In the end, Luke sighed. Why was he getting so worked up over a stupid overlord? He had killed dozens of those, and most of them had been pretty annoying. There wasn’t time for him to let a single one get on his nerves...

After taking a deep breath, Luke saw on the ground and then closed his eyes after entering the lotus position. For a while, nothing happened, but eventually, Luke felt something touching his left ear and piercing it. It didn’t last more than a millisecond, but in that brief window of time, Luke enhanced his speed to the limits and then swung his sword to his left side. He missed the head of the enemy. Even his sword didn’t touch anything. However, the pressure and the blast caused by the movement of the sword cut the left arm of the enemy.

Luke the arm falling and the wound dripping blood. He also heard someone grunting in pain, but no one appeared. The wound began to move away from Luke and turned to the corner of the labyrinth. When that happened, Luke used space magic and then went to his dimension. Once he was there, he used Clairvoyance to find his enemy. He wasn’t moving, naturally, so Luke appeared nearby and then cut his legs with his new sword. At that point in time, the enemy appeared since the pain made him unable to focus. Much to Luke’s surprise, it was a male elf that had red hair and eyes.

"They really come in all colors, shapes, and sizes, huh," Luke thought.

The red elf was summoned to his dimension since it would be easy to deal with him there. Unfortunately, even though it was a guy, he made Luke recall Rina and Shalia so much, Nambra as well... even though he wasn’t particularly close to her. It wasn’t like they were dead, but that bothered Luke. It has been a while since he felt that depressed...

Progressive Knife

A special weapon that grows stronger when you use it against an enemy without suffering damage. With each attack, the power of the weapon will increase by ten points.

Durability: 100/100

Luke couldn’t help but frown while looking at the weapon of the dark elf. He never saw anything like that... While the effect was weird, it certainly had a lot of potential, particularly in long battles. The red elf had other equipment, but most of them were garbage, aside from a ring that was similar to the one that Luke had and he got from the female magician. The red elf was also the chosen one from his world.

"What now... If I kill him, his world is done for, but how can I make sure that this guy won’t cause problems after I use Magic Link on him?" Luke thought.

Leaving him alone in his dimension wasn’t good. Even if he can’t escape or do anything, he probably will go crazy since time doesn’t pass there. Even with Memory Manipulation, the best Luke could do was to erase his memories. Perhaps he should have asked for something more complete regarding that type of skill. In the end, Luke only had a single option. He threw the red elf from his dimension and then pointed his sword at him.

"What will it be? Death or Absolute obedience?" Luke asked.

The red elf tried to crawl away from Luke, but then he suddenly saw the look in his eyes. Luke wasn’t joking. He will kill him on the spot if he refuses. Still, the red elf knew that his powers were too dangerous for him to swear loyalty to someone like him.

"... I swear my undying loyalty to you, master," the red elf said.

Reinis has become your follower.

"Let’s skip the master thing," Luke said. "We will work together to accomplish our goals, and that is all to it. You don’t want to see your species and world coming to an end, and there are people that I need to save."

Luke proceeded to heal Reinis completely. He had been fast enough to make even Reinis, who had the backing of an entire world, frown. In any case, Luke accessed his memories to see what kind of person he was. He seemed pretty wild since his main way to defeat others was by using his assassination technique. Still, he also was the leader of many red elves that he left behind on his home planet. So, he was in between Rina and Shalia. He was strong and pursued strength, but he also valued his allies.

"You don’t seem the type of overlord who would come to such a place crawling with hundreds of other overlords," Luke said. "Your skills wouldn’t help against large numbers... Are you chasing someone?"

Luke didn’t see the memories completely, but he had an idea that was the reason Reinis was there. In the end, he nodded and told Luke that he was looking for the overlord that killed his wife. He also noticed that many were coming here, and he assumed that he might find him here as well. Meanwhile, he would hunt others and get stronger since their difference in power still was big.

"Have you met anyone here aside from me yet?" Luke asked. "The chances of finding others are probably slim, but it is probably the fastest way to leave this place."

"No, I haven’t been here for long, only for a couple of hours," Reinis replied.

That was weird... Luke felt like checking his memories again since he didn’t notice anyone passing to this level since he arrived there. Still, he confirmed that Reinis wasn’t lying. It was hard to believe, but the different parts of the sector had different flows of time. That was the only plausible explanation...

Luke wondered why the tower had such features... what would be the point? To make those who go higher waste more time while it gives those who reach later more time to prepare? It was just stupid... if it was a race, such a thing shouldn’t matter. Also, unless they spawn in different places, those who reached the fourth floor first could wait and prepare ambushes for the others. They wouldn’t have to wait for too long, after all.

"No matter, let’s keep moving forward," Luke declared.

It has been a while since Luke fought alongside someone else, so he will need some time to get used to it. Still, thanks to the absolute obedience that he could get, it wouldn’t be a problem to get more allies. It would be hard to find overlords that were willing to beg for their lives and throw away their pride for their world and people like Reinis, but that will only make things easier for Luke. After all, he would gain tons of experience and parameters from doing so.

In any case, while they were moving and Luke was opening a path, he had another idea. Transmitting corpses into items that could increase his parameters was possible. Still, Luke wasn’t willing to use them unless they were from monsters. Still, couldn’t he do the same with items? Their basic nature was to amplify his powers, after all. He tried that with the most basic of weapons, a short sword. While he didn’t get what he wanted exactly, he got something.

STR POTION

Temporarily increases your strength by ten points for thirty seconds.

"Oh, this isn’t half bad..." Luke nodded to himself in satisfaction.

Luke stored the potion in his dimension, and then slashed another wall. During the whole time, Reinis was watching Luke. Putting aside the fact that Luke deprived him of any thoughts of betraying him thanks to his absolute power as master, he still found it weird and quite fearful, Luke’s actions, that is. He didn’t seem strong by any means. Still, he had the experience of coming up with answers and alternatives in difficult moments. He also had the creativity to use his powers in unusual ways. That was why Reinis couldn’t understand half of what Luke was doing.

Regardless, Luke decided to use Transmutation with weapons a bit more expensive, and he got similar effects to the first one. That was troublesome since he didn’t have many coins, to begin with anymore. He couldn’t always ask Reinis to buy items for him, but he didn’t have such a nerve and low pride. Luke then recalled the words that the shadow told him: you can do anything as long as you have enough mana and knowledge to do so... It was time to test that.

Luke returned to his dimension and then began to think. He already found a loophole in the system when he managed to use space magic to create his own training dimension not bound by time. Still, he couldn’t abuse it... or abuse it since it was clear that the tower’s creator was already aware of him and his actions. Either way, they already knew about that, or they didn’t feel threatened by it.

While it wasn’t his specialty, Luke needed to learn more about the system and the ways to mess with it. He wasn’t a magician, but it wasn’t like he had many options, to begin with, when one of the possible enemies was attracting many overlords and forcing them to play monopoly. That was essentially the purpose of the tower.

In any case, Luke’s most recent problem was the limitations of the gold coins he had. Since he wasn’t in a place where he could hunt whenever he wanted, that was really troublesome. In any case, the shadow said that everything was possible as long as one had knowledge and mana. So, Luke wondered how he could make gold coins and experience. Speaking realistically, experience and the gold coins weren’t things that actually exist, nor could they be quantified properly. Considering everything Luke learned until now, the experience was basically the amount of information and how intense it was when Luke received it. The more intense the battle, the harder he had to come up with strategies to defeat an opponent and how many times he saw life passing in front of his eyes... That was an experience. That was also why weaker enemies give even less experience once Luke passed their levels. All of those options become weaker... Luke’s guess was that mana was deeply related to that. The more mana he feels and uses during those moments, the better and the more complicated ways it is used... The more knowledge and experience one can acquire. It was pretty clear once one realized that mana was the essence of the system.

As for the gold coins, Luke assumed that it was just the way for the system and the worlds that he had been to use the mana of the fallen. Usually, once a monster or someone falls, their mana and experience would just be absorbed by the planet. That would explain why that Nucleus was at level ten thousand... Still, to give their inhabitants more methods to survive and get stronger, the world and the system would reward them with gold coins and the chance to use the shop. Still, Luke wondered if the worlds and the system were really that connected... He wondered if the whole system wasn’t just a countermeasure to prevent the destruction of the universe. If it were him, Luke would do that since, as a world, he wouldn’t be able to do anything until the very end. So, he would give power to his agents to prevent that, or at least delay the worst-case scenario.

"... Am I thinking too much about this?" Luke thought.