As Tai began to enter the tower, he felt a hand tap his shoulder as he turned around.
"Hey man, that's some pretty cool armor; Can you tell me where I can find some?" A man of average height and build, with brown hair and hazel eyes asked Tai with a genuine smile.
"Oh-uh...my apologies, how stupid of me, my names Kor, and yours?" The man realized his mistake as he introduced himself.
"The names Tai. It's nice to meet you," Tai was surprised to see a friendly person, in such a hostile atmosphere.
"And sorry, but this was given to me by a friend; she didn't tell me where she got it from." He lied. One could never be too careful, after all.
"Awe man, that's unfortunate. Anyway it was nice meeting you. And just a heads up, it isn't my first time coming here, and if you don't know ask me, and also it's best to stay away from those types of people." Said Kor as he subtly pointed at a group of clearly wealthy Ascenders, it was obvious that they carried an arrogant air.
"Thanks for the tip." Replied Tai, as he gave a nod of acknowledgement to the man and entered the tower.
...
The towers first level held a stark contrast to the surrounding outside world, which carried an incredibly barren feeling in comparison. The first floor exuded a feeling of overgrowth and death.
Tai stood still for a moment, observing and absorbing the contents of his surroundings. The level similarly to the tower itself, was big, spanning at least a hundred miles. The level was split into four sectors. These included: The Abyssal Woods, the Bloody Plains, the Treacherous Mountains, and the Narrow Caves.
An area of three kilometers had been cleared out as a way to keep newbie Ascenders from getting immediately jumped and killed by monsters.
Tai peered into the large expanse of death filled plains. As a sight that was enough to unsettle an experienced soldier permeated and consolidated the atmosphere of The Tower Of Misery.
For an undetermined length of land lay countless dead creatures and Ascenders, their bodies made mountains, blood formed rivers, and corpses became the soils nutrients. Tai entered the bloody plains.
"Fuck....this is rough," Tai felt remorseful for a small moment. Then, he began to run deeper into the plains. 'I can't dwell on these people, their dead and that's that, if I wish to avoid their fate, I must overcome my adversities, and not hesitate.'
"I've always wanted to be the strongest, the best, and the most skilled fighter. And now, with this ability; I finally have a chance!" Tai outwardly screamed out, as if his voice would fill the universe.
He had always dreamed of being a fighter, but due to the curse that was chronicle blockage, he was never able to pursue that dream. Resigning himself to a less than mediocre life, Tai had accepted his reality. Years of martial training gone down the drain, and his vitality sucked dry, he lost faith and became a simple worker drone. That was...until he had that faithful encounter.
Tai swore that he would not waste the opportunity given to him. He swore that he would either rise and become unrivaled, or he would die trying.
Energy and vitality filled Tai as he ran around the plains looking for an opponent; monster or human. And his wishes were soon answered.
"Plop, plop, plop!"
Wet smacking noises suddenly sounded out behind a hill of corpses, causing the Rank zero Ascender, Tai, to stop abruptly. In a defensive stance, Tai slowly peaked around the corpse hill. There, he saw a humanoid figure, roughly standing at 5ft 5in with an incredibly skinny figure. Though the creature was short, it's arms were abnormally long. This caused a disturbing malformation in the creatures body.
Sensing something, the creature turned to find Tai staring at it. There, Tai could see a huge mouth dripping with blood. The creatures mouth contained hundreds of razor sharp teeth, as bits of flesh could be seen sloshing within. It's eyes were void like, containing only an impermeable darkness. A common theme with this tower.
"Holy...you are one ugly bastard." Tai exclaimed as he tightened his grip on his daggers. Tai refrained from sneak attacking the monster as that would make impossible to gain an ability from it.
"Growl" The creature let out a disgusting noise akin to a growl, as it faced Tai on all fours.
Instantly! Tai dashed at the creature as the creature propelled itself towards him. Unexpectedly, the creatures speed was faster than his own, and by many times.
"Chingggg" The sound of metal clashing rang out as Tai's dagger connected with the monsters arm. Unsurprised, Tai took the stalemate as a chance stab at the creatures gut, whilst still holding it off with the one dagger. Seeing this, the creature used it legs and jumped in the air. Spinning to face down at Tai mid air, it tired to grab Tai's head using its long arms. Seeing this, Tai dropped his left dagger, grabbing at the arm of the monster, and using its momentum against it, he yanked down, smashing the monster into the ground.
"Chikkk!!" The monster let out a wail as it's bones broke.
Taking the opportunity, Tai picked up his dagger and charged towards the staggered monster. Seeing this, the monster ignored the pain as it got up and kicked forward. The force was enough to propel itself like an arrow, an arrow that Tai narrowly avoided. Due to the unimpeded momentum of the monster, it crashed into the hill of corpses with incredible force, causing the bodies to explode. Blood mist rained down in an area of five meters as Tai grabbed the monster by Its neck and jabbed his dagger into its eye.
The monster let out a brief ear piercing cry before it died. After dying, the chronicle energy contained within the body of the monster was released and entered the thing closest to it, Tai. As it entered, information began appear in Tai's mind.
"Hmm, it had the power of bodily strengthening. It's a shame for the creature, if it was smarter, it would have been a harder battle. It looks like I need to kill another one with this same ability in order to obtain the power, this one seems to have been insufficient." Tai muttered quietly as he began to walk in hopes of finding another monster.
Though Tai had yet to become a Rank 1 Ascender, he had already reached the peak of the human body, so he was only out of breath for a moment after the short fight.
...
Tai didn't have to wait long to find another monster. Shortly after leaving the area, he ran into three more of the humanoid creatures. At this moment, Tai was out numbered and outpowered.
'It looks like I'll be relying on my skill for this battle. But that's fine with me, these creatures are only fodder to serve my development.' Tai inwardly claimed with an eerie enough smile that even the monsters reeled back.
Tai held up his daggers as he tightened his muscles and got into a defensive stance. Taking this as initiation, the monsters screeched as they pounced on Tai. Due to their stupidity, their teamwork was non existent and their attacks were basic. Seeing the path in front of him, Tai rolled below one of the air bound monsters in front of him, turning and attempting to stab it in the nape of its neck. However, the monster dodged as the other two closed in for an attack.
Seeing this, Tai let the first of two punches out, as he narrowly dodged the punch of one monster he grabbed its arm, pulled it in, and sent a kick into its face , sending it flying into the second of the two monsters. Before he could take the chance to kill the two staggered monsters, Tai knew to refocus on the third. He turned just in time to see a fist fast approaching him. Ducking under it, the punch missed and the monster snarled as it attempted to pull its fist back. But without giving it a chance, Tai ferociously grabbed its arm as he slammed his dagger against it, breaking the arms bone and eventually tearing what seemed to be its forearm off.
"Arcckkkk!!!!" The monster wailed in pain, as it spasmed on the ground, but the wails abruptly stopped as Tai crushed its skull. Doing so caused the creatures chronicle energy to spew out of its body and enter Tai's.
'Finally....My first ability!' Tai inwardly exclaimed, though he could not dwell as he had to kill the remaining monsters. With them both being injured, Tai made quick work of them as he threw a dagger into ones head, and slit the throat of the other.
"Hah..hah, hah," After fighting off those monsters, Tai was left quite exhausted. Thankfully the monsters were weak, as they appeared to have a poor constitution, even with their innate power.
"Final-finally, an-an ability. The ability of bodily strengthening as well, I hope this doesn't disappoint!" Tai excitedly said as he sat up drank some water and began to meditate. Meditating was the way of embracing ones surroundings, and was considered the best way of being Intune with chronicle energy, besides killing monsters and other Ascenders, this was the best way of cultivating ones power.
...
Tai sat and absorbed the knowledge of his power, as he let the chronicle energy change and adjust his cells. His body had undergone a complete structural change. His cells had been strengthened and mutated to use abilities, his skin, muscles and bones had become many times denser, he felt like he could crush hundreds of the creatures he just fought. He felt reborn, as an energy that constantly refreshed him, coursed through his body. His vitality and constitution had completely changed, he had become a Rank one Ascender. And most of all, he had gained an ability.