Ultimate Level 1

The chest was made from some sort of purple colored stone and had a small cube with a line coming from it toward the boss they had just faced engraved on its side. Runes etched into and around the chest didn’t look like any that Max recognized, and no one commented on them as Fowl lifted the lid.

“Damn, that’s some seriously ugly stuff!” their warrior exclaimed.

Each of them looked into the swirling vortex and saw that inside were a pair of purple chain bracers for Max, a pair of purple plate boots, two purple armbands, and purple leather pants. Two rings were waiting to be rolled on, and two large green crystals seemed out of place in a sea of purple.

Max saw Cordellia wince as she stared at the pants.

“Those are pretty ugly,” Tanila said as she reached in, taking her armband from the chest. “But Seth doesn’t–”

She stopped talking, and her eyes went wide as she held the metallic purple band in her hand.

“That good?”

Their mage nodded as she quickly slid it on her arm and Batrire didn’t hesitate, reaching in and taking hers out.

“Damn… that’s just impossible.”

“Stop beating around the bush and tell me the stats,” Fowl complained as he grabbed the plate boots waiting for him.

“Twenty-five intelligence and wisdom,” Tanila replied.

Batrire’s head bobbed as she removed her old armband and replaced it with the new one.

“Fowl?”

Max watched their dwarven warrior, who had been holding the plate boots in his hand, as they replaced his older ones.

“Same except for twenty-five in strength and constitution.”

Cordellia and Max took out theirs, each grinning as they saw the stats.

[ Inspect Bracer ]

*****

Cubed Bracer

+ 25 Strength, Dexterity, Constitution

Bonded

*****

“Wow, that’s really nice,” their ranger stated as she used her new storage item and swapped out her pants instantly.

“What about the two rings?” Fowl asked, a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“You four roll on them,” Max said as he retrieved the two gems. “I got the last big item.”

Each of them smiled, touching the first ring, and soon Batrire walked away with one while Cordellia came away with the second.

Sighing, Fowl smiled and clapped his hands.

“The good news is I’m getting something soon!”

Batrire and Cordellia were grinning after finding out their rings added twenty to three stats.

“Not bad for boss loot. All that is left is heading back to the Faction house and waiting for our skills to come off cooldown.”

Max nodded at Tanila, and the group made their way to the portal, excited about taking a shot at the twentieth floor soon.

***

Standing outside the portal, Max felt an eerie presence nearby and glanced around, using his sonar to try and see if something was hidden.

The two guards on duty seemed unaware of anything, and even after taking a moment while the rest of the group started walking off, Max found himself frowning, sensing something had changed.

“You coming?”

Nodding, he tried to smile at Tanila, who frowned, seeing the look on his face.

“Everything ok?” she whispered as he moved beside her and grabbed her hand.

“I’m not sure, but I’ll tell you in the carriage once we activate the runes.”

***

Once everyone was seated, they all turned and noticed that Max was frowning, indicating he was upset about something.

“Ok, what’s wrong?” Fowl asked.

Sighing, Max shrugged as he shook his head, rubbing his bald head for a moment.

When we came out of the tower, I felt something weird… like someone or something was watching us or maybe nearby. Almost like that time in the demon dungeon.”

Everyone grimaced and started looking at each other slowly.

“Yet no alarms went off in the city, and the guards didn’t seem to react,” Batrire said. “If there were something like that, surely the wards the capital has in place would have reacted.”

Nodding, Max could only shrug.

“I know… it’s just weird. It’s gone now and was only there for a few seconds. Still, after having been shot at, poisoned, and attacked a few times, I wasn’t sure what might happen.”

“Perhaps the gods have found you and were about to strike you–”

An elbow from Batrire cut Fowl off, causing him to yelp.

“It’s ok,” Max said. “That's why we’re doing this. To be strong enough to protect everyone we love. With that said, I want to ask something, and I know it’s very private, so if you don’t want to tell me, I’ll understand.”

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Fowl’s eyebrow raised as he rubbed his arm.

“Only a few things would ever require that kind of warning and I’m pretty sure I know what you’re going to ask.”

“Our stats?”

Max nodded at Cordellia who was biting her lip.

“I’m tracking the monsters and based on what I know about the armor and weapons each of you have, I can come up with some ideas. That also means you don’t have to tell me the actual stat you’re sitting at after all bonuses.“

“If you already think you know, why ask?” their warrior asked.

Looking at Fowl, Max grinned and pulled out a notebook. Flipping through a few pages, he smiled as he fingered the paper.

“So based on how you always struggle with simple things and can’t resist the intimidation effects, you probably have a twenty or so in intelligence and wisdom. Am I right?”

Fowl held up his middle finger at Max, causing everyone to laugh.

“That’s a yes, I take it. This means out of the two hundred and ninety-six stat points you have, basically, you have two hundred and fifty-five left over. Knowing your strength and dex is less than a fifty by how you move and what you lift when not wearing your gear or carrying the new hammer means most of your points are in constitution. That puts you around one hundred and sixty for that stat.”

Fowl’s eyes widened as Max spoke, causing his human friend to grin as he continued.

“Based on that knowledge, plus your tower experience and the items you have, you’re getting close to a three hundred strength and are over a four hundred in constitution. Sadly, your intelligence is still probably thirty at best.”

Batrire coughed as Fowl shook his head slowly.

“How… how can you know all that?” he asked.

“I can do the same for all of you, knowing what skills you have as well as how most classes spend their stat points. This gives me a good point of reference on how strong we are when facing each tower floor,” Max replied. “Batrire and Cordellia getting those rings is actually really good for both of them, helping to shore up the weak constitution and providing extra stats in the areas they need them.”

Max pulled out a slip of paper he had folded up between some pages and turned it around.

“As you can see, I have the items listed that probably need to be replaced sooner rather than later on for each of you.”

Turning toward Cordellia, Max gave her a toothy grin.

“Since joining us, I have kept track of everything you have acquired. Based on the knowledge of how weak most of the other items you had were compared to what drops for us, as you can see, the list of items you need to replace is longer than the others.”

Grimacing, their ranger saw everyone smiling at her.

“Now you make me feel like I’m the weakest one here,” she said.

Shaking his head, Max continued to smile at her.

“No! You’re doing amazing! The stats you have now are far greater than when you first started with us and the damage you did against the boss with the new arrow was incredible! Had you used that with your empowered shot, I honestly am not sure if there would have been much of a skull left for that cube to affect.”

“He’s right,” Tanila chimed in. “You’ve been carrying your weight and then some, especially with all the improvements Tom has helped with your shot placements.”

Relief appeared on Cordellia’s face and she smiled at them.

“Well as long as I’m not slacking like Fowl, I’ll be ok.”

A stubby middle finger danced before her face and the cart filled with laughter, everyone apparently having forgotten about the concern Max felt just a little bit ago.

***

“Seems you’re making a name for yourself faster than you might have imagined,” Everett said as he watched Max crafting two hammers for the Faction members. “Since I started handing out weapons, the line of members wanting to get one has grown quickly. Word has even spread through the city and a we have been receiving more applications than usual.”

“And I’m sure it has nothing to do with two lost members returning either,” Max replied, his eyes never leaving the engraving he was doing at that moment.

Grunting, Everett’s fingers started to tap against the stone work table.

“That has caused a bit of a fuss for certain amongst the other Factions and even into the nobles themselves. The elves and dwarves have reached out and our smaller outpost house in those capitals has received a few letters that have been forwarded to me. Each faction has created a list of members they know were lost to a gorgon or other beasts and rewards are being offered to any person or Faction that might be able to rescue them.”

Max quickly stored the eight inch hammer head so that it wouldn’t suffer from him stopping what he was doing.

“You’re serious? Factions are actually offering rewards for doing the right thing?”

Chuckling, Everett nodded.

“Unlike you, most people are motivated by money and power. A glimmer of hope has been spread and it is expanding quickly across all the Factions. I even received a letter from an elvish noble.”

A few seconds later, Everett held out a folded piece of paper to Max.

Taking it from the older man, he felt the quality of the material and could see the wax seal was very ornate. Opening it, Max started scanning the words and his eyes froze upon two lines.

“They are offering thirty thousand gold! For one person?!”

His voice echoed in the room and looking up from the paper he saw that Everett was nodding slowly.

“Their daughter was lost to a boss and turned to stone. She was in a party facing a gorgon on the forty fifth floor when everyone but one person perished. This was well over a hundred years ago and from the information I found out, the one that survived didn’t enjoy the torture they went through as the family verified his story.”

Frowning, Max folded the letter up and handed it back.

“We can’t face the same boss again though. So I’m guessing their hope is that another group might face the one that killed their daughter?”

Rubbing his eyes, Everett finally let out a sigh.

“The idea that some bosses are able to stay alive multiple times has been discussed and debated for a thousand years. One of the worst problems comes when one reaches the forty fifth and forty ninth floor in the tower. The bosses there are typically some of the worst. Many parties have entered the tower floor and left, having heard stories and rumors about how bad things have gone.

“When you finally reach those floors, I’ll give you another escape gem that way two of you will have one. That will provide your party and you a better chance of surviving if things go wrong.”

It was Max’s turn for his fingers to drum against the table as he leaned on it slightly.

“Well, we are still twenty floors away before that becomes an issue but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. My real question comes down to what we might face before then. If we’re hitting bosses that are ten or twenty levels higher than usual, what can that mean for the actual foes we face on floor number forty-four?”

Smacking his tongue a few times against his teeth, their Faction leader shrugged.

“Honestly, I have no idea. Everything I thought I knew has been warped because of you and your team. Even Tom is struggling to continue to find ways to train all of you. The level of your expertise is impossible to comprehend.”

“What about my request for a skill upgrade?”

“You were serious about that?”

Max nodded and saw the pained expression on Everett’s face.

“I know that I’m asking for the impossible, but if we can give Tanila a godly skill, it will make our end goal even better.”

Sighing, Everett slowly nodded his head.

“I’ll ask the board but I’ll be honest, getting them to agree to that before your party reaches the fiftieth floor would be almost impossible.”

Nodding, Max shrugged and picked up the engraving tool, retrieving the hammer head from his storage and began engraving right where he left off.

“Better to start asking now so they are prepared when we reach it.”

Everett scoffed but nodded.

“And who knows how soon that might happen.”

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