Akiol looked up and whistled, "This tower is something else."
Opportunity agreed, "A total of three hundred floors. All the same size."
"Shouldn't this be well known already? Especially with a size like this."
"You can only see it through a special condition, other than that it will never appear in your view."
"What is that special condition?"
"An entrance that can only be opened by chosen ones."
"You're a chosen one?"
"It isn't as grand as you think. This place is unforgiving."
A group of three walked over. One was cloaked in a dark purple energy, they had no weapons in sight. One was equipped with an ordinary looking leather set, a spear rested on their back. The last one was an archer, a war bow in their hand.
Opportunity raised a hand to greet them, "It seems like you arrived before us."
"So this is your younger brother, he seems ordinary."
Stars made a sound, 'I don't like this guy.'
Akiol was intrigued, "What do you mean by that?"
"You don't carry yourself like you're prepared to be attacked at any moment. You would probably be assassinated in a heartbeat."
"Hasn't happened yet, so I couldn't say."
Opportunity interrupted them, "Allow me to introduce you. The edgy one is Oranjay. The archer is Ocava. This dolt is Otion."
Oranjay complained, "I'm not edgy! My class is just like this!"
"I do believe you chose the class."
Oranjay sighed, "I would fight you, but I would like to live."
Opportunity nodded, "Excellent, you're learning."
Akiol looked back at the tower, "So, what is this place?"
Opportunity spread her arms, "Welcome to your test. The Tower of Strength Extremity!"
"That's an interesting name. So what do I have to do?"
"Climb up as much as possible. Depending on how many floors you clear decides if you can help."
"How many is the minimum?"
"I won't say."
Akiol nodded, "Alright, what's your highest then?"
"Not saying that either."
"Do I get any information?"
"Yeah, every floor has a condition for you to fulfill. They usually are a certain amount of enemies defeated, an enemies health removed, or a certain enemy defeated. Every fifty floors you will receive a random reward. Your fatigue will also refresh."
"Any limitations?"
"Not until some of the higher floors, but I don't recommend using a Berserk Skill. Since you will still have to face the drawbacks of you plan on continuing."
"When do I start?"
"You can start whenever, just enter through the front doors."
Akiol spoke to Stars through their connection, "You ready?"
'We are clearing this place through!'
Akiol opened the front doors, a flash of white light covered his vision. It shortly faded and Akiol found himself in an ordinary looking area. A voice spoke, "Welcome to the Tower, initiating first floor. Objective: Defeat one Tower Grunt."
A slow walking foe appeared. Akiol easily dispatched it with a single swing. His vision turned white again, and the same events occurred. This time two grunts walked towards Akiol.
Akiol easily dispatched these, "So it's increasing the enemy by one each floor? That doesn't seem right. . ."
Akiol continued to smash through the enemies easily. On the eleventh floor he noticed a change.
The voice spoke, "Objective: defeat one Tower Soldier."
This made more sense, the enemies will increase by one every floor. After ten enemies they will be upgraded. The process would then repeat.
Akiol still easily dispatched the Tower Soldier. As he continued climbing he asked Stars, "How far do you think we can go?"
'All the way obviously.'
"We shall see."
~ ~ ~
"How far do you think he'll make it?", asked Ocava.
Otion gave his thoughts, "I'd say the thirtieth floor to the fortieth. I think he is overestimating himself majorly."
Oranjay pondered for a moment, "Well if he is from the same family as Opportunity. . . then his skill shouldn't be that bad right? I'd say he will definitely reach the fiftieth floor. I'm not sure how much farther than that he can go though."
Ocava answered her own question, "I'd say fortieth to fiftieth. During our encounter I directed some killing intent towards him, but there wasn't even a flinch!"
Opportunity answered the question as well, much to the three's surprise, "Definitely past sixtieth, if he managed to become First Stage at this point in the game his skill wouldn't be low."
Oranjay teased, "Are you sure this isn't favoritism towards your brother?"
"Ha, I happen to give people the benefit of the doubt. Even my own blood."
Ocava suddenly asked, "Which reminds me, what are your guys' current floor?"
Oranjay sighed, "I can't get past two-hundred-seven."
Otion made cheeky grin, "It seems like I have you beat Ojay, I am currently on the two-hundred-sixteenth floor."
"You passed?"
"Yeah, it took a lot out of me. But I finally managed to get bast the two-hundred-tenth. What about you Ocava?"
Ocava sighed, "Two-hundred-tenth. It's a little too much for me currently."
The three looked at Opportunity, who remained silent. She raised an eyebrow, "Is comparing our floors really that important?"
Otion shook his head, "No, but a little competition to spark some determination wouldn't hurt. Now having said that. . . go ahead and shatter our pride."
Opportunity sighed, "Two-hundred-fifty-seventh. That is my current floor."
The three felt their hearts crack. Otion laughed depressingly, "As expected, you're on a whole other level."
"You all have the potential to reach such a floor as well."
"I wish I could see that."
The three remained silent for a moment. In an effort to change the subject Ocava asked, "Want to see how far he has gotten?"
Opportunity shook her head, "No point now, it had barely been ten minutes. I doubt he's even on the fifteenth floor."
"How long are we going to have to wait?"
"Until he's done, you say that like we have something to do right now."
"Well we do. . . but-"
"Exactly, it should only be an hour or two at most."
~ ~ ~
Akiol made a face, this progress was too slow!
Currently he was on the thirty-second floor. He didn't want to keep them waiting too long, so he should step it up a notch.
An orange glow extended from Akiol, this was a good time to continue practicing with his Aura. After all he felt like it was his main source of strength. Especially since his attack based skills were destroyed.
His pace increased, the floors he passed increased in number. Every enemy was obliterated, none survived a strike.
Within twenty minutes he was already on the fiftieth floor!
"Objective: Defeat ten Tower Elites."
Akiol dashed forward, as his sword moved he saw the Elite react. Their own weapon coming to block. However they were slower and were still defeated. He turned and eliminated another one.
Soon all ten Elites were defeated. Akiol remained inside the room, the white light failing to appear.
"Fiftieth floor cleared. Distributing onetime random reward. . ."
An object appeared and Akiol caught it. Upon inspecting it he raised an eyebrow, "A Stat Crystal?"
He was unsure on how much this crystal would strengthen him by. However he still crushed it immediately. Strength was always welcome.
The white light arrived shortly later. Akiol's vision cleared and the voice stated, "Objective: Defeat one Tower Boss."
A large figure appeared. Akiol frowned, the way this was going seemed different than he estimated. If floor fifty-one was a BOSS, then what would round sixty-one bring?
The boss stomped over, Akiol charged forward and swung his sword with a special technique.
{Origami Style: Five Folds}!
Just because he didn't have in-game skills didn't mean he was completely helpless! Overtime he had been slowly testing his limits when it came to techniques, especially after he was investigated. However he recently realized that the restrictions that held him back were gone! The only answer he could think of was when he obtained a Strand of Existence.
With his techniques being able to be fully unleashed, his strength increased many-fold!
Five slashes appeared on the BOSS' body. Their HP bar dropped to zero immediately.
Akiol appeared on the next floor shortly later, he wished the time it took to traverse the floors was faster. Yet this was only a fleeting thought.
The two BOSSes were easily defeated. Akiol soon wiped through the floors. In five minutes he reached the sixty-first floor!
"Objective: Defeat fifty Tower Grunts."
Akiol understood what the sixty's floors were about. Testing one's ability when fighting against a horde of enemies. Akiol shook his head, "I fought against way more players in the beginning of this game. You're going to have to try harder!"
Akiol dashed forward, his footsteps taking a rhythmic pattern. Suddenly he left a trail of afterimages, soon fifty Tower Grunts all had their own after image. Akiol appeared on the other side of the horde.
{Expeditious Steps}!
{Adjourned Death}!
Fifty Tower Grunts died at the same time. They stood no chance against Akiol's near flawless execution of two techniques.
Akiol smiled, "It had been a long time since I have fought like this."