Well, both statements were not an outright lie, at least.
For a moment, there was doubt so thick it could be sliced with a blade. Then, Lucian, the apparent leader of the group spoke up. “As long as you don’t do us any harm, we’ll take your word for it.”
“Lucian, she might be—“
“If she knows more about this situation, we’d benefit, too. We have no other sources of information. Most of the functions of the ROOT system is inaccessible right now, other than the function to check our own body condition and the virtual storage, which has nothing useful for this situation. We can keep an eye on her, it’ll be okay.”
“Good to hear that you’re willing to cooperate,” Alice nodded, pretending she did not hear the last part, then she walked into the tower, stopping right in front of a threshold only visible to her. “In short, this is a training place, though you can die here. When you walk past me, the battle with those enemies will be triggered. I see that you can fight as a team, however, there is something to be desired about your cooperation. Try to keep that in mind.”
She gestured towards the creatures, all still frozen and unmoving. “These kobolds have a minor intelligence, enough for them to work together of sorts. My advice is, remember to always take into account your position and your enemies’ position. That is all, go whenever you’re ready.”
“And you?” Izabel asked, her stare barely hiding her accusatory tone.
“No can do, I’m more of an observer, after all. Go wild to your hearts content.” Alice said, while she leaned on the wall near the entrance.
“Enough, Izabel, she’s right about one thing, we do need to work on our teamwork,” Lucian said in an attempt to defuse the situation. “She’s not hostile, or she’d kill us right away. Let’s focus on the current trial instead.”
“I’m ready, as well,” Valerie said.
Elliot simply nodded, and the three of them took their respective positions.
Izabel dashed forward first and launched a surprise attack on the frontmost kobold, enough to launch it towards its still unaware teammates. Lucian followed by jumping up and shooting fireballs in the air soon after, pelting the kobold and the others around it, while Valerie casted a protective shield right as Lucian landed.
The surprise attack burned the first kobold into a twitching, burned mess on the ground. But that was not enough to scare the remaining kobolds, as they all raised their crude weapons before four of them separated and charged at the group. Each kobold concentrated on taking one person, while one remained at the back.
Soon after, the backmost kobold let out a garbled, piercing shriek that shook the air, catching them off guard and causing the four to wince in pain. The moment they recovered, the kobolds were already in front of them, all bearing a menacing red aura.
“Dammit—“
Lucian and Izabel managed to somewhat repel their attack, one by kicking the kobold with a flame-wreathed kick, and the other by throwing herself onto the rabid beast. Her shield bubble immediately shattered soon after, and she earned a few gashes and bite wounds on her arm for her trouble, but her efforts paid off as she lifted up and slammed the beast’s head onto the stone floor with all her strength. A sickening crack accompanied the brutal move, and with that, the kobold stopped moving, its corpse slowly dispersing into light.
Elliot was desperately running away from the kobold, while Valerie could only throw weak, distracting bolts to draw the enemy aggression. Alice felt like she was watching a movie where the protagonists’ plans got unraveled in real time… well, except it was not make-believe.
Izabel winced through the pain, then, without hesitation, she ran towards the kobolds pursuing Elliot, swinging her branch with both hands to drive it away. It turned towards her right as she was about to attack, and it managed to raise its crude club to block. But at least, the sheer power the attack was loaded with was more than enough to make it slide back a few meters away. That was enough time for Elliot to cast his spell and heal Izabel’s arm.
Meanwhile, Lucian, seeing that the danger pursuing Elliot has been repelled by his teammate, had to stop himself and switch target to the kobold pursuing Valerie. It had managed to catch up with her teammate, and as it raised its blade, she instinctively shielded herself with her forearms.
She screamed, the resulting nasty wound dripping blood onto the stone floor of the tower.
“Valerie!” Lucian launched a fireball towards the kobold, only narrowly missing his teammate. “Hey, you ugly sack of shit! Come here!”
Together with Izabel, Elliot ran to help the wounded Valerie, the latter running out of breath from the exertion. Lucian dodged the flurry of attacks from the creature as he attempted to get a solid hit in.
Then, the kobold in the back shouted again, loud enough to make everyone dizzy. When Lucian managed to get his bearings, the kobold had slashed him, wounding his torso. Blood seeped out from the wound, staining his clothing.
“Everyone, focus! Your friend may need help, but the battle is still not over!” Alice shouted. Izabel responded first as she made a beeline towards the kobold on the back, before giving it a solid kick. Fueled by her anger, the kick was enough to throw the creature like a discarded ragdoll, embedding it to the tower wall as a bloody pulp.
Alice winced, both from the fact she could feel the damage when she concentrated on it, and the reminder to not mess with Izabel.
Then, the distinct, sharp scent of something burned filled the air
Lucian, through gritted teeth and blurring vision, had managed to throw the kobold’s rusted blade away, before he burned the kobold into a blackened husk.
With that, the four have emerged victorious, imperfect as it may be.
Alice silently prompted the tower to reabsorb the energy used to create the kobolds, and then, she looked at the four.
“Congratulations, you have won. Though, did you see now? You need to be a bit more aware of your team’s positions and the flow of battle at all times. You entered the place knowing you will face these creatures, but what if you were ambushed? Izabel, don’t forget that the battle is still going on when you see your teammate get wounded, okay?”
“… I’ll try to keep that in mind,” Izabel said, the wince in her expression clear.
“Lucian, you can’t forget enemies that aren’t right in front of you, either. The kobold hiding behind everyone else was a support for the rest, and you got caught off-guard from its attack.”
“Yeah… uh, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. As for you, Elliot and Valerie, you two are the supports for your other two teammates. If either of you go down, your friends will be compromised. You both should prioritize two things, one, helping your main attackers strengthened and in full health, and two, keeping yourselves alive. Understood?”
Elliot tried to say a word, but nothing came out, and he settled with a meek nod instead.
“I understand, miss—?”
“Alice. Oh, drop the miss part. I’m not one for such things.”
With a quick gesture, the stairs to the second floor appeared. Alice looked at them and asked.
“Okay, now back to the most important topic at hand. Are you four up for another round? The next one will involve navigating small spaces to dodge slow but deadly attacks. If you aren’t, you can go and clear the puzzle room before getting your rewards.”
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Wait, we get rewards for this?” Izabel asked, raising her eyebrow.
“Of course. Why do you think the system tells you to go to look for the towers?”
Getting to eavesdrop their conversation was an admittedly useful feature.
“More like to train, but I suppose they did well, after all it hasn’t even been a day.” Vuer appeared, then immediately grumbled. “You shouldn’t have helped them. Hell, I’d still leave them to try the second floor, either they die trying or they get even stronger. They don’t exactly have infinite time to strengthen themselves, you know?”
Not now, Vuer. Alice sent a quick thought to the draconic creature.
“Up to you. Well, I’ll deal with the third floor puzzle. They have to step on the right symbols in order matching to the glows, right?”
Yeah.
As the dragon disappeared away, Alice then turned her attention back on the four. “What will you do?”
“Let’s rest a bit, then we try to tackle the second floor,” Lucian said.
“No, I vote we cut our losses and try the puzzle,” Izabel said. “I don’t like what the horned lady said, either, but she’s right. We need to improve, but we won’t accomplish anything by barging into the next fight with a stick up our asses.”
“I’m finished for the day, too,” Valerie added.
“Y, yeah, we should call it a day.”
Lucian bit the inside of his mouth. His expression looked conflicted. Finally, he said, “Okay, let’s skip the second battle.”
“Good choice,” Alice nodded. They have a determined leader.
As she floated up next to the stairs while the four walked up, she silently interacted with the tower system, telling it to disable the automaton. The stone golem crumbled into dust and disappeared, refunding the energy spent to create it. Before closing the interface, Alice quickly ordered the tower to perform repairs, cleanup, and energy recycling on the first floor.
She then connected the stairs leading to the second floor with the stairs leading to the third floor, skipping the now empty room. The four was greeted with symbols everyone, on the floor and on the walls.
“This is the puzzle you will need to pass if you want to get your rewards. I won’t tell you how it works, but I’ll tell you one thing. Two is one.”
Vuer, start the puzzle. Alice said in her mind.
The symbol right next to the stone door glowed.
Izabel stepped forward first, inadvertently stepping on a wrong symbol. It triggered a beep, and the symbol stopped glowing.
“Hey, look, the floor is absolutely covered in those strange symbols,” Elliot mentioned. “The room is a bit too dark to see those clearly, though…”
Alice looked at the torches on the walls and had to conclude that they were right, though in her defense, she couldn’t make a more substantial source of light for now. Well, crap. She could only hope the four figure something out.
Another symbol on the wall glowed as the beep subsided, this time a bit farther from the stone door.
“You’re right, maybe I can try this…” Valerie raised her hand, and a ball of light formed on her palm.
“Close your eyes!”
Alice closed her eyes right as the ball expanded into an explosion, yet she still could feel the light seeping past her eyelids. She tapped into her connection to the tower, and she felt the light clinging onto the walls, making it bright enough to see more clearly. The place was now almost as bright as the skies before everything happened.
As she focused on the brightened walls and floor, she saw a small window of information in front of her eyes.
[Enlight Sphere]
[Uses bright light to disorient all potential targets in a certain area. Does not work on creatures that cannot detect light.]
“Why did you not use that earlier?” Izabel asked as she examined the symbols on the floor, careful not to step over anything this time. Lucian, Valerie, and Elliot decided to take a look at the other sides, dividing up the area into four.
“I can’t keep it to enemies only. If I use it, it’ll be a disaster,” Valerie replied.
“Hey, I found one! Well, half of one, anyway,” Lucian called out and stepped on it, causing it to glow in bright red. “The one here looks like the upper part.”
The other three looked at their sections, and it only took a few seconds before Elliot said, “I got the other one!”
He stepped on it, and the symbol on the wall glowed in green.
[1/3]
“They figured it out rather quick,” Vuer said, appearing next to Alice right as the second wall symbol glowed. “You should make it a bit harder, or introduce more stakes to it. Maybe make the puzzle trigger an encounter if they got it wrong?”
Okay, maybe after more time. It’s not even one day since this starts, after all. Let them get accustomed to everything first.
“Something tells me that’s time this world doesn’t have,” Vuer replied, and then it disappeared again to activate the puzzle.
[2/3]
As the third wall symbol glowed, Vuer reappeared next to Alice again. “You’re too soft. When they’re outside, the monsters won’t be as kind.”
True, but before that, I don’t have to also treat them harshly. From experience, a swim or sink training without relent doesn’t work.
Upon seeing Alice’s expression, Vuer stayed silent, then she disappeared.
[3/3]
As they have figured the mechanism, the four finished the puzzle without much difficulty. With a loud rumble, the stone gate opened, leading to another set of stairs towards a brighter-looking room.
“Congratulations, all of you,” Alice nodded and gave them a sincere smile. “Get up there and get your rewards.”
Alice mentally checked the reward she had placed beforehand, and did a quick calculation to reduce the spirit stone amount by roughly 25%. They only faced two of the monster challenges along with the final puzzle, and she wanted to have a balance between rewards and challenge. A part of her wanted to reduce the rewards a bit more, but the energy she expended to create the rewards and the monsters were less than what she got from the four people training here, and they deserved the reward.
She floated up and created a shortcut to appear in the middle of the treasure room, right in front of the startled group. “Oh, I have to tell you that you got a bit less rewards as you didn’t face one of the monsters, but you still completed most of the challenges, so go ahead,” she gestured at the stone container.
Lucian approached the container first, his gaze clearly apprehensive thanks to its small size. Due to being made of stone, it looked less like a chest and more like an amateur’s attempt to carve a vaguely box-like shape, with a slab of rectangular rock to serve as the lid. He crouched down, took the small slab and placed it to the side, revealing the cache of gleaming white stones within.
Alice used the senses connected to the tower to get a rough count of the stones. After the decrease, there was precisely 60 stones, 15 for each member.
“What is this for…?”
When Lucian asked that question, a notification appeared in front of their eyes.
[Would you like to perform conversion into points?]
The four of them looked at each other, nodded, and selected [Yes].
As soon as they did, the stones all glowed, turning into tiny motes of light before disappearing into their bodies. Then, the same notification appeared in front of the group’s eyes.
[15 skill points obtained]
[Would you like to spend the points now?]
Once again, they all selected [Yes]. A similar menu screen was projected in front of their eyes.
[Lucian Corundum]
[Class: Flame Fighter]
[Strength: 20]
[Intelligence: 10]
[Endurance: 18]
[Fortitude: 18]
[Agility: 15]
[Skill Points: 15]
[Izabel Viator]
[Class: Provocator]
[Strength: 29]
[Intelligence: 15]
[Endurance: 15]
[Fortitude: 10]
[Agility: 12]
[Skill Points: 15]
[Valerie Aseira]
[Class: Apprentice Enchanter]
[Strength: 5]
[Intelligence: 25]
[Endurance: 13]
[Fortitude: 15]
[Agility: 15]
[Skill Points: 15]
[Elliot Lister]
[Class: Apprentice Mender]
[Strength: 5]
[Intelligence: 20]
[Endurance: 12]
[Fortitude: 12]
[Agility: 11]
[Skill Points: 15]
“… Who decided that my intelligence should be 10 points?” Lucian mumbled.
Resisting the urge to laugh, Alice looked at the projected state more closely, and she saw a bit more detailed explanation when she focused on the words.
“Relax, the system isn’t trying to make a joke about you being stupid or anything like that. In short, it’s essentially your battle prowess converted into numbers and placed under terms you can get. Intelligence in this context really just refers to your magical abilities. You mostly rely on wreathing your attacks with fire, one of the most basic elements, while Valerie and Elliot’s abilities are more magical in nature so they would get higher points in that stat.”
The details did mention comprehension of runes, but he didn’t need to know that, she added mentally.
“The rest are fortunately pretty intuitive, really. Strength is your physical attack power, endurance and fortitude is your magical and physical defenses, and agility affects your speed. Nothing too fancy. You can spend your hard-earned points to increase whatever you want.”
“You kept dodging the question, Alice.” Izabel spoke, her tone stern. “You haven’t told us who you are. What do you get from telling us all this?”
“She’s persistent. What will you tell her?” Vuer appeared next to her and asked.
“Would you believe it if I say I’m the administrator of this place?” Alice said, after acknowledging Vuer with a quick mental nod. “I’m here to guide you, and to ease your worries, I want you all alive. That is all I can tell you.”
Lucian patted Izabel’s shoulders and said, “You got the answer you want, so no need to go too hard on her.” Then, he turned to Alice, “You did help us, so, thanks. Do you want to come with us?”
Alice smiled. “I need to stay here, but thank you for the offer.”
More like, couldn’t leave. However, that was technically the truth.
“We can visit this place when we can, then,” Valerie spoke up. “Lucian, remember that we have to look for our family, too. I’m worried about Mom and Dad. They were visiting the X Incorporated branch in 91th Region before all of this, I think”
“You’re right. I want to check something out, too,” Lucian nodded. “Well then, Alice, I’ll try to visit later on.”
“We’ll come, too,” Valerie and Izabel added, the latter’s expression clearly conveying how she still has some questions to ask.
“I’ll… follow,” Elliot added, his voice almost drowned amidst his friends’ voices.
“That settles it, then. Let’s go. See you, Alice.”
“I’ll take you out to the edge of the tower’s territory.”
Alice mentally focused on the entirety of the area connected to her, then she prompted the space at the edge to connect to the space in front of her. Her efforts were rewarded with a purplish-red portal opening up, the other side showing what she could sense as the edge of her territory. Faded, glass-like octagonal shapes made of thin, transparent light could be seen, separating the area from the outside world.
“Here we are,” Alice said, stepping into the portal first when she noticed Valerie and Izabel’s wary expression. “You can get out from here.”
The four of them waved at her, then they disappeared past the octagonal barrier one by one. For a moment, after Elliot stepped out of the place, curiosity got the better of her, and she tried to get her hand past the barrier, only to feel like she bumped an invisible wall right as Elliot’s leg disappeared out of the barrier.
“I guess that was worth a try,” she sighed. Right at that moment, the fact that she really was unable to leave truly sunk in.
Like a consolation prize, before she could dwell on the fact too much, a notification appeared in front of her eyes.
[Congratulations, you have reached level 2]
[A new ability, Territory Expansion, has been unlocked]
[Mana capacity increased!]
[1 skill point obtained]
[Skill Tree unlocked]
[Alice Ferrophelas]
[System: Vuerga]
[Level 2 Defier]
[Skill Points: 1]
[Mana Capacity: 78.513/150.000 (Rank F)]
[Construction: Rank F]
[Lesser Creature Summoning: Rank F]
[Territory Size: 1km (Rank F)]
[View Skill Tree]
When she was about to check the last option, Vuer appeared next to her.
“Hey, Alice, save that for later, I can sense a few enemies knocking on the borders. At the rate they’re going, they’ll eventually crack the barrier. It’s not quite strong enough to keep up with their attack speed.”
“Got it, let me check for a second…”
Alice focused her senses onto the borders, and sure enough, there were three things trying to knock its way in, evident from the ripples of light produced when they tried to breach the still intact barrier. She was unable to see what the creature looked like, but when she focused onto the spot, she could feel a sensation similar to being poked and prodded by something long, similar to a whip.
She concentrated on the spots where they were trying to breach the barrier, and she weakened the protection, allowing the three creatures to enter. From her screen, Alice saw that the creatures resembled something box-like, yet surrounded in a light gray wisps of smoke that prevented her from seeing them in their actual form. From behind the smoke veil, she saw a pair of yellow, unblinking eyes, along with an orange light above the pair.
As a test, she summoned three packs of wolves, each consisting of five wolves, to go after the creatures. For a moment, it stopped, and then, the orange light above its eyes faded.
Before Alice could understand what happened, transparent tendrils snaked out from the creatures and devoured one of the wolves. A simple notification appeared in front of her eyes as the screen in front of her showed how the creatures let out a long, piercing shriek.
[Pseon Replicator]