Pulling his bloody sword out of a Goblin’s corpse, Jules observed the surroundings, making sure to detect any new enemy approach. Reassured by the absence of alarming signs, he contemplated the last wound that a Goblin had just inflicted on him.
The wound seemed deep and was bleeding. However, it was only 7 points of damage and there was no hemorrhage status. With curiosity, he decided to wait a little and noted that the wound quickly stopped bleeding, seeming to close by itself. He would probably keep a mark until the next magical healing he received.
What did these hit points mean in the end? Could the vitality of a body be quantified? If it increased without the body becoming more massive, what did that mean? Was their skin becoming harder? Not enough to slow a blade, anyway, but maybe enough to slow it down, to make the wounds less deep? Was their body’s natural regeneration faster? It seemed so. What did that mean, specifically? That the red blood cells, or whatever the body’s normal mechanisms were, were working faster?
With a grimace, the warrior began to eviscerate the Goblin to seize its mana stone, then wiped his sword on the grass. All these scientific considerations… It was not for him. He did not even remember what he had learned in biology at school and was quite incapable of naming the different bones of the human body. Why was he trying to think about how the System modified its functioning?
Having recovered all the loot they could from the enemy corpses, the small group slipped discreetly into the undergrowth, blending into the shadows of the forest to search for the site of their future ambush…
A new battle, a new victory.
The last Goblin collapsed, victim of numerous swords blows and a fatal stone thrown by the magician. A small musical note resounded in the air and a blue circle, a sort of shimmering portal, appeared in the air a short distance from the last fallen enemy. By a surprising coincidence, the number of monsters in the last group they were ambushing was exactly what they needed to complete the mission.
"Goblin Hunt"
Quest Successful
Reward: The "Points" obtained will be converted into Gold Coins, or "Gold" at the rate of 10 Gold per Point. The conversion will take place once the portal is crossed.
Floor 2 cleared
The passage to the next floor is done this time by crossing the blue portal.
Warning: the mention "floor cleared" does not indicate the disappearance of hostile monsters!
The three adventurers exchanged a brief glance and then nodded in approval of their silent agreement: their ordeal was over; they were not going to linger in this place.
One after the other, they entered the shimmering portal. There was a feeling of resistance, like when you enter water, then the opposite feeling: that of being sucked in by the mysterious matter. For a second, the world was blue…
Jules immediately felt firm ground beneath his feet and he found himself advancing on a stony ground in a closed place, similar to the previous rooms of the dungeon. He no longer remembered enough of the appearance of these to notice the slightest difference. Four other portals spat out their share of survivors. Some had already all left and seemed to be waiting.
When Martin, the last to return, had passed, all the portals disappeared and the adventurers stared at each other. Of all of them, the three companions were probably the ones who looked the most haggard and disheveled. Jules no longer remembered too much the number of members of each group, but it seemed to him that only one other had suffered losses.
Currencies:
3210 Gold
He nodded at the mention of the System, then turned his attention back to the barbarian’s group. His name was Luc, if his memory served him right. He and his group’s healer were the only survivors; none of the other four members had returned.
This young woman accompanying the barbarian looked almost like a dwarf next to the man’s massive build. She looked extremely shy… or… scared?
As conversations slowly resumed between the adventurers traumatized by their experiences, the archer Le Gall pointed out the strange low survival rate of the barbarian’s group. The tone quickly rose.
“You can talk with your fake team composition!” the barbarian shouted. “Where does your experience come from? Video games? We all struggled to survive and our classes didn’t give us any real advantages until we unlocked all our skills and the next level! And you dare accuse me of murder? And without any proof?”
Jules noticed that the barbarian was now level 5, making him the highest-level person in the room. The archer himself was level 4 as well as the warrior-mage, while all the other adventurers had reached level 3. Was it possible to reach level 5 simply by killing Goblins? Probably? Maybe he had killed the boss as well?
“Proof? Well, let’s ask this young woman: it’s clear from her eyes that she’s afraid of you, and yet she stays by your side. Speak: don’t be afraid to say what really happened.”
But the young woman shook her head and hid it under a hood, taking refuge in silence. So, there was no way to prove what had really happened there. Perhaps the barbarian had really murdered his teammates, except for the healer? If that were the case, could Jules really blame him, when he had thought of doing the same in order to escape this hell as quickly as possible?
“I,” Diego said, “would like to come back to this story about team composition. We discovered that classes didn’t matter at this level and it cost us two of our comrades: perhaps Mr. Bernard had similar problems, we don’t know. Before accusing him of murder, we should ask ourselves why you were in a team of six people when others were five!”
Approving murmurs ran through the crowd, mainly from the two groups that were initially composed of five members. Jules had no opinion but decided to follow the movement, transferring some of the anger and anguish that had accompanied him for so long to the archer. Hands clenched on weapons...
“Calm down!” The voice belonged to the warrior-mage, Arthur something. He bore the evil looks that were thrown at him without flinching and tried to calm the situation:
“There’s no point fighting among ourselves. There have been mistakes, but there are other trials to be faced: we must remain united.”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Jade Blanc, the red-haired warrior, added to her comrade-in-arms’ suggestion by bringing up another topic:
“Doesn’t anyone find it strange that we came out of these portals at the same time, when we’ve all spent almost a week there?”
Almost a week? Cries of protest rang out: it had been much longer. The debate would have lasted a long time if the System itself had not decided to clarify the matter:
Time spent in the Tower differs from actual time. However, for each floor, the most time lost among participating groups will be included in the calculation determining your exit time from the Tower.
Furthermore, you cannot injure or kill in the break room: only a single hit exceeding your total Hit Points would cause death.
The Rest Room automatically restores your Points and replenishes your food and sleep needs to allow you to face the next challenge to the best of your ability.
“It’s strange,” someone said, “but it seems that the System hears us and responds to us…”
This is quite normal: you are currently under direct supervision. You will also find that within the Tower, your abilities, or lack thereof, will give you access to more information than you could obtain later. Consider this as useful training for what follows…
“Show yourself, you coward!” the barbarian roared.
Why not?
Suddenly, the air rippled in the middle of the room and a curious figure appeared. Small in size, dressed in a garment similar to an old-fashioned frock coat and wearing a small round hat, the apparition strongly resembled a white rabbit floating in the air. An anthropomorphic rabbit with an insolent smile.
“Hello to you, I am GM1001, in charge of this Tower. I understand that you have questions?”
“Yeah,” Luc said, “tapping the handle of his axe, for example, what color are your entrails?”
But before he could make any attack, he was overtaken: a man rushed forward, sword raised.
The scene happened very quickly: the rabbit smiled and, with surprising vivacity, stretched out a paw towards the attacker. A powerful ray of light, twice as wide as the rabbit, burst from its appendage and literally erased the man while leaving a trace on the floor of the room, all the way to the wall. The trace was immediately erased, leaving the audience in shock. Even the barbarian was drooling, his jaw gaping and his eyes bulging.
GM1001, Supervisor, Level ???
“Mouah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Who dares to challenge GM1001? Come on, isn’t there another volunteer? Nobody? Come on, the first volunteer who survives my death ray, he will receive a nice reward.”
Jules stepped back, frozen with fear. Such power… His level wasn’t even indicated!
“I’m a volunteer.”
The warrior turned to the one who had spoken. Arthur Lailu, the warrior-mage, was advancing without apparent fear towards the evil rabbit. Had he lost his mind? Jules moved away so as not to find himself in the radiation of a new shot on this unconscious target.
“Oh? A brave one? I was told that you find more of them in cemeteries than anywhere else… Don’t come complaining if I kill you…”
The rabbit raised its paw and a sphere of energy appeared there, growing visibly larger. This time, it seemed to be charging its shot before launching it, perhaps to give its future victim one last chance to dodge it.
Arthur didn’t make the slightest movement, standing proudly before disappearing into the column of light that hit him. Jules shook his head: what a fool. Did he need to survive the trials if it was to die for a bravado?
He jumped suddenly and he wasn’t the only one. The light dissipated and the warrior-mage was still standing, apparently intact. Hadn’t the previous person been disintegrated? What was going on?
The rabbit grimaced, probably thinking that his target would have tried to dodge this attack. Then, he burst out laughing and flapped his legs.
“Bravo, bravo to our brave hero. If I may ask, were you a suicidal, young man?”
Arthur raised a look, which seemed rather haughty in Jules' eyes, plunging it into that of the monster floating in the air.
“Suicidal? No. I’d rather say that I’m observant. When you apparently eliminated that warrior who was attacking you earlier, I recounted the people in the room. No one was missing. So, I deduced that it was some kind of hologram, or something similar, meant to test us.”
The rabbit narrowed his little red eyes, apparently unconvinced by the explanation. Then, he shrugged and regained his good humor.
“Okay, fine. Well done. As promised, here’s a little XP bonus. (He snapped his fingers) Then the main reward: the Helmet of Courage (E)!”
A helmet, vaguely resembling a Roman gladiator's helmet, the ones with a visor, appeared in the air. Arthur grabbed it and equipped it as the rabbit commented:
“The Helmet of Courage, an item far more powerful than its rank would suggest. Equipped with the ‘invisible helmet’ option that retains its bonuses while making it virtually non-existent for its owner at will, this item adds +1 to Armor and grants resistance to Fear effects of rank ‘D’ and lower, as well as minor resistance to mental effects.
Okay, enough about that. With the exception of this little test, which few people succeed at, if anyone, I had to explain to you how the market works. Simply say ‘Market’ just like you say ‘Status’ or ‘Inventory’, or think it very hard. A window will then appear, giving you access to a vast database of items that you can buy with your ‘Gold’. Gold is only useful in Towers, but you can trade it with other ‘Awakened’, even those who have not passed through a Tower, so you will probably make it a currency between you in addition to its usefulness within the System. The more you buy, the more levels of trade you will unlock, allowing you to buy more expensive items.
You can also sell items for a fixed price, much lower than the sale price, or risk offering your items on the market at a price that suits you, but its sale will then depend on other players. Items put up for sale are immediately absorbed by the System. If they are not sold, you can get them back by paying a small fine of a value varying according to the rank and rarity of the item.”
Calling “Market,” Jules found the promised window and browsed through it. It looked a lot like a webpage on a merchant site, with some item sets even being “on sale” or “in a discovery pack.” Merchants were sometimes mentioned, other times not.
He discovered that he could buy “F” rank healing potions for 300 Gold each, and potions that gave temporary bonuses to Strength, Agility, or Stamina for 200 Gold. He could sell his “F” rank mana stones for 10 Gold each, and he greatly regretted having lost so many through the holes in the pockets of the rag that served as his pants.
There was also equipment, but most of it was excessively expensive. A “F” rank sword that increased his Strength by one point would cost him 1500 Gold… He bought it, selling his other swords for barely 100 Gold each. Jules also bought a “Solid pant” for 100 gold, sold the crude Goblin dagger for 20, bought a first aid kit for 500… There were so many interesting things on the market!
He bought six “Survival Rations” for 100 gold each: small stackable packets in the inventory and containing the minimum necessary water and food to survive a day. The description specified that they did not taste good, but after the hell of the Goblin hunt, Jules now knew the importance of having something to eat… Although, on reflection, he could have waited: you could access the market at any time, so why spend it all now?
He nevertheless completed his purchases with three healing potions.
Currencies:
100 Gold
ACTIVE EQUIPMENT:
Advanced Beginner Sword [F] [+1 Strength] [Weapon] [1d20+strength]
Novice Armor (F) [+1 Armor] [Chest Armor]
Solid Pants (F) […] [Leg Armor]
INVENTORY (3):
First Aid Kit (F) [Contains disinfectants, small knives, and a large quantity of bandages]
6x Survival Ration (F) [Stackable, small package containing the minimum amount of water and food needed to survive a day. Doesn't taste good.]
3x Life Potion (F) [Consuming this potion restores 1 to 10 hit points.] [Consumable]
Everyone was browsing their market windows, buying and selling, probably often on impulse. When he raised his eyes, Jules saw that the rabbit had disappeared. In the middle of the room, a new blue portal appeared, topped with a System window:
TOWER of TRIALS
Floor 3
Quests will no longer be announced in the rest area. Go through the portal to the trial area.
One by one, the adventurers crossed the passage.