Adryan honestly didn't think he could be more surprised on this day, but it wasn't more than 5 seconds after he saw the Evil Spirit that his newborn expectation was slain.
Not only did he meet his deadly foe as soon as he entered the Tower, but he discovered that whoever created this tower was a Transmigrator!
'No wonder they never said the Tower was a fair system! If someone didn't know what to do here, they'd think they just had to keep killing zombies and going up the rounds!'
Shaking his head slightly, the red-haired man looked to the trio's side as the yellow eyes in the shadows slowly approached.
Nodding thoughtfully, the redhead quickly began, "Listen up. We have a few moments before we're disturbed by those zombies, so I'll be quick.
"The goal of this floor is not to survive or kill all the monsters but to complete the ritual. Remember, complete. Not survive.
"Just do as I say, and we won't be tomato-smoked puppies."
"How are you so sure? I know that this is your first time in the Tower." Flora said, "You can't possibly know what to do as soon as you walk in!"
"We need a little honesty to continue, Mr. Adryan," Sharron added, her gaze deep as a wolf. Maric stood near her, looking at him with intensity and some ill-contained malice.
They were suspicious, and the redhead understood. Right now, he was being too shady, and if he didn't know how to de-escalate, it would only make things worse.
And cooperation was what he needed most right now.
After all, completing the ritual alone was impossible unless unconventional means were used, which, for obvious reasons, was impossible now.
Thinking it over and considering the dangers, a story quickly formed in the mind of the Pyromaniac.
Placing a gloved hand over his heart, his expression softened slightly, and he explained believingly;
"My Lord often shows me things from where 'He' comes from. One was a 'game' precisely like the one we're in.
"At first, I thought it was just survival, but thanks to my Lord, I learned that there were hidden steps to complete a secret mission."
Flora was stunned and looked at her companion in shock.
'The Scarlet Monarch's place of origin? What was that supposed to mean?! 'He' isn't from here?!' Despite being a Demigod from a family of 4th Epoch Angels, she couldn't make sense of the man's words.
'Are the blessed of the Gods so beloved? To receive stories of the place of origin of 'Them'...' Maric found himself at a loss for words. His gaze then shifted to his companion.
Sharron returned it, and he received a soft but tense nod.
Nodding back, Maric frowned at his leader; "Just tell us what to do, Mr. Adryan."
Smiling at the duo, Adryan quickly walked to a black stone basin beside them. "Then open the gate for me. We need to make this quick."
Nodding to his boss, Maric sped to the gate, clenching his fist, prepared to strike it, but his partner's hand stopped him.
"Wait. Look," Sharron said, glancing under the gate's lock, where white words in Hermes rose.
■Open Gate: 500 points.
With some hesitation, Maric unclenched his fist and slowly extended his hand. Dazedly, he watched as the white square glowed and the gate swung open.
-500 points.
Ignoring the message in red, Maric turned to his boss; "It's open!"
Nodding to the Werewolf, Adryan looked down at the black stone basin with a purple flame floating in it.
■Turn into the beast?
'Let's see if I still have it...' Without further ado, the red-haired man reached out his left hand and grasped the flame in a tight fist.
A blue tattoo, similar to a scratched eye, glowed on the back of his hand, and he felt it burn.
The next second, the colors in his vision saturated, and his arms transformed into luminous tentacles with luminous dots.
Flora, who was still at his side, recoiled with wide eyes, 'What the fuck!'
No sooner had the red-haired man touched the purple flame than he had transformed into a hideous octopus monster with a huge mouth full of yellowish teeth and tentacles that gave off lightning sparks.
Had he lost control?!
Ignoring his partner's reaction and the strange sensation in his body, Adryan turned around, and his left tentacle glowed with energy.
Zap zap!
A bolt of lightning shot out from the tentacles and directly hit a yellow panel above them, and the sound of machinery being activated filled the alleyway.
A staircase began to descend from where the panel was, but the Monster Adryan didn't see that. He smashed a false wall and a strange box on top of a carriage using his tentacles.
Following that, it accelerated and leaped over a surprised Maric and Sharron and, with another bolt of energy, struck other panels that powered several different pieces of machinery.
That done, the monster jumped off the railing and disappeared from their sight. They could hear it accelerating in the water.
'...'
Everyone could only watch silently as all this happened, not quite understanding what had happened.
"I guess he was telling the truth when he said he had already practiced this..." Maric mumbled as he turned to watch as the wooden planks were finally broken and zombies slowly crawled out of the windows.
He frowned slightly.
Unlike his zombies, who still maintained a human appearance with only their pale skin and unfocused eyes, these Zombies were more similar to those of the Indulgence Faction.
With flesh eaten away by rotting, tattered, and bloody clothes, along with glowing yellow eyes. Maric was disgusted.
So, walking up to the sluggish undead, he closed his fist and drove it full into its head.
Plop!
+130
A little surprised, Maric watched the now corpse fall to the ground.
"Killing them earns points?" The pale man whispered, looking down at his fist for a moment.
At that moment, the purple flame in the black stone basin pulsed, and in a greenish-black smoke, Adryan came out, shaking his head.
"Ah, that feels weird."
It had been mentioned in the times he'd played the map with his brother, but he didn't think it was that weird.
"So what now, Princess?" Flora asked as she delivered a backkick, popping the head of another zombie that tried to sneak up behind her.
"I'm on it," Adryan replied with a sigh as he walked over to the first box he broke, grabbed a golden sphere with strange symbols covering it, and stowed it in his jacket.
Walking up to the duo, who seemed to be having a good time killing zombies, Adryan walked past them but not before telling them to leave one behind.
Now that he was in the Junction, he took the opportunity to look around. Everything looked the same as in the game, except the vans had been swapped out for carriages, and there was no gobble gum machine.
'Argh, I really could have used a perkaholic.' Adryan grumbled internally at losing such a helpful item.
Noting that for later, the red-haired man bent down slightly and grabbed the slim box containing a luxurious golden fountain pen with his right hand.
He grasped it no sooner than yellow portals with red tongues opened at his side. Adryan was not alarmed; he calmly straightened up with the fountain pen.
His free hand burst into flames, and he whipped it behind him. A tongue of flame destroyed the guardians as soon as they emerged.
+20
"Follow me; the ritual is faster with more people," Adryan said calmly as he walked past Maric and Sharron, who soon followed.
Still in the background, Flora killed the second-to-last zombie with a graceful kick with her heel and watched him approach the duo.
Watching him, she followed without saying much. They climbed the metal staircase to the rooftop and continued down the short hallway.
Through a set of double doors, the group found themselves in a massive studio with a glass-ceilinged red-and-orange light fixture and an altar in the middle of the carpet over a red pentagram.
The experienced Beyonders also noticed the numerous mystical ingredients set aside and various posters of a man with a long mustache.
"You don't need to kill the guardians that appear. Just stay together and walk in circles." Approaching the altar ritual, Adryan calmly mentioned as he placed the golden fountain pen on the altar.
That done, he pulled the golden sphere from his jacket, whose blue symbols glowed for a moment, and placed it on the altar.
The golden fountain pen glowed as soon as it was on top and rose up along with the sphere that left the red-haired man's hand.
The next second, it opened, and a red light emerged. In the blink of an eye, a man appeared floating in the middle of the altar, looking alarmed. Numerous yellow portals with red tongues opened in the study, and another closed the exit.
He wore an elegant white shirt with a red waistcoat decorated with gold details. His long black hair was slicked back, and he had a stylish mustache.
"Wh-what's going on! Where am I?! This wasn't the deal!" the man shouted in panic as he looked around. Pieces of the golden sphere flew around him with great speed.
Adryan looked somewhat surprised at this, but his expression cooled. He turned away from the altar, turning his back on the man, and approached his team, who looked stunned at what was happening.
"Princess, what are you doing..." Flora asked, walking up beside the redhead as more floating monsters appeared from the portals and followed slowly behind them.
"Aren't you going to help him?"
"This world is in danger of destruction because of him," Adryan replied as he ignored the man's screams.
"Excuse me?" Maric asked, somewhat surprised.
What did he mean, the world was in danger of destruction? Was the difficulty of the tower so high this early?
'If that's the case, it makes sense why so few returned from it' Sharron thought, her calm gaze looking behind them at the guardians.
"He, along with four other people, participated in a ritual that brought to this world a monster that plans to devour it. In the game my Lord showed me, he murdered his wife along with sacrificing his manager at the very altar where he is now.
"Do not feel sorry for him. This world is in danger because of him. The least he can do is die to save it." Adryan explained, looking sideways at the Werewolf.
"Looks like we took his place, and now it's up to us to fix his mistakes."
"...Understood." A tense nod was all Maric could give, ignoring the man's shouts as best he could.
"No! Stop! NO! ARGHHH!!!" In a final, bloody scream, the man's body exploded in a shower of blood that stopped in mid-air and condensed in the middle into the reformed sphere, along with a strange glowing blue worm with yellowish eyes.
With his death, the portals, along with the guardians, disappeared, and the exits reopened.
+500!
Grabbing the sphere again along with the larva, Adryan looked at his team with a cold stare.
"We still have to do another 3. On the second one a huge monster will appear, how many points do you have? Just raise your wrist. I have 1020"
"I have 1300," Maric replied, looking at the white number on his wrist.
"1700," Sharron said.
"1600"
Nodding, Adryan turned around and started walking towards the stairs.
"I will buy the first door, and the next will be Flora. After that, it will be Maric and Sharron."
"What does the red number below the points mean?" Maric consulted, looking at his wrist as they walked forward.
"That's the round we're in. Now it's round one. Once we kill the last zombie, it'll be two and so on. We'll keep the wretch alive for a while; there's no need to kill it now.
"With each round, the zombies will get stronger, and more will appear. We'd better do this quickly and efficiently. We will go safely," Adryan replied seriously, returning to the Junction.
The group quickly moved to a lone gate in the left corner, a white sign with black lettering in Hermes read 'Canal District'.