Single Mother of a Werewolf Baby novel Chapter 292

Chapter 292: Clearing the Levels

Eleanor slowly opened the door and stepped into the fifty-first level. She stood alone in a white chamber, just as she had before. Ahead of her, not far away, rose the familiar staircase.

She already knew what awaited her if she moved forward. Unlike last time, there would be no surprises. She had studied this level in detail through several accounts she’d found in the library... records of those who had survived the Tower before her. They were not complete guides, merely fragments of experience and speculation, yet enough to prepare her.

Some participants had even written about their theories regarding the tower’s design. Many believed the Tower of Legends existed to refine a warrior’s combat ability... each level structured to deepen understanding of monsters, their strengths, and the terrains in which they fought.

It turned out that all the creatures encountered within the tower originated from Molgrath, the realm where the current inter-world conflicts were taking place. The environments, too, replicated that war-torn land. The tower’s true purpose, therefore, was to familiarise cadets with the monsters and landscapes of Molgrath before sending them into real battle.

Previously, Eleanor had assumed this level was meant to enhance agility... but she had been mistaken. Its true function was to increase endurance, much like the earlier gravity zone. Cadets were not meant to fight against the needles here, but to endure them. The design ensured that each needle would stop once it drew blood, leaving only shallow wounds that could easily be healed through regeneration.

No matter how strong the defence... barriers, armour, even dragon scales... the needles would pierce through until they tasted blood. The pain and the sight of bleeding were real, but the harm was illusionary; their true bodies remained untouched outside the simulation.

Taking a deep breath, Eleanor stepped forward. A sharp whoosh sounded, and a steel needle slammed into her leg. She flinched at the sudden sting but forced her body to adapt to the pain, then moved forward again.

Dozens more needles shot towards her from every direction, emerging from the walls and converging on her body. She gritted her teeth, bracing for the torrent of agony. Within seconds, pain flooded her mind... blinding and consuming, then gradually it began to fade. To her, those few seconds felt like an eternity.

When the pain began to fade, she took another step forward... just as others had advised. A new wave of agony surged through her body, flooding her senses once more. She repeated the process.

With every step she took, more needles pierced her skin. After a while, the intensity of the pain stopped increasing... it was as if it had reached its peak. Then, to her surprise, she realised the pain was gradually dulling, even as fresh needles continued to lodge themselves into her flesh.

So many needles were embedded in her body that some struck against those already lodged and fell harmlessly to the floor. By the time she reached the far side of the chamber and no more needles flew toward her, Eleanor finally understood the purpose of this trial. After a certain threshold, the mind simply began to ignore new pain, allowing her to move forward without hesitation.

There was no risk of fatal injury... none of the needles had targeted her head. They seemed to be deliberately programmed to avoid it, focusing only on her body.

"What if I attempted this trial in my wolf form?" she wondered as she began pulling the remaining needles from her body. "In that form, my head would be at the front. How would the mechanism avoid it then?"

Once she had removed them all, her body healed within a minute. No trace of the ordeal remained... save for the tiny punctures torn through her robe, the only evidence that she had been pierced like a hedgehog.

From the fifty-first level onward, the challenges grew increasingly difficult. Each stage presented a new mix of monsters... smarter, deadlier, and able to exploit the hostile terrain to their advantage.

Fortunately, Eleanor had anticipated this. Her past experience, along with the written accounts of those who came before her, had prepared her well. Even stronger versions of those monsters now posed little threat. Unlike before, she was ready for them. From the very start of each battle, she focused on the most intelligent creature, the commander. Once it fell, the rest lost all coordination, stumbling like headless chickens before she swiftly cut them down.

Blight Serpents glided effortlessly through the tainted water, exhaling their venomous mist to create a shifting veil of cover. Trolls flourished here, regenerating at unnatural speed, their severed limbs regrowing in the murky depths. Carrion Hulks waded through pools of acid unharmed, their reeking presence thick and nauseating, leaving her faintly dizzy.

Behemoths stood unmoved amid the storm, their colossal horns unleashing concussive blasts magnified by the howling wind. Orcs fired crossbows fitted with thick, wind-cutting bolts. From above, spiders descended unseen, their approach masked by the shriek of the gale.

Rustclaw Beasts thrived in the corrosion, their claws sharpened to razors by the decay. Ogres, their metallic hides rusted and jagged, turned their very armour into weapons that tore through flesh. Chitin Lords, untouched by the rot, scuttled freely across the collapsing landscape.

Bone Colossi drew strength from the terrain itself, their bodies swelling as they absorbed bone fragments swept up by the storms. Skeletons clawed from the sand in endless waves, reassembling the instant they were broken. Behind them, orc necromancers commanded the death-soaked desert, bending it to their will... summoning storms of bone and sand that attacked her without pause.

Serpents and Hydras slithered through the unseen tunnels, striking suddenly from holes at her sides or beneath her feet. Goblins crouched in the cracks, springing traps or darting out to cut at her ankles before vanishing again. Each step demanded precision... for one misjudgement would send the earth caving beneath her.

And so it continued... different compositions of monsters, each in their own hostile terrain, appearing before her with every new level. One by one, she cut them down and advanced.

At last, she cleared the seventy-fourth level and stood before the door that would lead her to the battlefield where she had fallen before. Taking a deep breath, Eleanor pushed the door open.