From Player To Npc

Chapter 137: Beginning floors

Shingi knew that the first ten floors of the Tower had Goblins as the primary enemies. Each floor was enormous, and somewhere there was the base of the Goblins. The Tower's energy, which seemed unlimited, created the monsters here as they never stopped spawning. 

There was a limit on how much energy each floor could sustain, and it still counted each monster as that energy until it got killed. 

When one monster got killed, there was some time until a new one took its place, but if the boss of the floor got killed, this time would increase for all as the boss would prioritize and it had the most energy of all the monsters in the floor.

Players had to find the stairs leading up and unlock the door to go to the next floor, but if one Player unlocked the door, it stayed unlocked for every Player of the game. Most of the time, the boss of the floor had the key to the door, but since someone had unlocked it a long time ago, they didn't have to face it.

Goblins were too low level for them, so they could just look for the stairs. Each time a new Boss got created, the entire floor would readjust, the monsters' position would have their base, if any, and where the stairs would be.

Still, Shingi knew ways to find clues for the stairs, for the early floors, as he had helped quite a few beginner Players to clear them.

They faced some groups of Goblins on the way there and dealt with them with no problem. 

Fighting them reminded Wild Tycoon and Little Phoenix of their time at the Dungeon outside Picton, with Ameanum. Those Goblins seemed to be a little better equipped, though, by the ones back then, as some wore actual leather armor and not just different pieces of equipment put together. 

They also seemed to be a bit smarter and more tactful, but not at the level to make it hard for Shingi and the rest to deal with them.

They found the first stairs and progressed to the next floor.

The first floor was just like a vast wooden hall, big enough to fit a few stadiums there, while the second was a forest.

There was even a Sky, which Shingi knew was just a mixture of special paint and Illusion magic. It even had a day and night circle, although the transition between was not so smooth. The Sun or Moon was always in the same place, as the one was just taking the place of the other when the current circle ended.

On higher floors, the environments will be more realistic and increasing as more energy is used.

Shingi, for the first time, while playing the game, could see the energy of the Tower, bringing him more understanding on how things worked, as before he was a Warrior so that he couldn't use MANA SENSE or similar Skills. 

But still, he couldn't tell what this energy was, as it didn't look like any mana he had seen, but it seemed familiar. It was like the weird energy he had seen at Mikhail's seal. It had some similarities with mana and looked more natural, while the one he had seen until now seemed like it was an artificial copy of this one.

He talked about it with Little Phoenix and Mizuneko when they took a break before looking for the stairs to the third floor, and he found out that they couldn't detect this energy. It seemed MANA SENSE had to be in close to the top of Master Rank to detect it, or so he guessed since none of his students had reached it at near 70, which was still some way from the top.

He didn't know if he was at the top with his Skill, but he was confident it was more than what his students had.

He also noticed that he could see it more evident when he had his special eyes active, which was weird, as they hadn't helped his MANA SENSE with anything else.

They reached the stairs on the third floor within two hours of entering the Tower, another forest but was thicker than the one on the second floor. The ones here would be more tactful, as beasts spawned in the woods that the goblins hunted.

This made them harder to deal with as they also used bows, traps, and other hunter tactics to protect their base. There were traps all over the forest, and some hid in trees, bushes, and different spots. Those Goblins were experts at hiding, but in the eyes of Shingi and Hineko, it was like they weren't trying at all.

Fortunately, those Goblins knew they were underpowered to fight them, and even their traps wouldn't work, so they left them alone.

But still, Shingi and the rest had to deal with those traps and disarm a few, as it would take them more time to go around them. They faced a few groups who shot them with some special arrows that released poisonous gas, but Shingi was familiar with them and prepared some ways to deal with them.

He dispersed the cloud using his sword and using his unfinished form of AIR SLASH and had the help of Wild Tycoon doing the same, or Mizuneko using his Air Element part of his Ice mana to have a similar effect.

Up to floor five, they would face Golbin's in the forest, but the goblins would have developed some new tactics and even had some types of Goblins on each floor.

Typically the Goblins had yellow-green color skin, but the ones focusing more on stealth and ranged fighting style had their skin turn greener. In contrast, the ones that were more proficient at melee combat, that was the minority, had developed some reddish skin after a point.

Those red-skinned were an evolved version of Goblins, called Hobgoblins. They could use heavier weapons than the daggers or shortswords, but they used longswords or sometimes even heavier blades.

After reaching floor five, Shingi decided to actively look for the monsters to help the party develop their tactics against different types of scenarios.

After floor five, Goblin Shamans would appear, and their skin would be more yellow and, after a while, their skin would turn orange.

Goblin Shaman had this strange, unique magic that allowed them to summon spirits of beasts to fight with them. The beasts were immune to physical attacks and some elemental attacks, depending on the spirits, but specially enchanted made weapons like what Shingi and his party were using could affect them no problem.

But still, fighting with them helped develop their teamwork further, which would be necessary the furthest they went in the tower or die.

They couldn't die in the tower since it would be the end for Shingi or An. If the rest of the party died, they would respawn outside the Tower, and getting back in the Tower would be close to impossible a second time.

It took them a few hours to find the Goblin's base as the Shamans could also use Illusion magic to hide it, and their hunters were experts at hiding their tracks.

They found the base and started dealing with the guards. The base's defense wasn't too challenging, as the Goblins were more focused on hiding the base's location.

There were some Hobgoblins, but the Boss was a Shaman who could also use some healing magic and some curses to cause de-buffs at them or give them special conditions that would either lower their stats, speed, or deal continuous damage for a short time.

All the Goblins, especially the Hobgoblins, protected the Boss, making the battle last longer. But counting the Golems of Shingi, they quickly overpowered them.

After clearing floor five, they took a break making a camp where the base was. After they killed the boss and most of the base monsters, it started disappearing, and the floor was being reformed and gathering its energy to make a new one.

It would take a few hours before the base, the boss, and the Tower spawned once more the rest of the monsters.

"So are we going to face all the bases from now on? Shouldn't we just start facing the ones near our level? " [Wild Tycoon]

"We need to work on our teamwork. If we don't work perfectly against those weaklings, do you expect us to survive against serious foes? Isn't that right, Master?" [Hineko]

Shingi shook his hand, as this wasn't wholly the case.

"Working on our teamwork is essential, but you guys need to understand one thing. This is the Tower and everything in her works different from the outside. Tycoon and Phoenix, you should have noticed the differences."[Shingi]

Wild Tycoon seemed confused and looked towards Phoenix, who sighed when she saw her friend's state.

"They are more intelligent following their instincts less than the ones we had faced in the past. Also, their blood is more blackish and thick. They also have this weird aura, and you have noticed how their body just disappear after we kill them." [Little Phoenix]

Shingi nodded in approval, as what she said was correct.

"These all are true. Also, the monsters here have a chance of having a Class of their own, even if the same ones outside can't. The Boss had one, and the higher we go at the Tower, the minions will also have a class, but it depends on their type as some aren't able to. With those classes, new Skills become available to them or even Spells if they are of Mage Type, and there can be some dangerous combinations between their ordinary skills and their class ones. That's why we should start facing them slowly and creating being able to see the difference between ones with a class and ones without."[Shingi]

Mizuneko and Little Phoenix could tell with their MANA SENSE if one mage-type monster had a special type of mana, which would be a sign of a class as being a Shaman alone wasn't a class.

He would keep training on the floor five to ten before continuing further as the goblins helped introduce people in the Tower and how things worked, at least for most of the early levels.

Some floors had food sources, like beasts to hunt or fruits, so they didn't have to worry about their supplies getting too low.

With their current level, they could quickly clear the first 50 floors in a matter of two weeks, unless the monsters got stronger than Shingi expected.

He wanted to kill as many monsters and mostly the Bosses to weaken the power the Tower got released outside and affected the field of the Neutral Territory.

As for meeting other groups in the Towers, he didn't have to worry about it.

Each time a group entered a floor, they teleported at a random position on the floor, so as long as they were careful, they could keep their existence a secret.

He doubted they would notice that the bosses got killed in the early levels, as from his understanding, they spent the most time on higher floors. As Players could leave some personal Teleportation points but they could break my monsters if found.

He didn't know how much it would take them to reach the floor he had reached with his Player account, as after floor 50, the difficulty got raised manifolds.