Graduation of the class of 2245, one hundred and three years after the tower came to earth. Schools had shifted away from teaching students things needed to get into universities and the betterment of humanity, to teaching skills of tower survival. The hope was that those who came out of the tower would help humanity regain some ground on the surface of earth.
Of course, basic math and language were still taught, but it was far less important to know calculus when knowing how to craft a bow could be the difference between living and having your corpse stripped of its flesh by a man-eating rabbit.
A lot of stuff had changed after the apocalypse. Humanity, which had destroyed and spread to over 80% of earth's liveable surface and had a population of 10 billion, had been reduced to a mere 2 billion living on less than 15% of earth's surface. On April 21, 2141, strange creatures emerged from the subterranean and less visited areas of the earth, such as the center of the amazon rainforest and deep ocean, instantly overwhelming the eastern half of the continental united states, Canada, the entirety of South America, and all-island and coastal countries. At the same time, a meteor shower containing strange radiation that destroyed electronics disabled all civilian electronics, destroyed the communication networks, and disabled most military weapons, hit all over the earth. Within 3 months, 60% of the human population was dead, what remained was behind great walls protected by unwilling soldiers.
After 3 months passed, the real horror began. The pets, livestock, and even the houseplants mutated into creatures that could kill a human easily. The already dwindling human population saw a steep drop. The thing that saved humanity was the appearance of the tower, from which an angel appeared. It pushed back the mutated animals and the monster's creatures. It created the haven cities, places that the beasts avoided at all costs.
Troy was snapped out of his thoughts by the speech of the head survival instructor of tower academy, the universal school that all children in the haven cities went to.
"Today, your journey into the tower will begin. It will be fraught with danger, and you may even die before you reach Checkpoint station on floor five, which is the closest place you will find reliable help. Remember, retreating is not the sign of a coward! Live to fight another day, and all that. Currently, the assistants are passing out the newest model of system watches. These will attach to your wrists and not ever come off. They are responsible for tracking your talent, attributes, equipment, and skills, along with the floor you are on, the mission, and the time left to finish. I wish you all good luck. Maybe one of you will break through floor 18."
The combined might of humanity had been stuck on floor 18 for the past twenty-two years. The harsh environment, unpassable terrain, and hard mission made it a nearly insurmountable cliff. Troy wasn't bothered by that, though. He was just hoping that he had a passable talent and was lucky enough to make it to Checkpoint station, where he could leave the tower. The head survival instructor 'you may even die' was a massive understatement, as the first 3 floors of the tower would claim the lives of 45% or more of the people who entered.
Receiving his system watch, Troy strapped it to his left wrist. It lit up, showing the time, date, weather predictions, and temperature. The weather predictions would stop inside the tower, as it was impossible to set up a permanent weather station on floors that reset every 2 months, though the temperature would stay as the watch could measure that on its own. The stats panel would not show up until he went into the tower.
One by one the graduates, ranging from 16-19 years old, stepped into the tower frame and disappeared. Soon it was Troy's turn. He held his breath and stepped through. He was hit by an intense feeling of dizziness, so bad he almost purged his stomach. It ended almost as soon as it started, and he appeared on the first floor of the tower, surrounded by those who had stepped in before him.
Wasting no time, Troy looked at his watch, and a panel that only he could see appeared above it.
Name: Troy Arginstin
Age: 17
Level 1 EXP 0/50
Talent: [awakening]
Base attack: 1 (base 1, scales with str)
Base defense: 1 (base 1, scales with vit)
Natural abilities: ambidextrous, cool and collected
Skills: none
Health (not affected by vitality attached to gear)-20/20
Mana (not affected by intellect attached to gear)-31/31
Stamina-25/25
Strength-7 (unawakened, average adult human is 10)
Vitality-how much health increased by per level up, defense-9 (unawakened, average adult human is 10)
Intellect- (how much mana increases per level up. Has no effect on whether the holder would be a good scientist, but will help you remember things better.)-14 (unawakened, average adult human is 12)
Perception-21 (unawakened, average adult human is 15)
Agility-15 (unawakened, average adult human is 13)
Luck-53 (no average)
Looking through his stats, he tried to figure out what he would develop towards, when the system watch made a sound. He saw that vitality and strength were below average, but that made sense as he had yet to reach maturity. His intellect was higher than average, which made sense, as he was a top student, he spent all of his extra time reading, mostly guides on how to survive in the tower, but reading. His perception was pretty far above average, which surprised him. His agility was only slightly above average, most likely due to his smaller build and long legs.
{Talent awakened. Talent is SSS- unlimited extraction}
Troy blanked. The highest confirmed talent was s rank, and there was also one of them. Of course, there may have been others who had died or just hidden their talent, which was a common thing to do, but even if there were, there were probably only 3to 4 S rank talents ever, let alone SS or SSS.
As surprised as he was, Troy recovered quickly, as the tower's beginner protection only lasted five minutes. The mass of people he would attract the beasts here like moths to a flame. He had to leave quickly and make a basic weapon, probably a spear, just like the survival classes taught.
Quickly running in the direction of the nearby forests, Troy picked up a flat rock. He would break this into a sharp point and attach it to a long stick. It was at this point that the system watch spoke up
{Use extraction on currently held object}
This was most likely a hint from the tower, as it would help out slightly in the beginning. It could interfere with the system watches because they were made based on an artifact found on floor 5. Activating his talent, Troy could feel his mana drain, and his hand glowed white, which transferred to the stone.
{Extracted iron-0.01 gram}
A small sliver of iron appeared in Troy's hand, which was quickly flicked off. From this, Troy was able to figure out what his talent did. Maybe if used on a corpse of some kind, he could extract valuable materials or stats.
Getting to the forest, Troy quickly found a usable, meter-long stick, and made a crude spear that didn't even have a star rating by rubbing the stick against the stone to sharpen it. While it was dull, it had a point and would do until he could find an actual weapon from a chest or make his spear better.
Looking at his stat panel, Troy saw that mana had dropped by one. From this, he formed two hypotheses. 1- his talent took an amount of mana based on the size of the object he was extracting from, or 2- his talent took 1 mana per use. Whatever it was, the talent looked like it would be useful for harvesting resources.
Picking up another rock, Troy sat down behind a tree and began to hit it against the long, flat rock. Eventually, he got a result he was fine with. Using the now sharp rock, he cut a notch in the spear tip, and then drilled into the tree to get sap for glue. After assembling the spear, he got a beep from his watch.
{Equipment- crude spear, 1-star. Attack power 2}
That's about what he expected. He wondered if he could use his talent on the spear. Gripping the spear, he called out the name of his talent in his head, and a dim white light spread from his hand to the spear. The bark fell off the stick and turned to ash which disappeared in the breeze, the excess sap disappeared from the notch, and the spear shaft became smooth.
{Impurities extracted. Equipment upgraded. Crude spear, 1-star, Attack power 2→ Basic wood and stone spear, 2-star, attack 4, passive ability: penetrative power- spear will more easily penetrate hide, +2 to attack.}
It was a really good weapon, especially because it was crafted from wood and a piece of stone in under 20 minutes. With this spear, he would be miles ahead of the others who entered with him, and could possibly get the first kill reward.
Suddenly, Troy heard a snap behind him. Turning around, he found a large, half a meter tall lagomorph. Monster identification classes allowed him to figure out what this one was. It was a flesh-eating hare. 'Thank god it's not a venomous rabbit,' Troy thought to himself. The flesh-eating hare was one of the weakest creatures on the floors it was on, but it was not to be underestimated, as it could easily kill an adult man if given the chance.
Stepping forward, Troy thrust his spear, getting the hare in the back leg, disabling its most dangerous attack method, the ability to jump forward quickly with its powerful hind legs. Pulling back his spear, Troy nearly lost his balance from the force he used, but quickly corrected himself and stabbed again, aiming for the center mass, and got a hit. Shoving his spear even deeper, the hare stopped moving, but he could tell he didn't hit the heart from how the leg wound would increase the amount of blood coming out every 3 seconds. He most likely hit its lungs. Removing the spear, he aimed his stab and got the hare through the head.
He, along with every other person's watch on the floor, beeped and gave an announcement.
{THE FIRST KILL REWARD HAS BEEN TAKEN} {Exp +15}
A Wooden chest appeared in front of Troy. Quickly opening it, he found a pair of rusty knives. Taking them out, the chest disappeared. Looking at the knives, the watch pulled up the stats
{old assassin knifes. 2-star weapon set, attack-3 (per blade), set bonus- assassin's hands: the assassin knows how to take his opponents off guard. Attacks from the left knife always take opponents off guard the first time, doing 3x damage.}
Troy looked at the weapons before using his talent on them. The rust fell off, leaving 2 gleaming blades, one curved, both about as long as his forearm.
{old assassins blades. 3-star weapon set, attack-7 (per blade), set bonus- assassin's hands: the assassin knows how to take his opponents off guard. Attacks from the left knife always take opponents off guard the first time, doing 4x damage.}
There was no new ability this time, but both the set bonus and attack power increased. Troy wonders if he could use his ability twice on the same item, but upon trying he was told {original item rating too low, can only extract once} by the system.
Keeping the blades as a backup weapon as they would bring him into the range of enemies, Troy looked at his kill and wondered if he could use extract on it. He walked up to it, put his hand on the cadaver, and called out the name in his head. The white glow once again spread from his hand to cover the hare. When the white glow disappeared, the hare had shriveled, much like a grape shrivels into a raisin when dehydrated.
{Extracted attributes- agi 2, str 1}
At this, Troy went totally blank and almost went limp. The ability to harvest attributes was huge. Those that had come before had found out that attribute scaling was non-linear, so going from 10-20 made no tangible difference, but going from 20-40 could save your life. With the ability to extract attributes, he could bypass the stage of low returns for his attribute points and be on par with those levels ahead.
This wasn't even the limit of his talent, as he had yet to do more thorough testing. He was suddenly more motivated to seek out the beasts on the first floor.
Going deeper into the forest, Troy pushed his perception to the max while making sure to move as stealthy as possible. It would be the end for him if he came across a bear creature. While moving across the forest floor, he came across a series of holes, like those a group of prairie dogs make, with a very large one in the center. 'Earthmover mole-rats, and a decent amount of them,' Troy was ecstatic. Earthmover mole-rats were slow on the ground, and while they could dig through the earth, it took time, as they needed to move the soil they dug up somewhere. He already had a plan. He would wait till one of them came up with dirt, kill them, and cut its neck to allow the blood to drain down the borrow. This would enrage the other mole-rats, which would come out and be like fish out of the water.
Patiently waiting for a mole-rat to come out, Troy looked at his status.
Name: Troy Arginstin
Age: 17
Level 1 EXP 15/50
Talent: SSS-Unlimited extraction
Base attack: 1
Base defense: 1
Natural abilities: ambidextrous, cool and collected
Skills: none
Health-20/20
Mana-28/31
Stamina-24/25
Strength-8
Vitality-9
Intellect-14
Perception-21
Agility-17
Luck-53
So far, extraction has only used one mana per use. After four extractions, his mana had decreased by four and regenerated by one. Running had decreased his stamina by a bit, but the slow walk through the forest had helped it regenerate. Looking away from his status, no mole-rat had come out of the burrows.
After another 5 minutes, a half-meter-long naked mole-rat came up to the surface pushing a large amount of soil. Troy was less than 5 meters behind it, a distance he could quickly cover. He ran up to the mole-rat as quickly as possible, penetrating its chest. Removing his spear, he used one of the assassin's blades to cut the neck of the mole-rat, leaving it to drain over the burrow. Less than 3 minutes later, 4 more mole-rats can up to the surface, making angry squeaks. As they moved around trying to find the perpetrator of their comrades' death, Troy sneaked up behind one with his assassin's blades out and quickly slit its throat before moving back to avoid getting any blood on himself. The smell of their comrades' blood alerted the mole-rats, which moved as quickly as possible to the site of their friend's death. Using his spear this time, Troy penetrated another mole-rat through the chest, leaving it bleeding out in pain. The last 2 mole-rats reacted quickly, and 2 small compressed pieces of dirt flew at Troy.
Panicking, he threw his spear at one and ran at the other with his blades. The mole-rat put up a fight and gave Troy a small laceration with its claws before Troy stabbed it through the eye. Turning to the other mole, he had missed his throw, and it was coming towards him with the speed of an old lady using a walker. This time he saw a piece of dirt fly up, get compressed, and then thrown towards him. It was most likely a skill of some kind, and damn did it hurt to get hit by it. Troy quickly killed the last one, before using extract on all of them.
{extracted: str 2 x4, vit 1 x 4, str 3 x1, vit 2 x1} {extracted skill 'lump toss' x3} {combining similar skills}
Troy's mind was blown. He now knew why this Talent was rated SSS. It could extract skills, and maybe even talents. Shaking his head, trying to stay calm, Troy looked at his status. In total, he got 11 strength and 6 vitality, and 27 EXP, bringing his status up to:
Name: Troy Arginstin
Age: 17
Level 1 EXP 42/50
Talent: SSS-Unlimited extraction
Base attack: 2
Base defense: 2
Natural abilities: ambidextrous, cool, and collected
Skills: lump toss-upper F
Health-17/20
Mana-23/31
Stamina-20/25
Strength-19
Vitality-15
Intellect-14
Perception-21
Agility-17
Luck-53
His status was far higher than someone at level one should be. Others may be able to get a comparable status if they found a special herb or decent medicine, but he doubted that anybody would be able to find any.
Finished with his status, Troy looked at the large central mound. Something like this could hold a chest or special item. Climbing up, he looked into the hole and found a chest made of gray stone. Dropping down into the hole, Troy winced as the fall jostled his wound.
Opening the chest with a great deal of force, he found a tattered leather chest piece and a herb.
{Tattered leather armor, 1-star: defense-2. Tattered and old. Poor defense | Hemostatic herb: speeds the clotting of blood, restores 2 health.}
Troy instantly ate the herb to help with his wound. Looking at the armor, he used extract on it. Some blood that was dried on it disappeared and it overall looked cleaner, but still had a ruined appearance, as if someone cut it with a sword many times.
{Ruined leather armor, 2-star: defense-3. An old piece of leather armor ruined in a fight and left to rot. Someone cleaned it.}
Putting on the armor, Troy left the hole and continued on his journey.