'Priest?' thought Li Wei, 'Isn't it supposed to be the mage? Anyway, it will be even easier.'
What Li Wei did not know was that his opponents were randomly selected. Unfortunately, like many other games, RNG was also present in this one, so as to make each attempt at climbing the Tower of Heroes different.
Li Wei took a stance and observed the priest while waiting for the fight to begin.
The priest was different from the others Li Wei saw. The equipment he was wearing were totally different; he had a small mace as a weapon and instead of robes, was wearing a metal armor. After all, weapons did not have any class requirements. Any classes could use any equipment to adapt their own style, but some were naturally better than others.
'Well, let's take this opportunity to train using 2 swords,' thought Li Wei. He had never given up on trying the dual sword style
[Would you like to begin the seventh fight?]
The awaited announcement finally came, and Li Wei immediately said: "Begin!"
[Floor 7: level 7 Priest, begin the fight in 5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Begin!]
As soon as the signal was given, the priest directly dashed towards Li Wei. Yes, it was the priest that initiated the attack. He used [Empower] onto himself which gave him 2 Strength. It was equivalent to the [Strengthen] of Warriors but had higher Mana Cost and lower Duration.
However, from Li Wei's point of view, the priest was moving rather slowly, and he could clearly see each one of his movements. The difference in level and stats was obvious. Li Wei stepped to the side and dodged the mace. He then immediately stabbed the priest on the side.
"-17"
'Since he can heal, he will be a perfect partner for practice.'
Li Wei followed up with the other sword completely suppressing the priest. Swinging his swords left and right, up and down, Li Wei forced the priest into a defensive stance, but the mace was not a good weapon for defense.
Left with one-third of his HP, the priest violently swung the mace towards Li Wei, forcing him to take a step back. He then quickly jumped back himself and cast [Heal], "+25"
However, Li Wei did not let him go, he immediately used his newly acquired skill, [Blade Draw]. The wind blade directly hit the priest, causing him to lose balance. That was quickly followed up by a well-timed [Chaos Sphere] which left the priest with a sliver of HP.
While [Heal] was still on cooldown, Li Wei dashed forward, swinging his swords towards the priest. He made a desperate attempt to strike Li Wei, but the latter just took the blow and stabbed the priest at the same time.
[Congratulations for defeating the seventh floor. You are awarded 0 exp since your exp bar is locked]
[Restoring original state. Moving to the eighth floor.]
...
[Cleave], Li Wei's sword pierced through the body of the ranger which was quickly covered by a white layer.
[Congratulations for defeating the ninth floor. You are awarded 0 exp since your exp bar is locked]
[Restoring original state. Moving to the tenth floor.]
Li Wei easily cleared the eighth and ninth floor. With his battle experience and level advantage, the battle was not challenging at all. On the eighth floor, his opponent was a rogue. The rogue tried to overwhelm Li Wei with fast attacks, but unfortunately for him, Li Wei also heavily invested into Dexterity, allowing him to move as quickly as the rogue. And so, the eighth floor was quickly cleared.
On the ninth floor, the NPC was a female ranger. Despite her weak appearance, she was very fast and kept running away from Li Wei while shooting her arrows, this was a common technique in video games known as 'Kiting'. While Li Wei was running after her, he tried fancy moves like cutting the arrows in mid-air with his swords, but he failed. Even though he could roughly guess where the arrows would hit, it was difficult to intercept the arrows in such position. Li Wei also discovered that using [Howl] could slightly alter the direction of the arrow, causing it to miss its target.
...
The mist quickly appeared and covered the arena. A few seconds later the tenth floor came into view. A warrior walked out of the mist. He was tall and muscular, wearing a full set of heavy armor and an ax on his shoulder.
Li Wei calmly watched the warrior step onto the arena as he himself took a stance. 'The real challenge only starts now,' thought Li Wei.
Level 10 represented a major milestone. Not only would the NPC get 6 more stat points, he would also have two more skills!
[Would you like to begin the tenth fight?]
"Yes! Begin "
[Floor 10: level 10 Warrior. Begin the fight in 5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Begin!]
Both sides remain motionless, Li Wei held his stance, waiting for the warrior to attack him. But the warrior was standing there without moving. He did not even adopt a fighting stance. His face was covered by his helmet and could not be seen, but his body posture was showing his arrogance.
The arena remained still for a few seconds, but then, Li Wei could not wait any longer. He directly dashed towards the warrior, raising his blades.
[Strengthen], Both sides used their skill at the same time.
As Li Wei was approaching the warrior, the latter grabbed his ax with two hands and made a full swing. Seeing that, Li Wei could only force himself to change direction. Charging into the rotating ax was clearly a bad idea.
But as Li Wei stepped on his right, the warrior stopped his spin and swung his ax towards Li Wei.
From the corner of his eye, Li Wei noticed the shiny light charging towards him. He instinctively ducked, resulting in the ax barely passing above his head.
'Sigh that was close... His strength is higher than mine, but my speed is slightly faster. I need to take advantage of that.'
Li Wei quickly recovered and stabbed towards the open side of the warrior. "-14" But before he could land a second hit, the warrior used [Howl], disturbing Li Wei's movement and quickly followed up with a swing of his ax.
Li Wei once again stepped on the side and stabbed the warrior, "-13". Li Wei then spun onto himself and struck the warrior with the other sword, "-15". However, the warrior did not let Li Wei continue, he did not use his ax, but instead used his elbow to hit Li Wei's face.
Being suddenly hit, Li Wei lost focus for a second but quickly recovered as he was kicked in the stomach, "-5","-9". Two red numbers popped up, but the warrior did not stop here, he raised his ax and swung it vertically downwards towards Li Wei.
Li Wei quickly reacted and used his own [Howl] to delay the warrior and rolled to the side dodging the strike. He quickly stood up and took advantage of the fact that the ax was stuck into the ground to attack the warrior. The latter quickly used all his force to pull out the ax, just as he succeeded in pulling the ax out, he was hit on the shoulder by Li Wei's [Cleave].
With that, the warrior was left with only half of his HP while Li Wei's HP bar was mostly full.
The warrior quickly took a few steps back, distancing himself from Li Wei. He then grabbed the ax with two hands and made a diagonal motion in mid-air, [Blade Draw]. It was his ax version of [Blade Draw].
Despite the close distance, Li Wei swiftly dodged the air blade and charged at the warrior. The latter once again swung his ax in a spin to force Li Wei away. But this time, Li Wei made a more aggressive decision.
He still changed direction, but this time, his pushed onto his legs and jumped above the ax. Not allowing the warrior to recover from his surprise, Li Wei raised his 2 swords and swung them down in an X shape towards the warrior's helmet, "-17","-22".
However, the warrior pushed his ax on the ground, stabilising himself. Li Wei was left in an awkward position as he landed on the ground just in front of the warrior. Before he could react, he was punched in the stomach and as he stepped back from the hit, he received a strike from the ax on the side, "-30"
The 2 sides distanced themselves a little to catch their breath. Li Wei still had about half HP while the warrior had less than a quarter left. Li Wei smiled. His victory was certain if he used his [Chaos Sphere] but instead, he charged at the warrior.
This time, the warrior did not wait for Li Wei, he also charged forward raising his ax.
[Howl], [Howl], both sides used the same skill to disturb the other. The 2 charges were interrupted as there were 2 meters left between them.
[Blade Draw] the warrior immediately used his other skill while Li Wei stepped forward and used [Cleave] to cut the air blade. He then arrived in front of the warrior and swung one sword at his feet and one at his face.
The warrior had no other options left, he raised his ax to block one blade, but could only take the blow of the second one. To follow up, Li Wei made a quick spin and swung his sword again at the warrior. And with that, the layer covered the warrior protecting him.
[Congratulations for defeating the tenth floor. You are awarded 0 exp since your exp bar is locked]
[Restoring original state. Moving to the eleventh floor.]
'Fiouff, using two swords has become easier, the movements feel less awkward but there's still a lot of improvement left to reach the Red Bandit Leader's level,' thought Li Wei as he was catching his breath.
...
The mist appeared once again and this time, a mage appeared. This time, it was a middle age woman, wearing a mage robe and hat, holding a long wooden staff.
'Finally, a mage... time for revenge.'
[Would you like to begin the eleventh fight?]
"Begin! " shouted Li Wei. There was no point in waiting; he was not feeling tired despite all the fights.
[Floor 11: level 11 Mage. Begin the fight in 5]
[4]
[3]
[2]
[1]
[Begin!]
[Mana Bolt]
The mage immediately attacked Li Wei while taking a few steps back. The latter also charged forward when he heard the 'Begin'. He saw the mage cast her spell, but he did not expect the [Mana Bolt] to be so fast and big. Compared to the ones he has seen before, this [Mana Bolt] was clearly of a higher level.
Li Wei moved diagonally, but his should was still hit by the [Mana Bolt], "-19". Li Wei ignored that mistake and closed the gap. But the mage used her level 10 skills.
A White rope appeared in front of the mage and flew towards Li Wei's leg. It was the level 10 skill, [Mana Bind]. Li Wei saw the white rope flying towards him and immediately jumped to avoid it, but the mage used her other skill and aimed at where Li Wei would land.
[Mana Burst], it was a skill similar to [Mana Bolt], except that this one dealt damage in an area rather than to a single target.
"-20", Li Wei already lost about half of his health while he was not even close to the mage. Fortunately, the mage had already used all her offensive spells in quick succession and had to wait for the cooldowns.
[Strengthen]
Li Wei took advantage of that and closed the gaps before violently swinging his 2 swords at the mage. The latter used [Mana Shield] but it did not last long under the constant assault of Li Wei.
The shield broke and the mage's HP started to decrease but she immediately reacted and raised her staff. It glowed and shortly after, an electric spark flew from it, electrocuting Li Wei."-5"
[You have been hit by [Spark], stunned for 0.5 seconds]
'What? A skill associated with her staff?' thought Li Wei.
These 0.5 seconds seemed negligible. But they were more than enough to break Li Wei's momentum, allowing the mage to retreat a few steps.
[Mana Bolt], her most basic spell with the lowest cooldown had refreshed and she immediately aimed it at Li Wei.
However, Li Wei also used his own skill, [Blade Draw]. The two skills collided in mid-air, nullifying each other.
Once again charging forward, Li Wei this time used only one sword. He sheathed back the other one, to grab some throwing needles. The mage was not very agile; she could only watch as each needle took away a small portion of her HP, but the annoying part was that they were canceling her casting of spells.
Li Wei once again closed the gap. [Cleave]. His sword cut through the air towards the mage. But the latter decided to throw herself on the floor, avoiding the [Cleave].
Li Wei could not immediately stop his sword and the mage took advantage of that and raised her staff, using [Mana Bind] to hold Li Wei in place. The rope tied Li Wei's leg. He tried to free himself but in vain. A few seconds later, he saw the mage raise her hand and staff, casting her other level 10 spell, [Mana Burst]
'Crap, if I get hit, I might lose...'
[Earth Wall], Li Wei immediately erected his Earth Wall, protecting his body from the attack. At the same time, he used his sword and successfully cut the rope.
Both sides had less than half of their HP and with the mage had just used all her spells again, Li Wei once again used that time window to charge at the mage.
'I am supposed to have an advantage over mages… Why is it so hard'
"-19","-18". Two sword strikes landed on the mage, putting her into critical conditions. But before a third strike landed, a [Mana Shield] was erected protecting her few remaining HP.
[Chaos Sphere], this time, Li Wei did not hesitate to use this skill, the mage's spells would soon refresh and if he was hit, his climb of the tower might end here.
The black misty ball flew towards the mage, she could do nothing to stop it and could only close her eyes as the sphere exploded on her [Mana Shield].
[Congratulations for defeating the eleventh floor. Please choose one item as a reward from the followings.]