Chat Group For Magicians

Chapter 177: Tower of Demise; Babel

Blue's new features have forced me to accept it. It also enticed me since Blue said it is free of charge and I am a sucker for freebies. However, I never expected things like this.

"Welcome to the tower of demise, Babel."

This time, I was not expecting things like this. I thought Blue had set up something on the Training Space for fighting something but this is not what I had in mind. This place that Blue transported me is another world undergoing the end of the world with the skies so dark and the ground black enough that you can feel it is already a dead place. The only thing you can see on the horizon is the tall tower made out of something like bones and flesh, stretching up into the black sky.

"Why do I feel the chills even though I am just standing here..."

All of a sudden, something materialized beside me that I unintentionally activated my flames to defend myself.

"As always, you seemed to be on guard but you are always too tense. Don't worry, it is not a monster. It is I, Blue."

I quickly moved to the side and extinguished the flames in my hands before I take a proper look at the person talking to me. The person who was proclaiming she was Blue is a teenage girl around the same age as me, has blonde hair, blue eyes, and a face you can only see in movies and models. Her body also has curves and she has good assets, which is why I don't believe it is Blue's real body.

"That is not your real body right?"

"I may look like this but I just altered a few parts of my appearance to resemble a normal human. But don't be mistaken, most of my appearance is not altered. You can say this is my real appearance if I appear in human form so don't be too surprised or enthralled by my beauty."

"Hmm, quite passable," I said to her.

"What do you mean passable?!"

"Anyways, this place is looking like hell. What is this place? And what is the purpose of that tower on the horizon?"

"Let's get near the tower first and I will explain it to you since it is a little bit longer."

While walking, I observe the surroundings a little bit if there are any other living creatures around besides us. Unfortunately, this place is desolated and dead. Not a single living being in sight, not even grass.

"Just give up looking for any living being outside the tower except for us. This is an uninhabited land that can't support normal life like plants and animals. The only place where something can support life is inside that tower," Blue said to me and point to the tall tower of flesh.

"Just what the hell is that tower made of? I don't think it is made of stone or concrete. Heck, it doesn't even look like metal."

"I will leave that to your imagination Kazuma. I am now going to explain what you are going to do here. This is the tower called Babel, it is a place where you can test yourself if you are worthy enough to be strong and overcome your limit or just remain the same as right now."

"What kind of trials are in there inside?"

"You can find out once you are inside. However, when you are challenging the trials, there are instances that you will die."

"Huh? I will die?! Then, isn't that dangerous?"

"Silly, I won't bother to let you in on this trial if you will die for real since that is dangerous. I am not that bored to let you do that."

"Then what is this thing you are saying I will die then?"

"I mean it. In this trial, you can die. Also, dying here is alright. You will experience death first hand yourself. Isn't that exciting?"

"The hell? I still wanted to live, let me out of here!"

"Haha, don't worry, dying here is normal. Just imagine it like you are playing a game. Once you get a game over after your character dies, you can try again on that stage."

"Try again? You mean, I will revive if I die here?"

"Yes. Though your deaths here are limited to five. Once you have already experienced death five times, you will be forcefully expelled from here and will not be able to enter until the next 24 hours. Once that time is done, your five chances to retry will be charged up once again and you can challenge the tower again from where you left off or where you can reset your progress and restart from the very beginning. Either of those is fine."

"One question. Once I die here, will my body regenerate from the spot where I die or it will appear somewhere?"

"You will appear somewhere beside the spot where you die. Also, the body that died will remain on the same spot you died so that you can see what you look like after your death. That way, you will work hard to avoid getting the same fate from your premature death. The details will be real so you will be able to analyze what caused your death and what you did wrong to get killed. Satisfied now?"

"Last question. How can I increase my abilities here?"

"I bet you have played games before you became busy with your work as a magician. In that case, you will understand this," Blue then snaps her fingers and a panel interface appeared in front of me.

[Kazuma]

Highest floor cleared: None

Current Floor: Ground level

Enemies killed: 0

Times died: 0

Lives left: 5x

Gained Magic: 0

Gained Stamina: 0

Gained Physical Strength: 0

It's a panel of my status on the tower. So that means whatever I do in the tower will be reflected in this little panel.

"The stats you gained will be added to your stats every time you clear a floor. However, if you died, all of those stats you gained will disappear and you will be back to zero once again. To avoid losing those stats once you die, you need to find a checkpoint terminal I prepared every 5 floors. After you activated the checkpoint, the stats you gained from fighting will not be lost if you died after doing so, making it secure now. If you want to see it, just say "Status". I read that once in a book on the internet so I imitated it. Now here it is."

"Must be good to always be connected to the internet huh..."

"Ha, don't be jealous, it will get boring too so it would be a nice place to be in the offline world sometimes. Now go, and stop wasting your time. Even though you are in a place where time doesn't move, that doesn't mean you can waste your time like this. Time is the essence, now go and do your trials. I will monitor you from the outside until you ran out of 5 lives."

Blue pushed me into the tower and I was transported inside without any warning.

...

The moment I was inside, the portal that leads me to the outside disappeared without a trace. And the next things I saw are demons and monsters alike that you can only see in movies, video games, and in your nightmares. Keeping my calm despite the danger in front of me, I ignited the flames in my hands and started my assault. However, before I can even get my game up, an attack from behind knocked me out and before I knew it, the monsters diced my body...

...

"Sh*t!"

It was only a split second but I can still feel the pain. When I look to my side, I saw the monsters slicing up my body and I almost wanted to puke seeing my dismembered body. Seeing the monsters still preoccupied with my dead body, I conjured a big ball of fire out and hurl it on them.

"BURN IN HELL!"

BOOM!

The busy monsters didn't expect a big ball of fire to land on them, which resulted in them fried to the crisp. I finished off the stragglers too allowing me to gain a chance to fight off against them without fighting them in one go.

After crushing the last monster down, I looked into my status and see the changes.

[Kazuma]

Highest floor cleared: None

Current Floor: Ground level

Enemies killed: 10

Times died: 1

Lives left: 4x

Gained Magic: 0.5

Gained Stamina: 0.5

Gained Physical Strength: 0.5

The numbers seem little, but maybe it is normal since I am on the lowest floor yet. Maybe that is the case here. Seeing that there are no checkpoints around and only a portal that seems to lead to the next floor due to the green light it emits that seems to be sucked upward, that is the only way.

I have to do this, to get stronger, I need to get to the next floor, find a checkpoint terminal and avoid dying as long as possible, for Anya's sake as well as mine.