Chapter 671 - The 32nd Floor
Chapter 671 – The 32nd Floor
Since they had successfully completed their awakening, the floor began to decompose as their reward was dispensed to them in the form of a screen. Draco gazed at his mother who was chatting with Kiyoko and Dante who was laughing uproariously, while Akihiko looked embarrassed on his behalf.
A complicated glint flashed in his eye, but he looked away, putting them to the back of his mind. He would see for himself, the truth of everything.
｢Congratulations on completing: Tower of Babylon Thirty-First Floor
Time elapsed: 0:23:25
Objectives complete: All
Assessment: EX+
Reward:
35,000 Score Points
1 Treasure Selection Reward – Peak Silver Grade｣
The first floor of this set was quite elementary in the end. All they did was awaken, and very spectacularly at that. Eva was surprised, though.
"Normally, you always put your swordsmanship in front of your bloodline." She stated, rather than asked.
Draco nodded. "I personally prefer it that way, but this time, it wasn't up to me."
Eva understood. Just like on the first floor, when they were being assigned alternate classes, Draco had opted to show off his swordsmanship instead of his bloodline. He had therefore been ranked at the Divine-grade using that world's standard, whereas Eva had been ranked Origin-grade because she had used her bloodline.
Draco too could have easily gotten Origin-grade if he had used his bloodline, but his preferred fighting style was using his various powers to supplement his swordsmanship.
The fact that it had been graded just one level behind the bloodline on those floors spooked Eva, because it showed how monstrously talented Draco was and how far he could go.
Draco and Eva entered the thirty-second floor right away. After all, this one had mostly been a freebie since the Tower had assigned them powerful guardians.
In fact, one might even argue that the one who had actually been tested had been the mirage of that National Peasant, who had nearly died back then.
Alas, Draco and Eva were sure that the Tower would 'correct' the storyline once again to fit its agenda.
｢The Thirty-Second Floor – Divine Quest
Description: You are in the World of Martial Spirits! Here, children at the age of ten undergo an awakening ceremony to unlock their hidden Martial Spirits and embark upon the path of Martial Arts!
You have grandly awoken to great fame! You are now about to undergo a short tournament to decide which sect you will belong to. The higher you place the more solid a foundation you'll be able to build for your future in this world!
Limitation 1: Magic does not exist in this world, only Qi and Martial Arts!
Limitation 2: You may retreat from the floor at any time, but upon re-entry, you would have to resume from the exact situation you were in at the time.
Limitation 3: You cannot use any class-based skills or abilities, as well as your equipment.
Limitation 4: This world is ruthless, dog-eat dog in the truest sense. There will be no mercy or pity.
Provision 1: You retain your power from outside, but only in terms of stats and only after you awaken Martial Spirits.
Provision 2: You may freely use any healing items and consumables in your Inventory.
Provision 3: You can use any and all of your Tradeskills at will.
Rewards: Score Points, 1 Silver-Tier Reward Selection.｣
Draco and Eva spawned in a waiting room, where 30 other kids sat with either confident expressions or fearful ones. One thing was for sure, they all gave Draco and Eva a wide berth.
Reading the description the Evil Duo (as they were still 10 years old, so looked just like their real selves) was very surprised. Did this Tower finally change its annoying habit of railroading the storyline by resetting their efforts on previous floors?
Or was this just the natural setting for those floors to be like this? Well, there was only one way to find out.
Soon, they heard the voice of an announcer that riled the crowd up and explained the tourney rules. It was a straight elimination, with seeded contestants kept away from each other.
Draco and Eva were not bothered, simply waiting for their turn. Soon, the listing was out, and Eva got assigned number 1 going against number 2, while Draco was number 32.
Given their numbers, the Evil Duo would only be able to meet in the finals. This made Draco and Eva smile as they gazed at each other, sparks flying from their eyes.
In terms of most things, they were equal, with Draco taking the lead in overall talent and techniques, while Eva took the lead in bloodline development. This stoked their competitive nature to decide who would wear the donger in the relationship for the next short while before it defaulted back to Draco.
Draco naturally could not afford to lose, because wearing the donger not only meant taking the lead, but literally being the donger-wearing fellow! Draco did not want to bend over and have his booty punished by Eva!
After all the vile and evil things he had done to her recently, there was no way Eva would spare him!
The stakes for this tournament were truly high!
Eva left when called for her first battle, and Draco curiously watched. Eva was good at adapting to new energies, while Draco was good at adapting to new fighting styles.
Draco felt like he could learn a lot by watching how Eva used her Qi.
The match began, and the boy sent to fight Eva was a confident one who refused to back down. He manifested a spirit of a large Dragon-Ape, an 11th grade Martial Spirit.
It should be noted that this tournament was for the top prodigies of all the top clans, and from the best cities, so not a single contestant had anything worse than a 10th grade Martial Spirit. No one here was precisely cannon fodder, so anything could happen.
Her opponent was at the 9th level of the Muscle Tempering realm, which was almost double Eva who was at the 5th stage. However, the young girl only smiled and did not manifest a single spirit.
She simply used her Extreme Killing Techniques: Death Walk. It was a variation of stealth that was more direct. It sent the other party into a short illusion that Eva was walking directly at them, but she had long disappeared from view due to the speed of her movement and her ability to bend light using Control.
It should be known that the Extreme Killing Techniques were based on Control, just like Draco's Paragon Sword Style or Peerless Sword Style. That was how it could achieve such extraordinary effects, especially with Eva who was at Tier 5.
The lad in question saw the mirage of Eva approaching him and panicked, fortifying his defense, which was quite high given the nature of his Martial Spirit.
However, standing in one place was never the right idea in a fight unless you could boast total invincibility. Eva appeared behind the fellow and placed a single finger near the nape of his neck.
Her other Extreme Killing Technique, Veil of Worlds, allowed her to sense the weakness in any defense due to her Atomic and even Quantum level viewing. She noticed that at back, just to the right of the spine, was the weakest place.
Delicately, Eva placed a single nail there and elongated it using Tier 5 BoG to pierce into the boy's neck deeply, though not enough to kill him. When he came to his senses and realized Eva was behind him, and could rip his neck open at any time, he began to sweat.
The judge was surprised, but called off the match. The crowd entered into an uproar, having seen everything, since Eva did not exclude them. Such wonderful and advanced Martial Arts!
Technically, the Extreme Killing Techniques did count as Martial Arts in this sense. In fact, any techniques using martial force outside of bloodline counted as Martial Arts, which was why Eva had showed it off.
Draco, by the side, was not as impressed, rather he felt dissatisfied. He had expected Eva to use her strength, but his Soulmate had used his strength instead. She really did not want to give him any chance to win whatsoever.
When Eva came back, she made a humping motion, which made Draco grit his teeth.
Despicable!
The fights continued until it was Draco's turn at the end. The first round had been rather interesting, and both Draco and Eva got to see interesting Martial Spirits as well as a display of this world's Martial Arts.
Draco went on stage and gazed at his opponent, who was a girl. She was quite pretty and had a fierce look in her eyes, but she was 10. She had nothing that made her womanly, so Draco did not find her attractive, only adorable.
What made her even more adorable was that cute blush on her cheeks because she was obviously slightly infatuated by Draco, but she tried to remain fierce nonetheless.
Draco almost couldn't bear to harm such a lovely little lass.
Unfortunately for her, the keyword was 'almost'.
When the match began, he simply raised a finger and made a cocking motion like a gun. The girl opposite him was surprised at first, but manifested her Spirit which was a Spider-Boar, a 10th grade Martial Spirit.
She rushed over with a boar-like charge, her arms moving erratically like pincers as she picked up great speed with each step. If Draco allowed her to reach full momentum, this female juggernaut might smash him to bits.
Draco smiled and fired his finger gun at her chest, and to the shock of the crowd, a small cone of air erupted from his finger and struck her in the gut. This completely halted her charge and knocked the wind out of her as she was sent offstage.
Draco smiled and blew away smoke from his finger gun while the crowd erupted once more, but even more than with Eva.
Many sect representatives and Elders stood up with shock on their faces.
"Impossible, Impossible! Manipulating the elements with Qi can only be done at the Sublimation realm!" An Elder roared with madness.
"Investigate! That boy must have done something!" Another Elder got up and exclaimed, his beard crackling with lightning.
The judge for the match was under pressure, because he simply wanted to call it and move on, but those old fossils seemed to be unwilling to accept that someone can do what they couldn't.
"RUBBISH!"
The entire arena went quiet when Draco shouted out his own disdain towards all the clamoring Elders. They stared at him with disbelief, not understanding how a mere Junior dared to speak to them like this.
"Just because all of you might have been mediocre during the Muscle Tempering stage means that everyone else should be as well? Ignorant! Instead of clamoring about cheating and impossibility, use your dog eyes to analyze what I just did." Draco continued with a light of disdain in his eyes.
"IMPUDENT!"
"ARROGANT!"
"DISRESPECTFUL!"
While the Elders continued to clamor in anger, Draco simply pinched his ears. These annoying fellows reminded him of Clarent, yet unlike the retarded Dragon, it was far less amusing seeing a bunch of grown-ass men make fools out of themselves.
"Hmph, you claim to be Elders, but what is special about you if you can't see something so simple? Look! The Elders and Masters of the Top 10 sects have not uttered a word!" Draco added as he pointed to the VIP section of the stage, where a few aged men and women sat in different colored robes with different insignias.
They had been smiling and striking their chins/beards to the clamoring, and when Draco pointed out their superiority, they smiled wider and developed a favorable impression of him.
The Elders from the Lesser Sects were dumbfounded by this, realizing that Draco was right! The others did not make a single sound while they had been shouting!
One of the top Elders smiled and spoke softly. "Very observant, young man. I can attest that he did not cheat. He did not turn his Qi into the Wind element to strike, as he is at the Muscle Tempering realm."
"What the lad did was contract his muscles from his feet to his fingertip, squeezing and compressing power at each juncture in order to build force. When that force matured, it was released in the form of an air cannon."
The Elder then pointed at the out-cold girl, who was frothing at the mouth. "If it weren't so, he wouldn't have needed to wait for that girl to manifest her spirit or make a charge. He could have fired it right away if it had been a Qi Skill."
The explanation left all the onlookers enlightened yet flabbergasted. It sounded so simple, but those who practiced Martial Arts among the crowd knew that this was as difficult as ascending the heavens.
It was no longer a matter of realm, but purely talent, technique, and training that could achieve such power.
Many gazed at the young Draco who was smiling proudly with awe and reverence. What a monster! What a prodigy!
After the judge heard those words, he regained his confidence and announced Draco as the winner. The lad then went down the stage and returned to his seat.
Eva who was there was struggling to keep her laughter in. Her cheeks were swollen, and her eyes were red, on the verge of breaking out into uproarious laughter.
Draco was amused as well, because he too wanted to laugh out, but he had to put on a show.
After all, the Elders from the Top 10 sects were also wrong!
Draco hadn't used any bullshit muscle cramping, or whatever they were talking about. Sure, he could have done it with Control's BoG – and the Avatar had actually done something similar during the Raid – but that was not what he had used.
No, what he had used had been Subjective Magic!
How?
Subjective Magic was not a class-based or equipment-based skill. No, Subjective Magic came from a specific title!
｢Mage God (Rank 3) – Special Rank
Able to use Subjective Magic without limits. Opens the willpower and concentration stats. Spells cost 30% fewer resources to cast. This Special Rank title is always equipped without occupying a slot.｣
So as titles were not banned on this floor, only equipment and class abilities, he could freely use Subjective Magic! Of course, it was powered by Aether Energy from the crystals in his Inventory, as he could freely use those according to the floor rules.
The Elders could not sense Aether Energy because it was foreign to this world. They knew about Qi Energy, but not about Worldly or Aetheric, so they had no idea what he had done.
However, since Draco had passed the ball to their court, they had basically been forced to spout bullshit all this while, which was why Eva was on the verge of choking. The way they sat there smugly, looking down on the Lesser Sects for being inferior and blind just added to the irony.
Soon, the next round began and Eva was called up again. She fought against a girl this time, which made her amused. Although they were both of the same sex, Eva didn't show any mercy, as she apported behind the girl using her bloodline and struck the nape of her neck.
Those in the crowd simply believed her to have a really fast movement technique, even the top Elders. Only Draco knew that Eva was utterly shameless and despicable, even using her bloodline against an innocent little girl.
When she came back, he gave her a look of disdain, but Eva simply pretended not to have seen it. Afterward, the other had their turns to fight, which was still quite interesting for Draco and Eva to witness.
Then Draco's turn came, and he went up on stage. He was fighting against a lad who had a grade 11 Martial Spirit, the Centaur. He had great charging speed, significant offense, and defense.
Draco used the BoG tier 5 to quicken his blood, making his skin steam as it became slightly red in color. Naturally, he entered the correct 'pose' to facilitate, allowing a breath of steam to leave his mouth.
"Gear… Second." Draco muttered, a mild smirk on his face as he had dreamed about being able to do something like this in the previous timeline.
His opponent charged Draco and struck, yet the steaming boy met him with a blow of his own. Even empowered by his Martial Spirit, the lad's face changed as he howled with horror.
He was blown out of the stage like a meteor, crashing into the stands explosively. Draco stood there stupidly, retracting his pseudo-transformation, and staring at the other guy with incomprehension.
Eva then tittered and sent him a telepathic message. "The floor details stated that even though we lose all class abilities, we retain our stats. That means we have our peak Rank 3 Abyssal Prime and Celestial Prime stats, despite just being 10-year-olds."
Draco smacked his forehead. That made a lot of sense, no wonder the fellow had been blown back like some wretched toy. In fact, Draco was lucky the lad possessed such a powerful Martial Spirit, or he might have been blown into bloodmist directly.
The judge's lips twitched as he announced Draco and the winner while the other lad was carried away for healing. Eva also finished off her foes cleanly, but Draco always made his foes look like they were about to die.
This fellow!
Draco returned to his seat with a bored expression, as if he was a lonely expert who could not find anyone to match his power. This naturally infuriated the judge even more.
The Quarter Finals began and Eva went up to deal with her foe who had an 11th grade Martial Spirit, Ox King. The fellow was a burly youth and quite ugly.
He wore a crazy smile as he activated his Martial Spirit and stood in one place taunting Eva to strike. After all, his strong point was defense, so he believed no one could harm him.
Eva simply appeared before him and seemed to punch him on the chest lightly, but a huge explosion occurred that sent the fellow reeling to his knees, clutching his chest in agony.
To others, Eva simply did what Draco had done but much stronger. However, Draco saw that Eva had punched the fellow numerous times within the short spans of a second, yet she had made it look like it had only been one hit.
After that, she casually walked down while the fellow was rushed away. Draco then came up on stage next to fight a fellow with a grade 11 Martial Spirit, the Spiked Rhinoceros.
He was another defensive fellow, but with a twist. He reflected all physical damage back to the attacker! Strike him all you want, the only one you'd be hurting was yourself!
Just how was Draco supposed to deal with such a fellow?!
Super easy, barely an inconvenience!
Watch this!