Chapter 449

He had been thinking of it for ages now, the need to keep running Towers, the need to increase the strength not just of the Clan but also its appeal. He and the first team would always need to be ahead of everyone else, in terms of their strength. If nothing else, than to set-up new Clan headquarters. 

Until he managed to designate groups to do the run for him, the equivalent of champions; he as the Clan Leader would have to risk himself. 

This time around, though, he wanted to go in with a lot more preparation. Not just for himself – he figured he had done a decent job with that – but for everyone else involved. Which meant not just studying and learning about which Towers and their levels, but also training together. 

“Which one are you thinking? Penang has one, right? Not Singapore, right? That’s an Advance Tower. Bangkok? Jakarta?” Rick frowned, drumming his fingers. “Where else are there Beginner Towers?”” 

“Hong Kong, Indonesia has three, not just in the big cities. Thailand only has one in Bangkok but most of the other SEA countries have a few – Myanmar, Burma, Cambodia, Vietnam. Take your pick,” Mel said.

“Why not Kuching?” Casey asked, innocently enough.

Arthur frowned, looking at Casey. Then, he laughed, softly,, as he remembered that yes, there was a second Beginner Tower in Malaysia – except, of course, it was in East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo. Which meant that for Peninsula Malaysia residents, it might as well not exist for the most part. Not just because East Malaysia had traditionally been significantly underdeveloped compared to the peninsula, but also flights and just general accommodation over was tougher. There was also something else that made him rule it out, quite fast.

“Isn’t it not recommended?” Arthur frowned, trying to remember why. He knew it was not recommended as a starting Tower for individuals, but he could not remember why.

“It’s not. A lot of ghosts.” Casey shrugged. “You need the right techniques to kill them.”

“Right! Imbued attacks, or Energy Darts or things like that, on the second level onwards.” Arthur remembered now. And while most of those monsters were on the second floor onwards, you had to get the necessary skills on the first floor or be stuck. And the biggest note was that it was ‘mostly’. Stories of individuals being attacked by ghosts on the first floor abounded, mostly rumors though occasionally reinforced by the few survivors.

After all, if you couldn’t kill them; your only chance was to run. And keep running till you found someone who could help you or get back to the village.

“Exactly. Most of my family go there for our second Tower when we need it,” Casey said. 

“That’s ‘cause you all have the right skills.”

“You can too. It’s not that expensive, and if you work together; you can put your money into buying copies of the skills in the Tower immediately if you don’t have it.” Casey hesitated, then added. “We can look at selling you all copyable copies too, from the archive.”

“That’d be good. Better to get a copy now, for outside for people to train and then they can bring it in…” Arthur frowned. “Or maybe we keep a copy in the Tower, I guess. I doubt you want your copies moving around.”

Though he wouldn’t mind letting such knowledge out. Eventually, such things – like basic cultivation methods – got out. There was no reason Imbue Strike should be so hard to learn, and if anything; he’d prefer to get some people copying down and creating their own treatises. Maybe sell them for cheap in the Clan and not worry if it ended up being stolen. If it was cheap enough, most people wouldn’t steal unless they had to.

Or were just asses, in which case nothing he was going to do would fix that.

“Wait, you want to go to the ghost Tower?” Rick said, surprise in his voice.

“Ya lah. Why? Problem?” Arthur asked, curiously.

“They’re ghosts!” Rick said.

“Are you scared of ghosts?” Mel put her head on her propped up hand, sounding fascinated as she looked at the well-built, handsome half-Indian man. “They’re not real ghosts, you know that, right? Just like the Tun we fought in the Tower.”

“And you would not believe how many times I shot him!” snapped Rick. “I’m not scared of ghosts, I just don’t like them. They’re… well, they’re ghosts!”

“You keep saying that,” Casey said. “It’s fine. You don’t have to come.” She smirked then. “I thought you’d give up, but not this soon.”

“I’m not giving up!” Rick said, half-rising until he caught himself and sat back down, blushing so much that it showed even under his tanned skin. “I Just don’t see why we have to do them.”

“Because there’s no language problem, no passport issues, we don’t even have to get special visas.” Arthur ticked off the problems they avoided one after the other. “You know how much of a hassle it’s supposed to be, right? Going overseas.”

“What hassle?” Rick said. 

“Traveling?” Arthur said, slowly. “You know that it’s more difficult once you become a Climber, right? Visas aren’t automatic anymore and cost money? Takes time to set-up? You have to register with the other governments, give an itinerary?”

“Really?” Rick frowned. 

“How do you do it?” Mel asked, entirely fascinated by the rich boy’s lack of knowledge.

“I give it to my dad’s PA.”

The cries of disbelief and disgust that arose from the others – all but Casey – made Rick shrink back a little. Arthur held a hand up, eventually, getting everyone to quieten down. 

“Okay, okay. Cukup-lah. Rick is a soh piang with lots of money, we know already. Now let’s talk about the Tower and how we’re going to run it. And when.”

“Not soon,” Mel said, crossing her arms and growing serious. “I got things still to do. And I just got familiar with my bed again.”

Jan, one of the worst cat-callers at the back, chuckled darkly. “And your boy too, right?”

“Boy?” Arthur asked, curiously.

Mel glared back at Jan, answering Arthur. “Nothing. It’s just someone I know.”

Jan grinned wickedly. “Really know. Biblically.”

“Jan~!”

Laughing, Jan shut up. Arthur shrugged after a moment. “Whatever. I don’t need to know. And we’re fine, we have enough cores. It’s when we start running low that we need to make the run, and that won’t be for a few months. In the meantime, we got to get the new building set-up, get ready for others to start arriving and deal with the gangs.”

“Don’t forget the government,” Rick said.

“That’s under gangs,” Mel said, wickedly.

“I wish. They’d be easier to handle then,” Arthur said, Casey nodding along.

“We’ll help with that. Just set-up the meeting, my father will come along.” She tapped the table. “After we get the documents signed.”

“Can we at least move on the headquarters for now?” Arthur pleaded. 

“Sure, sure… What do you want?”

Grateful that they could discuss that, and noting how the conversation had shifted again from the Tower, Arthur dove into it. At least with a target in mind, he could do research and get the team up to speed. But if it was a Beginner Tower, how hard could it be? 

They’d already cleared one.