Armipotent

Chapter 1911: 21st Floor

Tang Shaoyang arrived on the thirteenth floor straight from the third floor, and he was less excited to explore the tower after what happened on the third floor. He did it not because he liked it, but because he deemed it was a necessary step if he wanted to absorb the Adventurer Guild.

The Adventurer Guild was different from all the natives he saved from the tower or dungeon. They were not in a desperate situation where they needed to get out of the tower or look for protection from him.

That was what made the guild different. They were not in a desperate situation, and they would move based on their benefit. If betraying him gave them a benefit, then they would not hesitate to do so.

It was totally different than the people he saved previously. They were grateful to him, for saving them from the place they deemed as a hell. They would think twice before betraying him because of it. That was why he easily accepted those people more than the Adventurer Guild. He made the guild understand why they should not betray him before they joined the empire.

Tang Shaoyang shook his head, put behind what happened on the third floor, and started to focus on his surroundings. His mood turned worse as soon as he activated his Chaos Eyes. He was in the middle of the desert. The hot temperature did not bother him, but the sand getting onto his face bothered him.

Upon scanning the surroundings with Chaos Eyes, he confirmed he was in a desert. He flew to the sky and tried to look around. Twenty seconds flying, a black shadow dove into him from above. He stopped and easily grabbed the shadow by the neck. The creature was a bird in his size, and it looked like a vulture.

”Arenʼt you supposed to be a scavenger?”

Vulture was known as a scavenger, always the first one to arrive for a dead monster or beast. They were not known to hunt.

He shrugged and snapped the neck before throwing the dead body in the opposite direction where he headed. He did not keep the body because the vulture was just Primordial Rank. More importantly, he wanted to use the dead body as bait for the other vultures so they did not bother him.

The vultures possessed zero threat toward him, but it would be annoying if they kept harassing him. An hour of looking around was enough for Tang Shaoyang to conclude the thirteenth floor, the whole floor was a desert. He also found a few resource points; all of them were mine.

More importantly, he found an oasis, the best place to build a base on this floor. At this point, he might have figured out what to expect from the eleventh floor to the twentieth floor. It was a blank territory with resources, and the tower wanted the players to compete for these resources.

”I havenʼt found any monsters yet aside from those vultures…” As he said that, a giant shadow loomed over him as the oasis splashed.

A five-headed creature emerged from the oasis. It had a black scaly hide like obsidian. From its shoulder, rose five serpentine necks, looking like a dragon head, with yellow piercing eyes, and forked tongues. The five heads stared at the human who invaded its territory with malicious intent. Then the hydra roared, like a chorus of growls and screeches in rage.

The calm was for a moment as each head moved independently, snapping and growling, constantly writhing as if in an internal argument. It looked like each head had its own plan for the invader.

Tang Shaoyang used Detection and found out the five-headed snakes were a God Rank. That meant the five-headed snake might be one of the floor bosses for the thirteenth floor. The ladyʼs luck was on his side as he found the floor boss so quickly.

”So, who wants to fight this snake?” Tang Shaoyang asked his spirits. He did not have an interest in this creature, not even thinking of taking it as a pet.

”ME!” ”Me!”

Two spirits responded instantly, eager to fight the snake with multiple heads. It was just that he did not expect this particular spirit would be eager to fight. It was Doombringer and Aerelion. He understood why Doombringer was eager, but it was rare for Aerelion to be this eager as well. The Infernal Wyvern King was never this eager when it came to a fight.

There was no discussion as he quickly made his decision, and summoned Aerelion instead of Doombringer. The five-headed snake was surprised when he summoned a creature that was bigger than it.

”Donʼt ruin the oasis, Aerelion!” Tang Shaoyang reminded his spirit as he gave them a space to fight. He thought so until he noticed that the snake had a change of mind. The five heads were no longer in conflict as they agreed to turn around, attempting to get back into the oasis.

It was amusing to see a big creature like that run between its tails. However, Aerelion was faster than the snake as he snatched the snakeʼs tail and brought the floor boss away from the oasis.

Tang Shaoyang expected a fight when the Aerelion brought the floor boss away from its nest, but it continued its attempt to run, trying to burrow under the sand. That was when Aerelion lost its patience and snapped one of the snakeʼs heads. The Infernal Wyvern King then brought the creature to the sky, high up.

They stayed up there for another twenty seconds, and when Aerelion came down, the snake no longer had heads, dead.

Tang Shaoyang heard the notification in his head that he had killed the floor boss, telling him he could advance to the next floor. He noticed the blood at the wyvernʼs lower jaw, and he could tell what it did in the sky. It was savoring the snakeʼs head.

Aerelion slowly came down with the body, dropping the headless body in front of him, ”You can eat the whole body if you want, Aerelion.”

”No, the meat in the body tastes foul, but the head is a delicacy, Master. I heard a lot from my realm that Hydraʼs head tastes good, but I was not strong enough to hunt one back then,” Aerelion did not hide his intention from its Master why it suddenly wanted to fight the snake, ”The body is quite useful for sacrifice. Itʼs still a God Rankʼs body, after all.”

”No wonder you two are fighting over the snake,” Tang Shaoyang muttered as he could still hear Doombringer protesting inside his head. The Behemoth asked him to look for the floor boss, hoping there would be another Hydra.

”Nope, we are going to the fourteenth floor,” Tang Shaoyang ignored the protest and went to the next floor.

The fourteenth floor was a world made of swamp, the whole floor was swamp, and his people would have insect problems on this floor. Since he confirmed his guess for what he would encounter from here on, he summoned his spirits and told them to look for the boss floor. He did not intend to spend his time exploring the floor.

It took his spirits four hours to find the floor boss, and they beat it quickly. The fifteenth floor was another problem. It was similar to the twelfth floor, a sea but it was a sea of lava instead of water. The bubbling lava splashed all over, and of course, the temperature was extremely hot. The temperature did not affect him that much, but it annoyed him because he started to sweat, making his clothes wet.

His new spirit, Arneel, the elemental creature that turned into a calamity, was excited when they encountered this floor. The Inferno Calamity begged him to summon it on this floor. He did not mind granting the spiritʼs wish and summoned Arneel.

The Inferno Calamity did not waste its time, ”I will look for the floor boss, Master!”

The elemental calamity disappeared from his sight, devouring the fire elemental creature on this floor. It only took Arneel two hours to find the floor boss and kill it, or maybe absorbing was the right choice of word in this case.

Arneel made another request, asking to leave it on this floor while he kept going up. He did not mind since losing Arneel did not really matter to him.

Tang Shaoyang skipped most of the floor from here one, he did not try to explore the floor until he reached the twentieth floor in one day. He spread his spirits, hunting the floor boss, and kept climbing up to the twentieth floor.

The twentieth floor was amazing, terrifying, amazing. He was teleported into a flying island. That was right, the twentieth-floor theme was flying island. For the first time, he tried to explore the floor this time, curious what was at the bottom. That was when he found what at the bottom of the twentieth floor, was an abyss, or maybe a void.

Finding the floor boss was easier since it was an open area. It was hard to miss the gigantic creature.

[Congratulations! You have killed the twentieth-floor boss!]

[Do you want to go to the twenty-first floor? (Yes) (No)]

He did not hesitate to click yes, and to his surprise, he was teleported into a white room. There was nothing in this room, a plain room. However, he was given choices, three choices.

[Make your choice!]

[Human] [Orc] [Giant]

As usual, there was no explanation, just telling him to make a choice. This could be many things. It might mean the three races were in a war on this twenty-first floor, and he needed to pick a side. Or it could mean a change of race, he explored the twenty-first floor with the race he picked. Or it could be anything as everything was possible with the System.

He was curious about giants and did not have an interest in Orcs. But he ended up picking the safest choice, Human.