Unconquered Tower

TWO

ENEMIES SLAIN

GOBLINOID: 7

OGRE: 8

SHAMAN: 2

CREDITS EARNED: 2,670

QUEST BONUS MULTIPLIER: X2

FINAL CREDITS EARNED: 5,340

BLOODLINE GENERATED

PURIFIER

NATURAL RESISTANCES TO FOREIGN OR HOSTILE ORGANISM

GRADE: INFERIOR

Roan liked the amount of cash that had just splashed into his account but it was the bounties on the necklaces that he was more waiting for. The bounty board was just a few feet away and he was there in a moment, handing in all of them to the blank faced mob who quickly transferred the money.

Two thousand for each of the Horde Lieutenants and five thousand for each captain. Roan had caught on how much the tower seemed to enjoy its multiples of ten and was glad to feel another twenty-six thousand hit his account. It made up for his entire session in the temporal chamber as well as the ingredients he’d needed for his body tempering.

CURRENT BALANCE

42,831 CREDITS

Roan smiled at the amount even as he lifted one of the two staffs to access the market and see how much it went for. After the single attack had basically turned him into a wet noodle he was nervous about using the weapons again.

SELL???

COMMON GRADE

ELEMENTAL STAFF (FIRE)

MARKET PRICE: 1,000 CREDITS

AUCTION: 10% OF FINAL SALES PRICE

“Damn place always trying to rip me off,” Roan complained as he stared at the rather cheap price of the staff. They packed a punch and could be used to do multiple spells that he’d seen already and they would only pay a thousand?

“Highway robbery. Could auction them, but how many people have the mana cores needed to use them?” Roan argued with himself before deciding to keep them for the moment. He’d just need to find a way to carry them.

“Shit, still have to check to find out how to crack open Lester’s ring,” Roan said as the thought of carrying the staffs reminded him of the locked ring on his finger. He flicked through the tabs until he found one titled, Lockpicks.

“Why am I not surprised,” Roan muttered as he looked to find how much it’d cost to open one of them. The cost made him want to stagger as a common grade, spatial ring lock enchantment breaker started at fifteen thousand with no guarantees at success.

“Enchantment though. It’s definitely an enchantment then,” Roan said, flipping though tabs until he made it to the skills tab and started searching.

ENCHANTING

TIER 1 SKILL

POTENTIAL: TIER 10

100,000 CREDITS

ENGRAVING YOUR WILL THROUGH SYMBOLS WITH IMBUED MANA TO CREATE LASTING EFFECTS

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LEARNING MANUAL: 10,000 CREDITS

It was the first skill he’d seen that had just as high a potential as learn did. Roan wondered why it wasn’t locked behind a unique status but he hesitated on buying it as he thought of his reaffirmation to the Pact and joining them.

“Get them to chip in for it and get ahold of Moira’s alchemy manual,” the greedy voice in the back of Roan’s head whispered and he couldn’t help but agree with it. Instead he looked over at the status points he could buy and was pleasantly surprised to see even though his stats had risen dramatically it would still only cost five hundred to buy a single one.

ROAN

STRENGTH: 18 (+1)

ENDURANCE: 20 (+2)

SPEED: 15 (+1)

DEXTERITY: 17 (+1)

PERCEPTION: 13 (+1)

INTELLIGENCE: 11 (+1)

KNOWLEDGE: 15 (+1)

MANA CORE: N/A

SOUL TEMPERING: N/A

BLOODLINE: PURIFIER (INFERIOR GRADE)

“Endurance keeps climbing, but the rest only gained one. Was it just activating the bloodline or is something else going on?” Roan had more questions than were comfortable, but he just had to focus on the positives at the moment. He was alive and growing more powerful by the day.

“Roan!” Taoya’s familiar voice boomed across the area and disturbed his introversion. The big man was nearly running as he came over, his customary wide smile on display as he threw his arms wide and gestured over at Roan.

“It is good to see you in one piece! It’s hard enough dealing with one of you let alone two!”

Roan laughed. He couldn’t help it. The sudden bad joke startled him enough that he snorted once and chuckled, trying to hide his smile as Taoya’s grin widened.

“You are normally so dour. Is all it takes to make you smile making some jokes about your near death experience? I think you are a little cracked in the head my friend.”

“We all are. We entered the death tower willingly,” Roan said as he put down his rebellious humor, but allowed his slight smile to stay.

“That we did. Still, it was scary there to see you looking like that. And Moira,” Taoya stopped and shuddered as he mimed inserting his hand into Roan.

“That was gross. I would have let you bleed out,” Taoya declared.

“Thank you. I don’t think I would have survived having your hand in my stomach. That goblin didn’t,” Roan said, reminding the giant of how he’d brutally butchered the horde officer.

“A hobgoblin! Major rank and we’ve now confirmed that there were five of them. Four were defeated, one was not,” Taoya said, growing serious.

“How do we know?” Roan asked.

“Floor clearance quest. You can look it up now, but we also sent runners and are talking now on what to do. Each of the villages have their own specialty and are valuable to all of us, but with the kill counter we think that no matter what, one of the villages will fall,” Taoya explained. Roan couldn’t help but search for the floor quest and found it with ease.

LEVEL QUEST

FIND THE NEXT PASSAGE

TIME REMAINING: 3 DAYS 18 HOURS

LEVEL 2 CLEARANCE RATE: 16%

HORDE OFFICERS SLAIN

LIEUTENANTS: 326/1,000

CAPTAINS: 35/250

MAJORS: 4/25

GENERAL: 0/1

HORDEMASTER: ???

“You looked at the clearance rate, I can tell. Tyler figured it out, each of the four numbered figures count as twenty-five percent of the level clear. The hordemaster doesn’t count for whatever reason and then it’s rounded up,” Taoya said.

“Thanks,” Roan said as he dismissed the pages.

“What happened to the village that lost the killing game?” Roan asked.

“Dragon showed up and burned it to the ground. There’s a handful of survivors who ran, but with the woods packed full of the horde at night? You had Darren with you and it was still a challenge even with his enhanced perception. Those who don’t have that advantage, it was only pure luck they survived,” Taoya said.

“What’s the plan then,” Roan said. He started to stretch and his side erupted in pain, forcing him to freeze and breathe out slowly until he was under control.

“Kill the dragon or cluster everyone at one spot every night. Having fought the damn thing I think our best bet is to use the villages as much as we can and then all huddle up at night,” Taoya said. The look on his face said he’d seen Roan’s wince though he was too polite to say anything.

“Which village?” Roan asked.

“Ours of course. The others have specialized facilities like alchemist tables, botanical gardens, or advanced smithies where you can pay a tutor to teach you, but nothing compares to the spatial chambers. Not when Darren is doing his best to find every manual he can get his hands on,” Taoya said. That greedy part of Roan poked its head up and he couldn’t deny that he wanted more skills even if he was just starting to master his own.

“Town that got smoked had a martial trainer there. Someone who could give advanced lessons in combat and skill shaping.”

“Was there an enchanter anywhere?” Roan asked as he looked at his finger and wondered just how far he could push learn.

“Yeah, Village 2 has an enchanter on hand,” Taoya said.

“I’m going to need some directions,” Roan said as he looked at the clock. There were only four hours to go before darkness, but he had an idea.