Group tactics, while of no use inside the Tower, will serve many of you well. The most common occupation for Easy Difficulty climbers is guard work. Whether it's working for the city guard or acting to protect a caravan between cities. So learn the tactics and be prepared to use them or counter their use if need be.

Horace Bates - Guard Captain, Easy Difficulty climber

“I am not the wizard,” I said as the knights surrounded me. “Do I even look like him?”

“Your treacherous words will not confuse us,” said the lead knight. “We know you can easily perform a ritual to change your appearance. We have tracked your mana signature for the past week and you have been in your hideaway the entire time.”

Looking around, there were a dozen knights that surrounded me. Using ‘scan’ on all the knights, they were all level 15 with the lead knight being level 17. My greatest concern was their equipment. Each knight wore some sort of metal studded leather armor, a metal cap, and a sword. All the equipment looked well cared for and was clearly the work of a quality blacksmith.

“Okay, I surrender,” I said.

There was no reason why I needed to fight these knights. It’s not like I was on the Wizards side. I would surrender and see if I could get one of the magicians to perform the purification ritual. Once the wizard’s mana signature was gone I could easily leave. Fighting these knights was not a risk I needed to take.

“What,” asked the lead knight in surprise.

“You win. I surrender. I give up.”

“No wizard,” said the knight. “The king has decreed you to be brought back to him dead. There is no surrender.”

Yep, I was fucked. Damn that wizard.

I reached into my magical bag and pulled out a dagger and the ax-sword. I wasted no time and dashed to one of the lower level knights. All of the knights failed to react as I closed the distance. The naive knight smiled at me as he dashed forward with his sword. It was a clean thrust, but I easily parried it with my superior speed and strength. A quick flick of my arm and the sword-ax cut into his face. As he dropped toward the ground, I bent forward and grabbed his sword.

Enemy defeated. 200 exp awarded.

Finally a real sword. The sword-axes were little more than a crudely shaped hunk of metal. While the sword was a far better weapon I would be a moron to try to fight with a weapon I had never used. Each sword had a slightly different balance and after using the sword-axes exclusively for several months, I knew my techniques had been influenced by the heavy weapon. I wasted no time running away as the knights finally started to react to me killing one of them.

If everything was equal there was no way I would be able to escape the knights. But things were not equal. I was eight levels above the lead knight and quickly out ran all of the knights. The problem was that this was not a forest like the last two floors. While there were some hills that could hide me from line of sight, there was also no place to truly hide. Cresting the hill I found a group of soldiers on the other side.

Up close I could see the soldiers did not have any armor and were armed with spears with each spaced several spear lengths away from each other. Behind the group of 30 soldiers were seven men in robes similar to the one I was now wearing. The formation was clearly designed to keep distance between the magicians and the soldiers so that any single spell could not hit multiple targets. Unfortunately for them I was not a wizard and the spacing made it easy for me to take them on one at a time.

The soldiers appeared to be well trained and after the first ten went down they quickly shifted the formation to be tighter, not allowing me to easily attack any single person. Just as they changed the formation the magicians started to cast spells toward me any time I was far enough away from the soldiers so that they would not hit their allies.

Individually each soldier and magician was weaker than the orcs but together, their coordination made the fight much more difficult. But difficult was not impossible. I managed to get close enough to the line of soldiers after pulling one off balance when he overextended on an attack. Once I was in close their spears were not as useful and I was able to quickly take down the soldiers.

Once more I was struck by how wrong the power gap was. This was similar to the second floor where my stats made each fight too easy. After killing all the soldiers I took down the seven wizards. They were all just too weak.

Enemy defeated. 1500 exp awarded.

Enemy defeated. 700 exp awarded.

I had a feeling that each of the knights and magicians could use magic to track me. This left my only option to be to take out all of them.

I crossed over another hill and came across another group of soldiers that were once more arranged in the spaced our formation. This time I was aggressive and tried to take out all of the soldiers before they could change their formation. Unfortunately as I started to quickly eliminate the soldiers, the knights crested the hill and charged toward me.

The knights quickly attempted to encircle me and stop my attacks on soldiers. I once more quickly engaged a knight. Despite the knight having superior equipment and skills compared to the soldiers I easily defeated him. The knights did not appear to be prepared for an opponent who was faster and more maneuverable than them.

Enemy defeated. 500 exp awarded.

Enemy defeated. 200 exp awarded.

I once more dashed away from the group and moved over a hill. Was it the cultivation that was making this so easy? Despite all of the running I did not feel tired. Checking my stamina as I ran I found that while not increasing, it was not decreasing from my running.

Perhaps the challenge on this floor was not the strength of the soldiers or their ability to work as a team but instead my management of my stamina. I crossed over another hill and found more soldiers.

I quickly closed with the group and managed to dash through the gaps in their defenses to a magician and kill him with a dagger throw. Ignoring the body of the magician I continued to run past the group toward the keep I could now see in the distance.

Enemy defeated. 100 exp awarded.

Level up! You are Level 26, +1 to all stats

Perfect. I ran to the keep and found the forces who had been besieging must have left to track me down when I left through the secret exit. When I arrived at the door of the keep, it opened for me without any prompting and I was able to enter. Once across the threshold, the door closed on its own.

With any luck I could get a few hours of sleep before the knights ordered the battering ram to restarted.

***

I woke several hours later to the battering ram once more hitting the door. I stretched and made myself a meal. By no means was I well rested, but half a night's sleep was better than none. Once my stomach settled from the meal and I spent some time practicing my sword techniques until I was confident in my ability to fully utilize the sword.

Now prepared, I went to the basement and casually strolled down the tunnel towards the trapdoor. When I was about a quarter of the way there I turned around and sprinted back to the keep and exited through the front door. As I expected the forces had moved to try and ambush me at the trapdoor.

I knew it would not be long before the forces would reverse their original direction and move to intercept me, but I still made my way forward at a brisk walk.

***

It was over two months before I was able to take out all the knights and magicians. There may have been some soldiers remaining but since they did not have a way to track me I wasn’t worried about them.

Most of that time was actually spent in cultivation. I was able to level up to 30 after a week. It then took me two weeks of cultivation to break through to late stage earth cultivation. A week after that I reached level 35 and spent another three weeks reaching peak stage earth cultivation.

The experience and stat gains were impressive.

Name: Miki Meadows

Age: 29

Race: Human - Earth

Cultivation: Earth - Peak Stage

Level: 35

Exp: 4,400/7,900 to next level

HP: 435/435 HP Regen 3.63/min

Stamina: 453/453 Stamina Regen 3.77/min

MP: 253/253 MP Regen 2.10/min

Strength: 57

Agility: 60

Endurance: 61

Intelligence: 61

Wisdom: 51

Luck: 73

I was easily twice as powerful as any of the knights. Even the lead knight ended up not being any challenge.

After defeating all the knights and magicians I ran about collecting all the equipment I could find. Surprisingly each of the enemies carried exactly 20 silver, even the lead knight. I had stopped counting the money on the last floor, but using ‘scan’ on the coin purse I knew it now held 50 gold and 120 silver.

Since each gold was worth 1,000 silver, I was basically rich. It was more than enough money to retire in comfort. But I knew the slippery slope of wealth. Most climbers ended up broke after a few years as they frivolously spent their gold like it would never run out.

Once I was far enough away from the keep, I was greeted by the notice that I had completed the floor. I ignored the message and stepped straight through the portal that appeared.

Floor 3 complete!

Rewards: 10 gold. Basic armor and sword.