A Familiar Spot on the Ninth Floor

"Stop! I told you the tower is closed off!" Ed and the rest tried to enter but the guard got in their way. "Like I said, we're waiting for a capable cultivator! You'll just die in there!"

"Why would care about what happens to us? Plus, we're more than capable." The guard had previously caught Ed by the shoulder in order to stop him, but now he regretted it. Ed flung him away and walked into the tower along with Bella and the others.

"Just like last time, they were teleported from the entrance to the first floor. Emilia and Bella, who did not visit the tower before, were caught off guard. Still, they managed to sober up quickly. The change in scenery left them flabbergasted.

"We're in a different space or dimension. The tower is not what it seems from the outside, but there is a whole different world on the inside." Ed explained as he could understand what they were thinking. "Let's explore a little."

The eleven of them moved around the first floor. Same as the time when Ed visited, there was no one around. They took their time sightseeing, as no monster dared to attack them by feeling the aura exuded by Ed's monsters. Still, so as not to waste time, they started looking for the floor boss. Ed didn't have the ability to teleport around when he first visited the tower, so he didn't mark the areas of the floor bosses.

Still, thanks to his strong memory, he managed to locate the area when he killed the big bunny last time. There, he noticed a humanoid figure with bunny ears and musketeer clothes.

"It's the bunnyketeer!!" Suika jumped up and down as she pointed at the monster. It was the monsters they encountered first on the twelfth floor.

"Nyu?" The bunnyketeer noticed their presences and turned around to look. Then, he noticed Raikou's presence. Rage and fear switched around as he rushed at them with a rapier in his hand.

What the bunnyketeer failed to notice, was that no one was paying him any attention.

"What's a bunnyketeer?" Emilia asked innocently.

"It's a bunny and a musketeer's fusion. Our very own, Ed's creation!" Merry quickly spilled the beans sending Ed into a downward spiral of embarrassment.

"Pu…!" Emilia let out a laugh before she could stop herself.

"It's cute!" Bella liked both the creature and the name.

"Nyu! Nyunyu nyuuu!" The bunny, that couldn't talk, protested by using some cute sounds. Raikou instantly finished it off by snapping its neck. It was an exact replay of the last. Before Bella could react to the death of the bunnyketeer, the teleportation light took them away.

"You can let loose," Ed noticed Bella pouting, and spoke to her. She didn't get the chance to fight at all during their trip, which she was eager to do. She took out the Katana that he made her and started going room by room in the ant nest-like floor. Ed remembered how he did the same thing with blindfolds on.

After having their fill of hunting, they headed to the boss room. It was the same three golems that they dispatched last time. This time, Bella took them on. The reason why Ed allowed her to fight was that he wanted her to gain experience. Thanks to the diverse collections of monsters inside the tower, she would be able to get much better much faster. Even if it was against weaker opponents.

Third floor, fourth…They only stopped once they reached the seventh floor, Sieg's previous floor.

"Ah, are those humans? I thought no one was allowed to enter…" Ed looked at a silhouette, barely visible inside the mist, and shouted. They started walking towards the figure and Emilia noticed something wrong.

"Miss, are you okay?" As she reached out to touch the figure, it turned around. A half rotten face greeted Emilia, as Ed chuckled. Still, unlike him, Emilia immediately penetrated the head of the zombie, killing it. Ed remembered how he reacted during his last visit and decided never to tell any of them.

"Ehehehe…" He froze as he heard a sinister laugh, and as he turned around, he noticed Goburou's signature teasing face.

'Don't you dare say it!!' Ed did his best to communicate using his eyes. Luckily for him, it seemed like Goburou gave him a bit of mercy this time.

The group continued to conquer floors while allowing Bella to train while they watched over her. Ed didn't stop her from getting injured. Instead, he allowed her to experience true life and death situations. She had suffered a mental scar from the time she was kidnapped and saw Becky almost dying. This was her best attempt at becoming stronger.

Although Bella wasn't able to kill any of the floor bosses past the seventh floor, she could hold her own against them. It was only natural, as the bosses that spawned were all Legendary quality. Even Ed struggled against some of them.

As the hunt continued, they managed to reach the ninth floor. The best thing about the tower right now was the fact that they could hunt without waiting for weeks for the bosses to spawn. Even on the seventh floor, where the boss spawns when it's a full moon, they only waited for two weeks. Once they set foot on the ninth floor, Ed started looking around for camels to hunt.

"What should we do about the boss on this floor? The guard said that it managed to kill anyone that came to here," Emilia asked out of concern.

"You don't have to worry about that. If things go as planned, we'll be able to leave the tower today, if not, we'll also leave today." Ed reassured Emilia and started walking towards a certain spot on this floor that he remembers clearly.

He finished his camel hunt and only had one thing to do inside of the tower.

"Is that a pyramid?" Emilia asked as she noticed a figure so far away in the distance. Only Ed and some of his monsters knew what was going on as they smiled. Suddenly, the pyramid started moving.