Tower Announcement! Floor Event Beginning in 2 hours!
Floor Event: Goblins Revolt (Floor 2)
The notification broke my concentration, causing the contraption of mana I had just made to fall apart. I stared longingly at the sparks of mana that quickly dissipated away, having just a few seconds ago been a miniature clocktower. A functional one too. Talus had told me that working on both my mana-festation skill and my aura control simultaneously could improve both, so that is what I had been doing during this most recent session of training.
“I got a floor event notification.” I tell the god. He already knew what I was talking about, as I had told him about the first floor event that had taken place just before the D tiers left the tutorial.
“Is it one that seems worth participating in?” He replies, seeming annoyed that my attention was being dragged away from my training.
“Let me check.” I say, reading through the description of the event. If it was anything like the last one, I’d probably want to be there if only just to prevent chaos from erupting.
Goblins Revolt (Floor 2)
Once the event begins, all who enter the second floor will arrive at one of several set points on the floor. Periodically, waves of goblins will arrive to attack the gathered populations, ramping up in strength over the course of 24 hours. Event rewards are determined by how long you remain on the floor as well as participation in defeating the waves. Groups will be determined by level and capabilities. Once the event ends, you will return to the point at which you entered the floor. All participants must be a minimum of level 20 to enter this event.
“Seems like it will be worth it.” I say after reading the entire description to the god. “I’d finally get a chance to test out my better mana and aura control in combat.”
“It will be a great chance for you to meet with a few other strong individuals as well. Perhaps one of the several individuals who has also entered floor 26 will be there.”
“How many people have made it to that point?” I ask.
“I am not at liberty to say.” The god explains, shaking his head. I was a bit disappointed, but then I see him blinking rapidly at me. I count, and I see him blink thirteen times.
“Oh well.” I say slowly, hoping I wasn’t just reading into that too much. “I guess I’ll just have to find out when I meet them.”
Thirteen people on the same floor I was on. That was quite a few. I was pretty confident Flynn was one of them, and if I got to meet more people that were as strong or even stronger than him, that alone would make leaving for the event worth it.
“I guess I’ll go get to that.” I say, about to leave the floor.
“Not yet.” Talus says, stopping me. “You still have almost two hours to train. We cannot let that go to waste.”
I sigh, turning back and facing the god. After an hour and a half of more concentration based training, he finally lets me go back to the first floor to wait for the event. I had a pretty good feeling that I would be able to stay in for the full 24 hours it would be running, especially with the two skill upgrades and three levels I’d gotten in the past ten days.
You are now level 78
Superior Mana Manipulation (Special) has been upgraded to Omni-Mana Manipulation (Special)
Omni-Mana Manipulation (Special)
Manipulate the mana within your body and aura to perform various tasks. Provides an increase to mana control within your aura. Increases the effect of your mind stat while manipulating your mana. Slightly increases the size and potency of your aura.
Fluid Aura Control (Special )has been upgraded to Auric Authority (Legendary)
Auric Authority (Legendary)
Manipulate your aura in various ways. Stretch it, condense it, or reshape it to your whim. While condensed, your aura can weaken incoming attacks. Use your aura as a weapon to crush those weaker than your, clashing your aura against that of others. Disrupts all hostile mana within your aura passively, with the effect growing stronger when boosted with mana. Provides a small increase to the effectiveness of all aura based skills and spells. Increases the size and potency of the users aura.
As it turns out, being personally tutored by a god had its perks. Without the guidance and assistance of Talus, I would have had no hope of getting my aura skill to this rarity. He was a master of his aura, and had spent most of his life learning to use it effectively. It was to be expected that he would have some tips on the subject.
The only thing I didn’t like about the past ten days was that I had only gained three levels. It felt like I was falling behind a bit in that regard, even if I knew the skill upgrades were a bigger boost in power than a few extra levels would have been. Even still, I really wanted to know what the next upgrade to my innate skill would be at level 80. Hopefully this event could push me over the edge to reach that point.
The outpost was buzzing with activity as it so often did. Quite a few people were clearly excited for this event, and I could spot more than one group that looked like they were planning to enter it together. I didn’t have anybody I planned on entering with, but I still had a feeling there would be at least one familiar face in the group I was placed with.
“Yo, River!” I hear someone shout.
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I look over and see Ben speed walking towards me.
“Hey Ben.” I say, waving. “It’s been a while.”
“A while?” Ben says as he reaches me. “You’ve been gone for almost two weeks now. Where have you been?”
“Training. I’ve been stuck on floor 27 trying to get stronger.”
“Wow. Whatever is there must be pretty tough if you have to spend so much time getting ready for it.”
“Yeah. Very strong individual.” I say, not elaborating further. I knew that Ben was a fairly religious man, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to bring up the topic of an actual god to him. I would rather just dodge around the topic entirely. “So are you planning on participating in the event?”
“Yeah, I am. Hopefully with my level I get lumped in with people that are worth networking with, though I suppose you will have a much higher chance of having that happen.”
“Probably.” I say, nodding. “I am actually really curious to see just how many people there are around my level. I’ve met a few people who are comparable to me in level, but given that there are still about a billion people left in the tutorial there has to be many more who are at or above my level.”
“My guess is that you’ll be the strongest there.” Ben says, laughing. “I don’t know just how many people out there would go to the almost suicidal lengths you have for a good fight. I heard from Blair about the titan you fought. I have to say, that was pretty ballsy of you.”
“I guess it was.” I shrug. “I doubt I’ll get another fight like that for a while, as I already know floor 30 isn’t going to have another big boss like floors 10 and 20 had for me.”
“How do you know that?”
“Chain floors. It’s not too difficult to predict how they end.”
I knew how floor 30 would end. It would end with Talus waving me through and me leaving within about a minute of entering the floor. I wonder how other people are going to handle the floor, with their gods having high expectations for their performance and such.
Tower announcement!
Goblin Revolt has Begun! Enter the 2nd Floor to Participate!
We walk over to the entrance to the next floor, with Ben managing to get us to the front of the long line waiting to head down. As soon as I entered the next floor, I knew that this was not the usual entrance point. It was still a forest, but the trees were a lot taller, thicker, and more spread out. People began appearing all around me, and when people finally stopped showing up I counted exactly 20 individuals in the group.
Out of the entire group, I only spotted a single person that I recognized. Flynn stood off to the side, observing everybody present. I had been kind of expecting to be grouped up with him, but it was still nice to see him.
“Hey Flynn.” I say, walking up to him. “Looks like you’re stuck with me again.”
“I can never get a break from you can I?” I joke back, grinning.
The two of us talking seems to finally kickstart the group into interacting with one another, and everybody present begins making small talk with each other. Even still, I can tell that the atmosphere is much more tense than it appeared on the surface. Through my now much more sensitive aura, I can feel people using identify and inspect on one another left and right. I am guilty too, as I check the levels of everybody present. There isn’t a single individual who is lower than level 65. Flynn had reached level 74, just a bit behind me.
Out of the twenty people present, one of them matched my level. That wasn’t what really drew my attention though. What really caught my eye were the two people who were a higher level.
Human (Level 79)
Human (Level 80)
The lower leveled of the two was an archer. She wielded the triple shot bow from the dungeon floors. She must have chosen that as the item she would keep. It was a pretty good item for an archer, so it made sense. The person standing next to her, well I had pretty much no idea what their deal was. They were about my height, but that is the only thing I can make out. They are wearing a long, dark robe that seemed to artificially hide their face and body behind a shadow. That made me think that they may be a rogue or assassin of some kind, but that was flimsy evidence at best.
They both spotted me, and I could feel both of them using an identify skill. They looked to each other and exchanged a few words I couldn’t hear, then turned their attention to the others in the group.
“Guess you finally have some competition.” Flynn says, whispering to me.
“Yes I do.” I say. “By the way, which god did you pick on floor 26?”
“A war god named Brindle.” Flynn says. “He taught me a few sword techniques before sending me off to floor 28 to go hunt the champion of some other god. Barely even spoke to him. How about you?”
“A god named Talus. He’s been training me to better utilize my aura.”
“How has that been?”
“Miserable. Extremely productive and helpful, but he’s a real stickler when it comes to doing things right. I haven’t even left floor 26 yet, as he wants me to be fully prepared before moving on. I should probably ask soon when he plans to let me move on.”
“Well you have some catching up to do then.” Flynn says, chuckling a bit. “For the first time, I’m actually ahead of you. Don’t take that as a challenge though. I definitely wouldn’t be able to beat you if it came down to it.”
“You sure you don’t want a fun little spar? I’m sure it wouldn’t be too much of a one sided beat down.”
“I’ll have to pass.”
I was getting so absorbed in my conversation with Flynn that I didn’t notice one of the people present walking towards us. I see Flynn look over my shoulder. His face lights up when he sees the person, and I turn around to see a woman wearing black leather armor walking towards us. She had a long dagger at each hip, and the bottles at her waste practically screamed poison.
“Flynn!” She shouts after reaching us, hugging the swordsman suddenly.
“Fionna! Oh it has been so long since I’ve seen you!” Flynn hugs her back. “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.” She says, pulling away from the hug. “I see you’ve handled yourself well. Besides, it hasn’t been that long. We’ve had longer stretches of not talking before.”
“Still, I’ve been worried.” He says, before finally turning back to me. “River, this is my older sister, Fionna.”
That sentence hits me like a hammer. This badass assassin looking girl was Flynn’s sister? What were the odds both of them performed so well in the tower? What am I saying, I already know the odds. Damn low at best, near impossible at worst.
“It’s nice to meet you.” I say, shaking her hand.
She smiles, nodding. “Nice to meet you too. I’m guessing you know Flynn? Have you two been climbing the tower together?”
“A few floors, yes. He’s actually ahead of me right now.”
“Sounds like him. He’s always been super competitive, even if he doesn’t show it. He’ll just abandon his teammates as soon as he surpasses them-”
“That’s enough.” Flynn cuts her off. “We already split off well before that.”
“Well I don’t know why you would. Imagine how far you two could go working together. You’re the dream duo!”
“The floors are instanced-” Flynn begins, before stopping. He seemed to come to the realization that arguing with her would be pointless. “Whatever. Anyways, how have you been doing? I imagine you’ve been tearing through these floors just as well as I have been?”
“Of course I’ve been.” She says.
They keep talking and I decide to give them some space. I didn’t want to get in the middle of the joyful family reunion. Before I can even take two steps, a hand grabs my elbow and pulls me back over.
“Oh don’t let me drive away Flynn’s one friend here.” She says, letting me go. “He’s never been the friendly type, and I don’t wanna make it worse.”
Flynn just looks down and shakes his head in exasperation. “I’ve had plenty of friends.” He argues. “Let him go do what he wants.”
“Nonsense. I was just about to leave and talk to a few other people anyways. I know a few other people here so I am going to go chat with them real quick. I’ll see ya in a bit!”
She jogs off to go talk to some of the other people present. I watch her go, wondering how somebody with such a bubbly personality had ended up going for a clearly poison and assassination based fighting style.
“She is quite a handful.” Flynn says.
“I can tell.” I say, turning my attention back to him.
“She’s also off limits.”
“I wasn’t- you know what, okay. You won’t have to worry about that.”
“Good. Now, we should probably deal with the horde of goblins coming our way now.”
I turn my head and see the first wave of goblins coming our way. I identify and few of them, seeing that they were all about level 20. That was pretty weak, but the event description did mention that it would get harder over time. Besides, if the minimum level for people to enter the event was 20, it made sense that they would start with monsters at that level.
One of the mages present is the first to act, sending an arc of mana towards the horde. In one fell swoop, half of the goblins are dead. In another few seconds, the rest of the wave has fallen.
The way things are looking now, the next several hours were going to be pretty damn boring. Looks like I am in for a whole lot of talking until things actually got interesting.