Travellers - An Isekai, Cultivation Fantasy

Ten minutes passed. As Drake gathered several more pill recipes, Blaze finally caught the orb with the rank four artifact.

The orb thrashed wildly in his palms, but he refused to let go. Eventually, the orb lost its energy and disappeared, revealing the rank four artifact within - a pair of knuckle bracers.

Everyone eyed Blaze greedily, but one look at his dragon horns removed any notion of fighting him from their minds. Kurt was disappointed as well, but he wasn't able to compete with Blaze.

At the same time, Corvus also caught the orb he was chasing. However, he pocketed the artifact before anyone could see it. A few had tried to fight him over the orb, but Corvus defeated them with an overwhelming show of force. Hence, no one dared to mess with him now. They didn't want to lose their lives fighting over the artifact now, when there were still so many good treasures around.

Ten more minutes passed. Most of the treasures had been taken now. Drake had obtained several useful pill recipes and martial techniques, and a few more rank three artifacts. He was very pleased with himself. Sylvia and Blaze had also secured more treasures and were very happy.

The few remaining orbs didn't contain anything that Drake was interested in, so he turned his attention to the staircase leading to the third floor. However, at this moment, someone shouted out.

"Look at that!"

Six orbs shining with a brilliant, golden light descended from the ceiling. Drake's gaze peered through the orbs, and his eyes widened.

They each contained a rank four artifact!

However, before anyone could process what was happening, a familiar, deathly cry echoed through the air.

Drake, Corvus, Blaze, Sylvia, Kurt, and Farisa's eyes all widened.

This was… the dark grand mage!

The wail became louder and deeper with each passing second. As they did so, the ground began to tremble, and a black miasma appeared out of nowhere. Within a few seconds, all the cultivators' visions darkened, and they could barely see a few feet in front. They all summoned their defences instinctively, while carefully observing their surroundings.

A wicked cackling erupted from a corner of the room, and then another, and then another, quickly filling the entire floor. Shadows began to writhe and dance, filling the air with the scent of decay and sulphur.

Pairs of red lights appeared around the cultivators, enveloped in shadows. The dense shadows shifted, condensing into humanoid figures. A few moments later, a cold wind swept through the surroundings, dispersing the black miasma.

The cultivators looked around, and all except Drake's party grew pale.

'There's… so many of them!!"

For a moment, nobody could believe what they were witnessing. More than a thousand figures composed entirely out of shadow filled the floor, surrounding every single cultivator and their parties. Each figure stood tall and firm as they wielded various weapons, while radiating the auras of servant class demons. Many of the figures also radiated the auras of warrior class demons.

Everyone froze, casting the floor in silence. However, a single sound echoed through the air.

Footsteps.

The cultivators located the sound and turned towards the staircase leading up from the first floor. Two figures were walking up the stairs, side by side; one of them radiating an aura far beyond that of a warrior mage.

"A.. a... a.. Gra.. grand... grand mage!" one of the cultivators stuttered. What was a grand mage doing here? Beyond that, he was a dark grand mage! Everyone was confused.

"Scram," the dark grand mage ordered with a deep voice. "Leave and return to the first floor, and I will let you live."

"Don't listen to him!" Corvus spoke out. "I've fought him before with my party. I can confirm that he's very weak now. With so many of us, if we work together, we can easily beat him."

Initially, many people didn't believe him. After all, how could a steel body warrior mage fight against a grand mage? It was impossible in their minds. However, a few of them observed the dark grand mage closer and noticed his torn clothing. Likewise, they glanced at Theo and saw that he too appeared to be in a bad shape.

"Tst," the dark grand mage cursed. He willed, and all the shadow demons acted in unison. They stood upright and banged the edge of their weapons against the floor, causing the entire floor to vibrate. The shadow demons repeated this over and over, becoming faster each time. The loud clangs echoed through the floor and overwhelmed everyone's senses.

Unable to bear the pressure, a few of the lone cultivators relented. "Okay, okay, I'll leave! Please, let me go!"

"Me too!"

"And me!"

All noise came to a stop, and the pressure lifted. The shadow demons next to the cultivators who had spoken up, parted, creating a path leading directly to the stairs. The cultivators hesitated briefly before dashing down.

Seeing the dark grand mage allow them to leave peacefully, others also began rethinking the situation.

'I'm exhausted, I don't have the strength left to fight so many shadow demons!'

'I already obtained so many treasures, why should I continue risking my life?'

'If I can leave now, I might as well take the chance!'

Soon, more cultivators volunteered to leave. Dozens of cultivators left, and with each one, Corvus and the others grew more worried. They knew that the dark grand mage wouldn't let them go, and they had no place to escape this time.

Moreover, many of their own party members had not managed to make it to this floor at all - only Drake, Blaze, Sylvia, Farisa, Corvus, Elwin, and Kurt. Not to mention that none of them were at full strength, especially Drake, Blaze, Sylvia and Farisa, who had yet to recover properly from their earlier battles.

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Could they take on the dark grand mage now?

Corvus shook his head. 'What am I thinking?' he scolded himself.

Most of the dark mages were not here - clearly died in the mines. The dark grand mage must have employed some special technique to escape, potentially even used a rank four artifact again. If so, he must be even weaker than before. If they worked together, even without the rest of their group or any other cultivators, they should be able to deal with him.

Soon, most of the other cultivators left, unwilling to fight.

Blaze looked around and noticed that among those who were left were a few members of the Blackthorne family whom he had encountered previously in the herb garden, and then a few who seemed to be from the Ironheart family. He had not encountered them during this inheritance until now, and was surprised to see them.

Along with them, around fifty cultivators were left, many of whom were lone cultivators. Most of these cultivators were cursing their luck. They had not obtained many treasures at all, even in this black tower, before it was snatched up by someone else. Not willing to return empty-handed, they wanted to fight for a chance to obtain more treasures.

"Interesting…" the dark grand mage mumbled, eyeing everyone who had chosen to stay behind. "So you have all chosen to die."

"Humph!" one of the lone cultivators snorted. "This little army of yours is not going to stop all of us working together!"

"Yeah!" another one agreed.

The dark grand mage chuckled, which soon turned into mild cackling. Then, he threw his arms out and began laughing hysterically at the ceiling. Some people wondered whether he had lost his mind.

In his head, the dark grand mage was running through the events of the mines.

He had suffered such a humiliating defeat, which had killed most of his party, from which even he barely survived. The moment he escaped, the dark grand mage was filled with rage. He wanted to find Drake and torture him to death, but he and his party had long gone already. By the time he made it to the tower, many of the treasures had already been taken.

He was furious!

And now, now at long last, he finally had the opportunity to vent his anger on these fools who decided to oppose him. How could he not laugh?

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the dark grand mage's laughter echoed through the floor. He began emitting a dense blood lust. His head turned towards the cultivators, scanning their faces.

'Where is he? Where is that bastard!' The dark grand mage scoured the entire floor, but… Drake was nowhere to be found.

Confused, the dark grand mage retracted his blood lust and stopped laughing. 'How could he not be here?'

Then, it struck him - the staircase!

The dark grand mage's eyes darted to the staircase and spotted Drake, a quarter of the way up to the third floor, heavily gasping for breath. Seeing him shift his attention, everyone else also turned to the staircase and spotted Drake climbing up on his own. Drake glanced at the dark grand mage and smirked before continuing up the stairs.

"DAMNNN YOUUUUUU!!!!"

The dark grand mage was furious. Even stronger blood lust erupted from his body as he immediately ordered his shadow demons to attack. At the same time, numerous orbs of black light flew from his palms, transforming into rank two vulture spirits. They flew around the floor, covering it with their poisonous mist. The entire floor broke into a giant battlefield.

Many of the lone cultivators cursed. Was Drake going to obtain the final inheritance himself while using them to hold back the dark grand mage? Ridiculous!

Blaze and Sylvia didn't care, since Drake was part of their party. However, Corvus, Farisa, and Kurt were unhappy. Drake was taking advantage of the situation to hoard the final treasures for himself. However, if they turned around now, the dark grand mage would beat them all to the third floor since he had the highest cultivation.

No matter what, they could not let that happen.

Cursing their luck, Corvus and the others focused on the shadow demons and the dark grand mage again.

"Theo, get the rank four artifacts," the dark grand mage ordered, still focusing on Drake. "I have a little brat to kill."

"Understood," Theo replied, before shooting towards the closest orb. The moment it sensed his presence, it darted away. However, the dark grand mage ordered the shadow demons to help Theo as well. Since everyone else was also occupied with the shadow demons and vulture spirits, Theo could capture the orbs much more easily.

As the dark grand mage walked forward, the shadow demons opened a path.

"Where do you think you're going?" he heard a whisper from behind. Alarm bells rang through the dark grand mage's mind as he felt an immense pressure.

"Dragon… fist!"

Blaze had activated dragon form to go all out. The dark grand mage activated his rank three artifacts to summon several layers of barriers. However, using his dragon arm, he easily broke through them. Just as he was about to hit, the dark grand mage disappeared, causing Blaze to punch the ground. The ground crumbled as his arm pressed through, and large cracks stretched out through the floor.

Blaze recovered his arm and turned to the dark grand mage again. However, he smirked and opened his palms. Four purple lights flew out and floated around the dark grand mage. Instantly, they condensed into lightning that moulded into the figures of large beetles.

Sylvia jumped and landed next to Blaze, followed closely by Farisa, then Corvus and finally Kurt. Their expressions grew serious as they observed the four lightning rhino beetles, the dozens of poison vultures, and more than a thousand shadow demons on the floor.

'This is bad…!'

"You idiots actually thought you could stop ME? Hahahahaha!" laughed the dark grand mage, as he casually strolled towards the staircase. They wanted to stop him, but were helpless as the lightning rhino beetles blocked their path. The other cultivators also attempted to stop the dark grand mage, but the shadow demons and the poison vulture spirits flooded them.

The dark grand mage reached the staircase and looked up. Drake was already three-quarters of the way up. He looked at Drake coldly and stepped forward.

Fifteen minutes later.

Drake was on the 90th step, but he was struggling. His body refused to move.

'Is this it? Is this my limit? Am I going to give up here?' Drake wondered. He tried to banish such thoughts and put all his energy into moving, but his body refused to budge. At the same time, he noticed the dark grand mage inching closer and closer.

'What am I going to do? Is he going to take the inheritance?'

Drake was at a loss. Moreover, the longer he stalled like this, the more he felt his energy drain away, and the closer the dark grand mage got. Panting for breath, Drake tried to think.

I have to do something… wait…

That's it!

He reached into his storage pouch and took out the fire lotus pill he had refined earlier. It had the power to give physical abilities a temporary boost. Although given it was only a rank one pill, Drake was unsure how effective it would be.

'There's no time for that,' Drake scolded himself for wasting time doubting, and consumed the pill. Immediately, Drake felt a powerful energy wash through his body, easing the pressure slightly.

'This is it, I can do this!'

Thinking so, Drake took another step. The increase in pressure was killing him, but he refused to give up.

'One more… one more… one more!' Drake repeated it as a mantra as he forced himself to move while the pill was still effective. Behind him, the dark grand mage had already reached the 90th step as well, and even he was panting for breath now.

'How is that guy even moving still?' The dark grand mage was shocked. However, this only resolved his will to kill Drake now. 'I cannot let him grow. Otherwise, he will be a major threat in the future.'

Thinking so, the dark grand mage pressed forward.

Drake was now at the last step. Every bone, muscle and fibre in his body was screaming. All this time of tearing his body apart when cultivating martial arts felt like nothing compared to the pain he was experiencing now.

However, he could see into the floor now. There were no more staircases, meaning this was the last floor, and the place of the final inheritance.

If he obtained it, there was no telling how much he could grow.

He remembered how the mage emperor's inheritance of Jain village slipped away at the last moment. Drake had regretted it endlessly ever since. He did not want that to repeat. He was so close now; if he missed this opportunity too, there may never be another one like this again.

Drake thought of his family, how weak and useless he had felt before when he fled with a broken mana core as they were all slaughtered by Damon Rouge and his dark mages. He remembered everything that happened since. Although he had grown, Helen had died right in front of his eyes.

All because he was too weak.

Was he going to continue being so weak? Too weak to fight his enemies? Too weak to protect himself?

NO! I WILL NOT BE WEAK EVER AGAIN!!!!

"AaaAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!"

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