Chapter 175. The Final Push (1)
Floor 38 was an icy paradise.
The entire chamber was frozen solid. Walls of ice that reflected Owen’s image a thousand times over. The floor was slick and treacherous and His breath misted in front of his face.
The temperature didn’t bother him. His CE core generated enough internal heat to keep his body warm. But the cold that has inbued in is cosmic power, affected his movements. Every step had to be calculated. Every dodge risked slipping.
The constructs emerged from the ice itself.
[Resonance Construct - Tier 5, Four-Star (Ice Variant)]
[Ability: Glacial Prison - On contact, freezes target’s CE flow for 3 seconds]
Four of them. Humanoid. Made of ice. Their bodies were translucent, showing the swirling violet energy that powered them from within.
Owen didn’t wait for them to attack.
He activated Dragon’s Aura.
His CE exploded outward, a wave of pressure that rippled across the chamber. The ice cracked beneath his feet. The constructs staggered, their CE patterns disrupted for just a moment.
Cost: 50 CE. His reserves dropped to 3,150.
He closed the distance to the nearest construct. Momentum Shift, 7 CE. His fist, coated with Indestructible Scales that manifested as black-gold plating across his knuckles, drove into its chest.
60 CE punch.
CRACK!
The construct shattered. Ice fragments scattered across the chamber.
[Target 1 of 4 eliminated]
The other three recovered. They moved in coordination, surrounding him.
Owen’s Dragon’s Eye tracked all three simultaneously. He saw the buildup of CE in their hands. Glacial Prison charging.
He couldn’t let them touch him.
Dragon’s Breath.
Owen opened his mouth as CE flooded his throat, concentrated, refined. He felt the heat building, but it wasn’t the familiar red-orange flame of his dragon form.
This was different.
Black flames erupted from his mouth.
They weren’t hot in the traditional sense. They burned coldly. A paradox. The ice around him didn’t melt. It cracked. Fractured. The black fire consumed the construct’s energy directly, feeding on their CE like a parasite.
Cost: 100 CE.
The flames washed over two constructs. Their ice bodies cracked, blackened, then shattered completely. The fire didn’t extinguish. It spread across the floor, consuming the ambient CE that saturated the chamber.
[Target 2 of 4 eliminated]
[Target 3 of 4 eliminated]
The fourth construct lunged. Its hand reached for Owen’s face. But Owen caught its wrist with his scaled hand. The ice touched his scales. Tried to freeze his CE.
But his scales were denser now. Harder. The freeze effect scraped against them but didn’t penetrate.
He crushed the construct’s wrist. Then drove his fist through its torso.
CRACK!
It shattered.
[Floor 38 complete]
[Grade 3 Core acquired]
Owen absorbed the core. His CE climbed: 2,993 → 3,093 → 3,193.
The black flames on the floor finally extinguished.
"Well, that was new"
The doorway opened.
---
Floor 39 was a gauntlet.
The chamber stretched into a long corridor. A hundred meters. At the far end, the exit portal glowed.
Between Owen and the exit: constructs. Dozens of them. Tier 5, four-star. All variants. Ice. Fire. Lightning. Earth. Wind.
The voice echoed.
"Floor 39 of 50. Objective: Breakthrough. Reach the exit. Time limit: 10 minutes. Begin."
Owen didn’t hesitate.
Momentum Shift. He launched forward. The first construct swung at him. He ducked under it, drove a 40 CE punch into its gut, kept moving.
Two more appeared. Fire variants. They hurled flame. Owen’s scales manifested across his forearms. He blocked, absorbed the heat, countered with a sweeping kick that shattered one’s knee.
A lightning variant crackled to life in front of him. It struck. Owen dodged left. The bolt grazed his shoulder. Pain flared. 20 CE lost to damage. Ultra-Regeneration kicked in. 15 CE to heal.
He couldn’t afford to fight them all.
Dragon’s Aura. He pulsed it forward in a directional wave. 70 CE.
The pressure slammed into the constructs ahead, disrupting their formations, staggering them.
Owen burst through the gap. Momentum Shift carrying him past three constructs before they could react.
Halfway down the corridor.
An earth variant rose from the floor. Massive. Twice Owen’s size. Its fist came down like a hammer.
Owen didn’t dodge. He met it head-on.
Cosmic Impact Fist. 150 CE.
His fist collided with the construct’s. The shockwave cracked the floor. The construct’s arm shattered. Owen followed through, driving his fist into its chest.
BOOM!
It exploded into fragments.
Seventy-five meters.
Wind variants swarmed. Six of them. They moved fast, coordinated, surrounding him.
Owen activated Dragon’s Breath again. 150 CE this time.
Black flames erupted in a wide cone. The wind constructs tried to dodge, but the fire spread faster than they could move. It consumed them, feeding on their CE, growing brighter, hotter, colder all at once.
All six shattered.
The flames kept burning. Owen ran through them. They didn’t harm him. His own CE recognized them as extensions of himself.
Ninety meters.
The exit was close.
A final construct materialized. Bigger than the others. A fusion of all elements. Fire. Ice. Lightning. Earth. Wind. All swirling around a crystalline core.
[Resonance Fusion Construct - Tier 5, Five-Star]
It roared. All five elements discharged at once.
Owen’s scales manifested fully across his chest and arms. The elements slammed into him. Fire scorched. Ice froze. Lightning burned. Earth crushed. Wind cut.
His CE dropped to 2,500. Ultra-Regeneration burned 100 CE healing the damage.
He pushed through. One step. Two steps. Three.
The construct raised both hands. A final attack charging. All five elements condensing into a single point.
Owen didn’t give it the chance.
Dragon’s Tongue.
"{Shatter}"
Cost: 80 CE.
The word resonated. Not in the air. In reality itself.
The construct’s core cracked. Its elements destabilized. The fusion broke apart.
It exploded.
Owen was thrown forward by the blast. He hit the ground, rolled, came up running.
The exit portal was three meters away.
He dove through.
[Floor 39 complete]
[Time remaining: 43 seconds]
[Grade 4 Core acquired]
Owen collapsed on the other side. His CE sat at 2,320. He’d burned through nearly a thousand points in less than ten minutes.
But he had made it.
He absorbed the core. His CE climbed: 2,320 → 2,520 → 2,720 → 2,920.
One floor left before the final stretch.
---
Floors 40 through 49 were a test of endurance.
Each floor presented a different challenge. But none as overwhelming as Floor 39’s gauntlet.
And by Floor 49, his CE sat at 4,200.
---
Floor 49 was empty.
Just a small chamber. A pedestal at its center. On the pedestal, a message.
"Floor 49 of 50. Rest. Recover. Prepare for the final floor. Time limit: 2 hours."
Owen sat. He cycled his Restoration-Cultivation-Technique. Drew ambient energy from the chamber. His CE climbed slowly.
4,220... 4,240... 4,260...
Two hours passed in meditation.
When he stood, his CE had recovered to 4,450.
The doorway to Floor 50 materialized.
Owen stepped through.