A cacophony of voices awakes me from my slumber, and I slowly blink my eyes in an attempt to get used to the bright light shining down from above. After my eyes adjust, I am greeted with the sight of a seemingly endless crowd of people in which some are still waking up. Snapping out of my astonishment at the number of people surrounding me, I can hear thousands of voices arguing, pleading, shouting, and questioning among one another, all of them trying to figure out where we are.
Suddenly a man appears in the sky floating above us and asks, “Would you all turn your attention to me?” Many among the crowd turn their eyes toward him as he continues speaking, “I shall explain why all of you are here, but first let me welcome you to the Tower of Opportunity a place where all of your fantasies and wishes are able to accomplished by your hands and power beyond you wildest dreams can be gained. I am the God Claude Sinclair, and I have brought all of you here to be judged by this Tower; you were all criminals in your world, locked away by society for whatever misdeeds you have done, but such paltry forms of judgment are often biased and unfair, or lenient and forgiving, rarely is such “justice” fair in my eyes. Oops, I went off on a little bit of a tangent there, so-”
Suddenly I hear a shout from the crowd, “Hey you rat bastard, take me back to where I was. I only had 3 days until I was let out.”
“Unfortunately I cannot do such a thing.” Claude replies with a slight irritation in his voice. But soon numerous other people join in the shouting at the self-proclaimed God, and it doesn’t take long for him snap.
He abruptly waves his hand and all of the people who were shouting and protesting at him, have all of their limbs explode into a haze of blood, and a choir of screams and cries of pain erupt, then he venomously bellows, “I tried to do this in a polite way but you asked for it, you fucking worms raising your voices at me, a God, squirm on the ground in your rightful place, among the dirt and shit of those superior to you, before slowly dying surrounded by the frightful gazes of your brethren." He then looked as if he snapped out of a daze and with a slight smile said, "Ah my apologies I got a little to riled up, would you forgive me.", but everyone just stared at him blankly in horror at the atrocity he just enacted just from a little shouting. "Well I'll just take your silence as forgiveness then, and to the rest of you, rejoice at this magnificent opportunity I have so graciously given to you, a chance to rise above what pitiful creatures you exist as. Fight, grow stronger, and climb the tower, but complacency is forbidden. As motivation for you all, I have reduced your lifespan to 3 months, but every floor beaten in this tower will reward the conquerors 2 more weeks added to their life. Desperately climb the tower and kill the beings who reside in it not just for power, but for your own life as well. I know what you must be thinking, how are we supposed to kill these beings, do we get any weapons, blah blah blah. Don’t worry so much about it, before you start you will each be given a random innate ability, and a starting item which will be based on your desire.”
Claude snaps his fingers which shakes me out of my stupor, and I soon notice a swarm of shining lights, one heading towards each person. A ball of light begins rushing towards me and splits in two, one part heading towards my head and another heading towards my right hand, and suddenly an item window appears before me reminiscent of games I used to play in the past.
Magic Staff of the Fearful A magic staff blessed by the powers of fire, given to the one who wishes to fight but is too fearful of being on the front lines. Item Rank: F; Item Growth Limit: C Scales with Intelligence and Wisdom Can be used with all magic but has 1.5x multiplier when used with fire magic. Soul Capacity: 0/100
"Fearful", I mutter. 'What bullshit. They don't know me.' After swiping my hand at the window in front of my a couple of times in a futile attempt to get the window to disappear, a new window pops up.
Please think or speak the phrase "Close Window" to have an item description, personal profile, etc., disappear.
-Admin
'Alright then; "close window."', and the item description that brings my insecurities to the surface soon disappears, but another window soon takes its place.
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
Name: Ryan Mitchel Race: Human Age: 23 Sex: Male Level: 0 Stat Points: 0 Gold: 0 Titles: N/A Stats: HP:90/90 HP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes SP:120/120 SP Regeneration: 1.1% per 5 Minutes MP: 130/130 MP Regeneration: 1.5% per 5 Minutes Critical Hit Chance: 0% Physical Resistance: 0.11% Magical Resistance: 0.15% Affliction Resistance: 0.35% Vitality: 9 Stamina: 12 Constitution: 11 Intelligence: 13 Wisdom: 15 Luck: 0 Skills: N/A Personal Abilities: The Curse of Cronus Afflictions: The Conquerors "Encouragement"
'Now how do I view this "Curse of Cronus"', and abruptly a new window appears as if to respond to my thoughts.
Look at what you wish to see the description of and say "Identify", but this will only work for things that are your own.
-Admin
'I wonder who this admin is.', I ponder before looking at my ability and muttering "Identify".
The Curse of Cronus Ability Rank: ??? Effects: Changes Luck value to 0 but distributes previous luck value into other stats, prevents the possessor from raising his Luck from 0, ??? The curse from the God of Time Cronus, forced upon the one who treaded into his domain. Only Functions within the Tower of Opportunity.
'What the hell is this talking about, treading upon the domain of the God of Time, when have I ever done that. Whatever, it's not something I can find out about at this time so I may as well forget about it for now.'
Claude then starts off with an *ahem* to call our attention back from our personal windows and continues speaking, "Now then my dear future conquerors, as you may have noticed by now all of you can understand each other. No matter what language you have each spoken in your homeland all of you can understand and speak freely with one another, consider this a little present from me.", he says with a wink. "Now then regarding your climbing of the tower, you are free to form groups or go at it alone, its all the same to me. But know this, once you set out on your climb you will not be able to meet any other people besides the ones in your group, until you and/or your team beat the tenth floor. After every 10 floors there will be a safe resting area where all of you will be able to reunite and do whatever you want, eat, sleep, fight, fuck, kill free from the danger of the monsters on the normal floors. So, do your best, or die trying."
Claude then turned around as if to leave but then started speaking in a carefree tone, "Oh yeah I almost forgot, say 'Shop', 'Party Menu', and 'Skill Tree', those things will help you survive, I wouldn't want you all dying on me, or would I. Actually forget what I said, those things I said if you say them you will just die from the most excruciating pain you've ever experienced; worse than those guys on the ground. Well, I'm off." He then waved his hand and he disappeared along with all of the people who had talked against him, leaving only the puddles of blood, tears, and other bodily fluids left behind from their suffering, with one of said puddles slowly winding its way towards me as if its previous owners will is still inhabiting it begging me to do something I know I can't accomplish.