Surviving in my Own Unpublished Failed Novel

[Activating Skill: Eye of Depravity (EX)]

[The Orc Lord, Uruga, has been temporarily deprived of his strength.]

[Every part of the Orc Lord's body becomes a weakness.]

[Damage amplification increases by 200% for 3 minutes.]

The numerous gigantic crimson eyes that appeared from space caused Uruga to falter, stopping his offensive as his expression stiffened. He felt like his body turned into a doll, full of vulnerability, and had no way to defend itself — waiting to be mutilated by a playful child.

Then, at that moment, behind the Orc Lord, the most gigantic crimson eye compared to others opened itself, looking down at Uruga as though he was a filthy bug.

[Activating Skill: Sickles of Depravity (SSS+)]

The gigantic crimson eye that appeared behind the Orc Lord now cast its gaze on Anya. The air inside the Boss Room vibrated, and the illuminating flames from the ancient torches from the walls and ceiling wriggled. Then, after some time, the chained double-sickle, Anya's Personal Weapon, Blood Reaper (Legendary), opened its eyes.

Her weapon was a chained double-sickle. Its design on the sickles on both ends contained numerous streaks of lines, but... its true nature was that of sleeping eyes that depicted the depravity of human nature as the eyes' expressions were those of different emotions with malice.

When the eyes of her weapon opened themselves with the help of the gigantic crimson eye behind Uruga, her weapon transformed into a gigantic crimson scythe, carved with crimson eyes that depicted depravity and torture. The gigantic eye behind Uruga disappeared because it seemed to transfer itself to Anya's weapon as the blade of the scythe produced an eye bigger than those from the handle, but smaller than the eye from Uruga's back earlier.

The party, who watched the skill execution for a few seconds, had terrified looks on their faces except for Russell — who knew about it beforehand — and Samantha — who has someone greater in her head.

Celine, invisible somewhere, fell to her knees before she fainted due to the horrifying sight. Her last thoughts were, 'I-I didn't sign up for this!'

"Let's start, shall we?"

In the blink of an eye, Uruga's lower leg was cut off, and dark green blood gushed out.

With the Skill: Eye of Depravity, every part of Uruga became a vulnerability partnered with damage amplification, and with her Unique Skill: Sickles of Depravity, Anya's weapon...

[Your weapon attack speed will be almost instant.]

[Every successful hit will increase your damage amplification by 2%.]

[Every successful hit will apply a Corrosive effect for 1 second.]

[Corrosive effect will disrupt the target's movement.]

It means that Anya's attack, even from quite a distance, would instantly appear on the spot of her aim. Although the original form of her weapon turned into a melee scythe weapon, it contained the range of the chained sickle; her every attack instantly sent a scythe wave every swing, even if she was afar or not making contact with the target.

"ROAARRR!"

Uruga cried out and fell on his one knee like a true warrior.

Samantha and the others didn't waste any more time as they started to launch a barrage of attacks, but Uruga, with the gigantic metallic shield, blocked them skillfully. Losing a leg was a bane of a warrior, but a warrior would also fight valiantly until the end.

"HUMAAAAANS-!!"

[Duration: 1:39]

Anya, from a distance, aimed at Uruga's arm that was holding the sturdy shield — it was cut off shortly.

Spurt-!

"ROAARRR!"

"Go the f*ck down will you?!"

Russell cursed, he jumped again from behind the Orc Lord; Jiho aimed for the Orc Lord's chest; Samantha and Anya parried the quick swings and thrust of the bone harpoon as Uruga struggled with all his remaining might; while Freya, Amery, and Amelie aimed for the remaining leg, trying to falter his momentum.

"HAAAA-!"

Anya, who seemed to find an opportunity to strike, jumped to Uruga's gigantic hand and aimed the scythe at Uruga's neck.

"ROAAARRRRR!"

A roar, louder than previous ones, reverberated throughout the Boss Room. Anya's momentum was disrupted for a moment, as well as Russell's and Jiho's, while Amery sneaked behind the kneeling Orc Lord, and used her sword technique.

"The f*ck was that?!"

Amelie exclaimed, seeing the cut-off limb — a leg and an arm — regenerating.

"Don't let him!"

The original purpose and aim of the strike continued, and after an arduous amount of time...

Thud-!

Anya, who used the Orc Lord's remaining arm to walk on, slightly managed to close the distance to reach the neck of the Boss Monster. Successfully swinging the Blood Reaper weapon, Uruga's neck flew off, and his body fell forward.

[The Player Party has defeated the Orc Lord, Uruga.]

[The Player Party has successfully cleared the 5th Floor of the Tower of Growth!]

[A random reward will be given to each party member.]

[Generating the rewards...]

[...has received the...]

[...has received the...]

[The Player Party will be transferred to the "Waiting Room" in a minute.]

Rough breathing and sighs of relief could be heard from each of them.

"I-it's very hard... Do you think we can conquer this?"

Jiho asked as he slumped on the ground.

"According to my father, or specifically, his men, we need to go all out on the 25th floor. It's at least a B- rank Boss Monster, based on Post-Reboot information."

Anya replied as she recalled the information given by her father; though she's been advised not to let their guards down because the Tower might be unpredictable.

"Apart from that, the next floors; from 6th to 9th will be avian creatures... So, it'll be hard, especially since we don't know exactly what the topography of the floors would be."

Anya added, causing Jiho to ponder something.

"Hm. it's really beneficial when you have the resources. But thanks to that, we know what to expect. Ah... By the way, I have a request, if we're going up against the Boss Monster, let me be in front."

Jiho spoke, thinking about his Attribute: Will of the Sword (SSS+), which would let him adapt in battle the longer it's fought, and then would let him use the First Movement of the mysterious swordsmanship he had — Dawn of Heresy.

"Where's Celine?"

Samantha interjected, she glanced around, which prompted each of them to do the same. After a few seconds, Samantha saw her, with the run-out duration of Invisibility Potion, lying on the ground, unconscious.

"She must be scared."

Samantha muttered before she approached Celine, who fainted upon seeing the horrific eyes that appeared out of thin air because of Anya's skills.

***

'He must have received it."

Russell thought about Jiho's floor reward upon successfully eliminating Uruga. It was the mysterious fragment that Jiho needed to collect according to his Authority: Fragments of the Lost Light.

<Russell, do you think it'll be alright to show them what we can do?>

Amelie and Freya were never ordered by Russell to hide their skills from their party members, but both of them thought about Russell's opinion, especially since it's dangerous to openly use something around people with great social power.

Russell contemplated Amelie's question, remembering the Tower of Growth's reaction when he applied Chaos to Void Acupuncture, almost turning some Orcs into Chaos Orcs. Russell thought that it was maybe because he tried to influence or directly corrupt the soul of the Orcs, but when using a Chaos-related Skill, cautionary alerts weren't being sent to him since he could use Chaos Collector (EX) to store the Chaos Aura of the monsters.

<It'll be fine, but only help with everything when we're fighting a Boss Monster.>

Amelie didn't use the Spade Cross of Penitence, the Intrinsic Effect from her Personal Weapon, as well as her Dark Shade exclusive skills.

<Alright. I'll take note of that.>

Russell nodded, then walked casually towards the dead body of the Orc Lord, while the other party members were comforting the grumbling Celine. With 3 seconds remaining, he picked up the bone harpoon, put it inside his Dimensional Inventory, and then...

[You have collected the Chaos of the Orc Lord, Uruga.]

[Chaos stored increases by 10.]

[Stored Chaos Power: 90.]

As the one-minute duration ended, all of them turned into blue lights, and then transported to the plain-looking waiting room.

***

[The Player Party has arrived in the "Waiting Room"]

[Additional Reward: Great Rejuvenation.]

[Each of the Player Party member's Health, Stamina, Mana, and Power will be restored by fifty percent.]

[Duration before automatically proceeding to the next floor: 9 minutes, 0 seconds.]

[The Player Party Leader can solely decide if the party will proceed to the next floor.]

"Yay! This cozy bed again."

Amelie quickly slumped down on the gray mattress on the single bed.

<What's the reward that each of you received? Uh, it's okay if you don't tell me.>

Russel's reluctant voice sounded in Freya, Amelie, and Amery's heads.

<Oppa, I received a Death Shroud. It's a Rare cloak.>

Freya first replied, and Amelie then followed after.

<Ah, it's weird. I received a deck of black Blank Cards named Skill Compressor.>

Russell, lying with his hands on his head on the bed at end of the room, pricked his ears up even though the voice entered his head and not his ears. He looked at Amelie as a chuckle escaped from his mouth.

<Ha... That's a jackpot. Remember those crosses you're summoning, you can store such a skill inside that cards. Then, just throw it away if you're going to activate it. In other words, you won't have to worry about casting time.>

<Cross?>

<Cross?>

Both Freya and Amery looked at Amelie, confused. They never saw Amelie use the Spade Cross of Penitence. She also used such skill based on her weapon's Intrinsic Effect when she and Russell raided the secret facility of the Shadow Guild, as well as the Black Cat Pub.

<Hahaha! This will be fun.>

A grin formed on Amelie's face and studied the description of the Skill Compressor that's made of black Blank Cards.

<Uhmm. About my reward, it's a Unique sword, but strangely, there's no Intrinsic Effect, but only an Enchantment for less weight.>

<The Tower grants rewards according to its will, but if you're lucky enough, it will grant you something relatively important to your profession.>

Russell spoke to Amery, as well as to the other two before he told them the reward he was given.

<Unfortunately, I received a Unique weapon, too. Something I don't need.>

Russell thought about his average Luck stat, even though it couldn't influence the Tower itself. He wasn't lying when he told them about his reward, instead, a smile of satisfaction formed on his face.

<But, it'll probably be a good early gift for someone.>

Russell added, the three of them understood what he meant.

<It's time to recruit a companion after getting rid of the clinging pest.>

***

"Mother... what's Project Black Veil?"

The execution of prisoners ended after a few hours. Elizabeth and Rumia had executed at least ten guilty prisoners — five for each of them. The one guilty prisoner who told the former in his dying breath about Project Black Veil was the last guilty prisoner before the executions ended.

Sitting on one of the high-back chairs in the dining room, after finishing their dinner, Elizabeth asked, curious. The last words of the last guilty prisoner seemed ingrained in her mind.

The Queen of Nereia and Rumia were with them. Rosalin looked at Eliana, seemingly waiting if the latter would answer her daughter's question.

"It's a project by the most wanted Player Terrorist organization, Black Sky Disorder. Its purpose is to destroy or bypass the thick black veil on the other side of this world."

The two princesses' eyes widened, their mouths slightly agape. They knew... No, every human in the Orion Continent that's capable of understanding would know, that humans have yet to explore the other parts of the world, and the previous attempts of sending unmanned spacecraft or drones were futile as they were mysteriously destroyed.

"But don't mind it for now. We are pretty sure that it will not be destroyed since things seemed to happen in order, even though we do not know what the future holds.

"Because... if it could be easily or even possible to destroy, whatever's on the other side of the world would have done it first."

The last sentence of Eliana caused turmoil in Elizabeth's and Rumia's minds due to its possible indication that they realized.

"But, in any case, if something unexpected happened on that mysterious black veil, it probably won't affect the Orion Continent for some time since its distance is too far.

"So... both of you, stop minding it, and instead, prepare in raiding the Tower of Growth."

Eliana looked at the two princesses, sitting across from each other. Rosalin, on the other end of the long mottled, luxurious table, interjected.

"The two of you will be accompanied by two S+ ranks, together with your other party members. You know very well that it's dangerous to venture into the unknown, especially since the Failure Penalty has yet to be revealed."

Elizabeth and Rumia nodded their heads, never daring to complain.