On the third floor, a Heroic Iron Skin encountered a Mud Monster in a ring engraved with runes and arrays that boosted the earth attribute. Although the Iron Skin was powerful, it couldnât harm the Mud Monster at all. Meanwhile, the Mud Monster used its skill to sink the Iron Skin into a mud swamp and killed it through asphyxiation.
A water attribute Merman arrived at the ice attribute ring of the sixth floor. The guardian, a Frost Rhino, killed him instantly.
Meanwhile, a Dark Elf exhausted itself killing the ninth floorâs guardian. When asked if it wanted to continue the challenge, it declined. A light enveloped its figure, and it appeared in front of the Death Tower, holding a crystal made from merging Dark Stones in its hand.
The crystal was refining the Dark Energy in its body. Holding onto it for prolonged periods would help it grow stronger. The master of the Dark Elf noticed the crystal and took it away to appraise it.
The master was surprised to discover that the crystal could improve both the absorption rate and purity of Dark Energy for his units! It was a powerful treasure that could accelerate the growth of its units!
Regrettably, the crystal was small and worked only for Heroic life forms and below. Even so, one couldnât discount its usefulness. The Dark Elf had obtained such a treasure despite only reaching the ninth floor.
One could only imagine the reward for the tenth, twentieth, fiftieth, or even the hundredth floor!
Nobody thought much of the Dark Elfâs reward when they first saw it, but as information about the crystal spread, many Demigods and Gods from the Divine Civilization rushed to register for the Death Tower so they could send their units in.
The ninth floorâs reward was already exceptional; the rewards for the higher floors would only be better. Unfortunately, the Death Tower was still newly established, and Han Wu only allowed one hundred challengers in at any given time. Still, the crowd was willing to wait.
The number of contestants soon crossed 40,000, with Han Wu collecting 4,000 Divine Essence from the entry fees alone. The rewards he gave out were crystals made from merging different Energy Stones. While these were a dime a dozen to him, they were incredibly valuable for others.
However, this wasnât the only way the Death Tower was profitable. After the units died, the Blood Coliseumâs unique array would turn their bodies into Core Fragments. The more powerful the units, the bigger the fragments.
This was the reason he called it the Death Tower. On the surface, he was merely providing an opportunity for challengers to participate in a death match, but in reality, he was benefiting from their deaths.
Although the profit per person wasnât much, it came in at a steady rate and would build up to a sizable amount over time.
Marks watched the match from among the audience to get a better feel of things as he looked at the screens. The crowds were watching for entertainment. He, on the other hand, was weighing the business potential.
This wasnât just about calculating the winning ratio for the challengers, but also assessing whether the Death Tower would truly improve the Blood Coliseumâs coffers and reputation in the long run.
After consolidating and analyzing his findings, he came to the conclusion that the Death Tower would most likely become the second most popular match-up after the group matches.
In terms of finances, participants had to pay an entry fee to challenge the tower, and the rewards were easy to come by. Challengers would have to pass the eightieth floor before the Blood Coliseum started losing.
Moreover, both challengers and guardians were turned into core fragments after their deaths. The guardianâs core fragment would cover part of their losses from its death, but a challengerâs death was essentially free money.
There was also the Blood Coliseumâs reputation to consider. Marks had managed the Blood Coliseum for many years and knew the impact of a life-or-death match.
Most participants were likely to advance to the next rank during their challenge, which made a good selling point for their Death Tower. Not to mention, the Blood Coliseum also gained when their guardians got stronger.
Challengers faced trials on every floor, meaning the guardians also went through numerous trials as they fought off challengers. In other words, the challengers were paying to train the coliseumâs units. This was an unprecedented feat for any coliseum.
Han Wuâs idea was actually much better than Marks expected. However, there were still several glaring downsides, the most obvious being that the tower could only accommodate a hundred challengers at once. They needed to purchase more rings and expand the towerâs capacity.
Once that hurdle was conquered, he was confident the Death Tower would become a highlight of the Blood Coliseum.
Marks was pondering over other ways to optimize the operation when the crowd went wild.
âLook at screen ninety-seven! Someoneâs reached the ninetieth floor!â
Everyone turned to the screen in question. A life form wielding a blood-red long sword had just defeated the ninetieth guardian. He stepped into the portal and cleared the subsequent floors one after another.
The powerful life form soon reached the ninety-eighth floor with ease. Everyoneâs attention was fully on him. They didnât know who he was, but they were all cheering for him regardless.
âGood luck! Two more floors and youâll clear the entire tower!â
âI wonder what the reward is for clearing the tower.â
âThe ninety-seventh floor had an Earthsunder guardian! Thatâs ridiculous!â
âBeat the hundredth floor if youâre a man!â
...
The challenger was inside the tower and thus couldnât hear them. Still, he fought valiantly, swiftly conquering both the ninety-eighth and ninety-ninth floors.
The portal to the hundredth floor opened before him.