Chapter 56

“I honestly can’t tell if Alexandra is helping us or robbing us blind.” Nyle muttered as we made our way away from Climber’s Rest, and up the path towards the city and the Tower. Having accepted the job officially, the Hunter’s Guild was marked on our map, making it easy to navigate towards.

“Probably a little of both.” I said as I mentally went through our items. The Climber’s Overseer had sold each of us a collection of throwing knives, a bundle of rope, a couple bolas, and a whistle. All told, the equipment cost 20 coppers. Two-thirds of the profit we’d earned yesterday.

“I wish we’d been able to afford the gorilla tranquillizer.” Lyn grumbled. “I cannot believe that was a gold a piece.”

I thought back to our encounter with Hans yesterday. We’d gotten to see gorilla tranquillizer in action firsthand. The drug laced daggers thrown by Roxy, the assassin of Ryker’s team, had been extremely effective in stopping Hans in his tracks. I could only imagine the concoction would have made our task of hunting actual gorillas a walk in the park.

“Even if it could coat all of the throwing knives we’d been sold,” I began, “I don’t think we’d be able to make our money back.” Each collection of throwing knives included 10 of the small, weighted projectiles, meaning across the three of us, we had thirty of them. They didn’t do much damage, we knew that from training, but they could be used to attract the attention of monsters. And, if your aim was true, could be extremely useful for blinding enemies or hitting vital spots.

“Yeah, can’t say that would be very economical.” Nyle agreed. “At 25 copper per gorilla, we’d need to kill what, 400 of them to make a gold coin?” He shook his head, “we’d be literally throwing money away if we got the tranquilizer for this job.”

“Which makes you wonder, what’s the point of having it?” I said as we continued on our way. It was still early, and there weren’t many Climbers on the road yet. As we neared the city proper, there seemed to be a bit more life, as everyone was beginning to move about their days, open their shops, and head to their guilds. Some shops, I noted, were already open in fact. I figured they opened early to ensure they could provide goods and services to climbers who may be stepping foot inside the Tower the moment it opened. Otherwise though, I had a strong feeling most of those who weren’t Climbers could spend most of the day in a certain amount of leisure. What a boring life.

“Maybe just to stun large enemies, not particularly gorillas?” Lyn offered. “After all, Hans wasn’t a gorilla. More a boar, if anything, and it worked perfectly on him.”

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“You’re probably right,” I concurred. “Perhaps it’s just listed as the size and build of the creature it works on?” I thought a bit on it as we walked. “I wonder if we can buy a recipe for it? That way we’d know what types of ingredients we’d need to gather, to make some of our own.”

“Might be worth asking around at the Hunters Guild.” Nyle said with a nod. “Or if they don’t, maybe we can check out the Apothecary Guild after our climb today? I saw some of their job listings involved various ingredient gathering quests for potions and the sorts.”

“Sounds like a plan. And who knows, maybe we’re overthinking all of this.” I placed my palms on Claw and Fang as we continued to walk, the finely carved wood comforting to touch. “Maybe after our work yesterday, these gorillas won’t be any problem.”

“No matter what they end up being like,” Lyn had pulled one of her throwing knives out of her inventory, and was playfully twirling it around as we walked, “I’m hoping for some good materials and drops to improve our gear. And of course, new levels. Tomorrow I’m thinking we hit up the third or fourth floor. We need to get to level 15 as quick as possible, after all, so we can take down the Den Mother before her location resets.”

We all nodded in agreement at that. Not only had she given us our first brutal death within the Tower, but she’d given us a taste of something else. Unique loot. I had Claw and Fang. Lyn had her new cloak and boots. Both of us wanted more pieces of the Den Mother’s unique gear, to gain the extra bonuses to our stats. And Nyle, well, Nyle would keep giving donations to the Cathedral to hopefully gain new items similar to his Tower’s Embrace Cloak. If everything went according to plan, by the time we defeated the Den Mother, and were ready to take on the fifth-floor boss, we’d each have all new gear, new stats, and would be more than able to take on that challenge.

Gear and levels were, as far as I’d been able to tell, key to gaining strength quickly in the Tower. Levels alone weren’t really all that great. But the stat growth, hitting those thresholds, was key. And considering gear had limits, such as Nyle’s cloak requiring a Holy stat of 10 to wear, it was all the more important we gain as many levels as possible before taking on the Boss.

The thought of the cloak and its level restrictions caused me to sigh, my hands tightening a bit on my new daggers. I had eight more levels to grow, to hit level fifteen. Meaning, eight more stat points to assign. But because of how I’d spread my stat points already, seven of those points, would have to go to dexterity, if I wanted to get that stat to ten. If I wanted to go with strength, that would require all eight. Meaning the choices I make today, would set in stone, at least for the next few days, the path I would walk. Today, would be the day that confirmed, for these first five floors, what type of Climber I would be.

A thought that made me more nervous, more worried, than the thought of facing down the Den Mother again. Her claws and teeth had been painful, yeah, but the death at her fangs had been temporary. These stat assignments, these choices I’d be making soon, were permanent.