The humans called it the 8th Wonder of the World. Its first appearance had boggled the minds of genius scientists, astrologists, meteorologists, and geologists. None of them knew It was coming, there was no sign of Its appearance. It pierced the sky and the atmosphere of the Earth like a spear thrown down by God. It was visible from all over the world, the entire human population could see it, but that wasn't all.
It seemingly healed all disabilities and ills, mental or physical. The blind could see again, the paralyzed could move again, and those in comas woke up. By all means, it was a miracle, as if this structure itself wanted all humans to witness It in all of Its glory. Like It was sentient. Like It was some sort of God.
This thing, this structure, was given numerous names, and Its description varied across different points of view. Some saw It as a towering skyscraper full of windows impossible to see through, some saw It as an old Roman structure with no entrances other than a blocked off archway, and some even saw It as a tall and infinitely stretching labyrinth. The way It looked seemed to depend entirely on the person and their imagination, as children saw some… "fantastical"… structures.
But every good thing comes with something bad, doesn't it? This telling of this incredible tale focuses on a child named Cyrus. He was only thirteen when It appeared. He saw It as an obelisk so tall It stretched to the heavens. When the gem appeared on the top of his hand, he thought it was something bad and, understandably, freaked out. It turns out the structure had created these things on all humanity, from infants to the elderly. This was the first sign things were going downhill.
As news outlets began to cover the mysterious gems appearing within people's hands, the Earth itself began to shake. The entire world began experiencing earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, storms and every other natural disaster under the sun all at once. The continents were beginning to move, all of them towards the structure in the center of the world. All humanity assumed it was the end of the world.
Then the anarchy began. For months, it was a survival of the fittest world. From stealing to murder, all crimes were committed at an all time high. During all this chaos, Cyrus lost his parents. Three months in their house was stormed. His father and mother tried to fight back, but the group of people had overpowered them and slaughtered his parents in front of his eyes. They had even gone as far as to desecrate their corpses with acts that I cannot bring up without feeling sick, and poor little Cyrus had to watch it all happen.
All his hope and love for humanity shattered at that moment, and… he snapped. He didn't know where he got it, he didn't even think twice about it. When that dagger appeared in his hand, he lunged at his parents' killers. The group consisted of three adults and four teenagers. None of them left the house.
Little Cyrus had killed seven people, all years older than him. He was all on his own now, the poor boy. He was forced to traverse this now kill or be killed world without the help of anyone… but he persevered. No human, much less a human child, is free of emotion. Cyrus broke down many times. When he was all alone in the cold, when the water would flood the cities, when the tornadoes would rip through, when the storms struck lightning at every surface, this thirteen year old boy wanted his mom and dad. He wanted his parents… but they were gone.
And so he continued. He learned survival skills. How to build a shelter, how to hunt and scavenge for food, but most importantly, he learned how to kill. He needed to defend himself and fight for his own survival from animals and humans alike, and through his struggles he pressed on. He survived.
Eventually, it stopped. After almost two years of unending movement, the continents had finally stopped. Cyrus was fifteen then, sitting inside an old and decrepit building. The teenager stared into the gem in his hand. He scratched at it and even tried slamming it against the ground. He did something correctly, though, as some sort of holographic screen appeared in front of him. It had his name, age, height and… attribute points?
He began to investigate this holograph. He didn't have the option to manually input what attributes he wanted to put points into. He assumed it happened automatically, depending on what he did, but there was one that stuck out to him, as this attribute was the lowest out of them all.
Focus.
This attribute was at a whopping 0.017 and was the lowest of all his attributes. When he stared at it, another window appeared and scared him. This window had a message on it and was slowly counting down. Cyrus quickly scanned the window, pausing when he finished.
You are one of the few to qualify for the Tower. Inside, you will fight for your survival and become powerful by transcending the 1, 327 floors. You will be transported to the Tutorial Floor shortly. You will learn more there.
Cyrus stared at the countdown. The moment it hit zero, the ground began to shake. He stood up and looked around, thinking it was an earthquake. He'd done this a million times. He ran out of the building and tried to get to an open space. The second he took the first step outside the building, the ground beneath him tore open as if hell wanted to swallow him whole. He couldn't stop himself, he couldn't even grab anything. He just fell.
And fell.
And fell.
And fell.
And fell.
And fell.
Until he hit the ground. He landed on his ass with a thud and felt sick. He'd fallen through that abyss for… god, how long had it been? A few minutes? Hours? Days? He couldn't keep track as he fell through that darkness, but he was out of it now. Cyrus looked up and around at his surroundings, seeing thousands of other people. He got defensive and looked up to a… floating platform?
On this floating platform, there was a radiant being. The gender was indecipherable, and there were no visible features, as it shined so bright that it was just a mass of light. He was looking at me. In human terms, he was looking at God. The boy could only stare in disbelief and astonishment as more people stood up. When everyone was up, I began.
Hello humans.
I am the creator of this structure.
For all intents and purposes, you may refer to me as God.
I'm the reason behind the appearance of this structure.
I am the one who moved the land.
I am the one behind the miracles that occurred.
I am the one behind the gems on your hands.
I've done all this for a very simple reason…
I am oh so bored, humans are no longer entertaining. Therefore, I've pulled not only humans but beings from all other realms into this structure.
You will all climb this structure.
All 1, 327 floors until you reach me.
Every floor there will be a… "boss" fight.
Upon reaching me, you will be granted angelic status, and I will give you one wish, anything you'd like.
You have no choice.
Well, now that we've settled, I'll explain how this whole system works!
It was a simple explanation. Upon tapping the gem on their hands, a holographic screen appeared. The attributes were easy to understand. There was Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, Agility, and Focus. Every human started with 0 Focus, as their species has no magic, although meditation can change it. After the basic explanation, the humans were given starting items, an inventory, and sent out to the first floor of the tower. It was time for the show to begin.
Cyrus winced and covered his eyes as the sun burned his retinas. He squinted and looked around as his eyes slowly adjusted to the sunlight. He was in a forest with a longsword in his hands. The oddest part was that he hadn't gone in with a longsword but a dagger. He stared at the sword and decided not to think about it. A weapon was a weapon. He looked into the inventory he'd been given. It was a backpack he was meant to put up to his gem. Upon touching each other, the backpack became part of the gem and gave him access to the inventory mechanic, a massive subspace within the gem where he could store items.
"This is useful…" Cyrus murmured to himself.
His first action was to search the forest. He started moving north, his sword in his hand. He was being careful. He'd seen the absolute worst of humanity and decided not to trust them anymore. He needed to make sure he avoided everyone, as he didn't know who would and wouldn't try to kill him. He was being extra careful when he heard something crack. He turned to his left, only to see a shadow running off into the trees.
A person.
He frowned, were people already killing each other? He didn't know. He kept moving, keeping track of the sun so he knew when he needed to begin making a shelter for the night. He looked around on high alert. He was keeping track of everything around him now, if someone else tried to sneak up on him.
He found something weird about this forest. He hadn't seen or heard a single animal. It was completely silent, as if the entire forest was holding its breath. He climbed into a tree and put his sword into his inventory so the sun didn't bounce off of it. He blended well, his dark hair and brown skin allowed him to sit in the tree canopy without sticking out.
If he stayed here long enough, he'd figure out why there were no animals present, and that moment came sooner than he thought. He heard the crack of a branch right beside him. His eyes grew wide. Where did it come from? When did it get there? He turned only to see a pair of large black eyes staring at him. He dropped out of the tree, panicking. What did he just see? It was impossible to describe. It was something and nothing.
The creature he'd just encountered was something known as a Bearlwulf. They had long thin bodies that naturally became the colors of things around them, but when in their natural state they were completely black entities with gaping maws. They had pitch black eyes that looked at everything and absorbed all light that touched them. Did I forget to mention they were extremely carnivorous ambush predators?
The moment Cyrus took his eyes off of it, the Bearlwulf was gone. It was in the trees, crawling around and watching him, looking for an opportunity to attack. Cyrus was stuck. He didn't know what to do. He didn't think something like this was possible, a creature like this couldn't exist!... Yet here it was. Hunting him. The boy had only ever killed humans and animals, but those were predictable! They had patterns and actions that could be followed! This was something entirely different, he didn't know anything about it, not its behaviors, patterns, attacks, nothing.
Then he was on the ground. He was confused. When did he get on the ground? What's so heavy on his back? When he felt the sharp claw piercing his forehead, he knew this creature was on top of him. He panicked, drawing the sword from his inventory and stabbing behind him. When the ear piercing screech nearly deafened him, he knew he'd hit it. The creature scurried off, leaving a trail of pure black liquid on the ground.
"I need to get out of this damned forest." Cyrus huffed. He touched his forehead, only to be greeted by blood on his hands, "And fast."
Cyrus began to run. He was just running through the trees, but something stopped him dead in his tracks. Something had dripped onto his face. He touched his cheek to see a red liquid on his hand. The boy looked up to see multiple humans hanging off trees by way of a thin black string. They were bleeding from all over and had their faces contorted into expressions of pain and fear.
He nearly puked. Is this where the creature was bringing back victims? He continued to run, ignoring his fellow humans. If they died so early on, they weren't going to make it in this place anyway. As he ran through the dense green brush of the forest, he became aware of the sound of rustling leaves.
It wasn't him.
There was something else following him, the Bearlwulf had found him. He tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword and ducked under some hanging vines. If only he could get rid of the forest obstacles, he'd find the damned creature much easier, if only it didn't have an entire forest to hide in, and it was just his luck too. Shortly after the thought popped into his mind, he broke through the tree line and was now in a large plain. This was exactly what he needed, and although he'd never encountered one of these creatures, or even thought they existed, he deduced it probably hunted like a chameleon, using the surroundings to camouflage and hunt its prey.
The grass was tall, reaching his chest. Even if it camouflaged, he'd see the grass moving and could track the creature's location. The thirteen year old prepared himself, standing tall and holding the sword in his hands. It had become heavier now, but it was nothing he couldn't handle. He scanned the tall grass and suddenly saw it dip down and move apart in a wide arc around him. Cyrus tightened his grip on the sword in his hands and watched as the grass began to separate and move towards him. The boy timed himself, counting down from five. It was a gamble whether he'd timed it correctly. He closed his eyes and swung the blade down, the audible crunch, and the sudden stopping of the blade was the sign he'd hit his mark.
Cyrus opened his eyes and a grin spread across his face. The thin creature, the Bearlwulf, was laying dead at his feet. As he had a silent celebration, he heard the rustling of the grass and looked around to see three more paths being created. I had forgotten to mention that these creatures usually travel in groups of up to six, and the sudden death of one of their own attracted the others.
He panicked when he felt something lunge forward and scratch his shoulder, leaving a deep gash in its wake. There was now a new feeling rising up from deep within Cyrus's psyche, a feeling humans are all too familiar with when put into stressful and dangerous situations. I created humans with a primal instinct when put in danger. It was a kind of fear that could only be activated when one's life was in danger of ending. It would activate their adrenaline and push it into overtime, causing the human body to stop reacting on command, but rather react off instinct for their survival. Cyrus was feeling that fear now.
When another leaped towards him, his arm moved faster than his mind could process, and he took the Bearlwulf's arm clean off. The next one came from behind him, but he heard the sound of the dirt being pushed and crunched. He ducked down and ended up falling on his face, causing the third of the Bearlwulfs to claw at his back.
He screamed and flipped onto his back. The dirt getting into the gashes caused immense pain, forcing him to stand again. His shoulder was on fire, his back felt as if he was getting branded, and his lungs felt like they were going to explode. Cyrus huffed and puffed as he watched one of the Bearlwulfs camouflage and disappear, but this one had blood on its claw. He saw the red claw print appear on the grass about a foot away, and lunged forward, stabbing the longsword into the creature's ribs. It let out a screech and slashed at his face, leaving a gash on his cheek, but the adrenaline pumping through his body completely suppressed the burning sensation spreading across his face.
Cyrus, now bleeding and in pain, forced the blade up. He split the first in half, he now only had to kill two more of these fucking things. The boy turned around just in time to see the maw of the Bearlwulf, whose arm he had cut off inches from his face. His arm once again moved instinctively, causing him to flip the grip of the sword and stab it in the side of the head. There was only one more to go now, and this one had learned from the mistakes of the previous ones. It used the paths already created in the grass to hide itself, causing Cyrus to have to spin around and look around everywhere.
"Fuck this sword." Cyrus huffed and threw the blade into his inventory.
It was becoming too heavy for him now. He brought his hands up to his face and tried to control his breathing. The creature took this as an opening and lunged forward, earning a fist in its face. Cyrus, not wanting to give it leeway, jumped onto the stunned creature and began to swing. He swung, and swung, and swung, and swung until all that was left of the Bearlwulf's head was a pile of mush and bones. As if to declare his victory, the boy let out a shout of triumph and stood over the body of the beast. When he deemed himself no longer in danger, the adrenaline being produced was now starting to run out.
He fell down and collapsed on top of the corpse of the Bearlwulf. He had pushed his body to its limits and was now facing the repercussions of that act. Cyrus ended up unconscious until nightfall. When his eyes suddenly snapped open, and he gasped as if he'd just come back from the dead. As soon as he regained consciousness, intense pain overloaded his mind. His knuckles had splintered open from beating in the head of the Bearlwulf. His shoulder caused intense flashes of pain with every movement, and his back felt as if he was laying on a bed of hot coals. He clenched his jaw and ignored the burning sensation coming from his arm as he stood up.
It was pitch black, the moon barely illuminated the world enough for him to see. He was still in that field, surrounded by the Bearwulf's dead bodies. Cyrus huffed and began to just walk, with no solid destination in mind. He was just… walking. There was a long trail of displaced grass behind him as he walked until the sun began to rise without falling over. Just as the exhaustion took hold of him, he got a notification from the gem on his hand stating he'd passed the tutorial, and even earned extra points due to killing the four Bearwulfs.
Congratulations Player Cyrus Richards!
You've passed the tutorial in third place! Due to killing four Bearwulfs you will be rewarded with a Hunter's Journal, one skill of your choosing, and a title!
I hope your climb will be fruitful and your survival be guaranteed!
Enjoy The 8th Wonder of the World, God's Tower!
May you rank high on the leaderboards of God's Game!
That was the message Cyrus received. Shortly after its transmission, a different holographic screen appeared from his gem. This one had three distinct squares, each with a name and description, along with writing at the top of the panel.
Choose one.
Regeneration.
Allows the user to regenerate wounds and naturally cleanse poisons and harmful chemicals from the body.
Passive Skill.
Can be leveled up.
Mana Veins.
Opens the users Mana Veins and allows for better intake and circulation of mana within the body.
Passive Skill.
Set level.
God's Hand.
Allows the user to grab objects without physically touching them.
Active Skill.
Can be leveled up.
Cyrus didn't know which to pick, as all three options were good, but as the pain from his wounds got worse, he knew which one would make the most sense to pick at this moment and in the long run. He pressed Regeneration, and almost instantly the skill took effect. He could feel the gashes on his body beginning to close, albeit slowly, but even if it was slow, he felt a lot better.
The next thing to check would be this Hunter's Journal and this new title of his. He looked at his window as he called it, and saw two new options on the top. He swiped over to the Hunter's Journal option and saw an entry for the Bearlwulf's.
Bearlwulf.
Origin: Unknown, native to Droggledirn.
Habits: The Bearlwulf species stay in forests and dense vegetation. Their camouflage capabilities make them near impossible to detect with the naked eye. They are carnivorous beasts and travel in groups of up to six max and three minimum.
Special Skills: The Bearlwulf can produce a web-like structure from its mouth, which it uses to hold prey for later consumption.
Mating Habits: Bearlwulfs are asexual and therefore do not need to mate, but they do lay eggs.
A tameable beast if raised directly after hatching.
Cyrus checked his new title next. It was called Hunter;
Title: Hunter.
Primary Special: When this title is equipped, you gain more attribute points from things you kill.
Secondary Special: You will naturally progress skill and weapon proficiency faster and more efficiently than others.
The boy quickly equipped the title, it would be useful as of now, especially for raising the proficiency of his new Regeneration skill. As he was in the middle of his train of thought, Cyrus was transported to a new location. It was the introduction floor again, now nearly half of the contestants were dead, and the survivors, safe for a few, looked terrible. The large group of humans looked at a leaderboard. This leaderboard spanned every tutorial level, and thus the humans saw the results of every tutorial. There were trillions of names, and Cyrus was lucky enough to end up in the top ten million!
He stared at his name placement, which also had his species documented. He had gained extra points for actually killing the creatures, rather than just surviving. Now his wounds had all healed due to his skill, and his pain was gone so he could rationally think again. The boy looked at the top hundred of the leaderboard and saw that not one human had graced the ranks. Instead, he saw species such as Elf, Dwarf, Dragonide, Demon, and even Angel. Cyrus stared at the Angel species the most, if they were competing, then it meant even if a human achieved Angelic Status, they'd probably be forced into another one of my games, which was true of course.
"Are we… done?" Someone in the crowd murmured.
"Is that the end?" Another said.
What followed was a cacophony of the same questions.
After the humans were all rested, they received one last notification from me specifically. It came from their gems. It was a simple one, congratulating them on their survival and instilling one passive skill into all of them.
Auto Translator.
Allows the user to understand all the languages SPOKEN within God's Tower.
Passive Skill.
Set level.
Cyrus barely had time to process the skill before the platform underneath his feet disappeared. And he was falling into that void again. This time though, he knew he'd eventually hit the ground and prepared himself for landing. As the void became warmer, he felt he was nearing his destination, and just as the thought occurred to him, he was blinded.
His preparation for the fall was disrupted when the sun flash banged him. He covered his eyes and let out a shout of shock. He connected with the ground and groaned as he'd fallen on his back. Cyrus blinked and uncovered his eyes, still having to squint as he adjusted to the vibrant sunlight. Even when he was in the forest with the Bearlwulfs, the sun wasn't nearly as bright as it was here.
"What the fuck." Cyrus cursed, slowly standing.
He blinked the dark spots from his vision and squinted, seeing a structure in the distance. Not just one structure either, it was an entire city! There was civilization here? Cyrus, although mature, was still a child. He hated having to distrust everyone and everything for survival, maybe he could find–
No. That wasn't possible. Humans were horrible creatures. Whether in a city or in a wasteland, mankind would always be evil. Cyrus made his way to the city. He needed to take a bath, wash his clothes, and clean himself up. His hair had gotten much too long by this point, but he hadn't been able to keep up with it in the last few months due to the marauders becoming worse. From his perspective, the city was around fifteen or twenty miles away. He could make it in five and a half hours if he walked at a moderate pace… but he wouldn't do that.
Cyrus started to run, deciding he needed to get to this city as quickly as possible. A shower was in dire need, he could smell himself, and he smelled horrid. So he ran as fast as he could for as long as he could, watching his agility and dexterity attributes slowly rise. If he got them high enough, he'd run faster for longer. This entire experience was oddly… freeing. He was running through tall grass, the warm sun shining against his (albeit dirty) olive skin, with the wind blowing through his hair.
After about four and a half hours, Cyrus stopped running and caught his breath as he looked up at the massive gates. It looked almost medieval… Was the tower not caught up with the modern day of humanity? He wondered this question to himself as he made his way into the crowd. He was caught off guard when he got feathers, hair, fur, and even scales in his face. He blinked as he realized there were very few humans in this crowd. All the rest were from different worlds, one of which was an angel with a pair of snow white wings.
Beautiful. It was the only word running through his mind as he stared at the angel's wings. She was walking with a group made up of a small hairy man, a short wolf-like creature, an elf, and some sort of massive humanoid reptile. The angel seemed to take notice of him, turning her head and looking at his face. She smiled at him before he was dragged into the converging crowd trying to enter the city.
"How beautiful…" He murmured to himself.
Cyrus had her appearance memorized. Her skin was only a shade darker than his own, her hair was long and braided, her eyes had this almost divine color to them that he couldn't even describe. Her wings were as white as the clouds above his head, and her smile was so warm…
This guy eh? Falling for one of my angels. Humans, amirite?
He was forced to snap back to focus when he was shoved by something massive. He turned around and looked to see a massive humanoid. It had charcoal black skin and bright red eyes. It looked down at him and blinked for a moment, as if trying to recall what it was looking at.
"You are a human, yes?" It asked.
"Uh… yeah." Cyrus stared up at it.
"I am Durthu." It smiled at him.
"Okay, Durthu, uh… what are you?" Cyrus asked.
"I am an Orc!" Durthu grinned.
"My name is Cyrus." He slowly nodded. He liked this big man. (?)
"You seem strong little Cyrus." Durthu slapped him on the shoulder.
Cyrus nearly crumbled under the slap. Thankfully, his regeneration healed the bruise, "Ah… Yes… Thanks."
"Let's be friends! We can travel together!" Durthu picked him up.
'I don't have a choice anyway.' Cyrus thought as he rode on the massive Orcs shoulder.
Well, he made a new friend. The large behemoth of an orc, standing at a good old nine feet tall and weighing nearly four hundred pounds of pure muscle, carried Cyrus into the city. Despite the young boys' strong distrust of all things, he felt a sense of comfort with the orc. Maybe they could be real friends. Even if Durthu was extremely loud and didn't understand, Cyrus was six times more frail than he was.
Cyrus checked his hunter's journal, seeing an entry for orcs. He decided he'd read it later, because at that moment he was trying to search for an inn or something large enough to house Durthu and him. The orc sniffed the air and pointed towards a massive, almost Nordic looking, building. As they got closer, Cyrus heard the sound of drinking, shouting and laughing. The two were about seven feet away from the building when an orc and something even bigger than an orc flew through the wall with a brawl. There were only massive humanoids inside the building, all of them chanting as they watched the fight from a relative distance. The massive group of creatures formed a circle.
"Fight! Fight! Fight!" Durthu chanted while throwing up one of his fists.
"What the fuck is happening?" Cyrus wondered to himself aloud.