I’ll admit it, I was a bit bummed that I wouldn’t get to see Blair’s sniper rifle in action. It would no doubt prove to be very valuable in the group’s fight against the titan. Long range attacks and single, extremely powerful attacks were both effective, and that sniper looked like it had both in spades.
While they made their way through the chain floors, I got back to the grind of making my way through the tower. They would probably take about two days to finish those floors, and Blair knew the titans strengths and weaknesses well enough to let the others know what to expect, so I wasn’t super worried that they’d have trouble with that fight.
I envied them. They got to do the fun floors while I was stuck slogging through a desert. Floor 24 was when I finally got to have some fun. That is because the end of that floor was when I finally reached level 70.
You are now level 70
Innate skill upgraded!
Dimensional Duel (3/5)
Effect 3: Place an arcane tag on a target within sight. Those marked with an arcane tag take slightly more damage from all attacks. If either party successfully retreats from the battle, they are given a temporary 10% reduction to all stats. This reduction is immediately nullified upon another tag being placed on the target.
The new ability to tag enemies to deal extra damage was nice, but that drawback seemed pretty nasty. If I didn’t manage to kill my opponent, I’d be slapped with a significant demerit to my stats. I didn’t even know how long it lasted, only that it was temporary. For all I knew it could last an entire week. Given that a large part of my class was about fighting monsters of a higher level, that penalty would also cripple my level gains for that time.
I also had something else waiting for me, something that I had been waiting on for a while now.
Skill selection available
I scrolled through all nine skills, reading over their descriptions and eliminating anything I obviously wouldn’t need. That ruled out almost every rare rarity skill, every attack spell, and all but one defensive skill. That left me with four choices that were actually worth considering. One defensive and three supportive.
Anchor (Epic)
Anchor yourself in place, canceling out all knockback you would have otherwise taken. Mana cost is determined by the amount of force canceled out.
Sustain (Rare)
Mana Regeneration is increased while an arcane tag is placed on a target. Leeches mana from a tagged target while they are within your aura.
Powerful Presence (Epic)
Slowly drains energy from the user when in use. While Powerful Presence is active, increases the passive pressure outputted by their aura, reducing the cost of all spells cast within.
Reflect (Epic)
Reflect a spell cast at you, with the mana cost determined by the strength and size of the spell.
They were all great. They wouldn’t be up for consideration if they weren’t. Sustain and Powerful Presence seemed to be all about increasing my effectiveness in a longer fight, though I didn’t know which would improve that more. Powerful Presence had the benefit of making my aura have more pressure when I “flexed” it.
Anchor would have been useful against the titan. I probably could have cut clean through its hand by anchoring myself in place while holding a sword in the path of the attacking hand. Reflect wouldn’t have been as useful, but I can think of several times in the past that it would have been useful.
Eventually I decided to just pick Powerful Presence. I needed to be able to last longer in a fight, and I already had enough skills and spells draining my mana. Being able to reduce the cost of those would definitely be nice. The fact that it specifically pointed out that it drained my energy instead of my mana probably meant I’d be exhausted after using it for a while, so I would have to save it for fights against bosses or very large groups of high level enemies.
Floor 25 passed quickly with me killing a sand shark that swam through the desert. I got another level under my belt for finishing that fight. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, floor 26 turned out to be another chain floor.
Welcome to floor 26: Hall of Divinity (Chain)(Instanced)
Throughout the history of the true universe, many have risen to power and claimed the title of God. Many such gods gain power through the worship of those weaker than them. On this floor, you will choose a god to serve for the next several floors. Explore the pantheon, and find the perfect deity for you.
I was in a large temple-like building. Dozens of shrines and altars of all kinds littered the place, with very powerful auras coming off of many of them. They each had a unique design, probably representing what their god was all about. There were shrines that had vines growing on them, others with fire coming off, and even one with skulls all over it. I’m pretty sure I won’t be picking that one.
I walked around the entire pantheon, the whole walk taking almost 30 minutes. The entire time I took note of any altars that were either interesting or had a particularly powerful aura. In total, there were ninety eight shrines, and out of those only six of them interested me. I walked over to the closest of the six, placing a hand on it. The altar had jagged edges and was made entirely of black stone. It had an elaborate pattern etched into the top of it, so I placed my hand in the center of the pattern.
My surroundings shifted from the pantheon to a dark field. Everything around me was grey, all except for my own body. A fog prevented me from seeing much further than a few dozen meters in front of me.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I take my hand off of the altar, and instantly the field disappears, leaving me in the pantheon once more. I gingerly place my hand back on the altar, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest when just a few inches in front of me, the face of a very old and very pale man fills my vision. He quickly moves back, giving me some space.
“Hello there.” The old man says, bowing to me. “I must say, I am honored that you have visited my altar first.”
“Are... you a god?” I ask, realizing the question was pretty pointless before I even finished asking it. Looking at the man before me, all I could feel was a sense of inferiority that let me know I was lesser than he was. It wasn’t a bad feeling or one that put me down, but simply a feeling that this man was just on an entirely different place of existence than myself in terms of power.
“Indeed I am.” He says, nodding. “A god of death, one of the strongest in the pantheon.”
“Oh.” I say, a bit put off by the title.
“Don’t worry. I am a god of death, not a god of killing. I don’t kill anymore than those who are gods of fire or water. I simply understand the importance and conceptual power of death.”
“Still, worshipping you might not be the right choice for me.” I say. I am about to remove my hand from the altar before the man chuckles.
“You say that as if I’d already extended an invitation to serve me.” He shakes his head, still smiling. “Though as the first to reach this floor, you would certainly be a valuable asset.”
I get a vague sense of Deja vu before latching onto what was just said. I’d let the opportunity to find an answer slip away last time such an opportunity had arisen, and I wasn’t about to do that again.
“You know you are within a tower?” I ask.
“Of course. I know this is the tower of Nixtias, I know that this is the tutorial for a newly introduced star system, and judging by your level I’d guess we are currently on floor 26.”
“How do you know all of that? I would have thought the system would prevent anyone from the tower from knowing they are within it.”
“You cannot trap a god and expect him to simply not notice.” The old man says, frowning. “I can’t say much more than that, as while the system cannot prevent me from knowing I am trapped here, it can punish me for overstepping my bounds.”
“Damn, that must suck.” I say. “Is there at least a reason you are trapped here, even if you couldn’t say what it is?”
“Oh yes, and a very good reason too. But enough with all this downer talk. How about I help you find which god here would actually suit you. I’m sure that given you are the first to arrive at this floor, any of the gods you meet would be eager to invite you to serve them.”
“Is serving a god really necessary?” I ask. “I mean it’s cool and all that I could gain the support of someone so powerful, but I don’t really like the idea of serving anybody.”
“Don’t worry about that. There are plenty like you, and even if you don’t serve a god there are other ways for there to be mutual benefits.” The old man waves away my concern.
“There are several ways one can benefit from a god.” He says. “The most common is worshipping a god and being able to draw a small fraction of their power to grow stronger. Depending on how favored you are by said god, the more power you can draw upon. This is the route you’d rather not go down, correct?”
“Correct.”
“Then the second option may very well be for you. You can bargain with a god to draw upon their power in exchange for just about anything the god desires. Let me tell you now, with you being the strongest participant in the tutorial, you already have a hell of a bargaining chip to work with.”
“That does sound a lot more appealing.” I say, thinking about that. I don’t know what exactly about me being so strong gave me leverage when bargaining with a god here, but I’d probably find out eventually.
“The last method is one that you would be very hard pressed to achieve. It involves earning the mark of a god. For just about anybody in the universe, earning the mark of a god is a rare and once in a lifetime opportunity. A god’s mark indicates that you are held in their highest regards, and should you die, said god will not take it lightly. They are expensive and risky to bestow, and by many are seen as too great a risk to ever consider.”
“Why would that even be an option?” I question. “If it is so risky, why would a god not just let it publicly be known that the person is in their good graces?”
“Because, placing a mark upon somebody is an investment. If you die, they will feel the backlash of your death through the loss of the mark. If you survive and eventually reach godhood yourself, the benefits to all those who marked you are great, and are greater the earlier in your lifespan they gave you the mark.”
“So it is basically a god’s version of gambling?”
“Basically. I myself have only ever bestowed a single mark, and it backfired quite badly. Now, let’s find you a god who would actually be of great benefit to you. Let me have a look at your status page.”
“How do I do that?”
“Just don’t resist.”
Before I can ask a follow up question, the old man’s eyes glow a piercing purple, and when I squint I can just barely make out the fact that there are tiny, indecipherable magic circles spinning around his irises. A feeling of nakedness fills my mind, and in front of him I can feel that there is nothing about me that is hidden.
“There is quite a lot to be proud of here.” The man says, now reading through my status sheet. “It is quite the list of accomplishments. Slaying a raid boss on your own, having one of the great traits, and on top of that having the S+ tier version of the pioneer title. I’m almost sad that I am going to help you find another god to work with.”
“Great traits?” I ask, raising an eyebrow.
“Hm?” The man says, looking away from the stat sheet for a moment and turning his attention to me. “Oh yes. I keep forgetting you are coming into this universe blind. The universe has collectively decided on 10 traits that are the ‘Great Traits’. They are essentially traits that are inherently more powerful than any other. That isn’t to say that one cannot grow their mediocre trait to be as good as yours, but as a baseline the great traits stand above the rest.”
I’m filled with a bit of pride that my trait is apparently considered so good, and I know it shows by the small smile on my face. “So, based off of all of that, what god would you recommend I try to work with?”
“Well if we were going purely off of your trait, then without hesitation I would recommend Hiradelle. He shares the same trait as you, and would give insight into it that no other could.”
“By your tone I get the feeling that you had someone else in mind?” I ask.
The old man sighs before speaking. “This is going to sound very selfish and extremely biased, but I think that what I can offer you if you serve- I mean work with me lines up very well with your skill set. During my time I was known as one of the greatest aura mages in the universe, even if that is no longer necessarily true.”
I think about that for a moment, genuinely considering it as an option. There was no reason to take a provided opportunity lightly. This was kind of like a job interview, and while I had never been good in those types of situations, I actually had some leverage this time.
“What makes you a better choice than that other guy?” I ask. “If him and I share the same trait, I am sure he is fairly good with his aura as well.”
The old man seems excited for a moment that I am actually considering his words. He begins to speak, eager to show what he is worth. “Well the most obvious reason would be that I am far more powerful than he is. He may be a great mage in his own right, but even in his specialties I outclass his capabilities through sheer level difference. He also has not taken his path down the same road you seem to be walking. You are a more combat focused individual, while he was always an enchanter and rune maker.”
“So even if he would be able to provide assistance with learning about my trait, you say you would be more all round helpful?” I ask, already knowing he’d be confirming it. Learning more about my trait was honestly pretty tempting, but that tidbit about the other god being an enchanter put me off of the choice. That was far from the path I walked, and he likely didn’t have too much advice on using the trait in combat that I wouldn’t be able to figure out by myself in due time.
“I’ll give you all the time you need to think.” The old man says. “Though if you need any extra reason to choose to work with me, just know that should you complete the final floor of the tower, you will earn my mark.”
“Can I have some time to think about it? I don’t see any reason that this would be a time sensitive choice.”
“Of course. Though if you do decide not to choose me, I do ask that you please come and let me know. I’d rather not sit and wait in anticipation if you’ve already run off with some other god.”
“I’ll let you know my choice when I make it.” I promise. “It shouldn’t be too long anyways. I’d like to meet with several of the other gods while I weigh my options.”
“I understand.” The old man says, before reaching out into the air and grabbing a piece of paper that had not been there just a second ago. “Take this. I imagine you don’t want to go through that uncomfortable process of being scanned again.”
I look down at the paper, seeing that it was a complete copy of my status sheet. I could sense mana infused into the paper, and it was of a quality and purity that I couldn’t even dream of matching. It was likely there to prove the legitimacy of what was written on it.
“Thanks.” I say. “I’ll see you again soon.”
With that, I finally take my hand off of the black altar. The gray field disappears and I am once more in the pantheon. Looking around, I silently speak aloud to myself as I gaze upon the 97 other altars in the room.
“Now... which one of you belongs to Hiradelle?”