YM778.TV Chapter 34: Ice orcs
She didn\'t hold back; she made her shield very thick by layering her mana, and then she lay down and brought out a book and a pen. "Ahh! We have spent too much this last week! But the monster we just hunted should help out."
She did some calculations and her face soured. \'The problem is that monsters on every higher floor are sold at the rate of that said floor while the ones below are sold cheaply. That means we have to sell it here or risk a loss!\'
\'But even then, can we afford the things on the next floor? Hotel and Temur\'s food because he eats like a damn camel and he\'s always going to different restaurants....hummmm...we\'ll have to start hunting immediately we reach there. Maybe even partner with a guild if we can\'t rent a zone ourselves.....\'
Litha did more calculations, writing furiously. Suddenly her blue eyes darkened. \'We have to make sure we train too. I don\'t want a repeat of what happened last time...\'
"Hey, you arrogant human! Come out here and fight me! Stop hiding behind a shield!"
Litha looked up in surprise. "Is that a talking bird?"
"I\'m not a bird you stupid human!"
Flying atop her shield is a Demon clad in black armor and flying with wings.
"Oh shut up!" Litha rolled her eyes. Why should she fight when she could have a much-needed rest? She\'d rather use up her mana on shield than fighting. She waved. "Go away. I\'m busy."
The winged Demon hurled insults at her, but Litha simply ignored her; she even attacked her shield, sending feathers that pinged off it with clinks and sparks of blue.
But eventually, she got bored and started to fly away. Litha couldn\'t resist, and she sent a small bolt of mana beam at her back, and she laughed as the Demon fluttered in the sky.
The demon hurled more insults, more colorful ones, and sent more attacks, but everything was shrugged off by her shield. Litha laughed. "Ah! Fighting maniac! Who goes around in a place like this just to pick a fight?" She watched her fly away, shaking her head.
Without warning, the sky was blotted out by dark shapes that fell like a rocks. The Demon looked up too late and a punch caught her in the face, sending her smashing down the platform below her and into the Awakener on it.
What punched her landed in the water with a heavy splash that sent the platforms rocking. More also fell, and the whole area was filled with the sound of splashing plop, and the whole sea moved, rocking the platforms and the bridges.
The fighting had stopped for now.
Litha stood. Pen and paper forgot. "Oh shit."
******
Earlier.
Mami, the Host for the group A Awakeners for this set and she was having so much fun watching them all from the big screen in front of her. The screen was cut into panels to show different sections of the test.
Her pink eyes lit up with light. "oh! And there goes another one dead! And another and another! Oh, and I was rooting for that one." Awakeners killed each other, soaking the platform and sea with blood.
Suddenly, the room she was in was lit up by a white light; she turned and bowed. "Floor owner."
The floor owner is shaped like a humanoid eagle; this is not one of the beast people. Original owners are one of the mysteries in the Tower. He looked at her with sharp silver eyes, scanning the screen that was set round the room. "Everything seems to be going well."
"Of course it is! It is I, Mami, that is Hosting it!"
The owner spread his hands. "That\'s well and good. This set is too much. It\'s like the same crowd twenty years ago we have to cut them down and know those who are truly worthy."
Mami nodded unflinching. After going through numerous tests and Hosting, she couldn\'t be bothered to care about how they talked about reducing people as if they were pests or animals. "The GUV are certainly not making it easy this time."
"A ripple effect from above to the below. But this is even nothing; the next test for them is the one they should be wary of. It will determine a lot of how they will climb.
"Although the leaderboard will be put up on the next floor. This will also be added." The floor owner ruffled his father in anticipation. To him, this life, this Dungeon Tower, and the test are what he lives for. "So we have to know their worth now!"
"Send down the monster tribe and let them focus specifically on people who have already chosen a platform. People who have overpowered others!"
\'Yes!\' Mami thought with a gleeful joy. \'This is the life of a Host!\' She pressed the button. "Let the fun begin!"
******
"Oh shit," Litha repeated because the air was now filled with the sound of Awakeners screaming in fear and pain. "It\'s Ice orcs!"
Orcs are one of the common monsters in the Dungeon Tower, and you can find different ranks of them on different floors. And in different Clans. These ones were Ice orcs, and Litha knew that must have been the reason they were chosen for this test.
She looked around and felt a chill. "Rank B Iron ice orcs? This just got a whole lot more difficult."
One of the Orcs that landed close to her smashed a platform away, causing a chain reaction of shaking platform that made Litha collide with the side of her shield.
The monster got closer to her and raised its cudgel, frost rolling. over it and freezing the waters around it. "Rahhhhhg!" It brought it down on the shield with brutal force.