Into The Portal: Monster Invasion

Miles looked at the scene in front of him in dread. At the other end of the room was another stair going down but before the stair, stood a pack of monsters. They looked like dogs but they had two sharp fangs protruding from their jaws. Other than two fangs, they had no teeth at all. Their body was pitch black and their eyes were dark blood in color.

“Vampire Canines!” Miles turned to climb the stairs and reached the room he first got into. But wherever he looked, he failed to see the door he entered. “Where are the doors?”

“There are no doors.” Coin answered.

“Is this an illusion?” Miles asked in fear.

“I think it is something worse.” Coin said and replayed the conversation he had with Milosh. “You are in a tower.”

“The hell?” Miles exclaimed in anger. “Towers should go upwards right! Why the fuck this one is going downward?”

“Dunno, buddy. But it is too late to leave now.” Coin shook his imaginary head. Miles sat on the ground and thought about what Milosh said. At a time, only fifty creatures could enter the tower. Once they did, the door would be closed and the only way out would open after the tower was cleared. There would be monsters on each floor but their tiers would increase the further one went, but the general difficulty would be according to the challengers.

“I am alone. I am only mid-tier. The difficulty shouldn’t be that high. I am pretty disadvantaged, but I can still clear this shit. The alternative is death, which I cannot accept. So, brave up, Miles. You are in for some serious shit.” Miles pumped his spirit as he looked at the stairs. “Let’s do this.”

He walked down again with the claw, armor, and the dagger on him were fully charged. His bow was hanging on his back and his arrows were at his quill. He only walked down after he made sure his energy was full and he was ready in every possible way. He couldn’t make a mistake at this juncture.

He looked at the dogs on steroids and gathered energy in his hands. The wind energy with the sticky characteristic started to form. Miles shaped the energy and used the Heart Branch technique of the Royal Blood. The Heart Branch techniques of Royal Blood were custom made for Merlin and Marcela, and since neither had a certain element, the techniques were amplifying the control over all elements instead specializing on one of them.

The wind in Miles's hand started to stir harder than before. The restless wind looked even more dangerous now thanks to the technique. He formed the attack and a whirlwind appeared. It traveled towards the canines who were observing Miles as ever since he stepped into the room.

“I have to separate them if I want to win.” He clenched his hand as he dashed forward. He stirred the armor with lightning elemental energy he sent and created a discharge. The armor wasn’t like the maroon armor and couldn’t be controlled with thoughts as it lacked the Psychic element, but Miles could still control it to some extent. The whirlwind arrived at the same time he did and the discharge hit the canines who were sucked into the wind attack.

“Frontal Dash!” Miles charged up with his signature move and attacked with the dagger and the claw. Thankfully, the monsters were all in low-tier, and the tower was scaling them based on the challenger’s level. Thus, despite the number of the monsters, they weren't the strongest low-tier monsters one could encounter in a tower.

In an analogy, if fifty people entered the tower, they would still encounter low-tier monsters on the first 10 floors. But the difficulty would be much higher and the number of the beasts would be much more as well. But because Miles was only mid-tier, and he was alone, the tower balanced the difficulty. It didn’t mean that Miles was advantageous, it wasn’t even close. Fifty seasoned hunters with peak-tier abilities could clear the tower much more easily than a single hunter at low-tier despite the abilities the single hunter had, but it was too late to regret, as he was trapped in the tower.

Luckily Miles was as strong as a mid-tier monster when it comes to physical. Other hunters would only have the energy and superpower at Form-Rank and would only use 3 to 5 serums, while Miles was already at 6th, thus he was faster, stronger, and more durable than the monsters. The claw and the dagger were also at pinnacle-tier, making it super easy to cut down the monsters.

With every swing, a canine dropped dead. Miles killed one after the other and didn’t wait for them to regroup and in less than 10 minutes, he cleared the floor.

“You did it!” Coin exclaimed after Miles was done.

“Yeah, one down, 49 more floors to go.” Miles sat on the ground. Although it wasn’t that hard, he still used a big amount of energy. He needed to replenish it. “Armor is preventing them from injuring me. If I hadn’t found this one, I would be in big trouble.”

"If it wasn't for the armor, you wouldn't be in this cursed place anyway." Coin snorted as he clasped his imaginary arms around his body.

"Well, technically I am here to avenge myself and Alex but yeah, the possibility of armor brought me here in the first place." Miles shook his head.

"Makes me wonder," Coin started, "What are towers?"

"What do you mean?" Miles asked in surprise. Not because it was a stupid question, it was a brilliant one. What were towers indeed? How did they come to be? What were their purposes? They were making humanity stronger despite the challenge they presented.

"You are asking the questions I had in mind. Why would monsters gather together in a place to make humanity stronger?" Coin asked, reading Miles's mind.

"Why indeed?"