Reaching level 50 had given me a significant boost to basically everything I could do. Upgrading my spells was only a matter of making them a bit more complicated and potent. With a mind stat that was now over 33% higher than it had been before, the leap from rare to epic rarity had not been a tough on for either of my primary offensive spells.
For Mana Blast, I had added a function that let me charge the spell for a second or two before releasing it, increasing the strength of each attack without increasing the cost. It had been enough to push it over the edge to epic rarity.
Mana Blast (Rare) has been upgraded to Arcane Blast (Epic)
I didn’t get a level from upgrading the spell since it hadn’t been anything impressive. I didn’t get a level from upgrading my other offensive spell either, since that hadn’t been too hard either.
Mana Splinter (Rare) has been upgraded to Arcane Splinter (Epic)
I had upgraded this one pretty much the same way I had upgraded my other spell. I could charge either spell to be about 30% stronger if I gave it ten seconds to charge. Any longer than that and any increase in strength would barely be noticeable.
After both of my spells were upgraded, I headed straight for the 15th floor to test them out and test the new staff I could now use.
Stepping into the clearing where the Pirate Lord waited, I shot a weak mana bolt at it to get its attention. It started running towards me, firing a volley of mana bullets my way. I dodged them easily, swinging my staff around to be close to its face. A charged arcane blast erupted out of the staff, empowered by the powerful weapon. A chunk of the monsters face was blown off by the attack, and immediately my leg was wrapped up by the same ethereal chain the boss used whenever it was seriously injured.
I sent an spike of mana through the chain to see if I could break it, but unfortunately the chain was a bit too strong for that. The Pirate Lord began to move quicker and swing its sword at me rapidly, firing off mana volleys at the same time. Every attack was either dodged or blocked by my staff, and after I felt like I had gotten a decent handle on my new capabilities, I decided it was finally time to test the ability my staff offered that I was most curious about.
Jabbing the staff into the torso of the Pirate Lord, I released all three charges of Arcane Blast that I had stored up before the fight. They all combine into one far more powerful cast of the spell, and given that I’d spent some time charging it, it was only further strengthened. The spell erupted forth with easily five times the power I would normally be able to put into it.
For lack of a better word, the boss monster before me exploded. It’s entire midsection had been reduced to mush, and blood had sprayed out in a cone behind it when my attack landed.
The Pirate Lord fell over dead a second later, the fight ending without it having landed a single hit on me. I didn’t get any experience since it was a lower evolution than myself.
I looked at the staircase that had appeared upon the monsters’ death. When I had been bringing Flynn back to the great city after his fight with this boss, he had told me he wouldn’t be attempting to progress further through the floors until he was able to kill the Pirate Lord on his own, which probably meant he would be getting to level 49 himself before fighting the boss again.
I saw no reason to not at least scout out the next couple of floors, so I walked down the staircase, wondering what the next floors held.
Welcome to Floor 16: Dark Dungeon (Chain)(Semi-instanced)
Each floor of this dungeon contains one boss and one hidden boss. All bosses will drop a powerful item to assist you through the floors, which will disappear after completing floor 20. On floor 20 you will encounter your first raid boss, a designation not earned from it’s power buts it’s pure size. Prepare well as you travel through these floors, as a raid boss is not to be taken lightly.
So, a new type of boss to worry about. So far in the tower I had yet to ever see a monster that truly seemed too big to deal with. The closest anything had come to that was the sharks on floors 13 and 14. They had been getting quite large, but it had still at least been manageable. I was getting excited at the idea of fighting something even larger, and so I begin walking with a sure stride and determination.
After taking just a few steps, the floor lowers a little under the weight of my foot. It was a feeling similar to missing a step on a staircase, with dread immediately filling my very soul as my foot does not find purchase. I quickly leap backwards, barely avoiding the arrow that had been fired where my head just was.
Of course a dungeon would have traps. Why wouldn’t it? I should have expected it. Even still, my eyes were glued to the floor in front of me as I walked. Apparently these pressure plates were well hidden, because there had been one somewhere I was certain I had cleared.
A large rock rolls through the hallway, filling the entire thing. I brace myself and send a charge of arcane blast from my staff, cracking the large rock in half. While it rolled, the boulder had activated a few other traps as it passed by. That gave me an idea, so after squeezing past the boulder I use arcane arsenal to summon my own boulder. It wasn’t as large as the other one had been, but this one was a cylinder, allowing it to hit any pressure plate it passed over.
That made traversing the floor a good bit easier, as every trap was activated before I was ever at risk of getting hit by it. There were a few weak monsters in my way, but none of them were over level 49. I mostly ignored them, killing the ones that weren’t already running away from me. It seemed monsters at this level at least recognized the futility of trying to kill something of a higher evolution than themselves. Remembering the overwhelming pressure that the King had exuded, I could absolutely understand the desire to retreat.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
During my traversal of the floor I had plenty of time to think about what was to come on floor 20. The dungeon wouldn’t be rewarding such powerful items if the boss was going to be a pushover. It was probably intended to be near impossible to kill without the assistance of these items. Since I was on my own for it, I would need to collect as many of these items as I could get my hands on. I was pretty curious just how strong these items could be, and if they were anything like the staff the King had given me then I would become a powerhouse in no time.
It took me a few hours to make my way to the end of the dungeon. The boss at the end was a level 49 Orc that used a bow as its primary weapon. It was pretty easy to take down, and even though it was a boss I got absolutely zero experience for defeating it since it hadn’t evolved. The body had disappeared as soon as it had died, leaving nothing but the bow remaining.
Tri-Shot Bow (Epic)
Duplicate a fired arrow into three separate arrows, each with 50% the power of the original.
The orc had used the triple shot feature of the weapon, not that it had helped much. I didn’t see a situation where I’d be using this weapon. The staircase appeared in the center of the boss room, but instead of going down into it I turned around to search for where the hidden boss of the floor could be. It took almost as long to find that as it did to find the boss room. It had been hidden behind a false wall that was only given away by the fact that light could be seen coming through the cracks.
The hidden boss of the floor was considerably more powerful than the orc had been. It was a goblin only about as tall as I was. It had two short swords as weapons and a cloak that covered most of its body. The boots on its feet were clearly enchanted, having a subtle green glow coming from the soles.
Goblin Duelist (Level 50)(Boss)
“A duelist?” I say aloud, not having expected the moniker. Could monsters also have a class? My best guess was that it had some way to isolate a fight against a single target, if for even a small amount of time. Unfortunately for this poor monster, I was also a duelist, and a damn good one if I do say so myself.
The goblin flew towards me, its feet moving rapidly. Each foot fall was barely audible, I quickly summoned a short sword into my offhand to parry the first incoming strike, the second being blocked by my staff. The monster was thrown back by an arcane blast, landing on its feet with surprising ease. I dashed towards it, not wanting to give any time to recover. Even though I’d been quick, the goblin had still fully gained its footing by the time I reached it.
Blow after blow was exchanged, and the room was filled with the terrible sound of metal scratching against metal as our weapons clashed time and time again. After almost ten minutes of fighting, the goblin finally seemed to run out of stamina as it collapsed to the ground, succumbing to its wounds. It disappeared in a flash of light, the boots it wore being the only item it had left behind.
You are now level 51
Sure Footed Boots (Epic)
+10% agility. Dampens nearly all sound from the wearer’s footsteps prevents the wearer from activating pressure plates.
The stealth provided by the boots wasn’t going to be very useful for me, but the speed and safety against the traps was very nice. If the next floor was anything like this one, that would be a very useful feature. After sliding the shoes on and storing my old ones away in my aura, I went back to the main boss room and headed straight down to the next floor. I was really hoping that there would be some level 50 monsters’ to fight so I could actually start gaining levels again.
__________
“We’ve done everything we can up to this point to prepare everyone for the end of their time in the tutorial.” Ben says, addressing everyone else in the room. The outpost was currently having a meeting regarding what would happen to everybody who left the tutorial in just a bit over a week.
“Hopefully it was enough to prepare them all for whatever they are getting thrown into.” One of the council members says.
Nobody really knew what would be happening after the tutorial ended. The most prominent opinion was that they would simply be back on Earth, just as it had been before the tutorial. Things would be different with the introduction of the system, but life would go on and be mostly recognizable as “normal”.
The other best guess at what would happen after the tutorial was that they’d return to Earth, but the planet would be much different than it was now. Some guessed that modern infrastructure would have collapsed, others assumed that it would be reverted back to a single mega-continent like it had been during the days of the dinosaurs.
The scariest guess that people had, and the one that everyone was preparing for, was that they would be dropped onto an unfamiliar planet with danger and battle around every corner. The tutorial was clearly trying to prepare them for something, and they wanted to be ready for whatever that could be.
Four of the Six members of the outposts council were D rank and would be leaving the tutorial soon. The only two exceptions were Ben, who claimed to be A rank, and Roderick, the main town guard and the sole C rank on the council.
Surveying the city had revealed that just about everybody who was C rank or higher was fairly capable, and so Ben wasn’t too worried about having just two members on the council soon. They could always ask for help from some of the other members of the outpost if they truly needed it. What Ben was nervous for was the inevitability that was the last 30 days of the tutorial. He still had yet to come across anybody who had an S Tier Pioneer title, let alone an S+ tier title. That meant that the tower would be quite empty for the last 60 days. Hell, even the last 90 days. He had only met a dozen or so A ranks, and most of them had been the leader of a nearby city or somebody making an effort to climb through the floors.
Speaking of leaders of cities...
“Are you all ready to discuss what I came here for?” An impatient voice asked from the back of the room. Ben looked over and saw the short yet extremely hot tempered leader of the great city. She had arrived just before the council meeting, so she had been allowed to sit in and ask her questions after it had concluded.
“Go ahead.” Bed says.
“Great.” The woman says, standing up and putting both hands on the table. “Now, I am sure a member of your outpost had already mentioned this to you, but we at the great city are making an effort to make trade and commerce among everybody easier by introducing a standard currency.”
“Nobody ever mentioned anything like that.” Roderick says, shrugging. “Any of you hear anything about it?” He asks the rest of the council.
His question is met with multiple head shakes, though Ben’s head shakes slower than the others. He briefly recalled when River had come to him and spoke nonsense. He had only spoken the words “currency” and “money” before returning to normal. Had he met her before? He always seemed to be somehow involved in things. It wouldn’t be too surprising if the leaders of the great city had taken an interest in who was likely the highest leveled individual in the tower at the moment.
“Oh.” The woman finally says, seeming thrown off for a moment. “Well anyways, we want this currency to be something that can be brought out of the tutorial as well, that way the economy can have a chance to grow before we all complete our time in the tutorial.”
“That seems to not take into account those who would be leaving first.” Ben says.
“Admittedly they will have a rough time, but having a way to trade effectively is the anchor that binds all efforts to create a civilization. Without it, we will have a much harder time getting off the ground.”
“I can’t say that doesn’t make sense.” One of the council members says. “What would we use as the standard?”
The woman smiles, sliding a single circular piece of metal on the table. It shone a bright silver and had a large “S” engraved into it.
“An age-old and reliable method. Allow me to introduce the coin.”