Ch3

Enter the tower

When Tig showed back up he had his sister with him Ember her name matching her fire red hair they all met up at the entrance of the tower. They looked like a bunch of kids larping, Rufas had a wooden club paired with a shoddy shield that was really just four planks of wood hammered together and a metal handle attached covered in dire rat fur. Ember had her hair in braids rough leather armor a knotted wooden staff with a red echetching on top, Tig looked like he was the closet to a real diver fitted dark green leathers and a crossbow that looked system generated his reward for clearing the first floor out of all of them Roger looked lost he did not have any armor or even a weapon his staff brand was the only thing that could explain why he was there. Tig was just explaining that the first brand was misleading if you grabbed a great sword it would show up as a plane long sword on the brand until you showed your worth by making it to level 5 and getting your arch type brand,that’s where it breaks into specifications also known as classes from there every 10 levels you gain an extra tier or you can branch out but level 1 is also super important your AI works with the system on your first floor clear and gives your weapon type as your clear bonus sometimes it’s armor though and anytime you rerun the first floor you can get a level one item there are farmers that just clear floors one and two to make sure every year the shops have beginner items to sell to the newbs.” Tig was a nerd but not the kind that got straight As though school and studying all the time no he was the kid that knew all the known arch types and recorded classes. “With your background and brand I think you will probably do well as a monk they normally use things like staffs or tonfa I’ve also heard they also use sai. Although most of the time they end up getting pushed to a more common arch type at level 15 most end up a brawler or those who grew into more of a weapon user became the fighter archetype.” Tig was like having a monolith encyclopedia with you for the first few levels everyone cleared one of four variations of them in New York. There were rumors that one in LA never has repeated itself so it was impossible to map out any part of it and no one has ever cleared the main one in DC not even the first level those who have closed new born monoliths have gotten over confident and have made the trip but it is unclear if they ever even made it to the tower. The area is overrun with spawns and dungeons; it has been Rufas dream to make it to the tower just to see it. But today was the day for the crew to truphe over this towers first floor. “ so seeing how I am the only one that has done this at lest once I will play team leader here are out roles we are going to do to do a 1:2:1 formation Rufas your upfront ember and roger your the middle I’ll be in the back i have the most range, Roger we don’t know what you can do Rufas seems to think you can handle yourself and Ember has a good grasp on her spark attack with her magic but you three don’t have health or mana bars for us to monitor the tower will ask us if we are in a group when we touch the door please don’t hesitate it will boot you and you will end up on your own. Any questions?” Tig was the only one to go into the tower; he also was the best option for a team lead; he had all the background info on the first 5 floors and understood the base tiers to the first arch type classes. Roger raised his hand “ what is the most common layout of the floor?” The other 2 already knew this being raised around the city or at least been here a few months already. “ the meadowlands the mobs rotate for that one there have been reports of wolfs, slimes, boars and if I’m reading this right bunny’s but there is only one report from that and the man that made it was half mad his whole team wiped and he barely made it out so it could of been anything.” Tig sounded like he wanted to laugh as he said bunny’s and got even more dismissive as he read on “ if it is the slimes Ember will switch out with Rufas, you two only attack what she has already burned. Her staff is a gift from our father and adds fire damage” It was a sound plan burning the slimes made them soild and able to be attacked by normal melee attacks “ the most common is wolfs followed by the boars so we should be fine with our set up as it is” Tig turned off his tablet one of the few antique items that came in handy and was already in demand being repaired and sold for high prices, walking up to the door he knocked as of asking permission to enter.

Enter the tower at your own risk

You are with a group of four

Do you wish to enter

Without delay the whole group thought yes Tigs warning still fresh in there mind the doors swung open showing a empty bright white hall. “Well guys welcome to the tower this is the ready room every floor has one it is a safe space to prepare or rest before going on. There is an exit in every floor higher then one the entrance works as one here obviously.” Waving all of them in making sure no one got cold feet. The door shut behind them.

Everyone was nervous mixed with excitement for Tig it was his chance to form a real team, Rufas it was finally getting to his first dive, Ember this was a chance to get her own place and for Roger it was the start to find his parents. Roger froze thinking about them for they stand in this very spot when they were his age he could hardly remember them. He knew his mom was a stout woman with flowing blood hair and sung to him every night a song about a place called Ireland. His dad was tall slender man that was the best at hide and seek. One time he lost only due to not being able to stop himself from laughing he was following Roger the whole time the man could his behind a single blade of grass. “You ok there champ?” Rufas asked he had a tendency to act like he was Rogers older brother in times where he could tell something was bugging him . “ Yea man, just they could have stood here. Like right here in this spot it’s just a lot to take in”. It was a rare occasion where Roger openly answered a question like that it shocked the whole team “Well think of it as following in their footsteps and we will be there with you every step of the way if this works out” Ember said her voice had a musical quality to it, it snapped Roger out of his musing and got him back into the moment looking her in her eyes he nodded once. “Seems like we are ready, let's get into formation. after you there big guy.” Tig said stepping to the rear of the group “ seems you have your work cut out for you. I like them you should keep em” ERron chimed in reminding Roger he was there. In the short time he had his AI he asked around to see how normal it was for a level 0 AI to make idle chit chat. The short answer is no one's AI seemed to other than the arch level ones. It was odd but didn’t really worry Roger. Maybe there was more but no one else was wanting to sound crazy at arch level. People really didn’t care if they sounded crazy; they had seen what real crazy looked like in the towers. Rufas opened the door on the other side of the safe area

Welcome to the meadowland

Level 1

Monster level 2

This was bad news normally the monster level was set to one under the floor level to set it to the level of the divers

“Ok so this is rare but it happens guys we are in a variant of the floor there will be less monsters but they will be a lot tougher we need to try to get them on their own and work together.” Tig said his words did not match with this panicked voice he truly hoped that he was right the only time he had heard of the level being higher was with the damn bunnies, that was one of the reasons it was dismissed.