Devil Fruit Powers In The Tower Of God - Chapter 44

The 24th Floor was a massive grassland filled with hills, and small cities were scattered all over it.

Due to the beautiful scenery, a lot of Regulars would stay on this Floor for long periods of time. Some even choose to stay and live on the 24th Floor for the rest of their lives.

Besides the incredible landscapes, there were a lot of unique snakes living on this Floor. Like the Three-Headed Boa, the Scorpion-Tailed Python, the Horned Viper, and my more. They mostly fed on Black-Horned Sheep that lived on the Floor or Regulars that enter their territory.

All in all, the 24th Floor is a very beautiful place, as long as you don’t encounter any of the creatures that inhabit it.

The Test on the Floor takes place in three specific cities. Each one being overflowed with snakes. Amongst those serpents in the cities, one of them would have a special key in their body. In order for a team to pass, they have to gather all three keys.

A team of Regulars would have to split into three groups, and each would enter one of the cities. Each group gets the chance to kill no more than three snakes. If they are unable to find a key within the three snakes that they have killed, they fail the Test.

Lumen’s team would be taking on the Test in three weeks. The earliest possible time for them to do so. Since they had plenty of time, Lumen has been going out to the grass fields to feed his animals and to check out the creatures leaving on the Floor.

Ben, an average-sized human with blonde hair, wearing a brown outfit, was walking alongside his partner. His companion, Rowan, was another normal-looking human with brown hair that wore a similar outfit to Ben.

They were born in the lawless part of the Outer Tower and have lived as criminals for their whole lives. The two of them were quite the famous muggers amongst the E-Rank Regulars.

They were walking through one of the cities on the 24th Floor when they saw a masked Regular leaving the city. Rowan tapped Ben on the ċhėst while looking at the masked Regular.

“Hey, isn’t that the guy who was on a team with a Princess of Zahard?” Rowan asked his blonde companion.

“Yeah, yeah, he is. He is from that team of monsters.” Ben replied.

“Let’s mug em,” Rowan said with excitement, already getting pumped up for the goodies they can get of him.

“Hold on, I watched his fight on the 23rd Floor. He summoned a dinosaur as large as the buildings here.” Ben tried dissuading him.

“Oh yeah, I watched that as well. The beast ate a white gorilla and a Regular with one bite.” Rowan replied.

“Exactly, yeah,” Ben replied, relieved at his response.

“Let’s mug em!” Rowan stated with even more excitement.

“No, no. I heard he once killed a member of the 10 Great Families in an instant. The masked Regular had made a maw of darkness that ate him. He killed him without even blinking an eye!” Ben tried discouraging Rowan. The blonde man didn’t want to lose his life.

“Oh yeah. The Ari Family member from the 23rd Floor. I heard that too.” Rowan replied, and his face lit up in excitement. “Let’s mug em!”

“I don’t think you are getting what I’m trying to say,” Ben said with a serious face. “I saw him once go out in the grassland on this Floor. He was attacked by over fifty different kinds of snakes. Snakes that we won’t even dare go up against, and he killed them all within a second all by himself! He’s that powerful!”

“Fifty different kinds of snakes? All by himself?” Rowan asked with wide-eyes.

“Yeah!” Ben confirmed.

“Let’s mug em!” Rowan exclaimed with enthusiasm.

Ben shook his head with fear. “Oh, I don’t know.”

“There’s two of us.” Rowan pointed at himself and Ben. Then he pointed at Lumen. “But there’s only one of him.”

“Yeah, well, there were fifty snakes that attacked him…” Before Ben could say anything else, Rowan stopped him and tapped him on the ċhėst.

“Hey!” He yelled at his blonde companion.

“What?” Ben responded meekly.

“What are we?” Rowan yelled out.

Ben looked around and replied hesitantly. “We are muggers.”

“And what do we do?” Rowan continued questioning him.

“We mug people,” Ben responded.

“So,” Rowan said, and the two continued in unison. “Let’s, go, MUG EM!”

“Give us all your Points.” The two yelled out as they both equipped a needle, and charged at Lumen.

Before they could even come close to him, a black fang pierced through their stomachs, and they dropped on the ground.

“Yeah, that was a mistake,” Ben said while laying on the ground with a hole in his stomach.

“I don’t understand. There were two of us.” Rowan replied, confused at what went wrong.

“Yeah, but he is apart of that team full of monsters, isn’t he,” Ben responded while trying to stop his bleeding.

“Yeah, but it was two against one.” They had the advantage, and Rowan couldn’t understand what went wrong.

“But he has the power to kill members of the 10 Great Families!” Ben said on the verge of losing consciousness.

“But there were two of us and only of em!” Rowan replied as darkness overcame the two.

Berserker let out a roar and looked at Saber. When he was returned back in the bowl, Berserker had bragged to Saber how he was summoned to fight their master’s enemies instead of her.

However, Saber had acted as if he didn’t even exist, and had slept throughout his boasting. As much as he roared, the irritating cat hadn’t even spared him a glance.

Berserker shot her an annoyed look, and he ran off searching for some food, not willing to stay around the stupid furball. He would prove that he is more useful than the annoying cat by bringing some tasty prey to his master.

Saber shrank herself to the size of a small kitten and jumped inside Lumen’s hood. She didn’t need to go and search for food since the stupid lizard would do that for her.

Berserker would always bring back a lot of prey as gifts to Lumen, but her master would give those to her. The foolish reptile can do all the work while she will spend time with her master by sleeping in his hood.

Lumen strolled around the grass field and killed off any of the reptiles that dare to attack him. He had just dealt with a massive red python when he sensed that he was being observed from a distance.

Looking up, he was bȧrėly able to spot a black dot in the air. Interested in what that is, he reduced the gravity on himself and floated up in the air.

Before he could close in on the creature that he saw, the thing sped off flying with extreme speed. It was moving even faster than Vespa. Now, that really caught his attention.

“Hold on, girl. We’re going to be moving fast.” Lumen told Saber, who only let out a yawn in response.

Saber was nearly thrown off his hood and had bȧrėly managed to latch herself on Lumen. She vowed to pay back the one that interrupted her nap by making her master fly at this speed.

Once Lumen got closer to the creature, he was able to see it clearly. It was a small snake with black feathers and two wings. When the little snake saw Lumen getting closer to him, it turned around and shot several blasts of wind from his mouth.

The attacks landed on Lumen, and the winged-snake wiggled in the air, proud at what it has done. Obviously, it was better than the stupid human, and it was doing its victory dance.

However, it then witnessed Lumen still moving towards it without a single scratch on him. Terrified, the little snake turned around and tried its best to flee.

Every now and then, it would turn around and shoot a blast of wind at the human that was chasing it, but the human was very persistent. No matter where the winged-snake went, the human was right behind it.

Lumen had just caught up to the little snake when he saw it turn towards him. All the feathers on the snake’s body suddenly turned metallic and detached from its body. They then transformed into needles, swords, and spears, and the winged-snake sent them towards Lumen.

Knowing how tough he is, the little snake also shot blasts of wind alongside his metallic feathers. It did its best to get rid of the annoying human that was chasing it.

Before the attacks landed, Lumen had created a shield of darkness in front of him. The shield blocked the weapons and the wind blasts, but the snake didn’t see that.

It only saw a massive explosion happen due to its attacks, and it started doing a weird wiggling dance in the air. It might have lost its beautiful black feathers, but they will regrow in a short amount of time.

Suddenly, Lumen appeared in front of its face. “You are a feisty little one, aren’t you.”

It hissed in response, and Lumen was able to see that the little snake had no teeth. It started panicking since it had seen what the human had done to the serpents on the ground. Not a single one had survived after encountering him. It didn’t want to have the same fate as them.

Just as it was afraid of losing its life, the little snake felt Lumen pat it on the head. His hand was warm, and it had a pleasant feeling to it. The little snake enjoyed it so much that it pushed its head against Lumen’s hand. The human no longer seemed as terrifying as before.

When Lumen removed his hand, the little snaked stared at him with saddened eyes. It no longer feared him, but it longed to be pet by him. It was wondering what to do to trick the human into petting him more.

As it was looking at Lumen with puppy eyes, the snake felt a weird pressure envelop him. It understood one thing from the pressure, it either has to submit to the human, or lose its life. The little snake liked living, so there was only one option.

It decided to serve the human in front of it. Maybe the human wants him so that he can pet it all the time. Yes, that’s definitely it.

“So, how about I call you, Archer?” The little snake heard the human. It didn’t care how it would be called, as long it gets to be petted. It nodded to the human’s words, and Lumen patted it on the head.

The little snake started hissing in happiness. It now had a master that would pet him and give him warmth. That was the best feeling ever.

Suddenly, it heard a threatening growl coming from his master. Looking up, it saw a small cat with two fangs sitting on Lumen’s shoulder. The cat was menacingly staring at the little snake.

Saber was more than annoyed by the black snake. She growled at Archer, and when the winged-snake looked at her, she lunged at it. However, the little snake was very fast and easily dodged Saber’s lunge, leaving her to fall towards the ground.

As she was falling, Saber was thinking that reptiles are the most hateful creatures that had ever existed.

Archer shot her a questioning look, wondering why the cat is trying to fly but paid her no further mind. It pushed its head towards Lumen, hoping to get petted by his warm hand.

When Lumen landed on the ground next to Saber, she jumped in his hands and chased away the little snake. Her master pets her and her alone. Not a stupid reptile, like the winged-snake.

Archer flew around Lumen but didn’t know what to do to get rid of the cat in his hands. After circling him a few times, the little snake decided to take the cat’s previous place. It was able to feel it’s master’s warmth, so it was fine with staying there.

Lumen walked around the grass fields enjoying the scenery and taking out a serpent here and there when he saw Berserker running towards him from the distance. He was carrying an uncountable amount of snakes in his mouth, preparing to gift them to his master.

Once Berserker reached Lumen, it dropped all the serpents that it was carrying on the ground. Seeing that, Saber jumped from Lumen’s hands and transformed into her bigger form, ready to have her lunch.

Before she was even able to take a bite of those snakes, she saw them all being swallowed by a massive black snake. She turned around, just in time to see Archer, who had transformed only his head to giant size. He quickly retracted it and turned back into a small cute little snake.

Saber had only one thing on her mind, and it’s that reptiles are by far the most hateful creatures that had ever existed.

Three weeks quickly passed by, and it was now time for Lumen’s team to take on the Test. They had split into two groups of five, and Lumen was in a group by himself. Merrie would lead one of the groups, while Verdi will lead the other.

As a Guide, Merrie was bound to find the snake that had the key inside its belly, it was only a matter of time. It took her an hour, but her group had secured one of the keys by killing only a single snake.

Verdi didn’t have Merrie’s ability, but she had her Telepathy. The snakes were a talkative bunch, so she was able to locate the one with the key very quickly. Her group had also secured the key by killing only a single snake.

Lumen was alone, but he was also able to locate the correct snake very easily. With his technique of being able to read the flow of Shinsoo, the snake with the key was sticking out like a sore thumb. By killing it, his team had successfully passed the Test on the 24th Floor.

They were all awarded 27 000 Points, and they were allowed to advance to the next Floor.