CHAPTER 145.
Amber awoke in a dizzy state. She couldn’t even remember what had last happened, all she knew was that she felt bad. Sickly. Which was weird considering she had never felt like that for years now, but it was undoubtedly the feeling of being ill; exhausted, drained, and weak.
What happened…?
She groaned as she saw multiple holes on the ground, they were incredibly small. It was as if someone had spilled droplets of acid all over. Though as she shuffled she saw a much bigger hole in front of her. And that was when she remembered vomiting. Amber blinked as she picked herself up, she still felt like shit but suddenly she remembered everything.
She used the 2nd Rank of Recovery of Curses, immediately improving her condition as she took a breath.
I learned the Curse of Disintegration and then fainted… Amber raised her finger as she slowly walked towards a wall. And forcing her mana and also Essence, she began to melt it, though her finger suffered the same fate. And she couldn’t help but furrow her brows.
“It’s quite hard to use all things considered…” Amber raised her Cursewelder over her shoulder. “Let’s see…”
She channeled the Curse of Disintegration into it. The mana and Essence consumption of the curse was no joke, Amber guessed that she could only output it for about a minute before she ran out of both resources. And there was also something else…
“It’s melting…” Amber looked at Cursewelder which was falling apart from the blade, and her hand administering the curse was also struggling to keep grip onto the handle. “And I have to keep repairing it so it just doesn’t fall off my hand…”
There was definitely a huge learning curve to it; knowing how much of the curse to output, managing her melting sword and her melting hand, managing her mana and Essence— it certainly was dozens of times more difficult than managing her other curses which came instinctually to her.
Amber shook her head and turned to the door, and raised the Cursewelder which was constantly melting and regenerating and immediately cleaved with all the strength she could muster. The sword struck the door, and for a moment nothing happened before it started to melt.
It was closer to a corrosive rather than an instant effect, but it was enough for her. Amber grinned and pulled back before slamming her sword into the door again, forcing a hole right through it. Even though the puzzle rooms seemed to have the ability to regenerate, the holes that were torn with the Curse of Disintegration took time to heal. Or some — that received much greater exposure to the curse — wouldn’t at all.
Amber continued on tearing through the door as she began to pant. And by the time she was done, she made it to the other room and nearly collapsed to the ground. Her mana and Essence were low, and she also just felt exhausted. It seemed that using the Curse of Disintegration greatly drained her stamina.
“This sucks…” Amber murmured as she moved to the middle of the room and sat down.
The Curse of Disintegration was extremely strong, but it wasn’t as easy to use as she expected it to.
She shook her head. I definitely can’t spam it in battle. It consumed way too much mana, stamina and Essence. But none of that matters, at the end of the day, it’s my trump card. Amber smiled to herself as she rested.
For now, her only goal was getting the hang of using the Curse of Disintegration.
Amber pulled out her notebook while waiting for her mana and Essence to come back. Thankfully, she could multitask if the downtime was little.
* * *
Amber finished the puzzle room in a mere couple of hours, and by the end, a lot had changed.
For starters, one of her skills had leveled. A lot.
[Inexorable Manipulation has leveled up from 5th Rank level 7 to 5th Rank level 8.]
…
[Inexorable Manipulation has leveled up from 5th Rank level 9 to 5th Rank level 10.]
And she was quite sure it would soon hit 6th Rank. Turns out micromanaging the Curse of Disintegration was quite taxing on her manipulation skill, which was great. There was also another change.
[Curse Resistance has leveled up from 6th Rank level 1 to 6th Rank level 2.]
[Curse Resistance has leveled up from 6th Rank level 2 to 6th Rank level 3.]
Using Curse of Disintegration seemed to increase her resistance, and at first it she brushed it off, because well— her flesh still melted all the same. But on the second level up she noticed a difference; her level of exhaustion went down slightly. So it seemed that another negative of the Curse of Disintegration was wearing down the user; which thankfully didn’t affect her all that much.
But Amber didn’t stop much to rest at the end of the 109th floor, instead she made her way to meet the 110th floor boss immediately. After all, not only was she quite used to the Curse of Disintegration by now, there was also something else that pushed her forward.
Her level 225 Core Skill.
Considering she was already at level 222, there were only 3 levels remaining.
Amber grinned as the teleporter went off with a burst of green light.
[Floor 110.]
It was time for a damn boss fight.
Amber prepared herself as she appeared inside a floor, but she quickly paused. There was no boss, nothing of the sort, instead she blinked as she saw a bed, a warm meal and a fireplace. And at her feet laid a plate that said something that made her quite upset.
“Rest is essential.”
“I don’t care for damn rest,” Amber frowned.
She approached the exit door to the room but found it locked, and when she tried to burn it with the Curse of Disintegration she was teleported back to looking at the plaque. This time, with a counter in her vision.
[You may leave in: 11 hours and 59 minutes…]
She groaned at that and took in the room properly, the first thing she noticed was a bookshelf. One that had a few weathered books and was mostly empty, but it still caught her attention. After all, it was a bookshelf inside a damn Primordial Spirit tower.
Now slightly less annoyed, Amber approached the bookshelf and grabbed a book, it had no cover but when she opened it and read the title she found herself a lot more interested.
The history of the Shattered Tower.
She grabbed a different one.
The rules of the Shattered Tower.
And another.
The ruler of the Shattered Tower.
Amber blinked. “Interesting.”
She grabbed all of the five books and brought them over to the table with the ready meal. It seemed to be a steak with an accompanying salad. Which Amber dismissed as nothing more than a distraction, but when she ate it, her tune completely changed.
“It’s really good…” she muttered looking at the juicy steak. “It melts in my mouth somehow…”
Amber paused and then looked over at the books.
“I guess a little rest to learn things about the tower doesn’t sound that bad…” she finally acquiesced.
And so, Amber simply enjoyed her meal as she began to read the contents of the books. Some of which were more interesting than others.
* * *
The book about the rules of the tower was overly religious, so much to the point that she found it hard to believe it was even talking about the same place she was in. The book about the Primordial Spirit was a lot more interesting, it mainly talked about their likes and dislikes and their attitude, and the things that she could gather made her confused.
Amber already had some suspicions and doubts about the imprisoned Primordial Spirit; about whether they were actually evil. Remmel’s information said they were twisted, and Sid’fril had also collaborated with another primordial to seal this spirit, and yet…
The tower was anything but twisted, and so far she had yet to see something that screamed evil to her. And maybe it was a personality flaw but she had to see something to actually believe it, and so far there was no concrete proof of that.
And the book she had just read, described them as nothing but kind.
So the real question was:
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What happened?
Unfortunately, there was no answer to that.
Amber moved onto reading the book about history, which bored her to hell. The other one was about culture and traditions which also bored her a lot. And by the time she got to the last book, there were only about two hours remaining; mainly because she had taken her time to comb through the contents of each of the tomes.
Finally, she reached the smallest and shortest book; the one named “About the Shattered Tower.”
Amber didn’t expect anything from it, but soon her opinion changed. Because it was handwritten.
“The tower will offer items that it deems necessary to those above floor 100, from what I gathered the less items one receives the greater the chance there is to enter the treasure room. That said, it seems that the tower can also offer items on its own…”
She was immediately captivated as she began to read through it. Amber didn’t know if it had been left behind by the person that took the item on the fourth pedestal or if it was older than that, but she didn’t care.
All she did was focus on the information.
“In rare occurrences the tower will offer opportunities to the climber, from dangerous ones, to evacuation to skipping floors. This is normal even below the 100th floor. These opportunities can be greatly beneficial depending on what one wants to achieve, so it’s important to consider them carefully. It’s also possible to…”
Amber continued on reading through the entirety of the book as it talked about the actual mechanisms of the tower; from floor patterns to what to expect. While most of the information wasn’t particularly useful there was one that stuck out to her more than any of them.
“The treasury, anyone can get to the first two floors. To be a champion means nothing more than to thrive in the floors above 100. To be a hero means to overcome a great challenge. But to be a legend… For that you have to be at least a step into godhood which I’m not. And well, maybe I’m writing this in hopes of helping you, the person reading this; though the likelihood of it being read is extraordinarily small… But assuming you’re a step into godhood, then the next step is relatively simple, your core simply must ascend to the 1st Realm Of Stars, that is all.”
That was all. There was no more information about this first realm, but Amber found herself re-reading the paragraph over and over again, not only had the writer finally acknowledged his reasoning for writing and finally detached from the journal but they had also mentioned something she had never heard of before.
The 1st Realm of Stars… Amber frowned. Never heard of that before.
She took out Asil’s journal where he mentioned his experience with Essence and cores, but it also didn’t say anything about it. However, she was quite certain that this 1st realm thing was most definitely related to what was happening with her core and its refusal for it to level up.
“So if I want to see the deepest floor of the armory I’ll have to figure this out, huh…”
Technically speaking it only added more things to her plate, but at the same time it greatly excited her. Because things were really not as simple as they seemed.
So for the second floor I’ll have to overcome a great challenge, huh?
Amber nodded to herself and finished reading the book which had nothing more of interest, aside from a signature.
Arden L.
Amber was almost hoping it was from Ishtar; given everything seemed related to him, but it wasn’t the case. However, it still gave her a new name to think about.
Arden, huh? I wonder if he’s still alive? It was clear to her that the man was well-versed with Essence, and given the writing was in Virian, aka: the standard modern language. Perhaps it wasn’t that outdated.
“Wait, will Ishtar’s journals be in some ancient cryptic language…?” She frowned. “Hopefully not.”
Amber stowed the floor in her storage ring and spent the rest of her time thinking about what to do from now on, mainly how to access the second floor and third floor, as well as thinking about how to put to use the knowledge she had gotten.
And it didn’t take her long before she made a decision, closing her eyes.
Right now, my main focus is getting my Core Skill and getting access to the second floor of the treasury. After that, it’s learning what happened to my core and advancing it to the 1st Realm of Stars in order to access the third floor of the treasury…
And then…
She opened her eyes.
I’ll get my level 250 Class Advancement.
Amber smiled as the timer in her vision reached zero and the door’s lock clicked open. And using the 3rd Rank of Quick Dash she appeared in front of the door as she opened it, seeing the all too familiar teleporter room.
She had learned a lot of useful information from Arden, one of which was a small change between floors below 100 and floors above 100.
Boss fights are every 10 floors, and since the 101st floor had a boss that means that the next boss is on the 111th floor.
Amber stepped onto the platform.
“Meaning, I’ll finally get the boss fight I was looking for.”
She grinned and a moment later, Amber was teleported into a fiery room. Blistering heat assailing every inch of her body. She immediately sustained third degree burns that her healing constantly repelled, and she couldn’t help but curse as she lifted her leg from the lava that was all over the room.
There was no solid ground, just a shallow pool of lava, one that was constantly burning at her ankles to no tomorrow. It wasn’t even a challenge, it was just painful and annoying, but the fact that the room alone was this dangerous made her look forward to the boss. The book had confirmed something for her.
All of the monsters above floor 100 are from Ill’hine. She tried to take out the book once more only to find it missing from her storage. So the tower would consider me taking it as stealing, huh.
She shook her head. She had thoroughly memorized its contents, and right now that didn’t matter, because she had a monster to kill and a Core Skill to get.
Amber grinned as she felt a low rumbling below the floor, and she prepared herself as she raised Cursewelder; then a moment later from below the magma, the monster erupted.
It was a gigantic drake creature with pulsating red lines.
[???. Lvl. ???]
100 levels above me.
Amber couldn’t help but grin, it felt powerful. With it, she was sure that she would get her core advancement. The drake locked eyes with her, its golden sclera shone before it roared.
All of the lava in the room attacked her, pounced on her as if it was pressurized water, and Amber used the 3rd Rank of Quick Dash in response. She dodged and appeared behind the fiery wingless dragon as her sword’s edge became wrapped in silver flames, then using all of her body enhancements at her disposition she swung.
The monster whipped with its tail and Amber’s sword dug halfway through, before she was launched into the lava with a loud bang. She picked herself up as the drake let out a ferocious and angry roar; one that created two clones of itself of lava and molten rock that immediately pounced on her.
Amber grinned. It had a lot more variety than a lot of the monsters she had gone against in a while. Perhaps it was silly of her to not try her hardest from the get go, but it was good to get a baseline when she didn’t feel instant death.
And now that she had it, she knew what to do.
Amber teleported to the most desolate and lonely extreme of the room and then she took a deep breath.
“I don’t know if to feel happy or sad that I still don’t particularly enjoy doing this,” Amber said as she raised her sword into the air, and then— she stabbed it right into her abdomen her blood spilled, boiling to the lava.
Then she took it out and did it again and again, thanks to her insane agility the process happened multiple times per second and the boss monster simply— watched. Amber couldn’t tell if it was surprised or confused, but she welcomed it as she kept on stacking Demonic Frenzy and growing stronger; and with it her emotions became increasingly unstable.
A small laugh left her. “It really is like a drug, god; glad I have self control.”
Finally she was done as she felt a similar to pushing her limits, and then she dashed and appeared next to the monster slashing with the sharpness enhancement. It parried with its tail but this time it was cleaved right through as it went flying.
The drake screeched and Amber laughed as she stepped forward and did another slash but in response it headbutted, its speed increasing tenfold in an instant. Her sword collided with its hard cranium and Amber had her entire arm broken and she was launched into the back wall.
She coughed up blood. “I guess it’s not 100 levels above me for a reason.”
Still, Amber picked herself up as she saw the monster breathe colorful fire upon her. She dodged out of the way and slashed for its leg as it barely dodged. Amber felt more focused than before as she teleported to slash the creature’s neck, but it tilted as she slashed into its clavicle.
Its bones got shattered and it screeched. And Amber’s eyes widened as she got blasted by fiery scales.
“Fuck.”
She hit the wall in a bloodied mess, then before she could react the monster tackled her into the wall, breaking every bone present on her body. She then was bit and thrown across the room, breaking into another chamber as she landed rolling and being forced to use the 2nd Rank of Accursed Recovery.
Amber got back on her feet, her body cracking as she took a look back at the monster that was rushing towards her, its speed gone.
Right now she wanted to see how far she could go without trump cards more than anything. After all, burning one week cooldowns if its not needed was generally a bad idea. As for the Curse of Disintegration; she had to be considerate when using it. And right now wasn’t the time.
The drake oared as its body lit up in flames, and a moment later it began to shine.
“It’s entering a frenzy,” Amber frowned as she unsummoned Cursewelder and gripped the air. “I know that using fire against fire isn’t the best idea generally, but I have a plan…”
More than anything, Amber wanted to make a chance to use the Curse of Disintegration properly on the monster, and for that, she needed a true opening.
Energy began to swirl on her hand as a purple and blue arrow were made, and the monster kept on glowing brighter as the danger around the room increased, but Amber didn’t pay that any mind as she finished making her two arrows.
Then she nocked them in a bow of purple fire as the monster roared.
All of the lava in the room exploded towards her in sharp and dangerous blades, and Amber shot— Primordial Blazing Bolt and Cursed Blazing Bolt— her body got slashed apart from the lava as she almost lost some appendages and the arrows hit.
A loud explosion engulfed the room as Amber heard a pained screech, but it wasn’t enough. She didn’t like using this item at all, but she needed to at least for this.
Amber took out Arkara’s Staff as she channeled her Essence into it, its green gem shining. And then, she swung it.
“Storm of Destruction.”
She drained a quarter of her Essence in an instant as the room immediately became consumed by a deadly storm of thunder. One that was targeting the fiery drake she had been fighting, and Amber rushed forward amidst the storm.
It was now or never.
Amber took out Cursewelder and pounced upon the monster only for it to nearly headbut her. She barely dodged as the bloody monster let out a roar, and its body became consumed in flames. At the same time, she landed and stabbed her sword into its neck.
Her flesh began to melt as Amber cursed and focused her mana and Essence.
Curse of Disintegration.
At first the monster let out an angry roar, but soon it began to wail as its neck began to fall apart. And Amber dug deeper as it tumbled and clawed at her. Amber found herself in a ground fight against the monster as she clung to its neck and it desperately tried to get her off, but she held on.
Blood Catalyst allowing her to constantly sustain the curse on the monster from its own blood.
She was hit against the wall, she was bathed in lava, and she even had most of her bones exposed at one point including her cranium, but all she did was heal as she frowned. Exhaustion was quickly taking over her body as she used Cursed Reignition and reset its cooldown via Essence before using it again.
She was immediately invigorated as Amber stabbed deeper into its neck, blood spraying all over from the Curse of Hemorrhage granted by Demonic Frenzy, and the Curse of Disintegration began to corrode through its hard bone as it screeched.
Amber got slammed and perforated as she grunted, but soon the vertebrae of the monster melted as it fell right onto the floor, and Amber grinned as she pushed herself even more.
Before finally, it died.
[You have defeated a [Fledgling Kin of the First Flame. Lvl. 325].]
For defeating an enemy 100 levels above your own, you have received bonus experience!
Amber lost grip, hitting the hot lava in a panting mess as it slowly began to rescind itself into the ground. She had no strength left, no mana left, no Essence left, but she had done it.
[You have reached level 223. 15 stat points awarded.]
+5 Vitality +5 Strength +5 Dexterity.]
…
[You have reached level 230. 15 stat points awarded.]
+5 Vitality +5 Strength +5 Dexterity.]
She had hit level 225.
“Fucking finally.”
After so long she had finally gotten her Core Skill, and as Amber looked at the notification she couldn’t help but shake from excitement.
[New Core Skill! For reaching level 225 as a Fledgling Primordial Human you have learned…]