Ultimate Level 1 - 211 - Crafting & Preparing (Patreon)

The door shattered into countless pieces, and Max ignored the shards that flew at his face.  Four steps later, he was in a room, and the sound of a gate came from behind, slowly shutting off the ten-foot tunnel they had just run through.

“Seth!”
Coming to a full stop in about three seconds, Max set the group down and spun, watching as lights began to appear, streaming all around the cavern in an upward circular motion.

“Stairs!” their dwarven warrior shouted.

They all saw the stairs. At the top was a bright light coming through an open door.

“Tell me this isn’t a race!” Batrire exclaimed as she cast a healing spell on herself.

“I’m not sure, but let’s go, Fowl, you’re first!”

Each of them moved quickly, with Fowl leading Tanila and their healer in the middle. A single metal rail was there as the four-foot-wide section of stairs spiraled around the thirty-yard-wide room.

Everyone grunted and huffed as they moved quickly, unsure what would happen next.

Five minutes later, they ran out of the darkness and into an open field, the gentle breeze blowing the green grass and the sun providing warmth and light.  Thirty yards away stood the portal and a small black chest.

No one spoke, breathing hard and panting, trying to catch their breath as they stumbled toward the chest and portal.  

“I hate stairs,” Batrire finally got out, wiping the sweat from her face.  “My legs… too short.”

Cordellia and Max both grinned, each having the easiest time with the stairs.

“So we won? I mean… like it’s over?”

Max shrugged at their warrior and pointed at the portal.

“I doubt most others could do it like we did.  What scares me is how another group would pass that. There could have been ten thousand bats in there.”

“It did seem to scale off the speed at which you moved though,” Cordellia said. “Once you hit a certain point and speed, the lights behind us caught up pretty quickly.  Who knows. Maybe fighting wasn’t the best option at all.”

Fowl had moved and was standing by the small black chest.  It was about a third of the normal-sized ones they got from killing a boss in the tower.

“Anyone care if I open it?”

“Go for it,” Max said. “Hopefully, it’s not a mimic.”

Instinctively, their warrior took a step away before glaring at Max, the others laughing at the Fowl’s expense.

He moved back and lifted the lid.

“Wow… that’s unexpected.”

Fowl reached in, pulled out a small pouch, dropped it on the ground, and repeated that process over and over.

Soon, fifteen pouches were on the ground.

Batrire had picked one up, and once Fowl had stopped pulling them out, she opened it, and her eyes went wide.

“Gems! Green tower gems!”

She pulled one out and held it up, crushing it between her fingers and smiled as the power flowed into her.

“There has to be about a hundred in this pouch. Which means… we killed over fifteen hundred?”
Fowl opened a pouch and popped one, grinning at the sensation he felt.

“I guess that sounds right,” Max said as he looked at Tanila and Cordellia, the three of them having done most of the killing.

“Oh my gosh! I’m level sixty now!” their ranger exclaimed.  “All that experience!”

“Holy elf…” Fowl stopped when he saw the looks from both elves and sighed. I’m almost fifty-eight, like just a sliver away.”

Max laughed and nodded as everyone grabbed a pouch and started smashing them between their fingers.

-----

“I guess that floor made up for the last one,” Tanila said after everyone had finished crushing all the green gems.  “We’re almost halfway to level twelve in the tower.”

Cordellia muttered something to herself, and Max turned to see her holding the last gem between her fingers.

“You ok?”

Blinking a few times, their ranger nodded and smiled.

“I’m level sixty! I’m also level eleven for the tower! Even better is we’re about to beat the eleventh floor!”

Her grin was infectious, and everyone started smiling, excited about what she was getting at.  Everyone was improving rapidly.

“Now I just need to decide what skill I want to get.  I may wait and talk to Tom.  Surely he’d have some ideas.”

Everyone nodded and smiled, and Max pointed at the portal.

“I’m not sure about you all, but how about we head out? I feel the need to eat and drink something not from a waterskin.”

Without waiting, the group exited the tower floor.

-----

Max spent three days working on weapons for the Faction while Tanila used her free time to visit the elven library and tried to find more information about artifacts without drawing attention.

“You’ve done exceptionally well,” Everett said as he inspected the six weapons lying on the table. “Each of these will help our members in so many ways.”
“Glad to be of service.  I’m almost done with Fowls, and then I’ll start working on more for the Faction list again. I did notice you have a legendary staff down there at the bottom of the list.”

Chuckling, Everett nodded as he slid his hand along the flat edge of the sword he held.  

“After seeing what you made for Batrire, I realized I sometimes get a little excited about our offensive classes and need to make sure that our healers get the same love.  Tell me, what did you find out from all the materials I’ve shown you the last few days?”

Max’s mind willed the book he wanted from storage, and when it appeared in his hand, he started to turn through it.

“There are a few materials that have potential, but I’m not certain if they are viable for what I want to do. That horn from the ice giant boss actually has a lot of potential for a legendary weapon. Just find the right metal to go with it, and you could have a really good ice-enchanted weapon.”

“Enough for a staff?” Everett asked.

Shaking his head from side to side, Max tried to let his mind and skill figure that question out.

“Maybe.  I’d have to see what all we had, but with an ice core and some other things I remember seeing in your supplies, I could probably make something that would help a caster that focuses on that element.”

Pulling out his own journal, Everett made a few quick notes and then stored it.

“So then, what’s tomorrow? Floor number twelve?”

“Yup. I have no clue what’s going to be there, but at the end of the day, we’re doing what we can while trying to be safe. I will say that the last two floors prove your point. Things got harder.”

Snorting, Everett rolled his eyes.

“Wait until you reach the forties. I pray for your sake that you all get the gear you need because I watched a warrior get almost killed in one shot by a tower monster. It had two skills and actually broke the plate armor, destroying it completely.”

Max felt his eyes go wide at hearing that news.

“There’s skills that destroy armor?”

“Some of the monsters you have listed in that journal we gave will eat the flesh off you if they touch you.  Others can cause a disease that reduces all your stats, and if your healer doesn’t cure you quickly, you can imagine what happens when something already stronger than you hits with a standard attack, let alone a charged one.”

Putting his book away, Max pulled out a different one and took out the torn piece of paper in it.

“This is for you.  Tell me if you think I’m right on the numbers for the first nine floors.”

Everett’s eyes furrowed as he took the paper from Max, and then as he started reading the list, his mouth opened slightly, and he began to blink rapidly.

“How… how do you have these?”

“I take it I’m right?”

Everett coughed and slowly nodded, glancing up from the list at Max and then back down.

“We’ve got something similar, and the numbers are basically around these.  Do I even want to know how you acquired this knowledge?”

Storing his books and tools, Max leaned against the workbench as he crossed his arms.

“I took what you said the other day seriously. I’ll share everything I can to help you and the Faction.  You’ve shown me that you have our back, so I’ll hold back less from now on.”

A single eyebrow raised as Max said that, but the Faction leader said nothing.

Chuckling, Max nodded at the questioning look.

“As I'm sure you know, There is still stuff our group keeps secret, and while we reveal it, most probably won’t come until we’re at that fiftieth floor. Only because then, I know everyone will feel comfortable enough to deal with it. However, I’m going to help give things like notes and stats so that as new adventurers join, they are better prepared for what awaits.”

Everett moved a few steps and held out his hand. As Max shook it, the older man smiled.

“If I weren’t certain you have no desire to run this place, I’d almost offer you my position in a decade or two.”

Laughing, Max shook his head.

“No, thank you.  The weight of leadership with just my team is hard enough.  I can’t imagine what you deal with on a regular basis.”

Frowning, Everett’s face changed, getting harder as he bobbed it.

“We lost four people in the last two weeks.  They were a group facing the boss on the thirty-fifth floor.  Only one survived.”

“Sorry to hear,” was all Max could think of, trying to imagine how that must impact the man standing across from him.

“Thank you. I can see in your eyes that you’re serious about that. The only one who returned was their ranger. They used the stone the team had to escape, but it was too late…” Everett’s eyes lost some light as he stared at the stone floor, frowning for a moment. One spell killed everyone that fast.”

Max stood there in silence, not wanting to talk for a moment, letting Everett have a minute to collect himself.

“It was a demon, and the ranger said it was upon them before anyone knew it.  One moment, it was across the tower floor when they entered the temple it was in, and the next…”

Shuddering, Everett took a deep breath and put on a smile.

“Don’t worry about that for now.  Just keep your team safe, and I’ll see if I can get a stone for your group just in case.”

Wincing, Max sucked a little air in through his teeth.

“Actually…”

The Faction leader's face went from pain and sadness to surprise, his head jerking back a few inches.

“You have a stone already?!”

Nodding, Max shrugged.

“We got it from a boss but felt mentioning it might sound bad at the time, so I forgot to tell you.”

“Well… I’m glad to hear you have one, but…” Everett paused as he considered that news. “If you get anything else out of the ordinary or extremely rare, should I expect you to keep it a secret as well?”

“I’ll try to let you know if I can, but did you tell your Faction leader everything you got?”

Laughing, the man shook his head and sighed.

“No… I can see your point,” he replied. “Very well, I’ll let you get back to your friends. Just remember, I’m always here if you need me.”

Nodding, Max moved toward the door and left Everett in the room with the weapons he had made. The older man picked up another and inspected it as Max left.

-----

“So it appears my list is pretty accurate,” Max said as the five of them sat around a table in a warded planning room.  “If I’m right, we’re going to start seeing bigger bosses and stronger normal monsters at some point.  The highest stats seem to be going up at a consistent value.”

Tapping the paper facing Batrire, Fowl, and Cordellia, Max found his lines for floors eleven and twelve blank.

“Without anything to really fight and knowing that our last floor wasn’t based on stats but sheer numbers, I honestly can’t tell you what’s coming next.”

“Well, I picked up some limited vision rings,” Batrire said as she handed one to everybody but Max.  “After those last two floors, I don’t want to be in the dark.”

Fowl snorted and chuckled, laughing harder when Batrire realized she had unintentionally made a pun.