Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

A FIREARM FIRED. Wrik's vision turned slow immediately. He could see a small projectile rushing towards him. The slow-motion of the projectile only lasted for a blink of an eye until it totally missed him by a respectful distance. But he found that his heart was racing in madness, it's still didn't calm down.

A golden mana shield appeared in front of him abruptly as Tanya asked, holding the ugly wand. "Are you alright?"

Her eyes were only at him for a brief moment, then she glanced in the direction the shot was fired from. Her emerald eyes turned colder instantly when she noticed the few figures standing there.

The one that fired at Wrik was the hooligan that they met on phrase-I. The one who was after Tanya. Wrik had totally forgotten about these hoodlums.

The interesting thing was that the burly boss was squatting on the ground, as a foot was on the back of his neck. Wrik and others knew who this foot belonged to.

"Now we're even," Aasan said, still holding the neck of the burly man with his foot.

The minions of the boss were bewildered at the scene. They didn't even see how Aasan appeared behind their boss, much less stop it.

Aasan looked around at everyone's exterior. His eyes widened, noticing the charcoal body of the ghoul. He said. "You guys really killed that thing." He then gestured at the one he was holding. "What should I do with him?"

As soon as Aasan said that, an ice spike flew directly at the head of the boss, who was pinned down. The head burst immediately, spurting out blood and grey matters.

It was Tanya; she finished the hoodlum boss saying nothing. Her expression was disgusted, as there's no remorse for the killing.

Wrik sighed. Tanya already gave that guy a chance on the very first day, yet he had to throw it away. The mobs that came with the dead guy fled frantically, seeing the pitiful figure of their boss. Tanya didn't shoot further, nor did any of them.

Then something intriguing happened again. The figure of Aasan, who was pinning the boss, turned into smoke before disappearing. It was as if he was never present there.

"Young lady, you could have warned." Aasan's voice sounded out again, but it was from a few tens of metres away. Two figures approached with the usual pace, one with a leg injury—Aasan, he didn't have the colour he had a moment ago when he was pinning down the boss. His face was pale, with weary eyes. While the other figure was the mercenary man—Laman, following behind like a good soldier.

They were not the only ones blessed with innate ability.

Tanya said nothing, dissolved the shield in front of Wrik. Her expression was still cold.

Nobody took the care to say anything as well before Wrik said. "Thank you for your help there. . ."

"It's nothing." Aasan shook his head. "As I said before, I owed you one from before."

Wrik nodded, but he didn't get up. Contrary to getting up, he sat there, sighing. He was extremely tired, with the borrowing of someone else's Maha mana to confront the evil thing—it took away most of his mental and physical energy. He glanced at the stone-like thing in his arm to try his inspection on when all the notification that was stored while he was busy in the fight flooded in with the congratulations message about completing the mission.

[Auxiliary system Mana Circuit progressed from 22.3% to 47.6% from channelling an overwhelming amount of mana.]

[Magic force increased by 2.]

[Perception increased by 3.]

[Agility increased by 2.]

[Strength increased by 2.]

[Mana application advanced to (D-). Now you can use Mana sense more effortlessly. Mana Discharge advanced as well, though it's far away from being adept in it.]

That was not all. A bigger window appeared, congratulating all of them.

[Congratulations, User Wrik Everknight. You, with your companion, succeeded in completing your quests.]

[You succeeded in saving the life of your companion An Byul. 1000 Omega credits are added to the interface.]

Only a thousand credits for all the stuff they had done, Wrik felt disappointment with the OMEGANET. He was not the only one as he heard Davin's grunt.

"Wait a few moments. It isn't over yet," Tanya said. And she was right. As another window appeared in front of everyone.

[OMEGA announces the disclosure of the Phase-II of the Trial for special case #x013xxxx.]

[The completion of the main quest: Cleaning out the Infector nest is incomplete.]

[Correction: with special case #x013xxxx the Quest is considered as complete.]

[Rewards would be announced shortly.]

[Rewards for completing the quest would be given in the amount of contribution each user gave.

Quest: Cleaning out the Infector nest.

Contribution list:

Michelle Emmens - 27%

Wrik Everknight - 18%

An Byul - 14%

Evan Welsh - 10%

Kevin Keplin - 8%

Tanya Syfinn - 8%

… ]

[10000 Omega Credits are awarded to User Wrik Everknight for being part of the main quest.]

[18000 Omega Credits are awarded to User Wrik Everknight for his contribution to the Quest.]

[2850 Omega Credits are awarded for Killing 24 Infectors.]

[Additional 5000 Omega Credits are awarded for miscellaneous tasks.]

[Omega announced the completion of the Phase-II of the Trial of Maha Tower.]

[Teleportation circle will be generated shortly.]

Wrik gave a long sigh. He reread everything in the Window again before saying. "Is it finally over?"

"Seems like it," Davin said as he sat next to Wrik.

While on the other hand, Tanya shouldered Michelle—who was exhausted after the humongous flame spell she cast. Aasan and the other man still stood there with no words. The gangs of hoodlums had fled for their lives after witnessing the death of their boss. Nobody took the care to stop them. As most of them are extremely fatigued and wouldn't want to get their hands dirty with these few minions. Nonetheless, there's a good chance most of them would die, as there are still hundreds of Infectors running amok in this dungeon. Well, they might get a chance if the teleportation circle arrives before the Infectors.

Wrik opened his status window to have a better look at the state of his body now.

[ User: Wrik Everknight

Class: None.

Omega Rank: E (Omega origin).

Affiliation: None.

Alias: Shiny Eyes.

Private Attributes :

Strength: 19.

Agility: 23.

Constitution: 13.

Vitality: 16.

Perception: 38.

Intelligence: 29.

Magic Power: 24.

Luck: 47.

Free stat points: 1

N.B: An adult normal male's basic average stat is 5.

ABILITIES (2/4) :

1. Eye of Insights: (Grade: Mysterious) (Rank: B- )

2. Maha Mana Applications: (Rank: D-)

Mana sense: D

Mana Discharge: D-

Mana circuit (Auxiliary): 47.6%

Techniques and skills :

>Swordsmanship: D-

Achievements (0):

OMEGA credits: 38120; OMEGA Points : 0

N.B: With the over-exhaustion of the Innate ability, the user's mental health is precarious. Advising the user to use [Eye Of Insights] with caution or it might leave some long-term effect. Apart from mental health, a few ribs were broken that needed a proper health checkup. .. Advising to check it up as soon as possible at the medical facility at the sanctuary.]

His Omega Rank still hadn't advanced. Maybe it still needed something else. Most of his attributes had doubled since his arrival at the Trial, while his Mana applications advanced too with the swordsmanship. Then Wrik read the last para in the window and sighed. He took a mental note to do a checkup as soon as possible, couldn't let the health shake his progress.

"So what's the third phase about?" Wrik asked, finding the silence a bit awkward.

"No need to worry about that, I heard it's the easiest of the three phases," Tanya said. She had similarly sat down with the redhead girl beside them. The red-haired girl, Michelle, seemed almost drowsy, leaned against Tanya, closing off her eyes.

"Is she alright?" He couldn't help but ask.

Michelle was about to open her mouth, but Tanya answered before her. "She needed a bit of rest. The spell didn't damage her, only seized all her Maha mana. She would be fine after the Maha Mana regenerates."

"Good to know," Wrik nodded, then asked again. "You're good as well?"

"I should be the least of the ones you would be worried about," Tanya said. "I hope Kevin and the other girl were not badly injured."

Wrik nodded. As far as he had seen, both Kevin and An Byul were injured severely. Especially An Byul. She was at the death door when they reached her with the injury at the head and the berserk mana running amok inside her body. Wrik could only hope that the medical facility in the sanctuary was good enough for the treatment.

"Don't worry, there's no threat to their lives. It's only a matter of time until they heal up." Tanya said, noticing his worry. Then she looked past him, to a far corner, and said. "Looks like we're finally leaving this hellhole."