to tell him something. James stumbled for a few seconds held his head where he was and closed his eyes tightly, his head seemed to be in severe pain. "Are you alright James?" Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Suddenly nudged by Vlad''s voice echoing in his mind, James opened his eyes somehow and then said, "My head is filling with information, even my mind palace ability is starting to shake, is this something I can use you for?" his eyes turned to the jet black snake coiled around his right arm. The snake was not burning his arm or damaging his clothes, it was as if the snake of jet-black flames recognised its owner. After James'' words, the snake shook its head and looked at the other snakes standing on the ground, and then each snake jumped on the black snake and added its colours to it. In just ten seconds, the colours of the 8 Sacred Fires were once again in full colour. The snakes were glowing with colour and their beauty was truly dazzling. However, all was not well on James'' side. His nose started to bleed again, so many things, so many attack schemes, so much information about the tool that he was really confused. When he focused on the files he had built in his head through his mind palace ability, he saw that thousands of memories began to exist in his brain. He fell to his knees and held his heart tightly, it didn''t hurt, but a strange feeling seemed to prevent him from breathing. There was nothing anyone watching could do about it. After all, no one was allowed to enter the floor in this reward test that the tower had given to James and Ariel. James didn''t know what he had to do, all the information entering his mind was too much for his brain, and the waves from his brain seemed to exert an enormous amount of pressure on his body. He was just about to lose it and faint when another voice echoed in his mind: "Lie on your back on the ground, breathe deeply, and let the snow fall on you, the flames will turn it into drops of water if necessary, try to calm down." James focused on Abby''s words and somehow managed to lie down on the ground. As soon as he lay down, he could feel that his body was in a more comfortable shape, he was breathing much more easily and that strange sensation in his body was felt much less. "The blood flow in your body will become smooth. Right now your elemental core is developing, when you held the core you started to sprout something inside. Someone who can use magic will feel their heart surrounded by this sprout, and someone who can use aura will feel a part of their aura connecting with the sprout. You, on the other hand, feel much heavier than if you had both of them, there is information being imposed on your mind. Just try to relax." Every time Abby''s gentle voice churned in James''s mind he was reminded of how glorious he was. He could actually feel the whole of Olympus and others going mad with stress right now, and on top of that, he could recognise the concerns of his ancestors and aunt. He really could have been the richest man who had ever existed, after all, when you were surrounded by those who fought to protect you, you didn''t even need a piece of gold. When the bleeding from his nose stopped, the information loaded into his mind dropped to a very low number. While hundreds of attack schemes were uploaded to his mind per second, now one or two were entering at the same time. The sudden strange danger that had happened seemed to disappear in an instant. Chapter 202: Mana Around the Heart (1) James stood up after a short time and then relaxed himself by inhaling the cold air deeply.[Are you all right?] "I''m fine, my lady, thank you." he smiled as he looked at the colourful snake wrapped around his right arm. "You''ve caused quite a bit of trouble, little one," James suddenly said, and with that, he released his body, thinking that he could now test the power of this element. His right arm was the same arm that held the holy sword Clarent. Normally he would try to attack with the holy sword, but these flames had more than enough uses. That''s exactly why he relaxed quite a bit and tried to feel the power of the flame in his whole body. As soon as he thought he had managed to feel this power in its full form, he pulled his arm backwards and then swung. "SWIIP!!!" The air was cut with an incredibly thin sound, almost as if it was screaming. As James made his move, the snake''s shape changed and the colourful flames began to move in waves over the ground. In just a few seconds a colourful display of huge flames, rising to a height of almost five metres, was waiting for all to see. Suddenly the flames roared and rose into the sky in serpentine patterns almost ten metres high. James''s attack was like a ticking time bomb and this was only one of the attack schemes, there were thousands of them in James''s brain. On top of that, he had only pushed 5% of his mana into this attack, so such an attack could happen even with only this much mana integrity. The only question that remained in his mind was this: "What would happen if Desmond managed to deliberately add 8 sacred fire to the attacks in the slashing section of his Sword Art?" As James was filled with these thoughts, he realised that there was nothing more for him to do here, although he didn''t think much about whether or not he should return to the village. This was because he had just gained the power and although he knew that he would not get out of control, such fear was eating him from the inside out. He stopped using 8 Sacred Fire and then looked in the direction of the village and spoke: "I shouldn''t go back to the village, I still need to consume dragon hearts." James sat back down and then pulled the poisoned heart of a young dragon from his inventory. The heart looked more than disgusting, James might have voluntarily sent all sorts of poison down his stomach, but at least he hadn''t eaten something raw. [Are you going to eat that?] Nyx sent a message, obviously disgusting even to someone who had lived for billions of years. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James shook his head after reading this message and then said, "I need pure mana, we all know that once I cook this heart, the mana in it will dissipate. I have to create my fifth magic ring as fast as possible." After James''s words, there was no other message, he had no mentality left to respond to messages anyway, indeed, the disgusting rate of the dragon heart he held in his hand was like 100%. He took a deep breath and then took a huge bite of the raw dragon''s heart. After biting off almost half of the heart, he started to chew it and chewed the heart while waiting in a focused manner. He couldn''t vomit even if he was feeling very nauseous, doing so would destroy any mana he might have gained. Two dragon hearts meant almost two magic rings, and he had no intention of passing up the opportunity. After chewing the bitten piece almost fifty times, he managed to swallow it. At that moment he realised what was coming up from his stomach and held his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting. Before he had finished, he suddenly threw all the remaining morsel of the dragon heart into his mouth and started chewing on a heart the size of a baseball. He was less nauseous now, he seemed to be getting used to it strangely, but that didn''t change the level of disgustingness of what was still going on. For a few seconds after the dragon had chewed and swallowed its heart, it just breathed in and out, there was no way to describe the disgusting taste in its mouth. Even the disgustingness of the blood he had swallowed from the dragon''s heart was on a whole other level. Still, what he had tried to do had worked. Indeed, as Abby had said, the magnitude of the magical energy, the mana that had entered James''s body, was as much as the mana produced in James''s rings so far. Creating a magic ring with so much mana would indeed be no problem at all. When James sat down in a cross-legged position, he closed his eyes and then started to collect the mana that had formed in his body, especially around his heart. A really large amount of mana had gathered around his heart. The mana gradually became thinner and began to take the form of another ring that surrounded his heart. The ring became thinner and thinner and then finished surrounding the heart. This was not the final stage of the magic ring formation, though. James knew that there were all sorts of things he still had to do. Firstly, he had to refine the stored mana, which had been easy since traces of the elements he had always used were stored in his body''s magic scope, and the magic rings were filled with three types of elements. At the moment, he did not know which element to place in the new magic ring, after all, he did not use any elements other than the elements of fire, time and poison. After all these thoughts, he knew that he had to start the refining process, it was going to be a difficult process. He had to endure as much as he could. Chapter 203: Mana Around the Heart (2) James knew that when the last refining took place, there was a sacred monster like Noah, who could be considered the magic himself. In the previous refining time, he knew that there was a titan like Chronos and a man who was considered one of the upper gods.In the first refining stage, he knew that he was fighting with Ariel in forming the magic ring of fire in the arena, and everything had to go well in this direction. After all, many, many people had stood by to help him in each refining process. This time he was the only one. The last thing he wanted was to be the only one, but he had to get it done, after all, he had already begun to form the magic ring and, to put it simply, to form the outline of the ring, or by the other name the circle, around his heart. The refining process had to begin. James tried to deeply feel the magic, the gathered mana, within his body and succeeded. After feeling the mana, he slowly began to place this mana inside the draft of the magic circle he had created. Since this circle was larger than the first four circles created, this mana placement would take longer than necessary. This was already the process called refining. James didn''t have to pay so much attention because he had powerful beings with him when he refined before. But now he had to make every move well. With each piece he added to the new magic ring, his body underwent a profound change. It would be fair to say that the ring was almost full as the mana slowly began to run out. After almost half an hour of in-depth processing, James found that the ring was full, the mana-created outline filled with mana once again. With that, the creation of the magic ring was complete. James suddenly opened his eyes and began to breathe deeply, he felt his heart suddenly start to burn and he grabbed his chest again. He was pushing and trying to stay awake as the pain he heard in a hoarse voice overpowered him. After a short time, he was able to understand what this pain was caused by. The magic ring seemed to be choosing an element for itself. "So that''s how the elements are refined beforehand." James thought, despite all the pain he felt. As the minutes chased each other, James managed to last twenty minutes without fainting with the pain he felt, and then he opened his eyes. Nemesis had sent a message [How are you? Did it go well? Did you make it?] When James saw this message, he smiled and silenced by showing a hand gesture in the air that would mean yes. James''s 5th magic circle or magic circle as wizards generally called it, had been successfully formed. He couldn''t wait to see what element his magic circle was filled with this time, and when he closed his eyes and entered a state of deep meditation, he saw the fifth circle around his heart and then stood in amazement. "Is that...colour maroon?" James'' gaze locked on the ring with these thoughts. The ring was of course larger than the other four rings, it had a crimson colour that shifted to brown, the colour maroon, but James could tell which element had been added to the ring without even having to focus on the power of the ring. He opened his eyes suddenly, scratched his head and then questioned, "Am I going to be a fucking vampire?" It was quite normal for anyone watching him not to realise what he was talking about, after all, none of them could see James'' rings. [What element is engraved?] When James saw this curious message from Zeus, he shook his head and then said, "Blood...The element that was added to my 5th Magic Ring is blood." When James uttered these words, everyone watching him stopped just like him, it would be normal to say that no one had a word to say. Everyone was looking at each other and thinking that maybe everyone had misunderstood what James had said. Nemesis had sent a message [Did you say blood?] and James, seeing this, had shaken his head and then mocked himself by saying, "I think I''ve taken my first step towards vampirism." There was only one main reason why everyone was surprised by this element. Vampires were one of the holiest races in the tower, and it would be fair to say that they were one of the most special. The first reason was that each and every vampire was incredibly beautiful, like the elves who were close to perfect beauty. The second reason was that even if their intelligence was average, it was incredibly difficult to kill a vampire of average age, after all, they were beings whose limbs could be regenerated as soon as they were severed. The last reason why they were special was the blood element. The blood element could only be used by vampires in the entire tower without any restrictions. This was also the reason why all vampires were magic users, from the weakest to the strongest could only use blood magic due to their magic and their nature. Rumour had it that even if their mana rings were not blood element, their bodies were filled with arcane magic-based runes, so they had something as valuable as having their circles refined with blood element. sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This meant that James could not use the blood elemental with complete freedom, without restriction. This was more than a little confusing. The vampires, who were very proud of themselves and incredibly egotistical, were already hostile to James because of what had happened in the arena, and they were not going to be happy that he had the blood element. James didn''t even know what to do, so he tried to come to himself without even being happy, knowing that the refined magic ring could not be changed. There was only one thing he knew: "Blood" would have to be split. Chapter 204: Mana Around the Heart (3) "Umm...that was unexpected," James said suddenly, thinking like those who were watching him.However, that was not what he should be thinking about right now, he still had to eat the heart of the ice dragon, which was still filled with poison. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out the ice dragon''s heart and then took a huge bite. The fact that he had gained the blood element made more sense than necessary. After all, James had eaten the heart of a dragon, and it was raw, and that alone raised the sacredness within him to a colossal level. After he had chewed and swallowed the dragon''s heart, it had settled back into his body and he realised that the mana that had remained in his body from the previous ring formation was beginning to coalesce. After a short time, he finished eating the dragon''s heart and then closed his eyes. He thought that the sixth magic ring would not form so easily, but he had more than enough mana. His body was overflowing with mana. It seemed that the ice dragon he had killed was a dragon that was almost out of its youth, almost returning to the cycle of maturity. This seemed to explain to James why he had such a huge amount of mana. James was really happy that he listened to Abby, with such a huge mana he would be able to create perhaps the sixth magic ring. Closing his eyes again and focusing to meditate, this time he was able to look closer to his heart. Indeed, as Abby had said, the element core was holding part of her aura as if it were another heart, wrapping around her heart. She had been so surprised only a few minutes ago that it had taken her an incredibly long time to realise it. With that, it was time to try to form the sixth magic ring. After gathering as much of his mana as he could, he began to spread it around his heart. He moved as fast as he could to create a draft again, and after almost fifteen minutes, he had created a draft of a ring almost twice as large as the one he had created only an hour ago. He supposed that he had developed a good habit of doing the same thing he had just done, which was a good thing. As James began to fill the draft of the sixth magic ring with mana, he felt his body begin to cool. First, he had been presented with heat, then stagnation, then death, then pain. This ring seemed to offer him cold. After only half an hour, he had managed to fill the sixth magic ring with mana, and with that, he understood why he felt cold. James''s sixth magic ring was none other than the element ice, which represented stagnant cold. When James carefully examined the ring around his heart, he could see that a deep coldness radiated from the sixth magic ring. The ring appeared to be refined to the purest white one anyone could see. The defeat of the ice dragon''s heart seemed to have predisposed James to the element of ice. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James, of course, was happy about this. He was both predisposed to the ice element, which many people wished to reach and connected with the blood element, which many people would kill thousands of people just to get an idea, even if they couldn''t get it. He had also managed to create the fifth and sixth magic rings, and his magical energy, his mana capacity, had become so great that he could use it continuously for half the day with the energy consumed by his Dark Step ability. James stood up after all this and then took a deep breath. He realised that the cold he had felt when he had created the sixth magic ring had disappeared, and on top of that he had become incredibly resistant to the cold outside. [It''s been a long time since I''ve seen someone create two magic rings in a row like a pervert, James. Zeus might have been the last one to do it, although that maniac did create 6 rings in a row, but you get the point.] James couldn''t help but be surprised when he read this message from Poseidon, even if Zeus was not the most powerful god, he was certainly the leader of Olympus, he was underestimating the old man. Stretching his body after reading the message, James slowly made his way towards the village, there was really nothing he could do right now since he could not go towards the mines and dig, the only thing he could do now was to go to the village, take a nice shower and rest for the day. After that he had things to do, he had already made plans. James returned to the village after a short time and was greeted by the surprised expressions of the villagers. James was covered in blood and the smell on him was beyond awful. The black liquid that overflowed from his body was nothing but the dirt on his body. The more mana used and aura used, the more dirty liquid accumulated in the body and this slowed down the energy collection. This meant that every time there was a big energy gain, dirty liquids would be released out of the body. After a short time, James passed through everyone and entered the bathroom in Narbeth''s house, after cleaning himself, he entered his room and lay down on the bed, then put his head on the pillow and immediately closed his eyes. He seemed impatient to sleep, and already after almost two minutes he had fallen asleep, you could see how sleepy he was. When he woke up after almost fifteen hours of sleep, he quickly found Ariel and the others. After rounding up the group, he indicated that they had something to talk about and that he wanted to tell them his plan. He had gathered the group incredibly quickly, everyone he wanted to talk to had gathered in front of him in almost half an hour. When the group sat down to listen to James, the young man began to speak, what he had to say would be revolutionary for them. Chapter 205: Planning "I have gathered you here because I have discovered something that can stop frost giants and other monsters from attacking the village, or rather, a theory I want to confirm."When James uttered these words, he piqued everyone''s curiosity. The eyes of the village''s three leaders seemed to sparkle. "According to what Narbeth said, before we came here, only frost giants were monsters that gave you trouble. When Ariel and I came here, many more frost giants were attacking the village, and on top of that, monsters of different races started to appear." Ariel seemed to know where the conversation was going from James'' words, she smiled and seemed to wonder how he hadn''t thought of it. "My theory is that we activated a dungeon when we arrived on this floor. You, who have encountered frost giants for years, suddenly encounter different monsters, this is against the laws of the tower, there cannot be anyone who would do such a thing except monsters with proper leaders which means there should be a person or a monster that is close to be a god." James said and continued to speak without stopping. "As for me, I need to find that dungeon and then destroy it by entering it. Dungeons are, of course, strange things. They can even form in safe zones, which can be considered protected after a certain period. That''s exactly what happens in the imperial and extra-imperial areas of the fifth floor, where some low-level climbers often strengthen their abilities." Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I want to aim to reduce the danger by destroying at least one dungeon." When James finished all his words, he started to wait for the answer from the others, but he could not find any answer. After a deep silence for half a minute, Ariel''s voice echoed in the room: "It''s fine, leave Miracle here just in case, take Sophia with you and go exploring. You can leave the protection of the village to me and my dear granddaughter Miracle." James nodded and prepared to speak when Ariel said these words and Narbeth''s voice was heard at that moment: "I don''t know exactly what will happen, and I''ve never heard of a dungeon in my life, but if this is what the young master wants to do, we have no reason to hold you back. As long as you are careful on this expedition, that is enough for us." After Narbeth''s words, it did not take long for everyone to approve James. With these looks, James realised that he had to get ready. Even though he had not expected the conversation to last so long, he still tried to leave the room to get ready and then he was stopped by those in the room. "What''s going on?" James asked, and Ariel said, "I understand that you want to clear the Dungeon, James, but what you need to do right now is rest. Sit down, eat, sleep for one more day, and then if you''re on your way, go." James didn''t know what to say, there was no stopping him if he wanted to get out of here right now, but he was well aware that those around him were saying such things out of concern for him. Even if he had slept for 60 days he had still managed to reach the elemental core upon awakening and create two magic rings on top of that, that was more than enough to make up for 60 days. That''s why James had decided to listen to the looks he was getting from all around him. Sitting where he was and looking around, James asked, "So, what are we doing?" and with that, Elanor entered the room. "Oh, Elanor, my dear wife! Just in time!" Narbeth said. James saw the food cart being pushed by Elanor and then said, "Indeed, it has been some time since I have eaten Lady Elanor''s cooking. Even when I woke up, I was eating from my inventory and getting on with things." After only two minutes, a table was set and more than ten plates of food were placed on the table. Champagne, wine and many other alcohols were on the table and it was obvious that a little fun was going to break out. Time flew by and James realised that he had woken up on his bed and saw the half-demon Dandelion lying on the floor, having fallen off the bed. He could see Narbeth and Luke passed out in the room, but Ariel, Elanor and Miracle were nowhere to be seen. Even Sophia was unconscious, sleeping on the dining table, her little face red with alcohol. James was sure that he hadn''t fainted from the alcohol, after all, he had a great deal of stamina, his body was used to such things, and on top of that, he was a Poison Master. A tiny amount of alcohol that could be considered poison couldn''t harm him. "I must be exhausted," James said and then grabbed Sophia who was sleeping on the dining table and put her into the jacket he was wearing. Then he left the room and left the house. The direction he was going was of course clear. Early in the morning, with his greetings to the people of the village, he left the village without stopping and started walking towards the forest area. When he reached the place where they had arrived when the Kat mission first started, James noticed an energy. A very weak energy was travelling under the snow that had fallen. Knowing that this branching energy would come to an end, or rather, knowing that this energy would move forward and return, James realised that he had to look around carefully. When he got down on his knees and tried to feel the energy moving under the snow, he saw that the branched energy he had realised was moving towards more than a hundred places, it was possible that more dungeons than he thought existed on this floor. Knowing this, James took the holy sword Clarent out of his inventory and took it in his right hand and wanted to be prepared to defend it in case of attack. It seemed that the dungeon search had already begun. Chapter 206: Kutlus Dungeon James realised that he had chosen one of the right branches when he chose to follow one of the many branches that ran underground.After almost an hour of walking, James came to the entrance of a cave. He could clearly recognise the dangerous pressure coming from inside the cave. A crimson aura seemed to be pouring out of the cave and whatever was inside seemed to be telling James that he had to leave. This aura made James'' body tremble from head to toe, his hands were shaking, and he was really frozen with fear despite all the skills he had, all the power he had. "Be careful James, what''s inside is dangerous, I don''t know what it is, but in your current state you could die instantly, be ready to use your Aura of Chaos ability." He hadn''t said a word as Vlad''s voice echoed in James'' mind, knowing that every single word his ancestor had said was literally true. He had slain Fallen Gods, slain dragons, and had become too close to perfection for the gods, but the pressure from this tiny cave almost reminded him of the first time he had seen Nyx. This pressure wasn''t as strong as the immense power and darkness surrounding Nyx, but at least this pressure was of that perfection. James took a deep breath and stepped into the cavern he had found by following the mana tendrils, just as a system notification appeared in front of him: [Kutlu''s Dungeon Welcome to the trial dungeon of the cosmic being named Kutlu. The three trials you will undergo in this dungeon will go down in history as layers that can determine your future. Kulu, who had been waiting in their absence for a long time, created this dungeon and started to wait for the arrival of his heir, whom he hoped to come in the future. His millions of years of waiting is now over. Dungeon Difficulty: Creator-Grade Dungeon Prize: Blessed''s Art of Death Punishment for Failure: DEATH] When James read the notification in front of him, he felt his heart fall into darkness. Even the difficulty of the dungeon he had entered told him clearly about the shitty situation he was in. "Creator-Grade." James blurted out, and as he tried to regain his composure, he was met with another notification window: [Viewer viewing is blocked until the end of the dungeon]. The moment James saw and read this notification, he realised that he was on his own. He had only his aunt and two ancestors for psychological or tactical help. [Dungeon will be sealed until the user dies or clears the dungeon]. When another system notification appeared in front of James, the idea that there would be no way out of there was ingrained in his mind, despite all the pressure on him, he had to move forward and conquer this dungeon. Even though the trembling had passed, he still hadn''t regained his composure, and with slow steps, he made his way through the cave. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The cave, which seemed to have been formed by normal natural paths, suddenly began to be surrounded by flat, beautifully architected walls and passages began to be revealed. James honestly didn''t know what was going on. He saw three paths, and at first, he thought that this must be connected with the three exams he was going to take, so he started looking for a token to indicate this. However, there was nothing to indicate what was what. Sitting in the centre of the space, James looked at the three huge passageways in front of him and tried to think about what was behind their closed doors. He didn''t want to bring death to himself by picking the wrong door and opening it. The strange thing was that none of the gateways in front of him had any trace of mana. He realised this from the complete destruction of his previous mana veins. Even though that strange power continued to suppress James, he still felt no trace of magic or aura coming towards him. It was as if these three passages and the three doors of the passages were sealed and waiting for the person who would open them. Taking a deep breath, James thought that there was nothing he could do now, he tried to choose with simple psychology. He thought that perhaps the leftmost option would be an easy gateway, whatever was inside should be far less harmful than James had expected. After all, that''s how it would be in most games. From left to right the difficulty levels increased, as did the difficulty of the choices. Upon entering the tower, James wanted to choose as if he were playing a game for the first time. After all, there was NO other solution or choice. After a glance at his inventory, he took Selene''s Throwing Knife in his left hand and tightened his grip on the holy sword Clarent in his right. He had cleared his mind to use Aura of Chaos, if necessary, he would use 8 Sacred Fire and try to survive no matter how exhausting the flames made him. He had dozens of moves at his disposal though. Time element, poison element, blood element, and ice element were the basic powers he could use. In addition, he had the abilities given to him by the two classes he had and the passive abilities in his items, not to forget the passive bleeding chance in Galahad''s Swordsmanship ability. He knew that if that ability worked, he could kill almost anything below the Fallen God class if James survived till the enemy falls. James slightly regretted not taking his daughter Miracle with him. After all, the help of a Supreme Dragon was something that could be incredibly helpful, even if it was a newborn baby. Still, there was nothing James could do now, he had prepared everything and made up his mind to open the door. In just a few seconds he had pushed the huge door in front of him, perhaps ten metres long, and with the door opening in the middle, the power rising out from within began to walk towards him. The danger was just beginning. Chapter 207: Dungeon Types James had no idea what was waiting for him inside. He only had a vision of body parts being torn off as he opened the door.It was as if his Vision ability, an ability of the Time Wraith class, had worked passively. However, this was not possible, or so James thought, because the Vision ability was active, an ability that James could use with a large mana expenditure. Preparing to take a few steps back in fear, James didn''t stop until it suddenly echoed in his mind: "Calm down, we both know you can do this James, you can be like the people in the stories my father told me and outrun them, you''re not going to escape from here anyway, you need to step forward not backwards." As Abby''s voice echoed in James'' mind, he started to walk forward with the courage that had suddenly come over him. Of course, he was afraid, but as the old saying goes, "Fear is useless when death is near, all you can do is keep mowing in the face of the beauty of it." As soon as James put his dark step ability into use, he hid behind one of the columns he saw ahead, perhaps three or four metres thick. The fact that there was no sound coming from the surroundings worried him, maybe he was facing an assassin-type monster, maybe a monster of the holy demon race was waiting for him secretly somewhere, or a monster of the killer angel race was waiting for him just a few steps ahead in a sealed manner. Hundreds of thousands of possibilities from hundreds of thousands of races were laid out in front of James, in short, one wrong move and death would be waiting for him. As he peered into the darkness from behind the pillar, he activated his night vision and then began to examine the entire dark region, and what he saw in front of him showed how wrong he was. "What the fuck?" Abby, Vlad, and Emily both agreed with him when James was surprised by the profanity, if Nyx and the others had been watching what was happening, they would have reacted the same way. Another weird thing happened to exist in front of the Black bloodline. "Mimics?" Abby questioned, she really could have expected to encounter anything but a mimic...no, four mimics had never crossed her mind. When James emerged from the pillar he had been hiding behind he was able to get a good look at the four mimics in front of him. None of them were moving, they didn''t really seem to be doing anything, and they didn''t seem to be any different from the mimics seen in the games. Yet, despite all this, James did not expect to encounter these monsters. As he was watching them from a distance, he suddenly noticed that one of them had started to move its mouth, as if it was getting impatient. James realised this and gripped his weapons tighter, he had to be prepared for any eventuality. After all, when he had spoken to Theseus, he had listened to his adventures. The dungeon Theseus had encountered the minotaur in was a legendary-grade dungeon, but the dungeon James was currently in was a creator-grade dungeon. It could definitely be called one of a kind because it had never been seen like this in the history of the tower. This meant that the mimics James was facing now were perhaps the holiest mimics in existence. This meant that these monsters had enormous powers. There were two ways to clean a dungeon. Either you destroyed all the monsters in it from top to bottom, or you found the core of the dungeon and destroyed it while escaping from the monsters in the dungeons. There were different types of dungeons, though. The first type was a dungeon called [Destruction Type]. This type of dungeon was a dungeon in which everything inside would be completely complicated and would be hell for the user or player inside. Even an ordinary goblin inside could be hundreds of levels and have unique-grade abilities. Indeed, as the name suggests, destruction awaited them. The second type was the dungeons called [World Type]. These dungeons were dungeons that contained a huge world inside. In the more than two billion years of the tower, these dungeons had only been encountered four times, and three of these dungeons had been cleared by the unity of Olympus and Asgard. Not only that, but Sun Wukong and seven of the Titans had to participate in this dungeon expedition. It was literally necessary to explore a world and clear all the monsters in it, or the dungeon core had to be found. The third and final type was the dungeon type called [Room Type]. This dungeon type basically had a certain number of connected rooms. Perhaps it was not the most dangerous dungeon type, but it could be considered the most absurd dungeon type. In the rooms of room-type dungeons, you would fight random monsters. You could encounter an ancient dragon in the first room you entered, or if you lived to tell about it, you could leave the dungeon after a one-second battle against a saw-mouthed rat in the boss monster room. Room-type dungeons could be the only dungeons that allowed direct exit with the death of the boss monster. These three types had different danger levels and general clearing tactics. Of course, dungeons could be abandoned thanks to the very, very rare exit stone, but the rarity of these stones was as difficult as acquiring a legendary-grade item. Abby had told James all this, of course, which was why James had tried to find the mana trails before choosing one of the rooms. In a Creator-grade dungeon, if he could find a mana trail, he could measure the power levels of the rooms, sense all the monsters and go directly to kill the boss monster. This was, of course, quite difficult, but James had to do it anyway. He was going to fight exactly four mimics. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 208: Against the Mimic Chests (1) He knew it would make 100% more sense to use magic-orientated attacks instead of using his aura. He had read in the monster catalogue in the imperial library that most monsters were innately resistant to magic, but mimics were not. On the contrary, mimics had enormous advantages over aura-type warriors because aura fuelled these monsters. Mimics made themselves more protected after every piece of aura they swallowed. James knew this very well and that was why he had chosen to attack only with magic, or rather, he would try to accomplish something using the rune spells he had developed himself a little. He had a feeling that the four beings standing in front of him were very powerful, but he still wanted to use this event to improve himself. When he saw that the Mimics were not moving so much, he replaced the magic power he had collected on his finger with arcana power, or rather combined it, and then began to write a few rune letters on the ground. With each rune letter he wrote, the mimics began to fidget, these four beings in front of James seemed to be sensitised to the sense of danger he gave them. When he had finished drawing the runes, he had drawn exactly seven of them on the ground. Immediately after this, the arcana energy was removed from his fingers and distributed throughout his body, and with that, the runes behind him began to glow one by one. With this, James realised that his body was lighter, more magically sensitive and more energy sensitive. He was using the high effect, or [buff], side of the rune art. This rune art was usually seen in mages with healing abilities. Healing mages, who had perhaps the easiest and most dangerous grasp of arcana art, could buff themselves or their teammates with these runes, making boss monster raids much easier to win. Of course, these mages were not rare, but they were rare enough to be considered rare. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When James realised that his power had increased as much as possible, he prepared to use poison elemental-based attacks. However, now the mimics were starting to move as if they were tired of waiting for him to approach. A few tongues poked out of the huge chests and disgusting deep sounds began to emanate outwards. "SKRIEEHHHKGHH!!!" "QUALCHHH!!!" "UGAUGGHLL!!!" "HILLLSCHHKK!!!" James was slightly disgusted as four separate voices rose from the chests, indeed the ear-splitting sounds were more distracting than necessary, but James knew how to defeat the monsters in front of him. Suddenly he released the poison element outwards from his body. After only a few minutes, the entire room was filled with poison fumes a metre above the floor, a little more than half the height of James. The room was so large that it could have been called a parlour, and James had managed to fill the huge room with a cloud of poison with the poison released from the elemental nucleus in his body. After only fifteen or twenty seconds, the mimics'' movements became strange and then one of the mimics flicked its tongue towards James. James used his dark step ability at that moment and quickly dodged the attack coming towards him. The mimic''s tongue struck the floor of the room as James dodged it and the poison fumes were pushed back almost six metres, leaving behind an image of the floor of the room collapsing almost two metres downwards. "The heck?" said James, he really understood the situation he was in, these bastards seemed to have the same level of attack power as the Goblin King. He shouldn''t have taken even one of the attacks, otherwise it would have been too severe a punishment. The poison element seemed to work on the mimics themselves, but the power itself would not be enough. James suddenly activated 8 Sacred Fire and with that, the colourful serpent formed again in his right arm. James seemed to be glad that he would not have to constantly wait for the flames to merge to form the coloured fire itself, knowing full well that he could expend less energy and perform a greater function. The fact that he was able to easily dodge the Mimic''s attack meant that these monsters were much, much slower than he was. This meant that James'' attack would have been much easier to deal with. When the colourful snake wrapped around his right arm burst into flames, it was time for James to attack. Suddenly he threw his arm forward and then a cloud of flame, almost fifteen metres wide, shot towards the mimics. Each pulse of flame struck the mimics and the sounds of them writhing in pain echoed around the room. James thought he had successfully wounded the mimics and perhaps brought them close to death, but at that very moment, four attacks came at him from within the fire cloud. James was stunned by the speed of the attacks, thinking that he would not be able to dodge them this way, so he was forced to apply the time element. Suddenly, he used his dark step ability again to dodge the attacks, and then instead of moving further away from the mimics, he lunged towards them. The flames on his arm grew larger, and as the colour of the coloured flames turned a dark green, James attacked, using the poison''s flame. A spiralling attack tore through the flaming area, and then a system notification appeared in front of James: [Legendary-Grade achievement earned! Kill an ancestor-level Mimic Chest for the first time. You get a chance to choose a card]. Even if James couldn''t see through the cloud of flames he had pierced, he realised at that very moment that he had managed to kill at least one mimic. It was clear that the poison had weakened them enough to destroy them, the pure and holy fires had made them deadly, and the flame of the poison had killed someone. He could get out of here safely. Chapter 209: Against the Mimic Chests (2) James now fully realised that he had to attack. When he pulled out the Clarent, the holy sword that had been back in his inventory, and gripped it tightly, it was covered from head to toe with his magic. With that, the spell suddenly began to burn with the help of the 8 Sacred Fires wrapped around his arm, and the sword began to burn with one of the two flames of hell, which James knew to be the hottest: "Azure flame," James thought. Each coloured flame had a different purpose and the two flames, blue and black, represented two different fires of hell. Blue might be weaker than black, but it was a hundred times better at transmitting magic, which was why James had deliberately chosen to use it instead of black, the most dangerous flame in creation. With the holy sword covered in azure flames, James activated his dark stepping ability and suddenly lunged forward, passing through a cloud of poison that began to dissipate through the flaming wall and upwards across the room. With only a few moves, James dodged the tongue attacks coming at him and soon found himself in front of a mimic chest. "Pierce." he said, and then stabbed the sword towards the mimic. "KHRUAGHHHHH!!!" When an ear piercing scream reached James, he couldn''t hold himself back and then stumbled. The Mimic crate had literally been pierced through, a lush green blood flowing to the floor. At that very moment, as James stumbled because of the scream he heard, he saw something coming towards him quickly. Only when he turned his head to the right did he think to use his time elemental, but it was too late. "CRUSH!!!" Another mimic''s tongue slammed into him with incredible weight and speed. James flew almost fifty metres with the impact of this attack and crashed into one of the pillars near the corners of the room. When James was forced to his feet, blood was pouring from his head and his shoulder looked dislocated. He tensed as he realised that the mimics before him were as dangerous as the Fallen Gods he was fighting. It had only taken a single carelessness to do him so much damage. Luckily he had flown into one of the pillars, still dealing with the poisoning and constantly being distracted by the monsters looking for James, which allowed James to hide behind the pillar he had crashed into. After hiding behind the pillar, he thought he should put his dislocated left shoulder back in place, so that he could use his auto-heal ability to come round. Once he had got a good grip on his arm, lifted it upwards and put the shoulder back in place, he was met with a pain as if he had been stabbed in the stomach. He didn''t scream because he was immune to pain, but a storm raged in his heart. He was breathing deeply, the haemorrhage in his head healed immediately thanks to his automatic healing ability. When he realised that he had come to himself, he wanted to peek behind the pillar and saw that the mimic he had attacked had fallen to the ground and died. After stretching his body, he smiled and realised that he only had to perform the same attack twice more. While he was thinking about this, a system notification popped up in front of him: [Mimics go Berserk! Attack and personal speed increased by 100%]. James shook his head as he read this notification and frankly got a little flustered, just when he thought everything was going well, of course something had gone wrong. Inhaling deeply and exhaling, he took Selene''s Throwing Knife out of his inventory again and took it in his left hand, and then drowned it in azure flames and pulled it out from behind the pillar and flung it as hard as he could towards one of the mimic chests. "SHWIIPP!!!" James realised that the mimic chest had started screaming as a sound piercing the air rang in his ears: "HUAGHUUU HEULPP MEEE!!!" James couldn''t stop his body from freezing after this scream, this monster in front of him spoke like a human and started to turn left and right. "These monsters aren''t human James, they''re mimics, it''s normal for them to mimic human voices." Abby said. With this voice echoing in James''s mind, he managed to come to himself and then managed to calm down and rushed forward. The Mimics may have accelerated and become insanely powerful, but the biggest thing James was confident in was speed itself. He had methods to speed himself up, as well as enough status point boosts to massively negate his level. Each level increase gave users and players 5 distributable status points, except for the first five levels, which were randomly distributed. With the six levels James had gained after the attack on the village, he was now level 65, which should have given him 325 status points, counting his first five levels in their entirety. Not counting the ''Luck'' stat and the ''Magic'' stat, James had a total of 1532 status points. This was an ASTRONOMIC number for a 65 level climber. In this case, James, who had 271 Agility points, was already in the top five of the fastest people below the first thirty floors. James was very hopeful because of this. When he used the Dark Step ability and gained the 20% speed effect, 54 status points were temporarily added to his speed. This was the minimum speed he could reach when Aura of Chaos, Heaven''s Call, or Transition abilities were not activated. "Come on, you bastards." James said with the sudden courage he had gained, and then lunged forward, activating his dark step ability once more. Now he could destroy the last remaining duo. This time he planned to use neither azure flame nor black flame. He had to make an attack that would aim to slow down, perhaps even stop completely, these monsters, which were now faster and stronger. In this case, of course, this attack would be to use the snow-white flame, which was seen as ice flame. If the jet-black flame represented the inextinguishable fire of hell, the snow-white flame represented the sacred and frozen fire of heaven. There was no need to explain which of these two flames was more powerful, but the white flame would at least be able to kill some monsters directly, while the white flame could be useful in stopping others. As he lunged forward, a white and glorious flame covered the holy sword Clarent, and with it James swung the sword in a way that cut the air. Standing in front of a huge cloud of flames and swinging left and right, the mimic began to move towards his chest, and after a short time, even the poison cloud itself in the room began to turn white. The room literally began to freeze. At that very moment James used his time element and crouched down. When a second had passed, an even faster tongue attack came at James, but he instinctively dodged it. It was as if he had instinctively used the element of time, he hadn''t had it in his mind, he couldn''t see anything because of the cloud of white flame, and he had suddenly dodged. After he stood up, he started running towards the mimic chest that had attacked him and passed through the cloud of flame he had created again, this time activating his Transition ability. He could not jeopardise any chance and prolong this battle. Yes, he had enough mana and he had enough strength and endurance, but James decided that this war had to end immediately because he did not know whether the mimic chests would get stronger again. After using his Transition ability, he realised that everything was incredibly slow. He noticed the white and blue coloured flames that he had literally spread around, the frozen ground and the cloud of poison that had begun to freeze. Everything had really slowed down. It was obvious that everything was moving, but James was too fast, what was happening now was no different from what had happened when the time element was used. With the speed he had gained, James went behind the mimic chest in front of him and then said "Pierce." and stabbed his sword covered with white flames towards the monster. In just a few seconds, the only monster left in the room was the mimic chest, which was spinning left and right and now frozen with pure white ice. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When James held the holy sword Clarent properly, he said, "It''s finally over." and then made a move on the mimic chest and killed it too. It was quite a challenge, and it became clear how powerful only four of the mimic chests could be, but in the end it could be said that it was over. The first room of the Blessed''s Dungeon was cleared. Chapter 210: The One Who Betrayed James scratched his head as he fell to the ground exhausted, his clothes were soaked in blood, he had taken off every one of them and put on other clothes that he had taken out of his inventory. He was breathing heavily, his body was exhausted, he had suffered a serious blow, and even if he had already recovered, the shock of the pain was still there. [The first test of Kutlu has been passed with flying colours! The items dropped from the Mimic Chests were calculated as "Mysterious Jewellery Box(Godly)x4, Moonstone(Godly)x4, Spirit Essence(Godly)x4" respectively]. James smiled as he read the system notification that appeared in front of him and realised that he was already reaping the rewards of all his hard work, which was very good news. With that, he took out a few rice balls and a bottle of water from his inventory, consumed them and then left the first room behind. It was a room-type dungeon, and the fact that the dungeon was not cleared meant that James had two more chances. Either he would reach the boss monster''s room or he would have to clear another room. "Pick one without thinking James, thinking won''t change anything anyway, you have a 50 per cent chance." With Emily''s gentle voice echoing in his mind James thought he had heard right, after only a few seconds of waiting he made his way to the large doors in the centre, pushed them open and stepped inside. What he saw in front of him was a more expected presence. "Huh...a vampire," James suddenly said. In the centre of the poorly lit room, a personality with jet-black hair and crimson eyes was waiting in a very dignified manner. When James looked at this man, he saw that he was shining and watched his eyes as if he was dazzled. The vampire himself glowed with a golden colour, just like when he was choosing cards or seeing the paths on the first floor. "His body is Legendary-Grade? What the hell?" James said to himself, and with that, the vampire''s voice was heard: "Almost 13 million years...That''s how long it''s been. Almost 13 million years since I was locked up here by him...almost 13 million years since I was placed under the Kutlu''s care..." With these words of the vampire, it was clearly stated that a person who knew Kutlu himself was involved in this business. "I am weakened...The fact that I have never drunk blood and never tasted the sun has weakened me. I am a Sun Vampire, divinity itself, I belong to the highest race of vampires, but he destroyed everything..." The vampire suddenly shouted and James covered his ears at the enormous volume. The decibel level was so high that James had to deal with the severe pain in his head. "You. Introduce yourself to me. Let me know who I will face in the battle of life and death." the vampire added to his own words, and James, hearing this, pulled himself together and spoke: "Nice to meet you, my name is James. James Arthur Black." Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When James uttered these words and stated his name, the surprise on the vampire''s face was obvious, he seemed to be touched. "Same last name...I don''t even know when the last time I fought him was, when was the last time I hugged him, when was the last time I heard him call me friend." the vampire blurted out and with that, it didn''t take James long to realise something. He knew that no one was watching him, and he knew that everything could be understood clearly and neatly, so he found it necessary to ask the vampire, even if he was afraid: "I seem to know who you''re talking about, master vampire." At James'' words, the vampire shook his head and nodded as if he understood what he was trying to say. "I don''t hate anymore, I gave that up 13 million years ago, it''s been too long. He was going to die and I wanted to end our war before he died, I was defeated and locked in here, after 13 million years of course the only thing left in me was the desire to fight him even more. I shouldn''t have betrayed him." the vampire said and with that, a great confusion fell on James. As James knew, or rather as he thought, the Church of Night and the Sun Empire had been founded a little over two million years ago. How long ago could his ancestors have started fighting? How had a man lived so long without being immortal? "I see the questions in your mind, after all, I am a god, one who has begun to fall, one who is not dead but who has rejected himself, who knows how much he has done wrong. You''re Desmond''s descendant, aren''t you? I can see it, I realised it when I first felt your energy when you entered the dungeon. Not just you, there are four of you, three spirits and one flesh. I want to see all of you come out." the vampire said and with that James released the three souls stored in his ring. Vlad, Abby and Emily looked at the vampire with great interest. "Ah...you two must be the first bloodline, your energy is both very weak and very strong, you died as humans, unlike your father." James and the others were surprised when the vampire uttered these words. This vampire standing in front of them officially knew Desmond personally, he was able to recognise his children at a glance, and on top of that, he was saying words that rejected Desmond''s race. "Who...who are you, master vampire?" James suddenly asked, genuinely confused. The vampire shook his head as he heard these words and sadness showed on his face. "I''m probably the last Sun Vampire left. My betrayal of Desmond must have been the end of them all. I was supposed to fight alongside Nyx, Erebus, Hyperion, Desmond, and the others." As the vampire began to speak, more confusion crept over James and the other three. "I was one of Desmond''s two best friends, Vlad or Vladimir by the full name. I am worshipped by every vampire in existence. Because of my arrogance and jealousy, I betrayed, challenged, and imprisoned my best friend. I am the greatest cause of Juliet''s death and the betrayal of the White Witches." The vampire, who introduced himself as Vladimir, opened his hands and then added with a sad expression on his face, "I am Vlad himself, the fool who has lowered himself to be hated by his best friend, I am the greatest traitor." and then he looked at James'' face and closed his jaw. After these words, James opened his inventory, albeit with fear, and then slowly took out his holy sword Clarent. The holy sword Clarent, which slowly left the inventory, emitted the sound of ''Schiiing.'' as if a sword was being officially unsheathed. "Then it''s obvious what we should do. This is not the place to die. I have things to do, things to take care of, and loved ones waiting for me." James suddenly said and took the attack position and held the holy sword Clarent with both hands, perhaps for the first time. He was facing a living god, albeit in a weakened state. The vampire, who introduced himself as Vladimir, shook his head when he heard these words, and then, when his hands slowly turned into claws, he uttered these words: "My body is at its strongest from drinking the blood of the gods. Stronger than gold, it has become a beauty worthy of Adamant. My blood has become as precious as that of Nyx, daughter of Chaos. And I have failed to honour these things and succumbed to my arrogance. Oh, young man! I hope you are strong enough to kill me here today, I hope you can end my suffering. My name is simply Vladimir, the betrayer." James swallowed when he heard those words, Abby''s voice echoing in his mind: "I can see where my brother Vlad got his name from, just like my eldest sister Juliet..." With his new knowledge, it was easy for James to realise how kind-hearted his ancestor Desmond was. Even though he had been betrayed, Desmond had named his son after his former best friend Vladimir. Desmond was a very, very different person from what he had thought. James swallowed hard as he realised that Vladimir was ready to attack, he knew instantly that he had to strike first, he didn''t want to be killed by just one blow. Suddenly he lunged forward and then attempted to use his transition ability to attack. Vladimir seemed surprised by James'' sudden disappearance, it would have been quite normal for him to remark that the power he was sensing from him was not that great. When James suddenly appeared in front of Vladimir, his sword was covered in black flames, the vampire''s weakness to fire was already a plus for him, and it would make much more sense for him to use the unquenchable flames on top of that. When Vladimir realised the danger from these flames, he suddenly jumped backwards and dodged the attack instantly. He of course was faster. Chapter 211: The One Who Knows "You have a powerful flame, young man, and I must say it is admirable, so powerful that I instinctively want to avoid your attack." The smile on Vladimir''s face at these words made it seem he appreciated James. "I still couldn''t keep up with you, Master Vladimir," James said. Vladimir''s eyes filled with curiosity when he said these words. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I wonder how much potential someone has to obtain one of the flames of hell," Vladimir thought, and indeed the curiosity in his eyes was enormous. Where that curiosity would lead was another matter. When James realised that his attack had been in vain, he suddenly chose to turn his attention to attacks from a distance, or perhaps attacks that could slow Vladimir down. As the flame on his sword turned white, he swung his sword from a distance and a cloud of white flame shot towards the vampire. Vladimir dodged the attack, the white flame perhaps not hitting him, but strangely he could feel his body burning from the inside. Suddenly, however, something happened that James had not expected. A huge energy surged from Vladimir''s body. "A vampire...using aura?" James questioned himself. Hearing these words, Vladimir smiled and said, "Didn''t anyone tell you? I am a Sun Vampire. I use the sun''s aura, boil my blood, and spread it. I thought you would have heard about it from his children." James shook his head as he heard those words and realised that the vampire in front of him had no animosity towards him, which made it all the more strange, he was a vampire...and one who had betrayed Desmond. It didn''t make sense that after only a few million years, his hatred for the person who had put him here and his bloodline would have subsided. Yet James knew very clearly that if he wanted to leave this room, if he wanted to leave this dungeon, Vladimir the Sun Vampire had to die. It was with these thoughts in mind that James noticed that Vladimir''s speed had strangely dropped a little, perhaps because he had been trapped here for so long that he had weakened. James suddenly took a few steps back as he realised this, and with that, he began to swirl his mana and aura around his body. Suddenly, he threw Selene''s Throwing Knife, which he had taken out of his inventory, towards Vladimir, while continuing to rotate the mana and aura in his body. Vladimir caught the incoming blade in mid-air with his aura, and with that, his attention turned back to James in front of him. "What are you trying to do?" Vladimir suddenly asked, the curiosity and surprise in his gaze strangely intriguing. James said nothing, he had already accomplished what he wanted to do, and he had become much better at spinning his aura and mana around his body. Suddenly the holy sword stabbed Clarent forwards and then released all the energy that had been gathered. Vladimir was taken aback by the energy that was coming towards him. He was too slowed down to avoid the attack. This colourful beam that was coming at him was really fast enough to hit him. So he opened his palm to meet the attack and prepared to gather all his aura in his arm and disperse it out of his body. "BOOM!!!!" The sound of an explosion came as James'' attack collided with Vladimir''s, and a huge cloud of dust rose in this flaming room. "Cough!!!" "COUGH!!!" James coughed repeatedly at the huge cloud of dust rising and then took a few steps backwards, returning to his fighting stance to be in a state of readiness. "So that was you..." James was suddenly startled by the sound coming from within the dust cloud and then watched as the dust cloud dissipated as if it had never existed. There was a small puddle of blood on the floor, James had somehow managed to make Vladimir''s palm bleed a little. "I don''t understand what you''re trying to say," James suddenly said, thinking that he needed to buy time for his Transition ability, and he believed that he should wait, ready to use his Aura of Chaos ability just in case. "Desmond...even before the war with the gods, when we were conquering little by little floors and killing some gods and goddesses, he used to say it all the time. How powerful Aura and Magic could be together. He was constantly practising the offensive arts. He even created a claw art for me and a staff art for Juliet." As Vladimir said these words, he suddenly lunged towards James. James tried to avoid it by using the element of time, but there was no way he could. Once he opened and closed his eyes, he realised that he had already hit one of the walls of the room and had fallen to the floor. There was no sound, James hadn''t even realised he''d been hit, it was incredibly absurd to think that the man in front of him was the one who had just failed to recover from the attack. "COUGHSK!!!" James had barely lifted his head and tried to look at Vladimir when he coughed up a handful of blood on the floor. Vladimir had a strange smile on his face as if to show that he could kill James at any moment and that he was no better than an ant. "You''re still too weak...you''re becoming the person Desmond wants to create, even if you''re doing it little by little, even if your destiny is changing, that''s the certain outcome." "I...have---no idea.....what you are...saying..." James uttered these words, albeit rather forcefully, and with it Vladimir''s voice was heard once more: "A strong reality, a reality that everyone hopes can be sustained and in which humans and all races can finally live together. That was Desmond''s dream. He realised part of it, but he was human, and even if the long life had somehow reached him, it would have been his undoing when he realised he was no longer human. And then you would be the next to come, whenever that might be. I know what Desmond wanted to do, I know it all." These words made everything more complicated. Chapter 212: The One Who Unlocks "I---will murder you!" James uttered these four words and looked at Vladimir with wild and angry eyes as he gently insulted him and his kin. Indeed, he was strangely torn between sadness and anger. "Oh young man, you cannot kill me. I may be weakened, but I am like Zeus, like Nyx or Odin, like Gaia and Sun-Wukong, I have made it to the 150th floor. How can you kill me when you don''t even have 1% of the strength of the person who imprisoned me here?" Vladimir replied and with that, he looked deeply at James. James somehow managed to get to his feet. His holy sword had not left Clarent even after the blow he had received. "Even if I die, I will somehow come back and kill you, if I have to beg the tower to kill a traitor," James muttered, and with that Vladimir''s interest was piqued. "Tell me, what is your dream?" Vladimir suddenly asked. James rolled his head at the strange question and then asked, "What?" "Desmond, me and Juliet. The three of us had a dream that this tower would become more useful and sufficient so that all races could live together: Vampires, White Witches, who could be considered human, and normal humans. I don''t know if this dream was fulfilled, after all, I can''t see outside, but we did our best for this dream. Even if my betrayal turned everything upside down, it was always our first goal before my betrayal. What about your dream? What do you want? The Tower has always been about [wants and desires]. What do you want?" Vladimir waited where he was after saying one thing after another. The surrounding flames were more than enough to give this vampire a good atmosphere. This was how James realised after a long time that he was indeed looking at an incredibly beautiful being. Still, he knew he shouldn''t be confused by these things. When he lost the strength in his leg and fell to the ground, he looked at Vladimir and then said, "I have two dreams." "Hmm?" James spoke up as Vladimir''s curiosity was further piqued: "My first dream is to reach the end of this tower, to literally tear through the tower and reach Chaos himself," James said, and the gleam in Vladimir''s eye was clear to see. "The second is to bear the sorrow of all those oppressed after the war, to be the father of children who have been alone all these years, kidnapped and perhaps killed, in short, to create a tower where no child will cry," James added, and with that, he fell silent, took out a health potion from his inventory and drank it. After drinking the health potion, James took a deep breath and then looked up into Vladimir''s face as he was recovering. James once again witnessed the expression on the Sun Vampire''s face. Vladimir was smiling again, but this time it was not a smile of contempt, but a smile of appreciation. Vladimir''s smile made James feel as if he was looking at Nyx, as if he was offering a fatherly...or unclely, as another way of putting it. "That''s...That is something I can accept." Vladimir said, and suddenly the nails on his right hand changed and became a claw. As each part of its claw was coated in an aura of immense power, it sliced thinly through the palm of his left hand and then grabbed James''s jaw quickly, forcing it open. Drops of blood trickled down James'' throat as he struggled to free himself from the hand holding him. The holy sword swung at Clarent repeatedly with all its might, but each strike literally bounced off Vladimir''s skin. After a while, Vladimir let go of James'' jaw, and then the following voice came out of James on the ground: "Uagh....What did you do to me?!" As James uttered these words, Vladimir''s voice was heard: "I made you drink my blood, the blood of a Sun Vampire, you are very lucky, even Desmond would beg me for my blood. I gave him some when he put me here for him to forgive me. Didn''t happen, yet at least that is how I could forget everything." When James heard these words, he suddenly looked up and stared at Vladimir in horror. "Desmond...the reason he was able to achieve a long life..." "Yes. I gave Desmond my blood, the blood of a god. I don''t know when he died, but my blood was the biggest factor in his survival up until then, but I didn''t even make him drink his holy blood. Like I said, you''re lucky." S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James''s confusion grew with each word he heard as his bewilderment grew. "So, you''re going to turn me into a vampire?" James asked. "No, but yes. You are going to have a little part of a Sun Vampire which will make you correct your body shape and you will be able to collect mana and aura faster. Which will make you an even stronger god when you ascend to the 76th floor." After Vladimir''s words, James shook his head and said, "But I want to remain a human..." "Your goal is to become a god, am I right?" Vladimir asked. "Yes." "Humans cannot become gods when they want to remain human. When they give up their humanity, then the path to godhood opens for them. This is a feature of human creation. Remember Chaos created many things, but his masterpieces are the Supreme Dragons, the first three admins of the tower and the human race itself." Vladimir said and with that, he smiled and patted James on the head. While James was trying to understand what was going on, Vladimir''s voice was heard once again: "I felt your energy when you entered the dungeon, I may have betrayed Desmond, but as I said...I had my reasons. It was never my intention to kill you, think of it as a test, like a test the Blessed will give you. I betrayed my friend, it is my duty to help his descendants. Who knows, maybe I was destined to meet you. I would kill you if you were not worthy but since you are perhaps it was my destiny." These words were more than shocking to James, he really couldn''t believe his ears... Chapter 213: The One Who Is Forgiven "I don''t understand. Just more power made you betray him? You say you made it to the 150th floor. What kind of power could you have been looking for?" James asked, and with that Vladimir''s smiling face filled with sadness. "I''m not a good man young man but it wasn''t just power, I was a father too, I would have done anything to save my daughter, I would have betrayed even my closest friends for her if she was being held in an undisclosed location and as you know I did betray him." By the time Vladimir''s words reached James'' ears, James was on his feet. "First I learnt of Desmond''s existence, then I learnt that Juliet died before the war even started when betrayals happened, and now I know where the person who caused Juliet''s death was. You betrayed her and Desmond...And what should I say? Why does the past continue to have more and more tree branches every time I meet someone?" James said, and with these words, Vladimir''s expression changed once again. "I can see everything in your eyes, young man. You are kind but cruel and you care about your family just as I do. However, I hope that if such a situation arises, that is, if you are in my situation, you will not make the same mistake." Vladimir said. With these words, Vladimir''s hands turned into claws again, James thought that the test was over and so he dropped his guard, just as he was about to take a defensive position, something he never expected to happen. "COUGHSHK!!!" Vladimir suddenly opened a huge gash in his stomach with his claw and fell on his back. James ran to Vladimir, not realising what had happened, and then shouted: "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU''RE DOING, YOU IDIOT!!!" This was the first time James had ever insulted one of the people his bloodline considered ''family''. He was so shocked, so disbelieving, that these words managed to come out of his mouth. "Kehkehkeh...So you can get mad," said Vladimir, speaking normally for his ripped-open stomach. "Why? How could you do such a thing???" questioned James and then his attention was diverted to his surroundings. "DAMN IT!!! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THIS?!" he suddenly shouted, so distracted by the conversation, the things he had heard, that he completely forgot he was in a dungeon. "Yes...You won''t be able to get out of this dungeon unless I die, so I should kill myself while you can''t hurt me, and even if you won''t get experience points, at least the dungeon will give you an item." Vladimir said, that even if he was breathing deeply, there was no limit to the joy in his eyes. It was as if he was pinning his hopes on James. James was just about to cry when he was suddenly distracted from his sadness by the glint of the family heirloom ring on his finger. "What''s going on?" Vladimir asked. When he uttered that question, his whole body began to crumble into dust. While both James and Vladimir were trying to figure out what was going on, the glow of the ring faded and something white came out of Vladimir''s body and entered the ring. "What the fuck?!" James said, and the spirits inside the ring and when he tried to feel it, he realised that there were now four spirits inside. James knew that he was holding the lock open to let all the souls out, but Vladimir didn''t seem to realise what was happening. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Both Vlad, Abby and Emily were stunned when he forced all the souls out of the ring. Vladimir''s soul was standing in front of everyone, and Vladimir himself seemed to be the most surprised. "How can it be? An item that can hold the soul? Where did you get it?" Vladimir suddenly asked, and James, hearing this, smiled and said, "This is our family heirloom, an item that can hold the soul of everyone who is family...". When James said these words, Vladimir''s eyes filled with tears, and it took a very short time for tears to flow down his face. "Pleased to meet you, sir, my name is Vlad, and I''m Desmond''s firstborn, it''s an honour to meet the one I''m named after." the older Vlad said suddenly, and it seemed to move the vampire lord even more. "I''m Abby, the last child. Next to me is Emily, James'' aunt," the beautiful Abby said. After these words, Vladimir waited for a few seconds without saying anything. "Oh, Desmond...my dear friend. Did you name your daughter after my daughter? I''m so sorry, my friend, forgive me...." Vladimir said and with that everything became clear. Despite all the deaths, it seemed that Desmond still loved Vladimir madly and cared for him just as much. Desmond loved him so much that Vladimir was chosen by the heirloom itself as someone who could enter the family heirloom. "His war against you must be to bring you back to yourself, Vladimir. Indeed, fate works in strange ways. I know that Chaos does not control me, which means that every step I take, every breath I take, and every action I take is what brought me here..." James said. As the four spirits looked at him, he gently reached out to Vladimir took one of the spirit''s hands and then said the following words: "Welcome back to your family my ancestor, please watch over me so I don''t make the same mistakes you did." As James spoke these words, Vladimir nodded as if he had come to his senses and then said, "I will do that, I will be there for you in the future when you face others as powerful as me, so that you can live, so that you can protect your loved ones and fulfil your dreams." James was about to thank him with honour when suddenly a system notification popped up in front of his eyes: ["Blessed''s second test has been cleared to a level above perfect! This is the item that drops with the death of Sun Vampire Vladimir: ''Sun Vampire''s Core"] Chapter 214: Sun Vampires Core (1) [The Kutlu''s second test has been cleared to an above-perfect level! This is the item that drops with the death of Sun Vampire Vladimir: "Sun Vampire''s Core"] Vladimir was stunned when he saw the item James had been given as a room reward. The old vampire wiped away his tears and tried to compose himself, though embarrassed that he had shown this to those around him. "Sit on the ground and consume this core. There''s a chance that you might actually be a Half-Sun Vampire now." Vladimir said, and James'' attention was drawn back to him with those words. "I don''t understand, I already drank your blood, Master Vladimir, I told you I didn''t want to lose my humanity," said James, and with these words, Emily''s voice was heard after a long time. "I think it''s time to accept something, James." Everyone seemed as surprised as James at Emily''s words. "Auntie?" James suddenly said. "Can''t you see, you''re trying to be like our ancestor Desmond, but our ancestor himself thought you could be more, so he pushed everything this far. He pinned his hopes on you. I''m sure no one will care if you''re human or not, as long as you keep being you, there will always be someone around," Emily added, more convincingly than necessary. "You say that well, but being a vampire? I''m not going to go and feed on blood every day, am I?" James suddenly said. Vladimir shook his head when he heard this and then asked, "What the hell are you talking about?" James rolled his head when he heard this question and then said, "You know, vampires and stuff, they drink blood, they want human blood and stuff." After these words, Vladimir put one hand on his chest as if offended by James'' words and then said, "How dare you, I am a Sun Vampire, my energy comes from the sun and the moon itself, I don''t need blood or anything else, don''t compare me with our subraces, average vampires." I could tell that Vladimir was really offended. Even though there was still a huge depressive feeling over the old soul, the desire to help James seemed to make him more energetic. "Umm...I''m sorry...I guess?" replied James, not really knowing what to say, stopped by the strangeness of Vladimir''s expression. "Whatever, just consume this core." Vladimir suddenly said, and with that, James suddenly crouched cross-legged on the floor and found the Sun Vampire Core in his inventory. The thing he had pulled out of his inventory was glowing crimson, strangely alluring. "This core contains some of my bloodline power. If you process it properly, any vampires you meet in the future will be kinder to you since they will feel what you consumed," Vladimir said, and with that, James popped the pill-sized core into his mouth. With that, he instantly realised that no change had occurred in his body. Of course, the spirits surrounding him were surprised, especially Vladimir, who could not understand what was happening. "Well?" James asked, and Vladimir''s expression changed as he heard this. "Aren''t you... How come? Aren''t you human?" Vladimir suddenly asked, and when he saw the confused expression on James'' face, he added, "Your body has no reaction to this core that can cause a reaction even for other races." At that moment, Abby''s voice was heard: "Sir, James'' body is a bit special, please take a look at his mana rings," said Abby with a glowing smile. There could be no other way to describe Vladimir''s astonishment at the sight of James'' body. His mouth was agape and his gaze seemed to be a very smooth narrative going on from the fact that his eyes were an inch apart. "How is it that your magic rings are refined with the elements, and it''s blood elemental on top of that? Are you kidding me?" It didn''t take Vladimir long to recover from his bewildered questions, but he still had a natural difficulty in understanding what had happened. It was possible to have only two basic powers in a body. Either the aura and elemental, which were the main foundation, were in the body, or the magic and elemental, which were the main foundation, were in the body. This was what had puzzled Vladimir, and even the gods and goddesses before him. James''s magic rings were literally elaborated according to the number of elements he was predisposed to and refined with those elements. Instead of someone experiencing a 50% increase in magic power, that is, mana, in each magic ring, this revealed a different effect. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This meant that James'' refined magic rings were adding almost 100% mana to him in each formation. This was the main reason why James'' magic power was uncontrolled, even with the status increase. Despite the control he had, James was home to an enormous amount of mana. The only reason his body didn''t explode from all that mana was because the aura in his body was protecting his body. "Unbelievable. I''ve never heard or seen anything like this in my entire life..." said Vladimir, who seemed to have managed to pull himself together. "So what now, now that I''ve swallowed the core, what do we do now?" James suddenly asked and with that, Vladimir smiled. James was frankly frightened by Vladimir''s smile. He couldn''t help thinking for a few seconds about how much what he was about to hear was likely to make him shudder. With that, Vladimir looked at James and then began to speak. "Now young man, we are going to do something that will be of more use to you. You have the blood element but you are still a human being, even from the quality of your body I can see that you have been refined at least two or three times and on top of that your magic rings have been refined. This means that you don''t need to give up your humanity at all to pass the 75th floor." Vladimir continued with a gentle smile on his face. Chapter 215: Sun Vampires Core (2) "What we''re going to do is my core, it''s supposed to provide you with the blood element, I''m going to make you one of a kind, and eventually, there will be vampires that will follow you, eventually I''m going to infuse you with my race, and what we''re going to do now is we''re going to refine the blood element one more time. Do you see what I mean?" James shook his head in surprise for a few seconds before saying, "I have no fucking idea what you just said." Vladimir shook his head in disappointment when he heard these words and then said, "We will refine your magic ring again, which has been refined with the blood element. This means that your mana capacity and aura capacity will increase due to my use of aura. James...can''t you understand? We will be able to create the second layer, which is normally created after 12 magic rings." When James and the others heard these words, they waited as if they couldn''t make up their minds. "But my father said it''s impossible, I mean he said it is literally impossible," Abby suddenly said. "True, it should be impossible, but that only applies to those who can control one thing. James has both magic and aura in his body, the elemental core has opened up on him, and it binds the two powers together. This means that if he succeeds in targeting only one element, James can now put the second layer against the ring to which the blood element is connected." Vladimir answered these words. Abby waited a few seconds after these words and then shook her head at the possibility of such a thing being possible and said, "It is quite possible if you, the former owner of the power, direct James." James was waiting where he was. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "So we''re going to gamble with my life AGAIN?" James suddenly asked and Vlad, hearing this, silenced him by saying, "It''s something you''ve already done quite a lot of on your own, I don''t think there will be any difficulties." "I mean, I mean yeah I do that but like...Fuck, alright..." James managed to say, and then, closing his eyes, he added, "Then let''s get started." With these words of James, he felt the core he had eaten. After focusing on his body, he could see that the energy coming out of the core he had eaten was already in front of the elemental core that surrounded his heart and the total aura in his body. As he started to approach the energy, he suddenly realised Vladimir standing next to him. "I didn''t know you could get here," James suddenly said, and Vladimir, hearing these words, chose to reply, "I mean, I tried." "Now James, you know what to do, dissipate the energy and let your body absorb it, when your mana capacity starts to increase you will transfer some of the energy to the fifth ring. You will suffer because you will be breaking the rules of magic itself, not the tower, but if you can endure it, the reward will be unimaginable." Vlad said and with that, he disappeared. James was left alone. Faced with this image that he was now accustomed to, and then breathing deeply, he touched the Sun Vampire''s Core and met the very energy that made him tremble. The energy was the size of a pill and had a deep blue appearance in the appearance of the core. As soon as James touched the core, the energy itself began to be swallowed by the elemental core. With each passing second, both the aura energy held by the branch of the elemental core and the magic energy held by the other branch of the same core began to grow. The size of the energy was truly enormous. James saw that his aura was growing faster than ever before, and he realised that his mana level had increased by at least 150%. As the energy from the Core slowly began to diminish, James began to send all the remaining energy to the fifth magic ring, the maroon-coloured ring. At that very moment, his eyes widened. He was in insane pain, he was already writhing on the ground in the tangible world, and it was not much different when he was observing his soul and body. Both on the tangible and intangible side his body was indeed writhing, but even with that James could see the progress he was making. "NO PAIN NO GAIN GOD DAMN IT!" James suddenly shouted and with that, he pushed all of the energy towards the fifth magic ring. The fifth magic ring seemed to stumble from the enormous amount of energy that was being thrown at it, it really did seem to be alive, it was constantly being depleted and it was becoming much thinner than James had expected. So much thinner that it was perhaps less than a centimetre thick. It was the strangest thing that such great power could exist in such a thin ring, indeed the magic was incredibly ''magical''. As James took deep breaths, he saw that the colour of the maroon magic ring was becoming more vivid and bright. The pain he felt began to lessen, and immediately afterwards another colour was strangely added to the magic ring. The colour of the magic ring was no longer just maroon, but the second layer that had begun to cover it had added a dark shade of blue to the magic ring. With that, James opened his eyes to the concrete place, reality itself. He could see four spirits around him, looking at him intently and strangely. "I think that''s it? It hurt less than I expected, but my body feels...very light. I''m more alive and my mind is clearer. It''s good that it went smoothly." James suddenly said. After only five or six minutes it was over and everything seemed to be in order. "Ummm...Well...My dear nephew, we can''t say it''s not all smooth sailing." Emily suddenly said, not realising how much those words must have frightened James. Chapter 216: Old Grandma Ruby "Ummm...Well...My dear nephew, not everything is smooth." After Emily''s sudden words, James''s face turned white. He suddenly started to check his body and realised that he was not missing any limbs. The fact that he could not find any faults in his body could perhaps mean that there was an internal fault that he did not realise. "What is it?" James asked with great concern and it didn''t take long for him to get an answer. "If you have a mirror in your inventory, it would be better to check it yourself." Vlad suddenly said. At these words, James''s anxiety was strangely aggravated. It would be quite justified to say that he was frightened, thinking that his handsomeness had disappeared in a rather egotistical way. Suddenly, he reached into his inventory, only to find that, like most things, the mirror was among the locked items. "STUPID FLOOR TRIAL!!!" shouted James. He couldn''t even look at his face because of the test the tower had given him. As he wondered what was going on, he had a neat idea that he couldn''t do anything right now. He would put all this in the back of his mind, but what he had to do now was to leave this damned dungeon. "Let''s go," James said suddenly and then pulled the spirits outside into the ring. "Don''t you feel tired? You should rest," Emily said suddenly, but the answer to that question was already obvious. James wished to leave this stupid dungeon as soon as possible. After the second room left him, he waited in front of the huge doors of the last room. Clutching the holy sword Clarent and Selene''s Throwing Knife, which he had recalled, he took a deep breath and then pushed the huge doors open, thinking that waiting would not change anything. It was pitch black inside the room, James couldn''t see a thing even with his night vision. The room was blocking out any ability the supreme goddess had given him. James realised that his body was going crazy with adrenaline. There had never really been a time when he couldn''t see anything, even in the darkest of situations the ability Nyx had given him had helped. Right now she was no different from a blind person and it was quite frightening. "You''re finally here, welcome." James suddenly heard a voice inside his mind, and it wasn''t that of any of the spirits in his ring. It was quite thick and incredibly dominant, and even if James could stand it, he could feel his Mind Palace ability being shaken to its core. "You must be the owner of the dungeon, pleasure to meet you," James suddenly said. Knowing that this person talking to him had a connection to Desmond was the only thing that gave him a little comfort. "Hmmm...you''re a lot thinner than I expected. Desmond told me that when my heir enters the tower and confronts me, he will be quite strong." James shook his head as the thick voice said this, and his ego, pride and dignity were crushed by its words. "I''m said to be quite strong, I mean for my level and experience," James suddenly said, and then the voice echoed in his mind again. "You''re talking rubbish. I can see your age, and judging by this, you have only reached this level after spending time in the tower, and you are praising yourself when you should be ashamed." Smiling after these words, James said, "There has been a misunderstanding. It''s been almost two years since I entered the tower, it''s not what you think." As James said these words, the voice that had spoken to his mind disappeared and the darkness in the room suddenly disappeared. James saw a winged, humanoid being sitting on the floor at the far end of the room after the lights came on. The being appeared to be a woman, but it was clear that the voice James heard in his mind belonged to a man. "Hmm...So you''ve made it this far in just two years. Not to mention the fact that you found the relic ring and on top of that you were able to take Vladimir''s soul. If it''s as you say, you''ve already surpassed Desmond''s development." When James heard this voice again, he heard the voice of a very elegant woman. After looking at her carefully, he saw that everything from her wings to her hair, from her hair to her eyes had a red colour. The woman herself, except for her light skin colour, had an appearance that encouraged live flames from every part of her. "Be careful James, one of the six mystical beasts in the tower stands before you, do not disrespect it, only Chaos can save you if you do." James was about to compose himself after Vladimir''s words echoed in his mind when the woman''s voice was heard again: "Vladimir''s words are quite true, my dear child. It is a beautiful sight that Vladimir has been able to forgive himself after a very long time, I wonder if you have found Juliet''s soul, can you answer that?" James shook his head in amazement as she spoke these words and then began to question who this woman was and how she could hear the voices echoing in his mind. "You...How? I did not?" James said with great astonishment. "Oh come on...I''m a mystical beast. Even if we are not as powerful as Supreme Dragons, we are mystical, created by Chaos, we are as powerful as gods. There are 6 of us, but there used to be more. Being able to read your mind is only a small part of my power." the winged woman said. "But... How can I defeat you? If you are so powerful, if you are so powerful that you can even keep master Vladimir in this dungeon, how can I harm you?" said James, there was nothing he could do. With those words James saw a smile, the winged woman in front of him seemed to be trying hard not to laugh. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He didn''t know what was going to happen, dying was the last thing he wanted to do after all. "But...how can I defeat you? How can I harm you if you are so strong, so strong that you can even keep Master Vladimir in this dungeon?" With these words, the winged woman who held her laughter forcibly suddenly began to speak: "As you know, my name is Kutlu, but I want you to call me Grandma Ruby, after all, Desmond considered me his mother." "Umm...Well...Grandma Ruby?" was James''s bewildered reply, completely confused after she introduced herself with both names, Kutlu and Ruby. "Excellent. Now for your final test, little one. Whether or not you die here is entirely up to you. All your abilities will be locked and the lights will be switched off again, if you can avoid the incoming attacks as much as I want you to, or rather as much as I want you to, depending on the number, you will pass the test. You will take a test where your speed and stability will have to work." old Ruby said and the lights slowly started to switch off after these words. "I hope you survive, little one, I don''t want to disappoint Desmond, but if you disappoint me there will be no reason for you to live," Ruby added and with that, the last light in the room went out. James was left alone in the darkness again. When he tried to use his abilities, he realised that everything was indeed blocked. Even his Aura of Chaos ability was strangely blocked. James didn''t even know if such a thing was possible until now. Still, there was something James could use. The elements themselves did not count as abilities like aura or magic. "Is the use of the element forbidden, Grandma?" James asked without missing a beat. Ruby smiled, even though no one could see her, and thought to herself, "Clever boy." "Free," Ruby muttered, her smiling tone letting everyone know that she was trying hard not to laugh again. James smiled when he heard those words and thought that he could be prepared for whatever defence he was going to put up. He had suddenly released 8 Sacred Fire and then waited for the flames to try to light up the area. Yet almost nothing happened. Yes, the flames were around, but there was almost no brightness that caught James'' eye. "How come?" Ruby suddenly said to herself, of course, she recognised the flames in front of her, she was a being born of flames. The flames were impossible not to recognise. James began to wait for the attacks he had to defend against. Just then a sound piercing the air rang in his ears and he was suddenly pulled backwards from the side from which the sound came. "CHING!!!!" A sound like metal being struck rose into the sky and James zoomed in on the flames, trying to see what he was avoiding. After moving the flames around for a while, he saw that a huge arrow, almost four centimetres thick and perhaps fifty centimetres long, was lodged in the ground. "No kidding?" James said, shuddering as he realised that it was a huge arrow that he had managed to avoid at the last moment. He knew that if even one of these arrows hit him at this speed, it would pierce through him. He was indeed in grave danger. He was in a daunting...no, deadly danger. Chapter 217: Clearing the Dungeon While James was burning with these thoughts, the same voice reappeared: "SWIIPPTT!" When this sound that pierced the air appeared, James leapt into the air to avoid the arrow, and the sound of metal clashing echoed in the air again: "CHING!!!" When James fell to the ground, several air-ripping sounds appeared one after the other and James started to avoid the flames as much as he could with the flames spreading over his body as if he could not feel anything. After a short time, the lights came on. Unable to understand what was happening, James shook his head and asked, "Is it over?" After asking this question, his body suddenly trembled and he realised Ruby was standing before him. "I give up, I''m changing your trial," Ruby suddenly said. These words had surprised both James and the spirits in the ring enough, but what they would hear afterwards would be things that would make them all say, "He''s dead now." sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Your test will be to make me take a step in any direction while I am standing here. You have only five minutes and an infinite number of attacks you can make in that time. What you do is up to you." At Ruby''s words, James took a few steps backwards, suddenly realising that all his abilities had returned, and with that, he thought he would send her at least 10 steps back. What a stupid fucking idiot he was. Ruby watched James with a smiling and incredibly curious expression as he waited for his attack. James was aiming to use everything he had so far. He was holding the holy sword Clarent with both hands. He sent the extra 75 status points he had directly to the ''Power'' status. Immediately after that, he put the ''Heaven''s Call'' ability he had received from Archangel Michael into use for the first time and then strengthened himself by choosing the power of the rose. The crimson rose garden blooming in the room seemed to fit Ruby''s character quite well. Not only that, but she also used her Aura of Chaos ability on top of it and then turned each rose in the rose garden that bloomed in the dark place that dominated the room into a black rose. James was now exactly 120% stronger. This was all he had. The magical energy he had begun to spin in his body, the aura and the elemental power he would add to it began to overflow outwards. James was normally trying to spin a small piece of energy in his body, but this time he was attempting something big. The collision of forces in his body was so massive that his eyes began to bleed and his vision became restricted, the blood flowing from his ears silenced even the spirits speaking into his mind, and the blood flowing from his nose told him how awful he was. Fortunately, no blood was flowing from his mouth, indicating that his internal wound was not in a terrible state. In almost five minutes he had managed to prepare everything, this was the most powerful attack he could do, there was no way he could do more than that. With that he activated his transition ability to attack and then suddenly appeared behind Ruby, shouting "PIERCE!!!". Enormous energy deep, made entirely of flame and the law of time itself surged towards Ruby. Ruby had already realised where James was and the attack he was going to make, so when she turned around she was astonished by the energy this boy had unleashed, after all, it was a huge achievement that such energy could come from someone who was so ''weak'' in her eyes. Even though Ruby was shocked by this energy, she didn''t even think that she would need defence against this energy. She was right in her thinking. The huge energy that James had released outside hit Ruby right in the chest without slowing down with all its power. "BOOOOOOOM!!!!" A sound loud enough to make the ears bleed and even damage the eardrum echoed around the room. A huge dust smoke rose into the air and the sound of deep breathing began to rise in the room. "Huff....Huff...Hah..." As the sounds of deep breathing rose in the room, it became quite obvious how tired James was. When the dust had cleared and everything was visible, James was seen to stop bleeding and tears appeared in his eyes. The energy coming out of James was so great that it was logical to think that everything would succeed. The only reason James had tears streaming down his face was because he realised what a fool he had been. James realised that Ruby standing in front of him hadn''t moved an inch, which meant he had failed. He had failed the test and there was nothing he could do now. Just as he was about to put himself down, he heard something he never expected: "You passed the test with flying colours." James looked at Ruby with surprised eyes when he heard these words, his tears suddenly stopped and he looked at the woman in front of him with great relief. "The test was based on you moving me where I was. When you got behind me, I felt I had to turn round, both out of curiosity and instinct, and look where I am." Ruby said suddenly and James, hearing this, looked at where her feet were. Ruby did indeed seem to have moved a step from where she was, and the reason James realised this was because she was leaving the same dried ash-like footprints where she had stepped. Right next to the two sets of footprints was another pair of footprints. Ruby had moved. James had officially passed the test, James would be able to leave this dungeon alive, this was truly his greatest achievement. "Thank God..." said James suddenly, indeed anyone would have been sure that the sweat pouring off his body could fill a bucket to the top of his head. "You''re lucky, I''m a man of my word, I was going to kill you if you had failed." Ruby suddenly said, and James didn''t even know what to say, he chose to settle for being scared. "I want to go and hug my daughter," James said suddenly and then caught Ruby''s attention. "You have a daughter? You''re so young, I didn''t expect that." Ruby said. "My daughter''s name is Miracle, she''s a Supreme Dragon," James replied and with that Ruby''s eyes widened. "Well...I''m glad I didn''t kill you, I don''t want to be beheaded and eaten anyway." Ruby said after all she had heard. "I thought you were superior to the Supreme Dragons, even if you''re not as strong as them, there are only six of you left, right?" asked James, and with that he got an answer he had never expected: "There used to be hundreds of us. Of course, due to the long wars and, to tell the truth, Desmond''s hunting of those who joined the other side, our number has been reduced to six. We are phoenixes, born of fire and return to fire." After Ruby''s answer, James felt relieved and sighed deeply. He yawned, he was going to go back and give his daughter a big hug and sleep like he never slept before. "Alright, that''s all well and good, but there''s something else I''m curious about," James said, and after seeing Ruby roll her head in curiosity, he continued: "I''ve cleared the dungeon, I''ve passed your test after all, but now what? What will happen to you? What will happen to my dungeon reward? After all, I need to get an award called [Kutlu''s Art of Death] from you." Ruby smiled after James'' question, and then her body began to glow with a small light. Ruby, who turned into a crimson bird, perhaps the size of a crow, after a short period of eye-catching light, said, "You will learn this art in your dreams, otherwise it will take a very, very long time." When James shook his head that he did not understand anything from this sentence he heard, Ruby spoke again: "The dream realm is directly connected to the subconscious mind, which means that in the time you will sleep while you are so tired now, I will be able to teach you the entire art, you won''t even remember it when you wake up, you will have fully learnt Kutlu''s Art of Death which as you know the art that has my mythical name." James shook his head at Ruby''s words, and then the system notification he had been waiting to see for so long appeared in front of him. Before she could even react to Ruby''s words, she was teleported out of the dungeon: [Kutlu''s Dungeon Congratulations on clearing the dungeon. Dungeon Prize: Kutlu himself, Kutlu''s Art of Death] He was happy that he could clean such a dungeon. He had learnt a lot about Desmond and had good or bad thoughts about the future. Who would have thought that James would have made an enemy to make a friend and another friend to win? Chapter 218: You All Should Never Forget [Kutlu''s Dungeon Congratulations on clearing the dungeon. Dungeon Prize: Kutlu herself Kutlu''s Art of Death] [Viewing unlocked!] As James was thrown out of the dungeon, he saw these system notifications in front of him and smiled, realising that he had indeed managed to leave this dungeon without dying. [JAMES!!!] [ARE YOU OK?] [WHAT''S WITH THE LOOK?] [WHAT HAPPENED?] James, whose smile grew even wider as message windows opened in front of him one after the other, thought it would be good to reply to the last person who had sent a message: "It was a pretty tough dungeon old Zeus, I got out alive after all, stop worrying." After James'' words, the messages did not slow down or diminish. Hundreds of message notifications opened up in front of him, and James was once again able to realise just how big a family he had. The gods, with whom he had only a small conversation, seemed to have sent him a message. [Are you sure you''re all right?] After a few seconds of breathing James finally saw the message from Nemesis and his eyes filled with tears, it seemed too much for him to have come back from the dead a few dozen minutes ago and to have experienced so much in just one day. He was lucky. Without the Mind Palace ability, his mind would have collapsed, and his brain would have exploded to death because of Ruby''s voice. Even if Ruby hadn''t spoken, all this action would still have been too much for him. Either way, he had dodged a bullet. "You don''t even know what I''d give to hug you right now Nemesis, I almost died, twice," James said suddenly, unable to contain his emotions. After that, he closed the message windows and began to walk through the snow, which was now halfway up to his height. [Are you sure you''re all right? You look like you''ve changed quite a bit in a day]. James shook his head as he read this message from Nyx and said, "I don''t quite understand what you''re trying to say, my lady." [Open your profile and then click on appearance in the settings section]. James had opened his profile when he saw this message and poked around for a while, it was very, very strange that after almost two years he had never noticed anything like this. After a short while, when he found the area Nyx had told him about and opened it, he looked at the screen in front of him with great surprise. "WHAT THE FUCK?!!!?!?!" She couldn''t help but scream at the sight in front of her. James could see his body properly. His face was the same as always, he hadn''t lost any of his handsomeness, but his hair colour seemed to have changed. James''s hair had taken on a dark blue hue, the ends still had a slight bright green tint to it, but somehow the colour had changed. "My lady, can you stop the others from watching me please?" James suddenly asked and with that, he waited. After almost five minutes the message [I''ve done it] appeared in front of him and James summoned Vladimir''s spirit out. "Why did this happen, sir?" James suddenly muttered. "The blood element is special. You ate my essence and got the energy of whichever side you were closer to. As I told you, we Sun Vampires draw energy from both the sun and the moon. Let''s say you are closer to the energy of the moon." Vladimir replied. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James shook his head at these words and then continued to complain, "That just does not make any sense?!" Vladimir smiled and said, "There is nothing we can do, Sun Vampires work like that. That''s why the hair colour changed, normally there would be a mark on the body. Maybe a moon mark or a sun mark, but your hair colour has changed. Something different happens in every Sun Vampire. The change that was bestowed upon me was the engraving of a red sun right on my back." James didn''t know what to say, it was quite annoying that he had just escaped death and now he had changed. "I''m going mad." James said and with that, he looked back at the message window and said "I met a man called Vladimir, my lady, let''s just say he helped me, hence the change in my hair colour." When Vladimir heard those words he looked at James and wondered if he realised what he had just done. When James saw that none of the messages had been returned, he assumed that they didn''t remember Vladimir''s betrayal. James knew exactly what he had said, and since he saw no reason to hide Vladimir, whom they would eventually see anyway, he had explained everything. Still, he had not the slightest idea how much of a mess was done in the Hall of Olympos. ----- ----- "DAMN IT!" shouted Hyperion. The entire hall was engulfed in flames, Hyperion''s anger was so enormous that there was no way to even describe it. "I don''t get it, why would James keep someone who had smashed Desmond''s mind to smithereens?" Phoebe muttered, not angry but still frustrated. "Should we tell James? Maybe he''s been tricked, you don''t think that''s a possibility," Moros had said, deriving the question after learning a little about the subject. It was strange that all the Titans and Nyx and Erebus had never even considered such a thing. "You''re right, we have to ask, we have to get that soul here, we can''t let it die so easily," Erebus said, and with that, eyes turned to Nyx. Nyx had a feeling that James already knew, after all, he and Gaia, who had been sitting quietly, seemed to have realised everything already. ----- [James, do you know what kind of person Vladimir is? Are you sure he''s not tricking you?] James finally realised that he had received a message from Nyx and then fixed his expression and said, "I''m aware of everything." Every single person in the hall of Olympus couldn''t understand how James could accept such a thing. Time seemed to stand still for each of them, and it was then that they heard James'' voice: "The only reason Desmond stuck him here was because he had already forgiven Vladimir. The only person who hadn''t forgiven him was Vladimir himself. After a long conversation, he killed himself so that I could survive and leave the dungeon. Now he is here to help me, I am holding his soul." These words seemed to confuse everyone. "My family heirloom can only contain the souls of family members, so you all know what it means that Vladimir''s soul is here. Desmond saw him as his family member. Just like him, I need to find Juliet too." James said, addressing the only mother of the great night for the first time without using the suffix of respect. [I see...Everyone was worried, we thought you''d been tricked. Still, are you sure?] Nyx sent a message, beginning to think that she was making James disgruntled. "Some things can be forgiven, m''lady, when the person who did it to you is willing to forgive them. I wasn''t in the war, nor do I care about the war itself, m''lady. I''m not Desmond or any of his friends. I''m one of his descendants and I have my ideas. I don''t care about the past or the complexities of the past. The only thing that matters to me is whether I can protect what I have in the present. Which means my only love Nemesis, my dear daughter Miracle, you and Ariel as my mother figures, whole titans and Chaos-Borns and many more." James suddenly said. With these words, James clearly stated that he had his plans. "I know that you have been through bad things and I feel sorry for you, but while you are sitting on your 150th floor, please don''t think nonsense because not a single one of you, and that includes you m''lady, did anything to protect the children in the tower or any other people who suffered for a really long time. Almost every one of you is sitting on that floor. Is that your fault? Not really, after all, you can''t just go down below the 75th floor." "But what about Asgard? What about Olympus? Aren''t those people basically looking up to you all and wishing you all to command them? What about the Chaos-Borns in the tower, or the Titans themselves? What have you done that you can decide who I can and cannot forgive? Do you think I cannot see your thoughts? Can''t I feel your anger?" James shut his mouth after all these words and just waited, he had probably made everyone angry, that was quite possible, but there was no need to silence himself. He knew that he was an individual and would not be controlled, he also knew that he would do his best to fight back in such a situation. It might come from Nyx, whom he respected greatly, or it might come from Chronos, whom he now considered her master, but one way or another, there was something that each Titan, Nyx and Erebus needed to understand: "Remember, my lady, and anyone else who will listen. I am not Desmond and I have no intention of making the stupid mistakes he made and to be real Vladimir is here for me to stop when that time comes. Desmond was a precious maniac trying to make humans the superior race, but I am a maniac trying to make all races equal. We are not the same," James added and then started walking again. The people in the Olympus hall fell silent as if this was a reminder to each of them that what they knew was no longer enough. Chapter 219: Rubys Art "The only reason I am angry with each of you, my lady, and the only reason I have been so rude to you is because you continue to see me as Desmond. Each of you saw me as me and valued me until you learnt that I was his descendant, but now you see me as him only because I am Desmond''s descendant. However, I see you as my family and as valuable beings." James said after a short walk. With these words, each of the spectators, who felt as if they were devastated, managed to recover a little bit. Of course, they still saw James as one of their own, but no one could say they didn''t miss Desmond, which was why James felt so pressurised. Unlike them, James was young, even Nemesis himself was quite old, but he could feel under pressure. In this case, the fact that James knew how he felt, and how many people he had to please, was one of the things that brought him down. After all, James was still a human being. Continuing on his way, James questioned whether he had really spoken badly, but there were still other things he needed to learn. "What about the relics? You ordered their recovery, didn''t you? Theseus told me, any news?" James suddenly asked, trying to lighten the mood a little. [As a matter of fact, yes. On the 60th floor, they''ve managed to clear all the ruins. Over a hundred relics have been recovered and almost 40 have been sent to me to be cleaned and prepared for use]. James read the message in front of him and said, "I didn''t know they could send things to you, my lady, amazing." [When they pray to the items placed on the altar, I can receive them as gifts, the problem is sending them back, or anything else, would take an enormous amount of energy]. Having responded positively to every single message from Nyx, James saw that he had almost left the forest, he could see the tall village walls through the trees. He had just left the forest when he suddenly noticed movement in the thick clothing he was wearing and looked in his inside pocket to see Sophia. "Good morning dear queen, I assume you slept well?" James suddenly said he had indeed forgotten Sophia''s existence in all the danger he was in, he was sure that the pixie queen would be of great help after all. "Good morning master!" Sophia said and suddenly she came out of the pocket she was sleeping in and landed on James'' head. "What happened to your hair colour?" the little queen asked, and James, hearing this, smiled just like those who watched him and said, "It''s a long story." After a short time, he managed to reach the village and after meeting the group again and explaining some of what had happened to them, he went straight to take a shower. After washing himself well, he went back to his room and then said, "Well, Grandma Ruby, show yourself." After these words, Ruby, who appeared as a human being right in front of James, seemed to surprise the audience. Each of the Titans knew very clearly who Ruby was. It was now understandable why James had spoken such loving words to Nemesis, it would have taken a different achievement to meet and live with Ruby. Speaking of achievements, James had of course managed to achieve achievements by cleaning this dungeon. He cleared a dungeon for the first time and was gifted 100000 gold for it. Then he was given a special card for clearing a Creator-Grade dungeon. Even if he did not know where the ability he had gained in this event, which was completely dependent on luck, he knew very clearly that it would eventually come in handy: [Seal Magic(Godly+) This ability is a form of magic created by Cain the Tailor, the tower''s third in command at the time. It is said to be able to seal even a low-level god with the use of the rune spell and the ability to use the rune spell. It is a known fact that no one knows this spell except Cain the Tailor. This spell is designed to work only on people who use magic. When the spell is applied properly, it is possible to prevent the other person from using magic. If the spell is applied incorrectly, the user''s use of magic will be locked for a while]. On top of that, James was greeted with a notification about encountering a superior mystical beast. Honestly, he had no idea why he didn''t get this achievement against a Supreme Dragon who was considered his daughter, but one way or another, he was able to win another Goldy-Grade card pick because of this achievement, and this time he won something he never thought he would win: [Tarot Cards of Blasphemy(Godly++++) Unlike the usual Tarot cards, it is a box with 3 cards that can be renewed but have only one use. The cards inside the box are known as curses, which have the properties of ''Bad Luck'', ''Destruction'' and ''Death'' respectively. The only thing known about these cards is what kind of powers they have and how they are used. The person to whom the cards are applied will place a curse on the applied card and the effects of these cards will fade after exactly one year. Within a year, the contents of the cards will be placed on the person to whom the curse is applied, each event based on ''Bad Luck'', ''Destruction'' and ''Death''. When you apply the "Death" card to someone, even if that person is in heaven, a meteorite may fall on his/her head. When you apply the "Destruction" card to someone, that person and everyone he/she cares about can be infected with the plague. If you apply the card "Bad Luck" to someone, he/she will be in danger of losing everything he/she owns, and if he/she does not make the right moves, this danger will become real. If the person to whom the card is applied does not die within a year, the card will be returned to the user empty. With the necessary spells, it will be possible to refill the card with another spell or curse type]. These three strange-looking tarot cards would rank in the top five best items James has ever owned, perhaps even surpassing the holy sword Clarent itself. With all that he had gained from the achievements, it was time to move on to Ruby''s case. Ruby was looking carefully at James and trying to point to the bed with her eyes. Everyone realised that James needed to sleep. When James lay down on the bed, he closed his eyes and managed to fall asleep after not more than ten seconds. When he opened his eyes again, he was faced with a vast view of a white surface and a sky filled with the image of space. Ruby was standing in front of him. S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "So Grandma? What am I going to learn?" James suddenly asked, and Ruby, hearing this, smiled and said, "This." When Ruby uttered that single word, a strange energy began to radiate out of Ruby. The energy was moving around Ruby and reacting like her arms. Each movement of the energy was aligned one by one, and then after a short time, these dark beings born from darkness...or rather death, were revealed. "Is this the art of death?" James asked and saw Ruby smile. "Yes, little one. This is the very art you will be practising. Of course, the reason I wanted to teach you this art in your dream was not only because everything would happen faster. Another reason is that you won''t feel pain here." Ruby said and then started to control these dark beings. The dark beings looked just like Ruby, but they seemed to fight without any particular shape or body. There were only two of them, but even James realised that they seemed to have a mind of their own and the ability to be controlled. "This...is...very strange..." James said suddenly and then he heard Ruby''s voice again. "This, my sweet child, is the art I have created. I created this art in the dungeon you cleared and in just a year or so I was able to create two beings. I didn''t try to develop this ability afterwards, of course, I was too lazy for that, but we both know that this ability will come in handy." As Ruby uttered these words, the dark beings suddenly fell to the ground and the strange ''deadly'' energy disappeared. "Lucky for you, you''ll have a good teacher and thanks to Nyx, you''re quite prone to the darkness, although I wouldn''t call it darkness...more like the energy of the cosmic night...Whatever it is, we agree that you can get a good education, sit down, and we can start now." Chapter 220: Getting the Art When James heard those words he immediately sat down cross-legged on the floor and began to think about meditating again, there was no way of telling how wrong he was, he was quite the stupid kid on this topic. As he sat cross-legged on the floor, Ruby gently approached him, opened her hand, and grasped James'' head firmly. James didn''t feel any pain at that moment, but he was really filled with a strange sensation. It was as if someone in real life, not in a dream, was holding his skull tightly and making it close to exploding. It was really a strange and terrible feeling. "Now I''m going to put as much pressure on your mind as possible, you need to do this to gather all the information, remember you may not feel pain, but your mind will shake, you must stay awake," Ruby said and with these words, the surroundings slowly began to darken. Ruby seemed to have started to put the art of death into action again. In a way, this art was almost like the art of cloning. After all, even if the beings that appeared when Ruby used this art did not have a specific form, they had identical shapes and could fight strangely, or rather, they managed to do so according to Ruby''s orders. These beings also had enough intelligence. James already had thousands of ideas about the possibilities he could have if he developed this art. He could create beings exactly like humans or other living beings, and in line with this art, he could have beings with their own minds, but fully under James''s control. It seemed like slavery in a way, but it wasn''t, after all, these beings would be things created by James'' energy. As he pondered these thoughts, he suddenly realised that the strange sensation in his mind was becoming more intense. A strangely subtle feeling of numbness spread through his body. It was as if someone had given him an anaesthetic injection. His vision was blurring and his breathing was becoming laboured. Yet, despite all this, he could indeed see clearly all the information, large and small, that was forming in his mind. This was magic, but apparently, there was no ''system'' based use of this power. In other words, like the elements themselves, it would have a use without being based on a system. It could be thought of in the same way that elemental mages could fight properly with only the elemental cores in their bodies and the small part of the spell. One way or another, James realised that a very powerful technique had entered his mind. He was lucky again, he was so happy that he had created the Mind Palace ability on the tutorial floors that there was no way to describe it. After all, almost every one of the beings he had encountered so far had the power to shatter his mind into hundreds of pieces. Even the weaker Fallen Gods could destroy his mind, let alone Ruby or Vladimir. James waited normally, there was nothing he could do, even as that strange feeling of numbness trapped and possessed him from the inside. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After almost ten minutes of waiting, James opened his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he realised that he was no longer in a dream and was in fact back in reality. "How was it?" Suddenly he heard this question from Ruby and then, holding his head, James said, "Terrible." James'' words were quite accurate. Maybe he hadn''t felt any pain in the dream world, but in reality his body as red, his skin colour seemed to be dyed a light red, and his body waand s so hot that he seemed to be in a sauna to the point of fainting. Even though smoke was coming out of his body and his head was hurting like crazy, he could clearly see that his automatic healing ability had already kicked in. After a few gasps of air, she thought it would be better to speak before anyone texted her and then said, "I''m fine, don''t worry, it''s just too hot." However, he suddenly stood up and, as if remembering that there was an easier way to cool down, he left first his room and then the house and jumped into the snow in front of the house like a diver. Passing elves and other beings were looking at the almost half-naked James and giggling. "Master James, are you all right?" a passing elf asked. Everyone could clearly see that the snow was melting around James. "I''m fine, you can ask that bird over there why I''m like this, I really have no idea," James said and not only the elf who had asked him that question but also the other passers-by looked at Ruby. Ruby shook her head a few times and then said, "I taught him a technique, I used the fire element to teach him, his body warmed up, blah blah blah, never mind." and with that she seemed, to close the subject. James saw that there was no more snow around him after all these words and then stood up and started to walk. "Please carry on with your work, sorry for the inconvenience," James said. After almost twenty minutes of walking, he managed to come in front of the forge where he thought the group would be, leaving flames behind him with every step he took. "Daddy!" the little girl Miracle suddenly shouted, running to hug James, who of course didn''t object, after all, he couldn''t just hurt a Supreme Dragon, no matter how hot it was. Soon she was surrounded by others and Ariel tried to hug James, but he blocked her and said, "I''m warm." Then he yawned incessantly and began to empty his inventory one by one, telling those around him to move away. After hundreds of items and tens of thousands of tonnes of minerals came out of his inventory, he said, "These are for you," and then suddenly left. He hadn''t told the group where he was going, he just wanted to continue his training as soon as possible, after all, he had to become his most perfect self, or rather the strongest he could be, before his floor mission was over before he could be fully disturbed by anyone. After all, he did need to learn and get better. After all, there was something James wanted to prevent. There was a future he wanted to prevent. He hadn''t forgotten it yet, he still remembered it clearly. He still remembered the future that the Philosopher''s Stone had shown him, he had seen it and he was well aware of it. Your source is m-vl|emp,yr He would do his best to prevent that future. Yes, he might have been angry with both Nyx and Titans after the last words, but he was not going to accept that future after a mere argument, or rather a one-sided shouting match. Nyx was still James'' mother, Nemesis was still his wife, and all Chaos-Born were still his family members. The one thing everyone had to accept was that James was not Desmond himself. He was just an heir, perhaps the best heir, but still just an heir. When he came to an empty field after a long walk, he closed his eyes and then started to recover his energy in line with the information that had been loaded into his mind by Ruby, and then slowly began to release it. When he started to release his energy, he opened his eyes back and started to create an energy just like Ruby had created...or rather, similar to her. Still, it was not enough. The energy was constantly swirling around like an ocean in motion, but nothing was changing. It seemed like he could barely do 0.1% of what Ruby could do. Still, even that was a good thing for him, he had everything. He had time, he had a place to practise, and he had the exercises he needed to do. "Calm down, you shouldn''t rush everything. You don''t need to act like you''re going to fight the moment you go out, calm down and then try again. You won''t succeed right away, it''s impossible, after all, this is not a system-based spell, even if you can use it, it will take a while for you to be able to do it like me. It took a year for me, but it will take a little less time for you." Ruby suddenly said. James, who was demoralised after these words, shook his head and strangely realised that he was very wrong and Ruby was right. [You can do it for sure kid!] Nyx had sent a message, and with that James had asked, "Aren''t you mad at me" For a few dozen seconds, he hadn''t received any messages, but after only a few moments, he received a message saying [You''re the one who should be angry, aren''t you?] With these words, another problem seemed to be solved. Chapter 221: Floor Quest Finished James had been training for nearly sixty days. Or, more precisely, he was one day away from the end of his floor assignment. Between the 28th and 35th floors, James and Ariel had only one day left between the 28th and 35th floors before all the floors belonged to James and Ariel. That was quite an achievement. Not many people completed their floor duties so smoothly and quite peacefully. Eris, Nyx''s daughter, had slaughtered everyone she saw as ''evil'' in the floor mission she was in. So the fact that James and Ariel ended this floor mission peacefully in this way, considering the beautiful hopes and the lives they saved, was something to be respected. James was already back in the village. However, it would be impossible to call it a village anymore because the second wall of the ''village'' was now finished. Officially, there was no other protection than huge dark walls of more than ten metres high. The village and its buildings were demolished and a large area of the innermost wall was opened for construction. So the old village site was now to be saved for the ''main palace'' and the ''church''. The church that had begun to be built in the centre of the inner wall was finished. Instead of calling this place a church, it would be more accurate to call it a huge palace. The dwarves and others had made a big change without asking James. The reason he thought this was that the church had now grown to a ''huge'' level. It seemed that a system such as the Sun Palace and the Church of the Night were intertwined, that is, the main church was united with the palace, and was being used here. Of course, it was obvious that all this work had been carried out, or rather ploughed in first, by Ariel. James could have settled in this place, which was almost finished, after all, as the original owner of the church of the whole night, he certainly had such a rank, the rank of leader of the whole church. Nevertheless, for the sake of the village, or rather for the sake of all its inhabitants, a conversation took place between James and Ariel about the fact that only the priests of the Church of the Night should be allowed to enter this place. After a long conversation, it was concluded that only the priests of the Church of the Night and the children who could be educated on behalf of the church would be allowed to enter this floor, which would have won the floor exam. James and Ariel had thought about it in detail. This would be a special place where children could not be harmed. They could be educated by priests or nuns, and they could stay on this floor, where they could be acclimatised to the different weather conditions. Then they could approach a few races other than their own and have a chance to grow up with a good upbringing. In the midst of all this talking and thinking, an agreement was presented that none of the greenhouses on the inner wall, where the palace was almost completed, would be demolished and would be completely protected like the greenhouses to be built in the settlements inside the first outer wall, and the three leaders who would be in constant change accepted this agreement. Read now on m_vl_em_p_yr It was good news that this village, which only a few months earlier had been threatened by yetis, was now in such good shape. James and Ariel had changed everything. Thanks to James'' cleaning of the dungeon, the monsters, if not a core, were gone, leaving only the ever-present ice goblins. This was huge news. After all, so little danger not only meant that the walls could be built at a slower pace but also that the safety of those who would be allowed to come here would be greatly enhanced. "We did it," Ariel said with a smiling face as she looked at the huge palace, the main part of which was now complete. The highest point of the palace was almost a hundred metres high and its size only extended to three hundred or four hundred metres from the ends of the walls. Yet this was the unfinished construction of the whole palace. Only the main part was finished. "Yes. It happened much faster than I expected. I wonder how long it would take to build such a palace in our world?" James replied. "I don''t know, I think it would have taken a couple of decades to build the whole thing." Ariel complained, and hearing this, James smiled and replied, "We weren''t living in the Middle Ages, I think it would have taken a maximum of ten years." then he smiled and opened his inventory. After a few seconds of scrolling through his inventory, he pulled out two wine glasses and a wine bottle, opened the bottle and poured alcohol into the glasses, handed one glass to Ariel and then spoke briefly: "This is a red wine to drink to our success. Normally I would save this wine to drink with Nemesis, but I can find better quality, and since this is the best I have, this is what we should drink to our success." With those words, a whole bottle of red wine was drunk and the next day came. The floor mission was over. [Survive! Your mission to survive between floors 28-35 begins now! You will only have the right to use the food part of your inventory, you will have as much equipment as you can live on and you will be able to use your weapons, but do not take this ice-covered world lightly. Once every 20 days you will be counted as travelling up one floor for one time only, and it will stop when you reach the 35th floor. This is a SPECIAL mission created by the tower for Umbra of Chaos and Ariel of Chaos. Upon completion of the mission, you will have each of the floors 28-35 subjectively. This will be made possible by the tower creating a subspace and only a limited number of people will be able to enter these areas. Guild honour points must be spent to unlock the area]. [Mission accomplished!] James and Ariel looked up and saw that the air in the sky had opened up for a few seconds. The numbers 28-34 were written in the sky, indicating that each floor from the 28th to the 35th floor had been combined with this floor mission and finally given to James and Ariel. As the sky closed again and the snow began to fall in thin flakes, a large white passageway opened in front of the duo. "Are you leaving, sir?" Suddenly the pair turned at the sound of Elanor''s voice coming from behind them and then James spoke: "Someone will arrive a little while after we leave. People dressed in black with the crest of the church. People who can teach the village children and many others about war, development, history and other things. We will come to visit you after a while, don''t worry." At James'' words, Elanor bowed to the two and then said, "Thanks to you, the food shortage has been solved, the security shortage has been solved, and we have been able to receive training to help us grow. We can''t thank you enough, thank you very much." James and Ariel didn''t know what to say. After all, the only reason they had come here was the floor mission itself. Of course, these two could have camped out somewhere without a care in the world and lived like that for a long time, but they were not such people. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. That''s why they wanted to turn this floor, which would later become theirs, into as good a ''defence'' zone as they could. This floor was huge. Both James and Ariel were sure that dozens of unknown races lived on this snow-covered floor. That''s why, when the time came when the authority of the Church of Night would envelop the entire tower and set it on fire, this floor would have a very important task when James led them: [To protect the unprotected]. This was the wish of James and his subordinate Ariel. "Say hello to the others for us, Elanor, we''ll miss you all," Ariel said and then passed through the portal. James took one last look at the palace around him and then smiled and said, "That was fun." with that, he disappeared into the portal. Immediately after they passed through the portal, the two opened their eyes on the 35th floor. Both James and Ariel had heard about the beauty of this floor, but they were surprised. They seemed to be in a city, a floor where there were flowers and trees around the houses and buildings. A floor where you live in touch with nature. The 35th floor of the tower is the ''White Altar''. Chapter 222: Eve The 35th floor of the tower is the White Altar. It was one of the most beautiful floors in the tower. After hundreds of thousands of plants grown with the ''Nectars of God'' created by Chaos, it became a floor that started to live in touch with nature. The floor consisted of only one continent and an empire. It was highly probable that James would establish a decent life on this floor. After all, the White Empire, which owned the floor, was one of the biggest friends of the Sun Empire on the fifth floor. They were the ones who sent the priests to the 5th floor with the special teleportation rune in the White Empire palace, even though it could not be entered when the Fallen God danger fell on the 5th floor. This meant that James, as the rightful owner of the Sun Empire, should be treated like an emperor. The two opened their eyes and were greeted by several people carrying the flag of Asgard. "Welcome master Umbra, since there is no Olympus on this floor, we will be the ones to take care of you, please forgive our rudeness." James smiled when he heard these words and then said, "No need to worry, the fact that the great Asgard is accompanying us is more than good enough." He expressed his respect for Asgard. Indeed it was, thanks to his mother, the personalities, gods and goddesses and even ''mystical'' monsters he had learnt about were quite numerous. "Please follow us, the Empress is waiting for you," the Asgardian guard said. With that, the march from the city centre began and after almost ten minutes, the carriages and horse-drawn carriages made their way to the palace. James could not help but fall in love with the sights he saw, especially as he passed by. The fact that this city was so happy seemed to show James what he could achieve in the future. However, there was a war at the end of it, the two roads that James wanted to move forward intersected with each other, and the fact that he knew it himself was enough to leave even such a beautiful view in his mouth, it was a terrible situation. However, after almost thirty minutes, the palace was finally entered. As James travelled in the carriage, he saw hundreds of soldiers lined up, bowing and paying their respects, and both he and Ariel were becoming very confused. "What''s going on?" James had asked, and with that, the Asgardian guard had spoken the following words. "Information has leaked out of the Sun Empire, sir, that you have a connection to the founding emperor. Lady Nyx and even Odin himself tried to mobilise all of Asgard to block the information, but they failed. The fact that you are the rightful owner of the Sun Empire, as well as the rightful owner of the Church of Night, makes you even more valuable than the empire itself. Moreover, this empire, which the first emperor saved with his own hands, will surely treat you with respect." James had never heard such information from Nyx or anyone else, so James was asked not to worry. He realised this and nodded with a small grunt, making it all the more strange that he knew that he would indeed be calmly treated as an emperor. After a short time, the carriage stopped and James and Ariel stepped out of the carriage and saw a woman with golden hair and green eyes and the people behind her. The woman with the golden hair was quite surprised to see James, and so were the people behind her. When the two of them pursed their lips as if they could not understand what was happening, James started to speak: "Pleased to meet you, my name is James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos. The person next to me is Ariel of Chaos, who I consider my mother and who is also my first knight and also the first general of the Chaos Guild." S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After James''s words, Ariel turned to him and said in a low voice, "I could have introduced myself." "Welcome, Mr James. My name is Eve, the only empress of the White Empire, please follow me." The woman who introduced herself as Eve told James to follow her and with that the group entered the palace gates. The Asgardian guard was left outside for security reasons and the group entered with one less person. When James looked around, he thought that he was faced with an even more beautiful view with each passing second and watched the flowers with each step with joy. After almost five minutes, they reached the top of the palace and entered the room right next to the throne room. The table in the room was covered with food. As the Empress sat in the front chair, James was gestured to the other end of the table and Ariel was given the seat next to him. "You look so much like Master Desmond," said the woman who introduced herself as Eve, she had no idea how many people she had stunned with those words. As Ariel wondered who Desmond was, the room became very dark, the happy atmosphere of earlier seemed to have vanished, and it wasn''t even because of James himself. James'' shadow had taken the form of Nyx, just as it had the first time he had come to the fifth floor. Nyx brought her index finger to her lips and bluntly told Eve to shut up. "If it''s just you and the Titans watching I don''t think there''s a problem Lady Nyx, please stop wasting your energy," James said suddenly and with that, his shadow suddenly returned to normal. James'' voice was heard again as Eve and the others tried to understand what had happened: "As much as I am very, very grateful for your hospitality, please don''t mention my ancestor''s name like that. We were lucky. Even if information about my bloodline has leaked out, my ancestor''s name cannot leak out, please remember that." Eve shook her head at James'' words. "You said Nyx, sir...Or?" Eve said in surprise, both she and her family refusing to believe that the person they saw was the shadow of the goddess. "Just as you think, as I said, please do not talk about these matters. There are some unnecessarily aggressive Titans out there," James replied and his gaze fell on Ariel. Ariel''s gaze revealed to James that she knew nothing of what was going on. That''s why James chose to speak into Ariel''s mind instead of out loud and said, "I''ll tell you later, or you can hear it from Moros." With that, Eve''s voice was heard again: Enjoy reading at m v le_mp-yr "Forgive me Mr James, we were really surprised, you know...De...Your ancestor''s paintings are in the library section of the palace. It is said that your ancestor loved to read books, and my ancestor hung the paintings he had drawn after him there, that''s why we likened you to him." With Eve''s words, James smiled and then said, "Yes, I heard that my ancestor did a few things for this empire, even if I don''t know what happened, I am happy to see that it is still a good and vibrant empire." He said these words from the bottom of his heart. It was really astonishing that this floor was in such a peaceful state even though it was a common floor, this could be because the floor consisted of only one continent, and the fact that there was only one empire ruling the continent made everything more perfect. "Thank you, it is a pleasure to have you here, I hope you will stay here before moving on to the next floor, the whole palace is open to you if you wish to rest, the same goes for Mistress Ariel after all you have expressed that you consider her your mother." James shook his head as he heard these words and saw the pride on Ariel''s face. "What, are you proud because you got a free place to stay?" James muttered, of course, he was joking. Ariel smiled and said, "We lived in the snow for all these months, I was exhausted from the cold, let me think about my comfort for a little while." After these words, James turned to Eve and said, "Lady Eve, if you and your family would like to go to the fifth or twentieth floors, please do not hesitate. Every priest and priestess of the Church of Night on both floors and even the imperial family of the Sun Empire, will greet you with respect. You have my word." He was aware that Desmond had made a great friendship with this empire, but a great deal of time had passed since his death and now it was up to James himself. "We would be honoured sir, please let us eat and then we can take you on a tour of the palace," Eve replied, her golden smile matching her golden hair. "Well, if you have flower gardens and we''re going to visit them, I''d rather not sleep all day," James said with a smile. "You like flowers, do you?" asked the young man sitting next to Eve, who looked quite artistic. "Very much. I have an ability called Heaven''s Call. The ability reveals a flower garden that stretches for almost fifty metres," James replied. The conversation and laughter continued and after the conversation that lasted almost until dinner time, Ariel went to sleep while James headed towards the flower gardens with Eve and their children in tow. For the last few months...no, for the last year, he couldn''t remember ever feeling so comfortable. Chapter 223: Two Of Them After almost three hours of strolling and enjoying the delights of the huge flower garden, James went to sleep, and when the light of the next day hit him, he sat down at the breakfast table with the imperial family and accepted that the day had begun. Everything was going pretty well. James had realised that Ruby, in bird form, could enter his inventory just like Miracle, so one less person was missing from the group. Ariel had thought that after all they had been through, with only a day''s rest, they could go to the next floor. James had nodded his head in awkward agreement, wishing to get to the 39th floor as soon as possible, after all, the 40th floor was going to be quite a challenge. The 40th floor, the floor of righteousness where evil and good would be separated, would test both Ariel and James next to her. With these, the necessary preparations had been made. Based on what they could understand from the previous expedition, they had not neglected to take dozens of pairs of clothes and even more food in their inventory just in case. After saying goodbye to Eve, a white portal opened in the centre of the throne room. Just as the two were about to enter the portal, the door to the throne room opened violently and a white-haired woman with sharp ears entered. She was sweating profusely, clearly agitated and frightened, and must have run to the throne room. "EMPERESS, IT''S HAPPENED!" shouted the white-haired woman. Hearing those words, Eve suddenly closed her eyes painfully and realised that the last thing she had ever wanted to happen, or even wished would never happen, had happened. "Calm down and tell me what''s going on," Ariel suddenly said, wondering what was going on in the face of this concern. James sends a message to Emma to close the portal with Ariel''s words and then comes to the white-haired woman. "Madam...Two of them have appeared...Two Fallen Gods have appeared at the edge of the Empire!" the white-haired woman said and collapsed as dramatically as possible and fainted. James shook his head when he heard the words of the white-haired woman who had collapsed on the floor in front of him and tried to indicate that he did not want to believe such a thing. It was an extreme situation. Neither James nor Ariel could have foreseen this turn of events. Communication with outside forces was completely cut off and the two were left alone. They weren''t completely on their own. After all, the presence of Eve and her family was a detail that could not be overlooked. Still, this was not enough. If two Fallen Gods were involved, everything could turn into the worst. One fallen god was already demonstrating a huge potential for destruction. The last time a fallen god was confronted on the fifth floor, the entire floor had been thrown out of order, and the entrances to the floor and monitoring capabilities had been directly locked down. The danger of such a thing made James suddenly open the message window section to send a message to Nyx. "My lady, two Fallen Gods are currently on the 35th floor. We request the extra support of Olympus and Asgard and ask the angels and demons of heaven and hell for help." When this message was successfully sent, the ''...'' sign that the message would return appeared in the message window, but suddenly the window was closed. Communication with the outer floors seemed to be cut off, much to James'' horror. On top of that, he had to fight not one Fallen God but two. On top of that, as if that wasn''t enough, he had to do it on the 35th floor. As each floor was climbed, the Fallen Gods'' ability to use their abilities and level locks were unlocked. Even Fallen Gods, the embodiment of spirituality, could become stronger in this way. It was going to be a deadly battle. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Miss Eve, is there any way we can get there fast?" James suddenly asked, and with that Eve nodded her head and replied, "Yes, there is such a way, we have a teleportation circle, we can teleport you to one of the cities on the north side after ten minutes of loading." After this answer, Eve pointed to one of her children with her hand and then said, "Please guide them, and activate the teleportation circle as soon as possible." With that, James, Ariel and a few other members of the imperial family made their way to the teleportation chamber, the magic zone in the centre of the palace. Eve was filled with a strange adrenaline rush as she thought about the responsibility that had suddenly been thrust upon her. In a short time, she had entrusted the duties of the palace to her daughter, the future empress, and had entered the teleportation chamber and jumped into the circle, hoping to fight alongside James. After only 8 minutes, the circle was ready to be used. James, Ariel, Eve and a few imperial bodyguards were teleported to a place even further away from the cities in the northern part of the empire. Explore the story on m-vl-em,py-r The early start-up seemed to destabilise the transporter ring. Either way, everything was in good shape. James could make out the Fallen Gods perhaps 100 kilometres away from them, but they were, as the name implies, far away. Despite being so far away, James and the others could clearly understand the seriousness of the battle. James was seriously trying to formulate a plan. He had some serious advantages. After all, he had his daughter Miracle, a Supreme Dragon, and on top of that, he also had the mystical beast Phoenix Ruby herself. Even these two were enough to hold off the Fallen Gods for a certain period even possible for this red phoenix to bring a Fallen God close to death, although Ruby''s powers were still insanely suppressed. After all, many Fallen Gods had fallen because of the presence of Desmond and the mystical beasts with him. At least that was how Ruby praised herself. The group was overwhelmed by this aura that was gradually overwhelming them. Indeed, even taking a step seemed like death to them, they should not underestimate the Fallen Gods. After only half an hour of fast progress, the group finally managed to see the Fallen Gods. What the group saw was exactly as follows: Two people were on the earth. They were about three or three and a half metres tall. One could be described as a female and the other as a male. The bodies of the two were made entirely of darkness. They were just like the Fallen God James had encountered on the 9th floor. The only problem was that although these two were separate from each other, it was clear how much they looked alike. It was highly likely that they were brothers, but none of that mattered to James in the slightest. "Be careful, we don''t know what we''re up against," James suddenly said and reached into his inventory and pulled out both Ruby and his daughter Miracle. Ruby couldn''t see out of the inventory, so she just kept choosing to doze off. That''s why Ruby''s blood was boiling right now, she was hoping to have the strength she used to have, or at least be able to fight like she used to. James'' body, however, had suddenly begun to glow. When the same thing happened to Ariel, James looked around to see what was going on and saw Eve praying with a wand formed in her hand. James was definitely under a buff spell. "Sir, please continue. For 10 minutes I have unleashed a spell on you that will break your physical limit and increase your strength and speed by 25%." Eve said. After these words, James, who realised that he should not waste any more time, rushed forward to stop the Fallen Gods attacking the city. James, who had almost four hundred metres of space between him and the Fallen God, continued to advance at full speed and took out the holy sword Clarent from his inventory on the way. It was going to be a very complicated battle, but even if it was difficult to defeat, at least the fact that there was a scenario in which they could fight made everything better. When James had almost reached the place where the Fallen Gods were, the holy sword Clarent was covered with flames. James stayed alert to protect himself just in case, and after a short time, the holy sword Clarent entered the leg of the Fallen God in front of him, and a gigantic scream echoed towards the sky: "ORUUOOOOOGHHUURRR!!!" After this huge scream, Eve, who was preparing to cast the spell again, calmly looked at James with shining eyes and then said, "Just like my ancestor did...What an honour." This was going to be the hardest test James had ever taken. Chapter 224: Ruby Is Way Better At the sound of this gigantic scream, James suddenly stepped back and pulled the holy sword Clarent out of the leg he had stabbed him with. Enough blood to fill dozens of buckets began to come out of the leg he had stabbed. One of the Fallen Gods was female and one was male, and the Fallen God that James had stabbed in the leg seemed to be the female. They were not particularly large in size or appearance. As James and the others had already noticed, they were about three or three and a half metres tall. In short, they were about the size of the little Olympian giants James had met before. That''s why James thought as arrogantly as possible that he would be faster than these Fallen Gods. After all, almost every monster or user he had ever encountered that was bigger than him had a status distribution that tended towards strength and endurance as their bodies grew. Of course, this was true for anyone other than magic-using giants or large beings like Atlas. Atlas was a magic user, after all, even though he had great stamina and a large body. James suddenly reached into his inventory and released Ruby, who had been waiting at the ready. The moment Ruby stepped out, the Fallen Gods saw her and then the female Fallen God turned to James and shouted "IT''S YOU!!! KUTLU HERSELF WORSHIPS ONLY HIM!!!''" James looked towards Ruby when he heard these words and sent a mental dialogue "Worship?". When Ruby shook her head, she came out of her bird form and when she turned back into human form, she was smiling with joy. It was almost like she was happy to hear about "worshipping". With that, she started to release her magic around. The Fallen Gods instantly took a few steps back and began to form a defensive formation. At that very moment, a large ball from the water hit their defensive formation and a gigantic sound echoed throughout the city: "BOOOM!!!" James, as if he knew who was doing this attack, rushed forward without even turning his head and dived into the smoke coming out of the big ball of water. He knew there was no need for him to take his daughter Miracle out, and so he had the idea that he should strike first. After all, he knew that someone like Ruby was behind him now, and he knew that he was strong enough to directly counter several attacks from the Fallen Gods. As she entered the smoke, she noticed the male Fallen God standing in front of the female Fallen God, and thinking that she should target the female behind her, she took out Selene''s Throwing Knife from her inventory to try her luck. The male Fallen God met the attack head-on but did not realise what James was doing. Selene''s Throwing Knife was filled with poison magic. The blade successfully struck the male Fallen God and failed to penetrate its skin. There was not much of a visible ''appearance'' of this duo anyway. They looked just like the Fallen God James had encountered on the 9th floor. Still, it seemed that these Fallen Gods were more intelligent. After all, as Nyx had previously stated, the Fallen God that James had fought with Nemesis had gone insane. Indeed, the being had lost nearly every ounce of its intelligence. He was probably one of the first Fallen Gods to be killed. After all, it was strangely well known, at least to Nyx and the others, that most Fallen Gods were the offspring of Chaos'' ridiculous creators. The poison had already begun to spread through his body when the poisoned blade struck the Fallen God''s hand. Even if James was a Poison Master, it was obvious that his poison level was not yet sufficient to kill a god, which was why he had tried to use his poison energy to stall the Fallen God for a while. The male Fallen God managed to stumble for a few seconds. As he was travelling left and right, James passed by him, and the holy sword covered Clarent with its fiery aura as he attempted an attack on the female Fallen God. Experience the best on m_v_l_e_m_p_y_r "CHING!!!" Her attack was blocked and James was struck by a punch. James literally flew through the air for almost ten metres and when he landed back on the ground he realised that he had given Ruby enough time. Ruby''s mana suddenly ignited and a hundred metres of the city entrance they were in, including the city entrance itself, was completely engulfed in flames. The flames were a pure orange colour, and even if they were not very strong, they were at least strong enough to drive away the weak. Every soldier, mage, hunter or mage preparing to attack from inside the city suddenly stopped as if ordered to retreat. They had already witnessed Eve''s magic, each of them far away from them. They seemed to have got the idea that if the Empress was here, they had nothing to worry about. They were quite right in their thinking. After all, Empress Eve was not alone. Next to Eve were Ariel, who had begun to prepare for battle, and James, who had already begun to fight. When James saw the flames around, he thought that the flames should become even stronger. Since they were in a place of great influence like the city, James thought that he should definitely not use the poison flame. In fact, James could not think of any flames he could use other than the white flames of ice. After all, it was the only flame that could slow the Fallen Gods down. He couldn''t use poison, he couldn''t use purple flames to cloud the mind, and he couldn''t go and wreak havoc around the city using blue or black flames, after all, he knew they would win and he didn''t want to cause difficulties to the living creatures here. On top of that, he was sure that the white flames of ice would do the trick. That''s why James suddenly activated all the mana in his body, and on top of that, he started to use the power in the elemental core. 8 Sacred Fire was instantly activated and after a short time, the orange flames that Ruby had started to emit disappeared, merging into their white colour. "Just the way I wanted it!" Ruby shouted. Suddenly, the beautiful woman leapt into the air, and as she leapt into the air, her wings began to flap proudly, doing everything they could to keep her in the air. As soon as Ruby began to fly in the air, the flames she had spread began to gather in her hands. A gigantic cold hung suspended in the atmosphere of the entire city. Every patch of greenery began to have the natural phenomena of the frost itself, and some plants even began to freeze completely. James was witnessing Ruby''s perfect magic as if he could not believe his eyes. It was a great honour just to be able to watch Ruby gathering every bit of flame on the earth in her hands, James was just now able to understand what a mystical beast really was. Such control of the flame, such control of mana and such control of magic was truly mind-boggling. Ruby''s level was the epitome of perfection. With these thoughts in mind, she stood still and then reached into her inventory and as gently as she could, she brought out her daughter Miracle. When the little girl Miracle came out in her human form, she looked around, understanding what was happening, she had her mother''s tactical intelligence so she could see what was happening in the inventory and she already knew what to do. The intelligence of this one-year-old girl was astonishing. As soon as the little girl Miracle looked at her father, she started to release her mana and started to feed the flames around her. James was releasing 8 Sacred Fire and his daughter Miracle was feeding the icy white flame itself. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After almost twenty seconds James realised that something was coming towards them and he saw that the Fallen Gods had finally come to their senses. It wouldn''t change anything, though, because Ruby''s spell was already at the ready. "I''m putting everything into this attack little one, after this, I''m going to go into a sleep state, I''m sure one will die but I''ll leave the other to you." James smiled as he heard those words in his mind and then nodded. This was the last sign Ruby needed to continue. If the end was as Ruby thought it would be, then surely and James would be able to take down everything else on his own. It would be difficult because the Fallen Gods had a high level of power, but James was not powerless. Ruby''s help would change everything. However, the time had come. Ruby suddenly sent all the flames she had gathered back to earth. When Miracle, the little girl, had formed a magic shield around herself and her father, the fireball of icy white fire, almost the size of a football, that Ruby had sent, was on its way to hit the earth. Chapter 225: Sun Wukong Will Be the One The fireball of icy white fire travelled towards the earth at an incredible speed and finally, the expected happened. When the white fire hit the earth, a huge layer of energy and flame began to spread outwards. There was no sound, no one heard a sound when the fireball of white flames hit the earth. It was like snow falling, but in this case, the ice itself seemed to have fallen from the sky. The flames spread through the city, and everything that wasn''t alive turned to ice. It was as if Ruby herself had managed to adjust the fire element just for this to happen. James''s respect for Ruby was truly enormous; it was impossible for him to even imagine having such elemental control right now. Ruby had descended from the sky to the earth and had entered James'' inventory without speaking as soon as she changed into bird form. They had managed to stay where they were without any problems as the little girl Miracle had protected both herself and her father from the impact of the fireball. When James looked at his daughter Miracle, he said, ''We''re going to attack.'' and then started to move forward. The holy sword still held Clarent tightly, knowing that one of the Fallen Gods was already dead, or at least on the brink of death, he chose to keep moving forward quickly. After a short while, he was engulfed in white flames and was confronted by a huge block of ice. The ice mass was scattered around and two dark beings were waiting in the centre. The male-looking one of the dark beings was incredibly injured. Both of his arms were broken by the ice fire his legs were immobilised, and he was leaning against the ice boulder, barely breathing. The female was nowhere to be seen and this was worrying, she appeared to have escaped, but she was a Fallen God and there was no limit to the abominations she was capable of. That included deceiving others. James lunged forward and then drove the holy sword Clarent through the heart of the barely breathing Fallen God in front of him and continued to pierce him. After only a few seconds, the Fallen God was no longer breathing, the black matter in its body had vanished with it, and the number of Fallen Gods had dropped from two to one. [You''ve gained seven levels! You''ve gained 17,500,000 gold!] James directly won the slaying reward and then looked around with his eyes, searching for the female Fallen God. The little girl Miracle transformed into her dragon form and started flying through the air, searching for the female Fallen God in case she had escaped. James, on the other hand, began to search for the female Fallen God among the layers of ice scattered around on the ground. Unfortunately, after almost an hour, nothing had turned up. The female Fallen God had probably been so injured that she had managed to escape, even though she was likely to die. After that, James suddenly entered the city walls in case something happened to the people in the city and realised that hundreds of races had started praying to him differently. They were officially welcoming him with applause. [The Way to Be a God ability is activated! Over 35000 people began to worship you with all their hearts and the deepest depths of their souls! The user has gained 13500 Holiness status! Experience the saga at m-vlem|p-yr 25,000,000 gold has been earned! Broken Diamond Essence won!] S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James saw that this was indeed what was likely to happen and instantly closed the system window and got on with what he needed to do. As Eve and Ariel quickly followed James, Ariel''s voice was heard: "I didn''t expect it to be over so fast, I haven''t even joined the battle yet, it''s so lame." At Ariel''s words, James smiled and then said, "Then you can go and look for the female Fallen God, she can let me know and I can come there with Eve." Ariel instantly nodded her head as if she understood and then left the city gate she had entered and started heading east towards the most likely place for the female Fallen God to escape. This would be the second time for James to chase someone. The first time, Ariel had chased the man who had tried to kill James, and although he had been incredibly weak, he had managed to evade her for a long time. Now it was a Fallen God that Ariel had to chase and locate. Still, Ariel was lucky. After all, Ariel was now able to give orders to forces like Olympus and Asgard, after all, he was the first general of the Chaos Guild, and on top of that, he was James'' first knight. It was not known exactly how many people Ariel could command, but it was certain that the number exceeded one million. Now Ariel needed the powers of the Asgardian guards and heroes on the 35th floor. The female Fallen God wouldn''t be able to escape for long. "You''ve done an excellent job, Mr Umbra," Eve suddenly said, seemingly not wanting to use James'' real name since he was with the public. When James heard these words, he looked at Eve and smiled. "That buff you gave me came in handy, I didn''t even need to use my skills," James said. Of course, Ruby was a huge help and that was the reason why James didn''t even need to use his abilities, but the buff support Eve had given him could not be overlooked. Breaking someone''s physical limits and making that person 25% stronger was something that could be done hard. "I am honoured." Eve said, turning to her people, "We came as fast as we could to deal with the darkness that fell upon you. Any losses will be paid for by the empire. Please forgive your empress for your losses." It was obvious that no one in the crowd blamed Eve, on the contrary, words of thanks and weeping could be heard from everyone. It was impossible for James not to be amazed. This was a kingdom whose families had probably been slaughtered long ago by Desmond and Eve''s ancestor, a territory that had been annexed to the empire. But how good an empress must Eve have been for the people to love her so much? This woman was truly admirable, she managed to dispel everyone''s worried looks with just a few words. "So we''re going back then?" James suddenly questioned himself, but then it occurred to him that more than half the city was covered in ice. Since this was partly his fault, he reached for his inventory and then turned to Eve and said, "Send anyone who needs food here." Who knows how many people were in the city, but James felt he had to help, at least until help arrived from distant cities and settlements. With that, his work began here. At Nyx''s temple, however, different things began to come into play. ----- For a long time, Uranus had been trying to find people who could be considered ''criminals''. He was especially careful about people who raided churches and stole forgotten items. After all, even if they were probably the ones who had summoned the Fallen Gods, they might otherwise have been put on trial for confiscating sacred items when it wasn''t them. No one had seen Uranus this frustrated in a long time. "We managed to find a few people. My servants were able to extract information through torture. There''s a bigger disaster coming than we thought," Uranus said. Nyx and the others looked at Uranus in confusion as they heard these words, and Erebus'' question, "What kind of disaster?" broke the silence. "These bastards...they are made up of 18 different units. I''ve only been able to locate one of them, I''ve already warned Asgard and Olympus, I''ve even asked and for help from Sun Wukong, the maniac who doesn''t listen to the rules of the tower, he''s the one who will lead the armies," said Uranus, it was not even possible to understand how deep these words were. "Sun Wukong... is he going to lead the armies?" Hyperion asked, obviously everyone knew what a good-hearted psychopath he was. "Yes, I only asked him to help destroy a region, but he wanted to lead the armies. It seems that even Sun Wukong himself doesn''t want a repeat of the great war...after all, he was a dear friend of Desmond''s and ours," replied Uranus. "He...I mean, Wukong doesn''t know, right? Should we tell him?" asked Nyx, genuinely worried. "He''s going to know sooner or later, I think we should tell him, he has a right to know," said Gaia, and that was the truth. "He did great things in the war...he is the only reason Asgard is still alive..." Erebus said, he seemed to agree with what Gaia said. The war was getting closer. So close, everything was incredibly close. Chapter 226: Sacred Artifact "And who''s going to tell him? I''m not going to tell him that we''ve been hiding things from him all this time, I don''t think I''m that brave," Hyperion said. Sun Wukong may not have been as strong as them, but he could be the craziest god in every sense of the word. He was unpredictable in how and who he attacked, and he would do anything just to finish the person he was fighting. Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Heaven''s Equal, was perhaps the most different but also the most perfect god in existence. "I''m not going to be that person, and if you think I''m going to bother pulling his chin, think again," Phoebe muttered. When all eyes turned to Nyx, she frowned and realised she was back in charge. "Not again!" Nyx shouted, and as the others shook their heads, she stood up and started walking towards the door to leave the temple. Sun Wukong''s support was going to be good for everyone. Wukong''s strength and the way he used his power was top-notch. He was not a mystical beast or a strange god. He was regarded as one of the best among the superior gods and one of the most worshipped people in the entire tower. As it is said Sun Wukong, the Great Sage and Heaven''s Equal. ----- After James and Eve''s long wait, Asgard had indeed managed to arrive on the scene with a large army. It seemed that work had begun to melt the layers of ice scattered around and to store those that were too large to melt and use them later. James, meanwhile, was still waiting for a message from Ariel; after all, he couldn''t leave the floor. He could have left the floor, he could have tried to do something like Ariel had done earlier, going to the 20th floor and returning to the 5th floor, but there was a problem here. Neither James nor Ariel had any knowledge of whether or not they could come back once they left the floor. After all, the number of Fallen Gods they encountered this time was not one, but two. One had managed to be killed after Ruby sacrificed herself by putting her into a deep sleep, but one had escaped. And there was no help coming from the outside. After all, James had sent a message to Nyx, and the message had got through, and if no priest or priestess from the Church of Night had entered the 35th floor from the outside, that meant that James and Ariel''s theory was correct. Every entrance from the outside to the inside was blocked both for the gods and goddesses and those climbing the tower. "Your Majesty Umbra," said an Asgardian warrior. James felt awkward being called that, but he turned to the warrior, made a gesture for him to speak, and began to listen to what was being said: "We have begun to receive messages from Asgard''s territories in the empire, Black Magic is getting out of control. Rumour has it that this magic is very similar to the magic of the goddess Nyx. We wanted to point this out to you, as Nyx has also mastered black magic, and one of the lost artefacts may be here." James frowned when he heard these words looked at the warrior carefully and asked, "Do you know how many cities or settlements you have received notifications from?" When the Asgardian warrior shook his head and said, "Seven, sir." James turned to Eve in surprise and then asked, "I have to go now, will you be all right on your own, my lady?" Eve shook her head and then said, "I''m not alone." and pointed to the imperial soldiers and Asgardian warriors around. James turned to the Asgardian warrior next to him after these words and then asked, "What is your name, young warrior?" When the Asgardian warrior heard this question, he took a salute stance and then shouted, "My name is Yorhun sir, I am at your service!" "Alright young Yorhun, gather some warriors, we have to go to the settlements, if an artefact is here, we must capture it and make it protected, if our enemies are there, we must make a massacre," James said after these words. Yorhun nodded when he heard these words and in just five minutes a company of over twenty warriors was standing in front of James. With that, James and the company of twenty-one men jumped on their horses and left the city, heading straight for one of the places Yorhun had pointed out on the map. After almost half a day, the group approached the settlement, stopped at James'' command and dismounted. There were almost three hundred metres between the group and the town, but there was only one reason for James to stop where they were: More than enough dirty black magic was emanating from the town, almost as much as the Fallen God he had first encountered. James turned to the warriors behind him and said, ''Be careful, this place is contaminated, just like Yorhun said, pay special attention to the people in the town, keep your guard up against their attacks, don''t trust anyone else until I tell you to.'' As soon as the Asgardian warriors heard James'' words, they started to advance, clinging to their shields and spears. Discover more stories at m v l e mpyr Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James was no exception. He held the holy sword Clarent tightly and removed one of the shields, even if it was weak, just in case. As they slowly approached the town, they went inside and saw the townspeople watching them from in front of their houses. It was a terrible sight. There was a green cloud on the floor of the town, stretching almost thirty centimetres across, it looked like poison, but it was so connected to the earth that it could not harm unless it was bent down and breathed into the body. When James gave the order to the warriors to advance with his hand, the warriors took a battle formation as if they were waiting for this order. Without waiting, James put 8 Sacred Fire into use, even if it would weigh on his body and this time the sacred sword Clarent began to be covered with black flames. Whatever was here needed to be destroyed outright, and the most powerful flame in hell could help him with that. Shields covered James as he was surrounded by Asgardian warriors and the sound of armour shifting with each step became louder and louder. James was constantly looking around, trying to realise what was happening. There was nothing he could see. Knowing that this wasn''t going to work, and knowing he had to take his chances, he gave an order to the group to cover themselves and be careful and then began to walk towards the area where he thought the black magic was high. He kept his guard up, but his heart continued to beat despite his Calm Mind ability. He was very, very sure that he was facing a great danger. When he came to the area where the black magic was the highest, he noticed a sword stuck in the ground. This was indeed one of the lost artefacts because on the hilt of the sword was the emblem of the church of the night. James thought that he could easily solve this problem, so he covered his whole body with black flames and entered the black magic layer directly. He was aware of the weight on his body. However, he was also aware of the large amount of mana entering his body, everything was much, much easier since black magic did not harm James, but it was clear that this kind of darkness would not be unattended. James reached for the sword and pulled it out of its impaled position, and with it, the danger he had been waiting for was unleashed: "SKRIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" "KRUUUAGHHHHHHHH!!!!!" "SCHRIEKKKK!!!" With one scream after another, it started to rise from the hole where the sword was taken out, and then a huge passage emerged from the hole. Monsters started to come out of the passage in droves. James instantly turned to the Asgardian warriors and shouted "GET ALL THE TOWN PEOPLE OUT!!!". The Asgardian warriors and the townspeople hiding in their homes seemed to suddenly mobilise at these words. It was clear that no one was stupid enough to listen to a man shouting from within the dark flames. James, on the other hand, took a few steps back after his shout and lifted his left leg without thinking, and he recovered 30 per cent of the mana he currently had in his body. It was finally time to use that mesmerising ability he had gained. "DESTRUCTION!!!" shouted James, and then he plunged his leg into the ground. "CRUMBLE!" As soon as a crashing sound reached the ears, the impact reached the earth. A sudden, ear-splitting crack tore through the frozen air, so loud it seemed to shake the sky. It was like the explosion of a cannon, a thunder that tore the silence with a force that made the earth tremble. The earth itself groaned so loudly that even James himself could feel his ears ringing. He seemed to have used too much mana in the ability. With this impact, other sounds made the ears ring again: "GROOOOOANN!!!" "KRRRRRRACK!!!" "SSSSHHHHH!!!" It was as if there had been a volcanic eruption underground. This was perhaps the most DEVASTATING spell James could cast at this moment. Chapter 227: Seven of Them? As the impact of the Destruction ability travelled towards the passage that had emerged from the hole, the entire passage began to tremble. After seeing it with his own eyes, James could understand much more clearly why the ability called destruction was so dangerous. The gate that the ability had hit began to tremble completely. It was as if the passage had started to break in reality. The whole passage was covered with cracks, no creatures could come out of the passage anymore, but strangely, creatures behind the passage could be seen. James seemed to have unknowingly managed to lock the portal. His whole body was covered in black flames, which was going to be the biggest reason for him to hold on at the moment. Suddenly he lunged forward and attacked to prevent the monsters from getting out of the town. With each step he took, the poison fumes clinging to the ground dissipated. Black flames began to burn unquenchably wherever he stepped. James suddenly leapt towards the almost five-metre white tiger in front of him and then leapt into the air, shouting, ''Pierce!'' With incredible speed and determination, he pierced right through the big tiger''s door. When the tiger''s body fell to the ground, James was already attacking another monster. He began to slaughter the monsters one by one, and it was annoying that each monster did not die directly. Even though he was using 8 Sacred Fire, he had the problem that really powerful monsters were coming out of the passage. If there were six more of these gateways in other settlements, it meant that a great danger was connected to the empire. The real question was why two Fallen Gods and seven artefacts were covered with black magic and spread throughout this empire. If a war was to be started, it had to start from the lower levels. The closer they got to the 75th Floor, the more their power would increase, but at the same time, the power of those who could oppose them would also increase. After all, there were indeed a few people with greater power than James currently possessed. Even if they were not like the Nyx James had chosen, some were under the supervision of very powerful gods or goddesses. Odin''s warrior Ali, Zeus'' Alshain, Osiris'' Adam, and many others still existed below the 75th floor. Maybe they didn''t have enough power to kill the Fallen Gods. After all, no matter how weak the Fallen Gods were, they were still gods, and to kill them you had to have the status of Holiness, which is the symbol of godhood, and the only reason James was able to kill the Fallen God on the 9th floor was that Nemesis, who had that status, was next to him. Yet all these climbers and many more were strong enough to push the Fallen Gods to the point of withdrawing the attack. Which begs the question: Why were the Fallen Gods and the seven artefacts covered in dark magic and spread throughout the empire? James was filled with all these thoughts, it was a very stupid situation indeed. Even if he couldn''t kill every monster he attacked with every move, he could at least manage to get the monsters into a near-kill state. It was at that moment that he realised that a few voices were beginning to rise behind him. Suddenly he saw with his own eyes the Asgardian warriors who had passed him and were attacking, all the hairs on his body stood on end, these warriors were too perfect. Each and every one of them knew that James wouldn''t even need their help, after all the only reason James had brought them here was so that they could protect the people in case of need. Nevertheless, James admired these warriors. He suddenly deactivated 8 Sacred Fire and then used his dark step ability, this time taking care to be more detailed in his steps. James normally took care not to fully utilise the ability by taking a few fairly straightforward but simple steps, as this worked better with his own fighting style rather than the style of the ability. Nevertheless, the power of the ability was unleashed when the 12 steps were completed. With each step, he began to follow the step patterns that the talent had shown him almost in front of his eyes. With each step, he began to kill the monsters that he had just attacked twice, one by one, in one fell swoop. He was incredibly fast, it was obvious to the naked eye how much he had mastered the skill. He seemed to dance across the battlefield, and Nyx and the others would have been incredibly proud of him. James transferred his mana back into his leg before he took the final step, this time a 3-5% mana rating flowed into his leg, and as he took the final step, the 60% decisive attack of his dark step ability was activated. As soon as the Destruction ability worked again, a not-very-large attack moved towards the gate. The attack chance from the dark step ability made the destruction ability much stronger. James''s attack moved forward again like an earthquake, and as soon as it hit the gate, the gate was now shattered into pieces. A very high level of energy poured out of the hole from which the gate had emerged. The poisonous cloud covering the floor of the town began to disappear, albeit slowly. It was as if the curse that had spread over the town had been exhausted. James had done something very difficult to do. He had become one of the few people who could dismantle a gate without a god. Maybe there was no reward for this achievement, but this achievement was indeed one of the most difficult things that could be done in the only sense of the word. As it was already said, there were only two hands of people who could do it. Visit our site at m-vl-em-pyr S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James stepped back as if he had managed to recover himself after the use of the skill and then realised that there were no more monsters around. Perhaps the number of monsters, which exceeded four hundred, was now reduced to zero. As James realised what had happened, he turned to the Asgardian warriors and said, "Thank you." This thank you was not because of the help he received, he didn''t need any help anyway. It was because the Asgardian warriors were so brave. After taking a deep breath, James entered each house in the town one by one and checked the mana in his body by scanning the traces outside and realised that there was indeed no problem. Immediately after that, he checked the townspeople and saw that they did not have any problems either. "Do any of you know who stuck this sword in there?" asked James. After this question, a boy, perhaps 13 or 14 years old, came out of the townspeople and then raised his hand, saying, "I saw it, sir." James was about to ask the boy what was going on when the leader of the town stepped forward and said, "Sir...This little one...you know..." and turned his finger in a circle on the right side of his head. In short, the leader of the town was labelling the boy as crazy. Still, James needed every clue he could get. When he signalled the boy to speak, the boy began to speak without waiting. "Sir, it was around two o''clock at night, I keep waking up because I have sleep problems. I saw a person with a black liquid flowing around him, his deep blue eyes were shining in the night. When I left the house to check what happened, I heard a few words, and then that person stabbed the sword into the ground and left the town instantly." "Do you remember the words that were spoken?" James asked inquisitively, and the boy nodded his head and said, "Word for word, sir." When James again signalled to the boy that he needed to speak, his eyes widened from what he heard: "If I remember correctly, it was like this; Slave of darkness, sucker of light, extreme of magic and sick of hell. I bestow this artefact upon you and ask you for the opposite." After these words, James stood where he was for a few seconds with his eyes wide open and realised that this was the truth. He realised that here he had encountered one of the spells he had read about in the Imperial library and used by black mages. This black magic could be cast by someone with at least twelve magic rings. It was a very complicated spell and would require such a huge amount of mana. James then turned to Yorhun standing next to him and said, "I want you to reach as many Asgardian warriors as you can, we are facing a master black mage. We need to quarantine all the towns, every one of them must be surrounded. Send word to Eve, at least ten thousand of the imperial soldiers should surround the towns with you guys, be quick." Yorhun saw the worry on James'' face when he said these words. James was not afraid, after all, even if twelve magic rings were quite gigantic, they were not worth one Fallen God. The problem was that there was a possibility that there were at least seven of these mages. Such a complicated chain of spells could not be set up in seven different places at seven different times, you would only have five, maybe ten minutes maximum to link the spells. That''s how complicated the spell was. One or two wizards of this level could be dealt with, but seven of them could perhaps make a Fallen God. With Eve asleep 70 per cent of the little girl Miracle''s magic went into her magic shields, and the female Fallen God was on the run, on top of that, seven wizards with twelve magic rings on top of that would be a huge threat indeed. Things were starting to heat up. Chapter 228: Seal Rune Yorhun and the other warriors were already marching to the next town with James. James'' orders had been transmitted to Asgard and Eve, and literally, the entire empire was in full war mode. As James had expected, no priest or priestess of the church of the night had managed to enter this floor. The only thing that happened was that Aether gained access to the empire. James was maddeningly surprised by this news. He didn''t even know how Aether himself had made it to this floor. He had chosen to sleep as he hadn''t slept for a long time, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself inside the imperial hall. All the while Aether himself was able to communicate with Nyx, carrying out orders. Nothing had gone wrong in the imperial capital, so the idea that the Fallen Gods'' summoners were targeting the imperial capital was completely disproven. The nobles of the Empire had chosen to leave the palace as soon as they received this information. After Aether''s checks, it became clear that neither they nor their family members were harmed, which allowed the imperial nobles to take action. The nobles were already struggling to take action with the information from James, but the orders from their Empress Eve were the last straw for them. James had managed to pull one artefact out of its mire, but he had failed to do anything in the next six towns. These seven towns seemed to represent a shape when viewed from the map as if more than 200,000 imperial armies had been built in a circle in almost three days. When viewed from the map, a heptagon shape was presented to the eyes. When James saw this, he closed his eyes and started to think how he could not realise it. When Aether himself came up to James and looked at the map, he put his hands to his head, the old man even chose to pinch himself to see if he was imagining things. Eve, the Asgardian warriors, and the imperial nobility had become incredibly frightened at the sight of them. "How long do we have, Aether?" James suddenly asked, drawing everyone''s attention to the question. "You broke a seal, sir, the spell will work later. Breaking such an elaborate seal would give you almost three or four days," Aether replied. James squinted at these words and began to think. If the Fallen Gods were created as a diversion, it meant that this organisation could not only summon the Fallen Gods but also give them orders, unless, of course, the Fallen Gods did not create these events of their own free will. Anyway, the danger of this event has increased many times over. The real problem was that there were six more of the seals he had broken. It was obvious why this organisation had chosen this floor and this region of the empire on this floor. Seven towns are connected to each other and seven artefacts are connected to each other by a complex black magic. This was a complex formation of a gigantic spell. If this spell worked, it would be completely impossible to tell what would pass through that passage. It was literally blood-curdling. "We can say we have at least three days. Aether, I assume you can use rune magic, do you have arcana energy?" James suddenly asked. Aether nodded, James curled his lip as if he understood, and then said, "Find everyone with arcana energy, show them the runes I''m going to give you. We have to be quick if we don''t want the empire to fall to the ground." The moment James had said those words, the hearts of Eve and all the imperial nobles had literally fallen into the sea, it was easy to tell that every one of them had been overcome with fear. Especially Eve herself...After all, this woman knew who James was descended from, and the fact that even he was so worried was a great burden on this woman. After these words, James drew a few symbols on a few pieces of paper and waited. Under the leadership of Aether, people who were skilled in arcana energy gathered and waited right behind James. Immediately after James noticed this, he stopped a few hundred metres away from the entrance of the town they were in and transferred arcana energy to the five fingers of his left hand. Since arcana energy is something that can be mastered quite difficult, almost two hundred people immediately gathered under the leadership of Aether. Each of them began trying to memorise the details of the runes James had begun to draw on the floor and the way they were drawn. After almost five minutes of an incredibly detailed drawing session, James rose from his crouch and wiped his sweat-soaked face. It was quite difficult for him as he was not a master of Arcana energy, which is why he needed the direct help of others. "We will draw a copy of this rune in a circle around each town, two rows at five-metre intervals. It''s something that must exist to prevent the initial impact of these artefacts," James said suddenly. He took a deep breath and then said, ''In the meantime, I''m going to try to learn another rune, and if we can learn it by the last day, and if we can place the rune itself at the centre where the black magic is focused, maybe... even if it''s a small possibility, we can stop the magic.'' He could see that these words made every single person there smile. "However, please don''t take this for granted, this is close to impossible. Even all these runes we will draw will not be enough. We must treat this black magic as something impossible to block and be ready for battle. Remember, these runes will only reduce the incoming danger to a low level, it is IMPOSSIBLE to destroy the thread." James added. These words seemed to bring everyone back to reality. "Come on, what are you waiting for?!" James suddenly shouted and with that, everyone got to work. When everyone was gone, Empress Eve herself and a few high-ranking nobles approached James. The question James had never wanted to hear came to his ears: "Umbra...How much of the Empire can survive?" At Eve''s question, James looked at her and his heart skipped a beat, even though he was obviously scared out of his mind. "Maybe half...if we try hard enough...just maybe..." James blurted out, lying was obviously not going to help. Eve and the rest of the nobles stood where they were at these words, they had no idea what to say. Still, there was really nothing they could do. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James knew this, so he found the centre of the heptagon on the map, in the middle of the towns, and set off towards the centre. When he approached the centre, he saw that the black magic source had started to rise to the upper levels. Suddenly, sitting on the ground, he had indeed removed his only chance at rune magic from his inventory: [Beginner Level Ancient Rune Arts Manuscript] James secretly hoped that he was strong enough to open the next pages. Taking a deep breath, he turned the cover of the manuscript and then skipped to the first page. When he managed to open the second page, he realised that he could see the information on this blank page again. James didn''t even realise that the manuscript itself was a rune that only the most powerful could use, but that wasn''t even what he needed to realise right now. Seeing that there was nothing useful on the second page, he forced himself to open the third page and again found that there was nothing useful. There were a few attack runes on the page that might be useful, but all James needed was a seal rune. Now he had one last chance. Sweating profusely and the magic drained from his body, he was able to open the fourth page and then smiled in happiness. There was indeed a seal rune on the fourth page. With great happiness, James started to hold the manuscript open in his right hand and started to write the seal rune by circling in the centre of the black magic from where he was. Unlock new chapters at m_vl-em-py-r This process would take almost 19 hours. James did not last a second and used both his main mana and arcana mana to the fullest. The only reason he was able to stand up despite being so tired was because of his aura. He could have completed this job tomorrow, but he chose to finish it today, despite all the warnings of Vladimir and the others, just in case. When he returned to the camp, everyone had seen his miserable state. Of course, the other arcana mages and the Aether were also in a bad state, but they had already completed the part they had planned to do today and even added a small part on top of it. "Sir...are you alright?" Aether said. James turned to Aether and said, "I have completed the centre seal rune, I will help you tomorrow." He could not have realised how much those words meant to Eve, the nobles, the soldiers and others. Chapter 229: So It Begins "Master Umbra has been working on the sigil rune all this time...we have been resting..." Aether suddenly said. As soon as he said these words, he turned to the arcana mages who were busy resting around him and said in a loud voice: "GET READY, WE HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO!!!" However, James had somehow managed to get to his camp tent. The fact that Aether had alerted Nyx and the altar he had set up made everything much easier. At least the outer floors were neither chaotic nor worried. All they could do was wait. Perhaps they could place other climbers and army pieces that had almost become demigods on different floors as protection, just in case. At the moment, not only Olympus and Asgard but many gods and goddesses were doing their best. After all, each person wanted to protect what they had, just in case. When James finally fell asleep and woke up, he came out of his tent and realised that the sun was high in the sky. It looked like he had slept for almost three or four hours. This was not enough to completely replenish his arcana energy, but since he had not tried to increase it much, his arcana energy was small compared to his mana, and he had managed to replenish 70% of it. This was a great advantage. Eventually, the seal rune around the centre was finished and it occurred to him that he just needed to help draw it. The skin under his eyes was purple with fatigue. He had a body that didn''t seek sleep, but when he slept and felt that he hadn''t had enough of it, a terrible feeling came over him. Discover magic at m-vl-em-pyr Nevertheless, the work that had to be done had to be completed, even if it was forced. After a short while, having successfully made it to the area where Aether and the other arcana mages were working, James looked around at the runes and saw that the runes to restrict black magic spells had been drawn in great depth. It was obvious that every single piece of runes they had made was beyond James. James hadn''t realised he was this bad at anything for a long time, not since he''d entered the tower he hadn''t even had a chance to see that he was bad at something, as luck had been smiling on him despite his lack of luck. "Sir, you''re awake...you should have rested a little longer." one of the arcana mages said, and with that voice, more than two hundred arcana mages working together looked in James'' direction. "My arcana energy is already close to full, keep working, if we manage to finish this today we can build some attack runes, I have a couple of good attack runes," said James. With James'' words, everyone went back to their work and he began to help the arcana mages who were working in the space he had found. Strangely enough, the arcana mages managed to do more work in just four hours than they had done in 19 hours. I guess the fact that James had pushed himself so hard had inspired them. That was a good thing. Almost 80 per cent of the rune array was already finished. James was frankly surprised by what had happened. Starting from the furthest town, they had managed to bring it to the town that James had cleared. The shiny runes that could be seen on the left and right of the first towns showed James how much work he had to do. After almost 2 hours, the arcana mages and James somehow managed to finish the rune circle. After that, James stood where he was, sweating again. After a short while, he reached into his inventory and pulled out a few chests. "Let''s not consume the army''s food, it makes more sense to eat this and go back," James said, and with that, after a short meal time, the group entered the camp area. James went straight back to the camp tent and put his head on the bed without doing anything and fell asleep. This time a bigger sleep was waiting for him. No one could wake him up and he managed to sleep for almost two days without a sound sleep. This was not a good thing because when he opened his eyes again, he realised that even the tent he was in was covered with black magic. Suddenly he stepped out of the tent and looked around. He realised that the huge army was stationed around the town. One soldier seemed to have stayed in the tent only to inform James. Thanks to that soldier, James had managed to get to Eve and the other nobles quickly. When he looked up, he saw that the sky, which should have been bright at this hour, was dark. Eve herself and the others seemed happy that James had arrived. After all, no matter what they did, they could not wake him up. James had instantly removed the holy sword Clarent, his little girl Miracle and Ruby, who now seemed to be awake, from his inventory and then spoke: "Miracle, you won''t leave my side. Grandma Ruby, please focus on protecting me, this army is not something you can destroy with your current energy. The fact that you are already on the 35th floor suppresses your power tremendously. Just focus on protecting me." After his words, the little girl Miracle turned into a dragon form and landed on James'' head as usual. Ruby sat on Miracle''s head. It would be quite logical to say that it was quite a funny image. Thanks to the restriction spells drawn around the towns and the circle spell drawn around the town on top of it, the infiltration rate of black magic seemed to be incredibly reduced. This was a much better thing than thought. The seal runes James had drawn in the centre seemed to have already begun to work. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Seal runes and restriction runes were the most used types, as they only required arcana energy to draw. They were nothing like the buff runes James had used in Blessed''s dungeon. It was respectable that black magic could offer such a huge amount of energy despite being restricted. He didn''t know who had cast these spells, but James was secretly afraid, the threat of seven of them appearing here at once was the most terrible thing. After almost three hours of waiting, the black magic itself had stopped. Not only was there no trace of any magic left, but even the images of the spells seemed to have been erased. James seemed to have been mistaken, at least that was what everyone thought, including himself, that the runes that had been set up had prevented any danger. These thoughts put everyone at ease until everything went wrong. Suddenly the earth began to tremble, like a gigantic earthquake. The runes that had been drawn on the earth began to crumble, and with it, the huge main shield that had been created was broken. At the same time, the restriction runes in the six towns disappeared, and the black magic coming out of the area where the artefacts were located moved completely to the central area. Then a passage, perhaps a hundred metres long and almost seventy metres in size, was formed inside the heptagon. The plan had failed. Three days'' work had gone down the drain. "EVERYONE GET READY!!!" shouted James suddenly, as if he alone felt the enormity of the danger that had suddenly approached them. With his orders flags moved for communication between the army that has more than 200.000 people inside of it. And with him saying these words, everyone was able to keep their guard serious again. All of them suddenly realised how dangerous what was happening was. Even though the thousands of monsters that had started to come out of the passage had left everyone in fear, there was no going back from there. Either they had to fight and die or hide and wait for the monsters to find them. In the depths of all this fear and danger, the entire empire and even more than twenty thousand warriors of Asgard had only one thing in mind: [No monster would overtake this army, no monster would harm the people of the empire]. With these thoughts, the faith that had begun to burn in their hearts seemed to give them all hope. An army of more than 200,000 people attacked against an army of hundreds of thousands of monsters that had suddenly come upon them. Spells began to explode over an area of almost 400 kilometres. The screams of death, elemental reactions, and the sounds of earthquakes were ringing in the ears. It was too early for James to attack, he wanted to make everyone''s job easier by attacking the monsters he considered strong in between. Just then something strange happened: "RUMBLE!!!" An incredibly loud thunderclap echoed across the battlefield, and then it started to rain. The puddles of blood that had already begun to fall to the ground began to flow with the water that had officially begun to accumulate. It was as if the 35th floor itself was crying. It was a terrible but also a majestic sight. Chapter 230: Battle Against Black Magic James had already realised the monsters he had to kill. Without waiting, he activated his dark-step ability and, passing through hundreds of soldiers, he appeared in front of a large, serpentine beast, stretching almost seven or even eight metres in length. "SWING!" He swung his sword and his blow cut the serpentine beast in half in front of him, even as the pouring rain cut him in half. "PAT!!!" The monster''s body, cut in half, collapsed on dozens of monsters large and small, and dozens of screams began to rise towards the black clouds in the sky. The sudden and unbelievably sudden start of the battle worried everyone, but at least they managed not to drive any of the monsters out of their positions, even though monsters were still coming out of the passage. Thousands of monsters had already managed to get out of the passage. James inwardly wondered if he could lock this portal if he used his destruction ability to its full extent, just like he had somehow managed to do before. He really didn''t have any answer for that. The gate was absolutely MASSIVE in every sense of the word... in every way that could be described. That meant that James could only fight at the moment. He realised that all the monsters were slowly but surely beginning to overwhelm the fighting imperial army and the Asgardian warriors. If things continued to progress like this, it didn''t seem like it would be long before everyone was dead and gone. That''s why he reached out and patted his daughter''s head in the form of a dragon sitting on his head and then said, ''Do your thing, sweetheart.'' Although the little girl Miracle only wanted to be with him, James knew that he would be the most help out of Ruby at the moment. His daughter Miracle could not be harmed, it was impossible to harm her body on these floors, the only problem was the little girl''s energy and she would probably be exhausted after the attack she was about to make. When the little girl Miracle started to take off, Ruby, who was sitting on her head, continued to hold on to her as if she realised what was happening, and soon afterwards James'' order was carried out: The sound of the female Supreme Dragon Miracle gasping for air suddenly filled the ears. "SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Miracle''s throat, the little girl in dragon form, was literally glowing with bright white and bright black colours, and light began to shine out from the area where she was. The battle seemed to stop for a few seconds after this sound and bright light, and a smile formed on the faces of the imperial soldiers and Asgardian warriors around. And then the expected happened: "KRAAA-THOOOOM!!!" This flame, combined with the colours white and black, suddenly began to descend to the earth. This flame cloud, which continued continuously and did not stop even for a second, was able to destroy hundreds of monsters in just seconds. "CRA-KA-BOOM!!!" Suddenly, as if there had been a triggering explosion, the sounds were heard all over the earth and everyone had to cover their ears. Explosions began to occur one after the other and the earth literally began to shake. James now knew that his own daughter could not create such a danger, she couldn''t have such energy. This meant that Ruby was helping the little girl Miracle and sharing her energy. Strangely, when the explosions ceased and everything returned to a calm state, images reminiscent of huge ice mountains were revealed. Hundreds of pieces of huge ice masses, covered with black flames on the inside and covered with white ice on the outside that did not let the black flame out. James couldn''t quite understand what she was trying to do, he thought she must be trying to create long-range attacks by standing on so much ice scattered around. "Calm down James, let your daughter do what she wants," James heard in the back of his mind. It was as if his ancestor Vlad was addressing him. James shook his head after these words and once again accepted that his ancestor was right. Eve and the others, who saw that he was not moving and were busy fighting, tried to understand what was happening, but they could not reach any logical answer. At that very moment, something happened that no one expected. The gate, which was constantly releasing monsters out, waited for almost a minute and then released a monster horde that would exceed a hundred thousand people. This was what the incredibly intelligent little girl Miracle had expected. Waiting for the monsters to spread around a little, little girl Miracle suddenly released the ice that she had deliberately scattered around and used to hold back the black flames. "KRRRAAA-BOOOM!!!" "THRAA-KA-DOOOOM!!!" S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The explosions that had just formed one after the other and had ceased to exist as if they had disappeared, began to show themselves again. However, this time it was different. This time the explosions were so gigantic that the impact of the explosions alone could literally send tens of thousands of soldiers close to the explosion flying through the airstream and dragging them out of the battlefield. This was definitely something out of the ordinary, this was just one of the little things that a Supreme Dragon could do at only one-year-old with a little help. The moment of silence as the explosions ceased again emphasised the scale of the danger in a big way, as the shockwave swallowed up all sound for a moment. The energy of the gate seemed to begin to diminish. It was as if the number of monsters inside the passage had been drastically reduced. After all these events, the little girl Miracle had thrown herself into the inventory as soon as she came to her father''s side, leaving only Ruby, who continued to sit on James'' head in bird form, and of course James himself. There were not many friendly troops left near the seal area, that is, very close to the gate, because of the certain impact of the explosion. Only those strong enough to withstand the impact, a few nobles, a few members of Eve and her family, and a few of the higher beings such as Aether, remained. Nevertheless, although the passage had shrunk, many monsters could still be seen emerging from it. "FORWARD!!!" James shouted, and with that, the order to attack again came not from the Empress but from James himself. Eve rushed forward with these words. The fact that this woman, whom James had thought to be a sorceress, had suddenly drawn a sword and rushed to the front lines, of course, made James think a little. This would cause James to respect Eve more. She really was a brave woman. Eve had managed to get ahead of him and instantly cut several monsters in half. After each of Eve''s attacks, the courage and ambition of not only James but every soldier there was increasing. James may have been someone who earned everyone''s respect, but Eve herself was the empress. When the Empress was leading the army and advancing from the front, it was not for anyone not to be excited. Over three thousand or four thousand people were suddenly on the attack. Because the pass was surrounded and many nobles were leading the army, which had been reduced to 190,000 horsemen, word had suddenly spread over long distances that Eve was attacking. This meant a full dive. The battle was actually starting now, and the heat was already on. James still had an incredible mana capacity and hadn''t even begun to use his aura. However, he already had Ruby herself, and with the mana energy she had now, he could create masterpieces. Because there were so many soldiers around, the use of his destruction ability had completely disappeared. Although he had many abilities he could use, most of them were capable of harming those around him. That''s why James thought that he should use an ability that he knew would not waste much energy. Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e-NovelFire "Star Magic." James suddenly said. His body began to glow white as if he had been drawn around it with a pencil, and he wondered how well this ability, which he had been working hard to develop for a long time, would work. He hadn''t maximised it, of course, he wasn''t even a beginner, but even at his current level of development, it was obvious that it would be quite useful. James took a deep breath and activated his dark step ability, slicing and dicing his way through the monsters like a silver bullet piercing the air. He had already managed to kill Lycan, Spiny Rat, Black Bison and many other monsters, but it seemed that there was no end to these monsters, even though the passage had indeed shrunk slightly. However, the shrinking passage suddenly began to glow, and James and the others had to start being more careful. Chapter 231: Destruction Worked They had been fighting for so long, of course, that many of them were tired. James knew that over fifty thousand soldiers had already died. It was a terrible situation. After all, there was an empire to protect. James and the others needed help, but it couldn''t come. The reason, of course, was that not all the empire''s soldiers were here. James knew that if the war was gifted like this, they would be the losing side. "KUOGH!!!" James realised that the soldier in front of him was vomiting blood, he was so focused on fighting that he didn''t even notice the pool of blood that had started to form around him. As he came to this realisation he shuddered inwardly. It was quite sad that the Imperial soldiers were attacking without a second thought, even though they had lost their mates. Everyone was being pushed back, and although defeat was not really out of the question, it was daunting that so many casualties were occurring every minute. After using his dark step ability again, James transferred his aura to his legs, ran a few metres, and jumped almost ten metres high. When the holy sword plunged Clarent into the neck of the giant he saw in front of him, the giant died instantly, no sound rising into the air. The giant fell to the ground with James on top of it, and then James lunged forward again, endeavouring to approach the portal as fast as he could. He wanted to take a chance and put his mana to use. In short, he hoped to use his destruction ability to damage the gate, which was now reduced to half its original size. Your next chapter awaits on m v|l--NovelFire The chances of that happening were next to impossible. After all, it had taken James two hits to destroy even a tiny gate, despite using a massive amount of mana. That was why he wished to try, if he could only keep the monsters inside the portal for a short time, perhaps for a day, then the imperial soldiers and Asgardian warriors might be able to recover. The sight of a mountain of corpses...the sight of thousands of corpses of monsters and allies on the ground. Certainly, everyone was wishing for a little time to recover, and James was trying to approach the portal as fast as he could, wishing to give everyone that time. "EVE!!!" shouted James. With this shout, he somehow managed to make Eve hear his voice through all the screams and shouts on the battlefield. Eve somehow managed to see James through all the monsters and saw him making a few hand gestures. James'' request seemed to be for Eve to buff him again. The fact that Eve didn''t have much mana left at the moment made everything dangerous, but if James wanted to do this even though he knew that such a danger existed, he had to have a plan. Empress Eve, knowing this, raised her sword without even trying to say anything, and then said a few words: "O particle of the fallen sunrise, owner of the great sun, I pray and worship you that the one in my presence may shine eternally. Take, take and give as much energy as you wish, and give, give him as much light as you can!" After Eve''s words, the rain clouds in the sky briefly dissipated and the sunlight that had managed to emerge suddenly descended completely on James. James was aware of the enhancement that had entered his body as if he had suddenly jumped a hundred levels. While he was experiencing these sensations, a system window suddenly opened in front of him: [THERE IS A MASSIVE INFLOW OF MANA AND AURA INTO YOUR BODY!!! YOU ARE ADVISED TO IMMEDIATELY EXPEL THE ENERGY!!! ONE LAST MINUTE BEFORE YOUR BODY COLLAPSES AND EXPLODES!!! MANA AND AURA REGENERATION INCREASED BY 1500%!!!] "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" shouted James as he read what was written in the window opposite him. He had to be quick, he was very close to the portal and there were only three monsters left in front of him. Of course, many monsters were still coming out of the passage, but their numbers had decreased. It seemed to indicate that these little monsters were coming to an end. The fact that the passage was still so big did nothing but make him wonder what the monster that would come out later would be like. While an incredible anxiety enveloped those who were smart enough to think about it, it was working as a reminder to James again. Just after James had managed to kill the last few monsters in front of him, he finally made it to the front of the portal. There were almost fifty metres between him and the gate. This passage, which looked even more frightening up close, was indeed quite frightening, but he had no time to think. He had to immediately drain the enormous amount of magic and, if possible, aura from his body. Indeed, he had completely transferred all the mana he could muster to his left leg, and his leg was now filled with mana that would be the envy of even the highest-level mages. It was such an enormous mass of mana that it was more than James''s leg. and he''d sneak out and scatter all over the place. With that, everything was set, and James could make his attack. "DESTRUCTION!!!" James suddenly shouted, and immediately afterwards he slammed his left leg, which was overflowing with mana, into the earth: For a moment, silence spread across the field, and the absolute silence that spread across the battlefield frightened everyone. It was as if all the laws of the world had disappeared. Immediately after this, a gigantic light appeared. Immediately after that, the light itself pierced through the rain clouds that had begun to gather again, destroying them, and with that, an ear-splitting "BOOOOM!!!" sound echoed throughout the battlefield and the earth. After a heartbeat, the sound wave began to dissipate with a gradual increase, and as it managed to enter everyone''s ears, it was as if the gate itself was beginning to tear. Still, this was not enough. Even the air itself was fluctuating and a deep and confusing wave of mana was recognised by everyone, ringing in the ears and making the earth tremble like an earthquake. Even this was not enough. Immediately after the sound produced by this mana dispersion, an aftershock appeared. It was as if the mana continuing to spread in the air and the enormous amount of mana scattered on the earth itself were producing the sound of a drum: ''WUB-WUB-WUB-DOM-TROM-WUM-WUM-WUB!'' As the eerie sensation that had lasted for a long time after the use of the ability faded and the echoing drumbeats became a murmur, James seemed to be told that many things were over. James himself was stunned. The 1500% mana and aura regeneration he had gained from Eve''s ability was what helped him the most at the moment. The only thing that prevented James from being so shaken, and with it the only thing that prevented him from collapsing and disappearing right now, was the buff Eve had given him. He couldn''t imagine how much damage such a buff had done to Eve. Still, after all the shaking and earthquakes that had occurred, everything seemed to have worked. The top of the portal had begun to tear in half down the centre, the size of the portal had shrunk ENORMOUSLY and the best news of all was that the portal had frozen. If James'' hopes were correct, everyone would be able to rest for at least a day. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The first round of the 35th Floor''s great battle had been won by the Empire. James was constantly breathing deeply where he was, they may have won now, but it was impossible to know when this portal, which seemed to be frozen in time, would thaw and when the creatures that would most likely bring destruction to this empire would emerge. James just wanted the possibility of resting for at least a day. By the time the monsters around him had been killed, James had his hands open, he seemed to know how to profit from this space and this war that existed. There were tens of thousands of monsters that had died, creatures still lying around, disgusting creatures that needed to be cleaned. "Exploitation," James said in a calm tone. As soon as he said that, every single one of the monsters around him vanished into thin air. Still, when James looked at his profile, he saw that no status points had been awarded to him. James had pinned all his dreams on this. He didn''t even want to believe that he wouldn''t get any status points from tens of thousands of monster corpses. This was terrible news. "What''s going on?" questioned James, and with that he moved quickly, repeatedly using his "exploitation" ability to exploit as many monsters as he could and destroy their corpses. The surrounding allies did not know James'' intentions, which made things awkward, but there was nothing he could do in this situation. Thousands of monster corpses had vanished into nothingness in just a few minutes. James had to find out what had happened, and he had to do it now. Chapter 232: No Use of It James continued to walk around and use his exploitation skills for a long time, but nothing really changed. No matter what he did he could not gain any status points, which was simply awful. In the end, the only option James had tied himself to, and indeed the only option he thought he had to enter into a situation where he could fully emerge victorious from this battle, was the status points he planned to gain by exploiting corpses. This seemed to indicate to him that he had nothing left at the moment except the Aura of Chaos ability. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. However, even an incredibly powerful skill like the Aura of Chaos skill would be useless against such a huge threat. Yes, it weakened enemies and strengthened friendly troops, but that was exactly what happened. Despite a long search and reading the description of the ability over and over again, he could find no answers. He had wandered around for almost an hour, trying to figure out what was wrong. He hadn''t even had a chance to rest and that was the worst part. After a short time, when he returned to the camp, he could already see the bodies all around. For James, who had only heard about the reality of the war from stories and perhaps novels in the world where he had come to the tower, what was happening now had a devastating effect. Even though his Mind Palace ability prevented any damage to his mind, he felt extremely nauseous. Many people were crying around, from ordinary soldiers to nobles who had lost family members. After so many deaths, the bodies of many soldiers had not even been found, many had been eaten by monsters and disappeared. James knew that this battle was nowhere near the great battles of the tower''s history, and that was his fear. His current strength was definitely not enough, he had to develop more. After a short time, he saw Aether and was sure that he was all right. Afterwards, he entered the tent where the senior nobles were gathered. Seeing James''s expression and his bloodied clothes, the nobles realised how much trouble he had been through on the front lines, after all, their empress Eve had the same look. "Thank goodness you''re all right, I don''t know what you did back there, but at least we managed to get some time to rest." Eve suddenly said, and James swallowed and said, "Thanks to you, I don''t normally have enough mana to use my ability at that level of power." Eve shook her head with these words and then said, "Unfortunately, I will not be able to use this ability again." "I see... An ability of this power must already be incredibly difficult, I completely understand." James said, and he was absolutely right. It was hard to even imagine how great the burden on the user would be with an ability that could provide such a buff. After all, even the person to whom the buff was applied, James, was under a great burden, his body exploding as soon as the ability was applied. He didn''t even want to think about the damage to Eve. "Yes, it would not be wrong to say that I almost died, Mr Umbra, I really can''t use it again, I''m sorry," Eve answered these words. After these words, an old man, one of the dukes of the empire, took a step forward and said, "Sir, if we manage to set up attack runes, we can achieve a better success than this time. You said we could do it, but the sudden transactions and your failure to wake up have disrupted everything." Discover more content at m,v l''e-NovelFire Even if those words had not been spoken in a rude way, James was sure that if the attack runes had been drawn, perhaps the losses could have been minimised. Right now he could clearly feel that all the blood was on him, and it was a terrible feeling. "Yes, it must be done," James said suddenly and then shouted "AETHER!" As Aether entered the tent James took out a scroll and then drew the powerful attack rune he had learnt on it. "I want as many attack runes as possible within a radius of at least four kilometres of the camp. This spell absorbs energy from the air as it gains distance. The more you can draw and the more you manage to activate it, the more momentum we can build." After handing the scroll to Aether, he sat down in the chair next to her and then shook his head, "I don''t know what''s going to happen, there''s no way of knowing how long the currently locked gate will stay that way, we have to be careful." James could have summoned Ariel, but the important thing right now wasn''t Ariel getting here. Ariel had to find the Fallen God who had escaped as she had been told and inform James. If they didn''t chase the Fallen God continuously and the female Fallen God somehow managed to recover, everything would be over. It would be impossible to take care of the female Fallen God while being attacked by so many monsters. Ariel herself was currently able to hunt down a wounded Fallen God because she had the strength to get close to James, if not exactly close. This meant that James was the only one who needed to be present in the battle around the gate, Ariel had a mission. At James'' words, Eve nodded and then said, "You have a dragon, don''t you? If we can use it, maybe we can launch another attack." James smiled when he heard these words. It was as if no one had expected him to smile at such a moment, all of their faces were covered with a strange expression. "Sir, is there a problem?" another nobleman asked, was incredibly curious about the look on James'' face. Well, he was not wrong. James shook his head after this question and then said, "That dragon is my daughter." Chapter 233: It Was Easy For Ariel "That dragon is my daughter." James'' words managed to surprise everyone again, it was clear that no one had expected such an answer. "But you''re... human, aren''t you?" Eve suddenly questioned. "Yes, I am human. My daughter is a dragon, she took on my and her mother''s traits when she hatched, and that''s how she became our daughter," James replied. Everyone chose to keep their mouths shut, even though they were quite surprised. With that, the day was over and the sun had set, giving everyone enough time to rest, knowing that all the fighting would stop for at least a few hours. The hours passed, and everyone managed to find time to rest. After half a day, everything was completely different on Ariel''s side. ----- "KUAGH!!!" Ariel was dragged several metres through the air after the blow and fell to the ground. She had managed to find the female Fallen God that had escaped from them almost four hours ago, which made everything much easier. It was really heartwarming that he had been able to get to this thing so easily, something that would normally take him days. He had managed to find the female Fallen God at the very edge of the empire, indeed they had managed to cover seven thousand kilometres in almost four days without sleeping. The Fallen God was running and Ariel was chasing. They were both tired. The wounds on the female Fallen God''s body were clearly visible, and every second black blood fell to the ground. Ariel briefly had the advantage, and that was a very good thing. After all, Ariel''s only disadvantage was fatigue from lack of sleep, but since he had managed to stay awake for longer periods of time, he thought that wouldn''t be a problem either. Even if he felt a little pain after the blow, no harm had come to him, he was fully prepared for battle. Once she was on guard, she pulled her blades from her inventory and then charged forward. The female Fallen God clearly didn''t expect Ariel to make the first move, which was rather odd. After all, the Fallen God felt that the strength of the woman in front of her was not enough, even if she knew that she was close to James. In short, the female Fallen God didn''t even see Ariel as someone who could harm her. The only reason she had run away until now was because she thought there were others with Ariel. Ariel dashed forward and the Fallen God appeared in front of her, she may have been tired, or she may have been slower than a ''monster'' tier climber like James, but her statuses were weighted towards speed and strength. This woman was definitely not slow. Immediately after she appeared in front of the Fallen God, her blades glowed crimson, and then Ariel made her attack. "SWISH!!!" A sound like a whip colliding with the air rang in her ears, but it was not the sound of a whip or anything like that. The aura of Ariel''s blades was so deep, thin and long that when she struck, the air molecules literally collided with each other. "KYUAAAAAAAAGGGH!!!" The female Fallen God''s screams echoed through the valley they were in, Ariel''s attack had indeed worked. A huge stab wound had opened right on the female Fallen God''s chest. The wound was not incredibly deep, but the cut was almost forty or fifty centimetres long. Ariel had managed to deliver an absolutely incredible attack. As the female Fallen God struggled on the ground, Ariel prepared for her next attack and was able to execute it in a short time. She plunged the blade covered with her aura into the Fallen God''s right leg and pulled it out. The female Fallen God was really close to dying. Ruby had made this enemy what it was, and Ariel had enough power to finish it off. Ariel finally stood on top of the female Fallen God, who was covered in blood and unable to move, and then covered her entire body with her aura. In just a second, she plunged her blades as deep as she could right into the female Fallen God''s neck. The Fallen God stopped moving after struggling on the ground for a while, which meant that Ariel had already killed the disgusting female being. It had been a very long time since another human had succeeded in killing a god after James, however weakened they were. Ariel was exhausted and suddenly fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Ariel had been in constant motion for exactly four days, hardly ever stopping and hardly ever even stopping to run, yet she could breathe properly now. At that very moment, a glow appeared in front of her eyes. Ariel actually covered her eyes with her hands because of the brightness, and after a few seconds, as the light disappeared, she took her hands away from her eyes. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. She was incredibly shocked by what she saw. "Fuck off mate!" Ariel shouted. Stay connected via m-v l|e-NovelFire [Creator-Grade achievement earned! Kill a god-level individual for the first time. You have the right to choose a card]. ----- James and the army behind him waited calmly in front of the gate. With a strange feeling, James realised that the lock on the gate was beginning to open and so he had Eve give the order to gather the whole army together in an emergency assembly. The war was about to start again and everything was at stake again. James and the others were stressed of course, troop numbers were down considerably, almost half, and this increased the danger, as it was already known that the monsters coming out of the gateway had to be prevented from travelling to the settlements, no matter how far away they were. "All hands at the ready," James suddenly said, and as the nobles heard these words, rows and rows of orders began to sound and fade into the distance. Now the battle was on. Chapter 234: Ancient Giant It was dark, it was night time, and no sound could be heard in the area except the sounds of the army moving. Everyone could see with their naked eyes that the wear, dullness and tear in the passage was beginning to heal. In short, at any moment the portal could suddenly open, at any moment thousands of monsters could leap out of the portal. James knew that Ruby, the bird in his head, was in good shape, which meant that a large-scale attack was possible. It was an attack that could help the friendly side. The fact that she was able to use her Aura of Chaos ability on top of that and that she also had the Heaven''s Call ability on top of that was a big plus. James had hidden these abilities because he thought that the war would not end, after all, these abilities would be what he would use if they had to escape. But now everything had changed, James had to end the war here, today, and he was ready to do anything for it. Anything at all. The ear-piercing cracking sound had reappeared, clearly the portal was beginning to unlock fully. It was as if a huge iceberg was breaking off from one end to the other, a sound so deep and rough that it was hard to describe. It was enough just to listen to the sound: "GROOOOAN----GRRRINDD---CRACK!!!" After the succession of sounds, cracks began to appear from the top to the bottom of the passage, this was very similar to the cracks that had formed when James had used his ability to destroy the small passage before, but the difference between them seemed to be understood only by feeling. It was as if the locking ''ice'' on the gate had begun to thaw. "CRASH!!!" Stay connected via m-v l|e''m,p| y- r With a sudden breaking sound, a fist passed through the gate. An arm grabbed the gate itself and then an eye looked out of the gate. Everyone, including James, was shocked by this sight. There was literally an ancient giant staring at them from the other side of the portal, and even James himself thought that these monsters were extinct. The giant didn''t look that big, maybe 50 or 55 metres tall, but even that was enough to frighten anyone who saw it. As the passage slowly began to open, orders began to move through the army and defensive formations were being set up. James turned to Eve beside him and said, "Please try not to die, Lady Eve." The ancient giant inside the passage came into clear view and the sight of hundreds of monsters, large and small, closer to the ground was visible to everyone. Seconds ticked by, and everyone could feel their hearts beating incredibly hard with fear. Yet there was nothing any of them could do, either they could stop this giant and the other monsters here, or everyone--and that''s the perfect word for it--would die. Weapons were drawn, everyone was ready, and the first attack would not come from them, and that is why they had the idea that the battle would be easy. Exactly 160 attack runes had been drawn in such a short time. This meant that arcana mages would be the cornerstone of this battle. "CRASH!!!" Another crashing sound echoed in the ears and it all began. Tens, hundreds, thousands of monsters started to come out of the gate. The ancient giant threw one foot out of the portal at that moment and fear descended to the earth. With that, James decided to start the plan, activated his 8 Sacred Fire skill, and then, as soon as he covered his entire arm with black flames, he threw the flames into the sky, a little bit near the ancient giant. This symbolised the target to be shot at. As the jet-black flames approached the ancient giant, an incredibly loud explosion sounded from far away. "BOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!" This sound was close to the explosion sound of an atomic bomb. After this sound rose from the sky towards the horizon, attacks from exactly 160 attack runes began to advance in the air. The distance between the runes and the gate was almost four kilometres, but despite this, the incredible speed of the runes began to appear in the air in just five seconds. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Crimson attack types suddenly appeared in front of the ancient giant, and almost every single attack managed to hit the ancient giant. "GUUUUAGKKHHH!!!!!!" The ancient giant began to scream, it was obvious that it was in a lot of pain. The explosion had created a huge cloud of flames above the ancient giant, it was obvious that the giant had been damaged, but that was all, the over a hundred attack runes that had hit the giant had failed to kill it. Nevertheless, the ancient giant was injured, and with that, naturally, it became angry. When James realised this, there was only one thing to do. As soon as the attack flags went up, everyone started to mobilise. James activated his dark step ability and started running directly at the ancient giant without even thinking about attacking any monsters. With each step, he left a trail of black flames behind him and dodged the monsters as if he were dancing. After only three minutes and continuous use of his dark stepping ability, James had managed to get close to the ancient giant, and with that, he strangely grabbed onto the ancient giant''s feathers. Even though he was incredibly disgusted, he still had to climb upwards. "If I live after this battle is over, I won''t get out of the shower for ten days!" shouted James, trying hard not to vomit as he climbed up. The ancient giant was of course moving and strangely ignoring the whole army and trying to move somewhere, which was bad news. If the ancient giant tried to move in this way and had chosen a place as its target, it was imperative to kill it quickly so that it did not get there. Chapter 235: Close to That Exprience James had a plan and it was a really good plan, he had thought of this plan the first time he saw the ancient giant, he just had to put it into practice. Every time the ancient giant took a step it made a loud noise, as if the earth was shaking. After only three minutes of climbing as briskly as possible, James managed to climb up to the neck of the ancient giant. After just one jump, James, who had been waiting on the ancient giant''s head, was first shocked by what he saw, but he did not have enough time to applaud such a thing. He planned to use his destruction ability again, and then deliver as heavy a blow as possible to the ancient giant''s head. He planned to use 100 per cent of his mana. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. That''s why, no matter how difficult it was to stand, he somehow managed to stabilise himself and raise his left leg to recover every drop of mana in his body at that moment. After only a minute, he had recovered his mana to his entire left leg, and now it was time to attack. "Destruction!" he shouted and then drove his left leg directly into the ancient giant''s head like a nail through a chalkboard. A sudden surge of mana spread a sound like the explosion of a sonic mana fusion bomb across the sky: "SWOOOOOOOSH....BOOOOOOOOOM!!!" In a way, it was like the sound of an explosion, but the energy from the mana was absorbed into itself and exploded. It was almost like a supernova. The ancient giant was shaken after this attack, while James was trying to understand what was happening, the ancient giant suddenly collapsed on his knees. James knew with 100% certainty that there was no way he could kill such a being and that was the problem. Maybe he had managed to inflict some good damage on this beast, but there was no way he could kill it, that''s why he thought something was wrong. At that very moment, he became aware of an incredible aura, literally every hair on his body stood on end as if he was beginning to realise the danger. Turning his head to the right, he was suddenly on his guard and then shouted ''Aura of Chaos!''. The ancient giant''s fist slammed into James''s body and he was sent flying from 25 metres above the ground to almost 100 metres away by the impact of the blow. As he hit the ground incredibly hard he was very happy that he had activated his Aura of Chaos ability, indeed he almost died, indeed he would have died had it not been for the one-minute immunity that the ability gave him. As he began to come round he was able to get a good look at the ancient giant. Find exclusive stories on m_v l|e-NovelFire.net The ancient giant seemed to be seriously injured, and it would be quite realistic to say that his wounds had not healed. James, who had stood up after coming to his senses, stretched his body and then leapt forward again without stopping. Having exhausted his mana, he had to wait for regeneration. Even if his mana was constantly regenerating due to his abilities and items, he still had to use his aura for a while. This was not a bad thing, of course, but he would have given his entire fortune right now to have a little more magical energy, mana. As he lunged forward, his sword began to glow with a lush green flame. James had become so good at spinning his aura around his body that he could quickly prepare to use Desmond''s Sword Art. Of course, this attack would be much weaker than magic and spinning the aura inside the body, but he knew that he could still make a very powerful attack. Lush green flames could cover his sword as the elemental core supported his aura, and even if he could not excel in physical damage, he could at least use poison to slow down the ancient giant. Suddenly he stopped where he was and then swung his sword almost fifty metres away from the ancient giant. The lush green flames turned into snakes and managed to strike directly at the ancient giant. "RUUOOOOOGGHHH!!!" The ancient giant suddenly shouted as his gaze locked on James, James seemed to realise at that moment that he had made a terrible mistake, he should have chosen something else, something deadly instead of this move, but he had drawn the ancient giant''s attention directly to himself. "Fuck!" James muttered, and then, at a loss for what to do, he began to cover his entire body with his aura. The ancient giant seemed to start walking towards him. A man who was less than two metres tall was up against a 50-metre monster. It was quite a chilling situation. As soon as James covered his body with its aura, he turned around and began to run away from the gate, away from the gate itself, and towards a place on the map that he knew was nowhere near the settlements. Perhaps his mana could be sufficiently replenished in that time, and with it, perhaps he could survive. With each step he could hear the heavy footsteps coming closer and closer to him, the footsteps of the ancient giant that felt like an earthquake, and he trembled inwardly. It was impossible not to be afraid, James was a human being, not a god. Even gods could be frightened to the point of insanity from time to time, but it was impossible for James not to be. After his brief escape, he realised that he could not find a way out, not even a minute of immunity had elapsed and James had taken another direct hit. After travelling over two hundred metres in the air, he fell to the ground and the sense of danger was heightened as his immunity from the Aura of Chaos ability ended at that moment. He was going to die, there was no way to escape. Chapter 236: Unknown Attack James turned suddenly and thought he could at least attack before he died. He swung his holy sword at Clarent. When he released a small aura, his fear was realised. The huge fist of the ancient giant was coming at him. After a short moment, the fist struck James and he was almost two hundred metres away, bouncing on the ground. When he got to his feet, he looked down at himself as if he could not understand what had happened and why he was not hurt, and he saw that all his limbs were intact. "What''s going on?" James questioned aloud and then was confronted with an ear-piercing sound: "RUUOKJGHHH!!!" James had to cover his ears when the painful voice of the ancient giant rang in his ears, he could not understand what was happening, and his enemy was approaching death. He could see what was happening very easily because of the passive in his night vision ability from his Warrior of the Night class. Someone was constantly taking off like a fly and attacking the ancient giant. It was quite a mesmerising sight, but it was unclear what was happening anyway. The figure was moving so fast that James couldn''t make out who this person was, he could only realise that this person must have incredible strength. Maybe someone else, sponsored by the supreme gods, was fighting right now, after all, many climbers were known to move between floors all the time. Whatever it was, whoever it was, they had not only saved James'' life but had also begun to seriously injure the ancient giant that now posed the greatest threat to this floor. James was, in a word, grateful. In a short time, he had managed to get a few mana potions out of his inventory. James didn''t want to use them as they were incredibly valuable. They needed a few minutes to work anyway, so unlike health potions, they were IMPOSSIBLE to use in battle. Considering that a single potion was worth almost five million gold pieces, it was incredible that James had three. After all, these potions, usually sold by auction, were made by alchemists and alchemists whose identities were unknown. They were rare indeed. When James drank all three potions one after the other, he sat down on the floor to rest and then took a deep breath and tried to recover himself. Clarent, the holy sword, seemed to be trembling with excitement as if the sword itself was itching to fight. After almost five minutes of waiting, James, who had recovered well, managed to recover almost 20% of his magic energy, that is, his mana. Even though it was strange that potions that gave so little mana were so expensive and rare, James was still grateful for all the money he had lost. Standing up, he stretched his body and then started to move, thinking that he still had abilities he could still use. Running quickly, he managed to close the gap of two hundred metres in a short time, and then, shouting "Heaven''s Call", he chose the rose option again. When a crimson rose garden opened around, the attacks of the person fighting the ancient giant began to hit the giant even more heavily, and the giant''s screams began to be heard more frequently: "UUUAGGHRRRRRKKK!!!" The ancient giant threw its huge arms into the air as if it were chasing a fly and shouted tearfully: "IT''S HURTING ME, THIS FLY IS HURTING ME!!!" James chose not to climb the ancient giant again after all this shouting and crying and thought it would be much better to attack from a distance using Desmond''s Sword Art. Since the Heaven''s Call ability could travel quite a distance, James moved almost to the limit of the ability, almost a hundred metres away from the ancient giant, and then closed his eyes and started to spin his aura and the remaining magical energy around his body, focusing even more seriously this time. Even though it was now much easier to spin his aura around his body, when it came to spinning both aura and mana, everything became more difficult. That''s why trying to focus would be the best thing he could do. "UUUAGGHHH STOP YOU FLY!!!" Even with the ancient giant''s shouts echoing in James'' ears, he was doing everything he could to stay focused, indeed he was becoming incredibly good at focusing, the only one to blame for this was Noah, who had indeed managed to make him Poison Master. The ancient giant was already incredibly weakened by James'' poisoning, after all, this poison was no ordinary poison, it was a combination of both the fire poison of 8 Sacred Fire and the poisons in the body of James, the Poison Master. However, the unknown person who attacked the ancient giant was weakening it. James had prepared his attack, after almost two minutes he had finished all the preparation and the holy sword Clarent began to glow dazzlingly with jet black jet-black in the presence of the time element. James had invested almost 70% of his body''s aura energy in this attack and added almost all his remaining mana. He held a small drop of mana in his body for one last spell. Continue reading stories on m|v-l''-NovelFire.net sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This was the most powerful attack he could do right now. Pulling back his sword and shouting "PIERCE!!!", he consumed the last drop of mana in his body and with that, he stabbed his sword through the air. The holy sword, the time elemental entity on Clarent, and the jet black flames that carried this entity shimmered as if they were a beam and began to move incredibly fast towards the right eye of the ancient giant. An attack so powerful and sophisticated that there was nothing the ancient giant could do. After all, the ancient giant was dealing with the unknown person who was clinging to him like a fly at that moment, and he was also dealing with the poison in his body. While the blow to James'' head had already injured him, there was also the attack James had made at that moment. The attack had taken place. Chapter 237: Lords Knight The time elemental entity on the holy sword Clarent and the jet-black flames that carried this entity shimmered as if it were a ray and began to move towards the right eye of the ancient giant at an incredibly fast speed. The attack had taken place. James was able to see the incredibly fast attack with his naked eyes. This attack, which was heading towards the ancient giant, had managed to reach its target after only four seconds. "UUUUUUUUUHOOOOOOOGGGKKK!!!" The ancient giant fell to its knees again after screaming in pain. Pieces of his huge eye fell to the ground, revealing a disgusting sight. A large amount of blood kept falling left and right because of the ancient giant who was constantly shaking his head. At the same time, the unknown person in the air began to fly into the air very quickly and disappeared into the clouds. James could not believe that he had been abandoned like this because he had put all his trust in this unknown person, but he would be incredibly happy to be so wrong. Read latest chapters on m_v l-NovelFire.net The unknown person descended from the clouds with a HUGE, golden sword, and with this sword, which was almost ten metres long, they struck a blow to the ancient giant, which was on its knees. The golden sword struck the ancient giant and, unbelievably, sliced its upper body in half from head to waist. James could not believe his eyes, the fact that this unknown person had killed the ancient giant in an instant was incredibly strange to him. When Ruby, who had entered James'' inventory to avoid attacks, came out, she looked at the unknown person who had transformed into human form and then said, "Your mother has acquired an extremely powerful ability." James thought that what he had heard was really wrong, he couldn''t have heard the truth, he must have heard something he didn''t expect to hear because of the shock and adrenaline he was experiencing. When Ruby realised this and turned to James she smiled and then asked, "Ariel, you think of her as your mother, am I right?" James smiled as he heard again what he had just heard, he was incredibly happy to hear that it was Ariel standing in front of him, almost a hundred metres away from him. The unknown person was Ariel. [You have levelled up 13 times!] James smiled as he saw this window open in front of him, now that Emma had returned, the lock that prevented the gods from watching this floor must have remained. The ancient giant must have been a part of that lock, just like the Fallen Gods, and that made James learn something he didn''t know. Ariel had managed to kill a Fallen God. "Are you okay, James?" Ariel asked as she came up to James, and James, hearing this, rushed forward and gave Ariel a big hug. "Oh if you only knew how happy I am to see you!" said James and Ariel giggled as if she didn''t know what to say and then replied, "Me too kid." When James suddenly stopped hugging him, he shouted, "YOU KILLED A FALLEN GOD? I''M PROUD OF YOU!" he shouted. Ariel smiled and then said, "She was pretty hurt, but yeah, that''s how I got this ability." S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With that, Ariel raised her hand and a system window opened in her palm. James couldn''t believe his eyes when he saw what was written on the window: [Lord''s Knight(Creator++++) What knight wants to watch their master die? What knight chooses to stand behind their master? What knight would not choose to die for their master? If you are such a knight, it would be far better to slit your own throat and die. To the one who has gained this ability, I wish you the highest honour, to choose a good master and protect them with your life, and I hope that you will never have to search for such a master in your life, as I did. When the ability is used, the user will gain 500% movement speed for 30 minutes. When the ability is used, the user will gain 700% aura regeneration for 30 minutes. When the ability is used, the user will gain the ability to ''fly'' for 30 minutes. When the ability is used, the user''s three main stats will increase by 100% for five minutes (Power, Agility and Endurance). When the ability is used, the user will have the ability to protect their master from any damage for 1 time. Permanent Master: James Arthur Black(Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate, Poison Master)] "This... How did you acquire such a talent? Did you choose me as your master? I... I don''t know what to say." James said, genuinely overjoyed, but at the same time very flattered. "Of course, I agreed to this when I joined the Chaos guild, didn''t I? Aren''t I a knight?" Ariel said, and with that, she said, "It''s a good thing I killed the Fallen God." After these words, James was about to open his mouth and say something when he was distracted by a message window that suddenly opened in front of him: [James...it''s good news to see that you''re okay, thanks for hanging in there for so long, leave the rest to us]. The message was from Nyx. James had completely forgotten that the war was still going on, he never thought he would be this happy that the floor had been unlocked. "Thank you, my lady, please," James said, and then he fell to the floor. He was exhausted, he hadn''t taken the time to rest these days. [Well done, we''re very proud of you two.] This message appeared to both Ariel and James and the two involuntarily smiled as they looked up at the sky and managed to see bits of light flying through the dark air. Officially higher beings were entering the floor, and James could feel the energy of each and every one of them. The battle was almost over, the two were incredibly happy, and they deserved a serious rest. Chapter 238: Everything Is Over James and Ariel managed to get close to the gate after some time and were able to see the beings in the vicinity with their own eyes. James could see Nemesis and the others with his own eyes, and again Lady Nyx must have expended enormous energy to send Nemesis below the 75th floor. This was good news. James was able to see his mate again after a long time, and the war seemed to be over. Still, there were many casualties, James could clearly see the bodies being carried away, the sound of crying seemed to have started again, and everyone''s sad voices were ringing in his ears. This was good news, as all the monsters in the portal had been emptied, and the portal itself was completely closed. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As James and Ariel approached the campsite, familiar faces began to appear. Datura, Theseus, and many others seemed to have come to this floor to help. The Church of the Night''s presence on this floor seemed to have been established, thanks to the help and other things that the Church of the Night had done. The priests and nuns of the church, with great effort, were able to bring people who had even lost limbs to them. James was very proud of the church''s work. The church had done such a good job that it was best to treat each of them with respect. He had seen some priests and nuns exhaust themselves to the point of fainting in just two hours. That''s how loyal James'' helpers were. They were incredible beings that wanted to help others even in a situation like this. Losing all of their mana and holy power only to heal people who didn''t even know them. Just like real heroes. When James entered the main tent, they saw Eve and the nobles of the empire trying to sit quietly and rest. When the group saw James and Ariel with him, each of their eyes were filled with brightness. Eve, in particular, was so relieved to see James standing tall in front of her that there was no way to explain it. "You managed to kill the ancient giant..." Eve suddenly said, and James, hearing this, pointed to Ariel next to him and said, "I had a lot of help." Turning to Ariel, she must have been embarrassed because she grabbed James''s cheek and pulled him away before saying, "We couldn''t have done anything if you hadn''t put the ancient giant in that state." The depth of the relationship between the two was recognisable even to the weary nobles watching them, they really did look like a mother and son and seeing this relationship seemed to tell them that the war was indeed over. "Thank you master Umbra, Madam Ariel...we don''t know what we would have done without you..." Eve suddenly said. Hearing these words, James smiled and then came to the front of Eve and gently knelt on his knees. "It was a great honour to fight alongside a great wizard like you, Lady Eve. You did not win this war because of us. The sacrifices made, the effort expended, the lives lost. Not just Umbra and Ariel, but Eve, Yorhun and so many others. Look up and realise what a wonderful empress you are." When James uttered these words, Eve''s eyes really teared up. Anyone who saw Eve in this state could see how much pressure she was under. After all, Eve was the only empress of an entire floor, an entire empire, she had no mate to share the pride and responsibility, she had a people and hundreds of cities to protect. Eve had become today, perhaps, one of the greatest empresses of the White Empire. Hearing these words, Eve was about to say a few words when the curtain of the tent suddenly opened and someone entered, much to the delight of Ariel and James. Nemesis walked in, wearing her silver crystal armour, her silver hair turning white like the surface of the moon and her eyes shining as if she had seen someone she cared about, this woman seemed to be very worried about her husband and with good reason. "Hey Neme, thanks for taking care of business," James said, and with that, he was about to finish the sentence "I mis-" when suddenly he saw Nemesis pressed against his lips. James had missed the feeling so much that he let go, choosing to close his eyes and, although slightly uncomfortable, he wrapped himself in Nemesis'' armour. The kiss between James and his wife Nemesis lasted for almost twenty seconds before the couple finally managed to pull apart, but not before the beautiful Nemesis hugged James tightly. James looked at Ariel, who was watching them and shook his head, and he managed to get a good look at the smile on Ariel''s face. "Neme, can you calm down a bit?" James said, and as soon as he said that, "How do you expect me to calm down? A week! I haven''t been able to watch you or know what you''re going through for a week, it''s been eating me up inside, this wasn''t the 9th floor and the passage didn''t open before the floor was locked, I couldn''t come to help you, I''m sorry." James was strangely embarrassed as if he hadn''t given much thought to his wife Nemesis'' feelings. "I love you too Neme, I''m sorry," James said and then gestured to Eve and the others and said, "Eve is one of the few people who has helped me live so far, I was really dying." Stay tuned to m-v l|-NovelFire.net Nemesis looked at Eve maliciously for a few seconds, like a proud woman, and then put her pride aside and said, "Thank you, I will never forget your kindness," like a wife. James nodded happily, then stepped out of the tent and called Nemesis to him. When the beautiful Nemesis came out of the tent and approached James curiously, James gently said, "We are gonna have a good time this night." After these words, Nemesis, who smiled, approached her husband and then kissed him on the cheek and said, "As you wish my love." Chapter 239: The Old Request With the end of the war, the group, who had managed to return to the imperial palace, had time to relax after their dispersal. Of course, the beautiful night James had promised to his wife Nemesis came and went, and the next day they woke up in the middle of the night. "You don''t know how much I missed you," said the beautiful woman with silver eyes and a loving gaze. On the one hand, she was hugging her husband James in the huge bed and on the other hand, she was trying to hide her happiness. "The same goes for me, my love," James said, and then patted his wife Nemesis on the head and added, "But now we need to get ready even if I want to stay like this forever." After a short period of preparation, James and Nemesis entered the flower garden of the palace. The main reason for this was that the news that two of the three great admins had entered the floor last night had spread throughout the palace. James had ignored both of them because of the massage session he had received from his wife Nemesis and had indeed spent the whole day relaxing. Finally, they managed to come to the flower garden in the palace, next to the two great men. When James looked at the two men, he first greeted the rabbit on the left: "Hi Ronald, long time no see." Then he turned his head to the one on the right and said, "I never thought I''d meet you, or rather I never thought I would. What an honour." The person James greeted and even bowed his head to was the most powerful in the tower. He was wise, intelligent, fast, strong, durable and the best in terms of appearance. "Cain the Tailor," James said to himself, and with that he stopped, not knowing what to say. Cain stood up after James'' words and spun around James once, then shook his head and smiled and said, "You were right, Ronald, interesting boy he is." James then squinted his eyes and looked at Ronald, not wanting to waste any time, he questioned, "Why are you here?" Ronald smiled as soon as he heard this question and then said, "Because what you entrusted to me a long time ago has been completed. Since I thought you were going to take some time to rest, it seemed the best option to bring your order to you, I met Cain on the way." "I don''t understand what you''re trying to say, I already got back the philosopher''s stone I gave you, my wife is the one wearing the Nemesis necklace, I don''t remember giving you anything else, the items I gave you to cover the price of the iceberg were sold." With those words, Ronald took off his hat and then put his hand inside the hat and stirred it for a while. James immediately realised what was going on, it was said that all three great men had private inventories, so Ronald''s hat must have been his inventory. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was so iconic, instead of a rabbit coming out of a hat, a rabbit was trying to get something out of a hat. Ronald smiled as if he had found what he wished he had found and then quickly removed his hand from the hat. James, on the other hand, smiled as if he realised what he had given to Ronald at that very moment, and then started laughing until tears came to his eyes: "Puaahahahahaha!!! I completely forgot about that!!!" After all this laughter James, even his wife Nemesis and admin Cain himself were surprised, none of the gods and no one in the area could even remember James laughing so hard. "My rod...my dear rod," James said and then took the item Ronald handed him. [Dumb God''s Rod(Godly-) An incredibly sturdy fishing rod made from a body part of one of the most foolish of the Fallen Gods, who lived like a fool and died like a fool. It can attract fish. It can regenerate itself when broken]. "I don''t know what you''re laughing so much about...it''s just a fishing rod, isn''t it?" Nemesis asked, and after only a second she smiled and added, "Well, I forgot, just like you." "I want to know what you''re laughing so much about," Cain said as awkwardly and coyly as possible. "I was ambushed by a Fallen God on the 9th floor, the day I met my lovely wife Nemesis and she saved my life, we killed that bastard Fallen God and I got a body part. I told Ronald that I wanted him to make a fishing rod out of it and here it is." Cain smiled when he heard these words and then sat back in his chair saying, "Well, it''s a good ending for those bastards, you made a good choice." As James sent the fishing rod into his inventory, he pulled out one of the chairs around the table and gestured gently for his wife Nemesis to sit down. Cain was surprised by what he saw and then said, "I don''t know how you got your hands on this, but if you are someone who can use it, you must be even more skilled than Ronald says, very interesting." Read latest chapters at m_v-l''e|-NovelFire.net James smiled as if flattered by these words and with that a table was set on the table. James had a good chat with Ronald and his wife Nemesis after a long time, and in honour of having made a friendship with Cain, whom he had just met, he declared this day special. The future would be challenging, of course, but at least for the moment, they had managed to find a way to survive without any danger. The White Empire had managed to hold on to life. After so many losses, the arrival of those who could be considered heroes would change everything. The statue of Umbra and Ariel in the centre of the Imperial capital would show this to everyone. The heroes of the White Empire. Chapter 240: Continue the Climb In a very brightly lit room, under crimson lights, four figures were sitting around a table. The facial expressions of these figures showed how much stress and fear they were under. "What are we going to do?" asked the white-haired female figure. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With this question, everyone''s fear seemed to deepen even more, the woman who asked the question must have had a lot of authority over the other three. "Ma''am...if you give me another chance, I swear to you I will bring you James'' head." said one of the people around the table. The fact that everyone was trembling seemed to show how dangerous the white-haired woman was. "One chance? You''ve had three chances so far, but guess what you''ve done? You''ve strengthened him, not harmed him!" the white-haired woman suddenly shouted. With this shout, the other three literally bowed their heads and fell to their knees behind where the white-haired woman was sitting with their hands clasped together as if begging. "Forgive me, Madam, PLEASE!" shouted one of the women in the group. The white-haired woman was shaking her right leg, which she had thrown over her left leg, as if she was thinking about something. "James and his dog Ariel have been gone for over five months, and yet you have failed to do anything. In five months, you have only managed to convince two fallen gods and an Ancient Giant. You are disappointing," said the white-haired woman, and then she got up from her seat and spat in front of the woman who had spoken to her. After that, she said, "You are not even worth as much as my spit, you pieces of rubbish." The trio on their knees on the floor were still trembling with fear, but this time they seemed to have managed to escape the death that was likely to come upon them. The white-haired woman had not attacked them but only insulted them, which was strangely good news. Read new chapters at m_v-l''e|-NovelFire.net "Ma''am, the reason we only have access to three holy beings is that the Church of Night has begun to recover the artefacts, if we can find a few things that have Nyx''s and Demond''s energies together we may be able to convince not three but thirty holy beings." said the last female figure in the trio. Hearing these words, the white-haired woman shook her head and then said, "All right, I forgive you one last time, don''t disappoint me again." After these words, a very bright and dark spell formed around the white-haired woman and she disappeared. The three who remained in the room were relieved. Each of them stood up and the male of them was heard shouting: "JAMES I WILL KILL YOU!!!" ----- ----- James and Nemesis realised that it was time to part ways again after a good holiday. They were not married yet, but they were already like a husband and wife in the eyes of everyone, including themselves. Although the two were very upset about this situation, it was a fact that they had to part. After a long hug and many kisses, Nemesis said goodbye to her husband James and went back up to the 75th floor. During this time James had shown her the developments on the ice mountain on the 5th floor, which he planned to be their future home. Since James planned to abolish the 75th-floor rule set by his ancestor, everyone looked at this house positively. These might have been bold words for someone who had only entered the tower just over two years ago, but either way, every Chaos-Born and Titan was in his favour. Even though the 75th-floor limit had taken a long time to set up, each of them could see the damage to the lower floors because of this limit. This meant that the existing system had to change, only James had to become even more powerful and his authority even better. Chaos already had a good impression of him, it was just that he wasn''t as strong as Desmond, which probably didn''t make him perfect in Chaos'' eyes. Regardless, James was aware of this, Chaos was already paying attention to him, it was the only reason he had been given the gacha ability in the first place, an ability that shouldn''t have existed, given to him by Chaos for the sole purpose of allowing him to surpass Desmond''s power. The battle was incredibly close and James was only just beginning to approach the 75th floor. "It looks like we can continue now Ariel, we''ve said our goodbyes, the 36th floor awaits us," James said suddenly. Ariel looked back at James with a smile, nodded and then replied, "Everything is ready, I think I have enough supplies and items in my inventory, we can go." With that, James and Ariel teleported to the 36th floor as the white portal opened. When the duo opened their eyes again, they realised that they were in a wooded area. It couldn''t really be called a wooded area, it looked more like a swamp, but it wasn''t possible to tell much difference between the two things, because they were in a lush forest, like a rainforest, and most of the ground was like a swamp. "Be careful, try not to get into the swamp, I have water magic so I''ll try to help, but the tower is unpredictable," said James, the ecosystem they were in was quite strange. As they started to move forward they both started to realise where the strangeness was coming from, it felt like something was watching them and that was not a good thing. "Lady Nyx, this feeling is a bit too weird, do you know this floor?" James suddenly asked, he couldn''t believe he was doing this but he really thought he should cheat a bit. James didn''t know what kind of answer he expected to hear, or rather he thought he would get a good answer that would put him at ease, but the answer he was about to hear was going to be the thing that would make everything awkward. Chapter 241: Elanor? "Lady Nyx, this feeling is a little too weird, you know this floor?" After James'' question, silence reigned for almost two minutes. Only after close to three minutes did a reply come from Nyx: [I have no idea, no one does]. The moment James saw the message and showed it to Ariel, their hearts began to race. The tower offered everyone a different floor, but these floors had been repeating for a long time. In other words, instead of giving everyone the same adventure, or more precisely, instead of offering the same cruelty to everyone, it was the purpose of the tower itself to kill everyone differently. The reason why James and Ariel did not like this situation was that the tower paid special attention to these two. The tower had a self, and the tower itself loved to use itself in different ways, choosing to pay attention to many people since the history of its creation. Among them, as James had learnt, was Nyx''s own daughter, Eris, and the fact that Eris had made it through the 75th floor on her own, despite all this, had shown her potential. Still, even if the tower paid attention to one person or more than one person, it didn''t do it all the time. Since James had entered the tower, it had even changed the function of the tower itself towards him. It was like the tower trying to keep up with James in the ''passion and desire'' section of the first floor, the area with the Sea of Rascals. Despite all this, it had not been seen for a long time that the tower had created a floor for someone or something else. It was even possible to say it was hundreds of thousands or millions of years. And that was the scary thing, James and Ariel were shuddering so much, being subjected to such a strange sensation that it was impossible not to be afraid, even involuntarily. "Be careful, Ariel," James said, and then he started to point ahead, indicating that he was going to speed up, he didn''t know what was following them, but he could at least jump from one tree branch to another to investigate the area. That''s exactly why he quickly climbed up a tree and began to move quickly using his dark stepping ability. Ariel seemed to have enough speed to follow her, she must have levelled up quite a lot since she killed the Ancient Giant. As he jumped from one tree to the next, James began to feel as if something or things were following him. It was impossible to tell what these things were, but whatever they were, they were fast. After almost thirty minutes of hard running, James and Ariel arrived in front of an average-sized village. There was a manor house at the far end of the village, and the inside of the village appeared to be empty, or rather "abandoned". James made a few hand gestures, signalling to Ariel to keep her attention to the rear, in short, he wanted her to watch her back. With that, James pulled the holy sword Clarent out of his inventory and gripped it tightly, and as he did so, he recognised a voice in his mind: "Careful James, this is pretty creepy even for me." It was Vladimir''s voice and the fact that even he was saying such a thing gave him a slight indication of what they might be up against. After a fairly thorough search of the village, neither James nor Ariel had found any trace of anything. They had even checked under every bed or piece of furniture in every house in the village with the idea that there might be a hidden passageway in the village. Still, there was nothing. Continue reading at m|v-l''e -NovelFire.net This meant that the only place they should have checked was the manor house because it was the only place that didn''t look abandoned. When James made another sign to Ariel, who was watching his back, he pointed to the mansion, and with that, the two quickly made their way to the door of the mansion. As James approached the mansion he realised that everything was quite familiar, after a few shakes of his head he said rather nervously, "No way?" He was in the same area where he had completed his floor mission a long time ago. When he turned around and took another look at the village, he realised that it had been renovated, the village, which had not shown any signs of life before, had become lively and could even be considered a small city. "Ariel, really stay with me, don''t go away for a second, I know this place," James said. Not only him, but also the gods and goddesses watching him were surprised by this situation. They had never seen anything like this before, it was as if the tower was trying to reveal something that could be considered ''hidden'' because they, like James, remembered very clearly where this place was. When James opened the door to the mansion and walked in, he shook his head, smiled and muttered, "Really...Is it really you...Elanor?" as if he couldn''t hide his surprise. As soon as James said those words, a beautiful woman with greying hair, who looked to be perhaps sixty years old, and a few people with her appeared. As soon as the old woman saw James, she stood up and then ran over and hugged him. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. While James was thankful that this woman was still well, the huge painting standing by the stairs leading to the upper floor attracted his attention. There was only one person in the painting and it was James himself, of course with his hair still green. Even if he could not understand what was going on, James''s surprise and smile seemed to tell what kind of situation he was in. She was someone he had saved, but who remained a hole in his heart, and James was overflowing with the pleasure of seeing her here. He had met an old acquaintance. Chapter 242: You Havent Aged When Elanor stopped hugging James, tears began to fall from her eyes."This is my family, sir, I''ve always waited for your return...I wished Erebus, I begged for your return, never really thought this day would come." Elanor said suddenly and Ariel saw the look on James'' face as she tried to understand what was going on. James was happy, of course, the reason made sense, after all, James had spent a long time wondering if Elanor might actually be alive because of the tower itself, even though he knew that the floor had ceased to exist, or rather was no longer existent. "You never left my mind for a moment, I didn''t even know if you were alright because I couldn''t get back to that floor, everyone said you were just an illusion of what happened in the past or what the tower created, you seem more alive than any of them," James said. Elanor had not left James''s side for a second and had kindly introduced her own family to him, James had many questions, it was like the past mixed with the present, so the tower must have created this floor in such a way. "Nice to meet you all too, really..." James said suddenly. James couldn''t quite understand what the tower was trying to do, maybe there was something the tower was trying to tell him, but even if James wasn''t letting his guard down, he could at least maintain his current happiness for a while. Stay updated via m-v l|-NovelFire.net Elanor led both James and Ariel gently into the main room of the mansion. There were many paintings in the room, and James himself seemed to be in every one of them. "Well, I never thought you loved me so much," James said suddenly, and with that Elanor''s gentle voice was heard again: "Even though I was protected throughout the history of the tower, I died in agony as soon as the climbers finished their task, but when you finished your task, everything was different, everything that had happened in the past or could happen to me in the future was gone. I was able to live perfectly for 20 years, I was able to build my family, but I never forgot the face of my saviour, you." When Elanor said this, James opened his mouth to speak, but just as he was about to speak, Elanor''s voice was heard again: "In case something happened and I forgot your face in my old age, I had hundreds of your paintings made and hung in this mansion where you saved me and brought peace to my family. I rebuilt the city and built a great city and had the rank of the duchess. 20 years... I am now 36 years old." After these words, Elanor showed James the table in the main room and signalled him to sit down. Elanor and her family seemed to be smiling, even if James and Ariel were surprised by this, James did a little scan of the room with his mana just in case, and when he found no problems, he sat down on the armchair. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Giving up the main seat of my family for my saviour would be an understatement...Master James." Elanor said and then as tears streamed down her face she added "It''s been 20 years for me, I''m 36 years old and the white colour fell to my hair, but you...you don''t seem to have aged an hour, forgive me for standing before you in such a disgusting way." James paused for a few seconds after these words, it had been almost two years for James, after all, he had climbed the first 10 floors very, very quickly. Then James stood up and approached Elanor standing in front of him took her by the hands and said, "It has been 20 years for you and 2 years for me, dear Elanor. Looking at what you have done in 20 years, there is nothing to say, this seat is not mine, it is yours." and then he chuckled and spoke once more: "And also, I can read the messages from my wife right now, she''s quite jealous, if the most beautiful woman I''ve ever seen is jealous of you, that means you haven''t lost any of your beauty." James was indeed seeing messages from his wife Nemesis out of the corner of his eye, you could tell she was quite jealous. However, James realised that this was no illusion. After all, he could see Elanor and her husband, their grown children and many others. This meant that for the first time, James was going to ask the tower for something strange. He took the Void Pen out of his inventory, put it in his pocket, and then sent a polite message to Ariel, "I need a little time." Ariel naturally shook her head, wondering what it was about, and then, shaking her head again as if she understood, she spoke aloud, "Are you going to try to claim the rights of this floor?" Elanor and her family were surprised to hear those words, and Elanor herself was especially delighted. James waved his arms after these words and then said, "There is a reason why I addressed to your mind directly, MOM." When Elanor heard the word ''mom'', she turned to Ariel with her mouth open and said, "Forgive me, my lady...I mistook you for a bodyguard, I apologise." "Never mind, things happened," Ariel replied, and with that, James'' voice was heard again. "So I''m going to put in a request to the tower, it''s happened in the past, though it''s almost always been denied. I don''t know of anyone other than Cain the Tailor and Nyx and Erebus who owns a floor of the tower outright," James said suddenly, and with that Ariel''s voice was heard. "Well, sort that out and then tell me about your ancestor, will you? I''m still waiting, and I know you''ve been avoiding it," Ariel said, trying to kill two birds with one stone. James shook his head in boredom and then turned to Elanor and said, "Give me a while, I need to use the system to talk to the tower itself, who knows, maybe I''ll succeed." then asked, "Is there a space I can use, maybe a garden?" There were things he had to do. Chapter 243: 10 Years of My Life? Stay updated through m-v l|-NovelFire.netElanor immediately turned to her daughter standing next to her and said, "Please show your uncle the way." James smiled genuinely when he heard the word ''uncle'' and then followed her out of the room. "Mum talked a lot about you uncle...She never thought you were a climber...She said you came from the future and saved her life. She didn''t even remember how many times she died until the mission was over, how many times history repeated itself for her. You kept her from harm, you took a path that had never been travelled before and you fought for her." Elanor''s daughter said as she walked. With that, she turned around and bowed to James and then said, "The only reason I''m here is that you saved my mother by not even thinking about your own life, unlike other climbers...I don''t know what kind of structure the tower is, but I hope you can do something about the floor, it would be an honour to see you as my uncle." James didn''t know what to say. After all, there was not even a floor in the tower that passed without a battle, or rather, there was never such a floor after the tutorial floors. Which meant that there had to be a reason why he had come to this floor, why Elanor was alive. The fact that she was going to speak to the tower self for the first time was a different story, she had heard stories before, she had even read about it in the imperial library. Even reaching that self was very difficult, unless the tower was watching you carefully. In this case, James had a huge advantage, after all, the tower had given him a floor mission just because it was watching him carefully. "Well, I mean, I did it out of duty, but we don''t come from very different situations so I might have been a bit emotional," James said, after all, the only reason he helped Elanor was because the mission Emma had given him, the mission he had to accomplish to get to the next floor of the tower. With these thoughts in his mind, he made it to the garden and sat down on the ground. The only thing he had to do to reach the tower self was to enter the profile section of the system and send a request from the settings section, then pour some blood into the ''window'' that appeared. If your request is rejected, the window cracks and breaks, if it is accepted, the window grows and a passage is formed. This is exactly why James went into his profile and clicked on the ''Tower'' option at the bottom of the settings section. With that, a window with the most detailed patterns possible opened in front of him, James reached into his inventory and pulled out a knife, brought his hand over the window and then sliced his palm thinly and began to bleed into the window. After only five seconds, the cut on his hand stopped due to his auto-heal ability and the blood that had already drained enough blood fell out of the window onto the floor. James waited a few seconds and then the window began to grow as he expected. After only fifteen seconds, the window turned into a passage and James went through the passage without thinking. When he passed through the passage, he was teleported to a dark area. More precisely, the place he was standing in was dark, he could see stars, black holes and galaxies in the distance. In front of him stood a humanoid, white light, but not glowing. "You knew I was watching you." The person hadn''t even moved its mouth, James couldn''t tell if it was a man or a woman, he heard the voice in his head and then said, "Of course. First the floor mission and now Elanor, you know what I wanted to ask you." After James'' words, the smile of the white person in front of him lifted and his teeth began to show. Even if James shuddered a little at this image, he knew that this was not the question he wanted to ask. "Before that, can you give me a little bit of a copy? Can you tell me what it was that followed us into the swamp?" Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After this question, the white person shook his head and then James said in his mind, "A ghoul. They are not dangerous, they protect the swamps, or rather they protect the souls in the swamps, that is the task of this floor, the quest of it, you help them protect the souls. Unless you take ownership of the floor, you will have to do this task." he heard a few sentences. After these words, James shook his head and asked, "I will help a monster? And who will I protect them from?" "From who? Of course from humans." As these words churned in James'' mind, James paused for a few seconds and then shook his head and said, "Alright, it''s going to be a bit of a challenge, but I choose to trust you. Now...you know why I''m here, is there any possibility of that?" After James'' question, the white person''s smile grew wider and then the following words churned in James'' mind: "It is possible, but at a price." "What is the price?" James asked, and with that, he heard the thing that would shake him where he was and make him sit on the ground: "Ten years of your life." "How many years do I even have?" James asked as he sat there brooding, suddenly remembering that he had swallowed and assimilated Vladimir''s core and had a pure-blood element. The white person put a hand to his chin as if thinking for a few seconds and then James learnt the answer: "You can live to see your great-grandchildren''s great-grandchildren, after all, you have absorbed a Sun Vampire core, and on top of that Chaos himself is watching over you, you are not someone who will die that easily, unless in battle. And trust me, this is a one-time chance, only 10 years, even for Nyx I take half of her statues." James got up from his seat after all these words and then came in front of the white person and said, "Nyx and the others are going to kill me, but I accept, my ten years are yours." The white person had a purer smile after these words, grabbed James'' hand tightly, created a gate behind him, threw him through the gate, and then sent a message to James'' mind, "You are lucky, I owe a great debt to your ancestor, otherwise, I would make you my slave for this ownership." James was back in reality before he could even ask what had happened. Another secret about Desmond seemed to have come his way. Chapter 244: Well, Well Move On When James came to, he could properly realise that he was back in reality, Elanor''s daughter was still standing on his left side and did not seem to have sat up yet."Did something go wrong, Uncle?" the young girl asked. James shook his head as if surprised by this question. He looked around and realised that not even a minute had passed; it was as if time had stopped. Such was the effect of talking to the tower self. He could see the scroll glowing in his mind, a scroll behind dozens of files of thoughts, memories and teachings he had acquired and needed to replace. When James imagined the scroll, a window appeared in front of him, thanks to his Mind Palace ability, he knew what to use and how to use it, when the tower self-placed this scroll in his mind, everything was very easy for him. When James put his hand into the window and removed the parchment, he suddenly tore the parchment and a system notification appeared in front of him: [Congratulations! James Arthur Black, nicknamed Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer and Poison Master, has become the sole owner of the 36th floor according to the authorisation given to him by the tower self. We will pray for the good of your administration]. James smiled as he read what was written in the window and began to feel good that everything was over so easily. "Lady Nyx...I already know you have a lot to say," James said suddenly and with that the message window he had been waiting for appeared in front of him: [I''m not angry with you, after all, you did what you wanted and what your heart desired, on the contrary,y I''m proud of you, but if only you could have done it in the future instead of now, I lost half my power when I faced the tower self for floor ownership, Erebus had to throw away almost every bit of his divinity. I hope you didn''t lose too much]. James was, to put it bluntly, quite surprised when he read the message, he thought that every god and goddess watching him, close to him or not, would chastise him, but instead, he got a kind word from the goddess he most respected. "I haven''t lost much, my lady...about ten years," James said suddenly. He couldn''t even comprehend the effect those words had on Nyx and the others. ----- "How come? Only ten years?" muttered Nyx, she really couldn''t make up her mind, she looked like she was starting to worry. "I don''t understand, could James have been tricked? But we saw the scroll, it was identical to the one you and I were given," Erebus replied, sweat pouring down the god of darkness''s face. "Could the tower self have tricked James? I mean...could something have been placed on James that would have affected or restricted him?" asked Nyx. With Nyx''s question, concern grew in everyone''s eyes, and even talking to the tower self personally became an option in everyone''s mind, no such harm could come to James, not when the war was so close, not when all the floors and powers were escalating. The fact that everyone had this information was what made everything troublesome. The fact that they knew there was no use in thinking about it any longer caused Nyx to address James: "James, is there anything you''d like to share with us? If you''re trying not to worry us, please, you don''t need to do that." ----- [James, is there anything you''d like to share with us? If you''re trying not to worry us, please, you don''t need to do that]. When James looked at this message from Nyx, he shook his head from side to side as if strangely and then said, "No, the tower''s itself only asked me for 10 years, he stated that he normally gets much more than that, and he even told me that I was lucky, my lady." With his words, everyone managed to take a deep breath and let it out, they had chosen to believe James. With that, James stood up from his seat and then turned to the girl next to him and asked, "I didn''t ask your name, do you want to tell me?" "My name is Umbra, Uncle," the young girl said, her eyes shining as she heard these words. James didn''t even know what to say, he had never told Elanor his nickname, at least that''s what he remembered, it was as if some ''spell'' cast by the tower had shown its hand. "No way, haha! I can''t call you by my nickname...what about...Thalia! How''s Thalia?" James said suddenly, seemingly looking for a way to address the young girl. At these words, the young girl stood up proudly and then said, "I would be honoured, Uncle!" Then, with a smiling face, she pointed the way to James and added, "If you are finished, please let''s go." James smiled and started to follow Thalia, and then the two entered the main room of the mansion again. Ariel and the others looked at James with slightly odd eyes, not expecting the pair to return so quickly. "Uncle called me Thalia, Mummy..." the almost 20-year-old girl said with sparkling eyes as Thalia quickly ran to her mother and hugged her. "You don''t like the name Umbra, sir?" Elanor asked in surprise and James replied, "I just thought a more special name would suit your daughter better." James''s words made Elanor incredibly happy. With the information she had heard from the tower itself, she had managed to learn at least James'' nickname and had named her daughter Umbra, but now her saviour himself had given her another name. This was even better than she could have asked for. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Indeed, it was even possible to see it as everything in Elanor''s mind. Experience new stories on mvl Ariel coughed a little, as if annoyed by such cuteness, and then asked, "Well, what did the tower self say?" Chapter 245: Cordelia "So, what did the tower say?"After Ariel''s question, James opened his arms and said with a twist of his lips, "I own the floor." he said. Stay connected via mvl "I hope you didn''t lose too much, I''ve heard the stories and legends too," Ariel said with a deep smile. When James nodded and said that everything was fine, he said, "There is nothing left for us to do here, I have already banned you from floor duty, when Emma opens the gate, we can move to the next floor, Ariel." With those words, Elanor and the others turned to James in surprise and then managed to get his attention. "Don''t worry Elanor, I know you''re fine this time and I own the floor, normally I would have just walked through just like last time but now I can come back here whenever I want. I can let my servants and the Church of Night in here, which means you and your family will always be safe." James said suddenly, genuinely wanting to comfort this strange woman he had missed for so long. As Elanor''s eyes filled with tears, a white portal opened at the very edge of the room where the paintings had been, and James nodded and said, "Just in time Emma, we''re almost to the 40th floor." He turned and gave Elanor a gentle hug, shaking her husband''s hand and patting his nephews on the head, bade them goodbye and left the room with Ariel through the portal. He left behind Elanor and her family, filled with hope, and when he emerged from the portal, he was greeted by a smiling Ariel. "What happened? What''s wrong?" James suddenly asked and Ariel, hearing this question, replied directly, "There''s nothing I can do, you''re smiling really sincerely these days, you should see your face, you look quite funny, dummy." With that, the two looked around to see what was going on around them. They saw that they were next to a long line of caravans. Their task seemed to be to protect this caravan, but frankly, there was no telling what the tower would do, after all this stupid tower was sadistic enough to enjoy the screams of climbers. "Watch out," James said quietly, and with that, the entrance to the 37th floor began. The two of them watched the caravan and the caravan group carefully, trying to keep their eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ariel and James were working alongside what appeared to be a very expensive and luxurious caravan, which led James to realise what the main objective of this floor mission was. After only a short time, when the luxurious carriage came to a halt, the whole queue of the caravan came to a standstill, and then the carriage window opened a little and a woman''s voice said, "You, blue hair!" When James looked around, he saw that no one else had blue hair except him, and as if he thought he was in trouble, he politely asked, "Yes, madam, how can I help you?" The person or persons inside the carriage would have been surprised as if they had not expected James to be so polite that giggles and small talk were heard from inside. Then the opposite of what James expected happened. The carriage door opened and then he heard a woman''s voice say, "Come in, the Empress wants to meet you." James and Ariel behind him were surprised to hear the word ''empress'', and yet James entered the carriage very politely as if obeying an order. In just one day they had experienced so much of the usual. When James got into the carriage, he realised that there were three women in the carriage. As he gently sat down where he was shown, the voice of the woman who was seen as the most ''bright and beautiful'' among them rose: "I recognise the darkness rising from your body, the fact that it is not an evil darkness reveals the brightness of your soul, if I am not mistaken, the being you worship must be Nyx herself." James smiled gently when he heard these words and then said, "It would be wrong to say I worship, my lady, forgive my rudeness, but the lady you call Nyx is my mother." The group, including the Empress herself, seemed surprised by James'' words. "Please don''t lie about this, it may not seem like it, but the gods and goddesses we have are very important to us. We worship Hyperion, the embodiment of war, and we know well those who are seen as his brothers and sisters, the lady Nyx is very important to us." the empress suddenly said, and James, who heard these words, instantly turned the system window visible to everyone and showed Nyx''s messages to the trio in the carriage. The Empress was incredibly surprised. "If I''m not mistaken, I''ve spoken to Hyperion once or twice, my lady," he said, and then smiled and showed the messages of Hyperion. ''We... So you are a climber? I don''t know what kind of fate has brought us here, I just wanted to meet you because I like your darkness and your eyes so much, but it turns out that you are even more important than I thought.'' the empress said and gently extended her hand to James and said, "My name is Cordelia, I am known as the Empress of the Mountains." James, feeling a strange bond of friendship forming now, took Cordelia''s hand gently and began to introduce himself in the most garish way possible: "I am James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer and Poison Master. I am the beloved husband of Lady Nyx''s daughter Nemesis and the main leader of the Church of Night. Pleased to meet you." It was the beginning of a more than adequate friendship. James was quite happy because, strangely, he seemed to have managed to take the easy way out. He hadn''t given any thought to how wrong he might be, though. After all, the mission of this floor was not to meet the Empress, but something much bigger. Chapter 246: A New Danger After almost an hour of talking, James finally realised that loud noises were coming from outside. It was only when Ariel knocked on the carriage door that James realised something was wrong and that the mission had begun.The smile on his face instantly vanished and he felt like he was a robot. The people inside the carriage were so surprised by his change that they even thought that James might be a hypocrite as if he was wearing a mask and that mask had just come off. "I''m sorry, ladies, it''s finally worked out," James said, and immediately got out of the carriage, turned to Ariel and said, "Stay with the carriage, just in case, and I''ll take care of the rest." After these words, he immediately started running and activated his dark step ability without waiting. He quickly arrived at the scene where he thought the incident had taken place and saw many men and women gathered around. When he managed to pass through them quickly, he came across a corpse that was literally torn to pieces. A man was sobbing at the head of the body and shouting "BROTHER, BROTHER!". When James got close to the body, he made a few hand gestures to disperse the people around him, and when the people stepped back, he got closer to the body and started to search for traces. After receiving orders from the empress, a few imperial soldiers arrived on the scene and pulled the people back to make it easier for James. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "PLEASE FIND! FIND MY BROTHER''S MURDERER!!!" came a scream from the younger brother of the body''s owner. While James was crushed by the pain in this voice, he started to continue his search for the traces around with a clear eye that at least this was what he had to do. Most of the tracks were confused because of the people around, but James could see quite easily that most of the tracks led into the woods ahead. James turned to one of the imperial soldiers and said "Tell Ariel who is with the empress that we are going into full seriousness mode, she will protect the empress, and I will enter the forest." The Imperial soldier left the area as soon as he nodded his head up and down, and after a short time, James put the holy sword Clarent in his inventory and started walking towards the forest. Your adventure continues at mvl The crowd and soldiers behind him seemed to be questioning whether James knew where he had entered, one of them even turning to the other and asking, "He knows he entered the Forest of Death, doesn''t he? Could he be a cultivator?" This floor was such a floor, contrary to what James didn''t know, each floor from the 35th to the 40th floor was a continuous floor, so when he took ownership of the 36th floor, he took ownership of a rather huge world. This floor was the place where cultivators that could be seen in TV series or novels continued to exist, and even climbers using aura tried to train for a long time and refused to climb the floors. The Forest of Death was probably one of the most dangerous places, even if its name was quite common on the floors of the tower. In this forest, it was impossible to locate the traps even by using the aura or magical energy, the mana itself, and the forest itself consisted only of traps. Swamps that would pull you in as if they were grabbing you by every part of your body, strange types of wraiths, aura-based weapons that would fly at you, and many more. James had entered the forest without knowing any of this, he didn''t know if his mission was to go here or not, but at least it was something he could do, maybe he might come across a hidden reward or something different, and he was willing to take the risk. As he cautiously entered the forest he looked around and realised that nothing looked familiar. Of course, he was on another floor, but that was not what he thought. From the type of grass on the ground to the trees around, everything seemed to have suddenly changed into a different species. Each plant had a very light red colour as if someone had drawn these trees, grasses and sometimes flowers with their hands. He was scanning everywhere with his mana and could not find anything. As he continued to move forward very cautiously, he took his left step somewhere and then his whole body trembled from head to toe, signalling to him that danger was approaching. When he suddenly jumped into the air, he saw the lava region that had formed directly below him, and as he approached back to the earth, he used 8 Sacred Fire and threw himself to the left with the momentum of the fire. After he fell to the ground, he looked at the lava pit with fearful eyes and thought that there was a problem with his mana. While he was trying to understand what was going on, a message window opened in front of him: [In the forest of death, controlling things with mana and aura is useless, unless you have Qi, you can''t achieve anything, you can''t see anything, just be careful]. As soon as he saw this message from Erebus, he stood up and took out a package from his inventory. It was a packet of sweets, and although James didn''t know whether he would succeed or not, he dipped his hand into the packet and threw the sweets around. As soon as the sweets hit the ground, iron stakes stretching almost three metres, logs coming out of the trees towards where the sweets had fallen, and many more began to appear and James watched with his mouth open. Although he had thrown almost fifty candies at once, almost thirty traps had been exposed. He hadn''t even reached the depths of the forest yet. He had no idea what to do. Chapter 247: So, It Was Not Danger? [You can try jumping from one tree to another.] James was greeted with a message, this time from Nemesis, and the fact that no other message was being sent told James that all was well.Taking a few steps back and looking at the ground through the trees, which had grown to almost six metres tall, he found that he could see the traps better and then used his dark step ability to leap to another tree almost ten metres away. From behind he could see aura blades flying through the air, there seemed to be some sort of danger involved in moving through the air, but at least he wasn''t in a terrible situation, after what he had just been through it was safe to say that he was at least 60% less in danger. He quickly jumped from one tree to another, and indeed, as he went, he did not forget to throw sweets down from the trees behind him. Luckily for him, he loved sweets, they were small and James was never stingy with them, so throwing them was not a problem. There wasn''t much else to throw away anyway, after all, James''s inventory was full of the necessary tools of war and tonnes of crates of food. Which meant that the marshmallows were worth more than anything else in his inventory at the moment. The flame spells that had begun to emerge from the trees, the pits of boiling oil that had suddenly opened up, and so much more were coming into view, and James was beginning to reach the other side of the forest. It was possible to see out of the forest, only a few more trees remained. Once he was past the danger he was able to step on the ground with ease and then sent a message to Ariel, "You go ahead and get the empress to safety just in case, I think I''ve found something, I''ll investigate and come back later." What James had found was a tribe, or rather it looked like a compound, it looked quite modern, or rather it looked like a place that was not dangerous, but James remembered the tracks he had seen, the danger could be here. When James approached the compound, he met a few people. They looked like fish and stood trembling and shaking with spears in their hands, facing James. James instantly realised that the reason for this was the holy sword Clarent in his hand, there was already a dark aura emanating from him, and on top of that, the aura of the holy sword Clarent itself was getting involved. Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James raised his hands in the air to show that he was empty as he raised the holy sword to his inventory and then said, "I''m here to ask a few questions, I''m not an enemy." Releasing their guard, these...fish people took a deep breath and then one of them said, "Please ask." James smiled and shook his head and then said, "Almost half an hour ago, a human was dismembered at the other end of the forest, I wonder if any of you did it." At his words, the fish people shook their heads left and right and then said, "We don''t go in the forest! The forest is dangerous! The holy beast will take our lives! We live in the water and come out occasionally, we swear!" they shouted. James strangely managed to believe these words, but he still needed more information. "And what does this holy beast look like?" he asked. "It has two claws like knives, like a praying mantis, a tail like a scorpion, wings like a hawk, and four strong legs like a lion. Very scary! Very scary!!!" replied one of the fish people. James shook his head and saw these creatures trembling with fear and felt sorry for them and asked, "Do you know where I can find this monster?" One of the fish men shook his head and pointed to the water and then said, "On the island in the middle of the water! Maybe he killed the human! It can fly and it''s very fast!" When James looked carefully, he could indeed see the small island, which was maybe 20 minutes away by swimming from land. Smiling, he thanked the fish people and then, approaching the water, he took off his simple clothes and put them into his inventory, wearing only Adamant Armour Lux. Immediately after stretching his body, he jumped into the water and started swimming. As soon as he used his dark step ability, his legs accelerated and he started to cover the distance quite quickly by paddling faster. He managed to cover the 20-minute distance in almost 10 minutes and then set foot on the island. He dried himself quickly and then put his clothes back on, then began to walk around the island with slow steps. After a short while, he was confronted by a strange sound. "QUELCH!!!" James immediately hid behind a tree and watched the open space with one eye to see where the sound was coming from. It was then that he managed to see what the fish people were talking about. It had four legs like a lion, wings like a hawk and claws, but no tail like a scorpion. This thing was a...Gryphon. It was the mythological beast herself, and it seemed to be in labour right now. James thought that this monster needed help and immediately came out from behind the tree. Although Gryphon saw him and tried to act in a very angry way, she calmed down with a word from James: "Stop!" James had shouted, for moving at the moment of labour could harm the Gryphons that would be born. "Don''t move, you have to give birth in a healthy way, I''m here," James said and then he took out a huge basin, put it in front of Gryphon and filled it with water. Continue reading on §Þ?? Even though Gryphon tried to understand what was happening, she continued the birth with great gratitude and James started to observe the surroundings to eliminate any danger. What would happen would become clear after the birth. Chapter 248: Gryphons James had indeed managed to pick up a few tracks as he looked around, but he could tell that Gryphon was not the person who had killed the human on the other side of the forest.The person who had passed through here must have been quite heavy, though it was easy to see that he was able to step lightly. [A cultivator, a rather powerful one,] suddenly came a message from Nyx. Reading this message, James shook his head, wondering why this cultivator would have come here to kill someone for no reason. The tracks were incredibly fresh...and there was no sign of them travelling outwards. With a sudden fright, James started to run towards the mother Gryphon. After a short time, he arrived at the site and saw a man standing next to the mother Gryphon. The man was gently holding the newborn baby Gryphon and just waiting. James instantly drew the holy sword Clarent from his inventory and then solidified his position to fight. "Calm down young man, I''m not stupid enough to kill my own wife," came a voice from the man opposite James. James shook his head in surprise and then asked, "Are you the one who killed the man on the other side of the forest?" He couldn''t even imagine that the person in front of him was disgusting enough to have mated with a bird, but he could at least question him about why he had come here. "Yes, but I''m not the guilty one," the man said gently. "What do you mean?" James asked curiously. "That man had a very dark soul, he was a disgusting being who had killed many people, raped many women and men, and I needed his life energy, so both humanity and us won." the man said calmly. James shook his head in bewilderment after these words and asked "What?" as if he could not understand. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "There is nothing to understand young man, unlike you, that man''s soul was dark, not the darkest I have ever seen, but it was dark." the man said, and with these words, the man''s hands began to glow. James was still trying to understand what was going on when he saw a large amount of life energy coming out of the man''s hands. The life energy moved towards the mother Gryphon lying on the ground and the exhausted mother managed to stand up. "As you can see. By killing a man who had destroyed dozens of lives, I prevented harm to others and saved my wife on top of that. Young man, sometimes things seen are like illusions you wish you could see. You know what they say, not all angels are good and not all devils are evil." At the man''s words, James raised the holy sword Clarent to his inventory and then asked curiously, "Who are you, sir?" Enjoy exclusive chapters from §Þ?? As soon as he asked this question, Mother Gryphon shone with a very bright light and turned into an incredibly beautiful woman. Mother Gryphon was so beautiful that James couldn''t help saying "Woah." "Thank you for trying to protect me, young man. However, I have a question; Why did you try to protect me even though you came here with the intention of attacking?" asked the mother Gryphon, and hearing this question, James shook his head and replied, "Enemy or not, you were giving birth, how could I harm you when even a snake would not touch someone drinking water?" After James'' words, the man holding the baby Gryphon smiled and said, "My name is Chao and this is my wife Xia. Thank you for your kind heart young man, please introduce yourself." After Chao''s words, James stood up straight with respect and then said, "My name is James, I am known as Umbra of Chaos." With these words, Chao showed the young man a place with his hand and told him to sit down. When James sat down where he was shown, Mother Gryphon Xia began to speak: "You are a climber, aren''t you? Many come here, or rather to this floor. Many of them try to train themselves in qi, and even when they pass the floor, they come back here and continue their training." At Xia''s words, James confusedly learnt that this floor was a floor that could be returned to, and then opened the message window, saying, "Please, Miss Xia, I''d like a second of your time." After sending a message to Nyx, he received a message saying, [Didn''t you know that from the 35th floor to the 40th floor, there are floors that are counted as safe areas.] He then closed the message window and then turned to Xia and said, "Yes ma''am, I''m a climber, forgive me I had to check something. However, I came here without any knowledge of this floor and I don''t plan to train on qi." With these words, Xia could no longer hide the surprise on her face, "Are you sure about this? Your aura is not complete, right? Or rather, even if it is complete, it is not at the highest level, I can see...you have a maximum medium level aura." James, on the other hand, even if he was happy that he had potential after this question, he thought that qi training would take a long time and said, "Even if the aura is important, it is much more important for me to climb the tower right now, ma''am. I need to get to the 75th floor as soon as possible." Xia and Chao, who were caring for the newborn puppy, stared at James as if they could no longer hide their surprise. "You shouldn''t look forward to becoming a god, young man, it''s not a good thing. Improvement is of the utmost importance on this path, an unimproved god is nothing more than a weak holy being." Chao suddenly said. Even if these words were full of wisdom, James'' desire was clear. At least for the moment. Chapter 249: Next Level of Aura "I''m aware of that too Mr Chao, I just want to get to my wife, of course, that''s not the only reason, but it''s the thought in my heart." James said suddenly and Chao, hearing these words, smiled and said, "Ah...love, is it? What a beautiful goal."With that, Chao and Xia looked at each other for a few seconds, and then something began to form in their hands. After a brief and small glow, several pieces of feathers formed on Chao''s and Xia''s hands. "These feathers belong to both of us. I can see what you have in mind, these feathers are not like the Gryphon feathered-sleeved shirt you are wearing. They are the legendary Gryphons, we are the holy beasts, there is a huge difference between the two species, like the first floor and the hundredth floor." Chao said suddenly and handed the feathers to James. While James didn''t even know what he had done to deserve these feathers, Chao frowned and then forcibly put the feathers into James'' hands. "If I were an enemy, I''m sure you would have tried to attack me, to save the child of a monster. As long as there are good-hearted people like you, this tower will continue to stand." Chao suddenly said, and then turned to his wife Xia and added, "My dear wife, please go and get some rest." With that, James realised that it was time to leave and he too stood up to make his move. At that moment, Chao stopped him and said, "Stay here for a few days, I will personally train you in qi, or rather, since you don''t want to learn qi, I will support your aura, at least you can go a long way to gain a higher level aura." As soon as James sat back down, Xia and the baby Gryphon disappeared like dust, leaving only James and Chao in the area. "We''ll have to be quick, after all, you did a good job of pointing out that there was no time," Chao said without missing a beat, and then he was right behind James. James didn''t even dare to get up from the stone chair he was sitting on. The suppressive energy coming from Chao, who was standing right behind him, was so enormous that James didn''t even dare to move. The only thing going through his mind was the sentence "If I do something wrong, I''ll die." Although Chao had no intention of harming him, the qi of this holy beast was telling him exactly that. It was truly a mesmerising creature. "I won''t ask you to do anything difficult, I can see that your aura is very special, and on top of that, you have a strange magical energy. In short, I will channel aura to you and you will absorb this aura. It will carry you to the next level, but it will leave you right at the door, and it is up to your ability to open that door." After these words, James realised that a huge aura energy started to enter his body without even saying anything. All the veins in his body began to expand and develop. It was as if someone was cutting his veins with his hands and placing another material there. In short, in a way, his ''humanised'' veins were turning into diamonds. This was one of the must-haves for a Final Level Completed Aura. Even if the whole body could carry the aura, the veins were like a house of aura energy, and a house would collapse if it could not carry the power inside. James could feel the heat on his face, he could feel the dirt coming off his body, it was almost the same feeling he had felt when he had first gained his magic status and had formed a magic circle many times. The only different thing was that this warmth wasn''t just from the purification. The amount of aura entering James'' body was so great that blood began to flow from his nostrils. There was a heavy pressure not only on his body but also on his brain. Even if James couldn''t absorb all the aura, he had indeed managed to absorb a good amount of aura, which was good news, after all, the more he absorbed, the easier it would be to move to the next aura level. When he took a deep breath and started to take it more seriously, everything became easier. After only 7 days of non-stop training, he had managed to gain enough aura energy to advance to the next level, and at that very moment, Chao''s help had ended. Chao was looking at James with a strangely proud expression. "You''re much more talented than I expected," Chao said. With these words, his body began to glow and then he said these words: "Come on, get in, I''ll take you wherever you want to go." James sniffed himself when he heard those words and turned his head away because of the smell, it was obvious that he needed a little time, but Chao didn''t seem to care. "We''re going to the empire in the mountains, I don''t know exactly where it is," James said, jumping on the back of Chao, who quickly changed to Gryphon form, and then they set off with Chao taking off. After a slow flight of almost two days, they made it to the capital of the empire. James instantly understood why Cordelia called her ''Empress of the Mountains''. Explore more adventures at M V L He had seen thousands of mountains from the beginning to the end of the imperial frontier. Whether tall or short, there were many, many mountains, one after the other or surrounding each other, and settlements were built in and on the mountains. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The capital city had a completely different beauty. Now that the capital was entered and everything went well, Gryphon Chao and James landed on the balcony of the huge palace in the capital. James stepped off the Gryphon Chao on which he had been sitting and was instantly confronted with astonished eyes staring at him. No one seemed to have expected a young man to ride a sacred beast. Chapter 250: Ripped Gryphon Chao''s body glowed again with a small light, and then he shifted back to his human form and looked around at the people. "Who are you here to see?" Chao asked suddenly, knowing that no one could refuse James while he was here, there was no one in this empire as powerful as he was."Cordelia," James replied. The surrounding servants and soldiers were beginning to have a strange thought that James was calling the empress directly by her name. After all, it was well-known how strange the Empress was. Or rather, she was a rather frightening individual, ready to do anything for her people, who had even publicly executed her husband for treason. She was a great empress who lived only for her people. After only a minute, the empress came out onto the balcony of the palace, saw James and said with a smile, "Master Umbra, what good news that you are back." and started to approach James. Just then she stopped where she was covering her nose and said, "Sir...I invite you to go to the bathroom, please..." James then smiled shook his head and said "Sorry, I may have experienced a few things." with the help of the servants, he reached the bathroom of the palace. There were a few other men in the bathroom with him. Most of them, if not all of them, were smiling. It was obvious that it was not even necessary to look at them more than once to realise that the smiling ones were nobles, they were all incredibly well-groomed and quite beautiful gentlemen. The more serious-looking men had to be the bodyguards. The nobles who were preparing to come to James suddenly stopped and one of them asked, "Qi training?". James rolled his head as if surprised at the modesty of the nobles standing in front of him and then replied, "Something like that. Cordelia sort of forced me into the bath." S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. These young men were just as surprised as the servants and soldiers outside. "I take it you are close to the Empress?" one of the nobles asked. James, after a few seconds of thought, replied, "Actually, we met about a week ago." The young nobles were even more surprised and curious, "I want to hear everything about your story." one of them said. James looked like he was going to be in the bathroom for a long time. "Should we tell him?" At Nyx''s words, all eyes turned to her. "I don''t understand how he finds people he shouldn''t," Selene complained, standing with the Titans and the others as she was very interested in the 37th floor. "We know who''s the cause of this!" shouted Gaia, her gaze fixed on her son Hyperion and looking very angry. Hyperion tried to avert his eyes from his mother. "I just want to say that I''m not guilty, why is everyone staring at me?" questioned Hyperion. Your journey continues with M V L "WHY?!" Phoebe suddenly shouted and with that Gaia''s voice was heard again: "That''s a strange thing to say when almost every single inhabitant of the 37th Floor worships you. On top of that, the fact that you created the sacred Gyphons in a way, right? Do you want us to talk more?" When Gaia said those words, Hyperion shut his mouth and sulked where he was, and then Nyx asked the same question again: "Should we tell him?" Erebus shook his head at Nyx''s question and then replied, "If Chao didn''t want to tell him, we don''t need to say anything, he''s already approaching James with a lot of interest, only time can tell what will happen." With everyone in agreement on that, it was time to move on to the next topic. Of course, the 37th floor was not the only reason Selene was here, after all the goddess of the moon could see what was going on thanks to the millions of climbers following her, anywhere she wanted. This meant that Selene was here on someone else''s orders. "We continue our search with the Aether. What we feared may have happened, Lady Nyx, we found two tears in the tower," Selene said. Hearing these words, Nyx swallowed nervously and said, "I thought we said we agreed that this danger didn''t exist...Are you saying they''ve gotten past the Supreme Dragons?" Selene shook her head at Nyx''s words and then replied, "We thought the Fallen Gods were connected to the outside, and have been for a long time, after the memories you showed me about it, I have learned the truth and after further research,h I am certain, my lady, that the Fallen Gods are summoned by holy beings from outside the tower." These words fell like a weight on the entire room. No one knew what to say. After their conversation with Chaos, Nyx and Chronos were certain that the beings outside the tower had no connection to the events inside. Unfortunately, the two were very, very wrong. Even if they didn''t know it, the white-haired woman who gave orders to the trio, who was the cause of everything that had happened since the 9th floor, everything that had happened to James, was a goddess from outside the tower. She wasn''t very powerful, but even in that state, she had enough power to stand up to a medium-grade god or goddess. The outer gods and goddesses had found a way to get inside the tower and had sent someone with enough power to be completely unnoticed. This was the mysterious white-haired woman. The people she gave orders to were nothing but low-ranking gods and goddesses. Nevertheless, this was a large organization. They had no way of knowing exactly how many there were. They had already seen with the help of Uranus that they had a 12-piece division, and it took a long time to destroy even one of them. The question was how big a threat was trying to come in from outside the tower and why these forces were targeting James. Chapter 251: Long-Life Promise to Desmond Such thoughts had managed to form in each of their minds in one way or another. They did not know exactly what was targeting James. After all, no one knew what the danger from the outside was, but one way or another James was in grave danger.They had no idea why those who were targeting James hated him and were targeting him as if they were going to kill him. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Do we have a way to close these rips?" Hyperion asked suddenly, that was the real question he wanted to know. Nyx shook her head at the question and then went into her system profile, where there was a settings tab and when she clicked on the option to contact the tower, a window popped up in front of her. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a knife and said the following words: "There is only one way to know." With those words, Nyx sliced her hand with a thin slash and spilt her blood into the window. After a short time, the white portal was formed and Nyx passed through it. The tower self was waiting for Nyx as expected, watching the daughter of Chaos with that ugly and frightening smile. "The Tower," Nyx said, a tone of respect in her voice. Your journey continues on M V L "Well, well, well. Would you look at that? The daughter of Chaos finally asked to speak to me after millions of years. To what do I owe this visit, Your Majesty?" the tower asked. Nyx smiled when she heard those words and then said, "I''m happy to see you too, brother." They were both created by Chaos, so it was quite normal for Nyx to approach her like that. The tower dropped its ugly smile at those words and said happily, "I''m glad too, sister. I haven''t seen you in a long time." "Do you know why I''m here?" Nyx asked, gesturing to the tower that she shouldn''t answer, "First of all, I want to thank you for asking for ten years of your life instead of taking James'' power from him." The tower smiled when it heard those words and said, "I had a promise to someone." and then added, "And yes, I know why you are here, it was very kind of you to send your little girl Selene and your son Aether to study me." Nyx''s mouth hung open at the words she heard from the tower self in front of her, "I had a promise to someone" was a load of bullshit in itself. "Who could you have promised?" Nyx complained. "Who else? Desmond...oh, you weren''t supposed to know that, Chaos had already erased your memories, hadn''t he?" the tower said. At those words, the tower saw Nyx''s eyes widen at the sight of the tower itself, and Nyx was surprised. "So you remember...is that it? How could you have gained your memories?" the tower self asked. As Nyx shook her head in confusion, the tower self approached her and grabbed her by the shoulders, "Have you met Desmond? How? Where? When?" she asked one question after another. The tower self smiled and said, "The first time I met Desmond was just before his death, and he asked me to help them meet Vladimir if any of his descendants came in the future. It took me a long time to realize it was James, but eventually I did, and the boy was interesting to me, so I only asked him for ten years." With those words, Nyx took a few steps backwards and fell to the ground. The pieces were finally falling into place. James had managed to change the tower from top to bottom, quickly going through all the floors. Not since Sun Wukong had there been another person who had cleaned the tower so quickly. Not only that, even though the tower was giving James a hard time, the onlookers could see him helping him from time to time. She also put James and Ariel, who was with him, through the floor test. It was as if Nyx was watching with her naked eyes as the puzzle pieces fell into place. "Desmond....How far ahead could you have planned?" questioned Nyx, James'' ancestor...How many secrets did Desmond have? "You can discuss it with the others. It would be more important to ask the real question. After all, I won''t tell you any more. Like I said, I promised Desmond," the tower self said suddenly. Nyx realised the seriousness of the situation the moment he said those words, even though they were brothers, Nyx himself knew that the tower self was someone to be respected. "So...you know my question, is there any way to close those tears? Or a way to tell us who went through those rips?" asked Nyx, and with that, the tower self nodded, "Easy, just repair the rips with the energy of someone with a predisposition to the space element. In this case, Aether and the little girl Selene would be very good choices indeed." Nyx nodded as if she understood and prepared to leave, and just before she left she said, "I know that the only reason you told me about them wasn''t for fun, you''re too smart for that. I have things to do and they will be revealed in the future, I only hope you will eventually fight alongside us, brother." with a gentle smile from his tower self, he left through the portal that had opened behind him. The tower, left on its own, could only say, "Isn''t this a great show, Desmond? You controlling the casino while they play blackjack. Everything is going exactly as you expected, just one thing...James is something you couldn''t calculate and would you look at that, he changes everything and everyone, just like once you did." When Nyx returned, she told everyone what had happened and what she had learnt, including Selene, who had just learned everything, and the fear in everyone''s hearts grew even greater. "We knew something was targeting James if Desmond even met with the tower and made a deal, then he foresaw what was happening, we can say that Desmond is the reason James was targeted, but why? What did Desmond do that made him targeted by the outer gods and goddesses?" asked Uranus, as puzzled and curious as everyone else. Still, it was impossible to find the answer to such a question now, they would have to talk and negotiate, and a lot of preparations would have to be made before they could act. Still, it was impossible to know what the outcome would be. Chapter 252: Imperial Feast It had been almost a month since the two learned that the Empress had returned from the war and that James and Ariel were trying to get her home safely.During this time, neither Emma nor the tower itself had been given a mission, and the gods and goddesses had learnt what the mission was. In short, James and Ariel were trapped on the 37th floor and just going about their lives. After all, with the logic in their minds that they might really be stuck here, there was nothing else they could do. Continue your saga on M V L They could try to get on with their lives and maybe learn a few things. Ariel managed to get a little teaching about qi training from Chao, who was still with James. In short, although Ariel wasn''t going to fully engage in qi training and wouldn''t be staying on this floor to become a cultivator, she had tried to train to diversify her aura. Chao was quite excited that both James and Ariel had the same idea, normally it was quite expected that cultivators or normal aura users would grovel and beg at his feet. These two, on the other hand, acted as if they didn''t give a damn about anything. In a way, though, they really didn''t care about anything. In the process, James was trying to take his aura to the next level and Ariel was trying to complete her medium-level aura. The fact that Ariel''s aura was so powerful even when it wasn''t complete was already enough to reveal her potential. Obviously, Ariel was much more skilled at using aura. As soon as the Empress returned from the war, preparations for the feast began, in short, a victory feast was to be held, and James and Ariel were invited to this feast. After almost a month, when it was time for the feast, the two of them dressed in the best clothes they could find and attended the feast. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Even though Ariel did not have a big body, she was still a very good-looking individual because of her body muscles, and because of the powers Moros had given her, her hair had changed colour, it was like a blue shifting to purple. In short, this woman, who used to have red hair, had a darker appearance. Even though the white suit she was wearing made her look like a man in a way, everyone could tell that she was perhaps the most beautiful woman they had seen recently, just by the beauty of her face. James, on the other hand, tried to choose clothes as usual and messed up because of his bad choices. Ariel, acting like a hero, had of course chosen James'' clothes. She wore a black top with silver shoulder pads that looked like they were designed with arrows and flowers. The fact that she always looked good in whatever she was wearing made it all the easier. When the duo attended the feast, they of course attracted the attention of the nobles of the empire. Many noblewomen or men came up to them to woo them, but they were always rejected. Chao kept suggesting others and saying that being with them would benefit the duo, but the duo didn''t care. "You know I''m married, right Chao? Or rather, I will be as soon as I get above the 75th floor, and Ariel is on her way to marriage," James finally complained. "No one told either of you that you could only have one husband and one wife. Polygamy is quite common, especially in this empire." Chao said in reply, but the two still didn''t care about that. "Love is an important thing, Chao. If my eyes don''t sparkle when I look at the woman I''m in love with, I''m not in love with that person, I don''t look at anyone but my mate Nemesis, it''s that simple," James said suddenly. There was no way to describe how happy these words made Nemesis who was watching them. "Welcome, my friends!" came a voice suddenly from the side of the dais. It didn''t make sense to call it a dais, Cordelia was speaking at the top of the stairs after all. James and Ariel''s attention turned to where the conversation was coming from. Cordelia raised her wine glass with a smiling face and said, "This victory was incredibly important for our empire. Not only did it allow our empire to improve our food routes, but it also allowed us to get our hands on the soul stone mines." With that shout, the room erupted in cheers, and then everyone calmed down. "On top of that, we''ve made two new friends, let me introduce you. Umbra of Chaos, the husband of Nyx''s daughter Nemesis and leader of the Church of Night, and Ariel of Chaos, who is both his knight and his mother. Thanks to these two, our empire has the protection of the sacred Gryphon, created by our god Hyperion himself." At Cordelia''s words, this time the cheering was directed at both James and Ariel, James turned to Chao and asked, "I didn''t know Hyperion created you, is that why you''re with me?" "No, I''m just interested in you, but if you''re friends with Cordelia, I''ll protect this empire." Chao replied and James smiled and said, "You''re a very strange person, it''s hard not to respect you." With these words, the feast seemed to have begun in full. Before moving to the ballroom, the food service and buffet service started and James and Ariel managed to get to a table with Chao next to them. One of the Empress''s daughters was at the table with them, her name was Yue and she was a very calm, mature and respectful lady. "We''re sorry you have to accompany us, young lady," Ariel suddenly said. Yue shook her head as if embarrassed and replied, "I am honoured, ma''am, thank you so much for bringing my mother here safely." Ariel smiled and turned to James, some things needed to be discussed. Chapter 253: They are Afraid of You Umbra "It''s clear that the mission is not to bring the Empress safely to the palace James, we need to find out what we''re supposed to do now," Ariel complained, they needed to find out what the mission was as soon as possible."That''s what I''m wondering, neither Nyx nor anyone else has been able to find out what the mission is, each individual on this floor, or each group that has entered the floor as a group, is given a different mission and the missions never repeat themselves, that''s what I''ve been told," James replied. "So our task could be to harvest a piece of land or go and, I don''t know... hunt a monster?" asked Ariel curiously. "Apparently yes, that seems to be what''s going to happen," replied James, making everything strange that they had nothing to do, or rather they didn''t know what they were supposed to do. After a short meal, James took Yue with him and they went to Cordelia. Cordelia was sitting at the table at the top of the stairs with her eldest son and daughter, wondering why James had come to them, when he began to speak: "Frankly, we don''t know what we''re going to do on this floor, we''re going to search the empire for answers for a while and if we don''t get any answers we''re going to leave Cordelia." At James'' words, Cordelia looked taken aback. "I''m sure we can get to the bottom of this problem, we''ve done mission research for other climbers before, give me a few days and I can sort it all out, but for now come and sit down and have a drink with me," Cordelia said, and she was right, everyone knew that there was no way to get to any conclusion on this floor personally. Someone had to help and in this case, that help was needed. "And how exactly do you plan to do that? How exactly are you going to find my floor task for me?" asked James curiously as he sat down in one of the armchairs on the floor next to the table and waited for the answer. "It''s simple, seers. There are a lot of seers among us cultivators, even among normal people there are people born as seers. These people can look into your future for you for a certain payment. To be more precise, these seers look into the future about a subject you are focussed on, which means that you can learn the floor task." Cordelia replied. "Well, have it your way, my friend, I''ll follow," James said, and the feast continued. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When the feast ended after almost three days, Cordelia summoned a few of the palace seers, and then James and Ariel came into the seers'' room. One of the seers held out his hands and said, "Please take my hand, masters." When James and Ariel did as they were told, the seer opened his mouth once and said, "Please think about what you want to know." James and Ariel closed their eyes and immediately began to think about the floor mission of the 37th floor, and after only a short time, the seer quickly withdrew his hands and began to tremble. Before the two realised what was happening, the seer had fallen to the floor and then passed out. Discover exclusive content at M V L Cordelia and the others didn''t realise what had happened, even Chao himself was surprised. The Seer glared at James in particular before passing out, and that meant something was wrong. "Ummm...Well?" said James, he had no idea what he was supposed to say. At Cordelia''s command, the seer, who had the highest rank in the room, moved forward, albeit with trepidation, and when the same thing happened again, the seer sweatily let go of the pair''s hands and fell to the floor before he could speak, looking at James with fearful eyes. The seer did not fain but was breathing deeply and trying to understand what was happening. After a few minutes, he must have managed to regain consciousness as he shook his head and said, "What you need to do is to kill a demon, it may seem simple but it is a very powerful demon. A demon sealed within the borders of this empire on the eastern side of the continent. It may not be possible to harm the demon without Master Chao''s help. You can get help from someone else instead, of course, it''s up to you." As the two listened to these words, Cordelia''s curiosity was piqued and the beautiful woman asked, "What about the other seer, why did he faint?" Hearing this question, the seer took a deep breath and let it out and then said, "It is normal for Master Chao to be travelling with you, Master Umbra, you have a pure soul, the purest soul I have ever seen in my three thousand years of life, but..." and didn''t dare to continue. "What is it?" asked James, his curiosity piqued. "Young master...your soul is pure, but your shadow, the aura around you, everything is dark, lite DARK dark, do you understand what I mean? The people watching you...your entire lineage, I can see every one of them. How great a lineage can you be...who could be supporting you so that your entire lineage belongs to the darkness, but the soul of each of you shines with a white light?" the seer complained. "You saw my ancestors?" James asked without waiting and with the seer''s nod, Ariel''s gaze fixed on James and as James tried to avert his eyes from Ariel, he muttered, "You should be more careful." "How can I, young master Umbra? I was trying to investigate your floor mission when four people descended upon me. Two women, perhaps the most beautiful women I have ever seen, and two men, strange-looking men," the seer replied. With these words, it became clear to James who the people who appeared were. Vladimir, Vlad, Emily and Abby. "I swear we only had a quick peek," a voice churned in James'' mind as he shook his head and said, "I''m sorry about your friend, I didn''t mean to be a nuisance," and as the seers left the room, he was under the curious gaze of everyone. It looked like he had some explaining to do, especially to Ariel. Chapter 254: Limited Time Weapon Gacha "Your ancestor founded the Church of the Night, which was the main reason the great war of legend was won and the main reason for the creation of the world we came from. This is very different from what I have heard before. And why did you hide it?" Ariel questioned, the question lingering in her mind after James'' long explanation."Because I''m being targeted. I''m responsible for what happened on the 35th floor, I''m the reason for what happened on the 5th floor. Even on the 9th floor, I fought them, you know. The only reason for this is that they are trying to attack some points of the tower, that is, places that are in Desmond''s definite use. The 5th floor was a prime example. After a---" James was about to finish when Ariel interrupted him and said, "The 5th floor is the most active floor of the Church of Night, it''s where everything makes sense. And you were in front of them. The fact that you confronted them beforehand was a warning to them, they tried to lure you to the 5th floor and you had to fight on the ice mountain." James shook his head at these words and then Ariel leaned back in the long armchair and asked, "I''m about to lose my mind, what kind of trouble have we gotten ourselves into" James must have been surprised by the plural form of the question, for he felt the need to ask, "What do you mean, ourselves?" Ariel looked at him as soon as she heard this question and said with a strange expression, "We''re in this together, James. We will move forward together, as a family, if we die, we die together, if we live, we live together." James didn''t know what to feel when he heard those words, he already cared a lot for Ariel, whom he considered a mother, I guess he had to smile. "I don''t even know what I''m going to do with you," James said playfully and Ariel smiled and replied, "Simple, you''ll love me and our future family, silly question." then she made the sign of three with her hand and said, "Wake me up in three hours." and she rolled over and fell asleep in a short time. James was overflowing with the happiness of finally being free and finally having time to open the gacha panel. On the 25th floor, he had indeed killed quite a lot of monsters. As soon as he opened the gacha panel, he looked at the dialling rights and saw that he had exactly 18760 dialling rights. Limited-time events seemed to have appeared on the gacha panel again. "Just one?" questioned James, he was so used to seeing at least two of the limited-time gacha events that he couldn''t help but be surprised to see one extra panel. The panel in front of him looked like a limited-time event devoted solely to weapons. As usual, it seemed to demand 1000 usage rights per 10 turns. This meant that James had the right to press the ten-turn button exactly 18 times. The problem was that James already had two powerful weapons in his hands. After all, a replica of the holy sword Clarent and Selene''s Throwing Knife would be the best two weapons he could wish for right now. The Holy Sword Clarent was a very light sword that felt like a feather, and Selene''s Throwing Knife was not very thin, but not thick, and could pierce opponents like a needle. James had Desmond''s Art of the Sword, which gave him the advantage of having learnt to channel aura and magic into both of his weapons in style. That was the problem, should he turn this wheel when he had these weapons? He was suddenly confronted with a message [I don''t think you need to think too hard James.], the message was coming from Nemesis. Enjoy new adventures at M-V-L "I beg your pardon?" muttered James. [You will need more weapons in the future, both for your subordinates and for personal use.] James shook his head at Nemesis''s message and then realised that his beloved wife was right. He took a deep breath and pressed the ten-spin button and the wheel on the panel spun, spinning several times over cards that showed no colour at all. After only a short period, a stack of cards stood in front of James. "Looks like we''re back to the old system," James said suddenly and touched the deck of cards. As soon as the deck was opened, cards of different colours were laid out in front of James. The fact that he only saw cards in green and blue colours made everything strange. He had not come across a single purple card, that is, a card with an unusual or higher rank. When he had turned over all the cards and received his rewards, he found that he had been gifted trap systems large and small, and although they were low-grade cards, they were not bad rewards. When he pressed the button for the next ten, the wheel on the panel spun again and the same thing happened again, except this time there was a purple card in the deck. Turning over the purple card without waiting, he smiled and said, "Hah...I found a weapon for Sylvia." sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Shadow Dagger(Unusual++) Forged from shadow sap and fine-grade silver, this dagger is made for assassins who embrace the shadow. Forged by the great blacksmith Dumgrith. 100% increase in attack power against light elemental monsters. When equipped, the user''s speed will increase by 50%. When equipped, the user will gain the ''sneaky'' ability. When equipped, the user will gain the ''instinct'' ability]. [Sneaky(Unusual-) When using the ability, the user''s presence will be erased for 5 seconds, making them impossible to find unless a special search spell is cast in the area]. [Instinct(Unusual++) The user will passively have the urge to sense danger coming at them more easily. One of the best skills for hiding, the heart of espionage]. It was quite pleasing that this item was good, but there were still 16000 rolls to spend, just hoping for something good. Chapter 255: Go Up Clarent (1) After almost an hour of gacha time, James had managed to win some pretty good stuff. He pressed the ten-turn button exactly 18 times and managed to earn three Legendary-Grade, one Unique-Grade and one Unusual-Grade equipment.[Bow of the Endless (Legendary++) It is said that the maker of this bow obtained an extract from the cosmic goddesses. The strings of the bow are made from the precious webs of ancient spiders. It is safe to say that the only being who can fully damage this bow is the creator himself. When the bow is equipped, the user will experience a 20% increase in strength. When equipped, the user will gain 100% vision. When equipped, the user will gain a 50% increase in agility. When armed, the user''s hearing will increase by 250 per cent. Equipping the bow will grant the user the ability to ''hyper-shoot'']. The first item was a bow, it was actually one of the things James wanted to have, after all, he had recently acquired a skill called ''Beginner Level Moon Archery'' and needed a bow to improve on it. The bow looked like it was made of stars. It had a constantly moving picture as if a galaxy was loaded on the bow. The strings were white, almost transparent. sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When James put the bow in his inventory, he moved on to the next item: [Staff of the Unknown(Legendary++++) One of the four supreme wands that supreme wizards dream of acquiring. There may be hundreds of them hidden in the tower, but only two have ever been found. A priceless weapon in every sense of the word. When the user casts spells with this stuff, the magic damage will increase by 350%. When the staff is equipped, the user''s magic stat will increase by 1000. When the staff is equipped, the user''s mana loss will decrease by 50%]. James was going to use this wand especially, he never thought of selling it. After all, the words ''wand equipped'' were within the properties of this weapon. This meant that James didn''t even need to use the staff, he could keep it on his body with the help of an item and still receive the passive effects. Indeed, the staff was a priceless weapon, as it was written in the description. Placing the staff at the top of his inventory, right where the holy sword Clarent and Selene''s Throwing Knife were, he glanced at the last three remaining items: [Weapon Evolution Stone(Legendary+++++) ----] When James picked up the stone called the weapon evolution stone and looked at its properties, he did not see anything and looked around in a very confused way. "Emma, are you playing a joke on me or something?" James suddenly asked. When he received the answer [No, sir.], he prepared to put the stone in his inventory and at that very moment he saw a message from someone he never expected to see: Stay updated through M-V-L [You must engrave this stone into the holy sword Clarent. Change Clarent, make the holy sword yours, turn it into your imagination.] James stood where he was for a few seconds and then shouted in surprise, "Holy fucking shit?! King Arthur?" he shouted. Ariel woke up with great anxiety after this shout and looked at James. "WHAT''S HAPPENING?!" Ariel suddenly shouted. "I just got a message from King Arthur," James said in disbelief as he looked at Ariel. As if refusing to believe what he was hearing, Ariel put his ear close to James and asked, "What did you say?" When James repeated himself, Ariel stared at James with her eyes wide open. "Aaah...what did he say? I mean, the king, what did he say?" Ariel asked, puzzled. "He said to apply the stone I just won to the holy sword Clarent," James replied, and with that, a quest window opened in front of him: [Make It Yours(Godly+++++) Anyone can possess this stone, but they will never encounter a sword perfect enough to wield it. Your task is to use this stone on the holy sword Clarent and finally create a sword worthy of you. The sword has a soul, let the soul itself serve you fully. Swords are the third limb of swordsmiths. The perfect robe to cut down enemies and the most valued companion. Transform the Holy Sword Clarent. Mission Reward Godly-Grade Spirit Sword Mission Punishment: Destruction of the Holy Sword Clarent]. When James had finished reading the mission window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, he squinted his eyes and could not understand how he was supposed to do such a mission. "Is King Arthur the one who gave me this mission?" James suddenly asked. [Yes, sir, King Arthur gave you this mission by exhausting his spiritual energy,] was the reply, and he realised that there was nothing more he could do. He did not want the holy sword Clarent, this comrade sword that had been with him from the beginning, to be destroyed. When he opened his inventory and took out the holy sword, James uttered these words: "My precious sword Clarent, you are a replica, but finally, the chance has come, if you want, you can turn into a perfect being, you have been my companion since the beginning of this path." As he uttered these words, the holy sword Clarent started to tremble, it was as if that self, that spirit inside the sword was getting excited. James smiled and then took the Weapon Evolution Stone in his hand and brought it closer to the holy sword Clarent, just then another window opened in front of him: [Do you want to use the Weapon Evolution Stone for Clarent (Replica-Legendary)? YES/NO] James smiled as he looked at the two options and said with great hope, "I hope it works, we will go to the top floor of the tower together, my precious sword." At that moment, he pressed ''yes'' and the room began to shine with an incredibly bright light. What would happen was up to Clarent himself, who was a spirit from that moment on. Chapter 256: Go Up Clarent (2) A white space was laid out. There was nothing around but a mirror. In the mirror stood a person with white hair, and white eyes, who seemed to be between 10-15 years old.When this person touched his face, he managed to realise what was happening. This holy sword was Clarent''s soul, and the mirror in front of him was none other than the Weapon Evolution Stone. "You finally woke up, weakling." the image in the mirror suddenly said. The holy sword suddenly fell to the ground as Clarent''s soul tried to understand what was going on and noticed the shattered soul fragments around. Each of these soul fragments belonged to Clarent himself. Clarent, who hadn''t even thought that he had a gender, learnt what he looked like because of the Weapon Evolution Stone, and immediately afterwards, his soul began to crumble into pieces. Read exclusive chapters at M-V-L Even if Clarent tried to speak, nothing happened. Even if he had knowledge of his personality and gained a gender, Clarent was still a sword, like a child who didn''t even know how to speak even though he had a soul. "There is nothing you can do. You will die, you will be thrown aside before you even see an enemy, you are nothing but a piece of rubbish." the reflection in the mirror suddenly said, it would be more accurate to say that it seemed to be another person than a reflection. Clarent could see that one of his eyes was no longer in place when he heard these words by looking at the mirror in front of him. He could see his reflection, but he could see that the person he had seen as his own was now someone else. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was as if Clarent''s soul kept breaking into pieces every time this person said something. "You are weak. You are like a little child. After all, you are a replica, you can never become the real thing." said the person in the mirror. However, he really thought he would fail, the fact that he had been standing in this place for almost ten minutes made everything more strange, he had to be careful, he had to speed up. He had to find some sign of how to evolve if he didn''t want to be destroyed. "An idiot who doesn''t even know what to do! You have a soul only because you are a replica, nothing more than a shadow of the true holy sword Clarent. A disgrace! A holy sword that took the life of its previous master and will be of no use to its current master in the future!" As the person in the mirror said these words, Clarent saw his left arm fall to the ground in pieces. It was obvious that the spirit of the holy sword was frightened, and he dreamt of passing this test with ease and returning to his master. Amid all these thoughts and when despair began to overtake him, Vlad''s words began to come to his mind. The spirit of the holy sword was experiencing a flashback: "It doesn''t matter that you are a replica, you have a soul, don''t forget that." These words of Vlad were enough to show his importance. "Remember the blood spilt on you, the hearts you pierced, the monsters you made cry, the beings you left for dead and the gods you managed to kill! Remember every one of them! Remember all those souls you cut down, all those souls that rushed forward relentlessly to take your master''s life. Come and make your master proud." These words signalled their success. "If you do these things, one day you will cease to be a replica, your name will no longer be Clarent, but your personality, your image and your consciousness. You will do nothing but be loyal to your master instead of what you remember in your original body." These words represented what he could achieve. Clarent was well aware that he was a replica. Even as his soul began to crumble, he was not defeated, he was not dead, he could still come to himself and thrive. He struggled with difficulty and managed to stand on one leg with the help of his right arm, the man who did not even have a face when he faced the person in the mirror suddenly had the image of Clarent and Clarent himself spoke at that moment: "I''m weak, I know that I''m a replica, I know that, but I still want to serve my master, I know I caused the death of my old master, but no one can hold me but my new master. I must be the only weapon that can save his life." Clarent''s spirit began to shine with his words. "Yet you are weak, how useful can you be?" Clarent''s reflection in the mirror asked. Clarent himself, after taking a deep breath, looked at the mirror seriously and then replied, "Until my master becomes the god of gods." The eyes of the image in the mirror widened. "Then shine, shine as no sword has ever shone, shine before your master in the centre of this dark future, shine with such a high light that the eyes of your enemies will be blinded and the souls of your friends will be filled with courage." said the image in the mirror and with that Clarent''s leg and arm were restored. "COME ON CLARENT!" he heard the holy sword itself shout, and the fact that James had not given up on him seemed to give him greater courage. He looked in the mirror again and saw his white hair and eyes shining with an incredible light. "Embrace your name then, donate the brilliance of your soul to your master, cut down and overtake every enemy that attacks your master, tear to pieces all who aim at your master''s life. Awaken and grow, sharpen your sharpness and shine, shine brighter than ever." Clarent''s body began to grow the moment he heard these words. His spirit shone and faded with perfect determination as if he was waking up from the place he was in. The holy sword Clarent was standing in the air in front of James, its appearance was incredibly beautiful, and its form began to change. The holy sword Clarent began to shine in front of its master, James, in this event that everyone was looking forward to, a system notification was formed in front of James that made him smile: [Make It Yours(Godly+++++) mission completed!] The holy sword Clarent had successfully evolved through this painful process. Chapter 257: Godly Sword Lumen [Make It Yours(Godly+++++) mission completed!][Holy Sword Clarent has completed its evolution!] [Holy Sword Clarent ---> has evolved into Godly Sword Lumen!] [Godly Sword Lumen(Godly+++++) Long ago, he had become a replica, having taken the life of his former master. Now, using the opportunity given to him by his new master, he had earned the name Lumen. With the name Lumen representing the brilliance of a star, he is ready to light the dark path his master walked to the end and is on guard to send enemies to the depths of hell. Provides a 30% damage bonus to slashes. Provides an 80% damage bonus to piercing blows. Fatal blows have a 5% chance of success. The user gains the ''Soul Impact'' ability. When the user uses Godly Sword Lumen, their control over aura increases by 100%. The user''s stamina loss is reduced by 50%. Provides 100 Power stat points to the user. Provides 100 Agility stat points to the user. Provides 100 Endurance stat points to the user. Provides 100 Intelligence stat points to the user. Provides 100 Charisma stat points to the user]. James read the system windows that formed one after the other in front of him and stared at the Godly Sword Clarent, formerly known as the Holy Sword Clarent, and now known as the Godly Sword Lumen with his eyes wide open. The appearance of the Godly Sword was incredible. It was a snow-white sword, its hilt had the family mark of the person who held it, the incredible dark moon mark of the Church of the Night. It was a very thin sword, and it looked like it could be sold for billions of gold just for its appearance. The hilt of the sword was turned towards James as if the Godly Sword Lumen itself wanted its master to hold it. James reached for the hilt with great excitement and then heard a voice in his mind: "It is a great honour to serve you, my dear Lord!" With that James grabbed the hilt and raised the sword with a smile, at that moment his whole body trembled, the effect the Godly Sword Lumen had on him was so great that it took James a few seconds to recover his balance. James was smiling, he was really happy, he hadn''t lost his long-time companion, the holy sword Clarent, and he had gained something even more powerful. "Lumen!" James said cautiously and then stepped out onto the balcony, holding it up to the moonlight in the darkened air. Together we will illuminate the future of the tower, my starlight." He said, reaching for his inventory and pulling out the [Sword Scabbard of the Unknown] item. He inserted the Godly Sword Lumen into the scabbard. "It fits perfectly," James said as if fate had waited for the Godly Sword Lumen''s presence, as if this scabbard was made for James'' sword and not Desmond''s, perhaps they both used a sword of the same size and sharpness. Whatever it was, it was over and done with, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown happily welcomed its new friend and James was gifted with the most powerful weapon he could ever possess. Nemesis, James'' beloved wife, sent a message [How are you feeling?] At that moment, James had the Scabbard of the Unknown tied around his waist and was busy holding the hilt of his new sword, the Godly Sword Lumen. Read exclusive content at M-V-L "Refurbished," James replied, he could feel his whole soul glowing. [I''m so happy for you...It''s a good idea to listen to your wife sometimes, isn''t it?] Nemesis sent another message. James smiled when he saw this message and then replied, "How many times would I have died and how many opportunities would have slipped away without you, my beloved and my wife?" After these words, he was going to continue talking when a completely different system window opened in front of him: [Soul Impact(Godly++++) An ability created entirely in the name of the Godly Sword Lumen! It was created for the purpose and desire to protect his beloved master until the end of existence and to cut through his enemies! The user must use the ability in its entirety, combining aura and magic, the ability is one of a kind. When the ability is used, the ripping damage will increase by 100%. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When the ability is used, the user''s power will increase by 100% for five seconds]. James smiled after seeing the ability in front of him and said, "Well done, Lumen." He turned back to his wife Nemesis'' message and added, "Thank you, my dear." With that, his gaze instantly turned to Ariel, who was standing where she was with her mouth open, and then asked, "What do you say, shall we go hunt that demon?" Ariel didn''t know what to say, the old woman''s eyes lit up and a sudden laugh echoed throughout the room: "PUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Ariel''s laughter continued for exactly 20 seconds, and when it finally ended, she said, "Okay, we can hit the road." As soon as Ariel said this, the two left the room, of course, Chao was following them, and Chao''s interest was increasing more and more. James hadn''t even bothered to look at the last two items he''d won and shoved them into his inventory, wishing to see what he could do with the Godly Sword Lumen as soon as possible. Cordelia and the others had rushed to James and Ariel''s side as soon as they had learnt that James and Ariel were leaving, and each of them was practically overwhelmed by the aura coming from James. "What''s going on?" Cordelia suddenly muttered, feeling like her soul was being crushed. Hearing this question, Chao turned to James with a smile and then said, "That new sword of yours has increased your power to a gigantic size, James, it would be good to suppress your power a little." When James did what Chao said next to him, Cordelia and the others managed to breathe comfortably and James'' voice was heard at that moment: "Cordelia, we''ll pay you a visit before we go to the next floor, don''t worry." With those words, Chao transformed back into his holy Gryphon form and James and Ariel jumped on his back. The journey to hunt the demon began at that moment. Chapter 258: Into the Dirty Mana The foothills had been crossed, and the northernmost part of the empire, the clearing, had been reached. James and Ariel sitting on his back, could see the scene before them.It was instantly clear what the Oracle was talking about, it was a frightening sight indeed. For almost two hundred metres there were only dead and decayed bodies of men, animals and monsters. This area had turned into a desert. The vultures sitting in the dead trees around were watching the trio with ever-changing pupils. When Chao descended to the ground, James and Ariel got off his back and the old holy Gryphon Chao returned to his human form. "Be careful, even if you are strong, the dirty mana around you is enormous," Chao warned, instantly protecting the duo. James and Ariel were surprised by these words, they had not even traced the dirty mana, and they could not even feel a small part of it. "What dirty mana?" James asked, and with that, an unexpected but incredibly frightening sentence was heard from Chao: "The area of influence is so huge that it may have already covered the entire empire, even I barely realise it, but it''s at an incredible level." Both James and Ariel became as cautious as they could be as Chao''s seriousness about his words became apparent. James took out the Lumen from his inventory and began to hold it with one hand, he also made sure to take out Selene''s Throwing Knife from his inventory just in case, he might not be untouchable with these weapons, but it was clear that he was at the maximum side of his power right now. It was evening weather, close to dark, but the sun had not yet set, in short, a red sky was waiting for unknown dangers. The trio continued to move forward cautiously. It was strange to see more than a dozen vultures flying in the air just above them, strangely frightening them, or rather it would be more accurate to say that instead of fear, a deep apprehension gripped their hearts. James could sense that something was wrong, and he wasn''t the only one. Both Ariel and Chao, like James, could sense that something was wrong. Something...or rather, something was watching them. While all these sensations were increasing, James suddenly felt all the hairs on his body standing up and instinctively activated the time element. He ran to the place where he felt the danger, that is, immediately to where Chao and Ariel were, and within a second he managed to transfer his aura to his sword Lumen. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He attacked the incoming blow with the glowing sword, and at that very moment, the one second from the time element ended. "SHING!!!" James seemed to have cut a huge fly. The fly had claws and a big nose. While Chao and Ariel were trying to figure out what was going on, James immediately started drawing some runes on the ground. He quickly began to cover them with a medium-sized rune shield with his Arcana spell, and then muttered under his breath, "What''s going on?" He had plenty of mana to use the time elemental, indeed he could have used the spell that gave him this one-second effect at least fifty or sixty times, but now he was out of breath. "Watch out, there is a weakening spell set!" Chao suddenly shouted, and everything became clear. There were different types of debuff spells, the least used being something called "Ignorant Spell", which was used to restrict the spell. This spell was used to shut down the stores of climbers with larger stores of mana. This meant that the mana James used for the time elemental was not the mana around his heart, but the mana already spread throughout his body. That was why he was tired. Using the rune spell did not tire him because the arcana energy used for the rune spell was very different from normal mana. This meant that whoever had cast the debuff spell must have been directly afraid of mages, which was a good thing, because if they managed to destroy the place where the debuff spell was, James would have a huge advantage. Still, the group was lucky. Both Chao, Ariel, and James had a better ability with aura. As a result, they would have every opportunity to protect themselves and attack. "Are you all right, James?" asked Ariel. James nodded his head in agreement, it was obvious that the rune magic wasn''t going to last long, not only the personal magic but the magic spread around had become quite weak. That explained why there was a huge amount of dirty mana around, as Chao had said. At this moment, there was a value of dirty mana scattered around that could cover even the farthest reaches of the empire. As soon as the rune shield was broken, the trio were able to sense exactly what was coming towards them. Each of them lunged forward and began slashing at the monsters one by one with tiny but effective moves. Chao was using his clawed hands, Ariel was using her blades covered with a thin layer of aura, and James was swinging the Godly Sword Lumen in his right hand while constantly throwing Selene''s Throwing Knife around. It was obvious that such weak monsters were unlikely to put up much of a fight as if they were insects sent to tire out the trio. These fly monsters were insectoids after all. Nevertheless, it was still a matter of going on the offensive. It could be seen with the naked eyes where these fly monsters came from, and with each step, the dirty mana became more and more obvious, and James and Ariel began to feel this dirty mana little by little. I think they were approaching the centre of this dirty mana. The vultures were eating the monster corpses left behind. As the different kinds of monsters came at the group, more and more bodies were left behind, but there was no sign that the group was getting tired. They were maybe a hundred metres from the centre of the dirty mana. They could see everything with the naked eye. They could easily see several monsters in the centre of the dirty mana. The trio started to walk cautiously towards the mana. When they looked carefully at the monsters around the centre of the dirty mana, James shook his head left and right and then said, "Demons? I thought they were friends." Suddenly James saw a message [These don''t belong in our heaven or hell, look at the shape of their wings]. The fact that this message was coming from Lucifer himself was confirmation enough for him. He instantly covered his body with his aura and attacked without a second thought. Even though Chao and Ariel were surprised by the sudden attack, they had another job on their hands rather than helping James. They seemed to be surrounded by a truly enormous horde of monsters. Among them were monsters that could be found on the upper floors of the tower, such as night dragons, infernal imps, and black knights of destruction. It was obvious that the unclean mana had attracted such a dangerous group, and this was why the unclean mana was here. The thing inside the dirty mana, the person who created this mana was the demon itself, and it was in a sealed form, and the fact that the dirty mana was so scattered had only one meaning: [The demon''s seal was about to be broken.] As James lunged forward, he enveloped Selene''s Throwing Knife in his aura and then threw it at the demon, which immediately started running towards him. The blade sliced right through the demon''s throat and the demon instantly fell to the ground and died. Exactly eleven more demons were around the centre of the unclean mana. James instantly covered Lumen with his aura, he had so many abilities he wanted to use, but he couldn''t use any of them because his mana was blocked. The only thing he could do now would be to use aura-linked attacks. The aura covering his sword instantly began to burn. 8 Sacred Fire might have been a spell, but it was an elemental that merged with the body, it was the main elemental itself. It was precisely for this reason that this element was able to burn itself as it had done in the duel in the arena in the first place. Merging with the aura was nothing more than a piece of cake for these eight living flames. Suddenly the flame roared, the heat reaching almost four hundred metres. James'' aura had reached such a great distance thanks to the aura training he had received from Chao. Even the demons and monsters around couldn''t help but be amazed as they burned alive, each monster seeming to recognise the dead lands covered in black and azure flames as hell. Even the demons guarding the centre of the tainted mana were stunned for a second. Until James appeared in front of one of them. "SLASH!!!" A sudden slashing sound seemed to wake the demons from their reverie. As another demon''s head fell to the ground, the remaining ten instantly realised that they had to fight together. The seal was so close to being broken, that the main battle hadn''t even begun. Chapter 259: One Shotting This land, which had turned into hell by being engulfed in black and azure flames, looked frightening.Even distant human cultivators had begun to gather in the area, realising the war that was taking place. Seeing Chao tell each of them that they had to join the war and seeing the holy Gryphon was enough for each of them. The group had grown from just three people to a massive group with over a hundred cultivators joining them. Ariel started giving orders to the cultivators on the right flank, and the rest followed Chao and started fighting, especially in the area where the imp was. James began to attack the ten remaining demons at that moment. With each swing of his sword, he cut the demons'' spells and jumped to the next demon. When his sword thinned the aura on Lumen even more, he managed to cut the heads of the next 8 demons one after the other in almost five seconds. When the last remaining demon saw this, it started running towards the centre of the dirty mana, where the seal was. James immediately ran after him and in a short time, just before the demon touched the centre of the unclean mana, he managed to stab the Lumen into its back. The demon fell to the ground pushing and James, thinking it was dead, ran to help the others. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After almost five seconds he became aware of a huge aura rising behind him. His whole body trembled as if he had never seen such a dirty aura. When he turned around and looked at the source of this problem, his eyes widened. It seemed that the demon was not dead, it was still alive even though James had ripped his heart out of his back, and with the blood on his hands, he lay on the seal where the unclean mana was collected and suddenly died on the spot. This released the person that the unclean mana had kept inside. He was about the same size as James. He was maybe one metre and eighty-five centimetres tall, he was quite thin, maybe forty or fifty kilograms at that size. His pupils were jet black, no other colour was visible where his eyes were. He had a pair of crimson horns sticking out of his head. His hair was jet black and bare, and it was obvious that he had no sex. Just looking at this demon was enough to pin James in place, it was clear that there was no longer a huge power differential between them. The only reason James stayed where he was was because the sight of the demon was chilling. Chao, like everyone else, sensed this dirty aura and immediately came to James'' side, looking at this "monster" with a very strange expression. Chao stepped in front of James to protect him and signalled him to stay back with his hand. Chao was much stronger than this monster, but the fact that he did not know what this monster demon could do made everything dangerous. "I can help," James said. "I''m aware of that too, stand back a little and watch his attack scheme, there''s no way he''s physically stronger than me, but...that dirty aura will overwhelm me, try to come up with a solution," Chao said in reply and with that James immediately jumped backwards and waited. Both of Chao''s hands had turned into claws, it was clear that he was going to put up a serious fight. This holy Gryphon Chao had more qi than any power centre in the entire empire, a powerful being indeed. However, this demon in front of him was very dangerous, he could suppress Chao''s qi just by emitting a dirty aura. At that very moment, the duel between the two began. Both Chao and the demon began to clash with each other. Both of their hands were like claws, or rather, the sharpness of the demon''s nails made them look like claws. However, it was clear that the demon''s body was not very strong, some of its nails were already torn apart. It was at that moment that James thought of something. "Ariel, Chao, listen to me carefully. Chao, try to take the demon somewhere beyond, Ariel and I will try to break the weakening spell together, the seal must be in the pieces." James said. With the help of the void pen, he transferred these words to the duo and it started to happen exactly as he wanted. Chao began to push the demon away from the area with harder blows. In just a minute, these two beings transformed with each other and managed to move almost four hundred metres away from the battlefield. James and Ariel immediately approached the dirty mana seal from which the demon had emerged. Their bodies were numb. The centre of the dirty mana was in such a terrible state that Ariel herself was trying her best not to vomit. James was getting incredibly dizzy. Nevertheless, the two of them managed to get quite close to the dirty mana seal. When they looked inside the seal, they saw that a flower covered with a rune was inside. Ariel was about to take the flower when James stopped her and shook his head left and right. He seemed to instantly recognise the runes on the flower. In this way, he was able to produce a solution instantly. Carefully, he reached into his inventory and pulled out a shovel to take the soil where the flower had been planted with the flower. Ariel looked at James as if she didn''t understand what was going on, and James spoke at that moment: "These runes are explosive runes, one wrong move and we can say goodbye to the north of the empire, even the south of the empire will be affected by this explosion when dirty mana is spread so much." With these words, James carefully stuck the shovel within fifteen centimetres of the flower. He started to lift the soil, albeit slowly. The fact that he was out of breath while doing this explained how dangerous it was. He lifted the soil, albeit slowly, and managed to take the flower with its roots. She was about to put the flower on the shovel into the container she had taken out of Ariel''s inventory when suddenly the ground shook incredibly. "BOOOOOM!!!" A huge explosion rang out in the distance, revealing the seriousness of the battle between Chao and the demon. The shovel in James'' hand was incredibly shaken and the earth almost fell to the ground. If Ariel hadn''t grabbed James at the last moment to keep him from falling, the two of them and everyone else in the area would be dead. "Careful, you idiot!" Ariel muttered, and then brought the container closer to the shovel and managed to place the flower covered in runes into the container. Instantly, James had the container in his inventory, and with it, the dirty mana began to dissipate a little. Such a massively dirty mana would not disappear immediately, but at least there was no longer anything to support it. This meant that the flower itself was the only thing that had created the tainted mana and cast the weakening spell. James could feel his power returning to his body. He could feel the mana...the magic itself. He could feel his whole body trembling with excitement. He closed his eyes and inhaled the air deeply into his lungs, he could barely feel the dirty mana now, all his energy was restored. "I''ll leave this place to you, Ariel," James said suddenly, and without waiting for an answer, he started running towards the area where Chao and the demon were fighting. He was getting faster and faster with each step. There was no accounting for the effect that the status points he had gained thanks to the Lumen had added to him. Quickly and carefully, he covered a distance of half a kilometre in almost half a minute, and with that, he could see the fighting duo. With each clash of the duo, the sky rumbled angrily as fists and claws clashed with each other, a deep, thick sound that was heard throughout the sky. James instantly began to gather his aura and mana on the Godly Sword Lumen, wanting to try out his newly acquired ability, which seemed to have been weakened by the destruction of the spell where the demon seal had been. This meant that James could kill him. After a brief moment, he chanted "Soul Impact" and then activated his other spell, "Pierce". He instantly used this single attack from Desmond''s Swordsmanship, and as Chao threw the demon back, an attack of jet-black flames almost a metre wide began to advance. Reaching a speed that didn''t even last a second, James'' attack hit the demon''s upper right torso. "BOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!" It was as if an atomic bomb had exploded. James was amazed by the power of the soul impact spell he had used. In a word, it was a perfect attack. Chao smiled at the success of the attack and retreated a few tens of metres. When the cloud of smoke disappeared, the demon was visible again. Due to the impact of the attack, the demon''s right arm was completely separated from its body. Even if the demon''s upper right region was healed, his arm was not. The demon''s arm, which had fallen to the earth, was burnt to ashes in just a few seconds in black flames. There was nothing more ironic than a demon being so damaged by fire. Chapter 260: The Bell of Hypnos Saves the Day James instantly lunged forward. Using his dark stepping ability, he managed to cover a good distance and instantly appeared in front of the demon.He made a move to thrust his sword Lumen at the demon, but the demon''s other claw blocked his move. It was incredible that even a sword like Lumen could be blocked so easily, showing the extent of the demon''s power. Still, no one was perfect, unless there was a being as superior as the creator, even the most powerful being would have a way to die. At that very moment, Chao appeared behind the demon, his claw glowing. Maybe that''s what Qi was all about, maybe that''s why everyone had worked so long to get this miraculous power, but neither James nor the demon cared. Just as Chao was making his move, a huge dirty aura was released. James and Chao were literally being pushed by this dirty aura, and Chao suddenly grabbed James and started running because of the huge sense of danger. In just two or three seconds, the sound of a huge explosion rose into the sky: "BOOOOOOM!!!!" The area was enclosed in a big circle and a huge crater was formed in just a second. There was not even a cloud of smoke, it was as if this circle, which covered almost two hundred metres, had suddenly erased the existence of everything in the area. It was an incredible sight in every sense of the word. It was as if the demon inside the crater had evolved, James could see it very clearly. Just a minute ago, this demon, which looked skinny and evil, suddenly had a healthy body, even if it was not muscular. All the demon''s wounds, including his arm, seemed to have healed. "Second Boss Phase? Are you shitting me?" James suddenly said. With these words, he felt the dirty aura starting to come towards him, which seemed to mean that the demon was going to make its move. James suddenly raised the Godly Sword Lumen to guard and suddenly a blow landed right in the centre of the sword. James was sent flying backwards for several tens of metres after the blow to his sword and literally bounced on the ground like a stone skipping on water. He instantly realised that the blow had broken his right hand, the hand holding the Lumen. The demon''s power level had suddenly increased to a gigantic level, even the dirty aura was at a level that could drown people, James was lucky, if his aura had not been this high, he would probably have drowned in this dirty aura. "Be careful James! It''s not a normal demon, I just remembered, it''s an Ancient Demon." Vladimir suddenly said. James shook his head at these words churning in his mind and then said, "First the Ancient Giant, now the Ancient Demon. I thought these monsters were killed by Erebus, he couldn''t do a job properly!!!" he shouted. After that, he reached for his inventory and immediately took out a health potion and drank it. It was possible to see that his life energy was quite damaged due to the blow he received. It was possible to see that his wrist started to recover a little bit after he swallowed the health potion. "Do ancient demons have a weakness?" James suddenly asked, and immediately a message window opened in front of him: [They have a weakness in the element of time and the element of darkness. Even if fire damages them, you don''t have enough mana to kill it, you can try with aura, but I don''t know if you can kill it unless you use everything you have right now]. After reading what was written in the message window, James nodded his head in understanding and then smiled and said "What about The Bell of Hypnos? Can this item put him to sleep?" he asked. With these words, every single person watching him smiled and understood James'' evil plan. [It doesn''t put you to sleep, but it slows you down incredibly, The Bell of Hypnos is a cursed item in a way. The sleeping curse itself.] James smiled as this answer came from Chronos himself, and then he was on the move. Chao was preparing to follow James, who had suddenly passed by him, when he suddenly heard this young man''s voice again in his mind, right in his mind. "I''m going to use an item that can affect even some gods and holy beasts, at least don''t come within three hundred metres, Chao." With these words, James continued to use his dark step ability and finally managed to get to the place where the ''ancient'' demon was. The ancient demon looked at this young man who still dared to stand in front of him in astonishment, and his interest was instantly dissipated. James had literally no clothes left on. James had put his Void items in his inventory just in case, and his Griffon Feather Sleeved Shirt had been shredded while fighting the demon. He was using only the legendary item Epsilon, which he wore as a buckle, the rings he received from Archangel Michael and Fallen Angel Lucifer, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown, and finally the Adamant armour Lux. In short, he had lost a very valuable item, but at least not everything had been destroyed. "Vile beings. You used to grovel at our feet and lick our feet just to get a few favours from us, now you are so laboured and brazen that you can stand in front of me." the Ancient Demon suddenly said. Even if James was angry at these words, he had a plan, he had to get close to the item he was going to use for it to work quite well. Waiting for just the right moment, he suddenly pulled out The Bell of Hypnos from his inventory and then instantly put the item into use, rushing towards the Ancient Demon. [3...] [2.....] [1....] As soon as the three-second waiting time expired, an incredible energy spread around. The Ancient Demon didn''t realise what was happening, he instantly fell to his knees, he could hardly keep his eyes closed, he was still conscious, but it was as if all the speed status points in his body had disappeared. As soon as James saw this situation, he grabbed Lumen tightly with his left hand and then made a move on the Ancient Demon. Before the Godly Sword Lumen hit the Ancient Demon in front of him, the demon managed to dodge and was able to stand up enough to come to him. James, on the other hand, had activated his time element at that very moment and then charged forward, filling his sword with aura and magic. The Godly Sword Lumen suddenly sliced through the ancient demon''s abdomen. S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When the second from the time element ended, the Ancient Demon fell face down on the ground and looked at James with fear. With a smile, James activated 8 Sacred Fire and threw the ice flame at the ancient demon. The ancient demon started screaming. Even though he was trying to heal, the effect of the ice burn on him had completely frozen his wound and burned it at the same time, in short, his healing abilities were not working. [The Bell of Hypnos has been destroyed.] When James was confronted with this message, he raised the Godly Sword Lumen into the air again and then said ''Pierce!'' and slashed the throat of the ancient demon that had fallen on its face. [My Legendary Achievement Won! Kill a monster with a holy race for the first time! Item selection card gifted!] James smiled at this notification and realised at that moment that it was time to act, thinking that this could be dealt with later. He waited in the area for five minutes until the ancient demon''s body turned to ash and disappeared, and then turned to Chao and said, "It''s done." Chao couldn''t believe what he was hearing. He didn''t know what item James had used, but such a disgusting creature could not be killed so easily, and whatever James had done, Chao''s respect for him surpassed the vastness of the mountains. "Let''s go," James said, and Chao followed James without question. After almost five minutes, when the battlefield was reached again, James and Chao joined the battle alongside the rest. With each of their moves, the end of the battle continued to come. After only thirty minutes, the monsters, which were already almost exhausted, were exhausted, and James and Ariel left the scene by jumping on the back of Chao, who had returned to his Gryphon form. Neither James nor Ariel had taken anything from the bodies of the monsters, wishing that the money from those materials would be there to fix this part of the empire. However, after two days of incredibly fast travelling, it was back to the imperial palace. Cordelia, of course, was waiting on the balcony to greet them. Chapter 261: Invasion "I heard the news...that you were able to kill such a being in just one day...I don''t know what to say," Cordelia said. As the group entered the palace, they could see that even though the feast was over, there were still nobles milling around."We were lucky, if I hadn''t thought of something, things probably would have been a lot worse," James replied. As they were walking through the palace, James'' eye caught the duo he had met in the palace bathroom and the look of sadness on the duo worried James. Of course, James did not know this duo very well, but he wondered why this duo, whom he saw laughing all the time, was so sad. That''s why James had been kind and left Cordelia and the others and went to them. "Are you all right?" James asked simply. The two nodded their heads and then muttered, "Our city is...invaded by demons, our parents are missing, our sister is injured, we need to go to help." As soon as James heard these words, it suddenly dawned on him that the Ancient Demon was not the only one. That''s why he said, "Come with me," and then took the two of them to Cordelia and the others who were waiting for him. "Cordelia, can you call that seer back? ASAP." she suddenly asked. Even if he was finished on this floor and could move on to the next, he could at least try to do what he could do now, which was to help the empire, with which he would most likely become great friends. "You know what to do," Cordelia said, turning to her son, the crown prince next to her. The crown prince bowed his head and left the scene rather quickly. Even though Chao and Ariel didn''t realise what was going on, James being so serious worried them a little. "It seems that news has come from the duo''s house. Demon raid, if the Ancient Demon is not the only one, then there is a far greater danger to the empire than the oracle has foreseen." James said suddenly and that was enough for Cordelia. With Cordelia''s orders, a few cultivators were handed dozens of scrolls and a single order to send word to every kingdom and empire around the empire. In short, what happened in this empire could also happen elsewhere, and this could bring the end of the entire floor. This was a floor with 4 continents and almost more than twenty empires and more than a hundred kingdoms. In a word, it was MASSIVE. If all these events were happening elsewhere, it could indicate that a greater danger was coming. Just like on the 35th floor. This was especially frightening for James and Ariel. Ariel was much more powerful than before, after all, she had an incredible ability that allowed her to protect not only James, whom she served as his knight, but also herself. The ability to fly through the air was already a rarity in the entire tower, even among the gods and goddesses, but Ariel had the bonus of being able to protect herself. In short, Ariel had grown stronger, and her control over the aura was becoming deeper and deeper with each passing day. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. There was no need to talk about James himself, this man had managed to put an INCREDIBLE difference between himself and the people who had come out the same number of times as him. Maybe Ariel had caught up with James a little in speed, maybe her stamina surpassed his, and maybe her strength doubled his. Still, with only the spells at his disposal, James could take Ariel down, and one successful strike could send the old woman to her grave. That meant the pair had little to fear. That was true of the monsters and other things on the floor, but the main point was that the duo had risen to a pretty good position. James''s theory was confirmed when the Oracle entered the palace again. The Seer took the hands of two nobles in particular and was able to see a piece of the future in their thoughts. There was not just one ancient demon. There was no more The Bell of Hypnos. James had no idea how to stop the nearly one hundred Ancient Demons he had heard about. Should he ask the gods for help? After all, Nemesis or others might come to James'' aid again. Still, he knew he shouldn''t always ask the gods for help, he was no longer the innocent child on Earth, nor was he the boy who had almost died on the 9th floor. He was older now, smarter, more intelligent, more realistic, more mature. "Get ready Ariel, Chao, I think we''re going to have to call in the whole army," James said, and Chao didn''t seem to understand, but Ariel nodded and moved off. A portal opened up right in front of Ariel and she suddenly disappeared. Neither Cordelia, Ariel, nor anyone else could understand what had happened. "What''s going on?" Chao finally asked. James stared at his face for a few seconds and then said, "I''m calling for help. Don''t you know who I am, Chao? The Church of Night, the Sun Empire, the White Empire, the Ice Elves, the Ice Dwarves and the Demi-Demons of Ice. Anyone who has agreed to do my bidding," he replied, then straightened his posture and added, "If there is to be a war, I will be on the front lines, with everything I have." He then turned to the duo and said, "We need to find a way to protect your sister and your people, I can''t go out there alone until my army gets here, I don''t have the mana or aura at full level." Chao suddenly stepped forward and replied, "The Ancient Demons'' attacks are barely penetrating my body, I can at least repel them for two days." "You need to get back to your wife and child now Chao, you''ve already helped more than enough," said James, he really couldn''t face Xia or the newborn baby Gryphon if Chao died or if something happened to him. "Or they could come here, couldn''t they?" muttered Chao, maybe he didn''t trust the people of the empire but he trusted James and his family would be safe here. James smiled when he heard those words and then nodded his head and ordered, "Have it your way, you have three days, come back with your wife and child, Chao." No one present at that moment expected James to give orders to a holy being. Chao, on the other hand, nodded his head in the face of this order and then suddenly left the palace by saying, "Yes, as you order." "I''ll be in my room," James said and returned to the room he had been shown before, it was time to use the ability he had long wished to use. James sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes, focusing on his internal energy. "Destiny," he said suddenly and literally lost all sense of feeling around him. It was an ability that could be used once every 6 months and could see a possible event in the future. When he opened his eyes, he saw that everything was on fire. He saw the sky split open and a pair of bloodshot eyes staring at him. He could see the imperial palace razed to the ground and the mangled bodies of Cordelia and her family, Chao and his family, Eve, Datura and Aether, and finally Ariel. Suddenly he was brought back to reality and managed to come to himself. "No..." he said to himself, his eyes wide and his body shaking from head to toe. Suddenly he was greeted with a message [Are you okay?] and then he swallowed and muttered, "Possible future...worse than I thought." [Do you want us to send people?] "If possible, you can send one person to this palace, but I don''t want to be involved in the war. How can I surpass my ancestor if you always hold my hand and take care of everything for me?" he replied. It was indescribable how proud these words made every one of his followers, James was trying to do things on his own for the first time in front of their eyes. It was as if the little boy had suddenly matured. "It is quite obvious that the Ancient Demons are not as powerful as the Ancient Giant we encountered earlier on the 35th floor, but if we are careful we can win. The future I see may not come true." James said suddenly and then stood up, went to bed and lay down. He was greeted with another message [Sleep, you deserve it] and with that he fell asleep, he needed to get some rest. After all, when he woke up, everything would be close to being ready, everyone would be waiting for him, and perhaps the greatest danger James would ever face would be revealed. This was the final plan of the three ordered by the white-haired woman. Chapter 262: Die With Glory! Cordelia had been waiting for Ariel''s return for some time. The news had already reached the empress, and the superior knights of the Sun Empire had arrived at the palace. In addition, soldiers of Asgard and Olympus had arrived in various parts of the empire.The only thing missing now was Ariel and the company she would bring back. A huge admin-made passage was formed in front of the imperial palace. The person coming out of the gate was neither Ariel nor the army he would bring with him. A beautiful woman with snow-white pupils, hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows resembling moonlight, facial features that looked as if they were drawn by Chaos, and a snow-white dress that revealed her body contours came out of the gate. No one knew who this woman was, but she calmly gave a firm order, "Call me James." Then, she was taken to the throne room of the palace with Cordelia''s help. This woman in white sat on the throne in the throne room and waited for James to arrive. James was soon awakened and learnt that someone had come to visit him. Immediately after tidying himself up and organising his inventory, he carefully entered the throne room. When he looked at the woman sitting on the throne with his eyes wide open, the nobles in the hall were astonished that James was so surprised. Cordelia was about to speak when James'' voice was heard: "What an honour it is to see you here, Lady of the Moon." With those words, every noble and bodyguard from the Sun Empire was as surprised as James himself. "You seem to know this lady, Umbra," Cordelia suddenly said, and James, hearing this, said, "Pay your respects, Cordelia. This is Selene, daughter of Hyperion, whom you worship." Hearing those words, every single Mountain Empire noble and imperial family suddenly fell to their knees. As each noble was worrying about how disrespectful they might have been, Selene''s voice was heard: "Greetings from my father and mother, dear James, and from Nemesis, who seems to have missed you already." James smiled when he heard the words of Selene sitting on the throne opposite him and then scratched his head and said, "I miss my beloved wife too, Lady Selene. Since they sent you here, my request must have been fulfilled, you must be the one to guard the imperial palace, Lady of the Moon." "My father, Hyperion, obviously wanted to come himself just to fight by your side, but you know, the stronger you are, the more punishment you get, and even though I am quite strong, I cannot even get into the first hundred gods or goddesses, which means that I am the one who will fulfil your wish." When Selene uttered these words, she rose from her throne carefully descended the stairs and bowed to James as if she were bowing to a king. After this, Cordelia and the members of the imperial family looked at James as if he were mad. The influence James had over the holy beings was thus clearly demonstrated. Of course, he was no god, but the fact that he was Desmond''s descendant was enough for Selene, she had seen what James had tried to do so far, which meant that James had managed to earn the respect of Selene, the Lady of the Moon. "I see you''re looking after the boots, as well as the knife," Selene suddenly said, and James smiled as he heard these words and said, "Of course, they are among the most valuable things I own." S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After these events, voices were heard rising from outside the palace, and the attention of James and Selene and every person in the hall was directed to the sounds outside. James could hear the shouting of a few people among these voices, or rather, it would be more natural to say ''talking very loudly'' instead of shouting. When James and Selene left the palace, they met Ariel. "Selene, this is Ariel, my precious mother, and Ariel, this is Selene, the Lady of the Moon," James suddenly said. Ariel shook her head at these words and looked at Selene and questioned, "The Goddess?" When Selene nodded her head in response to this question, Ariel turned to James next to her and added to her own question, "Not like Nemesis, I mean, she''s a real goddess." James raised his hand and said, "Well, that''s rude, Nemesis is the most perfect goddess in my eyes." Ariel grabbed his cheek and then said, "You know what I''m trying to say, shut up." "Ouch! Let me go woman!" said James suddenly and with that Ariel let go of the little boy. James frowned as he rubbed his cheek and asked, "Did you bring everyone?" At James'' question, Ariel brought two index fingers to her mouth and then whistled. As the gigantic sound echoed through the sky, several gateways opened behind her. Hundreds of people began to emerge from the passageways, at first hundreds, then thousands. Dature and Aether stood before each one. At last, the imperial family of the Sun Empire appeared, and the huge army they had brought with them. The streets of the imperial capital were packed to their narrowest points with soldiers and priests of the Sun Empire and the Church of Night. Cordelia glanced at the imperial family and then swallowed to speak. At that moment, the imperial family of the Sun Empire and the high officials of the Church of Night fell to their knees. "My lord, your orders," said Ahil, the emperor of the Sun Empire. Every single person present was surprised by what had happened, everyone had already realised that James, or rather Umbra, was a different person than he appeared, but first to bring a goddess to the empire with only one request, and then to lay before himself an army that had already exceeded about six hundred thousand. In a word, this was something that should be applauded. Not only the Sun Empire, but many hunter guilds and guilds from the 5th floor had begun to follow James and even worship him, and on top of that, there were soldiers from dozens of kingdoms who came from the 5th floor just because James called them. The prevention of the danger on this floor would be not only in the Cultivators who owned the floor but also in James and the six armies under his command. Sun Empire army, Church of Night army, White Empire army, Asgard army, Olympus army and Ice army from the floor mission. Six armies, over six hundred thousand soldiers, over a hundred commanders, the general of the Chaos Guild and the king of Chaos Guild at their head. James had taken a few steps when he saw this army number. Aura and mana filled his throat and vocal cords, and then he began to speak: "My honoured soldiers! You are gathered here today because I, your lord, and your future friends need you. The gods and goddesses are watching over us, we are desperate for their help, but we are monsters, humans and other races, climbing all the floors as if they were ladders." "The lives of our friends are at stake, this entire floor is in danger, death will occur across four continents, and here we are following in the footsteps of our ancestors, my ancestor! My ancestor fought for the freedom of the humans, but I am in favour of fighting on behalf of all the people of the tower, all those who have been oppressed and killed. There is no way we can stay where we are with ancient demons roaming around, it is simply IMPOSSIBLE!" James'' shouts could be heard by all. War cries rang out from even the farthest reaches of the massive army that had filled the imperial capital. "Your bones will break! Your lungs will be ripped out! Your hearts and bodies will be torn apart, but what we will win in the end will be the prayers of billions of creatures, the honour of your families and the hundreds of stories your children and brothers and sisters will hear about you!!!!" The battle cry grew louder with each passing second, with each passing second the pounding of footsteps on the ground, the pounding of armoured knights and warriors against their armour could be heard by all. "Remember! No matter what race your blood belongs to, you have the blood of a warrior. Elf, dwarf, pixie, goblin, half-human, half-demon, human, or whatever race you are, fight on until you die or crush all your enemies!" He paused for a few seconds after these words and listened to the sounds of war cries: "UUAGGHGHHHHH!!! "DEATH!!" "DEATH TO THE DEMONS!!!!!!!" Hundreds of war cries rose into the sky, at that moment James realised that the last word had to be said and shouted: "Live with honour!!!" As soon as he said these words, a shout came from the whole army: "DIE WITH GLORY!!!!!!" Chapter 263 10000 Ancient War Armies were stationed. On the 4 Continents, tens of thousands of soldiers were distributed to kingdoms and small empires with low power levels.Thanks to Selene, thousands of teleportation circles, especially teleportation scrolls, were distributed to authorised people. James wanted to win this war with as little help as possible, but he had divided hundreds of teleport scrolls between himself, Ariel and Chao to go everywhere incredibly fast. Pixie Queen Sophia sat on James'' shoulder, as usual, Ruby sat on the other shoulder, and Miracle followed James in human form. James, Ariel and Chao were already on their way to where the most dirty mana and strange behaviour would be displayed. In short, if there was a real Fallen God at the head of the enemy, or rather, if the big ''bad'' that was putting all these things into action was in these monsters, the main unit had to act. In this case, the main unit consisted of James, Ariel, and Chao. Selene had sworn to protect the palace of the Mountain Empire with her life or rather to protect the entire capital. This resulted in the admission to the capital of everyone in the empire who could fit in the underground shelters of the capital. As usual, the priests and priestesses of the Church of the Night tried to detect ''evil'' beings and people with ''unclean'' mana and aura as they entered the capital, and they did not find anyone except for a few little devils who tried to enter from time to time. Just in case, an ENORMOUS shield of runes was constructed around the capital and the capital was the safest place below the 75th floor. The armies of Asgard were arrayed in the northern part of the empire, and the armies of Olympus were around the borders of the empire like a shield. Because of the dangers within the empire, this was the place that James and the others had chosen to clear. With each passing hour, a larger army was entering the 37th floor with the passageways, and the preparations for war were growing from one side and growing from the other. Even though they were still gathering under 6 armies, almost three million soldiers were scattered all over the four continents. Hearing what James wanted to do, other guild owners and even the high climbers James wished to meet had come to the 37th floor at the risk of death. Warriors of Zeus, Hades, Osiris, Freyr, Odin, Ninurta, Odin, Odin, Ninurta and many others had come to the 37th floor with their followers to support James. Thereupon, Theseus, Perseus, Thasus and many more god-blooded heroes came to help James, and even people like Icarus, who had suffered many more evils and cruelties, came to join the war. In short, many people who lived on the 75th floor and tried to become gods and goddesses, from James'' enemies to his closest friends, came to this floor to help him and the future of the tower. This was a war that would exist for a long, long time to come. It may have been MINIMUM in scale compared to the wars of old, but for the tower itself, which had been partially at peace for so long, it would be the biggest war in recent times. One thing was known, however. This would be the most spectacular battle in history. A war where friends and foes would work together, where life and death would hold hands and all would share a common destiny. A few million living beings would have to fight against thousands of Ancient Demons and perhaps Ancient Giants and other ancient monsters. There was likely to be bloodshed, and the battle might even be lost, but at least everything would be done. After almost a month, they came upon rainy weather. In the air cultivators were standing on their swords and following Chao with all honour, on the ground there were thousands of climbers following James with honour. As the twin nobles returned to the city from which they had come, the sight of destruction was documented in everyone''s minds. Everything was in a terrible state, they did not know where the twins'' sister was, but everyone was sure that she was not dead. Or rather, the twins had convinced everyone about this. "Ariel," James said suddenly, and when he got the attention of the woman next to him, he added, "The ends of the city are sealed. I can feel the power of the seals from here, but I can''t find any weakening spells or anything." Ariel could understand what those words meant. What they would encounter in this city might not be an Ancient Demon or something of that nature. After all, it was quite understandable how the Ancient Demon was brought to this floor, or rather, how it got here. The polluted mana released outside and the polluted aura kept inside had successively strengthened the demon itself and weakened those outside. This suggested that the danger could be either on a higher level or on a lower level. After all, the fact that they now had this realisation told the entire army that they did not know the enemy they were facing. "Master Umbra," came a voice suddenly from behind James. James turned round to see Yorhun, the young Asgardian warrior he had met on the 25th floor. However, he noticed the concern on Yorhun''s face. "What is it, Yorhun?" James asked suddenly. "Sir, we have received news from the north of the empire, Asgard has already started fighting, and the eastern continent has been at war for almost six hours. We have not suffered many casualties, but it is calculated that we have already destroyed six demon-beast units," replied Yorhun. Hearing these words, James frowned and said with great sadness, "May the souls of the dead warriors rest in peace, I hope they win the biggest place in heaven." then, with the knowledge that the battle had begun, he gestured with his hand for everyone to move forward without fear. With each step they took, the sense of danger in them was growing. With each step they took, they began to feel the presence of the thing or things following them one by one. Each person who had this feeling suddenly began to hold their weapons tightly. From the weakest to the strongest, each of them focused their attention. James squinted as he realised the danger was getting closer and closer. "You all will be faster for three minutes, your speed stat will increase by 20 per cent, be ready and please be careful." James said suddenly and then, looking around carefully, he said "Heaven''s Call". This time he chose the lily flower and with it thousands of flowers with pink tips spread over a great distance. However, the danger had reached its extreme. Everyone could see the monsters around, or rather, they seemed to be hiding and waiting for their new prey. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. What they didn''t know, however, was that this time the prey would not be humans or other members of their race, but themselves. Heaven''s Call was an aura-based ability, and it became much better with the addition of magic. James had used such an attack against the Ancient Giant. Now, with this ability, he had covered the entire huge city with pink lily flowers. It was nothing more than an attack order given to over a thousand climbers and thousands of cultivators inside the city. Exactly every single warrior had suddenly attacked. There were thousands, maybe tens of thousands of demon beasts in front of them, but there was something these beasts did not realise. The races on the friendly side had enormous power, they might have been dishonoured against such a large number of enemies, and they might have underestimated their strength and refused to fight, but not this time. Because the demon monsters had bypassed the race that controlled and directed this entire army. No one should underestimate the bottomless human heart itself, especially when that heart demands the direct destruction of enemies and marches forward as the king of an army of millions. "ATTACK!!!" With a single shout, hundreds of explosions, and dozens of blood-filled pieces of demon beasts began to fly in the air. It was a complete annihilation, a genocide, perhaps even a vengeful, madly burning piece of fire. But no matter what, one thing was certain: Either this war would end in victory, or it would continue until every single friendly unit, every single friendly piece was dead. It would be written in golden letters in the history books of the Tower''s history, the name of every commander, the great General Ariel, and the king who led them would be written in golden letters in every book. It would be a great, agonising and glorious event in the history of the Tower for generations to come. It would be the first time in the history of the Tower that not just a few heroes and races, but all heroes and races came together to fight. No one would forget the 10000 Ancient War. Not even the Creator himself would dare to make them forget. Chapter 264 Sending Them Back It had been almost an hour since the battle had begun in the city. Thousands of deaths had already occurred across the empire and continent, but armies of tens of thousands of soldiers had already entered the 37th floor to help.James and Ariel, followed by Ariel, had passed through the demon beasts and were chasing after the strange things that James had felt before, which could be considered as ''seals''. When they reached the northern part of the city, they realised that a very high level of clean mana was emitted from the small wooded area inside the city. More precisely, this ''seal'' was made of pure mana, it felt like the pure mana of a child, and that was the scary thing. If such pure mana wasn''t made by an incredibly good-hearted mage or someone who was entangled in sacred magic, it meant that a sacrifice had been made. That''s what was so frightening about a child''s pure mana, the possibility of child sacrifice was literally on display. Explore more adventures at empire When James and Ariel got closer to the seal, they were able to see what was inside the seal with their eyes. It was nothing more than another ancient demon. The fact that this time there were no weakening spells or dodgy rune sequences made it all the better. James suddenly gripped the Lumen tightly by the hilt and then began to gather a not-insignificant amount of aura and magic into the Godly Sword Lumen. After almost ten seconds of careful summoning, he inserted the sword, albeit slowly, into the seal and then, as calmly as possible, pierced what he thought was the ancient demon right through the neck. Because the seal was small and the being inside looked like an ancient demon, James thought that they had indeed encountered such a being, but this was not the case. [I think they''re trying to gather energy for a bigger seal. This is a very, very small seal to contain an ancient demon or another ancient demon beast]. Upon reading this message from Erebus, James suddenly chooses to take Ariel with him to the lord''s house in the city. Perhaps there they might succeed in finding the sister of the twin nobles. Even though they were acting with this hope, they still did not have great hope. After all, it was necessary to be realistic, not many people could survive such a thing, even if this was the 27th floor, most of the people born in the tower tried to spend their lives without climbing the tower. This meant that the chances of the twins'' sister being alive were no more than 5 per cent. It was close to impossible. Still, James wanted to keep his promise to the twins. He had searched the city lord''s house and had come across a few traces. These were a few traces that were drawn with a very good spell control. Whoever it was who had drawn these marks was a little beyond James in terms of spell control, James did not doubt that it was someone who had completed at least the 10th and perhaps even the 11th magic circle. After all, it had taken James almost ten minutes to recognise these marks. They had followed the tracks for a short time and after this short time, they had found a small door where the tracks converged. It was incredible that this door leading to the basement of the house was undiscovered. James gently deciphered the spell codes he had found on the door and after opening the door, he and Ariel proceeded to the basement. After an incredibly deep descent of almost five minutes, they finally reached a place where there was light. James and Ariel were stunned by the sight they saw. There were perhaps over a thousand people standing in the basement of the city lord''s house. The people who saw James and Ariel began to rush and after a short time, a woman came forward. "May I know who you are?" the mysterious woman asked, holding a thin knife hidden in her clothes in her right hand. James couldn''t miss it; after all, he held Selene''s Throwing Knife in the same way. ''I''m here to find the sister of the twin brothers Adam and Alan,'' James replied, and with that, he realised that the knife the woman in front of him had hidden had suddenly disappeared. "That would be me, my name is Alissa, my brothers...where are they?" asked the woman who had introduced herself as Alissa. Hearing these words, James smiled with relief and then said, "They are in the Imperial Palace. We will teleport you all there. Please pack up." With that, he opened one of the teleportation scrolls in his hand and activated the spell by sending its mana to the scroll. If he tore the scroll, only he and those who physically touched it could go with him, but transferring magic to the scroll and activating it would transfer a large magic ring to a selected location on the flat earth. This meant that a massive teleportation spell would take place. Alissa quickly gathered over a thousand commoners and even the nobles who had come here to visit and were trapped in the magic ring, and with that, James knelt on the ground and transferred above-average magic to the place where the magic ring would work so that the spell would work smoothly. After a brief flash, everyone disappeared and Ariel and James no longer had any reason not to fight. The two stared at each other for a second and then ran towards the exit and quickly ran towards the town square to join the battle. There were already thousands of corpses of demon beasts around. There were so many corpses that it was quite difficult to go anywhere without stepping on the corpses. Still, they had to move as fast as possible for him to join the battle. When James used his dark step ability and passed Ariel, he could see a black dot in the air in the distance. As his gaze locked on it, he realised that it was another demon. It didn''t look like an ancient demon, though he didn''t know if there were other types of ancient demons or other ancient beings. There was very little information about these beings in the imperial library, after all. That was exactly why James had chosen to ignore these things and attack. He climbed up a building and started jumping from one roof to another. After a short time, he got close to the dark being and at that moment he saw Chao. Using the Void Pen, he shouted directly into Chao''s mind, "CHAO! FIRE ME!" and hearing this, Chao suddenly appeared behind James, grabbed him and threw him at the dark demon figure. James managed to fly almost two hundred metres through the air at an incredible speed, and at that moment he gripped the Godly Sword Lumen tightly by the hilt, covering it with all 8 Sacred Fire. Perhaps fighting like this would have consumed much more mana and a little more aura, but at least this way he had the opportunity to take down the weak but dark demon figure in one attack. The dark demonic figure had not recognised James and this would be the cause of his death. In just four seconds, James came from the ground into the air, right where the dark demon was, and cut it in half. A huge lunge of flame flashed across the sky, even the rain falling from the clouds in the sky was vaporised by the heat of the flames for a few seconds and no drops of water reached the earth. The dark demonic figure was burnt to ashes, and then not only that, its ashen existence was burnt out of existence. sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With that, James began to fall to earth at a very high speed. Chao suddenly started flying and caught James in a short time. When James landed on the earth, he was surrounded by climbers and cultivators who looked at him with astonishment and amazement. "THE BATTLE IS NOT OVER! CONTINUE!!! PUSH FORWARD!" James suddenly shouted and with that, all the troops attacked for the last time. The city was not besieged, but at least the demon troops had been stopped. Perhaps only one of the ten thousand ancient monsters had been killed, but even that was pretty good. "Sir Umbra! We have news from the Olympian troops. Perseus, Theseus and Eteocles have already managed to kill three ancient demons. The Olympus troops are asking for orders to advance, sir." Both Chao, James and Ariel, who had caught up with them, looked at Yorhun''s sudden news with great surprise. "Your husband is doing a great job," James suddenly said to Ariel. Ariel nodded her head, even though she was embarrassed, and replied, "I know that already." After this small talk, James turned to the young Yorhun and said, "Tell Theseus and Perseus not to return until they have killed at least a hundred ancient monsters." With these words, it was time for the friendly sides to launch a decisive attack. Chapter 265 We Misunderstood It All! James and the huge troop that followed him were on their way to another city after the thousand-man troop they had placed in the city.This time the city they were going to was even further east of the empire. The city was quite large, the reason for this was that this city belonged to a duke. It came as bad news to Cordelia that the duke had sacrificed his life just to let the people escape. It was terrible news, everyone knew the duke''s power, he was the hero of the empire and all continents, he was almost three thousand years old, and in the eyes of the people he was an ancient being. In the old times of the tower, the existence of qi was officially unknown, which was the reason why Desmond and the others were living in such bad conditions. It was the only reason Desmond needed the blood of Vladimir the Sun Vampire. Here was one of the most powerful beings in the empire, called a hero in the four continents, and one of the most powerful beings under the entire 27th floor and perhaps the 75th floor. According to reports, the duke had fought for almost a week without a break. With his skill and strength, he had organised the teleportation device that would send his people to the imperial capital, and while doing so, he had killed almost ten Ancient Giants and hundreds of Ancient Demons with his own hands. Nevertheless, he died in the end. The reason for his death was not because he fought either the Ancient Giants or the Ancient Demons. The Duke was poisoned. There was no information about where this poisoning came from, but it was clear that even if there was no betrayal, at least his body was poisoned by a blow he received during the battle. The whole army was moving forward with this information and waiting for orders from James. James had another concern. They had travelled continuously for almost half a day, they knew that they were not tired as a group, the adrenaline in their bodies was so gigantic that first of all the indestructible heart and soul of the human race, and then all the races and their members continued to move forward without waiting. No one could denigrate the sacrifices that had been made. James'' concern was Chao himself. From the time Chao received the news of the duke''s death and the information about how the duke might have died, the seriousness on his face had increased. It was as if Chao was afraid of something. The fact that he did not know what he was afraid of made James worry. Chao himself was many times stronger than James, which was indisputable, the only reason James was ahead of him in some ways was because of his abilities. Chao as a holy beast could not possess any abilities, he only had his Aura and Qi. That was the problem, Chao was afraid of something. Within each continent of the 27th Floor, within the territory of each empire or kingdom, within each forest, no creature or holy beast was as powerful as Chao. It was troublesome to be able to see with the naked eye that Chao was afraid. If such a being, such a holy beast, such a man was afraid of something, something was wrong, and James and Ariel were well aware of this. Ariel was so worried about the situation that he was ready to use his Lord''s Knight ability at any moment. Of course, Ariel would prevent James from endangering his life, but inwardly she prayed that such an event would not even be a possibility. The army, numbering over ten thousand men, had slowly moved into the city, the largest city in the empire, second only to the capital. Flags were burning all around, flags with the symbol of a crow had fallen to the ground, hundreds of metres from the entrance to the city. The city looked completely fallen and abandoned, and in front of the city gates stood a man, his body green and covered with poison. James'' eyes widened when he saw this man and then he turned around and shouted "USE YOUR RADIATION SCROLLS NOW!!! GO BACK TO THE CAPITOL!!!". Hearing his concern, every single member of the army pulled out their scrolls without thinking twice, and every single one of them instantly tore them up and disappeared. Even if a few people, especially a few who did not look at James with tolerance, remained in the area, they were inwardly frightened as soon as they saw the concern on James'' face. They knew how strong James was, James was the one who killed the dark demonic figure in one blow. This caused them to take out their scrolls and after a short time, only James, Ariel and Chao were left almost a hundred metres away from the city. When James looked at Chao''s face with fear, he saw fear on the Holy Gryphon''s face, or rather, it wasn''t just a look of fear. It was more covered with worry and the urge to protect. I think Chao wanted to protect James, who was right next to him, that was why he was worried, and this feeling gave him fear. James couldn''t even ask what they should do, he was so surprised by Chao''s posture and expression that the next time he looked at the man in front of the city gate he couldn''t help asking, "Who is it?" Chao swallowed when he heard those words, and the sound of his swallowing rang in their ears. "This is the second most powerful person on the 27th floor, the man who came after me. It''s Duke Bai Fang himself. Guys, be very careful. One slip up and we''re dead, it seems....he is a zombie now...a zombie that''s almost as strong as me right now.''" At Chao''s words, James and Ariel could do nothing but swallow, just like him. Their fear seemed to have become quite apparent. Still, there was nothing else left to do. James re-equipped the Godly Sword Lumen and then looked at Ariel and Chao and said, "Let''s go then." With that, Chao suddenly released a huge amount of the aura in his body outwards. An incredibly large amount of aura energy began to press down on both James and Ariel. However, the two were lucky, since Chao had trained both James and Ariel in the aura, they were used to the pressure of this aura. Bai Fang, however, was not in the same situation. Bai Fang''s body, a zombie with a lush green body, seemed to be crushing under the pressure. When the worry and fear on Chao''s face turned into a strange look of sadness, the pressure of the aura increased even more, but strangely, Bai Fang began to defy this aura. This meant only one thing: Chao...must have trained Bai Fang as well. Amid these thoughts, James suddenly lunged forward. It was normal not to have a plan, after all, the ''plan'' he and the duo of Ariel and Chao had in mind was clear. Bai Fang''s soul had to be put to rest, his zombified body had to be destroyed. James activated his dark step ability and, as usual, covered the Godly Sword Lumen with his aura and magic. Bai Fang didn''t move a single step and met James'' attack head-on. "SWOOSH!!!" James'' attack had created such pressure in the air that when Bai Fang met the attack, it was as if the air had exploded down to its molecules. When the huge cloud of smoke dissipated, James jumped back a few steps because of the feeling of danger that suddenly descended in his heart and then looked at Bai Fang. "At least we can do some damage," James suddenly said. He had managed to inflict a small wound on Bai Feng''s left arm, and the wound was not healing. This was very good news. Chao and Ariel suddenly appeared in front of Bai Fang. They both attacked at the same time, and two blows landed on Bai Fang''s body, which was still not moving. When the dust had cleared again, Bai Fang was still motionless, staring at the trio around him. Even though his pupils were moving, his body had stopped moving. "I....." Stay connected via empire At the sudden voice, the trio suddenly stopped their attack and retreated backwards. "Bai...." Chao said, his tone incredibly sad. "I did it, my master." Bai Fang said suddenly, and James and Ariel turned to Chao in disbelief. It was now clear why Bai Fang was able to resist Chao''s aura. Bai Fang was indeed his student, and that was the reason for the sadness and sorrow in Chao''s tone. "You did what?" Chao asked.... Bai Fang had not become a zombie, he was still alive, even Chao had thought that he had turned into a zombie, but the old duke was still alive, only the amount of poison in his body was enormous. James...maybe he could help him. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 266 I Got Him, Dont You Even Worry ''I''m proud of you...my only student,'' Chao suddenly said, and those words put an end to everything. Chao was afraid not because he could not defeat the monster or person he would face; yes, he might be defeated, but that did not mean that he would definitely be defeated.The reason for the fear on the Holy Gryphon''s face was that the possibility of losing his only pupil was now in the air. Nevertheless, James had chosen to send members of his army to the imperial capital just in case, which was a good thing. There weren''t many climbers in the area, after all. This was due to the enormous amount of poison emanating from Bai Fang''s body. The only reason Ariel was able to stand, like both Chao and James, was because she had trained herself to be immune to certain types of poison. "I apologise...master. I couldn''t protect them all...they''re inside the city, forgive me," said Bai Fang, and even though he seemed to have recovered a little, the resentment was still evident on his face. "You did very well, I''m proud of you, I''m sorry I couldn''t help you here, at least...at least I''ll protect your children, I swear," replied Chao. It was obvious that these scenes were upsetting every god and goddess watching them, even Ariel couldn''t help but feel saddened by Chao''s stance, the only one who wasn''t was James himself. "Aaaah...You all realise that I can help him, right?" said James suddenly, and hearing those words, Chao and Bai Fang suddenly turned to James. "How?" questioned Ariel, who was standing to the right. "You do realise that I''m one of the 11 Poison Masters in the tower, right? It''s my job to extract poison from other people and things," James replied. Chao suddenly approached James and grabbed him tightly by the shoulders, "Can you help him? Can you save him?" he asked. Chao''s face had officially turned into an expression of worry and fear. This holy Gryphon''s expression seemed to show hope. "Yeah, sure. I got him." James replied, and then he started to approach Bai Fang. It occurred to him that he didn''t know what to do, after all, he needed at least one wound to absorb the poison, and the wound he had inflicted with his powerful attack had already disappeared. While he was connected to these thoughts, a message window suddenly appeared in front of him: [To assimilate the poison, bring forth your poison element. Before you do so, warn the young lady Ariel and the old, grumpy Chao that the poison in your body can paralyse even some gods, and they will die]. This message came from Noah, the man who had taught James almost everything he knew about poison. James, on the other hand, was confused with the happiness of being able to learn an answer without asking his question, and then he asked, "How far should they go?" [At least two or three hundred metres]. When the answer to his question came back, James smiled turned around and said, "Exactly four hundred metres away from me." He figured it couldn''t hurt to be careful, so he said four hundred metres. "Let''s go, old man," Ariel said as he turned to Chao, who was standing right next to him. With that, Ariel quickly left the area, holding the bewildered Chao by the shoulder. James stood right in front of Bai Fang at that moment and then said, "This is going to hurt you very, very much, just please...don''t go towards the light." The moment Bai Fang nodded, James closed his eyes and then focused neither on his magic rings nor on his aura itself. The only thing James focussed on was the elemental core that had taken root and become a vine. Every moment he focused on the elemental core, an even greater poison elemental energy was being released outwards. Even if James wasn''t aware of it, it was quite good to tell Ariel and Chao to move four hundred metres away. The poison elemental energy he was releasing had already reached the three-hundred-metre threshold and was ready to pass. James was able to see Bai Fang right in front of him with his eyes closed. He could see the high poison in the old duke''s body and the dark and dangerous poison that had enveloped his qi core. This meant that he could treat him now. Once James had calmed himself down, he gently grabbed Bai Fang''s head in front of him and then began to suck all the poison from the new poison source, Bai Fang''s body, making all the poison he had spread around solid. Bai Fang was trembling from the pain, which could be easily seen if anyone was around. It was quite a painful process after all. Even being poisoned was not as painful as getting the poison out, and James knew that very clearly. Nevertheless, this situation would not last long. The reason for this was that although the poison in Bai Fang''s body was at a very large level, there were only two types of poison in this body. So in a sense, Bai Fang was only poisoned by two types of poison that would weaken his body and lock his qi. James was busy absorbing all this poison into himself. The poison elemental energy he was spreading around was getting stronger and stronger. Ariel and Chao felt the need to move even further back than the four hundred metres they had been because the energy James was emitting was becoming more and more visible. James quickly began to absorb the poison from Bai Fang''s body, and Bai''s body, which had turned green from the poison, was slowly coming around. Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This was good news, Bai Fang was such a powerful person that he was able to survive until now to prevent the poison from damaging his own body. It was truly mesmerising. Bai Fang''s might was dazzling. James, who had been continuously charging the poison elemental energy into his body, slowly realised that both his aura and his magical energy were growing larger and larger. After all, when the elemental nucleus sprouted and had a root, each elemental particle charged into the nucleus strengthened whatever power you had. This meant that James was both saving a life and making himself insanely strong. He could even realise that his aura was beginning to reach its limit. James could see that he was very close to reaching the next level of aura. Yet he was also aware of the huge doors that were closed. Those huge doors that were preventing his aura from developing further. It was even possible to say that they were one of the biggest obstacles James had to overcome on his own. It was a real pain in the arse. After almost half an hour, James realised that he could no longer absorb any poison elemental energy, took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He saw old Bai Fang on his knees, crying and smiling. "Thank you, young man...I will never forget this favour, I swear on the heavens that if I do not repay you, I will be punished in the darkest depths of the underworld." Bai Fang suddenly said. It was nothing less than an honourable oath befitting an honourable warrior. "No problem my dude, no worries," replied James abruptly, he didn''t care, after all, he had gained something from the incident himself. However, the poison elemental energy he had emitted had completely disappeared and in less than a minute Ariel and Chao were back on the scene. When James looked at the duo, he smiled and said, "I got it." At James'' words, Chao suddenly walked past him and hugged Bai Fang, saying, "Well done... I''m proud of you." and let out a deep breath. "We still have ancient monsters to kill, we need to move, old man," said Ariel with a strange expression, briefly instructing Chao to attack. Chao had already made up his mind to do so, the anger on the old holy Gryphon''s face was not to be despised, indeed, he was straining himself so hard that even the muscles on his face were extremely prominent. In short, it was harvest time, and the four men who were to do the harvesting were now standing at the entrance to the city. With that dark and angry look, Chao suddenly stopped hugging Bai Fang and then stood up and said, "Follow me this time." James and Ariel trembled inwardly, the adrenaline in their bodies going crazy, they were so excited that their expressions had a frightening smile on their faces. With that, Bai Fang also stood up and then said, "I will go with you, I am no longer covered in poisons that affect neither my qi nor my body." The two strongest people in the entire empire and the entire world were going to work together, and behind them were two people who could enter the ranks of the greatest warriors below the 75th floor. James and Ariel. It was going to be a bloodbath...no, it was going to be a preview of hell. Chapter 267 Well Get It Back The four of them broke through the gate at the entrance to the huge city. They saw the bodies of hundreds, if not thousands of people lying around. Ariel and James really wanted to vomit at the sight, it might have been one of the most horrible things they had ever seen.Bai Fang was looking around sadly, thinking that he had let everyone down. Still, Bai Fang had managed to save almost three million people and members of other races, while the half million he hadn''t saved were already lying in pieces around the city. Bai Fang may have made mistakes, but he had tried his best for the empire and his own people, he was certainly a fascinating nobleman, a nobleman everyone would wish to emulate. Chao, on the other hand, was angry. Just looking at his face made everyone tremble inwardly. James likened this holy beast, who always smiled at him, to a few flowers that might appear in the apocalypse. Chao was full of life, but behind this life was an incredible sense of revenge. His aura radiated around him like a madman, and it was incredibly powerful. Chao instantly turned to James, Ariel, and Bai Fang, who was following behind them, and then said, ''Spread out, kill as many as you see.'' James and Ariel trembled inwardly with excitement, James hadn''t expected to receive an order out of the blue, but he had managed to raise himself up to carry it out, he could even feel his heart pounding with excitement. He instantly nodded his head and saluted Ariel, suddenly he was on his way to the eastern part of the city. Bai Fang had decided to go with Ariel. So the group of four split into three and the attack began. The city was huge, there was no exaggeration or anything like that when this thought was given to others, the city was indeed huge. Describe the size of the city, it was huge enough to fit at least one thousand to two thousand of the huge palace he had created on that floor covered with the ice age under James'' ownership. James already had this information. "Miracle, I want you to sense every dirty piece of mana or aura, my dear daughter." James suddenly said, and with that, Miracle, who had long ago changed into dragon form, began to follow her father''s order. It was obvious that the little girl had received a few flashbacks after the huge energy Miracle had released, she immediately pointed in one direction like a hunter who had found his prey and said, "Four." Read new adventures at empire Hearing this, James called out to Sophia, who was in his jacket, and said, "Speed me up." With all this, James went on the attack. The place where the little girl Miracle pointed was the alley of a building. Four owners of dirty energy should have been there. Dirty mana was an incredible thing, it was impossible to be a good person by having dirty mana. The addictive dream that this mana would give you was unbelievable. It would make you literally addicted and you would constantly want this dirty mana, aura or any other dirty energy until you died. After a while, your body would surrender to the person who had fed you with this energy, and your soul would just stay where it was, almost on a leash. James knew this, so he didn''t plan to pity any of these bastards, he didn''t need to, every one of these sons of bitches were power-hungry beings who committed the worst sins to get that power. And that broke every rule in James'' book. James secretly wished he could kill each and every one of them. It was obvious that the ancient demon beasts already worshipped the Fallen God and beings like them. After all, these bastards were the ones who had introduced this dirty definition of energy into the tower. They had created this type of energy by using Black Magic and taking advantage of the evil aspects of this black magic. The kind of energy that can contaminate everything and make you addicted to it. The moment James approached the alleyway, he gripped the Godly Sword Lumen tightly and lunged forward and made four simple moves on the four shadowy beings he saw, as if he was using a rapier instead of a normal sword. These four simple thrusts managed to slice the four shadowy beings to the core, and James managed to kill each of them in four moves. As soon as the little girl Miracle realised this, she turned the other way and James started running in that direction. It was clear what Chao wanted to do, James and the others would clean up the mess in the city while he went to attack the ringleaders. It was a perfect plan. Ariel and Bai Fang were unlikely to be in danger, after all, Bai Fang was an incredibly powerful individual and hadn''t really lost a bit of his strength, his power was too dangerous to be destroyed, and destroying his qi core or aura array could mean a nuclear explosion. As for Ariel, she was understandably an incredibly powerful woman. This woman really deserved to be the first commander of the Chaos Guild... the third-highest rank. It was time for the Chaos Guild which has three members to grow, but this was something that would exist for a short future. After all, the future would bring more members and who knows how many more gods or goddesses into the Chaos Guild. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James was gradually advancing through the city with each step. The demon beasts he was slaying were becoming more and more powerful. These demon beasts, none of which were strong enough to enter the ''ancient'' tier, did not stop appearing in front of James, increasing in number each time. James himself was quite calm, he was officially at peace with himself, it was time for them to save the city. Chapter 268 It Was So Disappointing In James'' case, everything was going well. However, things were getting more and more dangerous as he started to encounter monsters that finally started to put huge stones in his path.After almost an hour of a decisive and quite dangerous attack, he finally managed to encounter a few ancient monsters. He had indeed encountered a she-devil similar to the ancient demon he had seen before. The claws of the duo were quite similar to the previous Ancient Demon, but the gaze of these demons was different. Unlike other monsters, the two demons did not insult James and stood guard against him. This gave James two options: Either the two she-devils standing in front of him were trying to deceive him, or they were actually cautiously approaching him, as they considered James'' strength quite sufficient. James, of course, was not going to do any nonsense like trying to find the answer to this question. What he needed to do now was to hold the Godly Sword Lumen tightly in his right hand and kill these two demons as quickly as possible without making himself too exhausted. Knowing this very well, he suddenly used his dark step ability and suddenly attacked, reaching quite high speeds thanks to the acceleration effect Sophia gave him. Explore new worlds at empire The two she-demons didn''t seem to expect James to suddenly attack. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The moment James made his attack, one of the demons jumped in front of the other and tried to meet Godly Sword Lumen directly with its claw. "SKRIIEEEEEEKK!!!" A sudden scream came from the female demon and James had to take a few steps backwards. The scream was so loud that James'' ears practically rang. After this scream, other sounds began to come from the alleyways and far away. James''s body suddenly trembled, not from fear, but from a feeling he did not know, yet the sounds were getting louder with each passing second. The whole street began to be surrounded by shadows writhing like living beings. It seemed that one of the she-devils had screamed for help. The air became thick and suffocating as if it carried the weight of all the evil that had been hidden for centuries. Faint whispers echoed from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. James saw Sophia, clinging fearfully to her own clothing, begin to tremble. The little girl Miracle and holy Ruby were fine because one was a Supreme Dragon and the other a Phoenix. However, Sophia herself, who was not yet very strong or mentally sound, began to tremble. It was like a symphony of fragmented words and a cacophony of voices that pushed the boundaries of sanity, and even if James hadn''t been harmed by them, he would still have to say that he shuddered. It was as if the stories told on Halloween or the horror stories told around the campfire had come true, a shiver ran through him. Whispers floated in the darkness, and a chaotic atmosphere was spreading around. Even if James could see what was happening thanks to his night vision, the fact that the entire street was completely blocked by dark shadows made it literally impossible for even light to reflect. Low growls echoed beneath the murmurs; hundreds of demon beasts, deep, savage and ready to strike, seemed to lurk in the shadows. James realised in his own essence that he had to make a move now, and he moved again, using his dark stepping ability. With each step, he stepped on a different place and tried to deceive these monsters, which could be considered two female ancient demons, who were trying to protect themselves from his attack. Godly Sword Lumen managed to find his target again. The Godly Sword itself was stuck right in the arm of one of the female demons. James suddenly pulled the sword out of its stabbing place, and boiling, steaming, purple blood began to come out of the she-demon''s arm. "SKRIIUUGHHHHKK!!!" As the she-demon shouted, the shadows around her became even more frenzied. Mocking, hissing, pleading voices were practically ringing in James'' ears. Some were sharp and crackling, and indeed almost every one of them was a plea. Others were like shards of ice, each one filling James with a strange sadness. After all these voices and the strangeness in James'' mind, he easily realised that each of these voices was a spirit and was instantly shocked. There was a reason he thought that: The pleas. James knew that the faint pleading voices rising from the shadows were calling for help, calling for him to release them. James managed to recover from his shock and then, frowning, he activated 8 Sacred Fire without thinking twice. The different coloured flames merged together to create the perfect fire that looked so colourful and beautiful. Without thinking twice, James released this fire to the earth and spread it. "Nothing I don''t want to burn will burn, nothing I don''t want to die will die, nothing I don''t want to destroy will be destroyed. Fire worships me." James suddenly said, and with that, 8 Sacred Fire officially went out of control. This fire burned so brightly that even if it was not possible to completely disperse the surrounding darkness, it was able to burn in response to the light of hope in the dark souls. It was certainly a mesmerising sight, but what was needed in this case was not mesmerisation but destruction. The hatred inside James could not be understood with human patience and thoughts. The colourful flames cut the connections of the dark shadows with whip blows every second, and with each passing second James could see the souls that were released and destroyed. James''s nervousness could be understood by every single person watching him. His jaw muscles, even the veins in his throat were starting to become visible from squeezing himself. He was going to do everything to kill these two female demons standing in front of him now. And when he made such a decision, there were not many people who could stop him. Chapter 269 Hes...Perfect. Suddenly, it lunged forward and then said, "Soul Impact." The first she-devil it had lunged at was right where its essence was, that is, the area where its heart was located.Before the she-devil even realised what was happening, blood began to flow from its eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth. This is what someone whose core had exploded would look like. With that, James suddenly took a few steps backwards and then patted his daughter Miracle on the head and said, "Create a magic shield, sweetheart." With that, the other she-devil tried to run away, realising what was happening, but it was too late... "BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!" Discover exclusive tales on empire An enormous explosion ripped through the centre of the eastern part of the city. James smiled as the sound vanished and the dust and smoke disappeared, and then he destroyed the connections to the last bits of dark shadow he could see around him. After that, he saw the severed head of the female demon trying to escape and without thinking, he crushed the monster''s head and continued on his way with the anger he had. Everything was going well on the east side of the city. On the west side, everything was in a completely different dimension. Ariel and Bai Fang had encountered a strange enemy. Like James, they had almost made it to the centre of their path. The demon they encountered in the centre of the western part of the city was indeed an ancient demon. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. However, this ancient demon was a rather strange being. It was of a normal body size, almost 1.80 metres in height, it could be called a demon that looked quite human-like, but the shapes of its horns and wings made it obvious. It had a very strange aura, which was quite confusing and created an illusion for those who looked at it. This is what happened to Ariel and Bai Fang. Even if they managed to get out of the illusion, they were constantly caught back in it. Even though Ariel was injured, she was still in no danger to her life. It was obvious that Bai Fang had a plan, he didn''t even need to say that he had already killed several of this ancient demon, because, unlike Ariel, he moved incredibly calmly and quickly. It was as if he knew where each illusion was going to occur, his eyes didn''t even need to move, and that''s why he closed his eyes instead of seeing the illusions and started to attack, trusting his instincts. Even though Ariel regretted that she couldn''t help in any way, the fact that she was able to watch Bai Fang, who, like her, was at the forefront of close combat and knife skills, so closely taught her something. Every attack Bai Fang made, every step he took, every breath he took between attacks, every movement of the muscles in his body was perfect in every sense of the word. He was a true warrior. "Incredible..." Ariel couldn''t help but say, and she was right, Bai Fang was indeed incredible. [He really is interesting for you eh?] Suddenly a message appeared in front of Ariel, it was from Moros. When Ariel saw this message, she couldn''t help but smile, even in the middle of a war. "Yes...He is indeed the warrior I want to be. I''ve been training myself in the sword, just to be James'' knight, but is this...is this who I can be?" Ariel''s words were like a stamp on everyone watching them. The look on Ariel''s face, which had always been depressed when she wasn''t talking to James or Theseus, had officially opened their hearts. Ariel had been through some pretty bad things in her life, losing her husband early in life and losing her daughter in a way that no parent would dare to imagine. Now, Ariel had even agreed to become a knight to protect James, whom she considered her son. Still, she was still weaker than James, if not more so, and even if she was strong enough to help him, it was understandable that she was not a very strong woman. Now Ariel saw that she really needed to learn something, even this woman who did not like to rely on others wanted to learn Bai Fang''s perfect attacks. For the first time in a long time Ariel was watching someone with glowing eyes and a look of admiration, the last time this had happened was over a year ago when she met James. "KUAGHK!!!" The Ancient Demon screamed in pain as its throat was already slit. Bai Fang had managed to kill the ancient demon after two dozen attacks and hundreds of quick steps. It was now clear how this man had been able to protect such a large city until all its inhabitants had fled. Even if he wasn''t very strong, what he had fought was an ancient demon, and it had been dead and gone in mere minutes. When Ariel stood up, she stretched her body and then asked, "Master Bai Fang...When it''s all over when we win the battle, will you train me in knife techniques?" Bai Fang turned to Ariel in surprise and replied, "I''ve seen the way you fight, I don''t think you need my help, young lady." "I have a son I want to protect, I have so much to learn for him," Ariel said after these words. Bai Fang shook his head with his eyes wide open after these words and then replied, "If a mother wants help, it would be an honour for me to help her." It was incredibly difficult to find anyone as honourable as Bai Fang. He was a truly great man, incredibly kind-hearted and cared so much about human life. He was like an idol that everyone would want to have. With those words, the duo gathered themselves for action, and after only a few minutes, they were on the move, moving west of the city to mow down more ancient demons. Chao''s situation was quite different. Chapter 270 Pathetic Faster than anyone else, Chao was already making his way through the central part of the city, while others were just beginning to set off.He had already made his way quite nimbly to the southern part of the city, and by the time he was halfway to the south, he had already left thousands of corpses of demon beasts behind him. Chao was really angry. Even Hyperion himself, who had created him, had never seen this small and, to him, cute little Gryphon so angry. It was as if the anger had seeped into his eyes, and they were veined and his pupils had turned a mesmerizing crimson. So far he had managed to kill almost four dozen ancient beasts, even if they were not very powerful, and that included such superior beings as ancient demons, ancient mongooses, and ancient shadow leopards. Chao himself could recognize the exact location of the person who had done this evil, the person who had injured his only student, he could feel that person. The bloodless bastard was waiting in the southernmost part of the city, in one of the areas where the troops were being trained. Chao''s target was there, just like James, Ariel and Bai Fang. The only difference was that Chao was the only one and he had a huge amount of energy, he didn''t need to do any nonsense like not wasting it. He had three ancient demons in front of him, as usual, and it was clear that this trio, James and Ariel, were far, far stronger than the ancient demons that were in front of the Bai Fang group. However, this wasn''t even something Chao had to pay attention to. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The only reason the ancient demon they had fought in the first place had pushed him so hard was because Chao hadn''t been trying to kill it outright, after all, he had complied with James'' wishes in case of any danger, and if James had ordered him to kill the ancient demon, that battle wouldn''t have lasted a minute. That was because the three ancient demons now standing before him were many times more powerful than the being he had fought in the first place. Chao took only one step and instantly appeared in front of the leftmost of the three. "Gotcha," Chao said suddenly, and with that, he grabbed the ancient demon''s head with his right claw and closed his claw abruptly. The claw sliced through the ancient demon''s skull like a knife through a cake. The ancient demon''s body fell to the ground the moment Chao released his claw, and the other two ancient demons stopped moving out of fear. The two remaining ancient demons could only think that if they moved, they would die. But even if they didn''t move, they would still die. After all, the holy beasts were called "holy" not because they were created by gods or goddesses. They were called holy because they were each incredibly powerful. Beings like the holy Crimson Bird, created by Helios and currently residing on the 60th floor, were given their holy nickname because literally, no one on that floor was more powerful than them. Crimson Bird, is the image of fire and beauty, the embodiment of freedom and humility. Maybe not a phoenix, but certainly the most perfect creation of the god Helion. Without waiting a second, Chao looked at the ancient demons standing next to him, frozen with fear, and said, "Pathetic." before cutting their necks. After that, he continued full speed ahead. This is how things were in the easternmost part of the empire and the largest city in the empire. James had cleared the eastern part of the city, Chao had cleared the central part of the city, and Ariel and Bai Fang had cleared and purified the western part of the city. In the capital of the Empire, something else was happening. Cordelia was directly under Selene''s command, and every noble in the imperial court was taking orders directly from Selene herself. Everything was simple. Whatever they did, however long they did it, with whatever kind of unit or crew of soldiers, they had to be useful to the war that was going on. Read exclusive chapters at empire That meant that Selene was receiving dozens of pieces of information every minute from all the gods and goddesses watching them from upstairs, who were now desperate to help, and relaying that information to the troops through Cordelia and the other nobles. Of the thousands of army men James had sent back to the imperial capital, the ones who could be considered leaders were the ones who appeared before Selene and told her what had happened. After a brief investigation by Selene, James and the others were found to be in good condition. This was very good news, as the war hadn''t even really started and only the powers were fighting each other constantly, and losing James would be signing their death warrant. "Great Goddess...how is Mr. Umbra doing? He sent us right away, we wanted to stay there but after what we saw we realized we had to escape, please...please tell us." said one of the company leaders. The bitterness on his face was evident, as was his respect for the person he saw as his enemy and rival. When Selene heard these words, she immediately remembered that it was one of those who had identified James as her rival. Being aware of many things in the tower, and now receiving constant intelligence from many gods and goddesses, he was able to provide her with exactly that kind of information. A huge smile spread across Selene''s face. The lady of the moon shone in such a perfect light that it was impossible not to be uplifted by the sight of her. Indeed, the venerable creatures had come at James''s request. It was astonishing that even his enemies and those who considered him a rival respected him so much. He had already gotten what many gods and goddesses wanted. Chapter 271 Other Divisions "He''s fine, don''t worry," Selene said suddenly and the squad leader smiled and asked, "Is there any way we can reach him, my lady? Do they need help? Maybe this time we can help.Selene thought about it, and after almost two minutes of waiting, she gestured to the west and said, "The west of the Empire awaits you." This could be considered a decisive order, an order from the Lady of the Moon. At Selene''s command, the military company suddenly left the imperial palace and then the imperial capital. All that remained was the place where Olympus had fought, the place Selene had perhaps paid the most attention to, the place where the battle had been the fiercest and most serious, where there had been the most casualties and the most victories: [Imperial border]. Read exclusive content at empire Olympus was full of people who were especially adept at rune spells and weakening or strengthening spells, which is why James assigned them to the worst place, even though it was dangerous, the borderlands, where demon beasts and even many ancient beasts would pass. It symbolized James'' trust in Olympus, but it also spoke volumes about the danger that was heading towards them, even if involuntarily. After all, we were not talking about thousands of demon beasts or tens of thousands of them. The number of monsters trying to cross the borders of the empire had passed the six-hundred-thousand mark and was growing every day. It was an incredibly dangerous thing, something that Olympus might not be able to withstand for very long. Of course, that would have been said by fools who lied about their weakness. Many people might perhaps have chosen gods or goddesses on the 1st floor, in the Sea of Rascals region, or perhaps on the 20th floor. Nevertheless, there was something to be understood here: [Olympos is Olympos. Not every single person foolish enough to insult this place would understand death by lightning strikes or by dying suddenly with their heads exploding from the pressure thousands of meters under the sea. Death would greet them, and Charon would take their soul into Hades and deliver it into the hands of Hades, the god of the underworld]. They would never be humiliated. Theseus had part of the power of his father Poseidon, Perseus had a little of the power of his father Zeus, and Pan had part of the power of his father Hermes. Such heroes, high god-borns, could not be taken lightly. Olympus would not fall so easily, such a thing was literally impossible. "RUUAGGHHHHHH!!!" Perseus shouted as he plunged his sharpened harp sword into one of the ancient demons. The ancient demon, already red with the blood of its enemies, could not withstand Perseus'' attack and died on the spot. Theseus and the other heroes and god-borns he had taken with him were trying to protect the border as best they could. Although Olympus was fighting on the front lines, their losses after a week of fighting were only 1,000. This was an incredibly small number for the reality of war. The Olympians were not running away from the battle, they were really fighting for their lives and that is why they had not lost more than a thousand people. They had already surpassed the number of demon beast hunts by over a hundred thousand. It was indeed an excellence that honoured their ancestors, the high warriors. Theseus'' orders from James were clear. His father Poseidon had told him to follow James as his leader no matter what, and Theseus planned to do so whether his father wanted him to or not, he couldn''t let down the man he considered his closest friend. The orders were to kill as many ancient demons as possible, and with them as many ancient monsters. Theseus was up to the task. He had travelled thousands of kilometres from one side of the border to the other with almost a thousand Olympian soldiers, and he had done it over and over again. He had slain almost a hundred ancient monsters with this army of a thousand men, losing only twenty of his subordinates in the process. He was one of the few people whose name would go down in history in golden letters. He was a true leader. After almost half a day of non-stop fighting, the number of demon monsters had been reduced to an incredible extent. On top of that, the ancient monsters were no longer staying where they were. At least the borders of the Mountain Empire of the northern continent were completely secure. The only problem now was what was happening inside. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Perseus was immediately sent to break the seals of ancient monsters, especially ancient demons. Perseus was strangely sad to be away from the battles on the border, he was such a strange and maniacal man. It was a good thing, though, because the more Perseus wanted to get back to where he wanted to be, the faster he could get the job done. So the settlements in the northern part of the empire would be protected by Perseus himself. This was certainly one of the most excellent pieces of news the empire could have received. All eyes now turned to the main group. What James, Ariel, Chao and the newcomer Bai Fang would do would decide the fate of the continent. After all, what they would be fighting would not be a normal ancient monster. Whatever it was that could bring down an entire city the second most powerful person on the entire floor was likely to challenge even Chao himself. This meant that the foursome had to be as steady and decisive as possible, calculating every move they made tens of seconds in advance and perfecting it to the last breath. That is... assuming they were intelligent. After all, neither James could think intelligently in this situation, the imprisonment of the souls of the living had driven him mad. And then there was Chao himself, the holy old Gryphon, burning with vengeance. Ariel and Bai Fang were doing nothing but killing anyone who came their way. They could not be said to prioritize intelligence at the moment. Chapter 272 Vladimirs Legacies Are Here Selene and the others were concentrating on intelligence, so it was understandable that they were trying to be very careful. That was the reason why the troop divisions and their distribution were so even.Still, not everything was going unbelievably well. It had been exactly three days since James and the others had started clearing the huge city to the east. The northern continent had been cleared, and the casualties were enormous. Almost two hundred thousand soldiers had been sacrificed to clear the continent. The only reason for such a quick clearing was that the person who had managed to choose the God of Mischief Loki was on the northern continent. The old man had led an army of almost four hundred thousand with his own hands and managed to clear a continent, if not a huge one, in just a week and a half. The eastern and western continents were close to being cleared, though close to being cleared did not mean cleared. Hundreds of thousands of demon beasts and hundreds of ancient monsters still existed on these two continents. The real trouble was in the southern continent, the continent where the Mountain Empire and other settlements were located. Even though Perseus, Theseus and others were trying to help the continent, for some reason, the biggest influx of monsters was happening to this continent. On top of that, the king himself, the reason why all the soldiers came to this floor, was absent. They couldn''t get any orders from James. Of course, it didn''t take long for Selene and the others to inform everyone where James was and what he was doing. The stress on everyone was only increased by the fact that help was needed on the outside. Even Selene thought that she should get up and help James, but there was nothing that could be done, it was already a great danger for a goddess who had climbed to the 150th floor of the tower to come here, that is, to the 37th floor, the pressure on her was increasing every minute, she could not try to fight on top of it, that is, she could not get into a big war. After all, Selene had been assigned to protect the imperial palace and its contents. ''Lady Selene, you have visitors. They want to speak to you specifically, my lady.'' Cordelia said suddenly, and with that, she caught Selene''s attention. Selene acknowledged Cordelia with a wave of her hand and summoned the visitors to the throne room. Four men entered, wearing robes and their heads covered by the hoods of those robes. Yet Selene recognised them instantly. At last,t the expected had happened. At la, st the most arrogant and honourable race in the tower had shown their faces. ''May we know the whereabouts of Umbra, Lord Umbra, great goddess?'' Selene looked at the person at the front of the quartet rather puzzled when he asked this question and then asked ''Lord?'', she did not expect such a word from them. ''You know who we are, let us protect him, we have already learnt...what happened, he is the emperor of our race whether he wants to be or not.'' the robed person said and with that, hat an energy came into Selene''s face. Every single person in the throne room was trying to understand what was going on but couldn''t, but the fact that Selene was smiling like that meant that everything was fine. ''In the east of the empire, in the house of the duke of the east, in the city of the crow. He is trying to purify the city, you will find him there.'' Selene said and then turned to Cordelia and said, ''Bring this master a map of the empire.'' Cordelia suddenly gave orders to several people took four maps and gave each of the four a map. As the four of them quickly left the throne room, loud noises began to rise from outside and the voices began to fade away incredibly quickly. Cordelia moved forward to ask the question that was on everyone''s mind, the sun was setting and the last light of the day was coming in through the windows. ''My lady...who were those people?'' Selene''s smile widened when Cordelia asked that question and then she turned to Cordelia and replied, ''Vampires.'' ----- James and the others had finally made it to the north side of the city. Each of them could see what was there with their naked eyes. They came across a neat-looking king but an evil-looking person with crimson hair. This person had two horns like other ancient demons, but he didn''t have any wings. Stay connected through empire A message came from Nyx himself, [Be careful James...This is an overpowered one. If such a message came from Nyx, every single one of them had to be true, and that was what made everything dangerous. James shook his head and then, thanks to the Void Pen, managed to tell the others, ''I got a warning from Nyx, no matter how angry we are, we need to be careful.'' S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Just then he was greeted with another message: [Help is on the way James, hang in there.] This message was from Selene herself. Even though James was surprised by this message and questioned who would be stupid enough to come here after all the intelligence, he still wanted all the help he could get right now. ''COMING!'' Chao suddenly shouted, and with that, the ancient demon that had been standing still suddenly appeared in front of James. Before James even realised what was happening, the ancient demon''s fist appeared right in front of his face and James was hit incredibly hard in the face. James had passed through the streets and buildings for almost a hundred metres. The impact of the attack on his face was so huge that there was simply no way to describe it easily. [Auto Heal (Unusual+) ability flickering!] [Auto Heal has reached its usage limit!] [Ability level increases! The Tower grants you a new ability.] [Healing of the Blood Lord (Legendary+++++) has been delivered to you by the tower''s self!] James barely opened his eyes as he sat up and read the messages in front of him one by one. he could feel his rib cage cracking, and his left arm was directly broken. [Healing of the Blood Lord(Legendary+++++) A direct evolution of the auto-heal ability. It allows the user to recover quickly from caustic, poisonous, striking effects. The user will now be able to heal fractures and cracks automatically. The user''s severed body parts will be able to regenerate, even if it is INCREDIBLY slow. This will be an incredibly stamina-intensive process]. After a succession of system windows, James realised that the cracks in his body were starting to heal. With each passing second, they were decreasing. He suddenly stood up and looked at the ancient demon attacked by the trio of Ariel, Chao and Bai Fang. His anger was evident on his face. Suddenly, he leapt forward and used dark steps and transition skills at the same time without even thinking twice. With that, his speed stat had surpassed the number 1000 for a few seconds. This was a number equivalent to a low-level god. After reaching hyper-speed, he appeared in front of the ancient demon who was trying to avoid the trio''s attacks and hit the ancient demon''s face with his fist as hard as he could. The acceleration from its speed was so huge that a sound that broke the sound barrier rose into the sky and a huge impact scattered around. The ancient demon itself flew even further than James, passing through buildings and not stopping. Even if every single person watching what was happening was surprised by what was happening, they couldn''t even speak or praise James because of his facial expression, a strange creepiness could be said to describe James'' facial emotion. After this, the ancient demon came back to the field and pointed at James, his face smeared with blood. ''I''m going to take your life.'' the ancient demon suddenly said, and James, hearing this, made a sign to the trio around him as if he realised that they had to use everything they had, and with that, everyone waited, ready to do anything. Ariel immediately activated her Lord''s Knight ability, Chao completely transformed into a Gryphon, and Bai Fang equipped his blades. James instantly dispersed 8 Sacred Fire as much as possible and held the Godly Sword Lumen, along with the huge energy dispersed by the colourful flames that spread almost six hundred metres. He instantly activated his Aura of Chaos ability and strengthened the statuses of all his allies by 50%, weakening the opponent by 10%, and strengthening himself by 100% on top of that. James now had a status point ranking that was even higher than the status points of someone ready to cross the 75th floor. This ability would only work for a minute, so they had to be quick. Now their main battle was about to begin...of course, they thought it was the main battle, it was a pity that they did not know the truth. Chapter 273 Attack After successive attacks, the Ancient Demon was officially invulnerable. It was as if its strength was growing with each attack. It was natural for the group to be intimidated; they did not even know what to do, and this was a terrible situation.They were facing perhaps one of the most powerful creatures they had ever fought. "Pity. When it attacked me just a moment ago, I thought it was at least a powerful foe, but... alas, it was only a one-time thing, sad." the ancient demon said suddenly, and with that, the place went silent. James, Ariel, Chao, and Bai Fang could practically hear their own heartbeats. Each of their hearts was pounding, and it was very strange. It was as if time had stopped and they were lost in the stopped time. A sudden darkness enveloped them, the sky darkened and the group members were trapped. They couldn''t see each other, it was as if they were in other universes and it was a truly blood-curdling experience. "I wanted to deal with you first, the other three are trapped somewhere. The truth is that holy Gryphon, when I took my orders they said he would give us trouble, and he is much stronger than I thought, he will destroy me in a one-on-one fight. Which means you are my first target." Your next chapter is on empire The ancient demon suddenly uttered these words and then its body glowed with a red light. Only a few seconds after that, a sword appeared in his right hand. This sword was none other than the Godly Sword Lumen that James possessed. James looked at the ancient demon with great awkwardness and confusion, and at that very moment, a message notification appeared in front of him: [What the fuck?] It was obvious that even the gods and goddesses watching him were puzzled. The Godly Sword Lumen was the only one of its kind, there was no other sword like it, indeed there was no other sword like it in all of creation and the 24 existences that existed. This meant that the ancient demon in front of him had some kind of copying ability. James was about to ask just that when suddenly the angry yet gentle voice of the ancient demon in front of him rang in his ears: "I have to tell you the truth, I don''t know what the sword in your hand is, but it may indeed be the most perfect sword I have ever held in my hand. It is so mighty, so perfect and balanced that I could not even replicate it exactly." As soon as the ancient demon had said these words, it leapt at James and managed to strike him with an incredibly heavy blow. James was able to meet the attack and then successfully parry it. The ancient demon didn''t seem to expect James, who was standing in front of him, to be able to do it so easily, as he was quite surprised. "I have to admit though, this sword is quite young, it''s as if the spirit in it has been reborn, it''s fascinating. It''s a pity I couldn''t copy it exactly, after all, it will disappear after I kill you, otherwise, I could have kept the sword with an exact copy." the ancient demon added and attacked again. It seemed to be trying to confuse James with each step and attack, but James had no intention of getting on his knees, he continued to attack steadily, just like the ancient demon. The light of the flames that James was constantly spreading around in the pitch-black zone flickered on and off with each sword clash, and each time it was as if a masterpiece of art was being created. With each clash, the deep sound of metal echoed through the vast darkness and each time a deeper pattern of colourful flames rose into the sky. After a short time, the gap between the two, who were constantly clashing swords, began to widen. Naturally, James began to tire. He had been fighting for a long time and hadn''t had a minute''s sleep. The fact that he hadn''t mastered Star Magic could only help him relieve his fatigue for a few minutes. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was incredibly obvious that he was reaching his limits. The Ancient Demon must have realised this too, after all the speed of its attacks was increasing with each passing second and becoming more and more powerful. James, on the other hand, despite his exhaustion, was in no way going to fall to his knees, he was not going to be defeated, no matter how tired he was, it was not possible. He knew he had to get out of this dark place, so he was constantly thinking and trying to figure out what to do. Or rather, he was just trying to reach a path with light at the end. Almost five more minutes passed after the continuation of the battle and James miraculously reached a path. The Destruction ability. James had seen that this ability could even lock a portal and then tear it to pieces, which meant that if he could send enough mana through one of his legs while fighting the ancient demon, he could make it out of there. He would be pretty tired afterwards, though. This meant that James would once again have to rely on Ariel, Chao and Bai Fang. The ancient demon suddenly realised that something was wrong, and James'' face, which only seconds before had shown signs of exhaustion, was filled with the brightness of hope. "You''re planning something...but you can''t kill me, there''s no way." the ancient demon said and with that the smile on James'' face became obvious. James'' smile was incredibly creepy, at least it was to the ancient demon. James'' strike speed and attack pattern had suddenly changed. He was now attacking faster and more decisively. While doing this, he was gathering all of the mana around his heart into his left leg as usual. After almost three minutes of determined attacks, it was time to release everything. With a kick, he launched an attack at the ancient demon, which bounced backwards off the sword in his hand. Immediately after that, he said ''destruction.'' out loud and then planted his left leg hard on the dark floor. The dark area suddenly shattered, the light in the sky becoming visible again. James''s ability shook the entire continent, everyone realised a huge earthquake, even small tsunamis formed outside the continental border. The Destruction ability was indeed one of the most powerful abilities James had, especially considering that James'' mana capacity increased drastically almost every few weeks, making his Destruction ability a massively deadly ability. Ariel, Chao, and Bai Fang, like James, had managed to escape the dark space. Ariel was injured, Bai Fang was tired, and Chao''s face was full of anger. The ancient demon was in a state of shock that the young man in front of him could do such a thing. The number of people who could do such things under the 75th floor was no more than five, and the ancient demon was faced with one of those people because of his bad luck. Still, all James could do now was to use his aura to protect himself and those around him for a while. He had indeed shifted into a powerless state, after all, with no mana, he only had half of his power. The ancient demon didn''t seem to want to fight against James alone. Instantly it whistled, and then a completely different darkness spread around, affecting only the earth. Thousands of skeletons, zombies, and hundreds of demon monsters emerged from the darkness. Of the group, only Chao was able to fight, James was still able to fight, but he was exhausted and had used up all the mana in his body. Ariel was injured and had to be protected until she recovered, and it would be none other than the exhausted Bai Fang. In short, Chao was on his own. Of course...that was what they thought. The smile of the ancient demon, who had just been wearing a disgusting smile, had suddenly fallen, looking somewhere behind the group. James turned round to see what was going on, no matter how dangerous it was, and his eyes widened as if he couldn''t believe his eyes. "I told you they would worship you, James," he heard himself say. What Vladimir had said was indeed true. James could see perhaps four hundred or even five hundred vampires coming towards him, an exciting sight indeed, but even more than that, a frightening sight. He smiled and then turned to the ancient demon and gestured to those around him. He simply said the words: "Attack." Hundreds of vampires had passed by the moment he had said the word calmly. Each of them attacked with their clawed hands, and the blood elemental frenzy could be seen in the air. In a word, it was like a painting. Chapter 274 Ariel and James Will Be Enough The ancient demon seemed stunned as hundreds of vampires attacked. They didn''t care about anyone but their own honour and their own race, just like vampires.James, on the other hand, had now partially absorbed the essence of a Sun Vampire, even if his race hadn''t changed, and had begun to be seen as a member of the race by the vampires. The question was how the vampires had learnt that James possessed such a thing. Still, it wasn''t something that needed to be pondered at the moment. James turned to Chao, who was stunned just like the ancient demon, and then said as if it was very normal, "The stage is yours Chao, crush him one on one, kill him, and leave the rest to us." As soon as Chao heard these words, he suddenly jumped up and bit the ancient demon in the neck, and suddenly drove it out of the city. Everything happened so fast that only the vampires, Bai Fang, Ariel and James were left to fight against the demon beasts. "DON''T LEAVE ANYONE ALIVE!!!" James suddenly shouted, and with his words, all the vampires became even more violent. The puddles of blood on the ground were rising in drops towards the sky. James himself felt that it was time to finally use the blood elemental, although his mana still needed a little refresher. After all, he could try to use the blood elemental in his aura. After all, his aura and magic rings were linked by the sprouting of the cracked elemental core. In short, James could see that he was able to freely transfer all the elements in his magic rings into his aura. Even if this was at a very weak level, it was still better than nothing, especially when he was in a situation where he could not use magic at all. Suddenly, he lunged forward and, holding the Godly Sword Lumen tightly, sliced through the back of a demon beast that was standing right in front of Ariel and Bai Fang. He instantly recovered his aura, and then he took out Lumen from the place where he had sliced the demon beast and inserted his hand into that area. As he removed his hand from the monster''s body, a sword took shape, indicating that his aura recognised the blood element. The vampires around were genuinely surprised, from those who fought hard to those who were strong enough to kill anything easily, their eyes widened. The male vampire who had spoken to Selene said in front of everyone, "The rumours are true, the one who killed one of our kind has become the leader of our race..." With that, it was time for James to give orders again: "A few of you stay here and protect the duo, take care of them until they recover, the rest of you hunt down every demon beast scattered in and out of the city, those of you who don''t have weaknesses to fire stay close to me, it''s going to get hot in here!" As soon as James''s orders reached the vampires, none of them questioned them twice. When the male vampire who had spoken to Selene came in front of James and got down on his knees, he began to speak simply: "Sir, my name is Kriss, a vampire duke. With your permission, I would like to summon more vampires to help on this floor." James nodded when he heard these words and with that, Kriss left and joined the vampires who had begun to leave the city. There were only about a hundred vampires left in the city, and more than ten thousand demon beasts stood in the city. It was time for a one-sided slaughter. James knew vampires very well. Not only did he have an idea of what they were capable of, but he had fought a member of their master race before. That meant there was no way they could lose this battle unless Chao was dead. The demon beasts seemed to have some very powerful ones among them. James could even see the mature dragons when he looked up in the air. It was indeed a very majestic sight, but the time to get caught up in this sight was not now. James suddenly lunged forward. In his right hand was the Godly Sword Lumen, which he held tightly, and in his left hand was the sword of his newly created blood aura. With each step, the colours of the flames around him began to mix and glow. The flames were no longer merging, they were each in different colours and shapes. From black flames to white flames, each colour in succession, this was a city that was not just a few metres across but over a thousand kilometres. It was truly gigantic and James'' aura had managed to cover the whole city. With each step he took, he was mowing down another monster and moving on to the next. He could feel himself right in front of that aura door. It was as if there was something he had to do to get the top-level completed aura, but he did not know what it was. He had already learnt to use his aura most perfectly, he had become incredible at fighting using aura, but he could still see that no matter what he did, he could not open those doors and pass through. Still, it was not like him to give up. He could see the shadow tigers running towards him. Some of them came very close and even managed to bite one of James'' arms and left leg. James didn''t even make a sound, even though he was hurt and in pain. He used Lumen, the sword in his right hand, to slice through the skull of one of the shadow tigers and the blood aura sword in his left hand to decapitate another shadow tiger. Instantly, he felt something coming towards him at speed and ducked down. He was incredibly glad that he had ducked down because he was able to get a clear view of the huge knife, which was tied with chains that ran right over his head. It seemed likely that this knife would be able to cut his body. Immediately, he swung the sword in his right hand at Lumen and cut the chain of the huge knife that had come at him in one move. After that, he looked where the blade came from and saw the being that looked like a human but was o demon beast and started running towards it. The humanoid shuddered when it saw James running towards it, with flames coming out of his eyes and turned around and started to run away. James continued to chase the humanoid figure, not caring about any of the obstacles in his path. In just five seconds, the humanoid figure paused and looked at his chest because of the feeling of warmth in his chest. At that very moment, the humanoid figure saw that its chest had been pierced by the blood sword that James had created with his aura. Half of the sword had entered his chest and James had no thought of removing the sword. The humanoid figure fell to its death and James continued to fight right next to the vampires. Just then, from outside the city, perhaps five hundred metres away, the sensation of a gigantic impact spread through everyone. James realised that every hair on his body was trembling, one by one. James could sense that this energy belonged to Chao, not the ancient demon, and with a smile on his face he said ''I knew you could hurt him one on one, destroy him Chao.'' at the same time he thrust the Godly Sword Lumen into the spiny rat next to him. It was at that moment that James realised the holy energy rising behind him. ''You''re too late, Ariel,'' James said, and with that, a golden beam passed a few centimetres past him and began to attack the demon monsters in front of him. Stay updated through empire Ariel had activated her Lord''s Knight ability. Ariel was glowing. Her golden wings made her look completely different, her golden armour made her look like an angel, and her azure blue hair, tinged with purple from Moros'' abilities, shone with golden colours. Ariel stood in front of James like a shield. James took advantage of this and increased his attack speed even more. Despite all the fatigue of his body, despite his body begging him to stop, he had no intention of stopping. Each of his attacks landed faster and harder on his enemies. With each attack, he mowed down another monster, each attack causing more to flee in fear. His attacks were so deep, hard, and fast that each one sent an impact through the air as if he were breaking through a wall of speed. Both James and Ariel had goosebumps on the hairs on the back of their necks. It was as if even in the realm of the gods, there hadn''t been such a good duo in a long time. Even Nyx herself felt as if she was watching her daughters Eris and Nemesis. This duo was that perfect. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James kept attacking without a second thought, and Ariel met each attack with her sword in her hand and the golden armour she wore. Ariel was making sure that no attack could reach James, it was a perfect sight. The whole city was covered in flames of different colours, the dark image of James merged with Ariel''s image of holy light, and the red colour of the blood created a spectacle that fascinated the viewers. The number of demon beasts had officially halved from over ten thousand just ten minutes ago. Not only that, hundreds of gates began to open in the air because of the call of the vampire Duke Kriss. Thousands of vampires had come to the 37th floor on James'' orders. The war had only just begun and the end was hours and days away. Chapter 275 Upcoming Future "You''re too strong, you shouldn''t be on this floor," the ancient demon said, his right arm severed and unrecoverable, clearly terrified of Chao, who was standing in front of him.Chao, on the other hand, didn''t care about anything. He could see the city behind him burning in different coloured flames. He didn''t know that his head and mind shouldn''t have gone there. He had fought against the ancient demon for almost seven hours straight. It was quite understandable that the end of the battle was coming. Unlike the ancient demon, Chao''s body wasn''t fatigued and could continue fighting for a very long time. On the other hand, the ancient demon had enormous fatigue and the fact that he had been fighting for a long time and did not yet have all his strength had brought him to the brink of death. He knew he was going to die. Chao suddenly leapt forward and began to swing his claws harder and faster at the ancient demon before him. With each thrust, the ancient demon became closer to death. The blood blooms coming out of its body had formed a small lake on the earth, it was a horrible sight. The ancient demon had been careless for a moment, and the next thing he saw was Chao''s claw entering his chest. In short, the ancient demon had simply lost the battle. Yet, as Chao realised, something was wrong. Something didn''t seem right. The ancient demon''s face suddenly showed that horrible expression, and with it, with litres of blood flowing out of his mouth, his voice came out: "The last seal is gone, this floor will no longer exist, hahaha! Good luck, fools." As soon as he uttered those words, the sky became darker than normal, Chao suddenly let go of the ancient demon, and with that, the ancient demon''s body was burnt to ashes and disappeared. When Chao immediately left and came to James, he saw that what had just happened to the ancient demon had happened to all the demon beast corpses, and when James looked at him with a puzzled look, he said, ''I think we have brought our end.'' As James raised his eyes to the sky, dozens of message windows instantly began to open in front of him: [LEAVE NOW!!!] [RUN!!!] S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [DON''T LOOK BACK FOR A SECOND!!!] [GET EVERYONE OUT OF THERE!!!] Experience more on empire [LEAVE!!! LEAVE THE CITY NOW!!!] [DON''T JUST STAND THERE, MOVE!!!] James suddenly started to close the message windows that had formed in front of his eyes and turned around and shouted "RUN NOW!!!". At that moment, Chao embraced Ariel and James and tore the teleportation scroll in his hand, pointing at Bai Fang. The teleportation scroll didn''t work, the scroll seemed to be blocked by something. At that moment, the message windows to James went silent, and one by one, everything was being blocked. As soon as Chao saw that nothing was working, he started running. He instantly transformed into his Gryphon form and began to fly, carrying James and Ariel. All the vampires were following James, and soon the city was deserted and everyone who looked at it was left where they were. Just above the city, the sky was torn to pieces, something... someone was looking at them. Several arms broke through the sky and pressed down on the earth, and after a short time, a monster appeared, maybe a hundred metres above the ground. The monster looked like a machine. Its legs were fixed to the earth and its arms were going into the fractures in the sky. James and the others felt as if they were looking into eternity itself. James knew they could not defeat such a monster, they needed help but...was there anything that could help? "We''re leaving...WE''RE LEAVING HERE!!!" shouted James and with that Chao and every single one of James'' subordinates began to leave the perimeter of the city as fast as they could. At that very moment, a voice rose from the monster itself: "SWOOOOSH..." It was as if the sound of a gasp echoed in the sky. James, who was on Chao''s back in the form of a gryphon, turned round and looked up at the beast that stretched up to the sky, and saw that the place where the beast''s eye had been glowed with a yellow light. As soon as the sound of breathing stopped, everyone could hear their heartbeats, each of them with their eyes wide open, of them at that moment, each of them accelerated even faster and started to sprint with the adrenaline in their bodies to protect their own lives. At that very moment, the sound came: "ZWOOOOOOOOMMM!!!" With the sound of that sound, a yellow beam with an electrifying effect emerged from that gigantic eye, which was perhaps ten metres in size, and moved at hyper speed directly towards the Crow City, one of the largest cities in the empire and the entire floor. A ten-metre laser streaked straight through the city, and in just ten seconds the expected happened: "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!" The sound of the attack was so colossal that there was no way to fully describe it. The closest way to describe it would be as if an atomic bomb had been dropped on a city. The impact of the attack was so great, so overwhelming, that several of the vampires and even James himself realised that their eardrums were close to bursting. The only reason Ariel was able to withstand the impact was because she had used the last shred of aura she had left in her body to use her Lord''s Knight ability, just in case. Once Chao was out of the impact''s range, everyone managed to calm down, but nothing had changed, the monster had crushed the city, even if only a tenth of the city was damaged, it was still a huge level, and the impact that came with this attack had already managed to destroy all the buildings in the city. Even if there was anything alive in the city, there was no way for it to survive. Without stopping, Chao and the others had somehow managed to reach the imperial capital in just one day. Even if those who saw them in this state could not understand what had happened, all the nobles and the group who had managed to get to the throne room had managed to see Selene. Selene''s face was white, I mean... she always had a skin tone close to white, but right now it was as if all the blood had been drained from her body. "You know what''s going on don''t you?" James asked with great stress. "I''ve lost contact with the outer floors, the floor is locked down again, and I''m fighting alone, can you keep them safe?" Selene asked, not even bothering to answer James'' question. James shook his head awkwardly and then replied, ''I can try...we can try.'' After these words, Selene got up from the throne and then went to the nearest window, went to the balcony and then left the palace. James knew how dangerous it was, in fact, everyone in the hall now realised how dangerous it was. The higher a climber climbed, the more his strength was limited when he came down. Selene was one of the goddesses who climbed to the 150th floor with incredible strength. The power of this woman in white could cut through space and even floors if she gained enough elemental power at certain times. While Selene was so strong, she had lost more than 90 per cent of her power with the fact that she had pushed down to the lower floors and even almost 120 floors. If something wasn''t done, Selene would have suffered great harm, really great harm. There was no way Selene could die, it was out of the question, but James realised very clearly...the future he had seen before was now possible. The woman who was supposed to protect them had to leave, they were standing in the imperial palace and every single person he had seen in his vision was now inside the hall. It was a very awful situation. James looked around as if he didn''t know what to do and saw eyes looking at him with concern and hope. He instantly turned to the vampires and then said, ''Kriss, whatever you do, try not to die, but....please slaughter all the demon monsters that come your way, even if your bodies collapse...there are millions of children under the palace, at least they should live.'' These words of James deeply affected everyone and Kriss and the other vampires left the palace in accordance with James'' orders, even if they nodded their heads and did not become that emotional. Then, seeing Theseus and the others who had already returned to the palace, James shook his head and Theseus and those around him left the palace without even needing to give orders. Caught in Cordelia''s gaze, James shook his head and began to walk as if he did not know what to do, soon approaching the stairs leading to the throne, he sat on a step and finally began to breathe on rest. Soon the voices in the throne room disappeared and darkness descended. James recognised the image from somewhere, but he hadn''t even tried to come to this place. What exactly was going on? Chapter 276 The Tower Will Borrow Your Body James began to walk through this dark area. There were maybe a dozen lights around him, twinkling as if they were stars. He seemed to both know and not know where he was at the same time, constantly turning round and round in a confused state, trying to make sense of things."This is what we have to do, for our future, this is all there is to it." James suddenly heard this unfamiliar voice and then turned in the direction from which it had come. The light, shining like a star, turned into two people and began to repeat as if it were a memory. Trying to reduce the brightness with his hands, James began to try to understand who the voice was coming from and who the voice was talking to. "What the fuck?" James said suddenly, knowing very clearly who he was seeing. "What do you mean this is the way it has to be, don''t you realise that if you make this deal with me, more than half of your soul will be mine?" When the other of the voices spoke, James realised who it was and then shook his head and fell to the ground in a daze. Just then he heard a voice coming from behind him: "I brought you here but I didn''t expect you to adapt so quickly, the memories seem to have officially opened their doors to you." "It''s been a while since I''ve seen you, Tower," James said and then pointed to the memory with his hand as if he was wondering what was going on. When the tower saw this sign, he said, "This is a memory star, it shows the conversation between your ancestor and me. Memory stars are quite hard to find, of course, since I am the tower itself, it is not a difficult thing for me to obtain, but you know what I mean." James frowned when he heard these words and then shouted "YOU KNOW WHAT I''M TRYING TO SAY!!!" The tower''s self shook its head when it heard these words and then replied, "I realise, I was just trying to relieve the stress on you. This memory is based on an event that occurred when your ancestor sold almost 60% of his soul to me in an offer." The tower itself seemed to be quite normally upset for the mental health of James, who was standing in front of it. Of course, he knew that James wouldn''t go and go mad because of his Mind Palace ability, he could just see that James'' psychology was not going in a good direction. "Tell me...how much more am I going to see, the sacrifices he made? I''m being weighed down by things I don''t even know what''s going on, how much further do I have to go with little information?" James muttered, and with that, the tower began to speak again: "I will not tell you what happened, my promise prevents it, even if I am the tower itself, according to the rules set by Chaos, the promise of life cannot be broken, I will die as a result. Nevertheless, I will give you two options by this promise and by the agreement." After these words from the tower, James nodded his head and said "Let''s get this over with." with the smile of the tower''s self, the options were presented to him: "The first option is to get you off this floor, I agree to save a few people with you, and I release Desmond''s soul as his bloodline member wishes." James swallowed and then asked, "Or?" thinking he would accept what he had just heard outright. "Or, young Black, I will come to the floor with my true self, destroy the great beast, but take exactly 100 random status points from you. After all, the agreement itself requires me to save his future replacement three times. Since I''ve already done this twice, this could be the third time. Assuming I get nothing from you the second time I save your life, 100 status points will seem like nothing for hundreds of millions of lives." When the tower finished, James paused for a few seconds and then said, "I don''t care, you can get even 1000 status points, not 100. Just...Just don''t let them die, any of them. They are family." S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The tower itself seemed surprised to hear this answer. Desmond might have been the most selfish person in the tower''s eyes. Desmond was a being who only wanted to raise people to the upper echelon of beings, of course, this was in the eyes of the tower. It took Desmond tens of thousands of years to lose this selfishness, which is why this deal is happening now. James, on the other hand, had never been selfish since he had entered the tower, or rather, he had never attempted anything but petty rhetoric. Although he was not going to go far from his status points, it was known that even among the gods and goddesses, there were not many who would accept this offer as quickly as he did. She would certainly be the most perfect being to have come from the Black lineage, even if she was one of the weakest. "Are you sure? If you agree to leave here with the people of your choice, you will have the right to ask me for one more favour, I mean literally anything, I can even give you 100 Godly skills. Remember, first the ownership of the 36th floor, then the Healing of the Blood Lord ability I gave you on the 37th floor, and now this. Choose carefully." the tower suddenly said, and with that James'' voice was heard again: "I''m sure." With that, the tower''s embodied self smiled and then moved towards James and touched him squarely on the forehead. Everything around him vanished instantly, and when James opened his eyes again in reality, he realised that only a few seconds had passed. He could see with his own eyes that fearful eyes were watching him, but...he didn''t seem to be himself. His body wasn''t moving the way he wanted it to. "Sir...are you all right?" asked Alissa, the twins'' sister. James had stood up and started to walk after her, and by the time the others started to move out of his way, James was already at the edge of the window and suddenly jumped out of the window and took off into the air. James was well aware of what was happening, even if no one else could understand what was happening. The tower was controlling James. James could see his body moving at hyperspeed. He was now many times faster than both Selene and Chao. In just five minutes he had travelled back the way they had come, having spent a day on Chao''s back, and he saw Selene beginning to fight the beast. When Selene realised the huge energy coming towards her, she turned to where it was coming from and saw James. Read exclusive content at empire "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET OUT OF HERE! I''LL TAKE CARE OF IT!!!" shouted Selene. Selene had been careless, she shouldn''t have tried to speak, when the beast''s eye glowed with golden light, the beam that immediately came towards Selene was visible to the naked eye. James''s body had moved at that moment. Even if Selene had tried to protect herself, it was too late, she would have to take a blow with her body. It was not to be expected though, Selene had only closed and opened her eyes once when she realised that she was already in James''s embrace. It didn''t take her long to realise that it wasn''t James. "Who the hell are you?" Selene questioned but got no answer. The energy emanating from James''s body began to carry Selene as if she were a baby and placed her behind James in a position where she could be protected. James only raised his finger. An unbelievably huge, gigantic, enormous energy began to gather in James''s finger. The monster, which was more than a hundred metres in size, was liable to do anything, it seemed to be locked. Even if the monster was trying to move its own body, there was nothing it could do. Dozens of settlements had already been destroyed at the hands of this monster, and perhaps more than a hundred thousand lives had been lost. Nevertheless, everything would end at this moment. The energy in the index finger of James'' left hand was suddenly released. A beam of light, perhaps forty metres in size, travelled from the earth to the sky where the monster''s body was, and in the blink of an eye, the main body of the monster was gone. When the remaining body parts of the monster fell to the earth, an earthquake effect occurred. The tower controlling James'' body snapped its finger once, and after the incredibly loud sound wave that came out, the remaining body parts disappeared. In just a little over five minutes, perhaps one of the most destructive monsters in the history of the tower had simply died. Neither Miracle the baby Supreme Dragon, nor Ruby the Holy Phoenix, nor Selene, one of the greatest of goddesses, had to do anything. This was the power of Chaos'' masterpiece, the tower. Chapter 277 The War Is Over Selene was astonished by what she saw before her, she should have been, she had seen a monster that had worried even her to die with just one attack.After almost ten seconds, the strange energy around James dissipated, and he realised that his mind was beginning to blur as he felt his body returning to him. The only thing he saw in front of him before he passed out with Selene holding him was the message sent by the tower [I have completed the deal, young man.] When he opened his eyes again, he woke up to a very familiar sight. He seemed to have woken up in the room given to him in the Mountain Empire, and he could see his daughter Miracle and his grandmother Ruby sleeping next to him. On the other hand, Sophia was lying on Ruby''s stomach and sleeping. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James, who looked around after standing on the bed, managed to come to himself with a message: [Do you realise how stupid what you have done?] The message had been sent by Nyx herself. While James was thinking about why this message was scolding him, he saw a message from someone else: [There are probably only a handful of people in the tower who could summon the tower itself into their bodies, James, and yet none of them would do it, in short, their bodies...or rather, their souls couldn''t handle it. You are very lucky that Sun Vampire''s energy has incredibly strengthened your body and especially your mana heart. Otherwise, you would have died long ago]. After reading this message from Chronos, James shook his head and replied, "I didn''t even know such a thing could happen, but for billions, my life was not a bad change." He couldn''t even imagine how many gods and goddesses he had pissed off with these words, but everyone could see how serious he was by looking at his face. It was as if James had given up his own life in their eyes. [What did you offer the tower?] Nyx asked, and even though James couldn''t see it, Nyx''s face was grim. Continue your journey on empire "Nothing much, just 100 status points," James replied, and with that, Nyx''s expression that had just shown bitterness turned to surprise. James shook his head once more at the lack of another message and added, "A deal, he offered to help me, I accepted, and I swear I didn''t lose anything else." With these words, every god and goddess fell silent and this time the message of James'' dear wife Nemesis was seen: [I don''t care what happened, it''s only important that you''re okay.] James smiled when he saw this message and then said "I love you too, Neme." and got out of bed without waking the others. When he smelled himself, he realised that someone had already washed him and he left the room by putting on some clothes immediately after going to the toilet. After only a short time, he passed through the imperial soldiers and servants who looked at him with astonishment and came to the throne hall. As she entered, she could see that all eyes turned to her. Selene was surprised that she was still on the 37th floor. He could easily see Selene sitting on the throne. At the foot of the stairs leading to the throne, he could see Ariel with tears in her eyes and Theseus and Perseus standing next to her. "Hi everyone," James said simply and with that, he waved to Ariel and the others, it seemed like an awkward moment. Ariel quickly ran over and gave James a deep hug. "Do you realise that you''ve been asleep for almost two months?" questioned Ariel and with that James became even more confused. "Two months?" James questioned and put a hand to his head and scratched his head. "Yes, we were quite worried, Lady Selene and the others said it was fine, but you should have seen Ariel, she was going mad," Theseus said, his happiness evident on his face. James shook his head and hugged Ariel once more and then turned to Selene and said, "I don''t remember much of what happened, except for a few things, I think you probably already know." After Selene nodded in agreement, James smiled and after only a few seconds his smile faded. "How many casualties did we suffer?" James asked. "The Sun Empire suffered a total loss of nearly 24000 soldiers. We lost over 7000 climbers. The White Empire lost close to 17000 and the Mountain Empire lost the most soldiers with 96000. The Church of the Night only lost close to 4,000 because the priests and priestesses were in the background and their knights were generally protecting the anti-black magic priests and priestesses," Cordelia answered. Hearing these numbers, James immediately realized that they had suffered strangely few casualties. "Well done. All of you," James said suddenly. Even if he didn''t realize it, those words were the very thing that represented the end of the war. James was the commander-in-chief, the king and emperor of this war, and the fact that he was saying these words meant that everyone could finally go back to normal, that they could breathe easily. The war was over. Everyone took a deep breath and then James turned to Ahil on his left and Eve standing next to him. "I hope your soldiers are happy in the highest echelons of heaven. Forgive me," James said, and those words alone were enough to touch everyone''s hearts. Even if she didn''t realize it, everything that was going on inside the throne room was being viewed on the 37th floor. Selene had specifically wanted all the peoples to see what was happening for the next plans of the kings, queens, emperors and empresses who had come from the many floors of the throne hall. This meant that James'' words were not only seen by a few dozen people in the throne room, but also by billions of people outside. Even if James didn''t realize it, hundreds of thousands of people were now enrolled in his [Way to Be a God] ability. James may have lost 100 status points, but he was about to win an enormous amount of reward. "We can''t say it doesn''t matter, sir, but every single one of them died with the honour of fighting under your command." Ahil said suddenly and James turned to Selene sitting on the throne and said, "What do we do now? Have we found any clues?" When he saw Selene''s nod, he said, "At least all those soldiers saved billions and helped us make a sure profit on the side. They were the real heroes," James said. With those words, he let out a deep breath and then a "GROOOWL!!!" sound came out of his stomach. Every single person in the throne room could not stop laughing. Even though they had just come out of such a dark time, they managed to laugh. "Looks like it''s time for dinner," Selene said, and then she got up from the throne and went down the stairs. After holding James, Ariel and Theseus and Perseus with her magic, Selene suddenly left the throne room. After a short time, the group had returned to James'' room, and with the dinner table set, they had obviously managed to eat properly. With Ruby and Sophia awake, the mood was happier and Miracle, the little girl, continued to sleep. After almost two hours, James looked at Selene sitting across from him and asked, "You''ve been on this floor for two and a half months, aren''t you thinking of going back, my lady?" There was maybe a second or two between the sadness on Selene''s face and her asking, "Do you want me to leave?" "Of course not, I know you are very busy, after all, there is only one Lady of the Moon and her worshippers number in the billions," James replied. Selene smiled and tried very hard not to laugh, though it was obvious that there was nothing wrong with what James had said. There were hundreds of thousands of gods and goddesses worshipping Selene on the 150th floor alone, where Olympus and the other high communities were located. She was indeed a great goddess. "I''ll be back in a while, yes, the longer I stay downstairs the weaker I get," Selene replied, and with that, she smiled and reached for her inventory. Pulling a bag out of her inventory, Selene handed it to James and said, "This is my gift to you, I made it myself, those boots are getting a bit old aren''t they?" James shook his head in bewilderment and then, looking intently at Selene, said, "No way!" He really couldn''t believe what he was hearing, the thought that such a thing could happen had never even crossed his mind. The reality of what was happening right now was so outrageous that if this bag contained what he thought it did, he might even cry with joy. Chapter 278 Early Marriage Present James opened the bag and then took out what was inside:[Selene''s Boots(Godly++++) The boots of Selene, Goddess and Lady of the Moon, were made with her own hands from the essence of moonlight. Your steps will be as light as a feather. The user will gain 35% passive walking and running speed when wearing the boots. The user will gain the active ability ''Afterimage'' when wearing the boots. User boots will increase speed by 60% under moonlight when equipped. Mana regeneration will increase by 10% when the user equips the bots]. When James read the specifications of this pair of bots, he got hooked on them. Needless to say, it was one of the best items he had ever received. The speed, mana regeneration and the ability to provide an ability showed the value of the bots. [Afterimage(Legendary+++++) Even if the ability has a large mana usage, it will grant the user a 1000% speed boost for only half a second after use. Cooldown: 3 days] James smiled and smiled in disbelief as he read the description of the ability that came with the boots he was going to wear on his feet, it was a good feeling, he was getting more abilities and the possibility to develop. He had to break through his current weakness, otherwise everything and everyone would die if something like this happened again. After all, the tower itself had specifically stated that it would not help her again. "Thank you very much, my lady!" James said suddenly. He immediately put the replica boots he had on his feet into his inventory and put the boots he had just received on his feet. As soon as the boots were on his feet, he could feel his whole body lighten. His passive 35 per cent walking and running speed must have been working while he was sitting, he was quite relaxed. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, even if James hadn''t realised it, his ''Way to Be a God'' ability had finally started to work. [James] The Way to Be a God ability is working! The user has 16,793,541 people all connected to you! Your Holiness status has increased by 160,000! 500 status points were gifted upon distribution! 500,000,000,000 Gold gifted! The Magic Essence of the Fallen Empire has been gifted! Shard of the Shining Star is gifted!] The moment James read this notification that suddenly appeared in front of him after he put on his boots, he dropped the bag in his hand and shook his head with his eyes wide open. He was so surprised that he even tried to pinch himself to see if what he was seeing was true. Still, nothing had changed. [Magic Extract of the Fallen Empire(Creator----) At the farthest point in history, the most valuable item of the empire was founded by those who first entered the tower with its creation. This empire was inhabited by the current high gods and goddesses themselves, and the Supreme Dragons themselves called this place home. When used, the item helps to purify a magic ring. When the item is used, the purification process will not stop until it is 100%. When the item is used, the user''s mind will be locked and will not open until the process is complete. When the item is used, a holy barrier will be set up around the user to prevent the user from being harmed and will continuously heal the locked user]. "What the hell is this?" James suddenly questioned, and with that, a message notification appeared in front of him: [You''ve been looking at something for a while, we won''t know what you''re looking at unless we see it through your eyes, what''s going on?] When James looked at this message from Nyx, he shook his head as if he didn''t understand and then said, "My Lady...I have acquired something called the Magic Essence of the Fallen Empire." Even if James didn''t know, the entire Olympus hall paused when he said the item he had acquired. The item James had obtained must have been even more perfect than he thought. [Keep that item, it will come in handy when the time comes.] said Nyx, and that was all she could say, it was incredible that James had been able to purify his magic ring a second time before he had even gone through his first 24 magic rings. That was why the item was so good in the first place. Explore more stories at empire Every titan and Chaos-Born knew exactly where the Fallen Empire was, though. Floor 1. That floor had been home to Nyx and the others for almost two billion years before it became a class selection zone. Due to a fight between the Supreme Dragons over who belonged where the entire floor was destroyed, leaving nothing but the sea of rascals and a region of space in its place. However, this was not a story that needed to be told now. The real item was not this, but the Shining Star Shard. Even if James didn''t know it, having such an item in his possession could cause many gods and goddesses, including Nyx, to beg him. [Shard of the Shining Star The level of divinity is divided into different levels. Going to the highest level does not make you the highest-level god or goddess. What will bring you to that level is the size of your power and the single grain of time you will see when you reach the highest level of divinity. This item can only be used by people with the rank of GOD and GODdess. When the item is used, it directly transmits the person to the next level of sanctity]. This item was one of the most perfect items in the history of the tower, and James knew who he should give it to. Normally he would have kept the item for himself, but he had the ''Way to Be a God'' ability, which many gods and goddesses do not even have. Some gods and goddesses could obtain this ability when they passed to the 75th floor, or rather, they could only obtain holiness status, but the ability James had was more perfect. This meant that James was already becoming a god every time his holiness status increased, even though he was below the 75th floor. And that meant that it was clear to whom James would give this item. Who else could he give this item to but Nemesis, the person he was destined for? "Neme, is there any way to get here? Any way?" James suddenly asked, and with that, a message window from his beloved wife Nemesis appeared in front of him: [Did something happen?] James smiled when he saw this message window and then said, "Something important, let''s call it a gift." As soon as James said this, a passageway appeared to his right, near the balcony of the room, and the passageway connected to the hall of Olympus. With that, Selene stood up and hugged Theseus and Ariel and then James and said, "Then I''m going while the opportunity is here." Selene, who had planned to leave at a later time, simply disappeared through the portal and the beautiful woman Nemesis came out of the portal instead. James quickly approached his wife Nemesis and hugged her tightly. James, overflowing with the happiness of hugging his wife''s warm body, took a few steps back and then reached into his inventory and took out the Piece of the Shining Star and held it in his palm, perhaps as big as a small jewel, handed it to his wife and then said the following words to the surprise of everyone: "I suppose you know what this item is?" At James'' question, the beautiful Nemesis did not know what to say and shook her head. The people sitting in the hall of Olympus, the people in Valaskjalf, the sacred palace of Asgard, the knights gathered around the round table and many others knew this item very clearly. "An early wedding present...what do you think?" James suddenly asked, and with that every single person watching them stopped in their tracks, even the beautiful Nemesis didn''t know what to say. "Come on, I call you my wife Neme, do you think I''m going to let you go? Besides, you know I have many different ways of making myself a god, this item is nothing more than an item to add a little more shine to you, my brightest star," James added and with that Nemesis gently took the item her husband handed her. As soon as Nemesis took the Shard of the Shining Star in her hand, her body began to glow, and James realised just how valuable this item was when he saw his beloved wife''s glow increase to an even higher level. The beautiful Nemesis, perhaps one of the ten most beautiful women in the tower, had now reached the highest level of beauty and power...in short, Nemesis could now join the upper ranks of the Chaos-Born...Nemesis had become a top-tier goddess. That was an opportunity given to a wife by a husband who loves her so much. Just like all the gods and goddesses say about them...The love across the floors. Chapter 279 Lowest Level God When Nemesis'' perfectly glowing body was restored, her eyes were locked on her husband James standing in front of her.It was undeniable that this woman had nothing to say, she didn''t even seem to be able to open her mouth, she just looked at James, who was down on one knee where he was and had just made a marriage proposal, and shook his head in amazement. "Not too bad, is it?" James asked. With that, his wife Nemesis suddenly grabbed James by the shoulders, lifted him up, and gave him a big kiss. Nemesis had been worried about James for a long time, after all, she was not one to worry about her husband. It was inconceivable that he would suddenly hear such words and receive such a gift. "We''ll still have to wait until the 75th floor before we get married, I''ll have to go up there and break the floor rules, and then we''ll be able to get married," James said. After all, his plans were clear. He wanted to make a deal that any god or goddess who would not associate any evil and would not cause trouble could go down to the 75th floor, and he would use the tower itself for this. It was sad, James could have easily used the last remaining distress call the tower had given him to get this deal done even now, but he wanted to save other people''s lives. On top of that, he''d only received the loyalty of close to two million people. This was indeed an incredible number, James'' holiness status had even become equal to the lowest degree of gods and goddesses, and he would soon receive an award for this, but he did not know that. In his eyes, just having the devotion of close to two million people was too little. In other words, the reason why he used his last right to protect people was not that he wanted people''s loyalty or anything, but it still made him think that he was only left with this much. Although he had made the move that had saved the lives of billions of people, why only two million people and not even more than two million people were loyal to him? James smiled as the beautiful Nemesis nodded her head in agreement, followed by the voice of Ariel standing just behind them: "I may love you two very much, but I''m too full of hate right now." As they laughed at Ariel''s words, another system notification appeared in front of James: [If you''re ready, I''ll give you the rest of your rewards.] This system notification was coming directly from the tower itself. James smiled instead of being surprised this time and then calmly said, "Send it." Even though his wife Nemesis Ariel and Theseus couldn''t understand what was going on, they couldn''t help but think that something good was happening because of the smile on James'' face. [36 Levels up! 37th Floor rewards will be given out now! Stay tuned to My Virtual Library Empire You''ve won maple seeds! You''ve won 25,000,000 Gold! You have won the Binding Scroll!] When James read this unified system notification, the smile on his face grew even bigger, and then he saw a message called [It''s not over yet.] As soon as he read the message, he shook his head and then couldn''t help but ask, "Really? There''s more?" [Holiness status has passed 200,000. The user has now gained the rank of Lowest Level God (Sealed)! The user will passively receive +50 to all stats except Luck and Holiness stats! The user has earned the item selection card "Unique"! The user has passed the 100-level threshold, the reward will be given now! The user has earned the Binding Scroll]! [Lowest Level God(Sealed) The beginning of divinity and the number one thought type of reality. A true holy being. The first piece of perfection is likely to be respected inside or outside the tower. Aura or magic attacks will be permanently increased by 100% based on the user''s attack type. (Sealed) Attacks on the user''s elemental type will permanently increase by 100%. (Sealed) The user''s aura or magic energy recovery speed will permanently increase by 200%. (Sealed) The user can now bring other gods under his command. (Sealed) All attributes of this rank will remain "sealed" until the 75th floor]. [Binding Scroll(Legendary+++++) Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The user will have the ability to bind a person of their choice to them for one day. As a result of this binding, the status points of the user and the chosen person will be added to each other. The chosen person cannot be someone who has been above the 75th floor]. James realized that there was no way for his smile to fade after all he had achieved. After all the levels and status points he had gained, he had exactly 780 status points to distribute. James now had everything he needed to become the most powerful person below the 75th floor. He had the Godly Sword Lumen, Selene''s Throwing Knife and many other items. He had Miracle, his little daughter, who was also the Supreme Dragon, and Ruby, the supreme Phoenix. James was the greatest human being in history and no one could deny that. With that, James sat down with his wife Nemesis on the couch next to them and then began to scroll through his profile, handing out status points. After a short time, this is what his profile looked like: [James Arthur Black Age: 24 Race: Human Level: 114 Class: Warrior of the Night, Time Wraith Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer, Poison Master, Lowest Level God(Sealed) Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++), Star Magic(Godly), Beginner Level Light Spell(Legendary++++), Transition(Legendary+++++), Destruction(Godly+++), Beginner Level Moon Archery(Legendary+++++), 8 Secret Fire(Creator+++++)(Sealed), Soul Impact(Godly+++), Healing of the Blood Lord(Legendary+++++) [Statuses] Power 608 Agility: 621 Endurance 600 Luck: 56 Magic: 3048 Holiness: 205.197 Intelligence 1084 Charisma 272 Status Points: 0] Chapter 280 Strength Brings Weakness James smiled as he carefully checked his profile and when he closed it, another system window opened in front of him:[User has exceeded 1000 Intelligence status points. The user''s body has begun to suffer due to the size of his brain capacity! The user will lose an extra day of life every day! It is recommended to take a god extract or raise your Endurance stat by at least 100 as soon as possible! The user''s mana has been permanently increased by one and a half times as the user has surpassed 1000 Intelligence stat points. The user''s mana regeneration rate has increased by 250% since the user passed 1000 Intelligence stat points]. When James read the latest system notifications, he turned to Nemesis next to him and asked, "Hey Neme...Do you know where I can get a god extract?" Nemesis was as surprised to hear this question as everyone else watching them, not expecting such a question from her husband James. "There should be some in Olympus. It''s quite expensive, a small bottle is worth 300,000,000 gold coins," Nemesis replied. Immediately after these words, James received a message from Nyx: [God essence is not something you need right now. Is there a problem?] James immediately shook his head up and down at this question from Nyx and then said, "I received a notification that an extra day of my life will be taken away from me every day because my Intelligence stat has exceeded 1000 points. I will either use god essence or increase my Endurance stat, but that is not possible right now." Nemesis and the others watched James with their eyes wide open, not knowing what to say when they heard these words. "Is your Intelligence stat...over 1,000 points? Could you be seeing it wrong?" Nemesis questioned and James shook his head and replied, "No, I have exactly 1084 status points." Nemesis didn''t know what to say, she was so proud of her husband that there was no way she could explain it. Continue reading on My Virtual Library Empire "You do realize that''s on the level of a god, right? My power stat is almost 6700 and that''s only because I''m a Chaos-Born, my body is innately strong and mighty, if I was not a Chaos-Born it would not be like this. You''re a... human, you know what I mean? If you break 1000 points, that means you''ve already reached the lowest level of gods and goddesses." Nemesis said. It was quite usual for James to decide not to say that he had already reached that rank after those words. After all, he didn''t want to make anyone faint with surprise. "I mean...my other statuses aren''t far behind," James muttered and stood up, not expecting anything. James might have been one of the fastest-evolved people in the history of the tower, there was no telling if there was anyone below the 75th floor who could hurt him right now. "Alright...if you don''t have enough gold, I can go and buy it for you, I''m sure there will be someone who will sell the god extract," Nemesis said hearing this, James quickly logged into his profile and sent Nemesis the necessary money. "You are quite rich," Nemesis said with a smile. "I mean I still have close to 600,000,000 in gold." replied James and with that Nemesis got up from where she was and kissed and hugged her husband James one more time and then she said, "Then I am going back, I will ask Uncle Ra to bring you the god extract, the next time you see me I will come back with a big gift." With those words, Nemesis backed out of the opened portal, leaving only James, Ariel and Theseus. Sophia was already inside James'' jacket and Ruby was back in the inventory, taking Miracle with her. James suddenly stood up and turned to Ariel and asked, "Do you want to keep going?" Ariel smiled and said, "I''m already ready, I was waiting for you to wake up, but...aren''t you going to say goodbye to the others?" After a small chuckle, James replied, "Normally I would, but we can come back here anyway, anytime we want, right now we need to focus on getting to the 40th floor." With those words, Ariel got up from where she was and kissed Theseus eagerly before saying, "Let''s go." Before Theseus even managed to come to himself, James and Ariel had entered the passageway leading to the balcony and disappeared. Blinking only once, James and Ariel realized that they were in a room of ice. The vapour that they both released with each breath was visible to the naked eye. [James] Kill the Boss Monster! Find the 38th Floor''s Ice King inside the massive ice palace you are in and introduce him to his demise. Mission Duration: 3 Days] James and Ariel looked at each other as the system mission statement suddenly appeared in front of them, and then they started to move. As soon as they left the room they were in, they encountered several ice soldiers. More precisely, they encountered skeleton soldiers armed with ice armour and weapons. Without James even having to move, Ariel rushed forward and in a few moves dismembered seven skeleton soldiers. As soon as the room glowed slightly, a chest formed in the centre of the room. As James cautiously approached the chest, he began to suspect that it was a mimic. This was precisely why he made sure to keep the Godly Sword Lumen at the ready. However, nothing happened as he expected. When the chest opened on its own, a key came out of it, and when James picked it up, a system notification appeared in front of both him and Ariel: [Main Boss Monster Bounty Chest Lock(Legendary+++++) This key is one of the 6 keys to unlock the large chest that will be revealed when the Ice King is slain. The first of five keys that can be earned in five different rooms, after five different enemy types and difficulties. The sixth key will be given when the Ice King is slain. Each key can be used to open the chest directly, but the more keys that enter the holes in the chest, the bigger the reward]. James and Ariel turned to each other as they read this notification and then the following words were heard: sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Well, it''s time to kill them all." Chapter 281 Fed Up Ice King "Well, it''s time to kill them all."When James and Ariel said these words simultaneously, the look on their faces was enough to freeze everyone. They were so sinister and malevolent that it was impossible not to shiver strangely. Obviously, everyone watching had forgotten just how much these two looked alike. James suddenly kicked open the massive doors to the next room and both doors flew backwards. Ariel rushed forward, aiming to attack the enemies. The huge room was filled with perhaps thousands of goblins. It didn''t take long to realize that these goblins, made of ice, were not alive, which meant that James would not even get a spin on any monster he killed here. Sad as that would be, at least there would be a huge reward at the end of it all. Stay updated with My Virtual Library Empire So, without waiting, James fired up 8 Sacred Fire and unleashed the black snake that had appeared, specifically choosing the jet-black flames. The goblins made of ice were comically running away from the flames, which seemed to be quite amusing. By the time James and Ariel looked at each other to see if they had turned into psychopathic killers, more than two hundred goblins had already died. As soon as the goblins died, they turned to dust and disappeared. The being called the Ice King must have been a really good wizard. The reason why James thought this was because when he spread his mana throughout his body, he could see the traces of mana threads in the goblins made of ice, especially with his eyes. It was just like the mana trails that Ruby, the Kutlu, had seen when she was trying to get to her dungeon. It was at that moment that James must have remembered that he shouldn''t leave all the work to Ariel, for he immediately leapt forward, gripping the Godly Sword Lumen tightly, and began to make several thrusts. He was trying to use as minimal a magic cascade as possible, and so he was connecting his magic...or rather the magic axis of the 8 Sacred Fire to his aura, and he was able to cover a huge area with his magic as if he was only using his aura. Even though doing this made 8 Sacred Fire''s power much, much less powerful, he was still able to spread the ability over a huge area with almost no mana. In a situation like this, in an area where there were monsters made of ice, an ability like this would be very useful. They quickly met the oncoming attacks and Ariel kept stabbing the two blades she held in her hands one after the other into the goblins made of ice. Ariel was going to get help from Bai Fang to train with the sword, and so she was going to stop climbing for a while after the 40th floor. James, of course, would agree to this, even if he didn''t know it, because after the 40th floor, it was going to be incredibly dangerous. Both Ariel''s difficulty and James'' difficulty would continue to compound. The combination of Hell difficulty and Hard difficulty could not be underestimated. After a short time, every single ice goblin in the room had been destroyed and a chest appeared in the room as usual. As soon as James took the key from the chest, the duo moved on to the next room and quickly cleared it as well, clearing the next room in almost five minutes. After the Ice Harpies and Ice Ghosts, James and Ariel made it to the room just before the boss monster''s room. It didn''t take them long to realize that there was nothing in the room, and the absence of a chest gave them a strange feeling. Something or things had to be hiding in this room and they had to find them as soon as possible. James instantly emitted a large amount of mana around him and tried to figure out if there was anything around him. When he closed his eyes and tried to strengthen his senses, he was indeed able to sense something. He was very glad that he had learned to control things with his mana. Nevertheless, it was easy to realize that these things that were hiding were very careful. That''s why James had used the Void Pen to speak into Ariel''s mind without waiting: "It''s about fifteen meters behind you, waiting at the top of the pillar, it''s a small creature, you need to throw a knife and kill it." Following James'' words, Ariel surreptitiously watched the pillar behind her and after a short time, she was able to see this spider-like creature. Whatever it was, it must have known how to hide because it seemed to have taken on the colour of the pillar. The colour of the pillar was a much darker shade of blue than monsters made of ice, which meant that either this monster was created in a different hue, or it had incredible hiding and camouflage skills. After twenty seconds of silence, Ariel immediately threw the knife in her right hand at the pillar with incredible speed. The blade sliced through the pillar without stopping and managed to slice through the ice monster in the process. The ice monster crumbled to dust as it fell to the ground and that''s when the usual chest appeared. When James opened the chest, he managed to find the fifth key there. With that, the two stopped in front of the last door and then Ariel said "Easy job." and pushed the door. As they passed through the door, the pair became aware of the INCREDIBLE cold that had come over their bodies. Even though James had absorbed the Sun Vampire''s extract and had developed a tolerance to heat and cold, the fact that he could feel the cold meant that Ariel was in a terrible state. Instantly, James enveloped Ariel''s body in black flames, not wanting to harm this woman for even a second. "Are you okay, mom?" James asked suddenly and Ariel nodded her head and replied, "I''m better." With that, the vapour that had formed from the icy air began to show someone. A man? A man standing maybe two or two and a half meters tall, just a skeleton, wearing a suit of armour covered in blue and white patterns. Both James and Ariel couldn''t help but admire this man strangely, the energy around this man was so pure that it was awe-inspiring that one of the monsters born of dark magic like a skeleton could be like this. It was truly an incredible sight for anyone to behold. At that very moment a voice came out of this "man"...sentences poured out: "The death of my queen...the fall of my kingdom into darkness, oh where is the old perfection, life...I am all alone now. My flesh has left this world, rotted and disappeared while I wait here for my fate. Now I have only a skeleton that lets the ice out and one last piece of my mind." Even though he was a skeleton when he said those words, both Ariel and James felt as if they could see the bitterness on his face. At that moment the man reached for the throne behind him and telekinetically took his huge sword from it, and then he spoke again: "My name is Ezra, I am just one of many fallen kingdoms throughout the history of the tower, I have lost my beloved wife and queen, I have brought an end to my people, and now it is my turn to fight and perhaps die. Come warriors, I will end you or you will end me." James and Ariel suddenly lunged forward and attacked the man who identified himself as Ezra. There were several exchanges of attacks. Even though the two of them were not using abilities that could be considered overpowered, they managed to push Ezra back. It was sad. "I shouldn''t have stood up to him...I shouldn''t have betrayed him, we humans are such idiots, we keep betraying our kind." Ezra said suddenly, trying to attack as best he could, but nothing he did was working on the pair. "Holy shit!" a voice suddenly echoed in James'' mind and upon hearing it James realized it was Vladimir''s voice. "What''s going on?" James asked and Ezra, who was standing there as if he was tired of fighting, spoke again: "Ah....I hope that when I die I go to wherever your soul is, sir...Forgive me...I shouldn''t have betrayed you..." And the moment James heard those words, he screamed: sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "WHO COULD YOU HAVE BETRAYED?!?!?!?!?!" As he shouted these words, only one name came out of Ezra, who was standing right in front of him. That name will freeze everyone in shock...The name that will shock the gods inside Olympus, those who follow him from Asgard, the knights of the Round Table, and then the Chaos-Borns and Titans who try to hide it all. "Desmond, Desmond Black." Chapter 282 Just a Broken King "Black? My Lady, what is the Ice King saying?" Zeus suddenly asked. Yet Nyx did not answer, and instead, the cold gaze of this holy woman descended upon all the gods and deities of Olympus who, like Zeus, were trying to question something.Each of them felt as if they were drowning as if they had just learned a small piece of something they shouldn''t have questioned or something they shouldn''t have known. "It''s not something you need to know right now," Chronos said suddenly, and with that N,yx began to calm down. Even if there were questions on everyone''s minds, that wasn''t the real problem. The real problem was that Ezra the Ice King was becoming conscious. Just like Elanor and her bloodline. Nyx knew it, Erebus knew it, all the Titans and now all Chaos-Born knew it. Nyx and the others realized it when they regained their erased memories. The Rosewell bloodline, and now Ezra''s presence. There was so much more unknown and unseen, but despite it all, each of them was aware. Everything was connected to Desmond, and those connections were beginning to connect, even if slowly, to James. Like Ezra the Ice King and, unbeknownst to Elanor and James, the entire Rosewell clan. The Tower liked to do things its way, but it was an undeniable fact that Chaos was at the helm of everything. That was the only reason why the Rosewell bloodline had emerged from the brutal repetition of the tower. The tower worked differently for everyone. All climbers had the chance to take on different types of quests. The different levels of difficulty and operational status made everything complicated. That was the trouble. Unbeknownst to James, he was already processing the "great task" that his ancestor had left him. Every moment he climbed the tower, every moment he broke through the closed doors, he was repairing and changing that broken destiny, ready to change. "Desmond?" James asked suddenly, most surprised by Ezra''s words. By the time he asked that question, Nyx had already cleared out the entire Olympus hall and revoked the permission of anyone outside who had allowed them to watch James. Nyx couldn''t remember exactly. She knew the Ice King existed, of course, but she had no idea what kind of relationship he had with Desmond. Like James, Nyx was obviously curious. "Yes..." the Ice King replied and without waiting, launched an attack. Ariel met the Ice King''s attack with her blades and then stepped back. "How do you know him? What exactly is this betrayal you speak of?" James questioned. He knew very well...certainly Vladimir knew a lot about it, it was strange how James seemed to find out more and more secrets about Desmond every time he heard his name. "I should have fought by his side...I didn''t want to, I didn''t heed his call, I didn''t go to his aid, and as a result, Lady Juliet fell...We met our end at the hands of the Fallen Gods, what a shame...My beloved wife, my children, my soldiers and my people perished." With each of Ezra''s words, James felt a strange sadness. He even thought that if this skeletal man had a body, he would have started crying. "What about your family? Where are they?" James suddenly questioned. "They are in heaven...they have never committed any evil, I''m sure Chaos has created a heaven for them, a heaven where they can be without me and maybe with the person they want me to be. After all, I''m going to hell," Ezra replied. Read new adventures at My Virtual Library Empire James didn''t know what to say, yet there was something strange, Ezra was clearly trying to die. That''s why James had stopped holding back, he would have managed to get the necessary information from Vladimir anyway, and that''s exactly why he wished he could just give this broken and devastated man his wish without a care in the world. The Godly Sword Lumen glowed. James, as usual, began to recover his aura and mana. When Ezra sensed this aura, he looked at the young man in front of him with concern and then said, "You are an honourable young man." At that very moment,t James plunged his sword right in front of him, as if piercing the air, and released from the Godly Sword Lumen an energy that was not great, only capable of providing a peaceful death to his enemy. The vapour from the cold ice filled the room with flames of energy, and as the vapour began to dissipate, a single image appeared before James and Ariel. Ezra the Ice King sat slumped on his throne, a gaping hole in his chest, his skeletal core beginning to crumble and his sword falling to the floor. "Oh Desmond..." Ezra said and the sound of his deep breathing echoed through the room. "Forgive me, my lord, I thought of my own happiness, I didn''t want to die in battle and leave everyone behind, I didn''t want to die...Forgive me." Ezra added, growing more and more upset by the second. James, unable to take it any longer, stepped forward, carefully stepped in front of Ezra and then said, "My name is James Arthur Black, a descendant of Desmond Black. Ezra the Ice King, you may have committed many crimes and refused your lord''s request. My lineage forgives your lineage and I wish you peace and to be with your family in the highest levels of heaven. I hope you can forgive yourself." At James'' words, only Ezra''s deep breathing echoed in the huge room. Those breaths were so rapid, so sad, that even Ariel couldn''t help but tear up. Who knew what would happen next? At that very moment, something that no one had expected began to happen. Ezra''s body was literally coming back. Everyone could see the muscle cells, the veins, the nervous system and the skin forming around the skeleton. Even though it was a disgusting sight, the greatest truth of life was now visible here. Tears began to fall from Ezra''s eyes as the body reformed, he raised his right hand, which had previously held his sword, and gently squeezed James'' hand, before saying the following words: S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Oh...Desmond...?" James shook his head and replied, "No, James." Ezra smiled even though tears were streaming down his face as he said, "Oh...James, huh? You know I named my child after him? I really looked up to Desmond, but I...I was young and stupid, cowardly and selfish. I named him Desmond in case my child would be as brave an emperor as he was instead of as cowardly as I was...Will my child...my one and only Desmond forgive me...? What do you say, my lord?" Ezra''s face was so grim, his sadness so deep, that even James could not help but empathize. The young man''s expression drowned in the narrowness of his sorrow. "I forgive you and your bloodline Ezra...you may have abandoned your Emperor, your master, but he is more forgiving than you think...or so I think, and I am sure your child will forgive you. How many times have you died? How many climbers have you killed? How many years did you wallow in self-pity and scream for forgiveness? If you were my father, I would be proud of you for sure...A cowardly man turned into someone brave enough to scream for forgiveness for perhaps millions of years. What an honorable death." As James said these words, Ezra''s grim face straightened and a smile replaced it, and even though he hadn''t stopped crying, it was clear that this smile was breaking the "ice" in his heart. At that moment Ezra''s body began to crumble to dust. Old and broken, this man seemed to finally be at peace. Just before he disappeared, he turned to James one more time and said, "Ah...you look so much like him." And with that, the man literally turned to dust and disappeared. When James straightened himself up, he took a deep breath and let it out as loudly as he could. After all this, another chest was opened in the room, right in front of the throne. When James opened the chest and took the key out of it, he had the sixth key. When he looked at Ariel, who had tears in her eyes, he said, "Come on, Mom...Don''t do this." and tried to comfort her. By the time Ariel managed to hold herself together, another chest had formed in front of the throne. This one was about ten centimetres tall and five centimetres wide. When James inserted the first key into the first keyhole, the chest grew a little bigger. Then the second key, then the third key, then the six keys were inserted into the keyholes and the chest was now 2 meters in size and 1 meter wide. What would come out of the chest would be revealed after it was opened. Chapter 283 Elijah Black When James carefully grabbed the top of the chest and opened it, a great light shone inside. Because of the brightness of the light, James and Ariel had to close their eyes.When the light went out, they looked inside the chest and saw two kinds of metals in the chest. At that moment, the properties of metals were revealed in front of the duo: [Light Ice Metal (Legendary++++) According to legend, the ice extract was created by ancient ice spirits over millions of years as they recovered their energy and was inherited by the descendants of the first Ice Queen. The Queen''s line ended with the deaths of her last heirs. It is one of the few unique objects in the Tower. It is a pure product. Although it is not a strong metal, just ten grams can chain even a holy demon. It is considered the purest form of ice, cold enough to freeze even the soul itself. Object Weight 15KG] [Light Flame Metal(Legendary++++) According to legend, flame essence was created by ancient flame spirits gathering their energy over millions of years and was inherited by the descendants of the first Ice Queen. The Queen''s lineage ended with the deaths of the last heirs. It is one of the few unique objects in the Tower. It is a pure product. It is not a strong metal, but it is ideal for items such as throwing knives, arrowheads and assassination knives. It is a sacred metal with the ability to burn the target from the inside. It is considered the purest form of natural flame, hot enough to burn even the soul itself. Object Weight 5KG] James and Ariel looked at each other after reading the attributes, and without a second thought Ariel said, "You take the flame, I''ll take the ice," and tossed the light ice metal into her inventory, while James smiled and tossed the light flame metal into his inventory. When the two looked around after that, they really couldn''t help but breathe in and out deeply. It was then that James noticed something else glowing in the chest and approached the chest and picked up the object. Suddenly James saw a message [Sir, the tower seems to have directed you here], but he paused before he could understand anything. His heart raced, his head began to spin as if he couldn''t understand what was happening and he fell to the ground. "JAMES!" Ariel yelled, but James'' eyes were already closed. When he opened them again, it didn''t take him long to realize that he was inside his mind. All around him,m he could see files and other things that he had created himself. Experience more content on My Virtual Library Empire S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He could also see Vladimir, Vlad, Abby and Emily looking at him with great confusion. "What''s going on?" James asked curiously. "I think you touched something else connected to our family," Abby replied and James asked, "How do you know that?" When James asked this question, Abby raised her hand and pointed with her finger to a place behind James. James turned around with great curiosity and saw a man looking in his direction. It was then that it became clear why Vlad and Abby were looking at him with greater surprise than Vladimir and Emily. James had learned the faces and names of the first children from Abby, which meant that James had found another one. "Elijah," James said suddenly. He was Desmond''s second son. "Big brother, little sister. What an honour to see you both again," Elijah said suddenly. He was a strange lost range-looking a long beard, wore a suit and held a cane in his right hand and something like a staff in his left. He wore glasses with a single lens and a "gentleman''s" hat. Abby and Vlad immediately ran to Elijah and hugged him. Elijah was happy to be reunited with his family and looked at James. "He looks so much like our father," Elijah suddenly muttered. James bowed his head respectfully and then said, "Nice to meet you, my ancestor, I''m James Arthur Black. It''s a great honour to meet you," he introduced himself. When Elijah heard these words, his old face smiled a little and then said, "I''m Elijah Black, one of the 6 siblings who learned pure strategy and fashion at the same time. It''s a great feeling to finally meet the person my father always talked about. Nice to meet you, young man." James didn''t know what to say, he had already managed to find three of the six children. He was also thinking about the possibility that the tower might have led him here. If it was as Emma said, it was a very strange but wonderful thing. After all, the possibility of such a thing being true seemed to show James that the tower had not given up on him and still wanted to help him. What he didn''t understand was why he was inside his mind, why had he fainted? "Because we are inside your mind, I can see what is going through your mind. You fainted because the soul fragments that entered your mind have risen to a higher level. This is normal as we are gathered in the ring, which is our family heirloom, and we are synthesized directly with our body and soul. 5. With the synthesis of your soul, your body will increase its capacity. I''m sure you will wake up soon." Elijah said suddenly and it happened exactly as he said. James suddenly opened his eyes at the end of the sentence and stood upright. He looked around with his eyes wide open and saw Ariel''s worried expression. Ariel hugged James tightly, who was standing right in front of her, and then said, "You''re never going to stop making me worry, are you?" "I''m sorry..." James said abruptly and then saw the knife lying on the floor in front of the chest. He picked it up immediately after Ariel had finished hugging him and then sent it to his inventory. He saw a message saying [What happened? When he read this message from Nyx, he replied, "I met the Third Child. Too many spirits in my body and mind knocked me out for a short time." [The third?] Nyx questioned with great curiosity. "Yes, the third. Elijah Black, master of strategy and, strangely enough, fashion," James replied and then shook his head, trying to compose himself. Immediately after that, he asked the following question: "My lady, how many people have heard of Desmond?" It didn''t take long for a message to follow: [Many have heard of him, but it''s not something they need to know now, so I sent them away. Don''t worry, when the time comes and if we have to fight, everyone will know, go ahead, I''ll keep the word from spreading]. After this message from Nyx, James nodded and then said, "Emma, next floor please." When a portal appeared, the two passed through it and reopened their eyes on the 39th floor. As James and Ariel looked around, James seemed to have a thought and then asked, "Emma, as I learned, all floors between the 35th and 40th floors were to be permanent floors...but what was wrong with the 38th floor?" James'' question made everyone think, that what had happened was so strange that even Nyx and the others didn''t ask that question, as if James and Ariel hadn''t entered the permanent floor, unlike the others. [We''ve been looking into this, sir, apparently,y my authority is insufficient, it was most likely a direct effect of the tower]. "I see...So the tower wanted to give me a gift..." said James, and just then another message notification popped up in front of him: [So...Normally I wouldn''t have done this, but it is what it is, when you go back to the 38th floor you will be back on the common floor. I just wanted to give you one last gift, you''re quite interesting even if I''ve already finished]. When James read this message, he shook his head and then said, "Thank you, tower, I will never forget your kindness." It was incredibly sweet that the brutal and deadly tower itself was helping James so much. James smiled involuntarily and then turned to Ariel and said, "Sorry again, we can move on now." Even if there was still a hint of anger on Ariel''s face, it was clear that this time it wasn''t because of James''s ridiculous thinking, which is why she nodded and agreed to continue. The space the two were in seemed to be a room-type space again. It was clear that they were in a very dark, rather depressing room. They were surrounded by purple lights and a strange, moody aura surrounded them. Strangely, they both felt disgusted. They had no idea what they were in the middle of. It was at that moment that James saw a message notification appear in front of him: [Alright, this is one of my hated floors, get out of here now, sure it''s nice outside but this room...] At these words James'' face paused and he turned to Ariel and said, "We need to get the fuck out of here." This was only because the message was coming from Thanatos, perhaps one of the calmest people he had ever seen. And when Thanatos specifically tells you something, you have to do it. Chapter 284 Thanatos Was Right As soon as James said those words, Ariel nodded her head without question and looked around. James instantly spread his meaning around and began a search for any trace of it.He couldn''t find anything. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. However, there were no words or messages from anyone saying they could help. That meant James had to be careful. Ariel quickly made her way to the room''s door and tried to pull and push it open, at least to try. It would be wrong to say that nothing had happened, for when she tried to pull the door open, the clock ticking rang in the pair''s ears. Until then there had been no sound in the room. When James gestured for Ariel to stop, Ariel waited, and when James had explained his meaning in more detail, he commanded Ariel to continue. When Ariel tried to force the door and pull it open, the sound was heard again: "TIK!!!" This time the sound was deeper, but only in James'' ears. Because the mana it was emitting was at a higher level, all his senses were becoming fused with it, which made him hear the sound at a higher level. James moved with the flow of mana towards where the sound was coming from and stopped in front of a closet. As he opened the closet door, he couldn''t help but be surprised: "What the fuck?" Experience tales at My Virtual Library Empire Inside the closet there was a door leading to somewhere else, it looked like another room just next door, but as James moved his hand towards it he could easily see that it was blocked by something. It didn''t take him long to notice a keyhole and he quickly left the closet he had been trying to get into and just looked around. She gestured for Ariel to come and Ariel was able to see the image in the closet. At that very moment, the bodies of the two trembled. The floor of the room they were in began to tremble, some of the objects in the room tumbled to the floor and the sounds became almost ear-splitting. At that moment the floor of the room began to fill with some kind of liquid, which the duo immediately recognized as blood, and then another message window opened in front of James: [You found the door, you need to find the key]. This message seemed to be coming from Nemesis as if his wife had decided to help him. As soon as James saw this message, he immediately turned to Ariel next to him and said "A KEY! LOOK FOR THE KEY!!!" James would normally have joined the search but he couldn''t. The only reason was that the pool of blood in the room was increasing every second. Maybe it was slow, but the fact that after almost three or four minutes more than a quarter of the room could be filled was frightening. And he realized it, just as Ariel had. In short, James had to use the blood element. He could shape the blood that filled the room to separate it and even put it in his inventory, he had never done that before, the only time he had ever shaped blood was when he made a sword out of blood that was quite weak. This meant that he had to shape tens... hundreds of llitresof blood with his magic and elemental tendrils constantly. It was a skill that newborn vampires could use with ease, but it was completely new to James. As soon as Ariel heard those words, she suddenly looked around and began to check the contents of any orifices that had fallen or were still in place. After only a short time she managed to find a piece of a key, if not a key. James, meanwhile, was still very carefully shaping the blood that was still pooling on the floor, litre by litre, sending each one to his inventory. Still, James managed to notice. The speed of the blood rising from the floor seemed to have increased considerably. What could fill a quarter of the room in three or four minutes had now increased to perhaps a minute. As James tried to figure out why, Ariel turned to him and said, "I FOUND A PART!" James knew at that moment what the trouble was. It was as if a seal had come to life, the first piece of key had been found and wherever the blood was coming from, the process began to speed up. After a short time, Ariel managed to find another piece of key and put the two pieces together. Still, it seemed that another piece was needed. Meanwhile, the amount and speed of blood coming out of the floor increased again. One minute had now become half a minute and perhaps less. James'' mana and the energy in his elemental sprout began to diminish, even if slowly. James began to convert the blood at a slower rate with each passing second and, as he could tell, the room was filling up with blood at an even faster rate. By the time he was exhausted, a little over a quarter of the room was already filled with blood. James could easily see that more than half of his body was covered in blood. James was 1.85 meters tall and he was trying to reduce a sea of blood that was now over a meter long. After a short time, the two were nearly submerged under the sea of blood in the room. Ariel had just pulled her hand out of the sea of blood and was trying to keep her head up when she started screaming over and over: "I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT! QUICK!!!" As Ariel shouted, she put the last piece of the key together, and after a brief glow, the key pieces were permanently joined. With that, Ariel went straight into the closet, unlocked it and then walked through the door without stopping. James, on the other hand, barely made it through the door. When the two opened their eyes again, they realized that they were in the room they had seen before. They were both breathing heavily as if they had woken up from a nightmare. James was sure of one thing at that moment: The huge and destructive demon beast he had seen on the 37th floor had not given him the adrenaline rush and fear he had just experienced. Both of them had dilated pupils and their eyes were wide open. Suddenly James saw a message [I was right, wasn''t I?], and it was from Thanatos. What James didn''t understand, though, was where the ticking was coming from, he couldn''t make the connection between the door and the ticking of a house clock. Despite all this, he was too preoccupied to question such a thing. He leaned back and stretched out on the floor as if he didn''t care about anything. When he turned his head to look at Ariel, he saw her doing the same thing and then heard the sound of a door opening. James stood up abruptly and then looked in the direction of where the sound was coming from, just in time to hear a murmur, "Welcome, sire, we have been expecting you, we have already heard from Lady Nyx that you were coming." A woman was standing in front of him, probably 70 or 80 years old, not old, but certainly not young, but you never could tell in the tower, after all, even the old woman Datura was over a thousand years old. She was a beautiful jet-black beauty, with hair that looked like threads and eyes of ruby. James knew at a glance that this woman was a vampire. "Hello," James said and stood up. The adrenaline in his body was still high, but at least he had managed to pull himself together. Gently picking Ariel up from the floor, he checked that she was alright and when he saw that she was fine, he turned to the vampire and spoke again: "If I''m seeing a vampire, you must know where Kriss is, right?" At James'' question, the beautiful vampire woman bowed politely, as if bowing to an emperor, and then said, "I''m sorry sir, Duke Kriss is unfortunately unavailable at the moment, he had to go to the eastern part of the floor for the training of the new vampire soldiers, he sends his deepest apologies." James shook his head when he heard these words and then asked, "And you? What is your name?" The woman bowed again and then said, "My name is Laura sir, I am the head servant of the current vampire empress. The empress has informed us that we must treat you, the master of all vampires, in the best possible manner. With your permission, I offer you a shower and a good meal." James shook his head as if he knew that he really shouldn''t refuse anything when he heard those words and then said, "Please lead the way." He had many more vampires to meet. He was in the house of those who would worship him. Chapter 285 Foresight and Prophecy James was following Laura, followed by Ariel. They had left the building they were in and the gaze of every street they passed, every vampire they left behind, was locked on her.A crimson sky dominated the floor. A white moon seemed to add colour to the sky. Each of the surrounding buildings was very melancholic and on top of that, they all looked as if they had come straight out of the Victorian era. It was a beautiful sight, and both James and Ariel were filled with the desire to look at each building again and again. Every one of the vampires seemed to bow their heads when they saw James. [I''ve never seen anything like this in my life...Vampires worshipping another race...much less a human...It''s inconceivable, truly inconceivable. It''s inconceivable that vampires can obey my orders after thinking about it three or four times, but this is how they treat you]. This message was coming from Nyx herself, even though she knew that vampires were the most arrogant race in the tower. James was slowly beginning to realize how valuable he was becoming in the eyes of the vampires. After eating the Sun Vampire core and gaining the blood elemental from the dragon hearts, he had never imagined such things would happen. "Tell me, Laura, I killed one of your kind, some of you even swore revenge, but now they bow their heads when they see me," James said suddenly, and Laura stopped and looked at James. "There used to be a legend. Or rather, I wouldn''t call it a legend, it was just a vision. A vision that existed almost a million and a half years ago. I wish I could tell you about it, but it would be better if you learned about it from the Empress," Laura replied. James, without question, nodded his head in agreement. So the trio entered a carriage and after almost three hours of non-stop and very tiring travel, it seemed that they had made it to the palace. When James and Ariel stepped out of the carriage, they were indeed surprised by the sights around them. Contrary to their expectations, every single servant was looking at them with smiling faces. "I think this [vision] is really important. I didn''t think any vampire would look at me like that," James said suddenly, and then he saw only Laura''s smiling face towards him. With that, Ariel and James managed to enter the palace and make their way up to the throne room. When the doors to the throne room opened, the nobles inside could be seen with naked eyes. Find adventures at My Virtual Library Empire James turned to Laura, who was standing next to him, and asked, "If possible, could you show Ariel to a room where she can rest and take a shower?" Ariel was still struggling to regain consciousness, all her clothes were soaked in gallons of blood. Laura nodded her head in agreement and called for some servants. She then told all the servants to treat Ariel with the utmost respect and to give her one of the best rooms. With that, Ariel left and Laura spoke in a loud voice to the entire throne room: "The owner of the Sun Empire, the leader of the Church of the Night, the lord of the glacial people and the owner of the 26th Floor, James Arthur Black, nicknamed Umbra, has entered the hall!" After these words, James looked at Laura, who had just said these words in front of him, and said in a small voice, "Good introduction." Laura''s expression was overflowing with happiness and James started to walk into the hall. Every noble around was bowing their heads and even the Empress herself was waiting for James at the foot of the stairs leading to the throne. James was becoming depressed at the thought of sitting on a throne again, indeed the throne was his, but he had no way of knowing why. All he knew was that it was a vision and the vampires worshipped him. "Welcome dear leader, for over a million years my lineage has awaited your arrival." said the woman at the foot of the stairs leading to the throne. The woman bowed carefully after these words, and when she stood back up, she suddenly continued speaking: "My name is Victoria sir, the 47th leader and 14th empress of the vampire race. I am deeply honoured to meet you." Victoria was an incredibly beautiful woman, it was not hard to see that, every single hair looked as if it had been drawn by hand. Her features, her eyebrows, her eyes and nose, even her ears and mouth looked as if they had been carefully placed by the creator himself. Her beauty was enhanced by her jet-black hair and her bright, light-red eyes. She was wearing a long black dress that looked as if it imitated a black wedding dress. She was certainly a very beautiful woman. James nodded his head as soon as he heard those words and then said, "Nice to meet you, I''m James, you are worthy to call me by my name, please do so." However, just to assert his authority, he walked up to Victoria and then climbed almost twenty steps to the throne where the leader of all vampires could sit. All the vampires in the throne room trembled at the sight. Even the dumbest creature could see the blood boiling in each of their veins, adrenaline and excitement gripping them tightly. "Now tell me, what exactly is this [vision]?" James suddenly asked. Hearing this question, Victoria took a few gentle steps forward and then, looking up towards the throne where James was sitting, she smiled and then began to speak: "Over a million years ago, almost two million years ago, someone came to this floor, sir. This woman looked quite devastated, tired and exhausted. A human, a female human, who begged and pleaded with my ancestor that she had fought for someone and that there were shortcomings in her loss, even if things were still going well." "Upon meeting this human, my ancestor felt something awakened deep within his soul. My ancestor Drak, the 1st Vampire leader and 1st Vampire Emperor, and the first Sun Vampire, made a prediction...a prophecy. It was a prediction that all vampires followed carefully, and some of them, out of arrogance, wished it wasn''t true." "Drak..." James heard a voice in his mind, and it was Vladimir''s again. "Do you know him?" James muttered in his mind. "Of course I know him...." said Vladimir and within a few seconds he added, "He''s my brother." "Then who could that woman be who came here?" James questioned in his mind, but no answer came back. Victoria then reached into her inventory and pulled out a parchment, coughed twice softly to clear her throat and then spoke: [Whoever will murder one of our kind will be a member of the highest blood. A human being, his fate will be as he has written it. He will use blood, like breathing. He will control all vampires and be present in the middle of the battlefield when the great destruction reaches the tower''s interior from the outside of it, leading them to the front lines and showing them all the reason for honour, truth and existence. Until he becomes the master of blood, life and destruction]. With that, Victoria had finished her speech and was looking intently at James. It could be seen that all the nobles in the hall were also looking at him with eyes as bright as Victoria''s. James instantly realized what he had to do. He touched the garment he was wearing and began to use his mana, focusing on the fifth magic ring in particular. As he removed his hand from the garment, he formed another sword from the blood. As James did so, every single vampire in the throne room suddenly dropped to their knees, each with a smile of excitement that could only be described as terrifying. James could not understand what had caused this. "[The vision] said that with your arrival the vampire race would rise again, that they would put aside their arrogance and become the greatest in the tower. I am deeply honoured to be the leader who has met you, my emperor." Victoria said suddenly and James stood up and said, "We can leave that for later, I have a question for you." Victoria was just as surprised as the other nobles and then looked at James curiously. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "This woman...the woman who spoke to Drak, do you have any idea what she looks like?" When James asked this question, Victoria nodded her head up and down and then said, "Yes, Mr. James, I have a picture of that moment, if you can wait ten minutes, I can have it brought from my room." However, Victoria suddenly looked at Laura, who was near the door to the throne room, and Laura went at hyper speed and returned with a painting. As Victoria handed the painting to James, an expression of surprise appeared in James'' mind. "HOLY SHIT!!!" The voice belonged to none other than Vladimir. What had surprised him so much was a matter of curiosity. Chapter 286 HOW FAR DID HE SEE!? James began to look at the painting more carefully as he heard Vladimir''s voice churning in his mind, even if he didn''t know who the woman in the painting was, just looking at her image was strangely comforting to his soul.[Impossible...she should have been dead before the war started. [I can''t believe my eyes, ask Victoria, it must be a mistake!] [I saw it! I saw the moment this woman died with my own eyes! I MADE IT REAL!!!] [There''s no way such a thing is possible, it must be a mistake, she must be a descendant of that woman.] These messages, one after the other from different people, seemed to make James more and more curious by the second. "Who is this?" James thought in his mind, he had to find out. Vladimir stayed where he was, excitedly stepping out of the ring and watching the picture with his own eyes as he managed to materialize in the tangible world and reveal himself to everyone. Victoria and the other vampires did not seem to expect to see Vladimir. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I ask you again, Vladimir, who is she?" James repeated himself, not even surprised that Vladimir was able to show himself in the tangible world and focused only on hearing the answer to his question. Vladimir continued to stare intently at the painting and kept moving closer and closer to it as if refusing to believe what he was seeing. Almost a minute later, he uttered these words: "This...this woman is Juliet." James'' eyes widened when he heard these words, he realized that what he had just heard was nonsense, why all these messages were coming one after the other in a way that indicated surprise. "Are you kidding me?" James couldn''t help but ask, but the response was the same: "This is Juliet, my best friend and Desmond''s best friend, the woman who fell first and caused me to lose it." James instantly fell back against the throne behind him and put his hand to his forehead. Continue your journey at My Virtual Library Empire "So she was alive? But you saw her die, didn''t you? Every one of you, including Hyperion, that''s what I was told!" James said, his voice echoing through the throne room, making the atmosphere even more tense. Vladimir stared at James and shook his head up and down, unable to say anything. "Two million years, officially the history of war, the war my ancestor fought and the reason why the war started so early, was she alive?" James questioned and with that Victoria took a few steps forward and asked, "Is something wrong, sir?" James heard Victoria''s voice right in front of him, looked at her with a strange expression and then closed his eyes painfully and shook his head as if he had solved the secret of the universe. "We knew what he was trying to do, he was working for my development. The deal he made with Chaos, trying to erase memories of himself and so much more!!! Juliet had to know about all of it, she knew and she must have come here on her deathbed. After all, the Vampire Empire knew about Juliet and my ancestor. They were your best friends after all," James said suddenly. Indeed, everything was starting to come out like the light of day. It would be normal for even the dumbest creature to be able to figure things out, with just a few thoughts everything was solvable. "It''s...possible, but why didn''t she come with me? If Juliet had said she was alive, everything would have been easier. And Drak, why exactly did my brother agree? Especially since this report came from a human," Vladimir questioned. "My ancestor might not have known Juliet was alive either. And that could suggest why Juliet didn''t show herself. Think about it, the war was a long time away, and every single person was ready to support my ancestor, but he couldn''t move forward, all he would need was the support of those upstairs," James added, scratching his head with the stress and tension rising with each thought. "I don''t understand..." Vladimir muttered after hearing these words. "You see the lock between the 74th and 76th floors, the seal on the 75th floor and the treaty. Everything had to happen one after the other since the outcome of the war was to be won or lost. They kept talking about Juliet as one of the cleverest, in which case...Juliet might have wanted to start the war, to set fire to that board where my ancestor might dare to advance. To light the fires of war..." James replied. Vladimir shook his head and said, "But Juliet could have done it in consultation with me, the only reason I got bored with everything and got greedy was because my two friends were no longer what they used to be. Your ancestor, in his greed for life and eagerness to end the war, agreed to leave everything behind in the fire, while Juliet died outright...." Vladimir''s eyes widened as he said those words and then he muttered, "Fuck off..." James turned to him curiously and asked, "What happened?" "Don''t you see, the answer is right in front of us," Vladimir muttered and then waited a few seconds before continuing: "Your ancestor must know everything. The fire was lit to start the war. The white wizards had already betrayed, them the dark magic had taken them over. When the Fallen Gods dominated everything, Juliet must have made a plan with your ancestor to make it look like she sacrificed herself. With that, the upper floors would go mad, and their beloved Juliet would be gone. It drove Hyperion himself mad. I betrayed the ancestor and locked myself in one of the secret floors under Ruby''s watch until you found me. So the prophecy would work, the prophecy of my brother Drak wishing and hoping that you would come here." When Vladimir said these words, James and every single person who had been watching and knew anything about what had happened was once again filled with curiosity: [How much had Desmond planned?] "Understand James!!!" Vladimir suddenly shouted and with that, he began to speak: "Whoever will murder one of our kind will be a member of the highest blood. A human being, his fate will be as he has written it. He will use blood, like breathing. He will control all vampires and be present in the middle of the battlefield when the great destruction reaches the tower''s interior from the outside, leading them to the front lines and showing them all the reason for honour, truth and existence. Until he becomes the master of blood, life and destruction." Vladimir repeated his brother Drak''s prophecy of foresight and then continued: "A man without a destiny will write his destiny, his future will change with every step he takes, and every breath he takes will pull him in another direction. My brother himself must have realized when he saw Juliet that the war would begin and that there would be another in the future. The heart of the war, the way it works, the way the army is structured. Someone who can control all the vampires, who can be like the vampires themselves. Someone who aims to break through the tower. Someone who dares to stand up to the threats in the tower." Vladimir was silent after these words and remained where he was for a few seconds, neither moving nor closing his eyes. "Your ancestor....Desmond himself wanted all his life to elevate humans, to make a superior race!!!" Vladimir suddenly shouted. "We always thought so..." he added calmly. "But what if everything is different? What if it''s all a deception? What if he has another plan, a main goal? Imagine; the creator loves an ordinary human being who manages to kill Fallen Gods, and all his life he keeps showing that he intended to do something." he muttered, the madness in his gaze adding to the depth of the situation. "We don''t know why the Fallen Gods fell to greed, we don''t know where they got the black magic, we don''t know how they learned to defile mana and the aura itself, which is considered sacred! THINK JAMES!!!" shouted Vladimir and instantly grabbed James by the shoulders. "REMEMBER WHAT MY BROTHER SAID!!! REMEMBER THE PROPHECY!!! THREATS FROM OUTSIDE THE TOWER!!!" he screamed. "Even the Creators have fallen...they have become Fallen Gods. Erebus and Nyx and Hades and Zeus and Poseidon and Odin and Thor and Loki and Indra and Ashura and Ra and Osiris and Anubis and Amaterasu and Raijin and Izanagi and Izanami and the creators they destroyed with their own hands?" added Vladimir. However, he took a few steps backwards and then said, "But what about the creatures created with great harmony by Chaos, the master creator, how did they become so polluted? How were they driven to destruction and war? What exactly are the threats outside the tower?" After these words, he grabbed his own chest and shouted one last time, literally grasping his own soul: "DESMOND!!! HOW MUCH HAVE YOU LEARNED?!?!?!?!?! HOW MUCH DID YOU PLAN, OLD FRIEND?!?!?!?!" Chapter 1 - 1: Youve Been Chosen! [The fallen, the near extinction, those who wish to die, the rich, those who have been loved by life, and those who have been chosen. Are you ready to leave everything you have behind? Are you, the ones chosen by the gods themselves, ready to write history? Are you, the reason for creating the line between life and death, ready to become holy beings? Are you ready to climb alongside Zeus, Odin, Archangel Michael, Lucifer the Fallen Angel, Buddha and others? Are you ready to become a God?] On 23 March 2033, unexpectedly, these writings appeared before a small minority of people and a gigantic call was conveyed to them. The towers in the perfect architecture formed around the Earth had called them, never to come out again. These individuals had nothing left to lose, and these calls for those who had everything attracted many people. James could be counted as one of these people. Unlike those who were devastated and lost everything, he was just chosen. Of course, he had lost many things, but unlike others who had fallen into darkness, he was not yet on that side. This story happened just before he planned to leave himself in the darkness. ----- ----- Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Shit!" James'' shout echoed through the void, he was standing on the terrace of the building on the concrete at the very edge of the building and staring straight into the living night light, it was obvious that he was going to drop himself down and end his life. It had been almost 3 years since he had lost his parents in a car accident and now his lover, who was everything to him, had broken up with him because of his lack of financial means. "It''s not my fault I''m not rich!" James suddenly exclaimed, the emptiness in his gaze seemed to indicate that he wanted to end it all. He hadn''t been chosen at all. He wished he could get into any of the towers that had miraculously started to appear almost four years ago, but it was impossible, if the tower hadn''t chosen you, you wouldn''t be able to get into it. James knew this too. What he wanted most was to enter the tower with his lover and leave this damned world behind them. No one knew what was inside the tower or what was going on, but the only thing that was known was that unless you were chosen, you could not enter the tower, and each chosen individual had to agree to go there once and for all. On top of losing his family and loved ones, James thought he was incompetent. In fact, unlike most, he was an intelligent and practical thinker, he was not athletic but he did not have a terrible body, he was not handsome but it would be foolish to call him ugly. He really could have been the most average person one could see. "I''m fed up... I''m fed up with everything....." James said suddenly, the light seemed to have gone completely out of his face, and he could now let himself down from the end of the building. He was about to take a step when the sign he had always expected to see appeared in front of him: [You have been chosen! Dear James Arthur Black, I am honoured to inform you that you have been elected by one of the directors of the tower! The tower is calling you because the eyes of several gods are upon you. I hope you will not refuse this offer and agree to join the game of the gods and take a step towards becoming a god! JOIN/ REJECT] James jumped for joy when he saw the writings in front of him and when he stepped back on the floor, his foot slipped awkwardly, it seemed to be the end of him. "AAAAAAAAAAA!!!''" James, who had started to fall from the top of the 18-storey building as he screamed, was distracted and his eyes watered from the incoming airflow. Wherever he looked, the invitation sent to him turned towards the place he was looking at and the invitation began to fade, even if slowly. "I CAN''T LET THIS THING I''VE BEEN WAITING FOR GO SOON!" James screamed in his mind, but he managed to force his hand to the text in front of him and pressed the "JOIN" option. With that, James stopped in mid-air. Everything around him began to disappear and every colour faded away. In just a few seconds, all the colours of reality disappeared and everything turned white. "What-what''s going on?" James muttered and at that very moment, as if in answer to his question, something else appeared in front of his eyes: [Welcome! James Arthur Black, I am proud to welcome you to the tower. There are exactly 3 gods who have their eyes on you, I hope you make the right choices and manage to remove all obstacles on your way to becoming a god. To close the window, click on the cross at the top right, this will direct you to the next action.] James took a deep breath and exhaled as if he could not believe his eyes when he read these writings in front of him. "I''m really in the tower...Haha...HAHAHA...HAHAHA!" he shouted and stopped where he was, he didn''t need to think about the world he was in before. After a few seconds of waiting, looking around but seeing nothing, James scratched his head and then noticed the small print at the bottom of the text in front of him: [To close the window, click on the cross at the top right, this will take you to the next action.] "So these things [windows] huh? Got it." James said to himself and then closed the window just as instructed, at that very moment a light appeared in the centre of the white area in front of his eyes and things started to come out of the light. "Are these things....cards?" asked James. Six dozen cards had formed in front of his eyes. [Time to choose! James Arthur Black, please make your skill selections. You have a total of 2 cards to choose from. The cards will be shuffled and coloured [orange]. The ranks are in the colours [green], [blue], [purple], [red], [yellow], [black] and [#####] respectively.] When James closed the window in front of him, he looked at the cards in front of him in a confused way and thought the following words while scratching his head: "Green? But these cards are different colours?" James could see the colours of the cards in front of him. They had clearly said that each one would be orange, but he could see everything. "42 of the green cards, 9 of the blue cards, 8 of the purple cards, 6 of the red cards, 4 of the yellow cards and 3 of the black cards." James thought calmly, constantly looking at the cards and wondering how he could see them. On the other hand, he was incredibly happy. If the cards in front of him were not mocking him with the colours, he would be able to get two of the three black cards. With a deep breath, he reached for the first card he wanted to take and grabbed it. As soon as he took the black card in his hand, the card flashed with a light and disappeared, just at that moment, the numbers appeared in front of James'' eyes in the lower right: [1/2] "Huh...That makes sense," James said, and then he began to look deeply at the two black cards in front of him. Even though he was acting as if he could see what was written on the cards if he looked seriously enough, he suddenly stopped thinking and picked up the other card. "I hope I chose the right option..." James muttered. [2/2] As soon as James saw that the number in the window to his right had gone up to the next level, that window closed and a completely different one opened in front of him: [Congratulations! You have taken your first step on your journey to becoming a god. The most important thing about a god is his abilities, a god who is not known for his abilities can never become a god. To see your abilities, just say [profile].] Having finished reading this window, James smiled and then closed the window, immediately after which he said ''profile'' in a calm voice. Suddenly another window opened in front of him and he looked at it: [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level 1 Class: - Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+) [Statuses] Strength: 5 Agility: 7 Endurance: 6 Luck: 2 Intelligence: 9 Charisma: 5 Status Points: 0] James took a deeper look at his profile and was very disappointed in himself, he hadn''t expected to be so weak but he was sure that he could still get stronger, that''s why he looked at what he should be focusing on right now. "[10x Gacha (Godly) Even Hermes himself, who has been gambling with his life since he was a baby, daring to steal Poseidon''s Trident and Artemis'' arrows, would not attempt such a big gamble. Choices that will surprise even Hermes, known as the master of gambling, are waiting for you! Depending on the number of monsters killed, you will have a chance to flip Gacha.] James smiled as soon as he read the ability and then said, "Haha...Asking someone who has nothing left to sacrifice what he has earned...somehow I get excited...." It was impossible to find out exactly how the ability worked without using it, but that was not what he had to do now, he had to observe his other ability. [Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+) May your glory be as great as Galahad''s, mortal, who was one of the Three Holy Knights who took part in the Holy Grail quest and had the honour of sitting on the dangerous chair of the round table, and who was also lucky enough to attain the swordsmanship of Galahad, one of the 6 great swordsmen of the realm of the gods! 50% increase in understanding of sword techniques. 10% chance for sword strikes to deal critical damage. A 0.5% chance that sword piercings will cause a bleeding effect. An increase of 0.01% for practising the aura of the sword.] After the explanation of the skill, James stood still for a few seconds and then smiled and said, "Swordsmanship of the great Galahad for an Englishman? Hallelujah!" and closed each window in front of him. As soon as he closed those windows, another one was revealed: [Excellent! Congratulations on completing the mini-tutorial. It is possible to earn skill cards along with special quests, special-secret-normal achievements, secret boss monster hunts, epic monster hunts, etc. Select the difficulty of the main tutorial: Very Easy, Easy, Moderate, Hard, Hell. After you have made your choice, if you say [continue], the tutorial will begin.] As James looked at the window in front of him and read what was written, he considered his options. He had wanted to enter the tower for almost 4 years, he had heard people talk about becoming a god, but that was not what interested him. He just wanted to leave the reality he no longer felt and now he was given a choice. "Of course....I''ll choose the hardest one," James said to himself, and after tapping [Hell], he smiled and said, "Go on." With that, the whole area in front of him began to change, the whole area was painted black and the following appeared in front of him with white writing: [Good Luck.] ----- --- - Chapter 2 - 2: Hell Tutorial - --- ----- When James opened his eyes again, he realised that he was on a wall. The sounds of agonised shouting, metal clashing, cannons exploding and hundreds of growls echoed in his ears. While he was still trying to understand what was happening, a huge window appeared before his eyes: [Protect Persephone''s Statue Persephone, the precious daughter of Zeus and Demeter, left a statue in the tower many years ago. This statue provided perfect fertility to the huge city in which it was located. The precious statue of Persephone, the goddess of fertility, has protected this gigantic city for thousands of years, but it has also attracted a curse to the city. A curse that Persephone put without knowing it. Monsters are targeting the statue of the great goddess to enter the path of godhood. Eliminate the monster threat and protect the statue. Mission Reward: ? S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Mission Penalty: Death.] Before James could realise what was happening, a voice came from his right: "SIEGE TOWER!!!" Turning towards the man from where the voice came from, James saw where the man was pointing and saw two siege towers approaching the city walls. While he was trying to understand what was happening out of fear, the doors of the siege towers opened and green, short, ugly, smiling and strange creatures with strange bodies began to come out of them. These were goblins and their numbers were quite high. [Goblin (Level 5)] [Goblin (Level 3)] [Goblin (Level 8)] James seemed to freeze as he saw the flesh and blood monsters in front of him and realised that their level was many times higher than his own. One of the goblins, which had begun to attack the people on the wall, suddenly turned towards him and began to move slowly. Even as James realised that the focus was on him, he stayed where he was out of fear, he could feel his blood freeze. "Is that a tutorial? There are monsters many times stronger than me at the beginning of the tutorial, I can''t even imagine what will happen when I get near the end....it is hell." thought James, trying to move but failing. The goblin chuckled a little when it saw that James wasn''t trying to escape and then lunged at him, a huge blow was about to end his life when a sudden shout and a huge sword stabbed in front of the area James was at. "HUAAGGH!''" A huge man stood in front of James and held the goblin by the throat with his hand and lifted it into the air. "You piece of crap, are you the bastards who tried to approach Persephone''s statue?" As soon as the man spoke, his thick but low voice echoed off the wall. Without even shouting, that side of the battlefield paused for a second. "Kueghh..." The goblin, struggling to break free, had stopped where it was, and in a few seconds, the goblin had suffocated to death. "What are those levels even?" James realised that his blood had thawed and he could move. He was breathing deeply and trying to relax himself. Just then another window opened in front of him: [Rare Achievement Won! For the first time, meet someone who has received a blessing from the god. You get a chance to choose a card.] As James read the window and closed it, three cards appeared in front of him. The cards were [green], [blue] and [green] respectively. He, of course, reached for the blue card without thinking and took it. [Calm Mind (Rare) It''s easier to keep your sanity in dangerous situations.] "You are a smart man, high levels are not everything all the time but that does not mean you won''t be able to do anything to them! Go use your brain, use your body. GET UP SOLDIER!" James looked up from the ability he had gained with the voice he suddenly heard and then looked at the man in front of him: [Leno (Blessed by Persephone)(NPC)] "Yes, sir!" James suddenly pulled himself together and looked around, finding a sword with scratches on it he reached for it and gripped it tightly before looking back at Leno. "Well done soldier, now go and do your best to save this city blessed by the goddess!''" With Leno''s words, James seemed to realise what was happening around him. When he looked inside the city, he realised that the city was literally in smoke. Thousands of people were in the city, maybe tens of thousands of people were in the city, from the people running around to those trying to protect them. Still, James was sure of one thing, what he had to do now was not to freeze, but to go through this hellish tutorial. The more he killed the more he would win and he would finally be able to take that gamble: "Wait for me gacha!" James suddenly said and with that, he started down the stairs of the wall. There were already too many soldiers on the wall and the soldiers below looked like they needed help. The mission was clearly to protect the statue but he didn''t know if he was strong enough for that right now, that was why he had to get stronger, whatever he did had to be his goal right now. "Kyaaaa!" James looked up to where the scream had come from and saw one of the goblins coming through the city gate. He couldn''t quite understand why there were siege towers despite the shattered city gate, but that wasn''t something he needed to worry about right now. Looking towards the goblin, James saw the inscription on the monster and smiled. [Goblin (Level 2)] This was a monster he could handle, and knowing that made everything easier. Suddenly he lunged at the goblin and with a shoulder blow knocked the goblin to the ground. As the fallen goblin writhed in pain, James jumped on top of the goblin and raised his sword in the air and pierced the goblin''s head. The goblin died before it could even make a sound, revealing something James had not expected to see: [Common Achievement Won! For the first time ever, the kill achievement has been earned. Unfortunately, this achievement does not grant an ability. Instead, the tower will grant you [1 power stat] to congratulate you on your achievement. +1 Power.] As soon as he read what was written in the window in front of him, he felt something changed in his body, and when he looked at his arms, he could see them growing. "Th...thank you, Mr Knight, thank you very much!" James shook his head as he looked carefully at the woman screaming and saw the crying baby in her arms. The realism of it all reminded him once again: He might have left his previous life behind, but everything that was happening now was real, he was thinking it so, and if he failed, the statue might fall, and when it fell, the people here might fall to their deaths, including himself. The statue had to be protected. He had to protect the statue. Chapter 3 - 3: Courage James was trying to help other knights with each step he took. He had managed to kill almost 6 goblins so far, but there was no sign of levelling up. He hadn''t even realised that leveling up would be this difficult, if he was going to continue in this state he might actually die here. "I need to get more achievements, if I do that I can gain status points." James suddenly thought and with that, he stabbed the other goblin in front of him through the heart. "7" said James calmly, it was wonderful to see that he was no longer the same man he had been only ten minutes ago, the fact that he was improving every second gave him hope. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He was out of breath but he knew that if he stopped now his life would be over, that''s why he turned round and looked at the knights and the few hunters around and shouted "TAKE THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN TO SAFETY!" There were a lot of civilians around, the main purpose of the mission was clearly to protect the statue, and even if he was getting close to the statue, he still couldn''t do anything about leaving the civilians. He might have entered the tower, he might have gained good skills, he might even have been mad enough to choose the hellish difficulty for the tutorial, but he wasn''t going to do the dishonour of leaving defenceless people behind. Everything here was as likely to be real as it was to be a tutorial, and he didn''t want to look back tomorrow and find that he had travelled a path made of the blood of innocents. The knights and hunters paused for a few seconds when they heard what James had said, there was a huge horde of goblins still closing in on them. The corpses of knights and hunters on the ground made everything miserable. James, of course, was planning to run away from the goblins after everyone had moved away, he had incredible confidence in his ability to run. "Hunters, you are the people and demi-humans of the guild, your job is to protect the people and ours is to fend off the monsters, you have sacrificed enough for us, take the people to safety and we will stay." James had begun to stir as he heard these words coming from behind him, clearly aware of the sound of armour, despite all the bodies on the ground and at least two dozen goblins slowly coming towards them, these weak knights still wanted to stay here. "Take this, master knight, you don''t have armour, at least you have a shield." one of the hunters said suddenly and handed James a round wooden shield that was just over half a metre long. James just shook his head as he took the shield and looked at the hunters, a small smile formed on his face and then he turned back to the goblins saying "Persephone bless you". There were twelve of them, ranging from the rough-looking to the scrawny, from the scrawny to the huge, and from the huge to the frightened. Unlike the war within the city and the war within the city walls, this was a peaceful place, yet all was still at stake. "So, worthy knights, may Persephone enlighten your courage. Remember, courage is not being afraid, it is being afraid but still pushing yourself to beat your fears!" With James''s shout, all the knights charged forward, shouting, and the sounds of metal clashing reappeared on the field: ''Cling!'' ''Shing!'' ''RUAAAGH DISHONOURABLE GOBLIN!'' ''DUCK!'' Amidst the succession of metal sounds, sometimes some of the armour sounds paused and sometimes the sound of rotten flesh falling to the ground like a bag full of garbage could be heard. Both sides were taking casualties. James was facing a goblin that was a little bigger than normal goblins. [Warrior Goblin (Level 1)] James, who had stopped dead in his tracks when he saw that the goblin had another appendage, saw that another window had opened, recognisable on the right side of his eye: [Common Achivement Won! This is your first time seeing an evolved version of a race. This achievement is too common to give you an ability card. Instead, the tower congratulates you and grants you [1 power stat]. +1 Power.] As James quickly read and closed the window, he noticed the change in his body again, but he still couldn''t overcome his pause. Unlike the others, the goblin before him had armour and a helmet. His body was bigger, and his eyes were crazier. Even if he was scared, James was clearly aware that he could not stay where he was, holding the shield at chest level and gripping the sword in his right hand tightly. He had the great skill of Galahad''s Swordsmanship, he could do it. Suddenly James lunged at the goblin and tried to pierce it. The warrior goblin was surprised as if it had not expected this, but it managed to retreat, or so it thought. Even though the sword was tiny, it managed to pierce the warrior goblin in the shoulder. That was enough to bring the luck factor into play. Even if he was very unlucky, Galahad''s power would not let him down. [Penetration successful, the enemy will bleed continuously! 0.5% casualties per second.] James took a few steps back when he read this window, there was no reason for him to focus on the warrior goblin now. Bleeding continuously and losing 0.5% of life every second...this seemed to tell him that the warrior goblin would eventually die. Again, James wasn''t exactly willing to take any chances, the luck that had given him the chance to bleed was the same luck that had caused him to lose everything. Taking charge of his destiny was what he wanted. After his retreat, he realised that the light of life in the warrior goblin''s eyes had disappeared, and then he rushed at the warrior goblin with all his speed. The warrior goblin stumbled in fright and fell to the ground, presenting James with an open-attack opportunity. With a sudden swing of his sword, James slashed the warrior goblin''s throat and looked around at the other goblins as green blood rained down on him. He had taken a huge step towards becoming a god. Chapter 4 - 4: Gacha In Middle Of The Battlefield Seeing what had happened, the goblins were suddenly frightened and started to run away, but they did not know that the knights were coming towards them. Almost 17 goblins who were left behind just died. [Rare Achievement Won! Kill a member of an evolved race for the first time. You get to choose a card.] Without James having to close the window, the window closed itself and three cards appeared in front of him as usual. All three cards were blue. Without thinking, he took the rightmost card and then another window appeared in front of him. [Pierce(Rare-Upgradeable) If you haven''t learnt the beginnings and basics of sword techniques, you haven''t even used a sword! Piercing attacks and techniques will gain 1% attack power. To upgrade the rank of the skill, it is enough to survive a critical battle or have an epiphany on sword arts.] While he was standing with the happiness of gaining a new skill, another window opened in front of his eyes: [Levelled up. A random +1 stat point has been added to the [Agility] stat.] James had a perfect smile on his face as he read this window. He had killed 7 goblins and managed to kill a warrior goblin. He had also managed to gain skills and level up. He was glad that he had chosen the tutorial on Hell difficulty. On other difficulties, he might not have been able to see Leno and gain skills, or he might not have encountered a warrior goblin, but knowing that he did not regret his choice made him feel good. "My friends...." Amid all this happiness, the hoarse voice behind him caught his attention. Turning around, he saw that the surviving knights and the knights who had come to help were carrying the bodies. The battle was not over, and it was raging, but it was wonderful to see so many knights making their friends proud. "I don''t know exactly who Madam Persephone is, but her soldiers are truly honourable creatures," James said in his thoughts. At that very moment, something seemed to occur to him, despite all the monsters he had killed, there was an ability he had forgotten to control. [10x Gacha] As soon as he said these words inwardly, a huge screen opened in front of him. He was familiar with these images from the games he had played on Earth. "Gacha screen?" James muttered, he hadn''t even thought about the existence of these screens before because he knew there was no way he could use them at that moment. Things were different now though, he had killed 8 monsters, that should at least give him some credit, right? Looking at the big screen in front of him, he felt like he realised how random his gacha ability was. It seemed that it was necessary to have one right and ten rights to turn the gacha. It was like a classic gacha game. James was happy to know that he was going to work in a system he knew, unlike his life, he had always been lucky in gacha games and that was a good thing...at least he thought so. He was trying to realise if he had a right when he saw what was written on the top right of the screen: [80 Spins]. When he looked at the dialling rights, he hesitated for a moment, he thought that he had misread what was written in front of him because of the adrenaline he was experiencing and rubbed his eyes, but nothing changed. "Didn''t I kill 8 monsters?" questioned James and suddenly something came to his mind, he could feel his heart smiling. "10x Gacha...Every monster I kill will give me 10 rights. Isn''t this thing....too powerful?" After these words, the wheel in the screen in front of James, who touched the [ten-turn] option without stopping, started to spin, after almost 10 seconds of spinning, the wheel stopped spinning, and then a card appeared in the space between the spin options and the wheel just below the wheel. As soon as he touched the card, his eyes were dazzled and there were exactly 10 cards in front of him. James thought that he would choose cards again and realised that he could find the valuable ones. He rubbed his eyes again after looking at the cards continuously, it was obvious that each card was green in colour. "Holy crap," James thought, "Have I lost my chance at Gacha?" but there was no point in crying, after all, crying was not going to change the colour of the cards. That''s why he touched the cards one after the other and waited for what was coming to him. After a few seconds, he was disappointed again. [Beef jerky 7x] That''s seven green cards. Of the seven cards, he officially only got beef jerky. At least the other three weren''t too bad. [Auto-healing Bandage(1x)(Lowest Tier)] [Solid Iron Sword(1x)(Lowest Tier)] [Steel Breastplate(1x)(Lowest Tier)] James thought it would do him no good to be upset at the moment and then turned around and asked, "Would you like some food?" It made the most sense to give the beef jerky to the knights, he didn''t feel hungry at all. "Go on then," James muttered to himself and then pressed the [turn of ten] option once more, he still had 70 more to go. --- S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. -- - "Haha...hahaha...." James was literally on his knees, swords, dried meat packets and more lying on the ground in front of him. He had used exactly 60 rights and only 1 useful thing had come to his hand: [Void Ring (Unusual) Erases your presence for 10 seconds, up to two uses per day. Your enemies will not be able to sense you, no matter where they are or even if they are in contact with you. This is a set item: 1/3] This was the only decent item James had ever won. Aside from the food, drink and rubbish that was constantly thrown at him, it was the only thing he could win. It was a set piece. If there was a ring, maybe there was a necklace and an earring, or James was stupid and only had two more rings to find. However, James realised very well that he only had 10 more spins left, he could go around killing more monsters, but what he wanted now was to get his hands on something that would make killing monsters easier. With this hope, he moved his finger to the [ten-turn] option and closed his eyes. Good things had to come out of this ten. Chapter 5 - 5: Legendary Sword Clarent "God, Buddha, Odin, Zeus, Satan, whatever is up there, I beg you to let me win something good just once please!" James had been praying for almost fifteen seconds, clearly afraid to open his eyes and touch the cards. He took a deep breath and suddenly opened his eyes, saw the same card scene in front of him and touched the card. At that moment, what he had hoped for was realised: "I have a golden card...yellow...I have won a legendary card." James could clearly see the yellow card shimmering between the green and blue cards. He didn''t need to rub his eyes or anything, he could see everything clearly and distinctly. "Please...something good," James said in a low, steady voice as he slowly reached out and touched the card. A weapon fell in front of James after the deep light that had suddenly risen in the area where the knights were. [Clarent(Replica-Legendary---) King Arthur''s sword of peace. Called the coward''s sword, this legendary sword is the supreme sword used to award knights their titles. It is also known as the sword used to kill King Arthur. A symbol of peace, the sword pierced the heart of the King. This sword is a heavy replica, its powers reduced by 98%. It provides a 20% damage bonus to slashing blows. It provides a 5% damage bonus to piercing attacks. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Allows you to command knights of honour (Active for an hour). Grants 50% charisma to the wielder. There is a 50% chance of covering the targets it attacks with fire.] "Haha...HAHAHAHAHA! I won Clarent...This must be a dream...I won one of the King''s swords!" shouted James, he really did not expect such a thing. However, it became clear why cards of red colour and above never appeared. If a yellow card could give someone such enormous power, what could a black card give James? Even if red was inferior to yellow, wouldn''t it still have an enormous effect? James managed to get to his feet, even though he was about to go mad, he had only equipped himself with sturdy armour from the trash items in front of him and had sent a few food items to the sub-space that had come to him from the system, the smile on his face made him look like he was not on a battlefield. "Mr Knight, are you all right?" One of the knight captains who had come to help had heard the news and had heard how bravely James had rescued people, and his shouting now must have alarmed the knights around him. "Forgive my rudeness, sir! I was just thankful to be alive and useful," James said, and with that, the knight captain nodded in relief and then put his hand on James'' shoulder. "I''m proud of you soldier, and that sword...what is that, your magic or something? Or did you win a gift from the gods, honourable knights can win such things after all." James was happy when the knight captain said these words, it was a relief to have a system in place that the knights could rely on even in strange situations, after all, he did not wish to face heroes like Leno in addition to the enemy monsters. However, the knights seemed to have finished resting and gathering and burning the dead. Every one of them stood at attention, ready to move. When James noticed their badly damaged armour, he pointed to the armour he had left on the ground and said that they could use them, that each one had its own magic. The battle was in full swing and James, who was now incredibly strong, could continue to fight, he had very little to fear. The group began to move forward, there were screams, shouts of fear and growls of monsters as images of large and tall beings could be seen in the distance. "TROLLS!!!" shouted one of the knights, pointing with his hand to where the figures were. Almost a dozen of these large figures were walking around. Some of them were attacking those around them, while others were spinning around and looking around like fools. It was obvious that the intelligence of these creatures was not high, but what was written on their heads was very dangerous. "Cave Troll (Level 9)" "Cave Troll (Level 12)" "Cave Troll (Level 6)" Even though the levels were too high for James, he had already learnt that it wasn''t all about the levels. He was able to defeat the warrior goblin, a superior evolution of the goblin. On top of that, thanks to his ability to calm his heart, he didn''t even think about being scared, maybe a little stressed, but there was no compulsion not to cross this obstacle. "Let''s go, captain, if we don''t stop those bastards, who will!" James said suddenly, and with that, the Clarent in his hand started to glow, and the sword''s ability seemed to start working. "THAT''S RIGHT SOLDIER, FULL SPEED AHEAD, TIME TO DESTROY THOSE BASTARDS!" The knight captain''s voice literally echoed through the collapsed buildings as every single person began to make their way out, including the hunters who were hiding and even the knights who were too tired to continue. Even some of the civilians were coming out with clubs and knives and everything else. James didn''t realise what was going on, he was just looking for a reason to dive at the monsters, he never thought that the power of the sword was so huge. I mean, technically, Clarent was Excalibur''s twin, and that made it a huge powerhouse, but still, the knights were getting very, very fired up. Still, this was going to work in James'' favour, after all, there was not a great distance between them and the statue, even if he did not know exactly how to complete the task, even if he had no idea what he would face, a voice inside James was telling him to reach the statue as soon as possible. This meant they had to get past the cave trolls. Chapter 6 - 6: Power of the Great Sword The assembled populace began to overwhelm the surrounding goblins. Never before in the history of the city had such a thing happened, there were of course ex-soldiers among the civilian population, but never before had the people tried to fight alongside those who were many times stronger than them, like knights. It was like a new era. Clarent seemed to have perfect authority, as if his command power had become a force of will and he had convinced the knight captain. After arriving at the area where the Cave trolls were, the trolls around seemed to have become even crazier. The cave trolls, who had previously fought with a maximum of 5 or 6 people, now saw a huge army coming at them. At least a hundred knights and hunters were marching towards them, and fast. "FORWARD!" the knight captain suddenly shouted, and the trolls seemed stunned by the shout. The Cave trolls may have been stupid enough to have difficulty understanding what was going on around them, but the fact remained that they were still monsters. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. All the soldiers were on the attack, James and the knight captain in the lead. Every strange sound of battle rose from the field, including sword blows, the sound of arrows piercing the air, and even the incantations of the mage hunters who had managed to cast spells and restrict the trolls'' movements just a little. James could realise in a rather gigantic way that his blood was boiling and that the adrenaline was making him even worse. His movements were literally restricted, he could feel the sweat pouring down his face, the immense heat provided by his armour and the immense pressure of the replica of Clarent''s great aura in his hand. He could feel this immense pressure as well as the troll in front of him, the aura emanating from Clarent was enormous. James realised that the troll was hesitating and suddenly attacked. His steps were not very fast but each step was calculated, he was being careful and not taking too dangerous steps because of the possibility of the troll attacking. After the troll, which was almost 3 metres long, was at the level of his legs, James lifted it deeply and made a quick cut to target the troll''s tendons. The cut must have been successful because a huge mass of blood suddenly gushed out from the area where the tendons were. "RUUAAGHHHH!!!" The Cave troll''s instantaneous shout echoed through the area. The troll had fallen to one knee and was literally screaming in pain, but it was all in vain, a monster could never be forgiven, and James had to continue the mission. James, who had managed to climb up the troll''s knee by leaping, lifted Clarent with both hands and then pierced the troll''s head. "Guuuuuuu..." The troll fell to the ground with a small thud and James, who had lost his balance, fell with it a little further away. James was uninjured, but his arm started to ache a little, though he didn''t seem to be able to get up for a few seconds. When the knight captain came to his side, he took James by the hand and pulled him to his feet. The smiles on the captain''s and the other men''s faces were priceless, each of their eyes shining with pride. At that very moment, a window appeared in front of James'' eyes: [Rare Achievement Won! Earn the respect of 100 Knights. You have won the chance to choose a card.] As soon as James read the window he saw in front of him, the classic image reappeared. There were three cards in front of him. These cards, which had the colours [purple], [blue] and [blue] respectively, of course, told James what he had to choose. James, of course, for some reason unknown to him, could see the colours of the cards as usual, he didn''t even know who to ask for the reason, but whatever it was, it certainly helped him a great deal. Touching the purple card, another window appeared in front of James: [Auto Heal (Unusual+) This ability would allow the user to heal automatically, even if it is incredibly slow. Healing does not cure amputations.] James smiled as he read the specs of the ability and realised that the slight pain in his arm from the fall had already disappeared. Even though the ability was very slow, the fact that it was of such high quality seemed to show why it came from a purple card, a unusual-grade card. "Let''s keep going captain, the hunters and knights have already taken down 4 of them, with the one we killed 5 are gone, 7 more!" As soon as James said that, Clarent glowed again and the knight captain''s eyes sparkled with a light again. "THAT''S RIGHT! SOLDIERS FORWARD WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT!" When James heard this shout, he looked at Clarent with a smile and then said, "So you''re mind-controlling, are you?" The effect of the sword on people was mind-boggling, and it was a perfect coincidence that the sword was given to him by the gacha on such a mission, that is, in this city where the knights had a huge number. The Tower certainly seemed to want him to fight. James was ready for it. "ATTACK!" "WIZARDS CLOSE IT!" "ATTACK! MAKE SURE TO BURN THEIR SOULS!!!" The battle cries and shouts were incredibly high quality and reassuring. James was filled with confidence that he would not be injured in any way, it was perfect that he had found such a time to test the sword. ----- After only 10 minutes, all the cave trolls in the area had been killed. James had managed to take care of one troll on his own and had managed to kill the remaining six. The trolls in the square were destroyed and the window that James had been waiting for a while finally appeared in front of him: [You have levelled up! A random +1 status point has been added to your [Luck] stat.] James smiled as he read what was in the window in front of him and said, "So even my luck can increase, I was scared to death." The fact that he could get stronger like this was excellent news. Chapter 7 - 7: High Chimera (1) James and the knights travelling with him had finally made it to the statue. James realised that the moment he saw the statue of Persephone, his heart skipped a beat. He suddenly wondered if he had ever seen such a beautiful woman. Her golden hair and blue eyes resembled the sky and the sun, and the sharpness of her gaze seemed to represent her authority. It was only a simple statue of Persephone, the queen of the underworld, but even that seemed omnipotent. [The main part of the mission has begun! You who succeeded in reaching the statue! This time you have to succeed in your mission to protect the statue, the enemies are tearing down the city barricades, the majority of the people are hiding underground, and they... the monsters are coming! Protect the statue, no matter what.] James held Clarent tightly as he read the mission and then shouted to the knights around him: "WATCH OUT, THEY''RE COMING!" With that, the monsters approaching in the distance became visible. Someone inside the monsters was fighting and coming towards where James was with them. "Captain Leno!" one of the knights shouted, and the morale of the whole group soared. James was amazed to see the man''s fighting stance, he didn''t even need to use his sword, every time his fist hit the monster, the monster''s body seemed to explode. His strength must have been at an excellent level. However, Leno was not the only one who attacked, there was something else chasing Leno from behind, it must have been the cause of the scars on Leno. It looked like Leno had been massively injured. Even if the bloodstains on James were from goblins and trolls, Leno must have fought against something much more dangerous, something that was still chasing him. As Leno, the powerful thing and the army behind them drew closer to the statue, and therefore closer to James and the knights, a window appeared that made James tremble with fear: [Leno (Level 46)] [High Chimera (Level 37)] James was frozen with fear behind these windows, and another window opened in front of his eyes to calm him down a little: [Unique Achievement Won! Encounter a superior evolved race for the first time. You have won a card selection.] James, who had only one card in front of him after reading the window he saw in front of him, took the card without thinking and a new window opened in front of him: [Guaranteed Attack Card (Unique++++) This card will ensure that any of your attacks (spell, aura) will hit the target guaranteed. 1 use.] As he read the window in front of him, it became clear that this time it was not an ability or an item that had been gained, but rather a card to make an attack that could reach the enemy completely. James was scared out of his mind despite his Calm Mind ability, he hadn''t stopped shaking even a little bit, he needed to talk to Leno somehow, if he could hold the High Chimera for even a few seconds he could land a guaranteed attack on him. He wasn''t very strong, but if you cut the heart or throat of any living creature, it should die, right? The beast army was closing in and James suddenly pulled himself together, raised his sword and shouted with enormous courage, this time without even leaving room for the knight captain: "FORWARD PERSEPHONE''S BLESSED ONES, FORWARD CAPTAIN LENO''S KNIGHTS, FORWARD GOD''S FOLLOWERS, FORWARD TO DEATH AND SUNSET!!!" With this shout, all the knights began to run. There was no end to the arrows and spells flying in the air. A perfect mana was travelling in the air and the ground was trembling because of so much hustle and bustle. After the sudden sound of metal clashing, James had already managed to kill three goblins and was ready to kill more. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. There were almost 150 metres between him and the place where Leno and High Chimera fought, but there were dozens of monsters in this 150-metre area. Moreover, these monsters were not only goblins and trolls. Small Chimera and slime-like monsters were trying to walk in between. A strange group of people were here for the sole purpose of targeting one thing: A statue of the Goddess. James knew that this was just a tutorial, but the fact that the infernal challenge was so monumental didn''t make him squirm. After all, what kind of reward would it bring him to complete such a challenge without dying? With this excitement and the fear and adrenaline provided to him by the huge army in front of him, he continued to take his steps quickly and swung the sword in his hand, Clarent, at the monsters with full effort. "Skyaaaa!!!" The moment Clarent cut the arm of one of the goblins, the goblin started to burn, while James was trying to understand what was happening, he suddenly smiled and shouted "GOOD JOB DEAR CLARENT!". His sword was trying to clear his path as if he wanted him to live. The goblin was moving left and right, crashing into other monsters and causing them to burn, in just a short time, 9 monsters whose bodies had been burnt to ashes were stuck to the ground. "Twelve monsters have already fallen...120 rights? After thinking these words, he managed to pass through the monster corpses and dodge all the remaining monsters thanks to the flames that formed around them. He managed to see James Leno and High Chimera very clearly. The two were fighting in a huge empty circle. None of the knights around dared to join the battle, and the monsters that tried to join were hissed back by High Chimera. The scene was perfect. The sound of the Chimera''s claws colliding with Leno''s gigantic sword sounded like serial music. The blood flowing from the duo''s bodies seemed to draw a picture on the ground. It was like looking at a live painting. "MASTER LENO!" shouted James suddenly, he had to be quick, it would be much easier to stop the monsters that had lost their commander, he had to bring down the High Chimera. "YOU!" shouted Leno, he had seen James before. Even if he didn''t know who this young man was, something in his heart told him that he had to be protected. No one knew what was going on. Chapter 8 - 8: High Chimera (2) "MASTER LENO I BEG YOU PLEASE KEEP THE BEAST IN PLACE FOR A FEW SECONDS!" shouted James. Leno, who was already struggling to fight, continued to fight as if he didn''t know how to do it, he didn''t think it would work, he was a great warrior, the only one chosen by Persephone, he couldn''t put anyone in danger for no reason, and this thought just lingered on the surface, until suddenly the voices rang in his ears: "COMMANDER LENO PLEASE LISTEN TO HIM!" "PLEASE, COMMANDER!" "I''M SURE HE''LL HELP YOU!" Leno seemed to be trying to understand what was happening. He had never seen the Knights like this in almost a month since the war had started, almost a month of constant defence of the city, but in just one day the barriers had collapsed and the city gate had been breached. This had caused Leno to see a lot of deaths, even such an excellent commander was about to lose his mind, but this young man just to his left somehow gave him perfect confidence, on top of that, the fact that the knight captains around him were shouting at Leno to trust James gave the commander a strange feeling. "Oh....this feeling...I can understand it," Leno suddenly thought. He clearly remembered the last time he had felt this bright feeling of excitement. "Lady Persephone....you want me to listen to him?" said Leno in an incredibly small voice. With that, a sudden energy began to rise in the centre of the battlefield. Most of the monsters fell to the ground and the knights were shaken. High Chimera had to jump back a few steps and fear filled his eyes. Leno was burning with an incredible aura. Unlike Persephone''s hair, this golden image seemed to resemble not the sun but the golden wheat in the harvest season. Nevertheless, while this image frightened the hearts of all monsters, it managed to set the hearts of friends on fire. The fallen monsters began to be killed one by one. It had all happened so fast, perhaps over three hundred monsters had been killed in just fifteen seconds, and every one of them had been thanks to whatever Leno had done. Yet there was a sudden pessimism in James'' heart because he didn''t think such power would come for free. He didn''t believe that he couldn''t. "I mustn''t let what you''ve done go to waste!" James thought, and with that came the expected shout: "GET READY YOUNG MAN!" The moment Leno uttered those words, he had reached the High Chimera with incredible speed and pinned him by the shoulders onto Persephone''s statue. It was so fast that Leno managed to reach the statue even though they were almost 200 metres away from where they were fighting. "SKYAAAA!!!" High Chimera was screaming but to no effect, trying to injure Leno with its claws but to no effect. Leno literally wouldn''t let go of the High Chimera. James followed them and soon arrived at the statue, took out the card from his sub-space and tore it. Realising that his sword was glowing, James grabbed Clarent incredibly tightly and then ran towards the High Chimera. He used the ability from the void ring and accelerated his speed. However, there was so much blood on the ground that his footprints were leaving footprints where he stepped, his eyes were shining with perfect determination and his blood was exploding with perfect adrenaline. "PIERCE!" James suddenly shouted and plunged Clarent into the High Chimera''s throat. Even though Leno couldn''t understand what was happening, when he looked at the sword stabbed into the throat of the High Chimera struggling for life, which he was holding in front of him right next to him, he could see a power just like his own blessing. It was obvious that the sword was blessed, and the possibility that the one belonging to this sword might also be blessed made his heart race, but unfortunately, just like the High Chimera, his life was nearing its end. The High Chimera suddenly burst into flames and stared at the statue where it was impaled with a sword like Clarent. He was trying to get rid of the sword, but every time he tried to touch Clarent, his screams increased several notches and his claws dried up and fell to the ground. "What''s going on?" James muttered calmly, as the sword''s description said nothing of the sort. After a short time, the expected happened, the High Chimera stopped moving and windows opened in front of James that he had not expected to see: [Unique Achievement Won! Hunt a member of a superior evolved race for the first time. You get a chance to choose a card.] [Rare Achievement Won! Witness the Blessed one''s fight for life. You have earned the chance to choose a card.] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve Leveled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve levelled up!] [You''ve leveled up!] James was trying to close the windows, two cards had already formed in front of him and on top of that he had managed to pass 12 levels in a row, a huge number, even with all the monsters he had killed he realised how difficult it was to level up. He had no idea how many times the High Chimera had evolved and reached that level, but since he had managed to jump 12 levels in a row, this monster he had managed to kill must have been something of enormous power. "4 points went to the Agility stat...3 points went to the Luck stat and 5 points went to the Endurance stat, with James could feel the muscles in his whole body changing again, his body ached tremendously, it was as if all his muscles were changing. Meanwhile, looking at the cards in front of him, James realised that this time, unlike before, there were three cards in front of him. There were 3 purple cards from the Rare achievement and 2 red and one purple card from the Unique achievement. James couldn''t quite understand what was going on, only one card from his previous achievement had popped out, and he was very confused. However, he realised that he shouldn''t be worrying about it right now. He chose a purple card and a red card, and two items appeared in his hand. This was something he had never expected. Chapter 9 - 9: Administrator Leyla [Void Necklace(Unique) The presence of this necklace will protect you from enemies trying to search you. Increases concealment by 70%. This is a set item: 2/3] [Void Pen(Ender) This item grants you a special ability to speak into people''s minds up to three times a day, to use the ability to simply think of the item by its full name and say [use]. This is a set item: 3/3] As soon as he put on the necklace and put the pen into his sub-space, James could completely feel that the area had changed, and after this momentary sensation, another window appeared in front of him: [Ability Gained [Inventory(Legendary++++)] Thanks to the combination of void items, an incredibly large sub-space [Inventory] was gained.] It was only then that James, who had suddenly fallen to the ground after these windows, realised how tired he was. It was as if all the adrenaline in his body had suddenly disappeared, his eyes were blurred and his whole body was covered with perfect pain. Just as he was about to close his eyes and let himself rest, a sudden voice brought him to his senses: "COMMANDER LENO!" James, who had suddenly fixed his eyes on Leon, tried to understand what was happening. Standing up and running towards Leno, James realised what had happened. Leno was vomiting blood in a gigantic way. His eyes looked like they had drained his life force. This huge man now looked smaller than everyone else. There were still the sounds of monsters being hunted and the voices of the knights in full swing, but the calmest place in the entire battlefield seemed to be the place where victory had been won. "Master Leno..." James said suddenly, obviously upset. "This...good young man...I don''t even know your name but thank you, I was sure it was all over but your help saved the people, saved the hunters, saved the knights, saved my lady''s statue." Leno''s words pierced everyone''s heart like a dagger. James had never expected to feel so sorry for someone he had never met, but seeing this man with such a huge honour start to die seemed to be a huge blow to him. "I...I''m...sorry, there had to be another way, forgive me," James said, his thoughts racing: sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "If I had used the ring, would I have been able to hunt the High Chimera? No, the two of them were too fast, it was hard to even see them collide..." "It''s not your fault, it was the best thing to do...my life is nothing compared to the statue of Lady Persephone," said Leno, he thought it was a sacred thing to die for his goddess. "I''m ....." James said suddenly, he was about to say something but at that very moment everything came to a halt. James, who was trying to look around carefully and quickly, realised what was happening at that very moment. The time around him had stopped, the image that started to disappear from the horizon seemed to tell everything. The mission was complete. "Thank you for everything," James said suddenly, looking at Leno, whose life force had diminished in his eyes, it was sad enough to think that he was dead. What comforted him was that nothing was real, none of it was real, was it? "Congratulations Mr James, it was a great pleasure and honour to watch you." James suddenly heard a voice speaking towards him and turned his head sharply in that direction. There stood a woman with dark blue hair, teal eyes, horns and wings, pointed ears and white skin, wearing a blue dress. When James scratched his head as if he did not understand what was happening, the woman suddenly spoke. "Nice to meet you, Mr James, my name is Leyla, and I am one of the managers of the tower, you can say that I am one of the administrators of this tower, a high-ranked one. What a pleasure to see the person chosen by Chaos himself." James, whose eyes widened at these words, took a good look at the woman in front of him and then said, "One of the tower managers? Chaos? Can you explain a little more clearly, please?" James had not yet recovered from Leno''s collapse, so the more he remembered that image, the more he was upset and this was affecting him badly, it would not be a good thing for him to be confused at the moment. "Yes, I am the one who invited you to the tower, and yes Chaos...you call it by another name, but it is enough if you know him as one of the creators," Leyla said in reply. "Well, I don''t want to be rude, but I don''t really care about any of this right now, I have a few questions." James suddenly said. Leyla looked at this man for a few seconds as if she did not expect these words and then smiled and said, "Of course, please go ahead." "This place I''m fighting in...it''s instructive, it''s all a lie isn''t it, it''s like a game, it''s just a super realistic experience, it''s instructive after all isn''t it?" James'' questions had wiped the smile off Leyla''s face, she didn''t seem to expect to hear such questions in the more instructive part of the tower. "Not really, Mr James. Everything you saw was real. The people you fought alongside, the monsters you killed, the civilians you saved, the Leno you saw die, and the High Chimera you managed to kill in an astonishing way. They were all real." It was possible to see the surprise on James'' face when Leyla gave these answers. "So... I saved people... a city?" James suddenly said, more of a way of comforting himself than a question. Leyla''s face looked incredibly sour after these words as if there was a hidden answer, and this answer was something that James did not know, or even if he knew it, it would hurt him. "This thing....those humans and half-humans...You couldn''t save them, remember this is just a tutorial. No matter how many people are summoned to the tower, whenever one of them chooses the [hell] challenge, these people always go on that bad day without any memory." "I beg your pardon? Are you kidding me? How could you do this to them? Why doesn''t Lady Persephone try to stop it?" James suddenly snapped and shouted at Leyla, but what he was about to hear was none of what he had expected. "It''s not that she doesn''t...she can''t." Chapter 10 - 10: You Are The Only One Who Passed "It''s not that she doesn''t...she can''t." Leyla''s words seemed to leave a bigger question mark in James'' mind. "Those people, they are the people and creatures who betrayed the goddess, the people, not the monsters, destroyed the statue. Every one of them was cursed by the tower itself. Except for Leno, a few knight captains and hunters, every one of them is completely cursed, their souls are being destroyed more and more with each death." James'' legs had practically stopped working when Leyla uttered these words, his body seemed to remind him of his fatigue. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "The tower...is far more criminal and dark than I expected, but it is not like I don''t understand what the tower did. The criminals should be punished, after all, the law is full of loopholes even if it works concretely." James said, even though he was sad, it still made him sad that Leno was always experiencing these things even if he didn''t know it. Acting as if something suddenly came to his mind, James grabbed his chin and said, "At least Leno must not have died every time, considering the people who cleaned the hell difficulty." Leyla tilted her head a little when she heard these words and then said, "I don''t know what you mean." James paused for a few seconds after these words and asked, "Madam...How many people chose this challenge?" in amazement. "Fourteen hundred and twelve people," Leyla replied. "How many...managed to pass?" asked James, hoping that he hadn''t thought of the answer correctly. Leyla smiled at this question but said "One. You are the only one who passed." in a serious manner. James put his hands to his head and rubbed his face, all this information seemed to overwhelm him. "By the way, wouldn''t you like to receive the reward for completing your mission?" Leyla suddenly said. James looked at Leyla as if he had completely forgotten about it and then said, "Please." With that, Leyla raised her hand a little and opened her palm, causing a window to open in front of James: [Gold Master (Legendary++++) Each monster the user kills will earn them gold. This gold can be used to trade with NPCs, players, and gods.] James grimaced when he read this ability, he couldn''t understand how this ability could be ranked Legendary++++. "I can see the confusion on your face, Mr James, but rest assured, you can only earn gold from guild quests on the floors or special quests like this one. Unfortunately, the reward for this quest was not gold, so you could not earn gold, but with this ability, it is not difficult for you to become one of the richest people in the tower, and you will be happy to know that this ability was created for you." As soon as Leyla''s words passed James''s ears, it was possible to see the silent happiness on his face, maybe he was not speaking, but James''s eyes were dancing. "Thank you then," James said gently and then started to speak again with a small cough: "I have a question. About Clarent. After the sword sliced through the neck of the High Chimera, the monster tried to pull it out by holding the sword, but every time, the monster''s claws dried up and started to disappear. I don''t understand what''s going on, I mean, the sword burns the monsters, I understand that, but there was no explanation about them holding the sword." James''s questions must have been very high quality because Leyla nodded her head as if in approval. "Look, Mr James. This tower is alive, every single part of it. A very high number of floors, an infinite number of regions, an infinite number of processes and creatures from different worlds, universes and realities live in this tower. You earthlings are not the only creatures trying to become God." Leyla smiled and took a deep breath after saying this, and then continued her speech: "In that case, here''s what you need to know. Gods can choose you, just like the creator Chaos, who is literally the highest-level godly being, a creator. NPCs can choose you. Human friends and even enemies can choose you. This means that mystical beasts, armour, fairies and weapons can choose you." "Clarent is one of the holiest swords in existence. It was one of the swords of King Arthur, leader of the Round Table and leader of Britain. It was literally the sword that gave the knights their honour and rank. It was a perfect-looking sword made of volcanic stone." "Can you understand? Clarent chose you even though it was just a replica. It''s not your [10x Gacha] ability that gave you this sword, but Clarent''s true form, King Arthur himself." James didn''t know what to say after these words, he kept blinking his eyes and didn''t know whether to smile or faint. "King Arthur...chose me? Why?" "Can''t you see?" A pure-blood Englishman, about to commit suicide, is summoned to the tower by an order from Chaos, whereupon he acquires the sword arts of a holy swordsman like Galahad. The Black and Yellow cards are not like the others, they only give the user the abilities or items that best suit them. Galahad did not give you that ability. The Tower saw you as someone with enough honour to have Galahad''s power that the Tower chose you." "An honour so great has been bestowed upon you that you cannot even know it. So Clarent chose you while you were with King Arthur, and the replica was given to you by King Arthur himself. You, James Arthur Black, have been chosen, and you can be sure that this is the most important thing for the tower. Everywhere you step, there will be creatures trying to be chosen by the tower. Even most of the gods and legendary heroes were like that." "This means that if anyone other than the one chosen by the holy sword tries to hold it with evil deeds, it will burn, and the volcanic essence containing the essence of the sword will dry up the person holding it until they die." "Remember James, you may have chosen to enter the tower to escape reality, but now that you are here, you have a destiny to write, the destiny of yours, you can rise as high as you can and go beyond eternity. You can become one of the gods whose stories you have heard." "You have been chosen." Chapter 11 - 11: The First Floor These two words would be the most James would hear from gods, mystical beasts and rulers in the entire time he would be climbing the tower. James, who had another question in mind at that moment, shook his head carefully and then said, "The first time I got a Unique achievement, unlike the other achievements, only one card fell in front of me as if someone wanted me to defeat the High Chimera." This question made Leyla smile as if it was a question she had never expected, and she revealed the following answer to James: "You have attracted the attention of many of the Olympus Gods. Of course, you have the attention of many Gods and Goddesses, but Olympus is looking at you carefully. Hermes didn''t want you to die let''s say." James smiled and said "I''m glad, they are the only gods you know something about from my world, although I do know something about people like Odin, but it''s nice to have so much help...I should go now, I need to rest." S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was time to go, he wanted to go somewhere to rest as soon as possible because he realised that he could faint at any moment, and he did not want that. That''s why James, who had stood up, bowed his head and then said, "Thank you very much for your help and explanations, madam, I have learnt a lot thanks to you, I will try to live worthy of what I have learnt." Hearing this, Leyla smiled and then said, "You are a good person James, but remember that not everyone can be trusted, never forget this while climbing the tower, goodbye for now. Let the destiny show us if we can meet again." James shook his head and closed his eyes after these words, and Leyla, who stayed behind, said the following words: "So this is the one you have chosen, Lord Chaos, since this is the first time you have personally summoned someone, the eyes of many gods will be on him, especially your daughter Nyx and your son Erebus, I hope you will not disappoint him and he will not disappoint you. He wants to rest, huh? There are very few places to rest in the tower, I hope he doesn''t fall into the illusion and can live...." ----- ----- James opened his eyes to find himself in a room. There was a bathroom in front of his eyes, a bed to his right and nothing else in the room, it was like some sort of recreational facility. He immediately stripped off his armour and sent each of them to his inventory, throwing his belongings aside and jumping into the shower, turning the water on full blast. After all he had been through, having clean water touching his body reminded him that he was alive, and at that moment, a window opened in front of his eyes: "[Legendary Achievement Won! Get the attention of 1000 Gods. You get to choose a card.] James closed all his private areas as soon as he read the window in front of him and then said "Gimme a break!", he was strangely embarrassed by the possibility that the gods were watching him. Being chosen by someone like Chaos, as the administrator had said, had worked out in James'' favour in an unbelievably gigantic way, because James had earned a Legendary achievement just for attracting the attention of the gods. As James touched the card in front of him, a key formed in front of him and suddenly fell to the ground, he couldn''t understand what it was, but as soon as he picked up the key, the window that appeared in front of him seemed to tell him what was happening: [Catacomb Key (Legendary++) When this key reaches a certain number of fragments, it will lead the user to a mysterious dungeon with great rewards. To complete the key''s extract, 3 copies of the key are required. Copies possessed are : 1/3] James knew he had to finish his shower and go to sleep after all that had happened, so he quickly finished and got out of the shower. He saw the thin clothes lying on the bed and then put them on and lay down on the bed, after only a few seconds his eyes closed and he fell asleep. ----- ----- When James opened his eyes, he realised that everything was dark. He could feel his body, so there shouldn''t be a problem from this side. [Welcome! Congratulations on finishing the tutorial, Mr James Arthur Black. We are honoured to inform you that you have arrived on the first floor of the tower. I am Emma, one of the tower''s sub-administrators, and it is my job to let you know what is going on. From now on I will be responsible for every window that is sent to you except for special occasions, I am proud to say that I want to get on well.] James rolled his head as he read the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and asked worriedly, "I thought this was a resting place, what''s going on?" "[This is the first floor immediately after the tutorial, sir, it''s called [sea of rascals]. This is known as the place where users and players earn their classes. Players choose the path they want and go that way. It is best to be careful, though, as there are sure to be trials along the way. The more difficult the path you follow, the harder it will be to deny the deepest desires of your heart. Good luck!] When James read the other window opposite, the place he had woken up suddenly lit up. He could clearly see that he was in the bed he had slept in. It was up to him where to go. There was some kind of remote control on the bed, and on the remote control, there were 8 buttons. This button seemed to indicate which way to go. When James pressed one of the buttons, he moved slowly to the right and his path was illuminated. When he pressed another button to go backwards, he realised that he was where he had just been, because nowhere else was illuminated and the illuminated path was extinguished. It was a gamble, James thought, but he closed his eyes and then breathed deeply as he realised that there must be a clue. James had to find the dangerous path. Chapter 12 - 12: Sea of Rascals Because of the darkness, his body seemed to have lost count of how many minutes had passed, he realised there was nothing he could do, and then he opened his eyes. What he saw was not what he expected. Like the grades on the cards he had chosen, there were the same colours here. 6 paths in total. In the colours green, blue, purple, red, yellow and black. It was like just because he was focused he could see them. James, of course, immediately realised what was going on and looked straight ahead at the black path. It seemed very easy to distinguish the black path thanks to the colours the other paths showed him. James, who had started to move forward by using the remote control, seemed to have the mentioned tests in front of him. Still, what he saw seemed to make him question whether this path was the black path, the divine path. "Ummm...I don''t think these are my desires at all. I mean, I like dancing and I''m pretty good at it, but since when did this become my desire?" As soon as James said that, he started to focus on the images in front of him. He was dancing with someone, someone whose face he could not see at all, but it did not take him long to recognise her. "Lady Leyla?" As soon as James realised who she was, his face flushed slightly and he shouted as if he were a child, "WE''RE TRYING TO BE GODS, WHAT THE FUCK IS THE PROBLEM WITH THIS TOWER!" In his mind, this test was going to be quite difficult. Maybe he could see a large sum of money, maybe his ex-lover, maybe images of him living a perfect life, but no, the tower was showing him illusions of him dancing with one of the tower managers. Having managed to recover his nerve and calmed down, he pressed the buttons again to move forward and this time he saw that he was on a Ferris wheel with Leyla, he immediately threw the remote back on the bed and then shouted "I''M NOT A PERVERT OK?!". There was no way he could tell the tower how annoyed he was, he really would have preferred the embarrassment of reliving his hellish tutorial. He picked up the remote control again, which he had thrown on the bed, and then continued to press the buttons continuously to pass this place quickly. Amid all this embarrassment and anger, he began to see things he didn''t want to see. He was sitting with Lily and laughing, but James wasn''t bothered by it. He felt no attachment to his lover who had left him for something like money. It was clear from this that this test did not take the desires out of the heart, there should only be things to pass because the only real desire in James'' heart was that he wished to be something and nothing else. "Empty events, I can''t believe I''ve been in a relationship with a woman like this for years, the tower is playing tricks on me and it''s obvious, it''s obvious that this is not the test. Although maybe this is the test and I''ve become heartless because this is nothing to me, this is not the best you can do tower, hit me hard so I remember why I want to be something again." As soon as those words were out of his mouth the lights around him went out again, only the lights of the footpaths came on and a completely different image formed right in front of James. James had lost his mum and dad in a very frightening way. He had managed to get out of the car when they had a car accident, but his mum and dad were not so lucky, the car had exploded very badly. When the ambulance, fire brigade and police arrived at the scene, nothing happened except the burnt bodies of his parents were pulled from the wreckage. James was lucky, it wasn''t a trauma for him because it hadn''t happened at such a young age, he was just desperate to hug his family one more time...he had to be because you could see the two of them in front of him. "Son, dear son, come to us, let''s get out of here..." James heard his mother''s voice constantly, the emptiness of his mind as if the superficiality of truth and lies had vanished. This seemed to be the true test of the tower. The bed, floating in the water in the shape of a boat, slowly moved towards the light, all of James''s thoughts went blank and he let himself go as if his mind was being controlled. His hand began to move further and further towards the light, each passing second bringing him closer and closer to the light and strangely enough the light itself was becoming darker and darker. "D...." James suddenly felt like he heard a voice, but he couldn''t understand where it was coming from, all he could hear at that moment was his mum calling him. "Din....!!!" When James heard this voice again, he didn''t care about anything and continued to move towards the light as if he were mesmerised. "DING!!!!" Suddenly, a loud sound appeared right inside James'' head. Shaken with a sudden shock, James realised that his hand was in the water, it looked like he was almost in the water. Suddenly jumping backwards, James saw his family again and gasped. "Note to self...never make fun of the tower or get angry with it." he suddenly said and shook his head as if trying to understand how he got rid of this illusion. At that very moment, he felt a vibration just to his right. "CLARENT!" he shouted with a smile as he looked towards where the vibration was coming from grabbed the sword and gave her a big hug. "And how did you save me?" James muttered, but at that very moment, he smiled and said, "You used your control on me, didn''t you? I''m a knight if I wield the sword of one of the greatest knights in existence...haha....." After these words, Clarent glowed subtly and then disappeared, James, who checked his inventory in a hurry, smiled and then said "I can''t believe you''re smart enough to get out of my inventory....". S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. There seemed to be more to this replica than meets the eye. Chapter 13 - 13: Floor Manager Ronald James hugged Clarent tightly after taking the holy sword out. Of course, what he saw made him long and squeezed his heart, but there were more important things to do. He had set a goal for himself and he couldn''t throw it all away when he had made such a good start. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I''m sorry mum...dad...I may have missed you a lot but I have more important things to do than being sad, I may not have been able to do anything but I can at least try to make you proud. Haha...so clich¨¦..." Immediately after James uttered these clich¨¦d words, he picked up the remote control and pressed the button again to go forward. With the press of a button, he passed through the illusion that had formed in front of him and when he turned around, he saw that there was nothing there anymore. "My mental strength is almost non-existent, if it wasn''t for Clarent, I would be at the bottom of the water..." said James, not entirely wrong. Although Clarent was a replica, it certainly contained a small version of its original self. The sword that had taken the life of its owner was now trying to work to protect its owner. It had saved James only moments before. With that James began to feel the grains of light coming into his eyes, after a short while it felt as if the bed had hit something, no matter how many times he touched the control button the bed didn''t move. "We seem to have arrived Clarent, I hope we were successful." With these words, James, who set foot on land, realised that the land he stepped on was endless. When he looked behind him, it seemed as if there was a barrier between the place he stepped on and the [sea of rascals]. At that moment, James started to realise the sound of footsteps behind him. The light but loud footsteps stopped after a while and then the following words were heard: "Pleased to meet you, Mr James Arthur Black. My name is Ronald. I am the manager of all floors from the first floor to the fifth floor. I must inform you that I am one of the three main staff of the tower, and I am here to give you your reward." When James heard the words and turned round, he saw an unusual character in front of him. A rabbit was standing in front of him. So it wouldn''t be wrong to call him a rabbit man. After all, it was a rabbit that looked taller than James and was dressed in a suit. "I understand your surprise, all participants from your world have the same reaction, if you want to touch my ears, I can let you, I heard you world folks love it." When this rabbit, who introduced himself as Ronald, said this, James had to hold himself back from laughing, it was possible to understand what this rabbit had been through so far. "Thank you for your offer, but I must decline for now, and I have a question if I can ask. When I chose this path, the Tower showed me things I never wished for, until I saw my family. Do you know what happened?" Ronald looked serious as James spoke these words and then shook his head and began to speak: "A lot of things in this tower are graded, Mr James. Skills, items, choices and even gods. You may have noticed that the path you chose is jet black. You chose a path of godly rank, which was quite surprising because you must have felt it. You managed to choose the most difficult one in a game of chance with 6 choices." As soon as James heard these words, he realised that his talent was invisible to the gods, floor managers, lower-level managers and even the main managers. This should have made him an outlier, he realised at that moment that no one should know this power except him. "The black path, that is, the area with the godly level, was different from the others, but it was not because it was divine. It was different only because the tower was not lying. The tower deceives the users and, in other words, [the players] at every step. The other paths were full of these deceptions." "Deceptions?" "Oh yes...deceptions. Big or small lies. The other 5 paths were full of lies. When users choose those paths, they see gold, power, possession, ancient, immortality, revenge, carnage and divinity. These are all lies of the tower, after all, showing them as desires takes everyone a notch higher, but the black path is not like that." "The black path shows only the truth. It shows the filthiest or the best feelings and desires in living things. The desire to commit massacres, the desire to have everyone worship them, the desire to have all the power in their hands, the desire to have all the riches in their hands, and much more.... in short, the black path, unlike other paths, reveals monopoly. It is a disgusting feeling in all living beings, and I can assure you that the people of your world are the filthiest in this regard." "But I haven''t seen such things....I don''t understand, there can''t be anything wrong with me, you said that there is no lie on the black trail..." "That''s right, the black path or trail as you say is the path of righteousness and that''s what makes it difficult, the other paths push the creatures a little bit and give them a class without harming them and on the contrary strengthening their mentality, but the black path reveals the greatest possible criminality, that is, the true faces of your desires. Like the dark desires of a murderer, who can act out his most psychopathic ambitions without being caught." "You, it seems, had no real desire until you joined the tower. Therefore, you had a childish desire to spend time with Mrs Leyla, who was perfect enough to be desired. Until your last desire, I would like to ask you...what exactly did you see?" "What did I see? Of course, I saw my mum and dad...I saw my mum shouting at me and calling me, and I followed my mum''s call until Clarent woke me up, I chose to move towards my mum." "I see....interesting....very interesting....." James frowned as he heard these words and watched Ronald with an expression of incomprehension, and in just a few seconds he said the following words in a calm voice: "What''s so interesting?" Chapter 14 - 14: Piercing The Tower "What''s so interesting?" James''s question seemed to attract Ronald''s attention again, Ronald, who had been observing the sea behind James until then, became as still as the sea itself and suddenly spoke: "As I said, there is no room for lies on the black path, only truth and the desires of the truth...The interesting thing is that you are Mr James. From the moment the Tower was created by Chaos itself, it has always worked in the same way, it was a system Chaos put in place." "But you are so naive, open to lies, unable to see the truth, and having wanted nothing or lost everything you wanted, unfortunately I am not capable of seeing the memories outside the tower or inside the tower, so I would like to ask you...what is your desire?" When Ronald uttered these words, James was about to speak when he suddenly fell silent. Only the sound of breathing was heard in the white space. "I don''t have an answer...." When James voiced this answer, Ronald spoke again with a smiling face: "Innocence, lack of desire, and being lost. These three things are the main things that will kill you in the tower. Trusting everyone completely, not finding the reason to continue and finally losing yourself, these three things are the things you must escape from, Master James." At Ronald''s words James realised that the way he had expressed himself had suddenly changed, the floor manager seemed to be looking at him positively. "The Tower is out of its system because of your innocence. Your desire to see your family was not an absolute desire. In your heart, you already knew they were gone and you would never come back. While you thought that the tower was punishing you, the tower was desperately thinking about how it could test you. The black path lied for the first time since the creation of the tower. Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With the black path, it has ceased to be [the path of the righteous]." "Master James. I am almost two billion years old, the tower has been around for such an enormous amount of time and even longer. I have seen what many worthy warriors and even gods have gone through after losing their desires. If I have to give you certain advice, find out what you want to do right away because hundreds of hundreds of thousands of things that will exploit your innocent heart will be waiting for you on the upper floors of the tower." James had been writhing in strange emotions ever since he heard that he was [chosen]. Maybe Chaos had brought him to this tower to make him suffer, or just like in the films, a strange story of heroism lay behind this reality. Nevertheless, there was one thing that even James could not deny. He had lost his family and cut them out of his heart because he thought they would live better in heaven than on earth. His girlfriend had probably cheated on him many times, but because he loved his girlfriend, he didn''t think about anything and was just happy to have her. Maybe it was his desire, but he was very good at letting go of his attachments, maybe that''s why when the tower called him, all the desire he had for his girlfriend disappeared. To live a good life? To give in to emotion? James didn''t care about that, he just wanted something he could connect with. He needed to be ruthless. Having enough desire. "My desire...In my world, there is such a thing as games, Mr Ronald, as I''m sure you''ve heard. Some of the games have characters based on the gods here, or using their direct natures. Perhaps I might wish to become one of them." James''s words seemed to fill the rabbit man''s eyes with light as if this man had been waiting to meet such a person for a long time. "Your wish...?" "When the Tower summoned us, humans, when the towers appeared in our world, it explicitly told us that we could enter the game of the gods, that we could become a god. The tower makes this clear enough to us both on the outside and the inside and who knows, maybe to me too...." "It''s a hard road, Master James. The tower loves to tell such lies to the living, as I said, the whole tower rewards the competent and deceives the incompetent with lies. Do you believe that you can enter places like Olympus, and Valhalla, where there are high Gods and Goddesses?" After these words, James paused for a few seconds and just looked at Ronald. At that moment, he shook his head and said the words that all the gods and goddesses would hear and that would be engraved in the history books and even on the walls of the main castle of Olympus: "Who knows, maybe I''ll reach the top of the tower and pierce it, wouldn''t it be great to meet Chaos?" These words literally echoed in the white space. Ronald did not know what to say and smiled in amazement, and after only a few seconds, laughter rose in the whole area: "PUHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAA!!! 2 BILLION YEARS! 2 WHOLE BILLION YEARS AND I MEET SOMEONE LIKE YOU FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!" James couldn''t stand this huge decibel sound and plugged his ears, he couldn''t understand what was going on. "Right...why come to the tower if that''s not what the users...no the players want! Master James, I adore you, I will watch every step of your journey, every battle you fight, everything you lose, everything you win, every moment of happiness and every point of sadness." These words were spoken in a gentle voice and turned James into a bewildered creature. The rabbit''s ears were constantly moving and its eyes were shining with a rust-bright light. "Please choose a card and move on, I have stolen enough of your precious time." James thought that everything was happening too fast and with that, he looked at the cards in front of him. He had never thought that he would choose his class by cards. Yet there were more cards in front of him than he could have ever imagined, strangely enough almost every single card was either yellow with a golden glow or velvet red. There were only a few black cards among them. James had no idea what to choose and on top of that the words that would require another wait rang in his ears: "Remember, Master James, each class on these cards is a gift from the gods, so choose accordingly, though everything will be random, but be careful." Chapter 15 - 15: Nyx, The Mother Of The Night "Remember Master James, each class on these cards is what the gods will bestow upon you, choose accordingly, although everything will be random, but be careful." S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As soon as these words entered James'' ears, it dawned on him that the gods were divided into tiers. That meant that every red card around was a class of the lowest to maybe the middle tier. The others should be the classes given by the high and really [top-tier] gods. James was incredibly confused, he didn''t know what to choose. There were exactly 7 black cards that he could count, and two of them were so black that the colour itself was barely visible, and if the surrounding area wasn''t so white, he wouldn''t even be able to see the cards. Scratching his head in exasperation, James took a deep breath and looked towards the blackest cards. "I think you''ve got your eye on those two cards, Master James, but I''m not quite sure why those two." James, who had heard Ronald''s sudden curiosity, calmly replied, "I have a feeling that I should choose one of those two, but I can''t choose which one." "A feeling huh? Interesting." Ronald retorted, sounding a little sarcastic. James chose to ignore it, even though he could feel the eyes of many gods on him. When he looked right above him, it was as if thousands of eyes were fixed on him and watching his every move. This strange feeling gave him goosebumps, it was very aggressive, but not flattering. James paused for a few seconds as he moved his hand to the second card from the left of the row, the left one of the black cards. Something inside him seemed to be telling him that he would regret choosing this one. He instantly turned to the card on the right and after waiting for a second, he shook his head left and right, his heart was pounding, it was obvious that this was the right choice because his mind was very, very clear, as if someone was stroking him by the hair with motherly love. "I choose this one...." James said aloud and then picked up the card. At that moment, all the cards in front of him disintegrated and disappeared with a small glow, creating a window in front of him: [Class- Warrior of the Night[Godly++++] You are the chosen one, the real chosen one. Have you ever heard of the daughter of Chaos? Have you ever heard the name of the might that Zeus, the god of gods, trembled before? Have you heard the name of the greatest goddess of reality and distance? Nyx, Mother of the Night will always watch over and protect you, as her warrior you must honour her. All status points will increase by +10 from midnight to the morning sun. The user will be 80% more stealthy during night hours. Users will gain a 20% critical attack chance during night hours. The user has gained the [Exploit(Godly+)] ability. The user gains the [Night Vision(Legendary++++)] ability. The user has gained the [Thread of Fate(Godly)] ability. The user has gained the [Dark Step(Legendary-improvable)] ability.] When James read the writings in front of him one by one, he turned left and right as if he was confused, and when he finally couldn''t stand it and turned to Ronald, he saw something he never expected to see. Ronald''s mouth was open to the floor, his hunchback was protruding, and you could tell he was sweating with surprise. "Ummm...what the hell happened?" asked James suddenly, not expecting to win what the daughter of Chaos had sent him. He had an unlimited number of gods or goddesses to choose from. Selene, Zeus, Hadur, Ma''at and many more. Out of the hundreds and thousands of gods and goddesses that could have been chosen and found by chance, she was one of the three most powerful figures in Greek Mythology and literally the strongest Goddess in all mythologies. Nyx, Mother of the Night. She is the daughter of Chaos and the wife of Erebus, the son of Chaos. She is the mother of Aether, Hemera, Moros, Keres, Thanatos, Hypnos, Nemesis and many other high gods and goddesses. She is a goddess that even Zeus trembles in front of her, cannot look at her sideways and cannot even look her in the eye unless Nyx allows it. She is the only holy being who can control Erebus, the god of darkness, and the only one who connects day and night. She is the most powerful there is. "Lady Nyx.....Someone managed to choose Lady Nyx...Am I dreaming? Is it true?" Ronald was delirious as if he couldn''t believe what he was seeing and holding his ears, he instantly started laughing like crazy and the following words came out of his mouth: "Oh great Moirai! Oh Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, do you choose this young man to be your mother''s warrior and best friend? Can you see so much potential in him, O great fates? O Moros, the supreme fate itself, if ever you see him so great, what can we say!" After these words, James looked at Ronald with concern as if he did not understand what was happening, but at that very moment, he felt all the hairs on his body stand on end and looked up at the dark sky. Thousands, tens of thousands of eyes were looking at him, and right in the centre of them was a pair of violet eyes looking at him. The pupils of the eyes were made of stars, these purple eyes seemed to be looking into James'' soul. Around these eyes, 26 large eyes suddenly opened, representing 13 people. Even though each of these eyes was watching James with different emotions, James''s eyes could only fixate on those black and blue stars, he could not take his eyes away from them in the sense of the word. Worry and fear disappeared from his body and were replaced by compassion, joy, happiness and hope. Two words came out of his mouth for everyone and everything to hear: "It''s beautiful..." Chapter 16 - 16: Second Floor "It''s beautiful..." With those words he said, all eyes disappeared, the dark sky returned and only the eyes of Ronald and James, who were amazed by everything that just happened, were left in the field. "Umm...Ronald?" When James pulled himself back together, he looked at the rabbit before him and called out to him. When Ronald heard this call, he turned to him quickly recovered from his embarrassment and continued to speak: "I''ve never seen anyone as lucky as you in my life.... no, it''s not luck, you said that you felt that if that was something special. Lady Nyx''s card, the other one must be Master Erebus''s. You''re a man of strong feelings. It''s ironic, the one who wants to meet Chaos will have the power of Chaos'' daughter." Ronald seemed to have completely recovered himself, he was still wiping his face with a cloth and taking deep breaths. "Umm...Is this also the first time?" James suddenly directed this question to Ronald and then smiled a little. "All these classes are what the gods give to people they think can be like them. It is only given to those who have chosen the black path. Neither Lady Nyx nor Master Erebus has ever asked to give up any of their powers. You must have caught their attention, you are a very strange person, Master James." James smiled genuinely when he heard those words. It seemed strange to him that he had been through so much in the last two days. Still, the fact that he had come to a place where he could feel special might be the only thing that mattered to him. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I suppose I should say thank you," James said suddenly, scratching his chin in embarrassment and then looking at Ronald, "what do I have to do to get to the next floor?" He wanted to get to the next floor as soon as possible and get stronger, he couldn''t wait to use the power he had and make it pay off. Immediately after James asked the question about getting to the next floor, Ronald raised his hand and a passage opened up almost three metres away. It was nothing like anything in the tutorial or anything else he had ever seen. He was just staring at a white sheet of black smoke with its interior visible through the black smoke. "I hope to see you again, Mr Ronald," James said suddenly, standing in front of the portal. "When you reach the 5th floor and open the recreation facility you will be able to meet not only me, Master James, but many others. It was an honour to meet you, I will wish you not to die." When Ronald uttered these words, James nodded his head and then passed through the passage without thinking. After only a second or two, the environment he was in changed. The surroundings were covered with greenery and trees, it was obvious that he was in a forest. The sounds of birds were ringing in his ears and sunlight was hitting his face through the tree branches. James, who suddenly stretched himself, said "10x Gacha" and the skill panel appeared in front of him. With the High Chimera he had killed, he had a total of 130 rights, and he could not wait to spend these rights. Just as he was about to press [turn ten], something caught James'' attention. Just to the right of the gacha area where the ability appeared, there was an arrow key. James, who instantly realised what it was, immediately pressed the arrow key and said "Limited time event!" with a happy expression. The gacha panel in the window in front of him seemed to have changed. Unlike the other panel, it became clear what the main event of the gacha was. "Clothes?" questioned James, as dozens of clothes were constantly changing on the panel in front of him. When he looked at the bottom of the panel, he realised that there was a [hundred dial] option instead of a tens dial option. The fact that there was no other option worried him. He did not want to spend 100 of the 130 rights he had barely saved here. At least that''s what he thought. Despite all this, when he took another look at himself, he realised very clearly that everything was disgusting. He had clean clothes in the room, but the durability of the clothes was beyond terrible, even his armour was in a terrible state, and he had been a fool and distributed all the armour to the knights. "I think I have to do this," James said, and then, without thinking, he pressed the [faceted spinner]. After spinning for a while, the wheel stopped spinning and 100 cards appeared in front of James. One of the cards was surprisingly red, and there was only one other card with a purple colour. Even if he hadn''t realised that the outfits would have ranks, a high-ranked outfit should be good. After opening all the green cards, he sent each outfit to his inventory and then looked at the two remaining cards in front of him. Without thinking, he flipped over the purple card: [Griffon Feather Sleeve Shirt A garment made of feathers and the cotton of the great farm, given to its owner by the Griffons, creatures of legend. Even swords made of Wywern tooth cannot harm it.] James shook his head when he read the window opposite him and then threw off his armour and clothes and put on his shirt. James, who had turned the red card without wasting any time, smiled and was happy to see the name of another goddess in front of him: [Selene''s Boots (Replica) The Moon Goddess Selene''s boots are made from the essence of moonlight. Your steps will be as light as a feather. When worn, your speed will increase by 10%. Since it is a replica, its powers and ability slots have been reduced by 90%.] Shaking his head with happiness, James was happy to have such valuable items. Although they were a pair of boots and a long-sleeved shirt, it was obvious that they would help him. However, he had used the remaining 30 of his remaining points in normal gacha without stopping, but he had gained nothing but a few pieces of armour and a poison packet. Just as he was changing his armour, the window he had been waiting for opened in front of him, the mission had already begun. Chapter 17 - 17: Talents Of The Class [Welcome! Congratulations on passing through the most difficult games of fate and the worst of living hearts, the test of desire! We congratulate you on making your choice of class and strengthening your power! The second floor will be about slaughter. From this moment on, each deed, kill or murderous slaughter will be added to your end-of-level score. The mission is based on the constant destruction of the goblin tribe. Constantly plaguing the cities of the Empire, this goblin tribe may look small, but it is home to hundreds of goblins. Clear the goblins and pass the floor. Good luck.] As soon as James finished reading this window, he put Clarent in the scabbard around his waist and then yawned and began to step slowly. His steps were indeed light, he had not expected such a performance as this was a weakened replica. Although he stepped on the branches on the ground, the branches did not break and left behind an almost invisible footprint. It looked like Selene''s Boots would be the main protagonist of this mission. After realising that he was in such a good situation, James accelerated, observing the surroundings while examining the abilities given to him by his class: [Exploit(Godly+) Nyx, the great mother of the night, loved to destroy all light except moonlight. The image of the stars reflected from the solar system and the perfect light of the moon will be reflected in the tower. The unworthy will not escape the warrior''s exploitation, just as Nyx exploits all light. The user can absorb the energies of the dead and add their power to himself. Every 100 monsters killed and exploited will grant +3 random status points.] [Night Vision(Legendary++++) Just as Nyx can watch the tower and its creatures in the dark of night, as her warrior you will be able to see everything, even in the pitch black of night. User can activate to have higher night vision. Increases night vision by 150%. Increases normal vision by 75%.] [Thread of Destiny (Godly) Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, daughters of Nyx and sisters of fate, will have their eyes on you. +20 points to your Luck stat.] [Dark Step(Legendary - Upgradable) The user will be able to use the 12 moves of Dark Step at any time. These moves will increase attack chance by 60% while the ability is in use. The user will gain 20% speed for each hour of the day when the ability is in use. When the user puts the ability into use, each step will become completely silent.] When James read these abilities one by one, he was surprised by many things. He realised that the Void Ring, which was only used three times a day, copied part of the Dark Step ability. However, knowing that he could now be fully vigilant during the night hours made him feel very comfortable, and less afraid of being ambushed by monsters or other creatures in the future. It only took one glance to realise why his exploitation ability was at [Godly+] rank. Given the length and size of the tower, it would be incredibly easy to kill only 100 monsters. This gave him unlimited development potential. Last but not least was the enormous benefit of the ability called Thread of Fate and the magnitude of the surprise it gave him. Of course, it made him feel strange that the Goddesses of Fate, who had appeared to him through the games he played or the research he sometimes did for fun, were watching him. These goddesses had increased his luck and touched his heart, after all, who wouldn''t want to be watched by such gigantic forces? After seeing all of the abilities, he closed the windows and stood where he was, hearing a few voices, the voices of individuals who could speak just like him. "Kiek, the lord is putting a lot of work on me, Kiek!" "Kiek! Speak properly about the lord you idiot, do you want to be eaten kiek!" James turned in the direction of the voices and saw the goblins, who were a maximum of fifty centimetres shorter than him. [Warrior Goblin (Level 11)] [Archer Goblin (Level 8)] Smiling at what he saw, James glanced around slightly and then found that there were no other goblins around. This seemed to give him the necessary time. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Having dislodged Clarent as quietly as possible, James slowly made his way out of the trees and then charged at the archer goblin. "KIEK WATCH OUT KIEK!" Even as the warrior goblin shouted these words, it was too late, James had made an incredibly steady and decisive intersection with Clarent and the archer goblin''s head was severed from its body. When the head of the archer goblin fell to the ground, the warrior goblin collapsed in fear, trying to crawl away. James stabbed Clarent right next to it and asked, "Where is your tribe?" without harming it. The warrior goblin was trembling with fear, James couldn''t understand why this monster was so insanely afraid of him, even if he had grown stronger, he still couldn''t have grown so monstrously strong. The warrior goblin was surprised by the question but shakily pointed in one direction. When he raised his hand and pointed towards the north, James, without thinking, took Clarent out of his place and killed the warrior goblin right there. It didn''t make much sense for him to directly attack a tribe that was home to hundreds of goblins. He needed a plan, but he still didn''t have any information about what kind of plan he should set up without seeing the tribe. That''s why he hid the goblin corpses among the leaves, just in case, and then set off. It didn''t take him that long to reach the tribe, after a short run of almost 15 minutes, James was able to see the huge compound of the tribe. It wasn''t surrounded by any kind of shelter, they hadn''t even bothered to build a wooden fence. Still, James could see the wells all around. The 75% increase in normal vision from his night vision ability had served him well, even though it was only the middle of the day he could count exactly 7 wells around the huge tribe. Still, there was a lot of action around. Hundreds of goblins could be seen running about and going about their business, he had to wait for the night hours, when he would be most active. The poison packet he had won from Gacha would certainly come in handy in the wells. This gave him the idea of climbing a tree, it took him a while as the trees in the forest grew to almost 20 metres tall, but at least he had a sure way of hiding as no one could see him here. Now he could wait for the night hours. ----- ----- Chapter 18 - 18: Tribe Extermination After almost 10 hours of James'' waiting, the moon had risen overhead. He realised that there was hardly any light left except the light of the moon and the stars. After coming down from the tree, he placed Clarent in his inventory and started running. There were goblins around, of course, guarding in shifts, but those were the only ones, walking around with torches and just wandering around, I guess none of them thought that a human would attack such a tribe. "Dark Step" James thought suddenly, he had activated his ability and was silently travelling at an increased speed. Everything was speedy, thanks to both Selene''s Boots and the ability from Nyx, but James knew that he wouldn''t be able to stay inside the tribe for very long. That''s why he''d managed to get to the nearest well as fast as he could, pulling the poison packet out of his inventory and emptying the entire package into the well. Now all he had to do was to manage to leave the tribe. He quickly prepared to go back the way he had come when he realised that many goblins had gathered where he had come from. He realised that there were big goblins among the goblins, just like Cave Trolls, and he could not understand what was going on. Someone must have realised that he had entered the tribe. There was only one way for him to get out safely. "Void Ring" After activating the ability, he started running fast, he had only 10 seconds and there was a distance of 20 seconds between the forest he came from and the tribe. He didn''t know if he would be able to defeat all these goblins alone because even with a single glance, it was possible to see goblins of 20 and even 30 levels among them. With each step, his heart rate increased exponentially, and even though it was incredibly annoying, there was no way he could stop his pounding heart. He had already passed almost 100 goblins gathered in front of him and was close to the forest. In just three seconds he had managed to enter the forest. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. His body was sweating like crazy as if 10 High Chimera had chased him. Still, he had achieved what he wanted to do, maybe this well would not be able to affect the whole tribe, but if the well systems were completely connected, the poison he poured would be able to destroy the whole tribe. He just had to wait for a while, he didn''t know how long, but he had to keep going until he saw the tribe panicking, no matter what, he would finish this floor as fast as he could because he wanted to see Ronald again. He had some questions for him and he wanted to go somewhere where he could sleep soundly. This was already giving him the necessary motivation, the sleep flowing from his eyes and filling his pupils with a sense of carnage. James was not a good person, maybe not in the category of unbelievably bad, but he was not a good person, he was ready to do anything for his interests, literally everything. It was a miracle he wasn''t caught. If he had tripped or stumbled for a second, perhaps more than a hundred goblins would have chased him at full strength, and he couldn''t help but feel relieved at how he had escaped. ----- ----- It had been almost 3 days since James had emptied the poison, and as he had expected, the whole tribe was writhing in pain. The poison was much stronger than he had expected, for every hour or so news of one or two deaths came through the window. It was obvious that every goblin was weak, James could even see their levels dropping as he watched the goblins, a very incredible thing in his eyes. This seemed to tell him that he had to act, after all, his goal was to slaughter every single goblin in the tribe. That was what the mission was telling him. After coming down from the branch he had been sleeping on for three days, James thought he could now enter the tribe normally and finish the job. With each step, he was met with another death, which seemed to tell him that every goblin had been poisoned. James was lucky, the gacha had given him a great chance and now it would come in handy in cleaning the second floor of the tower. The goblins suddenly panicked as they saw him approaching the tribe. There was no sign of the courage of the goblins who only three days ago had tried to hunt him out of the tribe at night. James smiled when he realised this and then began to chase the goblins one by one as they fled into the tribe. Of course, this was a chase for the goblins, James was walking in a relaxed manner and looking around. He took Clarent out of his inventory and started to move forward, after only five minutes he stopped where he was and said "You are really intelligent creatures". It didn''t take him long to realise he was surrounded. "IT''S YOU! YOU POISONED OUR TRIBE!" The look of anger and exhaustion on the goblins'' faces was plain for all to see. James may have done a bad thing by poisoning them, but he had already become too full of himself to care. James was surrounded by at least 200 goblins that could be counted by eye alone. The purple spots on each of them seemed to indicate that the plan had been a complete success, even the big goblins that had been waiting for him in front of the tribe the other day were incredibly weakened. One of them had dropped to almost level 10. "What the hell poison is this?" James suddenly thought, the last time he had seen that goblin it was almost level 50. He had to reach floor 5 as soon as possible. Chapter 19 - 19: Goblin King "Yes I am, are you going to talk or are we going to fight?" James thought he should let it all go for the moment and sarcastically voiced the question. His pupils were jet black. It offered him an incredibly dark air at night. The reason why he attacked at night was of course the positive effects his class gave him. He had incredible items that gave him power, he knew that no player who had joined the tower had such a huge power at such an early level. The ability to see the colours of Gacha and the cards and pick the ones that were guaranteed gave him immense power at such an early level, and he was sure that this power would increase exponentially before he reached the 5th floor. Each time he used Gacha, he would gain even greater power, and even the worst items would put him ahead of the others. "YOU BASTARD!" one of the goblins suddenly shouted, and with that, all the goblins charged towards James. Even if James hadn''t thought about each of them suddenly jumping on him he had decided that it would be much better, the more they jumped on him the less energy he would lose, after all, 3 kills with one slash were better than 1 kill with one slash. "PIERCE!" shouted James and he pierced a goblin right through the throat with Clarent, the next moment he swung the sword as easily as if he were cutting a straw and slashed the goblin''s throat, cutting another goblin in half right next to it. He was happy when he thought of the spinning rights he would gain from this, and this gave him even greater determination. With each move, another goblin died, and the ones James couldn''t kill died on their own, collapsing to the ground from the poison. It was at that moment that what James had been waiting for finally happened. Heavy footsteps were coming from beyond the tribe, something seemed to be running towards James, causing another window to open in front of him: [Legendary Achievement Won! Encounter an enemy of [king] rank for the first time. You get to choose a card.] [You have earned Healing Potion(Highest Level) from the card.] James closed the window as soon as he saw it, since he got his reward he didn''t need to look at it and stared at the incredibly overweight and fast monster coming at him. All the goblins who saw him instantly retreated and James and the Goblin King faced each other. James was surprised by what he saw: [Goblin King (Level 34)] Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The goblin king had more purple spots than any goblin he had ever seen, it was obvious that he had been poisoned the most, but the poison could only weaken him so much. This didn''t make sense, what kind of monster was this? "YOU!" James realised that every hair on his body stood on end as soon as he heard that voice, he was relieved that he had Clarent braced to meet the attack and firmly planted himself on the ground. He had both uses of the Void Ring, and the Void Necklace would give him a huge advantage if he tried to dodge and attack. He had no definite idea what he should do. At that very moment, he began to look at the corpses around him. "Exploitation." he thought and put Clarent in his inventory and started running. One by one the corpses around him began to dry and each time this happened James felt his body grow a small amount stronger. "The exploitation of 100 monsters has been completed. +3 will be added to your power stat." James felt every muscle in his body grow instantly, his muscles had grown, and even though they still looked the same size as before, it wasn''t hard to tell that they had grown. "More!" shouted James furiously, as he continued to exploit the corpses of all the dead goblins in each area he passed and moved on to the next. It was wonderful that he was doing this while he was still running away from the Goblin King who was chasing him furiously, he could feel the blood pumping from his beating heart and the adrenaline surging through his body with each step. "The exploitation of 100 monsters has been completed. +3 will be added to your Agility stat." As soon as James saw this notification, he changed his path and started running backwards, surprising the Goblin King. It was possible to see that all the goblins around were dead, but it was not possible to say the same for the Goblin King. The Goblin King looked healthier than James'' normal state, maybe he had internal wounds and his level had dropped, but it would be completely normal to say that he was still very strong. After a short run, the third manifestation appeared in front of his eyes, adding 3 points to his power stat. Knowing that this was the maximum he could get at the moment, James decided that there was no point in running away. He took out Clarent and instantly turned around and directly countered the Goblin King. The moment the club in the Goblin King''s hand collided with Clarent, James was dragged back a few steps. He had no advantage in strength, and none in endurance. His intelligence may have been higher than the Goblin King''s, but one thing was for sure, his agility stat was higher than this monster, after all, he couldn''t escape from it otherwise. He had to use it to his advantage, as fast as he could. "I WILL KILL YOU! YOU DESTROYED MY REIGN!" Amidst the Goblin King''s shouts, James used his Dark Step ability and suddenly accelerated, trying to cut off the monster''s leg. With each step, his speed increased exponentially, but the impact on his body was just as great. The 12-step movement held a huge aura, even the user himself had difficulty using it. Nevertheless, thanks to his use of the ability, his attack was successful. "RUUUUAAGGGHHH!!!" A gigantic shriek echoed in James'' ears and stunned him for a few seconds. When he looked back at the Goblin King after a few seconds had passed, he could see that one of his legs was on fire. "This is my luck!" thought James, he never knew he could be so wrong. Chapter 20 - 20: Ranking Of The Floor The Goblin King tried to extinguish the fire in his leg, but there was not enough material to do so. The water from the wells was poisonous and he dared not pour it on his leg wound. Suddenly he threw himself to the ground, James narrowly avoided the move and stared at the monster in amazement. The Goblin King began to roll on the ground to stop the burning. The king was so large that the already ruined houses around it were crushed and the dried goblin corpses were dust. It was strange, yet incredible, that this monster, almost 25 metres and who knows how wide, had such potential for destruction. When James realised that this huge rolling monster was approaching him, he turned around and started running again. The fire in the king''s leg had already been extinguished, he was just trying to kill James by rolling around a bit comically like a hunter playing with his prey. "DAMN IT!" shouted James suddenly, the whole thing was getting on his nerves so badly he couldn''t explain it. It didn''t last long though, the beast stopped dead in its tracks and suddenly its nose began to bleed. The poison was destroying the Goblin King from the inside, it would only be a matter of time before the beast died in earnest. In just three days, the entire goblin tribe had been wiped out, and the king and an ordinary man trying to become a god were trying to put an end to this war. "You damned human...I will pray to the gods to kill you, I swear that you will not have peace until you die!" The Goblin King suddenly uttered these words and James'' face went numb. His eyes narrowed and he said in a steady tone: "I don''t really care, they don''t need to come, I''m going there myself." James''s words seemed to express the desire he had gained, after all, the only thing was clear, he had to get off this floor as soon as possible. "I was lucky this time, if I hadn''t had the poison, I wouldn''t have been able to destroy you or your tribe." With that, James walked over to the Goblin King, who had suddenly collapsed on the floor. Even if his gaze was filled with a little pity, he was still certain that this was what he needed to climb the tower. He gripped Clarent tightly and then, without a second thought, slashed the Goblin King''s thick throat. This was a clear sign that the mission was over. [Congratulations! James Arthur Black, I am honoured to announce that you have accomplished something that only 4 people have ever done before! Apart from Nyx, Erebus, Hermes and Loki, no one else had managed to completely clear this floor. I am pleased to announce that you are now the fastest to clear this floor! [Ranking] 1-James Arthur Black 2-Nyx of Chaos 3-Hermes of Olympos 4-Erebus of Chaos 5-Loki of Asgard As your achievements are huge, it will take a long time to calculate your rewards. I would like to apologise in advance for the delay. "You have been awarded entry to Floor 3.] James smiled as he read the window opposite him and then spoke as gently as he could: "I feel very proud but also very humiliated to have broken the rank of Mistress Nyx, forgive me if you can hear me, my lady, as your warrior I should not have behaved in such a way." James knew that it was his "Dark Step" ability that had helped him most in conquering this floor. The help it had given him was so immense that it had helped him escape after poisoning the well, as well as dodging the Goblin King''s tremendous speed. If he didn''t die here today, it was only because he had chosen Nyx''s class, and he owed the lady a huge thank you. James smiled at those words and another window opened in front of him, something he had been waiting for. [Legendary achievement has been won! Kill an enemy of the [King] rank for the first time. The key to the Catacombs has been won.] James smiled as he read the reward for this achievement and then smiled as he said, "Just one more." He thought that with one more key, he would be able to enter the catacomb, and he was both worried and happy at the same time, he had no idea how much the place would bring to him. Nevertheless, he looked at the passage to the third floor in front of him and then stepped inside without a second thought. The 3rd floor was waiting for him. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ----- --- - As soon as James passed through the passage, he saw that the surroundings were completely covered with darkness. It was so dark that James thought that even his mind was black and that he might even be blind. He couldn''t even see anything with his class ability. He realised that he was on an icy floor and then shook his head and muttered "Should I go on?", just at that moment the expected window opened brightly in front of him. [Welcome! Welcome to the 3rd floor, the [Endurance and Dream] floor, Mr James Arthur Black. This is a floor that will directly increase the mental endurance of your body and will freeze you to death if you fail to pass. Remember that the danger of this floor only exists when you are asleep! DO NOT SLEEP! I wish you good luck. Quest Time Minimum Limit: 1 Day Task Time Maximum Limit: Unlimited To finish the floor, simply say "next floor" after 1 day. The longer you stay here, the bigger your reward will be.] James, who had already read this window, was surprised to learn that the ice beneath him was capable of freezing him completely and thought about the strangeness of the task. He could not understand how sleep and mental endurance could be linked. Still, he knew that complaining would do no good. That''s why he shook his head and then sat down on the ice. The floor task began at that very moment. Chapter 21 - 21: Gaining The Sword Aura James didn''t know how long he had been sitting in the same place. He could no longer feel the coldness of the ice he was sitting on. How many hours had it been? 1? Maybe 10? Maybe it had already been days. It was clear that no thought had crossed his mind. He was well aware that his mind was completely empty. It was very clear that not only the place where he was sitting but his whole body did not feel anything, only his eyes were too sleepy to stay open anymore. He knew that he could faint at any moment, but he wanted to push himself to his limits. He remembered that he had stayed awake for almost 4 days without sleeping, but these were all things that happened when he was at the computer or watching something in front of the television. Every time he blinked his eyes it hurt so badly, as if he had run out of eye fluid. He knew he would rather fight three Goblin Kings than such a painful task. "I''m fine," James said suddenly. He kept trying to think about what he had been through, but his mind was blank. In just one week, all these events had happened. His lover had broken up with him, he had entered the tower, he had gained amazing abilities, he had grown enormously stronger, and each time he had encountered something more dangerous. Increasing danger and the creatures that conquered them were like the foundation of the tower. After a while, James, who had begun to think that his thoughts were becoming more and more absurd, suddenly let himself go and sat down in a cross-legged position. He thought he could focus better if he meditated and closed his eyes. Suddenly he realised he could feel his heartbeat. "Badump....badump...badump...." He didn''t know what was going on, but he could see that something was beginning to exist in his empty mind. Not only that, he realised that Clarent, who was hidden in his inventory, suddenly appeared and fell in front of him. His ice was trembling and shaking in a way that almost made him scream. It was as if Clarent was taking rhythm according to James'' heartbeat. However, his body suddenly began to warm up. James, who had strangely stood up, somehow found Clarent with his hand and realised that the connection between him and the Holy Sword had increased tremendously. He didn''t understand exactly what was going on, but right now he was eager to shake Clarent. The feeling of drowsiness in his body had diminished, and on the contrary, his energy had increased. After taking a position, he swung his sword. As soon as he swung his sword, a small light appeared in the area. James was really in a very strange feeling, it was as if he was talking to Clarent.... no, it was as if he was giving orders to Clarent. Smiling to himself, James gripped the sword more seriously and then suddenly swung it. The mysterious little light reappeared and disappeared, and he couldn''t even describe how much fun it was. It was as if James was playing a rhythm game and the music was the sound of his heart beating. "How amazing...." Whatever it was, James had found something fun to do and he wasn''t about to stop now, this was a great chance to improve with the sword. A very big chance. ----- "Haha...HAHA!" James was sitting on the ice again, preparing to cry tears of joy, though he had no eye fluid left to shed tears. What made him laugh so much was the huge improvement he had shown in just luck, even in such a situation. [Lowest Level Sword Aura You have accomplished a great feat, user. You have gained an aura that you could not have gained unless you had incredible skill in the way of the sword. However, it is too early to be happy, this lowly aura is just a baby, it is up to you to develop it!] James didn''t know exactly what aura was. Of course, he had a little bit of knowledge from the books he had read and things like that, but this was real life, he did not know what could happen. Still, there was one thing he did know about: The biggest factor in obtaining the aura was the [Galahad''s Swordsmanship] skill. As stated in the skill, for each practice of the sword''s aura, there would be an increase of 0,01 per cent. James had been swinging his sword for a long time. He was very tired, he could see it amid all this joy, he had a definite feeling that he couldn''t take much more of this and that''s why he thought it was time. "Go to the next floor." As James uttered these words a passageway opened in front of him, James, who had closed his eyes to protect them from the large amount of light coming in, took slow steps through the passageway and squinted as he looked around. "No, I''m not falling for that again!" James suddenly muttered as he looked around and saw the familiar place. A bed, an open shower and clean clothes. This was where he thought he would rest before entering the [sea of rascals], the first floor. He had no intention of falling for this thing again. 8Congratulations! Congratulations on cleaning the 3rd floor, Mr James Arthur Black. [Ranking] 1-Chronos of the Titans(349 Days) 2-Odin of Asgard(113 Days) 3-Sun Wukong of Heavens and Sages(112 Days) 4-Nyx of Chaos(14 Days 21 Hours) Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. 5-Erebus of Chaos(14 Days 20 Hours) 6-James Arthur Black (11 Days 23 Hours 47 Minutes) I am proud to inform you, sir, that you have completed your mission with high honours. As your rewards have been calculated, they will be given to you when you enter Floor 5.] When James read the window that had formed in front of him, he was astonished. First of all, it was a huge surprise that he had stayed awake for 11 days, although he was a human being, he was able to make such a degree and who knows how many hundred thousand gods he had ranked 6th. However, this was not what surprised him, what surprised him was Chronos, who was able to reach a gigantic amount. Of course, the titan of time was able to stay awake for 349 days, what an irony it truly was. Chapter 22 - 22: Council of Olympus After closing the window, James looked around again and then took off everything he was wearing and went under the water to take a shower. He couldn''t even describe how relaxing it felt to feel the hot water hitting his body. After a short shower, James, dressed in clean clothes and sitting on the soft bed, looked around for a few seconds and then asked the question: "Emma...are you there?" After this question, a half-minute silence was broken by the window that had formed in front of James: [Yes, Master James.] James was happy to finally be able to talk to someone else and then uttered the following words: "Like what happened on the first floor, is this bed part of the test? I really need to sleep." These words managed to make thousands of gods laugh, even if James did not realise it, James was not like them. Many of the personalities who managed to become gods were already the children of the mating of the gods. Indeed, there were only a handful of creatures who came to the tower from outside and became gods. This reminded all the gods that he was indeed human, a human in need of sleep. [This is a real area, sir. This is a player area. Due to the difficulty of the 3rd floor, it is designed for resting purposes, do not worry, it is all real and has no connection with the next floor, please rest.] As soon as James read what was written in front of him, he lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, he did not even try to close the window, he did not want to miss this chance, he had to enjoy his sleep. While he slept, a deep conversation was taking place in a place he could not even dream of reaching with his current power, in the realm of the gods, in the heart of Olympus. "Many gods will try to take him, my lady, and you know it, look around you, even my brother Hades, who never wants to come out of the underworld, is here waiting for your orders. Asgard is our ally and even Sun Wukong, Archangel Michael and Fallen Angel Lucifer are willing to help us. With just one of your orders, we can bring all the gods to their knees. Otherwise, in the next class election, it will not be one of your people who will be chosen, but rather a god who will be forced to withdraw." It was Zeus himself who had fallen to his knees in the centre of the realm and was speaking aloud. From the moment James had made his choice, he had been making efforts to persuade Nyx. Olympus had an enormous number of allies from the moment Nyx was chosen. The game of the gods was bigger than thought, and many gods had declared Olympus their enemy, not wanting anyone else to join their ranks. A gigantic war was about to unfold, and the reason for this was that James had somehow managed to choose Nyx. "If this isn''t fate itself, oh Lady Nyx, I beg you, it''s only an order. It''s not just me, it''s not just Olympus, it''s my father Chronos and the other titans and many other godly realms that are seeking to help us. We have been at war for a long time, and since James chose you, the number of those who have declared war on us has increased by almost 1200 per cent. If we are pushed back, we will never recover. I''m sure those who have chosen other god classes will target James, but you, Lady Nyx, who swore to protect him, can continue to protect him with just one command." "Tell me how I can be sure you don''t just want this for the good of Olympus, young Zeus. Why should I trust you when I can destroy you and your family at will when I can drag other gods to their deaths? You do know it too, we do not fight only because we have no desire, it wouldn''t even take a second for you to die." When Nyx uttered these words against Zeus'' words, Zeus brought his hand to his chest and then uttered the following words: S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "It is not that I do not have the interest of Olympus in my heart, my lady. Indeed, every god and goddess in the tower knows that you can destroy us whenever you want, but every one of them knows that no one fights except Nemesis, one of your other children. Still, we worship you, and we can do nothing unless you command it. It is an order that must exist, both for the safety of Olympus and for the safety of James, who has attracted everyone''s attention." At Zeus'' words, a huge darkness swirled through the palace and then appeared behind Nyx, staring at Zeus. This was Erebus, the darkness itself. Seeing Erebus had appeared, the Olympians suddenly began to talk, as if they had not expected to see him in such a place. "What is Master Erebus doing here?" "It''s been almost ten million years since he last appeared!" "Could Lady Nyx have summoned him?" "You silly Lady Nyx has no use for Master Erebus! If anything was going to be done, Master Erebus had already done it. She does not even need to tell him, he knows his wife''s desires." "That''s right, someone who can take care of everything without Lady Nyx even having to tell him, what a gigantic love...." One after the other, the words caught the attention of the pale yet bright eyes of Nyx and Erebus. The majesty, nobility and beauty of the two of them together could not be expressed in words. Still, Erebus, who had been caught in the middle of many words, agreed with Nyx that the matter should now be clarified, and after a small glance at the gods and goddesses around, his loud and majestic voice echoed in every corner of the palace: "SILENCE!!!" After this single word, silence dominated the palace, and then Nyx''s soft and gentle voice was heard again: "O young and powerful Zeus, tell us your true will, we all know you want to protect James, we can see your heart. What do you want, what do you want from me and my beloved Erebus?" Zeus paused for a few seconds after these words and then spoke for the first time, looking into her eyes as if Nyx had permitted him: "Olympus has always been strong, but because of your soft and stable heart, we have accepted to stay behind. We have suffered too many losses, my lady, give us orders...let us rebuild the tower with all our friends who have joined us. Protect James and ourselves." As these words echoed through the main hall of the palace, Nyx''s smile was obvious to all. No one except Erebus and his children realised that they had never once seen Nyx smile. This brought a few more words out of Nyx''s caring voice: "Very well then, young Zeus, have it your way. I and my family will support you, and I look forward to the tower you wish to create." The realm of the gods would be shaken by these words and the game of the gods would now begin in full, and the initiator of events would be the now sleeping James himself, an ordinary human being, strong as a splinter, who needed to be protected. Chapter 23 - 23: Where The Gods Create A Talent When James opened his eyes he suddenly looked around and realised that what Emma had said was true. It was strange that he had suddenly woken up from his strange dream, he had heard the voice of a woman he didn''t recognise, incredibly gentle, soft yet authoritative. It was impossible not to fall in love with the voice, it was as if his mother was caressing his head. When he stood up and washed his hands and face, he changed his clothes without stopping and prepared himself to go to the 4th floor. "Emma, send me to the next floor." James asked for permission to go to the next floor without delay and another one of the passageways that always appeared in front of him appeared. It was quite absurd and stupid for him to go to the next floor without organising everything he had. He had killed exactly 357 goblins and one Goblin King. He had exactly 3580 gacha rights, it was impossible for him not to win a nice item from these rights. He didn''t think about it in his sleepy state, he only had the thought of going to the 5th floor and relaxing for a while. When he passed through the passage, he saw 3 statues in front of him. James, who was surprised by what he saw and could not figure out what the floor was really about, suddenly spoke: "Emma...Can you tell me the floor''s mission please?" After his words, a classic window appeared in front of him: [Welcome! For billions of years, the tower has had different ways of training players. The first floor to test and develop their hearts, the second floor to test their desire to destroy and progress, the third floor to streamline and develop their mental stamina, and finally the fourth floor. The fourth floor of the tower exists to realign and develop one''s full potential. Many sculptures display a [ability] that the user, the player, can create at will. Ares'' Call to War, Sun Wukong''s Cloning, Zeus'' Dominion, and many other abilities were created on this floor of the tower. The ability you create allows you to develop and even create your potential. Mr James Arthur Black, this is one of the most difficult tests you will face inside the tower. A single miscalculation could leave you behind every other player despite everything you have, so please make the right choice.] When James read this window, he learnt that the 5 simple floors of the tower with the tutorial floor were a test of the tower. I mean, it sounded strange to have both a tutorial floor and to be inside a tutorial, but the tower itself was already strange, what could he say? With that, of course, it was clear what he was going to do. In the window Emma had sent, he had learnt that even the gods had created one of their abilities here, and who knows what level those abilities were at now. This meant that no matter what James did, he could never create a low-level or low-grade ability, it was never supposed to happen. After one more look at the 3 statues in front of him, he saw that there were words on the statues: "Offensive, Defensive and Mental?" James muttered, clearly indicating the zones of the abilities he could create. James stopped where he was and began to read the three words in front of him over and over again, over and over again for several minutes before he suddenly moved his head and spoke as he looked at the statue on the far right: "Swordsmanship of Gallahad, the Dark Step and Clarent itself. I''m already offensive enough. With the clothes I''m wearing and the gachas I''ll be spinning, my defence will improve tremendously. So I need to create something for my mentality, which is at an incredibly low level." After these words, he touched the statue on the far right, the one labelled Mental. He seriously had no idea how to create an ability, but he had to do it. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After he touched the statue, the other two statues suddenly shattered and the Mental statue glowed. James saw dozens of images in front of his eyes, he was watching his memories in his real world as if the answer he needed to find was in these memories. After almost 5 minutes of the memory segment, James suddenly stopped and closed his eyes. "A mind palace...This is what I need to create!" he said as he sat down on the floor. He leaned his back against the Mental Sculpture and took a deep breath in a cross-legged position. "I may have found the lowest form of the sword aura through such an epiphany, but this is different...I need to create a place where I can store my memories, thoughts and even feelings, and where they cannot tamper with them." James was becoming aware of the deep ache in his head after each of his speeches, this ability was one of the rare but beautiful techniques that some people in his world could do, so it shouldn''t be difficult to turn it into a skill. After all, he was an intelligent person, even if he was not very, very intelligent, he knew he could do it. Maybe he should imagined a folder or a deep box that could hold all these things. It took him a lot less time than he had expected because he could feel huge energy starting to build up in his body, a feeling he had felt a few weeks ago when he created his Sword Aura. This must have signalled that the ability was beginning to form. There wasn''t just one folder he had imagined, dozens of folders had formed around him in just a few minutes, James could see each of them in his mind and he was able to shuffle through each folder. It was as if he was travelling through his mind with his body and with each second he was able to control it better and better. "This is what I need to do," James said suddenly, indicating that he was certain that he could create this ability. Floor 5 seemed to arrive sooner than he thought. Chapter 24 - 24: Mind Palace It had lasted 4 hours and was still going on. James had been shuffling through his memories for almost 5 hours, filling folders with everything he had learnt and experienced so far, the last memory he had was the memory of when he had chosen Nyx''s card. As soon as he placed this memory in a folder he had created, the energy in his body began to burn and he opened his eyes furiously, seeing the window he had expected to see in front of him: [Mind Palace (Legendary++++ - Upgradeable) A sacred ability created by James Arthur Black. Charged with protecting the mind against certain abnormalities, this ability also lightens the user''s mind, allowing them to acclimatise to dangerous situations more quickly. Provides 100% protection against temptation abilities. Provides 100% protection against Sleep abilities. Provides 25% protection against stun abilities. Increases poison resistance by 5%.] James, who had stood up happily after reading this ability, laughed showing his teeth and then clasped his hands and was proud of himself that his potential was good enough to create such a thing. [Congratulations! James Arthur Black, I am proud to announce that as of today you have passed the final tutorial on the tower. As of today, you will enter the tower''s fifth floor, the Imperial floor, where it is possible to create places to rest, join a compound, fall in love and marry, and do anything else your mind can conceive. Each of your quest rewards will be given to you the day after you enter the floor, please stand by.] James smiled as he finished reading the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and then said "How nice, I''ve come a long way, I have a goal and a friend to meet, even if I don''t know what kind of wall awaits me from now on...?" Just as he uttered these words, another window appeared in front of him: [The first time you enter the 5th floor of the tower, you have the right to choose a nickname for yourself. This nickname will be the name that will be written in your ranking history that you have achieved in the missions. Please choose carefully. --...--] Pausing for a few seconds after reading this window, James smiled and then spoke calmly: "Since I am Lady Nyx''s warrior, I must have a name that will not disappoint her ladyship." Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At these words, his smile grew even wider, and then he said, "Umbra." [The nickname change is accepted. From now on we will refer to you as Umbra.] After the windows closed one after the other, James was about to enter the passage that had formed opposite him and go to the 5th floor when he suddenly paused. "Emma, I should have earned a lot of gold from my Gold Master skill, right? But how do I use my gold?" When she suddenly voiced this question, another window appeared in front of her: [You only need to think about it to extract your gold sir.] This signalled the end of the tower''s trials, the end of the main tutorial, and he could now pass to the real side of the tower. When he entered the passage that had formed in front of him, the landscape in front of him changed completely. There were tens and hundreds of creatures around him. Creatures with cat ears, those with wings or horns and many more were standing around and with something in their hands, as if they were trying to attract people to their restaurants. At that very moment, the words that neither James nor anyone else in the area expected to hear rose from the crowd: "OLYMPUS! OLYMPUS IS HERE!!! WHAT''S GOING ON EVEN ASGARD IS HERE!!!" James paused after hearing these words and wanted to leave the area in a confused way, he did not know what was going on, but he wanted to rest even if he was not very tired. Just as he was about to turn around and leave the area, the voice that had risen again behind him caught his attention: "Mr James!!!" When he turned around again after hearing his name, he saw people holding spears in their hands and a flag with a lightning crest at the end of their spears. "Yes?" James suddenly said. At that moment, when he saw other people holding a flag with a crow crest, he found everything strange and scratched his head. "Pleased to meet you young master James, please follow us." James scratched his head awkwardly as he looked carefully at the people who had suddenly appeared in front of him and rolled his eyes and said "Well then, let''s go.", it made perfect sense for him to follow them since he knew nothing about this place. With those words spoken, the group started walking and soon came to the front of a huge building. James could see the inscription in front of him. "Olympus Guild". "Please come in, sir." When James realised that he was being spoken to again, he nodded and went inside. As he walked through the door, he was greeted by many people, each of them seemed to be looking at James carefully, as if they were all dreaming. People with snake heads, people with wings, almost naked people, people who were covered in scars, and many more. "The rumours are true...Look at the aura around him...The darkness and the night." When these words came from the crowd, everyone realised that the rumours were true. Even if James didn''t realise it, he had become the symbol of the war. He had simply wished to reach Chaos, but he had indeed become the main target of the war. Olympus needed an excuse, and the fact that James had chosen Nyx had completely ignited that excuse. The battle began and all eyes were locked on James, as they were now in the guild. "I''m sorry Mr James, they''re all here because of you. There are even rankers from the 50th floor here right now." When the person who had brought James into the guild spoke again, James suddenly took off his armour, he thought he could relax here, after all, what maniac would try to harm Nyx''s warrior in the Olympus guild? "I didn''t ask your name, do you mind if I know it?" When James'' sudden question caught the attention of the man in front of him, he smiled and calmly spoke the name: "Theseus." Chapter 25 - 25: Nemesis Protects Him "Theseus." James seemed surprised to hear the name, every single person around realised that his eyes had widened. "Theseus? The child of Poseidon? King of Athens?" When James uttered these words with the astonishment that had formed in him, the attention of the people around him was centred on him in a greater dimension. "Yes, sir.... but aren''t you from outside the tower? Did Ronald tell you about me?" Theseus, on the other hand, was more surprised than James, as if he had never expected such words. "My friend, you are a hero in my world. Your stories have been told since ancient times, you have a place in books. The man who slaughtered Minator, the man who founded Athens." James had said these words with a smile, indeed, although he had a little mythological admiration he had gained from the games, he was a hero of legends...a god, he could not express how excited he was. Theseus was on the verge of tears of joy. "I don''t know how my deeds have reached your world, but I am honoured, sir." Theseus was talking more than was necessary and James was well aware of this, after a few seconds of thought he shook his head and then put his hand on Theseus'' shoulder: "Call me Umbra, I changed my nickname to be a shadow of Lady Nyx, you deserve to know." Then, without even waiting for Theseus to say, he yawned deeply and sat down at a table with a few steps. "Here Theseus, please sit down, I want to hear at length how you slaughtered the minator." With these words Theseus removed his armour and handed it to the servants beside him, he slowly sat down in the chair in front of James and at the other end of the table and began to speak. It was going to be a very long conversation, but none of it seemed to matter, and what was happening on the other side of the 5th floor seemed to be a deeper indication of James'' future dangers. "Nyx''s dog finally finished the tutorial." "We realise, he seems to have made a big noise. He even changed his nickname, Umbra. It''s weird to know he''s ranked so high in the ranked system." "Yeah. Finishing first on the second floor. The shitty psychopath actually killed a Goblin King, a full-blooded Goblin King in full power." S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "We must be careful, we don''t know what Nyx has given him, Nemesis is watching us, Nemesis is protecting him." "Isn''t it frightening to have the eyes of the Goddess of Vengeance, War and Balance upon us?" "I think it''s exciting. The war has begun, and anything goes. Either we kill Umbra or we will get punished, we can''t let him go to the upper floors." One after the other, the words seemed to express a deep hatred for Nyx and thoughts about killing James. Neither Nyx nor James knew what was going on, but Nemesis, one of Nyx''s daughters, was watching these gods, which was why they couldn''t get their way in so many things. The eyes of the Goddess of Chaos were on them. It was both a great honour and a great misfortune. "So... Tell me Sopdu, what are you planning?" When one of the gods uttered these words, the god called Sopdu took a medallion to the table and showed it to each of them. "This is my plan, we will wait for him to reach the 10th floor. There are already thousands of gods targeting him, if he lives until the 10th floor, my warrior will kill him." When the god called Sopdu uttered these words, the others smiled with relief, if the medallion on the table was real and his warrior was allowed to use it, none of them needed to think about James, he would die anyway. All the while one of the gods among them suddenly spoke up, looking flustered. "What about Ra? If he finds out what you have done, he will destroy you. The Egyptian gods are friends with Olympus, you know that, and Ra himself has been friends with Chaos for a long time." Sopdu trembled for a second as he said these words and then said, "I realise, I am flustered and that is why we must not get caught by Nemesis under any circumstances, if he finds out what we have done, Ra will destroy not only me but all of us." These words seemed to have caught the attention of every single god, if something went wrong and the effects of this mysterious medallion failed, if James survived, they would be destroyed. This alone seemed to show the destructiveness of war and betrayal. Theseus, on the other hand, seemed to be nearing the end of his story. "So I was able to kill the Minator, it was very difficult and as I said, I had to betray someone, of course she is now my wife, but you know what I mean." After Theseus'' words, James yawned where he was and then said, "If the people in my world heard that I listened to the story of one of the heroes from his mouth, they would either call me crazy or worship me. It was worth the whole hour we sat here." James, who stood up after all this, looked deeply at Theseus and then asked, "Is there a place where I can stay around here, Master Theseus?" These words seemed to surprise everyone in the guild. "I''m sorry, Mr Umbra, don''t you want to stay in the Olympus Guild?" These words seemed to make James smile, it seemed to push him to speak again: "Oh no... As I said, my name is Umbra. I gave it that nickname for my lady and I have no plans to stop until I reach her or even Chaos. It should not be Umbra of Olympus, it should be Umbra of Chaos." Theseus, the Asgardians, and the rest of the guild shuddered with astonishment as he uttered these words. Even if it wasn''t an ordinary player, the fact that a player made it clear that he would join Chaos like this made them all tremble with fear. What title had Lady Nyx, the Mother of Night, given him that he could say such things? Chapter 26 - 26: Why Shouldnt I Make One? "But Mr Umbra, there is no such place as the Chaos Guild. The name Chaos, the nickname Chaos, cannot be taken at will. You need the bond of its existence, the bond of blood." James frowned as soon as he heard these words and looked deeply at Theseus again, and after scratching his chin for a few seconds, he smiled and uttered words that would surprise not only them and all the gods watching him but even Nyx and Erebus itself: "Who cares? I am the warrior of my Lady, I''m pretty sure she won''t be mad at me for creating the Chaos Guild. There is Olympus, there is Asgard, pretty sure there should be Chaos Guild too. It is pretty disrespectful to Chaos since it does not exist. Imagine you create the tower and they are just afraid of you, they should honour you by giving your name to a precious place." After these words, many people in the guild fell from their seats to the floor. No one thought that any player... no, not even a god, could even think of using Chaos'' name to do such a thing. Chaos was a creator. You were either related to him by blood or you knelt before him. Apart from a few creators like Ra, there weren''t many who could stand by Chaos. James was indeed too bold, but the blood of Chaos loved boldness. "I understand sir...I will help you, you will need a large amount of gold to start a guild. I will ask my father, please follow our Asgardian friends, they will lead you to a place where you can stay, I need to go talk to my father." When Theseus uttered these words with his eyes wide, not only him but even the Asgardian friends seemed to be watching James in this way. James left the guild with the Asgardian guards and settled in a nearby hotel. Still, he had a question in his mind, "I wish I had asked Theseus before I left." he said to himself. What he wondered was whether Theseus was a god or not. After all, he said that many people were in the guild until the 50th floor, so the meaning that something came after the 50th floor was attributed to this sentence. It was like a huge curiosity for James at the moment. When James went to the hotel room, he seemed shocked by the size and luxury of the room. The room was really big, it seemed to be at least 10 times bigger than James'' single flat house. "I''ve come a long way, but it feels strange to know that this is only 5 floors of the tower," he said as he sat on the bed after changing into the clean clothes in the room. "Everything has just begun. Chaos Guild huh? I hope I can be a worthy one." he added, and then lay down and voiced a few more things: "I wonder if any of Lady Nyx''s children are in these parts, like Theseus? Would they like to join the guild? Just a second...." After these words, he stood up again and then scratched his head and said, "Wait the heck up...They won''t kill me, will they?" His worries were on a slightly strange level, of course, but he didn''t want to make enemies with people who should be considered friends, and he didn''t want to get into such a situation with the Moirais and Moros watching him. He had no intention of disappointing Lady Nyx or the personalities of fate. However, something seemed to have suddenly occurred to him. Perhaps one of the things he needed to take care of before entering the 5th Floor. "Gacha..." he muttered. With the panel above the system window that suddenly opened in front of him, his face smiled: S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "So even if they died by poison, death is death...I still win the dialling rights, huh?" he thought. He had 3580 rights. The 358 tens that would have existed in normal dialling...This was a truly gigantic amount, an amount James never thought he could reach. "Well, let''s get started then," James said to himself, not going to lie, he was indeed feeling a level of laziness creeping over him. After all, he was going to have to organise his inventory after all this translating. "Whatever," he added, and then, without waiting, he pressed the [dial ten] button, which would indeed start a long gacha adventure. ----- James had been pressing the same button for almost 4 hours, the tip of his finger had turned red, and he was sucking his finger and looking at his inventory. He still had 20 more to go. He already had some pretty good stuff, and he knew that if he tried to sell it, he would make a lot of money. Still, he hadn''t come across any Legendary items or anything of the sort. He had a lot of Unique items. Weapons, armour that he could wear, food that he could eat, drink that he could drink, and even a few items called [Skill Book] that could give him abilities. With that, he finished blowing his finger, and then in desperation, he pressed the [turn of ten] option again, and what happened this time made him suddenly stand up. There were ten cards in front of him as usual. He was quite used to it by now, there was no way that other players could come across so many cards like him. He was sure that, apart from achievements earned and special monsters killed, it was unlikely to come across that many cards. Gacha was the thing that broke this reality. Looking carefully at these 10 cards, James could see what was happening. After rubbing his eyes for a while, he turned back to the cards and said the following in a puzzled manner: "So I guess I can''t deny that it was better than I expected. At least I''ve earned this much, so I suppose I should say thank you?" "Three yellow cards...." Chapter 27 - 27: Book of Magic Status "3 yellow cards...." James couldn''t even rejoice because of his astonishment, this was the first time this had happened and even just one legendary item had a huge value. Looking at the description of the [Health Potion] that James received, it was even written that it could restore a limb, or even revive someone whose heart had stopped a few seconds ago. Clarent''s replica and other items were a big plus. These three yellow cards, or "golden" cards as James called them, would put him ahead of the pack, even if he was only just realising it. What Sopdu and the others didn''t realise was this. James was already euphemistically beyond the tenth floor. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Sitting back down, James positioned himself as comfortably as possible and clasped his hands together: "I don''t know how to pray, but Moros, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, I beg you to give me a chance." James took a deep breath as he uttered these words, and then, with a slight tensing of his body, placed his finger on the yellow card in the upper left: [The Bell of Hypnos (Legendary) The sacred bell of Hypnos, the god of sleep and dreams. According to the gods within the tower, Hypnos put a piece of his divinity into this bell. The bell has the capacity to put anyone to sleep, including holy beasts and even some gods. It also puts the user to sleep. It cannot be blocked by any god or item, not of the same divinity as Hypnos. Usage right 3/3] James stood still for a few seconds as he read the item in front of him, neither standing up in excitement nor feeling any emotion other than happiness: "I think I''ve attracted the attention of those with Chaos blood... The fact that Master Hypnos sent me an item shows that... Of course, I may have won this item by chance." After these words, when he carefully read the characteristics of the bell, James could see that this item could be used very clearly and powerfully. After all, his [Mind Palace] ability defended him against all sleeping abilities, which meant that when the bell was used, he would not sleep as it was written in the properties. After that, another window opened in front of James, who touched the other card with great hope: [Loki''s Mask(Legendary++++) This mask is an image-changing item that encapsulates Loki''s magic. Whoever wears the mask can transform their image into any person, item, monster, or even god they wish, up to 3 times. One of God of Mischief Loki''s favourite things to do was to disguise himself as other gods and move the realm of the gods between his hands. Usage Rights 3/3] After seeing this item, his excitement began to increase, he did not expect such a plus to be given to him. He was already strong enough, and he was relieved to be able to get his hands on such items. Even as he thought about what kind of mayhem he could cause by using the Bell of Hypnos and Loki''s Mask at the same time, he was trying not to laugh inside, it was incredibly difficult to restrain himself, but somehow he managed. With that he put the mask and the bell away in his inventory and stared at the last card, his happiness was going to be enormous as he had just won something that would be of enormous use to him. His hand trembled a little, his excitement was high and it scared him, he didn''t want to be disappointed. Nevertheless, he was well aware that waiting would not change anything, which is why he suddenly touched the card and stood in front of the window that had appeared in front of him. He seemed shocked, he had no idea whether what he saw in front of him was real or not. Even if he didn''t realise it, the whole of Olympus and Asgard was completely shaken by what they saw. Players were brought to an inaccessible point by the tower just after the training floors, and only their bodyguards, the holy beings of their chosen class, were allowed to watch the player and that made the whole Olympus tramble. Even if James hadn''t realised it, the window that had formed in front of him was something that even Chronos, let alone Zeus and Odin, had achieved when he had approached the very end of the tower. [Book of Magic Status (Godly---) This is a book created by the hands of Chaos himself, which can be obtained with luck in the most difficult parts of the tower and incredibly hidden areas. The book grants the player the [Magic] stat. This stat increases the power, casting or casting speed, casting time, and even the capacity of the spell. For every 100 points added to the [Magic] status, the player gains protection against [Dark and White] spells, respectively. Protection is granted at 5%. Every 50 points added to the spell stat will increase understanding of the magic overall by 1%]. By the time James had finished reading this window in its entirety, he was able to fully appreciate the value of the book. Who knows, maybe Theseus didn''t even have this status. What he did not know was that Theseus, who had not yet managed to reach the god realm, did not even have this status, let alone Athena, Thor, Amun and many other gods in the god realm. This was officially a gift that Chaos gave to James with his own hands. It was priceless, by any means. However, James did not stop at all and took the book in his hand and opened it. As soon as he opened the book, the book withered and disappeared and suddenly something that no one expected happened. "ARGHH!!!" James started to writhe in pain and fell off the bed he was sitting on. He was writhing on the floor like a dying lamb. He felt his body burning and blood was pouring from his eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth. He didn''t know what was happening and had no idea what to do. All he knew was that the pain was unbearable, that if he didn''t solve this soon he might die, and that frightened him. It was as if every cell in his body was falling apart. Even the naked eyes would reveal an image that would look like a horror film. It was awful. Chapter 28 - 28: Unexpected Turn James could barely see with his eyes and tried to understand what was happening. He could hear the bones in his body breaking and feel what was forming around his heart. The energy in his body was burning, he couldn''t understand what was happening. He had been dealing with this event for almost 5 minutes. His heart was squeezing and breathing was becoming difficult, he could feel his bones cracking and breaking, and he was writhing on the floor. It would not be wrong to say that the whole floor was in blood and he was writhing on the puddle of blood. Indeed, everything was getting more difficult with each passing second. At that very moment, a window appeared in front of him: [Calm down, try to sit cross-legged and sit properly.] James, who tried to sit up somehow when he read the window that had suddenly formed in front of him, managed to do so despite his broken bones. As soon as he got into the cross-legged position, he realised that the pain in his body had decreased slightly, but he still had no idea what to do. [Breathe in and out deeply. The two forces in your body are at war with each other. Magic and Aura cannot exist in the same body, we have to try to expel one of them]. As soon as James read the window, he followed the instruction and breathed deeply, even if it was difficult. He was bleeding internally and every time he breathed in, he was in greater pain, but when he breathed out, the pain in his body disappeared, even for a few seconds. [Sighs... Keep going like this. Your body will decide what it needs to be, pick whichever one you''re more in tune with, and discard your value like rubbish. I can''t understand why you''re trying to have magic status when you have aura in your body, it''s a stupid choice.] James managed to relax a little after the succession of windows formed in front of him. His body felt light, but he was still trying to cope with the same pain and writhing. It was such a strange feeling, as if the power coursing through his body, through his veins, and the power around his heart were colliding. Yet James could clearly realise that something was not trying to be expelled. It was as if these two forces were strengthening each other as if they were trying to reach an agreement. Whatever it was, it kept on happening, and with each passing second the pain continued to increase exponentially. Half of the room was covered in blood, it was strange for James even to think that there was so much blood in his body, but thanks to his automatic regeneration ability, he had managed to survive so far, otherwise it would be a matter of time before he bled to death. After a sequence of almost 15 minutes, James realised that the pain in his body had completely disappeared. There was only great pain and aching inside his body. Almost all his bones were broken, it was a miracle that he was even sitting in the position he was in now. It must have been a miracle indeed that he had suddenly collapsed, the auto-healing would help him, of course, but it seemed a certainty that such a slow healing would not be able to heal him so quickly. Before he fainted, however, he saw a window in front of him, albeit a blurry one, and he smiled at what he saw as if all the pain he had suffered had been rewarded, and his eyes closed and he fainted on the spot. Olympus, on the other hand, was in great confusion again, Chaos'' decision seemed to confuse them. "I don''t understand mum, why did Grandpa make such a decision? James doesn''t know anything, you even spent a lot of energy trying to help him, but what happened? Why did Grandfather grant the status of magic to someone with an aura?" It was Thanatos himself who spoke. The child of Nyx and he alone is the god of death. "I don''t want to lie, my dear Thanatos, I have no idea. For some reason, my father, who has not been in the tower or its contents for a very long time, has been paying close attention to this small, weak, newly important boy. Yet he sends him something that could kill him, perhaps James should never have had the aura." When Nyx looked at Thanatos and voiced these answers, every one of the surrounding gods fell silent. The fact that Chaos had deliberately given this book to James would of course silence them. After all, how many people were there who were not afraid of Chaos? On the other hand, Apollo had been silent since the beginning and had been watching James carefully. He seemed to be trying to analyse what had happened. Apollo, the God of Knowledge, watched James in depth. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "My lady, please look at him carefully." Apollo suddenly said, speaking towards Nyx. After he had said this, every god and goddess in the hall turned back to the window near the ceiling and began to look at James carefully, and each of them managed to be surprised again. "I ---Impossible!" exclaimed Nemesis suddenly, one of the biggest aura users. "Impossible indeed, how did it happen?" muttered Hypnos, never expecting to witness this. "I...I don''t...understand?" replied Nyx, in all the chaos, it was clear that even she hadn''t expected this. James had finally managed to wake up, even though he knew little of what had happened. After 5 hours in his dreams, he finally woke up and looked at the window in front of him again. "Haha...I didn''t see it wrong...I really did it." What was written on the window seemed to have made him extremely happy, the excitement in his body had reached the ceiling, and he was surprised even to himself that he did not cry from happiness. At that very moment, the person who had helped him came to his mind and then he did not even care about the window and uttered the following words: "I don''t know who you are, but you saved my life today, I swear I will pay for it, I''m sure you are stronger than me, but there will be a day when I will surpass you, I swear you won''t have to lift a finger the day you need my help." Those words were like his oath. James'' oath to his lady Nyx, is basic yet incredibly strong. Who would have thought that could happen? Chapter 29 - 29: Godly Achievement Won [Godly Achievement Won! You have accomplished something that has never been achieved since the tower was created! The living body cannot accept more than one power. Darkness can merge with light, and day with night, but aura and magic cannot be linked. You, Mr Umbra, have achieved something that has never been achieved before and you have managed to unite Aura and Magic. Your Magic Status has increased by 100. Your Intelligence Stat has increased by 30. Your understanding of Aura has increased by 5%. The lowest Level Sword Aura has evolved into Middle-Level Completed Aura. You get a chance to choose a card]. [Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary++++) The player''s understanding of weapons has been increased by 50%. The player can now use aura on all weapons. The player''s Strength stat has increased by 10. The player''s Agility stat has increased by 10. The player''s Endurance stat has increased by 10]. James was about to lose his mind when he looked at what he had gained. He had grown enormously stronger. On top of that, his low-level aura had evolved into a complete mid-level aura. He had no idea how the two powers had merged in his body, but he felt like he had to pray to the gods for this, he had indeed come back from the brink of death. He tried to scratch his head and then realised that his hair was sticky. Looking carefully around and in the mirror in front of him, he saw that there was blood everywhere and he prayed that he had gained the ability to heal automatically, it was indeed great luck that he had it. Nevertheless, he got up, albeit with difficulty, and despite all the pain in his body, he somehow managed to get into the shower at the other end of the huge room. Every time he stepped on the floor he realised that the floor was damaged, as if he had to learn to control his suddenly increased strength. Of course, he hadn''t forgotten about the dark card in the bottom right of his eye. He would be able to possess something in the Godly tier. With that, he washed himself nicely and got into the bathtub. There were a thousand thoughts in his mind. Who had helped him? Why had they helped him? Could it have been one of Nyx''s children? He knew the way Emma talked, so it wasn''t her. But how had someone else spoken to him? He had even considered the possibility that it could have been Leyla, but the name Nyx, who had sworn to protect him, had never once come to mind. There was a limit to being stupid. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [I''m glad you''re okay.] James saw another window suddenly appear and realised that the person who had helped him was trying to talk to him again. "Thank you, for everything. May I know who you are?" Lying comfortably in the tub, he answered the person speaking to him and was greeted with a name he never expected to see: [Nyx]. After reading this name, he suddenly tried to straighten himself and started to sit respectfully, even if he was in the bathtub. "Forgive me, my lady, I didn''t realise it was you, thank you very much indeed, I''m sure I''ve caused you a great deal of trouble." James couldn''t help but smile and bow his head humbly at the honour bestowed upon him by Nyx, it was ironic that the very woman he had wanted to reach out to had saved his life. [I just wasted my energy, you have nothing to worry about, your well-being is more important than anything else.] James smiled as he read the window in front of him and then got out of the bathtub. He seemed to think that since all the gods were watching him, he had nothing to hide anymore. After getting dressed, he left the bathroom and saw the dried blood and other things in his room. After shaking his head for a few seconds, he suddenly left the room and saw the guards in front of the room. "Well, the room needs a bit of cleaning, good luck to whoever cleans it." After these words, he walked forward and left the hotel without looking back for a second. There was only one thing to do now, and that was to meet Theseus and establish the Chaos Guild. Of course, all this thought was looking at the possibility that Theseus had somehow collected the money. After leaving the hotel, he walked around for a while and came to the front of the Olympus Guild again. He saw the same flags that he had seen when he first entered the floor, it was like a parade, horse carriages were coming one after the other and each of them was moving at a constant speed. These flags belonged neither to Olympus nor Asgard. "Excuse me, can I ask what''s going on?" James asked one of the spectators with great curiosity about the reason for the parade. "Don''t you know, today is the anniversary of the founding of the Solar Empire, and preparations have been going on for almost a month. On top of that, even the Popes of the Church are coming today." When James heard this answer, he continued to watch the parade carefully. He could very clearly see the people watching the people outside from inside the horse carriages passing one after another. The carriages had different coats of arms and each coat of arms had a different pattern. There was a dragon made of gold in the carriages that went in the front and followed from the back. The dragon''s eyes were jet black and its horns were white, and every other scale seemed to be made of gold. It was the symbol of the empire. They must have been the imperial family. The chariot of the people coming behind them had the symbol of a crow. The crow''s eye was made of gold and its tail was a white colour, the rest was as dark as the night itself. James had no idea who these people were, but he knew one thing, the colours were arranged according to the symbol of the imperial family, and the families were very close. However, after almost 5 minutes of progress of other carriages entering, soldiers started to enter from inside the gate. Each soldier was wearing a moon symbol. A white moon with stars around it and black clothes. This was the church. "An...Umbra?" When James had given himself that nickname, his thought was to be the depth of Nyx''s night, to be the lady''s shadow. What surprised him was exactly that, he was seeing something that had already been formed. Which god exactly did the Church worship? Chapter 30 - 30: Literally The Shadow Of Nyx James thought to himself that Nyx was still watching him and asked quietly, "My lady, do you have any connection to these people?" and the window in front of him confirmed it. [The Church of Night. The official religion of the Empire of the Sun, I am the goddess they worship. The greatest power in the empire, the power that even the imperial family depends on.] James was ready to turn and leave after closing this window abruptly when he saw Theseus and slowly started to walk towards him. He wanted nothing to do with church or religion. "Mr Umbra, good morning, I''ve had some reports that you must have struggled last night," Theseus said in a very friendly manner. "Don''t ask, it''s the talents, they''re annoying," James replied, preparing to enter the Olympus Guild, but at that very moment, something happened that even Theseus did not expect. The church carriage and all the soldiers around it came to a sudden halt. The carriage door opened and a man and a woman got out. These two seemed to be quite old people, at least 60 years old. James was about to enter the guild without a care in the world when suddenly the old woman shouted at him: "Young master, can we have a second please?!" Shaking his head in boredom, James realised that there was no way out of this and turned to the old woman and asked, "Yes, madam?" As soon as the woman heard these words, James was aware of the crowd around. Even the Imperial family and the family behind them seemed to be watching him from behind the old woman. "Are you a worshipper of our goddess?" James shook his head and then said, "I''m not sure I know who your goddess is, ma''am." He was trying to disappear. It didn''t seem to work on this old woman, though. "Nyx. Our goddess is the mother of the great night." When these words reached him, James made a face of ignorance and then said, "Nyx? Never heard of her." and entered the Olympus Guild. Theseus realised what was happening and couldn''t understand why James had lied to them, it was the same for every single person connected to Olympus and Asgard. As James entered the guild hall and took his seat where he had sat yesterday, Theseus and the others, followed by two elders and the imperial family, entered. Theseus politely walked over to James and stood to his left. "Won''t you sit down, dear Theseus?" James suddenly said, and Theseus, hearing this, gently approached his ear and said, "I don''t know what you are trying to do, but it is obvious that you are trying to establish your authority, let me help you, I have a good place in the empire." With that, James smiled, crossed his legs, took a glass of ice water out of his inventory and put it on the table. "I''m not quite sure why you''re following me, ma''am, I didn''t think you had any more questions," James suddenly said. With that the old woman took a few steps towards James and a few of the soldiers followed her. Theseus seemed ready to unsheathe his sword just in case. After all, James''s safety was more important than both the empire and the Church of Night, and he would endeavour to destroy each of them. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Of course, the powers of rankers like Theseus would hurt them when used on lower floors, but he had received orders from Nemesis himself to protect James, and even if he died, what had to be done would be done. After all that was a direct order from Nemesis, the one that got full authority from Nyx. Seeing Theseus reach for his sword, the old woman gestured for the soldiers to retreat and then took a few more steps before she reached the front of the table. "I was wondering why you were lying. The aura on you is almost 20 times more than the night aura I have collected in my 1143 years of life, but you don''t even look over 30 years old." When the old woman said these words, James made the same expression again and then said, "I don''t know what you are talking about. I don''t know your goddess, nor do I have any connection with her." It was amazing how old and well that woman was. These words alone ordered every ranker or normal climber in the guild to shut up. "Maybe that is the case but I am refusing the believe that. I have worked for my goddess all my life, and as I said, for 1143 years of my life. My loyalty to my goddess has caused me to hear her voice more than once, which is why the empire has grown to such a gigantic size." A few seconds passed over these words of the old woman and then she asked "So I can realise, who exactly are you?" without stopping. At these words James realised that there was no way out of there, so he scratched his head and then spoke as gently as he could, but with enormous authority: "I am a man who has high loyalty for his lady. For you, she is a goddess that you kneel before but for me, she is a goddess that I admire, love, desire to reach and like to pass. I am literally her shadow, warrior and perhaps maybe even more, I think she is like my mother at this point." With these words, every single person in the church began to tremble. Even if James didn''t know what was going on, Theseus, the guild members and everyone else who had entered could clearly see what was happening. James'' shadow was reflected on the wall behind him. A female figure stood in the shadow, a figure caressing James'' head. Purple shining eyes, jet-black hair with star-like features, a body of enormous beauty with perfectly slim and regular facial features. The shadow painted the Nyx herself. James was Nyx''s shadow and Nyx was what symbolised James. Their bond had reached an insurmountable level when James chose that card. "My Goddess..." the old woman suddenly said and fell to her knees. All the members of the guild knelt, even the members of the imperial family and the family with the crow crest. Even Theseus was about to fall to his knees when James stopped him and shook his head, turning round he saw what had happened and realised that Lady Nyx had helped him once more. Theseus shouldn''t have knelt, James was going to use him authoritatively. Chapter 31 - 31: Birth Of Chaos Guild After only a few seconds of waiting, James, who had begun to look at the old woman carefully, suddenly smiled and then said his last words: "I am not a religious man. I have a greater bond with my lady than you realise. I live as her warrior, the one and only true one. There are thousands of gods and tens of thousands of religions, believe me, the last thing you want is to be in a religion in a situation like this." With that he suddenly clapped his hands and rose from his seat, he could use the church for his pursuits, and he realised that the church was already tied to him. "Come on dear Theseus, we have things to do, I am assuming that you are ready no?" With a small chuckle, Theseus took out a cheque from inside the jacket he was wearing, handed it to James and said the following words: "15.000.000 Gold Mr Umbra, I have already done all the work for you, you just need to set the name of the guild and make the payment." James, who smiled after these words, could not hold back his excitement and happiness and touched Theseus'' shoulder and said "Thank you very much, brother, I will never forget your help, I swear, wait for me to climb the floors." With that, a window opened in front of James, who was holding the cheque: [Guild Name "....."] James saw the window, said "Chaos" in a kind, respectful and happy voice, and accepted the transaction. With that, the window that attracted everyone''s attention opened in front of each player, and a rare guild notification appeared in front of everyone: [As of today, the [CHAOS] guild has been established on the 5th Floor. Congratulations to the guild leader Umbra!] sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This was the article describing the birth of the Chaos Guild. As of today, the biggest guild of the future was established. It would be a guild that even Gods and Goddesses would be dying to enter. However, James thought that this floor was the end of what he could do now, he had no desire to wait anywhere for a long time, what he wanted was to make progress and become a god as soon as possible. "I''m going to the next floor Theseus, enough rest." James suddenly smiled and with Theseus'' satisfied expression he added "Come on Emma let''s go." After entering the passage opened in front of him, he opened his eyes to a cemetery, but the more important thing was that the thing he had suddenly forgotten came back to his mind. "Oops, I forgot Ronald." As James said this, Ronald fell to his knees and began to cry, clearly feeling bad that he wouldn''t be able to see James again until he came back to the 5th floor. He seemed to think that James wouldn''t forget him. Whatever it was, James had now entered the 6th floor. It was very clear that the location of this floor was a graveyard. James tried to guess more or less what was going to happen. "Maybe skeletons? Oh oh! Or maybe ghosts? How am I going to fight against ghosts, though?" After a few questions he asked himself, the answer from Emma didn''t seem to be too late: [Welcome! Welcome to the 6th floor of the tower, the Gate of Illusions! The purpose of this floor is to find three objects hidden among the illusions and put them together to obtain the key. Please remember to kill the enemies you will encounter as you progress towards this goal. Protect yourself and try not to die. Remember that getting rid of monsters will be more difficult than finding items. We wish you good luck!] After this short explanation, James seemed to understand the structure of the floor he was currently on. In short, he had to find the items hidden behind the illusions and leave this place. However, he had no idea what the monsters he was going to fight were. That''s why he took Clarent out of his inventory just in case and grasped the sword. He could feel the fluctuation in his body after grasping Clarent. "Is this part of the completed aura? Even though it''s only intermediate level, look at this feeling!" After a little exclamation and vicarious excitement, James heard rustling noises that had suddenly started to appear. These rustling sounds were coming from gravestones. This strange sound, caused by the crumbling of the dried vegetation on the graves, suddenly stopped as if to reveal the underlying fear and created an event that made James smile. "No shit, they''re zombies!" When James saw the 2 zombies in front of him, he paused for a few seconds and then suddenly jumped forward. He killed both zombies with simple moves and then jumped with excitement and shouted: "WHO HASN''T DREAMT OF KILLING ZOMBIES?!" With that, he spun around and then realised that no zombies existed. Only the two corpses on the ground and himself were standing in the cemetery. Since he did not know when the monsters would come, he thought that he had to start the process immediately, so he started to find the items. Just as he started to work, that strange sound came from behind him again and was cut off, and after he turned around, he realised the 4 zombies standing in front of him. After quickly slaughtering the zombies, when he started working again, the sound repeated itself and now 8 zombies were standing in front of James. When he thought, "What''s going on?", he had already slaughtered eight zombies and started to wait where he was, but now the alarming event he saw was repeated. James, who managed to grasp what was happening at that moment, started pointing at the zombies one by one and counted them: "1,2,3,4.....14,15,16? 16 Zombies? Are these increasing exponentially?" This floor could be more dangerous than he expected, this was worrying. Chapter 32 - 32: Praise Nyx For Giving Me This Talent As soon as James saw the zombies increasing exponentially, he started to check them carefully. The zombies were not slow, so they could catch up with him by running, but he was of course many times faster than the zombies, so he had little to fear. This meant that there was no reason for him to kill the zombies. That''s exactly why he thought he had to take action and started running around. He was constantly looking left and right and looking for something that caught his attention. There were three items he had to find, even if he didn''t know what they were, he had to reach them immediately. After a short while, a shiny object caught his eye about 15 metres away. After running towards the object, he picked up a hollow triangle. [1/3] When he saw this window in its usual place his eye fell back on the black card beside him, he didn''t want to use it right now, whatever would come out would change the way it currently functioned and it would be more useful for him to open the card after he passed this level. He seemed to have found a piece of the key, the key seemed to have a different shape than he had expected and that changed everything. Just then something else unexpected happened. "ARGH!" James felt something prick his leg and he turned round. A zombie had grabbed him from the ground, its claws digging into his leg. He suddenly plunged Clarent into the rotten earth and took the zombie''s life. [You have been poisoned. You will feel dizzy for 10 seconds.] After this window formed in front of him, James thought he had to act quickly and suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground. His vision was normal, he didn''t feel dizzy, but the poison seemed to be affecting him. It was as if something that wasn''t there had infected him and was affecting him without him realising it. Whatever this poison was, it had to be incredible. Knowing this, James turned back and cut off the zombie''s hand and threw it into his inventory, there was a chance that this thing could be useful. With that, the poison left his body and James started running again. As he killed one more zombie, the number of zombies increased to 18. He realised that he was being surrounded. Many of the hands that had just come out of the ground were standing around, and the zombies following him had already caught up with him. The zombies were intelligent, they could work together, it was an incredible sight. James thought that there would be no escape from them now. Another piece seemed to have caught his eye and he had to get past the zombies and get to it. After carefully grabbing Clarent, he activated his dark step ability and quickly destroyed the 4 zombies in front of him. Moving quickly, he took the cross on a tombstone and then started running again, he had one last piece left. [2/3] The difficulty of this dungeon seemed to vary from person to person. After all, unless someone realised that what was being killed was increasing exponentially, they would keep on attacking, which of course would lead to their death. So there was no difficulty for James. With each step, he covered a greater distance and before long he managed to find the third piece, which was a drop mark. In his opinion, the difficulty of this floor was the number of monsters that could increase exponentially. Looking around after he had the third piece in his hand, James suddenly realised that there was a light stretching towards the sky, when he ran to the light and reached the place where it came from, he saw that all three objects could be placed in the gaps and just as he was about to place them, something came to his mind. A zombie corpse was standing right next to him. "Exploitation," James said, if exploitation worked on zombies, there was no limit to the power he could gain from it. [Zombie Corpse x1 exploited]. James smiled frighteningly when he saw this window and grabbed Clarent tighter. "Let''s go Clarent, we have a tonne of zombies to kill." he suddenly said, and without waiting, he attacked. Every time he swung his sword, at least two zombies died, but he didn''t stop killing the zombies on the ground. S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He had already killed 30 zombies and the next stage had begun, this time 60 zombies were coming towards him at a faster pace. James hadn''t broken a sweat. "Thank you very much, my lady, thanks to you I will become insanely strong," James said and with that, he moved towards the zombies. The increasing speed of the zombies seemed to show James that more and more powerful ones were coming at each stage, but he didn''t shed a drop of sweat, he was shaking with excitement as he thought about the stat points he could gain here. Even if those stat points came to charisma status, it would still be a good thing, after all, that status increased his influence over others. "On the right! A monk from above!" With his self-talk, he made his moves and continued to mow down the zombies. 60 then 120, 120 then 240. With each kill, their numbers doubled and James continued as if he was happy about it. It seemed like there were many more zombies to kill, he had to move forward.... ----- Almost three hours had passed. James was drenched in sweat, the zombie blood on him seemed to have reached a gigantic size, with each step he took, half of Selene''s boots were soaked in blood. "How many have I killed?" James questioned himself as he looked around to see another horde of zombies coming towards him. [Stage 6 is starting. There will be 1920 upgraded zombies.] Immediately after reading this James spread his palms out to the sides and then shouted "Exploit!". Immediately after he activated this ability, darkness enveloped the area and the zombie corpses dried up and turned to dust, as it was normal for undead bodies to die and disappear differently from goblins. As soon as he realised that the exploitation was over, he ran to insert the keys and then quickly inserted them, when he entered the passage in front of him, he entered a white space and saw two more passages in front of him, but before that, he wanted to look at his profile to see how strong he had become. But suddenly the windows in front of him stopped him. Chapter 33 - 33: Elevated Stats [6th floor completed, your rewards will be added to the first 5 floor rewards and delivered to you.] [960 Zombies killed.] [Unique Achievement Won! Dominance over the Undead has been established. You will now deal 10% more damage to Undead monsters. You get to choose a card.] "I completely forgot about the rewards for the first 5 floors, Emma, what happened?" James thought he should ignore the other windows for a few minutes and asked this question. Emma gave him an answer he hadn''t expected. [It''s your fault, Mr Umbra! Who told you to break records in order? You have broken records that have not been broken for millions of years and now you are scolding me, please have some mercy!] When James read these texts, his face looked a little awkward and then he shook his head and said "Sorry, my mistake...". He really saw Emma as a desk worker, he seemed upset. However, he had killed 960 zombies, and he really couldn''t find anything to say; it was a huge number. That meant he had 27 status points to earn. "Profile." he suddenly said, and the image that opened before his eyes made him very happy: "James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 34 Class: Warrior of the Night Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++) [Statuses] Strength: 30 Agility: 40 Endurance: 21 Luck: 26 Magic: 100 Intelligence: 39 Charisma: 12 Status Points: 19" He had reached 34 levels, and it was clear that the zombies had given him many experience points. However, 19 points from skipped levels were set aside. In addition to the 10 points from Completed Aura, there were other points from exploitation. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When he put all of the remaining 19 points into his Agility stat, he noticed that his body felt lighter. His Agility stat was now 59 points. His Magic stat was fixed at 100 and just stood there. James'' eyes widened as he thought back carefully to his weakened state when he had first entered the tower. "It''s only been a few weeks...." James said and without waiting, he entered the passage that would take him to the 5th floor. With each step he could see the people around watching him, it was as if what he was doing and saying had created a very big event. "It took you longer than I expected to complete the 6th floor, Mr Umbra." James suddenly heard a voice coming from his right and turned his head. He met the person with sea-blue eyes and hair again. "I was trying something, dear Theseus, I had already collected the three keys," James replied, his smile seeming to pierce the heavens. "You seem happy Umbra, if we''re going to see you like this forever, tell us how you''re doing so we can help you," Theseus said, chuckling. "You''re telling me, Theseus, really? You''re about to fly into the sun like Icarus, don''t let your wings come off with joy," James replied, his eyes watering with laughter. "Hahaha, you may be right, sir. Not bringing me to my knees gave Olympus enormous authority. Lady Nyx rarely lets her worshippers or others know she''s on their side. The Church of Night has been kind to Olympus and Asgard. The authority of the 5th Floor was divided between the guilds of Chaos, Olympus and Asgard." Theseus''s words made James smile. Lady Nyx''s authority was truly enormous, and James seemed to have a great place as her warrior. "What about those two elders? I hope nothing happened after I left?" Theseus'' eyes seemed to sparkle at James'' question. "They gave us permission! We got permission from the imperial family to enter the imperial library! The empire has been around since before my birth, Umbra, literally hundreds of millions of years. Even my father, Poseidon, spent several dozen years as an imperial guard, all to gain access to the library, but was able to only once. The guilds of Chaos, Olympus and Asgard are now approved for entry. That''s something everyone wants!" Theseus uttered these words in just one breath and fixed his smile on James. "Even Master Poseidon? Why is this library so valuable? I understand you say hundreds of millions of years, but what is the real reason? Does it have information about the tower, maybe something from the upper floors?" "No sir, that sort of thing is already pretty well known, if you know anyone. The real reason is that there are billions of books in the library, it''s a vast subspace, just like the inventories, but alive people can enter. Which means that there are millions of no...tens of millions of talents waiting to be found, lost since antiquity." James seemed to realise the true value of the library after these words, he nodded and got a reason to go to the library, maybe he needed something to increase his power. "And sir, you have been given the highest access, even though it is vast, it is divided into three floors. The top floor is said to have the fewest books. Olympus and Asgard have been granted access to the second floor. Of course, you can enter the lower floors, you know what I mean." After these words, James shook his head and then said, "If I thought that introducing myself would create such a scene, I would go directly to the 6th floor, they won''t follow me, right?" "Cough.... Well, sir, they''ve already started following you, look around you...It looks like they want to protect you." Upon Theseus'' words, James looked around in detail and saw 5 women looking at him with shining eyes and smiling faces. He squinted his eyes and turned to Theseus and then said, "To tell you a lie, even if I wanted to be chased by women, this is not what I thought at all. They don''t see me as lady Nyx, do they?" he said. After these words, Theseus, shrugging his shoulders as if he did not know, just looked at James, there was nothing he could say. Chapter 34 - 34: Imperial Palace "What the hell?" James muttered, and Theseus, hearing this, said in a serious tone, "Umbra, you may not realise it, but you are of a higher rank than the popes of the church. Warrior of Nyx, who knows, maybe you can be considered in the rank of the lady''s children, in terms of rank, of course." James was not convinced by these words, he did not believe that he would have the same rank as the children of Nyx. The window that appeared at that very moment would prove him incredibly wrong. [What Theseus said is true, James. My mother''s orders were to see you as our equal, after all, the fact that you were able to choose my mother means that you are enough for that, and the loyalty you have, why should we not see you as our brother?] James scratched his chin as he read what was written in the window and then asked "Who are you?", Theseus seemed surprised by the question. "Is someone sending you a message, sir? That is a very difficult thing, almost impossible unless you are a high god like Lady Nyx, Sir Erebus or someone like my father." After Theseus'' words, another window opened in front of James, who was preparing to answer him: sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ["I, Moros, am known as the hateful form of doom. You may know me as the god of fate, I am the third-born child]. James smiled as he read the window and then said aloud "MOROS? Oh my God, what an honour it is to meet you! It was written that you helped me with my class skills, thank you very much!" These words seemed to surprise Theseus even more. He had not expected James to meet one of the top gods like Moros. He usually wandered around the tower and watched the creatures, and even liked to collect mystical beasts. It was unheard of for him to speak to one of the players in person. Even if James didn''t know it, Moros was smiling in a way that even his entire family had never seen before, he didn''t seem to expect such a pure answer and a happy face from James. "Haha...what an interesting boy," Moros said, even Nyx had never seen her son like this before, it was a smiling moment. [I''m the one who''s honoured, I just wanted to tell you so you wouldn''t worry. Don''t care about the church, they have to do whatever you say, you can even get them to join the guild.] After another message from Moros, James smiled and then scratched his chin again, this time with a huge smile on his face as he seemed to be thinking. "Huh....I''ve got a much better idea.....I''ll have the guild''s building built by the church. If they can control the imperial family, they can build a building. I feel like a bad person right now, but it''s worth it! Not like I have money for it ey?" Moros couldn''t hold back his laughter after saying these words, the duo of Hypnos and Thanatos even thought that his brother was going crazy. "PUAHAHAHA, what a strange person you are!" Even if James didn''t realise it, the Chaos descendants were preparing to make him the first person to make Moros laugh. With that he looked again at the women around him and then gestured for one of them to come over, the woman who had come to James with great haste clasped her hands together and waited for what he was going to say with her eyes shining. If James had said that he was not afraid, he would certainly have told a lie, he looked at Theseus and then at the woman with a strange expression on his face. "How can I meet those two old people?" James suddenly asked, and the woman suddenly whistled. After an ear-piercing whistle, a carriage came in front of James and Theseus at an incredible speed. Theseus seemed to be trying hard not to laugh, which was understandable, and James, who realised this, looked at him and said, "I swear the god Theseus don''t laugh." Theseus, who heard this, bowed his head and with his thin voice due to holding himself, said, "With your permission, Umbra, I''m going to do my daily work." and left the environment without even giving James the right to speak. James looked at the carriage in front of him and had to squint his eyes because of the high amount of brightness. Each of the women following him was standing around the carriage, and when James looked again at the woman who was looking at him with her bright eyes, he saw that she was pointing at the carriage. She seemed to be a very kind woman. "Thank you," James said, and then he got into the carriage. When he entered the carriage, he sat on one of the seats inside and his whole body trembled very badly. "Is there a problem, sublime one?" The woman who got into the carriage with him seemed surprised by James''s sudden trembling. "Nothing is wrong, I am surprised at the comfort of the seat, it may be the most comfortable thing I have ever sat on in my life." With this answer from James, the journey started. They would go to the centre of the city, where the imperial palace was. The church was inside the palace. So wherever you look, they had about an hour''s drive, and James used this chance to close his eyes. Despite the dirt and filth on him, he had to rest, even if he was ashamed of dirtying this carriage, which was perhaps very valuable here. When he opened his eyes again, an unexpected sight would greet him. ----- "What the hell is this?" James looked out of the cariage and saw over a hundred people gathered in front of the palace. Sleep was flowing from his eyes, even if he had slept for close to an hour, he was still tired, having slept for close to 10 hours maximum in recent days. The bruises under his eyes were already caused by this. When the carriage door opened and the woman inside got out, James followed her and left the vehicle. "Welcome, honourable Umbra! The holy one!" When James looked where the voice came from, he saw the old woman who had spoken to him only half a day ago, at least she seemed to have an easy job here. Chapter 35 - 35: Chaos Guild Building "I know I told you that I wasn''t going to come here or will not choose to be near the church, since I have better ways to show my faith." As James said these words he saw the eyes of more than a hundred people in front of him light up and then he scratched his head and said, "But I need your help." That was reason enough for the church, everyone was ready to sacrifice themselves. They were nothing but a bunch of fanatics. "Come in, sir, please let''s talk inside," the old woman suddenly said, and with that, they all went to the meeting room of the palace. There were several people in the meeting room. The Emperor, the Empress, a prince and a princess. Also present were the two popes of the church. "First of all, please tell me your names, I will try to remember them even if my memory for names is terrible," James said, addressing those sitting around the table. Those who heard this started to introduce themselves one by one: "My name is Ahil, Emperor of the Sun Empire, this is my wife Wish, next to her is my son Enel and my daughter Lila sir." "And I am Datura, one of the two popes." James, who scratched his chin when the woman introduced herself with this name, smiled and then said, "The name of a flower with high poison, huh? The devil''s drums. What a beautiful name." Datura smiled when she heard this, bowed her head, and said, "Thank you, sir, I am honoured." "I am Aether sir, the second pope of the church." "Do you know where your name comes from, old man?" James asked with a twinkle in his eye. After the old man shook his head no, James smiled and then spoke calmly: "Aether. The name of Lady Nyx''s first child. Also known as the god of space and heaven. Your name carries great weight, and I hope you have lived well enough to make it worth it." After these words, each individual in the room swallowed once, obviously surprised. James yawned as if nothing had happened and then added "Whatever, Mr Aether''s a nice bloke, blah blah blah, never mind that we''ve got work to do." and then sat cross-legged in the large chair he was sitting in. Even these words were enough to make Aether laugh. Sitting normally next to Nyx in the centre of Olympus, he laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes. "Work to do, sir?" Datura said as James turned to her and said, "Yes, I need a building for the Chaos Guild. As you can understand, it is a newly established guild, it has neither a building nor members." After these words, a discussion arose within the group. The prince and princess said that even the guild''s name was superior to the church, and therefore the church should be demolished and rebuilt. Of course, the main building of the church was not the imperial palace. It was located on the top of one of the famous mountains outside the city. The purpose of this was for the church to serve as Nyx''s soldier in a sense, but this was not the most important reason. The church wanted to choose the place closest to the sky, in short, they wished to reach the night of Nyx. The popes of the church, on the other hand, argued that this would not be the right decision, that instead of demolishing it, the church should be restructured and the change of ranks should be reviewed. This meant that James should become a member of the church and appoint him as the new pope. The Empress, as James realised, was looking deeply at the Emperor. It was clear that the emperor was deep in thought. "What is your opinion, Ahil?" James suddenly asked, and the room fell silent. When Ahil heard this question directed to him, he looked deeply at James and then calmly said, "If you wish, we can declare the entire imperial palace as the Chaos Guild building. Is Chaos not our creator? Father of our Lady Nyx, I can think of no greater honour than to host a guild named after him." Hearing this answer, James took a deep breath. The imperial palace was a huge place, seriously so big that it was impossible to describe it in words. There was no other way to describe it except to say that it was gigantic. At Ahil''s words, the popes of the church nodded their heads and inwardly approved. After all, the church was born with the imperial family, even if they controlled them, they were aware that this was a respectable behaviour. "It''s... acceptable," James said suddenly. Inwardly he was trying to hold back his laughter. Of course, he couldn''t afford to build a building for the Chaos Guild and so he had tried to get the church to pay for everything. In doing so, though, he had made a bigger profit than he had expected. He had always been allowed access to the imperial library, and even he had no idea what he would be able to do if the guild''s main building was the imperial palace itself, after all, it would be beyond limitless. "What do you think, Master Moros? Is the imperial palace enough?" James asked as the older duo stood up and tried to realise what was going on. "Moros? The child of Nyx, sir?" asked Datura. "Mhm exactly. Shut up for a second and let me hear what the man has to say," replied James and with that he read the window that had formed in front of him: [That''s good enough, James. Even if you choose an ordinary house as a guild building, I don''t think they will say anything, enjoy yourself.] S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James smiled when he read this window and then said "Well, we got the approval" and entered the guild panel. When the guild panel opened, an open map of the 5th floor appeared in front of him and he paused for a few seconds after seeing the enormity of the map. He was excited to see the empires and kingdoms outside the Sun Empire. However, he chose the area where the imperial palace was located. A paper suddenly appeared in front of him and he handed it to the emperor. As soon as the emperor signed the paper, another window appeared in front of James: [Are you sure you want to make the Main Palace of the Solar Empire the territory of the CHAOS Guild with all its borders? YES/NO] The answer was already obvious, his hand reached for yes, and a notification window appeared on the entire 5th floor: [The CHAOS Guild''s main building has been designated as the boundary of the Imperial Palace. Congratulations to Umbra on his monumental achievement. Guild honour has increased by 100,000 throughout the 5th floor]. Chapter 36 - 36: Floor Rewards [The CHAOS Guild''s main building has been designated as the Imperial Palace grounds. Congratulations to Umbra for his huge achievement. Guild honour has increased by 100,000 along the 5th Floor]. With this notification window, everything was complete, there was nothing else James could do at the moment. Perhaps he could go to the imperial library, but he was certain that he would spend a very long time there. Which left him with only one answer. "I need to go to rest for the day. When I get my floor rewards, I will leave for a while. I need to go to the 10th floor." Saying these words, James stood up with the looks of those around him and then asked, "Can you show me a place where I can rest, master Ahil?" After these words, Ahil immediately called a servant and with this, James entered a room that was at least 10 times more luxurious than the hotel room, he had neither a shower nor anything else, he buried his head in the pillow and then closed his eyes. He planned to sleep for at least a few hours. ----- "What do you mean the guild honour has increased by 100,000? Even Olympus took years to get anywhere near that level of honour..." Artemis turned to her father Zeus in a dazed manner and spoke. Honestly, even Zeus himself did not expect this event. When he founded the guild, he had been trying to reach this honour point for almost 1000 years. "The Church and the greatest empire of the fold have accepted him. The guild territory is the imperial palace itself. It''s safe to say that the majority of the 5th Floor will fall under James'' control." When Zeus gave this answer, all the gods in the environment could do nothing but shake their heads. Nevertheless, a seed of fear had fallen into Zeus'' heart. Having such an honour meant that many guilds would target James. It was possible to stop the gods in this realm, but it was impossible to stop every single guild. After all, once he got to the realm of the gods, that is, above the 75th floor of the tower, it took a huge amount of energy to get down. He did not have the power to do it himself. This power was only available to those honed by war, such as Nemesis, or perhaps his son Hermes, who had sufficient speed. He may have been the owner of the lightning, but he was using this power against the gods, he was already low in energy. Poseidon''s son Theseus the one who was going to protect James himself. Each of them had to believe in Theseus. ----- It had been almost half an hour since James had opened his eyes. He had slept well, and when he checked the system he realised that he had slept soundly for two days. You could tell how tired he was. The good news was that the floor rewards had been delivered. There was a gift box where he kept the cards, that is, in the area that appeared at the bottom right when he checked the system with his eyes. He had finished enjoying a nice bath and the meal that followed and it was finally time to get his rewards. When he pressed the gift box, the box glowed in a way that forced James to close his eyes. After a few seconds, the glow disappeared and James was left with a knife and an egg, perhaps the size of a football. Unable to believe that these were his prizes, James checked his inventory and found that he had nothing but these two. Even though he couldn''t understand what was going on, he still tried to check the items: [Selene''s Knife(Replica)(Godly-) Some people used to say that the Moon Goddess liked to carve moonstones. Well, of course, the truth of that has existed as long as Selene wanted it to. This little knife has gone through a transformation upon throwing. It was bestowed to Umbra by Selene herself after the agreement with the Tower. It has been renamed /Selene''s Throwing Knife\\. It will always be a knife that can be summoned by the player with the energy of the moon as long as the player''s will is sufficient. The piercing probability has been increased by 40%. The bleeding probability has been increased by 40%. Attack damage increased by 40%. When equipped with Selene''s Boots, the player''s speed will increase by 70%]. When James closely examined this knife, he had a great idea of why it had only received two awards. He was certain that he could be satisfied with this prize alone. Still, he couldn''t forget the egg the size of a football. When he touched the egg, another window opened in front of him: [Mystical Beast Egg(Godly++) The stories told by the gods say that Moros, the God of Fate and Sorrow, likes to collect mystical monsters inside the tower. This egg, the result of the mating of two Supreme Dragons, was bestowed upon Umbra by Moros the Bizar. The egg will grow with the player''s abilities, elements and personality. Moros has bestowed this egg to you in the hope that the child that hatches from this egg will help you for eternity, please take care of it, it is one of the last of his race. Growth rate 0/100 %] S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James, who smiled after receiving his awards, scratched his head and then said, "The Lady of the Moon and the Man of Destiny must have liked me very much. Look, they even made a deal with the tower managers. Thank you very much indeed." and bowed his head respectfully. There were only 3 things left. Gacha and the 2 card options left in his hand. There was a dark card and a crimson card next to it. It was time to use these cards, he was aware of this because he would enter the 7th floor shortly, and he had to be fast and decisive. That''s why he took a deep breath and touched the red card, hoping that the cards would give him something good. Gacha time had started again. After all even the cards were counting as the gacha. The only thing he needed was luck and he knew that luck was something he had. After all didn''t the fates make him have it? Chapter 37 - 37: Another Limited Time Gacha [Poison Resistance(Unique-) Basic level poison resistance. Provides 100% resistance to low-grade poisons]. James, who was staring at the ability that came out of the card, smiled and rejoiced. He seemed to be happy to have an ability like poison resistance. After all, he had been poisoned many times even while fighting zombies on the 6th floor. Of course, this poison was only related to dizziness, but something a little more serious could hurt him, so it was a good thing that he had such an ability. However, he looked carefully at the dark card and then took a deep breath and touched the card, something important had to come out of such a dark card. [Deep Loyalty(Godly++++) Inside the tower, betrayal is something that comes from the top of the structure. Players neither see betrayal as bad nor hate betrayal. Deep loyalty will ensure that everyone who doesn''t directly hate you will treat you impartially. Proximity with NPCs increased by 50%. The probability of controlling NPCs increased by 10%. The probability of getting discounts in NPC Shops increased by 70%. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The tax on sales in the Auction House has decreased by 30%. A 5% discount has been applied to your purchases in the Auction House]. It would be an absolute lie to say that James wasn''t upset when he read the window in front of him, after all, he deeply wanted to have a talent for fighting. The Tower was practically trying to turn him into a merchant. He was forming a bond with NPCs, gaining abilities such as gold master. Still, it wouldn''t be fair to say that he was completely disappointed, after all, this ability would have created his authority not because of Nyx, but because of his existence. On top of that, there was the fact that no one who didn''t harbour ill feelings for him would ever betray him. "Very good," James said and then paused for a few seconds. One eyebrow went up when he read again the purchases in the Auction House. "Emma, where''s my gold?" he suddenly asked. He had neither won a gold prize from the first floor nor did he have the gold from the monsters he had killed so far. [Again, please give me a break, sir! We were able to arrange the rewards quickly because a high god and a goddess helped us. You''ll get your gold sooner or later!] James, who coughed slightly after reading the window that suddenly appeared in front of him, said "sorry." and then opened the gacha panel. When he opened the panel, he saw that a limited gacha was on the panel, just like the clothing gacha. "Magic Gacha." James suddenly said, and couldn''t help smiling at what he saw. It had been a while since he had magic status and he was very happy with it, now he was standing in front of a gacha where he could officially gain magic, there was only one problem. "1000 rights for every ten flips?" James had 9600 rights and of course, he wanted to put them to good use. "Should I do it?" he muttered, and then sat down, officially distressed. His eyes kept going back to the normal gacha, but the limited gacha was only 15 hours away. After a few minutes of waiting, he put his finger on the panel and then took a deep breath, said "I have nothing to lose", and pressed the [turn ten] option. The wheel was spinning as usual, but this time it seemed to be faster. After almost half a minute of spinning, the wheel slowed down and then stopped and the usual 10 cards appeared in front of James. James was stunned, something that had only happened on his first gacha spin before: "All green cards...." When James looked at the cards in front of him, he did not care about any of them and touched each of them one by one without waiting. One of them caught his attention. [Lowest Level Water Element (Common---) You can create as much water as you can fill a glass with for when you''re thirsty! The element can evolve as you continue to use it. The element will be destroyed when it encounters a higher tier]. "Huh...At least we''ve solved the water issue, I''ll always be able to create it even if I run out of water." James suddenly said he hadn''t expected to encounter such a spell. However, he still had 8 more to spend, and knowing this, he pressed the [turn of ten] option again. This time, just like the last time, simple abilities appeared in front of him, but nothing really changed. Breathing spells, fast running spells, jumping spells and other ridiculous spells were given to him. James realised that he had only 1 spell left after he had used 7 spells in a row, and then he shouted angrily "WHAT SPELLS ARE THESE!!!". With this anger, he pressed the [turn of ten] option again and started to wait for the disappointment he would experience again, but this time he would not be disappointed. [High-Level Fire Element (Legendary++++)] When James touched the gold card that had suddenly appeared in front of him, he saw this inscription and trembled deeply. He came from a very hyperactive world. Of course, he had seen such things in the hundreds of fantasy books, TV series and films that existed. After all, what maniac hadn''t fantasised about controlling the elements even once? [High-Level Fire Element (Legendary++++) The player will have the ability to control the fire at will. Before this ability reaches the final level, the player must reach a great enlightenment. Fire-based abilities will deal 70% more damage. Fire-based abilities will eat 30% less energy. Predisposition to fire is increased by 90%. Proximity to fire element-based monsters increased by 100%]. When James read the gift in detail, he smiled, bowed his head and covered his face with his hands. Suddenly he jumped to his feet and then shouted: "HAHAAAA FIRE!!! MY CHILDHOOD DREAM!" Chapter 38 - 38: Floor 7 When James read the gift in detail, he smiled, bowed his head and covered his face with his hands. Suddenly he jumped to his feet and then shouted: "HAHAAAA FIRE!!! MY CHILDHOOD DREAM!" He was going crazy in the huge room, the smile on his face was brighter than it had ever been in his entire life, indeed, the element he had dreamed of since childhood by asking the question "How would it be?" was now in his palms, it was impossible not to be happy like a little kid who got himself a new toy. After calming down, he sat back in his seat. He laughed so much that his ears were red and his eyes were teary, no one, including the gods, had expected him to be so happy. [Have you calmed down yet? I don''t think anyone thought you''d be this happy.] When James read the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, his smile widened a notch and he spoke, pretending to understand the way it was written: "I came from a world without magic, my lady, and of course, I would be so happy to fulfil my childhood dream." After James said this, it became clear that there was no point in waiting on this floor anymore. He had 600 gacha points left, but there was no point in using them now. "Emma, send me to the 7th floor." he suddenly said and entered the portal that opened in front of him, he had no intention of returning to the 5th floor for a while. As soon as he entered the floor, he realised that the surroundings were just like on the 6th floor. He was in a cemetery again, but this time he was in a mansion area. [Welcome! Welcome to the 7th floor, Mr Umbra! The quests on floors 7-9 are not shared with players, so players must explore them themselves. Please take care of your sanity and complete the quests. Good luck!] When James read and closed the window, he started to move towards the mansion with calm steps. There was no noise around, the zombie seemed to have left the floor, which meant that whatever he had to do, he had to do it inside the mansion. With each step he took in line with this information, his attention began to be drawn to other details. After looking at the tombstones around, he saw that there were names on each tombstone compared to the previous floor, he could not quite understand what was going on. S§×ar?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Maybe this was a functioning region just like in the ancient times of the world. The tombstones of the poor did not have their names written on them, so maybe the 6th floor could be the area symbolising the lowly people. That''s why the mansion looked so luxurious. "Elanor Rosewell, Rigby Rosewell, Amber Rosewell, Dick Rosewell...Is the whole family buried here?" He had passed almost 40 gravestones, but after a while these four names caught his attention. It was obvious that they were family, but he didn''t know what killed each of them in the same year. "They all have the same anniversary of death. Year 197." With these words, James, who had approached the door of the mansion, gently pushed the door and entered. It was colossally colder inside than outside, James could feel his bones shaking. As he entered, a melancholy piano began to play, a violin sounded, and people began to gather around. "Ghosts? Really? Bunch of ghosts, that was not what I expected at all." James said suddenly and reached for his inventory to grasp Clarent, just as another window appeared in front of him: [Mission Information Updated Find the real Elanor Rosewell!] After reading this window, James put Clarent back in his place and then started to look carefully at the ghosts around. All the female ghosts around had the same face. Each of them happily danced with their partners in harmony with the music. When James went up to a dancing couple, he bowed his head politely, looked at them, and asked, "Excuse me, are you Mrs Elanor?" Hearing this question, the female ghost turned to James and said, "No dear, that''s not me, you have to be quick." As soon as the female ghost''s words were over, her face faded and she had someone else''s face. When James saw this image, the astonishment on his face reached a gigantic size. "Quick?" he thought, not understanding what was going on. As he asked himself this question he realised that the area was getting hotter, he closed his eyes again and when he opened them he saw that the whole room was on fire. "KYAAA!!!" "HELP PLEASE!!!" "WATER, PLEASE WATER, I''M ON FIRE!!!" The sounds of screaming were piercing James'' ears, it was impossible to understand what was going on. That melancholic piano and calm violin sound was still going on and the flames around were getting bigger and bigger. It was even possible to see ghosts running around to escape the flames. They must have thought they could save their lives even though they were dead. "This tower must be out of its mind..." said James suddenly, but at that moment it occurred to him that he had to move. With quick steps, he stopped the female ghosts around and asked them the same question and got the answer "no" from each of them. All the female ghosts in the room had already changed, there was no other woman in the area. At that very moment, the door in the very corner of the room caught James'' eye. Something inside him gave him the feeling that he had to break the door and move forward. He moved towards the door and forced the door, but there was no passage through the door as if someone had nailed the door from the inside. He suddenly took Clarent outside and without waiting, he cut the door, the door was shattered into pieces. He managed to keep the flames approaching him away from him with his newly acquired Fire Elemental mastery. Yet despite all this, the flames were growing stronger every second, the room that had just been bone-chillingly cold was now hot as hell. After passing through the door, James looked around and saw a path leading downwards. The road was dark and there was an air coming from below that squeezed James'' heart. It was as if someone was calling him down, James had to go there. Chapter 39 - 39: That Was Way Faster Then I Expected James had to go down there. He realised this himself, and that was why he activated his Night Vision and started down the stairs. The fact that he had been down the stairs for almost half a minute seemed to tell him how deep he had reached. There was a door in front of him. The door seemed to be made of iron, it was a very suspicious door with no visible back. Grasping Clarent tightly, James kicked the door open, his strength too great to be stopped by such a door. After entering the door, he saw the blood pool around. The dried blood stains around were at least 30 times more than the blood stains that would have formed when James had almost died, it was very, very clear that this was a torture chamber. With slow but quick steps he made his way to an area where the blood was getting thinner and thinner and then he saw a cage. The cage was huge, it would be absolutely normal to say that it was almost 5 metres long. After watching the cage carefully, he realised that a woman was sitting in the cage, covered in blood. Seeing the woman, James stopped where he was for a few seconds and then tears began to flow from his eyes. "You found me..." James paused and stared at the bloodied woman as the thin female voice rose from the field. "Elanor..." he said calmly. Still, the answer he expected in return did not seem right at all. "Watch out for them. They came, they slaughtered my entire family, my entire home, my entire lineage, my entire people, every one of them, turning them into horrible monsters." These words shocked James once more as if they had snapped him straight to attention and made him ask the question: "Who are they?" "Shapeshifters. Necromancers. Please be careful, please save them." These words seemed to have touched James'' heart deeply, he felt as if he had seen a friend he hadn''t seen for a long time. James took a deep breath and paused as if he was about to say something when he saw that Elanor had removed a necklace from her neck and was holding it out to James. "Please take this, I''m sure it will protect you," Elanor said and that gave James enough confidence. "I''ll...I''ll save you, I promise...." said James suddenly and with that, Elanor and every single one of the flames around them stopped. [7th Floor Completed = Find the Real Elanor Level 8 unlocked. The rating of the deep battle has been unlocked. 15,000 Gold earned]. The 7th Floor was completed, quite quickly. James suddenly fell to the ground with that, his mental strength had indeed strengthened tremendously, but what he was going through now seemed a little difficult to him, Elanor was a girl who seemed to be almost James'' age, and her being in such a state seemed to remind him of how difficult life was. Elanor must have been through the same thing a billion times by now, being on the 7th floor itself, while he was inside this tower, playing at being a god. It might have been real, it might have been like a memory that could change, but one thing was true...Elanor was acting like a real person....as if every letter of every word had caressed James'' heart. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I have to save her...." said James suddenly and with a light step he moved forward. He had to go through one of the two passageways that had appeared in front of him, even if he was scared for a few seconds to move forward with his current minor mental damage, he also realised that retreating at such a level would set him back from the others in the future. He made his way to the 8th floor passageway and suddenly he was through it. James was about to find himself in a much more complicated situation than he had imagined. He could not even imagine what was about to happen. When he passed through the passage, he found himself in the ballroom he had just been in, and the people around seemed to be real people this time, not ghosts. Yet James realised very clearly that some of the people around him were different from the others. He didn''t even want to lift his eyes to look at them, his stomach felt disgusted by them. "Shapeshifters..." thought James, he had enough perception to recognise them. These abominations were a race of monsters that had existed in the tower''s early history but were later wiped out by the union of Erebus and Ra. They were a dangerous race, and a visit to Chaos by Erebus himself had led to the acknowledgement of their extermination and a definitive acceptance from the creator himself that they had been destroyed. This meant that James was in a way involved in the [bridge of truth and lies] inside the tower. Like on the 6th-floor mission, he seemed to be able to see through the curtains. It was like he had a pair of eyes that could see through illusions. It must have been something strange like he could see the colours of graded cards. Maybe it was a strange ability, but it was in his favour that this ability worked this way. With a few steps, James began to walk around, often greeting people respectfully and talking to them. He even tried to get close and talk to them. He had recognised some of the women from their ghostly forms on the previous floor, he had even seen the woman he had first asked a question of, but neither Elanor nor any other Rosewell family member seemed to be around. In fact, except for Elanor, he didn''t even recognise the others. Still, he thought that he might have a purpose to save each of them, after all, Elanor had asked him to, it was a big gap for the 8th floor''s mission, he might be dealing with a different subject, but he still had a purpose to take the woman''s words seriously, James thought to himself. "Members of the Rosewell family entering the lounge." With a sudden voice, the door in the room where the stairs to the ballroom were located opened and four people entered. Chapter 40 - 40: What Is Trully Happening? When James saw these people, he stayed where he was for a few seconds, he couldn''t believe his eyes. He really couldn''t figure out what was going on, how was he going to get out of a place like this, how was he going to clean this floor? James waited for a while after the family members came down the stairs and took a chance to get closer to Elanor. "I don''t think I''ve seen you before, thank you so much for coming to my birthday party." When Elanor uttered those kind words, the grimace on James''s face had reached a colossal level, it was impossible not to feel sad. The bloodied young woman he had seen only a dozen minutes before was now bowing her head in thanks. "Lady Elanor, forgive my rudeness, but please follow me, I have some very important information for you." James gave Elanor this rude greeting as politely as he could and confused the woman in front of him. "You say you have information for me, sir, but I have never seen you before, why should I believe you?" Elanor retorted, not knowing what was going on any more than James did. "I beg you, my lady, if you don''t like the information I bring you can kill me with your bare hands, I only need five minutes of your time." S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James'' words and the look of bitterness on his face must have pricked Elanor''s conscience as the two managed to retreat to one side of the hall. "Well? So tell me then," Elanor said with a smile. James wasn''t quite sure how to explain it. He never thought he would be able to convince Elanor so quickly, and when he realised that it would be best to tell her the truth, he uttered these words: "You do not recognise me now because I was sent here by you from the future, my lady." Elanor giggled a little when she heard these words and then tried to leave by saying "Haha...I didn''t know my father had invited a comedian, thank you." but James managed to stop her at the last moment. When James took out the blood-covered necklace from his inventory and showed it to Elanor, her eyes widened and she stared at James. "This necklace belonged to my grandmother, she always said she hoped it would protect me from all evil, but I''m wearing it now, how is that even possible?" Elanor uttered these words in astonishment, upsetting James one more notch. Unfortunately, the necklace did not protect Elanor. "My lady, I wasn''t lying when I said I came from the future. This necklace is yours, you gave it to me, to save you and your loved ones. We must leave, the shapeshifters...they are already here." As James spoke these words, Elanor paused for a few seconds and said with a smile, "They were all destroyed by the god Erebus, did they escape and come here?" These words made James think. He had no idea that the Shapeshifters were being destroyed by Erebus himself. "Now that you understand the situation, please allow me to protect you, we must leave immediately," James suddenly said, and Elanor, hearing these words, turned around and said, "Then I must inform my family, we all must leave together." At that very moment, James gently grabbed Elanor by the arm and shook his head left and right after getting her attention. This was the frightening sight James had seen when his family members first arrived in the parlour. All family members except Elanor had been transformed into shapeshifters. When James looked at them, he saw twisted faces, bodies with missing parts, long tentacles, dozens of eyes, and as many other disgusting things as possible. It seemed to tell him that he had to save Elanor as fast as he could. Elanor understood what James meant and somehow managed to keep a smile on her face. She could feel her heart-shattering. Her little brother Rigby, her mum Amber and her dad Dick were no longer with her, it was a miracle she could even handle it and not have a breakdown. "Let''s go," Elanor said suddenly, as if ready. With that, the two slowly made their way to the door of the mansion. The parlour was in the same place as the door to the mansion, it may have been an odd piece of architecture, but in this case, it would have been more massive than they had thought. The duo somehow managed to get out of the mansion door, but what they saw outside did not bode well. The human bodies around were something that even James had not expected. Some black-robed people seemed to be busy drawing runes, James could not understand what was going on, and Elanor was like him. The two of them passed through the black-robed figures as if nothing was happening and they seemed to attract no attention whatsoever. Even Elanor could tell that they were necromancers, one of the few powers that were not recognised even inside the tower. It wasn''t because they were evil or anything, but because in the eyes of the gods, necromancy depended on gaining power the easy way. "What''s going on?" Elanor asked in a low voice, but unfortunately, James had no answer, he really couldn''t understand what was going on. After a while, they came to a place where there were no more people and not even a sound. It all happened so fast, a window suddenly appeared in front of James and he saw Elanor freeze. "Are you kidding me? All of that sadness I have lived was for this? I am so gonna lose my fricking mind!" James muttered, unable to understand what was written on the window in front of him: [8th Floor Cleaned. Elanor Rosewell successfully cleared the mansion and the dangers outside the mansion. 15,000 gold won] "My lady, what''s going on?" James asked suddenly, he needed answers, he had no idea what was going on. The possibility that the tower had pulled a trick had occurred to him but he restrained himself, he knew he wasn''t going to get any answers from anyone but someone like Nyx right now. It would be cheating a little, but he wasn''t going to take a step forward or return to the 5th floor without knowing what was going on, he had a right to know what was going on. Chapter 41 - 41: The Tower Is Trying To Adapt "My lady, what is going on?" At James'' question, a window opened in front of him after almost half a minute: [I somewhat concealed your presence, there were too many necromancers and shapeshifters. Even if you are strong for this floor, you tried to complete the task in a very wrong way. You shouldn''t have taken that necklace and you shouldn''t have convinced Elanor. On the 8th floor, you and Elanor should have escaped through the secret passage in the mansion, but you walked out of the mansion''s door. On the 9th floor you will be alone, I beg you, please be careful, without my help, you would have died a painful death that you can''t imagine]. James buried his head between his knees as he read the paragraph in front of him in-depth and then inhaled and exhaled deeply. At that moment, he straightened up as if something had come to his mind and then said, "I couldn''t get any sense of your power, how did you hide me?" [Haha...You may have become stronger, but you don''t even have as much power as a strand of my hair, sweetheart. You won''t feel anything if I don''t want you to, you can be sure of that.] Finding a great deal of truth in Nyx''s words, James bowed his head and then lay down on the ground, the fact that he was in such feelings every time made him wonder if his mind was getting stronger. He didn''t want to get into such feelings. "So, in a way, I disrupted the functioning of the mission, did I, my lady?" When he asked this question, which suddenly came to his mind, he received an answer he did not expect: [Yes, I don''t know what will happen on the 9th floor. To put it simply, the tower gives different tests to almost everyone, on every floor. I mean, the quest on your 6th floor could have been somewhere else, not in the graveyard, but since you''ve finished the [Hell Difficulty] tutorial, you''re faced with more difficult and complex quests than usual.] [I was a Hard Difficulty player, James, and you have finished a place that is at least 100 times more difficult than mine, and the tower is trying to adapt to you and present you with tests that will push your limits too far. My daughter Nemesis did the same task on this floor as you, as did many gods and goddesses. While my daughter''s mission involved only ten shapeshifters and a few necromancers, yours involved fifty or even sixty. You wouldn''t have made it out of there alive.] Reading Nyx''s words seriously, James paused as the awkwardness of almost dying hit him. "I''ll be here for a few minutes if you could give me some copies. Don''t get me wrong, it''s not about how to clear the mission, just tell me exactly how careful I need to be with the level of difficulty given to me." James suddenly uttered these words and then another message window popped up in front of him: [Technically speaking, you are not going to the mansion this time. Floor 6 was based on breaking the necromancers'' illusions. The 7th floor was there to gain information from the shards of the future. The 8th floor will be based on using this information to escape and the 9th floor will be based on fighting. So the only thing you have to be careful about is not to die]. After closing this window, James took a deep breath and then briefly organised his inventory. He had a superior Health Potion in his hand, and since the time to use it was now, he placed it at the top of his inventory. Then he looked at the Mystic Beast Egg as if something caught his eye, and then smiled and said, "So you have grown already." sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Growth Rate: 0.739%/100] However, James, who had already started to hold Clarent tightly in his hand, moved towards the passage of the 9th Floor and entered it. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he was in the same place as Elanor. The tiredness in Elanor''s eyes was obvious. James didn''t know how long she had been awake or where they were. One thing he did know, though, was that if Elanor looked this exhausted, it must have been a long time since they had left the mansion. He pulled two sandwiches out of his inventory and handed one to Elanor, not forgetting a water bottle. "We must use caution, but eat and get some sleep, my lady," James said suddenly, and with that, Elanor rose from her seat and sat down next to James. After Elanor had eaten the sandwich with great appetite, she put her head on James'' shoulder and then closed her eyes, you could feel her tears falling and even her body trembling. "It''s a shame..." James suddenly thought it seemed strange to him that this sort of thing was happening, after all, it could have been him instead of Elanor. Before long, however, the young woman had fallen asleep and James was the only one left awake. As James looked around, he was experiencing many thoughts. Nyx had told James that the 7th floor was a piece of the future, but James couldn''t make up his mind. This meant that James was living deeply in the past. The person who was with Elanor when these events happened in the past should have been killed and Elanor should have been imprisoned again. But then how could they get themselves out of this filth? How would James clean the floor? After all, it was clear that fighting alone would get them nowhere. "The Bell of Hypnos!" said James suddenly, the colour draining from his face. Yes, maybe he wouldn''t fall asleep himself, but if he managed to use it at the most dangerous time, he might be able to force Elanor and all the other dangers to fall asleep. Still, he didn''t know at what time he should use the bell. After all, going to the mansion and shouting "Your enemy has arrived!" would not accomplish anything. Who knows how many shapeshifters were there, who would show their true colours to anyone who did such a thing? Nevertheless, the main event of the plan was decided in James'' mind, now he just needed something to hide Elanor for a short time...And what could it be? Chapter 42 - 42: The Attack "What should I use?" James muttered, the question seeming to occur to him when he saw Elanor leaning against his shoulder. At that moment, though, a smile rose to his face. It was obvious that he could use the item he had obtained with the Bell of Hpynos right now. He looked at his inventory with a smiling face and then calmly said, "Loki''s Mask." He had thought about where he could use this item when he had won it, but he had not reached any answer, who would have thought that his gacha ability would have saved him while the tower was beating James to the ground? All he had to do now was wait, when Elanor woke up he would give her another meal and then he would tell her the plan. For now, he would have to wait... ----- It had been almost 20 minutes since Elanor had opened her eyes again, and even though James had told her that they had to be careful with their meals, there was now a table of food in front of her that would have looked like the food in the mansion. "Please eat and listen carefully my lady, I will tell you what we are going to do," James said and Elanor''s attention turned to him. Seeing the young woman begin to consume the food, James leaned his back against the wall of this strange place they were in and then began to speak: "If you know of a safe place, a place where no one can find you, get in, or even smell you, please tell me, we have to go there." Elanor swallowed the morsel in her mouth after uttering these words and then said, "This is such a place, equipped with sacred power, based on black magic, no one can even feel the existence of this place, we are underground, there is no safer place than here." When James heard those words, he thought that Loki''s mask would be of no use, after all, he had intended it to get Elanor out of where they were and as far away from danger as possible. "Very well then, it''s up to me, we don''t even need to put you in danger," James said suddenly. These words seemed to make Elanor think. "I''m going to leave here and go straight to the mansion, I''m going to take as many shapeshifters and necromancers as I can, and then I''m going to slaughter them all." "You may be wondering how I''m going to do that." After speaking one after the other, he took out the Bell of Hypnos from his inventory and continued his speech with a smile: "This bell belongs to a god, and believe me a strong one too. When used, I can put anyone at any distance into a deep sleep, a sleep so deep that even if they fall into the lava, they will not wake up from the shock of pain. Since I am completely impervious to sleep spells, I will be able to kill any enemies I gather, so all I ask is that whatever you do, don''t leave this place." As James finished speaking, he saw tears falling from Elanor''s eyes. He didn''t know what had happened, and he stood there as if he had no idea what he was supposed to say. "Thank you very much...Thank you very much indeed, please avenge my family, I beg you." James had only the faintest idea of what he should say when Elanor uttered those words, but they weighed enormously for him, but for Elanor they weighed everything. "You know, my lady...I lost my parents when I least expected it. It was a normal accident, but I wasn''t even of legal age, I was all alone, my relatives pushed me away and I had to work from a young age.''" "Maybe I can''t fully understand what you are going through, after all, even if my parents died a painful death...even if I lost them in front of my eyes, I was still well brought up, to survive.'' "I already knew the realities of the world, but you are all alone, just like me. As I said, I cannot possibly understand what you are going through, but rest assured that I grieve for you." These words stopped Elanor in her tracks and made her cry even more deeply, maybe she was silent, but the tears that fell from her eyes said it all. "Yes...let it flow...." James thought of something he had not been able to do in his time. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With that James stood up and then looked at the clock hanging on the wall, it was night-time, the time when shapeshifters and necromancers were most active as far as he knew. Yet it was also the time when James was least worried. James was a warrior of Nyx and the night served him, the moonlight loved him and fate itself had his back. He had nothing to fear. "How far is it from here to the mansion, my lady?" James asked suddenly and Elanor replied, "Almost half an hour, we arrived last night, don''t you remember?" James shook his head when he heard these words and then smiled and said, "I''m just having problems with time, Chronos must have something to do with it." He had no idea how these simple words had made Chronus laugh. As calmly as he could, he left the underground and emerged into a wooded area. He could hear owls hooting all around him. After a deep yawn, he pulled out the Clarent he had put in his inventory when he had crossed the passage and equipped Selene''s Throwing Knife in his other hand. The moon was high, the moon was full, his will was now at its peak and the light of the moon reflected the will in his eyes. Even he had no idea how much this knife would help. He saw a footprint on the ground that had not been completely erased and knew instantly that this was the way they had come, he started to move quickly and soon realised that the view in front of him had changed. He could see the mansion very clearly. He could see the handcuffed people around and could visualise the necromancers whipping them. The battle could now begin. Chapter 43 - 43: New Grade 3 necromancers seemed to be digging a few graves, it was obvious that the whippersnappers were shapeshifters, which meant that James would at least be able to kill a few monsters while managing to hide under the moonlight. James gripped Selene''s Throwing Knife tightly and then activated the ability, saying "Pierce!" With incredible speed, the knife stabbed into the neck of one of the necromancers and pierced his neck and entered the ground on the ground. Seeing this, the other necromancers and shapeshifters suddenly started to look around to find out what was happening, but they could not see anything. After that, dozens of human-looking monsters suddenly emerged from the mansion. James could see the true image of each one of them and his stomach was rising enormously, he was about to vomit. He waited until no one else came out; when that happened, it was time to start. Nevertheless, James knew that this was the time to act. He acted immediately and used all the abilities he could to accelerate. On top of that, using the Void Ring, he appeared in front of the crowd, reaching a speed factor that could indeed be considered gigantic even on this floor. To the amazement of all the monsters, he took out Hypnos'' Bell from his inventory and then shouted: "RUN!!!" James paused for a few seconds after he had shouted and realised that nothing had happened, the monsters in the area had attacked as soon as they realised this and at that moment James saw another small system window to the right of his eye: [4 seconds to activation]. "COME ON YOU NOW!" shouted James as dozens of shapeshifters swooped down on him. James managed to dodge a few of the attacks but it was then that he realised a claw was digging into his arm, even though he was about to scream in pain he grabbed Clarent tightly and slashed the shapeshifter''s throat. [Item Activated.] When James saw the window that had suddenly formed in front of him, he suddenly saw the entire place fall to the ground. [You resisted the sleep spell.] When he read the window, he fell to his knees and then took out a low-level health potion from his inventory and planted it on his head. His arm healed in a short time and he stood in the field as the only one left standing. He began to move around quickly, killing the shapeshifter and the remaining necromancers one by one. This took a very short time, and when James was done killing, he looked around and realised that the floor-cleaning window was not in front of him. "What''s going on?" he muttered. [I have no idea, there should only be shapeshifters and necromancers on this floor, I don''t know what''s going on, be careful James]. James suddenly saw the window that had formed in front of him and then realised that the ground was shaking. Suddenly he started running backwards and saw the ground start to split open. The handcuffed people were being pulled into the hole by something and James realised that something was approaching him at great speed. He grabbed Clarent tightly and swung the sword towards where the strange sensation was coming from. "CHING!!!" The sound of a huge metal clash echoed in James'' ears, and it was impossible to describe how much pain and ringing his ears felt. The strange thing was that none of the lower or higher gods could see what James was fighting against. On James'' side, everything was becoming clear. With his eyes wide open, James was preparing to meet the attacks of what he saw in front of him. [JAMES WHAT DO YOU SEE? WHAT''S GOING ON? WE''RE BEING CUT OFF!] What stood before James was a strange black-and-white substance. He didn''t know exactly what it was, but he knew that it looked like a person. At that moment, a window opened in front of him, glowing with a crystalline light: Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Creator Grade Achievement Won! You have earned a grade achievement that only a handful of people have earned since the creation of the tower. Encounter a creator-grade monster for the first time. You get to choose 2 cards]. James looked at the notification in front of him and seemed to understand why Nyx''s image started to cut out, the monster in front of him seemed to be from a race of equal power to Nyx. "MY LADY I NEED HELP!" James suddenly shouted, the fear coursing through his body was palpable, and he was shaking. Even the ability he had gained earlier, which had given him courage, could not help him. It was as if every second was a step closer to death. "Are you the one I''m supposed to kill? I know you, Nyx." James took a few steps back with these words he suddenly heard and tried to understand what was going on. "I''m living pieces of the past...the dead ones. So Master Erebus and the others weren''t just here to kill shapeshifters...." As he uttered these words, a portal opened next to James. A woman in crystal armour emerged from it. Black patterns on her armour. Silver-coloured eyes and hair. The woman next to him looked like someone Chaos had created with his own hands, her beauty was immense. Just by looking at her, James could feel the fear in his heart disappear. "Just stay away, this will be easy anyway." When she said these words in a rude tone, as if she was giving orders, James stood up and walked as far away as he could. The woman looked around and couldn''t find the person who had attacked James, but at that very moment she heard James'' voice: "IN FRONT OF YOU!!!" As James shouted as loudly as he could, the woman raised the black crystal sword in her hand and suddenly swung it. "RUAGGHH!!!" A shout, raised in pain, rang in the ears of both the woman and James. She was seeing blood pouring out of an unseen person, so she couldn''t quite understand what was going on. [Can you see what''s happening?] James suddenly appeared in front of her, read this message and then said, "Yes, I can see, my lady." The woman, who had somehow managed to hear this, suddenly turned her head and said, "Then tell me." The battle began to move in an unexpected direction. Chapter 44 - 44: Creator Grade Talents "This thing, it suddenly woke up and attacked me. It calls me Nyx, my lady, perhaps because of my energy, as if it recognises Lord Erebus and Lady Nyx." James'' words resonated not only with the woman who had been fighting but also with Olympus, who had regained the image. "So that''s it," she said abruptly and then plunged her sword into the ground. "Mirage of Battlefield," she said suddenly, her words echoing throughout the floor. With these words, the floor began to tremble again and the huge area opened on the floor was closed. A crystalline floor began to move from James'' feet to the very edge of the floor. Thousands of swords stuck in the ground appeared all over the area, and as soon as the area was formed, the following words were heard: "The game of the gods is cruel. The children of the creators may be in the upper echelon, but you think too highly of yourself. I am a Chaos-Born, I will not be crushed under a lowly one like you. After all, you, born of the blood of Eternus, lost to my father when he was still on the 9th Floor. As a god, you died to a boy climbing a tower. Fallen gods should not choose to rise and fight." After these words, James closed and opened his eyes again and realised that he could see the whole body of the black-and-white substance normally. A man with horns and crimson hair stood before him. [Stand as far back as you can, James. I, Nemesis, am still no god, even if I can ascend to the realm of the gods. The battle will escalate, this is a high god, just like my mum and dad]. When James read the window that had appeared in front of him, he moved as far away as he could and then climbed a tree, even though he could see what was happening thanks to the abilities Nyx had given him, the only thing on his mind was this woman who introduced herself as Nemesis. Her beauty seemed to make his heart skip a beat. Falling in love was the last thing he wanted. Yet it was clear that this was more respect and tolerance than love. He never thought he would see a descendant of Nyx with his naked eyes, especially this early. If her daughter was this beautiful, how beautiful was Nyx, who was recognised by Chaos as being handcrafted down to every hair on her head? "Perfect..." James muttered, learning more and more with every second he looked at the battle before him. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James looked at the bottom right of the system panel with his eyes and saw the card made of white crystal. When he touched the card, 36 cards appeared in front of his eyes and the panel clearly stated that he could only choose two. James thought that now was not the time, but he realised that there was nothing else he could do, after all, he knew there was no such thing as joining the battle that was almost 10 minutes away. As he looked at the 36 crystal cards in front of him he realised that they all glowed with the same brightness, indeed it was clear that whatever was chosen was going to have the same level of chance. Still, James knew there was no point in waiting. By the time he had selected two of the cards, all the rest had been torn and burnt before his eyes, something that had never happened before. "Different animation? What the fuck is this, a computer game?" James muttered. When he turned over the first card left in front of him, a window opened in front of him as usual: [Way to Be a God(Creator+++) With this ability, the player will gain an extra attribute for every 5000 people who believe in him. The new status [Holiness] has been unlocked. Player''s holiness increased by 2500]. When James looked at this window that had formed in front of him, he smiled and scratched his head as if he couldn''t understand what was happening. [Seriously, I''ve lost the possibility of watching you for just a few seconds and you''re telling me that you''ve gained the ability to become a God?] James read the window that had appeared in front of him and it was clear that it was Moros, the only two people who had ever spoken to him in such a friendly manner. "I got the achievement when I saw that monster or god or whatever, I got another card. Do you want to see it?" James had no idea how lucky he was. Even Nyx wasn''t that lucky and she was the one who gave life to the goddesses of fate and the mother god of destiny. [I do, no, everyone wants to see that, you have no idea what was the last time someone got an achievement worth of Creator-Grade.] Taking a deep breath after reading this window and touching the card in front of him, the smile on James''s face had suddenly risen to the realm of the gods, the opportunity to help Nemesis, which was now beginning to be suppressed. Suddenly he leapt down from the tree and began to run across the crystal field. With each step, he was getting closer and closer to the battlefield, and he was welcoming the impact rising from the field with his whole body. "PERFECT!" James exclaimed, and then added, "IT''S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO ADMIRE NEMESIS!" As Nemesis and the person he was fighting came into view, he waited, and after a few seconds of breathing, he caught the attention of the pair: "YOU IGNORANT I TOLD YOU TO STFU!!! YOU''RE GONNA GET YOURSELF KILLED!!!" shouted Nemesis, but it was too late, the monster he was fighting had suddenly attacked with a tentacle-like thing. James grabbed Clarent tightly and used all his speed abilities again to counter the tentacle. Nemesis, who had taken advantage of this position to attack, managed to push the beast back with only a few moves and then stepped back to protect James, although he did not realise that this was unnecessary. James suddenly stabbed Clarent into the ground and opened his hands to make the move to end the battle: "AURA OF CHAOS!!!!" Chapter 45 - 45: Aura of Chaos "AURA OF CHAOS!!!!" As soon as James uttered the words, a huge darkness spread around. Even the stars of the night seemed to disappear. James was glowing brightly and trying to figure out what was going on with Nemesis and the other gods. James pulled Clarent out of his stalk and suddenly leapt forward. He darted past Nemesis at incredible speed and charged at the beast. "KUAGHHH!!!" The monster met the attack and tried to counterattack, Nemesis and the others thought James had killed himself at that very moment, they had lost James in just 5 seconds. But something happened that no one expected. The beast god''s attack did no damage to James, and on the contrary, his attack literally bounced off James'' body. At that very moment, James'' voice echoed in the area: "COME ON DEAR NEMESIS! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? I''M COMPLETELY UNTOUCHABLE FOR A MINUTE!!!" When Nemesis heard these words, she started running, pulled a pair of swords from the ground and attacked the monster. Every time the beast tried to attack Nemesis, James would step in front of it and meet the attack. It had only been ten seconds, but the beast god was already covered in blood. Almost every one of his arms had been severed. The beast god had fallen to his knees. "DAMN YOU! I WILL NOT LOSE TO EREBUS AGAIN! I WILL NOT LOSE TO NYX AGAIN!!!" As these words echoed across the field, James smiled and then said, "You bastard, it''s easy to attack the weak, start crying when you''ve been beaten to a pulp, that''s why you died, you loser." None of the gods could officially believe that these words came out of his mouth, after all, James was an incredibly respectful person in their eyes. With those words, he lifted Clarent into the air. "Pierce." Then he pushed Clarent into the heart of the beast god. When blood began to flow from the mouth of the beast god, the following words were spoken towards James: "Oh young one...I won''t be the last one. The more you go up the less help you will be able to get and the more you go up the more of us you will see. That might be an easy win for you since I have no idea why you are so powerful, the rest of us will. We shall not stop until all the Chaos-Born and Chaos-Power User dies. You will perish, I give my name on that." When these words were finished, the light in the monster god''s eyes began to disappear. The monster god was dead. [Creator Grade Achievement Won! Kill a race member with Creator blood for the first time. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. 100 stat points have been added for you to randomly distribute]. [9th Floor Cleared! You have earned two Philosopher''s Stones for clearing the floor on high difficulty. Chaos Guild has earned 10,000 Honour points. You lost the chance to receive consecutive increased rewards for having help clearing the floor on high difficulty]. James suddenly collapsed as he read the windows in front of him. The darkness in the area was completely gone and the energy in James'' body was drained. "What''s going on, are you alright James?" Nemesis asked, dropping to her knees and grabbing James'' head. "I''m fine, m''lady, it''s just the skill I''m using...even moving now feels like I''m being cut," James replied, even as he breathed he could recognise the pain in the depths of his being. "You did very well, I mean I could have killed him myself but it would have taken a bit longer, I don''t even know why you jumped forward..." When Nemesis uttered these words, James smiled and said, "I didn''t want your beautiful face to be harmed," as if he couldn''t find a reason. This seemed to touch Nemesis'' heart, and she smiled as James patted her on the head and kissed her forehead. "Then this is my thank you," she said as she stood up and looked towards the open passage. James, on the other hand, tried to stand up, even if it was with difficulty, but he was unsuccessful, and after a careful look at Nemesis, he said, "Can we go to the 5th floor together, if possible? I can''t walk." Nemesis smiled as she heard this and then lifted James with one hand, holding him by his clothes. She carried him like a princess. After passing through the portal, James opened his eyes on the 5th floor and saw Theseus and Datura. When Theseus realised that it was Nemesis who was carrying James, he fell to his knees and said, "Forgive me, my lady, I did not know what had happened in my confusion." Even if Datura didn''t realise what was going on, she had the idea that Theseus was serving James, and if he was treating someone with respect, he should do the same. "Get up Theseus, since when I am making you [heroes] kneel before me?" Nemesis suddenly said with a smile. James was about to fall to the floor in embarrassment, standing there more like a baby than a princess, he could feel his ears flush red. He was just dying. When Nemesis realised this, her smile widened and she handed James to Theseus and said, "Take him to a place where he can rest, he almost died." Theseus, hearing this, nodded and replied, "As you command, my lady, you can trust me." As soon as James was given to Theseus, Theseus began to carry him. James noticed the expression on Theseus''s face that he was not laughing, after looking deeply at his face, he said "It happens again Theseus, I swear the god if you laugh...''" In the area where Nemesis was, it seemed that she was trying to get information, not even those in the realm of the gods knew what was going on, after all, it was the first time that the incredibly aggressive Nemesis had shown any interest in anyone. "You, old woman. Are you one of the worshippers of Nyx?''" This question would be the thing that would completely change the fifth floor. It was as if Nemesis had met someone to whom he could completely bind his authority. Chapter 46 - 46: Desire Of Nemesis "So you''re telling me you''re Nemesis. The daughter of my goddess?" When Datura said these words she still could not believe what was happening, she was sure her head was spinning with excitement. The imperial family, important families in the empire and important people of the church had arrived at the palace almost 4 hours ago, all here to see Nemesis. "That''s right, can''t you feel the aura around me?" Nemesis said, and as soon as she said this, the entire palace and even the 5th floor began to shake. The pressure was so enormous that more than half of the people in the palace had already fainted. Almost every one of those inside the room fainted and those who managed to stay standing started to hold their throats. It was as if they were drowning. At that very moment, Nemesis'' head moved a few centimetres and all the pressure on the 5th floor disappeared. "Come on Mother, it is not like I killed people, it will not affect me that much, I am your daughter no?" After speaking these words, she smiled and snapped her finger. "Snap!" After this finger snap, every single person in the room woke up and looked at Nemesis with fear, it seemed to indicate that every single person on the entire 5th floor had woken up. "Oh my Goddess..." said Aether, catching Nemesis'' attention at that moment. "Hah...the one with my big brother''s name, how ironic...." Smiling at these words, Nemesis looked around the room and then began to speak seriously: "Something that should never have happened in the 9th Floor''s exam. Umbra almost died, but through luck or skill he managed to survive for a few seconds, and I, with the power of my mother, managed to descend from the 79th floor. Exactly 70 floors." Every single person who heard these words swallowed, albeit shyly, and it was impossible not to be amazed by Nyx''s enormous power. It was already difficult enough for a superior god to descend to the lower floors, but the fact that she could send someone else was truly an expression of almost unlimited power. "The moment I landed on the 9th floor, I felt something. Someone or something somehow intervened with the tower and made something that should not exist on the 9th floor, at least not anymore. This intervention was made from the 5th floor. This thing was maybe a person or a piece of treasure, after all, the gods have some pretty strange things, to intervene in other things." When these words entered everyone''s ears, Datura fell on both knees with a very serious expression, not in admiration this time, and then said, "What are your orders, my lady, please tell me." Nemesis smiled and nodded her head proudly when she heard this, then spoke towards Datura: "I want you to find that person, people or thing and I want you all to bring them to me. Whatever it takes or however you guys do just find them and bring them to me. Even if it takes for half of the Empire to die, make sure they are kneeling before me because I assure you young women whoever tries to hurt what I want to make mine will be killed by my own hands. Got it?" When Nemesis uttered these words, Datura nodded and said as if she understood the orders, "The Church and the Empire will carry out your orders, my lady. It is an honour to serve you and the warrior." Yet, as in the realm of the gods, no one seemed to question the phrase "What I want to make mine", it was a strange phenomenon. "I''m glad to hear that, I know you will do your duty well, my work here is done, get to work at once," said Nemesis, standing up and then opening her palm and pointing it forward, in a short time a portal appeared and disappeared through it. Nemesis, who had indeed come like a storm, disappeared as if nothing had happened. The moment Nemesis left the room, every single person in the room was panting, their whole bodies drenched in sweat. "OH MY GODDESS, WE SEE A REAL GODDESS! WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME THIS HAPPENED?" the empress said. "Nothing like this has happened since the Empire was first founded, it was unbelievable, did you see the pressure? If Lady Nemesis is that powerful and she hasn''t even made it to the end of the tower, what about our Goddess Nyx?" replied Aether. They were indeed miserable, the exhaustion in their bodies beyond comprehension. On James'' side, things were different. [James] Aren''t you going to tell me what happened? Why did I feel my father''s energy in you, what happened?] James smiled as he looked at the window in front of him and then opened the ability panel by saying "That''s what happened, my lady." [Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++) The player can borrow the Aura of Chaos at any time for one minute only. While the aura is in use, the player cannot be harmed by anything, cannot be poisoned in any way, and cannot be affected by any magic. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The opened area of the aura will be exactly 30 metres wide and the status of allies within the area will increase by 50%. The player''s powers will increase by 100% within the area, and the enemies powers will be reduced by 10%. This ability has a cooldown of 1 month]. James smiled again as he read the ability, and smiled at the fact that he had obtained an ability of such enormous power. The possibilities of using the ability were so great that he did not even know exactly how to explain it. The only thing he did know was that even if he was pursued by a top-tier god, not someone like Nemesis, he would be able to become completely resistant to them for a full minute. The only shortcoming of the ability was that there was a waiting period of one month. Of course, this was understandable, after all, the ability was really, really powerful. One thing was certain, though, and that was that James had acquired two priceless abilities. They were worth tens of times more than the abilities Nyx had given him. Chapter 47 - 47: Nemesis Did Changed [Excellent, you''re very lucky indeed. All those lucky status points that my son and daughters wanted to bestow upon you, and that I accepted, are working in your favour. I''m very happy for you, you''ve managed to acquire a truly enormous power]. This window reminded James once again how lucky he was, and it wasn''t just that he had such abilities, or that he had the gacha system, or that he could see the true nature of anything. He was lucky that huge guilds like Olympus and Asgard were behind him, and on top of that, all Chaos-Born cared about him. It was a perfect irony. All the gods and goddesses that people worshipped were now willing to go so far as to sacrifice themselves for a mere human and even give up their energy. Indeed, he was able to attain all of this thanks to this special ability Chaos had given him, and somehow he had the strange ability to see the realities of beings. If this wasn''t pure luck, what was pure luck? "Thank you, my lady," James said suddenly, his smile so pure and genuine that even he couldn''t remember the last time he had smiled like that. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Just then there was a knock on the door of the room and then Nemesis herself walked in. "Hmm...the pain in your body should be gone, the way you''re moving." As Nemesis uttered these words, James suddenly wrapped a blanket around his body. Even though he was wearing a pair of knickers, it was a woman, he couldn''t even describe how embarrassed he was, he was like a child. "You can stop hiding it, it''s nothing I haven''t seen before, I have been watching you for a long time after all," Nemesis suddenly said, looking like she was about to laugh. Hearing this, James immediately reached into his inventory and pulled out some tracksuits and put them on. Then he gestured to the seat and said, "Please sit down, my lady." Nemesis did exactly as James said and sat down. "I just wanted to check on you one last time before I went back to my floor, to see if you were all right." James smiled when he heard these words and then said, "Thank you very much, my lady, thank you for coming to help. I really would have died if it hadn''t been for you." After these words, Nemesis got up from where she was and sat down next to James, then kissed James softly on the cheek and spoke seriously: "The Tenth Floor will be a different kind of test. A tournament. You must win if you want to see me again." James was already busy being embarrassed when he heard those words, but the question still arose in his mind: "I don''t see what you have to do with the tournament, my lady..." Nemesis smiled as soon as he heard this sentence and then said, "If you win the tournament, you get a ticket. You can go anywhere with this ticket only once. In this case, Olympos is also among these places. So you will have a chance to meet me, my mum, my dad and everyone else." When James heard these words, he suddenly jumped into the air and jumped with happiness as if dancing. "Am I going to get to meet my lady"'' he suddenly said, and Nemesis, who heard this, grumbled a little, "Aren''t you excited to see me again? Not even when I''m so interested in you?" Hearing these words, James averted his eyes and then Nemesis laughed before he could say anything: "Hahahahah! You''re interesting, I''m sorry for making fun of you, it was fun." Nemesis said and with that, she created a gate again before entering the gate, she turned around and added "Whatever you do, James, win. Even if you don''t want to see me I want to see you." and entered the gate. And all that was left behind was a red-faced James. "Weren''t you too hard on him, Neme?" The moment Nemesis stepped out of the portal, a voice called out towards her. The smile on Nemesis'' face suddenly vanished and her face turned in the direction of the voice. "Apate," Nemesis said suddenly. Apate was known as the Goddess of Betrayal and the embodiment of deception. She was one of the spirits in Pandora''s box, one of the last children born to Nyx, and her favourite activity was to annoy Nemesis and Thanatos with her little sister Philotes. Which meant that Apate always had Philotes with her. "Come on, sis, you know who I am. They don''t call me the goddess of compassion, friendship, gender and infatuation for nothing. I can see you''re head over heels in love with him. If you only knew how angry you get at the mention of our mother''s name!" As Philotes spoke these words, Nemesis shook her head as if she didn''t care about them and then began to walk towards Nyx, who was sitting on the throne opposite her. Suddenly kneeling in front of Nyx, Nemesis said, "I have completed my mission, mother." Hearing this, Nyx, with a big smile on her face, asked, "You''re in love with him, aren''t you?" Hearing these words, Nemesis replied with great embarrassment, "I may be a little interested in him, that''s all." After these words, Erebus stepped forward and said, "The person I want to make mine, huh?" Even the God of Darkness seemed to be trying hard not to laugh. Hearing these words, Nemesis rolled her eyes amidst the laughter of the family members around her and then said, "It could have happened, I''m a living person, I want to taste love and he is more than enough so can we let it go?" These words suddenly silenced all the laughter, it was like a slap in the face for them to see Nemesis being so serious. No one had expected a goddess as serious and down-to-earth as Nemesis to agree to such a thing, after all, she was a woman who would even disregard her family''s orders to do what she thought was right. Who would have believed she was in love? Chapter 48 - 48: Finally, My Golds! "So you fell in love with him?" Nyx suddenly said, unable to hide her surprise. "Perhaps I did Mother, you are acting like you haven''t fallen for Father so hard that you fought off all of the women that were approaching him. I am your daughter no?" When Nemesis said these words seriously, Nyx smiled and remembered the past and said, "Yes, I was young once, spiritually, well, I won''t make fun of you, I''m happy enough that my little girl is old enough to fall in love." When these words were heard in the hall, everyone nodded solemnly in agreement. Even a personality like Apate was happy for her sister. First Moros changed and laughed for the first time, then Aether laughed even though he hadn''t been interested in anything for a long time, and Nemesis fell in love for the first and indeed the last time. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Even if James didn''t realise it, Chaos-Borns began to change from the bottom up. Still, there was some time before James would be able to attend the tournament, after all, he still had to meet Ronald, enter the imperial library and then ascend to the 10th floor. He didn''t know, though, that every moment he waited, he was in greater danger, because it wasn''t just a handful of gods targeting him on the 10th floor, there were thousands of them, and that number was growing every day. Thousands of settlements were uniting against Olympus and Asgard. Everything was starting to heat up... ----- "Are you sure you''re all right, Master James?" "I''m fine, otherwise why would I have come to see you?" James had managed to fully recover after three days and as he walked around the city, he finally made it to Ronald''s area. It was quite interesting that he was meeting one of the three most authorised people in the tower again. "Well then, please come and sit down and I''ll offer you a cup of tea," Ronald said, like the gods, he had always watched James and his admiration for him had grown exponentially. "Thank you," James replied, smiling as he took a sip of tea: "What am I to make of you taking such an interest in me, Master Ronald?" After this question, Ronald calmly sat down on the seat in front of James and then revealed a box, after a short time, he began to speak: "We have already given you your rewards, but since you have again achieved great success, the committee has decided to hand over your accumulated gifts to you later." Ronald''s words seemed to have caught James'' attention enormously, his gaze became serious but also emotional. "I wanted to personally deliver the gifts of the seventh, eighth and ninth floors to you, along with your accumulated gold rewards." James, who seemed confused by these words, shook his head and then said, "Wait a minute...It was clearly stated in the cleaning window of the 9th floor. It was clearly stated in the cleaning window of the 9th floor that I would not be given successive rewards for getting help, if this is a joke, it''s not very funny Ronald." Ronald smiled and spoke after what he heard: "Yes, that''s what should have happened, but after a thorough investigation we''ve found out that what happened on the 9th floor shouldn''t have happened, the delegation is upset, we''re doing a big investigation, what happened on the upper floors, someone or something is targeting you, well, of course, you''re known to be the one who chose Mistress Nyx." James looked genuinely shocked at these words, he had just learnt that his life was being targeted for no reason. "Is that why you changed your mind?" James suddenly asked, and the answer he received made him smile more than it shocked him: "Not exactly, we were planning to give your rewards differently, like doubling the gold for example, but Madam Nemesis is very good at persuading others, we should point that out." Ronald''s words seemed to make James happy. "Haha...I guess I should thank Nemesis, it''s amazing that she saved my life and did something like this even though we''ve only just met...." James uttered these words and then took another sip of his tea. He could realise that his heart was pounding. Ronald, on the other hand, easily realised this and said, "Well, well...Would you look at this." in a voice so low that even James could not hear it. "She told us that what happened on the 9th floor was a mistake and that it was our fault, well of course it was, we had to do a better inspection after all. After a hundred things he said we were convinced and we put your prizes in this storage box you see here, there are only two prizes and a pouch of gold. Please check it." Saying these words, Ronald pushed the box towards James and as soon as James touched the box, it glowed brightly. After this gigantic light, a window opened in front of James: [Man] Sachet of Gold Used! 79,031,782 Gold Earned!] As soon as James saw this gold number, he looked at Ronald without even observing the items given to him, and then asked, "Are we sure there''s no mistake here?" Hearing this, Ronald shook his head from side to side and spoke: "A monster that shouldn''t have died in a tutorial that shouldn''t have been defeated was killed, and you shouldn''t have earned gold there, but that happened because it was a huge achievement. The second floor should not have been completely cleared, as a secret mission, 10 goblins should have been killed by surviving only 7 days, you slaughtered the Goblin King, this was a huge achievement. And to top it all off, you killed a Monster God, something that hasn''t been achieved this early since the time of Master Erebus, it''s been a long, long time." Those words alone made James shut his mouth. He had achieved more than he had ever thought or remembered. Chapter 49 - 49: Preparing For War He had achieved more than he had ever thought or remembered. James was silent for a few seconds after hearing those words, he didn''t know what to say, but he was still excited to think what he could do with the amount of gold he had. However, he now had two items to look at, so he checked his inventory. After searching for a while, he found the first item and took it out, and when he read the description of the item, he couldn''t help but smile: [Monster God''s Fang(Creator-) The Monster God was not a very powerful Creator-Born, but he was certainly one of that race. This meant that when used for crafting, this tooth could produce something very, very useful. Its use is left entirely up to the player]. When James had finished examining this item, he smiled and then shook his head and said, "Isn''t that ironic?" Ronald, who listened carefully to James, shook his head and then asked, "No sir, can you enlighten me?" James shook his head in a way that meant yes and then said, "I''ll do it right away." "This scum who tried to kill me and shouldn''t be there dies in my hands and I get his tooth as a reward, do you know what I''m going to do with this, Ronald?" "No sir, can you let me know?" Ronald said with the great wonder he had in his eyes. After waving the tooth in his hand from side to side, he said, "A fishing rod, who knows, maybe it will work as a fishing rod, fishing is fun after all." After these words, the eyes of Ronald, who held the seat tightly in his seat, widened. Not only his expression, but the expressions of all Olympus and even all Chaos-Borns became the same. A youth not born with God''s blood had killed a Creator-Born, even with help, and now he was mocking him. "What an excellent idea sir, if you give it to me I''ll be sure to come back with the best fishing rod." Ronald suddenly said and held out his hand, and James, who handed her to him, found the other item in his inventory and took it out. After carefully observing the item, he smiled again and had a sudden idea of where he would use it: [Empty Crystal Necklace(Godly----) This Necklace is the lost treasure of the Rosewell family''s ancestors, and it is the treasure that protected one of the family members. It is the original version of the necklace that Elanor thought would protect her on the quest. Provides 40% physical and magical defence to the wearer. It creates a one-time-only protection field that will protect the wearer from any attack for half a minute. This Necklace was bestowed upon the Rosewell family by Chaos]. When James had read the properties of this item, he opened his inventory and took out one of the philosopher''s stones, another prize from the quest. He handed both items to Ronald and said, "Can you put these together? I will give them as a gift to someone." When Ronald heard these words, he took the items and put them in his inventory, then tapped his finger on his nose as if he understood something and said, "Lady Nyx seems to be getting a nice gift." Still, no one but James realised that this gift wasn''t going to Nyx. After all, even if he played a big role in completing this mission, the main hero was Nemesis herself, not Nyx, at least he could do that much for her. James didn''t think that someone like Nyx, who could have anything she wanted, would be upset that she didn''t get a necklace. However, knowing that he was finished here, he stood up and Ronald, realising this, did the same. James approached Ronald and hugged him deeply and then said, "Thank you Mr Rabbit, you''re a very nice man." and left. He left nothing behind but a laughing Ronald. ----- "Have you come across any clues?" Ahil was the one who spoke. For 3 days, they had slept only two hours, constantly working on the mission Nemesis had given them and trying to gather information. Still, nothing had come of it. "No, Father, spies have infiltrated other countries, using the priests'' abilities to inform us every hour, yet we have no information." As Enel uttered these words, Ahil struck the table with his palm and stood up abruptly. "WHAT THE HECK ARE THESE SPIES DOING?!?!?!" he shouted, just as Empress Wish''s voice was heard: "Go and get some sleep Ahil, you''re exhausted, you know that." At these words, Ahil breathed in and out for a few seconds and then raised his head and said "Yes, you''re right, I have to take a nap for a few hours." and prepared to leave the room, just at that moment, the door of the room suddenly opened violently: "DAD!!! INFORMATION!!! WE''VE GOT IT!!!" Lila had suddenly entered the room, she was incredibly sweaty, and it was obvious that she had been running for some time. She was holding three pieces of paper. "Give it to me now!" Ahil answered his daughter, frowned as he held the papers and then shouted: "GET THE ARMY READY ENEL, INFORM THE CHURCH LILA! THE SUNEMPIRE IS GOING TO WAR, WE''RE GOING TO DESTROY THE 5TH FLOOR!!!" These words echoed throughout the palace, and with blood pressure rising every second, the army would prepare to mobilise. A great war was at the door, and it was caused by an official assassination attempt on James on a floor that was not to be entered or traded on. The Sun Empire would never forgive a wrong done to them, they have never done it until now. As of today, the fifth floor would be bloody. War would officially begin. ----- James, unaware of everything, entered the imperial library and was astonished by the sight before him. Anyone who looked at him could tell that he had not expected to encounter such a sight. It was like it was time for him to study. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 50 - 50: Emperial Library and the Creator-Grade James felt like he was going out of his mind when he entered the imperial library. From the first floor, he could see the enormity of the library. A white floor and a sky reminiscent of outer space stretched endlessly, and he knew it was impossible not to be mesmerised by the sight. He had grown stronger lately, to an unbelievable degree indeed, but it was still not enough. He had been dying only three and a half days ago. If he hadn''t called out to Nyx at the last moment and Nemesis hadn''t come to his aid, he would have died. Yes, he had managed to choose Nyx when he entered that tower, but it had been both an achievement and a poison for him. James himself was just beginning to realise that he had made hundreds of times more enemies than friends. He had to grow stronger. Still, with the Creator-Grade abilities he had gained, he was in a pretty good position. Although he still couldn''t feel it, he had gained the [Holiness] status at the very top of the tower. As people of other races trusted him, this rank would continue to increase, the status would evolve. In short, James had taken an unimaginably big step towards becoming a god, even if it was a baby step. "My lady, when I first entered the tower, I was told that there was a tiered form only up to the Godly tier, that is, up to the black cards, what is the reason for this?" James asked this question with great curiosity, he was curious about it. [There''s a pretty big reason for that. How many people do you think enter the tower every year?] James thought for a few seconds as he looked at the window opposite him and then said "I don''t know...maybe a million or two million people?", he had no idea how wrong he was. [That''s more than half a billion people, James. The question now is how many people do you think manage to complete the tutorial?] James scratched his chin, a little surprised at what he had just heard, and then said, "Half of them, I suppose?" [That''s right, about half manage to complete the tutorial from easy to hard. Remember, not only your world but millions of worlds from millions of universes are participating in this tower. Only half of them manage to pass the tutorial every year and progress towards becoming gods. Only one thousand or two thousand of these people deserve the respect that can be tangible, and only ten or twenty of them manage to achieve Legendary or, even if rarely, Godly achievements like you]. James'' eyes widened a little and he smiled as he read this message deeply, then he looked back at the message window Nyx had sent and spoke softly: "So the rest don''t even need to know Creator-Grade. After all, out of those ten or twenty, at most one or two of them will be on their way to becoming gods. Even they will barely be able to reach Creator-Grade." Even though he couldn''t see it when he said those words, Nyx nodded her head proudly. "Hah! Who would have thought that the person or people who tried to kill me would make me so much stronger? Puhahaha! What irony! The ability of gacha that Chaos gave me actually did save me huh?" James laughed as he saw another window forming in front of him: [So you did know what was happening.] "Of course, I knew, my lady, come on, I''m not an idiot...the moment I heard what Nemesis had done for me, something clicked in my head, and after a little thought, I realised that, of course, I was being targeted. Anyway, let''s start exploring the library, shall we?" [I''ve set the library so that no one can see it except the external Chaos-Borns inside, so we''ll be watching you just in case]. A sly smile formed on James'' face as he read the message window that suddenly appeared in front of him. Seeing this smile, James began to speak before Nyx and the others could even think about what was going on: "Then tell all your kids to sit down, they''re going to want something from this library! Order them and I''ll read all the books and make copies, I''ll deliver them to you when I get to Olympus. Nobody told us we couldn''t make copies, did they? After all, the entire imperial palace belongs to the CHAOS Guild." Nyx and her family all burst into laughter at his words, James'' occasional sneakiness was indeed a huge personality disorder, but James didn''t have that...he was just plain a little crazy. After his words, he went straight up to the third floor of the library and looked around, shook his head for a moment and then said ''Well, we can start now''. Even though he didn''t realise it, the preparations for war had begun outside the library. All guilds on the 5th floor that were affiliated with the empire had agreed to participate in this war. The Church of Night, the Olympus Guild and the Asgard Guild would lead the war. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nemesis would follow this war closely, or rather, Poseidon would be watching Theseus and she would be near by Poseidon. However, James would try to fulfil his duty inside the library unaware. Or rather, what he knew as his duty. He wanted very much to find a talent, a talent that would suit him, a talent that was very likely to help him, a talent that would make it a little easier for him to avoid future dangers. This was his ultimate goal and desire during his time in the library. That''s why he had gone up to the third floor of the library as soon as he finished his speech. After all, whatever he was going to find, he was going to find the highest-ranked thing here, which meant that even if he could not examine all of them, he could still manage to see the necessary ones. The colours of the books were different, which was a huge stroke of luck for James. His progress would go up another notch. This was the way. Chapter 51 - 51: Finding Nothing About It [Isn''t it time for you to leave now?] James'' gaze left the window as it appeared before him and then he said, "I think it might be time, though it wouldn''t make much sense to leave without tidying up." James had been inside the library for almost two and a half months, not once had he been outside. He had gone through a long training sequence. It was safe to say that he had come a long way, the first thing he had done was to find all the legendary grade books he could find, unfortunately, he had only seen two in two and a half months and both of them were nothing more than potion recipes. The recipes were priceless, but still not what James was looking for. He managed to find quite a lot of Unique degree books. However, only one of these books was on abilities, it was quite obvious that it was a useful ability, just what he expected was to have dozens of abilities and he could only find one. [Brain Power(Unique++++) The player will find it easier to learn everything they want to learn. There will be a 70% increase in learning other languages. Your language and accent will attract people''s attention 10% more]. The ability seemed weak, but in short, it played a big role in increasing James'' brain capacity. So the ability was not weak, it was not a priceless ability, of course, but it was sure to help James. During this time, he had not only buried himself in the search of books, but also tried to train himself a little in the way of the sword, so he was able to achieve another ability with enlightenment: [Basic Weapon Mastery(Rare+++++) The player''s control over weapons will increase by 10%. The player will use weapons more gracefully. Power loss when using a weapon will be reduced by 10%. The chance of fatigue will decrease by 70%]. This ability he had gained was actually what made him happy. The only thing that forced him into his current state was the uncomfortable feeling when using Clarent. The sword might have chosen him, but James could not use the sword properly. With this ability, this discomfort would disappear. Unfortunately, the ability to use any weapon from the Aura ability did not help this discomfort. However, James did not neglect to use the 100 distributable stat points given to him when he killed the Monster God. His Strength stat increased by 20 points and reached the limit of 50. His Agility stat increased by 20 points to 79. The same number increase applied to Endurance and Intelligence, both of which increased to 41 and 59 respectively. He added the remaining 20 points directly to his Magic stat, and his magic increased to 120. James was enormously powerful for someone who had only made it to the 9th floor. Floor 10 should not have been too big a problem for him. However, James had come to the same conclusion as Nyx that there was nothing else for him to do in the library. He stood up and snapped his fingers, and one by one all the books on the floor slid back into place. "I have to say, using the library is quite fun," James said suddenly, as another system window opened in front of him: [I realise, I haven''t forgotten you snapping your fingers in amusement.] This window made James smile when he saw it, he was tired at the moment so he planned to rest for a day and then climb up to the 10th floor. He left the library and made his way down the corridor, luckily it was only about five minutes from his room to the library, so that made it easy. He quickly entered his room and, after a short shower, buried his head in the pillow on his bed. Soon his eyes closed and he fell asleep, and in the realm of the gods, something else was happening.... "So it''s you, is it?" When Nemesis uttered these words, someone was kneeling in front of her. All the gods and goddesses of Olympus were now standing in the hall. Nyx and Erebus were sitting on their thrones, and Nemesis was interrogating the man with the crystal sword he was holding tightly in his hand like an executioner. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Puhahaha...It took you so long to find me, I thought you would have found me a month ago, after all, you swallowed the bait I threw like a fish." The man who uttered these words was suddenly punched by Nemesis. The sound of the punch seemed to echo throughout the mountain. Despite the blood coming out of the man''s mouth, the man did not stop smiling and continued to look Namesis in the eyes with a grin. Nemesis, enraged by this sight, grabbed the man by the hair and suddenly slammed his head into the ground. This attack was so heavy that the entire mountain trembled, Nemesis'' anger was enormous. "Nemesis, your mother has questions," Erebus suddenly said, and Nemesis grabbed him by the hair again and pulled him into a sitting position. Nyx exhaled deeply after seeing this and then said, "Are you the one targeting the life of my dear warrior? I don''t remember seeing you before, are you one of the losers'' fallen gods trying to come back again?" she asked. The smile on the man''s face suddenly vanished after that question and he spoke, not even bothering to give Nyx the answer she wanted: "That was only the beginning, you damned woman...I assure you, we will be taking your lives very soon! Not just Umbra, but ALL OLYMPUS AND ASGARD!!! DO YOU HEAR ME!!!" After these words, Nemesis was about to hit the man when a sudden attack came from the area where the throne was. The man''s body suddenly fell to the ground and his head was in Nemesis'' hand. Nyx killed the man without even moving. "Mum....I thought we were going to gather information..." Thanatos suddenly said, putting his hand to his head and marvelling at what had happened. Nyx''s retort seemed to remind everyone once again why she was the strongest. "Oh my dear Thanatos, I have been living for a long time. The amount of corpses that I stepped on is way more than you can ever imagine. If I see someone I''ll know if they will tell me what I want or not, don''t you forget that ever." "Get ready Zeus, I''m going to give you a bit of a headache. Go and gather information, tear down the entire realm of the gods if you have to. You said you wanted to fight and I said I would give you my power, I still haven''t seen any results yet, be quick and don''t disappoint me again." Each person who looked into Nyx''s eyes at these words could see the ruthlessness in her face, Nyx had given a firm order and it had to be done. The small battle on the 5th floor may have ended for the moment, but another one was about to begin again. This was the true face of the most powerful woman in the realm of the gods. Chapter 52 - 52: Getting Ready For The Big Event James had been awake for an hour or two and had already received the news of what had happened. Still, it was strange to him that things had become so complicated. The Sun Empire had declared war on the four surrounding kingdoms and the 5th floor was soaked in blood. With a military operation of almost 12 million, the four kingdoms had literally been razed to the ground. The agreements made by the royal families were found, and the name of a man named Omur appeared on all the papers. This was the same man Nyx had killed with her own hands. As soon as Nyx realised that she couldn''t get any information out of him, she decided it was a waste of oxygen to let such a bastard live and killed him. However, it was learnt that all the profits of the war were given to the Olympus and Asgard guilds. In short, Olympus and Asgard had two kingdoms each. Of course, the kingdoms were not that big, they were regions consisting of four cities each, but still, even this settlement could not account for the gain they would give them. More settlements meant more training grounds and opportunities to offer, something both guilds wanted. Afterwards, he used his gacha rights and got two good items that he did not expect: [Abraham''s Armbands (Legendary) These armbands were created by the ancient high wizard Abraham to protect the arms, the most valuable body parts of wizards. When the player wears the armbands, his spellcasting speed will increase by 15%. The armbands will reduce damage to the arm area to 0 up to 3 times per day]. [Black Rose(Legendary++++) This rose is a decorative item. The aura around it indicates that it was created by its merging with the light of the night, it is one of a kind]. The first item was of course a very nice defence and attack item, and James was quite happy with it, the second item was a gift, even if he had a gift for Nemesis, he didn''t have one for Nyx, so he wanted to give it to her. With that, nothing was preventing him from getting to the tenth floor. He had taken care of all his business and stored enough food and drink in his inventory. After a double-check, she realised that there were no more problems and then said, "Emma, 10th floor please." Then the usual passageway opened in front of him and James leapt forward, opening his eyes again to find a strange crowd. The sounds of merriment, the sounds of metal being hammered, shouting restaurant owners and many more were rising in James'' ears. "Eastern architecture huh?" James said when he saw the houses around. Although he did not know exactly where the architecture came from, he could not help thinking that it might have a connection with his world. As he started to move along the road, he noticed that the energy of the people around him was very high, he could not guess the reason for this in any way. Entering a nearby restaurant, he went upstairs and sat down, ordered a dumpling, and waited where he was. The restaurant was packed, and the cheerful chatter and gossip of the people around could be heard to the fullest. "Did you hear he''s coming?!" One of the young men sitting at the next table started talking. "Come on, I could have sworn it was a lie, don''t talk rubbish," the other young man retorted. "I''m telling you the truth, we''ve been waiting for almost three months, but someone saw him coming out of the imperial library!" said the first one to speak. "No way...this tournament is going to be exciting then, the guy who managed to pick Nyx is coming? We know where to place our bets!" said the young girl. "Puhahaha, it''s really obvious. Nyx must have given him massive powers, didn''t you hear he even managed to kill a Monster God!" "We know he''s not exactly real, he''s a person from outside the tower, how could he kill another god without being a god? And we know Nemesis helped him, he can''t be that powerful!" As James listened to these words in silence, he had the idea to ask about himself, so he approached the people at the next table and asked, "Can you tell me a little bit about him?" After these words, the young people paid attention to James and said "Yes, but it will be expensive". After these words, James smiled and took out a box with 1000 gold coins from his inventory. Seeing this box, the faces of the young people brightened and then one of them got up from his seat and said, "Here, sit down." "Now tell me..." said James again, he really wanted to know what effect his actions had. "They call him Umbra, even though those close to him can call him by his real name, most choose to call him by his nickname. He is known to be the first and only person who has managed to choose Nyx. He founded the Chaos Guild, a monumental achievement. No living being, or even those who have died and become spirit beings, can simply utter the name Chaos. He founded the guild and raised the guild''s reputation to a gigantic position. In addition, he has managed to take first place in one of the rankings within the first five floors, and in some of the others, he has managed to enter the ranking easily." When one of the young men said this, he fell silent, and then another one spoke up: Sear?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "It is also rumoured that all Chaos-Born look upon him with awe, respect and love. Some even say that Nemesis herself is in love with him. They say this because they saw Nemesis carrying him around the 5th floor like a princess, with a smile on her face. NEMESIS'' personality known as the goddess whose face never smiles, can you believe it? I wouldn''t believe it even if I saw it with my own eyes..." After these words, two people entered the upper floor of the restaurant, two people with the logo of Olympus hanging on them. As they made their way to the table where the teenagers and James were, the teenagers were startled for a few seconds, and then the two Olympians leaned in, surprising not only them but everyone on the second floor of the restaurant. "You''re late, I thought you would have noticed my presence earlier," James said, never expecting to be scolded by an Olympian. Chapter 53 - 53: Start of the Tournament "You are late, I thought you would have noticed my presence earlier." At these words, the two Olympians, who had already bowed, fell to their knees and then said "We apologise, sir, forgive our rudeness". After these words, James smiled and stood up, turned to the young people and said, "Thank you for your stories, even if it was only for a few minutes, it was fun." and started walking. To everyone''s amazement, he paid for the food he hadn''t eaten and then left the restaurant with the Olympian duo. "Sir, if you want, we can take you to one of the Olympus Guild headquarters." one of the duo said. James shook his head after hearing this and then said, "No, take me to where the tournament will be held, I need to register, right?" Hearing these words, the duo suddenly shook their heads and then one of them moved forwards while the other moved behind James. "Let''s stay in this position just in case sir, we''ll have a long way to go, the guild headquarters is right next to it." the former Olympian said and with that, they set off. James could feel the eyes on him as he travelled down the road, each member of each race looking at him and keeping their eyes on him. It was clear that no one recognised him, the fact that only two Olympians were accompanying him seemed to have caught their attention. After a short time, James arrived at the registration area in front of the tournament grounds, James went up to the registration clerk, paid his registration fee and was about to give his name when the clerk stopped him: "You don''t need to tell me, sir, Mr Ronald told me you were coming a long time ago, have a nice day." James shook his head and then asked, "Do you know exactly when the tournament will start?" The attendant tilted his head and replied, "Two days sir, you''re just in time." "Very well, thanks," he replied. James smiled as if he was satisfied with this answer and returned to the duo behind him and started to go to the headquarters of the Olympus guild. He was not planning to leave here for two days. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He knew very clearly that he had to wait here for a while. ----- The day of the tournament had come. The clock read 11:50 in the afternoon. The sun was almost directly overhead and the tournament was only 10 minutes away from starting. James just stood in the tournament waiting room and sat there with his eyes closed, wishing he could calm himself down, after all, no matter how strong he was, he desired to secure a decisive victory. "Hey, you!" Suddenly his eyes widened at the sound of a voice in front of him, a man was standing in front of him. He was a rather large man with a rough beard and jet-black hair. "Yes?" James said, realising the rudeness of the man in front of him with just one look. "That''s you, isn''t it? The warrior of Nyx, the only one who could choose the mother of the night." The man spoke these words as if he already knew who James was, not as a question or curiosity, but as a desire to attract the attention of those around him, in short, with malicious intent. "So what if I am?" James suddenly asked, his gaze not shaken one centimetre. The man paused for a few seconds and then put his hand to his chest and said with great pride, "My name is Elian, don''t forget that because I''m the one who''s going to kill you." James smiled after these words and said, "I didn''t know that killing was allowed in this tournament, good to know." At that very moment, a voice was heard in the waiting room: "Warriors who are waiting, please move to the preparatory positions, the tournament will begin shortly!" James yawned at the sound of that voice and the sentence it uttered and then stood where he was, he had a small idea of how the tournament worked, the people in the Olympus guild had given him a small amount of information. It would have been impossible for him not to have learnt, since Nyx had been practically badgering James with her words. Which meant that James would have the right to go up when his name was called. The waiting began and after a short time ended. After almost twenty minutes of waiting, the voice from earlier was finally heard again: "Umbra of Chaos and Rico of Light, please come to the arena!" At the sound of these voices, James got up from where he was and began to slowly climb the stairs, he could hear the sound of cheers rising with each step. After a short while, he felt the light hitting his face and he was able to see the arena in front of him, and as he stepped out the cheering grew to an enormous number. "UUUAAAGGGHHH!!!" "UMBRA I''M YOUR FAN!!!" "PLEASE SIGN MY BELLY!!!" "LET ME BE YOUR SLAVE!!!" Some of the chants managed to frighten even James himself, the races here had really strange personalities. The fact that there was such a huge difference between the 5th floor and the 10th floor was not entirely wrong. There were more races here and people were freer, even James himself liked it on a higher level. As James looked around the spectator section of the arena he saw the people in the restaurant and raised his hand in greeting. Young ones waited for a few seconds with their mouths agape at the sight of James and then each of them turned their heads away in embarrassment, embarrassed of course that they had met the person they gossiped about in the restaurant they went to every day. When James saw his opponent, he bowed his head in respect and saluted his opponent, then he thought that Clarent would be too much for this tournament, so he took out one of the normal swords from his inventory. When he realised that Clarent had four swords in his inventory, he smiled and said, "Relax Clarent, if we meet an opponent worthy of you, you will show up." The referee of the tournament smiled as he saw the two opponents take their places, and then he withdrew from the arena and raised his hand in the air. "The 11th match of the tournament will be between Umbra of Chaos and Rico of Light. I wish the participants good luck." As soon as the referee finished speaking, the hand he had raised in the air descended downwards. This signalled the start of the tournament for James. Chapter 54 - 54: Start and the End of the First Match James had only activated a small part of his aura when he gripped the sword tightly in his hand. His gaze shifted slightly as he realised that the person standing in front of him was not too frightened: "Of course, it wouldn''t be only those who made it up to the 10th floor who would be fighting here, there are also those from higher floors, aren''t there?" he said to himself. After these words, he took a step forward activated his dark step ability and disappeared from where he was. While his opponent Rico was trying to understand what was going on, he suddenly felt a coldness coming from his right side and put the sword in his hand into position to protect himself. "CHING!!!" The sound of a loud metal clash echoed throughout the arena and the sparks from the collision scattered and disappeared. Rico dropped to one knee and tried to realise what was happening. Not only him, but the referee and all the spectators had the same question on their minds: "How could someone who had just stepped onto the 10th floor be so strong?" Rico stood up, and then his shadow started to move, James took a few steps back when he realised that his opponent''s shadow was coming towards him, and then he noticed that the shadows on the ground started to take human shape. "What the heck is this?" he questioned, there were shadow clones in front of him, clones attached to their owners. While he was busy being surprised by this, all the clones suddenly attacked and swooped down on James. James took Selene''s Knife out of his inventory and threw it at a clone, but the blade went right through the clone. It was clear that the clones were not targeting his vital areas, Rico just seemed to want to win. James didn''t know what to attack the clone with, but oddly enough he wasn''t afraid of them. When Rico saw James'' face, he felt his soul tremble from the bottom of his soul...James was laughing. "HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!!! WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!" Rico suddenly shouted, and each second the clones'' attacks got faster and faster. James was dodging all the attacks when suddenly his whole body was covered in aura and he lunged at Rico, if he couldn''t catch the clones he would have to defeat the owner of the clones. With his swift movements, he raised the sword in his hand to his inventory and then threw Rico, whom he had grabbed by the arms, out of the arena, he did not need to kill an opponent who only wanted a gain against him and did not wish for his death. Rico, having been thrown out of the arena instead of dying, looked up and looked at James, seeing his smiling face again he shook his head, he had not expected to be defeated so quickly. "Why am I smiling? It''s the first time I''ve been able to duel someone else since I entered the tower and the person I''m duelling is of a strong calibre, how can I not enjoy myself?" At James'' words, Rico and everyone else shut up. They couldn''t remember the last time they had seen a match won without being killed in this arena known as the arena of death. It was at that moment that the sound of the crowd erupted into an explosion of cheers, one after the other, filling the ears to overflowing. At that moment, James crouched down, looked at Rico and calmly uttered the following words: "This clone ability of yours, can it be improved?" When Rico heard these words, he nodded his head in the affirmative and James smiled and said, "Go to the 5th floor and visit the Church of Night, tell them that I sent you and take this as proof, they will help you." Then he took out a pen and paper from his inventory and wrote a small note with his signature on it, handed it to Rico and then prepared to leave. At that moment Rico''s voice was heard: "I don''t understand, you''re sparing my life and helping me...why?" James smiled when he heard this question and then uttered the following words, which reassured everyone: "Well you are not half-bad you know? Also, we all trying to be gods and goddesses here, not like we need to kill each other right? If you were trying to kill me it would be different of course but now there is no need, just grow up and fight me again." S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The smile on James''s face was not one of contempt, it was like a ray of sunshine that all the blood that had been spilt in this arena over the years needed to see. It was as if all the spirits in the arena were having fun with this. "Hahaha....what an honour it is to meet you, Umbra of Chaos." Rico said and with that, he stood up, bowed his head and then left the arena. James turned to the referee to a chorus of cheers and then asked, "I can fight until I''m beaten or until I want to use my timeout, right?" The referee shook his head and James, hearing this, took his seat again and said "Then please put the next opponent forward". The tournament was huge, almost a month-long tournament, with almost 10,000 people fighting every day, and more than half of them dying in it. That meant that if James rested for even a second, it would be to his detriment. After all, there were millions of different people in the tower, and fighting against them would make James stronger, and hone his skills. He couldn''t just throw away this opportunity. Once he did, he would have no honour to say he would reach Chaos, no reality to hope he could surpass even Nyx''s power. All he wanted to do was take one more step forward every second until the time came when he couldn''t. James was lost in such thoughts when the referee''s voice suddenly sounded: "Umbra of Chaos and Kres of Aria to the arena!" Match 2 was about to begin. Chapter 55 - 55: What an Honour to Fight Against You The second match was about to begin. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I have just watched what you have done Mr Umbra, what an honour it is to fight with such a great man, please let us have a good fight." When Kres said these words, he bowed his head and drew the knives at his waist. James smiled after these words nodded his head and said "Let''s have a good match." and took the sword out of his inventory again. His aura covered his whole body, it was clear that he wanted to finish this fast, so he put his Dark Step ability back into use and then rushed towards his opponent. His speed was enormous, he disappeared from the ground, just like Rico had done. Still, he could sense that something was different. Every attack he made on Kres was met, every step he took was read in advance and Kres was able to counter-attack. James realised that after a few of his attacks, he was being pushed backwards, his opponent was managing to outpace him, if only slightly. Realising what was happening quite early, James suddenly used his ripping ability and charged in with a sudden attack. Kres met the attack but was almost thrown out of the arena, the impact of the strike knocking her to the edge of the arena. Both opponents looked at each other. James''s face was smiling with excitement, while Kres'' face was awkward. As soon as James recovered himself, he took a deep breath and gathered all the aura in his body to his feet this time, he wanted to increase his speed as much as possible, there was no need to gather aura on his sword. With a sudden leap forward, he began to attack Kres repeatedly as she tried to retreat from the edge of the arena, and even if Kres could not meet all the attacks, he still managed to survive with only two attacks. After the constant exchange of attacks, it was clear that Kres was very tired, while James was not tired at all. James had a strange feeling that his opponent was so tired and nothing had happened to him. After all, Kres was not even a human, more like a werewolf, his endurance should be more than James...well, logically. As he was wrapped up in these thoughts, he realised that Kres had started to run at him. Kres'' speed was worrying James. The attacks he was constantly making from the sides were making James quite difficult because he was carrying a single sword. Thinking that he wanted to relieve himself a little, he suddenly turned his head and took out Selene''s Blade from his inventory again. He suddenly threw the knife and it went into Kres'' leg at an incredibly high speed. When James recalled the knife, it was bloody in his hand again. There was nothing on the ground but Kres''s bloodied body, her blades flying aside. As soon as James realised this, he put his sword to Kres'' neck and then said, "Surrender, withdraw from the tournament and I will spare your life." Kres was not screaming even though he was in immense pain, he was a strong fighter, but he was aware that he could no longer fight. That''s why he turned to the referee and said "I withdraw". As soon as the referee heard this, a whistle sounded in the arena and the bout was declared complete. When James saw that the fight was over, he put his sword in his inventory and hid Selene''s Knife in the small bag around his waist. He then pulled a mid-tier bandage with auto-heal from his inventory and wrapped it around Kres'' leg nicely. "You''ll be fine in an hour or two, don''t worry," James said suddenly, and Kres nodded, then crawled out of the arena, albeit with difficulty, and went back the way he had come with the paramedics. James then extended his hand towards the referee and said "Next opponent?". The referee then shook his head in disgust and shouted: "Umbra of Chaos and Liam of Fairy Alliance to the arena!" After these words, a huge person came to the arena, unlike where he came from. What was meant by huge was that someone with wings almost 4 metres tall entered the arena. James'' mouth was agape as he looked at the man in front of him, it was strange enough to think that he was a fairy and not a troll. "P...please don''t go too hard on me!" James shook his head and stayed where he was for a few seconds, his mouth agape at the sound of such a voice coming from the 4-metre-tall giant fairy in front of him. "No problem, same goes for you?" he said, his surprise written all over his face. James wasn''t the only one surprised, the referee''s face turned sour. "Aaaah...start?" the referee suddenly said and Liam, hearing this, suddenly attacked. James was surprised at how fast his opponent was with that body. Liam connected his fists in the air and like a meteor, he hit the ground from the air with incredible power. James dodged at the last moment and was thankful he had done so because the place he had dodged was pierced, it was such a hard hit that some pieces of stone flew out of the arena, and the arena was shattered. James shook his head for a few seconds and then reached into his inventory and pulled out Clarent, he didn''t know who else but this fairy would be suitable for Clarent and oddly enough this opponent wasn''t aiming for his life either. It was clear that most of those who had come to the arena only wanted to win. How could James kill them? After all, there was no logic to what happened. Of course, James didn''t want to take the lives of people who weren''t considered monsters just because they wanted to win, but this was called the "arena of death", wasn''t it? Chapter 56 - 56: Start of the Plan James shook his head as he tightened his grip on Clarent again and realised that there was nothing more he could do. Suddenly he lunged forward and slowly but steadily began to deliver thin slashes at the giant fairy in front of him. After a few seconds, the fairy was pulled backwards, and the sound of crying could be heard in the centre of the arena. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Uh...Why are you hurting me?!" James'' eyes narrowed as these sudden words rang out in the arena, an extraordinary expression on his face and thoughts that he could not solve in his mind. "Ummm...Sorry, I guess?" James suddenly said, and then he went into the attack position again, but this time he did not have the conscience to attack. After seeing this, the referee stopped for a few seconds and asked, "Does anyone want to withdraw from the duel?" as if he could think of nothing else. Hearing this, the giant fairy raised her hand and then said, "I''ll withdraw...", instantly walking down the arena and disappearing. "Aaaah???? I think I won?" With these words James, the whole arena fell silent, none of them expected to see such a ridiculous duel. Fairy came in, made an attack and received several attacks, then left the arena crying. Truly, this could have been the silliest event in the history of the arena. "Ummm...I''d like to take a break, please continue with the next participants." James suddenly said, coughed a little and awkwardly walked out of the arena. No one could argue with his behaviour, I don''t know why, but everyone seemed fascinated, James seemed to be questioning whether or not he had beaten a child. When he entered the waiting room he saw that everyone was looking at him strangely. "Don''t look at me, I have no idea what''s going on, okay?" When he uttered those words, every single person in the room looked away from him and went about their business. [It might have been the weirdest match I''ve ever seen in my life, it was really weird, so weird that I couldn''t even tell if that fairy was a real boy or not]. James shook his head as he looked at this window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and read it, and then he thought once again about the millions of strange personalities that existed in the tower. Of course, there would be such types. However, he wanted to rest even for a while because even if he was not physically tired, he was in a strange remorse of conscience. While he was in all these thoughts, he was busy cleaning Clarent, far away...on the upper floors of the tower, things were happening that he would never think about. ----- ----- "He''s already on the 10th floor. He''s already won three battles. He seems to know how the arena works. "Of course he does, you idiot! You don''t think Nyx or anyone else is going to tell him how things work?" "Calm down, even if he knows everything, we still have leverage, I''ve already gifted my warrior the medallion, there''s no way that Umbra bastard won''t die." A group of gods seemed to be talking and commiserating among themselves. One of these gods was Sopdu, the one who had originally initiated the plan to kill James. "We''re lucky, though. The probability of the mission succeeding is enormously high and no one will even suspect us!" one of the gods said. "I don''t understand, isn''t every single point of suspicion going back to Sopdu?" another one of the gods asked. "Come on, are you stupid? Do you really not understand?" another god complained, busy insulting the questioner. "I don''t know, just tell me, damn you!" he shouted, and after these words, Sopdu spoke: "That incident on the 9th floor. We don''t know who or what did it, but whatever we do, there is a personality we can blame. My warrior was not a very aggressive person, but the magic on the medallion made him terrible. I don''t even know where the medallion came from, so we will get rid of Umbra and get rid of the accusations against us." When Sopdu said these words, every god in the room nodded their heads and everything seemed easy to them because they understood the situation completely. The only thing they could do was wait for James and Elian to confront each other. "What about Nemesis? Everyone knows Nemesis has a crush on the boy. It''s even rumoured amongst some of the Olympians. It''s the first time Nemesis has ever been in front of a screen and just watched what Umbra was doing, some even say her pupils have become heart-shaped." There was a small silence in the room after these words, and then Sopdu''s voice rose again: "Yes, I really don''t think she will let it go, and even if she doesn''t, we can always blame it on the medallion. Of course, it will be a certainty that I gave my warrior the medallion, you just have to defend me." "Defend?" one of the gods asked. "Exactly. When Nemesis finds and destroys my warrior, she will come for me. When that time comes, she will say that I gave the medallion in front of you and you will defend me, we need to convince her that we know nothing ourselves." Sopdu replied. Of course, he had bigger plans, but he did not need to discuss them with the gods. After all this talk, the room was silent again, even the sounds of breathing did not seem to rise in the room. None of the gods made a single sound. Nemesis was a personality that frightened everyone, because, unlike other Chaos-Borns, that strange woman never retreated from battle, although there were dozens of wounds on the front of her body, her back had no wounds at all. Nemesis was a person who never ran away from battle. At that moment, a voice finally rose from one of the gods at the other end of the table: "I don''t know how dangerous it will be, but you can count me in, ready to do whatever it takes to destroy the bastard Nyx and his warrior." These words signalled the flames that would rise and the blood that would be spilt in the confrontation that would take place in just a few days. No one could expect the gods to be so foolish. No one could resist the Chaos-Borns. Chapter 57 - 57: High Vampire Slaughtered Before the tournament started, James was sitting in his room, chatting with Nyx as usual, or rather, Nyx was nagging James as usual. [Remember what I said. In one day alone, over 10,000 warriors fight inside the arena. Duels normally take so short because of the power distribution that I can''t explain it. Since there are different areas of the arena, the screens can show 120 battles at the same time, and the audience can watch what they want]. James had heard these words at least ten times in just one day and was getting sick of it, he spoke after scratching his head in annoyance: "Yes, my lady, I understand, I must put up a good fight for the audience so that attention is drawn to me so that I can exert my authority." [Good for you. I hope you haven''t forgotten the rest of what I said, do I need to go over it again?] "No m''lady, I remember exactly what you said, please calm down," James replied, feeling as if he was talking to his mother. [Then tell me, tell me what I told you.] When he saw this window in front of him, he took a deep breath and began to speak again with a pout: "With every match I win, the prize from the arena will increase. Not only the first prize but also the duels I win will benefit me. With every match I win, I will have a chance to skip rounds, or rather, I will be faced with stronger people who have participated in the tournament before, or rather their shadows. Kind of like an artificial intelligence." [Well done you, I mean you know everything you need to do, I''m proud of you.] James scratched his head again when he saw another window protruding in front of him, but this time it was out of embarrassment, not annoyance, then he took a breath and said one last thing: "I just have to run them over." ----- ----- "Umbra of Chaos and Laura of Uprace to the arena!" When James heard these voices again, he stepped into the arena as usual. A woman stood before him, a very beautiful woman, very elegantly dressed. She had a fan in her hand and her eyes seemed to be looking at a vile creature. "You''re disgusting...Oh, humans, just looking at your faces makes me sick." the woman suddenly said, James frowned at what he heard and then said, "Gosh lady, you are mad ugly no?". These words made the whole arena burst into laughter. "You vile creature, I''m a vampire, how dare a lowly race like you speak to me like that!" the woman suddenly shouted, suddenly her fan disappeared and her hands became claw-like. James glanced at her briefly, shook his head and then snapped his fingers and said, "Ooooh, so that''s why you call yourselves Uprace!" which made the viewers even laugh more. With those words, he removed Clarent from his inventory and then relaxed his shoulders, just as he was about to attack, the vampire disappeared and suddenly appeared in front of James. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James crouched down with incredible speed to avoid the blow to his throat, and then, as hard as he could, using every muscle in his body, he delivered an uppercut to the vampire''s jaw. The vampire flew several metres away and then stumbled to her feet. James had attacked her so heavily because she was trying to deliver precise strikes at vital points. "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, madam," James said suddenly, and the energy around the vampire changed completely. James'' eyes suddenly widened, he could see that the woman in front of him had an aura on the same level as his. "You inferior race, I am a member of the high vampire race! I made it to the 48th floor, you idiot! HOW DARE YOU HIT ME!" After the woman''s sudden shouts, the aura around suddenly turned towards James. "You still lose most of your power when you are here though no?" said James. James realised that he was being pushed backwards by the impact as if the weight of the aura was pushing him backwards by grabbing his arms and legs. James was not going to be defeated though, as he spread a massive sum of aura over his entire body, as much as he could use, and was instantly freed from the impact. The vampire was surprised for a few seconds when she saw this aura level and suddenly asked, "How can a piece of rubbish like you have such a huge aura when you only made it to the tenth floor!" Hearing this, James replied with numbness on his face, "Maybe because this piece of rubbish is superior to someone like you." However, James, who was holding Clarent tightly, suddenly attacked. The sounds of collision were rising in the arena and the sounds of cheering from around gave strength to both the vampire and James. At that very moment, James took a few steps back and then opened his palm towards her. When the vampire saw this, she protected himself with her aura and smiled as if she was convinced that any attack that might come at her now could not penetrate her aura. "You can use magic, huh? I''ve heard a few rumours about that. Someone who can use both aura and magic was realised by someone from the scout guild when they watched your body from a distance. Still, it''s foolish of you to think that a low-level magic status can surpass my blood aura!" The vampire who had spoken those words suddenly saw the smile that had risen on James'' face, instantly felt every hair on his body stand on end, and then, in an attempt to protect himself, he immediately formed a barrier of blood in front of him. It was too late, a massive wall of flames had burned through her blood barrier and started to burn her aura with it. At that moment, James'' voice was heard: "Well, that all changes when it comes to the legendary grade of fire elemental, doesn''t it?" Chapter 58 - 58: Who Told You I Was Merciful? "Well, that all changes when it comes to the legendary degree of fire elemental, doesn''t it?" At these words of James, the eyes turned to the vampire on whom the gigantic spell had been cast. "KYAAAAAAAAA HELP!!!!" The vampire writhed in pain and tried to free herself, but everything she did was futile. She took out enough water from her inventory to fill dozens of buckets and poured it on herself, but the flames did not stop. "HELP!!! PLEASE!!! I APOLOGISE!!!" The female vampire suddenly screamed and fell to the ground, crawling towards James and begging for mercy. James...he wasn''t that merciful. Even the dumbest person in the world knew what happened when they forgave people who tried to hurt them, and in the tower, it was a daily occurrence. Betrayal was the foundation of the tower, and even when there was no betrayal, there would always be death. The entire history of the tower was written in blood after its creation. The son would kill the father, the mother would throw her child in the garbage, the father would not blink an eye as his family was killed, and the daughter would drain her family dry. The tower had always loved to watch this and rewarded these events. James was not such a merciful person. "You know what, normally I would forgive you but not today. I am here to show that mercy and respect that comes from it needs to be earned. Your existence is not fair, you did look down on me and the first thing you did was aim for my throat." As those words echoed through the arena, James'' expression was visible on screens all around the 10th floor, dark enough to darken the four corners of the realm of the gods. They could feel James'' shadow growing deeper, they could see it. James held Clarent tightly and then said "Oh no, neither you nor your group will be forgiven believe me." then he lifted Clarent and stabbed it into the back of the vampire woman who was trying to crawl on the ground. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Every single person who watched what happened was surprised, no one thought that he would attempt such an act. Duel 4 was over. "Next match, please." When James turned to the referee and uttered these words, the referee just swallowed and then shouted to start the next match. In Olympus, different things were happening. All eyes were on the Chaos-Borns and Nyx in particular, every single person in the hall staring at the mother of the night. The peace and smile on Nyx''s face was incomprehensible, and it didn''t stop there. Even Erebus had that peace and smile on his face. After only a few seconds, Nyx threw her hands up and stroked Erebus'' cheeks, who was standing like a guard behind her seat, and the words that surprised everyone came out of her mouth: "Erebus, my love...See, you were so worried, you thought he was so merciful and shy to finish things on his own, isn''t it nice that he doesn''t make the same mistakes we do?" Erebus gently took Nyx''s hands on her cheeks as Nyx finished speaking and said, "I agree with you as always, my love, I thought James was so pure that he would forgive his enemies. I was never so wrong." he said, kissing Nyx''s hands gently. With that, he walked over to Nyx and sat down, then turned to Moros and spoke: "My dear son, make the preparations, it is obvious that he will win, I thought he was weak, but I was wrong, we will see him at the end of this month, decorate the whole of Mount Olympus for his arrival." After these words, Moros bowed his head and then smiled again, much to everyone''s surprise, and said, "I will carry out your orders immediately, dear father." and left the hall. With his departure, a few Olympians followed him and 5% of the hall was officially empty. At that very moment, Hades'' voice was heard: "Do you think James can win, Master Erebus? After all, even creatures that reach as high as the 60th floor will be in the arena, and you know they won''t take him lightly after what he just did." After these words, neither Nyx nor Erebus answered the question: "Don''t think he''s that weak, he''s spent a lot of time in the library, the ability my grandfather gave him has already been reset, and he has a philosopher''s stone. He has the opportunity to take down at least two powerful people." Nemesis'' voice echoed throughout the hall as if warning Hades to shut up. "Hoho... Look at that love bird..." Nemesis was angry as soon as she heard those words and turned round to be angry until she realised it was Artemis. "Not you too Artemis, at least you watch my back!" she said with a little anger. Nemesis had friends in Olympus, of course, and Artemis was one of them, of course, Artemis making fun of her was not going to make her angry. "Come on Nemesis, you''re falling in love for the first time, why am I here if we''re not going to make fun of it?" Artemis said jokingly, then sat down next to Nemesis and pointed to the window they were watching. "I''ll let you do it this one time, but y''all watch your backs and I''LL PUSH YOUR EARS IF YOU DON''T!!!" said Nemesis as everyone burst out laughing and then everythink fell silent. All eyes turned back to James, his struggle had just begun, and there were still 29 days to go. "Umbra of Chaos gets their 25th consecutive win!" Thousands of cheers erupted from the arena at the referee''s shout and all eyes locked on James. Holding his knees in a bent position, James could see the sweat pouring down his face from exhaustion. After only a few seconds of breathing in and out, he straightened up looked at the referee and said, "Next opponent please." There was no way he could stop now, he could feel it, he was so ready to break through his boundaries, that he couldn''t leave it here. Chapter 59 - 59: Ariel the Strong "Umbra of Chaos and Ariel the Strong to the arena!" When James heard that name, he took up his fighting stance again and looked at the woman who had stepped into the arena. The woman''s muscles and curves were clearly visible in the clothes she wore, it was possible to see how hard she was a hard-working lady. Her gaze was like the stab of a knife. The woman was not tall, she was almost the same height as James and did not have a large build, she was just like James, whose muscles were visible in the clothes he wore. Considering that James already had a strange face that could be as beautiful as a woman, it was as detailed as possible that the woman standing in front of him looked like him in many structures. "You don''t seem to belong to a guild, ma''am," James said suddenly, seeming to take a moment to catch his breath a little more. "That''s right, I don''t trust whoever I''m around, I''ve never met anyone in my life who could provide trust," the woman called Ariel replied. With these words, James, who had consolidated his position, realised that the woman in front of him was stronger than him despite the limitation of her powers, which was a bad sign. When Ariel realised that James had consolidated his position, she flexed her shoulders and then covered her fists with aura. Then the duel began. James, with Clarent covered in aura, was trying to counter Ariel''s series of punches and mostly succeeded. When he failed, he tried to use his speed and avoid the attacks. If Ariel''s attacks didn''t work on him, James couldn''t even find a gap to attack, it was as if the woman in front of him was on the defensive in an offensive situation. She was experienced. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "May I ask what floor you went up to, madam?" James suddenly asked. Hearing this, Ariel stood where she was and took a few steps back and said, "It depends on why you''re asking that." James smiled when he heard this question and then said, "You haven''t used everything against me." This answer seemed to surprise the majority in the arena, most of them thought that Ariel was struggling, after all, James easily managed to avoid or counter every attack, they all thought that James was playing Ariel like prey. "Puhaha...you''re quite interesting, I didn''t expect to laugh at all and to answer your question, I only made it up to the 34th floor, anything more is impossible for me at the moment," Ariel said with a very polite and smiling face. It was as if she enjoyed duelling with James. James smiled and then said, "Then I have a proposition for both of us." Ariel frowned and became serious when she heard this, she obviously wanted to hear what was going on but she had to be prepared for anything. "Tell me," Ariel said suddenly. "I know you''re restricted, I mean you can''t use all of your power, but I propose that you use everything you can, we''ll both use everything we''ve got, let''s make it an honourable duel." Ariel seemed surprised by James'' words, surprised that the young man in front of her could be so fearless. "Why not," Ariel said, her smile showing that she was having fun. "I am honoured ma''am, my name is Umbra, it is an honour to meet you," James replied. With that, the aura around him began to change completely and became more serious. It was no different for Ariel, her whole body was covered in a lush green aura, a very relaxing sight. James suddenly lunged forward and Ariel followed him. When Clarent hit Ariel''s fist, a huge sound like a hammer hitting a sword rang out. The entire arena floor shuddered and the two took a few steps back with smiling faces, at that moment Ariel''s voice was heard: "I''ve never been hit so hard in my life, and I can assure you that the idiots upstairs won''t get anywhere near you!" Ariel had been upset for a long time about the awfulness of the warriors upstairs. After all, unlike the stupid warriors, she barely used her class abilities and tried to crush everything with her own strength. This was a new experience for her, facing a real warrior. After these words, Ariel attacked again without stopping, and the exchange of attacks began again. "CLING!!!" The strange metallic sound was getting louder and louder, and with each collision, merging auras were spreading around. James felt his body being beaten with each collision as if he was getting stronger. This duel was many times more useful to James than that stupid female vampire he had fought. Indeed, with each collision, his body was becoming more and more fit to fight. This was thanks to Ariel, who was many times stronger and had fought more than him. James didn''t realise it, but he was having his first encounter with one of his greatest future friends. A friend to whom he could surrender his life for. A friend with whom he would constantly have disagreements, but who was inseparable at the same time. Yet the two continued to attack each other, unaware of this. James was using his dark step ability and Ariel was blocking James with her own ability, the image was as if the two were dancing, really a perfect image and the process was standing in front of them. "JUST LIKE DANCING DON''T YOU THINK SO YOUNG FRIEND!!!" screamed Ariel. The feeling of pleasure and fulfilment was evident in every inch of her face, Ariel was in a very happy state indeed. James, who had heard this, smiled and shouted back "THANK YOU FOR TRUSTING ME ENOUGH TO GIVE ME AN HONOURABLE DUEL, DEAR LADY!!!" Of course, Ariel wouldn''t trust anyone that much, but she couldn''t tell anyone the excitement and pleasure that this duel was giving her, she could fight like this for dozens of hours. Only the gods themselves could understand how much the duo enjoyed it. Chapter 60 - 60: It Is Almost Like Looking At Her Eyes "AREN''T YOU TIRED UMBRA!?!?!?" With a sudden shout, the exchange of moves came to an abrupt halt and the two in the centre of the arena stared at each other. As James looked at the woman in front of him he saw that she was not tired in the slightest, even if he was a little tired himself he still had no intention of backing down, he was certain that there was a way for him to defeat the woman in front of him, Ariel. He hadn''t used Selene''s Throwing Knife yet, and there were plenty of other things he could throw or restrain Ariel with, it was just that almost everything hhe could use needed a little bit of waiting. After all, he couldn''t shout "STOP FIGHTING I WILL PUT TRAPS!" at Ariel, could he? "I''m not tired, Madam Ariel, don''t worry," James suddenly said, completely lying, although he wasn''t very tired, after 22 consecutive battles he was now on his 25th battle, or rather duel. It was impossible not to be tired fully tired. He took out an "Energy Potion" from his inventory and then planted it on his head, such potions were not forbidden in the tournament as there were alchemist warriors in the tournament and it was for everyone''s benefit. James hadn''t consumed any of the potions so far, as he saw such things as cheating. "Look at that, you''re not tired hahaha!" Ariel burst out laughing when she saw the potion James was drinking, of course, no one would expect James not to be tired. After all, everyone realised that he had already achieved a huge amount. No one would duel like an idiot, it would increase their chances of dying, and that was exactly why none of them wanted to be in such danger. After all, this was known as the arena of death, James may have only killed one person, but thousands would die and perish every day that passed in the arena. That made Ariel not angry, after all, what James had done was like being normal in an abnormality, she couldn''t be angry with him. "Forgive my rudeness, I just got to the 10th floor, you know, I don''t have such great endurance, unfortunately," James said, obviously embarrassed. "You don''t have to stop like that, if you''ve recovered, let''s continue, it''s time to finish this, I believe we''ve already passed an hour." Ariel suddenly said this and seemed to tell James that the woman in front of him was seriously going to use everything. James was kind of scared in a way, he really couldn''t even tell what kind of rating he had on how much he respected the woman in front of him. It was at that moment that James agreed with Ariel that he needed to use everything he had. He wanted to revive that strange light that burned in his body and soul, and after only a few seconds he seemed to lose himself. It was almost like he was in a trance. The light inside him flared up and the aura of James'' sword spread through his body again, but this time something was different, a difference that no one had expected. Not only Ariel but the whole arena and even the gods watching them noticed this difference... James'' aura was burning with a colourful flame. Everyone in the realm of the gods was astonished, it seemed like they hadn''t seen such a powerful flame for a long time. "What the hell is that?" asked Ariel herself, and her eyes were transfixed on the aura around James, like a moving portrait. James'' aura was burning with colourful flames, mostly dark, with an air of dominance that seemed to command those around him to retreat and flee. Even Ariel couldn''t help but be excited by this flame. After that, Ariel was surrounded by aura just like James, but this time the layer of aura was incredibly thick, so thick that Ariel''s fists were practically invisible in the aura. However, James'' aura was no ordinary aura, his aura was an aura with magic in it, something unprecedented and never existed before. It was something with no known weaknesses or advantages, and James had somehow managed to use it, as if he wanted to crush the woman in front of him, without killing her of course. With that, the duel was reignited. With a single step, James had disappeared from where he had been and swung Clarent from the bottom up as if he were slashing, and the moment the sword struck Ariel''s aura, a gigantic source of light appeared in the arena. The depth of the flames from James'' attack and the depth of Ariel''s aura had collided so perfectly that they created the brilliance of light, a sight so perfect that there was no way to explain it. Each collision revealed a different colour of light and the flames that spread around the arena from James seemed to resemble a battlefield. "YOU ARE AMAZING UMBRA!!! I''VE NEVER ENJOYED FIGHTING SO MUCH IN MY LIFE!!!" shouted Ariel suddenly, no one expected to hear those words but it was clear that they loved what they were hearing, it gave everyone watching goosebumps. It seemed like it was time for this duel to end. The aura around Ariel suddenly exploded and sent James flying several metres, he hit the arena floor with all his weight and looked at the woman in front of him. A huge smile formed on his face, he was so, so happy to have met one of the most wonderful people he had ever met in his life. However, he was also aware of the weight of his body, this attack would be the last for both of them and the outcome would decide the fate of the duel. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ariel had given James enough time to get to his feet, she could indeed be one of the most honourable female warriors in existence, in James'' eyes she was no different in honour to Nemesis. Focusing on Ariel after she stood up, James uttered the following words before making his final move: "It''s as if I''m looking at Nemesis herself, though she is a hundred times more beautiful, but I see the same warrior eyes, I can''t tell you how sweet it feels!" Chapter 61 - 61: The End of the Duel and the Big Mistake "It''s like I''m looking at Nemesis herself, though she is a hundred times more beautiful, but I see the same warrior eyes, I can''t tell you how sweet it feels!" Ariel smiled and then said, "I can''t tell you how honoured I am that you are talking about me with the person I respect the most." Once those words were out of their mouths, the arena was silent for a few seconds and then the two were on the move. They were almost 40 metres away from each other and were running at average speeds. All the power of both of them was in their attacks and the auras surrounding them. After only a few seconds, they were incredibly close to each other and finally, the event that everyone was waiting for happened. "CHING!!!!!!!!!" An incredibly ear-splitting sound echoed through the arena, and the inside of the arena became so dusty that it could not even be seen through the screens. The arena was so thick with dust that some of the spectators had to close their eyes and even the referee himself could not see. Only 10 metres separated the referee from the arena. "What''s going on?" shouted one of the spectators. "WHO WON!!!" screamed another spectator. When the dust started to clear, all eyes were focused on the arena. All of Olympus was watching together, none of them could have known what was going to happen, for the woman James had fought was indeed one of the most promising to ever climb the tiers. Dust slowly descended to the floor and then the image of flames reappeared, one lying on the floor of the arena and one standing. No one could tell who was who, as the figures of the two were only slightly similar, and even their heights were almost identical. After only a few seconds, the dust cleared and everyone took a deep breath and looked around the arena. Ariel was lying on the arena floor, her eyes blurred and looking like her nervous system had collapsed, there was a gash in her chest, she wasn''t going to die, but the wound was enormous. James was no different. Looking at him, it was possible to see that his whole body was full of aura cuts. He wanted a fair fight and that''s why everything turned out the way it did, or rather, using his strongest ability would make it unfair and that''s why he didn''t want to be untouchable. He clenched his hand into a fist and clutched it to his chest, Clarent in the other hand, pointing to the air, to the stars of the darkening evening. "NYX IS WITH US!!!" he suddenly shouted, and at those words all of Olympus paused, and then the outcome of the match was decided: "The winner of the 9173rd Duel of the Day is Umbra of Chaos, his 26th win of the day!" With the referee''s shout, the entire arena, the 10th floor, and every single person watching from the upper floors went wild. No one had ever seen a battle this binding. Amidst all the cheering, amidst all the words of love and admiration shouted at him, James began to step forward, even if slowly and painfully, and approached and knelt beside Ariel. "I''ll win next time, Umbra..." Ariel said, smiling, blood pouring from her mouth. James respected her again, he could only imagine how much pain she was in right now, but Ariel''s smile never left her face. He realised at that moment that he had earned the respect of a woman who trusted no one. He lifted Clarent into his inventory and then pulled out one of the medium health potions, gently lifted Ariel''s head and said, "Please drink, madam." His chivalry and honour made everyone admire him once again. Ariel smiled and then drank every last drop of the health potion, the huge gash in her chest closed and the blood stopped leaking out of her mouth. James gasped for breath and then stood up, looking at the referee and saying, "I demand a time-out." He smiled as he saw the referee shake his head and then collapsed to the ground. Every single person in the arena was amazed at what had happened, the referee suddenly jumped from his side and entered the arena, everyone thought something had happened to James, but as soon as the referee checked James'' pulse, he smiled. "Hohh.....He''s just fainted, the silly boy scared the life out of me, how will I answer to Master Ronald or Lady Leyla if you die?" the referee said in a very small voice, indicating that even inside the arena James was protected. With that James was finished in the arena, even for the day. With that, the only thing that could be done was taking James to the Arena Hospital. ----- Elian walked through the door of the room where James had been laid to rest and saw James sleeping soundly, if not peacefully. He was scared and it was obvious, if he didn''t finish his work quickly he would die and he couldn''t afford that, yet he didn''t dare to refuse his god when he asked him for something, he had to get it done. "Don''t blame me for this, you stupid boy! You''ve attracted too much attention, you have to die." James was lying in the hospital section of the arena, still unconscious, the fact that he had somehow used both aura and magic, and used them at the same time continuously, had crushed his body like crazy. He may have cut Ariel deeply in the chest, but he had suffered many deep cuts from Ariel''s attack, and aura cuts would not heal with potions so he really needed to rest. He needed to heal. The gods could not watch when the users were knocked out, incapacitated and blocked by the tower itself, and that was what was happening in the horrible event that was happening now. Elian stood in front of the unconscious James with the medallion in his hand. He placed the medallion on James'' chest and then raised the knife in his hand. Suddenly the knife went through the locket and plunged into James'' chest. However, Elian wanted to flee the scene and tried to leave, and when he opened the door to the room where James was staying, he saw someone he had never wished to see. "You did something very wrong, young man." S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 62 - 62: Furious Ronald "You have done something very wrong, young man." Elian stared at the huge figure before him, his whole body trembling. This was a man who had seen every one of the gods rise, seen every one of the great heroes die a painful death, created by the Creator himself to be a watchman, and fulfilled his duty. This man was Ronald himself. Ronald''s eyes were different than they normally were, glowing with a crimson colour, the wrinkles in his face and the furrows in his brow told you how angry he was. He grabbed Elian by the throat and lifted him upwards. Elian struggled in agony and tried to break free from Ronald. "You are lucky I don''t have the right to kill you young man, I can assure you that if my creation had allowed it I would have cut out your tongue, ripped out all your fingernails, pulled out your teeth, gouged out your eyes and slaughtered you. Not only that, I would do everything in my power and, with the help of Lady Leyla if necessary, I would revive you again and again with all your memories and repeat the process over and over again." After Ronald said these murderous and blood-curdling words, he threw Elian to the floor and then said, "Now get out of my sight." Elian fled the room with fear and even left the arena. There was only one reason why Ronald didn''t kill him, and that was the Philosopher''s Stones. Ronald and Leyla had thought about the possibility of such a situation in great detail, so they had agreed to give one of the Philosopher''s Stones, which were limited in number even in their own hands, to James as a reward. Sear?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Philosopher''s Stones were incredibly rare, and there was a reason for that: The living souls. The only reason the Philosopher''s Stones could be created was because of the deaths of players who existed inside the tower, or users born inside the tower. Since the tower''s creation, over a million Philosopher''s Stones have been created. This may seem like a large number because the Philosopher''s Stone is a stone that automatically activates when its bearer dies and miraculously brings that person back to life, but the stone has a test and the person has to pass that test. For more than two billion years, only a little over a million Philosopher''s Stones had been produced. Almost all of these stones had been given as gifts to people with truly enormous potential, including Moros himself. Ronald knew that the stone had already been activated because he had given him one of these gifts, so he let Elian go and let him go because even the tower itself knew that if someone Ronald and Leyla had set their eyes on together had been killed, the person who committed the murder and those behind it would wish to die, let alone live. The existence of their creation and the urge to protect people would not give a damn about the rulers. Someone who had chosen Nyx could not die so easily, which is why when there was trouble on the 9th floor, Leyla herself gave Nyx access to the floor so that Nemesis could come to help. The administrators were giving him special treatment. As Ronald slowly walked up to James, Leyla suddenly appeared, the two of them standing just in front of the young man, Ronald reached for the knife and the medallion, and without touching them, took the two items in a bubble. Ronald then turned to Leyla and said, "We have to wait, it''s up to him whether he comes back or not." ----- "HUAH!!!" James suddenly opened his eyes and jumped up. Suddenly he stood up and looked around him. He saw the green grass stretching endlessly and a person staring at him from a few metres away. When he went towards the other person, he saw himself and stopped for a few seconds and then said, "Ok that is the weirdest dream ever." After these words, the thing or person standing in front of him suddenly said "This is not a dream, you are dead you know?" with the same tone. James shook his head and stood where he was as if he didn''t understand what was happening, as if he didn''t believe what was happening, and then he sat down and asked, "And what are you?" As soon as this question was said, James'' copy was disfigured and suddenly took the form of a stone in the air, James instantly realised what was happening and then asked, "The Philosopher''s Stone, is it?" When the stone glowed with a bright light, James closed and opened his eyes and then asked, "So send me back, what are you waiting for?" As soon as those words were out of his mouth the space around him changed, he found himself in an unfamiliar place, he was confronted with a strange sight, he was seeing people he expected to recognise. "What''s that?" asked James. He was frowning, clenching his teeth, even the veins in his throat were visible with anger. "As you can see, your future is a future where you don''t exist," the stone itself said. James shook his head at the words and then grabbed the stone hard. "If you are here for me, you must know me, didn''t anyone ever tell you that I will destroy what has happened?" he suddenly said. The stone disappeared from his hand and appeared on the other side of James, James was constantly looking at the images in front of him and his anger was increasing. "It''s like I told you, James. The Philosopher''s Stone can see the past and the future, we are beings made up of millions of souls, we are used once and discarded, so what you see before you are the future." The stone repeated its words again and then James shouted as if he couldn''t take it anymore: "HOW CAN A SCENE WHERE MY FAMILY IS KILLED BE MY FUTURE!!!" Chapter 63 - 63: Agreement with Stone "HOW THE HECK CAN A SCENE WHERE MY FAMILY IS KILLED BE MY FUTURE!!!" James turned back to the image next to him after his sudden shout and watched it carefully. Indeed, the sight before him made his hair stand on end. He never thought he would see such things in his life. Of the people he had seen, he had only met Nemesis face to face, and he really could not accept such a thing. He was seeing people he had never met and didn''t even know the look of, and Nemesis. Every one of them was tied up, blood pouring from their bodies, some had their heads on stakes and some were being burned. In short, it looked like a slaughter zone. "The war of the gods is a very serious matter. That''s why you weren''t supposed to die." Philosopher''s Stone said suddenly, and James, hearing this, was surprised and questioned, "Is this my fault?" "Technically, in a way, this is the future that will exist when you die." said the Philosopher''s Stone and James, who heard this, said, "Please send me back. I haven''t been in this Tower for long, not even half a year, but they''re already everything to me, I can''t let this happen." The Philosopher''s Stone didn''t seem to care though, it transformed back into James'' form and stood there sulking, only to speak after a few seconds: "What about us? All the souls in our creation, what have we done? Those who were betrayed and murdered, raped and murdered, beheaded and destroyed, struggling below while these gods watched from above? What was our offence? Weren''t they the ones who filled our heads with the idea of becoming gods and took everything from us?" Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As soon as the Philosopher''s Stone had finished speaking, James stayed where he was and then looked at the image again, this time not angry, but with a steady thought, then turned back to the stone and spoke again: "Look, I really don''t give a damn about what happened to you all alright? Yes, you guys died like everyone can, that is not my problem, but since I died I am begging you to send me back if that is the future that is waiting for my family. I know deep in my heart they do not deserve this." At these words of James, the eyes of the body formed by the Philosopher''s Stone widened and it was obvious that he was surprised. "So you do not care if we did die or not huh?" the stone suddenly asked, and James, hearing this, shook his head and began to speak: "Yes, I wish you had a Philosopher''s Stone so that you could live, but you never had that chance while I had a new one, so please let me go, I have to go back if I''m going to approach this future every time I don''t get stronger or if this is what happens when I stay dead." As these words came out of his mouth, the body formed by the Philosopher''s Stone disappeared and then the stone fell to the ground right in front of James, at that moment, more souls than James could count flew out of the stone and began to disappear one by one. "We just needed to be sure..." said the first soul came out. "Now you can take revenge on the tower for us!" said one of the souls. "We couldn''t, but please destroy all the evil you saw!" shouted another. "I miss my daughter and my wife very much, I would like to tell them again that I love them, never forget to say that to those you love!" said another. These kinds of conversations came up every now and then, they were constantly saying things to James as if they were burdening him. However, it was slowly getting darker, James had passed the test, and he had no idea what the purpose of the test was, even though it was clear what kind of test it was. As a result, he had managed to come back in a strange way. When he opened his eyes again he realised that all the pain in his body had disappeared and he looked to his right and saw Ronald and Leyla. Both executives were quite surprised, it had been almost 20 minutes since they had arrived here, but James had already woken up. "How come?!?" Ronald suddenly muttered and continued to gently look at James. James straightened up took out a bottle of water from his inventory and drank it, he felt as if he didn''t have a drop of water in his body, was this what it felt like to come back from the dead? "I really died, haven''t I?" James suddenly said and Leyla, who heard this, spoke up: "In a way, James. You went into a trance the moment you took the killing blow, and if the Philosopher''s Stone hadn''t accepted you, you would have died." James rolled his head when he heard these words and then said, "So I wasn''t dead?" and was surprised. "Yes, exactly," Ronald said in answer to this question. "Well, let''s get to the point, how did I end up dying under your care? I knew I wasn''t that injured, do Lady Nyx and the others know anything?" James asked again. Ronald and Leyla looked at each other and Ronald said, "Elian tried to kill you and no, Lady Nyx has no idea about this, so please don''t tell her." James smiled slyly as he heard those words. Even the dumbest person in this creation could tell that something sly was going on in his mind. That was exactly why Ronald and Leyla were a little worried. After all, no one would try to piss off someone like Nyx who literally born from the person that has created them. That was why James yawned and then looked deeply at Ronald and Leyla, then pulled another bottle of water from his inventory, drank it, and then spoke: "I know what my lady is like, I''ve got a few ideas of what she''s up to, I suppose you could give me something to keep my mouth shut." Chapter 64 - 64: Even the Admins Thinks Twice "I know what my lady is like, I have a few ideas of what she''s up to, I suppose you could give me something to keep my mouth shut." At James'' words, the two admins looked at each other again and then back at James. It was clear that the duo were worried. Chaos-Borns had dominion over the tower upon their presence. Each of them was the heir to the tower. Of course, none of them would attempt something as arrogant as taking Chaos''s tower, but the admins created by the creator himself were terrified of these people. It wasn''t because they thought they would die or for any other reason, they just had a huge respect for them, and angering them scared the admins who were practically rulers. "Sigh...What do you want?" Leyla suddenly asked, in a way she was proud of the young man in front of her, it was quite astonishing how well he was using the position he was in, it was beyond perfection how much he had changed and developed in such a short time. "A favour. A favour that will not force you to kill when the time comes, or a favour you can refuse in exchange for your wishes." James replied. Leyla, who smiled after these words, asked, "You have no idea what a favour is, do you?" James, who heard them, sneered and then replied, "Not really, that''s why I said you can refuse it." Ronald, who had listened to what had happened until that moment, nodded his head and then said, "I agree. If we are not forced to kill someone and we can refuse the request, there is no reason for me not to accept." Leyla, who was caught in the middle after these words, put her hand on her face and said, "Alright, it''s okay for me too." James was happy seeing that what he said was accepted by the admins themselves but at that moment he suddenly remembered something: "Oh by the way, we still have to inform Lady Nyx, after all, we have to catch the criminals. If instead of saying I''m dead, you say I survived the assassination attempt, it will be enough to drive Olympus and the Chaos-Born mad." James suddenly said, and with these words, the two administrators seemed to nod in agreement. With that, James, who had smiled, got up from the bed and changed his clothes, of course, he told Leyla to turn around first. After getting dressed, he turned round again and asked, "Then I think this day is over, don''t you?" When he saw Ronald nodding, he suddenly left the room and saw the message window immediately opened in front of him: S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [I WAS ABOUT TO LOSE MY MIND!!!] James stopped for a few seconds when he read what was written and then laughed out loud: "PUHAHAHAHAHA!!!" When this laughter was reflected in the entire hospital corridor, he wiped the tears from his eyes and then uttered the following words that would make all Chaos-Borns connect to him: "Gosh I really do not want to die, I am afraid that I will lose you beautiful people!" For several minutes after those words no message window appeared in front of James'' eyes, it was like a silence where he was truly on his own, yet even if he didn''t know it, Olympus was in an uproar, his words had caused more realisation than he had expected. ----- "He died, hasn''t he?" Apate asked, her brow furrowed. "He must be, should we ask him if he has the Philosopher''s Stone?" added Hades with great surprise. "I don''t know, but if he doesn''t want to tell us, there must be a reason, it''s not something we should be involved in no?" said Hypnos. After that, all eyes turned to Nyx, what she would say was very important. Nyx paused for a few seconds, opened a window to send a message to James, and then spoke: "Is there something you want to tell us, James?" ----- [Is there anything you want to tell us, James?] James scratched his head as he looked at another message window that had appeared in front of him and then smiled and said, "No, my lady, I was just worried since I was very injured, everything is fine." However, the gods watching him could tell that James didn''t want to talk about it. That''s why each of them shut their mouths and chose not to talk about it even for the moment. After all, if James didn''t want to talk, there was no point in forcing this issue on them. [Alright then, what are your plans now?] When another window opened in front of him, James smiled and then said, "I want to find Miss Ariel for the moment, I need to talk to her and consult with her about what is going on...Ah! In the meantime, please wait for the news that will come to you, Ronald will come to you with news that you will not like." No one understood what he was trying to say with these words, but when James said this, a passage formed in the hall. When Ronald came out of the passage, everyone seemed surprised, no one expected him to come after what James said. "Ronald?" When Nyx said his name in surprise, Ronald dropped to his knees and bowed his head, then said, "I have some news for you, my lady, and I hope you won''t be too angry with me." When Nyx heard those words, her eyes turned to the void itself. Every single person in the room, including her own children, turned their eyes away from Nyx. The goddess was clearly upset. "You will tell me everything that happened Ronald, if I see that you have missed a single thing I will do everything in my power to finish you, never forget that." Nyx suddenly said, and even these words were enough to frighten Ronald. He might be stronger than Nyx, but the child of Chaos would always be the child of Chaos. That meant Nyx could stand up and go to Chaos and beg his father to kill Ronald. The fact that even this was a possibility was one of the main reasons why the rulers feared Chaos-Borns. Ronald was very clearly aware of this. Chapter 65 - 65: Preparations for the Traitors And Ronald was acutely aware of that. He couldn''t lie. He had already reached an agreement with James so if he lied and it was found out he would be in a lot of trouble. Indeed, Ronald had never felt so trapped before. Ronald realised that he couldn''t escape Nyx''s gaze, not when even his husband Erebus had averted his eyes from Nyx''s gaze and chosen not to get involved. "My lady...James was murdered about an hour ago," Ronald suddenly blurted out. Upon hearing these words, every single person in the hall gulped. Nemesis''s nerve coefficients had increased to an enormous level, she was clenching her hands so hard that her nails were piercing her skin, and the blood flowing from her hands had already formed a puddle. Artemis was trying to calm Nemesis, while Thanatos sharpened his scythe. When Nemesis turned to him, she heard these words: "Don''t look so grumpy Neme, aren''t we going to kill everyone?''" At Thanatos'' words, everyone paused, each person in the hall began to sweat, they could feel every hair on their bodies prickle, and they were aware of every blood flowing in their bodies, every heartbeat beating. The Olympians dropped to their knees as eyes turned to Nyx, even in fear. There was no accounting for the aura spilling out of Nyx. Such a gigantic energy, such a gigantic aura had overflowed that the entire mountain of Olympos was trembling. Each layer of the 150th floor began to tremble one by one. He could have used a method like this to explain the enormity of Nyx''s power. Under the laws of the tower, those who reached the 75th floor would acquire a small shred of divinity, which would increase their power many times over, making them once again the most powerful of the gods under the laws of the tower. When they ascended to the 100th floor, they became demigods. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The 100th floor was basically the last floor of the tower that people could reach because the following parts were the lands where the gods lived and the places that Chaos added to the tower later. Mount Olympus, Asgard, Atlantis, Niflheim, Nirvana, Jade Mountain and many other special places were located on these floors. From the 100th floor to the 150th floor, each region worked on these kinds of things. In a sense, each floor after the 100th floor is where the gods live and where battles are fought non-stop. There was no need for a special test to pass the floors, on the contrary, the gates could be opened with special items that had to be found. These floors are designed in such a way that they will never collapse despite all the wars that will certainly exist. Nyx was strong enough to completely shatter the 150th floor, just below the tower top area where Chaos lived. She was emitting such a gigantic aura that the entire floor was shaking, the hall was dust. Nyx was mad as hell. "Mother, your orders," Moros said suddenly, dropping to his knees at the foot of the stairs below the throne so that he was standing directly in front of Nyx. Nyx, on the other hand, calmed down as soon as she heard her son''s voice and instantly realised that there was no reason to be so angry. It was a good thing that a few words from her son had been so calming. She had already thought that James was dead and had come back with the Philosopher''s Stone, every one of them had thought that, after all, it didn''t bode well for James to be so emotional with a message that only she had shown him. "Wait a bit Moros and you Ronald, tell me the story quick." Nyx suddenly said. Hearing this, Ronald shook his head and then began to speak: "When the young master was injured we sent him to one of the hospital rooms, it was all our fault, we took our eyes off him for a second and one of the arena competitors entered his room and killed him, I secured the weapons and released the attacker." Nyx shook her head as Ronald said these words and then said, "It''s good that you released him, gather information on who he is and then come back. Moros, Nemesis and Apate, you will observe the higher gods, look for any connections, and report anything you find." The three brothers nodded and left the hall, each eye turning to the weapons of offence Ronald had produced. When the shattered medallion and the knife were laid out in front of the eyes, everyone could see that the knife was completely normal, but everyone who looked at the medallion was puzzled. "This is the work of one of the Egyptian Gods..." Erebus suddenly said he was one of the people closest to the Egyptian Gods. "I realise, the medallion has my father''s power in it, I''m hoping you''ll go to Great Uncle Ra and ask him, darling," Nyx replied. Erebus shook his head after what he heard kissed Nyx on the lips and said, "Calm down, we will eventually put them all in front of you." and left the hall under Nyx''s smile. With that, Zeus gave orders to all the Olympian gods in the hall and told them to inspect all the Egyptian Gods on the 150th floor, and with that, every single person in Olympus, down to the laziest god, took action. The game of the gods was already quite an escalating event, but this was the final point in the eyes of Nyx, the goddess who was passive in everything. If someone or some people thought to attack someone Nyx already considered her child, and even did so, they would not be able to live. Who they were, or what they were trying to do, was unknown, but anyone who sensed Nyx''s aura could only think one thing for certain: "We really screwed up. We truly screwed up and we will die for this." Chapter 66 - 66: We Found the Traitors Already the light of the next day had dawned and the new day of the arena had begun, James had already fought several battles. Still, he hadn''t achieved what he had set out to do yesterday, since he hadn''t found any trace of Ariel during the long search for her. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. So it would be much better for him if he was constantly fighting and winning duels. "CHING!" The sounds of metal clashing again rose from the arena and the duel between James and another figure became apparent. "You are very good, young master Umbra! It is an honour to be able to hold my own against you, even if I am nowhere near the strength of the one called Ariel." James smiled as the man opposite James said these words and then said, "Do you realise that you are a better swordsman than me? I still have a lot to learn!" he said. Hearing these words, the man smiled at what James said and said, "I have been in the tower for almost 70 years, at least let me use a sword better than you." The arena was constantly merging the sounds of the clash and the cheers of the spectators rose to an excellent level. Blood was pouring out of both combatants'' bodies, but both of their faces were smiling with happiness and excitement. These expressions seemed to drive the spectators to even greater enthusiasm. When the two stood face to face, the man was seen breathing madly, while James just stood there in a normal state. "I''m old now, I''m not as tough as I used to be, at least I have money and stamps so I can live comfortably until I die, I hope you can forgive this old man for fighting against you." When the old man said these words, James shook his head, smiled and said, "It was a good enough duel, you fought well, sir." The old man burst into a deep laugh at these words and then looked at the referee and said, "I withdraw, sir." When the referee accepted the request, there was a great booing from the audience, but the old man did not even choose to wear any of these words, it was easily seen from his looks that he was too old to care about the young people. James, on the other hand, realised that his sword skills had improved slightly in this duel as if he needed only a small push to move to a new level. So another duel ended and the referee''s usual line came out: "Congratulations to Umbra for completing their 72nd match. The winner of Umbra of Chaos and Aury of Unknown is Umbra." With those words, Umbra exited the arena and then made his way to the arena''s dormitory, his popularity soaring so high that he had to sign autographs for dozens of people just to get to his room. Still, he somehow managed to get into his room and lay down on the bed. He was really tired, until today''s encounter with the old man, he had managed to defeat every single person he had faced in just a few moves, leading him to his 72nd win. [I didn''t expect you to be this tired.] When James suddenly saw the window in front of him, he closed it and then said, "That''s what happens when you fight in like a billion duels in a row, my lady." These words made him quite right, he had not rested much the day before and had started duelling from the early hours of this morning, so his fatigue was at its peak. Still, duelling was not the only thing he was going to do, at least not today. Right now he was going to get some rest and then try to find Ariel, again. He didn''t want to let everyone into the Chaos guild, so he was looking for people with excellent potential, people who wouldn''t trust others completely, but who could trust him. In a way, he was looking for loyal people who could only trust him. Ariel was the only person he knew who met that criteria. According to what she said, Ariel didn''t trust anyone around her, but she still wanted to trust what he said in the duel with James. It meant that there was a chance if he could get Ariel on his side, things might get better. He realised instantly that he needed to put his head down and sleep for an hour or two, knowing full well that this was what he had to do. Closing his eyes, he was asleep in an instant, while upstairs something else was going on. ----- "The plan has failed, Sopdu! Today he fought in duels!" One of the gods slammed his hand down hard on the table and rose to his feet, trembling with fear. "I realise that! How was I supposed to know he had the Philosopher''s Stone?!" shouted Sopdu suddenly, his hand balled into a fist and slammed on the table, it was a great evil for them that the plan had failed. "What do we do, we have to defend you, lie...we need lies." another god said. "Just say that I found the medallion on one of the lower floors, they won''t suspect us," Sopdu said suddenly, but suddenly they heard a knock on the door of the room they were sitting in: "Thud-thud-thud!" Three knocks were enough to throw their hearts into the sea. Every one of them was trembling and no one even went to open the door. Every god and goddess, including Sopdu, was pinned in place. At that moment, an aura of enormous magnitude rose from behind the door. It was such a gigantic aura that the gods and goddesses in the room were almost unable to breathe. "CRUSH!!!" With a sudden sound, the door of the room was shattered, and through the dust and smoke, a pair of crimson eyes began to watch Sopdu himself. Sopdu fell from his seat to the floor and stayed where he was. Only a second ago he had felt his head being separated from his body. "So it is you." said the red-eyed figure who entered. Those who saw him were surprised, clearly not expecting to see the person who had not left his mother''s side for even a second for a very long time. Here was the person who could be recognised as the most frightening of the Chaos-Born in the only sense of the word. They were going to die, they had to do something. Chapter 67 - 67: Holy Moros Sopdu suddenly recovered his senses and then fell to his knees and began to prostrate himself. "Lord Moros, what an honour it is to see you!" As soon as he uttered these words, all the gods and goddesses in the room fell to their knees. No one knew how Moros had found this place, but there was one thing they did not realise. Nemesis had suddenly entered the room and looked at Sopdu and the others. Nemesis was almost always watching them because they were acting very suspiciously, which meant that it had been very easy for Moros to find the room. "Damn it!" Sopdu suddenly thought he had to calm down, he had to lie. "May we ask why you have come, holy one?" Sopdu suddenly asked, directing his question to Moros. Hearing this question, Moros suddenly took a few steps, and when he was in front of Sopdu, he raised his foot in the air and suddenly stepped on the little god''s hand. Sopdu gave a small push, not even daring to shout aloud, thinking that he should keep his mouth shut out of fear alone. "Brother, you don''t even have to bother if you want, we can summon great uncle Ra." As Nemesis uttered these words, every god and goddess in the room trembled once more. Ra was a creator, he was not the creator of the tower, he was someone Chaos had created to observe his children, he had not climbed the tower, but he had made his creatures climb it, and those people were the main sources of Egyptian Mythology. In this case, Ra, Erebus and Nyx were partly siblings even though it is not like with the mythologies. This meant that Ra was the great uncle of people like Nemesis and Moros. "I don''t think we need great uncle. Look around, they''re all weak, incompetent losers with inferiority complexes. They''ve passed the 100th floor and think they''re gods. Even you could easily kill them, my sweet sister." Moros said suddenly, the cruelty in his gaze reaching a new level. He continued to step on Sopdu''s hand with incredible force. Sopdu''s hand began to bleed and the sight became ugly. "Please wait, Master Moros! Sopdu is not guilty! We know what happened, please let us tell you!" One of the gods had somehow managed to say these words in a way that belied his fear, the gaze suddenly turned to him and Morus took his foot off Sopdu''s hand and took a few steps back. "Speak," Morus said suddenly, it was a direct order. "I found the medallion on one of the lower floors, I swear! You know that in the communities on many floors there is the Church of the Night. Even if the main church is on the 5th floor, many churches are scattered throughout the floors." When Moros heard these words, he realised that Sopdu had started to say what everyone already knew and he took a deep breath and exhaled, clearly getting angry. "I went into one of the church buildings that had been closed and relocated, and I swear I had no evil intentions, but I did find that medallion. I managed to find not only the medallion but also a buckle. Both items had the power of our creator, the great Chaos, and a few other pieces of power I did not know about." Moros, one eyebrow slightly raised at these words, realised that the man in front of him was not lying, but there was something else he needed to know. "Give me the buckle," Moros said and after taking it from Sopdu he stopped for a second and then spoke again: "What about Elian, he was the one who took James'' life, tell me what happened?" Moros said and Sopdu spoke with relief: "Elian was the only one who chose me. When we became demigods, we had the right to choose, so he chose me, and that''s why I tried to help him a lot. What kind of a fool wouldn''t give his follower something that had the power of the creator on it?" S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Hearing these words, Moros leaned in close to Nemesis'' ear and then asked quietly, "That fits, can you think of anything?" Nemesis nodded and then spoke: "The question is, why did Elian want to kill James?" When Nemesis uttered these words, Sopdu''s face pouted and he said the following words: "I don''t know why Elian would do such a thing. Even before we entered the waiting room of the arena, Elian showed aggression towards Mr Umbra and said that he would kill him during the duel. I thought it was just a sense of struggle, I never realised how wrong I was, please forgive me.''" Nemesis shook her head as she heard these words and then placed the crystal sword in her hand against Sopdu''s throat and said, "That''s no reason why I shouldn''t kill you." Just as he drew his sword back and prepared to strike, both Moros and Nemesis were shocked, even Apate, who had been standing silently behind them, stopped. Nemesis raised his sword to his inventory as if something had suddenly happened, and then turned away, saying, "Lucky for you, we''ve decided you''re not so wrong." With that, the trio left the room, and shortly afterwards, they left the place altogether. No one understood what had happened, they thought Nemesis was going to kill Sopdu, but nothing happened. While every god and goddess in the room was laughing comfortably, two people suddenly entered the room. As soon as the gods and goddesses in the room saw them entering, they prostrated themselves again, this time they could not even make a sound. They didn''t even dare to tremble, even breathing scared them, if they made a single move, they wouldn''t have enough strength to endure this time, they would die instantly, and this scared them insanely. They couldn''t make a single mistake. One real mistake would kill them all, forever and would not let them born again. Chapter 68 - 68: Ra and Chronos One mistake would have killed them all. There were two men who entered the room. One was a very young-looking man with white hair and red eyes, maybe 1.90 metres tall and incredibly handsome. The other, like the sun, had golden hair and golden eyes, was almost the same height as the person next to him and was even more handsome than the person next to him. These people were Chronos and Ra. Chronos was not a creator, unlike Ra. He was the embodiment of time, and like the other titans, they were high-ranking beings. He was a being that could not be stopped in any way, he was time itself. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ra, on the other hand, was a personality sitting in the upper echelon of even the creators, he was a guardian, a guardian of the Chaos-Borns, and he had come here at the request of Erebus. This was the reason why Moros, Nemesis and Apate suddenly left the room and then the place. Ra had asked them to leave because he was the one who would punish them all at that moment. "I know exactly what you did, Sopdu, and I am ashamed that you could so easily betray the purpose of your creation." Ra suddenly said, and without even listening to what was to be said after that, every god and goddess in the room fell to the floor. The lifeless bodies of each of them were in the centre. There was neither a sword blow nor any such attack, Ra only uttered a few words and each of them died. Then Ra turned to Chronos and said, "Turn back their time." After these words, Chronos flexed his fingers, turned his palm to the side of the dead bodies and started to rotate his hand counterclockwise. One by one, each dead body seemed to be returned to its owner. The gods and goddesses were shedding tears and marvelling at how much pain they had experienced in just 15 seconds. Ra stood still and then a knife appeared in his hand. As soon as he threw the knife, the heads of all the gods and goddesses in the room began to be pierced one by one, revealing a mark on each body large enough to kill them. "Again," Ra said, and each of them came to life again. This time their bodies were riddled with holes. "Again," said Ra. This time hundreds of snakes had invaded the room and bitten each of them to death in every possible place. "Again," said Ra. This time lava poured over each and every one of them. "Again," said Ra, but this time Sopdu''s raised voice was suddenly heard. "PLEASE OH CREATOR HAVE MERCY! " When Sopdu uttered these words, Ra approached him and said, "What about you? Did you have mercy when you did such an evil deed to an unfortunate child who was not at fault and whose life was miserable?" Ra''s eyes were literally like his symbol, the sun itself, looking so brightly into Sopdu''s eyes that there could be no explanation for it. "I..... did wrong, please forgive me..." Sopdu said again, but at that very moment, he saw the area around him begin to change. After only a few seconds, he appeared in front of the throne of Nyx and Erebus with all the gods and goddesses. In just a few seconds Chronos had teleported them away. "These are the criminals, Nyx," Chronos said suddenly and yawned, sitting down on one of the steps in front of the throne. Nyx smiled and then said, "Thank you, Ra, for coming to my aid as always." When Ra heard these words, he smiled and then said, "It was my fault that this happened, I should have trained them better, forgive me sister." and stepped aside. Sopdu, as if he could not believe what he was hearing, prostrated himself again and shouted: "PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON US OH DEAR ONE AND ONLY DAUGHTER OF THE GREAT CHAOS!" Hearing these words, Nyx made a gesture with her hand and Sopdu''s lifeless body, which died instantly, flew to the huge doors of the hall and fell to the floor like a fly. After Chronos exhaled tiredly, he looked at Nyx as if he was frustrated, and Nyx, who noticed this, averted her eyes and said, "You cried a lot, Chronos, just help me." Nyx was acting like he was talking to a family member. With that, Sopdu was reanimated and stood there, unable to say anything, and then Nyx seemed to have an idea, she could do something by asking James a question instead of taking it out on him like that. "All right, I can forgive you, but on one condition," Nyx said suddenly, hearing this Nemesis and the others started to look at Nyx like she was crazy, but then each of them had to hold themselves back from laughing at what they had just heard. "Please tell me, my lady!" said Sopdu and Nyx smiled as she heard this: "I''ll ask James, and if he tells me to forgive you, we''ll pretend nothing happened. You will still be punished for stealing from one of the old churches." Hearing these words, Sopdu suddenly prostrated himself and banged his head repeatedly on the floor, shouting "THANK YOU, MY LADY!" over and over again. However, the fact that James was awake seemed to work in Nyx''s favour, as James had already managed to find Ariel. This time he made the message window big enough for everyone to see and spoke: "James, we''ve found the perpetrators who killed you, they''re begging for your mercy, what do you want us to do?" ----- [James, we have found the perpetrators who killed you, they are begging for your mercy, what do you want us to do?] James smiled as he saw the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and his face turned rather grim, then he shook his head and simply said: "Hell no! Do they really expect me to forgive them? What do they think this is a game?" ----- Chapter 69 - 69: Punishment and Ariels Life These words were heard by every single person in the hall, and then every single one of them laughed, there was no way for the traitors to survive. At least that''s what everyone thought. "I''m punishing you, you will spend eternity in hell under Lucifer''s command, on the glaciers above the Sea of Souls. Each day your hearts will be pierced by the demons and each time you will be revived and scorched by the pain of the soul-burning glaciers. You will wish to die, but this will never happen. Take them away!" With these words of Nyx, the whole hall fell silent, after a long time, one of the most severe punishments that could be given to a god was given. Indeed, no one would wish to be in Sopdu''s and the others'' shoes, even death was an easier escape. Yet Nyx did not want to leave them with an easy death. The severe punishment meted out here on this date was a message to their enemies. Whoever wanted to attack Nyx and her family could try, but whoever tried to kill her warrior would be given one of the harshest punishments possible, they would wish to die every second of every minute of every hour of every day. That was a certainty. "It was the perfect punishment," Erebus said suddenly, and Nyx, hearing this, turned her head to her husband sitting next to her and gave him a big kiss on the lips. It was good enough to drive Erebus mad with happiness. "Our work here is done, all we have to do now is watch what James is going to do, he''s already talking to Ariel, let''s see what''s going on," Nyx said suddenly, and with that, voices could be heard again through the large window in the lounge: ----- "You know what I''m saying, if the Chaos Guild is going to recruit its first member, it should definitely be you." James was sitting and talking with Ariel inside a cafe. Ariel didn''t seem to be very happy, it was obvious that she didn''t trust James like that, and it was just the reason that confused James. After all these thoughts, Ariel suddenly turned her head and looked at the sun, which was already setting. "Do you know why I never trust those around me?" Ariel asked and James shook his head, "No, but I''d be honoured to know and listen." Ariel took a deep breath and then finally began to speak: "I didn''t have a very good life when I entered the tower. You know the classics. My boyfriend was a banker, he was killed in a robbery, I was left alone with my daughter, my daughter was 18 years old, a legal age...I still didn''t want to leave her." "My daughter didn''t think the same, she left the city to go to a university. Unfortunately, my daughter disappeared, and it was obvious that she had been kidnapped, I searched for her for almost two years, and I contacted the police, but she was never found...my daughter." As James listened to Ariel''s speech, a strange sadness continued to fill his heart every second. "After almost three years, one day my phone rang, and when I answered it, I learnt that a diver had found a dead body in the river," Ariel said, and her eyes welled up with tears. "That body...." James said, his teeth clenched in anger. "Yes, it was my daughter''s. The autopsy gave us a few answers, but it was obvious that it was a rape and a big investigation was launched to find out who did it. The houses in the area where the river runs were checked one by one, just in case, and in one of the houses they found photos and videos, in short, concrete evidence of how my daughter died." Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I understand...I can''t imagine what you''re going through," James said, not even in a way to comfort the woman in front of him. "No Umbra, I wasn''t in pain at the time, I was angry. I was angry because I knew the people who did it, it was my uncle and his wife who owned the house. I saw in the videos that it was my aunt who raped my daughter and my uncle who killed her. Then I killed them in a way you can''t imagine, and then I got an invitation from the tower and the rest is history." As soon as James heard this, he could no longer hold back the tears and they finally rolled down his face, luckily there was nothing around to listen to them, James had rented the place. James didn''t know what to say after this heavy story, and Ariel smiled seeing James crying. "I''m not much different. I saw my parents get blown up in a car accident, my girlfriend probably cheated on me and broke up with me after a long relationship, and I got an invitation from the tower when I was suicidal. We''re not so different, but you''ve suffered a lot more," James said suddenly, it sounded like something he was telling Ariel to calm himself, not to comfort her. "I won''t bother you anymore, please forgive me, I didn''t mean to bring up bad memories, I just wanted someone I could trust," James said suddenly. Ariel''s eyes lit up when she heard that. "Aren''t you going to ask how old I am? I mean, you were talking like we were the same age at the time of the duel. I know you are curious, you should''ve seen your eyes when I said I had an 18-year-old daughter," Ariel said as if she was trying to deflect the subject. "Well...it''s not that I''m not curious, but I didn''t mean to be rude," James said, and Ariel, hearing this, said, "I''m forty-one." James smiled when he heard Ariel''s age and said, "Haha...you''re the age my mum died, what a strange irony." After all that, he stood up and prepared to leave the place, not wanting to cause Ariel any more trouble. Just as he was about to leave, he heard a call from behind him and turned around, saying, "Yes?" He saw Ariel smiling, he couldn''t understand what was going on, but at that very moment he heard the one thing he wanted to hear: "This Chaos Guild...what exactly do I have to do to join? And what will my rank be?" "You want to join?" James suddenly said, there was no way for him to express his surprise. Hearing this question, Ariel said, "I don''t fully trust you, it''s impossible for me right now, but I believe that two individuals who have been through the same path can be good friends with each other. If you allow me, yes, I would like to join the guild." This was the day when the second member of the Chaos Guild joined the guild, the day when the pain and evil were remembered and finally the glimmer of hope and happiness was felt. Indeed, life was treating everyone strangely. Chapter 70 - 70: 1st Guild Commander "You''ll join? Seriously? Haha...HAHAHA REALLY?" James seemed to freak out after hearing these words, jumping up and down in the air like a child, and it was possible to see that this sight even touched Ariel. James paused when he saw Ariel''s face and asked with a smile, "You look upset, did I do something wrong?" the answer he received was the answer that ordered him to keep his smile on his face at all times: "You laugh like my daughter, you''re like a copy of her." "Well...I''m honoured!" James suddenly said and then smiled as he sat back down in the chair, before looking at Ariel and saying "I cannot offer you the position of Vice-Guildmaster, Lady Ariel, but I can offer you the rank of First Commander." Ariel accepted with great happiness and then asked the question on her mind: "But why not the position of Vice-Guildmaster?" Hearing this question, James shook his head and then replied, "That position is being held for someone very important and it will be a very, very long time before I get there, although by the time I get there, she will have already passed the 100th floor." Ariel asked with a small chuckle, "Who''s the lucky person?" and James replied, "Nemesis of course, who else could it be?" He had no idea how much this pleased Nemesis, but he couldn''t even try to think about it right now, which is why he immediately opened the Guild Panel and sent an invitation to Ariel. When Ariel saw the invitation that had suddenly appeared in front of her, she immediately pressed acceptance and then smiled and said, "Let''s get along, leader." It was obvious that she said this jokingly. James had an even bigger smile when he heard those words and realised that Ariel''s name was shining in the commander''s area of the Guild Panel, there was no way to describe his happiness. With that, he stood up and then said, "Then let''s rest, shall we? Tomorrow is going to be a very challenging time for me and I have a task for you to do tomorrow, don''t worry, you won''t have to fight." Ariel stood up when she heard those words and then said, "Sure, just say the word," and accepted the task without hearing it. "I died, you know, just the day before, and the perpetrator escaped, and Lady Nyx took care of things in the god dimension, but she didn''t take care of things on this floor, so I''ll leave that to you." Ariel''s eyes became emotionless as James spoke these words and then asked the following question: "What was the reason he tried to kill you?" "I think it''s because I have a better life than he does, I don''t know what to tell you," James replied in surprise. The anger on Ariel''s face was clear and unmistakable, I think she was really starting to see her own daughter in James. "I will accomplish the mission Umbra, don''t worry." said Ariel abruptly and prepared to leave the area, just then James pulled out some nice armour and weapons from his inventory for Ariel to choose from and to Ariel''s surprise he said, "Call me James, it''s my real name." Ariel quickly grabbed a few pieces of armour to equip and then smiled and said, "Well, good luck with that, Little James, I''ve got to get moving." She soon left the coffeehouse and disappeared. James was left with the words ''Little James'', he couldn''t help but laugh. Now he could return to the arena, that was what he had to do. ----- "Awhhh...Look at him, saving the position of Vice-Guildmaster for you, Neme." As Hemera said those words, Nemesis turned round and looked at her eldest sister in anger, though she couldn''t say anything because she didn''t want Hemera to beat her up. However, Nemesis was happy, after all, it was the first time she had ever loved someone, and the first time that person had at least said something in return. That was enough for Nemesis herself. ----- "Umbra of Chaos and Leon of Olympos to the arena!" James heard this call from the waiting room and was surprised, everyone in the room was looking at him, it was possible to say that they were as surprised as James. "I mean...there is a possibility of that happening, after all, how many people are fighting in the arena, right?" James said, and then he got up normally and climbed the stairs. When he reached the arena, he saw the strange expression on Leon''s face, as if he was apologising. "Don''t hold back Leon, let''s have a good duel," James said respectfully the referee''s voice sounded and the match began. Leon suddenly lunged forward and swung his huge sword at James from above. Even though Leon, a huge man, seemed to be slow, James could clearly understand his speed. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He seemed to be slowing himself down to change his attack. It was exactly what James had expected because the moment James tried to dodge the attack, Leon changed the direction of his attack and managed to push James back as far as possible. The attack was not intended to kill, Leon was trying to attack with the side of the sword. "So you''re trying not to hurt me and I understand that, but please calm down, you can fight as you like." James looked at the man as he said these words and saw his expression turn serious and then he heard these words: "I would be honoured, young master, if I may." At these words, the aura of the man before him thundered, as if lightning was flashing around him. Leon instantly disappeared from where he was and appeared just to the right of James, his sword was in the air and descending very quickly towards James'' body. James instantly used his dark step ability and avoided the attack. It was as if he was facing a duel he could enjoy again. Chapter 71 - 71: Just like the Gods and Goddesses of Fire When James avoided the attack, he put Clarent in his inventory to try a new type of attack and then took out a pair of knives. Seeing the knife, Leon was surprised and then said, "I thought your main weapon was a sword, sir." Hearing this, James said, "Let''s just say I''m trying to figure out what the best weapon is against large-sized warriors, and since you are a fast man, I think the knife will help me, we won''t know until we try." After James'' words, the aura around the arena began to change, Leon''s aura seemed to weaken, or rather his aura seemed to be swallowed by James'' aura. The arena was once again engulfed in flames, James looked around and realised that this time he was more lucid, he had been in a trance at first when the way his aura worked changed. With that, James flexed his body to take action and then lunged forward, saying "I''m coming Leon." The flame-covered aura at his feet literally increased his speed at least twice as much as his normal aura. With each step, he saw Leon trying to keep up with him. Leon really seemed to be a very strange personality. He wielded an incredibly offensive sword, but he wore unusually huge armour, but most importantly, his aura was lightning-focused, that is, it focused on speed. These three components really didn''t fit together at all, even James himself could see that, but this gigantic man in front of him was able to use all three components together. This deserved a great deal of respect. When James activated his dark step ability with his aura, the flames around him turned completely black, it was actually quite a frightening sight, but James was constantly changing his movements and attacking Leon as if he had no plan. Leon could follow James clearly with his eyes, his body was a little weak compared to his eyes, but there was nothing to stop him from moving in unison. James was constantly scratching at Leon''s armour and taking his chances, yet he did not cause any damage to the huge man in front of him. "HOW MANY FLOORS DID YOU CLIMB?" James suddenly shouted, Leon and the onlookers seemed surprised by the question, no one seemed to think Leon was strong enough to need to be asked that question. "17th FLOOR SIR!" shouted Leon in answer to this question and James instantly stopped his attack and stepped back, the onlookers were wondering what was going on. James raised his hand and held the knife in his hand towards Leon, and then said the following words that would touch Leon: "Even though I made it to the 10th floor, I have a class where I had help from someone as great as Nyx. You made it to the 17th floor, and despite your weight and the weight of the weapons and armour you wear and equip, you can keep up with me, while I wear light things. Olympus has found itself a perfect member, I hope you have chosen one of the high gods or you will have this chance in the future because I am sure that your potential is at least as great as mine and even greater than mine. I think we will be close friends in the future." The smile on James'' face grew even wider as he said, "But it is time to end the duel, for the more I defeat, the more I will gain." Immediately after he finished speaking, the aura of flame around him began to swell even more, making those who saw it tremble with excitement. It was as if James resembled Agni, Hephaestus, Zhurong, Amaterasu and many others. However, he charged forward in earnest and instead of dodging the incoming sword strike, he deflected it with one blade and then used his other blade to deliver a serious attack on the armour. "CRUSHCH!!!" A strange piercing sound echoed through the arena and Leon flew out of the arena at an incredible speed, as he sank to the ground the referee ended the match and James'' voice could be heard: S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Please take him away to heal him, I''ve pierced his armour, I may have damaged the inside." With those words, several doctors and officials came out into the arena and saw that Leon was injured, though not seriously, and that, James took his place back in the arena and then turned to the referee and said, "Please let''s move on to the next match." While James was busy with the matches, Ariel was busy with something completely different, she had been trying to find Elian, as James had requested. Unfortunately, she had not been able to find the existence of such a person on the 10th floor in her research for the last 11 hours. There were too many people she knew around, she had made a long investigation, and as a result, two options had emerged: Either Elian was very, very well hidden or he was not even on the 10th floor anymore. If Elian was very well hidden, it would not be a bad thing because it would mean that he was still in an area where a search could still be carried out. If he somehow managed to get out of the 10th floor, that''s where the real trouble would be, because when the tower doesn''t give you a special helper, a little admin like Emma, you have to go all the way to the gates. In other words, it was close to impossible for Elian to leave the 10th floor while Olympus and Asgard were watching the gates. Ariel continued her search with all these thoughts and was constantly moving around in order to find the perpetrator. She only stopped for a few seconds and sat down on the floor between the two buildings to rest, closed her eyes and tried to relax herself. Just then, a window appeared in front of her: [Hello Mrs Ariel, can I have a few minutes of your time please?] Ariel shook her head when she saw the message and then spoke gently: "In my world, my calls to God have never been heard, I refused to choose a class inside the tower, my name is Ariel, and I have nothing to do with gods so leave me alone." Ariel suddenly replied and with that, she closed the window in front of her. It was hardly a way to describe the shock of the onlookers. Chapter 72 - 72: Moros Plan When Ariel uttered those words, every single being in Olympus was shocked enough, even if the Chaos Guild was connected, there was still no way to stop watching Ariel, so Ariel, who had all eyes on her, officially challenged Olympus and every other being. Especially Moros, who was watching what was happening, was very attentive to what was happening, everything was very interesting and a little funny to him. The only thing Moros wondered was, if Ariel knew who the person who sent him a message was, would he have responded in this way? After these thoughts, Moros opened the system window and sent a quick message to Ariel: "I must say it''s nice to meet you, Lady Ariel, I''m Moros, Nemesis'' big brother." When Ariel saw this message in front of her, she read the name Nemesis and her eyes widened, she immediately stood up and smiled and said, "Nemesis? The Nemesis we know? The Nemesis who has not yet become a goddess, but has already been called the goddess of war and many other things?" Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Moros heard this, he turned to his mother and said, "If you want to get someone''s attention, you have to go towards their interests, mum, it was ridiculous to try and talk to her by texting her directly." Nyx snorted at Ariel and didn''t even try to reply to Moros, turning her head the other way, away from Moros, and listening to the conversation. "That''s right, Lady Ariel. We want to talk to you because you are connected to James. If you will listen to me for a few minutes, I can put you in touch with my little sister Nemesis, of course when she is free." Ariel''s eyes lit up when Moros sent this message and she said, "Of course, if I can talk to Lady Nemesis for even a minute, I''m all for it!" Sitting on the floor again, Ariel waited for the next message. When Moros was satisfied with what he heard, his hand went back to the letters in the message window and wrote the following: "As you know, when you go to the 20th floor, you have the option to choose a class that will never be lost. You have made it to the 34th floor without a class, and you know what a great achievement that is." Ariel scratched her head as she read the message in front of her, she didn''t think she would encounter this kind of message, it was strange that a high god like Moros had noticed it. "I understand what you are trying to say but I really don''t trust the gods, even if it is Lady Nemesis, in my darkest hour I searched for a long time for a cure but I couldn''t get anyone to help me, I tried everything even if you are not the god I pray to." When Ariel''s words were heard, not only the gods of Olympus and the gods within, but even James'' enemies were saddened, many of them remembered praying to gods, and many of them remembered how hard they had been through. It made everyone sad and a little proud that Ariel was able to endure so much hardship, even though she didn''t have the same powers as them. As Moros closed his eyes calmly, he realised that Ariel needed to hear the truth, so he wrote another message as if he didn''t think there was anything to hide anymore: "Look, Lady Ariel, I can''t fully understand your suffering, it''s impossible, but there is someone I want to protect right now, and that someone happens to be James himself. You have already come a long way by joining the Chaos Guild. There isn''t a single person left in Olympus or Asgard who can say anything against you, but you remember why you can''t go beyond the 34th floor, don''t you?" When Ariel saw and read this message, her face appeared on the screens in the hall, her sadness visible. "Yes, I need a team member and I didn''t do anything because I didn''t think I could trust anyone, I''ve been standing still for two years, I guess I wasn''t that eager to become a god or goddess," Ariel said suddenly and Moros, who read this, smiled and sent another message: "No. You just haven''t met someone who deserves your trust. I have a proposition for you, go to the 20th floor, that is, after you have done your business. I have been a god for a few million years, so I have enough experience. The system of the 20th floor is very different from the first floor, there is no chance factor here, and you have the opportunity to choose the god you want by searching for him. Search for my name, find me and send a request, even if you don''t trust any god, please believe in me one last time." When Moros sent this message, Ariel herself paused, for a few seconds, and then her silence was broken: "It takes a long, long time for me to trust someone else, to trust them completely. Still, it''s obvious that I''m no longer the only one, that I need a partner and a class for the next floors... Maybe I should stop being stingy for once and accept what''s happening." Ariel had a smile on her face as she said these words, a bitter smile. "My daughter is gone, I lost her, maybe I could have prevented what happened if I had been able to see the dangers in front of me, but I failed... Nevertheless, it is clear that I have gained a son, a son who is very similar to my daughter, a partner and a friend, who understands me." With these words, the bitter smile on Ariel''s face disappeared and was replaced by a rust-bright one. This image was enough for everyone and everything. "I guess I have to accept that I''m not alone anymore. It will take a long time for full trust, but Master Moros I choose to believe you and I hope you will not let me down. That is the last thing I want." With those words, Ariel stood up and then moved to finish the task James had given her. "I have a mission and James is the last person I want to disappoint. Please continue to follow me, Master Moros." Chapter 73 - 73: 60th Floor? More Like You Are Stupid Seeing this image, Moros and the others remembered the day James had found his passion of his own volition. "Humans...strange beings indeed, and those in James'' world are strange indeed," Moros said suddenly, the smile on his face was a very strange sight, indeed it was unheard of for him to smile so often, even smiling at his mother was unheard of. First James came and gave Moros his smile and then Ariel came and polished it. "What''s strange about them, big brother?" Hypnos said suddenly, and Moros, hearing this, replied with these pure words: "When they are in the void when they are dancing with the void, they are very lonely, they look exhausted, too exhausted...But when a light of hope shines on them, when there is a single gleam in the darkness of the void, the whole world, stars, planets, galaxies and universes seem to be theirs...Hypnos, don''t you think humans are strange?" Moros'' words seemed to make everyone smile, yet Erebus spoke up before Hypnos could answer: "I mean, Ronald said it, didn''t he? The people from James'' world were the most ruthless, vile, nasty, nasty, greedy people. Yet Ronald must have overlooked the good among them because there are some incredibly good people among them, seeking happiness, chasing hope, overflowing with passion." With these words it seemed that the matter was closed, just a few dozen Olympian gods and others, fascinated by both sides, fate was indeed working strangely, even if James and Ariel did not know that they came from the same world, fate had united them in this tower, amid gigantic powers and as the founders of a perfect game. It was as if someone had planned everything for them. It was as if fate itself had even designed Moros and his scribes, the Moirai. Maybe it was Chaos, maybe it was some other person or thing, but whatever it was, it was something perfect. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After all, the tower would be literally covered in chaos, and it would not be the creator. ----- "SHIT!" James was looking around and trying to think of a way to counter the attack, he really couldn''t believe that he couldn''t keep up with the speed of his opponent. "You can''t keep up with me, honourable Umbra, to tell you the truth it would be strange if you could keep up with me, I didn''t climb to the 60th floor for nothing." said the woman in the darkness. When James heard this, he was surrounded by his aura in flames again. This aura was not a low-level aura and the fact that it contained a different element, an element like flame, was a real danger, which meant that his opponent had slowed down a little, even if James still could not see him. With that, James'' voice was heard: "THIS TOWER IS BULLSHIT! THEY SHOULD HAVE MADE IT 50 AT LEAST! WHAT THE HELL IS MAXING OUT AT 60!" James had learnt a long time ago not to talk back and forth about the tower like that, but he was frustrated because the power level here was enormous. The levels and powers of the people on the high floor may have been restricted, but the abilities they used and the experience they had were not diminished in the slightest. James had been a broken man, down on his luck and close to death just a few months ago, and even with Nyx''s help, there was no way he could have withstood such an experience in such a short time. His opponent had been climbing the tower for who knew how long. "THESE NUMBERS WILL NOT STOP ME UMBRA!" shouted the opposing side and then disappeared again. A few seconds later, the next thing James remembered was that he was on his knees on the floor. He had been punched so hard that he thought his jaw was dislocated, he hadn''t fainted, and that was a good thing because with that punch he realised that he could no longer run away and that he had to finally use that ability. "Aura of Chaos," James suddenly said. With those words, a huge darkness enveloped the arena. James'' opponent seemed to be trying to understand what was happening. "You feel weak, don''t you?" James said and suddenly disappeared. When he reappeared he appeared in front of his opponent and then punched him incredibly hard. After flying several metres in the air, the opponent somehow managed to land himself neatly on the ground and then lunged towards James. James was still not as strong as his opponent. His powers may have increased by 100% and his opponent may have weakened by 10%, but his opponent was still a monster up to the 60th floor. James knew this, so he had to use his ability to his advantage. He used his dark step ability and for the first time since the duel began, he managed to avoid the other side''s attack. After exchanging a few steps and successive movements, James suddenly did a small somersault backwards and then picked up his blades again, lifting Clarent into his inventory. As he lunged forward, the flames in his aura became even more intense. After all, Aura of Chaos was strengthening not only him but also his abilities. This meant that his aura could be seen as being on the edge of the next tier, perhaps not permanently, but even in its current state it gave him enough information to take his aura to the next tier, or at least a copy from the doorway. As the flames roared and went pitch black James appeared in front of his opponent, who smiled as if he had been expecting it and lunged for James'' torso. The move did nothing, the opponent''s blades leaving scratches on James'' skin, James took advantage of the surprise and suddenly struck a blow. He had made it to the 60th floor and was left bleeding on the arena floor. James had won the duel, the value of this skill was truly immeasurable, a foolish opponent had given him the victory. Chapter 74 - 74: Adamant Armor The audience was stunned, it was incredible that James had defeated an opponent who had made it up to the 60th floor with virtually untouchability, and not only defeated him but killed him on top of that. It really should have been impossible. This was a great situation because it was absolutely strange and perfect that someone who had just reached the 10th floor could defeat someone who had reached the 60th floor, even though his abilities were suppressed and impossible. This strange situation had worried the climber rankers who were likely to face James. It was obvious that each of them would retreat. They could not really throw their lives away like fools when they were so close to becoming gods. Not when James had an ability that made him untouchable. When the referee signalled the end of the bout, James stepped down from the arena, the blood pouring down his face showing the depth of the beating he had taken before using his immunity, the Aura of Chaos ability. His face was really dishevelled. The area under his eye was swollen, his body was cut like crazy, and the blood flowing from his nose and mouth formed a small puddle. Slowly but surely, he still managed to descend the stairs of the arena and finally made it to the waiting room. He pushed the door of the hall and managed to enter even if he was limping. As soon as he entered, he encountered an unexpected crowd: "What the hell was that!!!" "All support to you, Umbra!" "I''ve never seen such a duel in my life, it was at least 100 times more fun than the duel with Ariel!" James was dumbfounded by the sound of voices and applause, he was really having a hard time understanding what was going on, yes the achievement he had won was huge, but it seemed strange to him that the opponents he would most likely fight were behaving like this. "I will withdraw from the duel, Mr Umbra, if I am to face you. You''re trying to get on Lady Nyx''s side, aren''t you? At least I''ll have one more win to your name." James smiled when he heard these words and was touched by the behaviour of the people around him, indeed, for once he was surrounded by people who were happy and enthusiastic, not because he had chosen Nyx, but because he had done a good job. There was no way to describe this beautiful feeling. Shaking his head and gently moving through the crowd, James soon made his way to the door at the other end of the hall, where the dorms were, and made his way to his room. After a short time, he managed to enter his room and threw himself directly under the water. [Are you all right, love?] When James opened his eyes and looked at the message window in front of him, he shook his head and then said, "I''m fine, my lady, I''m just angry with the way the tower works. 60th floor is really too much, if it wasn''t for my Aura of Chaos ability, I would have died." He could feel the adrenaline still flowing in his body. He quickly got out from under the water and threw himself on the bed after putting some clothes on, his body was very heavy. He wanted to rest again, so he closed his eyes, but suddenly he heard a sound, like some kind of notification: "Ding." [The Way to Be a God ability is activated. The player gained a total of 83,247 believers/people who trust him. The Holiness stat is increased by 2500. The Player is awarded 50 status points. A Godly ranked card was gifted. A piece of the Catacomb Key (Legendary-) was gifted]. James opened and closed his eyes several times involuntarily as he opened his eyes and read the texts in front of him, he seemed to be thinking whether what he saw in front of him was real or not. "Ummmm...this ability isn''t supposed to be something like this, is it? Or am I out of my mind?" As James said these words, he immediately saw the black card in the system at the bottom right of his eye and scratched his head, wasn''t this ability only supposed to give attributes? [I have no idea about this, most people who pass the 75th floor have this ability, but I have never encountered such a thing, James.] After reading the message window that appeared in front of him, James scratched his head and said "Aaaah, well?" in surprise and added the 50 status points he had gained for free directly to his Agility status. His Agility status increased to 129 points, and he realised that his whole body felt tremendously lighter. After that, his eyes turned to the black card and he tapped on it to use it, and the moment the card was opened, James'' swollen lip curled upwards: S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Lux(Godly+++++) This armour was forged by Hephaestus in the River of Styx. It is made of 24 kilograms of Adamant, and its durability and lightness were increased by Atlas and Hermes themselves. There are 4 gods and a goddess who have blessed the armour, namely Hephaestus, Hades, Atlas, Hermes and Athena. Hephaestus blessed the armour to make the wearer more sensitive to fire. Hades blessed the armour to comfort the wearer in moments of death, and to calm the wearer''s mind. Atlas blessed the armour to protect the wearer from the impact of attacks. Hermes blessed the armour to completely protect the wearer from Adamant, which is heavy when the wearer is not a god. Athena blessed the armour to reflect the wearer''s superior charisma. The armour can be changed to suit the wearer. It is one of Hephaestus'' masterpieces, designed by Hephaestus over 12 million years ago to be worn all over the body and to be as thin as paper. The colour of the armour is all white to reflect its name]. As James read the window in front of him, a white breastplate appeared in front of him, he couldn''t believe the window he was looking at, but he was very happy to see the armour in front of him with his eyes. "Well...That was something I didn''t expect...." Chapter 75 - 75: Catacomb Key "Well...That was something I didn''t expect...." After James said these words calmly, he opened his inventory and then took out a few health potions, when he drank all the bottles, it was possible to see that his face had recovered, but there were still places that needed to be bandaged because the potions he drank were at the lowest level. It would not be wrong to say that the health potions were over. He stood up and bandaged the parts of his body that needed bandaging, then pulled the armour over his chest. With that, the armour suddenly began to cover every part of James from the throat down. It was like some kind of nanotechnology, like one of those things in the movies that suddenly strengthens the whole body. When this coating was finished James noticed that the armour was flexible like a suit of clothes, even the texture of the armour felt incredibly soft and good. After a few stretches, he decided to test the armour to see if it was any good and pulled Clarent out of his inventory. After that, James, who had lifted Clarent into the air, suddenly lunged towards his own arm. "CHING!" An ear-piercing sound emerged in the room and stunned James for a few seconds. [ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?] James looked at the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and then shook his head and said, "Well, not really, my lady." [What if the armour wasn''t tough enough? Do you want to drive me crazy, James?] James was being bombarded by the messages Nyx was sending him one after the other, yet for a few seconds he had chosen to pull Nyx''s jaw like he had pulled his mother''s, and when the messages stopped coming, he spoke: "I mean there are 4 gods and one of them is literally a Titan and Athena a goddess whom I respect who blessed this thing, you expect me not to trust this armour, my lady?" After these words, the conversation seemed to stop, both sides were speechless, James was expressing heartwarming words, these words officially meant that he trusted Olympus completely. [Well, don''t do something stupid like that to show your trust. Also, you may have drunk the heal potion and closed most of your wounds, but you still need to rest]. James shook his head after reading this message and then said, "You''re right, we can already consider the arena won for me, I don''t think anyone will fight against me, not after seeing my ability." What James said was true, no one was going to fight against him, the respect for him had risen to an enormous level and as we have seen before, no sane high-level climber would want to die after they had reached that point. They would have been foolish to risk it. So James had to rest, be at his best, and then wait for the arena to end because there was work to be done. First, he would go to Nyx and whatever the others were, and then he would use something else that had been gifted to him to increase his power even more: "Catacomb key pieces...now numbering three." As James uttered these words he had taken out all three items from his inventory and placed them side by side, after a few seconds of staring he was able to put them together and then shielded himself from the large amount of green light that came into his eyes. When the light went out, there was a lush green key right on his bed. [Key to the Jade Palace Catacomb (Godly-) Jade is an artificial portal full of monsters that will remain open for 72 hours, where you can earn infinite gold and a high level of experience points. There is an unlimited number of treasures inside the Catacomb and you are only allowed to take 3 of them. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Each treasure will be of the ''Godly or High-Legendary'' grade. If you try to extract additional treasure, you will have to face the guardian of the catacomb. The catacomb greets you with respect]. James smiled as he read the properties of the key and read what was written on the second to last side. "I think we''ll go to this catacomb in a month when my ability''s cooldown expires, so how about we defeat this guardian and steal all the treasures?" The moment he uttered those words, every god and Chaos-Born in Olmypos smiled slyly. The look on James'' face and the thought of a catacomb guardian being defeated excited them all. Catacombs were incredible things in the eyes of the gods. The treasures that could come out of them could help most low-level and even some high-level gods to become stronger. No one knew exactly what the catacombs were. From Nyx and Erebus, even the duo had learnt that they were not created by Chaos. The tower was alive, it had a soul, and players and users could be thought of as living organisms inside. Some gods and famous thinkers argued that these catacombs created by the tower were in a sense spirit houses. In other words, it was something that existed in the same logic as the Philosopher''s Stone. The only difference was that the Philosopher''s Stone was designed and created as special gifts by the administrators in the tower, while the Catacombs were thought to have been created by the tower itself. Maybe the catacombs had a bigger story, maybe they hadn''t even been created by the tower, but one thing was for sure, and that was that the rewards of entering these places were incalculable. James absolutely could not miss such a thing, and when I say he could not miss it, he absolutely and absolutely would not leave without exploiting everything inside the catacomb. After all, James'' personality had undergone a major change in this direction, his goal was to meet Chaos, and he was willing to go to great lengths to do so. The catacomb would only be an improvement and a place of great entertainment for him. Chapter 76 - 76: Found The Hunt "PAT" The door was kicked in hard, and a woman with red hair appeared to have entered. It was Ariel herself, and she had been tracking Elian for almost 28 days. All the information she could find had pushed her to one place, and the place she had come to was an ordinary inn on one of the extreme points of the 10th floor. The 10th floor was so large that even with Ariel''s contact with people she knew, it had taken a long time to get a few decent pieces of information, and it had taken even longer to process the information properly and finally get to the position she was in. It was approaching 28 days. Today was the last day of the arena, and Ariel wanted to throw Elian in front of James before the end of the day. "Oooh! If this is not the great lady Ariel." When the elderly receptionist uttered those words, the people around seemed to startle. Ariel''s fame seemed to have spread far and wide, and what was more frightening to them was that Ariel had destroyed six assassin headquarters just to achieve her goal. They shouldn''t have taken her on as an enemy. "I need information, what I have learnt led me here, give me what I want and I will leave," Ariel said suddenly, her face so emotionless and cold that it was impossible not to freeze under that gaze. "I don''t think I have any information about what you want, madam. Forgive my rudeness, and please leave my workplace if you are not going to stay here," the old man replied to Ariel in a rather rude tone. However, with a very polite choice of words, it was quite possible to see that the woman was getting angry. Ariel, who had started to take light steps, had one of her knives in one hand and a scroll in the other. After the old man came in front of her, she handed the scroll to him and then stabbed her knife into the table, then took a deep breath and began to speak: "I can kill you, old man, I will get a small punishment for it, but you will be dead. I give you a choice, either you give me what I want or you lose a finger every ten seconds." As these words came out of Ariel''s mouth, the old man leaned a little closer to her and then chuckled and asked, "Do you think everyone is afraid of you, young lady?" sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As soon as Ariel heard those words, she grabbed the old man''s head and slammed it down hard on the reception desk. "SMASH!" The old man''s face was crushed, but that wasn''t enough for Ariel, she held her knife properly and held the old man''s hand in such a way that he couldn''t move, and then she said the following words: "Oh I don''t think everyone is afraid of me, you''ve got it all wrong. I am only doing my duty and if you have heard my name even a little from the upper floors, you know how merciless I am. Even if I kill you, the guild of Olympus and Asgard will understand, after all, it was someone standing above them who ordered the target to be found. You are still alive because my guild leader asked me not to kill anyone who is not a fault, so do your job and tell me what you know." With those words, she let the old man go completely and then showed him the parchment again, even though the old man was bleeding from his nose, he still seemed to be frightened by the fact that he might die if he was any more stupid, which is why he started to speak: "He came two days ago, he''s staying in the master suite, you should go up there, I don''t know why you''re chasing him, but he paid me extra money to keep quiet.''" Ariel shook her head at what she heard and then put the scroll back into her inventory, she then took out a small health potion and handed it to the old man. "That''s all you had to do," Ariel said and then looked at the stairs and muttered, "Stupid architecture, it''s so old it doesn''t even have an elevator, the tenth floor is so fucking stupid!" and then started up the stairs. After almost three minutes, she came to the corridor where the master suite was and started to move towards the room. When she arrived in front of the room, she waited for a few seconds and then kicked the door open. When she entered with a few light steps, she saw that everything was tidy. At that very moment, she felt a bloodlust coming from behind her and then she took her other knife out of his inventory and made a move towards the back. "CHING!" Elian tried to attack Ariel, but his sword strike was deflected by Ariel''s block. Ariel moved her shoulder a little and then twirled the blade in her left hand like she was twirling a pen and looked at Elian. Ariel''s main weapon was her knives, even when James asked her to use everything she used her fists because she wanted to get better at fighting unarmed. So she didn''t fight James using everything. Ariel was at least three times a better fighter when she used a knife. Elian felt his whole body tremble as he looked at the woman''s hand in front of him. The aura reflected in Ariel''s blades was so sharp and determined that a weak person like Elion couldn''t understand how strong the aura was. Ariel suddenly lunged forward and struck Elian as hard as she could. Although Elian tried to counter the attack, the sword in his hand was cut in half like a piece of paper, surprising Ariel as much as Elion. She had checked the knives she had taken from James one by one while tracking Elian. She was satisfied with what she had found. When Elion saw what had happened, he realised that it would make no sense for him to run, and then he fell to his knees and said: "I surrender." Chapter 77 - 77: Perseus of Olympos "I surrender." As Elian said those words, Ariel sent the knives into her inventory and then raised her hand and punched Elion in the face as fast as she could. Elion seemed to faint instantly, blood pouring from his mouth and lying there with his eyes closed. Ariel grabbed him by the hair and dragged him out of the room, only to return to the entrance to the inn a short time later and, after everyone had seen him, tossed a money pouch to the old man. "25,000 gold coins can pay for what was distributed in the master suite and what I did to your table many times over." With those words, she left the inn, and then, setting Elian down, opened the message window and said aloud: "I have caught the prey." ----- [I''ve caught the prey.] As James stepped out of the arena, he saw this message window in front of him and then his gaze turned dark. He turned to the referee and then said, "I''ll stay here, no one is fighting me anyway, someone I know is bringing an enemy here until then I''m here." The referee nodded his head, to the astonished looks of everyone around, and emphatically stated that he agreed. James then returned to the arena and sat down on the floor, placing Clarent next to him and then going to the message window and sending a message to Ariel: "Bring him to me now, I''ll kill him." ----- [Bring him to me now, I''ll kill him.] When Ariel read what was written in front of her, she bent down and picked Elion up again by the hair. "Did you hear that? You''re going to die, let''s take you to your death." Ariel suddenly said, and with that, she turned around and realised that someone was coming towards her. Pulling her knife from her inventory, Ariel suddenly saw the cloak of the person coming towards her billowing. It didn''t take her long to recognise the flag on the cloak. "Olympos," Ariel suddenly said, and with that, she realised where the person had come from. "Pleased to meet you, Lady Ariel, my name is Perseus, known as the slayer of the mystical human monster Medusa." sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When the man who introduced himself as Perseus said these words, Ariel''s face smiled, she could not believe that she had met a holy hero. Perseus was one of the heroes in Greek Mythology. He was the son of Zeus and Danae, the daughter of Eurydice, whom Orpheus was passionately in love with but could never reach. He is the grandson of Acrisius, the king of Argos, whom he hated his grandson and daughter because of a prophecy, and he was the person who was locked in a chest with his mother and thrown into the sea. With the help of Athena and Hermes, he is the one who killed Medusa, the only mortal from the Gargon race. He is the only rider of Pegasus and the love of Andromeda. He had a great love affair with Andromeda, whom he saved in Aithopia, which was expected to be destroyed by Poseidon, but unfortunately, he was tried to be detained by Phineus, the former fianc¨¦ of the young woman. Some say that Perseus defeated Phineus and his whole group with his sheer strength, some say that he turned the whole group into stone by using Medusa''s head and left, and others say that Andromeda died during this battle. Perseus tries to go to his sister Athena because he does not want to leave his only beloved, but on the way, he is trapped in a room full of water due to an unknown trap, he stays in that water-filled room forever with an undead body, a holy will and a perfect sorrow. He is one of the greatest heroes of Greek Mythology. "I have to say this Mr Perseus, in the books of the world I come from, they keep saying what a great hero you are, because of my daughter who is interested in mythology, I have heard your name quite a lot of times, as well as your story." Ariel suddenly said it was possible to say that Perseus'' face cheered up when he heard this. "Same as James..." Perseus suddenly said and Ariel shook her head and said, "I don''t know what you''re trying to say." "James met Theseus when he first reached the 5th floor, he told him that his name was written in the books in his world just like you said, and I was honoured to be on the same level as a hero like Theseus." Ariel was surprised to hear those words and shook her head, wondering for a moment if she and James were from the same world. What exactly were the chances of such a thing happening? "Shall we go then?" Ariel asked, pulling herself together quickly, when she got the nod from Perceus, she prepared to move but was suddenly stopped in her tracks by Perceus. "I was sent here by my father, he gave me a device to teleport us, please hold on tight because you may feel a little nauseous." Perseus suddenly said and took out a pen with a lightning symbol. When he held the pen up in the air and wrote the word ''Arena'', it went dark. Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck them and when Ariel opened her eyes again, they were inside the arena, inside the waiting room. Ariel looked around and then smiled and said, "Well, I''m not a big fan of gods, but I have to admit this is pretty cool." With that, the people in the waiting room saw Ariel, and each of them stood in a daze. Ariel was somehow feeling James'' energy from above, he must have been sitting in the arena waiting. The arena itself sends the people coming out of the waiting room to different smaller dimensions inside the arena, and in this way, more than 10,000 people could fight in a day. So there were hundreds of waiting rooms and things like that, and Ariel was able to get to the small dimension where James was with the help of Perseus. Elian hadn''t woken up and Ariel had to drag him upstairs. Climbing the stairs with Perseus at her side and Elion by the hair, Ariel finally noticed the sunlight in her eyes after a while and then saw the young man sitting in the arena. "Umbra, we brought him." Chapter 78 - 78: The Truth About Elian "Umbra, we brought him." When Ariel said these words, James'' body, which had not moved at all, suddenly woke up and James stood up. Ariel threw Elion into the arena with a big smile, and then James looked at the referee and asked, "Aren''t you going to wake him up?" The referee came to Elion with great surprise and woke him up by grabbing his head, it looked like he had used a spell. When Elion saw James in front of him, he looked at Ariel and then at James and then asked, "What the hell is going on?" When James heard this question, he started talking without stopping: "When I chose Lady Nyx''s class card, people who already disliked my lady decided to target me. A great plan was put into use because they knew they couldn''t kill me this early. That''s why they waited for me to come to the 10th floor, after all, they really couldn''t attack me on the floor where the Church of Night was most active by coming to the previous floors and especially by going down to the 5th floor." When James said these words, the expression on Perseus'' face was visible to everyone watching, indeed there was not a single god on Olympus who did not like James, and of course, these gods had said good things about him to their children. "After I arrived on the 10th floor and entered the arena, while I was standing in the waiting room and maintaining my sword Clarent, this bastard you see in front of you came and said that he was going to kill me. Quite normal according to the rules of the arena, don''t you think?" Elion''s expression seemed to grow more and more angry every second James spoke. However, James had no intention of stopping. "I didn''t take his words too seriously, after all, there have been plenty of people who have wanted to kill me. The High Chimera on the tutorial floor, the Goblin King on the second floor, the High Being on the ninth floor, and then Elion himself. So I thought I wouldn''t die." These words seemed to anger the people in the arena, every single thing James said really increased their anger quotient because each of them somehow managed to understand what James was going to say, even if it was just a little bit. "I was injured after a great duel with Ariel, most of the wounds were wounds that couldn''t be healed with health potions, unless they were high-level. I was locked in one of the hospital sections of the arena, where only the administrators could see me, not even my goddess could see me." James'' features contorted incredibly as he uttered these words, his nerves seeming to be at their peak. "And this bastard, even if he didn''t know it, entered my room and managed to kill me when Ronald took his head off me for a second." Elion then stood up and looked round at the onlookers and said, "Indeed, I don''t like him, but to kill him? HOW CAN YOU BE HERE?! ARE YOU DOING ALL THIS BECAUSE I SAID I WILL KILL YOU BECAUSE OF THE ARENA RULES UMBRA?!?!?" he said. The people around had fallen silent, no one seemed to be hoping that James wasn''t lying, but James had concrete proof. "You know how I survived Elion, I used the Philosopher''s Stone." said James and with that Elion smiled and said "Haha...But you don''t have any proof, do you? I didn''t know you wrote the book on lying." After these words, James threw his hand into his inventory and took it out of his inventory by making a fist in front of everyone''s eyes. Elion''s eyes widened to the size of the Philosopher''s Stone. When James slowly opened his hand, all those around him, including the referee himself, who had been an intermediate for a long time, were surprised. The remains of the Philosopher''s Stone lay in James'' hand. A stone that had been shattered into pieces of a rust-bright blue colour. "This... can''t be the Philosopher''s Stone, it''s a different colour!" shouted Elion suddenly, and the referee himself, who seemed to be bored with what was happening, spoke up: "You know how the Philosopher''s Stone is made. It is a stone that the fallen spirits endow to give hope or lead to death to the one who possesses it, in short, a single stone contains hundreds of thousands or even millions of spirits. It turns crimson, the same colour as blood, but when the stone loses its function and the spirits are released when the spirits accept the user or the player, the stone reverts to its familiar worthless block." Those around listened to these words directly and quite seriously, and then James turned to the referee inquisitively and asked, "Worthless? Are you playing word games?" The referee smiled when he heard these words and then said, "Lapis Lazuli was chosen because it is a stone that is very common in the tower. If you are not an artisan or are not engaged in alchemy at a certain level, it is a completely worthless stone." James shook his head as he heard these words and thought to himself how logical it was, after all, if the resource was plentiful, it would make sense to make it functional. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Immediately he frowned and it was as if he had an epiphany as he was going through these thoughts, he smiled as he thought about what he had the most of and then made the decision to leave it for later. What he realised, though, was precisely what would make him stronger. As those words echoed around the arena, James had put Clarent back into his inventory, stripped off all his armour in front of everyone and even put Hephaestus'' masterpiece into his inventory. He stood in front of everyone in just his normal clothes, and for a few seconds he turned to the sky and said these words above the daylight: "I may be protected by Nyx at night, but I''m sure Hemera will help me in the beautiful daylight. I don''t need armour or weapons, you''re not even worth it." Chapter 79 - 79: Terror Incarnate "I may be protected by Nyx at night, but I''m sure Hemera will help me in the beautiful daylight. I don''t need armour or weapons, you''re not even worth it." With those words, his hand went back to his inventory and pulled out the most powerful weapon he could find after Clarent and Serene''s Throwing Knife and threw it in front of Elion. "Third most powerful weapon I have come on, you tried to kill me in my weakened state but I was unconscious, what happens if I''m conscious the next time I''m weakened?" James'' words had shut everyone up, just like in his duel with Ariel, not a peep was heard from anyone, it would not be wrong to say that it was a rather strange sight. James wasn''t afraid, he had actually passed the stage of being afraid of something on the 9th floor. The fear he felt at that moment when he tasted the difference between him and the gods, was enough for him. Elion was not a fallen god, he was just an idiot who had ascended a few or two dozen more floors than James. He was a man after his god''s own heart. Elion swallowed, sheathing the sword that lay on the ground in front of him, he could see that he was happy, he was foolish enough to think that James had surrendered himself. "If I win, what will happen?" asked Elion, to which James replied, "If you win, my lady, Ronald, Leyla, let this scum go, if such an arsehole can beat me, he can be God." This was the very phrase that stated that Elion was worth less than a grain of dust in James'' eyes. Elion attacked as soon as he heard this. He descended on James at a fairly rapid pace and delivered several blows in quick succession. James could see where the blows were coming from, their arrival patterns, their speed of arrival and so on. His Agility stat had passed 100 points, his speed now showing that he was more than human. From what he had read in the Imperial Library, this kind of speed was considered the lowest level for elves, dwarves and such races. This meant that James had now reached the level of the successive and superior races, and only on the 10th floor. It was quite normal that he had dodged all of Elion''s attacks one by one, after all, he could calculate the entire pattern of the attacks. The numbers appeared in front of his eyes, he could see when he had to dodge, when he had to move, he could see it all. After a few dozen attacks Elion was looking at James with fear, everyone was still silent, but every one of them, including Perseus and even the referee himself, was scared. James'' face looked strange. Many people had seen his expressions since the arena had started. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. They had seen him laughing, getting angry, hating, hating, sad, hurting, pretending, and many other things. Yet James'' expression now was different, strange, incomprehensible. It was as if James''s face did not harbour any expression. Elion was panting on the ground, tired, he had been running for a long time, from someone very dangerous. Now he was fighting someone as strong as he was, and possibly stronger. And this person was treating him like he was nothing. James approached Elion slowly and then looked down at his hand, balled it into a fist and then punched Elion as hard as he could. Elion instantly sank to the floor of the arena, and when he tried to get up, James threw another punch into his face. "Kuagh..." Elion had vomited a large amount of blood and several of his teeth had come out of his jaw. He was trying to move, but someone was not letting him. James grabbed him by one arm and put him on his back. Placing his foot on Elion''s head, James watched the dying man and then uttered these words: "I was given a second chance to make everything right, I have a desire and until I do reach that point whoever stands in my way and tries to hurt me like you did will have the incredible chance to die by my own hands." As soon as the words were out of his mouth James kicked Elion in the pit of the stomach, leaving him in agony. Taking a few steps back, he reached into his inventory and pulled out Selene''s Throwing Knife. "It is time for you to die, you will serve as a warning to all, unfortunately, you were nothing more than a godless dog. What you must realise is that it was not the gods who chose you, it was you who chose them, along with luck. You always have a choice inside the tower, even I, who only made it to the 10th floor, can see that." After he uttered these words, flames covered the entire arena. The inside of the arena became invisible, but just before the image closed, everyone could see one thing, James'' foot was right above Elion''s head. When the image was obscured by the flames, everyone realised what had happened. Elion had indeed been brutally murdered. When the flames dissipated again, the blood on the Selene''s Boots that James was wearing became visible, just like Elion''s dead body. All the onlookers around, Ariel herself, Olympus, Asgard, Lucifer, Michael, Sun Wukong, and even all the Chaos-Born could see his expression. His face was like the abyss itself, just looking at it brought tears to the eyes. It was very, very scary, as if people who had been watching him for a month were now seeing his true nature. This would be the day he would receive his second nickname. Elion''s death would go down in history as the day he showed his power and threatened everyone in the tower. From this day forward, those inside the tower would call him: "Terror Incarnate". Chapter 80 - 80: Winner of the Arena "Terror Incarnate." James would be known by this name for a very, very long time, of course his original nickname was Umbra of Chaos and that would never change, but this little revenge duel after the arena, which had already ended today, made James'' reputation even bigger. Elian had made a foolish choice and suffered the consequences. When the arena was cleared, the referee called a few people into the arena. A small podium appeared in the arena and then, at the referee''s request, the contestants were placed on the podium. There were a total of 7 people on the podium, lined up in the order of the podium, with James himself standing in the first row. After the referee congratulated all the contestants, he presented them with their awards and then it was James'' turn. When the referee stood in front of James, he had a pen in his hand, and as he held it out to his right a few dim lights formed in the centre of the arena and then a ticket appeared. The ticket made its way to the referee and fell into his hand, it must have been the ticket Nemesis had been talking about. The referee suddenly handed the ticket to James and said, "I have a pretty good idea of what you''re going to do, so take it for what it''s worth." James then reached for the ticket and took it, and at that very moment a window opened in front of him: [Space-Time Teleportation Ticket(Creator+++++) This ticket is an incredibly powerful object created by chaos itself. To use the ticket, think of the destination. When the ticket is used, wherever the user is, whatever they are doing, they are entitled to any point on any floor of the tower, one way and one way back. The ticket consumes a very small amount of body energy. The ticket will send the user directly back when the departure time is up. Duration of stay is exactly 1 week]. Reading the window, James smiled and realised that he had indeed won the ticket to reach the gods for a short time. After all this, the referee turned around and spoke inside the arena, looking at the window right in front of him. "This year''s arena champion is Umbra of Chaos with 7973 wins, we wish them continued success." With those words, one by one, the spectators of the arena began to disappear, while Ariel and Perseus looked towards James and smiled. With that, it was clear that the arena was over, James had won, as many gods had expected, and now there was only one thing for him to do, rest. Therefore, Ariel and Perseus left the arena, albeit slowly, and then returned to the 5th floor with joy. After returning to the 5th floor, the person who welcomed them was Theseus himself. Theseus seemed happy to see his cousin Perseus, and as soon as he gave his cousin a big hug, he turned to James and gave him a big hug, even if it was a little disrespectful in the eyes of the gods. "We love you too Theseus, but please leave us, we need to get some rest, me and Ariel," James said suddenly. The tiredness in James'' eyes was obvious to everyone. James and Ariel were greeted by the cheers of a different person every time they took a step. James, who had managed to reach the imperial palace after a short time, was greeted by a large crowd as usual. The surprise on Ariel''s face was clear, of course, she knew that the Church of Night controlled almost the entire 5th floor, but she was surprised to see James being greeted like this. When James introduced Ariel, the looks of the imperial family and the church changed instantly. Both the church and the empire had learnt that the Chaos Guild had grown, there was now a commander, and according to James, she was more powerful than he was. Ariel was given a private room, right next to James'' room, though. However, just resting seemed to be the only thing to do. As James lay on the bed he closed his eyes and managed to fall asleep in just a minute, when he opened his eyes again he realised that he had only had a few hours of sleep and when he checked the system he noticed a few notifications. As soon as he tapped on the notifications, several windows opened in front of him. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [The Necklace of Life (Godly-) was gifted by High Admin Ronald]. [Rewards for defeating the Arena without being defeated will be delivered now. 50 million gold coins were gifted. The fame of the Chaos Guild has increased by 10,000. The player received the Intuition(Unique++) ability. The player gains experience potion]. James scratched his head as he finished reading the windows in front of him and put his head back on the pillow to go back to sleep as if he was tired of what had happened, but his curiosity would not let him sleep. He immediately stood up and then went to his inventory and started looking for the item called ''experience potion''. After finding the item, he smiled and looked at the properties section: [Elixir of Experience(NO TIER, NO GRADE) This potion was created for Umbra by High Admin himself. Drinking the potion will give the player 50% more experience points for each monster killed or quest completed]. James thought that he would be able to examine the ability he had gained when he put the item in his inventory, so he took the ticket out of his inventory, he had to get ready, so he got up, took a short shower and then dressed nicely and held the ticket. He smiled, knowing exactly how to use the ticket, and then began to think about Nemesis. He didn''t know where Olympus was or where Nyx was, but he had physically seen Nemesis, so it would certainly be easier to get to her. After a short while, a window appeared in front of him: [Do you wish to teleport to Floor 150? YES/NO] James smiled and then as if he knew what the answer was, he pressed yes without waiting, a portal opened in front of him and then he realised what he had to do. He was going to go up to the house of the gods, if only for a week. Chapter 81 - 81: Mount Olympos As James walked through the portal, he saw Nemesis. The sight of Nemesis smiling seemed to put him in a strange frame of mind. "Welcome, James." Suddenly, because Nemesis had spoken to him, he pulled himself together and approached Nemesis with a smile. It was only when he gave Nemesis a huge hug that he realised what was going on around him. "Well...Welcome son." James gently stepped away from Nemesis when he heard this and left her in her confused and embarrassed state. When he turned his head, he saw a throne and two people sitting on it. James'' smile seemed to have gone through the roof as he ran quickly and then stopped in front of one of the two people on the throne. This person was Nyx. When James stopped in front of Nyx, he gently took her by the hand and lifted her from her seat, gave her a big hug, and then pulled out a rose from his inventory. Nyx looked surprised, thinking she was going to get something other than a rose. Everyone''s mouths were agape, no one had thought that James would hug both a high woman like Nemesis and a fierce goddess like Nyx the moment he stepped out of the portal. James had a lot of nerve. Nyx had a little "why?" look on her face after taking the rose, and when James realised this, he spoke: "This rose reminds me of the first time I saw you, my lady, or rather the first time you pierced the sky and watched me on the first floor. A huge darkness descending to a white field, a pair of eyes with pupils shining with perfect beauty. The beauty and colour of the flower reminded me of you, so I wanted to give you this as a gift." As James finished saying these words, Nyx smiled and hugged him even tighter than the one James had just given her. As soon as James was released, he turned his head to Erebus and said, "Pleased to meet you, sir, you''re a bigger man than I thought." Erebus was shocked at the audacity of the young man in front of him and a small laugh echoed through the room. After that, James had climbed down from where he had been standing and was back at Nemesis'' side. Nemesis''s ears were red, she looked embarrassed, and she was still frozen in place, she was actually acting like a teenager. James turned to Moros and then asked, "Master Moros, is Nemesis all right?" When Moros shook his head from side to side, James gently took Nemesis by the shoulders and shook him several times. When Nemesis somehow came to, he pulled the Necklace of Life from his inventory. In front of everyone, James gently handed the necklace to Nemesis and then said, "I don''t know how much use it will be to you, my lady, as you are already a goddess, but the Philosopher''s Stone may help you, and I present you with this gift in the hope that you will never leave me." S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nemesis seemed to stay where he was once more, James was beginning to wonder if they were in a comedy film, but he chose to ignore it all the same. He gently pushed Nemesis'' hair aside and put the necklace on her, before looking around and asking, "So? What do we do now?" As James asked this question, Nyx descended the steps one by one and then came over to James and patted him on the cheek. James didn''t realise what was going on until Nyx suddenly spoke: "First of all, let me apologise. My job was not only to give you your class but to look after you and make sure you were safe. I failed, and I hope you will forgive me for that." When James heard these words, he seemed to have a strange expression on his face. "Well...I mean, I''m not dead so don''t be ridiculous. I''m my own man, if I die it will be because I let my guard down." When James said those words out loud, the others around him chuckled and especially Nyx let out a deep breath. James didn''t understand what was going on. "Normally I''d be the one to surprise you, my lady, but this time I''m the one surprised, can anyone explain what''s going on?" asked James suddenly, wondering what was going on. With that Nyx took James by the hand and began to walk gently, James of course did not resist and walked with Nyx. James'' eyes widened as Nyx brought him in front of one of the huge windows in the lounge. "I''m the reason they attacked you, James. I protect this landscape, this beauty and so much more with my presence alone, I haven''t fought in a physical battle in a very long time, more like my presence prevents battles. This means that when I send you a card to choose a card and you choose me, those who dare not fight against me are drawn to you, someone who will be harder for me to protect." James shook his head when Nyx said those words. "Well...My Lady, I understand, but these were not things I did not know, you know...Even in the world I came from, the only person known to be stronger than you was Chaos himself. That''s why when I had the chance to talk to Leyla, I asked about Chaos and a few other things. I had to find out if the gods here were the same as the ones I knew. I mean, I already knew what was going on at the moment I chose you, and for you to blame yourself is, to put it mildly, silly, even with all the respect I have for you." Even Erebus cringed when James uttered those words, how ridiculous it was for a mortal to insult Nyx. Nyx, contrary to everyone''s expectations, looked relieved, even teary-eyed. "Silly huh? Hahahaha...You don''t even know how happy I am that I sent you the chance to choose me...So what do you say, wanna go for a walk outside?" James'' eyes lit up with excitement and happiness when Nyx said these words, and after shaking his head in disbelief, he said, "If I answer no to this at any point in my life, please throw me off the mountain." Mount Olympos trip was starting. Chapter 82 - 82: Three Gods of Olympos With James holding Nyx''s hand, he left the hall and walked out of the palace at the top of Mount Olympus. As soon as he breathed in the air around him, he realised that his whole body was on fire, and when he stumbled for a few seconds and realised that the Chaos-Born following them wasn''t helping, he knew that this wasn''t a bad thing for him. However, James tried to pull himself together a little and began to breathe more regularly. It was not hard to notice that the magical energy in his body was developing rapidly as if his Magic status was improving. Once he had recovered he was able to stand properly and froze at what he saw with his eyes. James looked around cautiously and saw that they were above the clouds, but there were so many buildings and such that it was impossible not to get excited. "I''m in a place I''ve seen in books at school or watched documentaries or even watched films and played games, and I can see everything with my naked eyes." When James said these words in a very normal voice, it silenced all the voices around, all the Chaos-Borns and all the gods on Olympus seemed to be wondering how they were. Even though Hades was a little far away from James, he still asked curiously, "What was I like? In the books, I mean." When James looked at the man in front of him, he didn''t seem to realise who he was. "Aaah...If you don''t tell me who you are, it won''t be easy for me to tell you." James said, and Nyx, who heard this, approached James and said, "That''s young Hades." James looked at the old man in astonishment after these words and then said, "You, sir, are my third favourite god in all Greek Mythology." Hearing these words, the gods seemed to be quite surprised, even in the tower, Hades was one of the most unpopular gods, the aggressiveness of his personality and the nature of his magic alienated everyone from him. "For me, it''s Nyx 1, Nemesis 2 and Hades 3, it''s always been that way and fate helped me to choose Nyx," James said and continued to speak without stopping: "Zeus inherited the clouds, Poseidon the waters of the earth and Hades the underworld. The three great regions of Tartarus, Asphodel and Elysium, which signified death, regret and purity, were called by Hades'' name." With these words, James turned around Hades and then added, "He married his niece in a strange and, in my opinion, disgusting way, and while he lived as if he was imprisoned in such a way that he could never get out of the underground, he was still the person who did his duty in the most superior way." Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Just as Hades was about to speak, James spoke again: "Zeus and Poseidon are not worth much in my eyes next to you, sir, after all, one of them rules the seas and tries to destroy everyone beautiful from the seas by being jealous, just like Andromeda. The other one tries to have intercourse with all the women who come his way and ruins the lives of many of them and continues to play god when there is a superior power." With these words, Poseidon immediately accepted that James was right and stepped aside, while Zeus stepped forward and dared to ask, "Isn''t that a little disrespectful, Master James?" James smiled a little when he heard these words and then said, "I mean, if you stop jumping on every woman you see next time, you might earn my respect, if you think I''m going to respect you just because you''re a god, you''re very wrong, we humans are notorious for easily gaining faith but instantly turning away from it." James shrugged his shoulders as Zeus shamefully stepped aside and said, "I''m sorry, but you should all understand, those of you who were born and climbed inside the tower already had godhood, most of you wouldn''t even be able to play god if your parents didn''t want you to climb and taste power." He looked at the gods around him, including Chaos-Borns, and then said the following words: "You want respect, perhaps from me, perhaps from those below, perhaps even from those around you. Then work for it. Respect is earned, you can''t just expect it to come. Especially you Zeus and people like you, I am a monogamous person so you can''t expect me to love or respect you that easily." Having finished his words, James stopped caring about Zeus and turned to Hades and said, "That''s it, to tell you the truth, if I have the chance to go and see the underworld, I would like to go." "I don''t understand, is it because I''m not like my brothers that you love me?" Hades asked and James, hearing this, shook his head left and right and said, "No, the reason I love you is that you fulfil your responsibilities, unlike your brothers. One is a jealous murderer and the other is a pervert of sorts, you do your job and unlike them, you know how precious love is too even if it is for your niece..." This seemed to put an end to the matter, all the gods around them fell silent, and the Chaos-Borns and especially Apate could hardly keep themselves from laughing. With that James started walking, he could see many temples around and he could tell what was going on by the statues in front of them. "Huh...the temple of Poseidon...I saw it in a documentary, I never thought it would be the same." James suddenly said, touching the statue and looking at the huge temple behind it. As James was watching the temple, he suddenly saw a road running alongside the temple, he was confused because he remembered this road. The Philosopher''s Stone had shown him not only the place where Nyx and the rest of the family had been slaughtered, but also the path to it, and he couldn''t believe that he had found it. Suddenly he turned towards Nyx and asked her the question: "My lady, do you know where this path leads?" Chapter 83 - 83: The Time Works Different James "My lady, do you have any idea where this path leads?" All the gods around tried to understand what was going on when they saw the tense expression on James'' face, it seemed to them that James knew something or was genuinely curious in a really big way. "That''s the way to my temple, James," Nyx replied, and James swallowed, averting his eyes from Nyx. "May I speak with you and Master Moros, please? In private." As soon as James uttered these words, Nyx gave an order to all the gods to leave with his hand and only Nyx and Moros himself remained in the area, the two higher beings looking at James and wondering what was going on. "Is something wrong, James?" Moros asked suddenly, seeming to be getting worried. James, upon hearing this question, said the following words. "I''m not sure, but it has something to do with the Philosopher''s Stone..." As James uttered these words, both Nyx and Moros looked at each other, and then Moros turned to James and asked, "Did you see the future?" Hearing this, James asked, as if he didn''t know, "According to the Philosopher''s Stone, yes, but I don''t know what''s going on, can I see the temple?" The two holy beings nodded as they heard those words, Nyx grabbed James'' arm and in just two seconds the trio appeared in front of the temple. James was looking around. The Philosopher''s Stone had shown him the torture chamber, but it had been entered incredibly quickly, so James had seen very little of the path. He had seen so little that it could only be called a recollection. Incredibly colourful flowers had withered in the future James saw, trees had lost their leaves and some trees had even been cut down. As he walked towards the temple, he saw that everything was spotlessly clean, and then he pushed the doors of the temple and went inside. Inside the temple was a huge statue of Nyx, and when James saw the statue, the worry in his heart suddenly seemed to disappear. "Have I ever told you how beautiful you are, Lady Nyx?" James suddenly said, even though Nyx was standing next to him in the flesh, he was so excited that he had never opened his mouth about it until now. Nyx smiled when she heard those words and hugged James, kissing him on the forehead as a thank you. James looked around, it was clear that what he was seeing was not a torture chamber, what he was seeing were Chaos-Born imprisoned and even killed in front of the destroyed statue of Nyx. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Now, I must tell you what happened---" James was about to get to the point when suddenly another figure entered the temple, James looked at the clothes of the intruder and suddenly realised who it was. "Don''t even think about telling what happened kid." The person who had entered was Chronos himself and he was looking at James in a very angry manner. "Chronos?" Chronos didn''t even pay him any mind when Nyx said the old man''s name in surprise, he just walked over to James and then said, "What the hell do you think you''re doing trying to tell them about your possible future self?" Nyx and Moros seemed to be trying to figure out what was going on, and Nyx suddenly realised what was going on as she stroked her forehead with her hand and said, "You were going to break the timeline." Moros shook his head at his mother''s words and said, "James, you can''t do that unless it''s the gods of fate or time itself," and it was clear that Moros understood what was going on. James glanced at the trio with a puzzled look and waved his hands as if he didn''t understand what was going on. Chronos seemed very disappointed that the boy in front of him was so clever and yet so stupid. "Look, young man, I will explain it to you as simply as possible. Time is a line, every action you take moves along this line, in your world people call this pure fate. There are two ways out of this mystical phenomenon, one is to know your destiny and tell other people about it, and the other is to know the future and tell people about it." When Chronos said these words, James held himself for a few seconds and then asked, "So, should I just keep what I know? Does time work the same in our world or is this something special to this idiot tower?" Chronos shook his head and said, "Yes, it is indeed something special to the tower. Look, young man, it is dangerous to play with time, it is dangerous to play with destiny, that is why Moros and the Moirai are so powerful. Even they can''t make major changes to the concept of destiny, but a slug on the tenth floor can''t do anything." James didn''t understand anything, he sat on the floor of the temple and then took a deep breath and let it out, he still had a lot of confusion in his mind, the fact that he didn''t have a clear idea of what was going on was what scared him. "So I''m just going to wait? I''m just supposed to accept the possible future?" he suddenly asked. A mistake James almost made may have been the precursor to the realisation of that future. The fact that Chronos had stopped him in his tracks had indeed been a bigger help than he had expected. James had never felt so stupid in his life, and even though he didn''t really understand what was going on, he could tell by the expressions on Nyx and Moros'' faces that he had almost screwed up. Chronos'' answer was something that made him think a lot, but it was quite true: "Kid, you can pass the time but remember you will never be able to stop it, you do not have the power, even I don''t and I am practically the time itself." Chapter 84 - 84: Story of Death "Kid, you can pass the time but remember you will never be able to stop it, you do not have the power, even I don''t and I am practically the time itself." Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With these words, James lay on the floor and looked up at the ceiling of the temple. There were beautiful carvings and paintings on the ceiling. Beautiful drawings and beautiful images with function. It was even possible to see Nyx and her family on the ceiling. James relaxed for a few seconds and then stood up and spoke: "I guess you''re right, after all, it''s not like it happened. I was stupid, I was scared." James seemed to accept what had happened too easily as if he was using this positivity to escape, but it was enough for the three holy beings. Chronos scratched his head and thought that James would be more concerned about what had happened and wanted to leave, after hugging Nyx and stroking Moros'' hair he left Mount Olympus in a flash, he would be back here later of course, it would be a feast for James after all. ----- When Nyx and Moros took James to the other Chaos-Borns, the group began to talk and have fun, James'' fatigue had officially disappeared, and on the contrary, everyone started to enjoy the fun. Even Chronos and Ra had joined in. Nemesis did not leave James'' side for a second, it was clear that the two had a very strange relationship. Even if the laughter of Philotes and Apate occasionally drove Nemesis mad, she still kept her mouth shut, clearly not wanting to look bad to James. "So, tell me what your life was like in your world before you came here," Erebus said suddenly, and with that Nyx''s hand landed hard on Erebus'' back. "SLACK!" A very thin sound echoed through the room and Erebus shut up, but James didn''t seem to mind. "It''s a simple story, sir, lose family members, have your lover leave you because you don''t have any money and you''re sure she''s cheating on you, blah, blah, blah, blah, classic stuff," James said suddenly and Erebus shook his head, remembering that he had heard the story before, it was a very silly thing to do. "But don''t you feel sad? Don''t you hate death? Maybe you have a grudge against the gods of death? Very possible no?" When these words appeared on the left side of the table, everything became a little strange, it was Thanatos himself who spoke them. "Do you know, master Thanatos, you are the fourth of my favourite gods?" James said, and Thanatos, hearing this, asked "Why?" with great curiosity, and James said the following words: "My mum once told me that when I asked her why death was so painful, only my hamster had died. Kinda funny yeah?" James seemed to catch his breath after these little words, but the peace on his face was evident. "One day a woman was in the prime of her life and unfortunately she was killed in a car accident. Staring at the shadow of death and the shadow of life that followed her, the woman did not want to disappear without satisfying her curiosity." The gods around and especially the Chaos-Borns began to listen to James with rapt attention. "Oh death itself I ask you, why are you so bitter when life is so sweet?" said James and looked at Thanatos. "And what did death say?" Thanatos asked with great curiosity. "Death approached the woman gently, then lifted her humble body and began to carry her like a princess. Then he brought her in front of the most beautiful view and showed her life itself. Then he said these words: Life always lies. When you are born, you cry and grow up, learn the language of the country you stay in, make friends and enjoy your life. Poor or rich, you always know how to savour something. You jump from side to side as if nothing will ever end. Life is full of lies. It shows you happiness, joy, family, friends, love, passion and so much more." James was silent for a few more seconds after these words and after drinking water from the glass on the table, he discovered the curiosity of those around him, then he continued to explain with a chuckle: "Death is pain. It shows the inevitable. A painful, sad, maddening and disgusting experience that you can never escape. I am old, young lady, older and more tired than you can imagine, older than everyone, including the creator of this universe, and one day I will reap even him." After these words, he stopped again and looked at Nyx and said, "Even the gods will not escape death, there is only me and someone else with absolute power, you would not recognise me even if I told you." When this speech was over Thanatos couldn''t take it anymore and pulled up a chair and sat down, he didn''t seem to think that the speech would interest him so much. Chronos instantly realised what James was trying to do and got angry, but he still had to wait until everyone had dispersed, James looked like he was going to be in a lot of trouble. After he had finished speaking, James turned to Thanatos again and said, "Now back to your question. Yes, perhaps I am angry and resentful of death, but to tell you the truth, I don''t care. My parents may have died painfully, but even if they survived that accident, they would have had a bad life, so it is better for me to think that they are in heaven." With that, the night was over, everyone, including the Chaos-Borns, dispersed, and James was left alone with Nemesis. At that moment, as expected, Chronos was standing in front of James. Knowing his mistake, James stood up and after asking Nemesis for permission, he left with Chronos, he was going to have a terrible headache. Chapter 85 - 85: Confession (1) "Have you gone mad?!" Chronos said suddenly, the anger clear on his face. He was in such an angry state that even James'' expression turned to one of disbelief, he didn''t know whether to be proud or sad that he could make someone as lazy as Chronos act in such a way. He was filled with a strange feeling, he had no idea what to do. James realised that he had indeed made a mistake, but he had no desire to stand by and do nothing. "I can''t officially tell them something that could happen to them, am I crazy? It''s not my fault if this is how fucking time works," said James, and Chronos, hearing this, grabbed James by the suit he was wearing and pushed him against the wall. "Look, kid. You don''t seem the understand. The things that you have seen when you were in the stone, they are not real, they have never been." Chronos was angry and this was his most natural right. "What do you expect me to do? What if something like that happens!? What are you going to do then?!" shouted James and Chronos, hearing this, put James down and continued his speech: "Perhaps something like that has a huge possibility to happen in the future, after all, even though there is destiny there are still infinite possibilities. Yet, it is up to you to choose your way so you can end your journey with whatever you saw inside the stone or you can change it." This time his anger seemed to have subsided, more like a state of anxiety. "Time is a foolish thing to manipulate, you shouldn''t do it, as I said even I can change small things in time, very small, and that is how I avoid the wrath of the tower and am protected by the laws of Chaos," Chronos added. When James straightened his suit, he looked at Chronos seriously and then said, "Well, old man, then tell me, what should I do? What should I do when the future holds enormous dangers and there is only the tiniest possibility that the things I have seen could happen?" Chronos looked at James with great curiosity and then spoke as if he thought he would regret this: "When you go to the 20th floor, you will come across a temple, where players or users choose their second class. Look for my name there, choose me and a situation will arise where I can help you with time." Hearing these words, James shook his head and asked, "You''re going to train me?" as if he didn''t understand what was going on. Chronos looked at James in a rather annoyed way and said, "Yes, we will, we will start tomorrow, we will deal with this until you come back, at least you will get something before you go." James shook his head as he heard those words, he could never pass up a chance to learn from the man of the hour himself. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Since the purpose of this training is for me not to ruin everything, it''s going to be a long one, I''m pretty confident about ruining things," James said, the smile on his face making Chronos want to punch him. Nevertheless, the deal was done, James left Chronos and went back to Nemesis. Nemesis smiled and realised that Chronos had just beaten James up a little. "Are you alright?" Nemesis asked, to which James replied, "I feel as excited as the first time I saw you." When Nemesis heard those words, she stopped sitting across from James and then moved to the couch next to him and snuggled into his right side. When Nemesis put her head on James''s shoulder, James held his breath tightly and didn''t utter a single word, just waited. "How do you do it, James?" Nemesis asked suddenly, sounding slightly upset. "How am I doing what?" asked James curiously, Nemesis took a deep breath and then said, "How come you feel free enough to tell me that you can reach my grandad?" James smiled when he heard that question and then lifted Nemesis'' head off his shoulder and laid her on his lap. Nemesis took a deep breath as she looked at his face. Then James started to speak: "I haven''t been free all my life, maybe I fell in love with someone who didn''t want me, wasted my life and got a second chance, I wish I could spend this chance to meet the person who gave me this chance. However, at the end of the day, it may be what I want most to enjoy being free, free to do whatever I want, a chance that not a lot of people can get." James said, Nemesis was about to say something when James stroked his hair and spoke again: "You love me, don''t you?" When Nemesis heard this question, she nodded her head and answered yes to James. James smiled and said, "I admire you very much, the doors of love and love itself have just closed to me, but if you can wait, I would like to belong to you as soon as my heart opens again." At James''s response, Nemesis got up from his lap and sat down, then asked, "Does this mean I''ve been rejected?" James smiled when he heard this and then said, "No, just give me some time. It''s been half a year since I''ve been in this tower, there are still many things I can''t get used to." Nemesis, as if he could not accept these words, said, "You said on the first floor that you had already forgotten the woman you loved, can you not give me a chance? With the help of my mum, I can always come to you, I can be there whenever you want, can''t you love me?" James was stunned by this question, it was clear that he didn''t think Nemesis was taking the matter too seriously. Still, he wanted a clear answer, so he turned to Nemesis and asked: "Why are you so in love with me?" Chapter 86 - 86: Confession (2) "Why are you so in love with me?" Hearing James'' question, Nemesis shook her head and tried to avoid the question as if she couldn''t answer, she stood up and tried to walk away, the subject of love was new even for Nemesis who had lived for millions of years, she just wanted a mate that she can be with perhaps. Nevertheless, James gently took her by the arm and guided Nemesis back to her seat. Even though Nemesis was averting her eyes from James, she still felt certain that she had to answer. "I was there the day you chose my mother''s card. My mother was always a loving woman and, my father was the same way, but we brothers and sisters couldn''t get along no matter how much we depended on each other. When you came along, Moros started to laugh, Thanatos started to show emotion, and Olympus'' presence began to change. What I felt for you at first was a great admiration, why great admiration. I couldn''t help but admire someone who had managed to change everything so much with his mere presence." Each of Nemesis'' words seemed to caress James'' heart, and he honestly didn''t think he would be this surprised. "However, as the days went by, I realised that this was not the case, I didn''t admire you, I was really in love with you, In the past I thought it was because I wanted to find a mate like almost every god and goddess do. At first, I didn''t think it was true, I had never felt anything but brotherly or sisterly love in my life, but you...the feelings that rose inside me every time I looked at you made me sure of it, I was deeply in love with you." As Nemesis said these words it was possible to see tears welling up in her eyes, James took a napkin from his inventory and then used it to wipe away the tears. "You were on my mind every day, every step you took, every breath you took, some days I even stopped sleeping, I was watching you. The day your life was in danger, my heart fell into darkness, that''s when I realised I was in love. My mum was going to send my brother to help you, but I ran into the portal she opened, the opponent didn''t seem very strong anyway." James really couldn''t help feeling embarrassed, it was very special that Nemesis held such a special place in his heart. "However, I did see the way you looked at me. Those admiring glances were more beautiful than I had ever imagined. My heart was pounding but I had no idea what to say, I thought of myself as an idiot for a very long time after I told you to get out of there." Nemesis, who closed her jaw for a few seconds after these words, took a big breath again smiled and said, "I entered a period that started from admiration and never left my mind. I fell in love with you because I wanted to be a part of your freedom. I didn''t want you to be the only one when you stood at the top one day tomorrow because I wanted to be with you as your family, as your wife, just like my father and mother''s relationship, pure love with full hope, happiness and perhaps many children like my brothers and sisters." James stood up when he heard those words, He didn''t know what to say, Nemesis'' thoughts about him were even bigger than he had imagined. After taking a deep breath and locking onto Nemesis, Jamey wanted to get away from there instantly because he thought that he could not climb the floors risking his life in the responsibility of someone who loved him so much. After all, you couldn''t risk your life if you had someone in your life unless it was for them. Still, he thought it would only be foolish to run away, and then, shaking his head, he grabbed Nemesis by the hand, pulled her to her feet, and said these words: "I will never regret what I am about to do." And with those words, he was glued to Nemesis'' lips. If he couldn''t tell Nemesis what was on his mind, what he was thinking, he could express it through actions. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After a kiss that lasted almost a minute, the two panted, and then Nemesis asked, "So does that mean yes?" James smiled and said, "You are silly, aren''t you? What part of monogamy don''t you understand? I''m not going to kiss every woman that comes my way." When Nemesis heard these words, she fell back in her seat. Nemesis''s legs, which had gained the rank of the goddess of war in addition to the goddess ranks bestowed upon her by Chaos at her birth, had officially released themselves from weakness. "I love you too, I thought exactly what you think of as admiration. That''s why I gave one of my Philosopher''s Stones to Ronald and asked him to make you a necklace. I didn''t want you to be harmed." Nemesis didn''t know what to say at James''s words, and at that very moment, someone''s voice rose from a corner of the room: "You''re already late, it should have happened as soon as you two met. Remember I am the destiny." The voice came from Moros, he was looking at the pair with a coffee mug in his hand. James and Nemesis couldn''t help but start laughing and even giggling at the sight, neither of them had thought this would happen just a few minutes ago. "I have to go and rest now tomorrow morning we have the training and then the feast in the evening," James said suddenly, catching the attention of both Nemesis and Moros. "What training?" Moros asked, and hearing this, James said, "Chronos wants to train me." Moros paused for a few seconds and then said, "Well, this is a big opportunity, seriously." Nemesis was just as puzzled as Moros, it was popular knowledge that Chronos had never even taught his children, and the fact that he now wanted to train James would indeed become a major talking point on Mount Olympus. However, there was nothing more to be done on this day. In just one day he had learnt a great deal about time that he did not know and had found himself a lover who was serious about him. Now he had to rest. There were exactly 6 days left to leave Mount Olympus, he had to make the most of every second. After all, James'' wish was to get as strong as he could before leaving the mountain, before coming here he had only wished to meet Chaos-Borns, but now he had more hope than he had ever hoped for. He had a real opportunity to get stronger. Chapter 87 - 87: Training (1) "As I said, sit down on the floor and sit cross-legged, and today, until the feast, we will try to develop the idea of time in your mind and consider how it should be constructed in Chaos'' eyes." As soon as the light of the next day dawned, Chronos entered James'' room in a dawn raid forcibly detained him took him back to the place where he had first arrived and spoke to him the words he had just heard. James didn''t even get a chance to wash his face and somehow managed to wake up and do as Chronos told him, and then Chronos asked: "What is time in your eyes, James?" James shrugged his shoulders when he heard this question and then said, "Something that cannot be stopped? That is if you don''t have absolute power as you say." Chronos shook his head at this answer and then said, "Yes and no. Look around you, what do you see?" he replied and asked. When James heard this question, he stopped where he was for a few seconds, and then he looked carefully at everyone around him, including the Chaos-Borns watching them. At that moment he said "Elements?" as if something came to his mind. Everyone noticed that Chronos smiled when he heard this answer from James. "Actually, you''re not that stupid, that''s a good thing," Chaos said, and then reached into his inventory and pulled out a piece of dry wood. "Look James, everything you see around you is made of elements. Our bodies, the ground we walk on, the air we breathe, and so much more. Time and space are elements just like the rest." When Chronos heard these words, James scratched his head and then said, "Are you sure you want to say that in public?" When Chronos smiled, he said, "Yes, no one can attempt anything without my permission, the element itself will not accept them, so I told you to choose me." and then continued his speech: "When I look at the others I see an hourglass, I can see the slight changes in the single timeline I told you about yesterday, increasing or decreasing with each step they take, this element helps me to see everything faster and that''s why I perform better even in battles." James shook his head as he heard the words and then asked, "And what exactly am I going to do about it?" Hearing this, Chronos smiled and then said, "Close your eyes, think about the past, the future and the present. You will see how many possibilities there are. But you need to feel the specialness of this timeline." James was very, very confused, he could not suddenly feel something he had never felt before. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. But he closed his eyes and started to think. 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes...No matter how long he thought, nothing had changed, he could not see what could happen. "Not working, I am so gonna lose my mind." James said, opening his eyes and instantly seeing the surprise in Chronos'' eyes, then he asked "Did it work?". "Surprisingly faster than I thought it would, though there''s still one more obstacle before you can fully access your thoughts and start to see everything," Chronos said. When James curiously asked Chronos, "What exactly is that obstacle?" Chronos replied, "Let it flow, let it go, let your bad past leave your thoughts so you can be the best." When James heard these words, he turned his head directly to Nemesis, Nemesis'' smile surprised all the gods around, and James had already closed his eyes back. "We are so gonna talk about this later little girl." Nyx suddenly said, and then all eyes turned back to James. A thousand and one thoughts ran through James'' mind. The memory of his family''s death was constantly flashing before his eyes and the worry in his heart took a different turn. Nevertheless, what Chronos said was true, if he didn''t let them go, he would be left just like on the first floor. He was constantly thinking about different moments and started to think about how his life would have gone if something hadn''t gone wrong that day when they were in the car. Maybe if his father and mother hadn''t died, he wouldn''t have been poor, he would have been rich. Maybe he would have never met Lily and would have met someone who loved him, maybe even married. Nevertheless, what was done was done and there was no need to fight between what was done and what was done. James took a deep breath and let it out as he went through all these thoughts one after the other. His heart was pounding, he didn''t know what was going on, but he could feel a different energy around him. "He did it." Chronos suddenly said and reached out his hand towards James and began to gather the energy around him, if the energy had got out of control James would have gained nothing and might even have lost something. As the energy around him gathered, many of his memories became visible. There was a slight twinge of bitterness as those around began to watch the memories with naked eyes. They could see James as a little boy, his first kiss, his first betrayal and many other things. Even Chronos was saddened that a little human boy had suffered so much, that his life had developed strangely. After a while, James'' memories began to change and show his later times. The happiness he felt when he first entered the tower, the love he felt for the believers he had, the fact that he saw the Chaos-Born as family, and the fact that he saw Nyx herself as a mother, touched everyone. "Huag....." James suddenly opened his eyes with a choked breath, he looked sweaty, he didn''t know what was going on but he could see the window in front of him very clearly. His smile widened, this was very good news. Chapter 88 - 88: Training (2) "What happened?" asked Chronos, not understanding why James was smiling. "Uhhh...I''ve won the time element," said James. Hearing this, Chronos'' eyes widened to the size of the Philosopher''s Stone. "Come again?" Chronos said, and Chronos was stunned for a few seconds when the awkward James said again, "I won the time element." "You managed to do that in just fifteen minutes? Are you kidding me?" Chronos asked and James shook his head, making his ability visible to everyone. [Time Element (Godly-/Lowest Level) You have succeeded in grabbing one of the fundamental concepts of time, one of the 4 main powers Chaos used to create the tower! Chaos is very happy about this achievement, time is on your side and use it well. The player''s thoughts will become 20% faster. The player can be faster than everyone else for only 1 second at any time. The player''s ability cooldowns are reduced by 1%. The player''s ageing speed has decreased by 5%. The player''s skin beauty is increased by 100%. The player''s internal damage is cancelled]. When the people around read these words, they looked at James again and realised that he had indeed become even more handsome. "I didn''t expect you to turn into a girl," Apate said jokingly, and Chronos stood there in amazement while everyone held on to laughter. "Kid, do you have any idea what you have just done?" asked Chronos, the surprise on his face clear for all to see. When James shook his head left and right Chronos smiled and then said "Chronos created me with the pure form of time when he created me, but even though I took a long time to gain this element, you did it in just 15 minutes, don''t you realise what is going on? Time has chosen you." James smiled and rejoiced at this and then said, "Maybe it''s because I had a good teacher huh, what do you think?" Chronos smiled and reached into his inventory and pulled out two wooden swords. "I normally use a scythe and staff, but if the sword is your main weapon, this is the way to go." As James stood up and picked up the sword, Chronos suddenly disappeared and James realised that his eyes had gone black, he had fallen to the floor and fainted. When he opened his eyes again he realised he was laying down on Nemesis'' lap, the Chaos-Borns standing around him. The last thing James remembered was being hit on the head with a hard object. "I fainted, didn''t I?" James suddenly asked, and when he saw Nemesis''s expression, which made it hard not to laugh, he said, "Well...That was embarrassing." and stood up. The moment he saw Chronos, he got angry and said, "What the heck old man? I thought you were gonna train me not beat the crap out of me!" Chronos looked at James with a small chuckle and then said "I''m going to lie, I thought you were going to use your ability." James, hearing this, said "What kind of ability can stop a god''s attack? Are you out of your mind?!" Chronos shook his head and said, "The time element makes you one second faster than everyone else, in case you didn''t realise, it partially stops time for one second, if you were fast enough and could see those around you, you could easily escape my attack." When James heard these words, he said "Huh...Interesting." and stood up and then took the sword in his hand again and said ''Let''s try again, at least don''t aim for my head this time.'' James started to watch Chronos carefully and then tried to activate the Time Element when he saw him disappear, but there was only one problem...James did not know how to activate the element. When Chronos reappeared, James was struck in the stomach and fell to one knee, trying hard not to vomit, when Nemesis suddenly came to him and tried to lift him. As James forced himself to his feet, he realised that he was already starting to recover. The automatic healing ability he had gained in the tutorial seemed to be working for him. When Chronos looked at him and asked, "Why didn''t you use it?" James smiled awkwardly and then said, "Umm...I don''t flipping know, maybe because I don''t know how?" and looked at the man in front of him in confusion. "PUHAHAHAHAHA!!! That''s right, I didn''t tell you how to do it, it''s all my fault." he laughed, and just at that moment Nyx''s laughter was heard: "Hahaha...Chronos please stop messing with my child." At Nyx''s words, Chronos gently stepped right behind James put a hand on his back and said, "Feel my energy, you will get a little idea about using time, and the rest will be up to you to handle." At that moment, James felt an insane sense of energy spreading through his entire body. When he looked around he couldn''t see anyone, he was literally in space itself. He could see many things happening around him, he was about to faint, and the feeling and all the information that entered his mind started to make his nose bleed. After wiping his nose, he started to take steps. In the world outside, other things were happening: "Chronos, is he going to be okay?" Nyx asked suddenly, seeing Nemesis'' worried expression and feeling the need to ask. "No, he only sees things about the beginnings and ends of the stars. If you want to use time, you need a superior intellect and a deep state of mind." Chronos replied, and Erebus, hearing this, shook his head and said, "Huh, so you''re developing his brain? It''s normal to bleed, it''s automatic healing, so this process will be quite easy." Chronos nodded his head and said, "Yes, that''s right, if it wasn''t for the auto-healing I would never have chosen this form of training, but it has enormous potential, fire and time, it''s ironic really." Nyx and the others seemed quite surprised by this choice of words, Nemesis looked at James for a few seconds and then turned to Chronos and asked, "What''s ironic?" The answer he got surprised them all. S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 89 - 89: The Story of Creation "8 Sacred Fire, Time, Space and Reality. These four concepts are the four concepts that created the tower. In my last conversation with the Honourable Chaos, he explained a few things to me, how he created the tower, would you like to hear them?" When Chronos said these words, even Nyx and Erebus suddenly realised that a story they had never heard existed. "Yes, I would like to hear it, if I may," Nemesis said, and Chronos, hearing this, began to speak: "Before Chaos gave the tower a mind, a personality, he wanted to create the dimension, the universe in which the tower would exist. 1 is an ordinary dimension below the main reality. However, instead of creating this dimension in a normal way, he wanted to do a deep, good job because he wanted his precious children to grow up here." Every word Chronos spoke seemed to touch the hearts of Erebus and Nyx, making them happy that they were loved by their father. "Then, after he had created enough territory, he began to create dimension. He created the 8 sacred fires. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white and black, represented life, warmth, beauty, the dryness of nature, the majesty of space, the pain of the reality to be created, cold and eternal death." When Thanatos heard the word death, he took a few steps forward and sat down next to Nemesis, the subject catching his attention instantly. "He threw each of these fires into the dimension he was going to create and then used time as the frame of the dimension, like the sands in an hourglass. The fires hardened and strengthened the frame." The gods, having paused at the story''s beauty, crowded around Chronos like a picnic table and began to listen. "Then he put the concept of space within this framework, and then the 8 Sacred Fires, which can create mother life and mother death by merging with space and time, and worlds, galaxies and universes began to form one after another. These formed the concept of reality in which we are now living." "So you are saying that we are here today thanks to the 4 main [elements or concepts]." Moros suddenly said, and Chronos, hearing this, nodded his head and then replied, "That''s right, at least that''s what Master Chaos told me." "Father, what about James? What exactly is he seeing right now?" Zeus asked and Chronos replied: ''''He had a high level of fire element thanks to his gacha ability, but no one can combine an element with their aura that they cannot master or have a high level of intimacy with, even Amaterasu which might be the best fire elementalist can not do it this perfect. Think of it as vampires cannot combine any element other than blood with their aura." Immediately after Chronos'' words, Nyx stood up and said, "If James is so susceptible to fire and time...I understand you''re showing him parts of creation, that''s what you called the beginning and the end." Everyone realised at that moment that James had a predisposition to two main laws. It was a known fact that Chaos had summoned James to the tower, which meant that Chaos had not summoned him for fun, James had been summoned because of the depth of his potential. "Exactly. I loaded him with an incredibly small fragment of my own time so that he could nourish himself and increase his brain, intellect and will. Time is a single line, Nyx, and there are very few who can change it for good, and who knows, maybe James will become an even greater time god than I am." Chronos said suddenly, clearly expecting too much from the boy in front of him. On James'' side, everything was strange. He really couldn''t see anything around him. He could see a few patches of flame, feel fragments of time and walk in the deep void of space. Indeed, he could see the moment when stars are formed when they flash for the last time. He could even see black holes and huge stars going supernova. He had a massive headache as if something wanted to drive him out of here, yet James had no desire to step back. With each set, his headache increased and the blood flowing from his nose accelerated a small amount. James was not complaining about this, indeed he had no desire to be angry at anything when he was faced with such a beautiful sight. His eyes were wide open, he felt as if the image of space was penetrating his retina. S~ea??h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He could feel the sensation coursing through his body growing and developing strangely. He didn''t know where it was developing and how far it was going, but there was one thing he knew for sure: The images he saw were more beautiful than all the landscapes he had ever seen, all the truths he had ever heard, all the women and men he had ever seen, all the food he had ever eaten, all the air he had ever inhaled, all the rain he had ever soaked in, all the sea he had ever swum in, and all his experiences. At that very moment, he realised that his body had started to shake, the blood was pouring from his nose, from his eyes and even from his ears and mouth. He was instantly brought back to reality and almost fainted. Just then Nemesis took off the necklace she was wearing and put it on James. The necklace was covered in blood drops and dirt, it might have been the first gift she had ever received from James, but it made more sense to make him to wear it just in case. After a few minutes of trance, James, who had started to come to after a few minutes of trance, looked at himself and saw that there was blood all over him and even filled the floor of the hall with blood. "What happened to me?" James asked. He could see Nemesis crying, Chronos let out a deep breath as if relieved, and Nyx herself was berating Chronos. It was then that Chronos'' voice was heard: "Open your profile and take a look for yourself young man, you''ll be quite surprised, I assure you." Chapter 90 - 90: The Way to Use Time "Open your profile and take a look for yourself, young man. You will be quite surprised, I can assure you." At Chronos'' words, James looked at the old man in surprise and then shook his head and opened his profile tab, what he saw surprised him as Chronos said: [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 36 Class: Warrior of the Night Title: Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Complated Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++) [Statuses] Power: 50 Agility: 129 Endurance: 91 Luck: 26 Magic: 620 Holiness: 5000 Intelligence: 159 Charisma: 12 Status Points: 35] When James read his profile, he saw that two of his statuses had increased enormously. His Intelligence had improved by 100 points and his Magic status had risen by 500. Not knowing much about what was going on, he turned to Chronos and asked, "Do you have an explanation?" Chronos smiled and then shook his head and said, "I gave you a taste of time, I don''t know exactly what you saw because it''s not a place I look at anymore, the last time I was in there I was just a kid, one of them trying to become a god of time." James took a deep breath and then said, "I saw many stars forming, I even saw supernovas, they were really beautiful." Hearing these words, Chronos'' smile grew even wider and then he said, "So I sent it to the right place, that''s a plus, good to know!" and threw the wooden sword in front of James again. "This time you will use time and try to oppose me," Chronos said and got into a fighting stance and waited for James. "I still don''t know how to use it, old man, are you out of your mind?" he asked when James shook his head again in a strange way. At James'' words, Chronos pointed his sword at him and suddenly disappeared. When James thought he was going to be beaten again, he suddenly closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he realised that everyone and everything around him was frozen. "Woah...." James suddenly said and suddenly everything sped up again. James was confronted with a sword standing right in front of his eyes. "CHRONOS HAVE YOU GONE MAD?!" shouted Nemesis suddenly, hugging James tightly. Seeing James smiling, Nemesis was confused and then asked, "Are you alright James?" just as Chronos'' voice was heard: "So, how was it? How did it feel to have everything stop for a second, to be faster than everyone, to be faster than even the most powerful goddess?" At these words of Chronos, everyone in the hall turned into a dazed state. It was obvious that Nyx and Erebus had felt something, which was why they turned and stared at James. "Did you manage to use it?" Nemesis asked, looking pleased. "I mean, I think it was because I was scared of passing out again, I don''t understand... I just used it." James said, and then added, "It felt fucking amazing." S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Chronos heard these words, he took a few steps back again and then said, "Then stand up. Each time you use it, your energy will get lower and lower and eventually you will pass out, until then I will attack you again and again and again." James'' expression was all smiles, the young man was enjoying himself. Gently disentangling himself from Nemesis, James stood up and then picked up the sword in front of him, shifting from an offensive to a defensive stance and then inhaling and exhaling deeply. "There''s a feast today, I think we should leave before we pass out," James said with a smile but Chronos had already disappeared, James felt the element of time again in every cell of his body, this time he could see everyone and everything more clearly. It was as if he was getting used to the power. He could see Chronos smiling right in front of him, the sword aimed right at his neck. It was as if one second of ''stopping time'' took tens of hours. Every detail around, the characteristics of each detail had become visible to James. At that very moment, James ducked, but still, his reflex was not enough for that. "AGHK!!!" As James ducked, the sword strike hit his head, spinning left and right on the ground and holding his head in pain. Nyx and the others were about to get angry at Chronos when the look of surprise on the old man''s face became visible. "You are far, far more skilful than I realised young man, get up, we will continue again and again and again. Each time I will use my time element to push you harder and harder, you may take a lot of hits, but things will get better." Chronos said suddenly, his grip tightening on the sword in his hand, clearly intrigued by James. James was on his feet a few seconds later, his head was swollen, looking like a scene from a cartoon series. He picked up his sword again and took up a defensive stance, he was aware that his head ached enormously, not from the blows he had taken but from the exhaustion of his energy. As he breathed deeply again, time slowed and stopped for him, but this time Chronos was faster, as if Chronos was using the time element to neutralise James. He didn''t even know if there was any way to describe this strange but incredible feeling. It was as if everything had stopped as if he was incredibly fast, or maybe it was time itself. To be able to see everything, to feel everything, and to be able to move forward in a way that was greater than anything else was a feeling of immense beauty, he didn''t even know how to explain it. Such an elaborate use would never have occurred to James, it was as if he was trying to neutralise water and fire, but this time it was time neutralising another time. It was an incredible sight. Chapter 91 - 91: Ancient Gods are Weird A few sentences could have been written about the beauty of the image because when James looked at the old man in front of him, he could see the energy around him. It was as if hundreds of hourglasses were around Chronos, there was a sundial in the shadow of Chronos, and the old man''s eyes were shining in the stars like the antiquity of space. James was so mesmerised by the sight that he forgot to run away from the attack, as if mesmerised. At that very moment, time began to flow backwards and James stumbled. Chronos stopped his attack and looked at James with a strange expression. "Why didn''t you try to dodge?" Chronos asked, and James, hearing this, replied, "To tell you a lie, I''m amazed that the time element revolves around you, you are time itself, old man." Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chronos was surprised again when he heard this, but this time he did it with a huge smile on his face. "You''re talented, huh? I think you should stop using the fire elemental and focus on the time James, you have just gained the element and if you can already feel it being used by those who are sensitive to it, then your body is already used to it." When Chronos uttered these words, James shook his head and then said, "I can think about it, but I like the fire element." "Why do you love a destructive force?" Thanatos asked, and James, hearing this, began to speak proudly: "I think all elements are special in their way. The relaxing feeling of water, the freedom of air, the durability of earth, the majesty of lightning, the fearfulness of blood, the purity of light and many more, but I don''t think any element is alive. Fire, on the other hand, feels like it could burn the whole universe if you let it loose. Alive, awake, as if it has a soul." At James'' words, Chronos turned to Nyx and pointed two fingers at him, an expression that seemed to indicate that Nyx should speak to Chaos. "Interesting point of view, but now that you know that time itself is an element, fire is no longer the only living element, is it?" Thanatos asked. James shook his head and then said, "Yeah, you''re not wrong. I just love the element, and if I have to give up one thing to gain another, I might as well get away from it. No rule says I can''t have both time and fire, is there? Even if there was, the same would apply to aura and magic, but I''m standing in front of you, not in the grave, don''t you think?" Thanatos smiled at those words and then nodded his head and shut his mouth, what James had said made perfect sense and was, everyone would agree, special. After all, James was constantly achieving the impossible, many situations seemed to be subjective to him now, the tower had even lost the ability to lie inside the first floor, and the only reason for this was James himself. After these words, James stood up again and then said, "I can do this one more time, old man, I don''t want to faint, Moros and the others have made all these preparations just because of my future." "How did you know we were doing it for you?" Moros asked, sounding surprised. James smiled and said, "The gods like to gossip, Moros." and turned back to Chronos. Chronos could see that James was ready, so he put himself in a ready position and suddenly jumped on James. James used the time elemental one last time and instantly saw that Chronos was in front of him, still at the same speed as before, and the time elemental around him looked just as beautiful. James, who had ducked at that very moment, somehow managed to dodge the sword blow, at that moment the elemental expired and James gasped for breath. ''Clap-clap-clap-clap!'' Suddenly there was a round of applause from the throne, Nyx''s satisfied face was visible to all, and the same was true for Chronos. "I used a worse elemental grade than the one you used, but you managed to dodge that attack, even if it wasn''t serious, I applaud Nyx, you did well, but this is only the first day of your training, you still have 5 more days to go." Chronos suddenly said the look of pride on James'' face was something to behold. Chronos seemed to bring the first day of training to an end, after almost two hours of training James was feeling exhausted, he was sweating profusely and his clothes were all covered in blood, at least the armour Hephaestus had made was dirt-free. Meanwhile, James was eager to meet him but unfortunately, he was not at Mount Olympus, he seemed to be forging iron somewhere, at least that was the rumour James had heard from the other gods. With that, James stretched his whole body and then said, "I wonder if there''s a hotel in the tower that offers massages, my whole body is cramped." He then nodded to Nyx and Erebus and asked, "I need to get myself ready for the feast, can I go?" When the two nodded, James turned to leave, and just then Nemesis appeared beside him. James still couldn''t seem to believe that he was with Nemesis, it was obvious that no one was going to believe it. He wondered how Ariel would react to all of this when James returned. With that, James entered his room and Nemesis followed him in. "Umm...is there something you wanted to say?" James suddenly asked, and Nemesis, hearing this, replied, "I was thinking we could take a shower together." James shook his head as if he couldn''t believe what he was hearing and then said, "I don''t know exactly why you think that." Nemesis said, "It''s quite normal, everyone does it together here." James slapped himself across the face with his hand, then shook his head and said, "The ancient Greeks were really strange people, even their gods bath together. I''d forgotten that there was no bathroom segregation back then." "So does that mean no?" Nemesis asked and James said, "You''ve already seen me shower a few times, you''ve all seen me shower, so I have nothing to be ashamed of." The feast was a few hours away anyways, he needed to get ready. Chapter 92 - 92: Lovers on Distant Floors (1) James and Nemesis were immersed in the water in the huge bathhouse, the steam from the hot water making everything hard to see, though Nemesis'' silver hair and eyes were clearly visible. "I actually thought you were going to take me into the guild when you got here," Nemesis said suddenly, sounding slightly offended. "To tell you the truth, I completely forgot I was coming here, which is why I said I would give you that position when I got on the same floor as you, but there''s no reason why I can''t do it now," James replied, smiling and realising that Nemesis had suddenly lost all of her former coldness. Nemesis was now moving a little erratically even though she still had the same expressions, she had to say it was a strange feeling, it was as if James was excited to see her in a different state. At James''s words, the whole bathhouse fell silent. The sound of the taps running and the water moving sounded like music. After a while James heard the sound of moving water coming towards him, he looked back and saw deep silver eyes and shining silver hair moving towards him. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James thought his heart would burst, he could see the figure of Nemesis in the vapour. He even thought that Nemesis was working a love spell on him because James had no bad thoughts in his mind, he was just focusing on Nemesis'' eyes in the vapour. Even if he was occasionally distracted, he was still confident that he was very much in love. "I''d appreciate that," Nemesis said suddenly, finally making it through all the steam and standing in front of James. James no longer knew where to look with his eyes, he turned his head and felt his ears begin to flush deeply. "Are you ashamed?" Nemesis suddenly asked, pretending not to know how perfect her body was. "I''m overwhelmed by your beauty but I can''t look at you, we''ve only been together for a day, you mustn''t put evil thoughts in my head," James said, Nemesis might be a goddess but he was still a human being, everything was moving too fast for James. "You say one day, but in my eyes, I have already spent an eternity with you. And I have an eternity to live. An eternity that I will never leave your side, one that I will want to hug you and never want to let go." Nemesis said with a smile. Holding James'' chin and turning him towards herself, Nemesis smiled and then said, "There is nothing you shouldn''t see, we won''t do anything you don''t want to do, but I want you to know that I am ready to do anything for you. Fight, live, lie down or die. Anything you can think of." After these words, James looked at Nemesis once more from bottom to tip and then said, "Every time you tell me that you love me or indicate it in some way, I fall more and more in love with you." After these words, James, who got up from his seat, grabbed Nemesis by the waist and then said, "If you are casting a spell on me, I wish you never stop, I want my love for you to grow more and more every day, I want to have you until I can''t get you out of my mind." and he kissed Nemesis'' lips. Nemesis instantly gave herself to James and closed her eyes. As the vapour from the hot water closed the pair, their love for each other grew stronger, and the fact that nothing but their love for each other was visible seemed to make up their story. Time would pass very slowly for them as if the element time itself slows. ----- It had been almost 3 hours since the feast started. The gods and goddesses of Olympus and Asgard were in attendance, and even personalities such as Archangel Michael, Fallen Angel Lucifer, and Sun Wukong had chosen to attend the feast. The fight between Michael and Lucifer was constantly escalating and the two were being stopped by Moros, Sun Wukong was trying to devour all the food at the feast by himself, and the Chaos-Borns were surrounded by a single question: "Where are James and Nemesis?" This question was literally being muttered one after the other. Nevertheless, Erebus and Nyx were quite happy, it was a day of celebration for them. They weren''t the only happy ones though, Philotes was sitting on the floor with her head in her mum''s lap, smiling and humming constantly. It was as if this humming was being uttered by Eurydice. It was as if Orpheus and Eurydice had come side by side and were singing, it was such a pure melody, so full of love that even the Chaos-Borns and all the gods around were listening attentively to this humming. After a short time, the doors of the hall suddenly opened. "Don''t be surprised if we have a grandchild soon," Nyx said to Erebus as Nemesis and James entered. Everyone''s eyes turned to the couple as they walked in, Nemesis'' arms locked around James. James was dressed in a white dress, a black belt covered the dress, a jade buckle was on the right side of his chest and it looked like he was wearing a shoulder pads, a white flower was just below the jade buckle. His green hair and eyes seemed to glow with the colours of the dress. Nemesis was dressed in jet black. Her silver hair and eyes emphasised the dress she was wearing. Her hair was tied with a green flower hairpin, as if Nemesis was trying to reveal her love and devotion to James with his colour. The couple''s beauty seemed to remind all who saw them of a young Nyx and Erebus. The head of the feast and his mate were in the hall, and as the pair came before the throne of Nyx and Erebus, they bowed respectfully, and then James spoke: "We pay our respects to our parents." Chapter 93 - 93: Lovers on Distant Floors (2) "We pay our respects to our mum and dad." When James said these words with a smiling face, everyone was quite surprised. Even Nyx and Erebus didn''t seem to expect this outcome. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Of course, both high gods knew that sooner or later James and Nemesis would want to claim each other, but neither of them thought it would happen on their second day together. The pair seemed to be trying to gain Nyx and Erebus'' approval by addressing them in this way, which was quite clever, after all, it was common knowledge that Nemesis loved James, so if James wasn''t against it, approval had to be given. After a few seconds of silence, Nyx smiled and then said, "Welcome, my precious children. You''ve been in the shower longer than I expected, who would have thought you''d have to shower together to cement your love." After these words, it was obvious to everyone that James was embarrassed, unlike Nemesis, he did not expect such jokes to be made, he seemed to have taken the gods very lightly. After everything that had happened, Moros climbed a few stairs towards his mother''s throne and then drew everyone''s attention with the sound of a spoon being tapped against a glass. "Now that the main character of the feast has arrived, we can start the feast in full. We would like to announce that we have named the feast Green Star Rain. Would the main character like to say a few words about the feast itself?" James gently released Nemesis when he heard Moros'' words and then turned to the gods around him, smiling deeply and then speaking: "From the moment I entered the tower, I encountered many things. When I chose Lady Nyx''s card by chance on the first floor, I never thought that my life would change so much. I met many strange people, and one of the strangest of them was Ronald, one of the smartest people I have ever met. It''s a pity I don''t see him here, it''s a bit sad." James''s words made a few people laugh about Ronald. "I would like to say that the conversations I had with my lady on the next floor, the things others said to me and the mental help you gave me are incalculable. The fact that so many of you thought well of me made me happy enough." He had a very happy expression on his face when he said these words, and he continued his speech, looking carefully at the Chaos-Born around him: "I have received hundreds of messages of constant support, especially from Lady Nyx and Master Moros, helping me, worrying about me and telling me that they love me. I cannot repay them, I am truly grateful to all Chaos-Born." With these words, all Chaos-Borns raised their glasses and saluted James. "Afterwards, I would like to mention about my friends from Olympus. I may have been rude to you, I may have rejected your ethical considerations, and I may even be seen as disliking you, but I am grateful for your help. I am especially very, very happy for the amount of gold that Poseidon gave me to establish a guild. Although I could get this money from Nyx, he still did not break me and delivered the money to me through Theseus. What I am trying to say is, dear Olympians, I love you and honour you, even if not all of you." However, these goblets were raised this time by the gods and goddesses of Olympus. Finally, James focused on Nemesis and then began to speak deeply: "I''ve known the name Nemesis since I was little, of course, I know the names of many gods and goddesses, thanks to the games I played, the books I read, the documentaries I watched, and my mother''s mythology mania. Of course, I don''t have very advanced knowledge, but I think what I know is enough." "The first memory I have of the name Nemesis is as follows. I remember my mother reading me an encyclopaedia, she was reading me Nyx, Erebus and their children from the words of Hesiodos. It went just like Moros, Keres, Thanatos, Hypnos, Oneiroi, Momos, Hesperides, Moira and after all these names I heard the name of Nemesis." "This name seemed different to me, like a name I had been waiting to hear for a long time. I wondered what it was, who it was, I was quite young at the time, if I remember correctly I was 9 or 10 years old, I remember my mum telling me who Nemesis was." "Oh, it was a beautiful time. [Meet Nemesis, the goddess of justice, revenge and balance, James], my mum said. When I looked at the drawings, I remembered that every day I would open that page of the book again and again, and again I would look at the same drawings of her, I guess I was like that with all the things that interested me." "She was called the daughter of Night and Darkness, and although she was a respected goddess, it was written all over the encyclopaedia how cruel she was, oh how interesting it was when I was at that age. In Roman times she was the patron saint of gladiators and hunters who fought wild beasts in the arena." As they listened to his every word, they realised the depth of James'' interest in this woman. "Since that day, apart from Nyx, who has absolute power, my favourite person has been Nemesis herself for literally my whole life. Of course, under no circumstances did I ever think that I would end up with Nemesis, not even a day ago, no matter how much I loved her." "I was wrong. My love was not unconditional. I express my love to Nemesis, the love of my life, who protected me on the 9th floor, then carried me to the 5th floor, took my revenge for me, and watched me every second of every day before she even knew me." After these words, James slowly descended the stairs and then proceeded to kiss Nemesis on the lips once more, and then said the following words: "Maybe if I''d never seen your name I wouldn''t even dream of seeing your eyes right now, but fate, Moros, really works strangely, doesn''t it? I''ve had the woman I''ve had thoughts for most of my life." Even if James didn''t realise it, he had declared his love in big words, the gods were already gossiping, and strangely the two had even acquired the name [Lovers on Distant Floors]. Fate seemed to work strangely. Especially for both of them. Chapter 94 - 94: Black-Magic (1) "Madame Ariel, what are your orders?" While James was having fun and enjoying his holiday on Mount Olympus, strange things were happening on the 5th floor of the tower. Sun Emperor Ahil was sitting at the same table with Ariel, the guild commander, who had just spoken the words that had just been heard to her and was waiting for the time when he would take it back. The 5th floor was in complete chaos. Even if the Olympus and Asgard guilds were doing their best, it was still known that the power levels of all the higher beings, the climbers, who descended to the 5th floor were incredibly reduced. This meant that even heroes like Theseus or Ingeld were at a low level, no matter how high their powers were. It meant that outside of the Church of Night and the Empire, there was nothing but the possibility of help available. Of course, that didn''t mean Theseus and the others couldn''t do anything. After all, while James had been inside the imperial library, they had taken it upon themselves to destroy those who posed a threat, one by one. Several kingdoms had been destroyed in the process. Now, however, an unknown force had indeed begun to engulf the fifth floor. It was like some kind of virus, some kind of parasite, something that devoured everyone and everything, but could fully utilise those with intelligence. It was just like a pure black magic. Which meant that there could have been hundreds of traitors involved. "We know there''s nothing that can''t be stopped, and on top of that, every one of the priests in the Church of Night can see anomalies, so we need to close the empire''s borders and monitor private passages. Do the priests have a cure?" Ariel''s words seemed to warn Ahil. "There is a cure, divine power can fix them, and even if the source of the virus has not been found, we still think that this black magic is coming from the north, from the frozen mountain. Our priests are already investigating," Ahil suddenly said, and Ariel, hearing this, shook her head: "That''s strange, something that didn''t show up until James left...what''s going on?" When Ariel said these words, Ahil shook his head left and right as if he didn''t understand anything and then said, "I don''t understand, madam, we can''t reach Lady Nyx either..." sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Ariel heard these words, she suddenly stood up and then said, "Of course...When James used the ticket, the attention of all the gods turned to James who went to Mount Olympus. Even Theseus couldn''t reach Poseidon, as if something was blocking the communication, and the absence of James made everyone think that there was no problem." Ariel had a solution for this, though, which is why she turned to Ahil and said, "Take full control, use as many people as you can, call the priests upstairs if necessary, and try to save the 5th floor. I''ve got somewhere to go." Ahil expressed his understanding with great surprise and then asked, "What about you, madam? Where are you going?" "I''m going to the 20th Floor to sign a contract with Moros, it''s the only way we can get their attention right now," Ariel replied. Ariel''s goal was to get the attention of the Moros, if possible to come up with a way to help those involved. Since James wouldn''t be back until the 7 days were up, Ariel could at least lead someone in his place. She hadn''t been given the rank of commander for nothing. Ronald had arranged for Ariel to have a special guide manager, and Ariel was able to get to the 20th floor in no time. The 20th floor was a bit special. A white space covered the entire floor, and the only thing visible was a temple. The temple looked more like a Greek Mythology temple and was radiant with beauty. When Ariel saw the temple, she directly entered the temple and encountered the interior architecture, she saw this place again, which she had not seen for a long time, she could not even remember the last time she had been there. The inside of the temple was filled with hundreds of statues, some of which were familiar to Ariel and some of which were incredibly unfamiliar. On a small pillar in the centre of the temple was an open book and next to it was a quill and ink. Ariel slowly walked over to the pillar and picked up the quill and dipped it into the ink, then gently wrote ''Moros of Chaos'' in the book. As Ariel wrote the name and nickname in the book, the book glowed with a great light and levitated, and the page where Ariel had written Moros'' name was suddenly torn out of the book and disappeared, leaving Moros to do the rest: ----- ----- "Moros, are you alright?" Nemesis suddenly asked, the words turning all eyes at the feast to Moros and everyone saw his smiling face. Nyx and James, who had been talking to him, seemed to be trying to figure out what was going on. "Ariel sent me a class request," Moros said, and James said, "I didn''t even know that, so Ariel has chosen you, Master Moros, that is great to know." James''s words made Moros smile even more deeply and then his expression turned serious. Looking carefully at the piece of paper flying in front of him, Moros took it in his hand and then signed the paper with the help of a pen that he suddenly took out of his inventory. The paper then suddenly burnt and fell to the floor as ashes, the deal was signed and Moros seemed to have accepted the request. Every person who went up to the 20th floor received dozens, hundreds, perhaps thousands of such papers, but tore each one up and threw it in the rubbish bin. In short, Moros had accepted someone for the first time in his life. Chapter 95 - 95: Black Magic (2) As soon as Moros accepted this request, a huge message window opened in front of him. Sending messages from the upper floors to the lower floors might have consumed a lot of energy, but in the opposite case, the tower itself provided this energy, in a sense, it was as if the users or players were fed by the tower. It was precisely for this reason that Ariel managed to send a message to Moros from the 20th floor. As soon as Moros saw the message, he frowned and became angry, even he could not understand what was happening, but he managed to think of something with Ariel''s words. When Moros saw the way the others were looking at him, he switched the message window around and then enlarged it so that it was visible to everyone, making them all, including James, worried: "HELP NEEDED!" "5TH FLOOR ABOUT TO FALL!" "WE''RE HOLDING ON AS LONG AS WE CAN!" "THE CHURCH OF THE NIGHT IS HELPING AS MUCH AS IT CAN, BUT THE NUMBER OF PRIESTS IS LIMITED, THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH PRIESTS FOR THE WHOLE FLOOR!" "MASTER MOROS, PLEASE HELP, SOMEHOW!" These messages, one after the other, seemed to frighten everyone. When Moros managed to gather his thoughts, he tried to connect to the big screens in the banquet hall, the palace inside the palace of Mount Olympus, he had to watch Ariel and see what was happening with his own eyes. He couldn''t do it though, it was as if something was blocking his ability to watch. "What''s the matter Moros, won''t you connect?" Erebus suddenly asked and Moros, hearing this, answered Erebus by saying "It is not that I am not connecting, Father, I can''t connect, something is blocking me,". When Erebus and the Nyx next to him heard these words, they tried to connect to the screen and saw that even they could barely get through this strange barrier. Still, the fact that they were able to get through the barrier was a plus for them because Ariel was now visible. With James by their side, the two were able to connect to Ariel through the Chaos Guild infrastructure, watching her from above. When Moros saw Ariel, he realised that what had happened was very serious and then said, "Calm down and go to the 5th floor and show us the situation, we somehow managed to connect." As soon as Ariel heard this, she said, "Luro, send me to the 5th floor, please." She entered the white portal that had suddenly formed and the screens began to show Ariel on the 5th floor. Ariel looked around and saw Theseus, obviously worried. "THESEUS!" Ariel suddenly shouted, and Theseus, hearing her, rushed to her side and asked, "Ahil told me you went to the 20th floor, I still can''t contact my father, I thought he wasn''t paying attention because of the feast, but my messages seem to be blocked, it''s not the same with you, is it?" Ariel shook her head at these words and then said, "Moros and the others are watching us, report back." Theseus let out a deep, relieved breath and then began to speak: "We have good news. First of all, we were able to identify this virus, or rather, we are now completely sure that it is not a virus. It is a black magic that carries deep hatred and greed as if Bephomet and Mammon themselves had cast this black magic, madam." After these words, he paused and then said, "The bad news is that this black magic comes from the frozen lands in the north. The exact location is the summit of the frozen mountain, which is almost 7,000 metres high and completely frozen. It is incredibly difficult to climb, it is completely covered with black magic too." He then fell silent and waited for a few seconds, then leaned in close to Ariel and said worriedly: "And there''s something else we suspect. Like it was on the 9th floor, we''re worried that there''s a remnant of the Fallen God that attacked James or someone similar. Only Baphomet and Mammon themselves can spread such hatred and greed, and outside of them, the Fallen Gods. If this is indeed a Fallen God and not just a black magic spell, we are in great trouble, we cannot kill them unless we get help from the upper floors, our power will not be enough." Ariel''s face looked devastated at those words. "We can''t get help from the upper floors, they can''t even see this place, they can''t even send a message, there''s no way they can open a portal and come here, and unless there''s someone who can override the emotions of hatred and greed, we won''t be able to do anything. Somehow we have to save the connection to the outside." Theseus paused at Ariel''s words and after a few seconds said, "James can do it. My father said he had a barrier protecting his mind, umm...just like a spell or a talent? He''ll be back in five days, and if he doesn''t do it alone, if he hugs someone or carries someone through the portal, they can come here." Ariel''s eyes instantly lit up and she said, "Of course! I never thought of that! Very clever, Theseus, well done!" Still, the real question was reflected to the gods who were now at the feast, who would go back with James? After all, the higher they climbed, the weaker they became the lower they descended, and there were only one or two people in all of Olympus who had not passed the 100th floor. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. All eyes suddenly turned to Nemesis. Although Nemesis was not the youngest girl, only her younger sister Eris was just like her, they both hadn''t climbed through the 100th floor and everyone knew that Eris acted like a lunatic, so there was only one choice. "I''ll go, my mind is not in such a good state, after all I don''t have talents like these, but at least I can save someone, after all, once the source is gone, the dark magic will dissipate, and everything will return to normal, we''ll just have to be quick." Nemesis suddenly said, after which all eyes turned to James. After all, James himself had the final say in this matter, what he would say would perhaps change the fate of the 5th floor. Chapter 96 - 96: Last 4 Day "Are you telling me that the only person in all of Olympus whose life could be in danger and who is likely to die is the woman I have just fallen in love with?" James suddenly said, and even though it made Nemesis happy and her family proud, it was clear that this was the truth. "It''s our only option," Nemesis said, the seriousness in her gaze saying it all. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James stood where he was for a few seconds and then said a little playfully, "I mean, okay, if I tried to stop you, you''d knock me out and force me to come with you, I should make it clear that I''m scared." Nemesis smiled at these words and then gently held James by the cheek and said, "You know that no one else can come. Something is blocking the others and preventing teleportation. Look at Moros; he is still busy trying. That means that only the lower levels can go back with the energy of the ticket. That leaves just the two of us, me and Eris, but there''s no need to jeopardise her." This made sense to James. After all, the ticket had energy from the tower. After all, Chaos had created the ticket in this way, which meant that the ticket that could only take one person could perhaps take a second person, one of the people whose energy was not so high. James shook his head and then said, "Well, even if I don''t fully approve of this, I''m not someone who can stop you, I''m neither your mother nor your father, but since you are my future, I have to ask you to be careful." Nemesis''s eyes lit up a little when she heard the word ''my future'' and she suddenly latched onto James''s lips, James of course tried to calm herself down and after a few seconds, he was hugging Nemesis. "Cough...Sorry." James said suddenly, seeming to avoid the moments when Erebus and Nyx were trying hard not to laugh. "That''s more like an excuse to train, James, no more rest, we must leave the feast," Chronos said suddenly, and what he said was quite true, if there was a chance of encountering a Fallen God, it would be quite dangerous. James shook his head, he hadn''t expected to leave a feast he had only been at for an hour so easily, he hadn''t even rested yet, but he had to start training again. "I''m sorry James, we''ve put so much effort into this feast, it''s just my stupidity that we didn''t realise," Nyx said suddenly, all eyes turned to the great goddess and her sad expression was visible to everyone. James smiled when he heard those words and then said "150th floor, my lady, if you could see it all you should be working as a creator in Chaos'' place, you may be a goddess but you are not an all-seeing creator." His words seemed to comfort Nyx strangely. With that, the feast was over for James, Nemesis and the others would remain inside the feast while Chronos and James would train. So the pair left the banqueting hall and entered another room within the palace. Once James had changed into something more comfortable, he stood before Chronos and pulled out the wooden sword he kept in his inventory. "I was hoping we could work on my control over the time element," James suddenly said, but Chronos'' response was not at all what he had expected. Chronos slumped to the floor and then sat cross-legged, gesturing for James to sit down, James re-inventoried the wooden sword and looked intently at the old man before him. "I''m going to use the time element, all the time, no sleep, no distractions, I''m going to slow down time here as much as possible, since we''re on the 150th floor I can slow it down twice, so a day will be 58 hours. I''m going to get pretty tired as a result of this because I want you to know that stopping time in a field is strangely more difficult than slowing it down, so the element of time is a precious thing." James had begun to listen carefully when Chronos suddenly said these words, though he seemed quite confused. "You''re telling me that stopping time is easier than slowing it down. How is that possible?" James suddenly asked, and Chronos'' answer worked quite well: "Look, James. Time is a straight line, as long as there are people to regulate destiny, this line will not be broken, and that is why Moros and the others did not know what you were trying to say because as long as I allow it, as long as I claim the time of this tower, destiny will continue to be written. This means that I can stop time in the same way that I can stop destinies with the tower itself, but what we call slowing it down, especially when it is done to multiple targets, depends entirely on the energy of the person." "So you are saying that stopping time is done with the energy from the tower due to the law of time, but slowing it down is done with personal energy." "Exactly," Chronos replied. "And why are you choosing to slow down time right now instead of stopping it?" asked James, a little awkwardly. "Because we need to familiarise you with the time element as much as possible. You may have gained the element, but you can''t use it to its full potential unless you use it or get used to it. Think about your aura. The more you used aura and fire, the more they merged and without you realising it, your aura turned into fire, a precious fire, like the 8 sacred fires." "I understand, but since I don''t know exactly what the 8 sacred fires are, what you''re trying to say doesn''t make much sense," James said. Hearing this, Chronos shook his head and said, "You can think of it as one of the 4 main forces in the creation of the tower, the fire element you use has its qualities and now you have the time element, Chaos must plan many things for you." James seemed even more confused, but he really couldn''t question what had happened, he had to start training again. Chapter 97 - 97: The Time-Line "So let''s begin James, the moment I slow down time, focus on me, set up scenarios in your mind, and understand how to adapt time to you, it''s not about the views I have shown you before, it''s about your gain and how to use your attention. You have to embrace time itself." Chronos'' words put James under pressure even if he didn''t want to, they had limited time, even if a day lasted 58 hours, it was still up to him how much he could grasp time, which meant he had to do his best. "Yes, Master," James suddenly said, Chronos'' smile suddenly widened and James was overwhelmed by an insane amount of energy. James'' eyes widened as he looked at the old man in front of him and felt every nerve in his body being pressed down by a force, his body trembling and breathing becoming more and more difficult. "It''s very different from what I do, it''s not like this when I slow down time, is this... real-time?" As James watched Chronos carefully he could see his shadow, the two seemed to be in space, but Chronos had a shadow, covering all of space. When James looked at the shadow he seemed to be able to see the past, he didn''t dare look into the region of the future and he could see all the possibilities that encompassed the present. It would be fair to say that his heart was pounding, his gaze and expressions were filled with fear. In the pasts and possibilities he saw, he could see every single thing he had ever done and every single thing he could ever do. Thousands of scenarios where he died to the Goblin King, hundreds of scenarios where he drowned in the sea of rascals, scenarios where he chose Erebus'' card over Nyx''s, scenarios where he killed Ariel, scenarios where he didn''t listen to Chronos, and even scenarios where he rejected Nemesis'' love. He could see hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and even millions of scenarios. He was going out of his mind. He was going livid. The time elemental imprints around Chronos were slowly beginning to cover Chronos'' shadow, James could breathe more easily now and the trembling in his body had officially left him. "What did it feel like? How much did you see?" Chronos said suddenly. "It was scary...The past...The possibilities...Is this what you were talking about when you said you control destiny?" James suddenly asked, even though fear had left his body, his mind seemed to say otherwise. "Exactly, I can see destiny, everything that can and will happen, how much of the future have you seen?" Chronos asked and James, hearing this, said "I didn''t even dare to look there." and fell silent. Chronos could hardly keep himself from laughing at these words and then started to speak: "Now do you understand why I told you not to talk about the future?" Hearing these words, James smiled, albeit involuntarily, and then said, "Yes, very clearly, it has never been so clear." Chronos said, "The future is variable, James, as I mentioned before, each step taken and even each breath taken can lead to different results, this is what I call the probability direction." When James heard the probability direction, he asked "Spacetime flow?", Chronos was surprised when he heard these words and said, "Exactly...how did you?". James smiled and then said, "If you knew how many films and books have dealt with this subject in my world, old man, you''d lose your mind." "Can you tell me how time works in your world?" Chronos asked, suddenly very interested, and James shook his head: "It''s a concept with three zones, past, present and future. In my world, if it was possible to go to the future, it was thought that if something was done in the future, it would not affect what is called the present. If it was possible to go back to the past, there would be two different concepts and beliefs. Firstly, changing something in the past would not affect the events, it would only affect the current situation, in other words, going to the past and changing someone''s death would not change the future you live in, but it would create a different timeline." "The second belief is that in a situation where it is possible to go to the past if you change something or an event, you create another universe, another reality, another universe instead of another timeline. Some people say that if you go back in time, you can stay in the same universe as long as you change small things." "In my world, Space and Time is a concept that consists of 3 regions and progresses as two changes and one future." Chronos shook his head as James finished his words and then said, "Well, they''re not entirely wrong, in a situation not under the control of fate or the direct control of the gods, it might work as they say." "Focus, now you know what you need to do, my time element needs to be combined with yours," he said, closing the subject. James did as the old man said closed his eyes and then began to allow his time element to match with his. He could feel a higher concept surrounding his body like an aura comforting him, it was a very strange feeling. It was as if someone was giving him a big hug, he didn''t even know how to describe the relaxation in his body. In the end, it was obvious that it was working because James could feel his mind speeding up tremendously. The speed at which he was thinking now was not something he normally had. He was experiencing dozens of thoughts at once, trying to grasp the possibilities and the moves he could make within the possibilities. However, with a sudden pain in his heart, he opened his eyes, and Chronos suddenly stood up and stayed where he was. "Calm down and let it, let it embrace you," Chronos said it seemed that there was a lot to be solved in his teachings. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 98 - 98: Third Magic Ring "Calm down and let him, let it embrace you." In Chronos'' words, James suddenly let go of his tightly clutched chest and began to realise the strange sensation that had entered his body. He realised in a subtle way that the magic in his body was becoming more complex as if something inside him was beginning to evolve, he was able to understand the source of the pain he was feeling directly. The ''magic'' rings around his heart were the main source of the magic in his body and James could now recognise that they were developing and becoming more complex. As soon as he was back in the cross-legged position and able to relax and focus, he felt that even his breathing could be pleasurable as if every nerve in his body was being activated. The magic rings and his aura were not clashing and instead were trying to help James. His skin seemed to attract the magic itself, the aura in his body transferred the magic drawn from the outside into his heart and the two rings around his heart vibrated. After almost an hour of meditation, James slowly became aware of a third ring forming around his heart. He breathed deeply, inhaling and exhaling, drawing the magic from the field Chronos had created into his body without stopping for an hour. It seemed to take a tremendous burden on James to force a force so superior to him into his body, to acclimatise him to it. It was at that moment that he became aware of a hand on his back. "Stay focused, you''re doing well, all I ask is that you keep doing what you''re doing. If you manage to create the third ring, you will have a small chance against the Fallen Gods." Chronos suddenly said, and as his hand touched James'' back, the magical order around James seemed to be fully restored. James could now feel the enormity of the magical energy, or ''mana'' in the language of the world, entering his body, and even though he was doing his best to relax himself, the enormity of this energy was still overwhelming him. After a short period of time, James realised that the third ring around his heart was slowly becoming more and more tangible, or more precisely, distinct. Realising what was happening, James suddenly increased the circulation of the aura in his body to a higher level and increased the amount of magical energy coming in succession to an even greater amount. Chronos was shocked by James'' bravery, he didn''t expect anyone to knowingly put themselves in a situation that could jeopardise their life and burst their heart. Not since Erebus, a strange character, had he encountered someone capable of such foolish behaviour. "Well done James, you are doing very well, make the last move, and transfer all the energy you have gathered now to the third ring!" Chronos suddenly shouted, and James, hearing this, suddenly sucked all the energy he had gathered around him into his body. Blood was pouring out of all the holes in his body, no words could even be created to describe how much pain he was in, yet he could only imagine how much good it would do him. The third ring officially began to revolve around his heart and joined the first two rings. A ring was formed that was many times stronger and larger than the first two rings. James suddenly fell to the ground, albeit involuntarily, and Chronos stretched out his body to comfort him. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James could feel the blood flowing from his body, but the smile on his face seemed to indicate that he didn''t care. In just an hour and a half his body had formed a magic ring. "I''m proud of you, who would have thought that the aura itself could help gather magical energy," Chronos said suddenly, his smile showing how much he was enjoying what was happening. James laughed, showing his teeth, the blood seeming to stop coming out of the holes in his body. "We still have to stop this, we have inadvertently created a magic ring, what you needed to do was absorb the time element, not create a magic ring," Chronos said, and James seemed confused by these words. James, his brow furrowed in confusion, turned to the old man who was trying to heal him and then said, "But all I did was absorb the time element, they entered my body as magical energy." Chronos looked at James as if surprised by what he had heard and then said, "I need to check something." As he said these words, he placed a gentle hand on James'' chest and closed his eyes, James could feel the magical energy gently entering his body, his body was instantly free of all pain and relaxed. "How come?" Chronos said suddenly, the surprise in his eyes was indescribable. "Did I do something wrong?" James asked, not realising what was going on: "I have been living for a very long time, but this is the first time I have encountered such a thing, James. The first ring has no colour, the second ring burns with a colourful flame and the third ring glows with the law of time. The elements you use are engraved into the magic rings. It is incredible." James smiled when he heard these words and then asked, "How exactly will this help me?" Hearing the question, Chronos shook his head and said, "I have no idea, I seriously have no idea." Even a being like Chronos, who could be assumed to have a mindset since the beginning of time, was encountering such a thing for the first time. Chronos didn''t know when he had last been so shocked, yet he was very happy to have this young man standing next to him as his pupil. His gaze turned to the young man lying next to him with his eyes closed and he smiled, it was impossible not to smile. James was far too interesting. Chapter 99 - 99: Maybe This Will Save the 5th Floor James was very interesting. From the moment this young man entered the tower, the rules of the tower began to change inexplicably, the laws of the tower were shifted and had to be rewritten for him, he was gaining more and more achievements, and the degrees of achievements were so high that even the frequency of achievements had dropped. Chronos himself, who had always been lazy and bored with life, even if James hadn''t realised it, had started to behave as he had in his youth, just to train him. He was smiling, having fun, laughing, using his strength, in short, not afraid to use everything at his disposal. This was very different from the normal behaviour of the ageing Chronos. "I need to talk to Chaos..." Chronos suddenly thought he was quite right in his thoughts, there were indeed things they wanted to do, things they needed to discuss, and since he was one of the few people who could reach Chaos, it would not be awkward to do so. At least Chronos wasn''t going to bullcrap as James did and say that he was going to pierce the tower and reach Chaos, there was the fact that he could talk to him with messages as he always did. That''s why he grabbed James''s forehead and somehow managed to lull him to sleep, then opened the message window and sent a message to Chaos, hoping he wouldn''t regret what he was about to do: "We need to talk." When Chronos sent this message, things were heating up on the 5th floor. On the 5th floor, the black magic outbreak had receded from its serious state. The black magic had become strangely stable, and the kingdoms around the glacier mountain and the people controlled like zombies by the black magic could be restored. Thanks to the [Star Fragment], one of the sacred treasures of the church, a large-scale purification was able to be carried out, unfortunately, due to this situation, the energy of the sacred treasure, the Star Fragment, was depleted, and this treasure had been in a state of constant recharging for tens of thousands of years. Even though the 5th Floor was in a better condition, it still suffered a great loss of power. Ariel, Theseus, Perseus and a few others were sitting in the meeting hall of the imperial palace. Many people, including the high nobility of the empire, were in attendance. There was a great division of labour, Ariel had imposed an incredibly high level of responsibility on the Church of Night with his orders, and because of this, the way many priests used their powers, or rather their efficiency, had decreased. "I think my plan makes sense, Ariel. As soon as the Olympus Guild is blessed by the priests of the church, we can help the church to progress and suppress black magic a little." Perseus said. Every single person in the hall knew that Perseus was telling the truth. Looking at the history of the plans, transactions and guilds, it could be seen that Olympus was much better at purifying people and purifying things, unlike in mythologies, after all the legacy of Mount Olympos was written with war. Asgard within the 9 worlds of Yggdrasil was constantly at war due to the existence of the other 8 worlds under the gigantic branches and had to fight constantly in a search for dominance. In a way, Olympos fits the support criteria, while Asgard fits the position of a tank or a warrior. "You''re talking about something that will change depending on how many people they bless, Perseus." Theseus suddenly said, and he had a point. The priests of the Church were not weak. The priests of the Church of the Night were those who had worked for decades to become priests and had perfected the use of dark magic. Not only black magic but also the elements of darkness, light, mist, fog, fire and music. Their numbers may have exceeded millions, but the 5th floor was a gigantic place, as it has been said before. While there were millions of priests, there were billions of people. This made everything more troublesome. As soon as the priests of the Church of the Night blessed Olympus, it would be strong enough to surround the mountain, but the danger would envelop the rest of the 5th floor. The Church of Night was not the goddess they worshipped, they were powerful people who worshipped Nyx. So when their ability to protect was lost, the church would collapse. S§×ar?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ariel had already thought of that. This woman''s intelligence was enormous, and she had an ability called [Strategic Genius(Godly-)], which she gained thanks to her choice of Moros. Ariel, who had such a high intelligence, was able to instantly see many possibilities in front of her eyes when she had such a powerful ability. "Lady Ariel, what are you planning?" Wish suddenly asked, as if no one had expected the empress to speak. Ariel turned to Wish and then to the rest of the group, looking at Aether, one of the church popes, and asked, "Do you have any other items like the Star Shard? A treasure that can divide and distribute power, or add to it?" Aether didn''t seem to understand the purpose of the question, but he closed his eyes for a few seconds and thought about it, then stood up abruptly and replied, "Yes, my lady, we have an item called the [Tear of the Goddess], it is famous for dissipating the power put into it, it has been recharged for the last 550 years." Ariel shook her head and then asked, "What if you, Aether, and you, Datura, together cast a spell to spread a blessing and put it in the tear? Wouldn''t it be stronger than any priest''s blessing?" Hearing these words, the two high-ranking people suddenly got excited and left the room, Ariel''s plan was very simple. If the Olympos Guild wanted to be blessed, it had to be done, and if there was an item that could gather and trap a sudden power and then disperse it, it had to be used. Now there was only one thing left to do, Datura and Aether, who were powerful enough to make this item work, had to work together and cast the most powerful blessing spell in existence. No dark magic could overflow from the Frozen Mountain. It shouldn''t have. Chapter 100 - 100: The Barrier It had been almost four days. The priests of the Church of the Night continued to guard the borders of the empire well. The weakening of the Church seemed to have alerted the other kingdoms, it was like a chance for them to attack the empire. That''s why the sacred item [Tear of the Goddess] was filled with blessing magic only by Datura and Aether, the heads of the church. The Asgard Guild had already begun to protect the borders of the empire. There was talk of a not-so-hot war. "Do we know when the holy item will be ready?" Ariel suddenly asked, to which Ahil replied, "It''s almost ready, madam, we just need half an hour." Ariel and the others were now within the boundaries of the Frozen Mountain, and thanks to a few sacred treasures they had taken from the church, a huge barrier had been erected inside the huge camp. The distance between the camp and the Frozen Mountain was almost 45 minutes, there were little camps at the final point, and the camp was busy fighting against the ice monsters that were coming towards them from the mountain, Ahil said that there was only half an hour left to make the raid on the mountain and prevent any monsters from forming. Even the Emperor himself had joined the camp in this endeavour. [Everything seems to be ready, you will be able to cover the mountain in a short time.] Ariel suddenly looked at the message Moros had sent her and then nodded her head and said, "We''re going to do it, that''s for sure, but I have a bad feeling, something is watching us, something alive, I just learnt the concept of Fallen God and I can''t help but be afraid." When Ariel uttered these words, the people in Olympus agreed with all these words. Fallen Gods were the names given to the gods who died in the game of the gods. These gods were those who had passed the 100th floor and had not managed to ascend further and usually died frighteningly. Who they were, what gender they were, and what community they belonged to was meaningless, whether they were the children of creators of other universes or the children of Chaos itself, each of them could die and become a Fallen God. The strange being James had encountered on the 9th Floor was a Fallen God. It was one of Nyx''s enemies in the tower, which is why Erebus and several other gods and goddesses had killed it on the 9th floor. He was the child of another creator, but he was a fool. He thought he could go around harassing and killing whoever he wanted, and he saw himself as Chaos. When this bastard''s eyes turned to Nyx, his head was stepped on like an ant, and if he had been spotted earlier, his death would have been much easier, it was Nyx''s and Erebus'' fault, and there were great losses until the culprit was caught. After these events, the Church of the Night was founded, and the person who founded this church, which had been going on for millions of years, was so powerful that he had conquered the entire 5th floor, and under the name of Nyx, he had taken every resting floor from the 5th floor to the 75th floor under his command. That''s why there were abandoned churches on the other floors. Unfortunately, most of the church''s power had disappeared into the dusty pages of history. If the Church had its former power, that is, the power of its first generations, some of them could even challenge the gods who had passed the 100th floor. The Church of the Night was such a gigantic organisation and power centre that even in its current state they have a say over the entire 5th floor. [You need to calm down, James is only a short time away from returning, I am sure he will return stronger than before, he is training with Chronos himself]. When Moros sent this message, Ariel''s expression brightened considerably. "The Time Titan? I''m a big fan, I still can''t believe he lost to an arsehole like Zeus, mythology is a funny thing." Ariel suddenly asked if she could have seen Zeus'' expression, and the ancient god blushed, he even started to think that no one in the world James and Ariel came from liking him. [I don''t think it''s necessary to be so hard on Zeus...] "I mean, I don''t really care, but you can''t expect me to like someone who walks up to every woman in sight, and even if it was the other way round, I still wouldn''t like that person," Ariel said abruptly, yawning as she left the tent she was in. Ariel had left Olympus in a state of shock, but she had work to do, and showing interest in Moros would only slow things down. "Theseus!" Ariel suddenly shouted, waving to Theseus, who was a few dozen metres away, indicating that they needed to talk. Theseus was soon at Ariel''s side and looking at her with curious eyes. "The Tear of the Goddess is almost complete, get ready to move, get everyone on board and remember we are going to disperse to 8 magic points, what is the situation in the other camps?" Ariel asked. "The other camps are ready, we have managed to completely seal off the mountain, and even though the black magic has surrounded the camps, the 8 people to whom we will give the blessing energy from the Tear of the Goddess are scattered around the camps. We only have to wait for Lady Datura and Sir Aether," Theseus replied, looking very hopeful. Still, Ariel felt that everything had to be perfect. When James suddenly disappeared and went to Mount Olympus, everything had fallen under Ariel''s responsibility. With the rank of First Commander of the Chaos Guild, Ariel had the power to command the Church of Night, the Olympus Guild, and the Asgard Guild. Currently, from the 5th floor to the 75th floor, there was no woman more powerful than her. "Check everything again, Perseus is controlling the 4 camps on the other side of the mountain, I know you have already checked this place, so go to the other three camps and take a look, nothing can go wrong, Theseus, don''t forget," Ariel said the seriousness on her face reminded Theseus of his father Poseidon. Suddenly Theseus shook his head and left the camp with a sacred item to fulfil his mission successfully. "Everything has to be perfect, we have to protect the Church of Night and the empire," Ariel suddenly said, not realising how much those words had touched Nyx. S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 101 - 101: Arriving Back [I thought you had nothing to do with the gods?] When Moros sent a message to Ariel with these words, she frowned and then said, "The only reason I''m doing this is because James, even if you can''t get in, we can get out and get in, strangely, and I could leave here in an instant, but James wants me to protect this place, I''m sure of it." sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Even if Ariel didn''t realise it, with those words alone she had gained the favour of Nemesis and the other brothers, she wanted to protect James, whom she hadn''t known for a very long time, just because he looked like her daughter. Her love and respect for James had grown to a gigantic level. In Ariel''s eyes, James was clumsy, and a little silly, but incredibly talented and well-meaning. He had to be protected, he was too innocent for this tower. [As you say, we think you can hold it until James arrives, good luck Ariel.] With that message Ariel closed the window and then waited, they would have to wait until the Tear of the Goddess was ready. ----- Exactly 35 minutes had passed, and the Tear of the Goddess was waiting in a ready position, this sacred object was almost the size of a human skull and perhaps as thick as a human arm. The sacred object glowed with a gigantic brightness and the sacred energy within it made those around it breathe easier. "ARE YOU READY?" Ariel suddenly shouted and 8 windows opened in front of her telling [Yes ma''am!]. The first camp began to glow with a piece of the barrier that would be opened by Datura and Aether. The Olympian sorcerer in the camp was filled with insane holy energy, a sudden energy that began to move towards the mountain and after a while, it stopped and rose to the sky like an abstract window. Then the energy in the Tear of the Goddess began to dissipate. 7 gigantic rays travelled around the mountain to the other camps, and then each camp began to glow with a part of the barrier. After a short period, the whole mountain and its surroundings were filled with the energy of blessing and the sacred energy in its context. There was energy in the Tear of the Goddess that could make at least 15 more of this barrier. With the gathering of this energy, the barrier was formed and a deep yet muffled sound rose from the mountain. "OUGHOUAA!!!" The sound was at such a high decibel that even Ariel, Theseus, Perseus, Datura and Aether had to cover their ears even though their ears were protected. Immediately after the deep, muffled voice stopped, a dark, shadowy silhouette rose towards the barrier and began to strike it, forming a huge figure. The barrier glowed with each blow and the figure''s voice became even more vivid: "NYX!!! BRING ME NYX!" As the muffled voice said these words, Ariel glared at the figure and then said angrily, "What the hell kind of a bastard like you would use that name!" Ariel hated himself for her weakness and for not having the ability to protect her brain, after all, if everyone, not just her, could protect their minds, everything would be easier. Everyone was doomed to divine power. [Don''t be nervous young Ariel, James and Nemesis are on their way, we can start the attack.] Ariel read the message window that had suddenly opened in front of her and was glad that James had arrived, her whole body trembled when she saw the name Nemesis, she was so happy to meet the only goddess that interested her. After a short wait, Nemesis and James entered the camp. Nemesis was carrying James on her back like a baby, James suddenly got off Nemesis'' back and tried to hide his embarrassment by saying "Nemesis is faster than me, there is nothing to do". The others burst into laughter as if they hadn''t expected it, and with that, Ariel approached James and said, "I did my best." Nemesis and James smiled at these words and then reassured Ariel by saying, "We know, don''t worry, you did a good job." With that, James and Nemesis started heading towards the other side of the camp, the path towards the mountain. "You stay here, we don''t know what will happen when we enter the barrier, we don''t know what the other kingdoms will do even if they can stop the Fallen God, don''t forget to watch your back." James suddenly said that everyone knew what he said was right, they needed to protect themselves. Nemesis stroked James'' cheek and then said, "I can take you halfway up the mountain, we''re talking almost 7,000 metres, even if there are paths wide enough for you to climb, it''s still a huge distance." "Don''t worry about me, even if you are still stronger than me here, you are still weak compared to your true strength, please don''t let any harm come to you," James said and kissed Nemesis. Even though the people around could not understand what was going on between the two, they still chose not to question it. With that, the duo of James and Nemesis were on the move. They had already started moving along the path of the mountain and had managed to reach the entrance to the mountain. The barrier was right in front of them. James knew his heart was pounding with fear, Nyx had said that whatever was inside was far more powerful than anything they had fought on the 9th floor. James, who hadn''t felt pure fear in a long time, could now clearly feel his entire body being flooded with adrenaline from fear. Shaking his head left and right, he took a step forward but was suddenly stopped by Nemesis holding his hand. "Are you alright Neme?" James asked, but Nemesis'' face was filled with fear. "To tell you the truth, I''m scared, even if I didn''t want to show it in the camp just now, I''m very scared. I am scared to lose you." Nemesis said and James smiled and said, "Me too, but we''ll support each other, you''ll get halfway up the mountain and then leave the barrier, protect yourself and help me move forward." When he saw that Nemesis'' fear was not going to subside, he moved closer and gave her the most passionate kiss he could give her and then said, "Hey...We''re going to succeed, we''re not going to let anyone down, we''re going to live." He had no idea how much those words meant to Nemesis. Chapter 102 - 102: Access to the Mountain It had been almost twenty minutes since the duo entered the mountain path. So far, they had not encountered any monsters, and they were travelling relaxed yet alertly. Climbing 7,000 metres would not have taken that long because the mountain was not just vertical; it was a spiral, as if someone had pulled the mountain from the earth and raised it to the sky. So the duo of James and Nemesis continued on the path through the mountain, sometimes zigzagging and often circling. "Are you all right, Neme?" James said suddenly, already worried about Nemesis turning back halfway up. "Not really, thanks to the ring I got from my mum I can hold on a little, but the dark magic is really strong, it makes me nauseous and dizzy," Nemesis replied. Many gods and goddesses had the ability to protect their minds at higher levels, but Nemesis still did not have one of these abilities. Even if the ring that Nyx had given him helped Nemesis a little, it was still impossible to completely stop the hatred in the dark magic. James was incredibly lucky to have the Mind Palace ability. If he had wanted to create another ability instead of this ability, the 5th floor would fall. Of course, he was not the only one with the Mind Palace ability, but he was the only one with 100% protection against sleep, enchantment, etc., at least below the 75th floor. This seemed like it would help him tremendously in such a situation. "If you feel really bad, you come back instantly, got it?" James suddenly said. Hearing these words, Nemesis nodded her head and indicated that she understood, at which point her eyes widened and she suddenly moved past James, blocking an attack with her crystal shield. The glacial energy swept past James and Nemesis, several ice golems and, strangely, ice goblins stood before the pair. "Let''s get started then," James said, and suddenly he pulled Clarent out of his inventory and began to run. With each step, he avoided the ice arrows coming at him and approached the ice goblin in front of him. As soon as he was in front of the ice goblin, he activated his aura, and dark flames surrounded an area of almost 5 metres. The surrounding ice was melting a little, but it was not enough to stop these monsters. James suddenly swung Clarent and the head of the ice goblin in front of him cracked open, the body fell to the ground and James tried to move towards the next target. Just then Nemesis was in front of him again, killing 7 targets in almost half a minute. "You mustn''t tire yourself, James, let me fight," Nemesis said, her gaze full of concern and worry, the more James tired himself the more dangerous whatever was on the hill would become. "I''m sorry Neme, please be careful," James said suddenly, there seemed to be no reason for him to fight anymore. "Do you have any idea how far up we are, Neme?" James suddenly asked, and Nemesis shook her head and said, "We must be at least 500 metres up, the mountain is not like Mount Olympus, it''s a spiral, I can''t imagine how it was created, it''s incredibly easy to climb." When James nodded his head as if he understood, he said, "Then we have to speed up, we have to speed up." As soon as Nemesis said she understood, she grabbed James and started running, this wasn''t what James was talking about, but the fact that Nemesis was faster than him made everything easier. It was as if he was sitting in a racing car and the car was travelling at maximum speed without ever losing control. It would be wrong to say that James was not dizzy, the diameter of the mountain skirt may have been large, but it did not cover the upper parts of the mountain. Even if he was still in possession of something wider, it was clear that he was still moving incredibly fast. Nemesis came to an abrupt halt, put James down, and then lunged forward, gripping her crystal sword tightly. A huge icy golem stood before the pair, a golem so large that to the naked eye alone it could have been as much as 10 metres tall. S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nemesis suddenly plunged her crystal sword into the ground and started running, as James tried to realise what was happening Nemesis leapt into the air and started punching the golem in the face while holding the ice golem''s head in one hand. "Woah...." James involuntarily said in an admiring manner and continued to watch Nemesis with his eyes wide open. ''POW!'' ''POW!'' ''POW!'' The sound of punches echoed up and down the mountain. After a short time, the golem could no longer stand and fell backwards. Nemesis threw one last punch out of anger and went back to James looked at him and said, "We can continue." James shook his head from side to side and then smiled and said, "I am so in love with you." Nemesis had a strange expression on her face, but she smiled as if she liked these words, then embraced James again picked up her sword and started running again. Not long after, after an hour of running and climbing the mountain, Nemesis stopped and looked at James, panting as if his movement was restricted. "I can''t go any further than this, it''s like my mum said, the ring she gave me is a weak item because of how quickly she created it, it can only block dark magic for so long." When Nemesis said these words, James nodded and said, "Be careful on your way back." and turned around, he would be the only one from here on. After that it was up to James, even if it wasn''t really long or dangerous, it was obvious that he would eventually face the god of danger. Just as he was about to start moving, Nemesis'' voice was heard once more: Chapter 103 - 103: Aunty Emily? "Please be careful James, I beg you, if you realise your life is in danger run, don''t look back, please live." Nemesis'' words made James'' heart skip a beat, for the first time Nemesis, who was almost always said to have an emotionless expression, looked incredibly sad. Wrinkles had formed on her forehead and the colour of her eyes had officially changed to a bluish silver, her lips were trembling and she seemed to be trying hard not to cry. Nemesis, who had come to be known as the Goddess of War, had such an expression that even James, who was supposed to be her closest friend, her love, was deeply moved. James shook his head and said, "I love you," then turned and started to run. He didn''t know what dangers awaited him at the top of the mountain, he had no contact with Nyx, no one in Olympus could watch him, the entire floor was locked, and James was truly on his own. He was ascending through the Ice Mountain, battling glacial monsters born of dark magic and beginning to realise that he was no longer alone. He knew that once he entered the tower and found a purpose on the first floor, he would meet many people, including Nyx, but he didn''t know if he could commit to anyone with certainty. The presence of Nemesis, on the other hand, had managed to bind him to one place instantly. James had decided that his life was no longer his alone. This made him extra careful. Nemesis'' concern was the very thing that would make James more careful. James felt that with each step he took he was getting closer to something he recognised. He was climbing the mountain fast, not as fast as Nemesis, so it would take him two or three hours to reach the top of the mountain. Not as fast as Nemesis, but still incredibly fast for someone who had only made it to the tenth floor. His stamina was not bad, his strength was good and his energy was high. With each step, he continued to ascend the hill, strangely, no monsters appeared in front of him, only the cold that penetrated him with each step he took began to increase exponentially. "What''s going on?" James thought he had almost reached the top but he hadn''t expected such cold, he was being affected by the cold even though he was constantly working his aura around him, indeed it was possible to say that his body ached enormously. Yet the cold didn''t seem to be trying to kill him, it seemed to embrace him somehow, it was a strange feeling, he felt like he was freezing but felt no pain. "Welcome." A sudden voice came from his left side and James stopped abruptly and grabbed Clarent tightly, carefully putting his foot on the ground and taking his guard down. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When he looked carefully in the direction of the voice, he saw that the plants were covered with hoarfrost, there shouldn''t have been hoarfrost in such cold weather, because this cold was heavy enough to turn the plants directly into ice. "WHO ARE YOU!?" James suddenly shouted, and then a woman emerged from where the voice had come from, out of the green plants that were covered with hoar frost and hanging overhead. James was surprised when he saw her face, she looked strangely like the aunt his mum had shown him in a photograph a long time ago. "It''s been a long time James, I don''t think I''ve seen you since you were a baby, come and talk to me"'' the woman suddenly said, and James, hearing this, let his guard down and then set off to climb, just at that moment the woman''s voice was heard again: "Okay! You need to listen!" "Nuh-uh..." James said and then turned to start up the road, but the woman suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him. Even though James was shocked by her speed, he still didn''t hesitate to shake Clarent. After the woman avoided James'' blow, she shouted again: "I''M YOUR AUNTIE, ISN''T YOUR MUM''S NAME LEONA BLACK?" James suddenly heard his mother''s name and then stopped dead in his tracks, his Mind Palace ability made it impossible for others to read his mind and he had never told anyone his mother''s or father''s name before, not even Nyx. And how did this woman know about it? "Aunty Emily?" James suddenly said, he only knew her as well as his mum had told him and that made it all the more strange. "Yes it''s me, you don''t know me very well but I know you, I know why you went into the tower and I know what you''re trying to do now, we need to talk. Before you go and face that piece of crap on the top of the mountain." the woman called Emily replied. "I''d love to but I can''t, I''m not going to stand here with the whole of the 5th floor looking over my shoulder, even if the barrier holds, one false move and I''d be endangering everyone''s lives," said James, thinking he had to move. "The Tear of the Goddess is not an item that will last so little, James, please, I just need a few minutes of your time, I will tell you about our family history," Emily said and James nodded with great curiosity. Seeing James''s approval, Emily took a deep breath and then started walking towards where she came from, James followed her and after a short time, she came to a cave-like place. The inside of the cave looked strangely modern, James was about to ask what was going on when Emily started to speak: "It''s all about your destiny, James, the destiny of our bloodline. Do you know who we are? Do you know who you are?" Hearing these questions, James shook his head as if he didn''t know, and seeing this, Emily said, "I see...My sister didn''t tell you anything, but you still managed to get into the tower, so the prophecy must have started to come true." James didn''t seem to understand what was going on, he shook his head strangely and then said, "I don''t understand what you''re trying to say, my name is James Arthur Black, I''m human, what prophecy, what destiny?" He paused for a few seconds after what he had said and then clearly saw the expression on Emily''s face, she had a sad and resentful expression, James could not know that it was not because she was disappointed or anything like that, but because she realised the path James had taken without knowing anything. "I''m a human....right? That''s what it says on my profile..." James blurted out, not even knowing what to say. He just thought that seeing a literal soul of her aunty or perhaps the real body of her made him think that he was just like her. Chapter 104 - 104: The Fallen God Knows "Profile huh...James, you''d be surprised how easily the tower and the system inside it are fooled...Think about it, in a world where everything is normal, a child with lush green hair and green eyes deeper than nature itself is born. He has a feature that is contrary to the DNA of humanity, he has white skin, but his body is just as strong." Hearing Emily''s words, James shook his head for a few seconds as if he didn''t really believe anything and then asked, "Then what am I?" Emily turned her head after these words and looked from inside the cave to the top of the mountain. "I''m afraid we can''t talk right now James, I''d like to, but that piece of rubbish up there doesn''t seem to be letting you go, it''s sensing Nyx''s energy, it''s desperate to kill you, please be careful." Emily suddenly and then pointed to the ring on the table inside the cave and said, "This ring will allow you to talk to me, in a way, we will be able to talk to you from inside your mind. My soul will be trapped in that ring, Nyx can recognise the energy but you can dismiss it as an item, if you want to know everything wear the ring but remember James, I''ve been hoping for you to come here for a long, long time." When James took the ring on the table and looked at its features, he realised that what Emily had said was not a lie: [Black Family Heirloom A ring forged from a soul stone that has been waiting for the right person for generations and has the chance to obtain the souls of the Black bloodline. Terms of Use: Chosen by the Ring] When James read the trait, he began to think that he had not been chosen by Chaos by chance, he realised that his aunt''s spirit was moving towards the ring and he put it on without thinking. There seemed to be a world of things he didn''t know about his family. "I hope you tell me everything Auntie, I''m happy to meet you, to know that one of my family is kinda alive..." James suddenly said, that even if there was no return from the ring, the heat emanating from the ring seemed to tell James that he was not the only happy one. As he stepped lightly out of the cave, James realised that the cold outside no longer affected him to such an enormous extent that it was as if the ring he was wearing was fighting the cold instead of James. There was a distance of almost 10 minutes between James and the top of the ice mountain. James didn''t stop at all and managed to reach the summit with quick steps. Even if the summit of the mountain was piercing the sky, even if the clouds themselves were now passed, the summit was officially as big as a football field and James could easily see what was happening. A man was sitting on a throne of ice and looking at James with an angry expression on his face. "Sup?" James suddenly said. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The man smiled at this and said, "No way...Are you the one harbouring Nyx''s energy? I know you, your expression is quite familiar, who are you?" he asked. James looked at the ring when he heard these words, and the man who saw what he was doing turned to where James was looking and was suddenly surprised. The man suddenly stood up and shouted "BLACK!". Before James even realised what was happening, the man had disappeared, James had reflexively used the time element after all his practice with Chronos and then avoided the move coming towards him. "What the hell is going on?" James thought, and his thought was instantly answered: "I was wondering why your face looked familiar! You bastard, we may not have killed your ancestor, but we can try to wipe you out." James seemed genuinely stunned by what he was hearing, how many unknown mysteries were there in this ring and bloodline? Still, he knew he should try to fight instead of having these thoughts. He had a firm grip on Clarent and in his other hand, he wielded Selene''s Throwing Knife. At any moment, he might have to respond to the attack and counterattack. "I don''t even know who you are, but you keep talking about my ancestor, what stupid beings you all are!" James suddenly attacked instantly. They were on the 5th floor and the only one who could use all of his power right now was James himself, whether it was the Fallen God or Nyx himself, whoever it was, they would lose that much power every time they descended each floor. This meant that there was a huge difference between James, who was powerless on the 9th floor, and James with his current level of power, and this was the difference between the two Fallen Gods. The only change was that James became stronger and the Fallen Gods lost their powers. This meant that James had a chance, even if it was small. Pausing at James'' words, the Fallen God carefully looked at the young man in front of him and said, "You don''t even have a clue who you are, you want to attempt what he did when you are so weak but guess what''s different? You''re not even 0.000001% as strong as him." After these words, he lunged at James again, but this time James was able to follow the Fallen God with his eyes, the fact that he had just been caught off guard was what put him in danger. He met the attack of the man coming towards him with Clarent and realised that he had been pushed back a few steps. James had no intention of asking questions at the moment, there was already someone inside the ring who could answer his questions, that''s why James instantly lunged forward and tried to stab Clarent into the Fallen God by using his Pierce ability in a way that even exceeded his speed. Fallen God blocked the attack with his hand and then tried to grab James to attack back. "AUUUUUGH!!!" Fallen God suddenly realised that his hand was on fire. "WHAT THE HECK IS THIS MAGIC?!?!?!" shouted Fallen God, while James was quite happy with what was happening. "Haha..." he laughed, smiling at his sword. Chapter 105 - 105: A Life Saving Suprise "Haha...Clarent, you''re the best." James suddenly said, his gaze painting a bright image. It was obvious that Clarent was trembling, it couldn''t wait to clash with the Fallen God''s attacks. It was indeed King Arthur''s weapon, the weapon of peace, but he was eager to fight. As the old saying goes, "When a sword is forged, it must draw blood". When James realised that the Fallen God was writhing in pain, he leapt to continue the attack. Again and again, he slashed his body with Clarent, and some of his attacks were successful, even if they were only tiny cuts. "What kind of sword is that?!" the Fallen God suddenly shouted and suddenly opened his arms, unleashing a huge amount of energy. James was sent flying back almost 10 metres, the impact of the energy was so huge that even breathing was difficult for a few seconds. "It''s not that strong, the tower works in my favour, even if it''s the first time I can still beat it." thought James, he might still be weaker than the being in front of him but that didn''t mean he was the weakest. James stepped harder and more determinedly on the ground as his aura once again surrounded him. His magic overflowed from his body again and strengthened the flame quality in his aura many times over, the Fallen God could not help but be surprised by what he saw, the anger on his face was very clear. "YOU BLACK BLOODLINE BASTARDS, YOU''VE NEVER GOED TO EXTINCTION, NOW YOU''RE USING MAGIC AND AURA AT THE SAME TIME, YOU FLIPPING TWATS!" shouted Fallen God suddenly, but James didn''t give a damn what he said. He suddenly stopped time for a split second and ran, a normal run for him, but for the Fallen God, it was like James had teleported. Nevertheless, the Fallen God managed to move a little at the last moment and avoided the attack on its heart. Clarent suddenly stabbed the Fallen God right in the stomach, and then James drew the sword and blood began to gush out incredibly quickly. James smiled, very pleased with his attack, but was shocked by the sight he suddenly saw. The place he had pierced with Clarent had suddenly healed. "Did you think you could kill me with something like that? Didn''t you realise? I''m pure black magic." the Fallen God suddenly said, the contemptuous smile on his face unbelievable. James realised that this attack had only worked for a second. The small portion of the time elemental James was using, contained in his aura, could damage things like black magic. It was only one of the 4 main powers Chronos said, but James'' level was not enough to kill him. If he could have the power of the flames that Chronos mentioned, this battle would have been very easy, Chronos had mentioned something about a part of those flames being inside James in the drill they finished before returning to the 5th floor. His exact words were: "Look James, strangely enough, you have a huge ability to the Element of Time, and as I saw when I checked your aura, you also have a piece of the 8 sacred fires, just an incredibly small piece of it. I don''t know how it is like that because the only person who has these powers must be the creator, Chaos must know something since he is the one who invited you to the tower. The reason I am telling you this is that the person you are going to fight now is probably someone you cannot kill in your human form, with normal powers, without these powers because your holiness is incredibly low, the only thing you can hope for is that you will be able to properly use the time element that has begun to be engraved into your aura and hope that the fire element will support you." These words made perfect sense to James now that he saw them with his own eyes. After all, James had been able to confirm what Chronos had said, even if the wound he had inflicted with Clarent had closed immediately, it had been possible to inflict a wound in the first place. But what would have happened if he had succeeded in delivering this attack to his heart? Could this attack have killed the Fallen God? After all, black magic came from the magic rings around the heart, so destroying the heart would release the magic and the caster would be destroyed. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After all, most of the Fallen Gods were not alive, almost every one of them had been killed in the past so they were basically memories, and the Fallen God currently facing James was in this category. After all, if there was a living one, the 5th floor would have been destroyed a long time ago. Even if the tower had weakened them, they were still true gods, gods with a high degree of divinity. "I thought I was going to kill you, to tell you a lie, I guess it was worth a try." James suddenly said, and the smile on the Fallen God''s face suddenly fell. The Fallen God seemed to have James under its control as the energy it was radiating around had increased to an even greater degree, James couldn''t move an inch, he realised that his whole body was writhing in pain. All his muscles were tensing one by one and his nose was bleeding, it wasn''t the dark magic that was affecting him but the enormous amount of energy that was being released. It would have been fine if it was the spell itself, but it was the energy of the Fallen God itself that was spreading over James, the enormity of the mana energy was oppressing James himself. Even though James was trying to get rid of this pressure, he was unable to do so, at that very moment he realised that something in his inventory had started to move, and cracking sounds started to form in his mind. At that moment, the Mystical Beast Egg in his inventory had just popped out of his inventory, just like Clarent had done before. Fallen God paused when he saw the egg and then said, "A Mystical Beast Egg?" The kind created by the Supreme Dragons, the kind that no one knows what will come out of it, and you''re giving it to me as a farewell gift, Black?'' Yet at that very moment, something that no one had expected happened, in just a split second, the Fallen God was pinned to the wall a few dozen metres away. The energy surge was gone, what was going on? Chapter 106 - 106: Baby Supreme Dragon Stunned, the Fallen God detached itself from the wall and looked towards James with its eyes wide open. James was looking at the being standing right in front of him. A small child had hatched from the egg. "Nemesis?" James suddenly said, and with that, a notification window appeared in front of him: [Congratulations, Mr Umbra! You have succeeded in hatching a mystical monster egg, something no one has been able to do for a long time. The hatching entity''s loyalty to you has increased by 100%. The hatching being will have the image of you and your love. If you want to name it, go to the character section of your profile and give it a name. The gender of the entity is female. The Age of the entity is set to 1. The entity''s current level is set to 1. The entity has a status average of 100. The entity''s elemental predisposition is "Time, Fire, Space and Darkness". The entity belongs to the Supreme Dragon race, which stands above all races]. When James read the window in front of him, he paused for a few seconds and shouted "EMMA ARE YOU THERE?" but he didn''t get any message back, he realised that even Emma couldn''t see what was happening right now. As he looked at the being...child...thing standing right in front of him, he could feel the aura coming from it perfectly. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This child had managed to throw the Fallen God several dozen metres the moment it hatched to protect James. "Dad?" the girl suddenly said, James would have made a strange face if he hadn''t read the window, but now it all made sense. It was like a duckling adopting the first thing it sees as its mother the moment it emerges from its egg, yet this girl seemed to be intelligent enough to distinguish between father and mother, of course, she would be, after all, nothing less could be expected from a monster with a status average of 100. The Fallen God seemed to attack as soon as it realised what was happening, James saw it attacking and rushed forward picking up Clarent who had fallen from his hand, he had to stop the Fallen God from attacking the girl. James suddenly lunged forward and blocked the punch that came to the little girl with his sword. When the dragon he was trying to protect saw this, the energy in her eyes changed, the energy level around her increased to a gigantic level and her claws appeared in human form. The dragon''s azure hair reflected the image of the surrounding sky and its golden eyes were wide open as it watched the spirit of the Fallen God. The she-dragon looked so angry that the ice around her seemed to have been lost to her darkness, and she had even managed to melt some of it with just his normal breathing. James suddenly realised that he was starting to feel better, he couldn''t understand what was happening but he could feel the aura and magic in his body starting to develop. Suddenly he stood up and made a sudden move with Clarent. "KUAGH!" Fallen God screamed in pain, his chest was cut in half, he might have healed, but he could still realise that something was wrong with his body, his ability to heal was incredibly slowed down. [Target subjected to bleeding effect]. James smiled as he read the notification that suddenly appeared in front of him and then said, "So? I wonder how useful your healing ability from your black magic will be now." Fallen God couldn''t understand what was going on, but his eye was caught by James'' shadow. James'' shadow was moving in a gigantic way as if it reminded him of the person they had always feared. The Fallen God was not going to fall so easily, he had no desire to do so so he quickly backed away and began to gather as much magical energy, mana itself, as he could. James couldn''t understand what was happening but he had to protect the girl behind him, the moment Moros handed the egg to James the egg and what came out of it became his responsibility. As James stepped in front of the girl and surrounded them with aura, the massive amount of magical energy that the Fallen God had gathered began to come towards the duo, and James hoped that they would not die as his eyes flickered with fear. At that very moment, the dragon stepped in front of James and stopped with an open palm. James wanted to pull the girl away but it was too late, he hadn''t even thought to use the time element at that moment, no matter how skilful he was, no matter how much potential he had, the person in front of him was a god, everything seemed to disappear in his mind from fear. Suddenly the spell struck the dragon and spread out across the mountain. The barrier set up by the Church of Night cracked and then shattered. As the barrier was rebuilt, the peak of the mountain, which had been covered in dust and smoke, began to scream. Thunder rumbled, and a huge snowfall seemed to have suddenly begun. Nemesis, who was standing next to Ariel outside the foothills of the mountain, seemed to show concern in her eyes. When Ariel noticed those eyes, she asked, "Lady Nemesis, what''s going on?" but there was no answer from Nemesis, only a growing concern in her eyes. Even the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus had noticed this energy. "What kind of mana energy is this? I don''t understand, neither the Fallen God nor James can emit such energy, it''s the same as...." Zeus said and before he could even finish his sentence, Moros'' voice was heard: "The mana of the Supreme Dragons..." "That''s impossible! Even if it is a Supreme Dragon egg, the higher beings are things that shouldn''t exist in the tower, they are creators! They mate and make the eggs that will give other creatures no?" shouted Thanatos suddenly, even though he was looking around in disbelief. "They don''t count as creators, my son, my father created them to protect the universe in which the tower exists, not creators, just higher beings like me and Erebus," Nyx said, surprised, as if no one understood what she was trying to say, and then Moros'' voice was heard again: "What are you trying to say, Mum?" Chapter 107 - 107: Supreme Dragons "What are you trying to say, Mum?" Nyx shook her head at Moros'' question and then said, "The Supreme Dragons were created by Chaos as our protectors. Guardians of the tower. Most of them used to live their own lives inside the tower, but when my father wanted them to fulfil their guardian duties, they forbade their kind from living inside the tower." Everyone seemed even more confused. At that moment, Erebus tapped Nyx on the shoulder and said, "You''re making it too complicated, my dear." He stopped Nyx and began to speak: "In a way, our father created them to keep the other creators from touching the tower. Of course, Chaos himself is the one who created the other creators, but he''s a bit...Cough...He''s lazy, so it was easier for him to create others instead of protecting things himself, someone who could compete with the power of the creators, the Supreme Dragons." He paused for a few seconds and then said, "Just as Nyx had said, the Supreme Dragons had banned their kind from entering the tower to prevent any attempt at dominance. By their very nature, the eggs from their matings would give birth to a creature according to the potential of the person who raised them." Hearing this, Hades was surprised and said, "So you are saying that.....James'' potential is enough to create a Supreme Dragon with the mana contained in the egg?" Erebus shook his head when he heard these words and said, "It was Nyx and me who gave the egg to Moros, as a birthday present, after all, our child is a mystical monster fan, so it was necessary to make him happy, we simply asked two Supreme Dragon to make us one. He gave James a gift, the hatching process of the egg was very different from normal, the only thing that could bend reality in any sense of the word was the eggs of the Supreme Dragons." "I thought I found the egg myself?" Moros said in surprise, and Nyx turned to him and said, "Really? You thought you found a Supreme Dragon egg?", Moros shook his head sheepishly and fell silent, and then Erebus continued. "During incubation, the egg takes on the energy of its caretaker, moulded by the attack patterns and elements it uses, in short, that''s how potential is measured. Then the egg owner is expected to find a mate just like Supreme Dragons, someone they can love and protect with their life, even if the egg does not hatch until then, even if it has an incubation period of 100%. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The Supreme Dragon''s magic, mana energy, binds the pair together and the three of them can sense when one of them is in danger or well, a very nice feature if you ask me." "So the egg was ready to hatch when James accepted Nemesis and wanted to claim her for himself?" Apate asked. "Exactly, James may not have realised it, but the incubation period must have been incredibly close to completion and the egg hatched on the mountain, and what came out of it must have been a Supreme Dragon. A race that hasn''t emerged in millions of years, a member of the blessed race that even outside the tower there is only a handful left," Erebus replied. "This is what Supreme Dragons are all about. They are known as the most perfect race created by the Creator, their beauty, their power, and even their function, sad as it may be, must be admitted...more perfect than me and Nyx." Erebus added, and with that, the entire hall fell silent. After a few seconds, Moros shook his head and then said, "Then I''m glad I gifted the egg to James, I am, if such a huge mana energy was released, then the dragon is fighting, and James'' life might have been saved..." When Nyx heard Moros'' words, she stood up and walked down the stairs in front of the throne, stroked her son''s cheek and kissed him on the forehead. "I''m proud of you, my son, for not letting jealousy get a foothold in your heart and instead being happy about James, well done," she smiled and then added, "Connect to Ariel, we need to see what''s going on, even from a distance." Moros nodded his head and immediately connected to Ariel to see what she was seeing and the whole hall began to watch intently. The lightning that was flashing all around the mountain was a perfect yet frightening sight, the sudden blizzard that had suddenly appeared had begun to cover the mountain in a strange vapour, and nothing could be seen. "James!" Ariel screamed suddenly, only to realise that the worry in Nemesis'' eyes had dissipated. "He''s fine...I can feel it...somehow..." Nemesis said suddenly and those who heard it were stunned, it was clear that no one knew what was going on. James could barely open his eyes because of the ice dust that was in the air at the time. "ARE YOU OK, GIRL?!" he shouted, and suddenly he saw golden eyes staring at him. He fell to the ground in fright and then hugged the little girl, smiling as if he was so glad that she was safe. James looked very relieved indeed. It was at that moment that James realised that his back was getting wet, a warm sensation had touched his clothes and felt even on the Adamant Armour. James stopped hugging the girl and looked at her hand and saw that it was bleeding profusely from the attack, he instantly took out the highest level health potion from his inventory and gave it to her, and with that, her hand was healed. James patted her on the head and was able to relax for a few seconds, at which point he felt something coming at them and jumped to the left, embracing her. As the ice dust fell back to the ground, the incoming attack was obvious, the Fallen God seemed to be looking at James rather nervously. James smiled as he looked carefully at the Fallen God, the Fallen God was missing an arm and his whole body was covered in blood, it seemed strange that the Fallen God, who was dead and formed by the embodiment of spirituality, had fallen into this state. This battle could have been won. Chapter 108 - 108: Killing the Fallen God "That''s enough help, go and hide, I''ll do the rest, I''ll finish this quick," James said as he set her down. He then stood up and grabbed Clarent tightly, suddenly lunging forward and attacking the Fallen God. With each attack, he made several more slashes and managed to push the Fallen God backwards. Fallen God was injured by his attack. As the Dragon blocked and reflected the spell, it ricocheted off the caster and severed his arm, affecting the magic circle. There was no way for the Fallen God to recover. His heart, where the black magic was coming from, was damaged and Fallen God''s ability to heal was indeed destroyed due to James'' bleeding ability. "YOU, DAMN YOU!!!" the Fallen God shouted, but it was too late, if he hadn''t bothered to humiliate James in the first place and used everything he had and had done so before the egg hatched, James would have been dead already. He was going to die because of his stupidity. James suddenly used his time elemental and in just a second, he stabbed Clarent into the Fallen God''s heart. "It''s not over yet!" shouted the Fallen God and suddenly the entire mountaintop began to tremble. James instinctively jerked backwards and suddenly realised the huge amount of magical energy rushing towards him. Fallen God seemed to use every last drop of magical energy he had, his body practically glowing. James started running as soon as he saw what was happening, he had to run, he found the girl hiding on the road and embraced her and started to run away from the area quickly. Everything happened so fast, James was constantly using the time element and trying to run faster for a few seconds, even if he was dizzy, even if his nose was bleeding from the depletion of his magic energy. "BOOM!!!" A sound of enormous decibel suddenly passed through James'' eardrums and made his head feel like it was going to explode, an incredibly high heat started to move towards James but he could no longer move, he suddenly realised that he was at the entrance of the cave where he had found his aunt''s soul and he went inside with the girl. It is not known how it happened, but all the heat just passed by the cave without even entering the cave, after almost thirty seconds of heat dissipation, everything seemed to be over, just at that moment, several notifications appeared in front of James: [You have levelled up 14 levels. You have earned the title of Fallen God Slayer]. [Fallen God Slayer(Title) This title will allow you to deal 1% more damage to those counted as Fallen God]. [Way to Be a God ability is working! You have gained 217,538 believers! Your Holiness stat has increased by 25,000. You have gained 50 distributable status points. You have gained 17,793,883 gold. You have attracted the attention of the remaining 6 major sins of Hell. The angels of Heaven are now watching you with even greater scrutiny.] [Archangel Michael is enormously proud of what you''ve done.] [All of Olympus thanks you.] [Fallen Angel Lucifer says he will find the tower recordings in private and will monitor the battle from Chaos'' hands through the tower recordings if necessary.] [You have reached Level 50! The Tower offers you 20 status points to distribute for this special achievement]. James smiled as he read all these notification windows one by one and tried to control his breathing deeply. When he looked at the girl standing next to him, he smiled and patted her on the head, saying, "You worked a miracle today, little one." James was already starting to heal, his healing ability was healing him as best it could, but he didn''t have a health potion in his inventory and that made everything difficult. He thought that he would have to wait here for a few minutes, just then, as if he had thought of something, he opened his profile and entered the girl''s profile, clicking on the name change, "Haha...What else would you call a miracle worker?" and typed [Miracle] in the name change. [Are you sure you want to change the female Supreme Dragon member''s name to ''Miracle''? YES/NO] When James was presented with the option, he pressed yes and turned to the girl next to him with a smile. "From today, your name will be Miracle, I will be your father," he said. Hearing these words, Miracle hugged James with a smile and closed her eyes, lying on his lamb like a cat, her body suddenly shone and turned into a dragon form. Miracle was as small as a kitten, with a purplish lower body and an upper body of bright purple that looked like it was on fire. Miracle looked like a masterpiece and was considered James'' child. James now had a second reason not to do anything stupid, not to die. [You''ve done a great, important and beautiful thing, James.] James looked at the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him and then realised that the barrier between the floors had been lifted. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "The Fallen God blew himself up, my lady, he blew up the circles in his heart with the last shred of mana he had left, I almost died," James said. [Nevertheless, you were able to realise this in a short time and managed to escape, you have improved a lot, James, and we are very proud of you]. When James read this message, he smiled and closed his eyes. "I''m going to need to rest for a little while, and then we can start climbing the floors, my lady, with the Arena and all, I''m starting to lose track of the goal I set for myself," James said he wanted to fulfil his goal of meeting Chaos. After all, he had a purpose and a passion for this purpose. Then he patted the head of Miracle, who was sleeping on his lap, and said, "I''m not going to live for myself anymore, after all, I have Nemesis and Miracle." James could not have known how much these words moved Olympus and made them proud. This was over. The Fallen God was dead. Chapter 109 - 109: Seems Like a Happy Family James had been sitting inside the cave for almost thirty minutes, most of his wounds had closed, but as usual, some had not. However, he started to hear footsteps coming from outside, his smile grew and he turned his head towards the entrance of the cave. "James are you here?!" came a shout from outside the cave. "Yes!" shouted James and then four people entered the cave. Nemesis, Ariel, Theseus and Perseus were standing just to the left of James. When the four of them looked at James, he was in a completely relaxed position, Ariel fell to the ground as if her legs were no longer holding her and Theseus put one arm around Perseus and smiled. Nemesis just stood there with a perfect, cute and refreshing smile. "You look good," Nemesis said, and James smiled and replied, "I was a mess, auto-heal is a useful thing." Nemesis couldn''t hold himself back any longer as she walked over to James and then sat down next to him, resting her head on James'' shoulder. "You have no idea how scared I was..." Nemesis said, and James, hearing this, smiled and said "Yeah yeah I love you too." and fell silent. Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to him, he said, "Ah! By the way, we have a daughter, Nemesis." Nemesis and the others seemed quite surprised by this. James calmly woke Miracle, who was sleeping on his leg, and then said, "Would you please transform into human form?" Miracle''s body glowed again as soon as she heard this, and then she stood in front of James and Nemesis as she had first hatched from the egg. "Is this THE Supreme Dragon?" Nemesis asked, and hearing this, James said, "Yes, it''s mine and yours, our daughter." Nemesis looked at Miracle with great surprise and said, "Umm, does this girl look like me or am I imagining things?" "She looks like both of us, the Supreme Dragon egg looks like its owner and owner''s mate," James said and Nemesis realised that her heart was pounding, she didn''t know whether to be happy that James saw her as his mate or happy that there was tangible proof of it. "At least you gave her some clothes...We still need to find better quality ones...I guess I''ll have to go to Hephaestus." Nemesis said, and James, hearing this, shook his head and said, "I don''t know if you believe it, but she hatched with these clothes." These words seemed to surprise everyone once again, even James was still puzzled about it, but everyone seemed to know that this strange conversation had to end. James took Miracle gently by the hand and then said, "Miracle, this is your mum." Miracle looked at Nemesis for a few seconds, then slowly walked over and sat down on Nemesis'' knees. The little girl looked a little uncomfortable, after all, Nemesis was wearing her crystal armour. James, however, slowly tried to get to his feet and realised that his head was spinning massively, he had lost a lot of blood and it was not a good thing that auto-healing was not working. Seeing that James had lost his balance, Theseus suddenly lunged forward and took James gently by the arm. "Thank you Theseus, I''m sorry, you''re seeing me at my weakest..." James said and Theseus smiled and said "Are you kidding? This is the strongest you have ever been." trying to explain to James the enormity of what he had achieved. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Hah! Indeed it is like that! We can''t even tell you how many gods and goddesses are looking in your direction, Master James! Even the enemies of Olympus are on their knees thanking you! It turns out that everyone has a few pieces of what they hold dear on the 5th floor, yet the fact that no one but the likes of us can leave this floor is a death sentence for them!" Perseus suddenly said with a bright smile on his face, and then gently began to carry Ariel, who was sitting on the floor, like a princess. "Then let''s go! Lady Nemesis will carry young lady Miracle, Theseus will carry James and I will carry Lady Ariel, we have a long way to go." Perseus added, his face radiating happiness, he had a very strange yet funny personality. When Theseus took James on his back, James involuntarily lost his ability to endure and closed his eyes, he was so tired that there was no way to explain it. He had trained with Chronos for 5 days, but because of the time slowdown in the time field, James had tried to gain mastery over his time element for almost 290 hours without sleeping. He was very tired indeed, and all that training and fighting, with all the attention and magic and mana energy he had expended, had left him close to death. There was no need to describe how much blood he had lost, he was really in a terrible state. While James fainted and people were returning, at the top of the tower, in what the gods called the void, Chronos was talking to the supreme being himself. "I don''t understand, you blocked everyone''s memories, including your own daughter? You have wiped the man''s face. Chaos, are you telling me that you''ve erased from the records someone who''s killed more gods than I, Ra, Erebus and the others?!?!?!?" Chronos had been talking to Chaos non-stop for almost two hours, he had learnt, or rather remembered, secrets he should have kept and truths he should not have known. He understood that all of this was being kept for James, but not all of Chronos'' questions had been answered by Chaos, there were still dozens of mysteries and just as many questions. It was inconceivable that Chaos and that man had worked together to erase the memories of all the gods and even the tower itself. What exactly was the Creator trying to do? What was the all-purpose of doing those things? Chapter 110 - 110: Truth Behind The Black Familys Bloodline (1) Chronos paused after his questions, he was angry with Chaos, after all, Chaos was loved for giving free consciousness to his creations, and now that he knew that he had erased everyone''s memories, or rather structured them, he was maddeningly angry, he could not make sense of what was happening. "WON''T YOU ANSWER OH CHAOS?!" Chronos suddenly shouted into the void of space, but there was no answer coming his way, Chaos seemed to be exercising his right to remain silent. Chronos didn''t even know what he was supposed to say, he had managed to learn James'' identity almost exactly, but he had no idea if he was supposed to tell Nyx and the others. "He had become one of the closest in power to me, the creator, a friend that I can look up to. Even when he lived on the lower floors of the tower, he had more power than my daughter Nyx on the highest floor. He was like a monster, living in nightmares, but even to him something bad happened.''" Chronos was surprised when Chaos suddenly uttered these words. "What could have happened?" Chronos asked, and Chaos, hearing this, said, "He contracted a disease that I refused to cure, after I gave him a warning that this might happen one day, he didn''t care, and although he was not a god, killing so many gods had poisoned his body with magic." Chronos was surprised and wanted to know more. "That''s all I can tell you Chronos, forgive me, but this is a promise, a promise I made to him, I can''t break this promise because I owe him." Chaos suddenly said, Chronos seemed to be left in the middle of the road. Still, old Chronos knew that he could not go against his creator''s word, he was just afraid of the shock, excitement and confusion that James would experience when he learnt of such things. "I will protect James whether it is because of him or not, and if you made a promise to his ancestor, then I must protect his bloodline." Chronos suddenly said, and with that, he opened a portal behind him, bowed to Chaos, and walked through the portal back into the hall of Olympus. As soon as he entered, the eyes of those around turned to Chronos, even if the old man was trying to avoid the eyes, he could not succeed. "Where have you been, Chronos?" Nyx suddenly asked, and for the first time, Chronos seriously rebuffed Nyx: "It''s something you don''t need to know, Nyx, believe me, not this time," Chronos said, and with that, he left the hall and started heading towards his place. What he left behind were dozens of bewildered gods and goddesses. James woke up during this process. There was no one in the room he woke up in, it didn''t take him long to realise that he was in his room. When he tried to move his body, he felt a strange body pain and realised that the pain was hitting him just as much. "Agk..." After a small groan, he realised that he shouldn''t move and let himself go, then he thought of his aunt, so he thought calmly: "Aunty, are you there?" As James was thinking these thoughts, the ring on his finger suddenly glowed, the spirit of his aunt materialised and sat down on the armchair next to the bed as if she was alive. "We can talk now, James," Emily suddenly said, and James, hearing this, said in his mind, "Someone might come in the room, they''ll see you," he didn''t want to tell Nyx and the others, who were probably watching him, what was going on. "Don''t worry, only you can see and hear me. Now to the point, do you remember what your mum said to you the day she died?" Emily said suddenly and James paused for a few seconds as he heard Emily''s words, he could feel a deep ache in his head after those words. "James...live a good life, my son..." James suddenly felt a throbbing pain in his mind and realised that a memory had formed in his mind. He seemed to hear the words his mum had said to him when they had been in the car accident. "Do you remember, James? Do you hear my sister?" Emily said and James, hearing these words, looked at her and said: "What are you trying to say, I don''t understand?" James replied. Emily looked at James when she heard these words and then started to speak: "A lost warrior, a warrior who worshipped Nyx, the supreme goddess, but who saw that after long battles the fights of that time would not be extinguished, a warrior who fell ill, a warrior who begged Chaos to create a prophecy and made his own soul wait millions of years." "A worshipper of Nyx?" James thought, his mind wandering to what Emily had said in that short sentence. "A warrior who founded the Church of the Night, the one who created the Sun Empire, a supreme being blessed by Chaos himself, who can kill gods and destroy their souls with just his gaze. A bloodline forgotten by Chaos until its time, the highest human bloodline that has ever existed." Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James was shocked frozen where he was for a few seconds and asked, "So you''re telling me I''m someone from the tower, that my ancestor is the same one who founded the Church of the Night, that he''s Nyx''s greatest follower, and that he planned everything with Chaos?" There were dozens of questions in his mind. "No, our ancestor was someone from the tower, we were born outside, but yes to all other questions," said Emily. "But does that mean my fate is sealed? What about Chronos then? Does he know something? Is the fate and the line of time he tells about some kind of nonsense? Was everything written? Was I playing?" Emily smiled and said, "No James, the prophecy was only meant to protect you until you entered the tower, to be honest, the prophecy was there to protect the one will be enough for the tower and killing gods which in this scenario it is you. Your parents are dead aren''t they, don''t you remember? You don''t recognise any relatives or anything, don''t you find that strange? Your mum must have shown me to you, do you remember your dad''s face, do you have your memories?" When James heard the last thing Emily said, he took a few steps back to his memories and tried to remember his father''s face. "Leon Black...He does not exist does he?" he suddenly asked. The questions in his mind were increasing. Chapter 111 - 111: Truth Behind The Black Familys Bloodline (2) "Yes, he never existed. James, you were always in control of your life, with only minor tweaks to keep you from dying, to get into the tower and start the prophecy, to finish what your ancestor started. Why are you here? Why did I want to talk to you just before you faced a Fallen God? Why did I wait for this exact moment, the one moment when no one could watch you... Didn''t you ever think about that?" Emily suddenly said. After these words, James stood where he was took a deep breath and said, "To finish the work my ancestor started...But it was Erebus, Nyx and the others who created the Fallen Gods, or rather made them fall..." Hearing these words, the smile on Emily''s face grew even bigger and James, who saw this smile, said, "But even before the war they fought, our ancestor had already slaughtered the gods even before the church was founded..." He seemed to be trying to understand a few things. "So you''re saying Chaos made everyone forget all this? But why?" James suddenly said, and just then he was stopped by Emily. "Look, James, your ancestor...or rather our ancestor has a strange, deep and kind of bad and good past. His name was Desmond. Desmond Black. When the tower was created, several beings were put inside the tower, with hidden blood, and hidden races. Like elves, dwarves, demons and more...Humans have always been considered the inferior race, weaker than all of them, more fragile than all of them." Emily said. "But all that changed when Desmond was born. He had a perfect life, maybe he wasn''t born into a family with such a good financial situation or great power, but he was happy. However, a god saw this happiness as too much for them and slaughtered his family, leaving him alone. Desmond had to climb the tower and become a god, he had to destroy those who had caused him and many others pain." Emily added. "So that''s how our blood was born?" James suddenly asked. "Yes, it was, but there was a different and sequential sequence of events. Desmond stopped just before he got to the 75th floor, just as he had cleared the 74th floor. [If I''m going to become a god to slaughter gods, it''s no use giving up my humanity!] he said to himself, which resulted in him never achieving divinity." "But he couldn''t give up, he wanted revenge, he wanted humanity to be above all races, for even the gods to be unable to do what they wanted." "Desmond had caught the attention of Chaos after dozens of battles and the banishment of several high-ranking gods to the upper levels." "Chaos asked him what his purpose was, but Desmond chose to spit on him Chaos liked our ancestor so much that he blessed him. That day Desmond gained a great power, the power to get as close to the creator as possible. He met Nyx, and they became close friends, he saw Erebus as his brother, and he saw the goodness of Nyx''s heart as a lady he could worship. For the first time, he found holy beings that were not bad." "Nyx and Erebus knew our ancestor?" asked James, sounding quite surprised. "Of course. With the blessing from Chaos, Desmond was able to add even more to his incredible potential. He created a church that would only accept humans and named it "The Church of Night" in honour of his beloved brothers and sisters, Nyx and Erebus, a church that could worship them. He had developed the humans so much that every level of society and unity from the 5th to the 75th floor had been conquered by them." "So many gods were killed James, like you wouldn''t believe, even I don''t know exactly what happened, but in this connection, a rule was made that no gods and goddesses could come down from the 75th floor except for the ones Desmond allowed, Nyx, Erebus and a few others. Sun Wukong, Lucifer, Nyx, Erebus, Ra, Chronos and many others accepted and signed this agreement. They could not go down from the 75th floor except in very abnormal situations." Emily was silent for a few seconds. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "So...the battlegrounds of the gods have been fixed as only the 75th floor and above," said James, there was no way for him to express his surprise. "Exactly. But there was a side effect to all this James, Desmond got sick, and the many gods he fought and killed were on his neck, fully magic, mana and black spells had a side effect on him, he had killed so many gods, and so many had escaped him but were slaughtered that his body changed. He was dying." Emily said and then continued to speak: "When he realised that he was dying, he left everything to his student and went to Chaos, who was the only remedy, at first he wished to be cured, but Chaos refused because the creator himself had warned him beforehand that something would happen to him if he slaughtered the gods in his human form, and he wouldn''t get healed unless he wanted to become a god." "It was then that a deal was struck. Desmond offered Chaos to create a universe, an infinite number of galaxies and a solar system, a world where he could live and make a life. That''s how our blood was dispersed, that the Black family would not be allowed back into the tower until a certain time until someone with enough potential came along. A potential bigger than Desmond" "That someone...." James said, his eyes flickering. "It''s you, James. You''re the one Desmond told Chaos to protect until the time was right. You were chosen, James, chosen to put an end to it all, to end the tyranny of the gods that is still going on even tho they can not go down." "Even though I know everything, I don''t understand. You say our blood is strong, but why not my mum? Why not you, my aunt? Why me and not any of our ancestors?" James asked, genuinely stressed by what he was hearing. He was sick of hearing that he had been chosen, he wanted to think that he had achieved something. "Who knows, neither I nor any of our ancestors were called to the tower, but the tower appeared in your time, it called you, Chaos thought you were suitable." Emily answered and James, who heard this, closed his eyes and asked, "So he is already waiting for me?" "Yes James, you must not make the mistake our ancestor made. There are not only a few gods in the billions of universes in the 24 main realities outside the tower, but as Desmond wished, we could not return to the tower until enough potential was found, and you were here. That means you can destroy the awful gods and goddesses inside and outside the tower," Emily replied. That alone was enough to put an enormous burden on James. Chapter 112 - 112: Getting Ready For the Next Floor James paused after all he had learnt, he had no idea what he was supposed to say, but something seemed to have suddenly occurred to him. "If Chronos doesn''t know, if Chaos destroyed everything, does that mean no one, including Nyx and Erebus, knows what happened?" James asked suddenly, knowing the answer but wanting to ask it anyway. "Exactly. No one heard the Fallen God''s conversation with you because their vision was blocked. Next time everyone will know, unless you want to tell them now," Emily said, and it seemed to have strangely sunk into James'' mind. James didn''t want to tell Nyx or anyone else about all the things he had learnt, he was distraught that everyone''s view of him would change after they found out. After all, Desmond was feared, maybe Nyx and Erebus would be angry with him, but they wouldn''t change their view of James, but it would be hard to say that about the other gods. He couldn''t fully understand what had happened or what would happen in the future, he couldn''t even think about it, but he knew one thing, if his ancestor had left him a job and it was for the benefit of humanity and those he cared about, he had to finish it. "It''s quite strange though, aunty. A tower appears in our world for me to enter, but others manage to get in before me, I hope I can meet them." James said suddenly, smiling. "Ummm...isn''t one of them already in the guild you founded?" Emily suddenly asked and James, hearing this, asked "Ariel?" with his eyes wide open, he seemed to have asked this question to himself. "I mean, your energies are similar, that''s what happens when you''re from the same world, didn''t you know?" While hearing this, Emily said, and James silenced her by saying, "Auntie, it''s been half a year since I entered the tower. I guess I will ask this after clearing some floors." Emily seemed surprised when she heard these words, shook her head left and right a few times and then asked, "You managed to kill a Fallen God in half a year?" "Not one, but two," James said when he heard this question and saw Emily come up to him and look at him. "James...Do you know how old our ancestor was the first time he killed a Fallen God?" she asked. When James sneered as if he didn''t know, Emily patted his head and then said, "He was 58 years old. It took you half a year to kill two..." When James heard these words, he said, "More than twice my age...But I wasn''t alone, remember Miracle?", these words seemed to tell how much James''s potential was enough. "Unbelievable, it still is unbelievable," Emily said, she really couldn''t understand what was going on, it was one of those stories that had progressed steadily from family stories and had progressed to their generation, what Emily had said, Desmond had killed the first god at the age of 58. "Didn''t you know how old I was?" James suddenly asked and Emily, hearing this, laughed and said "I knew, I just didn''t know that you had already killed two of them..." and fell silent. However, the conversation seemed to have come to an end, the sounds of shouting coming from the corridor were clear to James'' ears, and even Emily sat back in her seat at such strange noises. The voices grew closer and closer and then the door to the room suddenly opened. "James!" Nemesis suddenly called out, her expression relieved. Ariel was holding Miracle in her arms and trying to keep Miracle from pulling her hair. "I''m fine Neme, it''s just my body''s a mess," James suddenly said and Nemesis sat on the edge of the bed and patted James on the cheek. "That''s good to know, can you get up? Should I get you something to eat?" Nemesis asked and James said, "If you know of any way to relieve the pain in my body, please do that, I don''t need anything else." Nemesis thought for a few seconds and then said, "I can ask my mum, we can move freely now, we had to force her not to come here, I can tell she''s still trying to come." James laughed deeply and then said, "If Lady Nyx knows anything, it might be good, I need to keep climbing now." With that James shifted his gaze in the direction of his aunt and smiled, Nemesis was trying to figure out what was going on when Emily''s voice was heard by James: "You found a good girl." At those words, James had to hold himself back from laughing, but he eventually let out a loud laugh: "Puhahaha!" At this laughter, the people in the room were surprised, James even realised that his eyes were teary from laughing. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "What''s wrong?" Nemesis suddenly asked, and hearing this, James said, "Nothing, I was just thinking about what a beautiful family I have, so different from my life before I entered the tower. Nemesis, whom I admire, is my wife, the Chaos-Borns are my family, and Ariel, who is as dear to me as my mother, is now carrying my daughter in her arms. You have no idea how happy I am." Every single person who heard these words was deeply touched. None of them had expected to hear such sweet words from someone who had killed a Fallen God on his own just a few days ago. However, the day was coming to an end, James was tired and needed to recover quickly, and when he opened his eyes again he should be ready to climb the tower. Perhaps the dangers of the floors he would climb in the future would not be so challenging now that he was stronger, perhaps the tower would make the floors more difficult, the opposite of what he thought. He was not at a level to know the future, after all. Still, whatever was going to happen was going to happen, and James wanted to be ready for any of it. It had been a long time since he had used his Gacha and climbing another floor meant killing more monsters, it was hard not to get excited. There was only 65 floors to the 75th floor. Chapter 113 - 113: 11th Floor James was in his room, it had been almost an hour since he had said goodbye to Nemesis, and after talking to Ariel it was time to move to the next floor. No matter how many times he had tried to give Miracle to her mother, Nemesis, the little girl had chosen to stay with her father, and there was little chance of whatever was inside 11th floor harming her unless they attacked her directly. This meant that Miracle, with an average status score of 100, was as strong as her father. Still, James had also gone through a huge power increase. [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 50 Class: Warrior of the Night Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++) [Statuses] Power: 75 Agility: 178 Endurance: 150 Luck: 26 Magic: 620 Holiness: 30,000 Intelligence: 159 Charisma: 12 Status Points: 0] After he had distributed the 125 status points he had gained after certain achievements and other things to his main statuses of Strength, Agility and Endurance, he could clearly see that his body had become insanely strong. With that, he was now ready to go to the next floor. On the 11th floor, he managed to get a little information about what it was like, it was said that the tower gave everyone the same test on this floor. You are thrown into a valley and try to make it to the finish line while killing the monsters in the valley. If you think you can''t make it, you can even return to the 10th floor. This meant that this was one of the few places where the tower, which could be considered dishonourable, was kind to the creatures inside. There was only one difference, and that was that the contents of the valley changed according to the difficulty level chosen. According to what Nyx told him, the information he received from Chaos was as follows: [The easy level valley was white, the normal level was red, the hard level was black, and the Hell difficulty was green]. That''s how the difficulties were determined, at least according to what he was told. After all this, James straightened his Adamant armour, put the ring on his finger in a proper shape, tidied up his inventory, took Miracle in his arms and said, "Emma, I want to go to the next floor." After these words, James passed through the portal that opened right in front of him and came to a completely different place. He realised that he was in a different place than he thought. "Ummm...Dear Mother Nyx...Are we sure that is not a Canyon?" James asked the valleys he knew were much different. [The valley is the beginning of the floor test, each step puts pressure on the body and when you enter the canyon, you encounter monsters and then the test continues in that area, you are in the valley now, that''s where you need to go.] James suddenly saw the window that had formed in front of him and read it, then he shook his head and said "Makes sense." and put Miracle down. "Be careful Miracle, if you feel bad go back to your dragon form, remember what your mum said, you''re much stronger in that form." James suddenly said, Miracle nodded and the pair started to move forward. James realised that everything was indeed as Nyx had said. Maybe it was because his stamina had increased, but he realised that he felt good despite the pressure and weight on him after each step he took. Still, even with a distance of almost 300 metres, he could hear the growling coming from inside the canyon, and the fact that he was trying to walk while hearing disgusting sounds was the hardest thing. "Zombies?" James said suddenly and suddenly two system windows appeared in front of him: [Yes, I remember how much this floor disgusted me.] [They''re pretty disgusting aren''t they, not like normal zombies.] James suddenly appeared out of nowhere and saw that one of the windows was coming from Nyx and the other from Nemesis, he smiled and said, "You used to be one, what happened, did you two fight?" He meant it as a joke, what Nemesis was doing was going through the 75th floor, she was just watching James in the meantime, and since the 75th floor required different materials from everyone, Nemesis wished to make progress in this regard. After all, she hadn''t tried to cross that floor in almost a hundred years. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With that, James and Miracle in hot pursuit reached the entrance to the canyon. James had a clear view of the zombies inside, and could instantly see why Nemesis and Nyx had called them abominations. Most of the zombies were walking around normally, but dozens of zombies were digging into the canyon walls with their hands. It looked like they were trying to climb the canyon walls. The sounds of fingernails and hands hitting the walls had already made James'' stomach turn, and if it wasn''t for the stamina the Mind Palace had given him, he would have thrown up somewhere. [The zombies on the wall will never attack you, but watch out for the ones on the road, they will attack you.] James nodded as he read another message from Nyx, indicating that he understood. He started to move forward with slow steps and carefully tried to take his steps as accurately as possible. He could see the zombies clearly, even some of the ones on the road seemed to move away when they saw him. "Oh yeah...the Undead were afraid of me..." James suddenly said, and everyone, including Nyx and the others, seemed to have forgotten that. Even though they were still early in the level, James was quite comfortable that he had an advantage in this regard, even if they were to fight them, they still wouldn''t be that hard to defeat. It looked like they were going to get through this floor quite quickly. Chapter 114 - 114: Arcana (1) James and his daughter Miracle who follows him had indeed travelled through the canyon as fast as expected, or rather, they had made it almost to the end of the canyon. According to Nyx, they would have to fight a boss monster at the very end of the canyon. It was going to be a good workout for James, after all, it wasn''t his goal to get through the floors fast, he wanted to get as strong as he could and progress until the floors were literally watered down. sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He had already accumulated quite a lot of material for his gacha ability. What he meant by this was that there were almost 300 zombies following him slowly and stealthily. Hundreds of zombies had fled from James because of the title of terrorising undead he had won, but none of them were afraid of Miracle, which meant that Miracle seemed to have become a decoy for James. Of course, it was a bit strange and rude that he seemed to be using his daughter as bait, but there was no need to worry about Miracle, after all, with or without James, this little girl could at least climb up to the 30th or even 40th floors, thanks to the durability of her skin alone. However, James realised they were finally making their way towards the canyon''s end. The wall around them was now practically flat and smooth, and the stones on the ground began to take on strange shapes. "Are those runes?" James suddenly asked. ["Exactly, after the tenth floor you are introduced to new styles of magic and aura. Like adding an element or style to your aura, runes are one of the branches of magic. Since your aura already has the weighted flame attribute, the tower is trying to show you the rune style, you''ll have to kill the boss monster to find out]. James realised again how interesting the tower could be when he read what was written in the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him. "Alright then...Where''s the monster?" James suddenly asked as he took a few more steps and suddenly saw the runes around him begin to glow and a bluish, electric-like energy began to gather in the empty space in the centre of the runes. "What the hell is that?" James asked. [Arcana energy. The reason the floor is crawling with zombies. Known as the energy of death, decay, or life and flourishing. It can go both ways, either killing you or turning you into a perfect being. Just like the zombies outside and the boss monster in front of you]. After reading this message window, James shook his head and then said, "So you need to have this energy to use the runes, it''s partly a modified form of magic." The being before him had a heart of stone, just like the golems, and the energy around it seemed so detailed and functional that James could not help admiring the sight. He felt as if he was now seeing something on par with the beauty of the scenery on Mount Olympus. It was as if the thing before him had been created out of nothing as if the arcane energy from the runes had created it. The energy travelled so turbulently towards the stone that it was as if the arcana energy itself was painting a portrait. After a few minutes of waiting, the formation of the boss monster seemed almost complete. James wanted to wait because he wanted to fight the monster with all his might. After removing Clarent from his inventory, he turned to Miracle and then said, "Hide behind that rock over there and watch me fight." The little girl nodded and ran behind the rock. As soon as James saw Miracle hiding, he rushed towards the zombies behind him and started mowing them down one by one. Even though some zombies needed to be mowed down more than once, the fact that he spent a maximum of two seconds on each one seemed to indicate that the 300 or so zombies would disappear quickly. As he did so, he was aware of the electric energy coming from behind him. Every time there was a surge of energy, he could hear the rhythm behind him. It was a very strange feeling, on the one hand, he was killing the zombies one by one, and on the other hand, he was waiting for the form of the boss monster behind him to be completed. It had only taken him five minutes to kill each of the zombies, and it looked like he was trying to give Miracle a lesson in attacking by staying as fit as possible. When James had completed all this, he turned around and realised that the boss monster was staring at him. The arcana energy around the stone had managed to revitalise the boss monster. It had a pair of eyes and a humanoid body, but the lack of any extra features made it look like a slightly different creature. James didn''t know exactly what the arcana energy could do, so he stood still. Even with help, he had killed two Fallen Gods, he was not going to be defeated against such a monster. Still, there was no harm in being in a determined and serious stance. He made himself as relaxed but determined as possible and then waited. He was breathing deeply and trying to wait for the first attack to come. Even if Miracle had done well against the Fallen God, he still had a lot to learn, just like his father James. James'' goal was to teach his little girl how to counter attacks. Just as expected, the boss monster formed from the arcana in front of him suddenly attacked and a deep energy covered the entire area. Chains of arcana were placed on the walls of the canyon, and it seemed that the boss monster was trying to stabilise itself. In the aftermath, a huge wave of magic formed in the boss monster''s chest and fired like a beam towards James. James instantly dodged the beam and then pulled out Selene''s Throwing Knife and threw it at the beam''s centre. "SHATTER!" Chapter 115 - 115: Arcana (2) A sudden shattering sound echoed through the area and the beam suddenly dissipated. James had somehow managed to disperse the gathered arcana energy. This meant that the arcana energy could be shattered, which meant that the heart of the boss monster, the stone around which the arcana energy was gathered, could be destroyed. James thought he had already found a way to kill the boss monster when he exhaled deeply, and then he was surrounded by his aura, although he could see that his aura was unstable. It was as if the arcana energy that was spread around with the chains was suppressing James'' aura, the fact that a mid-level completed aura could be suppressed so easily seemed to explain why mages were more revered in the tower. It was a strange phenomenon indeed, but James realised at that moment that he had to fight magic with magic. If the aura wasn''t working, he could send the fire element directly into the arcana energy. He took a deep breath and then began to heat his sword. Clarent began to glow bright red as James waited for the boss monster to attack. Suddenly the boss monster raised its arms and refocused a huge amount of energy on James as dozens of thin beams of energy began to shoot towards him. James took a few steps backwards just as these attacks were happening, and then swung Clarent as hard as he could, releasing the flame elemental he had gathered on him. The energy from the sword took the shape of a quarter moon and travelled towards the boss monster in front of him, and then cut through the arcana energy and cut straight into the heart of the boss monster, the shiny stone. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Suddenly, a wonderful energy appeared, and then each of the chains of arcana hanging on the wall began to fall. After a short time, the arcane energy around the stone began to flicker and James, thinking he recognised the image from somewhere, ran towards Miracle. When he took shelter behind the stone, he held Miracle tightly and waited. "BOOOM!!!" A huge explosion travelled through the canyon, not a hot explosion, but one loud enough to hurt the ears and even deafen for a few seconds. When he looked out after a few seconds, he saw that the boss monster was completely gone and realised that every single rune in the area was in decent shape. "That...wasn''t that hard," James said suddenly, it was indeed much less difficult than he had expected. After looking around, he let go of Miracle and then stretched his whole body. He could see the admiring eyes on the little girl''s face. "What happened?" he asked, only to be met with nothing more than Miracle hugging his leg. James smiled, patted the little girl on the head and then said the following words to get to the main event here: "So, Lady Nyx, how do I use the arcana energy?" There was no answer for a few seconds after he had asked that question, after the long wait he looked around and read the message window that had suddenly appeared: [Sit in the centre of the runes, where the boss monster was born, spread your magical energy around and wait for the runes to accept you. You need to put Miracle aside again, if you are disturbed it will only take a few minutes for you to turn into the zombies outside. You must enter a perfect energy trance]. After reading the message James turned to Miracle and asked, "Can you wait for me a little longer Miracle?" Miracle stepped aside as soon as she heard the question and James was left alone. Sitting down in the centre of the runes, James took a deep breath, closed his eyes and got into a cross-legged position and then activated all the magic circles around his heart, releasing all the magical energy he could use outwards. One by one, each of the runes on the stones on the ground around him began to glow, even if he couldn''t see them. The runes that had glowed with an azure light when the boss monster was born now glowed with colour. Each stone glowed in a different colour. It was just like 8 sacred fires. Miracle was very interested in the sight she saw, she began to approach the runes, albeit involuntarily. Miracle, who had suddenly entered the area, approached James. Seeing what happened, Olympos and those inside thought that James was doomed, but that was not what happened. The arcana energy from the rune had increased tremendously, and all the energy began to enter James'' body. The energy was so great that the vibrations from the energy lifted James about a metre into the air. Miracle was feeding James'' energy in a gigantic way, even though no one noticed. "Of course!" said Nyx suddenly, she seemed to have forgotten like everyone else, she didn''t think she could be so silly. "What''s wrong, Mum?" Apate suddenly asked, and Nyx, hearing this, said, "Miracle is a Supreme Dragon, the magic itself, remember? Someone who can feed Arcana energy.''," James had indeed gained a great advantage. Miracle''s energy fed the runes around him so much that the rune stones rose from the ground, each stone circling James in a circle. The energy of each of them continued to charge James with a visible electrical charge. As James closed his eyes and began to unleash his magic, he had not expected such a large return of magical energy, the arcana energy was so great that he could feel his magical status begin to improve. Still, the pain in his heart, or rather the strange sensation coming from the vibration, was dragging him in a bad direction, not knowing how long it would last. This feeling seemed to be giving him shortness of breath, and the arcana energy entering his body every second was making him even more strange. He had no idea where this would end up. Chapter 116 - 116: Arcana (3) He couldn''t quite understand what was causing the pain in his body, or rather the pain around his heart. The fact that another magic circle was not forming around his heart seemed to indicate that the energy of this arcana was working differently. On the contrary, the circle was not forming and the three circles around his heart were becoming of better quality. It was as if the circles were becoming smoother, and thinner, but containing a greater amount of magical energy. James didn''t know what to say about the perfection of the sight, he could almost feel and indeed see, with his eyes closed, the circles around his own heart getting thinner and thinner. It was as if he had somehow managed to shrink down and enter his own body and was watching his heart, strange but marvellous. However, he noticed that the arcana energy around him was beginning to diminish slightly, of course, there was still a huge amount of arcana energy entering his body, but there didn''t seem to be much left to energise it. After a short time, he realised that his body was once again connected to the ground, which meant that he could now cut off the mana, or magical energy. When the energy was disconnected, he opened his eyes and began to breathe deeply. He took out at least ten bottles of water from his inventory and drank each of them one after the other, most of the fluids in his body seemed to be officially gone, such a great fatigue had descended on him that there was no explanation for it. [Beginner Arcana Energy (Normal) gained.] James smiled as he read the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, happy that he had succeeded. Then his eyes fell on Miracle, who was right next to him. "You''re really doing great, little lady," James said and lay down on the floor, he was really tired. Still, he wanted to move on to the next floor, so he closed his eyes and focussed on his own body to feel the energy he had gained just before. The magical energy was provided by the circles around the heart, the aura was imprinted and manifested in the veins themselves, and the arcana energy resided in the mind. James was actually aware that his brain and surroundings were surrounded by an enormous amount of energy, I think the arcana energy that had been gathered in his chest had settled in his skull as soon as it was disconnected from the magic. Despite this, James could feel the slight connection between them. Arcana energy was, after all, a sub-grade, or rather another branch, of magical energy, the mana around the heart in the body. This meant that even if he cut the bond, it would continue to exist in an incredibly small way. With that, James clicked on the ability he had gained and began to read what was written in the description: [Beginner Level Arcana Energy (Normal) The user gains the ability to use rune arts. The casting time of rune arts is accelerated by 5%. Rune arts functioning time increases by 5%]. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James paused for a few seconds, looking confused as he read the ability''s specs, and then asked, "Lady Nyx, aren''t the lowest level abilities supposed to only run in-ability functions?" [Exactly, I don''t quite understand what you''re trying to say.] "Why does a beginner-level ability strengthen the ability?" he suddenly asked and was surprised by the message he saw: [It''s because the arcana energy entering your body is higher thanks to Miracle. You felt pain in your body, didn''t you? That''s because the arcana energy you gained increased, in short, you gained a beginner-level ability at the lowest level, the so-called ''Broken Level''. Remember, when it comes to magic, when the elements are not in play, you can only know the basics of what we call ''Broken Level'']. James sat up and scratched his head, happy to have learnt something else that might help him, but even more confused about something else. "My lady...how do I use the rune arts exactly?" James suddenly asked. [For that, you need to enter one of the magic shops on the 20th floor. If you''re lucky you''ll need to buy a runic arts book, not all of the ones in Olympus are at a level you can use, sorry.] James shook his head after these words and grumbled, "The Tower is making fun of me again, giving me a power I can''t even use yet. Very funny." However, there was nothing else he could do on the 11th floor, he embraced Miracle stood up and said, "Emma, next floor please." The usual white passageway opened up in front of him again and James stepped into it, looking around. They were in a strange place, it looked like a maze. Turning to Miracle, James said, "Never leave my side, do you understand?" he paused for a few seconds as he saw the little girl nod and then said, "Even change into your dragon form and sit in my hair, I need to keep you safe." Miracle paused as she heard those words and then her eyes lit up, the little girl was overjoyed as she transformed into her dragon form as small as a kitten and sat on James'' head. James began to move forward slowly, making sure to check the surroundings carefully every second. He knew very clearly that he was in a dark place, it seemed as if they were under some kind of spell. Or rather, it was as if the spell was trying to get into his head, Mind Palace saving him as usual. Nevertheless, James knew very clearly where this magical energy was coming from. Slowly and as carefully as he could, he began to make his way towards where the energy was coming from. He could hear some ugly noises in the distance as if something was screaming. He didn''t know exactly what they were, but he could hear words like ''Kiek'' in between the screams, and he suspected they were goblins. He wanted to find out what was going on as if that was the floor''s mission. Chapter 117 - 117: Chimera Creator (1) James had managed to get to the source of the noise, stood calmly by the door of the room from which it had come, and peered into the room a little. He could hardly keep himself from vomiting at what he saw. He was so sick to his stomach that he even wanted to close Miracle''s eyes, but he saw that the little girl was watching what was happening with a strange expression on her face. James seemed to have forgotten that Miracle looked like both him and her mother, of course, she would have the personality of her mother Nemesis. A man with a strange puckered skin and a strange face seemed to be performing live surgery on the goblin lying on the table in front of him, James'' stomach seemed to get worse and worse every time he looked at what was happening. [Watch out, he''s a pretty tough opponent for your current strength, the tower may have treated everyone equally on the previous floor but this floor will be extra tough for you]. James suddenly read what was written in the window sent by Nemesis, nodded and stepped into the room. As soon as he entered the room he stepped on fresh blood on the floor, many human bodies, goblin bodies, druid bodies and even demon and angel bodies were lying around. Many merged bodies were hanging on the wall, it was only when James entered the room and got a better look inside that he realised who the man before him was. "The Chimera Creator," James muttered, his expression suddenly falling. He could have been one of the people who had formed the High Chimera that had fought Leno. Perhaps he belonged to the same profession as them. James, who had suddenly taken Clarent out of his inventory, cautiously and as quietly as possible approached the man in front of him, he noticed him but did not react, he was too relaxed. James didn''t realise what was happening, he suddenly began to burn his surroundings with his aura and Miracle, who had noticed this, probably used his ability and his whole body began to burn with a black flame. James suddenly realised the enormous danger approaching him and jumped quite high. Several chains passed by him at an incredible speed, James suddenly activated his time element and was able to accelerate for a second, using this ability both to attack and to understand what was happening. He realised that the things around him were not chains but long arms. James suddenly began to radiate all of his aura into the room, he hadn''t expected to find a room like this in this labyrinthine place and encounter such a disgusting sight. James quickly charged towards the Chimera Creator and began to unleash attack after attack. Each of his attacks bounced off the disgusting-looking man in front of him and he literally couldn''t even attack him. "What''s going on?" he thought, as he struggled with his life, different things were happening in Olympus. S§×ar?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ----- "Has the Tower lost its mind? Using a Chimera Creator as a boss monster, even though he cleared the Hell Tutorial, even though he was able to clear some pretty powerful enemies and get stronger? Is there any way for James to defeat him?" Zeus screamed, looking genuinely surprised and a little worried. "There''s nothing to do, there''s no way he can defeat him right now. Maybe he can use the Miracle and destroy the Chimera Creator''s defences, but he doesn''t have enough knowledge to do that," Thanatos replied. "Then it is we who must help him, he must use the element of darkness on the Miracle right now, if he succeeds he can reduce the Chimera Creator''s defences to zero. Do any of you know how to use the element of the Supreme Dragons?" Nyx suddenly asked and the room fell silent. After only a few seconds, a god appeared from the crowd, speaking with a few steps: "Lady Nyx, my name is Tiamat, one of the gods of Mesopotamia. I have known a Supreme Dragon in the past, he was quite old and I learnt how to use fire from him. I don''t know if it would work on a young dragon, but the only technique I know of is to have James charge the elemental in his body into Mistress Miracle and an elemental reaction can be performed." Tiamat suddenly appeared, she was one of the gods who had already attended the feast, she had received an invitation because she was a close friend of Ares of Olympus, it could be said that she was one of the limited friends of Olympus. "If this works, my dear Tiamat, whatever you wish, I''ll owe you, I promise to give it to you," Nyx said suddenly, and with that, she opened the message window and began to speak: ----- [James, you must charge Miracle with the darkness in your body, the dark energy you took from me, and awaken the elemental in his body. One of the Chimera Creator''s few weaknesses. The energies and elements of Ice, Fire, Darkness and Life. Neither you nor Miracle''s fire element is strong enough, so you''ll have to use darkness]. While James was dodging the attacks coming at him from around him, he read the messages Nyx had sent. Her eyes suddenly widened as if he understood and he stepped backwards, holding the Miracle on his head. "Now it''s your time my dear girl, I want you to spread all the energy I''m sending you, do you understand?" James asked, and as Miracle nodded, all the aura around her faded and the room began to turn into a dark, star-filled night. The room that had been a disgusting sight a few seconds ago was now as beautiful as night. "You can''t defeat me so easily, youngsters, I come from an ancient lineage." the disgusting-looking man said, and magic shields began to form around him. It was a very strange and disgusting sight, several shields made of literally rotten skin formed around the man. It absorbed the darkness and the rotten skin became even more hideous. "A Supreme Dragon? Puhahaha! The perfect subject for my experiments!" the disgusting-looking man said, looking like he was about to start attacking. It looked like the life-and-death battle was about to begin. Chapter 118 - 118: Chimera Creator (2) James was incredibly angry at the words of the disgusting-looking man in front of him, though the fact that the technique Nyx had told him was working made it all the better. The only thing on his mind was to kill the bastard in front of him. He didn''t have the power to do that, of course. After all, the chimera creator wasn''t such a loser creature. A chimera creator was not counted as a normal monster, one of these monsters could destroy an entire army with just their creations. Their defence was excellent. They had such a strong defence that even James himself would not have been able to kill it with normal attacks. He knew very well that his aura was useless, he should have done as Nyx had said. And that meant James needed to destroy Chimera Creator''s defence with the amazing darkness attribute. There was a way to defeat the other man, he had to use a class ability he hadn''t used in a while and find a way through the other man''s defences. ''Dark Step.'' he thought, suddenly dropping Miracle into a position where she could fly and using his time elemental to unleash an incredibly fast attack on the Chimera Creator''s shield. "SHING!" Clarent''s slashing sound suddenly echoed throughout the room, surprising the entire Olympus and even the Chimera Creator. One of the Chimera Creator''s shields had been sliced in half and crumbled to dust on the floor. The ability James had used, Dark Step, may have been the most powerful ability Nyx had ever given him. Of course, there was an ability that helped him steal status and strengthened him, such as exploitation, which he often forgot to use, but there was a feature that distinguished the dark step ability from such abilities: [Ignoring Everything]. This ability caused the attack to ignore all shields 60% of the time, something James didn''t know. That''s why the Chimera creator''s shield was cut. His shield had been ignored. As if happy to see what had happened, James reactivated his dark step ability and then launched another attack. This time his slash bounced off the shield, perhaps doing a little damage, but the shield was neither cut nor pulverised. He had to use his magic to the limit. After jumping on the chimera creator again, he activated his dark step ability and attacked the disgusting-looking old man, the chimera creator. "60% chance." James thought he could ignore the shields in front of him with a 60% chance, Nyx knew what a powerful ability she had given him, but the only reason this ability could be so powerful was that James was now becoming adept at using the ability and his own power. After all, he didn''t know what the ability, or rather the 60% probability, meant, at least until now. In short, if the other person''s stamina was high, even if he activated this 60% probability every time, he might not be able to kill the person he attacked. This meant that for someone like the Chimera Creator, who had run out of life energy, he was using a lethal ability. James took a few steps back after this attack and looked at the still dumbfounded Chimera Creator''s face, the man''s expression seemed to say it all, as if his defence had never been breached before. It was at that moment that he felt a renewed sense of energy that caused James to pull out Selene''s Throwing Knife and suddenly hurl it towards the dark area to his left. "Skriiiiii!!!" A sudden scream echoed through the room, and a body fell to the ground in the dark space, reaching for the light. A chimera even uglier than James Chimera Creator seemed to have fallen to the ground. Something that was a combination of a goblin and an ivy-like monster had fallen to the ground. The monster''s hands were so long, the monster was so disgusting that James almost vomited. James realised at that moment that there were more chimera in this room than he thought. From the hands that attacked him and tried to hold him to the chimeras that made strange noises, many things were in the area. Still, James was sure that if the man in front of him died, it would all be over. After all, the other chimeras were easy pickings, but this man was a terrible creature. "MIRACLE NOW!" shouted James, and with that, an incredible darkness filled the room. All the light sources in the room disappeared, James'' eyes glowed brightly in the darkness, and Nyx''s night vision seemed to be working. James could see clearly into the entire room. He could see the Chimera Creator''s puzzled expression. The only reason the Chimera Creator was a danger to James at current levels was because his defences were impenetrable. The abomination''s defences were so gigantic that he could be considered a boss monster even without the chimeras he created, much less a high-level one. Still, there was nothing that some elemental reactions and massive magic power couldn''t crush. That''s where Miracle, a Supreme Dragon who was magic itself, came in. The purity and degree of the magic in Miracle''s body were so great that when her own dark element merged with a small part of James, it created the perfect darkness. This reduced the Chimera Creator''s defences to almost nothing. Of course, this didn''t mean that the battle was won, after all, as James knew, the hideous-looking man in front of him was many times stronger than him, and lowering his defence only gave him a small advantage. But while the hideous-looking man was dumbfounded he had a chance. Plunging everything into darkness might have weakened the Chimera Creator, but it had strengthened the corrupted chimeras. It was indeed a strange relationship of creator and creature, the weakness of one was the strength of the other. James was acutely aware of this, and so he began to do his best to pay attention to his surroundings, even if his main focus was on the Chimera Creator. Selene''s Throwing Knife returned to James'' hand and he threw it at another chimera he could see. He quickly parried the attacks coming at him and continued to close in on the Chimera Creator, who was moving away from him each time. The disgusting-looking old man was well aware that he was weak now. Just now, night had taken over the room instead of darkness, and so he was still able to use his defensive abilities to a higher level. Now, however, the situation was very different, for the young man he saw before him had literally darkened the entire room beyond the reach of light or even sound. There were only two sources of light in the room and those two sources were none other than James'' two eyes. It was such a frightening sight that James seemed to deserve his title of Terror Incarnate. Moving towards the Chimera Creator with each step, James suddenly used the time element again and then appeared in front of the hideous-looking old man. He lifted Clarent and cut him. In just a second, the Chimera Creator''s head fell to the ground. James smiled and stood still for a few seconds, thinking he had killed the Chimera Creator, just as another message notification from Nyx appeared in front of him: [YOU MUST BURN HIS BODY, NOW!] As James read all of this, he suddenly felt a massive shiver run through his body, the body of the Chimera Creator was literally on its feet, trying to walk towards James. James paused for a few seconds, not realising what was happening, and then he managed to make his magic even more layered, powerful and steady, sending several flame attacks from Clarent. The flame attacks hit the body of the chimera creator and the whole body was literally on fire. The body slowly started to come towards James but suddenly it fell, the body didn''t move or anything, all the shields rotted into dust and disappeared, just as the head and body were becoming now. James had a very strange expression when he saw what had happened. Sear?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "What happened?" he asked, but the moment the message window appeared in front of him, he was stopped in his tracks by the energies rising around him. Without even trying to read the message window, he instantly closed it and started to run, holding Miracle, who was still trying to hold the spell steady by flying. The darkness in the room disappeared and James left the room with his daughter Miracle, whom he held gently but firmly in his hand. Immediately dozens of Chimera seemed to burst out of the room, James had a fed-up face at the sight, but he chose to walk away instead of talking. He could have killed every single Chimera, but the fact that more were coming out of the room every second meant that he needed an open space. He had to escape, even for a while. Chapter 119 - 119: Finishing the Job After a not very long time, James had managed to get quite far away from the chimera group following him and Miracle in his arms. Thanks to the size of the labyrinth, he was really able to dodge them to some extent. With the traps he had taken out of his inventory, he had set enough traps in an area of almost 400 metres to send him to prison in the real world. Chimeras were living beings, and so James'' title of scaring the undead was useless to them. Unlike their creators, darkness made them stronger, and it was in James'' favour that the maze was always light. On top of that, James had one of the chimeras'' two greatest weaknesses, ice and fire, which meant he had a huge advantage. "Listen to me carefully, Miracle. When the traps I''ve set are activated, I want you to breathe as much fire as you want, fill that corridor you see over there with flames." James suddenly said the help of a Supreme Dragon was not to be missed. James'' hand was full of advantages, but that didn''t mean everything would end. Just by the sight of them, it was easy for James to realise that hundreds of them would come against them. In short, an army of chimera, an army as powerful as the one that attacked Leno, was coming towards James and Miracle. Okay, that was a bit of an overstatement, after all, as James realised, the chimera that attacked and killed Leno was a High Chimera. According to the monster catalogue James found and read in the imperial library, High Chimeras were the masterpieces of Chimera Creators. In short, dozens of Chimera Creators would come together to create one of them. So it would be foolish to say that the army coming towards James was full of such beings, but that did not mean that they were not close to those beings. Maybe they weren''t High Chimera, a higher race, and maybe they could have been killed in a single blow with Selene''s Throwing Knife, but it should be known that there were many of them and the types of monsters were different. This meant that James had to fight against an army of hundreds of races combined at once. Again, this did not mean the end, the traps set, Miracle''s presence and James''s fire element. They could get out of this danger. James'' words seemed to enter the mind of his little girl Miracle as she stood in her dragon form and waited in a seated position on the ground. James seemed to have taken the right side and Miracle the left. They were either going to get out of here or they were going to die here. It was impossible for them to kill Miracle, but it would be quite easy for James to die. The young man James took a deep breath, he had no fear or anything. He was actually glad that he was going to get more gacha chances, he had managed to gain 3000 rights just from the zombies he had killed, and now all he had to do was cross this floor and wait in the white area for a while and he would use all his rights. ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' ''TUMP!'' One after the other, the sound of the tumping echoed through the labyrinth and the voices were getting closer and closer. "Get ready, Miracle!" James said, and as he uttered those words, dozens of chimera began to emerge from the folds at the end of the corridors. Each of them saw James and Miracle behind him and suddenly started running. The sickening sound of their blood-filled feet hitting the ground was truly nauseating. James waited a few more seconds for them to arrive and then sent his magic back to Clarent. A flame spell the size of a huge quarter moon travelled at an incredible speed and then literally cut several chimeras in half and dropped them on the traps. "NOW!" James shouted and activated the traps on his side. Immediately after James shouted this, a huge amount of mana gathered behind him and a beam of light flared up and began travelling towards the chimeras on the left. James was acutely aware of the heat source rising behind him, his back was literally sweating. However, every one of the traps had worked. In the corridor to the right, flames were bursting into flames and the screams of mindless monsters trying to run over them could be heard: "HIIELP MEEE!!!" "SWAAVEE UUGHSSS!!!" "TUAKE OUR LUIFEEEEEEE!!!" "END IT OULLL!!!" "FINISHG THIS PAIN!!!!" The screams were so frightening and blood-curdling that James couldn''t help but pause. The souls inside the chimeras, or rather, each of the souls were screaming for help, James'' blood froze, and his whole body trembled. However, these spirits could be free now, James knew that killing them was the only favour he could do for them. James paused as the flames slowly began to die down. On Miracle''s side, it was already over, over three hundred chimera had been reduced to ashes as they came towards the little girl. On James'' side, there seemed to be nothing left, as the notification window that suddenly appeared in front of him showed him: [12th Floor Cleared! Congratulations on clearing the 12th floor, Mr Umbra! You have been awarded the floor reward of choosing an Unusual card! 150,000 Gold prize awarded]. When James read the notification he saw in front of him, he took a deep breath and then smiled and rejoiced that he had indeed succeeded. He had done an excellent job setting the trap and getting Miracle''s help. [Well done James, it was a beautiful sight.] James smiled as he watched Nyx''s message to him and then asked, "Emma, can you send me to the white space please?" When he noticed the gate opening in front of him, he picked Miracle up and then said to his little girl, "Good girl." and walked through the gate. After entering the passage, he sat down on the ground and began to breathe in and out continuously to relax his mind. The sounds of the Chimera seemed to affect him. Chapter 120 - 120: Gacha Time James calmed himself for a few moments and then sat up straight and said "It was very realistic, I mean yes it was real, but it still gave me goosebumps, they still do." [There''s nothing to be done, you''ve faced many dangers since you entered the tower, but the chimeras enter another dimension of fear. The High Chimera that fought Leno had a huge intellectual capacity due to its high race, so fear is not something you think about, but these are a bit....creepy, even for me.] James chuckled as he read what was written in the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him. "No kidding? Mother of the night shudders at a few chimeras? Lady Nyx, stop joking." James said, and he said it so sarcastically that even Nyx herself couldn''t stop laughing. With these words, there was only one thing left to do. "10X Gacha." James suddenly said, and a huge panel opened in front of him. As soon as James saw the panel, he smiled widely and then said, "I miss you, my dear Gacha!" He saw that the panel now had not one but three parts, which meant that there were two extra gacha. James, who had immediately looked at the other parts of the panel, smiled and then said, "Huh...So that''s it." When he observed the three panels in front of him separately, he saw that the gacha panels named ''Magic Gacha'' and ''Clothing Gacha'' had returned. This was really good news. He had exactly 12000 rolls in his hand and both panels were asking for 1000 rolls per turn of ten. James thought that he should use 6000 rights to both panels, of course, he didn''t even need to use the simplest gacha ''Normal Gacha'', after all, two more valuable than him had returned again, albeit briefly. When he looked at the remaining time, he saw that Magic Gacha had only one hour left and immediately pressed the button with the intention of making ten turns one after another. A jackpot machine appeared in front of him and then James shook his head, thinking that this was different from previous times. The system seemed to have changed, but that didn''t matter to James, he only cared about his winnings. As he grabbed the handle of the jackpot and pulled it down, the separated wheels began to spin and after a long spin of only twenty seconds, they stopped. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Three asterisks lined up and began to glow black, and then a notification window popped up in front of James: [Star Magic(Godly) Star Magic is a meditation spell created by monks who have long worshipped the stars themselves. When this spell is used, it is possible to harness the energy of the stars. After the use of the spell, the user can use the star energy to overcome hunger, thirst, insomnia, and even passive emotions. When the spell is upgraded to the next level, Star Magic can unlock offensive, defensive, and mental spells; the earliest to reach this level was Monk Umma, who spent only 13 years]. James looked down at his hands as he read the window that had formed in front of him and then said, "Lady Nyx, can you ask Master Moros and the fate sisters if they have increased my luck?" He hadn''t expected to gain a Godly tier ability from his first turn, indeed he hadn''t achieved such a thing in a long time. On top of that, when he looked carefully at the ability, he saw that he had something that could be very helpful not only for the attack but also for his own mentality. The biggest problem James suffered from was sleep. James was human and no one could deny that. No matter how strong he was, when he did not pass the 75th floor, every race would need sleep. This race could be angels, demons, elves, dwarves, pixies or other races, but there was nothing that could change this. Each race had basic needs. Eating, drinking water, having a toilet break and much more, but at the very beginning of all these needs was sleep, which was slightly damaging to the mind. Sleep was something that had to be maintained or eliminated. The funny thing was that the Mind Palace ability couldn''t help with the sleep thing. After all, James was not being attacked from the outside, or the only thing directly affecting him was the inside of his own body. In short, sleep deprivation could damage him physically as well as psychologically, and James felt this most keenly during his training on the tutorial floors. Standing sleeplessly on the cold ice. With that James smiled and closed the window, then he saw his little daughter Miracle sitting next to him in human form. The little girl''s face showed a look of enormous curiosity. "Would you like to try it?" James asked and the twinkle in Miracle''s eyes seemed to answer him. James lifted the little girl up and then said, "I need you to pull this lever," and as Miracle tried to pull the lever, the panel closed and a notification appeared in front of the pair. [10X Gacha can only be used by the owner]. James read the window and saw Miracle looking upset, he patted the little girl on the head and said, "I''m sorry, I''ll buy you some candy later instead." The little girl''s energy was restored very quickly. With that James opened the gacha panel back up and then opened the jackpot to use Magic Gacha again. After that, he paused for a few seconds, something seemed to have suddenly occurred to him, his face had a strange expression, and then he uttered the following words: "Ummm...Didn''t I do a tens roll? Why did I only get 1 talent?" He doubted himself about the reality and truth of this question. After all, he was tired and questioned himself about the fact that he might have missed something. The answer he would find back would make everything strange. Chapter 121 - 121: Long Live the Gacha!!! "Ummm...Didn''t I do a tens dial? Why did I only get one talent?" James was genuinely intrigued when he asked this question, thinking that he might have missed something or that the jackpot had been processed differently. That''s why he closed the jackpot panel and started to look carefully at the gacha panel. After only a few minutes of staring, he looked at the Magic Gacha in surprise and then shook his head and asked, "So there''s only one spin, not ten?" He didn''t even know how he had missed such a thing. The fact that there was really only one spin for 1000 spins was harrowing, but there was nothing to do, what James had gained back was a skill that could be quite perfect, so there was no reason for it to cause any trouble. Grumbling, he pressed the spin button to open the jackpot section back up and then stared at the huge jackpot machine in front of him for a few seconds, he had three spins left so he wanted to get through everything as quickly as possible. When he lowered the handle of the jackpot machine, everything proceeded normally and a diamond and two asterisks appeared on the jackpot. [Seduction(Unique-/Passive) This ability will permanently increase the proximity of surrounding players and users to the player by 5%. The ability does not work against the mentally tough]. James sneered when he read about this ability and thought that he had indeed gained an unnecessary ability, even if he would realise how wrong he was about it in the future, the fact that it was useless to him now really prevented him from seeing it as good. He grabbed the handle of the machine again and pulled it downwards without waiting. The cogs of the machine began to turn again and after a short time, three light symbols came together. Even though James couldn''t really figure out what these symbols were, he was still deeply curious about his future ability. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After a short time, these icons glowed just like the ability he received on his first spin, and then a window opened in front of him: [Beginner Level Light Spell (Legendary) When the user uses the spell, they have the power to command light. Light magic is incredibly difficult to get used to and to use fully. It requires deep training and even deeper meditation. It is the very magic that even Apollo spent millions of years trying to reach Godly status]. James smiled as he looked at the ability he had gained and realised that this time he had managed to get something good. This was a very happy thing. With this, James thought that he was going to be doing gacha for a really long time. The fact that he knew he had to get on with it without waiting made all the difference. He grabbed the lever of the machine and then pulled it downwards in order to carefully engage in the process, which would be the function of the next three hours. ----- James had been fiddling with the gacha for almost three hours, and he had been able to get more flips and other things than he had thought possible. Firstly, the system seemed to be bugged. Just like with the jackpot, the Clothes Gacha had a ten-turn option, but he was only given 100 cards. On top of this strange feature, James managed to get some really excellent items. After a long period of gacha, he had not been able to get anything useful from the Magic Gacha he had opened afterwards. But the things he had gained from the Clothes Gacha were incalculable, and he had indeed managed to acquire quite a lot. [Epsilon(Legendary++++) Epsilon is a jewellery. It can transform into the jewellery decided according to the user''s desire. Using the jewellery gives the user a 5% movement speed. Using the jewellery gives the user 5% attack power. Wearing the jewellery gives the user 5% magic speed. Wearing the jewellery gives the user an extra 2% experience points]. When James saw this jewellery, he immediately picked it up and made a brooch out of the flower and put it on. When he put it on, he could feel the energy circulation in his body speeding up, he could feel himself becoming one of those losers who got stronger by paying for the game. With that, he returned to the other thing he had won: [Pearl White Tracksuit(Legendary) This is a suit made from the extracts of the white pearl, one of the eyeballs of the sea, and the cotton of the mountains of paradise. The suit is designed to be highly flexible, organised, and fully suitable for combat or rest. Wearing the suit gives the wearer 5% movement speed. Wearing the suit increases the wearer''s flexibility by 40%]. This was the second useful thing he had won, and then he moved on to the last thing he had won that could be considered good. This was one of the most interesting things he had ever had, so interesting that James had no idea what he had officially won. [Sword Scabbard of the Unknown(Godly++++) The Scabbard of the Unknown was made at an unknown time by ##### for #####. This scabbard was made for #####, one of the most powerful swords ever forged inside all of the 24 existences. According to legend, the sword''s power, fury, majesty and beauty were so perfect that no scabbard could hold it and its power would disturb nature and even the tower itself. This scabbard was made for such a sword. This scabbard can change shape, size and level according to the sword it is worn on. This scabbard has the ability to feed sword spirits. This is a set item: 1/3] James did not know who this object was or anything like that, what struck him as strange was the familiarity of the energy coming from the object, from the scabbard. He couldn''t seem to remember where this energy came from. Chapter 122 - 122: Vlad Black He could not seem to remember where this energy came from. Yet he could feel an incredible affinity with the energy. Maybe it was arcane energy or something, but he still had no answer. At that moment, James realised that his family''s treasure had begun to vibrate, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown suddenly seemed to vibrate to the same rhythm. Immediately he realised that his aunt''s soul was coming out of the ring, his aunt Emily was as surprised as James was. "James...How can this be?" Emily suddenly asked and James''s confusion increased. "What''s going on, Auntie?" James asked from inside his mind, and Emily, who heard this, muttered, "A piece of our family is there...how can it be?" With these words, a spirit from the Sword Scabbard moved outwards. An old man was standing in front of James and Emily. An old man with snow-white hair, a snow-white beard reaching to his chest and a strange moustache just stood there sulking. "So you''re the chosen one, young man. Oh, that old bloke, that must be right considering Chaos sent me to you." the old man suddenly said, and a great deal of confusion was thrown at James. "Oh my god...You''re Vlad Black? Unbelievable! It''s such an honour to meet you!" Emily suddenly said, and even though James still couldn''t understand what was going on, the fact that he was seeing his aunt being so respectful made it all the more confusing. James shook his head for a few more seconds, trying to make sense of what was going on, and then interrupted the two who had started talking to each other, "Can someone tell me what''s going on?" With that question spoken in his mind, both Emily and the man called Vlad turned to James. "Nice to meet you, James. I am the first child of Desmond Black, one of the five children." the old man suddenly said, and with that, his appearance began to change. Each time the old man''s appearance changed, he looked more and more like James, only coarser. The old man''s beard became very short. He had a full beard, his gaze became incredibly sharp. "Nice to meet you, my ancestor... Forgive me, I didn''t know." James suddenly said, bowing his head. Everyone watching what was happening from Olympus was trying to understand what was happening, and the images of Chronos, who was watching everything, seemed to be obvious to everyone. ----- "What''s going on, Chronos!" Nyx suddenly shouted, "That has something to do with you ignoring me doesn''t it!" she added. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Chronos heard this shout, he looked around and said, "Only Chaos-Borns will stay here, everyone else leave the hall." At first, no one realised what was going on, but the energy emanating from Nyx caused everyone to leave the hall in a short time. Chronos immediately got up from his seat and walked in front of Nyx and Erebus and gently touched their heads. "Remember what I have remembered," Chronos said suddenly. Nyx and Erebus'' bodies literally froze, their pupils seeming to turn white. Even if the other Chaos-Borns couldn''t tell what was going on, it was clear that something serious was going on. "UAGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Erebus suddenly shouted, screaming and shrieking, hitting his fists to the ground. Thanatos, Moros and all the other children seemed to be trying to understand what was going on. It was the first time they had seen and heard their always-calm father let out such a blood-curdling scream. Erebus suddenly burst into tears, no one else could see what Chronos had shown him. When eyes turned to Nyx, everyone realised the enormity of the situation. Nyx''s eyes seemed to widen. The divine woman had officially lost all composure, she was sweating profusely, and her eyes were teary, but no tears were streaming down her beautiful face. Only the anger, sadness and disappointment on Nyx''s face was evident to those around her. "How could...?" Nyx suddenly said, turning her face to Chronos and searching for an answer. Chronos shook his head and said, "Chaos. He erased our memories...or rather sealed them, and Desmond is the one who asked him to do it.''" Nyx looked around for a few seconds, not knowing what to say when she heard those words, seeing the fear and worry on her children''s faces, watching the tears her husband Erebus was shedding, watching his fists pounding the floor. "James is...Desmond''s descendant? What''s going on?" Nyx questioned, seeming to realise and question things she had actually seen, remembered and would rather not remember. "The game of the gods has been going on for a very long time, Nyx. Remember why we can''t get off the 75th floor unless there''s a reason? Normally I had forgotten too, but when I went back in time a little, I was able to access the erased fragment and remember everything." Chronos said the weight of those words alone was enormous. Thanatos and Moros tried to stop their father Erebus'' grief. Even if none of them could understand what was happening, they still had to accept the fact that something bad had happened. "Mum...what''s going on?" Eris suddenly asked, even Eris, who had been called the goddess of strife, seemed incredibly worried. The things Nyx was about to tell them were things no one was supposed to know. The possibility of such things spilling out right now would get James killed. Every single person in the tower who was hostile to Olympus and the Chaos-Borns would be all over James. This time it was not just a few warriors, but hundreds of thousands of enemies below the 75th floor. Who would have thought that the unknown past would suddenly come to the fore for them? ----- "I am the one who adopted my father''s sword technique. Each of my brothers took different techniques, I inherited weapons and attack and Desmond Black''s most powerful technique [the sword]." Vlad suddenly said, as if he was trying to tell James something with these words. "So what you''re trying to say is that you''re going to teach me, my ancestor?" asked James, as if these were the words the old man wanted to hear. It was as if Chaos was prepared to finally clean the dusty pages of history and show them to everyone. Chapter 123 - 123: Nyx Against Chaos (1) This question asked by James really sounded like the words Vlad wanted to hear. It looked as if he was going to start telling a story, but at the last moment, he restrained himself and said, "This is what my father wanted. I was going to pass on everything I learnt from him when he came, who had even greater potential than him." Hearing these words, James did not know what to say. He was really overjoyed, his eyes widened, and all his hair stood on end. "Thank you very much, my ancestor!" James suddenly said, and the smile on his face grew even bigger as he said these words in his mind. With that, James stood up and gently sheathed his sword. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You are becoming more and more like my father, young man. As you can tell from seeing me, our DNA is so dominant that our bloodlines are very similar," Vlad suddenly said, and strangely, these words made James happy. Even though he had never met Desmond, he still knew something about him. [We need to talk.] James was smiling with happiness when he suddenly saw Nyx''s message in front of him, he instantly realised what was going on. Emily had made it clear that the next time they spoke there would be nothing to block them and that Nyx or the others would be suspicious if James revealed anything. "About what, m''lady?" James had asked, and the message he was about to receive would change everything for him. [About Desmond]. The smile on James'' face vanished when he saw the message. He was sure that Nyx knew what kind of person he was, so he made sure that no one would hear about this. "So you remember, my lady," James said. [I remembered less than half an hour ago] Nyx replied. James had no idea what to say, he just stood where he was, breathing in and out in a normal tone. [Aren''t you going to apologise?] The question that appeared at the bottom of the message window made James strangely angry. However, despite all this anger, it became quite difficult for him not to be in deep sadness. "You''re the one who forgot your best friend existed...mum." James suddenly said, the word mum at the end of his sentence seeming to tell not only Nyx but all Chaos-Borns how angry he was. [You should have told me anyway...] Nyx said, still looking incredibly upset. "What, I''m supposed to try to tell you everything when I can''t even give you proof that I am descended from someone you''ve forgotten about for an incredibly long time? I''ve only just found out myself. I learnt as I approached the top of the mountain on my way to fight the Fallen God," James had replied, and Nyx, hearing what he had said, had agreed with him. After all, there was going to be quite a difference between them loving James and this incident, one was the old family and the other seemed to be showing him Nyx''s newly acquired family member. [I''m sorry...I didn''t mean to forget everything...I''m incredibly angry with my father, massively angry] Nyx said, wanting to go and talk to Chaos. "It doesn''t matter to me, my lady, what you need to understand is that I''m not the guilty one here. I''ve only just found out who I am, what kind of beings my mother and ancestors were, and so much more. I''ve been incredibly happy since you, the Chaos-Borns, became my new family, but now I''m not even sure if Chaos orchestrated everything that happened till now." James said suddenly, unable to comprehend how much those words had affected all the Chaos-Borns. "It''s like I''m an actor playing out a script written by Chaos, I don''t understand what''s going on," James added, which seemed to give Nyx all the more reason to talk to Chaos. ["Whatever happens, James, never forget that we love you. We don''t care if you''re a descendant of our best friend, we love you, you''re part of our family, you''re my son]. James couldn''t help but take a deep breath when he saw this message written in front of him, he had no idea what to say, but he knew he had to say thank you. "Thanks, Mum..." James said and then stood up shaking his head. "Emma, let''s go to the next floor please," he said as he picked Miracle up. Nyx''s eyes were glued to the portal as she entered, and after a few seconds, she saw the image change and turned back to Thanatos, closing the window. "I won''t be here for a while, I''ve got a few words to say to my father, son," Nyx said abruptly and then left the hall. The gods and goddesses of Olympus were visible all around. Every one of them had heard Erebus'' screams from inside the hall. Even if no one knew what had caused Erebus, whose entire being trembled with fear, to become like that, it was still clear to them that things were serious. On top of that, every single personality who saw Nyx''s facial expression was freezing. Nyx''s expression, who loved to spread happiness and embraced everyone like a mother, was killing everyone without killing them. "Lady Nyx...Are you alright?" Demeter suddenly asked, but she received no answer in return, Nyx''s anger was enormous and there was only one person to whom this anger was imposed: [Chaos] When Nyx had come to her temple, she had opened a portal that led to the house of Chaos, to the top of the tower, to the place James had intended to reach one day. Passing through the portal, Nyx looked around for a while, she couldn''t see her father anywhere, but it was impossible not to feel his presence. "Father," Nyx said in an angry tone, the depth of her speech evident even in her simple tone. Chaos appeared after those words, looking strangely sad, as if he didn''t want to have this conversation at all. Chapter 124 - 124: Nyx Against Chaos (2) Nyx paused as she caught sight of her father, Chaos, with her naked eyes and then said, "Dear creator, you must already know why I''m here." Chaos paused and was surprised by Nyx''s words, it was the first time his little girl had ever called him anything other than father. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Sit," Chaos said, and a room formed in the spatial space, two armchairs and a table formed in the room, and Nyx''s place was revealed. Once Nyx was seated, she began to speak: "Why did you dare to do such a brazen thing, father?" Nyx asked, the hatred in her heart so great, the sadness so deep and the disappointment so loud that there was no way to express it. It would not be wrong to say that Nyx and Erebus had started their journey with Desmond. Desmond himself was young but old for human life when he felt the presence of Nyx and Erebus and met them. Yet the two loved Desmond so much and cared for him so much that Nyx named the masked statue in front of her temple Desmond. Desmond meant Gracious Defender, and with his name alone, he had declared to all the gods and goddesses that he was the protector of mankind. The lives and honour of Nyx and Erebus had been put in jeopardy many times, after all, many gods and goddesses had been hunted by those who rallied around Desmond, and these two towering beings were not always sources of power at the top. While Nyx and Erebus were hunting above the 75th floor, in what is now the god realm, Desmond was busy hunting the gods on the lower floors. As a result, with all the attention and so on, Desmond had saved Nyx, Erebus, and even Chronos on several occasions. Not only that. Desmond had founded the Sun Empire and, as James had learned earlier, created the Church of Night, each to protect the existence and honour of Nyx. These were two regions that were still trying to fulfil their mission after millions of years. Whoever knew what had happened, including Chaos himself, could not ignore what Desmond had done. Desmond was the greatest man who had ever been born, lived and died. And his descendant were now in the family of Chaos-Borns inside the tower. Nyx was incredibly angry about this. She could forget her best friend, she could do it for billions of years, but James should be under her protection, and his descendants should be under her protection. Nyx knew how lazy her father was, and there was no way Nyx could forgive herself if Desmond''s legacy had been damaged. It was the first rule of the family code. Family was more important than her own life. ''"I warned him, he was the one who didn''t listen," Chaos said. Nyx could hardly keep herself from going insane, her hands and feet were shaking, even her eyes were teary, and she couldn''t understand how her father could say such stupid words. "What the hell are you talking about, how are you any different from those gods Desmond chose to give his life to kill when you refused to help the one you blessed?!" Nyx suddenly shouted. "Those were the words I said to him before I blessed him when I asked him what more he wanted to do, girl. I told Desmond in no uncertain terms that he was going to die, that if he refused to become a god, he would die. Humans...they never listen to us, gods." Chaos replied, his sadness evident in his words. When Nyx heard these words, she squinted her eyes and said, "Show me...Show me the time he spoke to you." Chaos shook his head as if he didn''t want to do this when he heard his daughter''s request, but then he couldn''t resist and handed a window in front of her. Nyx could see Desmond through the window, seeing how much his best friend, whose face she barely recognised, looked like James. Or rather, it was astonishing how much James looked like his ancestor. ----- "No one can know Chaos, you can''t tell them, you have to erase everything, they mustn''t remember me," Desmond said suddenly, the tiredness and sadness in his gaze seemed to be destroying Chaos. "I don''t understand why you want to do this, you know you''re the only person I''ve blessed, whose heart I can''t read, what are you trying to do?" asked Chaos. "You know them, old man, Nyx and Erebus, Ra and Chronos, Gaia and Atlas, the others. They won''t understand, they will try to find me and bring me back, they will try to force me through the 75th floor." Desmond said, the fatigue in his body becoming more prominent. "I''m tired, old man...I''m a human being, one who doesn''t want to be a god. I''m insanely tired and I just want to close my eyes and move on, never to open them again. I want a wife I''ve always dreamed of, children, sons and daughters I can teach. I want my presence erased from the tower until the time comes until you find one even brighter than my soul." Desmond added, the smile on his face stabbing Chaos, who was watching what was happening, in his heart. "I see...What is your plan? Tell me." Chaos said, that as much as he did not want to admit it, he could not heal him, it was obvious that he was ready to refuse. "Create a reality, a universe for me, stars, planets and a world, people, the beginning of everything," said Desmond, the brightness in his eyes shining blindingly. "I should give you a longer life then, such a long life, till you want to die, a young body, one that is not sick but will die at a certain time, one that you can earn on the condition that you cannot return to the tower as you wish, one that can be your family, one that no one can reach you." Chaos replied and Desmon smiled and said, "Yes, just like that." "Nyx and Erebus, Chronos and Ra, Gaia and Atlas, all the remaining titans, all the gods who want to follow you will go mad when they find out what happened, you know that, don''t you?" Chaos asked, and the answer he would hear behind him would be what comforted him. Desmond was smiling, closing his eyes and looking around. "That''s why you should erase everything until the time comes," he said. Chapter 125 - 125: Nyx Against Chaos (3) "That''s why you have to erase everything until the time comes," Desmond had said. Hearing these words, Chaos could see that the man in front of him did not say such words sincerely, so even if he could not read his heart, he did not need to try to do so. The great bitterness in Desmond was evident. "Explain your plan to me, Desmond, everything must be perfect," Chaos said, and Desmond, hearing these words, began to speak: "Create the place I said, give me a long time, from the creation of the world to the rule of men, no other race will live in that world. Elf, dwarf or any other race, nobody, nobody will live there." Hearing these words, Chaos shook his head and then asked, "Is it your hatred for them that makes you want this?" Desmond shook his head, explaining that it was nothing of the sort with these words: "I want to fall in love, old man. I want to find the love of my life, I want to have children and I want everything I know to continue for generations. I wish to die exactly 80 years after my first child is born, I want to be immortal until then and I want to make everything I have the most perfect. Any other races will only devour that happiness." At Desmond''s words, Chaos shook his head and then asked, "Giving you immortality means I forbid you to enter the tower, are you sure you want to approve this?" Seeing Desmond nod, Chaos added another question: "That means you won''t be able to see Nyx or Erebus, or their children, Demond, are you sure?" Desmond''s eyebrows shot up at this question, his expression turning to one of immense sadness, one might have thought he was close to rejecting his plan and crossing the 75th floor. "They''ll be very angry with me, I''m sure of it, they''re my brothers and sisters...But yes, I''m sure, if they forget about me, there''ll be no problem, make me an unknown person, so that everyone can be happy." Desmond said. "Do you think they will be happy, don''t you think how disappointed they will be if they find out what you did?" Chaos asked. "It''s going to be a long time. If I have my way and you find someone brighter than me and they find out then, I''m sure they''ll take it all in their stride, I''m sure they''ll understand what I want to do," Desmond said and chuckled, then continued: "They will cry, Erebus in particular will be devastated, but I''m sure Nyx will do her usual good job of pulling it all together." Desmond paused for a few seconds, then shook his head and spoke one last time. "If they remember me, show them what I have to say, old man," Desmond said and looked at Chaos with a smile. What Nyx was watching was suddenly being watched through Chaos'' eyes, and Desmond''s words were heard: "Nyx, Erebus, Chronos and the others. It doesn''t matter where I am, it doesn''t matter what kind of life I''m going to live. What matters is all the moments we had and the life we lived. Maybe we didn''t live the best life, but I''m sure we had the most marvellous moments. I devoted my life to killing evil gods and goddesses, but eventually, I found people I could love. You are the best thing that ever happened to me, remember that I will always love you all." At the end of Desmond''s words, he clapped his hands and then said, "All right, old man, send me away!" ----- At that moment, what Nyx was watching was over. Chaos looked down at his only daughter and was saddened, as he had said eventually, Desmond''s actions were beginning to break everything. Nyx was crying, silently, not breathing, her eyes wide open and tears falling to the floor. She couldn''t think of anything to say, or rather, Nyx had a thousand things she wanted to say, she didn''t know how. She could feel her heart pounding, knowing that Desmond, whom she considered her brother, had ended up like this made everything strange, Nyx was truly broken. "He was human Nyx, he wasn''t like you or me, I did what he wanted and here we are, are you still mad at me, are you still mad at Desmond?" Chaos asked. Nyx''s face turned to her father after hearing that, she said nothing and then stood up and opened a portal. Nyx quickly left the place that had been her father''s home and walked back into the parlour with eyes watching her. She looked at her husband Erebus, who had just managed to pull himself together, Chronos standing beside him, and the other titans, gathered together for the first time in a long time. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I don''t know what you''re going to do after what I''m about to show you, but you''d better be ready to give your life for James," Nyx said, her words alone telling them how serious an event was coming to them. The Chaos-Borns in the room were stunned and the Titans were saddened as each of them began to have flashbacks of Nyx. They had heard and seen Desmond, what he had said, what he had done, and the apology he had made. Before Nyx''s memories faded to black, James''s memory was revealed to everyone, leaving the Titans angry and upset. Even Chronos hadn''t learnt that much, he had only seen Desmond leave and a few other things, and he was going mad at what he was seeing now. "How could he do this?" Atlas suddenly shouted, his massive body shaking the hall. "I don''t understand...We could have forced him to go through the 75th floor, that''s for sure, but that''s still no reason for him to leave!" said Themis, the titan of the law. "I can''t believe he would leave us so easily! I can''t believe that Desmond, who has been with us through all the hardships we have suffered together, who has been with us through the weakening and increasing of our powers, who have helped us to cleanse all evil, is gone so easily!" cried Gaia, and it was possible to see tears in her eyes. It seemed only a matter of time before the Titans began to argue. Chapter 126 - 126: Weeping Angels It had been almost half an hour since James had entered the 13th floor with Miracle in his arms. He hadn''t been sent any floor assignments or anything by Emma like on the previous floors, James was beginning to think that such things happened on the first floors. James could see very clearly that the part they were in was a modern world, it was as if he was back in his own world. What made everything difficult, however, was that he didn''t know what to do. They were inside a building and unfortunately, it was not possible to get out through the exit door of the building. There was no one outside or inside the building except him and Miracle. The outside world was flooded with light, and the buildings shone brightly, but there was literally no sign of life as if everyone in the world had suddenly disappeared. Despite all this, James felt that someone was watching them. He thought it was because he was lonely, and frankly, it was a bit creepy. Miracle had transformed into a dragon and landed on James'' head as usual, it would be fair to say that the duo tried to walk around the entire building. They were ransacking every room, every area, they didn''t seem to know what was going on or what they were supposed to do. "Alright, this is too weird, Emma aren''t you going to give me a clue?" James suddenly muttered, he really had no idea what was going on, he and Miracle were in a building all alone, that was all. [The only clue I can give you is don''t wink at them, find a way to kill them.] James saw the window suddenly open in front of him and shook his head, he didn''t know what he was supposed to kill and he couldn''t understand why he shouldn''t blink, but at least he had a purpose to do it. He continued to walk around, he was really confused, he literally couldn''t find anything to kill unless it was a ghost. Even the Titans arguing on Olympus had stopped, the floor James was now on was far too dangerous. James was in a bad situation again, the tower seemed to have adapted a floor for James that he should have been in much later. Suddenly James could hear rattling coming from upstairs, downstairs and literally from the rooms next to him. He realised that the glow had gone from each of the buildings outside and the electricity had returned to the building he was in. "THUD!" Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "THUD!" "THUD!" The unbelievably heavy "foot-stomping" sounds, one after the other, confused James. If such monsters existed, they must have weighed a lot, as did their size, how could they fit in rooms? Suddenly James felt something coming towards him from behind him, incredibly fast indeed, rising towards him: "THUD!" "THUD!" "THUD!" Suddenly turning around James saw a female figure appear in front of him, he instantly realised that the voices from downstairs, upstairs and the room next to them had been silenced. In front of him was a sculpted female figure with a demonic expression. The statue woman appeared to have wings, claws and white skin. "Miracle, how long can you keep your eyes open?" James suddenly asked and his little girl replied, "A few minutes if I use magic, Dad." "Then start using it, never close your eyes, do you understand?" James said and got a yes back. James knew very clearly what the statue, or rather the monster, was in front of him. "Is that a flipping Weeping Angel?" James suddenly muttered and with that a window opened in front of him: [You should never blink in front of these monsters, if there is no one else looking at it, your neck will break and you will die on the spot]. When James read what was written in the message window, he nodded his head as if he understood and then said, "These are different from what I know, they break necks instead of sending you back in time?" James now realised what was happening and what those voices were. "I think they''re waiting for me to come," James said and then he equipped Clarent. With a single move, the Weeping Angel was cut in half. James thought he had made a successful kill, but suddenly he heard the sounds that had just disappeared start to reappear: "THUD!" "RUHAA!" "THUD!" "COME BAGHK!" "THUD!" "THUD!" Occasionally James heard humanoid voices and realised quite clearly that they were trying to lure him towards them, in short, he wasn''t quite sure what he was supposed to do, but he decided to ignore them and then started to make his way quickly up the stairs. He hadn''t tried it before, but maybe he could make it to the roof of the building. James had assumed that every single Weeping Angel was right on his doorstep because of the constant sounds that were getting louder and closer. Still, he was comforted by the fact that Miracle was constantly looking around, so he was able to continue his run. After a short while he managed to get to the door of the penthouse, he kept pushing on the door but he could see that some force was blocking it. "Welp...That is weird." James said and grabbed Clarent tightly, cutting the door. The door was indeed cut open, and as soon as James stepped outside, the door was fixed. James didn''t know what to do, thanks to Clarent, he had seen that the Weeping Angels could be killed, and he started to think of a way to kill the groups in all the voices instead of killing each one individually. In short, he needed a little brainstorming, and he needed it as fast as possible. He really had to find a method as quickly as possible, finish the job, move to the next floor and move on. He didn''t know how to do it though, he couldn''t look at too many enemies all the time, and he didn''t have thousands of eyes. Chapter 127 - 127: Well, That Was Hell "Aaaah...well they''re weak, very weak indeed. Fire might work, but I don''t want to burn the whole building down. Do you have something in mind Miracle?" said James suddenly, the little girl was looking at her father with blank eyes. James shook his head and then asked, "Ummm, Nemesis...I can''t say the others are trying to help me much, do you have anything in mind?" After a few seconds of waiting, a message from the person he had been waiting for appeared in front of him: [Pure power. You don''t need an element or anything else. The reason you can kill the first Weeping Angel you come across is because you find the spot on the statue where your soul exists. So you were lucky enough to land an attack on the spot that could partially break the statue. Be careful, just because you killed one, you''ll be fighting against dozens of them, not just one]. After Nemesis'' words, James paused for a few seconds and then asked, "But how am I supposed to find the point where I can break the statue?" [They''re statues, James, are you crazy? You will feel the presence of the mana that binds the souls inside, it''s as simple as that.] "Huh...So that''s it..." James said and then nodded and stood up, took out a bottle of water from his inventory and after drinking it, he cut the door of the terrace floor and entered back into the building. He could hear the rattling coming from the lower floors, still chilling. On top of that, he could hear them getting closer and closer: "THUD!" "THUD!!!" "THUD!!!!" "THUD!!!!" "THUD!!!!!!" The sounds were getting closer and closer and with it James'' heartbeat was increasing insanely, it was like a combination of fear and adrenaline, thanks to his Calm Mind ability James was alive right now and he was sure of it himself, he knew that what he had to do now was to stay calm but it was not that easy. In other scenarios, he could dodge the monsters he was facing, or rather he was fast enough to dodge them. The Goblin King, Fallen God, and the like were all able to avoid him in one way or another, but not this type of monster. Weeping Angels could break his neck when he wasn''t looking, and without him even realising it. The creator of the Weeping Angels would have been shocked to see what had happened, these perfectly frightening beings with the ability to send him back in time, only to be turned into killers. Still, James knew he had to remain calm, he had somehow managed to get his breathing back to a fairly normal pattern. Once he was sure that Miracle was resting, he slowly waited where he was. His eyes were closed, trusting his little girl Miracle. "THUD!!!!!!!" An enormous number of too-heavy sounds echoed in James'' ears again, and then a single normal voice reached him. "THUD!" James was completely sure that when he opened his eyes, he would see one in front of him. He opened his eyes quickly and then he saw the statue that had managed to come right in front of him, with angel wings but with a facial expression even more horrible than the devil, and dozens of statues standing behind it. These statues were truly frightening as they moved down the stairs, dozens of them standing where they were, most of them with their faces covered. James suddenly added the magical energy in his body, the mana itself, to his eyes. The world he saw began to change, he could see the spirits of the beings in front of him. The spirits standing inside the statues were screaming, they seemed to be begging for help, James could feel all the hairs on his body standing straight up. He began to see the mana traces, the locks, standing on the statues. Glowing with a blue light, James chose to use Selene''s Throwing Knife instead of approaching them with Clarent. After all, even if the stairs were not very narrow, there were quite a lot of statues, he needed a large area to make his slashing attacks, and he did not want to do anything wrong, the attacks had to be precise. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James took a few steps back and leaned his back against the door to the penthouse, then threw out the knife he was holding. "CRUSH!!!" There was a sudden burst of average sound and James saw the spirit in front of him fade away with a smiling face, the statue shattered into pieces and then vanished into dust. "Well...That was flipping cool!" James said suddenly, he was out of breath but he was sure it was the adrenaline in his body, all his fear was gone. "Miracle, tell me when you can''t take it anymore," said James and then one by one he began to attack the mana points of the statues in front of him. Each time he could see the laughing spirits being released and the statues crumbling to dust. He quickly descended the levels, releasing as many souls as he could. Occasionally he would let Miracle rest and they would take turns destroying the statues. They had reached the ground floor after almost 15 minutes, and James and Miracle were exhausted. The two stopped for a few seconds and listened to the sounds around them. Neither Miracle''s superior senses nor James'' hearing could hear anything, it was as if all the Weeping Angel statues had been destroyed and the spirits inside had been released. "Thank you Nemesis, I don''t know what I would have done without you." Then he realised that the door of the building was opening with a thin sound, and James, who walked towards the door after this ear-splitting sound, realised that there was no problem and passed through the door. [Congratulations! Congratulations on cleaning the 13th floor! You have earned 500,000 gold for fast clearing! Since the level gain is blocked on this floor, you earn 1000 gold per soul you release! 536,000 gold!] Chapter 128 - 128: New Business When James passed through the passage that had opened in front of him and reached the white room, he stopped where he was, as if confused. "Was that it? No boss monster battle? They weren''t that tough...I don''t get it," James muttered. The fact that he had no idea how narrowly he had dodged the bullet was what made it all the funnier. [What the hell are you talking about? Thank our daughter, if it wasn''t for her you''d be dead already. All of Olympus was on standby, just in case.] James suddenly read the message sent by Nemesis in front of him and then waited for a few seconds with a frown, tapping the white space he was in and muttering "IS THIS TOWER MOCKING ME?". He instantly realised the seriousness of the situation, Nemesis'' seriousness was enough to tell him. [There''s nothing to do, James. Like I said at the beginning, you''ve passed the Hell Tutorial, the tower is relentless, it did something that''s barely even normally difficult, and it made the already difficult floors even more difficult for you]. When Nyx''s message appeared in front of James, James sat down on the floor and then took a deep breath and said, "You''re right, he is joking, to tell you the truth, sometimes I wish I hadn''t chosen Hell Tutorial, but what''s done is done, there''s nothing I can do, there''s no remedy for the dead and the living." Then he was back on his feet, stretching his body as much as he could, and then he opened the gacha panel, stunned by what he saw in front of him. "The heck?" he suddenly shouted. "WHERE ARE MY GACHA RIGHTS?!" he screamed. It was written on the panel that he officially had no rights. He had zero rights, he couldn''t understand what was going on. Didn''t he kill 536 Weeping Angels? [You have to kill monsters for your ability to kick in, sir.] Suddenly there was a text from Emma and James became even more angry. "Emma, haven''t I already killed 536 Weeping Angels?" he questioned. [Sir, you released the souls sealed inside the Weeping Angels, causing them to be purified. The ability specifically says that you will be granted the right to kill them.] At Emma''s words, James made an enormous grimace, indeed he frowned and pursed his lips. "So now you''re right, but it still doesn''t change the fact that I''m upset...There''s nothing to be done yet I want them, what the fuck!" James said and then said, "Emma, send us back to the 5th floor, I''ve got a bit of work to do." When the portal opened in front of James, he quickly entered with Miracle and then appeared in front of the palace. Since James appeared in the square near the Olympus guild every time he passed through the portal, he was surprised where he was now. "Lord Umbra!" one of the guards had said, James'' authority and fame were growing, especially as everyone in and around the palace began to worship James himself. In short, even before James became a god, those who began to see him as a god began to spread around. "Good morning, it is a great day isn''t it?" James suddenly said. "Yes sir, it is a great honour!" the guard replied with a quick nod, even if he was surprised by the question. At that very moment, several nuns appeared in front of James. James realised that the nuns in front of him were the ones who had brought him to the palace in the carriage when he had returned from climbing the storey, each of them looking at James with bright eyes. "How good it is to see you all again, I was hoping you could take me to the hopping rabbit cafe," James said suddenly, he had to go to Ronald. "Do you remember us sir?!" one of the nuns said, each of them surprised. "Ummm...I''m not supposed to remember?" asked James, and with a nod from the nuns he got into the carriage. After almost two hours, James had made it to the hopping rabbit cafe at the other end of town. He ordered the nuns to leave him alone for an hour and waited for Ronald inside the caf¨¦. Ronald seemed to have given strict orders to the staff because as soon as James appeared outside the coffee shop he was taken to a special place. After a short while, Ronald came to the table in the corner where James was sitting and said, "It''s been a while, James, I hope you''re as well as ever." James smiled as soon as he heard these words and replied, "I see the first friend I made when I entered the tower, how could I not be fine?" With that, Ronald sat in a chair and waited for James to speak. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "It''s something I''ve wanted to do for a long time and Ronald, I need your help to do it. You know I have a really large amount of gold, enough to start a new guild and create a luxurious guild hall, and then there will be money left over for me." James said, and with these words, he seemed to have Ronald''s attention incredibly. "Go on," Ronald said. "I''ve heard some rumours. More precisely, I heard from the goddesses with open mouths when I was in Olympus, I heard that you can gain authority with the help of tower managers, more precisely, domain authority." James said, and he could easily see the growing smile on Ronald''s face. "Please make it clear what you want from me, James," Ronald said. James chuckled after hearing those words and pulled out a cheque, wrote the number of gold coins in his possession on the cheque and then signed the cheque and handed it to Ronald. "I want you to buy a place in my name, that mountain, the mountain of ice. I know that money won''t be enough, but you know my skill, there is nothing I can''t win, and as far as I know, the outside of the empire is full of monsters. You know what I mean, don''t you?" James said. Ronald clenched his hands into fists after these words. "You''re very clever Mr James, I''d forgotten that." Chapter 129 - 129: Sea of Stars Is Here "You are very clever, Mr James, I had forgotten that." James smiled at these words and then shook his head and said, "It is an unlimited way of earning gold. I don''t even know if there is a limit to my skill, but even the lowest level armour or sword I can get is better than the ones sold at the blacksmith''s, as long as they don''t come broken or rusty." "Though of course, I can''t always be here to use the ability," James added, and Ronald realised that James had other ideas. "What exactly do you want to do, young master?" Ronald asked, his interest growing by the second. "What I want to do, Ronald, is to move the guild building to the ice mountain. To build a huge compound there, of course, a place like the imperial palace directly implies authority, but what I want is different. Creating a home is my main goal." James replied, and that was enough for Ronald. "Then let me help you, although the amount of gold you gave me is not even enough to buy the land around that mountain...But the owner of that mountain is neither a god nor a man. I need to talk to a manager." Ronald said. These words seemed to make James deeply curious, who should he mean by manager? "Oh! Right, it''s normal to be surprised, after all, you''ve met me and Leyla, but there are three of us, you know that, don''t you?" Ronald added, and with that James shook his head, indicating that he had no idea. "Cain young master. The third head administrator is called Cain, nicknamed the tailor, he''s a rather shady character so I''ll have to deal with him for a while. Of course, it will be easier if I have the word of Lady Nyx." Ronald said and with that, he stood up. James stood up with Ronald and then said, "Then show me a place where I can leave the extra things I have, believe me, I have a lot of things." Ronald smiled at these words and after a short while the two went to the huge space at the back of the cafe. Ronald hadn''t expected James to have so much stuff so he waited with relief, after only thirty seconds his backyard was filling up with armour, clothes, weapons and the like. Ronald was surprised. "Aaah... May I ask how many times you''ve used gacha, young master?" Ronald suddenly asked, and James shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I don''t know a few thousand times?" There was no way to describe how big Ronald''s smile was. It had taken James almost fifteen minutes to unload his entire inventory, eventually, he''d finished what he was going to do and then he said, "I''ve got to be on my way now, you know, the 14th floor is waiting for me or something." After she had Miracle back in her arms, she told the nuns that she would come with them and entered the passage created by Emma. It didn''t take him long to clear the 14th floor, he solved a huge puzzle in almost an hour and moved to the 15th floor. It was a little sad that nothing James had expected was happening. After all, James was looking for civilisation itself here, just like on the 5th and 10th floors. Nevertheless, he easily realised that this was not a normal floor, but a floor without war. He was only waist-deep in water. There was endless water all around as if he was in the middle of an ocean. As he was trying to understand what was happening, he looked up and then he saw the stars in the sky. It was as if he could see galaxies, it was a perfect view, it was so beautiful that it was impossible not to get emotional and shed tears while looking at it. [Welcome! Welcome to the 15th floor, the Sea of Star area! Each floor from this floor to the 20th floor will be connected. To pass the floor, you need to successfully pass the meditation state and reach enlightenment. This floor will serve the purpose of highlighting users and players on their journey to godhood. The water you are in will increase according to the user''s battle styles, status weight and utility. Good luck]] James shook his head when he saw the notification window that appeared in front of him and more or less understood what had happened. Just as he had created the Mind Palace on the tutorial floor, where he was going to improve his status possibilities by focusing his attention. What he didn''t understand was what was meant by ''battle styles''. Still, he knew there was no point in thinking about it right now. He sat carefully on the floor and realised that the water was up to his chest. He realised that while Miracle was asleep in James'' head, James himself was becoming insanely peaceful. His mind had officially recovered, he hadn''t even felt such peace of mind since he gained the Mind Palace ability. It was a strange feeling as if all the pores in his body were opened one by one. It was like the water of the sea was entering his body. [You have gained 1 Intelligence Status point!] James looked at the window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, and when he read what was written on it, he opened and closed his eyes slightly. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Even if he understood what was going on, it seemed to be driving him mad that everything was happening so fast. There were still three more of these floors to go and it excited James. He closed his eyes and then let himself fall into the water. Miracle woke up suddenly and went back to sleep, lying on his father''s stomach as he lay in the water. James now had a good moment to develop Star Magic, he could recognise the star energy travelling through the sky. His eyes were closed, floating in the water, the water seemed to carry him phenomenally, even though it was not deep. It was unclear how far he could develop. Chapter 130 - 130: Cain the Tailor James floated on the water with his eyes closed for longer than he could remember. When he opened his eyes again, he saw that the vast expanse of water around him was covered with stars. It was as if he had been thrown into a magical scene, like a main character who had been thrown into a magical scene without knowing anything about it, it was quite strange, to say the least. James was out of breath, but this was not due to adrenaline or anything else. James was trying to get used to his own body, a strange feeling of purity pervaded him and it was dizzying. He inhaled deeply as he gently picked Miracle up and placed her in the water, and then smiled as he saw the girl in dragon form floating in the water. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He wanted to go into his System Profile and see what had changed. "Profile," he said, and a huge window opened in front of him: [James Arthur Black Age: 23 Race: Human Level: 50 Class: Warrior of the Night Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++), Star Magic(Godly), Beginner Level Light Spell(Legendary+++) [Statuses] Power 75 Agility: 211 Endurance 150 Luck: 26 Magic 1433 Holiness: 30.000 Intelligence 274 Charisma 12 Status Points 0] When James saw the state of their status, he just stood where he was without saying anything. "Ummm...Lady Nyx, if you''re watching, I have a question. Exactly how long have I been here?" he suddenly asked, and depending on the answer to that question, the value of the floor would be realised in his eyes. [Almost 20 days James, you''ve been floating, or rather meditating, for a long time, with a method we''ve never seen before.] James blinked when he saw this and then muttered "In 20 days I''ve gained about 100 intelligence, over 700 spells and over 70 agility stats?", this was even more valuable than 50-60 level-ups. James continued to be amazed, it was a big deal, meanwhile, on the 5th floor, different events were taking place. Ronald and the person called Cain finally came face to face. "Why did you call me here, Ronald? I refused every time, but to call me for 20 days in a row? Don''t you have anything to do?" These words came from Cain. Cain looked to be about 30 years old, with sharp ears, pitch-black hair with a good posture. Indeed, Cain was an incredibly beautiful being, after all, he was the greatest of the race he entered into. He was a completely different person created by Chaos. Cain was a High Arch-Elf. He was the greatest of his race, the most beautiful, the most skilful in craftsmanship and intellectually the best of the three main admins. It would not be wrong to say that he owned 20% of the buildings on the 5th floor, and his wealth was enormous thanks to his craftsmanship. He was such an excellent craftsman that the dress worn by Nyx, the strange garment on Erebus and even the clothes worn by all Chaos-Born were sewn by Cain. He was the only one in the tower to be called a tailor, an odd nickname, and perhaps not the most perfect one for one of the three main rulers, but Cain himself was honoured by it. Ronald was looking at Cain. "Thank you for coming Cain, I have a request, that''s why I called you," Ronald suddenly said. It was possible to see Cain''s surprised expression, Leyla had always asked him to make clothes for her, but Ronald had only made this request once, more than two billion years ago. It would be safe to say that Cain, nicknamed the tailor, was intrigued, because he grumpily sat up and looked directly into the eyes of Ronald, the rabbit man, and said, "I''m listening." When Ronald heard this word, he took a paper from his jacket and handed it to Cain. When Cait took the paper and started to read it, he smiled and then looked at Ronald and said, "You''ve got to be kidding me." He was surprised to see the serious smile on Ronald''s face and thought about the truth of what was written on the paper: [An agreement with one of the three main admins Cain over the purchase of the mountain, now known as Glacier Mountain, which can be seen with the naked eye north of the imperial capital inside the 5th floor at the request of James Arthur Black, nicknamed Umbra of Chaos. The details of the deal have been approved by Nyx, the most powerful goddess known as the Mother of the Night, and the following amount of gold will be given by her, and James Arthur Black will never be told that the amount of gold is paid by Nyx as a result of this deal. The amount of gold to be paid is exactly 2.000.000.000.000. The amount of gold to be taken from James will be exactly 350,000,000 gold. This agreement has been approved by Chaos himself on behalf of Nyx and his contractor, James Arthur Black. Signed:] When Cain read what was written on the paper in his hand, he took a pen out of his inventory and instantly signed next to the signature section. Ronald was surprised that Cain was so easily convinced. After all, Cain was a grumpy personality who sulked even at Chaos-Borns. "I guess the creator''s guarantee made you relax," Ronald suddenly said, and Cain, hearing this, smiled and said, "Actually, no, I owe James a debt, after all, I have a fairly large property on the 5th floor, he saved everything by killing the Fallen God. On top of that, I''ll get a massive amount of gold, so I think it''s a good deal all around." Another aspect of Cain was his love for gold, and this was a reality that spread throughout the tower. This elf was so rich that if a floor in the tower was destroyed, Cain could pay for all the damage and rebuild that floor. This was the third of the tower''s main administrators, Cain the Tailor. Chapter 131 - 131: 19th Floor (1) "Thank you so much for selling the Ice Mountain, I really do," Ronald said, the smile and look of relief on his face striking Cain as very strange. "Gosh, I have never seen you like this before. You really like the kid huh?" Cain said, that even with these words, he showed his grumpiness, but he was pleased that Ronald had turned into a more lively person. He had a strange feeling. "James is really special, I''m not sure what kind of person he is, after all, I don''t know him incredibly well, but he deserves the necessary respect and a lot of love," Ronald replied, that even these words increased Cain''s respect for James. If Ronald praised someone so much, that person must have had a very high potential. "The last person you praised so much was Odysseus himself, wasn''t it? Although it is unclear where he is," Cain questioned. "Yes...That Odysseus, indeed, the sorrows and evils and foolishness of the gods and the arrogance of Odysseus, even if he deserved to be cursed, were too much...I don''t even know where he is. At least his wife Penelope is protected by Nyx, so that''s a plus." Ronald replied, his sadness evident on his face. "You''re right...the gods were young and greedy Ronald, especially Zeus himself, their greed at the time made Odysseus'' life hell, though that''s not something we can talk about, except to say that the mighty Chaos will allow us to see him again," Cain muttered as he stood up and took out a scroll from his inventory. Handing the scroll to Ronald, Cain said, "The deed to the mountain now belongs to James, the deal will be done, everyone knows where I am, so I believe I will get my gold in a short time, Ronald." and then a gigantic gate opened behind him, and Cain, who passed through the gate, disappeared with the pessimism he had come. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ronald sat back in his seat after putting the scroll into his inventory and then took a sip of his tea and closed his eyes to wait for James to return. James had his hands full, he had somehow made it to the 19th floor, he had encountered strange sights and his body had indeed developed a good amount. "Is that what this floor wants me to do? To choose a path? Are we sure we''re not on the first floor?" James muttered, clearly seeing the three paths in front of him. [The three paths you will choose will be very useful to you no matter what you choose, but be careful because the dangers here are more than you think, I assure you]. James shook his head as he read the other message from Nyx and stood where he was. He hadn''t earned an achievement in a long time, or rather an achievement that allowed him to choose a card, but he was still happy to find a place that reminded him of those times. The reason for this thought and feeling was the three paths he saw in front of him. These three paths glowed with green, red and black colours respectively, and James of course understood what was going on. The difficulties seemed to be divided into thirds, and Nyx had warned him in detail that all three paths were very difficult, but if the colours between the difficulties were distinct, it meant that even the difficulties were increasing in degrees. Green had to be the easiest of the incredibly difficult paths, red had to be the medium-difficulty path, and black had to be the most difficult of the paths. This meant that the black path was the most difficult of the difficulties, but it was also the one that would bring the most reward, or the one that would develop James the best. James took a deep breath and then stepped out onto the glowing black path. He started walking, and as soon as he entered the path, everything went silent. The stars in the sky were clearly visible. Indeed, it was understandable that this place was called the Sea of Stars. The image in the sky, the stars, planets and even galaxies were visible, and all this image was reflected in the puddles in the path and even strangely in the tree leaves. James did not know anyone who would not admire this view. He took his steps calmly on the path and wondered how it was that no sound could rise to the sky. Except for the sound of his own footsteps, no sound was coming out, not even the sound of breathing, it was a very strange phenomenon. His footprints were being erased with each new one and each step was getting heavier and heavier. As James struggled with this sensation, he suddenly realised that there was something following him somewhere he couldn''t quite understand, it was an incredibly frightening sensation, the fact that he didn''t know what this person or thing was and the feeling of heaviness in his body and especially in his feet could lead him to death. In short, his guard was at a very low level. "Hello?" James said he had no intention of letting his guard down, even if he was a little relieved that the thing looking at him was not attacking him. While he was carefully examining the surroundings, he started to take his steps again. It was as if he was in a swamp, after each movement it was getting more and more difficult to move. He took a deep breath and then activated his dark step ability, his steps became much lighter and he realised that he could walk comfortably for at least a few seconds. James realised that a great power, a great authority was really watching him, but he could not really understand what was going on. Still, he needed to move and go further. However, an incredibly thick and headache-inducing voice rose from the wooded area in front of him: "NYX?" Chapter 132 - 132: 19th Floor (2) "NYX?" James grabbed his head tightly at the sound of the voice and began to moan in pain. "UAGGHHHHHH!!!" When James screamed, he realised the blood on the floor. When he touched his face with his hand, he saw that his nose was bleeding. [Protect your head with mana!] James suddenly saw the message from Nyx and directed his mana to the head area, seeing the pain in his head suddenly disappear. At the same time, Miracle, who had entered James'' inventory to sleep undisturbed, suddenly came out and looked angrily in the direction of the sound. James had discovered this method while trying to strengthen his body on the 17th floor and realised that he could send Miracle into his inventory to sleep. This proved quite useful. The little girl Miracle''s gaze did seem to radiate death. "Hmm, come, cross the forest and reach me, I''ll be waiting for you, avoid danger, kill and come to me!" James heard that perfectly weighted voice again and this time avoided harm by protecting his head. However, he realised that the weight on his body had completely disappeared and as he tried to think about what had happened, he gently held Miracle and then said, "You may have saved my life, little lady, well done." Miracle gave her father James a big hug and then went back to the inventory with slow steps and went back to sleep. [He can''t kill you even if he wanted to, he''s not authorised to kill you until you''ve failed his test]. James found another message, tilted his head to the right in surprise and asked, "What do you mean, my lady, what was that thing?" [That person, James, is your examiner. Three paths, three different attendants, and three tests of varying difficulty. Butterfly, spider and snake, the three masters of poison. I can''t believe this is the test you have been given, I can only say good luck, please be careful, you have chosen the hardest one]. James took a deep breath when he read this message and then started to move forward with light steps. The fact that there was no weight on his body made everything even easier. He didn''t know exactly what the test would be or how tough it would be, but he had a guess, even Nyx herself had made it clear that she would have no choice but to wish him good luck. James had to be careful, or he would lose his life. As he entered the forest, he realised that he could hear voices this time, and as he looked back at the forest behind the clearing he had come through, he realised that the clearing must have served as a boundary. I think the examiner had already put James through the first test, to see if he could withstand it, or rather to see if he could withstand the boundary itself. James smiled and realised that he was starting to enjoy himself, he didn''t know what kind of person the examiner was, but he was sure that he was a respectable person, with a valuable personality. Having abruptly removed Clarent from his inventory, James had his sword and guard in good condition and was moving forward, constantly looking around and checking for any approaching noises. After only fifteen seconds he realised that something was approaching and then he was in a position ready to attack. Suddenly out of the trees came a gorilla, taller than him, quite large in stature and looking like a goofball. Even though James could not understand what was happening, he could still feel the feeling coming from the gorilla very clearly. The gorilla was saying, "I''m dangerous." As soon as James used his dark step ability, the gorilla realised what had just happened and jumped at James with an angry expression. James was thrown into the trunk of a tree before he even realised what was happening. "Puah...." When James spat the blood flowing from his mouth on the ground, he started to look at the gorilla with surprise, he was able to realise how fast the other personality was. There was even a small spark from the friction where the gorilla stepped. James had activated the Void Ring he wore with it, the gorilla seemed to have been fooled this time, and James'' presence was completely erased. He activated his dark step ability and then stabbed the gorilla in the chest with his Clarent. "GUUOOOO!!!" The gorilla fell to the ground with a great scream and then lost its life. James took a deep breath, thanks to his automatic healing he was already healed, but the fact that his body hurt so badly did not change. After stretching his body, he started to move on and then he heard a voice. "Two done. Four to go, you''re close, young man!" The big voice was coming from the examiner, James heard it quite normally and continued onwards at full speed, he didn''t know what it was, it was even harder than some of the high-grade climbers he had fought in the gorilla arena he had just fought in. It deserved the title of the most difficult path. After a short while James came to a clearing, and this time he saw two tigers. The tigers with their white fur were looking at James. One tiger quickly moved to the back of James and the other waited where he was, ready to attack to hold James in place. James started to hold the sword Clarent ready to attack and waited for the tigers to attack. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He waited where he was and watched the movements of the two tigers with such attention that he could even hear the sound of water falling from the surrounding leaves. The two tigers were circling James as if they had found a prey, James seemed to realise that they were not going to attack and so he started to use his dark step ability again and attacked. He started to fight with the tigers, which were many times stronger than the gorilla just now. Chapter 133 - 133: 19th Floor (3) James started the attack with the tiger, who was behind him first. Each step seemed to take the tiger by surprise. The tigers were fast but not as fast as James, so while the gorilla he was fighting represented speed, these tigers must have represented something else. James tried to thrust Clarent into the tiger, which he attacked with great ferocity and speed, the tiger bit Clarent the holy sword itself. When James realised the difference in strength, he freed Clarent from the tiger''s mouth as fast as possible and avoided the attack that suddenly came from behind him. The tigers collided, and James had just enough time to recover. "Well, you two must represent strength," James said, and he had to think of a way to kill the tigers. The tigers attacked as soon as they were on their feet, James was almost twice as fast as them, after all, he was activating his dark step ability, still, he had spent almost 10% of the magical energy, mana, in his body, he had three more tests after this, making everything dangerous. He could use his aura if he was in a bad situation, but he didn''t know how useful it would be. He was constantly avoiding the tigers'' attacks and trying to find a way to hurt them in the process. Suddenly, he pulled Selene''s Throwing Knife out of his inventory and threw it at one of the tigers, the blade bouncing off the tiger''s skin and falling to the ground. "C''mon, you''ve got to pierce it!" James shouted. He had special skills in piercing, and if he couldn''t pierce a tiger''s skin with a knife, there was no way he could kill it that way. Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He was constantly sorting through his thoughts and wondering what he should do. After a short while, he charged his aura into Selene''s Throwing Knife and then tried to throw the knife that way. This time the blade seemed to damage the tiger''s skin. However, the blade did not pierce the skin. A medium-level completed aura and an aura with an elemental in it only made the skin bleed, it didn''t make sense. James then realised that the tiger''s data was slightly burnt. This seemed to give him a good idea. James suddenly went straight to activating the flame element itself. The whole area was covered in flames. He then activated his aura and the flames began to burn bigger and stronger. "ROUARRR!!!" "ROARR!!!" The tigers were suddenly writhing in pain. James watched them and to tell the truth, he looked a little sad. Of course, everything was a test and they were monsters, but it was horrible and more than horrible, it was sad to see living things burned to death. After almost two minutes the tigers had fallen to the ground and perished, James shook his head, turned round and took a deep breath before saying "Welp, my stomach is getting better at handling this I assume." James started walking again after this, he still had three more exams to take, after all, the person who called out to him said that two were over and three were left. He continued on his way cautiously, the sounds were quite remarkable this time. There seemed to be quite a lot of birds around, parrots were in the trees around. "Ummm...What is this? Is this a flying test or something?" questioned James, the reason for this thought was of course that he had encountered birds. Behind his strange look, another message suddenly appeared in front of him: [Be careful. The first test is speed, the second is strength, and the third seems to be endurance]. James shook his head as he read the message from Athena and wondered how birds and endurance were related. "That''s the first time you''ve sent me a message and you did it to help me, thank you, dear Athena." James suddenly said and then continued to pace slowly. The parrots seemed to be talking normally. Suddenly, as James walked among them, all the voices were silenced, all the parrots turned towards James and started to watch him with their big eyes. James automatically sensed that danger was approaching, it was a very strange feeling, he knew that danger was here but he did not know what kind of attack was coming. Suddenly his whole body shuddered, suddenly he began to protect his head with all the mana in his body, what he had been waiting for had come: "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" All the parrots suddenly started screaming, each one of them looking at James and screaming and screaming madly at him. The screams were so powerful that it was possible to see with the naked eye where they were coming from and even the impacts hitting James'' body. It had to be admitted that it was a very strange but fascinating sight. James had collapsed to his knees from the force and pressure of the impact. This time he was not vomiting blood or bleeding anywhere on his body, he had been able to foresee this situation because of the pressure the examiner had put on him beforehand and was able to protect his head. While he was protecting his head with his magic, he was protecting his body with his aura, so there was no great harm to him. Nevertheless, the fact that he was nailed to the floor did not change. He had started to crawl on his knees. He thought the test would be over when he got to the clearing. Some parrots were flying right up to James and directing the screams in that way. James could not quite understand how to get out of there, he had no idea, these were birds, so even if he used the fire element, the parrots would escape. He was stuck where he was for a minute, but during that time he realised something. The parrots would stop for a second every few screams. James seemed to have found the answer to the question through a tiny hole. Chapter 134 - 134: 19th Floor (4) "The time element!" thought James suddenly, in that split second of space, if he could use the time element, he could find a way to escape from where he was. James waited cautiously, perhaps the pressure and pain in his body was at a high level, but eventually, he would escape. "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" One after another, the screams and impacts from the sound waves started again, and then silence descended on the area. James took advantage of that moment. He suddenly used his time element and simultaneously used his dark step ability to move forward. He quickly passed the vines in front of him, the thorny plants around him and everything in front of him, and moved forward without even looking back. The gap ahead was visible, James could get out of it. The one-second gap was over, the one-second from the time element was gone, the birds started screaming again when they realised James had disappeared, and they quickly followed him: "SCREEEEECCCHH!!!" "SQUAWKKK!!!" James was running, not even looking back, when he suddenly remembered how to avoid danger altogether. He had already used this item against the gorilla before, he couldn''t believe he had been so stupid as to forget that he had three per day. "Void Ring!" he thought furiously as the parrots behind him stopped calling and when they looked around to see where James had disappeared to, they didn''t realise that he was already out of the jungle. James suddenly let himself drop to the ground, releasing the mana puddle he had been holding in his head and the aura that had enveloped his body. He was breathing heavily, his whole body drenched in sweat. [It was incredible, you''ve come a long way in using the time element, James, well done.] James smiled as he looked at the message Chronos had suddenly sent him, "Thank you my master." he said as he breathed in and out deeply. After a few minutes of rest, he remembered that he only had two exams left and then stood up. He took out a piece of bread from his inventory and after eating it, he started on his way. "To tell you the truth, I want to get Star Magic back to its best as soon as possible, the hunger, thirst and sleep have to go, it''ll make me less human but I don''t care, look at me." James suddenly said, and he was right, none of them could remember James being this messed up since he entered the tower, except for the part where he almost died in the arena. With that, he tensed his body and took one last deep breath before entering the forest again. "Puff...Let''s go." After uttering these words, he stepped into the forest. As soon as he started moving through the forest, he came across an owl, the owl was staring at him and James was trying to understand what this test was. "Welcome," the owl with white feathers suddenly said. James shook his head when he heard this and then said in surprise, ''Well, thank you.'' He couldn''t understand what was going on, but he still had to pass the exam somehow. "I am here to represent the intelligence test, as you can see, you have passed the first tests and you must pass the test I will give you before you reach my master." said the owl, and James said, "Well... I apologise for killing your friends." The owl stood still for a few seconds after these words and looked into James'' eyes, then said, "You are truly sorry...Hmph, interesting.". Then the owl, which had flapped its wings, spoke again. "I, Mr Owl, the representative of intelligence, will present you with three riddles, if you give the wrong answer to the riddle you will die, you will get one answer per riddle." James was trapped in a transparent barrier before he could respond, he could have tried to escape but it would not have been a wise thing to try. "All right, ask right away," James said the fact that he considered himself intelligent made everything easier. "Cough-cough. So here''s the first riddle. I am not alive, yet I grow. I do not have lungs, yet I need air. I have no mouth, yet I can drown. What am I?" James shook his head as he heard the question, the riddle was incredibly easy. "Fire. It was quite easy, are we going from easy to hard? You know, I am good with riddles, my mum would make me go crazy with them all the time." James said, the owl waited where it was as if surprised when it heard these words and then coughed and moved on to the next question. "Cough...Well that was pretty easy, I DID IT ON PURPOSE!" he said and continued: "The person who makes it sells it. The person who buys it never uses it. The person who uses it, never knows they''re using it. What is it?" James sat down on the floor when he heard the question, it seemed that he had encountered a riddle that was not easy. "Hmm...He makes it and sells it, the one who buys it never uses it and the one who uses it never knows they''re using it?" James suddenly said he was thinking deeply. Seeing that James was deep in thought, the owl puffed out its chest and then tried to say, "I told you I was asking you an easy riddle as a joke, and I---" but his words were interrupted by James: "A coffin. It is a coffin." When James asked the owl this answer, the owl''s nerves seemed to jump, as if it wanted to kill James. "OK, this time I''m going to ask one so difficult that you won''t be able to answer it even if you think about it for a hundred years." the owl said and then asked the question: "You can see me in water, but I never get wet. I can follow you everywhere, but I''m not alive. I vanish when light leaves, but I always return. What am I?" James started to laugh when the owl asked this question. Those watching him from Olympus, those watching him from Asgard, and even Nemesis herself could not understand why he began to laugh, and at that very moment James'' voice was heard: "It''s funny that you''re asking me one of the riddles my mum used to ask me!" James said and then answered: "A reflection. Are you sure you are the [riddler] or intelligence?" Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 135 - 135: 19th Floor (5) "A reflection. Are you sure you are the [riddler] or intelligence?" After James'' words, the owl seemed to become quite angry and upset. "Why does everyone know the answer to my riddles?!" he exclaimed, his shriek rising into the starry sky. "I mean, normally I could help you improve your riddles, but I can''t because you''re here to kill people," James said when he heard this question. Hearing these words, Mr Owl shook his head and said, "Please tell me! I swear I won''t kill anyone anymore!" James who heard this said "Nuh-uh, I don''t believe you." and shrugged his shoulders. When the owl heard these words, it flapped its wings and then a scroll fell in front of James. "What am I supposed to make of this?" James muttered and took the scroll and read over it, after a short while he smiled and said, "You want to be a good riddler, don''t you?" After Owl nodded, he took a quill and signed the scroll. On the scroll was written exactly the following: [I, Mr Owl, will never, ever after the time that I have been given the enhancement on my life and existence, injure or harm any living creature unless they attack me. This contract is only valid if the Umbra of Chaos helps me. Signed: Mr Owl Signed: Umbra] The scroll was quite small, like a tiny agreement, yet James seemed to be sure that anyone coming after him would not be harmed. As he signed the scroll, it flashed with a small light and disappeared, and then Mr Owl''s voice was heard: "All right! There''s no reason why you shouldn''t teach me now, is there?" James shook his head as he heard these words and then coughed and began to speak, "You''re not wrong, there''s a certain piece of advice I can give you, and that advice is this:" "A strange and unsolvable riddle for you to ask. You may think that a riddle has to be solved all the time, but no one can say that it is bad to have riddles with no definite answer and therefore you don''t want to accept them." Hearing these words, the owl, as if confused, used its wings to cover its eyes and then shook its head and said, "I don''t understand! I don''t understand!!!" James asked after these words: "I speak without a mouth and hear without ears. I have nobody, but I come alive with wind. What am I?" The owl smiled when it heard this riddle and then said "An echo!" but was disappointed when James shook his head. "You''re right, but not, as I said, it should be a riddle that can be solved but you didn''t make me solve it. The answer to this riddle is fourfold. An echo, the wind itself, dreams or thoughts and finally a spirit or a ghost. Do you understand now?" James said. After these words, the owl happily shook the branch it was on and then said, "I have to get them into a dead end!" James shook his head and then said, "Well? Can I go now? I must have passed your exam, right?" The owl nodded, excited and happy, and then said, "Yes, you can go! I swear I won''t take anyone''s life! I may take gold or goods instead. Please be careful with my master, he is not a bad person but he is grumpy!!!'' After these words, James waved goodbye to Mr Owl left the forest and came to the place where the last test would be held. James started to look around after coming to the area, he did not see anyone, anything or any being. The surroundings were completely flat, the back was a forest and the front was a plain with no end in sight. James scratched his head and couldn''t understand what was going on, so he sat on the ground and waited, thinking that the examiner was at least a hundred times stronger than him, because he almost died with just his voice. So he thought it would be foolish to go against him and he waited for the examiner to come. He sat cross-legged and closed his eyes to meditate on Star Magic. Oddly enough, not only James but also those watching him closely did not know where the examiner was. "Hah! He''s doing it again!" Apollo suddenly said, and all eyes in the hall turned to him. "Doing what, Apollon?" Erebus suddenly asked, and Apollo, hearing this, said, "I chose the hard way like some of us, of course, luck, so there was nothing to do. Somehow I managed to pass the exams and finally, I arrived at the field. Watch carefully, I hope he doesn''t hurt James, he''s playing hide and seek. How can he play games with such a big body!" he shouted. Apollo, the true owner of the light, could not believe that this strange being was doing all these things. Still, there was nothing to be done, Nyx would have to step in, after all, Nyx, like Apollo, had taken the test, and unlike Erebus, Nyx had encountered this strange behaviour of the examiner. When Erebus heard these words, he said, "I have never experienced anything like this, the test he gave me was a fight, he beat me for a long time and then he let me go, saying that I passed." When everyone turned their heads back to James they realised what was going on. The examiner was hiding, smiling and moving strangely behind a tree. After a short while he slowly approached James and James started to hear voices. When he suddenly opened his eyes, he saw the creature standing and crawling on the ground in front of him. S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "No kidding? Are you the exam little thing? Tell me what I need to do, please, I want to get to the next floor quickly." James said these words, not knowing how gigantic the being in front of him was, even the being itself was surprised, he did not think that anyone would speak to him like that. Chapter 136 - 136: 19th Floor (6) "PUHAHAHAHAHA!!!" The entity began to burst into loud laughter, James suddenly realised he had a headache and then directed his mana at his head. "Well, I had no idea you were going to be the examiner, I''m glad, I guess..." James said suddenly, the examiner started to crawl backwards when he heard this. "Though I was expecting you to be more... how should I put it, bigger, your voice and size don''t quite match," James added. The being in front of him was a snake, a snake whose skin moved like space and looked incredibly beautiful. "If you want me to grow, that''s quite doable," the snake said, and then it began to glow all around. After only twenty seconds the snake had grown to a gigantic size, so big that James couldn''t even see the snake''s face anymore. "Well? Does this fit in your head?" the snake suddenly said, James covered his ears with his hands at the sound, his head hurting incredibly despite all the mana. The examiner was about to burst out laughing when the snake pulled back and looked into James'' eyes when James suddenly shouted: "PLEASE DON''T LAUGH, YOU''LL MAKE MY HEAD EXPLODE!''" After these words, the snake fell silent and James spoke again: "AMAZING!" shouted James, "You really are one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen! I''ve seen Mount Olympus, I''ve seen Aphrodite, the most beautiful of the Greek goddesses, and I''ve even seen Nyx herself, but you...you''re the only thing even remotely close to Nemesis." James tried to protect his head and then stood up and said, "Tell me my test." The snake smiled as he heard these words, his big smile was visible, his tongue literally stuck out of his mouth and the hissing sound spread all over the floor. The snake smiled and said, "My name is Noah, I am known as the Serpent of the Stars, I was created by the Supreme Dragons and placed on this floor of the tower as an examiner. I give different tests to each visitor, presenting them with difficult or impossible tests according to their potential. Your test will be poison." James shook his head when he heard the word ''poison'' and asked "Poison?" as if he did not understand. Even if James himself didn''t realise it, everyone watching him was about to lose their heads, none of them thought James would get out of there alive. Noah the snake was about to answer when he suddenly appeared in front of a system window, the snake smiled and then said "Don''t worry Nyx, I wouldn''t have offered this test if I thought you were going to die, I don''t want Ra to come and kill me, at worst he''ll be paralysed for a few months." After these words, James smiled and then said, "I mean... I''m glad that my lady is protecting me, if it ends with paralysis for a while and there is no death, I will do anything." Noah could hardly restrain himself from laughing when he heard those words. However, a huge cauldron suddenly appeared in front of James, and when James looked at the cauldron, he asked, "You ain''t gonna cook me up right?" Noah was embarrassed when he heard this and then shifted into his smaller form and shouted, "I''ve got nowhere else to put you in! I swear!!" Noah''s voice was much thinner now, he sounded like a normal person. At his words, the transparent cauldron filled with an incredibly dark green, James looked into it, turned his head towards Noah who was crawling on the floor and then said, "I don''t trust that this will not to kill me." James'' expression was incredibly worried and sceptical as he stared at Noah with pursed lips. "I swear to you you will not die, this is literally the lowest level of poison, I will increase it and if you are paralysed you will fail the exam. And I won''t even kill you! As I said, I don''t want Ra to come and turn me into a snake kebab." snake Noah said suddenly, as if trying to comfort James. "Now take off everything you''re wearing and get inside, quickly." James still couldn''t believe it, but he paused and before he took off his clothes he said, "Everyone stop watching! There''s no one but Nemesis who needs to see me naked!" With those words, he took off his top and jumped into the cauldron. As soon as she entered the cauldron she realised that her whole body was on fire, even breathing was incredibly difficult. "This... thing will be useful for me, right? If I pass the exam, I mean." James said and with that he saw Noah nod his head. It wasn''t long before James realised that he was getting dizzy, his vision was becoming restricted. His breathing was so restricted that he felt like he was going to faint, he could really only breathe every five seconds. It was so strange that there was no way to describe it. S§×arch* The ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He seemed to be getting used to the poison though because the burning sensation in his body had lessened slightly, of course, it still burned a huge amount but with each passing second the sensation became less painful. James realised that he needed to focus and stay awake, so he closed his eyes and got into a cross-legged position and began to feel the energy of the stars in the sky. He began to work on developing his Star Magic ability again. Noah had just realised that James had Star Magic and felt stupid for not realising it when he was watching him from the trees. "This kid really has too many surprises, interesting," Noah thought. The poison in James'' accident was the lowest grade poison he had, but it was a basilisk''s poison, a poison that could knock out a minator and kill a cyclops. The fact that James was holding up so well was something to be respected. Noah had to accept it. Chapter 137 - 137: Poison Master (1) James had withstood the poison for almost three hours straight. According to Noah, he would be exposed to the poison many times over the next 21 days, and even if he didn''t know what the outcome would be, he was sure that it would benefit him. However, James wanted to reach the 20th floor, he was filled with great hope and excitement. After all, there were abilities he could get from Chronos, and the fact that Chronos had a special window where he could watch him at all times, or that the old man had a definite reason for coming to James'' side, made it all the better. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Of course, he couldn''t go down from the 75th floor, that was the deal after all, the only reason James thought that way was because Chronos was time itself, which meant that Chronos could somehow create a lower time zone and keep James training going. "Ready, James?" James suddenly heard this question along with a hissing sound coming from his right side and then he asked, albeit fearfully: "Ready for what?" James knew very clearly what the answer would be when he asked this question and he was waiting for the answer in a very unpleasant way. "I''m going to increase the level of the poison, this level can knock a Wyvern down and knock it unconscious in seconds, be prepared," Noah replied. At Noah''s question, James began to breathe deeply and shook his head, "Don''t hold back, Mr Snake!" he said sarcastically. Noah smiled involuntarily at these words, and then the liquid in the cauldron began to change. The whole of Olympus was in a state of stress, of course, the fact that Nyx was influencing the test due to someone like Ra exercising his authority had saved James'' life, but that still didn''t mean that James couldn''t be paralysed. There were only a few poison masters in this tower, to be exact only 10 of them existed and Cain the High Arch-Elf was one of them. Of course, millions of gods used poison, but none of them were like the first three. In first place was Cain the High Arch-Elf, and in second place was Noah the Devourer. The man in the third place was now forgotten, the only thing remembered about him was that he had a high degree of closeness with Thanatos and Loki and only two of them knew where he was. All of which meant that the poisons Noah was going to administer to James were going to be far too dangerous, and even Nyx''s palms were sweating with stress as these words were spoken or these concerns made themselves known. After all, even Nyx could not affect this tower created by her father in such a way, yes, maybe in places where death was not necessary, just like in Noah''s test, but there would be places where even Nyx would have no effect. For example, areas such as the [Conscience of the Clouds] on the 40th floor or the [Slaughter Pit] on the 90th floor were places that Nyx could not affect. The Conscience of the Clouds would test the hearts of users and players and show their true colours to everyone on that floor. Blue clouds existed for the good-hearted and red clouds existed for the bad-hearted. If a bad-hearted person stepped on the blue clouds, they would either fall from the clouds or be teleported to the red clouds, it all depended on luck. So it was a test of reality for them to be seen from the point of their so called comrades. The Slaughter Pit, on the other hand, was a place where the gods constantly fought it was seen as the floor where the game of the gods, or more accurately, the war of the gods began. The 80th floor became a completely lawless place after the gods made a pact on the 75th floor, and the floor was completely changed after an offer was made to the consciousness of the tower. The test of the floor was to be victorious in the battle in the gigantic arena or to collect items to pass the floor, just like any other floor. "Then start James, this poison is three times stronger than the other one, be careful not to faint and if you can, try to use your aura despite all the poison in your body, you will surely improve." Noah suddenly said, helping James. "Understood!" said James, and with that he tried to use his aura again, along with the immense pain from his burning skin. However, no matter how hard he tried, nothing changed. It was as if his aura was being blocked by the poison. James could realise that even his magic rings were filled with poison, and he could even feel his magic in a tiny way. So it was normal that he could not recognise his aura when the poison was coursing through the veins his aura was based on. Nevertheless, James kept trying, constantly trying to feel the aura in his body and trying to push his luck. Each time he tried he seemed to feel a different kind of poison entering his body, or rather his body was burning differently and his pores were hurting in different ways, it was a strange and painful sensation indeed. He began to sweat unbelievably, occasionally his skin would break off and heal because of the automatic healing, and his skin would vanish into dust in the poison. The sight was incredibly disgusting, but the onlookers still chose not to look away. Noah was incredibly shocked, wondering how James was holding up so well. "You''re holding up much better than I thought young man, did you have something to do with the poison?" Noah suddenly asked. James thought he couldn''t speak as he struggled to hold on and continued to breathe deeply, but eventually, he managed to open his mouth and say, "I have an ability that protects me from 100 low-level poisons." Noah''s surprise was evident in his expression, even if he was a snake. He seemed to have a lot to say, and what he wanted to teach seemed to be even more than what he had to say. Chapter 138 - 138: Poison Master (2) At James'' words, the poison seemed to begin to change again. As Noah began to change the poison, another message notification appeared in front of him: [Are you out of your mind?! He''s not even ready for the next poison, are you trying to kill him?!] Noah frowned when he read the words on the message from Nyx and then closed the message window with his tongue and said, "Your job is to be the mother of the night and mine is to be the master of the poison, do not question my thoughts and professionalism in my work, that is the only thing I won''t accept from you old Nyx." He was angry. With these words, the colour of the poison in the transparent cauldron began to turn greyish, and at that very moment, blood began to ooze from James'' closed mouth. Noah seemed excited by this sight. "I just gave you a poison at least 50 times stronger than the poison I gave you five minutes ago, but you just waited with blood oozing out of your mouth, it doesn''t make any sense, I can''t understand how you can be so susceptible to poison?" When Noah uttered these words, his excitement began to increase involuntarily, wagging his tail left and right like a dog and expressing his excitement in this way. However, something very different was happening in James'' body. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James realised that the burning in his body was no longer an issue, instead, he noticed that his aura was getting heavier. The fire in his aura was fighting against the poison itself, as if his aura, which had just been afraid to come out, had begun to counterattack. Basically, his aura and slight point of his magic were fighting and combining with the poison. James could feel the veins in his body being squeezed and attacked every second, but luckily his aura was strong enough that it was becoming stronger and stronger. The magic rings around his heart were being protected by his aura, so he was not in any danger to his life, yet his expression was twisted with pain. He didn''t really know what was happening, but instead of his aura, the outside of his body was protected by another energy, and even though he didn''t know what was happening, his power was undergoing a great change. It was as if the strength of his body was constantly increasing. Not only that, but he seemed to be starting to feel quite comfortable himself, after only a short time the blood stopped flowing from his mouth and James began to heal. "Unbelievable," Noah said, and not only him, but all the Chaos-Born and the rest of the Chaos-Born watching him agreed. Nyx and the others had seen James'' profile and especially what his stamina stat was, something like his body withstanding such a poison shouldn''t have existed. Every single person present seemed to be watching a miracle. Noah had locked his gaze on James, crawling left and right and wagging his tail left and right, thinking about how much potential James had and wishing he could teach him. While Noah was thinking these thoughts, he suddenly transformed, and after his transformation into his human form, he sat on the ground and then wrote a message to Nyx: [I see the 8 sacred fires and the traces of time in his aura, and the aura of his body and the magic itself accepts the poison. O holy Nyx, I think we are witnessing the birth of a new poison master, I think the 11th poison master is born.] This message appeared publicly in the Hall of Olympus. Achlys, one of the 10 poison masters inside the tower, suddenly stood up and began to read the message window with a big smile. Achlys was a great goddess, indeed there was no one better than her in Olympus in terms of poison, and she was ranked 4th in the list of poison masters. According to the ancient writer Nonnus, Hera herself went to Achlys only to buy poisonous flowers from the goddess and turned Dionysus'' nurses into horned centaurs. In short, Achlys was a great goddess, whether it was to start a fight, kill someone or make someone crawl. "You look pleased, young Achlys." Nyx suddenly said, and Achlys, who suddenly stood up after these words, said shyly, "Forgive me, my lady, it has been almost 300 million years since the birth of a poison master, this is exciting. The fact that Master Noah is saying this makes it all the more certain," she said and sat back down. Nyx clenched her jaw when she heard those words and then asked, "Huh...Achlys, Noah told you the same thing, didn''t he? He even trained you to be an amazing one." When the young goddess nodded, everyone smiled and rejoiced with great joy that James would grow stronger. James growing stronger meant that Olympus would grow stronger, James growing stronger meant that the Chaos-Born would grow stronger, James growing stronger would, as always, threaten to dislodge those in power inside the tower. All this meant that he gained more enemies than he gained friends. After all even tho Nyx can block the views for some certain point it wouldn''t always work, that means the strong gods and goddesses that can somehow pierce Nyx''s magic can see what is happening with James. "The poison masters will love him, my lady, don''t worry. As you know, each of us, myself included, are mad creatures. Cain, one of the three main admins, my master Noah, and many others." Achlys said, and Nyx laughed when the young woman said those words: "Hahahaha! Isn''t that so? Indeed, those with power are absurd personalities. Masters of death like Thanatos, masters of lightning like Zeus, masters of water like Poseidon, and many more. With all due respect, you are all mad. Poison masters are the least predisposed and complete mastery style after the masters of time and fate, which makes it a really big deal, I have to hand it to you Achlys, you deserve respect." These words spoken by Nyx were indeed words of great respect and thoughtfulness. After all, time and fate were elements and laws that you could not learn unless those who used them taught you, even if they were difficult to use, but the poison was not like that, it was an element that you would never succeed in using if you did not have the will to use it with potential and the intelligence not to kill yourself. That''s why there were only 10 masters among millions of users. And today, the birth of the 11th was being witnessed. Chapter 139 - 139: Poison Master (3) The birth of the 11th Poison Master was going to be a big deal, after all, it wasn''t every day that someone with such great power was born. Even if James was unaware of it, he had a great predisposition to poison, which was the only reason he was able to withstand such a powerful poison so easily. Even if he was writhing in the accident, even if he was trying to keep himself awake, he had managed to get used to this poison after almost an hour, James, who still thought that he was still spinning between poisons of the same strength, had no idea how powerful of a poison was now entering his body. Of course not! After all, his aura and magic protected him in such a way that there was no way to explain it with the laws of the tower. Poison started to disappear as soon as it reacted with magic, rotting and turning to dust, so most mages tried to avoid poison as much as possible, but James, of course, did not know that. So James had been exposed to such poisons one after the other for almost 7 hours. His magic had stopped running away from the poison and started to attack the poison, becoming accustomed to it. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This was the thing that helped him the most in becoming the 11th poison master. After all, poison was a type of magic and once you started to control it and somehow saved yourself from dying, you could master it. It was considered a miraculous event, and it was seen as something of great beauty. Noah was preparing to give James the next poison, yet at the same time, he seemed to be hesitant, unsure if he was changing poisons too fast because he was excited. [What is it? Isn''t it too late to hesitate?] When Noah saw the message window from Nyx, he tossed his hair back with his hand and then said with an angry expression, "I was hoping it would be a little quiet, I was wondering if I was increasing the level of the poison too fast." Suddenly, however, the liquid in the cauldron began to change. His anger at Nyx seemed to have forced Noah to make a sudden move. James''s expression showed the pain he was in, red as a tomato from squeezing himself. The poison in the cauldron was bubbling, and a lot of vapour was coming out of the poison. This liquid had such a disastrous and disgraceful appearance that anyone looking at it could recognise that it was poison just by looking at it, even if they did not know what was inside. James was writhing in the cauldron, it was such a bad pain that James would prefer to be punched a thousand times by the Fallen God than the pain he was suffering right now. At the same time, he began to exhale audibly for all to hear and realised that his magic and aura were slowly beginning to fade as he began to fuse with the new poison with each passing second. "HAH!" "HAH!" "HAH!" "HAH!" "HAH!" His breathing was getting louder and louder each time and it was drawing all the attention to him, yet Noah was sure that James would make it, he just had to hang on. The poison Noah had given him now was almost five times stronger than ever before, the poison itself could knock a Behemoth down and kill it. Even if James wasn''t in that state, he was still in a terrible state, it was just that his body, or rather his aura, his magic and his accompanying body were adapting to the poison incredibly fast. This was what prevented him from dying at the moment because this was the poison that Noah had planned to maximise and that would paralyse James, although now Noah was busy preparing a bigger poison. James looked like he was going to suffer a lot more. ----- "He''s already killed two. How many more do we need to bring back to kill that bastard Nyx''s dog!" In the darkened room, glowing pupils constantly looked around and spoke as if they could see others. Even though the room was in darkness, other glowing eyes appeared and the voice of one of them could be heard: "If that idiot Sopdu hadn''t made him more prominent, if he hadn''t gotten stronger, we could have killed him! Stupid low-level gods meddling in our business as usual!" When someone else said these words, there was a growling sound in the whole room, and after a few seconds another voice was heard: "There''s nothing to do. If we want to control the gods, this is what we have to do, we can''t even go down to the 75th floor because of some deal we don''t even know where it came from. To take control we must destroy the lower floors, we have only used two but there are thousands more waiting to be used." As this voice rang out in the room, no one made a sound, and only the glowing eyes moved. These seemed to be the people who used the Fallen Gods. ----- "Are you sure you want me to increase the poison? This is the third most powerful poison I have, this could kill you James, I''m serious." Noah said suddenly, seeming to shock James, who had opened his eyes to look at him. James was breathing in and out deeply and wondering whether he should accept this or not. He thought that he should accept the possibility of such a development because he did not know when he would catch such a development again, but at the end of the day, he could not accept that there was such an event as a vegetative state. It had been almost 15 days, it would be the last time this poison was used, James had been travelling above the 10th floor for 4 or even 5 months, so long that he had already turned 24 years old, the fact that so much time had passed since he entered the tower filled him with pride. It must have suddenly occurred to him that he had never run away from any danger in all that time, for he looked at Noah with shining, lively eyes and shook his head. He wanted to embrace the poison. Chapter 140 - 140: More Dangerous Than The Others Seeing James shake his head, Noah had an incredibly big smile on his face. It was quite possible to say that Noah himself did not expect such an answer, indeed, the shock expression on his face and the seriousness of his appearance seemed to emphasise everything. "Have it your way, whatever you do, don''t faint, if you faint you''ll die, this is not like other poisons, one drop of the poison I''m going to give you right now is enough to dry the forest you see over there. If you accept this, Nyx will retreat, you will be completely alone, and at the end of the test, it will be determined whether you will die or not." Noah suddenly said, and with that, a bottle appeared in his hand. "Send it over," James said, and Noah nodded solemnly and moved off. The water in the cauldron was clear, Noah unscrewed the cap and dipped a toothpick into the bottle and pulled it out, the moment he dipped the toothpick into the water the water turned the darkest green colour there was. It was only a drop from the toothpick that had coloured the water like that. James suddenly realised that he was dizzy, blood was pouring from his nose, eyes, ears and mouth and he was choking. He tried to use his aura but in vain, he tried to bring out his magic but in vain, it was useless, it was as if both his aura and his magic were afraid of this poison. The smell emanating from the poison was so deep and awful that the trees at the edge of the forest, almost 50 metres away from them, began to rot. James could feel his whole body starting to rot like these trees. His automatic healing ability was doing its best, doing everything it could to keep James alive. James wanted to close his eyes, but the pain was so great that his body seemed to be warning him not to close his eyes. Every nerve, every vein in his body was glowing a dark green colour, the bright green colour in his eyes and hair had turned into a glowing dark green. James felt like he was on the 15th floor as he looked up at the sky. "Sea of Stars," he said, spitting blood. He was officially starting to hallucinate. He could see black holes, stars, and planets appearing to his right and left, on the side of his face and in front of his eyes. His whole body felt like it was underwater, heavy and sinking to the bottom of the sea, it was just a cauldron, a cauldron filled with deadly poison, it shouldn''t feel like that, but James felt like he was passing out. He felt like he was floating in space, he was starting to lose himself, his eyes were closing and he was starting to collapse. Suddenly the sound of a text message caught his attention. When he barely managed to open his eyes fully, he managed to see the message in front of him: [DON''T BE RIDICULOUS! STAY AWAKE JAMES!!! DON''T DIE WHILE I''M WAITING FOR YOU!] This message was coming from Nemesis. When James saw the message his head fell back, he realised that he was indeed submerged in the water in the huge cauldron and then he stood up and grabbed the cauldron by one side. With that, James closed his eyes and began to meditate in a standing position. He realised that the enormous amount of Star Magic energy entering his body from the sky was relaxing him. The pain and aggression from the poison was so great that it had even crossed his mind that he could meditate for Star Magic, even though he had done so with previous poisons. The poison was such a terrible thing that even the material the cauldron was made of was corroded, even if only slightly. What was even more surprising was that this poison was not the strongest one Noah had, if this poison could do such a terrible thing, how could the other two? Could these poisons kill gods? Could this be how the future James saw had been shaped? After all, what kind of power could have put Nyx in such a state? With all the questions in James'' mind, time was passing even if he didn''t realise it, what had been a few seconds for him had already turned into a few days, and the pain in his body hadn''t diminished in the slightest, but his addiction to the poison had indeed increased tremendously. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Suddenly he felt a force enveloping him and in the next seconds he felt that he was lying on the ground. The cold floor seemed to give him a strange sensation. "Try to open your eyes, James," Noah suddenly said, and when James opened his eyes, he saw the sky again and marvelled at its beauty. Then, with great pain, he managed to smile and uttered the words that would make all the onlookers burst into laughter: "O Nemesis my dearest one, I am so in love with you." "We need to get out the part of the poison that you can''t assimilate," said Noah, who approached James and pricked his index finger with a needle. James thought he had succeeded and smiled, and indeed, after a very, very long time, tears began to stream down his face. A dark green puddle of blood began to run down to the ground and into the forest. "Why is the poison that just killed everything now making the forest green?" James asked, surprised to see that everything in the forest was starting to turn green. When Noah heard this question, he said, "The poison could be an antidote, James, the poison just now was an untamed one, but you managed to tame it. Which means that we are releasing an antidote, the antidote you couldn''t assimilate." James turned his head at this question and then said, "I want to rest, I want to rest badly, I hope I passed your test, Master Noah." Noah couldn''t stop laughing when he heard those words: "Puahahahahaha!!! You were just dying, you idiot! You just meditated for 7 days, even exceeding the 21-day limit, and you struggled with death and you''re wondering about the exam?! PUHAHA YOU''RE SO INTERESTING, YOUNG MAN!" These words alone were enough for Noah to tell James that he loved him. The two would become better friends than they thought. Chapter 141 - 141: Prizes When James opened his eyes again, he realized he had woken up in a room. His body hurt like crazy. It didn''t take him long to realize that his body, blood, mana, and aura were still trying to fuse with the poison. When he found the strength to sit up in bed, he did so and then looked out of the window next to where he was lying. Outside the window, he saw the gorilla he had killed, the tigers, the parrots he had passed and the owl he had taught. "You''re alive...what good news," James said suddenly, he kept thinking that these creatures were more special than they looked, he wasn''t lying, he was delighted they were okay. After a short while, multiple notification windows appeared in front of him: [Master Level Poison Element(Godly++++) Understanding the element of poison is everyone''s dream. Fate, time, poison, darkness and light are considered the most powerful among the laws of the tower. Of course, each law is incredibly difficult to develop, but poison is the only one that, unlike the other laws, yearns to kill its user. It is alive, just like fire itself. Even if the degree of this elemental law is high, the training that is put upon it must be thousands of times higher than the degree itself. O great spirit, I hope you do not fall prey to the poison itself and bring about your doom. -Cain the Tailor] James'' eyes widened as he looked at the first notification window, it seemed that Cain, the third and most powerful of the main admins, had written this notification with his own hands, the talent had been handed over to James and the name of the admins had been specially written. James was overjoyed as he closed the notification and pulled it in front of him with a smiling face as he read what came next: [The title of Poison Master has been earned! This title has only been given to 10 people in the history of the tower. It can be earned through the constant purification of the body with poisons that can be considered the most powerful and is earned by being chosen by the elemental law itself, despite the user or player''s desire to stay alive and tame the poison itself. The title will have positive effects: +500 to the Magic stat. Intelligence stat +200. Endurance stat +100. Susceptibility to the poison element increased by 500%]. After reading this notice, James was at a loss for words for almost a minute, seeming to understand why Noah, the examiner, had gone to so much trouble for him. First, he had discovered that he had a predisposition to the element of fire, then thanks to Chronos he had discovered a predisposition to the element of time, these two laws were the laws of creation, but the law of the poison element didn''t fit anywhere. It was not a law of creation like the other two, but of destruction. James had more potential than he realized, the blood in his body, the blood of his lineage and the greatness of his ancestry had given him these gifts. It was indeed enough for him to fall on his knees and beg with joy. However, he saw that there were two notices left to look at, so he closed the window with the Poison Master notice and pulled the other one in front of him: [Congratulations! You have managed to pass all floors between floors 15-19! You''ve managed to secure a position in the race to complete floors fast and earn extra rewards! 17,500,000 Gold has been added to your account. A low-level experience point boost potion has been added to your inventory. (Floor Total Rank) 1-Chronos of the Titans 2-Apollo of Olympos 3-Nyx/Erebus of Chaos 4-Zeus of Olympos 5-Enlil of Mesopotamia 6-Umbra of Chaos] James rejoiced at the speed with which he had completed the floor and began to think that this was probably because he should have been given an easier test. Little did he know that the test he had taken was almost 50 times harder than Chronos'' and even Apollo''s, which annoyed the examiner. With that, it was time for the last notification, and after closing the ranking notification, he pulled the last notification in front of him and began to read it: [Congratulations on passing the exam of Noah the Devourer, one of the examiners on the 19th floor for a very long time! At the examiner''s request, the following award has been presented to you: {Noah the Devourer''s Tooth(Creator-----)} The examiner is confident that you will put this tooth to good use]. After reading the last notification, James nodded and happily opened his inventory to find the tooth. It seemed to work in his favour that Ronald had emptied almost all his inventory for him to sell. Having found the tooth, James gently removed it from his inventory with a cloth and saw that it was the same size as Selene''s Throwing Knife. With that, he placed the tooth in his inventory and stood up, albeit with difficulty, as soon as he realized that he was naked, he put some clothes on and did not forget to put on the Adamant armour called Lux. After he was barely out of bed, he realized that his whole body was out of balance, his head was spinning extraordinarily. When he opened the door to her room, he saw Noah standing in the doorway, and to say he was a little scared would be an understatement. "Nyx and the others have been bombarding me with messages, I''m glad to see you''re awake. Nyx would have been mad at me if you were dead, but at least you accepted the poison so I wouldn''t be to blame." Noah said suddenly, and James didn''t know whether to be happy or sad. "Thank you for your help, even though I ended up dying I still managed to live, it was supposed to be a test but I didn''t expect it to be so easy," James said. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The audience didn''t know what to say, everyone was silent, no one should have told James how stupid he was. "PUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You are gonna kill me little dude of mine!" Noah suddenly shouted, surprised by the sound and the reaction, James shook his head and then asked, ''Did I say something wrong?'' not understanding what was going on. Chapter 142 - 142: Time Wraith Class When Noah heard this question, he gently placed his hand on James'' shoulder and then said, "The test I gave you, James, was almost fifty times harder than the hardest test I''ve ever given, even the one where I beat the shit out of Apollo, I may have killed millions of people in my time for getting on my nerves, but I''m known as the kindest examiner. And you passed my hardest test." James didn''t know what to say, his cheeks were swollen from holding his breath, his head bobbed up and down, and then he said, "Wow." Even this reaction was enough to make everyone laugh. "So whatever happened, I''m a lot stronger as a result of the job, I''m going to do better in the future and it''s all thanks to you, thank you very much, thank you very much indeed, Mr Noah," said James, suddenly hugging Noah and then his stomach growled loudly: "GRUMBLE!!!!!!" The whole house echoed with this stomach rumbling, and then James stopped hugging Noah and embarrassedly said, "I haven''t eaten in days, I''m sorry." After making the audience and Noah laugh once again, everything was over for that day, at that moment, James had things to do. After eating his meal, apologising to the animals he killed and saying goodbye to Mr Owl and Noah for a while, he went to the 20th floor. James had indeed heard a lot about the 20th floor. It was known as the second floor where the Church of Night was most active, and not only that. The 20th floor was where players and users chose their second class. The difference with the first floor was exactly this: On the first floor, the gods would send you cards according to your potential and their willingness to choose you, and you would choose your god or goddess by chance, but this would differ according to the card and contact situation. On the 20th floor, things worked differently. In the temple on this floor, you would send a declaration to the god or goddess of your choice that you would choose them, and if they accepted, you would contact them. The choice was entirely yours. Another difference of the 20th floor was the area that made it known as the [Resting Floor]. Until you chose a god or goddess, the floor seemed to be in outer space, you could not come into contact with anyone, no one could hear you, and no one could even watch you. The beauty of the floor was that you could leave this floor without choosing a class, meaning that you could go to the next floor and come back and choose someone whenever you felt like it. As soon as you chose someone, the floor would change. This floor was the second floor where the Church of the Night was most active, it was a huge area, a huge area. When you chose your god or goddess, the spatial region collapsed and you were teleported somewhere around the temple, a huge city was waiting for you and you could move to the next floor or stay here. The 5th and 20th floors were where many couples who could not become gods or goddesses stayed because they were safe, so it was possible to find many things there. The 20th floor was such a valuable place. After this information he learnt from Ariel, James walked towards the temple and entered this temple, which looked like a region from the ancient Greeks. After taking a few steps into this perfectly beautiful temple, he came to the place where the altar was located, when he typed "Chronos" in the search field on the system window that opened, an option appeared in front of him. When James clicked on the option and pressed the confirmation button, he said, "Come on, master, let''s see what you can do." [Your election request has been sent to Chronos of the Titans.] [Chronos of the Titans has approved your request.] James smiled after seeing these notification windows in front of him and then said, Well, can we see what I won?" [Class- Time Wraith(Godly++++) Have you ever heard of how time works, of the thoughts of many to go back in time and save their dreams, of the future and the past being irrelevant? Chronos, the titan of time, shows you the absurdity of these possibilities and wishes to offer you the happiness of being a Time Wraith. The user''s stamina will drain 30% slower. The user''s mana capacity has increased by 100%. The user has gained 500% affinity to the law of time. The user has gained the [Destiny(Godly++++)] ability. The user has gained the ability [Vision(Godly++++)]. James couldn''t help but smile as he looked at what he had gained, he had gained fewer abilities than the Class Nyx had given him, but even that was extraordinarily good, so he chose to rejoice rather than cry. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He pressed the [Destiny] ability to check the abilities and began to read what was written in the window that appeared in front of him: [Destiny(Godly++++) It is an ability created by Chronos, hand in hand with his Moros. Every 6 months you are granted the ability to see an event that is likely to occur in the future, by the titan of time and destiny itself. Cooldown: 6 months] When James read about this ability, he understood why Chronos and Moros had given it to him, James had learnt about it through the Philosopher''s Stone and now he had this ability. This was good news, every six months he would have to see if the fate of Nyx and the other Chaos-Borns had changed. After closing this window, James wanted to check his other ability, so he pressed the [Vision] ability and started reading what was written in the window in front of him: [Vision(Godly++++) This ability allows you to use the element of time to make predictions, allowing you to see your opponent''s moves on a timeline for three seconds in battle. This ability was created specifically for you by Chronos to prevent you from dying, the original version of the ability consumes a huge amount of magic energy, mana]. Chapter 143 - 143: The Throne That Waits Its Owner James was pleased as he looked at the abilities he had gained, as soon as he smiled he realised that his surroundings had started to change and then he started to notice the changes with his naked eyes. Ariel couldn''t see these differences because it was more important to try to save the 5th floor and Moros'' help had made that possible, at least until James arrived on the scene. Now James could see the banners of the Church of Night forming inside the temple and the priests on their knees in worship. Each of the priests and priestesses looked at James with bright eyes, and James soon realised why. When he looked at his own shadow, he saw that it was covering the statue of Nyx that had formed just behind him, he couldn''t hold back a smile and then said, "Right, I mustn''t forget who I respect, who I am." "Could you please take me to the main church? I''d like to talk about some things," he asked, he was not going to continue on his way immediately, he would first rest in the area of the church and then buy hundreds of bottles of strong to weak poison to train himself on poison. As the priests and nuns around heard these words, several suddenly started to move, and only one stopped in front of James. The man was on his knees with his hands clasped together, worshipping James like a god. James smiled as he saw what was happening and pulled the man to his feet with his joined hands. "Please stand up, Master Priest," James said, and with that the man nodded excitedly, almost not knowing what to say. "I would be happy if you would introduce yourself," James suddenly said and the man bowed to James and said, "My name is Leon, Lord Umbra." James couldn''t help but be surprised when he heard these words, he had a smiling face and at the same time, he seemed to be surprised. "I didn''t know you called me lord even here, I''m honoured," James said, and with that the man who introduced himself as Leon bowed again and said, "Our great goddess Nyx told us what you were like, how you saved the fifth floor and everything else, we''d be fools not to call you that, my lord!" With that, several of the departing priests and priestesses returned, pointing outside the temple. James turned one last time to the statue of Nyx and then bowed his head gently and left the temple, saying, "I know you''re watching me, my lady, but I still felt like I had to do this." He had a lot to do, but after a not-very-long time, he arrived at the main church area, where he saw Ariel greeting him. "You''re late, James," Ariel said. Every priest and priestess was surprised to hear the name James, they knew that Ariel was the commander of the church, but no one had thought that he was so close to the lord. "I am still wondering if I should call you mother or big sister my dear friend Ariel." James suddenly said, Ariel chuckled and then said "You told it yourself no? My dear friend Ariel." With those words, James and Ariel entered the church building and James muttered: "I''m not going to lie, this church looks great," James said. Everyone had to admit that he was right. The church was huge, but in the main hall, or rather in the throne room of the church, everything could be seen easily. There were pictures of each Chaos-Born on the windows of the room or hall, they looked as if they were made together with porcelain glasses. James was amazed that the people in the church recognised the Chaos-Borns, indeed every single glass looked perfect. In addition, dozens of paintings were hung on the walls. Thinking about who was skilful enough to draw these paintings, James was stunned by what he saw. "It is said that every single painting here, my lord, painted almost a million years ago, was done by an artist to remind people of what the church was when the power of the church sadly began to weaken. The craftsmanship and power of the artist was immense, he was even rumoured to have been a priest of the church, it is a pity that his name or reputation is now forgotten. At least these paintings bear that honour where we can see it." Leon suddenly said, James nodded his head when he heard these words, he didn''t even need to say anything, Leon had said it all for him and praised him. With that James'' eyes turned to the far end of the hall, what he was looking at could be seen by everyone who had started to follow behind him. James began to walk with slow steps towards the throne at the far end of the hall where the stairs led up. With each step, he seemed to indicate to those in the hall that the owner of the throne had returned. James, who started to climb the stairs one by one, began to think with each step that his ancestor was sitting on this throne a long time ago. With each step, he kept imagining whether he had lived up to this honour or not. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He heard the sound of footsteps behind him, and Ariel suddenly passed James and stood by the throne. "I''m training myself in the use of the sword, Moros says I have a lot of potential, which means your head guard should be at your side, and the one the paladin serves should be in his place," Ariel suddenly said. Hearing those words, James made it up the stairs, touched the top of the throne once and stood waiting, as if arguing that this beautiful throne should be praised. Now he would be able to claim another of his ancestor''s legacies. The Black bloodline was officially back in the tower. Chapter 144 - 144: The Things James Had Forgotten James looked at the throne for a few seconds, smiled and then sat down. Inhaling deeply, he looked at the dozens of priests and priestesses gathered in front of him. "You didn''t sit on the throne of the Empire, but you wanted to sit here, is there a reason?" Ariel suddenly asked her curiosity piqued. James shook his head and said, "The Empire already has an Emperor, but the Church of Night does not. The throne has been mine for a long time, I just haven''t sat on it, but it''s time to show everyone the might of the Church." At these words some of the priests and priestesses seemed to be unable to hold back their tears, neither James nor Ariel could understand the effect James'' words had on them. For too long they had been under two popes who could not even hear the voice of their goddess. Of course, each of them loved and respected the two, but they needed a true leader. Even if no one remembered, they had a strange feeling that their true leader had returned. In the large glass behind the throne was a drawing of Nyx, like those made for all Chaos-Born, but huge. The light coming in through the glass took on an almost black colour, the colour reflecting off the throne James was sitting on, and the perfect image became apparent to everyone. James looked like Nyx. All the priests and priestesses began to worship again and James, as if he was tired of it, said, "Lift your heads, I am still not a god or goddess." After these words, each worshipper stood up again and seeing this, James said, "I have a job for you, listen carefully." Everyone, including Ariel, began to listen to James. "I want you to find any poison you can find on the 20th floor in the city or wherever we are," James suddenly said, and with that, he pulled a cheque out of his inventory and wrote 25,000,000 gold coins on it. "What are you planning to do with all this poison? Are you crazy?" asked Ariel with a puzzled expression after handing the cheque to Ariel, it was not difficult to see that everyone had the same question. "I thought Moros would have told you, I''m a Poison Master now, I need to improve," James said, and with those words, everyone''s eyes widened. Ariel opened her mouth but didn''t seem to know what to say. A poison master was seen as a superior personality on his name and rank. James had first chosen Nyx, then he had managed to save the fifth floor and kill a Fallen God, and now he had the rank and title of a poison master. There was no way anyone could believe that. [He''s telling the truth, Ariel, I didn''t say that just to see your surprised expression.] Ariel suddenly saw the message from Moros and then said with an angry expression, "If you keep hiding such things from me, I will give you a good slap in the face when I pass the 75th floor and you come to meet me, Master Moros." It was obvious that all the onlookers were surprised, Moros didn''t know what to say, and it was clear that Ariel wasn''t just angry that something was being kept from him. Being a poison master was a lot of work, Ariel could only try to imagine how much pain was involved, but even that seemed to be failing. Ariel''s expression was filled with sadness as she looked at James'' face. Even though James was looking at Ariel with a smile, there was only so much he could say. "Never mind Ariel, it was painful but the reward was good, now I need all the poison we can find, we need to do it before we start climbing." Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ariel nodded with a sad expression as James said this and handed the cheque to Abbot Leon to cash it. "The lord''s will is clear, it must be done quickly, Leon," Ariel said, and with that, he bowed to each of the priests and monks and shouted, "Your wish is our command, commander, lord!" Suddenly the huge hall emptied and it was just Ariel and James. "That was stupid, didn''t you know you could die?" Ariel asked. "I mean I knew, or rather I didn''t know until the end, Noah told me that he would only give me the poisons that he said would paralyse me, but I accepted the last poison. After I accepted it, even Nyx couldn''t do anything, it was my choice to die if I did die." James said and Ariel, who heard this, could no longer hold her nerves and hit James hard on the head. "OUCH! What was that for!" James muttered and when he looked at Ariel he felt like all time had stopped. Ariel''s tears were streaming down her tired face. "I care! Are you stupid? If I didn''t care about you as my son, would I tell you my life story?! Are you stupid enough to try to die?! After so long I wanted to trust someone and he''s stupid enough to go and use a deadly poison?!" Ariel suddenly shouted, James didn''t know what to say. In just a few moments, Ariel''s smiling and happy face was replaced by a sad expression of devastation. James seemed to have forgotten. He may have learnt who he was, he may have realised what fate awaited him, or he may have known that he had taken a huge step forward in his adventure of meeting Chaos, but he had forgotten the one thing he shouldn''t have forgotten. James had a big family, a family he couldn''t explain or even remember everyone. Ariel was one of the main members of that family, one of the reasons James had to live. James had witnessed and admired Ariel''s fighting style and composure, but that wasn''t the only reason he invited him. Ariel was like James himself, alone, abandoned. Ariel saw James as his son, and James saw Ariel as a mother figure, just as he saw Nyx, after all, Ariel was the one who took care of everything under the 75th floor and inside the Church of Night, which the gods could not touch, instead of his ''son''. Like a mother protecting her son. These were the true feelings of Ariel, who was an excellent warrior and frightened almost everyone below the 25th floor. James had every reason to try not to die, and even he seemed to have forgotten that. He may have been a Black descendant, but he wasn''t Desmond. He was James Arthur Black, he was the Umbra of Chaos, he was the Shadow of the Goddess, he was the leader of the Church of Night....he was the head of this huge family. "I''m sorry...Ariel." Chapter 145 - 145: Three Old Friends "I''m sorry, Ariel, I am. It''s what I had to do to pass Noah''s test, I swear. If I hadn''t agreed I wouldn''t have passed, I had to take that gamble." James said, and it seemed to hurt Ariel even more. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I don''t care, I have no intention to lose another child of mine, not again," Ariel said it was obvious that these words stabbed James'' heart. James didn''t think he would be so sad on such a beautiful day, he thought Ariel would be happy for him. "Look James, I didn''t join you to go through the pain of having a child again. I didn''t want to watch you from afar and watch you go and kill yourself and regret it, so I joined you. You may be cruel, but you''re also a very kind and innocent child, and you forget that. The Tower is full of cruel, disloyal and disgusting people. You can be sure, that even the demons are better than most angels, that''s how stupid this tower is." Ariel said and continued without even giving James a chance to speak: "I''ve told you many times that I consider you my son, and I don''t want what happened to my daughter to happen to you. You''re strong, you''re even strong enough to fight me at my full power right now and kill me, but you''re not a god, you''re not a creator, and you can die, James." "Ariel...." James could only bring himself to say the name of the sad old woman in front of him. "You gave me not only a reason to live but also Miracle who I can love like a granddaughter and Nemesis who I can love like a daughter even though she''s way way older than me, strangely Nemesis treats me like I''m your mum, well technically I could say that. How can I face them if you go and die? How can I face them when I''m the one who should be there for you?" James took a deep breath as Ariel finished, he seemed to know what she was going to say, but he refused to speak. He pulled a cloth from his inventory, wiped Ariel''s tears away, then smiled and said, "Both you Ariel...and Nyx, I have two mother figures in my life. I have met many people and made many family members, but I must have forgotten...how those around me cared for me. Forgive me, I will do things like this again in the future, there will be events like this, but you all will not leave my mind for a second so I will always come back, I promise." James said. When Ariel heard these words, the sadness on her face began to disappear and then she hugged James, saying, "This...is acceptable." Everything seemed awkward between the two of them for a few minutes after that, James trying hard not to laugh and shaking his head slowly up and down. Amid all this awkwardness, the doors to the parlour suddenly opened and Theseus walked in. James and Ariel suddenly turned to each other and a small laugh broke out between them, Theseus smiled awkwardly and asked, "I can''t look that funny, why are my two best friends laughing at me?" "It''s not because of you Theseus, I''m glad you''re here, I really am glad that you''re here." Ariel said, and although she didn''t quite believe it, Theseus shook his head and said, "I came at your request James, I heard you had something to tell me." James shook his head when he realised that the two had finished talking and then said, "I was going to ask you to find me as much poison as you can find on the 5th floor, and since I haven''t seen you face to face in a long time, I wished we could meet and have dinner." Theseus seemed surprised by what he heard, he did not know why someone like James wanted poison. It seems Poseidon had not informed his followers like Moros. "Poison Master," Ariel said, pointing to James with her head, a mixture of concern and anger evident on Theseus'' face. "Have you gone mad? How could you even try to do something like this?!" Theseus shouted, he had the same reaction Ariel had. "Don''t even try Theseus, I went through the same thing before you came, thanks to Noah the examiner." Ariel said and with those words, Theseus moved his head to the right in a strange way and said "If you say so Ariel." and sat down on the floor. James got up from the throne and went down the stairs and sat down opposite Theseus, took out a few pieces of food put them on the cloth he had put on the floor and signalled Ariel to come. Ariel had become close friends with Theseus during the battle of the 5th floor and the pair were among the closest to James, which meant that the three friends were reunited after some time. Conversations and laughter echoed through the huge hall and the trio enjoyed the fun, while in the empty hall of Olympus, other conversations were taking place. ----- "I don''t know who they are, but we''re sure they''re on the move, they''re somehow managing to bring the Fallen Gods out of the forgotten time," Gaia said suddenly, as all the titans seemed to have gathered and entered into a meeting. "Yeah, and we can''t even find out who they are!" Coeus muttered. "This is ridiculous! I''ve scanned the entire tower from top to bottom, the first floor and even the tutorial floor, nothing!" shouted Hyperion. "We know what they''re up to, we shouldn''t leave him alone, are we sure Theseus will be enough?" asked Phoebe. "I don''t know, it''s obvious they''re after James'' destiny, they''ve managed to move the fifth floor, which he''ll come back to in a heartbeat, and the ninth floor, which he has to pass through. The person Nyx killed was one of them, what was his race?" Theia said with great curiosity. Eyes turned to Nyx with that question, each one of them had to watch this great woman, the strongest of them all, with curious eyes. "He was human." Chapter 146 - 146: So It Was Nyxs Fault? "He was human." At Nyx''s words, everyone except Erebus seemed stunned, even Chronos seemed unaware of what had happened. "A human? Those greedy beings!" Mnemosyne shouted, about to go mad. "Was he as dangerous as Sopdu, Nyx?" Chronos asked calmly. "More than you can imagine, when I looked into his eyes I remembered the darkness when I first met Desmond, not as compassionate as the darkness of Erebus...That man was evil," Nyx said. Even those words were enough for each of them. "Should we send Hecate away? If she reduces her form to low, she might be able to make it down to the 75th floor," asked Hestia. "No way, James won''t forgive us," Erebus muttered. Every titan in the hall knew that every one of these words was true, many gods and goddesses were waiting to go down to the 75th floor, if someone like Hacate crossed that border, it would mean that everyone could cross it. This seemed to emphasise another of the main aims of those who were trying to revive the Fallen Gods. All the titans paused in great surprise, each of them suddenly thinking the same thing, the purpose of those bastards and their whereabouts suddenly dawning on everyone. "I may need to ask my father," Nyx said suddenly, and Chronos, hearing this, said, "I''ll come with you, Erebus watch the hall, the rest of you please watch James, no one should approach him right now. Either there is a traitor in Olympus or these bastards are from there..." Hearing those words, the aura around Hyperion seemed to suddenly rise. "You mean those bastards are from outside the tower?" asked Hyperion, asking something that everyone else was thinking but didn''t want to admit. The only reason they wouldn''t want to admit it was that if that were the case, Nyx and the Titans, Leyla, Ronald and Cain, and the Supreme Dragons outside the tower would have destroyed the security of the tower. None of them could accept such a thing. "I''m going out of my mind. You''re telling me that they managed to get past us, who are always on guard? I can understand that in a way, but they can''t get past the Supreme Dragons!" Crius was quite right, every single Supreme Dragon was always alert in the only sense of the word, they did nothing else, and with their long life spans, millions of years seemed like just a day to them. "In that case, we can agree that there is no way in from the outside, maybe they somehow managed to send a message from the outside to the inside," Chronos said. "It''s not unreasonable, but it''s also not logical, the tower''s system has intelligence and will, and the tower we are in is alive Chronos, is there anyone who can break this system other than Chaos?" asked Hyperion, but as soon as they asked this question, everyone thought of one person. "We know he didn''t do it, but...." Erebus said. "James...the return of the Black bloodline to the tower must have opened a gap in the tower''s will," Nyx said, taking a big deep breath and putting her hand to her forehead, starting to worry about the possibility of that. "So basically they don''t know who James is, if our theories are correct. Maybe he had nothing to do with the people outside the tower, it''s not like it''s the only sacred place in 24 existence, they wouldn''t have the guts to come and kidnap him just because someone broke causality. Especially with Chaos watching them." Hyperion added he was right. "Like I said, it''s best to ask my father, it''s obvious what needs to be done." Nyx said and stood up, turning back before he and Chronos passed through the passage he had opened in the hall, "Let''s hope that what happened was just a result of finding old spells in the tower, otherwise, this will no longer be a game for us gods. Remember...as murderous as the tower may be, this place is for those who have given up hope." With those words, the duo''s surroundings changed again as they passed through the portal, this time Chaos seemed to be hiding from Nyx. S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I''ve been waiting for you, I know you have questions, come, let''s talk," Chaos said suddenly, this time looking much younger and more imposing than before. "Father, you know what our questions are, we just want to take precautions, we have high hopes that you can give us the answers." said Nyx, after these words, Chaos opened his eyes wide in shock and then smiled and said, "You already know the answer, but I think I can tell you, you look very worried." With that, an image appeared in the upper part of the environment they were in. "No kidding..." Chronos said, and it was obvious why he was surprised. They both knew what they were looking at, they didn''t even know if Chaos was joking, but they hoped it was a joke. "Are you kidding me, dad?" Nyx asked, not expecting to see this item here. "I mean, it''s not a joke, they found it and removed all the harmless dark magic from it before putting it back, and the result is something that could attract the hatred of the Fallen Gods." "NYX!" shouted Chronos, seeming to blame the whole thing on him in a way. This item was like a piece of Nyx''s destroyed churches, Nyx didn''t know what to say. "WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO YOU DUMB CHRONOS!?" shouted Nyx, as if the brothers were fighting. "I don''t know maybe be better and make some people check the ruins of old churches?" said Chronos and suddenly Nyx was silenced. This item, or piece of item, carried a tiny fragment of Desmond''s aura, which explained why the Fallen Gods'' hatred had grown so enormously strong. Thanks to this hatred and the black magic stolen from the item, the spirits of the Fallen Gods were able to feed themselves even though they were dead inside the tower. It was up to the gods to find the item. Chapter 147 - 147: Starting the Lessons "Alright, it''s my fault, but it doesn''t change the fact that we can find the item, we just have to move quickly and surely," Nyx said, clearly trying to avoid a rebuke, but the rebuke hadn''t even begun. As if not wanting Chronos to speak, Nyx turned to Chaos and asked, "Dear father, can you tell me where to find the shard?" Chaos chuckled awkwardly after these words and then replied, "That is one of the things I will not do, my dear daughter." Chaos''s words seemed to surprise the duo. "Why exactly? If you tell me where the piece is, no one will have to die," Nyx added, and with that, Chaos opened his arms wide, looking intently into his daughter''s eyes: "Where is the fun in that?" With those words, Nyx and Chronos seemed to remember who the creator of the murderous tower was, and of course, the creator of the tower would have an even stranger personality than the tower itself. At Chaos'' words, a portal opened into the hall of Olympus and Nyx and Chronos returned. As they stepped into the hall, all eyes turned to the duo. Looking at Chronos'' face, the Titans saw the expression on the time titan''s face and instantly realised that Nyx had done something wrong. As each of them turned to Nyx, Nyx realised that she could no longer escape without being scolded, and with that, she said, "Alright, my father has shown us what the problem is. Cough...it could have been me, there''s a small chance." Chronos shook his head when he heard these words and then said, "The blame lies entirely with Nyx. In short, a piece of an item found in one of the destroyed temples that contained both Desmond''s aura and Nyx''s dark but pure magic was left, or rather forgotten, and guess what?" As the titans around them heard these words, they each looked at each other for a few seconds, and a shout came out of each of their mouths at the same time: "NYX!" After this shout, Nyx sat back down in one of the seats around the table and then said with a sweet expression, "I hope you can help me." At these words, the Titans looked at each other again, and then old Hyperion''s voice was heard: "Of course, we will, but you have to be careful, there are hundreds of churches in ruins and who knows what treasures are in them, the priests have to step in, and you have to tidy everything up before the same thing happens again." Hyperion''s words seemed to have everyone in agreement, and with that, there was no more to talk about. After Chronos'' brief explanation, the idea that these events had nothing to do with the exterior of the tower was burned into everyone''s minds, which meant that somewhere inside the tower, things were moving further and further every second. Still, the fact that James was being targeted did indeed demand greater vigilance. Also, the fact that the Fallen Gods could remember Desmond and that the people who brought the Fallen Gods back could use his aura posed a great danger. Each and every one of the titans, each and every power point in the vast hall, was certain that if this danger did not end soon, James would not be the only one in danger, precautions had to be taken, and they had to be taken quickly. ----- It had been almost thirty days, James was constantly purifying the poisons he had put into his body and with each passing day his hair and eye colour began to glow a brighter green, a strange sight indeed, but it was far too cool for the poison to have such an effect. S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, James could clearly recognise that the poison in his body had become much purer, even if only slightly. The blood of the Black bloodline in his veins was officially accepting the poison directly, however, it was time for real action, James knew there was something else he had to do before he could climb above the 20th floor. He had Desmond Black, the most powerful man who had ever existed, who wanted to teach him the art of the sword directly, and James had to learn that art. If he didn''t want to see Ariel cry again, and even worse, if he didn''t want Nemesis to go through the same thing, it had to happen. It was because of this desire that James had wished that Desmond would stop anyone who didn''t know about it from watching him, he just thought it had to happen so that no one could see his strange behaviour. With that, James waited in the huge throne room, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown in front of him, and after a short time, the person he was waiting for, Vlad Black, appeared in front of him. The old man had a large figure, one could say that he was twice the size of James in terms of figure. He looked like an old but strong man with broad shoulders and a determined figure. Vlad stood solemnly and sternly in front of James and looked at the young man in front of him. "My dear ancestor, please tell me what I must do, I swear I will do my best," James suddenly said. Vlad shook his head proudly and said, "Take out your sword," as if these were the words they wanted to hear. James stood up after these words and took Clarent out of his inventory. As Vlad examined the sword in the young man''s hand more carefully, he shook his head and then said, ''Weak.'' James seemed surprised at what he was hearing, the sword in his hand was one of a kind in every sense of the word, a holy sword. "I don''t understand, it''s a special sword, how can it be weak? Seriously though, it does not make sense." James suddenly asked. His curiosity was piqued. Chapter 148 - 148: What Clarent And You Can Become "I don''t understand, how can a special sword ancestor be weak?" James suddenly asked. His curiosity seemed to be piqued. At James'' question, Vlad shook his head and then said, "It is a beautiful sword, but it will be weak, if not too weak, for the enemies you are likely to fight in the future." The old ancestor''s words made perfect sense to James, but planning to throw Clarent into a corner was the last thing he wanted to do, and so he felt it necessary to say something, even if it was disrespectful. Just as he opened his mouth and was about to speak, Clarent suddenly began to tremble. Seeing Clarent shaking, Vlad smiled and then looked at the sword and said, "That''s what you have to do, it doesn''t matter that you are a replica, you have a soul, don''t forget that." and continued to speak without stopping: "The blood spilt on you, the hearts you pierced, the monsters you made cry, the beings you left to die and the gods you managed to kill! Remember every one of them! Remember all those souls that you hacked and slashed, who rushed forward cruelly to take the life of their master. Thrive and continue to make your master proud." Vlad said, his spirit growing more and more euphoric with each passing second. "If you do these things, one day you will cease to be a replica, your name will no longer be Clarent, but your own personality, your own image and your own consciousness. You will want nothing more than to be your devoted owner instead of what you remember in your original body, that will be your commitment." "But if you refuse to do these things, all you will see in the end is to be cast aside, do not be so foolish as to wish only for your master, young sword spirit, you are Clarent now, but you can become a thousand times the true Clarent." Vlad fell silent as he uttered these words and then the Clarent in James'' hand stopped vibrating, seeming to settle down. "I thought the lesson was supposed to be for me," James suddenly said, a little jokingly of course. "Your sword needed to understand something, you don''t want to be separated from it, and if it doesn''t want that to happen, it needs to come to some realisation." At Vlad''s words, James nodded as if he understood and waited, ready to learn. "Your aura is quite different from my father''s and mine James, my father had a huge amount of light aura and that''s where his power came from, it was much easier for him to cut down the bastards who mostly used [evil] black magic. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, with your aura it''s not that hard to teach this art, it''s just going to require a slightly heavier training style." Vlad said suddenly, James was taking notes in his mind while listening to the old ancestor. "This sword art is divided into 3 parts. The first one works on slashing, which you do very well. As you can see in Unknown''s Sword Scabbard, the scabbard is made for a very thin sword, a very sharp sword, and a sword that requires a particular mastery of piercing." "What you need to do is to refine your aura. I have been able to get a few ideas about your aura based on the information I have observed myself and the information I have received from your aunt, both in the later and on the previous floors. Aura is a power that you cannot easily master even if you have it to the highest degree, which is why it is much less preferred than magic and only a very small part can use it in the best way." "So what I am going to teach you is to maximise that potential. Start using your aura for me and we''ll go through it in detail." James had his sword in a ready position for slashing after all he had heard and then he released his aura and great flames appeared in the hall. It was handy that the flames couldn''t do any damage unless the owner of the aura gave permission. Vlad shook his head in disappointment as he watched the young boy in front of him use his aura. "Look James your aura is special. There are several reasons for this, but before I explain it, let me tell you exactly what aura is, I''m sure Chronos and the others have explained it to you properly, but the use of aura in this art is more special, so you should understand that." Vlad coughed and started to continue his speech. "Aura is a force that penetrates all the blood cells, veins, bones and even the skin in your body, all your nerve cells are affected by this force. The reason why you are using your aura incorrectly is that you are releasing the aura from your body, you are only able to use a small part of the released aura to use that power, this is the reason for the flames and small particles of time around you." "What you need to do is to feel that aura in every cell and atami in your body, borrow that aura and spread it completely to a single point and when you master it, spread it all over your body. If I were alive, I could demonstrate it live, but all I can do now is tell you." "Now, if you have understood even a little of what I have said, stop letting the aura out of your body, let it burn inside your body, let it run and benefit you, and when you have succeeded in doing so, pierce the aura itself and pass through it." Having heard Vlad''s words, James closed his eyes, trying to feel the aura inside his body, of course, he was succeeding, but every second he did it, it was as if the aura in his body was leaving him. With just a few simple words James realised the mistake, he could see how he had misused the aura. He didn''t know what to do to stop letting the aura out and that was the main problem, that''s why he immediately stopped using his aura, sat down on the floor and started meditating after getting into the cross-legged position. When Vlad saw this, he shook his head up and down with pride and confirmed that James was on the right track. Chapter 149 - 149: The Story Vlad Creates James may not have known it, but he was trying to accomplish one of those things that were even more difficult than the time elemental he had just gained, and if he could do it, and even if he couldn''t do it fully, the benefit to him would be enormous. As James was filled with these thoughts and trying to meditate at least and try to keep his aura under control, Vlad''s voice was heard again: "There was one thing my father always wished for. He hoped that one day there would be someone who could use magic and aura at the same time, or rather he hoped that there would be someone stupid enough to try to do it, after all, what kind of maniac would try to get magic and aura at the same time?" James felt strangely embarrassed and hurt by these words, but what could he say? After all, James had unknowingly done it. "So while I learnt the aura style and the sword, one of my siblings learnt the magic style and the art of the spear. My father hoped that when the time came, the two powers could be combined into one weapon, and since my sister and I trained in the same place and at the same time, I know everything, so I will teach you." "Your aura protects your body, and your heart itself is protected as all the blood cells are involved James, so you can survive even if your magic rings explode, that''s what I''m going to teach you, that''s exactly the style my father had in mind." "My father kept thinking of a way to use magic in a fiery or pure explosive way, or as a beam of light, and when he finally succeeded, he ended up with an excellent magic user like my sister." "If you can channel aura and magic into your sword at the same time you can do something that no one else can do James, I''m not talking to you about casting a beam of magic through the sword or using a little of your aura to support your magic, I''m talking to you about a technique my father called [Magical Weapon Mastery]." "I''m talking about a style, an art, where there''s no limit to what you can do. Think! There is a Fallen God in front of you, and you have a tired body. Your aura, your magic and the Clarent you hold in your right hand are all you have left. You activate the magic rings that surround your heart, the magic flows through your veins like aura, invades all your blood cells and merges with them." James heard Vlad''s every word, and because James had allowed them to, Nyx and the others were able to hear them too, in a way, they were watching everything from James'' body, not from above him. Maybe they were seeing darkness, but every word they heard made their blood boil and sent shivers down their spines. "I''m not just talking about merging with fire and time, your mastery of aura is so perfect that you can feel the magic merging with it. Like the heat energy from the lava advancing every second in your tired body, mana merges with aura and finally manages to flow into Clarent." "Clarent has encapsulated his soul and is no longer a replica, he has become so thin and so durable that he can carry this energy, this aura, this power that comes out of you." Each of Vlad''s words made the heartbeat of the audience accelerate, it was so exciting to listen to! "Suddenly you pull Clarent, your sword, backwards and then lunge forwards to slice it open. You failed to reach the target, you are too weak, your body is too tired, but you have done everything necessary. Your sword is so thin that the combination of your magic and your aura vibrated and vibrated in the sword itself, reaching its final form." "You were able to use the formula of creation as the creator himself. You were able to combine aura, the energy of life, and magic, the energy of nature. You who had the aura of 8 sacred fires and you who could use the energy of time were able to combine everything, the energies of all the poisons you drank were added to your attack and time stopped even though you attacked from hundreds of metres away." "You used your aura so well that the enemy has nothing left to do. You are weak and this may be your last attack, but your last attack will hit, unless Chaos himself comes and stops the attack, that attack will hit the target." "Time has stopped, but as your bleeding tired body pulls you to your knees it will feel like hundreds of years have passed, the desire to return to your family, the desire to live and the desire to exist for what you want to protect will give you that feeling!" S~ea??h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "BOOM!" Everyone jumped at the sound of this explosion, even the Titans couldn''t help but do this, everyone was listening so attentively to the story that it was hard not to get scared and jump. "You have done it James, you have learnt an art so perfect, you have entered that small part of yourself that manages to use your aura in a gigantic way, and you have managed to use your magic positively. You became the first Magical Weapons Master in existence. Your target, your enemy, fell and lost his life, you won the battle." "And James, this is exactly what I am going to teach you, get up and feel your aura, transform it in your body, let it disturb you, let it take you over, let your aura use you, James!!!" At these words Vlad, James jumped to his feet in just half a second and felt the aura that started to rotate in his body within a second. The aura automatically flowed to Clarent as if it started to act according to James'' will and Vlad''s command, and then a very thin but very powerful aura flew out of the tip of the sword. The aura dissipated without damaging anything, but James had succeeded. Chapter 150 - 150: The Art of Piercing "Well done, James," Vlad said. James fell to his knees and, with sweat dripping from his head to the floor, he barely looked up and looked at his old ancestor one more time. All the Titans and Chaos-Borns watching the scene were thinking the same thing as James: "So this is Vlad Black, the first of the Black bloodline, perhaps the purest since Desmond. The child of the God Killer." "I''m not sure I can do all that you say, my ancestor, I barely managed to spin my aura and there wasn''t even any magic involved," James said, his words were very matter of fact, it was only with that gesture that he was pinned to his knees. "Did you think you were going to become a master with your first move, James? What we are doing now is combining my father''s sword art with magic, you will hardly feel the magic itself until you have done it a hundred times. Remember, one drop will make a watermark but hundreds of them can fill a bucket." Vlad replied the truth in his words was enormous. After all, James had been consistently successful in whatever he had ever tried his hand at, and of course, he wanted to be a quick success in this business. There was no way he could do that, and he was only now realising that reality. He had only just learnt how to spin his aura around a little bit inside his body instead of releasing it from his body, and it was difficult for him to understand how to do that, let alone how to combine his aura and magic. Of course, his aura could possess the magic he possessed, but that was only when James was releasing his aura outward, releasing both his aura and the energy in his body, the mana, giving him the power to use magic and aura at the same time. But what Vlad wanted to do was different. Vlad wanted to perfect the young boy in front of him, James, he wished to raise him to a higher level than his father''s greatness. His use of aura and then his use of magic had to be so perfect that he could do everything in Vlad''s imaginary story in a matter of seconds. His power had to build so quickly that even at his worst, he had to be able to do it with the last bits of aura and magic left in every cell of his body. This was exactly what James Vlad wanted to create. Get up and do it again, you''ve got the basics down, even if you can''t put it into practice yet, you have to do it until you pass out to become perfect. Vlad suddenly said, and James, who was still breathing deeply at these words, looked at him. He didn''t even have the strength to get up and take a step, he was broken, there was no pain in his body, but every muscle was hurting and he felt the pressure of his heartbeat in all his veins. "I don''t have the energy to move, even if I knew what to do," James said, and then he heard Vlad''s calm but deep voice: "Is that what you''re going to say when it''s your family you have to go back to on the battlefield? Wasn''t it Nemesis who woke you up in that cauldron of poison? Stand up and do what I have taught you again, this is only the first stage of the piercing style. There is another style of piercing you will learn, a style based solely on the aura." At Vlad''s words, James was surprised to learn that one of the three main styles he was going to learn, the slashing style, was divided into two, he had not expected to find such information. He told himself that it was time to learn all the styles now and get stronger and use them to improve in battle. Vlad was clever though, he could see what James was thinking with a single glance and then said, "First things first young boy, now get started.". James had somehow managed to get to his feet, he didn''t know how. He had pulled Clarent back and stopped on that move he had made to pierce something, to pierce something, in short, to destroy, and he was about to start spinning his aura when suddenly Vlad''s words were heard: "Keep your feet firmly on the ground. You rely on your speed and that''s why you look ready to attack or ready to dodge, but that''s a weakness, James, keep your feet firmly on the ground and let the ground help you as you rotate your aura in every cell, you will be less tired of sure." James closed his eyes as soon as he heard these words and began to use the entire sole of his foot instead of the tips of his toes to make his stance more stable. As soon as he started to rotate his aura, he discovered that he was indeed expending much, much less energy than before. As he was used to radiating his aura outwards he was unable to stop it completely and this caused a slight slowing down, although compared to earlier times he still had an incredibly small amount of aura radiating outwards. However, James began to save himself for when he felt he was ready, a second, two seconds, half a minute passed and then he opened his eyes and thrust the sword forward intending to use it to slice Clarent. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "SWOOSH!" It sounded as if the air had been cut off. The aura was nowhere to be seen, and even when James opened his eyes, there was no sign or glow of any kind. "What happened?" James asked and Vlad heard him and said, "What do you mean what happened? You failed," was Vlad''s reply. James couldn''t understand what he had done wrong when he looked at Vlad he realised he wasn''t going to get any answer and then he started to think, after all, he had just repeated what he had just done. He swirled the aura that was constantly moving around inside his body, after only a few seconds he looked at Clarent with the sword in his hand and then asked, "I forgot to add my aura to the sword, didn''t I?" Throughout the entire 150th floor, all the Titans and Chaos-Borns could be heard in the hall, each of them tapping their hands on the back of their faces. Not only James, but even the high gods and titans seemed to have forgotten about it, as they were strangely excited, and the fact that everyone was stupid seemed to raise the issue of how they were still alive. Chapter 151 - 151: This Is How You Can Go Perfect When James stood up again after his stupidity, his ring suddenly began to tremble, after a small flash, Emily stepped out of the ring and said, "I''m bored, I want to watch from outside." After these words, James took a deep breath and then closed his eyes and began to rotate the aura in his body in the same way. After a short time, the aura managed to flow fully into the sword this time and that sound appeared again: "SWOOOSHH!!!" This time the sound of the air being cut off was more detailed and serious, and an incredible energy travelled to the door of the hall and dissipated. Anyone who saw Vlad''s expression could see that the old man was filled with pride, James seemed to be able to do it of his own volition. "You have done well enough, even if it is something that needs training, get some rest and then I will show you the second style of slashing, I assure you it is dozens of times more difficult than what you are doing now," Vlad said and suddenly his spirit vanished and this time the sword did not enter the scabbard but the ring James was wearing. James collapsed to the floor, James was close to fainting from exhaustion as his aunt disappeared, grumbling that she had just left the ring to watch them. His eyes blurred and then he disappeared. ----- "I don''t understand, the words that the old ancestor said, the imaginary story that he wrote in an instant, it was as if it was very, very real. I felt like I was in the middle of a battlefield." Thanatos said, his hair still standing on end. "I agree, I''d like to ask James for permission to practice this art myself, my aura is huge and now that I have a way to make it stronger, I''m sure I''ll get even stronger," Nemesis said as she got bored and went out to her family and joined the squad watching James. "He may not let us, but he''ll let you, Neme," Morus said suddenly, and with that, Nyx''s words were heard: "So he''s our Desmond''s son, still it is weird to know, we are seeing the son of our best friend, huh?" There was no accounting for the pressure those words put on everyone. Everyone could see Nyx''s face in great detail, and it was impossible not to feel sad. "Come on Nyx, don''t worry, we still have work to do, tell the church leaders to search the ruined churches and pick up their belongings, I''m sure there are hundreds of them still in ruins," Hyperion said, his mind still troubled on the other side. Nyx nodded when she heard those words and then stood up, saying, "You''re right, we have work to do." Nyx soon left the hall and then the palace, and then entered her temple. As she descended to the lower part of the temple, she came across an altar, which was connected to the altar of the main temple on the 5th floor, so when Nyx wanted to communicate with her followers, she did so from there. When Nyx stood before the altar, she raised her hand and then began to speak. As the massive 5th-floor altar began to glow, the duo of Datura and Aether soon reached the altar and began to listen to Nyx''s words: "O my great followers. Though we have not been able to identify those who started the war, those who wreaked havoc, and those who attacked, we have found where they gained their power." As Datura and Aether prayed and the other priests and priestesses prostrated themselves, everyone became curious, and Nyx''s voice was heard again as the imperial family entered and began to pray as Datura and Aether did: "The dishonourable infidels are unfortunately damaging the tower with my power. I want you to go and check all our ruined churches as soon as possible. Search every ruin and find the artefacts left behind. I can sense many sacred items, we need to retrieve them, we have to do it before things get worse." By the time Nyx''s words were heard by Datura and Aether the duo had finished praying, the light and sound from the altar had disappeared, signalling that the mission had been handed over. As the pair stood up the priests and priestesses stood ready for battle, after all, most of the destroyed churches were located in dangerous places. "You have heard the order of our goddess! It is clear what you are to do! Go and fulfil the mission," said the old woman Datura, every second counted for them, they had to be fast and serious." With that, the mission began. James was in training time, the Titans were in the process of finding the perpetrators and the Church of Night was in the search for artefacts and artefacts left behind. ----- S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Are you awake?" James looked up when he heard those words and opened his eyes, realising the moment he saw the throne lying in the middle of the living room and his curiosity was piqued when he saw Ariel''s strange expression. "I don''t suppose you have any idea how long I''ve been asleep?" James asked and Ariel shook her head and said, "You were asleep when I checked on you three days ago, you were still asleep when I came in here this morning, and now that it''s evening time...let''s say four." James tried to stand up when he heard those words and struggled with the pain that suddenly shot through his body, it couldn''t just be from his training. He turned to Ariel and said while holding his own neck: "Hey Ariel, if you find me sleeping in a place like this, please ask someone to carry me to my room, my whole body is stiff." These words forced Ariel to giggle and then she said, "There''s nothing I can do, I would if that ring didn''t glow every time I got close to you." James shook his head, looking at the ring on his finger after these words. "Thanks anyway, there''s nothing to do," James suddenly said and then stood up and said, "I''ll continue my training, please continue to make sure no one gets in here." Seeing Ariel''s approval, he yawned and said, "My ancestor, we can continue." Chapter 152 - 152: The Second Part of Piercing "Now I can teach you the second style of disembowelling," Vlad''s spirit said as he and Emily emerged from the ring James was wearing. When James nodded his head in agreement, Vlad''s voice was heard again. "The first of the three parts of my father Desmond''s sword art is the slashing, which you have already learnt, but the style of this part, of course, does not consist of a single style. My father called them [dances]. The first art and the second part, the Piercing, is made up of two styles, two movements, just two of them." "The first movement is known as the finisher, which you can learn the basics of and put into practice in a small way, and the second movement is known as the wounding, which is much easier to use but much more difficult to professionalize." "Wounding?" James asked, listening to Vlad while trying to learn the styles of course. "Exactly. The finisher allows you to attack by releasing all the aura you''ve gathered by spinning it into your sword or any weapon, but wounding is not like that. Again, you spin your aura to gather it and transfer it to your sword, but you don''t release the energy in a single strike. What you need to do is release the energy bit by bit in successive slashing attacks and keep the enemy as far away from you as possible, or kill them if you''re lucky,'' Vlad said. "So you are saying that what I need to do is to keep the aura I have gathered in my sword Clarent for as long as possible and release the aura gathered in a small way in my serial stabbing movements?" James asked. When he saw Vlad''s confirmation, he moved back to the ready position and then, taking a deep breath, he swirled his aura and transferred it to his sword, then he quickly pierced the air and pulled it back, trying to do this repeatedly. After doing this only twice, he realised that all the aura in the sword had dissipated and the aura swirling around his body had disappeared. Curiously looking at Vlad, he wondered what was going on. He didn''t want to give up and wanted to try to understand what was going on before he asked Vlad questions, so he did it again, but this time the aura disappeared as he made the second piercing motion. He had no idea what was going on, wasn''t this style supposed to be easier than the first one? "Do you know why you failed?" Vlad asked, and as James shook his head from side to side to indicate no, he exhaled deeply and began to speak. "You can spin your aura well, you''ve picked up what you''ve been taught quickly. You can inject your aura into the sword well, and that''s good, but you can''t release the aura from the sword properly. The aura should be in such a tense state that when you release it, the effect should last. Why do you think only a small fraction of aura users can do that?" Vlad continued when he noticed James'' curious and uncomprehending eyes. "Look, James. The reason why you need to rotate your aura is not only to keep it from escaping out of the body but also to turn your aura into a tense state so that your attack can go beyond the concept of aura and act just like a spell, which is what you did in the first style. Doing it 6 times in a row corresponds to this, each time you release some of your stored aura with all its tension." As Vlad finished speaking James put his free hand to his chin and then squinted his eyes at Clarent as if deep in thought, after a short time he said: "So what you''re saying is that I''m not stretching the aura enough?" Hearing James'' question, Vlad nodded his head and then said, "Exactly." After a short time, he went to James'' side and put himself in the same attack position as James and then a sword formed in his hand. James assumed that since his ancestor wasn''t alive, he couldn''t make a live demonstration, at least that''s what Vlad had said. "How come you?" James said questioningly, obviously surprised, how could he not be? "Come on James, I tried to teach you by pressurising you and it worked, of course, I can make my soul seem alive in a way, I just can''t affect reality," Vlad said with a mocking expression. James had indeed chosen not to say anything out of respect, but looking into his eyes Vlad could see the disappointment in the eyes of the young boy looking back at him. With that, Vlad stopped where he was and then said, "Watch carefully." Then something that emitted no sensation at all made Vlad''s soul glow, and after a short time, in just half a second, six piercing movements were performed by Vlad. A gigantic glow immediately travelled to the throne of the hall and passed through it. James and everyone else watching everything through his eyes seemed to be quite surprised. In a world where there were no real monsters, it was quite intriguing that a man who could evolve so gigantically could exist. He was Vlad Desmond''s son, though, so the man who was scarier than the gods should have been able to train him well enough. "Did you see? Did you notice how I did the attack, how much aura I used each time?" Vlad suddenly asked, the words alone were enough to stun everyone. How could James himself have seen this? Well, James was indeed a fast man, but not as fast as his ancestor, such as the monster in front of him. There was no way that was even remotely possible at his current level. "Of course I didn''t see it!" James suddenly shouted, seemingly unable to stand it, he couldn''t imagine seeing such an attack. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 153 - 153: Piercing Is Done, Now It Is Cutting James had never realised that what his ancestors had taught him was so destructive. He thought that if he could influence reality, Vlad could break through the 20th floor with just a few moves. If Vlad was so powerful, how powerful could his ancestor Desmond, who was feared by everyone, be? sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Amid these thoughts James had something he needed to know, he wasn''t going to ask Vlad, but one day he thought he would ask Nyx and Erebus, who had watched him most closely. He wondered how powerful Desmond was, of course, he realised that he was indeed powerful, after it wasn''t every day that someone could build a system of church and empire that would last millions of years, it wasn''t every day that someone could go out and slaughter thousands of gods by his hand. James didn''t know exactly how great the Black bloodline was, even if he realised it. When Vlad realised that James did not see what was happening, he took the same position again and then said, "I will show it much slower this time, carefully watch how I make each move, how much power I divide and release out tensely." James shook his head when he heard these words and then began to watch Vlad carefully. Vlad again gathered that ''aura'' that did not give out that outward sensation and then made 6 different moves as fast as James'' speed. Each of the moves was made in different places in different ways. After the moves were made, it looked just like a hexagon. With each attack, a certain amount of aura was released, and the subtlety of these moves made it look like he was sending out a beam. "So that''s how!" James suddenly realised what was going on after seeing the attack more slowly. He could see why this style of attack was easier than the first style of finishing, indeed after watching it, it was too easy even for James. After that James started to hold Clarent tightly in his right hand, he wanted these 6 moves with the holy sword to be perfect. He didn''t close his eyes this time, he wanted to watch everything he was going to do. Vlad smiled when he realised James'' eyes were open, the old man''s smile seemed to tell all the Titans and Chaos-Born who could see him that James had already succeeded. James carefully felt the aura swirling around his body and then managed to swirl every bit of aura from the tip of his toes to the tip of every hair on his head, swirling as much aura as he could manage at the moment. All the aura in his body suddenly began to charge Clarent, but nothing was released, not a single aura was released. Vlad marvelled at the skill of the boy in front of him, he seemed to want to praise James with laughter. "It''s like I''m looking at my father," Vlad said suddenly, and even if James hadn''t heard it, the audience had, and it filled the Titans who had known Desmond for a long time and the Chaos-Born who had just met him with pride. James, in his perfect focus, thought everything was ready, and suddenly the attack was on. He was making a piercing thrust every second and delivering a different point each time: "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" "SWOOSH!" His six thrusts cut through the air at the same volume, each time James managed to split his aura in detail and use it. Patterns of flame were travelling towards the throne. James had controlled his aura so well that even when the black-coloured flames hit the wood, they did not cause any damage. At that moment, the sound of applause was heard: "CLAP!" "CLAP!!!" Both his Aunt Emily and his ancestor Vlad were seriously applauding James, the pride on Vlad''s face and the joy on Emily''s face was the best thing James had seen in the last month. "Well done James, my father would be enormously proud to see you," Vlad said and Emily''s voice was heard as James was overflowing with perfect happiness: "My sister would cry with joy if she saw my little nephew." James smiled when he heard these words and said, "If you are trying to make me cry, you are on a good path, dear family." "Well? How do you feel?" Vlad asked as if he already knew the answer to that question but wanted to hear it from James himself. James looked at his own hands when he heard this question, he seemed to know what to say, and that''s why he smiled and spoke, looking at his precious sword in his hand: "I...I feel...I feel comfortable, there is no fatigue in me, the pains in my body seem to have been expelled, and I feel quiet....Free." At these words of James, Vlad could not hold himself back and laughed loudly enough to deafen the ears: "HUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!" After this laughter, Vlad''s smile became visible to everyone and then he said, "We can move on to the next part of the sword art, the [Cutting] part." James was proud of himself for having learnt both styles of slashing. As James was filled with these thoughts, he suddenly heard his ancestor''s words: "The cutting part is very different from the first part, James. While piercing can be used at both close and far distances, cutting is an art that can only be used at close range." "Of course, that doesn''t stop you from discovering things. If you can use the magic that you are likely to use in the future in the piercing section in the cutting section, who knows, you may be able to create a long-distance style." "As you can understand, this means that the cutting section has only one style, and that style is called [Serial Cut]." At his words, Vlad raised the sword in his hand and showed James that he would have to figure it all out himself, and then he continued to speak: "This is where the element within the aura, not the aura itself, will come into focus. This is the first thing you must learn." Chapter 154 - 154: Something That Can Everyone Use "This is where the element within the aura will come into focus, not the aura itself. This is the first thing you need to learn." At these words of Vlad, James was caught in a great curiosity, it was difficult for him to understand how this style was used, since using an element was part of magic outside the aura. "How exactly is this going to work sir?" James asked with great curiosity. "Before I explain this, I want everyone who is watching to listen carefully, especially as I realise that Nyx is watching you every minute like a pervert, so listen carefully," Vlad said, shocking everyone watching. "This part was developed for everyone to use. The first and third parts were created just for the hoped-for future arrival, or rather, they were structured and created as a new art, separated from my father Desmond''s sword art." "That means that no matter what weapon you use, no matter what kind of god you are, you can use the cutting style, you just have to have a predisposition to one element, and according to my father, there is not a single human being without a predisposition to any element." As Vlad finished these words, a message window popped up in front of James'' eyes: [Can you ask him if this style has any restrictions, James?] Upon receiving this message notification from Nyx, Vlad suddenly came over to James and read the notification, then said, "No, Lady Nyx, there are no restrictions. My father created this style specifically as a power against the Fallen Gods. As a power against black magic." The onlookers seemed pleased to hear this. If a warrior like Desmond created something, even if it was the simplest thing they could see in life, it would be as dangerous as the most powerful techniques they had. That''s how huge Desmond''s presence was to all the Titans, never to be underestimated. "I didn''t know you could see my message windows or anything, sir," James suddenly said, looking genuinely surprised. Vlad''s face turned into an expression somewhere between surprise and sourness as James said these words, he looked at James for a few seconds and then said, "My soul is locked in your magic, what exactly did you expect? I can even see your inventory." James'' goofiness was surprising Vlad. Vlad was constantly thinking about how James could be so silly and accomplish so much, it didn''t make sense to the old man. With that, James stood up and then said, "Please, let''s begin, sir." Vlad stood next to James after these words and began to speak: Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Now James, here''s what I want you to do. Start using your aura and your magic at the same time. You don''t need to spin or stretch your aura, you don''t need to turn your magic into a huge mana, just activate both at the same time. We do this because the audience is not just aura users, or so I think." With those words James did as Vlad had said and colourful flames filled the entire hall, the magic particles floating around reminded one of the snowflakes suspended in mid-air. "Well done, now I want you to keep this sensation going and make your aura so tiny that it can be considered both unused and unspelled, and then somehow extract the element of your choice from it," Vlad said he had no idea how confusing this was. James looked at his ancestor, old Vlad, with an expression as if he didn''t understand and tried to figure out how to do what he was saying. The elements were simply marvellous things that were created with the basics of aura and magic. In other words, it was not possible to unleash them by using aura and magic sparingly. Even James himself knew that it wouldn''t work like that, and he didn''t even have complete control or knowledge of magic or aura. "Umm...Okay, but how do I do this?" James suddenly asked and Vlad, hearing this, said "Close your eyes, feel your aura and the mana in the magic rings around your heart. See the elements in them, take out the one that wants to live the most, for you, it will be the fire that represents life." Vlad said and continued his speech without stopping: "All those things that you feel will show you that thin, tiny and delicate side of the element, the core, and as soon as you see that core you will grasp the core with every thought of your mind, you will want to absorb it and borrow it. That kernel will allow you to build upon your intimacy with the element, something that grows stronger every day, something that grows stronger every day, and you will use it and you will draw out the element, and then you will be qualified to use this sword style." At Vlad''s words, James looked at the old ancestor with great surprise and amazement, he didn''t know what to say, he didn''t know what to do, and even if he had learnt what to do, he couldn''t think how to do it. Amid all these thoughts, James sat down on the floor and then thought that he had nothing to do with his sword at the moment, after all, he did not think that he could do it in a standing position ready to attack. He closed his eyes and then began to meditate. He was inside his own body, standing in front of his heart and seeing the magic rings around it. He could see the different coloured aura of the veins to which his heart was connected, the bright light that burned every time his heartbeat dazzled his eyes, he could not help being amazed by the beauty of the human body, it was indeed a perfect sight. Still, he wasn''t sure how to get to what he needed to do. He was breathing steadily and trying to use his aura and magic at the lowest level so that he could reach the elemental core, but he was still unable to see anything. Chapter 155 - 155: Almost Dying, Again Still, he wasn''t sure how to get to what he needed to do. He was breathing properly and trying to use his aura and magic at the lowest level so that he could reach the elemental core, yet he was still unable to see anything. To say that James was at a dead end would certainly be an accurate answer. He was constantly looking around, watching every blood cell coursing through his veins, seeing the details of the magic rings around him come to life and fade with every beat of his heart, and marvelling at their beauty. Yet he could not find the elemental core. It was possible that he could see his heartbeat speeding up, he could not understand what was happening, but his body seemed to be having some kind of reaction. He tried to wake up and open his eyes but failed, he could not understand what was happening and he was still panicking despite his ability to calm himself. His heart had reached an incredible rate of beating and was getting faster every second, it had reached such a serious and complex pattern that it was as if the colour of the aura in his veins was changing after each heartbeat. After a short period, and through the pain, James saw something glowing, tiny and minuscule on the left side of his heart. James instantly realised what it was, but then his eyes snapped open. "JAMES! ARE YOU OKAY?!" S~ea??h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James looked up to see Ariel and Theseus, their worried expressions and the tears welling up in Ariel''s eyes. He realised his face was in heat, when he looked at the tears that were going down Ariel''s face he saw his own face with a blood-bath. His whole face was covered in blood, his face was covered in blood with a shade of black, James couldn''t understand what was going on, he was just trying to meditate, where had all this blood come from? "Even if you told me you were going to do something like this, it''s too much!" Ariel suddenly said as she gave James a big hug and then James looked at Vlad standing behind Theseus. "I was just... meditating," he said, that must be what he was doing, what could have gone wrong? Ariel and Theseus hurried James to one of the rooms in the church and then forced him into bed. The fact that Vlad was following them normally and looking solemnly at James at every turn told them that he had really messed something up, only a short time ago he had nearly died in the cauldron of poison and now one mistake had brought it all to a close. When Ariel and Theseus had made the necessary arrangements and left the room with the priests and priestesses who had come to James'' aid, James turned to his ancestor Vlad and asked: "Sir, what exactly happened?" Vlad, who hadn''t taken his eyes off him for a second when James asked this question, shook his head and said, "You pushed yourself too hard. I don''t mean in a spiritual or anything like that, you pushed yourself too hard, literally." James still didn''t seem to be able to wrap his mind around what was happening, he immediately looked deeper at Vlad and said, "I can''t make up my mind, I was just meditating and looking for the core in my body, that''s what I always do, I just wasn''t looking for the core at that time." Vlad seemed annoyed by the noise, he frowned and yelled at James for the first time since he had met him: "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!" James felt his heart skip a beat at that shout, he was scared out of his mind. "James, have you forgotten what I told you? Not one drop or water, but hundreds of thousands, millions of drops make up a lake, and if you make a lake directly, it will only cause you losses." Vlad added and continued speaking without stopping: "It has been three days since you started meditating. As soon as I noticed the blood flowing from your nose, I called Nyx and she was able to send you help thanks to her son. Lucky for you, Poseidon''s son Theseus was coming to visit you and that''s why he and Ariel were able to help you." The more these words entered James'' mind, the more confused he became as to what was going on, had he been meditating for three days? What about the elemental core? Had he managed to get it? "I didn''t do anything dangerous, I was just looking for the elemental core, I swear!" he said, shaking his head, and at that moment he saw Vlad''s expression. It was blood-curdling, and the blood-curdling didn''t seem to come from fear, but from worry and frustration. "James, if your friends hadn''t been nearby you would be dead today. You need to take baby steps, and you''re trying to run fast enough to cross universes in a second like Hermes when you should be taking it slow. This is the last thing you need to do. I told you to remove the core, I didn''t tell you to force the core using every aura cell and every bit of mana in your entire body." Vlad added it didn''t take him long to realise what those words meant. "What you''re saying is that I went a little overboard with using my aura and magical energy, my mana, and forced the core out when everything was depleted, causing my body to overload." Vlad shook his head at James''s words and this was a great shock to James, he looked around as if he suddenly thought of Nemesis and then said, "Forgive me Neme! I let you down, I swear I didn''t mean to do it this time!" No one blamed James, after all, before something like this happened the body would usually eject the user or player, so everyone and everything would be safe, but James had gone so far that even his body and the powers within it didn''t want to deal with it. James had killed himself but revived himself, which was stupid but also strange. Chapter 156 - 156: Just Let Me Go to the Next Floor "I''m still struggling to understand," James said, his body should have been waking him up when he started to push himself, but that hadn''t happened, and he had indeed come back from the dead. sea??h th§× N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He said these words in the throne room where he had returned after somehow surviving Ariel and Theseus, and then Vlad''s words were heard: "You said you saw the core, right?" "Yes, what''s that got to do with it?" James asked, shaking his head. "You were able to see the core when your aura and magical energy in your body were depleted, you were as if you were bewitched before you achieved your goal, after all, all that time you wanted to reveal the core, you were so focused that you refused to wake up against all the warnings from your body and tried to fulfil your goal," Vlad replied. "Well...why didn''t you try to stop me?" James asked, and it was a reasonable question. "I didn''t feel the need to wake you up or call for help until I felt you were close to death, after all, you have a lesson to learn, James," Vlad said to the young boy''s question. With these words, it was not only James who became angry but every one of the onlookers. "And what exactly was that lesson? I don''t think I fully understand." James said with his eyebrows arched. "The lesson was to show you what happens when you focus too much on one thing and ignore everything else. You were so focused on the core that you didn''t realise you were draining both your aura and your magical energy, you literally ignored the warnings your body was giving you, and you partially killed yourself," Vlad said. James'' gaze became more serious and angry with each of the old man''s explanations. "Okay, fine, but couldn''t you have said it with your words?!" James shouted, and Vlad, hearing this, opened his arms just like Chaos did to Nyx and said the following words: "Where is the fun in that?" With these words, James shook his head and said, "Oh come on!!! Can we just move on to the last part of the sword art? I don''t think I can get used to the second part, the cutting, I have a better idea, I think we should take a short break from training, let me climb to the next floors, Ariel is already waiting for me." Vlad waited for a few seconds at James'' words and then shook his head and said, "It''s not unreasonable, while climbing the floors, you can also manage to train the first part of my father''s sword art so that it will be good for you." Even if James had come back to this hall to train, he had to get to the 24th floor quickly, anything beyond that required at least a teammate, making everything more complicated. As James stood up from his seat he walked to the door of the lounge and then pulled one side of the huge door open and stepped out. "Wait for me Ariel, I''m going to climb the floors quickly, I''ll see you in the last lobby of the 23rd floor." James said, and with these words, not even waiting for Ariel to say, he said, "Emma, please open the portal to the next floor!" With those words, he saw Ariel''s smiling face and heard the voice of his dear friend and perfect mother figure before he passed through the portal: "Be careful." This would be the last human voice he would hear before several exams in a row. After certain puzzles, rescue missions and many more, he had managed to reach the last section of the 23rd floor, the lobby, in just a month. This was the area between the 23rd and 24th floors, also known as the area James had entered with Emma''s help. James had recently sent a request to Ariel to set up a party with the window opened in front of him and the request had been accepted instantly, another passage opened behind James and Ariel, wearing her armour, appeared. "You look pretty cool in that armour set," James said, he hadn''t seen her dressed like that since the arena. Hearing these words, Ariel smiled shook her head and said, "Each floor from this floor to the 30th floor requires a suit. We''re pretty comfortable that we''ve met the minimum limit, so let''s get this done quickly and decisively, I''ve got a date with someone." James nodded his head as if he understood these words and said understandingly, "Yes, thanks to Nemesis, I''ve learnt how much tooling is required from where to where...wait a second?" his surprise seemed to have caught up with him. Seeing Ariel''s expression, James shook his head and then asked, "Wait, you have a date with someone?" Ariel shook her head and then put her hand on James'' shoulder and said, "Theseus can be quite persuasive." James paused for a few seconds and moved his head from side to side like a surprised cat, he didn''t really know if what he was hearing was real or not, but he was confused. Suddenly he crossed the passage in front of him and came to Ariel and asked "Theseus? Our Thes?" he asked. When he saw Ariel''s nod, James really didn''t seem to have anything to say, but he had to voice the questions in his mind. "So the legend of his wife Antiope''s death was true? What about the cruel Faidra, what happened to that cruel woman?" James asked, and Ariel, hearing this, looked at James and spoke: "She wasn''t a god, she chose to die, and the cruel woman died with her stupid mind." James nodded his head up and down as if he understood and then said, "So Theseus, you''ve been alone all this time, just like you, so I can say I''m happy, those closest to me are getting closer. I just love you both a lot, like seriously a lot." Of course, what James said would change depending on how the date went. Chapter 157 - 157: Bugs and a Monkey? James and Ariel had made it through the portal and were moving forward. According to the floor mission they had received, it was something that James especially liked. The floor quest specifically stated that the monsters would come in different numbers and races in each stage, just like when James first encountered the zombies. This meant that it was possible to fight a dragon in stage one and a goblin in stage seven. Nevertheless, whatever it was, the duo wanted to pass this floor and they knew that there were 8 stages to pass. As the duo waited, ready for attack and defence, huge gates began to open around them. James shook his head when he saw them coming out of the gates and shouted, "Come on, for fuck''s sake!'' Ariel didn''t seem to understand why James was shouting like that and asked, ''Did you forget something?" and she was shocked by the answer. "No...Have I ever told you how much I hate bugs?" At James'' words, Ariel''s eyes were drawn back to the monsters emerging from the gates. These monsters were spiders, giant centipedes, huge cockroaches and many more, insects might be the only phobia James had in this life. Of course, it wasn''t right to call it a phobia, he wasn''t scared of them...it was just that bugs really grossed James out in a huge way. "Oh, for fuck''s sake! Be a man of your mould, James!" shouted Ariel, and if they had been in a church she would have had to restrain herself from laughing. With that, the first stage began. Nearly three hundred huge insects emerged from the passageways. When James picked up Clarent, he activated his dark step ability to make his own body incredibly fast and then, as if on a whim, opened his inventory and brought out the sleeping Miracle. Miracle was James'' child, taking on the personality of her mother, Nemesis, as well as the personality of James. James'' personality was one of disgust for insects, a great destruction was on its way towards these dishonourable insects, but none of them were even aware of it. Miracle slowly opened her sleepy eyes and then looked around and suddenly recovered herself and turned her eyes to James. "You know what you''re going to do, girl," James said, and it was like a confirmation of total destruction, Miracle shook her head and then her whole body changed. After shifting into her dragon form, she flew into the air and borrowed the mana from James'' body and activated his own magic. After all, Miracle, who was a baby at the moment, did not have unlimited magic power, otherwise James would have already managed to pass the 75th floor with Miracle alone. The energy, the mana in the defence spells Miracle used on the mountain, and the mana in each of the abilities Miracle used in all the events that happened afterwards were borrowed from James and combined with the pure mana in Miracle''s body and released to the outside. And the little girl Miracle''s father gave her an order at this moment. Even the words [You know what to do] told Miracle was enough to make her understand. Suddenly the place began to heat up, James gently grabbed Ariel and as she tried to realise what was happening, she was met with a sight she could hardly believe her eyes. "BURN THEM ALL!" James shouted and with that, incredibly hot flames shot out of the little girl Miracle''s mouth. Clouds of flames were burning the surrounding trees, huge black smoke was rising into the sky, and most importantly, it didn''t even leave the bodies of the insects behind. After a short while, Miracle, the little girl, landed on her father''s head and waited. "Are you tired?" James asked as he stroked Miracle''s head with one hand. "Yes, I used some of my own magic I''ve saved up so as not to give you fatigue, I only borrowed a little mana, I want to sleep." Miracle said and then suddenly jumped into James'' inventory. James realised the reason for the lightness in his body with those words, after all, when Miracle drew a lot of magical energy, mana, from him, he would be weak for a few seconds, but right now his body was very energised and light. "So, that wraps it up," James suddenly said as he noticed Ariel standing next to him with her mouth open, "What''s wrong?" he asked as she grabbed him by the throat and started shaking him and then shouted, "WHAT?!". After a few seconds, Ariel let go of James and said, "If my granddaughter has such powers, why don''t you try to improve her? She can take care of this entire floor, it will increase her level." Hearing these words, James shook his head and then said, "She''s just a baby, Ariel, of course, I won''t be too hard on her unless there is a very troublesome situation - situations like this - I shouldn''t disturb her, she should sleep in my inventory and grow up as soon as possible." The words made Ariel pause for a few seconds, and the fact that James was right seemed to irritate her just a little. "We''ll have to take the rest of the floor then, I was just getting ready to attack," Ariel said and saw the gates of the next stage begin to open. James looked surprised again at the monster in front of him, rubbed his eyes as if wondering if it was real, and then turned to Ariel and asked, "Is that a monkey?" Ariel made an even more puzzled face than James and said, "No way, he looks so goofy, maybe he''s a uhm...secret boss monster or something." What the duo didn''t realise was that the monster standing before them was indeed a monkey, a monkey that was quite fast but not impossible to catch, a monkey that was quite ordinary but had to die. The 24th Floor seemed to be getting on the duo''s nerves more than they expected. S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 158 - 158: Unexpected Monster The duo of James and Ariel were staring at the ape and the goofy ape was staring back at them as seriously as possible. A wild west aura seemed to permeate the now burnt-out jungle, the duo didn''t dare attack the monkey because they were strangely worried that something was wrong and the monkey seemed to be trying to figure out what was happening. After a few seconds, the monkey suddenly became insulted. It jumped, bypassing all the burnt parts, and set off to the other side of the forest, where it was still alive. Shocked by the monkey''s speed, the two suddenly lunged forward, unable to let the monkey getaway. "You son of a!!!" James suddenly shouted. "Well...we agree that it''s not a monkey, how do we catch it?" questioned Ariel, as the two seemed to be discussing what to do while moving forward. "I don''t know, try to trick it with a banana?" James suddenly asked, not understanding how they could handle a monkey, well the monkey that was now running away from him was many times faster than the gorilla that was Noah''s servant. "Uhhh...maybe time element? What do you reckon?" Ariel asked as she ran, and James, hearing those words, shook his head and said, "Good thinking, Ariel. If we manage to stop him somehow, I can try to attack by stopping time." James said and after these words, the plan was defined. The two were moving at a fast pace and at the same time they realised something was different. "The monkey has disappeared, watch out," James said, and with those words, with swords drawn again, the duo began to advance cautiously. James carried Selene''s Throwing Knife in his left hand, just in case Ariel needed protection, which was why he had begun to look carefully, especially around Ariel. He saw Ariel looking at him and shook her head, and that''s when he saw the eyes of the woman in front of him widen: "DUCK!" Ariel shouted and hearing this, James instantly reflexively activated his time element. He spun around and saw the monkey coming slowly towards him. As he threw the knife in his left hand, he realised that he had hit the monkey and at that moment time returned to normal, and when Ariel saw the monkey on the ground, she realised that James had succeeded. It had been quite easy, though. James approached the slumped monkey and then bent down a little to check if it was dead, at that moment his whole body shuddered, he suddenly jerked backwards and was very grateful indeed that he had done so because the monkey suddenly turned round and tried to aim its claws at James'' throat. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The monkey was trying to run away with a nasty grin on its face when suddenly a large knife, almost a small sword, sliced through its chest. Ariel looked at James and then said, "You can thank me later," and pulled the knife out of the monkey''s chest. With this, the second stage came to an end, the passages for the next stage immediately started to open and huge bears started to come out of them. When I say huge, they were quite big. They were even bigger than the trolls James had encountered before. Two bears, almost ten metres long, had suddenly appeared. It was obvious from everywhere that the two bears were bleeding, but something else had happened. James opened and closed his eyes, his head ached a little, and when he closed and opened his eyes one last time, he saw two things glowing blackly behind the bears, even beyond the passageways, just like in the card selections and other places. Whatever those two things were, they must have been Godly tier, and that increased their value enough. The fact that each stage was coming one after the other was a bit of a challenge, but the duo was lucky that the monsters passing through the gates were not particularly powerful monsters. Apart from the monkey from earlier, none of the monsters were that strong, the bugs were disgusting and had been destroyed by Miracle, the monkey was fast and of average intelligence. The two gigantic bears standing in front of the duo were of average strength. "I''ll take the one on the right," James suddenly said, and Ariel, hearing this, said, "What''s the big deal? I''ll take the one on the right." Upon these words, the two were about to change places when the bear''s fur started to burn on their right. After Ariel saw what happened, she sniffed once and said, "All right, the one on the right is yours." and started running. James smilingly started to move forward and quickly approached the bear, which had started to burn a little in front of him. With a firm grip on Clarent in his right hand, he began to spin the aura around his body, wanting to use the wounding slash. After all, the target in front of him was huge, so there was no way he could miss his attacks. The bear seemed surprised that James had suddenly stopped, but that didn''t mean he had to wait, the bear suddenly charged. The huge 10-metre-long bear was running on all fours. James waited where he was, in a proper position, and adjusted everything in the hope that his attack would be successful. As soon as the bear was within a dozen or two dozen metres of him, he suddenly brought his slashing technique into use, and with it a skill he had not used for a long time: "PIERCE!" James shouted, now realising how much he had missed it. The 1% attack power from his ability, when added to such a technique, offered a huge amount of destructiveness. The resulting image would be perfect. When James activated his ability and put the art he had learnt into use, six consecutive moves cut the air, and then not one big beam, but six different beams moved towards the bear running towards him. After a short time, James realised that his move had pierced the bear in front of him and chuckled, "Wounding, eh? More like instant kill." he said with a smile. Unable to avoid this massive attack, the bear fell to the ground, pierced in six different places. When James was sure that he had killed the bear, he turned to help Ariel and saw the perfect image. Ariel''s knife glowed with an azure light and sliced through the skin of the huge bear, the huge light on Ariel''s knife seemed to show how fluffy and perfect her aura was. James couldn''t help but admire the woman in front of him. As soon as Ariel knocked the bear to the ground, one after the other, she began to slice the bear with the knives in her hands, and the bear''s screams echoed throughout the forest: "URUAGGHHH!!!" "KRUUUAGHHH!!!" The high-decibel sounds coming from the successive screams were ear-splitting. James thought that it would be much better if the bear''s pain was over and started to move forward with the sword in his hand to use Clarent, just at that moment he saw that the aura on Ariel''s blades became even bigger and sharper. In just a second, the huge bear in front of her was stabbed almost ten times. When Ariel killed the bear, she stood up and then looked at James and shook her head. "Umm...Note to myself, never piss Ariel off." James suddenly said and with that, he looked towards the reopened passageways. Ariel was busy wiping his bloodied hands when he came up to James. James shook his head at Ariel''s actions and watched the gates in disbelief. After only a short time, a hand grabbed the portal, and after only two or three seconds, a woman with horns stepped out of the portal. This was stage four. James instantly realised what this woman was and turned to Ariel. When he saw Ariel''s face, he knew instantly that what he had thought was true. "She''s beautiful..." Ariel said. James could see that the pupils of the woman next to him were turning into hearts. She was charmed. The monster in front of the duo was a succubus. After looking at the duo, the succubus focused her eyes on James and said in an incredibly gentle way, "You are not affected by my magic. How can a man withstand this magic? A succubus'' magic?" she asked. James shook his head, not even a succubus, and then frowned, pointing Selene''s Throwing Knife at the woman in front of him disrespectfully, and then said the following words: "I don''t flipping know, maybe it is because I am loyal to my own love Nemesis and her only? Dumb monster." Hearing these words, the succubus rolled his head in amazement and then said, "I''ve never seen someone as young as you so resilient, you must be loyal to the one you love. I still have to kill you though, you know, quite the pity." With those words, James gripped Clarent tightly in his right hand and then used his dark step ability to unleash the time elemental on top of it. He wished to kill the Succubus quickly. Chapter 159 - 159: New Maid Moving towards the succubus, James used the element of time to close the distance of perhaps a hundred metres between them in just a second and was about to thrust his sword at the succubus when his whole body trembled. S§×ar?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Immediately turning around, he swung his sword and the sound of metals colliding rose into the air: "CHING!!!" "No..." When James said these words, Clarent shuddered, the precious sword seemed to be getting nervous. Ariel had attacked James. The Succubus'' spell seemed to have worked on Ariel in great detail, which was not good news. James took a few steps back as he carefully parried Ariel''s attack, he had to be careful as if he tried to attack the succubus he might get another attack from Ariel. The smile on the succubus''s face seemed to grow wider and wider, and when Ariel stepped in front of the monster to protect her, James shook his head and said, "Don''t be mad at me if I hurt you, Ariel." He looked at his inventory and saw the life potions and bandages, if he could somehow immobilise Ariel he could kill the succubus and survive, and he could do it without causing Ariel any great harm. He thought he would have to use the time element, for no matter how powerful Ariel was, the time element itself was a huge trick. The distance between the two was almost fifteen metres, a second''s pause from the time element would be enough, but the question was: How could he slow Ariel down without causing her hereditary damage? James was filled with these thoughts and tried to find an answer. Unfortunately, he could not help him restrain someone. James smiled as he suddenly had an idea and remembered that he didn''t need the time elemental, it was time to use the item he hadn''t used in a long time. He suddenly reached into his inventory and Ariel rushed forward and the race against time began. James was dodging Ariel''s attacks on the one hand and searching for the item in his inventory on the other. His inventory wasn''t that complicated, but dodging Ariel''s attacks, who was almost as strong as him, while searching for an item in the inventory was quite challenging. Nevertheless, after a not-too-long time, he found the item and took it out of his inventory. "The Bell of Hypnos," he said. As before, the countdown began. "Tick." "Tok." "Tick." "Tok." "Tick." "Tok." After the three ticks and the three tokes, a huge energy spread around and Ariel fell to the floor. It was like she was knocked unconscious. James carried Ariel safely and as fast as he could into the woods and then came back out of the woods to kill the succubus he thought had fallen to the ground. Yet the succubus was standing over James, making that beautiful face as if nothing had happened. "I didn''t know succubus were sleep-resistant," James said, intending to finish everything rather quickly. James started to hold Clarent tightly in his hand and then started to spread all his aura around. Now that his control over the aura had increased enormously, he was able to burn things with his aura. I guess it helped that he was somehow using his magic in tandem, of course, it was a wasted use of magic and aura, but no one could say it wasn''t cool. James began to move towards the succubus with heavy steps. The woman in front of him seemed to have accepted death, knowing that there was nothing she could do. James stopped where he was and waited, frowning and getting a little angry. "Why don''t you try to fight? You were just trying to kill me you know?" James suddenly asked a question that seemed to surprise the succubus. "I''m not stupid enough to try to run away or fight someone as fast as you, my speed isn''t fast enough for you. If I was an incubus, things would be different. Succubus are prone to magic and incubus are prone to aura." James heard this information for the first time, twisted his lips, nodded his head and then said, "Well, I have to kill you then, I wouldn''t want to kill a life form as intelligent as you, but we have to pass the floor." With those words, the succubus closed its eyes and waited as if accepting death, at that very moment a message window opened in front of James: [I can send you a scroll, James, if you want to make him your servant. The scroll is a slave-master pact, but I can turn it into a servant-master scroll if both parties agree]. When James heard that the message was from Thanatos, he thought he could trust him and shook his head, "I don''t mind, in fact, a servant would be great." After only a few seconds, James had a scroll in his inventory and a system notification from Emma in front of him: [You have received a gift from Death Incarnate - Thanatos of Chaos! Number of gifts you can receive this month: 0] "To tell you the truth, I didn''t even know we could receive gifts," James suddenly said, and the message he received in front of him seemed to tell him why. [It takes an enormous amount of energy to send a gift James, it''s not mana or aura energy, it''s holy energy, Thanatos is currently unconscious.] James shook his head in disbelief as he looked at this message from Nyx and then said ''"The next time I see Thanatos I''m going to give him a big hug." he then looked at the woman who had moved closer to the succubus and was now trembling with fear. "Sign this parchment and I won''t have to kill you," James said suddenly and the succubus opened her eyes. When the succubus took the scroll in her hand, she signed it without reading it and then, gasping for breath, she was finally able to free herself, James hadn''t even read the scroll, after all, he trusted Thanatos. Still, it made sense to him to take one look at the scroll before he put it in his inventory. Chapter 160 - 160: That Is Truly Dangerous [Maid-Master Agreement Party X, who will sign the scroll in the role of servant, will not harm Umbra of Chaos/ James Arthur Black in any way. Party X, who will sign the scroll in the role of servant, will serve the person deemed Master forever. Following this contract, the Master will ensure that Party X is not harmed to the point of death during this time and will provide food, shelter, and other necessities. Servant Succubus Elise Master:] As James read the contract, he signed it with the pen he had taken out, and with that, the succubus in front of him began to glow. James couldn''t understand what was happening, but he realised that it wasn''t bad, as if a hierarchy had been established between him and the succubus. "Thank you very much for not killing me, sir!" the succubus said politely, and James, hearing this, said, "You can call me normally, call me Umbra. On top of that, you''re too smart and you can see what''s going on around you, it would be really bad if you died." With that, the passageways began to form around them again, James shook his head, realising that he had succeeded in saving the succubus, and thanked Thanatos profusely for that. Quickly walking over to Ariel, James saw that she was still asleep and said, "Welp...I never thought about how to wake her up." At that very moment, the succubus gently approached Ariel, closed her eyes and put his hand on her head. Ariel woke up instantly and jumped up. Seeing the succubus, Ariel suddenly pulled James to her and then said, "Stay behind me." James could hardly stop himself from laughing and then gently held Ariel and said, "Calm down, she''s become my servant." Ariel asked "How?" as if she didn''t understand what was going on and James took a breath and said "Thanatos." Ariel stated that she really understood in a way that she would never question, and then she began to prepare to leave the forest. At that very moment, voices began to come from outside the forest: "AWOOOOOOO!!!" "OWOOOOOOO!!!" "AWOOOOOOO!!!" "OWOOOOOOO!!!" "AWOOOOOOO!!!" "OWOOOOOOO!!!" James shook his head and said, "No way, wolves? Didn''t we go to Stage 5?''" Ariel said, "It''s all random, stop talking bad, you want to fight a dragon?" James thought what Ariel said made sense and then agreed to shut his big mouth, just in time to hear the voice of Elise the succubus: "Mr Umbra, my spell doesn''t work against wolves either." James shook his head as if he didn''t know why, and Ariel''s voice was heard again: "Wolves are worthy and loyal creatures, most male wolves stop eating after their mate dies and wait to die." James shook his head at these words and then said, "They can''t all have a mate, can they? It''s worth a try, Elise." he and the succubus had become close like they were in a master-servant relationship for 10 years in ten minutes, this social skill was a real headache, and it was a relief to Nyx and the others that there was a rule that he could not be betrayed. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Since none of them wanted James to live the pain that comes from betrayal. With that, the group was out of the forest, Elise instantly activated her magic and directed it towards the wolves, leaving Ariel unaffected. "Grrr..." "RUFF!!!" Several wolves suddenly turned on each other and lunged, a dozen of the almost ninety wolves in front of them fighting each other and the others moving towards James and Ariel behind him. Elise stood at the front of the forest, just in case, waiting to climb a tree in case they escaped. Of course, seduction was not Elise''s only spell, but to use her other spells she had to seduce the person she was using. Controlling Ariel''s body was one of those spells. With that, James and Ariel charged forward, ready to go. They were killing one more wolf every second, moving at such a speed that half of the wolves were already dead. They didn''t even need Elise to use her magic. After only three or four minutes there was only one wolf left, and when James had killed it he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Well, that was easy enough." Ariel shook her head and then said, "We shouldn''t underestimate the tower." With that, Elise left her position and joined the pair, and at that moment another portal opened, this time in the sky. When Ariel saw the monster coming out of the portal, she turned to James and shouted "JAMES I''M GONNA MURDER YOU!" James, after seeing the monster and hearing Ariel''s shouts, replied, "I swear it''s not my big mouth''s fault!" The monster flying through the air was a small dragon, and it looked like James and Ariel had summoned it. When Elise saw what was happening, she immediately activated her magic and tried to control the dragon in the sky. When her spell backfired, her nose began to bleed, but that wasn''t the only spell. Suddenly purple chains began to emerge from the earth, each one heading towards the dragon, and some of them managed to hold it by some part of its body. James and Ariel saw the dragon slowly approaching them, they couldn''t ignore the chance Elise had given them. James took a few steps back, closing his eyes and trying to concentrate fully as the dragon moved to the side where it could hurt him. Even if Ariel didn''t know what James was trying to do, she knew she had to hurt the dragon as much as possible, and if possible, somehow pin it to the earth. When Elise''s chain spell managed to keep the dragon on the ground, Ariel climbed on top of the dragon and then pulled a large knife from her inventory. One after the other, she started stabbing the dragon with the knife covered with her aura. "RUUGUAHHHH!!!" The dragon was screaming in pain and breathing fire, one of Elise''s chains started to burn and broke off, but another chain took its place. Everything seemed to be up to James. Chapter 161 - 161: Vlads Teaching Succeeded James wanted to finish the dragon off in just one hit, so he wished he could use a little bit of the finishing slash, which he couldn''t quite manage. The Wounding Pierce was too easy, but James was not sure if he could kill a dragon with it. The dragon in front of them did not seem to be mature though, even Ariel''s blades somehow managed to wound the dragon. That meant that if James could somehow manage to use the finishing slash or unleash some small part of the power of that technique, he could kill or disable the dragon in a single blow. James was well aware of this, he knew what he had to do, he realised what had to be done and that was why he had started to prepare. He only had one chance, the dragon was destroying the chains one by one despite all the damage it was taking, Elise''s magic would not have lasted that long, without Elise they would have been in a deadly battle. Without Thanatos'' help, there was even a chance that Ariel or James might have died. In short, this change had to be utilised well. "JAMES, HURRY UP!" Ariel suddenly shouted, quickly stabbing the same spot each time, the dragon''s boiling blood spilling out and Ariel using as much aura as she could to protect herself. It was admirable that she had the strength to continue after the awful sensation of the heat coming from her aura into her body. James had heard Ariel''s voice, though he still needed a little more time. He could see inside his own body. He could see the blood flowing in his body and the aura that had settled in the cells in the blood. He could see the aura that wrapped his veins with cobwebs. He could see the madness of the aura that permeated his skin. His aura was spinning around his body at a gigantic speed, and he could also attribute a little bit of his magic to it. In short, his magic could merge with his aura, just as Vlad had said, even if it was an incredibly tiny amount. Still, it was not enough, he needed a little more time. The aura in his body was constantly swirling and compressing, almost ready to be transferred to Clarent, but after only twenty or thirty seconds everything would be ready. Suddenly, from James'' right side, where the forest was, there was the sound of someone vomiting. The sound of chains snapping spread through the forest, and Ariel''s heavy footsteps and the sound of her attack on the dragon came through loud and clear. Elise''s spell was at an end, and Ariel was too busy holding on. Five seconds had passed. Ariel had to constantly change where her blades were striking. The sound of the dragon''s screams and the vibrations of the earth vibrating with its heavy footsteps were distracting. Fifteen seconds had passed. "JAMES YOU GOTTA HURRY!" Ariel''s voice rose and disappeared into the woods, she was begging for help in her struggle with the dragon in space. Even though James couldn''t see what was happening, Ariel''s aura was filled with the dragon''s blood, even though James couldn''t see it, Ariel was starting to lose her vision, she had only been fighting the dragon for a minute, but even that was too much for her. This was just the power of a normal and immature dragon, the sacred creature of mana was not to be trifled with and Ariel understood that very clearly. Throughout her battle with the dragon, Ariel''s mind wandered from the will to live to the question of how powerful the Miracle could be. After all, Ariel knew or rather had learnt from Nemesis, that Miracle''s descendants, the Supreme Dragons, were beings as sacred as the lower creators and even more sacred than most. Twenty-five seconds passed between these questions and the stabs. James suddenly opened his eyes and then shouted, "GET OUT OF THERE!" Ariel tried to pull away as soon as she heard those words, but her aura was starting to fade and she seemed to have no strength left. Just then, another chain suddenly rose from the ground grabbed Ariel and threw her into the woods. Ariel landed right next to Elise. S§×arch* The nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At that moment, a huge brightness dazzled Ariel and Elise. The fluttering dragon itself and the onlookers closed their eyes for a few seconds, only Apollo himself, the light himself, was smiling and watching everything. A gigantic beam was gathering on the legendary holy sword Clarent, the mana and the aura within it were suddenly released and the beam suddenly left the sword and started to move towards the dragon. The beam was ablaze in colourful flames, this was not what Vlad had taught James, this was James'' aura going mad and wanting to come out, such pressure, such a phenomenon, that everywhere the beam passed, flames rose like a dragon. In less than ten seconds the beam had reached the dragon, in just that short time the dragon had been hit in the head. When the dust cloud returned to the surface, the corpse of the headless dragon lay on the ground, and beyond it was James, on his knees, vomiting blood like mad, his entire face covered in blood. By the time Ariel and Elise rushed to James'' side in horror, the gates to the next stage had already begun to open, leaving only two stages remaining. James knew he had to recover, his auto-heal had already kicked in, but the aftershock to his body was insane. He knew that all the aura and magic in his body was frantic to get out. "Fine, I''ll let go." James suddenly said and then every single tree and plant that was left of the forest started to burn, Elise seemed to come to her senses as the plants and trees were burning in colourful flames and releasing mana all around her. "Please protect my master, I can absorb my master''s mana, I can protect us until my master recovers," Elise said. However, Elise would probably have saved their lives twice already. Chapter 162 - 162: 24th Floor Has Been Conquered The creatures emerging from the passageway were turtles with spines on their backs, their appearance was strange and...disgusting. Elise began to hold the turtles with the chains she had pulled from the ground, while James began to pull himself together and Ariel stayed around him to give James enough time to recover. The group was functioning well and quickly. Both Ariel and James agreed that they needed to rest a little before proceeding to the 25th floor, which they would enter after this one. Still, killing a dragon was quite an achievement, and James was surprised that he hadn''t even received an achievement for it, it was a little strange that he hadn''t received any achievements for quite some time. In any case, it was still quite special. After almost three or four minutes, James managed to stand up and smiled as he looked at the message window that had suddenly appeared in front of him: [I am so proud of you love.] After this message from Nemesis, James officially realised that his whole body had healed, after a big smile, he said "Let''s continue, Ariel." and with Ariel''s chuckle, the battle began again. The last two stages were not very difficult, it was possible to complete the two stages after only ten or fifteen minutes. Of course, things could have been faster, but James Ariel, and Elise on top of that, had chosen to rest and get through the stages. [Congratulations on passing Floor 24! You have earned 12,500,000 gold! You''ve obtained the dragon''s poisoned heart! The door to Level 25 is now unlocked!] [You have earned a legendary achievement! You have earned 1,500,000 gold. You got the achievement of killing a young dragon for the first time! You get to choose a legendary card!] James shook his head as the windows opened in front of him and then muttered, "I''m getting achievements after floors now, am I?" However, he immediately touched the golden card that had formed in the lower right corner of his eye in the system. [Beginner Level Ancient Rune Arts Manuscript (Legendary/Godly) In the creation scenes of the tower before the creation of the gods, there were energies scattered around. Mana, Arcana, Aura, Star, Element, Element, Holiness, Dark energies and many more were scattered around the tower. Each floor had different properties and structures, but very few people could comprehend them. I, Cain the Tailor, have written this manuscript for those who can think logically and will be intelligent enough to leave the fighting to Arcana energy. I hope that the teachings in the manuscript will be of sufficient help to the owner of this item]. James smiled as he looked at the very high-quality book that had suddenly fallen into his hand and then said, "Huh...The third main admin wrote this, huh?" and then shook his head and asked, "You all don''t think Cain himself gave it to me, right?" [Impossible. Cain is known for his intelligence and good use of his life, he is good at fighting and using other powers. Admins are not counted as players or users, they are even higher in rank than the creators. Therefore, it is a piece of cake for them to use different energies together. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Cain, on the other hand, is a former war maniac and as the most powerful of the three main admins, of course, he scattered maybe millions of books he wrote. So one of them came to you by chance with the achievement]. When James read the message sent to him by Apollo, he smiled and then said "Haha...Master Apollo, you seem to know quite a lot about admin Cain, thank you." With these words, Olympus burst into laughter and Ariel looked at James with a strange expression. "Normally I would have gone to Theseus after clearing the 25th floor, but we both need a rest, I won''t be climbing for a while, I''ve only just started climbing after all these years, but even that was too hard," Ariel said suddenly, James agreed with every word, they had indeed come back from the dead. "Elise is the only reason we didn''t die, we should thank her," James suddenly said, and Elise, who was sitting on the floor, shook her head in surprise and then said, "You''re welcome, sir! Thank you very much indeed for forgiving me." and bowed down in front of James. When James heard these words, he said, "You have to worship Thanatos for this, if he hadn''t known a way, I would have had to kill you." As Elise nodded her head as if she understood, a white portal suddenly opened in front of the group, James moved forward to enter the portal he had seen and returned to the tenth floor, taking Elise and Ariel with him. He was about to tell the priests who had come to greet them to arrange a room for Elise when suddenly a message window opened in front of him: [If you permit me to call your servant, we can summon her to Mount Olympus. It will be easy to train her.] When James read this message window from Apollo, he tilted his head and then said, "I didn''t know anyone from here could come there, Master Apollo." The answer he got back instantly made sense to him. [Elise is not a human like you or a race living in the tower, even though Elise is a succubus, she was created as a monster by the tower using the power of Chaos. So that makes her special any monster made into a contract is special like that, so it is possible to take them away or train them instead of their owners as long as their owners allow it. All I need is permission and I can train it with people who know the magic in depth. She is practically a pet that is in a servant-master contract.]. James sneered as he read the message window but inwardly rejoiced, after all, Elise had proved to be a very good sorceress, if not very powerful then she was working wickedly well. The fact that Apollo or anyone else could train her was truly priceless. "Sure, you have all the permissions," James said, and with that, Elise disappeared in a flash, when Ariel looked back at James, James just said, "Olympus," and Ariel''s gaze disappeared. And with this, the 24th floor was completely conquered. Chapter 163 - 163: Rune Art It had been almost an hour since James and Ariel had left each other. Ariel had an appointment to get ready, and James had some things to do. James remembered he needed to get his hands on something he had left behind for a long time. With enough preparation, he would finally be able to use the item he had completed so long ago. When he opened his inventory, his eye was caught by the item that was directly in the third place in the first row of his inventory. Sitting in his room, he took the item out of his inventory and then waved it in his hand several times. [You''re finally going to use it, huh?] James suddenly observed the message window from Nemesis and smiled as he read it, "Soon, darling." The object in James'' hand was the completed Catacomb Key itself. James thought it was finally time to enter the catacomb, and there was no better time than now, which meant he had to enter the catacomb as soon as possible. There was one last thing he had to do before he could use the key though, he wanted to read the Beginner Level Ancient Rune Arts Manuscript he had obtained through the achievement from cover to cover and this would give him a bit of a workload. In a way, it would be much easier for James, as he was a fast reader, and now that his intelligence had increased to a gigantic level, it wouldn''t be so difficult for him to understand things anymore. Immediately after returning the catacomb key to his inventory, he took out the manuscript lay down on the bed and opened the book. [Hello, congratulations on getting your hands on this manuscript, whoever you are. My name is Cain. I am the strongest and wisest of the tower''s three greatest admins, and I have been in existence longer than the first two. I spent my youth learning from the laws of the tower and seeking out the beings and energies that our creator Chaos provided the tower with. After I acquired these teachings, I turned them into manuscripts and later into books. This book, known as the 5th manuscript I wrote, is a book focused on the Rune Arts created with Arcana energy. The book is divided into three main parts. The first part contains information on what runes are, the second part contains information on how to transfer arcana energy to runes, and the third part contains information on how to draw runes, that is, the rune language. You may have found this manuscript, but if you are not serious about it and do not think that you can devote your mind to it, you will only harm yourself. If you consider all this danger, turn to the next page]. When James read the first page of the book in his hand, he closed the book. He took a deep breath and was literally crushed under the heavy words on the first page of the book. The words may not have seemed so heavy, but James could see that even within each handwritten letter there were runes, maybe not runes, but each one had a huge amount of arcane energy, even if the manuscript had been written who knows when. It was completely impossible for James to even imagine how powerful Cain was, it was as if he was reading something from the hand of a real god. It wasn''t like one of those who climbed this tower and became a god, it was like the work of one of those beings like Ra or the Supreme Dragons. [I thought you wanted to learn how to use arcana energy.] When James read this message from Nemesis, he shook his head and then said, "Just turning the pages of the book is too difficult, Nemesis, give me a little time." With these words, he closed his eyes and breathed in and out deeply, and when he opened his eyes again, he was on the second page of the book: [What is a Rune? An individual with Arcana energy has surely asked himself this question once or maybe twice, perhaps the god or goddess who loves you has given you a little explanation. But what is a rune? Many races think that runes are used to create and collect. For example, creating a monster with the arcana energy you collect in runes. However, runes are not limited to these. Runes are something we can use everywhere in our lives. When you manage to use arcana energy correctly, it is possible to do everything from breathing to walking, from walking to eating, from eating to sleeping with runes. Runes can bind monsters, restrict movement, and kill them. At the same time, runes can enrich nature, nourish and produce. When you want to explain the runes briefly, a sharing can be made in this way. For a more detailed explanation, read all pages from this page to page 147]. James had spent almost two days after reading this page, reading as slowly as possible, carefully reading each letter Cain had written, and had managed to reach the end of the first chapter, that is, page 148. He had managed to learn everything from the history of the runes to the purpose for which Chaos might have created them, much of it was mind-boggling but all of it excellent information. Still, James finally managed to work up the courage to move on to the next chapter. James could barely turn the page. After turning the page, he could deeply feel the magical energy in his body and the arcana energy in his lower level. These two energies were growing and growing, and James began to realise that a fourth ring was beginning to form, albeit a small one, around his heart. After all, his magic was evolving, which of course affected the development and growth of the magic rings. Just moving on to the next chapter had done that much good. [The second chapter is full of questions and explanations as to how arcane energy can be utilised in a greater than elementary way. How is it that the energy of arcana can acquire great beauty and power only when it is transferred into different forms? How can those inscriptions come to life and live and die according to the wishes of the person who releases the energy?] [These were questions I had been asking myself for quite a long time. I asked myself these questions even before there was such a thing as rune arts. I asked myself all these questions even before I taught arcana energy to the angels of heaven such as Gabriel, Metatron, Michael and Lucifer.] [I thought it would be very logical to create a language in which I could transfer this existing energy. Yes, I, Cain the Tailor, am the one who created the rune language. I worked as hard as I could to create the rune language in such a way that it would best absorb the arcana energy. I did this with such determination and seriousness that it took me millions of years to create just one letter.] [However, at the end of the work, I realised that the 21 letters I had created were not very useful. More precisely, I watched with my own eyes that even if these letters were useful, it still made a huge difference to use arcana energy with combined letters. This meant that the rune arts and the letters in which the arcana energy was placed worked with the law of randomness.] [Of course, you could give a rune any element, any effect, and any harmful or harmless form, but in the end, doing things randomly made the letters I created much more powerful. I called this the use of superior runes. There were incredibly few people other than myself who could master this art. Even Michael and Lucifer, whom I trained with my own hands, managed to grasp this art to a small degree]. When James reached the end of the page, he shook his head left and right. He was hearing things he never thought he would hear, and he was looking around with strange thoughts. It was marvellous that Cain had personally taught the two Archangels to a superior degree, and even more marvellous that Cain had created the rune arts with his own hands. Whether there was any way for James to understand this, no one knew. James scratched his head, took another deep breath and tried to turn the page of the book to read. However, no matter what he did, he could not open the page of the book. It was as if some force was holding the page of the book with his hands and James wanted to ignore that force and look at the next page. [Sir, your current level does not seem to be sufficient to see beyond the manuscript]. James shook his head as he read the system notification from Emma and pretended to understand, instantly removing the book from his inventory, not expecting to be so surprised in just two and a half days. Nevertheless, what was done was done, the next thing to do was to enter the catacomb. Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 164 - 164: Lucifer and Michael James took the catacomb key out of his inventory again and then thought about how to use it for a few seconds. James'' thoughts must have been reflected to those watching him from Olympus because after only a few seconds, a message window popped up in front of him: [You need to transfer your aura or mana energy to the key James.] James, who had smiled at this message from Nyx, nodded and did as he was told, and after a few clicks of mana to the key, an excellent door made entirely of jade opened in front of him almost three metres. After looking at the door, James found the doorhole after a very short time and smiling, he got up from his seat and approached the door. As soon as he inserted the catacomb key into the doorway and turned it to the right, the door glowed. Once James closed and opened his eyes, he realised he was in a completely different place. Looking around carefully, James admired the architecture of the dungeon he was in. The place he was in strangely resembled the churches in his world. There were sculptures of angels and, strangely, demons, and each painting gave James goosebumps. "Isn''t that Sebastiano Ricci''s painting of Archangel Michael''s battle against the rebel angels? I could have sworn I saw it on the internet," James suddenly said, and with that, a message appeared in front of him. [It''s good that you know something about me, young man.] S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James'' eyes widened when he saw who the message was from and then he said: "I knew you were watching me but I didn''t expect to see a message from you, what an honour Sir Michael!" James, of course, knew that many gods and goddesses were watching him, he had even seen the writings from the system that Michael was watching him, and he even remembered the notifications when the tower first appeared. The names of Buddha, Lucifer, Michael, Zeus, and Odin were written in that notification, and James had already had the opportunity to meet two of them. [I can''t give you spoilers, but be careful and make good choices]. James shook his head when he saw another message and then frowned as if he didn''t understand what Archangel Michael was saying and said, "Alright." With that, James discovered one by one the paintings on the walls of the ''church-like'' room or parlour he was in and then sniffed and tried to steal one of them. James couldn''t know how much laughter was coming from everyone watching him now, he still wished he could get his hands on everything in the catacombs, he was sure he already had the power to kill the guards of this dungeon. "Hmm...it was worth a try," James said suddenly, and then his eyes fell on the painting hanging above the broken throne at the far end of the hall. He could see Archangel Michael''s imposing yet sad expression. Beside him stood someone else, blackened gold, just as imposing as Michael, but just as sad. "So this is...him? Fallen Angel Lucifer?" At James'' words, each of the great angels and great demons sitting in the same hall looked at each other in surprise, no one and by that I mean no one expected someone, especially someone from outside of the tower to know Lucifer, the myths in James'' world must''ve been amazing. Just as Lucifer was about to say something, James'' voice was heard again: "Lucifer...You are as beautiful as it is said in books and stories, you must be so beautiful to be the embodiment of pride. Neither ugly nor beautiful, the fallen angel who is said to have no form, if only they knew how beautiful you are." With these words, James approached the painting and tried to steal it this time, and the audience, who only a few seconds before had been in awe of his words, burst into laughter again. However, James knew there was nothing he could do now, so he turned around and went to the door of the hall and opened it, before leaving the hall, he turned back to the painting he had seen before and said "I''ll come back for you! I''ll give up Godly stuff if I have to, I swear!" and then he left the parlour. Just then, Emma''s system notification popped up in front of her: [Throughout history, an infinite number of people have entered the catacombs, but most of them have died just like the beings buried here, leaving everything behind, even their souls. This is a dangerous place. It is a place where angels and demons cannot pass by and is seen as a simple reflection of the most horrible regions of hell. After your challenges, choose your three treasures and leave, if you aim for more than three treasures you will be targeted by the catacomb guardian. Good luck traveller]. When James read the notification, he smiled and then pointed his middle finger in the air and said, "Let the guardian eat my dust, I will kill him if necessary." At James'' words, Lucifer and Michael burst into laughter, it was obvious that this young man was far more interesting than they had thought. Michael couldn''t seem to take it any longer, he spoke up instantly: "Ruler, can you hear me?" At Michael''s words, a small doll suddenly appeared in the centre of the silver hall. As the doll nodded, Michael reached into his inventory and pulled out a ring. Lucifer and Gabriel, Beelzebub and the others were surprised to see the ring, and Lucifer, feeling he couldn''t be left behind, reached into his inventory and pulled out a ring as well. "Amber, come here!" Lucifer suddenly said and a cute little doll with long hair appeared. There was no way for the angels and demons around to understand what was going on. The gaze of Sun Wukong, who was sitting behind Lucifer and Michael in the hall, or rather in a cloud in the middle, seemed to reveal the strangeness of everything. Sun Wukong literally seemed like he was babysitting those two high beings. "No way. You two must be out of your minds." Gabriel said suddenly, his surprise obvious, of course. "I can''t believe you''re competing for James, Lord Lucifer," Asmadeus added. Still, the two great ''angels'' seemed to stand by their words, the two looked at each other with a scowl as they spoke at the same time: Chapter 165 - 165: Magic, Above the Human Limit "I wish to bestow this ring on James, specifically!" said Archangel Michael. "I wish to bestow this ring on James, specifically!" said Fallen Angel Lucifer. At these words, the two stood up and tried to move to grab each other by the neck. While Michael was being held by Gabriel himself to keep him from fighting, Lucifer was being held by Beelzebub. Although these two brothers were on very good terms, they were also in a terrible state. However, the dolls had taken the rings and disappeared, and while Michael and Lucifer were trying to fight, the dolls had already appeared in front of James. James suddenly took out his sword Clarent from his inventory and while he was trying to understand what was going on, the male of the dolls, Ruler, started to speak: "Hello, great Umbra. My name is Ruler, I''m the junior admin of Master Archangel Michael, and this is Amber, the junior admin of Master Fallen Angel Lucifer. We are here to bring you gifts, and with your permission, we would like to present them to you before you begin your adventure." James paused for a few seconds after these words, and then a personal message from Emma appeared in front of him before he could ask anything: [Sir, they are administrators like me, they are lower level than me, but you can trust them]. After this message, James nodded his head and then said, "Sure, I''d be happy to." Ruler, one of the dolls, waved his hands at these words and a ring far, far beyond the ordinary, covered with a white light, appeared just above his hand. When Amber, the other doll, waved her hand, another ring, far, far beyond the ordinary, covered with a dark light, appeared. When James took the rings in his hand, he checked their properties and was amazed by what he saw: [The Ring of Divine Power (Godly-) It is the ring that Archangel Michael had forged by Tubal-Cain, the first blacksmith, and then blessed by himself, Gabriel, Raphael and finally Uriel. Increases the wearer''s personal healing by 30% when worn. Increases the wearer''s mana recovery by 100% when worn. Grants the wearer a 10-strength stat when worn. Grants the wearer 20 endurance stats when worn]. When James read the description of the ring from Michael, he slipped it on his finger without a second thought, it was impossible not to be excited by what he read, he was sure that with this ring alone, he would gain the respect of most angels. However, it was time for the next ring, the ring bestowed by Lucifer: [Ring of Holy Magic (Godly++) Fallen Angel is the ring that Lucifer had forged by Tubal-Cain, the first blacksmith, and then blessed to be used intermittently for hundreds of years. This ring was created by Lucifer after being jealous of Michael, which is why the ring has so much power and has been blessed for hundreds of years. Increases the wearer''s mana recovery by 100% when worn. Grants the wearer 500 magic stat when worn. When worn, the wearer can empower low-level demons at their disposal]. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When James had finished reading the description of this ring, he stayed where he was for a few seconds and then inhaled and exhaled deeply. These two rings that were now in his hands were completely priceless. James realised this very clearly and his heart was pounding. The moment he put on the ring sent by Lucifer, he realised the magic power that had changed in his body. His magic power had surpassed 2000 status points and he had managed to surpass the magic power of an ordinary elf, let alone a human. This was a gigantic number. James was able to see runes, everything related to magic, and even the tiny magic cells in dolls with just a single closing and opening of his eyes. James was now at his most gigantic as a three-ringed wizard, and if he wanted to sit down and create a fourth ring, it would be a piece of cake. With that James shook his head and then said, "I...Thank you very much, I am very grateful indeed, Master Michael and Lucifer, I am very grateful that you have honoured me with these gifts," he didn''t know what more he could say. The dolls disappeared instantly, leaving only a message from Nyx: [I''ll thank those two for you, it''s been a long time since I left Olympus]. James smiled when he read this message window and then said, "As you wish, my lady, I must be on my way, we are in a huge dungeon after all." After these words, the atmosphere became silent, James could now continue on his way, or rather his adventure had just begun. He said nothing and moved very quickly, constantly looking around, but even in the rooms he entered and the small passages he passed through, there were only the skeletons and skulls of hundreds of people. James kept coming across the same type of room, it was quite frustrating, he could feel that something was wrong. He cautiously left the room he was in and then looked around, his eyes widened as he realised that he was indeed in a trap. However, he could see the exit of the trap quite clearly. James could see a path glowing with mana, or magical energy. He began to follow the path at a leisurely pace, each step producing a rattling sound around him. It was indeed an ear-splitting sound, but James overcame it and tried to understand what it was. It didn''t take James long to realise that something, or things, were nearby, though he had a very clear idea that the being he was about to encounter was far weaker than he was. After all, James'' power had indeed been doubled with the ring he had received from Lucifer alone, at least that was the case with his magic. He knew he was ready for whatever he was going to face. Chapter 166 - 166: The Rotten Angels As James followed the mana trail or rather the mana path, he came across closed doors. He looked at the rotten wooden doors themselves and thought he had come to the ''entrance'' of the dungeon. After all, while perfect designs surrounded the hall he had left before, this door was surrounded by a broken-down appearance. He could even hear the rattling noises around him stop, as if the noises that had just been there had disappeared. James breathed calmly and then, smiling, pushed the rotten door open. James had to hold his nose as the doors opened back. The odours that came to his nose were so awful, so disgusting and intimidating that he could hardly keep himself from vomiting right now. Everything in James''s stomach was going upwards. [Poison Master] [Poison Master title purged mid-tier poison.] James suddenly saw these system notifications that appeared in front of him, shook his head and said, "I didn''t know Poison Master could do such things...I didn''t even see such a thing written in the title description." With these words, a message appeared in front of James from a person he did not expect: [Sometimes not everything is revealed James, you have to go with the flow and discover, why didn''t you see any effect when you used other poisons. I can''t believe you never thought about it]. James smiled when he saw this message from Noah, but his smile instantly faded. He took a cloth from his inventory and wrapped it around his chin, his stomach couldn''t take it any other way. Even though he could still smell that disgusting odour, he had managed to get to a point where he could stand it. However, it was time for James to move on. Sear?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Selene, I apologise for getting your boots dirty, I know it was the system that gave them to me, not you, but even if they are replicas, they belong to you and this place is really... disgusting, forgive me," James said and started to step lightly. There were rotten and even skeletal corpses everywhere, it was such a disgusting sight that James''s face turned sour. Nevertheless, he continued to move forward with firm and determined steps, he came across many ruined places and passed through puddles of blood, very rarely, but sometimes he encountered traps. Once in the five minutes he travelled, he even encountered a trap with hundreds of arrows coming at him. He thought he was in for quite an easy journey. After a short time he came across another rotten wooden door, but this time there was a change. Strange noises were coming from behind the door, James paused for a few seconds and then said to himself, "Zombies again?". There was indeed a different level of noise coming from inside, but it sounded as if people were talking. He slowly approached one of the ajar places of the door and then tried to observe the inside through that hole. Of course, he was surprised by what he saw. Rotten bodies with white wings were crawling around inside. "What the fuck?" James said suddenly, clearly unable to stop himself from swearing, he had never expected to be confronted with such a beautiful yet disgusting sight. As he took the sword Clarent out of his inventory, he grabbed Selene''s Throwing Knife in his other hand and then kicked the rotten door in. "CRASH!" With the sound of the rotten door breaking, James managed to dive inside and then attacked towards the zombie-like beings consisting of white wings and rotten bodies. James was avoiding another attack with each step, unexpectedly, these three beings he had just watched through the doorway got on well with each other. It was as if they had fought and died shoulder to shoulder for a long time. With each attack James dodged, he watched the trio''s movements and tried to commit each one to memory in case he had to fight against these monsters in the future. James was in a big room, so it seemed quite normal to him that the trio around him were wielding spears, but what was strange was how easy their attacks were, yet how heavy they were. James felt that he could learn about the art of the spear just by watching these three, even though he had the ability to use any weapon, but there was still something different about what was obvious and visible. Still, James knew he couldn''t leave everything waiting for too long, he had to act, because he still had a huge dungeon to clean. That''s why he filled Clarent with his aura and then, with incredible speed, he jumped on a monster, ripped through its heart, pulled Clarent back out and spun around, killing the two remaining monsters with just one move. [Unique Achievement Won! Kill a rotten angel for the first time. You get a chance to choose a card]. James couldn''t stop his eyes from widening as he read the notification in front of him, he had half-guessed what these monsters were, but the last thing he expected was for it to come true. Turning his gaze back to the corpses, he clasped his hands together and then said, "I don''t know exactly where the souls go in this tower, but I hope you are not used to making philosopher''s stones and that you go only to wherever your paradise is." He could not have known how much those words meant to the angels watching him. They had not heard such words for a long time. No one acknowledged the names or the existence of their fallen brothers or sisters or prayed for them unless it came from other angels and sometimes other demons. James didn''t really know, but these words were priceless to all the angels and demons watching him now. As the angels looked at each other and Michael was about to bestow another gift on James, suddenly the whole hall was plunged into darkness. Michael, Lucifer and the others knew instantly who had arrived. Chapter 167 - 167: Heaven and Hell Will Be Needed "Lady Nyx, welcome and it is wonderful to see you our dear lady," Michael suddenly said and rose from his seat and graciously offered his seat to Nyx, who was worshipped or "forced" to be worshipped by all the gods and goddesses in the tower. When Nyx accepted the offer, she sat on the throne and then glanced around at the angels and demons around her, before turning her gaze to Michael and Lucifer, who were standing in front of her, bowing their heads in respect. A long conversation seemed to go on. "I think you understand why I''m here," Nyx said, her expression not angry, not sad, not upset, not angry at all, but rather trying hard not to laugh. "Cough...we may have been a little overzealous, my lady, we sent a gift to your child in your place." When Michael uttered these words, Nyx couldn''t hold herself back any longer: "Hahahaha! Do you think I''m here because I am mad at you two?" Nyx said after a small laugh and added, "Of course I''m here to scold you, after all, just like me and my family, you were created by Chaos, just like your own father Michael, so it is my responsibility to monitor your mistakes or successes." At these words, Archangel Michael felt his face begin to flush with embarrassment, while Lucifer had to hold himself back from laughing and turned his head away from his twin brother. "Forgive me, my lady," Michael said sheepishly, his curiosity piqued, "May I ask why you''re here if it''s not rude?" Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nyx smiled at this question and pointed to all the demons and angels around her, then pointed to the duo and said, "All these demons and angels in the hall are your responsibility, and that includes the others in the tower. Why don''t you remember that some gods or goddesses used his gacha ability to send gifts to James?" Michael and Lucifer couldn''t come up with an answer, they just assumed it was because they wanted to. Nyx was about to add something to her own words when suddenly Gabriel''s voice was heard: "If I''m not mistaken, my lady, the reason the other gods and goddesses do it is that sending the gift through an ability does not consume any energy whatsoever, in the only intelligible sense of the word." Nyx smiled at Gabriel''s words and then said, "Well done Gabriel, I''m proud of you as always." When Gabriel looked around with a proud look and bowed his head, Nyx''s voice was heard again: "Children, listen carefully. Lucifer joined us too late because of his selfishness and offered his alliance to Olympus, but the rest of you know this. We are going to have a great battle and it is imminent, not a battle of Olympus or others for a few places, but a battle that could shake the entire tower and perhaps even the outside of the tower." These words seemed to suddenly fill the room with seriousness. "You two goofy but lovable duo shouldn''t waste your energy, you''ve already made it past the 150th floor, almost everyone in this hall has, so what you need to do is conserve your energy. We''re going to need the help of the armies of Heaven and Hell, more than you ever thought possible." Sun Wukong yawned as Nyx finished speaking and then said, "Come on old lady night! Give the young ones a break, their energies are close to the highest in the tower, close to the Titans, close to me and even you, well that was a little bit too much but at least to your children haha!" Nyx smiled as she heard Sun Wukong''s voice behind her and then said "I realise that they have indeed grown stronger." then added, "Still, I don''t want them to die in this war like my own children, unfortunately, there will be casualties and who knows, maybe even I will lose my life, but their deaths should not exist." All the demons and angels around them were visibly moved by Nyx''s words, they had known for a long time that Nyx and Erebus, and especially Ra, were looking out for them, Erebus had even gone to his aid a few times when Michael was in danger. After Nyx waited a few seconds and saw that Sun Wukong had gone back to sleep, she turned back to Michael and said, "Do you have any idea where your father is? I haven''t seen him or heard from him in millions of years." and it sounded like she was talking about that god. When Michael shook his head from side to side, Nyx frowned and then said, "There''s nothing to be done, let''s hope he''s not dead." and then continued: "You heard what I said guys, if you want to send a gift, contact Ra, he''s a creator, so he can go downstairs, at least there will be no energy loss, let''s not use James'' gacha chances so he can get stronger not only with the things we send but also with his luck which is high, remember luck upper 20 is pretty high." After these words, Nyx looked carefully at Michael and Lucifer, who nodded their heads, and then spoke again: "You two are stronger than my son Thanatos, even Michael is close to the power of Moros, even fate itself, so you are strong, we need you, you must protect the tower, don''t forget that." Both Michael and Lucifer seemed surprised at Nyx''s words, neither of them seemed to have expected such words, their surprise was on a gigantic surface. "What you say must be a joke, my lady, we have seen how Thanatos and Moros fought, it is unbelievable to be stronger than death, and there is no way we can be stronger than fate itself." Michael said, and Nyx, who heard this, smiled and said, "Trust me." After Nyx said these two words, the whole room was plunged into darkness again, and when the darkness disappeared, Nyx disappeared and only Michael and Lucifer, who were wide-eyed with astonishment, were left in the hall next to the angels, demons and sleeping Sun Wukong. They had a very good idea of how many millions of gods and goddesses had perished to receive such compliments from Nyx. Chapter 168 - 168: Going Inside the Choice Room "No way!" James suddenly said, smiling as he saw what was on the card he had received from his achievement. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Jade Extract(Unique++++) This extract is one of the few ingredients that users or players have used since creation to improve their body endurance. While its value and quality are less than other materials, it is much rarer than other enhancement materials. When used and meditated upon, it will provide the user or player with 50 endurance stat points]. James smiled and realised that he had acquired a pretty good item, he was really happy, after all, what maniac wouldn''t want to improve his body even more? With that James checked the room he was in from top to bottom, he could see traces of mana but it seemed to be scattered all over the wall. When he carefully tried to feel the mana itself, he realised that it was coming from the bookcase to his right. As he approached the bookcase, he smiled and then said, "Holy shit, it''s a movie cliche." As he pulled one of the books from the bookshelf, rattling sounds, or rather the sound of a wheel turning, began to emanate from the wall to his left. When James looked at the wall, he said "Wicked." and started to descend the stairs down the opened wall. When he descended the stairs, he saw an unexpected sight. The statues were around, James knew they were not Weeping Angels, but he still watched them without blinking, or rather, without blinking. James saw statues of angels all around him. The first statue he saw was of a radiant angel, full of life, smiling and showing his strength. The second statue showed this angel looking weakened and his face was stoic. The third statue showed the angel''s neck bent downwards and tears streaming down his face. The fourth sculpture...that sculpture made James feel overwhelmed. "Angels decomposed like this? They''re not zombies, are they?" James said, his eyes tearing up as he looked at the state of the angel statue, the sight was truly wrenching. The fourth statue was on its knees, the feathers on its snow-white wings beginning to fall to the ground, pointing to the huge heart on its chest where the heart should have been, and an expression of devastation. James didn''t know who or whoever had made this statue, but his heart was broken. Only four sculptures gave it all away. In the fourth statue, the angel''s body had begun to decompose a little, and the rejection of life in his gaze seemed to tell how terrible things had been. [Both angels and demons decompose in the same way, James, as a huge event in their lives affects them in this way. It''s not like the rebellion of Lucifer and the others, it doesn''t show betrayal, it shows angels or demons rotting and losing their minds. Almost every one of them were mighty warriors, almost every one of the corrupt ones]. James had decided to move on when he read this message from Gabriel, he really had no idea what he was supposed to say, he had just had the chance to see the rotten angels in the flesh and he already had an idea of what kind of life they had lived. James wanted to leave the room calmly, he saw the door that was there for him to leave the room and he opened it and left the room. In front of him, he saw more than a dozen rotten angels and rotten demons. He activated his dark step ability and chose to give a proper death to the "enemies" in front of him, holding his sword Clarent tightly. "Rest in peace," James suddenly said and in just five or six seconds the bodies of all the "enemies" fell to the ground, James had a strange feeling even when he thought about what these "enemies" that the catacomb had shown him might have gone through. Even if James had never recognised them, he realised again that the tower was indeed a cruel place, even for angels and demons. [Unique Achievement Won! Kill a rotten demon for the first time! 15,000,000 Gold!] James couldn''t even manage to smile after receiving his achievement and gold reward, and then he left the room. Every few minutes he would move to another room and each time, even if he was getting used to it, he would kill more and more rotten angels and demons, it was heartbreaking, but there was nothing he could do. After a short time he realised that he was in a huge chain space, the catacomb he was in seemed to have only just begun to open. It seemed as if there were dozens of them waiting for him outside the room he was in. James looked around him and saw that the door in front of him was not rotten like the other doors and that it was the jade door he had used to enter the catacomb in the first place. He didn''t think he could finish the catacomb so easily. After he approached the jade door, he pushed the door and saw that the door started to open, even if it was tiny, despite all its weight. He was literally putting all of his strength into pushing the door, sweat started to flow from his body, and after almost three minutes, he managed to open the door and entered inside. Immediately after the door closed, he saw that behind the door was one of the halls, just as it had been when he had first entered the catacombs. He looked around in awe, it didn''t take him long to realise what was different from the hall he had been in when he had first entered, his gaze fixed on the perfection around him. James had an idea of what he was going to say this time, he was smiling, and the brightness in his gaze was reflected in everyone watching him, James was glowing with life, just like the first time he saw Nyx''s statue. "Woah...I didn''t see them at the feast, I didn''t get to meet them because of the training and the danger, but I believe it was them, after all, that''s what that big portrait showed. I choose to believe so." Chapter 169 - 169: What If I Choose Both? What James saw in front of him was the sculpted likeness of Michael and Lucifer in the portrait he had seen in the parlour. James could see that they both looked proud, and their gazes were almost identical to the way James felt when he listened to the heroes in the Greek mythology books his mother used to read to him on rare occasions. Yet James found nothing he could do, there was no door to this room, nothing but the door he had entered through, and James scanned each room he had been in before with his own mana, looking for traces of mana throughout. And yet the fact that he found nothing seemed to tell him that there was something he needed to do here. That''s why he looked around in confusion and then said, "Okay, does anyone know what I''m supposed to do here? I mean, considering that this catacomb is full of angels and demons, Michael, Lucifer or others must know." Soon after this question, a message appeared in front of him: [You have to choose one of us by touching the statue of either me or Michael. Then you can enter the prize room and choose your prizes under the guard''s supervision]. James shook his head when he saw this message from Lucifer and then was surprised to learn that he had to choose a side. "I have to choose a side. Then I don''t want to choose any of you, you know I''m with the Chaos-Borns." James said, not knowing the effect these words had on all Chaos-Borns after they had learnt about Desmond. [The side you choose will have more influence over the ''heaven and hell'' you think of. So if you choose me, my control over hell and therefore my ability to harness the energy of hell will be enhanced, and I will be able to gift you an ability. If you choose Michael, he will enhance your ability to harness the energy of heaven and gift you an ability. You can see this as a kind of... sponsorship]. James read Lucifer''s message again and then said, "Huh...It makes sense and it works in my favour, so that''s why you started sending me messages the moment I entered the catacomb. Were the gifts part of the plan?" he asked. After these words, another message appeared in front of him, this time from Ra: [This catacomb has not been entered by many people throughout history, most catacombs are formed only once and do not disappear until the person inside dies or gets out. This catacomb was created by the tower specifically for Michael and Lucifer. To show their failures and successes, and those who enter here will receive nice gifts at the end and can help them by choosing Michael or Lucifer]. After reading Ra''s message, James nodded his head in understanding, but he still had a few questions. "I mean I do not need to choose, do I? I already have my guild, I have my family and such. What if I choose both of you? I can help both of you no? Perhaps I can be the lil-bro of you two with this who knows." S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After James suddenly said these words, everyone paused for a few seconds. After just a few seconds, everyone who had been watching what had just happened had managed to break down in laughter, everyone was laughing so loud and so fast that it would not be wrong to say that it was a little annoying. [It''s possible, the reason why you can''t do that is that when you choose someone, the energy goes out of your body. Aura holders can help Michael more because Michael is an aura user and Lucifer is the opposite, so usually people who come here choose according to their style. Which means you might be the only one who can choose between the two statues]. After this message from Nyx, James smiled and then said, "Well, see?", followed by, "So what am I supposed to do? Touch the statues?" he asked. After this question, two system notifications popped up in front of him. One notification was on the right and the other on the left. [Do you wish to support Archangel Michael? YES/NO] [Do you want to support the Fallen Angel Lucifer? YES/NO] When James read these system notifications, he raised his hands held them in a proper position and pressed yes on both panels at the same time. After that, he felt a huge amount of energy drop out of his body, and a strange feeling came over him, as if he felt his brain shaking as if he felt the blood in the veins in his body disappearing. After almost a minute of this strange sensation, James stumbled, landed on his buttocks and then closed his eyes as he felt dizzy, he tried to get rid of this sensation by breathing deeply, and then he saw two different pieces of light in front of his eyes, the fact that they could be seen even with his eyes closed told James that they were notification windows. James opened his eyes to see two notification windows forming in front of him and realised that these were the abilities that Michael and Lucifer had bestowed. Before James started to read the abilities, he pressed the underscore button just to the left of the cross to underscore the notifications and then said, "Michael and Lucifer, I hope what I tried to do worked." With those words, two message windows popped up in front of him: [We will repay you for this not only with abilities but also in the future, you can be sure of that. [I swear that when you get above the 75th floor, whenever you need help, you won''t need Lady Nyx or any Chaos-Born, I''ll be there for you before Olympus or Asgard even takes action,] Lucifer said, and it was possible to understand how happy he was just from what he wrote. Now all that was left was to see the gifted abilities and fulfil his purpose by choosing his rewards. That is, to kill the guard steal all the rewards and get out of here. Chapter 170 - 170: Precious Rewards [Transition(Legendary+++++) This ability was created and developed by the Fallen Angel Lucifer. After much effort, he achieved a power similar to teleportation by instantly dissipating the mana in the body and releasing it elsewhere. The user''s speed will increase to such an enormous speed that the audience will think he has teleported. When the user uses the ability, his speed will increase by 3x for only one second. S§×arch* The N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Cooldown Time: 10 minutes] James was amazed when he read about this ability in detail, it was almost like stopping time and starting to run, yes, maybe there was a waiting period, but the fact that his speed would increase by 3x even for a second was a big deal. James'' agility stat was exactly 211 points, making him stronger than humans and even stronger than the basic capabilities of some other races. The fact that this speed stat increased to 633 points meant that James would be on the same level for a second as an assassin who had perhaps made it to the 60th floor. This was true, beyond any words that could be spoken, beyond any words that could be uttered, colossal. It was totally colossal. This speed was incalculable by the human mind. James knew that it was impossible for him not to rejoice when he read about this ability, the smile on his face was incalculable, it was a wonderful ability. He had closed the window of this ability because he wanted to check the next one, and when he read the ability Michael had given him, he smiled and said, Well, this will be very useful." [Heaven''s Call (Legendary+++++) This ability was created and developed by Archangel Michael, one of the highest angels in heaven. The ability is based on summoning the gardens of heaven. When the ability is used, a flower garden that extends for almost fifty metres opens. Depending on the user''s wishes, these flowers have different effects on the user and others. The effects will increase the user''s status by 20% for 3 minutes. This is an aura-based ability, so make sure your aura is at a sufficient level before using the ability. Rose - Power Lily- Speed Violet- Endurance Cooldown Time: 1 Month] When James had finished reading this ability in its entirety, he realised that he had gained another ability, Aura of Chaos. He saw that he could increase the power of the flowers for three minutes. Even if it was a 20 per cent power increase, it was a huge number. After all, the increase in their status would bring with it great power. On top of that, James could feel a slap in the face from reality. He had always wondered why he hadn''t acquired more Creator-grade abilities and items, but it was only now that it dawned on him. The ability he had was a legendary grade ability, and even that could only increase a stat by 20% for three minutes. James was getting a huge surprise even with this ability, and on top of that, what he was thinking about now was completely different. James remembered the power of the Aura of Chaos ability once again. The Aura of Chaos ability was a Creator-grade ability. This ability increased the status of all allies within a 30-metre radius by 50%. On top of that, it empowered the user of the ability, James himself, by 100%, and on top of that, it reduced the power of all enemies by 10%. James was really in for a reality check, he should have fallen to his knees and prayed to the tower that he had received such an ability, instead of being greedy all the time and feeling sorry for not getting Creator-grade abilities. "Thank you both very much, I''ll be sure to put these abilities to good use," James suddenly said, and with that, a system notification appeared in front of him: [Do you wish to go to the Catacomb''s reward room? YES/NO] James looked at the notification in front of him ignored the messages that were coming to him and pressed yes directly. His body turned to dust and disappeared, and as he closed and opened his eyes, he came into a white, stark white hall covered with stuns and furniture. He was looking around, and after a short time, he saw the presence standing in the centre of the hall. "That must be the guard..." said James, the size of the guard was like a giant. He must have been maybe 30 or 40 metres tall. He didn''t even know how wrong he was. James instantly realised what was going on, he had three prizes to choose from, and after all, he was entitled to them. However, James knew he was going to get more than three, that''s why he tried to look around to see how many prizes there were and realised that there were six prizes, one on each of the six pillars. James looked around the prizes and realised that each prize was a stone. The description of the stones said that each stone added 60 points to a stat, and just seeing those words gave James a reason to kill the guard. He couldn''t walk away from the chance to add 60 points to his Power, Agility, Endurance, Magic, Intelligence and Charisma stats. Each level gave a user five favourites, and each of these stones was worth 12 levels, none of which he could leave behind. That''s why he grabbed the Agility, Endurance, and Intelligence stones from the prize place in the first place, just in case. As he took each stone from the pillars, the room grew darker and darker. James realised that this loss of light represented luck, or rather permission to take the rewards. He knew he shouldn''t care, after all, he was going to get every stone in the hall. When he activated his dark step ability, he took each of the remaining stones from the pillars, stepped back and waited. A mechanism was activated in the area of the pillars, and just like in the library area at the beginning of the catacombs, the sound of cogwheels began to rise all around. After only a few seconds, the pillars disappeared into the floor and only James and the guard opposite him remained in the darkened hall. Chapter 171 - 171: Breakthrough (1) [Be careful James, you must be ready to use the Aura of Chaos ability at any time, catacombs usually start to appear after 50 floors, just to give you an idea of the difficulty level]. James nodded his head as he read this warning from Moros and realised that this was the first time Moros had explicitly warned him about something and he had the intelligence to listen when fate himself warned him. Immediately he switched on his night vision and was astonished by the sight he saw. Standing in front of James was someone or something, perhaps a metre or two taller than him. Its eyes were as black as its body, it had no feet or hands, and it looked incredibly similar to the Fallen God he had seen on the 9th floor, but it was not a Fallen God. James paused to realise what it was and leapt forward, his sword held tightly in Clarent''s grip. He was fast, he was strong and had a lot of stamina, his magical energy, and his mana, were enormous due to both his Magic status and his Intelligence status. In short, he was ready to fight to the death. He swung Clarent a few times, the fact that he could see his target precisely made everything perfect. Every second he swung his sword, he could see the dark being countering his attacks. It was at that moment that James saw something begin to change in the being before him, suddenly the ugliest smile possible appeared on the dark being''s face with white teeth. It was as if the being in front of James was underestimating him, or rather provoking him. James, of course, was not going to fall for it, he had realised something for the first time, he could not kill this being in a normal way. This being had to have a weakness, after all, everyone except the creator had to have a weakness, everyone. James, knowing this, started to try different things. He used the water element he had gained earlier and made an attack, although not very powerful. A small ball of water travelled towards the being and hit it, knocking the smile off the dark being''s face. It was clear that the being was angry, and it took the damage, the darkness on its body was broken, even if it was tiny, and James realised what its weakness was. "So I''ll be able to hurt you on the elements, not on abilities," James said. With that, he instantly emitted all the aura energy in his body, but this time was different from all other moments. Before releasing this aura energy, he had tightened the aura in his body as much as possible, which meant that the flames of different colours that formed around him were formed with a single purpose: Destruction. James was grateful for what Vlad had taught him, after all, the flames that had previously formed around him were unlikely to do much damage, but thanks to the sword styles he had learnt, James had learned how to bring destruction to his surroundings using only his aura. The dark being seemed to be frightened. It had no particular facial features, yet the smile on its face not only did not disappear, but it was almost grimacing, and its fear was evident in the fact that it was trembling. James realised at that moment that he had an advantage, perhaps he should have used his aura attack. However, he knew he couldn''t use these attacks while moving, he couldn''t risk dying, but he knew that by using the Aura of Chaos ability only the ability would give him immunity for a minute, so he could use the sword style. Aura of Chaos was indeed an excellent skill for situations like this. Even after the one minute of immunity was over, James would still be a stronger man. "Should I use it?" James suddenly thought, but instantly Vlad''s voice rang in his ears: "Don''t use it, this is a real war for you, you can''t use an ability that makes you untouchable. In the future, you will face Fallen Gods who can destroy you instantly and you must have experience if you don''t want them to destroy you when that time comes." When James heard these words, all thoughts in his mind stopped. At that moment, it occurred to him that he could use the second part of Desmond''s sword art in the slashing style while moving. Perhaps he could have used only the element of fire to carry out this attack, that is, instead of using his aura and magic to create a beam, he could have sent a sea of fire at the dark being. Still, it should have been...impossible. Even if James had both aura and magic, using them at the same time would have meant making Desmond''s Sword Art into something he had fully mastered, or at least creating the magical swordsman thing Desmond wanted. Of course, he couldn''t master that sword art by getting good at just one thing, but at least he would have taken all the steps in one part. James knew Vlad was right in what he said, he had to be fast, detailed and serious. He had to go beyond his limits. As soon as James put these thoughts into his mind he realised that he had perhaps adopted a terrible idea, it was eating him up inside knowing that he felt the need to do something that even Desmond couldn''t do. If Desmond couldn''t do it, there was no way he could he thought. [Calm down James, I don''t know what you''re thinking but I know you can do it, make up your mind.] Nyx must have seen the sweat pouring down James'' face as she watched him because she became worried and felt the need to send a message, Nyx may or may not have known, but the message was like a slap to James'' face. Inhaling deeply, James suddenly began to run around the dark being, he could divert the angry being''s attention in several directions by pointing to his plan, which he could provoke by showing what he was doing rather than just focusing on him. James''s plan was in motion. S§×ar?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 172 - 172: Breakthrough (2) James kept circling the being, or guardian as he called it, for every second, the onlookers could see why he was doing this, the being he was fighting was not very intelligent and would be easily confused. With each step James was spinning the aura in his body, as the spell merged back into his aura in a tiny way James felt like he was going to die, his whole body was hurting like crazy. It was indeed a difficult process, James was trying to focus his elemental energy by separating the energy from his aura and magic, it was very similar to his death march in search of the elemental core. Only not as dangerous. James knew what he had to do. He gathered his aura again, and as the flames died down, he released it, this time more frenzied and wild. The whole room came alive with his colourful flames. The guardian himself seemed to be panicking, there was nowhere for him to run because of the flames around him, he was limited in what he could do, he had to attack James, but even if this young man''s speed was fast enough for him to reach, he did not have enough intelligence to understand what was happening. The guardian was confused. James, on the other hand, was aware of what was happening, he could see that the guard, this being in the darkness, was being penetrated. After he had dispersed his aura, he saw that the aura energy in his body had decreased enormously, while he was trying to understand what was happening, he suddenly realised that the pain in his body had also started to decrease, indicating that the magic was starting to fuse positively with his aura. James couldn''t understand what was happening, something was pushing the magic in his body to fuse with his aura and it wasn''t James himself. It was only when he was running and focusing on his body that he suddenly realised what was happening. "This..." James thought and smiled as he began to increase his speed even more, now he could make the attack. With each step, the flames around him grew larger and more vibrant. James could clearly recognise the magic in his body, he saw again that the elements in his body had gone mad and a part of him was clinging to the magic with a tightly coalesced aura. This was the real reason for his smile, an element in his body was literally going mad to attack. James was about to take the last three steps, he was going to make the attack, when his sword suddenly flowed at Clarent, the magic-aura combination and the elemental itself clinging to the duo made the sword glow with a dark, green colour. He had taken the first step, he could feel every muscle in his body twitching. He had taken the second step, and he could feel all the blood vessels going crazy, his eyes were bleeding and blood was pouring from all the holes in his head. He took the third step, stopped abruptly turned to the guard, the dark being, and made his move. He thrust the sword forward over the slash and then everything stopped. Everyone watching could hear the heartbeat, even James himself could barely keep himself from fainting. He wished he could do what Desmond wanted, what Desmond hoped, and he would. His sword, Clarent, glowed with a jade light, the brightness drawing all eyes to it, representing the dryness and poison flame from the 8 sacred fire. James''s hair burst into flames and the attack began to move forward. A flame of green poison suddenly shot out of the replica of the legendary sword Clarent like an atom bomb. The flames travelled straight towards the guard and did not stop there either. The lush green flames almost hit the walls of the catacomb and the image of the flames showed the burn marks in the hall it illuminated. "UGUUHHAAAAAGGH!!!!" The guardian''s screams reached everyone''s ears, everyone saw what was happening and trembled with excitement. James had achieved something that had never been achieved in history, he had managed to use aura and magic by adding elements to them, even if he could not combine them completely. Even if James hadn''t realised it, he had achieved something a million times more perfect than Desmond ever could. The lush green flames did not stop, the aura-magic and the combined poison element charged into the legendary sword Clarent was so massive that the attack was still going on after almost thirty seconds. In an instant, the lights in the auditorium came on, and even though the attack was still in progress, James and the onlookers realised in that instant that the guardian was already dead and gone. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James had completely cleaned the catacomb. Not a grain of dust or ash was left of the guard''s body, everything, and when he said that he meant everything, everything was gone. When James looked in the direction of his attack, he stared at the wall of the hall that his attack had reached and then realised that the wall had disappeared. He could see the space itself behind the wall. At that moment, James''s head began to spin. He fell to his knees and realised that blood was pouring out of all the holes in his head, at that moment he heard Vlad''s voice in his mind. "Nice one James." James smiled when he heard those three words, he was looking up at the ceiling of the hall, with the green flames around him and his hair in flames, he seemed to be showing the starry cosmos, although this cosmos''s teeth were red from the blood, the smile he showed his teeth seemed to show that the cosmos was a very dangerous person. At that moment James fell to the ground, and he fainted. It was quite natural, after all, what he had just done would have been a near-death experience for James, and as usual, Ariel would have chastised him. Nevertheless, he had succeeded, he had indeed managed to do something that even Desmond could not have dreamed of doing. For the first time since the tower''s creation, James was the only one who could use magic and aura at the same time. Chapter 173 - 173: A Small Page of His Story When James opened his eyes again he realised that he was still inside the catacomb, he didn''t know how long he had been unconscious, but he knew that he had succeeded. He had succeeded in destroying his enemy, and he had done it perfectly. [You''re finally awake, I couldn''t come to the catacombs because I don''t have access to the catacombs, but nobody does, except people like Ra]. James smiled as he read this message from Nyx with his eyes barely open and looked around, he looked at the wall to his right that had been burnt down and saw that he could still see beyond it. It was as if James was an astronaut and had made it into space, and the sight was so beautiful that for a few seconds, James could only stare into the void. He was distracted by another message window opening in front of him: [I haven''t seen anyone damage the catacomb itself since the beginning of my life.] This message from the Titan Hyperion caught James'' attention instantly, it made him smile knowing that he had achieved another first, he still had work to do, and trying to talk was not what he should be doing. He tried to get to his feet but he couldn''t, he fell to the floor with a sudden dizziness and then he heard the sound coming from his stomach: "GROOOOOOOWL!!!!" The sound echoed through the hall as if a wolf had started to shout next to James and then disappeared through the wall and disappeared into nothingness. James seemed to have forgotten that he was a human being amid all the action. He quickly took out a protein bar and a drink from his inventory and then destroyed them in ten or fifteen seconds. He knew his body couldn''t recover that fast, so he sat where he was, after all, he might be able to do one of the things he was going to do here. He opened his inventory again and then pulled out a coffee table, he didn''t even remember why he had a coffee table in his inventory but it would come in handy eventually. After removing the coffee table and laying a blanket over it, James took out the stones he had sent to his inventory, which could add 60 points each to his Power, Agility, Endurance, Magic, Intelligence and Charisma stats. Each of the stones was different but strangely the same colour and James'' strange ability worked again. He could see that these stones, each in a different colour, glowed jet black, which seemed to tell him that these stones were Godly ranked. [Power Stone(Godly+++++)] [Agility Stone(Godly+++++)] [Endurance Stone(Godly+++++)] [Magic Stone(Godly+++++)] [Intelligence Stone(Godly+++++)] [Charisma Stone(Godly+++++)] James looked at each stone and then took the Power Stone from the coffee table and closed his eyes. Immediately after closing his eyes, the stone miraculously turned to dust and disappeared. Before James opened his eyes again, he touched the other stones on the table with his eyes closed and the same reaction happened with each stone. James could feel the changes in his body. Anyone watching him from the outside could also easily recognise these changes. His body hadn''t grown, but the increasing quality of his muscles was evident in the adamant armour called Lux. The increase in his Charisma was deepening everyone''s gaze on him, and even if James didn''t realise it or didn''t know it, a Charisma stat of over 60 already made him as beautiful as an elf. His leg muscles were massively toned, this was a combination of Agility and Power statuses, and the increase in Endurance Statuses brought with it a great deal of strength. James in his current state was indeed equal to the strength of an elf or a dwarf who had reached the 40th floor, he had been beyond human limits for a very long time, even defeating Ariel would be very, very easy now, and he could do it with his constant strength. James opened his eyes again and saw the notifications forming in front of him: [Power stat increased by 60 points.] [Agility stat increased by 60 points.] [Endurance stat increased by 60 points.] S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Magic stat increased by 60 points.] [Intelligence stat increased by 60 points.] [Charisma stat increased by 60 points.] James realised that his dizziness was gone after he turned off these notifications one by one. His body seemed to have recovered for the moment as his stats increased. "Now, here''s the thing, you know that painting I saw when I entered the catacomb, I want it." James suddenly said that was the other thing he had to do. As James uttered these words, the onlookers began to refuse to believe that this young man was the same one who had fought for his life a few hours earlier, a few laughed at the look on James'' face and the seriousness of his request, while Michael and Lucifer hoped to fulfil it. [We''ve already made a special request to Mr Ra, you''ll be receiving the painting shortly.] James smiled as he looked at this message from Michael and then said with a smile, "Wicked, literally the only thing I wanted the most." James''s callousness was truly monumental. After a short while someone materialised in front of James, James had seen this person with golden hair standing in front of him before at the feast, of course, he recognised him. Ra quickly handed the painting to James and James sent it to his inventory so that no damage could be done to it, however, there was nothing more to be done here. "Emma, get me out of here, I am so done for a while," James said and with that, a portal opened up in front of James. James stood up and then looked at the puddle of blood he had left behind him, he realised that he had taken a huge step forward, even better than Desmond had wanted him to. It would be one of those rare moments when he could be completely proud of himself, it was all thanks to his hard work. James had managed to kill one of the catacomb guardians who hadn''t been killed in a long time. This was but a small page at the beginning of his legend. Chapter 174 - 174: Big Plans Almost three months had passed since the Catacombs had been cleared. During that time, nearly no major events had occurred. James and Ariel had passed the 27th floor together, and then one thing had happened that could perhaps be considered a ''big event'' in a small way. The Church of Night began to expand. The powers below the 75th floor were, of course, shaken by this, but most of the higher gods were unable to make a decisive attack because of their respect for Nyx and the fear that accompanied it. In the meantime, James had gathered artefacts from the ruined and now ancient Church of the Night and placed them in the main guild building on the 5th floor. Some of the artefacts were not suitable for James to use at the moment, most of them were broken and disassembled, and of course, it was obvious who had destroyed the churches, even James himself knew that, let alone Nyx. The gods and goddesses who hadn''t fallen, and especially those who hated Nyx among them, had destroyed the churches and stolen most of the ruins when they were close to crumbling, which told some of the story of how the Fallen Gods had returned. James had made his plans for the Church of Night known, in short, he planned to complete everything, restoring the church to its former strength was his main goal. In the meantime, Nemesis herself had come to the main guild hall to collect the broken artefacts or relics and take them to her mother for repair. Almost every one of the artefacts had been created by Erebus and Nyx specifically to help Desmond. This meant that James himself was the rightful owner of the artefacts. Datura and Aether had successfully fulfilled every single order that had been given to them. Emperor Ahil gave the rank of Archduke to James within the empire. The only reason for this was that James would not accept the rank of emperor under any circumstances, and it was made clear by Nyx to the goddess-worshipping Ahil and his family that James was the rightful holder of the throne. Desmond''s name was not revealed, and not many gods knew, but the Church of Night, and subsequently every human being who worshipped Nyx, understood the lineage of James. Everyone knew he was a descendant of the one who founded the Church of Night and the Sun Empire, and Desmond''s identity was, of course, kept secret for James'' safety, as stated. This caused every single person connected to the imperial court to begin worshipping James. James'' Holiness status suddenly doubled to 60.000. After this point, James was strangely only able to win one item: [Crystal of Life(Godly+++++) This Crystal contains one of the essential essences of the tower, reality. It has been created by the hands of the creators throughout history and has become a Crystal that can be obtained by the most valuable people. It must be known to the user that the use of the crystal is to turn it into a jewel. In the hands of the wrong person, the crystal will become a piece of rubbish. When the crystal is used, it increases the user''s vitality by 100%. When used, the crystal increases the aura of authority around the user by 100%. This crystal can only be used by the leaders of all things]. When James obtained this crystal, he knew who to give it to. He somehow managed to get the crystal to Athena in a short time. He could have given this crystal to Ronald, but he knew that the best person for this job was Athena, who had gained a rank in handcraft. On top of that, James was constantly taking lessons from Vlad himself. As his mastery of the elements had increased during his battle with the catacomb guardian, he had, without realising it, come a long way in the second part of Desmond''s Sword Art, the cutting. Vlad had intended to make this path iron so that James would never regress. According to Vlad, Desmond had mastered ''Disarm and Bluff'', the two styles in the ''Capture'' section of the Sword Art that were the easiest to learn. James, on the other hand, was able to master these two styles in two months, practising for almost ten hours every day. Still, things were the same in the first part, the piercing part, James hadn''t improved that much since his last ''epiphany''. Of course, he was still improving, every day he was getting better and better and more consistent in his attacks, but that didn''t mean anything. He still wanted too much, it was greed, he was trying to develop too fast, but he was not ''strong'' enough to do it, after all, enlightenment was not so easily achieved. These were the events of the last three months, and James looked up at the mountain, no longer made of ice, but permanently in possession of a cold ecosystem. After he had paid the asking price, he owned the mountain itself, and with the orders he had placed, the construction of the huge palace had already begun, James wanted this to be the place where his family would live in the future and where the Church of Night would have its headquarters and the guild would have its main building. In short, this would be the place where the Black bloodline would continue. To do this, though, he had to create a rule that Nemesis could stay here, in short, he had to bend the 75th-floor-down rule set by his ancestor. He had a long, long way to go. "I never thought I''d come back to this mountain," Emily suddenly said, and the smile on James" aunt''s face was obvious. With these words, James asked Emily a question that he had been wondering for a long time but had not had the opportunity to ask: "Really, you are my aunt, so you can''t have died a long time ago, so how come you appeared on this mountain trapped in a ring?" After James'' question, Emily''s spirit turned towards him and said "Of course it''s Chaos, he already realised your potential and asked me and I agreed, our whole bloodline agreed, everyone is waiting in various parts of the tower to pass on to you the experience they have gained from certain things. And you found me, your aunt, by chance." Upon Emily''s words, James suddenly realised that the Sword Scabbard to which Vlad''s soul was bound had come to him by Chaos. Chaos himself must have tied the souls of all his ancestors and family members to an item and put it on the tower floors for James to find them. James was not only surprised when he realised these words, of course, he hoped that one day he would meet his other ancestors, but he still wondered what would become of those he would not find. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After all, James had only reached the 28th floor and he did not know where to find them, after all, he could not find all his bloodline members, his ancestors, by chance any more than he could find his aunt by chance. "Master Umbra, a message from Mistress Ariel." James had suddenly heard what Datura had told him, and even if he didn''t understand why Ariel hadn''t sent him a message directly, he was still curious about the content. "Tell me," James said, and with that, Datura spoke: "20. 22:00, same." James smiled when he heard these numbers and the word same. There was one more thing James had done in the last 3 months. It was to find someone, James realised that one of the paintings inside the church on the 20th floor was missing. It was not one of the paintings in the main throne room, but it was one of the paintings that was still a gift to the church. A direct order had been given to Ariel and a few others, and after clearing a few more floors with Ariel, James was completely focused on finding that thief. What Ariel sent as a message was the floor, time and the place. Still, punishing the thief was not what he wanted to do. Even if the stolen painting was not very well guarded, it was still a painting in the second most active church in the Church of Night. It would have required perfect secrecy for someone to enter the church, pass unseen through all those rooms, all those priests and all those nuns, unlock the locked room and steal the painting. And to slip out of there unnoticed would have required even greater skill. James was well aware of this, what he wanted to do was to find the thief and make himself a new comrade. In the last three months, James had begged Thanatos to give him a few more servant-master contracts, and in the end, James had received two more. If he could get the thief to sign one of these contracts, James would have one of the most perfect spies he could ever have. In short, James would have a shadow. A shadow that will hunt for him, search and perhaps steal information for him. Chapter 175 - 175: The Second Dream (1) After a short time, James arrived at the appointed time on the appointed floor and the place indicated only by the word ''same''. On the 5th floor, he had a tonne of work to do, but there was only one thing bigger than all that work, and it was here now. The yet James had arrived in was a lodge belonging to the church, one of the houses formerly inhabited by the human witches who were an important part of the church''s power. The person who lived in this large house was now none other than Ariel. When James arrived in front of the house, he knocked on the door and after a few seconds the door was opened by Theseus. "I didn''t know you lived here, Thes," James said, walking in, and seeing Theseus'' smiling face. "You''re finally here, I can''t believe it took you two hours to get here, what in God''s name were you doing?" said Ariel who was sitting on the sofa with one leg over the other. "You know, trying to get a house built for Nemesis, Miracle, you, Theseus and many others." Ariel shook her head from side to side as James said these words and then stood up and motioned for James to follow her. After a short while Ariel and James made their way down to the basement of the house, and when James saw that it was a torture chamber he shuddered at the thought of the witches of the Church of Night, not that he knew much about torture. "I told you to just catch her, there was no need for torture," James had said, strangely he had thought Ariel was capable of such things and he was right, after all, Ariel could be quite brutal when she needed to be. Ariel paused when he heard those words and then pointed his finger somewhere, James looked curiously at the spot shook his head from side to side in disbelief and then asked, "Is this a new method of torture?" Ariel smiled and then said, "You told us never to hurt her unless she tried to kill her pursuers, so we didn''t hurt her, we locked her up and took good care of her until you came here." James looked where Ariel was pointing and saw a place surrounded by iron bars. Inside was a very comfortable armchair, a place to take a shower, and the thing that surprised James the most, was a refrigerator. "I didn''t even know there were refrigerators in the tower." James suddenly said, and Ariel, who heard this, turned to James as if surprised and said, "The tower is not uncultured, James, there are industrial creatures here." James could not express how embarrassed he was. However, James approached the iron bars and then started to look at the person sitting on the seat. The person in front of him looked like a female elf of about 16-17 years old, but the appearance of elves could be a deception, the person in front of him could be 1600-1700 years old. "Pleased to meet you, my name is James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos.''" James suddenly introduced himself and then waited for an answer, when the woman sitting on the sofa closed the book in her hand, she looked at James and then said, "I don''t have a name, as you can see, I am a Dark Elf, we are not very popular, I was thrown out when I became an orphan." When James heard those words, he realised that it would take a little longer to gain the trust of the other person, after all, it would be many times more difficult for an outcast to open his feelings to the outside. After a few seconds of standing still, James suddenly sat down on the floor and said, "I am the current leader of the Church of Night, which means that I will be the one to punish you." After James'' words, the dark elf had waited without saying anything, she had thought that she would be sentenced to death because the punishments given by clans or other groups were always like that, it was almost impossible to make an exception. The people in the tower were quite ruthless. "You''re lucky, though," James said, and the dark elf''s attention turned to James as he heard those words. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "If you had harmed anyone, I would have killed you without blinking an eye, but you managed to escape despite being chased for almost two and a half months, and you never once tried to kill anyone in the process. You just stole. And why did you do that?" When James said these words, the dark elf''s eyes widened. It was a great shock to the female dark elf that the direct leader of the Church of Night, which had a huge, deep-rooted and incredible authority, did not give her the death penalty. "I...Well, I needed money, I have people to look after and that''s why I needed money." James smiled when the female dark elf uttered these words. "I know the feeling, though it wasn''t because I needed to look after someone, it was because I needed to fill my stomach, I wasn''t in the best of shape before I entered this tower if you know what I mean. Still, you should have tried to work properly." At James'' words, the dark elf''s ears drooped as if she were a dog, a very funny but sad sight at the same time. "I used to be a slave, I''m a Dark Elf, they don''t give us work, even if my carers aren''t Dark Elves, they''re orphans, they can''t find work, I have to look after them as the eldest, one of my carers got sick and I was trying to sell the essence of the monsters I normally hunt and suddenly I needed a lot of money since she became sick." James''s face fell at the female dark elf''s words, the person in front of him had stolen for a higher purpose than he had thought. James suddenly seemed to have determined the punishment of the female dark elf in front of him, and when the smile reappeared on his face, he uttered the following words: "Still, theft is theft, no matter what your motive and you must pay the penalty. I will now announce your punishment." Chapter 176 - 176: The Second Dream (2) "Nevertheless, theft is theft, no matter what your intentions were, and you must pay the penalty. I will explain your punishment now." At these words of James, the female dark elf got up from where she was came to the iron bars and fell on her knees. "Please don''t keep me for long, I didn''t sell any paintings and I have to go, please, I swear I will come back in a month and do my punishment, even if it is death. I just need a month." At the female dark elf''s words, James took a deep breath and then spoke: "This tower is far too cruel. War, pain, cries and pleas float everywhere. Betrayal, sadness and trauma are everywhere, whether you are born inside the tower or come from outside. You are young, are you not?" The female dark elf shook her head at James'' question and then said, "I am 16 years old, sir." Sear?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James continued his speech with these words: "I lost my parents at a young age, I was about your age, yet the tower gave me a purpose, a deep and functional purpose, yet not everyone is as fortunate as I was, not free, not bound to life or able to think about their desires." "I have been filled with such thoughts lately. Would you like to hear the first purpose, the dream the tower gave me?" The female dark elf shook her head and looked at James with curious eyes. "To pierce the top of the tower, to reach Chaos himself." At these words, Ariel smiled, Theseus'' goosebumps rose and the female dark elf''s admiration increased. "Of course, the main thing I wanted to do was to reach Chaos, but I managed to find another purpose," James said, his smile growing even wider, and then he said the following words. "Relationships filled with war. Pain, lamentation, betrayal, sadness and trauma. All of it reaching out to the likes of you and yours, and the gods and goddesses don''t even attempt to do anything, and those who do are labouring like the church of the night, and it''s not enough." "My ancestor wanted human perfection and freedom. I want something different, young lady. I want to create a tower where all races can live together without war, where there will be no more prayers. It is a situation where I am willing to kill the gods." When James said these words, he reached his hand into the iron bars, gently took the hand of the female dark elf on the other side of the bars and then said the following words that would make him admire everyone watching him: "A tower. A tower where you and people like you will never have to cry. This is my dream. Every child''s smile I saw in the city on the 5th floor told me how many children grew up in wars. How many heroes, thieves, murderers, painters, kings, queens, priests, nuns, musicians, actors, and how many other potential children were lost." "My dream and second goal is to create a tower where no child needs to cry." At James'' words, tears began to stream down the face of the female dark elf standing in front of him. "I can not do this alone and I need the help of people like you. Behind me is Theseus, the son of the god Poseidon, the killer of the legendary monster Minator. Next to him is Ariel, one of the two people I consider as my mother, and perhaps one of the greatest female warriors I have ever known." "Datura and Aether, the two popes of the church, one female and one male, strangely the most energetic elders I have ever seen. Ahil and his family, who try to protect every child, woman, man or elder on the 5th floor." "My daughter Miracle and her mother, the goddess Nemesis. My other mother figure is Nyx and her love Erebus. Aether, Hemera, Moros, Keres, Thanatos, Hypnos, Oneiros, Momos, Hesperaides, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, Nemesis, Apate, Philotes, Geras and Eris. They are all children of Nyx and my family, but I can only get a little help from them." "In this case, it will be you who will step in. I can''t realise my dream alone. Even with the help of all these people I''ve listed, not everything will be possible." "Therefore, young lady, my punishment for you will be that you and the children in your care must attend the Church of Night." No one knew what to say to these words of James, even these words of James were against the existence of the tower, and the cruel tower could never change. "I will take you as my shadow, you will develop and who knows, maybe you will become my spy, maybe you will kill, but I swear that a day will come and when you look back, it will not be the bodies of those you killed. What you will see when you look back will be millions, billions of smiles that will greet you. That is my dream." When James finished speaking, the female dark elf bowed her head, she did not have the strength to lift her head, her sadness was enormous, but her joy was even greater. "Can I be someone like you say?" asked the female dark elf. Hearing these words, James said with a smile, "Look at me, I was nothing but a person who was trying to kill himself before getting invited to the tower." when all eyes turned to him on these words, he said these words with a big smile: "But now, I have the biggest family that a person could ever ask for, I might not have a lot of money yet I am the richest man alive." After these words, James signalled Ariel to unlock the iron bars and then turned to the little girl and said, "Go get your little brothers and sisters, your new home is waiting for you." Then he climbed the stairs of the basement and left the house with Theseus. "I leave the care of the children to you, brother." James said, and Theseus, who heard these words, smiled proudly and said "No worries brother, I got you." and went back into the house. James, with a big smile on his face, entered the passage opened in front of him to return to the 5th floor and left the 20th floor. Chapter 177 - 177: Slyvia Hunt James had been busy with imperial business on the 5th floor for almost three days, often going to the construction site and strangely enough, he kept seeing Ronald having tea with Leyla in front of the construction site. However, he couldn''t waste his time hanging out with the duo. After all, Ahil was asking James about the most important things concerning the empire, even though James was not trained in these matters. It was precisely for this reason that he had managed to convince himself that he needed to step away from it all, the responsibilities he had were too much. He could not take care of the Church of Night, construction and the affairs of the empire at the same time, he could not do so at the moment. Knowing this, he had spoken to Ahil and had finally managed to return to the 20th floor. The incredibly high-quality goods that he had bought very cheaply thanks to Ronald were being used in the construction. So he was able to leave the construction to Ronald and Datura who was with him. With that, James was seated on his throne in the throne room of the main church on the 20th floor. It was almost two hours since he reached the 20th floor and sat on the throne, and because of the size of the throne, he found it convenient to meditate cross-legged. As he sat there meditating, after a while he realised that a few voices reached his ears, he opened his eyes suddenly and smiled when he saw the people in front of him and then he spoke: "I hope your brother is well, young lady." James said these words looking at the dark elf in front of him. The smiles on the faces of each of the children, young and old, were visible, each of them staring at James and the large window behind him with Nyx''s image etched into it. "Thanks to you sir, we came here to thank you, sister Ariel told us you were here." James smiled when he heard the dark elf''s words and his eyes locked on Ariel waiting behind the children, "Big sister? Do they know how old you are?" he asked. He was joking, of course, but the anger on Ariel''s face was becoming evident. "You don''t need to thank me, it''s nothing more than me trying to correct mistakes that have been made for a long time," James suddenly said. The children in front of him looked embarrassed at his words, each of them following behind Ariel, with only the female dark elf herself making it to the front of the stairs leading up to James'' throne. "I will never forget the right you gave me and my brothers to live and I will never be able to repay that debt, my lord, but I will still be honoured to be your shadow, and I hope you will give me the chance to do so, as you told me before." James smiled widely as the female dark elf spoke these words and then said, "That chance belongs to you," and then pulled the contract from his inventory and handed it to Ariel. Standing behind the children, Ariel quickly walked over to the throne took the contract or by the other name "pact" and handed it to the female dark elf. The female dark elf signed the agreement without even trying to read it, and then the agreement glowed and disappeared. James smiled, coughed a little and then said, "You need a name now, you all do." The children''s faces lit up when he said those words, they had never thought they would hear such a sentence, all these orphans, most of them former slaves, had never had anyone but each other all their lives, and finally there was someone who wished to adopt or accept them. Even if they knew such a thing, no, they wished not to wake up even if it was a dream, let alone to hear it. "We would be honoured, sir," the female dark elf said and bowed her head. James already had a name for the female dark elf, after all, after hearing that this girl did not have a name, he had chosen to approach this event quite seriously. Smiling nicely, James said, "Your name will be Sylvia starting today. You will take the surname Hunt, indicating that all my shadows are a family." After these words, the female dark elf named Sylvia suddenly glowed, and while James was trying to understand what was happening, the same system notification suddenly appeared in front of the two: [Erebus the God of Darkness and Shadow blesses Sylvia Hunt]. When James read this notification, he smiled and then laughed, saying, "I wouldn''t expect anything less from old Erebus." Sylvia shook her head as if she didn''t realise what was happening, and in just a few seconds, more than a dozen abilities appeared in front of her. Even though each ability was at maximum Unusual-Grade, Erebus had officially blessed someone who had not voluntarily chosen a class. All of Olympus was in an uproar, even the Titans and Nyx herself had not expected this to happen. "Erebus! Have you gone mad?" Hyperion''s shout echoed throughout the hall as he, like every god and goddess in the room, focused on Erebus. Even Nyx''s bewildered eyes were on her husband, and even this great woman could not understand why he would do such a thing. S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I don''t understand why you are so surprised," Erebus suddenly said, and Gaia, hearing these words, spoke up: "Everyone knows why you and Nyx didn''t share your powers. Nyx did it because someone managed to choose her, but this girl...you know...she is a dark elf." Erebus frowned as he heard Gaia''s words. Many races in the tower were unfairly persecuted, the dark elves'' past was indeed very dark and evil, but it was very stupid to be treated like this just because someone was of their blood. After all, Desmond himself had almost brought about the end of the dark elves and many other races, everyone knew why they were racist, even those who did not know about Desmond justified the founder of the church. Chapter 178 - 178: Another Member "The founder of the Church himself focused on black magic and destroyed the Dark Elves who were in league with the enemy, but Sylvia is just a child. An outcast, no one knows what she''ll do, but as soon as James chose to take her in, I had to support her, just as I would support James." Erebus suddenly said. At his words, every single person in the hall fell silent, and Athena''s words instantly broke the silence: "We know that the founder of the church, the worshipper of Lady Nyx, rewrote the concepts and rules of the tower. Dark Elves, Red Devils, Shaman Druids, and many other races worshipped the Fallen Gods, and they met their end as a result. They were lucky enough to be forgiven by the founder of the Church, but that was a long, long time ago." When Athena said these words, everyone''s eyes locked on her, even the Titans had to listen when the Goddess of Wisdom uttered such words. "My opinion is that this racism must come to an end, even tho it has a main and true point it should end. If James, the current leader of the church, is willing to forgive them, I am personally ready to forgive them. Forgive my rudeness, I was not even born in a time of war so I can not possibly imagine what all of you went through, but I ask that this anger, this grief, this resentment be on the sinners and not on their children." When Athena had finished, silence fell over the hall once more, all eyes turned to Ouranos or by the main name Uranus, one of the greatest of the Titans, and even Nyx herself wondered what he would say. Uranus stared unblinking for a few seconds, and then as if he had had enough, he said, "I have been in the battle myself, I have watched with my own eyes how many have fallen, but even I realise that time is running out. If the others are ready to forgive, I am ready to forgive, I think the Titans understand what I am talking about." Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. These words were one for all, Athena could not even understand what she had achieved, perhaps she had managed to find a way to completely stop the future that would be formed with blood, she could even end the wars with just a few words she said. With those words, he had given James the ability to create an army. Eyes turned back to the screens, the images of Slyvia crying with joy were visible to everyone, each of them had heard only words about how much this child had suffered, and each of them had seen with their naked eyes what war brought. "I hope you like old Erebus'' gift for you," James said suddenly. Sylvia wiped the tears from her eyes and then said, ''I am very happy, sir...." "Go and get some rest, each of you, I''ll give you a name tomorrow," James said and was about to send the children off when his heart started to pound. Vlad and Emily instantly jumped out of the ring James was wearing and started looking around. While those watching were trying to figure out what was going on, Nyx and the other Titans understood what was happening a little bit and then cleared the Olympus hall again and sent a message to James: [Did you find another soul fragment?] When James read this message from Nyx, he shook his head and then stood up from his seat, saying, "Wait guys." After gently approaching the children, he looked at them one by one, no one, including Slyvia, could understand what was going on, but they could understand that something serious was happening from James'' facial expression. "Sir, is something wrong?" Sylvia suddenly asked and James, hearing this, asked the question: "Do you have any of your family''s possessions? Anything, any one of you. This black ring you see on my finger belonged to my ancestor, it warns me when our family belongings are nearby, so one of you must have something." As James voiced this question and the words that followed, a little girl from the group of over a dozen children came up to James and then took off the necklace she was wearing around her neck and said, "This was given to me by my mother before she was killed as a slave, she said it was given to the family leader by someone a long time ago." "You have no idea how much this means to me, young lady," James said as he patted her head and gently took hold of the necklace. As James held the necklace a glow dazzled everyone in the room, after a short time the glow faded and a spirit appeared in front of James. When James saw the spirit, he suddenly saw Vlad appear in front of the spirit, when Vlad gave the spirit a big hug, James turned to the children and said, "I will reward you for this, don''t worry, but for now you all have to leave this place." Everyone, including Ariel, left the hall. There were only James and Vlad and Emily''s spirit in the hall, and a mysterious female figure whose face was not even visible. James was about to ask who this female figure was when Vlad''s words were heard: "My little sister! Look at the play of fate!" Upon Vlad''s words, James realised that the female figure in front of him was Vlad''s sister, which meant that this woman was one of the 5 siblings, a daughter of Desmond. When James''s gaze focused on the female figure, the woman''s face began to become visible. She had red hair, jet black eyes, wore glasses with round lenses and was dressed in an incredibly beautiful outfit, she was by any means gorgeous. "It''s been a long time, dear brother, I can''t tell you how happy it makes me to see you," she said, and then she turned to James and continued: "So it is you, the chosen one, the one to whom we must pass on all my father''s teachings, and upon whom we must place all the hopes of our lineage." James didn''t even know what to say, his eyes widened in shock and his gaze locked on the woman in front of him. Chapter 179 - 179: The White Witches "Pleased to meet you. I am Abby Black, the fifth and last child of Desmond Black. My father named me with this name because I was the last child he wished to have." When the red-haired woman introduced herself as Abby, James stood where he was for a few seconds, puzzled, and then bowed his head and said, "Pleased to meet you, my name is James Arthur Black, and it is a great honour to meet you." and fell silent. All the Titans and Chaos-Borns who watched Abby''s gaze from James'' eyes were astonished. The love in Abby''s eyes was enormous, the old woman gently approached James stroked his cheek and said, "You have no idea how much you look like my father, I feel like I''m looking at him, it''s been so long since I''ve seen his face." James could recognise the happiness in the old woman''s words, but he could also see the sadness in every word she spoke. "Well, thank you, I guess?" James said and then smiled and asked, "Master Vlad represents the sword and the aura, and what do you represent, my lady?" Abby smiled at this question bowed gently to James and then said, "I represent ethics and knowledge of the races. I was taught almost every spell my father Desmond encountered in the tower, the basic ways to get rid of them, the languages of the races, and many more. In short, I am the main knowledge." James looked at Vlad when he heard those words and then turned back to Abby saying, "See, that''s how you introduce yourself." Vlad''s gaze dropped and then James'' voice was heard again: "So, my lady, what you''re trying to tell me is that I''m going to be taught by you as if I were officially in school?" Abby nodded her head after James''s questions and gently said, "I will help you teach each of them whenever you want, however, it took me a long time to learn everything, but your intelligence status must be at a high score, if so, you can learn even if you are in the war, you just need to listen." James nodded and twisted his lips as if he realised what he was saying and then said, "All right, that''s understandable." then he put the necklace in his inventory and said, "Then welcome to your new home." and showed the ring to Abby. Abby smiled and then entered the ring, Vlad and Emily followed the old woman, James took a deep breath and said, "I have found the soul of the first and last child, Lady Nyx, three to go." [I didn''t expect it to be so easy, who would have thought that one of Slyvia''s siblings would have ties to Desmond. We should do a background check on that girl, maybe she''ll turn up someone who can be of use to you.] James saw the message from Nyx after his words and shook his head after reading it and added, "It''s not unreasonable, although I won''t be able to send the little girl to you, after all, she''s not a monster like Elise." After these words, the messages stopped and silence prevailed. What James said was true, it was quite easy to take a monster above the 75th floor when it wanted to, but according to the agreement, even if Nyx had the power to go down, she would not take anyone above the 75th floor except monsters and spirits. Nyx may have been one of the holiest and most powerful goddesses, but she could not break the pact, for it was sealed by Chaos himself. "I suspect the little girl is a descendant of the White Witch," Gaia suddenly said, and the Titans'' brows furrowed as they heard this, each of them annoyed. "The bastards who almost killed Hyperion?" Theia suddenly asked, and Gaia nodded in agreement. "Why do you think that?" asked Hyperion, not angry, just curious. "The pupils. The girl''s pupils were stellar. It was born as a curse after the White Witches confused black magic with white magic. In short, it stuck to their bloodline as a result of being cursed by the two laws of the tower, black magic energy and white magic energy. They cannot use anything other than these two laws." When the Titans heard these words, they tried to remember the pupils of the little girl''s eyes, and each of them was suddenly surprised. "Won''t that put James in danger, Mum?" Moros suddenly asked, and Gaia jumped into the conversation: "No. The White Witches were bound to Desmond like the forest witches in the forests on the 20th floor. Every one of them was either half-human or directly human, which was the only reason Desmond accepted them, even though he was an incredibly racist man, even if we considered him our brother. Desmond had sent them to the other side as spies, that''s when the lineage of the White Witches was cursed when they got involved in black magic." At Gaia''s words, all Chaos-Borns were confused. If the lineage of the White Witches was on such a sacred mission, why had they tried to kill Hyperion, or had black magic possessed them? "I can see the questions on your minds, children. It happened exactly as you thought. There were many of the White Witches on Desmond''s side, but they were wiped out because of the traitors among them, and the remaining ones collaborated with them on the enemy front. Hyperion didn''t know this and was ambushed, and almost killed. After all black magic can make a person go mad if used wrong and the Fallen Gods knew how to make people believe in them." Eyes turned to Hyperion after Gaia''s words. "I''m not angry with them, lads. Desmond wasn''t the only one who sent the White Witches there. This order was given to them by me, Erebus and Desmond. It is ridiculous to see them as demons, I am officially one of the three biggest reasons why they have become like this." Hyperion said it was impossible not to feel the sadness in these words. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Nevertheless, what was done was done, and now it was up to the person who would be sent to find out where this little girl''s lineage lay. Everyone knew who would be the best person for the job. All eyes turned to Moros. Chapter 180 - 180: Is She a Descendant of Juliet? Nevertheless, what was done was done, and now it was up to the person who would be sent to find out where this little girl''s ancestry could be traced. Everyone knew who was the best man for the job. All eyes turned to Moros. Moros took a deep breath when he saw the eyes on him and then asked, "Shit. What now?" he asked, shaking his head as if he realised what was happening, and then opened the message window, saying, "All right, I''ll let Ariel know." [I need you to look into the background of the little girl James took the necklace from, Ariel, it''s really urgent.] While Ariel was putting the children in their rooms, she saw this message window in front of her and looked at the little girl who was still standing next to her when she read the message from Moros. She seemed to wonder what the identity of this little girl was, which made even fate itself curious. "Leave it to me, Moros, it''s okay," Ariel said, and with that, her mission began. After placing all her children in their rooms, Ariel finally placed the little girl in her room and walked in with the little girl and asked, "Can you tell me about your mother, little lady?" When the little girl heard this question, the light in her pupils changed, and her star-green pupils, which had been shining with a white light, turned blue. Quite the stellar. Even if Ariel didn''t understand what was happening, it wasn''t something she needed to question. "My mum was the best! She always told me that our bloodline was made up of heroes! We are what we are because our bloodline made mistakes in the past, unforgivable mistakes. I don''t know what happened, I apologise." Ariel shook her head as she heard those words, just as a message window popped up in front of her: [Can you ask the girl her mum''s name?] Reading the message from Moros, Ariel shook her head from side to side and then turned to the little girl and asked, "Do you remember your mum''s name?" The little girl shook her head from side to side to indicate that she didn''t know, and then said, "My mum was a slave, slaves don''t have names..." the little girl''s eyes welled up with tears, and you could see how much she missed her mum. Ariel thought it was over, she was about to tell the girl to go to sleep when another message popped up in her window. [Did the mother tell the little girl who got the necklace first? This question is very important.] This time it was from Nyx herself, and Ariel realised that the girl she was questioning was a hundred times more important than she appeared. "What about that necklace, did your mum tell you about the first person who bought it?" Ariel asked. The little girl paused for a few seconds and had just nodded her head when she suddenly spoke, looking at Ariel as if something had suddenly occurred to her: "When my mum showed me the necklace, she told me about a beautiful woman, a woman who signalled darkness and light, she said that she was our ancestor! I can''t remember her name..." At the little girl''s words, everything seemed almost certain. "Can you try to remember it for me, please?" Ariel asked, and when the little girl nodded her head in the affirmative, she waited. After a minute or so, the little girl smiled and then said, "Juliet! My mum called that woman Juliet." Now everything was finalised. "Are you kidding me, Juliet was the one Desmond gave the necklace to?" Hyperion was suddenly on his feet, shocked by what he had just heard, he had never thought he would hear that name. All the Titans were in the same shock as Hyperion, Juliet was one of the people who was on Desmond''s side no matter what she was the only one who managed to become the head of the White Witches, yet that woman had been dead for a long, long time, a woman who had sacrificed her life for Desmond before the main war had even started. It was incomprehensible that this woman could even have a child. "I don''t understand, that woman didn''t choose a god or goddess just like Desmond, so there''s no way we can find out what happened?" said Rhea. "What about Chaos? What is his purpose? What''s his purpose in putting Abby''s soul in that necklace?" Chronos asked, time itself unable to comprehend what kind of event was unfolding. "Could it be that he wanted James to create an army? James is not like Desmond, maybe he wants the White Witches to exist again." Erebus said, making sense to everyone. "It''s not unreasonable, after all, the White Witches were split in two, it was a tragedy that those who remained loyal to Desmond died, and those who broke their allegiance and betrayed them were just puppets. Either Chaos wanted to give James a chance, or we''ve got it all wrong," Hyperion said. Nyx shook her head, and after a few seconds, she said, "If the little girl is Juliet''s descendant, one of us must bless her. If my father wants the army to come back, or rather, if he wants James'' army to be created, then we cannot withhold our help in that endeavour." Hearing these words, Themis shook her head and said, "Times have changed, it has been a long time since the fate of the tower has moved. We can no longer behave as we used to, we have been at the top for too long, and we have forgotten that those below can live." and made it clear that she supported Nyx. With those words, everything became clear, if what the little girl said was true, and it was very likely that it was, this was a huge deal. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. If Juliet''s lineage was still alive and she was not the only one left, James could have one of the most powerful armies he could ever have. The White Witches could take on the warriors of Olympus, the Valkyries of Asgard, and even the followers of the Chaos-Born, which was what had nearly killed Hyperion. In Desmond''s hands, they were one of the three most powerful armies that had ever existed, which is why the betrayal had been so severe. Chapter 181 - 181: Am I a Puppet? [James, this is serious; you must keep the little girl with you no matter what.] James read Nyx''s message, confused as he tried to figure out what was going on. He then asked, "What''s going on?" [The little girl is a direct descendant of Juliet. Desmond''s best friend and the woman who sacrificed her life for Desmond, Juliet herself was the main reason why the ancestor lived without dying]. After reading the message, James stopped as if he couldn''t hide his surprise. His eyes widened, and he shook his head meaninglessly. "So you''re saying Desmond gave you the necklace on purpose? In that case, he must be trying to tell me something, since Chaos is the one who transfers the souls of my descendants into things." James said suddenly, holding his chin in curiosity. ["We don''t know that either, I need to tell you what happened quickly so you can understand everything.] James shook his head when Nyx sent this message and then said, "Please. If there is something planned, I need to know." [To put it briefly, Juliet was a White Witch or rather the best user of sacred magic, and that''s why she managed to become their leader. She was very well known for being extremely loyal to Desmond, you can even see her name mentioned in the church records, she was one of the names that helped found the church]. James stared at the message he had read, he had suddenly learnt someone else''s name, the fact that she was becoming a leader was a matter of great curiosity. [The White Witches had gone as friends to spy on the enemy, telling Desmond that they had betrayed him. The espionage had been successful, but those you know as Fallen Gods had somehow poisoned their minds, almost every one of them doing what Juliet had tried to do, trying to master the white magic of holiness and the black magic of destruction]. After reading this message, James was sure that a story like this would never end well. [They were cursed. The two laws of the tower cursed the White Witch bloodline, and upon this curse, star pupils were engraved into them. They became a race unable to use any law except white and black magic. More than half of them betrayed Desmond, and they were so powerful that they almost drove a titan like Hyperion to his death, but it was an ambush. Remember, even the gods are not omnipotent.] "I see...So the little girl is descended from those who did not betray? Even Juliet''s own lineage...There are many more powers in this tower that I don''t know about. But what if they remember Desmond, the spirits still exist, don''t they? Where do they go when the Philosopher''s Stone or something isn''t created? If Chaos is collecting them, it must be planned, right? In that case, what did Desmond and Chaos plan?" James suddenly said, and he was right. Some powers still retained their memories because Chaos had not erased them. Even the White Witches had not forgotten them, but Juliet had somehow separated her lineage from the main force and changed fate. All three powers under Desmond''s command remembered her existence, but Chaos and Desmond had different plans. The memories Chaos showed Nyx weren''t even a quarter of what they should have been. The game Chaos was playing was a game to get James to the top, even the creator himself didn''t want his tower to be destroyed and wanted someone to protect it. That was Desmond, and now it was James himself. [There is so much we don''t know, James, both you and I. And yet we have no way of knowing right now. Juliet, like Desmond, didn''t choose a god or goddess, and didn''t cross the 75th floor, and that means we have no way of tracking her or finding her spirit and asking for help.] James shook his head up and down as he read the last message in the message window and then said, "That means my ancestor Desmond and the creator Chaos have a lot planned for us. It''s as if I really am on a chessboard. Neither my fate is in the hands of Moros, nor my time in the hands of Chronos, but as if I am a puppet of Chaos." The anger and grief in those words were incalculable, the look on James''s face made all the Titans tremble from head to toe, and each of them felt as if they were looking at the same Desmond. [I''m going to ask my father if he''s what you say he is, I''m going to refuse to leave the field until he gives me an answer, I swear to you I''ll be here with a straight answer]. James took a deep breath at this message, it would do him no good to jump to conclusions, the truth could not be found by the human mind alone or a superior mind. After all, every step taken and every breath taken had a logic and a process. Fate was a changing thing, at least in this tower. With that James thought it was time to sleep, he had slept maybe four or five days in the last month, and he could only hope that when he rested and opened his eyes again he would be greeted with good news. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After a quick change of clothes and a shower, James lay down on his bed and managed to close his eyes and fall asleep, despite all the thoughts and curiosity in his mind. At the top of the tower, outside the tower, something else was going on. ----- ----- "We need to talk, Father," Nyx said, not alone this time, but with every titan and Erebus in the field. "What do we need to talk about, my children?" Chaos asked, the look on his face telling me he knew everything. "You are the creator, we all know it is you who must tell us," Erebus replied. Chapter 182 - 182: We Couldnt Be More Wrong "I believe you are here at Desmond''s request, my children," Chaos said, knowing everything but not wanting to say anything. "Dad. Please stop joking, you know the question we are going to ask, please give us a definite answer." Nyx suddenly said, not even angry, her expression seemed to show Chaos that her daughter was looking at him with disappointment. A small smile appeared on Chaos'' face and then the entire area was filled with windows. The Titans and Nyx and Erebus looked at the windows and seemed to be trying to understand what was happening after what they had seen. "These are our memories, our past. Great creator, why are you showing us these things?" Gaia suddenly asked, and Chaos, who heard these words, started his speech by saying, "I have told you many times to call me your father." "So much of what you have done, so much of what you have created, and probably so many dangers that would have cost you your lives." As Chaos spoke these words, all the windows shifted and the same memories, ending in death, appeared. The Titans and Nyx and Erebus began to tremble at what they saw. "This is mostly what was meant to be. I removed your destinies and the times when your last breath would be lost. In short, I changed their destinies slightly so that you would not die," Chaos said, and just as Nyx was about to speak, he gestured for her to stop talking and continued: "Only two people, only two people in the history of the tower that I cared about and wanted to protect as much as you did, one is Desmond, who was your best friend, and the other is James, whom you now love as your son or nephew." When Chaos fell silent, he lowered his hand and allowed Nyx and the others to speak. "But James has had help from you many times. Ummm, like the Book of Magic Status? What are you going to tell him?" said Hyperion. "Helping is not changing fate, my dear Hyperion. I helped James, yes that''s true, but I did not directly change your destiny, in one or two cases I used you as a puppeteer as you think, and I did it so that you would not die. But James only received help, he was the one who managed to survive all the dangers he faced, although creating and giving him an ability like Gacha can be seen as playing with his destiny, but since I did not directly change it, it is what you say it is." At Chaos''s words, everyone fell silent, it was enough for them that James'' fate was not controlled. "What about putting the spirit of your ancestors into certain items? Or the fact that Desmond got his Sword Scabbard from the gacha?" Gaia asked, and Chaos, hearing this, twisted his lips and said, "Of course it was luck, what were you thinking? I mean, yes, I put the souls because James will need an army sooner or later, I just put the dots, whether he can draw a path to those dots is up to James. Still, the gacha was pure luck, normally he should have found that item on the 60th floor, that is, if he had looked for it." At Chaos''s words, those around him were surprised, it was clear that no one expected such an answer. "Luck, huh?" Oceanus said, as surprised as everyone else. "Exactly. I may be creative, but I don''t have the energy to organise everyone''s destinies, so I''ll choose to rest instead." Chaos chuckled a little at these words and then opened his hands and asked, "Do you have any other questions?" Those around him shook their heads as they heard those words, and then Hyperion looked at Chaos as if something had occurred to him and spoke: "With so much going on, with the possibility of everyone dying, including your children, why don''t you stop everything at once? You''re not watching what''s going on inside the tower, Dad, so why don''t you destroy all the bad guys?" At Hyperion''s words, everyone''s gaze turned to him, and Chaos'' gaze turned to the surrounding windows one by one: "If I wanted something to constantly control, I would control every move of every one of you, as has already been said and known, my son Hyperion." Chaos took a deep breath after saying those words and spoke again: "Push or pull, bright or dark, life or death, yin or yang, good or evil. My son, one can not exist without the other." At Chaos'' words, each of them stopped in their tracks, they had heard these words before, but they could not remember where they had heard them. "Evil or goodness can only be seen as a concept. Evil becomes evil because you see it as evil, and vice versa for good. But who gives you this power?" Chaos said, and Hyperion stood where he was. "I...I don''t know, I just choose to believe what I believe." Hyperion said, and Chaos, hearing this, smiled and said, "See, you have the answer, so evil and good remain relative concepts, and I should not control them, if I try to control them, I will become a puppeteer and each of you will turn into a puppet." These were the words that ended the conversation. There was no need to say any more, it had been learnt that James was not a puppet, or rather that his destiny did not pass through the arrangement, yes Chaos had made small touches, but each of those ways was something James could refuse. The only thing to do now was to inform James, though the Titans and Nyx and Erebus knew the boy needed to rest. That was why they would wait a short time and then go back to their own business with the news. After all, the Titans were still searching for those who had tried to revive the Fallen Gods. Even if they didn''t come to much of a conclusion, the fact that they were still looking didn''t change, of course. S~ea??h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 183 - 183: Gacha Never Fails "So I''m not being used? Are we sure about that?" It had been almost half a day since James had woken up, Nyx and the others had been so busy they had barely had time to tell him. Both Nyx and the others had expected James to be sullen, but he didn''t seem to care about anything, they could all see how much he had matured. Nyx remembered how childlike and innocent he had been when he first entered the tower, but now that innocent child had been forced to become what he had become because of the mistakes Nyx and the others had made. That was the bitter truth. [Exactly like that, just like we told you, just a few signs for the paths you can take. Everything is random and lucky, but there is little help time to time, just like what was done to Desmond back in the day.] James shook his head as he read what was written in the message window in front of him, closed the window, and left the room, saying, "So be it." It had been almost five hours since he had named all the children adopted by the Church of Night. Each child he had named had received blessings from gods and goddesses large and small. It seemed that the gods and goddesses wished to help these children in James'' hands. James also chose to name the star-eyed little girl after his ancestor. The little girl was named Juliet and Juliet was blessed by the god Apollo. Apollo said that he had blessed the little girl because she had an excellent aptitude for high white magic, that is, magic that usually has the properties of holiness, light, healing, and so on. This was an excellent thing, as the little girl''s future was now as good as Sylvia, who had received a blessing from Erebus. Then James had asked Hyperion himself a question, and Hyperion himself had called Chaos ''father'' as he explained, but James knew that he was the child of Uranus and Gaia, just like the rest of the Titans. The answer he got back was "Chaos...You know him, he basically created our souls after our bodies were happening inside the womb of our mother. He calls himself [all-father] because he basically created our souls." James was strangely satisfied with this answer, the fact that there were so many things he did not know and that he could learn them made everything more interesting. After James had sorted everything out, he finally got to the main event, he knew something he could relieve all this stress, and after a long time, he opened the gacha panel. The number of spin-rights he had in his possession was almost 12,000. A truly enormous amount. He was starting to get confused though, there was a limited-time gacha in front of him as usual, a gacha that wanted 10,000 spin-rights for just one spin. When James analysed this limited-time gacha panel, he realised that this gacha was indeed worth 10,000 spin-rights. This limited-time gacha included guaranteed Legendary-grade and above Legendary-grade items, potions, minerals, weapons, and clothing. It would be quite accurate to say that it was definitely a gacha worth spending 10,000 spin-rights on. Knowing this, James took a deep breath, really praying for something good to come out of it. He was about to press the spin button when suddenly a message window popped up in front of him: [Do you really want to spend 80% of all your accumulated rights there? If you try your luck in the other panel, you can get more than one legendary.] Reading this message sent by Moros, James smiled and then said, "Dear brother Moros, if you knew how many games I''ve played in my world, you''d lose your mind. You should have seen me using the normal gacha system and using all my diamonds, I assure you that almost anything with limited time is always the best." At James''s words, another message fell in front of him: sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [You know, I just wanted to warn you, I''m fate or something...]. James smiled as he read the message and then pressed the button to switch it on. A huge beam of light flashed across the room, James literally closed his eyes and shielded himself with his arm to avoid being blinded. When the light went out after almost thirty seconds of brightness, James saw another window open in front of him and smiled. "Fate itself, eh Moros? You may be destiny, but I''m a fool who invests even the small amount of money I earn in games, it was my fault I didn''t get rich." James suddenly said. What he saw in front of him was enough to knock him out: [Destruction(Godly++) Have you ever wished to create earthquakes and shake the earth with a single step? Have you ever wished to strike down your enemies with a single step? Perhaps you have wished to create volcanoes and bring magma to the surface of the earth with a single step. This ability will allow you to do so. The ability''s destructive power will increase based on the magic energy/mana you pour into it during its use]. James read the ability over and over again and was ecstatic just thinking of the possibilities this ability could give him, he really loved the gacha ability, the things he got from it were usually excellent. [I''m not always going to be right]. James smiled as he read the message that had suddenly appeared in the message window and then closed the gacha panel, saying "I''ve never seen anyone backtrack like that." He wanted to keep his remaining two thousand rights. However, there was only one thing left to do and that was to continue climbing the tower. It had been a while since she had sent a message to Ariel to get ready, and Ariel herself was already ready since she was waiting for her, spending time with the children. It was time to continue by cleaning the 28th floor. Chapter 184 - 184: Tower Itself Made It "Are you ready, Ariel?" James asked, waving to the children as he came up to Ariel, who was playing with them and trying to teach them something. Ariel nodded and suddenly her whole body was covered in thin armour. James was filled with curiosity because he had never seen these armours before. "I see you got new armour, congratulations." Seeing James'' eyes filled with curiosity, Ariel smiled and then said, "Moros gave me the armour he didn''t use, he is a dagger user like me, did you know that?" James smiled when he heard these words and then said, "I didn''t think that someone like Moros would still have equipment that is not connected to his soul, if it comes from a god, it must be powerful." "My chest armour is Godly-Grade and the rest is low-level Legendary-Grade," Ariel said as she put her hands on her waist proudly, she really had no idea what James was wearing. James realised that there was no point in worrying about Ariel anymore, after all, it was rare to encounter monsters that could do direct damage to Legendary-Grade and above. Of course, with James clearing the Hell Tutorial and Ariel clearing the Hard Tutorial, the difficulty level they had was massively higher, and that was exactly why more monsters could harm them. They had no idea what the 28th floor would be like, but the fact that they knew they would be ready no matter what made it all the better. After James said goodbye to the children, he called out to Emma and, as usual, he and Ariel entered the white passage that opened in front of them. When the two opened their eyes again, they were mesmerised by the sight before them. "It''s perfect..." Ariel suddenly said, and it was obvious that she wasn''t lying because James had the same expression. A world of ice seemed to stand before them. The snow was falling incessantly, and there were pine trees tens of metres tall and thickly covered with snow. The snow covered the earth in white, and the sky was covered with white clouds, showing only the green colour of the pine trees and the whiteness of nature. [Survive! Your mission to survive between floors 28-35 begins now! You will only have the right to use the food part of your inventory, you will have as much equipment as you can live on and you will be able to use your weapons, but do not take this ice-covered world lightly. Once every 20 days you will be counted as travelling up one floor for one time only, and it will stop when you reach the 35th floor. This is a SPECIAL mission created by the tower for Umbra of Chaos and Ariel of Chaos. Upon completion of the mission, you will have each of the floors 28-35 subjectively. This will be made possible by the tower creating a subspace and only a limited number of people will be able to enter these areas. Guild honour points must be spent to unlock the area]. James and Ariel looked at each other after seeing this mission window. They had weapons, food, and equipment they could use, but when they looked at their inventory, they could see that most things were indeed locked. [Something we haven''t seen in a long time, James. The last time we saw it was when my daughter Eris was climbing the tower. Despite its stinginess and cruelty, the tower must have admired the excellence of the two of you because it gave you a special assignment]. When James read the message from Nyx aloud and announced it to Ariel, the surprise of the duo increased. "What exactly is this about the tower creating subspace for us, my lady? We''d like to know before we move forward and perhaps fight the monsters." James said suddenly, despite his confusion, he knew they had to survive, they had to get information. [The Tower has done this many times throughout history. For the likes of Thor, Loki, Demon Crowley, and my daughter Eris, the tower has created sub-space and duplicated and modified layers of itself and made it available to climbers. This is partly a reward that the tower offers to the climbers by using all its laws and exhausting their consciousness. So the reward for clearing these floors will be that the floors will be given to you two]. "I thought more than one person could take the floor exams after the 20th floor, but why did Eris do it alone, or any of the others?" James asked, and received the following answer: [It''s been almost 16,000,000 years since Eris has been above the 75th floor, the tower often changes the style of exams for some floors, from the twentieth floor to the thirtieth floor, this is the style of exams that exists now]. James raised his eyebrows in surprise after hearing this answer and then asked, "Wait a second...If Eris is older than 16,000,000 years, how old is my wife Nemesis?" [You''d better ignore that question]. James was surprised when he read this message from Nyx, but he smiled. "Wicked, she is an ancient being, how cool is that? I never thought about it, now she is even more cooler than before." James suddenly said, which seemed to be an answer that no one expected. James tensed his whole body after these words and then said, "We have to start moving forward Ariel, we''ve already stopped too long." Ariel instantly agreed with him, wishing to move forward in the daylight, of course, she was aware of James'' night vision and they would have no trouble in the dead of night, but there was no harm in being careful. With these thoughts in mind, the pair set off. Because of both of their abilities, it was incredibly difficult for them to sink in the snow, indeed they were sinking maybe a centimetre maximum on the snow, and even the softness of the snow seemed to be evident in this way. They did not know where to go, but they still had to keep going. With the cold air hitting their faces, the snowflakes falling on them and the white light in the beautiful sky, they were taking steps. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Now only time could tell where these steps would take them. Chapter 185 - 185: Elf Village James and Ariel had been walking for almost two hours, nearly 30 minutes since they had left the wooded area, most likely the forest they were in. The two of them had little trouble with their high energy levels, and James kept himself and Ariel warm by constantly keeping his aura open. However, as the time ticked on and it got closer and closer to nightfall, even James'' high-level fire elemental was beginning to wear thin, and even though he was using his aura, a protective force and elemental, it was getting so cold that nothing was quite enough. James pulled some clothes out of his inventory and handed them to Ariel, wanting her to be warm. After fifteen minutes of walking through the woods, they came to a place where there were some wooden houses. James looked around and realised that something was being watched through the windows of the houses. He could realise that deep blue eyes of ice were watching them. "We''re not here to fight!" Ariel suddenly shouted, seeming to make a brief peace gesture. With that shout, the eyes that had been watching them disappeared and the windows of the houses were curtained off, revealing nothing. Then the door of the house at the far end of the area opened and a man came out, and James and Ariel were surprised to see him. He was tall, with pointed ears, a very fair complexion, and pupils of deep blue ice. S§×arch* The n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "An elf," James said, and with that, the man came to a stop almost five metres away from them. "State your purpose, please." the man said, and as he spoke, the curtains in all the houses opened again, and the gaze turned back to them. "We have come to look for a place to stay if you have permission and if there is an empty house or a hut, we would like to stay." At James'' words, the elf looked around at the surrounding houses and then asked, "Are you strong?" James nodded, pointed to Ariel and said, "This woman may be the strongest woman under the 30th floor. And I am strong too so yeah." When the elf heard these words, he took a deep breath let it out and said, "If you protect our village from the ice giants, you can even stay here forever." The elf had met humans before and knew their greed and even recklessness, so he did not expect to hear a positive answer, but he would do his best to negotiate. "Sure, no problem for us." James had higher plans already. The elf shook his head when he heard those words and then began to tremble as if he had lost the strength in his legs. "Really? The frost giants are very powerful, we can''t even repel them without the help of the dwarves, but they have their own families, so they can''t always help." the elf said. Hearing this, James replied, "As I said, both this woman and I are quite strong, fighting is not a problem for us, and I have hunted giants before." With that, Ariel stepped forward and then said, "I''m Ariel and this is Umbra. What is your name?" The elf managed to regain his strength with these words and then said, "My name is Narbeth, I am the leader of this huge elven village." With these words, Narbeth raised his hand in the air and then released his mana. With the release of this great mana, it was as if illusions began to disappear. Dozens of stone and wooden houses began to appear around. Children, women, and men, old and young stood around James and Ariel. "I apologise for the illusion, even though they are no longer extinct on this floor, humankind were cruel, they made everyone slaves and many other things, and we had to keep the illusion active all the time," Narbeth said. Hearing these words, James said, "That''s pretty cool," and said that he didn''t care about what happened. With these words, Narbeth gestured to her own house and then said, "Please come with me, my wife will make the best food you will ever eat in your life, even if we have a food shortage, my wife is the best cook." When James and Ariel heard the words about the food shortage, they looked carefully at Narbeth and the elves around them, and then they both noticed the exhaustion on the faces of all the elves, each of their bodies seemed to be slowly collapsing. The two of them looked at each other after seeing the surroundings and then James scratched his head and reached for his inventory. "Can you open up a bit?" Ariel asked, and with Narbeth''s order to retreat, James began pulling closed crates from his inventory. While the elves around were trying to figure out what was going on, James had already dropped over a hundred crates into the snow-covered square. After yawning, he asked, "There are many kilos of meat, vegetables and drinks here, I don''t know how many people live in the village, so I took out this much, do you need more?" James saw Narbeth''s shocked expression as he said this, and then he saw that the people around were watching him with their mouths open. James approached Ariel in surprise and then asked, "Did I do something wrong?" Ariel smiled and said, "It would be better to do this in a private place, you shouldn''t get carried away so fast." James looked at the people around him and then said, "I will be in charge of this floor, in the future Ariel and I will be the ones to run it, I am stating this on the mission the tower has given us, we will show the mission to everyone and gain your trust." Narbeth and the others were about to speak when they heard these words when James'' voice came again: "With me and Ariel here, no one will ever die of hunger or cold again, no one will fall victim to frost giants or any other monsters. I swear to you on the honour and majesty of the Chaos Guild." Chapter 186 - 186: Lets Upgrade the Village "With me and Ariel here, no one will ever again die of hunger or cold, no one will fall victim to frost giants or any other beast. I swear to you on the honour of the Chaos Guild." It had been almost an hour since James had uttered these words, and now they were busy eating the food made by his wife in the cosy house, Narbeth''s mansion-like house. Narbeth''s wife worked wonders with the food James had brought, especially since James had never seen Ariel behave like this before. Ariel was consuming the food like an animal, and James agreed with Ariel a little, the food they were eating was as good or better than the food James had eaten on Olympus. "Narbeth, I''ve shown you the task, I want you to summon every race or community on this floor." Narbeth looked surprised when James said these words, shook his head as if he could not understand why the young man before him would ask such a thing, and then asked, "What is the reason for this, young master?" "You are a small community, the races and individuals of the entire floor should unite so that you can form a community. What you all are doing is sheer stupidity, living separately when you can save everyone." S§×ar?h the Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Narbeth nodded at James'' words and then stood up and said, "With your permission, I will fulfil your request, my wife is the second leader of the village, if you want to do something, you have full authority." With those words Narbeth left the house, James turned to his wife and said, "Ma''am, I didn''t ask your name." She bowed politely and then said, "My name is Elenor, sir." James smiled when he heard the name Elenor and then said, "You are the second Elenor I know, the first one was incredibly brave." Elenor smiled after these words and asked, "What do you want from me, young master?" The woman seemed to realise that James was going to say something. James was surprised that she had realised he was going to ask for something and looked at Elenor with admiration. "I don''t think you''ve been able to get anything done because of the cold, is that right?" James asked, and hearing this, Elenor nodded her head and confirmed James. After these words, James stood up and then said, "Please take me to a huge piece of land that can be considered sheltered. And please call the architects and engineers in the village, if there are any." Elanor''s eyes lit up at James''s words, not quite understanding what he was trying to do, but realising that something big was about to happen. When Elanor left the dining room to get ready, Ariel turned to James standing next to her and then, with a mouthful of meat grease and greasy hands, asked the question as she continued to eat: "Are you thinking of building a greenhouse?" James took a few steps back as if disgusted by the Ariel he was looking at and then said, "I''m thinking of building greenhouses, not just one greenhouse." After a few minutes, Elanor came back into the room and said, "Please follow me, young master." James nodded and left the room with Elanor, and as he walked out the door of the house, he realised that several male and female elves were standing in front of him. "I have summoned all the architects and engineers using magic, young master," Elanor said. With those words, the group had walked for almost twenty minutes before James arrived at the huge estate he had asked for. The land was not far from the village, but it was not close, it was about 7 or 8 minutes away from the last house in the village. James turned to Elanor and said, "It''s a perfect field, please stand behind me, what I''m about to do won''t hurt you, but you still need to be careful." As the elves quickly turned behind James, he closed his eyes and then took a deep breath and began to release his aura. The elves were incredibly surprised, the snow burst into flames. Every puddle of snow around him was melting. When James let out the most powerful flame he could use, jet black flames, the snow began to melt deeply, and after a short time, almost ten metres of snow had melted away. Perhaps not even a snowflake was left in the five hundred metre area. James then took out from his inventory a desk, a large sheet of paper, a pen and pencil, and a ruler. "Are you an architect, sir?" one of the elves asked, to which James replied, "No, but I know an architect, I have learnt a little. I will draw you a template, give you the necessary materials and you will build it." James learned a lot when Ronald made him learn by force while they were on the 5th floor building the main house on the mountain. With these words, James quickly managed to draw the greenhouse template, wrote explanations on another piece of paper, whether the elves knew how greenhouses worked or not, and then gave these papers to the elf who had just spoken to him. When the elves gathered and read and analysed the papers, Elenor was surprised and said to James, "The young master must know a lot, he even came up with a solution for growing plants." When James heard these words he smiled and said "I watched a lot of documentaries.". This explained where all his knowledge came from. Neither Elenor nor the other elves understood what he was talking about, but they did not think to question him. However, James left all the items he thought he would need in the field, but he was missing one thing. He turned to one of the elves and said, "I don''t know how to solve the glass problem." Glass was essential for greenhouses. "Ah! We can do that, young master. There is a wizard in our village who knows sand magic." One of the elves said, and with that, probably the last material was found. The only problem was the sunlight, James didn''t know exactly how to solve it. "I don''t know how to deal with the sunlight..." he muttered to himself in a very low voice. When he said this a new window opened right in front of him. Chapter 187 - 187: The Little Three James was surprised to see the message window pop up in front of him and then asked, "Do you mean what you say, Apollo?" [I''m serious, this village, or rather most of the floor, worships the gods of Olympus, as you can understand, this floor, like the tutorial, is a floor that has already existed and remains as a memory, while the tower has permanently revived everyone, that is, before the frost giants and other monsters destroyed everything. Which means you are in the village of the elves who worship me, the light itself]. As soon as James had said Apollo''s name, at least three or four elves had turned to him in surprise, all of them astonished that Apollo, who was a saviour to them, could be so easily named. "Do you know our god, young master?" Elanor asked suddenly and James smiled and replied, "He is a dear friend of mine." Elanor and the others did not know what to say to these words. "Apollo said that there is someone in the village who can use his light, is that true?" Elanor nodded when James asked this question and then James snapped his fingers and said "That''s good news, I''m glad Apollo wasn''t lying, we need a battery for the person with the light element when the construction is finished. This can be done easily, we have engineers after all." In short, James was planning to get the required sunlight from Apollo''s light. Of course, it would not be as perfectly nourishing as the energy of sunlight, but it was still more than enough. James had already thought of a method of generating the necessary heat and had added it to the plan, it was just a matter of finishing the construction. As James continued to unpack the materials a question suddenly seemed to occur to him. "Apollo or the others, I have a question. When we enter the tower, we choose a class immediately after the tutorial, and then we encounter another class selection on the 20th floor. What about the gods and goddesses blessing others? If there is such a thing, why do we need to choose a class?" When James voiced the question in his mind, there was no answer for a few minutes. He seemed to be taking out the desired materials from his inventory on the one hand and waiting for an answer on the other. After almost four minutes, a message fell in front of him: [Selecting a class binds the chosen deity directly to the user or player. This means that the god or goddess cannot be bound to ANYONE else in any way. Poseidon''s power is bound to his son Theseus, and Demeter''s power is bound to her daughter Persephone. Blessing, on the other hand, means that the gods or goddesses divide a part of their power and give a part of their power to the person they bless. Until that person chooses another god or goddess, their powers remain as they received them from the beings who blessed them. Of course, the blessed can gain other abilities, but no other god or goddess can bless them. So while blessing is the gods or goddesses lending their power, the user and player''s choice of class is what binds them to the user or player]. James nodded as he read this detailed message from Zeus and then seemed to realise what the differences were. "Thank you, Zeus, you''ve been very helpful," James said and with that Elanor''s face turned sour. "Even our god Zeus is your friend, young master?" Elanor asked, to which James shrugged his shoulders in reply. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Well, so-so," he said after shrugged his shoulders. However, in the distance, several figures could be seen coming fast. James saw three people running fast and coming towards him and the group of elves with him. Unable to tell whether they were friend or foe, he pulled his sword Clarent from his inventory and stood at the ready. A huge aura surrounded the area, and even if the black flames that had formed on the snow did not melt the snow, they still presented a frightening sight. After almost ten seconds, James realised that Narbeth had brought them. Returning his sword Clarent to his inventory, James smiled and then bowed his head in respect to Narbeth and the others who appeared before him. "Young master, since the villages are not far away, I was able to gather the leaders quickly." As James heard these words, he looked at the two men standing behind Narbeth. One of them was a dwarf. The dwarf''s long, coarse beard, thick eyebrows, tired expression and rather stern posture seemed to indicate that he was the man''s favourite. The second person was a woman, a tall woman with horns, a little dark skin and muscles on her body. Even though he couldn''t quite make out the race of the woman, James still realised that she was someone to be respected, even though her gaze was full of majesty. James introduced himself after looking at the pair: "Nice to meet you, my name is James. I go by the name Umbra of Chaos. I am the warrior of Nyx and the favourite of the Chaos-Born. I am the wife of Nyx''s daughter Nemesis and the leader of the Church of Night." Narbeth and everyone around him were surprised at James'' words, neither the leader of the elven village nor the elves around knew who he was since James had not introduced himself in such detail. With this introduction, everything became clear. "My name is Dandelion, leader of the Half-Devil village. Next to me is the dwarf Luke. It is a great honour to meet the warrior of the goddess...on top of that, you are the wife of Nemesis, the daughter of the goddess, what an honour." Dandelion suddenly said, and with these words, James'' approval was evident from the smile on his face. "The honour is mine. If you are free I would like to talk to you about my plans. I hope Narbeth has already told you something about my mission," James said and with that, it was indicated that a break was needed, at least for James and Elanor. Chapter 188 - 188: The Treaty "I understand who you are, but what about Mistress Ariel? Is she a goddess too?" Narbeth suddenly asked, and James, hearing these words, smiled and said, "No. Ariel is my knight, the first commander and first warrior of the Chaos Guild, one of the two people I consider my right arm and my mother." With these words, James turned to Ariel, who was still eating and then asked, "Like...Can you stop?" He was embarrassed, Ariel''s eating style made him nauseous, but on the other hand, it seemed to increase the dwarf and half-devil''s respect for him. It was a very strange situation. When Ariel shook her head no, James turned to Elanor and said, "I swear she''s one of the nicest people you''ll ever meet, your cooking has done that to her, ma''am." Elanor smiled proudly and James turned his head to Narbeth and the other two and began to speak: "Narbeth told you about my mission. Ariel and I will be the owners of this floor after a while. We are not like the people you have seen before. Believe me, I know how strange, cruel and greedy my own race can be, but if you worship Olympus, you know who I am, or rather who the woman I am a warrior for is. I and my subordinates are unlike any human you have ever seen." With these words of James, Dandelion''s voice rose: "We understand that, but you need to understand that even if we want to believe you, it is very, very difficult for us to trust humans." Hearing Dandelion''s words, James shook his head and then said, "That''s understandable. Rest assured, even I don''t trust humanity, and if I''m going to trust anyone other than my subordinates, I choose not to do so without investigating everything they''ve done so far. As I said, humanity is strange, cruel and greedy, but even they have their good sides. They can put everything aside when necessary, they can choose to fight, and they will do anything to protect something they care about, even if it means death. Could you do that?" he said. No one could say anything in response to his words and James'' voice rose again: "Would dwarves who worship jewels be willing to give them up and save all their people? Would elves, devoted to their lives and beauty, stop thinking of themselves and come to the aid of someone other than, perhaps, their own family? What about half-demons? How long can they stop boasting of their powers and run into danger to fight for other?" The trio looked at each other as James uttered these words, his point was quite clear. Every race, every monster, and even every god and goddess had a minus point. It was true that humans had more minus points than other races, but that did not mean that other races were perfect. "I...I already said I would follow you, sir. You gave to us when others had stolen from us, and in just the day you have been here you have been working to improve the village. I can''t think what I should be doing instead of following you." Narbeth said suddenly, looking at Elanor and trying to remember how long it had been since his wife had had such a pure smile on her face. If she was smiling like that only because of the hope James had given them, Narbeth would be proud to fight in James'' footsteps. "If old Narbeth has that much faith in you, I might as well try to have a little faith in you," Dandelion said, and then eyes turned to Luke. Luke shook his head, he had never in his entire life thought he would ever encounter anything like this, but he still wished he could trust Narbeth, whom he considered his friend, and Dandelion, whom he considered his nephew. "If what you are about to do is right and proper, young master, I would rather follow you than see the end of my lineage and my village." At Luke''s words, James reached into his inventory and pulled out a scroll and a quill. He began to scribble on the parchment. After almost three minutes, he handed the scroll to the trio and then said, "These are the things I plan to do and the things I swear I will do and sign. Please check it." Narbeth took the scroll in his hand and then began to read it aloud: "James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos, swears to always protect the three villages against the frost giant and other dangers, to protect the village against hunger and thirst and to always provide provisions, and that the Church of Night will especially protect the village if the three villages are united. It is specifically stated that the races within the village will not be considered inferior to the people in any situation. It is specifically stated that everyone will have equal rights. With the union of the three villages, three leaders will be placed in the council and will receive counselling from the Church of the Night, while one of the three will lead the people of the united villages, changing annually." When Narbeth had finished reading the parchment, the trio took the quill from his hand and signed the parchment without even turning their eyes to James, and when James did the same, the parchment glowed and disappeared. "The agreement was made on the scroll given to me by Themis, Goddess of Justice. There is no way to break this agreement, those who break it will face death, I pray that this union is good." James suddenly said and with that, he stood up and shook hands with the trio one by one. After this handshake, James paused for a few seconds and then realised that a message window had opened in front of him: S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [I am sending you four scrolls of my acceptance of the deal, give three to the others]. Three small scrolls appeared in his hand and he handed three of them one at a time to the three people in front of him. "These scrolls are the scrolls created with the approval of Themis, they have been checked by the goddess and no problems have been found. Congratulations on the merger of the three villages, friends." Chapter 189 - 189: Yetis (1) It had been exactly 20 days since James and Ariel had arrived on the floor. They were finally counted as having passed a floor, which gave them access to the 29th floor. James and Ariel could not make any purchases because the system''s shopping panel was completely closed. This feature was fully opened after the 20th floor. The large-scale auction panel that James wished to make in the future was located at the bottom of this market panel. In short, James or Ariel could not buy supplies or anything else. Since James liked to be prepared, he still had hundreds of parcels of supplies in his inventory, but they would only be enough to feed over a thousand creatures for a while. After the merger of the three villages, James planned to enter the mountain with the help of the dwarves to fence off the entire village and protect it. The dwarves would protect them until they had the necessary supplies. Ariel stayed where the old elven village, the newly united community of villages, was and guarded it, while James guarded the mines. "Master James, we have managed to extract 40% of the minerals we want, but we would like to stay here longer. If it is possible, we can move the mines further, and with more minerals, we can make the fortifications stronger and better serve those who will protect the village. We just need your approval." The dwarf, the best miner under Luke''s command, was leading the dwarves in digging the mines, and since James, the guardian, was the main decision maker, he needed to consult. "We can stay here as long as you like, it could be days, go ahead and keep digging without thinking, but protect yourselves, we don''t want you to be buried under the mountain," James said suddenly and the dwarf who heard this nodded, turned round and went back into the mines. After only a few minutes the voices were heard again: "CLINK!" The sound of each digging hit the cave walls and travelled up the mines, creating a ringing sound in the ear. "CLANG!!!" The sound of the blows grew louder and louder, showing how fast and serious the dwarves were digging. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "CLATTER!!!" With each stroke, James slowly began to realise the seriousness of the situation. Of course, he was serious to some extent, but the hard work of the dwarves seemed to indicate how much they wanted to protect the people of the village, and since he was to be one of the new owners of this huge floor, James had to come to his senses. As James was filled with these thoughts he suddenly noticed several figures in the distance. These figures, perhaps two or three metres taller than James, were growing taller as they approached. When James realised this, he suddenly brought out the holy sword Clarent from his inventory and then stood at attention. "DO NOT LEAVE THE CAVE!" James shouted, and with that, the fences in front of the cave were instantly closed. When James realised that the dwarves were safe, he slowly made his way through the snow. It was snowing heavily, but every snowflake that entered James'' aura field became water and fell on the snow on the ground. It would certainly help to say that the snow masses around James were also slowly melting and evaporating. As James began to approach the beings, he realised that Narbeth''s ''Frost Giant'' statement was completely false. He had never encountered these beasts before, but he had read about them in the imperial library of the Empire of the Sun. "Yetis," James said suddenly. Each of the yetis was almost 8 or 9 metres taller than James, indeed it would have been quite normal to see them as giants, and if they didn''t have the name Yeti they certainly deserved the name Frost Giant. They stood with crimson eyes and white fur, their hands and feet were greyish, and the thickness of their fur seemed to explain how they survived in the cold. With almost fifty metres between him and the yetis, James took a deep breath. James was fast, his greatest advantage over the larger figures was his speed, not counting his abilities. It was precisely because of this that he suddenly lunged forward. The holy sword enveloped Clarent in its aura, and then, cautiously, he began to run towards the nearest yeti. Each of the yetis saw James running towards them and rushed forward to attack. James, of course, was not going to be knocked down. As soon as he rushed forward and started to close the distance, the yeti closest to him suddenly attacked. The yeti raised its hands to the sky, and then, joining its hands together, swung them to hit the ground. James leapt into the air at that very moment and avoided the yeti''s attack with a leap of almost 10 metres. Swinging Clarent, the holy sword covered with his aura, James separated the huge yeti''s huge head from his body in just a second. "thud." When the huge head fell to the ground, it landed on the snow mass in a place where James'' aura did not reach, and the snow absorbed all the sound and eliminated the frightening image. James stepped on the shoulder of the yeti, which had started to fall towards the ground because it refused to fall to the ground, and then almost flew towards the yeti that was furthest away from him, almost 60 metres away. In just three seconds, the holy sword Clarent had plunged into the yeti''s heart and James had fallen to the earth and waited under the hot blood splattering from the yeti. When the yeti''s body fell backwards, this time the snow mass could not swallow the sound and a huge sound rose to the sky: "THUD!!!" James, covered in blood, looked towards the other six yetis around him and said the following words while he seemed to have no emotion in his eyes: "You all are a hundred times weaker than I thought. Pathetic." Chapter 190 - 190: Yetis (2) "You all are a hundred times weaker than I thought. Pathetic." At these words of James, the yetis seemed to get angry. The eyes of the yetis, which had red eyes, turned black. James suddenly realised that every hair on his body was standing on end as if his body was warning him to back off. James suddenly backed away a few metres and as he did so a great weight fell on his body. It was a good thing he had backed up only a second ago. The entire body of the yeti on the ground was crushed by the pressure and disappeared. "Gravity?" James muttered, and with that, he saw the yetis starting to move towards him. As the yetis began to run towards him, James ran away without a backward glance and then chose to use Desmond''s Sword Art. His magic which is mana and aura in his body began to spin. Since he was facing multiple targets, he chose to use the wounding piercing style from the piercing part of the sword art. When the mana and aura in his body began to spin and combine, he turned around without thinking and began to release the recovered aura one by one. One by one, the great degree of accumulated magic and aura began to be released from the sword. This time, however, instead of dividing this power into six in a single area, James scattered it around. Six pieces of small power were divided into six different parts and scattered around. The energy emitted from the holy sword Clarent was quite weakened as it did not hit the target at almost the same time by merging in one place. Still, only three of his attacks managed to hit the targets, and even if the three yetis were not killed, they were greatly weakened. James saw that the yeti that had applied gravity had also been injured, the other yetis had also applied the ability, but the one that had applied it first was stronger than any of them. James took a deep breath as he jumped back a few more steps and then decided to try something. He figured it wouldn''t do him any harm to try since the target in front of him was big. He pulled Selene''s Throwing Knife from his inventory while dodging the huge yetis coming after him. As soon as he managed to transfer his aura to the blade, he began to spin the aura. He hadn''t dared to try anything since he hadn''t managed to add the mana, but he realised that at least he could successfully spin the aura on the blade. "Well done James." He smiled as those words suddenly rose in his mind, and then he realised he was on the right track. He ran quickly and then when he was about forty metres from the yetis, he stopped, turned around quickly and threw Selene''s Throwing Knife at the nearest yetis. "Whikt!!!" A long sound piercing through the air, almost slicing through the air, echoed through the air and hit the yeti closest to him at an incredible speed. The falling snow stopped there for a second, and without realising it, James saw that he had used a bit of the time element in his aura. "BOOM!" As that second passed, the sound of the explosion echoed through the sky, and then a huge, round cavity appeared in the yeti''s chest. Not even blood flowed from the yeti''s body, the yeti just fell to the ground and James smiled as he realised that he had successfully done what he had thought he had done. "I''m proud of you James, you don''t even realise how far you''ve come." James smiled as he heard his ancestor Vlad''s voice in his mind again and then the holy sword in his hand filled Clarent with the aura and mana he had returned. The holy sword Clarent burst into flame and as James thrust it forward it roared, making dragon patterns as it travelled towards the yetis and then began to burn the yetis. James had no idea what he had done, but it was obvious that whatever he had done, it had been quite perfect. As the yetis fell to the ground one by one, James took a deep breath and realised that it was finally time to use that thing he had won so long ago. Taking the Void Pen out of his inventory, he squeezed it carefully and then spoke in his mind: "Ariel, 9 yetis came to the mines, I managed to kill every one of them, be careful, they use gravity magic when their eyes turn black." Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He had long ago acquired this void pen, which he could use up to three times a day, but he had never had a reason to use it, and now it was useful, he could speak directly into Ariel''s mind instead of opening the system panel and trying to send a message. Inside the united village, however, something different was happening. Ariel had already taken care of five of the six yetis that had come through the village and was trying to deal with the last one. Ariel''s blades were being thrown with perfect strength, and each blade drove deep into the yeti''s body, sending roars into the sky. The yeti realised it had no more power and fell to the ground, seemingly accepting death, its gravity ability gone, and as soon as Ariel realised this, she pulled another knife from her inventory and threw it at the yeti. In just a few seconds the yeti fell to the ground, stabbed dozens of times, and after a while, it stopped moving. As Ariel jumped down from the yeti''s body into the snow, she felt the gaze of the village. The three leaders were stunned, it would take an entire village of dwarves or demi-demons to kill just one of what they considered to be frost giants, but Ariel had destroyed six of them in almost ten minutes. "What happened?" Ariel asked suddenly, and Narbeth and the others couldn''t say anything. Chapter 191 - 191: Mines "You''re amazing, Master Ariel, you are as strong as you say," Elanor suddenly said. Ariel, hearing this, said, "Well, of course, I didn''t become the commander of the Chaos Guild for nothing." and then opened the message window as if nothing had happened and sent a message to James, "I''ve already done it." With that, there was nothing else to do, and as Ariel stretched her body and yawned, many elves passed by her and then began to carry the bodies of the yetis. Ariel couldn''t understand what was going on, so she turned to Narbeth and the others and received the following reply: "Yeti feathers are very luxurious materials and their blood has healing properties, very healing for half-demon children born weak." However, Ariel realized that she needed to send another message to James and wrote to him that she needed the yeti bodies. "The bodies of the other yetis will be here, no problem, let''s get on with our work." Ariel suddenly said and everyone started to get on with their work, happy to be out of danger. James, on the other hand, had already sent the bodies of the yetis to his inventory and managed to return to the mine''s door. When he asked for the door to be opened, the dwarves who had come out saw that James was covered from head to toe in blood and shook their heads in disbelief, trying to understand what had happened. No one seemed to believe that James could actually kill Yetis, which must have been why the dwarves were grumpy, each of them must have thought they were on a killing mission. "Are you all right, sir?" asked the leader of the mine and with a nod from James all the dwarves were ordered back to work. Several crates full of ore were placed on the snow drifts in front of James, along with the wagons coming down the tracks. James was sending perhaps a tonne of ore to his inventory, never had it worked so well for climbers to have unlimited inventories. James had so far filled 23 pages of the sixteen rows of inventory sheets, with eight empty spaces in almost every row. This meant that James had exactly 2944 crates of various types of ore in his inventory. Since each crate was capable of holding exactly 10 tonnes of ore, he had exactly 29,440 tonnes of ore in his inventory. James was very pleased with this development, he now understood why certain regions were important to the guilds. That was why the two kingdoms claimed by Olympus and Asgard in the war that broke out during his time in the Imperial Library were so important to them. Both kingdoms were rich in minerals. When the dwarves went back to their work, James took off his thick clothes full of blood in the middle of all the snow and then put on new clothes and continued to observe his surroundings. He had managed to get the blood off his head on top of the snow and had chosen to go about his task with what he considered to be almost complete cleanliness. "You have done an excellent job, James. It was genius of you to think of using my father''s sword art in that way. Of course, I would have told you about such use when you mastered the art of the sword, but the fact that you thought of it before I told you was brilliant. I''m proud of you." James smiled as he heard Vlad''s voice echoing in his mind and then let the praise from his ancestor make his heart skip a beat. "I''m full of pride too, little one, Emily too, well done, you''ve done very well," Abby said and with that, she added, "We can start your lesson now," and James'' energy instantly collapsed. "Do we have to do this now? It''s already cold..." As James made his excuse, his ancestor saw Abby''s spirit emerge from the ring and saw the smiling face of the red-haired woman. Abby smiled as she looked gently at James and then said these words that made James smile with excitement: sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, but the second best time to plant the same tree is now. Remember that, James." When Abby had finished, James nodded his head up and down with an excited smile on his face and then asked, "Well then, what am I going to learn?" Abby prepared to speak and began to speak. James was going to stay in the mines for a long time and take as much material as he and the dwarves could back to the village. As time began to tick by, everything began to change. In the blink of an eye, almost a week had passed and James and the dwarves had finally made it back to the village. They had managed to extract over 20,000 tonnes of ore in almost half a day''s work, and in one week James had added almost half a million tonnes of ore to his inventory. Everything necessary to protect the village was ready. The structures and tasks of the walls had already been drawn by elf and dwarf engineers and the areas had already been marked. James took some time to rest after returning to the village and after leaving 5% of the mines where necessary, he went to clean the marked areas. Even though everyone, including Ariel, told him that he should rest, he still chose not to leave today''s work for tomorrow and aimed to finish his work at full speed despite all the rumours. Knowing that the village was going to grow in the future, James had argued that there had to be an area almost as big as the imperial palace, and that was precisely why such a huge amount of ore had to be mined. In short, James would have to devote many hours to a clean-up and would have to help everyone with all his strength to build that area. The power level of the demi-demons was excellent. With his power status, James was able to carry thirty tonnes of ore with difficulty, but the half-demons were not even sweating, let alone struggling to carry a hundred or two hundred tonnes of ore. This was an incredible event. Chapter 192 - 192: Palace Walls When James saw the differences between the races again, he remembered that Abby had taught him not to underestimate any race. His ancestor Abby had been right. James had seen the difference in power status between other races. Still, James knew that with his abilities and other trump cards at his disposal, he could kill anyone at any time, so he was still stronger, but he had been crushed in status. Therefore it was showing that the levels weren''t everything once more. By the time he had cleared the place where the construction of the walls was to begin, he had completely forgotten that he was busy giving his approval to the talk about the length of the walls. "Master James, we ask you." James, who had suddenly been roused by a voice from Narbeth, turned round. Looking at the drawings on the scrolls, he said, "This length is good, we will need way more mines than a wall to be built for almost 70,000 square metres, but this is the length required for the yetis, or ice giants, as you call them." and approved the project. Even with all the ore they had, they would still have to fortify an area as big as the Sun Empire''s massive palace, but it was clear that it would not be a good idea to do it all at once, which is why Luke seemed to have an idea. "Young Master James, isn''t the palace you told us about, with all its gardens and beauty and training grounds and everything, just that big?" When James shook his head at Luke''s question, Luke began to speak again. "If we use the minerals we have extensively, we can enclose the village with walls of the same length to include the agricultural areas. This will allow us to spend more time on the next mining operation." When Luke''s words were heard, James waited for a few seconds and then asked, "It might look like different tiered zones, how do we solve that problem?" After James'' question, Luke shook his head and then said, "We can make a section with four entrances, we can create a huge section in the middle of the village where we will build a castle or palace by dividing the walls, we can have free space since we will cut the wooded areas and plant them in the distant areas." James smiled as soon as he heard these words and then said, "A palace that stands behind the walls and extends away from the same walls? I like this plan." He said and indicated that he gave his approval. After these words, all the positions were withdrawn, the signal flags were moved to an area well back, to the agricultural fields outside the village, and James began to clear that area. The rampart frames, made of the minerals the dwarves had brought from their own villages, were already in place. After James had melted the snow with his flames destroyed the underlying ice layer and dried the soil, the rock mixture that would stabilise the ground to some extent was poured on the ground. After waiting for it to dry, the small frames, which were the first part of the wall, started to be erected one by one. At that moment James felt that someone was watching them from the distant woods, something was watching them. After calling Ariel to his side, he took Miracle out of his inventory and ordered her to protect Ariel, telling Ariel to keep an eye on the woods. With that, Ariel and Miracle entered the forest. As the blue-haired woman entered the forest, she realised that what James had said was true, someone was indeed watching her and Miracle. Ariel, who had begun to look around cautiously, took out her knives from her inventory, raised her eyes towards Miracle, who was sitting on her head, and then said, "If you hear or see anything, tell me directly." "Okay, Grandma." Miracle said, and with the seriousness of a child, Miracle started to check the surroundings and tried to hear the sounds with her constantly moving ears. After only half a minute, Miracle said in a low voice, "They''re to our right, Grandma"'' and Ariel, hearing this, suddenly turned to the right and ran. After a few seconds, Ariel encountered several beings and saw the silence and fear on their faces. "Pixies..." Ariel said. She realised at that moment that there was no reason to fight. "Please don''t hurt us, my whole tribe has come to ask for help..." said the largest of the Pixies, almost forty centimetres tall. "We came here to spy on you because we thought you were enemies, if you want help, why didn''t you come and ask?" Ariel said, and the female pixie who heard this tilted her head and replied, "The demi-demons are big, we are afraid..." "Haha...You can come with us, there is not much to be afraid of, pixie spells will help us a lot." Ariel said, and with that, the pixies were happy, but they were still afraid. S§×ar?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Ariel smiled as she saw the gaze fixed on Miracle, the little she-dragon, and then asked, "Miracle, honey, would you please change into human form?" When the little girl Miracle nodded her head and transformed into human form, the pixies looked at the little dragon transformed into human form with admiration and hugged her. Almost two hundred pixies were flying around and some of them were hugging Miracle. With that, it became clear that there was no danger and they returned to the village under construction. The demi-demons, elves and dwarves were shocked. "I thought you were extinct, oh dear pixies," Narbeth suddenly said, surprise written all over his face. James smiled when he saw the pixies and went to the eldest one and said, "My name is James, nice to meet you, you must be the leader." Pixie shook her head and held her face with an embarrassed look and then landed on James'' shoulder and then waited there. When James thought he had made new friends and smiled, he saw a message in front of him that he had never expected and that made him tremble from his toes to every hair on his head. [Nemesis looks like it''s going to kill you, James.] Moros played the role of the bad messenger again. Chapter 193 - 193: It Has a Cost When James read this message from Moros, he shook his head and clarified that there was no problem. "It''s ridiculous that you even think I''d cheat on you Neme, you shouldn''t be jealous," said James, having no idea that Nemesis had been blowing smoke out of his head with those words. With that, he gently picked up the pixie on his shoulder and then placed it on the closed metal crate beside him. "Little lady, everyone knows that pixies excel in aerial magic, and if this is true for your tribe, we will ask for your help. It will not be a problem for you to stay here," James suddenly said, and with those words, the leader of the pixies smiled and introduced himself: "Forgive my rudeness, I am a fairy queen, we pixies have no names. Nice to meet you, we will work hard and pay you back." said the pixie who introduced herself as the queen. After these words, when James was about to speak, the pixie queen flew from where she was and then whispered something in James''s ear. James shook his head when he heard these words and then turned to Dandelion and said, "It seems that they are a little afraid of half-demons." Dandelion was about to explain how they shouldn''t be afraid when one of the demi-demons next to him suddenly shouted: "HOW CAN THEY BE AFRAID OF US? WE ARE THE KINDEST CREATURES!" With that shout, over two hundred pixies flew behind the little dragon Miracle and the pixie queen stood behind James and looked at the demi-demons. "IDIOT!" shouted Dendalion and slapped her sidekick on the head quite hard. As the half-devil fell to the ground, Dandelion gently walked towards the pixie queen and said, "I don''t know why you are afraid of us, but don''t worry, I will do my best to protect you." Hearing these words, the pixie queen came out from behind James and then landed on Dandelion''s shoulder. The remaining pixies, as if realising that there was no point in hiding after their queen''s actions, came out from behind Miracle and covered Dandelion. At that moment, James'' voice was heard. "Let''s call you Sophia, that''s your name." When James heard these words, the pixie queen and everyone else turned to him and then James said these words: "She looked like Sophia, so there''s nothing wrong with her, she should have a name, right?" [You don''t even know what you just did, do you?] James shook his head as he looked at the message from Moros, and then the pixie queen, who had been given the name Sophia, smiled and flew into James'' face and stuck there. "Master gave me a name!!!" She screamed suddenly. James, trying to figure out what was going on, somehow pulled Sophia out of his face and then looked at the other message Moros had sent: [Pixies are in the service of the people who name them, I hope you don''t call me names when you pass out soon]. James was trying to work out what the message meant when he suddenly felt a huge pain in his head. His nose began to bleed and he felt all the mana in his body being sucked out of him. Even though his aura was trying to keep his body afloat, the sudden loss of mana was taking James to the brink of death. While Ariel was trying to understand what was happening, just like James, a message appeared in front of her: [James named a pixie and made it his servant. The pixie she named is a queen, a very powerful being, one of the closest to perfection, one of the purest beings, one might say on the same level as an Archangel, on the side of purity. It takes an enormous amount of mana to name such a force. James is going to faint, get him to safety]. sea??h th§× N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Ariel read this message, she ran towards James and then started running towards the village, carrying him like a princess. Ariel herself could feel the mana disappearing from James'' body, Ariel wasn''t even a mana user, but even her body started to tremble out of fear. The first thing that surprised him was that James had such a mana reservoir in his body, the second thing that surprised him was how fast it was being depleted. James was just about to faint, he wasn''t going to die because of his aura, he would die if his mana continued to dwindle and deplete like this, but the fact that he had both the aura and the magical energy, the magic itself, the mana in his body was what would keep him alive. Sophia flew as fast as she could and managed to grab onto Ariel''s shoulder. Arriving at Narbeth''s house after a short time, Ariel put James, whom she had carried, on the bed and then began to clean the blood from his nose. After cleaning the blood from James''s nose, Ariel reached for her inventory and somehow found the bottle she was looking for in her chaotic inventory, and then opened the cap of the bottle and threw the dust in it on James. It was a sleeping powder. James fell asleep in a very short time, almost five seconds later, and the blood stopped flowing from his nose. Looking back at Sophia, Ariel shook her head and then smiled and said, "You made a big scene, little one." and petted the pixie queen''s head with her finger. Sophia looked up at James and seemed upset, clearly not thinking that taking a name would create such a situation. "I''m sorry..." Sophia said, and Ariel''s expression came to life. "I don''t think James would be mad at you, he''s too soft-hearted to do something like that, it''s surprising that someone with the ability to kill a Fallen God would be like that, but it is what it is. Don''t worry about it." Ariel said and with that, she saw a message window appear: [When James wakes up, I want you to smack him upside the head, Ariel.] Ariel''s smile widened when she saw this message from Nemesis and then the following words were heard: "You should feel sorry for your husband''s suffering, Mistress Nemesis." Chapter 194 - 194: Time Passed Pretty Quickly Ey? When James opened his eyes again he noticed the sunlight coming in through the window in the room, he saw that there was no snowfall today and he tried to move, hoping that things would be easier. When he tried to move, not only did he fail to do so by even a centimetre, but he also noticed the enormous pain in his body and especially in his heart. James had no way of describing the pain in his body. Even when Noah had trained him in poison, or when he had fought the Fallen God to the point of death on the ice mountain, he had never experienced such immense pain. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He could feel everything from his toes to the hair on his head, but this time it wasn''t excitement, adrenaline or fear, but pure pain. "Argh..." With a small whimper, he stared at the message window that opened in front of him: [How are you feeling my not-so-smart husband?] When James looked at this message from Nemesis, he smiled and then said, "I''m just a little sore." At that moment, the door of the room he was in opened and Ariel entered. When Ariel saw that James was awake, she said, "You had us quite worried." and then pulled up a chair and sat down. "Can you tell me what happened?" James suddenly asked, not in a humorous mood. Ariel giggled at the question, and after a few seconds of waiting, she spoke, making James look like an idiot: "I didn''t know that many monsters or races recognise you as their master when you name them, so when you named the pixies, you bound the pixie queen Sophia to you, just like Elise, your succubus servant, was bound to you." When James heard these words, he made a face as if he didn''t understand anything, and then he said, "What?" in surprise. He refused to believe that he had fainted just because he had named her. "You named a being as pure as a pixie queen, literally as pure and perfect as the Archangels. Do you know how many days you have been asleep?" At the end of Ariel''s words, James replied, "I don''t know," and Ariel replied back, "60 days, exactly 60 days you''ve been in this bed." James couldn''t help but be surprised when he heard this number. "If we add the previous 20 days, we''ve already quadrupled the floors that we meant to move? That means we only have 60 days left..." James said and Ariel''s angry expression appeared when she heard these words. "Everyone was so worried, not even Nemesis or Lady Nyx herself could come here unless this floor belonged to us. Even Ra, who is considered as a creator, can''t get in here, so you were dying James, you were dying as usual, you lived with a tiny fraction, if you didn''t have both magic and aura in your body, you would have died." Ariel suddenly said, frowning, clenching her teeth and expressing her anger with her worried pupils. James was silent for a few seconds when he heard those words, and then he began to say things that would silence the gods watching, let alone Ariel, and make them agree with him: "We often try to map everything out, setting everything up, how we know to do things. But the tower, it traps us and it does it all the time. Different traps always, different dead ends. In our world Ariel, we might have the chance to restard, leave the city and try to do things but in the tower...no---nothing changes." With James'' words, Ariel''s anger began to fade, but her anxiety began to rise even more. "Only when I started walking towards what felt the only right for me without trying to rationalise everything, I found the exist. In this tower, it always worked like this for me. So from time to time, I am not thinking, especially if we are in a safe place. I find my exit just like this from almost every danger." "But what you''re doing is dangerous...I understand, I really do, after all, the things we''re fighting, the scenarios we''re escaping or surviving...some of them are quite dangerous even for the people inside the tower, I really do get it. You''re not the only one though, we''ve talked about this before." Ariel was able to understand what James was saying, like most gods, though like most gods, Ariel herself knew that it wasn''t always the best option. "Sometimes everything you do know means nothing in the face of a new problem. But you should just keep moving towards what feels right. Pretty much, think hard but do not think hard at the same time, do you get me?" Ariel was about to respond to these words when James'' voice was heard again: "After all, as long as you move to what''s right for you, the exit will be clear ey?" As James said these words, Ariel stood up and then pulled a bottle out of her inventory and gently gave James a drink. James wanted to vomit as soon as the disgusting taste touched his tongue, but he restrained himself, and after he had somehow drunk the liquid in his mouth, he asked "What was that?" and received the answer "Medicine." "You need to rest now. For 55 days your body was in deep sleep and pain because every drop of mana in your body went to Sophia, you spent 5 days recovering your magic rings, and now you drank this medicine to recover your mana faster. You''ll be as good as new in a day or two." After Ariel''s words, James indicated that he understood by closing his eyes, but a completely different question appeared in his mind: "What about the mines? The construction of the walls must have slowed down while I slept. You can''t go and protect the mines when you''re protecting the village." When James asked this question, Ariel smiled and gave the most ridiculous answer she could give to James'' ears: Chapter 195 - 195: Uranus Moves "I left Miracle in the village and I guarded the mines." James, who didn''t seem to understand Ariel''s words, raised an eyebrow, looking annoyed. "Did I get that right? You left a little girl in the village to protect everyone from all dangers?" Ariel shook her head from side to side in disappointment as James asked this question, and then let out a deep breath and said, "I apologise for leaving a small female dragon to protect the village when she can destroy the entire floor if she has enough energy." James shut his mouth as soon as he heard those words and then coughed his jaw shut without even trying to say anything. "I don''t think I''m going to be able to sleep, sprinkle some of that sleeping powder on me," James said, and Ariel did as he said and poured every single grain of powder from the bottle she had taken out of her inventory on James. When James'' eyes closed, Ariel got up from where she was and went outside. Ariel saw Miracle and the others waiting outside the house and then said, "He''s fine, he just needs to rest for another day or so. Get back to work." After Ariel''s words, the others did as she said and left, leaving only her and the little girl Miracle. ----- Things were different on Olympus. Nyx, Erebus, and the Titans met in Nyx''s temple. The seriousness on each of their faces was evident. "Do you mean what you say, Nyx?" Erebus asked, even though he was having trouble believing his wife Nyx. "It would seem so," Nyx replied. "We couldn''t locate our enemies, but we were able to find the likely location of where they had information?" grumbled Gaia. Even to her, it seemed ridiculous that Nyx could find everything so fast. "That''s right. There''s a huge trove of information on the fortieth, thirty-fifth and twentieth floors. Exchanged. One of the Church Cardinals alerted me as soon as he realised, and after a little processing, I found out it was real," Nyx replied as she pulled a few papers out of her inventory and placed them on the table. Hyperion reached for the papers before anyone else and was surprised when he read them, "Are we sure the information on this paper is true?" he asked. "That''s right, it seems they''ve managed to set up barriers that even those in the Church of Night won''t notice. Unlike the fifth floor, on the twentieth floor, the church''s activity did not spread to the whole floor, so they settled there too. You already know the thirty-fifth and fortieth floors, the territory of the outlaws, the church has declared those two floors sinful and refused to enter them." Nyx replied and Hyperion shook his head. "I''ll delegate a few people, but everyone still needs to come to a decision. According to the paper, my dear siblings, father and mother, those bastards are trying to conquer the floors of the tower from the dark areas," Hyperion said. Hearing these words, Chronos frowned and then said, "So they are trying to start that war again. They are trying to bring back the era that caused the deaths of many of our friends..." With these words of Chronos, everyone fell silent and for a minute there was not even a sound of breathing in the area, as if they thought that they had to respect their dead friends. When the minute was over, everyone stood up and then the voice of Uranus was heard: "Careful then, let''s leave the twentieth floor to Datura and Aether, and the thirty-fifth floor to Hyperions. I will take care of the 40th floor myself, I will send everyone under my command there." S§×ar?h the novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The Titans and Erebus and Nyx, who looked at Uranus as if surprised by his words, did not know what to say. Uranus himself, which had not moved since Desmond had disappeared, or rather since the end of the war, seemed to be on the move, and this alone seemed to indicate that a new war was about to break out. What needed to happen was for James and all those under his command to regain their strength after so many wars and troubles, before the danger and one of the great extinctions occurred. After all, if a war was to be ''decisive'', the right side had to be strengthened, and in this case, the right side would be James and everyone who watched him and wanted to follow him. The Titans dispersed and Nyx and Erebus returned to the main hall and sat back down on the throne. Everyone''s eyes were on the two huge screens showing Ariel and James. James seemed to have woken up. ----- The first thing James did when he woke up was to get into the hot water. He went into the ''bath house'' section of Narbeth''s house, washed himself and then got into the hot tub. Even if the pain in his body was not completely gone, it would still be fair to say that all the pain was gone. Coming out of the bath, James was greeted by the smiles of many elves, dwarves and half-demons. Many pixies greeted him and the rest went about their business. Beyond the white earth, James managed to see the tall black thing in the area towards the woodland. It was clear to James at that moment that the walls were complete. Surrounding the whole village, the ramparts were indeed perfect, the beauty of the dwarf''s workmanship was truly as it was said to be. James slowly made his way through the village and even though he had been asleep for a long time, he managed to notice the changes. House styles and the like were no longer even in the same places, the behaviour of the elves and other races was quite different, each seemed to have colour in their faces, to have come alive. His steps stopped after a while, he came across a construction site and he could understand why the houses in the village had been moved. James realised that a building was being constructed right in the middle of the village, a building of enormous size and appearance, whose roads seemed to stretch to the outside of the walls. The sight made James smile, clearly not expecting such a thing. Chapter 196 - 196: Direct Action James smiled broadly as he saw the building in front of him, which had already begun to be constructed. What he was looking at was the palace under construction, or rather it looked like the construction of the church on this floor. "MASTER!" James suddenly heard the shout from behind him and turned round to see Sophia flying at him at full speed. "SLAP!" Sophia seemed to be crying as she slapped James across the face, and James realised that his face was getting wet. After somehow separating Sophia from his face, he wiped his face with a cloth he had taken out of his inventory and then asked, ''What happened?'' Sophia spoke with a crying face: "I''M JUWST HAPPY DAT YOU ARE ALIVE!" The fact that Sophia was crying and shouting at the same time made it difficult to understand her, but James realised what had happened. "So, dying is not in my plans Sophia," James said and with that, he realised that his body was shaking. Something was making his blood boil. "DING-TING-DING!!!" Suddenly the sound of bells echoed from the far side of the village and someone''s shout rose into the sky: "LOOK OUT, THE ICE DRAGON IS COMING!!!" James shook his head as soon as he heard these words and said "Oh fuck off mate!" and started running towards the walls of the village. Just over an hour after waking up, James was in a situation where he had to fight. His body was still quite sore, but strangely he was moving more freely than he had been before he passed out. He couldn''t understand what was going on for a few seconds and then realised that Sophia''s hair was glowing with a dim light as she clung tightly to his shoulder. "Sophia what are you doing?!" James shouted as he ran from one side and back "I''m speeding you up! I''m Pixie, I use air, remember?!" came the reply. However, even though James had suddenly activated his dark step ability and was going to waste magical energy for nothing, he still tried to test his speed. Although his Agility stat was the same, his current speed had indeed increased to a gigantic size. With each step, he almost passed five or even six houses. After only a minute of help, he managed to reach the walls of the village and then saw the chaos outside. He could see an azure blue dragon standing on the earth. Next to the dragon stood dozens of yetis and hundreds of ice goblins. James suddenly reached into his inventory and pulled out the holy sword Clarent. He could easily see elves and dwarves trying to flee. Half-demons seemed to be trying to fight. He could see his daughter, Miracle, in human form, digging her claws into the ice goblins and Ariel trying to kill the ice dragon with all her might. James suddenly stopped where he was and closed his eyes. The elves and dwarves running past him and entering the village were admiring him. This was because the aura and magic around James was going crazy. He was still unable to fully hold the aura and magic that he was entangled in his body. Every second he was releasing time element, fire element and poison element. Nevertheless, the aura and magic he was spinning around in his body were incalculable. The aura and magic overflowing out every second was increasing, and even this seemed to understand how great power James was playing with. It was at that moment that Ariel realised the huge amount of energy behind her, the last time she had felt it was during that strange attack James had made on the 24th floor. At that moment, Ariel stopped fighting the ice dragon and started running to the left. The half-demons who were still fighting were trying to figure out why Ariel would do such a thing when they heard her voice: "EVERYONE GO BACK!!! COME NEAR ME!!!" shouted Ariel. With this shout, every half-demon remaining in the area moved as far away from James as possible. James opened his eyes at that moment. The aura swirling around his body was so gigantic that flames were rising from his eyes. The holy sword Clarent was perfectly heavy due to the huge amount of magic and aura contained in it. The air element Sophia was using to support James was literally helping James lift the Clarent holy sword, which had become heavy. James gritted his teeth and despite all the weight, the holy sword stabbed Clarent forward six times in a row and pierced the air itself. "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" "THWIP!!!" Six different changes in the air in succession produced the same degree of sound and tore the air itself, showing how well James'' power and control over his swordplay had increased. As the Hexagon mark formed in the air, the mark formed a lush green beam and began travelling straight towards the dragon. Just in one split second the green beam from the hexagon hit the dragon. A huge plume of green smoke billowed out and Ariel, noticing this, ordered everyone to run towards the village. "GROHGK!!!" One by one, the yetis began to collapse. The sound of their massive organs exploding echoed across the snowy ground. The little girl Miracle was standing next to her father James, helping him to restore his mana. After only a short time, the sound of crying began to rise from an indistinct distance. As the lush poison smoke began to dissipate, it became clear that these sounds were coming from the ice dragon. S§×ar?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The ice dragon writhed on the ground, blood pouring from its eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth. The poison released from James was no ordinary poison. Even if James had not managed to fully train the poison in his body, he was a Poison Master, and even this indicated the degree of untrained poison in his body. After all, someone didn''t just become a Poison Master. Although it was not a poison that would not kill or paralyse even an advanced dragon, James was carrying a poison that could injure that dragon. This meant that this young ice dragon would not last. It was impossible for him not to die. Chapter 197 - 197: Literally Priceless Items (1) James walks over to the young dragon writhing on the ground, leaving his little girl Miracle in the back area. He approaches it with the sole purpose of taking the dragon''s heart. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Almost everything that came out of the dragon''s body was worth huge money. A young dragon''s eyes were worth a hundred million gold pieces each and each claw was worth almost six hundred million gold pieces. That was why he had to take the most valuable part of the dragon for his use. When the holy sword Clarent flashed again, the sword pierced the dragon''s neck and in a few seconds, the dragon stopped moving. James already had a dragon heart in his possession, and on top of that, he had a poisoned dragon heart, which could be of most use to him. Now he would have a dragon heart that was likely to be poisoned. He had sent the dragon''s body to his inventory, and later he would give the body to the elves and ask for things like the dragon''s blood and the dragon''s heart. What he had to do now was to kill the monsters that were around. Even though dozens of yetis and hundreds of ice goblins had fallen to the ground, the monsters in the forest were still visible. The only reason why these monsters were so easy to see was James'' attack, that is, when Desmond used the second part of the Sword Art, the slashing style, a part of the forest was destroyed by that huge release of power. The sword trail was perhaps a hundred metres wide, and the damage went as far as the eye could see. The monsters that were still coming included wizard goblins, ice orcs, frost devils, and many other types of monsters. When James made a gesture towards Ariel, it meant that the battle was about to begin. Even if the danger of the young dragon was gone, they still had a village to protect. When James signalled to his daughter Miracle, the little girl transformed into her dragon form and then began to anger the mana around her. On her father''s orders to attack, she wanted to find a way to kill the enemy without destroying the surroundings and thought it would be a good way to do this by angering the mana, the magical energy itself. When the little girl started to anger the mana around the miracle, many flame patterns began to form around it, and each pattern took the shape of a knife and began to move towards the ice goblins and other monsters. When James looked at the shape of the blades, he saw that each flame blade looked exactly like Selene''s Throwing Knife and smiled and said, "Look, Selene, your presence is everywhere." Even if every god and goddess could see the smile on Selene''s face, James was not even aware of it, he was busy being proud of his daughter Miracle. Knowing that he had nothing more to do on the battlefield, James turned and walked back to the village, where he was greeted by eyes filled with amazement, enthusiasm and admiration. He couldn''t think of anything else to say as he saw hundreds of villagers cheering him on, at that very moment the window opened in front of him and James smiled as he saw it and was filled with happiness at seeing something he hadn''t seen in a long time: [The Way to Be a God talent is working! After the last time the ability worked, exactly 16,971 people believed in you with all their heart and soul. The user''s Holiness status increased by 1697. The user has earned 15,000,000 gold. The user has earned a Taming Pill. The user has won the Blacksmith''s Handbook. The user won a Beginner Level Moon Archer Skill Book]. The villagers who saw James smiling didn''t know what was going on, they must have thought that James was smiling at them, and their enthusiasm became even more gigantic. [Taming Pill(UNKNOWN) This pill is the third of twelve sacred objects created by the third Poison Master #####. The twelve sacred objects created by ##### are rumoured to be lost and hidden in certain parts of the tower. If the user manages to get someone to swallow the pill, whether that person is a mortal or a god, they will still fall under the user''s dominion. To gain full possession of the pill, a drop of blood will suffice]. While James was moving through the village, he was trying to read the information of the items that came to him. The fact that this Taming Pill was made by the third poison master, whose name was not even remembered, was enough to indicate its enormous value and the contents of the pill made everything more complicated. As long as James somehow managed to feed this pill to a god, he could indeed have heavenly or hellish, void and divine power. He had the perfect opportunity. [Blacksmith''s Handbook (Creator+++) The Blacksmith was created by the Creator #####. The Blacksmith''s Handbook permanently gives the user a 25% chance of forging. This processing chance is used to refine the purity of iron minerals. It is unclear who or what wrote the manual, but even the high gods are willing to start a war to obtain it]. After reading the properties of this item, James closed the properties section and prepared to look at the properties of the last book he had won, he stopped where he was with a message from someone he never expected. [If you give me the Blacksmith''s Handbook, I swear on my honour that I will create a masterpiece for you.] James was really shocked when he read the message and saw the name of the person who sent him this message. He was sure that the last time he was this surprised was when he found his Aunt Emily for the first time. After all, the person who sent the message and said that he would create a masterpiece was none other than Hephaestus. Chapter 198 - 198: Literally Priceless Items (2) Ten seconds after James read this message and stayed where he was, he started to run towards Narbeth''s house by using his dark step ability. After only a minute, James, who had managed to enter the house, asked "Do you mean what you say, old man?" about the message from Hephaestus. Just ten seconds later, another message appeared in front of him: [I am deadly serious, I will forge you an armour even more perfect than Lux, the body armour I made from the same Adamant. I will finish it in just one year and I swear to you that I will have that armour blessed by the Titans even if I have to beg them for it]. Reading the sentences in Hephaestus'' message, James did not know what to say, he put his hands on the table in front of him and took a deep breath. "Is what I have really worth that much? I mean, the specs said something about its value, but those specs can sometimes have exaggerated descriptions." As James uttered these words, a message appeared in front of him, telling him how valuable the thing in his hand was: [James, I''ve been alive for millions of years, I''m almost to the billion mark, but so far I''ve only got a 7% chance of winning a trade, and I''ve managed to raise it this high by acquiring rare items. I thought the item you won was just a legend, if the blacksmiths in other regions could follow you, you would have received thousands of offers]. Reading this message, James took a deep breath to calm himself down, shook his head and then said, "Alright, I accept, I have no desire to become a blacksmith or anything else, I trust you since you are the best blacksmith I know. I will get that masterpiece from you in 1 year." However, he touched the Blacksmith''s Handbook and started to think about how he could send this book to Hephaestus when suddenly a scroll appeared in front of him. On the scroll was an agreement that Hephaestus would make a masterpiece item in exchange for the Blacksmith''s Handbook. As soon as James signed the agreement, the Blacksmith''s Handbook crumbled into dust and the scroll disappeared in a perfect flash. James smiled at another opportunity and began to tremble with excitement. Sophia, who had watched the whole thing over James''s shoulder, could not understand what was going on, but she was happy for him, and surprised by his happiness and amazement. James, however, looked at the features section to examine the "Beginner Level Moon Archery Skill Book", the last of the rewards that had come to him from his talent: [Beginner Level Moon Archery(Legendary+++++) It is said that long ago on the moon, an ordinary archer in a now-forgotten kingdom wished to prove himself to the queen, the love of his life. After a long time of training and battles, he succeeded in creating a technique that could hold the beauty of the moon. However, although the love of his life loved him, he was stabbed in the back in battle by his dearest friend. A now-forgotten creator admired this man''s love and wanted to eternalise this technique and trapped it on the edge of space. This is all that remains of that now-forgotten little archer''s love, and perhaps one of the most powerful archery techniques in existence]. James smiled after reading the content of this talent book and opened the book and used it without thinking. When he looked back at his system profile after all this, he realised that there was nothing he could say anymore. With all this excitement and adrenaline, he sat in the chair behind him and relaxed himself and then thought about how far he had come. [James Arthur Black Age: 24 Race: Human Level: 59 Class: Warrior of the Night, Time Wraith Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer, Poison Master Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++), Star Magic(Godly), Beginner Level Light Spell(Legendary+++), Transition(Legendary+++++), Destruction(Godly++), Beginner Level Moon Archery(Legendary+++++) [Statuses] Power 135+10 Agility: 271 Endurance 260 Luck: 26 Magic: 1993+500 Holiness: 31.697 Intelligence 434 Charisma 72 Status Points: 45] With the battles he had fought and the monsters he had killed recently, he had jumped 9 more levels. Indeed, there was a world of difference between the first time he entered the tower and now. [You''ve improved a lot, James, we''re proud of you.] James smiled as he read Nyx''s message, though the fact that he had been asleep for so long had probably slowed his rate of progress a little, after all, all the time he could have improved in just 60 days had slipped away. "I haven''t developed sufficiently, my lady. If I want to put the Fallen Gods back in the hole they came out of---no, if I want to kill them, I have to be much stronger than I am now." James said. [You are doing very well right now, you have to be careful and push yourself slowly. It''s hard to say how much more won''t hurt you]. James shook his head when he read this message and then said, "But there is nothing to say that more will hurt me." He was speaking from the bottom of his heart when he said these words, he really knew where he could reach and realised the potential he had. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "We still have 60 days left, I need to train continuously, especially in the sword art I have. Maybe I can look at the Moon Archery I''ve acquired, but I still need to improve enough, I need to catch up." James said. [I can''t even understand what exactly you''re trying to catch up with.] Nyx sent a message, and James, who read this message, said, "Whatever the future is." and fell silent. Chapter 199 - 199: Deep Meditation It had been almost two hours since the attack on the village had concluded. Back at the house where James was staying, the three village leaders, Ariel and her pursuer Miracle had finally managed to sit down to rest. James had asked Narbeth for an in-depth report and had learnt the following information: Exactly 18 greenhouses were built within the walls of the village and the seeds of the existing fresh fruits were planted in the greenhouses. According to James'' instructions, the greenhouses were properly heated and the light source was projected linearly onto the greenhouses. Strangely, the soil in which the greenhouses were planted caused the plants to flower and bear fruit at a much better rate than necessary. In just one week a tomato seedling could produce a crop. In short, the village''s food shortage was completely corrected. Because of the size of the greenhouses, a food supply for two thousand people could be gained. At the same time, the construction of the fortifications was finished and the construction of the outer walls for the next layer began. Since those walls would be much longer and larger, the mining was carried out at top speed and completed. Almost four million tonnes of minerals and minerals had been extracted, which would be enough for the second outer wall layer, and even the third outer wall layer, which was planned to be the final line, would have a completion rate of between 5% and 7%. All was going well in every sense of the word. The construction of the church for the priests of the Church of Night had begun and was half completed, as James had seen. He was certain that if they had tried to build such a church in the world he had lived in before the tower, thousands of people would have died in its construction, James knew that it was truly one of the most perfect buildings he had ever seen. After giving the dragon''s body from his inventory to the elves, he sent the ice dragon''s heart, now covered in poison, to his inventory. With that, many of the demi-demons began to level up, and the pixies warmed to them quite quickly indeed. It would not be wrong to say that almost every half-devil had a pixie on his shoulder at all times. After hearing all these reports, James left the house and travelled a little distance from the village and then crouched down cross-legged on the ground to practice. There was a deep snowfall, and when James sat down on the snow, of course, he wanted to meditate. He knew that he had improved a lot this time and perhaps, just maybe, he would manage to find the elemental core for the use of the second part of Desmond''s Sword Art, the Cutting. This was still difficult for him to do, he still had a lot to do, and he still had to finish his meditation and then consume the dragon hearts. It was a disgusting step, but Abby had told him that dragon hearts were most effective when they were raw. James consumed these hearts because he was trying to create the fifth magic circle. It was common knowledge that a creature could create a maximum of twelve simplified mana circles, but once these circles were created, another twelve could be made around them. For that, James had to create twelve circles as soon as possible, and that meant he had to eat raw dragon hearts. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As he sat cross-legged on the floor he realised that he didn''t even feel the cold of the snow. His body had managed to recover a huge amount of his mana, but there was still a huge gap that needed to be replenished. Since his aura had diminished slightly, now was the best time to find the elemental core. He closed his eyes and began to focus on his own body, his inner self. After only thirty seconds of focus, he opened his eyes again in front of his heart. He smiled at the beauty of the magic circles and became excited at the thought that another one would soon be added here. After all, his magic rings, or magic circles as they were also called, were different. As he had seen many times before, the first magic circle was colourless, the second glowed with colourful flames, the third was overflowing with the law of the time, and the fourth waited surrounded by the darkest green clouds. Each magic circle seemed to represent an element. As James stood in front of his heart he began to focus on his own body, this time he had no intention of letting himself die, but he was careful not to dissipate either his aura or his magic. In short, waiting for the elemental core to find him upon meditation was his goal. When he waited in front of his heart and closed his eyes, he realised that he was much better at feeling the energy in his body. It was as if he was trying to meditate again in the place where he was meditating as if he was adding the meditation he was doing with his soul to the meditation he was doing with his body. It was quite complex, but strangely enough, James found that he could sense the presence of the elemental core much, much more easily. Previously he had searched for the elemental core on his own and when he had found it he had squirmed for a very long time just to see it, almost dying because of it. Now he could feel the elemental nucleus coming towards him. When he took a deep breath and continued his meditation, he felt that the aura and magical energy he felt around him had indeed begun to dissipate. This was almost the same as when he had tried to reach the elemental core before. The only difference was that this time the two energies dissipated on their own. Both aura and magical energy seemed to be trying to make their way to the elemental core. It could be said to be an extraordinary situation. Chapter 200 - 200: I Gained WHAT? After a short time, James felt a wonderful heat begin to build up in front of him. He could feel his whole body burning from head to toe. He could feel himself getting strangely wet, something like sweat was coming out of his body, it was an incredibly strange sensation. The heat was increasing with each second and getting closer and closer to James. Unable to bear it any longer, James opened his eyes and saw that the elemental nucleus he had seen earlier was waiting just to the left of his heart. He slowly reached out his hand to the element core. When he started to approach the elemental core, the heat had officially risen to an unbearable temperature, but James managed to hold the elemental core as a last resort, and then the heat gathered around him began to burn him. "GUAH!!!" James was suddenly out of his meditative state. He was surrounded by a dark liquid and all the snow in an area of almost half a kilometre around him seemed to have melted. Even though he couldn''t understand what was happening, the pain in his body was exquisite, his heart was pounding and he was losing a lot of blood, even though his auto-healing ability was trying to help him. Suddenly James reached into his inventory, looking for something. After a short while he pulled a pill out of his inventory and suddenly popped it into his mouth and swallowed it. After only half a minute, he was spinning like crazy. His head seemed to be beginning to return to normal. The pill he had swallowed was a pill that helped his blood to clot and regenerate and it was very valuable indeed, James even had close to twenty pills in his hand. James slowly realised that his breathing was starting to return to normal and he began to sit calmly in his seat to regain consciousness. Just then a notification window opened in front of him: [High-Level Fire Elemental has evolved!] When he read this notification window, he blinked his eyes as if he couldn''t understand what was going on, and then clicked on the notification, perhaps an explanation could be found in the properties section of the notification: [High-Level Fire Elemental has evolved! After the user''s deep meditation, the user has now been able to access his elemental core, which is the main foundation of the element. The fire element, the element that the user is most compatible with, has evolved with the cultivation of this core. By training the core, it is possible to evolve more elements. High-Level Fire Elemental ability has evolved to 8 Sacred Fire(Sealed)]. James was dumbfounded again, remembering that the name of the ability he had just gained was no different from the flames of creation in the story Chronos had told him. They officially had the same name. [James, read the description of the ability now.] It wasn''t long before he received a message from Chronos, just as he had expected. "Yes, master," James said, and opened the ability''s features section to observe the ability: [8 Secret Fire(Creator+++++)(Sealed) S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Do you want to know how the creation came into existence? Don''t you want to know how all beings came into existence, how all existences, all universes, all galaxies, all stars and all planets came into existence? Chaos had been looking for a long time for someone to bless these 8 Sacred Fires he used in creation, but it was obvious that no one could do it. From the weakest insect to the holiest goddess, no one''s body could handle this power. The ability to create new life was inherent in the element itself. The ability has the [SEALED] property because it will exert enormous pressure on the user, forcing his body to strain and explode, and can kill the user instantly. The user is simply too WEAK to use the full ability. Therefore, the grade of the ability, the element, has been reduced from [Creator+++++] to [Legendary-----]. The ability''s powers have been reduced to its lowest level and the powers are as follows: The user''s flame attacks will increase by 300% depending on the mana level applied. The user''s fire attacks will consume 500% less mana. Anything fire-based found in nature or the vicinity of living creatures will have its susceptibility increased by 50% against the user. Fire-based abilities will be 50% easier for the user to master. The user''s Charisma stat has increased by 50. The user''s Magic stat is increased by 500. The user''s Luck stat has increased by 30. User''s Intelligence stat increased by 300]. James'' eyes widened when he read this ability, he had forgotten to breathe, message window after message window was opening in front of him, and James really agreed with each of them. Zeus had sent a message saying [FUCK YOU!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?] [Is the Tower kidding?] Hecate muttered. [Did you just gain the flames of creation?] said Hera. When James read each message one by one, he saw that neither Chronos nor any other family member had sent a message, and it was obvious that they were as surprised as James. After a few minutes of silence, the expected message came: [James...Your luck status is almost equal to a lowest-level god...It seems to me that from now on you will only get legendary-grade things from the gacha]. When James looked at this message from Moros, he saw that his Luck status had increased by exactly 30. The function of the luck statuses given to people in the tower was quite strange. Even just one point of luck status increase could make a huge difference, but the fact that he suddenly gained 30 status points was a huge event. James was almost always unlucky, and that''s why he started the tower with a luck status of 2. At first, since the points from the levels earned were distributed as one point, his luck status increased a little more, and then he had excellent luck with 20 luck status points from the class he received from Nyx. This was probably one of the biggest reasons why he hasn''t died so far. Still, the fact that his Luck stat had exceeded 50 points was bringing James closer to a god, even only with his one status. Indeed, it was possible to say that this was the first step into the realm of gods. Chapter 201 - 201: Expect the Unexpected James wanted to utilise this magical ability he had acquired before returning to the village. It would be wrong to say that it was a magical ability, after all, the so-called elements did not exist through magic, otherwise, aura users would not be able to connect with the elements in any way. This was a superior form of the fire element he had already acquired. He had expected his legendary-grade fire elemental to evolve to a godly-grade after an evolution, but instead, he had a creator-grade elemental, even though it came sealed. "Believe me, I don''t know what''s going on either, I was just looking for my elemental core, this black liquid flowing out of my body is just like the day I got my magic status, it''s all meaningless, but I''m sure I''m getting an insane boost." James suddenly said. The fact that there was no message from Nyx, the person he expected the most messages from, seemed to tell him that something was wrong. Although this could have been a completely wrong idea that James had. After looking around, he frowned and then said, "By the way, Zeus, you didn''t have to get so angry." As his confusion slowly began to fade, he remembered what Zeus had said. With these words, the incredibly serious and tense atmosphere dissipated, and it was a fact that the huge group, including Zeus, burst into laughter. "I want to use it," James suddenly said, and with that, he began to focus. It didn''t take long for him to realise the sounds around him. When he suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the flames in front of him, he was just as surprised as those watching him. There were eight different coloured snakes in front of James. It was a strange sight, but it would be fair to say that each snake was very cute. These snakes looked like the flames of creation themselves. "Well, this is something I didn''t expect," James said to himself and then decided to improvise. "Come here!" he said, looking at the jet-black coloured snake. The flame suddenly turned to him and then leapt at James. The snake wrapped itself around James'' arm as if trying to tell him something. James stumbled for a few seconds held his head where he was and closed his eyes tightly, his head seemed to be in severe pain. "Are you alright James?" Suddenly nudged by Vlad''s voice echoing in his mind, James opened his eyes somehow and then said, "My head is filling with information, even my mind palace ability is starting to shake, is this something I can use you for?" his eyes turned to the jet black snake coiled around his right arm. The snake was not burning his arm or damaging his clothes, it was as if the snake of jet-black flames recognised its owner. After James'' words, the snake shook its head and looked at the other snakes standing on the ground, and then each snake jumped on the black snake and added its colours to it. In just ten seconds, the colours of the 8 Sacred Fires were once again in full colour. The snakes were glowing with colour and their beauty was truly dazzling. However, all was not well on James'' side. His nose started to bleed again, so many things, so many attack schemes, so much information about the tool that he was really confused. When he focused on the files he had built in his head through his mind palace ability, he saw that thousands of memories began to exist in his brain. He fell to his knees and held his heart tightly, it didn''t hurt, but a strange feeling seemed to prevent him from breathing. There was nothing anyone watching could do about it. After all, no one was allowed to enter the floor in this reward test that the tower had given to James and Ariel. James didn''t know what he had to do, all the information entering his mind was too much for his brain, and the waves from his brain seemed to exert an enormous amount of pressure on his body. He was just about to lose it and faint when another voice echoed in his mind: "Lie on your back on the ground, breathe deeply, and let the snow fall on you, the flames will turn it into drops of water if necessary, try to calm down." James focused on Abby''s words and somehow managed to lie down on the ground. As soon as he lay down, he could feel that his body was in a more comfortable shape, he was breathing much more easily and that strange sensation in his body was felt much less. "The blood flow in your body will become smooth. Right now your elemental core is developing, when you held the core you started to sprout something inside. Someone who can use magic will feel their heart surrounded by this sprout, and someone who can use aura will feel a part of their aura connecting with the sprout. You, on the other hand, feel much heavier than if you had both of them, there is information being imposed on your mind. Just try to relax." sea??h th§× NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Every time Abby''s gentle voice churned in James''s mind he was reminded of how glorious he was. He could actually feel the whole of Olympus and others going mad with stress right now, and on top of that, he could recognise the concerns of his ancestors and aunt. He really could have been the richest man who had ever existed, after all, when you were surrounded by those who fought to protect you, you didn''t even need a piece of gold. When the bleeding from his nose stopped, the information loaded into his mind dropped to a very low number. While hundreds of attack schemes were uploaded to his mind per second, now one or two were entering at the same time. The sudden strange danger that had happened seemed to disappear in an instant. Chapter 202 - 202: Mana Around the Heart (1) James stood up after a short time and then relaxed himself by inhaling the cold air deeply. [Are you all right?] S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I''m fine, my lady, thank you." he smiled as he looked at the colourful snake wrapped around his right arm. "You''ve caused quite a bit of trouble, little one," James suddenly said, and with that, he released his body, thinking that he could now test the power of this element. His right arm was the same arm that held the holy sword Clarent. Normally he would try to attack with the holy sword, but these flames had more than enough uses. That''s exactly why he relaxed quite a bit and tried to feel the power of the flame in his whole body. As soon as he thought he had managed to feel this power in its full form, he pulled his arm backwards and then swung. "SWIIP!!!" The air was cut with an incredibly thin sound, almost as if it was screaming. As James made his move, the snake''s shape changed and the colourful flames began to move in waves over the ground. In just a few seconds a colourful display of huge flames, rising to a height of almost five metres, was waiting for all to see. Suddenly the flames roared and rose into the sky in serpentine patterns almost ten metres high. James''s attack was like a ticking time bomb and this was only one of the attack schemes, there were thousands of them in James''s brain. On top of that, he had only pushed 5% of his mana into this attack, so such an attack could happen even with only this much mana integrity. The only question that remained in his mind was this: "What would happen if Desmond managed to deliberately add 8 sacred fire to the attacks in the slashing section of his Sword Art?" As James was filled with these thoughts, he realised that there was nothing more for him to do here, although he didn''t think much about whether or not he should return to the village. This was because he had just gained the power and although he knew that he would not get out of control, such fear was eating him from the inside out. He stopped using 8 Sacred Fire and then looked in the direction of the village and spoke: "I shouldn''t go back to the village, I still need to consume dragon hearts." James sat back down and then pulled the poisoned heart of a young dragon from his inventory. The heart looked more than disgusting, James might have voluntarily sent all sorts of poison down his stomach, but at least he hadn''t eaten something raw. [Are you going to eat that?] Nyx sent a message, obviously disgusting even to someone who had lived for billions of years. James shook his head after reading this message and then said, "I need pure mana, we all know that once I cook this heart, the mana in it will dissipate. I have to create my fifth magic ring as fast as possible." After James''s words, there was no other message, he had no mentality left to respond to messages anyway, indeed, the disgusting rate of the dragon heart he held in his hand was like 100%. He took a deep breath and then took a huge bite of the raw dragon''s heart. After biting off almost half of the heart, he started to chew it and chewed the heart while waiting in a focused manner. He couldn''t vomit even if he was feeling very nauseous, doing so would destroy any mana he might have gained. Two dragon hearts meant almost two magic rings, and he had no intention of passing up the opportunity. After chewing the bitten piece almost fifty times, he managed to swallow it. At that moment he realised what was coming up from his stomach and held his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting. Before he had finished, he suddenly threw all the remaining morsel of the dragon heart into his mouth and started chewing on a heart the size of a baseball. He was less nauseous now, he seemed to be getting used to it strangely, but that didn''t change the level of disgustingness of what was still going on. For a few seconds after the dragon had chewed and swallowed its heart, it just breathed in and out, there was no way to describe the disgusting taste in its mouth. Even the disgustingness of the blood he had swallowed from the dragon''s heart was on a whole other level. Still, what he had tried to do had worked. Indeed, as Abby had said, the magnitude of the magical energy, the mana that had entered James''s body, was as much as the mana produced in James''s rings so far. Creating a magic ring with so much mana would indeed be no problem at all. When James sat down in a cross-legged position, he closed his eyes and then started to collect the mana that had formed in his body, especially around his heart. A really large amount of mana had gathered around his heart. The mana gradually became thinner and began to take the form of another ring that surrounded his heart. The ring became thinner and thinner and then finished surrounding the heart. This was not the final stage of the magic ring formation, though. James knew that there were all sorts of things he still had to do. Firstly, he had to refine the stored mana, which had been easy since traces of the elements he had always used were stored in his body''s magic scope, and the magic rings were filled with three types of elements. At the moment, he did not know which element to place in the new magic ring, after all, he did not use any elements other than the elements of fire, time and poison. After all these thoughts, he knew that he had to start the refining process, it was going to be a difficult process. He had to endure as much as he could. Chapter 203 - 203: Mana Around the Heart (2) James knew that when the last refining took place, there was a sacred monster like Noah, who could be considered the magic himself. In the previous refining time, he knew that there was a titan like Chronos and a man who was considered one of the upper gods. In the first refining stage, he knew that he was fighting with Ariel in forming the magic ring of fire in the arena, and everything had to go well in this direction. After all, many, many people had stood by to help him in each refining process. This time he was the only one. The last thing he wanted was to be the only one, but he had to get it done, after all, he had already begun to form the magic ring and, to put it simply, to form the outline of the ring, or by the other name the circle, around his heart. The refining process had to begin. James tried to deeply feel the magic, the gathered mana, within his body and succeeded. After feeling the mana, he slowly began to place this mana inside the draft of the magic circle he had created. Since this circle was larger than the first four circles created, this mana placement would take longer than necessary. This was already the process called refining. James didn''t have to pay so much attention because he had powerful beings with him when he refined before. But now he had to make every move well. sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With each piece he added to the new magic ring, his body underwent a profound change. It would be fair to say that the ring was almost full as the mana slowly began to run out. After almost half an hour of in-depth processing, James found that the ring was full, the mana-created outline filled with mana once again. With that, the creation of the magic ring was complete. James suddenly opened his eyes and began to breathe deeply, he felt his heart suddenly start to burn and he grabbed his chest again. He was pushing and trying to stay awake as the pain he heard in a hoarse voice overpowered him. After a short time, he was able to understand what this pain was caused by. The magic ring seemed to be choosing an element for itself. "So that''s how the elements are refined beforehand." James thought, despite all the pain he felt. As the minutes chased each other, James managed to last twenty minutes without fainting with the pain he felt, and then he opened his eyes. Nemesis had sent a message [How are you? Did it go well? Did you make it?] When James saw this message, he smiled and silenced by showing a hand gesture in the air that would mean yes. James''s 5th magic circle or magic circle as wizards generally called it, had been successfully formed. He couldn''t wait to see what element his magic circle was filled with this time, and when he closed his eyes and entered a state of deep meditation, he saw the fifth circle around his heart and then stood in amazement. "Is that...colour maroon?" James'' gaze locked on the ring with these thoughts. The ring was of course larger than the other four rings, it had a crimson colour that shifted to brown, the colour maroon, but James could tell which element had been added to the ring without even having to focus on the power of the ring. He opened his eyes suddenly, scratched his head and then questioned, "Am I going to be a fucking vampire?" It was quite normal for anyone watching him not to realise what he was talking about, after all, none of them could see James'' rings. [What element is engraved?] When James saw this curious message from Zeus, he shook his head and then said, "Blood...The element that was added to my 5th Magic Ring is blood." When James uttered these words, everyone watching him stopped just like him, it would be normal to say that no one had a word to say. Everyone was looking at each other and thinking that maybe everyone had misunderstood what James had said. Nemesis had sent a message [Did you say blood?] and James, seeing this, had shaken his head and then mocked himself by saying, "I think I''ve taken my first step towards vampirism." There was only one main reason why everyone was surprised by this element. Vampires were one of the holiest races in the tower, and it would be fair to say that they were one of the most special. The first reason was that each and every vampire was incredibly beautiful, like the elves who were close to perfect beauty. The second reason was that even if their intelligence was average, it was incredibly difficult to kill a vampire of average age, after all, they were beings whose limbs could be regenerated as soon as they were severed. The last reason why they were special was the blood element. The blood element could only be used by vampires in the entire tower without any restrictions. This was also the reason why all vampires were magic users, from the weakest to the strongest could only use blood magic due to their magic and their nature. Rumour had it that even if their mana rings were not blood element, their bodies were filled with arcane magic-based runes, so they had something as valuable as having their circles refined with blood element. This meant that James could not use the blood elemental with complete freedom, without restriction. This was more than a little confusing. The vampires, who were very proud of themselves and incredibly egotistical, were already hostile to James because of what had happened in the arena, and they were not going to be happy that he had the blood element. James didn''t even know what to do, so he tried to come to himself without even being happy, knowing that the refined magic ring could not be changed. There was only one thing he knew: "Blood" would have to be split. Chapter 204 - 204: Mana Around the Heart (3) "Umm...that was unexpected," James said suddenly, thinking like those who were watching him. However, that was not what he should be thinking about right now, he still had to eat the heart of the ice dragon, which was still filled with poison. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out the ice dragon''s heart and then took a huge bite. The fact that he had gained the blood element made more sense than necessary. After all, James had eaten the heart of a dragon, and it was raw, and that alone raised the sacredness within him to a colossal level. After he had chewed and swallowed the dragon''s heart, it had settled back into his body and he realised that the mana that had remained in his body from the previous ring formation was beginning to coalesce. After a short time, he finished eating the dragon''s heart and then closed his eyes. He thought that the sixth magic ring would not form so easily, but he had more than enough mana. His body was overflowing with mana. It seemed that the ice dragon he had killed was a dragon that was almost out of its youth, almost returning to the cycle of maturity. This seemed to explain to James why he had such a huge amount of mana. James was really happy that he listened to Abby, with such a huge mana he would be able to create perhaps the sixth magic ring. Closing his eyes again and focusing to meditate, this time he was able to look closer to his heart. Indeed, as Abby had said, the element core was holding part of her aura as if it were another heart, wrapping around her heart. She had been so surprised only a few minutes ago that it had taken her an incredibly long time to realise it. With that, it was time to try to form the sixth magic ring. After gathering as much of his mana as he could, he began to spread it around his heart. He moved as fast as he could to create a draft again, and after almost fifteen minutes, he had created a draft of a ring almost twice as large as the one he had created only an hour ago. He supposed that he had developed a good habit of doing the same thing he had just done, which was a good thing. As James began to fill the draft of the sixth magic ring with mana, he felt his body begin to cool. First, he had been presented with heat, then stagnation, then death, then pain. This ring seemed to offer him cold. After only half an hour, he had managed to fill the sixth magic ring with mana, and with that, he understood why he felt cold. James''s sixth magic ring was none other than the element ice, which represented stagnant cold. When James carefully examined the ring around his heart, he could see that a deep coldness radiated from the sixth magic ring. The ring appeared to be refined to the purest white one anyone could see. The defeat of the ice dragon''s heart seemed to have predisposed James to the element of ice. James, of course, was happy about this. He was both predisposed to the ice element, which many people wished to reach and connected with the blood element, which many people would kill thousands of people just to get an idea, even if they couldn''t get it. He had also managed to create the fifth and sixth magic rings, and his magical energy, his mana capacity, had become so great that he could use it continuously for half the day with the energy consumed by his Dark Step ability. James stood up after all this and then took a deep breath. He realised that the cold he had felt when he had created the sixth magic ring had disappeared, and on top of that he had become incredibly resistant to the cold outside. [It''s been a long time since I''ve seen someone create two magic rings in a row like a pervert, James. Zeus might have been the last one to do it, although that maniac did create 6 rings in a row, but you get the point.] James couldn''t help but be surprised when he read this message from Poseidon, even if Zeus was not the most powerful god, he was certainly the leader of Olympus, he was underestimating the old man. Stretching his body after reading the message, James slowly made his way towards the village, there was really nothing he could do right now since he could not go towards the mines and dig, the only thing he could do now was to go to the village, take a nice shower and rest for the day. After that he had things to do, he had already made plans. James returned to the village after a short time and was greeted by the surprised expressions of the villagers. James was covered in blood and the smell on him was beyond awful. The black liquid that overflowed from his body was nothing but the dirt on his body. The more mana used and aura used, the more dirty liquid accumulated in the body and this slowed down the energy collection. This meant that every time there was a big energy gain, dirty liquids would be released out of the body. After a short time, James passed through everyone and entered the bathroom in Narbeth''s house, after cleaning himself, he entered his room and lay down on the bed, then put his head on the pillow and immediately closed his eyes. He seemed impatient to sleep, and already after almost two minutes he had fallen asleep, you could see how sleepy he was. When he woke up after almost fifteen hours of sleep, he quickly found Ariel and the others. After rounding up the group, he indicated that they had something to talk about and that he wanted to tell them his plan. He had gathered the group incredibly quickly, everyone he wanted to talk to had gathered in front of him in almost half an hour. When the group sat down to listen to James, the young man began to speak, what he had to say would be revolutionary for them. Sear?h the ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 205 - 205: Planning "I have gathered you here because I have discovered something that can stop frost giants and other monsters from attacking the village, or rather, a theory I want to confirm." When James uttered these words, he piqued everyone''s curiosity. The eyes of the village''s three leaders seemed to sparkle. "According to what Narbeth said, before we came here, only frost giants were monsters that gave you trouble. When Ariel and I came here, many more frost giants were attacking the village, and on top of that, monsters of different races started to appear." Ariel seemed to know where the conversation was going from James'' words, she smiled and seemed to wonder how he hadn''t thought of it. "My theory is that we activated a dungeon when we arrived on this floor. You, who have encountered frost giants for years, suddenly encounter different monsters, this is against the laws of the tower, there cannot be anyone who would do such a thing except monsters with proper leaders which means there should be a person or a monster that is close to be a god." James said and continued to speak without stopping. "As for me, I need to find that dungeon and then destroy it by entering it. Dungeons are, of course, strange things. They can even form in safe zones, which can be considered protected after a certain period. That''s exactly what happens in the imperial and extra-imperial areas of the fifth floor, where some low-level climbers often strengthen their abilities." "I want to aim to reduce the danger by destroying at least one dungeon." When James finished all his words, he started to wait for the answer from the others, but he could not find any answer. After a deep silence for half a minute, Ariel''s voice echoed in the room: "It''s fine, leave Miracle here just in case, take Sophia with you and go exploring. You can leave the protection of the village to me and my dear granddaughter Miracle." James nodded and prepared to speak when Ariel said these words and Narbeth''s voice was heard at that moment: "I don''t know exactly what will happen, and I''ve never heard of a dungeon in my life, but if this is what the young master wants to do, we have no reason to hold you back. As long as you are careful on this expedition, that is enough for us." After Narbeth''s words, it did not take long for everyone to approve James. With these looks, James realised that he had to get ready. Even though he had not expected the conversation to last so long, he still tried to leave the room to get ready and then he was stopped by those in the room. "What''s going on?" James asked, and Ariel said, "I understand that you want to clear the Dungeon, James, but what you need to do right now is rest. Sit down, eat, sleep for one more day, and then if you''re on your way, go." James didn''t know what to say, there was no stopping him if he wanted to get out of here right now, but he was well aware that those around him were saying such things out of concern for him. Even if he had slept for 60 days he had still managed to reach the elemental core upon awakening and create two magic rings on top of that, that was more than enough to make up for 60 days. That''s why James had decided to listen to the looks he was getting from all around him. Sitting where he was and looking around, James asked, "So, what are we doing?" and with that, Elanor entered the room. "Oh, Elanor, my dear wife! Just in time!" Narbeth said. James saw the food cart being pushed by Elanor and then said, "Indeed, it has been some time since I have eaten Lady Elanor''s cooking. Even when I woke up, I was eating from my inventory and getting on with things." After only two minutes, a table was set and more than ten plates of food were placed on the table. Champagne, wine and many other alcohols were on the table and it was obvious that a little fun was going to break out. Time flew by and James realised that he had woken up on his bed and saw the half-demon Dandelion lying on the floor, having fallen off the bed. He could see Narbeth and Luke passed out in the room, but Ariel, Elanor and Miracle were nowhere to be seen. Even Sophia was unconscious, sleeping on the dining table, her little face red with alcohol. James was sure that he hadn''t fainted from the alcohol, after all, he had a great deal of stamina, his body was used to such things, and on top of that, he was a Poison Master. A tiny amount of alcohol that could be considered poison couldn''t harm him. "I must be exhausted," James said and then grabbed Sophia who was sleeping on the dining table and put her into the jacket he was wearing. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Then he left the room and left the house. The direction he was going was of course clear. Early in the morning, with his greetings to the people of the village, he left the village without stopping and started walking towards the forest area. When he reached the place where they had arrived when the Kat mission first started, James noticed an energy. A very weak energy was travelling under the snow that had fallen. Knowing that this branching energy would come to an end, or rather, knowing that this energy would move forward and return, James realised that he had to look around carefully. When he got down on his knees and tried to feel the energy moving under the snow, he saw that the branched energy he had realised was moving towards more than a hundred places, it was possible that more dungeons than he thought existed on this floor. Knowing this, James took the holy sword Clarent out of his inventory and took it in his right hand and wanted to be prepared to defend it in case of attack. It seemed that the dungeon search had already begun. Chapter 206 - 206: Kutlus Dungeon James realised that he had chosen one of the right branches when he chose to follow one of the many branches that ran underground. After almost an hour of walking, James came to the entrance of a cave. He could clearly recognise the dangerous pressure coming from inside the cave. A crimson aura seemed to be pouring out of the cave and whatever was inside seemed to be telling James that he had to leave. This aura made James'' body tremble from head to toe, his hands were shaking, and he was really frozen with fear despite all the skills he had, all the power he had. "Be careful James, what''s inside is dangerous, I don''t know what it is, but in your current state you could die instantly, be ready to use your Aura of Chaos ability." He hadn''t said a word as Vlad''s voice echoed in James'' mind, knowing that every single word his ancestor had said was literally true. He had slain Fallen Gods, slain dragons, and had become too close to perfection for the gods, but the pressure from this tiny cave almost reminded him of the first time he had seen Nyx. This pressure wasn''t as strong as the immense power and darkness surrounding Nyx, but at least this pressure was of that perfection. James took a deep breath and stepped into the cavern he had found by following the mana tendrils, just as a system notification appeared in front of him: [Kutlu''s Dungeon Welcome to the trial dungeon of the cosmic being named Kutlu. The three trials you will undergo in this dungeon will go down in history as layers that can determine your future. Kulu, who had been waiting in their absence for a long time, created this dungeon and started to wait for the arrival of his heir, whom he hoped to come in the future. His millions of years of waiting is now over. Dungeon Difficulty: Creator-Grade Dungeon Prize: Blessed''s Art of Death Punishment for Failure: DEATH] When James read the notification in front of him, he felt his heart fall into darkness. Even the difficulty of the dungeon he had entered told him clearly about the shitty situation he was in. "Creator-Grade." James blurted out, and as he tried to regain his composure, he was met with another notification window: [Viewer viewing is blocked until the end of the dungeon]. sea??h th§× N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The moment James saw and read this notification, he realised that he was on his own. He had only his aunt and two ancestors for psychological or tactical help. [Dungeon will be sealed until the user dies or clears the dungeon]. When another system notification appeared in front of James, the idea that there would be no way out of there was ingrained in his mind, despite all the pressure on him, he had to move forward and conquer this dungeon. Even though the trembling had passed, he still hadn''t regained his composure, and with slow steps, he made his way through the cave. The cave, which seemed to have been formed by normal natural paths, suddenly began to be surrounded by flat, beautifully architected walls and passages began to be revealed. James honestly didn''t know what was going on. He saw three paths, and at first, he thought that this must be connected with the three exams he was going to take, so he started looking for a token to indicate this. However, there was nothing to indicate what was what. Sitting in the centre of the space, James looked at the three huge passageways in front of him and tried to think about what was behind their closed doors. He didn''t want to bring death to himself by picking the wrong door and opening it. The strange thing was that none of the gateways in front of him had any trace of mana. He realised this from the complete destruction of his previous mana veins. Even though that strange power continued to suppress James, he still felt no trace of magic or aura coming towards him. It was as if these three passages and the three doors of the passages were sealed and waiting for the person who would open them. Taking a deep breath, James thought that there was nothing he could do now, he tried to choose with simple psychology. He thought that perhaps the leftmost option would be an easy gateway, whatever was inside should be far less harmful than James had expected. After all, that''s how it would be in most games. From left to right the difficulty levels increased, as did the difficulty of the choices. Upon entering the tower, James wanted to choose as if he were playing a game for the first time. After all, there was NO other solution or choice. After a glance at his inventory, he took Selene''s Throwing Knife in his left hand and tightened his grip on the holy sword Clarent in his right. He had cleared his mind to use Aura of Chaos, if necessary, he would use 8 Sacred Fire and try to survive no matter how exhausting the flames made him. He had dozens of moves at his disposal though. Time element, poison element, blood element, and ice element were the basic powers he could use. In addition, he had the abilities given to him by the two classes he had and the passive abilities in his items, not to forget the passive bleeding chance in Galahad''s Swordsmanship ability. He knew that if that ability worked, he could kill almost anything below the Fallen God class if James survived till the enemy falls. James slightly regretted not taking his daughter Miracle with him. After all, the help of a Supreme Dragon was something that could be incredibly helpful, even if it was a newborn baby. Still, there was nothing James could do now, he had prepared everything and made up his mind to open the door. In just a few seconds he had pushed the huge door in front of him, perhaps ten metres long, and with the door opening in the middle, the power rising out from within began to walk towards him. The danger was just beginning. Chapter 207 - 207: Dungeon Types James had no idea what was waiting for him inside. He only had a vision of body parts being torn off as he opened the door. It was as if his Vision ability, an ability of the Time Wraith class, had worked passively. However, this was not possible, or so James thought, because the Vision ability was active, an ability that James could use with a large mana expenditure. Preparing to take a few steps back in fear, James didn''t stop until it suddenly echoed in his mind: "Calm down, we both know you can do this James, you can be like the people in the stories my father told me and outrun them, you''re not going to escape from here anyway, you need to step forward not backwards." As Abby''s voice echoed in James'' mind, he started to walk forward with the courage that had suddenly come over him. Of course, he was afraid, but as the old saying goes, "Fear is useless when death is near, all you can do is keep mowing in the face of the beauty of it." As soon as James put his dark step ability into use, he hid behind one of the columns he saw ahead, perhaps three or four metres thick. The fact that there was no sound coming from the surroundings worried him, maybe he was facing an assassin-type monster, maybe a monster of the holy demon race was waiting for him secretly somewhere, or a monster of the killer angel race was waiting for him just a few steps ahead in a sealed manner. Hundreds of thousands of possibilities from hundreds of thousands of races were laid out in front of James, in short, one wrong move and death would be waiting for him. As he peered into the darkness from behind the pillar, he activated his night vision and then began to examine the entire dark region, and what he saw in front of him showed how wrong he was. "What the fuck?" Abby, Vlad, and Emily both agreed with him when James was surprised by the profanity, if Nyx and the others had been watching what was happening, they would have reacted the same way. Another weird thing happened to exist in front of the Black bloodline. "Mimics?" Abby questioned, she really could have expected to encounter anything but a mimic...no, four mimics had never crossed her mind. When James emerged from the pillar he had been hiding behind he was able to get a good look at the four mimics in front of him. None of them were moving, they didn''t really seem to be doing anything, and they didn''t seem to be any different from the mimics seen in the games. Yet, despite all this, James did not expect to encounter these monsters. As he was watching them from a distance, he suddenly noticed that one of them had started to move its mouth, as if it was getting impatient. James realised this and gripped his weapons tighter, he had to be prepared for any eventuality. After all, when he had spoken to Theseus, he had listened to his adventures. The dungeon Theseus had encountered the minotaur in was a legendary-grade dungeon, but the dungeon James was currently in was a creator-grade dungeon. It could definitely be called one of a kind because it had never been seen like this in the history of the tower. This meant that the mimics James was facing now were perhaps the holiest mimics in existence. This meant that these monsters had enormous powers. There were two ways to clean a dungeon. Either you destroyed all the monsters in it from top to bottom, or you found the core of the dungeon and destroyed it while escaping from the monsters in the dungeons. There were different types of dungeons, though. The first type was a dungeon called [Destruction Type]. This type of dungeon was a dungeon in which everything inside would be completely complicated and would be hell for the user or player inside. Even an ordinary goblin inside could be hundreds of levels and have unique-grade abilities. Indeed, as the name suggests, destruction awaited them. The second type was the dungeons called [World Type]. These dungeons were dungeons that contained a huge world inside. In the more than two billion years of the tower, these dungeons had only been encountered four times, and three of these dungeons had been cleared by the unity of Olympus and Asgard. Not only that, but Sun Wukong and seven of the Titans had to participate in this dungeon expedition. It was literally necessary to explore a world and clear all the monsters in it, or the dungeon core had to be found. The third and final type was the dungeon type called [Room Type]. This dungeon type basically had a certain number of connected rooms. Perhaps it was not the most dangerous dungeon type, but it could be considered the most absurd dungeon type. In the rooms of room-type dungeons, you would fight random monsters. You could encounter an ancient dragon in the first room you entered, or if you lived to tell about it, you could leave the dungeon after a one-second battle against a saw-mouthed rat in the boss monster room. Room-type dungeons could be the only dungeons that allowed direct exit with the death of the boss monster. These three types had different danger levels and general clearing tactics. Of course, dungeons could be abandoned thanks to the very, very rare exit stone, but the rarity of these stones was as difficult as acquiring a legendary-grade item. S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Abby had told James all this, of course, which was why James had tried to find the mana trails before choosing one of the rooms. In a Creator-grade dungeon, if he could find a mana trail, he could measure the power levels of the rooms, sense all the monsters and go directly to kill the boss monster. This was, of course, quite difficult, but James had to do it anyway. He was going to fight exactly four mimics. Chapter 208 - 208: Against the Mimic Chests (1) He knew it would make 100% more sense to use magic-orientated attacks instead of using his aura. He had read in the monster catalogue in the imperial library that most monsters were innately resistant to magic, but mimics were not. On the contrary, mimics had enormous advantages over aura-type warriors because aura fuelled these monsters. Mimics made themselves more protected after every piece of aura they swallowed. James knew this very well and that was why he had chosen to attack only with magic, or rather, he would try to accomplish something using the rune spells he had developed himself a little. He had a feeling that the four beings standing in front of him were very powerful, but he still wanted to use this event to improve himself. When he saw that the Mimics were not moving so much, he replaced the magic power he had collected on his finger with arcana power, or rather combined it, and then began to write a few rune letters on the ground. With each rune letter he wrote, the mimics began to fidget, these four beings in front of James seemed to be sensitised to the sense of danger he gave them. When he had finished drawing the runes, he had drawn exactly seven of them on the ground. Immediately after this, the arcana energy was removed from his fingers and distributed throughout his body, and with that, the runes behind him began to glow one by one. With this, James realised that his body was lighter, more magically sensitive and more energy sensitive. He was using the high effect, or [buff], side of the rune art. This rune art was usually seen in mages with healing abilities. Healing mages, who had perhaps the easiest and most dangerous grasp of arcana art, could buff themselves or their teammates with these runes, making boss monster raids much easier to win. Of course, these mages were not rare, but they were rare enough to be considered rare. When James realised that his power had increased as much as possible, he prepared to use poison elemental-based attacks. However, now the mimics were starting to move as if they were tired of waiting for him to approach. A few tongues poked out of the huge chests and disgusting deep sounds began to emanate outwards. "SKRIEEHHHKGHH!!!" "QUALCHHH!!!" "UGAUGGHLL!!!" "HILLLSCHHKK!!!" James was slightly disgusted as four separate voices rose from the chests, indeed the ear-splitting sounds were more distracting than necessary, but James knew how to defeat the monsters in front of him. Suddenly he released the poison element outwards from his body. After only a few minutes, the entire room was filled with poison fumes a metre above the floor, a little more than half the height of James. The room was so large that it could have been called a parlour, and James had managed to fill the huge room with a cloud of poison with the poison released from the elemental nucleus in his body. After only fifteen or twenty seconds, the mimics'' movements became strange and then one of the mimics flicked its tongue towards James. James used his dark step ability at that moment and quickly dodged the attack coming towards him. The mimic''s tongue struck the floor of the room as James dodged it and the poison fumes were pushed back almost six metres, leaving behind an image of the floor of the room collapsing almost two metres downwards. "The heck?" said James, he really understood the situation he was in, these bastards seemed to have the same level of attack power as the Goblin King. He shouldn''t have taken even one of the attacks, otherwise it would have been too severe a punishment. The poison element seemed to work on the mimics themselves, but the power itself would not be enough. James suddenly activated 8 Sacred Fire and with that, the colourful serpent formed again in his right arm. James seemed to be glad that he would not have to constantly wait for the flames to merge to form the coloured fire itself, knowing full well that he could expend less energy and perform a greater function. The fact that he was able to easily dodge the Mimic''s attack meant that these monsters were much, much slower than he was. This meant that James'' attack would have been much easier to deal with. When the colourful snake wrapped around his right arm burst into flames, it was time for James to attack. Suddenly he threw his arm forward and then a cloud of flame, almost fifteen metres wide, shot towards the mimics. Each pulse of flame struck the mimics and the sounds of them writhing in pain echoed around the room. James thought he had successfully wounded the mimics and perhaps brought them close to death, but at that very moment, four attacks came at him from within the fire cloud. James was stunned by the speed of the attacks, thinking that he would not be able to dodge them this way, so he was forced to apply the time element. Suddenly, he used his dark step ability again to dodge the attacks, and then instead of moving further away from the mimics, he lunged towards them. The flames on his arm grew larger, and as the colour of the coloured flames turned a dark green, James attacked, using the poison''s flame. A spiralling attack tore through the flaming area, and then a system notification appeared in front of James: [Legendary-Grade achievement earned! Kill an ancestor-level Mimic Chest for the first time. You get a chance to choose a card]. Even if James couldn''t see through the cloud of flames he had pierced, he realised at that very moment that he had managed to kill at least one mimic. sea??h th§× ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was clear that the poison had weakened them enough to destroy them, the pure and holy fires had made them deadly, and the flame of the poison had killed someone. He could get out of here safely. Chapter 209 - 209: Against the Mimic Chests (2) James now fully realised that he had to attack. When he pulled out the Clarent, the holy sword that had been back in his inventory, and gripped it tightly, it was covered from head to toe with his magic. With that, the spell suddenly began to burn with the help of the 8 Sacred Fires wrapped around his arm, and the sword began to burn with one of the two flames of hell, which James knew to be the hottest: "Azure flame," James thought. Each coloured flame had a different purpose and the two flames, blue and black, represented two different fires of hell. Blue might be weaker than black, but it was a hundred times better at transmitting magic, which was why James had deliberately chosen to use it instead of black, the most dangerous flame in creation. With the holy sword covered in azure flames, James activated his dark stepping ability and suddenly lunged forward, passing through a cloud of poison that began to dissipate through the flaming wall and upwards across the room. With only a few moves, James dodged the tongue attacks coming at him and soon found himself in front of a mimic chest. "Pierce." he said, and then stabbed the sword towards the mimic. "KHRUAGHHHHH!!!" When an ear piercing scream reached James, he couldn''t hold himself back and then stumbled. The Mimic crate had literally been pierced through, a lush green blood flowing to the floor. At that very moment, as James stumbled because of the scream he heard, he saw something coming towards him quickly. Only when he turned his head to the right did he think to use his time elemental, but it was too late. "CRUSH!!!" Another mimic''s tongue slammed into him with incredible weight and speed. James flew almost fifty metres with the impact of this attack and crashed into one of the pillars near the corners of the room. When James was forced to his feet, blood was pouring from his head and his shoulder looked dislocated. He tensed as he realised that the mimics before him were as dangerous as the Fallen Gods he was fighting. It had only taken a single carelessness to do him so much damage. Luckily he had flown into one of the pillars, still dealing with the poisoning and constantly being distracted by the monsters looking for James, which allowed James to hide behind the pillar he had crashed into. After hiding behind the pillar, he thought he should put his dislocated left shoulder back in place, so that he could use his auto-heal ability to come round. Once he had got a good grip on his arm, lifted it upwards and put the shoulder back in place, he was met with a pain as if he had been stabbed in the stomach. He didn''t scream because he was immune to pain, but a storm raged in his heart. He was breathing deeply, the haemorrhage in his head healed immediately thanks to his automatic healing ability. When he realised that he had come to himself, he wanted to peek behind the pillar and saw that the mimic he had attacked had fallen to the ground and died. After stretching his body, he smiled and realised that he only had to perform the same attack twice more. While he was thinking about this, a system notification popped up in front of him: [Mimics go Berserk! Attack and personal speed increased by 100%]. James shook his head as he read this notification and frankly got a little flustered, just when he thought everything was going well, of course something had gone wrong. Inhaling deeply and exhaling, he took Selene''s Throwing Knife out of his inventory again and took it in his left hand, and then drowned it in azure flames and pulled it out from behind the pillar and flung it as hard as he could towards one of the mimic chests. "SHWIIPP!!!" James realised that the mimic chest had started screaming as a sound piercing the air rang in his ears: "HUAGHUUU HEULPP MEEE!!!" James couldn''t stop his body from freezing after this scream, this monster in front of him spoke like a human and started to turn left and right. "These monsters aren''t human James, they''re mimics, it''s normal for them to mimic human voices." Abby said. With this voice echoing in James''s mind, he managed to come to himself and then managed to calm down and rushed forward. The Mimics may have accelerated and become insanely powerful, but the biggest thing James was confident in was speed itself. He had methods to speed himself up, as well as enough status point boosts to massively negate his level. Each level increase gave users and players 5 distributable status points, except for the first five levels, which were randomly distributed. With the six levels James had gained after the attack on the village, he was now level 65, which should have given him 325 status points, counting his first five levels in their entirety. Not counting the ''Luck'' stat and the ''Magic'' stat, James had a total of 1532 status points. This was an ASTRONOMIC number for a 65 level climber. In this case, James, who had 271 Agility points, was already in the top five of the fastest people below the first thirty floors. James was very hopeful because of this. When he used the Dark Step ability and gained the 20% speed effect, 54 status points were temporarily added to his speed. This was the minimum speed he could reach when Aura of Chaos, Heaven''s Call, or Transition abilities were not activated. "Come on, you bastards." James said with the sudden courage he had gained, and then lunged forward, activating his dark step ability once more. Now he could destroy the last remaining duo. This time he planned to use neither azure flame nor black flame. He had to make an attack that would aim to slow down, perhaps even stop completely, these monsters, which were now faster and stronger. In this case, of course, this attack would be to use the snow-white flame, which was seen as ice flame. If the jet-black flame represented the inextinguishable fire of hell, the snow-white flame represented the sacred and frozen fire of heaven. There was no need to explain which of these two flames was more powerful, but the white flame would at least be able to kill some monsters directly, while the white flame could be useful in stopping others. As he lunged forward, a white and glorious flame covered the holy sword Clarent, and with it James swung the sword in a way that cut the air. Standing in front of a huge cloud of flames and swinging left and right, the mimic began to move towards his chest, and after a short time, even the poison cloud itself in the room began to turn white. The room literally began to freeze. At that very moment James used his time element and crouched down. When a second had passed, an even faster tongue attack came at James, but he instinctively dodged it. It was as if he had instinctively used the element of time, he hadn''t had it in his mind, he couldn''t see anything because of the cloud of white flame, and he had suddenly dodged. After he stood up, he started running towards the mimic chest that had attacked him and passed through the cloud of flame he had created again, this time activating his Transition ability. He could not jeopardise any chance and prolong this battle. Yes, he had enough mana and he had enough strength and endurance, but James decided that this war had to end immediately because he did not know whether the mimic chests would get stronger again. After using his Transition ability, he realised that everything was incredibly slow. He noticed the white and blue coloured flames that he had literally spread around, the frozen ground and the cloud of poison that had begun to freeze. Everything had really slowed down. It was obvious that everything was moving, but James was too fast, what was happening now was no different from what had happened when the time element was used. S§×ar?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With the speed he had gained, James went behind the mimic chest in front of him and then said "Pierce." and stabbed his sword covered with white flames towards the monster. In just a few seconds, the only monster left in the room was the mimic chest, which was spinning left and right and now frozen with pure white ice. When James held the holy sword Clarent properly, he said, "It''s finally over." and then made a move on the mimic chest and killed it too. It was quite a challenge, and it became clear how powerful only four of the mimic chests could be, but in the end it could be said that it was over. The first room of the Blessed''s Dungeon was cleared. Chapter 210 - 210: The One Who Betrayed James scratched his head as he fell to the ground exhausted, his clothes were soaked in blood, he had taken off every one of them and put on other clothes that he had taken out of his inventory. He was breathing heavily, his body was exhausted, he had suffered a serious blow, and even if he had already recovered, the shock of the pain was still there. [The first test of Kutlu has been passed with flying colours! The items dropped from the Mimic Chests were calculated as "Mysterious Jewellery Box(Godly)x4, Moonstone(Godly)x4, Spirit Essence(Godly)x4" respectively]. James smiled as he read the system notification that appeared in front of him and realised that he was already reaping the rewards of all his hard work, which was very good news. With that, he took out a few rice balls and a bottle of water from his inventory, consumed them and then left the first room behind. It was a room-type dungeon, and the fact that the dungeon was not cleared meant that James had two more chances. Either he would reach the boss monster''s room or he would have to clear another room. "Pick one without thinking James, thinking won''t change anything anyway, you have a 50 per cent chance." With Emily''s gentle voice echoing in his mind James thought he had heard right, after only a few seconds of waiting he made his way to the large doors in the centre, pushed them open and stepped inside. What he saw in front of him was a more expected presence. "Huh...a vampire," James suddenly said. In the centre of the poorly lit room, a personality with jet-black hair and crimson eyes was waiting in a very dignified manner. When James looked at this man, he saw that he was shining and watched his eyes as if he was dazzled. The vampire himself glowed with a golden colour, just like when he was choosing cards or seeing the paths on the first floor. "His body is Legendary-Grade? What the hell?" James said to himself, and with that, the vampire''s voice was heard: "Almost 13 million years...That''s how long it''s been. Almost 13 million years since I was locked up here by him...almost 13 million years since I was placed under the Kutlu''s care..." With these words of the vampire, it was clearly stated that a person who knew Kutlu himself was involved in this business. S§×ar?h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I am weakened...The fact that I have never drunk blood and never tasted the sun has weakened me. I am a Sun Vampire, divinity itself, I belong to the highest race of vampires, but he destroyed everything..." The vampire suddenly shouted and James covered his ears at the enormous volume. The decibel level was so high that James had to deal with the severe pain in his head. "You. Introduce yourself to me. Let me know who I will face in the battle of life and death." the vampire added to his own words, and James, hearing this, pulled himself together and spoke: "Nice to meet you, my name is James. James Arthur Black." When James uttered these words and stated his name, the surprise on the vampire''s face was obvious, he seemed to be touched. "Same last name...I don''t even know when the last time I fought him was, when was the last time I hugged him, when was the last time I heard him call me friend." the vampire blurted out and with that, it didn''t take James long to realise something. He knew that no one was watching him, and he knew that everything could be understood clearly and neatly, so he found it necessary to ask the vampire, even if he was afraid: "I seem to know who you''re talking about, master vampire." At James'' words, the vampire shook his head and nodded as if he understood what he was trying to say. "I don''t hate anymore, I gave that up 13 million years ago, it''s been too long. He was going to die and I wanted to end our war before he died, I was defeated and locked in here, after 13 million years of course the only thing left in me was the desire to fight him even more. I shouldn''t have betrayed him." the vampire said and with that, a great confusion fell on James. As James knew, or rather as he thought, the Church of Night and the Sun Empire had been founded a little over two million years ago. How long ago could his ancestors have started fighting? How had a man lived so long without being immortal? "I see the questions in your mind, after all, I am a god, one who has begun to fall, one who is not dead but who has rejected himself, who knows how much he has done wrong. You''re Desmond''s descendant, aren''t you? I can see it, I realised it when I first felt your energy when you entered the dungeon. Not just you, there are four of you, three spirits and one flesh. I want to see all of you come out." the vampire said and with that James released the three souls stored in his ring. Vlad, Abby and Emily looked at the vampire with great interest. "Ah...you two must be the first bloodline, your energy is both very weak and very strong, you died as humans, unlike your father." James and the others were surprised when the vampire uttered these words. This vampire standing in front of them officially knew Desmond personally, he was able to recognise his children at a glance, and on top of that, he was saying words that rejected Desmond''s race. "Who...who are you, master vampire?" James suddenly asked, genuinely confused. The vampire shook his head as he heard these words and sadness showed on his face. "I''m probably the last Sun Vampire left. My betrayal of Desmond must have been the end of them all. I was supposed to fight alongside Nyx, Erebus, Hyperion, Desmond, and the others." As the vampire began to speak, more confusion crept over James and the other three. "I was one of Desmond''s two best friends, Vlad or Vladimir by the full name. I am worshipped by every vampire in existence. Because of my arrogance and jealousy, I betrayed, challenged, and imprisoned my best friend. I am the greatest cause of Juliet''s death and the betrayal of the White Witches." The vampire, who introduced himself as Vladimir, opened his hands and then added with a sad expression on his face, "I am Vlad himself, the fool who has lowered himself to be hated by his best friend, I am the greatest traitor." and then he looked at James'' face and closed his jaw. After these words, James opened his inventory, albeit with fear, and then slowly took out his holy sword Clarent. The holy sword Clarent, which slowly left the inventory, emitted the sound of ''Schiiing.'' as if a sword was being officially unsheathed. "Then it''s obvious what we should do. This is not the place to die. I have things to do, things to take care of, and loved ones waiting for me." James suddenly said and took the attack position and held the holy sword Clarent with both hands, perhaps for the first time. He was facing a living god, albeit in a weakened state. The vampire, who introduced himself as Vladimir, shook his head when he heard these words, and then, when his hands slowly turned into claws, he uttered these words: "My body is at its strongest from drinking the blood of the gods. Stronger than gold, it has become a beauty worthy of Adamant. My blood has become as precious as that of Nyx, daughter of Chaos. And I have failed to honour these things and succumbed to my arrogance. Oh, young man! I hope you are strong enough to kill me here today, I hope you can end my suffering. My name is simply Vladimir, the betrayer." James swallowed when he heard those words, Abby''s voice echoing in his mind: "I can see where my brother Vlad got his name from, just like my eldest sister Juliet..." With his new knowledge, it was easy for James to realise how kind-hearted his ancestor Desmond was. Even though he had been betrayed, Desmond had named his son after his former best friend Vladimir. Desmond was a very, very different person from what he had thought. James swallowed hard as he realised that Vladimir was ready to attack, he knew instantly that he had to strike first, he didn''t want to be killed by just one blow. Suddenly he lunged forward and then attempted to use his transition ability to attack. Vladimir seemed surprised by James'' sudden disappearance, it would have been quite normal for him to remark that the power he was sensing from him was not that great. When James suddenly appeared in front of Vladimir, his sword was covered in black flames, the vampire''s weakness to fire was already a plus for him, and it would make much more sense for him to use the unquenchable flames on top of that. When Vladimir realised the danger from these flames, he suddenly jumped backwards and dodged the attack instantly. He of course was faster. Chapter 211 - 211: The One Who Knows "You have a powerful flame, young man, and I must say it is admirable, so powerful that I instinctively want to avoid your attack." The smile on Vladimir''s face at these words made it seem he appreciated James. "I still couldn''t keep up with you, Master Vladimir," James said. Vladimir''s eyes filled with curiosity when he said these words. "I wonder how much potential someone has to obtain one of the flames of hell," Vladimir thought, and indeed the curiosity in his eyes was enormous. Where that curiosity would lead was another matter. When James realised that his attack had been in vain, he suddenly chose to turn his attention to attacks from a distance, or perhaps attacks that could slow Vladimir down. As the flame on his sword turned white, he swung his sword from a distance and a cloud of white flame shot towards the vampire. Vladimir dodged the attack, the white flame perhaps not hitting him, but strangely he could feel his body burning from the inside. Suddenly, however, something happened that James had not expected. A huge energy surged from Vladimir''s body. "A vampire...using aura?" James questioned himself. Hearing these words, Vladimir smiled and said, "Didn''t anyone tell you? I am a Sun Vampire. I use the sun''s aura, boil my blood, and spread it. I thought you would have heard about it from his children." James shook his head as he heard those words and realised that the vampire in front of him had no animosity towards him, which made it all the more strange, he was a vampire...and one who had betrayed Desmond. It didn''t make sense that after only a few million years, his hatred for the person who had put him here and his bloodline would have subsided. Yet James knew very clearly that if he wanted to leave this room, if he wanted to leave this dungeon, Vladimir the Sun Vampire had to die. It was with these thoughts in mind that James noticed that Vladimir''s speed had strangely dropped a little, perhaps because he had been trapped here for so long that he had weakened. James suddenly took a few steps back as he realised this, and with that, he began to swirl his mana and aura around his body. Suddenly, he threw Selene''s Throwing Knife, which he had taken out of his inventory, towards Vladimir, while continuing to rotate the mana and aura in his body. Vladimir caught the incoming blade in mid-air with his aura, and with that, his attention turned back to James in front of him. "What are you trying to do?" Vladimir suddenly asked, the curiosity and surprise in his gaze strangely intriguing. James said nothing, he had already accomplished what he wanted to do, and he had become much better at spinning his aura and mana around his body. Suddenly the holy sword stabbed Clarent forwards and then released all the energy that had been gathered. Vladimir was taken aback by the energy that was coming towards him. He was too slowed down to avoid the attack. This colourful beam that was coming at him was really fast enough to hit him. So he opened his palm to meet the attack and prepared to gather all his aura in his arm and disperse it out of his body. "BOOM!!!!" The sound of an explosion came as James'' attack collided with Vladimir''s, and a huge cloud of dust rose in this flaming room. "Cough!!!" "COUGH!!!" James coughed repeatedly at the huge cloud of dust rising and then took a few steps backwards, returning to his fighting stance to be in a state of readiness. "So that was you..." James was suddenly startled by the sound coming from within the dust cloud and then watched as the dust cloud dissipated as if it had never existed. There was a small puddle of blood on the floor, James had somehow managed to make Vladimir''s palm bleed a little. "I don''t understand what you''re trying to say," James suddenly said, thinking that he needed to buy time for his Transition ability, and he believed that he should wait, ready to use his Aura of Chaos ability just in case. "Desmond...even before the war with the gods, when we were conquering little by little floors and killing some gods and goddesses, he used to say it all the time. How powerful Aura and Magic could be together. He was constantly practising the offensive arts. He even created a claw art for me and a staff art for Juliet." As Vladimir said these words, he suddenly lunged towards James. James tried to avoid it by using the element of time, but there was no way he could. Once he opened and closed his eyes, he realised that he had already hit one of the walls of the room and had fallen to the floor. There was no sound, James hadn''t even realised he''d been hit, it was incredibly absurd to think that the man in front of him was the one who had just failed to recover from the attack. S~ea??h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "COUGHSK!!!" James had barely lifted his head and tried to look at Vladimir when he coughed up a handful of blood on the floor. Vladimir had a strange smile on his face as if to show that he could kill James at any moment and that he was no better than an ant. "You''re still too weak...you''re becoming the person Desmond wants to create, even if you''re doing it little by little, even if your destiny is changing, that''s the certain outcome." "I...have---no idea.....what you are...saying..." James uttered these words, albeit rather forcefully, and with it Vladimir''s voice was heard once more: "A strong reality, a reality that everyone hopes can be sustained and in which humans and all races can finally live together. That was Desmond''s dream. He realised part of it, but he was human, and even if the long life had somehow reached him, it would have been his undoing when he realised he was no longer human. And then you would be the next to come, whenever that might be. I know what Desmond wanted to do, I know it all." These words made everything more complicated. Chapter 212 - 212: The One Who Unlocks "I---will murder you!" James uttered these four words and looked at Vladimir with wild and angry eyes as he gently insulted him and his kin. Indeed, he was strangely torn between sadness and anger. "Oh young man, you cannot kill me. I may be weakened, but I am like Zeus, like Nyx or Odin, like Gaia and Sun-Wukong, I have made it to the 150th floor. How can you kill me when you don''t even have 1% of the strength of the person who imprisoned me here?" Vladimir replied and with that, he looked deeply at James. James somehow managed to get to his feet. His holy sword had not left Clarent even after the blow he had received. "Even if I die, I will somehow come back and kill you, if I have to beg the tower to kill a traitor," James muttered, and with that Vladimir''s interest was piqued. "Tell me, what is your dream?" Vladimir suddenly asked. James rolled his head at the strange question and then asked, "What?" "Desmond, me and Juliet. The three of us had a dream that this tower would become more useful and sufficient so that all races could live together: Vampires, White Witches, who could be considered human, and normal humans. I don''t know if this dream was fulfilled, after all, I can''t see outside, but we did our best for this dream. Even if my betrayal turned everything upside down, it was always our first goal before my betrayal. What about your dream? What do you want? The Tower has always been about [wants and desires]. What do you want?" Vladimir waited where he was after saying one thing after another. The surrounding flames were more than enough to give this vampire a good atmosphere. This was how James realised after a long time that he was indeed looking at an incredibly beautiful being. Still, he knew he shouldn''t be confused by these things. When he lost the strength in his leg and fell to the ground, he looked at Vladimir and then said, "I have two dreams." "Hmm?" James spoke up as Vladimir''s curiosity was further piqued: "My first dream is to reach the end of this tower, to literally tear through the tower and reach Chaos himself," James said, and the gleam in Vladimir''s eye was clear to see. "The second is to bear the sorrow of all those oppressed after the war, to be the father of children who have been alone all these years, kidnapped and perhaps killed, in short, to create a tower where no child will cry," James added, and with that, he fell silent, took out a health potion from his inventory and drank it. After drinking the health potion, James took a deep breath and then looked up into Vladimir''s face as he was recovering. James once again witnessed the expression on the Sun Vampire''s face. Vladimir was smiling again, but this time it was not a smile of contempt, but a smile of appreciation. Vladimir''s smile made James feel as if he was looking at Nyx, as if he was offering a fatherly...or unclely, as another way of putting it. "That''s...That is something I can accept." Vladimir said, and suddenly the nails on his right hand changed and became a claw. As each part of its claw was coated in an aura of immense power, it sliced thinly through the palm of his left hand and then grabbed James''s jaw quickly, forcing it open. Drops of blood trickled down James'' throat as he struggled to free himself from the hand holding him. The holy sword swung at Clarent repeatedly with all its might, but each strike literally bounced off Vladimir''s skin. After a while, Vladimir let go of James'' jaw, and then the following voice came out of James on the ground: "Uagh....What did you do to me?!" As James uttered these words, Vladimir''s voice was heard: "I made you drink my blood, the blood of a Sun Vampire, you are very lucky, even Desmond would beg me for my blood. I gave him some when he put me here for him to forgive me. Didn''t happen, yet at least that is how I could forget everything." When James heard these words, he suddenly looked up and stared at Vladimir in horror. "Desmond...the reason he was able to achieve a long life..." "Yes. I gave Desmond my blood, the blood of a god. I don''t know when he died, but my blood was the biggest factor in his survival up until then, but I didn''t even make him drink his holy blood. Like I said, you''re lucky." James''s confusion grew with each word he heard as his bewilderment grew. "So, you''re going to turn me into a vampire?" James asked. "No, but yes. You are going to have a little part of a Sun Vampire which will make you correct your body shape and you will be able to collect mana and aura faster. Which will make you an even stronger god when you ascend to the 76th floor." After Vladimir''s words, James shook his head and said, "But I want to remain a human..." "Your goal is to become a god, am I right?" Vladimir asked. "Yes." S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Humans cannot become gods when they want to remain human. When they give up their humanity, then the path to godhood opens for them. This is a feature of human creation. Remember Chaos created many things, but his masterpieces are the Supreme Dragons, the first three admins of the tower and the human race itself." Vladimir said and with that, he smiled and patted James on the head. While James was trying to understand what was going on, Vladimir''s voice was heard once again: "I felt your energy when you entered the dungeon, I may have betrayed Desmond, but as I said...I had my reasons. It was never my intention to kill you, think of it as a test, like a test the Blessed will give you. I betrayed my friend, it is my duty to help his descendants. Who knows, maybe I was destined to meet you. I would kill you if you were not worthy but since you are perhaps it was my destiny." These words were more than shocking to James, he really couldn''t believe his ears... Chapter 213 - 213: The One Who Is Forgiven "I don''t understand. Just more power made you betray him? You say you made it to the 150th floor. What kind of power could you have been looking for?" James asked, and with that Vladimir''s smiling face filled with sadness. Sear?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I''m not a good man young man but it wasn''t just power, I was a father too, I would have done anything to save my daughter, I would have betrayed even my closest friends for her if she was being held in an undisclosed location and as you know I did betray him." By the time Vladimir''s words reached James'' ears, James was on his feet. "First I learnt of Desmond''s existence, then I learnt that Juliet died before the war even started when betrayals happened, and now I know where the person who caused Juliet''s death was. You betrayed her and Desmond...And what should I say? Why does the past continue to have more and more tree branches every time I meet someone?" James said, and with these words, Vladimir''s expression changed once again. "I can see everything in your eyes, young man. You are kind but cruel and you care about your family just as I do. However, I hope that if such a situation arises, that is, if you are in my situation, you will not make the same mistake." Vladimir said. With these words, Vladimir''s hands turned into claws again, James thought that the test was over and so he dropped his guard, just as he was about to take a defensive position, something he never expected to happen. "COUGHSHK!!!" Vladimir suddenly opened a huge gash in his stomach with his claw and fell on his back. James ran to Vladimir, not realising what had happened, and then shouted: "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU''RE DOING, YOU IDIOT!!!" This was the first time James had ever insulted one of the people his bloodline considered ''family''. He was so shocked, so disbelieving, that these words managed to come out of his mouth. "Kehkehkeh...So you can get mad," said Vladimir, speaking normally for his ripped-open stomach. "Why? How could you do such a thing???" questioned James and then his attention was diverted to his surroundings. "DAMN IT!!! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THIS?!" he suddenly shouted, so distracted by the conversation, the things he had heard, that he completely forgot he was in a dungeon. "Yes...You won''t be able to get out of this dungeon unless I die, so I should kill myself while you can''t hurt me, and even if you won''t get experience points, at least the dungeon will give you an item." Vladimir said, that even if he was breathing deeply, there was no limit to the joy in his eyes. It was as if he was pinning his hopes on James. James was just about to cry when he was suddenly distracted from his sadness by the glint of the family heirloom ring on his finger. "What''s going on?" Vladimir asked. When he uttered that question, his whole body began to crumble into dust. While both James and Vladimir were trying to figure out what was going on, the glow of the ring faded and something white came out of Vladimir''s body and entered the ring. "What the fuck?!" James said, and the spirits inside the ring and when he tried to feel it, he realised that there were now four spirits inside. James knew that he was holding the lock open to let all the souls out, but Vladimir didn''t seem to realise what was happening. Both Vlad, Abby and Emily were stunned when he forced all the souls out of the ring. Vladimir''s soul was standing in front of everyone, and Vladimir himself seemed to be the most surprised. "How can it be? An item that can hold the soul? Where did you get it?" Vladimir suddenly asked, and James, hearing this, smiled and said, "This is our family heirloom, an item that can hold the soul of everyone who is family...". When James said these words, Vladimir''s eyes filled with tears, and it took a very short time for tears to flow down his face. "Pleased to meet you, sir, my name is Vlad, and I''m Desmond''s firstborn, it''s an honour to meet the one I''m named after." the older Vlad said suddenly, and it seemed to move the vampire lord even more. "I''m Abby, the last child. Next to me is Emily, James'' aunt," the beautiful Abby said. After these words, Vladimir waited for a few seconds without saying anything. "Oh, Desmond...my dear friend. Did you name your daughter after my daughter? I''m so sorry, my friend, forgive me...." Vladimir said and with that everything became clear. Despite all the deaths, it seemed that Desmond still loved Vladimir madly and cared for him just as much. Desmond loved him so much that Vladimir was chosen by the heirloom itself as someone who could enter the family heirloom. "His war against you must be to bring you back to yourself, Vladimir. Indeed, fate works in strange ways. I know that Chaos does not control me, which means that every step I take, every breath I take, and every action I take is what brought me here..." James said. As the four spirits looked at him, he gently reached out to Vladimir took one of the spirit''s hands and then said the following words: "Welcome back to your family my ancestor, please watch over me so I don''t make the same mistakes you did." As James spoke these words, Vladimir nodded as if he had come to his senses and then said, "I will do that, I will be there for you in the future when you face others as powerful as me, so that you can live, so that you can protect your loved ones and fulfil your dreams." James was about to thank him with honour when suddenly a system notification popped up in front of his eyes: ["Blessed''s second test has been cleared to a level above perfect! This is the item that drops with the death of Sun Vampire Vladimir: ''Sun Vampire''s Core"] Chapter 214 - 214: Sun Vampires Core (1) [The Kutlu''s second test has been cleared to an above-perfect level! This is the item that drops with the death of Sun Vampire Vladimir: "Sun Vampire''s Core"] Vladimir was stunned when he saw the item James had been given as a room reward. The old vampire wiped away his tears and tried to compose himself, though embarrassed that he had shown this to those around him. "Sit on the ground and consume this core. There''s a chance that you might actually be a Half-Sun Vampire now." Vladimir said, and James'' attention was drawn back to him with those words. "I don''t understand, I already drank your blood, Master Vladimir, I told you I didn''t want to lose my humanity," said James, and with these words, Emily''s voice was heard after a long time. "I think it''s time to accept something, James." Everyone seemed as surprised as James at Emily''s words. "Auntie?" James suddenly said. "Can''t you see, you''re trying to be like our ancestor Desmond, but our ancestor himself thought you could be more, so he pushed everything this far. He pinned his hopes on you. I''m sure no one will care if you''re human or not, as long as you keep being you, there will always be someone around," Emily added, more convincingly than necessary. "You say that well, but being a vampire? I''m not going to go and feed on blood every day, am I?" James suddenly said. Vladimir shook his head when he heard this and then asked, "What the hell are you talking about?" James rolled his head when he heard this question and then said, "You know, vampires and stuff, they drink blood, they want human blood and stuff." After these words, Vladimir put one hand on his chest as if offended by James'' words and then said, "How dare you, I am a Sun Vampire, my energy comes from the sun and the moon itself, I don''t need blood or anything else, don''t compare me with our subraces, average vampires." I could tell that Vladimir was really offended. Even though there was still a huge depressive feeling over the old soul, the desire to help James seemed to make him more energetic. "Umm...I''m sorry...I guess?" replied James, not really knowing what to say, stopped by the strangeness of Vladimir''s expression. "Whatever, just consume this core." Vladimir suddenly said, and with that, James suddenly crouched cross-legged on the floor and found the Sun Vampire Core in his inventory. The thing he had pulled out of his inventory was glowing crimson, strangely alluring. "This core contains some of my bloodline power. If you process it properly, any vampires you meet in the future will be kinder to you since they will feel what you consumed," Vladimir said, and with that, James popped the pill-sized core into his mouth. With that, he instantly realised that no change had occurred in his body. Of course, the spirits surrounding him were surprised, especially Vladimir, who could not understand what was happening. "Well?" James asked, and Vladimir''s expression changed as he heard this. "Aren''t you... How come? Aren''t you human?" Vladimir suddenly asked, and when he saw the confused expression on James'' face, he added, "Your body has no reaction to this core that can cause a reaction even for other races." S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At that moment, Abby''s voice was heard: "Sir, James'' body is a bit special, please take a look at his mana rings," said Abby with a glowing smile. There could be no other way to describe Vladimir''s astonishment at the sight of James'' body. His mouth was agape and his gaze seemed to be a very smooth narrative going on from the fact that his eyes were an inch apart. "How is it that your magic rings are refined with the elements, and it''s blood elemental on top of that? Are you kidding me?" It didn''t take Vladimir long to recover from his bewildered questions, but he still had a natural difficulty in understanding what had happened. It was possible to have only two basic powers in a body. Either the aura and elemental, which were the main foundation, were in the body, or the magic and elemental, which were the main foundation, were in the body. This was what had puzzled Vladimir, and even the gods and goddesses before him. James''s magic rings were literally elaborated according to the number of elements he was predisposed to and refined with those elements. Instead of someone experiencing a 50% increase in magic power, that is, mana, in each magic ring, this revealed a different effect. This meant that James'' refined magic rings were adding almost 100% mana to him in each formation. This was the main reason why James'' magic power was uncontrolled, even with the status increase. Despite the control he had, James was home to an enormous amount of mana. The only reason his body didn''t explode from all that mana was because the aura in his body was protecting his body. "Unbelievable. I''ve never heard or seen anything like this in my entire life..." said Vladimir, who seemed to have managed to pull himself together. "So what now, now that I''ve swallowed the core, what do we do now?" James suddenly asked and with that, Vladimir smiled. James was frankly frightened by Vladimir''s smile. He couldn''t help thinking for a few seconds about how much what he was about to hear was likely to make him shudder. With that, Vladimir looked at James and then began to speak. "Now young man, we are going to do something that will be of more use to you. You have the blood element but you are still a human being, even from the quality of your body I can see that you have been refined at least two or three times and on top of that your magic rings have been refined. This means that you don''t need to give up your humanity at all to pass the 75th floor." Vladimir continued with a gentle smile on his face. Chapter 215 - 215: Sun Vampires Core (2) "What we''re going to do is my core, it''s supposed to provide you with the blood element, I''m going to make you one of a kind, and eventually, there will be vampires that will follow you, eventually I''m going to infuse you with my race, and what we''re going to do now is we''re going to refine the blood element one more time. Do you see what I mean?" James shook his head in surprise for a few seconds before saying, "I have no fucking idea what you just said." Vladimir shook his head in disappointment when he heard these words and then said, "We will refine your magic ring again, which has been refined with the blood element. This means that your mana capacity and aura capacity will increase due to my use of aura. James...can''t you understand? We will be able to create the second layer, which is normally created after 12 magic rings." When James and the others heard these words, they waited as if they couldn''t make up their minds. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "But my father said it''s impossible, I mean he said it is literally impossible," Abby suddenly said. "True, it should be impossible, but that only applies to those who can control one thing. James has both magic and aura in his body, the elemental core has opened up on him, and it binds the two powers together. This means that if he succeeds in targeting only one element, James can now put the second layer against the ring to which the blood element is connected." Vladimir answered these words. Abby waited a few seconds after these words and then shook her head at the possibility of such a thing being possible and said, "It is quite possible if you, the former owner of the power, direct James." James was waiting where he was. "So we''re going to gamble with my life AGAIN?" James suddenly asked and Vlad, hearing this, silenced him by saying, "It''s something you''ve already done quite a lot of on your own, I don''t think there will be any difficulties." "I mean, I mean yeah I do that but like...Fuck, alright..." James managed to say, and then, closing his eyes, he added, "Then let''s get started." With these words of James, he felt the core he had eaten. After focusing on his body, he could see that the energy coming out of the core he had eaten was already in front of the elemental core that surrounded his heart and the total aura in his body. As he started to approach the energy, he suddenly realised Vladimir standing next to him. "I didn''t know you could get here," James suddenly said, and Vladimir, hearing these words, chose to reply, "I mean, I tried." "Now James, you know what to do, dissipate the energy and let your body absorb it, when your mana capacity starts to increase you will transfer some of the energy to the fifth ring. You will suffer because you will be breaking the rules of magic itself, not the tower, but if you can endure it, the reward will be unimaginable." Vlad said and with that, he disappeared. James was left alone. Faced with this image that he was now accustomed to, and then breathing deeply, he touched the Sun Vampire''s Core and met the very energy that made him tremble. The energy was the size of a pill and had a deep blue appearance in the appearance of the core. As soon as James touched the core, the energy itself began to be swallowed by the elemental core. With each passing second, both the aura energy held by the branch of the elemental core and the magic energy held by the other branch of the same core began to grow. The size of the energy was truly enormous. James saw that his aura was growing faster than ever before, and he realised that his mana level had increased by at least 150%. As the energy from the Core slowly began to diminish, James began to send all the remaining energy to the fifth magic ring, the maroon-coloured ring. At that very moment, his eyes widened. He was in insane pain, he was already writhing on the ground in the tangible world, and it was not much different when he was observing his soul and body. Both on the tangible and intangible side his body was indeed writhing, but even with that James could see the progress he was making. "NO PAIN NO GAIN GOD DAMN IT!" James suddenly shouted and with that, he pushed all of the energy towards the fifth magic ring. The fifth magic ring seemed to stumble from the enormous amount of energy that was being thrown at it, it really did seem to be alive, it was constantly being depleted and it was becoming much thinner than James had expected. So much thinner that it was perhaps less than a centimetre thick. It was the strangest thing that such great power could exist in such a thin ring, indeed the magic was incredibly ''magical''. As James took deep breaths, he saw that the colour of the maroon magic ring was becoming more vivid and bright. The pain he felt began to lessen, and immediately afterwards another colour was strangely added to the magic ring. The colour of the magic ring was no longer just maroon, but the second layer that had begun to cover it had added a dark shade of blue to the magic ring. With that, James opened his eyes to the concrete place, reality itself. He could see four spirits around him, looking at him intently and strangely. "I think that''s it? It hurt less than I expected, but my body feels...very light. I''m more alive and my mind is clearer. It''s good that it went smoothly." James suddenly said. After only five or six minutes it was over and everything seemed to be in order. "Ummm...Well...My dear nephew, we can''t say it''s not all smooth sailing." Emily suddenly said, not realising how much those words must have frightened James. Chapter 216 - 216: Old Grandma Ruby "Ummm...Well...My dear nephew, not everything is smooth." After Emily''s sudden words, James''s face turned white. He suddenly started to check his body and realised that he was not missing any limbs. The fact that he could not find any faults in his body could perhaps mean that there was an internal fault that he did not realise. "What is it?" James asked with great concern and it didn''t take long for him to get an answer. "If you have a mirror in your inventory, it would be better to check it yourself." Vlad suddenly said. At these words, James''s anxiety was strangely aggravated. It would be quite justified to say that he was frightened, thinking that his handsomeness had disappeared in a rather egotistical way. Suddenly, he reached into his inventory, only to find that, like most things, the mirror was among the locked items. "STUPID FLOOR TRIAL!!!" shouted James. He couldn''t even look at his face because of the test the tower had given him. As he wondered what was going on, he had a neat idea that he couldn''t do anything right now. He would put all this in the back of his mind, but what he had to do now was to leave this damned dungeon. "Let''s go," James said suddenly and then pulled the spirits outside into the ring. "Don''t you feel tired? You should rest," Emily said suddenly, but the answer to that question was already obvious. James wished to leave this stupid dungeon as soon as possible. After the second room left him, he waited in front of the huge doors of the last room. Clutching the holy sword Clarent and Selene''s Throwing Knife, which he had recalled, he took a deep breath and then pushed the huge doors open, thinking that waiting would not change anything. It was pitch black inside the room, James couldn''t see a thing even with his night vision. The room was blocking out any ability the supreme goddess had given him. James realised that his body was going crazy with adrenaline. There had never really been a time when he couldn''t see anything, even in the darkest of situations the ability Nyx had given him had helped. Right now she was no different from a blind person and it was quite frightening. "You''re finally here, welcome." James suddenly heard a voice inside his mind, and it wasn''t that of any of the spirits in his ring. It was quite thick and incredibly dominant, and even if James could stand it, he could feel his Mind Palace ability being shaken to its core. "You must be the owner of the dungeon, pleasure to meet you," James suddenly said. Knowing that this person talking to him had a connection to Desmond was the only thing that gave him a little comfort. "Hmmm...you''re a lot thinner than I expected. Desmond told me that when my heir enters the tower and confronts me, he will be quite strong." James shook his head as the thick voice said this, and his ego, pride and dignity were crushed by its words. "I''m said to be quite strong, I mean for my level and experience," James suddenly said, and then the voice echoed in his mind again. "You''re talking rubbish. I can see your age, and judging by this, you have only reached this level after spending time in the tower, and you are praising yourself when you should be ashamed." Smiling after these words, James said, "There has been a misunderstanding. It''s been almost two years since I entered the tower, it''s not what you think." As James said these words, the voice that had spoken to his mind disappeared and the darkness in the room suddenly disappeared. James saw a winged, humanoid being sitting on the floor at the far end of the room after the lights came on. The being appeared to be a woman, but it was clear that the voice James heard in his mind belonged to a man. "Hmm...So you''ve made it this far in just two years. Not to mention the fact that you found the relic ring and on top of that you were able to take Vladimir''s soul. If it''s as you say, you''ve already surpassed Desmond''s development." When James heard this voice again, he heard the voice of a very elegant woman. After looking at her carefully, he saw that everything from her wings to her hair, from her hair to her eyes had a red colour. The woman herself, except for her light skin colour, had an appearance that encouraged live flames from every part of her. "Be careful James, one of the six mystical beasts in the tower stands before you, do not disrespect it, only Chaos can save you if you do." James was about to compose himself after Vladimir''s words echoed in his mind when the woman''s voice was heard again: "Vladimir''s words are quite true, my dear child. It is a beautiful sight that Vladimir has been able to forgive himself after a very long time, I wonder if you have found Juliet''s soul, can you answer that?" James shook his head in amazement as she spoke these words and then began to question who this woman was and how she could hear the voices echoing in his mind. "You...How? I did not?" James said with great astonishment. "Oh come on...I''m a mystical beast. Even if we are not as powerful as Supreme Dragons, we are mystical, created by Chaos, we are as powerful as gods. There are 6 of us, but there used to be more. Being able to read your mind is only a small part of my power." the winged woman said. "But... How can I defeat you? If you are so powerful, if you are so powerful that you can even keep master Vladimir in this dungeon, how can I harm you?" said James, there was nothing he could do. With those words James saw a smile, the winged woman in front of him seemed to be trying hard not to laugh. He didn''t know what was going to happen, dying was the last thing he wanted to do after all. sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "But...how can I defeat you? How can I harm you if you are so strong, so strong that you can even keep Master Vladimir in this dungeon?" With these words, the winged woman who held her laughter forcibly suddenly began to speak: "As you know, my name is Kutlu, but I want you to call me Grandma Ruby, after all, Desmond considered me his mother." "Umm...Well...Grandma Ruby?" was James''s bewildered reply, completely confused after she introduced herself with both names, Kutlu and Ruby. "Excellent. Now for your final test, little one. Whether or not you die here is entirely up to you. All your abilities will be locked and the lights will be switched off again, if you can avoid the incoming attacks as much as I want you to, or rather as much as I want you to, depending on the number, you will pass the test. You will take a test where your speed and stability will have to work." old Ruby said and the lights slowly started to switch off after these words. "I hope you survive, little one, I don''t want to disappoint Desmond, but if you disappoint me there will be no reason for you to live," Ruby added and with that, the last light in the room went out. James was left alone in the darkness again. When he tried to use his abilities, he realised that everything was indeed blocked. Even his Aura of Chaos ability was strangely blocked. James didn''t even know if such a thing was possible until now. Still, there was something James could use. The elements themselves did not count as abilities like aura or magic. "Is the use of the element forbidden, Grandma?" James asked without missing a beat. Ruby smiled, even though no one could see her, and thought to herself, "Clever boy." "Free," Ruby muttered, her smiling tone letting everyone know that she was trying hard not to laugh again. James smiled when he heard those words and thought that he could be prepared for whatever defence he was going to put up. He had suddenly released 8 Sacred Fire and then waited for the flames to try to light up the area. Yet almost nothing happened. Yes, the flames were around, but there was almost no brightness that caught James'' eye. "How come?" Ruby suddenly said to herself, of course, she recognised the flames in front of her, she was a being born of flames. The flames were impossible not to recognise. James began to wait for the attacks he had to defend against. Just then a sound piercing the air rang in his ears and he was suddenly pulled backwards from the side from which the sound came. "CHING!!!!" A sound like metal being struck rose into the sky and James zoomed in on the flames, trying to see what he was avoiding. After moving the flames around for a while, he saw that a huge arrow, almost four centimetres thick and perhaps fifty centimetres long, was lodged in the ground. "No kidding?" James said, shuddering as he realised that it was a huge arrow that he had managed to avoid at the last moment. He knew that if even one of these arrows hit him at this speed, it would pierce through him. He was indeed in grave danger. He was in a daunting...no, deadly danger. Chapter 217 - 217: Clearing the Dungeon While James was burning with these thoughts, the same voice reappeared: "SWIIPPTT!" When this sound that pierced the air appeared, James leapt into the air to avoid the arrow, and the sound of metal clashing echoed in the air again: "CHING!!!" When James fell to the ground, several air-ripping sounds appeared one after the other and James started to avoid the flames as much as he could with the flames spreading over his body as if he could not feel anything. After a short time, the lights came on. Unable to understand what was happening, James shook his head and asked, "Is it over?" After asking this question, his body suddenly trembled and he realised Ruby was standing before him. "I give up, I''m changing your trial," Ruby suddenly said. These words had surprised both James and the spirits in the ring enough, but what they would hear afterwards would be things that would make them all say, "He''s dead now." "Your test will be to make me take a step in any direction while I am standing here. You have only five minutes and an infinite number of attacks you can make in that time. What you do is up to you." At Ruby''s words, James took a few steps backwards, suddenly realising that all his abilities had returned, and with that, he thought he would send her at least 10 steps back. What a stupid fucking idiot he was. Ruby watched James with a smiling and incredibly curious expression as he waited for his attack. James was aiming to use everything he had so far. He was holding the holy sword Clarent with both hands. He sent the extra 75 status points he had directly to the ''Power'' status. Immediately after that, he put the ''Heaven''s Call'' ability he had received from Archangel Michael into use for the first time and then strengthened himself by choosing the power of the rose. The crimson rose garden blooming in the room seemed to fit Ruby''s character quite well. Not only that, but she also used her Aura of Chaos ability on top of it and then turned each rose in the rose garden that bloomed in the dark place that dominated the room into a black rose. James was now exactly 120% stronger. This was all he had. The magical energy he had begun to spin in his body, the aura and the elemental power he would add to it began to overflow outwards. James was normally trying to spin a small piece of energy in his body, but this time he was attempting something big. The collision of forces in his body was so massive that his eyes began to bleed and his vision became restricted, the blood flowing from his ears silenced even the spirits speaking into his mind, and the blood flowing from his nose told him how awful he was. Fortunately, no blood was flowing from his mouth, indicating that his internal wound was not in a terrible state. In almost five minutes he had managed to prepare everything, this was the most powerful attack he could do, there was no way he could do more than that. With that he activated his transition ability to attack and then suddenly appeared behind Ruby, shouting "PIERCE!!!". Enormous energy deep, made entirely of flame and the law of time itself surged towards Ruby. Ruby had already realised where James was and the attack he was going to make, so when she turned around she was astonished by the energy this boy had unleashed, after all, it was a huge achievement that such energy could come from someone who was so ''weak'' in her eyes. Even though Ruby was shocked by this energy, she didn''t even think that she would need defence against this energy. She was right in her thinking. The huge energy that James had released outside hit Ruby right in the chest without slowing down with all its power. "BOOOOOOOM!!!!" A sound loud enough to make the ears bleed and even damage the eardrum echoed around the room. A huge dust smoke rose into the air and the sound of deep breathing began to rise in the room. "Huff....Huff...Hah..." As the sounds of deep breathing rose in the room, it became quite obvious how tired James was. When the dust had cleared and everything was visible, James was seen to stop bleeding and tears appeared in his eyes. The energy coming out of James was so great that it was logical to think that everything would succeed. The only reason James had tears streaming down his face was because he realised what a fool he had been. James realised that Ruby standing in front of him hadn''t moved an inch, which meant he had failed. He had failed the test and there was nothing he could do now. Just as he was about to put himself down, he heard something he never expected: S§×arch* The ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You passed the test with flying colours." James looked at Ruby with surprised eyes when he heard these words, his tears suddenly stopped and he looked at the woman in front of him with great relief. "The test was based on you moving me where I was. When you got behind me, I felt I had to turn round, both out of curiosity and instinct, and look where I am." Ruby said suddenly and James, hearing this, looked at where her feet were. Ruby did indeed seem to have moved a step from where she was, and the reason James realised this was because she was leaving the same dried ash-like footprints where she had stepped. Right next to the two sets of footprints was another pair of footprints. Ruby had moved. James had officially passed the test, James would be able to leave this dungeon alive, this was truly his greatest achievement. "Thank God..." said James suddenly, indeed anyone would have been sure that the sweat pouring off his body could fill a bucket to the top of his head. "You''re lucky, I''m a man of my word, I was going to kill you if you had failed." Ruby suddenly said, and James didn''t even know what to say, he chose to settle for being scared. "I want to go and hug my daughter," James said suddenly and then caught Ruby''s attention. "You have a daughter? You''re so young, I didn''t expect that." Ruby said. "My daughter''s name is Miracle, she''s a Supreme Dragon," James replied and with that Ruby''s eyes widened. "Well...I''m glad I didn''t kill you, I don''t want to be beheaded and eaten anyway." Ruby said after all she had heard. "I thought you were superior to the Supreme Dragons, even if you''re not as strong as them, there are only six of you left, right?" asked James, and with that he got an answer he had never expected: "There used to be hundreds of us. Of course, due to the long wars and, to tell the truth, Desmond''s hunting of those who joined the other side, our number has been reduced to six. We are phoenixes, born of fire and return to fire." After Ruby''s answer, James felt relieved and sighed deeply. He yawned, he was going to go back and give his daughter a big hug and sleep like he never slept before. "Alright, that''s all well and good, but there''s something else I''m curious about," James said, and after seeing Ruby roll her head in curiosity, he continued: "I''ve cleared the dungeon, I''ve passed your test after all, but now what? What will happen to you? What will happen to my dungeon reward? After all, I need to get an award called [Kutlu''s Art of Death] from you." Ruby smiled after James'' question, and then her body began to glow with a small light. Ruby, who turned into a crimson bird, perhaps the size of a crow, after a short period of eye-catching light, said, "You will learn this art in your dreams, otherwise it will take a very, very long time." When James shook his head that he did not understand anything from this sentence he heard, Ruby spoke again: "The dream realm is directly connected to the subconscious mind, which means that in the time you will sleep while you are so tired now, I will be able to teach you the entire art, you won''t even remember it when you wake up, you will have fully learnt Kutlu''s Art of Death which as you know the art that has my mythical name." James shook his head at Ruby''s words, and then the system notification he had been waiting to see for so long appeared in front of him. Before she could even react to Ruby''s words, she was teleported out of the dungeon: [Kutlu''s Dungeon Congratulations on clearing the dungeon. Dungeon Prize: Kutlu himself, Kutlu''s Art of Death] He was happy that he could clean such a dungeon. He had learnt a lot about Desmond and had good or bad thoughts about the future. Who would have thought that James would have made an enemy to make a friend and another friend to win? Chapter 218 - 218: You All Should Never Forget [Kutlu''s Dungeon Congratulations on clearing the dungeon. Dungeon Prize: Kutlu herself Kutlu''s Art of Death] [Viewing unlocked!] As James was thrown out of the dungeon, he saw these system notifications in front of him and smiled, realising that he had indeed managed to leave this dungeon without dying. [JAMES!!!] [ARE YOU OK?] [WHAT''S WITH THE LOOK?] [WHAT HAPPENED?] James, whose smile grew even wider as message windows opened in front of him one after the other, thought it would be good to reply to the last person who had sent a message: "It was a pretty tough dungeon old Zeus, I got out alive after all, stop worrying." After James'' words, the messages did not slow down or diminish. Hundreds of message notifications opened up in front of him, and James was once again able to realise just how big a family he had. The gods, with whom he had only a small conversation, seemed to have sent him a message. [Are you sure you''re all right?] After a few seconds of breathing James finally saw the message from Nemesis and his eyes filled with tears, it seemed too much for him to have come back from the dead a few dozen minutes ago and to have experienced so much in just one day. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He was lucky. Without the Mind Palace ability, his mind would have collapsed, and his brain would have exploded to death because of Ruby''s voice. Even if Ruby hadn''t spoken, all this action would still have been too much for him. Either way, he had dodged a bullet. "You don''t even know what I''d give to hug you right now Nemesis, I almost died, twice," James said suddenly, unable to contain his emotions. After that, he closed the message windows and began to walk through the snow, which was now halfway up to his height. [Are you sure you''re all right? You look like you''ve changed quite a bit in a day]. James shook his head as he read this message from Nyx and said, "I don''t quite understand what you''re trying to say, my lady." [Open your profile and then click on appearance in the settings section]. James had opened his profile when he saw this message and poked around for a while, it was very, very strange that after almost two years he had never noticed anything like this. After a short while, when he found the area Nyx had told him about and opened it, he looked at the screen in front of him with great surprise. "WHAT THE FUCK?!!!?!?!" She couldn''t help but scream at the sight in front of her. James could see his body properly. His face was the same as always, he hadn''t lost any of his handsomeness, but his hair colour seemed to have changed. James''s hair had taken on a dark blue hue, the ends still had a slight bright green tint to it, but somehow the colour had changed. "My lady, can you stop the others from watching me please?" James suddenly asked and with that, he waited. After almost five minutes the message [I''ve done it] appeared in front of him and James summoned Vladimir''s spirit out. "Why did this happen, sir?" James suddenly muttered. "The blood element is special. You ate my essence and got the energy of whichever side you were closer to. As I told you, we Sun Vampires draw energy from both the sun and the moon. Let''s say you are closer to the energy of the moon." Vladimir replied. James shook his head at these words and then continued to complain, "That just does not make any sense?!" Vladimir smiled and said, "There is nothing we can do, Sun Vampires work like that. That''s why the hair colour changed, normally there would be a mark on the body. Maybe a moon mark or a sun mark, but your hair colour has changed. Something different happens in every Sun Vampire. The change that was bestowed upon me was the engraving of a red sun right on my back." James didn''t know what to say, it was quite annoying that he had just escaped death and now he had changed. "I''m going mad." James said and with that, he looked back at the message window and said "I met a man called Vladimir, my lady, let''s just say he helped me, hence the change in my hair colour." When Vladimir heard those words he looked at James and wondered if he realised what he had just done. When James saw that none of the messages had been returned, he assumed that they didn''t remember Vladimir''s betrayal. James knew exactly what he had said, and since he saw no reason to hide Vladimir, whom they would eventually see anyway, he had explained everything. Still, he had not the slightest idea how much of a mess was done in the Hall of Olympos. ----- ----- "DAMN IT!" shouted Hyperion. The entire hall was engulfed in flames, Hyperion''s anger was so enormous that there was no way to even describe it. "I don''t get it, why would James keep someone who had smashed Desmond''s mind to smithereens?" Phoebe muttered, not angry but still frustrated. "Should we tell James? Maybe he''s been tricked, you don''t think that''s a possibility," Moros had said, deriving the question after learning a little about the subject. It was strange that all the Titans and Nyx and Erebus had never even considered such a thing. "You''re right, we have to ask, we have to get that soul here, we can''t let it die so easily," Erebus said, and with that, eyes turned to Nyx. Nyx had a feeling that James already knew, after all, he and Gaia, who had been sitting quietly, seemed to have realised everything already. ----- [James, do you know what kind of person Vladimir is? Are you sure he''s not tricking you?] James finally realised that he had received a message from Nyx and then fixed his expression and said, "I''m aware of everything." Every single person in the hall of Olympus couldn''t understand how James could accept such a thing. Time seemed to stand still for each of them, and it was then that they heard James'' voice: "The only reason Desmond stuck him here was because he had already forgiven Vladimir. The only person who hadn''t forgiven him was Vladimir himself. After a long conversation, he killed himself so that I could survive and leave the dungeon. Now he is here to help me, I am holding his soul." These words seemed to confuse everyone. "My family heirloom can only contain the souls of family members, so you all know what it means that Vladimir''s soul is here. Desmond saw him as his family member. Just like him, I need to find Juliet too." James said, addressing the only mother of the great night for the first time without using the suffix of respect. [I see...Everyone was worried, we thought you''d been tricked. Still, are you sure?] Nyx sent a message, beginning to think that she was making James disgruntled. "Some things can be forgiven, m''lady, when the person who did it to you is willing to forgive them. I wasn''t in the war, nor do I care about the war itself, m''lady. I''m not Desmond or any of his friends. I''m one of his descendants and I have my ideas. I don''t care about the past or the complexities of the past. The only thing that matters to me is whether I can protect what I have in the present. Which means my only love Nemesis, my dear daughter Miracle, you and Ariel as my mother figures, whole titans and Chaos-Borns and many more." James suddenly said. With these words, James clearly stated that he had his plans. "I know that you have been through bad things and I feel sorry for you, but while you are sitting on your 150th floor, please don''t think nonsense because not a single one of you, and that includes you m''lady, did anything to protect the children in the tower or any other people who suffered for a really long time. Almost every one of you is sitting on that floor. Is that your fault? Not really, after all, you can''t just go down below the 75th floor." "But what about Asgard? What about Olympus? Aren''t those people basically looking up to you all and wishing you all to command them? What about the Chaos-Borns in the tower, or the Titans themselves? What have you done that you can decide who I can and cannot forgive? Do you think I cannot see your thoughts? Can''t I feel your anger?" James shut his mouth after all these words and just waited, he had probably made everyone angry, that was quite possible, but there was no need to silence himself. He knew that he was an individual and would not be controlled, he also knew that he would do his best to fight back in such a situation. It might come from Nyx, whom he respected greatly, or it might come from Chronos, whom he now considered her master, but one way or another, there was something that each Titan, Nyx and Erebus needed to understand: "Remember, my lady, and anyone else who will listen. I am not Desmond and I have no intention of making the stupid mistakes he made and to be real Vladimir is here for me to stop when that time comes. Desmond was a precious maniac trying to make humans the superior race, but I am a maniac trying to make all races equal. We are not the same," James added and then started walking again. The people in the Olympus hall fell silent as if this was a reminder to each of them that what they knew was no longer enough. Chapter 219 - 219: Rubys Art "The only reason I am angry with each of you, my lady, and the only reason I have been so rude to you is because you continue to see me as Desmond. Each of you saw me as me and valued me until you learnt that I was his descendant, but now you see me as him only because I am Desmond''s descendant. However, I see you as my family and as valuable beings." James said after a short walk. With these words, each of the spectators, who felt as if they were devastated, managed to recover a little bit. Of course, they still saw James as one of their own, but no one could say they didn''t miss Desmond, which was why James felt so pressurised. Unlike them, James was young, even Nemesis himself was quite old, but he could feel under pressure. In this case, the fact that James knew how he felt, and how many people he had to please, was one of the things that brought him down. S~ea??h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After all, James was still a human being. Continuing on his way, James questioned whether he had really spoken badly, but there were still other things he needed to learn. "What about the relics? You ordered their recovery, didn''t you? Theseus told me, any news?" James suddenly asked, trying to lighten the mood a little. [As a matter of fact, yes. On the 60th floor, they''ve managed to clear all the ruins. Over a hundred relics have been recovered and almost 40 have been sent to me to be cleaned and prepared for use]. James read the message in front of him and said, "I didn''t know they could send things to you, my lady, amazing." [When they pray to the items placed on the altar, I can receive them as gifts, the problem is sending them back, or anything else, would take an enormous amount of energy]. Having responded positively to every single message from Nyx, James saw that he had almost left the forest, he could see the tall village walls through the trees. He had just left the forest when he suddenly noticed movement in the thick clothing he was wearing and looked in his inside pocket to see Sophia. "Good morning dear queen, I assume you slept well?" James suddenly said he had indeed forgotten Sophia''s existence in all the danger he was in, he was sure that the pixie queen would be of great help after all. "Good morning master!" Sophia said and suddenly she came out of the pocket she was sleeping in and landed on James'' head. "What happened to your hair colour?" the little queen asked, and James, hearing this, smiled just like those who watched him and said, "It''s a long story." After a short time, he managed to reach the village and after meeting the group again and explaining some of what had happened to them, he went straight to take a shower. After washing himself well, he went back to his room and then said, "Well, Grandma Ruby, show yourself." After these words, Ruby, who appeared as a human being right in front of James, seemed to surprise the audience. Each of the Titans knew very clearly who Ruby was. It was now understandable why James had spoken such loving words to Nemesis, it would have taken a different achievement to meet and live with Ruby. Speaking of achievements, James had of course managed to achieve achievements by cleaning this dungeon. He cleared a dungeon for the first time and was gifted 100000 gold for it. Then he was given a special card for clearing a Creator-Grade dungeon. Even if he did not know where the ability he had gained in this event, which was completely dependent on luck, he knew very clearly that it would eventually come in handy: [Seal Magic(Godly+) This ability is a form of magic created by Cain the Tailor, the tower''s third in command at the time. It is said to be able to seal even a low-level god with the use of the rune spell and the ability to use the rune spell. It is a known fact that no one knows this spell except Cain the Tailor. This spell is designed to work only on people who use magic. When the spell is applied properly, it is possible to prevent the other person from using magic. If the spell is applied incorrectly, the user''s use of magic will be locked for a while]. On top of that, James was greeted with a notification about encountering a superior mystical beast. Honestly, he had no idea why he didn''t get this achievement against a Supreme Dragon who was considered his daughter, but one way or another, he was able to win another Goldy-Grade card pick because of this achievement, and this time he won something he never thought he would win: [Tarot Cards of Blasphemy(Godly++++) Unlike the usual Tarot cards, it is a box with 3 cards that can be renewed but have only one use. The cards inside the box are known as curses, which have the properties of ''Bad Luck'', ''Destruction'' and ''Death'' respectively. The only thing known about these cards is what kind of powers they have and how they are used. The person to whom the cards are applied will place a curse on the applied card and the effects of these cards will fade after exactly one year. Within a year, the contents of the cards will be placed on the person to whom the curse is applied, each event based on ''Bad Luck'', ''Destruction'' and ''Death''. When you apply the "Death" card to someone, even if that person is in heaven, a meteorite may fall on his/her head. When you apply the "Destruction" card to someone, that person and everyone he/she cares about can be infected with the plague. If you apply the card "Bad Luck" to someone, he/she will be in danger of losing everything he/she owns, and if he/she does not make the right moves, this danger will become real. If the person to whom the card is applied does not die within a year, the card will be returned to the user empty. With the necessary spells, it will be possible to refill the card with another spell or curse type]. These three strange-looking tarot cards would rank in the top five best items James has ever owned, perhaps even surpassing the holy sword Clarent itself. With all that he had gained from the achievements, it was time to move on to Ruby''s case. Ruby was looking carefully at James and trying to point to the bed with her eyes. Everyone realised that James needed to sleep. When James lay down on the bed, he closed his eyes and managed to fall asleep after not more than ten seconds. When he opened his eyes again, he was faced with a vast view of a white surface and a sky filled with the image of space. Ruby was standing in front of him. "So Grandma? What am I going to learn?" James suddenly asked, and Ruby, hearing this, smiled and said, "This." When Ruby uttered that single word, a strange energy began to radiate out of Ruby. The energy was moving around Ruby and reacting like her arms. Each movement of the energy was aligned one by one, and then after a short time, these dark beings born from darkness...or rather death, were revealed. "Is this the art of death?" James asked and saw Ruby smile. "Yes, little one. This is the very art you will be practising. Of course, the reason I wanted to teach you this art in your dream was not only because everything would happen faster. Another reason is that you won''t feel pain here." Ruby said and then started to control these dark beings. The dark beings looked just like Ruby, but they seemed to fight without any particular shape or body. There were only two of them, but even James realised that they seemed to have a mind of their own and the ability to be controlled. "This...is...very strange..." James said suddenly and then he heard Ruby''s voice again. "This, my sweet child, is the art I have created. I created this art in the dungeon you cleared and in just a year or so I was able to create two beings. I didn''t try to develop this ability afterwards, of course, I was too lazy for that, but we both know that this ability will come in handy." As Ruby uttered these words, the dark beings suddenly fell to the ground and the strange ''deadly'' energy disappeared. "Lucky for you, you''ll have a good teacher and thanks to Nyx, you''re quite prone to the darkness, although I wouldn''t call it darkness...more like the energy of the cosmic night...Whatever it is, we agree that you can get a good education, sit down, and we can start now." Chapter 220 - 220: Getting the Art When James heard those words he immediately sat down cross-legged on the floor and began to think about meditating again, there was no way of telling how wrong he was, he was quite the stupid kid on this topic. As he sat cross-legged on the floor, Ruby gently approached him, opened her hand, and grasped James'' head firmly. James didn''t feel any pain at that moment, but he was really filled with a strange sensation. It was as if someone in real life, not in a dream, was holding his skull tightly and making it close to exploding. It was really a strange and terrible feeling. "Now I''m going to put as much pressure on your mind as possible, you need to do this to gather all the information, remember you may not feel pain, but your mind will shake, you must stay awake," Ruby said and with these words, the surroundings slowly began to darken. Ruby seemed to have started to put the art of death into action again. In a way, this art was almost like the art of cloning. After all, even if the beings that appeared when Ruby used this art did not have a specific form, they had identical shapes and could fight strangely, or rather, they managed to do so according to Ruby''s orders. These beings also had enough intelligence. James already had thousands of ideas about the possibilities he could have if he developed this art. He could create beings exactly like humans or other living beings, and in line with this art, he could have beings with their own minds, but fully under James''s control. It seemed like slavery in a way, but it wasn''t, after all, these beings would be things created by James'' energy. As he pondered these thoughts, he suddenly realised that the strange sensation in his mind was becoming more intense. A strangely subtle feeling of numbness spread through his body. It was as if someone had given him an anaesthetic injection. His vision was blurring and his breathing was becoming laboured. Yet, despite all this, he could indeed see clearly all the information, large and small, that was forming in his mind. This was magic, but apparently, there was no ''system'' based use of this power. In other words, like the elements themselves, it would have a use without being based on a system. It could be thought of in the same way that elemental mages could fight properly with only the elemental cores in their bodies and the small part of the spell. One way or another, James realised that a very powerful technique had entered his mind. He was lucky again, he was so happy that he had created the Mind Palace ability on the tutorial floors that there was no way to describe it. After all, almost every one of the beings he had encountered so far had the power to shatter his mind into hundreds of pieces. Even the weaker Fallen Gods could destroy his mind, let alone Ruby or Vladimir. James waited normally, there was nothing he could do, even as that strange feeling of numbness trapped and possessed him from the inside. After almost ten minutes of waiting, James opened his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he realised that he was no longer in a dream and was in fact back in reality. "How was it?" Suddenly he heard this question from Ruby and then, holding his head, James said, "Terrible." James'' words were quite accurate. Maybe he hadn''t felt any pain in the dream world, but in reality his body as red, his skin colour seemed to be dyed a light red, and his body waand s so hot that he seemed to be in a sauna to the point of fainting. Even though smoke was coming out of his body and his head was hurting like crazy, he could clearly see that his automatic healing ability had already kicked in. After a few gasps of air, she thought it would be better to speak before anyone texted her and then said, "I''m fine, don''t worry, it''s just too hot." However, he suddenly stood up and, as if remembering that there was an easier way to cool down, he left first his room and then the house and jumped into the snow in front of the house like a diver. Passing elves and other beings were looking at the almost half-naked James and giggling. "Master James, are you all right?" a passing elf asked. Everyone could clearly see that the snow was melting around James. "I''m fine, you can ask that bird over there why I''m like this, I really have no idea," James said and not only the elf who had asked him that question but also the other passers-by looked at Ruby. Ruby shook her head a few times and then said, "I taught him a technique, I used the fire element to teach him, his body warmed up, blah blah blah, never mind." and with that she seemed, to close the subject. James saw that there was no more snow around him after all these words and then stood up and started to walk. "Please carry on with your work, sorry for the inconvenience," James said. After almost twenty minutes of walking, he managed to come in front of the forge where he thought the group would be, leaving flames behind him with every step he took. "Daddy!" the little girl Miracle suddenly shouted, running to hug James, who of course didn''t object, after all, he couldn''t just hurt a Supreme Dragon, no matter how hot it was. Soon she was surrounded by others and Ariel tried to hug James, but he blocked her and said, "I''m warm." Then he yawned incessantly and began to empty his inventory one by one, telling those around him to move away. After hundreds of items and tens of thousands of tonnes of minerals came out of his inventory, he said, "These are for you," and then suddenly left. He hadn''t told the group where he was going, he just wanted to continue his training as soon as possible, after all, he had to become his most perfect self, or rather the strongest he could be, before his floor mission was over before he could be fully disturbed by anyone. After all, he did need to learn and get better. After all, there was something James wanted to prevent. There was a future he wanted to prevent. He hadn''t forgotten it yet, he still remembered it clearly. He still remembered the future that the Philosopher''s Stone had shown him, he had seen it and he was well aware of it. He would do his best to prevent that future. Yes, he might have been angry with both Nyx and Titans after the last words, but he was not going to accept that future after a mere argument, or rather a one-sided shouting match. Nyx was still James'' mother, Nemesis was still his wife, and all Chaos-Born were still his family members. The one thing everyone had to accept was that James was not Desmond himself. He was just an heir, perhaps the best heir, but still just an heir. When he came to an empty field after a long walk, he closed his eyes and then started to recover his energy in line with the information that had been loaded into his mind by Ruby, and then slowly began to release it. When he started to release his energy, he opened his eyes back and started to create an energy just like Ruby had created...or rather, similar to her. Still, it was not enough. The energy was constantly swirling around like an ocean in motion, but nothing was changing. It seemed like he could barely do 0.1% of what Ruby could do. Still, even that was a good thing for him, he had everything. He had time, he had a place to practise, and he had the exercises he needed to do. sea??h th§× N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Calm down, you shouldn''t rush everything. You don''t need to act like you''re going to fight the moment you go out, calm down and then try again. You won''t succeed right away, it''s impossible, after all, this is not a system-based spell, even if you can use it, it will take a while for you to be able to do it like me. It took a year for me, but it will take a little less time for you." Ruby suddenly said. James, who was demoralised after these words, shook his head and strangely realised that he was very wrong and Ruby was right. [You can do it for sure kid!] Nyx had sent a message, and with that James had asked, "Aren''t you mad at me" For a few dozen seconds, he hadn''t received any messages, but after only a few moments, he received a message saying [You''re the one who should be angry, aren''t you?] With these words, another problem seemed to be solved. Chapter 221 - 221: Floor Quest Finished James had been training for nearly sixty days. Or, more precisely, he was one day away from the end of his floor assignment. Between the 28th and 35th floors, James and Ariel had only one day left between the 28th and 35th floors before all the floors belonged to James and Ariel. That was quite an achievement. Not many people completed their floor duties so smoothly and quite peacefully. Eris, Nyx''s daughter, had slaughtered everyone she saw as ''evil'' in the floor mission she was in. So the fact that James and Ariel ended this floor mission peacefully in this way, considering the beautiful hopes and the lives they saved, was something to be respected. James was already back in the village. However, it would be impossible to call it a village anymore because the second wall of the ''village'' was now finished. Officially, there was no other protection than huge dark walls of more than ten metres high. The village and its buildings were demolished and a large area of the innermost wall was opened for construction. So the old village site was now to be saved for the ''main palace'' and the ''church''. The church that had begun to be built in the centre of the inner wall was finished. Instead of calling this place a church, it would be more accurate to call it a huge palace. The dwarves and others had made a big change without asking James. The reason he thought this was that the church had now grown to a ''huge'' level. It seemed that a system such as the Sun Palace and the Church of the Night were intertwined, that is, the main church was united with the palace, and was being used here. Of course, it was obvious that all this work had been carried out, or rather ploughed in first, by Ariel. James could have settled in this place, which was almost finished, after all, as the original owner of the church of the whole night, he certainly had such a rank, the rank of leader of the whole church. Nevertheless, for the sake of the village, or rather for the sake of all its inhabitants, a conversation took place between James and Ariel about the fact that only the priests of the Church of the Night should be allowed to enter this place. After a long conversation, it was concluded that only the priests of the Church of the Night and the children who could be educated on behalf of the church would be allowed to enter this floor, which would have won the floor exam. James and Ariel had thought about it in detail. This would be a special place where children could not be harmed. They could be educated by priests or nuns, and they could stay on this floor, where they could be acclimatised to the different weather conditions. Then they could approach a few races other than their own and have a chance to grow up with a good upbringing. In the midst of all this talking and thinking, an agreement was presented that none of the greenhouses on the inner wall, where the palace was almost completed, would be demolished and would be completely protected like the greenhouses to be built in the settlements inside the first outer wall, and the three leaders who would be in constant change accepted this agreement. It was good news that this village, which only a few months earlier had been threatened by yetis, was now in such good shape. James and Ariel had changed everything. Thanks to James'' cleaning of the dungeon, the monsters, if not a core, were gone, leaving only the ever-present ice goblins. This was huge news. After all, so little danger not only meant that the walls could be built at a slower pace but also that the safety of those who would be allowed to come here would be greatly enhanced. "We did it," Ariel said with a smiling face as she looked at the huge palace, the main part of which was now complete. The highest point of the palace was almost a hundred metres high and its size only extended to three hundred or four hundred metres from the ends of the walls. Yet this was the unfinished construction of the whole palace. Only the main part was finished. "Yes. It happened much faster than I expected. I wonder how long it would take to build such a palace in our world?" James replied. "I don''t know, I think it would have taken a couple of decades to build the whole thing." Ariel complained, and hearing this, James smiled and replied, "We weren''t living in the Middle Ages, I think it would have taken a maximum of ten years." then he smiled and opened his inventory. After a few seconds of scrolling through his inventory, he pulled out two wine glasses and a wine bottle, opened the bottle and poured alcohol into the glasses, handed one glass to Ariel and then spoke briefly: "This is a red wine to drink to our success. Normally I would save this wine to drink with Nemesis, but I can find better quality, and since this is the best I have, this is what we should drink to our success." With those words, a whole bottle of red wine was drunk and the next day came. The floor mission was over. [Survive! Your mission to survive between floors 28-35 begins now! You will only have the right to use the food part of your inventory, you will have as much equipment as you can live on and you will be able to use your weapons, but do not take this ice-covered world lightly. Once every 20 days you will be counted as travelling up one floor for one time only, and it will stop when you reach the 35th floor. This is a SPECIAL mission created by the tower for Umbra of Chaos and Ariel of Chaos. Upon completion of the mission, you will have each of the floors 28-35 subjectively. This will be made possible by the tower creating a subspace and only a limited number of people will be able to enter these areas. Guild honour points must be spent to unlock the area]. [Mission accomplished!] James and Ariel looked up and saw that the air in the sky had opened up for a few seconds. The numbers 28-34 were written in the sky, indicating that each floor from the 28th to the 35th floor had been combined with this floor mission and finally given to James and Ariel. As the sky closed again and the snow began to fall in thin flakes, a large white passageway opened in front of the duo. "Are you leaving, sir?" Suddenly the pair turned at the sound of Elanor''s voice coming from behind them and then James spoke: "Someone will arrive a little while after we leave. People dressed in black with the crest of the church. People who can teach the village children and many others about war, development, history and other things. We will come to visit you after a while, don''t worry." At James'' words, Elanor bowed to the two and then said, "Thanks to you, the food shortage has been solved, the security shortage has been solved, and we have been able to receive training to help us grow. We can''t thank you enough, thank you very much." James and Ariel didn''t know what to say. After all, the only reason they had come here was the floor mission itself. Of course, these two could have camped out somewhere without a care in the world and lived like that for a long time, but they were not such people. That''s why they wanted to turn this floor, which would later become theirs, into as good a ''defence'' zone as they could. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This floor was huge. Both James and Ariel were sure that dozens of unknown races lived on this snow-covered floor. That''s why, when the time came when the authority of the Church of Night would envelop the entire tower and set it on fire, this floor would have a very important task when James led them: [To protect the unprotected]. This was the wish of James and his subordinate Ariel. "Say hello to the others for us, Elanor, we''ll miss you all," Ariel said and then passed through the portal. James took one last look at the palace around him and then smiled and said, "That was fun." with that, he disappeared into the portal. Immediately after they passed through the portal, the two opened their eyes on the 35th floor. Both James and Ariel had heard about the beauty of this floor, but they were surprised. They seemed to be in a city, a floor where there were flowers and trees around the houses and buildings. A floor where you live in touch with nature. The 35th floor of the tower is the ''White Altar''. Chapter 222 - 222: Eve The 35th floor of the tower is the White Altar. It was one of the most beautiful floors in the tower. After hundreds of thousands of plants grown with the ''Nectars of God'' created by Chaos, it became a floor that started to live in touch with nature. The floor consisted of only one continent and an empire. It was highly probable that James would establish a decent life on this floor. After all, the White Empire, which owned the floor, was one of the biggest friends of the Sun Empire on the fifth floor. They were the ones who sent the priests to the 5th floor with the special teleportation rune in the White Empire palace, even though it could not be entered when the Fallen God danger fell on the 5th floor. This meant that James, as the rightful owner of the Sun Empire, should be treated like an emperor. The two opened their eyes and were greeted by several people carrying the flag of Asgard. "Welcome master Umbra, since there is no Olympus on this floor, we will be the ones to take care of you, please forgive our rudeness." James smiled when he heard these words and then said, "No need to worry, the fact that the great Asgard is accompanying us is more than good enough." He expressed his respect for Asgard. Indeed it was, thanks to his mother, the personalities, gods and goddesses and even ''mystical'' monsters he had learnt about were quite numerous. "Please follow us, the Empress is waiting for you," the Asgardian guard said. With that, the march from the city centre began and after almost ten minutes, the carriages and horse-drawn carriages made their way to the palace. James could not help but fall in love with the sights he saw, especially as he passed by. The fact that this city was so happy seemed to show James what he could achieve in the future. S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. However, there was a war at the end of it, the two roads that James wanted to move forward intersected with each other, and the fact that he knew it himself was enough to leave even such a beautiful view in his mouth, it was a terrible situation. However, after almost thirty minutes, the palace was finally entered. As James travelled in the carriage, he saw hundreds of soldiers lined up, bowing and paying their respects, and both he and Ariel were becoming very confused. "What''s going on?" James had asked, and with that, the Asgardian guard had spoken the following words. "Information has leaked out of the Sun Empire, sir, that you have a connection to the founding emperor. Lady Nyx and even Odin himself tried to mobilise all of Asgard to block the information, but they failed. The fact that you are the rightful owner of the Sun Empire, as well as the rightful owner of the Church of Night, makes you even more valuable than the empire itself. Moreover, this empire, which the first emperor saved with his own hands, will surely treat you with respect." James had never heard such information from Nyx or anyone else, so James was asked not to worry. He realised this and nodded with a small grunt, making it all the more strange that he knew that he would indeed be calmly treated as an emperor. After a short time, the carriage stopped and James and Ariel stepped out of the carriage and saw a woman with golden hair and green eyes and the people behind her. The woman with the golden hair was quite surprised to see James, and so were the people behind her. When the two of them pursed their lips as if they could not understand what was happening, James started to speak: "Pleased to meet you, my name is James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos. The person next to me is Ariel of Chaos, who I consider my mother and who is also my first knight and also the first general of the Chaos Guild." After James''s words, Ariel turned to him and said in a low voice, "I could have introduced myself." "Welcome, Mr James. My name is Eve, the only empress of the White Empire, please follow me." The woman who introduced herself as Eve told James to follow her and with that the group entered the palace gates. The Asgardian guard was left outside for security reasons and the group entered with one less person. When James looked around, he thought that he was faced with an even more beautiful view with each passing second and watched the flowers with each step with joy. After almost five minutes, they reached the top of the palace and entered the room right next to the throne room. The table in the room was covered with food. As the Empress sat in the front chair, James was gestured to the other end of the table and Ariel was given the seat next to him. "You look so much like Master Desmond," said the woman who introduced herself as Eve, she had no idea how many people she had stunned with those words. As Ariel wondered who Desmond was, the room became very dark, the happy atmosphere of earlier seemed to have vanished, and it wasn''t even because of James himself. James'' shadow had taken the form of Nyx, just as it had the first time he had come to the fifth floor. Nyx brought her index finger to her lips and bluntly told Eve to shut up. "If it''s just you and the Titans watching I don''t think there''s a problem Lady Nyx, please stop wasting your energy," James said suddenly and with that, his shadow suddenly returned to normal. James'' voice was heard again as Eve and the others tried to understand what had happened: "As much as I am very, very grateful for your hospitality, please don''t mention my ancestor''s name like that. We were lucky. Even if information about my bloodline has leaked out, my ancestor''s name cannot leak out, please remember that." Eve shook her head at James'' words. "You said Nyx, sir...Or?" Eve said in surprise, both she and her family refusing to believe that the person they saw was the shadow of the goddess. "Just as you think, as I said, please do not talk about these matters. There are some unnecessarily aggressive Titans out there," James replied and his gaze fell on Ariel. Ariel''s gaze revealed to James that she knew nothing of what was going on. That''s why James chose to speak into Ariel''s mind instead of out loud and said, "I''ll tell you later, or you can hear it from Moros." With that, Eve''s voice was heard again: "Forgive me Mr James, we were really surprised, you know...De...Your ancestor''s paintings are in the library section of the palace. It is said that your ancestor loved to read books, and my ancestor hung the paintings he had drawn after him there, that''s why we likened you to him." With Eve''s words, James smiled and then said, "Yes, I heard that my ancestor did a few things for this empire, even if I don''t know what happened, I am happy to see that it is still a good and vibrant empire." He said these words from the bottom of his heart. It was really astonishing that this floor was in such a peaceful state even though it was a common floor, this could be because the floor consisted of only one continent, and the fact that there was only one empire ruling the continent made everything more perfect. "Thank you, it is a pleasure to have you here, I hope you will stay here before moving on to the next floor, the whole palace is open to you if you wish to rest, the same goes for Mistress Ariel after all you have expressed that you consider her your mother." James shook his head as he heard these words and saw the pride on Ariel''s face. "What, are you proud because you got a free place to stay?" James muttered, of course, he was joking. Ariel smiled and said, "We lived in the snow for all these months, I was exhausted from the cold, let me think about my comfort for a little while." After these words, James turned to Eve and said, "Lady Eve, if you and your family would like to go to the fifth or twentieth floors, please do not hesitate. Every priest and priestess of the Church of Night on both floors and even the imperial family of the Sun Empire, will greet you with respect. You have my word." He was aware that Desmond had made a great friendship with this empire, but a great deal of time had passed since his death and now it was up to James himself. "We would be honoured sir, please let us eat and then we can take you on a tour of the palace," Eve replied, her golden smile matching her golden hair. "Well, if you have flower gardens and we''re going to visit them, I''d rather not sleep all day," James said with a smile. "You like flowers, do you?" asked the young man sitting next to Eve, who looked quite artistic. "Very much. I have an ability called Heaven''s Call. The ability reveals a flower garden that stretches for almost fifty metres," James replied. The conversation and laughter continued and after the conversation that lasted almost until dinner time, Ariel went to sleep while James headed towards the flower gardens with Eve and their children in tow. For the last few months...no, for the last year, he couldn''t remember ever feeling so comfortable. Chapter 223 - 223: Two Of Them After almost three hours of strolling and enjoying the delights of the huge flower garden, James went to sleep, and when the light of the next day hit him, he sat down at the breakfast table with the imperial family and accepted that the day had begun. Everything was going pretty well. James had realised that Ruby, in bird form, could enter his inventory just like Miracle, so one less person was missing from the group. Ariel had thought that after all they had been through, with only a day''s rest, they could go to the next floor. James had nodded his head in awkward agreement, wishing to get to the 39th floor as soon as possible, after all, the 40th floor was going to be quite a challenge. The 40th floor, the floor of righteousness where evil and good would be separated, would test both Ariel and James next to her. With these, the necessary preparations had been made. Based on what they could understand from the previous expedition, they had not neglected to take dozens of pairs of clothes and even more food in their inventory just in case. After saying goodbye to Eve, a white portal opened in the centre of the throne room. Just as the two were about to enter the portal, the door to the throne room opened violently and a white-haired woman with sharp ears entered. She was sweating profusely, clearly agitated and frightened, and must have run to the throne room. "EMPERESS, IT''S HAPPENED!" shouted the white-haired woman. Hearing those words, Eve suddenly closed her eyes painfully and realised that the last thing she had ever wanted to happen, or even wished would never happen, had happened. "Calm down and tell me what''s going on," Ariel suddenly said, wondering what was going on in the face of this concern. James sends a message to Emma to close the portal with Ariel''s words and then comes to the white-haired woman. "Madam...Two of them have appeared...Two Fallen Gods have appeared at the edge of the Empire!" the white-haired woman said and collapsed as dramatically as possible and fainted. James shook his head when he heard the words of the white-haired woman who had collapsed on the floor in front of him and tried to indicate that he did not want to believe such a thing. It was an extreme situation. Neither James nor Ariel could have foreseen this turn of events. Communication with outside forces was completely cut off and the two were left alone. They weren''t completely on their own. After all, the presence of Eve and her family was a detail that could not be overlooked. Still, this was not enough. If two Fallen Gods were involved, everything could turn into the worst. One fallen god was already demonstrating a huge potential for destruction. The last time a fallen god was confronted on the fifth floor, the entire floor had been thrown out of order, and the entrances to the floor and monitoring capabilities had been directly locked down. The danger of such a thing made James suddenly open the message window section to send a message to Nyx. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "My lady, two Fallen Gods are currently on the 35th floor. We request the extra support of Olympus and Asgard and ask the angels and demons of heaven and hell for help." When this message was successfully sent, the ''...'' sign that the message would return appeared in the message window, but suddenly the window was closed. Communication with the outer floors seemed to be cut off, much to James'' horror. On top of that, he had to fight not one Fallen God but two. On top of that, as if that wasn''t enough, he had to do it on the 35th floor. As each floor was climbed, the Fallen Gods'' ability to use their abilities and level locks were unlocked. Even Fallen Gods, the embodiment of spirituality, could become stronger in this way. It was going to be a deadly battle. "Miss Eve, is there any way we can get there fast?" James suddenly asked, and with that Eve nodded her head and replied, "Yes, there is such a way, we have a teleportation circle, we can teleport you to one of the cities on the north side after ten minutes of loading." After this answer, Eve pointed to one of her children with her hand and then said, "Please guide them, and activate the teleportation circle as soon as possible." With that, James, Ariel and a few other members of the imperial family made their way to the teleportation chamber, the magic zone in the centre of the palace. Eve was filled with a strange adrenaline rush as she thought about the responsibility that had suddenly been thrust upon her. In a short time, she had entrusted the duties of the palace to her daughter, the future empress, and had entered the teleportation chamber and jumped into the circle, hoping to fight alongside James. After only 8 minutes, the circle was ready to be used. James, Ariel, Eve and a few imperial bodyguards were teleported to a place even further away from the cities in the northern part of the empire. The early start-up seemed to destabilise the transporter ring. Either way, everything was in good shape. James could make out the Fallen Gods perhaps 100 kilometres away from them, but they were, as the name implies, far away. Despite being so far away, James and the others could clearly understand the seriousness of the battle. James was seriously trying to formulate a plan. He had some serious advantages. After all, he had his daughter Miracle, a Supreme Dragon, and on top of that, he also had the mystical beast Phoenix Ruby herself. Even these two were enough to hold off the Fallen Gods for a certain period even possible for this red phoenix to bring a Fallen God close to death, although Ruby''s powers were still insanely suppressed. After all, many Fallen Gods had fallen because of the presence of Desmond and the mystical beasts with him. At least that was how Ruby praised herself. The group was overwhelmed by this aura that was gradually overwhelming them. Indeed, even taking a step seemed like death to them, they should not underestimate the Fallen Gods. After only half an hour of fast progress, the group finally managed to see the Fallen Gods. What the group saw was exactly as follows: Two people were on the earth. They were about three or three and a half metres tall. One could be described as a female and the other as a male. The bodies of the two were made entirely of darkness. They were just like the Fallen God James had encountered on the 9th floor. The only problem was that although these two were separate from each other, it was clear how much they looked alike. It was highly likely that they were brothers, but none of that mattered to James in the slightest. "Be careful, we don''t know what we''re up against," James suddenly said and reached into his inventory and pulled out both Ruby and his daughter Miracle. Ruby couldn''t see out of the inventory, so she just kept choosing to doze off. That''s why Ruby''s blood was boiling right now, she was hoping to have the strength she used to have, or at least be able to fight like she used to. James'' body, however, had suddenly begun to glow. When the same thing happened to Ariel, James looked around to see what was going on and saw Eve praying with a wand formed in her hand. James was definitely under a buff spell. "Sir, please continue. For 10 minutes I have unleashed a spell on you that will break your physical limit and increase your strength and speed by 25%." Eve said. After these words, James, who realised that he should not waste any more time, rushed forward to stop the Fallen Gods attacking the city. James, who had almost four hundred metres of space between him and the Fallen God, continued to advance at full speed and took out the holy sword Clarent from his inventory on the way. It was going to be a very complicated battle, but even if it was difficult to defeat, at least the fact that there was a scenario in which they could fight made everything better. When James had almost reached the place where the Fallen Gods were, the holy sword Clarent was covered with flames. James stayed alert to protect himself just in case, and after a short time, the holy sword Clarent entered the leg of the Fallen God in front of him, and a gigantic scream echoed towards the sky: "ORUUOOOOOGHHUURRR!!!" After this huge scream, Eve, who was preparing to cast the spell again, calmly looked at James with shining eyes and then said, "Just like my ancestor did...What an honour." This was going to be the hardest test James had ever taken. Chapter 224 - 224: Ruby Is Way Better At the sound of this gigantic scream, James suddenly stepped back and pulled the holy sword Clarent out of the leg he had stabbed him with. Enough blood to fill dozens of buckets began to come out of the leg he had stabbed. One of the Fallen Gods was female and one was male, and the Fallen God that James had stabbed in the leg seemed to be the female. They were not particularly large in size or appearance. As James and the others had already noticed, they were about three or three and a half metres tall. In short, they were about the size of the little Olympian giants James had met before. That''s why James thought as arrogantly as possible that he would be faster than these Fallen Gods. After all, almost every monster or user he had ever encountered that was bigger than him had a status distribution that tended towards strength and endurance as their bodies grew. Of course, this was true for anyone other than magic-using giants or large beings like Atlas. Atlas was a magic user, after all, even though he had great stamina and a large body. James suddenly reached into his inventory and released Ruby, who had been waiting at the ready. The moment Ruby stepped out, the Fallen Gods saw her and then the female Fallen God turned to James and shouted "IT''S YOU!!! KUTLU HERSELF WORSHIPS ONLY HIM!!!''" Sear?h the nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James looked towards Ruby when he heard these words and sent a mental dialogue "Worship?". When Ruby shook her head, she came out of her bird form and when she turned back into human form, she was smiling with joy. It was almost like she was happy to hear about "worshipping". With that, she started to release her magic around. The Fallen Gods instantly took a few steps back and began to form a defensive formation. At that very moment, a large ball from the water hit their defensive formation and a gigantic sound echoed throughout the city: "BOOOM!!!" James, as if he knew who was doing this attack, rushed forward without even turning his head and dived into the smoke coming out of the big ball of water. He knew there was no need for him to take his daughter Miracle out, and so he had the idea that he should strike first. After all, he knew that someone like Ruby was behind him now, and he knew that he was strong enough to directly counter several attacks from the Fallen Gods. As she entered the smoke, she noticed the male Fallen God standing in front of the female Fallen God, and thinking that she should target the female behind her, she took out Selene''s Throwing Knife from her inventory to try her luck. The male Fallen God met the attack head-on but did not realise what James was doing. Selene''s Throwing Knife was filled with poison magic. The blade successfully struck the male Fallen God and failed to penetrate its skin. There was not much of a visible ''appearance'' of this duo anyway. They looked just like the Fallen God James had encountered on the 9th floor. Still, it seemed that these Fallen Gods were more intelligent. After all, as Nyx had previously stated, the Fallen God that James had fought with Nemesis had gone insane. Indeed, the being had lost nearly every ounce of its intelligence. He was probably one of the first Fallen Gods to be killed. After all, it was strangely well known, at least to Nyx and the others, that most Fallen Gods were the offspring of Chaos'' ridiculous creators. The poison had already begun to spread through his body when the poisoned blade struck the Fallen God''s hand. Even if James was a Poison Master, it was obvious that his poison level was not yet sufficient to kill a god, which was why he had tried to use his poison energy to stall the Fallen God for a while. The male Fallen God managed to stumble for a few seconds. As he was travelling left and right, James passed by him, and the holy sword covered Clarent with its fiery aura as he attempted an attack on the female Fallen God. "CHING!!!" Her attack was blocked and James was struck by a punch. James literally flew through the air for almost ten metres and when he landed back on the ground he realised that he had given Ruby enough time. Ruby''s mana suddenly ignited and a hundred metres of the city entrance they were in, including the city entrance itself, was completely engulfed in flames. The flames were a pure orange colour, and even if they were not very strong, they were at least strong enough to drive away the weak. Every soldier, mage, hunter or mage preparing to attack from inside the city suddenly stopped as if ordered to retreat. They had already witnessed Eve''s magic, each of them far away from them. They seemed to have got the idea that if the Empress was here, they had nothing to worry about. They were quite right in their thinking. After all, Empress Eve was not alone. Next to Eve were Ariel, who had begun to prepare for battle, and James, who had already begun to fight. When James saw the flames around, he thought that the flames should become even stronger. Since they were in a place of great influence like the city, James thought that he should definitely not use the poison flame. In fact, James could not think of any flames he could use other than the white flames of ice. After all, it was the only flame that could slow the Fallen Gods down. He couldn''t use poison, he couldn''t use purple flames to cloud the mind, and he couldn''t go and wreak havoc around the city using blue or black flames, after all, he knew they would win and he didn''t want to cause difficulties to the living creatures here. On top of that, he was sure that the white flames of ice would do the trick. That''s why James suddenly activated all the mana in his body, and on top of that, he started to use the power in the elemental core. 8 Sacred Fire was instantly activated and after a short time, the orange flames that Ruby had started to emit disappeared, merging into their white colour. "Just the way I wanted it!" Ruby shouted. Suddenly, the beautiful woman leapt into the air, and as she leapt into the air, her wings began to flap proudly, doing everything they could to keep her in the air. As soon as Ruby began to fly in the air, the flames she had spread began to gather in her hands. A gigantic cold hung suspended in the atmosphere of the entire city. Every patch of greenery began to have the natural phenomena of the frost itself, and some plants even began to freeze completely. James was witnessing Ruby''s perfect magic as if he could not believe his eyes. It was a great honour just to be able to watch Ruby gathering every bit of flame on the earth in her hands, James was just now able to understand what a mystical beast really was. Such control of the flame, such control of mana and such control of magic was truly mind-boggling. Ruby''s level was the epitome of perfection. With these thoughts in mind, she stood still and then reached into her inventory and as gently as she could, she brought out her daughter Miracle. When the little girl Miracle came out in her human form, she looked around, understanding what was happening, she had her mother''s tactical intelligence so she could see what was happening in the inventory and she already knew what to do. The intelligence of this one-year-old girl was astonishing. As soon as the little girl Miracle looked at her father, she started to release her mana and started to feed the flames around her. James was releasing 8 Sacred Fire and his daughter Miracle was feeding the icy white flame itself. After almost twenty seconds James realised that something was coming towards them and he saw that the Fallen Gods had finally come to their senses. It wouldn''t change anything, though, because Ruby''s spell was already at the ready. "I''m putting everything into this attack little one, after this, I''m going to go into a sleep state, I''m sure one will die but I''ll leave the other to you." James smiled as he heard those words in his mind and then nodded. This was the last sign Ruby needed to continue. If the end was as Ruby thought it would be, then surely and James would be able to take down everything else on his own. It would be difficult because the Fallen Gods had a high level of power, but James was not powerless. Ruby''s help would change everything. However, the time had come. Ruby suddenly sent all the flames she had gathered back to earth. When Miracle, the little girl, had formed a magic shield around herself and her father, the fireball of icy white fire, almost the size of a football, that Ruby had sent, was on its way to hit the earth. Chapter 225 - 225: Sun Wukong Will Be the One The fireball of icy white fire travelled towards the earth at an incredible speed and finally, the expected happened. When the white fire hit the earth, a huge layer of energy and flame began to spread outwards. There was no sound, no one heard a sound when the fireball of white flames hit the earth. It was like snow falling, but in this case, the ice itself seemed to have fallen from the sky. The flames spread through the city, and everything that wasn''t alive turned to ice. It was as if Ruby herself had managed to adjust the fire element just for this to happen. James''s respect for Ruby was truly enormous; it was impossible for him to even imagine having such elemental control right now. Ruby had descended from the sky to the earth and had entered James'' inventory without speaking as soon as she changed into bird form. They had managed to stay where they were without any problems as the little girl Miracle had protected both herself and her father from the impact of the fireball. When James looked at his daughter Miracle, he said, ''We''re going to attack.'' and then started to move forward. The holy sword still held Clarent tightly, knowing that one of the Fallen Gods was already dead, or at least on the brink of death, he chose to keep moving forward quickly. After a short while, he was engulfed in white flames and was confronted by a huge block of ice. The ice mass was scattered around and two dark beings were waiting in the centre. The male-looking one of the dark beings was incredibly injured. Both of his arms were broken by the ice fire his legs were immobilised, and he was leaning against the ice boulder, barely breathing. The female was nowhere to be seen and this was worrying, she appeared to have escaped, but she was a Fallen God and there was no limit to the abominations she was capable of. That included deceiving others. James lunged forward and then drove the holy sword Clarent through the heart of the barely breathing Fallen God in front of him and continued to pierce him. After only a few seconds, the Fallen God was no longer breathing, the black matter in its body had vanished with it, and the number of Fallen Gods had dropped from two to one. [You''ve gained seven levels! You''ve gained 17,500,000 gold!] James directly won the slaying reward and then looked around with his eyes, searching for the female Fallen God. The little girl Miracle transformed into her dragon form and started flying through the air, searching for the female Fallen God in case she had escaped. James, on the other hand, began to search for the female Fallen God among the layers of ice scattered around on the ground. Unfortunately, after almost an hour, nothing had turned up. The female Fallen God had probably been so injured that she had managed to escape, even though she was likely to die. After that, James suddenly entered the city walls in case something happened to the people in the city and realised that hundreds of races had started praying to him differently. They were officially welcoming him with applause. [The Way to Be a God ability is activated! Over 35000 people began to worship you with all their hearts and the deepest depths of their souls! The user has gained 13500 Holiness status! 25,000,000 gold has been earned! Broken Diamond Essence won!] James saw that this was indeed what was likely to happen and instantly closed the system window and got on with what he needed to do. As Eve and Ariel quickly followed James, Ariel''s voice was heard: "I didn''t expect it to be over so fast, I haven''t even joined the battle yet, it''s so lame." At Ariel''s words, James smiled and then said, "Then you can go and look for the female Fallen God, she can let me know and I can come there with Eve." Ariel instantly nodded her head as if she understood and then left the city gate she had entered and started heading east towards the most likely place for the female Fallen God to escape. This would be the second time for James to chase someone. The first time, Ariel had chased the man who had tried to kill James, and although he had been incredibly weak, he had managed to evade her for a long time. Now it was a Fallen God that Ariel had to chase and locate. sea??h th§× N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, Ariel was lucky. After all, Ariel was now able to give orders to forces like Olympus and Asgard, after all, he was the first general of the Chaos Guild, and on top of that, he was James'' first knight. It was not known exactly how many people Ariel could command, but it was certain that the number exceeded one million. Now Ariel needed the powers of the Asgardian guards and heroes on the 35th floor. The female Fallen God wouldn''t be able to escape for long. "You''ve done an excellent job, Mr Umbra," Eve suddenly said, seemingly not wanting to use James'' real name since he was with the public. When James heard these words, he looked at Eve and smiled. "That buff you gave me came in handy, I didn''t even need to use my skills," James said. Of course, Ruby was a huge help and that was the reason why James didn''t even need to use his abilities, but the buff support Eve had given him could not be overlooked. Breaking someone''s physical limits and making that person 25% stronger was something that could be done hard. "I am honoured." Eve said, turning to her people, "We came as fast as we could to deal with the darkness that fell upon you. Any losses will be paid for by the empire. Please forgive your empress for your losses." It was obvious that no one in the crowd blamed Eve, on the contrary, words of thanks and weeping could be heard from everyone. It was impossible for James not to be amazed. This was a kingdom whose families had probably been slaughtered long ago by Desmond and Eve''s ancestor, a territory that had been annexed to the empire. But how good an empress must Eve have been for the people to love her so much? This woman was truly admirable, she managed to dispel everyone''s worried looks with just a few words. "So we''re going back then?" James suddenly questioned himself, but then it occurred to him that more than half the city was covered in ice. Since this was partly his fault, he reached for his inventory and then turned to Eve and said, "Send anyone who needs food here." Who knows how many people were in the city, but James felt he had to help, at least until help arrived from distant cities and settlements. With that, his work began here. At Nyx''s temple, however, different things began to come into play. ----- For a long time, Uranus had been trying to find people who could be considered ''criminals''. He was especially careful about people who raided churches and stole forgotten items. After all, even if they were probably the ones who had summoned the Fallen Gods, they might otherwise have been put on trial for confiscating sacred items when it wasn''t them. No one had seen Uranus this frustrated in a long time. "We managed to find a few people. My servants were able to extract information through torture. There''s a bigger disaster coming than we thought," Uranus said. Nyx and the others looked at Uranus in confusion as they heard these words, and Erebus'' question, "What kind of disaster?" broke the silence. "These bastards...they are made up of 18 different units. I''ve only been able to locate one of them, I''ve already warned Asgard and Olympus, I''ve even asked and for help from Sun Wukong, the maniac who doesn''t listen to the rules of the tower, he''s the one who will lead the armies," said Uranus, it was not even possible to understand how deep these words were. "Sun Wukong... is he going to lead the armies?" Hyperion asked, obviously everyone knew what a good-hearted psychopath he was. "Yes, I only asked him to help destroy a region, but he wanted to lead the armies. It seems that even Sun Wukong himself doesn''t want a repeat of the great war...after all, he was a dear friend of Desmond''s and ours," replied Uranus. "He...I mean, Wukong doesn''t know, right? Should we tell him?" asked Nyx, genuinely worried. "He''s going to know sooner or later, I think we should tell him, he has a right to know," said Gaia, and that was the truth. "He did great things in the war...he is the only reason Asgard is still alive..." Erebus said, he seemed to agree with what Gaia said. The war was getting closer. So close, everything was incredibly close. Chapter 226 - 226: Sacred Artifact "And who''s going to tell him? I''m not going to tell him that we''ve been hiding things from him all this time, I don''t think I''m that brave," Hyperion said. Sun Wukong may not have been as strong as them, but he could be the craziest god in every sense of the word. He was unpredictable in how and who he attacked, and he would do anything just to finish the person he was fighting. Sun Wukong, the Great Sage Heaven''s Equal, was perhaps the most different but also the most perfect god in existence. Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I''m not going to be that person, and if you think I''m going to bother pulling his chin, think again," Phoebe muttered. When all eyes turned to Nyx, she frowned and realised she was back in charge. "Not again!" Nyx shouted, and as the others shook their heads, she stood up and started walking towards the door to leave the temple. Sun Wukong''s support was going to be good for everyone. Wukong''s strength and the way he used his power was top-notch. He was not a mystical beast or a strange god. He was regarded as one of the best among the superior gods and one of the most worshipped people in the entire tower. As it is said Sun Wukong, the Great Sage and Heaven''s Equal. ----- After James and Eve''s long wait, Asgard had indeed managed to arrive on the scene with a large army. It seemed that work had begun to melt the layers of ice scattered around and to store those that were too large to melt and use them later. James, meanwhile, was still waiting for a message from Ariel; after all, he couldn''t leave the floor. He could have left the floor, he could have tried to do something like Ariel had done earlier, going to the 20th floor and returning to the 5th floor, but there was a problem here. Neither James nor Ariel had any knowledge of whether or not they could come back once they left the floor. After all, the number of Fallen Gods they encountered this time was not one, but two. One had managed to be killed after Ruby sacrificed herself by putting her into a deep sleep, but one had escaped. And there was no help coming from the outside. After all, James had sent a message to Nyx, and the message had got through, and if no priest or priestess from the Church of Night had entered the 35th floor from the outside, that meant that James and Ariel''s theory was correct. Every entrance from the outside to the inside was blocked both for the gods and goddesses and those climbing the tower. "Your Majesty Umbra," said an Asgardian warrior. James felt awkward being called that, but he turned to the warrior, made a gesture for him to speak, and began to listen to what was being said: "We have begun to receive messages from Asgard''s territories in the empire, Black Magic is getting out of control. Rumour has it that this magic is very similar to the magic of the goddess Nyx. We wanted to point this out to you, as Nyx has also mastered black magic, and one of the lost artefacts may be here." James frowned when he heard these words looked at the warrior carefully and asked, "Do you know how many cities or settlements you have received notifications from?" When the Asgardian warrior shook his head and said, "Seven, sir." James turned to Eve in surprise and then asked, "I have to go now, will you be all right on your own, my lady?" Eve shook her head and then said, "I''m not alone." and pointed to the imperial soldiers and Asgardian warriors around. James turned to the Asgardian warrior next to him after these words and then asked, "What is your name, young warrior?" When the Asgardian warrior heard this question, he took a salute stance and then shouted, "My name is Yorhun sir, I am at your service!" "Alright young Yorhun, gather some warriors, we have to go to the settlements, if an artefact is here, we must capture it and make it protected, if our enemies are there, we must make a massacre," James said after these words. Yorhun nodded when he heard these words and in just five minutes a company of over twenty warriors was standing in front of James. With that, James and the company of twenty-one men jumped on their horses and left the city, heading straight for one of the places Yorhun had pointed out on the map. After almost half a day, the group approached the settlement, stopped at James'' command and dismounted. There were almost three hundred metres between the group and the town, but there was only one reason for James to stop where they were: More than enough dirty black magic was emanating from the town, almost as much as the Fallen God he had first encountered. James turned to the warriors behind him and said, ''Be careful, this place is contaminated, just like Yorhun said, pay special attention to the people in the town, keep your guard up against their attacks, don''t trust anyone else until I tell you to.'' As soon as the Asgardian warriors heard James'' words, they started to advance, clinging to their shields and spears. James was no exception. He held the holy sword Clarent tightly and removed one of the shields, even if it was weak, just in case. As they slowly approached the town, they went inside and saw the townspeople watching them from in front of their houses. It was a terrible sight. There was a green cloud on the floor of the town, stretching almost thirty centimetres across, it looked like poison, but it was so connected to the earth that it could not harm unless it was bent down and breathed into the body. When James gave the order to the warriors to advance with his hand, the warriors took a battle formation as if they were waiting for this order. Without waiting, James put 8 Sacred Fire into use, even if it would weigh on his body and this time the sacred sword Clarent began to be covered with black flames. Whatever was here needed to be destroyed outright, and the most powerful flame in hell could help him with that. Shields covered James as he was surrounded by Asgardian warriors and the sound of armour shifting with each step became louder and louder. James was constantly looking around, trying to realise what was happening. There was nothing he could see. Knowing that this wasn''t going to work, and knowing he had to take his chances, he gave an order to the group to cover themselves and be careful and then began to walk towards the area where he thought the black magic was high. He kept his guard up, but his heart continued to beat despite his Calm Mind ability. He was very, very sure that he was facing a great danger. When he came to the area where the black magic was the highest, he noticed a sword stuck in the ground. This was indeed one of the lost artefacts because on the hilt of the sword was the emblem of the church of the night. James thought that he could easily solve this problem, so he covered his whole body with black flames and entered the black magic layer directly. He was aware of the weight on his body. However, he was also aware of the large amount of mana entering his body, everything was much, much easier since black magic did not harm James, but it was clear that this kind of darkness would not be unattended. James reached for the sword and pulled it out of its impaled position, and with it, the danger he had been waiting for was unleashed: "SKRIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" "KRUUUAGHHHHHHHH!!!!!" "SCHRIEKKKK!!!" With one scream after another, it started to rise from the hole where the sword was taken out, and then a huge passage emerged from the hole. Monsters started to come out of the passage in droves. James instantly turned to the Asgardian warriors and shouted "GET ALL THE TOWN PEOPLE OUT!!!". The Asgardian warriors and the townspeople hiding in their homes seemed to suddenly mobilise at these words. It was clear that no one was stupid enough to listen to a man shouting from within the dark flames. James, on the other hand, took a few steps back after his shout and lifted his left leg without thinking, and he recovered 30 per cent of the mana he currently had in his body. It was finally time to use that mesmerising ability he had gained. "DESTRUCTION!!!" shouted James, and then he plunged his leg into the ground. "CRUMBLE!" As soon as a crashing sound reached the ears, the impact reached the earth. A sudden, ear-splitting crack tore through the frozen air, so loud it seemed to shake the sky. It was like the explosion of a cannon, a thunder that tore the silence with a force that made the earth tremble. The earth itself groaned so loudly that even James himself could feel his ears ringing. He seemed to have used too much mana in the ability. With this impact, other sounds made the ears ring again: "GROOOOOANN!!!" "KRRRRRRACK!!!" "SSSSHHHHH!!!" It was as if there had been a volcanic eruption underground. This was perhaps the most DEVASTATING spell James could cast at this moment. Chapter 227 - 227: Seven of Them? As the impact of the Destruction ability travelled towards the passage that had emerged from the hole, the entire passage began to tremble. After seeing it with his own eyes, James could understand much more clearly why the ability called destruction was so dangerous. The gate that the ability had hit began to tremble completely. It was as if the passage had started to break in reality. The whole passage was covered with cracks, no creatures could come out of the passage anymore, but strangely, creatures behind the passage could be seen. James seemed to have unknowingly managed to lock the portal. His whole body was covered in black flames, which was going to be the biggest reason for him to hold on at the moment. Suddenly he lunged forward and attacked to prevent the monsters from getting out of the town. With each step he took, the poison fumes clinging to the ground dissipated. Black flames began to burn unquenchably wherever he stepped. James suddenly leapt towards the almost five-metre white tiger in front of him and then leapt into the air, shouting, ''Pierce!'' With incredible speed and determination, he pierced right through the big tiger''s door. When the tiger''s body fell to the ground, James was already attacking another monster. He began to slaughter the monsters one by one, and it was annoying that each monster did not die directly. Even though he was using 8 Sacred Fire, he had the problem that really powerful monsters were coming out of the passage. If there were six more of these gateways in other settlements, it meant that a great danger was connected to the empire. The real question was why two Fallen Gods and seven artefacts were covered with black magic and spread throughout this empire. If a war was to be started, it had to start from the lower levels. The closer they got to the 75th Floor, the more their power would increase, but at the same time, the power of those who could oppose them would also increase. After all, there were indeed a few people with greater power than James currently possessed. Even if they were not like the Nyx James had chosen, some were under the supervision of very powerful gods or goddesses. Odin''s warrior Ali, Zeus'' Alshain, Osiris'' Adam, and many others still existed below the 75th floor. Maybe they didn''t have enough power to kill the Fallen Gods. After all, no matter how weak the Fallen Gods were, they were still gods, and to kill them you had to have the status of Holiness, which is the symbol of godhood, and the only reason James was able to kill the Fallen God on the 9th floor was that Nemesis, who had that status, was next to him. Yet all these climbers and many more were strong enough to push the Fallen Gods to the point of withdrawing the attack. Which begs the question: Why were the Fallen Gods and the seven artefacts covered in dark magic and spread throughout the empire? James was filled with all these thoughts, it was a very stupid situation indeed. Even if he couldn''t kill every monster he attacked with every move, he could at least manage to get the monsters into a near-kill state. It was at that moment that he realised that a few voices were beginning to rise behind him. Suddenly he saw with his own eyes the Asgardian warriors who had passed him and were attacking, all the hairs on his body stood on end, these warriors were too perfect. Each and every one of them knew that James wouldn''t even need their help, after all the only reason James had brought them here was so that they could protect the people in case of need. Nevertheless, James admired these warriors. He suddenly deactivated 8 Sacred Fire and then used his dark step ability, this time taking care to be more detailed in his steps. James normally took care not to fully utilise the ability by taking a few fairly straightforward but simple steps, as this worked better with his own fighting style rather than the style of the ability. Nevertheless, the power of the ability was unleashed when the 12 steps were completed. With each step, he began to follow the step patterns that the talent had shown him almost in front of his eyes. With each step, he began to kill the monsters that he had just attacked twice, one by one, in one fell swoop. He was incredibly fast, it was obvious to the naked eye how much he had mastered the skill. He seemed to dance across the battlefield, and Nyx and the others would have been incredibly proud of him. James transferred his mana back into his leg before he took the final step, this time a 3-5% mana rating flowed into his leg, and as he took the final step, the 60% decisive attack of his dark step ability was activated. As soon as the Destruction ability worked again, a not-very-large attack moved towards the gate. The attack chance from the dark step ability made the destruction ability much stronger. James''s attack moved forward again like an earthquake, and as soon as it hit the gate, the gate was now shattered into pieces. A very high level of energy poured out of the hole from which the gate had emerged. The poisonous cloud covering the floor of the town began to disappear, albeit slowly. It was as if the curse that had spread over the town had been exhausted. James had done something very difficult to do. He had become one of the few people who could dismantle a gate without a god. Maybe there was no reward for this achievement, but this achievement was indeed one of the most difficult things that could be done in the only sense of the word. As it was already said, there were only two hands of people who could do it. James stepped back as if he had managed to recover himself after the use of the skill and then realised that there were no more monsters around. Perhaps the number of monsters, which exceeded four hundred, was now reduced to zero. As James realised what had happened, he turned to the Asgardian warriors and said, "Thank you." This thank you was not because of the help he received, he didn''t need any help anyway. It was because the Asgardian warriors were so brave. After taking a deep breath, James entered each house in the town one by one and checked the mana in his body by scanning the traces outside and realised that there was indeed no problem. Immediately after that, he checked the townspeople and saw that they did not have any problems either. "Do any of you know who stuck this sword in there?" asked James. After this question, a boy, perhaps 13 or 14 years old, came out of the townspeople and then raised his hand, saying, "I saw it, sir." James was about to ask the boy what was going on when the leader of the town stepped forward and said, "Sir...This little one...you know..." and turned his finger in a circle on the right side of his head. In short, the leader of the town was labelling the boy as crazy. Still, James needed every clue he could get. When he signalled the boy to speak, the boy began to speak without waiting. "Sir, it was around two o''clock at night, I keep waking up because I have sleep problems. I saw a person with a black liquid flowing around him, his deep blue eyes were shining in the night. When I left the house to check what happened, I heard a few words, and then that person stabbed the sword into the ground and left the town instantly." "Do you remember the words that were spoken?" James asked inquisitively, and the boy nodded his head and said, "Word for word, sir." When James again signalled to the boy that he needed to speak, his eyes widened from what he heard: "If I remember correctly, it was like this; Slave of darkness, sucker of light, extreme of magic and sick of hell. I bestow this artefact upon you and ask you for the opposite." After these words, James stood where he was for a few seconds with his eyes wide open and realised that this was the truth. He realised that here he had encountered one of the spells he had read about in the Imperial library and used by black mages. This black magic could be cast by someone with at least twelve magic rings. It was a very complicated spell and would require such a huge amount of mana. James then turned to Yorhun standing next to him and said, "I want you to reach as many Asgardian warriors as you can, we are facing a master black mage. We need to quarantine all the towns, every one of them must be surrounded. Send word to Eve, at least ten thousand of the imperial soldiers should surround the towns with you guys, be quick." Yorhun saw the worry on James'' face when he said these words. James was not afraid, after all, even if twelve magic rings were quite gigantic, they were not worth one Fallen God. The problem was that there was a possibility that there were at least seven of these mages. S§×arch* The N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Such a complicated chain of spells could not be set up in seven different places at seven different times, you would only have five, maybe ten minutes maximum to link the spells. That''s how complicated the spell was. One or two wizards of this level could be dealt with, but seven of them could perhaps make a Fallen God. With Eve asleep 70 per cent of the little girl Miracle''s magic went into her magic shields, and the female Fallen God was on the run, on top of that, seven wizards with twelve magic rings on top of that would be a huge threat indeed. Things were starting to heat up. Chapter 228 - 228: Seal Rune Yorhun and the other warriors were already marching to the next town with James. James'' orders had been transmitted to Asgard and Eve, and literally, the entire empire was in full war mode. As James had expected, no priest or priestess of the church of the night had managed to enter this floor. The only thing that happened was that Aether gained access to the empire. James was maddeningly surprised by this news. He didn''t even know how Aether himself had made it to this floor. He had chosen to sleep as he hadn''t slept for a long time, and when he opened his eyes again, he found himself inside the imperial hall. All the while Aether himself was able to communicate with Nyx, carrying out orders. Nothing had gone wrong in the imperial capital, so the idea that the Fallen Gods'' summoners were targeting the imperial capital was completely disproven. The nobles of the Empire had chosen to leave the palace as soon as they received this information. After Aether''s checks, it became clear that neither they nor their family members were harmed, which allowed the imperial nobles to take action. The nobles were already struggling to take action with the information from James, but the orders from their Empress Eve were the last straw for them. James had managed to pull one artefact out of its mire, but he had failed to do anything in the next six towns. These seven towns seemed to represent a shape when viewed from the map as if more than 200,000 imperial armies had been built in a circle in almost three days. When viewed from the map, a heptagon shape was presented to the eyes. When James saw this, he closed his eyes and started to think how he could not realise it. When Aether himself came up to James and looked at the map, he put his hands to his head, the old man even chose to pinch himself to see if he was imagining things. Eve, the Asgardian warriors, and the imperial nobility had become incredibly frightened at the sight of them. "How long do we have, Aether?" James suddenly asked, drawing everyone''s attention to the question. "You broke a seal, sir, the spell will work later. Breaking such an elaborate seal would give you almost three or four days," Aether replied. James squinted at these words and began to think. If the Fallen Gods were created as a diversion, it meant that this organisation could not only summon the Fallen Gods but also give them orders, unless, of course, the Fallen Gods did not create these events of their own free will. Anyway, the danger of this event has increased many times over. The real problem was that there were six more of the seals he had broken. It was obvious why this organisation had chosen this floor and this region of the empire on this floor. Seven towns are connected to each other and seven artefacts are connected to each other by a complex black magic. This was a complex formation of a gigantic spell. If this spell worked, it would be completely impossible to tell what would pass through that passage. It was literally blood-curdling. "We can say we have at least three days. Aether, I assume you can use rune magic, do you have arcana energy?" James suddenly asked. Aether nodded, James curled his lip as if he understood, and then said, "Find everyone with arcana energy, show them the runes I''m going to give you. We have to be quick if we don''t want the empire to fall to the ground." The moment James had said those words, the hearts of Eve and all the imperial nobles had literally fallen into the sea, it was easy to tell that every one of them had been overcome with fear. Especially Eve herself...After all, this woman knew who James was descended from, and the fact that even he was so worried was a great burden on this woman. After these words, James drew a few symbols on a few pieces of paper and waited. Under the leadership of Aether, people who were skilled in arcana energy gathered and waited right behind James. Immediately after James noticed this, he stopped a few hundred metres away from the entrance of the town they were in and transferred arcana energy to the five fingers of his left hand. Since arcana energy is something that can be mastered quite difficult, almost two hundred people immediately gathered under the leadership of Aether. Each of them began trying to memorise the details of the runes James had begun to draw on the floor and the way they were drawn. After almost five minutes of an incredibly detailed drawing session, James rose from his crouch and wiped his sweat-soaked face. It was quite difficult for him as he was not a master of Arcana energy, which is why he needed the direct help of others. "We will draw a copy of this rune in a circle around each town, two rows at five-metre intervals. It''s something that must exist to prevent the initial impact of these artefacts," James said suddenly. He took a deep breath and then said, ''In the meantime, I''m going to try to learn another rune, and if we can learn it by the last day, and if we can place the rune itself at the centre where the black magic is focused, maybe... even if it''s a small possibility, we can stop the magic.'' He could see that these words made every single person there smile. "However, please don''t take this for granted, this is close to impossible. Even all these runes we will draw will not be enough. We must treat this black magic as something impossible to block and be ready for battle. Remember, these runes will only reduce the incoming danger to a low level, it is IMPOSSIBLE to destroy the thread." James added. These words seemed to bring everyone back to reality. "Come on, what are you waiting for?!" James suddenly shouted and with that, everyone got to work. When everyone was gone, Empress Eve herself and a few high-ranking nobles approached James. The question James had never wanted to hear came to his ears: "Umbra...How much of the Empire can survive?" At Eve''s question, James looked at her and his heart skipped a beat, even though he was obviously scared out of his mind. "Maybe half...if we try hard enough...just maybe..." James blurted out, lying was obviously not going to help. Eve and the rest of the nobles stood where they were at these words, they had no idea what to say. Still, there was really nothing they could do. James knew this, so he found the centre of the heptagon on the map, in the middle of the towns, and set off towards the centre. When he approached the centre, he saw that the black magic source had started to rise to the upper levels. Suddenly, sitting on the ground, he had indeed removed his only chance at rune magic from his inventory: [Beginner Level Ancient Rune Arts Manuscript] James secretly hoped that he was strong enough to open the next pages. Taking a deep breath, he turned the cover of the manuscript and then skipped to the first page. When he managed to open the second page, he realised that he could see the information on this blank page again. Sear?h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James didn''t even realise that the manuscript itself was a rune that only the most powerful could use, but that wasn''t even what he needed to realise right now. Seeing that there was nothing useful on the second page, he forced himself to open the third page and again found that there was nothing useful. There were a few attack runes on the page that might be useful, but all James needed was a seal rune. Now he had one last chance. Sweating profusely and the magic drained from his body, he was able to open the fourth page and then smiled in happiness. There was indeed a seal rune on the fourth page. With great happiness, James started to hold the manuscript open in his right hand and started to write the seal rune by circling in the centre of the black magic from where he was. This process would take almost 19 hours. James did not last a second and used both his main mana and arcana mana to the fullest. The only reason he was able to stand up despite being so tired was because of his aura. He could have completed this job tomorrow, but he chose to finish it today, despite all the warnings of Vladimir and the others, just in case. When he returned to the camp, everyone had seen his miserable state. Of course, the other arcana mages and the Aether were also in a bad state, but they had already completed the part they had planned to do today and even added a small part on top of it. "Sir...are you alright?" Aether said. James turned to Aether and said, "I have completed the centre seal rune, I will help you tomorrow." He could not have realised how much those words meant to Eve, the nobles, the soldiers and others. Chapter 229 - 229: So It Begins "Master Umbra has been working on the sigil rune all this time...we have been resting..." Aether suddenly said. As soon as he said these words, he turned to the arcana mages who were busy resting around him and said in a loud voice: S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "GET READY, WE HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO!!!" However, James had somehow managed to get to his camp tent. The fact that Aether had alerted Nyx and the altar he had set up made everything much easier. At least the outer floors were neither chaotic nor worried. All they could do was wait. Perhaps they could place other climbers and army pieces that had almost become demigods on different floors as protection, just in case. At the moment, not only Olympus and Asgard but many gods and goddesses were doing their best. After all, each person wanted to protect what they had, just in case. When James finally fell asleep and woke up, he came out of his tent and realised that the sun was high in the sky. It looked like he had slept for almost three or four hours. This was not enough to completely replenish his arcana energy, but since he had not tried to increase it much, his arcana energy was small compared to his mana, and he had managed to replenish 70% of it. This was a great advantage. Eventually, the seal rune around the centre was finished and it occurred to him that he just needed to help draw it. The skin under his eyes was purple with fatigue. He had a body that didn''t seek sleep, but when he slept and felt that he hadn''t had enough of it, a terrible feeling came over him. Nevertheless, the work that had to be done had to be completed, even if it was forced. After a short while, having successfully made it to the area where Aether and the other arcana mages were working, James looked around at the runes and saw that the runes to restrict black magic spells had been drawn in great depth. It was obvious that every single piece of runes they had made was beyond James. James hadn''t realised he was this bad at anything for a long time, not since he''d entered the tower he hadn''t even had a chance to see that he was bad at something, as luck had been smiling on him despite his lack of luck. "Sir, you''re awake...you should have rested a little longer." one of the arcana mages said, and with that voice, more than two hundred arcana mages working together looked in James'' direction. "My arcana energy is already close to full, keep working, if we manage to finish this today we can build some attack runes, I have a couple of good attack runes," said James. With James'' words, everyone went back to their work and he began to help the arcana mages who were working in the space he had found. Strangely enough, the arcana mages managed to do more work in just four hours than they had done in 19 hours. I guess the fact that James had pushed himself so hard had inspired them. That was a good thing. Almost 80 per cent of the rune array was already finished. James was frankly surprised by what had happened. Starting from the furthest town, they had managed to bring it to the town that James had cleared. The shiny runes that could be seen on the left and right of the first towns showed James how much work he had to do. After almost 2 hours, the arcana mages and James somehow managed to finish the rune circle. After that, James stood where he was, sweating again. After a short while, he reached into his inventory and pulled out a few chests. "Let''s not consume the army''s food, it makes more sense to eat this and go back," James said, and with that, after a short meal time, the group entered the camp area. James went straight back to the camp tent and put his head on the bed without doing anything and fell asleep. This time a bigger sleep was waiting for him. No one could wake him up and he managed to sleep for almost two days without a sound sleep. This was not a good thing because when he opened his eyes again, he realised that even the tent he was in was covered with black magic. Suddenly he stepped out of the tent and looked around. He realised that the huge army was stationed around the town. One soldier seemed to have stayed in the tent only to inform James. Thanks to that soldier, James had managed to get to Eve and the other nobles quickly. When he looked up, he saw that the sky, which should have been bright at this hour, was dark. Eve herself and the others seemed happy that James had arrived. After all, no matter what they did, they could not wake him up. James had instantly removed the holy sword Clarent, his little girl Miracle and Ruby, who now seemed to be awake, from his inventory and then spoke: "Miracle, you won''t leave my side. Grandma Ruby, please focus on protecting me, this army is not something you can destroy with your current energy. The fact that you are already on the 35th floor suppresses your power tremendously. Just focus on protecting me." After his words, the little girl Miracle turned into a dragon form and landed on James'' head as usual. Ruby sat on Miracle''s head. It would be quite logical to say that it was quite a funny image. Thanks to the restriction spells drawn around the towns and the circle spell drawn around the town on top of it, the infiltration rate of black magic seemed to be incredibly reduced. This was a much better thing than thought. The seal runes James had drawn in the centre seemed to have already begun to work. Seal runes and restriction runes were the most used types, as they only required arcana energy to draw. They were nothing like the buff runes James had used in Blessed''s dungeon. It was respectable that black magic could offer such a huge amount of energy despite being restricted. He didn''t know who had cast these spells, but James was secretly afraid, the threat of seven of them appearing here at once was the most terrible thing. After almost three hours of waiting, the black magic itself had stopped. Not only was there no trace of any magic left, but even the images of the spells seemed to have been erased. James seemed to have been mistaken, at least that was what everyone thought, including himself, that the runes that had been set up had prevented any danger. These thoughts put everyone at ease until everything went wrong. Suddenly the earth began to tremble, like a gigantic earthquake. The runes that had been drawn on the earth began to crumble, and with it, the huge main shield that had been created was broken. At the same time, the restriction runes in the six towns disappeared, and the black magic coming out of the area where the artefacts were located moved completely to the central area. Then a passage, perhaps a hundred metres long and almost seventy metres in size, was formed inside the heptagon. The plan had failed. Three days'' work had gone down the drain. "EVERYONE GET READY!!!" shouted James suddenly, as if he alone felt the enormity of the danger that had suddenly approached them. With his orders flags moved for communication between the army that has more than 200.000 people inside of it. And with him saying these words, everyone was able to keep their guard serious again. All of them suddenly realised how dangerous what was happening was. Even though the thousands of monsters that had started to come out of the passage had left everyone in fear, there was no going back from there. Either they had to fight and die or hide and wait for the monsters to find them. In the depths of all this fear and danger, the entire empire and even more than twenty thousand warriors of Asgard had only one thing in mind: [No monster would overtake this army, no monster would harm the people of the empire]. With these thoughts, the faith that had begun to burn in their hearts seemed to give them all hope. An army of more than 200,000 people attacked against an army of hundreds of thousands of monsters that had suddenly come upon them. Spells began to explode over an area of almost 400 kilometres. The screams of death, elemental reactions, and the sounds of earthquakes were ringing in the ears. It was too early for James to attack, he wanted to make everyone''s job easier by attacking the monsters he considered strong in between. Just then something strange happened: "RUMBLE!!!" An incredibly loud thunderclap echoed across the battlefield, and then it started to rain. The puddles of blood that had already begun to fall to the ground began to flow with the water that had officially begun to accumulate. It was as if the 35th floor itself was crying. It was a terrible but also a majestic sight. Chapter 230 - 230: Battle Against Black Magic James had already realised the monsters he had to kill. Without waiting, he activated his dark-step ability and, passing through hundreds of soldiers, he appeared in front of a large, serpentine beast, stretching almost seven or even eight metres in length. "SWING!" He swung his sword and his blow cut the serpentine beast in half in front of him, even as the pouring rain cut him in half. "PAT!!!" The monster''s body, cut in half, collapsed on dozens of monsters large and small, and dozens of screams began to rise towards the black clouds in the sky. The sudden and unbelievably sudden start of the battle worried everyone, but at least they managed not to drive any of the monsters out of their positions, even though monsters were still coming out of the passage. Thousands of monsters had already managed to get out of the passage. James inwardly wondered if he could lock this portal if he used his destruction ability to its full extent, just like he had somehow managed to do before. He really didn''t have any answer for that. The gate was absolutely MASSIVE in every sense of the word... in every way that could be described. That meant that James could only fight at the moment. He realised that all the monsters were slowly but surely beginning to overwhelm the fighting imperial army and the Asgardian warriors. If things continued to progress like this, it didn''t seem like it would be long before everyone was dead and gone. That''s why he reached out and patted his daughter''s head in the form of a dragon sitting on his head and then said, ''Do your thing, sweetheart.'' Although the little girl Miracle only wanted to be with him, James knew that he would be the most help out of Ruby at the moment. His daughter Miracle could not be harmed, it was impossible to harm her body on these floors, the only problem was the little girl''s energy and she would probably be exhausted after the attack she was about to make. When the little girl Miracle started to take off, Ruby, who was sitting on her head, continued to hold on to her as if she realised what was happening, and soon afterwards James'' order was carried out: The sound of the female Supreme Dragon Miracle gasping for air suddenly filled the ears. "SSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" Miracle''s throat, the little girl in dragon form, was literally glowing with bright white and bright black colours, and light began to shine out from the area where she was. The battle seemed to stop for a few seconds after this sound and bright light, and a smile formed on the faces of the imperial soldiers and Asgardian warriors around. And then the expected happened: "KRAAA-THOOOOM!!!" This flame, combined with the colours white and black, suddenly began to descend to the earth. This flame cloud, which continued continuously and did not stop even for a second, was able to destroy hundreds of monsters in just seconds. "CRA-KA-BOOM!!!" Suddenly, as if there had been a triggering explosion, the sounds were heard all over the earth and everyone had to cover their ears. Explosions began to occur one after the other and the earth literally began to shake. James now knew that his own daughter could not create such a danger, she couldn''t have such energy. This meant that Ruby was helping the little girl Miracle and sharing her energy. Strangely, when the explosions ceased and everything returned to a calm state, images reminiscent of huge ice mountains were revealed. Hundreds of pieces of huge ice masses, covered with black flames on the inside and covered with white ice on the outside that did not let the black flame out. James couldn''t quite understand what she was trying to do, he thought she must be trying to create long-range attacks by standing on so much ice scattered around. "Calm down James, let your daughter do what she wants," James heard in the back of his mind. It was as if his ancestor Vlad was addressing him. James shook his head after these words and once again accepted that his ancestor was right. Eve and the others, who saw that he was not moving and were busy fighting, tried to understand what was happening, but they could not reach any logical answer. At that very moment, something happened that no one expected. The gate, which was constantly releasing monsters out, waited for almost a minute and then released a monster horde that would exceed a hundred thousand people. This was what the incredibly intelligent little girl Miracle had expected. Waiting for the monsters to spread around a little, little girl Miracle suddenly released the ice that she had deliberately scattered around and used to hold back the black flames. "KRRRAAA-BOOOM!!!" "THRAA-KA-DOOOOM!!!" The explosions that had just formed one after the other and had ceased to exist as if they had disappeared, began to show themselves again. However, this time it was different. This time the explosions were so gigantic that the impact of the explosions alone could literally send tens of thousands of soldiers close to the explosion flying through the airstream and dragging them out of the battlefield. This was definitely something out of the ordinary, this was just one of the little things that a Supreme Dragon could do at only one-year-old with a little help. The moment of silence as the explosions ceased again emphasised the scale of the danger in a big way, as the shockwave swallowed up all sound for a moment. S~ea??h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The energy of the gate seemed to begin to diminish. It was as if the number of monsters inside the passage had been drastically reduced. After all these events, the little girl Miracle had thrown herself into the inventory as soon as she came to her father''s side, leaving only Ruby, who continued to sit on James'' head in bird form, and of course James himself. There were not many friendly troops left near the seal area, that is, very close to the gate, because of the certain impact of the explosion. Only those strong enough to withstand the impact, a few nobles, a few members of Eve and her family, and a few of the higher beings such as Aether, remained. Nevertheless, although the passage had shrunk, many monsters could still be seen emerging from it. "FORWARD!!!" James shouted, and with that, the order to attack again came not from the Empress but from James himself. Eve rushed forward with these words. The fact that this woman, whom James had thought to be a sorceress, had suddenly drawn a sword and rushed to the front lines, of course, made James think a little. This would cause James to respect Eve more. She really was a brave woman. Eve had managed to get ahead of him and instantly cut several monsters in half. After each of Eve''s attacks, the courage and ambition of not only James but every soldier there was increasing. James may have been someone who earned everyone''s respect, but Eve herself was the empress. When the Empress was leading the army and advancing from the front, it was not for anyone not to be excited. Over three thousand or four thousand people were suddenly on the attack. Because the pass was surrounded and many nobles were leading the army, which had been reduced to 190,000 horsemen, word had suddenly spread over long distances that Eve was attacking. This meant a full dive. The battle was actually starting now, and the heat was already on. James still had an incredible mana capacity and hadn''t even begun to use his aura. However, he already had Ruby herself, and with the mana energy she had now, he could create masterpieces. Because there were so many soldiers around, the use of his destruction ability had completely disappeared. Although he had many abilities he could use, most of them were capable of harming those around him. That''s why James thought that he should use an ability that he knew would not waste much energy. "Star Magic." James suddenly said. His body began to glow white as if he had been drawn around it with a pencil, and he wondered how well this ability, which he had been working hard to develop for a long time, would work. He hadn''t maximised it, of course, he wasn''t even a beginner, but even at his current level of development, it was obvious that it would be quite useful. James took a deep breath and activated his dark step ability, slicing and dicing his way through the monsters like a silver bullet piercing the air. He had already managed to kill Lycan, Spiny Rat, Black Bison and many other monsters, but it seemed that there was no end to these monsters, even though the passage had indeed shrunk slightly. However, the shrinking passage suddenly began to glow, and James and the others had to start being more careful. Chapter 231 - 231: Destruction Worked They had been fighting for so long, of course, that many of them were tired. James knew that over fifty thousand soldiers had already died. It was a terrible situation. After all, there was an empire to protect. James and the others needed help, but it couldn''t come. The reason, of course, was that not all the empire''s soldiers were here. James knew that if the war was gifted like this, they would be the losing side. "KUOGH!!!" James realised that the soldier in front of him was vomiting blood, he was so focused on fighting that he didn''t even notice the pool of blood that had started to form around him. As he came to this realisation he shuddered inwardly. It was quite sad that the Imperial soldiers were attacking without a second thought, even though they had lost their mates. Everyone was being pushed back, and although defeat was not really out of the question, it was daunting that so many casualties were occurring every minute. After using his dark step ability again, James transferred his aura to his legs, ran a few metres, and jumped almost ten metres high. When the holy sword plunged Clarent into the neck of the giant he saw in front of him, the giant died instantly, no sound rising into the air. The giant fell to the ground with James on top of it, and then James lunged forward again, endeavouring to approach the portal as fast as he could. He wanted to take a chance and put his mana to use. In short, he hoped to use his destruction ability to damage the gate, which was now reduced to half its original size. The chances of that happening were next to impossible. After all, it had taken James two hits to destroy even a tiny gate, despite using a massive amount of mana. That was why he wished to try, if he could only keep the monsters inside the portal for a short time, perhaps for a day, then the imperial soldiers and Asgardian warriors might be able to recover. The sight of a mountain of corpses...the sight of thousands of corpses of monsters and allies on the ground. Certainly, everyone was wishing for a little time to recover, and James was trying to approach the portal as fast as he could, wishing to give everyone that time. "EVE!!!" shouted James. With this shout, he somehow managed to make Eve hear his voice through all the screams and shouts on the battlefield. Eve somehow managed to see James through all the monsters and saw him making a few hand gestures. James'' request seemed to be for Eve to buff him again. The fact that Eve didn''t have much mana left at the moment made everything dangerous, but if James wanted to do this even though he knew that such a danger existed, he had to have a plan. Empress Eve, knowing this, raised her sword without even trying to say anything, and then said a few words: "O particle of the fallen sunrise, owner of the great sun, I pray and worship you that the one in my presence may shine eternally. Take, take and give as much energy as you wish, and give, give him as much light as you can!" After Eve''s words, the rain clouds in the sky briefly dissipated and the sunlight that had managed to emerge suddenly descended completely on James. James was aware of the enhancement that had entered his body as if he had suddenly jumped a hundred levels. While he was experiencing these sensations, a system window suddenly opened in front of him: [THERE IS A MASSIVE INFLOW OF MANA AND AURA INTO YOUR BODY!!! YOU ARE ADVISED TO IMMEDIATELY EXPEL THE ENERGY!!! ONE LAST MINUTE BEFORE YOUR BODY COLLAPSES AND EXPLODES!!! MANA AND AURA REGENERATION INCREASED BY 1500%!!!] "HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" shouted James as he read what was written in the window opposite him. He had to be quick, he was very close to the portal and there were only three monsters left in front of him. Of course, many monsters were still coming out of the passage, but their numbers had decreased. It seemed to indicate that these little monsters were coming to an end. The fact that the passage was still so big did nothing but make him wonder what the monster that would come out later would be like. sea??h th§× n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. While an incredible anxiety enveloped those who were smart enough to think about it, it was working as a reminder to James again. Just after James had managed to kill the last few monsters in front of him, he finally made it to the front of the portal. There were almost fifty metres between him and the gate. This passage, which looked even more frightening up close, was indeed quite frightening, but he had no time to think. He had to immediately drain the enormous amount of magic and, if possible, aura from his body. Indeed, he had completely transferred all the mana he could muster to his left leg, and his leg was now filled with mana that would be the envy of even the highest-level mages. It was such an enormous mass of mana that it was more than James''s leg. and he''d sneak out and scatter all over the place. With that, everything was set, and James could make his attack. "DESTRUCTION!!!" James suddenly shouted, and immediately afterwards he slammed his left leg, which was overflowing with mana, into the earth: For a moment, silence spread across the field, and the absolute silence that spread across the battlefield frightened everyone. It was as if all the laws of the world had disappeared. Immediately after this, a gigantic light appeared. Immediately after that, the light itself pierced through the rain clouds that had begun to gather again, destroying them, and with that, an ear-splitting "BOOOOM!!!" sound echoed throughout the battlefield and the earth. After a heartbeat, the sound wave began to dissipate with a gradual increase, and as it managed to enter everyone''s ears, it was as if the gate itself was beginning to tear. Still, this was not enough. Even the air itself was fluctuating and a deep and confusing wave of mana was recognised by everyone, ringing in the ears and making the earth tremble like an earthquake. Even this was not enough. Immediately after the sound produced by this mana dispersion, an aftershock appeared. It was as if the mana continuing to spread in the air and the enormous amount of mana scattered on the earth itself were producing the sound of a drum: ''WUB-WUB-WUB-DOM-TROM-WUM-WUM-WUB!'' As the eerie sensation that had lasted for a long time after the use of the ability faded and the echoing drumbeats became a murmur, James seemed to be told that many things were over. James himself was stunned. The 1500% mana and aura regeneration he had gained from Eve''s ability was what helped him the most at the moment. The only thing that prevented James from being so shaken, and with it the only thing that prevented him from collapsing and disappearing right now, was the buff Eve had given him. He couldn''t imagine how much damage such a buff had done to Eve. Still, after all the shaking and earthquakes that had occurred, everything seemed to have worked. The top of the portal had begun to tear in half down the centre, the size of the portal had shrunk ENORMOUSLY and the best news of all was that the portal had frozen. If James'' hopes were correct, everyone would be able to rest for at least a day. The first round of the 35th Floor''s great battle had been won by the Empire. James was constantly breathing deeply where he was, they may have won now, but it was impossible to know when this portal, which seemed to be frozen in time, would thaw and when the creatures that would most likely bring destruction to this empire would emerge. James just wanted the possibility of resting for at least a day. By the time the monsters around him had been killed, James had his hands open, he seemed to know how to profit from this space and this war that existed. There were tens of thousands of monsters that had died, creatures still lying around, disgusting creatures that needed to be cleaned. "Exploitation," James said in a calm tone. As soon as he said that, every single one of the monsters around him vanished into thin air. Still, when James looked at his profile, he saw that no status points had been awarded to him. James had pinned all his dreams on this. He didn''t even want to believe that he wouldn''t get any status points from tens of thousands of monster corpses. This was terrible news. "What''s going on?" questioned James, and with that he moved quickly, repeatedly using his "exploitation" ability to exploit as many monsters as he could and destroy their corpses. The surrounding allies did not know James'' intentions, which made things awkward, but there was nothing he could do in this situation. Thousands of monster corpses had vanished into nothingness in just a few minutes. James had to find out what had happened, and he had to do it now. Chapter 232 - 232: No Use of It James continued to walk around and use his exploitation skills for a long time, but nothing really changed. No matter what he did he could not gain any status points, which was simply awful. In the end, the only option James had tied himself to, and indeed the only option he thought he had to enter into a situation where he could fully emerge victorious from this battle, was the status points he planned to gain by exploiting corpses. This seemed to indicate to him that he had nothing left at the moment except the Aura of Chaos ability. However, even an incredibly powerful skill like the Aura of Chaos skill would be useless against such a huge threat. Yes, it weakened enemies and strengthened friendly troops, but that was exactly what happened. Despite a long search and reading the description of the ability over and over again, he could find no answers. He had wandered around for almost an hour, trying to figure out what was wrong. He hadn''t even had a chance to rest and that was the worst part. After a short time, when he returned to the camp, he could already see the bodies all around. For James, who had only heard about the reality of the war from stories and perhaps novels in the world where he had come to the tower, what was happening now had a devastating effect. Even though his Mind Palace ability prevented any damage to his mind, he felt extremely nauseous. Many people were crying around, from ordinary soldiers to nobles who had lost family members. After so many deaths, the bodies of many soldiers had not even been found, many had been eaten by monsters and disappeared. James knew that this battle was nowhere near the great battles of the tower''s history, and that was his fear. His current strength was definitely not enough, he had to develop more. After a short time, he saw Aether and was sure that he was all right. Afterwards, he entered the tent where the senior nobles were gathered. Seeing James''s expression and his bloodied clothes, the nobles realised how much trouble he had been through on the front lines, after all, their empress Eve had the same look. "Thank goodness you''re all right, I don''t know what you did back there, but at least we managed to get some time to rest." Eve suddenly said, and James swallowed and said, "Thanks to you, I don''t normally have enough mana to use my ability at that level of power." Eve shook her head with these words and then said, "Unfortunately, I will not be able to use this ability again." "I see... An ability of this power must already be incredibly difficult, I completely understand." James said, and he was absolutely right. It was hard to even imagine how great the burden on the user would be with an ability that could provide such a buff. After all, even the person to whom the buff was applied, James, was under a great burden, his body exploding as soon as the ability was applied. He didn''t even want to think about the damage to Eve. "Yes, it would not be wrong to say that I almost died, Mr Umbra, I really can''t use it again, I''m sorry," Eve answered these words. After these words, an old man, one of the dukes of the empire, took a step forward and said, "Sir, if we manage to set up attack runes, we can achieve a better success than this time. You said we could do it, but the sudden transactions and your failure to wake up have disrupted everything." Even if those words had not been spoken in a rude way, James was sure that if the attack runes had been drawn, perhaps the losses could have been minimised. Right now he could clearly feel that all the blood was on him, and it was a terrible feeling. "Yes, it must be done," James said suddenly and then shouted "AETHER!" As Aether entered the tent James took out a scroll and then drew the powerful attack rune he had learnt on it. "I want as many attack runes as possible within a radius of at least four kilometres of the camp. This spell absorbs energy from the air as it gains distance. The more you can draw and the more you manage to activate it, the more momentum we can build." After handing the scroll to Aether, he sat down in the chair next to her and then shook his head, "I don''t know what''s going to happen, there''s no way of knowing how long the currently locked gate will stay that way, we have to be careful." James could have summoned Ariel, but the important thing right now wasn''t Ariel getting here. Ariel had to find the Fallen God who had escaped as she had been told and inform James. If they didn''t chase the Fallen God continuously and the female Fallen God somehow managed to recover, everything would be over. It would be impossible to take care of the female Fallen God while being attacked by so many monsters. Ariel herself was currently able to hunt down a wounded Fallen God because she had the strength to get close to James, if not exactly close. This meant that James was the only one who needed to be present in the battle around the gate, Ariel had a mission. At James'' words, Eve nodded and then said, "You have a dragon, don''t you? If we can use it, maybe we can launch another attack." James smiled when he heard these words. It was as if no one had expected him to smile at such a moment, all of their faces were covered with a strange expression. "Sir, is there a problem?" another nobleman asked, was incredibly curious about the look on James'' face. Well, he was not wrong. James shook his head after this question and then said, "That dragon is my daughter." S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 233 - 233: It Was Easy For Ariel "That dragon is my daughter." S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James'' words managed to surprise everyone again, it was clear that no one had expected such an answer. "But you''re... human, aren''t you?" Eve suddenly questioned. "Yes, I am human. My daughter is a dragon, she took on my and her mother''s traits when she hatched, and that''s how she became our daughter," James replied. Everyone chose to keep their mouths shut, even though they were quite surprised. With that, the day was over and the sun had set, giving everyone enough time to rest, knowing that all the fighting would stop for at least a few hours. The hours passed, and everyone managed to find time to rest. After half a day, everything was completely different on Ariel''s side. ----- "KUAGH!!!" Ariel was dragged several metres through the air after the blow and fell to the ground. She had managed to find the female Fallen God that had escaped from them almost four hours ago, which made everything much easier. It was really heartwarming that he had been able to get to this thing so easily, something that would normally take him days. He had managed to find the female Fallen God at the very edge of the empire, indeed they had managed to cover seven thousand kilometres in almost four days without sleeping. The Fallen God was running and Ariel was chasing. They were both tired. The wounds on the female Fallen God''s body were clearly visible, and every second black blood fell to the ground. Ariel briefly had the advantage, and that was a very good thing. After all, Ariel''s only disadvantage was fatigue from lack of sleep, but since he had managed to stay awake for longer periods of time, he thought that wouldn''t be a problem either. Even if he felt a little pain after the blow, no harm had come to him, he was fully prepared for battle. Once she was on guard, she pulled her blades from her inventory and then charged forward. The female Fallen God clearly didn''t expect Ariel to make the first move, which was rather odd. After all, the Fallen God felt that the strength of the woman in front of her was not enough, even if she knew that she was close to James. In short, the female Fallen God didn''t even see Ariel as someone who could harm her. The only reason she had run away until now was because she thought there were others with Ariel. Ariel dashed forward and the Fallen God appeared in front of her, she may have been tired, or she may have been slower than a ''monster'' tier climber like James, but her statuses were weighted towards speed and strength. This woman was definitely not slow. Immediately after she appeared in front of the Fallen God, her blades glowed crimson, and then Ariel made her attack. "SWISH!!!" A sound like a whip colliding with the air rang in her ears, but it was not the sound of a whip or anything like that. The aura of Ariel''s blades was so deep, thin and long that when she struck, the air molecules literally collided with each other. "KYUAAAAAAAAGGGH!!!" The female Fallen God''s screams echoed through the valley they were in, Ariel''s attack had indeed worked. A huge stab wound had opened right on the female Fallen God''s chest. The wound was not incredibly deep, but the cut was almost forty or fifty centimetres long. Ariel had managed to deliver an absolutely incredible attack. As the female Fallen God struggled on the ground, Ariel prepared for her next attack and was able to execute it in a short time. She plunged the blade covered with her aura into the Fallen God''s right leg and pulled it out. The female Fallen God was really close to dying. Ruby had made this enemy what it was, and Ariel had enough power to finish it off. Ariel finally stood on top of the female Fallen God, who was covered in blood and unable to move, and then covered her entire body with her aura. In just a second, she plunged her blades as deep as she could right into the female Fallen God''s neck. The Fallen God stopped moving after struggling on the ground for a while, which meant that Ariel had already killed the disgusting female being. It had been a very long time since another human had succeeded in killing a god after James, however weakened they were. Ariel was exhausted and suddenly fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Ariel had been in constant motion for exactly four days, hardly ever stopping and hardly ever even stopping to run, yet she could breathe properly now. At that very moment, a glow appeared in front of her eyes. Ariel actually covered her eyes with her hands because of the brightness, and after a few seconds, as the light disappeared, she took her hands away from her eyes. She was incredibly shocked by what she saw. "Fuck off mate!" Ariel shouted. [Creator-Grade achievement earned! Kill a god-level individual for the first time. You have the right to choose a card]. ----- James and the army behind him waited calmly in front of the gate. With a strange feeling, James realised that the lock on the gate was beginning to open and so he had Eve give the order to gather the whole army together in an emergency assembly. The war was about to start again and everything was at stake again. James and the others were stressed of course, troop numbers were down considerably, almost half, and this increased the danger, as it was already known that the monsters coming out of the gateway had to be prevented from travelling to the settlements, no matter how far away they were. "All hands at the ready," James suddenly said, and as the nobles heard these words, rows and rows of orders began to sound and fade into the distance. Now the battle was on. Chapter 234 - 234: Ancient Giant It was dark, it was night time, and no sound could be heard in the area except the sounds of the army moving. Everyone could see with their naked eyes that the wear, dullness and tear in the passage was beginning to heal. In short, at any moment the portal could suddenly open, at any moment thousands of monsters could leap out of the portal. James knew that Ruby, the bird in his head, was in good shape, which meant that a large-scale attack was possible. It was an attack that could help the friendly side. The fact that she was able to use her Aura of Chaos ability on top of that and that she also had the Heaven''s Call ability on top of that was a big plus. James had hidden these abilities because he thought that the war would not end, after all, these abilities would be what he would use if they had to escape. But now everything had changed, James had to end the war here, today, and he was ready to do anything for it. Anything at all. The ear-piercing cracking sound had reappeared, clearly the portal was beginning to unlock fully. It was as if a huge iceberg was breaking off from one end to the other, a sound so deep and rough that it was hard to describe. It was enough just to listen to the sound: "GROOOOAN----GRRRINDD---CRACK!!!" After the succession of sounds, cracks began to appear from the top to the bottom of the passage, this was very similar to the cracks that had formed when James had used his ability to destroy the small passage before, but the difference between them seemed to be understood only by feeling. It was as if the locking ''ice'' on the gate had begun to thaw. "CRASH!!!" With a sudden breaking sound, a fist passed through the gate. An arm grabbed the gate itself and then an eye looked out of the gate. Everyone, including James, was shocked by this sight. There was literally an ancient giant staring at them from the other side of the portal, and even James himself thought that these monsters were extinct. The giant didn''t look that big, maybe 50 or 55 metres tall, but even that was enough to frighten anyone who saw it. As the passage slowly began to open, orders began to move through the army and defensive formations were being set up. James turned to Eve beside him and said, "Please try not to die, Lady Eve." The ancient giant inside the passage came into clear view and the sight of hundreds of monsters, large and small, closer to the ground was visible to everyone. Seconds ticked by, and everyone could feel their hearts beating incredibly hard with fear. Yet there was nothing any of them could do, either they could stop this giant and the other monsters here, or everyone--and that''s the perfect word for it--would die. Weapons were drawn, everyone was ready, and the first attack would not come from them, and that is why they had the idea that the battle would be easy. Exactly 160 attack runes had been drawn in such a short time. This meant that arcana mages would be the cornerstone of this battle. "CRASH!!!" Another crashing sound echoed in the ears and it all began. Tens, hundreds, thousands of monsters started to come out of the gate. The ancient giant threw one foot out of the portal at that moment and fear descended to the earth. With that, James decided to start the plan, activated his 8 Sacred Fire skill, and then, as soon as he covered his entire arm with black flames, he threw the flames into the sky, a little bit near the ancient giant. This symbolised the target to be shot at. As the jet-black flames approached the ancient giant, an incredibly loud explosion sounded from far away. "BOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!" S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This sound was close to the explosion sound of an atomic bomb. After this sound rose from the sky towards the horizon, attacks from exactly 160 attack runes began to advance in the air. The distance between the runes and the gate was almost four kilometres, but despite this, the incredible speed of the runes began to appear in the air in just five seconds. Crimson attack types suddenly appeared in front of the ancient giant, and almost every single attack managed to hit the ancient giant. "GUUUUAGKKHHH!!!!!!" The ancient giant began to scream, it was obvious that it was in a lot of pain. The explosion had created a huge cloud of flames above the ancient giant, it was obvious that the giant had been damaged, but that was all, the over a hundred attack runes that had hit the giant had failed to kill it. Nevertheless, the ancient giant was injured, and with that, naturally, it became angry. When James realised this, there was only one thing to do. As soon as the attack flags went up, everyone started to mobilise. James activated his dark step ability and started running directly at the ancient giant without even thinking about attacking any monsters. With each step, he left a trail of black flames behind him and dodged the monsters as if he were dancing. After only three minutes and continuous use of his dark stepping ability, James had managed to get close to the ancient giant, and with that, he strangely grabbed onto the ancient giant''s feathers. Even though he was incredibly disgusted, he still had to climb upwards. "If I live after this battle is over, I won''t get out of the shower for ten days!" shouted James, trying hard not to vomit as he climbed up. The ancient giant was of course moving and strangely ignoring the whole army and trying to move somewhere, which was bad news. If the ancient giant tried to move in this way and had chosen a place as its target, it was imperative to kill it quickly so that it did not get there. Chapter 235 - 235: Close to That Exprience James had a plan and it was a really good plan, he had thought of this plan the first time he saw the ancient giant, he just had to put it into practice. Every time the ancient giant took a step it made a loud noise, as if the earth was shaking. After only three minutes of climbing as briskly as possible, James managed to climb up to the neck of the ancient giant. After just one jump, James, who had been waiting on the ancient giant''s head, was first shocked by what he saw, but he did not have enough time to applaud such a thing. He planned to use his destruction ability again, and then deliver as heavy a blow as possible to the ancient giant''s head. He planned to use 100 per cent of his mana. That''s why, no matter how difficult it was to stand, he somehow managed to stabilise himself and raise his left leg to recover every drop of mana in his body at that moment. After only a minute, he had recovered his mana to his entire left leg, and now it was time to attack. "Destruction!" he shouted and then drove his left leg directly into the ancient giant''s head like a nail through a chalkboard. A sudden surge of mana spread a sound like the explosion of a sonic mana fusion bomb across the sky: "SWOOOOOOOSH....BOOOOOOOOOM!!!" In a way, it was like the sound of an explosion, but the energy from the mana was absorbed into itself and exploded. It was almost like a supernova. The ancient giant was shaken after this attack, while James was trying to understand what was happening, the ancient giant suddenly collapsed on his knees. James knew with 100% certainty that there was no way he could kill such a being and that was the problem. Maybe he had managed to inflict some good damage on this beast, but there was no way he could kill it, that''s why he thought something was wrong. At that very moment, he became aware of an incredible aura, literally every hair on his body stood on end as if he was beginning to realise the danger. Turning his head to the right, he was suddenly on his guard and then shouted ''Aura of Chaos!''. The ancient giant''s fist slammed into James''s body and he was sent flying from 25 metres above the ground to almost 100 metres away by the impact of the blow. As he hit the ground incredibly hard he was very happy that he had activated his Aura of Chaos ability, indeed he almost died, indeed he would have died had it not been for the one-minute immunity that the ability gave him. As he began to come round he was able to get a good look at the ancient giant. The ancient giant seemed to be seriously injured, and it would be quite realistic to say that his wounds had not healed. James, who had stood up after coming to his senses, stretched his body and then leapt forward again without stopping. Having exhausted his mana, he had to wait for regeneration. Even if his mana was constantly regenerating due to his abilities and items, he still had to use his aura for a while. This was not a bad thing, of course, but he would have given his entire fortune right now to have a little more magical energy, mana. As he lunged forward, his sword began to glow with a lush green flame. James had become so good at spinning his aura around his body that he could quickly prepare to use Desmond''s Sword Art. Of course, this attack would be much weaker than magic and spinning the aura inside the body, but he knew that he could still make a very powerful attack. Lush green flames could cover his sword as the elemental core supported his aura, and even if he could not excel in physical damage, he could at least use poison to slow down the ancient giant. Suddenly he stopped where he was and then swung his sword almost fifty metres away from the ancient giant. The lush green flames turned into snakes and managed to strike directly at the ancient giant. "RUUOOOOOGGHHH!!!" The ancient giant suddenly shouted as his gaze locked on James, James seemed to realise at that moment that he had made a terrible mistake, he should have chosen something else, something deadly instead of this move, but he had drawn the ancient giant''s attention directly to himself. "Fuck!" James muttered, and then, at a loss for what to do, he began to cover his entire body with his aura. The ancient giant seemed to start walking towards him. A man who was less than two metres tall was up against a 50-metre monster. It was quite a chilling situation. S§×arch* The N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As soon as James covered his body with its aura, he turned around and began to run away from the gate, away from the gate itself, and towards a place on the map that he knew was nowhere near the settlements. Perhaps his mana could be sufficiently replenished in that time, and with it, perhaps he could survive. With each step he could hear the heavy footsteps coming closer and closer to him, the footsteps of the ancient giant that felt like an earthquake, and he trembled inwardly. It was impossible not to be afraid, James was a human being, not a god. Even gods could be frightened to the point of insanity from time to time, but it was impossible for James not to be. After his brief escape, he realised that he could not find a way out, not even a minute of immunity had elapsed and James had taken another direct hit. After travelling over two hundred metres in the air, he fell to the ground and the sense of danger was heightened as his immunity from the Aura of Chaos ability ended at that moment. He was going to die, there was no way to escape. Chapter 236 - 236: Unknown Attack James turned suddenly and thought he could at least attack before he died. He swung his holy sword at Clarent. When he released a small aura, his fear was realised. The huge fist of the ancient giant was coming at him. After a short moment, the fist struck James and he was almost two hundred metres away, bouncing on the ground. When he got to his feet, he looked down at himself as if he could not understand what had happened and why he was not hurt, and he saw that all his limbs were intact. "What''s going on?" James questioned aloud and then was confronted with an ear-piercing sound: "RUUOKJGHHH!!!" James had to cover his ears when the painful voice of the ancient giant rang in his ears, he could not understand what was happening, and his enemy was approaching death. He could see what was happening very easily because of the passive in his night vision ability from his Warrior of the Night class. Someone was constantly taking off like a fly and attacking the ancient giant. It was quite a mesmerising sight, but it was unclear what was happening anyway. The figure was moving so fast that James couldn''t make out who this person was, he could only realise that this person must have incredible strength. Maybe someone else, sponsored by the supreme gods, was fighting right now, after all, many climbers were known to move between floors all the time. Whatever it was, whoever it was, they had not only saved James'' life but had also begun to seriously injure the ancient giant that now posed the greatest threat to this floor. James was, in a word, grateful. In a short time, he had managed to get a few mana potions out of his inventory. James didn''t want to use them as they were incredibly valuable. They needed a few minutes to work anyway, so unlike health potions, they were IMPOSSIBLE to use in battle. Considering that a single potion was worth almost five million gold pieces, it was incredible that James had three. After all, these potions, usually sold by auction, were made by alchemists and alchemists whose identities were unknown. They were rare indeed. When James drank all three potions one after the other, he sat down on the floor to rest and then took a deep breath and tried to recover himself. sea??h th§× Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Clarent, the holy sword, seemed to be trembling with excitement as if the sword itself was itching to fight. After almost five minutes of waiting, James, who had recovered well, managed to recover almost 20% of his magic energy, that is, his mana. Even though it was strange that potions that gave so little mana were so expensive and rare, James was still grateful for all the money he had lost. Standing up, he stretched his body and then started to move, thinking that he still had abilities he could still use. Running quickly, he managed to close the gap of two hundred metres in a short time, and then, shouting "Heaven''s Call", he chose the rose option again. When a crimson rose garden opened around, the attacks of the person fighting the ancient giant began to hit the giant even more heavily, and the giant''s screams began to be heard more frequently: "UUUAGGHRRRRRKKK!!!" The ancient giant threw its huge arms into the air as if it were chasing a fly and shouted tearfully: "IT''S HURTING ME, THIS FLY IS HURTING ME!!!" James chose not to climb the ancient giant again after all this shouting and crying and thought it would be much better to attack from a distance using Desmond''s Sword Art. Since the Heaven''s Call ability could travel quite a distance, James moved almost to the limit of the ability, almost a hundred metres away from the ancient giant, and then closed his eyes and started to spin his aura and the remaining magical energy around his body, focusing even more seriously this time. Even though it was now much easier to spin his aura around his body, when it came to spinning both aura and mana, everything became more difficult. That''s why trying to focus would be the best thing he could do. "UUUAGGHHH STOP YOU FLY!!!" Even with the ancient giant''s shouts echoing in James'' ears, he was doing everything he could to stay focused, indeed he was becoming incredibly good at focusing, the only one to blame for this was Noah, who had indeed managed to make him Poison Master. The ancient giant was already incredibly weakened by James'' poisoning, after all, this poison was no ordinary poison, it was a combination of both the fire poison of 8 Sacred Fire and the poisons in the body of James, the Poison Master. However, the unknown person who attacked the ancient giant was weakening it. James had prepared his attack, after almost two minutes he had finished all the preparation and the holy sword Clarent began to glow dazzlingly with jet black jet-black in the presence of the time element. James had invested almost 70% of his body''s aura energy in this attack and added almost all his remaining mana. He held a small drop of mana in his body for one last spell. This was the most powerful attack he could do right now. Pulling back his sword and shouting "PIERCE!!!", he consumed the last drop of mana in his body and with that, he stabbed his sword through the air. The holy sword, the time elemental entity on Clarent, and the jet black flames that carried this entity shimmered as if they were a beam and began to move incredibly fast towards the right eye of the ancient giant. An attack so powerful and sophisticated that there was nothing the ancient giant could do. After all, the ancient giant was dealing with the unknown person who was clinging to him like a fly at that moment, and he was also dealing with the poison in his body. While the blow to James'' head had already injured him, there was also the attack James had made at that moment. The attack had taken place. Chapter 237 - 237: Lords Knight The time elemental entity on the holy sword Clarent and the jet-black flames that carried this entity shimmered as if it were a ray and began to move towards the right eye of the ancient giant at an incredibly fast speed. The attack had taken place. James was able to see the incredibly fast attack with his naked eyes. This attack, which was heading towards the ancient giant, had managed to reach its target after only four seconds. "UUUUUUUUUHOOOOOOOGGGKKK!!!" The ancient giant fell to its knees again after screaming in pain. Pieces of his huge eye fell to the ground, revealing a disgusting sight. A large amount of blood kept falling left and right because of the ancient giant who was constantly shaking his head. At the same time, the unknown person in the air began to fly into the air very quickly and disappeared into the clouds. James could not believe that he had been abandoned like this because he had put all his trust in this unknown person, but he would be incredibly happy to be so wrong. The unknown person descended from the clouds with a HUGE, golden sword, and with this sword, which was almost ten metres long, they struck a blow to the ancient giant, which was on its knees. The golden sword struck the ancient giant and, unbelievably, sliced its upper body in half from head to waist. James could not believe his eyes, the fact that this unknown person had killed the ancient giant in an instant was incredibly strange to him. When Ruby, who had entered James'' inventory to avoid attacks, came out, she looked at the unknown person who had transformed into human form and then said, "Your mother has acquired an extremely powerful ability." James thought that what he had heard was really wrong, he couldn''t have heard the truth, he must have heard something he didn''t expect to hear because of the shock and adrenaline he was experiencing. When Ruby realised this and turned to James she smiled and then asked, "Ariel, you think of her as your mother, am I right?" James smiled as he heard again what he had just heard, he was incredibly happy to hear that it was Ariel standing in front of him, almost a hundred metres away from him. The unknown person was Ariel. [You have levelled up 13 times!] James smiled as he saw this window open in front of him, now that Emma had returned, the lock that prevented the gods from watching this floor must have remained. The ancient giant must have been a part of that lock, just like the Fallen Gods, and that made James learn something he didn''t know. Ariel had managed to kill a Fallen God. "Are you okay, James?" Ariel asked as she came up to James, and James, hearing this, rushed forward and gave Ariel a big hug. "Oh if you only knew how happy I am to see you!" said James and Ariel giggled as if she didn''t know what to say and then replied, "Me too kid." When James suddenly stopped hugging him, he shouted, "YOU KILLED A FALLEN GOD? I''M PROUD OF YOU!" he shouted. Ariel smiled and then said, "She was pretty hurt, but yeah, that''s how I got this ability." S~ea??h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With that, Ariel raised her hand and a system window opened in her palm. James couldn''t believe his eyes when he saw what was written on the window: [Lord''s Knight(Creator++++) What knight wants to watch their master die? What knight chooses to stand behind their master? What knight would not choose to die for their master? If you are such a knight, it would be far better to slit your own throat and die. To the one who has gained this ability, I wish you the highest honour, to choose a good master and protect them with your life, and I hope that you will never have to search for such a master in your life, as I did. When the ability is used, the user will gain 500% movement speed for 30 minutes. When the ability is used, the user will gain 700% aura regeneration for 30 minutes. When the ability is used, the user will gain the ability to ''fly'' for 30 minutes. When the ability is used, the user''s three main stats will increase by 100% for five minutes (Power, Agility and Endurance). When the ability is used, the user will have the ability to protect their master from any damage for 1 time. Permanent Master: James Arthur Black(Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate, Poison Master)] "This... How did you acquire such a talent? Did you choose me as your master? I... I don''t know what to say." James said, genuinely overjoyed, but at the same time very flattered. "Of course, I agreed to this when I joined the Chaos guild, didn''t I? Aren''t I a knight?" Ariel said, and with that, she said, "It''s a good thing I killed the Fallen God." After these words, James was about to open his mouth and say something when he was distracted by a message window that suddenly opened in front of him: [James...it''s good news to see that you''re okay, thanks for hanging in there for so long, leave the rest to us]. The message was from Nyx. James had completely forgotten that the war was still going on, he never thought he would be this happy that the floor had been unlocked. "Thank you, my lady, please," James said, and then he fell to the floor. He was exhausted, he hadn''t taken the time to rest these days. [Well done, we''re very proud of you two.] This message appeared to both Ariel and James and the two involuntarily smiled as they looked up at the sky and managed to see bits of light flying through the dark air. Officially higher beings were entering the floor, and James could feel the energy of each and every one of them. The battle was almost over, the two were incredibly happy, and they deserved a serious rest. Chapter 238 - 238: Everything Is Over James and Ariel managed to get close to the gate after some time and were able to see the beings in the vicinity with their own eyes. James could see Nemesis and the others with his own eyes, and again Lady Nyx must have expended enormous energy to send Nemesis below the 75th floor. This was good news. James was able to see his mate again after a long time, and the war seemed to be over. Still, there were many casualties, James could clearly see the bodies being carried away, the sound of crying seemed to have started again, and everyone''s sad voices were ringing in his ears. This was good news, as all the monsters in the portal had been emptied, and the portal itself was completely closed. As James and Ariel approached the campsite, familiar faces began to appear. Datura, Theseus, and many others seemed to have come to this floor to help. The Church of the Night''s presence on this floor seemed to have been established, thanks to the help and other things that the Church of the Night had done. The priests and nuns of the church, with great effort, were able to bring people who had even lost limbs to them. James was very proud of the church''s work. The church had done such a good job that it was best to treat each of them with respect. He had seen some priests and nuns exhaust themselves to the point of fainting in just two hours. That''s how loyal James'' helpers were. They were incredible beings that wanted to help others even in a situation like this. Losing all of their mana and holy power only to heal people who didn''t even know them. Just like real heroes. When James entered the main tent, they saw Eve and the nobles of the empire trying to sit quietly and rest. When the group saw James and Ariel with him, each of their eyes were filled with brightness. Eve, in particular, was so relieved to see James standing tall in front of her that there was no way to explain it. "You managed to kill the ancient giant..." Eve suddenly said, and James, hearing this, pointed to Ariel next to him and said, "I had a lot of help." Turning to Ariel, she must have been embarrassed because she grabbed James''s cheek and pulled him away before saying, "We couldn''t have done anything if you hadn''t put the ancient giant in that state." The depth of the relationship between the two was recognisable even to the weary nobles watching them, they really did look like a mother and son and seeing this relationship seemed to tell them that the war was indeed over. "Thank you master Umbra, Madam Ariel...we don''t know what we would have done without you..." Eve suddenly said. Hearing these words, James smiled and then came to the front of Eve and gently knelt on his knees. "It was a great honour to fight alongside a great wizard like you, Lady Eve. You did not win this war because of us. The sacrifices made, the effort expended, the lives lost. Not just Umbra and Ariel, but Eve, Yorhun and so many others. Look up and realise what a wonderful empress you are." When James uttered these words, Eve''s eyes really teared up. Anyone who saw Eve in this state could see how much pressure she was under. After all, Eve was the only empress of an entire floor, an entire empire, she had no mate to share the pride and responsibility, she had a people and hundreds of cities to protect. Eve had become today, perhaps, one of the greatest empresses of the White Empire. Hearing these words, Eve was about to say a few words when the curtain of the tent suddenly opened and someone entered, much to the delight of Ariel and James. Nemesis walked in, wearing her silver crystal armour, her silver hair turning white like the surface of the moon and her eyes shining as if she had seen someone she cared about, this woman seemed to be very worried about her husband and with good reason. "Hey Neme, thanks for taking care of business," James said, and with that, he was about to finish the sentence "I mis-" when suddenly he saw Nemesis pressed against his lips. James had missed the feeling so much that he let go, choosing to close his eyes and, although slightly uncomfortable, he wrapped himself in Nemesis'' armour. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The kiss between James and his wife Nemesis lasted for almost twenty seconds before the couple finally managed to pull apart, but not before the beautiful Nemesis hugged James tightly. James looked at Ariel, who was watching them and shook his head, and he managed to get a good look at the smile on Ariel''s face. "Neme, can you calm down a bit?" James said, and as soon as he said that, "How do you expect me to calm down? A week! I haven''t been able to watch you or know what you''re going through for a week, it''s been eating me up inside, this wasn''t the 9th floor and the passage didn''t open before the floor was locked, I couldn''t come to help you, I''m sorry." James was strangely embarrassed as if he hadn''t given much thought to his wife Nemesis'' feelings. "I love you too Neme, I''m sorry," James said and then gestured to Eve and the others and said, "Eve is one of the few people who has helped me live so far, I was really dying." Nemesis looked at Eve maliciously for a few seconds, like a proud woman, and then put her pride aside and said, "Thank you, I will never forget your kindness," like a wife. James nodded happily, then stepped out of the tent and called Nemesis to him. When the beautiful Nemesis came out of the tent and approached James curiously, James gently said, "We are gonna have a good time this night." After these words, Nemesis, who smiled, approached her husband and then kissed him on the cheek and said, "As you wish my love." Chapter 239 - 239: The Old Request With the end of the war, the group, who had managed to return to the imperial palace, had time to relax after their dispersal. Of course, the beautiful night James had promised to his wife Nemesis came and went, and the next day they woke up in the middle of the night. "You don''t know how much I missed you," said the beautiful woman with silver eyes and a loving gaze. On the one hand, she was hugging her husband James in the huge bed and on the other hand, she was trying to hide her happiness. "The same goes for me, my love," James said, and then patted his wife Nemesis on the head and added, "But now we need to get ready even if I want to stay like this forever." After a short period of preparation, James and Nemesis entered the flower garden of the palace. The main reason for this was that the news that two of the three great admins had entered the floor last night had spread throughout the palace. James had ignored both of them because of the massage session he had received from his wife Nemesis and had indeed spent the whole day relaxing. Finally, they managed to come to the flower garden in the palace, next to the two great men. When James looked at the two men, he first greeted the rabbit on the left: "Hi Ronald, long time no see." Then he turned his head to the one on the right and said, "I never thought I''d meet you, or rather I never thought I would. What an honour." The person James greeted and even bowed his head to was the most powerful in the tower. He was wise, intelligent, fast, strong, durable and the best in terms of appearance. "Cain the Tailor," James said to himself, and with that he stopped, not knowing what to say. Cain stood up after James'' words and spun around James once, then shook his head and smiled and said, "You were right, Ronald, interesting boy he is." James then squinted his eyes and looked at Ronald, not wanting to waste any time, he questioned, "Why are you here?" Ronald smiled as soon as he heard this question and then said, "Because what you entrusted to me a long time ago has been completed. Since I thought you were going to take some time to rest, it seemed the best option to bring your order to you, I met Cain on the way." "I don''t understand what you''re trying to say, I already got back the philosopher''s stone I gave you, my wife is the one wearing the Nemesis necklace, I don''t remember giving you anything else, the items I gave you to cover the price of the iceberg were sold." With those words, Ronald took off his hat and then put his hand inside the hat and stirred it for a while. James immediately realised what was going on, it was said that all three great men had private inventories, so Ronald''s hat must have been his inventory. It was so iconic, instead of a rabbit coming out of a hat, a rabbit was trying to get something out of a hat. Ronald smiled as if he had found what he wished he had found and then quickly removed his hand from the hat. James, on the other hand, smiled as if he realised what he had given to Ronald at that very moment, and then started laughing until tears came to his eyes: "Puaahahahahaha!!! I completely forgot about that!!!" After all this laughter James, even his wife Nemesis and admin Cain himself were surprised, none of the gods and no one in the area could even remember James laughing so hard. "My rod...my dear rod," James said and then took the item Ronald handed him. [Dumb God''s Rod(Godly-) An incredibly sturdy fishing rod made from a body part of one of the most foolish of the Fallen Gods, who lived like a fool and died like a fool. It can attract fish. It can regenerate itself when broken]. "I don''t know what you''re laughing so much about...it''s just a fishing rod, isn''t it?" Nemesis asked, and after only a second she smiled and added, "Well, I forgot, just like you." "I want to know what you''re laughing so much about," Cain said as awkwardly and coyly as possible. "I was ambushed by a Fallen God on the 9th floor, the day I met my lovely wife Nemesis and she saved my life, we killed that bastard Fallen God and I got a body part. I told Ronald that I wanted him to make a fishing rod out of it and here it is." Cain smiled when he heard these words and then sat back in his chair saying, "Well, it''s a good ending for those bastards, you made a good choice." As James sent the fishing rod into his inventory, he pulled out one of the chairs around the table and gestured gently for his wife Nemesis to sit down. Cain was surprised by what he saw and then said, "I don''t know how you got your hands on this, but if you are someone who can use it, you must be even more skilled than Ronald says, very interesting." James smiled as if flattered by these words and with that a table was set on the table. James had a good chat with Ronald and his wife Nemesis after a long time, and in honour of having made a friendship with Cain, whom he had just met, he declared this day special. S~ea??h the n?vel_Fire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The future would be challenging, of course, but at least for the moment, they had managed to find a way to survive without any danger. The White Empire had managed to hold on to life. After so many losses, the arrival of those who could be considered heroes would change everything. The statue of Umbra and Ariel in the centre of the Imperial capital would show this to everyone. The heroes of the White Empire. Chapter 240 - 240: Continue the Climb In a very brightly lit room, under crimson lights, four figures were sitting around a table. The facial expressions of these figures showed how much stress and fear they were under. "What are we going to do?" asked the white-haired female figure. With this question, everyone''s fear seemed to deepen even more, the woman who asked the question must have had a lot of authority over the other three. "Ma''am...if you give me another chance, I swear to you I will bring you James'' head." said one of the people around the table. The fact that everyone was trembling seemed to show how dangerous the white-haired woman was. "One chance? You''ve had three chances so far, but guess what you''ve done? You''ve strengthened him, not harmed him!" the white-haired woman suddenly shouted. With this shout, the other three literally bowed their heads and fell to their knees behind where the white-haired woman was sitting with their hands clasped together as if begging. "Forgive me, Madam, PLEASE!" shouted one of the women in the group. The white-haired woman was shaking her right leg, which she had thrown over her left leg, as if she was thinking about something. "James and his dog Ariel have been gone for over five months, and yet you have failed to do anything. In five months, you have only managed to convince two fallen gods and an Ancient Giant. You are disappointing," said the white-haired woman, and then she got up from her seat and spat in front of the woman who had spoken to her. After that, she said, "You are not even worth as much as my spit, you pieces of rubbish." The trio on their knees on the floor were still trembling with fear, but this time they seemed to have managed to escape the death that was likely to come upon them. The white-haired woman had not attacked them but only insulted them, which was strangely good news. "Ma''am, the reason we only have access to three holy beings is that the Church of Night has begun to recover the artefacts, if we can find a few things that have Nyx''s and Demond''s energies together we may be able to convince not three but thirty holy beings." said the last female figure in the trio. Hearing these words, the white-haired woman shook her head and then said, "All right, I forgive you one last time, don''t disappoint me again." After these words, a very bright and dark spell formed around the white-haired woman and she disappeared. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The three who remained in the room were relieved. Each of them stood up and the male of them was heard shouting: "JAMES I WILL KILL YOU!!!" ----- ----- James and Nemesis realised that it was time to part ways again after a good holiday. They were not married yet, but they were already like a husband and wife in the eyes of everyone, including themselves. Although the two were very upset about this situation, it was a fact that they had to part. After a long hug and many kisses, Nemesis said goodbye to her husband James and went back up to the 75th floor. During this time James had shown her the developments on the ice mountain on the 5th floor, which he planned to be their future home. Since James planned to abolish the 75th-floor rule set by his ancestor, everyone looked at this house positively. These might have been bold words for someone who had only entered the tower just over two years ago, but either way, every Chaos-Born and Titan was in his favour. Even though the 75th-floor limit had taken a long time to set up, each of them could see the damage to the lower floors because of this limit. This meant that the existing system had to change, only James had to become even more powerful and his authority even better. Chaos already had a good impression of him, it was just that he wasn''t as strong as Desmond, which probably didn''t make him perfect in Chaos'' eyes. Regardless, James was aware of this, Chaos was already paying attention to him, it was the only reason he had been given the gacha ability in the first place, an ability that shouldn''t have existed, given to him by Chaos for the sole purpose of allowing him to surpass Desmond''s power. The battle was incredibly close and James was only just beginning to approach the 75th floor. "It looks like we can continue now Ariel, we''ve said our goodbyes, the 36th floor awaits us," James said suddenly. Ariel looked back at James with a smile, nodded and then replied, "Everything is ready, I think I have enough supplies and items in my inventory, we can go." With that, James and Ariel teleported to the 36th floor as the white portal opened. When the duo opened their eyes again, they realised that they were in a wooded area. It couldn''t really be called a wooded area, it looked more like a swamp, but it wasn''t possible to tell much difference between the two things, because they were in a lush forest, like a rainforest, and most of the ground was like a swamp. "Be careful, try not to get into the swamp, I have water magic so I''ll try to help, but the tower is unpredictable," said James, the ecosystem they were in was quite strange. As they started to move forward they both started to realise where the strangeness was coming from, it felt like something was watching them and that was not a good thing. "Lady Nyx, this feeling is a bit too weird, do you know this floor?" James suddenly asked, he couldn''t believe he was doing this but he really thought he should cheat a bit. James didn''t know what kind of answer he expected to hear, or rather he thought he would get a good answer that would put him at ease, but the answer he was about to hear was going to be the thing that would make everything awkward. Chapter 241 - 241: Elanor? "Lady Nyx, this feeling is a little too weird, you know this floor?" After James'' question, silence reigned for almost two minutes. Only after close to three minutes did a reply come from Nyx: [I have no idea, no one does]. The moment James saw the message and showed it to Ariel, their hearts began to race. The tower offered everyone a different floor, but these floors had been repeating for a long time. In other words, instead of giving everyone the same adventure, or more precisely, instead of offering the same cruelty to everyone, it was the purpose of the tower itself to kill everyone differently. The reason why James and Ariel did not like this situation was that the tower paid special attention to these two. The tower had a self, and the tower itself loved to use itself in different ways, choosing to pay attention to many people since the history of its creation. Among them, as James had learnt, was Nyx''s own daughter, Eris, and the fact that Eris had made it through the 75th floor on her own, despite all this, had shown her potential. Still, even if the tower paid attention to one person or more than one person, it didn''t do it all the time. Since James had entered the tower, it had even changed the function of the tower itself towards him. It was like the tower trying to keep up with James in the ''passion and desire'' section of the first floor, the area with the Sea of Rascals. Despite all this, it had not been seen for a long time that the tower had created a floor for someone or something else. It was even possible to say it was hundreds of thousands or millions of years. And that was the scary thing, James and Ariel were shuddering so much, being subjected to such a strange sensation that it was impossible not to be afraid, even involuntarily. "Be careful, Ariel," James said, and then he started to point ahead, indicating that he was going to speed up, he didn''t know what was following them, but he could at least jump from one tree branch to another to investigate the area. That''s exactly why he quickly climbed up a tree and began to move quickly using his dark stepping ability. Ariel seemed to have enough speed to follow her, she must have levelled up quite a lot since she killed the Ancient Giant. As he jumped from one tree to the next, James began to feel as if something or things were following him. It was impossible to tell what these things were, but whatever they were, they were fast. After almost thirty minutes of hard running, James and Ariel arrived in front of an average-sized village. There was a manor house at the far end of the village, and the inside of the village appeared to be empty, or rather "abandoned". James made a few hand gestures, signalling to Ariel to keep her attention to the rear, in short, he wanted her to watch her back. With that, James pulled the holy sword Clarent out of his inventory and gripped it tightly, and as he did so, he recognised a voice in his mind: "Careful James, this is pretty creepy even for me." S~ea??h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was Vladimir''s voice and the fact that even he was saying such a thing gave him a slight indication of what they might be up against. Enjoy exclusive content from m v l''e|m,pyr After a fairly thorough search of the village, neither James nor Ariel had found any trace of anything. They had even checked under every bed or piece of furniture in every house in the village with the idea that there might be a hidden passageway in the village. Still, there was nothing. This meant that the only place they should have checked was the manor house because it was the only place that didn''t look abandoned. When James made another sign to Ariel, who was watching his back, he pointed to the mansion, and with that, the two quickly made their way to the door of the mansion. As James approached the mansion he realised that everything was quite familiar, after a few shakes of his head he said rather nervously, "No way?" He was in the same area where he had completed his floor mission a long time ago. When he turned around and took another look at the village, he realised that it had been renovated, the village, which had not shown any signs of life before, had become lively and could even be considered a small city. "Ariel, really stay with me, don''t go away for a second, I know this place," James said. Not only him, but also the gods and goddesses watching him were surprised by this situation. They had never seen anything like this before, it was as if the tower was trying to reveal something that could be considered ''hidden'' because they, like James, remembered very clearly where this place was. When James opened the door to the mansion and walked in, he shook his head, smiled and muttered, "Really...Is it really you...Elanor?" as if he couldn''t hide his surprise. As soon as James said those words, a beautiful woman with greying hair, who looked to be perhaps sixty years old, and a few people with her appeared. As soon as the old woman saw James, she stood up and then ran over and hugged him. While James was thankful that this woman was still well, the huge painting standing by the stairs leading to the upper floor attracted his attention. There was only one person in the painting and it was James himself, of course with his hair still green. Even if he could not understand what was going on, James''s surprise and smile seemed to tell what kind of situation he was in. She was someone he had saved, but who remained a hole in his heart, and James was overflowing with the pleasure of seeing her here. He had met an old acquaintance. Chapter 242 - 242: You Havent Aged When Elanor stopped hugging James, tears began to fall from her eyes. "This is my family, sir, I''ve always waited for your return...I wished Erebus, I begged for your return, never really thought this day would come." Elanor said suddenly and Ariel saw the look on James'' face as she tried to understand what was going on. James was happy, of course, the reason made sense, after all, James had spent a long time wondering if Elanor might actually be alive because of the tower itself, even though he knew that the floor had ceased to exist, or rather was no longer existent. "You never left my mind for a moment, I didn''t even know if you were alright because I couldn''t get back to that floor, everyone said you were just an illusion of what happened in the past or what the tower created, you seem more alive than any of them," James said. Elanor had not left James''s side for a second and had kindly introduced her own family to him, James had many questions, it was like the past mixed with the present, so the tower must have created this floor in such a way. "Nice to meet you all too, really..." James said suddenly. James couldn''t quite understand what the tower was trying to do, maybe there was something the tower was trying to tell him, but even if James wasn''t letting his guard down, he could at least maintain his current happiness for a while. Elanor led both James and Ariel gently into the main room of the mansion. There were many paintings in the room, and James himself seemed to be in every one of them. "Well, I never thought you loved me so much," James said suddenly, and with that Elanor''s gentle voice was heard again: "Even though I was protected throughout the history of the tower, I died in agony as soon as the climbers finished their task, but when you finished your task, everything was different, everything that had happened in the past or could happen to me in the future was gone. I was able to live perfectly for 20 years, I was able to build my family, but I never forgot the face of my saviour, you." When Elanor said this, James opened his mouth to speak, but just as he was about to speak, Elanor''s voice was heard again: "In case something happened and I forgot your face in my old age, I had hundreds of your paintings made and hung in this mansion where you saved me and brought peace to my family. I rebuilt the city and built a great city and had the rank of the duchess. 20 years... I am now 36 years old." After these words, Elanor showed James the table in the main room and signalled him to sit down. Elanor and her family seemed to be smiling, even if James and Ariel were surprised by this, James did a little scan of the room with his mana just in case, and when he found no problems, he sat down on the armchair. "Giving up the main seat of my family for my saviour would be an understatement...Master James." Elanor said and then as tears streamed down her face she added "It''s been 20 years for me, I''m 36 years old and the white colour fell to my hair, but you...you don''t seem to have aged an hour, forgive me for standing before you in such a disgusting way." James paused for a few seconds after these words, it had been almost two years for James, after all, he had climbed the first 10 floors very, very quickly. Then James stood up and approached Elanor standing in front of him took her by the hands and said, "It has been 20 years for you and 2 years for me, dear Elanor. Looking at what you have done in 20 years, there is nothing to say, this seat is not mine, it is yours." and then he chuckled and spoke once more: "And also, I can read the messages from my wife right now, she''s quite jealous, if the most beautiful woman I''ve ever seen is jealous of you, that means you haven''t lost any of your beauty." James was indeed seeing messages from his wife Nemesis out of the corner of his eye, you could tell she was quite jealous. However, James realised that this was no illusion. After all, he could see Elanor and her husband, their grown children and many others. This meant that for the first time, James was going to ask the tower for something strange. He took the Void Pen out of his inventory, put it in his pocket, and then sent a polite message to Ariel, "I need a little time." Ariel naturally shook her head, wondering what it was about, and then, shaking her head again as if she understood, she spoke aloud, "Are you going to try to claim the rights of this floor?" Elanor and her family were surprised to hear those words, and Elanor herself was especially delighted. James waved his arms after these words and then said, "There is a reason why I addressed to your mind directly, MOM." When Elanor heard the word ''mom'', she turned to Ariel with her mouth open and said, "Forgive me, my lady...I mistook you for a bodyguard, I apologise." "Never mind, things happened," Ariel replied, and with that, James'' voice was heard again. "So I''m going to put in a request to the tower, it''s happened in the past, though it''s almost always been denied. I don''t know of anyone other than Cain the Tailor and Nyx and Erebus who owns a floor of the tower outright," James said suddenly, and with that Ariel''s voice was heard. "Well, sort that out and then tell me about your ancestor, will you? I''m still waiting, and I know you''ve been avoiding it," Ariel said, trying to kill two birds with one stone. James shook his head in boredom and then turned to Elanor and said, "Give me a while, I need to use the system to talk to the tower itself, who knows, maybe I''ll succeed." then asked, "Is there a space I can use, maybe a garden?" Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. There were things he had to do. Chapter 243 - 243: 10 Years of My Life? Elanor immediately turned to her daughter standing next to her and said, "Please show your uncle the way." James smiled genuinely when he heard the word ''uncle'' and then followed her out of the room. "Mum talked a lot about you uncle...She never thought you were a climber...She said you came from the future and saved her life. She didn''t even remember how many times she died until the mission was over, how many times history repeated itself for her. You kept her from harm, you took a path that had never been travelled before and you fought for her." Elanor''s daughter said as she walked. With that, she turned around and bowed to James and then said, "The only reason I''m here is that you saved my mother by not even thinking about your own life, unlike other climbers...I don''t know what kind of structure the tower is, but I hope you can do something about the floor, it would be an honour to see you as my uncle." James didn''t know what to say. After all, there was not even a floor in the tower that passed without a battle, or rather, there was never such a floor after the tutorial floors. Which meant that there had to be a reason why he had come to this floor, why Elanor was alive. The fact that she was going to speak to the tower self for the first time was a different story, she had heard stories before, she had even read about it in the imperial library. Even reaching that self was very difficult, unless the tower was watching you carefully. In this case, James had a huge advantage, after all, the tower had given him a floor mission just because it was watching him carefully. "Well, I mean, I did it out of duty, but we don''t come from very different situations so I might have been a bit emotional," James said, after all, the only reason he helped Elanor was because the mission Emma had given him, the mission he had to accomplish to get to the next floor of the tower. With these thoughts in his mind, he made it to the garden and sat down on the ground. The only thing he had to do to reach the tower self was to enter the profile section of the system and send a request from the settings section, then pour some blood into the ''window'' that appeared. If your request is rejected, the window cracks and breaks, if it is accepted, the window grows and a passage is formed. This is exactly why James went into his profile and clicked on the ''Tower'' option at the bottom of the settings section. With that, a window with the most detailed patterns possible opened in front of him, James reached into his inventory and pulled out a knife, brought his hand over the window and then sliced his palm thinly and began to bleed into the window. After only five seconds, the cut on his hand stopped due to his auto-heal ability and the blood that had already drained enough blood fell out of the window onto the floor. James waited a few seconds and then the window began to grow as he expected. After only fifteen seconds, the window turned into a passage and James went through the passage without thinking. When he passed through the passage, he was teleported to a dark area. More precisely, the place he was standing in was dark, he could see stars, black holes and galaxies in the distance. In front of him stood a humanoid, white light, but not glowing. "You knew I was watching you." The person hadn''t even moved its mouth, James couldn''t tell if it was a man or a woman, he heard the voice in his head and then said, "Of course. First the floor mission and now Elanor, you know what I wanted to ask you." After James'' words, the smile of the white person in front of him lifted and his teeth began to show. Even if James shuddered a little at this image, he knew that this was not the question he wanted to ask. "Before that, can you give me a little bit of a copy? Can you tell me what it was that followed us into the swamp?" After this question, the white person shook his head and then James said in his mind, "A ghoul. They are not dangerous, they protect the swamps, or rather they protect the souls in the swamps, that is the task of this floor, the quest of it, you help them protect the souls. Unless you take ownership of the floor, you will have to do this task." he heard a few sentences. After these words, James shook his head and asked, "I will help a monster? And who will I protect them from?" "From who? Of course from humans." As these words churned in James'' mind, James paused for a few seconds and then shook his head and said, "Alright, it''s going to be a bit of a challenge, but I choose to trust you. Now...you know why I''m here, is there any possibility of that?" After James'' question, the white person''s smile grew wider and then the following words churned in James'' mind: "It is possible, but at a price." "What is the price?" James asked, and with that, he heard the thing that would shake him where he was and make him sit on the ground: "Ten years of your life." "How many years do I even have?" James asked as he sat there brooding, suddenly remembering that he had swallowed and assimilated Vladimir''s core and had a pure-blood element. The white person put a hand to his chin as if thinking for a few seconds and then James learnt the answer: "You can live to see your great-grandchildren''s great-grandchildren, after all, you have absorbed a Sun Vampire core, and on top of that Chaos himself is watching over you, you are not someone who will die that easily, unless in battle. And trust me, this is a one-time chance, only 10 years, even for Nyx I take half of her statues." James got up from his seat after all these words and then came in front of the white person and said, "Nyx and the others are going to kill me, but I accept, my ten years are yours." sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The white person had a purer smile after these words, grabbed James'' hand tightly, created a gate behind him, threw him through the gate, and then sent a message to James'' mind, "You are lucky, I owe a great debt to your ancestor, otherwise, I would make you my slave for this ownership." James was back in reality before he could even ask what had happened. Another secret about Desmond seemed to have come his way. Chapter 244 - 244: Well, Well Move On When James came to, he could properly realise that he was back in reality, Elanor''s daughter was still standing on his left side and did not seem to have sat up yet. "Did something go wrong, Uncle?" the young girl asked. James shook his head as if surprised by this question. He looked around and realised that not even a minute had passed; it was as if time had stopped. Such was the effect of talking to the tower self. He could see the scroll glowing in his mind, a scroll behind dozens of files of thoughts, memories and teachings he had acquired and needed to replace. When James imagined the scroll, a window appeared in front of him, thanks to his Mind Palace ability, he knew what to use and how to use it, when the tower self-placed this scroll in his mind, everything was very easy for him. When James put his hand into the window and removed the parchment, he suddenly tore the parchment and a system notification appeared in front of him: [Congratulations! James Arthur Black, nicknamed Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer and Poison Master, has become the sole owner of the 36th floor according to the authorisation given to him by the tower self. We will pray for the good of your administration]. James smiled as he read what was written in the window and began to feel good that everything was over so easily. "Lady Nyx...I already know you have a lot to say," James said suddenly and with that the message window he had been waiting for appeared in front of him: [I''m not angry with you, after all, you did what you wanted and what your heart desired, on the contrary,y I''m proud of you, but if only you could have done it in the future instead of now, I lost half my power when I faced the tower self for floor ownership, Erebus had to throw away almost every bit of his divinity. I hope you didn''t lose too much]. James was, to put it bluntly, quite surprised when he read the message, he thought that every god and goddess watching him, close to him or not, would chastise him, but instead, he got a kind word from the goddess he most respected. "I haven''t lost much, my lady...about ten years," James said suddenly. He couldn''t even comprehend the effect those words had on Nyx and the others. ----- "How come? Only ten years?" muttered Nyx, she really couldn''t make up her mind, she looked like she was starting to worry. "I don''t understand, could James have been tricked? But we saw the scroll, it was identical to the one you and I were given," Erebus replied, sweat pouring down the god of darkness''s face. "Could the tower self have tricked James? I mean...could something have been placed on James that would have affected or restricted him?" asked Nyx. With Nyx''s question, concern grew in everyone''s eyes, and even talking to the tower self personally became an option in everyone''s mind, no such harm could come to James, not when the war was so close, not when all the floors and powers were escalating. The fact that everyone had this information was what made everything troublesome. The fact that they knew there was no use in thinking about it any longer caused Nyx to address James: "James, is there anything you''d like to share with us? If you''re trying not to worry us, please, you don''t need to do that." ----- [James, is there anything you''d like to share with us? If you''re trying not to worry us, please, you don''t need to do that]. When James looked at this message from Nyx, he shook his head from side to side as if strangely and then said, "No, the tower''s itself only asked me for 10 years, he stated that he normally gets much more than that, and he even told me that I was lucky, my lady." With his words, everyone managed to take a deep breath and let it out, they had chosen to believe James. With that, James stood up from his seat and then turned to the girl next to him and asked, "I didn''t ask your name, do you want to tell me?" "My name is Umbra, Uncle," the young girl said, her eyes shining as she heard these words. James didn''t even know what to say, he had never told Elanor his nickname, at least that''s what he remembered, it was as if some ''spell'' cast by the tower had shown its hand. Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "No way, haha! I can''t call you by my nickname...what about...Thalia! How''s Thalia?" James said suddenly, seemingly looking for a way to address the young girl. At these words, the young girl stood up proudly and then said, "I would be honoured, Uncle!" Then, with a smiling face, she pointed the way to James and added, "If you are finished, please let''s go." James smiled and started to follow Thalia, and then the two entered the main room of the mansion again. Ariel and the others looked at James with slightly odd eyes, not expecting the pair to return so quickly. "Uncle called me Thalia, Mummy..." the almost 20-year-old girl said with sparkling eyes as Thalia quickly ran to her mother and hugged her. "You don''t like the name Umbra, sir?" Elanor asked in surprise and James replied, "I just thought a more special name would suit your daughter better." James''s words made Elanor incredibly happy. With the information she had heard from the tower itself, she had managed to learn at least James'' nickname and had named her daughter Umbra, but now her saviour himself had given her another name. This was even better than she could have asked for. Indeed, it was even possible to see it as everything in Elanor''s mind. Ariel coughed a little, as if annoyed by such cuteness, and then asked, "Well, what did the tower self say?" Chapter 245 - 245: Cordelia "So, what did the tower say?" After Ariel''s question, James opened his arms and said with a twist of his lips, "I own the floor." he said. "I hope you didn''t lose too much, I''ve heard the stories and legends too," Ariel said with a deep smile. When James nodded and said that everything was fine, he said, "There is nothing left for us to do here, I have already banned you from floor duty, when Emma opens the gate, we can move to the next floor, Ariel." With those words, Elanor and the others turned to James in surprise and then managed to get his attention. "Don''t worry Elanor, I know you''re fine this time and I own the floor, normally I would have just walked through just like last time but now I can come back here whenever I want. I can let my servants and the Church of Night in here, which means you and your family will always be safe." James said suddenly, genuinely wanting to comfort this strange woman he had missed for so long. As Elanor''s eyes filled with tears, a white portal opened at the very edge of the room where the paintings had been, and James nodded and said, "Just in time Emma, we''re almost to the 40th floor." He turned and gave Elanor a gentle hug, shaking her husband''s hand and patting his nephews on the head, bade them goodbye and left the room with Ariel through the portal. He left behind Elanor and her family, filled with hope, and when he emerged from the portal, he was greeted by a smiling Ariel. "What happened? What''s wrong?" James suddenly asked and Ariel, hearing this question, replied directly, "There''s nothing I can do, you''re smiling really sincerely these days, you should see your face, you look quite funny, dummy." With that, the two looked around to see what was going on around them. They saw that they were next to a long line of caravans. Their task seemed to be to protect this caravan, but frankly, there was no telling what the tower would do, after all this stupid tower was sadistic enough to enjoy the screams of climbers. "Watch out," James said quietly, and with that, the entrance to the 37th floor began. The two of them watched the caravan and the caravan group carefully, trying to keep their eyes peeled for any sign of trouble. Ariel and James were working alongside what appeared to be a very expensive and luxurious caravan, which led James to realise what the main objective of this floor mission was. After only a short time, when the luxurious carriage came to a halt, the whole queue of the caravan came to a standstill, and then the carriage window opened a little and a woman''s voice said, "You, blue hair!" When James looked around, he saw that no one else had blue hair except him, and as if he thought he was in trouble, he politely asked, "Yes, madam, how can I help you?" The person or persons inside the carriage would have been surprised as if they had not expected James to be so polite that giggles and small talk were heard from inside. Then the opposite of what James expected happened. The carriage door opened and then he heard a woman''s voice say, "Come in, the Empress wants to meet you." James and Ariel behind him were surprised to hear the word ''empress'', and yet James entered the carriage very politely as if obeying an order. In just one day they had experienced so much of the usual. When James got into the carriage, he realised that there were three women in the carriage. As he gently sat down where he was shown, the voice of the woman who was seen as the most ''bright and beautiful'' among them rose: S§×arch* The N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I recognise the darkness rising from your body, the fact that it is not an evil darkness reveals the brightness of your soul, if I am not mistaken, the being you worship must be Nyx herself." James smiled gently when he heard these words and then said, "It would be wrong to say I worship, my lady, forgive my rudeness, but the lady you call Nyx is my mother." The group, including the Empress herself, seemed surprised by James'' words. "Please don''t lie about this, it may not seem like it, but the gods and goddesses we have are very important to us. We worship Hyperion, the embodiment of war, and we know well those who are seen as his brothers and sisters, the lady Nyx is very important to us." the empress suddenly said, and James, who heard these words, instantly turned the system window visible to everyone and showed Nyx''s messages to the trio in the carriage. The Empress was incredibly surprised. "If I''m not mistaken, I''ve spoken to Hyperion once or twice, my lady," he said, and then smiled and showed the messages of Hyperion. ''We... So you are a climber? I don''t know what kind of fate has brought us here, I just wanted to meet you because I like your darkness and your eyes so much, but it turns out that you are even more important than I thought.'' the empress said and gently extended her hand to James and said, "My name is Cordelia, I am known as the Empress of the Mountains." James, feeling a strange bond of friendship forming now, took Cordelia''s hand gently and began to introduce himself in the most garish way possible: "I am James Arthur Black, known as Umbra of Chaos, Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer and Poison Master. I am the beloved husband of Lady Nyx''s daughter Nemesis and the main leader of the Church of Night. Pleased to meet you." It was the beginning of a more than adequate friendship. James was quite happy because, strangely, he seemed to have managed to take the easy way out. He hadn''t given any thought to how wrong he might be, though. After all, the mission of this floor was not to meet the Empress, but something much bigger. Chapter 246 - 246: A New Danger After almost an hour of talking, James finally realised that loud noises were coming from outside. It was only when Ariel knocked on the carriage door that James realised something was wrong and that the mission had begun. S§×ar?h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The smile on his face instantly vanished and he felt like he was a robot. The people inside the carriage were so surprised by his change that they even thought that James might be a hypocrite as if he was wearing a mask and that mask had just come off. "I''m sorry, ladies, it''s finally worked out," James said, and immediately got out of the carriage, turned to Ariel and said, "Stay with the carriage, just in case, and I''ll take care of the rest." After these words, he immediately started running and activated his dark step ability without waiting. He quickly arrived at the scene where he thought the incident had taken place and saw many men and women gathered around. When he managed to pass through them quickly, he came across a corpse that was literally torn to pieces. A man was sobbing at the head of the body and shouting "BROTHER, BROTHER!". When James got close to the body, he made a few hand gestures to disperse the people around him, and when the people stepped back, he got closer to the body and started to search for traces. After receiving orders from the empress, a few imperial soldiers arrived on the scene and pulled the people back to make it easier for James. "PLEASE FIND! FIND MY BROTHER''S MURDERER!!!" came a scream from the younger brother of the body''s owner. While James was crushed by the pain in this voice, he started to continue his search for the traces around with a clear eye that at least this was what he had to do. Most of the tracks were confused because of the people around, but James could see quite easily that most of the tracks led into the woods ahead. James turned to one of the imperial soldiers and said "Tell Ariel who is with the empress that we are going into full seriousness mode, she will protect the empress, and I will enter the forest." The Imperial soldier left the area as soon as he nodded his head up and down, and after a short time, James put the holy sword Clarent in his inventory and started walking towards the forest. The crowd and soldiers behind him seemed to be questioning whether James knew where he had entered, one of them even turning to the other and asking, "He knows he entered the Forest of Death, doesn''t he? Could he be a cultivator?" This floor was such a floor, contrary to what James didn''t know, each floor from the 35th to the 40th floor was a continuous floor, so when he took ownership of the 36th floor, he took ownership of a rather huge world. This floor was the place where cultivators that could be seen in TV series or novels continued to exist, and even climbers using aura tried to train for a long time and refused to climb the floors. The Forest of Death was probably one of the most dangerous places, even if its name was quite common on the floors of the tower. In this forest, it was impossible to locate the traps even by using the aura or magical energy, the mana itself, and the forest itself consisted only of traps. Swamps that would pull you in as if they were grabbing you by every part of your body, strange types of wraiths, aura-based weapons that would fly at you, and many more. James had entered the forest without knowing any of this, he didn''t know if his mission was to go here or not, but at least it was something he could do, maybe he might come across a hidden reward or something different, and he was willing to take the risk. As he cautiously entered the forest he looked around and realised that nothing looked familiar. Of course, he was on another floor, but that was not what he thought. From the type of grass on the ground to the trees around, everything seemed to have suddenly changed into a different species. Each plant had a very light red colour as if someone had drawn these trees, grasses and sometimes flowers with their hands. He was scanning everywhere with his mana and could not find anything. As he continued to move forward very cautiously, he took his left step somewhere and then his whole body trembled from head to toe, signalling to him that danger was approaching. When he suddenly jumped into the air, he saw the lava region that had formed directly below him, and as he approached back to the earth, he used 8 Sacred Fire and threw himself to the left with the momentum of the fire. After he fell to the ground, he looked at the lava pit with fearful eyes and thought that there was a problem with his mana. While he was trying to understand what was going on, a message window opened in front of him: [In the forest of death, controlling things with mana and aura is useless, unless you have Qi, you can''t achieve anything, you can''t see anything, just be careful]. As soon as he saw this message from Erebus, he stood up and took out a package from his inventory. It was a packet of sweets, and although James didn''t know whether he would succeed or not, he dipped his hand into the packet and threw the sweets around. As soon as the sweets hit the ground, iron stakes stretching almost three metres, logs coming out of the trees towards where the sweets had fallen, and many more began to appear and James watched with his mouth open. Although he had thrown almost fifty candies at once, almost thirty traps had been exposed. He hadn''t even reached the depths of the forest yet. He had no idea what to do. Chapter 247 - 247: So, It Was Not Danger? [You can try jumping from one tree to another.] James was greeted with a message, this time from Nemesis, and the fact that no other message was being sent told James that all was well. Taking a few steps back and looking at the ground through the trees, which had grown to almost six metres tall, he found that he could see the traps better and then used his dark step ability to leap to another tree almost ten metres away. From behind he could see aura blades flying through the air, there seemed to be some sort of danger involved in moving through the air, but at least he wasn''t in a terrible situation, after what he had just been through it was safe to say that he was at least 60% less in danger. He quickly jumped from one tree to another, and indeed, as he went, he did not forget to throw sweets down from the trees behind him. Luckily for him, he loved sweets, they were small and James was never stingy with them, so throwing them was not a problem. There wasn''t much else to throw away anyway, after all, James''s inventory was full of the necessary tools of war and tonnes of crates of food. Which meant that the marshmallows were worth more than anything else in his inventory at the moment. S~ea??h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The flame spells that had begun to emerge from the trees, the pits of boiling oil that had suddenly opened up, and so much more were coming into view, and James was beginning to reach the other side of the forest. It was possible to see out of the forest, only a few more trees remained. Once he was past the danger he was able to step on the ground with ease and then sent a message to Ariel, "You go ahead and get the empress to safety just in case, I think I''ve found something, I''ll investigate and come back later." What James had found was a tribe, or rather it looked like a compound, it looked quite modern, or rather it looked like a place that was not dangerous, but James remembered the tracks he had seen, the danger could be here. When James approached the compound, he met a few people. They looked like fish and stood trembling and shaking with spears in their hands, facing James. James instantly realised that the reason for this was the holy sword Clarent in his hand, there was already a dark aura emanating from him, and on top of that, the aura of the holy sword Clarent itself was getting involved. James raised his hands in the air to show that he was empty as he raised the holy sword to his inventory and then said, "I''m here to ask a few questions, I''m not an enemy." Releasing their guard, these...fish people took a deep breath and then one of them said, "Please ask." James smiled and shook his head and then said, "Almost half an hour ago, a human was dismembered at the other end of the forest, I wonder if any of you did it." At his words, the fish people shook their heads left and right and then said, "We don''t go in the forest! The forest is dangerous! The holy beast will take our lives! We live in the water and come out occasionally, we swear!" they shouted. James strangely managed to believe these words, but he still needed more information. "And what does this holy beast look like?" he asked. "It has two claws like knives, like a praying mantis, a tail like a scorpion, wings like a hawk, and four strong legs like a lion. Very scary! Very scary!!!" replied one of the fish people. James shook his head and saw these creatures trembling with fear and felt sorry for them and asked, "Do you know where I can find this monster?" One of the fish men shook his head and pointed to the water and then said, "On the island in the middle of the water! Maybe he killed the human! It can fly and it''s very fast!" When James looked carefully, he could indeed see the small island, which was maybe 20 minutes away by swimming from land. Smiling, he thanked the fish people and then, approaching the water, he took off his simple clothes and put them into his inventory, wearing only Adamant Armour Lux. Immediately after stretching his body, he jumped into the water and started swimming. As soon as he used his dark step ability, his legs accelerated and he started to cover the distance quite quickly by paddling faster. He managed to cover the 20-minute distance in almost 10 minutes and then set foot on the island. He dried himself quickly and then put his clothes back on, then began to walk around the island with slow steps. After a short while, he was confronted by a strange sound. "QUELCH!!!" James immediately hid behind a tree and watched the open space with one eye to see where the sound was coming from. It was then that he managed to see what the fish people were talking about. It had four legs like a lion, wings like a hawk and claws, but no tail like a scorpion. This thing was a...Gryphon. It was the mythological beast herself, and it seemed to be in labour right now. James thought that this monster needed help and immediately came out from behind the tree. Although Gryphon saw him and tried to act in a very angry way, she calmed down with a word from James: "Stop!" James had shouted, for moving at the moment of labour could harm the Gryphons that would be born. "Don''t move, you have to give birth in a healthy way, I''m here," James said and then he took out a huge basin, put it in front of Gryphon and filled it with water. Even though Gryphon tried to understand what was happening, she continued the birth with great gratitude and James started to observe the surroundings to eliminate any danger. What would happen would become clear after the birth. Chapter 248 - 248: Gryphons James had indeed managed to pick up a few tracks as he looked around, but he could tell that Gryphon was not the person who had killed the human on the other side of the forest. The person who had passed through here must have been quite heavy, though it was easy to see that he was able to step lightly. [A cultivator, a rather powerful one,] suddenly came a message from Nyx. Reading this message, James shook his head, wondering why this cultivator would have come here to kill someone for no reason. The tracks were incredibly fresh...and there was no sign of them travelling outwards. With a sudden fright, James started to run towards the mother Gryphon. After a short time, he arrived at the site and saw a man standing next to the mother Gryphon. The man was gently holding the newborn baby Gryphon and just waiting. James instantly drew the holy sword Clarent from his inventory and then solidified his position to fight. "Calm down young man, I''m not stupid enough to kill my own wife," came a voice from the man opposite James. James shook his head in surprise and then asked, "Are you the one who killed the man on the other side of the forest?" He couldn''t even imagine that the person in front of him was disgusting enough to have mated with a bird, but he could at least question him about why he had come here. "Yes, but I''m not the guilty one," the man said gently. "What do you mean?" James asked curiously. "That man had a very dark soul, he was a disgusting being who had killed many people, raped many women and men, and I needed his life energy, so both humanity and us won." the man said calmly. James shook his head in bewilderment after these words and asked "What?" as if he could not understand. "There is nothing to understand young man, unlike you, that man''s soul was dark, not the darkest I have ever seen, but it was dark." the man said, and with these words, the man''s hands began to glow. James was still trying to understand what was going on when he saw a large amount of life energy coming out of the man''s hands. The life energy moved towards the mother Gryphon lying on the ground and the exhausted mother managed to stand up. "As you can see. By killing a man who had destroyed dozens of lives, I prevented harm to others and saved my wife on top of that. Young man, sometimes things seen are like illusions you wish you could see. You know what they say, not all angels are good and not all devils are evil." At the man''s words, James raised the holy sword Clarent to his inventory and then asked curiously, "Who are you, sir?" As soon as he asked this question, Mother Gryphon shone with a very bright light and turned into an incredibly beautiful woman. Mother Gryphon was so beautiful that James couldn''t help saying "Woah." "Thank you for trying to protect me, young man. However, I have a question; Why did you try to protect me even though you came here with the intention of attacking?" asked the mother Gryphon, and hearing this question, James shook his head and replied, "Enemy or not, you were giving birth, how could I harm you when even a snake would not touch someone drinking water?" After James'' words, the man holding the baby Gryphon smiled and said, "My name is Chao and this is my wife Xia. Thank you for your kind heart young man, please introduce yourself." After Chao''s words, James stood up straight with respect and then said, "My name is James, I am known as Umbra of Chaos." With these words, Chao showed the young man a place with his hand and told him to sit down. When James sat down where he was shown, Mother Gryphon Xia began to speak: "You are a climber, aren''t you? Many come here, or rather to this floor. Many of them try to train themselves in qi, and even when they pass the floor, they come back here and continue their training." At Xia''s words, James confusedly learnt that this floor was a floor that could be returned to, and then opened the message window, saying, "Please, Miss Xia, I''d like a second of your time." After sending a message to Nyx, he received a message saying, [Didn''t you know that from the 35th floor to the 40th floor, there are floors that are counted as safe areas.] S§×arch* The n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. He then closed the message window and then turned to Xia and said, "Yes ma''am, I''m a climber, forgive me I had to check something. However, I came here without any knowledge of this floor and I don''t plan to train on qi." With these words, Xia could no longer hide the surprise on her face, "Are you sure about this? Your aura is not complete, right? Or rather, even if it is complete, it is not at the highest level, I can see...you have a maximum medium level aura." James, on the other hand, even if he was happy that he had potential after this question, he thought that qi training would take a long time and said, "Even if the aura is important, it is much more important for me to climb the tower right now, ma''am. I need to get to the 75th floor as soon as possible." Xia and Chao, who were caring for the newborn puppy, stared at James as if they could no longer hide their surprise. "You shouldn''t look forward to becoming a god, young man, it''s not a good thing. Improvement is of the utmost importance on this path, an unimproved god is nothing more than a weak holy being." Chao suddenly said. Even if these words were full of wisdom, James'' desire was clear. At least for the moment. Chapter 249 - 249: Next Level of Aura "I''m aware of that too Mr Chao, I just want to get to my wife, of course, that''s not the only reason, but it''s the thought in my heart." James said suddenly and Chao, hearing these words, smiled and said, "Ah...love, is it? What a beautiful goal." With that, Chao and Xia looked at each other for a few seconds, and then something began to form in their hands. After a brief and small glow, several pieces of feathers formed on Chao''s and Xia''s hands. "These feathers belong to both of us. I can see what you have in mind, these feathers are not like the Gryphon feathered-sleeved shirt you are wearing. They are the legendary Gryphons, we are the holy beasts, there is a huge difference between the two species, like the first floor and the hundredth floor." Chao said suddenly and handed the feathers to James. While James didn''t even know what he had done to deserve these feathers, Chao frowned and then forcibly put the feathers into James'' hands. "If I were an enemy, I''m sure you would have tried to attack me, to save the child of a monster. As long as there are good-hearted people like you, this tower will continue to stand." Chao suddenly said, and then turned to his wife Xia and added, "My dear wife, please go and get some rest." With that, James realised that it was time to leave and he too stood up to make his move. At that moment, Chao stopped him and said, "Stay here for a few days, I will personally train you in qi, or rather, since you don''t want to learn qi, I will support your aura, at least you can go a long way to gain a higher level aura." As soon as James sat back down, Xia and the baby Gryphon disappeared like dust, leaving only James and Chao in the area. "We''ll have to be quick, after all, you did a good job of pointing out that there was no time," Chao said without missing a beat, and then he was right behind James. James didn''t even dare to get up from the stone chair he was sitting on. The suppressive energy coming from Chao, who was standing right behind him, was so enormous that James didn''t even dare to move. The only thing going through his mind was the sentence "If I do something wrong, I''ll die." Sear?h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Although Chao had no intention of harming him, the qi of this holy beast was telling him exactly that. It was truly a mesmerising creature. "I won''t ask you to do anything difficult, I can see that your aura is very special, and on top of that, you have a strange magical energy. In short, I will channel aura to you and you will absorb this aura. It will carry you to the next level, but it will leave you right at the door, and it is up to your ability to open that door." After these words, James realised that a huge aura energy started to enter his body without even saying anything. All the veins in his body began to expand and develop. It was as if someone was cutting his veins with his hands and placing another material there. In short, in a way, his ''humanised'' veins were turning into diamonds. This was one of the must-haves for a Final Level Completed Aura. Even if the whole body could carry the aura, the veins were like a house of aura energy, and a house would collapse if it could not carry the power inside. James could feel the heat on his face, he could feel the dirt coming off his body, it was almost the same feeling he had felt when he had first gained his magic status and had formed a magic circle many times. The only different thing was that this warmth wasn''t just from the purification. The amount of aura entering James'' body was so great that blood began to flow from his nostrils. There was a heavy pressure not only on his body but also on his brain. Even if James couldn''t absorb all the aura, he had indeed managed to absorb a good amount of aura, which was good news, after all, the more he absorbed, the easier it would be to move to the next aura level. When he took a deep breath and started to take it more seriously, everything became easier. After only 7 days of non-stop training, he had managed to gain enough aura energy to advance to the next level, and at that very moment, Chao''s help had ended. Chao was looking at James with a strangely proud expression. "You''re much more talented than I expected," Chao said. With these words, his body began to glow and then he said these words: "Come on, get in, I''ll take you wherever you want to go." James sniffed himself when he heard those words and turned his head away because of the smell, it was obvious that he needed a little time, but Chao didn''t seem to care. "We''re going to the empire in the mountains, I don''t know exactly where it is," James said, jumping on the back of Chao, who quickly changed to Gryphon form, and then they set off with Chao taking off. After a slow flight of almost two days, they made it to the capital of the empire. James instantly understood why Cordelia called her ''Empress of the Mountains''. He had seen thousands of mountains from the beginning to the end of the imperial frontier. Whether tall or short, there were many, many mountains, one after the other or surrounding each other, and settlements were built in and on the mountains. The capital city had a completely different beauty. Now that the capital was entered and everything went well, Gryphon Chao and James landed on the balcony of the huge palace in the capital. James stepped off the Gryphon Chao on which he had been sitting and was instantly confronted with astonished eyes staring at him. No one seemed to have expected a young man to ride a sacred beast. Chapter 250 - 250: Ripped Gryphon Chao''s body glowed again with a small light, and then he shifted back to his human form and looked around at the people. "Who are you here to see?" Chao asked suddenly, knowing that no one could refuse James while he was here, there was no one in this empire as powerful as he was. "Cordelia," James replied. The surrounding servants and soldiers were beginning to have a strange thought that James was calling the empress directly by her name. After all, it was well-known how strange the Empress was. Or rather, she was a rather frightening individual, ready to do anything for her people, who had even publicly executed her husband for treason. She was a great empress who lived only for her people. After only a minute, the empress came out onto the balcony of the palace, saw James and said with a smile, "Master Umbra, what good news that you are back." and started to approach James. Just then she stopped where she was covering her nose and said, "Sir...I invite you to go to the bathroom, please..." James then smiled shook his head and said "Sorry, I may have experienced a few things." with the help of the servants, he reached the bathroom of the palace. There were a few other men in the bathroom with him. Most of them, if not all of them, were smiling. It was obvious that it was not even necessary to look at them more than once to realise that the smiling ones were nobles, they were all incredibly well-groomed and quite beautiful gentlemen. The more serious-looking men had to be the bodyguards. The nobles who were preparing to come to James suddenly stopped and one of them asked, "Qi training?". James rolled his head as if surprised at the modesty of the nobles standing in front of him and then replied, "Something like that. Cordelia sort of forced me into the bath." These young men were just as surprised as the servants and soldiers outside. "I take it you are close to the Empress?" one of the nobles asked. James, after a few seconds of thought, replied, "Actually, we met about a week ago." The young nobles were even more surprised and curious, "I want to hear everything about your story." one of them said. James looked like he was going to be in the bathroom for a long time. "Should we tell him?" At Nyx''s words, all eyes turned to her. "I don''t understand how he finds people he shouldn''t," Selene complained, standing with the Titans and the others as she was very interested in the 37th floor. "We know who''s the cause of this!" shouted Gaia, her gaze fixed on her son Hyperion and looking very angry. Hyperion tried to avert his eyes from his mother. "I just want to say that I''m not guilty, why is everyone staring at me?" questioned Hyperion. "WHY?!" Phoebe suddenly shouted and with that Gaia''s voice was heard again: "That''s a strange thing to say when almost every single inhabitant of the 37th Floor worships you. On top of that, the fact that you created the sacred Gyphons in a way, right? Do you want us to talk more?" When Gaia said those words, Hyperion shut his mouth and sulked where he was, and then Nyx asked the same question again: "Should we tell him?" S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Erebus shook his head at Nyx''s question and then replied, "If Chao didn''t want to tell him, we don''t need to say anything, he''s already approaching James with a lot of interest, only time can tell what will happen." With everyone in agreement on that, it was time to move on to the next topic. Of course, the 37th floor was not the only reason Selene was here, after all the goddess of the moon could see what was going on thanks to the millions of climbers following her, anywhere she wanted. This meant that Selene was here on someone else''s orders. "We continue our search with the Aether. What we feared may have happened, Lady Nyx, we found two tears in the tower," Selene said. Hearing these words, Nyx swallowed nervously and said, "I thought we said we agreed that this danger didn''t exist...Are you saying they''ve gotten past the Supreme Dragons?" Selene shook her head at Nyx''s words and then replied, "We thought the Fallen Gods were connected to the outside, and have been for a long time, after the memories you showed me about it, I have learned the truth and after further research,h I am certain, my lady, that the Fallen Gods are summoned by holy beings from outside the tower." These words fell like a weight on the entire room. No one knew what to say. After their conversation with Chaos, Nyx and Chronos were certain that the beings outside the tower had no connection to the events inside. Unfortunately, the two were very, very wrong. Even if they didn''t know it, the white-haired woman who gave orders to the trio, who was the cause of everything that had happened since the 9th floor, everything that had happened to James, was a goddess from outside the tower. She wasn''t very powerful, but even in that state, she had enough power to stand up to a medium-grade god or goddess. The outer gods and goddesses had found a way to get inside the tower and had sent someone with enough power to be completely unnoticed. This was the mysterious white-haired woman. The people she gave orders to were nothing but low-ranking gods and goddesses. Nevertheless, this was a large organization. They had no way of knowing exactly how many there were. They had already seen with the help of Uranus that they had a 12-piece division, and it took a long time to destroy even one of them. The question was how big a threat was trying to come in from outside the tower and why these forces were targeting James. Chapter 251 - 251: Long-Life Promise to Desmond Such thoughts had managed to form in each of their minds in one way or another. They did not know exactly what was targeting James. After all, no one knew what the danger from the outside was, but one way or another James was in grave danger. They had no idea why those who were targeting James hated him and were targeting him as if they were going to kill him. "Do we have a way to close these rips?" Hyperion asked suddenly, that was the real question he wanted to know. Nyx shook her head at the question and then went into her system profile, where there was a settings tab and when she clicked on the option to contact the tower, a window popped up in front of her. Reaching into his inventory, he pulled out a knife and said the following words: "There is only one way to know." With those words, Nyx sliced her hand with a thin slash and spilt her blood into the window. After a short time, the white portal was formed and Nyx passed through it. The tower self was waiting for Nyx as expected, watching the daughter of Chaos with that ugly and frightening smile. "The Tower," Nyx said, a tone of respect in her voice. "Well, well, well. Would you look at that? The daughter of Chaos finally asked to speak to me after millions of years. To what do I owe this visit, Your Majesty?" the tower asked. Nyx smiled when she heard those words and then said, "I''m happy to see you too, brother." They were both created by Chaos, so it was quite normal for Nyx to approach her like that. The tower dropped its ugly smile at those words and said happily, "I''m glad too, sister. I haven''t seen you in a long time." "Do you know why I''m here?" Nyx asked, gesturing to the tower that she shouldn''t answer, "First of all, I want to thank you for asking for ten years of your life instead of taking James'' power from him." The tower smiled when it heard those words and said, "I had a promise to someone." and then added, "And yes, I know why you are here, it was very kind of you to send your little girl Selene and your son Aether to study me." Nyx''s mouth hung open at the words she heard from the tower self in front of her, "I had a promise to someone" was a load of bullshit in itself. "Who could you have promised?" Nyx complained. "Who else? Desmond...oh, you weren''t supposed to know that, Chaos had already erased your memories, hadn''t he?" the tower said. At those words, the tower saw Nyx''s eyes widen at the sight of the tower itself, and Nyx was surprised. "So you remember...is that it? How could you have gained your memories?" the tower self asked. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As Nyx shook her head in confusion, the tower self approached her and grabbed her by the shoulders, "Have you met Desmond? How? Where? When?" she asked one question after another. The tower self smiled and said, "The first time I met Desmond was just before his death, and he asked me to help them meet Vladimir if any of his descendants came in the future. It took me a long time to realize it was James, but eventually I did, and the boy was interesting to me, so I only asked him for ten years." With those words, Nyx took a few steps backwards and fell to the ground. The pieces were finally falling into place. James had managed to change the tower from top to bottom, quickly going through all the floors. Not since Sun Wukong had there been another person who had cleaned the tower so quickly. Not only that, even though the tower was giving James a hard time, the onlookers could see him helping him from time to time. She also put James and Ariel, who was with him, through the floor test. It was as if Nyx was watching with her naked eyes as the puzzle pieces fell into place. "Desmond....How far ahead could you have planned?" questioned Nyx, James'' ancestor...How many secrets did Desmond have? "You can discuss it with the others. It would be more important to ask the real question. After all, I won''t tell you any more. Like I said, I promised Desmond," the tower self said suddenly. Nyx realised the seriousness of the situation the moment he said those words, even though they were brothers, Nyx himself knew that the tower self was someone to be respected. "So...you know my question, is there any way to close those tears? Or a way to tell us who went through those rips?" asked Nyx, and with that, the tower self nodded, "Easy, just repair the rips with the energy of someone with a predisposition to the space element. In this case, Aether and the little girl Selene would be very good choices indeed." Nyx nodded as if she understood and prepared to leave, and just before she left she said, "I know that the only reason you told me about them wasn''t for fun, you''re too smart for that. I have things to do and they will be revealed in the future, I only hope you will eventually fight alongside us, brother." with a gentle smile from his tower self, he left through the portal that had opened behind him. The tower, left on its own, could only say, "Isn''t this a great show, Desmond? You controlling the casino while they play blackjack. Everything is going exactly as you expected, just one thing...James is something you couldn''t calculate and would you look at that, he changes everything and everyone, just like once you did." When Nyx returned, she told everyone what had happened and what she had learnt, including Selene, who had just learned everything, and the fear in everyone''s hearts grew even greater. "We knew something was targeting James if Desmond even met with the tower and made a deal, then he foresaw what was happening, we can say that Desmond is the reason James was targeted, but why? What did Desmond do that made him targeted by the outer gods and goddesses?" asked Uranus, as puzzled and curious as everyone else. Still, it was impossible to find the answer to such a question now, they would have to talk and negotiate, and a lot of preparations would have to be made before they could act. Still, it was impossible to know what the outcome would be. Chapter 252 - 252: Imperial Feast It had been almost a month since the two learned that the Empress had returned from the war and that James and Ariel were trying to get her home safely. During this time, neither Emma nor the tower itself had been given a mission, and the gods and goddesses had learnt what the mission was. In short, James and Ariel were trapped on the 37th floor and just going about their lives. After all, with the logic in their minds that they might really be stuck here, there was nothing else they could do. They could try to get on with their lives and maybe learn a few things. Ariel managed to get a little teaching about qi training from Chao, who was still with James. In short, although Ariel wasn''t going to fully engage in qi training and wouldn''t be staying on this floor to become a cultivator, she had tried to train to diversify her aura. Chao was quite excited that both James and Ariel had the same idea, normally it was quite expected that cultivators or normal aura users would grovel and beg at his feet. These two, on the other hand, acted as if they didn''t give a damn about anything. In a way, though, they really didn''t care about anything. In the process, James was trying to take his aura to the next level and Ariel was trying to complete her medium-level aura. The fact that Ariel''s aura was so powerful even when it wasn''t complete was already enough to reveal her potential. Obviously, Ariel was much more skilled at using aura. As soon as the Empress returned from the war, preparations for the feast began, in short, a victory feast was to be held, and James and Ariel were invited to this feast. After almost a month, when it was time for the feast, the two of them dressed in the best clothes they could find and attended the feast. Even though Ariel did not have a big body, she was still a very good-looking individual because of her body muscles, and because of the powers Moros had given her, her hair had changed colour, it was like a blue shifting to purple. In short, this woman, who used to have red hair, had a darker appearance. Even though the white suit she was wearing made her look like a man in a way, everyone could tell that she was perhaps the most beautiful woman they had seen recently, just by the beauty of her face. James, on the other hand, tried to choose clothes as usual and messed up because of his bad choices. Ariel, acting like a hero, had of course chosen James'' clothes. She wore a black top with silver shoulder pads that looked like they were designed with arrows and flowers. The fact that she always looked good in whatever she was wearing made it all the easier. When the duo attended the feast, they of course attracted the attention of the nobles of the empire. Many noblewomen or men came up to them to woo them, but they were always rejected. Chao kept suggesting others and saying that being with them would benefit the duo, but the duo didn''t care. "You know I''m married, right Chao? Or rather, I will be as soon as I get above the 75th floor, and Ariel is on her way to marriage," James finally complained. "No one told either of you that you could only have one husband and one wife. Polygamy is quite common, especially in this empire." Chao said in reply, but the two still didn''t care about that. "Love is an important thing, Chao. If my eyes don''t sparkle when I look at the woman I''m in love with, I''m not in love with that person, I don''t look at anyone but my mate Nemesis, it''s that simple," James said suddenly. There was no way to describe how happy these words made Nemesis who was watching them. "Welcome, my friends!" came a voice suddenly from the side of the dais. It didn''t make sense to call it a dais, Cordelia was speaking at the top of the stairs after all. James and Ariel''s attention turned to where the conversation was coming from. Cordelia raised her wine glass with a smiling face and said, "This victory was incredibly important for our empire. Not only did it allow our empire to improve our food routes, but it also allowed us to get our hands on the soul stone mines." With that shout, the room erupted in cheers, and then everyone calmed down. "On top of that, we''ve made two new friends, let me introduce you. Umbra of Chaos, the husband of Nyx''s daughter Nemesis and leader of the Church of Night, and Ariel of Chaos, who is both his knight and his mother. Thanks to these two, our empire has the protection of the sacred Gryphon, created by our god Hyperion himself." At Cordelia''s words, this time the cheering was directed at both James and Ariel, James turned to Chao and asked, "I didn''t know Hyperion created you, is that why you''re with me?" "No, I''m just interested in you, but if you''re friends with Cordelia, I''ll protect this empire." Chao replied and James smiled and said, "You''re a very strange person, it''s hard not to respect you." Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With these words, the feast seemed to have begun in full. Before moving to the ballroom, the food service and buffet service started and James and Ariel managed to get to a table with Chao next to them. One of the Empress''s daughters was at the table with them, her name was Yue and she was a very calm, mature and respectful lady. "We''re sorry you have to accompany us, young lady," Ariel suddenly said. Yue shook her head as if embarrassed and replied, "I am honoured, ma''am, thank you so much for bringing my mother here safely." Ariel smiled and turned to James, some things needed to be discussed. Chapter 253 - 253: They are Afraid of You Umbra "It''s clear that the mission is not to bring the Empress safely to the palace James, we need to find out what we''re supposed to do now," Ariel complained, they needed to find out what the mission was as soon as possible. "That''s what I''m wondering, neither Nyx nor anyone else has been able to find out what the mission is, each individual on this floor, or each group that has entered the floor as a group, is given a different mission and the missions never repeat themselves, that''s what I''ve been told," James replied. "So our task could be to harvest a piece of land or go and, I don''t know... hunt a monster?" asked Ariel curiously. "Apparently yes, that seems to be what''s going to happen," replied James, making everything strange that they had nothing to do, or rather they didn''t know what they were supposed to do. After a short meal, James took Yue with him and they went to Cordelia. Cordelia was sitting at the table at the top of the stairs with her eldest son and daughter, wondering why James had come to them, when he began to speak: "Frankly, we don''t know what we''re going to do on this floor, we''re going to search the empire for answers for a while and if we don''t get any answers we''re going to leave Cordelia." At James'' words, Cordelia looked taken aback. "I''m sure we can get to the bottom of this problem, we''ve done mission research for other climbers before, give me a few days and I can sort it all out, but for now come and sit down and have a drink with me," Cordelia said, and she was right, everyone knew that there was no way to get to any conclusion on this floor personally. Someone had to help and in this case, that help was needed. "And how exactly do you plan to do that? How exactly are you going to find my floor task for me?" asked James curiously as he sat down in one of the armchairs on the floor next to the table and waited for the answer. "It''s simple, seers. There are a lot of seers among us cultivators, even among normal people there are people born as seers. These people can look into your future for you for a certain payment. To be more precise, these seers look into the future about a subject you are focussed on, which means that you can learn the floor task." Cordelia replied. "Well, have it your way, my friend, I''ll follow," James said, and the feast continued. When the feast ended after almost three days, Cordelia summoned a few of the palace seers, and then James and Ariel came into the seers'' room. One of the seers held out his hands and said, "Please take my hand, masters." When James and Ariel did as they were told, the seer opened his mouth once and said, "Please think about what you want to know." James and Ariel closed their eyes and immediately began to think about the floor mission of the 37th floor, and after only a short time, the seer quickly withdrew his hands and began to tremble. Before the two realised what was happening, the seer had fallen to the floor and then passed out. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Cordelia and the others didn''t realise what had happened, even Chao himself was surprised. The Seer glared at James in particular before passing out, and that meant something was wrong. "Ummm...Well?" said James, he had no idea what he was supposed to say. At Cordelia''s command, the seer, who had the highest rank in the room, moved forward, albeit with trepidation, and when the same thing happened again, the seer sweatily let go of the pair''s hands and fell to the floor before he could speak, looking at James with fearful eyes. The seer did not fain but was breathing deeply and trying to understand what was happening. After a few minutes, he must have managed to regain consciousness as he shook his head and said, "What you need to do is to kill a demon, it may seem simple but it is a very powerful demon. A demon sealed within the borders of this empire on the eastern side of the continent. It may not be possible to harm the demon without Master Chao''s help. You can get help from someone else instead, of course, it''s up to you." As the two listened to these words, Cordelia''s curiosity was piqued and the beautiful woman asked, "What about the other seer, why did he faint?" Hearing this question, the seer took a deep breath and let it out and then said, "It is normal for Master Chao to be travelling with you, Master Umbra, you have a pure soul, the purest soul I have ever seen in my three thousand years of life, but..." and didn''t dare to continue. "What is it?" asked James, his curiosity piqued. "Young master...your soul is pure, but your shadow, the aura around you, everything is dark, lite DARK dark, do you understand what I mean? The people watching you...your entire lineage, I can see every one of them. How great a lineage can you be...who could be supporting you so that your entire lineage belongs to the darkness, but the soul of each of you shines with a white light?" the seer complained. "You saw my ancestors?" James asked without waiting and with the seer''s nod, Ariel''s gaze fixed on James and as James tried to avert his eyes from Ariel, he muttered, "You should be more careful." "How can I, young master Umbra? I was trying to investigate your floor mission when four people descended upon me. Two women, perhaps the most beautiful women I have ever seen, and two men, strange-looking men," the seer replied. With these words, it became clear to James who the people who appeared were. Vladimir, Vlad, Emily and Abby. "I swear we only had a quick peek," a voice churned in James'' mind as he shook his head and said, "I''m sorry about your friend, I didn''t mean to be a nuisance," and as the seers left the room, he was under the curious gaze of everyone. It looked like he had some explaining to do, especially to Ariel. Chapter 254 - 254: Limited Time Weapon Gacha "Your ancestor founded the Church of the Night, which was the main reason the great war of legend was won and the main reason for the creation of the world we came from. This is very different from what I have heard before. And why did you hide it?" Ariel questioned, the question lingering in her mind after James'' long explanation. "Because I''m being targeted. I''m responsible for what happened on the 35th floor, I''m the reason for what happened on the 5th floor. Even on the 9th floor, I fought them, you know. The only reason for this is that they are trying to attack some points of the tower, that is, places that are in Desmond''s definite use. The 5th floor was a prime example. After a---" James was about to finish when Ariel interrupted him and said, "The 5th floor is the most active floor of the Church of Night, it''s where everything makes sense. And you were in front of them. The fact that you confronted them beforehand was a warning to them, they tried to lure you to the 5th floor and you had to fight on the ice mountain." James shook his head at these words and then Ariel leaned back in the long armchair and asked, "I''m about to lose my mind, what kind of trouble have we gotten ourselves into" James must have been surprised by the plural form of the question, for he felt the need to ask, "What do you mean, ourselves?" Ariel looked at him as soon as she heard this question and said with a strange expression, "We''re in this together, James. We will move forward together, as a family, if we die, we die together, if we live, we live together." James didn''t know what to feel when he heard those words, he already cared a lot for Ariel, whom he considered a mother, I guess he had to smile. "I don''t even know what I''m going to do with you," James said playfully and Ariel smiled and replied, "Simple, you''ll love me and our future family, silly question." then she made the sign of three with her hand and said, "Wake me up in three hours." and she rolled over and fell asleep in a short time. James was overflowing with the happiness of finally being free and finally having time to open the gacha panel. On the 25th floor, he had indeed killed quite a lot of monsters. As soon as he opened the gacha panel, he looked at the dialling rights and saw that he had exactly 18760 dialling rights. Limited-time events seemed to have appeared on the gacha panel again. "Just one?" questioned James, he was so used to seeing at least two of the limited-time gacha events that he couldn''t help but be surprised to see one extra panel. The panel in front of him looked like a limited-time event devoted solely to weapons. As usual, it seemed to demand 1000 usage rights per 10 turns. This meant that James had the right to press the ten-turn button exactly 18 times. The problem was that James already had two powerful weapons in his hands. After all, a replica of the holy sword Clarent and Selene''s Throwing Knife would be the best two weapons he could wish for right now. The Holy Sword Clarent was a very light sword that felt like a feather, and Selene''s Throwing Knife was not very thin, but not thick, and could pierce opponents like a needle. James had Desmond''s Art of the Sword, which gave him the advantage of having learnt to channel aura and magic into both of his weapons in style. That was the problem, should he turn this wheel when he had these weapons? He was suddenly confronted with a message [I don''t think you need to think too hard James.], the message was coming from Nemesis. "I beg your pardon?" muttered James. S§×arch* The novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [You will need more weapons in the future, both for your subordinates and for personal use.] James shook his head at Nemesis''s message and then realised that his beloved wife was right. He took a deep breath and pressed the ten-spin button and the wheel on the panel spun, spinning several times over cards that showed no colour at all. After only a short period, a stack of cards stood in front of James. "Looks like we''re back to the old system," James said suddenly and touched the deck of cards. As soon as the deck was opened, cards of different colours were laid out in front of James. The fact that he only saw cards in green and blue colours made everything strange. He had not come across a single purple card, that is, a card with an unusual or higher rank. When he had turned over all the cards and received his rewards, he found that he had been gifted trap systems large and small, and although they were low-grade cards, they were not bad rewards. When he pressed the button for the next ten, the wheel on the panel spun again and the same thing happened again, except this time there was a purple card in the deck. Turning over the purple card without waiting, he smiled and said, "Hah...I found a weapon for Sylvia." [Shadow Dagger(Unusual++) Forged from shadow sap and fine-grade silver, this dagger is made for assassins who embrace the shadow. Forged by the great blacksmith Dumgrith. 100% increase in attack power against light elemental monsters. When equipped, the user''s speed will increase by 50%. When equipped, the user will gain the ''sneaky'' ability. When equipped, the user will gain the ''instinct'' ability]. [Sneaky(Unusual-) When using the ability, the user''s presence will be erased for 5 seconds, making them impossible to find unless a special search spell is cast in the area]. [Instinct(Unusual++) The user will passively have the urge to sense danger coming at them more easily. One of the best skills for hiding, the heart of espionage]. It was quite pleasing that this item was good, but there were still 16000 rolls to spend, just hoping for something good. Chapter 255 - 255: Go Up Clarent (1) After almost an hour of gacha time, James had managed to win some pretty good stuff. He pressed the ten-turn button exactly 18 times and managed to earn three Legendary-Grade, one Unique-Grade and one Unusual-Grade equipment. [Bow of the Endless (Legendary++) It is said that the maker of this bow obtained an extract from the cosmic goddesses. The strings of the bow are made from the precious webs of ancient spiders. It is safe to say that the only being who can fully damage this bow is the creator himself. When the bow is equipped, the user will experience a 20% increase in strength. When equipped, the user will gain 100% vision. When equipped, the user will gain a 50% increase in agility. When armed, the user''s hearing will increase by 250 per cent. Equipping the bow will grant the user the ability to ''hyper-shoot'']. The first item was a bow, it was actually one of the things James wanted to have, after all, he had recently acquired a skill called ''Beginner Level Moon Archery'' and needed a bow to improve on it. The bow looked like it was made of stars. It had a constantly moving picture as if a galaxy was loaded on the bow. The strings were white, almost transparent. When James put the bow in his inventory, he moved on to the next item: [Staff of the Unknown(Legendary++++) One of the four supreme wands that supreme wizards dream of acquiring. There may be hundreds of them hidden in the tower, but only two have ever been found. A priceless weapon in every sense of the word. S~ea??h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When the user casts spells with this stuff, the magic damage will increase by 350%. When the staff is equipped, the user''s magic stat will increase by 1000. When the staff is equipped, the user''s mana loss will decrease by 50%]. James was going to use this wand especially, he never thought of selling it. After all, the words ''wand equipped'' were within the properties of this weapon. This meant that James didn''t even need to use the staff, he could keep it on his body with the help of an item and still receive the passive effects. Indeed, the staff was a priceless weapon, as it was written in the description. Placing the staff at the top of his inventory, right where the holy sword Clarent and Selene''s Throwing Knife were, he glanced at the last three remaining items: [Weapon Evolution Stone(Legendary+++++) ----] When James picked up the stone called the weapon evolution stone and looked at its properties, he did not see anything and looked around in a very confused way. "Emma, are you playing a joke on me or something?" James suddenly asked. When he received the answer [No, sir.], he prepared to put the stone in his inventory and at that very moment he saw a message from someone he never expected to see: [You must engrave this stone into the holy sword Clarent. Change Clarent, make the holy sword yours, turn it into your imagination.] James stood where he was for a few seconds and then shouted in surprise, "Holy fucking shit?! King Arthur?" he shouted. Ariel woke up with great anxiety after this shout and looked at James. "WHAT''S HAPPENING?!" Ariel suddenly shouted. "I just got a message from King Arthur," James said in disbelief as he looked at Ariel. As if refusing to believe what he was hearing, Ariel put his ear close to James and asked, "What did you say?" When James repeated himself, Ariel stared at James with her eyes wide open. "Aaah...what did he say? I mean, the king, what did he say?" Ariel asked, puzzled. "He said to apply the stone I just won to the holy sword Clarent," James replied, and with that, a quest window opened in front of him: [Make It Yours(Godly+++++) Anyone can possess this stone, but they will never encounter a sword perfect enough to wield it. Your task is to use this stone on the holy sword Clarent and finally create a sword worthy of you. The sword has a soul, let the soul itself serve you fully. Swords are the third limb of swordsmiths. The perfect robe to cut down enemies and the most valued companion. Transform the Holy Sword Clarent. Mission Reward Godly-Grade Spirit Sword Mission Punishment: Destruction of the Holy Sword Clarent]. When James had finished reading the mission window that had suddenly appeared in front of him, he squinted his eyes and could not understand how he was supposed to do such a mission. "Is King Arthur the one who gave me this mission?" James suddenly asked. [Yes, sir, King Arthur gave you this mission by exhausting his spiritual energy,] was the reply, and he realised that there was nothing more he could do. He did not want the holy sword Clarent, this comrade sword that had been with him from the beginning, to be destroyed. When he opened his inventory and took out the holy sword, James uttered these words: "My precious sword Clarent, you are a replica, but finally, the chance has come, if you want, you can turn into a perfect being, you have been my companion since the beginning of this path." As he uttered these words, the holy sword Clarent started to tremble, it was as if that self, that spirit inside the sword was getting excited. James smiled and then took the Weapon Evolution Stone in his hand and brought it closer to the holy sword Clarent, just then another window opened in front of him: [Do you want to use the Weapon Evolution Stone for Clarent (Replica-Legendary)? YES/NO] James smiled as he looked at the two options and said with great hope, "I hope it works, we will go to the top floor of the tower together, my precious sword." At that moment, he pressed ''yes'' and the room began to shine with an incredibly bright light. What would happen was up to Clarent himself, who was a spirit from that moment on. Chapter 256 - 256: Go Up Clarent (2) A white space was laid out. There was nothing around but a mirror. In the mirror stood a person with white hair, and white eyes, who seemed to be between 10-15 years old. When this person touched his face, he managed to realise what was happening. This holy sword was Clarent''s soul, and the mirror in front of him was none other than the Weapon Evolution Stone. "You finally woke up, weakling." the image in the mirror suddenly said. The holy sword suddenly fell to the ground as Clarent''s soul tried to understand what was going on and noticed the shattered soul fragments around. Each of these soul fragments belonged to Clarent himself. Clarent, who hadn''t even thought that he had a gender, learnt what he looked like because of the Weapon Evolution Stone, and immediately afterwards, his soul began to crumble into pieces. Even if Clarent tried to speak, nothing happened. Even if he had knowledge of his personality and gained a gender, Clarent was still a sword, like a child who didn''t even know how to speak even though he had a soul. "There is nothing you can do. You will die, you will be thrown aside before you even see an enemy, you are nothing but a piece of rubbish." the reflection in the mirror suddenly said, it would be more accurate to say that it seemed to be another person than a reflection. Clarent could see that one of his eyes was no longer in place when he heard these words by looking at the mirror in front of him. He could see his reflection, but he could see that the person he had seen as his own was now someone else. It was as if Clarent''s soul kept breaking into pieces every time this person said something. Sear?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "You are weak. You are like a little child. After all, you are a replica, you can never become the real thing." said the person in the mirror. However, he really thought he would fail, the fact that he had been standing in this place for almost ten minutes made everything more strange, he had to be careful, he had to speed up. He had to find some sign of how to evolve if he didn''t want to be destroyed. "An idiot who doesn''t even know what to do! You have a soul only because you are a replica, nothing more than a shadow of the true holy sword Clarent. A disgrace! A holy sword that took the life of its previous master and will be of no use to its current master in the future!" As the person in the mirror said these words, Clarent saw his left arm fall to the ground in pieces. It was obvious that the spirit of the holy sword was frightened, and he dreamt of passing this test with ease and returning to his master. Amid all these thoughts and when despair began to overtake him, Vlad''s words began to come to his mind. The spirit of the holy sword was experiencing a flashback: "It doesn''t matter that you are a replica, you have a soul, don''t forget that." These words of Vlad were enough to show his importance. "Remember the blood spilt on you, the hearts you pierced, the monsters you made cry, the beings you left for dead and the gods you managed to kill! Remember every one of them! Remember all those souls you cut down, all those souls that rushed forward relentlessly to take your master''s life. Come and make your master proud." These words signalled their success. "If you do these things, one day you will cease to be a replica, your name will no longer be Clarent, but your personality, your image and your consciousness. You will do nothing but be loyal to your master instead of what you remember in your original body." These words represented what he could achieve. Clarent was well aware that he was a replica. Even as his soul began to crumble, he was not defeated, he was not dead, he could still come to himself and thrive. He struggled with difficulty and managed to stand on one leg with the help of his right arm, the man who did not even have a face when he faced the person in the mirror suddenly had the image of Clarent and Clarent himself spoke at that moment: "I''m weak, I know that I''m a replica, I know that, but I still want to serve my master, I know I caused the death of my old master, but no one can hold me but my new master. I must be the only weapon that can save his life." Clarent''s spirit began to shine with his words. "Yet you are weak, how useful can you be?" Clarent''s reflection in the mirror asked. Clarent himself, after taking a deep breath, looked at the mirror seriously and then replied, "Until my master becomes the god of gods." The eyes of the image in the mirror widened. "Then shine, shine as no sword has ever shone, shine before your master in the centre of this dark future, shine with such a high light that the eyes of your enemies will be blinded and the souls of your friends will be filled with courage." said the image in the mirror and with that Clarent''s leg and arm were restored. "COME ON CLARENT!" he heard the holy sword itself shout, and the fact that James had not given up on him seemed to give him greater courage. He looked in the mirror again and saw his white hair and eyes shining with an incredible light. "Embrace your name then, donate the brilliance of your soul to your master, cut down and overtake every enemy that attacks your master, tear to pieces all who aim at your master''s life. Awaken and grow, sharpen your sharpness and shine, shine brighter than ever." Clarent''s body began to grow the moment he heard these words. His spirit shone and faded with perfect determination as if he was waking up from the place he was in. The holy sword Clarent was standing in the air in front of James, its appearance was incredibly beautiful, and its form began to change. The holy sword Clarent began to shine in front of its master, James, in this event that everyone was looking forward to, a system notification was formed in front of James that made him smile: [Make It Yours(Godly+++++) mission completed!] The holy sword Clarent had successfully evolved through this painful process. Chapter 257 - 257: Godly Sword Lumen [Make It Yours(Godly+++++) mission completed!] [Holy Sword Clarent has completed its evolution!] [Holy Sword Clarent ---> has evolved into Godly Sword Lumen!] [Godly Sword Lumen(Godly+++++) Long ago, he had become a replica, having taken the life of his former master. Now, using the opportunity given to him by his new master, he had earned the name Lumen. With the name Lumen representing the brilliance of a star, he is ready to light the dark path his master walked to the end and is on guard to send enemies to the depths of hell. Provides a 30% damage bonus to slashes. Provides an 80% damage bonus to piercing blows. Fatal blows have a 5% chance of success. The user gains the ''Soul Impact'' ability. When the user uses Godly Sword Lumen, their control over aura increases by 100%. The user''s stamina loss is reduced by 50%. Provides 100 Power stat points to the user. Provides 100 Agility stat points to the user. Provides 100 Endurance stat points to the user. Provides 100 Intelligence stat points to the user. Provides 100 Charisma stat points to the user]. James read the system windows that formed one after the other in front of him and stared at the Godly Sword Clarent, formerly known as the Holy Sword Clarent, and now known as the Godly Sword Lumen with his eyes wide open. The appearance of the Godly Sword was incredible. It was a snow-white sword, its hilt had the family mark of the person who held it, the incredible dark moon mark of the Church of the Night. It was a very thin sword, and it looked like it could be sold for billions of gold just for its appearance. The hilt of the sword was turned towards James as if the Godly Sword Lumen itself wanted its master to hold it. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James reached for the hilt with great excitement and then heard a voice in his mind: "It is a great honour to serve you, my dear Lord!" With that James grabbed the hilt and raised the sword with a smile, at that moment his whole body trembled, the effect the Godly Sword Lumen had on him was so great that it took James a few seconds to recover his balance. James was smiling, he was really happy, he hadn''t lost his long-time companion, the holy sword Clarent, and he had gained something even more powerful. "Lumen!" James said cautiously and then stepped out onto the balcony, holding it up to the moonlight in the darkened air. Together we will illuminate the future of the tower, my starlight." He said, reaching for his inventory and pulling out the [Sword Scabbard of the Unknown] item. He inserted the Godly Sword Lumen into the scabbard. "It fits perfectly," James said as if fate had waited for the Godly Sword Lumen''s presence, as if this scabbard was made for James'' sword and not Desmond''s, perhaps they both used a sword of the same size and sharpness. Whatever it was, it was over and done with, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown happily welcomed its new friend and James was gifted with the most powerful weapon he could ever possess. Nemesis, James'' beloved wife, sent a message [How are you feeling?] At that moment, James had the Scabbard of the Unknown tied around his waist and was busy holding the hilt of his new sword, the Godly Sword Lumen. "Refurbished," James replied, he could feel his whole soul glowing. [I''m so happy for you...It''s a good idea to listen to your wife sometimes, isn''t it?] Nemesis sent another message. James smiled when he saw this message and then replied, "How many times would I have died and how many opportunities would have slipped away without you, my beloved and my wife?" After these words, he was going to continue talking when a completely different system window opened in front of him: [Soul Impact(Godly++++) An ability created entirely in the name of the Godly Sword Lumen! It was created for the purpose and desire to protect his beloved master until the end of existence and to cut through his enemies! The user must use the ability in its entirety, combining aura and magic, the ability is one of a kind. When the ability is used, the ripping damage will increase by 100%. When the ability is used, the user''s power will increase by 100% for five seconds]. James smiled after seeing the ability in front of him and said, "Well done, Lumen." He turned back to his wife Nemesis'' message and added, "Thank you, my dear." With that, his gaze instantly turned to Ariel, who was standing where she was with her mouth open, and then asked, "What do you say, shall we go hunt that demon?" Ariel didn''t know what to say, the old woman''s eyes lit up and a sudden laugh echoed throughout the room: "PUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Ariel''s laughter continued for exactly 20 seconds, and when it finally ended, she said, "Okay, we can hit the road." As soon as Ariel said this, the two left the room, of course, Chao was following them, and Chao''s interest was increasing more and more. James hadn''t even bothered to look at the last two items he''d won and shoved them into his inventory, wishing to see what he could do with the Godly Sword Lumen as soon as possible. Cordelia and the others had rushed to James and Ariel''s side as soon as they had learnt that James and Ariel were leaving, and each of them was practically overwhelmed by the aura coming from James. "What''s going on?" Cordelia suddenly muttered, feeling like her soul was being crushed. Hearing this question, Chao turned to James with a smile and then said, "That new sword of yours has increased your power to a gigantic size, James, it would be good to suppress your power a little." When James did what Chao said next to him, Cordelia and the others managed to breathe comfortably and James'' voice was heard at that moment: "Cordelia, we''ll pay you a visit before we go to the next floor, don''t worry." With those words, Chao transformed back into his holy Gryphon form and James and Ariel jumped on his back. The journey to hunt the demon began at that moment. Chapter 258 - 258: Into the Dirty Mana The foothills had been crossed, and the northernmost part of the empire, the clearing, had been reached. James and Ariel sitting on his back, could see the scene before them. It was instantly clear what the Oracle was talking about, it was a frightening sight indeed. For almost two hundred metres there were only dead and decayed bodies of men, animals and monsters. This area had turned into a desert. The vultures sitting in the dead trees around were watching the trio with ever-changing pupils. When Chao descended to the ground, James and Ariel got off his back and the old holy Gryphon Chao returned to his human form. "Be careful, even if you are strong, the dirty mana around you is enormous," Chao warned, instantly protecting the duo. James and Ariel were surprised by these words, they had not even traced the dirty mana, and they could not even feel a small part of it. "What dirty mana?" James asked, and with that, an unexpected but incredibly frightening sentence was heard from Chao: "The area of influence is so huge that it may have already covered the entire empire, even I barely realise it, but it''s at an incredible level." Both James and Ariel became as cautious as they could be as Chao''s seriousness about his words became apparent. James took out the Lumen from his inventory and began to hold it with one hand, he also made sure to take out Selene''s Throwing Knife from his inventory just in case, he might not be untouchable with these weapons, but it was clear that he was at the maximum side of his power right now. It was evening weather, close to dark, but the sun had not yet set, in short, a red sky was waiting for unknown dangers. The trio continued to move forward cautiously. It was strange to see more than a dozen vultures flying in the air just above them, strangely frightening them, or rather it would be more accurate to say that instead of fear, a deep apprehension gripped their hearts. James could sense that something was wrong, and he wasn''t the only one. Both Ariel and Chao, like James, could sense that something was wrong. Something...or rather, something was watching them. While all these sensations were increasing, James suddenly felt all the hairs on his body standing up and instinctively activated the time element. He ran to the place where he felt the danger, that is, immediately to where Chao and Ariel were, and within a second he managed to transfer his aura to his sword Lumen. He attacked the incoming blow with the glowing sword, and at that very moment, the one second from the time element ended. "SHING!!!" James seemed to have cut a huge fly. The fly had claws and a big nose. While Chao and Ariel were trying to figure out what was going on, James immediately started drawing some runes on the ground. He quickly began to cover them with a medium-sized rune shield with his Arcana spell, and then muttered under his breath, "What''s going on?" He had plenty of mana to use the time elemental, indeed he could have used the spell that gave him this one-second effect at least fifty or sixty times, but now he was out of breath. "Watch out, there is a weakening spell set!" Chao suddenly shouted, and everything became clear. There were different types of debuff spells, the least used being something called "Ignorant Spell", which was used to restrict the spell. This spell was used to shut down the stores of climbers with larger stores of mana. This meant that the mana James used for the time elemental was not the mana around his heart, but the mana already spread throughout his body. That was why he was tired. Using the rune spell did not tire him because the arcana energy used for the rune spell was very different from normal mana. This meant that whoever had cast the debuff spell must have been directly afraid of mages, which was a good thing, because if they managed to destroy the place where the debuff spell was, James would have a huge advantage. Still, the group was lucky. Both Chao, Ariel, and James had a better ability with aura. As a result, they would have every opportunity to protect themselves and attack. "Are you all right, James?" asked Ariel. James nodded his head in agreement, it was obvious that the rune magic wasn''t going to last long, not only the personal magic but the magic spread around had become quite weak. That explained why there was a huge amount of dirty mana around, as Chao had said. At this moment, there was a value of dirty mana scattered around that could cover even the farthest reaches of the empire. As soon as the rune shield was broken, the trio were able to sense exactly what was coming towards them. Each of them lunged forward and began slashing at the monsters one by one with tiny but effective moves. Chao was using his clawed hands, Ariel was using her blades covered with a thin layer of aura, and James was swinging the Godly Sword Lumen in his right hand while constantly throwing Selene''s Throwing Knife around. It was obvious that such weak monsters were unlikely to put up much of a fight as if they were insects sent to tire out the trio. These fly monsters were insectoids after all. Nevertheless, it was still a matter of going on the offensive. It could be seen with the naked eyes where these fly monsters came from, and with each step, the dirty mana became more and more obvious, and James and Ariel began to feel this dirty mana little by little. I think they were approaching the centre of this dirty mana. The vultures were eating the monster corpses left behind. As the different kinds of monsters came at the group, more and more bodies were left behind, but there was no sign that the group was getting tired. They were maybe a hundred metres from the centre of the dirty mana. They could see everything with the naked eye. They could easily see several monsters in the centre of the dirty mana. The trio started to walk cautiously towards the mana. When they looked carefully at the monsters around the centre of the dirty mana, James shook his head left and right and then said, "Demons? I thought they were friends." Suddenly James saw a message [These don''t belong in our heaven or hell, look at the shape of their wings]. The fact that this message was coming from Lucifer himself was confirmation enough for him. He instantly covered his body with his aura and attacked without a second thought. Even though Chao and Ariel were surprised by the sudden attack, they had another job on their hands rather than helping James. They seemed to be surrounded by a truly enormous horde of monsters. Among them were monsters that could be found on the upper floors of the tower, such as night dragons, infernal imps, and black knights of destruction. It was obvious that the unclean mana had attracted such a dangerous group, and this was why the unclean mana was here. The thing inside the dirty mana, the person who created this mana was the demon itself, and it was in a sealed form, and the fact that the dirty mana was so scattered had only one meaning: [The demon''s seal was about to be broken.] As James lunged forward, he enveloped Selene''s Throwing Knife in his aura and then threw it at the demon, which immediately started running towards him. The blade sliced right through the demon''s throat and the demon instantly fell to the ground and died. Exactly eleven more demons were around the centre of the unclean mana. James instantly covered Lumen with his aura, he had so many abilities he wanted to use, but he couldn''t use any of them because his mana was blocked. The only thing he could do now would be to use aura-linked attacks. The aura covering his sword instantly began to burn. 8 Sacred Fire might have been a spell, but it was an elemental that merged with the body, it was the main elemental itself. It was precisely for this reason that this element was able to burn itself as it had done in the duel in the arena in the first place. Merging with the aura was nothing more than a piece of cake for these eight living flames. Suddenly the flame roared, the heat reaching almost four hundred metres. James'' aura had reached such a great distance thanks to the aura training he had received from Chao. Even the demons and monsters around couldn''t help but be amazed as they burned alive, each monster seeming to recognise the dead lands covered in black and azure flames as hell. Even the demons guarding the centre of the tainted mana were stunned for a second. Until James appeared in front of one of them. "SLASH!!!" A sudden slashing sound seemed to wake the demons from their reverie. As another demon''s head fell to the ground, the remaining ten instantly realised that they had to fight together. The seal was so close to being broken, that the main battle hadn''t even begun. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chapter 259 - 259: One Shotting This land, which had turned into hell by being engulfed in black and azure flames, looked frightening. Even distant human cultivators had begun to gather in the area, realising the war that was taking place. Seeing Chao tell each of them that they had to join the war and seeing the holy Gryphon was enough for each of them. The group had grown from just three people to a massive group with over a hundred cultivators joining them. Ariel started giving orders to the cultivators on the right flank, and the rest followed Chao and started fighting, especially in the area where the imp was. James began to attack the ten remaining demons at that moment. With each swing of his sword, he cut the demons'' spells and jumped to the next demon. When his sword thinned the aura on Lumen even more, he managed to cut the heads of the next 8 demons one after the other in almost five seconds. When the last remaining demon saw this, it started running towards the centre of the dirty mana, where the seal was. James immediately ran after him and in a short time, just before the demon touched the centre of the unclean mana, he managed to stab the Lumen into its back. The demon fell to the ground pushing and James, thinking it was dead, ran to help the others. After almost five seconds he became aware of a huge aura rising behind him. His whole body trembled as if he had never seen such a dirty aura. When he turned around and looked at the source of this problem, his eyes widened. It seemed that the demon was not dead, it was still alive even though James had ripped his heart out of his back, and with the blood on his hands, he lay on the seal where the unclean mana was collected and suddenly died on the spot. This released the person that the unclean mana had kept inside. He was about the same size as James. He was maybe one metre and eighty-five centimetres tall, he was quite thin, maybe forty or fifty kilograms at that size. His pupils were jet black, no other colour was visible where his eyes were. He had a pair of crimson horns sticking out of his head. His hair was jet black and bare, and it was obvious that he had no sex. Just looking at this demon was enough to pin James in place, it was clear that there was no longer a huge power differential between them. The only reason James stayed where he was was because the sight of the demon was chilling. Chao, like everyone else, sensed this dirty aura and immediately came to James'' side, looking at this "monster" with a very strange expression. Chao stepped in front of James to protect him and signalled him to stay back with his hand. Chao was much stronger than this monster, but the fact that he did not know what this monster demon could do made everything dangerous. "I can help," James said. "I''m aware of that too, stand back a little and watch his attack scheme, there''s no way he''s physically stronger than me, but...that dirty aura will overwhelm me, try to come up with a solution," Chao said in reply and with that James immediately jumped backwards and waited. Both of Chao''s hands had turned into claws, it was clear that he was going to put up a serious fight. This holy Gryphon Chao had more qi than any power centre in the entire empire, a powerful being indeed. However, this demon in front of him was very dangerous, he could suppress Chao''s qi just by emitting a dirty aura. At that very moment, the duel between the two began. Both Chao and the demon began to clash with each other. Both of their hands were like claws, or rather, the sharpness of the demon''s nails made them look like claws. However, it was clear that the demon''s body was not very strong, some of its nails were already torn apart. It was at that moment that James thought of something. "Ariel, Chao, listen to me carefully. Chao, try to take the demon somewhere beyond, Ariel and I will try to break the weakening spell together, the seal must be in the pieces." James said. With the help of the void pen, he transferred these words to the duo and it started to happen exactly as he wanted. Chao began to push the demon away from the area with harder blows. In just a minute, these two beings transformed with each other and managed to move almost four hundred metres away from the battlefield. James and Ariel immediately approached the dirty mana seal from which the demon had emerged. Their bodies were numb. The centre of the dirty mana was in such a terrible state that Ariel herself was trying her best not to vomit. James was getting incredibly dizzy. Nevertheless, the two of them managed to get quite close to the dirty mana seal. When they looked inside the seal, they saw that a flower covered with a rune was inside. Ariel was about to take the flower when James stopped her and shook his head left and right. He seemed to instantly recognise the runes on the flower. In this way, he was able to produce a solution instantly. Carefully, he reached into his inventory and pulled out a shovel to take the soil where the flower had been planted with the flower. Ariel looked at James as if she didn''t understand what was going on, and James spoke at that moment: "These runes are explosive runes, one wrong move and we can say goodbye to the north of the empire, even the south of the empire will be affected by this explosion when dirty mana is spread so much." With these words, James carefully stuck the shovel within fifteen centimetres of the flower. He started to lift the soil, albeit slowly. The fact that he was out of breath while doing this explained how dangerous it was. He lifted the soil, albeit slowly, and managed to take the flower with its roots. She was about to put the flower on the shovel into the container she had taken out of Ariel''s inventory when suddenly the ground shook incredibly. "BOOOOOM!!!" A huge explosion rang out in the distance, revealing the seriousness of the battle between Chao and the demon. The shovel in James'' hand was incredibly shaken and the earth almost fell to the ground. If Ariel hadn''t grabbed James at the last moment to keep him from falling, the two of them and everyone else in the area would be dead. "Careful, you idiot!" Ariel muttered, and then brought the container closer to the shovel and managed to place the flower covered in runes into the container. Instantly, James had the container in his inventory, and with it, the dirty mana began to dissipate a little. Such a massively dirty mana would not disappear immediately, but at least there was no longer anything to support it. This meant that the flower itself was the only thing that had created the tainted mana and cast the weakening spell. James could feel his power returning to his body. He could feel the mana...the magic itself. He could feel his whole body trembling with excitement. He closed his eyes and inhaled the air deeply into his lungs, he could barely feel the dirty mana now, all his energy was restored. "I''ll leave this place to you, Ariel," James said suddenly, and without waiting for an answer, he started running towards the area where Chao and the demon were fighting. He was getting faster and faster with each step. There was no accounting for the effect that the status points he had gained thanks to the Lumen had added to him. Quickly and carefully, he covered a distance of half a kilometre in almost half a minute, and with that, he could see the fighting duo. With each clash of the duo, the sky rumbled angrily as fists and claws clashed with each other, a deep, thick sound that was heard throughout the sky. James instantly began to gather his aura and mana on the Godly Sword Lumen, wanting to try out his newly acquired ability, which seemed to have been weakened by the destruction of the spell where the demon seal had been. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This meant that James could kill him. After a brief moment, he chanted "Soul Impact" and then activated his other spell, "Pierce". He instantly used this single attack from Desmond''s Swordsmanship, and as Chao threw the demon back, an attack of jet-black flames almost a metre wide began to advance. Reaching a speed that didn''t even last a second, James'' attack hit the demon''s upper right torso. "BOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!" It was as if an atomic bomb had exploded. James was amazed by the power of the soul impact spell he had used. In a word, it was a perfect attack. Chao smiled at the success of the attack and retreated a few tens of metres. When the cloud of smoke disappeared, the demon was visible again. Due to the impact of the attack, the demon''s right arm was completely separated from its body. Even if the demon''s upper right region was healed, his arm was not. The demon''s arm, which had fallen to the earth, was burnt to ashes in just a few seconds in black flames. There was nothing more ironic than a demon being so damaged by fire. Chapter 260 - 260: The Bell of Hypnos Saves the Day James instantly lunged forward. Using his dark stepping ability, he managed to cover a good distance and instantly appeared in front of the demon. He made a move to thrust his sword Lumen at the demon, but the demon''s other claw blocked his move. It was incredible that even a sword like Lumen could be blocked so easily, showing the extent of the demon''s power. S§×arch* The NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Still, no one was perfect, unless there was a being as superior as the creator, even the most powerful being would have a way to die. At that very moment, Chao appeared behind the demon, his claw glowing. Maybe that''s what Qi was all about, maybe that''s why everyone had worked so long to get this miraculous power, but neither James nor the demon cared. Just as Chao was making his move, a huge dirty aura was released. James and Chao were literally being pushed by this dirty aura, and Chao suddenly grabbed James and started running because of the huge sense of danger. In just two or three seconds, the sound of a huge explosion rose into the sky: "BOOOOOOM!!!!" The area was enclosed in a big circle and a huge crater was formed in just a second. There was not even a cloud of smoke, it was as if this circle, which covered almost two hundred metres, had suddenly erased the existence of everything in the area. It was an incredible sight in every sense of the word. It was as if the demon inside the crater had evolved, James could see it very clearly. Just a minute ago, this demon, which looked skinny and evil, suddenly had a healthy body, even if it was not muscular. All the demon''s wounds, including his arm, seemed to have healed. "Second Boss Phase? Are you shitting me?" James suddenly said. With these words, he felt the dirty aura starting to come towards him, which seemed to mean that the demon was going to make its move. James suddenly raised the Godly Sword Lumen to guard and suddenly a blow landed right in the centre of the sword. James was sent flying backwards for several tens of metres after the blow to his sword and literally bounced on the ground like a stone skipping on water. He instantly realised that the blow had broken his right hand, the hand holding the Lumen. The demon''s power level had suddenly increased to a gigantic level, even the dirty aura was at a level that could drown people, James was lucky, if his aura had not been this high, he would probably have drowned in this dirty aura. "Be careful James! It''s not a normal demon, I just remembered, it''s an Ancient Demon." Vladimir suddenly said. James shook his head at these words churning in his mind and then said, "First the Ancient Giant, now the Ancient Demon. I thought these monsters were killed by Erebus, he couldn''t do a job properly!!!" he shouted. After that, he reached for his inventory and immediately took out a health potion and drank it. It was possible to see that his life energy was quite damaged due to the blow he received. It was possible to see that his wrist started to recover a little bit after he swallowed the health potion. "Do ancient demons have a weakness?" James suddenly asked, and immediately a message window opened in front of him: [They have a weakness in the element of time and the element of darkness. Even if fire damages them, you don''t have enough mana to kill it, you can try with aura, but I don''t know if you can kill it unless you use everything you have right now]. After reading what was written in the message window, James nodded his head in understanding and then smiled and said "What about The Bell of Hypnos? Can this item put him to sleep?" he asked. With these words, every single person watching him smiled and understood James'' evil plan. [It doesn''t put you to sleep, but it slows you down incredibly, The Bell of Hypnos is a cursed item in a way. The sleeping curse itself.] James smiled as this answer came from Chronos himself, and then he was on the move. Chao was preparing to follow James, who had suddenly passed by him, when he suddenly heard this young man''s voice again in his mind, right in his mind. "I''m going to use an item that can affect even some gods and holy beasts, at least don''t come within three hundred metres, Chao." With these words, James continued to use his dark step ability and finally managed to get to the place where the ''ancient'' demon was. The ancient demon looked at this young man who still dared to stand in front of him in astonishment, and his interest was instantly dissipated. James had literally no clothes left on. James had put his Void items in his inventory just in case, and his Griffon Feather Sleeved Shirt had been shredded while fighting the demon. He was using only the legendary item Epsilon, which he wore as a buckle, the rings he received from Archangel Michael and Fallen Angel Lucifer, the Sword Scabbard of the Unknown, and finally the Adamant armour Lux. In short, he had lost a very valuable item, but at least not everything had been destroyed. "Vile beings. You used to grovel at our feet and lick our feet just to get a few favours from us, now you are so laboured and brazen that you can stand in front of me." the Ancient Demon suddenly said. Even if James was angry at these words, he had a plan, he had to get close to the item he was going to use for it to work quite well. Waiting for just the right moment, he suddenly pulled out The Bell of Hypnos from his inventory and then instantly put the item into use, rushing towards the Ancient Demon. [3...] [2.....] [1....] As soon as the three-second waiting time expired, an incredible energy spread around. The Ancient Demon didn''t realise what was happening, he instantly fell to his knees, he could hardly keep his eyes closed, he was still conscious, but it was as if all the speed status points in his body had disappeared. As soon as James saw this situation, he grabbed Lumen tightly with his left hand and then made a move on the Ancient Demon. Before the Godly Sword Lumen hit the Ancient Demon in front of him, the demon managed to dodge and was able to stand up enough to come to him. James, on the other hand, had activated his time element at that very moment and then charged forward, filling his sword with aura and magic. The Godly Sword Lumen suddenly sliced through the ancient demon''s abdomen. When the second from the time element ended, the Ancient Demon fell face down on the ground and looked at James with fear. With a smile, James activated 8 Sacred Fire and threw the ice flame at the ancient demon. The ancient demon started screaming. Even though he was trying to heal, the effect of the ice burn on him had completely frozen his wound and burned it at the same time, in short, his healing abilities were not working. [The Bell of Hypnos has been destroyed.] When James was confronted with this message, he raised the Godly Sword Lumen into the air again and then said ''Pierce!'' and slashed the throat of the ancient demon that had fallen on its face. [My Legendary Achievement Won! Kill a monster with a holy race for the first time! Item selection card gifted!] James smiled at this notification and realised at that moment that it was time to act, thinking that this could be dealt with later. He waited in the area for five minutes until the ancient demon''s body turned to ash and disappeared, and then turned to Chao and said, "It''s done." Chao couldn''t believe what he was hearing. He didn''t know what item James had used, but such a disgusting creature could not be killed so easily, and whatever James had done, Chao''s respect for him surpassed the vastness of the mountains. "Let''s go," James said, and Chao followed James without question. After almost five minutes, when the battlefield was reached again, James and Chao joined the battle alongside the rest. With each of their moves, the end of the battle continued to come. After only thirty minutes, the monsters, which were already almost exhausted, were exhausted, and James and Ariel left the scene by jumping on the back of Chao, who had returned to his Gryphon form. Neither James nor Ariel had taken anything from the bodies of the monsters, wishing that the money from those materials would be there to fix this part of the empire. However, after two days of incredibly fast travelling, it was back to the imperial palace. Cordelia, of course, was waiting on the balcony to greet them. Chapter 261 - 261: Invasion "I heard the news...that you were able to kill such a being in just one day...I don''t know what to say," Cordelia said. As the group entered the palace, they could see that even though the feast was over, there were still nobles milling around. "We were lucky, if I hadn''t thought of something, things probably would have been a lot worse," James replied. As they were walking through the palace, James'' eye caught the duo he had met in the palace bathroom and the look of sadness on the duo worried James. Of course, James did not know this duo very well, but he wondered why this duo, whom he saw laughing all the time, was so sad. That''s why James had been kind and left Cordelia and the others and went to them. "Are you all right?" James asked simply. The two nodded their heads and then muttered, "Our city is...invaded by demons, our parents are missing, our sister is injured, we need to go to help." As soon as James heard these words, it suddenly dawned on him that the Ancient Demon was not the only one. That''s why he said, "Come with me," and then took the two of them to Cordelia and the others who were waiting for him. "Cordelia, can you call that seer back? ASAP." she suddenly asked. Even if he was finished on this floor and could move on to the next, he could at least try to do what he could do now, which was to help the empire, with which he would most likely become great friends. "You know what to do," Cordelia said, turning to her son, the crown prince next to her. The crown prince bowed his head and left the scene rather quickly. Even though Chao and Ariel didn''t realise what was going on, James being so serious worried them a little. "It seems that news has come from the duo''s house. Demon raid, if the Ancient Demon is not the only one, then there is a far greater danger to the empire than the oracle has foreseen." James said suddenly and that was enough for Cordelia. With Cordelia''s orders, a few cultivators were handed dozens of scrolls and a single order to send word to every kingdom and empire around the empire. In short, what happened in this empire could also happen elsewhere, and this could bring the end of the entire floor. This was a floor with 4 continents and almost more than twenty empires and more than a hundred kingdoms. In a word, it was MASSIVE. If all these events were happening elsewhere, it could indicate that a greater danger was coming. Just like on the 35th floor. This was especially frightening for James and Ariel. Ariel was much more powerful than before, after all, she had an incredible ability that allowed her to protect not only James, whom she served as his knight, but also herself. The ability to fly through the air was already a rarity in the entire tower, even among the gods and goddesses, but Ariel had the bonus of being able to protect herself. In short, Ariel had grown stronger, and her control over the aura was becoming deeper and deeper with each passing day. There was no need to talk about James himself, this man had managed to put an INCREDIBLE difference between himself and the people who had come out the same number of times as him. Maybe Ariel had caught up with James a little in speed, maybe her stamina surpassed his, and maybe her strength doubled his. Still, with only the spells at his disposal, James could take Ariel down, and one successful strike could send the old woman to her grave. That meant the pair had little to fear. That was true of the monsters and other things on the floor, but the main point was that the duo had risen to a pretty good position. James''s theory was confirmed when the Oracle entered the palace again. The Seer took the hands of two nobles in particular and was able to see a piece of the future in their thoughts. There was not just one ancient demon. There was no more The Bell of Hypnos. James had no idea how to stop the nearly one hundred Ancient Demons he had heard about. Should he ask the gods for help? After all, Nemesis or others might come to James'' aid again. Still, he knew he shouldn''t always ask the gods for help, he was no longer the innocent child on Earth, nor was he the boy who had almost died on the 9th floor. He was older now, smarter, more intelligent, more realistic, more mature. "Get ready Ariel, Chao, I think we''re going to have to call in the whole army," James said, and Chao didn''t seem to understand, but Ariel nodded and moved off. A portal opened up right in front of Ariel and she suddenly disappeared. Neither Cordelia, Ariel, nor anyone else could understand what had happened. "What''s going on?" Chao finally asked. S§×arch* The Nov§×l?ire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James stared at his face for a few seconds and then said, "I''m calling for help. Don''t you know who I am, Chao? The Church of Night, the Sun Empire, the White Empire, the Ice Elves, the Ice Dwarves and the Demi-Demons of Ice. Anyone who has agreed to do my bidding," he replied, then straightened his posture and added, "If there is to be a war, I will be on the front lines, with everything I have." He then turned to the duo and said, "We need to find a way to protect your sister and your people, I can''t go out there alone until my army gets here, I don''t have the mana or aura at full level." Chao suddenly stepped forward and replied, "The Ancient Demons'' attacks are barely penetrating my body, I can at least repel them for two days." "You need to get back to your wife and child now Chao, you''ve already helped more than enough," said James, he really couldn''t face Xia or the newborn baby Gryphon if Chao died or if something happened to him. "Or they could come here, couldn''t they?" muttered Chao, maybe he didn''t trust the people of the empire but he trusted James and his family would be safe here. James smiled when he heard those words and then nodded his head and ordered, "Have it your way, you have three days, come back with your wife and child, Chao." No one present at that moment expected James to give orders to a holy being. Chao, on the other hand, nodded his head in the face of this order and then suddenly left the palace by saying, "Yes, as you order." "I''ll be in my room," James said and returned to the room he had been shown before, it was time to use the ability he had long wished to use. James sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes, focusing on his internal energy. "Destiny," he said suddenly and literally lost all sense of feeling around him. It was an ability that could be used once every 6 months and could see a possible event in the future. When he opened his eyes, he saw that everything was on fire. He saw the sky split open and a pair of bloodshot eyes staring at him. He could see the imperial palace razed to the ground and the mangled bodies of Cordelia and her family, Chao and his family, Eve, Datura and Aether, and finally Ariel. Suddenly he was brought back to reality and managed to come to himself. "No..." he said to himself, his eyes wide and his body shaking from head to toe. Suddenly he was greeted with a message [Are you okay?] and then he swallowed and muttered, "Possible future...worse than I thought." [Do you want us to send people?] "If possible, you can send one person to this palace, but I don''t want to be involved in the war. How can I surpass my ancestor if you always hold my hand and take care of everything for me?" he replied. It was indescribable how proud these words made every one of his followers, James was trying to do things on his own for the first time in front of their eyes. It was as if the little boy had suddenly matured. "It is quite obvious that the Ancient Demons are not as powerful as the Ancient Giant we encountered earlier on the 35th floor, but if we are careful we can win. The future I see may not come true." James said suddenly and then stood up, went to bed and lay down. He was greeted with another message [Sleep, you deserve it] and with that he fell asleep, he needed to get some rest. After all, when he woke up, everything would be close to being ready, everyone would be waiting for him, and perhaps the greatest danger James would ever face would be revealed. This was the final plan of the three ordered by the white-haired woman. Chapter 262 - 262: Die With Glory! Cordelia had been waiting for Ariel''s return for some time. The news had already reached the empress, and the superior knights of the Sun Empire had arrived at the palace. In addition, soldiers of Asgard and Olympus had arrived in various parts of the empire. The only thing missing now was Ariel and the company she would bring back. A huge admin-made passage was formed in front of the imperial palace. The person coming out of the gate was neither Ariel nor the army he would bring with him. A beautiful woman with snow-white pupils, hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows resembling moonlight, facial features that looked as if they were drawn by Chaos, and a snow-white dress that revealed her body contours came out of the gate. No one knew who this woman was, but she calmly gave a firm order, "Call me James." Then, she was taken to the throne room of the palace with Cordelia''s help. This woman in white sat on the throne in the throne room and waited for James to arrive. James was soon awakened and learnt that someone had come to visit him. Immediately after tidying himself up and organising his inventory, he carefully entered the throne room. When he looked at the woman sitting on the throne with his eyes wide open, the nobles in the hall were astonished that James was so surprised. Cordelia was about to speak when James'' voice was heard: "What an honour it is to see you here, Lady of the Moon." With those words, every noble and bodyguard from the Sun Empire was as surprised as James himself. "You seem to know this lady, Umbra," Cordelia suddenly said, and James, hearing this, said, "Pay your respects, Cordelia. This is Selene, daughter of Hyperion, whom you worship." Hearing those words, every single Mountain Empire noble and imperial family suddenly fell to their knees. As each noble was worrying about how disrespectful they might have been, Selene''s voice was heard: "Greetings from my father and mother, dear James, and from Nemesis, who seems to have missed you already." James smiled when he heard the words of Selene sitting on the throne opposite him and then scratched his head and said, "I miss my beloved wife too, Lady Selene. Since they sent you here, my request must have been fulfilled, you must be the one to guard the imperial palace, Lady of the Moon." "My father, Hyperion, obviously wanted to come himself just to fight by your side, but you know, the stronger you are, the more punishment you get, and even though I am quite strong, I cannot even get into the first hundred gods or goddesses, which means that I am the one who will fulfil your wish." When Selene uttered these words, she rose from her throne carefully descended the stairs and bowed to James as if she were bowing to a king. After this, Cordelia and the members of the imperial family looked at James as if he were mad. The influence James had over the holy beings was thus clearly demonstrated. Of course, he was no god, but the fact that he was Desmond''s descendant was enough for Selene, she had seen what James had tried to do so far, which meant that James had managed to earn the respect of Selene, the Lady of the Moon. "I see you''re looking after the boots, as well as the knife," Selene suddenly said, and James smiled as he heard these words and said, "Of course, they are among the most valuable things I own." After these events, voices were heard rising from outside the palace, and the attention of James and Selene and every person in the hall was directed to the sounds outside. James could hear the shouting of a few people among these voices, or rather, it would be more natural to say ''talking very loudly'' instead of shouting. When James and Selene left the palace, they met Ariel. "Selene, this is Ariel, my precious mother, and Ariel, this is Selene, the Lady of the Moon," James suddenly said. Ariel shook her head at these words and looked at Selene and questioned, "The Goddess?" When Selene nodded her head in response to this question, Ariel turned to James next to her and added to her own question, "Not like Nemesis, I mean, she''s a real goddess." James raised his hand and said, "Well, that''s rude, Nemesis is the most perfect goddess in my eyes." Ariel grabbed his cheek and then said, "You know what I''m trying to say, shut up." sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Ouch! Let me go woman!" said James suddenly and with that Ariel let go of the little boy. James frowned as he rubbed his cheek and asked, "Did you bring everyone?" At James'' question, Ariel brought two index fingers to her mouth and then whistled. As the gigantic sound echoed through the sky, several gateways opened behind her. Hundreds of people began to emerge from the passageways, at first hundreds, then thousands. Dature and Aether stood before each one. At last, the imperial family of the Sun Empire appeared, and the huge army they had brought with them. The streets of the imperial capital were packed to their narrowest points with soldiers and priests of the Sun Empire and the Church of Night. Cordelia glanced at the imperial family and then swallowed to speak. At that moment, the imperial family of the Sun Empire and the high officials of the Church of Night fell to their knees. "My lord, your orders," said Ahil, the emperor of the Sun Empire. Every single person present was surprised by what had happened, everyone had already realised that James, or rather Umbra, was a different person than he appeared, but first to bring a goddess to the empire with only one request, and then to lay before himself an army that had already exceeded about six hundred thousand. In a word, this was something that should be applauded. Not only the Sun Empire, but many hunter guilds and guilds from the 5th floor had begun to follow James and even worship him, and on top of that, there were soldiers from dozens of kingdoms who came from the 5th floor just because James called them. The prevention of the danger on this floor would be not only in the Cultivators who owned the floor but also in James and the six armies under his command. Sun Empire army, Church of Night army, White Empire army, Asgard army, Olympus army and Ice army from the floor mission. Six armies, over six hundred thousand soldiers, over a hundred commanders, the general of the Chaos Guild and the king of Chaos Guild at their head. James had taken a few steps when he saw this army number. Aura and mana filled his throat and vocal cords, and then he began to speak: "My honoured soldiers! You are gathered here today because I, your lord, and your future friends need you. The gods and goddesses are watching over us, we are desperate for their help, but we are monsters, humans and other races, climbing all the floors as if they were ladders." "The lives of our friends are at stake, this entire floor is in danger, death will occur across four continents, and here we are following in the footsteps of our ancestors, my ancestor! My ancestor fought for the freedom of the humans, but I am in favour of fighting on behalf of all the people of the tower, all those who have been oppressed and killed. There is no way we can stay where we are with ancient demons roaming around, it is simply IMPOSSIBLE!" James'' shouts could be heard by all. War cries rang out from even the farthest reaches of the massive army that had filled the imperial capital. "Your bones will break! Your lungs will be ripped out! Your hearts and bodies will be torn apart, but what we will win in the end will be the prayers of billions of creatures, the honour of your families and the hundreds of stories your children and brothers and sisters will hear about you!!!!" The battle cry grew louder with each passing second, with each passing second the pounding of footsteps on the ground, the pounding of armoured knights and warriors against their armour could be heard by all. "Remember! No matter what race your blood belongs to, you have the blood of a warrior. Elf, dwarf, pixie, goblin, half-human, half-demon, human, or whatever race you are, fight on until you die or crush all your enemies!" He paused for a few seconds after these words and listened to the sounds of war cries: "UUAGGHGHHHHH!!! "DEATH!!" "DEATH TO THE DEMONS!!!!!!!" Hundreds of war cries rose into the sky, at that moment James realised that the last word had to be said and shouted: "Live with honour!!!" As soon as he said these words, a shout came from the whole army: "DIE WITH GLORY!!!!!!" Chapter 263 - 263: 10000 Ancient War Armies were stationed. On the 4 Continents, tens of thousands of soldiers were distributed to kingdoms and small empires with low power levels. Thanks to Selene, thousands of teleportation circles, especially teleportation scrolls, were distributed to authorised people. James wanted to win this war with as little help as possible, but he had divided hundreds of teleport scrolls between himself, Ariel and Chao to go everywhere incredibly fast. Pixie Queen Sophia sat on James'' shoulder, as usual, Ruby sat on the other shoulder, and Miracle followed James in human form. James, Ariel and Chao were already on their way to where the most dirty mana and strange behaviour would be displayed. In short, if there was a real Fallen God at the head of the enemy, or rather, if the big ''bad'' that was putting all these things into action was in these monsters, the main unit had to act. In this case, the main unit consisted of James, Ariel, and Chao. Selene had sworn to protect the palace of the Mountain Empire with her life or rather to protect the entire capital. This resulted in the admission to the capital of everyone in the empire who could fit in the underground shelters of the capital. As usual, the priests and priestesses of the Church of the Night tried to detect ''evil'' beings and people with ''unclean'' mana and aura as they entered the capital, and they did not find anyone except for a few little devils who tried to enter from time to time. Just in case, an ENORMOUS shield of runes was constructed around the capital and the capital was the safest place below the 75th floor. The armies of Asgard were arrayed in the northern part of the empire, and the armies of Olympus were around the borders of the empire like a shield. Because of the dangers within the empire, this was the place that James and the others had chosen to clear. With each passing hour, a larger army was entering the 37th floor with the passageways, and the preparations for war were growing from one side and growing from the other. Even though they were still gathering under 6 armies, almost three million soldiers were scattered all over the four continents. Hearing what James wanted to do, other guild owners and even the high climbers James wished to meet had come to the 37th floor at the risk of death. Warriors of Zeus, Hades, Osiris, Freyr, Odin, Ninurta, Odin, Odin, Ninurta and many others had come to the 37th floor with their followers to support James. Thereupon, Theseus, Perseus, Thasus and many more god-blooded heroes came to help James, and even people like Icarus, who had suffered many more evils and cruelties, came to join the war. In short, many people who lived on the 75th floor and tried to become gods and goddesses, from James'' enemies to his closest friends, came to this floor to help him and the future of the tower. This was a war that would exist for a long, long time to come. It may have been MINIMUM in scale compared to the wars of old, but for the tower itself, which had been partially at peace for so long, it would be the biggest war in recent times. One thing was known, however. This would be the most spectacular battle in history. A war where friends and foes would work together, where life and death would hold hands and all would share a common destiny. A few million living beings would have to fight against thousands of Ancient Demons and perhaps Ancient Giants and other ancient monsters. There was likely to be bloodshed, and the battle might even be lost, but at least everything would be done. After almost a month, they came upon rainy weather. In the air cultivators were standing on their swords and following Chao with all honour, on the ground there were thousands of climbers following James with honour. As the twin nobles returned to the city from which they had come, the sight of destruction was documented in everyone''s minds. Everything was in a terrible state, they did not know where the twins'' sister was, but everyone was sure that she was not dead. Or rather, the twins had convinced everyone about this. "Ariel," James said suddenly, and when he got the attention of the woman next to him, he added, "The ends of the city are sealed. I can feel the power of the seals from here, but I can''t find any weakening spells or anything." Ariel could understand what those words meant. What they would encounter in this city might not be an Ancient Demon or something of that nature. After all, it was quite understandable how the Ancient Demon was brought to this floor, or rather, how it got here. The polluted mana released outside and the polluted aura kept inside had successively strengthened the demon itself and weakened those outside. This suggested that the danger could be either on a higher level or on a lower level. After all, the fact that they now had this realisation told the entire army that they did not know the enemy they were facing. "Master Umbra," came a voice suddenly from behind James. James turned round to see Yorhun, the young Asgardian warrior he had met on the 25th floor. However, he noticed the concern on Yorhun''s face. "What is it, Yorhun?" James asked suddenly. "Sir, we have received news from the north of the empire, Asgard has already started fighting, and the eastern continent has been at war for almost six hours. We have not suffered many casualties, but it is calculated that we have already destroyed six demon-beast units," replied Yorhun. Hearing these words, James frowned and said with great sadness, "May the souls of the dead warriors rest in peace, I hope they win the biggest place in heaven." then, with the knowledge that the battle had begun, he gestured with his hand for everyone to move forward without fear. With each step they took, the sense of danger in them was growing. With each step they took, they began to feel the presence of the thing or things following them one by one. Each person who had this feeling suddenly began to hold their weapons tightly. From the weakest to the strongest, each of them focused their attention. James squinted as he realised the danger was getting closer and closer. "You all will be faster for three minutes, your speed stat will increase by 20 per cent, be ready and please be careful." James said suddenly and then, looking around carefully, he said "Heaven''s Call". This time he chose the lily flower and with it thousands of flowers with pink tips spread over a great distance. However, the danger had reached its extreme. Everyone could see the monsters around, or rather, they seemed to be hiding and waiting for their new prey. What they didn''t know, however, was that this time the prey would not be humans or other members of their race, but themselves. S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Heaven''s Call was an aura-based ability, and it became much better with the addition of magic. James had used such an attack against the Ancient Giant. Now, with this ability, he had covered the entire huge city with pink lily flowers. It was nothing more than an attack order given to over a thousand climbers and thousands of cultivators inside the city. Exactly every single warrior had suddenly attacked. There were thousands, maybe tens of thousands of demon beasts in front of them, but there was something these beasts did not realise. The races on the friendly side had enormous power, they might have been dishonoured against such a large number of enemies, and they might have underestimated their strength and refused to fight, but not this time. Because the demon monsters had bypassed the race that controlled and directed this entire army. No one should underestimate the bottomless human heart itself, especially when that heart demands the direct destruction of enemies and marches forward as the king of an army of millions. "ATTACK!!!" With a single shout, hundreds of explosions, and dozens of blood-filled pieces of demon beasts began to fly in the air. It was a complete annihilation, a genocide, perhaps even a vengeful, madly burning piece of fire. But no matter what, one thing was certain: Either this war would end in victory, or it would continue until every single friendly unit, every single friendly piece was dead. It would be written in golden letters in the history books of the Tower''s history, the name of every commander, the great General Ariel, and the king who led them would be written in golden letters in every book. It would be a great, agonising and glorious event in the history of the Tower for generations to come. It would be the first time in the history of the Tower that not just a few heroes and races, but all heroes and races came together to fight. No one would forget the 10000 Ancient War. Not even the Creator himself would dare to make them forget. Chapter 264 - 264: Sending Them Back It had been almost an hour since the battle had begun in the city. Thousands of deaths had already occurred across the empire and continent, but armies of tens of thousands of soldiers had already entered the 37th floor to help. James and Ariel, followed by Ariel, had passed through the demon beasts and were chasing after the strange things that James had felt before, which could be considered as ''seals''. When they reached the northern part of the city, they realised that a very high level of clean mana was emitted from the small wooded area inside the city. More precisely, this ''seal'' was made of pure mana, it felt like the pure mana of a child, and that was the scary thing. If such pure mana wasn''t made by an incredibly good-hearted mage or someone who was entangled in sacred magic, it meant that a sacrifice had been made. That''s what was so frightening about a child''s pure mana, the possibility of child sacrifice was literally on display. When James and Ariel got closer to the seal, they were able to see what was inside the seal with their eyes. It was nothing more than another ancient demon. The fact that this time there were no weakening spells or dodgy rune sequences made it all the better. James suddenly gripped the Lumen tightly by the hilt and then began to gather a not-insignificant amount of aura and magic into the Godly Sword Lumen. After almost ten seconds of careful summoning, he inserted the sword, albeit slowly, into the seal and then, as calmly as possible, pierced what he thought was the ancient demon right through the neck. Because the seal was small and the being inside looked like an ancient demon, James thought that they had indeed encountered such a being, but this was not the case. [I think they''re trying to gather energy for a bigger seal. This is a very, very small seal to contain an ancient demon or another ancient demon beast]. Upon reading this message from Erebus, James suddenly chooses to take Ariel with him to the lord''s house in the city. Perhaps there they might succeed in finding the sister of the twin nobles. Even though they were acting with this hope, they still did not have great hope. After all, it was necessary to be realistic, not many people could survive such a thing, even if this was the 27th floor, most of the people born in the tower tried to spend their lives without climbing the tower. This meant that the chances of the twins'' sister being alive were no more than 5 per cent. It was close to impossible. Still, James wanted to keep his promise to the twins. He had searched the city lord''s house and had come across a few traces. These were a few traces that were drawn with a very good spell control. Whoever it was who had drawn these marks was a little beyond James in terms of spell control, James did not doubt that it was someone who had completed at least the 10th and perhaps even the 11th magic circle. After all, it had taken James almost ten minutes to recognise these marks. They had followed the tracks for a short time and after this short time, they had found a small door where the tracks converged. It was incredible that this door leading to the basement of the house was undiscovered. James gently deciphered the spell codes he had found on the door and after opening the door, he and Ariel proceeded to the basement. After an incredibly deep descent of almost five minutes, they finally reached a place where there was light. James and Ariel were stunned by the sight they saw. There were perhaps over a thousand people standing in the basement of the city lord''s house. The people who saw James and Ariel began to rush and after a short time, a woman came forward. "May I know who you are?" the mysterious woman asked, holding a thin knife hidden in her clothes in her right hand. James couldn''t miss it; after all, he held Selene''s Throwing Knife in the same way. ''I''m here to find the sister of the twin brothers Adam and Alan,'' James replied, and with that, he realised that the knife the woman in front of him had hidden had suddenly disappeared. "That would be me, my name is Alissa, my brothers...where are they?" asked the woman who had introduced herself as Alissa. Hearing these words, James smiled with relief and then said, "They are in the Imperial Palace. We will teleport you all there. Please pack up." With that, he opened one of the teleportation scrolls in his hand and activated the spell by sending its mana to the scroll. If he tore the scroll, only he and those who physically touched it could go with him, but transferring magic to the scroll and activating it would transfer a large magic ring to a selected location on the flat earth. This meant that a massive teleportation spell would take place. Alissa quickly gathered over a thousand commoners and even the nobles who had come here to visit and were trapped in the magic ring, and with that, James knelt on the ground and transferred above-average magic to the place where the magic ring would work so that the spell would work smoothly. After a brief flash, everyone disappeared and Ariel and James no longer had any reason not to fight. The two stared at each other for a second and then ran towards the exit and quickly ran towards the town square to join the battle. There were already thousands of corpses of demon beasts around. There were so many corpses that it was quite difficult to go anywhere without stepping on the corpses. Still, they had to move as fast as possible for him to join the battle. When James used his dark step ability and passed Ariel, he could see a black dot in the air in the distance. As his gaze locked on it, he realised that it was another demon. It didn''t look like an ancient demon, though he didn''t know if there were other types of ancient demons or other ancient beings. There was very little information about these beings in the imperial library, after all. That was exactly why James had chosen to ignore these things and attack. He climbed up a building and started jumping from one roof to another. After a short time, he got close to the dark being and at that moment he saw Chao. Using the Void Pen, he shouted directly into Chao''s mind, "CHAO! FIRE ME!" and hearing this, Chao suddenly appeared behind James, grabbed him and threw him at the dark demon figure. James managed to fly almost two hundred metres through the air at an incredible speed, and at that moment he gripped the Godly Sword Lumen tightly by the hilt, covering it with all 8 Sacred Fire. Perhaps fighting like this would have consumed much more mana and a little more aura, but at least this way he had the opportunity to take down the weak but dark demon figure in one attack. The dark demonic figure had not recognised James and this would be the cause of his death. In just four seconds, James came from the ground into the air, right where the dark demon was, and cut it in half. A huge lunge of flame flashed across the sky, even the rain falling from the clouds in the sky was vaporised by the heat of the flames for a few seconds and no drops of water reached the earth. The dark demonic figure was burnt to ashes, and then not only that, its ashen existence was burnt out of existence. With that, James began to fall to earth at a very high speed. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Chao suddenly started flying and caught James in a short time. When James landed on the earth, he was surrounded by climbers and cultivators who looked at him with astonishment and amazement. "THE BATTLE IS NOT OVER! CONTINUE!!! PUSH FORWARD!" James suddenly shouted and with that, all the troops attacked for the last time. The city was not besieged, but at least the demon troops had been stopped. Perhaps only one of the ten thousand ancient monsters had been killed, but even that was pretty good. "Sir Umbra! We have news from the Olympian troops. Perseus, Theseus and Eteocles have already managed to kill three ancient demons. The Olympus troops are asking for orders to advance, sir." Both Chao, James and Ariel, who had caught up with them, looked at Yorhun''s sudden news with great surprise. "Your husband is doing a great job," James suddenly said to Ariel. Ariel nodded her head, even though she was embarrassed, and replied, "I know that already." After this small talk, James turned to the young Yorhun and said, "Tell Theseus and Perseus not to return until they have killed at least a hundred ancient monsters." With these words, it was time for the friendly sides to launch a decisive attack. Chapter 265 - 265: We Misunderstood It All! James and the huge troop that followed him were on their way to another city after the thousand-man troop they had placed in the city. This time the city they were going to was even further east of the empire. The city was quite large, the reason for this was that this city belonged to a duke. It came as bad news to Cordelia that the duke had sacrificed his life just to let the people escape. It was terrible news, everyone knew the duke''s power, he was the hero of the empire and all continents, he was almost three thousand years old, and in the eyes of the people he was an ancient being. In the old times of the tower, the existence of qi was officially unknown, which was the reason why Desmond and the others were living in such bad conditions. It was the only reason Desmond needed the blood of Vladimir the Sun Vampire. Here was one of the most powerful beings in the empire, called a hero in the four continents, and one of the most powerful beings under the entire 27th floor and perhaps the 75th floor. According to reports, the duke had fought for almost a week without a break. With his skill and strength, he had organised the teleportation device that would send his people to the imperial capital, and while doing so, he had killed almost ten Ancient Giants and hundreds of Ancient Demons with his own hands. Nevertheless, he died in the end. The reason for his death was not because he fought either the Ancient Giants or the Ancient Demons. The Duke was poisoned. There was no information about where this poisoning came from, but it was clear that even if there was no betrayal, at least his body was poisoned by a blow he received during the battle. The whole army was moving forward with this information and waiting for orders from James. James had another concern. They had travelled continuously for almost half a day, they knew that they were not tired as a group, the adrenaline in their bodies was so gigantic that first of all the indestructible heart and soul of the human race, and then all the races and their members continued to move forward without waiting. No one could denigrate the sacrifices that had been made. James'' concern was Chao himself. From the time Chao received the news of the duke''s death and the information about how the duke might have died, the seriousness on his face had increased. It was as if Chao was afraid of something. The fact that he did not know what he was afraid of made James worry. Chao himself was many times stronger than James, which was indisputable, the only reason James was ahead of him in some ways was because of his abilities. Chao as a holy beast could not possess any abilities, he only had his Aura and Qi. That was the problem, Chao was afraid of something. Within each continent of the 27th Floor, within the territory of each empire or kingdom, within each forest, no creature or holy beast was as powerful as Chao. It was troublesome to be able to see with the naked eye that Chao was afraid. If such a being, such a holy beast, such a man was afraid of something, something was wrong, and James and Ariel were well aware of this. Ariel was so worried about the situation that he was ready to use his Lord''s Knight ability at any moment. Of course, Ariel would prevent James from endangering his life, but inwardly she prayed that such an event would not even be a possibility. The army, numbering over ten thousand men, had slowly moved into the city, the largest city in the empire, second only to the capital. Flags were burning all around, flags with the symbol of a crow had fallen to the ground, hundreds of metres from the entrance to the city. The city looked completely fallen and abandoned, and in front of the city gates stood a man, his body green and covered with poison. James'' eyes widened when he saw this man and then he turned around and shouted "USE YOUR RADIATION SCROLLS NOW!!! GO BACK TO THE CAPITOL!!!". Hearing his concern, every single member of the army pulled out their scrolls without thinking twice, and every single one of them instantly tore them up and disappeared. Even if a few people, especially a few who did not look at James with tolerance, remained in the area, they were inwardly frightened as soon as they saw the concern on James'' face. They knew how strong James was, James was the one who killed the dark demonic figure in one blow. This caused them to take out their scrolls and after a short time, only James, Ariel and Chao were left almost a hundred metres away from the city. When James looked at Chao''s face with fear, he saw fear on the Holy Gryphon''s face, or rather, it wasn''t just a look of fear. It was more covered with worry and the urge to protect. I think Chao wanted to protect James, who was right next to him, that was why he was worried, and this feeling gave him fear. James couldn''t even ask what they should do, he was so surprised by Chao''s posture and expression that the next time he looked at the man in front of the city gate he couldn''t help asking, "Who is it?" Chao swallowed when he heard those words, and the sound of his swallowing rang in their ears. "This is the second most powerful person on the 27th floor, the man who came after me. It''s Duke Bai Fang himself. Guys, be very careful. One slip up and we''re dead, it seems....he is a zombie now...a zombie that''s almost as strong as me right now.''" At Chao''s words, James and Ariel could do nothing but swallow, just like him. Their fear seemed to have become quite apparent. Still, there was nothing else left to do. James re-equipped the Godly Sword Lumen and then looked at Ariel and Chao and said, "Let''s go then." With that, Chao suddenly released a huge amount of the aura in his body outwards. An incredibly large amount of aura energy began to press down on both James and Ariel. However, the two were lucky, since Chao had trained both James and Ariel in the aura, they were used to the pressure of this aura. Bai Fang, however, was not in the same situation. Bai Fang''s body, a zombie with a lush green body, seemed to be crushing under the pressure. When the worry and fear on Chao''s face turned into a strange look of sadness, the pressure of the aura increased even more, but strangely, Bai Fang began to defy this aura. This meant only one thing: Chao...must have trained Bai Fang as well. Amid these thoughts, James suddenly lunged forward. It was normal not to have a plan, after all, the ''plan'' he and the duo of Ariel and Chao had in mind was clear. Bai Fang''s soul had to be put to rest, his zombified body had to be destroyed. James activated his dark step ability and, as usual, covered the Godly Sword Lumen with his aura and magic. Bai Fang didn''t move a single step and met James'' attack head-on. "SWOOSH!!!" sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James'' attack had created such pressure in the air that when Bai Fang met the attack, it was as if the air had exploded down to its molecules. When the huge cloud of smoke dissipated, James jumped back a few steps because of the feeling of danger that suddenly descended in his heart and then looked at Bai Fang. "At least we can do some damage," James suddenly said. He had managed to inflict a small wound on Bai Feng''s left arm, and the wound was not healing. This was very good news. Chao and Ariel suddenly appeared in front of Bai Fang. They both attacked at the same time, and two blows landed on Bai Fang''s body, which was still not moving. When the dust had cleared again, Bai Fang was still motionless, staring at the trio around him. Even though his pupils were moving, his body had stopped moving. "I....." At the sudden voice, the trio suddenly stopped their attack and retreated backwards. "Bai...." Chao said, his tone incredibly sad. "I did it, my master." Bai Fang said suddenly, and James and Ariel turned to Chao in disbelief. It was now clear why Bai Fang was able to resist Chao''s aura. Bai Fang was indeed his student, and that was the reason for the sadness and sorrow in Chao''s tone. "You did what?" Chao asked.... Bai Fang had not become a zombie, he was still alive, even Chao had thought that he had turned into a zombie, but the old duke was still alive, only the amount of poison in his body was enormous. James...maybe he could help him. Chapter 266 - 266: I Got Him, Dont You Even Worry ''I''m proud of you...my only student,'' Chao suddenly said, and those words put an end to everything. Chao was afraid not because he could not defeat the monster or person he would face; yes, he might be defeated, but that did not mean that he would definitely be defeated. The reason for the fear on the Holy Gryphon''s face was that the possibility of losing his only pupil was now in the air. Nevertheless, James had chosen to send members of his army to the imperial capital just in case, which was a good thing. There weren''t many climbers in the area, after all. This was due to the enormous amount of poison emanating from Bai Fang''s body. The only reason Ariel was able to stand, like both Chao and James, was because she had trained herself to be immune to certain types of poison. sea??h th§× nov§×lF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "I apologise...master. I couldn''t protect them all...they''re inside the city, forgive me," said Bai Fang, and even though he seemed to have recovered a little, the resentment was still evident on his face. "You did very well, I''m proud of you, I''m sorry I couldn''t help you here, at least...at least I''ll protect your children, I swear," replied Chao. It was obvious that these scenes were upsetting every god and goddess watching them, even Ariel couldn''t help but feel saddened by Chao''s stance, the only one who wasn''t was James himself. "Aaaah...You all realise that I can help him, right?" said James suddenly, and hearing those words, Chao and Bai Fang suddenly turned to James. "How?" questioned Ariel, who was standing to the right. "You do realise that I''m one of the 11 Poison Masters in the tower, right? It''s my job to extract poison from other people and things," James replied. Chao suddenly approached James and grabbed him tightly by the shoulders, "Can you help him? Can you save him?" he asked. Chao''s face had officially turned into an expression of worry and fear. This holy Gryphon''s expression seemed to show hope. "Yeah, sure. I got him." James replied, and then he started to approach Bai Fang. It occurred to him that he didn''t know what to do, after all, he needed at least one wound to absorb the poison, and the wound he had inflicted with his powerful attack had already disappeared. While he was connected to these thoughts, a message window suddenly appeared in front of him: [To assimilate the poison, bring forth your poison element. Before you do so, warn the young lady Ariel and the old, grumpy Chao that the poison in your body can paralyse even some gods, and they will die]. This message came from Noah, the man who had taught James almost everything he knew about poison. James, on the other hand, was confused with the happiness of being able to learn an answer without asking his question, and then he asked, "How far should they go?" [At least two or three hundred metres]. When the answer to his question came back, James smiled turned around and said, "Exactly four hundred metres away from me." He figured it couldn''t hurt to be careful, so he said four hundred metres. "Let''s go, old man," Ariel said as he turned to Chao, who was standing right next to him. With that, Ariel quickly left the area, holding the bewildered Chao by the shoulder. James stood right in front of Bai Fang at that moment and then said, "This is going to hurt you very, very much, just please...don''t go towards the light." The moment Bai Fang nodded, James closed his eyes and then focused neither on his magic rings nor on his aura itself. The only thing James focussed on was the elemental core that had taken root and become a vine. Every moment he focused on the elemental core, an even greater poison elemental energy was being released outwards. Even if James wasn''t aware of it, it was quite good to tell Ariel and Chao to move four hundred metres away. The poison elemental energy he was releasing had already reached the three-hundred-metre threshold and was ready to pass. James was able to see Bai Fang right in front of him with his eyes closed. He could see the high poison in the old duke''s body and the dark and dangerous poison that had enveloped his qi core. This meant that he could treat him now. Once James had calmed himself down, he gently grabbed Bai Fang''s head in front of him and then began to suck all the poison from the new poison source, Bai Fang''s body, making all the poison he had spread around solid. Bai Fang was trembling from the pain, which could be easily seen if anyone was around. It was quite a painful process after all. Even being poisoned was not as painful as getting the poison out, and James knew that very clearly. Nevertheless, this situation would not last long. The reason for this was that although the poison in Bai Fang''s body was at a very large level, there were only two types of poison in this body. So in a sense, Bai Fang was only poisoned by two types of poison that would weaken his body and lock his qi. James was busy absorbing all this poison into himself. The poison elemental energy he was spreading around was getting stronger and stronger. Ariel and Chao felt the need to move even further back than the four hundred metres they had been because the energy James was emitting was becoming more and more visible. James quickly began to absorb the poison from Bai Fang''s body, and Bai''s body, which had turned green from the poison, was slowly coming around. This was good news, Bai Fang was such a powerful person that he was able to survive until now to prevent the poison from damaging his own body. It was truly mesmerising. Bai Fang''s might was dazzling. James, who had been continuously charging the poison elemental energy into his body, slowly realised that both his aura and his magical energy were growing larger and larger. After all, when the elemental nucleus sprouted and had a root, each elemental particle charged into the nucleus strengthened whatever power you had. This meant that James was both saving a life and making himself insanely strong. He could even realise that his aura was beginning to reach its limit. James could see that he was very close to reaching the next level of aura. Yet he was also aware of the huge doors that were closed. Those huge doors that were preventing his aura from developing further. It was even possible to say that they were one of the biggest obstacles James had to overcome on his own. It was a real pain in the arse. After almost half an hour, James realised that he could no longer absorb any poison elemental energy, took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He saw old Bai Fang on his knees, crying and smiling. "Thank you, young man...I will never forget this favour, I swear on the heavens that if I do not repay you, I will be punished in the darkest depths of the underworld." Bai Fang suddenly said. It was nothing less than an honourable oath befitting an honourable warrior. "No problem my dude, no worries," replied James abruptly, he didn''t care, after all, he had gained something from the incident himself. However, the poison elemental energy he had emitted had completely disappeared and in less than a minute Ariel and Chao were back on the scene. When James looked at the duo, he smiled and said, "I got it." At James'' words, Chao suddenly walked past him and hugged Bai Fang, saying, "Well done... I''m proud of you." and let out a deep breath. "We still have ancient monsters to kill, we need to move, old man," said Ariel with a strange expression, briefly instructing Chao to attack. Chao had already made up his mind to do so, the anger on the old holy Gryphon''s face was not to be despised, indeed, he was straining himself so hard that even the muscles on his face were extremely prominent. In short, it was harvest time, and the four men who were to do the harvesting were now standing at the entrance to the city. With that dark and angry look, Chao suddenly stopped hugging Bai Fang and then stood up and said, "Follow me this time." James and Ariel trembled inwardly, the adrenaline in their bodies going crazy, they were so excited that their expressions had a frightening smile on their faces. With that, Bai Fang also stood up and then said, "I will go with you, I am no longer covered in poisons that affect neither my qi nor my body." The two strongest people in the entire empire and the entire world were going to work together, and behind them were two people who could enter the ranks of the greatest warriors below the 75th floor. James and Ariel. It was going to be a bloodbath...no, it was going to be a preview of hell. Chapter 267 - 267: Well Get It Back The four of them broke through the gate at the entrance to the huge city. They saw the bodies of hundreds, if not thousands of people lying around. Ariel and James really wanted to vomit at the sight, it might have been one of the most horrible things they had ever seen. Bai Fang was looking around sadly, thinking that he had let everyone down. Still, Bai Fang had managed to save almost three million people and members of other races, while the half million he hadn''t saved were already lying in pieces around the city. Bai Fang may have made mistakes, but he had tried his best for the empire and his own people, he was certainly a fascinating nobleman, a nobleman everyone would wish to emulate. Chao, on the other hand, was angry. Just looking at his face made everyone tremble inwardly. James likened this holy beast, who always smiled at him, to a few flowers that might appear in the apocalypse. Chao was full of life, but behind this life was an incredible sense of revenge. His aura radiated around him like a madman, and it was incredibly powerful. Chao instantly turned to James, Ariel, and Bai Fang, who was following behind them, and then said, ''Spread out, kill as many as you see.'' James and Ariel trembled inwardly with excitement, James hadn''t expected to receive an order out of the blue, but he had managed to raise himself up to carry it out, he could even feel his heart pounding with excitement. He instantly nodded his head and saluted Ariel, suddenly he was on his way to the eastern part of the city. Bai Fang had decided to go with Ariel. S§×arch* The N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. So the group of four split into three and the attack began. The city was huge, there was no exaggeration or anything like that when this thought was given to others, the city was indeed huge. Describe the size of the city, it was huge enough to fit at least one thousand to two thousand of the huge palace he had created on that floor covered with the ice age under James'' ownership. James already had this information. "Miracle, I want you to sense every dirty piece of mana or aura, my dear daughter." James suddenly said, and with that, Miracle, who had long ago changed into dragon form, began to follow her father''s order. It was obvious that the little girl had received a few flashbacks after the huge energy Miracle had released, she immediately pointed in one direction like a hunter who had found his prey and said, "Four." Hearing this, James called out to Sophia, who was in his jacket, and said, "Speed me up." With all this, James went on the attack. The place where the little girl Miracle pointed was the alley of a building. Four owners of dirty energy should have been there. Dirty mana was an incredible thing, it was impossible to be a good person by having dirty mana. The addictive dream that this mana would give you was unbelievable. It would make you literally addicted and you would constantly want this dirty mana, aura or any other dirty energy until you died. After a while, your body would surrender to the person who had fed you with this energy, and your soul would just stay where it was, almost on a leash. James knew this, so he didn''t plan to pity any of these bastards, he didn''t need to, every one of these sons of bitches were power-hungry beings who committed the worst sins to get that power. And that broke every rule in James'' book. James secretly wished he could kill each and every one of them. It was obvious that the ancient demon beasts already worshipped the Fallen God and beings like them. After all, these bastards were the ones who had introduced this dirty definition of energy into the tower. They had created this type of energy by using Black Magic and taking advantage of the evil aspects of this black magic. The kind of energy that can contaminate everything and make you addicted to it. The moment James approached the alleyway, he gripped the Godly Sword Lumen tightly and lunged forward and made four simple moves on the four shadowy beings he saw, as if he was using a rapier instead of a normal sword. These four simple thrusts managed to slice the four shadowy beings to the core, and James managed to kill each of them in four moves. As soon as the little girl Miracle realised this, she turned the other way and James started running in that direction. It was clear what Chao wanted to do, James and the others would clean up the mess in the city while he went to attack the ringleaders. It was a perfect plan. Ariel and Bai Fang were unlikely to be in danger, after all, Bai Fang was an incredibly powerful individual and hadn''t really lost a bit of his strength, his power was too dangerous to be destroyed, and destroying his qi core or aura array could mean a nuclear explosion. As for Ariel, she was understandably an incredibly powerful woman. This woman really deserved to be the first commander of the Chaos Guild... the third-highest rank. It was time for the Chaos Guild which has three members to grow, but this was something that would exist for a short future. After all, the future would bring more members and who knows how many more gods or goddesses into the Chaos Guild. James was gradually advancing through the city with each step. The demon beasts he was slaying were becoming more and more powerful. These demon beasts, none of which were strong enough to enter the ''ancient'' tier, did not stop appearing in front of James, increasing in number each time. James himself was quite calm, he was officially at peace with himself, it was time for them to save the city. Chapter 268 - 268: It Was So Disappointing In James'' case, everything was going well. However, things were getting more and more dangerous as he started to encounter monsters that finally started to put huge stones in his path. After almost an hour of a decisive and quite dangerous attack, he finally managed to encounter a few ancient monsters. He had indeed encountered a she-devil similar to the ancient demon he had seen before. The claws of the duo were quite similar to the previous Ancient Demon, but the gaze of these demons was different. Unlike other monsters, the two demons did not insult James and stood guard against him. This gave James two options: Either the two she-devils standing in front of him were trying to deceive him, or they were actually cautiously approaching him, as they considered James'' strength quite sufficient. James, of course, was not going to do any nonsense like trying to find the answer to this question. What he needed to do now was to hold the Godly Sword Lumen tightly in his right hand and kill these two demons as quickly as possible without making himself too exhausted. Knowing this very well, he suddenly used his dark step ability and suddenly attacked, reaching quite high speeds thanks to the acceleration effect Sophia gave him. The two she-demons didn''t seem to expect James to suddenly attack. The moment James made his attack, one of the demons jumped in front of the other and tried to meet Godly Sword Lumen directly with its claw. "SKRIIEEEEEEKK!!!" A sudden scream came from the female demon and James had to take a few steps backwards. The scream was so loud that James'' ears practically rang. After this scream, other sounds began to come from the alleyways and far away. James''s body suddenly trembled, not from fear, but from a feeling he did not know, yet the sounds were getting louder with each passing second. The whole street began to be surrounded by shadows writhing like living beings. It seemed that one of the she-devils had screamed for help. The air became thick and suffocating as if it carried the weight of all the evil that had been hidden for centuries. Faint whispers echoed from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. James saw Sophia, clinging fearfully to her own clothing, begin to tremble. The little girl Miracle and holy Ruby were fine because one was a Supreme Dragon and the other a Phoenix. However, Sophia herself, who was not yet very strong or mentally sound, began to tremble. It was like a symphony of fragmented words and a cacophony of voices that pushed the boundaries of sanity, and even if James hadn''t been harmed by them, he would still have to say that he shuddered. It was as if the stories told on Halloween or the horror stories told around the campfire had come true, a shiver ran through him. Whispers floated in the darkness, and a chaotic atmosphere was spreading around. Even if James could see what was happening thanks to his night vision, the fact that the entire street was completely blocked by dark shadows made it literally impossible for even light to reflect. Low growls echoed beneath the murmurs; hundreds of demon beasts, deep, savage and ready to strike, seemed to lurk in the shadows. James realised in his own essence that he had to make a move now, and he moved again, using his dark stepping ability. With each step, he stepped on a different place and tried to deceive these monsters, which could be considered two female ancient demons, who were trying to protect themselves from his attack. Godly Sword Lumen managed to find his target again. The Godly Sword itself was stuck right in the arm of one of the female demons. James suddenly pulled the sword out of its stabbing place, and boiling, steaming, purple blood began to come out of the she-demon''s arm. "SKRIIUUGHHHHKK!!!" As the she-demon shouted, the shadows around her became even more frenzied. Mocking, hissing, pleading voices were practically ringing in James'' ears. Some were sharp and crackling, and indeed almost every one of them was a plea. Others were like shards of ice, each one filling James with a strange sadness. After all these voices and the strangeness in James'' mind, he easily realised that each of these voices was a spirit and was instantly shocked. There was a reason he thought that: The pleas. James knew that the faint pleading voices rising from the shadows were calling for help, calling for him to release them. sea??h th§× N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James managed to recover from his shock and then, frowning, he activated 8 Sacred Fire without thinking twice. The different coloured flames merged together to create the perfect fire that looked so colourful and beautiful. Without thinking twice, James released this fire to the earth and spread it. "Nothing I don''t want to burn will burn, nothing I don''t want to die will die, nothing I don''t want to destroy will be destroyed. Fire worships me." James suddenly said, and with that, 8 Sacred Fire officially went out of control. This fire burned so brightly that even if it was not possible to completely disperse the surrounding darkness, it was able to burn in response to the light of hope in the dark souls. It was certainly a mesmerising sight, but what was needed in this case was not mesmerisation but destruction. The hatred inside James could not be understood with human patience and thoughts. The colourful flames cut the connections of the dark shadows with whip blows every second, and with each passing second James could see the souls that were released and destroyed. James''s nervousness could be understood by every single person watching him. His jaw muscles, even the veins in his throat were starting to become visible from squeezing himself. He was going to do everything to kill these two female demons standing in front of him now. And when he made such a decision, there were not many people who could stop him. Chapter 269 - 269: Hes...Perfect. Suddenly, it lunged forward and then said, "Soul Impact." The first she-devil it had lunged at was right where its essence was, that is, the area where its heart was located. Before the she-devil even realised what was happening, blood began to flow from its eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth. This is what someone whose core had exploded would look like. With that, James suddenly took a few steps backwards and then patted his daughter Miracle on the head and said, "Create a magic shield, sweetheart." With that, the other she-devil tried to run away, realising what was happening, but it was too late... "BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!" An enormous explosion ripped through the centre of the eastern part of the city. James smiled as the sound vanished and the dust and smoke disappeared, and then he destroyed the connections to the last bits of dark shadow he could see around him. After that, he saw the severed head of the female demon trying to escape and without thinking, he crushed the monster''s head and continued on his way with the anger he had. Everything was going well on the east side of the city. On the west side, everything was in a completely different dimension. Ariel and Bai Fang had encountered a strange enemy. Like James, they had almost made it to the centre of their path. The demon they encountered in the centre of the western part of the city was indeed an ancient demon. However, this ancient demon was a rather strange being. It was of a normal body size, almost 1.80 metres in height, it could be called a demon that looked quite human-like, but the shapes of its horns and wings made it obvious. It had a very strange aura, which was quite confusing and created an illusion for those who looked at it. This is what happened to Ariel and Bai Fang. Even if they managed to get out of the illusion, they were constantly caught back in it. Even though Ariel was injured, she was still in no danger to her life. It was obvious that Bai Fang had a plan, he didn''t even need to say that he had already killed several of this ancient demon, because, unlike Ariel, he moved incredibly calmly and quickly. It was as if he knew where each illusion was going to occur, his eyes didn''t even need to move, and that''s why he closed his eyes instead of seeing the illusions and started to attack, trusting his instincts. Even though Ariel regretted that she couldn''t help in any way, the fact that she was able to watch Bai Fang, who, like her, was at the forefront of close combat and knife skills, so closely taught her something. Every attack Bai Fang made, every step he took, every breath he took between attacks, every movement of the muscles in his body was perfect in every sense of the word. He was a true warrior. "Incredible..." Ariel couldn''t help but say, and she was right, Bai Fang was indeed incredible. [He really is interesting for you eh?] Suddenly a message appeared in front of Ariel, it was from Moros. When Ariel saw this message, she couldn''t help but smile, even in the middle of a war. "Yes...He is indeed the warrior I want to be. I''ve been training myself in the sword, just to be James'' knight, but is this...is this who I can be?" Ariel''s words were like a stamp on everyone watching them. The look on Ariel''s face, which had always been depressed when she wasn''t talking to James or Theseus, had officially opened their hearts. Ariel had been through some pretty bad things in her life, losing her husband early in life and losing her daughter in a way that no parent would dare to imagine. Now, Ariel had even agreed to become a knight to protect James, whom she considered her son. Still, she was still weaker than James, if not more so, and even if she was strong enough to help him, it was understandable that she was not a very strong woman. Now Ariel saw that she really needed to learn something, even this woman who did not like to rely on others wanted to learn Bai Fang''s perfect attacks. For the first time in a long time Ariel was watching someone with glowing eyes and a look of admiration, the last time this had happened was over a year ago when she met James. "KUAGHK!!!" The Ancient Demon screamed in pain as its throat was already slit. Bai Fang had managed to kill the ancient demon after two dozen attacks and hundreds of quick steps. It was now clear how this man had been able to protect such a large city until all its inhabitants had fled. Even if he wasn''t very strong, what he had fought was an ancient demon, and it had been dead and gone in mere minutes. When Ariel stood up, she stretched her body and then asked, "Master Bai Fang...When it''s all over when we win the battle, will you train me in knife techniques?" Bai Fang turned to Ariel in surprise and replied, "I''ve seen the way you fight, I don''t think you need my help, young lady." "I have a son I want to protect, I have so much to learn for him," Ariel said after these words. Bai Fang shook his head with his eyes wide open after these words and then replied, "If a mother wants help, it would be an honour for me to help her." It was incredibly difficult to find anyone as honourable as Bai Fang. He was a truly great man, incredibly kind-hearted and cared so much about human life. He was like an idol that everyone would want to have. S§×ar?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. With those words, the duo gathered themselves for action, and after only a few minutes, they were on the move, moving west of the city to mow down more ancient demons. Chao''s situation was quite different. Chapter 270 - 270: Pathetic Faster than anyone else, Chao was already making his way through the central part of the city, while others were just beginning to set off. He had already made his way quite nimbly to the southern part of the city, and by the time he was halfway to the south, he had already left thousands of corpses of demon beasts behind him. Chao was really angry. Even Hyperion himself, who had created him, had never seen this small and, to him, cute little Gryphon so angry. It was as if the anger had seeped into his eyes, and they were veined and his pupils had turned a mesmerizing crimson. So far he had managed to kill almost four dozen ancient beasts, even if they were not very powerful, and that included such superior beings as ancient demons, ancient mongooses, and ancient shadow leopards. Chao himself could recognize the exact location of the person who had done this evil, the person who had injured his only student, he could feel that person. The bloodless bastard was waiting in the southernmost part of the city, in one of the areas where the troops were being trained. Chao''s target was there, just like James, Ariel and Bai Fang. The only difference was that Chao was the only one and he had a huge amount of energy, he didn''t need to do any nonsense like not wasting it. He had three ancient demons in front of him, as usual, and it was clear that this trio, James and Ariel, were far, far stronger than the ancient demons that were in front of the Bai Fang group. However, this wasn''t even something Chao had to pay attention to. The only reason the ancient demon they had fought in the first place had pushed him so hard was because Chao hadn''t been trying to kill it outright, after all, he had complied with James'' wishes in case of any danger, and if James had ordered him to kill the ancient demon, that battle wouldn''t have lasted a minute. That was because the three ancient demons now standing before him were many times more powerful than the being he had fought in the first place. Chao took only one step and instantly appeared in front of the leftmost of the three. "Gotcha," Chao said suddenly, and with that, he grabbed the ancient demon''s head with his right claw and closed his claw abruptly. The claw sliced through the ancient demon''s skull like a knife through a cake. The ancient demon''s body fell to the ground the moment Chao released his claw, and the other two ancient demons stopped moving out of fear. The two remaining ancient demons could only think that if they moved, they would die. But even if they didn''t move, they would still die. After all, the holy beasts were called "holy" not because they were created by gods or goddesses. They were called holy because they were each incredibly powerful. Beings like the holy Crimson Bird, created by Helios and currently residing on the 60th floor, were given their holy nickname because literally, no one on that floor was more powerful than them. Crimson Bird, is the image of fire and beauty, the embodiment of freedom and humility. Maybe not a phoenix, but certainly the most perfect creation of the god Helion. Without waiting a second, Chao looked at the ancient demons standing next to him, frozen with fear, and said, "Pathetic." before cutting their necks. After that, he continued full speed ahead. This is how things were in the easternmost part of the empire and the largest city in the empire. James had cleared the eastern part of the city, Chao had cleared the central part of the city, and Ariel and Bai Fang had cleared and purified the western part of the city. In the capital of the Empire, something else was happening. Cordelia was directly under Selene''s command, and every noble in the imperial court was taking orders directly from Selene herself. Everything was simple. Whatever they did, however long they did it, with whatever kind of unit or crew of soldiers, they had to be useful to the war that was going on. That meant that Selene was receiving dozens of pieces of information every minute from all the gods and goddesses watching them from upstairs, who were now desperate to help, and relaying that information to the troops through Cordelia and the other nobles. S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Of the thousands of army men James had sent back to the imperial capital, the ones who could be considered leaders were the ones who appeared before Selene and told her what had happened. After a brief investigation by Selene, James and the others were found to be in good condition. This was very good news, as the war hadn''t even really started and only the powers were fighting each other constantly, and losing James would be signing their death warrant. "Great Goddess...how is Mr. Umbra doing? He sent us right away, we wanted to stay there but after what we saw we realized we had to escape, please...please tell us." said one of the company leaders. The bitterness on his face was evident, as was his respect for the person he saw as his enemy and rival. When Selene heard these words, she immediately remembered that it was one of those who had identified James as her rival. Being aware of many things in the tower, and now receiving constant intelligence from many gods and goddesses, he was able to provide her with exactly that kind of information. A huge smile spread across Selene''s face. The lady of the moon shone in such a perfect light that it was impossible not to be uplifted by the sight of her. Indeed, the venerable creatures had come at James''s request. It was astonishing that even his enemies and those who considered him a rival respected him so much. He had already gotten what many gods and goddesses wanted. Chapter 271 - 271: Other Divisions "He''s fine, don''t worry," Selene said suddenly and the squad leader smiled and asked, "Is there any way we can reach him, my lady? Do they need help? Maybe this time we can help. Selene thought about it, and after almost two minutes of waiting, she gestured to the west and said, "The west of the Empire awaits you." This could be considered a decisive order, an order from the Lady of the Moon. At Selene''s command, the military company suddenly left the imperial palace and then the imperial capital. All that remained was the place where Olympus had fought, the place Selene had perhaps paid the most attention to, the place where the battle had been the fiercest and most serious, where there had been the most casualties and the most victories: [Imperial border]. Olympus was full of people who were especially adept at rune spells and weakening or strengthening spells, which is why James assigned them to the worst place, even though it was dangerous, the borderlands, where demon beasts and even many ancient beasts would pass. It symbolized James'' trust in Olympus, but it also spoke volumes about the danger that was heading towards them, even if involuntarily. After all, we were not talking about thousands of demon beasts or tens of thousands of them. The number of monsters trying to cross the borders of the empire had passed the six-hundred-thousand mark and was growing every day. It was an incredibly dangerous thing, something that Olympus might not be able to withstand for very long. Of course, that would have been said by fools who lied about their weakness. Many people might perhaps have chosen gods or goddesses on the 1st floor, in the Sea of Rascals region, or perhaps on the 20th floor. Nevertheless, there was something to be understood here: [Olympos is Olympos. Not every single person foolish enough to insult this place would understand death by lightning strikes or by dying suddenly with their heads exploding from the pressure thousands of meters under the sea. Death would greet them, and Charon would take their soul into Hades and deliver it into the hands of Hades, the god of the underworld]. They would never be humiliated. Theseus had part of the power of his father Poseidon, Perseus had a little of the power of his father Zeus, and Pan had part of the power of his father Hermes. Such heroes, high god-borns, could not be taken lightly. Olympus would not fall so easily, such a thing was literally impossible. "RUUAGGHHHHHH!!!" Perseus shouted as he plunged his sharpened harp sword into one of the ancient demons. The ancient demon, already red with the blood of its enemies, could not withstand Perseus'' attack and died on the spot. Theseus and the other heroes and god-borns he had taken with him were trying to protect the border as best they could. Although Olympus was fighting on the front lines, their losses after a week of fighting were only 1,000. This was an incredibly small number for the reality of war. The Olympians were not running away from the battle, they were really fighting for their lives and that is why they had not lost more than a thousand people. They had already surpassed the number of demon beast hunts by over a hundred thousand. It was indeed an excellence that honoured their ancestors, the high warriors. Theseus'' orders from James were clear. His father Poseidon had told him to follow James as his leader no matter what, and Theseus planned to do so whether his father wanted him to or not, he couldn''t let down the man he considered his closest friend. The orders were to kill as many ancient demons as possible, and with them as many ancient monsters. Theseus was up to the task. He had travelled thousands of kilometres from one side of the border to the other with almost a thousand Olympian soldiers, and he had done it over and over again. He had slain almost a hundred ancient monsters with this army of a thousand men, losing only twenty of his subordinates in the process. He was one of the few people whose name would go down in history in golden letters. He was a true leader. After almost half a day of non-stop fighting, the number of demon monsters had been reduced to an incredible extent. On top of that, the ancient monsters were no longer staying where they were. At least the borders of the Mountain Empire of the northern continent were completely secure. The only problem now was what was happening inside. Perseus was immediately sent to break the seals of ancient monsters, especially ancient demons. sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Perseus was strangely sad to be away from the battles on the border, he was such a strange and maniacal man. It was a good thing, though, because the more Perseus wanted to get back to where he wanted to be, the faster he could get the job done. So the settlements in the northern part of the empire would be protected by Perseus himself. This was certainly one of the most excellent pieces of news the empire could have received. All eyes now turned to the main group. What James, Ariel, Chao and the newcomer Bai Fang would do would decide the fate of the continent. After all, what they would be fighting would not be a normal ancient monster. Whatever it was that could bring down an entire city the second most powerful person on the entire floor was likely to challenge even Chao himself. This meant that the foursome had to be as steady and decisive as possible, calculating every move they made tens of seconds in advance and perfecting it to the last breath. That is... assuming they were intelligent. After all, neither James could think intelligently in this situation, the imprisonment of the souls of the living had driven him mad. And then there was Chao himself, the holy old Gryphon, burning with vengeance. Ariel and Bai Fang were doing nothing but killing anyone who came their way. They could not be said to prioritize intelligence at the moment. Chapter 272 - 272: Vladimirs Legacies Are Here Selene and the others were concentrating on intelligence, so it was understandable that they were trying to be very careful. That was the reason why the troop divisions and their distribution were so even. Still, not everything was going unbelievably well. It had been exactly three days since James and the others had started clearing the huge city to the east. The northern continent had been cleared, and the casualties were enormous. Almost two hundred thousand soldiers had been sacrificed to clear the continent. The only reason for such a quick clearing was that the person who had managed to choose the God of Mischief Loki was on the northern continent. The old man had led an army of almost four hundred thousand with his own hands and managed to clear a continent, if not a huge one, in just a week and a half. The eastern and western continents were close to being cleared, though close to being cleared did not mean cleared. Hundreds of thousands of demon beasts and hundreds of ancient monsters still existed on these two continents. The real trouble was in the southern continent, the continent where the Mountain Empire and other settlements were located. Even though Perseus, Theseus and others were trying to help the continent, for some reason, the biggest influx of monsters was happening to this continent. On top of that, the king himself, the reason why all the soldiers came to this floor, was absent. They couldn''t get any orders from James. Of course, it didn''t take long for Selene and the others to inform everyone where James was and what he was doing. The stress on everyone was only increased by the fact that help was needed on the outside. Even Selene thought that she should get up and help James, but there was nothing that could be done, it was already a great danger for a goddess who had climbed to the 150th floor of the tower to come here, that is, to the 37th floor, the pressure on her was increasing every minute, she could not try to fight on top of it, that is, she could not get into a big war. After all, Selene had been assigned to protect the imperial palace and its contents. ''Lady Selene, you have visitors. They want to speak to you specifically, my lady.'' Cordelia said suddenly, and with that, she caught Selene''s attention. Selene acknowledged Cordelia with a wave of her hand and summoned the visitors to the throne room. Four men entered, wearing robes and their heads covered by the hoods of those robes. Yet Selene recognised them instantly. At last,t the expected had happened. At la, st the most arrogant and honourable race in the tower had shown their faces. ''May we know the whereabouts of Umbra, Lord Umbra, great goddess?'' Selene looked at the person at the front of the quartet rather puzzled when he asked this question and then asked ''Lord?'', she did not expect such a word from them. ''You know who we are, let us protect him, we have already learnt...what happened, he is the emperor of our race whether he wants to be or not.'' the robed person said and with that, hat an energy came into Selene''s face. Every single person in the throne room was trying to understand what was going on but couldn''t, but the fact that Selene was smiling like that meant that everything was fine. ''In the east of the empire, in the house of the duke of the east, in the city of the crow. He is trying to purify the city, you will find him there.'' Selene said and then turned to Cordelia and said, ''Bring this master a map of the empire.'' Cordelia suddenly gave orders to several people took four maps and gave each of the four a map. As the four of them quickly left the throne room, loud noises began to rise from outside and the voices began to fade away incredibly quickly. Cordelia moved forward to ask the question that was on everyone''s mind, the sun was setting and the last light of the day was coming in through the windows. ''My lady...who were those people?'' Selene''s smile widened when Cordelia asked that question and then she turned to Cordelia and replied, ''Vampires.'' S§×ar?h the N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. ----- James and the others had finally made it to the north side of the city. Each of them could see what was there with their naked eyes. They came across a neat-looking king but an evil-looking person with crimson hair. This person had two horns like other ancient demons, but he didn''t have any wings. A message came from Nyx himself, [Be careful James...This is an overpowered one. If such a message came from Nyx, every single one of them had to be true, and that was what made everything dangerous. James shook his head and then, thanks to the Void Pen, managed to tell the others, ''I got a warning from Nyx, no matter how angry we are, we need to be careful.'' Just then he was greeted with another message: [Help is on the way James, hang in there.] This message was from Selene herself. Even though James was surprised by this message and questioned who would be stupid enough to come here after all the intelligence, he still wanted all the help he could get right now. ''COMING!'' Chao suddenly shouted, and with that, the ancient demon that had been standing still suddenly appeared in front of James. Before James even realised what was happening, the ancient demon''s fist appeared right in front of his face and James was hit incredibly hard in the face. James had passed through the streets and buildings for almost a hundred metres. The impact of the attack on his face was so huge that there was simply no way to describe it easily. [Auto Heal (Unusual+) ability flickering!] [Auto Heal has reached its usage limit!] [Ability level increases! The Tower grants you a new ability.] [Healing of the Blood Lord (Legendary+++++) has been delivered to you by the tower''s self!] James barely opened his eyes as he sat up and read the messages in front of him one by one. he could feel his rib cage cracking, and his left arm was directly broken. [Healing of the Blood Lord(Legendary+++++) A direct evolution of the auto-heal ability. It allows the user to recover quickly from caustic, poisonous, striking effects. The user will now be able to heal fractures and cracks automatically. The user''s severed body parts will be able to regenerate, even if it is INCREDIBLY slow. This will be an incredibly stamina-intensive process]. After a succession of system windows, James realised that the cracks in his body were starting to heal. With each passing second, they were decreasing. He suddenly stood up and looked at the ancient demon attacked by the trio of Ariel, Chao and Bai Fang. His anger was evident on his face. Suddenly, he leapt forward and used dark steps and transition skills at the same time without even thinking twice. With that, his speed stat had surpassed the number 1000 for a few seconds. This was a number equivalent to a low-level god. After reaching hyper-speed, he appeared in front of the ancient demon who was trying to avoid the trio''s attacks and hit the ancient demon''s face with his fist as hard as he could. The acceleration from its speed was so huge that a sound that broke the sound barrier rose into the sky and a huge impact scattered around. The ancient demon itself flew even further than James, passing through buildings and not stopping. Even if every single person watching what was happening was surprised by what was happening, they couldn''t even speak or praise James because of his facial expression, a strange creepiness could be said to describe James'' facial emotion. After this, the ancient demon came back to the field and pointed at James, his face smeared with blood. ''I''m going to take your life.'' the ancient demon suddenly said, and James, hearing this, made a sign to the trio around him as if he realised that they had to use everything they had, and with that, everyone waited, ready to do anything. Ariel immediately activated her Lord''s Knight ability, Chao completely transformed into a Gryphon, and Bai Fang equipped his blades. James instantly dispersed 8 Sacred Fire as much as possible and held the Godly Sword Lumen, along with the huge energy dispersed by the colourful flames that spread almost six hundred metres. He instantly activated his Aura of Chaos ability and strengthened the statuses of all his allies by 50%, weakening the opponent by 10%, and strengthening himself by 100% on top of that. James now had a status point ranking that was even higher than the status points of someone ready to cross the 75th floor. This ability would only work for a minute, so they had to be quick. Now their main battle was about to begin...of course, they thought it was the main battle, it was a pity that they did not know the truth. Chapter 273 - 273: Attack After successive attacks, the Ancient Demon was officially invulnerable. It was as if its strength was growing with each attack. It was natural for the group to be intimidated; they did not even know what to do, and this was a terrible situation. They were facing perhaps one of the most powerful creatures they had ever fought. "Pity. When it attacked me just a moment ago, I thought it was at least a powerful foe, but... alas, it was only a one-time thing, sad." the ancient demon said suddenly, and with that, the place went silent. James, Ariel, Chao, and Bai Fang could practically hear their own heartbeats. Each of their hearts was pounding, and it was very strange. It was as if time had stopped and they were lost in the stopped time. A sudden darkness enveloped them, the sky darkened and the group members were trapped. They couldn''t see each other, it was as if they were in other universes and it was a truly blood-curdling experience. "I wanted to deal with you first, the other three are trapped somewhere. The truth is that holy Gryphon, when I took my orders they said he would give us trouble, and he is much stronger than I thought, he will destroy me in a one-on-one fight. Which means you are my first target." The ancient demon suddenly uttered these words and then its body glowed with a red light. Only a few seconds after that, a sword appeared in his right hand. This sword was none other than the Godly Sword Lumen that James possessed. James looked at the ancient demon with great awkwardness and confusion, and at that very moment, a message notification appeared in front of him: [What the fuck?] It was obvious that even the gods and goddesses watching him were puzzled. The Godly Sword Lumen was the only one of its kind, there was no other sword like it, indeed there was no other sword like it in all of creation and the 24 existences that existed. This meant that the ancient demon in front of him had some kind of copying ability. James was about to ask just that when suddenly the angry yet gentle voice of the ancient demon in front of him rang in his ears: "I have to tell you the truth, I don''t know what the sword in your hand is, but it may indeed be the most perfect sword I have ever held in my hand. It is so mighty, so perfect and balanced that I could not even replicate it exactly." As soon as the ancient demon had said these words, it leapt at James and managed to strike him with an incredibly heavy blow. James was able to meet the attack and then successfully parry it. The ancient demon didn''t seem to expect James, who was standing in front of him, to be able to do it so easily, as he was quite surprised. "I have to admit though, this sword is quite young, it''s as if the spirit in it has been reborn, it''s fascinating. It''s a pity I couldn''t copy it exactly, after all, it will disappear after I kill you, otherwise, I could have kept the sword with an exact copy." the ancient demon added and attacked again. It seemed to be trying to confuse James with each step and attack, but James had no intention of getting on his knees, he continued to attack steadily, just like the ancient demon. The light of the flames that James was constantly spreading around in the pitch-black zone flickered on and off with each sword clash, and each time it was as if a masterpiece of art was being created. With each clash, the deep sound of metal echoed through the vast darkness and each time a deeper pattern of colourful flames rose into the sky. After a short time, the gap between the two, who were constantly clashing swords, began to widen. Naturally, James began to tire. He had been fighting for a long time and hadn''t had a minute''s sleep. The fact that he hadn''t mastered Star Magic could only help him relieve his fatigue for a few minutes. It was incredibly obvious that he was reaching his limits. Sear?h the N?velFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The Ancient Demon must have realised this too, after all the speed of its attacks was increasing with each passing second and becoming more and more powerful. James, on the other hand, despite his exhaustion, was in no way going to fall to his knees, he was not going to be defeated, no matter how tired he was, it was not possible. He knew he had to get out of this dark place, so he was constantly thinking and trying to figure out what to do. Or rather, he was just trying to reach a path with light at the end. Almost five more minutes passed after the continuation of the battle and James miraculously reached a path. The Destruction ability. James had seen that this ability could even lock a portal and then tear it to pieces, which meant that if he could send enough mana through one of his legs while fighting the ancient demon, he could make it out of there. He would be pretty tired afterwards, though. This meant that James would once again have to rely on Ariel, Chao and Bai Fang. The ancient demon suddenly realised that something was wrong, and James'' face, which only seconds before had shown signs of exhaustion, was filled with the brightness of hope. "You''re planning something...but you can''t kill me, there''s no way." the ancient demon said and with that the smile on James'' face became obvious. James'' smile was incredibly creepy, at least it was to the ancient demon. James'' strike speed and attack pattern had suddenly changed. He was now attacking faster and more decisively. While doing this, he was gathering all of the mana around his heart into his left leg as usual. After almost three minutes of determined attacks, it was time to release everything. With a kick, he launched an attack at the ancient demon, which bounced backwards off the sword in his hand. Immediately after that, he said ''destruction.'' out loud and then planted his left leg hard on the dark floor. The dark area suddenly shattered, the light in the sky becoming visible again. James''s ability shook the entire continent, everyone realised a huge earthquake, even small tsunamis formed outside the continental border. The Destruction ability was indeed one of the most powerful abilities James had, especially considering that James'' mana capacity increased drastically almost every few weeks, making his Destruction ability a massively deadly ability. Ariel, Chao, and Bai Fang, like James, had managed to escape the dark space. Ariel was injured, Bai Fang was tired, and Chao''s face was full of anger. The ancient demon was in a state of shock that the young man in front of him could do such a thing. The number of people who could do such things under the 75th floor was no more than five, and the ancient demon was faced with one of those people because of his bad luck. Still, all James could do now was to use his aura to protect himself and those around him for a while. He had indeed shifted into a powerless state, after all, with no mana, he only had half of his power. The ancient demon didn''t seem to want to fight against James alone. Instantly it whistled, and then a completely different darkness spread around, affecting only the earth. Thousands of skeletons, zombies, and hundreds of demon monsters emerged from the darkness. Of the group, only Chao was able to fight, James was still able to fight, but he was exhausted and had used up all the mana in his body. Ariel was injured and had to be protected until she recovered, and it would be none other than the exhausted Bai Fang. In short, Chao was on his own. Of course...that was what they thought. The smile of the ancient demon, who had just been wearing a disgusting smile, had suddenly fallen, looking somewhere behind the group. James turned round to see what was going on, no matter how dangerous it was, and his eyes widened as if he couldn''t believe his eyes. "I told you they would worship you, James," he heard himself say. What Vladimir had said was indeed true. James could see perhaps four hundred or even five hundred vampires coming towards him, an exciting sight indeed, but even more than that, a frightening sight. He smiled and then turned to the ancient demon and gestured to those around him. He simply said the words: "Attack." Hundreds of vampires had passed by the moment he had said the word calmly. Each of them attacked with their clawed hands, and the blood elemental frenzy could be seen in the air. In a word, it was like a painting. Chapter 274 - 274: Ariel and James Will Be Enough The ancient demon seemed stunned as hundreds of vampires attacked. They didn''t care about anyone but their own honour and their own race, just like vampires. James, on the other hand, had now partially absorbed the essence of a Sun Vampire, even if his race hadn''t changed, and had begun to be seen as a member of the race by the vampires. The question was how the vampires had learnt that James possessed such a thing. Still, it wasn''t something that needed to be pondered at the moment. James turned to Chao, who was stunned just like the ancient demon, and then said as if it was very normal, "The stage is yours Chao, crush him one on one, kill him, and leave the rest to us." As soon as Chao heard these words, he suddenly jumped up and bit the ancient demon in the neck, and suddenly drove it out of the city. Everything happened so fast that only the vampires, Bai Fang, Ariel and James were left to fight against the demon beasts. "DON''T LEAVE ANYONE ALIVE!!!" James suddenly shouted, and with his words, all the vampires became even more violent. The puddles of blood on the ground were rising in drops towards the sky. James himself felt that it was time to finally use the blood elemental, although his mana still needed a little refresher. After all, he could try to use the blood elemental in his aura. After all, his aura and magic rings were linked by the sprouting of the cracked elemental core. In short, James could see that he was able to freely transfer all the elements in his magic rings into his aura. Even if this was at a very weak level, it was still better than nothing, especially when he was in a situation where he could not use magic at all. Suddenly, he lunged forward and, holding the Godly Sword Lumen tightly, sliced through the back of a demon beast that was standing right in front of Ariel and Bai Fang. He instantly recovered his aura, and then he took out Lumen from the place where he had sliced the demon beast and inserted his hand into that area. As he removed his hand from the monster''s body, a sword took shape, indicating that his aura recognised the blood element. The vampires around were genuinely surprised, from those who fought hard to those who were strong enough to kill anything easily, their eyes widened. The male vampire who had spoken to Selene said in front of everyone, "The rumours are true, the one who killed one of our kind has become the leader of our race..." With that, it was time for James to give orders again: "A few of you stay here and protect the duo, take care of them until they recover, the rest of you hunt down every demon beast scattered in and out of the city, those of you who don''t have weaknesses to fire stay close to me, it''s going to get hot in here!" As soon as James''s orders reached the vampires, none of them questioned them twice. When the male vampire who had spoken to Selene came in front of James and got down on his knees, he began to speak simply: "Sir, my name is Kriss, a vampire duke. With your permission, I would like to summon more vampires to help on this floor." James nodded when he heard these words and with that, Kriss left and joined the vampires who had begun to leave the city. There were only about a hundred vampires left in the city, and more than ten thousand demon beasts stood in the city. It was time for a one-sided slaughter. James knew vampires very well. Not only did he have an idea of what they were capable of, but he had fought a member of their master race before. That meant there was no way they could lose this battle unless Chao was dead. The demon beasts seemed to have some very powerful ones among them. James could even see the mature dragons when he looked up in the air. It was indeed a very majestic sight, but the time to get caught up in this sight was not now. James suddenly lunged forward. In his right hand was the Godly Sword Lumen, which he held tightly, and in his left hand was the sword of his newly created blood aura. With each step, the colours of the flames around him began to mix and glow. The flames were no longer merging, they were each in different colours and shapes. From black flames to white flames, each colour in succession, this was a city that was not just a few metres across but over a thousand kilometres. It was truly gigantic and James'' aura had managed to cover the whole city. With each step he took, he was mowing down another monster and moving on to the next. He could feel himself right in front of that aura door. It was as if there was something he had to do to get the top-level completed aura, but he did not know what it was. He had already learnt to use his aura most perfectly, he had become incredible at fighting using aura, but he could still see that no matter what he did, he could not open those doors and pass through. Still, it was not like him to give up. He could see the shadow tigers running towards him. Some of them came very close and even managed to bite one of James'' arms and left leg. James didn''t even make a sound, even though he was hurt and in pain. He used Lumen, the sword in his right hand, to slice through the skull of one of the shadow tigers and the blood aura sword in his left hand to decapitate another shadow tiger. Instantly, he felt something coming towards him at speed and ducked down. He was incredibly glad that he had ducked down because he was able to get a clear view of the huge knife, which was tied with chains that ran right over his head. It seemed likely that this knife would be able to cut his body. Immediately, he swung the sword in his right hand at Lumen and cut the chain of the huge knife that had come at him in one move. After that, he looked where the blade came from and saw the being that looked like a human but was o demon beast and started running towards it. The humanoid shuddered when it saw James running towards it, with flames coming out of his eyes and turned around and started to run away. James continued to chase the humanoid figure, not caring about any of the obstacles in his path. In just five seconds, the humanoid figure paused and looked at his chest because of the feeling of warmth in his chest. At that very moment, the humanoid figure saw that its chest had been pierced by the blood sword that James had created with his aura. Half of the sword had entered his chest and James had no thought of removing the sword. The humanoid figure fell to its death and James continued to fight right next to the vampires. Just then, from outside the city, perhaps five hundred metres away, the sensation of a gigantic impact spread through everyone. James realised that every hair on his body was trembling, one by one. James could sense that this energy belonged to Chao, not the ancient demon, and with a smile on his face he said ''I knew you could hurt him one on one, destroy him Chao.'' at the same time he thrust the Godly Sword Lumen into the spiny rat next to him. S§×ar?h the n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. It was at that moment that James realised the holy energy rising behind him. ''You''re too late, Ariel,'' James said, and with that, a golden beam passed a few centimetres past him and began to attack the demon monsters in front of him. Ariel had activated her Lord''s Knight ability. Ariel was glowing. Her golden wings made her look completely different, her golden armour made her look like an angel, and her azure blue hair, tinged with purple from Moros'' abilities, shone with golden colours. Ariel stood in front of James like a shield. James took advantage of this and increased his attack speed even more. Despite all the fatigue of his body, despite his body begging him to stop, he had no intention of stopping. Each of his attacks landed faster and harder on his enemies. With each attack, he mowed down another monster, each attack causing more to flee in fear. His attacks were so deep, hard, and fast that each one sent an impact through the air as if he were breaking through a wall of speed. Both James and Ariel had goosebumps on the hairs on the back of their necks. It was as if even in the realm of the gods, there hadn''t been such a good duo in a long time. Even Nyx herself felt as if she was watching her daughters Eris and Nemesis. This duo was that perfect. James kept attacking without a second thought, and Ariel met each attack with her sword in her hand and the golden armour she wore. Ariel was making sure that no attack could reach James, it was a perfect sight. The whole city was covered in flames of different colours, the dark image of James merged with Ariel''s image of holy light, and the red colour of the blood created a spectacle that fascinated the viewers. The number of demon beasts had officially halved from over ten thousand just ten minutes ago. Not only that, hundreds of gates began to open in the air because of the call of the vampire Duke Kriss. Thousands of vampires had come to the 37th floor on James'' orders. The war had only just begun and the end was hours and days away. Chapter 275 - 275: Upcoming Future "You''re too strong, you shouldn''t be on this floor," the ancient demon said, his right arm severed and unrecoverable, clearly terrified of Chao, who was standing in front of him. Chao, on the other hand, didn''t care about anything. He could see the city behind him burning in different coloured flames. He didn''t know that his head and mind shouldn''t have gone there. He had fought against the ancient demon for almost seven hours straight. It was quite understandable that the end of the battle was coming. Unlike the ancient demon, Chao''s body wasn''t fatigued and could continue fighting for a very long time. On the other hand, the ancient demon had enormous fatigue and the fact that he had been fighting for a long time and did not yet have all his strength had brought him to the brink of death. He knew he was going to die. Chao suddenly leapt forward and began to swing his claws harder and faster at the ancient demon before him. With each thrust, the ancient demon became closer to death. The blood blooms coming out of its body had formed a small lake on the earth, it was a horrible sight. The ancient demon had been careless for a moment, and the next thing he saw was Chao''s claw entering his chest. In short, the ancient demon had simply lost the battle. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Yet, as Chao realised, something was wrong. Something didn''t seem right. The ancient demon''s face suddenly showed that horrible expression, and with it, with litres of blood flowing out of his mouth, his voice came out: "The last seal is gone, this floor will no longer exist, hahaha! Good luck, fools." As soon as he uttered those words, the sky became darker than normal, Chao suddenly let go of the ancient demon, and with that, the ancient demon''s body was burnt to ashes and disappeared. When Chao immediately left and came to James, he saw that what had just happened to the ancient demon had happened to all the demon beast corpses, and when James looked at him with a puzzled look, he said, ''I think we have brought our end.'' As James raised his eyes to the sky, dozens of message windows instantly began to open in front of him: [LEAVE NOW!!!] [RUN!!!] [DON''T LOOK BACK FOR A SECOND!!!] [GET EVERYONE OUT OF THERE!!!] [LEAVE!!! LEAVE THE CITY NOW!!!] [DON''T JUST STAND THERE, MOVE!!!] James suddenly started to close the message windows that had formed in front of his eyes and turned around and shouted "RUN NOW!!!". At that moment, Chao embraced Ariel and James and tore the teleportation scroll in his hand, pointing at Bai Fang. The teleportation scroll didn''t work, the scroll seemed to be blocked by something. At that moment, the message windows to James went silent, and one by one, everything was being blocked. As soon as Chao saw that nothing was working, he started running. He instantly transformed into his Gryphon form and began to fly, carrying James and Ariel. All the vampires were following James, and soon the city was deserted and everyone who looked at it was left where they were. Just above the city, the sky was torn to pieces, something... someone was looking at them. Several arms broke through the sky and pressed down on the earth, and after a short time, a monster appeared, maybe a hundred metres above the ground. The monster looked like a machine. Its legs were fixed to the earth and its arms were going into the fractures in the sky. James and the others felt as if they were looking into eternity itself. James knew they could not defeat such a monster, they needed help but...was there anything that could help? "We''re leaving...WE''RE LEAVING HERE!!!" shouted James and with that Chao and every single one of James'' subordinates began to leave the perimeter of the city as fast as they could. At that very moment, a voice rose from the monster itself: "SWOOOOSH..." It was as if the sound of a gasp echoed in the sky. James, who was on Chao''s back in the form of a gryphon, turned round and looked up at the beast that stretched up to the sky, and saw that the place where the beast''s eye had been glowed with a yellow light. As soon as the sound of breathing stopped, everyone could hear their heartbeats, each of them with their eyes wide open, of them at that moment, each of them accelerated even faster and started to sprint with the adrenaline in their bodies to protect their own lives. At that very moment, the sound came: "ZWOOOOOOOOMMM!!!" With the sound of that sound, a yellow beam with an electrifying effect emerged from that gigantic eye, which was perhaps ten metres in size, and moved at hyper speed directly towards the Crow City, one of the largest cities in the empire and the entire floor. A ten-metre laser streaked straight through the city, and in just ten seconds the expected happened: "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!" The sound of the attack was so colossal that there was no way to fully describe it. The closest way to describe it would be as if an atomic bomb had been dropped on a city. The impact of the attack was so great, so overwhelming, that several of the vampires and even James himself realised that their eardrums were close to bursting. The only reason Ariel was able to withstand the impact was because she had used the last shred of aura she had left in her body to use her Lord''s Knight ability, just in case. Once Chao was out of the impact''s range, everyone managed to calm down, but nothing had changed, the monster had crushed the city, even if only a tenth of the city was damaged, it was still a huge level, and the impact that came with this attack had already managed to destroy all the buildings in the city. Even if there was anything alive in the city, there was no way for it to survive. Without stopping, Chao and the others had somehow managed to reach the imperial capital in just one day. Even if those who saw them in this state could not understand what had happened, all the nobles and the group who had managed to get to the throne room had managed to see Selene. Selene''s face was white, I mean... she always had a skin tone close to white, but right now it was as if all the blood had been drained from her body. "You know what''s going on don''t you?" James asked with great stress. "I''ve lost contact with the outer floors, the floor is locked down again, and I''m fighting alone, can you keep them safe?" Selene asked, not even bothering to answer James'' question. James shook his head awkwardly and then replied, ''I can try...we can try.'' After these words, Selene got up from the throne and then went to the nearest window, went to the balcony and then left the palace. James knew how dangerous it was, in fact, everyone in the hall now realised how dangerous it was. The higher a climber climbed, the more his strength was limited when he came down. Selene was one of the goddesses who climbed to the 150th floor with incredible strength. The power of this woman in white could cut through space and even floors if she gained enough elemental power at certain times. While Selene was so strong, she had lost more than 90 per cent of her power with the fact that she had pushed down to the lower floors and even almost 120 floors. If something wasn''t done, Selene would have suffered great harm, really great harm. There was no way Selene could die, it was out of the question, but James realised very clearly...the future he had seen before was now possible. The woman who was supposed to protect them had to leave, they were standing in the imperial palace and every single person he had seen in his vision was now inside the hall. It was a very awful situation. James looked around as if he didn''t know what to do and saw eyes looking at him with concern and hope. He instantly turned to the vampires and then said, ''Kriss, whatever you do, try not to die, but....please slaughter all the demon monsters that come your way, even if your bodies collapse...there are millions of children under the palace, at least they should live.'' These words of James deeply affected everyone and Kriss and the other vampires left the palace in accordance with James'' orders, even if they nodded their heads and did not become that emotional. Then, seeing Theseus and the others who had already returned to the palace, James shook his head and Theseus and those around him left the palace without even needing to give orders. Caught in Cordelia''s gaze, James shook his head and began to walk as if he did not know what to do, soon approaching the stairs leading to the throne, he sat on a step and finally began to breathe on rest. Soon the voices in the throne room disappeared and darkness descended. James recognised the image from somewhere, but he hadn''t even tried to come to this place. What exactly was going on? Chapter 276 - 276: The Tower Will Borrow Your Body James began to walk through this dark area. There were maybe a dozen lights around him, twinkling as if they were stars. He seemed to both know and not know where he was at the same time, constantly turning round and round in a confused state, trying to make sense of things. "This is what we have to do, for our future, this is all there is to it." Sear?h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James suddenly heard this unfamiliar voice and then turned in the direction from which it had come. The light, shining like a star, turned into two people and began to repeat as if it were a memory. Trying to reduce the brightness with his hands, James began to try to understand who the voice was coming from and who the voice was talking to. "What the fuck?" James said suddenly, knowing very clearly who he was seeing. "What do you mean this is the way it has to be, don''t you realise that if you make this deal with me, more than half of your soul will be mine?" When the other of the voices spoke, James realised who it was and then shook his head and fell to the ground in a daze. Just then he heard a voice coming from behind him: "I brought you here but I didn''t expect you to adapt so quickly, the memories seem to have officially opened their doors to you." "It''s been a while since I''ve seen you, Tower," James said and then pointed to the memory with his hand as if he was wondering what was going on. When the tower saw this sign, he said, "This is a memory star, it shows the conversation between your ancestor and me. Memory stars are quite hard to find, of course, since I am the tower itself, it is not a difficult thing for me to obtain, but you know what I mean." James frowned when he heard these words and then shouted "YOU KNOW WHAT I''M TRYING TO SAY!!!" The tower''s self shook its head when it heard these words and then replied, "I realise, I was just trying to relieve the stress on you. This memory is based on an event that occurred when your ancestor sold almost 60% of his soul to me in an offer." The tower itself seemed to be quite normally upset for the mental health of James, who was standing in front of it. Of course, he knew that James wouldn''t go and go mad because of his Mind Palace ability, he could just see that James'' psychology was not going in a good direction. "Tell me...how much more am I going to see, the sacrifices he made? I''m being weighed down by things I don''t even know what''s going on, how much further do I have to go with little information?" James muttered, and with that, the tower began to speak again: "I will not tell you what happened, my promise prevents it, even if I am the tower itself, according to the rules set by Chaos, the promise of life cannot be broken, I will die as a result. Nevertheless, I will give you two options by this promise and by the agreement." After these words from the tower, James nodded his head and said "Let''s get this over with." with the smile of the tower''s self, the options were presented to him: "The first option is to get you off this floor, I agree to save a few people with you, and I release Desmond''s soul as his bloodline member wishes." James swallowed and then asked, "Or?" thinking he would accept what he had just heard outright. "Or, young Black, I will come to the floor with my true self, destroy the great beast, but take exactly 100 random status points from you. After all, the agreement itself requires me to save his future replacement three times. Since I''ve already done this twice, this could be the third time. Assuming I get nothing from you the second time I save your life, 100 status points will seem like nothing for hundreds of millions of lives." When the tower finished, James paused for a few seconds and then said, "I don''t care, you can get even 1000 status points, not 100. Just...Just don''t let them die, any of them. They are family." The tower itself seemed surprised to hear this answer. Desmond might have been the most selfish person in the tower''s eyes. Desmond was a being who only wanted to raise people to the upper echelon of beings, of course, this was in the eyes of the tower. It took Desmond tens of thousands of years to lose this selfishness, which is why this deal is happening now. James, on the other hand, had never been selfish since he had entered the tower, or rather, he had never attempted anything but petty rhetoric. Although he was not going to go far from his status points, it was known that even among the gods and goddesses, there were not many who would accept this offer as quickly as he did. She would certainly be the most perfect being to have come from the Black lineage, even if she was one of the weakest. "Are you sure? If you agree to leave here with the people of your choice, you will have the right to ask me for one more favour, I mean literally anything, I can even give you 100 Godly skills. Remember, first the ownership of the 36th floor, then the Healing of the Blood Lord ability I gave you on the 37th floor, and now this. Choose carefully." the tower suddenly said, and with that James'' voice was heard again: "I''m sure." With that, the tower''s embodied self smiled and then moved towards James and touched him squarely on the forehead. Everything around him vanished instantly, and when James opened his eyes again in reality, he realised that only a few seconds had passed. He could see with his own eyes that fearful eyes were watching him, but...he didn''t seem to be himself. His body wasn''t moving the way he wanted it to. "Sir...are you all right?" asked Alissa, the twins'' sister. James had stood up and started to walk after her, and by the time the others started to move out of his way, James was already at the edge of the window and suddenly jumped out of the window and took off into the air. James was well aware of what was happening, even if no one else could understand what was happening. The tower was controlling James. James could see his body moving at hyperspeed. He was now many times faster than both Selene and Chao. In just five minutes he had travelled back the way they had come, having spent a day on Chao''s back, and he saw Selene beginning to fight the beast. When Selene realised the huge energy coming towards her, she turned to where it was coming from and saw James. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET OUT OF HERE! I''LL TAKE CARE OF IT!!!" shouted Selene. Selene had been careless, she shouldn''t have tried to speak, when the beast''s eye glowed with golden light, the beam that immediately came towards Selene was visible to the naked eye. James''s body had moved at that moment. Even if Selene had tried to protect herself, it was too late, she would have to take a blow with her body. It was not to be expected though, Selene had only closed and opened her eyes once when she realised that she was already in James''s embrace. It didn''t take her long to realise that it wasn''t James. "Who the hell are you?" Selene questioned but got no answer. The energy emanating from James''s body began to carry Selene as if she were a baby and placed her behind James in a position where she could be protected. James only raised his finger. An unbelievably huge, gigantic, enormous energy began to gather in James''s finger. The monster, which was more than a hundred metres in size, was liable to do anything, it seemed to be locked. Even if the monster was trying to move its own body, there was nothing it could do. Dozens of settlements had already been destroyed at the hands of this monster, and perhaps more than a hundred thousand lives had been lost. Nevertheless, everything would end at this moment. The energy in the index finger of James'' left hand was suddenly released. A beam of light, perhaps forty metres in size, travelled from the earth to the sky where the monster''s body was, and in the blink of an eye, the main body of the monster was gone. When the remaining body parts of the monster fell to the earth, an earthquake effect occurred. The tower controlling James'' body snapped its finger once, and after the incredibly loud sound wave that came out, the remaining body parts disappeared. In just a little over five minutes, perhaps one of the most destructive monsters in the history of the tower had simply died. Neither Miracle the baby Supreme Dragon, nor Ruby the Holy Phoenix, nor Selene, one of the greatest of goddesses, had to do anything. This was the power of Chaos'' masterpiece, the tower. Chapter 277 - 277: The War Is Over Selene was astonished by what she saw before her, she should have been, she had seen a monster that had worried even her to die with just one attack. After almost ten seconds, the strange energy around James dissipated, and he realised that his mind was beginning to blur as he felt his body returning to him. The only thing he saw in front of him before he passed out with Selene holding him was the message sent by the tower [I have completed the deal, young man.] When he opened his eyes again, he woke up to a very familiar sight. He seemed to have woken up in the room given to him in the Mountain Empire, and he could see his daughter Miracle and his grandmother Ruby sleeping next to him. On the other hand, Sophia was lying on Ruby''s stomach and sleeping. James, who looked around after standing on the bed, managed to come to himself with a message: [Do you realise how stupid what you have done?] The message had been sent by Nyx herself. While James was thinking about why this message was scolding him, he saw a message from someone else: [There are probably only a handful of people in the tower who could summon the tower itself into their bodies, James, and yet none of them would do it, in short, their bodies...or rather, their souls couldn''t handle it. You are very lucky that Sun Vampire''s energy has incredibly strengthened your body and especially your mana heart. Otherwise, you would have died long ago]. After reading this message from Chronos, James shook his head and replied, "I didn''t even know such a thing could happen, but for billions, my life was not a bad change." He couldn''t even imagine how many gods and goddesses he had pissed off with these words, but everyone could see how serious he was by looking at his face. It was as if James had given up his own life in their eyes. [What did you offer the tower?] Nyx asked, and even though James couldn''t see it, Nyx''s face was grim. "Nothing much, just 100 status points," James replied, and with that, Nyx''s expression that had just shown bitterness turned to surprise. James shook his head once more at the lack of another message and added, "A deal, he offered to help me, I accepted, and I swear I didn''t lose anything else." With these words, every god and goddess fell silent and this time the message of James'' dear wife Nemesis was seen: [I don''t care what happened, it''s only important that you''re okay.] James smiled when he saw this message and then said "I love you too, Neme." and got out of bed without waking the others. When he smelled himself, he realised that someone had already washed him and he left the room by putting on some clothes immediately after going to the toilet. sea??h th§× Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. After only a short time, he passed through the imperial soldiers and servants who looked at him with astonishment and came to the throne hall. As she entered, she could see that all eyes turned to her. Selene was surprised that she was still on the 37th floor. He could easily see Selene sitting on the throne. At the foot of the stairs leading to the throne, he could see Ariel with tears in her eyes and Theseus and Perseus standing next to her. "Hi everyone," James said simply and with that, he waved to Ariel and the others, it seemed like an awkward moment. Ariel quickly ran over and gave James a deep hug. "Do you realise that you''ve been asleep for almost two months?" questioned Ariel and with that James became even more confused. "Two months?" James questioned and put a hand to his head and scratched his head. "Yes, we were quite worried, Lady Selene and the others said it was fine, but you should have seen Ariel, she was going mad," Theseus said, his happiness evident on his face. James shook his head and hugged Ariel once more and then turned to Selene and said, "I don''t remember much of what happened, except for a few things, I think you probably already know." After Selene nodded in agreement, James smiled and after only a few seconds his smile faded. "How many casualties did we suffer?" James asked. "The Sun Empire suffered a total loss of nearly 24000 soldiers. We lost over 7000 climbers. The White Empire lost close to 17000 and the Mountain Empire lost the most soldiers with 96000. The Church of the Night only lost close to 4,000 because the priests and priestesses were in the background and their knights were generally protecting the anti-black magic priests and priestesses," Cordelia answered. Hearing these numbers, James immediately realized that they had suffered strangely few casualties. "Well done. All of you," James said suddenly. Even if he didn''t realize it, those words were the very thing that represented the end of the war. James was the commander-in-chief, the king and emperor of this war, and the fact that he was saying these words meant that everyone could finally go back to normal, that they could breathe easily. The war was over. Everyone took a deep breath and then James turned to Ahil on his left and Eve standing next to him. "I hope your soldiers are happy in the highest echelons of heaven. Forgive me," James said, and those words alone were enough to touch everyone''s hearts. Even if she didn''t realize it, everything that was going on inside the throne room was being viewed on the 37th floor. Selene had specifically wanted all the peoples to see what was happening for the next plans of the kings, queens, emperors and empresses who had come from the many floors of the throne hall. This meant that James'' words were not only seen by a few dozen people in the throne room, but also by billions of people outside. Even if James didn''t realize it, hundreds of thousands of people were now enrolled in his [Way to Be a God] ability. James may have lost 100 status points, but he was about to win an enormous amount of reward. "We can''t say it doesn''t matter, sir, but every single one of them died with the honour of fighting under your command." Ahil said suddenly and James turned to Selene sitting on the throne and said, "What do we do now? Have we found any clues?" When he saw Selene''s nod, he said, "At least all those soldiers saved billions and helped us make a sure profit on the side. They were the real heroes," James said. With those words, he let out a deep breath and then a "GROOOWL!!!" sound came out of his stomach. Every single person in the throne room could not stop laughing. Even though they had just come out of such a dark time, they managed to laugh. "Looks like it''s time for dinner," Selene said, and then she got up from the throne and went down the stairs. After holding James, Ariel and Theseus and Perseus with her magic, Selene suddenly left the throne room. After a short time, the group had returned to James'' room, and with the dinner table set, they had obviously managed to eat properly. With Ruby and Sophia awake, the mood was happier and Miracle, the little girl, continued to sleep. After almost two hours, James looked at Selene sitting across from him and asked, "You''ve been on this floor for two and a half months, aren''t you thinking of going back, my lady?" There was maybe a second or two between the sadness on Selene''s face and her asking, "Do you want me to leave?" "Of course not, I know you are very busy, after all, there is only one Lady of the Moon and her worshippers number in the billions," James replied. Selene smiled and tried very hard not to laugh, though it was obvious that there was nothing wrong with what James had said. There were hundreds of thousands of gods and goddesses worshipping Selene on the 150th floor alone, where Olympus and the other high communities were located. She was indeed a great goddess. "I''ll be back in a while, yes, the longer I stay downstairs the weaker I get," Selene replied, and with that, she smiled and reached for her inventory. Pulling a bag out of her inventory, Selene handed it to James and said, "This is my gift to you, I made it myself, those boots are getting a bit old aren''t they?" James shook his head in bewilderment and then, looking intently at Selene, said, "No way!" He really couldn''t believe what he was hearing, the thought that such a thing could happen had never even crossed his mind. The reality of what was happening right now was so outrageous that if this bag contained what he thought it did, he might even cry with joy. Chapter 278 - 278: Early Marriage Present James opened the bag and then took out what was inside: S~ea??h the Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. [Selene''s Boots(Godly++++) The boots of Selene, Goddess and Lady of the Moon, were made with her own hands from the essence of moonlight. Your steps will be as light as a feather. The user will gain 35% passive walking and running speed when wearing the boots. The user will gain the active ability ''Afterimage'' when wearing the boots. User boots will increase speed by 60% under moonlight when equipped. Mana regeneration will increase by 10% when the user equips the bots]. When James read the specifications of this pair of bots, he got hooked on them. Needless to say, it was one of the best items he had ever received. The speed, mana regeneration and the ability to provide an ability showed the value of the bots. [Afterimage(Legendary+++++) Even if the ability has a large mana usage, it will grant the user a 1000% speed boost for only half a second after use. Cooldown: 3 days] James smiled and smiled in disbelief as he read the description of the ability that came with the boots he was going to wear on his feet, it was a good feeling, he was getting more abilities and the possibility to develop. He had to break through his current weakness, otherwise everything and everyone would die if something like this happened again. After all, the tower itself had specifically stated that it would not help her again. "Thank you very much, my lady!" James said suddenly. He immediately put the replica boots he had on his feet into his inventory and put the boots he had just received on his feet. As soon as the boots were on his feet, he could feel his whole body lighten. His passive 35 per cent walking and running speed must have been working while he was sitting, he was quite relaxed. Still, even if James hadn''t realised it, his ''Way to Be a God'' ability had finally started to work. [James] The Way to Be a God ability is working! The user has 16,793,541 people all connected to you! Your Holiness status has increased by 160,000! 500 status points were gifted upon distribution! 500,000,000,000 Gold gifted! The Magic Essence of the Fallen Empire has been gifted! Shard of the Shining Star is gifted!] The moment James read this notification that suddenly appeared in front of him after he put on his boots, he dropped the bag in his hand and shook his head with his eyes wide open. He was so surprised that he even tried to pinch himself to see if what he was seeing was true. Still, nothing had changed. [Magic Extract of the Fallen Empire(Creator----) At the farthest point in history, the most valuable item of the empire was founded by those who first entered the tower with its creation. This empire was inhabited by the current high gods and goddesses themselves, and the Supreme Dragons themselves called this place home. When used, the item helps to purify a magic ring. When the item is used, the purification process will not stop until it is 100%. When the item is used, the user''s mind will be locked and will not open until the process is complete. When the item is used, a holy barrier will be set up around the user to prevent the user from being harmed and will continuously heal the locked user]. "What the hell is this?" James suddenly questioned, and with that, a message notification appeared in front of him: [You''ve been looking at something for a while, we won''t know what you''re looking at unless we see it through your eyes, what''s going on?] When James looked at this message from Nyx, he shook his head as if he didn''t understand and then said, "My Lady...I have acquired something called the Magic Essence of the Fallen Empire." Even if James didn''t know, the entire Olympus hall paused when he said the item he had acquired. The item James had obtained must have been even more perfect than he thought. [Keep that item, it will come in handy when the time comes.] said Nyx, and that was all she could say, it was incredible that James had been able to purify his magic ring a second time before he had even gone through his first 24 magic rings. That was why the item was so good in the first place. Every titan and Chaos-Born knew exactly where the Fallen Empire was, though. Floor 1. That floor had been home to Nyx and the others for almost two billion years before it became a class selection zone. Due to a fight between the Supreme Dragons over who belonged where the entire floor was destroyed, leaving nothing but the sea of rascals and a region of space in its place. However, this was not a story that needed to be told now. The real item was not this, but the Shining Star Shard. Even if James didn''t know it, having such an item in his possession could cause many gods and goddesses, including Nyx, to beg him. [Shard of the Shining Star The level of divinity is divided into different levels. Going to the highest level does not make you the highest-level god or goddess. What will bring you to that level is the size of your power and the single grain of time you will see when you reach the highest level of divinity. This item can only be used by people with the rank of GOD and GODdess. When the item is used, it directly transmits the person to the next level of sanctity]. This item was one of the most perfect items in the history of the tower, and James knew who he should give it to. Normally he would have kept the item for himself, but he had the ''Way to Be a God'' ability, which many gods and goddesses do not even have. Some gods and goddesses could obtain this ability when they passed to the 75th floor, or rather, they could only obtain holiness status, but the ability James had was more perfect. This meant that James was already becoming a god every time his holiness status increased, even though he was below the 75th floor. And that meant that it was clear to whom James would give this item. Who else could he give this item to but Nemesis, the person he was destined for? "Neme, is there any way to get here? Any way?" James suddenly asked, and with that, a message window from his beloved wife Nemesis appeared in front of him: [Did something happen?] James smiled when he saw this message window and then said, "Something important, let''s call it a gift." As soon as James said this, a passageway appeared to his right, near the balcony of the room, and the passageway connected to the hall of Olympus. With that, Selene stood up and hugged Theseus and Ariel and then James and said, "Then I''m going while the opportunity is here." Selene, who had planned to leave at a later time, simply disappeared through the portal and the beautiful woman Nemesis came out of the portal instead. James quickly approached his wife Nemesis and hugged her tightly. James, overflowing with the happiness of hugging his wife''s warm body, took a few steps back and then reached into his inventory and took out the Piece of the Shining Star and held it in his palm, perhaps as big as a small jewel, handed it to his wife and then said the following words to the surprise of everyone: "I suppose you know what this item is?" At James'' question, the beautiful Nemesis did not know what to say and shook her head. The people sitting in the hall of Olympus, the people in Valaskjalf, the sacred palace of Asgard, the knights gathered around the round table and many others knew this item very clearly. "An early wedding present...what do you think?" James suddenly asked, and with that every single person watching them stopped in their tracks, even the beautiful Nemesis didn''t know what to say. "Come on, I call you my wife Neme, do you think I''m going to let you go? Besides, you know I have many different ways of making myself a god, this item is nothing more than an item to add a little more shine to you, my brightest star," James added and with that Nemesis gently took the item her husband handed her. As soon as Nemesis took the Shard of the Shining Star in her hand, her body began to glow, and James realised just how valuable this item was when he saw his beloved wife''s glow increase to an even higher level. The beautiful Nemesis, perhaps one of the ten most beautiful women in the tower, had now reached the highest level of beauty and power...in short, Nemesis could now join the upper ranks of the Chaos-Born...Nemesis had become a top-tier goddess. That was an opportunity given to a wife by a husband who loves her so much. Just like all the gods and goddesses say about them...The love across the floors. Chapter 279 - 279: Lowest Level God When Nemesis'' perfectly glowing body was restored, her eyes were locked on her husband James standing in front of her. It was undeniable that this woman had nothing to say, she didn''t even seem to be able to open her mouth, she just looked at James, who was down on one knee where he was and had just made a marriage proposal, and shook his head in amazement. "Not too bad, is it?" James asked. With that, his wife Nemesis suddenly grabbed James by the shoulders, lifted him up, and gave him a big kiss. Nemesis had been worried about James for a long time, after all, she was not one to worry about her husband. It was inconceivable that he would suddenly hear such words and receive such a gift. "We''ll still have to wait until the 75th floor before we get married, I''ll have to go up there and break the floor rules, and then we''ll be able to get married," James said. After all, his plans were clear. He wanted to make a deal that any god or goddess who would not associate any evil and would not cause trouble could go down to the 75th floor, and he would use the tower itself for this. It was sad, James could have easily used the last remaining distress call the tower had given him to get this deal done even now, but he wanted to save other people''s lives. On top of that, he''d only received the loyalty of close to two million people. This was indeed an incredible number, James'' holiness status had even become equal to the lowest degree of gods and goddesses, and he would soon receive an award for this, but he did not know that. In his eyes, just having the devotion of close to two million people was too little. In other words, the reason why he used his last right to protect people was not that he wanted people''s loyalty or anything, but it still made him think that he was only left with this much. Although he had made the move that had saved the lives of billions of people, why only two million people and not even more than two million people were loyal to him? James smiled as the beautiful Nemesis nodded her head in agreement, followed by the voice of Ariel standing just behind them: "I may love you two very much, but I''m too full of hate right now." As they laughed at Ariel''s words, another system notification appeared in front of James: [If you''re ready, I''ll give you the rest of your rewards.] This system notification was coming directly from the tower itself. James smiled instead of being surprised this time and then calmly said, "Send it." Even though his wife Nemesis Ariel and Theseus couldn''t understand what was going on, they couldn''t help but think that something good was happening because of the smile on James'' face. [36 Levels up! 37th Floor rewards will be given out now! You''ve won maple seeds! You''ve won 25,000,000 Gold! You have won the Binding Scroll!] When James read this unified system notification, the smile on his face grew even bigger, and then he saw a message called [It''s not over yet.] As soon as he read the message, he shook his head and then couldn''t help but ask, "Really? There''s more?" [Holiness status has passed 200,000. The user has now gained the rank of Lowest Level God (Sealed)! The user will passively receive +50 to all stats except Luck and Holiness stats! The user has earned the item selection card "Unique"! The user has passed the 100-level threshold, the reward will be given now! The user has earned the Binding Scroll]! [Lowest Level God(Sealed) The beginning of divinity and the number one thought type of reality. A true holy being. The first piece of perfection is likely to be respected inside or outside the tower. Aura or magic attacks will be permanently increased by 100% based on the user''s attack type. (Sealed) Attacks on the user''s elemental type will permanently increase by 100%. (Sealed) The user''s aura or magic energy recovery speed will permanently increase by 200%. (Sealed) The user can now bring other gods under his command. (Sealed) All attributes of this rank will remain "sealed" until the 75th floor]. [Binding Scroll(Legendary+++++) The user will have the ability to bind a person of their choice to them for one day. As a result of this binding, the status points of the user and the chosen person will be added to each other. The chosen person cannot be someone who has been above the 75th floor]. James realized that there was no way for his smile to fade after all he had achieved. After all the levels and status points he had gained, he had exactly 780 status points to distribute. James now had everything he needed to become the most powerful person below the 75th floor. He had the Godly Sword Lumen, Selene''s Throwing Knife and many other items. He had Miracle, his little daughter, who was also the Supreme Dragon, and Ruby, the supreme Phoenix. James was the greatest human being in history and no one could deny that. With that, James sat down with his wife Nemesis on the couch next to them and then began to scroll through his profile, handing out status points. After a short time, this is what his profile looked like: [James Arthur Black Age: 24 Race: Human Level: 114 S~ea??h the ¦ÇovelFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Class: Warrior of the Night, Time Wraith Title: Terror Incarnate, Fallen God Killer, Poison Master, Lowest Level God(Sealed) Skills: 10x Gacha(Godly), Galahad Swordsmanship(Legendary+++), Inventory(Legendary+++), Gold Master(Legendary+++), Mind Palace(Legendary+++), Middle Level Completed Aura(Legendary+++), Way to Be a God(Creator+++), Aura of Chaos(Creator+++++), Star Magic(Godly), Beginner Level Light Spell(Legendary++++), Transition(Legendary+++++), Destruction(Godly+++), Beginner Level Moon Archery(Legendary+++++), 8 Secret Fire(Creator+++++)(Sealed), Soul Impact(Godly+++), Healing of the Blood Lord(Legendary+++++) [Statuses] Power 608 Agility: 621 Endurance 600 Luck: 56 Magic: 3048 Holiness: 205.197 Intelligence 1084 Charisma 272 Status Points: 0] Chapter 280 - 280: Strength Brings Weakness James smiled as he carefully checked his profile and when he closed it, another system window opened in front of him: [User has exceeded 1000 Intelligence status points. The user''s body has begun to suffer due to the size of his brain capacity! The user will lose an extra day of life every day! It is recommended to take a god extract or raise your Endurance stat by at least 100 as soon as possible! The user''s mana has been permanently increased by one and a half times as the user has surpassed 1000 Intelligence stat points. The user''s mana regeneration rate has increased by 250% since the user passed 1000 Intelligence stat points]. When James read the latest system notifications, he turned to Nemesis next to him and asked, "Hey Neme...Do you know where I can get a god extract?" Nemesis was as surprised to hear this question as everyone else watching them, not expecting such a question from her husband James. "There should be some in Olympus. It''s quite expensive, a small bottle is worth 300,000,000 gold coins," Nemesis replied. Immediately after these words, James received a message from Nyx: [God essence is not something you need right now. Is there a problem?] S~ea??h the N??eFire.¦Çet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James immediately shook his head up and down at this question from Nyx and then said, "I received a notification that an extra day of my life will be taken away from me every day because my Intelligence stat has exceeded 1000 points. I will either use god essence or increase my Endurance stat, but that is not possible right now." Nemesis and the others watched James with their eyes wide open, not knowing what to say when they heard these words. "Is your Intelligence stat...over 1,000 points? Could you be seeing it wrong?" Nemesis questioned and James shook his head and replied, "No, I have exactly 1084 status points." Nemesis didn''t know what to say, she was so proud of her husband that there was no way she could explain it. "You do realize that''s on the level of a god, right? My power stat is almost 6700 and that''s only because I''m a Chaos-Born, my body is innately strong and mighty, if I was not a Chaos-Born it would not be like this. You''re a... human, you know what I mean? If you break 1000 points, that means you''ve already reached the lowest level of gods and goddesses." Nemesis said. It was quite usual for James to decide not to say that he had already reached that rank after those words. After all, he didn''t want to make anyone faint with surprise. "I mean...my other statuses aren''t far behind," James muttered and stood up, not expecting anything. James might have been one of the fastest-evolved people in the history of the tower, there was no telling if there was anyone below the 75th floor who could hurt him right now. "Alright...if you don''t have enough gold, I can go and buy it for you, I''m sure there will be someone who will sell the god extract," Nemesis said hearing this, James quickly logged into his profile and sent Nemesis the necessary money. "You are quite rich," Nemesis said with a smile. "I mean I still have close to 600,000,000 in gold." replied James and with that Nemesis got up from where she was and kissed and hugged her husband James one more time and then she said, "Then I am going back, I will ask Uncle Ra to bring you the god extract, the next time you see me I will come back with a big gift." With those words, Nemesis backed out of the opened portal, leaving only James, Ariel and Theseus. Sophia was already inside James'' jacket and Ruby was back in the inventory, taking Miracle with her. James suddenly stood up and turned to Ariel and asked, "Do you want to keep going?" Ariel smiled and said, "I''m already ready, I was waiting for you to wake up, but...aren''t you going to say goodbye to the others?" After a small chuckle, James replied, "Normally I would, but we can come back here anyway, anytime we want, right now we need to focus on getting to the 40th floor." With those words, Ariel got up from where she was and kissed Theseus eagerly before saying, "Let''s go." Before Theseus even managed to come to himself, James and Ariel had entered the passageway leading to the balcony and disappeared. Blinking only once, James and Ariel realized that they were in a room of ice. The vapour that they both released with each breath was visible to the naked eye. [James] Kill the Boss Monster! Find the 38th Floor''s Ice King inside the massive ice palace you are in and introduce him to his demise. Mission Duration: 3 Days] James and Ariel looked at each other as the system mission statement suddenly appeared in front of them, and then they started to move. As soon as they left the room they were in, they encountered several ice soldiers. More precisely, they encountered skeleton soldiers armed with ice armour and weapons. Without James even having to move, Ariel rushed forward and in a few moves dismembered seven skeleton soldiers. As soon as the room glowed slightly, a chest formed in the centre of the room. As James cautiously approached the chest, he began to suspect that it was a mimic. This was precisely why he made sure to keep the Godly Sword Lumen at the ready. However, nothing happened as he expected. When the chest opened on its own, a key came out of it, and when James picked it up, a system notification appeared in front of both him and Ariel: [Main Boss Monster Bounty Chest Lock(Legendary+++++) This key is one of the 6 keys to unlock the large chest that will be revealed when the Ice King is slain. The first of five keys that can be earned in five different rooms, after five different enemy types and difficulties. The sixth key will be given when the Ice King is slain. Each key can be used to open the chest directly, but the more keys that enter the holes in the chest, the bigger the reward]. James and Ariel turned to each other as they read this notification and then the following words were heard: "Well, it''s time to kill them all." Chapter 281 - 281: Fed Up Ice King "Well, it''s time to kill them all." When James and Ariel said these words simultaneously, the look on their faces was enough to freeze everyone. They were so sinister and malevolent that it was impossible not to shiver strangely. Obviously, everyone watching had forgotten just how much these two looked alike. James suddenly kicked open the massive doors to the next room and both doors flew backwards. Ariel rushed forward, aiming to attack the enemies. The huge room was filled with perhaps thousands of goblins. It didn''t take long to realize that these goblins, made of ice, were not alive, which meant that James would not even get a spin on any monster he killed here. Sad as that would be, at least there would be a huge reward at the end of it all. So, without waiting, James fired up 8 Sacred Fire and unleashed the black snake that had appeared, specifically choosing the jet-black flames. The goblins made of ice were comically running away from the flames, which seemed to be quite amusing. By the time James and Ariel looked at each other to see if they had turned into psychopathic killers, more than two hundred goblins had already died. As soon as the goblins died, they turned to dust and disappeared. Sear?h the N?velFire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. The being called the Ice King must have been a really good wizard. The reason why James thought this was because when he spread his mana throughout his body, he could see the traces of mana threads in the goblins made of ice, especially with his eyes. It was just like the mana trails that Ruby, the Kutlu, had seen when she was trying to get to her dungeon. It was at that moment that James must have remembered that he shouldn''t leave all the work to Ariel, for he immediately leapt forward, gripping the Godly Sword Lumen tightly, and began to make several thrusts. He was trying to use as minimal a magic cascade as possible, and so he was connecting his magic...or rather the magic axis of the 8 Sacred Fire to his aura, and he was able to cover a huge area with his magic as if he was only using his aura. Even though doing this made 8 Sacred Fire''s power much, much less powerful, he was still able to spread the ability over a huge area with almost no mana. In a situation like this, in an area where there were monsters made of ice, an ability like this would be very useful. They quickly met the oncoming attacks and Ariel kept stabbing the two blades she held in her hands one after the other into the goblins made of ice. Ariel was going to get help from Bai Fang to train with the sword, and so she was going to stop climbing for a while after the 40th floor. James, of course, would agree to this, even if he didn''t know it, because after the 40th floor, it was going to be incredibly dangerous. Both Ariel''s difficulty and James'' difficulty would continue to compound. The combination of Hell difficulty and Hard difficulty could not be underestimated. After a short time, every single ice goblin in the room had been destroyed and a chest appeared in the room as usual. As soon as James took the key from the chest, the duo moved on to the next room and quickly cleared it as well, clearing the next room in almost five minutes. After the Ice Harpies and Ice Ghosts, James and Ariel made it to the room just before the boss monster''s room. It didn''t take them long to realize that there was nothing in the room, and the absence of a chest gave them a strange feeling. Something or things had to be hiding in this room and they had to find them as soon as possible. James instantly emitted a large amount of mana around him and tried to figure out if there was anything around him. When he closed his eyes and tried to strengthen his senses, he was indeed able to sense something. He was very glad that he had learned to control things with his mana. Nevertheless, it was easy to realize that these things that were hiding were very careful. That''s why James had used the Void Pen to speak into Ariel''s mind without waiting: "It''s about fifteen meters behind you, waiting at the top of the pillar, it''s a small creature, you need to throw a knife and kill it." Following James'' words, Ariel surreptitiously watched the pillar behind her and after a short time, she was able to see this spider-like creature. Whatever it was, it must have known how to hide because it seemed to have taken on the colour of the pillar. The colour of the pillar was a much darker shade of blue than monsters made of ice, which meant that either this monster was created in a different hue, or it had incredible hiding and camouflage skills. After twenty seconds of silence, Ariel immediately threw the knife in her right hand at the pillar with incredible speed. The blade sliced through the pillar without stopping and managed to slice through the ice monster in the process. The ice monster crumbled to dust as it fell to the ground and that''s when the usual chest appeared. When James opened the chest, he managed to find the fifth key there. With that, the two stopped in front of the last door and then Ariel said "Easy job." and pushed the door. As they passed through the door, the pair became aware of the INCREDIBLE cold that had come over their bodies. Even though James had absorbed the Sun Vampire''s extract and had developed a tolerance to heat and cold, the fact that he could feel the cold meant that Ariel was in a terrible state. Instantly, James enveloped Ariel''s body in black flames, not wanting to harm this woman for even a second. "Are you okay, mom?" James asked suddenly and Ariel nodded her head and replied, "I''m better." With that, the vapour that had formed from the icy air began to show someone. A man? A man standing maybe two or two and a half meters tall, just a skeleton, wearing a suit of armour covered in blue and white patterns. Both James and Ariel couldn''t help but admire this man strangely, the energy around this man was so pure that it was awe-inspiring that one of the monsters born of dark magic like a skeleton could be like this. It was truly an incredible sight for anyone to behold. At that very moment a voice came out of this "man"...sentences poured out: "The death of my queen...the fall of my kingdom into darkness, oh where is the old perfection, life...I am all alone now. My flesh has left this world, rotted and disappeared while I wait here for my fate. Now I have only a skeleton that lets the ice out and one last piece of my mind." Even though he was a skeleton when he said those words, both Ariel and James felt as if they could see the bitterness on his face. At that moment the man reached for the throne behind him and telekinetically took his huge sword from it, and then he spoke again: "My name is Ezra, I am just one of many fallen kingdoms throughout the history of the tower, I have lost my beloved wife and queen, I have brought an end to my people, and now it is my turn to fight and perhaps die. Come warriors, I will end you or you will end me." James and Ariel suddenly lunged forward and attacked the man who identified himself as Ezra. There were several exchanges of attacks. Even though the two of them were not using abilities that could be considered overpowered, they managed to push Ezra back. It was sad. "I shouldn''t have stood up to him...I shouldn''t have betrayed him, we humans are such idiots, we keep betraying our kind." Ezra said suddenly, trying to attack as best he could, but nothing he did was working on the pair. "Holy shit!" a voice suddenly echoed in James'' mind and upon hearing it James realized it was Vladimir''s voice. "What''s going on?" James asked and Ezra, who was standing there as if he was tired of fighting, spoke again: "Ah....I hope that when I die I go to wherever your soul is, sir...Forgive me...I shouldn''t have betrayed you..." And the moment James heard those words, he screamed: "WHO COULD YOU HAVE BETRAYED?!?!?!?!?!" As he shouted these words, only one name came out of Ezra, who was standing right in front of him. That name will freeze everyone in shock...The name that will shock the gods inside Olympus, those who follow him from Asgard, the knights of the Round Table, and then the Chaos-Borns and Titans who try to hide it all. "Desmond, Desmond Black." Chapter 282 - 282: Just a Broken King "Black? My Lady, what is the Ice King saying?" Zeus suddenly asked. Yet Nyx did not answer, and instead, the cold gaze of this holy woman descended upon all the gods and deities of Olympus who, like Zeus, were trying to question something. Each of them felt as if they were drowning as if they had just learned a small piece of something they shouldn''t have questioned or something they shouldn''t have known. "It''s not something you need to know right now," Chronos said suddenly, and with that N,yx began to calm down. Even if there were questions on everyone''s minds, that wasn''t the real problem. The real problem was that Ezra the Ice King was becoming conscious. Just like Elanor and her bloodline. Nyx knew it, Erebus knew it, all the Titans and now all Chaos-Born knew it. Nyx and the others realized it when they regained their erased memories. The Rosewell bloodline, and now Ezra''s presence. There was so much more unknown and unseen, but despite it all, each of them was aware. Everything was connected to Desmond, and those connections were beginning to connect, even if slowly, to James. Like Ezra the Ice King and, unbeknownst to Elanor and James, the entire Rosewell clan. The Tower liked to do things its way, but it was an undeniable fact that Chaos was at the helm of everything. That was the only reason why the Rosewell bloodline had emerged from the brutal repetition of the tower. The tower worked differently for everyone. All climbers had the chance to take on different types of quests. The different levels of difficulty and operational status made everything complicated. That was the trouble. Unbeknownst to James, he was already processing the "great task" that his ancestor had left him. Every moment he climbed the tower, every moment he broke through the closed doors, he was repairing and changing that broken destiny, ready to change. "Desmond?" James asked suddenly, most surprised by Ezra''s words. By the time he asked that question, Nyx had already cleared out the entire Olympus hall and revoked the permission of anyone outside who had allowed them to watch James. Nyx couldn''t remember exactly. She knew the Ice King existed, of course, but she had no idea what kind of relationship he had with Desmond. Like James, Nyx was obviously curious. "Yes..." the Ice King replied and without waiting, launched an attack. Ariel met the Ice King''s attack with her blades and then stepped back. "How do you know him? What exactly is this betrayal you speak of?" James questioned. He knew very well...certainly Vladimir knew a lot about it, it was strange how James seemed to find out more and more secrets about Desmond every time he heard his name. "I should have fought by his side...I didn''t want to, I didn''t heed his call, I didn''t go to his aid, and as a result, Lady Juliet fell...We met our end at the hands of the Fallen Gods, what a shame...My beloved wife, my children, my soldiers and my people perished." With each of Ezra''s words, James felt a strange sadness. He even thought that if this skeletal man had a body, he would have started crying. "What about your family? Where are they?" James suddenly questioned. "They are in heaven...they have never committed any evil, I''m sure Chaos has created a heaven for them, a heaven where they can be without me and maybe with the person they want me to be. After all, I''m going to hell," Ezra replied. James didn''t know what to say, yet there was something strange, Ezra was clearly trying to die. That''s why James had stopped holding back, he would have managed to get the necessary information from Vladimir anyway, and that''s exactly why he wished he could just give this broken and devastated man his wish without a care in the world. The Godly Sword Lumen glowed. James, as usual, began to recover his aura and mana. When Ezra sensed this aura, he looked at the young man in front of him with concern and then said, "You are an honourable young man." At that very moment,t James plunged his sword right in front of him, as if piercing the air, and released from the Godly Sword Lumen an energy that was not great, only capable of providing a peaceful death to his enemy. The vapour from the cold ice filled the room with flames of energy, and as the vapour began to dissipate, a single image appeared before James and Ariel. Ezra the Ice King sat slumped on his throne, a gaping hole in his chest, his skeletal core beginning to crumble and his sword falling to the floor. "Oh Desmond..." Ezra said and the sound of his deep breathing echoed through the room. "Forgive me, my lord, I thought of my own happiness, I didn''t want to die in battle and leave everyone behind, I didn''t want to die...Forgive me." Ezra added, growing more and more upset by the second. James, unable to take it any longer, stepped forward, carefully stepped in front of Ezra and then said, "My name is James Arthur Black, a descendant of Desmond Black. Ezra the Ice King, you may have committed many crimes and refused your lord''s request. My lineage forgives your lineage and I wish you peace and to be with your family in the highest levels of heaven. I hope you can forgive yourself." At James'' words, only Ezra''s deep breathing echoed in the huge room. Those breaths were so rapid, so sad, that even Ariel couldn''t help but tear up. Who knew what would happen next? At that very moment, something that no one had expected began to happen. Ezra''s body was literally coming back. Everyone could see the muscle cells, the veins, the nervous system and the skin forming around the skeleton. Even though it was a disgusting sight, the greatest truth of life was now visible here. Tears began to fall from Ezra''s eyes as the body reformed, he raised his right hand, which had previously held his sword, and gently squeezed James'' hand, before saying the following words: "Oh...Desmond...?" James shook his head and replied, "No, James." Ezra smiled even though tears were streaming down his face as he said, "Oh...James, huh? You know I named my child after him? I really looked up to Desmond, but I...I was young and stupid, cowardly and selfish. I named him Desmond in case my child would be as brave an emperor as he was instead of as cowardly as I was...Will my child...my one and only Desmond forgive me...? What do you say, my lord?" Ezra''s face was so grim, his sadness so deep, that even James could not help but empathize. The young man''s expression drowned in the narrowness of his sorrow. "I forgive you and your bloodline Ezra...you may have abandoned your Emperor, your master, but he is more forgiving than you think...or so I think, and I am sure your child will forgive you. How many times have you died? How many climbers have you killed? How many years did you wallow in self-pity and scream for forgiveness? If you were my father, I would be proud of you for sure...A cowardly man turned into someone brave enough to scream for forgiveness for perhaps millions of years. What an honorable death." S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. As James said these words, Ezra''s grim face straightened and a smile replaced it, and even though he hadn''t stopped crying, it was clear that this smile was breaking the "ice" in his heart. At that moment Ezra''s body began to crumble to dust. Old and broken, this man seemed to finally be at peace. Just before he disappeared, he turned to James one more time and said, "Ah...you look so much like him." And with that, the man literally turned to dust and disappeared. When James straightened himself up, he took a deep breath and let it out as loudly as he could. After all this, another chest was opened in the room, right in front of the throne. When James opened the chest and took the key out of it, he had the sixth key. When he looked at Ariel, who had tears in her eyes, he said, "Come on, Mom...Don''t do this." and tried to comfort her. By the time Ariel managed to hold herself together, another chest had formed in front of the throne. This one was about ten centimetres tall and five centimetres wide. When James inserted the first key into the first keyhole, the chest grew a little bigger. Then the second key, then the third key, then the six keys were inserted into the keyholes and the chest was now 2 meters in size and 1 meter wide. What would come out of the chest would be revealed after it was opened. Chapter 283 - 283: Elijah Black When James carefully grabbed the top of the chest and opened it, a great light shone inside. Because of the brightness of the light, James and Ariel had to close their eyes. When the light went out, they looked inside the chest and saw two kinds of metals in the chest. At that moment, the properties of metals were revealed in front of the duo: [Light Ice Metal (Legendary++++) According to legend, the ice extract was created by ancient ice spirits over millions of years as they recovered their energy and was inherited by the descendants of the first Ice Queen. The Queen''s line ended with the deaths of her last heirs. It is one of the few unique objects in the Tower. It is a pure product. Although it is not a strong metal, just ten grams can chain even a holy demon. It is considered the purest form of ice, cold enough to freeze even the soul itself. Object Weight 15KG] [Light Flame Metal(Legendary++++) According to legend, flame essence was created by ancient flame spirits gathering their energy over millions of years and was inherited by the descendants of the first Ice Queen. The Queen''s lineage ended with the deaths of the last heirs. It is one of the few unique objects in the Tower. It is a pure product. It is not a strong metal, but it is ideal for items such as throwing knives, arrowheads and assassination knives. It is a sacred metal with the ability to burn the target from the inside. It is considered the purest form of natural flame, hot enough to burn even the soul itself. Object Weight 5KG] James and Ariel looked at each other after reading the attributes, and without a second thought Ariel said, "You take the flame, I''ll take the ice," and tossed the light ice metal into her inventory, while James smiled and tossed the light flame metal into his inventory. When the two looked around after that, they really couldn''t help but breathe in and out deeply. It was then that James noticed something else glowing in the chest and approached the chest and picked up the object. Suddenly James saw a message [Sir, the tower seems to have directed you here], but he paused before he could understand anything. His heart raced, his head began to spin as if he couldn''t understand what was happening and he fell to the ground. "JAMES!" Ariel yelled, but James'' eyes were already closed. When he opened them again, it didn''t take him long to realize that he was inside his mind. All around him,m he could see files and other things that he had created himself. He could also see Vladimir, Vlad, Abby and Emily looking at him with great confusion. "What''s going on?" James asked curiously. "I think you touched something else connected to our family," Abby replied and James asked, "How do you know that?" When James asked this question, Abby raised her hand and pointed with her finger to a place behind James. James turned around with great curiosity and saw a man looking in his direction. It was then that it became clear why Vlad and Abby were looking at him with greater surprise than Vladimir and Emily. James had learned the faces and names of the first children from Abby, which meant that James had found another one. "Elijah," James said suddenly. He was Desmond''s second son. "Big brother, little sister. What an honour to see you both again," Elijah said suddenly. He was a strange lost range-looking a long beard, wore a suit and held a cane in his right hand and something like a staff in his left. He wore glasses with a single lens and a "gentleman''s" hat. Abby and Vlad immediately ran to Elijah and hugged him. Elijah was happy to be reunited with his family and looked at James. "He looks so much like our father," Elijah suddenly muttered. S§×ar?h the n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James bowed his head respectfully and then said, "Nice to meet you, my ancestor, I''m James Arthur Black. It''s a great honour to meet you," he introduced himself. When Elijah heard these words, his old face smiled a little and then said, "I''m Elijah Black, one of the 6 siblings who learned pure strategy and fashion at the same time. It''s a great feeling to finally meet the person my father always talked about. Nice to meet you, young man." James didn''t know what to say, he had already managed to find three of the six children. He was also thinking about the possibility that the tower might have led him here. If it was as Emma said, it was a very strange but wonderful thing. After all, the possibility of such a thing being true seemed to show James that the tower had not given up on him and still wanted to help him. What he didn''t understand was why he was inside his mind, why had he fainted? "Because we are inside your mind, I can see what is going through your mind. You fainted because the soul fragments that entered your mind have risen to a higher level. This is normal as we are gathered in the ring, which is our family heirloom, and we are synthesized directly with our body and soul. 5. With the synthesis of your soul, your body will increase its capacity. I''m sure you will wake up soon." Elijah said suddenly and it happened exactly as he said. James suddenly opened his eyes at the end of the sentence and stood upright. He looked around with his eyes wide open and saw Ariel''s worried expression. Ariel hugged James tightly, who was standing right in front of her, and then said, "You''re never going to stop making me worry, are you?" "I''m sorry..." James said abruptly and then saw the knife lying on the floor in front of the chest. He picked it up immediately after Ariel had finished hugging him and then sent it to his inventory. He saw a message saying [What happened? When he read this message from Nyx, he replied, "I met the Third Child. Too many spirits in my body and mind knocked me out for a short time." [The third?] Nyx questioned with great curiosity. "Yes, the third. Elijah Black, master of strategy and, strangely enough, fashion," James replied and then shook his head, trying to compose himself. Immediately after that, he asked the following question: "My lady, how many people have heard of Desmond?" It didn''t take long for a message to follow: [Many have heard of him, but it''s not something they need to know now, so I sent them away. Don''t worry, when the time comes and if we have to fight, everyone will know, go ahead, I''ll keep the word from spreading]. After this message from Nyx, James nodded and then said, "Emma, next floor please." When a portal appeared, the two passed through it and reopened their eyes on the 39th floor. As James and Ariel looked around, James seemed to have a thought and then asked, "Emma, as I learned, all floors between the 35th and 40th floors were to be permanent floors...but what was wrong with the 38th floor?" James'' question made everyone think, that what had happened was so strange that even Nyx and the others didn''t ask that question, as if James and Ariel hadn''t entered the permanent floor, unlike the others. [We''ve been looking into this, sir, apparently,y my authority is insufficient, it was most likely a direct effect of the tower]. "I see...So the tower wanted to give me a gift..." said James, and just then another message notification popped up in front of him: [So...Normally I wouldn''t have done this, but it is what it is, when you go back to the 38th floor you will be back on the common floor. I just wanted to give you one last gift, you''re quite interesting even if I''ve already finished]. When James read this message, he shook his head and then said, "Thank you, tower, I will never forget your kindness." It was incredibly sweet that the brutal and deadly tower itself was helping James so much. James smiled involuntarily and then turned to Ariel and said, "Sorry again, we can move on now." Even if there was still a hint of anger on Ariel''s face, it was clear that this time it wasn''t because of James''s ridiculous thinking, which is why she nodded and agreed to continue. The space the two were in seemed to be a room-type space again. It was clear that they were in a very dark, rather depressing room. They were surrounded by purple lights and a strange, moody aura surrounded them. Strangely, they both felt disgusted. They had no idea what they were in the middle of. It was at that moment that James saw a message notification appear in front of him: [Alright, this is one of my hated floors, get out of here now, sure it''s nice outside but this room...] At these words James'' face paused and he turned to Ariel and said, "We need to get the fuck out of here." This was only because the message was coming from Thanatos, perhaps one of the calmest people he had ever seen. And when Thanatos specifically tells you something, you have to do it. Chapter 284 - 284: Thanatos Was Right As soon as James said those words, Ariel nodded her head without question and looked around. James instantly spread his meaning around and began a search for any trace of it. He couldn''t find anything. However, there were no words or messages from anyone saying they could help. That meant James had to be careful. Ariel quickly made her way to the room''s door and tried to pull and push it open, at least to try. It would be wrong to say that nothing had happened, for when she tried to pull the door open, the clock ticking rang in the pair''s ears. Until then there had been no sound in the room. When James gestured for Ariel to stop, Ariel waited, and when James had explained his meaning in more detail, he commanded Ariel to continue. When Ariel tried to force the door and pull it open, the sound was heard again: "TIK!!!" This time the sound was deeper, but only in James'' ears. Because the mana it was emitting was at a higher level, all his senses were becoming fused with it, which made him hear the sound at a higher level. James moved with the flow of mana towards where the sound was coming from and stopped in front of a closet. As he opened the closet door, he couldn''t help but be surprised: "What the fuck?" Inside the closet there was a door leading to somewhere else, it looked like another room just next door, but as James moved his hand towards it he could easily see that it was blocked by something. It didn''t take him long to notice a keyhole and he quickly left the closet he had been trying to get into and just looked around. She gestured for Ariel to come and Ariel was able to see the image in the closet. sea??h th§× n?velFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. At that very moment, the bodies of the two trembled. The floor of the room they were in began to tremble, some of the objects in the room tumbled to the floor and the sounds became almost ear-splitting. At that moment the floor of the room began to fill with some kind of liquid, which the duo immediately recognized as blood, and then another message window opened in front of James: [You found the door, you need to find the key]. This message seemed to be coming from Nemesis as if his wife had decided to help him. As soon as James saw this message, he immediately turned to Ariel next to him and said "A KEY! LOOK FOR THE KEY!!!" James would normally have joined the search but he couldn''t. The only reason was that the pool of blood in the room was increasing every second. Maybe it was slow, but the fact that after almost three or four minutes more than a quarter of the room could be filled was frightening. And he realized it, just as Ariel had. In short, James had to use the blood element. He could shape the blood that filled the room to separate it and even put it in his inventory, he had never done that before, the only time he had ever shaped blood was when he made a sword out of blood that was quite weak. This meant that he had to shape tens... hundreds of llitresof blood with his magic and elemental tendrils constantly. It was a skill that newborn vampires could use with ease, but it was completely new to James. As soon as Ariel heard those words, she suddenly looked around and began to check the contents of any orifices that had fallen or were still in place. After only a short time she managed to find a piece of a key, if not a key. James, meanwhile, was still very carefully shaping the blood that was still pooling on the floor, litre by litre, sending each one to his inventory. Still, James managed to notice. The speed of the blood rising from the floor seemed to have increased considerably. What could fill a quarter of the room in three or four minutes had now increased to perhaps a minute. As James tried to figure out why, Ariel turned to him and said, "I FOUND A PART!" James knew at that moment what the trouble was. It was as if a seal had come to life, the first piece of key had been found and wherever the blood was coming from, the process began to speed up. After a short time, Ariel managed to find another piece of key and put the two pieces together. Still, it seemed that another piece was needed. Meanwhile, the amount and speed of blood coming out of the floor increased again. One minute had now become half a minute and perhaps less. James'' mana and the energy in his elemental sprout began to diminish, even if slowly. James began to convert the blood at a slower rate with each passing second and, as he could tell, the room was filling up with blood at an even faster rate. By the time he was exhausted, a little over a quarter of the room was already filled with blood. James could easily see that more than half of his body was covered in blood. James was 1.85 meters tall and he was trying to reduce a sea of blood that was now over a meter long. After a short time, the two were nearly submerged under the sea of blood in the room. Ariel had just pulled her hand out of the sea of blood and was trying to keep her head up when she started screaming over and over: "I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT! QUICK!!!" As Ariel shouted, she put the last piece of the key together, and after a brief glow, the key pieces were permanently joined. With that, Ariel went straight into the closet, unlocked it and then walked through the door without stopping. James, on the other hand, barely made it through the door. When the two opened their eyes again, they realized that they were in the room they had seen before. They were both breathing heavily as if they had woken up from a nightmare. James was sure of one thing at that moment: The huge and destructive demon beast he had seen on the 37th floor had not given him the adrenaline rush and fear he had just experienced. Both of them had dilated pupils and their eyes were wide open. Suddenly James saw a message [I was right, wasn''t I?], and it was from Thanatos. What James didn''t understand, though, was where the ticking was coming from, he couldn''t make the connection between the door and the ticking of a house clock. Despite all this, he was too preoccupied to question such a thing. He leaned back and stretched out on the floor as if he didn''t care about anything. When he turned his head to look at Ariel, he saw her doing the same thing and then heard the sound of a door opening. James stood up abruptly and then looked in the direction of where the sound was coming from, just in time to hear a murmur, "Welcome, sire, we have been expecting you, we have already heard from Lady Nyx that you were coming." A woman was standing in front of him, probably 70 or 80 years old, not old, but certainly not young, but you never could tell in the tower, after all, even the old woman Datura was over a thousand years old. She was a beautiful jet-black beauty, with hair that looked like threads and eyes of ruby. James knew at a glance that this woman was a vampire. "Hello," James said and stood up. The adrenaline in his body was still high, but at least he had managed to pull himself together. Gently picking Ariel up from the floor, he checked that she was alright and when he saw that she was fine, he turned to the vampire and spoke again: "If I''m seeing a vampire, you must know where Kriss is, right?" At James'' question, the beautiful vampire woman bowed politely, as if bowing to an emperor, and then said, "I''m sorry sir, Duke Kriss is unfortunately unavailable at the moment, he had to go to the eastern part of the floor for the training of the new vampire soldiers, he sends his deepest apologies." James shook his head when he heard these words and then asked, "And you? What is your name?" The woman bowed again and then said, "My name is Laura sir, I am the head servant of the current vampire empress. The empress has informed us that we must treat you, the master of all vampires, in the best possible manner. With your permission, I offer you a shower and a good meal." James shook his head as if he knew that he really shouldn''t refuse anything when he heard those words and then said, "Please lead the way." He had many more vampires to meet. He was in the house of those who would worship him. Chapter 285 - 285: Foresight and Prophecy James was following Laura, followed by Ariel. They had left the building they were in and the gaze of every street they passed, every vampire they left behind, was locked on her. A crimson sky dominated the floor. A white moon seemed to add colour to the sky. Each of the surrounding buildings was very melancholic and on top of that, they all looked as if they had come straight out of the Victorian era. It was a beautiful sight, and both James and Ariel were filled with the desire to look at each building again and again. Every one of the vampires seemed to bow their heads when they saw James. [I''ve never seen anything like this in my life...Vampires worshipping another race...much less a human...It''s inconceivable, truly inconceivable. It''s inconceivable that vampires can obey my orders after thinking about it three or four times, but this is how they treat you]. This message was coming from Nyx herself, even though she knew that vampires were the most arrogant race in the tower. James was slowly beginning to realize how valuable he was becoming in the eyes of the vampires. After eating the Sun Vampire core and gaining the blood elemental from the dragon hearts, he had never imagined such things would happen. "Tell me, Laura, I killed one of your kind, some of you even swore revenge, but now they bow their heads when they see me," James said suddenly, and Laura stopped and looked at James. "There used to be a legend. Or rather, I wouldn''t call it a legend, it was just a vision. A vision that existed almost a million and a half years ago. I wish I could tell you about it, but it would be better if you learned about it from the Empress," Laura replied. James, without question, nodded his head in agreement. So the trio entered a carriage and after almost three hours of non-stop and very tiring travel, it seemed that they had made it to the palace. When James and Ariel stepped out of the carriage, they were indeed surprised by the sights around them. Contrary to their expectations, every single servant was looking at them with smiling faces. "I think this [vision] is really important. I didn''t think any vampire would look at me like that," James said suddenly, and then he saw only Laura''s smiling face towards him. With that, Ariel and James managed to enter the palace and make their way up to the throne room. When the doors to the throne room opened, the nobles inside could be seen with naked eyes. James turned to Laura, who was standing next to him, and asked, "If possible, could you show Ariel to a room where she can rest and take a shower?" Ariel was still struggling to regain consciousness, all her clothes were soaked in gallons of blood. Laura nodded her head in agreement and called for some servants. She then told all the servants to treat Ariel with the utmost respect and to give her one of the best rooms. With that, Ariel left and Laura spoke in a loud voice to the entire throne room: "The owner of the Sun Empire, the leader of the Church of the Night, the lord of the glacial people and the owner of the 26th Floor, James Arthur Black, nicknamed Umbra, has entered the hall!" After these words, James looked at Laura, who had just said these words in front of him, and said in a small voice, "Good introduction." Laura''s expression was overflowing with happiness and James started to walk into the hall. Every noble around was bowing their heads and even the Empress herself was waiting for James at the foot of the stairs leading to the throne. James was becoming depressed at the thought of sitting on a throne again, indeed the throne was his, but he had no way of knowing why. All he knew was that it was a vision and the vampires worshipped him. "Welcome dear leader, for over a million years my lineage has awaited your arrival." said the woman at the foot of the stairs leading to the throne. The woman bowed carefully after these words, and when she stood back up, she suddenly continued speaking: "My name is Victoria sir, the 47th leader and 14th empress of the vampire race. I am deeply honoured to meet you." S~ea??h the N??elFir§×.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Victoria was an incredibly beautiful woman, it was not hard to see that, every single hair looked as if it had been drawn by hand. Her features, her eyebrows, her eyes and nose, even her ears and mouth looked as if they had been carefully placed by the creator himself. Her beauty was enhanced by her jet-black hair and her bright, light-red eyes. She was wearing a long black dress that looked as if it imitated a black wedding dress. She was certainly a very beautiful woman. James nodded his head as soon as he heard those words and then said, "Nice to meet you, I''m James, you are worthy to call me by my name, please do so." However, just to assert his authority, he walked up to Victoria and then climbed almost twenty steps to the throne where the leader of all vampires could sit. All the vampires in the throne room trembled at the sight. Even the dumbest creature could see the blood boiling in each of their veins, adrenaline and excitement gripping them tightly. "Now tell me, what exactly is this [vision]?" James suddenly asked. Hearing this question, Victoria took a few gentle steps forward and then, looking up towards the throne where James was sitting, she smiled and then began to speak: "Over a million years ago, almost two million years ago, someone came to this floor, sir. This woman looked quite devastated, tired and exhausted. A human, a female human, who begged and pleaded with my ancestor that she had fought for someone and that there were shortcomings in her loss, even if things were still going well." "Upon meeting this human, my ancestor felt something awakened deep within his soul. My ancestor Drak, the 1st Vampire leader and 1st Vampire Emperor, and the first Sun Vampire, made a prediction...a prophecy. It was a prediction that all vampires followed carefully, and some of them, out of arrogance, wished it wasn''t true." "Drak..." James heard a voice in his mind, and it was Vladimir''s again. "Do you know him?" James muttered in his mind. "Of course I know him...." said Vladimir and within a few seconds he added, "He''s my brother." "Then who could that woman be who came here?" James questioned in his mind, but no answer came back. Victoria then reached into her inventory and pulled out a parchment, coughed twice softly to clear her throat and then spoke: [Whoever will murder one of our kind will be a member of the highest blood. A human being, his fate will be as he has written it. He will use blood, like breathing. He will control all vampires and be present in the middle of the battlefield when the great destruction reaches the tower''s interior from the outside of it, leading them to the front lines and showing them all the reason for honour, truth and existence. Until he becomes the master of blood, life and destruction]. With that, Victoria had finished her speech and was looking intently at James. It could be seen that all the nobles in the hall were also looking at him with eyes as bright as Victoria''s. James instantly realized what he had to do. He touched the garment he was wearing and began to use his mana, focusing on the fifth magic ring in particular. As he removed his hand from the garment, he formed another sword from the blood. As James did so, every single vampire in the throne room suddenly dropped to their knees, each with a smile of excitement that could only be described as terrifying. James could not understand what had caused this. "[The vision] said that with your arrival the vampire race would rise again, that they would put aside their arrogance and become the greatest in the tower. I am deeply honoured to be the leader who has met you, my emperor." Victoria said suddenly and James stood up and said, "We can leave that for later, I have a question for you." Victoria was just as surprised as the other nobles and then looked at James curiously. "This woman...the woman who spoke to Drak, do you have any idea what she looks like?" When James asked this question, Victoria nodded her head up and down and then said, "Yes, Mr. James, I have a picture of that moment, if you can wait ten minutes, I can have it brought from my room." However, Victoria suddenly looked at Laura, who was near the door to the throne room, and Laura went at hyper speed and returned with a painting. As Victoria handed the painting to James, an expression of surprise appeared in James'' mind. "HOLY SHIT!!!" The voice belonged to none other than Vladimir. What had surprised him so much was a matter of curiosity. Chapter 286 - 286: HOW FAR DID HE SEE!? James began to look at the painting more carefully as he heard Vladimir''s voice churning in his mind, even if he didn''t know who the woman in the painting was, just looking at her image was strangely comforting to his soul. [Impossible...she should have been dead before the war started. [I can''t believe my eyes, ask Victoria, it must be a mistake!] [I saw it! I saw the moment this woman died with my own eyes! I MADE IT REAL!!!] [There''s no way such a thing is possible, it must be a mistake, she must be a descendant of that woman.] These messages, one after the other from different people, seemed to make James more and more curious by the second. "Who is this?" James thought in his mind, he had to find out. Vladimir stayed where he was, excitedly stepping out of the ring and watching the picture with his own eyes as he managed to materialize in the tangible world and reveal himself to everyone. Victoria and the other vampires did not seem to expect to see Vladimir. "I ask you again, Vladimir, who is she?" James repeated himself, not even surprised that Vladimir was able to show himself in the tangible world and focused only on hearing the answer to his question. Vladimir continued to stare intently at the painting and kept moving closer and closer to it as if refusing to believe what he was seeing. Almost a minute later, he uttered these words: "This...this woman is Juliet." James'' eyes widened when he heard these words, he realized that what he had just heard was nonsense, why all these messages were coming one after the other in a way that indicated surprise. "Are you kidding me?" James couldn''t help but ask, but the response was the same: "This is Juliet, my best friend and Desmond''s best friend, the woman who fell first and caused me to lose it." James instantly fell back against the throne behind him and put his hand to his forehead. "So she was alive? But you saw her die, didn''t you? Every one of you, including Hyperion, that''s what I was told!" James said, his voice echoing through the throne room, making the atmosphere even more tense. Vladimir stared at James and shook his head up and down, unable to say anything. "Two million years, officially the history of war, the war my ancestor fought and the reason why the war started so early, was she alive?" James questioned and with that Victoria took a few steps forward and asked, "Is something wrong, sir?" James heard Victoria''s voice right in front of him, looked at her with a strange expression and then closed his eyes painfully and shook his head as if he had solved the secret of the universe. "We knew what he was trying to do, he was working for my development. The deal he made with Chaos, trying to erase memories of himself and so much more!!! Juliet had to know about all of it, she knew and she must have come here on her deathbed. After all, the Vampire Empire knew about Juliet and my ancestor. They were your best friends after all," James said suddenly. Indeed, everything was starting to come out like the light of day. It would be normal for even the dumbest creature to be able to figure things out, with just a few thoughts everything was solvable. "It''s...possible, but why didn''t she come with me? If Juliet had said she was alive, everything would have been easier. And Drak, why exactly did my brother agree? Especially since this report came from a human," Vladimir questioned. "My ancestor might not have known Juliet was alive either. And that could suggest why Juliet didn''t show herself. Think about it, the war was a long time away, and every single person was ready to support my ancestor, but he couldn''t move forward, all he would need was the support of those upstairs," James added, scratching his head with the stress and tension rising with each thought. "I don''t understand..." Vladimir muttered after hearing these words. "You see the lock between the 74th and 76th floors, the seal on the 75th floor and the treaty. Everything had to happen one after the other since the outcome of the war was to be won or lost. They kept talking about Juliet as one of the cleverest, in which case...Juliet might have wanted to start the war, to set fire to that board where my ancestor might dare to advance. To light the fires of war..." James replied. Vladimir shook his head and said, "But Juliet could have done it in consultation with me, the only reason I got bored with everything and got greedy was because my two friends were no longer what they used to be. Your ancestor, in his greed for life and eagerness to end the war, agreed to leave everything behind in the fire, while Juliet died outright...." Vladimir''s eyes widened as he said those words and then he muttered, "Fuck off..." James turned to him curiously and asked, "What happened?" "Don''t you see, the answer is right in front of us," Vladimir muttered and then waited a few seconds before continuing: "Your ancestor must know everything. The fire was lit to start the war. The white wizards had already betrayed, them the dark magic had taken them over. When the Fallen Gods dominated everything, Juliet must have made a plan with your ancestor to make it look like she sacrificed herself. With that, the upper floors would go mad, and their beloved Juliet would be gone. It drove Hyperion himself mad. I betrayed the ancestor and locked myself in one of the secret floors under Ruby''s watch until you found me. So the prophecy would work, the prophecy of my brother Drak wishing and hoping that you would come here." sea??h th§× novel(F~)ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. When Vladimir said these words, James and every single person who had been watching and knew anything about what had happened was once again filled with curiosity: [How much had Desmond planned?] "Understand James!!!" Vladimir suddenly shouted and with that, he began to speak: "Whoever will murder one of our kind will be a member of the highest blood. A human being, his fate will be as he has written it. He will use blood, like breathing. He will control all vampires and be present in the middle of the battlefield when the great destruction reaches the tower''s interior from the outside, leading them to the front lines and showing them all the reason for honour, truth and existence. Until he becomes the master of blood, life and destruction." Vladimir repeated his brother Drak''s prophecy of foresight and then continued: "A man without a destiny will write his destiny, his future will change with every step he takes, and every breath he takes will pull him in another direction. My brother himself must have realized when he saw Juliet that the war would begin and that there would be another in the future. The heart of the war, the way it works, the way the army is structured. Someone who can control all the vampires, who can be like the vampires themselves. Someone who aims to break through the tower. Someone who dares to stand up to the threats in the tower." Vladimir was silent after these words and remained where he was for a few seconds, neither moving nor closing his eyes. "Your ancestor....Desmond himself wanted all his life to elevate humans, to make a superior race!!!" Vladimir suddenly shouted. "We always thought so..." he added calmly. "But what if everything is different? What if it''s all a deception? What if he has another plan, a main goal? Imagine; the creator loves an ordinary human being who manages to kill Fallen Gods, and all his life he keeps showing that he intended to do something." he muttered, the madness in his gaze adding to the depth of the situation. "We don''t know why the Fallen Gods fell to greed, we don''t know where they got the black magic, we don''t know how they learned to defile mana and the aura itself, which is considered sacred! THINK JAMES!!!" shouted Vladimir and instantly grabbed James by the shoulders. "REMEMBER WHAT MY BROTHER SAID!!! REMEMBER THE PROPHECY!!! THREATS FROM OUTSIDE THE TOWER!!!" he screamed. "Even the Creators have fallen...they have become Fallen Gods. Erebus and Nyx and Hades and Zeus and Poseidon and Odin and Thor and Loki and Indra and Ashura and Ra and Osiris and Anubis and Amaterasu and Raijin and Izanagi and Izanami and the creators they destroyed with their own hands?" added Vladimir. However, he took a few steps backwards and then said, "But what about the creatures created with great harmony by Chaos, the master creator, how did they become so polluted? How were they driven to destruction and war? What exactly are the threats outside the tower?" After these words, he grabbed his own chest and shouted one last time, literally grasping his own soul: "DESMOND!!! HOW MUCH HAVE YOU LEARNED?!?!?!?!?! HOW MUCH DID YOU PLAN, OLD FRIEND?!?!?!?!" Chapter 287 - 287: Changes "DESMOND!!! HOW MUCH HAVE YOU LEARNED?!?!?!?! HOW MUCH DID YOU PLAN, OLD FRIEND?!?!?!?!" At Vladimir''s shout, the hall of the gods fell silent. Every Titan and Chaos-Born sitting in that precious hall of the palace of Olympus was listening attentively and trying to make sense of what was happening. By order of Chronos, each of the children of the Titans had been included in the conversation, and it seemed that a little bit of the truth needed to be revealed. Zeus and his two precious brothers were especially confused. They had only tried to kill the Fallen Gods for the stability of the tower and the safety of the lower floors, but they were aware of the battle that had taken place many years ago, so what they were now learning was the truth of all the battles they had fought, all the times of life and death. When Zeus looked carefully at his father next to him, he saw the sadness and bitterness on Chronos'' face and began to fill with resentment. Only the creator himself could know what Zeus, who openly hated his father but respected him at the same time, was thinking. "It''s all on me..." James muttered. There was nothing to hide anymore. He felt as if he was in a game. To guess the whole truth and know everything in part placed incredible pressure on his mind. None of the vampires in the throne room dared to speak. It had already been a shock to them to see the spirit of Vladimir, the ancestor of each of them, and it was even more shocking that it was connected to James. Anyone who could hold the soul of a Sun Vampire would be nothing less than a vampire god in their eyes. "Damn it...I had a simple dream when I entered the tower, I was going to pierce the tower and reach Chaos, what happened to me?" James questioned, feeling like he was plunged into a great void. He kept being told that he was not destined. Even in Drak''s prophecy such words had been left to him, but now, looking around him, it was as if every step he took and every breath he took had been calculated by Desmond himself. He had taken Chaos''s word for it, so he knew it wasn''t a toy or anything like that BUT it was hard to push himself forward and try to believe it. Because he didn''t know what to believe right now. "What am I supposed to do now?" James questioned and then stood up from his throne and looked at Victoria standing in front of him. "Carry on Victoria, you may no longer be an empress but you will remain a leader," James said suddenly and took a deep breath as he looked intently at every vampire in the throne room. After only a moment of silence, he began to speak: "I want you to put your arrogance aside after this day. It''s challenging, I understand, but if your ancestor''s prophecy is true and a war is going to happen, arrogance is the last thing you should have. In the future, you will meet many people, people for whom you will have to give up your life if necessary, and people who will die for you if necessary. And on top of that, it won''t just be people." James took a deep breath as he said these words and slowly shook his head up and down, "Rest assured though, when the time comes for battle, I will be on the front lines, in front of every one of you, every race, of whether it be the gods upstairs or other beings, we will fight this tower together if the threats from outside are real." With that, he slowly descended the stairs and said, "Come on, Uncle." Vladimir''s eyes were filled with pride, the fact that James could still be sane in the midst of so much dark reality made him and every god and goddess watching proud. The noble vampires in the throne room were surprised to hear James call Vladimir [uncle]. It was clear that none of them had expected the person Drak had spoken of in his prescient prophecy to be so incredible. Laura gently began to guide James and he was immediately taken to the room next to Ariel. Throwing himself suddenly into the bathroom, James breathed deeply through his nose and continued to feel the blood running down his body as the icy water poured over him from the shower head. His whole body was trembling. It seemed to be triggered by the adrenaline that the thought of war gave him. Strangely, he couldn''t help feeling excited about the responsibility that had been strangely thrust upon him and the certainty of what he would have to do in the future. He closed his eyes and leaned his hands against the bathroom wall, trying to relax himself, and every single person watching him was sure of it. It wasn''t long before he received a text message [Are you okay? It was from Zeus, the last person James had expected. S§×arch* The N?vel(F)ire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Thinking that Zeus was now aware of the truth, James stayed where he was for a few seconds and then asked the following questions: "What would you do if you were in my shoes? Nearly dying on the 27th floor, leading billions to their near extinction...I''m not even strong, my status points are top tier, but what about my experience? I ask you, great Zeus, what would you do in my place?" When James said these words, all eyes in the Hall of Olympus turned to Zeus. Zeus'' face was full of laughter and joy, which made everyone look at him strangely. [If I were you, all I would do is keep moving forward. When I founded the Guild of Olympus, we went through great hardships. In the old days, each of the Fallen Gods had followers that were not direct even if they were dead, and I destroyed many of them with my own hands. In those times when despair covered not only my heart but my whole body, all I did was keep moving forward even if my body was riddled with holes. Of course...that''s just my opinion]. When James looked at this message sent to him by Zeus with his eyes wide open, he could feel the 8 Sacred Fires in his body burning with hope. "To keep moving forward even when your body is riddled with holes?" James suddenly questioned, both sides of his lip curling upwards just a little, indicating that she was starting to come to him. "I''ve never been so wrong in my thinking Zeus, who would have thought that perhaps the god I hated the most would turn out to be one of the ones I respect the most," James said suddenly and then finished cleaning the blood from his body and left the bathroom. Once he was dressed in clean clothes, he lay down on the bed and closed his eyes. He couldn''t sleep. Suddenly he sat up in bed and went out onto the balcony of the room, breathing deeply. There was so much on his mind that despite his Mind Palace ability, he was unable to fully relax. As soon as she opened the balcony door and stepped out onto the balcony, she threw a pillow in the centre of the balcony, which was the size of a normal room, and sat cross-legged on the pillow. He immediately closed his eyes and began to meditate. He wanted to try to get even better at using Star Magic. After all, it would be in his best interest to try to master this magic, which would destroy his ability to provide for his needs in times of war. He had already made good progress with Star Magic, he could only get even better at it and try to get stronger. He was already officially sleep-deprived, it was the most free time he could find and the only thing to do when these factors came into play was to meditate. By the time he started meditating and came close to finishing it, 80 days had already passed. After such a long time, Miracle and Ruby were out of inventory and wandering around the palace of the vampire empire. The vampires were especially trembling with fear. After all, there was a member of the most feared race of all, the Supreme Dragons, sitting on the head of a sacred Phoenix that towered above even ancient monsters. Ruby introduced herself as James'' grandmother and Miracle as James'' daughter. However, Ariel found out what had happened and was very worried about James. Yet she knew that as his mother she would never leave James alone. After all, Ariel had already seen her daughter die a horrible death because she had left her alone, and she would not do the same for her son. The entire floor was being cleared for normal entry and exit. The vampires had indeed managed to put their arrogance aside, if only slightly, at James'' request. Of course, a definitive change could not be expected suddenly. The new rules were going to be very difficult. First the Church of the Night, under James'' direct command, entered the floor and was indeed greeted with a great feast. With the agreement between Victoria, the leader of the Vampire Empire, and Datura and Aether, the main pope, the 39th floor, which had been considered heathen, had chosen the Church of Night as their religion for the first time in their existence. And all because one man had made a small request. Chapter 288 - 288: Reality About the White Haired Woman "I thought you would come to me with good news, but it turns out that you made him stronger AGAIN and helped the tower recover its races." The white-haired woman re-entered the hall and uttered these words. Now not only the trio but dozens of people of different races and appearances were standing in the hall, each on their knees, prostrating themselves. It was not hard to see that every one of them was trembling with fear. "Ummm...there is nothing we can say, my lady, please forgive me..." said the man standing at the front of the group. "Keep your words to yourself, I''m not here to tell you I''ll give you another chance." the white-haired woman said and suddenly gestured. With that gesture, more than 90% of the people in the room suddenly turned to dust and disappeared. The person at the front of the group didn''t even dare to say anything, it would be more accurate to say that he was unable to do anything other than prostrate himself to the white-haired woman and just wait. Nevertheless, it was already the end for him. She had destroyed all three of her chances and each time, instead of killing James, she had strengthened him. The white-haired woman made another disgusted gesture, and with that, the group that had plagued James since he entered the tower disappeared. At that very moment a woman, perhaps six feet tall, with squirrel ears, came through the passage from which the white-haired woman had come and said, "Are you finished?" The white-haired woman turned to the squirrel-eared woman who had come through the passage and said, "Unfortunately, no. It seems the time has come for us to take matters into our own hands. Every day my husband and my lineage grow stronger, I can feel it, the bond between us grows stronger, and every day his power grows closer to me." At these words, the woman with the squirrel ears turned to the white-haired woman and then began to speak: "Come on Luna, you know Desmond''s promise to you, he will come to you sooner or later, you used that stupid trio and you managed to make James stronger, you made yourself look like the enemy and you made the people in the tower worship you, all to make that boy stronger, you can''t love your husband that much, he''s been gone for a long, long time. It doesn''t make sense that you are trying to make everything more complicated just because you miss him." the squirrel-eared woman complained. These words shared a small detail about who the white-haired woman called "Luna" was. No one could or should have known about it. Luna was a higher being than thought. She was one of the five supreme creators and the woman who had once taken Desmond as her husband. In short, she was the mother of Vlad, Abby, Ezra and the other children. Of course, this was another form of Luna, after all, the creators couldn''t make a definitive leap into the real world, they needed a direct cause. James and even Desmond and Luna''s children never knew about it, Desmond never shared the truth. Yet it was clear that there was going to be a war. Chaos, the top of the five main creators, the one who created everything, was in a not state, passive, neither seeking nor opposing war. However, there was the woman with the squirrel ears who stood next to Luna. Yet only one of the other four chose to stand by the tower, and that was Luna herself. After all, the woman with the squirrel ears was only helping Luna because she loved her, not because she cared about the tower. The reason why she was so active in the tower was to try to prevent the dangers that were approaching the tower every day, in short, Luna made herself an enemy in the eyes of all the gods and goddesses in the tower just for James, her descendant, and she was the one who sent all these dangers to James, even if their existence was unknown. Luna was a cosmic being who gave Chaos the greatest help in the creation of the Supreme Dragons. This was the lineage from which James was descended, why he existed even though he didn''t "exactly" have a father. James'' mother knew Luna, who had existed as a spirit, making it possible for James to take on flesh because Luna herself had made the choice that James was the one to enter the tower. Because more than two million years after the great war, the danger inside the tower had paused and outsiders waited as if it had never existed. This meant that the current state of the tower was the exact time for James to enter the tower. That''s why James'' mother was given the man she had always wanted, and it became possible for Leona, the spirit created by Luna and Desmond and his bloodline, to have a child. This child was none other than James. In the battle that would decide the fate of the tower, James would not only have to fight against low-level cosmic monsters from outside the tower, but he would also have to face an army created by two top-tier creators. Even if James'' fate was self-written, Desmond, and mostly Luna herself, had written a few important points for James himself on his destiny chart. How James would get there was entirely up to him, but one thing was certain, and that was that young James would get there. Sooner or later. sea??h th§× ¦Çov§×lFire .net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. This explains why Desmond knew so much and why he was trying to change the tower while fighting for the so-called "humans". The Fallen Gods had become what they were because the other two higher creators wanted them that way. Chaos, who was not pro-war, could always create another tower, even if his children and creations died, he could take their souls and save them, after all, he was a hyper-power without an opponent, even if the other creators, including Luna, opposed him, Chaos could destroy each of them with a snap of his fingers. This meant that it was impossible for the remaining 4 creators not to have a war between them. This means that the only reason Desmond fully helped the humans was not because he hated the Fallen Gods, but because he knew what would happen in the future and wanted to raise the level of humanity in the tower for James'' arrival. In short, his goal was to create an environment where James could grow stronger at HYPER speed. "You didn''t have to kill them though, they were going to get their hands on something bigger to make James stronger." the squirrel-eared woman complained. Luna turned to the woman and said, "It could kill him, the last thing they did made him spend the last of what the tower owed him, he''s on his own now." The squirrel-eared woman shook her head and said, "Your love for James will be what kills him in the future. If you keep him like this even though you want him to thrive, what can he do in the future when our brothers attack him? Remember, Chaos created us because many eternities had to be controlled and the balance of life and death had to be maintained. We chose to fight with it, to conquer it. Your love for him will be what kills him." Luna shook her head when she heard those words and then after a long moment, she smiled in a way that surprised the squirrel-eared woman, "James is my blood...my blood and the blood of the love of my life, how can I continue to watch him suffer? How could I not love him?" The squirrel-eared woman chuckled and then said, "He will have to learn everything when the time comes, even now you are watching him, his growth, every step he takes, every breath he takes. When that time comes, Luna, you may not be the one to hold James when he realizes the enormity of the responsibility that has been placed upon him. After all, he has a wife, and with her a huge family. Desmond''s family is now James'' family." Luna continued to smile after these words and then said, "I am aware of this, the future will show everything. All I ask is that he continues to grow in power safely and quickly. He has already achieved the status of the lowest god, the war is years away, and I am sure that when the time comes he will have the power of Nyx, the might of Desmond, and the determination of his own heart." then, holding out her hand to the squirrel-eared woman, she added, "It''s time to go." they have already spend a lot of time inside the tower after all. With that, they passed through the gateway they had come through and went back the way they had come... Chapter 289 - 289: 40th Floor When James finished his meditation, he learned that he had been meditating for 90 days in total. He had started meditating only because he was sleep-deprived, and he had increased his Star Magic level tremendously. The fact that he had never meditated for so long meant that this was bound to happen. Still, James easily realized that after all that meditation and pause, he didn''t feel anything wrong. There was no spasm in his body, no discomfort, he didn''t feel sleepy or hungry. The only problem was that he urgently needed to go to the restroom. After a quick trip to the restroom and a shower, she was finally able to return to her room in comfort. In the process, he had gotten information from Nyx and the others about what had happened and had managed to keep up to date with what was going on in the tower. Now he was ready to go up to the 40th floor...he was just filled with the desire to eat a little bit of food, not that he was hungry, he just wanted to eat. He quickly started walking around the palace of the vampire empire and greeted the servants who saw him. There were no troops like knights in the palace of the vampire empire. This was, of course, because the vampire empress was indeed the most talented wizard below the 75th floor. Her magical status probably surpassed James, and that was incredible. In short, Victoria, the former empress and the new all-powerful leader, but still fulfilling her role as empress, was a person who should not be an enemy. "Vladimir, I was going to ask you, but it completely slipped my mind. You said there are other Sun Vampires besides you, your brother Drak, but there are three more, right? What are the chances of them surviving?" James suddenly asked, greeting the servants he passed with a smile and waiting for an answer. After a short while, he had the answer: "Actually, I have no idea. Normally our essences can sense each other, how should I put it...our auras and spells are very similar, which means we can sense them, even when I materialized myself using my soul energy I couldn''t sense any of them." After this answer from Vladimir, James shook his head and then said, "So they are dead. I hope their souls are in a good place." With that, he went to the palace kitchen and asked the cooks, who were surprised to see him, for a few bites of food. In just half an hour a huge table was set before him. James smiled and thanked them for the beautiful table and all the food, and indeed he managed to devour fifteen plates of food in only forty minutes. He may not have felt hungry, but he felt like he had a black hole in his stomach. After consuming the food, he left the kitchen to check on Victoria and the others and then came to the throne room. As he entered, he saw his daughter Miracle and his grandmother Ruby sitting on the throne. "You do realize that throne doesn''t belong to you, don''t you?" James suddenly questioned, and with that, the eyes of everyone in the room turned to him. "There''s nothing to be done, you weren''t on the throne, Ariel has gone off to train, so the Emperor''s daughter, Princess Miracle and her grandmother Ruby will take over," Ruby replied. With that James shook his head from side to side and then began to look around. James saw that dozens of tables and chairs, hundreds of documents, and more had been brought into the throne room. It seemed that the changes that had taken place on the floor needed to be documented. At the same time, James saw both the old woman Datura and, rather strangely, the young warrior Yorhun himself. As soon as James greeted the old woman Datura, he immediately turned to Yorhun next to her and asked, "What are you doing here?" "I have become the person in charge of the administration of Asgard on this floor, sir," Yorhun replied with his usual tired yet noble appearance. James smiled as if he was very happy after these words and then said, "No way! So you got a promotion? Well done Yorhun, I''m proud of you, I''m happy that someone I fought side by side with got such a promotion." He could not imagine how much those words meant to Yorhun, after all, in the eyes of many, James had already become a living legend, an idol to many. "Thank you, sir, it''s a great honour," Yorhun murmured. "I''m sorry to burden you with so much responsibility, sister, even though we have only met once," James said. Victoria was particularly taken aback by the word "sister" and looked at James with a sunken face. James smiled and then said, "Technically I am the heir to a Sun Vampire and this is your ancestor''s brother, another ancestor, so I am your younger brother and you are my older sister, right?" Victoria smiled at those words and then said a little playfully, "I never thought the man in the prophecy would call me his sister, but if that''s what you want, I''d be very happy." With that, Victoria, who had been holding James by the shoulder, nodded and then said, "Excuse me, I''m going to faint now," and then she did indeed faint from exhaustion. 90 Days of non-stop work for this young-looking old vampire woman. With that James pulled out some pillows from the stairs leading up to the throne and gently placed Victoria on them and covered her up. "Let her rest some...For Chaos'' sake, how much did y''all make her work?" James suddenly muttered, but he knew as well as anyone that it was his fault. After a brief check-up, James took his daughter and his grandmother, and with his precious Sophia in tow, he was ready to head up to the 40th floor. On the 40th floor and beyond, everything would be much easier as there was no need to team up strictly anymore. This floor was particularly dangerous because anyone who entered it would be judged at the foot of the sky. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Emma, as usual, revealed a passage and James went through it without thinking twice. Once he closed and opened his eyes, he saw the climbers around him, filled with fear. Each of them seemed to be filled with a strange interest in the arrival of someone new. Others seemed devastated that someone else''s fate was locked here. "You shouldn''t have come here!" someone shouted. "Idiocy!!!" screamed another. "You did so wrong, you''re going to die...you''re going to die like everyone else!" said another. As one after another said this, James began to take steps as if he knew what he had to do. The 40th Floor...the floor of the Sky Judgment, the Floor of the Judgment of the Clouds. This was the floor that separated groups, pitted spouses and friends against each other, and where death ruled everything. A person or group steps into the clouds and is presented with two choices. If they answered the questions posed to them in the name of guilt, damnation, righteousness and beyond with anything other than their personality and knowledge, they would either be thrown out of the clouds at the will of the tower and most likely be disembowelled and killed alive by friends, family or others, or the clouds would release them and they would fall tens of thousands of meters to their deaths on the earth. That was where the Heart Scales existed, James. He knew this very clearly and that''s why he took one look at the people shouting at him and said, "Your life is shaped by the choices you make. If you''re avoiding those choices and you think you''re going to die because of it, you shouldn''t have come to the tower in the first place, you''re better off dead." With that, James walked through everyone and came to the edge of the cliff. Immediately he took a step forward and there was a cloud of maybe five meters where he stepped. James felt like he had stepped on soft candy. And with that, he had his first question, a question he never, ever expected: [Do you miss your first love?] As soon as this question was formed, two pieces of the cloud broke off to distinguish between right and wrong and the no went to the right and the yes went to the left. James stayed where he was for a few seconds, the mere fact that he was waiting so long was enough to bring his wife Nemesis down, yet he didn''t hesitate to say out loud something that even she wouldn''t have expected: "Why the fuck would I miss a [bitch] who cheated on me and was only with me because I had some money back then. Honestly tower, that is disrespectful to my wife, say fucking sorry to her, dumbass." Without thinking twice, James jumped to the cloud on the right, and with that, the cloud where the first question had disappeared. As his wife Nemesis waited with tears in her eyes and relief in her heart, sitting next to her mother, James'' time of judgment had fully begun. What choice he would make was up to him. Chapter 290 - 290: The Best a Man Could Ask For James stared intently at the new question before him: [Do you regret killing the creatures you killed?] He paused for a few seconds when he saw this question and waited as if he realized that this time he had something to think about. He could have chosen to forgive the person Sopdu had sponsored instead of killing her, but he had decided to kill her as a warning to everyone. He could have chosen to simply throw the female vampire he had killed out of the arena, but he had indeed decided to burn her alive instead. Now that he thought about it, he had indeed taken two lives for no reason. Even if the people whose lives he had taken were not perfect or even good people, at least they were not major criminals. That''s why James stepped into the cloud just to his left, the one with the answer yes, and it became clear that he was telling the truth. Every single person who saw this was deeply saddened. Many of them had heard what James was like and even what he had done on the 27th floor. Now to see that he had chosen such an option seemed to twist every one of them. Even for the gods and goddesses watching him. [And would you choose in your current state of mind and intelligence to forgive the creatures you killed just before you killed them?] James'' expression changed the moment he read that question. It was clear that he had not thought about it. He paused where he was, frowning and scratching his head, thinking the answer would be yes. However, just as he was about to take a step towards the small piece of cloud on the left, he paused and took a step back. He knew in his heart that the answer was no. Every cell in his brain, every memory he had stored and every sensation tingling in his body told him so. What he had done was something that had to happen. He had taken two lives for no reason, but in doing so, even the warriors from the floors above had changed their attitudes towards what he considered precious. Which meant that the answer was really no. With that, James stepped into the small patch of cloud to the right and appeared before the other question under everyone''s astonished gaze: [Do you regret choosing to save billions of lives instead of saving her soul?] James'' eyes seemed to widen as he heard this question. The curiosity of those around and watching what was happening in the palace of Olympus turned to James at a great level. From Zeus to Odin, who had come to watch what was happening and had learned the necessary things, from Odin to Uranus, the greatest of the Titans, everyone turned their attention to him. Of course, the onlookers did not know who the man called [him] was, but it seems that every single person in the hall of Olympus more or less understood what was going on. The fact that the tower was asking such a question meant something, especially to Nyx, Erebus and each of the Titans. James had chosen billions of lives over the soul of his ancestor Desmond. Minutes passed and minutes became hours, James had been standing on that cloud for half a day, doing nothing. After all that waiting, he took a deep breath and let it out, his face contorted with regret, but no one thought about what he was going to do despite his expression. James stepped into the little cloud on the right, the one with the no option. With that, he said a few words: "I could choose to save my ancestor''s soul, but then I would have lost the 27th floor, where thousands of races live together. If I did that, how could I look my maternal ancestor and the rest of my ancestors in the face? How could I go to my only wife and tell her that I sacrificed everyone? How could I look Ariel and Nyx, who I consider my mothers, in the face without shame? How could I pat my own daughter Miracle''s head when so many children had died? Of course, the answer is no!" Immediately after he uttered those words, the cloud beneath him shifted and the template for the next question was formed. To everyone''s surprise, James was indeed following his heart. Still, no one could wait for the next question. [What if you had one more chance? If the Creator Himself brought you back to that moment, would your choice be to save the soul of your ancestor, or would you choose to save billions of lives in the same way, by partially imprisoning one of your own blood?] With that, two clouds formed again, one on the left and one on the right. The cloud on the left had an answer choice that he would choose the same option and the cloud on the right the opposite. James was no longer even surprised, yet his heart was pounding, it was really hard for him to come up with an answer, even if his mind wasn''t tiring, even if his Mind Palace ability was keeping his mind calm and healthy. He sat down on the cloud and held his head with both hands without thinking. It looked like his stress level was starting to rise. The tower itself had blocked every single message from the outside. The tower self wanted all of James'' answers to come from his own heart. In short, no one should interfere with James'' answers. If he was telling the truth he would live, if he was lying he would die. After all, the tower was as fair as it was cruel. S§×arch* The Novel?ire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. James stayed carefully where he was and tried to clear his mind as much as possible. It was... not an easy thing to do. He still had a choice to make, and even if he had an answer in his mind, it was whether that answer would be true and whether he would die for choosing it that was the real danger. But that choice had to be made, as quickly as possible. James stood up and then, without a second thought, took a deep breath and stepped into the small cloud, indicating an answer that he would make the same choice again. "If I could go back to that moment, that moment when I could have your help and you gave me two choices, I would make the same choice. My ancestor has already saved so many people, but he has caused the extinction of so many races. I am not my ancestor, I stand for the coexistence of all races and the survival of the tower. If my soul was at stake, let alone my ancestor''s, I would still make the same choice. Billions of lives are worth far more than my soul or my ancestor''s." James uttered these words the moment he stepped into the small piece of cloud. With that, the little piece of cloud he stepped on grew and then became a door, and above the door was the last question of the floor: [Are you happy with the life you lead?] As James read this question, he saw a key hanging on the left and right side of the door. The one on the left said yes and the one on the right said no, James had to make his choice. With that, James took another deep breath and then closed his eyes. In his mind, he seemed to go through every memory that he had stored in the Mind Palace, one by one. Every single moment of his life, before and after he lost his family, the moment he entered the tower and all the pain he had experienced. He was very sad, but these were not the only memories that were stored inside the Mind Palace. That''s exactly why the remaining memories came into play. James had seen his beloved wife, Nemesis, who was truly the love of his life and the person he loved most in his life. He saw Miracle, his only daughter, and Ruby, whom he considered his grandmother. He saw Ariel, whom he considered his mother, and Nyx. Then, starting from Erebus, he began to see all the Chaos-Born, including the Titans, and he managed to see all the gods and goddesses, from those he knew a little to those he knew a lot. He also saw Archangel Michael and Fallen Angel Lucifer, who were of great help to him. He also saw Vladimir, Vlad, Abby, Ezra and Emily, his ancestors. When he saw all these memories, his choice became clear. Without thinking twice, he put his hand on the left key and uttered these words: "I couldn''t ask for a better family. Full of love and hope, even the people I respect less take care of each other, even the people who can be my enemies becoming my allies. Chaos-Borns, Titans, Olympus, Asgard, Heavenly and Hellish powers...My dear daughter Miracle, my Gran Gran Ruby." With these words, she inserted the key into the lock and when she realized that the cloud beneath her had not dissipated, she turned the key in the lock and opened the door, saw the bright and green landscape behind the door and said the following before moving to the other side of the door: "And finally...Nemesis, my beloved wife, the most precious person in my life, the woman I would agree to die for, the woman I would sacrifice everything for, the woman I would want to have children with and have the biggest wedding with in the future. I ask you, tower...don''t you think I have the most perfect family?" James passed through the door and the cloudy field disappeared, leaving a huge system notification that James could not see, and which was visible to all the gods and goddesses in the sky, visible to all climbers with their naked eyes: [Yes, it is the most perfect family that can exist.] Chapter 291 - 291: Plea James had passed the test for the 40th floor and was granted full access. The passage that opened after the gate allowed him to reach the settlements and begin to encounter things he never expected to see. Legends Sear?h the N?vel?ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. In the middle of a huge city stood a minotaur and Theseus himself. Theseus himself told James how a long time ago he had killed the minotaur, one of the mythical monsters in the tower, even though it was not very powerful, on the 40th floor. It was a wonderful story. It was good to hear the story of Theseus, which he had seen in the books of his world, and now he could see a golden statue of the event in front of him. No one could send any messages to James, even though the tower''s message restriction had disappeared. Strangely, these holy and powerful gods and goddesses, who had even killed other gods in their time, were now embarrassed, like a couple of five-year-old children. James realized that this strange silence was actually making him sleepy. I think the 90 days of meditation and the Star Magic energy that came with it were starting to wear off. Or rather, James could feel this energy every time he looked at the sky. Even if there were no stars in the sky, the energy seemed to be stored somewhere for James to absorb. It was as if the sky was connected between the floors of the tower, it was really interesting. This meant that James was still trying to move without using his Star Magic ability and the energy from it, which of course made him sleepy. After finding a place to stay and falling asleep, he opened his eyes to a strange vision. It took him an incredibly fast time to realize that he was in a dream. There were flowers of different colours and butterflies on the flowers, in the air or on the ground. James was in a room. A large glass window, huge and shaped like a church, let in the sunlight. And James was watching a woman he had never seen before. She was a very tired-looking woman, dancing in the middle of the butterflies while scaring them away. James felt a strange kinship with this woman, or rather it would not be right to call it a kinship, it was more like empathy. James felt sorry for this woman dancing in front of him without a partner, he understood her loneliness. This woman was none other than Luna. Of course, James didn''t know that. He couldn''t even see her face. She was humming something strange, a song...a melody and words: "Hmmmm...Hmmm...Laaaahaaa...Oh God, hear my voice, my fearful plea. I see them fall and drown in the seas. Help oh God if you won''t be here, we all will fall and burn in the seas." After each melody and word James heard, he just stood there waiting...He knew these words very well. It was the strange...eerie yet hopeful song his mother sang to James every night before bedtime. "30 Empires have fallen only in his hands, dungeons were conquered and owners were burned alive. Oh God, can''t you see? Hear oh our desperate plea. But the only answer we found...the hellish destruction you see." The woman''s voice was thin, very thin, so sweet, so perfect and heartwarming, as if she was speaking directly to the soul. "Burning alive the mother hell and searching loved ones once we lost. The betrayal failure handing hatred but I still see them fall. Oh God hear our plea, we really sought love. Oh heavens can''t you feel it? They all are wraths that wondering hell." James couldn''t take it anymore, he suddenly took a few steps forward and placed one hand on the back of this woman he didn''t know...couldn''t even see her face and held the other. As soon as he was in a dancing position, he began to accompany her: "Searching for eternal might, they all fall underground. Oh God the mighty one, the creator of everyone. Oh God the merciful one, let us rest so we can plea. We can see the darkness beyond so let those souls be the light we want." "Embrace all, climb to the end and see what lands beyond mother hell. Oh God, we can see, the flames we searched every year. The flames we see, burned the torches, they let us beyond the great darkness." "Oh God, the mighty one, let us plea once again. We all wanted the fallen ones to be under the ground. We fight and see everyone lose themselves because of fallen ones. So we plea, please let us be, everything we always, oh wanted to be." "So oh God, the mighty one, let us fight side by side. So oh God, the mighty one, lent us the power to bury them under the ground." With each passing second, the joy and happiness inside James grew, but in his heart, he felt as if these feelings were not his. But he kept looking at this woman whose face he couldn''t see and trying to figure out what was happening, what this thing he was seeing...this dream or whatever it was. James even started to look around, thinking that maybe he could see something. Yet there was nothing in the space they were in but sunlight coming in through the windows and two people dancing. The song...or rather the plea to God...in this case to Chaos itself, the creator, was over. James and the woman he was dancing with stopped and she gave him a big hug. James suddenly felt a tremor in his body, he knew he was waking up, someone seemed to be waking him up. "We will win darling, I swear to you my precious husband Desmond." the white-haired woman suddenly said and with that James opened his eyes back to reality. Seeing Ruby right in front of him, he continued to stare at her worried face, as if he didn''t understand what was happening. "Are you okay?" Ruby had said, and indeed James realized that he had never seen the woman in front of him look so worried before. It was then that James realized that his whole body was wet, his body felt like it was on fire, so hot that the bed in the inn room was soaked through with his sweat. He looked around with widened eyes and managed to see his daughter Miracle with tears in her eyes. "What happened?" James suddenly questioned and was shocked by Ruby''s answer: "You were singing and suddenly you were sweating, your hair was on fire, there was blood on the bed. We couldn''t wake you up." When James managed to recover his shocked expression, he shook his head and then said, "I dreamt of someone...a white-haired woman I didn''t recognize, her face was blurred, I couldn''t see who it was..." [What was she like?" Nyx suddenly texted, something important must have happened if she hadn''t asked James if he was okay. "She''s elegant, a woman with an incredibly beautiful voice, but...that''s not the point..." James muttered, wiping the sweat and blood from his face. ["What''s the point?" Nyx asked out of the blue, and James, hearing this, said these words: "Mother...That woman called me Desmond, she called me her husband...I think I saw a memory from the past." James replied. After those words, the voices stopped, and no messages came to James, only the Titans standing in the hall of Olympus and Nyx and Erebus standing where they were, not even breathing. ----- "James...is he talking about Desmond''s wife, really? We don''t know her," Erebus suddenly questioned, breaking the silence and asking with great curiosity and fear at the same time. As soon as Nyx, who was sitting on the throne, heard this question, she opened the message window again and sent another message to James: "James, do you remember where you were, do you know anything about where you were in your dream?" After Nyx''s question, James said the following words: "I don''t know much, just a big glass with different shapes and sunlight coming in. I danced with this woman and we sang a song, a song my mom always sang to me." After James'' reply, Nyx shook her head and sent another message: "The shapes that make up the glass, tell me about them." "Umm...The corners of the glass had triangles facing the centre of the glass, where the sunlight entered. The top of the glass was connected to the glass in an oval shape, like a classic church window. The centre of the glass had a round shape for the sunlight to enter, and every piece of glass was fogged except for this round shape." James answered this question. Hearing this, Nyx suddenly began to think. It was obvious that this was a church, which is why Nyx carefully tried to remember all the Church of Night churches that had ever been built. She soon found the answer. "James, go back to the 20th floor. Go to the top of the tower of the eastern section of the main church, I think what you''re in is not a room, it''s a prayer chamber, it''s a place that Desmond used...the purpose of it was to pray to Chaos," Nyx muttered. With this, the goal was clear. ----- [Desmond] James, go back to the 20th floor. Go to the top of the tower of the eastern part of the main church, I think what you''re in is not a room, it''s a prayer area, it''s a place that Desmond used...The purpose of that place was to pray to Chaos]. James had to move and make it happen fast. Chapter 292 - 292: They Learned With just a few moves she had calmed her daughter Miracle down and it was time to move on. James didn''t even think about cleaning himself and teleported directly to the 20th floor with Emma''s help. He could see everyone staring at him, the stares were quite normal. James had blood running down his head. Because of what he had seen in his dream, he had somehow triggered and used the blood elemental, so he was bloody from the head down. The priests and nuns of the Church of the Night were trying to figure out what was going on, while James continued to move around the huge church. "Master?" James suddenly heard a voice and turned around to see that it was Sylvia. The female Dark Elf''s face seemed to be filled with great concern. "Not now Slyvia, I have something to do, I''ll come back soon," James said and with a nod from Slyvia, he started to walk away. Even though everyone was worried about what had happened, Nyx had told James exactly where he needed to go, which meant that the great goddess knew something. After a short time, James reached the base of the tower in the eastern part of the huge church. He quickly made his way through the guards, priests and nuns, and before he opened the door to the tower and went inside, he gave a firm order, "I don''t want anyone to come in here until I''m out of here." "We can''t even if we wanted to, sir, only the heir to the church can unlock this tower... That means you," a lay priest replied. James entered the tower after these words and then climbed the stairs at a very high speed. When he reached the end of the stairs, he saw another door in front of him and took a deep breath and slowly pushed it open, realizing that the place he was in was the same place he had seen in his dream. However, there was still a lot of stuff in it. "Unbelievable, so this is where my parents danced...sang?" Abby suddenly muttered. James shook his head at the gentle woman''s voice echoing in his mind and said in a low voice, "It''s a bit strange, but this is where I saw it, yes." [Alright, poke around, try to find something. Don''t just do it with your eyes, spread your mana and aura around, and try to see if you can trigger something.] When James read this sudden message from Nyx, he realized that the plan was to find any trace of energy again, and without question, he began to do as this woman he considered his mother told him. Yet even after almost ten minutes of searching, he hadn''t found anything. It was nothing more than a bookshelf, a desk, two wooden chairs, a desk, and a window to let the sunlight in. At least that''s what James thought. As he turned around, he realized something. He had managed to see that the bookcase in this room was not completely against the wall, something was wrong because everything else in the room was completely mounted on the wall. The bookcase had a gap left behind it. The fact that the room was dusty seemed to indicate that the priest outside was telling the truth. Only Black descendants should have been allowed inside. James carefully moved the bookcase away from the wall and then saw a painting, perhaps as tall as James, covered by a thick cloth. He carefully placed his hand on the thick cover and then pulled it away. With that, the painting itself became visible. James couldn''t believe his eyes. Desmond himself...a figure with black pearl eyes and hair as dark as the night itself, with an incredibly serious expression, standing in the painting and watching intently the woman next to him. The woman was white, almost like snow in its purest form, with hair like a work of art, a near-white complexion and a pair of eyes that shone like stars, and she was looking back at Desmond. At that moment the ring James was wearing on the index finger of his right hand began to glow. James could see the spirits of his ancestors coming out of the ring one by one. Abby, Ezra and Drak were now looking directly at the painting itself, away from the ring. They each had a smile on their faces. It was at that moment that the trio uttered the word "Mom..." at the same time, and with that James'' heart began to pound. These three old souls...it was as if they were reunited with their mother. Even if it was just a woman in a painting, this woman was the mother of these three ancestors. James was just staring at the painting and waiting. In Olympus, he had no idea what was going on, he was completely focused on himself... ----- sea??h th§× n??el Fire.n§×t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. In the hall of Olympus, many legendary heroes, gods and goddesses had risen. Even the stupidest god knew who that woman was standing next to Desmond. Even Nyx''s eyes widened and she stood up from her throne and continued to watch the painting as if she could not believe anything. "Creator...Desmond married one of the female creators....!!!!" Aether suddenly shouted. No one had ever imagined that the god of space, heaven and the high, endless sky would shout in such a way. It was not only Aether himself who was surprised. Every Chaos-Born, every Titan, every high Olympian god, every Asgardian god and leader, every mythological being and monster, Archangel Michael, Fallen Angel Lucifer, Sun Wukong and many more. None of them knew what to say, and they were all fixed in their places, completely absorbed in themselves. Some of them even thought that they might be in a dream right now, but no one was foolish enough to deny that this was reality. "James...has the blood of a creator...a creator of the highest order," Ra said suddenly. Ra himself was a creator, just like Luna, who everyone saw in the painting, but the difference between Ra and that woman was that Ra was a creator of the lowest order. Luna only needed to think to destroy a creator like Ra. The second most powerful creator in existence...one of the few beings that can be called a work of art of Chaos. Nyx represented power, Erebus eternity, ##### life, ##### death, the squirrel-eared woman spirit. Luna was there as the most perfect creator, the most compassionate. Luna represented might itself. Ra''s words seemed to hit everyone like a slap in the face. Even though James'' wife Nemesis was secretly happy about this news, she was slowly beginning to break under the stress and pressure that would be placed on her husband by the deepening of the situation. "So the woman he danced with in his dream was the creator himself, or at least one of them...one of the quartet my grandfather first created?" Moros suddenly asked. Moros had once tried to control the future of the duo just so that his sister Nemesis would not be upset in the future about anything. The three sisters Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos wrote fate and Moros spread it, and Moros, as the eldest, was the only one who completed the existence, the reality of the three sisters. This meant that he was destiny itself, the black news itself. Yet even someone like him had never seen the fate of his sister Nemesis, nr of James. The fact that he had been able to see his sister''s destiny before, an that this had changed when James had entered their lives, locking everyone''s fate, had made Moros think. Now it all made sense. Luna, the second most powerful of the creators, was James'' ancestor. Of course, a man as lowly as Moros, a man of no value to Luna, a man who in the eyes of the creator looked like a baby barely out of his mother''s womb, could not see James'' destiny. Otherwise e,verything would have been stranger. "Chaos himself said that James wasn''t a puppet, but there were dozens of Desmond''s plans that we didn''t know about, as well as the frightening machinations that man had left behind. Now big sister Luna herself is involved...I guess the effect James had on the tower wasn''t just a matter of coincidences," Chronos said suddenly. With his words, everything was certain. The only problem and question was this: Should they tell James who was here, who was that woman in the painting, Luna herself? All eyes turned to Nyx. Even the eyes of her husband Erebus were focused on Nyx with concern, and for perhaps the first time in her life, the great goddess was under pressure. The decision to be made here and now would either destroy James'' faith or make him stronger and more determined. It was all like a card game at a gambling table. Nyx was either going to go all in or she was going to avoid making that decision by calling it out at that moment. Yet the only thing this woman, the great goddess Nyx, wanted was for James, whom she saw as her son, to be well.