Layla gave Eren a customary warning. But the butcher was now far too invested in the tower exploration to back out now. His silence gave Layla the affirmation she needed.
"Alright. Let's get you started. Stand inside the array and keep an eye on it. You will be scanned for what you are carrying in person. You are only supposed to fight with the weapon or weapon set of your choice. Any kind of artefact is not allowed.
The artefacts, the potion, and, anything that can help you clear the dungeon in a fly will be taken away from you for the time being. It will be given back only when you step outside the tower. Only your first-aid potions would remain with you along with other basic necessities.
Upon your death, your items and resources would stay here, at which point the tower would kind of recycle them. But you'd have no use for them anyway after your death. So I doubt you'd have hard feelings. Hehe!"
The butcher was surprised that most of his gear and trump cards would be taken away from him before entering the first floor of the tower. But his doubts were soon cleared by Layla who seemed to have read the puzzling expressions on his face:
"This is not a group dungeon, Eren. Solo towers have their own set of rules. Here, your value as a ranker is tested. I know that it would be unfair to a few rankers who belong to non-combat professions. But this is how the place has been designed.
The dungeon exploration was merely meant to tempt rankers into exploring the solo towers. The rewards were used as bait so that the rankers would be willing to enter the solo tower even after knowing about the high mortality rate."
'The first floor seems to be a killing machine for rankers. Damn it. I should have asked for more details on the solo tower. But I doubt Zee would have told me about these things honestly.'
The butcher had a few creases on his forehead after he realized the danger he was going to be in on the first floor.
"Don't worry, Eren. Give all that you got. I'm sure things won't be that difficult for you. Hehe! Now, let's get started."
Layla said and raised her right hand towards her side. A small array lit up amid a pitch-black place that seemed to expand from all directions. The lights coming from that array breathed a breath of life into the dimly lit atmosphere while generating a synthetic yet synchronous mana pulse.
"Thanks for your explanation, Layla. I'll be going then."
Eren nodded at Layla before starting to walk towards the array. He heard Layla's young voice from behind:
"I can't help you with your test so I'll take my leave as well. Good luck, and do your best to survive on the first floor. Your life and my release depend on it."
Layla said before seemingly vanishing from her place. The butcher didn't look back and stepped into the array soon after.
The array lit up brighter after it detected that a ranker had stepped inside its eye. The system scanned him and began identifying the belongings he carried both on his person and inside the ID storage.
First, the butcher's artefacts disappeared. Since they were worn out and of not much use, he didn't care about their disappearance. But his heart whined in pain as he saw his resources as well as his Extols disappearing from his storage space.
'What the fuck? Why is it taking my Extols from me? Does this stupid tower think I'll somehow bribe my opponents with them? Or them at my obstacles and create some sort of miracle with a pay-to-win strategy.'
The butcher watched as the rewards that he had received from the dungeon disappeared from his storage. He realized that Purgatory was not as lucrative as he had thought it to be. Especially if the ranker decides to visit solo towers after their successful exploration of the group dungeon.
That's because the dungeon would get back all the rewards it had given out if the ranker decided to explore the solo tower and died inside it. Eren was pissed after seeing almost nothing left in his storage space except for his recently used Katars.
'Baah! The tower just fucking robbed me of my resources. This place has given me another reason to survive. I'd become a ghost if I had to and get my damn things back. You ain't getting any free stuff from me, you capitalist tower.'
Eren's line of thoughts was soon disturbed when he sensed a mana signature of a space element trying to pull Reen away from her fused condition inside his body. His expressions turned grim when that happened:
'Damn it. The tower is even more detailed with its array setup. Reen, don't act up and don't move. Stay where you are. Let's see what happens.'
The array's lights flickered as the synthetic mana signature washed over Eren. The process lasted for a few moments before the mana signature stopped scanning the butcher.
The butcher couldn't understand what was happening. Thankfully, Alephee spoke up to clear his doubts:
'The array can detect Reen's mana core. It's the only distinguishing feature she has that is different from you now. But it couldn't separate her from you because it detected that she was a part of yourself.
Wait. That loophole is of no use to you. The array is taking countermeasures.'
The butcher heard Alphee's voice in his head. Before he could ask what she was talking about, he felt a distinct mana signature acting on him once more. This time, it was even more prominent and complex than before. And contained multi-element nuances within it.
'Erni, I think something is happening to my mana core.'
Reen spoke up after she couldn't prevent the changes from taking place with her mana core. She trembled in horror as her mana core was sealed by some unknown runic technique. It wasn't long before she was basically turned into a rankless demon beast.
The butcher was made aware of Reen's position and his expressions turned grim. But Alphee clarified what had happened to Reen right away:
'Don't worry. Reen's mana core would return to normal when she steps outside this dungeon. The runes are space-bound to this tower. They don't have any power outside.'
Eren and Reen both were calmed down after Alphee told them about the demon beast's temporary situation. The butcher sighed and took his katars out. He clutched them hard in either of his hands before the array started lighting up brightly.
The array lit up with blinding lights in the next moment, and Eren disappeared from his place. He had been teleported to the first floor of the solo tower.
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AN: The pace of the chapters seems compromised because of the in-depth descriptions I've included.. There will be a bonus chapter released in some time to compensate for the slow pace.