Diving into the Dark Sea, in the direction from where the dark sharks — that were presumed to be summoned monsters — came from, Rumia fell silent, various thoughts were surfacing in her mind; some were not relevant at the moment, yet infinitely important. The seemingly peaceful species underwater seemed to harmonize with her thoughts.
She was astonished by the Tower of Growth. It was the first Close Mystery Tower that opened since the Emergence had stricken the former human world.
'Will of the Tower... I wonder if every Close Mystery Tower is alive, though it depends on the meaning of being alive...'
She recalled Jiho's recount, having been recognized by the Tower of Growth, specifically the mysterious swordsmanship that Jiho used. At that moment, they realized that there might be more to Jiho than what meets the eye.
"Princess, we're nearing the target."
Yara politely spoke. The depths of the Dark Sea were around fifty to sixty meters, but it was unknown how wide the entire Dark Sea was.
Rumia was jolted awake by Yara's words. She looked down, clearly seeing the seafloor with cracks of various sizes. At first, there wasn't anything apparent, but after thoroughly looking around the area, Rumia's sapphire eyes constricted.
She saw a marine monster, but what was bizarre, more than the flying dark sharks' appearance, was that this monster had a humanoid form; a dark shark head with a fin on top of the head; a dark blue muscular body with skin similar to a shark, but a physical structure similar to humans since this monster had a pair of feet and pair of hands. On one of his hands, there's a dark trident, while the other hand was extended... in the direction of the small island.
Fifty to sixty meters just above the peculiar monster, Rumia inspected its information.
Name: —
Title: [Corrupted by the Ancient Pearl]
Race: Marine
Family: Deep Horror
Rank: E-
— STATS —
Strength: 299
Swift: 299
Fortitude: 299
Intelligence: 299
Magic Power: 299
'Corrupted by the Ancient Pearl...?'
Rumia became instantly certain, upon reading the title attached to the strange monster, that by killing the humanoid shark, she would then find an Ancient Pearl of the Dark Sea to advance to the next floor.
'I think there's a side effect just by acquiring it. I need to be careful.'
Rumia thought, surmising that the cause for the existence of the humanoid shark was the corruption of the pearl itself.
'Ugh-! Screw it!'
She inwardly grumbled, after pondering what to do next. Since the time was quickly ticking and there were three more floors with similar circumstances, Rumia spoke to her escorts.
"Raya. Yara. Um... do you think I'll be fine if I hold the pearl? You see, I think that strange monster is only an ordinary dark shark, but corrupted by the pearl. That's why it evolved, turning like that. Then, regarding the dark sharks that are attacking the entire party above, I think they're not summoned monsters, but rather being controlled by that humanoid shark."
Raya and Yara looked at each other for a moment, pondering the princess' question. After some time, Raya spoke.
"It will be alright. It looks like the corruption only applies to the monster itself."
Yara remained quiet, but it also meant she agreed with Raya's statement since there was no way they would endanger the princess or let Rumia plunge herself into insurmountable obstacles.
Breathing slowly underwater, Rumia then responded.
"Alright. I'll get rid of it."
After she spoke, she quickly swam down towards the seafloor, to where the humanoid shark was standing, doing the same gestures for an unknown period of time.
***
In less than ten seconds, the humanoid shark had been killed.
"Ehhh?!"
What Rumia did was let her Personal Weapon, the whip coiled around the neck of the humanoid shark, then pulled to decapitate it.
"Princess, it seems that this monster only gained some abilities, but not intelligence."
Raya spoke, telling the princess about her guess.
"...You may be right. Uh, where's the pearl?"
Rumia said as she looked for the Ancient Pearl, though she had no idea of its physical features. After some time of looking around the headless body of the humanoid shark, and after catching the supposed-to-float-above shark head, she grumbled, seemingly exhausted.
"Where is it?!"
"Princess, you can check that."
Yara suggested, pointing her finger to the dark trident just a meter away from the headless body.
'That's right... I didn't think of that. I thought it was a conjured weapon caused by the pearl.'
She thought, before getting closer to the dark trident. She then scrutinized its appearance without touching it. After looking for twenty to thirty seconds, she saw a circular material, seemingly precious in itself, that contained a dark luster, attached to the middle of the dark trident.
'...Here goes nothing.'
She calmed herself before picking up the dark trident on the seafloor.
[You have acquired the Ancient Pearl of the Dark Sea.]
As soon as she removed the black pearl that was attached to the circular concave section of the dark trident, the dark trident seemed to be only an illusion as it turned fluid and was sucked by the Ancient Pearl. Additionally, the black water reverted to its normal state — blue and untainted of any filth.
Without understanding why it happened, Rumia, along with everyone remaining on the small deserted island above was notified of the numerous notifications.
[The Player Party has passed the 16th floor.]
[...Waiting Room.]
***
After the partial rejuvenation of the entire party, as a reward for clearing the 16th floor, Rumia recounted to everyone what had transpired; from the humanoid shark, dark trident, and the Ancient Pearl's corruption.
Russell recalled what it was, but never let out his thoughts. He's just watching some things unfold in front of his eyes, though the journey was somewhat different, the final destination remained almost the same.
'It'll be for your own good, Rumia.'
After some time, the duration for short repose ended, transporting them to the next floor.
Just like what happened to the 16th floor, Rumia, being guarded by Raya and Yara, dove underwater. But this time, Rumia already knew what to do.
They waited, prepared, for the incoming attack of the dark sharks that seemed to teleport with the Ancient Pearl's power.
After receiving the first launch of attack out of nowhere by the dark sharks, Rumia proceeded to dive and swim quickly in the direction where the dark sharks came from.
On top of that, she saw the same evolved monster or humanoid shark, gesturing the same way and holding another dark trident. Without wasting any time, she lunged toward the humanoid shark and killed it.
[You have acquired the Ancient Pearl of the Dark Sea.]
[Collected Ancient Pearl of the Dark Sea: 2/4.]
'Two more to go.'
Rumia thought.
Doing the same thing from the previous floors of the same setting, the party quickly cleared the 18th and 19th floors.
***
[The Tower of Growth's Administrator has revealed his presence.]
For the second time since they started challenging the Tower, its overseer or the Administrator revealed had shown himself in front of them. Though it was the first time for Rumia's party to see the Administrator before they merged with Samantha's.
In front of them, a towering, having a stature of 3 meters, a well-built man with purple eyes and brown hair was now standing.
Raya and Yara were instinctively alerted, but Samantha told them that there was nothing to worry about. What these players weren't aware of, except for Russell, was that the Administrator only revealed his presence to quite only several people in the Tower. Players that's been acknowledged by the Tower itself.
"Congratulations on clearing the 19th floor. Now... before you proceeded to the next floor..."
Snapping his fingers, as the Administrator's deep ancient voice reverberated throughout the cleansed ocean, the four Ancient Pearls of the Dark Sea suddenly floated toward the hands of the Administrator. These black pearls stayed afloat as though the air turned to water. Then, snapping again his fingers, the four black pearls coalesced, becoming a single black pearl of similar size as a ping-pong ball, but it emanated a thicker dark aura.
The entire party watched the process in less than ten seconds with myriads of expressions, then after some time, the Administrator continued speaking.
"Choose someone to receive this black pearl as a reward."
Russell and the others looked at Rumia. It was instantly decided by the majority.
'Why is he leaving out some details?'
Russell thought. Even without the Administrator's presence, this would still be what was supposed to happen — picking someone to give the coalesced Ancient Pearl. From the 16th floor until the 29th floor, before the Player Assessment on the 30th floor, players would be given choices, but exactly with this situation, many players failed to advance to the 20th floor.
'Because the unique rewards can be stolen by a party member, resulting in eliminating each other to failing the Tower.'
According to Russell's unpublished novel, it would still be a majority that Rumia would receive the black pearl, but this reality was somewhat different since some other party members didn't exist in the original story... just like Russell himself.
"You will be given ten minutes to decide, and during that time, any of you can fight to receive the black pearl."
'There you go. I thought it would be left out.'
Russell inwardly said, glancing around to see the reactions of everyone. Their reactions were confusion, but they came to terms with already that the black pearl was meant for Rumia.
Snapping his fingers for the third time, the Administrator showed everyone the information regarding the single black pearl.
[Ancient Pearl of the Cosmos Ocean.]
Description:
A pearl flowing from the waters of Cosmos Ocean — the first ocean in existence.
Rank: Ancient
Classification: Consumable
– Effects:
- Blessing of the Cosmos Ocean
- Unallocated Stats increases by 30
"Uh... Administrator, what does it mean by Blessing of the Cosmos Ocean?"
Rumia, raising her right hand, asked.
Without answering her, the Administrator showed each of them the information about the blessing.
[Blessing of the Cosmos Ocean]
Description:
The essence of the ancient pearl and growth.
With this blessing, the level of the player's Profession-related skills will be maxed out, and the highest rank weapon in possession of the player will become a Growth-type weapon.
Russell, who knew beforehand the information based on his unpublished novel, glanced again at the faces of the other party members. Some of them seemed to waver and had their eyes widened, Rumia included.
Russell, as well as the others, only listened to Rumia's next words.
"Uh, Administrator, what if the highest-rank weapon a player has is already at Legendary?"
"It will grow into Mythical and above upon meeting certain conditions."
The Administrator didn't even think twice about answering her.
Raya and Yara, the two S Rank players or escorts of Rumia, as well as Elizabeth, pricked up their ears upon hearing the words that came out of the Administrator's mouth.
On the other hand, Freya, Amelie, and Amery didn't react strongly since they already knew the existence of items with ranks higher than Legendary since Russell told them, at least not everything.
'Well, I have a Mythical ring at the moment.'
Russell thought, glancing at the stupefied other party members apart from his Chaos Companion. He looted the ring that Ruina had used to transform her physique and change her race from a vampire into that of a human.
To clear the others' confusion, the Administrator spoke again.
"Your race, humans, only possessed up to Legendary items at the moment, but there are items far more powerful than you know.
"Then, without further ado, I will start the countdown of ten minutes, so please decide accordingly."
With that, the countdown, to choose the player who would receive the [Ancient Pearl of the Cosmos Ocean], began.
***
'That went well, at least.'
Without a long discussion, the party decided to let Rumia receive the black pearl.
Russell's anxiety quite went up since he didn't know if something would change. He was reminded of Artorious Hall's behavior.
"Time's up!"
The Administrator spoke with authority, and he then gave to Rumia the Ancient Pearl of the Cosmos Ocean.
After some time, the Administrator spoke again, directed to the receiver of the black pearl, before leaving the 19th floor.
"Good luck with your journey, Ocean's Child."
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