When they opened their eyes, an immense black tower stood in front of them.
"Were we... teleported here?" Elisha muttered.
"I guess so... How would teleportation even work?" Frank asked himself.
"Don't think about it too hard." Keith said jokingly.
"Wow..." Alex said while looking around the group.
"Everyone is staring at us." He added.
They found themselves surrounded by dozens of people with surprised faces.
"I guess they got here by walking." Frank said while looking around.
Elisha took a couple of steps towards the tower.
"There's no door." He said.
"Should we maybe walk around it until we find it?" Keith suggested.
Elisha raised his hand towards the tower.
As soon as put his hand on it, he disappeared.
The next instant, his friends and many others did the same.
Elisha found himself in complete darkness for a couple of seconds.
The darkness faded away and he could see around him.
'Where the hell am I?'
The floor was made of multiple tiles.
The same was true for the walls that were caved in.
It looked like he was inside some kind of huge dome.
"First inside? I guess I have to wait for the others..."
[You have entered The Tower Of Sacrifice.]
[You have unlocked many Functions inside the System.]
[You have unlocked the Store Function.]
[You have unlocked the Inventory Function.]
[You can now view your Status Window.]
[Please check out your Status Window.]
Elisha was a bit confused by the multiple messages and by the fact that he was still alone.
"Show it to me... I guess?"
[ Name: Elisha
Species & level : Human Lv1(0/40exp)
Gold: 0
HP: 90/90
Endurance: 45/45
Stats: Strength: 8
Agility: 13
Senses: 7
Vigor & Endurance: 9
Unused Stat Points: 0
Skills: (None)
Titles: (None)
]
'Gold must be the currency used inside the Tower and in that Store thing. The rest is pretty obvious.' He thought.
One minute later, more notifications from the System appeared.
[You have entered the 1st Floor Of The Tower Of Sacrifice.]
[The first three Floors are Tutorial Floors.]
'Alright, I guess that makes me a bit more at ease...' Elisha thought.
[Caution!]
[Most deaths inside The Tower Of Sacrifice occur during the Tutorial Floors.]
"What the hell? Tutorials are supposed to be where mistakes don't count. How is it a tutorial if we can die?"
[Tutorial Floors have one purpose.]
[To prepare you for the higher Floors.]
"Yeah. Whatever. That doesn't tell me much. Why am I alone anyway?"
[The First Floor is the First Tutorial Floor.]
[You must clear it alone.]
"So I'll meet the others after we clear this Floor?"
[Correct.]
"Alright, let's do it."
After looking around him for a bit, Elisha had a perplexed expression.
"What am I supposed to do?"
[The First Tutorial Floor is one of the only Floors with a difficulty setting.]
[Choose the desired difficulty.]
Three different words appeared in front of Elisha.
[Easy.]
[Normal.]
[Extreme.]
'I guess I have as much time as I want to choose... Hum...'
10 minutes later, Frank, Elisha, Keith and Alex were staring at the same three words.
Each one of them was in a huge dome, alone.
'I guess this is only the First Floor. No need to take unnecessary risks.' Alex thought as he raised his hand towards one of the floating words.
[You have selected the following difficulty.]
[Easy.]
[Clear Requirement: Defeat 80 Skeletons.]
"WHAT?" Alex shouted.
The next instant, on the other side of the room, a lone Skeleton appeared.
"Defeat it? That?"
[Correct.]
[Skeletons are some of the weakest monsters inside The Tower Of Sacrifice.]
Alex slowly walked towards the Skeleton.
Even when he was 20 meters away from it, it paid him no mind.
"It looks as tall as I am... Isn't it going to be stronger than me?" Alex muttered to himself.
Without meaning to, he extracted information from the System.
[Skeletons have no muscles nor tissue.]
'Oh. That's right. Although it's magic or something that's keeping them alive, so... How would I know.'
Alex looked around for something to use as a weapon, but he found nothing.
"So what? I'm supposed to beat them bare-handed??"
[Weapons can be bought inside the Store.]
[You currently have 0 Gold Coins.]
[You cannot buy anything.]
'This shouldn't be too hard... I chose the easy difficulty after all...'
Even though his whole body was shaking, he raised his fists in front of him like he had seen boxers do on TV.
Once Alex was about 10 meters away from the Monster, it finally turned towards him.
The Skeleton's eye sockets shined red.
The next instant, it sprinted towards Alex while swinging its arms.
Despite being afraid of the monster made entirely of bones, he stepped back rapidly to dodge and gave a strong punch to the monster.
It was pushed back, but that was not enough to defeat it.
Still, seeing that his attack had some effect, Alex felt more confident.
Two punches later,
[You have defeated one Skeleton.]
[You have gained 5 Gold coins and 10 Experience Points.]
[You have defeated 1/80 Skeletons.]
[79 Skeletons remaining to clear the Floor.]
Alex was in utter disbelief seeing the floating words in front of him.
He looked at his hands as he closed them and opened them repeatedly.
"I did it... I actually did it... and easily too." Alex muttered.
The next second, he heard a sound coming from the other side of the room.
Another Skeleton was walking around.
A smile appeared on Alex's face.