Towers of Heaven

by Cameron Milan

  Freddy? Why is he calling me by my nickname? Fred frowned. “Yeah, what?”

  To his side, Angela rebuked, “You’re the tank, you need to pay attention at all times. Stay focused on your front. What if a group of goblins came right now?”

  Stunned, Jason turned his head and saw Angela, and next to her was George. “What are you guys doing here?”

  “Have you gone crazy?” Fred pointed a finger at his head.

  Jason inspected his hands. No calluses? I really have gone back in time, but why is it like this?

  After the shock subsided, Jason’s thoughts began to spin rapidly. He couldn’t be more familiar with the tower, or with the people in front of him. He was currently on the first floor of the tower. It was made up of underground tunnels and was home to thousands of goblins. If he recalled correctly, then right now, he was undergoing a trial run.

  Fred, George, and Angela were assigned as his teammates with Angela being the examiner. Her duty was to teach and guide him and to see if he had any potential. They all belonged to the ‘Battleshields’ association, a bottom of the barrel guild who only delved through the lower floors. If they hadn’t recently lowered their standards, they would never have accepted a twenty-eight-year old. Wait, that means the towers have been here for twenty years already!

  Why was this happening? Didn’t he wish to return to before the towers arrived? Then why was his wish off by twenty years? He recalled the words of the white figure. ‘Not enough energy’. Did that mean there wasn’t even enough energy to complete his wish? God dammit!

  Jason clenched his hands. His goal was to prevent as many deaths as possible by returning to the past. After the towers arrived, they would occasionally release waves of monsters to attack earth. At first it wasn’t so bad, but as the decades passed, they grew harder and harder to defeat. Humanity started to suffer serious losses after twenty-five years. That meant he had to clear the tower in less than five years. It took eighty years to clear it last time, and everybody but him had died! How was he to do it so quickly?

  George rolled his eyes after seeing Jason’s pale face. “Look how afraid he is. I’m afraid he isn’t worth our guild’s time, Angela.”

  “Agreed.” Fred nodded. “Let’s go back.”

  Angela furrowed her brows. Damn it. Is this the level of talent our guild can attract nowadays? Ever since our guild master died on the middle floors, everything went to shit. After gathering her thoughts, she sighed heavily. “Fine. Let’s go back.”

  Fred walked up to Jason and extended his hand. “Give us our equipment back.”

  Jason took a deep breath after gathering his thoughts. It wasn’t like he could travel through time at will. He had no choice but to accept his current circumstances. Time was short, so he had to grow as strong as possible before humanity started to suffer casualties. Seeing Fred’s extended hand, he grew confused.

  “What? You didn’t think you’d get to keep the equipment we gave you, right?” Fred started to grow angry. “Quickly, hand it over.”

  Jason hadn’t been paying attention earlier, so he didn’t hear their conversation. “Did I fail?”

  “Frankly, you’re a piece of trash.” George commented with a look of disdain.

  “Hey.” Angela gave George a look.

  “Okay, no problem.” Jason didn’t care about the comment from some kid. He was a veteran among veterans. If he got angry with someone sixty years younger than him, he’d be embarrassed. He took off his iron helmet, chestplate, platelegs, shield, and sword before handing it over. They were the cheapest of equipment; something only low-level guilds would hand their new members. Top guilds would hand their members enchanted gear, not this trash. As far as Jason was concerned, it would be the same whether he had it or not.

  “And the ring.” Fred said after storing the equipment in his inventory ring.

  Jason stared at Fred. “This is given to everyone by the tower as a gift. This is my property, not yours.”

  George chuckled. “This guy, he probably wants to sell it for a few thousand bucks. Maybe that was his plan all along?”

  There were a few cases of people entering the tower just so they could acquire an inventory ring and sell it for a quick buck.

  Just as Fred was about to speak further, Angela cut him off. “Forget it, let’s just go.”

  Fred shrugged. Together, Angela, Fred, and George began to head down the tunnel towards the location of the portal leading out of the tower. After a minute, Angela turned around after noticing that they were missing a person. “Uh, where did Jason go?”

  Fred scratched his cheek. “Crap...”

  George snorted. “Good riddance.”

  Angela groaned. “If the outside hears we couldn’t protect a trial taker, our reputation will be ruined.”

  “Oh.” George suddenly grimaced. If that were to happen, our guild would be finished.

  “Let’s go! We might still find him before the goblins do.” Angela dashed madly down the tunnel, followed by George and Fred. However, even after an hour of searching, they couldn’t find Jason. They had no choice but to give up.

  Fred kicked the ground. “Damn it!”

  Angela felt guilty for not paying attention earlier. If she had, she might have prevented a meaningless death. As she recalled Jason’s pale face, her mood worsened.

  George whispered. “Let’s keep this a secret among ourselves.”

  “Yeah.” Fred agreed with a grim face.

  “Not possible.” Angela shook her head. “His family will investigate once he goes missing. Soon enough, the trail will lead to our guild.”

  “What? Then aren’t we finished?” George clenched his hands. Maybe it's time to leave this trash guild. With my talent, I could easily join a mid-tier guild.

  Everyone had different thoughts as they left the tower.

  Meanwhile, Jason himself was alive and well. After quietly leaving Angela’s group, he made his way through the first floor. Even though he had no equipment, he was still confident. If he couldn’t even deal with some little goblins, his life would have been a joke.

  Jason glanced at his finger, finding a grey ring. This was called an inventory ring, and was gifted to every person who entered the tower. It was the lowest quality inventory ring, but even so it was invaluable. Inside the ring was an independent space capable of storing items. With a single thought, you could store or retrieve anything, as long as it fit inside.

  After a quick inspection, all he found was three days’ worth of food, a wallet, and a phone. When he thought back to how—just minutes earlier and decades into the future—he’d had the best quality inventory ring stocked with top-grade items and equipment, he couldn’t help but realize how low he had fallen.

  Status. With a thought, a transparent screen appeared which only he could see. When one entered the tower, the very essence of their being would be fundamentally changed. For example, if Jason was shot in the head by a gun, he would be completely fine as long as his health didn’t drop to 0. The most he would take was some damage. As Jason saw his pitiful stats, he sighed. He felt as blind as a bat. No longer did he have superhuman stats, capable of sensing everything around him. His vision was mediocre and his hearing was muffled. I forgot how weak humans are.

  Name: Jason

  Title: None

  Age: 28

  Race: Human

  Level: 1

  Stat Points: 0

  Health: 125/125

  Health Regeneration: .50/s

  Stamina: 140/140

  Stamina Regeneration: .56/s

  Strength: 13

  Vitality: 25

  Agility: 13

  Endurance: 28

  Tenacity: 11

  Fortitude: 12

  Chapter 3

  As Jason was taking a look at his stats, the sound of footsteps could be heard from around the corner. He quickly closed his status screen and grasped at his waist, but found nothing. Looking down in surprise, he found that he was missing his shield
and sword. He remembered that he didn’t have any equipment; he had reached for them out of habit.

  Three goblins appeared around the corner. They spotted Jason as soon as he saw them. A goblin was a frail green creature that reached up to four feet tall. They were like small children, but that’s where the comparison ended. They had yellow eyes, long narrow ears, and jagged teeth.

  Goblin - Level 1

  Health: 50/50

  Each goblin wielded a dull rusty short sword. Before Jason returned to the past, he could just stand still and not take any damage, but he was no longer the same as before. If he wasn’t careful, he might very well lose his life here.

  Goblins were cowardly creatures, but their courage rose when surrounded by allies. Jason wouldn’t give them the initiative. He dashed forward, quickly appearing before the one in front. His knee collided with its chin, knocking it into the air. It collided on the ground and entered a stunned state.

  -2

  Jason nearly fell over when he read the damage notification. 2? 2?! Just two hours ago, if he flicked a booger, he would have been able to kill a goblin, but now an all-out knee-kick dealt only 2 damage? The goblins didn’t let Jason’s slip in concentration go to waste. Two swords pierced through his stomach.

  -9

  -11

  The pain of having his stomach stabbed caused Jason to wince. He quickly chastised himself for losing focus during battle, something which only a rookie would do. Before the goblins could pull back their swords, Jason grabbed each side of their heads and knocked them against each other.

  -3

  -2

  Jason’s eye twitched, but he didn’t slow his movements. While the goblins were dazed, he yanked the rusty short swords from their hands and took a quick look at their stats.

  (Crude) Rusty Iron Short Sword

  Damage: 10

  Requirements: 5 Strength

  Good enough. The two goblins shrieked in a foreign language when their weapons were stolen. Jason’s movements were smooth as butter as he slid each sword across the goblins’ necks.

  -13

  -12

  Much better. Jason smirked. The two goblins recoiled as green blood sprayed out of their necks. Jason twisted his chest, dodging the path of the blood. Normally such a wound would be fatal, but the tower had different rules than reality. Unless it was a skill that afflicted the bleed status, wounds wouldn’t bleed. Only a little blood would spray out. That was why Jason didn’t care about the two holes in his stomach. He was already used to the tower’s rules. However, a newb who had just entered the tower would probably grow scared and lose their life during the battle.

  Before Jason could attack further, the goblin who had been knocked to the ground stood up and attacked. Jason parried with one sword while plunging the other into its eye. It shrieked in pain while staggering backwards.

  All three goblins looked in horror at Jason. Their previous confidence was replaced by fear and a desire to run. Jason wouldn’t let them. He swiped out with his sword, sweeping them off their feet. The goblins fell to the ground with a thud.

  Jason changed to a backhanded grip and stabbed into the nearest goblin’s chest. It shrieked in pain as hole after hole appeared in its chest. A mere second later it dispersed into motes of light as copper coins landed on the ground with a clang.

  The other two goblins whimpered from the pain. One tried crawling away, but Jason pinned it against the floor with his foot before finishing it off. The last one quivered in fear as it too was finished off.

  Jason perked his ears but didn’t hear any other monsters approaching. Only then did he relax. Crouching down, he inspected his loot.

  Six copper coins and leather boots.

  (Crude) Tattered Leather Boots

  Physical Defense: 2

  Requirements: 5 Vitality, 5 Endurance

  Jason shrugged. It was better than nothing. As he put them on, they magically changed shape to fit his foot. Another feature of the tower. The boots gave 2 armor, meaning if his feet were attacked, 2 damage would be negated. If any other part of his body was attacked, he would take full damage.

  Next, he picked up the coins and stored them in his inventory ring. If he recalled correctly, during this year, each piece of copper was worth around 1$. As time passed their value would drop as more copper coins became available. Being an ascender was profitable, although risky. Plenty lost their life in this profession.

  With weapons in hand, Jason began a slaughter on the first floor. Sometimes a goblin would be alone, but they were usually in groups of two to three. When he encountered another group of ascenders, he would casually nod and move on.

  A few hours later, his stomach rumbled pitifully. After finding a safe spot to rest in a tunnel that led to a dead end, he sat down against the wall and took out a sandwich, some fruit, and a bottle of water from his inventory ring. He ate quickly instead of enjoying the meal. The tower wasn’t a place to relax, except for a few locations.

  At the same time, he opened his status screen and found that he was level 3. In but a scant few hours he had gained two levels; such speed would leave others utterly stunned. More importantly, he gained 10 stat points, 5 for each level gained.

  Now was the hard part. Before he had returned to the past, his path was that of a defensive tank. Someone who would take blows for their allies. If his goal was to clear the tower as fast as possible in order to save humanity, would that path be enough? He wasn’t a genius like Roy or the other heroes, but he was a hard worker.

  He was confident that if he worked hard enough, he could become just as strong as Roy had, but did he have enough time? It would probably take him over a hundred years to reach that point. To learn how to master the skills Roy had had would take time. Time he didn’t have. It was better to follow his previous path, one that he was confident in.

  Even having reached this point in thought, Jason still hesitated. This decision would decide humanity’s future. He couldn’t be careless. Not now. The pressure mounted. It became stifling. It reached the point where he found it hard to breathe, and even his eyes burned. Gritting his teeth, he decided to throw caution to the wind and put 2 points into strength, 2 points into agility, 2 points into endurance, and 4 points into vitality.

  He had always fantasized about a path slightly different than his own. One in which he was still a tank but dealt significant damage. It would take specific items and skills to get there, but it was possible.

  Jason stood up and inspected his equipment. After hunting goblins for a few hours, he was now fully equipped in a set of tattered leather armor. It provided a meager amount of protection, but it was better than nothing. If he sold it outside the tower, it would be worth around a hundred dollars.

  As Jason made his way to the location of the portal that led to the second floor, he fell deep into thought. To make my path work, I need money. Lots of it. He thought of ways to make money, but all of them required power. Power he currently didn’t have. Forget it. First I should strengthen myself. Jason paused. Wait...

  The floors of the tower were large, much too large. The first floor was especially confusing. It was comprised entirely of tunnels. Guilds had long since mapped out these lower floors and sold the corresponding maps for a profit. Jason recalled that as of this time, the highest floor reached was thirty-nine. That didn’t mean that the guilds had mapped out that high, just that that was the highest floor reached. If he wanted to make money, it was simple. Sell maps of the floors.

  Who was more familiar with the tower than him? He could count the number of people who did on one hand, but that was before he traveled to the past. As of this moment, Jason knew more about the tower than anybody else.

  Being an ascender was an extremely risky profession, especially for the ascenders who were at the top. Having knowledge of the floors would increase their chance of survival dramatically. The top guilds kept most of the knowledge about the top floors to themselves. Only when enough people reached a floor would they
sell information.

  If Jason sold a map of the floors which haven’t been fully explored, how much would those rich top guilds pay? He smiled at the thought.

  Chapter 4

  Each floor of the tower was its own little world and existed independently from the others. At the edge of every floor was an indestructible barrier. The size of each floor varied greatly, from a city to even a country. Most important was that each floor had a theme.