“Hmm. The first two sound amazing already. What’s the last technique?”
“Foresight—that is to anticipate the future and react before it happens.” Jason grinned. Heaven only knows how long it took for him to master this technique.
“Wow.” Roy was beginning to feel overwhelmed. “There’s so much to learn.”
The waiter came over with the bill, which Jason and Roy paid. Standing up to leave, Jason patted Roy’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. Just take one step at a time. You’ve just entered the tower yet you already beat the second challenge. You can definitely reach my level.”
“Yeah! I’ll work hard.” Roy was getting pumped up. “So, what now?”
“Since you’re a natural-born, you don’t need any abilities for now, right?” Jason asked as they left the restaurant.
“No way, I already have so much. I don’t know what to focus on.” Roy sighed exaggeratedly.
“Tch.” Jason clicked his tongue enviously. Damn kid doesn’t know how lucky he is. Jason led Roy to the market district. “First, I’ll buy myself some heritage armor and some abilities, and then…”
“And then?”
“We go to the first floor!”
Roy nearly tripped. He just remembered that he hadn’t even passed the first floor. He repeated a mantra in his head. Baby steps, Baby steps.
Chapter 19
The six kingdoms on the thirtieth floor controlled a vast amount of territory. Within these territories were a variety of biomes; plains, forests, jungles, deserts, and more. In these territories were dungeons. Dungeons were initially owned by the kingdoms, but after twenty years, most of them have been bought up by the top and upper-tier guilds for a vast sum.
A variety of metals, ores, herbs, wood, and other materials could be acquired by farming these dungeons. By defeating the boss in each dungeon, equipment had a chance of dropping, as well as skill and spell books.
Most guilds all looked forward to one drop in particular. Heritage equipment. They were worth nothing to high level ascenders, but heritage armor was a favorite of rich tycoons, either for themselves or their family. By equipping with heritage armor, the first thirty floors would be much easier to ascend, though still dangerous if you weren’t careful.
Thus, to find heritage equipment, you had to go to the shops owned by upper and top-tier guilds. Only they sold them. Jason led Roy to a shop owned by a top-tier North American guild by the name of Daredevil. Their guild master, Trevor, had recently reached the heavenly eye level. Few dared to cross the guild. The Daredevil guild owned the most dungeons in the Vistar kingdom, so they had the highest chance of selling heritage equipment.
The shop was one of the most luxurious buildings in the market district, made out of beautiful high-quality marble. Long banners with the Daredevil’s guild logo adorned the sides of the building. The patrons here were far and few between, but all of them were ascenders with some backing.
Jason entered the shop with Roy at his side. The inside of the store was much bigger than it appeared from the outside. On the walls hung weapons and armor, while rows of transparent glass containers held a plethora of jewelry. Rings, necklaces, and earrings glittered brightly. Roy’s eyes shone just as bright as he took in his surroundings. “Wow! There is so much high-level equipment.”
He ran up to a glass container holding rings and examined them. “What the hell? All of these are higher than novice grade!”
“150 gold for a single ring?” Roy sucked in a breath. Expensive! Too expensive! Ascenders were allowed to have a maximum of ten rings, one necklace, and two earrings equipped at once. That meant it would cost around two thousand gold to outfit yourself in accessories. Only now did Roy understand how expensive it was to maintain gear as an ascender. Good equipment didn’t come cheap.
Jason left Roy to himself as he walked up to the back of the store, where a gorgeous young woman stood behind a counter. She smiled brightly as Jason approached. “Hello, sir. Welcome to Daredevil’s store. How may I help you?”
Jason raised a finger. “An entire set of heritage armor, including a heritage shield and sword.”
The saleswoman immediately smiled from ear to ear. This was a big customer! She waved her hand, summoning five pieces of dark blue armor, a black shield, and a sword. “That’ll be 2,000 gold.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Jason’s heart bled as he summoned a large pouch filled with gold coins. He didn’t necessarily need heritage equipment, but it would vastly increase the speed at which he ascended the lower floors. Besides, when he was done with it, he could give it to his father to increase his survivability. When Jason thought of this, he felt better about spending so much money.
The saleswoman’s eyes lit up with a flash of light as she used the inspect spell. She was immediately able to determine the amount of gold coins in the pouch. After finding everything in order, she stored the bag into her inventory. “Thank you for your patronage. Would you like anything else?”
Jason thought for a moment. “Do you sell potions?”
“We do. What grade would you like?” The saleswoman summoned five bottles of red liquid, with each bottle a shade deeper than the last.
“500 basic-grade health potions and 100 grand grade, I suppose.”
“That rounds to 25 gold.” The saleswoman summoned six hundred potions onto the counter.
Twenty-five gold was nothing compared to two thousand. After paying for the potions, the saleswoman asked. “Anything else?”
“Do you have any rare skills for a tank who uses heavy armor, a shield, and a sword?” Jason asked expectantly.
“We have a few. Take a look.” The saleswoman placed a few tattered books onto the counter.
Jason leaned forward and read the text on the front of the books. Warcry, Spell Reflect, and Rush, huh? The selection wasn’t much, but they were all skills he wanted. “I’ll take them all.”
“1,500 gold, sir.” The saleswoman smiled with glee. She would receive a big bonus today.
After forking over the gold, Jason was nearly broke. He had less than 500 gold remaining. Sighing heavily, he turned and called out to Roy, who was checking out a sword on the wall. “Roy, let’s go.”
“Aw, okay.” Roy turned to leave, but not before giving another glance at the weapons on the wall. He left the store and caught up to Jason. “So, what’d you get?”
“A set of heritage equipment, potions, and three skills.” Jason said as he took out the three skill books and promptly learned them. They dispersed into light after being used.
“Oh, what skills did you get?” Roy asked curiously. He was only familiar with his own skills and a few other basic ones.
Jason swiped with his hand and a wall of information appeared in front of Roy.
Warcry - Level 1 0% - Trainee
Consume 25 Stamina to release a shout, causing enemies within 15 feet to cower in fear for 3 seconds.
1-minute cooldown.
Spell Reflect - Level 1 0% - Trainee
Consume 20 Stamina to reflect a targeted spell back at its caster.
3-minute cooldown.
Rush - Level 1 0% - Trainee
Consume 50 Stamina to charge towards a targeted point with 25% increased speed. While charging, you are immune to most crowd control effects.
1-minute cooldown.
“Oooh.” Roy was fascinated by these foreign skills. After memorizing them, he turned to Jason. “How much did they cost?”
“1,500 gold total.”
“Whaaaaaaat? So much?” Roy was flabbergasted. “Why is it so expensive?”
Jason glared at Roy. “You see? Now do you know how lucky you are to have so many skills for free?”
“Very lucky, very lucky!” Roy nodded repeatedly when he saw Jason gnashing his teeth.
Jason rolled his eyes at Roy’s behavior. “After we buy a pair of communication necklaces, we’ll head to the first floor. There, we’ll begin your training.”
Roy jumped in place from excitement. “Gr
eat! I can’t wait to learn the three exalted techniques.”
Jason smiled. Roy, oh Roy. No one else has done this type of training before. I’m getting pumped up just thinking about it. By completing the tenth arena challenge, Jason had acquired a skill suited to his personality. It was different than the one he’d acquired in the past, and he trembled in glee when he got it. It was definitely a top skill.
Defense Aura - Level 1 0% - Trainee
Passive. Share 10% of your physical and magical armor to 1 ally of your choosing within 20 feet.
The potential of this skill was incredible. Jason compared this with the skills he’d acquired before he returned to the past and definitely felt that it was in his top ten. After buying two communication necklaces for a few golds, they added each other as contacts. Now no matter how far apart they were, as long as they were both in the tower, they could communicate with each other.
Jason teleported back to the fifth floor and then made his way down to the entrance of the first floor. “Ready to begin?”
“Yep! What’s the plan?” Roy clenched his hands in anticipation.
Jason smiled, but when Roy saw it, he felt that he might have made a mistake. Jason’s smile was too terrifying. It was like he was an evil scientist looking at a lab rat, and Roy was the rat.
Chapter 20
Jason summoned his heritage armor, consisting of a helmet, chest, gauntlets, legs, and boots. It was dyed dark blue with yellow patterns etched onto the armor. Unlike in the outside world, here, by simply using his will, the armor magically teleported onto Jason at the perfect size. Not too large, and not too small. Jason felt his stats rise dramatically, letting him feel a fraction of his former power.
Heritage Heavy Armor Set
Level 15
Physical Armor: 90
Magical Armor: 30
+25 All Stats
+25% Health
+25% Stamina
+10% Mana
*Heritage armor matches the wearer's level, up to level 50.
*Must be under level 51 to equip.
Heritage Kite Shield
Level 15
Physical Armor: 50
Magical Armor: 20
-10 to all damage taken
Heritage Longsword
Level 15
Damage: 30
+10% Attack Speed
5% Chance to deal 2x damage.
Roy inspected Jason’s armor before commenting. “I prefer my colors.”
Jason looked down and had to agree. “My favorite color is black, but heritage armor is rare enough, I can’t be too picky.”
Roy equipped his heritage armor and stepped forward, prepared for battle. Jason pulled him back. “Wait, you aren’t allowed to use heritage equipment.”
“Huh, why not?” Roy swiveled his head as his eyes turned as wide as saucers. He wasn’t allowed to use his super cool white armor?
Jason rolled his eyes. “The goal is to train you. You already have outrageous stats as a level 1 natural-born, and you want to add heritage armor on top of that? That’ll just make things counterproductive.”
“But, but…” Roy pleaded with his eyes, but Jason stood firm. “All right, all right, fine. I’ll take it off.”
Roy pitifully stored his equipment away, leaving him defenseless. “So what will I use?”
“You are only allowed to use equipment drops from monsters you kill. Nothing else.” Jason stated.
“Wait, you aren’t going to give me a weapon? How am I supposed to kill a goblin?”
“There are many ways. I’ll show you one.” Jason strolled through the tunnel until he found a lone goblin. He casually walked up to it as it charged towards him. The goblin swung its weapon in a wide arc, which Jason reacted to by taking a simple step back. Before the goblin could pull back its shortsword, Jason grabbed its wrist and twisted. The goblin dropped its weapon as it shrieked in pain.
“Oooh!” Roy applauded from the side. Stealing a weapon? What a novel idea. Roy was ecstatic.
“Even weaponless, you still have many options available to you. Martial arts are already dangerous, but if you take into account your superhuman strength and agility, they become deadly.” Jason casually explained as he stepped forward, ignoring the shortsword on the ground. He used both of his hands to smack the goblin’s ears with a moderate amount of strength.
“Eeeek!” The goblin’s eyes grew unfocused. It staggered backwards before tripping over a rock.
“See?” Jason turned to Roy. “You can disorient an opponent by smacking their ears, or hitting their chin, among other things. But this is only applicable to humanoid monsters. Take into account your opponent’s weaknesses at all times.”
Roy was taking mental notes as he nodded repeatedly. He visualized himself mimicking Jason’s movements. After Jason punched the goblin to death, he ran forward. “I want to try!”
Roy traveled down the tunnel until he found another goblin. Without stopping, he charged up to it. The goblin shrieked. Roy kept his eyes on the sword, and as soon as the sword moved, he jumped backwards, creating a large gap between them. Just like Jason, he stepped forward and grabbed the goblin’s wrist. Instead of twisting, he pulled. The goblin didn’t let go of its weapon as it was dragged into the air. Roy exclaimed. “Hey, let go!”
The goblin thrashed around and kicked Roy’s chest. Panicking, Roy punched the goblin’s chin with all his strength, knocking it unconscious. Stunned, Roy turned to Jason. “I won?”
“A bit awkward, but not bad for your first try.” Jason gave a nod. “What do you think you could have done better?”
Roy thought back to the start of the fight. “I jumped too far back. I wasted too much movement.”
“Every second counts in a fight. If there was more than one goblin, that second might be the deciding factor between life and death.” Jason spoke from personal experience.
“I understand.” Roy killed the goblin with its weapon. He looked at it for a moment before dropping it.
“You’re not using it?”
“No.” Roy shook his head. “I want to try again.”
Jason smiled. That’s just like him.
For the next few hours, Roy searched for lone goblins and tried different strategies while Jason gave tips and pointers from the side. If anything dangerous happened, he planned to jump in, but his concern was pointless. Roy’s stats were just too high compared to the goblins’.
When Roy finally got down the technique of disarming a goblin, he moved onto fighting two at once. It was a bit trickier this time. He had to quickly disarm one goblin while paying attention to the other. This time, Roy took from his experience fighting ten goblins at once in the arena. He moved onto three goblins, then four, then five, until eventually he could easily disarm a goblin no matter their number.
Jason and Roy sat against the tunnel wall and ate the food Jason had stored in his inventory ring. He had previously stocked up thousands of meals, so food was no concern. Roy wiped the sweat from his forehead before turning to Jason with a smile. “What now? The second floor?”
“Nope.” Jason swallowed the food in his mouth before explaining. “Now that you have some equipment, you’re going to hunt elites.”
“Elites?” Roy clenched his hands in anticipation. Fighting an elite was a different challenge. They had skills and higher stats than their normal counterparts.
After finishing their meal, Jason recalled the location of all the elites on the first floor. After picking one out, he led Roy to a cavern. A large goblin crouched in front of a bonfire, where a piece of meat was being cooked.
(Elite) Goblin - Level 1
Health: 200/200
“Okay, it’s all yours. Remember, you aren’t allowed to use any abilities.” Jason crossed his arms.
Roy raised an eyebrow. “You aren’t going to tell me its skills?”
“Nope.” Jason gave a thumbs up. “Good luck.”
“All right…” Roy clenched his shortsword as he slowly stepped fo
rward. When he was twenty feet from the goblin, its ear twitched and it turned around. This goblin was much larger and more muscular than a common goblin, reaching five feet high. Snarling, it gripped its thick sword and stepped forward.
It saw how hesitant Roy was and smirked. It suddenly shrieked, spooking him. Taking this chance, it charged forward. It reached Roy in just a few steps and swung overhead. Roy had no time to dodge, so he raised his sword. There was a loud clang as both swords collided with each other.
“Huh?” Roy was startled. Wasn’t this elite goblin a little too weak? He barely felt any force behind the blow. Growing confident, Roy shoved upwards, knocking the goblin back. He slashed sideways, creating a long gash on the goblin’s chest. It lost 40 health.
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