“So, these towers are basically training grounds for future Beginners of the system from another world…”
Cloud said, all the while munching the ever-tantalizing attribute fruit regardless of how it looked. Rather, everyone was copying him other than Zeke and herself.
Mikella watched with mild interest at everyone as they ate with gusto, and for good reason. Each one, particularly the Journeymen, had concerns of reaching their stat blocks at some point, a common problem for normal folks who don't have rich parents or financial backing. Attribute fruits are extremely rare, so finding some that breaks a stat that was currently heading towards its cap is hard enough as it is, much less reasonable to get considering how expensive they can be.
For the ever poor Eve Glade citizens, just having a single attribute fruit is considered a god send, at least that’s how Val showed when she first found her stat fruit thanks to them back when they first met. Even now, Val was munching on them as though she could lose access to them at any moment, but at the same time savoring each sweet and tender bite.
As for the otherworlders, they stood by as they answered Cloud’s rising questions regarding exactly this situation. Finding a barrel full of attribute fruits was a rarity by itself. Normally, people of this world would find these fruits hanging out randomly in out-of-reach places, rewards from dungeons, or even from the even rarer attribute tree, something so valuable that kingdoms would fight each other to the death for.
The case such as the biodome’s quest, considering how rare finding an unowned biodome, is reasonable enough to expect a fruit or two after completing it.
“That’s our experience in the nutshell,” Zeke said. They already knew about their origins, but now they were talking about the towers as a whole. Considering the angel and the gods’ involvement in these towers, it became more important to speak about their existence as a whole.
Especially since the attribute fruits hanging out in barrels weren’t the only thing they found. They also found more storage packs, something not so rare to find, but expensive to get as the materials needed to craft such a piece were hard to get unless you were strong enough to wade into the frontier lands beyond the safety of the kingdoms’ borders. As of right now, Myra and Piker are now proud owners of said packs, the same quality as the otherworlders.
They could outfit half of their entire crew with the amount of packs in here. And Mikella was sure that wasn’t the end of it in this tower.
“But it doesn’t make sense,” Mikella spoke out. “It should have been a training course. We had no choice but to survive, sure, but the lizards here are way too strong. Not even Experts can face them as easily, and back then we didn’t even had a class.”
“I can’t believe how crazy you guys had it,” Myra shook her head, the delectable juices of the fruit trailing down her chin. She wiped it off as she kept munching. “There’s no way that anyone can handle these things even on their own, much less a whole group of them.”
“They also specialize in ambushes,” Piker added. It was a little funny to see him munching on a fruit like a chipmunk, but Mikella decided against commenting on it. “It’s impossible for anyone who isn’t at least experienced in battle.”
“For us,” Mikella continued. “All we dealt with were knights that acted like puppets. Pretty bad puppets, now that I think about it.”
She looked up at the ceiling, her mind whirling. The memories back then felt horrifying at the time, but now she can only look back at it fondly like a childhood memory. It was a strange feeling.
“So it must be possible that the creatures here somehow grew stronger. Here’s my take,” Cloud easily finished a fruit, swallowing it whole before continuing. “When the otherworlders were still alive, the monsters were like that–weak and Beginner friendly. However, like how one would expect, being sent into a life-or-death scenario without any information is no way to get prepared, and they soon die. Once they died, the tower had little choice but to get accustomed to the area around it. At the undeath tower, it continuously exuded Mana that caused the creatures to go mad… but what if instead, Mana was being taken from them? Or rather, their Mana was being shifted thanks to the tower, and causing them to go mad while the tower copies their current level of strength?”
Mikella noticed Zeke furrowing his brows in deep thought. For Mikella it made a lot of sense. If the area around the tower was based in a biodome filled with Journeyman-rank monsters, it made sense to copy the mana being exuded by the biodome to reflect it.
Mikella hated the idea of otherworlders dying here if they didn’t have the stuff to survive, but logically it all made sense. They failed in their venture, unlike how she and Zeke succeeded. But because of that, the monsters in the tower grew stronger as a result. Would it keep going like this?
“Is the angel telling us to get rid of the towers if the otherworlders didn’t manage to get out?” Zeke muttered, getting her attention. That also certainly everyone else’s as they listened to him continuing. “If we don’t, the towers might… what, expand?”
“Wait, you’re saying that they might take over the biodome if left unchecked?”
Mikella asked in disbelief, but then paused as she recalled the tower being smack-dab in the middle of the fortress, the same fortress that contained the boss that needed to be taken down to complete the quest.
Was it already doing that now?
“In other words, these towers, once left alone, can become a parasite that would cause trouble,” Zacharia continued, his half-eaten orange left in his hand. “Everything leads down to that route.”
“If that angel was worried of this happening, the damn ‘gods’ shouldn’t have done this in the fucking first place.”
Mikella hissed to nobody in particular. It was just a rant at nothing, but it was felt by Zeke as he nodded. Still, there was nothing they could do. They were here now, and they might as well experience the boons from this, particularly the attribute fruits they were currently enjoying now.
“Why don’t you take a bite of the fruits?” Val noticed the discomfort and put aside her munching while pointing at the barrel.
“Should we?” Zeke asked, tilting his head as he recalled. “We ate a lot so I don’t know how much more we can keep increasing our caps…”
“Open your status menu, and focus on the stats themselves. They should give you an answer.”
Val’s words got the two to look at each other quizzically before doing what she said. Mikella summoned her status, noticing the notifications she ignored while she was on a wild spree of violence and hate towards the lizardmen.
> Kinetic Manipulation Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> You have gained +1 DEX from your skill.
> You have gained +2 END from your skill.
…..
> Mana Perception Level Up! It is now Level 3.
>
> You have gained +2 INT from your skill.
> You have gained +2 SPI from your skill.
…..
> Sword Mastery Level Up! It is now Level 3.
>
> You have gained +1 STR from your skill.
> You have gained +2 DEX from your skill.
…..
> Pain Resistance Level Up! It is now Level 9.
>
> You have gained +1 VIT from your skill.
>
> If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
>
> You have gained +1 END from your skill.
…..
> Dragon Eyes Level Up! It is now Level 2.
>
> You have gained +2 STR from your skill.
> You have gained +2 DEX from your skill.
…..
> Heavenly Strike Level Up! It is now Level 6.
>
> Decreased stamina and mana consumption.
> Increased damage.
…..
> Dragon Descent Level up! It is now Level 6.
>
> Increased speed and maneuverability.
> Decreased stamina and mana consumption.
…..
> Draconic Fury Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> Increase attribute increase (x2).
> Decrease cooldown and energy consumption (x2).
…..
> Forced Regeneration Level Up! It is now Level 5.
>
> Increase regeneration rate (x2).
> Decrease damage needed to regenerate (x2).
Despite all these increases, Mikella honestly couldn’t find the joy for it. She only gained them in her pure hatred and disgust towards the gods and the angels that let this happen to them in the first place. Still, it was something, so she took it in stride.
Then she looked at her actual status screen, showing all the progress she has made so far.
> Name: Mikella Ashton (Overachiever)
> Race: Human
> Dragon Berserker: Level 45
> Attunement: Unbridled Fulmination (Tier 1)
> STR: 193
> DEX: 206
> INT: 23
> SPI: 41
> VIT: 38
> END: 139
> Free Points: 0
>
> General Skills:
> Kinetic Manipulation* (R) Level 5
> Mana Perception (U) Level 3
> Sword Mastery (R**) Level 3
> Axe Mastery (U*) Level 7
> Spear Mastery (R**) Level 1
> Bow Mastery (U*) Level 2
> Hammer Mastery (U*) Level 6
> Pain Resistance (U) Level 9
> Meditation (C) Level 7
>
> Acquired Skills:
> Acrobatics (E*) Level 3
> Dragon Eyes* (E) Level 2
>
> Class Skills:
> Heavenly Strike Level 6
> Dragon Descent Level 6
> Aerial Advantage Level 3
> Draconic Fury Level 5
> Forced Regeneration Level 5
>
> Title Skill:
> Give me more (Title), Level 1 (Maxed)
She realized a few things. First off–damn, she had increased a lot over the past months. Compared to her first time in this world, she had made leagues of progress. She knew that half of it was because of her partner Zeke who had also trained hard enough as well as everyone who had supported her during her training. Other than that, this was all her.
Even her attributes looked intimidating even to herself, and she smiled at the rising numbers. Two of her stats were already two hundred, or close to that. If that’s not impressive, then what is?
Maybe more numbers, but she put that aside. Now after focusing on the stats in particular, the status actually changed slightly.
> Analyzing Attributes. Please wait.
Is it actually buffering on me? Mikella thought in pure disbelief. The next moment showed exactly why it took so long.
> Attribute Analysis complete. Displaying attribute growth limits.
>
> Strength: 750
> Dexterity: 850
> Intelligence: 500
> Spirit: 450
> Vitality: 600
> Endurance: 700
“Well damn,” Mikella said in surprise. At her side, Zeke also had his eyes widened at his own stat analysis thing.
“Well don’t keep us waiting! What’d you got?” Myra said in pure frustration after Mikella and Zeke took a while to take in the numbers.
After showing them the displays, Myra and Piker had flabbergasted looks on their faces, while the Journeymen just shook their heads.
“Ah, I know I shouldn’t be jealous, but damn,” Cloud said, chuckling wryly. “Sorry, but that’s so much higher than any Journeymen I know. I’m pretty sure half the people I knew in my lifetime died before ever getting such high stat caps like that.”
“What’s the highest stat anyone has ever gotten?” Mikella asked, honestly more curious about the answer than anything else.
“Some say it was over five or six hundred, and others say it’s more than a thousand,” Val shrugged her shoulders. “None can say. However, reaching a certain stat milestone can improve the efficiency of that stat by tons.”
“Milestone?” Zeke asked, the look of a gamer in his eyes flashing again. “You mean reaching a certain number increases the attribute’s power a lot more?”
“Precisely that,” Cloud nodded. “If I have to break it down, reaching fifty, or intervals of fifty stat points, increases the efficiency of that stat by a quarter of the full stat. Reaching one hundred, or in intervals of a hundred, in a stat increases it by half of that instead.”
“Only through natural stats, though,” Val added in. “Stats gained by equipment or concoctions like elixirs are a no-go. Not that they’re bad–just that it won’t increase your power fully unlike natural growth.”
“In other words, training is still better than just raising it artificially,” Mikella nodded in understanding. “That’s good. I was worried some rich piss-ant would kick my ass after drinking their parent’s money down their throats.”
Myra straight up chortled at that, actually coughing up the fruits before trying to push it all back in before starting to laugh again. Piker showed a disgusted look, but a smile was plastered on his face as well.
Mikella knew it. She had the makings to be a great comedian even in this fantasy world. She even made Piker laugh.
“If that was the case, I’d have died a long time ago,” Val said with a rising smile. A knowing look in her eyes that spoke vastly of her experiences in her lifetime.
“So it really is hard to increase your attribute caps without these fruits, and they’re incredibly rare to boot,” Zeke continued, rubbing his chin in thought.
“Precisely,” Val answered back instead. “You can’t imagine how much juggling I had to do to avoid hitting my block. I had to sacrifice so much time training my skills to just focus on the town instead. Can you imagine? Being able to max out skills and making yourself stronger, but having your stats blocked and unable to get stronger? It’s like a horrible enigma!”
Myra nodded her head. It was an eventual problem all fighters would face at some point. No matter how hard-working one is, one still needs to have either commerce or backing to get these fruits at a regular pace, otherwise nothing but stress and worry about losing power would affect their lives forever.
And supposedly the aging process for human beings and even different races slows dramatically after reaching Journeymen status, so they can live longer. It was at that point that the people can take it easy to gather some foundation for their stats, including the attribute fruits, to ensure their growth remains unpeeded.
Of course, some are just glad to be alive at that point, and decided to settle down and start a family like Cloud and Val did when the chances of getting a stat fruit is near-high impossible.
“Wow, that is horrible,” Mikella muttered. “Not that I blame you. I just meant the market as a whole. If it’s that important, shouldn’t there be like some… I don’t know, government or maybe kingdom handouts for promising Journeymen?”
Mikella thought about the times when the government of their old world would try to help those get their feet under them due to hard times. Economic crises and all that. Though sometimes they just don’t give a damn. To the contrary, Val tilted her head.
“That is the case, yes. But it’s very rare. There are some Journeymen that show promise, but oftentimes giving a fruit to someone that might die later on would be a total waste. That’s why they’re extremely careful about who they choose.”
“Makes sense,” Mikella nodded. She stared at the barrel full of these extremely valuable fruits, her eyes squinting. “Hey, what happens if we cook the fruits?”
It was a random thought, something that occurred when she was thinking that just eating the fruits like this felt like a waste. Just as she expected, Cloud answered with a nonchalant tone.
“It’s not a good idea as the energy used to increase your stats is immediately consumed when you open it up. Even chopping it with a knife might make it lose its energy.”
“Aww…” Mikella frowned, Zeke easily copying her expression.
“The only way to cook it and really bring out results is to ensure that the energy is contained. That’s why runists are so valuable. They can–”
The moment the words left Cloud’s mouth, his eyes widened and his brows rose nearly all the way up. He still had an apple in his hand and just stared at it for a disturbingly long time.
Everyone else quieted after hearing the words themselves, stopping their eating. Cloud then shot up to his feet and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Everyone! Stop eating the fruits!”
That got everyone to stop doing so, the mood turning extremely tense. Cloud’s burning eyes stared straight at Zeke, who immediately turtled up when everyone stared at him.
“Zeke, I beg of you,” Cloud said–no, pleaded–his eyes turning manic. “We need your abilities once again!”