Floor Ten Complete
Rewards:
+5,000 Battle Coin (BC) , +10 Minor Health Potion, +10 Minor Mana Potion, +10 Antidote
+1 Nature Bard Matrix “Cynthia”, +1 Nature BeastMaster Matrix “Jasper”, +1 Nature Champion Matrix “Roran”, +5 Nature Cores,
+1 Bard Class F Level 1, +1 Champion Class M level 1, +1 Beastmaster Class M level 1 +1 Dancer Class F Level 1
Nature Floor Complete
Battle Tower Store Permanent Unlock.
+1 Nature Gear Set (Assigned to Gear Set 3)
Burnout Activated.
Death Imminent:
10 Seconds
Collin lay there unable to move. He went in and out of consciousness. He was experiencing a complete burnout and no one was around to heal him. He had no magic crystals and even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to use them. He could not move. Collin lay there and waited for the end.
“We have to do something Bonnie.” A voice said. It sounded like Hank.
“He is evil though?” Gerti said.
“No he is not. That evil witch did this to him. She caused evil Collin to come out. Good Collin is still in there though. We can save good Collin” Bonnie said.
“How do we save him?” Hank asked. We can’t help him. We have no physical form!”
“He must have received some Nature cores. Maybe we can have him absorb them.” Gerti said.
“He has potions also.” Hank said.
“Again, HOW? We would have to be bonded to him to help him like that.” Bonnie said.
“Why can’t Amergin or Tiny help him,” Hank asked
“They were put on a time out!” Bonnie yelled!
“Should we go get Trixie?” Gerti said hesitantly.
“No, It’s her fault. She gave him all that evil mana.” Bonnie said.
“He was going to die!” Hank argued. “She had to do something.”
“Well now she is in trouble for interfering. I swear humans are so dumb. All those convicts and evil people with their evil matrices. They put them in the tower and they corrupted Mrs. Cynthia. She is not like that. She has always been sweet and nice.” Bonnie said.
“Well she can be like that. But she overdid it there.” Gerti said.
“Guys we need to do something.” Hank said. Collin was only hearing every other word of this.
“If we bonded with him, we could help him.” Bonnie said.
“We can’t do that. We aren't old enough.” Hank said.
“If we did it together we could. We could bond to him and he could put us on to one of his conjuration peoples. We could then give him mana and health potions until he is better.” Gerti said. “We would get in a lot of trouble though.”
“If we bonded with him and he became King, That would make us all King's matrices!” Hank said enthusiastically. “We could rule over all them old farts that keep telling us no all the time!”
“Ooooo I wanna ride a horse and have a crown.” Bonnie said.
“Guys, his timer is getting low. We should really do something.’ Gerti said.
“Okay. Is everyone ready? Any objections?” Bonnie said
“No”
“Nope”
“Okay let’s do it!
Reward:
+3 Freelancer level 1 Conjurations
+1 Newborn Matrix “Hank”
+1 Newborn Matrix “Bonnie”
+1 Newborn Matrix “Gertrude”
-50 Mana Potions, - 50 Health Potion
Burnout Ended
Health Return 15%/sec
Mana increase 15%/sec
…
Collin woke up in the middle of the room. He had no idea how long it had been. He had a splitting headache and everything hurt. He was not sure what happened. There were pop up screens everywhere. He closed them all for now. He needed a minute to get his bearings.
“Can anyone hear me?” Collin asked.
“We can.” three childlike voices said.
“Hey guys. Where is everyone else?” Collin asked.
“They are on time out.” Bonnie said.” They have about ten hours left.”
Collin remembered that. All of his constructs were killed. He thought they were doing so well too.
“Is Tonya back yet?” Collin asked.
“No, she is still gone.” Hank said
“Do you need another potion? We weren't sure how many you needed so we gave you fifty health and mana.” Gerti said.
“No…Wait, how were you guys able to give me potions? You're on the wall ain't you?” Collin asked in surprise.
“Well about that.” Bonnie said.
“Don’t tell the older matrices please. We had no choice!” Hank said pleadingly
“We bonded with you so we could save you.” Gerti said.
Collin went wide eyed. He wasn’t hearing the triplets from the room. He was hearing them from inside his mind. Collin quickly pulled up his pop up screens.
Floor Ten Complete
Rewards:
+5,000 Battle Coin (BC) , +10 Minor Health Potion, +10 Minor Mana Potion, +10 Antidote
+1 Nature Bard Matrix “Cynthia”, +1 Nature BeastMaster Matrix “Jasper”, +1 Nature Champion Matrix “Roran”, +5 Nature Cores,
+1 Bard Class F Level 1, +1 Champion Class M level 1, +1 Beastmaster Class M level 1 +1 Dancer Class F Level 1
Nature Floor Complete
Battle Tower Store Permanent Unlock.
You may now access the Battle Tower store on all floors.
+1 Nature Gear Set
(Assigned to Gear Set 3)
Burnout Activated.
Death Imminent:
10 Seconds
Reward:
+1 Freelancer level 1 Conjuration
+1 Newborn Matrix “Hank”
+1 Newborn Matrix “Bonnie”
+1 Newborn Matrix “Gertrude”
-50 Mana Potions, - 50 Health Potion
Burnout Ended
Health Return 15%/sec
Mana increase 15%/sec
Collin read through the rewards and remembered what happened. Cynthia and the other two killed everyone. The idea of activating her right now did not make Collin happy. He contemplated burning her matrix, but decided against it. He was not sure what happened and didn’t want to scare the youngling Matrices. He read down and saw that the three bonded with him. It looks like that also made him use a bunch of potions and saved his life. He wasn’t sure what happened when a youngling Matrix bonded with an already bonded matrix. He made a mental note to help them get back to normal just as soon as he could. He owed them.
“Thank you for saving me.” He finally said. “I am going to make this up to you guys as soon as I possibly can, okay?”
“I want to ride a horse and wear a crown.” Bonnie said.
“I want to be a King’s Matrix! So you gotta be King okay!?” Hank said.
“I don’t wanna be in trouble with the older matrices.” Gerti said
“Alright. So It looks like we completed the floor without having to do any phases. That is good.” Collin said.
He got up and looked around the room. It was empty. Opening up the Battle shop noticed that he was no longer limited to every fifth increment. He had full access to the shop moving forward.
“I can purchase conjurations! ” Collin said out loud. He looked through and saw that he could purchase a Tank, Healer, Mage, Archer, Rogue and a freelancer in Stages one, two, and three.
“What is a freelancer?” Collin said.
“We are!” the triplets said together. Collin went back to his conjuration screen. He clicked on the newly acquired Level one freelancer
Class: Freelancer
Level 1
Archetype: None
Abilities: None
Elemental Affinity: None
Skills: None
Weapons: All
Amor: All
Stats:
Strength 5
Defense 5
Health 5
Agility 5
Intelligence 5
“We need two more if we are going to help you sir.” Hank said.
“I don't know if I should let you. You have no skills, abilities, affinities, and your stats are really low for a level one.” Collin said.
“Please!” They all said.
“Fine. But do not die!” Collin said. He purchased two freelancers at one thousand battle coins each, a Stage three sorcerer, a Stage three knight, a Stage three priest at three thousand each for a total of eleven thousand total. He had about four thousand left.
“You need a weapon and armor. What do you want?” Collin asked.
“We get to choose?” Bonnie said. Collin could feel her eyes widen although she did not have a face.
“I don’t see why you couldn’t choose. It is your conjuration.”
“I want a giant sword!!!” Hank said.
“You are too weak for a giant sword. How about a short sword and shield?” Collin said.
“Yes!” Hank said. His eagerness and inability to sit still was showing.
“Can I have a staff?.” Gerti said.
“You mean like one for hitting or one for casting magic spells?” Collin asked.
“One for hitting please. I do not have any magic.” Gerti said
“Do you want a blade on it or just a long stick?”
“Long stick please.” She replied
“Bonnie, What would you like to fight monsters with?” Collin asked
“Can I throw things?’
“Yes”
“Slash things?”
“Yes”
“Shoot arrows at things?”
“Yes Bonnie.”
“Magic?”
“Not Yet.”
What if I want to punch things?”
“Not until you are stronger”
“I want a horse.”
“That is not an option sweetie.”
“Fine. Wait. Can I have a big hammer?”
“Do you think you can swing a big hammer?”
“Yes!”
“Sure, let's do that.” Collin said. He purchased a set of light armor for each, a sword, a polearm, and the lightest war hammer he could find. He had fifty Battle coins left.
Battle Tower Inventory System
Items
Battle Coins (BC) Total: 50
Adventure Bag “ Collin”
Black Chest “ Collin”
Minor Health Potion x 71
Minor Mana Potion x 64
Antidote x 5
Orc Clubs x 30
Nature Bard Matrix “Cynthia”
Nature BeastMaster Matrix “Jasper”
Nature Champion Matrix “Roran”
Nature Cores x5
Light War Hammer
Short sword
Polearm
Leather Light armor x3
Crafting:
Orc assorted material x 10
Goblin assorted material x 30
Bear Hide x 1
Bear Meat x 5
Direwolf hide x 27
Eagle Feather X 500
Giant Rat Fang x 501
Giant Snake Skin x 45
Nature Core x 5
Spider Silk x 150
Team (Conjurations)
Amber F- Ranger Level 15, Warrior Level 5
Bronze M- Ranger Level 15, Wizard Level 5 + Nature
Ruby F- Ranger Level 15, Tank Level 5
Sky F- Marksman Level 10
Red M- Ninja Class Level 7, Mage Class level 5
Blue M- Ranger Class Level 7, Fighter Level 5
Olive F- Cleric Class Level 10
Merlot M- Knight Class Level 7, Healer class Level 5
Indigo F- Cleric Class Level 10
Tiny M- Elite Ranger Class Level 8 + Nature
Amergin M - Druid Class Level 17 + Nature
Orange - M Mage Class level 5
No Name Bard Class F Level 1
No Name Champion Class M level 1
No Name Beastmaster Class M level 1
No Name Dancer Class F Level 1
No Name Freelancer M Level 1
No Name Freelancer F Level 1
No Name Freelancer F Level 1
No Name Sorcerer Class F Level 1
No Name Knight Class M Level 1
No Name Priest Class M level 1
*Battle Tower Store Open
Battle Tower Matrix
Collin Chintzy
Level 30
Strength 25
Defense 25
Health 20
Agility 25
Intelligence 20
Health 100% 30%/ min
Mana 100% 30%/ min
Abilities/ Skills:
Conjuration System 4
Flame Punch
Air Barrier
Clone Construct 4
Construct Teleportation 4
Vine Dagger - Archer
Vine Arrow - Archer
Forest Expansion
Explosive Arrow
Wind Piercer
Secondary Matrix - Captain
Troops: 22/40
Total Class Mastery: 22%
* Tank 0%
* Healer 0%
* Fighter 0%
* Support 0%
* Archer 50%
* Mage 50%
* Rogue 50%
* Support: 20%
Battle Tower Floors Complete 10
Nature - 100%
Water - 0%
Earth - 20%
Fire - 0%
Air - 0%
Holy / Light 0%
Void / Dark 0%
Matrix
Tiny - Nature
Amergin - Nature
Roran - Nature
Cynthia - Nature
Jasper - Nature
Bonnie - Newborn
Hank- Newborn
Gertrude - Newborn
Archetype Level Progression
Tank - None
Fighter - None
Healer - None
Archer - Ranger Level 5
Mage - Sorcerer Level 5
Rogue - Ninja Level 5
Support - Summoner Level 4
Collin decided to go ahead and equip the Matrices to their respective classes. He found a way to make them inactive though so he did not have to hear them if he did not want to. He was not in the mood to talk to Cynthia. He noticed that he received two conjurations each for her class that she used to have. He was not sure why but he decided to move forward by giving her the dancing class. He determined that listening to music might help more than an overly attractive woman that tried to kill him from dancing around the room. He was completely aware of how bitter and ridiculous he was being. He did not care.
Conjurations
Changes Made
No name Bard Class F Level 1
Iris Bard F Level 1 + Nature
No Name Champion Class M level 1
Roran Champion M Level 1 + Nature
(Not Active)
No Name Freelancer F Level 1
Bonnie Freelancer F Level 1
No Name Freelancer F Level 1
Gertude Freelancer F Level 1
No Name Freelancer M Level 1
Hank Freelancer M Level 1
No Name Beastmaster Class M level 1
Jasper - Beastmaster Level 1 + Nature
(Not Active)
No Name Dancer Class F Level 1
Cynthia - Dancer Class F Level 1
(Not Active)
No Name Sorcerer Class F Level 1
Penny - Sorcerer Class F Level 1
No Name Knight Class M Level 1
Brown - Knight Class M Level 1
No Name Priest Class M level 1
Snow- Priest Class M Level 1
He equipped three of the nature cores and left two in his inventory. He took a deep breath and conjured the triplets. They came out and immediately fell on the ground. He watched them flounder around and figure it out. He conjured a chair using some of the orc clubs he had received as a reward. They finally figured out how to stand and then proceeded to try and walk. They then started running and jumping and rolling around in the metal room. After about thirty minutes of this they stood in front of him. Collin gave Gerti her pole after making some simple modifications. The freelancers were just slightly taller than four feet. They were about the size of Theo and Dayton from back home. A normal size polearm was too long for her so he had to adjust the size. He gave Hank’s conjuration a wooden sword and Bonnie got her hammer. Bonnie could not pick up her hammer so Collin had to make some modification to it as well. When she was finally able to pick it up and slam it down without struggle. He let them go wild. They started swinging their weapons around and running with them and Collin was glad he had not given Hank the actual sword. After about twenty minutes of this. Collin got up and manifested a wooden sword of his own. He spared with each and taught them a few basics to get them started. After about forty-five minutes of this. The triplets were sprawled out on the floor tired.
“This has been the best day ever.” Bonnie said.
“Yes. This has been great.” Hank agreed. He was cradling his wooden sword like a baby.
“Good. I am glad. Are we ready to go to the next floor? Collin asked. The three nodded and vanished into thin air. Collin got up and walked to the platform leading to the Eleventh floor.
…
Collin arrived through the hole in the ground. He immediately realized that he was not in the nice forest anymore. It was hot. There was sand everywhere. An artificial sun radiated in the corner causing a slight tingling across his skin as he began sweating profusely. He looked for any sort of structure to provide shade and noticed that there was none. He was alone in a three hundred foot diameter sand pit.
“Come on out guys.” He said manifesting the triplets and Snow. He had a feeling healer class would be needed for this.
They walked up to the center of the room and waited. Suddenly there was an explosion of sand and out jumps a giant scorpion. Five smaller scorpions came out behind it. Collin unsheathed his sword. He mentally told the three to get ready. They equipped their actual weapons and took a fighting stance. Snow created a barrier around each of them as well as a healing circle where they stood.
“Ok guys, I want you to group up and take the little ones one by one. Watch each other's backs.” Collin said.
Bonnie ran forward. yelling a war cry before jumping up and slamming her hammer down on to the nearest scorpion. Hank ran forward stabbing it in the side before the two moved on to the next one. Gerti walked up and poked the already dead scorpion with her polearm.
Collin mentally told Snow to stay with the triplets. He rushed forward and began attacking the giant scorpion. He dodged a strike from its pincer, rolling forward and under its front few legs. He punched in a few times with some fire mana before jumping back and rolling out of the way. He sent some nature mana downward and grew a tree upward twenty feet high. With his bow and quiver equipped he began firing shot after shot at the giant scorpion as well as the smaller ones. He watched Hank block a pincer with his shield before slashing the tip of it off with his short sword. Bonnie came forward with another hammer smash. Gerti came forward again and hit it with the tip of her polearm.
“Gerti, let's try to hit the live ones. The dead ones are already dead.” Collin said before shooting another arrow toward the giant scorpion.
Gerti ran up behind a live scorpion and hit it as hard as she could with her polearm. There was a slight crack in the shell but not much of a hit. Bonnie came up behind with another hammer smash. She was getting really good at those. There were just two more smaller and the one giant left. Collin shot a vine arrow at the remaining two smaller scorpions. The vines exploded from the arrow that bound the two to the ground. The triplets came forward hitting, slashing and poking with their respective weapons.
“She really needs a spike at the end of that polearm.” Collin said to himself.
He quickly manifested a pike and threw it over to Gerti. Gerti caught it. Looked at it and smiled. She dropped her polearm which Collin immediately sent to his inventory. She ran forward screaming like a front line's lancer and thrusted the pike deep into the last of the smaller scorpions. It keeled over and she jumped on top of it doing a victory dance.
“Good job!” Collin yelled to her before focusing back on the giant scorpion. He jumped off of the tree and landed on top of its back with his sword. He slashed the singer off and jumped out of the way. The scorpions' front pinchers were trying their best to reach behind him to get to Collin. Snow activated another healing circle around the triplets and put a barrier around Collin. Bonnie came running forward and leaped into the air with her giant hammer. Collin sent some air and fire mana into the hammers head as it slammed down on to the back of the giant scorpion. The air mana increased the speed of the hammer, and the fire caused a large explosion. It ran away completely on fire before turning into dust as the rest of the rooms changed back to its original state. Everyone high fived and jumped on to the next platform.
Floors twelve and thirteen consisted of fifty desert rats and three very large sand centipedes. For the rats, Collin grew a large tree about twenty feet high and let the kids try their luck at shooting a bow and arrow. They were terrible. Well Bonnie was terrible. Gerti was getting much better by the end and Hank gave up after three tries. He instead jumped headfirst off of the tree and while screaming “Shield Smashed” proceeded to smash his shield into the nearest rat. He then began hacking and slashing away at the rats while Bonnie followed behind doing a near perfect tuck and roll front flip into a “Hammer Smash”. Collin gave her the coolest kill award for that. Gerti tried to throw her pike which missed. She then started trying to throw arrows like her pike. By that point, Brown, who Collin had brought out in place of Snow, had finished up the remaining rats. The large sand centipedes were a bit trickier. Gerti and Bonnie got scared and vanished. This allowed Collin to summon Penny, Brown, and Snow to assist Hank. Penny bombarded the centipedes with magic bolt after magic bolt while Hank ran around slashing their little legs with his sword. Brown managed to keep the attention on him with his taunt ability and Collin finished them off with his arrows.
They arrived on floor fourteen which had a large wooden fortress on the other side of the room. Doglike humanoids Collin remembered to be called Jackals stood at attention around the fortress. There were about a hundred of them at least.
“Sir, you can have more people. It is saying two teams of five. Hank said.
“That’s not good. That usually means these monsters are going to be hard to beat.” Collin said. He hesitantly activated and summoned Jasper and Roran to join the others.”
“What took you so long to summon us?” Roran asked.
“Where is Cynthia?” Jasper asked
“I am still a bit pissed at her for killing everyone.” Collin said. “If not for these three, I would have died too.”
“Triplets!! What are you doing here?! Roran said rounding on the three.
“We had to! Mr. Collin was going to die. We had to give him a hundred potions.”
“Ten would have worked probably but yes. Thank you again for saving me.” Collin said. He was going to have to teach them basic math so they would stop wasting his potions.
“They are not supposed to be bonded for another three to five years.” Jasper said
“I didn't do it. They bonded to me. I was dying. I had made no decisions during the bonding process. I even tried to keep them in matrix form but they wanted to experience this. They even have a special class that I have never heard of before.” Collin said. He took six apples out of his inventory and gave each of them one before biting into his.
“We will need to correct this.” Roran said. He eyed the apple and then took a bite.
“I agree. I have already promised them that I will find a way to put them back on track. For now, they are here so let’s just move forward.” Collin said
“Boss?” Hank asked, looking up at Jasper. He had completely devoured his apple already.
“Yeah buddy?” Jasper said back.
“Mrs Cynthia turned evil. We saw it. She messed with Mr. Collin’s mind and made him think he did all these things while you killed everyone. That is not like her sir. She’s a nice Matrix.” Hank said
“Yeah, she isn’t like that. You are correct.” Jasper agreed. He was still holding his apple.
“Those damn convicts are at it again.” Roran said
“What do yall mean?” Collin asked.
“About three or four thousand of the Matrices that make up the over ten thousand in total, are convicts, drug addicts or war criminals. They have been interfering with a number of items regarding the compound and the battle tower. Damn humans weren’t thinking straight when they combined everyone into this tube.” Jasper explained. He finally took a bite of the apple and smiled.
“There is a trickster running around messing with things. Cynthia doesn’t have the kind of power that made you hallucinate the way you did. We weren’t even in control of ourselves. It is why we could not talk at all during the battle. All we could do was watch.” Roran stated.
Collin thought about it for a bit. It made sense. A trickster or illusionist would have been able to warp his entire reality. A dual bard and dancer would have been able to cause some status effects and possibly put him to sleep, but they would not have been capable of the complete fabrication that he had been through.
With a heavy sigh, Collin brought up his screen, activated and conjured Cynthia to the area.
“Mr. Collin! I am so sorry for what I did. I swear to you it was not me in control.” Cynthia said. She ran up to try and hug him and Collin put his hand up to stop her. He was not in the mood to be touched.
“You killed all my friends.” Collin said. I know they can come back but it still hurts. I don’t even remember what happened. I thought I heard Trixie and then the black gear set came out and before I knew it I was on the ground burned out and you three were all dead. I understand that it may not have been you. I am going to need a minute to process.” He left out the part of wanting to destroy her Matrix. That would probably not help anything,
He took some more fruit out of his inventory and set it on the ground. The triplets ran over and started having a picnic while the adults talked.
“Four more hours until they are back sir.” Hank said, in between bites of a banana.
“Ruby will be back in about two hours.” Gerri added. She was peeling an orange
“Triplets! What are you doing in a physical form?!” Cynthia turned on them.
“They bonded in order to save me.” Collin explained. “I promise I will do whatever I can to get them back to their original state. I have future pledges that need them.” Collin explained. He thought of Dayton and Theo being unable to bond and frowned.
“Hmmm.” Cynthia said, making a humming noise and she stared at the three for a bit before looking back at Collin. “Also why am I not in a Bard class?”
Iris walked up and stood in front of her. She looked it up and down in confusion.
“I received two separate classes to conjure for some reason. I wasn't sure why.” Collin said
“May I absorb this summon?” Cynthia asked
“Sure. I need more room anyway. I got an increase to forty but I have no idea how fast those slots are going to fill up.” Collin said. A pop up box came up asking him the same question and he hit yes.
Iris was sucked into Cynthia. There was a color shift and Cynthia stood there looking just as beautiful and deadly as she was a few hours ago. Collin just shook his head trying not to think about her holding him with a knife on his neck. He proceeded forward into the center of the room.
“Are any of you supposed to be teaching or explaining anything to me? A class or element?” Collin asked.
“No. We are just here to assist. Amergin is the one who knows the plan.” Jasper said.
“I can teach you how to hit with a hammer!” Bonnie said. She started swinging it around and around.
“Thank you Bonnie. That is not quite what I meant though.” Collin said. He checked his status screen. The outline had changed and added some additional information.
Battle Tower Matrix
Collin Chintzy
Level 30
Strength 25
Defense 25
Health 20
Agility 25
Intelligence 20
Health 100% 30%/ min
Mana 100% 30%/ min
Abilities/ Skills:
Conjuration System
Flame Punch
Air Barrier
Clone Construct
Construct Teleportation
Vine Dagger - Archer
Vine Arrow - Archer
Forest Expansion
Explosive Arrow
Wind Piercer
Secondary Matrix - Captain
Troops: 22/40
Total Class Mastery: 22%
* Tank 0%
* Healer 0%
* Fighter 0%
* Support 0%
* Archer 50%
* Mage 50%
* Rogue 50%
Battle Tower Floors
Complete: 13
Nature - 100%
Water - 0%
Earth - 20%
Fire - 0%
Air - 0%
Holy / Light 0%
Void / Dark 0%
Archetype Level Progression
Tank - None
Fighter - None
Healer - None
Archer - Ranger Level 5
Mage - Sorcerer Level 5
Rogue - Ninja Level 5
Support- Summoner Level 4
Gear Set Unlocked
* Adventurer
* Voided Shadow
* Nature
* Blank
* Blank
* Blank
* Blank
* Blank
Matrices
Tiny - Nature
Amergin - Nature
Roran - Nature
Cynthia - Nature
Jasper - Nature
Bonnie - Newborn
Hank- Newborn
Gertrude - Newborn
Conjuration Armor and weapon sets unlocked*
Collin switched through the screens and noticed something different about the gear sets. He noticed his normal adventure gear was placed in slot one and his voided shadow Gear Set from the black chest was placed in slot two. The black chest had disappeared from his inventory. There was also a new set that he had not seen before in slot three. He clicked on the Nature Gear set.
Nature Gear - The Forest Rangers Set (5/5)
* 50% increase in Nature Mana control (2 / 5)
* 75%increase in Nature Mana capacity (3 / 5)
* 95% decrease in Nature Skill Cooldown (4 / 5)
* 100% increase in Nature Skill Power (5 / 5)
The Forest Ranger’s Chest - Nature
* 100% Projectile Resistance - immune to projectile based attacks (arrows, spears,stars,knives,daggers etc)
* Magic projectiles ignore resistance.
The Forest Ranger’s Leggings- Nature
* 100% Trap Resistant -unaffected by status conditions from trap based attacks (stun, sleep, poison, etc)
The Forest Ranger’s Gloves - Nature
* 100% increase accuracy and distance with throwing items
The Forest Ranger’s Boots - Nature
* Vertical Step - walk up vertical surfaces, ignores gravity
* Silent Step - No sound produced from steps
The Forest Ranger’s Helm- Nature
* 200% increase to perception
* High ground -10% increased to all stats if positioned at a higher altitude than your target
The Forest Rangers Bow
* Auto Nocking - Pulling back on string automatically equips an arrow from inventory.
* Minimum 1 arrow must be in your inventory
The Forest Rangers Daggers
* Each strike applies an instance of Poison
* Each additional strike increases duration of poison effect
“This set is entirely too powerful.” Collin said. He immediately equipped it.
“Whoa! That's Cool!” Bonnie said
“Oh good. You have unlocked a new gear set. That will help us tremendously moving forward.” Roran said.
“Alright. Let’s beat this floor and summon the rest of the team.” Collin said. They all looked forward to the fortress of Jackals. They ranged from dog-like animals on all fours to humanoid-like creatures with dog-like faces. There were even some with wings. They held long poles and were cladded with golden tinted armor of some kind.
“Hank, is there an objective to this challenge?” Collin asked. Hank had been doing a good job of monitoring, so he decided to let him keep at it.
“Sir, they have hostages. We must save & protect the hostages by either bringing them to that circle over there or by killing all of the enemies.” Hank said, pointing fifteen feet to a small area of sand that was visible a different shade then all of the rest.
“Snow and the Triplets are with me. Roran, Jasper, Synthia and my clone will lead the charge. Keep their army busy while we push past to get inside. We will rescue the prisoners, and you will cover our escape to the circle.” Collin said.
He shut his eyes and split himself into a conjuration copy of himself. He equipped him with a bow, quiver and daggers. He made sure to give him a portion of each element just in case. Jasper summoned his Sabretooth Tiger, Great Elk, and Dire wolf. Collin saw flashbacks of the tiger eating the corpses of his friends and shuddered a bit. He had to figure out how to get past all of that. The teams split off and began the challenge. An army of fifty marched out of the gates and charged forward. There were thirty humanoids, fifteen beasts, and five winged humanoid Jackals all equipped with different weapons. Roran charged headfirst into the middle of it with his ax swinging from side to side. The wolf and tiger on his heels assisting in the charge. Jasper climbed on top of his great elk and rode forward with his sword. Collin’s clone had created a palm tree and was standing at the top raining arrows down from above. Collin noted that he was also wearing the new gear set. Cynthia stood under the palm tree and began dancing, singing and playing on her manifested Lute. Collin felt the effects of her abilities almost instantly. She was in the process of buffing both teams while also causing a slow and stunning affliction on the enemy. Collin felt himself become faster as they rushed forward past the horde to get inside the gate. Snow had a barrier formed around all of them as they ran forward. Bonnie, Hank, and Gerti looked to be having a blast. They were ducking and dodging and hitting and slashing at everything in sight. Collin equipped the Forest Ranger’s Daggers and sent air and nature mana throughout his body. He Burst through the line hitting vital points on every soldier he passed by. Ducking under a swing here and over a shoulder before stabbing a kidney and sliding under sword strike. He reached the gate and turned around to see the poisoning taking effect. Bonnie and Hank were charging through having no difficulties whatsoever. He saw Bonnie following behind them with her hammer hitting every other one that they missed. Poor Snow was doing everything he could to keep up with their pace.
“I have to give Snow a really cool upgrade somehow. He is doing awesome at protecting them.” Collin said to himself.
He shut his eyes for a minute and switched places with his clone. From the top of the palm tree he could see Roran in the center holding his own against about fifteen Jackels. Jasper was circling the group on his great elk, slashing at the flank of the enemy. Cynthia was still in the rear dancing, dodging and singing her way through the crowd. A magic circle began to form as she made her way through the group circling in and out to encompass the entire army. Brown was to the left protecting Penny as she cast magic bolt after magic bolt. The flying jackals were swooping down upon them. Collin pulled back on the string noticing an arrow appearing on the bow. He filled the arrow full of fire mana and released it. He hoped he timed it correctly as the arrow flew into the air and at the nearest winged Jackal. He mentally told Brown and Penny to duck. Penny flung herself under Brown as he lifted his shield up facing that air in time to block a huge explosion directly above them. The Winged jackals fell to the ground in flames. Penny and Brown looked up from behind the shield and appeared to be ok. Collin mentally commanded Snow to go help them before switching places with his clone again. He left him in the tree still firing arrow after arrow into the group.
The triplets made it to the gate and followed Collin into the fortress, where they saw more jackals standing in front of a large cage. Inside the cage appeared to be human constructs with no faces. Collin punched the ground sending nature mana forward. This caused a series of bamboo trees to grow upward, knocking the soldiers back and providing the four a path to the cage. Collin picked Bonnie up and threw her onto the cage. She came down with her Hammer striking the lock and breaking it into pieces. Hank sped under Collin’s right shoulder as she flew through the air. He reached the cage just in time to stop a jackals spear with his shield. He brought his short sword around and gutted the soldier before blocking another spear.
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“Your turn Gurti.” Collin said, swinging her upward to grab a hanging vine.
She grabbed the vine and used her momentum to swing up before letting go and following with her pike ready. She skewered three soldiers at once before letting go and stabbing a fourth with her small dagger. Collin made it to the cage and helped the kids open it up, letting them prisoners free. He directed them to the left and told them to keep to the wall. Gurti and Hank lead the way while Bonnie took up the rear. They ran directly to the wall and made left to circle back to the gate. Collin kept with Bonnie and took out what enemy soldiers he could see. They reached the gate and ducked around to the right trying to sneak around the outer walls. There Collin could see the others were cleaning up the remaining forces. Brown Penny and Snow came rushing forward to protect their rear. Collin heard a bell ring in his head and checked to see what was going on. Ruby’s countdown was up. She was ready to be summoned. Collin turned the screen off as he had a full team already and went back to the task at hand.
“Get them to the circle.” Collin told the Triplets.
They kept running forward ushering the prisoners to run faster. Collin stayed back and helped hold the line as somehow more and more soldiers began running out of the gate towards them.
“There were not that many inside there earlier.” Collin said. “Where are they coming from?”
“I am running out of mana sir. I may need to switch out.” Roran said in his mind.
“Switch out? What does he mean? Collin said to himself.
He switched places with his clone who was still standing on the palm tree. He pulled up his screen and saw that Roran was getting terribly low on health, stamina, and mana. There was a switch button next to his name. Collin clicked it and saw the only possible option was Ruby. Collin quickly upgraded her to Guard level one and hit confirm. Roran vanished right before a sword came down to finish the blow. There was a loud ping and Ruby was there. She brought her shield up and ran full speed knocking the remaining soldiers back as she tried to exit the circle of enemies. Cynthia having finished her circle began chanting an incantation. The circle began to glow and Collin mentally told everyone to get out of there. As fast as he could he shot arrow after arrow to help Ruby’s escape. The tiger came out of nowhere and started helping her get out of the circle. The wolf, elk and Jasper had already made it out. Just as Ruby got clear. The whole circle went off sending light upward in a series of purples reds and blues.
“What kind of spell is that??” Collin asked Jasper mentally.
“It’s a magic finisher called Dancing Rain. She had to dance all through and around them to create it. Her circle sucks in all mana before sending it upward in a beam of pure energy.” Jasper said. “She is going to be out of commission here in a bit so we need to switch her out.”
Collin saw her fall to the ground. He pulled up his system to see she was not dead, just passed out. He unsummoned her and turned to check on the triplets. They had safely made it to the off color circle of sand with all of the prisoners. They were jumping up and down in excitement. The remaining forces were easily defeated by the remaining summons. The terrain faded and Collin landed on the floor. He heard a bell ring and a series of pop up windows appeared.
Floor 14 Completed
Rewards:
+2,000 Battle Coin (BC) , +10 Minor Health Potion, +10 Minor Mana Potion,+50 Jackal Assorted Weapons, +50 Assorted Jackal Armor +30 Winged Jackal Feathers, +5 Earth Core
…
Configuration Cooldown Complete.
The following conjurations can be summoned:
Amber F- Ranger Level 15, Warrior Level 5
Bronze M- Ranger Level 15, Wizard Level 5 + Nature
Sky F- Marksman Level 10
Red M- Ninja Class Level 7, Mage Class level 5
Blue M- Ranger Class Level 7, Fighter Level 5
Olive F- Cleric Class Level 10
Merlot M- Knight Class Level 7, Healer class Level 5
Indigo F- Cleric Class Level 10
Tiny M- Elite Ranger Class Level 8 + Nature
Amergin M - Druid Class Level 17 + Nature
Orange M- Mage Class level 5
Summon Conjurations: Yes or No
Battle Tower Inventory System
Items
Battle Coins (BC) Total: 7,550
Adventure Bag “ Collin”
Minor Health Potion x 101
Minor Mana Potion x 99
Antidote x 20
Orc Clubs x 23
Nature Cores x2
Earth Core x 10
Crafting:
Orc assorted material x 10
Goblin assorted material x 30
Bear Hide x 1
Bear Meat x 5
Direwolf hide x 75
Eagle Feather X 300
Giant Rat Fang x 1200
Giant Snake Skin x 45
Nature Core x 5
Spider Silk x 150
Jackal Assorted Weapons x50
Assorted Jackal Armor x50
Winged Jackal Feathers x30
Team (Conjurations)
Amber F- Ranger Level 15, Warrior Level 5
Bronze M- Ranger Level 15, Wizard Level 5 + Nature
Ruby F- Ranger Level 15, Guard level 1
Sky F- Marksman Level 10
Red M- Ninja Level 7, Mage level 5
Blue M- Ranger Level 7, Fighter Level 5
Olive F- Cleric Level 10
Merlot M- Knight Level 7, Healer Level 5
Indigo F- Cleric Level 10
Tiny M- Elite Ranger Level 8 + Nature
Amergin M - Druid Level 17 + Nature
Orange - M Mage level 5
Bonnie F - Freelancer Level 8
Gertude F - Freelancer Level 8
Hank M - Freelancer Level 8
Roran M Champion Level 3 + Nature
Jasper M - Beastmaster Level 3 + Nature
Cynthia -F Dancer Level 3, Bard Level 3
Penny F - Sorcerer Level 5
Brown M- Knight Level 5
Snow F - Priest Level 5
Collin clicked yes and waited. There was a short period where nothing happened and then suddenly everyone was summoned forth. Collin hit a knee as he felt his mana begin to drain at an ever increasing rate. He started draining bottle after bottle of Mana potion until the summoning was complete. There before him was twenty-one conjurations.
“I am sorry I failed you guys.” Collin said.
“It is not your fault sir.” Tiny said.
“It really was not. After you were hypnotized. We saw a trickster come out. He sat in a tree and watched us all get defeated. He disappeared shortly before I was defeated.” Amergin explained.
“I never saw him.” Cynthia said.
“Us either.” Jasper and Roran added.
“I never saw anyone else.” Collin said
“We saw him!” Bonnie said.
“Yeah we saw him. It was Mr. Delilah.” Hank added.
“Triplets!!” Tiny and Amergin yelled together.
“What are you doing here?” Amergin said.
“They saved me. I was dying and they bonded with me so that they could force feed me potions.” Collin explained.
Collin let the matrices talk amongst themselves while he checked out the store. He noticed that he had a large amount of inventory and nothing to do with it. He sorted through each item and thought about what he could do to utilize the material. In scrolling through he noticed that he had unlocked weapon and armor sets for his conjuration a long time ago. He previously had been equipping them individually as a need arose. He quickly realized that this was an inefficient way of handling things, especially when he had more than one conjugation in a particular class. With this information he started working on crafting weapons and equipment best suited for the forest and desert terrains. He also made as many arrows as possible using the feathers and fangs he obtained from prior floors. He went through and reorganized everyone’s gear into a universal set. He was still able to individually equip certain weapons or armor to a specific person, however through the assigned sets, he would be able to change the attire mid-fight if the need was there. The remaining items got dismantled into basic crafting materials such as metal, wood, and cloth. While he was at it, he also progressed those conjurations who had reached an evolution stage.
Armor sets
Weapons Sets
Tank
Set 1 -Forest Wolf Set - Nature
Set 2 - Jackal Dessert Set - Earth
Tank
Set 1 - Primary: Tree Sentinel Shield,
Secondary: Goblin Bone Sword
Set 2 - Primary: Jackel’s GreatShield,
Secondary: Jackal Bronze Sword
Fighter
Set 1 -Forest Wolf Set - Nature
Set 2 - Jackal Dessert Set - Earth
Fighter
Set 1 - Orc Weapon Set (Sword, Spear, Ax, Hammer)
Set 2 - Jackal Dessert Set (Sword, Spear, Ax, Hammer)
Archer
Set 1 -Forest Wolf Set - Nature
Set 2 - Jackal Dessert Set - Earth
Archer
Set 1 - Snake Fang Daggers x2, Forest Orc Bow
Set 2 - Golden Jackal Daggers x 2, Golden Jackal Bow
Arrows x 1,500
Healer
Set 1 -Forest Wolf Set - Nature
Set 2 - Jackal Dessert Set - Earth
Healer
Set 1 - Forest Healer Staff
Set 2 - Jackal Cleric Staff
Mage
Set 1 -Forest Wolf Set - Nature
Set 2 - Jackal Dessert Set - Earth
Mage
Set 1 - Forest Mage Staff
Set 2 - Jackal Cleric Staff
Conjurations
Changes Made
Amber F- Ranger Level 15, Warrior Level 5
Amber F- Ranger Level 15, Champion Level 1
Bronze M- Ranger Level 15, Wizard Level 5 + Nature
Bronze M- Ranger Level 15, Sorcerer Level 1 + Nature
Sky F- Marksman Level 10
Sky F- Ranger Level 1 + Nature
Red M- Ninja Level 7, Mage level 5
Red M- Ninja Level 7, Wizard Level 1
Blue M- Ranger Level 7, Fighter Level 5
Blue M- Ranger Level 7, Warrior Level 1
Olive F- Cleric Level 10
Olive F- Priest Level 1, + Nature
Merlot M- Knight Level 7, Healer Level 5
Merlot M- Knight Level 7, Cleric Level 1
Indigo F- Cleric Level 10
Indigo F- Priest Level 1
Orange - M Mage level 5
Orange M - Wizard Level 1,
Penny F - Sorcerer Level 5
Penny F - Sorcerer Level 5, Fighter Level 1
Brown M- Knight Level 5
Brown M- Knight Level 5, Fighter Level 1
Snow F - Priest Level 5
Snow F - Priest Level 5, Mage level 1
Collin stepped on the platform and was lifted to the fifteenth floor. The moment he crossed the threshold in the ceiling he noticed he was unable to hear anything. He looked across a deserted landscape of sand rock and hard dirt. There was a distant sun in the far corner and little to no plant life to be found. He stepped off of the platform and walked towards the center of the floor.
“Amergin, what is the challenge?” Collin asked.
Nothing.
“Triplets?, Roran? Tiny? Anyone there?”
No response.
“Where is everyone?” Collin asked himself. He tried to open his status screen and nothing would come up. He tried to manifest a conjuration and nothing happened.
There was a slight shift in the sand and he drew his bow up waiting for something to come out. The sand began sinking into a hole. A figure rose up from the hole. The man wore nothing but a loin cloth. He was slender and tall. His hair was long and matted together in dreadlocks. He was very tan. Collin was unable to identify any sort of ethnicity or dialect just by his looks. The man looked like he never left the sun. The man stood there in the sand looking at Collin. He had no weapons or shoes for that matter.
“Hello…” Collin said hesitantly. He stood there and waited for a response.
“Hello. The man said finally. He had a very deep and thick accent. It was somewhat difficult for Collin to understand the simple greeting.
“Are we supposed to fight?” Collin asked.
“We will get to that eventually. Do you know who I am?” the man said.
“No Sir. I don’t believe I do. Am I supposed to know you?”
“Call me Midbar.” The man said. He walked over and shook Collin’s hand. Collin was taken aback by what was going on.
”Collin” Collin said.
“We are changing things up. I got tired of waiting and told the others it was my turn.” Midbar said.
“Others? Are you a Matrix?” Collin asked.
“I am. I believe you have met my old nemesis Amergin. He clearly has been teaching you the bow. Such a wasted instrument.” Midbar said.
“Why am I not able to speak to my other Matrices?” Collin asked.
“Because I wanted some alone time with you. I need a moment for talk so I made them go away for a bit.” he answered. He motioned for Collin to deposit his things on the sand and waited.
“Ok.” Collin said. He dropped his gear and unbuckled his daggers and sword. He kept a dagger on his belt just as a precaution and then stood and waited.
Midbar raised his hand and a trickle of sand flowed up into his hand. It formed into a ball and then condensed into a stone. Midbar sent the stone to Collin through the air. Collin picked it through the air and stared at it. He could see the mana formed around it using his nature sense. The mana was constantly condensing the sand into itself to hold the hard form. Suddenly the mana disappeared and the rock fell apart into sand.
“We won’t be going to the next floor for a bit. Your friends are fine. I just told them to go away. I was once the Baron of Region XII as well as the Marquis of Region I. I ruled over the regions making up the Arkadian Desert for nearly fifty years. My elements were earth and wind. More specifically sand.”
“Can you tell us where the region Xi Beacon is?” Collin asked eagerly.
“Lord Ray will have to figure that out himself. It’s part of becoming a Baron. You however need to become much more. Please absorb these so we can begin.” Midgar said manifesting ten earth and wind cores and sending them to Collin.
Collin did what he said. He picked each up and absorbed them one by one until they were all gone. He even absorbed the earth cores in his inventory. He checked his screen and found that his air had reached twenty percent and his earth was now at sixty percent. He felt the wind flow through and around him. His skin felt as hard as steel. With his nature sight he could see the mana forming in and around him. He could see the ambient mana in the sand and air. He waited for things to return to normal and then stood in a ready pose for Midbar.
“Very good. Now I am what is considered a WarMaster Class. Imagine a Berserker and a Brawler combined into one.” Midbar said. Collin tried to picture Ray and the Duke being combined and what kind of skills they would have.
“I have no experience in either of the prerequisite classes.” Collin said.
“That is ok. We will be working on that as well as your other elements. Are you ready to begin?”
Collin nodded and they began.
Midbar put Collin through a series of workouts involving hand to hand combat, air, earth, and sand bending as well as fleaing for his life while Midbar chased him. Midbar had Collin strip down to where he was wearing nothing but a pair of cut off pants. His feet sank deep into the sand as he walked around. He was completely cut off from the battle system and his other conjurations. Collin quickly understood the sheer power that Midbar possessed. He used the sand to move him around. The ebb and flow reminded him of how the ocean tides acted. He was able to effortlessly move the sand and manipulate it to his liking. Fighting him was absolutely impossible. Everytime Collin thought he had an opening he would punch a hardened block of sand. Midbar had an invisible shield of sand surrounding him. It reacted to his movements. It reacted to others. It looked like the sand was its own living creature as it flowed around him and sprang out to attack Collin. Collin began reinforcing his body with the earth mana in an attempt to increase the impact but it slowed him down too much. He tried speeding his body up with air mana while attacking with the reinforced earth mana and found that he was beginning to get the hang of it. The key was to keep the earth mana in the form of sand right before he was about to make an impact. At the last second he would condense the sand into a hardened stone around his fist. The result was an air infused blast that knocked everything back. Collin also learned to use this concept to defend himself. Midbar would attack him over and over while he attempted to form a shield from the sand. He learned to form walls and move them in the sand. He figured out how to solidify and condense the sand as well as how to allow the flow to carry him away. He felt like he was flying. Moving the sand and himself up and down and throughout the flow of the desertlike room. Midbar and Collin trained for what felt like three days on the fifteenth floor of the Battle Tower. The morning of the fourth day, Collin faced Midbar with newfound determination and confidence.
Collin stood in front of Midbar holding a wooden pole about three feet long in his right hand. He was dressed in his cut off shorts with a leather belt and had his blonde hair tied in a bun. During the entire time that he was training, he was not able to have a weapon. It was not until he found a stick and began using it that Midbar allowed him to keep using it throughout his training. Since then he had modified the stick to be a pole with cloth wrapped tightly around the handle. Midbar stood there unarmed in his loin cloth. His dreadlocks waved down his back. The wind blew the sand over the horizon as a sense of peace and tranquility washed over the room. Collin took a deep breath and disappeared with a flash. He reappeared behind Midbar with a horizontal slash aimed at his head. Midbar put an elbow up to block without even turning around. Collin pivoted to the right with a heel kick to Midbar’s right side. Midbar took the blow before grabbing Collin’s leg and throwing him across the sand. Midbar rushed forward after Collin, the sand propelling him forward like a tidal wave. Collin recovered with a few rolls and jumped upward bringing up a wall of dirt to stop him. He turned and saw Midbar rushing towards him. With his earth and wind mana he formed multiple discs and sent them spinning toward Midbar. He remembered teaching the pledges and how they tried to hit the tree at the bottom of the gulley on the trip up there and smiled. He watched as the discs flew towards Midbar crashing into his sand shield before disintegrating back into sand. Collin pushed off the wall and shot forward, dragging his pole across the ground and forming sand around the edge in the shape of a large hammer. He condensed the earth as much as he could before bringing it down in a vertical overhead strike. Midbar pivoted at the last second using the sand to push him to the left, narrowly missing the blast. Collin let the hammer collapse, showering himself with sand as he turned to block a punch from Midbar. The sand formed around him in makeshift armor protecting him from the blow. Collin brought his fist around landing a blow to Mibdar’s face. The sand exploded from the two blows and Collin took advantage by condensing it around Midbar holding him in place. Collin grabbed Midbar by the arm and turned, swinging his legs around and placing him in an armbar. He condensed the sand hard and harder around Midbars joints trying to keep himself in position as he pulled at the socket. Midbargrunted before slamming Collin down into the dirt. He repeatedly slammed Collin down over and over trying to force him to let go. Collin held on as tight as he could. Collin hit the floor hard on the final blow, He let go rolling himself over and pushing the ground moving his body to the left and out of the way. He recovered ten feet away ready for the next attack. There was none. Collin stood there staring at Midbar. Sand was forming around both of them waiting for the other to act. Midbar smiled and gave Collin a nod before disappearing from sight.
Floor Fifteen Complete
Rewards:
+7,500 Battle Coins, +10 Health Potions, + 10 Mana Potions, + 30 Earth Core, + 30 Wind Core,
+ 1 Sand Matrix “Midbar” +1 Berserker Class, +1 Brawler Class, +2 fighting sticks, + 1 cut off pants
“Great Job Sir” Tiny said
“Excellent fighting sir.” Roran added.
“That was very enjoyable to see,” Cynthia replied.
“Yes. I very much enjoyed it when you punched him in the face.” Amergin said
“I want to make a giant SAND HAMMER!!” Bonnie yelled. The other two were shouting in agreement.
Collin stood there grinning from ear to ear as his matrices resummed talking.. He quickly pulled up his screen and activated Midbar’s Matrix, assigning and combining the Berserker and Brawler classes.
“Well done Sir! You have mastered the basics. We can move forward now.’ Midbar said. The sand around them disappeared revealing where Collin’s gear was and were the other platform was located
Collin picked up all of his stuff which had been blown all around the room during the training and stepped on the platform to go to floor sixteen.
Outside the Tower
“How is he doing?” the Grand Supreme asked from his study.
“He has reached the sixteenth floor sir. It looks as if Midbar has joined them.” Seprus said from the wall behind him.
“What happened during his tenth floor challenge?”
“Sir, The Jester seems to be trying to interfere. Those criminals and drug addict Matrices are pushing back. It is utter war in there.” Seprus explained.
The Grand Supreme cursed to himself. The original programming was supposed to use the undesirable matrices as a processing power only. They were never supposed to be presented with any real power or control. Sometime during the start up process, one of the Matrices managed to be placed in the wrong section. The Trickster or Jester matrix called Delilah used his illusionary abilities to gain a percentage of control right before start up.. Once the start up occurred he slowly began switching good standing matrices out with criminal related ones. He successfully took over floors twenty-five to thirty and began heading up. He apparently hit a wall somewhere around thirty-one as he had entered Trixie and Max’s territory. The illusionist was no match for the combined power of a Shadow Princess and a Dragonslayer so he went downward to try and build some power before trying again.
“Is there anything we can do to stop him?” The Grand Supreme asked.
“No sir. We are unable to do anything now that tower is being used. We have to wait for Collin to either make it to the top or die.” Seprus said
“What happens if Collin fails?”
“If Collin fails, the Trickster will be able to get to the other floors. If he takes control of the bottom then he would have a much better chance at taking Trixie and Max. The tower will be unusable if he gets to the main control system at the top.. He can’t leave, but with that much power and the connection with the other towers about to take place in a few weeks, he could spread to other parts of the kingdom.” Seprus explained.
”How can he be stopped?”
“If Collin manages to get to the top, obtain Max, Trixie and the other three Legendaries, They may be able to defeat the Trickster.” Seprus said. “He may actually have to fight the Trickster sometime around the thirty-nine or fortieth floor.”
The Grand Supreme stood up and looked at the window to the tower. He could see the sixteenth floor lit up in power. The outer tower was designed to show what floor the contestant was in while they ascended. The man pledges had been sitting out watching the lights change as it went up. There was a sudden shift. The light went out on the sixteenth floor. Everyone waited for the delay that occurred between leaving one floor and entering the other. The Seventeenth floor suddenly burst in light and cheers were heard from the pavilion area.
“Thirty-four more to go” The Grand Supreme said
…
Collin
Inside the Tower.
Collin and team zoomed through floors sixteen through nineteen in a record pace. They battled three medium size sandworms. A medium size sandworm being the size of a house and as long as forty feet with billions of teeth for a mouth and no eyes. They beat stone golems, giant sand lizards, a sand bending sorcerer, three rock knights, five air champions, hundreds of giant eagles, and nearly a thousand sand ants. Collin hit the challenges with a new set of passion and urgency in his movements. He worked on controlling his summons, planning and overseeing the challenge and harnessing his control over the ambient mana in the room. They reached level twenty and found there to be five challenges. The first, was a maze full of earth, wind, and nature elementals. The goal was simply to make it to the other side which took them nearly a full day to navigate. The second challenge required him to cross a very small bridge while being attacked by hundreds of winged monsters such as eagles, griffins, and giant wasps. From their materials he was able to craft a secondary katana capable of applying poison, stun, or confusion at random. The third challenge consisted of three small dragons. One controlled a wind affinity while the other two controlled earth and nature. It took nearly everything Collin had to defeat the smaller beasts and he almost lost Tiny to a rogue wind attack. His reward for the dragons was a dragonskin which he promptly made into armor for the triplets who were due for an upgrade. The fourth challenge was a one on one against a wind brawler followed by a one on one against an earth berserker. Collin was far superior at the wind manipulation than the brawler was but had trouble finding an opening through the berserker's rock armor. He pulled through with a last second sand blast just before the berserker smashed his face into the wall. Collin crawled to the starting circle chugging mana and health potions before starting the filth and final challenge.
Collin sat on the ground while the room changed to prepare for the final challenge. He shut his eyes and rested on the triplets who had conjured themselves to hold him steady. All three of them were sporting their new dragon armor and standing at the ready to attack whatever came running at Collin.
“Take it easy sir. Deep breaths. There we go. This last challenge won’t be too bad. We just have to survive an onslaught.” Amergin said.
“What do you mean by that?” Collin asked
“Do you remember the siege of Ardelphia?” Cynthia asked.
“From history? Yeah. It was a massacre. No one survived the demon attack. The entire castle was ransacked and burned to the ground.” Collin said
“It seems the final challenge is a play on that exact siege.” Roran said.
“We are not in any shape to take on Demons guys.” Collin said.
“It won't be demons.” Tiny said.
“Yeah, it will be orcs, goblins, Ants, Bears, Eagles, Wolves, giant rats, giant snakes, giant scorpions, giant…”
“Jasper!” Cynthia yelled at Jasper which prompted to shut him up.
“How long?” Collin asked.
“Multiple waves over the next twenty-four hours. We will have two minutes between waves to regroup. The battle store will be open only between those two minutes.” Amergin explained.
“How do they win?” Collin asked
“They kill you.” Jasper said, “If we die, we will return. There is no protecting any object or person. The goal is that you do not die and we make it to the final wave or the twenty-four hour time limit ends.”
“No limit on summons either. You have all of us.” Cynthia said.
“How long until it starts.” Collin asked.
“The moment you leave that circle, It will begin.” Tiny said.
Collin looked around and took in the environment. He was sitting on the top wall of a brick fortress with three towers, a large twenty foot wall and a rod iron gate. Out in front of him was a flat field that curved upward into a hill. Behind him was a mountain facing. They were up against a wall. With the enemy coming from one direction. Collin had his Conjurations sit down next to him and he pulled out an assortment of food for everyone to eat. He couldn’t remember how long it had been since he entered the tower and he wasn’t even halfway up. While everyone ate, he chewed on a piece of bread and opened up his status menus and battle store. He checked on his rewards, absorbed all the cores he had, and assigned names to any new conjuration he had received.
Floors 16 - 19 Completed
+20,000 Battle Coins, +50 Health Potions, + 50 Mana Potions, + 15 Antidote + 50 Earth Core, + 50 Wind Core, + 15 Nature Core + 5 Fire Core
All materials converted to Assorted Metal, Wood, Cloth, Leather, and Gem
Name: Collin Chintzy
Age: 29
Weight: 200 lbs
Height 6’ 0”
Citizenship: Affirmative
Military Status
Active / Special Assignment
Military Rank: Captain I
Adventurer Status: Active
Adventurer Rank:
Master - Teacher
Health: 100%
Health Rank: S
Health Recovery: 50%/ Min
Mana: 100%
Mana Rank: S
Mana Recovery: 50%/ Min
Class:
See Battle Tower System
Weapon Proficiency:
Swords, bow and arrow, daggers, throwing knives and stars
Magic Affinities
Water: E Earth: S
Fire : S Air : S
Void/ Dark: S (override) D
Holy/ Light: E
Lightning: E
Ice: E Plant: S
Lava: E Sand: S
Metal: E
Matrix - 3/4 (Override)
Dungeon Core (Tonya) (Gold)
Primary Matrix (Trixie) (Blue) (Temporary Override)
Battle Tower Matrix (Red) - Install complete. (Primary Matrix Temporary Override)
Secondary Matrix - Captain (Grey) -Primary Matrix Required (unlocked) - Active
Titles:
Vice Baron of Gridarnia Region XI (72%) Vice Lord of The Goldenleaf Village, Prince #2 of Gridarnia, Friend of Gnome
Bond (0/1)
Please Perform a bond ritual in order to obtain bonded familiar. Stats and information displayed here
Skills:
1. Elemental Smash Level 10
2. Mana Manipulation level 10
3. Elemental Manipulation level 10
4. Mana Communication level 10
5. Others - See Battle Tower Matrix
6. Others - See Secondary Matrix
Battle Tower Inventory System
Items
Battle Coins (BC) Total: 50,659
Adventure Bag “ Collin”
Minor Health Potion x 198
Minor Mana Potion x 200
Antidote x 20
Arrows x 5,000
Crafting:
Assorted Metal x 3,500
Assorted Wood x 5,000
Assorted Cloth x 8,000
Assorted Leather x 2,000
Assorted Gems x 250
Assorted Bones x 2,500
Nature Core x 10
Air Core x 10
Earth Core x 10
Fire X 5
Team (Conjurations) 26/50
Amber F - Ranger 20, Champion Level 8
Bronze M - Ranger 20, Sorcerer Level 8 - Nature
Ruby F - Ranger 20, Knight Level 8
Sky F - Ranger Level 10 - Air
Red M - Ninja 20 , Sorcerer Level 8
Blue M - Ranger 20, Champion Level 8
Olive F - Elite Priest Level 1 - Nature
Merlot M - Knight 20, Priest Level 8
Indigo F - Elite Priest Level 1
"Tiny" M - Elite Ranger 20 - Nature
"Amergin" M - Master Druid level 1 - Nature
Orange M - Wizard level 8
Bonnie F - Freelancer Level 15
"Gertrude" F - Freelancer Level 15
"Hank" M - Freelancer Level 15
"Roran" M - Elite Champion level 10 - Nature
"Jasper" M - Beastmaster level 15 - Nature
"Cynthia" F - Dancer level 15 Bard Level 15 - Nature
Penny F - Elite Sorcerer Level 1 - Air
Brown M - Elite Knight Level 1 - Earth
Snow M - Elite Priest Level 1
Midbar M - Brawler Level 10, Berserker Level 10 - Earth
*Blood M - Brawler Level 1
*Crimson M - Berserker level 1 - Earth
*Eminence F - Sorcerer level 1 - Earth
*Steel - Champion Level 15 - Air
Battle Tower System
Battle Tower Matrix
Collin Chintzy
Level 50
Strength 40
Defense 35
Health 32
Agility 36
Intelligence 32
Abilities/ Skills:
Conjuration System 4
Clone Construct 4
Construct Teleportation 4
Matter Manipulation 4
Air Mastery
Sand Mastery
Earth Mastery
Nature Mastery
Secondary Matrix - Captain
Troops: 26/50
Total Class Mastery: 43%
* Tank 50%
* Healer 0%
* Fighter 50%
* Support 50%
* Archer 50%
* Mage 50%
* Rogue 50%
Battle Tower Floors
Complete: 19 & 4/5
Nature - 100%
Water - 0%
Earth - 100%
Fire - 0%
Air - 100%
Holy / Light 0%
Void / Dark 0%
Archetype Level Progression
Tank - Knight Level 5
Fighter - Champion Level 5
Healer - None
Archer - Ranger Level 5
Mage - Sorcerer Level 5
Rogue - Ninja Level 5
Support- Summoner Level 5
Gear Set Unlocked
* Adventurer
* Voided Shadow
* Forest Ranger
* Desert Bender
* Blank
* Blank
* Blank
* Blank
Matrices
Tiny - Nature
Amergin - Nature
Roran - Nature
Cynthia - Nature
Jasper - Nature
Bonnie - Newborn
Hank- Newborn
Gertrude - Newborn
Midbar - Earth
Conjuration Armor and weapon sets unlocked*
“Everybody is as equipped as I am capable of doing at this time.” Collin said.
“Sir, We have twenty-four remaining slots we can fill.” Amergin said.
“Numbers would definitely help with this.” Tiny said
Collin checked the store and saw a total of twenty conjurations available to be purchased. He bought all of them, dropping his Battles coins to around three thousand. He received a pop up screen shortly after finalizing the purchase.
*Hidden Reward*
All Available Conjurations Purchased
Matrices have been added to the store.
Matrices can be assigned to any conjuration.
+100,000 Battle Corns Received
“Sir, you can now purchase Matrices.” Tiny said
“That will upgrade your conjurations tremendously.”
“There looks to be tons of them too.” Hank said.
“Guys, I am not sure I can handle all of these voices in my head.’ Collin said.
“You can designate who you wish to talk to and have us handle the rest. “ Amergin said.
“Like generals and the different divisions of the military?” Collin asked.
“Precisely! Select your generals and put us in charge of a team and we will handle everything!” Roran said.
Collin looked through the list. There were thousands for him to choose from. He did not recognize any that he knew of but he hadn’t even scratched the surface of the list.
“Can I sort this by age?” Collin asked
“What do you mean?” Amergin said
“Can I sort the list of matrices to only show those from a particular time period. I want to find my old classmates like Tiny.” Collin said.
“I got this Amergin. Collin, I am pulling everyone up now.” Tiny asked.
The screen changed and Collin was able to sort by graduation year from the academy. The list showed the name of the matrix, name of the human they were bonded to, the elemental affinity and the year that the human died. Collin grabbed Silver’s matrix, Gold, as there was no way he was going to give up a true elementalist like Ray. Silver was the guy who beat Ray in the Master Title Tournament. He also found Brooke’s Matrix Marissa. She was one of the first to die during the war. Collin found Terrence the metal bending Tank, Charles the lightning bending Archer, Sarah the Dark healer, and Grady the Ice mage exchange student from region four. He started looking for legendary matrices from history like Amergin and Roran. He wasn’t surprised that he did not find them however. He figured they would be kept in the kingdom’s main vault. He purchased fifty matrices worried that this was going to be his only chance to purchase matrices. He assigned them to all of his remaining conjurations. He changed the names on some of them to reflect the matrix as he had more of a connection to some than to others. Merlot for instance was always going to be Merlot. He knew Rose, who had been assigned to him, but Merlot had been with Collin since the beginning so it just seemed right to keep the originals as they were. He had nearly fifty conjurations to manage which was already beginning to become confusing. He then began sorting them into groups based on their primary class. Collin then needed to create some sort of hierarchy or rank system. A group of generals who could relay his orders to the others. He began thinking about the challenge and the ultimate goal. Collin needed to be able to see everything just like he had been doing, however he would not be able to participate in the battle himself. His clone would have to be enough while he managed everyone’s abilities, health and stamina. He modified his list to include the General of each class and the matrices that were assigned. He had to move a few around who had dual classes. After almost a full two hours of sitting in the circle, he looked around to see everyone sitting there with him waiting. The food had all been eaten except for a few pieces that were saved for Collin.
Archer Class (9)
"Tiny" M - Elite Ranger 20 - Nature
Amber F - Ranger 20, Champion Level 8
Bronze M - Ranger 20, Sorcerer Level 8 - Nature
Ruby F - Ranger 20, Knight Level 8
Blue M - Ranger 20, Champion Level 8
Sky F - Ranger Level 10 - Air
Hazel F - Ranger Level 1
Pebble F - Marksman Level 1
Charles M - Archer Level 1
Tank Class (5)
“Tarrence” -Elite Knight Level 1
Brown M - Elite Knight Level 1 - Earth
Merlot M - Knight 20, Priest Level 8
Clay - Knight Level 1
Carrot - Guard Level 1
Support Class (6)
"Amergin" M - Master Druid level 1 - Nature
"Jasper" M - Beastmaster level 15 - Nature
"Cynthia" F - Dancer level 15 Bard Level 15 - Nature
Honey F - Bard Level 1
Oat M - Druid - Level 1
Buttermilk F - Dancer Level 1
Healer Class (6)
Sarah M - Elite Priest Level 1 (Snow)
Olive F - Elite Priest Level 1 - Nature
Indigo F - Elite Priest Level 1
Fossil M- Cleric Level 1
Ginger F - Healer Level 1
Slate M - Healer Level 1
Mage Class (5)
“Gold” M - Wizard level 8 (Orange)
Penny F - Elite Sorcerer Level 1 - Air
Eminence F - Sorcerer level 1
“Grady”- Sorcerer Level 1
“Debra” F - Mage Level 1
Fighter Class (8)
Midbar M - Brawler Level 10, Berserker Level 10 - Earth
"Roran" M - Elite Champion level 10 - Nature
Crimson M - Berserker level 1 - Earth
Blood M - Brawler Level 1
Alabama F- Champion Level 1
Steel -M Champion Level 15 - Air
Alloy F - Warrior Level 1
Flint M- Fighter Level 1
Rogue Class (4)
“Marissa” F - Elite Ninja Level 1
Red M - Ninja 20 , Sorcerer Level 8
Burgundy M - Assassin Level 1
Shadow M - Rogue Level 1
Newborn Class (3)
Bonnie F - Freelancer Level 15
"Gertrude" F - Freelancer Level 15
"Hank" M - Freelancer Level 15
“Hey everyone.” Collin said smiling.
He looked at each and every conjuration. They all had faces now. They all had personalities and could talk to him. Collin was no longer alone. He had an entire village of people he knew and had cared for at one point. People he had fought with, cried with and even bled for. They all spent years of training together here at Compound Gamma. He noticed that Marissa, who Collin had assigned to one of the new conjurations, was sitting next to Tiny. The images of their human’s Brooke and Timothy there holding hands brought tears to Collin’s eyes. Veronica’s matrix Debra and Silver’s Matrix Gold were also sitting next to each other. Gold had taken the place of Orange and was now the General of the mage classes. Collin had no chance with Veronica. She had teased him and told him she would go out with him if Ray beat silver in the finals back when they were teenagers. That must have been what brought her and Silver together because they were inseparable after Ray had lost. Silver was a quiet one. Good at everything he attempted, but Both Silver and Veronica were killed by the Regalian Dragon. Most of the people now sitting here with him were killed by the Regalian Empire in fact. They now had a second chance to reach the goals their human’s once carried. Collin dried his tears and forced himself to calm down before eating. He then stood up and faced everyone who was also getting up.
“Let’s get to work,” He said.
…
The first wave was a small army of around three hundred giant rats and direwolves. The archer class cut the number in half before the wave hit the first marker. Collin had sent his clone to mark areas with large colored stones. He needed some sort of visual to understand how far away the invading force was from the wall. A giant red stone was conjured to the left, right and middle at the fifty feet from the wall. A blue marker was placed at a hundred feet, and a green marker was placed at one hundred and fifty feet. Collin knew that the entire room had a three hundred foot diameters. The fortress they were on made up about thirty feet and Collin could see the outlier wall shimmering in the landscape. The invading force would appear within a twenty-fiver by three hundred foot area before moving forward in formation. Each wave became progressively more difficult as the time went. Goblins, Orcs, Jackals, Giant Snakes, Rock and tree Golems, Elements of fire, air, earth, and nature, and even some more exotic beasts such as slimes, wooly mammoths, griffons, lesser dragons and wyvern. The materials Collin was receiving were absolutely ridiculous. He had Hank organizing it after every wave while Gertrude worked on repairing and crafting armor and weapons for everyone. Collin and the four sat in chairs overlooking the battlefield from one of the fortress towers. Bonnie faced the trap door with her hammer at the ready just in case someone managed to sneak up to get them. She was also in charge of upgrades. Since all of the conjurations now had matrices assigned to them, they were able to properly communicate what they wanted to do. Weapons, armor, skills, abilities, and class progression were now more tailored to each individual matrix's wants and needs. Before, Collin had been keeping things as simple as possible only progressing them within their primary class. He had hit a wall at around Stage three and would then begin working on their second class progression. Now they had the freedom to tell him what they wanted and he loved it. With each wave that passed, his new army obtained experience, skills, and knowledge that no floor so far had ever given. Collin wanted desperately to switch places with his clone who was there on the front lines fighting with everyone else. He wanted to be down there with them instead of forty-five foot up in a tower. He was constantly reassuring himself that everything was okay and that the goal was to get to the top. It was humbling watching himself fight using the different methods he had been learning. He made note of his flaws and where to improve. He also made modifications to his gear as he noticed something was not working well.
The Archer and Mage classes stood on top of the wall twenty-foot up from the ground. They were raining spells and arrows down from above at anything and everything between the red and blue markers. The rest of the classes were in front of the wall. The tank and fighters at the front, The support and healers behind them. When the enemy reached the red marker, the fighter and tank class would charge forward to deal with them. All but a select few of the archer and mage classes were ordered to not fire in the red zone. Collin was not going to tolerate friendly fire. The Rogue classes were tasked with running between enemies causing affliction and debuffs everywhere they could find. Collin had them between the blue and green markers. They would apply what they could to as many as they could focusing on the heavier units before retreating around the outer side back to the healers. Once the enemy reached the blue marker, they were attacked from the sky by the mage and archer classes. Any attacker that managed to get past the red would be nearly dead from the affliction and debuffs which made clean up very easy for the fighter and tank classes.
So far the strategy was going well. Collin checked the time and saw they were about halfway through the day. He chugged a mana potion and started switching people out. If it looked like someone was about to die, collin would switch them out with someone else. He had the fighters and tanks staggered so there was always someone ready to jump in. He did not have to do this much as the current set up was working well. Jasper, Amergin, and a druid named Oat were sending their own summons out to assist. The Elk, Sabertooth Tiger, Direwolf, and bear were to the left side of the field keeping the enemy in the center. Oat’s human, Biff, was a few years younger than Collin and part of another platoon long ago. Biff was a nice guy. He was obsessed with reptiles and his summon was a giant salamander. Oat had the salamander circling around the right part of the field. His long large body easily kept the outside contained. Gas and toxic steam radiated out of its every crevice causing poisoning and paralysis on the enemy
“Sir. you need to eat something.” Hank said.
“We do not need food as we are using the ambient mana the tower produces, you need to eat.” Bonnie said.
Collin took out some food and water and began to eat during the two minute gap before the next wave. His mana was recovering at a high rate per minute and thankfully he had a large reservoir of it because forty-seven conjurations were draining him at an ever increasing rate. Each modification, craft, repair, and teleport that he did would decrease his stamina and mana. He was having a hard time standing which is why he was sitting in a chair. His body ached and his mind was exhausted. The triplets kept him company and did most of the work while he did everything he could to just breathe and stay awake. At twenty hours, Collin pulled up his battle system and saw that he had tons of points to spend on his stats. He had gone from level fifty to level eight-five just from the work that his conjurations were doing. His vision was starting to blur a bit so he told Hank to read the information to him while he sat there trying to listen.
“Sir, the attack skill is pretty straight forward. Points in this increase the amount of damage that you deal with a punch or kick. There is a multiplier effect when weapons are involved. Defense reduces the amount of damage taken. There is a multiplier effect with armor. Health is the available life force you have. If health reaches zero then you die. Agility controls speed and endurance. It also affects your ability to dodge attacks. It also affects your available stamina to do physical activities. You need this to go fast and for a long period of time. Intelligence is your ability to process tasks, create spells, it also increases your total available mana and mana regeneration rate. You have a total of one hundred and five points from leveling. You have also obtained an additional forty - three points. The system has given you one point for every conjuration that you have raised to Stage three. Everyone but Gerti, Bonnie and myself are at Stage three or higher. That gives you one hundred and forty-eight points to use. What should I do?” Hank said
“Health, Agility, Intell..” Collin said before passing out.
“He is still alive but passed out. What do we do?” Bonnie asked.
“Put the points in!” Gerti yelled, “He needs mana.”
“I am spreading them evenly over Health, Agility, and Intelligence.” Hank said
Collin woke up a few minutes later. He was feeling much better all of a sudden.
“What happened?” Collin asked.
“Your Stamina got too low and you passed out. I fixed it though. Everything is okay. Everyone is handling everything. We just finished a wave against some giant spiders. We have a minute and a half before the next wave.” Hank said. The status screen showed up in front of him.
Battle Tower System
Battle Tower Matrix
Collin Chintzy
Level 85
Strength 40
Defense 35
Health 83
Agility 86
Intelligence 81
Abilities/ Skills:
Conjuration System 9
Clone Construct 9
Construct Teleportation 9
Matter Manipulation 9
Air Mastery 5
Sand Mastery 5
Earth Mastery 5
Nature Mastery 5
Secondary Matrix - Captain
Troops: 46/50
Total Class Mastery: 43%
* Tank 50%
* Healer 0%
* Fighter 50%
* Support 50%
* Archer 50%
* Mage 50%
* Rogue 50%
Battle Tower Floors
Complete: 19 & 4/5
Nature - 100%
Water - 0%
Earth - 100%
Fire - 0%
Air - 100%
Holy / Light 0%
Void / Dark 0%
Archetype Level Progression
Tank - Knight Level 5
Fighter - Champion Level 5
Healer - None
Archer - Ranger Level 5
Mage - Sorcerer Level 5
Rogue - Ninja Level 5
Support- Summoner Level 19
Gear Set Unlocked
* Adventurer
* Voided Shadow
* Forest Ranger
* Desert Bender
* Blank
* Blank
* Blank
* Blank
Matrices
Click to see list
Conjuration Gear Set
Click to see list
Collin’s Health, agility and intelligence stats were nearly triple what they were before, This caused his health, stamina and mana to fill up completely however it soon started to decrease again though at a much slower rate.
“What do I do?” Collin asked himself.
The problem was his mana. He was dropping mana faster than he could recover.When it reached a certain point, his stamina and health would start to take a hit. He could reduce his usage but that would hurt the team which was struggling enough as it was. The waves were ever increasing in the total number of enemies and it was taking them longer to complete each wave. Collin checked the time and saw that he had a few hours left before the time limit was up. He was so close.
“Guys we need to lower our mana spending a bit. Gerti, instead of crafting and repairing, focus on dismantling the unneeded materials and repairing the current equipment only. Hank, keep giving me a verbal play by play of what is going on Bonnie, no more class upgrades. They need to work with where they are.” Collin said.
The triplets complied and the mana conduction improved considerably. He still needed another ten percentage reduction just to stay even. He started thinking about the mana. He thought about the lessons he had to take with Ray when their matrices had been removed. With his nature sense he could physically feel the mana around him. He just needed a way to obtain it. He remembered the meditation rituals they taught the pledges. He remembered how they were able to manipulate that mana and could even store it in a crystal for later usage. Collin lowered himself from his chair and onto the ground. Hank was giving him the information verbally so he did not need to see what was going on. Collin sat in a meditative pose and began clearing his mind. He focused on his breathing and feeling outward for the ambient mana. He pictured the mana coming into him as if he were the crystal. He let the mana swirl around and around condensing into a more fluid material. He imagined the fluid mana going through a filter removing the bad sediment and unclean materials leaving pure converted usable mana. It took a long time, but slowly the process began to work. Bonnie came and sat next to him. He could feel her slowly repeat the process. More mana began filtering in. Gertrude and Hank joined them and more mana came into Collin. He felt a pop up box.
Conjuration “Bonnie” F - Freelancer Class Level 20 has evolved
Conjuration “Hank M - Freelancer Class Level 20 has evolved
Conjuration “Gertrude” F - Freelancer Class Level 20 has evolved
New Class - Mimic Level 1
New ability - Mimicry
Mimicked skill - Mana absorption
Mimicked Skill - Mana Manipulation
Mimicked Skill - Ambient Mana Conversion
Collin opened his eyes and looked at the screen. He had never heard of a mimic class before. He clicked on the class.
New Class - Mimic
Individual with the ability to copy others
Strength 20
Defense 20
Health 20
Agility 20
Intelligence 20
Ability - Mimicry
Copy the appearance, skill, or ability of others.
Max copied skills 10
Max Copied Abilities 10
Max copied appearances 5
“Whoa! Are you guys okay?” Collin asked.
“Feeling Great! This feels amazing.” Hank said.
“Yeah. Are you feeling okay sir?” Gerti asked.
“I feel good. Looks like the mana levels are increasing. Are you able to keep this up?” Collin asked
“Yes. You handle everything and we will handle the mana conversions.” Bonnie said.
Collin stood up and looked onto the battlefield. His conjurations were fighting a small force of human soldiers. There were soldiers on horses with large spears, archers positioned to the rear firing arrows at the front line and soldiers on foot in the middle carrying a variety of weapons. Collin pulled up his screen and began upgrading, repairing and reforming his forces. The mana dropped to about three fourths but quickly rose back up to full.
There was a large explosion and Collin looked up to see something forming on the other end of the battlefield. A person appeared with four other individuals around them. They had on dark cloaks and stood on a lifted platform behind the invading forces. The middle figure took his hood off to reveal a slim clean shaved face. The figure wore a nightcap with a bell on the end. He was holding a small scepter with a glowing red ball on the end. They removed their cloaks to reveal five conjurations wearing different armor and holding different weapons. Collin focused on each of them to see if they could provide any sort of description.
Name: Xavier
Class: Warden
Level: ???
Ability: ???
Skills: ???
Name: Clarinda
Class: Necromancer
Level: ???
Ability: ???
Skills” ???
Name: Delilah
Class: Trickster
Level: ???
Ability: ???
Skills: ???
Name: Zephyr
Class: Dreadnought Brawler
Level: ???
Ability: ???
Skills” ???
Name: Sigurd
Class: Dreadnought Berserker
Level: ???
Ability: ???
Skills” ???
“Looks like they are making a move.” Amergin said
“Yes. We knew this would happen though. He couldn’t beat Max and Trixie. It makes sense that he turns and goes downward to win over the lower levels and build up power.” Jasper said.
“What are you talking about?” Collin asked. “What have you not been telling me?”
“Whose bright idea was it to use the matrices of high level convicts?” Tiny asked.
“Humans have no idea what they are doing. They should have put a Matric like Marx or Resputin in charge.” Cynthia said.
“Uhh, Guys, Hello. What is going on?” Collin mentally asked again.
“The middle guy is Mr. Delilah. He is a trickster who specializes in illusions. He made Cynthia do what she did to you on the tenth floor. The other four are matrices that belonged to some of the evilest people to ever live in the country.” Hank explained. “They want to get out of the tower.”
Collin looked over the middle figure. Delilah looked to be mid thirties with a clean shaved face. He was tall and slender like a professional swimmer. He wore padded leather armor of purple and orange and his belt was full of assorted knives and daggers. Delilah just sat there watching. He did not move or show any sort of emotion. He just sat and watched as the others moved. Collin looked to the far left and saw a heavier set man holding a whip in his right hand and a large sword in his other. He began screaming orders at the current wave that was attacking.
“That’s Xavier. He used to run a prison about thirty years ago. His human was very corrupt and loved money. He liked to torture and kill inmates. He was the reason the other four were able to escape from that prison.” Bonnie said. “The five then went on a rampage throughout the country before they were defeated by King Liam.”
The girl next to him stepped forward onto the platform and began raising the dead in front of her. Bones and flesh separated forming a secondary force of undead that began attacking Collin’s conjurations.
“Ms. Clarinda was this really nasty Blood Necromancer. She would walk into a village and turn all of its occupants into either these ooey gooey flesh zombies or skeleton soldiers. She nearly took over region II before the Church and the six stepped in and killed her.” Bonnie said.
“The six killed her? Collin asked
“Not the new guys, it was their grandparents' generation. Dice numbers one, two, and five were killed before they could finally defeat her.” Bonnie said
The two to the right of Delilah were these humanoid machines. They were encased in skin tight armor from head to toe. The one on the left held a glowing sword in one hand. The one to the far right had what appeared to be an artillery cannon attached to his left arm. Collin recognized the forms. They resembled these statues that overlooked the outer walls of the main Kingdom where he had visited. They both jumped down and started running to the front lines.
“Those aren’t statues. Those are Dreadnoughts. They are mechanized battle suits. If ever the kingdom were attacked, their pilots would enter from a hidden room in the wall and activate them.” Amergin said.
“They were very powerful in the last war.” Roran said.
“I do not remember seeing them.” Collin said.
“They were there. Top secret experimental program similar to your gliders. All of the master Artificers, Machinists, and Metalsmiths worked to create them. The King even has his own special suit.” Midbar said.
“Those guys are Zephyr and Sigurd. They are twin matrices.. These guys are of the dreadnought class. They wear this special suit of metal. The metal suit enhances their power. The suit is powered by magic crystals as well as the human’s own mana. There was this woman named Trinity about forty-five years ago. She had Zephyr installed in her and Sigurd installed in her suit. The three had to collectively control the suit to move her but because of it. She had crazy increases in all of her stats. Trinity was a warmaster like Mr. Midbar. She fought for the kingdom in many wars until she lost her husband. He was killed by a Regalian Assassin while they were on their honeymoon and she did not take it well. It is reported that she single handedly took on the Regalians special forces. She left a path of destruction from the coast all the way to the inner walls of the Regalian Kingdom. It took the Emperor, The Regalian Dragon, his rider, and five other lesser dragons and riders to just catch her. King Liam fought to get her back and succeeded but they had tortured her so badly that there was no choice but to send her to prison. She broke out with the other four. She is the least evil of the bunch though. She was just upset about her husband dying. I do not know why her matrices joined up with these guys. “ Gerti explained.
“That doesn’t explain what is going on though. What are they doing here?” Collin asked.
“Sir, when this and other towers were constructed, They did not just use the matrices of good people. They used all of them; Criminals, drug addicts, rapists, and killers. There are around three thousand of the ten thousand that fall under these sorts of categories. They were supposed to lend knowledge and processing power only, but Delilah managed to trick everyone and get a seat at the big table. He was put in charge of a floor and started abusing power. He released some of the bad matrices and made a beeline to the top. He could not get past Trivie however. She is just that good.” Amergin said
“Hell yeah she is.” Collin agreed. He was still not completely following what they were saying.
“When Trixie, with the help of Max, stopped him from advancing to the higher floors, he went downward. He currently controls the twenty to twenty-ninth floors. He wants to go down and control the remaining floors before he tries to fight Trixie again.” Amergin explained.
“What happens if he gets to the top floor? Collin asked.
“All of the towers are linked to each other. If he gets to the other towers, he can build his power. We think he is trying to destroy the grid. Kill all of us and finally end this life.
“That would kill him too though.” Collin said
“He is a suicidal fanatic that is tired of this world.” Roran said. “We need to stop them.”
“Right. Let’s do it.” Collin said. He returned to the battle in front of them. He had less than forty-five minutes to go.
Terrence and Brown met Zephyr and Sigurd in the middle. Their shields were barely able to withstand the duel attacks. Midbar and Roran came up to help keep them occupied. They were struggling to hold off the onslaught of the metal machines but were at least managing to keep them from advancing. Collin had Amergin and Jasper switch focus to Xavier who had jumped down and was screaming orders to the other constructs. The two had their summons head in his direction only to be cut off by the undead army. Merlot, Indigo, and Olive came forward and began attacking the undead healing spells. Collin left his remaining forces to deal with the extras while he focused on the five main enemies. He changed the gearset on his clone conjuration and sent the rogue classes through the front lines heading toward the Trickster. If he could take him out then maybe the others would fall. The trickster paid no mind as he watched the battle commence with the others. Collin watched his clone come forward from the right and slash at Delilah with his katana. The blade hit nothing but air as the image of delilah shimmered in its place. The clone slashed a few more times before retreating back into the fray.
“He isn’t here.” Collin said. “He must be watching from another floor.”
“The others appear to be real sir. We either need to take them out or hold on for another twenty minutes.” Tiny said.
“If we don’t take them out what will happen?’ Collin asked
“If we do not take them, then we may very well see them on later floors.” Amergin said.
At this point the main force was being cleaned up. There did not appear to be another wave coming as there had not been any additional spawns in over a few minutes. Collin vanquished all but a few of his conjurations in order to drop the total mana usage. He also vanished the triplets who were no longer needed to convert the ambient mana. He felt them pass out from exhaustion in his mind. A pop up screen came up
Summoner Class Stage 4 Level 20
Advance to Stage 5
Yes or No?
“Stage five?” Collin yelled.
“Sir, I used to be a stage five before becoming your conjuration. I do not think the system lets a conjuration be a class higher than the summoner.” Midbar said.
Collin clicked yes.
Summoner Class Stage 4 Evolution Activated
Master Summoner Class Stage 5
Total Conjurations Increase from 50 to 100
Clone Conjurations Increase from 1 to 5
30% Decrease in Conjuration Mana Cost
Stage 5 Archetype evolution unlocked
Collin read over the description. He was now one of the most powerful classes on the continent. He knew only of the King who had reached stage six. He was no longer helpless. He could protect the village. He could help Ray. He finally had the power to get Trixie and Max back. Collin felt the power rush through him as the evolution occurred. He instantaneously created a new wardrobe and equipped it to his body.
He looked upward and saw the trickster sneering at him in the distance. Collin equipped a sword in his right hand and summoned four more clones by his side.
“You all did very well. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart.” Collin thought to everyone he had vanquished. Collin left three teams conjured on the battlefield. His clones would and himself would make up the fourth. He felt his conjurations need, to stay and help. He sensed everything about his conjurations from their feelings to the pain they felt inside of themselves. He felt the drive to be more than just a paperweight on a shelf and he sympathized with them.
“Everyone. Let’s finish this.” Collin said, opening up his status screen.
He made some last minute upgrades, repairs, and ability increases before closing the screen and jumping off of the tower. His clones followed behind him. Each transforming into a version of Collin.
Team 1
Upgrades Complete
Merlot M - Knight 20, Priest 20 - Stage 3
Merlot - Paladin 1 - Stage 4
Indigo F - Elite Priest 10 - Stage 4
No Change
Red M - Ninja 20, Sorcerer 20 - Stage 3
Red- Arcanist 1 - Stage 4
Blue M - Ranger 20, Champion 20 - Stage 3
Blue M - Lancer 1 - Stage 4
Tiny M - Elite Ranger 30 - Stage 4
No Change
Team 2
Upgrades Complete
Roran M Berserker 20 - Stage 4
No change
Midbar M - Brawler 20, Berserker 20 - Stage 4
Midbar M - WarMaster 1 - Stage 5
Jasper M - Beastmaster 20 - Stage 4
Jasper M - Master Tamer 1 - Stage 5
Cynthia F - Bard 20, Dancer 20 Stage 3
Cynthia F - Master Performer 1 - Stage 5
Amergin M - Master Druid 10
No Change
Team 3
Upgrades Complete
Amber F - Ranger 20, Champion 20 - Stage 3
Amber F - Lancer 1 - Stage 4
Bronze M - Ranger 20, Sorcerer 20 - Stage 3
Bronze M - Arcane Ranger 1 - Stage 4
Ruby F - Ranger 20, Knight 20 - Stage 3
Ruby F - Warden 1 Stage 4
Olive F - Priest 20 - Stage 3
Olive F - Elite Priest 1 - Stage 4
Sky F - Ranger 20
Sky F - Elite Ranger 1 - Stage 4
Clone Conjuration Gear and class changes
Collin - Clone #1 - Void Gear Set Equipped - Arcanist Class 1
Collin - Clone #2 - Ranger Gear Set Equipped - Elite Ranger Class 1
Collin - Clone #3 - Desert Gear Set Equipped - Brawler Class 1
Collin - Clone #4 - Adventurer Set Equipped - Spellblade Class 1
The battlefield was split into three sets of fights when Collin arrived. Merlot, Red, Blue, Tiny and Indigo were on the other side of the room fighting the necromancer and her undead army. Merlot used his paladin skills to negate the effects of the cursed undead and the team was slowly pushing the necromancer back against the literal wall as she could not move around the confines of the towers three hundred foot diameter. Tiny sent a volley of arrows out that struck all around her. The natural infusion caused roots to come out from the floor and walls wrapping themselves around her and holding her in place. Red brought forth a ball of pure mana energy and shot it forward in a powerful beam piercing through the necromancer’s skin. The necromancer began healing itself by absorbing the undead that she had created. Indigo was there casting a healing circle around her. Necromancer’s did not heal in normal ways. The holy mana being put into her which would normally heal any and all wounds instead acted like a toxin which caused her to scream in pure agony. Blue appeared in front of her in a flash and thrust his spear deep into her torso. Merlot finished up with a sword slash to the head. A ball of hair rolled to the ground before the conjuration faded into thin air. A red and white Matrix fell to the ground.
To the right side of the field, Amber, Bronze, Ruby, Olive and Sky were fighting the Warden class Xavier. Ruby and Amber appeared to be in some sort of battle trance as they attacked over and over pivoting around and between each other parrying strikes and delivering blow after blow to Xavier. He was unable to properly use his whip as they were so close to him keeping him well off balance. Bronze circled around shooting arrow after arrow trying to add afflictions and debuffs to the warden as they fought. Sky stayed back and protected Olive as she performed buffs and heals one after another to the other three.
Collin swung his sword just in time to parry Sigurd’s blade. The other two teams were fighting Zephyr and Sigurd in the middle of the field. Collin and his clones were keeping the berserker Dreadnought occupied while Amergin and Midbar took on Zephyr.
“Zephyr, Trinity was good, why are you fighting with Dililah?” Collin thought out towards him. There was a grunt as if he was trying to talk but couldn’t. He shook his head and continued the attack.
“Sigurd! What is going on? Can you hear me?” Collin thought towards the other dreadnought. It was very intimidating fighting them. They were eight foot tall, 5 foot wide, They had a humanoid structure but were completely encased in metal. There were bolts and rivets up and down their bodies and on their back was a small rectangular box with five large mana crystals visibly poking out of the top. They wore a helm with a dark dragonglass screen in place of the face. Steam came radiating out of their joints every so often as they attacked. Collin could feel the extra power behind each strike and it worried him. He tried to find a way through the armor but was completely unable to find an opening. Clone one and four were with him pressing the attack while clone two and three stayed back and tried to slow the conjuration down with sand attacks and mana infused arrows.
“No….ot….I..II..IN…. Con….Trol…” Zephyr said in an agonizing grunt. Collin noticed his tension and the agony behind his words. Realization dawned on him.
“Delilah is controlling them!” Collin yelled. He heard Sigurd grunt in confirmation before hitting a knee as if he was hit with some sort of blast. Collin looked up at Delilah who was laughing and showing his teeth in a triumphant grin.
“Ten minutes boss. We either beat them or they disappear and we try again.” Hank said in Collin’s mind.
“They are retreating.” Bonnie said.
Collin looked over to see amber slashing at Xavier only to have her sword parried. Xavier threw a small object downward causing a smoke screen to form all around him. Collin watched as he rushed past Merlot and grabbed Clarenda’s Matrix. Zephyr kicked Amergin away and with his right arm shot a projectile up to the platform. Collin realized it was a grappling hook and that they were trying to get away. He tried to intervene but was cut off by Sigurd. Sigurd was making a fighting retreat to the far corner. Collin mentally told everyone to attack. He could not let them all escape. He fainted a horizontal slash before twisting the blade downward and bringing it deep into the right knee joint. The blade stuck there and Collin reached outward grabbing hold of sigurd. He and his other clones attached themselves to the metal beast trying to stab, poke and slash in every possible crevice they could find. They managed to pin Sigurd down just as the platform began rising upward to the ceiling. Zephyr and Xavier stood there holding a small red box watching them. Delilah hadn’t moved from where he originally stood. Collin vanquished his remaining summons as they delivered the final blow to Sigurd. His matrix rolled on the ground. Collin looked up at Delilah who was smiling.
“If you want to die so badly, why don’t you give up? I will happily crush your matrix into pieces.” Collin said, picking Sigurd’s matrix up and storing it in his inventory.
No response
‘Fight me!” Collin yelled. He formed a fireball in his hand and threw it as hard as he could at the trickster. The fireball went through him and hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. Delilah disappeared.
“Not yet, dear boy. Not yet. We will see you on the twenty-fifth floor.” his voice echoing as the room faded back to normal.
5th Challenge complete
Floor 20 Complete
Rewards:
150,000 Battle Coins (BC), 50 Health Potion, 50 Mana potion
Siege Gearset unlocked, “ “Sigurd Matrix” - Metal
No Name Dreadnought Class Level 1