Chapter 7 - Third Floor (1)

Since Lumen sat on the throne with the crown before 5 minutes had passed, his team, automatically won the last and final round. As the winners of the Crown Game, he and the two girls got sent to the next Floor.

Before being sent to the 3rd Floor, they were each awarded 10 000 credits for successfully passing the 2nd Floor by winning the Crown Game.

"I wish you luck, climbing the Tower, Regulars." The blonde trap said before sending them out. Lumen couldn't even look at him in the face after he initially mistook him for a female.

After experiencing the now normal blackout moment, the three of them got teleported to what appeared to be a town square.

They were standing in front of a giant fountain that resembled a big Jasmine flower.

As Lumen was looking around, he heard a female voice from behind him.

"Eh, so you are the Rookies that I had to get up for."

Turning around, he saw a very beautiful, pink-haired woman. She was wearing a blue tanktop with white dots on it and grey shorts with blue dots on them. She also had a grey sleeping mask on her head and bunny slippers on her feet.

Her tank top only covered her big bosom and revealed her flat yet muscular stomach. Her shorts covered only a very small part of her thɨġhs, showing off her long legs. The shorts seemed to be put in a rush since you could see her blue pȧntɨės sticking out to the side.

"There's only three of you, which is kind of odd, but frankly, I don't care."

"The name's Diana, and I'm the Ruler of the 3rd Floor." She introduced herself with a yawn.

"The test for this Floor is very simple. See that small tower to the North of you? All you have to do is register a team of at least 7 Regulars and beat it. To register a team, you have to pay for each member by using your Points. The small tower has a total of 3 floors, by winning on the last floor, you get the opportunity to get to the 4th Floor of the Tower." Diana lazily pointed at a grey tower in the distance.

"On the first 2 floors, you would have to fight a 2vs2 battle. If a Regular fights on a floor, he won't be allowed to fight in any of the other floors of the small tower. On the 3rd and last floor, you would have to fight a 3vs3 battle. So you better choose who to fight on each floor carefully."

"On each floor, there is a Guardian team. If you lose to the Guardian team, your team will take their position, while they would get the chance of challenging the next floor of the small tower. Simple, right?"

"Over here to the West of you, we have the Residential Area. Everyone can rent a room for the small price of 10 Points a night." She showed them 20 apartment looking buildings, that each had 10 floors. All the buildings looked identical to each other.

"To the East of you is the Commercial District. We have restaurants and various shops that you could look through. All of the facilities are open 24/7. Those that have the Points to spare would usually go there." There were at least over 30 different shops in the Commercial District.

"And finally, to the South of you is the Hunting Area. Those that lack Points can gather them there. There are a total of 4 creatures that you could hunt in the forest." Diana pointed to a path that led to a forest.

"You have the Fruit Monkeys and their guardians, the Iron Monkeys. The Fruit Monkeys are small, brown, furry creatures that have a fruit growing on their back. Each fruit that you bring could net you 5 Points at the Commercial District. The Iron Monkeys are their bigger brethren. They have grey, metallic fur, however since they don't have anything useful on them, you can't gain Points from hunting them."

"Then we have the Red Scythes and the Elder Red Scythes. They are basically big insectoid monsters with red scythes. They love eating the fruits from the Fruit Monkey, so they tend to hunt them and offer them to the Elders. You can sell a pair of normal red scythes for 50 Points and if you manage to hunt an Elder Red Scythe, you could sell their 2 pairs for a total of 400 Points."

"You got any questions, Regulars? No? Great, I'm gonna go and take nap, please don't disturb me." Before anyone could ask her a question, Diana disappeared from her spot.

'For a place that advocates stepping over others to climb higher, they sure like forcing you to make teams, don't they.' Lumen thought.

Without even sparing a glance towards Fai and Tiana, he immediately started going in the direction of the Hunting Area. Despite needing a team to pass the Floor, he didn't want them as his teammates. He simply didn't trust their strength.

Lumen really wanted to climb the Tower and see all it has to offer, but for the moment, that wasn't his top priority. For the time being, the most important thing for him is to get used to his Devil Fruit Powers and increase his own strength.

He still hadn't gotten over the fact that he was injured, despite being in his Logia form. This reminded him of a phrase from One Piece 'Logia users who think they're invincible tend to have short lifespans'. Since people could hurt him in his elemental form in the Tower, he had to do something about that.

But right now, he just wanted to let out some steam. Exiting the small town, he entered the Hunting Area.

The Hunting Area is a gigantic forest, filled with trees over 20m tall.

After walking for around 10 minutes, he finally found a group of monsters. Two Fruit Monkeys were being escorted by four Iron Monkeys.

The Fruit Monkeys were no more than 1m tall and had a Peach growing from their neck. While the Iron Monkeys were at least 3m tall with bulging muscles.

Since Lumen wasn't trying to hide his presence, they immediately sensed him. Two of the Iron Monkeys rushed towards him while the other two stayed near the Fruit Monkeys.

Lumen raised his hands and gathered light in both of them. The laser from his right hand easily killed one of the Iron Monkeys, but the laser from his left hand missed its target. He wasn't as proficient at shooting with his off-hand as he is with his main hand.

'This has to change.' He thought to himself.

Lumen quickly shot the other Iron Monkey and turned towards the rest of the group. Unfortunately, they had already ran off and were nowhere to be seen. He didn't mind that much since he didn't come here for points.

Continuing his exploration, he found a few more groups of monkeys. Each time he found a Fruit Monkey, they would have at least two Iron Monkeys guarding them. Any time he killed a few, the rest would immediately scatter and run away.

As he was exploring the Hunting Area, he finally found his first Red Scythe. They are basically big red mantises. They are over 2m tall, and their forelegs that resemble red scythes are 60cm long.

Observing from a distance, Lumen watched as the Red Scythe decimated a group of monkeys. With every slash, the Red Scythe would either kill a monkey or sever a limb. Even the Iron Monkeys with their hard as steel fur couldn't take a single hit from it.

In a matter of moments, the Red Scythe killed four Fruit Monkeys and eleven Iron Monkeys. It plucked a Peach from a Fruit Monkey, and it was about to eat it before a laser beam went through its head.

Using his light powers, Lumen severed it's two forelegs and stored them in his pocket, alongside the Peaches. He continued his trek through the forest for a few more hours, before he exited the Hunting Area.

Lumen made his way towards the Commercial District and found a building that purchased the monster parts.

"Welcome to our establishment, customer! I haven't seen you around so you should be one of the Regulars that recently reached the Floor. My name is Eli, how can I help you~?" A cheerful black-haired girl asked him.

"I'm here to sell the monster parts I've gathered." Lumen curtly replied to her.

"You already went to the Hunting Area? You must be a part of a strong team. Place everything here on the counter and make your Pocket visible. I would count the parts and transfer the Points to your account~" Eli cheerfully explained.

Lumen pulled out 15 Peaches and placed them on the counter.

"That's a pretty good haul. You definitely are a part of a strong team." The girl commented, thinking that's all he had.

Lumen smirked in response, took out 5 pairs of red scythes and placed them on the counter. Seeing that, Eli momentarily froze.

Usually, you would need at least 5 Regulars to properly hunt a Red Scythe. The Regulars would have to have good coordination, and one of them would need to have a strong weapon or an exceptional ability to be able to pierce the tough carapace of the insectoid. To top it off, Red Scythes would use their wings and fly away, if they feel endangered.

Seeing a newcomer bring not only a good amount of Peaches but also 5 pairs of scythes, Eli didn't know what to say.

'What kind of a monster team has arrived? I better report this to the higher-ups.' She though.

Nevertheless, she quickly got out of her stupor and handled the transaction professionally. Eli transferred 325 Points to his account, and he left the building.

Lumen explored the Commercial District and found shops that sold weapons, clothes other items. He wasn't interested in the weapon or clothing shops, but two others caught his attention.

The first one being the Lighthouse shop. From what he gathered, a Lighthouse is a cube used for gathering information and emitting light. It had options similar to a Pocket, but it could do a few things a Pocket couldn't.

The ranks of the Lighthouses ranged from 10F up to 10E. Lumen purchased the highest grade he could find for 4 000 Points. The Lighthouse that he bought had an Inventory space of 2 cubic meters. Combined with his Pocket, he would have a total of 4 cubic meters of space.

He wanted to play around with all of its options, and Points didn't really matter to him since he could always go to the Hunting Area to gather them.

The highest rank that he was found was again 10E, so Lumen purchased two of them for a total of 4 000 Points. The Observer was in the shape of an eye with wings attached to it.

After he finished shopping, Lumen visited one of the restaurants. He ordered the most nutritious and expensive meal, which cost him 100 Points. The food was amazing so he was happy with the purchase.

He circled around the Commercial District in case he missed something, but he didn't find anything interesting.

In the end, he left the Commercial District and made his way towards the Residential Area. All the apartment buildings looked the same so he entered the first one he saw.

Lumen wasn't sure how long he will stay on the 3rd Floor, but he decided to rent a room for a week. After paying 70 points, the staff linked a room to his Pocket. He could enter the room by just scanning his Pocket in front of the room he was ȧssigned.

The apartment room was fairly simple. It consisted of a bedroom with a double-sided bed, a nightstand with a lamp on it and a wardrobe. Alongside that, there was a bathroom and a shower.

After taking a quick shower, Lumen went to sleep for the night.

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So I pretty much made up the number of Points and Inventory space since I don't remember them being mentioned as an exact amount. If anyone knows the correct numbers, please leave a comment so I can fix them.