Surviving in my Own Unpublished Failed Novel

In the waiting room, after getting rejuvenated as an additional reward for clearing the 15th floor, Russell shared the information with his Chaos Companions the rewards he was granted according to the Tower's will.

First, from the fifth floor, a pair of daggers that's Unique rank named "Dagger of Sorrows", which would cost at least hundreds of millions outside the Tower, but considering the assets that he currently possessed from selling the rights of the first Micro-Strayed Dungeon and doing investments, that amount of money would be a fine loss, but with benefits, at least.

Second, from the tenth floor, Russell received the Unique rank item named "Karas' Golden Feather". It's only a miscellaneous one, but in the description, it was written that it could be used to make an artifact.

And his last reward as of yet from clearing the fifteenth floor with everyone was another Unique rank item, "Cloak of Shadows".

<Russell, how about we suggest swapping rewards? You know, if it's not necessary for us, maybe the others would need it. To be honest, apart from Skill Compressor, my other rewards are all trash. Maybe I've used all my luck in getting that. Haha!>

Amelie spoke in slight frustration. She was with Freya and Amelie, having a conversation together with some of the party members.

The conversation in their heads was heard by Freya and Amery since it depends on the communicator if he or she would utilize telepathy with an individual or group — given that they were under Russell's Unique Skill: Chaos Buff, making them his Chaos Companions.

After some time of discussion regarding what to do, before the resting time ended, Amelie had successfully garnered the attention of everyone as she stood up and spoke.

"Guys! What do you think about trading rewards? If the reward you received isn't something you need, maybe we can trade with each other regardless of the reward's rank.

"Just like how I received a Unique rank bow weapon after clearing the fifteenth floor with all of you. Anyone can trade with me with something even though it's below Unique rank, as long as I find it more beneficial for me."

Each pair of eyes glanced around, waiting for the first party to react. Even the escorts of Rumia seemed interested.

"Uh... Bow? Can you share with me its information?"

Henriad, the Winter Ranger, first showed interest.

Amelie shared, not just to Henriad, but to everyone the bow she was talking about.

"This Tower surely is generous, huh? I wonder what's in store for us when the next Close Mystery Tower opens."

Murktan, the Brute Enforcer, remarked.

'You haven't seen anything yet. You probably don't know what's happening outside.'

Russell lampooned inwardly after hearing Murktan's remarks.

Agreeing to Amelie's suggestion, the party formed a wide circle, took out the rewards they received, and laid it in front of them. Amelie also spoke about a possible scam of items, but fortunately, no one dared to do such an act since the Tower's rewards, regardless of their relevance to the player, were all high-rank items. It would be utter foolishness when someone tried to trade an item with Normal rank.

As time passed, the trade ended, and the time for the 16th to the 19th floor was less than two minutes away.

Russell glanced around, stopping his gaze at Rumia for two to three seconds. His gaze didn't escape Samantha's vision, whose grey single bed was in the middle of the grey, plain waiting room.

After some time, the voice of the System echoed in everyone's heads. They then turned into blue lights and disappeared from the waiting room.

***

[The Player Party has arrived at the 16th Floor of the Tower of Growth!]

[Quest Objective: Find an Ancient Pearl of the Dark Sea from the 16th floor to the 19th floor.]

[Collected Ancient Pearl of the Dark Sea: 0/4]

[Reminder: An Ancient Pearl can be found on each floor — from the 16th floor to the 19th floor.]

[Duration: 50 minutes.]

[Good luck, Player!]

"We are basically useless here. I wonder how did the others clear these floors."

Jiho whispered, seemingly frustrated.

"You see, from S- rank and above, with great Mana Control, a player either learns how to fly or breath underwater for more than an hour."

Anya answered him. She indirectly told everyone that a player from S- rank was more than capable of doing such things.

Russell pondered about their little conversation.

'Hm... Even low-rank players with Mana Control can fly, but it's more draining than utilizing skills. The efficiency differs, too.'

Any phenomenon with the utilization of Mana in one's body without using any skills was costly and exhausting, similar to when they operated the magical cannons when fighting the Insane Harpy.

"Rumia..."

Samantha spoke, causing everyone to look at the princess.

All of them arrived on a very small, deserted island; there were no trees, only black sands, and black water. Even the sky was dark and there were flashes of lightning... that also had dark luster. They felt like they were sent to another world that was on the brink of collapse. They were only surrounded by black water, which somewhat caused restlessness and the feeling of being lost.

"We'll accompany you, princess."

Raya, the short blonde-haired woman with blue eyes, spoke. This time, Rumia didn't immediately answer since she felt that it was also highly dangerous even though she had a high affinity with water.

Deliberating for some time, Rumia nodded at Raya's suggestion.

It was peculiar because the water was indeed black, but its texture didn't change in any way. It was smooth as normal water, untouched by any agent of pollution.

Before Rumia went on an exploration of a seemingly vast, endless Dark Sea, she activated her water-related buff skills.

[Activating Skill: Insight of the Living Water S+)]

— Effects:

- Increases the player's vision by two-fold on land, and ten-fold underwater.

- Instinctively determines the weaknesses of the marine-type monsters.

- Damage against marine-type monsters increases by 300%.

- Damage against marine-type monsters that walk on land increases by 500%.

There were still two [Locks] on the effects of this skill, and would only be unlocked by meeting various conditions.

[Activating Skill: Blessing of the Mermaid (S)]

— Effects:

- Grants the player an increase in overall stats by 100.

[Activating Skill: Guidance of the Deep Sea (S+)]

— Effects:

- Changing the player's hair into the deep blue.

- Allowing the player to see the trajectory of the attacks for a moment.

[Activating Skill: Weapon Flow (S+)]

— Effects:

- Grants the Personal Weapon, Whip of the Slard, an Intrinsic Effect called Free Flow, making this weapon similar to an animated object.

***

"What a sublime scenery..."

Rumia's sapphire eyes glimmered, admiring the underwater view of the vast ocean. Contrary to the surface's point of view, even though it's black water, it was shimmering. There were countless unknown and yet beautiful creatures, but Rumia didn't let her guard down.

With her increased vision underwater, Rumia could visibly see the circumstances happening at least more than a hundred meters. They didn't know where to exactly look, but they assumed that the Ancient Pearl of the Deep Sea was something to be found in a monster's corpse since the theme regarding the Tower of Growth was that of "Monster Hunting".

And from the behavior of the monsters from the 6th to 9th floors and 11th to 14th floors, Rumia, Raya and Yara decided to wait for the monsters to come to them.

In less than two minutes after they went underwater, as though the monsters felt the presence of some intruders, Rumia and the others felt the vibration happening under the ocean.

They didn't dive far from the small island. Those who were left on the small island also felt the quaking happening underwater.

Raya and Yara, whose perceptions and experiences were topnotch compared to these young players, knew that the monsters were not aiming to fight underwater.

"Princess Rumia... Let's go back to the small island."

Rumia tilted her head, perplexed. But Yara, who spoke, explained to her the situation. She then glanced keenly in the direction of the underwater quake.

The Dark Sea was similar to a bottomless pit, but with her buff skills, she clearly saw some cracks of various sizes on the sea floor, presumed to be the monsters' initial location.

"Alright. Let's go."

***

"So the monsters haven't arrived yet."

Rumia spoke to the rest of the party after they arrived on the seashore of the small island.

"We thought that the Ancient Pearl can be found on a mons-"

Rumia didn't manage to finish her words as she saw a maw just less than a meter away from the back of her head. Yara, the green-eyed woman with waist-length black hair, had her fist thrust into the jaw of the monster that suddenly appeared.

The monster's appearance was that of a shark, but it has deep black eyes, black skin, and a black dorsal fin. It was at least three meters in length, has quite a wide body, and had half a meter of black teeth.

Every one of them took the time to inspect the dead dark shark.

Name: —

Race: Marine

Family: Deep Horror

Rank: E-

— STATS —

Strength: 299

Swift: 299

Fortitude: 299

Intelligence: 299

Magic Power: 299

Russell, as he also inspected the information about the dead dark shark, constricted his enhanced deep blue eyes, seeing a bunch of monsters from at least fifty meters ahead through his peripheral vision.

"More incoming..."

He whispered, prompting all of them to be ready for battle. Rumia then told the two S rank escorts not to interfere since she wasn't alone anymore.

"Be careful. That monster appeared out of nowhere."

'I also couldn't sense it.'

Russell thought. He was being proactive this time, although he was still reluctant due to his introverted nature. But facing a life-and-death situation, he could set aside such a personality for some time.

Thinking about the sudden appearance of the dead dark shark, the fifty-meter-away numerous dark sharks seemed to glitch in his vision.

At that moment, ripples in space appeared less than a meter away from them. Then, countless maws appeared out of the ripples, aiming at each of their heads. The party though, skillfully dodge the incoming maws, but it wasn't the case for the sole alchemist of the party. Reacting in time, Samantha cut off the head of the dark shark that was aiming for Celine; black blood splashed on her fair skin. Strangely, she seemed used to it ever since she accompanied the party, though it couldn't be said with a certain roasted dead Fairy.

The dark sharks continued to appear out of nowhere, prompting the party to take some distance away from the seashore. After that, they discovered that the dark sharks didn't necessarily appear in front of them, and had only a certain range from where they appeared. It's just that, standing on the seashore, closer to the black water, were in the dark sharks' range of attack.

'This seems endless...'

Slash-! Slash!

Russell thought, cutting off the dark shark's head. It's already been a few minutes since the attack began.

"Rumia! I think these are summoned monsters!"

Samantha, with Celine hiding on her back, shouted, which was more than enough for everybody to hear.

Russell glanced at Rumia, who then pondered after hearing Samantha's words.

'Right...'

Since the act of the Administrator/— combining two different parties under the Tower's will, Russell seemed to be overthinking the possible changes to the point of forgetting a simple fact — if there were changes, there were also some things unchanged.

***

Upon hearing Samantha's words, Rumia contemplated the various cracks she saw on the seafloor.

Raya and Yara looked at the princess, waiting for her answer. Both of them felt since the beginning of the existence of the dark shark's summoner, but it wasn't their job to just divulge the information because they were only tasked to assist during an unexpected and extremely hard situation — when Rumia's life was in danger.

"Raya, Yara. Come with me, let's dive again."

Rumia said, causing the two to faintly smiled.

"Yes, princess."

Both of them answered her command.

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