[Welcome to the First Floor, Climber]
[This place was created by the First One. Everyone who can reach this place has the talent to achieve the greatest achievement, but only a few have achieved it. If you lose your courage, you wouldn't be able to reach the top.]
[There's no rest in this place, once you fall, your only destiny is becoming a part of its Tower History. Everything here is a trial for you but be careful with the trials you want to try; it could be your doom.]
[You only die when your HP is lowered to 0 or your head is cut off]
[Main quest begins.]
[There are hidden places and secrets here left by the First One] [You can obtain rewards along the way for completing trials and a reward according to the secrets you discover.]
[Clear the First Floor and passthrough. For your special situation, the first ten floors will be larger for you]
[Be kind to the Tower residents. Everyone who knows this tower will praise your courage.]
[Good luck.]
[You received the title [First step]]
It feels weird.
The entire situation felt out of his hands, the text didn't stop appearing in front of him.
The place wasn't cozy as he thought before, this was a trial. The only end is glory, becoming a slave or death.
The joy Naruto was feeling the day before dissipated and his face turned pale.
This place wasn't a shelter.
It's a prison you need to break with your bare hands. The bones in the ground didn't lie, people had died there before.
Trying to calm himself, Naruto took a deep breath, but the rancid air and the dust in all over the passage entered his lungs. It smelled like spoiled food and rotten leftovers. He never smelled something like that before; the nausea rose up in his chest.
He started coughing to dispel the discomfort. The pain and nausea wouldn't leave and soon, he vomited his breakfast. Nothing was left and his body felt weak.
Feeling a bit better, he raised his head and tried to observe the surroundings, but the tears blurred his eyes. Taking the bag, he used it to wipe them out.
"What is this place? Hello? Is anyone here?" Naruto shouted to the corridor, waiting to find someone to help him to understand the situation.
Naruto didn't know one thing. You can't be noisy in an unfamiliar place, even more so after seeing the bones in the ground.
He was clueless and continued to shout.
A few seconds later he stopped coughing, and he noticed that something was wrong. The only light the corridor had came from the fluorescent moss in the walls and a torch that seemed far.
Feeling scared, he spoke to ego. "Ego... where are we?"
Naruto continued looking everywhere, but there was nothing familiar to him in this place. Only moss, dust, bones and white mushrooms.
Naruto spoke again.
"Ego...?"
Ego didn't respond to him, only silence remained.
He started to feel that something was approaching him from the other side of the corridor. Small steps that can hardly be heard sounded. Naruto grabbed his bag.
When he was getting more nervous, another status window appeared.
[A pack of rats is approaching]
'A pack of rats? What does that mean?'
Soon, he noticed it. In the opposite direction he was looking, rats started to appear. They were fat, fast and ran straight for him, the objective was clear.
"Oh no..."
Naruto's neck went numb.
It was the first time he saw a scene like this, but he had one thing clear.
I can't fight against that. I need to run
With that determination, he began to run. He thought that it would be easy to lose sight of them.
How wrong he was.
The environment slowed his steps, and the rats continued appearing from the spots he passed through.
Naruto was scared, he didn't know what to do to get out of this situation.
"Ego! Where the fuck have you gone?! Don't leave me in this place with those rats! That's not fair!"
Naruto was mad but he knew that Ego wouldn't abandon him for fun, there had to be a reason, but he wasn't in the mood to think about it. He only wanted to lose these rats.
He tried to use chakra to expand the distance, but the rats continued appearing from the walls, not only the pack behind him.
Soon, he passed another corner and when he wanted to change direction, a rat jumps from an empty space in the wall. It went directly for his face, he couldn't dodge that, the only option was to place his arm to stop the rat.
The vermin didn't waste the opportunity and bit his arm. Naruto felt the pain and moved his arm desperately, but the rat didn't release its grip.
The pain got worse, unable to stop and remove it, he could only hit the wall. The bite went deeper, but the rat died from the impact.
When the vermin died, Naruto grabbed it and tried to pull its teeth from his arm. It hurt, the teeth of a rat were always bigger and was almost all buried on his arm; but it was the only thing he could do. He knew that he couldn't let it happen or that things could be worse.
Taking courage, he removed the rat in one go and threw it into the pack. A small part of the package stopped and started to eat their fellow.
'What should I do? What should I do? What should I do?' Naruto continued to think furiously but he didn't know how to get out of this situation.
The situation got worse; he was running for 5 minutes but it seemed that never would end. He continued running and when he was about to enter another corridor, he saw a bright light coming from another direction.
He didn't think twice and went straight to that, but that place was blocked by the rats. The situation overcame him and didn't know whether to continue or change direction again. At that moment he noticed that some rats were trying to jump to his bag.
He realized: the rats wanted food.
Grabbing the bag, he opened the bento he had prepared for himself and threw it to the rats that were blocking the way.
They didn't think about it, they just piled up on top of the food.
Passing through the rats, he entered an open space. The light came from here.
As he took a step inside, the rats stopped and hissed with nuisance.
[Change of Location: First floor- Safe zone]
Naruto continued running a few steps, but when he realized that the rats stopped at the edge of the corridor, he fell to the ground.
Gasping for air, his body lost all its strength and remained inert in the ground.
He didn't expect that his first attempt to climb the tower would be like this. Only making some sounds could call a pack of rats that never stopped chasing him.
Recovering a small amount of strength, he crawled to a nearby wall. He didn't want to know more, only to rest for a while.
This place sucks...
And the fact that Ego was nowhere to be seen only made the situation worse, his only friend here was lost, and he didn't know anything about this place.
He felt tired and his body surrendered to exhaustion. He wanted to close his eyes and lay on the ground.
"Hey, kid. Clean that thing on the fountain if you don't want to lose a limb."
"Who?"
"Go fast, the fountain is beside you."
Naruto stops asking and gets up. He saw it, a fountain similar to the one he found in the Zero floor was there.
Approaching it, he submerged his arm in it. The moment he touched the water a sudden pain ran through his whole arm. It felt like someone put a candle inside and he was burning. He had been feeling pain before, a lot. But not of this type, the feeling of his body burning alive was horrible.
Naruto wanted to take out his arm, but the black smoke coming from the wound the rat had inflicted stopped that thought.
Only now he noticed that almost his whole arm was covered in black veins, and the water was purifying it.
He felt like it would take a lot but only for less than 30 seconds until it stopped.
Once he saw that his arm was back to normal, he took it out and started to look everywhere.
He could see the marks he had made when he was crawling and near it a house, well, a shop could be seen.
There was a Dwarf looking at him. He was the one who told him to use the fountain.
The Dwarf looked at him with curiosity.
Naruto wanted to go to thank him, but his body felt weak.
The Dwarf spoke again.
"Take a sip of the water, that will help." He had a deep voice.
Naruto nodded to him and followed his advice.
The moment the water entered his body; he could feel his strength recover in 5 seconds. Even the mental fatigue mostly recovered.
With his strength recovered, he walked to the shop.
[You have encountered the Smelter King]
Naruto bowed slightly to him.
"Hello, sir. Thank you for helping me"
"It's okay, I never expected to see a kid in this place." He observed Naruto with curiosity.
"My friend asked The Lady for permission, and she accepted."
"And where is your friend?"
"I don't know, he disappeared when I entered this place." Naruto shook his head and continued.
I'll introduce myself. I'm Naruto, and who are you?"
"Just call me the shopkeeper. She accepted? How old are you?"
"...Yesterday I turned nine years old."
"Nine? So, it's for you that she changed the design of these floors."
"Mm, something happened, and my only escape was coming here."
"That sounds bad, kid." He shook his head, as he pitying the child.
"Yep, I guess so... Sir, can you explain this place to me? I just entered from the stairs and after a while a bunch of rats started chasing me."
"You made a lot of noise, didn't you?"
"... I was coughing and gasping for air; the place was covered in dust." Naruto felt ashamed for that, he didn't know that the noise could attract the rats.
Even if I had the strength, it wouldn't work if I didn't know how to deal with them.
"I see, it's a mistake almost everyone makes the first time."
"Now can you tell me what I need to do?"
"The eyes gave you a note, right? Open it and I will answer you after that."
Naruto remembered the notebook Corvinus gave him, lucky that he didn't throw the bag when he was surrounded by rats.
Sitting on the ground, he opened his bag. Only a bottle of water and the notebook; his lunch was gone.
He wanted to cry; he did it with much effort only to end in the stomach of a bunch of rats.
"Damn rats... I will kill all of them."
The revenge for losing his lunch will be painful. For them.
The Dwarf's mouth twisted hearing that, it's something the climbers always said when they made it out the corridor. That tradition had been continued for centuries.
Grabbing the notebook and opening it, a small hologram appeared and started talking.
[Hello, Naruto. If you open this, that means that you made it out of the corridor. Congrats. There's something that I could only explain once you are in the Safe Zone.
The system may have already told you about the secrets you need to find and the rewards that depend on it. The first floor isn't always the same for everyone.
There are 3 difficulties, and you are in the second one, because your world has an energy system even if it's bad, you have an advantage.
The Lady allowed me to expand the Floor to give you enough time to grow here, you need to pass some years in the first ten floors.
Once you are there, I will let you choose a rusty weapon and two pieces of armor. Don't complain, the second piece I gave you because you're a Kid. Usually, I only give a random piece and that's all.Say Check to see the properties.
Now choose.]
As Corvinus' hologram said, the book projected the shape of some weapons.
Sword, Long sword, Short sword, Spear, Mace, dagger, Hammer, bow (Good condition-5 arrows).
As he though on it, the Status Windows showed itself.
[Rusted sword] [ Attack +1] [Seems like it will break soon]
[Rusted Long Sword] [Attack +2] [Enough to kill a giant rat, but only has 4 hits]
[Rusted Short Sword] [Attack +1] [Seems like it will break soon]
[Rusted Spear] [Attack +1] [The tip will break soon]
[Rusted mace] [Attack +1] [Short range but causes internal damage, it will break soon]
[Rusted hammer] [Attack+1] [Good for crushing small vermin, it will break soon]
[Bow][Attack+1] [A bow in perfect condition, only need arrows] [Arrow] [Attack +2] [Breaks after use]
Naruto was dazzled by the options, the surprise wasn't for joy, it was for pure disappointment. All weapons said that it will break after a few blows.
He was tempted to choose the bow, but he didn't know how to use it and the fact that the arrows break after use discouraged him.
The swords were some good options but due to their form, it will be easier to break than other weapons, the same with the spear and the mace.
The only option left was the hammer.
"Good against vermin, huh... Well, I'll take this."
As he chose, the weapon's holograms disappeared, and the hammer materialized in front of him.
[A hammer? Take care of it, the head won't break, but the handle will do it if you are not careful.
Take this, this will help you. Try shouting inventory, you can put one item per square. The same item can be stacked up to 20 times, you have 15 squares. You can sell the things you don't want to the shopkeeper.
Come back to see me once you reach the 5th floor.
Good luck, Naruto.]
The book disappeared with those words and a cloth armor, and a pair of gauntlets were left on the ground.
[Cloth armor] [Defense +1] [Can block minor scratches] [Leather gloves] [ Defense +1] [Can block some animal teeth, it has not much value]
Picking up the pieces, Naruto tried to put them on, but they didn't fit on him.
"Think about sending the pieces to your storage and look at your status window, it will appear a silhouette with some empty spaces. Put the armor in the chest and the gloves in your hands." The Dwarf's voice sounded.
Naruto listened to him, and he could see the silhouette in the Status window. With the pieces in his inventory, he wanted to put them in the empty spaces.
As he thought about it, the armor appeared on his body and adjusted itself his body.
"Thank you!"
"You can do the same with the hammer, you only need one thought, and it will appear in your hands." The Dwarf explained patiently.
As he said that, a sledgehammer of approximately 40 cm long appeared long in Naruto's hand.
Wearing his armor, Naruto finally felt safe.
"How do I look, man?" A smile adorned Naruto's face. He was ready for this place.
The Dwarf nodded, apparently satisfied with Naruto's new look.
"That's better, now you can go and kill some rats. Remember to bring me the materials, you can sell them to me. And don't use the fountain as food, you need to find it in the dungeon."
"Okay, and why can't I?"
"If you use it like that, it will start to consume your life. Don't worry for you doing it a while ago, you can use it to recover your wounds. The sip was my invitation." The Dwarf comforted Naruto and continued.
"The Tower is a place where you can get anything you want, but if you want to exploit it, you will pay the price. I saw so many climbers that died for that, they had a lot of talent---"he shook his head and continued "---and when they reached some height, they forgot that everything they achieved had a price and you can only pay for completing more feats. If you try to get anything for nothing, be prepared to pay the price. The Tower is kind to the climbers, but not with those who want to exploit it. She rewards those who strive."
"That sounds scary. That's why the system told me that I will become its history if I fall?"
"Aha, you can give up, but if you don't have enough to pay, you will become part of the Tower. So, be careful, kid. She is kind to you, don't let her down.
"Thank you for your advice. I won't do it, she accepted me, and I will climb this tower. I need to do it, no matter what." Naruto said with determination.
This place is the only one where he can grow strong now, the village didn't accept him, and he doesn't want to return right now.
"Fine. I won't ask about your business, but good luck with that. As long as you maintain that determination, you can do whatever you want."
"Thank you, I will do it." grabbing his bag, Naruto turned to another tunnel. There were 4 tunnels including the one where he was before.
"I will go kill some rats, wait for the good news."
The Dwarf didn't reply and fell asleep.
Everyone in this tower had insomnia? It's the same with Corvinus...
Naruto didn't have any idea why the two people he met in this place just fell asleep as soon as he leaves the place.
He continued walking to the other entrance. He arrived 1 minute later, and he took a deep breath while he was still outside. The putrid air that had some areas in those tunnels was terrible.
"Let's do this."
The first attempt (This time seriously) began.
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Now the tower has begun!
Naruto choose a weapon. A sword won't work in this situation. The rats he saw until now were small and each one said it would break soon.
The Smelter King and Corvinus were characters I want to give an important role, one in the Zero and the other on the First floor.
The rank on the stats will be important later, I mentioned about the "feats". And the stats as colors it's something I got inspired by a novel I read years ago.
If you want, you can search Bosavi woolly rat. The pack chasing Naruto was almost that size, but not all were that big, the one who bite him was smaller.
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Probably I couldn't update every day as before since I got my meds and I had to spent more time outside for medical examinations.
Thank you for reading!
Have a nice day.