Unconquered Tower

ELEVEN

Roan found the tab needed to give away his money, watching it disappear while he ground his teeth. Sending the other hundred-thirty credits on top of it made it hurt even worse. After the money flooded out of his account he was stuck with staring at his now depleted account of only four-hundred-thirty-five credits.

His stomach growled and he dropped another fifty credits on another inferior-grade meal which he managed to choke down. It tasted just as nasty the second time as it did the first, but he managed to get it down. All of that took about ten minutes and left him sitting around waiting for them to come back.

“This sucks. I want to get back and keep farming.” Roan knew the thought was wrong, the desire to go out and keep pushing himself was self-destructive. He needed to sit and rest, recover as much as he could before he went back out again. Pushed against the trunk of the tree, he opened the market up and began to explore.

Keeping the market open he started to look through the skills with an eye out for anything that would compound. Roan locked his lips as he looked over the long line of skills and began to read them. Many of them were mundane, others helpful, some strange, and others made him scratch his head.

FILTER WATER

TIER 1 SKILL

10,000 CREDITS

CLEAN AND FILTER LIQUID INTO DRINKING WATER

HARDEN

TIER 1 SKILL

10,000 CREDITS

ABILITY TO HARDEN THINGS

SKELETON HAND

TIER 1 SKILL

10,000 CREDITS

TURN YOUR HAND SKELETAL

Roan laughed as he read over the skeleton hand skill, wondering how useful that would be. Or if it was reversible at all. He focused on the skill to see if he would gather more information on it and was rewarded as the skill was singled out and more information appeared for him.

SKELETON HAND

TIER 1 SKILL

10,000 CREDITS

TURN YOUR HAND SKELETAL

POTENTIAL GRADE: TIER 3

LEARNING MANUAL: N/A

The learning manual paused him as he exited the screen and looked back at another skill to see if he could find one available.

FILTER WATER

TIER 1 SKILL

10,000 CREDITS

CLEAN AND FILTER LIQUID INTO DRINKING WATER

POTENTIAL: TIER 5

LEARNING MANUAL: 1,000 CREDITS

There was no more information on what the learning manual was. Just the one-tenth cost of it. Roan pursed his lips and had to shelve the questions about potential and the tier system as he continued his search for a goal skill to start saving to. Turning on the filters he started searching for unique skills. Immediately he could see they were themed.

STRIP FLESH

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TIER 1 SKILL

10,000 CREDITS

STRIP FLESH FROM LIVING CREATURES

POTENTIAL: TIER 7

LEARNING MANUAL: 1,000 CREDITS

FLOOR 1 UNIQUE SKILL: 5,000/5,000

A hint of greed entered his heart as he worked the filters. They were intuitive to use as he added more filters to just unique. He narrowed it down to tower only and with as few available as possible.

UNIVERSAL TRANSLATOR

TIER 1 SKILL

100,000 CREDITS

TRANSLATE AND SPEAK ANY KNOWN LANGUAGE IN THE UNIVERSE

POTENTIAL: TIER 1 SKILL

TOWER UNIQUE SKILL: 364/500

TIME WARP

TIER 1 SKILL

1,000,000 CREDITS

COMPRESS OR EXPAND TIME IN A LOCALIZED REGION

POTENTIAL: TIER 7

TOWER UNIQUE SKILL: 98/100

INSTANTANEOUS TRANSLOCATION

TIER 1 SKILL

10,000,000 CREDITS

TRANSPORT YOURSELF INSTANTANEOUSLY ACROSS SPACE

POTENTIAL: TIER 8

TOWER UNIQUE SKILL: 50/50

Roan stopped breathing as he realized that the availability of some of the skills weren’t full. Someone, somewhere, had managed to secure time warp.

“Impossible, they’d have to kill tens of thousands of skeletons to earn the necessary credits to…” Roan’s word trailed off as he realized the tower's available skills weren’t just for his class. But for everyone who had entered the tower over the last century.

“So few.” The thought was sobering as he thought of the thousands of people who had been with him as they slowly walked into the tower. How many had died on these first levels, unaware of the danger, caught off guard and underprepared?

“Looking at this the wrong way. Tower available skills are for the entire length of the tower, not a foundational skill.” With that thought he turned the filters, narrowing it down past floor one, to just level one. The most unique and hardest skills to earn as nobody had wealth to buy them and never had a chance to do it again.

CORE CREATION

TIER 1 SKILL

5,000 CREDITS

POTENTIAL: TIER 1 SKILL

CREATES A NEUTRAL MANA CORE

FLOOR 1.01 UNIQUE SKILL: 100/100

LEARNING MANUAL: 500 CREDITS

MANUALS REMAINING 1,000/1,000

BODY TEMPERING

TIER 1 SKILL

8,000 CREDITS

POTENTIAL: TIER 8

TEMPERS THE BODY TO INCREASE PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

FLOOR 1.01 UNIQUE SKILL: 75/75

LEARNING MANUAL: 800 CREDITS

MANUALS REMAINING 750/750

Both skills looked valuable and foundational, but Roan kept looking, searching for the thing that resonated with him. That would give him the edge he needed. Dozens of unique skills and with each one the number of total available skills disappeared.

SKILL SHAPING

TIER 1 SKILL

10,000 CREDITS

POTENTIAL: TIER 8

SHAPE AND CHANGE BOUGHT SKILLS

FLOOR 1.01 UNIQUE SKILL: 5/5 LEARNING MANUAL: 1,000 CREDITS

MANUALS REMAINING: 50/50

LEARN

TIER 1 SKILL

15,000 CREDITS

POTENTIAL: TIER 10

INCREASE YOUR LEARNING EFFICIENCY

FLOOR 1.01 UNIQUE SKILL: 1/1

LEARNING MANUAL: N/A

“That one.” Roan hadn’t even noticed he’d said the words until Moira coughed and asked him.

“That one what?”

“Shit, you startled me. Just found the skill I want to buy. Need to earn my keep though. You saw I paid you guys back? Are we ready to go?” Roan said, standing quickly and changing the subject as Moira looked at him with suspicious eyes.

“Yeah. Darren managed to get another eight people to join up. There’s a tab in there for elixirs. We bought stamina and healing elixirs for the group with the funds. Was coming to give you yours,” Moira said, lifting two small bottles up. They were hardly more than a mouthful of liquid, but Roan took them with a thankful nod.

“Brown one is stamina, green is health. Remember, the health will basically only help stabilize you. It’s not going to bring you back from the brink of death. Nobody has taken the stamina potion, but the description said it would be the equivalent of a small jolt of energy. Save them for emergencies.”

“Got it, thanks Moira,” Roan said as he grabbed his slings and carefully put the vials into the pockets of his robe.

“Come on, we’re gathering at the entrance. Darren is worried that a big group entering will open up one of the coffins. You weren’t there but it took a lot to bring it down. Taoya isn’t fully rested and no one else has that powerful of a bloodline.” Moira spilled secrets easily as they walked toward the gate.

Billie and her crew were gone, but Roan saw Nash and a group of sullen looking followers not far away. They glared at Darren and his team sitting before the gate with undisguised hatred.

“They’re going to be a problem,” Roan said quietly. Moira looked over at them and scoffed, shaking her head as they joined the nearly twenty strong group.

“They’ll keep their heads down and won’t say shit,” Moira said. Roan disagreed but kept that to himself. No need to start a fight right before they entered the tower floor.

“Alright, Roan is the last of us. We’re going to enter together and make sure none of those big guys wake up. If they do, Taoya is going to be our primary tool to beat them. Everyone else will work in teams to keep it occupied until he’s ready to strike. Roan, you haven’t fought with us before, just sit in the back until your name is called.”

Darren stopped and took a deep breath as he looked over everyone before him before he released a long breath.

“Alright, let’s get to it!”