"I only need to take them down, and I will have enough to enter the treasury!" Nevis stood opposite to four gorillas with thick, burly arms and sharp teeth. The intent to kill them at all cost flushed his mesmerizing eyes.

He had climbed up to the fourth floor of the monster tower by defeating several beasts and earning 60 points. Now, he only needed forty more points to become eligible to enter the treasury.

Killing these monsters will earn him that!

Angered by his defiant and murderous gaze, the four gorillas roared, then jumped towards him. They opened their mouths in mid-air and spewed out a boulder-sized fireball towards him.

Nevis's eyes widened the moment he saw those attacks, and he immediately integrated a large portion of his battle energy into his legs, increasing his speed and the strength of his legs, and bolted out of their way.

He moved with such speed that the fireball they suddenly shoot towards him missed him by a few meters and crashed on the spot several steps behind him. After which, they exploded, releasing shockwaves that crashed on his back and sent him shooting towards the wall on the side.

He crashed face-first with the wall, causing his nose to break and blood to trickle down his nostrils as he dropped to the ground with a dull thud.

"Ugh, god damn it!" Intense pain assaulted his senses, trying to kick his consciousness out of his mind, but Nevis gritted his teeth and forcefully held on to his consciousness.

He knew that this wasn't the time nor the place where he could collapse! Giving up meant death after all!

He only had one choice, stand up and fight them. However, he could tell that he doesn't have what it takes to take down four mutated gorillas.

"I only have a few units of battle energy left in my body. How am I going to fight them? Forget about killing them. I won't be able to even take them down with me. Did I make the choice wrong of coming up here? Did I try to chew more than I could swallow? Would it have been better if I had just given up and walked out of the tower after conquering the third floor?"

Nevis regretted coming up to the fourth floor despite his injuries, despite his exhaustion! He cursed himself for being a fool as well as greedy. But was it these two things that made him step up to this place? Wasn't he in this position because he wanted to achieve something by himself, because he wanted to earn the right to take a treasure out of the treasury?

After all, he wanted to accomplish those two feats to prove that he wasn't less than any man!

However, his desire to prove himself as something more than just a Hollow resulted in this fatal situation.

'I need to fight them.'

'I need to win against them.'

'Vincent carried all of us here. If I fail to do even do the last part by myself, am I even worthy of being his friend or being a part of his team?!'

A huge wave of willpower washed over his soul. Even with broken bones, a scorched back, an injured hand, he started to stand back to his feet.

While he was trying to get up to his feet, the gorillas charged towards him. By the time he stood up to his feet, they had already reached him. He wasn't even able to put up a proper defensive stance before two of them smashed their heads into his stomach, causing him to be thrown towards the wall once again.

"Gah!" His eyes widened, a painful breath left his mouth alongside traces of blood as he dropped to the ground once more.

He found himself pathetically lying on the cold surface and watching the four gorillas stepping towards him ever so lazily. Each of them had a smirk on his face.

He was so familiar with this position; he was so familiar with this pain; it reminded him of his life back home, the time when his step-siblings used to beat him up.

For no reason, they would come up to him, beat him black and blue, then leave him unconscious on the cold, hard ground.

However, thanks to his rapid health regeneration, he would be mostly fine by the time he woke up. Though, he knew that this was going to be different than the times before.

After all, he might die for real this time!

These monsters weren't his step-sibling and they won't show him any trace of mercy.

They won't stop beating him until he breathes his last!

'Move!'

'I want you to move!' Nevis commanded his body to move, used every bit of energy left in his body to make himself move, but he failed.

His body didn't even budge!

He currently felt that his body wasn't made up of flesh, bones, organs, and blood but lead. 100% lead.

He felt awfully heavy.

The gorillas came up to him, raised their fists, then brought them down on different areas of his body.

"Gah!" He cried out loud in pain as several of his bones shattered under the first wave of their attacks. Then, they stomped their feet on his back, trying to squash him like a bug.

Between their barrage of attacks and the mental humiliation assaulting his senses, Nevis failed to put a resistance. More like he didn't even have any strength to fight back.

His hands were clutched tightly into fists, but his arms lacked the strength to swing them at the bastard humiliating him.

Large amounts of pain washed over his senses, dulling his senses, causing his vision to grow blurry.

The light in his eyes dimmed bit by bit until he collapsed, losing his consciousness.

Now that their playmate, who was also the subject of their torture, wasn't responding, the four gorillas decided to wring his neck, cut him up into four equal-sized pieces, and then feast on his flesh.

Unknown to him as well as the beasts, his bloodstreams that shouldn't have a single trace of supernatural cells lit up in bright blue lights, ones with such brightness that they would eclipse the radiance of the stars in the night sky.

One of the gorillas grabbed Nevis by the neck and pulled him up. It tightened its grip on his neck, squeezing it with enough force to crush it.

Just as it looked like Nevis's windpipes would be destroyed along with his neck, silence and stillness suddenly replaced the fourth monster floor.

The monsters didn't get the time to sense the change that had suddenly taken place before a blue shockwave surged out of his body.

The shockwave moved with such speed that the monsters weren't even able to catch it in their field of vision before it crashed on them.

BOOM

The moment it touched their bodies, they exploded just like balloons, a mess of blood, organs, and flesh splashing on Nevis and across the ground.

With nothing holding him, Nevis dropped to the ground, dropping right in the center of the mess.

[You've conquered the fourth floor of the monster tower and earned 40 points]

[You've gained the right to challenge the fifth floor]

[You'll be teleported out of the monster tower if you don't challenge the next floor within a minute]

A few notifications sounded in the air, but Nevis failed to hear them as he was fast asleep, lost in his dreams.

Furthermore, his wounds started to heal at a rate visible to the naked eyes.

From his broken bones to his bloody back, everything healed back to its peak state!

After his body recovered all of its strength, the blue lights in his body disappeared!

"Wow! What a surprise!" Melody suddenly popped up over his head. "Who would have thought that this brat carries dormant but dominant cells of true might in his bloodstream! I'm guessing even he doesn't know of his terrifying potential!"

She waved her hands, causing a gust of wind to pick him up, and then she brought him outside of the monster tower.3