As the fire started dissipating from the area around the lizard, it instead focused towards Sam. Noticing a Health Potion within reach, not caring what strength it was, he manifested a Psyhand next to it, opened it on the way back to him, and chugged it as soon as it came within reach.

[ HP: 155 / 175 █████████░ ]

This was amazing. He had found an 80% potion, but it didn’t last too long. Even though he did his best to avoid being hit by the incoming fire, he had to prioritise the potion to not die if he failed. He got out of the worst part, but it didn’t stop him from taking damage entirely.

[ HP: 125 / 175 ███████░░░ ]

Dia had gotten herself back into the fray now that the fire faded, she delivered a collection of punches and kicks before the lizard twisted its body, sending its powerful tail towards her at frightening speeds. She dodged the best she could, but even with her agility it wasn’t enough.

[ Dia HP: 160 / 210 ████████░░ ]

She was hit and launched backwards, the initial hit sent a decent amount of damage through her Defence, but the subsequent hitting the ground, rolling and crashing into the corpse of a Golem took another 20.

Sam managed to force himself to not react too much, he wanted to, he wanted to run to her, he wanted to get angry and flip his shit at the lizard, but he knew from abusing the same logic that this was not a good idea. He needed a level head, he had a second to consider what to do as it turned back to him. The incoming attacks were doing collective damage, not many Players had any resources left at this point, but they were making a legit effort. Mimicking Sam’s attempts they had taken to pick up random weapons and throw them from afar, feeding them to the best thrower and just kept chucking. Most of it missed, a lot hit but didn’t make it through but the odd weapon hit an open wound or managed to tear a new one.

In the micro pause, Sam wondered how he hadn’t seen any damage done to Elara yet, he didn’t complain but she was still around his neck and very much alive. It seems that his body managed to shield her from the fire, the hood of the armour was enough to keep her warm but safe and his body shielded her against the rest. It felt weird but he chose not to complain.

If nothing else, if Sam could keep its focus... and survive, perhaps they could make it through it.

Suddenly having an idea, Sam took out the toothpick holder and popped the lid. Dropping all his weapons for a brief moment he used all his 30 Psyhands to pick up a toothpick and aimed them at the monster, doing his best to aim them for the existing wounds, as a toothpick wasn’t gonna work against its hide.

23 of his attacks hit the hide, failing to make it through, however, 7 made it through and of those 5 were critical hits. He was a bit annoyed that he got 5 critical hits when the damage was 1 per hit, but it didn’t matter, that wasn’t the goal.

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]

[ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]

Sam was glad, he didn’t know what kind of fortitude this creature had, but he needed everything he could get. It roared out in agony as the Venom did its thing, Sam almost felt a smirk grow on his lips which instantly faded as the behemoth again charged him.

Preparing better this time, he readied himself for the bite, timing the Psyhands and Force Pulse better, throwing himself to the side after pulsing his eyes worked fine. However, the creature seemed to have realised this pattern, as Sam was struggling to get back to his feet he took a tail to the chest.

[ Armour, Defence 50 has lowered the damage. ]

[ HP: 125/ 175 █████░░░░░ ]

Rolling and sliding across the cluttered battlefield, he didn’t have a choice besides tucking into a ball and waiting for the momentum to stop.

[ Telekinetic boost active. Time remaining: 29 / 29 seconds. ]

Using five seconds of his boost, he managed to break himself down fast enough to not take further damage, but it didn’t help him more than that.

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]

Cursing internally, he was sad to learn that his opponent was resisting Venom, but a few doses still did their job! By the time Sam had gotten back to his feet the creature was again on him, inhaling deeply and before Sam had gotten his footing properly it exhaled a plume of fire. Doing his best to jump to the side it didn’t do anything, noticing it the lizard simply trailed after him, keeping Sam in the fire enough to still take damage.

His health lowered. 120, 110, 100, 90, as the seconds passed so did his life, he couldn’t see through the blaze enough to pick up anything, in the panic of fire all he could consider was to cover Elara enough that she didn’t take damage as he desperately tried to grab something with his Psyhands.

Suddenly, the fire stopped as a massive roar shook Sam to his core. Seconds later as the fire faded he could see Janik with two bloodied swords in his hands, standing between him and the monster. Two new, large and deep wounds had opened up across the face, cutting into some of the eyes.

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

[ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]

[ The target failed to save against [ Venom 2 ]! ]

“I’ll keep it busy, find something to take it out.” Janik commanded as he took a stance towards the overgrown lizard, he sounded livid.

Sam didn’t want to argue, this was how they had done it so far so why break up a winning strategy?

The creature manage to somehow lick its damaged eyes, almost like cleaning or moistening a delicate wound, followed by an angry, snarling roar.

Looking around panicked, Sam picked up the weapons he could find, anything that looked practical enough to work was used, swords, spears, it didn’t matter. The monster stepped forward but Janik’s swipes at it had it second guess. As it inhaled deeply to breathe fire again, Janik stepped in closer. Rather than dodging it stabbed one sword toward its gums, the other at its tongue, damaging both. It shrieked in pain as the delicate flesh was hurt, giving Sam a valuable opening.

[ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]

[ The target Saved against [ Venom 2 ] ]

As the last two Venom doses were resisted, he had found most of his weapons, as well as some scattered random things. Moving into range he sent them forward, and though most failed to make it through the hide, some of the weapons still did. Mixing in the attacks from other Players and the fact that Dia had gotten herself back into range, they were again doing some damage to the creature.

Every bite, every tail swipe, every attempted breath, Janik punished. He didn’t get a chance to do much direct damage but halting every attack with the fear of significant pain, the man focused everything on this punishment and nothing else. Sam was glad to see that his next attack landed solidly, not enough to take it out but more than enough to make it look even more like shit than it did before.

Dia had moved closer to Janik, taking advantage of his punishment for any attempt to land an attack on her. She didn’t have enough pure damage to make significant impacts but it was clear that it trickled through and collectively was adding up.

The creature had lost most of its vigour, as well as a dramatic amount of blood. Trying an attempt at breathing fire, Janik stabbed both his swords into its mouth, and he hit something important as there was a puff of fire that didn’t leave its mouth, using this opening for a few seconds of aiming, Sam brought down his weapons again.

The Moonblade landed a critical hit, as did several others of his weapons, and although a group of them didn’t make it through it was plenty enough to finally kill the monster.

Losing its balance it fell over to its side with a heavy thud, the collective damage and blood loss were enough, and it struggled to breathe for a few seconds before it exhaled its final breath.

The Players who were still in the area cheered as the eerie glow of the Tower faded, hinting at the end of this ordeal. There were still a few straggling monsters left but they were mostly fliers who got away, or smaller things like Goblins, and were quickly handled. Janik exhaled a satisfied sigh as Dia ran over to Sam with a massive smile on her face.

Sam was in a different mind space, though the creature had died, he couldn’t stop himself from stabbing it again, and again, and again. Though it was satisfying to win against it like this, it didn’t feel like it was enough. Killing it didn’t bring anyone back, there was no punishment in it. Hell, he wasn’t even sure if this was the same creature that did this all those years ago, it might just be one of the masses and there could be 40 more to meet him on a future Floor.

As she got to him she noticed his expression, his vacant stare and as she followed it, she saw his weapons stab the dead creature repeatedly.

“Sa, ila fyrr, Sa rek!”

He heard her, but he didn’t stop. He wanted more out of this experience, he just didn’t know what to feel or how to react to things. The victory felt surprisingly hollow with this much death surrounding it.

“Sam, it’s fine.” Janik’s voice cut through as his hand landed on his shoulder in a supportive way. “You can stab it if you want.” His voice had a strange supportive tone to it like he somehow knew what Sam was going through.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Sam kept stabbing.

[ Congratulations on surviving your first Tower Break as a Player.

Contribution reward: +5 Attribute Points. ]

[ Experience gained: 2 000 000. ]

Sitting in the large mess hall in the TAC building the room was filled with a swarm of words, everyone trying to talk over one another as they regaled their side of the fight to the others. Some were sad as well, having lost friends and party members. Sam was feeling surprisingly weird, on one side he didn’t know what to do, he had gotten some sort of closure on the kind of monster that killed his family but it didn’t feel right. But the main part of his mind right now was managing to win against the Tower Break. He almost died a few times in that fight but it felt incredibly exhilarating, he hated the Tower System for doing this shit, but at the same time it was an incredible adrenaline boost.

Janik had joined in the talk, and though he was vital to their survival, he seemed to focus more on Dia and Sam’s actions rather than his own, building them up more than himself.

All Players received a message explaining that TAC would go through the data they had and everyone would be rewarded. The only immediate TAC gave was a free meal and somewhere to rest. The logistical nightmare of all of that alone sounded like their own form of a battle.

Sam got the cost of his room waived for that one night, in his mind that was a given as he had been paying for it without staying there. On Janik’s recommendation, Sam opted out of the auto-renewal for a room like that and he’d just get a new one every time. It didn’t matter since he didn’t have anything to store in there, so a new room each time didn’t change anything. Since they spent time in Aetheria now and then, it would be better to not pay double. Especially since the prices in Aetheria were quite insane.

“What do you mean you didn’t get any ability points?” Sam asked Janik with a surprised, almost judgemental expression.

“The reward for me was just XP, you mean you got Ability Points? That’s a bit dramatic, no?” Janik’s expression was more curious like Sam had said something outrageous, but not bad enough that he didn’t entirely distrust it.

“I got two million XP and five Ability Points.” Sam answered defensively. “Dia and Elara got jack shit, though....” Sam’s expression soured as he added the last part. He was a bit annoyed that Dia and Elara didn’t get anything. Elara might make sense but Dia helped, and though it somewhat made sense due to her accelerated level-ups and level-cap tied to Sam, he still felt she should have gotten something.

Janik leant forward and stared judgingly at Sam. “You do know that you basically got five levels for free... and at a discount, right?”

This caused Sam to pause... he was right. If he had gotten five levels, then the needed XP for the next level would double five times, but since he just got the points... that was much better... “Holy shit, you’re right...” Sam’s face changed from annoyance of Dia not being rewarded, through contemplation as he was mentally checking Janik’s statement, to surprise as he confirmed it was all correct.

“So... yeah... Not jealous at all.” Janik commented in a deadpan, borderline annoyed tone. “Not like I would like that at all, or anything...”

Sam couldn’t help but fail to hold back a small smile at Janik’s reaction. He completely understood it, at least now that he was considering what ‘just five points’ actually meant. He had been very lucky, compared to Janik, with most of the rewards like the Random Boxes and such, perhaps this was the Ascendant bonus working from the start? He needed to focus more on finding out how to use, or rather; abuse this.

Elara, who could follow the conversation, simply relaxed coiled up on the table, swallowing a piece of meat from Sam’s plate. Dia was given her own plate and was eating it as an animal, at least she didn’t get her hands dirty but it didn’t look entirely right.

As they were talking everyone in the room got a message around the same time, a large selection of messages or vibration sounds broke through the talking, forcing an almost vocal silence as their phones were checked.

It was a TAC system message, explaining that due to the number of people involved, it would take several days to go through. Everyone would be rewarded as everything is checked properly, meaning that through the course of the next week, they would seemingly randomly get their reward. If this hasn’t happened after a total of 7 days, they should contact reception.

A simple and almost standardized message, in Sam’s mind anything he got from TAC was just a bonus. He got his attribute points and already placed them, he also got some experience but almost more importantly; he got to kill that lizard thing. Now that he had come down from everything and processed it, after talking with Janik and just relaxing, he felt surprisingly nice. He still didn’t know if this was ‘the one’ that took out his family or if there was a whole species of them, but just doing this felt good. Though he couldn’t have done it entirely alone, with some preparation he might be able to; that alone made the feeling even better.

“Well... I suppose we can take a few days off, and get proper before we return to Aetheria, or what do you think?” Janik got the subject back to their main topic of advancement. “In a way, I’m fine going back but... I want to spend some time with the kids before we do.”

Sam could see on Janik’s expression that he was a bit conflicted, he got it to a certain degree, he didn’t have kids or any family to worry about but he understood the basic feeling.

“Since we’re waiting for the reward anyway, we can probably take a few days, or; you can take a few days and I can go explore if I get bored.” He smiled at the end almost as a threat of leaving Janik behind.

Janik smiled. “You really think you can make it alone? I mean, what would you do without me handling the tanking?” Puffing his chest he built himself up much more than was necessary.

“Actually sneak?” Sam replied with a sly smirk, he was somewhat building towards a sneaking way of attacking, but lately, he just hadn’t been in any position to do so. And the bats could ‘see’ him even if he did, they tested that in the dungeon which matched up with the information in the guide app.

“You can’t sneak around living rocks and echolocating bats.” Sitting back in his chair, Janik continued his matter-of-factly way of speaking.

“There are probably other things to attack on the second Floor. Alternatively, we can just run the same dungeon a few times, I feel we’ll handle that fine. Now that I can use more hands and more weapons... I’m sure I’ll do better.” Countering by touching on his exponential damage growth, having already gotten more cheap daggers to cover his extra hands as a bare minimum, he didn’t have the funding to get any proper weapons yet. But that wasn’t something a few lucky boxes couldn’t fix.

It still felt weird carrying 34 blades on his person, nearing 10kg/22lbs of weapons was strangely weird, but it didn’t feel too bad moving around with them. It probably helped that they were placed around his body to distribute the weight, as a bunch of them was in his backpack, the Psyhands didn’t have a problem picking them out, after all.

However, this brought him to realise something. He was pretty bad in shape most of his life but, all of this carrying things around, moving in mountains and whatnot, he had started putting on some muscle. He was always lean but.

“Sorry to change the subject but... I just thought of something.” Waiting for Janik to look like he was paying attention, Sam continued. “Have I gotten stronger?” Inspecting his arms he realised that he had a better way to find out.

He opened the System window to check his Attributes.

[ Attributes:

STR: 5

DEX: 5

VIT: 5

SPT: 36 ]

“Oh, they have.” Sam commented, not specifying what ‘they’ were. “My Strength, Dex and Vitality have increased by one point!” Though he half-shouted this it wasn’t loud enough to break into other conversations, but it was enough to show his excitement.

“That’s great!” Janik’s fake-discussion tone had faded in favour of support. “I told you that training your body would have that happen, I suppose all our moving and fighting finally triggered it a bit. You’re also carrying around a lot of metal, so...”

Sam felt proud about this, this was the first time he could measurably say that he had been working out and seen results. Not considering the boost he got from becoming a Player.

Janik took out his phone suddenly, read something on it and smiled. “It seems I’m being told to ask you if we can borrow Elara for a few days.”

Chuckling in response, Sam saw Elara turn to look at him with a questioning look while trying to swallow a piece of food, which made a surprisingly amusing expression.

“I don’t see why not, if she wants to, naturally.”

Elara tried to respond, but being a whole-prey swallower, she didn’t have the cheeks needed to move the food to before talking, meaning she needed a moment to get it swallowed properly before she could respond. “I would like that.”

“I suppose that settles that? I guess we’ll take it easy for a few days, I might pop into a Dungeon or something, if I do I’ll make sure to pop back here every day to check your messages.” Sam liked the idea of taking some time to relax, but at the same time he wanted to get back into it, he was calm now but at the same time he felt like he had plenty of energy to spare. This would also give him some time to work on trying to get the Ascendant thing going.

Janik nodded and after saying their goodbyes, they split up for at least the day, Elara went with Janik, Dia and Sam to get a room for the night.

“Welcome to TAC, how can I help you?” The receptionist asked, a young man almost looking freshly graduated.

“I’d like a room for the night.” Sam replied as he showed his ID card, having the young man check something on the computer he was working with.

“Oh, I see here that I’m to inform you that your reward for the Tower Break is calculated.” He displayed a practised smile, well beyond his years.

This surprised Sam, the message listed that it might take up towards a week to check footage and read through things.

“Already? That was fast.”