130: Chapter 13, Second Level!

"Lu Yin, do you know what their scheme is?"

Milian spoke in a low, slightly wary voice.

Lu Yin nodded slightly, his gaze fixed on the backs of Reno's team ahead.

"That's right. It's obvious that this isn't the first time Reno and the others have entered the Tower of Time."

Lu Yin lowered his voice, his eyes sharp.

"They are intentionally letting us exhaust our skills. I'm afraid they plan to make a move against us at a critical moment."

"Then why are we still heading up?" Milian asked with a frown, a flash of killing intent in her eyes.

"Why not just deal with them right now?"

"No rush." Lu Yin shook his head gently. "Since they are familiar with this Dungeon, they still have utility value."

Milian thought for a moment and nodded slightly. "True. As long as we stay on guard, they won't be able to cause much trouble."

While they were talking, Reno's team was also plotting in low voices.

"Captain, their skills should be almost exhausted, right?"

"Yeah. Those few skills they just released felt terrifying even to me; they're clearly their trump cards."

"The only variable is probably that Lu Yin."

"He also has a Mythic Class, and it's the rather troublesome Summoner type."

"I suspect he definitely has more than just that one powerful Summon. In the next few floors, we must force him to use his life-saving skills."

"That way, we can finally have them in the palm of our hands."

Reno stared at Milian's slender figure, a wicked smile creeping onto his face.

The three people behind him simultaneously let out low, lewd laughs.

"Boss, these three girls are all quite nice. Can we... relax a bit later?"

"Yeah, they'll be dead anyway, so we don't have to worry about any risks."

"Keep it down."

Reno rebuked the three, but then he too began to leer.

"Be careful not to let them hear you."

The three understood immediately and stopped talking, though the lustful fire in their hearts had already begun to smolder.

The two teams continued up the Light Ladder and soon reached the second floor of the Tower of Time.

This floor was completely different from the previous one; the entire space looked like the inside of a giant clock.

Countless gears turned slowly, emitting a rhythmic clicking sound.

At that moment, Reno's team stopped and said to Lu Yin's group,

"Brother Lu Yin, as we agreed before, your team will be the vanguard for this floor, and we will provide support."

"Fine, we'll take the lead."

Lu Yin's expression remained normal as he led Milian and Ling Ying onto the second floor first.

As soon as they stepped onto the floor covered in gear patterns, the entire space echoed with the 'clack-clack' of mechanical movement.

Countless giant gears began to accelerate, and the entire hall seemed to activate like a massive, precision timepiece.

"Watch your step!" Ling Ying acted quickly, pulling Milian back.

Right where Milian had been standing, a floor tile suddenly sank, revealing sharp gear blades beneath.

Immediately after, the floor of the entire hall began to change constantly.

Tiles rose and fell at intervals, like a giant, living maze.

Reno's team stood at the entrance, appearing ready to provide support at any moment.

Reno shouted loudly, "Brother Lu Yin, these gears seem to move according to a pattern. Be careful!"

Lu Yin sneered inwardly; Reno clearly knew this place like the back of his hand.

But he intentionally didn't explain the specific rules, wanting to watch them struggle.

"Follow behind me. Besides the environmental traps, there should be monsters appearing here."

Sure enough, as soon as Lu Yin finished speaking, the space ahead distorted.

Accompanied by the clicking of gears, three blurry figures gradually took shape.

They weren't organic creatures, but strange humanoids composed of countless tiny gears and springs.

They had no facial features, and a core resembling a large pocket watch face was embedded in their chests.

The hands ticked and turned, emitting ripples that distorted time.

The moment the gear humanoids materialized, the flow of time in the entire clock hall suddenly became eerie.

"Watch out, time seems to be accelerating!"

Milian's expression tightened as she called out a warning.

As Milian spoke, Lu Yin also discovered that everything before his eyes was flowing at an accelerated rate.

However, his consciousness and his body remained in normal time.

This was a terrifying debuff, meaning that everything around him possessed a speed much faster than his own.

It was as if he were experiencing everything in slow motion.

In his field of vision, the gear humanoids approached rapidly like a fast-forwarded film, while his own movements were as sluggish as if he were mired in mud.

He tried to raise his arm to Summon, but found that this simple action took several times longer than usual.

Fortunately, Krausi was always by his side.

As an Archer, agility was his primary attribute.

With the tenfold amplification, even in slowed time, he could still maintain a normal counter-attack speed.

"Thousand Shadow Hands!"

In an instant, countless arms appeared behind Krausi.

He drew his bow and notched arrows in one smooth motion!

Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!

Arrows poured out like a torrential rain, accurately hitting the gear monsters racing through the accelerated time.

-434,689! -462,575! -447,912!

A massive amount of damage numbers floated up, and the three gear monsters were instantly annihilated.

[Ding! You have killed a Time Gear. Experience points increased by 130,000 (-20%)!]

[...]

The three monsters brought Lu Yin nearly four million experience points.

Although there was no loot, it was still a good place for leveling up.

However, Lu Yin could not let this show right now.

"As expected of Brother Lu Yin! You can actually one-shot monsters from a World-class Dungeon!"

From behind, a flash of shock crossed Reno's eyes, followed by a hint of joy.

Such a powerful skill must surely come with an extremely long cooldown.

Having Lu Yin's Summon exhaust another powerful skill would clearly increase the success rate of their plan by another level.

At this point, Lu Yin feigned weakness to him.

"I can't keep this up, Brother Reno. Most of our powerful skills are already exhausted. It's going to be hard to one-shot monsters like that again."

"I hope Brother Reno's team will also release some powerful skills so we don't end up in danger."

Hearing Lu Yin's words, Reno gave a sincere smile.

"Don't worry, Brother Lu Yin. Our Mages and Archers are ready to support with powerful skills at any time, and our Priest has healing skills prepared."

"We definitely won't let you fall into danger."

"That's good then." Lu Yin smiled, then gave Su Xiaoruan a look.

Since she was the team's apparent Tank, they had to play the part fully.

Su Xiaoruan understood immediately. She raised her shield to block the front and shouted in a crisp voice,

"Don't worry, I'll protect everyone!"

She appeared to grip her shield nervously, but a flash of cunning crossed her eyes.

As the team's Shield Warrior, she knew her duty well, and she was also aware of the scheme Reno and the others were hatching.