Bon grumbled under his breath and started firing skills at the walls and ceiling. That Boss, Count Wreckula, had been one shot killed by his fireball. It was no fun. The walls blew apart, revealing a black space. They then reconstituted themselves. This was more fun than killing bosses. Bon tested out each one of his skills, watching the flow of mana as his body made the motions automatically.

Bon didn’t like the idea of his body being out of his control during skill use. He was a quick learner and soon learned the flow of mana and body movements of hundreds of different skills. This way he could activate them himself without using the Tower’s assistance. He could also avoid the cooldown, and the activation speed was much faster. Bon yawned and fell asleep on the floor. He would learn the rest of the skills later. Without Tian Bu Ru here to bug him, he could sleep in peace.

Bon dreamed of Sarah. Her face was a blotch, but her voice was crystal clear. In the dream, she was his counselor, listening to all his problems after his mental breakdown. When he woke up he thought back fondly of his dream. It had been so real. He was unlikely to get a mental breakdown though. After spending two thousand years with Tian Bu Ru, he may have gone a little mad and transformed into a gourmand, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to have any breakdowns. He then practiced each of the skills he had learned.

Bon started with a simple Fireball. It blew the walls apart, which almost instantly reconstituted. He followed that up with the rest of the magic spells he had learned—Thundercloud, Ice Tsunami, Meteor Fall, Quagmire, Fire Wall, Tornado, Hell’s Hail, Aurora Storm, Astral Weapon, Earthquake, Gravity Gun, Phantom Pikeman, Magic Missile, Winter Wonderland, Magnetic Mayhem, and many others.

Bon then practiced the Fighter’s skills with his legendary sword, the Rogue’s skills while dual wielding his legendary daggers, the Lancer’s many skills with his legendary spear and lastly the Bard’s with his legendary classical guitar. He would try the rest later. He had the most fun with the Rogue’s Smoke Run. It made him disappear from sight, filling the entire room with smoke. His movement speed increased multiple times within the smoke filled area. He was fast as it was. With the smoke added to it, he was too fast for his mind to keep up. A Nascent Soul cultivator’s mind was hundreds of times faster than the average person’s, but he still had trouble. He could break the speed of sound with a five second run up, without using any mana. Just how fast was he now? Would he eventually be able to reach near the speed of light?

The Bard’s different musical abilities fascinated Bon. He had grown quite fond of music during his time in the Alpha Test. With Mana Sense he could see how mana and sound combined together to form strange and wonderful new patterns. The different buffs each had their own tunes to them, and the attacks ranged from discordant shrieks to blissful lullabies.

Bon realized he had not Identified his equipment. Without identification he would not get the bonuses that were effective within the Tower. Tian Bu Ru had warned him not to grow overly reliant on Tower buffs, since they couldn’t be transferred to the real world, but Bon was curious. He began to identify some of his equipment.

Paganini’s Guitar (Legendary)

A guitar crafted and played by the legendary composer Niccolo Paganini

An instrument made for a virtuoso

The strings have been modified by the Tower to prevent snapping

Buffs last for 10% longer

Musical Attacks use 10% less mana

Casting time reduced by 50%

Wasn’t Paganini a classical violinist? What was he doing with a guitar? It didn’t matter. What was important was that Bon had a good instrument.

He identified his spear

Athena’s Pride (Legendary)

The spear that was wielded by the goddess Athena during her battle with a Titan

Hephaestus considers it one of his finest creations

Increases all stats by 10%

Forward movement speed increased by 50%

Skill Charge LVL+5

All Resistances +20% (LVL+2)

He then proceeded with his set of daggers

Right Dagger of the Dark Herald (Legendary)

The Dark Herald’s story is covered in mystery

The Order of Assassins has no record of him ever existing

Increases attack speed by 25%

Increases movements speed by 20%

Left Dagger of the Dark Herald (Legendary)

The Dark Herald’s story is covered in mystery

The Order of Assassins has no record of him ever existing

Skill Fast and Slow LVL +5

Skill Illusory Hands LVL +5

Fast and Slow was a skill that slashed the enemy three times in quick succession with the right dagger and one slower stab with the left dagger.

Illusory Hands made one’s hand move so quickly that they became a blur. Attack speed increased by 30% at Bon’s current skill level. It was impossible to grind skill proficiencies since all his foes died too quickly.

He identified his sword

Frederick’s Zweihänder (Legendary)

The sword of an unknown warrior who saved the world

Even in death he remained standing against the demons of the Abyss

Increases STR by 30%

Increases CON by 30%

With these legendary items he would become even more overpowered within the Tower. The only normal weapon he had was the sword he had taken from the Training Weapons’ Rack earlier on the fifth floor. He armed the ordinary sword and set off to the eleventh floor.

The eleventh floor was a game of follow the leader, or in this case follow the cat. Bon easily kept up with the cat as it jumped over rooftops, scurried up walls, dropped down ledges and leaped over gaps. Parkour was fun, thought Bon, as he ran after the cat. It led him to the exit, which was hidden inside a small house.

He met Tomato on the twelfth floor.

“What did the tomato—”

“Just stop!" Tomato growled. It came out as more of a purr than a growl, which was cute. “No more jokes or I won’t let you use the store.”

“Fine, let’s eat some cake.”

When Bon’s stomach was satisfied, he ventured through the door. The twelfth floor was a game of tag. His opponents were five monkeys. The aim of the game was to place a bag of time bombs around the opponent’s neck. There were no clocks on the bombs, and the ticking was uniform, leaving no indication of when the bombs would blow. If the bag was thrown away or dropped, it would automatically appear again on the player. Bon placed a bag around a monkey, and then floated in the air, out of reach. He didn’t have to use his qi to fly. One of the magic spells he had learned was Flight. The monkeys tried throwing the bag at him, but it was no use. Soon, the timer ran out and one of the unlucky monkeys died. The exit portal appeared and Bon flew through it. What had this floor tested? Agility? Strength? It could have been played in a number of different ways. A wizard could have made good use of Ice Wall and Fire Wall, to elude the monkeys.

The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth floors were games of tower defense. Bon destroyed the hordes of enemies that continuously assaulted his home base. On the thirteenth floor they were slow moving zombies. On the fourteenth floor they were faster ghouls. On the fifteenth floor they were demons. Some of the demons were like bats, with long leathery wings. It was a pain to pick them off one by one. Bon summoned a meteor and blew them all to smithereens. His base collapsed because of the massive indiscriminate damage caused by the meteor and he had to retry the floor. He was more careful the second time, picking off all the demons with Chain Lightning this time. The lightning traveled from one demon to another in a never ending light show.

Tomato refused to talk to him in the fifteenth floor’s waiting room. Bon didn’t know what he had done. He bought some apple pie and tried to share it with her, but she refused to touch it. Bon shrugged – all the more for him.

The sixteenth floor required him to fight hand to hand with a hundred martial arts experts of various different schools. Bon learned a lot during this level, using minimal force to fight. Most of the time he just stood there while the martial artists hit him, studying their every move. He learned to control his physical strength, which was invaluable. He would finally be able to crack an egg properly and cook omelets. This had been bugging him for some time.

The seventeenth floor was a chess puzzle. He could play either as black or white and checkmate the opponent within five moves. The rules of chess were explained on a placard beside the chess board, but Bon already knew them. He had played a little chess during high school. He calculated thousands of moves in his mind within seconds, and placed the pieces where they should be. A portal appeared at the end of the room. This level probably rewarded players with extra intelligence, but Bon was way over the level cap. The quests rewarded him nothing except for a few measly pieces of gold.

Bon ate some steak tenderloin in the waiting room of the eighteenth floor and then continued on his journey. Tomato still refused to talk or eat. The eighteenth floor was whack-a-mole, testing reaction speed. This was more of a test in the control of strength to Bon. While he could now crack eggs with a little concentration, whacking something while limiting his strength was hard to do. The whack-a-mole machine kept getting destroyed and getting reassembled. This was his hardest test yet. After a few days of trying, Bon finally succeeded. Stupid moles!

The nineteenth floor tested his swimming abilities. He had to swim through red colored rings, some of which were deep underwater. Bon didn’t need to breathe, so this was easy peasy.

The twentieth floor was a Boss fight.

“Identify.”

BOSS Zombie Robbie HP 25,000/25,000 MP 5,000/5,000 Robbie was a general for King Agratha of the kingdom of Anka. He swore that even in death he would protect his land. Robbie kept his promise. Powers Toxic Touch Coats Zombie Robbie’s weapon with poison Grave Visage Petrifies the target for five seconds Bony’s Glory A circle of bones spins around Zombie Robbie’s body damaging everything in its path The Old Guard Zombie Robbie summons five of his officers from their graves

Bon let himself get hit by the zombie, gently poking it from time to time to enrage it into using its skills. His poison and petrification resistances were too high for Robbie’s first two powers to work. The mana flow of Bony’s Glory was interesting. He might have been able to mimic it with pebbles from the ground. Bon tried copying the skill. He renamed it Bon’s Glory. The ring of pebbles moved around him so fast that they collided with each other and formed dust. The dust made contact with Zombie Robbie and the Boss exploded.

You have killed (BOSS) Zombie Robbie

“Fuck!”

He had wanted to play with the Boss for a little more time. He hadn’t seen it use its summoning power yet.

He ate some biryani on the twenty first floor. All the food he’d had so far was extremely delicious, but the biriyani was a little too spicy for his taste.

“What’s wrong Tomato?” he asked her.

“Men have no guts.”

“Did Bean do something to make you angry?”

“Ben! I’ve been telling him to make amends with my family, but he’s too scared of my father. If they managed to get along then maybe I wouldn’t have to stay here anymore.”

“You can’t go yet. You would miss all the tomato jokes.”

“That’s what you're worried about?” Tomato harrumphed. “Just get lost.”

Bon shrugged, and ate his biriyani as slowly as possible. He bought a Mountain Dew and sipped it with pleasure.

The twenty first floor was prairie land. He had to follow the clues and find the portal in a treasure hunt. ‘Beneath a field of gold, lies a clue that will unfold.’ He found the second clue in a folded envelope beneath a corn plant. ‘Down down in the blue, an inner reflection of above you.’ He found the third clue in the bucket of a well. ‘Stamping on my welcome, made painstakingly by my mom.’ He found the fourth clue beneath the Welcome mat of a house. ‘Finally enter within, where the winter man comes in. Almost to the top is where you stop.’ He found the exit portal within the house’s chimney.

The chimney was too much of a squeeze, so he destroyed the house and jumped up into the portal. Maybe they had wanted him to jump in from the roof, he thought as he entered the twenty second floor. The twenty first floor seemed to be pointless. It might be making sure that the players weren’t brain dead. What would happen when someone failed to find the clues? Maybe they would be sent to the Tower’s equivalent of a remedial class.

The twenty second floor was tower defense once again. This time he got some automated siege weapons that he could place wherever he wanted within his territory, which was half of the map. The terrain was mountainous, and had a river separating his side from the enemy’s side. He placed most of the siege weapons near the river. He would be the impenetrable second line of defense. The siege weapons were placed well, and did their work. Bon just had to destroy a few of the strongest monsters. He blasted them into ashes with his Fireball spell.

The twenty third floor required him to fight enemies in pitch darkness. This was akin to a joke for a Nascent Soul cultivator. He rarely depended on only his eyesight to fight.

He ate kebab and hummus in the twenty fourth floor’s waiting room. Tomato was still down in the dumps, so he bought her some ice cream. She took it without saying a word to him. She was a spoiled brat, but also his only company.

The twenty fourth floor required him to climb up to a castle in the sky. There, he had to make it past many traps—the usual pressure switches in the floor that shot out arrows, the rolling boulders that he had to escape, the sudden collapse of the floor beneath him, sliding down steep tunnels while dodging obstacles, all the usual Lara Croft stuff. He then had to fight off some knights until he killed the champion in the throne room. The throne turned into an exit portal.

The twenty fifth floor was a game of dexterity. He had to place strings around each of his fingers, each attached to a puppet’s body. He then had to fight other puppets in a series of battles. At the end, the puppet exploded and in its place was a portal. Other players were probably gaining skills, stats and experience from all these floors, but for Bon any changes were too tiny to notice.

The twenty sixth floor was a straight up battle royale. A number of different creatures began fighting on a central stage. Some teamed up, but most fought solo. Bon summoned a Phantom Pikeman and whistled while it crushed everyone on the stage.

He ate a pizza on the twenty seventh floor.

“How’s it going with Bean?” he asked Tomato.

She didn’t bother to correct him this time. “Ben’s still not doing anything. He said he would rather fight his way into the tower and rescue me, than talk to my father.”

“Who is your father anyway?”

“He’s the Tiger General Gravin,” she said with pride.

Her father had a normal sounding name. Bon had expected a vegetable, or at the very least a fruit.

“Never heard of him,” Bon said. “Ben sounds too similar to my own name. Let’s just call him Bean from now on.”

“Fine! He’s a stupid bean! Ha!”

“You sound happier,” Bon smiled.

“I am.”

“Let’s eat some flavored yogurt.”

The twenty seventh floor was a maze. There were monsters at each dead end, and treasure chests here and there. Bon flew into the air, and plotted his course through the maze. He could have just flown over everything, but he wanted the treasure chests. He might get a sickle and chain. He had thrown his away during the Alpha Test and bitterly regretted it. It wasn’t available in the Tower’s Store either. The sickle and chain was a fun weapon. Bon didn’t find it in any of the chests. He didn’t even bother picking up the mythical armor he received in one of the chests. It was all garbage to him.

The twenty eight floor was a meditation quest. He had to recite some mantras with a group of monks. The mantras had the effect of making one tired and putting one to sleep. Once you slept you had to restart the quest from the beginning. This probably tested mental will and perseverance. Thanks to Tian Bu Ru, Bon’s will was strong and his mind held few weaknesses. One monk after another fell asleep until only Bon was left chanting. He entered the portal that appeared a little later and went to the next floor.

The twenty ninth floor tested pain tolerance. He had to walk on tiles, each of which had a unique method of torturing the body. He tried flying over them, but the tiles still held their effect. Different colors denoted different types of pain caused by different elements. The electric blue was obviously lightning. The red was fire. The blue was ice. The green was poison, and so on. It didn’t matter what it was. Bon had high level resistances to them all.

And now, at long last, Bon reached the thirtieth floor, the start of the group stages. He ate some moussaka before entering the door.

“Remember,” Tomato said, “You need a party of at least two people to pass this floor. If you kill the Boss on your own, it isn’t counted.”

“What happens if I can’t find a party?”

“There’s an option in your status menu now, to randomly assign yourself to a party. The party can’t kick you out unless the Tower deems you are purposely hindering them from completing the quest. You’re going to a mini world with real people now, so behave yourself.” That auto party system sounded like it could be abused. The Tower couldn’t be omniscient, could it?

“Okay,” Bon waved goodbye and headed through the door. It was time to make some new friends.