"Was it wise to let them pass? They might steal some of our rewards."
Daisy asked with a frown. She didn't want to lose rewards because they were snatched by another group.
"It's fine, I'm planning to stay here for a while. I have 16 Twilight Apples, so I want to break through to the next substage before moving on. The next floor will be much harder, and we don't know how dangerous the traps there are."
Ken sat down and started eating the fruits, feeling his core expanding inside him. After 10 apples, Ken's core reached the size of 4 times the original.
Meanwhile, Bryce drew formations in the room, covering the 4 entrances with a few types of them. Since he expected to stay there for a few hours, he wanted to prepare for a possible arrival of a hostile team.
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'As I thought, the next apple doesn't increase the size of my core. The limit it can bring me to is the same limit I can achieve naturally.'
Ken had to use the Core Expanding Inducer Pills again to make his core grow further than 4 times the original size, but the problem was that he developed tolerance to the two variations he made in his previous breakthroughs.
'Now I have a new component I didn't have earlier.'
He was left with 5 and a half Twilight Apples, and he wanted to integrate them into his pill, thus creating a new variation that he wasn't immune to.
He took out his cauldron in the corner of the boss room and first made a few mental experiments. When he felt like he was ready, he opened with the first attempt at creating a new variation using the half an apple he had.
He learned about the inner structure of the apple and the way it reacted to other materials through his experiment, but the first attempt wasn't enough. Although it wasn't enough, it wasn't a failure since he learned much from it.
After finishing, he ran a few mental experiments again in his mind, trying to find loopholes in his findings and deductions. Once he felt ready, he moved on.
Ken threw the next apple into the cauldron, experimenting further. This time, he managed to create a pill. Most of the essence of the ingredients was wasted and burned, but one pill came outside in the end.
'Not good enough, the purity is only 84%. But it's a great progress, I should be successful in my next attempt.'
Again, he didn't give up on the mental experiments. He had a limited amount of Twilight Apples, and checking his findings mentally first could spare a lot of work later.
Once he was ready to concoct again, he managed to create 2 perfect pills with the next apple, perfecting the new recipe with that. Now that he mastered the new recipe, he didn't hesitate to concoct the others.
With the remaining 3 apples he created 12 perfect pills successfully, the amount he needed for his breakthrough. He even had 2 perfect pills to spare.
Ken groaned with slight pain as he swallowed the first pill, feeling the Alchemy Qi operating on his core and forcibly expanding it further beyond its limits.
The process wasn't too fast.
4.1… 4.2… 4.3…
His core grew over the hours until it finally stopped on the good old 5.5 times size he always achieved. Once he considered himself prepared, he worked on condensing his core back to its original size.
It took him 3 more painful hours, but Ken never lost his concentration. His group members all waited patiently since it was more assuring to have such a powerful ally with them on the next floor.
Overall, the whole process took him 15 hours to complete, wasting a whole day from the precious 3 months they were granted inside the secret realm.
"All right, let's move."
Ken washed quickly with a water technique and changed his sweaty robes into new ones. He always carried a few spares with him.
"I think we can expect to meet many more groups on the next floor, so be ready."
Ken warned his group as they descended the stairs. Since he believed that all the other floors converged to the fourth floor which probably had a single boss room, it indicated that teams venturing into the labyrinth from various entrances would convene at this point.
During his breakthrough, his team even killed 2 groups of evil cultivators that tried to enter the room. It was easy to forget they were top disciples when they were together with Ken. With the aid of Bryce's formations, they managed to win quickly.
"All right, is everyone healed and ready to move to the next floor?"
"Yes. We even earned 2700 BP, we shared it among each other equally."
Daisy said cheerfully, while Bryce looked at Ken carefully, trying to see if he was going to demand a cut from their profits. He sighed in relief when the latter said nothing.
"Good, let's go then."
Together, they descended the stairs and reached the next floor.
"Be careful. The traps here will be more dangerous than those we met on the previous floor."
Ken warned the group as they stood outside the first door in the corridor. He activated Blood Sense as always and opened the door, instantly finding inside 13 humans. His other senses couldn't find any presence inside, but he trusted his technique.
He could even sense weak traces of humans moving in and out of the room, and following those traces that his technique picked up allowed him to find a few blood stains on the floor and walls that he'd normally dismiss. The extra effect of the Big Success mastery realm came in handy this time.
"Do you sense anything inside?"
"Yes, there's an Explosion Talisman at the entrance, and it's hidden well. It will explode the moment we take a step inside."
Tiara said confidently, and Ken nodded in agreement. He also sensed it, but it was nothing compared to the 13 enemies lurking inside.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢