Jace swung again, pushing his body further into exhaustion. Staring blankly over the grassland, he refrained from thinking about anything else.
Concentration was the major factor in a fight.
He coiled his right arm around his body, tensing every muscle leading to the grip on his sword.
[Skill Activate: Wide Slash]
The air sharply whistled as he slashed the air in front of him. He panted, giving himself a brief moment to catch his breath.
Cool wind quickly breezed past his skin, almost like the world was taunting him. Ever since he had become a Climber, his entire expedition had been nothing short of a joke.
A young boy, at the ripe age of seventeen, decides he would become a Climber. Of course, everyone was given the daunting system of Soul. But he wanted more than what this pitiful life could offer.
He wasn't going to let his life be thrown away on the first Floor. Just because of scary monsters? Because of the trembling stories they were told as a kid? Jace refused to believe any human would settle for a life of comfort.
If something truly came that easy, it always followed with a cost.
Jace resumed training, flashing the steel sword through the air as sweat flung from his deep auburn hair. He would glance at the ominous Tower in the distance, in between his swings, wondering how tall in the skies it really stretched.
It had come from nowhere. A total catastrophic disaster had descended and changed the world as he knew it. Monsters, beasts from nightmares, began to terrorize the world.
But only for a time, until humans with Soul had emerged, inheriting the responsibility to defend the weak and innocent. That was when humanity decided to fight back.
That was when humanity decided to climb the Tower. Climbers had been born.
Jace spun around and drew his sword back.
[Skill Activate: Wide Slash]
He swiftly slashed the air as he crouched down. It must have been about half an hour since he started this.
'No matter how many times I do this, it won't level up. This damned Skill, why would the Soul ever give this to me?'
With a defeated sigh, he slumped down onto the grass below. He opened up his Soul.
A transparent, imaginary blue window sprouted in his face through thin air. It read down:
[Name: Jace]
[Level: 5]
[Rank: Climber]
[HP: 114/114]
[MP: 0/20]
[STR: 2]
[END: 1]
[AGL: 2]
[INT: 0]
[WIS: 0]
[Skills: (Wide Slash - Lv. 1)]
[Blessings: (Blessing of Starch - Lv. 1)]
[Curses: ]
He grumbled under his breath. Even with his own doubting anticipation, (Wide Slash) continued to be level one. He could activate that Skill a thousand times and it would still, persistently, stay the same. The best it could ever offer is make his swings pack a little more weight.
But even with a direct comparison, nobody would ever think it was a Skill.
Then he drifted his eyes under onto his miserable Blessing, magnifying the letters.
[Blessing: Blessing of Starch - Lv. 1]
[Type: Passive]
[Description: You have the lineage of a great baker burned into your veins.]
Jace even assumed the Soul had a monotone voice while reading it back to him. Why would this ever become a blessing? How would anyone consider this helpful?
The Tower contained monsters beyond human comprehension, what was he going to do, eat bread in the midst of the fight?
He dismissed the Soul and opened his palm, calling the Blessing in his hand.
A golden flame came alive, blazing fiercely as he stared at it with utmost disappointment. How could anything like this look beautiful? Because it was a Blessing?
He could remember it vividly. After his squad had slain a pestering crow on the ninth Floor, it had dropped this same alluring golden flame.
But looks were obviously deceiving.
They debated with each other, going around the squad on who should be the rightful owner. The one who slain the bird? The one with the highest stats? Or, logically, the one who was lacking in their Soul?
Of course, that decision came down to Jace.
Still, a golden flame never meant it was a Blessing. Knowing they were fighting against the Tower, it wouldn't reward the Climber so casually.
Especially when they were on the ninth Floor, a common ground for low-leveled Climbers to gain experience. Blessings and Curses were extremely rare as well, so the squad had been reluctant to touch the golden flame. What if Curses had also come just as welcoming?
As for Jace, he didn't care at all. If it meant for a chance to strengthen his Soul, anything was necessary.
Only if he knew. Only if he knew…
'What would even happen if I leveled the Blessing anyways? Less gluten in the bread?'
He scoffed, waving the golden flame away in his hands.
'What a joke.'
Then a voice came from above the slight hill, calling his name:
"Jace, there you are!" she shouted from above. "How long are you going to spend over here? Do you know we've been waiting for you?"
Jace watched her tread down. Erin had short, soft blonde hair, that layered over her fairly small face, and stood just as tall as him. It wasn't pleasant being the same height as her, knowing how much his squad had tormented him with it, but he didn't care.
'That was a lie. I actually do care. This Blessing had painfully stunted my growth.'
Erin was dressed in a green and brown leather armor, pants, boots, and a traveling cloak that slung around half of her shoulder. She was under the class of an archer, wearing a traditional bow then twin daggers on her belt.
And, to everyone's surprise, she was stronger than him. Erin was three levels higher than him—at nineteen years old.
She caught up beside him, scanning around before finally fixing on the sweat drenched on his long-sleeved shirt. Jace had taken the majority of his dark leather armor off during training.
To remove excess weight. He didn't know why she was giving this questionable look at him.
"Come on," Erin snorted. "You're not going to get away from us that easily."
Jace exhaled, pushing from the grass and sheathed his silver sword. He slung his dark leather armor around his shoulder and followed Erin from behind.
The squad was waiting for him just below the other side of the hill. Two strong-horses carried their wagon, occupying a squadron of five Climbers.
The leader, named Heather, was leaning back on the wagon as he dug in his ear. He had dark, buzzed hair, and a calloused face. For someone who was only sixteen years old, he had accomplished more than what an average Climber could do.
Heather was a few inches taller than Jace and Erin, wearing nimble-plated leather armor and greaves that fit well for his fighting style. Not to mention the fancy sword that rested on his hip, most likely passed down by his past generations of Climbers.
The other one, drastically taller and muscular than him, was named Klav. He had unruly ash-brown hair, tied down to his nape and couldn't have looked more careless. Jace had never known humans came in this size. Watching him tug along the wagon, the slightest shake would threaten to break it apart.
Klav wore simple leather armor with no sleeves, showing off his brand of muscles that were definitely unnatural.
The last one, already sitting patiently in the wagon, was named Brita. She had long, lilac hair, with flat eyes, and a serene demeanor compared to the rest of the squadron.
Brita wore a long cloak, to her mage attire, holding a wooden staff with attached charms, wrapped leather, and a metal pommel at the end of her weapon, maybe there to gouge the eyes of opponents for close measures.
"Took you long enough," Heather said. "Did you pull something while you're at it?"
Jace scowled his face. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"We had a bet," Heather gestured around. "Because I don't recall taking a break would last half an hour."
"Look at that sweat," Klav loudly chuckled. "You weren't giving up, were ya'?"
Jace groaned, climbing onto the back of the wagon. "Let's just go."
Some time later, they were on the road like usual. Erin and Klav were at the front, in charge of leading the reins of the strong-horses. In the back, Jace and Brita sat apart with Heather across.
"You know, Jace," Heather called him. "If you wanted to train, you could have just asked me or Klav."
Jace lifted his head. "You're asking me to eat dirt or break my bones? No thanks, I'm good."
"Really? Are you that scared of losing?"
"I'm not scared of losing, I hate it. Have you ever lost, Heather? Do you know what it feels like to see your HP drop into the single digits?"
Heather curled his lip. "No, I don't, and I don't ever intend to see that happening. Just because you're the lowest Level in our squad, doesn't mean we're all different from you. We've all been at your Level at some point, Jace. If you want to train, I'm more than welcome to help."
Jace grimaced to himself. After his run on the eighth Floor, he had almost died and that single moment had changed his perspective entirely. He wasn't strong like the rest of his squad.
Despite being with them for the while, none of them had revealed their Soul. Except for Erin, when she told him about her Level, but that was because she pitied Jace.
Heather could shoot fire from his fingertips, swing a sword twice faster than him, and was a far better Climber.
Klav, with his smooth meat-brain, could most likely lift this entire wagon with one arm. He had a great-axe attached to his back to compliment that barbaric power.
'Maybe he had spent all of his Soul Points into STR. Yeah, that sounds possible.'
Brita was probably the most impressive. She could heal her squad members along with casting spells. Jace would even speculate she was the highest leveled Climber out of all of them.
"Since we're going to be riding for a bit," Klav turned around. "Mind showing us that Blessing again, Jace?"