The Last Human Returns.
Chapter 26 - Level 3

As the Trouble Guild, Gordon, and Carmila party prepared to conduct the exam on Level 3, a horrendous news emerged.

"American Red Bulls Guild, intending to conduct the exam on the 3rd Floor! Their Guild Master, Jon Viver, claimed to be optimistic about the success of the Red Bulls to be the first in the examination on the 3rd Floor."

Jon Viver, the man whose ear was almost cut off by Michael, appeared on TV and spoke so confidently that he would again bring victory. The Red Bulls sent out over 50 Elite consisting of Hunters above D Rank.

"Are we still going to the 3rd Floor, Ethan?"

Ethan nodded casually as if not too distracted at all. "of course. Tower is not a vehicle. There's no queue there. Just do your best."

The Tower Rules were made by the strong. The laws of the Earth do not apply in the Tower. There was no guarantee the party who entered early was able to complete the Tower examination.

"... Either he was brave or too unconcerned about social life."

"He was very quick to adapt to this New World system."

Everyone nodded with a bitter smile agreeing with the statements from Gordon and Jun.

Ethan frowned. Ethan begins to wonder how low his value as a human is in the eyes of those around him.

Ethan sighed and returned the topic about the Tower. "More than that. You guys have all finished the 2nd Floor, right? To proceed to the 3rd Floor, you must complete the 2nd Floor."

"Eh!? I haven't done it!" Nina looks very surprised at the notice from Ethan.

Erica also raised her hand timidly. "... I just finished the period. So, I haven't had the time to do the 2nd Floor Exam."

Ethan was not surprised. As their brother, Ethan knows more or less the date of their month. Therefore, Ethan did not panic because he had expected this.

"If so, you can catch up later. Those who have no obstruction, get ready to leave within ten minutes."

They don't know what Ethan's up to. However, they try to believe in Ethan and will just follow him.

***

"!" Jun used the skill to draw agro from the one-meter-tall crowd of Ants.

"Krtkk!" The ants opening their mouths looked so scary that anyone would be traumatized when they saw it.

Silvia who was preparing with the incoming enemy, used Parallel Casting. "!"

5 arrows made of fire flew towards the leading ant skeleton. However, the shell of the ant was hard enough to leave only a burn without penetrating it.

"Kieeek!" The movements of the ants began to slow down.

Arya and Michael, as usual, support to finish off the enemy. Meanwhile, Gordon and Kiaa will finish off the enemy with their ability to penetrate the hard skeleton of ants.

"."

"."

Jem! Jem!

Kiaa's lightning magic and fire arrows managed to pierce through the Skeleton that passed through Arya and Michael. However, because they used magic, their magic capacity was quickly drained.

"Wrand!" Li Mei gave the direction.

Hearing that, Arya and Michael retreated and were replaced by Hu Tao and Li Mei as the vanguard. In the tank position, Jun was replaced by Carmila.

"!"

[When fighting a large number of enemies, the entire status increased by 10%.]

Since Carmila did not have the same skill as Jun to attract agro, Carmila would restrain all the Monsters by killing her herself.

His third fight against dozens of large ants was extremely brutal. Especially Hu Tao, he completely dominated in the narrow room without letting a single ant pass from where he was guarding him.

"... Has Hu Tao always been that strong?"

"... He had the most to do sparing with Guild Master."

Arya and Michael exchanged stupid words while waiting for their stamina to recover.

However, the Monsters had already started to clean up before they even had to switch teams again. Hu Tao, Li Mei, and Carmila were completely covered in green blood from the stinking ants.

"The number of Monsters in this place is very unreasonable. No wonder Guild Master has only trained us to fight these three days." Hu Tao muttered in annoyance.

"Well, how else, this is the 3rd Floor theme."

The 3rd floor has a theme of getting out of the Ant Labyrinth or surviving for a month. At its core, Tower makes for a very annoying and frightening survival game.

"Stay calm. We still have two more weeks. As per Ethan's lead, we'll go to the center of the nest and kill the Queen Ant Soldier."

"However, will the time be enough? If we keep meeting Monsters like this …." Carmila seemed quite skeptical of the chances they could succeed.

Carmila's worries were met with a confused look on the faces of everyone.

"Why is it impossible? We have a map that Ethan gave~"

"That's right. Besides, we have dog–"

"Hm?" Li Mei glanced sharply at Jun who was trying to say brazen things.

Jun immediately corrected his words. "... We have the best GPS, Li Mei. So, we can finish it even in a week."

Carmila was astonished at how much they believed in each other. Carmila doesn't know if they're naive or intelligent at trusting someone. However, whatever it was, Carmila felt like a fool if she was the only one worried.

Carmila smiled slightly and nodded with vigor. "really. We have to make it! So, let's do our best."

***

Meanwhile, the situation of the Red Bulls Guild that conducted the 3rd Floor Raid Examination at the same time as the Trouble Guild, was constrained. The number of monsters that appeared was difficult to deal with. Moreover, the narrow terrain made it difficult as the Red Bulls Guild brought over 50 C Rank Hunters upwards.

"Don't panic! The enemy suffered the same loss!" Jon Viver tries to raise the morale of the Red Bulls Guild members.

"Corn!"

"Argh! Change positions! I need help!"

"Fuck up! Give me the Heal!"

The situation is very chaotic. The level difference between them was too far away.

"!" Someone tried to use magic. However, it does make the mood worse. The fireball hit the anthill and started burning the anthill.

"Which fool used fire magic recklessly!?" Jon Viver is furious about the not-so-good situation at the moment.

"Guild Masters! It's chance! Let's go one way!"

Jon Viver nodded. Now, although there would be many casualties, at the very least, there were still survivors to continue the 3rd Floor Examination this time around.

"Everything! Follow me, we'll break through!"

Raising his battle axe, Jon Viver ran leading the Red Bulls Guild in the opposite direction from the flames. The fire victim held the fire-fearing ant to approach.

"Yahoo!"

Bam! The splash!

Every time Jon's axe hit the ant skeleton, his hands trembled due to the resulting recoil. The grip on his kayak gradually began to loosen.

"Kuh! Not yet!" Jon strengthened the grip on his axe and split the sea of ants like Moses splitting the Red Sea.

***

Li Mei who was looking at the scene of the horrifying massacre frowned. The fight was very one-sided for the victory of the ants.

"... I understand now how Ethan sees the world."

Li Mei had already noticed it since the Raid in America. However, the level of humans was extremely low when compared to the Trouble Guild members. Li Mei was sure Ethan had an uncomfortable sight seeing this fight.

Li Mei stopped thinking about the irrelevant thing and decided to return to where the Trouble Guild was waiting.

Not far from where Li Mei and the Red Bulls Guild were, the Trouble Guild was resting. They used a wall made of earth magic as their save point.

"... Isn't this time Li Mei long enough?" Kiaa was visibly agitated when Li Mei had not returned more than 30 minutes ago.

"Don't worry, Brother Kiaa. Big brother Li Mei is a Monster. In a real fight, no one could defeat Monster–"

"Who are you calling a monster?"

"Young!?"

Everyone was shocked when Li Mei suddenly appeared inside the sealed save point without one person in the place noticing.

Hu Tao's expression turned pale. He tried to make a defense. "Ah, that, I don't mean it like that. Merely, I said that Big Brother Kiaa need not worry because Big Brother Li Mei is very beautiful and also strong. No one was able to defeat Big Brother Li Mei–"

"Stop."

"Ready. Understood." Hu Tao immediately shut his mouth when Li Mei told him to.

Li Mei's sharp glances made Hu Tao swallow the saliva in fear. The other members even became tense and did not know what things to do in this situation.

"Li– Li May. I thought, Hu Tao is just–"

"Shut up, Carmila."

"I'm sorry."

Carmila who was trying to break up and defuse the situation, almost burst into tears as Li Mei cut her talk.

All the members almost laughed at Carmila. However, not wanting to be dragged along, everyone tried their best to hold him back.

Li Mei looked at Hu Tao who already looked like a dead fish.

"... Let's talk about that later. Right now, I have plans to complete the 3rd Floor Examination."

Hu Tao was visibly relieved when Li Mei delayed her execution. While the other members put on a serious expression of listening.

Li Mei started to explain about what she saw earlier. "Red Bulls Guild suffered severe damage. However, thanks to them I realized something. Their nests are very weak against fire."

Hearing that, some members were seen understanding in which direction Li Mei was trying to carry her plan.

"... We'll use scorched earth tactics. With the map we got from Ethan, we're gonna close the escape path of the ants."

Li Mei took out the map Ethan made with her hands. It's amazing how Ethan made a map like this in detail. Li Mei who examined him to the point of thinking that Ethan has an unreasonable memory.

"We're going to start making bulkheads on these streets. In total, 12 roads we'll be bulkhead."

These ant nests are highly branched. Li Mei wanted to block some of the forked roads and as a result, 12 roads would be closed.

"... Are we really going to burn everything?"

That's a good tactic. However, if there was a slight mistake and there was a pathway for air to enter, the plan could really fail miserably.

"It's okay. If Queen Soldier Ant did not die, he would definitely weaken. We'll kill him right then and there."

With their current strength it was impossible to win against a swarm of ants in such an infinite number. They're just humans, not Ethan.

"... This plan relied heavily on Silvia. So, are you ready?" Jun looked at Silvia who looked quite nervous.

As the only spell caster, Silvia would definitely be the point in this plan. Using a lot of magic at one time was definitely exhausting.

Silvia nodded with clenched hands. "certain. You can leave it to me!"

"... Then, let's start the plan."