The plan to climb up the stairs to fight the creature brought Viktor's spirit back. Finally, he could unleash his irritation with fights.
Before heading up, he checked out his companion's situation.
[Jessie Wineberry - Battle Power: 41 - Earth Realm - High stage]
[Evangeline Amelia Bardott - Battle Power: 30 - Earth Realm - Initial Stage]
[Barry Pennyworth - Battle Power: 25 - Earth Realm - Initial Stage]
[Torri Helsinki - Battle Power: 26 - Earth Realm - Initial Stage]
[Boris Oslo - Battle Power: 26 - Earth Realm - Initial Stage]
[Kosta Tamyr - Battle Power: 27 - Earth Realm - Initial Stage]
It was certainly surprising that Eva's stat was higher than the rest of them. It must have something to do with her talent. This princess was certainly built differently than the other commoners.
As for the rest of them, all had similar battle power with the little jump after the realm enchantment.
"Ok let's head up the stairs!"
Viktor told his companion to immediately move from where they were now. After checking all of their stats, he climbed up the stairs of Doomsday Pillars and his companions were following his way.
The stairs were about 20 meters wide and it appeared as if it was flying in space. It was certainly a strange experience for them. They were sure that they had only taken thirty steps since they began to climb, yet they had already arrived in front of a huge gate.
The gate had been opened, and Viktor was ready to walk through the gate. Jessie, on the other hand, with a cheerful smile on her face, quickly stopped him and said,
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Not yet, tough guy!"
Viktor appeared to be a little perplexed. He didn't understand the reason why Jessie was preventing him from entering the open gate. "What's now Jessie!?" Asked Viktor.
After a while, the girl told him that the fact that there was another stair just next to the one they just climbed would mean that this level had already been cleared. As far as they could tell, there were no monsters that could potentially endanger their lives on this floor.
"You get it? Cleared means no more monsters to hunt," Jessie said.
"I see."
It was basically similar to the experience of playing a video game. Whenever they had successfully cleared level one, it was automatic for them to be granted access to level two. This was similar to what they were going through at the time being. With another staircase accessible, they were allowed to access the next floor. With it, Jessie led the way to climb the stairs.
They climbed up to level 20, as it appeared that all levels 1 to 19 had already been cleared. The group arrived at another empty large hall with similar stone cubes in the middle, just like on the first floor.
"This level 2 hall can give access to buy tier 2 equipment," Jessie explained.
At the time when Viktor heard the word buy, it was a particularly sensitive discussion for him. Hence, he quickly brought everyone up the stairs once more. He had nothing on hand to spend anymore, therefore, they just needed to keep going.
Level 21, level 25, and so forth.
After reaching level 38, Viktor began to express dissatisfaction as he complained, "At what level are we going to start fighting actually?" He inquired because it seemed that they had already climbed a significant number of stairs. Plus, if they proceed to keep going, it would bring them closer to level 40 by now, but there had been no sign of any creatures they could fight so far.
Jessie explained that only last month when she was here, no one had yet cleared level 38. However, based on how this floor has also already been cleared, it means a group had already broken through them.
The group continued their journey upwards, and to their surprise, they discovered that even the hall on level 40 had already been opened. What was even more surprising was that the room was filled with a few dozen people.
There were more people gathered compared to the settlement outside the pillar which made the group wonder who these people really were.
Viktor could see that half of them were injured, while the other half appeared to be tired and resting at their positions. It was assumed that they had engaged in a lot of battles with an unpredictable number of creatures.
Surprisingly, the vast majority of them were sky realm figures.
"Oh no… this might be a bad time after all," said Jessie, her face filled with concern.
"What happened!? Viktor asked
"With these many people here, I am guessing there is a campaign going on."
Jessie explained that a campaign was when a group of fighters joined together in a mission to clear up multiple levels in a set length of time. The campaign was usually sponsored by the government or powerful family.
"Why does this mean bad?" Viktor asked.
"They might not like seeing us Earth Realms being around, and also after level 40, the monsters are too strong that it is not recommended for earth realm… especially.."
Jessie didn't finish the word and instead turned her gaze toward the others, who were just only in the initial stage of earth realm. It was with this that she recommended the group to just go and find a different pillar. She believed that the one further north should be still untouched, meaning that it would be an excellent starting point for them to start grinding from lower-level monsters.
On the other hand, Viktor could only take a deep breath. Evidently, things were not going well for him, as he stated, "We have already climbed up 40 stairs, can't we at least take a peek on what they are doing?"
Viktor suggested staying for a while, at the very least to ensure that their efforts in climbing up those many steps were not useless. He actually thought it would be a good idea to find out how strong this group of sky realms really was before leaving the place.
If he wishes to be successful in the near future, this was what he referred to as research or scouting the competition.
However, he was well aware that his companion would be in danger if they continued to follow him. As a result, he told them all to simply stay and wait in level 40. There would be no exception.
Viktor had to do it, not only did he not want them to be hurt, but he also didn't want them to slow him down.
Viktor and Jessie, the two then continued to climb the stairs, leaving the rest of the group in this level.
Level 41, level 45, level 50.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmAs they walked on the stairs, they saw a few people who were injured going down the stairs and needed to heal themselves in level 40.
Finally, when they reached level 56, they discovered that there were no more stairwells to go up any further. This was a way of indicating that the level had not been cleared yet.
Just before they went in, Jessie told him that if Viktor was certain, the creature in level 56 would be very strong. While she was well aware that Viktor would not take a step back once he made a decision, it was still imperative that she ensured that he was prepared before continuing their way.
To which Viktor responded with only a smile and said, "Didnt you say that I am a tough guy? Let's go!"
The two of them then proceeded to enter the room, and it was surprisingly humongous.
It was at least a hundred meters wide hallway where Viktor was unable to see the end of it. There was definitely some sort of weird space anomaly inside this alien construct.
The two walked ahead and after a hundred meters, they heard noises in the distance. It seemed that there was a man-made camp there, where about 50 people were gathered. Almost all of them were -sky realm.
Realizing the presence of Viktor and Jessie, one of the men standing on guard looked toward both of them with a suspicious expression and said,
"I have never seen you two before? Are you part of the campaign?"
Jessie quickly said, "Mister we just arrived here to join the campaign, we are from a settlement near here"
"We dont accept Earth realms and not these late through the campaign, go somewhere else!" said the guard
Jessie quickly used her charm and said how she was just here for the experience and wanted to be a strong fighter like them, which surprisingly made the previous impression change completely.
This girl did have her way with guys, which made Viktor wonder if he had been under her spell all this time.
The guard's next word, on the other hand, took him completely by surprise.
"Alright, you can just say you are invited by me. Say my name, Antoine. We are hired by the Romanov family."
"Romanov…."
It seems Viktor's encounter with his family would arrive sooner than expected.