After committing these few rules to memory, the two groups moved towards the base of the tower, where they encountered one another.
The group of participants that had come from temple island was much bigger than the one from Volcanic island. In their own island, during the first test, they had found themselves inside an old temple placed right in the middle of a forest. Since they did not appear to be in danger, they had taken much more time to explore their starting point, and had remained long enough to notice the appearance of the beings which they had to protect.
What had caused the elimination of the majority of the participants of the volcanic island, was the fact that Nilo and the others were too strong, and had not left enough oceanic warriors for a larger number of them to pass the test, which at best, could have reached ten thousand.
That was not true for the other group, which did not have the luxury of having five unstoppable warriors on their side, and were forced to retreat, and rotate so that only the warriors that were at the top of their form, could battle with the incoming warriors. Their methods were extremely efficient and focused on minimizing the losses, and at the end, had allowed for about seven thousand participants to be able to advance.
When the two groups came in contact, on the faces of the thousands of participants of temple island was sheer confusion. Just like Nilo and the others, they had guessed that the numbers would match the amount of essence gems that had been given to them as a reward until now, but now that they had encountered Nilo's group, and the five people who had fought against the humanoid puppet in the stone path, they had started to secondguess this theory.
While it was stated within the rules that stealing was allowed, the participants of temple island only possessed about one, two, or three gems each, meaning that none of them had gambled with their life against the half immortal puppets, so when they approached the smaller group of which Nilo and the others were part of, they showed no ill intentions.
There was no reason for them to believe that anyone had a larger amount of gems than they would have, so from the very moment they read the rules, they had instinctively agreed to select twenty people who would proceed into the tower, while the others would give up.
However, everything changed when they saw the numbers on Nilo's, Fyro's, and Cynna's chests.
"Lorwin.. In the name of all living things, how in the hell did you manage to obtain so many essence gems!?" Asked a young man with long black hair, and extremely good looking facial features. He was wearing a silver templar armor with a green gamberson underneath. Behind him, were around three thousand cultivators.
This young man was one of Lorwin's friends, as well as the leader of one of the three conglomerates which had been left in temple island.
"The half immortal puppet. We were lucky enough to survive three minutes against one of them, and to be rewarded two thousand gems each." Responded Lorwin, unable to find a reason to lie.
"What about.. Them?" added a stout young-looking man with a patchy beard and narrow eyes, after turning to look at Nilo and the others. He was dressed with elegant merchant's clothes, and just like the other young man, he was one of the three leaders of their group of participants. After a failed attempt to recognize the symbols on their clothes, he then added, "Are they part of your conglomerate's entourage?"
"No. They were with Gannet." responded Lorwin while turning to look at the relaxed expressions of Nilo's group, who were sitting peacefully on the soft blades of grass without a care in the world about a hundred meters away from them.
It was only after hearing Gannet's name, that the three other group leaders noticed the members of the Egregious Mercantile Ethics.
"Where is Gannet? Did that idiot got himself eliminated?" Said a young woman in a light blue dress, while silently stepping forward to join the conversation. She was the third group leader of the participants of temple island.
Now words were spoken, but the looks in the Dehlila's and Lorwin's faces, was more than enough to answer their questions.
"Gannet was the strongest one amongst the participants of his group. If he is dead, then the rest of his team should leave as well." Said the stout young man while keeping his eyes on the three massive numbers on Cynna's chest.
As he finished speaking, the young woman in light blue clothes chimed in by saying, "I agree. We are all on the same boat, and we only have enough gems to allow twenty of us to go. We should at least split them evenly to increase our numbers."
"You better leave them alone. They are not-" muttered Lorwin before being interrupted by the words of the stout young man.
"This isn't the time to be selfish! We have all seen people die! We don't know if we will survive that tower if we go in with only thirty people!" Said the stout young man with conviction. Ever since they had noticed the amount of gems in Nilo, Cynna, and Fyro's possession, they had unconsciously began to think of ways to justify taking them away from them.
Danger and survival were two excellent reasons which everyone could get on board with, and hardly anyone would refute.
"No, you don't understand.." Muttered Lorwin as the three group leaders walked past them, and towards Nilo's group, leaving most of their men back.
"Let him go." Said Non, the tall and muscular young man. He then reacted to Lorwin's confused expression, by adding, "I am curious to see how they will act against so many of them."
As the large army of cultivators approached, Nilo moved his head past Finn's head, and said, "Here we go. It's your turn."
"Very well." Responded Finn before slowly standing up. "Fyro, do you want to do the honors?" He then added. Fyro nodded in agreement before standing up, and walking next to him. The two waited quietly for the other cultivators to arrive.
The two of them observed as the three leaders, followed by nine of their strongest members, stopped only a couple of meters away from them.
"My name is Jova, and these two are Rosa and Kenno. Just like your former leader Gunnet, we are the ones who have been given the task to lead our own group through this dangerous competition." Said the young man in templar armor, which had taken upon himself the duty to speak for the three of them.
Finn nodded with courtesy, before saying, "I am Finn, and this is my friend Fyro. What can we help you with?" His tone was only as polite as the young man's.
After noticing Finn's good looks, the young woman in light blue clothes called Rosa, felt her cheeks flush with warmth. She then said with a gentler tone than intended, "We are here to request you to share your rewards. There is no telling about how dangerous our path will be. We need numbers, or we might die."
"I agree completely."
"Well, it is n-what did you say?" asked the stout young man instinctively, before finally working Finn's words through his head.
"I said that I agree with you. The tower could be the most dangerous place of all, and the more we are, the safer we will be." Responded Finn with calm and politeness. His tone denoted anything but willingness in cooperating.
"SPLENDID!" Exclaimed Kenno with enthusiasm. On the other hand, while he started to celebrate, the other two group leaders kept their calm, and waited for the inevitable 'but'.
"But, you will have to buy them." added Finn with a matter-of-fact tone.
Finn's voice relied the feeling that the simple idea that he would willingly give up their rewards, was ridiculous beyond reason, just like a merchant would not give up their wares for free. The only way they would be able to obtain it, was by buying it.
"What can we possibly give you that is worth hundreds of thousands of essence gems?" Asked Jova with doubt. One of the requirements to participate in this event, paired with the limitations to one's age and cultivation, was to not bring any form of cultivation resource, after all, if someone decided to ascend while inside the competition, they would be able to stomp all of the competition?
While maintaining his calm and polite behaviour, Finn responded by saying, "Of course. I know you don't have much on you. But we are being observed. What we give you here, will be paid by your families, to our masters. How does five hundred gems here for a thousand outside sound?"
The jaws of each and every cultivator in earshot collectively dropped.
"WHAT!? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MIND!?" Lenno burst out shouting with indignation. What Finn was asking for, was close to two million essence gems.
After noticing Lenno lose his temper, Jova immediately placed a hand in front of him in order to prevent him from doing anything rash. He was the strongest and most talented cultivator that had entered the event through temple island, and was not much weaker than Dehlila herself, so when he inerveened, Lenno decided to give him some face, and remain quiet.
"Is there no other way?" He asked while looking directly into Finn's eyes.
"Of course there is. You have read the rules. There is always the violent way." Responded Finn without the slightest hint of worry.
As Finn finished speaking, Jova placed his hand on the pommel of his sword, and muttered with disappointment, "So be it.. The hard way it is th-" His words were stopped by a sudden trembling of the terrain, which threatened to rob him of his balance.
The trembling soon turned into an earthquake which caused the ground underneath them to crack and split open. However, instead of falling apart, the loose pieces of rock moved closer together. As soon as the clump was big enough to be easily mistaken for a newly formed mountain, its shape began to morph.
Two legs formed at the bottom of its massive body, along with two handless arms, and a flattened head. A massive golem that stood a hundred meters in height had appeared right above them, looking down on them as if waiting for the order to flatten them until nothing remained.
"PREPARE FOR BATTLE!" Shouted Jova, who had immediately felt the connection between the massive golem, and the quiet young man that was standing next to Finn. "Lenno! Have your men fight off that golem! It will fall apart once we neutralize its controller!" he then added before unsheathing his sword.
While surprised by how quickly their oppent had been able to create such a massive golem, their group's morale was high. The amount of resources asked by Finn was obscene, and enough of a reason to start a fight. Unfortunately, it was the eartquake that they felt a few moments later, that made their hearts sink.
The earth began to shake violently once more, and soon after, five more mountains formed in the vicinity. These mountais followed the example of the one that had already formed, and quickly began to take the shape of golems. Each as big as the first one.
"W-What? Where is he taking all of that immortal essence?" mutered Jova in shock.
Lenno was quick to adapt, and immediately turned towards the rest of the thousands of cultivators that had remained behind, and shouted, "TAKE CARE OF THESE GOLEMS!"
Unfortunately, the worst had yet to come.
The composition of each of these golems began to change. Their surface began to become smoother, and emanate a warm red glow. From beings made out of pure earth essence, they quickly turned into a perfecly balanced mixture of fire, earth, and metal, causing the temperature in the surroundings to increase by hundreds of degrees.
From the point of view of the enemy cultivators, they were facing against the humanoid version of six planet's cores.
"However, I would not suggest the violent way.." Said Finn while losing his calm and polite tone, and while grabbing the hilt of his sword, showing a cold demeanor that, despite the heat, was able to send cold shivers down the backs of those who had threatened them.
