As it turns out, Hassan’s entire camp was treated to stew by the several chefs they had around. It seems that since the worry of that assassin disappeared, people have been much more productive. I was throwing an identify to just about everybody I passed by, curious what the average level had become since I had begun training. Most people I spotted were at least level 5, better than what I had been expecting but also lower than I felt it really should be. Hell, I’d gained well over 5 levels just from working on my skills.
I found Hassan pretty quickly, and he spotted me as I was approaching.
“River! Great to see you again.” He said, shaking my hand. “What have you been up to recently? I imagine you’ve been tearing through the floors like before.”
“Not quite.” I say, shaking my head. “Took a break from that to really focus on trying to improve my spells and such. I am typically alone when clearing floors, so making sure I am ready is pretty important. I have yet to actually visit floor 6 yet.”
Hassan's eyes widen in surprise. “Really? So you don’t know very much about the floor yet?”
“Haven’t heard anything about it. Has anyone else gone down there yet?”
“Plenty of people have. Only a few from here have, but from what I hear entire parties from the great city have recently begun exploring it.”
“The great city?” I ask, not knowing what he is referring to. “Sorry, I’ve been a bit isolated this past week. Think you can catch me up?”
“No problem. The great city is the largest organization of people to crop up since the tutorial started. About 500,000 people live in the city right now, and they all work together to support the whole.”
“How do they even feed that many people?” I ask, amazed.
“Honestly, I have no idea. you don’t need as much food as you level up, but even then it would be an enormous effort to feed even a tenth of that population.”
“Damn. I might have to take a trip there sometime soon and check it out.”
“If you do, I recommend you do so soon.” Hassan says.
“Why?”
“In 16 days, everyone who got a personal rank of D is being ejected from the tutorial.”
The memory of having read that in the initial part of the tutorial comes back to mind. “Oh yeah, I can’t believe I forgot about that. Do you know how many people that is exactly?”
“From collecting data from various settlements and from the great city itself, it accounts for about 80% of everybody in the tutorial.”
That hits me like a ton of bricks. “Hang on, 80% of the entire population is just going to be gone in 16 days?”
“They will.” He says. “And in another 30 days, another 80% of what remains will be gone. It’s actually quite interesting, with each subsequent interval taking another 80% of what remains. If you don’t mind me asking, what is your rank?”
“S-” I have to cut myself off before I add “plus”. Everybody with the S+ rank had agreed to keep that hidden, at least for the time being. I couldn’t just let it be known that there even was an S+ rank. That would be unfair to the others.
“S?” Hassan repeats, looking shocked. “That is way higher than I would have expected. Were you a politician of some kind before the tutorial. A business tycoon or something?”
For this part I can at least be honest. “Uh, no. I was just a pretty good physicist.”
“Still, that is quite impressive. You will be here for quite a while then. I myself only got C tier on my personal evaluation. I will be kicked out in the second wave.”
“At least you will be back to help everyone from the first wave sooner than I will.” I say. I hadn’t thought about it much when I’d initially learned about it, but if I was really here for that much longer than everyone else, then a lot will have happened by the time I get back. “Now you got me hoping that there is some way to leave the tutorial early.”
“Maybe there is.”
“What do you mean?”
Hassan nods his head in the general direction of the staircase to the next floor. “Perhaps you can leave early if you reach the end of the tower, however long that may take.”
I look towards the staircase, the motivation to go explore sparking just a bit brighter than before.
__________
Welcome to floor 6, The Outer walls (Chain)
The capital of Eridon is the largest and most defended city on the continent. Through its many trials and tribulations, it unfortunately fell into the pits of a caste system. All who enter are marked, and their mark indicates their place in society. With better marks comes more privilege.
Floors 6 to ten are the first chain floors on within the tower. Your actions on chain floors effect the outcomes of events on the following floors, and your actions may carry severe consequences should they not be fully thought through. In the worst of cases, progress in the tower may be brought to a halt entirely.
Current Marks: Mark of the Peasant (Tier 1)
Allows one legal entry to the slums of Eridon City.
Sheesh, no pressure I guess. Looking around, it was clear that the “slums” was quite an accurate way to describe where I was. The streets, buildings, and people all seemed to have a thin layer of dirt that hadn’t been cleaned off in a while. The entire area was situated next to an utterly massive wall that had to have stretched hundreds of meters into the sky. The faint glimmer of a magical barrier made it clear that even if one were to clear the wall, they wouldn’t have an easy time advancing any further.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
As I turn my attention back to the immediate area, I see that there isn’t much activity around me. Most everyone present was doing pretty much nothing besides chatting amongst themselves. Overall the energy of the place was pretty low. After a few minutes of walking I spot something that I had really not wanted to see, but probably should have expected sooner or later.
“Hand it over.” I large man shouts, throwing a much smaller man against the side of a building. The wood creaks but manages to hold against the impact. The man who’d been thrown was holding a paper bag that seemed to be filled with... something. I actually didn’t know what it was, but clearly the larger man wanted it.
“Please, I need to-” The victim of this burglary shouts, but he his silenced by a kick to the side from the big man. Before another kick could follow it up, the attacker was prone on the ground, barely conscious after being hit by a concussive mana bolt. I’d needed to hold back quite a bit on it, as when I had scanned the man before launching the attack I had found him to be only level 11. The man with the bag was only level 8, an easy target for anyone who’d evolved.
I walk over and helped the man to his feet. “You alright?”
“Yes, thank you kind sir.” He says, bowing deeply. “I appreciate that you took the time to help.”
I see him glance at my shoulder, though quickly look away. That makes me unconsciously rub my shoulder wondering what about it had drawn his attention, but I quickly realize when I feel a slight bumpy texture that had not been there previously. I roll up the sleeve of my robe and find a pattern embedded in my skin with what looked like a bronze shine. It resembled the roman numeral for one.
The man also sees this, and visibly relaxes. “Oh, sorry about that. I had thought you were one of the passing salesmen from within the city.”
“No, just someone passing by.” I say, realizing that the mark on my arm symbolized the mark of the peasant that was now displayed in my status screen.
“Well I must say, you are quite well dressed and well kept for someone down here.”
“I try to be.” I say, not knowing how to explain that his reality was just a stepping stone for me within a tower beyond his comprehension. I think it would just be best to keep where I came from vague. I tap the slowly recovering thief with my foot. “He come here often?”
The other man grimaces. “Unfortunately yes. Him and all of Jiggun’s men. They think that just because they have a few more levels mean they can push us around.” He sighs. “Sadly, they are right in that assumption.”
“Do you know where I can find Jiggun?” I ask, an idea forming in my head for how I can move on to the next floor.
“Well I don’t know where he is right now. He tends to not spend too long hanging around one area.”
“Damn.” I mutter. Looks like I am going to have to track down this gang leader myself.
“He could probably tell you though.” The man says, pointing the the thief on the ground. I look down at him, taking a moment to think before grinning. The tip of my finger begins to glow and sizzle as I ready up a mana bolt leveled straight at his face.
“You wouldn’t mind taking me to your leader, would you?”
And that is how I ended up getting guided through the slums to a fairly remote area. There wasn’t anybody within a few hundred yards of the gangs hideout, which was more of a thrown together camp. When we arrived, a severely overweight man greeted me. “Welcome! I take it you’d like to join up with us?”
Had I not been accompanied by another member of the gang, he probably wouldn’t have made such a widely incorrect assumption. If this was the gang leader, he clearly wasn’t a dumb one. He seemed to be tipped off by the pure look of fear on the face of my tour guide. He went from sitting to standing within a quarter second, but I didn’t see him as too much of a threat. I turn to my tour guide. “Is that Jiggun?”
The man only has time for one quick nod before the head of the gang leader disappears, a heavily empowered mana bolt having removed it cleanly from the rest of the body.
You have slain Human (level 20)
Experience reduced for fighting an enemy of a lower level.
I’ll admit, it was a little overkill. It was more about sending a message though, one that ever single member of the gang seemed to receive loud and clear if the looks on their faces were anything to go by. Just in case they hadn’t gotten the memo, I look around to all of them, raising my voice loud enough so they could all hear it. “I’ll give you all the chance to get the hell out of here. Anyone who even thinks of replacing that man can come and challenge me now.”
Not a single person present decided they wanted to try and avenge their fallen leader. They all ran off in different directions, not seeming to have a goal other than to get away from me. The only person who didn’t run was the thug who had brought me here. He was still to terrified to move. After I wave him away, he too takes off running.
Mark upgraded, Slum Lord (Tier 2)
Allows legal access to the outer most portion of the city.
I don’t know how exactly I should feel about that new name for my mark, but it did what I needed it to do. A quick glance at my shoulder brought relief and peace of mind. My symbol had become a roman numeral two instead of something else that may potentially represent my new role as a Slum Lord.
Making my way to the wall surrounding the city, I find a gate not too far away from where I’d initially reached the wall. The guards allowed me to pass through with little trouble, and just like that I had made it within the city proper.
Welcome to floor 7, Eridon Outskirts (Chain)
Welcome to the outskirts of Eridon City, where 80% of the cities population resides. Most people stay within this ring of the city their entire life, though a few manage to climb to the higher echelons of society and journey within the inner walls of the city.
I look around, getting a lay of the land. Once more there was an absolutely massive wall that blocked off where I needed to get to next. This one wasn’t quite as tall, but the dome of mana over it shined even brighter, probably because it was far harder to penetrate.
I had only gotten a small taste of the slums before coming into the city. From what I could gather, the slums wrapped around the entire outer wall of the city. I had seen not even a fraction of that before gaining a tier two mark and gaining entry to the city.
I had gotten kind of lucky finding a way in so quickly, because the next six hours of searching were spent wandering the city in hopes of finding something that looked at all like it could be a possible avenue to continue. Eventually I found my lucky break in the form of an advertisement. It mentioned something about a free for all event out at the colosseum, which I hadn’t even known existed until seeing the advertisement. Sure enough, it existed. I hadn’t been able to see it because of the massive wall that essentially made the entire ring into a large donut that you couldn’t see the other side of.
I got a bit more information on the tournament upon arriving. Sadly, It wouldn’t be starting until sunset. That meant I had a few hours to kill until it was time for the event, which meant that I would most likely find a nice tavern to sit in while practicing weaving with my mana or any number of control exercises.
I was stopped in my tracks when I noticed a group of people by the arena who also seemed to be waiting for it to begin. Seeing another group that was preparing to fight wasn’t unusual, but what really caught my attention was the equipment they carried around with them. The two mages on the team both had the robes and staff of the kobold shaman, with the sole archer on the team having the bow from the kobold archer slung over his back. The healer on the team wore some nice looking robes, though I couldn’t place exactly where they came from. The melee fighter of the group, a young looking man, wielded a shield in one hand and a modified version of the skeleton sentinels sword in the other. It had been made shorter and a bit thinner.
These people were not from this floor. They were people who had entered the tutorial, just like I had, and by the looks of it they have been here a least a bit longer than I have.
The archer of the group glances my direction, doing a double take when she realizes the robes I am wearing match that of the two mages in her party. She points me out to her group, and they all see me staring stupidly in their direction. One of the mages waves me over, and I approach them. The brief thought that I may somehow mess up their run-through of these chain floors passes through my mind, but I quickly suppress the thought. Surely nothing like that would happen, right?