“Would you like to take your combat assessment test now?”

  The ethereal voice in his ears shocked Roark for a moment. It was not easy to get used to the feeling of being watched by some kind of entity all the time.

  “My combat capabilities are going to rise once I get the allotted elixir. Might as well as take one now to test the effectiveness of the elixirs...”

  Thinking so, he confirmed his choice loudly.

  “Trial challenge simution begins at three, two, one...”

  “Whoa, so abrupt?” Roark looked around the arena in a bit of a panic. Although dying in the Tower didn't necessarily spell actual death, injuries were quite common even in simuted challenges like these.

  “Choose your weapon,” the disembodied voice said authoritatively. Roark noticed a gap forming in the center of the stone stele, and three weapons appearing side by side in that hollow.

  A meter-long sword, a slightly shorter bow and a quiver full of arrows, and a two-meter-long spear—the three most basic weapons used in the Tower.

  Bows and arrows were for dexterous, defensive combatants who didn't like to let the enemy come close. Roark knew his attributes didn't line up with this type of battle. He had never won a competition where aiming skills pyed a part.

  Spears were for those with good upper body strength and overall bance. This weapon was easy to master, and offered a wide array of skills down the path. But outside the Tower, almost nobody used spears for anything. So Roark didn't have much idea on how to wield one.

  A sword was the most commonly seen cold weapon, be it inside or outside the tower. Sword-reted skills were also the most explored branch of combat by the current human civilization.

  But it was boring.

  Like the officer had advised him earlier, to become a successful Tower Challenger, he needed his livestreams to make huge leaps in popurity. His combat videos had to become a sensation in the Beastmen Civilization!

  Wielding a weapon so common meant his skills would also be well-known and easy to analyze, losing the intrigue factor. Roark did not like the thought of going down that path.

  “Is there anything else? Can I change from this set?” Roark shouted loudly.

  “...Yes. A civilization seedling has this privilege,” the ethereal voice said after a quick pause, as if checking the rules.

  The hollow inside the stone stele disappeared, eating up the three weapons. And a moment ter, it reappeared with three more.

  This time, Roark found himself examining a slightly rarer set of cold weapons.

  A shield with a foot-long, thick spike at its center, a set of heavy daggers, and a simple one-sided axe.

  “Nope! Nope! Nope!” Roark pointed both of his thumbs down and refused again.

  “These look even worse! Give me something exotic! Some weapons that have the most messed up skill tree!”

  “....A civilization seedling has this privilege.”

  Roark detected a sense of annoyance in that ethereal tone. But for some reason, no Nuisance Points were awarded by his system panel. Perhaps annoying this disembodied entity in the tower would not be counted...

  Once more, a new set of weapons appeared in the stone stele. As if to avoid another request, this time the number was much higher, more than a dozen.

  Roark's eyes feasted on the neatly arranged pile of polished steel. Set of throwing knives, Club, nce, hammer, double-headed axe, give, crossbow, slingshot, halberd, greatsword, saber...

  His eyes suddenly got stuck on a pair. This was a set of two unusually wide knives. About two feet in length, and fifteen inches wide, with jagged heads that gave off a menacing aura—these knives were just perfect for offense, defense, and intrigue!

  He didn't even know what the formal name was, he simply grabbed both handles and swung them around in the air, feeling the delightful sense of weight in his grasp.

  “Do you wish to confirm your choice of weapons? This will affect your combat assessment.”

  “Can I use other weapons ter?” Roark asked tentatively.

  “Changing weapons is allowed only after each death inside the tower,” the voice replied emotionlessly.

  Roark knew that any Challenger could buy a ‘Life Retention’ Token inside the Tower if they could rack up enough contribution points. In fact, this was what most Challengers did for the first few weeks, going for the weakest challenges to save up for a Token.

  However, doing this meant that one would be wasting their entire beginning potential in the algorithm, because no Beastman was interested in watching a rookie human solo easy challenges.

  This is where Civilization Seedlings had another advantage. They started out with one Life Retention Token, and could take on interesting challenges without fearing death.

  “Finalize it, then. These will be my weapons for now. What are they called, by the way?”

  “Choice of weapon: Butcher Knives—confirming. Prepare yourself for simuted battle....”

  The stone stele sank into the soil of the arena as if there was a quicksand underneath. While Roark tested the sands there with his toe, he suddenly heard a low roar behind him.

  “Ah?”

  Clutching his knives, he leaped away and turned to look at his opponent... Which turned out to be a three-feet-tall, barehanded goblin, running at him with a quickness beyond an ordinary human.

  Like any student in the human settlements, Roark had studied extensively about the various species of Beastmen appearing in the tower.

  Goblins of this size had only one advantage, agility. Their strength couldn't compare to a healthy human teenager, and their stamina fell short by a big margin as well.

  Having mana or vitality was out of the question. Goblins with such attributes had a vastly different appearance.

  Watching the small goblin coming closer with high momentum, Roar

  k's mouth twisted into an unsightly grin.

  “The Tower entity gave me no points. But you... What about you, little guy?”