Book 1 Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Book 1 Summary
Six towers that pierced the sky suddenly arrived on earth. The people who entered them became known as ascenders. By completing the tower’s trials, they gained powerful abilities and superpowers. There was only one downside. The tower periodically released monsters to attack humanity. At first there was little threat, but over the years, the monster waves became unstoppable. Billions died, until there were only a hundred ascenders left. They were the strongest humanity had to offer.
They combined their forces under Roy’s command and attacked the final floor of the tower. They succeeded, but at great cost. Jason, a man known for his incredible tenacity, was the only survivor. As a reward for clearing the tower, his soul was sent back in time, back to the first day he entered the tower.
From there, he began his journey of ascending the tower once again. But this time was different. He had lost his powerful stats and skills, but retained his combat techniques and knowledge of the tower. With those two weapons in hand, he ascended the tower with breathtaking speed. Knowing that clearing the top floor of the tower was impossible alone, he gathered allies.
Although they were young, under Jason’s training their potential blossomed. Together they climbed the tower, encountering all types of strange floors, from parkour to monster transformation.
Jason used his knowledge to great effect. His secret identity—Index—released information about the tower on the internet. This allowed humanity to progress even faster. He even cured his father of his disability by converting him into an ascender. Jason’s happiness was short-lived, however. His father, an ex-soldier, once again took up arms and fought for the U.S.’s dominance over the tower in Brazil. He tragically lost his life before Jason could save him.
In his grief, he wanted to go on a rampage, but Olivia stopped him. Thanks to her, he kept his morality intact. Jason’s mission to save humanity weighed heavily on him, so he had little time to grieve. He sadly said his farewells and once again entered the tower.
Now his journey continues...
Chapter 1
In the alternate timeline that Jason had lived through, the thirtieth floor of the tower was considered the end of the lower floors and the beginning of the middle floors. Even though it wasn’t that high up, it had remained filled with people until the end times. Besides the dungeons that provided endless gear and materials, the war between the six kingdoms raged on.
On the thirtieth floor, residents of the tower were separated into two groups: Peasants and nobles. The peasants were allocated land on which they grew crops. They provided their kingdom with food for a small profit. The only other option they had was to become a soldier and wage war against the other kingdoms.
The nobles were residents of the tower who were considerably wealthy. They generally held important positions in the kingdom like owning a notable business or serving the king as a minister.
The war between the six kingdoms would continue until they were eventually wiped out by monster hordes. In the end, no kingdom was able to unite the floor. Jason planned to rectify this now that he had returned to the past, but now was not the time. He had just finished clearing the undead floors and finally reached the thirtieth floor. He was not yet powerful enough to stand up to a kingdom, much less five of them.
Creating a skill, raising his turtle companion Tank, and unlocking Killing Intent early on had dealt a heavy blow to his strength. So, over the past two weeks, Jason had worked hard to catch up to Roy and Olivia in levels. It had been two weeks since his father died. During this time, Jason settled his emotions and finally recovered to a decent level, reaching level fifty-two.
Jason entered an inn in the residential district and glanced around.
“Over here!” Roy called out from the back of the inn. His smile was as bright as his golden hair.
Jason strode over and joined Roy and Olivia at their table. He thought it would be awkward, but Roy seemed unfazed. “Hey, it’s nice to see you again. I’m sooo happy that those undead floors are long gone.”
“It was pretty depressing.” Olivia added. The undead floors lacked sunlight and were dark and dreary. It affected their mood greatly. Olivia’s long, black hair hung lank, as if affected by the lack of sun.
Jason sat quietly as he listened to Roy prattle on about his adventures through the last few floors. It was nice, coming back to Roy. His seemingly endless energy affected Jason more than he’d thought. It was like everything would be alright as long as Roy was around.
When Roy finally stopped talking, Jason took a deep breath and turned to Olivia. “About before, I just wanted to say thanks for stopping me.”
Olivia nodded. “No problem.”
Roy leaned forward. “What’s this about?”
Jason shook his head lightly. “Nothing.”
“Hmph.” Roy grumbled to himself.
Jason pulled out two books and handed them over to his companions. They looked down in confusion. They weren’t skill books, but rather seemed like regular books from outside the tower. “What’s this?” Roy asked.
Jason tapped a book with his finger. “Floors thirty-one to thirty-five are a bit special. It will be useful no matter how far in the tower you reach. Much like before, these floors are combined into one and are a solo floor.”
“Aww.” Roy’s shoulders fell as he pouted. “I thought we would finally be together again.”
Olivia opened her book and took a quick glance through it. “I’ve heard a bit about this floor. Apparently, it was quite hard for the first ascenders who arrived there. Over time, as more knowledge was acquired, the floor became somewhat easier.”
“Who’s this Index person?” Roy pointed at a name on the book.
“Never heard of them.” Olivia shook her head.
Jason coughed lightly. Over the past two weeks, he had tried to bury his grief by spending most of his time creating this book. It was basically a guide for the so-called ‘kingdom’ floor. He had uploaded it to the internet for free, so that humanity would have a better chance moving forward. It was already causing quite a sensation, and left even the top-tier guilds in awe.
Jason explained calmly. “This is a guidebook to help you build your kingdom. It was released on the internet not long ago, and even the top-tier guilds rate it highly.”
“Building a kingdom?” Roy tilted his head.
Jason nodded. “Remember when I said there ar
e a few floors that are strange? This floor is one of them. In this one, you are kind of like an omnipotent and omniscient god. You start with a small group of peasants and must build a settlement by commanding them with your mind. There’s literally no danger here, but keep one thing in mind. If you lose all your territory, you will lose access to the floor, forever.”
Olivia added from the side. “Even the top-tier guilds keep returning to this floor to manage their kingdom. If done right, you can acquire materials and equipment, among other things.”
“That’s so strange! And cool!” Roy opened the book and began to read through it. A second later, he glanced up at Jason. “Where’s your book?”
“Ah.” Jason waved his hand. “I already read through it.”
Roy nodded before returning to his book. For the next hour, Olivia and Roy read through the guide book. Jason trained as he waited. Underneath the table, he mutilated his legs with battle energy. He tried his best to keep a straight face.
“Whew!” Roy closed the book with a thud. “There is so much to know. I bet those first ascenders lost their territory pretty quickly, huh?”
Olivia closed her book a second later. “Thanks to them, we have a fighting chance.”
Jason smiled at Roy. “So, what type of kingdom do you want to build?”
Roy pointed at the ceiling. “Arrr, I want to build a seafaring kingdom. The book only mentioned it briefly, saying that it's still uncharted territory. I want to be the first to conquer it!”
“Ugh.” Jason found himself burying his face in his hands. He had made this book in the hope that Roy would choose a safe path. In the end, he only ended up encouraging him to pick a dangerous route.
Roy turned to Olivia. “What about you?”
“Hmm.” Olivia rested one slender, callused finger on her chin. “I want to make money, so I think I’ll build a kingdom specialized in making potions.”
Roy nodded repeatedly. “Great. Maybe you can supply our guild with potions. I spend most of my money on potions, it’s ridiculous! Those alchemists must make a butt-load of money.”
Roy turned to Jason and waited expectantly. Jason tapped the table. “If you must know, I’m going to specialize in mining and creating equipment.”
Roy muttered to himself. “These guys have no sense of adventure!”
Olivia’s eyebrow twitched. Roy jumped to his feet, practically trembling with excitement. “I’m all hyped up after reading that book. I’m going to start my kingdom right away.”
Jason tapped his communications necklace. “We can still communicate while you’re in god-mode. If anybody has any questions, just ask.”
“Good to know.” Roy sped towards the entrance of the inn. “I’m off!”
Jason stood up. “I guess I’ll get going too.”
Olivia rose just as quickly and grabbed Jason’s shoulder. He looked back in confusion. She stated simply. “Training.”
Jason grimaced. “Fine, fine. Once a day, we’ll meet at the colosseum, okay?”
Olivia pulled back her arm and favored him with a rare smile. “That’s a promise.”
Together, they headed towards the portal leading to the thirty-first floor.
Chapter 2
In Jason’s alternate timeline, some speculated that the kingdom-building floor was the tower’s way of helping those who were solo ascenders or those that lacked funds. If you were smart, it was possible to make loads of money on this floor. It didn’t depend on how strong you were in combat. Instead, it was a test of your planning and strategic ability.
Jason’s plan was simple. To grow stronger, he needed loads of weapons to extract battle energy from. He wanted to build a kingdom that was capable of producing equipment for him to consume. That way, he wouldn’t have to spend vast sums of money buying weapons from other ascenders.
After saying goodbye to Olivia, he entered the portal leading to the thirty-first floor. There was the familiar, uncomfortable feeling of being teleported, and then weightlessness. It had taken many decades for him to get used to the sensation. Jason glanced around and found himself hovering in the middle of the sky. The sun was rising over the horizon, lighting up the untamed landscape. Directly underneath him were small houses surrounding a large rectangular building.
He felt many connections in his mind, much like his connection with Tank. In his mind’s eye, he could see fifteen humans sleeping in the small wooden houses. At the top of his vision, he saw several boxes informing him of his resources. Fifty wood, fifty stone, fifty food, and fifty gold. An abysmal amount. At the bottom of his vision, he saw a bunch of boxes. Units, buildings, commands. When he focused on the unit box, a larger box appeared with detailed information.
Under the unit section, he was able to spend his resources to purchase villagers. As of right now, he had fifteen villagers. Jason knew from experience that there was no threat to his village in the first week, so he poured all of his resources into buying more villagers. Each one cost ten food and ten gold.
Inexperienced ascenders would back out of the unit box and open the commands box. From there, they would issue commands to their units. That way was slow. Instead of doing that, Jason sent out his will directly and commanded his villagers to act. As if inspired by god, they immediately moved according to his will. Villagers were automatically equipped with the tools to harvest resources, though they were the least efficient. For now, though, they would do.
Five villagers went to harvest wood by chopping down the surrounding trees, five went to mine boulders littered in the forest, five went scavenging for food, and five went mining for gold. Considering that in the early stages of the kingdom there was very little to do, Jason activated the speed-up feature. Time could be increased up to sixteen times faster. This way Jason wouldn’t have to wait twelve hours doing nothing while his villagers slept during the night.
While he waited for his villagers to gather resources, he constantly used his battle energy to mutilate his body. He found that his legs were the least painful, so he focused his efforts there. If I remember right, there was a potion that dulled your sense of pain. I should look into that. As time passed, his villagers carried resources into the large building in the center of the settlement. Unlike the houses, this was a storage facility. It could store up to five hundred resources in total.
After around six hours, right when the cap was about to be met, Jason returned the time to normal. Because he had purchased five more villagers, there was now no room for them to sleep. Instead of opening the building box, he willed five more wooden houses into existence. Each house cost fifty wood and twenty-five gold. There were now ten houses.
Keeping in mind that there was no need for defenses or soldiers until the seventh day, he heavily invested into the number of villagers he had. During the first week, he would maximize his economy as best he could.
One thing that made things interesting for Jason was that his kingdom was different than the one from his previous life. As luck would have it, there was a wide river not far from his village. A river could provide a large amount of food. The only problem was that it had a maximum output. Still, for the early days of development, it was a godsend.
Each villager was like an ascender in that they had the ability to grow stronger. If they chopped wood, they gained the woodcutting skill. It was the same for the other tasks. Because of this, it was efficient to make sure villagers performed the same tasks every day. From experience, Jason knew that building roads was the best way to speed up the efficiency of his entire kingdom. Unfortunately, the best road he could make right now was just a dirt path. It sped up all who walked upon it by twenty percent. A meager, but decent bonus.
When he found the river, Jason immediately focused on building a path between it and the village. He also invested in a fishing hut, which sped up those who fished nearby by twenty-five percent.
As trees near the settlement were cut down, more room was created for buildings. Jason had his roadb
uilder make crude dirt paths throughout the village. Much like a modern city, Jason created blocks. Ah. His resources were capped. I need to upgrade the storage building. Almost every building could be upgraded. Now that resources were flowing in smoothly, and the need for more storage was growing apparent, he spent a hefty sum to upgrade his storage facility to tier two. Now it could store a total of two thousand resources, four times as much as before.
The sun fell over the horizon, dyeing the night black. He could order his villagers to work through the night, but that would lower morale, among other detriments. Plus, there was no need at the moment. He paused all tasks, whereupon his villagers made their way home and fell asleep.
Jason immediately sped up time as much as he could. Instead of waiting, he inspected his territory. The land was surrounded by a gray fog, which he couldn’t see through or pass. His units could, however. If they did, the fog would be swept away, allowing Jason a wider range of influence. That reminds me, I need to get a scout or two.
Jason recalled the harvests of the day. He figured that his kingdom had to be the most developed in history after a single day. He acquired a total of forty villagers, set up a fishing hut near a river, and upgraded his storehouse to tier two. The only thing that could have made things better was finding a mine. Jason shrugged. I can’t be greedy.
A cry from Tank came from above, followed by the image of armor. Almost simultaneously, Jason’s stomach rumbled. He rubbed Tank’s head. “All right, let’s fly down and eat.” Thankfully, Tank showed no signs of growing bigger. She remained palm-sized, with grey streaks running across her shell. Jason hoped she wouldn’t grow to become the size of a monster. She was adorable as is, and everybody he met agreed.
Jason landed on a boulder and sat down. He pulled out a few pieces of crappy equipment and tossed them on the ground. Unlike a typical turtle, Tank jumped off Jason’s head and landed next to the equipment. She opened her mouth and sucked in, whereupon a wave of gray energy flew into her mouth. The equipment disintegrated into dust.
Jason chuckled to himself. As he ate a sandwich, a wild deer wandered over, munching on some grass. Tank immediately growled threateningly, but the deer was unfazed. Jason explained. “Tank, we can’t interact on this floor. The inhabitants of this world can’t see us.”
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