Waking to the smell of food I head down to see Lucien cooking and Nilan sitting at the kitchen table, after eating I spar with Lucien and we head out to do a scan of my body as a check up I am in perfect health with no signs of any problems or energy incongruencies.
Heading to the tower the group has decided to take a two week break from climbing due to some people having personal matters to deal with and paperwork to fill out, I decide to spend these two weeks forging. The forge is a basic one with hammers an anvil with tongs and a furnace able to handle basic metal, along with basic molds.
In the two week period I craft 2 fire ingots and a earth ingot using iron as the base, I am able to sell them for 10 tower coins a piece and only pay 2 tower coins for the materials as there is an overabundance for them.
With my increased training and ever increasing energy level I know my stats will continue to increase, I check my current level.
----------------------------------------
Status Window
Name: Aadi Null
Age:18
Awakening Age:10
Affiliations: Planet Cerulean Base no.4, Neelan-Turnover city
Spirit Energy status: Core forming stage
Mental realm status: Body and mind melding phase
Energy type: Healing, buffing, water, fire, earth, wind, ice, lightning, metal, mist, oscillation, etc.(expand to see full list)
Combat arts: Conductor spearman ship, Military style dagger art of planet cerulean base no.4, etc. (expand to see full list)
Strength:26 (the human limit with no energy is 3)
Speed:27(the human limit with no energy is 3)
Agility:28(the human limit with no energy is 3)
Stamina:29(the human limit with no energy is 3)
Endurance:29(the human limit with no energy is 3)
Spirit Energy:75(the average amount for your current level is 0.1)
Mental energy: 120(the average amount for your current level is 1)
Current skills: sense control D-grade, reaction speed D-grade, mental energy control High D-grade, etc. (expand to see full list)
Current Talents: low-grade Mental Energy Forging
Current level: mid D-rank
----------------------------------------
With spirit energy being 1-10 is F-grade and 10-100 is E-grade I am still a bit away from D grade in it, and for mental energy 1-10 is unawakened while 10-100 is F-grade 100-200 is E-grade while D-grade is 200 to 400.
The max physical I can reach on my stats without reaching D-grade energy is 29 so I am already reaching my max without advancing.
I am about a fourth of the way through my solid energy gathering and it will take another year and a half to finish, but I will have to leave at the tenth floor as it takes to long to advance from 20th to 30th taking most people 2 years and even if we do it in half the time it will still take the year I have up as the next half year will be spent going up these last five floors. As it has already been four months since I turned eighteen and began to climb the tower with them and it will take most of the year to finish it will simply to tight of a schedule to attempt to remain as if something goes wrong it may extend the time.
It was to risky and each ten floors the difficulty increases as 1-10 floors is for F-grade while 10-20 is E-grade with 20-30 for D-grade, 30-40 is C-grade, 40-50 is B-grade, 50-60 A-grade, 60-70 is S-grade, 70-80 is SS-grade and 80-90 is SSS-Grade it is said the last ten floors is a transformation stage but beyond that no information has been released.
I am already reaching the point where I am at normal standard rather then more advanced then those around me.
After this it is best for me to take a break on the 20th floor to advance and match up with my current floor grade, I will also undergo more apprenticeships here to further my study so stopping here would be the best for me.
I only have 157 coins to my name and my gear will need to be upgraded to go further in the tower so stopping to further my craftsmanship and get money will be for the best, and I have already informed the group of this as they know attempting to go further will be meaning I relied on the groups level rather than my own.
With that I will spend the in-between time training my skill and talents, I know it will be impossible to find a team after this that is anywhere as good if I can even join a team, with my cultivation having deviated meaning we can't be sure of the future time frame I will have.
After the two week period is up we gear up and wait for the message.
---Your team leader has chosen to go to the sixteenth floor, if you agree to the test do so if anyone disagrees then you will not be able to begin the test.
[Yes]
[No]
{Choosing no will make it so you can't attempt it for another week}---
We all agree and disappear from our rooms to a military fortress with our gear still being the same as what we had on us in our rooms.
---You are mercenaries being paid to help the Dolan army defeat the attacking army, the aide provided by all members will be added up and the team that helps the most will be rewarded ten tower coins per member, one less tower coin will be given for each lower ranking. You may not attack or kill each other, sabotaging is not allowed.---
We stand in a training area filled with knights and bowmen clearly a part of the army but there is also about 10 teams in total including ours in this area, we are now comrades and are unable to hurt or sabotage so we are allies in this with no chance of trouble popping up.
"You will be asked to show your capabilities and will be assigned to a regiment to help, your teams may be split up but you will room together with your team at rest time." The Knight who is clearly in charge says.
I tell them I am a healer as well as buffer and am willing to both help on front line and heal those injured when there is no ongoing fighting.
I also volunteer to help heal those on the battlefield when a decent lull in battle occurs, and so my next week are filled with only small 30 minute naps when low on energy and constant going form one place to the next helping anywhere I could.
The battle ends in complete victory on the end of the 7th day.
---Your team has provided the most aide in securing victory, rewarding ten tower coins to all members, your team will now be sent to the next floor when ready---
[Team Asher:
Contribution list:
1st-Aadi
2nd-Wyatt
3rd-Adrian
(Expand to see full list)
Team ranking:
1st-Team Asher
2nd-Team Nuka
3rd-Team Caelestis
(Expand to see full list)]
We have once more completed a floor as the top team and I now have 167 tower coins on me, we return to our rooms and I head home to check in with Lucien and play with my plant.
The next day I return to the tower and we head on to the next floor.
---Your team leader has chosen to go to the seventeenth floor, if you agree to the test do so if anyone disagrees then you will not be able to begin the test.
[Yes]
[No]
{Choosing no will make it so you can't attempt it for another week}---
We all agree and arrive in a large arena like area with gates in front of us and our equipment swapped out for basic used equipment and a large metal gate in front of us with a sign board hung in the center.
---There will be ten rounds in this challenge you are to last through all ten with at least half your team alive, the team to accomplish it the fastest will be rewarded ten tower coins each, for each consecutive ranking you will be rewarded one less coin. You will not be allowed to watch the other teams challenges.---
We wait in our cage with the sign board flashing team names every hour or so until our turn comes on the 7th time, we head out and the monsters are the exact same as for the last colosseum, but is much easier with a team to deal with.
We make it through to the tenth level in only 15 minutes as the highest level of the creature is a peak E-rank monster the Lycan an advanced version of a werewolf and the peak E-grade species due to their extreme speed and strength, but the lack the ability to use energy making them unable to enter the D-grade.
We are made to wait another two hours until the floor is finished.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
---Your team has made it to the tenth round the fastest, rewarding ten tower coins to all members, your team will now be sent to the next floor when ready---
[Team Asher:
Contribution list:
1st-Wyatt
2nd-Adrian
3rd-Bree
(Expand to see full list)
Team ranking:
1st-Team Asher
2nd-Team Donner
3rd-Team Storm Dragon
(Expand to see full list)]
We spent only ten hours on this floor, making it the fastest floor yet, checking with Lucien I return to the tower and we decide to wait until tomorrow morning before we head to the next floor.
It is weird sleeping in the tower provided room as I usually don't but it was okay.
Waking up I clean up and get ready to head on to the next floor, With my gear ready and my space bag in my chest pocket I am ready to head.
---Your team leader has chosen to go to the Eighteenth floor, if you agree to the test do so if anyone disagrees then you will not be able to begin the test.
[Yes]
[No]
{Choosing no will make it so you can't attempt it for another week}---
We appear in a town center area with what looks like a caravan, our clothes and weapons have been changed to match the group we are in.
---Your objective is to kill your three targets without being discovered by the civilians, all teams have been given different targets and are forbidden from killing anyone but their targets, the team to kill their targets the quickest without being caught will be rewarded ten tower coins per person, for each consecutive ranking after that the team will be rewarded on less coin per person. You have a week to kill your target.---
A separate screen appears with our targets names, faces, and position.
We have the current mayor, the head guard, and a high standing noble who is the top merchant in this area, it is clear we have been given the hardest targets possible. It is normal that the tower gives harder challenges the better you do on each floor, it is a balancing means to prevent teams with high cultivation level from dominating to much.
We all gather together and head to an inn to talk on the task and how to do the task, we decide to send Pierce, Wyatt, and Conner to deal with the targets while we will be their alibis for the time gone.
We stay at the inn and the three of them leave through the window, staying up all night to make sure all goes as plan one of the girls will remain in the bathroom as an excuse to not allow strangers into the room or to hold off any searches that may occur.
Five hours pass and the three have all returned but no guards have begun to search the area meaning the assassinations have yet to be noticed.
We sleep the night away and head downstairs to see guards and knights all over the street looking for people to test their energy against the residue found at the locations of a murder, they do not say who was killed but they are clearly a high official.
We agree to the test, Conner and Pierce killed the mayor and merchant noble as they are not awakened people, but Wyatt did kill the guard captain but his ability to use others energy means that the murder cannot be linked back to him through energy testing. Another perk of the void species.
We are all checked and affirmed not to be the killers and are given a paper to prove we have been tested, meaning we can show it to not be harassed by guards later to check or perform searches.
We head to the market area and spend the week hearing of different murders and some of the murderers being caught, we are even asked to do more energy testing and comply with all the tests so as to 'help them rule out people.'
By the end of the week it is clear we were the first to succeed.
---Your team is the first to kill all three targets, rewarding ten tower coins to all members, your team will now be sent to the next floor when ready---
[Team Asher:
Contribution list:
1st-Wyatt
2nd-Conner
3rd-Pierce
(Expand to see full list)
Team ranking:
1st-Team Asher
2nd-Team Esther
3rd-Team Lightning Dragon
(Expand to see full list)]
We finished the floor in first place and return to our rooms, I head to Lucien to check in and play with my plant for the rest of the night.
Tomorrow I return to the tower to do the last floor I will be with the team on.
Returning to the tower we meet up and talk of the last floor we will be on together, we were told it is a floor to test adaptability, after all of us are ready we wait for the notification.
--Your team leader has chosen to go to the nineteenth floor, if you agree to the test do so if anyone disagrees then you will not be able to begin the test.
[Yes]
[No]
{Choosing no will make it so you can't attempt it for another week}---
We all agree and disappear, I appear alone on a platform with a hallway in front of me when the tower task is announced.
---You have a week to meet back up with your teammates, you will not die until your teammates are all together and will respawn at the last checkpoint, you will complete each task as fast as possible and the team to get all members together the fastest is rewarded ten tower coins but will only count as a successful task if all members are together and alive by the end of the week.---
[Get to the end of the hall without injury, if injured in any capacity you will be sent back to the beginning.]
I look at the hall but see no indications of were any attacks could come from, neither the ceiling or the floor have any indications and the other end of the hallway is 200 ft. long luckily this is not timed or it would be even worse.
I take off in a sprint so for any falling floors or ceilings can be avoided, the first thing is arrows which I dodge, then is a collapsing floor pillar jumps, followed by climbing over the collapsed ceiling bit in front of me, next is kunai thrown and finally a mix of collapsing floor and needles being thrown.
Making it through with no injuries I come out to a room filled with weapons.
[Defeat the coming enemies with any weapon in the room, each weapon used to kill ten enemies solo will count as a point. You only need one point to move forward but the points will have more worth later in the task but at the cost of time.]
I pick the spear first, the things that appear in the open center are white dolls with a stone in their chest.
I kill them with ease that even slimes would be trickier, they are slow have little response and lack the ability to use energy attacks at all. They are so simple that I continue through different weapons just to get more points as it shouldn't take to long more to do so.
I use an axe, daggers, sword, hammer, bastard sword, rapier, kunai, needles, katana, bow staff, bow, Kamas, scythe, even a ball and chain.
Over all I get 80 points from all the different available weapons in the room using every single one, I take nearly four hours going through them all to do this, after doing this I sit to take a break and a system message pops up.
{You have completed hidden mission jack of all trades, you are rewarded an extra 100 points for your effort.}
I smile and head to the next room that I can't see inside of despite the door having opened after succeeding with my first weapon challenge, entering to a room filled with botanical items and a book on the table.
[Your mission is too name ten plants present in this room, the rarer the plant and more obscure it is the more points rewarded along with the more plants you are able to name, for each one wrong you will be deducted ten points.]
I start to write the most of the rarer ones I know the names of then the more common and finally the basic ones, I have all but two herbs recorded by the time the task is finish and am sure they are right. I get a total of 150 points for the 50 plants I successfully guessed with none of my guesses being deducted.
I go to the next room and it is filled with metal and weapons in varying degrees of broken and repair.
[You will put these weapons in the designated spots based off whether it can be repaired, doesn't need repair, and unrepairable. You will also sort the metals into order based off how damage repellent they are, the harder it is to damage a weapon made with the metal the higher and the easier it is the lower. You only need ten right on each section to pass, with additional guesses being rewarded or reduced points based off difficulty and accuracy.]
So I begin to sort as many as I know and I get all but three of the weapons and five of the metals, being rewarded a total of 300 points I enter the next room that is filled with vials of potions.
[Your task is to name the potion based purely off smell, color, and consistency you only need ten right to go on. More points are rewarded for each extra vial guessed correct and the harder the bottle you guessed is.]
I spend another three hours sorting all the bottles in the room not missing a single one, I score a total of 200 points for all of them in total. The next room is filled with hospital beds and people with injuries, rashes, and energy fluctuations all over with only basic items all over the room.
[Your job is to save at least three lives in this room, each consecutive life saved following those three will be rewarded with a point.]
So I get to work looking over if they are actually in any life threatening danger, who needs most help first, then take out those to far gone or do not have the required stuff to save them and begin to give aid and help to the remaining 150 patients. I stitch, bandage, reset bones and ribs, hook up IV's and perform CPR and emergency aide to those I need to heal using energy, by the end all but one of the 150 are saved scoring me 146 points.
The next room is an arena room with a weapon rack and a fighting mat surrounded by a coliseum like structure, I grab the spear and the rack disappears and a group of ten dummies like in the second trial appears.
[Go through three rounds getting progressively trickier the most rounds you get through before dying will add points to you.]
They are the same slow easy to deal with dummies from earlier and I finish them off easily, the next are like a newly awakened, and the next are an awakened at the mid F-rank. I make it through to the peak E-rank before I stutter for more then ten minutes and the dummies stop before getting tougher without me destroying them, low D-rank another ten minutes and another increase in strength.
I make it to the low C-grade before I got hit and Low B-grade to die, in total I made it to round 14 and made 110 points ten points for each extra round.
The eight room is a room filled with pictures and sound boxes.
[Name the monster and their respective sound, name ten to pass and extra points will be rewarded for extra.]
I name all the monsters easily and get 300 points for the task.
Entering the ninth room it is pitch black and no noise is around, I also begin to float and gravity has clearly been removed from the room.
[Your task is to survive the attack in ever changing and evolving terrain it may even change mid fight, last ten minutes to continue and each minute after will be rewarded extra points.]
I feel enemies appear in my area but see nothing but they are like the puppet from room two and so easy to deal with, at the five minute mark the room changed to a desert and I can now see the puppets. Every five minutes the room change until the thirty minute mark then it changes randomly, one second you are floating next second hurtling through the sky and next on the ocean.
I survive two hours before I die at the hands of the puppets due to terrain change, they may be easy to deal with but with enough of them and a optimal terrain dealing with them for hours on end they can eventually overcome you. I get a total of 110 coins one coin for each extra minute I survived past the required time.
Finally I enter a room that is like a military area with a fence surrounding a clear training field with people running around and a lot of sparring and people practicing, a person in a uniform approaches and says.
"You are the 1,896th person to reach this spot from your spawn group and are the last of your team to arrive, you team is in the 300th position in finishing and you may now remain here for the remaining 5 days that are set aside for the task takers."
I follow him as he takes me to the barracks with the team and I can see them looking at me in question as I should have been able to complete that quicker then that.
"I took as much time to get extra points as I figured they would have a great worth or the tower wouldn't offer them in exchange for tower coin reward. I understand if not pleased but wait to see what they are-"
Wyatt cuts in, "They are to increase ones ranking and take time off the score, one point equals ten minutes off the time, so how many points did you get as I alone can take our 40 hour time to negative three. The rest put together can get it to negative 646 but as the points can be used to buy items on the twentieth floor that has no other way to get it is best if we all have a large amount."
I have 1,386 points and can get us even further down if need be, exactly 231 hours less but I agree I need to wait so as to save points.
"I have 1,386 points so no need to worry about most others as I guess the max is probably 1,500 points. As long as no team that is close to me we should be fine." I say to him.
I see his approval and feel the same stuffy feeling of pride from being praised by such a capable person, it is clear we are more combat oriented so most probably think our numbers are limited but we have plenty for when it is needed. I join them for basic training drills and practices designed for each persons current Grade and abilities.
When the seventh day rolls around and all 5,000 teams are here and are waiting in their designated area to get their final score, as the points will be deducted evenly from all members until first place is attained and only then will the points stop leaving.
We wait and finally the score board starts to change and the numbers drop dramatically as they enter negative numbers and finally ours stops at negative 543 with me now with 750 points.
---Your team has completed the task with the least time, rewarding ten tower coins to all members, your team will now be sent to the next floor when ready---
[Team Asher:
Contribution list:
1st-Aadi
2nd-Kian
3rd-Amara
(Expand to see full list)
Team ranking:
1st-Team Asher
2nd-Team Donner
3rd-Team Nuka
(Expand to see full list)]
With that I appear at a open area near the center of the twentieth floor with my team, I look at them and wait for a minute as it is time for me to cancel my position in their team, Wyatt takes me to the guild and we sign a paper that says both sides agree to allow me to leave the team but am still unable to speak of the others secrets.
With that I head home with a certain sadness to part with the team but knowing it is for the best.