Chapter 1736 The Map of Echoing Tower!
1736 The Map of Echoing Tower!
"How did you get your hands on such a relic? Is it even the real thing? A map of the tower? It sounds too good to be true." Felix asked with a deep scowl.
This new development made him postpone ditching the squad. The situation was just too bizarre.
Nations were struggling for eons to reach even the top ten floors without dying or getting lost.
Just when he decided to participate for the sake of getting rid of the celestial chains, a magical map popped off? He refused to believe in such a coincidence.
"I guess I owe you an explanation at least." Commander Bia shared, "During our last exploration, we secured a copy of this map on the hundredth floor. Our people have failed to clear the floor from the All-Seeing-Eye and most of them ended up dead. Only one managed to escape the tower successfully from a random portal that kicked him out of the tower into a quantum maze...He reached out to us and we helped him return to safety."
"At that point, he had no clue that this map had a detailed, outlining paths, traps, exit points, and, most importantly, hints towards the tower's core."
"How is that possible?" Syla covered her mouth in shock, "Doesn't this mean someone must have traveled the entire tower from top to bottom, documenting every little detail about it?"
This piece of news had startled the rest as well.
"How can there be a detailed map of the tower when no one managed to reach the first floor?" Plix remarked.
'Does it have to do anything with your previous mission?'
Felix addressed Lilith, knowing that the upper celestial unigins were the only ones who made it near the stone of reality.
'How can it be related to us?' Lilith gave him a lazy look, 'We entered the tower when it had merely ten floors while the map must include much more. Otherwise, those idiots wouldn't court their death by following a half-finished map.'
'Make sense.'
"We have also been seeking the answer to this question." Commander Bia replied with a solemn tone, "Unfortunately, no one knows as the map wasn't found as a scroll. It was engraved in a giant stoneplate and our people managed to copy it on scrolls."
Soon, she turned her head and gazed at the other squads.
"Now, it becomes painfully clear that this information was not kept as secure as we hoped. The very fact that every major nation has sent their best here is evidence enough. The map has been copied by other people and leaked on a wider scale."
It only took another map in the hands of greedy person and he would make a fortune by selling it to other nations.
"How sure are you that it didn't leak from your side?" Plix frowned.
"Because it was me who survived the tower and brought out the map," Dankin disclosed coldly.
When they heard this, no one dared to accuse him again...Dankin might be arrogant and full of himself, but his loyalty to the royal family was uncontested.
"With everyone in possession of a map's copy, this will complicate our mission. We're not just navigating the tower's dangers but also contending with every skilled squad that has entered this race." Commander Bia brought the main subject back, "We're up against the best, which means we'll need to be even better."
"Hold on, hold on, we never agreed to this."
One of the mercenaries in the other squad shook his hands with a hint of dread in his eyes. It was only normal he would have cold feet.
"He is right, the only reason we joined the mission is because we thought we would remain in the top five floors." Plix agreed with a solemn expression.
"Have we said or written in the contract that we will remain in the top five floors?" Commander Bia responded calmly.
"No...But..."
"There is no buts." Commander Bia gave everyone an emotionless gaze, "You are all free to follow us as per the contract terms or you can leave the squad and get entrapped here forever."
"Heh, just to let you know." Dankin snickered, "The first sign of portals appear on the hundredth floor, and the ones after it. Even those portals mostly lead to lower floors or the void. So, it's not in your favor to ditch the squad and act on your own."
The mercenaries felt shivers course down their spine...Even Felix and Apollo had no clue about this hidden fact.
It might not seem like much, but they understood that the tower's true dangers start after the hundredth floor.
The topmost five floors were still considered safe due to being newly created and the dimensions within them were stable.
This might be the reason why portals didn't open up in them as the spatial stability must be topnotch.
'So, what do you think?' Apollo asked Felix with a serious tone.
'What I think is we need to get our hands on the map.' Felix narrowed his eyes on the closed scroll, using various types of visions to see through it.
He understood that this map was currently the greatest treasure in the tower if it was truly the real deal.
If they managed to obtain it, they could even go much deeper into the tower with minimum risk.
Since the lower they had gotten, the more screwed up the time would be, there would be a big chance of them landing in a place that had a time difference of millions of years to seconds!
While he would be forced to spend millions of years in it, by the time he comes out, mere seconds had gone on the quantum realm.
In other words, he wouldn't need to fear for his life anymore from the hunters on his tail since he would be able to enlarge his size and enter his void realm.
In his realm, no one could contest against him!
Alas, all of those dreams and thoughts disappeared after realizing that the content of the map was written in coded vibrating strings, each releasing a unique frequency!
'Damn it, it's impossible to read it without knowing the coded language.' Felix was left displeased.
'We can always steal it from other teams.' Apollo suggested while gazing at the spread-out squads.
'They are not dumb to not code it too.' Felix shook his head, 'Which means, if we ditched our team and sought after them, we would be forced to fight them.'
While Felix recognized that Apollo could enslave them by using his hypnotizing darkness/light crescent ability, he also comprehended that it wasn't the time for battles. There were fifty squads and each had more than ten strong fighters.
Since the topmost floors didn't have much danger to them, anyone who made a move would cause a chain reaction that wouldn't end well in their favor.
'If it is going to end like this, we might as well stick with the team and wait for a better opportunity to snatch a map during the chaos.' Felix stated with a sinister smile, 'With everyone possessing the same information, there is bound for chaos to arise.'
'Aight, seems good enough for me.' Apollo agreed with his head resting behind his hands.
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