"Before I answer your question, Layla, please clear any doubt I have first. How many people cleared the first floor before me? And how many left the place alive?"
Eren asked, trying to look as casual as he could be. Layla smirked at him before answering playfully:
"Hehehe! The result you obtain by clearing the first floor of the tower is different from other rankers, Eren. They wouldn't gain the same type of rewards as you. Plus, certain rewards are only reserved for the half-bloods that the normal ranker or even bad-copies like anthropes wouldn't get.
Even if you count the normal rankers, the number of people clearing the tower floors is usually very low. And it gets lower the further you climb inside the tower.
But no matter what kind of rewards the normal rankers get after barely surviving through their ordeals on their respective floors, they wouldn't obtain the mark I told you about in the dungeon. Because they are not half-bloods.
Plus, yours is a special case even among the half-bloods. You'll find out soon enough. Just don't freak out when you do it. Hahaha!"
Layla completed her statements and started lighting while holding her hands over her mouth in vain. The butcher was half jittery and half curious about what Layla was talking about. He wanted to see what this so-called "mark" Layla was hinting at ever since his entry into the underground dungeon.
Finally, the curious part inside him won over and he replied in affirmation to the caretaker's previous question
"Alright, Layla. I'm ready. Show me the rewards."
Eren was expecting the spectral screen Layla had shown him earlier to display the list of rewards and their battle prices for him to choose from. But contrary to his assumption, Layla didn't pull up and screen. She snapped her fingers and made an array appear on the ground, with him standing in the centre.
"Hehehe! This time you will have to get those rewards yourself, Eren. Listen to this for your own benefit before you leave. Be polite to my master.
She is not as tolerant as I am, you know. She might get angry at your silly remarks. And trust me, you don't want to anger her. Hehehe! I hope to see you alive so that I can finally leave this boring place. So all the best!"
Layla spoke but Eren was too stunned to reply immediately. As the array on the ground was getting brighter by the moment, he asked with sweat trickling down his forehead:
"Master… you master! Layla, are you telling me you found a new master in recent years?"
Layla looked at him with a puzzled expression before answering him seriously:
"No silly. Nobody has the calibre to make me serve them apart from my master. You are going to meet the master I always had and will always have."
Eren opened his eyes wide in surprise and shouted out loud:
"Wait a fucking minute. I don't want any…."
The array lights exuded blinding lights and teleported Eren before he could complete his sentence. Layla smiled devilishly post the butcher's departure before disappearing from her place as well:
*************************
A massive castle-like structure stood before Eren when he was teleported away. The white snow had filled his vision everywhere he looked. But the castle was void of any ice accumulation. He could feel the warmth coming from the structure that stung his skin more than the ice could.
'Who preheated this castle to this degree?'
Eren had a weird thought in his head while trying to make sense of the place he was at. An abyss-like pit served as the castle's perimeter that Eren couldn't see the bottom of. There was only one huge bridgeway he could use to enter the structure.
Eren didn't want to enter the structure. But he sensed that he couldn't escape from this place unless he met up with whoever master Layla was talking about. He might as well be lenient and endure the ordeal than irritate the caretaker's master by running away.
"Eren, my man, you can do this. You have had more difficult experiences in life before. Compared to that, this thing is nothing…. I hope."
Eren motivated himself before starting to walk towards the entrance of the castle. He soon crossed the bridge and saw a huge doorway welcoming him with its equally huge, widely opened doors, which were inscribed with various runes. They weren't active and were only exuding a dim light. But Eren could sense that the runes, the size, and everything about the place were way out of his league.
Eren kept walking. It was supposed to be daylight according to Purgatory's logic. But the place he was teleported to didn't look like it had exposure to sunlight for ages. There was a feeling that this part of the separate dimension was forever stuck in the twilight zone.
The light got dimmer as Eren entered the corridor. He took one more step and realized that he had crossed a thin layer of something he hadn't sensed before. The place looked the same. And he wasn't teleported. He felt more chills while inside the castle than outside, where there was heavy snowfall.
Eren looked above and saw that the ceiling was about two hundred meters above him. The corridor was also about 20 meters wide and about 80 meters in length. A faint light emanated from the other end of the corridor.
As he entered the corridor, the butcher tried to suppress his nervousness. Something seemed off to him. As if he would be forced to come here one day even if he had avoided entering Purgatory using the Illuminati's connections this time.
'Too late to back down now. If I'm going to die here, so be it. But I want to look death in the eye this time. I refuse to die as pathetically as I did last time.'
Eren steeled his heart and kept on walking. Renita's words were suddenly remembered by his disturbed psyche and calmed him down a bit:
'Don't fear the reaper.'
