Julia dropped off at my apartment, and I told her that I would see her later and head inside. Julia is a nice girl, and wonderful mum liked her, but even though this teenaged body was yelling at me to do something, I kept telling my self you don't have time, maybe after you save her and everyone else. Checking my phone as opened a beer, I noticed Will had left me a message. We had been in contact after he got another Keychain. I didn't know if he believed me yet, but I will always help Will. he said that he completed the 1st-floor boss room solo and got a nine-tailed fox key chain, he wanted my opinion on boss key chains and Master Chi of the emerald dragons. Telling him the truth that the more powerful the monster, the more powerful the keychain, and that Master Chi is the best Blademaster, and always will be, and if you see him tell him to watch out for Tenchi's betrayal. With that out of the way, I sat on my bed and meditate, the key to cultivation. You needed to focus on the energy inside and outside of you, deep breaths if anyone were witnessing the event they would have noticed the slight breeze flowing towards me sitting in the middle of my bed. a soft yellow glow surrounded my body, I knew I couldn't rush this process, but it was much easier to gather and expand my core. "come on, I know what to do, I've done this before many times now submit!" I commanded the QI to Expand and run through my body like a river, gathering the maximum I could leaving my small core empty. "Now, Expand!" Forcing all the QI into my center to expand it, steam drifted off my body as energy brunt off. With the massive effort of will, I pushed the QI into my core, expanding it and strengthing it, my QI condescends into the core, and I saw it was now half again bigger, smiling I passed out.

The next day I check my progress in QI cultivation I hadn't gained a level, even with experience, cultivation was slow to progress. I went about my morning routine, then unpacked my gear that I would take into the tower and checked it; one of the things I instilled in the newbies was always double-check everything, you didn't want to get caught two days into a climb to find you had no toilet paper. With everything right, I suited up, pants, chaps, belt, gun belt, shirt, vest, jacket, two spatial rings, a bag of holding, guns, spellbook on a chain, Cobra Strike Sword, and a black Akubra to top it off. I was still missing a bunch of possible accessories to go with my gear, but this would have to get me to Floor 10. I headed out at a jog I was eager to do a serious climb again, there were too many delays lately, and I was behind the front lines by 22 floors, I need to catch up and push them. as I finally approached the tower, I saw four people all geared up and ready to climb as well, Gibil, Julia, Thomas, and the massive Lucas. "hey guys heading back in?" I said to them with a friendly wave.

"yup just waiting on our fifth and seeing you're here. We can go!" Gibil said, all casual like with a smirk on his face. He had lost the hoddie now sporting a black sleek leather armor; he was a lanky kid. He also had daggers strapped to his arms, legs, and across the chest.

"nice try lanky I'm going up to the tenth at a fast pace," I said, patting him on the shoulder.

"We know, and we're coming with you," Julia said all matter of fact. "I promised Janet I would make sure you didn't kill yourself."

"Okay, so how did you know I was going up to the tenth?" I asked, concerned she was a mind reader; they appeared from time to time; they did not meet fortunate ends.

"you talk in your sleep," she explained and blushed a bit.

"what about you two?" I asked Lucas and Thomas I knew the tolerated me but had no real feelings either way.

"Hey man, we both want to get to the front lines, and we decided we need more constitution before we do the spirit awaking thing." Thomas said, "and your the express elevator or something according to Gibil."

"Fine, but I won't slow down," I said a bit agitated — [Party invite: Julia has invited you to the express elevator party].

We all appeared on the floor [1-6], and I took off at a jog, only stopping to shoot snakes in my path, the party kept pace, but this was just a warm-up. Thomas caught up to me 5 minutes later, "shouldn't I take front?" he whispered to me.

"do you know where you are going, no just stay at my side if I miss a snake block it before it gets to me." Thomas was the tank, but at this speed, there was no need to tank.

An hour later, we were stretching and preparing for the boss fight. Nothing unusual happened on our jog, in fact, we out leveled the entire first floor, so there was nothing dangerous here for us.

"okay so the boss snake has been killed many many times, and strategies have been made to defeat it yada yada yada," I said, "but we're just going hard and fast nothing flashy just maximum damage, burn it down." Everyone looked okay with that "let's go" I walked off towards the old wooden double doors covered with vines with 1-X brunt into it. Pushing open the door, the party vanished from the lobby and reappeared in a sizeable overgrown temple. Stone columns ran the length of the old temple, craved with the iconography of people worshiping a colossal snake. Torches hung in sconces a smoke haze hung in the air, with a low breeze it drifted filling the room. At the end of the temples, the hall was a raised dais on which curled up sleeping was the boss mob itself. A massive snake, the boss, of course, was another snake, but this one was the king, a mix between constrictor and spitting cobra, a level 65 monster that had killed nearly half of the first climbers. Nowadays, he didn't have his kill count as high, but the unlucky climber would be eaten by this boss here and there. To me it was nothing but a punching bag with a lot of health, I nodded to Lucas and Thomas, and they moved out front, Gibbil had already vanished, Julia had moved up close to me. Drawing one of my revolvers, I cocked the hammer and started walking forward, "on my signal," I said loud enough for only my party to hear.

when I got to about 30 meters away from the snake, I spied it's tail start to move, with my increased intelligence and agility my perception was beyond normal, "Now!" I shouted as I unleashed a powerfull mana bullet at the snake and then unleased a 4 second rapid-fire, into its mass. Large chunks of scales and meat exploded from the beast as I let loose, the thing that surprised the party wasn't my damage output was how fast the boss was. Thomas just managed to raise his shield, as the boss came barreling headfirst towards us. The ability shield wall could stop all damage and movement up to a point, depending on the shield master skill level, Thomas had a high at least reached the apprentice rank of shield master and had stoped the snake in its tracks. Lucas then charged in with his greatsword going for the neck of the snake, I continued to shoot as well but now with both revolvers. The blue shield wall cracked within seconds, the massive smash damage of the snake had already weakened it, so it was not so unsurprising what happened next was.

"Pinning strike," Thomas called out to activate an ability I didn't realize he had. Stabbing his shortsword through the lower half of the snake's jaw and into the cracked tile pinning it in place. The snake let out, and loud hiss as its acidic venom dripped down from massive fangs. I knew it was about to use its venom spray ability and moved Julia and myself outside its effective range.

"heal Tommo," I said to Julia she was already healing him as the acid was dealing damage. Just as the ability was about to go off, Gibbil appeared in thin air and slammed down onto the head of the snake, closing the mouth around Thomas's hand and sword. Thomas screamed in pain as the razor teeth and venom tore his hand to shreds. Gibbil had done massive damage; however, and with that done, we damage dealers piled on the damage and burnt down its last bit of health. the boss had 2,000 health, and about 15 armor. Hence, it was a tough fight, but I knew we could burn it down fast, especially with my opening salvo knocking of a quarter of its health. But that was unusually fast, Thomas had stopped screaming to pull out a potion, and down it restoring his lost hand. "everyone good?" I called out with a course of yes's a smile flittered on my face. "good, lets loot and move onto floor 2."

Will stood shirtless on a rock in the Californian desert, his katana raised in a ready position, all around him was silent. He had kept this pose for 4 hours now; his muscles ached, his arms strained. Sweat dripped off his forehead. Master Chi, in the meantime, was set off to the side under a sun umbrella meditating in a lotus position. This training had been taking place every day for the last week, 5 hours on the rock, then strokes for another 2 hours, followed by 4 hours of meditation. It wasn't that will was complaining he didn't understand why this training was. He felt his arms and his core get stronger after each practice. Still, because it was outside the tower only small gains where made. his form had been horrible the first day, but with Master Chi throwing rocks at him he quickly improved. his mind was focused on his breathing feeling the air inflate his lungs and deflating, breathing in breathing out. his phone went off in his pocket breaking his focus, shaking his head, he'll check it later, just as he made that statement in his mind growling Will reached in his pocket pulled out his phone to turn it off when he saw the messages.

J: 👍👍✨🤩✨👍👍

Darren McCall: Max, you crazy bastard, where the hell did you get this information.

Max Hunt: Found the Goblin, I take it.

Darren McCall: Found him we did 2x bonus on all loot and experience is crazy, but the spirit stones are way crazier

Max Hunt: So who awakened the Qi first?

J: 🖐

Darren McCall: J did then I did, fuck it hurt though but the benefits, 1.5 effectiveness of attributes, so how do we increase this?

Max Hunt: Meditation Qi is all around us in the tower is denser; the higher you go, try drawing it into your body.

Will had no idea what they were talking about, but Master Chi did as he looked over his shoulder. "Student Will, What is this?" he asked in a shaky voice.

"Sorry master, Max is a climber from Australia, he says some crazy stuff, but most of it is true, I have no idea what a spirit stone is, but I do know the last time Darren and J talked max told them where they could find a miniboss that dropped them" Will explained.

"where is this mini-boss?" master chi asked

"Darren and J are in Europe, so I'm guessing in the European tower, but max also said he found one in his tower too," Will explained.

"ask max where to get the spirit stones in the US tower" Master Chi commanded

Will: Max Master Chi wants to know where to get the spirit stones in the US tower.

Max Hunt: Will Let him know that if [Emeralde dragon] guild allies with [Hold my Beer] I will give him the secrets of Qi Cultivation

Before Will could respond, master chi had snatched will phone away.

Will: I Accept - Master Chi