End of the Tests

Kai's body hurt internally from the impacts he'd taken. Human organs weren't meant to take that kind of trauma.

The Goddess hadn't taken her eyes off of Kai since the fight started. He had remarkable adaptability and agility, as well as fine dexterity with those blades; but he lacked any type of skill with the daggers. He was only using them because he thought they fit him better than anything else... And because he couldn't swing around anything heavier.

"I am impressed with your adaptability. That has to be your finest trait. As a boon for defeating the Squirrel Adolescent with your ability, I will grant you this treasure," she said, handing him what looked to be a squirrel's tail hanging from a string like a necklace.

"Oh, my Goddess, could something so magnificent really be for the likes of a lowly one such as I?" Kai had no clue how the hell a squirrel tail would benefit him.

'I got awesome daggers for my first reward, yet this fight seemed much more unfair and I get a stupid ass squirrel tail?! And did she say Adolescent? That was a child?! My bad luck knows no bounds,' Kai wailed in his soul, showing only feigned happy surprise to the Goddess.

The Goddess actually rolled her eyes saying, "The fight was not essentially more unfair, the two creatures had different strengths. The boar had high fortitude and strength, while charging his speed could definitely increase, increasing his power, but reduced his mobility, which is what you exploited. The squirrel had high speed and strength with incredibly low fortitude, being both a trait of the squirrels as a whole, but also because it was a child," the Goddess explained.

"The reason it went berserk in such a manor is because, yes, the squirrel could understand you, and it was insulted because of it being a prideful youth. So well done insulting and beating up on a kid," The Goddess finished with a smile.

'She really had been reading my mind,' Kai lamented with a sullen expression as he listened to her speak.

"So what's next, do I have another opponent?" Kai tried changing the subject before she dug any deeper into his brain, it was weirding him out at this point.

"I believe you've shown me enough of your prowess at this point so allow me to explain the necklace I've given you. It is an artifact, one of the many such items that can be found in my tower, and it grants the user +10 to Dexterity and Agility, so it is obviously an extremely rare treasure. For the First Floor it is Epic Grade." The Goddess beamed at Kai as if she had presented him the most wonderful gift ever granted from a Goddess.

Kai stared at her blankly.

"Oh, thank you my Goddess, your generosity is truly noteworthy, it should be spoken across the universe," Kai tried speaking nonsense, hoping to continue this process on as he had no idea what any of those terms meant; he'd just figure it out later and wasn't worried about it as he knew something Epic had to be good.

"You truly don't know what Stats are?" The Goddess stared back blankly.

"Uhh, you're the one who can read minds, so..."

Pacing back and forth, she stared off into space. She stopped and turned back to Kai.

She had a slight tint of pink to her cheeks as she said, "Ah, I see, it's not like me to forget things so easily. Most humans devour all the information they can about the tower before entering, so I've grown used to people being familiar with the information." She stated succinctly as she hurried onto a proper explanation.

"There are six Main Stats that will influence your growth during your time in The Tower of Life. The four physical stats are Strength, Dexterity, Agility, and Fortitude. Increasing these will make you hit harder, gain faster reaction speed and finesse, gain speed and accuracy, and make you tougher respectively. The fifth and sixth are more spiritual in nature..." The Goddess paused to make sure Kai was keeping up.

Kai nodded to show he was paying attention and she continued.

"The fifth Main Stat is Willpower, which influences your resistance to pain, mental pressures and exhaustion, and can also help increase your rate of Mana Regeneration-"

Kai stopped her there and interjected, "Mana? Like magic Mana?"

The Goddess smiled, she had anticipated this, "Yes, Kai. It is Mana like magic. That is the sixth Main Stat is Mana Capacity, or Mana for short. This stat will increase your Mana pool and help with your finesse in the use of magic, from shorter cast times to no cast times, having to say incantations to instantly manifesting a spell. All of this is affected from the Mana stat, and is usually 0 to start with for all humans but a few that I've seen so far enter the Tower."

Kai's mind was whirling with possibilities. 'Magic? I could actually use magic? This world is going to be so much better than Earth, no matter how many demon rats and stinky boars I have to chop down to get stronger, I'm determined to learn me some spells!'

Kai's eyes were shining brightly, anticipating all the types of magics he wanted to learn. What were the types? His mind was spinning with questions and possibilities, but he decided to hold off on asking anything since he liked the thrill of learning it all by himself.

The Goddess continued to smile as she said, "So back to the necklace. Humans seem to have an average of 10 in their Physical Stats. So with this necklace, you will receive 10 Agility and Dexterity, which will be very beneficial to you, I'm sure."

Kai didn't know why the Goddess took the time to explain all this and didn't know if she did this for everyone, but he appreciated the information and would keep listening while he could. He didn't know what type of day to day operations a Goddess had to go through, but he assumed she was a busy person and didn't plan on taking up more of her time asking questions.

"I see that now. I really appreciate the reward, thank you," Kai smiled sincerely, he could be an ass, but sometimes genuine thanks should be given. 'Seems my luck is back on track!' He shouted in his mind as he put the necklace on.

He immediately felt a change. His body felt lighter. He bounced around from foot to foot and remembered that his body was completely wrecked, after the adrenaline wore off he'd tried staying as still as possible, but now he'd gotten excited and forgotten. He winced in pain but smiled as well, this necklace was awesome.

The Goddess waved her hand as her cheeks turned a tinge of pink once more. Kai's everything felt brand new once more. He beamed a smile at her and gave her a thumbs up.

"Ahem, with what you've shown me, I believe you can survive just fine in my Tower of Life. Are there any further questions you have before you begin your journey, Adventurer?" The Goddess cleared her throat as if slightly flustered.

"Those were the only two creatures you had as the test? Hah, if you don't want anyone getting that wish of yours, you better not let me into that Tower of Life, because if this is it, then I'm going straight to the top!" Kai protested and pushed out his chest.

'It's better to present an overconfident front so she might feel like putting me in my place, then I may be able to snag another reward before I leave,' Kai schemed in his mind but put the thoughts away immediately, immediately yelling in his mind about how easy those fights were and how the Tower of Life was going to be easy.

As the Goddess squinted her eyes at him, she slowly raised her hand. He looked at that hand and started to feel nervous. The pressure the Goddess showed earlier had returned and she kept raising that hand slowly. It stopped right in front of his eyes, and snapped.

Kai flinched in surprise and opened his eyes. A 10 foot skeleton stood in front of him in raggedy ancient armor that was falling apart, holding a rusty longsword with a wooden and brass buckler.

The mouth clacked continuously; Kai felt as if his brain was being hammered over and over. He tried focusing through the annoyance and quickly leapt towards the skeleton, showing no hesitation.

His ears were ringing with the continued clacking, but he wasn't going to be daunted. The squirrel tail necklace gave a huge boost to his stats, so he was insanely fast compared to the old bag of bones.

The longsword gave off a whistling sound as it split the air, on a diagonal trajectory with Kai's neck. The longsword was surprisingly swift, causing Kai to raise one eyebrow.

The longsword was coming fast, but Kai swiftly dodged under the attack by stepping into the skeleton's guard. He held his dagger backwards as he stepped under the longsword and deflected it away, as his other dagger came down with an overhand strike at the skeleton's wrist.

There was nothing to bleed out of the skeleton, so he decided to try disarming it. His Tusk Daggers weren't the best for cutting bone as they were more jagged than sharp, but he thought if he used enough force, he may be able to crack the bone eventually.

The skeleton's giant size was a great help to Kai. Since Kai was heavily Dexterity and Agility based, he was able to continually dodge the sword's strikes by stepping in close. Since the skeleton was so big, even if it had a decent swinging speed, it couldn't make it to Kai in time before he slipped away or under it.

The skeleton was obviously growing frustrated, the gemstone fire in it's eyes lighting brightly. The speed of the skeleton increased and it began using it's shield in combination with it's sword to attack.

The skeleton sliced and bashed at Kai for minutes on end and Kai was sweating profusely. He didn't know if he could keep this up much longer, and his hits to the skeleton hadn't broken the bone yet. He thought the weakness was most likely the gemstone eyes of the skeleton, but with the increase in speed and the skill of sword and shield that it had, he didn't know how much longer he could keep this up.

Kai began faltering and the skeleton seemed exuberant. Kai finally missed a block and the skeleton shot his sword forward, aiming directly at Kai's heart with all the strength and speed he had.

Kai smiled and dodged the attack. The sword lodged into the white flooring and Kai immediately sliced in an overhead strike with both daggers falling like stars. The daggers collided with the wrist bone for what had to be the 1,000th time in the past 15 minutes, and finally it shattered with a loud crunch.

The skeleton was still clacking but Kai had lost his hearing a long time ago with blood streaming down his face. He looked strange with that blood and the manic grin that he had. He'd never felt so alive, he could only hear his blood pumping rapidly in his veins and nothing else.

As the skeleton lost his hand connected to the longsword, he slammed his shield directly toward Kai's side. Kai jumped over the horizontally turned shield and jump off of it as it passed. Once again his daggers were flying straight and true.

He destroyed the skeleton's eyes, accompanied deafening shattering noise. Kai didn't hear a thing, but he did feel crystal shards slice across his body from the explosion, with the magic fire scorching his clothing to cinders and burning him.

'Fuck! What a bastard skeleton! Some type of self destruct mechanism when he gets destroyed? What the hell...' Kai cried out in his mind as he fell flat on the ground after taking those injuries.

The cuts and burns stung furiously and he writhed on the ground as the skeleton was falling directly on his disheveled body.

'Ah shit...' But Kai finally stopped writhing, opened his eyes and accepted his fate. It'd been a good run, and he didn't regret coming to test for entrance to the Tower. If nothing else, at least his own hubris and greed had done him in.

Kai was laughing hysterically and couldn't even hear it, and the Goddess was staring at him with wide eyes as she snapped her fingers and he appeared at her feet completely healed.

"Kai, you are full of surprises and more greed than most. This reward will be one that may help you in your travels as well," she said handing his a little skull token that looked like it could fit on his necklace next to the squirrel tail accessory.

He sat up, taking off the necklace and adding his new skull token to it. He smiled, thinking he had definitely gotten a great pile of loot coming out of this test. He was smiling to himself wondering how tough the creatures in the First Floor would be with all his upgrades.

"Not one other person in your race has killed all three creatures. Some have killed two, but most even fail to kill one. Congratulations on being the first to complete the combat trial successfully out of millions. Only two have even asked about the third one or fought it, and one of them died in the fight." The Queen was looking towards the arena as if remembering the fights she was speaking about.

"Since you've impressed me as such, I shall grant you my Blessing."

The Goddess raised her hands above Kai and gold light shone, spreading across his body and suffusing it with light and energy. He suddenly felt a roaring energy enter his body, wracking it with shudders as his body attempted to absorb the energy.

He flopped on the ground like a fish out of water as the energy suffused his entire being. His bones creaked and muscles bulged slightly. The feelings were not pleasant as his skin stretched from the energy coursing through him, burning a specific path through his veins. He felt as if this energy was cleaning out his entire being, burning away his past as a street urchin.

He didn't know if this lasted an eternity or an instant, but he finally came back to his senses.

The Goddess gave a tinkling laugh as she covered her smile with a hand. "I wondered how a human would react to being injected with Deified Mana directly. What a funny spectacle."

The Goddess kept laughing as if she had told the world's funniest joke. Kai just lay on the ground with his mouth agape and eyes watering from the tears leaking down his face. His body felt as if it had been torn apart and rebuilt anew. He softly groaned as he tried breathing, wheezing noises escaping his raw throat that had been screaming the entire time.

After an indeterminable time spent laughing, the Goddess finally straightened up and waved her hand at Kai, causing him to stand up like a puppet on strings. As he rose in the air he noticed a disgusting stench lingering and a thin layer of black gunk sliding off his body. His clothes stuck to him with the gunk as glue. The Goddess snapped her other finger theatrically and he felt good as new, no more putrid stench or black substance.

'Why does she always make it so dramatic? I'm sure she wouldn't even have to think to use her powers, yet she does all these gimmicks... I kinda respect it. I'm sure she doesn't get much time to show out as a Goddess, so whatever. The real question is what the hell was that disgusting sewage? Even on the streets I never encountered something so foul' Kai was stuck in his thoughts as his mind still hadn't returned after that immense torture session with Deified Mana.

"My Goddess, please, this lowest of your servants is not worthy to present thee a question, however, I must insist. What the fuck?!" Kai exploded. The pain he had just felt was worse than every injury in his life put together, multiplied by a thousand. The pain was indescribable as every cell, atom, fiber of his being became instantly accustomed to Mana and then practically doused in gasoline and lit on fire.

"I might could have warned you, but truly, I didn't think there would be such a reaction and once I saw you flopping like a fish out of water, I couldn't stop... I just couldn't stop!" She began giggling again but found a breath to say, "Look! I can show you right here, just look!"

The Goddess pointed her palm towards Kai as an image formed of him being doused in godliness and set on fire. He had to agree with her, it was pretty funny to see his body contort like that and he gave a small chuckle. He saw black smoke rise from his mouth, as his eyes leaked black fumes, it looked like he was being cooked from the inside out. Black detritus rose from every part of his body, bubbling as it cooked from the holy fire, turning into smoke and drifting away.

'Did she really burn me? And what the hell was that black shit?!' After further consideration decided he didn't want to know.

"Whatever, it was still the worst pain imaginable... A "Blessing" was it?" He stated with air quotes.

"Well, Mr. 'I don't appreciate my Goddess', the blessing gives you a permanent boost to your Mana and Willpower. And it's not a set amount, it will grow as you grow, making you become much stronger during your ascension of this Goddess' Tower of Life. It has provided other benefits that you will understand once you begin working with mana as well! So you should be thankful," the Goddess finished with a prim expression on her face and her arms crossed in triumph.