Chapter 19: The Five Towers
As Tide left the infirmary, he spotted Merdon standing in the middle of the five enormous towers. As he walked up Merdon turned to face him.
“You might want to hurry up, you have already wasted a bunch of time getting your injury healed. That’s one hour of your time here gone!” Merdon said his signature smile donning his face.
Tide humored him and began to jog towards the center where Merdon stood.
“What is this place? I’ve never seen or heard of this kind of a space in the last run.” Tide asked as he reached the old mage.
“Well, this is something I have been working on for a while. Consider yourself lucky, you’re the first other person to visit! This a pet project and personal sub world.” Merdon said gleefully while waving his hand as if to show off the splendor of his creation.
“Okay great, what is the benefit of being here in this wonderful?” Tide asked letting a bit of sarcasm seep into his voice.
“Well thank you for asking.” Merdon said either not pick up on Tide’s tone or choosing to ignore it.
“This took me a while to do but I managed to create the ultimate training center. It has five towers that each focus on a different aspect that can make a person stronger.” Merdon said gesturing to the five imposing towers. He first pointed to the one all the way on the left.
“The first tower with the image of a sword is the tower of skills, this is where one would go to increase their technical prowess. In there you will be able to pick out a skill that the system will help you learn instantly. There are thousands of skill books and tomes that you can chose from and even after the freebie you can try to learn them with your own insights. Merdon explained, before moving on to the next one.
The second tower that has the image of a human is the tower of the body, this is where you would go to reach the peak of physical ability. This includes different fitness rooms to work out in that speed up your improvement rate, herbal treatments to harden the skin and muscles and even a pool!” Merdon boasted. Tide was bit hung up on the fact that one of the big three attractions of the tower was swimming pool, but that didn’t stop Merdon from moving on.
“The third tower that has the image of a tome is the tower the mind, this is where you would go to master the mind. Encyclopedias on monsters, plants, medicine and pretty much anything else you could think of. It also contains the research journals of famous wizards and mages seeking to discover the truth about magic theory and mana.” Merdon summarized as he turned to the fourth tower.
“This tower has almost no use for you just ignore it, it just the tower of faith where the lunatics can go to believe harder or something.” Merdon remarked showing obvious distain for the powers of faith and contracts.
“The final tower with image of a scale is the tower of the world, where you would go to become one with that which surrounds you. This was the latest addition that I made just recently! Care to guess why? Merdon said elbowing Tide like he was ramping up for a big reveal.
“Let me guess it can help me unlock and strength affinities with the four elements?” Tide said spoiling the space mage’s fun.
“Ah yea its for the that. I had a lot of fun making this one, and I don’t want to spoil the surprises for you.” Merdon said mischievously.
“Along side all that this world itself has been warped to help you out. The time here is accelerated so much that by the time your three days are done, only three minutes will pass in the Trials. You’ve literally gained and extra three days to improve before being sent back.” Merdon exclaimed.
“Anything else?” Tide asked, with his eyebrows raised. On the inside Tide let out a sigh of relief. He was worried about Onyx’s condition back in the cave. The young wolf took quite a blow and was heavily injured, but once Tide’s time here ran out, he would be able to treat his wounds.
“Of course, there is more, but you must be in a rush so ill summarize the rest. You don’t need to eat, drink, and sleep while here. Your body will be able to recover extremely quickly from muscle fatigue or any other malady. You also can’t die here even if you jumped from the top of one of these towers.” Merdon fired off another set of benefits that came with the dimensional training center.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
He was probably just excited to show someone else this project that he was waiting for. There was so much that Tide could do that he was honestly stumped. Each of the towers had its benefits for Tide, besides the tower of faith.
Merdon noticed Tide’s furled brow and decided to give some advice.
“I recommend going and getting your one free new skill first. There are thousands in the collection so I did you the favor of selecting a couple I think you would find useful. After that you should check out the world tower.” Merdon advised suddenly much more serious.
Tide thought for a moment. He didn’t fully trust the mage, but so far everything he has done has helped him out.
“Sure, I guess I’ll check out the tower of skills first. A free skill is too hard to pass up on.” Tide agreed. If he could get good skill that synergies with his class, he could instantly become much stronger. He was also interested in what Merdon pick out for him.
“Alright then good luck!” Merdon said before he blinked out of existence. The old mage’s behavior was as unpredictable as ever. Just when Tide thought he was figuring him out the man did something unpredictable.
Suddenly left to his own devices, Tide didn’t waste any time and made his way towards the tower of skill. As he got closer, the scale of the building began to dawn on Tide. It was as tall as a skyscraper and just standing in front of it Tide felt minuscule. He reached out an grabbed the doors handle.
As soon as he felt the cold sensation of the brass doorknob, he felt himself teleport once again. The feeling made his stomach lurch and when he opened his eyes his was surprised to see that he was still in front of the door. Confused, Tide gave the door knob a tug and the door didn’t budge.
He turned around expecting to see Merdon behind him holding in laughter, but when he did he was shocked to find that instead of being in front of the tower, he was now in a majestic library. Oak shelves endlessly spread out before Tide, filled to the brim with books. Tide felt a bit overwhelmed by the sheer volume of literature. How could anyone even look through the names of each of these skill books in three days.
Tide was relived when he noticed a table in front of him that held three different books stacked on top of each other. These must have been the skills Merdon picked out for him curious Tide walked over and grabbed the one on top.
As his fingers grasped the books leather cover a system window appeared.
Skill Book: Elemental Burst
Class Required: Elementalist
Elemental Burst- The ability to concentrate the mana into a spot visible causing an eruption of the element. Each element will have a different effect. Size and effect of this skill scale off intelligence and elemental affinity.
Tide read the short description before he set the book down and grabbed the next one. The skill seemed like a high damage area of effect spell. It would give Tide the extra damage that he was
Skill Book: Summon Minor Elemental
Class Required: Elementalist
Summon Minor Elemental- The ability to connect to one of the elemental planes and summon an inhabitant from it. This summoned create will assist you for a duration of time before returning to its elemental plane. Creatures summoned can be marked by the user allowing it to be resummoned the next time this spell is used. The duration of the summons stay is determined by the user’s wisdom, while its level is determined by the user’s intelligence.
Another minion creating spells. Tide had that covered by his Bind Golem skill. It was nice that the skill didn’t require control and if he chose this, he would be able to have party of five. The most interesting part of the skill was the mention of elemental planes. Tide didn’t even know what that meant.
Tide set it aside before picking up the last book.
Skill Book: Elemental Enhancement
Elemental Enhancement- The ability to channel elemental mana into another creature or item giving it different properties and increased damage. Buff duration determined by the amount of mana used and wisdom stat. Buff strength is determined by intelligence.
It seemed extremely like elemental augmentation, but for an everything besides himself. From the wording it seemed like Tide would be able to apply the buff to other people and probably Onyx.
Having looked at all the skills Tide took a moment to think about what would help him the most. The burst is the most straight forward skill that would give him an immediate boost to his damage capabilities, but it seemed vary inflexible in usage.
The enhancement skill was geared to a more supportive role in fights allowing him to help allies. Tide was curious as to the exact effects it would create when used on objects or living creatures. Most likely he wouldn’t be able to infuse his golems with a different element type.
Lastly the elemental summoning spell had piqued his interest due to the many variable it presented. It didn’t specify what elemental he would summon or if he could even choose. It seemed like he would end up rolling the dice unless he marked a previously summoned elemental. The spell also fascinated Tide on a theoretical level. What were the elemental planes and how would he the spell connect to them? What was the difference between golems and the elementals he summoned?
Each of them had their own pros and cons so it took him a while to pick out the one he wanted. No matter which he got he was excited to test his new skill out.