— Hikari —
[Physique : 1150]
[Mana : 1400]
[Defense: 1320]
[Mind: 1200]
[Height: 5.2 meters]
[Weight: 4200 kg]
[Heart of wyvern: 450]
[Telekinesis: 650]
[RazenHeir flame: 450]
[Blessing of Hearthstone: 300]
"Ah…"
Hikari flexes her muscles.
The fruit was amazing.
She feels her muscles grow as its energy courses through her body.
It felt like she'd just had a feast, plus a zeppelin full of protein mixes, plus months of weight lifting.
The kind of exotic fruit she would only find in an ancient tower with impassable terrain and wyverns strafing overhead.
Not to mention clearing grueling floors of trials and fighting her way through a demon nest.
She could feel her power increasing.
Even without any normies to compare herself to, she knew she'd grown bigger.
She checked herself.
Her armor had gotten patchy again from her growth.
She had to retrain her body and readjust her armor again, which was annoying.
But for the moment, she could enjoy the feeling of power.
She felt like smashing something to test her strength.
She suppressed the urge, as she had long disciplined herself from living among smaller people.
How long has she sat inside the vault?
She was too busy absorbing the vault's mana and the ancient fruits' power into her body.
Hungry. Cannonball fruit grew along the vault walls.
Munch. Munch. She helps herself.
These were sweeter than the ones she found on the lower floors.
Larger too. It felt strange; she was sure she got bigger.
Munch. Munch. As long as they taste good.
At the core of the fruit, she could taste a very sweet, small, soft spot.
Much like the cream at the core of a chocolate pie.
She couldn't stop eating.
Before she knew it, she cleaned out an entire tree.
She had to tell herself to stop.
Exercises. The soft ground inside the vault made her normal workouts uncomfortable.
Which was a good thing, just as walking on sand improved her footwork.
Twenty push-ups before she felt the strain build up in her arms.
Twenty squats. Twenty sit-ups.
She picked up her sword.
Back to basics once again.
Sword drills.
Twenty vertical swings. Twenty horizontal swings.
Her sword felt light like a feather.
Moving on to slightly more complex drills.
Thrust then block. Twenty reps.
Swing then block. Twenty reps.
Parry and counter. Twenty reps.
Repeat for the other hand.
Meditation.
She focuses on her neutral form.
Her telekinesis helps her move her body more easily and bring her weight to bear.
It was the only thing she could train, as she could still feel the fruit's power coursing through her.
Time for a nap.
The soft ground inside the vault was the best bed she ever had out in the wilderness.
The strange, soothing mana calmed her body.
…
Hikari walked out of the vault.
She no longer felt the fruit's mana raging through her.
They had been fully assimilated into her body.
The tower mechanism rumbled.
The vault behind her closed.
She wondered if she could open it again just for the delicious super cannonball fruit that only grows inside the vault.
She checked her supplies.
Her giant pot was filled to a third with the normal cannonball fruit.
Three more pots of fresh water.
She'll use one to wash herself and drink from the other two.
Her shard belts were half-full. She used up half of them for practice.
The remainder was still enough for even a prolonged battle, given how much her aim had improved.
Her sword. She had learned enough to figure out that this most likely had belonged to a wyvern knight.
She wondered what it was made of to withstand the immense wyvern fire that would melt steel without a hint of deformation.
Her orb. A curious crystal, especially good at channeling wyvern flame.
It could channel the freezing mana of its polar opposite, a mechanism that she still could not understand.
She imagined it would be strong enough to freeze a golem's leg.
But for now, she could only use it to channel a frost barrier around herself.
A surge of mana filled the chamber.
Hikari turned her attention to the wyvern statue.
Leylines along the floor glowed so brightly that she could see them without her mana sense.
They converged on the half-wyvern statue.
The tower's mechanisms rumbled.
The ley lines formed a ring between the wyvern statue and the central vault.
A circular platform rose from the ground and stopped.
The floor grew silent.
"Trial?"
Or perhaps there is another treasure room.
Hikari strapped her pots and harvest sacks and got onto the platform.
She was big enough now to haul the giant pot onto one shoulder.
It was still bulky as heck, standing at several times the size of her head.
A surge of mana. The platform rumbled.
Hikari felt herself lifted toward the ceiling.
…
Hikari emerged into an open space.
The cold wind of the wyvern peaks gushed through her hair.
Her silver hair fluttered in the moonlight.
She took a deep breath.
Fresh air. The cold air of the sky above the wyvern peaks.
The wyvern flame coursing through her body warmed the air as it entered her lungs.
She stretched out her salamander skin to shield herself from the cold.
She noticed white flakes gathering on her finger as she held it out to the wind.
Snow? That made sense, considering how high she had climbed.
Woosh. Brazier all around the floor lit up.
Big ones, visible from miles away.
It was an open-air arena.
A marble floor that had survived the centuries well, except for a thick layer of dust.
A ring of massive columns surrounded the arena.
A cloud lumbered past.
The full moon cast its shadows through the columns.
Murals of wyvern knights.
The swordsman. The ranger. The wizard. The half-wyvern priestess.
They must have performed some truly legendary deeds to deserve their place on this pantheon.
Hikari noticed a structure opposite her.
It lay still. Silent. As it had been for as long as the tower existed.
An altar? Another wyvern statue?
She looked closely.
It looked more like a suit of armor.
"Trial"
Wide open arena. A suit of armor sitting in the center. Brazier lit all around.
It had all the setup for a boss fight.
Hikari brought her supplies to a pillar at the opposite end from where the suit of armor sat.
If she were about to take on the tower's final boss, she'd have to make sure her supplies were safe.
No railing on the ledge of the open-air floor.
If a telekinetic blast pushed her over, she would really find herself plummeting towards the ground from a tower extending a mile into the sky.
She had to put her supplies on the inner side of the pillar.
The circular pillar isn't exactly great at preventing loose objects from being blown away.
She tied them together with the giant caterpillar's sinew.
What if her supplies all get incinerated?
She looked up and saw a thicket of vines with round fruit growing on it.
"Fruit."
That'll be her next meal if only she could jump high enough to reach it.
She bent her knees and channeled her mana.
The thrust carried her three-quarters of the way up the pillar.
She then redirected her telekinesis downwards, cushioning her landing.
Stretch. Stretch. She bent over and touched her toes.
With more practice, she can definitely jump high enough to reach the fruit.
She did some squats to warm up her legs further.
After being cooped up inside the tower, it felt good to have an open area where she could finally jump freely.
She turned around and walked toward the suit of armor, carrying only her battle gear.
Hikari stopped meters away from the sleeping suit of armor.
A mass of metal, the same size as her.
Crystals masterfully embedded in the plating.
But something was off. She couldn't see how she could actually wear that armor.
Its shoulder plates were way too big.
Perhaps it's built for a war machine. Like the steam tanks the Herdial army fielded.
As she approached, she noticed an empty hole in the center of the chest.
"Ah."
Something in her brain clicked.
She walked back to her supplies and pulled an object from her harvest sack.
The key she found on the fifth floor, along with an expensive-looking flask.
She placed the key into the slot.
It clicked into place; the shape matched exactly.
She took a step back.
Silence.
The howling wind brushed against her hair.
Mana.
Hikari's senses tingled.
Mana flowed through the ground below her.
The leyline converged on the suit of armor.
Hikari leaped back and took a blocking stance.
Sword in front of her.
Her mana coursed through her body.
The ley lines on the suit of armor glowed.
The crystals embedded inside it flared with wyvern fire.
The armor plates floated off the ground.
Four of them aligned themselves into a loose tetrahydron formation.
A crystal materialized in the heart of the formation.
Glowing red with runes searing white with heat.
A being took shape as the crystal poured its mana out into the space between the plates.
Its flesh was made purely of swirling flames.
A pair of thick, golem-like arms.
It released an expanding bubble of fire, engulfing the whole arena in searing heat.
"Flame elemental."
A being that existed only in textbooks and reports on long-abandoned raids.
Now she faces one at the top of the world.
Hikari raised her sword and channeled her mana.