Chapter 852 First Floor
Zhang Mengyao's vision blackened for a second. Once the vision returned, she noticed she was already in the middle of the forest. She was surrounded by over ten meters tall trees. The first thing she did was to activate [Envisage]. Since it was not targeted at anyone or anything, she could see what happened ten seconds ahead.
In the ten seconds vision, she and the main force arrived without being attacked. That meant there was no ambush of monsters around them. She then scanned the surroundings, the tall trees were like a canopy, protecting them from the sun, and the air in the forest was so fresh. She took a deep breath for a moment before turning around.
Zhang Mengyao looked at the Legion Commander Moonsong, "Send your people to scout the surroundings. The remaining Tarriors remain on alert and create a perimeter defense. The healer team stays close to us." She figured out that the elf and the beastmen benefited from the terrain, so she sent them to scout the area instead of sending Lu An's team.
Meanwhile, Zhang Mengyao gathered the leaders to discuss their next step. Vice Supreme General Wei Xi and Kang Xue, Lu An the Chief of TEID, Marshal Alton and Vice Marshal Ashley, and Legion Commander Moonsong and Vice Legion Commander Virion.
"The first thing I notice is we don't have the portal gate to return outside," Zhang Mengyao immediately pointed out the crucial thing in the expedition. They could not return just because they wanted to, which meant there must be a condition to fulfill to get out of the tower. "We need to figure that out first."
"Maybe there's a command System if we want to get out of the tower?" Lu An voiced his thoughts. Everyone looked at him, and he tried, "Return!"
[You can't get out of the tower until you clear the first floor! Clear the first floor and obtain the portal gate!]
The command was working but not working at the same time. It worked because Lu An got the information on how to return from the dimensional tower. It did not work because they could not return now. Lu An told everyone about the notification he had just received.
"So, how do we clear the first floor?" It led to another question as the System did not elaborate on how to clear the first floor of the dimensional tower. The information they had about the dimensional was so vague. Wei Xi shook his head and looked toward Marshal Alton, "What do you think, Marshal Alton? Do you know how to clear the dimensional tower? You come from an advanced world than Earth, so you should probably know, right?"
Marshal Alton glanced at Virion, Ashley, and Moonsong before replying, "We don't know anything about the dimensional tower, but maybe Revalor knows something about this tower?"
"The Elven Kingdom does not have any information about the dimensional tower. As everyone knows, we don't even know about the smart base until we arrive on Earth," Virion shook his head. If his father knew something about the dimensional tower, he should know about this crucial information as well. However, the Elven Kingdom did not have any records about the smart base, let alone the dimensional tower.
"Maybe it's another System command? Mission! Objective! Quest!" Lu An tried it a few times, but he did not receive any response from the System.
"The System is truly a pain in the ass. Can't it give us proper guidance or something?" Wei Xi was frustrated with the lack of guidance. The only hint they had was that they must clear the first floor in order to return.
"The System wants us to look the way out by ourselves. It's not surprising considering the start of the Game," Zhang Mengyao had gotten used to how the System worked, so it was not a surprise. She maintained her composure because she was responsible for a thousand and three hundred lives. "What do you think, Lu An? Your game knowledge is always useful in times like this. Do you know something?"
"Hmmm," Lu An rubbed his chin for a while as he thought about it, "The most generic pattern is defeating the boss floor. Each floor has a Monster Boss to defeat, and if we defeat the boss, that means we clear the first floor. That's the most generic one, but it's possible that there's a hidden mission for each faction. We need to complete the mission to clear the quest, maybe. Or, we need to conquer all the territories on the first floor like how we capture the whole city."
Virion, Alton, Ashley, and Moonsong did not know what Lu An talked about as they did not know what Game Lu An talked about. Kang Xue and Zhang Mengyao knew so little about RPG games, and Wei Xi knew some basics.
"Ah, I think it's most likely the first one. We need to find the boss floor and defeat it. Or maybe we have to pass a test on each floor. You know, something like there's a guardian on each floor, and we need to pass the test to clear the first floor," Wei Xi chimed in.
"That's possible too; taking a test from the guardian floor is the second most generic after the boss floor type," Lu An nodded in agreement.
"Then we will take the first route, finding the boss floor or the test area," Zhang Mengyao made the decision. Even though she did not know how to find them, the basics they needed to do was to explore the first floor.
"Then should we split up?" Lu An was quite eager because this dimensional tower was truly similar to the Game and mangas he read in the past. Splitting up was the fastest to explore, but Zhang Mengyao had a different idea about that.
"No! We will not split up, at least not until we establish the base and figure out the monsters on the first floor. Let's not take the risk because we have no information about the dimensional tower. Just because we never failed in the expedition, we should never lower our guard," Zhang Mengyao firmly declined the idea of splitting up. "Have your team returned, Legion Commander Moonsong?"
"Yes, I will call them," Moonsong called two people, one elf and one moonlight rabbit. One was the former Elven Kingdom's queen, and the other one was the Grand Elder of the Moonlight Tribe.
"My team has scouted the north and east area up to two thousand meters, but we can't find any living beings, and it's still the same forestry area like this," Grand Elder Armsong reported.
"And my team scouted the south and west, and we found nothing but the same forest," Ava reported her team's discovery.
"No village, monsters, and beasts…." Lu An thought about something outrageous in her head. "Don't tell me the System wants us to build our own base from zero instead of giving us an empty city like around the tower?" If they could not find the village or city until night, they had to sleep in the wilderness with nothing. They did not expect to be able to return after entering the tower, so they did not bring any tents with them.
"It can be said we are in the safe zone," Wei Xi nodded his head. "The ideal situation is to have half of our people to prepare the lodging when the night comes, and half of our people explore the forest further. But none of us can construct lodging, not with the minimum tool we have."
"It's not that we can't find the village or city, but we haven't explored the first floor. Maybe there's a city or village somewhere else; we just need to find it," Zhang Mengyao was not pessimistic about their situation. She then glanced at Moonsong and Virion, "If you are in this situation, where will you build your village?" The beastmen and the elf had lived in the forest for a long time, so she could use their knowledge to find the habitat of the first floor. Finding the strategist's location might lead them to a village.
"The essential for us to live is food and water, so I will say we will find a river and build a village around the river itself if possible. Even if the terrain is not suitable to build a village, we want to build our house near the river. So finding a river may lead us to a village or even a city," Moonsong gave a convincing reply to Zhang Mengyao.
Food and water were the primary need for the living beings as they needed clean water to drink and needed water to produce food. Even if they did not have crops to harvest, they would still have fish in the river as food. With that quick discussion, they quickly figured out what they needed to do for the first step, finding a river and the habitat of the first floor, which might be a huge help for them to explore the first floor.
"The Tarriors are not familiar with the terrain, so we need the beastmen and the elf to explore the forest and find the river. Split your people into a small team of ten members, and investigate the forest deeper. The priority is to find the river but also avoid the battle!" Zhang Mengyao emphasized the last part of her command to avoid the battle. "While the Luminous Legion explores the forest, we will try to find an alternative food."
They did not bring enough supplies because they thought they could return from the tower any time. They only brought an emergency ration that was supposed to last for three days. They must find alternative food, just in case, they could not find the village or inhabitants of the dimensional tower.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶