You've reached Level 1! Various Tower abilities are now unlocked. You can now use [Status] to see your enemy's level. Abilities [Class] [Skill Analysis] [Inventory] and [Repair] are available.

I smiled as I took out the last worm that came out of the ground. They appeared as soon as I started the fire.

"It seems that either light or heat attracts them." I checked on their corpses hoping to find some drops. There were none. With their corpses dismantled using my knife I took a look at their meat and frowned. It was all gray and mushy, I doubted it was edible.

I checked on the scales that I managed to pick up from them.

Deep Worm's Scales (tier 1 crafting material) - Scales that have fallen off a Deep Worm that grew up in an abyssal biome. Items crafted with this have a chance to obtain a [Slippery] Modifier.

"I wonder if I can coat my jerkin with this..." I glanced at my dagger and decided to do something I didn't do in a long time. First thing I did was check my inventory.

A square screen which was separated into a 10x20 grid appeared. This was the inventory I just gained. I looked at the items I had and took note of how much each item took up. One material item took up to one single slot and something like a trunk took up a 4x4 space.

"I have a lot of string which Ak'li made me buy and a glass bottle." I look at my mostly empty inventory and smile. I took out a bit of string and used my dagger to make holes in the scales.

After doing that I placed each scale neatly on my jerkin and arranged them so they protected my chest and belly area accordingly.

After I finished modifying my armor I got a notification about a new passive skill.

[Modify lvl.0] was its name. It did just what I thought it did. It allowed me to see if something is modifiable and to modify something.

I was being a lot more productive in the short time I was here than I expected. I checked the jerkin's stats before putting it on.

Shabby Jerkin (Common) [Modified with Deep Worm Scales]

Durability: 11/12

Armour Rating: 2.5

Speed Modifier: 1x

Description: A beginner equipment modified to suit the owner (ID N/A)

"It's different than enchanting. The durability increased but the speed modifier has been lowered. Does that mean I'll be slower? Anyway, I should try repairing it too. [Repair]!" I say nicely as a dim white light covers the jerkin in my hands.

"It didn't change but the durability was restored...!!" I suddenly got an epiphany. Probably a bit of a delayed one now that I think about it.

"Enchant," I repeated the process of enchanting and repairing until I got what I wanted. "Enchant!" I said one last time before my mana ran dry and a change happened in the item.

Spectral Shabby Jerkin (Common) [Modified with Deep Worm Scales]

Level 1 body equipment

Durability: 11/12

Armour Rating: 2.5

Speed Modifier: 1x

[Covenant with the Spectrals lvl.0] - The wearer is blessed by a low-ranked spectral spirit. All spectrally based abilities gain an additional 0.3% more flat experience

Description: A beginner equipment modified to suit the owner (ID N/A)

"Phew," I wiped off the sweat from my brows as I let out a sigh of relief. The chaotic mana listened to me this time as I was enchanting. It seemed that I had made a pretty good equipment piece for my level. Before I put it on I decided to look at it one last time and noticed that the ends of the jerkin had flickered in and out of existence for a while before stopping.

"Does enchanting modify the properties of the materials as well?" I asked myself before putting it on. It felt heavier but much more powerful. It was hard to describe the feeling of the ability described but I could feel a certain pressure gathering whenever I thought about my skills.

"I should've never doubted myself. I am invincible with this skill combination!" I put my dagger away and took out my bow and arrows as I ran towards the center of the zone again.

From the information I got from the sibling I concluded that each zone below level 10 has a level cap. I can only be level 1 99% experience here. Which meant!

"I can farm all the monsters and then the zone boss before going higher," I smirked and located the next swarm of worms. 4 Deep Worms gathered around me and scuttled around my looking for an opening in my defenses.

I throw my dagger at one of them and kill them instantly. I shoot two arrows at one and the other two are left to be dealt with for later.

I was running low on mana even before the fight so I stalled for some time before firing with [Barrage] and killing both of them.

Each worm gave me 1% of experience in general and for [Barrage].

[Unknown's POV]

"Achoo!" I sneezeed for the first time since coming to the Tower of White. Must be the trees.

For all the worrying my partners had for me I never saw the dangers of the zones after level 0. They all felt the same. The only thing that changed was the location. It wasn't a cave anymore but a pitch black forest.

"Abyss my ass this looks like someone threw a giant paint bucket over it and called it done," I commented on the appearance of the trees as I walked towards the center.

My ID on the scoreboards has been decided a long time ago. I lost my inital abilities since the Tower was governed by True Gods but I still managed to influence them to leave me with my origin ability.

Starchart Chimera Level 1 84% towards level 1 Class: Monk (R-1) Monk Class Bonuses: +3 VIT +1 DEX, +1 STR per level, Mana is changed to Origin Energy Stats HP 100/100 OE 100/100 VIT:14 STA:5 STR:10 DEX:10 INT:10 WIS:4

"Coming to this world was a pain in the ass and now I have to go through these trials like some weakling." I frowned at the sight of these low stats and sighed. In the end, I could do nothing besides grinding my stats back to a reasonable level.

I had my body with me at least. This was the only good thing about this trial.

"Another human?" a female voice, young it appeared to be. I heard it behind me, I must've not dreamt it? Impossible, someone actually came this close to the center before me? I was shocked or so to say.

Was she like me? Did she call me human? Wasn't it obvious I was a chimera? Was the tail not a giveaway in itself? I grinned stupidly as I saw her pink hair and shabby armor.

"Oh look, another newbie like myself." I said and stood firmly in place, with my hands behind my back. Must've scared the poor girl because I clearly saw a light flash through her when my tail came out into the light.

Too bad, too bad. She will have to--!??

"Oh my." I blurted out without thinking, three, no four arrows were stuck in my metallic scaled tail. Decorating it with blood oozing out of them. Must've been a lucky shot. I thought.

And then another barrage of arrows hit my tail.

"WHAT IN THE STARS ARE YOU DOING!?" I yelled out and dodged her oncoming attacks.

"Killing the worm boss... Oh, it's yours?" Was she blind? Wasn't it obvious it was a tail? What worms was she talking about anyway? It couldn't be she actually hunted those lowly beings in this zone instead of the actual monsters?

How come I couldn't dodge her first attack? I asked myself and tried restarting our conversation.

"Let's restart. My ID's Starchart Chimera, and yours?" I asked with a smile while hanging off a branch with my tail.

I could see how she could mistake me for a human. I did look quite similar to those naked monkeys. But that was because of my origin ability and not some evolutionary traits as they called it.

"ID? Oh yeah I still haven't set it." I saw her fiddle through the system screens for a moment and then she introduced herself.

"Hello, my ID is Spectra. Nice to meet you Chimera." She put away her bow. I took that as a sign to come down from the tree.

"Nice to meet you Chimera." I said as I glanced back and forth between the scaly tail and the dark gray skinned person in front of me.

For someone that looks so strikingly similar to a human he sure didn't act like one. He stood on his toes high up and walked like a panther stalking its next prey.

"So what are you doing here?" I asked. I decided not to attack the strange humanoid as he seemed to be a contestant as well. Ak'li told me to be wary of all who are still contesting the scoreboards but I felt I might trust this guy.

"I was sent here as part of the level 1 zone of course. Is it wrong if I asked you to tell me what you've found so far around here? Did you find the zone boss?"

"Ah, about that. I need to share it right?"

"Share what?" He looked at me suspiciously. I thought he may have thought I got some good drop from the zone boss. Which I still haven't found yet.

"The Zone Quest?" I said quietly as I tried to hide the fact that I started another quest so soon in the climb.

"There are quests in these damn Towers as well?!" He looked to be irritated and kicked the tree closest to him.

"Poor tree. Nevermind that, just go to the inverted tree an hour away from here and you'll find a small talking monkey that will give you the quest." I pointed in the general direction he should be going and left.

"Inverted tree?"

"Yeah, you know, it grew inside and not outside, it seemed hollow so I took a look inside and noticed it was much bigger than I thought. The monkey's kind of grumpy so, beware."

"Hey, what system are you from? I don't remember any humanoid races with pink hair and such body types as yours in the known systems."

"System?" I was perplexed by his question but I answered to the best degree I could. "I'm from Earth. Thanks for asking."

"I'll try to visit your system when I finish the climb. I hope I find good fighters there!" he ran off and left me wondering of how much bigger is the universe if people like that existed.

Anyway, back to the usual. Loot was of importance. And hunting worms had been a profit.

All in all I got a full inventory worth of stuff I needed to organize.

First were the actual equipment drops. I got two. And one broke as I tried enchanting it. So I got one in the end.

Deep Scaled Goggles (uncommon)

Level 1 headgear equipment

Durability 9/9

Armor Rating: 2

Speed Modifier: 1x

Light Resistance +5%

Slash Resistance +10%

Pierce Resistance -15%

Description: Goggles made out of Deep Worm scales, the deep worm's scales special properties made the goggles highly resistant to slash attacks but highly vulnerable to piercing attacks. They aren't shaded but still protect the wearer from light attacks.

I was going to wear them nevertheless but still, looking at the first uncommon piece of gear that dropped for me was like looking at a real piece of beef after eating only monster meat for a few days. I smiled and put the goggles on. Now I really looked like an RPG character. But more like a Gunner than a Ranger if I was going to be judged by my looks. Rangers usually had hoods and were like, elves and shit. "On to the material drops." Around 30 stacks worth of inventory space in scales and a few more rarer tier-1 materials from the worms. 1 inventory slot worth of [Deep Worm's Poison Gland] which worried me for a bit. I didn't know they were poisonous before that. Maybe because I killed them a bit too quickly. "Anyway, it seems I can craft something with this in the next town. I should find a tailor there too." I told myself and went to complete the quest the monkey gave me.