Samantha was the person who answered his questions and shared a lot of information with him. Arthur did not like the idea of letting her get hurt or even dying.
“To even up the odds.”
Arthur owed her after all the help she handed to him, but saving her at that moment would surely make both of them even, and he liked that.
She was running away from a group of beasts, and appeared near the cave Arthur was hiding in. Was it a coincidence?
It was not the first time those two had met, and surely it would not be the last. Samantha screamed and was almost giving up, but then Arthur showed up!
For a moment, she did not believe her eyes. Arthur again? Samantha also felt the coincidence was too much, but obviously did not show any of that, and smiled when seeing him.
“Arthur! You are an angel! Please, help me!”
They barely knew each other, but Arthur was already an angel in her eyes, showing up just in time to save her life, like a knight in a white horse.
Arthur wanted to repay for her kindness when they first met, so he ran toward her and grabbed her by the waist.
It took her by surprise, and Samantha’s cheeks were like tomatoes, and her irregular breath made it obvious that she was not used to something like that.
“What are you doing?” Samantha said.
“Saving you, obviously. I may look young, but I am already married, okay?”
He ran away from the beasts with Samantha in his arms. Arthur did not use his teleport spell, but his cave was not that far from there, so there was no need for it.
Once both of them were inside the cave, Samantha finally relaxed.
“Thank you, Arthur, but are you sure this place is safe?”
“No worries, and yes, it is. I built it myself, so the beasts will not find us here, but we still need to go out to look for water and food.” Arthur said.
Samantha sat on a rock, breathing heavily after everything that had happened. She did not think the beasts would rush toward them the moment they stepped inside the sixth floor, and despite all the mages saying they would team up, everyone split.
She did not have anyone to rely on, and the number of beasts following her increased after each passing second. Different from those three monsters who were in the tenth circle, Samantha was not that strong.
The power she had was in the ninth circle, and that level of power kept her alive for that long. She did not believe those in the eighth circle would easily pass through that test, perhaps only with a special stealth spell to avoid the beasts, but who would have that?
Those beasts sensed them, no matter what invisibility spell they used. Hiding was impossible. At least Samantha found nothing useful.
“We are safe than, that is good to hear. I don’t know how to repay you, but if you ever travel through the mountain area in the north part of the continent, look for my family, and I will surely give you a place to stay.” Samantha said.
Arthur felt the sincerity in her words, which pleased him a lot. He was yet to be sure if she was truly a good person, as appearances could fool someone, but at that moment, Arthur felt she was a good person.
A good person was a strong word. She was someone who knew how to repay kindness and offered a hand if Arthur ever needed. He would surely need as the central continent was the next place he would go, so having any type of connection there was priceless.
Connection was one thing he wished to get when helping her.
“That would be great. Samantha, do you know how this test works?”
Arthur was almost 100 percent sure the test was just like George said, where the person had to survive a X amount of time before reaching the next floor.
Even though he knew the answer, Arthur wanted to see if anyone else had the same guess, or if those three who knew about the sixth floor had shared that information as well.
“After seeing how those beasts followed me everywhere, and their number seem to increase, as if it was endless, I guess we have to survive here for some time? I don’t know the specifics, but that would make the most sense, as official mages cannot enter this realm, and I can only see official mages being able to kill all those beasts.” Samantha said.
Different from Arthur, Samantha had people in her family which were in the official mage rank, so she understood their powers better. She knew only official mages could fight against that many beasts, but those figures could not enter inside the dimensional realm.
If you can’t kill the beasts, you should at least be able to run from them, making it more like a surviving test. Samantha guessed correctly, which gave Arthur a better impression of her.
“I believe that as well, and that is why I focused on building this safe place in the last 24 hours. The only problem is, how long do we have to survive on the sixth floor before reaching the seventh?” Arthur said.
“Who knows, but it shouldn’t be that long. Perhaps a week? There are more floors for us to pass, so this one should not last more than that.”
She was once again correct. The sixth floor was not the last one. The tower had over fifteen floors. If the required time to pass through each floor increased the more one climbed, then those youths would spend at least one year inside that place.
It was too much. Arthur could not wait that long. He had to reach the official mage rank, travel to the central continent, and explore it, getting the sacrifices needed to free George.
He also had to see his wives, the academy they were building, and stop the beast invasion, as well as the invasion from the other continent.
Not to mention finding Nefion, and the Sky City if possible. A lot of things to do, so wasting time inside that place was something Arthur did not want.
“You can stay here while I get us some food and water. I’ll get water for us to drink and shower.”
“Shower? Inside this cave? I don’t see any privacy.”
Samantha’s face was red again. Arthur looked at her with a smirk. “You wouldn’t be the first hot woman I saw naked.”
With those words, he left the cave, leaving a stunned Samantha behind, who had wild thoughts about what would happen when both of them showered.
“He is married, Samantha, married. Calm down, breath.”
She kept saying that to herself, trying her best to send away those nasty thoughts.