"How do you know that I seek vengeance?" Ariel asked. She didn't know why she wanted to talk to Bruce. Being near him made her feel peaceful. Something that she hadn't felt for a long time.
Bruce opened his eyes and gently looked at the pair of beautiful green eyes staring at him.
"When I saw you for the first time, I noticed no hesitations in your attacks when you sliced those people in half"
"People may think that you're cruel, but I believe that you were very kind"
"After all, you ended their lives in the Nether Realm swiftly"
Ariel opened her lips slightly after hearing Bruce's thoughts on her actions.
"The rule in the Nether Realm is that if you are expelled by the ruler of the Nether Realm, your existence will forever vanish"
"However, if you are killed in the Nether Realm then your soul will follow the normal universal laws and reincarnate"
"I'm sure you know of this as well" Bruce smiled.
"Those who couldn't see through your powers were already doomed to be steppingstones in the Nether Realm"
"The constant struggles will continue until they reach The Void and obtain a spot in the Nether Army. It's a one-in-a-billion chance opportunity"
"Given the number of deranged people existing in this place, their fates may be worse than death" Bruce couldn't help but think of Bonta.
Ariel nodded without saying anything.
"After working with you on the mission, I realized that you're more kindhearted than anyone"
"You could have left everyone behind in the mission and run away with your speed"
"Such action would be acceptable in the Nether Realm, and you would be able to obtain all the rewards for yourself"
"But you still chose to stay with the rest of the team and accepted your death together with us"
"That's when I realized that I fell in love with you even more"
Ariel opened her eyes widely when she heard Bruce's confession.
"Bruce, I…"
"Don't say anything just yet" Bruce put his hand on her lips.
"Just focus on your objective and I'll support you wherever I can"
"I too have my own mission that I need to carry out"
"But that doesn't mean that we have to be all alone when we carry out our missions"
Bruce stopped talking and let Ariel speak.
"Bruce, I don't know what to say…" Ariel spoke softly.
"That's okay because you don't need to say anything"
"Let's just focus on the Hell Spire"
"Um" Ariel nodded.
Bruce opened the guide to Hell Spire and Ariel looked at it with him.
Hell Spire has 50 floors.
Reaching every floor provides candidates rewards given out by the ruler of the Nether Realm.
The rewards are split into different categories: Profound Energy Cubes, Divine Artifacts, Cultivation Manuals, and Cultivation Pills.
The difference between profound energy cubes and cultivation pills is their purpose. Profound energy cubes contain the purest energy in the universe.
Using profound energy cubes to breakthrough to different stages in a cultivation realm is acceptable. However, there is a high risk of failing when one attempts to breakthrough into a higher realm.
Cultivation pills provide a surge of energy that could easily be cultivated by cultivators during a breakthrough to a higher realm. This would increase the chance for someone to attain a higher cultivation realm.
"Bruce, look at the reward for the 40th floor!" Ariel excitedly said.
"My god… You can obtain a Worldly Supreme pill as a reward for the 40th floor!" Bruce gasped.
Worldly Supreme pills are extremely rare across countless worlds in the universe. Only the highest grade alchemists can create such pills.
"If we just stay in Hell Spire and train ourselves here, we don't need to do any missions from the faction" Bruce suggested.
"It's not that easy" Ariel shook her head.
"Look at the rule when you reach every floor"
[Candidate must submit faction points to attempt each level in Hell Spire. The higher the rewards, the higher the challenge and faction points requirement]
Bruce looked at the faction points requirement for the 40th floor and almost fainted when he saw the number.
"Are you shitting me? It costs 40 million faction points to attempt the 40th floor?"
"So, the purpose of The Abyss and The Depth is to reach the highest floors in Hell Spire"
"The factions are created to support the journey through Hell Spire"
"No wonder why the four factions have survived for billions of years"
"They are part of the system!" Ariel concluded.
"Did you use up all your faction points?" Bruce asked.
"I did, I had to get a good weapon for Hell Spire" Ariel nodded.
"So, we're both dirt poor"
"Not necessarily" Ariel smiled.
"We could exchange profound energy cubes for faction points"
"Is that even a good idea? Shouldn't we be saving them for other purposes?" Bruce didn't want to part with his hard-earned money.
"It's not an issue because if you win, you can request the profound energy cubes as a reward"
"The amount of profound energy cubes that you get for winning the floor is roughly the same amount that you have to sacrifice to attempt the floor"
"This all changes when we reach the 20th floor where the faction points requirements become impossible" Ariel frowned as she looked at the requirements for each floor.
It was obvious for both that the first 19 floors can be done without doing missions from the faction. However, obtaining the profound energy cubes without joining a faction would be extremely difficult.
"Okay, let's aim for the 19th floor and head back to complete missions to obtain faction points then" Bruce had a rough understanding of Hell Spire. It was clear that Hell Spire was not something that can be conquered in a few months.
It would not surprise him if people spent thousands of years in Hell Spire to reach the top. Given that the faction points were the entry requirement for each floor, losing means one must go back to the faction to complete more missions.
Even if someone manages to win all the way to floor 20th, they still will have to complete S-ranked missions to obtain 10 million faction points.
"Where are the other 3?" Bruce didn't see their teammates in Hell Spire.
"I asked them about Hell Spire after completing the mission and they opted to not come"
"From what they've told me, all of them are stuck on the 10th floor" Ariel replied.
"What?" Bruce narrowed his eyes.
"All of them possess High Stage Divine Emperor cultivation and they're stuck on the 10th floor?"
Ariel nodded and she found it strange as well.
"It's possible that we'll be facing the most talented people across the universe in this Hell Spire"
"I disagree" Bruce calmly said.
"The most talented individuals would be protected by their families at all times"
"It's hard to imagine talented prodigies getting sent to Nether Realm unless something unexpected happened to them"
Ariel got uncomfortable when Bruce mentioned the unexpected tragedies.
"Most likely, we'll be facing battle-hardened warriors across the universe"
"To be frank, I'm quite excited!" Bruce smiled.
"Ariel, please don't do anything rash. I will still need to ask for your hands in marriage"
Ariel ignored his nonsense and walked into the first floor of Hell Spire.
The journey into Hell Spire began.