[The Monster Palace]

[Description: A black gold rank treasure enchanted with various kinds of magic. Its size is adjustable. It can be used to store not only non-living things but also living beings. It can be used to trap creatures up to silver rank, as it's made from a durable material capable of withstanding the full-power strike of a silver-ranked opponent. Gold-rank and above beings cannot be trapped inside the Monster Palace.]

[As the master of the Monster Palace, you can do the following things:

1) You can expand or compress its exterior as you like.

2) You can reshape its inner structure.

3) You can open entrances or exits to the Monster Palace anywhere within your vicinity.

4) All beings trapped inside the Monster Palace are subject to the will of its master. You can command them to do your bidding. However, the stronger they are, the less sway you will have over them.]

"This is exactly what I needed!" Ray exclaimed, feeling excited.

His tamed creature was a King-type demonic monster capable of commanding an army of slimes. Simply by storing them in the Monster Palace, he could move around with an army hidden at all times. In the future, anyone who messed with him would be in for a surprise!

He looked toward the next rows of words.

[Minor Abyssal Command Token]

[Description: An artifact imbued with a hint of the laws that govern the Abyss. It can be used to generate portals leading to the Seventh Layer of the Abyss. It can also be used to exit the Abyss from its seventh layer.

[Note: It is currently ownerless. You can become its master by feeding it a strand of your soul force.]

[Warning: Unlike the deeper layers that teem with high-ranking demons and abyssal lords, the Seventh Layer is inhabited mostly by lesser fiends, demonic beasts, and wandering wraiths and evil spirits that can't be harmed without the use of soul force. The terrain there is unstable, consisting of crimson wastelands, floating stone islands, rivers of black miasma, and so on, all a struggle to tread.]

[Furthermore, despite being the weakest region of the abyss, it remains a place where the air itself corrodes life, and prolonged exposure can slowly taint the mind, leading to madness. Only those with strong willpower or protective artifacts can survive there for extended periods.]

[Don't enter it unless you have reached the silver rank and generated a force field!!!]

Owning the Minor Abyssal Command Token didn't make Ray as excited as becoming the master of the Monster Palace.

The reason was simple.

While it granted him the opportunity to explore an entirely different realm, the Abyss was clearly a no man's land.

Furthermore, he couldn't make use of it until he reached Silver Rank!

'Let's get moving,' Ray thought to himself.

He tossed the token into his inventory, then exited the Monster Palace.

*****

In the Tower, there existed a place unlike any other. Massive pillars of water rose endlessly toward the sky, defying reason, while an island the size of a city floated above an endless sea that stretched farther than the eye could see.

At the edge of a high cliff, two figures sat side by side, legs dangling over the drop.

One of the two was Arthis, the Manager of the Tower's First Floor. The other was his sister, Maria. She was a tall stunning woman with long blue hair and slim build. She had curves where they mattered. Lastly, a pair of small goat-like horns could be seen curling from her temples.

Any seasoned seeker who had ever reached the tower's fifth floor would know her name. After all, she was the Manager of the Fifth Floor. Reaching the fifth floor required the strength of a Gold Rank, so it was no simple task. Not many had the chance of meeting her.

They had just finished spectating Ray's battle with the Great Ones through a black crystal sphere hovering before them.

"The Monster Palace is modeled after the Tower, and you're just going to let him have it?" Maria said.

The tower's first floor wasn't hers to manage, but she knew a thing or two. Long ago, Leon and the Shattering Mother had sealed the Great Ones in one of its many sectors, wanting to use them as a challenge to reward someone worthy.

While that reward included the Minor Abyssal Command Token, it definitely didn't include the entire Monster Tower.

It was a reward added by Arthis on the spot.

'Just what did he see in that unremarkable boy to behave so recklessly?' Maria was forced to wonder.

Black gold rank enchanted treasures were hard to come across. It seemed like a waste of time to give it to someone as weak as Ray.

"I've decided to bet on him," Arthis replied calmly.

Maria frowned. "He's fateless, Arthis. People without fate don't live long. Are you sure you're not rushing things in your search to find a replacement for the Dying Light?"

Arthis gazed toward the distant horizon where the sun was setting, his expression unreadable. "I can't see the shadow of death around him. That means either he's already survived the ordeal that was meant to end him… or someone or something his altered the course of his life entirely."

He turned to her and continued speaking, this time in a steady voice, "He is a fateless who won't have Death coming after him. You know what that means, right?"

Maria nodded, uttering, "The universe itself won't conspire to kill him when he is past his twenties."

Death didn't tolerate the existence of Fateless as they had the potential of growing into a monsters that could devour the souls of others to grow.

Whenever such a horrifying being appeared, Death itself would go after them to ensure their demise.

But if they still somehow survive, they would become special beings that existed outside the common framework of existence.

In other words, things that are typically considered impossible for others was more often than not possible for a Fateless!

"This works in our favor," Arthis's eyes shone as he spoke. "Since he's fateless, no one can divine about him. No one will know we're nurturing him to replace the Dying Light."

Maria crossed her legs, letting the sea breeze play with her hair. "The day that seat changes hands, all our burdens will end… but do you really think it'll be that simple?"

Arthis was quiet for a long moment before answering. "Even if our plan is discovered, the Fate Devouring Serpent can't harm him from afar. You can't strip clothes from a man who wears none — and you can't devour fate from someone who has none left to give. The Fate Devouring Serpent can't sentence him to death."

The Fate Devouring Serpent was an overload rank demonic creature with the innate power to sentence others to death by stripping them of their fate, transforming them into fateless beings whose very existence wasn't tolerated by desth.

However, it was useless against Ray as he was a Fateless!

He looked back toward the crystal sphere, where Ray's image flickered faintly. "As for trying to kill him using other methods, aren't we, the Dying Light's Thirteen Knights, enough to protect one boy from the schemes of the demonic creatures?"

******

Exiting the Monster Palace, Ray appeared in the room with the four challenge doors.

It had undergone slight changes since the last time he was here.

A holographic scoreboard had appeared in the middle, showcasing who was in the lead and who was at the bottom.

The results were shocking.

Evermore had already completed two challenges and was currently doing the third. Some were right behind her, while several names were crossed out — most likely dead.

Ray's name was at the very bottom.

'Either they're far stronger than me… or they got easier challenges,' he thought.

He wanted to win this competition because the top scorer would receive extra rewards for clearing the fifth sector before their peers.

So, he hurriedly went ahead to tackle the next challenge.

The next moment, Ray found himself swallowed by darkness.

He couldn't see an inch ahead.

Raising a hand, he conjured a small fireball to illuminate his surroundings.

The glowing orb revealed rough, jagged walls.

He was standing inside a massive cave.

The ground beneath his feet was uneven, scorched in some places and cracked in others, as if something unimaginably powerful had once released its fury here. Stalactites hung from above.

The light from his fireball disturbed someone awake.

A low, thunderous growl echoed through the cave the very next moment, shaking loose dust and pebbles from above.

'There's something in here with me!'

Ray quickly directed his fireball towards the source of the noise. Its glow froze on an enormous figure coiled in the distance.

Its scales gleamed like polished emeralds, each one larger than a man's head. Its golden eyes burned with intellect and pride. Smoke curled from its nostrils with every breath, and the sheer weight of its presence was enough to make a man feel inferior.

"A green dragon!" Ray's eyes widened in shock.

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