The reason the players were captured and locked up in prison was because the rankers or the Eaglen’s people have some use for the players.

As mentioned before, the portal gate to the 2nd floor only appears once every month, so what does that have to do with the Eaglen’s people? Well, just like the Players, Rankers can also climb up the tower.

You may ask why do Rankers want to climb the tower in the first place? There are two things: To grow stronger, and to receive better rewards.

As an individual climbs higher and higher, they will encounter stronger monsters, which is important for those who wish to grow stronger. It’s like a video game, if you want to level up or earn more experience points, then you would need to kill higher-level monsters because that’s how you progress your character. Staying on the 1st floor forever won’t help you progress, because after some point, you can’t level up anymore because the monsters are simply too weak for you to gain any EXP.

Besides the goal of getting stronger, there’s also another reason why most Rankers are desperately trying to climb higher, that’s because they have heard if anyone could reach and clear the 100th floor, they will receive a reward called the “Elixir of Eternal Life.”

Of course, there’s no evidence whether the “Elixir of Eternal Life” exists, this was only what they had heard.

On the 1st floor, every now and then, the monsters would attack the Rankers and every time when it happens, a lot of Rankers would die as a result. To prevent this outcome, the Rankers plan to use the players as frontline soldiers, which was why they captured the players.

Unfortunately, the players still had no idea why they were captured since the Rankers have no plan of telling them. Their goal was to keep a secret from the players, because if the players knew about what they were scheming, then there’s a possibility the players might rebel in the future.

A week later…

By now, the players had already been released from prison and currently, the players are working together with the Rankers to prepare for the next wave of monster attack.

The plan of deceiving the players to fight for them in the frontline has worked successfully.

At the vast soldier training ground, many players could be seen practicing with the Rankers or Eaglen’s soldiers.

CLANG!!!

HORIZONTAL SLASH!!!

FIRE BALLS!!!

“Hahaha! Take this!”

BOOMM!!!

One of the players managed to successfully defeat one of the Rankers while training.

“Not bad, you have certainly improved a lot these past few days.”

“Hehehe! This is nothing actually, but thanks for the praise!”

At the top of a balcony, Darius and his 6 Knights were observing the players and upon finding out the players had improved a lot, they couldn't help but smile because it seemed everything was going as planned.

“Hahaha! Those players are truly idiots, don’t you think? Getting happy just because he won once. Too bad, little did he know he’s about to die soon.”

“Shh…! Watch your mouth, they might hear us.”

“So what? They don’t even know what we are talking anyway, so it doesn’t matter.”

“I don't care. I swear if they ever figured out our plan, you’re the one to be blamed for it since you won’t keep your bloody mouth shut!”

“Jeez, you’re so annoying! Listen up, bitch, I will say what I want and it’s none of your business.”

“W-What did you say?! I dare you say that again—!”

“Alright, stop arguing guys. The plan is going well, so please behave yourself and don’t screw it up.” [Darius]

***

Hiding at the bottom of a vast lake, Sol was holding his breath for at least a week now.

‘Damn! These guys are persistent as hell. It’s been a week and yet they still won’t give up searching for me.’ Sol thought.

[You’re out of oxygen!]

[Health Points minus -10 per second.]

[You’re hungry!]

[Health Points minus -10 per second.]

Every second, Sol would lose 20 HP for being out of breath and hungry. Naturally, it doesn’t bother him since his regeneration speed was way faster than the amount of HP deducted per second. It’s unknown how fast he’s able to regenerate back to full health, but certainly plenty enough to keep him alive infinitely.

[Stomach Growling!]

‘Fuck! I haven’t eaten for a week. Sigh, I wonder how much longer before they will give up searching and move on to another place…’

A few days later, finally, they gave up searching for the players and headed back to the city.

‘Finally… after so long…’

There were too many Rankers around, and Sol wasn’t in the mood to fight them all even though he was strong enough to win. After all, these Rankers or soldiers that were after him were Diamond-Rank on average, and that’s going to take a really long time to kill several hundred thousands of them. It’s more efficient to just hide and wait for them to disappear.

After a while, Sol swam up to the surface of the lake and scanned his surroundings to make sure they were gone before deciding to exit the lake.

After making sure everything was safe, that was when Sol exited the lake and finally, after a week and a half, he could breathe fresh air again.

“Aaah…! Finally, I can breathe again…”

‘Alright, it’s time to eat but before that… I better get out of here first in case they might come back again.’ 

The lake area was not safe as it was pretty near Eaglen city, so he figured to travel as far away as possible until it’s safe and secure.

A few hours later…

‘Hmm, I believe this should be far enough. At least for the time being.’

To stop his hunger, he began searching for monsters or animals nearby to eat.

It didn’t take long before a wild deer was found.

TAUNT!

The wild deer tried to run away but failed, instead it became under the influence of taunt.

BONK!!!

HAMMER PUNCH!!!

To prevent any suffering, using his gauntlet, Sol knocked out the deer first before he proceeded to cook and eat.

Shortly afterwards, Sol began gathering branches around the forest to prepare for a campfire.

A short time passed and eventually, the food was done cooking. Without wasting any time, Sol chowed the food like no tomorrow.

Nom! Nom! Nom! Munch! Munch! Munch!

As Sol was eating, out of nowhere, he sensed someone nearby.

“Who goes there?! I know you’re there, show yourself!”

At the right side of Sol, a mysterious little girl came out from the bushes that she was hiding and revealed herself.

Looking at the little girl’s face, it appeared she was drooling and at the same time, Sol could hear her stomach growling like crazy.

“Little girl, are you hungry?” Sol asked.

The little girl didn’t talk, instead, she just nodded head as a way of saying yes.

“Hmm. I don’t have much to share, but hold on, let me see if there’s anything I could hunt nearby for you.”

As Sol scanned his surroundings, he saw a bird at the top of a tree right ahead of him.

‘Hehe. Found it. Sorry birdie, looks like you have to be lunch for this little girl.’

TAUNT!

CHIRP!!!

In an instant, the bird started flying toward Sol and just like that, the little girl had the bird for lunch.

“Do you mind If I ask what you are doing here alone? And where are your parents?” Sol asked.

The little girl wasn’t paying attention to Sol, instead, right after she was done eating, she burped out loud and fell asleep.

“Are you kidding me? Oh well, I was planning to leave, but I can’t leave this girl here alone, can I?” Sol sighed.

Couple of hours later…

The girl finally woke up after a nap.

“Good afternoon. Finally feel like talking now?” Sol said.

“Aaaah! Who are you?! Please don't kill me!”

The little girl jumped back in fright. Based on her reaction, it seemed like she didn't remember anything from earlier at all.