A few hours later, inside a small and quiet forest, Jason stood before a slime the size of a dog. The color of its body was dark green, and unlike its common counterpart, a sneer could be seen on its face.
(Elite) Giant Slime - Level 30
Health: 1,000/1,000
Jason slowly stepped forward, his pace calm and even. It was like he didn’t even notice the giant slime. As if angered by Jason’s nonchalance, it let out a loud squeak. Just as the slime was about to jump forward, Jason let out a fierce shout. The slime suddenly stiffened as a look of fear crossed its face. I have one second at most. At that thought, Jason rushed forward, his heritage armor boosting his speed greatly.
Having already long locked onto the core of the slime, he used chop, slicing it in half. A shocking one thousand damage notification flashed past Jason’s eyes. With that, the slime dispersed into light as a significant amount of experience flew into him. He shook his head. A crowd control skill this early on really is powerful.
There was a reason why the Warcry skill was so expensive. Crowd control abilities dictated the pace of a fight. Of course, the only reason why he could kill an elite monster in one hit was because it had a fatal weakness. Spotting another giant slime in the distance, Jason stepped forward. Even though the Warcry skill was on cooldown, he had plenty of other means to fight.
Chapter 23
After several hours of fighting, Jason viewed his skill list. Warcry leveled up two times, spell reflect one time, and rush two times. With each level up, the cooldown decreased slightly. All three skills had long cooldowns, so they leveled slower than most skills, but progress was progress. On the other hand, for his battle physique skills, he used chop as much as he could, trying to rack up kills. Chop currently sat around three hundred and fifty-six kills out of ten thousand. There was still a bit to go. He had also gained two levels, reaching level 17.
Just as Jason was about to continue hunting elite slimes, Roy’s voice rang in his mind. “Uh, I got into some trouble. Can you hurry over?”
Jason turned to face the south, where Roy was. “Are you safe?”
“For the moment. Get here quick, though.”
“On my way.” Jason began to run at a pace where his stamina regenerated just as much as he consumed. In this way, he would reach Roy in a battle-ready state. He passed by numerous slimes; some sent spells at him, which he dodged by effortlessly twisting his body.
Less than ten minutes later, Jason spotted something. Squinting his eyes, he saw a group of people surrounding Roy with derisive expressions. He thought briefly and decided to store away his heritage equipment. When he approached, the group gave him a curious glance. A man who seemed to be the leader snorted. “Is this your backup?”
Roy turned in bewilderment, only to brighten when he noticed Jason. Jason entered the encirclement and made his way over to Roy. Seeing that he was unhurt, he sighed with relief. Glancing around, Jason focused on a long-haired man whose arms were folded across his chest. “What seems to be the problem?”
The man pointed at the surrounding area with his chin. “This is my guild’s farming territory.”
Everything was made clear at once. Roy had been training inside a guild’s territory; no wonder they all looked upset. Roy furrowed his eyebrows as he stepped forward. “Who says this is your territory? Isn’t the tower for everyone?”
The group of men and women glanced at each other before breaking into laughter. “Oh my god, this kid is a greenhorn.”
Jason grabbed Roy’s shoulder and pulled him back. Roy turned, confused. Jason shook his head. “There are rules in the tower.”
Roy opened his mouth to retort, but before he could speak, Jason called out to the long-haired man. “How about this? If you let us farm here, we’ll give you all of the loot that drops.”
“Oh?” The long-haired man raised an eyebrow. “That sounds good. Let’s do that.”
Why would the man disagree? He had basically acquired a money-making slave for free. Jason gave Roy a firm look. Roy grumbled as he summoned a bunch of slime cores and copper coins. After picking up Roy’s loot, the group walked away, but not before the man called out. “We’ll be back in an hour!”
As soon as the group was gone, Roy spun around, glaring. “Why did you make me hand over my loot? I acquired it fair and square!”
Jason sighed with a shake of his head. “Didn’t your parents tell you about the state of the tower in the beginning?”
A flicker of sorrow passed across Roy’s face, disappearing a moment later. Jason recounted the past like a history teacher. “There were no rules inside the tower, unlike society outside. It was pure chaos. Everyone would fight to the death when rare mobs spawned or loot dropped. Strong groups would strongarm weak groups for farming locations, and so on. It was a mess. While the rules in place right now might not be fair to us, who have no guild, it has prevented many deaths.”
Roy listened quietly, but as for whether he agreed, Jason didn’t know. He could only hope Roy was understanding. Jason noticed that Roy wasn’t saying anything, so he patted Roy on the shoulder. “Look, it’s not like we need the loot for money, right?”
“Hey.” Roy suddenly smiled, his eyes shining like stars. “Why don’t we make a guild? That way we can get our own farming spots!”
Jason paused. It looked like he was worried over nothing, Roy had already moved on to the next thing. But a guild? It was much too soon. Jason had planned to create one when he had the strength to protect it. As for right now, he was focused on increasing his strength. “Aren’t we a little too weak to worry about a guild right now?”
“But…” Roy wilted.
Jason was sorry for shutting down everything Roy talked about, so he compromised a bit. “Look, I want to form a guild too, but to protect it, we need strength. Besides, what type of people do you want to join our guild? When they hear we want to save humanity, they’ll just laugh us off. Our goal is the top of the tower.”
Roy pointed to the sky, posing heroically. “A guild of elites! The strongest of the strong.”
Jason covered his face with his hand. Roy wasn’t getting the point. If they formed a guild right now, the guild members would be a bunch of nobodies that were worthless. Roy and Jason would grow stronger with every passing day, but that didn’t mean everybody else could as well. They would quickly outlevel their guildmates, leaving them in the dust. Jason didn’t want to waste time training them either, there were better uses of his time.
“It’ll work out, don’t worry so much,” Roy replied with a wide smile.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, the long-haired man pulled out a piece of paper with a drawing on it. His guild mates inspected the drawing curiously. “What’s that?”
The long-haired man compared the drawing with Jason’s face as he replied. “Not too long ago, a rich young girl was paying a hefty sum to anybody who found the man on this picture.”
“Oh.” They looked closer. “It does look a bit like that guy.”
“It’s definitely him.” The long-haired man was confident he was right. He pulled out a communication necklace and contacted his guild master.
A day later, Jason stood before a pack of slimes with his hands clasped behind his back. His eyes were narrowed as they focused on Roy jumping back and forth, dodging spell after spell. Every time he landed on his feet, Roy would have to either roll or jump with no time to attack. At this rate, Roy would run out of stamina. A few hours ago, Roy would have had to flee, but he was now confident in defeating the pack of slimes.
Roy felt the wind brush against his skin as his eyes darted left and right. A wave of cold air brushed against his cheek. In the same movement, he twisted his body and slashed out with his sword. The icicle shot past his body as a nearby slime dispersed into light.
“Bravo!” Jason clapped, stunned at how quickly Roy was learning. He was now able to dodge and counterattack in the same movement, an invaluable technique.
A few minutes later, Roy stumbled before
Jason, exhausted. He raised his thumb. “How was that?”
Jason clapped Roy on the shoulder, nearly knocking Roy to the ground. “Great! I thought it might take you a week before this floor posed no challenge to you, but it seemed like I underestimated you.”
Roy gasped for breath as his eyes twinkled. “So that means we can head to the next floor?”
“Yea-” As Jason was responding, he noticed something in Roy’s eye. A reflection. A reflection of a dagger, threatening to pierce through his neck. Jason was startled, enraged, and then calm, all at once. Almost instantly, his senses were raised to the max. Everything within his field of vision became clear, his hearing grew sensitive, his nerves reaching out. He could feel the brush of wind from the dagger against his neck, and the faint killing intent in the air. All of this combined to create a vision of his surroundings in his mind.
As soon as he recognized the reflection in Roy’s eye, he reacted. Tilting his head an inch to the side, the dagger brushed past his neck, narrowly missing his artery. At the same time as he moved, he raised his left hand and grabbed the wrist holding the dagger, pulling hard. With a yelp, the assassin was pulled over Jason’s shoulder and slammed into the ground. Without giving them a chance to recover, Jason slammed his fist into their nose. He pulled back as soon as he made contact, only to punch again, and again, and again. The assassin had no chance to react as their eyes rolled to the back of their head, falling unconscious.
“Stop, stop!” Roy pulled on Jason’s arm, preventing him from attacking further. “They’re already unconscious!”
Jason paused. Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself, he looked down at the assassin, only to widen his eyes in shock. Olivia?!
Chapter 24
Olivia groaned. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw a clear blue sky. Where am I? For a time, she didn’t move as she slowly pieced things together. The last thing she remembered was that the world spun before everything went black. Before that… she was testing someone? Right! Everything suddenly connected together.
“Hey, you’re awake!” Roy bent over, his face hovering over Olivia.
Olivia wanted to jump to her feet, but her limbs wouldn’t respond. She realized that her feet and hands were bound by rope. Clenching her teeth, she braced herself and slammed her forehead into Roy.
“Ow!” Roy staggered back a step as he rubbed his forehead.
To Roy’s shock, Olivia ripped apart the rope binding with her monstrous strength. She jumped to her feet and rushed forward, only to hear a fierce Warcry. Fear rose within her, binding her movements. Snorting inwardly, she activated Freedom, a skill that removed all crowd control effects, and providing immunity to them for three seconds. As soon as it activated, she regained control of her body, the fear vanishing.
Just as she stepped forward, she fell over, pain shooting up her leg. Stunned, she looked down, only to find her right leg separated from her body. A severing skill? Thanks to her childhood training, she was able to force down the pain and keep a cool head. Finding her situation becoming increasingly dire, she prepared to cartwheel over to Roy, but an ice-cold voice stopped her. “If you move, the next thing severed will be your head.”
Jason stood behind Olivia, his expression complicated. Why is she here? He slowly moved over to Roy, his sword pointed at Olivia the entire time. Finding that Roy only had a small bump on his forehead, he sighed. “I told you the ropes wouldn’t hold her. We should have dislocated her limbs.”
“No way, that’s barbaric.” Roy disagreed vehemently. Sure, an ascender’s body would be completely restored upon reaching full health, but to dislocate every limb in her body just to keep her from moving? That was too much, at least in Roy’s eyes.
Olivia never stopped thinking as Jason and Roy began bickering. The situation was bad. Her weapons and inventory ring were missing and she only had one leg. In the end, she could only say the truth. “This was a misunderstanding.”
Roy glared at Olivia. “A misunderstanding? You attacked us out of nowhere. How is there a misunderstanding?”
“Look, I was just testing him.” Olivia pointed at Jason with her chin. “I didn’t plan on killing him.”
Just as Roy was about to retort, Jason held up a hand. “Let’s say I believe you. But why would you go about it in this way? Couldn’t you have just asked for a duel?”
“That’s different. You would have known I was coming.” Olivia rolled her eyes, as if her way of testing someone was completely normal.
Roy covered his mouth and whispered to Jason. “Dude, she’s crazy.”
“Why me?” Jason asked calmly.
Olivia bowed slightly. “I wanted to thank you for helping my stupid little brother wake up from his fantasies.”
“Your brother? What’s his name?” Jason raised an eyebrow. He couldn’t recall helping anybody out.
“You beat him in a competition not long ago, his name is Victor.”
“What?” Jason paled. Victor and Olivia are siblings? But why? What’s going on? Waves of shock rolled through him. Olivia was someone Jason had known very well, or at least he thought he did. In the battle against Cay Wolf, Olivia was the one who had traded her life for Cay’s. But if Victor and Olivia were siblings, then that meant Cay was Olivia’s father. Why would she sacrifice her life by going all out in killing him? He felt like he was missing pieces to a puzzle.
Roy couldn’t believe it. “Hey, are you crazy? That isn’t how you thank people, by sneaking up and attacking them.”
“Like I said, it was a test. I wanted to see how strong you were.” Olivia repeated.
Jason recovered and took a closer look at Olivia. She looked the exact same as she did before he returned to the past, except that she was much happier now than she was then. Back then, her eyes had been lifeless. Completely dead, like there was no soul residing within them. Sighing heavily, he tossed over an inventory ring.
“Thanks.” Olivia put on the ring and summoned a vial filled with red liquid. After downing it, motes of light formed around her missing limb, creating a brand-new leg. Her health had been fully regenerated.
Jason smiled. “So? Did I pass your little test?”
“Yes.” Olivia pouted. “But how did you know I was there? My stealth skill is apprentice grade and I thought I completely suppressed my killing intent. There was no way you should have been able to react.”
Roy answered first. He pointed at his eye and exclaimed. “He saw the reflection of your dagger in my eye, isn’t that amazing?”
She was aghast. “What? Is that true?”
Jason nodded. “I didn’t sense your killing intent until it was too late. If not for Roy, you would have gotten the first attack off.”
“The first attack off, is it?” Olivia smiled bitterly. Jason was implying he wouldn’t have lost even after losing the initiative. After thinking of how swiftly Jason took care of her, she could believe it.
“Hey, so it was just a big misunderstanding?” Roy turned to Jason with anticipation.
“Yep.”
“Great!” Roy ran up to Olivia and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “Hey, you’re a natural-born too, right? Why don’t you join our guild? We plan on conquering the tower, isn’t that awesome?”
Jason rolled his eyes. It looked like Roy had still been thinking of forming a guild since their argument yesterday.
Olivia’s jaw dropped. “Conquering the tower? Are you serious?”
“Totally. Sounds like fun, right?” Roy posed heroically by pointing his finger at the sky. “You’ll really regret it if you don’t join.”
Olivia recalled how swiftly she was defeated and glanced at Jason. “Have you entered the three realms?”
Jason had nothing to hide, so he nodded slightly. “I have.”
“Three realms? Oh! You mean the three techniques, right?” Roy grew excited just thinking about them. He asked Olivia. “Aren’t the three techniques amazing?”
“Yes.” Olivia clenched her hands. “They are my goal!�
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“Same for me!” Roy jumped to stand in front of her. “Hey, if you conquer the tower with us, you’ll definitely learn the three techniques. You should totally join us. You won’t regret it!”
Olivia was wavering. She truly wished to enter the three realms, but it was too difficult. Having someone lead the way would definitely improve her odds. Unfortunately, her father just didn’t have the time to teach her. He was busy running his business. After what seemed like an eternity, she asked. “What’s the name of the guild?”
Roy’s smile froze. “Undecided.”
Towers of Heaven Page 13
