Alaric sat in the hospital room alone, he stared out the window watching the birds flock by. The loss he suffered at the hands of that man weighed heavily on him, he knew that it shouldn't have been the case but the disparity in their levels was clear as day, the only time he stood remotely a fighting chance was when the system he had fought with his body. He was strong for human standards, but that man was nowhere near human.
[I might have an idea on how you can get stronger]
That is?
[The Tower of calamity.]
Alaric's eyes widened slightly. The tower of calamity? The tower that he couldn't survive without being fortunate enough to be choosen by the system? He knew his level, he was a high saint level which was comparable to a continental hunter like Black but the tower of calamity was something he could not think to clear on his own, atleast at his current level.
[A simulation of tower of calamity]
Oh!
[Want to do the simulation?] [Yes/No]
Alaric stared at the panel in his line of sight. Deep down he felt a bit hesitant but if he was going to fight monsters like that man muchless the gods he knew he needed to grow stronger and quickly—steeling his resolve, he confirmed and the window disappeared much to his bewilderment. Alaric did not take long to figure out what was next when Sentinel activated the personal inventory skill smf swallowed Alaric into the system inventory where the simulation of the tower of calamity was created.
[Welcome to the tower, the experience curve has been heightened and easy, the level is much harder.]
Sentinel's instructive panels appeared above and the tower infront of Alaric parted open revealing the first floor to him—taking a deep breath, Alaric took a step and the first floor began. He stood in the center of the floor, on all of his sides were multiple paths and in his front was a stone throne with a large sword beside it. Alaric opened his inventory and equipped himself with the twin blades, he held them and settled into a stance awaiting for the floor boss to arrive.
Cling! Clang! Alaric turned around hearing the sounds of mesh armor clinging and clanging on each other. He turned his head to face the direction where he heard the sounds—his honed battle instincts immediately screamed at him to dodge and Alaric listened to them; he bent his body forward just as the sword that was beside the throne flew over his head cutting some of his hair. He straightened his stance and kept an eye on the dark hallway.
Then he saw it.
Shining in the dark like the red sun.
A lone hue of red coming at him.
Alaric braced himself for impact, he raised his blades just in time to parry a downward slash from the weapon, he jumped back to put a distance between himself and the shadow figure—but the moment his foot touched the ground, the figure was ontop of him, the sword angled in a way it was coming horizontally. Alaric jumped up; his feet ceremoniously landing on the flat end of the blade and he managed to get a clear look at the shadow.
It stood there, cladded in a knight armor, and a helmet. The armor was black, with the center being crimson—and to finish the clothing off was a red, flowing cape. Alaric wanted to yell this isn't the first floor monster I fought but was forced to move from where he stood as the knight crashed on the location. He clung to the ceiling looking down on the night, his eyes rapidly moving to access any area of weakness on the knight, a loose joint, something that could bring him an edge..
After a few minutes of heavy scrutiny, there was not anything he could find. Sighing, Alaric grabbed his weapons and changed how he held them, both blades were held straight, and lowered to his sides—he mumbled something to himself and the ceiling cracked, Alaric did a mini squat then lunged at the knight from where he was, he twirled his body adjusting the angle of descent to be vertical and swung his hands down vertically in a downward slashing manner; the knight noticed him and raised its sword to block the attack, the floor split into all directions and the knight sank into it a bit, but it managed to soak up the attack and repelled Alaric by swinging its sword to the side.
Alaric nimble on his feet, landed on the wall across the room and he shot himself at the knight; he threw the first sword while creating a tether of darkness between it and his hand, the knight unbothered by the attack shifted to the side letting the dagger shoot past it and stab the floor—Alaric smirked, and pulled on the tether bringing the floor from behind the knight simultaneously timing it with his own attack which consisted of his swinging his sword horizontally across trying to cut the knight in half while it was distracted by the stone tiles he had pulled.
[ Pathetic]
As if time had halted the knight's body got cladded in a blue hue—its speed in shifting from the center of the pincer attack betraying the weight of its armor. The knight, in a blink had repositioned from the pincer attack center to the side of Alaric much to his shock and it grounded its left leg on the floor, the right raised and the knight spun around pulling its heel through the air and it smashed on Alaric's stomach sending him flying into the walls on the opposite end of the room.
Alaric coughed as he picked himself from the debris, blood streams on either side of his lips—the force of the attack was way too heavy, he looked at his torso and silently thanked the last minute scale repositioning to absorb the impact, despite all of that, the damage still went through but lesser.
"This isn't the way a first floor boss has to be."
[You are right, but you have to learn, and master your power. Do you have an idea of your skills? Opened your inventory? You keep using brute force and that pitiful amplification magic you don't know how to use your aura to block attacks]
Alaric stopped when he saw the response from Sentinel, he quickly opened his skills description and selected the first one he saw gaining all the necessary information regarding the skill.
[ Dragon of war: A unique ability bestowed to the Godslayer. Alaric, aspect of the Chaos dragon. Dragon of war, a draconian energy within Alaric granting him properties of a dragon including scales, elemental immunity and the primordial elements.]
Alaric returned the twin blades to his inventory and breathed in—from just reading the Dragon Of War skill, he realized that he had not just a powerful tool but something that could make him contend with the man from the other day. He folded his palm into a fist and aura, draconian powered aura started to roam his body, his eyes inherited the fiery red dance of his aura and when he breathed out, the aura flared like wild fire; the temperature in the room increased with every breath in and out, and flames flickered into existence before long they had formed massive orbs of fire circulating around him.
"Round two!" He declared midst the miniature suns he created. Using the aura around him to amplify his speed, Alaric blinked out off sight and appeared before the Knight, and he delivered a punch to the armor melting through it with his fist and he sent the knight flying backward.
He was not done, Alaric commanded the miniature suns to close in on the flying knight and he clutched his hand causing the flames to violently explode causing the entire floor to shake from their devastating explosion—as the explosion died down, the knight crashed on the floor with half of its body destroyed by the attack; Alaric let out a loose tsk and opened his palm, flames flickered on the surface and he prepared his next set of attacks when the armor stopped moving and crashed on the floor.
[ Your primordial fire is weak!]
"No need to rub it in."
[ You goal is to be a Godslayer, weak affinities won't be sufficient to kill gods or their apostles. You need to grow, and become what I was designed to make you be.]
"I get it."
[Good, tomorrow, you'll repeat the same training]
Sentinel left no room for Alaric to complain and the simulation created ended—the system inventory which was used to house the mimicry of the tower of calamity returned Alaric to the real world; Alaric looked outside and his face, warped into a mix of amusement and confusion. He walked over to the sleeping Cordelia and wrapped one of the sheets on her shoulders.
"You are a confusing person if I'm being honest."