There were countless battles happening all throughout the 1st floor of the tower. Each of these battles was fought with a different strategy, and a different mindset, by people with different goals and preparations… with one ultimate goal.
They were fighting against enemies to survive.
Survival was the one and only original reason for their battles. They were fighting so that they could survive both on this floor as well as in this ruined world.
Coming to the tower was a choice. While the primary goal might have been resources, wealth, fame, or something else, right now, everyone was trying to survive on this floor.
"So, is that how it is…?" KiRA was asking questions to the two elders while serving them food, something that might sound harmless, however even he was in a mental battle right now.
There were a lot of things that the dwarves could not tell him. It wasn't out of will, the tower restricted the sharing of information about the higher floors equally to the Natives as well.
The dwarves were residents of the tower's higher floor, and they were living on a lower floor right now. There were restrictions on him, however, KiRA knew how to get the information that he needed.
He was asking them twisted questions, questions that the dwarves found strange at first but then realized were aimed to obtain information on something else.
He would ask them whether there were certain kinds of flowers growing in certain areas of the tower, whether a mine that was in the game was in this tower as well, facts from history that used to be common knowledge.
By utilizing a complex combination of the questions, KiRA was piecing together the answers that he wanted from these dwarves.
It was like a game of chess where both parties wanted the other to win. They were helping the other party while staying within the rules, making the overall process unnecessarily complicated.
However, since that was the only way to get what he wanted, he could not play around this method.
He was fighting against time, he was fighting against rules, and it was not easy even for someone like him.
It wasn't a battle against a monster, it wasn't a battle against a puzzle. It was something even more difficult… however, the others would not know about any of that.
-Boooooooooooom!
The A2P2 party had advanced to the fourth zone and was fighting against a section boss right now.
It was a [Young Minotaur], a creature of (Level-40) and something that had high magic resistance.
The [Rank-9] mage's magic wasn't working against him. Zyon was leading the group with a fierce strategy, pinpointing the attack pattern and the creature's habits to take advantage of the situation.
There were three different parties of 12 people each fighting against the creature. The average level of the party now was (Level-15). Zyon had advanced to (Level-20) while the strongest of them, the mage professor, was of the lowest level.
His magic skills were powerful and helpful even though they were fighting against a being like that, so Zyon still utilized him in the battle.
With their tanks at the front, the main damage dealers took turns attacking the creature.
The creature's first stage was still easy to deal with, however, when the minotaur entered the second stage and went berserk, the energy that it exploded with was unbelievable.
"MOOOOOOOOO!"
One of the parties at the fronts was heavily injured so they were called back and Zyon rearranged the tanks.
He needed to go in himself from that point on, so he asked the mage professor for cover as he entered the battlefield… ready to save the party that he was growing fond of.
-Swiiiiiiiiiiiish!
He knew they were strong enough to take this opponent down easily.
They were going to pass through that zone and march forward towards the very end of the floor.
And just like them, there were other parties who were confident that they could move on to the next zone.
"This is not it either…?!" Sadly though, they weren't fighting a monster.
"This is nonsense!"
The party of the eastern alliance was far ahead of the A2P2 party. They were almost nearing the boss area of the floor, passing through a zone where they could not use their strength and skills.
There was a puzzle blocking the transition area, a puzzle that they could not solve even with the smartest people that had brought with them.
"There comes a time in your life when you start questioning the meaning of your existence… I'm questioning the meaning of your existence right now." The leader of the Eastern Alliance Party was extremely furious right now.
They had some of the smartest people in the world with them and they had brought them here exactly for puzzles like these.
The puzzle did not look too complicated either. There was a floating cube before them and they needed to match all the different sides on the cube like some rubix cube— the only twist here was that the 30 faced cube was changing its positions the moment any side had more than half of the same pieces.
Simply put, they needed to find a position and algorithm where they would be able to move the sides of the cube in a way that they would not match on any one side.
"C-captain. This… this is more than what we expected."
These smart people that they had brought with them also possessed special analytical skills that made them as good as a computer.
They were great at what they did, it was just that the puzzle this time was just that complicated…
"Fifty minutes! J-just give us… fifty minutes, captain!" The old man was terrified.
He had not faced a situation like this even when he was working for his state's monarchal president's secret operations.
If he made any mistakes, these people would cut him and his group down in an instant. Their captain was dead set on maintaining hierarchy among them.
He had already killed people before their very eyes just to set an example, so they did not want to face the same fate.
They were having a rough time… but then again, they were still alive.
"Ma'am? Will we stay for a little longer?" A man, somewhere else on the same floor inquired about their next move.
"I'm almost done so you can go ahead and start assembling the others."
The one who answered him was currently cleaning up blood from her blade.
Before her, on the ground, a pool of blood was bubbling up with strange black pollution coming out of the bodies of the dead.
Their body was covered in either various small cuts or were cut down in pieces, a fate that they most certainly deserved.
"We still have to track the remaining ones down."
This woman who wore a silver-white armour, possessed golden flowing hair and amber eyes so clear one could see the 'past' within them, had just finished a bunch of criminals that were running havoc in this tower.
They were the northern criminals that had entered the tower after forming an organization, and she was the one the North appointed to take care of them.
"Let us go, aide."
"Yes, Dame."
She was the northern [Rank-9], an individual who dedicated her entire being to justice, light, and her people.
She was the one of the few that possessed both Holy power, as well as Aura, making her the sole Holy Swordsman of the world– coming from royal lineage, knighthood was in her blood.
With the appearance of the tower and skills, her wish to rid the world of evil had only been aided positively.
There were obstacles within her path, but she was not afraid of them.
She would simply have to push through and defeat anything that blocked her march.
Nothing was going to stop her…
{ "They will arrive soon… kekekeke~." }
Not even the boss monster of this damned floor.