Chapter 516

**Reminder - these chapters are rough drafts and have not gone through the editing process. there might be some inconsistencies and spelling errors.**

Second Beginner Tower of Bhutan. They had to travel to get there, but since he was rich; they had just hired a very big and luxurious touring bus and he went to sleep in it while they drove across the country in the middle of the night. By the time he woke, they were in front of the Tower, ready to enter. This Tower was set in the middle of nature, just outside of the city itself in what had been the outskirts rather smack dab in the middle.

Unlike most other countries who had a Tower show up like that, the Bhutanese had chosen to preserve the surroundings, such that the only way to get in for most was via a series of trains that led within. Everyone else either had to take a very long walk or get a pass to drive in.

They had one, mostly because they were utilizing an electric vehicle rather than a gas one. In fact, the government’s desire to keep the surroundings pristine – or close to it as possible – had resulted in the improvement of the entire region, such that more animals and nature had returned.

All of which meant little to Arthur, as the group trooped into the dungeon itself, bypassing the main line for the experienced Climber one. This line was longer than the basic Beginner one, but that was not surprising. It was the one that most people came to after they finished the capital’s Tower after all.

“So, what are we looking at here?” Rick said, bored. His assault rifle was propped up over his shoulder, multiple clips and a whole bag filled with more bullets on his shoulder. He even had a storage pouch that kept even more bullets for his rifle and the pistols under his armpits.

“Didn’t you read?” Uswah said, incredulously.

“I’ve been busy,” Rick grumbled. “The paperwork to buy a place has been a headache. You would not believe the number of people who are trying to cheat us, telling us how many people they have coming, how well they’ve kept things…”

“Boring!” Yao Jing sang out. “Next!”

Rick snorted, but shut up about his complaints. Instead, he looked around to see if anyone was going to answer him.

“Why don’t you read, lah?” Jan said, pointing forward. Not far away, a series of giant, laminated boards  with pictures were available for them to look at while in line.

Arthur had spotted them a while ago, but after a quick perusal had ignored them. Unlike Rick, he had read the notices available there, a brief discussion and reminder about the Tower that they would face. This was a tougher Tower, though only still ten floors like the third Tower. The reason it was preferred though was that the entire Tower allowed you to progress in teams, and if not for the greater variety of quests and the dangers involved – especially at the higher levels – might have been the preferred way forwards for most.

In fact, the line of wannabe-Climbers not far away on the other side of the long snaking line showed that not everyone thought it was easier to do the ranged Tower as the start. Everyone had their own thoughts after all, and the final round where you had to fight numerous of the creatures alone was a bit of a shock to the system. Even if it was no more than a ranged shooting gallery to Arthur and his team, one that barely registered on their pressure scales these days, it was not as though people didn’t die.

The Towers were not here to coddle anyone, no matter how ‘easy’ the Towers might seem. It was also clear that most of the Towers eventually taught – or forced you to learn – how to deal with different environments, with just different ones emphasizing different aspects.

Like being forced to handle a whole Tower focused on nothing but poisons.

So nasty.

“Right, so…” Rick’s eyes flicked over the board, reading them at a distance. “Ten floors. Team fight. Multiple environments starting with a… desert?” He groaned. “I hate the sand.”

“You and Vader. Doesn’t make you better.” Arthur said, immediately.

Rick ignored the Clan Head and his idiocy, continuing to read. “No Beginning Town – that’s actually on the second floor? Weird. First floor is a long walk, under attack, but mostly just a walk. Keep an eye out, fight through the monsters, cultivate in the oasis and keep going. Total time, three days. Second floor, Beginner Tower – lots of quests to pick up stuff and kill monsters. Typical, though sand based.

“Third floor, repeat first but with a quest to keep the caravan you’re assigned to alive. Normally one major attack, potentially more.”

Rick kept reading, going through the various locations. Once you hit the end of the third floor, you transitioned to a different biome – more plains than desert. More fighting, more hunting through there, dealing with herd animals in the Takin and ambush predators that came for you at night when you traversed the area. Not too bad, though there flying monsters added to the danger and the threat vectors in later floors. You had to keep your head on the swivel, and the time taken to deal with it all just increased; on and on and on for most people since most of the time, you had to travel. Walk, hunt, drag the parts back and sell it all.

Eventually, though, you would finish up and – if you did it right – ended up with a significant amount of stones. The second Tower was actually the highest total stone output of the entire city, what with the sheer number of people who managed to go in, clear it well and take their time doing so. Add in the higher value of the stones available especially on the crowded eight floor and it was no real surprise.

Once you were happy with what you had on the eight floor, you could show up on the trading post at the end of the floor, give your quest items in and be admitted to the massive underground city that made up the last two floors.

That was the pain point for most, since the swarms of arachnid, burrowing monsters and their first taste of humanoid-ish monsters appeared then. The monsters were smaller variants of the migoi – the yeti who were the main problems in the fourth – and hardest – Beginner Tower. The knockers in this level were furred and tiny; humanoid with claws and an ability to attack with swift strikes and fade back into the dark rocks; their fur grey and dirty rather than the cleaner white of their bigger cousins.

“Ending is just to get out of the caverns?” Rick frowned. “No big boss monster?”

“Not possible, not with so many here. You can make it deeper into the Tower level if you want, hunt down the mini-goi king and kill it and its bodyguards. It’s hard though, supposedly, since there are no maps that hold true and the way out is filled with monsters. Not even worth it half the time, because the pressure of the monsters coming at you means you can’t even harvest half the time,” Mel said, speaking up. “It’s not something most of the Climbers go for, so it’s not mentioned as a possibility.”

“Right, but we’re not most, right? And the big stone…”

“Might be worth it. Especially since the boss often has a magical item or two on it. Most often it’s a bracer or sometimes even a spear, but occasionally the crown or necklace. Accessories come out more often than not,” Mel said.

They all knew how much that was worth. Accessories were much harder to acquire from drops, so getting one would be useful, no matter when they picked it up.

“Just one?” Rick said, greedily.

“Just one.”

“Well, I guess the boss gets it.”

“We didn’t say we were going to do this,” Arthur said slowly, only for the group to laugh. He chuckled too, knowing they were right. There was really no reason not. Clearing this Tower was going to be easy, and done at a run mostly.

Quite literally.