BXBX NOVEL Chapter 45 Meanwhile At...
Aerathain City, on the other side of the continent, 3rd Floor.
3rd Floor of the Tower was enormous, and thus as the logic should dictate, it should contain a lot of different biomes and environments. However, unexpectedly or expectedly, it didn't really happen because of the Nesser Dynasty, who terraformed the entire 3rd Floor to be one single biome.
Aerathain City was a one-time peculiarity on the 3rd Floor; it was initially the capital of some nation located in the Lower World. That Lower World was on the verge of becoming a Mana-Less World in a few millennia as Mana was dissipating from the World at an alarming rate.
Once, when some powerful Transcendent was bored, he transported the entire Aerathain City to the Tower and placed it on the 3rd Floor. Indeed, boredom could be dangerous for people who live a very long life.
Not like things like this happened often... not absolutely like this.
But that was not a real problem.
While the civilization of the people of Aerathain City was technologically pretty advanced, and for example, if compared to that of Earth, could be considered as futuristic, not many thought they would survive endless waves of Magical Beasts, Monster and other fearsome creatures, not to mention the competition on the 3rd Floor.
Still, to the surprise of everyone, the citizens of the Aerathain City paid a great price, but they survived, and rebuilt their city, and acclimatized themselves to the Tower and for centuries stood the walls of the Aerathain City unbreached by any Magical Beast or Monster.
Currently, in one of the still-standing skyscrapers, most of the skyscrapers were destroyed after the Aerathain City was transported into the 3rd Floor by flying Magical Beasts and Monsters or just couldn't handle the fights. Afterward, the leadership of the Aerathain City decided not to rebuild them because it was not that worth of it.
Thus only a few of them remained, which were reinforced to withstand even combat of a Gold-Tiers for some time, only for some time, but even that was good. From then on, just entering one of those builds counted as a sign of prestige and status.
Currently, on the top floor, which was a high-end restaurant and places visited only by the most powerful or richest of the Aerathain City. Two women were eating their lunch in relative silence in this high-class or rather highest-class restaurant.
Aside from them, the entire floor was empty, and just waiters were preset, as they nervously waited for orders while they were lined in a straight line. It was a dreadful time for all of the waiters, as they didn't dare even to breathe, not to create noise, not wanting to irritate their guests.
Because then death would be the only salvation.
The elder one from the pair was wearing silver plated armor and, together with her long white hair tailed into a braid with red eyes, was giving the feel of a vampire knight. Indeed she was a Vampire, and not an ordinary one, but from her stature and manners, it was easy to tell that she belonged to the highest caste of the Blood Races.
The young one had golden eyes and long platinum hair, reaching her waist, but the most notable feature about her was a pair of substantial red horns sprouting from her head, signifying her heritage as a Red Dragon.
"Finish the food already, Estrid; we need to depart to the Zephystrand."
Stated the Vampire Knight Woman, who was, of course, Cardinal of the Hall of Kadath, Karliana Kircheisen. She had already long ago finished her plate long ago; she wasn't that eater because, like the rest of the Blood Races, she preferred her food to be in a liquid form and directly from the source.
"Why must I go with you? Wasn't it your mission to go and find that person? I just want to stay here and sleep and eat good food..."
Complained Estrid, daughter of the Cardinal of the Hall of Kadath, Zaldridraax. She was right now eating already her thirties or fortieth plate of food. Because of her dragon species, she was quite an eater; she was able to spend the entire day sitting and eating, naturally without worrying about getting any weight.
"Shut up, little girl; you are just spending most of your time sleeping, and no. You won't be staying at the Aerathain City because if you could, then you would never leave from here."
With one stern look, Karliana silenced her swiftly. Even though Estrid was pretty brazen and arrogant when accounting for Red Dragon standards, she still had a healthy amount of fear of Karliana.
That was also a reason why Hall Master entrusted Estrid to her, though Karliana didn't really understand why the Hall Master decided to send Estrid with her; though, on the other side, she understood but predicted that his intentions would fail.
"And after we arrived at the Elven City, don't you dare go and make trouble... I will be watching your entire time."
Said Karliana sternly, as Estrid begrudgingly nodded as they finished their food and, soon enough, left the building. Seeing this, practically every person who was here sighed in relief as they finally got rid of those two monsters.
Aerathain City was relatively weak, and they depended on their superior technology, which was adjusted to work on mana instead. Due to this, they had only a few experts, and the strongest person to ever walk through the Aerathain City reached only the initial Legendary Level.
That was because of the lack of mana for centuries in their bodies; it took a very long time to increase general talents and limit the Aerathain City's population. Exactly it took more than 300 years to produce one Initial Level Legendary expert who was presiding over the Aerathain City till this day.
Having only a single Initial Level Legendary was barely enough to have any foothold in the Tower. While in even High World, they would be considered as some sort of big shots, not to mention in the Middle World, where they could rule over the majority of the world.
And now, here in the Tower, it was barely enough for the small amount of territory. Such was the disparity between the Worlds and various divisions of the Cosmos.
After Karliana and Estrid left the skyscraper, they went to City Gates and existed the city, entering the wilderness of the 3rd Floor and walking in the direction of Zephystrand City. Karliana didn't like this city a bit, mainly due to her disdain for its technological background, just as most of the powerful people had.
Due to Karliana being already almost at the limits of the Legendary Level, the suppressions placed on her by the Tower when she entered the Floor were quite severe, and passively she can only exhibit power comparable to the Gold-Tier expert.
Fortunately, she still had her terrifying physical strength, which should be enough to deal with the sleeping Legendary Level Magical Beasts and Monster Emperors who were slumbering on the 3rd Floor.
It didn't take even ten minutes after they left the Aerathain City to be ambushed by several Magical Beast, as they encountered a group of Snow Wind Apes. The entire surroundings of the Aerathain City were swarming with the Magical Beasts and Monsters, lurking in the dark and preying on the defenseless people who left the city.
The Snow Wind Apes were around two and a half meters high, with bulging muscles, white fur, and ferocious appearance; they seeded fear inside their enemies, not to mention that all of these Snow Wind Apes were peak Steel-Tier Magical Beasts.
"Kill them fast so that we can move on."
Sounded the voice of Cardinal Karliana as she was annoyed with this situation. The moment they stepped out of the Aerathain City, they were immediately ambushed by a group of Snow Wind Apes.
Moment Estrid heard those words; her eyes lit up as she rushed at the largest Snow Wind Ape, which was probably the leader of the group, and punched the Snow Wind Ape leader in the stomach, creating a huge bloody hole in it, killing it instantly.
The rest of the Snow Wind Apes looked confusedly around, not comprehending what just happened before they roared and attacked Estrid all at the same time. Suddenly a burst of flames shot out from her as it incinerated the nearest three Snow Wind Apes.
"That stupid girl... she is constantly creating commotion."
Said Karliana silently, as she could see the incoming Magical Beast horde from a distance because of Estrid's action in provoking the Snow Wind Apes and especially creating a mess by fighting them with relatively flashy attacks that created a ruckus.
Karliana took her sword out of her sheath and disappeared in a blur, as instantly hundreds of Snow Wind Apes were instantly decapitated, heads rolling on the ground and blood spilled.
"Estrid, come here!"
Karliana shouted, annoyed at the entire situation. The moment they left the city, the first thing that Estrid did, was to attract a small colony of the Snow Wind Apes to them, even though it was just a bunch of Steel-Tier and Bronze-Tier Snow Wind Apes; soon enough, there would be too much of them.
Not like Karliana feared them, but she didn't want useless battles which would take time.
"What did I tell you about not fighting anything during our journey? With this tempo, we will take several years to even arrive at the Zephystrand if you will be fighting everything you see."
Questioned Karliana, while Estrid looked confused about why the Cardinal was angry when she had just fought and killed a few apes.
"Oh, my dream, you are even worse than your father... now I can see that Old Shen is annoyed every time with him."
Cardinal Karliana just muttered while touching her templates; in the end, they continued their journey, with Karliana controlling everything Estrid was doing, not wanting to bring another Magical Beast Horde at them and thus waste even more time.