Now that he reached the Steel-Tier, he basically reached the same Level he reached in the past, even though now he was countless times stronger than before. Strictly speaking, in the past, he reached Level 15, but right now, he was way stronger; his Mana was several times denser and purer.
Not to mention, his physical strength and other physical aspects were tremendously enhanced, so right now, he could defeat himself from the past several times over with closed eyes.
The only unfortunate thing in all of this was that he was left with only 3 Bronze-Tier Mana Crystals as he used all of them during his breakthrough to the Steel-Tier. The reason behind his was his race, as it required much more Mana than the average species.
Even Yvraine, who now reached Steel-Tier, used way fewer Mana Crystals, only used only two Bronze-Tier ones, while Samiel used 7 Bronze-Tier Mana Crystals and around 45 Steel-Tier ones to reach the Steel-Tier.
This could be attributed to some kind of balance of the Cosmos. The stronger the species were and the stronger racial attributes they had, and not to mention, if they had some special and unique abilities, their progress would be slower and more costly compared to others.
After he looked at the remaining three Bronze-Tier Mana Crystals, he decided to use all of them to increase his Level; as he started draining them until nothing remained from them, Samiel's Mana increased and reached Level 12.
[Your Level has been Increased.]
Now that he reached Level 12, he could control 180 Undead altogether. His combat prowess increased tremendously with his Steel-Tier Mana, as he could use more spells and his Ultimate Ability [Winter Ruler] for a prolonged amount of time.
Meaning he could now easily take on Bronze-Tiers probably up to Level 35 or so; also, it hugely depended on their Classes and Races, but even that was great. Aside from Level and experiences were great factors, aside from skills and abilities. In combat, the Level was not everything, as other factors could decide the end o the fight.
As he was thinking about the amount of resources he would need to sustain this tempo of cultivation, and this was not counting all things he would need for magic experiments, creating strong and unique Undead, and other things, he got a headache from just thinking about it.
That was another advantage that the huge factions had because they could easily eliminate all side-effects that the Superior Races had. In the end, with their enormous amount of resources and other things at hand, they could provide those members of the Superior Species like Samiel with enough resources to have the same training speed as even ordinary talented humans, who had the fastest training speed.
"Are you finished?"
Yvraine stretched her body as she reached the Steel-Tier, as he knew that look on her face.
They technically lived together for several weeks, and Samiel was good at observing people, and he learned some of Yvraine's habits and studied her personality. He knew that Yvraine was rather battle maniac, though she was very good at hiding it. Still, she cannot hide her battle lust every time perfectly. It always manifested itself subconsciously when she encountered someone very powerful and special.
"We can fight after ten minutes; just give me some time to adjust."
Samiel said as he was still adjusting to the Steel-Tier Mana, which was countless times stronger, denser, and more potent. The density and potency of the Mana were essential to every Class Bearer because the more dense and potent the Mana was, the more powerful their spells and Abilities would be. Not to mention, for Caster, this had another effect, which was basically a cheaper casting.
After he adequately adjusted to the Steel-Tier Mana, Samiel went to Yvraine so they could spar together because both of them wanted to test their power against each other after reaching the Steel-Tier.
In a split of seconds, Yvraine appeared before him, slashing at his throat with her twin jade blades as she ferociously attacked Samiel, as her blades just bounced from his throat while he used [Winter Ruler] to create a layer of Ice around his throat to protect himself.
Yvraine was very fast, like, very, very fast as she left after her just afterimage as she rushed at Samiel.
It was risky; even Yvraine widened her eyes in shock as she watched Samiel to defend in this way when she noticed that frost had crept up to her twin blades, and they started feeling colder, to the point that her hands started freezing.
[Your proficiency with the Ultimate Ability Winter Ruler has increased by 2%.]
Samiel heard the notification from the Akashic Records because he found a new way of the usage of the [Winter Ruler].
'That man is absolutely crazy.'
She thought when she watched Samiel block her strikes in this bizarre way, where most people would die; thus it was a rarity to see someone using Ice in this way. Because if the attack was just a bit stronger, then you would die with a severed head. Only people who attempted to do this were those without a bit of self-perseverance or those who were absolutely confident in their abilities.
Yvraine then ignited her twin blades with some kind of flame that Samiel didn't recognize, but he could see that she expunged the frost that he cast onto her twin jade blades as Yvraine attacked him once more.
During their spars, he never used his Undead or more dangerous spells from Necromancy Arts or, nowadays, the Void Magic, and fought solely with his martial arts or the [Winter Ruler].
Undeads were forbidden due to the first time they fought, Samiel beat her badly by overwhelming her through pure numbers, and Samiel didn't really want to use Necromancy Arts or Void Magic because it was dangerous, and if by some accident, Yvraine didn't dodge or blocked properly, she could be severely injured in a pretty nasty way.
Samiel materialized an ice sword in his right hand as he blocked Yvraine's attack. At the same time, he started decreasing the temperature in their surroundings, as frost penetrated through the entire building as it started freezing. Yvraine could see her breath in the frost.
He did it because he knew that in this way, he could greatly hinder her movements and decrease her agility, which succeeded as Yvraine's speed has receded to about one-fourth, which was a very good result, as now Samiel could clearly see her movements without any problems.
With each passing spar, Samiel's control over the [Winter Ruler] and its proficiency increased tremendously, as he started to use it more and more in actual combat aside from Necromancy.
He even asked Yvraine what would be the best Magic to go with his "ice-like ability", to which he got the answer Winter Magic.
Unfortunately, the Winter Magic war was rare, only known by Gods of Winter or one reclusive faction, known as Frozen Court, which was located on the 67th Floor of the Tower and had dominion over several worlds and dimensions across the Cosmos.
Frozen Court consisted exclusively of Ice Users or anything related to Ice banded together, as they were not limited to single species or occupation and were considered a very powerful faction.
The entire Frozen Court acted as some kind of elective monarchy, where they basically chose their leader based on the power of Ice Ability or Magic. The Monarch who was elected then was named Monarch of Frost and ruled till the day he died or was defeated by a more powerful Ice User.
Naturally, this didn't mean only Ice, Frost, or Winter users were members of the Frozen Court, as the Frozen court has countless other professions and experts, but only those with the abilities mentioned above have sway or voice in the faction's matters.
Unfortunately, Frozen Court was an extremely reclusive faction that didn't want any visitors; even the Floor Advancement Quest that the Ruler was issuing was to withstand Froststorm for 1 minute so everyone could leave as soon as they arrived.
67th Floor is home to countless species and races that live in cold areas, like Snow Trolls, Yetis, Yuki-Onnas, and other species that prefer places like these. For example, one of the significant species of the Frozen Court was Frost Demon Tribe and Ice Dragon Flock. This alone made the Frozen Court one of the more powerful factions in the Cosmos.
Suddenly five 1st Level Spells Thunderclaps were shooting at him, as Yvraine cast them in a split of a second due to her extensive knowledge. Samiel knew that even though she was Steel-Tier, her knowledge of the Arcane and Magic would probably eclipse even some Legendaries due to her background.
She told him she had studied Magic extensively since she was young. After all, Silvermoon Elves were all inborn Arcanists, as Magic was deeply rooted in their entire existence. And because all Silvermoon Elves were naturally-born Arcanists, and especially those of the Imperial House and monstrous aptitude for the Magic.
Thus all of them were forced to learn as much Magic as possible, especially the Magic Theory in their younger years, and Yvraine was not an exception. She studied more common types of Magic, but unfortunately, her knowledge of the School of Necromancy was non-existent.
Though on the other hand, she was very skilled in the Elemental Types of Magic or, for example, rare Ward Magic, and could create Magic Wards and Magic Barriers.
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***
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In reaction, he instantly erected a wall of ice, as he blocked her spells and shot several crudely made Ice weapons at her, each one comparable to 1st Level Spell, albeit a weak one, but still... They were too many of them, and they were very fast for an average warrior to dodge them all without any problem.
Yvraine swiftly dodged every one of them as she landed on the ground, which Samiel instantly froze as she fell onto her butt. While this situation reminded him of some unsuccessful comedy or anime, he still tried a lot not to laugh out loud.
With this, the battle concluded as Samiel went to her and helped her to stand up, and to his surprise, she just took his hand and stood up. While Yvraine was very acrobatic and fast, Samiel used the moment when her balance was a bit off to freeze the grounds, which resulted in her slipping down.
Though as a part of the aftermath of their spar, they were forced to change their hideout, as this one was entirely frozen. Not to mention, it suffered various degrees of damage during their fight, so it was no longer a suitable living place... if it could be called that way even before.
Unfortunately, the entire 2nd Floor was like this, apparently not only because of the constant fights and battles, but some members of the Asura Tribe, like the Elders and Patriarch, liked the appearance of the 2nd Floor to have the apocalyptic vibe.
During the way, as they searched for a suitable ruin resembling an ordinary building that won't fall apart, they started strategizing for the Trial and Quests. Here was the place where everything was falling apart, as they were in the desolate wastelands of the 2nd Floor.
"Yvraine, aside from collecting these Tokens to pass the Quest and climb the Floor, do they have any other function?"
Samiel then asked the question that had been bugging him for a longer time, especially when Yvraine told him that some people spent even centuries on this Floor, and even some descended from the higher Floors to participate in this Trial once more to gather more Tokens.
So it wasn't uncommon to see powerhouses coming here and there. Apparently, on the higher floors, the Tokens from the Slaughter Trial could fetch a nice sum of Mana Crystals if sold to a suitable buyer.
"Yes, there is."
She answered while playing with her Token.
"To motivate people to kill each other, you can exchange these Tokens for something from the Asura Tribe. Of course, the good items on the list all have outrageous prices on them, numbering in tens of thousands of Token. Though some of those things in there would be tempting even to Transcendents, not to mention to mortals."
She then paused in midway.
"One person spent more than a thousand years in this Trial; with his special clone ability, he was able to have clones in all areas and kept killing contestants for 1,788 Years until he gathered more than 20 million Tokens and exchanged them for Drop of an Immortalis Iniquus Sanguis. After disappearing, he appeared several centuries later and became a Transcendent by descending into some amalgamation of Godhood related to Blood and Daemonhood."
She made a pause as Samiel wondered about the power of such a thing.
'So the things that Akashic Records offered me as a reward for establishing the connection on my own do exist even in the Tower... I wonder if I can get my hands on something similar to research it and possibly exploit it in some way.'
His brain wheels were working as his memory drifted to that fateful day when he entered the Tower by establishing the connection with the Akashic Records on his own, though he still didn't really understand how exactly it happened.
While he didn't want items like Transcendence Seed or Immortalis Iniquus Sanguis for him, but rather for his future "underlings" so he could cultivate Transcendent Level servants for himself, in the future far away.
"On top of that, his Transcendence was extremely powerful and attracted the attention of many beings. On the day he Transcendened, he killed several Transcendent Level Devils and Daemons, and a few Gods, and that day is commemorated as the birth of the Sanctus Immortalis Daemon."
Asura Tribe, while a mortal faction, had produced plenty of Transcendents, so it was no wonder they had some unique and precious things in their possession. Some of these items were really peculiar and powerful, while some were unassuming at first glance but contained a tremendous amount of power.
Though Samiel was shocked that someone was able to gather such a staggering amount of Tokens, he knew that if someone kept on killing for almost 2 millennia in all three areas, it should be possible. However, it was probably worth it several times over for such results.
The entire 2nd Floor was divided into three areas.
1st Area was for Iron-Tier to Bronze-Tier combatants.
2nd Area was for Silver-Tier and Gold-Tier combatants
3rd Area was for Legendaries.
It was impossible to go from one Area to another, as Asura Tribe separated the continent with mighty and powerful barriers, and the borders were patrolled by the Legendary warriors of the Asura Tribe. Not to mention, they were even using some sort of Tower's Suppression to ensure their measures were perfect.
Of course, Samiel and Yvraine were located in the 1st Area, which was the largest one and with the highest number of participants. That was because most of the participants in the Slaughter Trial came from the 1st Floor or from some random worlds that were connected to the 2nd Floor and had low Tiers.
"Even the cheapest thing on the list costs 1,000 Tokens, but if possible, even I want to gather several thousand Tokens to exchange for some precious things. Asuras are adamant about this, as they don't trade them, and you cannot buy anything from them; you need to exchange it with Tokens. There are even times when they connect the Second Floor to some world or dimension, where they force everyone to participate. Unfortunately for us, we missed such an opportunity, as that happened only once in a while, and the last time it was around 300 years ago."
Complained Yvraine, as Samiel agreed with her because if an entire world was forced to participate in this death game, it would be much easier for them to gather a few thousand tokens, maybe even a few tens of thousands, under the nose of mighty Legendaries and other strong Professionals who would rush here to participate.
As they talked about the strategy at first and then various other things, suddenly Yvraine's ears perked up as she heard someone was nearing their position. It was rather cute as they twitched whenever she heard something in the distance, he thought.
"Three people are headed this way."
Said Yvraine, as Samiel immediately woke up from his one personality and switched to battle mode.
"We need to hide and ambush them in a case they are more powerful."
He stated as Yvraine agreed with him, as they quickly hid in near ruined building that appeared to remain from some kind of Tower, probably destroyed Mage Tower. Rather be better safe than sorry was what Samiel thought.
After they hid, Samiel and Yvraine saw three people approaching. It was apparently an adventurer party, as all of them were just Steel-Tiers. One of the more standard lineups for adventurers, one Swordsman, Wizard, and Archer.
Either that or some unlucky climbers that entered from another world, because nobody sane who knew about the purpose of the 2nd Floor and its conditions, would never walk so leisurely through it. Even Legendaries watched their back every second they spent on the 2nd Floor in case of unforeseen circumstances.
When Samiel saw them, he released his Undead to make short work of those three before resurrecting them as Undead. The fight didn't take even 2 minutes before his Undead smashed the head of a crawling wizard whose legs were turned to meat paste by Warhammer of one Undead.
[You have obtained Trial Token x5.]
Samiel heard the message from the Tower System, as the Tower System automatically transferred the Tokens. Because he was the one who killed the three human adventurers, he got their Tokens.
"We got the first 5."
He grinned as he said that to Yvraine, who just nodded, as they just started and already got the 5 Tokens, but that was not enough. Though, it was a good start and better than nothing at all... in the end, everybody must start somewhere.
Even though the 1st Area was collective for the Iron-Tier, Steel-Tier, and Bronze-Tier, in fact, only the latter two were present. At the same time, most of the Iron-Tiers never made it past the 1st Floor and usually were killed by Orks after the Orks took control over the 1st Floor.
The entire 1st Area was bigger than the 1st Floor, so even though there were probably hundreds of thousands of people in this Area, it was still hard to come by more than a bunch of people per day, due to the large size of the Area.
Fortunately, they had Samiel's Undead, who could do the scouting work, as he could send a few of them in a different direction and then just let them scout the Area, looking for any participants to kill.
Bonus chapter for the 1st 1k collections! Enjoy... PS. really join the discord...
***
Seven Holy Creeds:
1st - Add to your Library, as thou must increase my collection.
2nd - Vote with stones, as thou must spread the existence of my novel.
3rd - Drop a Review, as thou must increase the number of stars in the sky.
4th - Gift, as thou must make author's day better and bonus chapters possible.
5th - Enjoy, as thou must enjoy the story.
6th - Comment, as thou must leave your thoughts about the development of the story and others.
7th - Discord, as thou must join my discord for discussions and images for each chapter. - https://discord.gg/dEPrDXmg (Join!... really, some images are cool, though... )
***
1 Super Gift = 1 Bonus Chapter
1,000 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter
250 Golden Tickets = 1 Bonus Chapter