A Higher Floor of the Ancient Dragon Hotel

Sylver performs a backflip purely to avoid the plasma bolt being fired at him by the demon acolyte – the weakest amongst the magic using demons – before covering his foot with silver lightning and smashing it on the ground, sending a thick bolt of it through the ground straight into the demon in question. He then bends over backwards as another bolt flies straight through where his torso just was, following which he sweeps his arm out, sending an arc of silver lightning straight at the creature, cleaving it in two.

The Guardian pants in exhaustion as he leans forwards again, rising back to his full height before wiping his brow of sweat and looking around at the demons. He briefly pauses as he listens to the death messages of the level 126 demon acolytes and then walks forward to tear the mana gem out from their staffs.

At least I can finally start truly profiting off of a Fracture. Just a pity that the only things that stay behind are mana gems, with everything else vanishing with the Fracture core, back to Tartarus.

Without a care about how the world would view thoughts like that, the man raises his hand and opens a silver portal next to it before dropping the gems into the storage skill and closing it again as he begins walking towards the next room. But only a few steps later, he stops at the sound of his terminal going off.

After accepting the call, Sage’s face appears on his terminal and she immediately says, “Reinforcements are being sent your way. They will arrive in half an hour, and they consist of four Class II Guardians. However, you will have to wait for Cipher and Frost to clear the Class III Fracture at the mall for them to shatter the shield of the bunker hiding the Class I core.”

Sylver lets out an inaudible sigh of relief before nodding his head and saying, “Roger that.”

The call cuts out as soon as Sage hears his reply.

Despite his relief though, Sylver can’t help but tense up ever so slightly at the thought of Frost arriving.

If anyone’s a monster in this Association, it’d be her…

A shiver runs down his spine as he remembers when he first met her, at his very first Fracture, where he originally made his contract. A Class III Fracture where – despite the calamitous strength, in his eyes, of the demons – the woman still turned them all into living statues of ice in mere moments.

And if she’s here with her husband as well, then this is just overkill. But I guess I can understand…

His thoughts turn to the girl the same age as him dozens of floors down the building from him who is most likely recklessly killing demons with abandon. Especially now that she has that life draining skill signature to most blood magic users.

Such an unfair skill.

He shakes his head before casually glancing at a security camera and sending a small spark of silver lightning at it. His eyes then close as he focuses on the security cameras of each of the first floors, slowly going up floor by floor until he eventually finds her standing up from a bed on the nineteenth floor while stretching her arms.

Guess she was letting her mana regenerate? Guess that’s something at least. She won’t just go brute forcing it even without any mana.

“You seem to have developed an interest in the girl,” Sylver’s fae appears in the air next to him in the form of a small tiger, only the size of a housecat. “That’s not like you.”

Sylver glances at the fae before answering, “If someone doesn’t stop her, she will one day run herself into the ground. Just like I almost did.” Then he continues walking through the floor, occasionally closing his eyes and shifting his attention to the nineteenth floor as she moves through the hall into the twentieth floor. But just a single glance at the demons on the floor give Sylver pause.

They’re all level twenty or above? What?

He stops walking again as he focuses on the security cameras of each of the floors after the twentieth floor, just checking all of them for demons of a certain level. But despite searching through parts of each floor from the twentieth through the fiftieth, there don’t seem to be any other level jumps.

She should be able to deal with that. Whether Frost will be happy that she is dealing with it or not is a question to ask later. When I’m far away from Frost.

Sylver opens his eyes again, confident that the girl is safe. However, he misses as a faint, black shadow passes by him into the stairwell, making its way down the floors.

The Guardian continues through the floor, killing off the demons at a much slower pace than he was before until he eventually clears out the floor and heads to the stairs. And with a single glance at the stairs, he shakes his head to himself and stands in place at the staircase.

The higher floors are too powerful for me to deal with. Better to wait for reinforcements now.

He then looks through the security cameras again to find the girl struggling hard against a group of three demon hounds – each at level 21. But she manages to kill them, even if it takes her receiving several injuries in the process to do so before healing each of them.

Sylver’s eyes narrow as he notices something.

Is she… getting stronger with every kill she makes? But that’s… just what rarity of skill would that take?!

He watches her slowly make her way through the floor for a few minutes before sighing.

There is something really off about that girl, but I can’t put my finger on it.

“That’s not the only reason you’re keeping your eye on her, is it?” his fae asks, prodding him again after hearing his thoughts.

Sylver glances at the fae before sighing again.

“Maybe not, but that’s none of your business,” he says, returning his attention back to the stairs again as a couple demon fomorians try to make their way down them.