Jason smiled. “So? How do you like my product?”
Walter erupted into laughter. “Good! Great! Amazing! We were the first guild to enter the forty-first floor, and it was all thanks to the map you provided.”
“That’s good to hear.” Jason paused for a moment. “So, are you interested in buying the maps of the next five floors?”
“The next five?” Walter sucked in a breath. He couldn’t believe it. “You really have that much information? How is that possible?”
Jason spoke slowly. “Walter, does the answer to that really matter? The only thing that matters is if you can take advantage of what I’m offering to you, right?”
“You’re right. I apologize.” Walter shook his head, slightly disappointed that his curiosity would never be satisfied. Though, he never expected to be told the truth. He was just confused at which faction Jason belonged to. The thought that Jason had no backing didn’t cross his mind. In fact, Walter suspected that Jason might be someone from the tower itself. Otherwise, how could he possess so much information when Walter’s guild was the first to arrive on the forty-first floor?
“I’ll sell you these five maps,” Jason swallowed nervously, “for 100,000 gold coins.”
“100,000 gold coins? Are you crazy?” Walter exclaimed in shock. Skyfall made around one million gold a year, and most of that went into the guild’s expenses. Purchasing equipment, repairing equipment, buying ability books, potions, mounts, territory, salaries, etc. His guild barely had any funds available for anything else. If he wanted to procure one hundred thousand gold, he’d have to sell some of the guild’s assets.
“Walter,” Jason explained calmly. “These five floors are very, very important. I’m sure your guild has already learned of the floor’s mechanics and rules, right? Building a foundation here will skyrocket your guild above the other top-tier guilds. In fact, because of these five floors, with my maps, you’ll recoup the funds in less than a year, nay, a few months.”
Walter fell silent. He closed his eyes and recalled all of the information his scouts had reported over the past week. The forty-first through forty-fifth floors were indeed important. Perhaps the most important floors encountered thus far. For the future of his guild, maybe buying the maps would be the right thing to do. But still… a hundred thousand gold? Even if he wanted to, he just didn’t have the liquid assets on hand.
Jason could tell Walter was hesitating. He considered how much money a top-tier guild made around this time and found that perhaps he was pushing things too far. He took a step back. “Walter, how about this. I’ll sell the maps for 75,000 gold, but on one condition.”
75,000 gold? That’s possible. Walter’s eyes lit up. “Say it.”
“I want you to reserve territory on the forty-fifth floor for my organization to acquire at a later date. Considering that you get first pickings, what with being the first guild there and all, this should pose no problem for you, right?”
Walter narrowed his eyes. Even he hesitated at this moment. “What buff are you thinking of?”
“XP increase. The 10% one,” Jason responded nonchalantly.
“Ugh.” Walter sighed heavily. “I just knew you would pick that one. Fine, it’s a deal.”
“I’ll start the transfer.”
Less than half an hour later, Jason inspected his bank account. 750,000,000 dollars. The equivalent of 75,000 gold. His heart nearly leapt out of his chest in excitement. With this money, he would be able to buy all the fancy clothes he wanted, a sports car, eat at the best restaurants, and most importantly, upgrade his battle physique to stage two, maybe even stage three. Maybe I can get Dad to move to a better house?
Thinking of his father, he realized he’d missed their appointment to talk the last two weeks. He pulled out his phone and prepared to dial his father. When he turned it on, he noticed he had two voicemails. He listened to the first one, and sure enough, his father was concerned for his safety. When he listened to the second one, Jason clenched his hands in disbelief. Why is this happening?!
In the second voicemail, his father told him that he was re-entering the marines. Why? Why was his father entering the military again? Before Jason had returned to the past, his father never returned to the military, even after his legs were fixed. Had Jason already changed things to this extent? Was fixing my dad’s body so soon a mistake? He questioned himself. No, I couldn’t let him live like that anymore. What was done was done. He had to face reality.
He dialed his father, and who thankfully answered. “Jason, you’re safe. Thank god.”
“Dad, sorry to worry you. I was stuck in a special scenario, so I couldn’t leave the tower until I finished.”
“No problem. I’m just glad you’re all right.” His dad paused for a moment. “Did you listen to my voicemails?”
“Yeah.” Jason struggled to hold back his emotions. “Dad, why are you doing this?”
His dad sighed. “There are many reasons. If I were to say one, it’s because our country needs me.”
“They don’t need you specifically!” Jason spat, his anger finally showing itself. He thought he would be able to protect his father from danger in this life, but things didn’t end up going the way he wanted them to.
“I understand if you’re upset, but I’ve made my decision.” His father’s voice was firm.
For almost a minute both sides were silent. Jason had to face reality. He couldn’t run from it. That was a lesson he had learned in his youth, long ago. Sighing lightly, he asked. “Where are you being stationed?”
“South America. Brazil’s tower.”
Jason shot to his feet. “What did you say?!”
No! This shouldn’t be happening. It couldn’t! In the next several months, the war in Brazil between China and America would escalate and become known as the massacre of Brazil. It was one of the events that eventually ended up leading to world war three. His father was going to participate in that bloodbath? There was no way he would survive.
Gritting his teeth, he forced out a few words. “Where are you right now?”
“You can’t stop me, Jason.” Austin was sorry for putting Jason through this, but he was loyal to his country. He had many friends that were still in the military fighting while he stood doing nothing.
“That’s not what I meant.” Jason explained slowly. “I want to buy you a set of heritage equipment.”
“What did you say?” It was his father’s turn to be surprised.
Jason didn’t have the power to change his father’s decision, or protect him. But he could increase his chances of surviving that massacre. Jason continued. “You aren’t allowed to tell anybody you have it, all right? This thing will make you a target just by wearing it. Make sure you use it only when your life's on the line.”
“Are you sure you want to give me such valuable equipment?”
It was finally time to flaunt his wealth. He grinned. “Not only that, I’m going to buy you a crap ton of skills. What type of skill path were you thinking of?”
“Where did you acquire so much money? I thought you only farmed the lower floors?” His father didn’t understand.
Jason smirked. “Dad, you aren’t going to chastise me for going to the higher floors now that you’re joining the war, are you?”
His father chuckled. “I suppose not. What a pair we are.”
“You know what they say, like father like son.”
And so, Jason met up with his father, whereupon he spared no expense to equip his father in the best skills and equipment. His father wanted to follow the berserker path, an offensive warrior who only got stronger the lower their health was. Jason went all out in purchasing accessories for his father. Ten rings, two earrings, and one necklace could be equipped at once. He purchased five sets of them, one set for every ten levels. That way his father would be able to swap them out when he leveled up. Twenty thousand gold was gone just like that, but he didn’t care. As long as he could increase his father’s chance at surviving,
he would do anything.
Besides equipment and skills, he also made sure to buy his father a communication necklace so that they could contact each other inside the tower. Even though his father would be in a different tower, it still worked.
Chapter 35
Jason was currently sitting at level 39. He considered buying jewelry, only to toss the idea aside. Accessories were important, but considering how fast he was leveling up, the jewelry he bought would become worthless in a matter of weeks.
The next thing he could spend his money on was skills. A lot of them. With the money he had, he would be able to purchase all of his core abilities, and more. The problem with doing this, was that he would be focusing on too many skills at once. They would level slowly. It was better to focus on a few select skills and get them to a high grade first.
His thoughts turned towards upgrading his battle physique. The stats and skills it gave was overwhelmingly powerful. If he got it to stage two, what would it give then? Aros was the god of battle, so it should obviously be a skill that would improve his combat potential. That was always useful.
Jason considered it, and then considered it some more. In the end, he was leaning towards upgrading his battle physique. He had fought with and against many champions over the years, and they were always powerful. Especially the champion of Alister, the god of tricks. Fighting him was so annoying.
Having decided, it was time to perform some tests. Generally, the lowest a crude grade weapon cost was around twenty copper. Basic grade, one silver. Grand grade, one gold. Rare grade, ten gold. Arcane grade, fifty gold. Heroic grade was a bit tricky. It was currently the highest grade that dropped in the tower, and thus rarely sold on the market.
Of all the weapons that the tower dropped and blacksmiths produced, swords were the most common. Spears, daggers, bows, staves, and wands were uncommon. Rare weapons were nun chucks, halberds, short spears, etc. The more common the weapon type, the cheaper it was. Since that was the case, Jason would focus on buying common and uncommon weapons. The others were a waste of gold.
He strolled into a random shop in the market district of the Vistar Kingdom's capital and purchased swords of every grade, up to arcane. Then he left the shop and entered a nearby alleyway. After making sure there was nobody around, he pulled out the swords he’d bought and began extracting their battle energy.
The results were unsatisfying, to say the least. Crude grade gave 0.01 battle energy, Basic gave 0.1, Grand gave 1, Rare gave 10, and Arcane gave 100. After some quick calculations, Jason determined that he would need to spend around fifty thousand gold to upgrade his battle physique to stage two. He had spent twenty thousand gold on his father, leaving him with fifty-five thousand gold. If he upgraded his battle physique, he would once again be poor. Jason forced a smile. Just when I think I’m rich, I’m not.
Jason thought about the positive side. As long as he had money, he would be able to continuously upgrade his battle physique. How many could boast about such a shortcut?
The thought of his next action left him on the verge of tears. Sighing heavily, he made his way to every shop in the city, purchasing thousands upon thousands of weapons. It was so much that his inventory ring ran out of room, so he had to purchase an arcane grade inventory ring. It was able to store the weapons with plenty of room to spare.
Several hours later, Jason began the long process of extracting battle energy. It was boring. Really boring. I wish I was able to extract everything within the ring at once.
Just as he thought that, a notification appeared, causing him to grin widely.
Would you like to extract the battle energy of all the weapons inside your arcane grade ring?
Yes / No
With this, he would be able to save several hours of time. As soon as he pushed yes, something unexpected happened. The ring on his finger emitted cracking sounds as it began to tremble. Jason widened his eyes in surprise. Is it going to break? This cost me one thousand gold!
Before his very eyes, a massive wave of grey energy exploded out of the ring. It was so powerful that the cobblestone road at his feet was vaporized into powder. To Jason’s relief, the grey energy didn’t harm him in the slightest. He watched, helpless, as the ocean of energy tunneled into his body through his pores, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.
Jason couldn’t help but cry out. Every inch of his body screamed. He was like an inflated balloon that was on the verge of popping. Never before had he felt such levels of pain. Not even when Baal’s black hellfire burned him from the inside out did he scream in pain.
Unbeknownst to Jason, his body was being changed on a fundamental level. His body was evolving, becoming a higher life form. Each cell, every atom, was being filled with grey energy. Battle energy. His body hungered for it. Craved it. Each cell cried out in delight. Jason alternated between pain and pleasure. If his will hadn’t been hardened through constant years of battle, he would have fallen unconscious.
Almost as soon as it started, it was over. His body continued to hunger, but there was no more energy. Jason collapsed to the ground, gasping heavily. His clothes were drenched in sweat and blood. Damn Tower! You could have warned me it would be like this.
After what seemed like hours, he recovered from his shock. He leaned against the wall of a nearby building and opened his character screen. As he read through his information, he broke into a grin.
Battle Physique Stage 2
+75 Strength, +75 agility, +50 Vitality, +50 Endurance, +15 Tenacity, +15 Fortitude.
Gain 500 Battle Energy.
Gain the 'Chop', 'Cleave', and 'Sever', 'Burst’, and '???' skills.
*Regenerate 5 Battle Energy a second up to a maximum of 500.
*A Battle Physique can be upgraded to the next stage by absorbing battle energy from weapons and completing the stated objectives.
Battle Energy required to reach Stage 3: 0/1,000,000.
Solo a field boss within 5 levels: 0/1.
The stats given by a battle physique continued to amaze him. In total, he gained two hundred and eighty stats, which was equivalent to fifty-six levels. Continuing on, he was delighted to find that he could now use five hundred battle energy. In addition, he gained two new skills, although the questions marks confused him.
He opened his skills list and read the information for Burst first.
Burst
Consume 10 Battle Energy to speed up an action by (25% Speed x Battle Physique Stage).
*Can be used in conjunction with any action or ability.
Jason gasped. This skill was absurdly powerful. At first glance it didn’t seem useful, but during battle, whoever could move the fastest generally won. With this skill, he would be able to run faster, attack faster, and block faster. The only unfortunate thing was that the new skill didn’t have stages.
Just this skill alone was worth spending all that money. I wonder what the next skill is? Jason was filled with anticipation as he inspected the triple question mark skill.
???
Aros is a master of battle. He has mastered all weapons, all techniques, and all styles. As his champion, he will help you create a personal skill based on your combat style.
Begin Process?
Yes / No
*Warning: This process will consume your body's latent potential. Stats may be permanently lowered.
“What?” Jason exclaimed in delight. The description of the skill was boasting about Aros a bit, but what was most important was that this was a personal skill. A personal skill! He couldn’t believe it. Before he’d returned to the past, many other ascenders had been able to acquire a skill suited just for them. It was based on your personality, your fears, or anything else. This personal skill was based on his combat style. It meant he would be getting a personal tank skill.
He basically didn’t even care about the warning, the thought of acquiring his own skill was too exciting. He pushed yes without hesitation. Jason watched as motes of white light exited his body. He felt like he lost some
thing, but he wasn’t sure what.
As he stood there, dazed, the motes of light gathered together. Squinting his eyes, he could just barely make out an archaic symbol. It was like a Chinese character, except thousands of times more complex. Moments later, the symbol shot into his body, disappearing within. A notification informing him of the results appeared.
You have lost 25 strength, agility, endurance, and vitality.
Ouch. That definitely hurt. The skill better be worth it. Jason glanced at the other notification.
Shield Blast
When you block with your shield, you will absorb (10% x Battle Physique Stage) of the damage for later use. Stacks up to (10 x Strength Stat).
Consume 50 Battle Energy to release the stored damage, damaging each enemy for the stored amount in a wide arc in front of you. Each stage of the Battle Physique increases the reach of the skill by 10 feet.
Towers of Heaven Page 19
