While the crowd outside continued to buzz with discussions, Luca had already recovered his stamina.


    Taking a deep breath as he stared at the glowing portal in front of him, he tighted his grip on the Mithril Mage Spear and stepped forward without hesitation.


    Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Luca tered the 0th floor of the Trial Tower.


    The familiar light shed before his eyes once more!


    Before Luca ev oped his eyes, a putrid stch assaulted his sses.


    It seemed like the foul odor of decaying corpses.


    Th, a dpidated and eerie cemetery unfolded before him.


    The night sky was as dark as ink, with a bright full moon hanging high, casting a cold, pale light that illuminated the decrepit cemetery gates and overgrown graves.


    Blue ghostly mes floated aimlessly, and brok tombstones and coffins were scattered haphazardly across the g.


    Crows cawed with mournful, wailing cries, their shadowy figures faintly visible through the darkness.


    At the deepest part of the cemetery stood a pitch-ck structure, which, from afar, resembled a church—a chilling, sinister presce.


    "Well, this is rather intriguing." Luca''s lips curved into a smirk as he eyed the ominous church.


    Having fought countless demons and monsters in his two lifetimes, he had in nearly a thousand, if not more. Today, he was curious to see what kind of creature resided in this ce!


    The Mithril Mage Spear in his hand glowed with crimson patterns as he strode into the cemetery without a second thought.


    The momt he stepped into the cemetery, a cold gust of wind blew in, and the rusty gates nged shut with a resounding bang. The screeching sound echoed far into the stillness of the night.


    The noise seemed to act as a signal. The once-silt cemetery was suddly filled with rustling sounds that grew louder and more frequt by the second.


    There was the scratching of nails against wood, the sound of something being dragged, and the creaking of bones grinding against each other.


    Th, the soil beath Luca''s feet began to shift and bulge.


    Momtster, several withered and decayed hands reached out from the g, wing at his ankles.


    However, Luca remained unfazed, not ev bothering to look down.


    A wave of frost spread rapidly from his feet.


    Before those grotesque hands could touch the hem of his trousers, they were froz solid in ce, like statuespletely immobile!


    By now, themotion within the cemetery had reached its peak. One by one, humanoid creatures with rotting bodies broke through coffins and burial mounds, crawling out from underg.


    Their clothes were tattered, and their tire bodies reeked of decay. Some were so dposed that their pale bones were exposed.


    Their hollow eye sockets burned with blue mes as they lunged at Luca—at least several hundred of them!


    Luca''s steps didn''t falter in the slightest.


    Behind him, countless ice arrows swiftly formed and shot out in all directions.


    The decaying corpses had no chance to evade.


    A series of sharp, explosive sounds echoed through the air, and in the blink of an eye, more than half of the dark, overwhelming tide of corpses had be annihted.


    [Ding! You have in a level 36 Decaying Corpse (Normal). You gained 49,000 experice points!]


    [Ding! You have in a level 38 Skeleton Warrior (Normal). You gained 57,000 experice points!]


    [Ding! You have in a level 40 Undead Ghoul (Normal). You gained 63,000 experice points!]


    …


    A series of kill notifications appeared, and his experice points soared rapidly.


    Luca nced at his progress and estimated that by the time he cleared the 0th floor, he would probably be close to reaching level 30.


    At that point, his strgth would undergo a significant breakthrough.


    He continued swiftly towards the ck structure.


    These monsters couldn''t impede his progress at all.


    Ev wh rare-grade monsters emerged, Luca easily eliminated them in one blow.


    After using his fixed magic runes, his strgth was far beyond what these ordinary monsters could withstand.


    It didn''t take long for Luca to break through the circlemt of monsters and reach the front of the ck structure.


    To his surprise, it wasn''t a church as he had initially thought, but a pce.


    It looked ancit, and the carvings on the walls were already blurred, but he could still make out its once majestic and imposing aura.


    Luca gave it a quick once-over before looking away. The Eternal World had existed for ts of thousands of years at the very least, with countless dynasties buried within its depths.


    Ancit pces like this one might not be everywhere, but they were still fairlymon—nothing particrly special.


    He walked up to the front of the pce and pushed against the heavy stone door.


    He didn''t exert much force, yet the door groaned and creaked op.


    Dust fell as the door slowly swung inward.


    It felt more like the door was oping of its own ord rather than being pushed by him.


    Luca was unsurprised. He waited for the dust to settle before stepping inside.


    What greeted his eyes was a dpidated great hall.


    The hall was inplete disrepair, with gre ghostly mes flickering a. Dust and rubble were scattered everywhere, yet traces of its former grandeur could still be se in the carvings on the floor tiles and the beams of the walls.


    Luca looked up and noticed at the very top of the hall, there was a throne.Seated on it was a skeleton, d in armor and wearing a crown.


    At this momt, the hollow sockets of the skeleton''s eyes were staring directly at him, creating an eerie and unsettling atmosphere.


    Without hesitation, a crimson me flickered in Luca''s hand as he activated a zing magic rune.


    The skeleton was clearly suspicious—better to strike first!


    The spectators outside couldn''t help but twitch at the corners of their mouths wh they saw this.


    "This kid…" Orf muttered, half exasperated and half amused.


    This youngster truly didn''t y by the rules. Without saying a word, he attacked right off the bat!


    On the other side, Melissa couldn''t help but smile slightly, finding this young man rather interesting.


    The raging mes transformed into a giant python over a doz meters long, oping its gaping maw and lunging fiercely at the skeleton on the throne!


    Boom!!!


    The fiery python struck the throne head-on without any fancy moves!


    The immse explosion reverberated throughout the tire hall, and the tire pce trembled violtly under Luca''s powerful blow!


    The scorching mes spread out, illuminating the tire great hall.


    A vivid crimson damage number floated up!


    -3865!


    The next momt, an earth-shattering roar echoed through the tire cemetery!


    Roar!!!


    A ck aura surged skyward as the mes were suddly pushed back, violtly dispersing!


    The skeleton wearing the crown on the throne slowly stood up and let out an raged roar at Luca.


    [Level 40 Skeleton Emperor: Leader!]


    Seeing the prompt in front of him, Luca suddly felt a hint of regret.


    As expected, this guy was the boss monster guarding the 0th floor, and it was a Leader type no less!


    If he had known earlier, he would have hit it a few more times...


    Just as he was thinking this, Luca suddly noticed the tire pce beginning to shake violtly, with tiles and dust falling from the ceiling.


    The smile on his face faded, reced by a frown, and he took a step back.


    At the very momt Luca stepped back, the floor of the hall copsed with a thunderous crash, revealing a dse swarm of skeletal creatures below!


    There were at least several hundred of them at a nce, most d in tattered armor, with some ev holding decaying swords and des.


    "My soldiers! Kill this intruder!!" The Skeleton Emperor''s raspy voice bellowed, its massive sword pointing at Luca. The skeletons underg seemed to awak at itsmand, their hollow eye sockets instantly igniting with eerie blue mes.


    They mbered out of their underg graves, charging at Luca like a tidal wave.


    "Such a nuisance!" Luca muttered as he took a deep breath, his gaze turning razor-sharp.


    A crimson me suddly red up a him, and his tire aura became wildly intse, his power surging to a new level!


    This was the effect of the Wanderer Set''s equipmt skill, "Marauder"! After activation, it increased his attack damage by 0% and attack speed by 0%,sting for three minutes!


    Before the skeletons could ev reach him, a silver light shed beath Luca''s feet, and his figure vanished from his original spot, reappearing right in the midst of a group of skeletal soldiers.


    The spear in his hand was veloped in ayer of frost as he swung it fiercely, smashing more than a doz skeletal soldiers into powder with its immse force.


    Before the monsters could react and try to sur Luca, his figure had already disappeared and reappeared on the other side.


    With thebined effects of Wind Walk and Marauder, Luca''s movemts were as swift as lightning. Every time he swung his spear, it left a swath of destroyed skeleton soldiers in its wake.


    High above in the great hall, the Skeleton Emperor realized how troublesome this human was. The eerie blue mes in its eyes flickered violtly as it oped its hollow, gaping mouth and let out a piercing roar toward Luca.


    Soul Roar!


    The terrifying soundwaves materialized into a tangible force, surging straight at him!


    Luca initially wanted to summon Jormungandr to block it, but considering that people outside might be watching and it could cause unnecessary trouble, he dismissed the idea and chose to use a magical shield to defd himself instead.


    Just as the shield veloped his body, the Skeleton Emperor''s sonic attack struck.


    Boom!!


    The magical barrier shattered into pieces, and Luca was st flying backward.


    The spectators outside the tower held their breath in suspse.


    Fortunately, he wasn''t injured. In mid-air, he twisted his body and lightlynded on the shoulder of a skeleton soldier, bncing himself with ease.


    Staring at the approaching horde of skeletal soldiers again—


    Luca frowned. If this continued, it would take forever to kill them all. Who knew how long it would take to clear them out?


    He needed to change his approach.


    With a thought, the shadows beath him suddly transformed into a dark, murky swamp.


    Before the skeletal monsters could react, countless withered hands reached out from the depths, dragging them down one by one.


    Luca lifted his mage spear, which began to radiate a divine gold glow, as brilliant as the sun, illuminating the darkness within the great hall!


    Radiant Magic Runes!


    As the holy light shone upon the skeleton soldiers, wisps of  smoke began to rise from their bodies, as if they were being scorched by fire. They let out agonizing howls.


    Within a single breath''s time, all the skeletal soldiers werepletely dissolved under the power of the holy light. Ev the Skeleton Emperor''s armor showed dark scorch marks.


    Holy light abilities had a natural advantage against undead monsters—running into Luca was just their bad luck.


    Now that all its minions were wiped out, the Skeleton Emperor had no choice but to gage personally.


    A thick ck mist spread out, and its form suddly vanished, reappearing behind Luca in an instant.


    The ormous bronze sword in its hand whipped up a howling gale as it shed down mercilessly.


    Luca ssed the danger immediately, but his Air Stepwas still on cooldown.


    The audice watching outside held their breath once more. If he got struck by that sword, ev if he didn''t die, he''d be gravely wounded!


    Just as Orf was about to step in—


    "Didn''t think I''d have to resort to this move…" Luca sighed softly.


    As his words fell, a silvery rune pattern rapidly spread out from the cter of his chest, and the aura a him underwt a sudd, drastic change!


    Seeing this, Orf''s eyes wided in shock as he eximed, "That''s…!"