29 Manticore!

Manticore.

A legendary creature with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion.

An abomination born out of mutation, the result of human greed and desires.

And that was the monster that appeared in front of Shiva as the seventh-wave monster!

"It's not every day you see a successfully made manticore without any defects."

Shiva admired as he examined the manticore, which looked at him with its human eyes, an inhuman glint shining across its face.

If the mammalian mantis were nature's mutation, the manticore was the mutation created by man.

The creation of a manticore involved the mix of three types of creatures: a giant lion, a scorpion born and bred in the tower, and lastly... a man!

Mutation involving humans or any other intelligence race was banned in the tower. Even if not by the tower itself, all the major guilds together had banned the use of humans in the experiments!

So finding a manticore despite this scenario was quite a rare sight.

Especially because of the difficulty of creating it.

The manticore possesses the mighty body of the lion, the intelligence of the man, and a deadly poison in its tail. All of which were vicious and dangerous enough to make any man shudder!

"Will you be kind enough to tell me who made you?"

Shiva asked, not jumping into violence, and the manticore was also silent, looking at Shiva with curious and vicious eyes, its human face not showing any particular emotion.

{....A necromancer...It's been so long since I saw one...}

The manticore didn't answer his question but was talking something on its own.

{...Run away....when you have the chance...}

It was also kind enough to tell Shiva to run away, but what did the monster know to tell him to run away?

"You still haven't answered my question."

Shiva said in a stern tone.

But suddenly, the manticore's body shuddered, covered with red lightning sparks, and then the intelligent eyes disappeared, replaced with the look of a vicious beast.

-Krrriiihhhhhhh

The manticore let out a vicious scream and plunged at Shiva with its four legs.

"The system wouldn't allow us to converse, would it? Well, who cares? Aghora, take it down."

Shiva wanted to know who made the manticore since there were very few capable of making a manticore in the tower, much less one without any defect, but the system would not allow him to converse with the monster, so he just decided to kill it.

The corruption giant ran forward, following Shiva's command, and met with the manticore.

The two claws of the manticore were held by its two arms, while the other two held the tail, which was trying to pierce its hide. Even without eyes, the corruption giant possessed such heightened senses that it could detect even the slightest ripple in the air with its skin and ears.

Nevertheless, as the two stood at a standstill, the manticore letting out an angered roar, the corruption giant brought down its vicious mouth onto the manticore's neck.

-Kraaahhhahhh!!

A roar filled with agony resulted.

And the manticore went berserk, pushing back the corruption giant and landing on its four legs.

"Taking away its intelligence when it is the most dangerous part of a manticore, you are making it easier for me, Tower."

Shiva talked with his eyes losing interest. He then signaled his skeletons to go help the corruption giant.

The skeletons plunged into action, each striding forward, with blue flames dancing in their eyes.

The mammalian mantis flashed across the manticore, tearing its flesh apart. The centaur with the spear lobbed its spear into the maticore's abdomen. The fire wolf and the skeleton mage, which hadn't been able to do anything all this while, cast magic spells, covering the thick mane of the manticore in blazing flame.

The night hound bit onto the manticore's tail, while the hobgoblin lords each held down one leg of the manticore.

The corruption giant, which was presented with the still target, roared, banging its chest with its four arms, and plunged on the manticore, crushing and tearing apart its skin.

The formidable manticore was reduced to a punching bag by Shiva's summons. It was mainly because of two reasons.

The first was because of the bad matchup. The manticore's main strengths were its vicious poisonous tail and intelligence equal to that of humans. But currently, the system had taken away its intelligence, and the poison was useless against the skeletons.

Secondly, because of the overwhelming numbers. Shiva currently had eight summons and the corruption giant.

Even the corruption giant itself was strong enough to match the manticore, but along with the rest, it was just a one-sided beating.

Nevertheless, after a few seconds, the manticore fell, and the skeletons backed down, waiting for the end of 15 minutes to finish it off.

While Shiva came forward, waiting a few minutes to regenerate his mana and finish off the manticore, it suddenly spoke.

{...It's me...} The manticore said.

"What?"

{I....am the one....who created me.}

The manticore muttered, and before Shiva could ask any more questions, it passed away.

<You have defeated the 7th wave of monsters>

<Your 7 strength stat has been increased by>

<You have already met the conditions to clear trial. Do you want end trial now or move on next round?>

It seems it was too damaged by the corruption giant as it died without Shiva doing anything, but what mattered to Shiva was the last words of the manticore.

"Hahaha, Crazy bastard!"

Shiva laughed, thinking about it!

A madman who used himself as an experimental object to create a manticore! The more he thought about it, the more insane it seemed, and that's what piqued his interest.

"Aghora, keep this corpse aside."

For now, he decided to keep the corpse of the manticore.

"Summon the next monsters."

And he continued his trial.

<Challenger has chosen to continue the trial>

<The next wave will start in one minute>

As Shiva waited, dwelling on the words of the manticore, the next monster appeared.

<The Eighth wave of monsters has appeared>

<You 15 have minutes to defeat them all>

From the darkness of the void, a single entity emerged, and when Shiva's eyes fell on it, a smile of joy, excitement, and relief appeared on his face.

What was in the darkness was a creature holding a flail similar to Echo's Retribution, looking at Shiva with empty eyes.

There in front of him and his group of summons was Shiva himself!

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