"Ha!" Sherry sent another barrage of Fire Swords, the evolved Firebirds skill, overwhelming the 8-Star Martial Emperor monsters.
"That's your one-hundredth monster." Alex nodded and smiled upon seeing Sherry's control over her fire. Although there was a lack of Sword Intent, it was, by no means, weaker than your average attack, especially for those 10-Star Martial Monarchs.
Alex was watching her like a coach, assessing her ability and giving some tips while he was at it. To be honest, Sherry's fire ability was already far above average. If he wasn't an Alchemist, he might already lose in terms of Fire Control.
That was why Alex advised her while incorporating Alchemy Fire Manipulation. It was the most effective set of training to let one improve their control.
Hearing Alex's voice, Sherry reduced the monster to ashes with her fire before preparing for the next monster.
The next monster coming out the gate was a giant beetle. Sherry immediately tried melting the beetle's hard carapace with her Pure Fire. Luckily, it was only another Martial Emperor monster, so it posed no challenge for the time being. Sherry killed it in a matter of seconds.
Repeating this process over and over again, the day passed. Just like Sherry, Firia also underwent the same training to gain experience from killing monsters. She had the least amount of experience in combat, so Firia didn't reject the idea. In fact, she appeared very excited to fight these many monsters.
The same applied to the third group, specifically Kyle and Stina. Stina aside, the main focus in this group was Kyle. Even though he was a reincarnated person, he had no memory of his previous life. Hence, his fighting prowess was considered as the lowest in this group, despite having 10-Star Martial Monarch strength.
After three days of killing, the rate of monsters coming out gradually decreased until sometimes they needed to wait for a few minutes before a single monster came out of the gate. This only happened on the last day, and Alex decided to enter the tower and caused a stir to grab the monsters' attention.
According to Nelson's report, this incident baffled the soldiers. They were ready to fight many monsters only to find it became easier than the record.
Unfortunately, they wouldn't know the reason why this event turned like this because Alex had created his Special Array, covering a small region. The Special Array had some Gathering Arrays for cultivation, Sound Insulation Array, and Illusion Array to camouflage the realm. This way, not only the monsters wouldn't be able to break through this barrier, but the people outside also couldn't find it.
Alex had a perfect spot to train the group.
After they killed all the monsters on the first floor, nothing happened on that day. The change only started when midnight came.
A large booming sound startled the entire battlefield as the pillar shone in bright red, illuminating the world. They had no choice other than closing their eyes due to how bright it was. Luckily, Alex could still see what happened through his Spirit Eyes.
The energy on the first floor was forced to go out before the second floor collapsed to the ground, replacing the first floor. It could be said that the original fifty floors had become forty-nine floors, with the first floor had the size of two whole floors.
Alex was impressed and scared at the same time. He realized that the monsters would rage inside the pillar because of that sudden change and stormed outside the pillar.
Sherry, once again, became the main attacker while the rest watched her from the sideline, only moving when Sherry needed help.
This pace continued for several days until the third floor came. To their surprise, the third floor didn't come immediately. Despite watching over it throughout the whole night, there was no shift inside the pillar as if it was waiting for something.
Alex and the group were baffled because they didn't know when the floor would collapse.
Only after two days the tower finally made the change. Luckily, there was no change in the monsters, so Alex didn't have any plan change.
At this point, Nelson's investigation finally bore some fruits.
He learned that the monsters had a certain time limit for each floor, and it would continue to increase.
They needed around three weeks from the start of this event before facing the first giant hurdle in their path, the fifth floor. According to Nelson's report, the fifth floor had important monsters such as peak Martial Monarchs… And there was also a chance to fight invisible monsters on this type of floor. Of course, it would only appear on the higher floor, and Alex knew it wasn't an invisible monster. Instead, it was a Space Monster.
According to Nelson, they would only reach floor twentieth before the portal to the inheritance palace opened. Alex didn't know what kind of portal it was, but Nelson told them Firia had the key to open the door.
They were startled at first before Firia recalled the scene when she teleported. She indeed came into an illusory realm where she got a golden key. She didn't know what it was, but she still took it because it flew to her hand and stuck.
When she tried to think about it, she couldn't summon the key, making her confused. In the end, Alex shook his head and let it go. At the very least, if they were stuck in something, they knew Firia would be the clue.
At the same time, Alex felt something was wrong.
If they only reached the twentieth floor before the inheritance palace, they wondered whether to keep killing monsters or go to the inheritance place. Knowing it was far dangerous to head there, Alex decided to go to the inheritance place while the spirits kept watching the gate. The moment he realized he couldn't beat the trial alone, he would need to summon everyone.
Anya proposed to have Leoz and Anna as his additional bodyguard beside Firia and the contracted beasts, and he accepted.
On the other hand, Alex was a bit sad because he couldn't take advantage of the monsters to get all the EXPs and Gacha Tickets he needed.
He still remembered his repeatable missions where he could get a certain number of Gacha Tickets from killing a hundred monsters. Even if most monsters were Martial Monarch or lower and only gave him one Gacha Ticket every one hundred kills, he was confident he could kill more than five hundred thousand.
That alone would give him five thousand Gacha Tickets. He still got on with the normal way. It might not be comparable to those from the system, but he should still receive around one thousand to two thousand Gacha Tickets. Besides, he still had a higher mission where he could kill those in the same ranks or the Martial Saint Stage, giving him more Gacha Tickets.
His original prediction, he would be able to get ten thousand Gacha Tickets from this event alone. If he added the levels that his Spirits would receive, he kept smiling for a period of time.
Unfortunately, it seemed the world didn't want him happy because he would need his Spirits later…Or at least, that was what he promised.
Nelson also had one last important report. It was an investigation about the other challengers. As they expected, the unknown guy from the Plide Kingdom was Nelson. The Earl must have reported him to the royal family, and they desperately searched for him but to no avail.
Alex only laughed upon this matter because he didn't care about the Plide Kingdom as long as they didn't stand in his way. As for the Evvy Kingdom in the north, they seemed to have contact with Julius and Elizabeth. Although the two didn't like each other, they had no choice other than teaming up in this weird and dangerous environment. Even Elizabeth knew better about it.
Meanwhile, Lush in the west had gotten three people: Rio, Evelyn, and Angela. Alex decided to keep an eye on this kingdom because of Evelyn. He just wanted to make sure she was treated well inside the kingdom, albeit he had no chance to confirm everything due to time and other problems.
Lastly, the Zealous Kingdom had the rest of the people, except Song Ling'er. He was confused about why her name wasn't on the list. Although he doubted she would run into danger, he still thought of some possibilities. Her brother, Song Jiaoren, might become submissive to him because of the card, but he also needed to show some sincerity. As long as he met her in the future, he didn't mind helping her a little bit… Or Firia would help her because he wasn't supposed to be here.
After around sixteen days, the fourth floor started releasing the monsters. Alex had no change of schedule and let the others do the rest. The monsters were still weak as they only found a couple of Martial Monarch monsters while most of them were Martial Emperors.
Alex and the others already became bored since the monsters didn't pose any challenge. It wasn't really a useful experience for Firia and the others because they didn't really fight back before dying in front of them. Even Alex and his spirits began joining the battle as they let the three rest.
Finally, the long three weeks passed, and they finally killed all the monsters. The pillar shifted once again. The time for the real battle was about to begin. And Alex became excited to see whether they had something special with this fifth floor other than stronger monsters.