Chapter 179

Back at the Bottom (II)

It felt somewhat strange walking back into the First Floor as a Level 1, Cain mused inwardly as Emma and he made their way along the sea of people, walking with the flow through the initial few hundred yards near the entrance before the road forked.

The two immediately turned east and began their journey, joined by quite a few other groups and parties. Neither of the two wore masks, and Emma had switched into novice-level armor while Cain wore ordinary clothes. They looked more like a couple on an excursion rather than a pair of Conquerors with a goal in mind.

This was further pushed by the way they behaved; they appeared to not be on guard, and the woman kept laughing at whatever the man was saying. Save for a few stray looks of annoyance, they hardly drew any attention to themselves as they made their way forward, slowly but surely splitting from the groups of people that all went their separate ways.

“This really does feel like a stroll,” Emma chuckled as they made it past the boorish and brown landscape and into the forested hillside, with a sudden onslaught of ambient light shining up the world. “If I didn’t sense several dozen lethal, wild animals in those woods, I’d even say we were walking through a park.”

“Oh, wow, your senses are improving.”

“Oh, shut it,” Emma grumbled. “They’re all Level 2-3. If I couldn’t sense them, I may as well have shot myself dead.”

“... there’s also a level 10 field boss like 200 yards to our right.” Cain teased, prompting Emma to sigh and roll her eyes.

“You never let anything go by, eh?”

“The bad comes with the good when it comes to me.”

“Aye, aye, aye. So, how do you wanna do this?”

“Rather than levels,” Cain said. “I’m more interested in farming out items. Levels will come naturally. Heck, if I made a swift round through this forest, I’d likely reach level 11-12 within half an hour. But if I level up so quickly, our little excursions will end.”

“... I ain’t having sex with you inside this place.”

“...”

“...”

“... goddammit.”

“Ha ha ha,” Emma let out a bellied laugh, keeling over slightly and leaning against a tree for a moment to support herself.

“Ah, whatever, I guess I’ll be testing out my skills now.” Cain chuckled at her response, stretching out for a moment before he locked onto roughly eight creatures hiding within thick and tall shrubs. He prepared to fire off a single charge of ‘Coiling Storm’ to see the damage values before killing off all eight. His current ‘Intelligence’ was almost at 300, and double that meant 600 -- 1800 across three enemies.

Considering that those hiding creatures had roughly around 250 Health, at best, it was quite an overkill -- especially considering further he was just a lowly Level 1. Starting stats... really made a huge difference. Even after his return to the past, when he first entered the Tower, he still had to focus and struggle during the initial levels, taking his sweet time to kill even some ordinary bandits.

Yet, now, he can just fire off a single Skill and easily choke the life out of almost everything non-boss within his rough level range.

Activating the skill, roughly eleven bolts of fire appeared above his head for a moment before they streaked forth with a soft bang, boring through the shrubberies and immediately alighting the creatures hiding within, causing the latter to cry out in agony as three went up into flames and turned to ash within a second. Altogether, it was actually a considerable waste of Mana.

Five other creatures near the three killed sprinted out of the bushes; they were small, piglet-sized and foxed-shaped ilk with faintly cyan-silver fur. Cain fired off the other two charges of the ‘Coiling Storm’ and easily killed them, feeling somewhat sour. It was, after all, his lightest-hitting skill, but since it burned through 900 of his Mana if he fired off his charges, he’d likely have to always fight above his level if he wanted the costs to be reasoned.

//Congratulations, you have Leveled up!

You have reached Level 3!

As an Awakened Class, there will be no passive increases to your stats anymore!

Instead, every 10 Levels, you will receive 50 points to distribute however you wish!//

Cain wasn’t surprised by this; he was, however, finally struck by realization that his falling back to Level 1 was a bit of a cheat. Even if, optimally, everyone awakened before Level 60 to gain that first bonus, he still had 250 extra points to spend on whatever stat he wanted. With this, he would actually finally clutch the stats and join the quasi-superstar side of things.

“... well,” Emma said, joining his side. “That was boring as fuck.”

“Tell me about it,” Cain sighed. “What a waste. Nothing short of fighting bosses will be fun. So, what say you?”

“What say I? I say--aaah, I can’t do it. It’s too embarrassing.”

“Ha ha ha,” Cain laughed at Emma’s flushed cheeks.

“Do you have a boss in mind?”

“Ye’,” he replied. “There’s a really simple, no-nonsense boss some ten miles ahead. It can get a bit scrappy, though, as he tends to deal quite a lot of damage.”

“I think I can handle it... what’s his level?”

“30.” Cain replied honestly. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry -- especially with your shitty-ass overpowered healing.”

“... it’s clearly not that overpowered.” she said as her expression sank.

“You can’t gauge it through that,” Cain comforted her gently. “It’d be like gauging the strength of a knife by stabbing it into a huge-ass rock. It has no point. Just like that knife after stabbing a fuckin’ rock.”

“Pfft...”

“All I’m saying is that you... you are an overpowered tank. Trust me.”

“Alright, I’ll trust you. Never bit me in the ass before, eh?”

“Well, you’d never let me...”

“Oh, sweet Jesus Cain...” Cain groaned, exasperated.

The two sped up slightly and mostly ignored every creature in the forest; due to Emma’s high level, the aggro system fell apart quickly and no creature, not even the mini-bosses of sorts, approached them. As such, their journey was a smooth sailing, one which they mostly spent just chattering about random things, one often interrupted with Emma asking another future-related question.

Cain didn’t hold back, answering everything honestly -- even the parts that hardly landed him in the good light.

“... you... you seduced a woman and used her?” Emma looked at him askew, doubt visible in her gaze. “Are you sure you didn’t dream up the whole thing?”

“Well, if so, then I’m likely dreaming this up too since she was the key part in me getting the cube.”

“... was she cute?”

“Are we really doing this?”

“What?” Emma asked. “I can’t have issues with you dicking another gal?”

“No, no, you can,” Cain replied. “It’s just that you don’t. You only wanna make me sweat.”

“Then why ain’t your cute ass sweating already?” she asked with a grin.

Cain merely chuckled, noting that they had entered the jungle portion of their journey; thick, green covers blanketed the world, dimming down the visibility considerably. The boss they were after wasn’t much further ahead; there was a steep dip nearby that led to a fairly large clearing where a winged, lion-headed, horse-bodied, and double-horn-having creature resided. For the most part, people still instinctively kept away from the jungles; after all, if they were anything like jungles on Earth, they were filled with deadly insects, bugs, and tiny creatures that would kill them before even being spotted.

In reality, jungles inside the Tower were far more in line with the ‘fantasy’ of a jungle -- the sort of lush, vibrant homes to exotic and beautiful species as well as herbs and such that cannot be found elsewhere. Though it was true there were some jungles that teemed with tiny, deadly life, most weren’t quite that dangerous -- especially the one they entered. Rather, this one was extremely tame and friendly and would eventually become one of the go-to tourist spots since, really, save for the boss, almost every other creature found in the jungle was passive. That is to say, unless attacked, they wouldn’t attack themselves.

“This kinda feels like our first date,” Emma said as Cain slowly led them right, toward the slope.

“... in what fucking universe is this like our first date?” Cain asked with a strange expression. “Do you even remember our first date?”

“Oh, I remember,” she nodded. “We were so awkward, I’m fairly certain we spoke like 8 words altogether the whole 3 hours we were together.”

“And?”

“... and I accidentally foreheaded your nose when you tried to kiss me, making you bleed.”

“And?”

“... and as I was trying to help you, I kneed your balls.”

“So, again I ask -- how in the fuck is this anything like our first date?”

“The feeling,” she replied, smiling gently. “Like, despite the awkwardness, beneath it all... I felt it. The fact that I’d rather be there with you, sitting with a Cola in my hand, sweating through my ass-cheeks because of the silence, than anywhere else in the world. Just like now. I’d rather be here, in the bug-infested jungles of a fantasy world, tens of miles away from home... than anywhere else.”

“Aww...”

“Oh, shut up,” she groaned, rolling her eyes and gently elbowing him. “I get it. You hated the date. You probably hate this too.”

“Ah, yes, spending time with the most beautiful, the funniest, and the smartest girl in the whole world sure sucks balls. I mean, sheesh, can you believe it? What man in the whole wide world would possibly--”

“You took it too far.”

“That was the intent. Ah, down here,” Cain slowly stepped to left, cleaving gently through the woven threads of the plants and branches.

“Terrible, terrible intent...” the two made it down relatively quickly, gushing through the thick cover and landing squarely into the somewhat round opening.

On the opposite end, resting on top of a flattened rock, was a massive creature, good fifteen feet long, a seeming chimera composed of six-seven different species. Yet, despite all that... it fit, somehow, someway. Through the bizarre scope, all the parts that seemed to repel each other, when bound together, made sense.

“Okay, now that’s just fucking weird,” Emma commented swiftly.

“Good thing we’ll be killing it then, eh?”