Carefully, Nox opened the lid of the box.
Inside was a black coloured egg, which rested on a blue cushion.
[(?)'s egg]
**********
(?)'s egg
An egg laid by (?).
Incubation Rate: 0%
**********
"What's this?" Nox unintentionally mumbled.
The administrator stood still in front of Nox. Although he wished to see what was inside the box, he wasn't allowed to do so.
"Well, that's for you to find out. Anyway, here's the other reward," Pen replied, snapping his fingers.
'Other reward?'
[You have obtained the 'leveling blessing'!]
[Every time you level up, all your stats will increase by one stat point]
For a moment, Nox couldn't believe his eyes.
'This is amazing!'
This kind of blessing would greatly benefit Nox. After all, his stats would automatically increase just by levelling up.
"That's all for now. Have a pleasant climb," wished the administrator, disappearing into thin air.
"I am grateful for your kind wishes," Nox replied, putting the box in his inventory.
Another message popped up in front of Nox.
[Would you like to go to the next or previous floor?]
'I already have enough food and got enough rest. Going back to the zeroth floor right now doesn't really make sense,' Nox thought, taking out an energy bar from his inventory.
"Floor Three!" Nox said, devouring the energy bar.
[You are being transferred to the Third Floor!]
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Within five days, Nox had climbed up two floors.
The third floor was filled with hyena-like monsters, while the fourth floor was filled with bull-like monsters.
Nox mainly made his shadow slaves take care of the normal monsters while he attacked the bosses of the respective floors. This tactic levelled up his shadow slaves, much more than he had initially planned.
Through hunting with his shadows on the two floors, Nox learned better how to control them.
He could now order his shadow slaves to fight alongside him without them getting in his way.
The maximum range he could control them was around two kilometres. After that, they would return back into his shadow.
He would also receive a portion of the experience gained by his shadows.
Although Nox was tempted to raise the monsters of the third and fourth floors as his shadows, he thought otherwise better.
He had decided to get much stronger before he raised another shadow.
After all, the pain he experienced because he raised more shadow soldiers than he could handle, wasn't something an average human would be able to come out alive from.
On the third and fourth floors, he was ranked fourth in the all-time rankings. In addition, he obtained a few additional stat points as a reward. Still, unlike on the second floor, he didn't receive any other visits from the administrators.
However, he had accumulated a lot of points through the rewards gained from hunting the monsters.
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On the fifth floor, Nox encountered the first intelligent monster race yet.
Goblins.
They weren't any more than four feet tall. Their filthy green skin and their tattered clothes made Nox want to kill them more.
"Keeeeeeeeekk!!" screeched a goblin as it threw its spear toward Nox, who was resting on a boulder in an open field.
Before the spear could even reach Nox, it had been parried by the shadow assassin, who had appeared from his shadow.
"Take care of them. I'm going to rest for a bit," Nox ordered his shadow slaves, stretching his hands and legs.
From within his shadow, the rest of his shadow slaves emerged and strolled toward the goblins.
For the past few hours, Nox had hunted goblins alone, without a moment of rest. But they kept appearing in endless swarms.
'I leveled up quite a bit,' he thought, staring blankly at the dark starry sky.
Nox looked on as his shadow slaves effortlessly slayed the goblins. Although Red wasn't as strong compared to when it was still alive, it was still the strongest among the shadow slaves.
While fighting enemies, Red always reverted back to its original size, allowing him to simultaneously take care of a handful of opponents.
The shadow knight and the shadow assassin had gotten stronger than before. Through hunting, they had become proficient in using the new skills they obtained on the second floor.
The shadow magician provided support from beside Nox in the form of buffs and debuffs. It also served as Nox's bodyguard and killed any monster that managed to get near its master.
Nox's army had gotten strong enough to slay most of the average monsters, allowing him to obtain contribution points and experience without moving a muscle.
As he rested on the boulder, he examined the fifth floor's challenge again.
**********
[The Fifth Floor's Main Challenge]
[Clear conditions: Survive in the Goblin forest for two days.
Rewards: Permission to Ascend to the Next Floor
Failure: The player will be teleported back to the zeroth floor]
**********
A day had already passed, but all Nox had encountered were the average goblins. He needed to find their boss to make things more interesting.
After defeating the goblins, the shadow slaves stood before their master, waiting for his next order.
Getting up, Nox dusted the dust off of his tracksuit before finally saying, "Let's move deeper into the forest."
The shadow soldiers returned into his shadow as he sprinted into the forest. Effortlessly, he moved around the bushes, trees, and rocks.
The cool breeze softly crashed on his maskless face. Except for the rustling of leaves, the forest was absolutely soundless.
After ten minutes of sprinting through the forest, Nox jumped on top of a huge tree branch and began examining the surroundings. He spread his arcane around, trying to pinpoint some variations in arcane in the surroundings.
But, before he could discover anything, he heard a loud shout for help.
'I might as well look into it.'
Jumping from one branch to the other, Nox made his way toward the voice. At last, after ten minutes, he reached the end of the hill he was on.
Climbing down from the tree, Nox looked below at the source of the shout for help.
Nox was a little shocked by the sight of an entire goblin settlement.
'Why couldn't I sense it? Is there some sort of detection blocking mechanism around the settlement?'
At the base of the hill lay ten lifeless elves and human bodies, along with some corpses of goblins.
Even though barely three people were putting up a fight against the twenty goblins surrounding them. They donned full body armour and used great swords the same size as them.
Due to the helmets covering their faces, Nox could not tell which species they belonged to.
One of them swung his great sword at the goblins, but due to the high agility that the goblins had, they were able to easily dodge the strike.
Nox stood on top of the hill, thinking about what to do. Obviously, helping the men wouldn't benefit him in any way. But still, he needed to attack the settlement since he was here anyway.
'Whatever, I guess I'll take care of these goblins, since they are in my way.'
"Bring me some pebbles," Nox ordered his shadow slaves.
The next moment, the shadow assassin had placed forty pebbles beside Nox.
Picking up a couple of pebbles, Nox imbued them with arcane and began flinging them at the goblins.
Like flies, the goblins began to fall one after the other.
Within a minute, the group of goblins lay lifeless on the ground.
The trio on the ground looked around, trying to see just who helped them. But, they were unable to detect Nox.
"Just what happened!" exclaimed one of them.
"I'm just as confused as you are! Anyway, we're saved, that's all that matters!" replied the second one in the group.
After a short silence, the third one asked, "What should we do with the ones that're dead? Steven even has a sick daughter back on the zeroth floor."
"It's due to Steven and the other's sacrifice that we're still alive. Let's loot the Goblins for now. We'll distribute their shares to their family members when we get back," replied another man, as he began taking the weapons and the armour that the Goblins had.
In the Tower, most had loved ones to take care of. Nox learnt this today.
'They look like good people for now,' thought Nox, as the trio went away in the opposite direction of the settlement.
Nox jumped down from the hill. Due to his stats and former parkour experience, he was able to land perfectly on the ground without getting himself hurt.
The settlement was about five hundred metres away from Nox. Between him and the settlement was a thick stretch of forest, making it impossible to see the other side from the ground.
It was easy to miss the goblin settlement if people aimlessly moved around on the ground and did not notice it from top of a hill, like Nox.
Putting on his mask, Nox made his way toward it.