Nathan"s skin returned back to normal and he was currently cleaning his equipment with a rag, wiping off the blood and skin tissue stuck on it.
He was given some clothes and healing potions by Harry"s group.
Although he had some extra clothes inside his [Grade D] Spatial Bag, he chose not to take it out in fear that they might covet his item.
And speaking of the [Grade D] Spatial Bag, to his surprise, no one seems to acknowledge it.
Perhaps they didn"t know what it was or didn"t care about it or pretending they aren"t aware of it?
Whatever the reason was, he chose not to reveal it.
But despite his cautious approach, there was a flaw here that Nathan didn"t consider.
It was already strange that he didn"t carry any bag for his food and drinks.
Putting that matter aside, Nathan secretly glanced around to see if anyone here aside from him had a [Grade D] Spatial Bag.
He didn"t see any.
Regarding his overall health, given that he wasn"t healed by Ashleigh because Rose argued that Nathan wasn"t part of her team and was now part of Harry"s group so they aren"t obligated to help him and the other teams agreed, he more or less recovered 80% of his health.
But there was another issue plaguing Nathan"s mind…
While cleaning his equipment to remove the blood and skin tissue stuck on it, the scene from earlier kept replaying inside his head.
In fact, despite already healed, his body would sometimes involuntarily twitch from the intense pain he experienced not long ago.
"I lost all my hair from the fire… Why is it in most fantasy novels and shows character looks don"t change that much? Instead, in most cases, if there are changes, it makes them look even more bada.s.s. With the rate of how things are progressing, I wouldn"t be surprised if I ended up looking like Gollum…"
"Nathan, buddy, are you done?"
Nathan turned towards the person who asked him.
It was Joseph.
Nathan flashed a warm and weak smile. "One last minute and I"ll be done."
"Sure, sure. No problem."
Everyone was waiting for Nathan to finish cleaning his equipment.
Once he was done, Harry and his group would be the first ones to enter the red portal that presumably leads to the 2nd stage of the Divine Tower.
This was one of the conditions Harry had to pay the other groups to have Nathan be part of his team.
As for whether they asked for Nathan"s opinion, well, nothing. It was as if he owed these people for not killing him, which is true.
But to Nathan, he felt no grat.i.tude towards them.
By the end of this journey, he would see to it that they would pay with their lives for stepping on his status as a Chosen One.
He quickened his pace in cleaning his equipment.
Seeing the blood and skin tissue on it, he couldn"t help but softly mutter under his breath, "I almost died… again... for the second time…"
For some miracle, no bullet entered his head and he knew he was extremely lucky.
He even started to think he had [Plot Armor].
However, he still couldn"t shake the feeling that he almost died a second time.
And it was not a pleasant experience.
The first time was when he was slapped away by a D1.
This time around he burned and shot.
But on the second time, he didn"t pray.
With his skill [Coward"s Way], does he really have the potential to become the most powerful Chosen One?
If not, should he just bow down to those are more powerful?
Should he just accept that as a human, he had no choice but to depend on others?
Should he revert back to his old self before the zombie apocalypse where he had to wear a mask and tweak how he acts whenever he meets people in order to be seen by society as a decent citizen?
He shook his head.
"I"m still level 25. It"s still far too early to give up. And if give up, what was the point of all my hard work?"
He let out a pitiful smile.
"G.o.d, I must be one of the greatest m.a.s.o.c.h.i.s.ts that have ever lived. In some way, I"m probably no different from that booty warrior."
He knew that he will no doubt face more near-death experiences if he continued walking down this path.
But if he wanted a world where he can act how he wants to act and do what he wants to do, he must continue becoming strong.
He also knew that he should tweak his approach a little bit…
Nathan finally finished cleaning his equipment and wore them immediately.
He had to discard his police vest, and the holsters for his sawed-off double-barrel shotgun and [Grade D] Long Dagger.
Fortunately, there was some extra holsters and some shotgun sh.e.l.ls from the corpses so he was able to replace them.
They also pointed out that he was so lucky the sh.e.l.ls loaded on his sawed-off double-barrel shotgun didn"t explode when he was engulfed in flames earlier.
They also warned him it may have caused some damage to the weapon so it"s better to replace it.
But he ignored their advice because there was no decent gun available to replace it.
Plus, this was his weapon to deal with those two tank-type Chosen Ones like Derek and Rose.
Nathan picked up his [Grade D] Large Axe.
"I"m done."
"Let"s go," said Harry as he entered the red portal with his group and with Nathan.
After entering the portal, they found themselves in the same setting like the previous stage -- the large s.p.a.cious arena, the ceiling that seemed endless and the gigantic golden orb hovering above serving as a miniature sun.
"I guess there won"t be any Eternal Village, huh," commented someone among Harry"s group.
"Yeah, so we need to complete this Divine Tower as soon as possible before we starve to death," commented another one.
No one knows who many stages they need to complete.
Were there 10 stages?
100 stages?
1,000 stages?
Or perhaps endless?
Nathan thought about the food he carried inside his [Grade D] Spatial Bag.
It was worth 7 days, eating 3 meals a day. He could stretch it out to 14 days if he decides to reduce his consumption.
And as much as possible, he didn"t want to consume human meat or drink human pee or blood.
He checked his watch.
1:41 PM.
"Only about 1 hour and a half since I left the Eternal Village…"
A minute later, the other teams entered as well.
When all of the remaining survivors entered the red portal, a message from the System popped inside their heads.
Ding!
"Stage 2 of the Divine Tower will now begin. Kill all the Armored Angels to proceed to the next stage."
Everyone raised their heads and looked at the sky.
Just like in the previous stage, a group of 100 Armored Angels appeared up in the sky and were descending.
"Prepare to engage!"
Nathan disappeared and moved away.
The same as the previous stage, when the armored angels were 20m above ground, they began to throw spells.
And when they landed on the ground, they cast buffs on themselves.
It was the same sequence just like the previous stage.
The only difference was their level because they were now Level 2 and their stats are:
• STR - 22
• AGI - 22
• VIT - 22
• INT - 100
In clearing Stage 2 of the Divine Tower, Nathan decided to only aim for the White Armored Angels but didn"t kill that many.
The reason why he chose this approach wasn"t because they didn"t give any EXP, he was throwing a tantrum, or his health was not at full capacity.
In his mind, given that no one knows how many stages are there, he wanted to conserve his energy.
Sure, having high VIT makes one"s endurance and defense higher, immune system stronger and recovery faster.
However, movement requires energy -- the more energy he spends, the more food he would need to consume.
And even if they accused him of deliberately not putting effort in killing and have Ashleigh heal him, he could always argue that he"s still recovering from the loss of blood due to the injuries he sustained earlier.
After 30 minutes, they finally killed all the armored angels.
As for Nathan, out of the 100 armored angels, he only killed 5 white ones and none of the black ones.
And despite killing only 5 White Armored Angels, he was able to loot 2 [Green] Treasure Chests.
"It seems that the drop rate is a bit higher here, huh."
He opened the two chests.
One of the chests was a [Small] Mana Potion. It was 3-inch vial with blue liquid inside.
"Nice."
Meanwhile, inside the other chest was a [Grade D] White Heavy Leather Gloves that gives +1 INT, +2 VIT and 1% chance of blocking any magical attack.
Nathan pondered.
He asked earlier if there was any difference between the drops of the black and white armored angels.
Based on his what he has learned so far, in terms of bonus stats, there were random unlike the ones dropped by the D, M, N and S types.
Random in a sense where it"s not like the D-types that drops +3 Vit or +2 Vit and +1 random stat attribute.
Instead, it could be any combination.
The only difference between the two, as he found out, was the special effect.
The white equipment gives a 1% chance to block any magical attack, while the black equipment gives a 1% chance to block any physical attack.
"Hmm… These special effects are really effective and could definitely affect the outcome of the battle or one"s survival. However, the combination of the bonus stats makes them useless…"
Nathan examined the [Grade D] White Heavy Leather Gloves.
"Only +3 bonus stats so this is only a First Tier enhancement, not a Second Tier which gives +4… It would be nice if by the end of this Divine Tower I could return to the Eternal Village and have it re-awakened."
But after thinking about the cost, he smiled and shook his head.
"What would I pay for the re-awakening? Perhaps I could sell my equipment?"
As far as he has seen, no Nuclei was dropped by the armored angels because their body disintegrates once they"re destroyed.
"Well, no point in thinking about that. For now, my goal is to survive here in this Divine Tower so I can"t change my equipment. And as for looting, well, I can always kill these b.a.s.t.a.r.ds."
His eyes flashed a cold glint.
Aside from pretending to work with these people, he was observing them, especially the Chosen Ones.
And the one that burned him? Well, he already had some ideas on how his skill works.
Stage 5 of the Divine Tower…
The survivors just cleared out all the armored angels and a red portal appeared for them to proceed to stage 6.
With each stage, everything was the same.
The only difference was the level of the armored angels because it rises up to one.
Although they knew quite well how to defeat them, it was getting harder and harder to defeat them.
In fact, they lost some people along the way and they were now down to 40, including Nathan.
"Let"s take a break and resume after 6 hours of rest," said Captain Burlow.
According to Nathan"s watch, it has already been 7 hours since they left the Eternal Village.
Signs of fatigue, exhaustion and hunger can already be seen on everyone"s faces.
There was also the issue that perhaps there was no ending to the stages or they would all die before they completed the stages which was slowing eating away the morale of everyone.
With those issues, continuing would be suicide so a much-needed rest and bonding time was required.
"Okay," said Rose.
The other groups agreed as well.
Author"s thoughts:
I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading!
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