Chereads / The Tower Sage / Chapter 9 - 8th Floor

Chapter 9 - 8th Floor

It took an unknown time for Orthis to regain consciousness but even then he could hardly move and there wasn't a part of his body that didn't hurt, well, almost but the dark knight seemed to have enough honor left not to go for certain areas.

With his blurry vision, he couldn't clearly discern his surroundings but he knew that it was blue, very blue. It took a few minutes before the world began to regain some clarity and he began to take in his surroundings.

Wherever he was, it was unlike any previous floors he had been to as this floor looked more like the waiting space of a highly advanced VR game. All six directions were in the same blue color with some particles and triangles in different tones of blue floating in the distance.

Orthis couldn't see Urman anywhere but he wasn't too worried about him, if he died he would see his corpse near him, which he didn't, and if this was a solo floor as he was suspecting, then he would also be taking a nap in another blue space.

Just as Orthis was thinking that, his vision was bombarded with messages from his teammate.

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[Urman: Are you there?]

[Urman: Dude, answer me, I'm worried]

[Urman: Hello? Anyone there? How did I even get here? The last thing I remember is being knocked out by that knight guy]

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Orthis couldn't help but smile at that, as reckless, impatient, and loud Urman was, he was also a good friend. After reading through the other messages, he finally replied.

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[Orthis: Calm down, I'm fine, I was taking a nap]

[Urman: Thank Goodness, you had me worried there, pal. What happened?]

[Orthis: Well, after you decided to take a power nap, I was left to fight against the dark knight alone]

[Urman: Hey, don't put this on me, I couldn't help it, I need my 7 hours of sleep every day]

[Orthis: Whatever you say, sleeping beauty. Well, after receiving quite a beating, I used everything I had to throw my spear at him as a last-ditch effort, and this time he decided to stay dead]

[Urman: That's it? You don't seriously expect me to believe this, do you? I might not be as smart as you but don't think I'm naïve]

[Orthis: At least you know you are no match for my superior intellect, that's the first step of many]

[Urman: Fuck you]

[Orthis: And yes, this is actually what happened, sort of. The system notified me that I used Mana in my last struggle, so this might be the reason]

[Urman: Mana? On Floor 7?? There's no way, this would make this a moment of history and you one of the greatest geniuses to ever be recorded]

[Orthis: That big of a deal? Anyway, how are you?]

[Urman: Sore but other than that in decent shape, you?]

[Orthis: Managing. I can barely move my head but I'm recovering quite fast, I should be back on my feet in an hour or two]

[Urman: Ouch, well, thanks for dragging my ass to the next floor and not letting me die and all that. I will start the quest now, I will message you when I'm going to the next floor]

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"He seems to be doing just fine without me, looks like I drew the short stick this time" Orthis muttered as he just blankly stared into the blue, waiting for his body to recover enough strength to stand.

"Well, I might as well use this free time to do some other things besides trying to discover a new color in blue. I never got time to spam Insight on Affinity on the last floor as I planned, no better time to rectify that."

Before putting his whole attention into uncovering the secrets of Affinity, he opened his status to look at his current stats.

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[Name: Orthis]

[Talent: Sage (???-rank)]

[Race: Tower Human]

[Class: none]

[Floor: 8]

[Health: 36%]

[Mana: 540]

[Strength: 27]

[Endurance: 32]

[Agility: 23]

[Mind: 27]

[Skills: Crafting, Spear Mastery, Focus, Regeneration]

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[Weapon skill: Spear Mastery]

[Proficiency: 49%]

[Sub-skill: Cleave, level 43]

[Sub-skill: Pierce, level 39]

[Sub-skill: Throw, level 20]

[Sub-skill: Block, level 38]

[Sub-skill: Dodge, level 37]

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[ Life skill: Crafting]

[Proficiency: 24%]

[Sub-skill: Cooking, level 11]

[Sub-skill: Brewing, level 15]

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[Auxiliary skill: Focus]

[Proficiency: 60%]

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[Auxiliary skill: Regeneration]

[Body (Low): 8%]

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"This looks very fine but 36% Health? Seems like I was closer to death than I'd like to admit, even after who knows how long with my new regeneration skill."

At the low level, body regeneration could only heal minor wounds and reconnect bones, which merely boosted the effect of his Endurance stat. Having seen his stats and skills, Orthis began spamming Insight on Affinity.

Most of the time he would only get useless or cryptic responses but sometimes he came across pieces of important info. With how little use Insight had at the moment, it was clear that the topic of Affinities was above his current level, after all, his Insight and other aspects of his talent all grew with him.

"A bit weird considering I could accurately inspect Odin's lost eye and other similar items of great origin. Does this mean that the origin of Affinities is even higher than Odin and Horus' or is there something else I'm missing?" Orthis didn't know the answer and he hated not getting his answers answered.

After several hours of relentless spamming Insight and recovering to 53%, Orthis could finally stand again and now knew more things about Affinities.

Every living being, even some non-living ones, has at least one Affinity from birth. They are mostly determined at birth and never change but there are rare cases of people getting new Affinities, improving or deteriorating existing ones, the causes for that can vary from something as simple as an unsuitable personality to consuming a treasure.

Affinities were ranked as follows; Low < Mid < High < Extreme < Unnatural < Divine < Absolute. There were many types of Affinities, some extremely powerful, some useless, others rare, and others found in almost every fifth person.

Existing Affinities weren't fixed either, there were constantly new Affinities being born but generally, the oldest ones were the most powerful, it was just hard for something like Musik to compete with Time in any way.

Orthis current Affinities were not as high as he had expected considering he had absorbed many Affinities from other beings but he also found out the reason for that. Whatever the psycho from Earth did to him, not only took away his talent but completely scooped out his soul.

That day he lost not only his Talent and fate but also all Affinities he had, leaving him with an emptiness in his soul that his True Talent was desperately trying to fill. He was lucky that he got the keep his memories and personality but he would be lying if he said he wasn't beginning to slowly feel the emptiness inside him growing, causing his thirst for knowledge to grow far beyond what it used to be. One day it might grow to the point where he would no longer care about his life and sell his soul to a demon for some forbidden knowledge if he wasn't careful.

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[Fire: High]

[Earth: Mid]

[Metal: Extreme]

[Energy: Unnatural]

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These were the Affinities he currently had after absorbing the mutants in the desert, the humanoid rock climber, the many robots of the sci-fi city, and Ishum. Just one Affinity at the high level would make him a very promising person but he had two more Affinities above the high level, each higher than the other. If a high-level Affinity was enough to make him someone with potential, an Extreme Affinity made him a genius, and an Unnatural level one made him a prodigy that was nearly impossible to come by in people without some powerful lineage or divine origin.

"Who the hell is Ishum to have an Affinity just a step below the realm of gods? First, it's a True Talent and now an Unnatural Affinity. I wonder what else it has hidden. It might be a dangerous enemy but it is also a chest of opportunities." Orthis mumbled with new respect, excitement, and even a bit of fear as he thought about this mysterious enemy of his.

"Well, enough time wasted. Now that I can stand again, it's time to look at this floor's quest."

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[Quest: Preview]

[Description: On the 10th Floor you will have to choose a future path that cannot be reversed and not be made lightly. This Floor is a simulated environment where the climbers can choose an opponent of any class and experience their power for themselves. You only need to defeat one opponent to go to the next floor but you can continue to challenge other opponents to experience their powers and get a chance for a better class on the 10th floor.]

[Reward: 50 Silver Coins for every opponent defeated]

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"No wonder I haven't been killed for lying around, I need to first choose an opponent. I know it says this is a simulation but I wonder if I can still get stats from them, after all, some of the previous floors were also just very high-level simulations and I got stats from absorbing my kills. If I do, this is the perfect floor for me, I would fight everyone even if it didn't give extra rewards. God, I'm starting to sound like Urman." He speculated. If he was right, this might become a very fruitful floor after all.

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[Select a Tier 1 Class]

[Archer, Warrior, Scholar, Apothecary]

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In front of him was a large structure that resembled a skill tree and functioned the same way. If he wanted to unlock higher Tiers, he had to first defeat the previous classes, not that he would do it any other way.

After reading through each class description, Orthis selected the Archer class and the surroundings changed from their surreal blue to an old-fashioned Colosseum, with the exception that instead of an empty field, it had several objects to take cover or to better showcase the class's strong points.

Before he could even look at his opponent's stats, the sound of something traveling through the air at a fast speed made him put up his guard. Orthis calculated the location and trajectory path of the arrow based on the sound and just tilted his head to the side.

As expected, the arrow came from his right and harmlessly missed him by a few centimeters, only for him to suddenly bend backward, dodging a second arrow.

"Interesting, a second arrow hidden behind the first one but why didn't this one not make a sound?" he pondered. Looking over to where the arrows came from, he just saw his opponent's head disappear behind cover.

Now that he knew where the archer was, dodging his arrows wasn't hard as he easily swiped the arrows away with his spear or just grabbed them mid-flight and broke them. At this point, it was very clear to him that his opponent didn't have any supernatural skills except maybe superb archery that would easily defeat any archery master from Earth but that didn't mean much in the Tower.

As he calmly walked to his opponent's cover, another arrow flew out from behind it, just this time it was traveling straight up. While Orthis was looking at the arrow in the sky that was slowly coming to a halt, the archer jumped out from his hiding spot and shot five arrows at him at the same time, followed by another five and another five in a matter of a single second.

The arrows didn't just fly to him straight but collided against each other, making their trajectory very hard to predict. Not that Orthis needed to, since they were all coming from one direction, he just spun his spear in front of him, blocking all arrows, well, all but one but that also took care of itself as Orthis just took a step back, causing the arrow from above to embed itself in the floor.

The archer ran out of tricks after that and was quickly killed by Orthis.

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[You killed Archer, Str +0,008, End +0,007, Agi +0,02, Mind +0,008]

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"Weak, but what was I expecting? It was a Tier 1 class and its stats were just in the low tens except agility, which was at 16. If I want some better gains, I need to kill some higher Tiers, Tier 1's don't even seem to have anything to them except for decent skills."

The other Tier 1 classes were also swiftly defeated. The Warrior only fought with his sword, which Orthis thought was a bit biased as a warrior could also use a spear like him but didn't dwell on it for long. The Scholar and Apothecary had rather surprising fighting styles as both weren't exactly combat-oriented.

The Scholar made use of his knowledge and used weird potions and substances to keep Orthis at bay for a little bit, while the Apothecary threw poisons and used healing potions to heal the minor injuries Orthis gave him to test him.

The following Tier 2 classes were significantly more promising.

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[Tier 2 Classes]

[Ranger, Knight, Sorcerer, Healer, Thug, Brawler]

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The Ranger, the upgraded version of the Archer, now had some interesting stealth powers as he could hide in plain sight if you didn't search for him, it wasn't camouflage or invisibility, he just became incredibly hard to notice, something Orthis learned was just called Presence Concealment. His arrows also began to fly and curve in ways that shouldn't be possible for a normal arrow, he would even go as far as to say they gained a minor auto-aim.

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[You killed Ranger, Str +0,03, End +0,05, Agi +0,1, Mind +0,07, Skill: Presence Concealment]

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[Auxiliary Skill: Presence Concealment]

[Proficiency: 1%]

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The Knight was as you would expect, extremely skilled in CQC weapons, as evidenced by their very different variants with different weapons to choose from. Besides being leagues more skilled than the warrior, the Knight could use a form of energy called Aura which he used to envelope his weapon to extend its range, sharpness, and durability, as well as strengthen his own physical abilities.

Orthis was very interested in this Aura, if used properly, it could make even a simple stick into a weapon that could slice through titanium, maybe there were even some masters that no longer needed a conduit and could form weapons out of pure Aura.

He didn't know the exact difference between Mana and Aura but he had a feeling that Aura was a lot more robust but also less volatile.

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[You killed Knight, Str +0,09, End +0,09, Agi +0,06, Mind +0,02, Trait: Strong Body]

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The strong body trait didn't give him muscles as the knight had, he had to earn them through conditioning himself, but it increased the effect of Str and End stat points by 20% and Agi by 5%. He was a bit dissatisfied that he didn't get Aura as he was sure he could somehow get it through World-Eater.

The Sorcerer was probably the class he was most excited about, how could he not, it was magic but he was quickly disappointed when all he got to see were some head-sized balls of mana and similarly sized fireballs. He truly hoped that this wasn't all mages were capable of.

At least he got a new sub-skill to Regeneration. It might not be useful now but he had no doubt that it would prove invaluable in the future.

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[Auxiliary skill: Regeneration]

[Body (Low): 8%]

[Mana (Low): 0%]

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The Healer was, well, he wasn't a fighter. All he did was constantly heal himself as Orthis inflicted more wounds. To be fair, it was the healing part of the Apothecary class but at least it gave him a minor Affinity increase in Life.

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[Life: Low]

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And that brought us to the second half of the Apothecary class, the Thug. While he also was very combat-oriented, he still had some skill with small-bladed weapons and was very skilled with poison and drugs. Its other skills were mainly crime-related, like pickpocketing, lockpicking, trap-making, and intimidation.

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[You killed Thug, Str +0,05, End +0,07, Agi +0,08, Mind +0,08, Auxiliary Skill: Intimidation]

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The Brawler was just how he would expect Urman to be if he didn't use a sword. He just used his body to rush into battle and fought without technique, relying only on instincts and Aura, the same that a Knight had. Maybe this class had skills like Instinct or traits like Strong Body but Orthis didn't get anything except a few stats upon killing the musclehead.

After taking a short break, Orthis continued with the 3rd Tier Classes.

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[Tier 3 Classes]

[Spirit Archer, Guardian, Paladin, Priest, Summoner, Mage, Assassin, Martial Artist, etc.]

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"Wow, the list suddenly got very long with almost twenty choices and they all sound considerably stronger than the 2nd Tier. That's good, more skills, stats, and traits for me."

After selecting the Spirit Archer, unlike before, he was transported to a completely flat plateau of grass with no chances to hide or take cover, showing that this version of the Archer didn't need such things anymore.

Just as expected, despite the plateau being completely flat, Orthis couldn't spot his opponent anywhere, even the advanced sensors he obtained from the robots didn't show anything unusual but he still didn't let his guard down.

However, despite being on maximum alert, he suddenly felt a pain in his back, stemming from an arrow made of energy that seemed to have just appeared there.

"Ouch, ok, that's impressive." Orthis thought not too bothered by the arrow in his back and stinging pain, instead he pulled it out and inspected it in hopes of understanding how it just appeared in his back without warning.

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[Special Item: Spirit Arrow]

[Description: Created by fusing Mana with the power of an elemental spirit. Can freely change elements as long as the appropriate spirit is cooperating. Disappears shortly after firing]

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"So that's how, impressive indeed. This arrow can just turn into a gust of wind or a sound undetectable by most beings, I assume the Archer is hiding in a similar way."

As the arrow was already dissipating in his hand, Orthis turned to the direction the arrow came from. The Archer could already have moved to another location but he didn't have any other options right now.

Not even a moment later, he saw something move in the corner of his eye and tried to block the incoming glimmer of light but he was too slow, and the second arrow landed in his abdomen. Arrows had frighteningly little effect on him due to his high endurance, vitality, and their small size, even wearing him down was hard since he had regeneration, you would have to be considerably stronger to really harm him with an arrow.

Ignoring the arrow, Orthis fully focused on the approximate location the arrow came from and readied his spear to throw, he might not be able to see his enemy but he could see if he moved through the grass.

The Archer seemed to know that too, so instead of moving to a new location, he decided to get at least one more hit in before being found.

The moment the third arrow began to fly, Orthis threw World-Eater with all his strength at the location it originated from. The third arrow landed right on his shoulder blade but this time he wasn't the only one getting hit as the spear flew through the air and tore the Archer's side open, despite him jumping aside, and continued flying further before embedding itself in the ground.

Orthis might have lost his weapon and gotten another minor wound but now he could at least see his enemy as the invisibility or whatever he had was lifted. While Orthis began to spring at his enemy with full speed, the Archer was desperately trying to condense another arrow.

Since Spirit Archers didn't use material arrows but formed them through energy, they needed to concentrate on forming the arrow and were considerably slower at shooting than a normal Archer. Because of this and the pain from the large open wound making it hard to concentrate, the Spirit Archer wasn't able to shoot another arrow before Orthis arrived before him.

The Archer didn't live for long after Orthis drove his fingers into his throat.

"Phew, that was trickier than expected, and is only Tier 3, who knows how many come after that? It's a good thing that he had low stats and was only a beginner as I am sure that a proficient Spirit Archer wouldn't have to concentrate on gathering Mana and would just let the arrows rain on me."

The world turned back to its blue self and Orthis went to pick up his spear in the distance.

"Damn, I was too hurried to end this fight before he became invisible again and forgot to kill him with World-Eater. I wouldn't have said no to some nice stats or even an exclusive Spirit Archer skill. Better luck next time, I guess.

I thought that with my new sensors, which I got from the robots, I would be good for a while but they were only helpful for such a short time. I really need to find a reliable way to sense soon, if possible, I want it to be all-encompassing, including, presences, souls, energy, etc. but this might be too much to ask when only on the 8th Floor but it gives me a goal to work forward to."

After another short break to heal the three small puncture holes in his body, Orthis took on his next opponent, the Guardian.

The Guardian wasn't so tricky to deal with as the Spirit Archer and only boasted Aura, high stats, a shield that was almost as big as the Guardian himself, and a strange barrier that radiated from the shield all around him, making any directing to attack from equal to hitting the shield head-on.

It was a bit annoying but while his stats were high, Orthis' were even higher and he finally broke through the shield after attacking it for a few minutes.

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[You killed Guardian, Str +1, End +2, Agi +0,5, Mind +0,7, Aura was added to Mana]

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The moment he killed the Guardian, Orthis was able to feel a change within himself thanks to his unnatural energy affinity. Aura, which was supposed to be a variation of Mana, suddenly combined with Mana, That might not sound very impressive but anyone with Aura couldn't have Mana, just like someone with Mana couldn't have Aura. It was a universal rule that a person could only have one energy, and while there were a few exceptions, they were all from monstrous talents who were nearing godhood.

Of course, Orthis didn't escape this rule just yet either as his Mana just absorbed the robustness of Aura while keeping its volatile nature but it was still an amazing achievement, even if he didn't know it yet.

"Can World-Eater really absorb and combine different energies? I knew my spear was super amazing but this is beyond the realm of amazing." Even if he didn't know what he accidentally achieved, he still saw how much potential it had. In the future, his energy might have the advantage of hundreds, standing supreme over all other energies.

"But why can't I manipulate my Mana, I can clearly feel it inside me, why do I feel like it's being restricted by something? Is it the Tower? It would make sense if it only unlocked Mana on the 10th Floor but then how was I able to use it on the previous floor?" questions over questions to be answered later.

Putting aside the topic of Mana and other energies, the wounds have already closed, leaving only light scars that will disappear in a few hours, Orthis chose his next opponent.

The Paladin was neither as tricky as the Spirit Archer, nor as annoyingly robust as the Guardian but more of an allrounder. While he also used a shield, it was not as large and didn't have this annoying barrier. He had the shield of a Guardian, the weapon skills of a Warrior, and the healing and buff magic of a healer.

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[You killed Paladin, Str +1, End +1, Agi +1, Mind +1]

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The Priest died the fastest of the Tier 3 classes. The priest could only use some weak holy attacks while the rest were just healing, buff, and exorcise spells.

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[You killed Priest, Str +0,3, End 0,4, Agi +0,6, Mind +1,2, Holy Affinity reached Low]

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The Summoner did exactly what you might expect, he summoned monsters and beasts. Sadly he didn't have infinite summons and couldn't summon demons, otherwise this would have been the perfect opponent for Orthis.

Even if the monsters were limited, weaker than for example the Guardian, and didn't have any skills, many of them gave him traits, though they weren't that life-changing.

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[You killed Senoi Cat, Str +0,4, End +0,5, Agi +0,7, Mind +0,2, Trait: Balance]

[You killed Gribl Fish, Str +0,3, End +0,6, Agi +1, Mind +0,4, Trait: Advanced Bronchioles]

[You killed Vewim Carnivorous Plant, Str +0,6, End +0,8, Agi +0,2, Mind +0,1, Body Regeneration Proficiency +10%]

[You killed Summoner, Str +0,5, End +0,6, Agi +0,5, Mind +1]

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"Phew, that was exhilarating," Orthis explained as he felt the changes in his body. "I got almost 8 stats from this, not to mention the change in my biology."

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[Balance: Balance of a cat, grows with Agility]

[Advanced Bronchioles: Can now absorb oxygen from the air and water]

[Regeneration: Body (Low) 19%]

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The Mage was similar to the Sorcerer from the previous Tier but with significantly stronger spells, no magic circles that made it easy to predict the spell being cast, and a list of at least twenty spells.

Spells ranged from Mana Missiles, an advanced version of the Mana Ball, to flight and regenerating vines with poisonous thorns. Some spells like illusions proved a bit more difficult to break out from than expected but they gave Orthis a good idea of what he would like to become. The Mage also proved to be uncharacteristic durable.

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[You killed Mage, Str 0,4, End +0,6, Agi +0,8, Mind +2, Mana Regeneration Proficiency +5%]

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"Improving Mana Regeneration before being able to use control Mana, not to mention Magic. Although I know my spear's capabilities, they still manage to surprise me over and over again."

The Assassin was even more troublesome than the Spirit Archer because he not only had Presence Concealment but also Invisibility. Orthis now knew from experience that he wouldn't be able to avoid being hit and had no chance of finding the Assassin as his method of hiding was a league above a Spirit Archer, so there would be no movement in the grass.

Seeing no other option, he decided to give up on defending himself and waited for the Assassin to strike. He didn't have to wait long before he felt a sharp pain in his side, far more painful and dangerous than the arrows he received a few rounds prior.

The moment the knife entered his body, Orthis grabbed his invisible assailant's arm and swung his spear at his enemy. The next moment, he held a bloodied severed arm in his hand, knife still in its hand.

"Damn, he sacrificed his arm to survive. Smart move but it only delays the inevitable." He gritted his teeth in pain and frustration at his enemy's determination.

The Assassin's invisibility and presence concealment didn't cover severed body parts, so Orthis could clearly see the severed arm or the blood trail in the grass but every time he looked at where the blood trail ended, it was like his eyes skipped over the assassin or his brain simply ignored him.

But even if he couldn't see him, he knew where the end of the blood trail was and that was enough. Since he now had a way to locate his enemy, the battle ended shortly after.

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[You killed Assassin, Str +0,6, End +0,4, Agi +1, Mind +0,7, Shadow Affinity increased to Low]

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"Ha-ha… That's enough exercise for today, I think." Orthis joked as he looked at the bloodied hand he used to cover the gaping wound in his side. He was starting to realize that just having super high stats wasn't going to be enough to survive in the Tower.

Thanks to his endurance stat now being at 38 and the increase in regeneration proficiency, it only took half an hour before the wound, including scar, disappeared. Now once again in top condition, he challenged the next opponent.

The Martial Artist was neither sneaky nor protected by annoying barriers, he was simply extremely skilled in martial arts. This was also the first time Orthis was introduced to Ki, an energy that allowed Martial Artists to perform techniques not normally possible.

He proved to be very slippery as one step was enough for him to move several meters away and his strikes had different effects, some covered in fire created by Ki, leaving fist-shaped scorch marks on Orthis' body, while some simply ignored his hard skin and damaged his organs while leaving the skin in perfect condition.

While a dangerous opponent for most people, Orthis found a perfect training partner in him. His fire immunity allowed him to ignore the fiery attacks, internal attacks were quickly regenerated, and his opponent's exceptional skills made him perfect for polishing his Spear Mastery.

After an hour or so, his growth stopped and his opponent had become predictable long ago. After an hour of sparring, Orthis learned that Ki was like a combination of Mana and Aura, both hard and changeable but both traits were not quite on the level of Mana and Aura. However, he did have a feeling that Ki had a different origin than Mana and Aura.

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[You killed Martial Artist, Str +0,5, End +0,6, Agi +0,7, Mind +0,6]

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"Huh, looks like the stats I can get from enemies of that level has finally started to decrease significantly." It was understandable as ever since defeating the assassin even his lowest stat, Agility, reached 30.

There were more opponents in the Tier 3 list but they were no longer any challenge and the stats they gave were getting lower and lower. They were also being stingy with skills and traits, the only trait he got was from killing the Skeleton Knight of a Necromancer.

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[You killed Alchemist, Str +0,1, End +0,1, Agi +0,2, Mind +0,3]

[You killed Poisoner, Str +0,07, End +0,08, Agi +0,07, Ming +0,09]

[You killed ….]

[You killed ….]

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[Strong Bones: Increases bone strength by 30%]

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"Finally done with Tier 3, this was getting really boring. Let's see what Tier 4 has to offer, hopefully something more exciting."

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[Tier 4 Classes]

[Juggernaut, Saint, Archmage, Martial Master, Weapon Master, Magic Warrior, Cultist]

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Thankfully the Tier 4 list was much shorter, containing only seven classes but it made him wonder if there was even a Tier 5.

Selecting the Juggernaut, Orthis was greeted with a true monster in human skin. Before stood a 3,5m tall man in armor that only covered his face, torso, and legs, openly showcasing his arms that looked like its muscles had muscles.

He didn't have much time to examine this human behemoth as said being began to charge at him, seemingly ignoring physics as he went from 0 to 100 in an instant. Orthis barely managed to jump aside, or so he thought until the Juggernaut ignored physics again and stopped dead in its tracks and grabbed Orthis by his legs while he was still mid-air and threw him nearly 100m into the distance before he finally reunited with the ground again.

"Cough, cough, bleh, grass in my mouth. Damn, what kind of monster is this? Is this really a human? I'm pretty sure he broke the laws of physics twice in less than a second. I have no doubt that breaking them is the norm in the Tower but not so soon and definitely not twice in a fraction of a second."

Orthis complained as he got up from the crater he was lying in. The throw and landing itself didn't do much damage to him but he was still surprised since this was the first time he was being treated that way, those that managed to hurt him until now used weapons, so the full extent of their stats and destructive power wasn't very noticeable.

However, he wasn't given much time to think about it as a juggernaut-shaped shadow began to fall from the sky. By the time the behemoth landed and shattered the ground in a good radius, Orthis was already out of range and ready to fight back.

The moment he crashed into the ground, Orthis was already waiting and thrust the spear into his abdomen. The spear went through the armor without problems but he encountered strong resistance after penetrating just a few centimeters into the muscles.

World-Eater was by no means blunt, it's just that Juggernaut's muscles were many times harder than his own armor.

Orthis barely managed to jump back before a random swing of the ginormous fist threatened to send him flying again, though the sheer air pressure the swing produced was enough to make him stumble a bit.

After fighting so many weaker opponents, Orthis stopped looking at everyone's stats and skills as it was just a waste of time but this individual truly deserved it.

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[Name/ Class: Juggernaut]

[Str: 30] [End: 35] [Agi: 30] [Mind: 20]

[Skills: Irresistible Force, Brawling, Regeneration]

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Irresistible Force was a special skill exclusive to the Juggernaut class, which means that there truly was no other way to get it, except of course, you had a cheat tool like World-Eater. Most classes get a skill related to their class when choosing it but the skill is often still learnable by other classes, albeit with much greater difficulty.

Summoning, for example, a Summoner would get the skill at the start but a Mage could earn it through studying and experimenting with space magic and familiars. It wasn't easy but it was achievable, unlike with a special skill.

"That's a bit troublesome, although his stats are slightly below mine, the special skill makes it impossible to block and drastically increases his destruction power. At least he can't use the full power of his skill, or at least I think he doesn't or he would have drilled straight through the ground with nothing to stop him."

"From the looks of it, his regeneration is higher than mine too," he thought as he looked at the already closed wound.

The two continued to fight for a while with neither getting a clean hit in and neither showing any signs of fatigue due to their endurance and the fact that body regeneration also regenerates stamina.

But that changed when Orthis got careless and a giant hand caved in his entire chest. He flew for a while but all he could feel was pain as his heart and lungs were heavily damaged, only still being barely functional due to his strong ribs absorbing most of the impact, though they were completely shattered now.

Juggernaut once again closed the distance by jumping high into the sky and descending on his position. Orthis barely managed to put his head to the side as a fist the size of his entire head landed on the ground.

The impact once again shattered the ground in a large radius but all that followed after that was silence. No one moved until the Juggernaut fell to the side, lying next to Orthis with a spear going through his heart and coming out from his back.

"Cough, cough, I can't believe that worked. Everything hurts and my head was almost squashed like a melon."

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[You killed Juggernaut, Str +3, End +3, Agi +3, Mind +2, Body Regeneration Proficiency +30%, All resistances reached Low]

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"Damn, I was hoping for this broken special skill but I suppose the regeneration is better in this situation. And this is the first time I got two rewards besides stats. Well, I think I deserve at least this much. Now, let's sleep for a while, I'm tired." He thought before he fainted.

Orthis actually was never careless and had long learned the behemoth's fighting style but he was growing frustrated as he was begging to realize that this was going nowhere and he would never be able to slowly chip away at his strength and stamina as his regeneration would restore his body and fatigue much faster than his.

With no other choice, he made a plan where he could use his Irresistible Force against him. The moment Juggernaut descended on him, he lifted up his spear, buried the end in the ground, and aimed the spearhead at his heart. It was a huge gamble but it paid off.

This time, despite his now 2.5 times faster regeneration, he still needed several hours before he woke up and while his chest had mostly recovered, there was still slight damage and severe pain. He just laid there for a while, staring at the endless blueness, thinking if there was a better way to defeat the Juggernaut but always ended with the same conclusion.

After another hour of just lying there and even chatting a bit with Urman who had already gone to the next floor, the pain in his chest finally disappeared too.

"Ouch, what a tough cookie. While I got some really good things from defeating him, I really hope the other classes won't be so monstrous. Truly makes me wonder how many people even made it so far. Not to brag but I think I am way above the average level someone on this floor is supposed to be."

Selecting the Saint class, the surroundings once again changed to the endless grass area. Not far away, a woman with golden hair, a halo, and pure white clothes with golden ornaments stood with a golden staff in hand.

The moment she raised the staff, a golden circle appeared above her. The circle didn't look like a magic circle as it was just a circle with small runes on its edge but what really made the difference was the large symbol in the middle, the same symbol that was engraved in her robes and atop her staff.

Orthis already jumped aside when a golden laser cut through the ground and began following him as he ran circles around the Saint and appraised her.

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[Name/ Class: Saint]

[Str: 20] [End: 25] [Agi: 35] [Mind: 40]

[Skills: Divine Connection, Regeneration, Mana Manipulation]

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Divine Connection was a Special Skill like Juggernaut's Irresistible Force but Orthis didn't have the time to dwell on exactly what it did but he could roughly guess.

"40 Mind? That's a bit much, isn't it? That's the build of a glass canon, except this glass canon can use high-class healing and buff spells on herself. How annoying but still better than another Juggernaut."

The beam of deadly divine energy finally stopped following him and a new circle was forming before her but he wouldn't give her the chance to cast another spell on that caliber. Orthis rushed at her and arrived before her in under a second but she seemed to have seen that coming and pure white wings sprouted from her back and she took safety in the air.

A rain shower of golden bullets forced him to start jumping back like a movie character, only for him to suddenly spin in mid-air and throw his spear at the angel-like woman in the air, hitting her dead in the chest and throwing her back on the ground.

With the spell being suddenly interrupted, Orthis changed directions and ran at the saint in bloodied robes as she was already casting a healing spell on herself.

"Oh, no, you don't," Orthis grumbled as he grabbed the spear, and instead of pulling it out, pulled it up, cutting her head and half of her chest in two.

"Well, that wasn't anywhere near as difficult as the last one. This might be doable after all." He thought as he got all the blood from World-Eater with a wide swing.

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[You killed Saint, Str +0,8, End +0,4, Agi +1, Mind +2, Trait: Divine Touch]

[Divine Touch: You have been touched by the Divine and shaped in their image, changes the body and soul to better accommodate their power]

[Due to not having a patron God, the enhancement will be unpredictable as no one ever obtained this trait without being contacted by a Divine]

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"I don't feel any different, not to mention divine. Is the transformation gradual or just beyond my ability to perceive?" Orthis wondered.

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[The transformation is gradual but it has already begun]

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This time it was his Insight that informed him.

Since he didn't sustain any injuries this time and didn't even sweat from the light workout the Saint was, he chose to fight the next class, the Archmage.

Honestly, Orthis wasn't too keen on fighting the Archmage. Not because he was worried about him being too strong but because even a normal Mage was already tricky and slippery, not to mention an Archmage.

"You got to be kidding me." He cursed as he was surrounded by 30 perfect copies of his enemy and they all fired lightning spears at him.

With Insight he could tell who the real one was but that wasn't the problem, the problem was that while some of the copies were just illusions, some were real clones that used real spells while some clones used illusions to make it look like they were attacking him but were secretly preparing the next spell.

Since this wasn't a child-friendly test, the lightning spells didn't just carry the lightning element but were also just as fast. Needless to say, while Orthis might be very fast already with his 35 agility stats, it was still far from being enough to dodge lightning.

He managed to move out of the way of some attacks and block some others while ignoring the illusions but these that hit him still hurt a lot and momentarily paralyzed him, giving the Arch Mage enough time to prepare the next spell.

Had Orthis not gotten the all-around resistance from the Juggernaut, this attack would have done a lot more than numb his body and leave some black marks. Even his fire immunity helped by stopping him from being burned by the lightning's high temperature.

Ignoring the numbness in his whole body, Orthis rushed to where he knew the real Archmage was hiding but before he could get far, the entire earth began to move and churn like it was dough in a mixer, trying to bury him deep underground.

It wasn't just a small area where this phenomenon was happening but for almost a hundred meters with him at the center and the movement began to slowly get more violent as waves began to form and crash on top of him.

Since he couldn't fly or smash through mud-like giant waves, Orthis could only helplessly brace for impact as the waves came crashing down on him, and was dragged underground.

Calm returned to the floor as the Archmage stood there, waiting for Orthis to die. After a dozen seconds, something broke through the ground at incredible speed, and headed for the waiting Archmage, only to be blocked by the transparent bubble barrier around him.

While the flying spear flew to the Archmage, the solidified ground began to crack until it exploded from something deep inside. Orthis used the entire might of his 35 stat points in strength to break free from the tons of dirt restraining him, trying to crush and suffocate him at the same time.

Although this move exhausted him a lot, he couldn't miss this opportunity to finish this troublesome opponent as chunks of dirt flew everywhere, obscuring the Archmage's vision.

In the midst of the flying chunks, Orthis ran to his enemy's last position, only to see him teleport to a safe distance but it didn't matter, he wasn't his goal right now anyway. Following the connection he had with his artifact, Orthis quickly found his spear, picked it up, and hit one of the now falling chunks to the Archmage.

Seeing the chunk of dirt flying his way, he once again teleported away, only to immediately be greeted by another projectile coming his way. Orthis wasn't really expecting a master of magic to be defeated by a chunk of earth, at least not without any magic involved, he was simply obscuring his vision, giving him a false sense of safety, and draining his Mana.

He didn't know how much Mana teleportation cost but it shouldn't be as cheap as a fireball and he had enough ammunition falling from the sky to continue this for a while.

Finally, after Orthis used almost all the chunks of dirt, the Archmage suddenly no longer teleported away but rather flew out of the way. Orthis saw his chance and hit the largest chunk but instead of preparing the next one, he hid behind it until it reached the Archmage and jumped out from behind it.

Since the Archmage only dodged the dirt narrowly, he didn't have time to properly react as Orthis shattered his thin bubble barrier and cut his head off.

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[You killed Archmage, Str +0,1, End +0,3, Agi +0,2, Mind +1, All Affinities reach Low, Mana Regeneration Proficiency +10%]

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The moment he reappeared in the familiar blue world, Orthis fell to the ground to catch his breath.

"Damn, as expected from a master of magic, slipper till the very end. He wasn't as dangerous as the Juggernaut but certainly more tiresome. But the rewards were great too, I certainly feel different with these many Affinities and my Mind stat is now my second highest one, only one point behind Endurance. It always bothered me a bit that my highest stat was Endurance."

What Orthis didn't know was that he had just become an even greater anomaly than before. Unlike the Juggernaut's all-around resistance that could be obtained through harsh training, having Affinity with every single element, even at just Low level, was something that actually never happened before in the history of the universe.

That meant that he now had hundreds of thousands of different affinities. The only reason why the Archmage created by the Tower had every Affinity at Low was for demonstration purposes only, it was never meant to be absorbed by another being.

"But it's a good thing the Archmage's affinities were just at Low or the lightning would have hurt a lot more and the dirt would have been a lot harder to break free from." He analyzed his fight as his exhaustion disappeared, courtesy of 49% Body (low) regeneration.

After his stamina recovered and he got used to the new feeling of having so many Affinities, due to the drastic change in his soul, he challenged his next opponent.

The Martial Master was dressed in similar clothes to the Martial Artist but the way he carried himself strongly reminded him of Namgoong Beak, he even had the courtesy to bow to him before he charged at him with murderous intent.

The Martial Master was a lot faster than the Martial Artist to the point where he left speed mirages and could reach top speed by just walking. Orthis barely managed to bring up his spear before a hand descended on him in a chop motion.

*Crack*

Despite the seemingly harmless attack, it went straight through his beloved spear that had never been damaged before, not to mention broken in a single attack. While Orthis was staring at the two halves of World-Eater in his hands in a daze, a heavy kick landed on his torso that knocked the air out of his lungs and lifted him off the ground.

Before he could even land, the Martial Master already appeared below him with his hand flat open, just like when he cut his spear in half, but this time in a thrusting stance. Despite being in the air and in a state of shock, Orthis managed to twist his body in the air to avoid getting a hole in the torso.

When he finally landed, the Martial Master already took a few steps back to be out of range, just in time for Orthis to counterattack with a quick thrust. The Martial Master clearly miscalculated the distance between them as the complete World-Eater pierced through his chest, barely missing the heart as he managed to move at the last moment.

Since World-Eater and Orthis shared stats, skills, traits, and affinities, it was only natural that the artifact could reconnect itself in a moment as long as the two ends were held together. It was also only because the Martial Master didn't know this information, that he was caught off guard.

But even with this heavy injury did it take Orthis a few minutes to kill his enemy, he was just too damn slippery and overly cautious, running as soon as Orthis even got near him. His speed finally decreased due to blood loss, though at this point his wound almost closed, so Orthis had to do this quickly.

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[You killed Martial Master, Str +0,5, End +0,6, Agi +0,6, Mind +0,4]

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He was a bit disappointed that there were no additional rewards except stats but it was understandable as this Class focused on learning and mastering martial arts.

"That was close, if he hadn't underestimated me, I wouldn't be sure I could even beat him. Despite not having a special skill, he was too strong. He was an all-rounder with no apparent weaknesses I could exploit. He would easily beat me in melee and casually dodge any ranged attack."

Once again, Orthis took a short break before the next fight but this time not to heal or recover stamina but to inspect his spear. In a way, this spear was about as important as his life, the moment it broke before his eyes, he almost lost all will to continue fighting.

After making notes to find ways to further evolve and improve it to not let something like this happen again, he took on the next challenger, or was he the challenger? Doesn't matter, next was the Weapon Master.

He was literally packed full of weapons all over his body. Spear, axe, shield, and bow on the back, sword, chain, throwing knives on his hips, and daggers and knives strapped to his legs. He was a walking arsenal that lacked the manners of the Martial Master as he just pulled out his bow and began firing several arrows per second at him.

Despite the rain of arrows coming at him, Orthis casually dodged most of them while deflecting the rest with his spear. Seeing that his attacks weren't having the desired effect, the mobile weaponry threw the bow to the ground and pulled out the battle axe and a hunting knife as he charged at him.

Orthis easily stepped aside as the axe missed him by a wide swing, or so he thought. Just as he dodged, something suddenly wrapped around his leg and pulled it off the ground, causing him to get off balance.

With a quick glance, he saw that the Weapon Master hocked his knife into the chain around his waist and used the axe as a distraction to get his leg. With the axe once again coming down on him, Orthis put one end of his spear in the ground and deflected the incoming axe with the other side while using the spear as leverage to kick off the ground and kick his attacker with his free leg.

The Weapon Master changed equipment at a truly astonishing speed as one moment he held the knife with the chain and the next he held his shield and softened the force behind his kick. Orthis still had the chain wrapped around his leg but now it no longer had the knife on the other end and he could move more freely with no one holding the chain.

"Changing weapon and fighting style in an instant. Is this this class's mojo? Tricky but more annoying than problematic."

This class was by far the least lethal Tier 4 class he had fought so far but that didn't mean it went down easy. The fact that his opponent could change weapons and fighting style on a whim made him very annoying to fight.

One moment you get past the spear and close the distance, only to realize he suddenly has a knife in his hand. When you think you know what he will do next, he suddenly reaches for the throwing knives instead of the hunting knives. This class was clearly made to fight intelligent beings but would lose its efficiency when facing a monster.

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[You killed Weapon Master, Str +0,7, End +0,5, Agi 0,7, Mind +0,3, Trait: Unpredictable]

[Unpredictable: Your actions tend to become random and unpredictable, makes formless fighting easier]

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"The trait is a bit useless but maybe it will come in handy. This formless fighting seems important"

Without taking a break he chose the next opponent. He was getting bored off this floor, enemies no longer gave many stats and it's been a while since he got a skill. At this point, he just wanted to end this and go to the next floor.

The Magic Warrior was just what you would imagine. He was pretty generic as he just used magic to cover his sword and body. This might have been a lot more impressive and powerful if the element he used wasn't fire, the one element Orthis was immune to.

But it was understandable, the Archmage only got omni-affinity for demonstration purposes and fire was the most common element to be used. It only took a minute before the warrior who now looked more like a human torch died. What were you expecting, he wasn't as skilled as Orthis with the weapon, his stats weren't as exaggerated, and the magic, the original main attraction, was utterly useless.

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[You killed Magic Warrior, Str +0,08, End +0,07, Agi +0,06, Mind +0,08]

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Even the stat gain was a disappointment, showing that he was now fighting people below his league.

The Cultist on the other hand was a lot more interesting, as he was a combination of a summoner and the evil version of a saint. Orthis had fun moving down groups of bonafide demons.

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[You killed Infant Demon, Str +0,01, End +0,02, Agi+0,02, Mind +0,03, Trait: Soul Digestion]

[You killed Lowest-rank Demon, Str +0,07, End +0,08, Agi +0,07, Mind +0,09, Shadow Affinity reached Mid]

[You killed Lowest-rank Dark Spirit, Str +0,05, End +0,07, Agi +0,1, Mind +0,09, Soul Affinity reached Mid]

[You killed …]

[You killed …]

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Demons and Dark Spirits were a surprisingly good source for grinding affinities and traits, though the one trait he got was a bit useless as it just allowed him to digest souls but they didn't do anything like strengthen his soul or give him memories, they were just a replacement for regular food.

The real surprise however came from the main enemy, the Cultist, who, except for some weak curses that made him dizzy or induced some pain, didn't have too much combat power.

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[You killed Cultist, Str +0,03, End +0,05, Agi +0,06, Mind +0,07, Trait: Demonic Corruption]

[Demonic Corruption: You have been touched by a greater demon and are slowly losing yourself, forcefully changes the body, soul, and mind]

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While that trait was a bit worrying, he didn't really have the time to think about it as a sudden pain came from his very soul, growing stronger each second.

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[Trait: Divine Touch and Trait: Demonic Corruption are conflicting with each other and fighting for dominance]

[The two traits will fight for dominance until a winner is decided or the host is dead]

[Trait: Cell Mutation is reacting]

[Your soul is starting to break apart]

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In just a few seconds grew so intense that he couldn't even read the system messages anymore. The pain was no longer just in his soul but also in his body and mind, though the former was slowly getting better.

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[You have completed all Tier 4 Challenges and will automatically begin the Tier 5 challenge]

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The world was already blurry without the changing environment and the undefined silhouette in the distance didn't make it any better. Despite it changing forms every second, Orthis couldn't help but feel a little familiar with this thing, though that only lasted for a moment before he went back to pure agony.

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[True Talent detected, unable to form a copy of the climber]

[Tier 5 cleared]

[Teleporting to next floor]

[Welcome to the 9th Floor, Ice and Fire]

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By a stroke of luck, he didn't get killed during the next Tier while he was defenseless, yet not even a moment later, he was teleported into a new hostile environment, though Orthis did not notice any of that as he had already fainted shortly after the Tier 5 challenge began.

Just like that, Orthis fell into a river and sank to its bottom as two mighty forces fought for his being at his expense, even his spear wasn't spared from this battle as cracks began to form on it, only to heal immediately after, this time even stronger than before.