Alex’s weightlessness seized and his vision slowly stabilized. He felt like he had just awakened from a deep sleep. Slightly disoriented, he looked around at his surroundings. A rush of memories flooded back to him. He knew this place. It was the Zeroth floor. Was that whole thing with Chrono real?

One thing was for sure, he was still in the tower. That meant he could check his status at any time. With a concentration of his will, he pulled out the familiar screen that he had seen so many times before.

Status

Name: Alex Harrian

Age: 18

Class: -

Wait, I’m really 18 years old again!?

So that was all real. Chrono had really sent him back in time. But how far back? The fact that he still didn’t have a class yet suggested that he was sent back to the very beginning, the very first time he entered the tower. He took one step forward and a screen appeared in front of him.

Welcome to Dominion Tower.

That confirmed it. This was really his first time entering the tower. Well, technically his second first time. He closed the message and another one took its place.

You who dare to take on this challenge, know that many great dangers and rewards await you. Should you choose to continue, select your path and class.

A list of paths appeared before him.

Path of the Warrior

Path of the Mage

Path of the Ranger

Path of the Rogue

Path of the Support

Path of the Specialist

Unsurprisingly, the paths were familiar. He had encountered this same list previously when he had first entered the tower. Upon choosing a path, a list of classes would become available depending on the chosen path.

Alex took a second to think things through. He had previously chosen the Knight class within the Path of the Warrior. It made sense to choose it again since he had experience with it. He would know what abilities to unlock and how to use them. But on the other hand, Knights were slow and lumbering. He wouldn’t be able to climb as quickly as he’d like. Still, it was tempting to pick what was familiar.

If there’s one thing he learned during the first ascend, it’s that he wasn’t an exceptional Knight. Sure, he was part of a great alliance, but he mostly got there riding the coattails of Luke. Perhaps a Support class would be better this time around. He could act as a guide from the sidelines and focus on supporting the most talented warriors that humanity had to offer. That was one option.

I should plan this out, Alex thought. I have one primary goal: recruit and train the best team possible. With a strong team we can blitz up the tower and prevent the catastrophes that are to come. To get the best to join me I have to rush to the top to increase my reputation and build my alliance. But if I choose a Support class I’ll have to rely on others in the early floors and that will just slow me down. Can’t have that.

He selected the Path of the Warrior and a list of classes appeared.

Knight

Duelist

Spirit Fighter

Berserker

Lancer

Once again Alex found himself drawn to the Knight class. There was something alluring about the classic image of a hero suited up in impenetrable armor, slaying foes with a mighty sword. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out quite how he imagined last time around.

If I want to climb the tower quickly, Alex thought, I’ll need two things: damage and speed.

He combed through the stat rankings of the other classes. Only one other class drew his attention—the Spirit Fighter. He read the description.

Description

Spirit fighters make use of the spirit energy within themselves to fight. They are masters of close-range combat, using their hardened bodies and their control of spirit energy to dart around the battlefield and deal heavy damage. Their strong devotion to using spirit energy and martial arts prevents them from gaining mastery of traditional weapons.

Alex had met a few Spirit Fighters throughout his previous climb. They were one of the more mobile classes with limited long-range options but great damage up close. Compared to Knights, they relied more on combinations of abilities rather than the strength of their weapons. He decided to compare the stats between the two classes.

Stat Rankings Knight Spirit Fighter Offence 4 5 Defence 4 2 Mobility 2 4 Support 2 1 Control 1 1

Yep, Alex thought, compared to the Knight class, the Spirit Fighter class sacrifices defense for speed. If I want to climb quickly, this will be the perfect class.

The strong offense and high agility would come with drawbacks, however. Low defense and virtually nonexistent support or control abilities. A weak support score meant that he wouldn’t be able to directly aid his allies in combat. A weak control score meant that he would barely be able to alter the battlefield or deal with status effects.

He could make up for his lack of defense by using his experience and knowledge to avoid damage. As for support and control, well, you can’t cover every weakness.

Alex selected the Spirit Fighter class and accepted the ensuing prompt. The screen vanished and he was free to move once again. He opened his Status screen once more.

Status

Name: Alex Harrian

Age: 18

Class: Spirit Fighter

Stats

Level: 1

Rank: Apprentice

Strength: 15

Stamina: 11

Agility: 16

Resilience: 8

Spirit: 17

Alex looked around at the bleak, blue space that surrounded him. The Zeroth floor wasn’t very impressive. In fact, it was barely considered a real floor at all. Rather than being a vast land like the other floors, it was more a pocket of space that people would be sent into when they entered the tower for the first time. The space was shared by other newcomers who also entered for the first time. The only point of interest was the portal at the far end. People would enter the tower from the real world, appear spontaneously in this empty space, select their path and class, then enter the portal headed for the first floor.

There weren’t very many people in the Zeroth floor currently, easily less than one hundred. Alex couldn’t recall if it was the same way back when he first entered. After all, it was so long ago. The other newcomers showed a wide range of emotions as they talked among themselves and interacted with the screen in front of them. Some were in deep thought as they pondered which path and class to select. Some were scared, unsure of what to make of this strange, giant, blue room they had been transported to. Others could barely contain their excitement, seeing the tower as a source of thrilling new adventures just waiting to be conquered.

He could hear some newcomers discuss strategies and synergies between their classes. This didn’t surprise Alex. Most people on the outside had some understanding of the tower before entering. The early explorers had exited the tower from the upper floors and shared stories of what was inside and how everything worked. Unsurprisingly, there were also a lot of false rumors about the tower as well. Some of those rumors he had fallen for himself when he had first entered the tower.

However, this time around Alex knew a lot more. He understood how everything worked.

The tower was comprised of 30 floors, with each floor being a dominion controlled by its own set of monsters. Each dominion had unique inhabitants, landscapes, and sometimes even mechanics that were entirely unique to that floor. The conditions for clearing floors varied greatly, but they all had one thing in common: constant danger.

In addition to the 30 dominions, there were a set of floors that behaved differently from the rest. These floors were called Havens, and they appeared after clearing three dominions in a row. These Havens were unique in that only humans could access them. There were no interesting species or landscapes to be found on these floors. Only fellow climbers who inhabit and seek refuge in the pre-built environments found there. They also varied greatly from looking like modern, run down cities to vast sky kingdoms.

The Havens provided a place for safety and rest within the tower. They were the only place where you didn’t have to fight for survival with strange creatures or brutal environments. They were especially useful since you could only exit the tower and return to the real world from a Haven, never from a dominion. Upon re-entering the tower, you had the option to spawn in any Haven that you had previously visited. This was useful as it meant that you didn’t have to climb up from the bottom every time you re-entered the tower.

It also meant that when you decided to leave a Haven and enter the next floor, you wouldn’t be able to exit the tower until you made it to the next Haven. Once you made that commitment to ascend from one Haven to another, you had to go through three dominions before you could leave the tower or catch any kind of break from the hostile monsters. There’re ways to get around this, though they’re rare.

This was the most important thing to know about survival in the tower. If you weren’t prepared to get through three dominions in a row, you’d die along the way.

On the Zeroth floor, however, there were little preparations you could make. You either turn back to the real world or you enter the portal and fight through the first three dominions.

This was all basic knowledge. But Alex knew much more: the yearly catastrophes that the towers brought, the existence of the Wardens, the various secrets within dominions. All of this knowledge was a gift. A gift he would use to get to the top.

It all falls on my shoulders. Alex told himself, as feelings of resolve and determination built up inside of him. This time, I’ll make sure we succeed. This time, I’ll save the world.