Chapter 221 Casualties

To say that Dilan was pissed off would be an understatement. He was furious about the stupidity of his Ascenders.

It had been obvious that some idiots would enter the Pagoda of Time together with more level-headed Ascenders, who knew what they were doing.

However, Dilan had never expected that the Ascenders, whom he had expected to be sensible, would push forward and try biting off more than they could chew. He found this behavior of his trusted warriors to be truly enraging.

Some of the Ascenders had come forward to him to report what happened in the Pagoda of Time.

By the time everyone, who was still capable of speaking, finished saying whatever they wanted to reveal, Dilan’s entire demeanor changed as he released an aura that has never been seen before.

Nobody dared to look into his eyes, not even Kathrine, who had nothing to do with the situation.

She clearly knew that she had become greedy after receiving all the gains they had made just in a single raid of the Pagoda of Time.

Thus, she felt bad and hung her head low as if Dilan’s chilly and furious presence was something that targeted her as well.

Everyone took a few steps back the moment Dilan took a single step forward.

The Ascenders looked away from him as rage and wrath waved off of him. They feared facing the brunt of his anger despite knowing that Dilan wouldn’t kill them just like that.

Yet, for some, getting killed or punished by Dilan might be a blessing in disguise. They would be able to atone for their sins, for the mistakes they did and they would be able to lift their heads once again.

But instead of saying anything, and punishing the Ascenders, who had recklessly motivated others to keep going, and clearing just one more floor to gain more so as to become stronger, he kept quiet.

They had been tasked with the responsibility to protect others, nad had felt the need to support him in any possible way.

Yet, in the end, it was exactly this desire, and their greed to gain more treasures that killed them.

While more than 300 Ascenders had entered the Pagoda of Time, only 85 had come out alive until now.

15 Ascenders had been reported dead, and more than 200 were still missing.

Even if the death rate would remain the same, a total of 45 Tier-1 Ascenders would have died, uselessly…

It was not even as if they died protecting their group from a monster tide or while valiantly fighting evil human Ascenders who had attacked them

Their death had been entirely useless because it could have been simply avoided by accepting that they had reached their limit and should retreat.

To Dilan, giving up on raiding the Pagoda of Time was not something shameful. As long as one learned from the mistakes one did, one could fix them, become stronger and try again.

However, the requirement for this was… to stay alive.

Dilan didn’t look into the eyes of any of the Ascenders cowering in front of him. He didn’t say a word for the entire hour he had been waiting in front of the Pagoda of Time’s entrance.

A few more Ascenders had emerged from the Pagoda. Two of them were carrying corpses, while another Ascender carried a heavily injured female Ascender.

They looked devastated and desperate but froze in place the moment they noticed that Dilan’s eyes were trained on them.

His eyes were ice-cold and he took only a single glance at the corpses of his Ascenders before he moved his head to the heavily injured woman.

“Mike, Rachel, Irvan, heal her.”

That was the only time Dilan said anything before he averted his attention once again.

If Dilan had been quite happy and satisfied with the Pagoda of Time, his group, and their new life a while ago, his current opinion was the exact opposite.

He had warned the others about the dangers the Pagoda of Time harbored, and painstakingly detailed his experience to them. Hence, everyone who had chosen to enter the Instance Dungeon knew what awaited them.

It was not that much different from two days ago when Mason had begged to be allowed to join him on his quest to the Sun temple. Mason had been aware of the dangers but he still had willingly chosen to follow him.

Yet, he had died that day. Now other Ascenders had died once again.

However, Dilan didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt in his heart. He knew that this time, it was not his fault.

Instead of lashing out at the wrongdoers, he waited patiently for the missing Ascenders to arrive and several hours passed.

Some Ascenders from their base had come to the aid of the traumatized and injured Ascenders. The dead bodies that they had somehow managed to bring outside were also taken with them.

They would be buried together soon enough.

When the other Ascenders left, Kathrine decided to help as well. She had lost her earlier smile that had uplifted her mood after conquering the Pagoda of Time with Dilan. Right now, her heart was just aching, she felt bad and unsure of what to do or say.

Her sister had not yet returned, but Kathrine knew that Yvonne had entered the Pagoda of Time in the <Solo> mode. She was the last person who would let greed consume her.

Yvonne was also not someone who would overestimate her capabilities.

That was why Kathrine was not too worried about her sister.

In the end, only Dilan and a few Ascenders with healing abilities were left behind.

They spent the entire night without saying a single word and simply continued to wait for the other Ascenders, who arrived one after another.

Every now and then batches of Ascenders emerged in front of them but Dilan never moved a muscle. He remained glued to the spot with his feet firmly planted on the ground. He looked no different than a stone statue, as he looked around coldly.

There was not even the slightest change in his expressions the more Ascenders emerged with heavy injuries with some of them carrying their comrades’ dead bodies.

Yvonne had walked out of the Pagoda of Time a bit later as well. With the help of her special trait [Wings of the Fallen Angel], her occupational abilities, and her Origin Ability [Angel of Death], it was possible for her to wear out the Gold Tier-1 Minotaur on the 15th floor.

If not for the ceiling of the final floor is more than 10 meters wide, and Yvonne’s Agility exceeding 60 with her agility-boosting ability activated, she would have never dared to fight the Gold Tier-1 Minotaur Leader and the Silver Tier-1 Minotaurs.

It was simply too dangerous had she not been equipped with her ability and high stats.

However, owing to the fact that she could control two bodies of monsters around her level by now, she could kill two Minotaurs before starting to control them.

With that, she could continue to kill more Minotaurs until the corpses she controlled would be completely destroyed.

But by then she could switch her focus to controlling other corpses.

In the end, Yvonne might not have broken any record, but she had survived and earned a huge fortune in terms of the number of Essence crystals and other loot she had gotten her hands on.

Her stats had increased quite a bit as well.

Yet, even Yvonne had clearly understood that the Pagoda of Time was extremely difficult and that a single mistake could kill her, and her entire group if she were to enter the Instance dungeon with others.

That was also one of the reasons why her Origin ability kept notifying her about the dangers of this place. It felt just like a graveyard.

Her Origin acted up as intense as it was the case whenever Dilan was about to wreak havoc, killing hundreds of monsters, and evil Ascenders just like when he had eradicated the Sun temple.

Thus, Yvonne was not actually surprised when she saw a few heavily injured Ascenders, a few dead bodies, a bunch of Ascenders, who were focused on healing, and Dilan coldly staring at the situation ahead.

It didn’t require much intelligence to understand what had happened, and Yvonne could only pat his shoulder reassuringly.

She was still not comfortable with men around her but Dilan was different. It was hard to describe what made her feel safe around him and even Yvonne could not come up with the correct answer. However, he was different and she didn’t mind patting him in a consoling manner.

“You know, some people learn how to be careful the easy way, others learn it the hard way…and others die before understanding that they made big mistakes.” Yvonne merely stated.

And it was at this moment that Dilan sighed deeply, moving for the first time in a while as he spat his words in disgust.

“Then these bastards should learn on their own by sacrificing themselves, not by pushing others to their doom…”