'Although I don't know these crystals' exact value, I can tell now that they are pretty expensive. Let's store them first.' Abium spoke before closing the silver chest, and he was about to store it but stopped.
At that moment, Azolla spoke in a hurry.
'Take out 13 Tier-1 spatial-elemental crystals separately before storing them in your spatial ring. They are for our current journey.'
'Oh! I almost forgot about it.' Abium clicked his tongue, took out 13 spatial crystals separately, and put them in a separate leather bag.
After that, he stored the silver chest in his spatial ring and focused on the wooden one.
Abium quickly walked towards the wooden chest, opened it with a click, and looked into it.
But to his surprise, he saw nothing but a small mysterious paper with many numbers written on it.
'Hmm? It looks like coordination.' Azolla spoke in his head.
'Coordination? Important, right?'
Abium activated the [Eidetic Memory] ability and memorized the coordination in a few seconds.
'Yes. It might be useful for you in the future.' Azolla responded calmly.
Meanwhile, Abium nodded, walked out of the hidden room, and spoke in Rune Language again.
"Take me to the fifth layer."
A second later, Abium disappeared from there and reappeared in the fifth layer, startling everyone.
At that moment, the Magic Tower suddenly shook violently and caused everyone almost to lose balance.
"What happened?" He asked in a hurry and moved towards the nearby window to look outside.
"There are thousands of monsters coming here from all directions. We have to leave sooner." Fennelis said in a grim tone.
At that moment, Abium also saw a swarm of undead skeletons and Undead Magical Beasts smashing their heads at the protective layer and trying to break it.
"No good. The protective layer won't last." He took out the leather bag, opened it, and asked Azolla in his mind.
'What should I do next?'
'Place a spatial-elemental crystal on each of those black pillars. Put it on the top.' Azolla guided him calmly.
"Nicolaus, help me with this," Abium said as he took out six spatial-elemental crystals from the leather bag and gave them to him.
"Place each of these crystals on top of the black pillars." He spoke solemnly, moved towards the nearby black pillar, and placed a spatial-elemental crystal on top of it. After that, he moved towards the next pillar and put another crystal on it.
On the other hand, Nicolaus also copied his action and placed the crystals on the pillars.
Once the job was over, they returned to the hall's center and noticed that the whole teleportation magic formation started to light up in bright light.
'Return to the core room and erase your spirit imprint. If not, you won't be able to destroy this Magic Tower by the self-detonation method.' Azolla added as he stared at the center of the hall.
At that moment, spatial-elemental energy came from all those thirteen pillars and started to gather above the Map Crystal!
No, a tiny crack appeared in the space and started to expand.
'Portal is forming. I should finish my work.'
Although Abium tried to cast the [Blink] spell, he soon realized that he couldn't teleport due to the dense spatial elemental energy.
Without any delay, he dashed towards the spiral staircase while shouting.
"Stay where you are! I'll come back in a few seconds."
Before Nicolaus and Fennelis could understand the situation, he had long gone.
Within ten seconds, Abium arrived in front of the reddish core, put his palm on it, and erased his spiritual imprint.
Not a single hesitation appeared on his face.
In the meantime, the core room suddenly turned bright red, followed by an eerie synthetic voice!
'30!'
'29!'
'The self-detonation mechanism is activated. Go back to the fifth layer and leave.' Azolla said in a hurry.
In truth, Abium had long turned around as he heard the countdown and started running towards the Core Room's exit.
Within ten seconds, he reached the fifth layer and soon froze as he saw that a 2-meter tall bluish portal appeared at the center of the hall.
"What should we do now, Abium?" Fennelis noticed his arrival and asked while grabbing Umi with both hands.
Meanwhile, Abium gave one last look at the outside Bone Tree and added.
"Jump into it."
As he spoke, he started running towards the bluish portal and leaped into it.
Although Fennelis and Nicolaus were shocked by his action, they did not hesitate for a second and followed him.
As Abium and others disappeared into the portal, the whole magic tower started to shake violently.
Meanwhile, the bluish portal remained there for the next few seconds and finally started to shrink.
In contrast, the strange eerie countdown reverberated throughout the tower like a death countdown.
"11!"
"10!"
"9!"
The protective layer also started to break at that moment, letting the undead skeletons and the magical beasts inside.
Those beasts smashed everything in their path and entered the building in mere seconds.
On the other hand, the countdown also neared zero.
"3!"
"2!"
"1!"
As the countdown ended, a booming sound reverberated from inside the belly of that magic tower. A series of new flashes broke out, lifting and spreading the incandescent gases, and then a massive gush of flame rose.
A column of raging fire-like elements created by the alchemic explosion burst from the underground and spread everywhere. In a blink, the fire spread more than hundreds of meters, burned the undead skeletons and beasts along the way, and blasted the upper part of the tower.
Simultaneously, the explosive fire created a mushroom-like cloud of smoke and sent out rippling shockwaves in all directions.
…
A few seconds ago.
As Abium leaped into the portal, he felt colorless and odorless energy start to invade his body. He tried to look around but saw nothing but empty darkness.
But the next moment, strange gases dissolved in his bloodstream near the surface of his skin and collected themselves like miniature bubbles. Due to the lack of air in the space, he also felt suffocated. The vacuum pulled air from his breath, causing him to feel that his lungs would rupture.
When he thought this was the end, an invisible hand appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him from that space, and pulled him along with Umi and others.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Soon Abium felt that his body crashed onto a hard floor and groaned. Slowly, he opened his amber eyes and noticed that three figures lay next to him and were breathing heavily.
"F*ck! I thought I was going to die."
Nicolaus's cursing sound came from his side. Before Abium could open his mouth, a white light enveloped them, binding their visions, and began to heal their internal wounds.
As Abium tried to open his eyes, he heard a young girl's whisper in his ears.
"You did well!"
It was Goddess Nyara's voice!
A second later, he heard a finger-snapping noise.
The next instant, Abium noticed that the surroundings started to distort and found himself standing alone in a dark forest!
He instantly released his spirit power and observed the surroundings.
After confirming that there were no dangers nearby, he breathed a sigh of relief and muttered.
"Where did she send me this time?"
At that moment, Azolla's voice echoed in his head.
She took the heart of the Light Dragon. I thought of extracting the blood essence later, but it can't be helped.'
'Blood Essence to turn oneself into a warlock?' Abium asked while drawing his sword.
'Yes. That thing should be a Tier-6 or Tier-7 Being's heart. Well, nothing can be done about it now.' A slight disappointment appeared in Azolla's voice.
'There is no point in offending a goddess.' Abium also said with a sigh. Then, he glanced around and noticed no trace of light nearby.
He stood still for some moment to adjust his eyesight and slowly observed the surrounding. At the same time, he also started to hear the howls of wild wolves and insects' chirping noises.
After a few seconds, he looked up at the dark sky and muttered.
"I don't know what goddess Nyara is planning, but I hope she didn't send them to another plane like before.'
'Don't worry, kid. She is not a heartless person. She must have sent them back to the pocket dimension.' Azolla said.
Abium spoke with a concerned face.
"If it's true, they are lucky. I hope Nicolaus and others utilize this opportunity and improve their strength. The whole world will be a dangerous place for weak mortals."
'Are you worried about their safety?' Azolla couldn't help but ask. At first, she thought of him as an unsympathetic character. But when it comes to Nicolaus and his close friends, he showed more worry, which startled her.
Abium seemed to have seen through her puzzlement and spoke with a chuckle.
'There is nothing wrong with showing concern for friends' safety, Azolla. If they were strong, I wouldn't have worried this much. But currently, all of them are weak.' He suddenly paused for a moment before adding.
'I should get back to the Royal City sooner and check if Helena is okay.'
'I can't see through your thoughts-' As Azolla spoke, Abium suddenly stepped on something and created a clanging noise.
"What's that?"
He quickly bent down and noticed it was an iron sword.
But what made him furrow his eyebrows was the strange blood that suddenly assaulted his nose. He immediately took out the magic lamp from his spatial ring, moved it towards his feet, and soon saw a blade dyed in scarlet blood!
'It still appears fresh.' Then, he quickly shifted his lamp to the surroundings and noticed blood droplets on the leaves and the trunks of the plants around him.
As he was about to turn around, he suddenly saw a figure lying on the ground around ten meters away from him and seemed motionless.
He stealthily stepped forward, arrived in front of the body, and confirmed that it was a young woman's headless body.
'She died because of her head explosion? A magic spell?'
A young woman's scream came from the front as he observed the body.
Abium soon noticed that a humanoid figure an in his direction and shouted.
"UGHHHH, HELP ME!"
He soon noticed a young woman running toward him and displaying a pained look.
But what shocked him more was that he couldn't find any sign of the enemy!
'Who is chasing her?'
He even used the scan but found no enemies within the range.
At that moment, the young woman saw a young man's face in yellowish light and smiled.
But inside her head, a strange explosion occurred.
It caused her head to ignite and rupture, spewing half-baked, bubbling gray matter in every direction and scarlet blood.
That half elf's image was the last thing she saw before she died.
While Abium was staring at her in confusion, that young woman's head exploded like watermelon, leaving her headless body crashing on the tree trunk.
'What the hell was that?' Abium asked in surprise.
'I don't know. But this looks like a slave trader's work.' Azolla gave him a short explanation.
'I should get out of this forest first.'
Abium chose a random path and started walking towards it.