Guild Wars

Meanwhile, the entire safe zone was in an uproar currently. 

Draco, who had disappeared all this while and was presumed to be cowed by the might of the top 3 had struck again.
This time, he had cleared the second floor with an absurd score once more that left a great gap between first place and second place. 

To many of the lower-ranked players, he was like the shining star in the sky.
At the last moment of the trial, he just swooped in and upset the status quo so easily like it was nothing. 

Those who had been oppressed by those at the top and their cronies were filled with schadenfreude.
In just two floors, Draco had acquired almost 1/10th of the total score of the top three. 

If he kept this kind of streak up until the 21st floor, he would surely surpass them with ease.
These fellows who had been wronged and bullied for the past century were abnormally eager to see the expression on those fellows when they were kicked down their from their lofty positions. 

Speaking of those fellows, they were wearing solemn expressions at the moment as they gathered their lackeys together.
They had decided to ignore Draco because no matter how hard he tried, he could not become a threat to them given his ignorance. 

When he had remained inactive for 2 months, the top 3 had even believed he had died during the ambush on the second floor, which was a place where many newbies either perished or were severely injured due to inexperience. 

However, out of seemingly nowhere, he had come back and even cleared the second floor with such ferocity.
This left them feeling worried as they started to have doubts about their own convictions. 

After all, even though they knew exactly which floors would trip him up, it was a fact that they didn't know his range of abilities, his character, and how exactly he was clearing those floors that got him so many points. 

As such, they began to feel that he might just be able to surmount any challenge that came his way, even though they personally knew that something might catch him off guard. 

This was especially so when the words of Draco resound in their ears. 

[ ”So then, if that's the case, how would you rate my talent compared to yours when I have more than ten times the points when we all had the same starting point? If Gavin was able to keep his lead under the circ.u.mstances from day 1, shouldn't I be able to keep taking first place on every floor up to where you fellows are currently stuck at? ”] 

It was a laughable and outlandish claim, but after doing two floors and topping the leaderboard with such force, they had to start considering that Draco's words would be reality.
Logically speaking, he was 100% correct. 

If he had come in with them a hundred years ago and they had all been climbing at the same time, he would be the one in first place with such monstrous points.
However, because they were ahead of him and knew what came next, they ad assumed that the floors that tripped them up would trip him. 

This made the top three jerk up in their seats as their foreheads were filled with sweat.
They had realized that after almost a century of being on the top, they had adopted arrogant mindsets that no one could topple them. 

They were forgetting that Draco was toppling all common sense with how high he scored compared to them, so given the same starting point, would it not be easy for him to surpass them? 

Realizing this, the top 3 became grave.
Just like how Draco had realized his erroneous thinking process and corrected it, so too had these three.
They realized that adopting a 'watch him fail' attitude towards Draco was foolish, and just giving him time to build momentum. 

Once he reached a certain point, it would be far too late to stop him even if they could.
As such, they had two choices right now.
Try and befriend him to build rapport, so that in the situation that he surpassed them, he could give them pointers on how to go forward or suppress him at all turns so he couldn't easily make progress by preventing him from accessing most of the safe zone's facilities and especially blockading information. 

Both choices had pros and cons, but the top three were left feeling greatly uncomfortable from having to pick.
Eventually, they individually decided to choose both.
They would befriend Draco on the surface and have others suppress him in the dark. 

They must choose those who could not be linked to them and pay quite a price, but it would be worth it in the end.
If anything went awry on that side, it would not be traced back to them and they would still keep their beneficial relationship with the fellow intact. 

Thinking like this, the top 3 began mobilizing forces that were not tied to them.
What these three did not realize was that Draco had his Control active that could scan the entire safe zone. 

As for the fellow himself? He had just left his castle and was walking through the outskirts of the Safe Zone to reach the central part of the safe zone where the marketplace was. 

He could see many eyes tracing his movements as they reported back to their masters, but he was not bothered.
In fact, he was interested to see who those at the top could hinder him when any form of conflict was disallowed in the safe zone. 

Soon, Draco reached the entrance of a long street that had many small kiosks that were styled in different ways.
The kiosks were on either side of the road and were spread equidistantly from each other. 

Some had fancier designs while some were minimalistic, but overall, it gave the place an interesting feel.
Those trial takers who sat behind their kiosks did not call out to passersby as there was a screen before their shop that displayed what they had and what they wanted. 

As Draco walked through, he saw that the wares were a mixture of resources that could be acquired from the tower, finished products crafted by the kiosk owner, it items from outside that they were trading for various purposes. 

Some accepted on specific goods, some accepted anything as long as it interested them, some wanted Aether Crystals, Divine Crystals, and the like, while others wanted hard Platinum. 

The latter was strange, but since the tower was about to end, it was best to convert these resources into money, lest they bring a calamity outside.
Of course, these NPCs didn't know that they would crumble to pixels and disappear once Draco so much as took a step out of the tower, which was one of the reasons why he had not taken them seriously. 

After taking a look, Draco found that he had little interest in things aside from those raw resources that the others had traded for.
As such, he focused his attention on such things and cross-checked between what they had and what he needed to expand his Inner Universe and Eva's Inner Sun. 

To his benefit, he did find some of both.
Right now, he was standing before a pinkish kiosk that was manned by a beautiful young woman who wore brocade robes with large sleeves and had a hairpin that tied her hairdo. 

｢System to Player Announcement 

Welcome to the store of Helia Nuer, 8th Ranked Trial Taker! 

1.
Solar Core – Cost: 3 Legendary Items or 300,000 High-grade Aether Crystals 

2.
Fire Source  – Cost: 5 Legendary Items (Equipment only) 

3.
Light Dragon's Blood Essence  – Cost: 12 legendary Items (6 Equipment and 6 Consumables of the following categories: ) 

4.
Phoenix's Blood Essence  – Cost: 10 Legendary Items (6 Equipment and Consumables of the following categories: