Uriel was sitting in a secluded corner of the house, looking at his status panel. Many things had changed, and now he could review them calmly.
Name: Uriel – The Last of the First.
Race: Human
Level: 1
Stored Power: 3.15
Status: Alive
Statistics
Strength: 1.3
Dexterity: 0.8
Vigor: 2.2
Willpower: 1.5
Perception: 1.1
Skills
4 available to choose from.
Class
Tank:
Small growth bonus in strength.
Tiny growth bonus in dexterity.
High growth bonus in vigor.
Medium growth bonus in willpower.
Low growth bonus in perception.
Equipment
Weapons:
Recruit's Mace:
A short, simple iron mace designed to break bones and light armor.
Bonuses
Strength +0.3
Dexterity −0.05
Guardian Shield:
A wooden shield reinforced with a metal rim.
Bonuses
Vigor +0.4
Willpower +0.2
Dexterity −0.05
Armor:
Reinforced Leather Armor:
A basic defensive set used by recruits.
Components:
Hardened leather chestpiece
Simple metal pauldrons
Reinforced gloves
Leather greaves
Leather helmet
Bonuses
Vigor +0.6
Strength +0.1
Dexterity −0.1
Accessory: None
Inventory
Empty
"I see."
Uriel carefully analyzed the information displayed before him. Now he understood why he ran so slowly, yet could keep going for such a long time.
I have to be careful with this. If dexterity keeps dropping, it means I'll move more and more clumsily.
Uriel felt somewhat troubled. Back on the streets he had learned that the most important physical ability wasn't hitting hard, nor even enduring blows or getting back up after a beating.
The most important ability, when it came to pure survival, was running—running very fast, so fast that no one could catch you. How could people hit you if they couldn't even get close enough to try?
Unfortunately, that was no longer his situation. From now on, he would have to choose his battles carefully.
Honestly, he thought he had made a good decision by staying with this group. His vigor stat was impressive, which meant great endurance and the ability to withstand heavy blows—but what good would that do if he ended up surrounded by hundreds of corpses?
However, there was one thing on the skill panel that caught his attention more than anything else, so he opened it to see what it was about.
Skills
4 available to choose from.
Tank's Provocation
Type: Control / Aggro
The tank slams the ground or shouts, challenging nearby enemies.
Effect
Forces enemies within 10 meters to attack you.
Duration: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Resilient Skin
Type: Defense
You harden your body for a brief moment.
Effect
Reduces damage received by 30%.
Duration: 5 seconds
Cooldown: 20 seconds
Shield Strike
Type: Control
A powerful attack with the shield that interrupts the enemy.
Effect
Deals damage based on strength.
Stuns for 1 second.
Interrupts the enemy if they are channeling an ability.
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Protective Guard
Type: Support / Protection
You link yourself to an ally, receiving part of the damage.
Effect
Redirects 50% of the ally's damage to you.
Duration: 6 seconds
Cooldown: 25 seconds
Uriel stared at the screen, somewhat conflicted. All the skills were useful in their own way, and without a doubt they marked a before and after in battle. Of them all, the one that caught his attention the least was Shield Strike.
Having a skill that scaled with his stats seemed good—but it stopped being good when he considered that his strength scaling wasn't impressive. If it scaled with vigor it would be another matter, but even if it did, he probably still wouldn't choose it.
Provocation and Protective Guard would have been his natural choices if he had a team he could trust. Unfortunately, he didn't have that. Still, he sincerely hoped that as he climbed the tower, one of those skills would appear again—because he would definitely pick them then.
That left the final option: Resilient Skin. Right now he wouldn't get much use out of it, but in the future he would face powerful enemies—he was certain of it. And when that happened, reducing a lethal blow could make all the difference.
"Alright… this will be the one."
The moment he willed it, the skill glowed and appeared in his system menu.
Uriel looked at his arm and quickly tried to activate the ability. His skin seemed to wrinkle slightly. When he tried pinching it, it felt like brushing wood with his fingers.
Another thing that caught his attention—something he hadn't noticed before—was that his hands looked bigger and his arms more muscular. When he had the chance, he would look for a mirror. He felt like his body had undergone some changes.
"Hey, what are you doing?"
The voice that reached him was Ralzire's.
I couldn't help but notice something swaying from side to side behind her—her tail was moving playfully back and forth.
"Oh, does this catch your attention?" Her grayish tail swayed near my face; apparently she could control it at will. "What catches my attention is that you people don't have one of these."
I shook my head, trying to ignore her hypnotic tail.
"Actually, we humans had one too… millions of years ago."
This time she stopped and looked at me curiously.
"Oh? And what happened to it?"
I smiled at what I was about to do.
"WE LOST IT!"
I shouted as I grabbed the tip of the tail that had been bothering me.
"HYYAAAAAA!"
Indeed, I let my impulses win. Sorry, Ralzire.
"What are you doing, you pervert!"
Ralzire was quite a sight—blushing, angry, and shocked all at once.
"PUAHAHAHA! Sorry, sorry! I swear I won't do it again!"
Ralzire lunged at Uriel, trying to lock his neck in a hold, but Uriel placed his arm between her grip.
"Ha! I already said I was sorry!"
She looked even angrier.
"You're not sorry—you're laughing, you bastard!"
"Ralzire…"
Kaelira appeared, speaking very slowly.
"I told you to tell him to get ready to leave. What the hell are you doing?"
Ralzire released me and puffed out her cheeks.
"It's not my fault! I was going to, but this pervert jumped on me and grabbed my tail."
What? That's not what happened. Well… half of it maybe. But I wasn't going to explain that.
I looked at Kaelira with the most serious face I could manage.
"That's a lie."
"If it's a lie, why are you laughing?"
I failed.
"Whatever… we're leaving in a few minutes."
"Hm… why are we leaving? I thought you were trying to gather power together?"
Kaelira shot Ralzire a sharp glare.
"Hahh… that was the plan, but during the first attempt she almost died. I'm not going to keep taking that risk, so we're heading to the center of the city before the Blood Moon rises."
I looked at her in confusion. I had many questions. Why the center? Well, I had an idea why—but Blood Moon? That term made the hairs on my neck stand up.
Kaelira seemed used to dealing with people who asked many questions, because she immediately realized I didn't understand several things.
"Sorry, I forgot you're the Last of the First. You see, every floor of the tower has a system where different events can occur depending on where you are on that floor. One of those events is the Blood Moon."
Events… that sounded extremely dangerous for people who didn't know about them beforehand.
"This particular event makes the corpses behave violently—in a frenzy, whatever that really means. In my opinion they're already violent enough. They go up one level and their damage increases by fifty percent, if I remember correctly."
I frowned at the thought of facing a bunch of those things while they were powered up. That wasn't something I wanted to test.
"Then why did you stay here?"
After all, she had just confirmed that staying was dangerous.
Kaelira rubbed her chin with her knuckle before continuing.
"Besides staying unnoticed, we thought we could gain power easily—level up, then face the Blood Moon and gain even more from low-level monsters. Well, that's no longer possible. The strategy is bad for gaining power. I should've guessed when several other groups rushed straight to the center as if it were a race."
I understood most of the situation. The key to advancing floors was heading toward the center.
"Alright then. What's the plan?"
Kaelira smiled.
"We're going to run."
Okay… this is bad.
"You're not going to leave me behind, right?"
I said it half joking, half serious.
"Oh, don't worry. You're not the only slow one. Ralzire is fast but doesn't have much endurance, and Miss Ininise is about as fast as you are. Besides"—she placed a hand on my shoulder—"we said we'd take you back to your people, and that's what we'll do."
Kaelira clapped her hands as she headed toward the exit.
"Alright everyone, move! We're heading to the center. We'll make two or three stops depending on how things go."
Most of the group was ready to leave—except one.
"Oh, where's Vykir?"
I had a strong impression of him since he decided to help me. Besides, when he was younger and read comics, mysterious people like him had always been his favorite characters.
"Oh, my husband will move across the rooftops."
"Your husband?"
I couldn't help but look Kaelira up and down and think only one thing.
"What a lucky guy."
"We're going to take advantage of having you with us and make others think you're part of our team."
"Oh… that's good."
Honestly, I didn't like the idea of fighting other climbers. I didn't want to have to kill anyone. But I would fight if they forced us to, or attacked this group. After all, they were helping me now.
"Ralzire, you and him will escort Ininise. Look, I won't go into details, but she's very important. If something happens, I want you to save her—no matter what happens to the rest."
"Kaelira…"
Ininise looked at her sadly.
"Do you understand? That's the only thing I ask."
Uriel looked at Ininise. He didn't know why she was so important, but he wouldn't let anything happen to her.
"Yes, I understand."
Kaelira smiled and punched my chest lightly with her fist.
"If that's settled, let's go."