The tier six gate had both been more than Owen expected, and at the same time, slightly underwhelming. Or at least at first it had been. When he had arrived and jumped inside of the gate, he found himself inside of what looked like a labyrinthian library. He had tried several times to pull books from the shelves, hoping to find information, but each time either the book seemed to shimmer out of existence, or it just wouldn't have any content inside of them.
*You have entered a tower type gate. You must climb to the highest floor before the time runs out. 06:54:23*
Owen hadn't yet figure out how to even leave this floor and the library seemed to continually shift. He had tried several times to jump into the air and see what it looked like from above, but while there was no ceiling, it had stopped his jump only a couple feet into the air. He hadn't spent all that much time on the floor yet, so he hadn't tried everything, but he was already started to become annoyed with the less straightforward gates.
He swung his sword at one of the bookshelves and he finally got a response from the library. Several shelves seemed to fall apart, but not any that had been nearby his slash. The books that had fallen from the shelves slowly began spinning on the ground. Wind seemed to pour into the library from nowhere as an enormous monster made of books slowly began to form.
*Librarian Sage - Level 72
This monster is vast in both knowledge and combat capabilities. Anything that has been done inside of the library is counted among its knowledge. Because of this is can become a dangerous foe in a short matter of time.*
Owen grinned as finally an enemy had appeared. Choosing once again to forego resonance for a while, he began to move faster and faster as he began taking wide slashes against his opponent. It took less than thirty seconds for the boss to capture his fighting style and Owen was locked in place for the first time since coming to earth. The monster had scraps of books strewn about its body, but it had managed to counter each of his attacks after some time had passed. Each slash, counter, or even feint was seen and absorbed into the bosses knowledge.
However, to both of their surprise, Owen's stat pool was slightly larger than the boss's, and the bosses was ever so slowly pushed back, but Owen still hadn't managed to land an attack after the first barrage. Grinning wildly, Owen thrust his sword forward. The sage swung a stack of books to block the thrust, but before they could intercept the blow, Owen injected his mana into the sword, changing it into a spear. It tore through the first few layers of pages the librarian was using as its flesh and Owen followed up the stab by imbuing his weapon with chaos.
The body of the librarian sage seemed to shimmer in place for a moment, before pages began crumbling. Large sections of its body began falling away faster than the books could fly from the shelves, to restore its body. Owen followed up with a whirlwind of strikes, slashes, and thrusts. Transforming his weapon almost as fast as he could swing his weapon.
This was something Owen had practiced at least partially when he had needed to grind for levels. He had eventually hit a point where it was merely a boring exercise of patience, to continue the grind. He had realized that the time it took to change his bracers into a separate form was dependent on the control of his mana. Each one of the weapons had its own unique pattern that was stored in the internal space of the bracers. If he were to push his mana into one of the specific patterns, he could speed up how quickly the weapon could shift into another one.
All of which led to now, as it looked like Owen was some type of legendary weapon master, as his weapon continually changed, taking advantage of every opening he created or the boss couldn't cover. It didn't take long after the first surprise weapon change to defeat the boss, even if it could slowly learn his style and master it, he had moved to quickly and surprised it too many times for it to be able to take advantage.
*You have slain Librarian Sage - Level 72
10,000 credits earned
17,500 experience gained.*
That was another one of the changes he had made during his time fighting monsters for levels. It had become easier and generally better for his mental state, to have the section, that listed the amount of experience he lost to his soul, completely blocked out. It helped a little bit, but he was still fully aware. He had less than a second to grieve for the experience his soul absorbed, before space tore open and he could see another floor of the tower he was in.
He gave one glance to his resources and nodded in satisfaction, before diving through the portal to the next area
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Tier five gates so far were just as disappointing as Myra had feared they would be. Her bigger fear was that she was getting unlucky and Owen was getting to fight magnificent battles that stretched him to the limit. It made her a little jealous imagining it, but she turned her focus back to her own battle as she crushed a sloth monster with the flat of her axe.
Her soul axe skill was by far the most important aspect of her fighting capability. It let her form a set of twin axes that were tied to her and because of it, couldn't be lost. It was also one of the first inheritance skills she had gotten and had been using almost nonstop since unlocking it. When she had trained with Ivar the first time, he had helped her develop some mastery over it and boost their base damage through imbuing more of herself into them.
However the biggest change had been the most recent month of training. She had been forced to learn a higher level of control over the skill itself, until the point she could control the shape of the axe. That was what led to her wielding an axe that was almost her own height, but to her, it didn't hardly weigh anything. It was still tied to her soul, so it always managed to shift its weight to be perfectly balanced for her.
However, she felt like she had gotten almost too strong. She had earned a lot of credits, but the most miserable thing was the lack of any reasonable amount of experience. A monster that previously would've given her a levels worth of exp, now only gave a quarter or less of a level. She supposed it made since, but it didn't help her mood. So far, the difference between the gates was how many more steps it took to clear.
This time she was supposed to hunt down three beast on separate sides of the world she had spawned in. In order to fight each beats, she had to fight through their lair and teleport to their realm to fight them. She had finally gotten to the last one and she had grown furious as each sloth she had been trying to fight ran away, which she hadn't thought sloths were capable of. They were fast as well and she had only been able to kill as many as she had thanks to her quickstep boots.
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Finally, the portal to the sloth king's realm appeared and she dove in head first, ready to wreak havoc and burn of some of her annoyance.
The realm of the sloth king was an enormous spread out jungle. None of the sections were very dense and for the first time, the boss had prepared to fight her head on. As soon as it saw her it made a loud roar, that shook the jungle and sent tremors through the ground. Each of the trees began to shake, but when Myra had expected them to stop, they had instead pulled themselves from the ground and began shambling towards her. She felt her excitement reach a peak as for the first time since coming home she had an actually fight.
She changed her axe out for the twin set of axes, that the skill naturally tried to form. She activated her new favorite set of skills. Berserker's Fury raged through her and she activated asura's domain as she dashed towards the closest tree enemy. Axe tore through word and cleaved the first tree in two. Her blow didn't stop there and continued forward and her body spun, bringing the second axe against a second tree. Her body moved through the air as if she had spent years as a gymnast or acrobatic.
Each of her movements allowed her to land a vicious blows, while avoiding most attacks. Some still tore her skin and left large cuts, the worst breaking bones. Her skills combined however, gave her an almost unlimited amount of HP and her body constantly snapped back into perfect health. The sloth boss had joined the fight shortly after her rampage had begun, but rather than strictly attacking, it slowly absorbed the tree monsters from the ground, forming an armor across its entire body.
Unfortunately for the boss monster, while Myra had thought the armor looked cool, it still wasn't strong enough to defend against her attacks. The fight ended shortly afterwards, Myra grinning wide, her entire body covered in a mixture of blood and sap. She cringed slightly when she realized she was completely covered, but she was just happy she had finally gotten into a fight that had been fun.
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The second floor of the tower, inside of the tier six gate, had placed him inside of what looked like a subway station, with trains flying by at unbelievable speeds. The floor itself was small, hardly larger than a garage in size, with the trains flying by on the side with the one possible escape. He had only managed to be confused for a moment by the set up, before someone ran up to him with a big smile.
"Wow, you're really sir, do you think you could help me?" A small boy said, looking up at him with puppy dog eyes. Owen just stared at it for a moment before he turned his attention the an enemy that was crouched on the ground behind him. It had slowly been sneaking up on him, as soon as the boy had appeared from no where. Owen watched it for another second before swiping a hand through the boy, causing the image to disperse.
The monster on the ground screeched and Owen stared blankly at it while his keen eye activated.
*Ancient Illusionist Sage - Level 77
This enemy type specializes in illusions and using them as distractions, while it tears out the brain of its victims. This enemy type can form illusions directed at specific people and struggle against larger groups. When cornered, the Sage will hide itself among a sea of illusions.*
The monster let out a surprising burst of speed and had ended up on the other side of the small platform and began creating more illusions. Owen was a little more impressed this time as it had actually managed to make it look like the monster had fled through a gap in the speeding trains. The next second one of the trains stopped and Owen couldn't help but stare as his dad stepped out of one of the trains giving a small wave.
*Farseeing skill increased to level 12*
Owen had mostly been interested up to this point in what the boss was capable of, but he wasn't amused as the image of his dad appeared. To him, with the farseeing skill, every illusion summoned had a small hue around it as if it had been photoshopped into the world, though it was still surprising. Owen, with his mood soured, casually walked up to where the illusionist was hiding and grabbed it around the throat. It squirmed and several illusions buffeted Owen from behind, but Owen didn't release his grip.
He brought the monster with him and reached out the hand holding the boss towards the oncoming trains. It took less than a second, before the boss exploded into a shower of viscera. Shaking his head in disgust, Owen stepped through the next portal that opened, without throwing the previous space a second glance.
He had barely stepped through the gate, before he heard a booming voice shouting at him from across an arena. "I see you have killed two of my lords sages already. I admire your warrior's spirit, but you should give up now, my lord is far too strong for the likes of you and unless you turn back now, you will meet your end here."
*Leave now with your current earning, 30,000 credits? Y/N?*
Owen was surprised the system offered him an escape and using keen eye, he was pretty sure he had some idea as to why. The boss was a large man, that could hardly be called a man. He stood more than 9 feet tall and he was built in a way that screamed Mr. Universe champion. He had two cerberus standing on either side of him, ears pointing straight up at attention. Owen stared in marvel at the three headed dogs that stared back at him and couldn't help but admit the sight was a little intimidating.
Both began growling as he made eye contact with them. "I see my darlings have intimidated you, its no matter, I am still giving you a chance to surrender." The man said and Owen finally turned his attention back to the man.
*Beast Tamer - Level 85
This tamer is able to summon creature to its side and boosts all of their attributes while they attack. The tamer will mostly stand on the sidelines while their beasts attack.
Cerberus - Level 60
This is a non-summoned familiar of the 'Beast Tamer'
Cerberus - Level 60
This is a non-summoned familiar of the 'Beast Tamer*
Owen grinned and began stretching. He was still in somewhat of a sour mood, but while he prepped he decided to see if conversation was possible with the beast master. He was also more than certain that the Tamer was going to participate as well. With his physical build, it wouldn't make sense otherwise. "So, you are protecting your lord? Are you aware that you have appeared as a challenge on my home world and that I get money for each of you I kill?" Owen asked, more curious than anything else.
The moss seemed to freeze for a moment as he stared at Owen before laughing uproariously. "That is impossible, even if the system has been slowly puling away from our world, there is no way they would use it to train another. But tell me, what tiered gate are you in then?" The beats tamer said, his tone still sounding jovial. Owen could only stare for several seconds. Normally in litrpg he had read, monster were never able to hear or accept that they might be system entities rather than alive, but this man was saying that the system had started leaving their world.
"I entered a tier six gate and the system has been teleporting me to different floors of the gate, with the goal of killing the boss, before being able to move on." Owen almost stammered. He was a little uncomfortable with how real the man seemed, that only stood a couple dozen feet from him. "Impossible," the man muttered, though he sounded considerably less certain. Owen was expecting him to attack in rage, but the man slowly sat down on the ground and had a puzzled expression on his face. "I cannot leave the arena..." he said, looking over at Owen helplessly.
"This arena is a realm that was added onto my lords castle, combatants from all across our world teleport in here to battle for glory. Normally, I have the option of surrender, but there are no options, this space is locked down." The man said, looking down at his hands.