"Return," ordered Nox, walking towards the goblin army.
Obeying him, the shadow slaves returned to his shadow.
Nox stretched his arms and legs before addressing the goblin army, "Killing all of you one by one will be a pain. Fortunately, thanks to my newfound riches, I bought some useful items from the shop."
Nox took out little black orbs from his inventory.
**********
Mana Bomb (C)
It causes an explosion in a thirty-metre radius when it is thrown.
Cost: 8000 points
**********
Although it was costly for a single-use item, it was the best item for the current situation.
"Enjoy!" Shouted Nox, running through the goblin army while throwing the mana bombs in every direction.
Boom!
Baam!!
Booooom!!
Huge explosions could be seen everywhere in the Goblin settlement. However, the rate at which they went off would make one think that they weren't bombs but firecrackers.
.
.
.
In about half an hour, fewer than a hundred goblins were alive. Sadly, Nox had run out of all the mana bombs he had purchased.
However, taking care of the remaining goblins was child's play. The masked man wearing the tracksuit didn't even need to use a weapon to slay all the remaining goblins.
[You levelled up!]
[You levelled up!]
Nox sat on top of the central building as he witnessed the rising sun. The sun that morning was exceptionally beautiful in Nox's eyes.
[You have obtained the title: Goblin Slayer]
"You're blocking the view," Nox complained, waving the screen away.
Obtaining the 'Goblin Slayer' title wasn't a surprise for him. After all, he had slain more than four thousand goblins with the help of his shadow soldiers.
As the sun reached its usual spot in the sky, he took a deep breath before finally getting up and jumping down to the ground.
'They leveled up quite a bit,' thought Nox as he scrolled through the status screens of his shadow soldiers.
They all had risen at least six levels thanks to the fight with the goblin army. The spear goblin was just a few levels away from advancing to the next rank.
Nox looked around at the piles of goblin corpses spread throughout the settlement. Most of the bodies had evaporated due to the mana bombs.
Even though Nox could easily raise a few of the dead goblins as his shadow slaves, he chose not to. There was a limit to how many shadows Nox could control.
The number of summonable soldiers that the Tower displayed were the soldiers that Nox was allowed to raise. It didn't necessarily mean that he could control them all flawlessly.
Suddenly, he felt something strange. It was like something was violently shaking.
[(?)'s egg is reacting to the large number of corpses!]
'What the hell is this?'
Instantly, the black-coloured egg appeared in front of Nox. It floated in the air and shook violently.
A red mist began to emerge from the egg. Falling on the ground, it dispersed in all directions. Within minutes, the entire goblin settlement's floor was covered in some kind of thick red fog.
The piles of goblin corpses around the settlement started to somehow decrease. It was like a vacuum cleaner was sucking all of them up.
[Incubation Rate: 0.4%]
[Incubation Rate: 1.5%]
[Incubation Rate: 2.1%]
[Incubation Rate: 3.7%]
"How intriguing," mumbled Nox as he examined the floating black egg. It had now started emitting a little arcane.
The red mist had now started to disappear. The goblin corpses that were there a few minutes ago completely vanished. It was as if the huge battle between the man and the monsters had never occurred.
[(?)'s egg has gone into a deep sleep!]
'I guess its stomach got full after devouring so many corpses.'
Although there were many questions related to the strange egg in Nox's mind, it would be better to find an answer to them after returning to the zeroth floor.
"Just what are you?" mumbled the man as the black egg disappeared back into his inventory.
[The main challenge of the Fifth Floor has ended!]
'Finally!'
[The contribution points are being calculated!]
Although the challenge of the floor was survival, contribution points were still calculated. Maybe, so that the players may come to know each other.
**********
[Rankings of the second floor (current batch):]
1. Menace (CP: 55,430 )
2. Zivian Zolven (CP: 2,010 )
.
.
.
**********
'I ranked first? Well, that makes sense.'
**********
[Rankings of the second floor (all time):]
1. (?) (CP: ? ) [Information has been blocked]
2. (?) (CP: ? ) [Information has been blocked]
3. Menace (CP: 55,430 )
4. (?) (CP: ? ) [Information has been blocked]
5. Son Wukong (CP: 47,780 )
6. Shiva (CP: 46,230 )
.
.
**********
"I ranked above one of the question marks!" excitedly mumbled Nox.
He had ranked fourth on all the past floors while the (?)s had ranked above him. But, he had finally managed to beat one of them.
Even though he didn't know who they were, seeing them above him on the rankings made him strangely competitive.
Suddenly, Nox was teleported into an open field of green grass, surrounded by all the challenge's participants.
Most of them wore full body armour and carried around huge weapons. Only a handful didn't wear armour or had turned their armour invisible, like Nox.
A wave of chatter spread throughout the crowd as soon as Nox appeared. Since he was wearing his mask and activated his cape's visibility, all the players recognised him.
"It's Menace!!!" a few players standing close to Nox exclaimed excitedly.
"Did he really rank in the top five in all the floors uptill now?"
"Yes! There're rumours that he's the greatest player to be born!"
"Nahh! If I had items and skills like those, even I'd be able to rank within the top five."
"True. I'm sure some huge guild supports him."
"Well, that's obvious. There's no other way that he'd be able to get so strong so fast!"
All the conversations among the players changed to 'Menace'.
Unbeknownst to Nox, two factions surrounding him had been created in the Tower.
One faction was the 'Menace Fan association', who believed and almost worshipped him.
The other faction was the anti-menace association. They were mostly part of guilds who feared that Menace's rise might threaten their authority and power.
"Participants!" a voice boomed through the open field.
The thick, pleasant voice belonged to a man floating in the sky. He wore a single white cloth, which had been wrapped around his entire body. Along with a fit physique, he had an almost god-like face. Two beautiful, white wings emerged from his back, and he radiated a strange golden light.
"It's an angel from zion!" exclaimed a few participants.
Zion. The guild, also known as 'the home of angels'. It's the residence of most of the angels that exist.
"You may address me as, Arael. I'm the overseer for the challenges that take place on the fifth floor!" said the angel. His voice was loud yet calm and relaxing.
After taking a minute to look around at the participants, it continued, "I heartily congratulate all of you for passing the test. A few of you have done exceptionally well in the challenge!"
Arael gazed around, trying to find someone among the hundreds of participants. But, he didn't need to look for long. After all, the intense arcane of a particular player stood out.
Looking at Nox, the angel smiled slightly.
"Anyway, it's my duty to inform you of a few things!" the angel said, turning his face to the general public, "Firstly, after completing the fifth floor, you'll receive no additional stat points on levelling up but, your stats will increase at random when you level up!"
This came as a huge shock to the players. The fact that stats would get distributed at random wasn't an easily acceptable fact.
"What!" a majority of the players blurted.
'I should have levelled up some more,' Nox regretted, not knowing that the average level for the participants on the fifth floor was almost half his current level.
"Well, that's just how the Tower works. Anyway, even though I'm not obligated to tell you this, it's better if you know. When you return, you'll be swarmed by a lot of guilds. Since most guilds look at a player's performance until the fifth floor to recruit them. I advise you all to be cautious," advised the angel.
Guilds. The players could finally join them! A guild played a major role when a player climbed the Tower by providing them all the support and help they required.
The angel gave a few more warnings about how easy it was to be tricked and die a meaningless death. Then, after informing the players of a few more things, Arael finally stopped, taking a deep breath.
"That's all for now. I wish you all the best of luck in your journey!" exclaimed the angel, snapping his fingers.
Soon, the players disappear one by one.
In the blink of an eye, Nox was standing atop the stone platform of the zeroth floor.
Due to suddenly being teleported, he couldn't take off his mask and turn off the visibility of his cape, which was the trademark of 'Menace'.
"Menace!!" yelled the crowd, gathered in front of the stone platform.