Tower of Souls

Cam was pretty confident that he now held the record for the person who has spent the most time on the first Floor during a single climb, with two weeks spent just waiting for his Ability cooldown... And, while that wasn’t really a record to be proud of, he didn’t regret taking his time to maximize the returns; Even Legendary Classers would only have two Abilities at level three: their Innate Ability, gained on Awakening Day, and a second Ability gained at Level 3.

And Cam now had four Abilities- plus, spending a week hanging around the First Floor Boss room gave him time to familiarize himself with his new Abilities- not that it required that much time, but, again, better safe than sorry.

Iron Skin

Mana Cost: 20

Effect: Covers the user’s skin with protective metallic coat, increasing Armor 10.

Duration: 15 seconds

Despite the incredibly simple description, he knew how potent this Ability was; While each piece of armor only provided protection to the part of the body it covered, Iron Skin was like a suit of armor for the entire body. And it stacked with whatever armor they were wearing. Considering the Kobolds of the First Floor were all doing less than ten damage with their attacks, having this Ability would have effectively made them invulnerable to them... for its short duration.

Of course, duration was only one of its limitations, the other being that it offered no protection at all against magic attacks like the Firebolt cast by the one Shaman Boss. Still, it was an excellent Ability, one that most tanks would be thrilled to have before Level 10- though there were a few Legendary Classers mentioned historically that had gained it as early as Level 5. And Cam had it at Level 3!

Still, he wasn’t as excited as he could have been, as it meant passing up on Firebolt... but, as much as he wanted a solid ranged Ability, and it would have been incredibly useful to have, the drastically increased survivability brought by Iron Skin was too much to let go- especially since their plan involved slow playing to gather even more Abilities, and offensive Abilities were more common among Tower monsters than defensive ones...

Even more interestingly... Cam was right in his earlier thought that being able to subsume his Clone and gain their memories was a major boost for training; With both of them taking turns to practice Iron Skin, trying to get a feel for its timing to avoid being surprised when it ran out in the middle of a fight... it really was nearly twice as efficient, since Eron had all of his memories when summoned- which included the memories of previously subsumed clones. It barely took a day for them to have an almost instinctual understanding of exactly how long Iron Skin would last... though that also led to them paying attention to a drawback of the Clone Ability.

If Cam was low on mana- or injured- when summoning his clone, Eron would appear with the same amount of mana and the same injuries... Not the biggest drawback, as Cam had already figured that would be the case, but definitely something to keep in mind going forward.

But the Boss fight had given them more than just XP and a new Ability: an item had dropped. It wasn’t anything fancy, just a pair of gloves... with 0 armor, offering no protection for the hands that wore them; Instead, the gloves increased the wearer’s Fire damage by 10%- both damage dealt and damage taken, so a bit risky to wear... still useful, considering their only offensive Ability was fire based- though Cam had never heard of armor from Floor 1 having a special ability.

And Eron didn’t mind wearing them, since dying was more of a temporary thing for him, anyway, having already experienced it once... sort of experienced, as neither of them actually felt it with dead clones not being able to be subsumed.

Something they were both grateful for, as just the memory of seeing the clone die was bad enough; Neither of them wanted memories of the actual experience itself.

To top it all off, he had leveled up... And, while it wasn’t really uncommon for lower Rarity Classers to only clear a single Floor on their first climb, and to deliberately hold back to be at least a level up on each Floor, he was pretty sure he was the only person to be up a level on their very first climb.

Though, that did raise the question of how to spend his points.

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”I already brought Strength and Vitality up to 20, matching Agility...” He told his clone, deep in thought. ”I think that’s pretty good for Level 3-”

”Pretty good?” Eron scoffed, knowing he was speaking what they were both thinking. ”A Level 3 Legendary tank would have a higher Vitality- probably at least 25, but maybe higher- with a Strength of around 20... and a much lower Agility. And all that is assuming they didn’t start with higher physical Stats than us.”

”Which, considering we are kind of small, and were a bit malnourished before the Awakening-”

”And they probably had better training and diets, increasing the probability of having higher base Stats!”

”...yeah, I know.” Cam sighed; His Stats actually were pretty good- now, that is. His starting point was definitely lower than people from the Families and Guilds- his physical starting point, as his mental Stats were already pretty high at Awakening... But, even with that, he had already raised his Strength, Agility, and Vitality to a pretty solid point; Not as good as a Legendary whose class revolves around the Stat, but about around where their secondary Stat would be- maybe just a little lower, but that was still good.

After all, he wasn’t aiming to match them in what they were best at, or even what they were second best at- though, even if a tank did have a higher Strength than him, that was more to accommodate them wearing armor and keeping the monster’s attention, and not focused on dealing damage.

With him being able to gather more Abilities, he would do a lot more damage than a tank ever could... and be more durable than any caster, able to cast more than any archer or melee damage Classer, have more utility than... anyone, really. That was his goal.

”Ok, so our physical Stats are better than any Caster... so I’m thinking of bringing up the mental Stats now, then raising them all evenly.” He muttered softly, more to himself than his clone- though this was pretty much already the plan, it felt better to say it out loud... even if he was talking to himself. ”That way we can use our Abilities more, while still wielding weapons effectively.”

”You know, we probably should actually feel pretty good about our Stats, right?” Eron said suddenly. ”I mean, most of our comparisons are to Legendary Classers... but those are pretty rare, right? I mean, even among the Innies a handful of Legendaries each year is pretty high.”

”And, if I’m remembering the statistics right, at least one dies on their first climb... with another one or two dying in their first year.” Cam grimaced at the math; Despite the likely numerous precautions taken by the big Familes, losing new Classers was almost inevitable... Because people with drastically different Levels couldn’t climb together.

Just like with gaining XP, a three level difference was the max- and that was across the entire group.

And people were people. Regardless of what their parents, the heads of their Family, or anyone said, some of them would push too hard. Whether from underestimating the Tower, or trying to prove themselves, they would push just a little too far... and never return, sometimes even taking their entire team with them.

Which... Cam had to admit, wasn’t too different from what he was doing, even if he didn’t plan to die- though he doubted any of them planned on dying in the Tower; They just... made a mistake, and never got to regret it.

”Kinda makes you think that their little ’rule’ about not climbing solo isn’t exactly wrong, doesn’t it?” Eron asked with a cheeky grin. ”Also make sense why no one seems to push, content to just farm easier Floors and slowly build up-”

”Yeah, I know! We’re the same person, remember?” Cam rolled his eyes at his clone. Sure, it made sense why they didn’t push, as any mistake could be fatal... But them not pushing meant the Wastes were inching closer every year...

And it wasn’t the Innies that suffered as a result. It was people like him, from the Outer Ring. The Outcasts.

But the Outer Ring rarely had Classers, and almost never ones of a higher Rarity, to fight for them and try to change things. Maybe it was risky. Maybe it was a bit foolish. Maybe he would die trying to accomplish what everyone else called impossible.

But he had to try... and saving the Outer Ring was only part of his motivation, the other part simply him not wanting some asshole from the Inner Circle to dictate his every choice to him, controlling his life, and how and when he climbed...

It was a risk, but it was the fastest way to get strong enough to push back and control his own life. This first climb was basically his only chance to do that before they got a chance to dig their claws in.

He didn’t think everyone in the Inner Circle was some sort of corrupt monster bent on controlling him... But he wasn’t willing to bet everything on the off chance that someone powerful decided not to be a complete jerk.

It was better to make himself powerful; Only then could he be absolutely sure there was someone with power that wasn’t just trying to use him: Himself.