The Tower will change you, but you get to determine how.

Davies - Head of Climber Academy

Something was definitely wrong with the Hard Difficulty.

Without a doubt the first floor had been a near impossible challenge. With any less skill or luck I would have easily died. The orcs were a difficult opponent, most graduates from Climber’s Academy would have difficulty killing one if fully armed. Fighting naked had been an extreme challenge. But ever since then, the climb became progressively easier.

Looking back, the second floor posed no challenge whatsoever. I also overpowered the third challenge. The cultivation manual had greatly increased my ability to gain stats and level. Perhaps, if I wasn’t cultivating, these floors would be more difficult.

Now there was the fourth floor.

Welcome to the Eternal Tower Floor 4 Hard!

Goal: Help the Trader

Meet the Masked Trader in the Job Hall- Complete

Help the Masked Trader Complete the Task - Incomplete

Time Limit: None

Oddly, I had appeared inside a city by this ‘Job Hall’. Thankfully after killing 1,000 of the soldiers my skill ‘Let Your Sword Do the Talking’ activated and I was able to read the local language, Marcosian. The merchant was easy enough to find and hired me as an escort to a city, Tinder, through the dangerous wilderness. After that I was left to myself for a day while the merchant prepared for the trip.

No pressure, no rush. The whole circumstances were off. I was left to explore the city as if I was just a normal person.

Windgate was also a complete city. I had assumed the Tower had created all the soldiers and wizards on the last floor, but now I was not certain. Perhaps I had been transported to a different world.

Everything about the Hard Difficulty was different than what I had expected. The reward for the last floor was a good example of the craziness that was the Tower. I received a sword and armor identical to what the knights wore. Which was weird as I already had a dozen sets from all knights I killed. Why had the system gifted me an additional set?

Was there a method of defeating the knights that completely destroyed their armor and weapons? Perhaps there was a way to eliminate the mana signature swap and escape unnoticed. I could also have waited half a year for the ritual to wear off. There was plenty of food in the keep and the knights never made any progress in breaching the entrance.

I took time roaming Windgate and managed to find buyers for the extra spears, armors and swords for a nice profit of 30 gold. I kept a few of each but still ended up finding an armorer and smith that were able to equip me with a higher quality sword and studded leather armor. Honestly, the quality of the craftsmanship was better than back home, with the sword made of some rare metal that apparently could handle magical spells being channeled through it. The armor was light and flexible and was guaranteed to be able to take a few blows from most monsters. The sword and the armor each cost me five gold, leaving me with an additional 20 gold to add to my purse at the end of the day.

I contemplated selling the books I had collected, but now that I could read the language I saw no reason to sell them. Sure I had the wizard’s knowledge on magic, but he would likely need to reference the books for some things. Otherwise why would he have kept them?

Asking around, I found the direction I was traveling was considered a guaranteed death by most caravan guards and local adventurers. Strong monsters routinely attacked any traveler through the area. While it was the shortest distance between Windage and the port city of Tinder, most would rather take the six month circuitous route that avoided the “Wilds”.

Apparently if a journey needed to be completed, the top members of the mercenary guild were normally hired for five gold each with a minimum party of ten. Even with the mercenaries between level 22-25 the risk was still so great that most trips were canceled and returned after a few days of travel.

Meanwhile I was single handedly guarding the merchant and a lone wagon as we made our way through the Wilds. Sure the monsters were strong, but they tended to announce their approach with loud yells prior to attacking. After a day of traveling away from the city we were attacked at least one an hour during the day and every 10-20 minutes at night. I was tired but my endurance gains from the last floor prepared me to move from fight to fight.

Even sleeping for about an hour during the day did not seem to affect me as I noticed I woke just as refreshed as if I had a full night's sleep. Checking my cultivation manual I found that as my body progressed in the stages of cultivation, I would be able to work harder for longer without the normal limitations of the human body. In the peak stage of earth cultivation that translated to about an hour of rest needed each day. If I had been able to progress to sky cultivation, I would have been able to last several days with the same hour.

Simply put, I was well prepared for this floor. Too prepared. The monsters were easy to take down. Each one awarded at least 100 experience points with some double or triple that amount. Each day defeating about 50 to 60 monsters. Over the past couple of days I had already gained a couple levels and was quickly approaching level 40 and the next level of body cultivation. As such most of my time not fighting monsters we spent in cultivation with the next breakthrough being different from the previous ones.

All the other breakthroughs had been focused on first expanding mana channels, then using those channels to direct energy in the muscles and cells of the body. Each channel had started smaller than a strand of hair and with cultivation had gradually increased in size until they were roughly equal to the corresponding arteries and veins. My new connection with my body helped me to understand how closely they were connected almost as if the arteries, veins, and lymph system were incomplete until the mana channels expanded and connected with them.

The breakthrough to sky level cultivation was different. Instead of expanding the mana channels, I needed to form mana nodes throughout my body. Each node closely mirrored a lymph node in the body. They were not hard to form but had to be built precisely before reaching level 40 or my body and mana channels may strengthen and prevent them from forming, limiting future advancement. And did I forget to mention that there were 642 nodules. Needless to say I was rather busy as we made our first few days through the Wilds.

It wasn't until this fourth day that I finally started to notice how odd this whole goal was. Escorting a masked merchant who didn’t talk, through a dangerous monster infested part of the world only for a single wagon of goods. And all the goods were all rather plain things. My father would be ashamed to learn that I had not paid attention to a wagon load of goods. But as I said, I was distracted between the monsters and cultivating.

When I finally looked over all the goods I realized something was wrong. Everything I could see would only add up to maybe 50 silver back home. Plenty of value to the average person, but hardly enough to risk a trip like this.

Looking at the masked merchant and deciding to actually use my eyes and brain, I made some fairly obvious observations. First it was definitely a woman. Her hair was not in the style of the local women and the cutting of her clothes hid her figure, but that just stopped the casual observation. Second, there was only one reason a merchant would not want their identity known: smuggling.

“Ma’am, I think it is about time that you and I cleared up some things,” I said.

The merchant turned towards me in confusion before her eyes widened. She quickly reached for something hidden under her seat and came up with a small crossbow.

“Stay where you are,” she said with a slight tremor in her voice.

“What?” I was confused at her sudden aggression.

“What?” she answered, equally confused.

“That seems like an extreme reaction to me asking to talk.”

“Hardly. You have found out I’m a woman and plan to take advantage of me.”

My mouth literally fell open. What kind of fucked up city was this woman from? Take advantage of her? Where did she get that idea?

“I have no nefarious plans,” I said. “And besides you have seen me take down a hundred monsters, do you really think that crossbow will do anything?”

It was a bluff. I was extremely strong for a human but a crossbow that size would easily punch through my armor and skin. If I was lucky it might not kill me, but no matter what it would take me out of the fight.

She stared at me for a minute before she put the crossbow down and did the last thing I expected. She cried.

This was not some silent stoic cry, but a full on snot running down the nose wail. The only other time I had seen someone cry that way was when my father tricked my sister into thinking that I was killed by a monster on a merchant trip when really I was just a few minutes behind him.

Now I was not some cold hearted murder. I mean, yes I have killed a few people on the last floor, but the Tower didn’t count. And they tried to kill me first, so it wasn’t really my own fault. But that isn’t important. What was important was that for my whole life I had been taught to read those around me to best judge a situation and appease a person. Sure my parents had wanted me to use those skills to be a better merchant but a lifetime of experience screamed at me to do one thing.

“I’m sorry,” I said, putting my hands up and adopting my most calming tone. “Really, I am. I didn’t mean anything by that. Honestly, that would probably hurt me, I just don’t want you to shoot me over a misunderstanding”.

She lifted her mask and started wiping away her tears and I realized I had made a mistake. I had assumed a merchant woman traveling on her own would be relatively experienced, but this woman was in her early 20s. Suddenly, I felt like I was dealing with my sister or one of her friends, not some nefarious merchant.

“Let’s start over,” I said. “My name is Miki. Can I have your name?”

“Kelly,” she said before she blew her nose in the robe she was wearing. She really looked awful from crying.

“Kelly. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want to know why you are smuggling, what you are smuggling, and how you plan to get it into the city when we arrive.”

The young woman blanched at more words.

“Oh shit,” she said looking at me.

At that moment several roars reached us.

“Hold that thought for a moment,” I said and turned to fight the monsters that started to rush towards us.

Name: Miki Meadows

Age: 29

Race: Human - Earth

Cultivation: Earth - Peak Stage

Level: 38

Exp: 4,269/9,700 to next level

HP: 450/450 HP Regen 3.75/min

Stamina: 468/468 Stamina Regen 3.90/min

MP: 260/260 MP Regen 2.17/min

Strength: 80

Agility: 83

Endurance: 84

Intelligence: 84

Wisdom: 74

Luck: 96

Skills:

Let Your Sword Do the Talking

Scan

Languages:

Orcish - Tamerish

Marcosian