Sitting up slowly, one hand over my chest, my mind still on the one sided battle with the red skeleton. I did not notice the man standing a couple feet away until he clears his throat.

"Well, you must be the new guy nice to meet ya, names Gregory." Looking at him, I see a man in his mid-thirties with red hair wearing old-fashioned blue jean coveralls. He even has a stick of grass in his mouth completing 19th century hillbilly guise.

Standing up, I stick out my hand, "Wall good to meet you too."

"Wall, huh? interesting moniker," he said while accepting my hand. "I gotta ask, what are you planning to do with the young lady standing outside the barrier?"

"Wasn't planning on doing anything, not until I complete this tower, anyway."

Gregory nodded, "I understand can't be too careful with the amazons hovering behind her in the woods. But if she cannot get your attention in the next day or so, the amazons will begin killing her family one by one."

"So? not my problem."

"True, but it also isn't entirely her fault you see around these parts, little girls get taken by the amazons for 'training' There last test is to lure out male climbers. Or atleast, in this case. Other times they're tested by luring out leaders of towns or well-to-do merchants in cities."

"Still not seeing the part where it's my problem."

"I suppose it isn't but when they kill her family, the amazons like an audience so they will do so right here for you to watch. Don't know about you, but I find it hard to stand by while children get their heads slowly sawn off while begging me to save them."

"Who says I have to watch there is plenty for me to do to keep myself busy. The locals brought this on themselves by letting the amazons get away with this shit. I know that only amazons who have not finished the first tower can stay in this zone, so the locals should be able to band together to wipe them out."

After watching me in silence for a long while, Gregory spoke. "You're a strange one the system almost always chooses good men who won't sit by while others suffer. They won't stop at her family, they will target her friends then neighbors until they stake the entire village outside the barrier. This is a tried-and-true method to drive us to either leave the barrier and fight them or give up for the locals' sake."

"What would you do then? Here are the options as I see them. Commit suicide for people I never met. Or ignore them and reenter the tower, growing stronger for the inevitable moment I have to leave."

A grin spreading across his face, Gregory said. "To be honest, the tower is the smart choice, but there is third. When they finally show their ugly faces practice your archery." Then he pulled a small notebook from his pocket, flipping it open. After turning a few pages, he stopped and reached his hand into the air above, making it disappear up to his elbow. With his eyes glazed over, he began moving his arm around like he is sifting through stuff. "AH ha, here it is" then he withdrew his arm holding a small cube "I knew I had an extra one somewhere."

Watching him pull out a small wood cube, I tried to get a closer look at his notebook, but he closed it before I could. "What was that?"

"What? Oh, this, I came to the realm with it. Before it was a standard notebook, I used to keep track of measurements on my jobs, but now it's my system interface."

Pulling out my phone "so it's like my cell phone?"

"That's a phone? Interesting, I should talk to the new guys more often. In my time, a phone was in your house attached to a line. However, my old man had the only car phone in town made a lot of the neighbors green with envy. Speaking of cool new tech, are ya'll living in flying cities yet?"

"No, I live in a comfortable cabin in the woods. China is the only country that bothered going into space and only as far as making some space colonies that orbit the moon. Except for the occasional improvement on old tech, nothing life changing has really happened on earth since the 20th century. Humanity is stagnant, just living off our predecessor's accomplishments."

"Dude, you know you sound like a robot reading off a script."

"That is what Dad always says about the world honestly I don't pay attention to anything but my mountain." After a momentary pause, a notification noise was ringing across the sky.

{System announcement because of multiple reports about both versions of Earth, The Tower system has concluded that both races cannot continue to grow without aid. In one standard month a Tower will appear on both worlds if the locals cannot finish the Tower in one standard year both worlds will be open for colonization. If successful their worlds will unlock full system privileges. Note current climbers are not eligible to take part.}

Turning my attention back to Gregory, all I see is his back as he jumped into a portal and his echoing laughter and voice "bout time the rest joined the fight." I have a feeling that was intentional, not that im worried one thing us humans are good at is killing shit. The army should find the tower fairly simple with the training they put the military through, and a navy seal it should be a cakewalk for those guys.

Shrugging to myself, I bend over to pickup the small wooden cube Gregory left behind. On the cube are many strange designs that make no sense. A ding from my phone takes my attention away looking at the screen I see a message.

{Upgrade for Tower app available. Unlock crafting lvl 1 [yes] [no]}

"Yes." The usual green bar appears and I stick my phone back in my pocket. Turning my attention to my watcher, I see two more women with her. Both women stand close to seven feet tall and carry massive two-handed great swords. "Okay, that looks badass." For the first time, I find an interest in checking out my guests.

While trudging through the tall grass I watch the threes reaction to my approach. Despite everything I have been told, none looks particularly malevolent toward me. When I was ten feet from the barrier holding them outside, one pulls out a phone not dissimilar to my own and points it toward me, then walked over to the others pointing at the screen. When I stopped just outside one looked over giving me a friendly wave before walking over. This is not matching up to what I was told.

Stopping before me on the other side, the woman spoke in a much softer voice than I expected from her seven-foot frame. Despite the obvious muffling from the barrier, I don't have any trouble hearing her. "Hi im Stephanie this my twin sister Mary, the little one is Jessica. I take it you're the new guy?" Nodding my head, she continued. "Well, you see, we need you to come out here and come with us. It's part of the deal we made to enter the Amazonian faction and get the info we need to get the classes we want. As a male, I am sure you would prefer to be in a safe environment instead of living in the woods, right?"

Okay, so maybe it is just as I was told. "I am actually quite fond of living alone in the woods, The only thing that would make it better is if there was a tall mountain and a comfortable cabin."

"You know you can't stay in there forever eventually you will finish the tower and have to move on."

"I will deal with that problem when it becomes a problem. So what's these classes do I get a list of them or do I have to do specific things to unlock them?"

Mary rolled her eyes. "Why do you care not like you will survive long enough to find out?"

"Now, now no harm telling him," Stephanie scolded her twin. "Yeah, specific actions you take now or how allocate your stats determine what classes unlock when you finish the tower's. Also, skills you have learned, play a huge role, but they're really hard to learn. In the month we have been climbing the tower, we have only gotten weapon mastery and sword mastery." Mary gave her sister an annoyed glare, then stomped into the woods.

"What about magic?" Interesting, does that mean they have spent none of their stat, or skill points?

"Nah, though we have seen others perform magic in our starter zone, none will share how unless we pay."

A ding from my phone let me know the upgrade had finished. Pulling it out, I took a picture of Stephanie and checked it out, curious why she had done it to me.

Tower/Floor, 1 — 10 Name, Stephanie -?? Race, Human/Female HP, 150

"Like what you see" Stephanie said while winking.

Why only the tenth floor if you have been here a month already? I wonder while reaching out to touch the barrier it's felt weird. Solid, yet I also felt like I could push through if I wanted too. Looking left and right, it is easy to see where the barrier is located as they have cleared away the trees for a good twenty feet all the way around. Still leaving a good sized patch of woods on the inside, though.

Walking to the nearest tree, I sat down back, leaning against it and open the new crafting app. Ignoring Stephanie, who was trying to get my attention. After looking through various options, I found a setting that let me design items or buildings myself. Pulling the small stencil from the side of my phone, I began drawing a simple log cabin with the fancy forge plate in the center to use as both heater and stove.

"What are you drawing, anyway?" A bored voice said nearby looking over I saw Jessica leaning against the barrier alone, Stephanie having left at some point. Turning my phone around, I showed her the blueprint for a small log cabin. "Are you seriously planning to build a cabin and live in this dump?" After nodding my head, I stood and walked back to my shack. "You know it really pissed Stephanie off when you took that picture then ignored her." Shrugging, I continued eventually I couldn't hear her annoying voice.

Blueprint, Basic log cabin

Required supplies.

50 logs, 50 stone, 1 basic forge plate.

I also made a blueprint for an iron axe too it only required three pounds of iron and a wood stick. When I reach the small woods surrounding the Tower I picked up the first decent sized branch, I could find when I thought about using it for the axe it vanished and the spot marked wood stick turned green. Now the only iron I have is my chain mail, since apparently I dropped my machete when the skeleton stabbed me in the chest. After taking off my chain shirt it vanished turning the iron green pressing the button that read craft item a timer with 9:99:99 appeared. Damn ten hours, that's a long time I am fairly sure I could make one faster if I knew how to melt down and reforge the iron myself. But still it's useful since I don't and I think I can upgrade the crafting app.

Alright, I got time to spare so lets break down the rest of the shack and bring everything useful up here where I plan to build my cabin. Don't know about others, but the creepy stalker ladies are getting on my nerves better to build in these woods.

It took me almost two hours to finish demolishing my shack and carry everything up the small slope and stack it against the Tower. The tower I find strange it takes about ten minutes to walk around it and it is only about 200 hundred feet tall noway is everything I seen fitting inside this thing.

Roughly five hours later while I was clearing away the last pile of debris from the once village. A thought struck me since I used the camera of my phone to examine Stephanie: can I use it for item too? Pulling the iron ring from my pocket, I set it down on a nearby stone I removed from a pathway. After taking a picture, I waited for the small loading bar to finish until a message notification appeared. {Identification complete 5 copper deducted.} Automatic payments, what's next ads or maybe monthly subscriptions?

Crude iron ring. +5 Strength.

Nice now to figure out if I Can wear more than two rings. Slipping the iron ring onto my left ring finger, it resizes and my entire body trembles and I Can see my muscles wiggling like thousands of worms are crawling under my skin. Frankly, I wanted to vomit but maybe because I haven't eaten or drank anything in what feels like a week now the reflex never came. When it was over I felt powerful in a way I never felt before its weird though my strength increased by nearly this much from learning skills so why did I not feel this surge then? Whatever best to let those questions go for now atleast I know I Can wear multiple types of rings on one hand.

Still, three hours until the crafting timer hits 0 might as well run and get used to my new stats. Starting off at a jog, I began circling around the inside of the barrier protecting this zone. Every time, I made a full circle roughly three miles at my best guess. I stepped up my speed on my third pass I was running at my previous record speed and still felt no strain. On my fourth lap, however, something Jessica said while I ran by made me stop and stare at her for a long while in disdain.

"You know if you continue to hide in there, those two are going to butcher my family." I would have felt bad for her except I could see no empathy in her eyes she simply stated a fact.

"So? There your family it's your problem."

"So! Thats all you can say, do you not care that they will kill innocent people while you hide in your safe bubble?"

"Let me see if I understand your logic. You want me to become some pet to save your family, so you can join a cult of man killers? — I can tell you a sure-fire way to save your family."

"Oh, and what could you possibly say that could save my family?"

"It is simple all you have to do is die, and they will have no reason to kill your family. So do you have the guts to save your family because let me tell you I won't stick my neck out for you, your family or anyone else currently in this system or universe or whatever this place is." I turned and was about to return to my run when she spoke again.

"SO you think I should kill myself to save your pathetic life they are right men are filth."

Turning to look back I shrug, "it's your choice your death or the death of your family has nothing to do with me, nor could I care less about them." With a burst of speed, I went from a standstill to a full on sprint covering the half mile back to my make ship camp in less than a minute. A ding from my phone made me grin.

Skill unlocked. Dash, + 10% movement Spd for 10 seconds cost 10, MP +3 Str, +4 Spd

Two hours later, as I was tearing out another stone pathway and taking them up to my camp, when my phone vibrated. After dumping my load in the growing pile, I pulled it from my pocket reading the message soon a brand new axe appeared in my hand making me grin at the convenience of this Tower system app on my phone. Turning the crafting app back to my cabin blueprint, I activated it. Suddenly a green translucent image of the cabin appeared in front of me and moved along with my eyes. Looking back at my phone, there is a message telling me to choose a location for the building. Turning my attention back to the image I move it around the base of the tower but when it was within ten feet, it turned red moving the image away it soon turned green again. Interesting moving it over a massive boulder it changed to red again same thing if it intersected with a tree. Walking around to the south side of the tower, I place it in a small clearing in the trees.

When I accepted the location, the translucent image vanished replaced with a completion bar floating in the air. Walking up to the floating icon, another one appeared with a list of needed resources. "Cool." Hurrying back to my small hill of stone I grabbed a couple and ran back dropping them in the small square lit up on the ground watching them vanish. On the resource screen it showed 2/50 stone. I quickly sprinted around the tower again and began chopping one of the straighter trees I had marked earlier. Felling it in three hits, which surprised me since it was about 15 inches around. After removing all the limbs, I grabbed the top of the tree and dragged it over to the building sight. when it vanished the screen showed 3/50 wood. So I need 17 trees, assuming they each give me the same amount.

Placing the last log there is a flash of light and a green bar showing 199:99:99, so three days to kill suppose I'll head back inside the tower. The moment the thought entered my mind, the world shifted, and I stood in the room with the kiosk facing the door to the third floor.