4 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Each floor of the tower was its own little world and existed independently from each other. At the edge of every floor was an indestructible barrier. Floors varied greatly, but they each had a theme.

The first floor was simple. Thousands of interwoven tunnels filled with goblins. The second floor was slightly more difficult than the first. It too was filled with goblins and tunnels, but the weapons they wielded were more varied. Instead of just short swords, they wielded spears, shields, maces, bows, etc. For newcomer ascenders with no combat experience, this changeup made things significantly more difficult. Dealing with a few goblins were simple for modern humans; goblins were short and frail compared to a tall and strong human, but once they started using different weapons, things became harder.

To Jason, this was nothing. He'd fought against all types of weapons and monsters. He swept through the second floor without breaking a sweat. As luck would have it, he acquired a crude wooden buckler while making his way through the floor. It was a crappy shield, but a shield nonetheless. Using two short swords wasn't uncomfortable, but using a shield was second nature to him. With it, his combat prowess immediately doubled.

A few hours later he reached the third floor. He reached level 7 after slaughtering every goblin he came across. For every level he would gain 5 stat points. His plan for stat distribution was thus: 1 to strength, 1 to agility, 1 to endurance, 2 to vitality. After several decades of research and testing, this was found to be the best stat allocation for a tank.

Jason felt a strong sense of familiarity when he inspected his surroundings. If he were to rank which floors he was most intimate with, the third floor would definitely rank among the top five. In the past, Jason passed the trial to become a battleshields guild member. For a few years he was tasked with farming the third floor for materials. It was only after the battleshields guild disbanded that he started to climb the floors.

He was in a giant cavern filled with ravines. Beams of light fell down from holes in the ceiling, giving a bit of light. Attached to the walls of the cave was wooden scaffolding reaching multiple stories high. An incredibly complex system of pulleys and ropes could be seen connected to the scaffolding.

The air smelled of metal; mainly copper and iron. The sound of clanging echoed off the cavern walls, along with the shrieking of goblins. Indeed, the goblins had a major operation underway. The third floor was a massive underground mine packed full of the little creatures.

It wasn't apparent at first, but the towers were a goldmine. An infinite amount of materials could be brought out; wood, iron, copper, tin, coal, steel, mithril, etc. Now that two decades have past since the arrival of the towers, a complex economy had formed around the tower. The materials were farmed by guilds and purchased by governments and corporations. And that was just for materials. Skills books, equipment, pets, mounts, and land within the tower were much more expensive. Much more.

All of these thoughts spun through Jason's head as he glanced around. He stood on top of the scaffolding and got a good look of the cavern. Already he could see teams from different guilds fighting goblins for their loot. He recognized most of them as competitors from the past.

Competition between guilds was fierce inside the tower. There was no oversight here; no government, no military, no police. In the beginning, because things were so profitable, there were countless fights between teams leading to innumerable deaths. Eventually the guilds came to an agreement and farmed in designated locations only. But not all locations were equal. Some spots had rare spawns, more drops, better terrain, etc.

To prevent further fighting, it was decided that there would be a competition every month. Once a month, the guilds would gather together and undergo a competition between each other. The guild that won first place was allowed to pick first from the plethora of farming locations. The second guild was next, and so on so forth. The weaker guilds could only complain inwardly. Of course, only the low-tier guilds fought over the farming spots on the third floor. The mid-tier, upper-tier, and top-tier guilds didn't care at all.