CHAPTER 29.
Amber hadn’t expected for the first floor to ever open like that, she had been paralyzed for more than just a few hours afterwards. However, during her time on the ground she had seen a notification pop up about three times, which made her incredibly happy.
[Toxin Resistance has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 2 to 2nd Rank level 3.]
…
[Toxin Resistance has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 4 to 2nd Rank level 5.]
By the time the last notification came, she was able to move. And Amber used the opportunity to truly take the floor she was in. The first thing she noted was that, it was smaller — much smaller — than any of the floors in Ax’thra’s tower. This floor felt more like a room than anything else. Another thing she noticed was that the splendor of the room seemed to almost have faded after the scorpion died. The sandstone-like surfaces now had cracks, and their color had changed to an almost ashen one.
It reminded her of how Ax’thra’s tower looked after it had been abandoned. It was just odd in her eyes. Especially because this tower was not abandoned, if the reaction of the whispering cube was anything to go by anyway. It was whispering a lot. In fact, she felt that she was going to be able to learn something in regards to her friend here.
Amber turned and saw the felled scorpion, it had been her most challenging fight in quite some time— even if it had the obvious advantage. And that was the very first floor of the tower, something that she never expected. It was completely different from Ax’thra’s tower.
Amber recalled the words of the Vald, the merchant.
“A trial of strength…”
She swallowed, this was it— this was the tower. It was a trial of strength, that was why it had opened up with a level 80 monster, and that was why it was so much different from Ax’thra’s tower. The tower was much more difficult for a reason, and that reason was for her to push her limits.
She turned to the stairs and with cautious nervousness she began to walk forward.
What kind of monster will be next?
* * *
The next monster, to her surprise, had been a bird. It hadn’t been a phoenix like the one in her vision during her class advancement, but rather a hawk-like creature, with a wingspan of over ten meters and talons as big as her body. Amber, however, managed to hit it with Cursed Stomp five minutes into the one-sided fight, the hawk had unfortunately perched itself on a part of the wall and that had spelled its demise.
The bird fell, screeching as it tried to use some kind of stone magic, but Amber dashed out of the way and a moment later, she arrived before the helpless bird. The creature stared up with its beady eyes and Amber touched it—
Curse Battery and Cursed Rage Synergy.
And that— made the bird explode into chunks of feathers and blood, completely torn apart by the modified Curse of Laceration. Its pieces flew across the room, haphazardly splattered by the forces that ripped the bird apart. Amber had felt that the monster had essentially been a glass cannon, but having it obliterated in two skills was still something that left her stunned.
She stared at the notification, the hawk hadn’t been weak either.
[You have defeated a [Grand Sarwk. Lvl. 84].]
[Curse Battery has leveled up from level 9 to 10.]
[You have reached level 79. 5 stat points awarded.]
Amber was slightly disappointed that so many of her skills were at the level 10 threshold, and yet none seemed to cross it. Recovery of Curses had progressed during her fight with the Venomous Vencer, and its 2nd Rank had been amazing, so she couldn’t wait to see what her other skills had to offer, and she wanted it now.
Unfortunately, it seemed to be much harder than she expected.
Even leveling is much harder too.
For a moment she felt discouraged, but the feeling was quickly replaced by excitement. If it was only going to get harder from here, then she welcomed it. It was an exciting prospect; the challenge, the difficulty, the possibility of pushing herself harder.
Amber looked around the room and saw nothing of note. The bird was dead, its remains painting the unassuming and now dried sandstone surfaces. The room was most similar to the one with the Venomous Vencer, however, it was also slightly different; bigger for the most part.
She wondered if all the rooms would be similar, and there was only one way to find out. She turned to the stairs and immediately headed to the next floor. Whatever kind of monster and layout awaited her, she was ready for it, and hopefully it would be a lot more interesting than the first two floors.
* * *
And indeed, it was a lot more interesting. The first two floors had taken her about a day total combined; a lot of her time was spent resting mentally. Even though Recovery of Curses helped her physically, the long battles were mentally exhausting to her. However, after she was ready she headed up towards the third floor.
And she paused; it was similar to the frog floor but the water canals were shining instead, and it was almost like a labyrinth. After walking for a few minutes she was lost, and re-treading her steps didn’t seem to do anything either.
Amber tried running through it, but the space felt almost infinite. She couldn’t seem to even find a dead end or anything in the space. It was odd, but she continued to explore; this time at a leisurely pace.
She thought she would see something interesting, but instead the space resembled a liminal space more than anything. Repeating patterns and the same kind of things over and over again. Even though she walked for hours she didn’t seem to find any change, and just when Amber was beginning to get annoyed she saw the water rise.
From within the blue water a figure appeared, then another and another.
[Spirit of Water. Lvl. 60]
[Spirit of Water. Lvl. 60]
[Spirit of Water. Lvl. 60]
…
In an instant, she saw hundreds of spirits of water and Amber smiled. They were weak, but their numbers were quite high.
Perhaps I’ll even be able to level my resistances here…
Amber grinned and began to kill the spirits.
* * *
Amber was sure she had spent over a week on the floor, the spirits came in waves, sometimes not appearing for close to a day. But she tore through every single one of them. And eventually, she killed the last one. Of course, there was no indicator that it had been the last one until it died. And when it did, the entire floor compacted.
And suddenly, Amber could see both stairwells, and relief washed over her.
“I thought I’d be stuck here a lot longer,” she sighed. “So there is plenty of floor variety, huh?”
She was glad Recovery of Curses existed since it staved away the hunger, otherwise she was sure she’d be in quite the bad shape right now.
Amber shook her head.
“At least, I have things to show for it.”
[General Weapon Mastery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 8.]
[Recovery of Curses has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 1 to 2nd Rank level 2.]
[Cursed Stomp has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 4 to 2nd Rank level 5.]
[Elemental Resistance has leveled up from level 4 to 6.]
[Magical Resistance has leveled up from level 5 to 7.]
[You have reached level 80. 5 stat points awarded.]
Amber unfortunately, had to ignore her Core Skill, nothing in her arsenal was worth replacing at the moment. But she wasn’t particularly bothered, even though experience was becoming slow to obtain now, she would still get a Core Skill every 5 levels. Not only that, but Core Skills tended to be good, and the one she had been offered looked interesting too, given it would allow her to take curses away from people.
She did wish she had more than ten slots, but that wasn’t the case.
Amber shook her head and rested on the cleared floor. She didn’t know what awaited her above, and if it was another “endurance” floor as she named this one, she decided she didn’t want to deal with it just yet.
And so, she took a long sleep before heading to the next floor.
* * *
Amber rested for a full day before heading to the next floor. However, this time she stood in a very small and closed room. There were no stairs, and the room consisted of nothing but a pedestal with a rounded hole. The walls seemed smooth and had no protrusions, yet she was lost.
The room was about five meters in all directions; a complete cube. She stared at it for close to a minute before approaching the pedestal, and examined it.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“What kind of room is this?”
She was puzzled, or rather, completely fucking lost. She could at least deduce that something was meant to go into the hole that had the pedestal, but as for what; she wasn’t entirely sure. She continued to examine the room for close to an hour — every single surface was smooth including the ceiling — before she finally began to touch around.
She felt the walls and even jumped to touch the ceiling, she made sure to cover every surface until— the wall indented and a single drop of water came from the ceiling and dripped onto the rounded hole.
Amber blinked and tried to do it again except— it no longer happened. However now there was a small quantity of water in the pedestal’s hole.
“So I have to fill it?” She frowned, having a small conjecture. “Don’t tell me the activation spot changes every time I do it.”
She continued to move around the room and after making two more droplets of water drop from the ceiling from pressing different places of the room. Amber sighed.
So I was right…
She began the tedious task of doing that, however after two more droplets she approached the pedestal. The hole inside of it was about a quarter full, and she had already spent half a day on it. She didn’t understand what kind of puzzle this was, but she wanted to try an alternative solution before being stuck in this room for multiple days.
So, she spat into the hole—
She continued to spit until it filled and to her surprise— the walls illuminated and the wall split to reveal another path.
“I should’ve done that from the beginning.”
She shook her head and continued.
* * *
The floor was some sort of puzzle floor, one in which she spent more than a few days on. Which she found ridiculous; though at least she got to fight a golem which helped relieve some of her frustration.
She slammed through the rocky monster’s head with the guard of her sword, pieces of rock flew and she continued her assault until the thing dropped dead on the ground.
[You have defeated a [Training Stone Unit. Lvl. 80.]
After it died, the stairs were revealed, and Amber once more took the time to rest before heading to the next floor. Even though this floor was incredibly boring, one of her skills had leveled up twice during it; much to her surprise.
[Sharp Instincts has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 5.]
* * *
After a day of resting, Amber headed to the next floor — the fifth floor — having mentally prepared herself to spend a long time in it. Except she paused and stared ahead. It wasn’t like any of the other rooms.
What?
The room was dozens if not over a hundred meters in diameter, and the ceiling was situated many times higher than the other two rooms. In fact, when she looked up all she saw was a pitch black darkness. Not only that, but there was no monster. She could see the stairs at the other side of the room, and for a moment she was confused.
The ground had nothing of note either, no tiles were too cracked or discolored, in fact they looked like the ones in some of the previous floors. However, Amber could tell; she could feel that this floor was distinctly different, and she had an idea of what was different about it.
It's a trap floor…
Amber took two steps forward and immediately heard the reeling of chains; and her eyes darted in multiple directions but there was nothing to be seen. This is bad. She took a step back and at that moment, danger flared in her mind. She stepped to the side and her shoulder was slashed— Cursed Momentum activating along with the splattering of blood.
A swinging guillotine passed and faded into darkness, disappearing from view a moment later. The reeling of chains continued and Amber ducked, part of her hair was taken by another guillotine a moment later. Its sharpness, deadly, and its presence, near impossible to tell. Amber felt a bead of sweat forming and lifted her foot in a hurry.
Another guillotine passed, swinging side-ways and almost amputating her foot right then and there. The entire room screamed danger, the sound of chains resounding stronger than ever now. Amber hopped forward, dodging two more sweeping slashes and for a moment she saw the hidden weapons, and there were dozens. No— hundreds moving and reeling across the room.
She dodged forward, two guillotines passed; one missed and the other cut part of her arm. Cursed Momentum increasing once more. She gritted her teeth and used Quick Dash, as a superficial gash was made on her neck. Then, taking two more steps she was sliced by yet another hidden guillotine.
Her Sharp Senses were working at max, and yet she couldn’t keep up. What the fuck— she jumped— three guillotines passed where her legs would’ve been. The reeling of chains continued to echo, clashing against each other in shrill metal cries. She didn’t understand the room,nor what type of patterns the guillotines followed, but looking forward and seeing how far away she was from the exit Amber had a realization.
If this continues… She moved to the side, cleanly dodging a guillotine. I’m going to die. Her heart was rushing, and while she felt excited she also felt fearful. It was just another way to push her limits, but different.
Three steps further, she twisted her body and three parts were shallowly cut, her blood splattering.
She couldn’t continue moving forward at this pace, she had to change something but what—
Her eyes widened as a guillotine came for her neck from behind, but it was too late. Her mind screamed as she tried to move out of the way—
And a barrier engulfed her and immediately shattered. However, it wasn’t enough, another guillotine came immediately after and she hastily used her skill in hopes of surviving: Recovery of Curses.
And the guillotine cut through her windpipe with scintillating light. Half of her neck was sliced, from her adam’s apple to her spine, and she coughed— choked on her own blood. Her vision immediately became blurry, and she stumbled forward, her sense of balance disappearing in an instant.
The room seemed darker and even quieter than ever, but she could still hear the chains— they were distant, almost as if she was in too much shock to process them. However, Amber knew the truth. Not only had some stupid nerve been injured, she was also going to die—
Move. She gargled, her arms trembling. Move!
Her muscles pushed her to the side and her shoulder blade was destroyed, sliced right through as the guillotine cleaved onto the ground. She thrashed in pain, but she screamed at herself and managed to roll out of the way of yet another guillotine.
The control to her body was quickly restored, her wounds knitting together in a display of supernatural survivability. And Amber at that moment, unsheathed her dagger and— blocked. A guillotine pushed her away as she unsteadily got up. She was shaking, her breathing was ragged, and her vision remained unsteady.
However, she was now more resolute than ever.
They always try to amputate or sever something… she thought. Of course, there were exceptions, exceptions that were undoubtedly random, and exceptions that would help her.
She closed her eyes for a moment and— she dashed. She raised a dagger to the back of her neck and a guillotine clashed. Amber almost lost balance being propelled forward. She then jumped over two slashes that were meant to cut her legs, and the next one— half cleaved her arm as she sprinted forward, completely ignoring it.
Amber made her way through the room, she blocked the strikes that mattered and those that didn’t matter she—
“Fuck!” she growled in pain, feeling part of her side be torn apart.
She let them hit her. It hurt like hell, but the exit quickly got closer, and with it, the amount of guillotines increased.
Amber gritted her teeth, using her sword to avoid having her arm being ripped off, and using the dagger to avoid having her neck cut. She continued running and some seconds later she turned and blocked using the full length of her sword. Five guillotines had hit at once, sending her skidding towards the exit. Her boots gritted on the floor and then four guillotines appeared, one for each of her limbs.
Amber’s eyes widened and she made herself as small as possible— the guillotines passed and she felt her hips and shoulders be torn. She stumbled forward and Amber saw ten guillotines—
Quick Dash.
With a burst of mana she passed and the guillotines slashed. She dashed and in an instant, blood burst into her surroundings. She fell, losing feeling on her extremities as she landed on the other side of the room. She hadn’t lost any of her limbs, but one of her arms was only held by her bicep; the rest having been sheared.
“Fuck…” she panted. Her chest was heaving up and down, and the pain was bad.
She gritted her teeth through it and moments later she grew insensitive to it due to her extreme training. But even then, she knew her body had been thoroughly fucked up. Recovery of Curses was hard at work, and the only reason she had even survived the encounter to begin with.
I almost lost my head…
Amber hated to admit it, but the guillotines of the room had been downright terrifying. But even then, she entertained the idea of trying to come back to it once she was stronger. It just felt right.
At least her efforts did not go unrewarded.
[Sharp Instincts has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 5 to 2nd Rank level 7.]
[Recovery of Curses has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 2 to 2nd Rank level 4.]
[Physical Resistance has leveled up from level 6 to 8.]
[Quick Recovery has leveled up from level 9 to 10.]
She laid there for what felt like forever, part of her wanted to laugh and the other didn’t find it funny. She had survived, and that was all that mattered. Amber had pushed her limits during this encounter, taking Sharp Instincts to the limit to survive. And while she didn’t exactly want to go through the exact same thing again, she found it gratifying.
In the end, I still fear death, huh?
She shook her head. She had already almost died a handful of times, but this time it had felt the realest. And maybe, the reason was because she faced no other goal but to survive. However, upon reflecting on it Amber found that she would welcome the challenge with open arms should it happen again. She wasn’t crazy enough to think about going out of her way for it, but for a moment she did entertain the idea to see how long she could survive against a terrifying foe.
In the end, it was all part of living in Vir, and a reality she had unconsciously accepted at some point.
Finally, after recovering herself she stood up and after giving a glance to the guillotine filled room, she turned to the stairs. There was only darkness, but her mind told her that countless possibilities awaited her; opportunities where she could push her limits and grow stronger. And that was just what she wanted.
With a smile, Amber began to ascend the tower once more.
* * *
Amber was ascending some stairs as she pondered about her time spent in the tower. Two months had already passed. The floor with the guillotines had taken about two weeks to get to due to the very time consuming floors. Thankfully, aside from experiencing a single more “endurance” floor, nothing else had happened.
Instead, she found that the floors above were rather normal. Having different environments and various monsters who were around her level. Now, she was on her way to the nineteenth floor of the tower. Even though she had hardly gotten any levels if at all, she found her time to be fruitful. Though her skills were refusing to progress into the 2nd Rank.
[Cursed Cleave has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 9 to 2nd Rank level 10.]
[General Weapon Mastery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 9.]
[Recovery of Curses has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 4 to 2nd Rank level 5.]
[Cursed Stomp has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 5 to 2nd Rank level 6.]
[Elemental Resistance has leveled up from level 7 to 8.]
[Physical Resistance has leveled up from level 8 to level 9.]
…
[You have reached level 81. 5 stat points awarded.]
You have reached level 82. 5 stat points awarded.]
Well, let’s see what the nineteenth floor is like.
The experience gained so far felt abysmal. She had killed so many monsters that were over level 80 and yet hardly saw anything. Then again, she supposed that if leveling up was truly that easy, a ton of level 100s would exist.
Shaking her head, she continued on.
The nineteenth floor had two Venomous Vencers, she didn’t exactly know why there were two of them. But she felt excited, she hadn’t seen this monster since the first floor. And more than anything, it was a prime opportunity to level up Toxin Resistance. However, she decided to see how fast she could kill them with what she had learned from fighting the first one two months ago.
She wanted to see her progress in general.
The two scorpions spat their venomous acid forth and Amber ran past them. Cursed Momentum activated but Amber paid it no mind as she used Quick Dash, and arrived at the first scorpion. The creature swung its pincers with a small shriek, and Amber smiled.
Cursed Stomp.
The ground shattered and the legs of the monster cracked, its attack missed and Amber took her chance. She jumped and landed on top of the creature, then grabbed her sword by the blade and swung— the Cursed Cleave enhanced hit shattered the chitin in a moment. Pieces of its carapace flew along with its sticky ichor. Amber swung down again, cleaving the monster’s tender flesh with a savage grin.
The Venomous Vencer screeched and stabbed with its stinger, while the other one helplessly watched. The stinger tore into the chitin and made the monster shriek again. Amber took a breath and lifted her sword once more, a moment later the Venomous Vencer began to spit acid and—
Cursed Cleave— Amber’s sword crashed into the monster’s mouth spilling its ichor all over the floor, and without hesitation she began to mercilessly beat the monster as the other Venomous Vencer finally tried to do something; it attacked with its stinger but all it did was further injure its companion and speed up its demise.
Amber continued to mercilessly beat the scorpion and evade its stinger, and it didn’t take long before the Venomous Vencer helplessly collapsed, dead and unmoving.
[You have defeated a [Venomous Vencer. Lvl. 85].]
Amber turned towards the second monster and immediately rushed in its direction. Needless to say, it didn’t fare any better. Amber rode it, stabbed it, made it stab itself, broke its fangs, and thoroughly humiliated it. She even tried to get it to stab itself to death, but it started to spew acid. And that was when she had a realization.
She could see how much of the toxin she could tolerate on her body. So, she continued letting the Venomous Vencer haphazardly attack its surroundings. The fumes quickly filled the room and by extension her lungs, however, even though Amber felt her body tensing she held onto the monster.
The scorpion thrashed, twisted, spewed, and Amber grew number. The two danced for what felt like an eternity, until— Amber stabbed down and killed the monster.
She fell to the ground, her chest heaving in very strained breaths. She couldn’t speak but her disappointment in her thoughts was clear.
I really couldn’t outlast it… annoying.
[You have defeated a [Venomous Vencer. Lvl. 85].]
[Toxin Resistance has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 5 to 2nd Rank level 7.]
Well at least that’s something.
Once again, none of her skills had hit 2nd Rank.
Hopefully the next floor will be it…
Amber took a few more minutes to relax before continuing up the tower. In the end, more than anything, she wanted to progress her level 10 skills into the 2nd Rank, and she felt like a lot of them simply needed a little push. And the tower would soon provide it.
She let the poison mostly wash out of her system before she continued forward, her Cursed Momentum remained at full strength due to this. She wanted to see what the next floor held.
It was the twentieth floor, and Amber had a feeling that it was special.
* * *
This has to be it… she thought with a frown.
Amber looked ahead into the empty room, she was in the twentieth floor of the tower at this point, and the room — just like some of the special rooms— looked much different. Wider and more ornate, the walls were a desaturated blue instead, and the ceiling was dome shaped.
She took a step forward, however, she wasn’t nervous but excited. All of her senses told her that this was the time. It was the time for her to level her skills to 2nd Rank. And as a door behind her closed and a dangerous hiss resounded she smiled.
This is most definitely it.
She looked forward only to see a gigantic blue serpent with iridescent skin. And its level was much more interesting.
[Grand Ostrutem Serpent. Lvl. 95]