The Maze Monsters

Jackson and Elisa stepped forward, following the many adventurers who entered the portal, while Aaron and Natasha were close behind.

One important rule people shouldn't do when visiting the tower city was to bring modern weapons from outside.

The portal's detection system was quite complex. If the portal detected a modern weapon, the person would be hit by a rejection blast and have their body bounced away.

None of the Dragon Slayer party members had faced such a rejection because they all knew the important conditions of entering the tower city.

Aaron's eyes opened when he stepped through the portal gate. He was amazed to see the architecture of the buildings in the tower city was identical to the European architectural style of the medieval era.

The roads were made of cobblestones arranged neatly so that it felt smooth when people walked -no tripping. Houses were made of stone and wood, with a maximum of two stories. Oil lanterns are placed on the side of the road and light up every night.

"You guys don't worry. Time here is the same as time in the real world," Jackson explained, Aaron and Natasha nodded.

The streets that day were quite crowded, with people passing by to do their activities. Some were trading, talking, working, and even fighting to be a public spectacle. It was a typical medieval scene.

Elisa led Jackson and the others to an equipment store in a corner of the city away from the crowds. The owner was a woman dressed in a simple, long brown dress.

"Elisa," greeted the woman.

The two women embraced each other as a sign of their meeting. Elisa turned around, introducing the equipment store owner to Jackson and the others. She was Aura.

"Are you planning to raid the pillar tower again?" asked Aura. Elisa cleared her throat in reply.

"That's why I came here. I need some of the items on this list. Can you get them for me?"

Elisa handed her a paper with writing on it. Aura accepted and read the paper. All the items written on it were fully available at Aura's shop.

"Since we're in the same party, those items will belong to us together," Elisa said. 

Aaron and Natasha cleared their throats and thanked her.

'She's not bad either,' Aaron explained.

Aura was still in her shop preparing the items Elisa needed. While waiting, Aaron was startled by a cannon-like boom that sounded far from the forest depths.

Elisa saw Aaron's curious face. She stepped closer to him, saying that it was a sign that the Pillar Tower gate had been opened.

Aaron looked at the city streets; several adventurers from the outside world seemed rushing to get into the tower pillar. They were ambitious to get the treasure early when the Tower Pillar gate opened, and Aaron knew it after Elisa explained it to him.

"How often do you raid monsters here, Elisa?" Aaron asked.

"Being bored of doing monster raids in the dungeon, I thought I'd start trying to conquer the tower pillar. If I count, this is my 12th time visiting this place," Elisa replied.

"Since you're new here, it's wise not to think about treasures early. You just need to think about how to gain as many EXP and talent points as possible."

"I see."

Aura came back and handed over seven black bags. Each bag contained 2 HP potions, 2 MP potions, a gem to increase attack, and a glass slip for teleportation.

Everyone got one black bag; the rest were kept for emergencies. Once everything was ready, Jackson invited everyone to the Pillar Tower.

They walked together with other adventurers. Aaron could feel that they were at the Student Mage level or above, unlike him, who was still at the Apprentice Mage level.

From afar, after passing through the forest, Aaron and Natasha stopped their pace when they saw a giant pillar with dozens of entrances.

Everyone was free to enter any door because the purpose of the door was the same, even though it twisted like a maze inside.

"Stay together. We never know where this door leads," Elisa explained.

Elisa brought out her ice talent ability, each step accompanied by falling ice flakes. A pop-up system appeared before Aaron and all the participants for a few seconds after passing through the tower pillar door.

[Tower Pillar]

[Pillar Floor 1]

[Monsters: Lv.1-3]

[Monster Boss: ???]

[Tower Pillar Countdown closes:]

[00:10:59:59]

"Why aren't the details of the monster boss known?" asked Aaron.

"Because you haven't fought the boss monster yet. If you've fought it, the details of the boss monster's identity will appear before you," Elisa explained. 

Aaron and Natasha nodded as they thought it made sense.

The Jackson Party continued to step into the maze of towers with the roof of the place soaring high and wide, making the air circulation not feel stuffy.

A few shouts and the clanking of swords could be heard filling the place, a sign the adventurers had discovered their trouble.

Elisa and Jackson stopped walking when they realized that Lv.1 monsters were coming in swarms, a total of ten red ant monsters.

[Monster Details:]

[Monster: Red Ant]

[Level: 1]

[HP: 100/100]

[MP: 120/120]

[Element: Earth]

[Description: A monster that dwells in the underground realm of Earth, quite large in size and characterized by red antennae].

"They could be a good start for you both," Elisa replied, standing casually with her arms around her waist.

Aaron and Natasha agreed. They stepped forward with Jackson and Elisa keeping a watchful eye, both of whom would help if Aaron and Natasha had any difficulties.

Natasha fired her laser beam of light forward, managing to pierce through the red ant monster's body with ease. 

Unfortunately, Aaron was having trouble since he hadn't dared to use the sub talents of his talents.

[Damage +50]

[Critical +89]

[Damage +37]

[3 combo]

Natasha jumped back after attacking several red ant monsters with her combo talent move. Another pop-up appears before Natasha, saying the damage, EXP gain, and TP gain.

[EXP +143]

[TP +72]

"This is way too easy for me. How about you, Aaron?" asked Natasha, glancing to the side.

Aaron was still landing his attacks even though it was only a small sword attack. Despite not being strong enough, the damage dealt was more than enough to make the red ant monster hurt.

[Damage +10]

[Damage +23]

[2 Combo]

[EXP +42]

[TP +21]

'Damn, what an unfortunate moment,' Aaron complained.

Jackson saw Aaron seemed to be having trouble defeating the monster, even though it was a first-level monster. 

Aaron didn't want to give up. He sheathed his sword and pointed his hand forward to launch a magic attack.

[Magic Activated]

[Fire Magic: Fire Stab]

[MP -150]

A laser lunged towards the red ant monster and successfully pierced through the two ant monsters' bodies, causing both monsters to die and their bodies to vaporize, the material from inside their bodies falling.

[Damage +60]

[Critical +78]

[2 Combo]

[EXP +87]

[TP +43]

[DING! Congratulations on earning two new titles]

[1. Brave Explorer]

[Adventurers first explore the Pillar Tower]

[2. Newbie Ant Slayer]

[Adventurer kills a Lv.1 red ant monster for the first time]

"Title?"

'What the hell is this title? I sound like a complete weakling with this title. I'll never use it.'

"Woah, you also got the same title, Aaron?" asked Natasha, approaching.

Aaron glanced to the side, precisely at Natasha's system pop-up. The girl also got the same two titles as him, but she got a third different one, the Brave Maniac.

Natasha earned the Brave Maniac title after hitting a combo attack three times in two consecutive attacks.

Aaron could also have gotten the title if he had managed to get multiple combos in each attack. For now, it was better for Aaron not to endanger himself.

Jackson and Elisa eliminated all the monsters ahead of Aaron and Natasha, leaving not a single monster to survive.

Materials fell on the ground, Jackson reached out and pulled them into his palm. Aaron and Natasha stepped closer to Jackson.

[Items acquired:]

[6 EXP Crystals lv.1]

[4 Red Antennae]

[2 HP potion lv.1]

"We should save it and go deeper into the maze," Jackson replied.

Aaron nodded. Jackson and Elisa stepped in front, Aaron and Natasha keeping watch behind them.

As they were walking into the maze's depths, Aaron's eyes caught a stream of purple energy similar to his darkness attribute.

The young man stopped his walk as his eyes focused to the side, Natasha noticed Aaron's attitude. The woman quickly asked about it.

"What's wrong, Aaron?"

Jackson and Elisa also stopped their steps. They turned around and saw clearly that Aaron was watching the route beside him.

"Is there something wrong, Aaron?" Jackson asked.

"Can you come with me to check this out? I feel something different about this route."

"We should go together so we don't get separated," Elisa explained.

Aaron didn't mind at all. This purple-colored dark energy that triggered his mind must have something to do with Aaron's Dark Dimension Reality talent.

'Is it possible that this energy has something to do with my talent?'