Pallad was rushing through the tower, simply because it was a good test for endurance. Even once the endless notification stream began, Pallad never slowed down. Only stopping movement when the spiral had ended, with just an endless field of stone brick.

  The field was sort of off putting, no end to the endless black sky, no blanket of stars and despite the obvious moonlight lighting up the area, there was no moon either. It sucked, he hated it after spending a year in a monastery making perfect sense of everything around him.

  And now it was a realm of nonsense, the void, brick, stone, and skeletons. Pallad realized that the final item in that list was a bit more prominent then before when a sword slashed his back, and he felt as though the skin itself was shrivelling up around the wound. Of course, the sword is a bit special.

  He turned around swiftly, and slashed just as swiftly, and just as strong. Odd, it’s like he was hit by himself, and he’s hitting his own bones. They are certainly just as strong, and the rotting is kinda useless against someone with no flesh.

  Looks like he can’t use his personal sword, but they can. Annoying. The blade stayed in his offhand, helpful technique he picked up, with offhanding to avoid the skeleton’s constant swinging.

  The less useful part is martial techniques are more effective against people who don’t have the exact same ones ingrained in their muscles. The one thing he learnt best is how to counter himself, and hey, now he’s fighting people who know the counters to his techniques, allowing for no turning of the tides, or really any tide in the first place.

  The battle seems perfectly even, but it’s clear to Pallad that despite the infinite physical stamina he has thanks to the level ups, his mental state and the new blindspots from the notifications were going to kill him.

  His loss of his flail because he was transported to the floor without it is one of the worst parts. The clanging of metal blade on metal blade is the only sound ever present, and only with his quick reaction time is he able to block or even narrowly dodge.

  Pallad’s eyes thin as he accepts the new haircut, despite the absolute hatred that lights his vision up better than the dim light throughout the field of stone. Pallad continues dodging, but the skeletons aren’t slowing down. He feels his own legs getting heavier, and he can only tell this means one thing.

  He’ll have to use that technique he learnt under the tutelage of the monks. He thought it was pointless to learn that sort of thing. He thought he’d never use it, but he kept a good note of it. His inventory was practically a weapon warehouse, including bows, crossbows, hammers, swords, spears, and even some more unique weapons such as the halberd.

  Yet they were all mass produced, and wow were the shops pretty cheap. He may have been all out of coin, but now he was never out of options. Pallad jumps up, and equips a spear or three, sending them all down with all his strength.

  It’s all he could do, and thankfully despite his Con being so high, he easily undamaged his tankiness. Just because his Dex was his second lowest doesn’t mean he’s weak in dodging either. The three skeletons were instantly killed, the skulls shattering.

  But the skeletons realized they were to switch tactics. Some used spears, some used the halberd. And Pallad had no choice but to react with his own counter to his very own spear and halberd technique. His very own hammer technique had a weakness to his own spear technique, and boy did that help him in slaughtering the skeletons. It was a simple game of Rock Paper Scissors, and the skeleton’s teamwork was abysmal.

  Only reason the skeletons were a threat in the beginning was that Pallad didn’t notice his own techniques, and when he did, he was surrounded. The worst part about his techniques is they work well together. Even if they are weak to one another, when someone is using his spear technique, and another is using the other twelve or so?

  There was no weakness he could exploit if their teamwork was any better. These skeletons were thankfully weaker than him in teamwork, and analysis. Both are skills that are best honed through experience, yes, but these things are obviously the same level as him.

  Of course he thought they would have similar teamwork or analysis, but no, these things weren’t at all combat ready. These beasts were simplistic in thought, and only had techniques that he himself ingrained into his body like it was second nature.

  And his skills, but his skills are useless in group battle. His [Quick-slash] skill would leave him defenseless, which is why he didn’t rely on skills at all. If he did, he’d be stuck in many unfavorable circumstances, just like at the start.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  If he’d used a skill to dodge one of the rotting blades, he’d be stuck dodging potentially more. These skeletons got better teamwork the longer they fought in a group, so clearly they have the right to grow as well.

  But that didn’t matter as long as he tore the groups apart before they got strong. These guys were easy to tear apart limb from limb, only issue, he’s also easy to tear apart to them. They weren’t much a threat now that he windled down the numbers.

  Pallad’s now rough hair felt more natural on his head, and he finally felt the thrill of a tough fight for the first time in this tower other than when he sparred Bariton. And the best difference is he gets to kill these ones. Pallad knows maybe it’s wrong, but who cares as long as it’s fun?

  Judine walked up the stairs, carefully. She hadn’t felt this apprehensive since her first court case. She knew all too well that this more than likely meant issues for her and her alone to deal with. It’s also the first time she’s felt alone since before the tower.

  That made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She knew this tower had no end in sight, and after only about an hour of walking through incessant notifications, she couldn’t even see the floor.

  “Gods…” She begins to complain, something that gave her a sense of control over the potentially meaningless task she may have begun, “The worst time to have worn heels was last floor.”

  But she knew she’d be stuck walking for hours. At this point, she’s already ready to just put them in her inventory and put on sandals. Which she does, really quickly. She hadn’t done it in the desert, because her looks do matter.

  She knew how foolish it was, but it didn’t slow down the party any, and it slightly increased her Dexterity beyond just the stat, so it was just like how Pallad was lifting weights in the middle of the desert.

  So she’s not going to complain again about that, since these sandals were bought for fighting in the capital, at least that’s what the sleazy salesman told her. She wasn’t fighting for the past year like her comrades.

  And she knew it probably made her weak. Doesn’t help that this is a perfect place to wallow about it. She was the weakest member before the tower, and now… What good in combat will she be now?

  All she can do is formulate tricks. Worthless magic tricks, like a quarter behind your ear situation. She’s not going to just go ‘is this your card’ to a goblin and win, and she knows it. These doubts are flooding around her mind for hours, maybe even a full day in the spire.

  But as these thoughts are culminating into some horrific monster in her mind, the spire vanishes beneath her, leaving a dimly lit field of brick and stone. Her eyes glimmered at this new discovery, but she knew she had to be careful.

  She set a simplistic array of traps that if anything approached her, living or nonliving, it would be promptly trapped in space and time. There were hundreds of these traps, all layering. She knew this was a moment of peace she couldn’t afford to waste. She knew that if a foe were to appear, she’d need preparation time, and that was now.

  Her fighting for her life made it simplistic to evade other threats with the party, but without them? She had to formulate arrays difficult to spot, yet still fatal. She knew her mana reserves were plentiful, and with the incessant leveling up, they could even be called infinite.

  And with these mana reserves, and her mana stat, she was able and willing to purge even someone with 10x the constitution as Pallad. These were layering multiple skills together, there was nothing in the environment to help, but thankfully an infinite amount of Mana is far better for the sake of traps.

  Her skills were great for it as well. She had a skill, [Delayed Reaction], which allowed her to stall it out before a target it entered. The speed she added a million other skills, including the very same one she used against the vampire, [Imprisonment]. There were hundreds of others, most to disassemble movement. She bought herself a simplistic crossbow that dealt exponential damage depending on how slowed the movement is.

  With such a weapon, she only needed to layer on all of her halting of movement skills to win. But she was smart enough to anticipate there was more than one, and with infinite mana, she could set up infinite. And that’s exactly what she did.

  As soon as the skeletons began appearing, they were all ensnared, and crushed under the pressure. Again and again. She set it up to automatically replace using past mana. It was a flawless plan, and with it actually working, she never even noticed how the skeletons had the same skills and the same crossbow she did.

  She never even fought them. Only learning about the reward halfway through the ‘battle’. She learnt her true value to the party. Nobody else in the party is capable of clearing this so easily with just mere minutes.

  Even with the same arsenal, she learnt her feats were beyond ordinary. She learnt her own value to the party. It was her unrivaled intelligence, or maybe even wisdom. But even then, she also added out of combat value. Sornid liked to act like her equal, constantly engaging in debates.

  Pallad needed to be lectured from his reckless violence and stupidity. Someone needed to ground Bariton, since he disagrees with Sornid, someone needs to mediate those arguments. Clara needs a friend, since she too isn’t just a tool to heal them when they are hurt.

  And all of these are roles she herself fulfills. And she realizes just how happy it makes her as the final skeleton’s bones shatter.