"Most of the worlds that have their chosen ones killed before the Reset, they become unable to generate life after the rebirth of the new universe," The shadow said. "That is because our mana is sent back once we accomplish that. That is why if you kill her now, you will doom an entire planet to become a dead one."

"That is a pretty good excuse to let them go considering that they ambushed me and almost killed me numerous times... Oh, wait, it actually isn’t a good excuse," Luke said. "As if I could care less about the fate of the worlds that produced the assholes that tried to kill at first sight."

Considering that Luke had already killed one of their friends, the others had more than a little bit of animosity toward him, so letting them live out of mercy would only cause problems for him later.

"Give me your word that you will let her live, and then I will grant you the skill book that will teach you how to make a clone," The shadow said.

"... Even if that satisfies me, this woman and her friends will try to kill me for the death of their friends," Luke said.

"I will also give you a skill book that will grant you the power to erase their memories, that way, you can avoid that problem," The shadow said.

"Can you make skill books that easily?" Luke asked while frowning. "What else can you teach me? One skill book for each of their necks."

In the end, the shadow agreed with the plan. It wasn’t half bad to get four overpower skills in exchange for letting those assholes go. Aside from the Shadow Clone and Memory Manipulation, Luke learned Fly and Magic Absorption, which was something that Luke asked if it was possible to learn. Fortunately, it was, so Luke obtained a new skill against Aivern. To learn Void Blade, he would also need Darkness Manipulation, and the skill consumed too much mana. Luke would rather continue chasing his anti-mage strategy.

"The list of skills that you have is rather limited..." Luke said.

"The skills I can teach her are limited to her capabilities, and I can only learn the things that I see in action," The shadow said.

"Well, it doesn’t matter," Luke said. "I will break the ice and then erase your most recent memories. You’d better not try anything because I won’t accept any bargain this time."

In the end, the shadow almost let out a sign, he had hoped that Luke wouldn’t do that and he would pass to his partner the good news about space magic, but in the end, things couldn’t be that convenient. Once Luke touched the shadow and used the skill, he saw the memories of the creature inside his own mind. They were lined up according to the days, Conveniently, so Luke deleted that one. Still, he decided to check the previous ones to get a clue about what he should do to reach the next level.

"Anyway, for how long this shit will keep going..." Luke thought and then sighed. "I need to find that asshole once and for all. I am tired of fighting every single fucking day."

In any case, Luke frowned since the number of days that that group had been on that floor was way too big. He didn’t know when that tower appeared, but it couldn’t be more than a few months old, and yet, the group had been there for three months. They fought other groups many times, and some of them eventually disappeared. Luke assumed that they had to kill a certain number of overlords to reach the next level.

"The time passes slower here... There is no mistake," Luke thought. "I suppose this is for the best."

In any case, as the skill leveled up, Luke gained access to older memories of the shadow, and he confirmed that the creature didn’t lie before. That one was only fifteen years old... The shadow was born on the day the world of that woman began to be invaded by monsters. In any case, once that was done, Luke put the shadow and the woman out of his dimension, and then he used the same spell on the others. They didn’t even have time to notice what had happened.

Once that was done, Luke left the area while practicing Fly. According to the shadow, only inhabitants of a world could obtain the help of the said world, so Luke couldn’t go around forcing shadows to help him. He couldn’t leave the tower either... Still, that help had a loophole that Luke could make use of. Luke could use Magic Link to get their mana. The only issue was how he should force them to stay obedient. Also, considering the rules of that floor, who knows how many overlords he will have to kill before he can go to the next stage...

In any case, Luke had to travel for quite a while before he could find signs of other people. It was hard to say if that group got lucky in finding Luke as soon as he had appeared or if they were the only ones who were unnerving enough to attack someone as soon as they appeared. Regardless, eventually, Luke felt some presence ahead fighting, and he could only sense two... he had thought that things in that stage would be massive group battles, but as expected, it was hard to find groups of overlords working with each other.

Still, Luke frowned when he realized that those guys weren’t using attacks of the same scale as of those guys...

In the end, it was only natural that Luke wouldn’t find many overlords there that had been chosen by their respective worlds. That tower wasn’t a place that most people could reach, so those who had the means would have to leave a lot of people behind. Also, leaving their worlds unprotected, usually, the chosen one’s main goal was to protect their people and their world, but there was also their final mission... And that was probably something that they heard much later.

"Although they don’t have the mana pool of an entire world to help them, they still are pretty strong... What is the worse thing: slowly killing them to obtain as much status as possible with Essence Sword or depriving them of their will and forcefully turning them into Dolls to work with my Magic Link?" Luke thought while wondering that both options were pretty messed up.

Truth to be told, mana was no longer a problem since Luke could use his shadows to recover it. Each shadow costs one thousand points of mana to be summoned, and their strength, Endurance, and speed are based on how much mana Luke could give them at once. He could use them for combat, or he could use them to restore his mana. On the first rank, he could summon one per level, but in the Uncommon rank, Luke could summon three more per level. Still, the more, the merrier. While his body barely could withstand the output of mana given by three clones, Luke needed that much to fight the enemies inside the tower.

While Luke was considering between watching those two fight and learning a little more about them before ambushing them or attacking them right now with no questions asked, he suddenly felt a presence appearing nearby. When he used Clairvoyance to check the area, he saw distortion in the space, and then three armored figures appeared there. Luke didn’t even bother to check their statuses. He knew that his Appraisal was broken or something. In any case, their presences were below the level of the precious group he fought, so none of them was like the dark armored woman.

"Come to think of it, how can those guys appear in groups when on the previous floor, we have to kill at least another overlord to come here?" Luke wondered. "It doesn’t seem like the dark armored woman killed some of her friends for the others to reach this level... Whatever, it is time to do the dirty work."

Luke charged his katana with mana and then summoned three shadows to head toward those guys. Their swords were pretty big, so Luke shouldn’t try to take their time fighting them and damaging his weapons even more. He kind of grew attached to it, and in the last fights, the poor weapon had been suffering a lot. Even if Luke could repair it...

When the enemies felt the approach of the shadows, Luke opened a hole in the space behind them. They suddenly felt his presence, but before they could do anything. Luke touched the ground and froze them up to their necks. He was really pleased that the sword always did exactly what he wanted... that was probably why Luke grew attached to it so much.

In any case, Luke sent the enemies to his dimension once he realized that it would take too much time to deal with them in the real world. He considered the idea of erasing their memories and then force Magic Link on them. However, the skill wouldn’t work while they stay in his dimension, and they wouldn’t survive in the real world without their memories, so Luke made his choice.

Your Strength increased by 55 points.

Your Endurance increased by 46 points.

Your speed increased by 62 points.

...

For a second, Luke considered the possibility of using Transmutation and turning the bodies into potions that could increase his parameters permanently. However, after realizing that would be something Majinboo would do, he decided to stop it. They weren’t quite human-like under their armor. They had bone spiked on their backs and shoulders, after all. Still, Luke hadn’t fallen so low to the point that he would eat sapient beings. Still, he transmuted their bodies into rings that increased some of his skills. Maybe they will come in handy later. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

"Nothing changed, huh..." Luke thought. "As expected, I will have to defeat more than a few of them to reach the next level."

Luke resumed his observation of those two that were fighting earlier. Keeping a low profile after he defeated two groups of enemies like that seemed pretty dumb. Still, at least it would give him to watch enemies that reached similar or higher levels of power. Luke needed to gain experience in dealing with most situations. Just as fast, he was getting stronger in terms of parameters. One of those two enemies was fighting with two whips that would rend the ground apart with each strike, and the other fought while firing Sonic blasts from their mouth. Both of them were fighting styles that Luke had never faced before, so it would be a good experience.

LV 1686 - 75%

HP: 15750/ 15750

MP: 14837/ 14837

SP:9780/ 9780

STR: 2600 + 226 + 70

SPE: 1959 + 51 + 200

INT: 1910+ 200 + 51

END: 2650 + 520 + 330 + 30 + 200

RES: 2550 + 504 + 318 + 200

FOC: 6555 + 391 + 200

Free points: 00

Gold Coins: 196.439.747

Active Skills: Heavy Strike Lv 01 (+ 04) (Rare), Rage Lv 09(+ 03) (uncommon), Berserker Lv 09 (+ 03)(Uncommon), Concentrated Strike Lv 02 (+ 04) (Rare),

Spells: Clairvoyance Lv 01 (Rare), Transmutation Lv 01 (Rare), Shadow Clone Lv 01 (Uncommon), Memory Manipulation Lv 01 (Uncommon), Fly Lv 01,

Passive: Rest Lv07 (+ 03) (Uncommon) Magic Resistance Lv 01 (Rare), Magic Absorption Lv 01 (Uncommon)