Chapter 66 - new city

Chapter 66: Chapter 66 - new city

We enjoyed the beach for a while longer. It had been a long time since we had seen a place like this, and after everything we had experienced, being able to relax somewhere peaceful felt wonderful.

The warm sunlight, clear water, and gentle sea breeze made it easy to forget about the dangers of the Tower for a while.

I lay back and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere.

Ahh, this is great. If only every place in the Tower were like this.

Unfortunately, I knew that was impossible. This was the Tower World, after all. Who knew what kind of danger we would encounter next?

After relaxing for a while, I looked toward Nyx and Azera.

Nyx seemed completely fine, enjoying the peaceful surroundings. However, Azera’s mood seemed a little low. She wasn’t saying much, and her expression suggested that something was bothering her.

I considered asking her about it, but eventually abandoned the thought.

We weren’t exactly close enough for me to ask about her personal problems. Besides, if she wanted to tell me something, she could do so herself.

I wasn’t going to force her to talk.

After spending some more time at the beach, we finally prepared to leave.

Our next objective was to find the elves and obtain information about the Elven Tear. Since we knew almost nothing about this new world, we decided to keep traveling and look for anything that could help us.

We followed the road for a while until we finally discovered a village.

As we entered, I noticed that it was quite populated. There were people walking along the streets, and various races could be seen going about their business.

What surprised me most was that there were humans living here as well.

It seemed that this place was home to people from many different races.

Unlike before, we didn’t bother wearing disguises. Since humans were already living here, there was no particular reason to hide our identities.

As we continued walking, I turned toward Nyx.

"So, what are we going to do here?"

She glanced at me before answering.

"Nothing special. We’re going to look for extremely valuable items in the Tower."

I looked at her in confusion.

Extremely valuable items? Isn’t that a little too vague?

Seeing my expression, Nyx continued explaining.

"We cannot contend with the entire elven race. Fighting them directly isn’t a reasonable choice, so the only option we have is to make a deal."

I nodded slightly. That made sense.

No matter how confident I was in my abilities, fighting an entire race wasn’t something I wanted to do without a good reason.

Nyx then looked at me seriously.

"And if you encounter them again, don’t kill them."

I nodded.

"Fine. I won’t kill them."

With that settled, we continued walking deeper into the village.

As we explored the streets, we eventually approached a few humans. Since we needed information about the Tower, I decided to ask one of them.

"Hello. We recently arrived on these Tower floors. Do you know what we’re supposed to do here?"

The man looked at us, and a faint glint flashed through his eyes.

My expression immediately darkened.

I didn’t know what he was thinking, but I didn’t like the look he had just given us.

Without wasting any time, I approached him and put an arm around his shoulder as though we were old friends.

At the same time, my slime transformed into a dagger, and I placed it against his neck.

I kept smiling as I spoke.

"Try anything, and your head will be flying off the next second. So be careful with your words."

The man’s face filled with terror.

"O-Okay! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you everything!"

I nodded with satisfaction.

"Good. That’s the spirit."

The man swallowed nervously before explaining.

"The challenges begin on the lower floors. From time to time, challenges appear on each floor, and people receive invitations to participate. If you complete them, you can obtain rewards."

I listened carefully.

He continued, "If you don’t want to follow that path, you can also explore the floors yourself. There are treasures hidden throughout the Tower, and you can gain power by killing monsters as well."

I nodded.

So there were different ways to progress. We could participate in challenges for rewards or explore the floors ourselves to find treasures and fight monsters.

That sounded reasonable enough.

The man continued explaining the rules.

"Once you advance one tier beyond Bronze, you can proceed to the next floor. That’s how progression works. You also cannot pass through the barrier unless you’ve reached the required power level."

I nodded with satisfaction.

"See? That wasn’t difficult at all."

I removed the dagger from his neck. The man immediately let out a relieved breath, clearly grateful that I had finally released him.

However, before stepping away, I leaned closer and whispered into his ear.

"If you look at her with lust again, be prepared to live without your eyes."

The man’s expression stiffened.

He quickly nodded, understanding that I wasn’t making an empty threat.

I straightened up and returned to my usual smile before looking at Nyx.

"See? These people are so friendly. Let’s go."

Nyx nodded, although she looked completely speechless.

She probably had a lot to say about my methods, but fortunately, she decided not to say anything.

However, her eyes sharpened as she turned toward the man again.

"Tell me, what’s the situation on the higher floors? Is there a human hierarchy here?"

The man nodded nervously.

"Yes. You can climb the floors peacefully at first, but once you reach the higher floors, things become more complicated. I heard from someone that you’ll eventually need to join a faction."

Nyx continued listening as he explained.

"There are factions associated with gods, and there are also worshippers."

My eyes twitched.

Gods? Why don’t these people worship my greatness instead of chasing after those godly figureheads?

Seriously, what was so special about those gods?

I was standing right here, after all.

Unfortunately, nobody seemed interested in acknowledging my greatness.

The man continued, explaining what little he knew about surviving on the higher floors.

I listened, but it seemed that he didn’t have much more useful information to offer.

I waved my hand.

"He’s useless now. Let him go."

Nyx released him, and the man sighed heavily. However, he still glared at us, apparently unhappy about the way we had treated him.

I ignored his expression.

After all, he was alive, and we had obtained the information we needed.

Before we could leave, Azera suddenly spoke.

"Wait. I have a question too."

The man’s eyes twitched as he turned toward her.

When he saw Azera’s appearance, his eyes widened slightly. Her beauty had clearly surprised him.

Fortunately, he didn’t look at her lustfully. Perhaps my earlier warning had worked.

However, I couldn’t help sighing internally.

This man is hopeless.

Apparently, I had threatened him against looking at Nyx with lust, but I hadn’t said anything about looking at someone with admiration.

Well, that wasn’t my problem.

I turned toward Azera.

"Go ahead. Ask whatever you need to ask. And make sure he isn’t hurt."

The man looked at me in disbelief.

"Huh? From the way you look, you don’t seem like someone who cares about my life."

I shrugged.

"It’s because you gave us a lot of information and helped us, even after I threatened you. So it’s fine. I won’t let you die."

The man stared at me for a moment before nodding gratefully.

"Then I thank you."

Azera looked at him and asked, "Do you know anything about the elves?"

The man shook his head.

"I’m sorry, Dragon Miss. I don’t know much about them. I’ve only seen a few adventurer groups heading out, but I don’t know where they went."

Azera seemed disappointed by his answer.

Before she could ask anything else, a system message suddenly appeared before us.

[A challenge has begun on this floor.]

I looked at the notification, then turned toward Azera.

"Hey, let’s look for that information another time. If we enter this challenge, we might be able to find out more."

The man nodded apologetically toward Azera.

"I’m sorry, Dragon Miss. I really don’t know anything else about the elves."

Azera nodded, accepting his answer.

With that, we turned our attention to the newly appeared system message.

We had come here looking for information about the elves, but now a challenge had appeared before us.

Perhaps participating in it would give us a better understanding of this world.

At the very least, it was another opportunity to obtain useful rewards.

And as long as there were rewards to be gained, I certainly wasn’t going to ignore the chance.

Then i went to accept the invitation but nyx hit my head "hey asher are you going to abandon azere add her to the team."

I glare at her "hey i forgot whay can’t you be normal and told me instead of hitting."

Nyx just snorted.