Third Floor (4)

The next day, Lumen was on his way towards the Hunting Area, when he got intercepted by a purple-haired woman wearing a blue tracksuit.

Tiana seemed hesitant for a moment, but she mustered up her courage and asked him.

"Can we talk for a moment, please? I promise I won't take too much of your time. Please."

Lumen didn't know what she wanted, but he decided to listen to what she has to say.

Tiana explained that after they arrived on the 3rd Floor, she and Fai didn't know what to do and wandered around searching for a team they could join. The two didn't have much success until they met the leader of the Guardian team on the 3rd floor of the small tower.

He called himself Tench and told them his team has the highest chance of passing the Floor. Since they would only need to win against the next Challenger team.

He offered them the opportunity to join their team, and in exchange, they would have to become his women and offer all their points to him.

Tiana, disgusted by that offer, adamantly refused. But Fai, who had no problem with the proposal, immediately accepted. That caused a lot of problems for Tiana since Tench now knew that they had a lot of Points for newcomers.

The Regular, greedy for her points, gave her an ultimatum that she would either become his woman and give all of her Points to him, or she will never leave the 3rd Floor alive.

From that point on, the other teams on the Floor refused to even listen to her offers of joining them. To top it off, Tench would send his teammates to pressure her in joining his team.

Since she constantly refused their offer, they had taken a more forceful approach. Luckily, she had escaped to one of the Apartment buildings, where fighting is prohibited.

For the past few days, Tiana had barely managed to escape them, all thanks to the three Observers she had purchased.

She was at her wit's end and didn't know what to do. In the end, she decided to look for Lumen and ask for his help.

He might be cold-hearted, but she didn't have another choice. Since you need a team of at least 7 to pass the Floor, she figured she might have a chance with him.

"You are very strong, but you would still need teammates if you want to climb the Tower."

"Please, help me become strong like you. I don't want to rely on others to climb the Tower, I want to do it with my own strength. Please, I would do anything." Desperately she asked him.

"Anything? What if I also ask you to become my woman?" Lumen questioned her.

"Then, I would refuse. I would rather die than forcefully become someone's woman!" Tiana answered with conviction.

Lumen, impressed by her resolve, contemplated her offer. She was correct that he needed a team to pass the Floor, so he decided to give her a chance.

"I will give you one chance and one chance only. Starting today, you will train with me every day. Should you quit even once, we will go our separate ways."

"Thank you, thank you so much. I promise I will do my best!" Tiana was so moved that someone finally gave her a chance, that she almost teared up.

"Follow me then."

The two entered the Hunting Area together. With Tiana's help, he was able to locate groups of monkeys far easier than when he was alone. Using her Observers, she was quickly able to scout them out and transmit their position to Lumen's Lighthouse.

Tiana was surprised at his decision of fighting the Iron Monkeys barehanded, but she didn't question him.

She tried helping him out, but her attacks barely scratched them. Her physical strength was not good enough to hurt them. She was nothing more than a distraction.

They hunted monkeys for a couple hours and exited the Hunting Area, afterward.

"We will be training our physical strength now. Just remember, if you quit, we will go our separate ways." Lumen reminded her.

"I understand. I promise I won't." Tiana assured him.

"Good. Then let's begin."

Lumen tapped her on the shoulder and applied 2x gravity on her. She was momentarily surprised by the added pressure, but she finally understood a little bit more about his training.

Tiana didn't directly go to Lumen and ask for his help. She first used her Observers to spy on him for a few days.

She saw him run around the town, but no matter how she looked, he seemed both slow and weak. Tiana wasn't the only Regular to take notice of him, and most of them started calling him Weakfish. Since no matter how much he trained, he never improved.

Despite that, Tiana clearly remembered him moving so fast that she couldn't even follow him with her eyes. She knew something was wrong, but she didn't know what.

Now, after feeling the pressure on her body, she realized what he was doing.

The two started running laps around the town, and after the first one, Tiana was huffing and puffing. This was a lot harder than what she initially expected. Nevertheless, she didn't complain and continued running.

During their second lap, her legs couldn't take it anymore, and she collapsed on the ground. She stood up a few times but fell down afterward. Try as she might, her legs just couldn't take another step.

Lumen watched her for a minute and shook his head. Seeing him, Tiana got desperate.

"I can go on!" She stated and started crawling on the ground.

Her resolve was amazing, and that really impressed Lumen. He walked up to her and picked her up.

"What are you doing?" She asked him in fear, thinking that he might take advantage of her in her weak state. She let a sigh of relief when he placed on her back, giving her a piggyback.

"I told you we will go our separate ways if you quit. You didn't. You just reached your limits. Rest there on my back while I finish my laps."

After being done with his running, Lumen instructed her on the physical exercises that he does. Other than that, he couldn't do much else for her. He couldn't help her with her fighting style since she used a needle, and he didn't know the correct way to fight using one.

Lumen also asked her about Shinsoo, but besides the basic explanation, she didn't how to actually manipulate it. He would have to find someone else to help him with that and possibly teach both of them.

After they finished their training, Tiana was beyond exhausted. Her legs were trembling from the running, but at the very least, she could walk on her own now.

The two were walking towards a restaurant in the Commercial District when they were intercepted by Fai and a handsome black-haired man.

The man was wearing a white T-shirt and black shorts and was hugging Fai with one of his hands. This was Tench, the leader of the Guardian team on the 3rd floor of the small tower.

"So, Weakfish is the one you told me about?" He asked Fai.

"Yes, he is the other Regular that came with us to the 3rd Floor."

"Good. Listen here Weakfish, you either give me your Points and scram from my sight. Or I'm going to end your life right now. Same goes for you purple-head, but you also have to become my woman. Choose now."

A small crowd of Regulars started gathering around them. Interested in what's going to happen.

Hearing his demand, Lumen burst out laughing with an amused expression on his face.

"Did you just call me Weakfish? Fine then, I will give you the same options. Either give me all your Points and scram or die. Choose now."

This infuriated Tench. His team is currently the strongest on the 3rd Floor. How dare this weakling ask for his Points and threaten him.

"So be it. We will do this the hard..." He couldn't continue talking since a beam of light pierced his head. Tench weakly fell on the ground with a hole between his eyes.

"That was the wrong answer." Lumen shook his head.

The Regulars observing them were terrified by what they saw. They only saw Lumen point a finger at the handsome black-haired man, and next thing they knew, he fell on the ground dead. All of them quickly ran away, leaving only Fai there, frozen in place.

The two didn't even spare her a glance and continued on their way towards the restaurant.

When they sat on a table, Tiana was about to order one of the cheaper meals, but Lumen stopped her and made her order the most expensive.

"With our training, we need to eat the most nutritious meal to supply our bodies with everything they need. That is unless you decide to quit." He explained his reasoning to her.

"I already made my mind and won't quit. But aren't we going to run out of Points that way?"

"When our Points get low, we will just go deeper into the Hunting Area and find some Red Scythes."

Tiana didn't question him further since she believed that wouldn't be a problem with his strength.

After eating a hearty meal, they passed by Monster Parts to sell off the Peaches that they gathered.

Eli was more than surprised at seeing Lumen come with someone else.

"Heya Lumen~ Is this one of your teammates?" She asked him and observed Tiana carefully. Eli was still under the impression that Lumen had hunted the Elder Red Scythes with the help of other Regulars. Never would she imagine that he actually did it on his own.

"She is for the time being." Lumen answered her and placed 15 Peaches on the counter. Eli quickly took them in and transferred 75 points to him.

Done with the activities for the day, they each went towards their rooms. Lumen didn't forget to remind her of their schedule for the next day before separating.

"Meet me here 6:30 tomorrow morning. We will eat breakfast, and train for the rest of the day afterward. If I don't see you here, I will take it you've decided to quit."

"I already told you, I won't quit!" This was her only chance of gaining strength, so she was resolved to follow through with her choice.

Lumen entered his room, took a shower and went to bed.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

It was around 2:00 in the morning when Lumen heard someone furiously knocking on his door. He planned to ignore it and turned around in his bed.

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

Unfortunately, whoever it was, was adamant on waking him up. Angrily, he stood up only wearing his boxers and went towards the door.

He started cursing the person knocking and opened the door.

"Who the fuck do you think..." However, he couldn't finish what he was about to say since a foot with a bunny slipper on kicked him in the face.

Lumen managed to recover and saw Diana, wearing her loose clothing, enter his room. The door behind her closed without her even looking at it.

Diana didn't even spare him a glance and walked past him. She laid down on his bed, tucked herself with the blanket, and stared at him without saying a word.

Lumen was confused by the situation and didn't have a clue about what's happening.

If it was any other Regular that did this, he would have already killed them on the spot. However, he didn't dare do anything reckless like attacking Diana. He hadn't seen her use Shinsoo, but he was sure she could use the mysterious power. Attacking her might lead to him losing his life. So he stayed his hand and waited to see why she is in his room in the middle of the night and what she wants.

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Ranting at the end of the chapters is starting to become a habit of mine.

I want to talk about Diana and how her character came to be. Initially, she was supposed to be a one a done character, but that changed.

When I was writing her character, even I didn't know she is from the 10 Great Families :D. Since we know nothing about the 3rd Floor, I had to make something on my own. So I just gave her a random quirk of being lazy and gave her more revealing clothing so I could entice you lot :D.

Then I was like okay, what should her hair color be. At first, it was blue, but I didn't want to make her apart of the Koon family. Red? That's for Red Witches. White? Didn't want her to be from the Arie family. Blonde? reminds me of the trap. Black or Brown? Boring. Green? I already gave it to Fai and didn't want to reuse it so soon. Purple? Already gave it to Tiana. At this point, I was starting to regret making those two characters. In the end, I was, fuck it, have pink. It's a one and done character either way who cares.

Next day, I was reading about the 10 Great Families so I can plan out a few OC characters in the future and I read through the Eurasia family. Sleepy and lazy, kinda like Diana is what I thought. Then I saw a picture of a family member who had pink hair, and I was like fuuuck didn't I give her pink hair?. Then an idea struck me and Diana was no longer a one and done character afterward.