The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

The Quest Hall is somewhat interesting, and it lets me get a good idea of the average strength of people on this Floor. Upper 2nd rate to upper 1st rate seems to be the most common range, with the very occasional Peak warrior wandering around, and a few clueless-looking 3rd rates. I should probably start changing my mental terminology for these things, actually. Things like "1st Rate" and "Peak" haven't been used in that way on Earth in thousands of years, and they're definitely not used in the Tower, so there's no point in holding onto them. This idea is especially reinforced once I see how the same levels are represented in the Quest Hall.

Much of the Quest Hall is taken up by huge boards with thousands upon thousands of papers nailed to them, each outlining various Quests that Climbers can accept. On each posting is a section that denotes the recommended power of any person or group. I spot one to hunt the same kind of wolf I fought in the labyrinth–called a "Black Wolf"– that recommends 3 Early 1 star Climbers, or 1 Middle 1 star Climber as the bare minimum to take it on.

Based on the rest of the Quest postings, it looks like each star grade is split into 4 levels: Early, Middle, Late, and Peak, with Peak being those at the verge of reaching the next star grade. It seems easy enough, and it corresponds well with the old Earth System, with Low, Middle, and High corresponding to 3rd rate, 2nd rate, and 1st rate. Peak, Transcendent, and Unrestrained would probably be the Early, Middle, and Late of 2 star, and Life and Death would be Early of 3 star. The so-called "Life and Death" realm was the highest I ever reached, putting my absolute peak power level at merely Early 3 Star. Not even a third of the way up the power totem.

I'm getting distracted though. This building is incredibly crowded, and the others around me don't seem to appreciate me standing still and gawking. I start walking around, acting like I'm looking for something in particular while noting down Quests that look interesting and gathering information.

It looks like the Outlands are separated into four general biomes. There's a desert in the south, a frozen tundra in the north, a thick jungle in the east, and grassy hills in the west, which must have been around where our Batch started. Each biome has its own set of challenges, though based on the recommended levels for the Quests, it looks like the grassy hills are by far the weakest location. I probably won't be spending much time there, if any.

Most of the Quests that ask for herbs or other plants are surprisingly focused in the northern tundra and southern desert. There are plenty going to the western hills and eastern jungle as well, but they are, for the most part, lesser Quests for inferior herbs. That makes sense. The harshest environments produce the strongest survivors. I do note that there are a somewhat worrying amount of toxic plants and animals in the jungle though.

I take a bit of extra time to scan the herbs list to see if the Hundred Year Snow Ginseng is one of them. At first I don't see anything, and I'm about to give up when a broad-shouldered man moves from where he was standing, revealing a half-hidden piece of paper with an intricate drawing of the Snow Ginseng on it. The paper looks old compared to most of the others around it, and no one seems to be paying much mind to it. I squeeze in through the crowd, and lift the paper above it to the side so I can see the details a bit better.

The Quest write-up isn't very long or detailed. It basically just says that the ginseng is probably somewhere far in the northern region, and that the recommended strength to take on the quest is a party of 10 Early 2 stars. I guess I can see why the Quest is largely ignored, since based on Jin Hayou, Early 2 star seems to be the upper limit of cultivation for Climbers on this Floor.

I look around at some of the other people around me, and see one woman reach out her fist to the board and tap one of the papers, then walk away. I do the same with my ring hand on the snow ginseng quest, and a prompt appears in the air above the ring. I read it quickly, then accept, and feel a tingle of ki from the ring, confirming that something has indeed happened. I won't be able to actually go out on this Quest until I'm recovered, unfortunately, but it's definitely something I'm going to do.

Signing up for this quest as an obvious newbie earns me a few odd looks, but I ignore them and move on to the section of the Quest Hall featuring animal hunting Quests.

The most dangerous animals, similar to the herbs, are also located to the north and south. I spend a lot of time looking around at these because, for the most part, I've never heard of any of these creatures. Like the celestials or the krovaks or the elves or the dwarves, they bear resemblances to the things of Earth, but there are always odd differences. Among many others, there's the black wolves with black blood living in the hills, four-armed gorillas in the jungle, enormous scorpions with multiple stingers in the desert, and six-legged mammoths in the tundra.

I mentally note down the one about the mammoths. They recommend a party of three Late 1 star Climbers, or a single peak 1 star, so they should serve as a good warmup for me. The reward is pretty good too. Just killing the mammoth will give me 500 credits, and if I handle its body properly, the tusks, fur, meat, and other materials can go for up to 1,000 more. That doesn't feel like a ton after how easily I just made 20,000 Tower Credits, but it's a significant amount compared to what I started with. There are other Quests that award more, but this one should be a good one to start with to get a feel for how the whole process works.

After settling on that, I move further back to a board with far fewer people standing before it. This time, rather than herbs or beasts, the targets of the Quests are people. Strays, specifically. There are a few hundred in total, and all offer much higher rewards, relative to monsters of the same level. However, most of the Quests don't draw much attention. The few people that are back here are clustered around the weaker-looking Stray posters, while the stronger ones are left unmolested. Some of the strongest Strays have posters that look yellow and cracked with age, as though they haven't been touched in decades.

Among them, I spot one for The Stray King, and when I see the reward, I can't help but be surprised. The reward for killing him is a full 1,000,000 Tower Credits, as well as any items he might happen to be carrying, which the poster estimates to be worth a similar amount. However, the recommended level is just as high. It says that to take him on alone, one should be a Low 3 star, while a party should contain at least 10 late 2 stars.

Frankly, I don't see how that's possible for the Climbers. The ambient ki– or rather, oum– allows for it, but with the 4 year time limit, the only ones with the talent to reach that high will be gone by the time they're strong enough to take him on. Jin Hayou, the self-proclaimed strongest Climber, is still only in the Early 2 star realm, though I suspect he's not far from breaking through to Middle. Even so, that's nowhere near enough.

Meanwhile, the Stray King is not bound by this time limit. He can stay as long as he wants, continuously cultivating and growing his strength. I bet he could make it all the way to Late 3 star, or perhaps even Peak 3 star with this level of ambient oum before needing to reach a higher Floor to continue his growth.

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

Honestly, it's not a bad strategy. Reaching the maximum level on this Floor will likely give him a much stronger foundation than those who ascend quickly and rely on the higher oum concentration to make their advancements. If that's his goal, I applaud him for his patience and forward thinking. Based on what Organa said, he can just enter the Tournament later if he wants to reach the next Floor, and if he keeps growing, it will be impossible for anyone who's not an Administrator to stop him.

Of course, I won't be taking this route. My foundations are fine, having built them time and again over the years. I may recommend it to Vanessa though. Not that I think she needs it with her apparent talent, but it might keep her off my back for a century or so. She might even forget that I owe her an answer by then.

Back to the Stray King though, if that's not his goal, then I really wonder what he's still doing here. At this point, there's not really anything that can threaten him, and he can leave whenever he wants. There would have to be something keeping him here. Even with monstrous talent, he has to have been here for at least a decade or two to have reached his current level. Without monstrous talent, it would be even longer. The image on the poster is likely outdated, based on the poster's age, but even in that, he looks to be middle-aged, so he's actually probably been here even longer.

Well, it's not like I'll figure it out just standing here. Moving on, a few posters away, there's the Stray Princess. A single glance shows that they aren't actually related at all, since they're different species. The Stray King seems to be a human, but the Stray Princess is an elf. Her danger rating is also much lower than his, though still probably out of reach for any legitimate Climber on this Floor. It recommends a single Late 2 star, or 10 Middle 2 stars.

I do notice that neither of them have any regions associated with them, which is a bit odd. All these quests seem to be provided by the Tower itself, or at least by the Floor Lord, so it should have access to that information, but it doesn't. Even if they move around, based on what I've seen, I doubt it would be difficult to make their location update in real time. That would certainly make all these Strays easier to hunt, and the fact that it's not like that makes me think that the Tower and Floor Lord don't actually want the Strays dead.

Once again though, I'm not going to figure out the mysteries of the Tower just by looking at some old posters, so after memorizing the faces of a few of the strongest Strays, I turn to leave the building. I'll probably take that mammoth Quest, and a few of the other northern region ones once I recover and go out for that Ginseng, but for now, I've gotten enough from this place.

After the Quest Hall, I head to the Hall of Learning. This one is very similar, filled with boards with information on lessons, though this one is a bit more organized, thankfully. It's also much less crowded, leaving me more room to move and more time to spend. Unfortunately, it's also quite boring.

While there are ways of using oum that are completely different from what I used back on Earth, the vast majority of these lessons teach what I already know. Basic cultivation techniques, basic melee combat, wilderness survival, first aid, etc… There are a few that look semi-interesting, as they are related to the soon-to-be-less mysterious affinities, but with few exceptions, they all seem to be "basics of" or "tips for" rather than anything specific.

As I walk by a section full of lessons for those with Life Affinities, I am able to draw a few conclusions about the affinities though. Life affinity is at least exactly what it sounds like. There are lessons about anatomy, biology, zoology, and plenty of other things like that. Once again, nothing specific, but it does give me a good idea of what the affinity is about.

I think I probably do have a life affinity. While I've done a bit of everything, healing and medicine is something that I found myself constantly coming back to, and in all my lives, I've always had talent for it. I also had just as much talent for fire, so I'm not sure how that fits in though. I'm sure I'll figure it out tonight when I talk to Ganyu again.

Just as I'm about to leave the Hall of Learning, I spot one posting that catches my eye. There's a lesson titled "Comparative Anatomy of Sentient Races of the Tower" taught by the one and only Organa Hatep. I think I'll be checking that one out. It's unfortunate that she's the teacher, but it also might annoy her if she keeps seeing me while I'm not accepting her offer. But the class seems interesting, and definitely useful, since this place is so foreign to me. The lessons start in two weeks, and will be held at some auditorium every other day at 2 in the afternoon.

After a bit of consideration, I touch the sheet with my ring hand, the same way I did for the ginseng quest, accept, then turn to leave.

Outside, it's still the middle of the afternoon, so I spend the next two hours just walking around the city. My little band of stalkers slowly dissipates as they realize I'm not doing anything noteworthy, leaving only a few behind. I ignore them and leisurely stroll through the city, mentally noting a few of the more interesting-looking buildings before finally heading back to the Phoenix Hall around sunset. Trinity reappears a few times, seemingly at random, and always to force me to take an odd detour, but she's mostly well-behaved otherwise.

When I return, the main lobby is lively, and not long after I return, Vanessa and Katherine spot me and abduct me to eat with them. I let myself get dragged along, loading up a plate for myself and another for Trinity and eating in silence as they chatter excitedly about random things from Earth. The quiet girl I saw with them earlier and Jacob also join us as we eat. Jacob jumps right into the conversation, while the other girl does her best to copy me and fade into the background, letting the others carry the conversation.

While I eat, I notice that Timmy the homeless man and a few others are staring at me, but I ignore them. I somehow manage to make it through the entire meal with only a few words before politely excusing myself and heading upstairs. Katherine tries to stop me and ask me something, but Vanessa puts a hand on her arm to stop her. I nod gratefully before turning to leave. This is why I like Vanessa. She's good at helping keep others from bothering me.

A minute later, I'm standing in front of Ganyu's office. I take a deep breath and knock. It's time to learn about affinities.

***

Back in Griffin Hall, shortly after sunset, Yuri Fillipov finally opened his eyes.

"Make good progress?" asked Nadia.

"Yes," said Yuri.

"Well, I've got some interesting news," she said, leaning forward. "You're not the only supreme talent from your world."

Yuri frowned.

"Have you thought any further about my offer?" she asked. "Now that you've had a chance to cultivate a bit on your own, do you see the value of a high-tier foundation pill? It would take you a long time to form such a high quality core on your own, even with your talent, but if you accept the Shin family's sponsorship, you can have it in a few hours. What do you say?"

"Maybe…"

"The other supreme talent has already gotten one of her own," Nadia continued. "It looks like Organa got to her. If you don't get one of your own, you'll fall behind."

"Why should I care about that?"

"Don't lie to yourself," said Nadia with a smile. "I can see the competitiveness in your eyes. You can take some more time to learn about the families, but I doubt you'll find anyone else with such a high quality foundation pill on hand on this Floor. Also, if you don't accept it before the Starter Quest, you will lose, and you don't want to do that. The reward for the Starter Quest is very good."

Yuri didn't respond, his frown deepening as he contemplated his options.

"I will think about it."

Nadia's smile widened. "Great! Alright, let's go get dinner. I'm hungry."