Tower of Souls

Kawe Shaman(Boss) has been slain! +400Xp

”I am a bruise. A single, solid bruise. From head to toe.” Eron groaned from where he lay flat out on the charred grass. ”Why did the Boss have to throw me three times?”

”Him throwing you into the side of the hut was the funniest, I think.” Cam laughed between gasping breaths as he leaned against the hut- in the very same spot his clone had been thrown against. ”The way your arms and legs flailed as you spun through the air! And the way you screamed like a little girl!” Throwing his arms in the air, he flailed wildly for a second while letting out a mocking, high pitched squeal.

”You’re just making fun of yourself, you know!” Eron huffed, sitting up slowly. ”Besides, you running away like a scared little girl was much worse!”

”Worse than you getting tossed into the side of the hut by the Boss and its mount? I don’t think so!” Cam chuckled; Sure, his clone was right and he was basically making fun of himself... but, after how rough that fight had been, they both needed something to laugh at.

”What was the deal with this fight, anyway? I’m not sure a regular group could have handle it better, if they could handle it at all! I mean, seriously? A high mobility tank mount carrying around a high damage Boss with a control spell? How was that a Floor 2 Boss fight?”

”I hear you.” Cam sighed in agreement. ”That was definitely worse than I expected, and I’m not sure most groups could have handled it. Maybe if they had a good control mage to slow down the mount... but, even then, the Boss’s damage was insane!”

”You’re welcome, by the way! Me making him drop the spear probably saved our asses!”

”Yeah, that’s probably true... even if his punches were still stupidly strong.” Cam nodded appreciatively towards his clone. ”Now, get up and grab the loot while I grab an Ability!”

”What are you thinking? Root? Or that Poison Edge?”

”Root, obviously!”

”How is it obvious? With how much we use our weapons, Poison Edge is a solid choice that will be useful almost everywhere, while Root only works when we’re around plants!”

”Poison Edge will be useful almost everywhere... until we get to enemies with Nature Resistance. Or when we’re using blunt weapons instead of bladed weapons! And how often do you think we’ll be somewhere that there are no plants?”

”How often do you think both of us will be using blunt weapons? And how often will we run into Nature Resistance? This is the Tower; Any of those possibilities can pop up at any moment... though Nature Resistance isn’t likely to be an issue until after Floor 20!”

”That’s... all good points. From both of us.” Cam sighed, the back and forth arguing with his clone doing a lot to take the edge off after the crazy fight... even if he knew it wasn’t exactly healthy to be arguing with what was literally himself... ”And, to be fair, taking the Root spell now also somewhat conflicts with Fan the Flames; The last thing we want is to waste mana by accidentally burning away our own control spell...”

”True, but having a control spell can help in a lot of fights, too.”

Rolling his eyes, as he and his clone basically just flipped positions in the argument, Cam waved off his clone and made his way over to the Boss... Only to pause at the sight of not two Abilities within its soul, but three.

”It has a third Ability...”

”Seriously?” Eron asked, hurrying over to join him. ”What is it?”

Quickly cycling through the Abilities, Cam paused after reading the names; Two were known from the fight, being Lesser Root and Poison Edge... But the third was another complete unknown, even if the name gave an idea of what it did.

”The Ability is called Mounted Caster... I think it’s a Passive Ability.” Cam said slowly, his mind already going over what he knew about Passive Abilities.

Passive Abilities, as the name implied, didn’t require any activation from the Classer; Instead, they provide a constant, if typically less powerful, benefit to the individual- and, typically, they cost no mana. Cam had learned about several Passives in school, ranging from Steady Hand, which increased an archer’s accuracy by a small amount, to Sure Grip, which reduced the chance of the person losing their weapon or being disarmed, to even things like Cat Like, which provided an inherent increase to their Agility and balance...

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But he had never heard of any Ability named Mounted Caster- even if he could guess what it did.

”That sounds like a Passive that lets someone cast spells while riding a mount without worrying about being interrupted by the constant motion.”

Nodding along with his clone’s words, as he had just thought the same, Cam was confident that was what it was; One of the biggest weaknesses of mage type Classes was their lack of mobility, and the fact that many of their Abilities required them to be relatively still when using them, as sudden movement could disrupt the cast.

In some ways, Cam was lucky that the first Ability he gained in the Tower was Fan the Flames, as, while it was close range, it was also an instant cast spell; Many mage’s had spells that required several seconds to cast, with the longest he had ever heard of requiring a full ten seconds to cast! All while standing in one place- a perfect target for any enemy with even a glimmer of intelligence...

Which was also why most groups followed the same party structure of having a tank, healer, mage, and two others- with one of them typically being another front line bruiser type; While a strong mage could output significant damage, they generally had low health. And low Agility.

Basically, they were nice, juicy targets for the enemies, and needed protection because of that... even if they did get most of the glory for being the team’s primary source of damage.

An Ability that would let someone move while casting was heavily desired, even if few people ever got it... So, something like Mounted Caster was a huge deal- if it wasn’t for the obvious limitation of requiring a mount.

”It sounds awesome... except for the lack of a mount...”

”Come one, man! We can harvest Abilities! Surely we’ll find one for a mount eventually!” Eron encouraged, knowing the value of something like Mounted Caster, even if he also saw the difficulty behind it. ”Hell, it’s possible we’ll get a Perk that improves our Big Bunni into a mount, then we can pretend like we’re the Boss and bounce around all over the place!”

”And the odds of getting a Perk like that are slim, too!” Cam countered, even if he somewhat agreed with his clone’s logic. ”We would be passing up two immediately useful Abilities for the chance of finding a way to use an incredible one! And we can’t forget the fact that that we may not be able to ride a mount on every Floor!”

”True...” Eron sighed, shaking his head. ”Damn, this week long cooldown is rough, man! I wish we could just grab all three!”

”Go grab the loot.” Cam sighed as well, waving off his clone; He knew he needed to make a choice, as the soul wouldn’t linger there forever... But how to choose between the three? All were somewhat situational, but every Ability was, in a way... Just one of them required him to also search for another Ability for it to be used at all! Worse, just like his clone, he really wanted all three, as all of them could be useful...

But, despite the temptation, the choice was actually easy; While all three Abilities were somewhat situational, there were some clear factors that weighed into his decision.

Sure, he could find some sort of mount Ability sooner or later... But it could very easily be much, much later, as there was no predicting what Abilities he would see going forward. It could be on the next Floor... or a year from now, after he has entered the Tower hundreds of times, before he found one.

And, while Poison Edge was good, giving him another source of damage- and a different type from Fan the Flames-, he already had one Ability for damage. And it was still early in his climb, with damage spells being more common among Tower monsters than other types of spells...

So, Lesser Root felt like the best choice, offering him a way to control enemies and providing a way to counter the fact that he and his clone were pretty much always outnumbered; With the two of them, plus their two Big Bunnis, and a control spell, their safety when encountering larger groups of enemies will be higher.

It felt like the boring choice, and still situational in its own ways, but Cam was sure it was the right choice.

”Jackpot!”

Having made his choice and harvested the Ability, Cam turned to find his clone celebrating over the loot drop... which turned out to be a single item, and not a very impressive looking one, at that.

From what he could see, it looked like a pair of house slippers some rich member of a Family would wear, just made out of white fur that looked incredibly similar to the Bunnicorn mount they had just killed... Until his clone turned the slippers, allowing him to see that, on the toes of the shoes, were small Bunnicorn heads, complete with small, floppy ears and plush looking horns...

”Those things look ridiculous!” Cam scoffed... until Eron brought them close enough for him to see their effect.

Rabbit Kickers

Tower Value=20

Armor = 5

Special Effect 1 = Self Cleaning.

Special Effect 2 = Increases wearer’s speed and jumping distance by 10%.

Special Effect 3 = When worn, kicking an enemy does damage equal to the wearer’s Strength.

Cam couldn’t help but gape at the silly looking shoes. Just the armor alone made it clear how much better it was; The rest of his armor combined didn’t offer as much protection; Granted, the slippers only protected his feet, but it was still the single highest armor item he had seen.

More than that, it had three effects, even if self cleaning barely counted- as who really cared if their shoes got dirty while fighting monsters! Still, it would cut down a little on cleaning and maintenance when he left the Tower... and the other two effects were enough by themselves to make it worth wearing the ridiculous slippers!

Increased speed and jumping distance? While Cam hadn’t really jumped a lot so far in the Tower, he could easily see uses for it- especially when combined with the Bunnicorn Helmet’s ability to double his jumping distance for ten seconds! And it was a passive effect, which would constantly provide its benefits!

The third effect just made it all the crazier! With his current Strength of 20, wearing the slippers would make his kicks do more damage than any weapon he currently had! The damage was even higher than his Fan the Flames, even if it was only for a single target at a time.

No matter how silly the slippers looked, there was no way he could pass up on gear that was that good!