"Your friend here has become my subordinate, if you want to follow him, you will have to swear loyalty to me as well," Luke said. "If you can’t live with that, then you will stay behind, but if you chase us and try something, then I will kill all of you."

Moneim’s friends were also demi-humans. They came from a planet that was normal for people to be born with wings or one or other physical animal characteristics. In their case, the hooded guy that used light magic had some falcon wings, while the other was a woman who had wasp wings. That was the only thing that differentiated them from humans on Earth. Apparently, guys like Moinem, who had another physical characteristic aside from wings were pretty strong in their world, and he was way above the others since he had the claws and a physiology that granted him the power to heal faster, as long as he gets some blood.

In any case, refusing Luke’s offer would be the same as abandoning their leader, so they decided to follow Luke. As Luke, as they live, they might be able to fulfill their duty in the end. Besides, Luke could have killed them when his magic returned, but he didn’t. So, they couldn’t imagine a fate worse than death waiting for them. Luke thought that they sure lacked imagination.

"Putting that aside, you guys have some interesting skills and yet... You decided to stay here and ambush others," Luke said. "Why?"

"... We were one of the first to arrive on this tower, so we had the chance to find some strong opponents," Moinem said. "Among them, we found an enemy that just by looking at his targets made them explode. Those overlords that were killed by him weren’t small fries either... Still, they didn’t pose a threat. We found him on the previous level and in this one... Unlike you, he could destroy those walls and repair them at the same time like nothing had happened. So we realized that we wouldn’t survive if we were to meet him in the next level."

"What did he look like?" Luke asked.

"He was short like a kid, and was bald... He also was wearing a black cloak," Moinem replied.

"Aivern..." Luke said and then clenched his teeth.

Luke began to emit a dark, reddish aura that made those four-step back while feeling that they would be killed right there. Luke’s anger wasn’t being directed at them, but they couldn’t help but feel in danger. Regardless, to think that his enemy would be there... It didn’t seem like he was the one who created that place. Still, he wanted the relic, or he wanted to find the creator of that place. Regardless, Luke felt more motivated now.

However, before reaching the next level and looking for Aivern, Luke had things to do. First of all, he was to try something that he had thought about during the battle. It wasn’t even closely related to the situation, but Luke had a stroke of inspiration when Moinem attacked him and deeply wounded his arm. To test that, Luke didn’t need much, just his shop relic and his own mana. So, he just injected his mana into the relic.

You obtained 01 gold coins.

You obtained 01 gold coins.

You obtained 01 gold coins.

...

Luke facepalmed. It was something so simple to do... while it didn’t solve the whole thing, it was pretty obvious that something like that would happen, considering that the relic was connected to the shop. Regardless, the rate was ten mana points for one gold. So, with his current focus alone, Luke could get around 860 thousand gold coins per day. That wasn’t so bad, but it would only be useful if he uses that on his dimension. All the time he could use in the real world was precious.

Now, the second thing that Luke had to do was to learn the light magic that the hooded guy used. It was a special attribute that could numb the body and even the senses. It also could stop the use of mana when used in the form of a cage. So, it was excellent against mages.

Forcing the hooded guy to tell everything about the skill would be too much given that only now have they begun to work together. Still, there were other ways for him to learn that. Accessing that guy’s memories would give Luke some insights into how to learn it. Still, considering that Luke had yet to learn how to transform his mana into the most basic elements, that probably would take too long. He had to use the shop...

"Based on my experience, darkness is good agaisnt physical type enemies and light is good against mages," Luke thought. "I am making a build solely to hunt mages, but I am also improving my physical skills... I suppose this is for the best."

Luke made his shadow clones meditate to speed up the process. He had seen the skill books that would let him control light and darkness on the same tier. Both of them would cost 130 million gold coins. While Luke will only need one of them, it will take a while to reach that amount, even with his clones. During that time, Luke wondered if he could also reverse the process of turning mana into gold coins. That would probably help him in a pinch, and in case his mana clones won’t be able to help him against some enemy. While he was thinking about that, Luke also began to think about how he could counter the effects of light magic...

Even with the help of his clones, Luke had to wait patiently for two weeks to learn Light Manipulation. Still, he only took the first step after learning that. To control a single light sphere, he had to use five hundred points of mana. Luke had to level up that skill as soon as possible.

"I could have leveled up around two hundred times with this much mana, but it is fine..." Luke thought. "First I need the weapons to deal with that asshole, then I will be able to sharpen them and myself."

Luke couldn’t return to the real world and let the mana clones train that skill. So, he had to continue there for a while longer. In any case, all that training inside his dimension sure was messing with his sense of time. He didn’t know if one or two years had passed inside his head since the last time he saw his friends and family. It was quite messed up... Still, he had to exploit the system like that to have any chances of victory against Aivern.

"I didn’t come up with any decent plan against light magic... but I suppose my sword can stop that, if the mana of the attacks don’t surpass a certain threshold," Luke thought. "Come to think of it, I need to keep increasing the rank of the Soul Eater Sword... more grinding incoming I guess."

When Luke returned to the real world, his followers suddenly noticed his presence growing stronger. After all, that grinding, It was only natural. Still, it only stirred more fear in them. The man known as Luke for them was starting to become more and more like a beast that could become stronger insanely faster than any of them.

In any case, they moved to touch the crystal together, and then they did it at the same time. In the next moment, they saw themselves standing in a new world. The fourth stage had been pretty weird, but that one was more normal. Luke could only see green and blue as his eyes could show him. That was weird... Luke assumed that the tower would have six or seven layers, and things would get even more complicated as further he went, so that world seemed too Pacific.

"No signs of that asshole... While he looked like that at first, he is the type who would leave a path of corpses to wherever he passes..." Luke thought.

The whole group had their guard up, and they did the right thing because they soon felt some presence approaching. Luke stepped forward and then saw some weird spheres that seemed like slimes coming from the front. Luke frowned when he used Appraisal, and the skill didn’t work. As if things weren’t weird enough, the creatures slowed down and then began to get taller until they assumed a humanoid form. Luke felt like he was about to face the boss of a sci-fi movie that could change and repair itself like its body was made of a liquid metal.

Homunculus - LV 1722 - 75%

HP: 15850/ 15850

MP: 14937/ 14937

SP:9880 / 9880

STR: 2600 + 226 + 70

SPE: 2009 + 51 + 200

INT: 1910+ 200 + 51

END: 2650 + 570 + 330 + 30 + 200

RES: 2550 + 554 + 318 + 200

FOC: ????

Free points: 00

Gold Coins: 00

Active Skills: Reflect (Epic)

Spells: Reflect (Epic)

Passive: Reflection Lv 10 (Epic)

"What the hell..." Luke said while frowning when Appraisal suddenly began to work. The creature began to take a shape similar to his.

The other monsters also began to copy the others. Even wings, claws, equipment... everything was the same, but their bodies were completely gray. Instead of a homunculus, it would be better to call that a doppelganger, but Luke wasn’t the one who named those things. In any case, Luke never faced enemies like that...

"Spread across the area and focus on defending, we can’t let those guys bother more than one of us at once," Luke said.

The others nodded and quickly obeyed since they knew things could get messy if a team fight took place there when they had no experience fighting by the side. Fortunately, the homunculus followed the original, and only Luke’s copy stayed behind to face him. The unnerving monster even made a Projection of his Soul Eater sword.

"Only that focus can’t be seen... I suppose it is related to this world," Luke thought. "Their mana isn’t moving either, so the monster can maintain the sword for as long as it wants."

The creature dashed after using all of Luke’s buffs. They knew quite well how to use his strengths... Still, just assuming a human form and using his skills wouldn’t be enough to defeat him. Luke increased his strength support to the limits with Mana Manipulation and attacked as well. Both swords collided, and the impact created a massive crater and cracked the ground while it pushed the enemy backward. At the same time, Luke grabbed the monster’s face right in front of the mouth and forcefully opened it, and then sent a bottle of concentrated poison to the inside.

The creature ate that, and its color began to change, but the monster soon recovered from the poison. Rather, it didn’t even suffer damage... Since it wasn’t a normal life form, it didn’t seem like poison would work. Regardless, the monster attacked again, and this time, he copied Luke’s previous strategy and focused only on strength. That was troublesome... Luke didn’t want to show what else he could do. So, he just blocked the attack and was pushed backward for dozens of meters.

"So troublesome..." Luke muttered.

Luke wondered if the monster could copy all of his actions, even the ones he might do inside his dimension... It seemed a bit risky to test it now. Still, Luke had other things to try before that, and he decided to do so...