A few moments later, I was back in Velkaria and eyeing up one of the dummies. I had at least twenty minutes before the others were due back. Spells or melee practice… spells or melee… melee won, I needed the backup options for when mana got low or spells were overkill…
I equipped my Arctic staff and started with a simple thrust with the end. Kept it simple with another as I bounced on my toes. I then tried to cast [Ice Blade] mid strike… nope, didn’t quite land right. The spell fizzled. Time to try that again, maybe it is just about getting the timing right…
Figured out the trick, cast the spell, but hold it, release it just before I start my strike. I could hold it for a few strikes before I had to release it onto the blade. I also realised after almost stabbing myself, I could swap the end the blade came out of, in the same way I could switch it from spear to scythe…
Turned out I got lost in the practice again… Realisation hit that my party was watching me beat on the dummy when they gave me a polite clap.
“Sorry, have you been waiting long?” I asked.
“Nah,” Sam said. “Just a few minutes.”
“To the towers?” Voice asked.
It took us about ten minutes to walk along the road to the Warden’s base at the edge of the claimed city. As we moved further from the coast, the buildings grew taller and there were more signs that nature had once claimed this territory. Cracks in the road and pavement, where plants and trees had broken through. Marks on the buildings that they had once been covered in vines.
There was a clear line between the buildings which had been retaken and those which nature still held sway over. Near that line lay the Warden’s base; which had taken over what had once been a municipal park. The remains of a kids’ playground were still in one corner. It looked like a number of temporary buildings had been brought in and tents erected where they could be safely placed on one of the few large open spaces in the area.
This was one of the most densely player populated places I had seen in-game so far. People were walking around looking for groups. Some were actually shouting “looking for group,” while others were shouting that they were looking for a healer or a tank. The more organised-looking groups were decked out in Warden gear, much like Voice was. A handful of mage robes stuck out and there were even a few people in some Explorator pieces.
Voice led us over to one of the buildings, which had been set up for organising the teams who would range out into the wild lands and registered us for clearing a floor of one of the closer buildings.
“Just the four of us?” I asked. “Or should we see about picking up some random?”
“We should be able to handle this floor just us…” Voice acknowledged, “but another DPS wouldn’t hurt…”
“What are we looking for?” Daisy asked.
“It was close-quarters room clearing this morning. So, assuming that doesn’t change, another melee DPS would probably be the best fit. Aenara for Area, then it would be mopping up the stragglers…” his eyes were searching the crowd. “We might be in luck, I know that guy, we did some runs earlier. GEORGE!” he shouted out. I followed his line of sight to a large black man carrying a huge maul. The guy’s head snapped in our direction and he walked in our direction.
“If it ain’t the Truth Speaker! My Man!” He brought up a fist, which Voice bumped.
“You wouldn’t happen to be in need of a party?”
“Timing! May have slept in and was worried all the good ones would be gone. What floor are you looking at doing?”
“Just a five, my party is new to the towers, but trust me, they are solid.” The newcomer gave the three of us a look.
“I was hoping to take on a fifteen…”
“Trust me, G, with this group, we will smash twenties.”
The guy gave Voice a reluctant look and pursed his lips. “OK… you did me a solid earlier. Be rude not to at least give your team a try… and if nothing else, I can think of it as a warm-up! Alright, I’m in!”
“So… how does this work?” I asked as we walked up to the entrance to one of the skyscrapers.
“Start of the tower is clearing the basement floors, and getting the power back on. Once that is done, it starts unlocking the floors as they are cleared. Floors get harder and harder the higher you go,” Voice said.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Mostly you get a mix of apartments and on the higher floors, maisonettes,” George added. “Sometimes office spaces, in one case, we got a commercial floor, lots of little shops.”
“Arcologies?” Daisy asked. “Self-contained cities built into a single mega structure?” she continued.
“Yes. It certainly feels like that,” Voice confirmed.
“Cool, I love the concept, even tried to design a few myself,” Daisy said with a grin of someone who is about to explore one of their interests.
“This tower is low-level unlocked. Means someone has got the power back online, and cleared enough of the first few floors that the fifth is open to exploration. Our task will be to clear as much of the floor as we can. The more we do, the more we get rewarded,” Voice said.
“Bonuses for unlocking the next floor and fully clearing it.”
“If we explore multiple floors?” asked Sam.
“Supposedly, but even low-level floors take their toll. Is this an untouched five?” George asked Voice.
“Supposedly. We should be the first.”
“Cool.”
The lift panel had buttons for 25 floors, but only the ones for the basement, ground floor and first five were lit up. Once we were standing in the metal box big enough for ten, Voice pushed the button for the 5th floor. The doors shut and with a jerk, we started rising.
The doors opened onto a wide open floor. Support pillars were spread out in a grid with four-meter gaps between them. The double-height ceiling was supported by arches crossing diagonally from the pillars. It looked like someone had built a park inside the building. Overgrown lawns, which might have once been manicured lawns. Interspersed with benches. Wildly grown flower beds dotted the lawns.
“Boss floor,” Voice said.
“Thought it was strange a five was untouched…” George added as he ensured his grip on his maul was solid.
“Boss floor?” I asked, looking around the cavernous floor and not seeing anything untoward or boss-like.
“Random floors don’t have multiple monsters, but one or two strong ones,” Voice responded as he led the way off the elevator. “Tend to be riskier…”
George stepped out after him and moved left. “More deaths from the boss floors than all the others combined.”
Sam stepped out and moved to the right. Daisy and I followed behind.
“Movement!” Voice called out and indicated where the tall grass rippled.
I tracked it with my Inferno staff, then released the first
“Black Jaguar,” George called out, as he swung his maul in a two-handed strike at the pouncing cat.
I shot out another
The cat let out a mighty screech when the heavy maul crashed into its back. Sam shifted to attack its flank while Voice’s blade snaked past his shield to harry the cat’s face. I shifted around to give me a better line of sight and let another
The next round of strikes brought the fight to an end, the creature just not able to withstand the pounding we brought upon it.
“Well damn, Vox, you weren’t exaggerating in the slightest…” the big man laughed as we watched Sam start skinning the beast. “Totally badass!”
“We cleared this floor?” I asked, looking around.
“Yeah, the boss floors, while also the hardest fights, are typically the quickest. Usually, a chest of some kind at the stairway,” said George.
“This is my fourth boss floor,” Vox added, “never found any other loot.”
“I’ve done five, two with Vox, none for me, either.”
At the other side of the floor from the lift was a door which led into a small chamber which had a chest in it. Voice opened it up.
“Just a couple of health potions and a gold coin. OK to split the cash later?” We all nodded in response. Sam and George each took a health potion, each, on the premise that they are more likely to be hit than Daisy or I, and Vox would be Daisy’s priority for healing.
The next door led to a stairwell. A shuttered gate blocked the path down.
“Once a floor is cleared, you can raise the gate, which will then unlock the lift to the next floor, and offer a path down.” Voice said as he pushed a button near the door and the shutters started rising up into the ceiling. “You will find the stairs will be blocked by another shutter if you go up a floor and there is no way to open it from this side.”
“Some groups have tried getting around them, not heard of anyone succeeding yet…” George said. “Trying to bypass a tough boss fight.”
“Do we go back and hand it in or move on to the next floor?” I asked.
“Next floor.” Voice and George said at the same time.
“With how easy that fight was, it would be silly to go back. Other groups will have been sent to other towers; there are enough of them,” George added.
The lift took us to the next floor and this one was more like what I had been expecting from the description. We came out in a reception area, a small desk sat in one corner of the rectangular room. Corridors heading off to the left and right, and a third directly opposite the elevator across the middle of the building. A sign behind the desk read ‘Welcome to Floor 6.’
“Residential floor. Flats around the outside edge and then either more in the middle or communal facilities,” Voice told us.
“Clockwise?” I asked.
“As good a direction as any,” he agreed.
“Floor map!” George called out from near the desk. “Communal centre,” he confirmed. “Library, public lounge and a convenience store.”