Everyone fell into deep silence upon hearing the words of Senior Du and Vern as they realized that what they were saying was the truth.
Currently, they were on the sixth floor, and even though they have just ascended they have already met with three Ascender Stage beasts, ones that needed all of their strength to deal with.
Every one of them was exhausted both mentally and physically while they were full of injuries and wounds, some even having several limbs lost despite being either at the peak of the Limit Breaker or Ascender Stage!
Furthermore, those weaker Limit Breakers that were unfortunate enough or lacked in both battle experience and skills were already dead, meaning their numbers had been decreased ever since the start!
In the beginning, their group had a little more than 30 experts but at the very moment, that number plummeted way below 20, leaving only 16 alive from which at least half were on the verge of collapsing!
No matter how one looked at it, the wisest choice would indeed be to retreat no matter how much they wished to ascend and see what lied on the final tenth floor.
Astro remained silent and studied each and everyone's complexion. However, the more he looked at the exhausted and seemingly pale faces around him, the more he realized there was indeed no reason for them to go and proceed any further.
"Okay, let's go back." after pondering for a while Astro nodded, earning several sighs of relief from everyone.
"Finally..."
"I thought I will die!"
"I can finally rest!"
Everyone felt thrilled and began to talk with each other as they began to walk back on the path they came from. Astro did the same, however when he was about to follow the rest, suddenly he stopped dead in his track and frowned.
"Young Lady? What do you think you are doing?" watching as Darla was walking toward the opposite direction as the rest, Astro frowned and appeared before her, blocking her path completely.
"What do you think I am doing? I'm gonna ascend this dungeon with Khal." Darla said with a cold face and going around Astro she quickly began to follow Khal who walked toward the pillar in the distance with Senior Lin on his side.
"No, I won't allow it." Astro however was resolute and appeared before Darla once again, even using his presence to force her to stop.
Darla's complexion paled slightly upon feeling the heavy pressure on her, but as she was quite used to it her facial expression remained unchanged and said, "Astro, you don't have to worry, I will be safe. Khal will make sure to protect me. Right, Khal?"
Astro frowned as he turned around, looking at the young boy in the silver robe who stood about three meters away from him, with an indifferent complexion lying on his face at the moment.
"Although I tried to persuade her not to follow, she is quite a stubborn one." Khal shrugged and added, "Of course, if she comes I will make sure no harm will fall on her, I promise."
Astro remained silent as the sight of Khal killing three peaks Ascender Stage beasts as easily as lifting a finger emerged in his mind and couldn't help but sigh.
"How far are you planning to ascend?"
"Isn't that obvious already? I want to go all the way?" Khal replied with a confident smile.
"All the way? To the tenth floor?" Astro frowned and said, "Although I do not doubt your strength after what you have shown me, I still think reaching the tenth floor alone still will be a huge challenge. Naturally, no disrespect ma'am."
Senior Lin waved her hand, showing she didn't really care what Astro said.
"Challenge?" Khal then suddenly laughed, surprising the three around him. Only after a few seconds did he continue, "Believe me, this will be more of an excursion than a challenge."
'...'
Astro became utterly silent when he heard Khal's words and didn't know what he should say. If he would have heard the same thing coming from anyone else he was pretty sure he would have laughed at them but as it was Khal who said it, he didn't.
As for Senior Lin and Darla, the two were already numb at this point and had no energy to either feel shocked or awe. The only thing could do was to shake their heads helplessly and remain silent.
After thinking for a while, Astro withdrew his presence that pressed down on Darla, and asked, "If you are this confident, why didn't you help us until now? We could have avoided so many casualties and injuries."
"Why didn't I help?" Khal touched his chin as he acted as though he was thinking and then quickly shrugged, "Because I didn't want to."
Astro's mouth twitched when he heard Khal's answer and suddenly felt the urge to go up to Khal and give him a nice and clean slap in the face.
However, what he didn't know was that Khal was at the moment lying. Although it was true that he didn't want to help, it was not entirely because of that. No, the real reason behind his actions was that he wished to see the creatures struggle and end up in a miserable state.
Every race and almost every creature despised the human race, some even humiliating them before others. So why should he help, why should he feel sorry for them?
He will only help those that are genuine and kind toward him and his kind while he won't give a zero shit for others that are not!
Seeing that Astro remained silent Khal didn't say anything either and began to walk toward the pillar in the distance. He didn't really wish to waste any more time here and wanted to see what secrets were hidden in this dungeon as soon as possible.
Astro watched as Khal began to walk away while Darla quickly followed him and couldn't help but sigh.
"I wonder what the Lord would do in this situation," Astro mumbled quietly and began to follow Khal just like how Senior Lin and Darla were doing.
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