“Is this going to be a recurring theme? Am I going to almost die every fug time I enter a tower? I hope the rest of the towers are better. Maybe I o level more? Actually, I better get a bunch of damn levels!”

  Auranta ahes watch a little bird chirp loudly and angrily. They have no idea what it is saying, but it looks frustrated. Eventually, said bird shifts into a cat.

  “Fuck this test.” Quasi curses.

  “I do not believe fornication with tests is possible.” hes adds.

  Quasi gives the Phytonid a deadpanned look.

  “You exploded. How are you even alive?” Auranta shifts the subjed Quasi’s frustration.

  “Oh, that? I yered as much of the destru rune on my skin as possible. Right before I activated them, I flexed my muscles and directed the explosion outward. Still hurt a lot, and I probably lost a good quarter of my flesh, but I survived and got away.”

  “You’re insane!” Auranta excims.

  “It’s fine. I regee. How else do you expect me to learru without materialization?”

  “You blew up your flesh to learn to cast spells!” She screams, showing more emotion than Quasi had ever seen Auranta show.

  “Geese. Why are you getting so angry? It’s my body and I blow it up as much as I want to.” the cat ters.

  “Because I’m responsible! I showed you the rune and you- you.” She breathes out and forces herself to calm. It has been a very long while since she’d lost trol of her emotions.

  “You’re right. It is your choice, but I’m not going to allow you to train without my supervision.”

  Quasi grins. “Fair. There's probably better spells to train with… Ohat don’t explode.”

  Auranta nods. “Good. Now, how are we getting out of here? I doubt we exit with all those monsters present.”

  Quasi yawns and stretches. “Last time I passed the test, I was teleported back to the beginning. Hopefully it will do the same. Lets go.”

  Finding the stairs, the group silently desds down under magical cat firelight. When they reach the bottom, they find a tral pedestal with a glowing crystal ball.

  “It’s glowing.” Auranta observes.

  “Yes, yes it is. Both of you stay put, I’ll hahis.”

  Quasi shifts bato a Fenrimorph. When he does, the smell of burnt flesh wafts to all those who could smell it. This also allows both women to assess the extent of the damage. He has no skin and his muscles on his upper body are extraordinarily reduced. The only muscles that look generally undamaged are the ones on his legs. He probably avoided damaging them precisely so he could jump away.

  Walking to the orb, Quasi ys a gaued hand on the orb, at which point it immediately shatters to reveal a card. Looking closer, the card pictures a tower reag up and through clouds.

  When he pces his hand on the card, it disies.

  _____________________________________________________________

  Through Vitality, you have resisted the enviro.

  Through Intelligence, you have avoided the swarm.

  Through Perception, you have safely traversed chaos.

  Test of the Tower pleted. Notifying the World System…

  Chariot pletioified…

  Activating blessing interface…

  Restrig Blood Flow to brain…

  Wait? The swarm could be avoided!

  As I fall to the floor, I hear two more thuds apanying mine.

  Then all is repced with a room of endless white. The same endless light with the exception of a sed card floatio the first.

  Gng away from the car, I find no object of Chaos to meet me. Instead, I’m met with Green and Blue. Green for my level and Blue for my blessing.

  “Before we begin. Green, am I level thirty yet?”

  “ive.”

  I turn to Blue. “The's begin with your buddy here since I’m not getting any new skills. Blue, what have you got for me?”

  Blue blinks at me. “Entity Quasi Eludo, you have obtaihe Tower card. Please choose one of the following blessings:”

  Blessing of the Chariot.

  Towers Vitality.+5% Vitality[Minor Healing Regeion]Increase Healing Rate by 100%.Towers Intelligence.+5% Intelligence[Perfect Pitch]Perfectly remember any and all sounds.Towers Perception.+5% Perception[Fsh Immune]Light fshes do not blind you.

  Reading the options, I ’t help but find that they are g in parison to those avaible in the previous tower.

  “I don't suppose I reroll my options?” I ask blue.

  “ive.”

  “Yea, thought not. Give me a moment to think about this.”

  I scratch my and stare at the floating box.

  Towers Vitality is a simply good blessing all around. Increased vitality improves my lifespan and base regeion by five pert. The [Minor Healing Regeion] skill is holy really good and really useless. In a fight, doubled regeion on my impressive regeion as a Fenrimorph is still not fast enough to make a major differen a fight. Healing a wound in five minutes instead of ten just isn't worth it. Now, what it is useful for is training!

  “Of course I’m offered a skill that lets me blow myself up more often.” I shake my head and look to the offer.

  Towers Intelligence is holy useless for me. Over the turies, I’ve already learned how to manipute my thoughts to remember anything, sounds included. This would makes it easier, but wasted. As for the stat boosts, not worth it.

  I look to the final blessing.

  Towers Perception is ahat could potentially be useful, but I’ve yet to deal with arying to mess with my photoreceptors. On top of that, I don’t think it would affect me as badly. Minor damage to eyes would be near instantly healed by my natural regeion.

  I shake my head. “Damn, funny how the blessing that helps me with self fgeltion is the best option.”

  “Have you chosen your blessing?” blue asks.

  “Yea, yea. Just give me Towers Vitality.”

  “Choice: Towers Vitality, accepted.”

  Adding Title: Towers Vitality…

  Title Added successfully.

  Title Name

  Towers Vitality

  Title Rank

  Tower

  Title Effect

  +5% Vitality trait

  [Minor Healing Regeion]

  “Blessing application pleted.” Blue blinks rapidly. “Activati Protocol.”

  “Wait! I still have to talk to green about my stats!”

  Reset Protocol Activated…

  Telep Entity Quasi Eludo and servants to entrance…

  Teleport Successful…

  Test of Tower will reset once all entities leave the premises.

  __________________________________________________________________

  I wake up to the smell of fried Fenrimorph, the sound of p rain, and the fshes of red lightning.

  As I stand up, I watch as both Auranta ahes do the same.

  “W-what happened?” Auranta asks while hes quickly takes a defeance.

  I take this opportunity to transform into my feline form. “Teleportation. We’re at the start of the tower. Once we leave, this whole test resets.

  “I-I see.” Auranta tries to stand but finds herself exhausted.

  “Are you alright?” I ask, ed.

  “I believe so. My body feels weak.”

  “All cellur damage has beeed since leaving the initial tower.” hes expins. “I too feel weakened, but the effect is temporary.”

  “Sounds like good o me. Let's get out of here. I’m done fighting mushrooms from now on.”

  The three of us head to the stair and begin making our way down.

  “By the way, did you guys get any levels?”

  “I have gained five.” hes expins. “My goddess blesses me with a new skill.”

  “Five!” Auranta yells, seemingly fetting her weakness. “What level are you?”

  “I am twenty-one now.”

  “You’re not even an advanced css! How are you so experienced with Mutation?”

  I chuckle. “hes is from a different world like me. We’re a lot more capable than you’d expect.”

  “That… that expins a lot.” The woman goes solemn and thoughtful. Kinda sad too.

  “So, did you get any levels?” I shift the versation.

  “Two levels. It seems the danger we faced was signifit.”

  “Yea, I agree. Kinda almost died, but all's well that ends well. Speaking of which, it looks like we’re back before night.”

  Reag the dest, light beams from the tower's opening. As we exit, I 't help but be somewhat disappoi seeing only my ship and nothing else. Oddly enough, I was somewhat expeg to see a giant ship parked o the tower.

  But no, just calm winds and still plenty of light.

  “If I’m not getting fucked over, I bet someone else is going to be.”

  ___________________________________________________________

  Over a huhousand Trist from a single sale. One of the rgest hauls [Mert Captain] Morris has seen to date. He’d gaiwo whole levels. A rarity as an Advanced css. It truly was a smart py to sell the ship to the Gambinos. The added danger of dealing with pirates and greater profits really is a boon to leveling.

  Grabbing his quil and a clear sheets of paper, he taps the point in ink and starts pnning on his rade. With the influx of trist at his disposal, he fill his ships ste with far more valuable goods. Something that would sell well to the major isnd like exotic fruits or rare metals. The Gemma tend to pay premium for quality, and Memphis does trade in quality metal.

  “[Captain]!”

  He hears a shout.

  “[Captain]!” The shout outside his office is closer.

  Morris stands up at the same time as one of his men bounds into his office.

  “[Captain]! e to the deck. There's a problem!”

  Seeing the man's panicked expression, Morris rushes up to the deck of his ship without question. Chubby as he is, boosted traits give him more mobility that would be expected as he outpaces the sailor. When he finally does arrive on the deck, what greets him is shock.

  The city of Memphis is burning- more specifically, the port is destroyed alongside every ship that was docked. Evey’s defeowers and defenses are nothing more but sg.

  “What's your order, captain?”

  Morris swallows. “Turn the ship around. I’m not going to deal with this.”

  “Aye [Captain].” The sailor moves and the ship begins to turn.

  Morris shakes his head and starts heading bato the ship. Just before he enters inside, he takes o look at Memphis…

  … and the Aurora above the city.