[You have entered the ninth floor!]
The ninth floor consisted of two huge separated forests, with a deep and wide crater separating the two landmasses.
The two moons, high up in the starless sky, illuminated the ground below with dazzling white light.
The areas along the crater were completely barren, with lavish trees and bushes starting about thirty metres away from it.
A single wooden suspension bridge was the only thing that connected the two landmasses, over a hundred metres apart.
Equal numbers of people were summoned at either side of the crater, all calm and accustomed to the strange ways of the Tower.
"Is that…" whispered a huge, bulky man wearing leather armour, pointing at a man standing just a few feet away from him.
Instinctively all the people in the vicinity of the man moved away from him.
The man wore a skin-tight vest and pants, with a red cloak hanging from his broad shoulders, shielding his back. His face was covered by a black mask.
"What's up with you guys?" growled a huge beast-man– a humanoid wolf – standing on two legs, "Do you really believe in the rumours?"
It wore iron armour all over its body, rattling noisily as it stomped towards the masked man.
The fur on its body was a graceful shade of grey, while the thick mane around his neck looked like a lighter shade of the darkest black. Its eyes were that of a large and ferocious wolf darting around for its next prey.
"You smell like a human," it whispered, bringing its snout close to the man, who glared unwaveringly into his eyes.
The man didn't bother to reply, keeping his head high towards the beast-man. His eyes didn't show even a tint of fear as he looked into the eyes of the beast man, towering a few feet above him.
"You dare to–"
Before the wolf could finish its sentence, a blue screen appeared between it and the masked man.
**********
[The Ninth Floor's Main Trial]
[Clear conditions: A group of one hundred players will be summoned on either side of the valley.
A leader will be selected from both sides at random.
Five other people will be randomly selected and given one crystal each.
1. The group will win if they are able to destroy or collect all the crystals of the opposing team.
2. The group will win if they are able to incapacitate the leader of the opposing team.
Time limit: One day
Rewards: Permission to Ascend to the Next Floor]
**********
It was the first team-based challenge that the players encountered in the Tower. Even though most individuals prided themselves on their strength, it could easily be negated by the joint prowess of the hundred people in the opposing team.
Instantly after the message appeared, two people amongst both groups began to emit a slight glow as a plain, silver crown appeared on both their heads.
Soon after, five more random people in each of the two groups began emitting a slight light before crystals of different colours appeared in the air before them.
Coincidentally, the one who had acquired the crown in the first group was the wolf who had been shouting at 'Menace'. A dark-elf male had been assigned as the leader of the other group.
The six people on either side kept emitting a distinct glow, making them a bright beacon in the dark night.
The two leaders emitted a more dazzling light than the other ten, and with the silver crowns on their heads, they could be easily distinguished.
"Shit," mumbled the wolf, gritting its teeth.
Menace glanced at the beast-man once again.
**********
Name: Lobo
Level: 38
Class: Warrior
Title: -
Fighting Prowess: 62
Intelligence: 32
Arcane: 41
Skills: Howl(C), Shapeshift(B), Iron Claws(C), Heightened Senses(B)...
**********
'Fighting Prowess' was the combination of all the stats, including vitality, strength, agility, perception, stamina, intelligence and arcane stats. It provided Nox with a quicker overview of the status screen as compared to singling out all the other stats.
Its stats were above average for the ninth-floor participants but were not comparable to that of the black-masked man who stood before him.
"Lobo," Menace called out, looking far away at the group on the other side of the crater.
"How do you know my na-"
Before it could finish its sentence, Nox interrupted it, "That's not important. Do you know how to fight?"
As if finding the very question itself repulsive, the wolf ground its teeth, bringing its snout closer to the man's face, "What kind of question is that?"
Most of the people, except the twelve glowing beings, had already approached the edge of the landmasses, aiming their weapons at their opponents.
But a weird sense of confusion was mixed in the stale and dry air.
The hanging suspension bridge looked ancient and broken down, as if it could break apart and disappear into the dark depths of the crater at any moment.
A handful of participants had skills which helped them to conjure wings and fly behind their backs. But even they stood still, waiting for their opponents to make the first move.
"Why do you waver?" shouted a soothing and manly voice among the group on the other side.
It belonged to the man who had been assigned one crystal, which was evident due to his body glowing a cyan tint.
He was a tall, middle-aged Asian man with long blue hair and wearing a blue, traditional Chinese hanfu with beautiful golden designs and patterns running all over it.
He had a healthy physique and a handsome face, with eyes that were the darkest shade of blue and could be easily mistaken for black.
Holding his white, shiny sword over his head, he made his way to the front of the crowd before taking the first step on the wooden suspension bridge that creaked as soon as his feet touched it.
"This bridge will not fail us!" he exclaimed, sprinting to the other side, with his sword lowered.
On reaching the end of the wooden bridge, he lunged forward, holding his sword in front of him with both his hands.
Swing. Slash.
Like a well-sharpened butter knife cleanly slicing through butter, his white sword slashed the body of one of the creatures at the front.
His swing technique was masterful, and his slash was flawless… the effect of years of dedicated training to the sword.
"Are you with me!!!" he shouted at the top of his voice, raising his bloody sword in the air.
Yeahhhhhhh!!!
Almost in unison, all the people on the other side of the bridge yelled at once, raising their weapons up in the air, before sprinting through the bridge.
It seemed as if all they needed was a leader, brave and articulate enough to tell them what needed to be done, in as few words as possible.
Under the span of ten minutes, an all-out war had broken out between the two sides.
Most of the people on the other side of the bridge had made their way to the opposite side, and the few who stayed protected the crystals and their king from the people who had infiltrated their side.
Menace slid his hand inside his inventory and was about to take out his weapon but stopped as another message appeared in front of his eyes.
**********
[The Ninth Floor's Side Challenge]
[Clear conditions: Collect all ten crystals without breaking any of them.
Rewards: ?]
**********
It was plainly obvious that it was an almost impossible challenge to complete since preserving all the crystals in such a battle between the two groups was far from easy.
But he had noticed something.
On the entire battlefield, there was another person who had taken an interest in the newly appeared side challenge… The blue-haired Asian man.
The Asian man quickly stopped one of his comrades, who was about to break one of the enemy's crystals, before quietly slipping it into his pocket and resuming his battle with the forces.
Menace took an empty hand out of the inventory before tapping the shoulder of the beast-man who had been quarrelling with him.
Ever since the battle started, it had been standing still, examining the various players on the field. He had his huge, iron greatsword aimed at the other players, ready to lunge at them at a moment's notice.
Lobo bared its fangs at him, blurting out in an evidently irritated tone, "What do you want!?"
Menace looked into his eyes, bringing his index finger in front of his mask, where his lips should have been.
Sshhhh.
Grabbing the beast by its wrist– which held the sword– he pulled it along with him as he ran into the seemingly unknown forest.
Bamboozled by such an unexpected gesture as well as the man's sheer strength, the wolf unintentionally followed along for a few minutes before finally returning back to reality.
"Where are you taking me?" it loudly inquired, forcing itself to a halt and jerking its hand to break free from the man's grasp, but in vain.
Menace looked at it through the corner of his eye, not bothering to turn to face it.
Maybe because of its heightened sense, Lobo instinctively stepped back. In his entire time alive, he had never felt what it was feeling at the moment.
Fear, dread, pain, sorrow, anger; it couldn't point out which of these individual feelings overshadowed the others the most, but what it felt deep in his heart was worthlessness.
Even though it trained all its life to become the perfect killing machine, at the end of the day, in front of a being like the one standing before it, it didn't even amount to a single grain of salt.
It felt as if hundreds of beings — he could never even hope to win against — were gawking directly at its vulnerable and weak soul through the eyes of the man.
"Y-you're no human," it mumbled, falling on the ground on its behind, not daring to turn its head away from the man.