The Evolution of a Goblin to the Peak

One week had passed, and Souta managed to clear the 92nd floor. This week, he trained inside Saya's inner consciousness to fight without using his eyes. At the end of the 92nd floor, Souta fought two monsters on his level. The monster that could rival the third evolution stage, an S-rank.

Despite his disadvantage, he managed to kill them while using most of his cards. The [Possession] and [Monster Orb Release] were used on this floor. The founder of the Great Astley Empire was nothing compared to these monsters.

After he cleared the 92nd floor, Souta rested for a day before heading on to the 93rd floor.

Just as he expected, he still couldn't use his sense of sight. Also, the difficulty has increased. It's not just his sense of sight anymore; also, his sense of smell was disabled. But he didn't have a problem with it. His sense of smell wasn't that strong compared to Yuko and Doranjan, so he rarely used it to sense his surroundings.

The monster on the 93rd floor was still as strong as the monster on the 92nd floor, so he handled it the same. He was also getting used to his current condition.

It took him three days before he cleared the 93rd floor. He then saw that he leveled up and finally reached level 44. It was within his expectations, as the monsters that he was hunting were B-rank, A-rank, and S-rank. Just a single S-rank already gave him exp equal to a hundred A-ranks.

This farming was more efficient when he was killing the soldiers of the Great Astley Empire, who only had a power level of D-rank or C-rank expert.

Unfortunately, he couldn't gather any souls from the monster here in the living labyrinth, as they were just created from the energy of this place to test the people that wanted to get the god's legacy.

But then he was still an early third evolution monster, as his level was only 44, but his combat power was as strong as those high third evolution monsters. He could even defeat some of them if he used his cards pretty well. By the way, Doranjan was already at this level, a high third evolution stage, and was close to a peak third evolution stage.

There was another reason why he could rival a high third evolution stage. The [Ruler of Sub-World] boosted his strength as the worlds that were under the rule of the Great Astley Empire recognized him as their leader ever since the Astros were established.

So Souta headed to the 95th floor after he recovered from the battle on the 94th floor. On this floor, his disadvantages have increased once again. His sense of hearing was disabled. He couldn't hear his own voice or the sounds in his surrounding area.

The worst case was that he couldn't even hear Saya's voice.

'Even telepathic communication was blocked!!'

He thought inwardly as he felt a sense of crisis. Fortunately, he could still enter Saya's inner consciousness. Once he entered her inner consciousness, he could use his senses so he could hear her voice. It was a relief for him.

Time passed quickly, and Souta just kept training to clear this living labyrinth. His efforts in training have leveled up some of his combat arts.

...

Isabella and Yuko were on the 60th floor, looking at the white cocoon of energy in front of them.

"Almost two months have already passed, and they still haven't come out of the last trial. Are they going to be fine, Yuko?"

Isabella said as she rested her chin on her palm. She smiled as she heard Yuko's words, which say that her master is strong, so don't worry.

"You're right, Souta and others are strong, so I just need to believe in them."

Then, a crack formed on the white cocoon, and it slowly spread out on its surface. After a few moments, the cocoon was shattered, and a girl who looked like a 14-year-old child came out.

The girl was small; her height was just four and a half feet. Her skin was light green, and she had a purple tattoo on her hand up to her neck. She had shoulder-length, dark red hair; her big, round eyes had the same color; and her lips were black. Black spikes with green color tips protruded from her shoulders.

"Oh, you've grown beautiful, Yenxa."

Isabella commented when she saw Yenxa's appearance. Her eyes sparkled as she slowly approached the cute figure. It was completely different from before.

That's right. This little girl was Yenxa, the little goblin that he picked when they were on Planet Greia. This time, she finally reached her second evolution.

She couldn't believe it. A goblin would grow this pretty. She hadn't heard anything like this when she was still a slave.

"She's beautiful, right, Yuko?"

Isabella turned to Yuko and heard a "Tch!" sound in her mind. It felt like Yuko was dissatisfied with Yenxa's current appearance.

"Err..."

She scratched her cheeks with an awkward expression while looking at Yuko and Yenxa back and forth. She didn't know what to do at this moment.

"Glad to see that everyone is fine."

A voice sounded behind them.

Isabella turned around and saw a tall man with short black hair. The man had thick brows and sharp eyes.

"Oh, you're back, Torkez." She smiled when she saw Torkez.

"Yeah, is that Yenxa...?" Torkez asked as he observed the little girl. The difference in appearance was huge, so he couldn't recognize this little girl from the bald goblin before.

"Ah, yes. She evolved and reached the second evolution stage." Isabella replied. She then slowly asked, "Are you alone? Did you meet the others?"

"No, the trial is hard..." Torkez said as he recalled the things that happened to him. "The 91st floor is a huge maze. It would be easy to clear it, but somehow I couldn't see anything in the maze. It took me a lot of time before I cleared it. It was hard, and it's traumatizing."

"What do you mean?" Isabella asked with a curious expression. She didn't challenge the 91st floor and beyond, so she didn't have any idea what they experienced.

"All the time I couldn't even use my eyes. Ever since I entered that place, my vision has been blocked by some unknown power, and it took me two weeks before I passed the 92nd floor. I couldn't even imagine having to fight without using my eyes. I could only keep up with those monsters because I had great control over my parasite," Torkez sighed as he glanced at the ceiling.

Then he continued, "On the 93rd floor, my ability to smell was blocked, and then, on the 94th floor, my ability to hear was blocked. I think on the 100th floor all the senses are blocked and we have to fight powerful monsters without it."

"Isn't that too hard?"

"Yeah, I could only clear the 95th floor before I gave up. I could hardly defeat any S-rank monster with my current strength, so I decided to give up."

Torkez was an A-rank expert, and he just reached it when they started their expedition in this living labyrinth. It's been four months since he reached this level, and he was close to achieving the intermediate stage.

According to Souta, A-rank has four stages: initial, intermediate, high, and peak stages.

A person will become an A-rank if they manage to liquefy a drop of mana in their mana pool, and that's the initial stage of becoming an A-rank.

If a person can liquefy a quarter of their mana in their mana pool, then they are at the intermediate stage.

If it was half, then it was at a high stage.

Lastly, we reach the peak stage. A person will achieve it if that person manages to liquefy all the mana in the mana pool.

He had a technique to help him liquefy his mana. He received this technique from Souta, and it was a technique that he hadn't found in the Great Astley Empire. He didn't know that Saya was the one who passed on this technique, and she just used Souta to strengthen his forces.

Saya didn't have any care about giving powerful techniques to Torkez and the rest. They were bound by the parasitic essence eater, and those parasites have completely fused in their bodies. In other words, they were Souta's possession.

"It seems that I'm the first one to give up," Torkez said with a sigh. He knew that he was the weakest among the people who challenged the 91st floor to the 100th floor.

"You don't have to feel bad about it. At least you challenged it while I'm stuck here," Isabella said.

"Huff... Since there is nothing to do, I'll just train while waiting for them to come out..." Torkez said as he patted his clothes.

"Okay, I'll just check Yenxa's ability first..." Isabella nodded at him.

"Oh, I'm curious about it too."