Getting Ready

『Chronicles of the Blood Tower』

Ten days had passed since Rasmus went on his first hunt, and there were two more days left until the test of the Trial Floor opened up.

"Morning Rasmus!", Melody spoke out in a jovial voice as she approached the table Rasmus was sitting at with the meal he ordered.

"Morning Melody.", Rasmus replied in a rather blunt tone, but Melody was used to Rasmus' awkwardness by now.

Over the past few days at the inn, she had repeatedly seen Rasmus go out to hunt before the sun even rose and ate his breakfast before it got busy, only to return late at night with blood stains all over himself from the monsters he hunted.

Inwardly Melody was pretty impressed, as she could deduct based off Rasmus' shut-in habits that he was more than likely to be hunting alone. That in itself spoke volumes that Rasmus was incredibly skilled for his age and was most likely going to be a complete beast aiming for the higher floors in the future.

Every now and then, if it was extremely late when he came back and nobody was around in the bar on the first floor, he would ask her questions about seemingly basic things that most people knew of, but she thought that the most reasonable explanation for this was that he was some kid from a prominent high-end family that was secluded and kicked out, not knowing much about the world of the Tower.

"Getting ready for another early morning hunt I assume?", Melody asked Rasmus, seeing he had his spear leaning against the chair of the empty bar.

"Ah. Yea I am.", Rasmus responded in a seemingly robotic tone of voice as she could see the dark circles under his eyes.

Rasmus hadn't been sleeping too well as he would get up the earliest and come back the latest to the inn. The reason he did this was to procure as much information and raise his level as much as possible before the test. Not only that, he was also just too nervous to be around crowds, and hated the loud noises from the inn. At times like this, he recalled the lonely days of being on the desolate planet and was excited at first to meet new people in the Tower but, he underestimated just how much the solitude had affected him.

"Hm… be careful. Make sure you're prepared for the floor test thoroughly, there's been a lot of rumors running around this past week among citizens.", Melody spoke with a worried expression.

"What kind of rumors?", Rasmus asked as he looked up from his meal and met Melody's eyes.

"Well, it's just rumors but there's been some talk that a descendant of the Trostas has come to take the test this time round' and the Trostas Family said they denied it but… it just sounds fishy." Melody said as she observed Rasmus' facial expression.

"...", Rasmus stayed quiet and looked at his spear for a brief moment sub-consciously.

'I didn't make any contact with people and stayed out of making parties… so nobody should have confirmed it… but is this really that shocking?', Rasmus thought to himself.

He didn't know just how influential the family names were in the Tower but he remained wary once he found out they were recorded in the basic history texts in the bookstores. Not only that, but Rasmus was still in the dark in terms of finding out what his mother had to do with how he got here, or her for that matter. And… there was nothing he could point to in regards to finding out about her death, as he was no longer on Earth.

"Well… I'm doing my best right now, I'm finally level 13 now so I feel pretty confident about the test. Thanks for your worries though, I'll keep it in mind.", Rasmus replied after a brief moment of silence.

"Oh? Have you decided on a party or found any people to party with yet?" Melody asked with a bright smile.

"No.. not yet. I don't know if I can trust random people to have my back just yet. Plus, you were the one who told me to be wary about others during the test." Rasmus spoke, feigning a gloomy expression, but inwardly he had no plans or intentions of forming a party with others seeing that word of his being here was dangerous.

"Well it's alright! I'm sure it'll work out!", Melody leaned her body close to Rasmus and patted his head.

Inwardly Melody was cheering for him as well. But the statistics spoke for themselves in terms of the passing rate. The Trial Floor was the floor that tested the challengers to formally start climbing the Tower and if they passed the Trial Floor they could start at the first floor. However, of the hundreds of thousands of applicants that challenged the Trial Floor every 2 months, only 20 percent passed. The rest… were dead. The Tower was not a playground, and yet people still treated it that way because strength was power here. And power was the rule.

Rasmus gave a faint smile at Melody and checked his status for the day.

---

Name : Rasmus Trostas

Age : 16 (real age not identifiable due to distortion in time axis in host's prior location)

Class : Caster - Apostle of Annihilation

Level : 13

Attributes -

Strength : 322

Speed : 557

Mana : 3,009

Dexterity : 201

Stamina : 425

Undistributed points : 600

Status : Healthy, Holder of Key Fragment, Blood Core (unique power source), Lenoah's seal (weakening), Reverse Mana Flow Technique

Skills -

1) Basic Mana Strengthening - B+

2) Tower Language - Passive

3) High speed Body Regeneration - Grade A-

4) Mana Perception - Grade S

5) Blood Resonance - (unique skill)

6) Draconic Hellfire - (unique skill)

7) Polymorph - (unique skill)

8) Spear mastery - Passive (mastery of weapon materializes mana into aura manifestation)

...

---

Rasmus decided not to invest in mana with the points as most people did. What he would do was utilize his mana cultivation technique, and absorb ambient mana that way. It was better in the long haul, as points couldn't be bought and yet mana crystals could.

He had nearly doubled his mana reserves this way, and kept his spending to a minimum.

Rasmus raised himself up once Melody left, and walked out of the inn into the open streets to go hunt once more in the early morning.

---

Augustus' Floating Castle located above the designated Test area of the Trial Floor-

Mathis opened the portal from his area beneath the Tower and stepped into the castle room in front of him.

Inside lay a decorated room with gold and marble and a man sitting standing across from him with the same robes Mathis had on. The robes the man and Mathis wore were the robes given to each Guardian to symbolize their position in the Tower.

[Agustus…], Mathis muttered under his breath, but loud enough for the man across from him to hear.

The man in the robe turned around slowly, setting his gaze on Mathis. He had the same pale skin complexion as Mathis, as well as a distinct well cut jawline. He had a noble aura of dignity around him and his golden hair did well to complement it.

[Well, hello there Mathis.], Augustus spoke towards Mathis with a faint grin.

[I'm sure you know why I'm here.], Mathis replied with a stoic expression.

[Hm… the boy bearing the Trostas name. The irregular named Rasmus I presume?], Augustus responded, shifting his eyes back to the large glass wall he was staring out encapsulating the large area of the test area.

[If you already know who he is, I'm sure you know he must be protected well as there's no doubt he is Lenoah's only descendant.], Mathis spoke, this time his face twitching ever so slightly.

[Hm… now why would I do that on my floor here, Mathis? As guardians aren't we supposed to encourage regulars to face their adversities and climb the Tower?], Augustus responded with his grin widening a bit, turning his eyes back to meet Mathis' as he continued to speak.

[This is the Trial Floor Augustus… He's not even a regular yet, and if the Trostas get word of his appear-]

[I'm afraid they already have my dearest Mathis.], Augustus spoke, cutting off Mathis.

[What do you mean?! Have they found he is Lenoah's son?], Mathis suddenly shouted out with an anxious expression, hiding a bit of irritation.

[I'm not sure… I haven't done anything to leak the information but it seems your precious irregular doesn't seem to know the weight of his own name.] Augustus said, this time his canines poking out of his mouth as his grin widened to one that looked incredibly devilish.

[You bastard… You tampered with the test haven't you?], Mathis suddenly shifted topic glaring at Augustus in disgust.

[Now, now, our little sewer rat. If you honestly thought you would be able to protect him here on MY floor you're greatly mistaken. You should keep your business where it belongs… in the gutters of the Tower.], Augustus mocked Mathis.

Mathis glared ferociously at the Guardian Augustus, but did not speak, holding in his boiling anger.

[You… will regret this. Mark my words, the heretics will go crazy if you let this blow out of proportions, and they will start trying to flip the Tower on its head regarding the prophecy.] Mathis spoke after a brief silence, and turned away, waving his hand and opening a portal back to his area.

Augustus' mocking and playful countenance disappeared and glared at Mathis' back before speaking his last few words.

[You should have watched your own words Mathis.... Bringing up the prophecy means the other is now here in the Tower. Whatever your schemes may be, none of the guardians will let the 'sewer rat' dirty their belongings.] Augustus muttered under his breath as Mathis walked through the portal ignoring his words.

---

"haaa…" , Rasmus sighed as he lifted the spear from the corpse of the Goblin Chief he had just slain.

He looked down at the 2 meter-tall, burly, blue-skinned chief. Rasmus wiped the blood off his silver spear tip with a cloth he had brought from the inn and plopped down on the grassy plain of the hunting area he was in.

Across the plain, was almost a hundred corpses of goblins and red wolves. Blood was splattered all over the grass and Rasmus looked like he had been dumped in tomato soup.

"God damnit..", he cursed under his breath thinking about how he should seriously buy a cleaning skill rune from a shop next time he stops by in the City.

Experience gained.

You have leveled up.

Calculating results.

Rasmus checked his Tol's panel and smiled bitterly at the unexpected situation. He was happy he leveled up, but the process in which he took to do so was a little out of his expectations.

Rasmus earlier had been hunting a pack of goblins and noticed that some red wolves were traveling with them and it seemed odd. He followed them back to their cave and scouted out their numbers. Earlier he was happy such a large number of monsters had been sticking together in a large number and was already looking forward to his next level up to become level 19, which was a level of a E rank regular and not a trialist.

However, he had set the bait and dragged them out to a barren plain where he could keep eyes on all his opponents at once, but underestimated the Goblin Chief that he had pulled along with them.

The Goblin Chief was a Goblin at the level of an Ogre and was incredibly tough to defeat when keeping his eyes on tens of other attackers. He had been forced to merge his Draconic Hellfire into the aura he used with his spear which had produced incredible results but also was dangerous because of the severe mana consumption.

In the end he got the level up he was looking for, and was able to estimate his strength well if he was to go to the Floor Test right this second. He still wasn't satisfied as he was worried he might have trouble with a High Ogre if there were other attackers around, but was confident in being able to hold off well and estimated a 60 percent chance of himself winning if he ran into one and was forced to fight one-on-one.

"Well… Let's see what kind of mana crystal you got buddy.", he muttered to himself as he crouched over the bloody corpse and flipped it over.

Hisssssss

The draconic hellfire was really useful in serving as a scalpel for digging out mana crystals from corpses and was inwardly hoping he might get lucky and pull a mid-grade crystal out of the chief.

As he sloshed around and dug out the crystal he smiled bitterly and looked at the small low-grade mana crystal.

But right as he was putting away the crystal and was ready to burn the corpse, he saw a small glint of light pouring out of the incision area he made.

Rasmus tilted his head to the side and cut the flesh up a bit more to see what was the source of the light.

"Woah…", Rasmus spat out involuntarily as his eyes widened in surprise.

He fiddled with the small black stone that had a rune glyph that was shining in a bright red luster.

These were the skill runes one might find in corpses of monsters that were at the semi-boss level and above. In order to learn the skills, all one had to do was rouse their mana and crack the stone apart to have it register in the Tol System. These were rather rare drops and were pretty much unknown what you would get, but it was typically one of the skills of the monsters they came out of.

Rasmus thought to himself recalling the fight against the Goblin Chief, but didn't remember anything out of the blue in terms of the monster having a useful skill asides, from the basic mana strengthening and absurd strength it had.

Nonetheless, a skill was a skill and he was a little happy to see what it was, as he thought of it as a present. Rasmus didn't receive a whole lot of presents on birthdays from his father who started drinking after his mother's death, and instead of friends, had multiple bullies who paid visits to him at school.

He cracked the rune stone, shattering it as the red glow brightened up the surroundings in a flash then disappeared without a trace.

Ding!

You have gained the skill : Taming - Grade E+

"Huh..?", Rasmus' confusion was written all over his face as he tried to think of how taming was even possible to achieve from a burly chief. The goblins didn't seem like his pets, but rather his subordinates, but then he made an 'Ah' sound and realized it was probably why the Red wolves that were following along with the goblins in packs. Initially the reason Rasmus started tracking them was because, he thought it was odd.

Rasmus tapped the skill to further view it's details.

Taming - Grade E+

Information : Regular's with this skill are able to make a contract with a familiar that has a similar mana signature, and has to obtain the monster's approval in order to contract the monster as a familiar.

Amount of familiars able to tame : 1

"Pft….", Rasmus couldn't hold in his laughter at how useless this skill could possibly be to him.

First, he had to find a monster that had a unique mana signature similar to his, but his mana signature had a reverse flow, which was pretty much unheard of in monsters unless they were mutants. Not only that, he could only tame 1 monster as a familiar? What a waste of space he thought.

Rasmus dismissed the panel and went back into the forest to head towards the portal back to Eden while looking for a lake to wash his hideous tomato-like appearance.

'Ahhh I got a long way to go', he thought.

Chapter 11 - Fin