[Welcome to the Tower of Heroes. This is a special place created by the Great Archmage, Azmodius. It was created to evaluate the strength of humans.]

[System prompt: Player Seven has reached a special place. Special rules apply to this space]

[Rule 1: Death is impossible here; once your HP reaches 1, a protective layer will appear preventing you from dying. However, that would mean the end of your climb of the tower.]

[Rule 2: Consumables cannot be used during fights. HP, MP and Cooldown times will be refreshed after defeating each floor.]

[Rule 3: Rewards will be awarded after defeating each floor. However, players can collect the reward for defeating a specific floor only once.]

Following the message, Li Wei appeared near the edge of an empty circular platform. A massive 1 was written on the ground in Roman Numerals. Li Wei calmly observed his surroundings and walked towards the center. A message popped up.

[Would you like to begin the first fight?]

- "Yes"

In front of Li Wei, a young man appeared, wearing the starters clothing that gave no stats. The man remained expressionless and looked at Li Wei.

[Floor 1: level 1 fighter, begin the fight in 5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Begin!]

As soon as the countdown reached zero, the two fighters got into fighting stances. Li Wei shifted his body, taking a defensive stance and placing his shield in front of him. He held his sword in his right hand, waiting for the NPC to attack him. It was the main purpose of him starting from the 1st floor, he wanted to get used to his shield and test the new skills.

The level 1 fighter also got into stance but an offensive one. Having no weapons, he took a stance similar to that of boxing and approached Li Wei making small hops.

"Pak... Pak"

"-0", "-1"

The man punched in the direction of Li Wei but was easily blocked by the shield. Even though Li Wei expected the first level to be easy, that was a little too much. Li Wei could easily predict where the punches would land and block them. He would not make much progress staying here. Instead of wasting time, Li Wei chose to attack.

"Strengthen"

Upon activating the skill, Li Wei instantly felt his body becoming lighter. He pushed the punch of the fighter with the shield and slashed at him with the sword and hit his chest.

"-19"

Li Wei only struck once, and both sides retreated a few steps.

- "Isn't that a bit too easy? … His HP bar almost dropped by half."

Following that, Li Wei rushed towards the fighter, jumped and used his second skill.

[Cleave]

His sword did a long diagonal strike and went through the body of the fighter.

-"31"

The HP bar of the fighter suddenly dropped, and a white light appeared covering the fighter.

[Congratulations for defeating the first floor. You are awarded 100 exp]

[Restoring original state. Moving to the second floor.]

A mist rose up out of nowhere and covered the arena for a few seconds before disappearing. The fighter disappeared and was replaced by a woman. The number on the floor also changed to two.

[Would you like to begin the second fight?]

-"Begin!"

[Floor 2: level 2 fighter. Begin the fight in 5]

…

[2]

[1]

[Begin!]

The exact same thing as the 1st fight occurred. The woman still did not have weapons, but she did have a basic cloth armor and boots. It only took Li Wei a few strikes to defeat her.

[Congratulations for defeating the second floor. You are awarded 200 exp]

[Restoring original state. Moving to the third floor.]

….

…

Similar developments happened on the third and fourth floors. Despite obtaining weapons, the fighters were simply no match to Li Wei. Even the level 4 fighter was easily defeated. That was the difference between having a fighting class and not having one. Additionally, Li Wei reached the 1st milestone at level 5. The real struggles only started now, when Li Wei reached the 5th floor.

[Would you like to begin the fifth fight?]

"Begin"

[Floor 5: level 5 Paladin, begin the fight in 5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Begin!]

The Paladin in front of Li Wei was a well-built man wearing a full set of heavy equipment. His set was entirely made of metal and even though they provided more armor than that of Li Wei, they also reduced the dexterity of the user. The paladin also held a large shield, at least twice as large as than that of Li Wei and a sword.

Li Wei charged at the paladin. He first probed the paladin using only 50% of his strength but the strike was easily blocked. The Paladin remained unfazed and stayed in his defensive stance not even attacking. Li Wei tried to attack from different positions, moving all around the paladin but each hit was successfully blocked.

-"-1", "-2","-1","-0"

Very small red numbers appeared where Li Wei was hitting the paladin, but they were negligible. Paladins invested their stat points in vitality and as a result, had a lot of HP.

The Paladin also attacked and dealt the same amount of damage to Li Wei. They were equally strong.

The exchange continued but suddenly, the paladin made his move. Right after blocking Li Wei's sword, he counterattacked with his own. Even though the strike was much slower compared to that of Li Wei, due to Li Wei's original motion, he could only raise his shield to block the sword.

"-2"

But the paladin did not stop here. The shield he was holding suddenly glowed slightly and violently collided with Li Wei's body and forced him to retreat a few steps.

It was the Paladin's offensive skill, [Bash]

[Bash]

Violently hit the target with a shield or a blunt weapon. Damage +6. Small chance of stunning the target for 0.5 seconds

Mana cost: 15

Cooldown time: 10 seconds

-"F***"

"-12"

Li Wei frowned, he was actually pushed back by a defensive class. If things continued like that, he would eventually lose. The two fighters had been losing HP at the same rate but considering that Li Wei’s total HP was lower than the paladin, he was losing the race!

Li Wei started to focus. He took a needle from his belt and threw it towards the Paladin.

'Mmm throwing needles is a bit troublesome with the shield' thought Li Wei.

He then dashed towards the paladin. The latter immediately blocked the needle, but Li Wei already arrived in front of the paladin, using his sword he attacked on the right of the Paladin.

The Paladin reacted and swiftly rotated his whole body to block the sword with his shield, the needle still embedded into the shield. He successfully blocked it and was about to replicate but at that moment, Li Wei raised his foot and kicked the shield away from the side.

The Paladin did not expect such a move and lost his balance. Li Wei quickly took advantage of the situation and hacked continuously at the Paladin.

"Cleave"

"Reinforce"

Seeing that the Paladin would be unable to block the next strike, he immediately used his skill to maximize the damage. However, the Paladin also reacted and used his own defensive skill.

[Reinforce (level 0)]

Reduces damage taken by the user by 2 per strike for 30 seconds

Mana cost: 20

Cooldown time: 5 minutes

"-11", "-17","-10"

Damages popped up above the Paladin's head. Li Wei was able to land three hits before the Paladin successfully blocked with his own sword and regained his balance. With these hits, both sides were at about two thirds of their HP.

The battle turned back into a deadlock, both sides waiting for their cooldowns.

A few seconds later, Li Wei repeated his previous strategy. He took out a needle and again aimed straight at the Paladin. The Paladin blocked it and Li Wei rushed forward just like last time. However, the paladin did not commit the same mistake twice.

Instead of just blocking the sword strike, he used [Bash] and pushed the sword away. Li Wei did not expect this attack to work twice. Seeing [Bash] being used, he let out a faint smile and let go of the sword while drawing a dagger.

Since the Paladin was in the middle of animation of [Bash]. He could not do anything when the dagger stabbed him on the left.

With that, Li Wei was able to take out another third of the Paladin's HP. But when the Paladin lifted his shield back again to stop the dagger, this time, Li Wei did not back off. Instead, he pushed forward, his body nearly leaning against the shield.

Li Wei smiled, he put his right foot forward and placed it behind the Paladin. He then pulled back, making the Paladin lose balance and trip.

While the Paladin was taking several steps back in an attempt to keep standing, Li Wei drew his other dagger. With one dagger in each hand, Li Wei lunged towards the Paladin and stabbed him to death.

[Congratulations for defeating the fifth floor. You are awarded 500 exp]

[Restoring original state. Moving to the sixth floor.]

The mist reappeared once again. This time, on the arena with a 'Six' in Roman numerals, appeared a female rogue, holding a pair of curved daggers.

...

[Floor 6: level 6 Rogue, begin the fight in 5]

[4]

...

[Begin!]

As soon as the fight began, the rogue directly dashed towards Li Wei. She was much faster than the Paladin and attacked continuously with her 2 curved daggers. Fortunately for Li Wei, he invested a lot in Dexterity and could keep up with the movement of the rogue; blocking a dagger with the shield and parrying the other with his sword.

After a few exchanges, Li Wei decided to go on the offensive.

"Strengthen"

With enough strength, he started to push back the rogue, but the latter did not let him do what he wanted.

She immediately used the rogue's ability, [Rush]

[Rush (level 0)]

Increases the user's dexterity by 2 for 30 seconds

Mana cost: 20

Cooldown time: 5 minutes

She immediately got faster and dodged the sword while stabbing Li Wei on the side. Li Wei wasn't prepared for such a change of pace and was unable to block. But it did not end there:

"Shadow strike"

[Shadow strike (level 0)]

Stabs the target with a blade, Damage +15,

Mana cost: 15

Cooldown time: 15 seconds

Li Wei saw that attack and did not try to dodge it. Instead, he fully took the Shadow Strike focused on his own sword and aimed at the body of the rogue.

"Cleave"

"-26" appeared on the rogue's body. Both parties were pushed back but Li Wei took this opportunity to draw his needles and throw them at the rogue.

The female rogue was very agile and easily dodged the needles and dashed forward once more. Blades and the shield collided once more. The rogue had half of her HP bar full while Li Wei only had one-third left. While he was able to parry most attacks, he was constantly on the defensive and the small "-1", "-2" started to accumulate.

While constantly exchanging attacks, Li Wei thought of something. He blocked the next dagger with the shield but did not stop there. Instead, he leaned forward and did a movement similar to the Paladin's [Bash], pushing the dagger towards the rogue. Li Wei did not have the skill but imitated the movement to a certain degree.

The Rogue did not expect such a move and was forced to take a few steps back.

"Cleave"

The imitated Bash was quickly followed by the [Cleave] and left the rogue with only a few HP left.

The rogue quickly retreated, keeping some distances. She then took out throwing knives from her belt and directly threw them at Li Wei.

‘Throwing weapons?’

Li Wei relaxed a bit. The rogue only had a slimmer of HP left and he could finish her with his own needles. He walked towards the rogue slowly, using his shield to block the knives. However, he suddenly felt an intense pain in his left foot.

"-8"

A knife actually hit him there. The rogue used the fact that Li Wei had to raise his shield to protect his face and that it would then momentarily block his vision. She used that split second to throw a knife at Li Wei's foot.

The rogue threw the rest of her knives and when they were all used, she had no choice but to rush towards Li Wei. It was her final assault!

"Shadow Strike"

After the series of knives, Li Wei was left with 20 HP. Judging from the previous damage he took, if he was hit, he would definitely die.

Li Wei took a step back and grabbed his needles. However, he was not able to; the shield got in the way. His needles were actually strapped on his belt but due to the spacing between them, the remaining needles were actually found behind his back. But when he tried to grab them, the shield hit his waist and did not allow him to reach the last needle. The shield was strapped around his left arm and so was fixed and could not be moved.

He never realized this before since he never used so many needles at once.

The rogue took advantage of the weird position Li Wei was in. She closed the gap between them but before she could hit Li Wei, the latter grinned before throwing his sword at her, disturbing her movement. Since he could not grab his needles, there were no reasons to not use his bigger sword instead. He then grabbed a dagger and pounced on her, dealing the final blow.

[Congratulations for defeating the sixth floor. You are awarded 600 exp]

[Restoring original state. Moving to the seventh floor.]

"That was way too close... The shield got in the way... I might need to change my equipment... 3 gold… What a waste…"

The mist appeared once again and this time, a rather old man appeared holding a staff. He was clearly a mage.

[Would you like to begin the seventh fight?]

"Yes"

[Floor 7: level 7 Mage, begin the fight in 5]

[4]

[3]

[2]

[1]

[Begin!]