Chapter 78 - Thirty-Second Floor (3)

At an unknown Floor, five of FUG Elders had gathered for a meeting.

During the Workshop incident, they had suffered major losses. They lost two of the three Thorn fragments that they owned. They lost Bam and Rachel, their two Irregulars. And they also lost two high ranking members of their organization, Poken and Madoraco.

However, that wasn't all. After Ha Jinsung, Bam's teacher learned that hey had planned to merge the boy with the Thorn, he defected from their group.

Since then, all the Elders had to care for their safety. Jingsung wasn't a simple guy, and he was considered one of the 100 strongest people in the Tower. Although the Elders were also extremely strong, they didn't dare face against him.

However, Ha Jingsung wasn't the reason they had gathered for a meeting. It was Karaka.

"The last Thorn fragment had been stolen, and Karaka has disappeared since then." An Elder stated.

"Damn it! What is he doing?!" Another Elder furiously asked and slammed the table.

"The Thorn was something that he greatly dėsɨrėd. We should have taken more care of the last fragment." Khel said.

"We did! It was guarded by trusted and high ranking members of our organization." An Elder stated.

"Karaka tricked us." Another one calmly said. "He fooled us by saying that he wanted to resurrect White while planning behind our backs. What do we even do with that Slayer? He is still hiding in the Hell Train."

"Fuck him!" The Elder that slammed the table cursed out. "That pretty boy is still alive only because his sister spared him. We don't need someone like him!"

"He is still someone powerful that we can use. We can try to help him. Let us decide by voting." An Elder said calmly. "I vote to help him."

"I'm against that!"

"I'm also against that." Two of the Elders instantly refused to help White.

"I vote to help him."

"So, my vote decides the outcome?" Khel asked. "I vote to help him. Since Karaka had clearly betrayed us, we could use his help. White wasn't a Slayer for no reason. We could ask him about the rituals and spells he used to make his soul immortal. That could be useful to us."

"Fine, so be it! We can try to help him, but how we will get someone to enter the Hell Train?" The furious Elder asked.

"I have an idea," Khel replied.

Meanwhile, in Ret-Yohda's domain.

Androssi was flying around Ammos Fidi with pink wings made of Shinsoo on her back. A pink sphere was floating around her and was constantly shooting out her pink arrows at the massive snake.

'Damn it! Do I have to rely on the Thorn again?' Androssi asked herself. The Thorn had amazing powers, but if she had to rely on it every time, she would never be able to catch up to Lumen.

Hatsu had materialized ten spinning discs that were grinding at Ammos Fidi's golden scales. He had also ignited both Ryu and Donghae and was sending waves of ice and fire towards the snake.

'You are still too weak.' Ryu spoke in his mind.

'Your leader would have already killed this ugly monster. He should be the one to wield me, not you.' Donghae told him.

Hatsu ignored the two spirits and continued striking at the beast. Their words didn't faze him as he knew he was weaker than Lumen. His weakness didn't bother him and only served as motivation to grow stronger.

Anak was flying on Anoph and attacking Ammos Fidi with the large needle. She had materialized her scaled line, which was spinning at a fast pace, trying to grind the golden scales of the beast.

Vespa had entered her ȧduŀt form and was zapping around the snake. In one of her hands, she was holding a golden needle, and in the other, she held a stinger, her Shinsoo quality.

The golden needle was the weapon she received from the Workshop. Ensign, a B9-Rank needle specialized in penetrating and poisoning enemies, which perfectly fit her combat style.

Vespa was trying her best to damage Ammos Fidi with her attacks, but she wasn't able to break through its tough scales.

Aleksai had entered his Devil form. In one of his hands, he was holding his new trident, and in the other, he held a long, thin, red spear. Astra, a B7-Ranked Ignition weapon.

Tiana had created her green tulip, which was spreading around the sand at a very quick pace. The flower was constantly trying to entangle Ammos Fidi, but the snake was able to destroy it with just a few movements of its massive body.

Verdi, Laure, and Merrie were standing as far away from Ammos Fidi as they possibly could.

Every time the snake would try to spew its venomous saliva, Laure would block it with his wind barriers.

Verdi had the Roaring Thunder on her shoulder, and she had already shot Ammos Fidi with it once. The canon had managed to hurt the beast, but it wasn't able to destroy its golden scales.

Merrie had her Lighthouse in front of her and was ȧssisting everyone else with their Shinsoo control.

Leesoo was running around the battlefield and trying his best to dodge the jerking motions of the snake. He was carefully observing the fight, trying to find a way to deal with the massive creature.

Leesoo was hit a couple times by Ammos Fidi, but he had managed to activate his Blood Tamara in time. He had received another one from the Workshop and could activate it for longer periods of time. The second Blood Tamara had also increased defensive capabilities of each use.

"Vespa, try to target its eyes," Leesoo called out. Ammos Fidi's eyes were very small compared to its massive body, and one would even have a hard time noticing them.

"I'm on it." In an instant, Vespa appeared in front of the creature's eyes and swiftly stabbed it with Ensign. Before the snake could chomp down on her, she quickly flew away from there.

"ROAR!" Ammos Fidi roared out in pain. Its left eye started swelling up, and in a moment, it burst into yellow goo.

"Nice one. Go after the other one next." Leesoo told her.

Vespa managed to stab the other eye with Ensign, and it also exploded into yellow goo.

"ROAR!!" Ammos Fidi started jerking its body in pain. Both of its eyes were destroyed, but the beast didn't need them to sense the location of the group.

"Okay, we got its eyes, but now what," Leesoo said while watching Ammos Fidi swipe at them with its massive tail. "Doesn't seem like he needed them in the first place."

Leesoo then remembered how Anak was able to injure Ammos Fidi with her first attack. 'Hmm. This might work.'

"Listen up, guys, I have a plan," Leesoo called out to the group.

Meanwhile, in Shak, one of the cities of the Sand People.

Rider was standing in the middle of the city with thousands of Sand People walking circles around him.

'I'm so good at making friends! I can't wait to tell Lumen.' Rider thought as he watched them.

"Did we do it correctly?" The mayor of Shak asked.

"Yes! This is exactly the way I thought!" Rider replied.

Six more hours passed after Lumen returned his pets to his bowl. The entire arena he was fighting had sunken down, and a large portion of the sand was missing.

Ret had to use Shinsoo to reinforce the remaining sand. Otherwise, the arena would have turned into a gigantic pit.

Lumen was fighting with thousands of sandworms that resembled Ammos Fidi, but they were a lot smaller than the giant snake and didn't have its golden scales. Those creatures were as strong as a normal Ranker.

'Lifeforce here, lifeforce there, lifeforce everywhere.' Lumen was humming in his mind as he was slaying the sandworms.

The amount of life force he had received from them was already a crazy amount, but he had noticed something odd. For every creature, he slew with his black flames, around 10% to 20% of the life force disappeared somewhere.

Lumen had become quite proficient with the technique he developed for strengthening his body, but he wasn't good enough to refine 20% or even 10% of the lifeforce in such a short time. He had tried sensing a few times where the lifeforce is going, but he wasn't able to track it down.

Lumen would definitely check this out at some point, but now he had creatures to slay and lifeforce to harvest. Black flames surrounded him, and he continued burning the sandworms with them.

'Wasting your energy so recklessly. Let's see how long you can last.' Ret thought.

The Guardian didn't believe that he could keep this on for the next two days and a half since no creature had an endless amount of stamina. And he was correct, Lumen didn't have a neverending vitality, but for every bit of stamina he used, he recovered even more by killing the creatures summoned by Ret-Yohda.

This Test was perfect for Lumen. Since unlike the Bone Hydras, whose lifeforce was mostly stored in their hearts, all the monsters that the Guardian summoned had their lifeforce in their bodies.

Lumen continued killing the sand creatures for another half a day, and Ret started bringing in even stronger ones.

'He should be getting tired at this point. Let's see if you can handle the next wave.' The Guardian summoned his Snake-Scorpions. A creature with the lower body of a scorpion and upper body of a snake with four pincers for arms. Each of them was nearly as strong as an Advanced Ranker, and Ret had summoned over a thousand of them.

Lumen was more than happy seeing them. He had already gathered so much lifeforce from the previous waves of creatures, that he was starting to get drunk on it. He continued humming in his head as he slew them one after the other.

Ret continued summoning the Snake-Scorpions for the entirety of the next day, and he started noticing that no matter how much energy Lumen used, he wouldn't get exhausted. He was shooting out his black flames like there was no tomorrow.

'How does he have so much energy?' Ret questioned himself. 'He should be tired by now.'

Lumen had also gotten hit numerous times during the past two days since he didn't care about the attacks from the monsters. As long as the attack wasn't going to hit a vital spot, he ignored it. Lumen would instantly recover from any damage taken from their attacks with his white flames and surplus amount of lifeforce.

'How is this possible?' The Guardian questioned himself. He hadn't even planned on summoning his Snake-Scorpions since the Test was an endurance one. His weaker creatures should have done the job without a problem.

'Does he really have endless stamina?' Ret thought. 'No! I refuse to believe that!'

The Guardian then summoned one of his stronger creatures, Sikta-Rong. They looked like a Komodo Dragon with longer legs and a spiked ball at the end of their tails. Their scales were extremely tough, and even an Advanced Ranker would have trouble getting through them.

Each Sikta-Rong was stronger than Ammos Fidi, but the massive snake was a creature that couldn't reproduce naturally and was born from the dense Shinsoo produced from Ret-Yohda.

Sikta-Rong, on the other hand, didn't have a problem breeding, and at least a hundred of them get born each year.

They were considered lesser dragon species, and the moment they laid their eyes on Lumen, they let out an enraged roar. His presence alone put them in a frenzy.

A massive orange Baang gathered in front of each, and they shot it towards Lumen. He couldn't afford to get hit by them, so he transformed his body into light and avoided the attacks.

The Sikta-Rong were troublesome opponents, and he would normally have some trouble with them, but he had a surplus of lifeforce to work with.

Twenty massive Baangs made of black flames appeared in front of him in nearly an instant. Without hesitation, he threw them towards the Sikta-Rong.