Usually, Ed would avoid other humans in this tower. Yet this time, his curiosity got the best of him. The person in front of him looked like a young female woman. Ed wanted to know why she would be alone in such a foggy place. Unlike Ed, most people challenged this tower in groups. Only eccentric people would venture alone to overcome their limits. Ed got close enough to see the woman clearly. She had red hair that went down to her hips. He could only see her backside so he didn't know other features.
"Ehm. Excuse me miss?" Ed finally lost to his curiosity and extended his hand towards the woman. For some reason, his heart was beating hard. The women didn't move at all. She stood still as if glued to her position. Suddenly, when Ed's hand finally touched her shoulder, she turned around. "Aaaaah!" Ed got frightened by what he saw. The woman in front of him had a pale blue skin. Her eyes were unfocused and bloodshot. She starting walking while staggering, towards Ed. Her hands were extended in front of her, trying her best to catch Ed.
"Why the hell is there a zombie here? Did I mistakenly get sent to Raccoon city?" Ed rushed backward and tried to run away. In the heat of the moment, he forgot that he could easily kill such a being. He turned his head back to check on the zombie girl. Only to see her previously unfocused eyes were now filled with determination. She took a running stance and sprinted towards Ed. Her speed would have won her many gold medals back on Earth.
"Zombie shouldn't ruuuuuuun!" Ed screamed at the top of his lungs. His companions who were running with him didn't know why he was acting so weird. Ed's fear of horror resurfaced on this floor. After increasing his speed, he was able to lose the female zombie. He was catching his breath when he suddenly heard some grunting noises. He looked around only to see himself surrounded by such beings. Ed felt as if he was stuck in a horror movie. And he was one of the extras that would die first.
Thankfully, Ed was woken up from his daydreaming by Gobuta who slayed one of the zombies. Seeing this, Ed finally remembered that he was a cultivator, not a teenager in a zombie movie. 'Well, that was embarrassing' Ed finally collected his thought and calmed down. He activated his Map, which he should have done earlier, and noticed that this floor was infested with enemies. He scanned a couple of the zombies in front of him. Most of them had a cultivation higher than Earth Establishment level 5. 'They are most likely cultivators who died in this floor' Ed thought to himself.
Ed and his companions easily killed the cultivators. Apparently, they didn't retain all of their strength after becoming undead. No one managed to drop a Gacha ticker, but Ed was able to gather quite a bit of Exp. Every single one of them gave him Exp higher than 10.000. Ed didn't like this floor at all, but it was a good way for him to farm experience points. He was going to stay here for a couple of weeks in order to train.
After hunting more monsters, Ed found out that the zombies were the lowest class monsters of this floor. Many other undead monsters inhabited this floor. Such as Ghouls, Wraiths, and Skeletons. Ed only met with a couple of them but didn't kill them. He was simply gathering information for now. He surveyed the area around him, but there was no sign of the floor boss. Ed wanted to pinpoint its location before hunting, so he could easily come back.
Ed opened a pocket dimension and set the Gravity for 10 times. He decided to change the training regime. This time, he would be sparring with others. The basic training did indeed help him, but he required a faster improvement. Now that he was able to summon all of his monsters at once, it would be a shame if he couldn't engage in combat with them. Ed's training partner was obviously Raikou. Gobuta with Suika, and Goburou with Garu. All of them took the training seriously, as even weapons were allowed.
Ed and Raikou's sparring went as expected. Both of them didn't use their full power as Ed didn't want to exhaust himself, causing the dimension to collapse. However, things were different for Suika and the others. After evolving for another time, Suika's abilities outclassed Gobuta's and the others. Her basic abilities and her QI reserves were now many times greater. Gobuta had to use En to keep up with her movements. But, after using some of her debuffs on him, he quickly lagged behind. Goburou and Garu were about the same. Neither of them could overcome the other's strong points.
Goburou had a speed far greater than Garu's. While Garu's strength and endurance outclassed Goburou's. Garu could also heal some of the wounds he got from Goburou's rapier. His healing was similar to regeneration at this point. After about an hour, they stopped the sparring and Ed distributed some healing pills. The rest of their time was spent training in some form or the other.
After the eight hours were up, Ed got out of the dimension and started his hunt. The first monsters he met this time were the Ghouls. Ghouls were like a higher version of zombies. They looked more human as their skins weren't as rotten as zombies'. But, they could be distinguished by their pale skin and their black-red eyes. Being higher ranked than zombies meant that their abilities were also ranked higher. Most of them could use techniques that they used while they were still alive.
Ed decided not to engage many of them at once since he didn't know what abilities they could be hiding. The first couple of ones he killed were a group of three. Ed wanted to finish off the first one by using Space magic and teleporting behind it. Yet, as his sword was about to pierce the Ghoul, it disappeared. Ed was surprised and looked back to find the Ghoul standing there. 'Space magic or a substitution technique…'. Many techniques that could save one's self, existed. So this Ghoul might have practiced one of them. They generally couldn't be used many times in succession.
The only problematic opponent was the one who dodged Ed at first. The rest of them fell down easily due to Ed and his companions' strength. Also, it wasn't Space magic so the first Ghoul was also killed easily.
Hello everyone! Ed being scared by zombies, what an Mc huh <.<. Hope you enjoy the chapter!
Ed and his companions continued hunting for over a week. Yet, there was no sign of the boss. By now, he had searched 90% of the floor. The remaining area was inaccessible, making it impossible for the boss to be at. Ed guessed that the people, who died here, didn't do so because of the monsters. Instead, it should be due to hunger and dehydration. If the boss doesn't appear for a long time, most people would end up going through their supplies.
Not everyone prepared for the tower like Ed. Most people actually formed teams to challenge the tower. So it wasn't surprising that they would turn against each other in case of lack of rations. To make matters worse, leaving the tower through this floor was near impossible. Due to the thick blanket of fog that surrounded the floor, it wasn't possible to find the teleportation circle again. Many people would simply end up walking in circles, except for the few lucky ones. Even Ed, with his Map, had a hard time navigating through this place.
Ed didn't have the problem of food due to his constant hunting. But, even his supply wasn't limitless, and his dimension couldn't create living things. To make matters worse, this floor didn't have any animals or monsters that could be hunted. Undead creatures could not be eaten. Not because of their similarity to humans, but because they were poisonous.
As Ed was walking around, a group of Wraiths surrounded him and his companions. The Wraiths had a foggy body and looked like a flying cloak. All of them were Earth Establishment level 6. Ed and the others tried to attack them, but they couldn't damage them. Attacks simply passed through their intangible bodies. After trying out nearly everything, Ed decided to use his last ability. Unfortunately for the Wraiths, their opponent turned out to be Ed. He teleported behind one of them and slashed with Muramasa that was enhancing a Fire skill.
The Wraith died instantly. This time, Ed's attacks connected. The reason was that he used Armament Haki, and this was its most important ability. Armament Haki could force intangible substances into a solid-like state, forcefully. Although Ed was not as proficient in Haki as much as he wanted, it was still enough to achieve basic results such as this. The rest of the Wraiths tried to flee after seeing one of them drop dead. Their selling point was their ability to phase through attacks. Once that is gone, there was no reason to try and act tough.
"My precious Exp!" Ed spoke in a hoarse yet very weird voice as he followed the Wraiths. A couple of sword swings later and no trace of them was left. Apparently, being part fog made them disappear into thin air rather than remain as a corpse. 'No Gacha tickets…' Ed was not used to not having tickets dropped. Although it was the usual occurrence, it still wasn't a pleasant feeling.
After hunting for another day, Ed didn't encounter anything special. Most of the monsters he killed today were Zombies and Ghouls. None of them had a high cultivation, at least not one capable of putting up a challenge for Ed and the others. Ed chose a nice looking spot and activated his Mangekyo Sharingan, opening a pocket dimension. He always decided on a nice spot since his dimension took on the image of the area where it as created. And as usual, Ed didn't want to add things for no reason.
Ed and the others resumed their usual routine. They would train for about three hours under ten times gravity. After finishing their usual spar sessions, they would take a bath, eat, and sleep. Ed and Raikou could function with only four hours of sleep. Their cultivation was already at a point where their bodies started to adapt to stress and fatigue. As for Suika and the others, they didn't require food or sleep; they simply imitated what Ed did.
Ed noticed that thanks to the spars, everyone's capabilities improved further. Ed didn't let them fight the same person every time; instead, he would rotate their partners randomly. Since Gobuta, Goburou, and Gary used swords as well they learned a great deal fighting him. His sword abilities could already be considered among the top of the world due to his skill alone. Once he achieves higher cultivation levels, only a handful of people would be able to challenge him in sword-skills.
Ed also focused on his Space magic. It was making him irritated due to how long it took to level up. But, he could feel it becoming closer and closer to breaking through. At least that was how he felt.
Another three weeks passed on the seventh floor. Ed hunted the Zombies and Ghouls almost to extinction. The only monsters that roamed the floor now were Skeletons. Skeletons, unlike zombies and ghouls who were the result of cultivators dying, were spawned by the tower. Fighting Skeletons was a bit more challenging. You needed to completely shatter the bones to kill them. Even if the only remaining bone was their skull, they would still move it.
Through his stay in this floor for over one month, Ed was able to break through to Earth Establishment level 7. He believed Raikou would be able to enter Heavenly Establishment when he hit this level. But unfortunately, he seemed to be stuck at a bottleneck. The system explained that normal cultivators would hunt a Heavenly Establishment monster and absorb its QI. Ed wouldn't need to do this as he simply gains Exp from the monsters. Instead, he would have to obtain an enormous deal of Exp.
Ed, being unable to find the boss, was now thinking if the boss was a small insect hiding underground. 'Is the tower trolling me…' Ed thought to himself as he was getting out of the pocket dimension. He instantly felt a difference. Although the fog still remained, he could tell that it was nighttime. The Sky, for the first time in a month, was clear. And Blood moon decorating the black sky of the seventh floor.
Hello everyone! Hope you enjoy the chapter.
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