The 29th floor was very easy for Alex, as he once again got to cheat his way to victory.
Before he was called to the battle, he left behind Whisker, who could watch everything that was happening from outside.
And since Whisker could see it, he could too.
He easily beat his opponent in a single strike. He waited until it was his turn again, and he beat his opponent then too.
After he won it all, he was sent to the next floor.
The 30th floor.
Alex looked around on the 30th floor. There were not that many people here at all. There were 5 different rooms here and everyone seemed to have entered them already.
'Another 5th floor,' he thought. 'So this one should be a solo one too.'
"Let's see what this one is," he thought and went to one of the rooms that just opened up.
When he entered the room, he saw the same small room as he did on the 20th and 25th floors. There was a glowing wall in front of him, reminding him of the previous floors as well.
A voice spoke, "An attack of the same strength as your Cultivation base will be launched from this wall. Defend it with all you've got. If you can defend against that attack, you will get to move up."
"Okay," Alex thought and prepared himself. A few seconds later, the wall launched some sort of glowing projectile at him with the strength of Saint Foundation 3rd realm.
He easily blocked the attacks with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He moved his arms around a bit after the attack disappeared and waited for himself to be teleported.
"You pass," the voice said. "But you have a chance to skip the next floor. If you can defend against an attack that is stronger than your cultivation base by a realm, you can skip the next floor. If you fail, however, you will be sent back to the first floor. Choose."
"Oh! It's a skipping floor," Alex thought with surprise. He had gotten to skip 21 through 24 floors thanks to the challenge on the 20th floor. The 30th seemed to be a similar one as well.
"Go ahead."
He got his guard up as another attack landed on him. He easily defended against that as well.
"Would you like to try again? This time around, you will have to defend against an attack that is stronger than your cultivation base by 2 realms. You can skip the next 2 floors if you are successful."
"Yes," Alex said and defended again.
Once again he was successful. His body alone was strong enough to defend against the first two attacks, and the third attack merely needed him to use a bit of Qi
At this rate, he was going to get to skip another 4 floors.
"Would you like to try again?" the voice asked. "This time around, you will have to defend against an attack that is stronger than your cultivation base by 5 realms. You can skip the next 3 floors."
"Of course," Alex said and defended once more. Since this attack was Saint Foundation 8th realm in strength, he had to use his Qi to stop it. If not for that, he would not have been able to do so as well.
"Would you like to try again?" the voice asked one more time. "This time around, you will have to defend against an attack that is stronger than your cultivation base by 10 realms. You can skip the next 4 floors."
"10 realms…" Alex paused. "Can I defend against Saint Core 4th realm?" Definitely not with his Qi and body alone.
A blood armor formed around him as he accepted the challenge.
"I can do it," he said. A very strong that could deter some of the strongest people in the tower currently landed on him and he himself was surprised at how easily he defended against it.
He could defend against attacks from early Saint Soul realm cultivators, so this really was nothing.
"Would you like you to try again?" the voice spoke once again. "This time around, you will have to defend against an attack that is stronger than your cultivation base by 20 realms. You can skip the next 5 floors."
Alex was tempted for sure, but even with everything he had, he knew he couldn't defend against the attack of a Saint Soul 5th realm cultivator.
He had been destroyed by a Saint Core realm cultivator exploding, this was definitely even stronger.
He shook his head. "This is it. I would like to leave," he said.
"Congratulations on skipping the next 4 floors," the spirit said. "You will now be taken to the 35th floor."
As the voice said that, Alex was teleported to the 35th floor, with no one there at all.
'I'm not the first here, am I?' he thought as he looked around.
There were 5 rooms on that floor, of which 3 seemed to be inaccessible. Even from where he was, he could already see the cracks outside of those rooms.
'It's getting worse?' he thought to himself.
The other two rooms were both open, so Alex went to one of them. He arrived in a massive room, similar to the ones from the other floors, not something that he expected to be on another 5th floor.
In the center was a puppet.
'Another puppet challenge?' he thought.
"Fight the puppet for the next 10 minutes without losing," the voice said. "It will have your cultivation base."
"Hmm?" Alex was surprised.
"The fight will begin now." Without any other warning, the puppet suddenly moved towards him.
???????????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????????????? ???????? ????????????????????-????????????.????????????
Alex jumped backward and dodged the attack, but suddenly a fire-breathing snake shot out from the puppet's hands.
Alex took out a sword and cut the fire snake, and shot a palm attack of his own. The puppet took the palm attack directly and didn't even take a single scratch as damage.
"Oh, not bad," he thought. He shot out a few sword slashes, which the puppet somehow easily destroyed despite the attacks supposedly being only as strong as his cultivation base.
It then punched and Alex punched too. The two punches clashed, making the room vibrate with so much energy that the walls started softly shining with the formations hidden within it.
'That's definitely my cultivation realm of strength,' he thought. 'But its defense is immeasurable in return.'
As he thought about it, that made sense. The test was supposed to run for 10 minutes, so getting destroyed in the very first minute was probably not what the creator wanted from this thing.
As he was thinking that, a mental attack struck him out of nowhere, distracting him from his thoughts.
"Dammit!" Alex cried out with some annoyance. It didn't hurt, but it definitely didn't feel good. He struck back with his own mental attack, but who knew how that worked against a puppet?
It probably did nothing.
He continued fighting it for the next 10 minutes, throwing everything he could at it, while dodging all the same.
In the end, 10 minutes passed easily and he was given way to the next floor.
So, Alex left and arrived on the 36th floor.