The situation was deserted and quiet; it was three in the morning in that place. Alisha decided to take three people with her, while Aaron took Isabella, Clara, and Lorelei.
Even though Liel was Alisha's sister, the woman was in Aaron's group. Alisha didn't mind it because she saw that Aaron could relieve the symptoms of Liel's relapsing disease.
[Raid Monster at Dark Pillar Third Floor opened]
[Portal closed countdown]
[00:09:59:59]
Only Aaron was still awake in the night among the eight members of Alisha's team. A panel notification appeared before Aaron and the others, telling them that a monster raid had opened on the Dark Pillar on the third floor.
Aaron woke up Isabella and the others, including Alisha. One by one, they opened their eyes and saw the system panel appear before them.
"Ah, looks like it's time for us to go."
Alisha had given them teleportation slips, useful for heading straight for the monster raid gate. Some women needed to wash their faces to get rid of their sleepiness.
After everyone was ready, they gathered in the main yard of the Dimension Justice base compound. It could be seen that their hands were holding the teleportation slips tightly, ready to make a quick trip to the monster raid gate.
"I leave the authority here to you, Leon. I'll let you know if I make it up the floor."
"When it happens, you'll be the leader of Dimension Justice on this floor. Are you able to do it?" Alisha asked Leon, her comrade-in-arms.
Leon nodded. He accepted the command stick from Alisha and was determined to carry out his duty as the temporary leader in this place. Alisha was confident that Leon was reliable.
Alisha turned to the side, looking at Alpha, who held a flag with a sword and shield, the symbol of Dimension Justice.
Alpha would carry the flag in this monster raid as a sign that Alisha's group was from Dimension Justice. Aaron had recently seen a group of adventurers carrying a group flag.
"Alright. Are you ready?" asked Alisha to all group members, and they cleared their throats in response.
At once, they activated the teleportation slip and left the place. Their bodies disappeared in a flash of light and turned into small particles.
Leon escorted them away, waving, "Be careful, Captain Alisha."
In an instant, their presence in the Dimension Justice base disappeared. Aaron opened both eyes, seeing he had arrived outside the monster raid gate.
"Look! They're Dimension Justice's group."
"Don't get into trouble with them if you don't want to die."
"Are they the ones who will complete the monster raid this time?"
The appearance of the Dimension Justice group surprised many adventurer parties. Undoubtedly, the group was one of the three major groups ruling the Dark Pillar.
For other adventurers, Dimension Justice's rivals were only Sky Sword or Night Liberators. Those were the three major groups of the Dark Pillar Tower.
Aaron saw the Sky Sword group present with a cloudy sword flag from the side. Sila, the woman he had saved the other day, was present with the Sky Sword group in this place.
'Sila? After all, she also came up to the floor with her group members.'
Lastly, the Night Liberators group was present with a crescent moon and axe-crossed flags. Three major groups were there, which further surprised many people.
"Captain Alisha. I didn't expect that you would choose to directly participate in the monster raid this time," said the raid group leader of the Night Liberators, Owen.
"Of course. I didn't want to miss the chance to climb the floor. I'm sorry for Denis' misfortune," Alisha explained, intending to sympathize, but Owen took it as an insult.
"Aaron and Isabella. They are already top-level fugitives of the Night Liberators group. They will be arrested upon arrival at the tenth floor."
"Really? Do you know what their faces look like to have such confidence?" asked Alisha.
"I don't know. Still, they said they have witnesses. This time, those two bastards won't be able to escape."
'Witness? Is she Hilda?" asked Aaron.
Lorelei heard the conversation and then turned her eyes to Aaron. The young man seemed to be narrowing his eyes as if he was thinking hard about something.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
Aaron's reverie was interrupted when Liel asked. He turned and smiled with a nod, saying there was nothing to worry about.
"Don't worry. They're not a big threat to me."
Alisha realized Aaron and Isabella's discomfort over this conversation. She invited her team members to start entering the dark pillar and went through the maze to reach the floor boss room.
The other groups walked in with their team members. Alisha glanced to the side; most of them had a maze map, but it was incomplete.
"We have to stay alert. Although there's no sign of monsters on the route to the boss room, but that's something impossible to happen."
"There must always be monsters."
[ANNOUNCEMENT!]
[Dark Pillar Tower]
[Third Floor]
[Monster: Lv 38-40]
[Monster Boss: ?]
[Countdown for Closed Gate:]
[00:09:59:59]
'Hmm... it doesn't seem so difficult for me to fight these monsters.'
Alisha led them to walk. The route was to the right, passing through several intersections, crossing a small river inside the maze, then arriving in front of the floor boss room.
Alisha was right; they couldn't come to the floor boss's room easily. The first monster they met was the Cerberus. There were two of them with a size as big as a black bear.
[Monster Details:]
[Monster: Cerberus]
[Level: 39]
[HP: 45000/45000]
[MP: 47000/47000]
[Element: Wind]
"Can we beat it?" asked another member, Mira.
"Of course. Cerberus is no big deal to us," said Alpha, full of confidence.
Alisha asked Alpha and Alex to handle them, both men were happy to do so. Aaron initially volunteered, but Isabella stopped the young man.
"Your strength will be wasted if you fight those two monsters. You should save it for fighting the floor boss," Isabella whispered.
Isabella's words were heard by Liel. She was getting increasingly curious about Isabella's response to Aaron, there must be a specific reason why Isabella forbade Aaron to fight the two Cerberus monsters.
Aaron nodded, agreeing with what Isabella said. They focused their eyes forward, seeing clearly that Alpha and Alex were fighting using their two talents.
Alpha seemed good at using the fire talent, while Alex was the arrow talent.
They attacked the two monsters mercilessly, even though some of the Cerberus' attacks hit their bodies. Aaron and Alisha reached out, blocking the Cerberus' wind attacks from hitting them.
Alex managed to kill the monster first. He didn't want Alpha to get hurt, so Alex helped Alpha to defeat the Cerberus monster. They managed to do so after fighting for half an hour.
They both get EXP and items; Alpha offers to share the items he gets with other members. But, Alisha refused, as they would get their own share.
Aaron narrowed his eyes, wondering if she meant the other members would be allowed to fight monsters?
"Come on, let's move on."
They nodded. They all stepped through an intersection according to the map's directions. They had gone far enough, Alisha thought there were no other monsters that would attack her group.
Unexpectedly, a battle was taking place near the stream. Sky Sword's group was fighting against three octopus monsters, a black octopus with ten tentacles.
"Alisha?" asked Sky Sword's raid group leader, Noah.
"Noah? I didn't expect to meet you and your group here."
Unlike Owen, Alisha had a good relationship with Noah as a group leader. The relationship between Dimension Justice and Sky Sword was quite good, so Alisha didn't have to worry about anything.
"Are the monsters difficult enough?" asked Alisha. Noah sighed while still paying attention to the three octopus monsters.
"It's a monster with the water element and has level 40. It turned out to be more difficult than we thought," said Noah.
Seven people in total participated in this raid from Sky Sword; five seemed to be fighting three octopus monsters.
Although they were fighting them together, one of the advantages of the octopus monsters was the regeneration process. Noah explained that the monster's regeneration process was 300 HP/second.
"This means that you have to release attacks of more than 300 damage," Alisha replied, Noah agreed.
There were a total of three HP bars from the octopus monsters. Two monsters had one and a half HP bars left, while the other monster still had two HP bars left.
"Although it's slow, there's a certainty that the three monsters will die."
Aaron turned his head, seeing that the average damage taken was 600-1000 damage. It was more than enough to defeat the octopus monsters. Although what Noah said was true, it should take a long time.
"Put time aside. Pay attention to their MP count. If you don't kill them immediately, I'm afraid your members will run out of MP, and it will be a hassle for you," explained Aaron, arguing.
"Who is he?" asked Noah.
"He's my friend. He joined my team for this raid," said Alisha without telling Aaron's name.
"AAKH!"
One of the five members of Noah's group was hit by an octopus tentacle. He bounced away and crashed into the maze wall. One medical member immediately came to heal him.
"Damn! We're losing power, Captain Noah. I'm starting to run out of MP."
"We should retreat and rest for a while. It'll be difficult if we force ourselves."
Noah turned around, watching as the four members struggled to kill the three octopus monsters. Noah's hands were clenched tightly, annoyed that his team members had failed to kill them.
"There's no other choice. I have to—"
"You guys come out!" interrupted Aaron, startling everyone, including Noah.
The figures of two strange men appeared before Aaron; Alisha and Noah widened their eyes. The fluctuations made by the two strange men were similar to those of a servant, especially since Aaron had a servant's mark on his forehead.
Isabella whispered something, asking about Aaron's intentions, "What are you doing?"
"The monsters are water elements. I have to get their MP Crystal."
"Jack, Rasputin. Attack those three monsters!"