I found myself in a pure white space, my body seemingly floating.
[Congratulations on making it through the Tutorial Tower!]
[Current Rank: 1]
[Congratulations, as a result of being the number 1 ranked player, your rewards have been doubled!]
[You are the only player that has surpassed the limits of humanity!]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Ding! Rewards calculated!]
[Reward 1: 1,000,000 TC]
[Reward 2: Custom Weapon]
...
[Due to the accumulation of rewards that you have not received since the 9th floor (due to the interference of the gods), it has been decided that to balance this, you have been given an impossible existence.]
[Reward 3: A God]
It took a few moments for that to sink in.
I had already known about the first two rewards and had expected them, as they had been in my game code, but the third reward was totally unexpected.
Flustered, I said, "A-a g-god? Do I get to choose?"
[No, a random god has been transferred over to your egg, you may hatch it when you reach the main tower.]
The only unpredictable existences in the tower for me were these gods. What was the purpose of their existence? Was this god sent to spy on me? Will I even be able to control them?
I realized that worrying about this right now was detrimental, so I put those thoughts in the back of my mind to deal with later.
I then focused on my second reward, as it was the reward that I had been aiming for in the first place.
"Can I start making my weapon?"
[Yes, would you like to buy the materials or would you like to provide them?]
"I will provide them."
I then proceeded to hand over all the materials that I had gotten from defeating the drake and Wukong.
[What would you like to make?]
"A fan."
The materials started swirling in the air, rotating faster and faster and becoming brighter and brighter, until finally, the light died down and a fan was presented in front of me.
[Please modify the fan.]
I took ahold of the fan in front of me.
A customizing screen came up in front of the fan and I started to reshape it a little bit.
I made it about 25cm long and 1cm wide when closed up, a perfect length for hiding it in the sleeve of a loose arm piece of clothing.
I made one side of the closed fan like a knife by sharpening the Wukong/drake bone alloy that was there, so that I could use it like a shiv or dagger when the opportunity presented itself.
I then opened the fan and created openings in the leaf of the fan that was made from a Wukong/drake skin alloy and then made the ribs hollow with opening out of the top of them.
"Hmm, this should do."
"I would also like to buy 5 kg of mithril and could I also commission a god for a painting?"
"The mithril will cost you 500,000 TC and yes, you can commission a god."
[Contacting gods.]
[Some regulars of yours, "The Four Great Masters of the Ming Dynasty" want to paint your fan.]
[Do you accept?]
'Hmm, the Four Great Masters, so Shen Zhou, Wen Zhengming, Tang Yin, and Qiu Ying... they really were worthy of being called that.'
"Will all four be working on the painting?"
[Yes]
"And how much will it cost?"
[They say that it will cost you 1,000,000 TC]
'1,000,000 TC is kinds expensive, but it is the Four Great Masters after all, it will probably be worth it.'
I was really only doing this because I was too lazy to paint something on the fan myself and it would probably look like shit anyways.
I mean, I was only willing to go this far for a painting because this fan would be my weapon for my entire journey up the tower, so it needed to be special after all.
"Alright, I'll accept."
The fan disappeared out of the room.
I was then forced to wait.
Hours passed, but the fan still hadn't come back.
Finally, after about 12 hours of waiting had gone by, the fan reappeared, closed of course.
"Those old geezers really wanted to surprise me huh."
I then put my hands gingerly on the fan as I slowly opened it up.
I don't know if it was because masters had drawn the painting or if it was just due to how profound the painting was, but I had to stare at it for a few seconds before being able to completely comprehend it.
It was a completely black and white landscape, picturing the clouds and sky over a luscious cliff overviewing the ocean. There was a waterfall flowing down the cliff that disturbed the calm waves of the ocean, ripples spreading out of the epicenter. Past the ocean was a distant land that you could barely make out, and the sun behind it, just above the horizon. And the whole drawing was backdropped on the faded golden Wukong/drake leather alloy, making it look ancient and mystical.
"Beautiful." I murmured.
[The Four Great Masters of the Ming Dynasty are happy that you are appreciative of their work.]
I then started using the mithril.
I reinforced the ribs, sticks, and rivets of the fan with the mithril and then used the rest of the mithril to make 10 long, extremely thin mithril needles.
I then put each needle in one of the 10 hollowed out ridges and sticks that I had made.
(A/N: If you're confused by what the ridges and sticks of a fan are, then just search up something like "Parts of a hand fan".)
"I would like to add enchantments to my fan."
[What enchantments would you like?]
"Please add a returning enchantment, a self healing enchantment, a piercing enchantment, and a mirage enchantment."
[That would be another 100,000,000 TC, could you please confirm?]
"Yes."
[Enchantments will now be added on.]
I watched as blue lines started crawling up and down my fan, forming intricate shapes and structures, a language that probably only I could understand, as I was the one that created the magical enchantment language after all.
[Are you satisfied with your weapon?]
"Yes."
[Would you like to name it?]
"Name it... "The One That Split the Night"".
[Creating weapon...]
[Linking it to player "Shinobu".]
...
[Link successful! Player "Shinobu" can now access the weapon stats by thinking or saying "Night stats".]
"Night stats."
["The One That Split the Night" (SSS Ranked - Weapon):
Strength: 10,000
Break Rate: 0%
Mana Conductivity: 50,000
Weight: 5 kg
Length: 25 cm
Width: 1cm - 40cm
-------------------------------
Active Skill - Return: When the fan is injected with mana, the needles that were ejected out will return immediately.
Passive Skill - Self Heal: The weapon will heal by itself over time.
Active Skill - Pierce: A projectile that comes out of this weapon will undoubtedly pierce through the first think it reaches no matter what and will keep a constant speed even after piercing through the object.
Passive Skill - Dancing Mirages: When moved around, the weapon will leave behind numerous afterimages that can be used to confuse an opponent.
Description: An unmatched unique weapon that can only be made one time in this tower. "The One That Split the Night" is bounded to player "Shinobu".]
Reading the description of Night, I couldn't help but smile at my decisions, as even though it used up a lot of money, it was worth it in the end.
'I guess the mithril also helped.'
In my game, mithril had been an unmatched material in terms of mana conductivity, making it one of the most sought after metals in the Tower of Ordeals.
It was also the third strongest material in the tower, just barely behind Adamantium and Orichalcum.
With the high mana conductivity of Night, I could use the enchantments on it many times in one battle which normally, would take a high amount of mana to use.
If I could only use the enchantments once or twice in one sitting without the mithril, I could probably use them 500-600 times in one sitting with the mithril.
After checking everything about the weapon and making sure that I was satisfied with the results, I turned around, looking at the blue portal that had been behind me the entire time.
'Well, I guess I should check my stats one last time before going into the main tower.'
[Player Shinubwa Lv. 87 (74,213,910 TC):
Strength: 37
Stamina: 57
Agility: 47
Mana: 47
Hp: 37
Perception: 47
Intelligence: 37
Extra Stat Points: 18 (Reward for completing 10th floor trial.)
-------------------------------
Job: None
Titles: "Perseverance Maniac", "The One Who Broke the Limits of Humanity", "Millionaire"
Skills: Tactical Domination (S), Figureless Shadow (AAA), Firestorm (AA+)
Bounded Weapons: "The One That Split the Night"]
(A/N: He leveled up twice more for completing the 10th floor trial.)
'Everything seems to be in order.'
I slowly walked through the portal, the door that was both my past, present, and future, anticipating what awaited ahead in my journey up the tower that I had created.