BXBX NOVEL Chapter 557 - The Third Floor
Chapter 557 - The Third Floor
Description: After being brutally slaughtered during a celebration party, the village of Ironwood is no more. Hidden within the rubble, you manage to avoid the slaughter and slip away while the fires blaze in what used to be your home. Flee to the west in hopes that your pursuers will not capture you first.
Limitation 1: Your previous equipment/skills/spells/abilities have been sealed.
Limitation 2: You have been reset to level 1.
Provision 1: A unique set of skills can be acquired through skill-/spellbooks or practice.
Provision 2: A special talent is generated to assist the player.
Provision 3: Enemies are slightly easier to kill.
Provision 4: All equipment and abilities from the previous floor are carried over.
Rewards: Score Points, 1 Bronze-Tier Reward Selection.｣
Draco came to awareness while seated within a carriage that was moving at breakneck speed. He saw that just like the other times, Eva, Roma, Zaine, and Hikari had been summoned beside him in the same attire they had worn previously.
They too were surprised by the sudden scenario they were thrust in, but quickly adapted after they read through this floor’s details. Draco himself rubbed his chin and spoke first.
"Well beauties, a lot has happened in between the time we cleared the second floor and the time I started this floor. Namely, I managed to find out some important things about this tower, so here’s a short summary of what happened..." Draco began explaining as the carriage continually shook and trembled due to how fast it was going on this rocky road.
Upon listening, Zaine and Eva had the most solemn expression while Roma shook her head in slight dismay. Hikari followed along quietly, but her eyes widened at a point.
"Heh heh, what a good tower. Interesting!" Zaine exclaimed with a crafty smile.
Eva frowned. "I sense almost a hundred pursuers closing in on the carriage. They seem to be the same king of knights we killed on the previous floor, and they are riding their chargers almost to death just to catch up."
Roma’s hair began to glow green. "Last time, Draco dealt with them. This time, I want to see if I can use their souls for my experiments! I just so happen to be in need of some fresh containers with tainted emotions to further my Mystic Arts!"
The group shared a look and nodded. Roma’s request was not a problem, as they would need to deal with the knights anyway.
The objective of this floor was to avoid getting captured, but wasn’t there a simpler solution than fleeing?
The very same Draco had used in the previous two floors?
As such, Draco simply stomped down, and the entire carriage shattered in one hit. The horses that had been pulling it along kept moving forward, the sudden release of the weight increasing their speed for a few seconds before the bindings forced them to crash down, breaking all their bones and contorting them into terrible shapes that would give anyone nightmares.
Hikari waved her hand and healed the horses due to her aching heart, but the others ignored the animals even as they managed to get up shaking and rush out.
Rather, they stood back idly when Roma stepped forward, her entire body covered with a green glow. She began chanting in that strange language of hers which Draco and Eva previously had been unable to understand but now could.
Draco understood thanks to the fact that he was now at Rank 3 and had carried his own Mystic Inheritance from Roma a bit further, whereas Eva used her Telepathy to understand Roma’s thoughts.
"By the command of the Mystic Controller, all spirits and souls are under my purview. Creatures of the ethereal, rip out the containers of my enemies, lash, torture, eviscerate them until they suffer the throes of pain before presenting them to me, your Queen."
Roma’s back was facing the group, but they could all see her twisted expression that was filled with unparalleled cruelty and evil. Zaine, Draco, and Eva couldn’t help but share a look and see the speechlessness on each other’s faces.
Erm... was it too late to take Roma off the path of the Mystic Arts? We kinda miss the sweet and innocent girl who was shy as well as very benevolent.
Green light converged on Roma. The knights who appeared from the pathway quickly surrounded the group. The Knight Leader who had been slaughtered by Draco like a dog looked just fine here, and his face was also filled with cruelty and bloodl.u.s.t.
After slaughtering an entire village, raping the women, and burning the children, they had long fallen into depravity. In fact, if it wasn’t for the former vile acts, how would Draco’s group have gained the time to set up some horses in a carriage and gain this much of a headstart?!
Even though they were temporary, Roma’s eyes were filled with anger when she sensed the emotions of the knights. She had just connected with herself by dancing with those villagers, opening her heart to them and her family at once.
If you were going to kill them, then just kill them, why torture them if you wouldn’t even have use for their acc.u.mulated negative energies?! Thinking like this, Roma injected more prana into her cast, and the knights suddenly began screaming.
A few from the back, grabbed their heads and fell to the side of the horses, rolling on the group while wailing like men damned to hell. This shocked the other knights as their red eyes began to clear up and sanity returned to them.
Remembering their unholy actions, the faces of the knights paled. They had betrayed their own creed in a moment of passion, yet they had little time to regret their actions, faced with mortal danger.
More and more knights clutched their heads and began screaming as if someone was drilling into their minds. Soon, only the Knight Leader was left. He had a heavy grimace on his face but was still able to somewhat resist Roma’s power.
"Vile wench, what kind of evil sorcery is this? Quickly release me and my men, and we promise to let you keep your chastity upon death! Otherwise, we will ravage you and the other whores behind you while the impotent fellow looks on!" He roared in anger and charged his horse forward to attack Roma.
Hikari’s expression darkened as Zaine and Eva raised their eyebrows. Draco’s light smile disappeared as he showed a dark smile that would chill anyone to their bones. However, their reactions paled compared to Roma whose face contorted with extreme fury.
"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK ABOUT MY FAMILY THAT WAY!" She screamed as the souls of the other knights that had slowly been tortured were forcefully snapped out of their bodies in one go.
The Knight Leader paled and stopped his charge as he watched the semi-ethereal spirit bodies of his men rush to Roma’s sides, compressing themselves into orb-like things before condensing further.
When all the souls had gathered, Roma molded them into the shape of a whip. She then lashed out at the Knight Leader who was attempting to get his horse to turn around so he could flee, horrified by the unholy sight before his eyes.
However, after angering a Witch to this agree, did he really think he would be able to walk away scot-free? How could there be such a good thing in this world?
The whip Roma created soon caught him and lashed around his body. He was dragged off his horse and fell to the ground, the animal was thanking its ancestors that today would not be the day for a reunion and it continued to run off into the distance as it had been spooked silly.
The Knight Leader’s face paled even further as his heart was filled with despair. Roma dragged him back until he was right before the group, where Draco walked forward and stepped on his head.
He then leaned down and gazed into the fellow’s blue eyes with his own blood-red ones. "Hohoho, violate my wives while I impotently watch, eh? There was someone who once tried that in my past. His current fate is worse than death. I think it’s about time we do the same to you, huh?"
Draco then cut off the fellow’s arms and legs, rending him just like Ross the bandit leader from before. He made sure to cauterize the wound so that he wouldn’t bleed to death just yet.
He then stepped back and left the stage for the one who was the most furious, Roma. She then smiled coldly and cracked her whip, before striking the fellow.
His agonized screams from having his arms lopped off had already been severe, but his eyes bulged as he let out an unholy shriek that would even chill the undead when that whip connected with him.
After all, what Roma was striking was not his body, but his soul. To understand the severity of the pain, it was like having a red-hot cylindrical rod being pushed up your urethra, but times 10.
Roma did not stop, she whipped him slowly and powerfully, allowing him to digest the full extent of the pain that was being inflicted on him before adding more on top. Draco and Eva watched with interested expressions, realizing that Roma seemed to have a natural talent for this type of torture.
Hm, she was even better than they, the Evil Duo!
Damn, they should have called her over to deal some of this sweet pain to Local Dork back then. With the state he was in right now, just touching him the wrong way could erase his soul from the world.
Zaine too was watching with relish, secretly absorbing some of the negative emotions released by the fellow to strengthen her psychic abilities. This would not hamper the kind of negative/agonized state Roma wanted his soul to be in, which was why she did it.
Draco didn’t need to absorb negative energy anymore to refresh himself as he had already reached preliminary mastery of his bloodline by reaching Rank 3. Rank 4 and beyond would see him and Eva reach actual mastery, before whatever lay beyond that would come in.
Hikari was surprisingly calm as she coldly watched the scene play out. She was gentle and kind yes, but that was to the innocent. Her former flaw of being kind to everyone, even her enemies, had been removed by Draco when he had trained her.
Roma whipped the fellow for three days and three nights while the rest of the family continued to watch. Eventually, the fellow’s soul crumpled and was turned into a mindless container that was black as night, filled with endless negative energy.
Draco and Zaine gulped, as they felt like if they dared to absorb that, their brains might explode. Eva felt an urge to cleanse that soul but suppressed it, while Hikari similarly felt an intense disgust.
Roma quickly stored the soul realizing that its negative energy waves affected reality and would bring misfortunes upon anyone who was too close to it. With the Knight Leader dead, the floor turned into a white landscape as if someone had s.u.c.k.e.d out all the color from it, and the group were shown the success screen.
｢Congratulations on completing: Tower of Babylon Third Floor
Time elapsed: 72:45:05
Objectives complete: All
Assessment: EX+
Reward:
6,700 Score Points
1 Treasure Selection Reward - High Bronze Grade｣
As expected, they got a good reward by using the destructive path as usual. In fact, had their time been lower, their score would have been slightly increased, but with the number of points still left, Draco did not feel pained.
Every floor had a Score Point cap. The tower wouldn’t allow its participants to come and suddenly score 1 million points even if they followed the marking scheme. In fact, the presence of a ’marking scheme’ in the first place meant that there was a maximum one could achieve.
Floor 1 had a total of 5,000 score points to give out, of which Draco managed to earn 4,500, for floor 2 it was 6,000, of which Draco got 5,400, floor 3 was 7,000 points, of which they were just 300 points shy.
Every floor’s total point cap was raised by 1,000 points, so the better one cleared it, the more they could get.
For Gavin Guy and co to be at the 71st floor but only have slightly above 100,000 points meant that they barely averaged about 1,000-1,300 points on each floor. Seriously, they were such trash yet dared to come to preach to him...
Draco returned to the castle, while his wives got sent back to the Inner Universe. He then realized that he now had two High Bronze Grade selections, but he didn’t plan to use either one yet.
He intended to trade everything he could with the other participants of the tower, where the things they could not get for him or other stuff that were useful in the tower’s depository would be redeemed by himself en masse when he was ready.
That was the best way to game the tower and make the most profit off of this Unique Quest. Draco checked the rankings for the third floor which had automatically updated itself.
1st – Draco Morningstar: 6,700 Points.
2nd – Gavin Guy: 1,239 Points.
3rd – Dorothy Keel: 1,204 Points.
4th – James L.u.s.ter: 1,167 Points.
5th – Mandingo: 965 Points.
6th – God’s Son: 944 Points.
7th – Dark Lord: 921 Points.
8th – King’s Return: 909 Points.
9th – Helia Nuer: 887 Points.
10th – Makinsser: 863 Points.
Draco’s lips curled into a slight smile. Even though the gap didn’t seem as big on previous floors, it was even bigger now than it had been before. He wondered if those at the top 3 had coughed out any blood yet, especially that James L.u.s.ter guy.
He had probably been praying every day for Draco to die on a floor or become so severely injured he could not continue, but how could that be possible anymore when Draco knew the general contents of each floor’s objective and scenario up to floor 69?
He then checked his overall position and saw that he had climbed to 567th place with a gross total of 16,600 points. It seemed like the number of places he jumped over had reduced, but that was fine.
After all, the true talents were ranked higher and their score points were not little. However, as long as this trend continued Draco would soon pass them, and the cruel him decided to start heading towards that day.
As such, he didn’t bother to leave his castle or anything to check the sales. After all, only three days had passed since he had placed over a hundred Legendary Items there.
He had even set an auction function in case two people would be vying for the same thing, giving them a period of time to redeem items. Draco wanted them to use this time to try and outbid the other party.
It was best to let it stew over time so that the sauce would be tasty when consumed. As such, Draco straightaway disappeared as he went to the fourth floor to continue his climb.
......
This time, they appeared in a town that was of quite a large size. His person was wearing a cloak that covered his entire body, and his women too were cloaked from head to toe.
Only Zaine and Hikari had a tough time as their cloaks couldn’t hide the large protrusions from front and back. Anyone who looked at them would know they were babes with huge assets, but that was not a problem yet.
Draco then discovered that they were in an alleyway and that they were standing before a large wanted poster that showed the portraits of himself and the Four Beauties. The renditions were petty great, and Draco almost whipped his member out to beat one off to the girls due to how s.e.xy they looked in the drawing.
Then his mind clicked and realized that the real deal was standing right beside him. With a lecherous, smile he dragged everyone into the Inner Universe and showered them with love, affection, and the divine juice of life.
By the time, they came back out, the ladies could barely remain standing - even Eva - and their bodies were thoroughly stained by some whitish substance as their faces were flushed.
Draco, feeling incomparably refreshed, read what was written under the wanted poster.
WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE.
Description: The following ruffians have committed a vile act of evil, rampaging through their own birth village, killing, looting, and raping the lovely little settlement that was filled with love.
Condition: The male can be brought dead, but the females must be brought alive and unharmed!
Reward: 1,000,000 gold pieces!
Upon seeing this, Draco’s smile turned into a smirk.
So, they framed them for the actions of the knights, huh? How truly amusing.
Not only that, they demanded him dead but his wives alive?
Hehe, did they have no shame? Did they think anyone would be fooled about the true intentions of those who had issued this? After all, just looking at the poster had made Draco, an Incubus in every sense of the word, want to whip his d.i.c.k out and beat it in public.
How could any lesser man resist this temptation? It was likely that many of these posters had been long ripped down and used as materials by thirsty fellows.
Heck, whoever had issued this bounty was most likely waiting day and night for any news, dreaming of the day the Four Beauties could be brought to him so that he could enjoy them for himself.
Too bad...
Too bad The Four Beauties alone were strong enough to turn this world upside down, not to mention Draco himself who would never allow anyone to touch his babes without their collective consent!
As such, Draco checked out the details for this floor with a smile on his face.
｢The Fourth Floor – Divine Quest
Description: After escaping the slaughter of Ironwood, you managed to flee to the western side of the Carva Province. The Carva Noble House placed a wanted notice on your head and framed you for the crimes. Avoid capture while staying in Terrence Town for 7 days.
Limitation 1: Your previous equipment/skills/spells/abilities have been sealed.
Limitation 2: You have been reset to level 1.
Provision 1: A unique set of skills can be acquired through skill-/spellbooks or practice.
Provision 2: A special talent is generated to assist the player.
Provision 3: Enemies are easier to kill.
Provision 4: All equipment and abilities from the previous floor are carried over.
Rewards: Score Points, 1 Bronze-Tier Reward Selection.｣