Dharen’s mind was awhirl with the possibilities of his new discovery, as well as the ramifications it entailed. It was well-documented that humans - and even monsters - are only able to Awaken to one Seed. So how could it be that he possessed two Seeds of his own? Not only that, but the aspects of the Seeds were not even related. Triumph and Fear? Talk about a contradiction.

He could hardly contain his excitement. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime. It seemed that Fear was a Seed that focused on manipulations of various nightmare aspects. At the very least it was clear that shadow abilities could be involved, but there was a possibility of other interesting Boons as well.

Unfortunately, he knew very little of the potential of a Fear Seed. It was simply very unlikely that a human would perform a soulseed sacrifice to Awaken while overwhelmed with fear. Not only does the idea of being attuned to a mind-numbing fear seem somehow shameful, but it would have to be entirely genuine terror to succeed.

If an individual were trying to intentionally Awaken to fear, even the idea that they wanted such an outcome could be detrimental. The first issue would be stimulating proper fear intentionally, and when even strong desire for the results could skew the mental state… It really was an uncommon Awakening. Much more likely were more easily-stimulated aspects. Emotions that were easily provoked and held - like rage, ambition. Hell, even his own Triumph.

Many common Awakenings were well-documented. Though it was impossible to predict the exact Boons that an individual might have, as they were influenced heavily by the individual and tended to be at least somewhat unique, certain predilections were known. For example, those who Awaken to Rage tended to have aggressive ability sets. Many times they were flame-oriented. Additionally, berserker-type abilities were common.

Fear, though, was more of an unknown. That particularly appealed to Dharen, especially with his history of extralegal activities. Then and there, he decided to keep his Fear Seed secret. Fortunately, its location was convenient for such an undertaking. As long as kept his shoulder covered and his ability usage subtle, none would be the wiser. He could pose as a Triumph Seed, and others would treat him accordingly. Meanwhile, he could keep his cards close to his chest.

The attribute effects attached to his second Seed were quite beneficial, as well. With the synergy between the two Seed attributes, he could eventually become stronger than he had thought possible. The combination of high Strength and Agility might very well be the best of both worlds. And that was not even taking into account the immense defensive capability that came with having both Vitality and Endurance as his secondary attributes. Sure, he was decreasing in two attributes - Wisdom and Luck - rather than just one, but he wholeheartedly believed that the benefits would outweigh the costs.

Feeling quite pleased with the new developments, Dharen sauntered over to the ornate door for the second floor that had appeared and placed his hand confidently upon it.

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Accept Floor 2 Challenge?

Remaining Time: 15 minutes

Refusal will result in being ejected from the Tower

(Y/N)

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A myriad display of colors and hues assaulted his vision. The world twisted and bent. Then, abruptly, the world returned. Just as abruptly, Dharen had a horrifying realization.

...Shit. I forgot to check the Shop. Wait a minute. I never even checked what the floor objective was. He continued to swear furiously. Is this an effect of my decreasing Wisdom stat? Maybe I was wrong to not be worried about those stat drops. Or am I just this fucking stupid?

After pondering on the knowledge that he had obtained over the years on the effects of stats, he came to a conclusion. I guess I am just this fucking stupid. All of the experts stated that, despite its name, Wisdom did not affect the mental process that was commonly termed wisdom. It was merely what dictated the regeneration of one’s Spirit.

Breathing furiously, his lungs were briefly assaulted by an acrid air. He choked, coughing with vigor before clean air filled his lungs once again. Frustrated at the recent turn of events, but still notably excited about his influx of increased potential, Dharen examined his surroundings.

He was met with a confusing vision of glittering crystal walls, causing reflected light to bounce to and fro. His mirror image reflected off the crystal before him, refracting off the uneven crystal into a distorted doppelganger. His image returned his bemused look. Though, admittedly, it was hard to interpret the expression pasted on its face. A crack in the crystal forced a macabre twist into the reflection, twisting Dharen’s look of confusion into something somehow more sinister. His confusedly upturned brows twisted and furrowed along the crystalline edges, creating a more dangerous and sinister appearance.

Dharen stepped to the side, and his reflection stepped with him. It rippled through the distorting imperfections of the crystalline wall, its shape warping along with the waves and ripples of the odd mirrored surface. The nauseatingly inconsistent image began to initiate a biting headache, furthering his growing irritation. He turned. As he did so, he glimpsed a veritable army of disfigured reflections turning with him. Worse yet, each reflection built upon another. He felt his mind rebel as he witnessed a world of never-ending reflections, his own twisted image endlessly echoing upon itself.

In the discordant maze, even colors contorted and stretched. The walls appeared to be made of a variety of highly reflective colored crystals, with light bouncing back and forth to create a madhouse of disorienting sights. Even the odor in the air seemed designed to disorient. Intermittently, he detected an acrid, powerful scent. Each time, it disappeared in nearly the same moment that he noticed it. It somehow felt as if it was ever-present, yet at the same time not there at all.

Forcing his eyes to focus, Dharen strained to pierce the veil of confusing perception created by his surroundings. He stepped forward resolutely, eager to find his way out of the confusing tunnel. With a sharp crack, his face collided with the wall - damn near knocking him out. The unexpected rattling of his brain certainly did not aid his efforts to calm his aching head. As he grimaced in pain, his doppelgangers within the wall almost seemed to grin as his reflection distorted upon a multitude of sharp, erratic angles upon the crystalline surface.

He realised that navigating such an environment would be significantly harder than he had expected. The reflections that spilled across the surface of the walls made it difficult to ascertain which direction to move. Dejected, he decided to take the slow and steady route: he placed his right hand upon the wall and kept it there as he walked, tracing a cautious path.

Stepping lightly, he began to progress further and further through the maze-like corridors. Body and mind coiled with tension, he continued along, right hand pressed against the strange reflective surface. The uncertainty and confusion created by his surroundings was amplified due to a lack of knowledge about the floor’s objective. It was likely that the objective was to find his way out of this hellish maze, but even so… There has to be something more, ri-.

Dharen’s thoughts halted. He felt it again. A touch upon his right hand as it lay pressed against the wall. Turning his head carefully, he watched as his macabre doppelganger looked at him in turn. As a wave of pain set his brain afire once more, he gripped the wall, pushing against it to steady himself. Then, with a malevolent grin, it gripped back.

Startled, Dharen threw himself backwards. He smashed into the nearest wall, unintentionally pounding into it with the power of his newfound 14 Strength. He shook off the disorienting blow and reminded himself that he was nearly three times as strong as he had been a few days prior. Misjudgement of his own capabilities could very well get him killed.

The pounding in his head intensified, and a wild cackling spilled into the air. A chilling cold pierced his backside, sending a wave of agony through his body. He breathed in the acrid air sharply. Looking up, he watched as his distorted reflection brandished a warped version of his own enchanted dagger.

With a lunge, it stabbed forward gleefully. Quickly unsheathing his own dagger, Dharen moved to parry the blow expertly. His blade connected with the image’s thrust - and he twitched in anguish as a new wound opened in his back as the dagger entered from behind him.

With both back and brain knotted in pain, Dharen felt a spike of fear. Just like that, all of his potential would be thrown away. He would die, surrounded by macabre mimics of himself, unable to defend himself from every direction. His breath tore in and out of his lungs. His senses felt jumbled. In one moment his lungs burned as they swallowed acrid fumes, and in the next they filled with clear air.

As his unwelcome doppelganger reared back his bloodied dagger once more, he focused on that niggling sensation. On the sensation that his world was twisted. On his brain’s screams of pain as it tried to interpret two conflicting realities. The blade pressed forward in a blur, and he closed his eyes. Breathing in that perplexing acrid air once more, he focused his will inward. With a steel-forged determination, he ignored the dagger that was on a speedy journey towards his heart.

It was the taste of the air that saved him. In the nightmarish maze, such a distinctive stench should have lingered in the air powerfully. Instead, it flickered in and out of existence. One moment there, and the next gone.

That inconsistency had brewed a subconscious war in his mind. His brain revolted at the disparate messages, at the sensation of something that was both there and not there. For a moment, he had passed off the jumbling of his senses as an effect of the visual distortions.

When he closed his eyes, it all became clear. He could feel a set of very disparate sensations. He felt his back against the cold, crystalline wall, yet also felt his back as warm air whispered by. He heard a blade whistle through the air, yet also heard a perfect silence.

He opened his eyes. The blade was gone. The crystalline maze and its nightmare reflections was gone. Instead, he lay on simple stone floor. A noxious green gas filled the air around him. He inferred that his agitated breathing upon realising his mistake with the Shop must have caused him to succumb to the effects of the gas more quickly. Just in case, Dharen held his breath carefully, wary of falling into its dangerous hallucinogenic effect once again.

He followed the gas to its source, holding his breath all the while. He peered at a fist-sized snail as it released the horrible concoction. A strange crystal rested upon its back, a jumble of convoluted angles and edges. A Seed, palpably emanating a sense of madness. With a look of complete satisfaction, Dharen stomped the snail viciously before reaching down and gathering the soulseed.

In a flash, Dharen arrived back at the Waiting Room. Just as quickly, he received his reward.

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Congratulations on defeating the Second Floor Challenge!

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Calculating Rewards…

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Objective:

Defeat The Seed of Madness

COMPLETE

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Rank I Common Soulseed (Low-Grade)

5000 Tower Tokens

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Optional Objective:

Break free of the grip of Madness.

COMPLETE

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Pet Snail

15,000 Tower Tokens

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A snail… Dharen stared incredulously at the rewards message, certain it was some sort of cosmic joke. And perhaps it was, because only moments later a table appeared beside the wooden chest, replete with a snail habitat and the aforementioned pet snail. Disgruntled, he pelted the inner walls of the habitat with the soulseed of madness and turned away. Though he had managed to keep his spoils this time, he was loathe to absorb the Seed immediately after it had addled his brain so thoroughly. He wasn’t even sure he wanted to touch the thing again, and would likely never trust another snail for the rest of his life. The horrible things could both rot together, for all he cared.

Taking a breath to steady his tumultuous emotions, he collected the soulseed reward that had appeared within the Room’s chest. After some thought, he decided to prioritize absorbing his soulseeds into his Triumph Seed for the time being. It was said that a new Boon was granted every 5 levels. Thus, it was better to prioritize reaching level 5 in one Seed before working on the other. As much as it pained him to ignore his newly discovered Fear Seed, Triumph was higher level due to absorbing the mid-grade seed and would have to be the first in line.

Just as before, Dharen gripped the low-grade soulseed in his right hand. The energy flowed along with his will, piercing his skin and spreading to his wrist. Incandescent warmth flooded through his veins before spinning in a whirl around the golden Seed of Triumph. Finally, it was absorbed.

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Level

Up

x1!

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Congratulations! You have reached Triumph Level 3 (Rank: Common).

Strength +3, Vitality +2, Wisdom -1.

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Name:

Dharen

Awakening:

Triumph

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Triumph is the domain of the strong. Clad yourself in victory and accolades, that your enemies may quake before you. Arm yourself in glory, that you may pierce the very heavens. The Champion walks, and history trembles.

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Level:

3 (Common)

Boons:

Champion’s Aura (Common) Rank 0

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- Warcry -

A Champion does not back down; they know only triumph. Roar your defiance to all that might hear. Increase stats of self and allies by 10% and decrease nearby enemy stats by 10% for a short duration.

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Name:

Dharen

Race:

Faceless Human

Affiliation:

The Faceless One

Spirit:

21

Strength:

17

Agility:

11

Vitality:

13

Endurance:

9

Wisdom:

1

Charisma:

1

Luck:

3

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Tower Tokens:

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32,500

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After spending the time to admire his updated attributes, Dharen shifted his attention to the luminous crystal that now decorated the wall above the wooden chest. Somehow sensing that it was related to the Shop, he placed his palm against its surface.

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Tower Shop Categories:

Armaments

Elixirs

Luxuries

Progenitor’s Blessings

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Upon perusing the items available for purchase, Dharen gained a basic understanding of the various categories. The Armaments section held a variety of different weapon and armor types, all of which held specific effects. Typically, such items were the work of a soulseed artificer. Soulseed artificers, after years of training, learned rituals through which they were able to bind the shards of a soulseed to an item. This fracture made the soulseed impossible to absorb, but it granted magical effects to the items it imbued. These effects varied depending upon the quality and aspect of the soulseed, the quality and type of item imbued, the quality of the binding ritual performed, and so on. Dharen’s own enchanted dagger had a shard formed from a Seed of Coldness set into the pommel, granting its frigid nature.

Elixirs were the more wasteful cousin of soulseed armaments. The energies of a soulseed could be condensed into a liquid and then altered to temporarily give various effects and powers when imbibed. He had little to no experience with elixirs, as they were both very expensive to use and difficult to acquire.

Luxuries, oddly enough, were simply accessories or furnishings for the Waiting Room. He mostly ignored that section of the Shop for now.

The Progenitor’s Blessings section quickly drew Dharen’s eye. He had already acquired a Blessing from The Faceless One, and was eager to see if any more information could be obtained. Unfortunately, the Blessings available were not labeled by benefactor and thus held no answers. Despite this disappointment, he was greatly intrigued by the possible options displayed.

In the end, he chose to spend 25,000 Tokens on a Blessing. He decided that it was best to buy something that would always be a part of him. He was hesitant to invest too much into physical items and risk encountering a floor that stripped away all of his belongings such as the first floor. After selecting the purchase, he received his reward.

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Blessings:

Effects:

Progenitor’s Blessing: Sense of The Faceless One

Progenitor’s Blessing: Bloodlust Intimidation

Enhances the effects of abilities that assault an opponent’s mind by 20%.

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After his latest experience, he had learned firsthand the effectiveness of mind-altering abilities. Thus, he had decided to purchase a passive that increased the effect of his Warcry and any future intimidation or illusion abilities he might obtain. Though the increase was small, only increasing the debuff factor of his warcry from 10% to 12%, every little bit counted. That, in combination with the likelihood that he might gain illusion-type abilities from his Fear Seed, allowed him to guess that it could become quite a handy skill in the future.