Over the next 3 months, Lex got back into his average pace of around 2 days per floor. It was the 120th day but he was only at the 47th floor now

Initially, he slowed down to 6-7 days per floor, moving slowly through the floor and making sure he didn't miss a single creature on every floor. However, he eventually made several improvements to his strategy that would help him this round and the next.

Firstly, he would enter the floor from the portal and flood the floor with all his shadow clones, with even a dragon guardian.

The dragon guardian would use the authority to command every single creature to come, as his shadow clones fanned outwards, slaughtering them and bringing them to Lex

He would mostly be able to kill and make every single creature to a shadow clone before the end of the 2 days, but that time was used for his fastest shadow clone to reach the exit portal.

Currently, the fastest shadow clone would be Selene or Morrigan who were not only able to fly, but they were also able to move at superhuman speeds, and because they were now Level 9! 

Lastly, after he creates all the shadow clones, he would keep all his familiar shadow clones, yet leave the new ones to roam the floor just in case he missed a few, especially in the next cycle, and directly teleport through the shadows to the exit portal whereby he will leave a shadow clone for the next cycle.

An extra bonus of his shadow clones searching every nook and cranny, is that they found for him another 3 "easter eggs" like the one that gave him and Scum insect transforming and controlling abilities on the 9th floor, as well as the one that gave Mona her animagus powers on the 50th floor. 

He kept them for now, as he didn't know what they did. 

He no longer worried about Jasmine on the outside. After all, she was arguably more hardy than him. 

There was nothing he could do on the inside anyway, so he concentrated on his task. 

Furthermore, now with a plan, his mood was better as he felt he was making progress somehow, rather than hopelessly repeating a futile effort that nearly guarantees he would end up at the start again. 

--

Over the same period of 3 months, the Princesses and the Fellowship regularly teamed up to close new Gates together.

But they avoided working with the Olympus Guild like the plague.

Due to their wealth and standing, the Olympus Guild started swallowing up the other guilds.

Though it had not gone unnoticed by the Princesses and the Fellowship, as it didn't affect them, they put their concentration elsewhere.  

They were instead regularly checking for news of the survivors of the 4th cycle. 

There hasn't been any news from the tower and the fourth cycle, but there shouldn't be any yet anyway.

The Princesses and Fellowship calculated among themselves that at 1 floor every 2 days, Lex would take over 6 months at the earliest, since some floors were just too large to cross in two days, even if there were no enemies on the floor.

But then, in the third cycle, Lex and Jasmine took their time to finish it in two years, so they didn't know how long to wait for news. 

They kept an eye our to see if there are survivors of the 4th cycle and try to figure out if Lex got out or is sent back again to the start.

But while news of potential new Hunters was non existent, the Hunters that were awakening because of the Gates however were increasing daily.

Where there was once 500 of such Hunters in the city, they have now tripled in number and most of them had joined the Olympus Guild.

Although many started off weak with just enhanced speed, strength and durability, the Olympus Guild were equipping them with the latest military weapons developed using minerals and treasures they found in the Gates.

The Nighthawks had equipped themselves with plasma swords and photon guns before. But now those were the weapons that were now common and available to all Hunters by the military if you could afford it.

But the Olympus Guild members were equipped with Tachyon Swords and Particle Accelerator Guns, the latest weapons derived from the resources they acquired from the Gates.

With more and more Gates being conquered, the technology progress became more and more advanced at such a rapid pace. 

These weapons were not inferior to the magical weapons found in the tower, and were in fact superior to all but the most powerful weapons like Anna's Bacard, or Magnus' hammer Gnorlinger.

Even the Fellowship were concerned that they were equal to Isla's bow Nightstar, Rudolfo's sword Sunderer or Phoebe's sword Rottoger. In fact, they were arguably superior to any weapon found under the 70th floor, which made them superior to Lucas' axe Firebomber, Lucious' axe Icebreaker and Aragorn's sword Anduril.

The very next day, Rudolfo burst into the conference room and slammed the newspaper on their conference table/

"Look at this!" he yelled and pointed at the picture of Heracles standing victorious over a large monster. 

The headlines read "Heracles, now officially S Rank!". Not only was the headline shocking, Heracles looked different too. 

He no longer wore his gauntlet or belt, nor did he carry his magic mace that he had become known for. 

Instead, he had new gauntlets, a new belt and even a new weapon that was a hammer like Magnus' but all 3 had the same technological look as the Tachyon swords or Particle Accelerator guns, made of thick black metal with thin lines of glowing blue lights in them. 

As for Arrow and Shaft, who had ditched their magic bows for Particle Accelerator guns themselves, they kept recording videos of their guild conquests. From the videos, the Fellowship could see Heracles had increased his power by a whole new level. 

"This doesn't look good. It doesn't look good at all. I don't need to use magic to say that things will be getting worse!" Marisa said

Phoebe burst into the room looking agitated. Everyone looked at her in confusion.  

"All the guilds in San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego have disbanded and joined the Olympus Guild!" she said in shock

"What?" Magnus said and immediately picked up his phone and dialed a number. 

He tapped his finger on the conference table impatiently

"Hello? Who is this? I need to talk to Norman. No... Director Hatfield! Norman Hatfield! " Magnus yelled 

He looked shocked as he hung up his phone. 

"What is it? What happened?" Isla asked

"Norman is not working at the Hunter Association anymore. I was forwarded to the Olympus Guild instead" Magnus said in utter shock and despair.