Chapter 33: Interlude: The Calm

Otto looked at the new appearance of the three kids.

His lips curled into a smile as he carefully examined their changes.

If he was honest, he had half expected them to quit.

As he understood just how harsh of a taskmaster Ramesthes could be.

Hadn't he himself worked with Ramesthes in the past?

An indescribable emotion welled up in his chest when he saw their firm gazes.

Pride?

Admiration?

It was closer to satisfaction.

Otto was satisfied that they recognized the platform he had given them and willingly jumped as high as they could go.

It was good for their futures as well as good for him.

Hopefully they'd be strong enough to team up with him soon…when it came time for the 'team' floors, Otto was sure to reap the benefits of their painstaking growth.

Ramesthes immediately went over to Otto when he saw him enter.

He signaled Elliott, Julia, and Jeremy to stay back first.

Before, Jeremy was sure to have given a noisy shout of complaint if he was left out of the conversation.

Julia might not have said anything, but she would also have a pout on her face.

Now, all three just nodded at the instruction and waited quietly for Ramesthes to finish his conversation.

Otto was a little mystified as to how they could change temperaments so fast.

He understood bulking up their bodies and toning up, but even their auras felt a little different.

Was Ramesthes's training so effective?

Otto listened as Ramesthes spoke.

The man explicitly detailed the three's training plan as well as the virtual network's analyses of their battles, patterns of growth, advantages and difficulties in combat, potential, and the optimal training for them moving forward.

Otto listened for a while before commenting with a barely discernible smile,

"They've really grown a lot in such a short time."

He cast an admiring glance at Ramesthes,

"It was really the right choice coming to you."

Hearing this, even if Ramesthes was an even more stoic person than he actually was, his chest couldn't help but swell up with pride.

Otto was also pleased.

As an old man in a young man's body, Otto was very self aware of both his advantages and shortcomings.

One thing he was not good at, and would likely never be good at, was encouraging, motivating, or training others.

His methods tended towards...the unconventional.

…like how he threw Jeremy in to face monsters for 24 hours and called in 'battle training.'

He simply didn't have the patience for anything else.

Well, that was why he hired someone else, wasn't it?

And the result, looking at the data Ramesthes provided, was rather good.

Otto took a quick peek at the physical attributes of all three of them, and was unsurprised to find all the basic physical attributes had increased by a uniform 10 points.

Jeremy had even found some time to distribute his remaining 8 AP from his [Tutorial] clearance mission.

[Jeremy Smalls]

Health: 225/225 (0.14/minute)

Stamina: 225/225 (1.4/minute)

Energy: 40/40 (0.32/minute)

[Attributes]

Strength 7 --] 17

Agility 9 --] 19

Stamina 4 --] 14

Sturdiness 4 --] 14

Energy Pool 1 --] 2

Comprehension 1 --] 2

Energy Compression 1 --] 3

Regeneration 3 --] 7

But before Otto could dive in further, Ramesthes whispered something to the kids.

Actually, it wasn't out of Otto's earshot at all considering his incredible agility attribute that provided a powerful boost to his perception, but he decided not to listen in out of politeness for once.

Then, as one, all three of them bowed deeply towards Otto.

Seeing this, the faint smile on Otto's face widened.

He did not reject the bow.

His demeanor was leisurely as he raised an eyebrow at the three of them, his voice sonorous amidst the quiet space.

"Raise your heads. And don't bend your backs lightly for anyone, including me."

But none of the kids raised their heads. For a short while, the room was silent.

Jeremy eventually couldn't bear it.

He looked up and spoke seriously,

"Otto, we aren't taking it lightly. It's because you really deserve our gratit…"

His words suddenly caught in his throat.

He saw what Otto was doing.

While their heads were still bowed in gratitude, Otto had taken out three small golden brooches, each with the insignia of a striking black crow inlaid into the gold.

Its eyes were clear, and glittered like jewels against the surface of the metal.

Elliott immediately felt a powerful wave of mana flow into the room.

All three lifted their heads as Jeremy stopped speaking.

Their breaths hitched as they looked at the beautiful brooch Otto presented them.

Otto handed them over carefully, and declared seriously,

"Take this. Paste it on your clothes and don't take it off. Only use it in case of emergencies."

Then he smiled softly,

"You are now officially members of the team."

After he explained how to use the item, which was actually a miniaturized magic array, the three of them took the brooch and cautiously pinned it to their clothes.

Jeremy couldn't help but let out a whoop of joy which completely wrecked the serious atmosphere before hastily covering his mouth.

But the damage was done.

No one bothered to hold in their laughter; even Otto cracked a smile.

Ramesthes's eyes were a little red looking on at the heartwarming scene.

His own smile was a little bitter, recalling memories of his own comrades and the brotherhood of life and death that forged the strongest of bonds by fire.

Yet his heart couldn't help but hold a little hope for the future.

Otto also sported a faint, satisfied smile on his face.

From today on, the four of them could truly be called a team.

****************************************************************

"How come Elliott gets all the good stuff?"

Jeremy ultimately couldn't maintain his 'reserved' demeanor for long.

In fact, after Otto gave them the brooches, it lasted for barely an hour before cracking under what Jeremy might consider the great weight of silence.

He was now complaining because Otto had prepared quite a few spells for Elliott that required under 11 intuition to learn.

On the other hand, Jeremy and Julia, who could only use energy, received nothing.

Otto just looked at Jeremy calmly.

"Because he is a mage. You can fight with your body."

They were currently standing in the warehouse room, making some last minute preparations before entering the first floor.

Hearing this, Jeremy looked even more wronged.

"He's almost as strong as me already without magic!"

The statement wasn't precisely true.

Head-on battles were not Jeremy's forte; Elliott also had no way of hiding in the dark and striking from relative safety.

Moreover, Otto had already discovered that Jeremy was a combat genius- in a one-on-one fight, Jeremy would beat Elliott 99 times out of 100 even if Elliott were to use his magic.

Well, this was also partly because mages were weak in the initial stages.

It was just that Elliott was trained in the same way he and Julia were, and even learned how to use his staff as a bludgeoning weapon, making the visual effect upon hit much stronger than a short weapon like a dagger.

Julia easily played mediator, though not without a hint of criticism lingering in her tone,

"If you truly wanted to beat him, why in the world would you fight him head on?"

"Yeah, shouldn't it be me who is complaining about having to learn how to fight like an…I don't know, a club wielding barbarian?"

Instead of confronting them, though, Jeremy simply snorted and turned his head away.

Otto barely held back a grin at the sight.

It was clear that the three had grown much closer during their training time.

Even Elliott, who used to meekly listen to Jeremy chatter without daring to complain was able to easily retort to his words.

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Well, they were still a little restrained around Otto, despite his 'young' age.

It could be due to the sense of innate mystery he exuded, or the fact that they now better understood that he was their 'lifelong' benefactor.

Elliott ignored Jeremy's complaints and quickly learned the spell formulas Otto gave him.

They were the models for:

[Air Bullet]

[Haste]

[Wind's Whisper]

[Water Ball]

[Underwater Breath]

and [Poison Bullet]

All were simple, fairly useful spells in the wind and water elements that required 11 or less intuition to learn.

Otto had already learned the unlimited versions of all of them; these were spells he asked Aeselvell to gather separately.

Then, he gave the trio the potions he had.

This actually posed a small problem for the new team.

Apparently, even someone as well connected as Aeselvell had only managed to procure a single spatial storage ring, and that was only by using almost a full 1% of Otto's total assets to buy it at a very high price.

Treasures like those just weren't sold in Area 1.

He gave the spatial storage ring to Julia, for no other reason than that she was a girl and might want to bring some extra goods into the floor.

Fortunately, Otto had foreseen the problem of lack of space.

His solution was also simple.

For the potions, he had managed to condense their essence into the smallest possible concentration, which was usually under a milliliter for an eight ounce potion.

Then, he combined the concentrated potions of the same type into one large bottle for each person.

He carefully instructed the kids to only drink a drop or two when needed to maximize the effects.

It was lucky that the tower world was not actually a game, no matter how game like it often seemed.

Potions would still have an effect if they were drunk in alternative forms.

Honestly, Otto could have dried them into a powder and had the kids rehydrate them before drinking.

But when he thought they might need the potions in a pinch, that idea was quickly nixed.

There wasn't much Otto could do about the pills; he could only squeeze them into the tightest tubes and carefully prepare to minimize their volume.

The arrays were much simpler in comparison.

Otto had added the function of minimizing all of the arrays when not in use.

They were basically as small as pebbles when stored.

When taken out of their respective lacquered box, they would return to their normal size with the ability to properly activate.

This solution did have the drawback of being unable to activate instantly since the arrays needed around half a second to a second to return to size.

But Otto knew he could only help them up to there.

The first four floors could not support teams.

Everyone would enter their own floor in their own respective 'world' to complete their mission.

These four floors were closer to instances than worlds if looked at like this, though it didn't mean that they lacked in either detail or difficulty.

On the contrary, as the challengers were alone, the failure rate was very high on the first four floors.

Because of the [Tower's] strict penalty system, failing even a single floor was a mark that was tough to wash away.

It wasn't that it couldn't be done, since the penalty was only permanent in the harshest cases.

But climbing up after failure required an enormous amount of effort, more so than it took to complete the floor's mission in the first place.

Which was why Otto ardently hoped that the three of them would pass on their first try.

It didn't mean Otto would make it easy on them, though.

His next words practically sent them into a pit of despair.

"I hope that all three of you can pass the first floor on the extreme level of difficulty."

The room was silent as if Otto had dropped a bomb.

In a sense, he had.

This time, even Ramesthes had nothing to say.

Clearing an extreme difficulty mission?

This was universally understood to be practically impossible, no matter how strong the challenger.

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Jeremy was, as usual, the first to speak out.

His voice trembled slightly even as he patted his chest with false bravado,

"Hmph! Wh-who do you think I am! I'm not scared of a mission! Since you can do it in the [Tutorial], why can't I!? The great Jeremy Smalls could pass even the hardest mission!"

He paused for a second before he added in a smaller voice,

"Especially now that I know how to fight!"

His words weren't particularly convincing.

And Julia and Elliott weren't nearly as optimistic.

"I don't know…even with my current attributes and experience,"

Julia cautiously began,

"I don't think I'm a match for the extreme level. That's just…"

Elliott also revealed his doubt more bluntly,

"I barely passed the hard difficulty in the tutorial, and even that was due to luck and my innate trait. There's no way I can even go up a single difficulty level on the next floor."

Increasing the difficulty of a floor mission was not common in the [Tower].

It was infrequent enough that most had never even considered such a thing, especially after personally experiencing the [Tutorial].

More discouraging was that the rare few who did try almost unilaterally came back in abject failure.

Some even exhorted their experience to others, emphasizing that it was absolutely not worth it to try a difficulty a challenger was unprepared for.

A few recommended that challengers would do best to decrease the difficulty to low or basic after passing the tutorial.

This indeed guaranteed a higher success rate, and more people passing the floors.

But how high could these people climb?

Still, for most folks, keeping their own little lives in the tower environment was enough for them.

Otto would not blame them.

But to him, who had the ambition to climb all the way to the top, this kind of complacency was a kind of anathema to all he stood for.

And he wouldn't allow it to be instilled into his team members, either.

He glanced at Jeremy who was still puffed up with pride despite his rather obvious fear, then at Elliott who was trying to push nonexistent glasses up his nose in a nervous tic, and finally at Julia, who merely looked a little sullen.

Otto suddenly felt at a loss for words.

Was he really asking too much of them right now?

They had only just gotten out of training, with Jeremy and Elliott only having recently learned how to properly fight...

A pregnant silence suffused the room.

It was Ramesthes who spoke after another moment of contemplation.

His stoic expression didn't change, but there was a sheen of confidence in his eyes.

"I think it's possible."

All three whipped their heads at him with varying expressions.

Jeremy and Elliott looked a little heartened when Ramesthes spoke those words, while Julia only looked betrayed.

"You are definitely strong enough to pass the extreme difficulty."

He continued with a stern tone,

"I won't say it will be easy. It won't."

He barked a laugh,

"But were those months easy?"

The trio subconsciously shook their heads.

"And considering all the preparations Otto helped you make, it's absolutely doable."

Ramesthes sneered,

"What? Trying to chicken out before you even start? Did I train such a group of cowards?"

His words successfully provoked Jeremy's ire.

"Hey, crabby old man! Since when did I ever chicken out!? Isn't it just extreme difficulty? So what? We'll definitely complete it!"

Afterwards, he muttered,

"Just to rub it in your ugly face."

Elliott's expression looked a little better, too, so he nodded along with Jeremy.

Julia, who was also provoked, crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at Jeremy, but still agreed.

Though not before shooting a disdainful smirk at Ramesthes.

With that, there was no additional need for convincing.

Otto started to explain the situation of the first floor, without Ramesthes needing to.

"For the first four floors, we'll be going in separately. You also won't meet any other challengers there. The situation....is a bit special."

Otto nodded when he realized he had their full, undivided attention.

"The first floor is set up like …."

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