"The Spider's Lair"

"Ai, can we challenge the first floor?"

"Certainly, you need to get through the portal frame over there. It would take you directly to the first floor, and these are your [Escape Talisman,] don't hesitate to use them; we will replace them every time our challengers use them."

Miriam and Rynn took their respective talisman and walked towards the portal frame; they saw nothing but pitch black membranes that seemed to be covering it. They readied their weapons and stepped inside.

A few moments later, they appeared in what appears to be a large corridor; it would have been dark if not for the stones on the floor providing illumination, even for just a few feet.

"So this is the first floor?"

"Stay alert. I can't shake the feeling that we are constantly watched by something."

They walked shoulder to shoulder in a defensive formation covering their front and back. Both Rynn and Miriam are experienced adventurers, and though they are in unfamiliar territory, their basic knowledge about how to traverse dangerous places should still work. They had been walking for a little while when they heard something from above their heads.

-hiss-

"Above us"

A giant spider suddenly fell from the ceiling and tried to crush both of them.

-crash!- -hiss-

"A giant spider!"

The spider lunged at them, trying to grab them with its mandibles, but they reacted faster and managed to dodge to the sides. Rynn proceeded to attack one of the spider's legs and cut a piece of it.

-hiss-

"Miriam!"

"Shock Blast!"

A burst of lighting erupted from Miriam's hands and hit the giant spider in its head, causing it to be stunned for a few moments. The spell created an opportunity for Rynn to rush in and slash the spider's other legs causing it to trip because it couldn't support its weight.

-hiss!- -hiss!- -hiss!-

The giant spider was enraged but soon fell silent when Miriam launched another spell towards its head.

"Shock Blast!"

The spider's head exploded, and its body limped before fading into tiny sparks of light.

"Well, that the first time I see a corpse disappear like that."

"Did we get a token for that?"

They checked their emblems, and the number of tokens moved from zero to one.

"So they do give out the tokens properly. let's keep going."

What followed was hours of exploring and fighting several spider monsters; along the way, they realized that the entire floor was a massive lair for spider-type monsters. There were also several types, and they each had their own set of abilities and ways of fighting. After a few hours, the two of them were exhausted and decided to rest. They found a secret room in the walls where pieces of gold and a dagger were lying on a table.

"This looks like someone's home."

"Hard to imagine someone was living here, but at least we can rest up here."

"Yeah. but still, where the hell is the stairs leading towards the second floor?"

"It's probably where the so-called floor boss is."

"So we have to find and defeat it to get to the second floor, huh."

"I'm sure we haven't seen it; we always got a single token after all these battles after all."

"Those things are everywhere; ordinary adventurers would have died several times over in this place."

"You know we almost did die a few several times, right?"

"How many of them have killed so far?"

"Well, since we have about 66 tokens each, then we killed 66 of them."

"I'm tired. I'll go to sleep first; we switch out every 4 hours."

"Alright."

Miriam sat down near a wall and rested her eyes while Rynn sat down and kept guard.

On the highest floor of the tower, Cyril was watching the progress of the two challengers.

"Their progress is not bad, but I do need to adjust the frequency the monsters and challengers bump into one another. I should also make a specific area for resting and camping; they were lucky to find that hidden room."

Cyril was also designing the next four floors but decided to focus on perfecting the first floor first, which will serve as a blueprint for the next floors. He knows that they probably would do one out of two things after these two return to the city. First, they can report their findings, and other challengers would come, or second, they would report their findings and decide to destroy the tower. Destroying the tower is almost impossible, but they could also prevent other people from entering.

"I need an action plan in case that scenario happens; after all, what's the point of doing all of these if only a select few will challenge the tower."

I want my tower to be a household name not only in this country but in the entire world. It will become a symbol of strength, fame, and power.

After 4 hours, Miriam woke up and switched with Rynn, with the latter falling asleep immediately. When Rynn woke up, they decided to explore a little bit more before using the "Escape Talisman."

"Master over there."

"Hmm?"

"That looks like a mausoleum. So keep your guard up."

-hiss-

"Poison spiders on the right."

"I see them."

"Pyro Blast!"

-BOOM!- -hiss- -hiss- -hiss-

"Move!"

Suddenly they heard a voice from the depths of the mausoleum.

"You dare kill my kin in front of me!"

The voice is horrendously cold and intimidating. Miriam and Rynn felt the owner of the voice approaching them at a very brisk pace. They felt chills in their spine, and they took out the talisman and ripped it apart. A bright light surrounded them, and a moment later, they vanished from where they stood but not before witnessing a humanoid with the figure of a woman appear in front of them. She had four appendages behind her, and she had four sets of eyes. The monster tried to tie them in place and shot webbing, but they were gone.

"Curse you! I will kill both of you if I ever see you again!"

In the tower's lobby, a bright light suddenly glowed from what appears to be an elevated stage with runes drawn on the side of the circle. When the light dissipated, Rynn and Miriam appeared with horrible looks on their faces.

"What the hell was that?"

"A monster at that level would require attention from the top adventurers of the country or even a small army."

They looked around, sat down on one of the chairs, and placed their weapons on the table. They calmed down after a few moments. They noticed Ai looking at them, but she lost interest halfway and remained seated at the reception desk.

"Perhaps that was the floor boss?"

"It would make sense we only found spider-type monsters on the first floor, and it did say that we killed its kin."

"A monster that could speak it's not that often that you see one, but I have heard of monsters possessing high levels of intelligence that are capable of speech."

"I guess that's enough for our scouting mission, but it sure as hell became much more complicated than usual."

They stood up and walked towards Ai.

"Ai"

"Yes?"

"We would like to exchange our tokens."

"Very well."

Ai showed them the manifest, and the two were surprised because even more items had shown up. They looked at Ai for an explanation.

"The content of the manifest is constantly changing; the things you wish to acquire may or may not be there in between the time you looked. Luckily you are the only challengers so far, so the contents have not decreased."

With their doubts answered, they both looked at the manifest when one of the new items caught Miriam's eyes.