Amber 29, 31 & 32 | Changes (Patreon)

Heya all, I forgot to mention how long Amber had passed in the tower, and at the same time I restructured to make the read better. 

Anyway here are the parts that have been changed for those that don't want to read all the changes in detail. 

TL;DR:

Amber has passed six months in the tower. 

Most of her 2nd Rank skills are level 10 during the boss fight and she has 2nd Rank resistances now. 

The boss is in the 50th floor now instead of 10th.

- Voidlurker is on the 40th floor, Snowllating Worm on 30th, Serpent on 20th

--

Next Chapter tomorrow. 

Changes:

Chapter 29: 

* * *

And indeed, it was a lot more interesting. The first two floors had taken her about a day total combined; a lot of her time was spent resting mentally. Even though Recovery of Curses helped her physically, the long battles were mentally exhausting to her. However, after she was ready she headed up towards the third floor.

And she paused; it was similar to the frog floor but the water canals were shining instead, and it was almost like a labyrinth. After walking for a few minutes she was lost, and re-treading her steps didn’t seem to do anything either.

Amber tried running through it, but the space felt almost infinite. She couldn’t seem to even find a dead end or anything in the space. It was odd, but she continued to explore; this time at a leisurely pace.

She thought she would see something interesting, but instead the space resembled a liminal space more than anything. Repeating patterns and the same kind of things over and over again. Even though she walked for hours she didn’t seem to find any change, and just when Amber was beginning to get annoyed she saw the water rise.

From within the blue water a figure appeared, then another and another.

[Spirit of Water. Lvl. 60]

[Spirit of Water. Lvl. 60]

[Spirit of Water. Lvl. 60]

…

In an instant, she saw hundreds of spirits of water and Amber smiled. They were weak, but their numbers were quite high.

Perhaps I’ll even be able to level my resistances here…

Amber grinned and began to kill the spirits.

* * *

Amber was sure she had spent over a week on the floor, the spirits came in waves, sometimes not appearing for close to a day. But she tore through every single one of them. And eventually, she killed the last one. Of course, there was no indicator that it had been the last one until it died. And when it did, the entire floor compacted.

And suddenly, Amber could see both stairwells, and relief washed over her.

“I thought I’d be stuck here a lot longer,” she sighed. “So there is plenty of floor variety, huh?”

She was glad Recovery of Curses existed since it staved away the hunger, otherwise she was sure she’d be in quite the bad shape right now.

Amber shook her head.

“At least, I have things to show for it.”

[General Weapon Mastery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 8.]

[Recovery of Curses has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 1 to 2nd Rank level 2.]

[Cursed Stomp has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 4 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Elemental Resistance has leveled up from level 4 to 6.]

[Magical Resistance has leveled up from level 5 to 7.]

[You have reached level 80. 5 stat points awarded.]

Amber unfortunately, had to ignore her Core Skill, nothing in her arsenal was worth replacing at the moment. But she wasn’t particularly bothered, even though experience was becoming slow to obtain now, she would still get a Core Skill every 5 levels. Not only that, but Core Skills tended to be good, and the one she had been offered looked interesting too, given it would allow her to take curses away from people.

She did wish she had more than ten slots, but that wasn’t the case.

Amber shook her head and rested on the cleared floor. She didn’t know what awaited her above, and if it was another “endurance” floor as she named this one, she decided she didn’t want to deal with it just yet.

And so, she took a long sleep before heading to the next floor.

* * *

Amber rested for a full day before heading to the next floor. However, this time she stood in a very small and closed room. There were no stairs, and the room consisted of nothing but a pedestal with a rounded hole. The walls seemed smooth and had no protrusions, yet she was lost.

The room was about five meters in all directions; a complete cube. She stared at it for close to a minute before approaching the pedestal, and examined it.

“What kind of room is this?”

She was puzzled, or rather, completely fucking lost. She could at least deduce that something was meant to go into the hole that had the pedestal, but as for what; she wasn’t entirely sure. She continued to examine the room for close to an hour ⁠— every single surface was smooth including the ceiling ⁠— before she finally began to touch around.

She felt the walls and even jumped to touch the ceiling, she made sure to cover every surface until⁠— the wall indented and a single drop of water came from the ceiling and dripped onto the rounded hole.

Amber blinked and tried to do it again except⁠— it no longer happened. However now there was a small quantity of water in the pedestal’s hole.

“So I have to fill it?” She frowned, having a small conjecture. “Don’t tell me the activation spot changes every time I do it.”

She continued to move around the room and after making two more droplets of water drop from the ceiling from pressing different places of the room. Amber sighed.

So I was right…

She began the tedious task of doing that, however after two more droplets she approached the pedestal. The hole inside of it was about a quarter full, and she had already spent half a day on it. She didn’t understand what kind of puzzle this was, but she wanted to try an alternative solution before being stuck in this room for multiple days.

So, she spat into the hole⁠—

She continued to spit until it filled and to her surprise⁠— the walls illuminated and the wall split to reveal another path.

“I should’ve done that from the beginning.”

She shook her head and continued.

* * *

The floor was some sort of puzzle floor, one in which she spent more than a few days on. Which she found ridiculous; though at least she got to fight a golem which helped relieve some of her frustration.

She slammed through the rocky monster’s head with the guard of her sword, pieces of rock flew and she continued her assault until the thing dropped dead on the ground.

[You have defeated a [Training Stone Unit. Lvl. 80.]

After it died, the stairs were revealed, and Amber once more took the time to rest before heading to the next floor. Even though this floor was incredibly boring, one of her skills had leveled up twice during it; much to her surprise.

[Sharp Instincts has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

* * *

Guillotine floor

----

Amber was ascending some stairs as she pondered about her time spent in the tower. Two months had already passed. The floor with the guillotines had taken about two weeks to get to due to the very time consuming floors. Thankfully, aside from experiencing a single more “endurance” floor, nothing else had happened.

Instead, she found that the floors above were rather normal. Having different environments and various monsters who were around her level. Now, she was on her way to the nineteenth floor of the tower. Even though she had hardly gotten any levels if at all, she found her time to be fruitful. Though her skills were refusing to progress into the 2nd Rank.

[Cursed Cleave has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 9 to 2nd Rank level 10.]

[General Weapon Mastery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 9.]

[Recovery of Curses has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 4 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Cursed Stomp has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 5 to 2nd Rank level 6.]

[Elemental Resistance has leveled up from level 7 to 8.]

[Physical Resistance has leveled up from level 8 to level 9.]

…

[You have reached level 81. 5 stat points awarded.]

You have reached level 82. 5 stat points awarded.]

Well, let’s see what the nineteenth floor is like.

The experience gained so far felt abysmal. She had killed so many monsters that were over level 80 and yet hardly saw anything. Then again, she supposed that if leveling up was truly that easy, a ton of level 100s would exist.

Shaking her head, she continued on.

The nineteenth floor had two Venomous Vencers. 

Chapter 30: 

Post serpent kill. 

Amber grinned, and turned to the dead Grand Ostrutem Serpent. The shimmer on its scales had faded, and the light in its eyes was gone. The monster had been decently strong⁠—

She grunted feeling her shoulder blade popping back into place.

But unfortunately, it had still been felled. Amber found it to be an enjoyable battle, and thinking about what the following floors had to offer greatly excited her. Sure, she knew that not every floor would be interesting, but those that were…

She grinned.

Amber stretched and then continued into the next floor.

* * *

Amber ascended ten more floors and spent a whole month doing that. One of them had been tedious, but she also took the time to try to increase her resistances further. She had also leveled up a few times, as well as leveled up some of her skills.

[Toxin Resistance has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 8.]

[Curse Momentum has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 8 to 2nd Rank level 9.]

[Berserker’s Body has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 8 to 2nd Rank level 9.]

[Curse Battery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 1 to 2nd Rank level 3.]

[Elemental Resistance has leveled up from level 8 to 10.]

[Physical Resistance has leveled up from level 9 to 10.]

[Magical Resistance has leveled up from level 7 to 9.]

[You have reached level 86. 5 stat points awarded.]

…

[You have reached level 87. 5 stat points awarded.]

She also tried to use this time to level up Curse Manipulation and Curse Rage Synergy, however, it didn’t bear any results.

She frowned.

Hopefully this floor will be it⁠—

Amber stepped out of the way as the snow to her side ruptured, a gigantic white worm towered over her; its spike lined body oscillated, cutting anything that dared to come close by. Amber was lightly bleeding from her previous attempts attacking the monster.

[Snowllating Worm. Lvl. 95]

---- 

* * *

Amber spent one month and a half if not more clearing out the next ten floors. And the main culprit had been a floor that, for lack of a better description, required her to dig to the next set of stairs. She fought in a desert and even in a swamp, but in the end she saw no 2nd Rank level ups. To some extent she was starting to feel like the tower was carefully measuring them and spacing them apart.

At least, her 2nd Rank skills were leveling nicely.

[Quick Dash has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 9.]

[Cursed Momentum has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 9 to 2nd Rank level 10.]

[Berserker’s Body has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 9 to 2nd Rank level 10.]

[Cursed Stomp has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 7 to 2nd Rank level 8.]

[Curse Battery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 5.]

[Cursed Rage Synergy has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 1 to 2nd Rank level 3.]

[Sharp Instincts has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 8 to 2nd Rank level 9.]

[You have reached level 91. 5 stat points awarded.]

[You have reached level 92. 5 stat points awarded.]

She didn’t know what kind of push skills needed to reach 3rd Rank, but she was starting to think that she’d get it before Curse Manipulation reached 2nd Rank. Though, she knew she was close.

Now, she was on the fortieth floor.

Amber stared into the dark room ahead, she couldn’t see anything, not even the walls to the other side. It reminded her of the guillotine room, but the atmosphere felt different. Almost eerie. She felt as if she was staring into a deep void, and she felt an unsettling feeling well up within her; her hairs stood on end.

Chapter. 31

Post Voidlurker fight

* * *

Amber was sure she had passed six months in the tower. These last nine floors hadn’t been tedious to her, but rather all of them were hard fought fights that pushed her Recovery of Curses to level up and left her exhausted afterward. And now, she stood on the stairs to the fiftieth floor.

Almost a lot of her 2nd Rank skills had leveled up to level 10, and her resistances had crossed into 2nd Rank.

[Quick Dash has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 9 to 2nd Rank level 10.]

[Cursed Stomp has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 8 to 2nd Rank level 10.]

[Recovery of Curses has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 6 to 2nd Rank level 10.]

[Sharp Instincts has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 8 to 2nd Rank level 9.]

[Curse Battery has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 5 to 2nd Rank level 8.]

[Cursed Rage Synergy has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 3 to 2nd Rank level 6.]

[Curse Manipulation has leveled up from 2nd Rank level 1 to 2nd Rank level 4.]

[⁠Magical Resistance has reached 2nd Rank ⁠— level 1.

You’ve been attacked by dozens of different types of magic during your short life in this world. It’s like you are a magnet to danger. You are now more resistant to all magical attacks.]

2nd Rank ⁠—  You’re twice as resistant to all magical attacks.]

[⁠Physical Resistance has reached 2nd Rank ⁠— level 1.

You’ve been receiving physical damage for a long time; whether this is on purpose or not it does not matter! You are now more physically durable.

2nd Rank ⁠—  You’re twice as resistant to physical attacks.]

[⁠Elemental Resistance has reached 2nd Rank ⁠— level 1.

You are a magnet to the elements. You don’t know how to stay out of their way, and at this pace you are likely to die! Worry not, you are now physically more resistant to the elements.

2nd Rank ⁠—  You’re twice as resistant to elemental attacks.]

Amber felt glad and excited to get to test out her new resistances against the fiftieth floor’s monster. Mini-boss? She wanted to think that it was that, just like the snake, just like the worm, just like the voidlurker⁠— but she had a feeling that it was different.

However, more importantly, she was close to her next Class Advancement.

Way too close.

[You have reached level 97. 5 stat points awarded.]

…

[You have reached level 99. 5 stat points awarded.]

She was one level away.

And after ascending the stairs of the fiftieth floor, she found herself standing before burning rocks, incandescent light came from beneath them accompanied by crackling sounds.

“So this is the fiftieth floor…”