From Player To Npc

They continued practicing at the first ten levels for two days straight with a few breaks to replenish their SP or MP without the use of potions, as it would be a waste to use them that early.

Wild Tycoon had the highest level of them at 58, two levels from evolving her class. Shingi didn't know how long it would take her to evolve her class, but he was sure that everything she needed there could be found on one of Tower's floors.

He couldn't be sure what she would have to do as the System would give her a unique Quest that its task would get designed depending on how she used her class until now.

The others also were getting closer to that point, but their leveling up was slow because of the difference of level between them and the monsters. Even the Boss of the tenth floor wasn't over level 25.

Shingi also learned some new tricks with his sword and staff.

He could make four different mana blades with his swords. Light Mana Blade could do some massive damage, but only if he hit a vital area as he had in the past. Fire Mana Blade could also do substantial damage and pass through the defense of the target that the Light Mana Blade couldn't. Earth Mana Blade increased the damage of the blade a bit, but it primarily increased its defensive abilities. 

Lastly, he could make a Light Fire Mana Blade. He had used some combination of mana on his Light Mana Blade in the past, but its merge wasn't wholly balanced to last for more than a few seconds.

As for combining Light with Earth, or Fire and Earth, it wasn't an effective combination.

Light Fire combination strengthened the effects of both Elements, making it deal more damage and ignore stronger defenses.

As for his staff, he started using the new one he got from Price.

He had bought a special scroll that came into a pair. The one scroll he could use to store an item as a pocket dimension, and with the other, you could summon this item.

So Price had succeeded in taking the Special Staff, which allowed Zhen to make a staff for Shingi with all of his three Elements.

It still was a prototype one, but Shingi could work on it himself with the help of Little Phoenix. Even if it was a prototype, it was still stronger than his other staves.

His Spell before would get boosted by 30%, and that was only for up to Base Grade, as anything of higher Frade would get boosted at max 10%.

But with his new staff boosted all his Spells by at least 25% and most of his Base Grade Spells by almost 40%.

But he had to be careful not to overuse it as the mana gems could explode from overworking and ruin the design, which he couldn't fix with what he had, and he only had one pair of those particular scrolls he used to get the staff.

They had cleared floors 5 to 10 at least twice, and they had gotten used to how things worked around and recognized if monsters were not just their typical type.

Shingi considered they were ready to move on.

Floor 11 didn't contain any monsters, but it was an abandoned city in the Tower.

Every 11 floors, it was like that, and there were rumors that those cities contained secrets for the Tower's history. Players have searched for any NPCs or any way to enable a Quest at those floors, but nobody found anything.

Ameanum also had tried to look for any clues as the people from the Company didn't let him know anything. He had learned a few things from those people about the game, like Lucy's actual name, but they were careful about everything Tower-related, as it was the fundamental concept of the game.

He thought he was close to finding some clues, but he got no Quest. Though, he was confident that each City had a piece of clues, if put together, might give him a Special Quest or at least learn more about how the tower came to be.

Both the Tower and the Blessed ones' appearance were two events that seemed to have changed all the Realms, although Shingi found no recordings about that much back then, and not even the Gods wanted to speak about the events back then.

The tower existed for the last 293 years, but the Blessed ones started appearing a little over 50 years ago. During the time between the two events, there was a great disaster between the Kingdoms, as an entity recorded only as the Dark One had exited the tower with an army of his and tried to take over all the kingdoms.

The Dark One's plan almost succeeded, but all the kingdoms worked together to fight this evil entity and Seal it back to the Tower.

From that day on, the Neutral Territory got created by people having ties with none of the kingdoms, and everybody agreed no kingdom had or will try to have any power over that place.

There were rumors that some people were planning in the background to take over the Neutral Territory for themselves, but it didn't seem to be worth it as it was a dangerous dead land.

Not long after that, Blessed Ones started appearing, and some considered them to be side effects of the Sealed entity, but since most were quite helpful, they didn't mind it.

As for the Dark Ones, there were clues on some Quests about followers of him trying to release him and 'release the world from its chains, 'or that was the motto they used.

They believed that the Dark One was trying to unite them all under his leadership and free them from their differences and make them one. Of course, many people would die in progress, but you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.

Lucy's event had also to do with the Dark One as the Seal that wasn't allowing the Demon's staying in the Mortal Realm for long without a fit body was in the Neutral Territory. But she couldn't get in there as the field didn't allow her to pass through because of her Demonic Nature, so she had to destroy it.

Fortunately, she got stopped before she could finish this task.

If the field got destroyed, the Tower's power would spread all over the Kingdoms and consume the energy of the environment. That's why the closer you were getting to the Tower, the less plant life existed. The field weakened the energy's spread and didn't allow it to escape outside of it.

Shingi and the rest reached the abandoned city of floor 11 and were extra careful with each step of theirs.

The Dark Guild probably had men stationed in those cities looking for clues all the time or waiting to see if there would be any change.

They encountered a few, but they were too low level, just enough to reach this floor, most likely because they let their strong ones continue their search further up.

Even Wild Tycoon, who had the lowest STEALTH than all, even An, who had just trained her STEALTH a few days ago, had no problem avoiding them. They had their special cloaks, which Shingi gave his cloak to An as he could cast CAMOUFLAGE to himself, which was just and maybe even more effective.

Fortunately, this level wasn't changing, so Shingi knew precisely where the stairs to the next floor were.

Unfortunately, they were guarded, unlike the ones on the others floors.

Shingi didn't want them to know that someone else was here, as even if they killed them, they would let others know when they respawned. Even if he used Sinhunter to eat part of their Soul, there was the chance of one of them communicate with a person from the Dark Guild in real life.

There were two guards stationed at the stairs who sat on the first step and played card games.

Stealth their way around or through them wasn't an option, as the stairs weren't that wide.

Shingi knew they had to cause some distraction but wasn't sure of the way to go.

"Hahaha, Beat you once again. How much is it? Two hundred golds that you owe me now?" [Player Guard #1]

"You must be cheating. Those cards are marked, aren't they?" [Player Guard #2]

The first one chuckled before giving his response.

"You have checked it a dozen times, and we even have changed it that many times. Just admit that your luck such, man. Also, you better pay me up. Papa needs to get a new bladed I had seen in the store the other day." [Player Guard #1]

The second player sighed as he brought out a few small pouches of coins.

"Here you go. You know I thought this game would be fun, but those few days we started playing it, I only lose money from you and stay at places doing nothing. I like we get paid handsomely, but does it have to be SOOOOoooooooo dull?" [Player Guard #2]

"Dude, be happy I found us this work, or else we would have to go around getting our asses beaten for nothing."[Player Guard #1]

They continued discussing like that and started another game with the cards after the second Player raised the stakes.

But their conversation gave Shingi an idea.

He cast GOLEMANCY and made one of his Golems slowly appearing next to them.

Of course, they noticed it getting formed and drew their weapon but didn't attack. Shingi could understand from their stance that they were total beginners.

As the golem finished forming, Shingi gave it the command to stay still and stare at them.

The Players got confused about why this creature stayed still, and after a few moments of silence, one decided to say something.

"Do you think we should report it? It may be one of those clues they are looking about."[Player Guard #2]

"Don't be stupid. Why would a clue just appear like that out of nowhere?" [Player Guard #1]

"I don't know. Maybe it… wait, where does it go?" [Player Guard #2]

Shingi ordered the Golem to move away from both his group and those two Players.

"Don't let him out of your sight."[Player Guard #1]

Both ran after the Golem, leaving the stairs unguarded.

Shingi knew that since those were new Players, the chance of them learning about what a Golem looked like and what a Special's Quest clue looked like wasn't significant.

He gave an order to the Golem to lead them to a part of the city with an old tablet with some ancient writing. It wasn't something that wasn't discovered, and its translation was available on the game's forums, but the word there made no sense.

But this could make them believe that there was a secret meaning behind it and try to find it.

As for telling that a Golem lead them there, he doubted. Those guys clearly would want the glory for themselves, so they either would most likely try to solve it by themselves and report to get rewarded.

Fortunately, no group of players got stationed at the other side of the stairs, so they went through the gate as soon as they could, but not before Shingi made sure that his Golem finished its task. Its Golem would get dispelled at he would get teleported too far away from it.

The 12th floor wasn't another forest, but the opposite.

It was a vast desert.