One week had passed and Souta managed to clear the 92nd floor. In this week, he trained inside Saya's inner consciousness to fight without using his eyes. At the end of the 92nd floor, Souta fought two monsters at his level. The monster that could rival the third evolution stage, an S-rank.
Despite his disadvantage, he managed to kill them while using most of his cards. The [Possession] and [Monster Orb Release] were used on this floor. The founder of the Great Astley Empire was nothing compared to these monsters.
After he cleared the 92nd floor, Souta rest for a day before he head on the 93rd floor.
Just like what he expected, he still couldn't use his sense of sight. Also, the difficulty has increased. It's not just his sense of sight anymore but also his sense of smell was disabled. But he didn't have a problem with it. His sense of smell wasn't that strong compared to Yuko and Doranjan so he rarely used it to sense his surrounding area.
The monster on the 93rd floor was still as strong as the monster on the 92nd floor so he handled it the same. He was also getting used to his current condition.
It took him three days before he cleared the 93rd floor. He then saw that he level up and finally reach level 44. It was within his expectations as the monsters that he was hunting were B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank. Just a single S-rank already gave him exp equal to a hundred A-rank. This farming was more efficient when he was killing the soldiers of the Great Astley Empire who only had a power level of D-rank and C-rank expert.
Unfortunately, he couldn't gather any souls from the monster here in the living labyrinth as they were just created from the energy of this place to test the people that wanted to get the god's legacy.
But then he was still an early third evolution monster as his level was only 44 but his combat power was as strong as those high third evolution monsters. He could even defeat some of them if he used his cards pretty well. By the way, Doranjan was already at this level. A high third evolution stage and was close to a peak third evolution stage.
There was another reason why he could rival a high third evolution stage. The [Ruler of Sub-world] boosted his strength as the worlds that were under the rule of the Great Astley Empire recognized him as their leader ever since the Astros was established.
So Souta head to the 95th floor after he recovered from the battle on the 94th floor. On this floor, his disadvantages have increased once again. His sense of hearing was disabled. He couldn't hear his own voice and the sounds in his surrounding area.
The worse case was that he couldn't even hear Saya's voice.
'Even telepathic communication was blocked!!'
He thought inwardly as he felt a sense of crisis. Fortunately, he could still enter Saya's inner consciousness. Once he entered her inner consciousness, he could use his senses so he could hear her voice. It was a relief for him.
Time passed quickly and Souta just kept training to clear this living labyrinth. His effort in training level up some of his combat arts.
...
Isabella and Yuko were on the 60th floor looking at the white cocoon of energy in front of them.
"Almost two months had already passed and they still haven't come out of the last trial. Are they going to be fine, Yuko?"
Isabella said as she rested her chin on her palm. She smiled as she heard Yuko's words which say that her master is strong so don't worry.
"You're right, Souta and others are strong so I just need to believe in them."
Then, a crack formed on the white cocoon and it slowly spread out on its surface. After a few moments, the cocoon was shattered and a girl that looked like a 14-year-old child came out.
The girl was small as her height was just four and a half feet. Her skin was light green and she had a purple color tattoo on her hand up to her neck. She had a shoulder-length dark red color hair, her big round eyes had the same color, and her lips were black. Black spikes with green color tips protruded on her shoulders.
"Oh, you've grown beautiful Yenxa."
Isabella commented when she saw Yenxa's appearance. Her eyes sparkle as she slowly approached the cute figure. It was completely different from before.
That's right. This little girl was Yenxa, the little goblin that he picked when they were in Planet Greia. This time she finally reached her second evolution.
She couldn't believe it. A goblin would grow this pretty. She haven't heard anything like this when she was still a slave.
"She's beautiful, right Yuko?"
Isabella turned to Yuko and heard a "Tch!" sound in her mind. It felt like Yuko was dissatisfied with Yenxa's current appearance.
"Err..."
She scratched her cheeks with an awkward expression while looking at Yuko and Yenxa back and forth. She didn't know what to do at this moment.
"Glad to see that everyone is fine."
A voice sounded behind them.
Isabella turned around and saw a tall man with short black hair. The man had thick brows and sharp eyes.
"Oh, you're back, Torkez." She smiled when she saw Torkez.
"Yeah, is that Yenxa...?" Torkez asked as he observed the little girl. The difference in appearance was huge so he couldn't recognize this little girl from the bald goblin before.
"Ah, yes. She evolve and reached the second evolution stage." Isabella replied. She then slowly asked, "Are you alone? Did you meet the others?"
"No, the trial is hard..." Torkez said as he recalled the things that happened to him. "The 91st floor is a huge maze. It would be easy to clear it but somehow I couldn't see anything in the maze. It took me a lot of time before I cleared it. It was hard and it's traumatizing."
"What do you mean?" Isabella asked with a curious expression. She didn't challenge the 91st floor and beyond so she didn't have an idea what they experience.
"All the time I couldn't even use my eyes. Ever since I entered that place my vision was blocked by some unknown power and it took me two weeks before I passed the 92nd floor. I couldn't even imagine that I had to fight without using my eyes. I could only keep up with those monsters because I had great control over my parasite." Torkez sighed as he glanced at the ceiling. Then he continued, "On the 93rd floor, my ability to smell was blocked and then my ability to hear was blocked. I think on the 100th floor all the senses are blocked and we have to fight powerful monsters without it."
"Isn't that too hard?"
"Yeah, I couldn't only clear the 95th floor before I gave up. I could hardly defeat any S-rank monster with my current strength so I decided to give up."
Torkez was an A-rank expert and he just reached it when they started their expedition in this living labyrinth. It's been four months when he reached this level and he was close to achieving the intermediate stage.
According to Souta, A-rank has four stages. Initial, intermediate, high, and peak stages.
A person will become an A-rank if they managed to liquefy a drop of mana in their mana pool, and that's the initial stage of A-rank.
If a person liquefy a quarter of their mana in their mana pool then they were at intermediate stage.
If it was half then it was at high stage.
Lastly, the peak stage. A person will achieve it if that person managed to liquefy all the mana in the mana pool.
He had a technique to help him liquefy his mana. He received this technique from Souta and it was a technique that he haven't found in the Great Astley Empire. He didn't know that Saya was the one who passed this technique and she just used Souta to strengthen his forces.
Saya didn't have any care about giving powerful techniques to Torkez and the rest. They were bound by the parasitic essence eater and those parasites have completely fused in their bodies. In other words, they were Souta's possession.
"It seems that I'm the first one to give up," Torkez said with a sigh. He knew that he was the weakest among the people that challenged the 91st floor to the 100th floor.
"You don't have to feel bad about it. At least you challenged it while I'm stuck here." Isabella said.
"Huff... Since there is nothing to do I'll just train while waiting for them to come out..." Torkez said as he patted his clothes.
"Okay, I'll just check Yenxa's ability first..." Isabella nodded at him.
"Oh, I'm curious about it too."
