Game’s Dogma

Drako Yau wasn’t too stunned by the Demonic Tower. They came from a Holy Ground not too long ago, after all. Dragging Dakki along, he retreated backwards as he heard footsteps coming their way. Further inspection revealed a tall and wide figure.

“It’s the beastmen,” said Drakki, to which Drako Yau nodded as he scanned their surroundings.

They had apparently entered the tower’s territory. As the elder had mentioned, the Demonic Towers were heavily guarded by the demon race, and entering one was easier said than done.

Drako Yau went through his options and struck silently. A dragon aura fired from his hand and descended upon the beastman, its jaw tightly clung to its skull. Before it could alert its fellow guards, Drako Yau pulled it in and welcomed it with his spear. Dakki also quickly applied all sorts of buffs on him as he made his move.

The beastman might be Level 40, but it was still a mere mob. How could it trouble Drako Yau when even Level 40 epic bosses had nothing on him? The assassination ended quickly, and the two snuck closer through the opening they just created.

Drako Yau’s frown got worse as they neared the tower. Over a hundred beastmen were patrolling around the tower. While he could handle several of them at once, even he had to flee when up against a hundred Level 40 beastmen.

Rather than acting rashly, they hid behind a massive dark purple tree that had obsidian leaves, which was oddly eerie. However, this tree was the glimmer of hope the system graced the players with. Like Chau Yu had mentioned before, this was a game—as long as it was a game, there’d always be a way out. A game that players couldn’t possibly complete was but a deadlock and was nowhere near entertaining.

Stygien’s quest was an exception though.

Drako Yau’s past as a game developer played a major role in their success in sneaking past so many guards. To him, the patrolling beastmen were dots and lines. The dots indicated the beastmen, while the lines were their patrolling routes.

Drako Yau activated Frost Form in secret and expanded its range of detection. As his proficiency in Frost Form and Flame Form increased, Frost Form could now detect up to a 100-metre radius. He also developed a new method to utilise Frost Form’s powers, the fundamental idea originating from Tigeroar.

Back in the Arena, Tigeroar had used his sound waves and their rebounding echoes to target Drako Yau’s location. Drako Yau now did the same with his Frost Form, but instead of sound alone, he gathered information on everything ranging from sound and flow of air to scent and vibrations. Simply put, nothing within Frost Form’s effective range could hide from him. What’d Tigeroar in the afterlife think of the fact that he was the source of Drako Yau’s strength?

After a while, Drako Yau lowered his stance and whispered, “Follow me closely.”

Dakki stiffened momentarily before nodding.

“Ready, three, two, one, now!”

Drako Yau dashed from their hiding spot like lightning with Dakki trailing behind him. He didn’t charge straight for the entrance and instead took a zigzagging path. Strangely enough, the beastmen patrols were turning around every time he changed directions. Turning around meant changing their line of sight, and that meant they couldn’t see Drako Yau and Dakki.

At the outer regions, he could still pick off lone guards and make their way through the opening. However, the beastmen here were grouped too closely together for that to work. Killing a single one of them could trigger a chain reaction that alerted them all. The only way through was to bypass their surveillance.

A streak of red was dashing towards the tower entrance with great mobility, yet none of the guards noticed it.

The entrance now within sight, they were ten or so metres away from their destination, but the real deal only began now. Forty beastmen were scattered around in all directions and casually strolled about without any particular route. It took Drako Yau half an hour to finally spot a pattern in their movements: every twenty minutes or so, they’d show a brief opening that led straight to the entrance. This was why he had waited behind the tree for so long before making the rush.

Drako Yau’s mind was crystal clear and calm thanks to Frost Form. Every beastman’s route, turn of the body, along with every tiny bit of information within range were translated into bits of data in his head.

The two beastmen at the entrance’s sides both yawned and turned around in different directions at the same time. A wide, open path lay bare before him. He bolted down the lane without any hesitation.

“Guh…” A soft moan reached him from behind.

Although the moan was barely audible, Drako Yau’s enhanced senses caught it clearly. He knew without looking back that Dakki was in trouble.

She was barely managing to follow Drako Yau’s precise route that allowed no errors. The route they took lengthed almost 200 metres, not to mention the sharp changes in direction as they ran. Right at the final moment, Dakki reached her limit.

A pesky rock on the ground caught her leg during the final dash. Burdened with fatigue, she lost balance and tripped over with a moan. She lifted her head in a desperate attempt to witness the red streak entering the tower, only to find a blazing golden dragon charging right at her face.

Dragon Capturing Hand!

Drako Yau dashed through the entrance and pointed his left arm behind without turning back. His dragon aura grabbed the falling Dakki and pulled her into the tower, the two vanishing right afterwards.

Drako Yau gasped for air. Frost Form’s effects waned off, followed by a sharp headache. If not for his recent improvements that allowed him to sustain Frost Form for a longer period, it would’ve forcefully ended long ago. Even so, maintaining Frost Form, enhanced senses, and brain functions had stressed out his brain.

He lay on the floor with Dakki clumsily flopped over on him. She crawled back, staring at him with glittering eyes. She wanted to see through his disguise, to peer into the secrets this man hid behind his mask, to reveal the charms behind those secrets.

After a brief rest, the two got onto their feet. Entering the tower was just the first test; the true trial was the sky-piercing tower itself.

No one awaited them in the tower, just a flight of never-ending stairs that spiralled upwards like a black viper towards the heavens. Exchanging a glance, the two started their hike up the stairs side by side.

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