Eternal Thief

Seeing the young elf from a second-rate family, Ace was somewhat surprised but not worried. This group of eight was within the river core realm, and the strongest among them was the bronze arrow mark elf at the diamond Qi river core realm.

'They should probably be attracted here by the gate appearance.' Ace mused as he looked at the group surrounding him with a hint of superiority and disdain.

He coldly said, "What do you want?"

"Why aren't you kneeling in front of Lord Clayton and speaking presumptuously?" A gorgeous elf woman in crimson armor berated.

"I don't have time to waste on you clowns." Ace coldly stated.

Everyone in the group was startled, and Clayton's haughty expression turned nasty since it was the first time that a third-rate family's trash had talked to him that way. Or they won't even dare to even breathe loudly in his presence, much less call him a clown.

However, before they could react, Ace entered stealth and vanished from their view, shocking them.

Although Ace could've killed them, he didn't want to since there were no benefits in doing so, and it would only benefit the tower tattoo on his hand.

After he received the first star, he felt a sinister energy that wanted to contaminate his soul Qi, but because of the system, this Qi was completely suppressed, but it still made him feel noxious.

As for thieving his way out of here, he decided against it since it would only reveal his presence, and he didn't want anyone to know where he was right now. Not unless he measured the situation with Alina and it was necessary. He only steals if he can get rid of any evidence afterward or if it is essential.

Furthermore, the tower spirit might become suspicious if he left thief symbols here and there, which won't be a good thing.

So, he was planning on getting out of this tower. At least outside, there won't be a spirit to monitor his every movement.

"Where did he go?!" Clayton was first snapped out of his stupor as he spread his martial sense to stop Ace, but to his dismay, he found nothing, as if the man was just a ghost.

The others also used their senses, and all reached the same conclusion

"H-he… could he be from a first-rate family and hiding his abilities?" A burly elf fearfully whispered close to Clayton.

Clayton and others felt their heart churning thinking about the other party's disdainful attitude toward them and then his terrifying ability to escape their perception as if it was child's play to him.

They shuddered, just thinking that if he wanted to kill them, they would've been lying on the ground right now.

Clayton spoke with a grim expression, "Don't tell anyone about it, and if you see that person again, pretend if we never see him. It is our fortune that we didn't speak about robbing him or…."

Everyone felt chill in their spines.

Clayton's expression was grim as they thought with uncertainty, 'Could it be someone had leaked our second-rate families' plans of ripping off all the third-rate families, this time to the first-rate family?

'No, they would disdain even to stop us, or could it be this guy was hiding his ability and not from a first-rate family?'

Ace didn't know about Clayton's thoughts as he won't care even if he knew. He was making his way toward the second-floor entrance, which was also in the south, and the fate map was also pointing him in the same direction.

He encountered some hunting groups, and one of them was even busy killing each other, but he paid no heed to him and circled his way around them.

After three hours, he finally appeared at the following entrance location, which was almost the same as the first floor, and it was blocked by a wall and guarded.

Ace swiftly crossed every hurdle and entered the next entrance gate.

This time he had to face ten golden soul river core puppets, which also fell under his sword draw, but someone thing unexpected happened.

After Ace used the sword draw to get rid of those puppets, the high-grade-5 was shattered because of the potency of his heavenly Qi, which surprised Ace.

Although he knew his heavenly Qi couldn't be used along with treasure that wasn't meant for it, it was still surprising that a high-grade-5 sword would be broken after he used it two times and only for draws at that.

This made him somewhat depressed because this way, he would have to pay a heavy price for using his sword intent. He didn't want to show his ability to use sword intent without using the sword either.

So, he decided to use a bow and arrows next time until he was he the tower unless it was extremely necessary. This way, he would also appear to be struggling.

However, he had thoroughly underestimated himself because on the third-floor entrance test, using Elliot's silver bow and arrows, a low-grade-5 treasure set, he destroyed those diamond soul river core puppets with a single arrow attack while ending up destroying the arrow as well!

He never thought his heavenly Qi would become so potent after he reached the eighth stage of the dark sea core realm.

A moment later, the tower spirit's impassive voice rang, "Contender No.10,203, congratulation on passing the Third Floor valiantly!

"Your title Contender No.10,203 has been voided and changed into 'Seed Contender No.21,913!

"You are now ranked last at the Seed Contender Ranking Board, and as long as you kill a higher-ranking contender, you can take their positions!

"If you managed to enter the top 100 within the Seed Contender Ranking, you'd be granted a privilege to cultivate in a sacred site for 1 hour every month and 2 hours if you managed to rank within the top 20 and 3 hours within the top 10 and 5 hours within top 3 and ten hours if you managed to take 1st Position!

"You are granted a Floor Star and passage to the Fourth Floor!"

Ace looked at the condensing third crimson start while he noticed the dark marking on the crimson true soul was becoming more apparent.

He asked at this moment without entering the fourth passage ahead of him, "Senior, can I now leave this place since I'm already on the fourth floor?"

This was, after all, his true objective all along to leave this tower and then find a way out of the elven continent toward Alina. He wasn't interested in playing with this treasure right now.

Once free of his worries, he'll return and claim this treasure.

However, the tower spirit's following words made Ace's heart sink, "No. You can't leave even though you are already on the fourth floor."

"But why isn't this a rule?" Ace couldn't help but feel rage.

"It is a rule for those who entered from the elven race and the main entrance. But Seed Contender No.21,913, not only are you a human, but you also entered from another entrance. So, this rule naturally won't apply to you." The Tower Spirit replied matter-of-factly.

Ace's face fell, but he didn't lose his composure and asked, "Then I how I can leave? Senior, it's not like I didn't want to continue, but I have a very important matter to deal with outside. Once they are out of the way, I'll definitely come back!"

Ace thought that the tower spirit didn't want him to leave because he thought he would never come back, and with his potential, it was only natural for it to want that.

However, he didn't want to stay here any longer than he needed to, and he will also come back.

"It's not like I'm holding you here, but this is really out of my power. If you have entered through the main entrance, you would be able to leave like the others; if you leave, you will only end up in the same place again.

"That's why I can not help you with that. Of course, unless you clear all the trials, you will have the power of the entire tower, and you could easily enter the place where the main entrance is." The Tower Spirit stated impassively.

Ace fell into silence after hearing this since it might really be true. He had indeed entered the tower through that strange dark realm, not from the golden sky world.

But he had no way of knowing if the tower spirit was telling the truth or simply lying to keep him here. Whichever the case was, he had no choice but to remain calm.

Ace then suddenly thought of something, 'It is clear that the whole sham of these trials is to complete this tattoo to condense the Soul Vessel fully. But it might not be the entire truth.

'Since this tower is giving away so many rewards and trying its best to make others stay within and kill each other to have them absorb each other soul segments and cultivate to higher realms, then there is more to this than meet the eye….'