Upon climbing to Floor 2, the design changed on me. It was puzzling to see green, anything in such a drab place. The trees were a shade of Jungle Green, Lush Greenery, Orange Tiger and Spanish Crimson. From each branch, an unknown flower was blossoming and producing nectar (something I couldn't fucking eat! THANKS, creator!!!!).
As I began to look around, I needed to see what was this place.
"Sy, current status on Floor 2."
"Wake, Floor 2 is designated as Fiery Flora. The enemy types found here are different brands of Treants, a Goblin Tribe that houses 50+ with a shaman, berserker and tribe captain and finally, a few Salamanders. The trees here are identified as [Kayin Blossompine]. They are nice because the nectar is a sticky substance and can be used to trap and ambush certain monsters or to use on yourself to change the properties of your skeletal features.
The floor boss is one of those mentioned. Looking at the systematic progression for heroes, those who are LV 5 should do this easily. You'll need to get some skill points to compete."
The nectar that I was just insulting was something I could make very much use of as I can use it to gain a rather interesting ability or passive. The nectar of the Kayin Blossompine will be a point to remember in the immediate future.
"Makes sense considering that I can't level up. So, which species have skeletons to utilize?"
"The Goblin Tribe and the Salamanders... I would recommend the Goblin Tribe first."
"What's the cause for holding on the Salamanders???"
"You're not fast or agile enough to keep up with them, let alone catch and kill one."
"Couldn't I just use the nectar that was mentioned to trap said salamander?"
"That would be ill-advised as they are indeed, salamanders and they do breathe fire. The nectar is also flammable and volatile."
"Yikes. Ok then, scratch that idea. Change of plan, lead me to every Goblin I can take with my current stats."
"Locating Goblin Scouts and Sentries... A group of three due north. I'll use a beacon only we can see to start tracking."
"Good work, Sy. Time to start hunting."
Sy nodded as we begun to get started with the goblin hunt. She gleefully began to scan the area while I kept vigilant for any ambushes. The two of us (without too much time) found the group of three. As we observed some more, one of the goblins strayed from the other two and was being a bit too, curious for my liking. Being a skeleton, one good trait was that no one could detect if you're alive unless they delved deep into the necromantic side of magic or was inept in mana identification. Goblins as a whole didn't have such aptitude for such and as a result, it would be easy for me to go and just, lay down on the ground.
The goblin saw me and began to prod and poke. Seeing that it didn't cause me damage, I allowed it to continue while awaiting an opening. My club was under me and this goblin seemed to be too weak to lift me without help. As it decided to turn tail and walk off, I stood up, grabbed my club and with a quick blow to the back of the head, it did the damage needed to knock the fucker out. Although the goblin wasn't dead to rights, one more downward bash to the skull would be enough to bring his story to an end. Seeing the blood and brain matter, I quickly lifted him up and took him close to the heavily wooded section of the floor. If anything was to be assumed, his friends would go looking for him and eventually realize that he was probably eaten by the salamanders.
Upon dragging the body away from danger, I needed to skin and grind the prize. Using the glass barbs from the club, I was able to get some of the meat and skin off of the hands and feet. With the bone exposed, I pulverized the bones and using the blood that was dripping from the Goblin's head, I slathered the crushed bones and blood onto my legs.
"Wake, since this your first time, your growth will be linked to SPE and AGI for a day or so. My recommendation is to continue to kill off the Goblins and increase your Club Mastery while gaining more points into SPE and AGI."
"What's the rate of stats for each full skeleton applied?"
"From Scouts and Sentries, 10 AGI and 10 SPE. There's also 7 points that can be assigned once the entire skeleton is absorbed. The reactive time for the stats to take effect is an hour."
"Well, lets do this and wait the required hour."
"Would you like to auto-distribute your seven points upon completion?"
"Yes. Distro the points into SPE. I will need that in the coming battles and having a good SPE stat will help with the STR I'll be looking to add as well."
"Wake, what is, [Distro]?"
"Distro is short for distribute or distribution. An old military term from outside the tower."
"You seem to know a lot about what's happening outside the tower."
"It seems that anything other than my past is fair knowledge to retain. Acceptable, considering that I don't want to relive the past. Only the future and ascending the towers are my purpose now. Sy, remember, we're a team and as such, we stick together."
"Of course, Wake."
Sy nodded as we continued to do the best in applying the entire skeleton to mine. The blood was a simple means to provide the bonding fluid to slather onto myself. Sy continued to scan for more scouts when an alert popped up.
"Wake, I have information of a party of heroes that just entered the floor."
"Ok. What's the group's collective levels and the average level of each member?"
"The collective level is Level 10. The average level of each member is close to Level 2. Would you like to see your current stats?"
"Yes please."
"Retrieving Stats:
Name: Wake Stitcher
Creature Type: Skeleton (Basic)
Level: N/A
HP: 100 (Red Level 1)
MP: 0
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 10
RES: 10
SPE: 5 (15)
AGI: 5 (15)
Points to use on stats: 7 (Will be distributed to SPE upon cooldown completion)
Weapon: Glass Shard Club
Damage: 15+STR
Armor: N/A
Damage Reduction: +1
Skills:
Bone Meld
Fluid Absorption
Memory Thievery
Skills in Progress:
Club Mastery (Basic Level)
These are currently your stats. May I make a recommendation?"
"Of course. What's your recommendation about this party?"
"I would look to ambush the party. Here's the level of each member with their class they selected prior to entering Ebony Tower #1:
Fighter, Level 3
Mage, Level 1
Cleric, Level 1
Defender, Level 4
Gravekeeper, Level 1
This is the party in question. They're currently at the entrance of Fiery Flora, setting up camp for the night with the fighter and defender assuming patrol. Ambushing them would yield the best results and will likely grant you a new weapon or some basic armor...."
"Hm. A good idea, but what are the rules about attacking heroes? The last thing we need is to attract attention to us, needlessly."
"There's a safety period of an hour when heroes first enter the floor. By the time they get settled in, the grace period would have been expired for a while. Who will you target first?"
"The first member on patrol. By the time I can adjust this full skeletal system as normal, they would have settled for the evening. I'll attract the first member of patrol and ambush them with a back-attack."
"Effective, considering that back-attacks will result in increased damage. Will you continue to use the club?"
"To be honest, yes. I feel like I'll need to keep a higher STR to wield this and by mastering the club fully, I can always improvise the weapon as anything blunt."
"I, never considered that. So by mastering the club, you're thinking that there's a chance that blunt weapon mastery would be available?"
"That's the hope."
As Sy and I got to walking to the entrance of Fiery Flora once more, the goblin scouts were beginning to become more numerous in number and in size. To keep the heroes from getting stronger, I needed to intercept any future goblin parties while steering clear of any Treants or Salamanders. With the remaining two from the first scouting party, I dispatched them one by one using the old "Look Like a Skeleton, Kill from Behind Tactic". After killing off those two a new alert popped up.
"Wake, a new passive have been obtained."
"Don't leave me in suspense, what is that bad boy!?"
"The Passive: Club Assassination."
"Club Assassination. I like it. An explanation, if you would be so kind!"
"Of course!!!
Club Assassination will allow you to deal triple the damage when attacking targets from behind with a club. There's also a 5% chance that the target in question will die because of the ambush and a 25% chance to leave a concussion on them."
"So, is [Concuss] a status effect?"
"Indeed. [Concuss] will force the victim to use only basic attacks and will have their INT stat cut in half until the concussion ends. In addition, they lose all INT bonuses and bonus damage using INT weapons!"
"So, leave a concussion on a mage, fuck their couch! I love it!"
"So, I know I may be out of touch, but what is the term [Fuck Their Couch]?"
"Not going to explain that today. Maybe another time. Just know that it's a very powerful and degrading insult."
"Noted, [Fuck Their Couch] is an insult. "
"A derivative of [Fuck Yo Couch]."
"Noted..."
Sy was utterly and profoundly confused by the use of slang and knowledge of said slang I presented. Not going to mince words, that was the best I was going to come up with today. Considering that things were going to be moving rather swiftly, I needed to skin and peel the meat off of these two new bodies. When looking at the bodies and then my weapon, two things needed to be procured:
- A Skinning Knife
- A Butcher's Knife
With neither in my hands and seeing that the bodies didn't posses them either, I was, frustrated to say the least. As I silently malded for the next several minutes, Sy picked up that I wasn't happy, at all.
"Wake, I can sense some, frustration in your energy..."
"I need a skinning and a butcher knife. Problem is I can't craft anything..."
"Is that the problem? As a monster in the Ebony Tower System, you do have access to the Monster Store."
"Good to know NOW!!!!! Nevermind, what is required to shop there?"
"Access to the system or a navigator, which you have right here!"
Sy was very proud to point at herself while demonstrating that she was indeed, the navigator needed for shop access. Her smugness was showing bit too much. I'm going to have to tone her the fuck down in the future.
"Hm.. Very good. Can I get a inventory and price check for said items?"
"Gladly! Here's your current inventory:
2x Goblin Corpse
1x Goblin Crude Dagger
1x Goblin Clothing
Monster Coin (40)
The current price for the butcher knife is 35 Monster Coin (MC) and the skinning knife is going for 20 MC. There is an offer from Ironclad to sell both at black iron quality for 35 MC. Supplies are limited. Should I may that request with the current funds available?"
"Immediately."
"Making Request. This will take a few moments."
A few moments felt like an eternity when a sale was at stake. Getting tools and weapons through this system already seemed like a huge headache, if I was able to have migraines. I sat quietly as I observed my surroundings as Sy was doing her thing. When Sy was doing things, I noticed that she changed color based off of what she was doing:
- Red meant that she was in the middle of doing a thing. Whatever the thing is, she needed full attention to it. I stood guard when that happened.
- Blue was just her default standby. Normal conversations happens here.
- Yellow was processing new information that she didn't have originally. The creator of the towers really was selective on who learned what.
- Green meant that what she was doing while in the red was complete.
- Purple was her scanning the area.
- Orange always meant that a new change happened, whether it was me or on the floor we we're currently in.
Her body glowed green after ten minutes. I got ready for the results.
"Wake, the offer was accepted and Ironclad would like to speak to us personally. Requesting permission to speak via system link..."
"Patch them in."
As Sy was preparing to patch me with Ironclad, I readied myself to speak to a smith of their caliber. It was something akin to using a cellphone, I guess? Sy signaled me to Ironclad and I was able to hear her and them directly. From the image, it looked like a Dwarf, a male one at that. Fitting that a dwarf would be the one to sell tools based on iron and metal. I didn't question it as I got ready for my first ever, conference call.
"Hello, Ironclad."
"Well hello there, Wake."
"Wake, Ironclad here is a specialist on tools and armor. He would be of great help to us."
"Indeed. Getting access to tools and armor would be a boon for the two of us, seeing that if I bite the dust, so do you."
"I rather not be reminded of that. I'm still processing the best methods on not getting the both of us killed. Despite my best efforts, it seems like I'm lacking a lot. Fitting because I was only designed to give new heroes a tutorial on the status screen."
Sy for the first time, showed emotion. Her sadness showed and I felt a bit responsible for that fact. Had I not decided to climb, I would have been the tutorial beating stick.
"Sy, don't be sad. A living, learning AI is far more valuable than a tutorial throwaway."
"Wake.... Thank you. Let me cheer up real quick and then we'll continue!"
Sy quickly got herself together when she turned orange. A change happened and this time, it was her!
"WAKE!! I got an upgrade!"
"Do tell."
"Since another AI was designated and designed to stay at Floor 1, I've been upgraded to get navigator privileges! As of now, once per floor, we can survive a lethal strike!"
HOLY SHIT! That set of information was huge! This would ensure that I can climb and if a miscalculation happened, we would get a do-over before our imminent demise. This was a great boon. The creator must have a plan incoming.
"Also Wake, you now have a [Focus]."
"Explain."
"Since the creator recognized that you got cheated out of a life of a hero and the fact that you kill indiscriminately, the [Focus] is that you're going to be a roaming boss. You have a new task you can start on whenever we finish."
"Indeed. Seeing that I can't level, but have a [Focus], I guess there's prizes and upgrades for finishing a task."
"YES! Many rewards are granted when a task is completed. Oh! Sorry Ironclad, got excited there."
"No problem, it's not everyday that an AI gets promoted and a skeleton gets a [Focus]. I'm just content to be doing business with a roamer. So, a brief history on me: I love to build armor and I do what I love. I make armor and produce Monster Metal that can be used to produce new types of armor. I see two goblins that were, freshly killed."
"Yes indeed. Interested in them? Aside from the cracked skulls, they are in pretty good condition."
"Aye! I make Monster Metals using Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, you name it, I can make it. I see that you took the offer for the Black Iron Butcher Set. I see you also got the capital to make that a reality! I'll toss in a Black Iron Pickaxe so you can mine out some metals so I can create new gear."
"What do I get in return? Surely, you not expecting me to do this task for free?"
"Oh no! Not at all! I will be willing to provide you with the latest in armor as I need a skeleton to see if the fit is correct and I will grant you the prototype. I would also be willing to give you a 10% cut on the profits made from these, pathetic heroes I'm going to fleece with the armor I produce."
I had to think on the subject for a minute or two. On the one hand, I'm only getting a 10% cut of the profits and I'm going to be doing quite a bit of work that I wasn't anticipating to do. On the other hand, I would get armor for free and it would be the prototype, so finding weaknesses in the armor would be very much a boon. The pros just was too good to pass up and I could make mining fun by finding different things and procuring newer metals. I wanted a second opinion before finalizing this deal.
"Sy, what do you think?"
"Wake, you want my opinion?"
"Yes."
"I, wasn't prepared for this."
"Get used to this. As my navigator and partner, I would like your input in matters like this."
"Though the profits aren't in our favor, it would be foolish to not take advantage of getting prototype armor and then keeping it. Also, I would think that with this kind of deal, we would need to keep in constant contact with Ironclad. As your navigator, I say we make him a Prime Business Partner and we'll just have to make due with the profit margin he provides.
Besides, we're going to be roaming the towers anyhow. Money shouldn't be a thing because we don't use Gold. We use Monster Coins and for every 1 Gold, we get 10 MC. Personally, I think that is more than fair."
"I like the exchange rate and if my goal is to fuck over heroes, I want to do it effectively."
"Wake, in the future, limit your profanity, please."
"Don't like me cursing?"
"It's, taxing to process so many curse words. Eventually, the navigation censor team will be on us."
"That's a bad thing, right?"
"Yes, Wake. The censor team are a bad thing."
"Well, shit."
"WAKE!"
"Ok, ok! I'll hold on the cursing."
"Thank you. Now, we should finish this transaction."
"Lets."
After our first real argument, we got ourselves together and patched back in with Ironclad. He was twiddling with his hammer.
"Ironclad, with great thought and pleasure, I accept this transaction and partnership opportunity. Sy, designate Ironclad as a vendor and a partner."
"I'll get right on that, Wake."
"Wake, my boy, you've made a great decision this day! As a result, payment for the set isn't required. Consider this a, gift for future ventures and new discoveries!"
"Dwarven Smith, Ironclad is now in our network of vendors and is also designated as a prime partner."
"Ironclad, welcome to our network. I'll have something for you in the very near future. For now, you can make use of the goblins I have available."
"EXCELLENT! I'll start working on smeltering some Goblin Steel for ya. Checking your STR, would something akin to Chain Mail suffice?"
"Yes. The links that a Chain Mail would do will be great for me."
"Have your contact reach out for me tomorrow for your fit."
"Please address me as Sy. I'm a navigator assigned to Skeleton Wake."
"Well then, we lass. Sy, put an alert out for tomorrow to make contact with me so I can get Wake his fit."
"Will do. Applying alert for tomorrow for Wake's Armor."
"Well, I'm going to start making my way back to the entrance to take out some heroes. Be Well, Be Merry, Do Awesome!"
"I LOVE THAT EXIT! You should use that in every exit you do when in the shops. I'm sure that more vendors will appreciate the business you two provide. I'll also put in a good word to my brother, Sledgefall. He's a savant in weaponsmithing and what you have right now, won't be enough to do what you might be doing in the future!"
"Indeed. Wake will need to have an arsenal of weapons to be able to do what it is required of him as a [Roaming Threat]."
"AH! Big shoes for someone who is climbing this tower."
"Not just this tower, Ironclad. Every possible tower that we can get access to. Our final goal is to get to a point that we can't be killed by any means. Thus, as his navigator, I will ensure that we succeed."
"I see, the [Focus] is to be this [Roaming Threat] that governs whatever tower I inhabit."
"Yes."
"Well then, Censors be damned right now, TIME TO FUCK THEIR COUCHES HARDER THAN FUCKING LIFE ITSELF!!!!"
"Good Luck, Sy. I can feel the Censor Team fining you lot."
"*Sigh* Thank you, Ironclad. I also get the feeling that we're going to be fined a lot of coin."
As we finished our transaction with Ironclad, the Black Iron Set was delivered.
- Black Iron Skinning Knife
- Black Iron Butcher's Knife
- Black Iron Pickaxe
We continued to make our way to the camp, all the while, still observing the Kayin Blossompine flowers. Sy looked at me and was curious on my thoughts.
"Need a container for the sap?"
"Tomorrow. For now, we need to hold tight and keep a good distance. The ambush needs to be on point and we don't want to alert the Level 3 or 4 without getting one more skeleton fused into me."
"There's a lone goblin about a mile from your location. We're ahead of schedule, so killing it would be advised. Also, here's your current stats:
Name: Wake Stitcher
Creature Type: Skeleton (Basic)
Level: N/A
HP: 100 (Red Level 1)
MP: 0
STR: 10
VIT: 10
INT: 10
RES: 10
SPE: 22
AGI: 15
Points to use on stats: 0
Weapon: Glass Shard Club
Damage: 15+STR
Armor: N/A
Damage Reduction: +1
Skills:
Bone Meld
Fluid Absorption
Memory Thievery
Club Assassination
Skills in Progress:
Club Mastery (Basic Level) [3/10 Slain]
Are we going to proceed with an ambush or will a frontal assault suffice? You do have enough SPE to attack or get the jump on it without having to *be* a corpse."
"We'll use the bush. Let's prepare so that when the time comes, that hero squad is dead to rights."
"I agree. Proceeding to navigation mode."
"Onward."
With that, we had a goblin to find and a squad to kill. Our night was going to be an eventful one.