Return of the Tower Conqueror

  Back at the Bottom (I)

Following the funeral's end, everyone withdrew into the compound, with Cain's main party, including Rick, going to his apartment. Everyone was curious over the newcomer, their eyes curiously inspecting him, while the latter wanted nothing more than to hide his head in the sand over sticking out so much. After a brief introduction, all everyone wanted to know was Yuki's Class -- Surger -- and what it did. The young man could only awkwardly stutter out responses to the onslaught of questions.

"It's... it's a support..."

"Uh, it's, uh, I think it's strong..."

"Kind of... kind of like elements-theme? And totems?"

"Y-yes, like, I have shields for different types of damage -- Fire, Lightning, etc..."

"Uh, yes, kinda like shamans... I think...?"

"It has good AoE..."

"It has a bit of damage..."

While Yuki sat surrounded by a group of world-famous people -- even if he couldn't really recognize them, as long as they were part of the 'Reaper's group', he just assumed they were world-famous -- Cain went to the balcony and finally lit up a cigarette, letting the sour mood slowly dissipate.

Yuki had let him inspect the former's status window, and though the numbers weren't out of this world, the kid was definitely talented enough to immediately join the group, if a bit under-geared. He'll, however, leave it up to others as to what happens to him; after settling a bit, he'll mostly be doing brief, two-day trips into the Tower to slowly begin catching up in levels with everyone else.

He'd given others four months of grace period, during which they can do whatever they want, and his plan was to catch up to them during those four months so they can immediately tackle clearing the second floor. If he truly was desperate for levels, he could simply camp the Tower and get back up within two weeks, tops, but he hardly had motivation for it.

Rather than leveling, he was far more excited over trying his new Skills and, likely, creating new ones and experimenting with his battle style as much as possible. Furthermore, he was also fairly excited to hunt for the affixes -- his initial excitement over getting a new 'class' so to say had worn off and the reality began to set in: he'd have to work really hard to actually fill it out properly. Yes, he may have infinite Skill slots, but if he only had 5 Elements and no affixes to work with, no number of Skill slots was going to somehow help him.

He didn't even know how to 'hunt' for any new Elements, so, for now at least, he'd have to focus on the affixes. And while the first floor was hardly a paradise of good loot, that didn't mean it didn't have items with very good affixes.

The one he had in mind dropped from a mini-hidden-boss of sorts, situated well eastward into the floor, likely within the non-explored scope of the place. It came attached to a fairly bad item that required one to be level 40 to wear while having, at best, mediocre, level 15 stats. However, one of the two affixes that it came with was worth hunting it down -- at least for him, anyway.

Though Cain didn't remember the affix's name, nor even its exact description, he did remember the general idea behind it as it was a fairly desired affix by many top-end Elementalists -- every 'Created Skill' they used had a fixed 1/3 chance to refund 13/19/27/35% of Mana, increasing whenever the affix failed to trigger, guaranteeing a trigger at 35% and resetting.

The advantage over the affix was that it could be used to create a passive rather than an active Skill, though, from what Cain recalled, the passive effect only went up to 19% of Mana refunded and had no guarantees.

Passive skills could only be created out of the item affixes and usually had decently lowered bonuses. However, hardly any Elementalist actually bothered with them -- seeing as they had a fairly limiting number of Skills they could have. Cain, on the other hand, didn't have that limitation; even if the affix's effects would lower considerably, if he couldn't use the item anymore, it was better than just throwing it away or selling it, especially if he could stack a few more of the Mana-refunding ones.

Cain could already foresee his biggest problem in the future -- Mana expenditure. His Skills' costs were currently somewhat in line with his Mana pool, but the more he leveled, the more hard-hitting he would need them to be which, in turn, would mean they would start costing more. In his previous life, the cheapest Created Skill he had cost 8000 Mana to cast, double his current pool, and it's sole effect was to just toss a simple fireball at a creature, the Skill he used when farming lower-level mats. It basically had no use outside of it.

As such, rather than focusing on increasing his damage, he was more concerned with items and even 'Classless Skills' that increased either Mana or Mana regeneration.

"I see you've adopted us another kid," Emma said as she walked up to him, handing him a glass of whiskey -- he concluded after a quick sniff.

"Ah? My ban is over?"

"Your ban is over." she nodded with a smile, leaning on the railing.

"And, to be fair," Cain said, taking a sip. "He kinda adopted me. You like him?"

"He seems a'right."

"How's Lana?" Cain asked.

"Ran off into her room," Emma replied. "Went to check up on her, the girl's dreamin'."

"Ha ha ha, a quick sleeper, just like 'er mom." he added. "I'm planning to head back in soon."

"... how soon?" Emma quizzed.

"In a week or so," Cain replied. "It's the first floor. Shouldn't be scary."

"..."

"One word, Em'," Cain said. "And we out."

"No," she shook her head, sighing as wind blew against them, lifting her hair. "Not yet, anyway."

"We'll be going in on a two-day basis," Cain said. "And out frequently. There's no rush. We'll take it slow, chill, sight-see, maybe even finally bring Lana inside--"

"--nope."

"Or we won't be bringing Lana inside since that's insane. Anyway, you can just accompany me and make fun of me while I'm fighting. I'm sure that's one of your favorite things to do, anyway."

"It really is," Emma chuckled. "But does that mean that I won't get to fight anyone strong for four months?"

"... you wanna fight something strong?"

"... I need my confidence back, C'," she said. "Belief that I ain't so pathetic to be killed by everything. In my mind, I know that's the case; that fucker was an outlier, an exception rather than the norm. But... I don't know. Every time I think of fighting... I freeze for a moment."

"It's natural," he comforted, patting her head. "I'm honestly surprised you ain't wallowing in your head, going through three packs of tissues like the first time."

"Ah, fuck you kindly..."

"If it's the hard fights you want," Cain chuckled. "I'll arrange a few. It's not like there are none left on the First Floor."

"Well, you would know," she replied, stretching. "I'm tired. I'm gonna go and take a nap. What do you want for dinner tonight?"

"Meat."

"You beat your meat off so much I'm surprised you can stand the sight of any other."

"... when do I ever? Maybe you wanted to say 'you beat my meat off so much you're tired of kneading any other'."

"Ah, I'm too tired for this..."

A week passed rather quickly; Cain didn't even leave the apartment save for one night he went to visit and talk with Rick. Senna and Emma frequently took Lana and ventured out, while the guys, including Yuki, would often come over to Cain's for drinks and some game-time.

At the week's end, both Emma and Cain snuck out under the cover of the night, having told everyone else the day prior they'd be 'staying in' for two days, already having offloaded Lana to Emma's sister. They didn't want anyone else to know they'd be going back into the Tower as, without a doubt, they'd want to come in too.

Senna was their biggest worry, but it seems that she took 'staying in' as an euphemism of sorts and made herself scarce immediately, flushed in her cheeks.

As such, the two had no problems reaching the Tower's entrance and dipping in, undetected, amidst the surging crowds. Cain's first destination was Evermoon Waterfalls, a set of waterfalls some ninety miles east of the entrance and home to a horde of low-level monsters that should carry him comfortably to at least level 20 within a short amount of time.

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