Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

Blood oozed out from the wounds, and Kevin became even more relentless. The two-metre-tall spear swung horizontally, hitting the chest of three infectors in its path. The infector backed away a step, but the attack was barely enough for that. 

The horrifying dead creatures would only rest when their head blustered away or severed entirely from it. The ones they were facing now appeared to be more resilient than the ones they faced in the first trial. They did not go down as easily as before. With their current capability, they could easily face off half a dozen of the weaker ones easily while the dozen will be tough, but still achievable, but these lots were far stronger than the ones from before. 

Although their neck was still the weak spot, getting there and dealing a blow turned out to be much more difficult. Kevin tried to not go against more than he could handle at once. He threw off a couple of them while severing one's neck. When more came again, he threw them off again and continued in the same manner. 

A basic way to fight more than one opponent at once, and with Kevin's instinct, he was doing fine. If only he had better expertise in mana, then there won't be so many wounds in his body. 

Anton was biting his lips the whole time. He dealt with the inspector that came his way, though the number was less, and kept the hounds busy, so that it could not attack Kevin. He could not keep his promise to Kevin. 

Kevin dealt with the last of them and finally had time to catch his breath. He looked towards Anton to notice; he was playing around with the hounds, running in circles. 

"Was that naseberry?" Anton asked, slowing his pace. Keeping up with these three hounds was not easy. He had to use his top speed now and then to keep them busy with them. 

"You did not abide by the promise," Kevin said, sighing. He readied his spear to face the hounds now.

"What can I do? They love me too much." Anton went closer to Kevin, bringing in the three hounds. "Well, I still did not kill them, so I would not say it betrays the promise." 

Before Kevin started the battle, he asked Anton to not help him if he was not in a dire state, but Anton did it anyway in his own way. Now Anton sent two hounds at him.

Kevin's eyes narrowed and bent a little with the spear in his arms. He waited for the hounds to come at him. He pulled his spear in a horizontal jerk at the one before him. Its face bloodied with the disgusting blood, while he was about to deal a fatal blow to it. A shock wave hit him hard against his body, throwing him a dozen meters away.

He stood up again, and they came at him again. He was clearly at a disadvantage against two of those hounds. Even if it was one, he did not know how long it would take him to finish one. All his attacks were mostly physical strength driven, and these hounds had far better defence compared to the humanoid infectors. 

Seeing he could not get any better against the hounds, Anton pulled his blade and sliced out its neck with a few slices. Kevin becomes even more down, seeing how Anton killed the hounds easily, forgetting he already wasted most of their stamina. 

"Was this necessary?" Anton repeated his question again. 

Kevin nodded, breathing heavily. 

"Deal lord, look at yourself, Kevin," Anton said, releasing a breath. "You have claw marks all over your body. Though the armour saves you from any serious injury, at least think it through again." 

Kevin did not utter a word, clasped his arm to the spear hard. He got what Anton was trying to say, but he did not have any other way to find a solution for his progress.

"I know, you are feeling down because of what happened in the test. I know you want to progress further, but the way you have chosen could not go further." Anton brought out the medicine kit and went to help patch up the glaring injuries on the big guy. "Think about it. You only need time, and if you get yourself injured or overwhelmingly fatigued, you might have to be in bed for more. This is clearly not the way." 

"Only time is not enough," Kevin muttered and took the bandage-like talisman paper. He applied it to his arm slowly, not continuing what he was trying to say.

"What is it?" Anton frowned. "You can tell me, Kevin."

Kevin hesitated for a moment and opened his lips. "I'm not like you guys," he said. "I don't have talent in mahasaying and probably will never be able to go on in league with you all, but I still wanted to stay with everyone. I fear, someday you all will reach further and I won't be able to chase, but I do not want it to be so soon."

"This is probably the longest time you have spoken to someone," Anton replied with a grin. "Though it's stupid." 

"You don't know how I feel," Kevin said and stood up. 

"That might be true," Anton said as the two of them walked towards the undulation. "But I can sympathise with you." 

Kevin looked at him peculiarly. 

"I have grown up in a home with two brothers. Both are far more intelligent and brilliant than me. Although they treated me like a real brother, I still could not help but feel down that I could not be like them." Anton sighed, looking at the cloudy sky. 

"Then?" Kevin asked. 

"Then, I stopped trying to be like them. I admit to the fact that I will never be as brilliant as Wrik, nor as headstrong as Lucas. I tried to find what I'm good at," he looked back at Kevin and smiled. "Well, the correct way would be, they help me find what I'm good at." 

A strong gust of wind flowed, and the screeches of the infector came again. 

"They are here again," he said and prepared his blade. "Think about it Kevin. Give everyone a chance before trying out the masochistic way that might not help in the slightest." 

. . .

Jacob whistled slowly and released the string of his bow. The arrow shot through in the wind and lit up in a crimson flame, and pierced the head of an infector. On the other hand, Michelle already made charcoal of the infectors she was dealing with. 

"Sorry, I thought they were more resilient than this," she said.

"Looks like we have finished," he said. "The test should end after we walked for a few minutes. 

"Let's see if the hounds have a core or not," she said and stooped before the charcoal to see if there's any tiny pearls in it. With her mana sense, she found a tiny pearl immediately, and it appeared Jacob found one as well. "Now, there's nothing left for us to do. Let's go. We are probably the first ones to finish first." 

Jacob nodded, and the two moved. As they had thought, the further they reached the undulation of mana further. And after walking a little further, a notification came to them, congratulating their success on the test. 

[Congratulations! Mahasayer Jacob Trabin and Mahasayer Michelle Emmens for succeeding in the test of the second floor.] 

[100000 Omega credits are added to both of your accounts] 

"Only credits?" Jacob frowned. "Still, the sum is quite hefty, considering we only spend a couple of hours here."

"Mhm," Michelle tucked his shoulder and gestured towards the cave entrance before them. "Look at that."

"A dungeon?" Jacob said, narrowing his eyes. 

"Yes," the one that answered was not Michelle, but a male voice. It was Davin who walked towards them from the sides. "And it's the way to the third floor as well."

"So, we are not the ones that finished first," Michelle said and joined Tanya. "When did you finish your test?"

"Not long ago," Tanya asked, her expression was a little brighter than before as all the problematic things had finished. In truth, the two had been here for a couple of hours. They did not train like Wrik wished them to and cleared out the mission in half an hour. "I thought about waiting for others here. The others might take time finishing their mission."

Michelle nodded, and the four of them waited. The pair that came after that was another couple of hours later. Kevin and Anton—both appeared sweaty and a little fatigued; unlike them, the duo had trained; especially Kevin.

"So Wrik and Byul are the only ones left," Anton said and started to strip off his breastplate and other parts of the armour, as if he was itching to do it for a while. 

The last pair of the group came an hour after that when everyone was conversing, sitting in a circle. They had already brought out food and eaten.

The two who arrived looked more haggard than anyone had been in their group, but both had satisfied grins on their faces. 

"I reckon, something good has happened?" Tanya asked, raising her eyebrows. 

"We succeeded in transferring wind elements through the link," Byul said. "Though I still did not get his eyes in return this time. Maybe we need more time." 

"That's quite a progress," Tanya nodded and welcomed the two. 

"That's not all," Wrik added, pointing at Byul. "Her ability advanced to S-tier, and she could not bond with another person."