A Path Of Bone And Poison - Chapter 130 I.t. 33 Defiance

The 11th through 14th floors were in a way much easier than the floors before. There was no elaborate plots or paths for any floor. It was a tournament style battle system.

On the 11th floor I had been forced to do battle against a party of high level orcs. They were much stronger than ordinary orcs and had individual classes. Fortunately I was able to make quick work of them after I had taken out the healer.

The 12th floor had been a large centipede. It had an incredibly powerful venom. The poison caused me a lot of pain, but the pain triggered my [massochism] skill and kept recovering my health and mana. I was able to continually keep [arcane body] active. With that I was able to slowly widdle away at its health using my sword and pistol.

The 13th floor had been a difficult battle. I was faced with a horde of undead adventurers. They were likely the corpses of all those who had fallen in the tower, so their skills and stats were enough to rival my own. Thankfully they did not have the intelligence they had when they were alive, or I would have stood no chance at all. I was able to take them down eventually, but I relied heavily on my vampirism and War’s Mistress title to be able to do so.

This left me at my current location. The 14th floor. The creature in front of me was a fearsome spider, and had likely been the cause of many adventures deaths. It was a quasi S ranked beast. I say quasi because it had a single S ranked skill, but this skill was enough to make it an apex predator.

The skill this spider possessed was called [Dreamscape] and forced those who encountered it into a dreamlike state. It was an aura type skill, and therefore effected all things indiscriminately. The spider possessed no other skills, but all of its stats were comparable to an boss ranked beast.

It was a fearsome opponent for all who encountered it. However, it was rather unfortunate to have encountered me. My [Insanity] skill made me immune to its powerful ability. Because it had never encountered such a situation It failed to react to my attacks in time.

I bombarded it with my arcane bullets which had been powered up with my overload ability. Even as the bullets entered its body it failed to realize what had happened to it.

Before the spiders body even hit the ground I could feel myself being transported to the next floor. As I looked around I new that this was it. This was the floor that I would be able to escape this cursed tower from. I knew this because the 15th floor was only a single small room. There was no doors, windows, or any way to leave. There was simply an alter in the center of the room.

I approached the alter and could sense a strong presence coming from the alter. It was a holy presence, similar to the presence of the goddess of war, only much, much stronger. I could feel the presence focusing its attention on me, the force of the gaze forcing me to my knees.

The presence focused on me for a long time, the gaze inflicting pain on me which each passing breath. But the pain seemed to make me stronger, and at the same time I could feel my [masochism] skill running at full force through my body. The presence seemed to react to my skill, and the force running through my body became more intense.

The pain was both agonizing and euphoric, but each of them was something that I could not handle. I grit my teeth as I activated my arcane body, focusing all of the energy on the vortexes in my spine. The vortexes in my spine were in charge of my constitution, and with them being activated I could feel my bodies defences and sturdiness becoming stronger.

Immediately the strain on my body was lessened. Because of the immense pain my body was in I would be able to continue this indefinitely, the mana cost would be recovered as soon as it was spent.

With the pain at a bearable level I was able to force myself to my feet. The presence seemed angered by my actions, causing the intensity of the pain to increase by several folds. The pressure almost forced me back to my knees, but I refused to let that happen. The insane laughter in my head would not let me. It grew louder as the pressure on me increased, and I knew that if I fell to my knees it would only lead to my own slow demise.

With no other choice I used the [Overload] on my [Arcane Body], focusing everything I had on my spine. The result could end up disastrous, but I was left with no choice. The pressure on my body was reduced considerably. but the pain my body felt spiked. It rose to such a degree that even the overloaded arcane body had no effect on my body, and even the damage the skill was causing to my body was reduced considerably.

With this I was finally able to lift my gaze from the floor. The Presence seemed to be angered by my actions, but seemed unable to raise the pressure to a higher degree. Inwardly I sighed in relief, but I showed none of that on my face. I stared definently at the alter in front of me.

To my surprise The alree had disappeared, in front me stood a lone man. He was extremely familiar, a person who had spent 6 years teaching me. He was in fact the teacher from the 3rd floor. He had a look of pride on his face as he gazed at me.

“Congratulations Yuri, You are the first person to have made it to the bottom of the tower on your own. There has only ever been a single other party to do so. And I remember correctly that party was the one your mother belonged to. I had always expected great things from you, but this, this was not something I could have ever imagined. You have brought great pride to our black tower.”

“Because of this I was selected to be the one to bestow upon you the unique legendary ability. I had planned on granting you something to increase the effect of your [Arcane body] technique, but it seems that the choice is out of my hands. You have already gained your reward. So all that remains is to send you off.”

As he spoke a notification appeared in front of me.

u003cYou have gained the unique legendary skill [Defiance]u003e

[Defiance]

You are a person who will not bend knee to anyone, and this has been reflected in this unique ability. Defiance is a passive Aura type skill that Inflicts damage to those who dare to be your enemies. The Hp and Mp gained from the [Masochism] skill is reflected as damage to those enemies who dare to challenge you.

My teachers voice sounded as I could feel myself being transported from the tower. “The world you came from has changed a lot in your absence. The tower travels under a different concept of time, Even your companions who only left you days ago in here have experienced months of your absence. I do not know the situation on the outside, but I can feel that great changes have happened in your world.”