Chapter 152: The Hollow Crown [5]

Floor 21.

It was a labyrinth of shifting stone corridors where walls rearranged themselves every few minutes.

Gale’s wind sense helped detect the correct path before each shift completed.

They cleared the floor in under twenty minutes.

Floor 22–24.

They were open combat arenas stacked vertically.

Waves of increasingly coordinated monsters poured out from side gates.

Klein easily cleared them and continued forward.

The tracking chip on his wrist pulsed steadily upward.

Floor 25.

A pair of twin guardian beasts with four arms wielding heavy glaives blocked the central path.

He did not stop and continued forward without rest.

Floor 26–28.

In this series of floors, environmental hazards dominated.

One floor was a series of collapsing bridges over a lake that actively pulled at mana.

Another was a hall of reflective surfaces that spawned mirror copies of any beasts.

Floor 29.

No monsters appeared at first.

Instead, the floor tested endurance as it slowly drained mana over time.

Klein simply sat down in the center, regulated his breathing, and waited the effect out while circulating mana through his dual cores.

When the drain finally stopped, the exit gate opened.

Floor 30.

The Hollow Crown Tower had entered the range where records were made.

The chamber was vast and circular, and in the center a single black monolith was floating, slowly rotating.

Then the temperature across the vast circular chamber dropped sharply.

Ice began to crawl outward from the base of the monolith in jagged, crystalline patterns, spreading across the black stone with a soft crackling sound.

Klein’s breath misted in the suddenly freezing air.

’It suddenly got cold...’

A low growl rolled through the chamber. "Grrrrr...."

From behind the monolith, an enormous wolf stepped into view.

Its body was massive, and it was covered in thick, pale-blue fur that glittered with a constant sheen of ice.

Jagged crystalline spikes of frozen mana jutted from its shoulders and along the ridge of its spine.

Each step it took left a trail of spreading ice on the floor, and when the wolf opened its jaws, a visible plume of freezing mist poured out between rows of razor fangs.

Gale’s fur bristled, and the jaguar spirit let out a sharp warning snarl as it sensed the overwhelming ice attribute radiating from the guardian.

The enormous ice wolf lowered its stance, and the muscles coiled beneath the frost-covered fur.

Then it dashed forward.

*swoosh* The platform shuddered under the sudden explosion of speed.

A wave of freezing mist trailed behind the beast as it closed the distance in a single bound with its jaws wide open.

Klein planted his feet and brought the spear up in a hard diagonal block.

CLANG-

The wolf’s fangs slammed into the shaft with bone-jarring force.

Ice immediately began crawling along the black spear, trying to freeze it solid.

Klein’s arms shook from the impact, his boots sliding several centimeters backward across the frost-slick stone.

He twisted the weapon sharply, forcing the wolf’s head to the side, and muttered without looking back.

"Gale, step back."

The jaguar spirit hesitated for only a second before it leapt back to the corner of the room.

It also realized that this scale of fight is not something it can handle.

Klein shoved the wolf’s head away and immediately stepped in.

He drove the spear forward in a heavy, two-handed smash aimed at the beast’s shoulder.

*THANK* The tip struck one of the crystalline spikes and shattered it in a burst of frozen shards.

The wolf snarled and retaliated at once, swinging a massive forepaw in a wide arc.

Klein ducked under the swipe, letting the ice claws whistl past his hair, and slammed the butt of the spear upward into the wolf’s ribs.

*THUD*

A deep thud echoed through the chamber.

"Grr..." The wolf staggered half a step, but it recovered immediately.

It lunged again, and this time with its entire body weight behind the charge.

Klein met it head-on with his spear shaft braced across his body.

*THOOOOM*

The collision sent a shockwave of ice and force outward, cracking the stone beneath their feet.

Klein smashed the spear down across the wolf’s snout, splitting the skin and drawing a spray of dark blood mixed with ice crystals.

The wolf answered by slamming its shoulder into him, and the spikes left deep, freezing cuts along his arm.

Klein gritted his teeth, ignored the spreading numbness, and spun with the impact, using the momentum to deliver a rising spiral thrust that punched deep into the meat of the wolf’s neck.

"Awuuuu-"

The ice wolf howled as freezing mist exploded from its jaws in a wide cone and blasted it toward him.

*feeeen*

Klein leaped back just in time, but the edge of the blast still caught his left arm, coating it in a thin layer of frost.

He shattered the ice with a sharp flex of mana and charged right back in.

The spear shaft slammed sideways into the side of the wolf’s head with a heavy *crack*.

The beast’s entire body was lifted off the ground and hurled across the chamber.

*BOOOM* It crashed into the far wall hard enough to spiderweb the stone and send a shower of debris raining down.

The wolf staggered back to its feet, shaking its head as dark blood dripped from its jaws.

Before it could fully recover, Klein was already there.

He closed the distance in a single reinforced step and drove his shoulder into the beast’s chest.

The collision lifted the massive wolf again.

Klein followed through, slamming it back against the same wall with enough force that the stone behind it cracked deeper.

*THOOOM*

The crystalline spikes along the wolf’s spine shattered against the surface, spraying sharp ice fragments across the floor.

The guardian snarled and raked both forepaws across Klein’s back, tearing through his jacket and leaving deep, freezing gouges.

Klein ignored the pain and grabbed one of the wolf’s front legs with his free hand and heaved.

The enormous body left the ground once more.

Klein spun with the full weight of the beast and smashed it face-first into the opposite wall.

*THOOOOM*

The impact was brutal.

A long, jagged crack ran up the chamber wall from floor to ceiling.

The wolf’s head left a deep, bloody indentation in the surface before it slumped downward.

Klein did not give it time to recover.

He grabbed the wolf by the scruff of its thick, ice-crusted fur, pulled the massive body upward, and slammed it down onto the platform floor hard enough to crater the black stone.

*THOOOOOOM*

"G-Gr..." The ice wolf let out a choked, wet sound as blood and shattered ice sprayed from its mouth.

Its limbs twitched, trying to push itself back up.

Klein stood over it as blood ran down his own back from the earlier claw strikes.

He adjusted his grip on the spear and looked down at the battered guardian.

Meanwhile, Gale, who was witnessing the fight, stood there in horror seeing her master’s antics.

Without using his spear, he is beating the shit out of the wolf with raw power.

A soft breath escaped Klein’s lips ’Haa... I missed this feeling of beating monsters like this.’

’I hope I run into more demons and dragons in the future.’

The enormous ice wolf tried to rise one final time.

Its front legs pushed weakly against the cratered stone as dark blood mixed with shattered ice crystals pooled beneath it.

Klein stepped forward, raised the spear high with both hands, and drove it straight down through the back of the wolf’s neck.

*puchi* The tip punched through thick fur, muscle, and bone in a single thrust.

A wet *crunch* echoed through the chamber as the blade exited beneath the beast’s jaw, pinning the head to the floor.

A final plume of freezing mist escaped its open jaws.

Then the massive form collapsed completely.

Klein held the spear in place for a moment longer, making certain, before he pulled it free with a sharp, wet scrape.

The temperature in the chamber began to rise almost immediately as the guardian’s ice attribute faded with its death.

Gale approached cautiously from the edge of the platform with its eyes fixed on the corpse.

The jaguar spirit sniffed once, then sat beside Klein without another word.

Klein felt the wounds on his body healing and clenched his fingers.

---

Outside the Hollow Crown Tower, the massive leaderboard flickered again.

Evelyne’s eyes moved across the rankings out of habit until a new name suddenly climbed into the top ten.

Then higher.

4th - Klein Faress - 31st Floor

Evelyne’s eyes widened in utter shock. ’W-What...’

For a second she simply stared, as if confirming she had read it correctly.

Then a sharp breath escaped her, and a rush of excitement filled her heart.

She took one step closer to the board without realizing it.

"He did it..." she muttered under her breath, and an ecstatic smile appeared on her face.

"He actually reached the thirty-first floor already."

"I-I need to send this to Master."

A short distance away, one of the press crews also noticed the sudden change.

A reporter pointed up at the glowing rankings, "Wait... look at the board! New entry just jumped into the top five!"

Several cameras swung toward the leaderboard at once.

"Klein Faress...? 31st Floor?"

"THAT Klein Faress?"

"The first-year from Grayhaven?"

"Yeah, I remember him, he beat Shui Yinran herself in a spear match and it became a big talk."

"The Genius? That one?"

"He entered the Hollow Crown Tower too?"

Austin also raised his head and looked at the leaderboards.

He frowned slightly, looking at the name "Klein... Faress."