Su Long’s attention was drawn towards the paper, causing him to make a mistake on the glyph he was working on. It short circuited and made a sizzling sound. Normally he would rage in anger, but the bloodlines were just too important. He quickly grabbed the paper and perused it. His eyes lit up. “I’ll buy these up right away. Maybe I’ll be able to make a Grand grade glyph right away!”
Jason turned to leave, but stopped once he remembered something. “Oh, one more thing. Are you able to supply furniture for the guild? We’ll pay you.”
Su Long waved his hand dismissively. “I understand what you want. You can leave it to me. I’m a master craftsman.”
Roy’s head suddenly popped out from behind the door. “Why do we need furniture?”
“You show him.” Su Long’s face grew pale and he nearly had a heart attack. He quickly tossed Jason an inventory ring before running out of the building and making a run for it. He was going to get those bloodlines and then build a blacksmith building with a steel door.
Jason chuckled as he inspected the inventory ring. As expected of one of the richest ascenders in the world. The inventory ring was filled with low-grade materials and furnishings. There were enough materials inside to build a small town. Roy cast over a curious look. Jason walked outside and called out. “Everyone, follow me. I’ll show you the mechanics of this floor.”
Jason strode over to the lake. By the time he arrived, Cheslov, Roy, and Olivia were at his side. Jason glanced behind him and found a small flag in the center of the pillar. As he was the owner, only he could see it. The plot flag’s grade was Rare, which was just enough to cover the entire pillar. A Rare grade plot flag was pretty rare, so for Walter to just hand one over for free was pretty generous. Jason was no idiot. It was clear it was a gesture of goodwill.
Jason opened up the screen that only owners of plot flags could see. It was packed with options and information. Already very familiar with it, Jason easily navigated through the screen and gave Cheslov, Roy, and Olivia property rights. Every ascender was allowed one building. Only higher-grade plot flags allowed more.
A screen popped up in front of Cheslov, Roy and Olivia, informing them of their new rights. They spent a few minutes navigating through the options. There was much less information on their screens compared to Jason’s, so it was easy for them to understand. The screen available to them showed a long list of buildings. Each building required a slew of materials. They could either be built manually, or be built instantly by the system, for a large fee. Generally, ascenders hired laborers to build their buildings.
“Oh, man.” Roy’s eyes nearly popped out from his head. “The guild hall requires so many materials.”
Olivia nodded with a frown. “And what is this material? A token?”
Jason informed from the side. “A boss token. You need five different tokens to build a guild hall, among other things. And that’s just for a tier one guild hall.”
Jason handed Roy the ring full of materials. “Forget about the guild hall for now. Build the cheapest building, a wooden house.”
“Got it.” As soon as Roy equipped the inventory ring, the screen changed, informing him he had the required materials. Without batting an eye, he chose to instantly build the wooden house. A hundred gold coins was taken from his inventory ring. A hologram of the wooden house that only Roy could see appeared in front of him.
Jason guided him from the side. “Place it where you want. Use your will to control it.”
“Okay.” Roy glanced around for a moment before deciding to just place it next to the lake. When he confirmed in his mind, the building was completed in the blink of an eye.
A screen appeared in front of Roy, informing him that he acquired a new skill. Roy’s face lit up. “Great! I got a teleport skill to the house. There’s a three-day cooldown, though…”
“Higher quality buildings have lower cooldowns, don’t worry.” Jason commented as he walked up to the small wooden house and walked inside. There was only a single room and one window. It could win first place for the worst house in the world. He turned to Roy. “How much furnishing is allowed?”
“Uhh, let me check.” Roy inspected his character screen, where the properties tab was. “It says zero out of five.”
Jason pointed at the inventory ring on Roy’s finger. “There should be a bed and wooden table in there.”
There was so much stuff in the ring that it took a while for Roy to find them. After a moment, he pointed with his finger. A bed and table flashed into existence. Jason gave a nod. “Everyone, inspect them. You’ll understand why this floor is important after you do.”
Cheslov, Olivia, and Roy stared at the table and bed. When screens appeared in front of them, their eyes widened in astonishment.
(Crude) Wooden Table
+10 Health
(Crude) Bed
+1 Health regeneration every 10 seconds.
+1 Stamina regeneration every 10 seconds.
Jason laughed inwardly when he saw their expressions. He was the same back then, long ago. The community floors were incredibly important to an ascender’s strength. They would soon become humanity’s second home. Jason added. “These stats affect the property owner no matter their location.”
Olivia quickly navigated through the building list and scrolled to the most expensive buildings. Her eyes shone. “You can have hundreds of furniture with this building. Imagine having hundreds of Rare grade furniture. It would be like having another set of gear equipped at the same time!”
Cheslov’s voice was hoarse. “Forget Rare grade. What if you had Arcane grade, Heroic grade, or even Unique grade furniture!!”
Olivia shook her head. “Do you know how hard that would be to get? I don’t even have a single Heroic grade equipment.”
Jason sighed mournfully as he recalled his mansion from the alternate future. His precious, precious mansion. It was gone. Lost. It was filled with Heroic and Unique grade furniture, giving endless effects. He had spent millions of gold, thousands of hours, and sweat and blood to make it one of the best mansions in the world. If Jason had one vice, it would be making others jealous of his belongings. What other way to do that than giving free tours of his mansion? He still recalled the expressions of those newbie ascenders seeing his mansion for the first time. It was the greatest feeling in the world.
No matter the cost, he would try his hardest to make another mansion. He sighed again. “One step at a time, guys. One step at a time.”
He didn’t know if he was giving out advice or consoling himself.
Chapter 27
A short while later, four houses stood alongside the lake. All four were identical and were the cheapest the community floors offered. After everybody set up their properties, they gathered together. Roy glanced around and suddenly realized someone was missing. “Where’d Uncle Walter go?”
Jason pointed towards the pagoda with his chin. “He had to head back to his guild. He said you can head over anytime you want.”
“Ah.” Roy was understanding. “He is a guild master after all.”
Jason had already placed Su Long’s inventory back in the old man’s house. They weren’t Jason’s materials to use. With a clap of his hands, Jason said. “Ready to gather some materials?”
Cheslov smacked his fist into the palm of his hand. “I’ve been waiting for you to say that.”
Jason glanced around at everyone. “We’ve never actually fought together since Cheslov joined. How about we go fight a boss nearby? From this point onward, we should learn how to work together.”
Everyone voiced their agreement. After making sure everyone had a stock of potions and food, Jason walked over to the edge of the pillar. He squinted as he glanced down. After finding what he was looking for, he pointed. “There. That forest is called the living woods and is a good source of wood. As our plot fla
g is quite close, we should be going there pretty often.”
Roy turned towards the pagoda. “All right, let’s go!”
Jason grabbed Roy’s shoulder and pulled him back. “What are you doing? Let’s fly!”
With that, Jason stepped forward and began to fall. With a flash of light, his glider appeared under his feet. Olivia and Cheslov followed after, leaving Roy standing there by himself. His eyes twinkled as he jumped off. “Because of this pillar, we can fly through the entire floor. Awesome!”
Jason and company flew side by side. The wind was calm and refreshing as they flew through the air. They passed by another pillar and flew underneath a waterfall. Roy brushed his hand against the water as he passed. Before long, they flew over living woods. They dove down and landed in front of the forest.
After putting away their gliders, Jason looked ahead. You weren’t able to see more than twenty feet into the forest due to the thickness of the trees, their gnarled roots crisscrossing over the ground.
Jason pulled out his weapons and calmly walked forward. “I’ll lead. Roy and Olivia will be at my flank while Cheslov will watch the rear. Any complaints?”
“None.” Everyone fell into position.
Jason glanced over at Roy. “How good are your healing skills?”
“Uhh.” Roy inspected his information. “Pretty good I guess?”
Jason thought briefly before asking. “How much health can you heal before running out of mana?”
Roy counted with his fingers and replied. “Around fifteen thousand health if I only use my mana on healing skills. But if I do that, I won’t be able to help fight.”
“You’re more of a hybrid, right?” Jason sighed. “It’s a bit awkward because we don’t have a dedicated healer.”
By this point, they had already entered the forest. The sunlight barely passed through the canopy. Added to the thick roots covering the ground, it was easy to stumble and lose your footing. During a fight, that could be deadly.
“Yeah.” Just as Roy nodded, Jason raised his hand. Everyone stopped and glanced around, prepared for battle.
A moment later, a group of humanoid creatures walked around a tree, appearing in front of Jason’s group. They were tall and thin, with bark for skin. There were seven of them.
Sapling - Level 65
Health: 5,000/5,000
Just as Jason was about to shout out the sapling’s strengths and weaknesses, he stopped. Considering that he was now at the frontlines of the tower, information was lacking about the monsters here. If he began shouting out their characteristics left and right, it would be suspicious. Not only that, but learning to fight monsters without knowing their skills and traits was a vital skill. It would be better to let Roy and Olivia adapt and grow. He didn’t know much about how Cheslov fought and learned, so now would be the best time to learn more about his new ally.
Instead, Jason fulfilled his role and rushed forward, drawing the attention of the saplings. When he got in range, he unleashed a cleave, damaging all seven saplings and causing them to focus on him. They let out sharp shrieks and charged at him. Just as they surrounded him, Olivia teleported to the shadow of the sapling in the back and began to attack rapidly.
As Jason defended against the saplings’ attacks, Roy and Cheslov appeared. As the enemy was numerous, Roy plunged his sword into the ground and activated consecration. Golden veins spread along the ground, damaging enemies and healing allies over time. At the same time, Cheslov activated leap and landed in the middle of the enemy. He spun around, using whirlwind. His two greatswords landed on every sapling, dealing over a thousand damage to each.
The first wave of attack ended, dealing significant damage to the saplings. In particular, the one Olivia focused on was nearly dead.
Enraged, the saplings began to counterattack. They were unintelligent lifeforms, so they wildly thrashed their arms around. As they did, their arms grew longer and thorny. Because they were living trees, they were able to slightly alter their body at will.
This caught everyone besides Jason by surprise. The attacks that would normally have been dodged by a simple step back, instead became unavoidable due to the increased length of their arms. Cheslov, Roy, and Olivia were hit. Some thorns got embedded in their skin, causing slight bleeding damage, although it was offset by the healing from consecration.
Cheslov snarled in anger at being hit by such a simple attack. He raised both greatswords overhead and slammed them into the ground, activating battle slam. The saplings’ attacks were halted as they staggered.
Everyone used this chance to attack wildly. They were able to kill two saplings before they recovered. Just as the saplings were about to attack again, Jason let out a fierce Warcry. All of the saplings were hit by the skill and cowered in fear. The skill would last for three seconds. During that time, all of the saplings were killed.
Everyone released a breath. Cheslov, Roy, and Olivia pulled out the thorns in their arms. Concerned, Roy asked. “Is everybody's health okay? I can’t really tell.”
Cheslov raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you have the life sense passive skill? It allows you to sense how much health your allies have.”
“Er.” Roy rubbed his cheek. “I’ve never had to really heal others before.”
Jason berated himself inwardly for forgetting about this particular problem before saying. “Don’t worry, it isn’t that expensive. A simple trip to the thirtieth floor will solve the problem.”
“Should I get it now?” Roy asked worriedly. Not being able to tell how much health your allies had as a healer was troublesome. What if you over-healed, wasting precious mana? Or worse, what if they were on the verge of death, but you didn’t know?
Jason shook his head. “No, we should be able to handle the boss without it.”
Olivia bent over and picked up the loot. It was a type of wood, a fitting drop for a sapling. “I remember that this wood is used as a material for building a higher quality house.”
Jason waved his hand. “Don’t worry about distributing it now. We’re a guild, so we’ll sort through it later.”
“Ok.” Olivia stored it in her inventory ring.
They continued onward, moving deeper into the forest. They encountered more saplings and other types of earth-based creatures. One thing they had in common was that they were all made from wood. As the guild fought as a group, they became familiar with each other’s skills. As Roy and Olivia had top talent, and Cheslov had an immature form of heavenly instinct, they began to show signs of fighting as a team.
Less than an hour later, Jason paused and knelt down. He placed his palm against the forest floor and listened. He felt a slight vibration coming from the distance. Grinning, he stood up and said. “The boss is just ahead.”
A few moments later, their group hid underneath a large root. Ahead of them was a towering creature. Much like the other creatures in the forest, it was a living tree. Unlike them, however, it was thirty feet tall.
(Field Boss) Ent - Level 65
Health: 150,000/150,000
Chapter 28
The groaning of wood echoed through the forest with every step of the Ent. The Ent weighed at least three thousand pounds, so it was easy to imagine being squashed beneath its feet. Seeing such a massive creature made Roy and Olivia hesitant. They had little experience fighting bosses. On the other hand, Cheslov was already calculating its strength and weaknesses. He had plenty of experience from fighting bosses with his previous guild. He nodded and spoke in a low voice. “Look how slow it moves. It probably has high strength and defense, but low agility. If we stay on the move, we should be able to avoid its attacks.”
Jason gave a soft grunt in agreement.
Hearing Cheslov’s analysis, Roy and Olivia calmed down. Although they were lacking in experience, they were highly talented and were taught how to approach new mons
ters by Jason. Roy glanced over the root he was hiding behind. “It’s obviously of the earth element. If it has spells, we’ll probably be attacked from below.”
Olivia was scanning the upper half of the Ent. There were plenty of sturdy branches attached to its body that she would be able to maneuver around.
After a few moments, Jason spoke up. “Ready?”
Seeing everyone nod, Jason leaped over the root and charged forward without hesitation. The Ent just so happened to be walking away from him, so he was safely able to approach without being seen. As he passed in between its legs, he swiped with his weapon. There was a loud clang, and if he hadn’t had a firm grasp of his sword, it would have been knocked out of his hand. A small white mark was left on the Ent’s bark. He didn’t even have to look at the Ent’s health to know he dealt less than 10 damage.
Regardless of the disappointing attack, he continued past the Ent. By now, it had noticed his presence and looked down. Instead of using his taunt skill, he slapped his sword against his shield and hollered, trying to make as much noise as possible.
The Ent finally realized it was under attack. It pulled back its left arm, bent over, and swiped. Its five fingers, each four feet long, dug long trenches in the ground. Jason calculated and stepped back, aiming for the gap between each finger. As the fingers passed by him, an idea popped into his mind. He knew from personal experience that the Ent’s defense was terrifyingly strong. But, Jason now was different than before. He possessed the most destructive energy he had ever seen. Battle energy. Was it strong enough to break the Ent’s defenses?
As soon as the thought entered his mind, he activated Sever. His sword hacked into the finger, encountering great resistance. Only when it cut through a third of the finger did his sword get stuck. Jason was pulled along with his weapon into the air. The Ent roared in pain, giving him the time he needed to free his sword. When he landed on the ground, the Ent was enraged and focused all its attention on the one who wounded it. It swiped again and again, destroying the ground in the process. Jason had to continuously back up so he didn’t fall inside the trenches.
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