On the eleventh floor of the Star Tower, there was almost zero wonder, but what made Sebastian feel a little surprised was that this species was actually an "old acquaintance" that the Astra Militarum had encountered before, Blastoise. Not just a head-to-head duel, but also as an ally fighting side by side.
For the species of Blastoise, the Astra Militarum was familiar, perhaps the most familiar of all. Their strengths and weaknesses were clearly understood.
"This is the eleventh floor?" Sebastian blinked his eyes, feeling incredulous.
Although they were all super-civilized races, there were specific divisions: lower, middle, upper, and peak. Like the Blastoise and the Maze Puppet, they were at the entry level, classified as low. And the Demonized People built by Otwin and the Blessed Order Clan by Bailey could be classified as medium. Golden Behemoths, Demon Apes, Forest Trolls, and others like them belonged to the upper-class races within the super civilization.
As for the peak level of the super civilization, it was very rare and nearly impossible to find. So far, among the second-level Planetary Lords, Sebastian had only seen the Phoenix created by Huo Kong. That one had appeared purely by chance, after a mutation. If one wished to create it directly, that would be a troublesome task. Even the most powerful forces found it extremely difficult to do.
Blastoise belonged to one of the lowest-level existences, so its battle power was not particularly strong. It wasn't even as good as the Demonized People, with very poor defense. At least the Demonized People could transform quickly and unleash powerful long-range output. But for the Blastoise to release high output, they had to charge energy for quite a long time. It seemed weaker than some of the Supernatural creatures on the first ten levels.
Just when Sebastian was feeling puzzled, a scientist who had been observing for a long time suddenly spoke up, "No, these aren't Blastoise. Look."
This scientist pointed to the nearest Blastoise and said, "The shape and patterns on these giant turtles are all slightly different from the Blastoise."
The crowd looked away. Sebastian also glanced again out of curiosity. Sure enough, he found that they were not quite the same as Blastoise.
Boom! Just when the team of scientists was about to study this kind of giant turtle properly, a few large ones across the field suddenly opened their massive jaws and spewed a column of water out.
The speed and force were astonishing. Instead of saying it was a water column, it would be more appropriate to call it a water arrow.
"Arrow Turtle?" The name of a Supernatural turtle suddenly came to Sebastian's mind.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Immediately after that, one after another opened its mouth and sprayed out water arrows. The attack range of these water arrows was far.
The Astra Militarum was taken aback. In terms of conventional range alone, this was the farthest they had encountered since the conquest. Not only that, the later water arrows flew even faster than the first ones, and the hits from the front seemed to boost those behind them, increasing the speed and range again.
The water arrow at the front, which was about to fall, exploded instantly, and the shockwave swept toward the Astra Militarum.
Sebastian looked a little dumbfounded. For the species of Arrow Turtle, he had only heard of it before. Because it was relatively rare, there was almost no detailed data available. Now, seeing it firsthand, it was so distinctive!
"Defensive formation!" Lando quickly ordered, and immediately, the lead unit shrank and braced itself.
A series of water arrows landed on their position, striking one of the spider chariots. Tremendous power shook the entire vehicle, but it was impossible to pierce the thick layer of armor, which was made of deformation alloy.
Rumble... The spider chariot immediately changed direction and moved rapidly. That was one of its greatest advantages, it could retreat directly without turning around. It kept backing away until it was kilometers away from the enemy, then stopped.
The scientists slowly poked their heads out, their faces still pale with shock. They hadn't expected to encounter an enemy whose attacks could accelerate midair.
"After the water arrow boosted just now, the range reached more than four kilometers!" a scientist said, heart still racing.
"Just... use the AGM-62 Walleye." Seeing the Arrow Turtle approaching, Lando made a quick decision.
After that, there was no surprise. Although the Arrow Turtles had extremely strong shells, under the tremendous power of the AGM-62 Walleye, they were blown apart, shells shattered, flesh torn. It was brutal.
Not long after, thousands of Water Arrow Turtles began fleeing with fear gleaming in their eyes. The Astra Militarum passed this hurdle safely and continued to the twelfth layer.
The twelfth layer was a melee species. Though powerful, it was a medium race. Somewhat similar to the Goblin Chief, it had no outstanding offense or defense, no threat to the Astra Militarum, so they were dispatched easily.
Then they advanced quickly to the thirteenth level. A reptilian Supernatural species, somewhat similar to the Desert Lizard, lay ambushed in the grass. Not much of a threat, but time-consuming to deal with. It took the Astra Militarum an entire hour to defeat these reptiles and advance to the next level.
Fourteenth floor.
Fifteenth floor.
...
Eighteenth floor.
Nineteenth floor.
None of them featured particularly powerful species, all belonged to the mid-level races.
Twentieth floor!
Again, a peculiar terrain appeared, which was an underground cave. In the middle of the cave, there was also an unfathomable underground river. Below the surface of the water, there seemed to be some kind of monster lurking.
This made them could not help but raise an unprecedented level of vigilance. After the deliberations from the scientists, it was judged that the species on this floor should be under the water. However, these species never appeared.
The Astra Militarum was far away and didn't approach easily; the same was true for the enemy. Before the situation was clear, they also did not dare to go down easily.
"This level is interesting." Bru, in the viewing hall, looked at Volkmar with some curiosity and asked, "In this cave, what kind of species is it?"
"Don't ask me, I don't know either." Volkmar said with a helpless smile, "Have you forgotten the characteristics of the Star Tower? We can only come up with a broad assessment method. As for… the specific species of each layer, we can't decide, and the tower spirit can't decide. It is impossible to tell us."
Everyone laughed. For the Star Tower, they all had some understanding of it. This Star Tower was the same as a Level 6 Planetary Lord; it also had a tower spirit that existed.
"Let's see, it may eliminate someone on this level." Volkmar continued.
This increased the concentration of many Level 6 Planetary Lords. Anyone could see that this cave, especially under that unfathomable water, there must be an extremely dangerous species hiding.
Time passed, but the participants were still watching as they didn't dare to be reckless, especially those participants whose strength was low. But the time on each floor was limited; if they could not defeat the race of this floor within one day, then they would automatically be eliminated.
The Astra Militarum did not panic as they had long dispatched underwater robots to go down and explore the situation below. From the footage captured by the underwater robot, they saw the species that were hiding under the deep water.
This was a kind of salamander in appearance, but it was an enormous, crawling species. The body length reached over ten meters. The team of scientists tentatively named it the Ichthyosaurs.
Clatter! An Ichthyosaur opened its mouth and swallowed the underwater robot in one gulp.
They didn't panic. This time, the number of robots sent down was very large, and this was just in case. It didn't matter if one was swallowed, the other were still working.
After some deliberation, they finally decided on the torpedo. The torpedoes now were much more powerful than the predecessors used in the past; the same body size, but they multiplied their power several times.
Under the terrifying power of torpedoes, it exploded an Ichthyosaur, crying out for help. No longer dare to hide, they roll their immense bodies and run everywhere.
This level was passed smoothly, and the next was the twenty-first level. Each of the other contestants also passed this level with no risk; this result was unexpected for many of the bigwigs in the viewing hall.
"The overall strength this year is much stronger than all the previous ones." A Planetary Lord said.
"It should be the highest overall ever." Another nodded.
"So far, so good." Volkmar also smiled, "It's up to each to play and see if they can set the best result in history."
Skip until the thirtieth floor; the enemy strength had become stronger, but still couldn't resist the power of the Imperium.
Thirty-second floor.
Thirty-third floor.
Thirty-fourth floor.
...
Thirty-eighth floor.
Thirty-ninth floor.
All the way to the fortieth floor.
Although on the way, they encountered some very peculiar Supernatural species that Sebastian had never even heard of, none of them posed any threat to the Astra Militarum. It only took less than three hours, and the enemies were solved.
But the difficulty was increasing little by little, and the fortieth floor had made many contestants feel strained. Only what was surprising was that, all the way to the fortieth floor, no contestants were eliminated.
"Is this... set a new record?" A Planetary Lord asked curiously.
"There is still one more floor to go." Volkmar showed a smile on his face and said, "If all the contestants can pass the forty-first floor, then... it will surpass the previous record of the Group Star Competition! Of course, it's tied now."
In the previous Group Star Competition, the best time was when all the contestants passed the fortieth floor.
The forty-first layer was the same as before; the difficulty had been significantly strengthened again, and many participants felt the strain. There were some who had to use their trump cards that they had been reluctant to use. It was a thrilling pass. But for those who were stronger, there was no need for this.
The electromagnetic rifle still has amazing slaying power. Once again, it crushed the opposite Supernatural race.
"Haha, a new record." A Planetary Lord said happily.
The other bigwigs also revealed smiles as they were able to witness it with their own eyes. Naturally, they felt some glory.
"Congratulations, congratulations." A group of people also joined to congratulate Volkmar.
Although the main credit went to the individual contestants, as the host of this year's competition, this was also undoubtedly a brilliant achievement.
"Let's watch the competition, next level... some contestants must be eliminated," Volkmar said with a smile.
"The next level, at most the next level, there are bound to be contestants eliminated." A Planetary Lord said with considerable certainty.
The others knew it as well. The situation on the fortieth floor just now was very clear to everyone; a part of the contestants sort of showed their cards. They lost a lot of units, and they barely passed.