Challenging the Tower of Growth wasn't a prerequisite for something else. It's the reason why Elizabeth and Rumia, as well as their party members that belong to the A-1 class, had postponed accessing the mysterious Tower. Although the two princesses were special and unique, their party members understood that they needed to proceed with what was supposedly done, if not for the System Reboot.

In the colosseum, the princess of Etheria, Elizabeth, was cautiously staring at the man who was standing across from her. This colosseum was mainly used for training purposes by the security personnel or players that were working in this place, one of the most secure prisons in this country.

The expression of the man was of that serene, seemingly accepting the impending death since escaping from such a prison was practically impossible — especially with the presence of the two rulers of their own respective countries.

The only people in this colosseum, apart from Elizabeth and the guilty prisoner, were Eliana, Queen of Etheria; Rosalin, Queen of Nereia; Rumia, the princess of Nereia, and each equerry of the two queens.

"What's the sin that made you deserve capital punishment?"

Elizabeth asked, curious. She and Rumia received beforehand the profiles of the guilty prisoners that were meant to be executed, on this day, as a form of their real-life training. The profiles only included the criminals' basic information such as their names, ranks, and professions; their transgressions weren't included.

"I was a kidnapper, Princess."

Tightly gripping the Personal Weapon, White World (Legendary) in her hand, Elizabeth looked at the man, her light green eyes constricted.

"I see... You're nice enough to a–"

Without any warning, the guilty prisoner vanished from his spot. Elizabeth, who was visibly shaken for a moment, composed herself, perceiving the direction of the incoming, sudden attack.

Clang-!

The guilty prisoner or the man with short black hair, grey eyes, and a well-built body under the prisoner's orange uniform, appeared in front of the princess. Elizabeth, being a combat-oriented woman as she was, anticipated the direction of the strike. At that moment, in only a few seconds, with the start of the execution battle, countless exchanges of strikes had already been made.

One, two. Numerous strikes were reverberating from the middle of the colosseum. Elizabeth looked at the man with cautiousness, scrutinizing his every movement.

With the nature of her skills, Space, after distancing herself from the guilty prisoner, activated the Macro-Teleportation, vanishing from her spot to widen the distance between them. This was the skill that she spammed using during her first Virtual War under Professor Murak's class, Player Physical Education.

Seizing the moment, taking advantage of the distance between them...

[Activating Skill: Blessing of the Space Overseer (SS)]

[Activating Skill: White Perception (SS+)]

[Activating Skill: Weapon Space Coating (SSS)]

***

[Blessing of the Space Overseer (SS)] Effect: Increases the player's overall stats by 150. Let the player float freely for 30 minutes.

[White Perception (SS+)] Effect: Turning the eyes of the player into lustrous platinum white. Helps the player discern the "correct" space coordinates for 30 minutes.

[Weapon Space Coating (SSS)] Effect: Grants the White World a Spatial attribute, letting the player cut through space for 30 minutes.

The Skill: Weapon Space Coating was her most dangerous skill because if she cut through space with the wrong coordinates, unknown disasters would be invited. But this skill was in perfect harmony with her Skill: White Perception since it would help her discern to cut through the "correct" space coordinates.

But, at this moment, it wasn't only the above-mentioned "buff" skills she activated, just like she did during her first Virtual War. Instead, she activated the skill that she hadn't managed to use since the Virtual System Data didn't have a record of the origin of this skill.

[Activating Skill: Bacterium of the Vacuum (SSS+)]

[The characteristics of the Space Species, Water Bear, have manifested in your body!]

[Your survivability greatly increases!]

[You will be immune to any Elemental Attacks for 5 minutes.]

[You will be able to survive outside the world's atmosphere for 1 hour.]

[You will be able to auto-deflect 10 fatal attacks during the 1-hour duration.]

Under normal, ordinary attire, not an armor of sorts, a white aura emanated from Elizabeth's body, her light green eyes turned platinum white.

The guilty prisoner faintly smiled, looking at the princess with clear abnormal strength for her age.

"I am glad to die by your hands, but it doesn't mean that I'll go down without a fight!"

He lunged forward, wielding his Personal Weapon, a pair of daggers that would be with him before his fated death.

historical

***

[You have arrived at the 3rd Floor of the Tower.]

[Duration: 29 minutes, 2 seconds.]

Russell, together with the party, reached the 3rd floor after a quick massacre of 250 Goblins from the 1st to 2nd floor. On the 2nd floor, they split into 5 groups since they surmised that the Goblins would be divided into 5 tribes, which turned out to be a correct assumption. Then, they discovered that each tribe had its own War Horn. Including the one from the 1st floor, the party now then possessed 6 War Horns.

"I think it'll be all Orcs from this floor to the next."

Jiho spoke, glancing around the area where they arrived at. The scenery was almost the same as a clump of towering trees lined up in their sights. The only difference was that it was all forested; there wasn't a small green field similar to the 1st and 2nd floors.

"Let's split up again, but into two groups this time."

Samantha suggested, no, more like ordered.

After dividing the groups, each of them went in two separate directions; Samantha's group went for the uncharted territory in the North, while Russell's group went in the West. They didn't use the War Horns which would certainly attract all the Orcs because it was highly dangerous, being swarmed at.

Running nimbly into the forest, Russell spoke, about something random. But he did it through telepathy so he would be heard clearly.

<Did something strange happen to all of you in the past few days? Or weeks during the vacation?>

<Um, is there a difference between the Gods, Goddesses, and Constellations? Because in the Chaos Training Grounds, in some way, a God named Vulcan descended. What I mean is that the System message referred to him as a God, and not as a Constellation.>

Amery, with her sword, not a Personal Weapon, in a scabbard hanging on her waist, responded.

<You're joking Amery, right? Why am I still alive then? You know I was there with you the whole time.>

Without the help of the unknown Cosmic Skill from the Goddess of Night, like when she met personally the Lady of the Shaded Spade, Amelie should have evaporated when Vulcan descended because she didn't have the blood of a deity or a Constellation, unlike Amery.

<About that, you fell asleep suddenly before he arrived. I don't know if it makes sense, though, but the timing seemed on point.>

Russell's ears pricked up, remembering a familiar scene.

He then asked, curious:

<When did that happen?>

<I think it was before the System Reboot.>

Russell thought of the time when Freya suddenly felt an irresistible urge to sleep. It was just before he was led to the Cosmic Dream, seeing his memories in the Hidden Dungeon, and had some unknown, enigmatic visions.

'Did the Goddess of Night make Amelie fall asleep, too at that time? But why did Amery...'

Suddenly, he came to a realization. Amery wasn't the type of person to joke around, so if she really met Vulcan...

<Amery, for what purpose did Vulcan have when meeting you?>

Russell asked, curious. Freya was just listening to their conversation in her head.

<About that... I guess it's okay to share this since I trust the three of you. Vulcan gave me a memento or diary of my mother. I didn't know what reactions would I have at that time because he called me the Daughter of the Blood Monarch.>

The three of them looked at Amery, with wondrous faces.

Russell, in the past few days, accessed the subsequent chapters of his unpublished novel, torturing his brain with the aftershock that was swallowed into Nothingness.

He recalled Amery's profession, Blood Swordsman. It could be passed down with a simple ritual of drinking a vial of the blood of the former Blood Swordsman, in Amery's case, her mother. But considering the uncountable Untouched Elements, he didn't make a thorough description of her profession. It's more like he wrote about it just to exist in his novel.

'It's not like I can complain about it anymore.'

Russell thought, accepting the fact that he himself was the most peculiar anomaly to ever exist in this world, at least in his perception.

"Smoke ahead."

Freya cut off his, and the other two's thoughts. A cloud of black smoke was finding itself on the way to the sky.

***

Soon, the four of them found themselves atop several trees. They jumped up, and scouted the area ahead, discovering a tribe of Orcs that were around 75 in number.

"That's too many. It means Samantha's group will encounter the other tribe, presuming that these monsters are only divided into 2 tribes."

The Orcs, having dark green skin, like a leaf with excessive chlorophyll, was around two and a half meters tall. The perimeters of their base were made of sturdy tree trunks of unknown species, situated around ten meters above-ground. There's also a gate made of the same materials, with 10 Orcs guarding them, holding crude spears. Their lodgings were made of wooden huts that matches their stature.

Russell, setting aside the information about Amery, inspected the detail of one of the Orc guards.

***

Name: —

Race: Orc

Family: False Green

Rank: E-

— STATS —

Strength: 299

Swift: 299

Fortitude: 299

Intelligence: 299

Magic Power: 299

***

"I guess everything really changed, huh."

Apparently, Amelie also inspected the Orc guard's information, which was shortened Post-Reboot. The Health Points, Mana Points, and Stamina Points weren't included in the monster's Status Window. It would mean that a player wouldn't know if the monster was about to die, really exhausted, or could cast skills. In other words, raiding a dungeon of any kind was now proven to be more difficult than it used to be.

"Do we need a backup? Wait for them?"

"No, I think we should be fine."

Russell answered Freya's casual question, he then used the Skill: Absolute Concealment (EX), turning him invisible to the enemies' vision. After that, he wore the artifact, Mask of the Night (EX), to increase his Agility, considering he'd blend in the shadows. It's a double concealment ability of two different sources.

"Let's go."

Russell calmly spoke. The three women looked at each other before each of them nodded. They couldn't see Russell under the Skill: Absolutely Concealment, but they instinctively knew his location.

Without waiting for the three, Russell jumped from one tree to another before landing a few meters away from the Orc guards, his feet didn't make any sounds.

Pak-! Pak-!

Seemingly to instantly appear in front of the first four Orc guards, with his Skill: Void Acupuncture (EX), he strongly pressed the acupoints of the Orc guards, rendering them to lose their footing and involuntarily dropping their crude spears. It was the job of the three women behind him to kill these Orcs, who instantaneously turned useless.

Somehow intelligent, the other Orc guards, who saw the sudden fall of their comrades, thrust their weapons in the air, trying to hit the invisible culprit with their luck.

Russell, wearing an unknown expression, silently dodged the crude spear that went his way, and admired the action of the Orc guards, who, at first glance, seemed to be the epitome of idiocy.

After a few seconds, Freya, Amelie, and Amery arrived. Not reacting to the Orcs that were alive, but on their knees, they proceeded to behead each one of them. Amelie, using the Staff of the Lost Shade (Growth), fired a Mana Blast, in close proximity, on the faces of the kneeling, immobile Orcs. The Orcs' heads disappeared like broken dolls.

Amery, on the other hand, used the sword technique she bought in the Thorn of Rose with Russell's help. While in the Chaos Training Grounds, she honed her fighting skills by only using the sword technique that contained at least Seven Movements.

[Pale Crimson Sword Technique, 1st Movement: Crimson Slash.]

Removing the sword from its scabbard, Amery drew an arc, not one, not two, but seven arc crimson slashes were beautifully drawn, mutilating two immobile Orcs at the same time. There were remnants of slashes left in the air as though it savored the blood spilled from the monsters.

Freya, holding her temporary Personal Weapon, Arianne's Wish (Unique), aimed for the necks of the immobile Orcs, thanks to her older brother. After that, she then aimed for the ankles of the Orcs that weren't restrained by Russell, inflicting them with the Intrinsic Effect: [Desolation], slowly draining their Stamina, and poisoning their bulky bodies.

Russell, from a distance, silently observed his Chaos Companions, watching for any possible unexpected circumstances, as he waited for them to finish killing the Orc guards. Then, with the commotion they caused, the Orcs inside their small utopia were now alerted.

'It's Chaos time.'

Russell thought, slightly exhilarated, seemingly having a burning desire to let out some steam by murdering some Orcs.