It took me several hours to explain the full scope of floors six to ten. During this time, I had explained how marks worked, the ways I knew of to upgrade them, and potential methods that could help upgrade their marks. This ranged from everything to dueling the gate guards like Flynn had for his first mark, to becoming a crafter for the city to hopefully get into the inner walls.

During all of these explanations I had done my best to draw out a map of the city. I had spotted one during my brief time in the Kings castle, and thanks to my stats my memory was good enough to recall a good portion of it. What I couldn’t remember I did my best to supplement with memories of the time I had spent in the capital.

After each team had decided on their plans of action to progress, they headed down to the sixth floor all together. Only one of the groups decided to duel the gate guards, while the other two had decided to try and overthrow some gang leader to upgrade their marks. After that they would make it as far as they could through the progression of tournaments, switching to fulfilling any job contracts people may have once they couldn’t progress any further. A part of me did wonder if any of them would end up facing the spear queen, or if she would even remember fighting me and Flynn.

That was something that had been on my mind ever since completing the chain floors. If you couldn't return after completing them, then what was stopping the system from just scrubbing the memories of the city residents to keep from the floors becoming harder or more complicated over time? It made sense that would be how it worked, but I sincerely hoped it didn’t. I still didn’t know if those people within the tower were “real” or not, and I was unsure if I wanted to actually know the answer to that.

It didn’t matter much anyways. By the end of the tutorial they would all probably be gone.

I spent the rest of the day practicing my mana control while I waited for the meeting time with Flynn. I ran back over to the great city and made it to the staircase almost exactly at the time we had agreed to meet. He was already there, but he didn’t look like he’d been waiting for long.

We headed down to floor twelve, appearing within the air bubble at the start of the floor. After a little bit of talking, me and Flynn had decided that we would stick together while progressing through the floors, at least for now. With the two of us fighting side by side, there was very little that could pose any kind of threat to us.

The schools of fish we had needed to fight on the previous floor were now replaced by small groups of sharks that tried to bite right through my mana shield. We had been forced to kill most of them before they could even reach that point, as each bite would take a lot of mana to block.

You have killed Bull Shark (Level 34) x 6

I still wasn’t getting any levels, and even by the time we had completed the entire floor, I hadn’t gained a single one. Flynn on the other hand had gained two levels, as his was already low enough to be even with the enemies we faced.

You have completed floor 12

Welcome to floor 13: Champions Deep

Floor 13 proved to be a big jump in difficulty from floor 12. We were now regularly facing monsters around level 40, and after only an hour or so I finally gained my first level since fighting the King.

You are now level 40

Skill selection available

“Let's stop here for a moment.” I tell Flynn. “I have to select my level 40 skill.”

“Fine by me.” Flynn says, taking a seat on the ground nearby. I take a look at the skills I’d been offered, pleasantly surprised by how good they all seem. There were various offensive and defensive spells that looked like they would be nice to have, but in truth they didn’t particularly interest me. I’d realized after my level 30 skill selection that the only skills that would be useful to pick were support skills. Sure, learning to cast a fireball would be cool and all, but having a passive skill that boosted just about everything else I did would be far more useful.

Support Skills:

Materialize (Rare)

Materialize an object from within your aura, summoning it to any point within your aura.

Aura Harvest (Rare)

Increase the regeneration of mana within your aura by drawing upon the mana in your environment. Also provides a small boost to all mana recovery.

Aura Blueprints (Epic)

Store blueprints of mana constructs within your aura to summon at any time for a low cost. Provides a small increase to the strength of all items summoned with this skill.

They all seemed in some way related to my aura, and I definitely wasn’t about to complain about that. Anything that would increase how useful it was would be a boon in the long run.

The first option, materialize, just seemed to be exactly what I was already doing. I could retrieve items from my aura, but with this skill I could summon them anywhere within my aura. That sounded like it would have a few niche uses as best, and I didn’t see myself using it much.

Aura harvest on the other hand was something I would use constantly. Being able to recover quicker between fights would serve to increase how quickly I could progress through the floors of the tower, and would slightly increase my effectiveness in a battle of endurance.

Aura blueprint seemed like it was tailor made to synergize with my mana-festation skill. I could have premade items ready in my aura to summon at any moment for cheaper than usual, and they would be stronger than normal as well. Given that it would make one of my most useful skills even better, it was hard to overlook.

After a bit of back and forth debating, and asking Flynn’s opinion on the matter, I ended up choosing Aura Harvest. The boost to recovery it provided was just too good to pass up, especially on a floor like this where I was constantly using mana just to keep the water from collapsing in all around us.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

It took us almost an entire day to make it to the end of this floor. It wasn’t due to any difficulty we had with the enemies, but just because we needed to move slowly with this bubble of mana around us. The water was constantly fighting against any movements we wanted to make, so progress was slow but steady.

Eventually we reached the end of the floor, having each gained several levels. I myself had made it to level 43, while Flynn had just crested level 40 with this most recent fight. Upon entering the next floor, Flynn was no longer standing by my side. I wasn’t even underwater anymore. I was standing on the deck of a ship with rain pouring down from above.

You have completed floor 13

Welcome to floor 14: Sail the Seas (Instanced)

Defend the vessel long enough to reach the end of the floor. Estimated time to arrival: 18 hours

This floor was instanced, so me and Flynn had finally been split up. At least it seemed to have a set time to complete it, so me and Flynn would be done roughly at the same time. Looking around me, I saw that there was an entire crew of people manning this ship, and identifying them revealed every single one of them to be level 35. All apart from the captain of course.

Human (Level 40)

“Welcome aboard the vessel.” The captain says, sticking out a hand. She had a raspy voice, a hook for a hand, and a prosthetic leg that looked barely more advanced than a peg leg. I shook her hand.

“Happy to be aboard.” I say. “Anything you need me to do?”

__________

Many have dreamed of sailing the seven seas with a trusty crew to back them up. Let me be the first to tell you that it is not all it is hyped up to be. Sure it was fun at first learning how to tie a bunch of the knots needed and how to hoist the sails, but eventually it just got tedious and boring. The only thing that broke up the monotony was the occasional monster attacking the ship. The first three times the entire crew had scrambled to grab weapons to fend off the beast, but after I had effectively crushed a level 45 colossal squid with a quadruple cast of mana blast straight to it’s eye, they seemed to realize I had it handled and didn’t panic quite as much whenever a new threat arrived.

The floor ended right at the 18 hour mark, with me finally getting to leave the ship and stand on dry land once more. I was now on an island with a new appreciation of solid ground. I had reached level 46 in my time on the vessel, and I could tell level 50 was not far off. Talking to the King had made me come to the conclusion that level 50 was when my next evolution would be, and it would likely be accompanied with another jump in power.

It would also probably be accompanied with my class taking a whole new direction than before. I had already come to the conclusion that I wanted my next class change to focus more on my trait than anything else. It had been nice to have my mana conversion spell, and it definitely had seen its use, but it just wasn’t as useful as I had been hoping it would be.

A few minutes after I’d arrived on the island, Flynn appeared next to me. It was only then that I checked the notification for this floor.

Welcome to floor 15: Pirates Rest (Boss)(Semi-instanced)

Defeat the Boss at the center of the island.

We both read the notification, and I turn to Flynn. “What would you think about us doing this floor separately? It would definitely be beneficial for levels of nothing else.”

Flynn thinks about it for a moment. “How about we go check out the boss first. We can think about it after that.”

“Alright.”

We make our way through the surprisingly jungle-like forest that covers the island. After some time we reach the edge of a clearing and find the boss that the system had spoken of.

Pirate Lord (Level 49)(Boss)

It hadn’t even identified as human, despite appearing to be one in just about every respect. At least, I thought it had. When it turned around and faced us, I saw that half of its face was missing, replaced with a green fire that came from it’s skull. A single red eye glowed from behind the fire, piercing through the bright flames and straight into our souls.

“Think you can handle it?” I ask Flynn.

“I’ll give it a shot. How about you fight it first so I can get an idea of what it is capable of.”

“Using me as a guinea pig? How rude.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t want to fight it on your own anyways. You were the one who suggested it. I am just taking advantage of the opportunity.”

“Fair enough.” I say, shrugging. “Well, watch and see how a master does it.” I rub my hands together and walk out into the clearing.

“Now I am almost hoping you get your ass handed to you.” Flynn mutters.

“Well I am sorry to disappoint, but that will not be happening.”

“Whatever you say.”

I rush towards the Pirate Lord, immediately summoning my dagger in one hand and a shield in the other. The boss raises the blunderbuss it has in one hand, pulling the trigger and firing it at me.

A volley of mana pellets shoots my way, and with how many there are I struggle to dodge all of them. About a quarter of them hit me head on. The other hand of the pirate lord raises with its scimitar in hand, meeting the swing of my dagger halfway. He parries my strike, once more raising his gun to fire at me. I manage to dodge it this time, delivering a cut across the chest of the boss monster.

Empower it already at full burn, as I need all the speed I can possibly get right now. The pirate lord's hands seem to be acting independently of one another, with the left hand firing a volley of mana bullets every few seconds and the right hand constantly swinging the scimitar around to keep up the pressure.

I manage to sneak in plenty of mana blasts, each one dealing considerable damage when done up close. The skin of the boss is far tougher than the skin of any human should be, and I throw in a few mana splinters to pierce through and deal more meaningful damage.

By the time the boss seems to have finally gotten sick of me chipping away at it, it suddenly leaps back and far away from me. It raises its hand to the sky, and an utterly massive anchor made of pure mana descends from above and pierces the earth. A chain of mana shoots towards me faster than I can react, and soon enough I am tethered to the anchor now in the ground.

I am unable to move more than 20 feet from the anchor, and the pirate lord takes this to its advantage. The flames on its face seem to glow even brighter than before, and when it fires its blunderbuss in my direction, a jet of green flames erupts out of it instead of mana bullets.

I dodge to the side, forced to kite around the monster since I can’t make very much distance. As the jet of flames subsides, I get in close and deliver spell after spell into the monster as it too sends attacks my way.

Its sword scrapes against my mana shield countless times, and even manages to punch through more than once, leaving holes and gashes across my body. Its flames and bullets are at least not capable of punching through, so I don’t have to worry as much about them as I do the scimitar.

After what feels like forever of chipping away at the body of the pirate lord, it finally falls. The fight was only about ten minutes, but every second of it had been filled with danger and risk. That was exactly the kind of rush I looked for in a fight.

You have slain Pirate Lord (Level 49)(Boss)

Bonus experience earned for fighting an enemy of a higher level. Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss. Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss without assistance.

You are now level 47

You are now level 48

You are now level 49

Damn. I knew getting to level 50 from this fight was a bit of a long shot, but it was still a little disappointing to see I hadn’t quite made the cutoff. I could probably make it with just a day or so of training my mana, so that was probably the route I would be taking.

“You ready to give it a shot on your own?” I call out to Flynn as he walks up.

“I am.” He says, looking down at the sword the pirate lord had just been wielding.

“Go ahead and take it.” I say. “I wasn’t going to be using it either way.”

“Thank you.” He takes the sword and admires it. His last upgrade to his weapon hadn’t been since floor five, so this would be quite a bonus for him. “Could you come with me to make sure I don’t get myself killed?”

“I don’t see why not.”

We head back to the first floor, almost immediately teleporting back to floor 15. We make our way to the clearing where the boss is, and I watch for about five minutes as Flynn battles against the Pirate Lord. After a few missed attacks and messed up dodges, Flynn is on the backfoot and is quickly losing ground. He has already dealt enough damage to force the Pirate Lord to drop its anchor into the ground and chain him to it, leaving much less room to maneuver than he had been previously afforded.

After he gets his arm blown off by a volley of mana, I step in and knock the pirate lord off it’s feet with a triple cast of concussive mana blasts. That gives Flynn the advantage he needs to finish off the fight with a swift decapitation of the monster.

You have slain Pirate Lord (Level 49)(Boss)

Bonus experience earned for slaying a boss.

You are now level 50

Prepare for evolution...

I don’t even get the chance to say anything as everything around me goes black and I am forcefully dragged into my soul for my next evolution.