Ultimate Level 1-Chapter 452: King Fights: Round 2

Chapter 452 – King Fights: Round 2

Max stared at his sister, whose eyes wouldn’t stop blinking.

Both of his parents had similar expressions, each of them leaning forward on the couch.

“Well…”

Shaking her head, Stacy grinned at him.

And then she vanished from his sight.

Both of his parents let out a gasp and started looking around the room.

He however could only grin as he sensed his sister moving around the small table between them, drawing closer and closer.

Stealth and tracking… I guess I shouldn’t complain too much about not getting to use those.

Tracking would have been good, but I agree with you that neither of those would have been what we acquired.

Just a single step before she got to him, Max disappeared himself and was behind her, picking her up from behind and laughing.

As they both appeared before their parents, who were still apparently in shock, his sister tried and failed to break his grip.

“Not fair! How?!”

Slowly putting her down, he laughed when she punched him, yet the grin on her face never vanished.

“You’re not the only one with that ability, and you must always remember to pay special attention to the skill description. There are ways to be discovered even with stealth.”

“Max… you have stealth as well?”

Nodding at his father, Max winked.

“I’m a bit of a special case, but yes. If I’m honest, Stacy has a pretty powerful kit, and with everything she’s been given, she shouldn’t be in trouble unless she does something stupid.”

“You say that like I’m an idiot,” she declared as she punched at him again.

“No, just inexperienced. Think about it. What if I know you’re invisible, and I have sand or other material and toss it in the air? It could land on you. In a dust storm, your form might appear to those with a high enough perception and looking out for it.

“Dozens of casters can see through Stealth, even the low-level goblin ones you’ve faced. I learned all this the hard way. You’ll have to as well.”

Stacy took a step back and frowned.

“Wait… so you’re telling me this skill isn’t as good as I thought?”

Shaking his head, Max sighed. “No, it’s an exceptionally powerful skill when used correctly. Just don’t depend upon it too much and learn when it will work and won’t. Ask Tom to give you some pointers, but if I’m guessing, he will curse first and then make you run low-level dungeons with casters who can sense you before he takes you into the dueling field and shows you other stuff.

“Experience is powerful. You need more of it.”

“Bah, you sound just like Tom… always telling me to slow down.”

Max moved until he was directly before his sister and got in her face. His smile was gone, and he put a hand on each shoulder.

“Listen to him. Trust me. Don't ignore his advice if you want to reach levels most could never dream about and be the adventurer and mother you want to be. Trust me.”

She sighed and then wrapped her arms around him.

“Thank you for everything,” she whispered. “I mean it.”

Hugging her back, he felt a little bit of the weight he always carried vanish and for a moment, just stood there, enjoying the chance to be with his family.

***

Everett handed another journal to Max as he put a dozen others back into a storage chest.

“That’s one of the only other ones I know of that mention anything about the tower floors you’re facing. I’m a little excited to write down what you could share with me for whoever comes next.”

Tanila scoffed as her and the other three took turns flipping through books older than all of them.

“Nothing in this one is of any value. In fact, I’d say that most of it is wrong.”

“How so?”

She frowned and handed the book she held to Everett.

“It talks about tower gems, and yet – “

Her throat grew tight, and Max could see she was trying to talk and struggling with it.

“The drop rate isn’t like our old one.”

“It’s less?” the Faction leader asked, as a single eyebrow rose.

Nodding slowly, she tried to speak but couldn’t.

“Don’t hurt yourself. I understand what it feels like to try and talk when under an oath. The tower doesn’t play around, and if what you are telling me is what I think it is, then yes, this line would be wrong. Which begs the question why?”

“Because saying nothing would be far worse,” Max answered. “No one would press on or attempt the tower after that point. Without information, most would give up. Only the few who were really crazy would do so.”

“True… but that means most other Factions have the wrong information. How many teams have we sent into the tower and lost because we didn’t know more?”

“Does it matter? Even if they knew everything, I’ll be honest… today’s floor was a bit scary. To think about having to fight all the creatures in there. I’m not sure how a normal team would have done it.”

“By normal, you mean…”

“Not us,” Max replied. “Tell me, out of every team you’ve seen or had since you started adventuring, how many could beat us?”

Sighing, Everett sat down in his chair and carefully put the book down Tanila had given him.

“None.”

“And I’m afraid it only gets worse. Are the rewards worth it? Only if you can stay alive.”

“Hey, what about this?” Fowl asked as he held a book out to Batrire.

“Oh, sorry dear, I forgot you could read.”

She ignored the finger he gave as she took the book and scanned the page.

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“This one says that beyond the 60th floor, many teams would attempt the same floor multiple times. I didn’t say why, though. Is that because they are –”

She choked and then cleared it, shaking her head.

“Yeah… I can’t say that.”

“Another secret?” Everett asked.

Nodding, Max tapped his chin.

“It’s an interesting idea. If one was able to rerun it.”

Max knew each person was wondering the same thing.

Could we rerun a floor and try to be faster and get a better reward? That would explain why we were so slow on that last floor.

Would the tower do that, though? Would it allow groups to rerun a tower multiple times? I could see both the potential and the negative aspects of that.

I guess we could easily retry the 61st floor and just go for speed. I mean… can anyone do it faster if we go all out?

I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Grinning, Max tapped his head.

“Tomorrow we’ll try something real quick. After that we can return here and finish the things we must do before heading out. Is there anything you need me to ask Dagon while we’re there?”

Shaking his head, Everett picked up and stored the book he had set down.

“Nothing that I need. Just let me know if I can help. I spoke with the council, and they are willing to give up the fire-forged bar. This time, the vote was an easy one.”

“It’s about damn time,” Fowl muttered as he rose. “Give a Faction enough materials to own every kingdom, and they still have to vote on something.”

***

Running his fingers gently along Tanila’s stomach, Max couldn’t help but smile.

“Our child is growing. Little by little, every day.”

“Sometimes I hate you,” she teased, poking his chest. “It’s not fair that you can do that.”

“Fair or not, it’s not my call. Besides, you’ll have enough to worry about if this thing keeps getting bigger.”

Her hand snaked out and grabbed his neck, pulling his head near hers.

“I might not be able to physically hurt you, but if I think for a moment you’re calling me fat–”

Shaking his head, Max gave his best grin and tried to kiss her. “No, my love, I am simply saying our child is growing and using you as its home. I’m not Fowl, after all.”

She growled before kissing him.

Though you had a Fowl moment right there.

***

As soon as all four of his team were inside his dimensional vault, Max shut the door and was gone.

Bob and he sped through the frozen tower floor, knowing the limits of the heights they could reach, and avoided it, choosing to be as fast as possible.

Haste wore off, and once again, Bob used his power to reset it, allowing them to reach the crystal circle much faster.

The only difference was this time, there were two bosses.

Not caring, Max was past both of them, his dimensional vault open as his friends raced out of it and to the portal. Before a single spell struck the barrier, they were gone.

***

[ Calculating Results of Previous Floor ]

[ … ]

[ … ]

[ Results Totaled ]

[ Time Spent on Floor is within Top 3 ]

[ Calculating Rewards ]

[ Rewards for Achieving Top 3 Fastest Time ]

[ Full Level Experience Granted & Skill Gem ]

[ Error - Experience Already Granted ]

[ Error - Skill Gem Already Granted ]

“How in the gods is that possible?” Fowl asked. “I mean, we weren’t in there that long.”

Frowning, Max shook his head.

“I… I don’t know, but if someone was faster, they must have skill or stats or…”

“Or what?”

Looking at their warrior, he shrugged.

“It says top three but not which spot. What if I’m already the fastest? What if the rewards we got are the best?”

“Then we’re just wasting time, and the floor continually gets harder,” Tanila stated. “You said there were two bosses this time. Another way the tower makes things a greater challenge?”

“I’m glad I woke up early for this,” Cordellia said. “Not that I really slept. I mean we all don’t sleep as much, right?”

“Speak for yourself,” Fowl replied. “I’ll have you know I’m always tired.”

Rolling her eyes, their archer pointed at the portal.

“I’m heading out since I know we’re not going to do the floor. See you all tonight.”

Fowl and Batrire began to move after her as she started to leave.

“You okay?” Tanila asked as the other three filed out.

“Yeah. Just trying to ensure we’re getting the best results and everyone is as strong as possible.”

She touched his cheek with her hand and shook her head.

“Don’t crush yourself underneath that load. We’re strong enough to carry ourselves. In the meantime, why don’t you go and finish some of the items you promised to make? Then I’ll go look for a new outfit since apparently my stomach is too big.”

“Yeah… I’m not going to reply to that last part. Have fun shopping, and try not to spend all your money.”

She winked, and they went to the portal together.

***

Well, I can’t do much more than this. Four weapons is hard to complain about in a single day. I just wish the experience was better. Three to five per weapon is almost worthless.

You do realize that you’ll never level up.

You say that, but it’s what you believe is true. When I asked you the first time if I could gain enough experience through crafting to reach level two, you said most likely not. Not absolutely.

That was because I didn’t realize at that time how crazy you were. Yet another thing that makes you special, Max.

Still… I’m not going to sacrifice everything else right now to pursue it. We’ll see eventually what happens. I’m wondering what we need to do about these tower floors. At some point we’ll have to fight. I’m fairly certain the tower won’t allow us to keep avoiding it altogether.

I agree. The real question then comes again: when will you stop carrying your team?

Always the same question.

And your answer never changes.

Sighing, Max stored the bow he had made for the Faction, hating that Bob was right.

Until I know I can’t.

Just pray it isn’t too late.

‎