Fuck. It was hot. That was my first thought as I stepped into the second floor. I was so much regretting the fact that I was still dressed in a pair of dirtied sweats. This is what I get for not being prepared for everything.
"Why are you just standing there!? Duck!" Someone pushed me and I fell to the ground. A second later, a wave of flames flew right past my head.
What the… I looked beside me to check what was happening and saw a couple of people with casualties hiding behind a large rock. Since there was enough space, I crawled over to hide behind the rock along with them.
"The dragon is aiming for anything that's standing on its two legs on this side. You got lucky." A guy said to me, breathing heavily.
I took into account the people's appearances here. Their weapons looked broken and worn out. Their clothes had burnt patches and most of the guys had full grown beards.
"How long have you people been here…?" I couldn't help but ask.
"A month and half," someone answered by my other side.
There was another large rock shielding people on the other side. In fact, there were many large rocks. They posed as a source of coverage for almost thirty people to hide behind. Buddy seemed to be among these people in hiding but I couldn't find anyone from Lumina's group.
I stared at the girl who just answered my question. Her right arm was so burnt that she was receiving Guiding from the person next to her.
"It's a time-distorting floor. It's been less than five minutes since the first floor was cleared and the portal to this floor opened."
The people who were listening to me were shocked by my words.
"Five minutes…" The guy, who had saved my head from being burnt earlier, said. I nodded.
He made a strangled sound from the back of his throat as he ran his hand through his face. This was not good. But I didn't have the time to linger on the fact that this was a time-distorting floor.
"What's the situation? Have you guys found the Boss? Why is it so hot here?"
"When we first came here, cough cough, this entire place was a green field. There was food everywhere, not a single monster in sight." The girl with the burnt hand started to speak but her male Guide took over for her in telling me what happened.
"We stocked up on food and water, then decided to hunt monsters. But it was weird how instead of finding monsters we were finding other students. Like the floor wanted all of us to be in the same place before anything started.
"Before we knew it, there were about seventy of us gathered in one place. We assumed that we were the only ones who made it to the second floor. So we all decided to work together since the situation was confusing to us. Everyone had said they hadn't seen any monsters where they were coming from.
"We didn't exactly know what we were up against so we decided to camp out till danger rose. We got too lax and that was when it appeared." The Guide said.
"It?" I questioned.
The Guide gestured above his rock. I narrowed my eyes as I looked at where he was pointing. It was a twenty meters tall dragon in the flesh. Its scales were dark red and it was breathing fire all over the place, destroying whatever it could.
What the… what was a dragon doing here? And it wasn't even a low-grade one. By my observation, it would be an A~S-Class Rank dragon.
"It's an S-Class," someone said, and I turned back to the people behind the rock. "Its stamina is no joke. It's been going on like that for a week straight. We tried to take it out but it seemed to be intelligent. It only attacked those who attacked it. It can't be swayed by distractions.
"And even if a person were to get close enough to put a sword through it, it would be a futile attempt. Its scales are beyond strong. It broke Kevin's S-Class magic ether sword that could cut through anything."
Fuck. I didn't want to get involved in anything in this Tower, but I was ninety percent sure that if I did nothing, all of these people were going to die. S-Class dragons had a way of doing things. This guy was right about it being intelligent.
I looked at the dragon again to see that there were a couple of people now fighting it. Color me surprised when I realized it was Lumina's group. Blondie was using a special skill to freeze some parts of the dragon but as soon as the spikes landed on its scale and froze a part of it, they melted into water afterward.
Lumina was going for its tail. The other guy was aiming his arrows to pierce the dragon's eyes but that was a futile attempt since the dragon decided not to stay still and continued to breathe fire all over the place to distort the guy's aims.
S-Class dragons were known for their intelligence and weeding out strong Hunters. I could guess that the lot hiding behind the rocks here had lost most of their weapons and stamina and they probably had no trunk card to use in such a situation. That was the work of the dragon.
I was sure that the strongest Hunters on this floor had attacked it first but the dragon had either killed them or worn them out. The dragon didn't necessarily attack the people hiding here because it couldn't be sure if there was anyone powerful among us.
So it continued wreaking havoc in hopes that the strong would keep on coming out of the group to fight it and it would take care of them. Once everyone strong was killed or worn out, it would attack the remaining weak people.
This was a pattern I had taken note of in most of the reality TV shows I watched in which Hunters fought against S-Class dragons. It seemed like after the dragon took care of Lumina's group, it would turn its attention to us hiding behind rocks.
There was no one here other than me who could go against it at this point. I checked how Lumina and his group were doing but they hadn't made the slightest change in the state of the dragon.
What fools. But something came to mind as I watched the group battle the dragon. Lumina wasn't using his full strength. To others, it might seem like he was giving his best, but to me, he looked like he was holding back.
No, not holding back. Waiting. Waiting for something to happen. An opportunity to strike the dragon? No, that wasn't it. I couldn't tell what he was waiting for but he looked like he had placed his hopes on that thing. Was it me?
I doubted. I was sure no one here was expecting me to help. It wouldn't be the first or second or even the third time I had let people die because I didn't care enough to save them. So who could Lumina be waiting for?
I decided not to think about that too much. I should take out the dragon as quickly as I could so I could return to the dorms and eat as much food as I wanted to. And I quite missed sleeping on a bed. My back and stomach had had enough of this so-called Tower.
I stood up from behind the rock.
"What are you doing? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" The Guide from earlier hissed at me.
I waved him off. "You guys hiding behind the rocks like a bunch of cowards are the ones trying to get yourselves killed. When the dragon is done with that group of idiots over there, you people are next."
I heard dramatic gasps after I said those words but I didn't care to listen to what they were saying afterward. I stood alone as I walked on the burnt field over to where the S-Class dragon was fighting with Lumina's group. They looked like flies trying to get the attention of a cow. It was honestly so pitiful to watch.
"Oi! Oi! Dragon! Over here! Look!" I shouted, shocking everyone.
The dragon saw me using its peripheral vision. Its pupils constricted as it noticed me and it immediately turned its head and breathed a wave of flames toward me. I didn't have the time to dodge so I awaited the impact.
* * *
Dead. He was dead. There was no way anyone could survive such a blast of fire from an S-Class dragon of all monsters, was what Lumina thought as he paused to stare at that guy.
The entire floor was silent for a few seconds as the fire spread out. He was dead, that was for sure. What a foolish way to die, Lumina tsked. He was about to turn his attention back to the dragon when a golden light shone from where that guy had just died.
Died? He didn't look that dead to Lumina as he emerged from the sea of flames, glowing with a bright shade of gold. Did he just cut through the fire of an S-Class dragon?
Impossible…
* * *
Behold the true power of an S-Class magic ether sword, you filthy peasant Hunters. I didn't know who Kevin was and why his own S-Class magic ether sword had broken but I was sure he was either using a fake one or he wasn't powerful enough to wield it properly.
What sort of S-Class weapon broke when used on an S-Class monster? Wasn't that illogical? The power of a sword depended on its user. If a Hunter couldn't utilize a powerful weapon well, it was their fault, not the weapon's.
The dragon realized that its flame wasn't going to do anything to me so it didn't breathe fire my way anymore. Instead, it let out a loud roar and made its way over to me. How intelligent.
I ran toward it as well. I wanted to slice that scale to see just how 'strong' it was. Once the dragon was within range, I expected it to take a swipe at me with its claws but it hesitated. Using that second of opportunity, I went for one of its legs and sliced it.
Blood spluttered on the ground but the wound wasn't that deep. Steam began seeping out of the wound as it started to close up itself. I expected this dragon would have the ability to regenerate but it was too fast. The cut had patched up itself within five seconds.
The scales were indeed strong. I would have to imbue more magic power into my sword. The only way to kill a dragon, no matter the Class, was to chop its head off. Since this was an S-Class dragon, it was smart enough to know its head was a weak point, which was why he wasn't letting anyone get close enough to reach it.
That other guy in Lumina's group was smart enough to know that its eyes needed to be taken out if we wanted to achieve anything worthwhile here. Ahh, I wondered just how much time had passed in the real world while we were stuck in this place. Probably a minute.
This was so frustrating.
"Hey! You! Hey!" I called out to the guy using a magic bow in Lumina's team.
"Aim for its throat!" That would stop it from breathing fire for a bit. After saying those words, I began running over to Lumina who was now trying to climb the back of the dragon but kept on getting swung away by its tail.
"You idiot, what do you think you're doing?" I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him away from the dragon. He was about five or six inches taller than my five feet nine height but that didn't stop me from dragging him like a little child.
"What are you hiding?" I asked him once we stopped moving. The entire scene with the dragon was playing a few meters from us so I was assured no one would hear about our conversation unless they had long-range hearing skills.
"Hiding? What do you mean?" As he spoke, his eyes kept darting back to the dragon to check on his group members.
Was he really checking on his group members or was it something else? I couldn't shake that train of thought from my head.
"You can't tell me your foolproof plan is to climb the back of the dragon and kill it that way. What are you hiding? No, in better terms, what are you waiting for?" I changed the tone of my voice into a more serious one.
Expecting him to hesitate and cave in, he did the opposite.
"There's an S-Class dragon over there and you're here trying to play detective. I don't get you. If you don't have anything better to tell me, I'm going back to help my friends."
Lumina stomped away after saying those words.
Hmph. That wasn't very Lumina-like. Wasn't he supposed to smile and tell a half-assed lie to save himself? Or even tell the truth right away. Why did he act so defensive and aggressive? Suspicious fellow. Was I going to have to put a tail on him?
Just as I was about to head over to the dragon, a bright blue light blinded me for half a second. My fixed skill, [Mental Control], readjusted the intensity and amount of the light entering inside my pupil because of the shock it put my brain through.
I was able to see through the bright light and began walking forward. I stopped when I noticed something. While everyone was screaming about being blind, Lumina was standing perfectly still and composed in front of the dragon. It was like he was the one emitting the bright light. Yes. The light was actually coming straight out of him.
I wondered what he was doing. I was about to yell at him to stop what he was doing, but he opened his mouth to speak. I couldn't hear what he was saying but it seemed like someone else heard him just fine. The dragon lowered its head in front of Lumina as though he was simply obeying a command.
Lumina lifted his sword and chopped the head of the dragon in a split second. The bright light disappeared with a whoosh sound.
"Hey, everyone! I killed it! I think I imbued too much magic power into my sword though, cause that light was too bright, wasn't it? Sorry, guys!" Lumina shouted and everyone began singing praises in appreciation.
"Oh my gosh, you killed it!"
"Wow, Lumina! You're so strong!"
"I bet you have a really high percentage of magic power, don't you?"
"Amazing! You really chopped off the head of the dragon!"
That was not… He didn't… WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?
[Congratulations! The final boss of this Tower has been defeated.]
The message window popped in front of my face.
[You have received 20 points for your participation in defeating the final Boss.]
[You can now move to ^√ק\¥¢@#$&*:+]
Huh? What? Everyone in the Tower started to dematerialize but I was left standing in confusion as an option to leave the Tower didn't appear in front of me.
[Congratulations! The system has chosen you to be its protagonist.]
What?