Out of these twenty level 200 Adept-rank Adventurers, two of them were exceptional.

One was a man in his mid-twenties, and the other was a girl in her early twenties. They were simply watching the floor boss battle nearing its end.

"Miss Prisha, should we kill the people below first?"

Before Prisha could answer, the yellow-haired man called Elber, in his mid-twenties, shot a glance at the guy who just spoke, his eyes flickering with yellow lightning flash. "If you want to kill them now, go ahead. But Prisha and I will not join you."

The eighteen Adept-rank Adventurers looked below.

There were over ninety people there.

Forty-eight of them were Awakened-rank.

Thirty-five of them were Adept-rank. Thirteen of those Adept-rank Adventurers were level 200, and seven out of these thirteen had peak stats, mainly thanks to Ainen's Tier-3 food dishes that made five of them reach peak in all stats.

In comparison, those eighteen level 200 Adept-rank had almost all stats at peak as well, but each of them also had A-rank elemental mastery, Epic-quality Magic Cores, and a strong arsenal of skills.

However, if it was just eighteen of them versus those ninety-three people down below, those eighteen Adventurers were not confident of killing all of them without suffering casualties.

They were vastly outnumbered.

"Nah, screw it. Whatever plan you two have, we will follow."

"Yeah. I want to complete this task without dying and want to get the rewards."

"What plan do you have, Elber?"

"Just watch for now. We aren't going to hunt them here if we want to finish our task at the fastest possible time."

Soon, the floor boss was defeated.

[ Congratulations. You have successfully defeated the floor boss. ]

[ The contribution ranking has been determined. ]

Rank 1: Chef Ainen

Rank 2: Viena Raindrop

Rank 3: Dylan Vopuntail

Rank 4: Andras Yoghil

Rank 5…

All eleven participants were ranked, with the first being Ainen.

[ The rewards have been sent to a temporary tattoo y imprinted in your finger. After taking out the rewards, the storage tattoo will disappear. ]

[ The way to the next floor is open. Good luck. ]

Ainen looked at the tattoo on his finger, and a screen popped up, showing the reward items he got.

100,000 low-grade Mana Stones.

Tier-3 Weapon Box (Epic-Legendary)

Tier-3 Armor Set Box (Epic-Legendary)

Tier-3 Resource Crate

'Let's go!' Ainen's eyes shone. 'Now I finally got solid gears.'

Tier-3 items of Epic and Legendary quality!

"We can check our loot after going to the second floor," Viena said, her voice reaching Ainen.

Ainen looked at her and nodded. "Yeah."

The other Adventurers entered the area since the way to the second floor was in the center.

A circular platform with a blue magic circle and visible blue waves around it had appeared.

"Let's go, Mistbound!" Dylan called out to both parties of Mistbound Tower and entered that platform.

A second later, all ten people of Mistbound Tower vanished.

The other parties also moved to the next floor in groups.

Ainen already knew how the floor moving worked in the Labyrinth since he was told about it.

Although entry on the first floor was random, that wasn't the case on the subsequent floors.

"Ainen, you want to go solo or party?"

"Party," Ainen said without hesitation as he looked at Hammer, Diana, and Naresh. "Actually, we should all go together to the same spot. That way, I can cook a lot with your help, and everyone can also get strong."

"Of course, since we will be at a party, I'll only sell the food for 1 Mana stone per dish."

That was practically free!

None of them had any objection. And so, the fifteen people, including Ainen, entered the platform.

"Hmm, where should we start our journey?"

"This second floor is very small. Strange."

"No wonder the others made those expressions before they vanished."

Everyone could see the map of the second floor that showed different areas. There were a total of four areas, and each area had only one drop point, which was strange since usually, there would be multiple points.

For instance, the first floor had over a hundred drop points easily, and people had to travel around to encounter one another.

In comparison, the size of the second floor was small.

They could only see the four areas in a rough manner, and couldn't exactly see their geographic structure or anything.

"Let's go to the southeast area," Ainen said.

And so, everyone chose the southeast area and vanished.

[Welcome to the second floor—Magaro's Dueling Ground.]

'Dueling Ground?' Ainen blinked.

The others were also surprised by the second floor's name.

Ainen and others arrived on a large grassy plain with nothing in sight except for grass and beautiful low-hill plains.

However, there were floating islands above, and large, floating square steps leading there.

[ On this floor, every individual must ascend to the islands until they die, give up, or reach the top island, where the floor boss area resides. ]

[ To ascend, individuals must duel against monsters on each step, and must not pause for more than ten seconds on a step. Adventurers can also duel against each other if they stand on the same stair-step. The loser of the duel will be unable to climb for 5 minutes, while the winner can move two steps instead of one. ]

[ Each island has hidden rewards that one can find. First-come, first-served. All the best. ]

'Wow, this is completely different than the first floor.' Ainen's eyes shone.

"This is interesting."

Having only four dropping points for over a hundred people, there were already people present nearby in this area.

It was Dylan's party, consisting of five level 200 Adept-rank Adventurers.

Prince Maurin with the Duke's party and the other party of the Lainark town.

"So you all decided to come here, eh?" Varton Elipen laughed. "The top four parties of Lainark town in one place."

Naresh and Diana's parties were 3rd and 4th ranked in Lainark Town, while Varton and Nico's parties were 1st and 2nd ranked.

'Ainen!' Prince Maurin's eyes glimmered. 'He is here, but…'

He looked at Dylan and his party, who were standing on the first step. There was a barrier around each of them, and all of them stood in a daze. They were dueling in a different space with their conciousness only.

Each step was 10 square meters, so it was enough for multiple people.

But multiple people on the same step triggered duels between each other.

In the end, only the winners would go to the next step, while the losers would have to stay on the same step for five minutes.

"This is going to be difficult." Henil sighed. "We can't avoid duels unless we don't climb at all. And if we lose, we'll get stuck while others will go up fast."

"And there are already thirty-two people in this area. It's almost one-third of the total." Sirika clicked her tongue. "Tough competition for us, Awakened-rank."

"I am going to break through here. I already reached the peak of stats thanks to Ainen's food."

"Same."

Henil and others from Hammer's party didn't waste time and sat down.

Sirika also did the same since there was no use in climbing now.

"We'll be going ahead, Rock, Stacy."

Dylan and his party moved up.

Their party consisted of five in total. Four of them dueled against each other, and two of them won—Dylan and Sofia. These two moved up two steps.

Rock and Stacy lost, so they stayed behind.

Jamil, the fifth member, was lucky as he triggered a monster duel and won, so he moved up one step.

"I'll go ahead." Ainen grinned and announced. "Anyone is free to challenge me."

Everyone rolled their eyes.

"No? Too bad."

Ainen jumped on the first step and soon, his conciousness was hauled into a duel ring amidst clouds.

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