A Pyramid in the Distance

As per usual, Ed spent one-month hunting in the floor. He was lucky to encounter the camels another time which allowed him to stock up on more than twenty of them. He also managed to level up to Earth Establishment level 10. Sieg and Raikou both leveled up to Heavenly Establishment level 2. Suika and the rest managed to breakthrough to level 1.

Everyone's abilities underwent a drastic change. Those who could use Nen more or less managed to build the foundation for their Hatsu. All that remains is to work on the ability and develop it. Sieg who couldn't use such an ability managed to come up with new techniques thanks to Ed's help. His imagination worked very hard this past month. His ability to control the dimension improved as well. He was now able to keep it up for four hours with a gravity multiplier of 25 times. Without the multiplier, he could keep it up for eight hours. Similarly, if he reduced the multiplier, the amount of time he could handle would increase as well.

"Scan." Ed scanned himself to check up on his stats.

Name: Edward Avalon.

Level: 46. (1.300.000/1.700.000) [Earth Establishment level 10].

Stats:

HP: 1002/1002.

MP: 718/718.

STR: 495.

AGL: 439.

INT: 445.

DEF: 450.

STA: 501.

Skills: Three-sword style, Etiquette, Haggling, Strategy, KI control, Driving, Calligraphy, Programming.

Abilities: Mangekyo-Sharingan, Spectral Shadow Steps, Wind magic, Fire magic, Space magic, Voice Disguise, Shunpo, Nen, Berserk, Water magic.

Monsters: Raikou, Suika, Gobuta, Goburou, Garu, Siegfried.

Evaluation: Not bad.

He was very close to leveling up to Heavenly Establishment himself. If the same thing that happened with Earth Establishment monsters repeated itself, then he would be able to level up after killing a Heavenly Establishment level 5 or higher monster. He guessed that the experience points that he would get would soar as well.

"We'll try to find the boss today." Although Ed stayed in the floor for one month he was unable to find the boss. The desert was simply too large. When he first noticed this, he started advancing tens of kilometers every day to cover the most surface while maintaining a high kill rate. The seven of them left together but went in separate ways. Every one of them would be able to hunt alone without much trouble. Another reason why Ed let them go on their own, without being afraid that they would lose their way, was because of his Space magic.

Ever since Ed leveled it up to level 2, he unlocked another ability. Although he could teleport attacks with Space magic, that was already doable with level one. Ed struggled with it and didn't train much at it. Leveling up to level two simply gave him a boost in control over Space magic. But the true ability that was unlocked was long-range teleportation. Ed was over the clouds when he first found out. He was simply checking out his skills' description when he found out. His ability wasn't broken enough to allow him to teleport to any destination that he had visited before.

To be able to use the long-range teleport, Ed needed to make an inscription on 'something'. He would be able to teleport to that position. He had some metal pieces left over from crafting from way earlier when he made weapons for his family. He couldn't decide on what inscription he should use, so he simply used his first and last name initials. 'E.A'. He gave each one of his companions a piece, and also made many more. He also made some disposable ones using some rocks as the base.

As Ed was traveling at his top speed, he didn't stop to hunt. He wanted to break out of this floor as soon as possible. He still needed to clear the tenth, eleventh, and a twelfth floor before a year passes.

Before Ed could pass through one of the regions, something caught his attention way into the distance. 'A pyramid?' The shape that he saw was one that looked strikingly like the pyramids back on Earth. Ed didn't know if such shapes existed in this world before seeing it here. Unless someone from Earth got teleported into this world as well, then this world should have them as well.

"I'm not going to have to fight 'The Mummy' now will I?" Ed asked himself while smiling wryly. He switched his direction towards the pyramid and accelerated at top speed. Unfortunately, before he could reach his destination he fell into a sand hole. What he actually fell into looked more like a room rather than a hall. It was similar in size to a college lecture hall, and many stone tablets were thrown in the ground. Ed was intrigued by these tablets so he started checking them one by one.

Time and sand did a wonderful job at making the tablets almost unreadable. Ed did his best to decode them, but he was unable to. They were also broken which made them even harder to understand. Ed almost left before he noticed something. The way the tablets were broken looked as if they were joined at one point. 'That took me a while…' Ed could only mock his own lack of insight at this moment.

After gathering all the tablets, he could more or less make out some of the stuff. It was still barely readable, but he could understand it much better. He could see two half circles, both at the extreme right and left of the giant tablet. Between them, a 'tube' extended from to the other, joining both of them together. This was all Ed could understand from the tablet. Although he understood the drawings, he didn't understand the meaning. Ed decided not to waste any more time, so he stored the giant tablet and broke out of the room.

Once again, Ed made his way towards the pyramid that was still so far in the distance. It took him almost an hour at top speed to get close to it. The closer he got, the more he doubted his earlier assumption of it being a pyramid. Once he was close enough he had a wry smile.

'This is no pyramid. This is…' Before Ed could finish his thought, the pyramid 'moved'.