8th Floor of the Tower, one year later.
"As a result of your stupid stunt, an entire continent on the 7th Floor was completely sunk down, and my entire Undead Army was almost wiped out in that area as a consequence."
A red-haired man was asking a question while making a clear indication of his irritation as he looked at his female companion, who was pouting at him with a frowning face. From his voice alone, it was evident that he loved his Undeads more than anything in existence.
"And I obtained the Recognition."
His female companion was a beautiful elven female with long platinum blonde hair and emerald green eyes; she sharply looked at the golden-eyed man with a huff as she proudly proclaimed to him about her achievement.
Once again, Samiel Zentaur, right at this present moment, just frowned and adjusted his armor once again. Indeed attaining Recognition from the Tower's System was something that many who had aspired to achieve were envious of, but few were able to achieve it. Only a very handful number of people could say the Tower's System recognized them.
The Tower's System recognized the Mortals in the same way that Legendaries who entered the Tower were treated. This was basically the same treatment that the Legendaries were given.
Recognition from the Tower's System was basically bestowing the same treatment for the Mortals that the Legendaries who entered the Tower enjoyed.
Despite the fact that Samiel was mortal, he acquired his connection to the Akashic Records in a different way due to the fact that he was directly connected to the Akashic Records, which were one level higher than the Tower's System. That was because the Tower's System was technically a part of the Akashic Records.
Right now, Yvriane obtained the qualifications to be issued the Mission from the Tower's System directly as a method of climbing the Tower, just exactly like any Legendary who wasn't born in the Tower and entered it or people like Samiel.
"Ts."
A few moments later, Samiel clicked his tongue and looked at smirking Yvriane, not bothering to bother with it anymore. In the end, he was content that his Undeads were all safe and ready for combat, and nothing else was important.
In spite of the fact that Yvriane almost destroyed them all indirectly through her actions, fortunately, nothing happened to Samiel's babies. As any proper Necromancers, Samiel considered his Undeads an extension of his very own being and loved them very much, so he didn't like the thought that they could be destroyed for nothing.
After Samiel ascended to the 6th Floor, the thing that he got from Yvraine when they were on the 1st Floor, and they easily found each other once again. The first thing that Yvraine did after their encounter and reunion was to challenge him to fight because she wanted to defeat him with her newfound power, which she obtained after training with the Holies.
While she was unaware of Samiel's progress on his own strength as well, she was surprised to find out that he made tremendous progress on his own strength as well. And as expected, she lost very easily and very fast. After Samiel learned how to control his own power and, more importantly, the Man Control Method, he became even more terrifying than he already was.
Contrary to his situation, where he didn't know practically anything nor even the fundamental aspects of how to control his own Mana properly, she was a different case. Yvraine already knew all of these things long before she started climbing the Tower itself.
Before she even began climbing the Tower, she had already mastered every possible advantage she could gain, and the fact that he was able to win every single sparring match against her even before he had even begun to master his own power is something that speaks volumes about his strength in comparison to her.
There was not much excitement on the 6th Floor of the Tower because it was one of the more typical floors of the Tower. It was filled with cities all over the Floor, and they were built in a variety of different biomes as well. The entire Floor, since it had the designation of Residential, was one of the few throughout the whole Tower that could be considered a safe haven without much fighting and so on.
Hence, there was nothing interesting going on.
In spite of enjoying the calmness and tranquillity of the area, he had to admit that his stay was outright torturous. The only thing good about Samiel's stay on the 6th Floor was that he had the opportunity to go on a few dates with Yvraine throughout a couple of cities.
As a part of the tour, they had the opportunity to visit three cities. Two of them were mainly human cities, but the last one was the Dwarven Fortress City, which was built deep underneath the local mountain range, and it was a beautiful sight to see and it was a breathtaking view.
Though his awe was broken into countless pieces when Yvraine told him that this couldn't be comparable to the Fortress Cities and Forge Cities that were built on the higher Floors of the Tower or various High Worlds and Principal Worlds, where dwarves had strong presence.
Even then, it was a nice trip. Samiel greatly enjoyed sightseeing through the Dwarven Fortress City; he always had a thing for the places built deep under the ground, especially the Dwarven Fortress City was like a wet dree came true.
After they passed through the 6th Floor, the fabled 7th Floor came into view and Yvraine attempted to get Recognition from the Tower's System through the competition of Samiel's own Advancement Quest. Of course, for that, she needed to complete the Advancement Quest alone, which in the end result ended in chaos absolute.
The Advancement Quest on the 7th Floor was to go into one of the dammed vulcanic continents that were located on the 7th Floor and kill one of the volcano-dwelling beasts. The problem with that was the fire beast which was apparently at the Silver-Tier, and in its natural enviroment, it would be several times stronger. fr eeweb novel
And that was where the fun began.
At first, Samiel wasn't really pleased with the idea of Yvrfaine doing this Advancement Quest initially, but after thinking about it, he conceded to her reasoning, and besides, this was a good opportunity for Yvraine to get recognized by the Tower's system, which was a plus.
Our roles were divided so that he would take care of the fire creatures and other things that were lurking around the volcano, while Yvraine would go straight at the quest objective and finish it off as soon as possible.
After the plan was set into motion, everything went well until the moment when the quest objective, the leading fire beasts, decided to erupt the entire volcano after Yvriane hit it with some kind of Metamatigic.
Consequently, this caused a chain reaction in which all volcanoes across this volcanic continent started erupting one after another, causing the tectonic plates to crack down and the continent to begin sinking at an alarming speed. As a result, the whole continent was falling apart at an alarming rate.
And together with it, his Undeads there were spread around the entire area of the volcano where Yvraine was fighting against fire beats of some kind, and Samiel didn't have the ability to recall them from the far distance.
Though on the good side of things, Yvraine managed to get Recognition from the Tower's System, and everything was fine. In truth, even if the prize of her getting the Recognition from the Tower's System was the destruction of his Undeads, he was sure that she would help him to create new ones at her expense.
At least partially.
"After we have calmed down, can we start deciding the next course of action?"
Yvraine asked Samiel, who was still angry with her reckless usage of the Metamagic in such a dangerous place where the leyline was clearly located, but whatever. Using Metamagic in volcano where a leyline was on top of all was extremely dangerous and partially even a stupid thing to do because it could backfire.
Usually, the places where leylines are located have extremely high Mana density and are volatile to explosions and big mess if something goes wrong. Due to that, most of the sane people won't be casting destructive spells next to the leyline because it doesn't really end well.
"Based on the forest and the position of the sun, we are at the Demon Continent."
Yvraine answered shortly after.
The entire 8th Floor consisted of two continents, one of them was continents, and both of them were controlled by different races. The Human Continent was under the Human Brotherhood's control, which was, in turn, supported by a few factions of the 13 Gates.
And there was the Demon Continent, which was controlled by the Demon Tribes, which was descended from the countless Transcendental Daemons, not talking about the great number of Fiends on the Steel-Tier to Bronze-Tie that were running here and there on the Demon Continent.
One could say that the entire 8th Floor was a proxy war between various factions of the Cosmos. Not like this was rare across the Cosmos, but in the Tower it was maximally unusual because most of the FLoor already had their Rulers and Owners. Thus, it was relatively rare to see large-scale battles for ownership of the Floor of the Tower.
"Then we should probably move towards the nearest city... from what Cardinal Karliana told me that the Branch of The Guild, we can registrate within The Guild there ad complete some quests and obtain some additional resources."
Samiel stated while Yvraine agreed with his proposal as they started searching their way out of the forest. The forest was a bit creepy; it was not even a bit comparable to the lush green forests on the 3rd Floor and especially around the place where the Zephystrand Cit was located.
For the past year and so, during which Samiel was climbing the Tower, he consumed a tremendous amount of Mana Crystals just to raise his Level from the initial 22, in which he was on the 5th Floor, to the current peak of Level 25.
Just one step away from reaching Level 26 and thus becoming the Bronze-Tier Professional officially. Of course,e another resource eater was Nefertari and his Undeads, which required constant investments, and that was not cheap.
Despite the fact that Samiel was the Holy Son of Kadath, if he didn't complete the missions, he would not be able to get the resources needed for continued advancement and growth within the Hall of Kadath. That was because the Hall of Kadath was built on very strict meritocratic principles and survival of the fittest.
And the same rules applied to everybody, be it squires of the Holy Templar Order or the Paladins, be it junior priests or the Cardinals; in the end, everyone was technically equal and everything that mattered were the abilities of the individual.
As a result, becoming one of The Guild's mercenaries was a pretty good way of gathering resources. As a faction, The Guild was a strange one, whose main purpose was to issue missions across the vast expanse of universes as a third party or middleman.
They had a very high succession rate because even the requirements to become one of The Guild's hired guns were absolutely outrageous and not something that familiar experts could ever hope to achieve.
It was an elite mercenary organization, the elite of the elites.
[Advancement Quest: Fate of the 8th Floor
Description: The 8th Floor has been locked in strife and fighting factions for countless centuries and millennia. Join one of the warring sides between the Human Brotherhood or the Demon Tribes and help decide the outcome of the war.
Reward: ??? - based on the contribution made to end the conflict.]
After they walked a bit around the forest, Samiel had already got the Advancement Quest from the Tower's System through the Akashic Records, and seeing Yvraine staring into nothingness; he predicted that she got the same thing.
"I think that you already got the Advancement Quest?"
Samiel questioned Yvraine because, as of right now, she was too receiving the Quest from the Tower's System as one of the first climbers to gain Recognition in the past one thousand years, which was pretty rare.
"There is no doubt in my mind that should be a very easy decision to make when deciding the side of the conflict, right?"
She had a toothy grin as Samiel nodded.
In the end, between the Humans and Demons, the choice was a very fast one and it was evident that they would be joining the side of the Demon Tribes. Even though countless Transcendent Level Daemons would probably stop at nothing to kill him, he was strictly instructed by the Hall Master to destroy any human faction, no matter how insignificant he found them.
"You know that I am not really thrilled at the thought of working with those morons?"
Samiel didn't really want to help the Demon Tribes because sooner or altar, they would become his enemies, probably even right now, so not killing those who were on the 8th Floor was like leaving enemies growing stronger.
"If it makes you feel a bit better, we can scheme something out and kill a few members of the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe."
Yvraine stated gently, which immediately lifted up Samiel's mood. Golden-Horned Demon Tribe was one of the strongest Demon Tribes, if not the strongest in existence. Due to their overwhelming strength, they often acted as unofficial leaders around the other Demon Tribes.
Also, as their racial advantages were outright outrageous, their population was extremely small, and literarily tiny when compared to that of the other Demon Tribes.
"That would be good."
As they continued their journey through the creepy forest of the Demon Continent of the 8th Floor, located in the known parts, it was certainly weird that they didn't encounter a single magical beast or any living thing.
And they had been walking through this dammed place for several hours already, yet only the deadly silence followed them everywhere. There were no magical beasts or even ordinary animals present, which started getting increasingly suspicious with each passing second they spent in this place.
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