During the last 6 hours cultivating with Valkyrie, the ringing had stopped.

Again, none of the scouts saw any living humans.

They found lots of dead ones though. Some were frozen in the heavy snow. Others were merely bones, eaten by monsters the shadow clones eventually killed. None of the bodies matched Lex's memory of Jasmine, so the shadow clones moved on.

However, as Lex expected, the monsters here were no match for his shadow clones.

He looked in the treasure box and there were 3 dimension bags, 10,000 gold coins and several weapons with bonus damage, the best with a sword of +5 damage

Two of Morrigan's Harlot teams and Selene's Twilight team discovered another 3 different looking temples

This time they were stone circles, like that which druids used, In the middle were glowing golden rings too

With a nod, each team sent a single scout in, and then everyone poured through the shadows It was faster than lining up and going through the ring one at a time.

This time the other side as had volcanic barren land everywhere. Of the 3 druid rings, only one had an open treasure chest

Lex went to one through the shadows, taking all the treasures, then the other.

The shadow clones charged out to scout as before, but this time Lex wanted some action.

Fenrir and the Wolfpack had encountered a group of fire lizards, crawling among lava pools

Fenrir held the Wolfpack back and called Lex who appeared instantly

Lex smiled as he charged at the nearest lizard which was 3 m long.

He used his +5 sword and to his disappointment, it melted as soon as his sword hit it.

The lizard hissed as his flaming tongue lashed at him. Lex somersaulted out of the way and cast water at it.

The water turned to steam before it even reached the creature.

Lex took out another sword, this time a sword that glowed with a slight white light that he got in this level's treasure chest. This sword had a poison. Apparently the weapons on this level's treasure chests were better than the previous ones. 

Even the dimensional bags had larger interior space to fit more items. 

He slashed the shadow of the lizard, and to his disappointment, the lizard died as its head suddenly dropped off.

"Huh? That's it?" Lex said, wondering if it was the better sword or his powers that made it so easy. 

He looked at another flame lizard who was approaching him.

He cast water on the lizard's shadow and the lizard screeched in pain.

The water changed the temperature in the lizard's body and it suffered before turning to its back and dying.

Another two lizards nearby exploded when he shot lightning into their shadows. 

Lex was disappointed. Besides melting his first sword, the moment he used his shadow powers, he won too easily.

"You guys go ahead. I'm no longer interested" he said to Fenrir and the Wolfpack as he walked away bored. 

Burnt and half devoured bodies were found as well as bones all over this floor as the shadow clones again couldn't find any clues of Jasmine. 

Lex kept getting ringing non stop until it stopped. Another 3 temples were found, this time they were Chinese pagodas.

They went through the pagoda ring and again, only one chest in one of the temples were open among the 3. 

Again, his whole squad teleported through the shadows of the scouts that went through the 3 rings and Lex raided the other two unopened chests. Again, there were better weapons than the previous level, and this time he gained dimension rings rather than bags. 

The 4th floor was a mountainous land, with pine trees and bamboo forests. It was definitely better than the ice floor or the lava floor 

Again, he sent his whole squad out to scout. He was getting worried as he had found were no survivors thus far. Had all 10,000 people died? 

As the bells started ringing again, Morrigan suddenly contacted him. 

She had found a few human survivors!

He exited Morrigan's shadow and she gestured for him to see

There were humans! About 8 of them, huddled up in a cave, 5 Women and 3 men. 

"Good job" he said to Morrigan as he walked up to the cave

"Who... who's there! Stay back!" a timid voice shouted. 

They all took out their weapons, which were swords, spears, hammers and one of them was aiming an arrow at Lex.

It appeared their weapons were the basic weapons from the first or second floor. 

"Wait! I come in peace!" Lex said as he held his hands up. 

"Who are you?" one of the women asked

"My name is Alex Marshall. I'm here to look for someone" he said

"Show me your level!" the man said

"Huh? What do you mean?' Lex asked

"Just say "show level"" a woman said

A screen appeared over her head showing she was a level 17

"Ok, show level" Lex replied

A translucent screen appeared over his head that said [Level 1]

"You? You're only a level 1!" one of the men said

"Yeah! How did you get here? You're lucky to be alive" one of the other men said

"Anyway, I'm looking for Jasmine Lockhart" Lex said

"The porn actress?" the first man asked

"She's not a porn actress. Just an actress who does porn" one of the women said

"Same difference" the first man said.

Alex wanted to disagree with both of them, but he couldn't

"Anyway, there's no need to play hero. She's taken by Hogan" the woman answered

"Who's Hogan?" Lex frowned

"He's a 6 foot 5 gangster, who appeared here with several of his gang members. He has been monopolizing all the good weapons for his group and is thus the most powerful man here" the first man said. 

"So Jasmine... is his woman now?" Lex asked

"Yes!" the man said

"No!" one of the women interrupted

"What do you mean?" Lex asked

"Hogan wanted her. After all, she's a famous actress. But she kept rejecting him even though his group has been protecting her. But he took her by force. Every night... he and his gang...." the woman shook her head without continuing

"When was the last time you saw them? Where are they now?" Lex asked urgently

"They've probably gone to the next level. We saw them 3 days ago" the man said. 

"Why are you not also going to the next level?" Lex asked

"Are you kidding me? We barely survived the first 3 floors. This is a nice and safe level. We decided to stay a while, rather than go through another hell like the ice or lava floors" the woman said. 

Just then, in his head, several of the shadow clones contacted him. They had found the 3 temples! This time they looked like Hindu temples with carvings of deities and demons everywhere. 

By now even the ringing of his levelling up no longer even registered in his mind. 

Again, after having done this a few times, they all poured out of the shadows of the scouts that went first. 

"Well, this is different..." Lex said as they appeared this time in what looked like an unfamiliar city, but the buildings were all ruined and partially destroyed. Another difference is that all 3 temples had their treasure chests already raided.