Preparing for the Second Floor

Surprisingly, the resources processed by the Point Shop's Legion category didn't have to be animals. Of course, fresh animals that had been alive until moments ago yielded the highest efficiency, but tree branches, grass, and even certain stones and metals could be converted into resources.

It seems like any living organism above a certain size works... but what's the criteria for stones and metals?

My general intuition suggested that metallic components used in creating the legion could be converted into resources. On the other hand, materials like concrete or asphalt were completely useless. Just in case, I had tried scooping up water and soil from the lake and pouring it into the spawning pool, but no matter how much I added, the resource count didn't budge.

I guess microorganisms and tiny bugs don't count.

After spending a long time harvesting goblins and trees to gather resources, this was the result.

A spawning pool so massive it could fill a small stream had been created. If I hadn't blocked off both sides with dirt, I had no idea how far the acidic fluid would have flowed.

That's enough experimenting for now.

After filling my Void storage to its maximum capacity, I converted all the remaining resources into Void Hounds. Before long, twenty-one Void Hounds emerged from the spawning pool. Together with my hounds, I headed to the third floor of a nearby ruined building.

"I'll be back soon. Keep a good eye on this place, okay?"

"Woof! Woof!"

The Void Hounds wagged their tails as they saw me off. My preparations for conquering the second floor were complete. I opened the system window and pressed the button to enter the Tower.

Upon entering the Tower, the familiar white room welcomed me. Unlike before, when it was bustling with people, the room was now wrapped in a quiet, desolate silence. When I opened the system window, the previously deactivated buttons lit up.

The number of monsters was actually lower than on the first floor. This made sense, as the first floor was a massive stage designed for up to a hundred challengers, whereas the second floor was a group stage for a maximum of ten people. If anything, having over a thousand monsters in a group stage was highly unusual.

Well, the villagers are basically ally NPCs, so I guess it makes sense.

Since Hard difficulty averaged over two hundred monsters, this number wasn't too shocking for Impossible difficulty. No, the truly bizarre part lay elsewhere.

There are that many villagers?

The villagers were in the same boat as me, needing to fend off the monsters. Naturally, having more people was advantageous. Since they were treated as NPCs, they wouldn't steal any contribution points either. Unless there was a catch, this was purely beneficial. If I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had to nitpick, it just meant more people to protect, which could be a hassle.

Wait, isn't Easy difficulty around 300 people, Normal around 150, and Hard around 50?

This was more than Easy difficulty, let alone Hard. Of course, since this included the elderly, women, and children, they wouldn't all be combat-ready...

Are they all children or something? I won't know for sure until it starts...

As I pondered, something clicked in my mind.

Oh, right.

They might not have cleared my specific Impossible difficulty, but they were people who had conquered Extreme difficulties that didn't even exist in our world. They were bound to have more information than me. Logging into the Transcendent Gallery for the first time in a while, a flood of unread posts caught my eye.

Judging by the titles, most of them seemed to have been written by a single person. Since my time to use the Point Shop was limited, I quickly wrote a post.

I kept the post as brief as possible, and comments began to flood in almost instantly.

It seemed having more NPCs than Easy difficulty was highly unusual. Since I had to make the most of my remaining time, I left a final reply and logged out of the Transcendent Gallery.

It looked like another comment had popped up at the very end, but I ignored it and opened the Point Shop.

The Point Shop didn't sell basic stats. The only ways to raise basic stats were through clear rewards and the occasional bonus rewards. This was the primary reason why the caliber of Awakeners varied so drastically depending on the difficulty they chose.

The Skill Shop is one thing... but what are the other two?

While the Point Shop did generate new categories based on the skills an Awakener possessed, "Legion Upgrade" and "Hero Monster Upgrade" were entirely new to me.

Hero Monster... that's probably similar to the summon upgrades available to Summoners.

Intuitively, it had to be a shop to strengthen Poppy. If so, what exactly was Legion Upgrade? I raised my finger and tapped Legion Upgrade.

When I tapped Spawning Pool, a new window appeared.

The basic level upgrades didn't seem all that impressive, but the special upgrades looked incredibly promising.

If the spawning pool gets larger, transporting resources will be much easier... But Gene Replication? Is that how I create new legion units?

Naturally, there was no way the Void Devourer legion was limited to just four types of units. I had wondered how to produce other units, and it seemed I had to hunt other monsters and harvest their DNA.

What about the other options?

There were so many abilities. Even excluding the Detector—which I couldn't even summon right now—there were far too many tempting options.

Wait, are these prices for real?

These were astronomical prices that other second-floor Hard difficulty players couldn't even dream of. Even considering that the points earned would increase as I climbed higher, the costs were insane.

I might really have to join the next expedition...

Aside from clearing floors, expeditions were one of the few ways to farm points. I had planned to avoid the upcoming expedition out of fear of my identity being exposed, but with these point costs, even repeating perfect clears wouldn't be enough. Yet, despite the steep prices, the new abilities boasted effects that were well worth the cost. I barely managed to narrow down my choices to the absolute essentials.

The Void Grub's Razor-Sharp Teeth and High-Capacity Stomach would drastically increase my resource gathering rate, while the Locust Legs would more than double the Void Hound's combat effectiveness. Given that the majority of my current forces consisted of Void Hounds, Locust Legs was an absolute must-have.

I had only selected four upgrades, yet they already consumed half of my points.

Whew... let's stay calm.

I still had to check the Skill Shop and the Hero Monster upgrades.

Strengthening my Hero Monster isn't urgent, so...

"Woof! Woof!"

As if sensing my thoughts, Poppy, who was sitting right next to me, lunged forward and licked my cheek.

"Alright, alright, just wait a second."

"Woof!"

"We can do yours next time..."

"Whine! ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Whine!"

Poppy rubbed its head against my chest.

"Hold on, I need to buy my own skills first."

The Skill Shop wasn't much different from what I had expected. There were countless close-combat and summon-related skills. I selected two skills I had already kept in mind.

These were the most efficient ways to utilize my otherwise useless mana. Mana Conversion was a skill almost any close-combat Awakener would have in their arsenal, while Skill Share was primarily used by summoner-type Awakeners.

Normally, no matter how close two people were, Skill Share would never work between humans; it only functioned between a summoner and a summon they had spent a long time with.

"...Poppy, you'll let me borrow one, right?"

"Woof."

"I'll buy you Telepathy."

"Woof! Woof!"

Honestly, I wanted to buy a C-rank version of Skill Share, but even if I skipped Poppy's Telepathy, I still wouldn't have enough points for it.

All those points had vanished, leaving me with a measly 74 points. After much deliberation, I had decided to dump all my bonus stats into Mana. Now that I had Mana Conversion, as long as I had enough mana, I could easily compensate for any lack in my other stats.

Besides, stats in the 20 to 40 range aren't low for the second floor... at least by Hard difficulty standards.

In truth, there were other places to spend points besides acquiring new skills.

The highest skill rank sold in the Skill Shop was A-rank. Anything beyond that had to be upgraded using points. However, because the prices were so absurdly high, very few people actually succeeded in upgrading them.

What happens when you get an EX-rank skill?

The "Transcendence" reward obtained upon clearing the Tower didn't actually change a skill's rank to EX. It merely upgraded a specific skill to be stronger without altering its base rank.

And then, there was one particular option that caught my eye more than anything else.

What on earth was this skill that upgrading it to E-rank cost a staggering hundred thousand points?

And if...

If I were to raise this skill all the way to EX-rank...

What would happen?