I had to back track slightly to since the path had changed. The path to the North had been moved to the East by two units. It was annoying, but it was expected. Thankfully there were no more changes in the path. I reached the blade trap in front of the golden key rod and activated it, before moving forward to snatch my prize.

There was not enough space between me and the monsters to take the short shut I wanted, so I was going to take the less desirable one right here. The monsters closed in, and I hopped off at the edge of the platform to the South as hard as I could. Air Burst.

I landed and began to easily make my way along the path. I still checked for illusioned floor pit traps in case the golden key rod had been a trigger to move things around. That wasn’t the case thankfully. I followed the path at the North side of the floor, turning South before the very end.

There was a dead end with a short gap right into a blade trap. One of the many joyful things I had discovered on an earlier floor that I was more than happy to bypass and save my energy on. I made my way across the platforms without issues and reached the boss door. I didn’t hesitate and placed the golden key rod into the slot. The door swung open.

Oh, that is bullshit! The center of the boss room where the boss spawner was, was a null skill area. I had come to detest that type of flooring in the tower. I raced into the room, after a checking for traps, but there were only the energy and pit traps in the corner like the lower floors, no spawners either. The door shut behind me and I maneuvered to the South edge of the room.

The Human Hammer Golem appeared and the cat level 4 monsters didn’t enter the room through a hidden passage. I let out a sigh of relief as the boss stomped towards me. I wasn’t worried about this fight in the slightest now.

I just needed to lure the boss out of the null skill area in the center of the room and then blitz it. Thankfully my plan went off without a hitch this time. Once the boss cleared the null skill area, I zipped in and took it out.

That had been easy, but I wasn’t about to complain. With the cramping going on in my gut, I felt like I was going to die. I dragged myself to the elevator and went up to the forty eighth floor. Almost there. I was so close that I could taste my escape from this hell.

I collapsed onto the stone bench and pulled out one of my remaining pieces of fruit in the safe room. I forced myself to eat it. I was a mess, I felt like a mess. I hadn’t felt this exhausted since my first days in the Systemic Lands. My gut was about ready to blow, and unlike before it was only getting bigger, not smaller.

Finishing up my piece of fruit, I waited for my energy to come back. I had gone all out on the last boss, not wanting the fight to drag out. Now I just had this floor to get through. The null skill was slowly expanding from the Northeast corner where the golden key rod was located. As long as I checked for traps, I should be fine.

The level 4 human hammer golems were fairly slow, and this floor had a lot of interconnected passages. That meant I could easily loop around to pull the monsters out of position. The boss was a much bigger headache, but there was nothing I could do about it.

I only took a sip of water from my last flask and put it away. I then put on my pack and set out through the one way gate from the saferoom. At least there had been saferooms to recover in on each floor. A small mercy.

Since it was the seventh time completing this floor, it was easy enough to find the way. I saw the golden key rod after a bit of hopping about. I still checked every bit of floor. I smiled as I found an illusioned floor for a pit trap leading into the golden key rod room. I checked under the illusion, only one passage unit wide, so it was easy enough to hop over without wasting energy.

Always check for traps. I was going to have trap brain after getting out of this tower, but this was hopefully the last floor with this kind of nonsense. Just a large battle on the next floor and then the super boss and possibly the Astrologer.

If he was dead or not around, I would be pissed. I really didn’t want to think about that possibility or how I was going to get down. If he was dead or not there, then there was nothing I could do. As for getting down, as long as there was a route to the outside, I wasn’t worried.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

I could just use Air Burst near the bottom of the tower to soften my landing. The main thing was finding a way out of the tower. Since I couldn’t get through the walls. That was what I needed a passage out of here.

Right before the boss room there was another pit trap. I rolled my eyes as I leapt over it after checking there were no traps on the other side. I was officially done with traps for the rest of my life. I would also be measuring everything in tunnel units now. I had no idea how long I had been inside the tower, but it felt like forever. That was the issue of doing this by myself with no way to tell time.

I reached the boss room and put in the golden key rod. The door swung open. I let out a sigh as I hopped in slowly. The entire outer edge was null skill floor and four energy traps. Only the center of the room would I be able to use skills.

What depressed me were the two minion spawners in the back of the room. I paid close attention as I hopped forward as the red light barrier around the monster and boss spawners went away. I had not run into the level 4 version of this boss yet.

Since the following floor had been a puzzle and then a full boss floor, there had only been cubic golems. No Invisible Centipede Golems or the Donkey as I called this boss. The most annoying thing to ever be made in the Systemic Lands.

“Really? Three of you?” I called out and got no response. I let out a small sigh and made my way to the center of the room. I really hated this kind of stealth monster. I paused and looked around. Oh, you sweet, sweet system. You screwed up.

The boss wouldn’t go into the null floor areas of the room since it would lose its invisibility. It didn’t want to be discovered no matter what. But now its area where it could maneuver was about a sixth of the room at the very center.

Monsters would dodge direct attacks, especially this one. Perhaps a form of danger sense that they were using to figure out where to move. But that wasn’t enough to save in this instance. I paused and went to the North part of the room, removing my pack, my shorts, and my remaining boot.

I didn’t want to melt my own stuff after all. I then made my way back out to the middle of the room and laid down, waiting. While it had been tempting to go for full coverage of the floor right away with Acid Shot, that would have been a waste of energy and time.

Better to lure the monsters in and then take them out as a group if possible. Since I had no way to tell the boss from the minions and the boss would probably attack last with how skittish this monster behaved. It was a donkey after all, it would do the most annoying thing possible.

I waited and eventually I heard the movement of metal pointed feet on stone as the monsters moved about. I could only hear two moving. Of course, the boss would wait. That meant I needed to disable the minions and not kill them so they didn’t respawn and I could lure the boss in to attack.

Both minions leapt at me at the same time. My danger sense flared. Acid Shot x3. Acid Shot x3. Both were partially hit and began melting. Air Burst! I slid out of the way as they impacted the floor where I had been laying. I had given myself some lift, so I didn’t scrape off my back.

The two level 4 monsters collapsed, but didn’t turn to dust. I let out a sigh of relief, since I had judged the amount of damage correctly. One of the many things I had picked up in my tower climb, a strong ability to judge how much was needed to disable a monster.

Danger! The boss was coming right for my head. It hadn’t made a sound, I had no idea what direction it was coming from. I just could sense the danger. Acid Shot x10. Acid Shot x10. I aimed directly upwards with both attacks and brought my arms up to either side of my neck.

The level 5 boss appeared and its pointed feet dug into my left arm. “Ahhh!” I screamed in pain. The acid fell down and washed over us. I screamed some more as my foot partially melted. The boot I had been wearing had melted into my flesh, and unlike my flesh was susceptible to my acid attack. I screwed up.

The boss was killed, turning to dust and I had collapsed to the ground. My left foot was bleeding again and my left arm was also bleeding where the boss had dug in its pointed feet. While I had exerted my Body stat to the max, it wasn’t enough to counter a level 5 monster whose main attack was a physical attack.

I needed to move. I was bleeding too much. Air Burst. I used my skill to right myself and then hop over to my pack. I ripped off the pack straps and tied them off around my left leg and left arm. With just my right hand and mouth it was a massive headache. If the boss had gotten my right arm, I would have been done more.

The bleeding slowed down to a slight trickle. I tried to make the straps as tight as possible, but it was hard. Knowing basic first aid and trying to do it on yourself while heavily injured are two very different things unfortunately.

I never thought I would need first aid. I would either die, or win. Even if I got injured there were restorations to patch me up. Thank the Almighty System there were two floors left at most. I don’t think I could stand much more of this.

Drinking half my remaining water and eating two pieces of fruit in the boss room, I knew I needed to keep moving. Just one more Michael. “One more. I got this. Believe! Friendship! Magic! Power! Meta-points! AHHHH!” I pushed myself up to a standing position while holding my pack in my right hand. It had no straps left to go onto my back. I hopped my way to the elevator.