Quest: The Tower Climb XVI

Description: Conquer the sixteenth level and advance to the top.

Rewards: + 1 OV Bonus to an attribute of your choice. +1 OV Affinity of the Boss's Domain.

Penalty: None. Except when you die, then the scenario ends.

Difficulty: SSS

The Quest showed the same text as the previous one. However, the change was obvious when they entered the floor. The number of mobs had increased. Instead of three E-rated opponents, four cute monsters greeted them.

Although the neon-colored critters had three times Flora's HP, they had no skills. Their fists and teeth couldn't hurt the team enough to be bothering.

After the fight, Flora glanced into the next room. It had one more occupant than before, as well. Two Elven maiden with swords and one with a bow stood in front of the next barrier.

"I don't think we can continue in this way." Flora mused. "Maybe we should reduce the team and make the rest stronger. Sure, the damage from one more companion was nice, but it didn't help if everybody but me gets killed with just a couple of hits."

Aito pushed the clueless Dive-Tolly in Flora's direction.

Flora petted its head. "Thank you for your service." And disenchanted him. Then, she refreshed her Blood Rune Enhancement and divided the Mana-Reg between Gaccu and Tollster.

The Accordion Golem had now more HP than Flora, and she pumped all her mana-reg into the Mover. Because she had not enough nocks for the full amount, Flora had to assign her Establish Connection for the rest. Nonetheless, the Mover stood now at 1780 HP and 34% Damage Reduction, a clear improvement to its former 1270 HP and 28% Damage Reduction.

Flora gave Toto the same set-up as the former Dive-Tolly: Divine Metal-Lightning Enhancement and a set of Holy Spells to trigger it. At 38 MR/min he could now use both of his fists to pummel their opponents. The Octopussy profited from his increased stats but was still the group's frailest member with only 875 HP and 26% Damage Reduction. Oh well, Aito operated it, and she had shown Flora again and again that she was a superior combatant.

At last, Flora removed a shield from the storage inside the Mover. If she was forced to tank, she wanted to have something for her shield skills. That was the official explanation, and Flora stood by it. Maybe her equipment choice had a tiny bit to do with hiding behind a solid surface from all the scary monsters.

When the team entered the next room, the elves tore into the Mover. The sword maidens enhanced their swings with Windblades and the archer with Wind Shot.

The Mover's hit points sank steadily. Hence Flora activated her two Heal-Over-Times. After they killed the first, Gaccu could counter them. Nonetheless, it was a wake-up call for Flora.

"We'll sheep one next time," Flora said. She peeked into the next room and found two C-rated mobs. "And one of the soldiers now."

Of course, Flora had forgotten about her Wavering Wave-Ring's effect and destroyed the crowd control spell with a dot that hopped from the target over to the sheeped monster. She threw a beartrap at it, giving them 10 seconds more to kill the first opponent. Those two C-rated monsters did as much damage as the three D-rated elves.

Fortunately, the B-rated opponent was alone. Flora wasn't sure if it was a toad that looked like a fairytale witch or a witch that looked like a toad. The room had a Curse Domain, so something witchy was going on.

The sarge threw crippling, sleeping, and bad luck curses at them. Still, with both Flora and Gaccu running Bolster Immune System and Refresh/Reconfirm and spreading them via Divine Radiance, they countered everything. The toady witch had no chance.

The floor boss was a feathered creature with six claws and a hairstyle resembling a war bonnet. A new affinity domain permeated the boss room.

Sympathetic Domain Suppression: -1 OV Domain Handicap. – 1 HP per minute.

"Sympathetic sounds half nice. Sympathy is a good thing, right? Patheticness, not so much. Do you know what it does?"

"It's the superordinate term for magic like Vodoo, Milady, magic based on imitation or correspondence."

"Hmm, I don't like the sound of it. Let's hit it hard. If the fight is manageable, we'll pause and wait for the 10 minutes to get the affinity... or more of it. The quest should reward us with the Sympathetic Affinity anyway. Any more suggestions?"

Aidan had no more advice, so they attacked.

The boss used his lower claws to tear into the Mover. His upper pair reached into his plumage and plugged a feather.

Flora knew that nothing good could come from that feather and focused it with her two Holy Beams.

The bird shielded it with his middle pair. Hence they couldn't see what it was doing, but the Mover lost control of one of its propellers.

When the boss plucked the next feather, Flora caught a glimpse of the first one. He had transformed it into a mini-model of the Mover and held it with his claw piercing the defunct propeller.

"Aito, steal the voodoo-dolls and put them into the Mover!"

: Mover-doll.

The doll flew to Flora, but the Mover was pulled to Flora as well.

"Ooops."

The fight progressed with the Octopussy and Flora stealing dolls and the rest of the team doing their job. Gaccu's Cluster Maintenance, an AoE repair, worked incredibly well. It healed the dolls too, and they gave back the health to their originals. Hence the growing collection of Mover dolls worked in their favor.

"Everyone, stop attacking. We are going for the 10 minutes!" Flora ordered.

Although the boss had a nasty surprise at the 75%, 50%, and 25% mark, a shredding AoE that affected all dolls, the team handled it. They had to revive the Mover two times but conquered the floor.

After the floor completion message, another one popped up.

You gained an Achievement: Towering: Climb into the top-10 Leaderboard of your level in the scenario Tower Climb.

Rewards: Trait Towering: + Player Tier OV to all Attributes when inside a Tower.

"Not bad… better 'Towering' than 'Floored'."

The team approached the 17th floor with caution. Flora sheeped and bear-trapped one opponent in the D and C-rated rooms.

The B-rated monster was a lampshade. It projected silhouettes of monsters at the walls who attacked the group. Additionally, the monster regenerated by eating shadows.

Shadow Domain Suppression: -1 OV Domain Handicap. – 1 HP per minute.

They had to switch between defeating the shadow monsters and the lamp. After one minute of fighting with little gained, Flora and Toasterlino rained non-stop holy confetti on the entire room. With the AoE's debuffs stacking on the lamp, they finally made headway even when they focused on the shades.

Flora was tempted to use Dawn, her 25min CD AoE, which lightened everything, but she refrained. She wanted to save it for challenging encounters instead of merely annoying.

The next boss was a blindfolded lady with a lance.

"Hey, she stole my shtick!" Flora exclaimed.

Scrying Domain Suppression: -1 OV Domain Handicap. – 1 HP per minute.

The lady could see in the future and dodged every single target spell the group threw at her. Furthermore, she attacked with eerie accuracy.

"Try Intent skills, Milady." Aidan reminded Flora that prayers had a different aiming mechanic.

(Left Hand: Healer's Protector): !

Just as the skill's visual effect activated, a bolt of light from above, the boss vanished and reappeared one meter to the right.

Flora didn't believe that such an overpowered defense skill had no cooldown and continued to pelt the lady with Smites. Her stubbornness paid off. Now, the prayers hit.

Immediately the lady switched her attention to Flora. The lance in her hands moved creepily slow in Flora's direction.

Flora dodged to the left, but simultaneously the Mover closed in on the same spot. She aborted the action, and the lance pierced her shoulder. Even with the mech-suit reducing the damage, Flora lost 320 health.

In the beginning, Flora was the only member of the team who could hit the boss. Tonockto's Holy Bolts still missed, so Flora ordered him to use Holy Rain. Gradually, the Ice stacks grew due to Flora's Divine Ice-Water Enhancement. The boss slowed down, and the Mover could land a few hits.

Although the boss's attacks were still slow, Flora couldn't dodge them no matter what she tried. And they hit like no woman's business. The auntie fumed like a dirty toaster. That boss was infuriating! Sometimes the lady didn't even aim at her, but a few centimeters to the left or right. Flora swore not to move, but then she stumbled into the path of the lance, or one time, Nollytollygolly crashed into her and got her spiked. Her HP sank. Her HoTs and Gaccu's efforts couldn't keep up with the damage.

Enraged, Flora ignored the lance and smashed her shield and wrench into the boss coupled with a flood of Smites.

"Milady, disengage! Your health is critically low."

Berserk-Flora didn't hear Aidan.

"Milady! Please take a few steps back. I will cover for you."

Aidan's words drowned in Flora's rage.

"Toasters stink," Aito said. *beheheheheep*

"What? How dare you say something like that!" Flora exclaimed.

"Run away, Milady!"

Shocked, Flora noticed for the first time how dire her health situation was.

A golden cloud transported her ten meters away. Immediately, Aiden moved his robot between Flora and the boss.

*Beep, beep, beep, behehehehep, beep* (Only when you don't clean the toaster after roasting stinky Pahula mushrooms, of course. Hehehe.)

"Oh, dear!" Flora knew that she had been a tad absentminded and that Aito said those gruesome things to get her out of the haze. Still, she was appalled by the initial statement. Instead of reacting to Aito's antics, she showered herself with healing spells and prayers.

Meanwhile, the boss had bypassed the Mover and confronted Flora again, and they resumed the duel of the blindfold-loving ladies. This time, Flora ignited her defensive skills between her Smite's and disengaged as soon as she hit 30% health.

After surviving a massive AoE spell at the 50% mark, the Ice stacks slowed the Lady enough that Flora managed her first dodge. The Awakened-Toaster changed to single-target spells, and even Gaccu's hatchets hit. Coupled with the massive stack of Acid, the boss's health points plummeted visibly.

Flora spammed her defensive skills. She used Holy Hammered for the first time in a fight.

Holy Hammered Description: During 10 seconds, every blow increases Power, Reg, and Vigor and applies the Holy Secondary Effect (Reduced Damage) to the caster. Reduces Controls and Perception. Duration: 25 seconds.

The Intent skills scaled with Magical Micro Control, so it wasn't a good decision to use a skill that reduced the Controls, especially because Refresh and Bolster Immune System were as well affected.

After hitting the boss six times, Flora's Controls sank by 21 OV to only 16 OV. On the other hand, her Powers, Reg, and Vigor rose by 42 OV to a crazy value of 79 OV.

Flora cast a few wonky Smites, because she wasn't used to such shoddy Micro-Control. Then she changed to Holy Beam. The spell scaled with Magical Power, and now that the boss was slowed, she could score.

Flora booked the experience under "lessons learned". The skill Magically Hammered was powerful but had its flaws.

When the blindfolded Lady finally went down, Flora cheered. It had been the hardest fight yet, and she desperately needed a break.

"How is the time, Aidan?" Flora mangled the sentence. She was too exhausted for grammar.

Thankfully, Aiden knew what she wanted to inquire. "We have spent 3 hours and 6 minutes in the tower. That’s 1 hour and 2 minutes Cetviwos time. It's currently 7:11 CCT. We have over three hours until the Remote Arms course starts. I'm very sorry that I underestimated your progress again, Milady."

"Well, I wouldn't have thought that I can solo a boss with a recommended group size of 17. In the past, my colleagues had joked that I work as much as three people, now I know that they were way too conservative." Flora laughed and shook her head. "Of course, I didn't have such competent assistants as Aito and you. If each of us counts as four people and Gaccu and Woketo as two, we come close to the 17 people this boss needed."

*beep, beep, beep*

Flora couldn't understand Aito, but it sounded as if she was bragging.

Gaccu transmitted amused thoughts. She communicated that she aspired to raise her RGS.

"Alright, then we can conquer a few more floors!" Flora stood up.