Chapter 21 - Amber Eyes

Out of every floor in the Tower, the first five are designed to mirror one another, each resembling a similar design of grassy fields. Every floor above the last will have larger features than its previous one, so Floor Three will have larger trees, bigger rocks than Floor Two and so forth.

After the fifth Floor, the entire layout will change and the monsters there will be different too, meaning I won't get a chance to hunt these for a while after tomorrow. I'll use everything I can find to get stronger!

I raced through the dark fields, running with my blades extended out at both sides. The monsters at night were slightly different than the ones at daytime so I needed to stay alert.

{Field Goblin Lv4}

A small creature crouched over some bones, rifling through them with its skinny fingers. Even in the dark, I could see the bright green complexion of the monster's body. From a distance, it would be easy to confuse them with a person but after dealing with them up close you wouldn't make that mistake again.

Only a goblin could have such demonic expressions and feral features.

Hearing my feet patter on the grass it perked its head up and noticed me racing towards it. It pulled out a sharp stone shaped like a dagger and lunged towards me with its fangs exposed.

"Hya!" I tore through it with a swift slice through the belly.

{30 Exp gained}

"Oh, these guys don't even give that much experience. Is my level too high for it to be a challenge?"

At least I can absorb them without any people around.

I placed my hand over the body and uttered the command with a firm tone, "Devour."

As the last of its body was taken in by the mist, a list of notifications appeared in front of me.

{Goblin Skill tree unlocked}

{New skill acquired}

{User has used the skill Arsenal to devour an enemy, would you like to use the new ability, scavenge?}

This must be the ability Uriel spoke of last time, it's finally time to see its effect.

"Yes." I replied hesitantly.

Suddenly a tingling sensation rustled through my palm as the same black mist which devoured my prey began to swirl in my hands.

After forming into a sharp shape, the mist vanished and left behind a small yellow tooth.

{Scavenge was used successfully, an item was found within the monsters remains}

I focused my vision on the tooth and my eyes shot wide open at the description beside it.

{Goblin Tooth} {Rarity: Common}

This is a monster drop! Uriel extracted the monster drop from my arsenal skill? This is pretty handy after all!

"What does the description say…" I squinted over the words displayed in front of me.

{Scavenge} – {Once a monster has been absorbed within the skill, monster drops and items will be extracted from it. The potency of ability will determine the amount and rarity of drops extracted}

I held my hand over my face with a massive smile boiling beneath it.

All I have to do is absorb the monsters and I'll be able to get the drops from it too? This means I'll never have to dig through monster guts again!

"You really can do anything, Uriel." I praised joyfully.

I should probably check at the skill tree too, I wonder what skills I could get from a Goblin-

My head jerked back and avoided an arrow which flew past my nose. Any later and it would have pierced straight through my head.

"Who…" I uttered in a menacing tone.

A small goblin holding a tiny bow trembled a few feet away from me as its large red eyes stared back at mine.

"Great timing, maybe you can help me max out this skill tree?"

The goblin's teeth chattered loudly as I raised my Chakram and aimed it towards the little creature.

"Hiya!"

{30 Exp gained}

I continued my rampage through the fields and must have lost track of time, I arrived at the side of a mountain face.

My head tilted up to admire its majesty but no matter what angle I stood I couldn't see the top.

"You won't be able to see the top." A sotto voice muttered behind me.

I jumped back in surprise with my arms crossed and eyes widened.

Liv walked closer and approached the wall beside me. "I'm sorry, did I scare you?"

"W-what…no! I was just surprised, I didn't think anyone else would be out here at this hour. What are you doing here?"

"I saw you leaving earlier, it isn't safe for a Rust rank to be out here alone."

Her voice wasn't as monotone as before, I could hear the slight disappointment in her tone.

Is she mad at me for going alone?

"I couldn't sleep for some reason. This felt like the best way to calm myself down."

She didn't say anything, maybe I read too much into it. Why would she care if I was putting myself at risk, we don't even know each other after all.

She spun around, facing the other direction and began walking.

My face lowered into a frown, I was ready to walk my own way and continue hunting when suddenly she glanced back over her shoulder.

"There are better monsters this way, I saw some on my way here. You coming?"

Captivated by the fierce amber jewels awaiting my response I quickly nodded.

"You bet."

As we ran along the edge of the mountainous wall I noticed her admiring the floral greenery wired across its surface.

"You said earlier that I wouldn't be able to see the top, what did you mean?"

"This wall is a barrier, each floor has one. No matter where you stand you won't be able to see the end, meaning there's no way to get over it either."

An impossibly large wall keeping everyone from going any further, how can something like that even exist? Why would the Tower go through the troubles of designing something like that, was it intentional in the first place?

"It's amazing, isn't it? Even though the barrier looks like it could go on forever, we still see the sun. There's not even a shadow from it either."

"I guess…"

She suddenly stopped and placed her hand on her side, pulling out her sword from the belt on her waist.

I followed the direction of her eyes and noticed the orange figures creeping in the grass ahead.

{Scorn Chaser Lv7}

{Scorn Chaser Lv5}

{Scorn Chaser Lv5}

They creepily approached us with their long scrawny bent legs and once they were close enough they pounced. Their bodies were large and furry with a pointy snout at the end of it.

I pulled out my Chakram and took a step forward when suddenly the brown blur of Liv's cloak shot past me and lanced at the closest monster.

Its body went limp and dropped to the floor as she swiftly pulled out her blade before it had the chance to react. She moved gracefully without any wasted steps, each motion gliding to the next with perfect flow.

She glanced back at me with a smile that radiated a proud aura as if she were saying, 'How was that?'

Her smile quickly vanished when she saw I had already moved, after a brief pause she noticed my body blasting past two of the monsters with a spray of blood trailing behind my blades.

{Rush activated}

I didn't even realise that I had used my skill…every part of me just moved on its own. All I thought was that I didn't want to get left behind.

{150 Exp gained}

{150 Exp gained}

My eyebrow perked up as the notifications piled over each other.

These guys weren't that much higher in level than the other monsters we beat today, is there another element that I don't know about?

{Killing enemies with stronger stats will increase the level of Experience gained}

So I'm being told to fight stronger enemies if I want to get stronger myself.

Liv ran up beside me and readied herself into a sword-fighting position with her sword held at her side.

"There's more appearing out of nowhere, this must be a spawn point." She said anxiously.

"A spawn, what's that?"

"It's the place from where the monsters in this area appear, the Tower produces them out of the ground or any surface it can."

There was a slight panic in her voice but her face didn't show it at all. Her angelic smile still pierced through.

This situation must be pretty serious if she let herself get distracted like that. It might just be the perfect chance for me then!

As Liv charged at the attacking monsters, I stuck back and placed one Chakram back onto my belt. As my hand moved across the back of my waist I pointed it down to the floor behind me and grinned.

"Devour."

{Scorn Chaser skill tree unlocked}