Zenith’s Tower

Chapter 19: Belial's Backstory

Belial opened his eyes to a crimson sky, covered in smoke. All around him was a red rocky landscape covered in fire and pools of lava. The sweltering heat roasted his body.

“Ah, I’m in hell.”

Belial said to himself as he looked around the area.

Everything around him had an orange tint from the bubbling lava and his skin was already beginning to blister.

Belial knew he would die from dehydration in less than a day in this heat with no water. He looked around and discovered that aside from a red mountain in the distance, there were no other major landmarks. That was his best bet at finding any water, so Belial chose to head in that direction and began walking. He could feel the heat from the ground beginning to burn his feet as he walked. The protective clothing he had received from the Tower was basically useless in this scenario. He had tested the clothing and found that it had protective qualities, but it seemed that they didn’t provide any resistance to heat. Belial had only gotten around half a kilometer in the direction of the mountain before he was drenched in sweat. Or he would have been if his sweat didn’t evaporate as soon as it was expelled from his pores. Was this some sort of test?

Soon, Belial came across a small opening in the side of a rocky hill.

This can either lead to water or death.

Belial smirked and went into the cave. The cave kept going further and further down, getting hotter the farther he went. It never got dark because the rocks in the cave emitted a fiery orange glow that kept the place lit. He eventually came across a skeleton with worn down metal armor and a small curved dagger. Belial picked up the dagger and looked down at the corpse.

Idiot must have been delirious not realizing his amour would cause him to overheat, especially in this oven of a cave.

Belial thought to himself as he huffed. He wanted to go further down into the cave because there had to be something down there, and he wanted to find out what. But he wouldn’t be able to survive going deeper into the cave. What he needed first was water and some way to cool down.

Belial clicked his tongue as he turned around and headed out of the cave, memorizing its location so that he could come back when he was better equipped. As soon as he stepped out of the cave, his chest lit up with a bright flash of light. Belial called out his TowerCard and saw that he had a new skill.

Name: Belial Velir

Level: 1

Age: 18

Race: Human

HP: 4/30

AP: 20/20

VIT:7 END:12

AGI:14 STR:9

DEX:7 INT:11

WIS:6 RES:8

DEF:9 LUC:2

Active skills:

Passive skills:

Heat resistance LV.1

Belial felt his entire body cool down by a small amount.

Ah, I get it. I can acquire skills if I complete certain conditions.

A smile crept onto Belial’s face as he continued toward the mountain.

Not long after, Belial encountered a group of monsters. The monsters were clad in dark scales around their chest, belly, and head. Leaving its neck, back, and sides exposed. There were three monsters in the pack. The monsters noticed him and jumped at Belial’s face. Belial took a step back and slashed his dagger, slitting the first monster’s throat as it came close to him. He then turned and kicked the second monster approaching him on the side of its head, breaking its neck with one kick. He directed his attention to the last monster. It crept forward, wary of Belial before it thought it found an opening and pounced. Belial dodged to the side and as it ran by and slipped his knife into its side, dragging it along the entire length of the monster. The monster took a few more steps before it fell to the ground, dead.

Hm, that’s all these monsters amount to? I was worried for nothing.

Belial chuckled as a rainbow-like smoke shot out of the monsters and went straight into Belial’s chest. Belial opened his TowerCard.

Name: Belial Velir

Level: 5

Age: 18

Race: Human

HP: 3/70

AP: 40/40

(12) unused ability points!

VIT:7 END:12

AGI:14 STR:9

DEX:7 INT:11

WIS:6 RES:8

DEF:9 LUC:2

Active Skills:

Dagger Mastery: LV.1

Passive Skills:

Heat resistance LV.3

Identify LV.1

MONSTERS DISCOVERED:

Black Scala- These monsters use the black scales covering most of their body as a defense mechanism. They have long razor-sharp claws and a powerful bite. Their scales and natural body temperature allow them to survive in extreme heat. They typically travel in packs.

Killed:3

TITLES:

Tower-Walker

So, this is exactly like a video game. I kill monsters and I level up.

Belial put his stat points into Luck. At the moment, Belial wasn’t having any trouble with defending monsters, so he decided to experiment with the Luck stat as it was really low, so it’d be easier to figure out what it did exactly.

“It’s time to grind.”

A creepy smile overtook Belial’s face. Belial looked down at the monster before him as its blood pooled around it before bubbling and evaporating.

Well, I’m not going to find water any time soon.

Belial crouched down and scooped up a bit of the monster’s blood and drank it. He was expecting it to be warm, but instead, it was relatively cool.

Hm, it’s natural body temperature and scales. Interesting.

Belial thought to himself as he looked at the monster’s scales. He touched one and it felt cold to the touch. He tore off multiple scales and tucked them into the inside of his protective clothing. He bent down and gulped down more blood. He felt rejuvenated.

“Ahh!”

Belial exhaled as he smacked and licked his lips, wiping away the excess blood. As he was about to get up, he saw something glowing inside the monster. He dug his hand into the corpse and fished around until he came across something hard. He pulled it out and discovered a small gem. He inspected the gem closely and noticed that the inside of the gem seemed to swirl around.

What is your purpose?

Belial used his new skill Identify on the gem and discovered it was called an anima gem but Identify wouldn’t tell him what its purpose was. Belial tucked the gem into his waistband and walked over to the other two monsters to get the gems from out of them.

With a way to cool himself down, Belial’s health began to regenerate and he made his way back to the cave. When he got to the skeleton he whistled and did a two-finger salute as he walked past it, making his way deeper and deeper into the cave. The cooling scales helped tremendously. Plus, he leveled up his heat resistance skill a few times, so going deeper into this cave was nothing.

Soon, he reached a large opening at the end of the cave. Inside the opening was a giant black scaled monster. Using Identify, Belial discovered it was a Black Scaled Oceros. It was quite a few levels above him, but that meant more fun and a better fight. It had a large horn surrounded by the black scales on its head. He flung his dagger straight into one of the monster’s eyes. The monster flung itself around the room, trying to find Belial. Belial sprinted around the monster, staying in its blind spot before he slid under its belly and plucked his knife out of the monster’s eye socket. The monster tried to spear him with its horn, but Belial dodged to the side and sliced at its leg, lobbing it clean off. The monster cried out, screeching in pain as stumbled to the ground and thrashed about, trying to find Belial. Belial snuck behind the monster and jumped on its back, digging his dagger deep into its spine. The monster tried to jerk him off, but Belial clutched firmly onto the dagger with one hand and let the other swing through the air, pretending to ride the beast like a bull. He had to have fun somehow with how weak all these monsters were. He then took the dagger out and slid it underneath the scales on the Oceros’s head before driving it deep into its brain. The monster sunk headfirst to the ground, lifeless. Belial hoped off and brushed off his hands.

That was fun! Too bad it didn’t last long.

Belial dug out the monster’s gem and took a nice gulp of the monster’s blood before he searched the room for any treasure because video games always had some sort of reward after a major fight. He soon found a giant silver sword with white symbols etched into the blade. Belial pulled the giant sword from the ground and held it with both hands. He could barely hold it up. He decided to use some of the stat points he had just received toward strength so that he could wield the sword with ease before putting the rest toward luck. He could feel a cooling mist radiating off the sword. Find authorized novels in Webnovelfaster updates, better experiencePlease click www.webnovel.com www.webnovel.com for visiting.

The monster must have been using this sword to cool itself down.

Belial thought to himself before he suddenly felt the room getting warmer.

The scales must need to be supplied with some sort of energy from the monsters in order to stay cold or they’ll slowly lose the ability to cool.

He thought to himself before he made his way over to the monster and cut scales off it. He tucked the new scales into his protective gear, tossing the old ones to the ground, then he tied the great sword to his back and headed toward the exit of the cave.

“Hey, look what I found!”

Belial snickered at the skeleton and gestured at his new sword.

He smirked as he left the cave. In 8 hours, Belial had already leveled up 11 times. When he got out of the cave; the sky looked exactly the same.

Hm, I guess there no way for me to tell the time in this place.

Belial shielded his eyes from the glowing red sky before he decided to continue making his way toward the mountain. He was thinking that there wouldn’t be a water source at the top, but instead, the boss fight since the mountain was the only landmark in sight and he had already technically found a water source. His resistance rose slowly as he endured the heat. The scales cooled him down for a few hours before their effect wore off and he had to get new ones. As he made his way toward the mountain, he killed every monster in his path. He put his points into strength, agility, and luck. He came across various other black scaled monsters as he made his way to the mountain. Whenever he would get tired, he would find a black scaled monster, kill it, gut it, and then sleep inside of it as the coolness from the monster kept him from overheating. He would drink the monster’s blood and roast their meat over pools of lava before eating them. After five days of traveling, he had finally made it to the top of the mountain.

At the top was an arena like area with a small glowing white circle in the back. A giant monster guarded it. The monster looked like a giant snake, but lava leaked out of cracks all over the monster. Its head almost looked dragon-like. Belial checked the monster’s name. It was aptly called a Lava Serpent and it was level 45, the highest he had seen so far. Belial’s excitement grew as he saw the level.

This should be fun.

He slid down into the arena. The serpent hissed at Belial. Belial grabbed his giant sword from his back and readied himself for the fight. The serpent slithered toward him and whipped its tail around at Belial, but he jumped back quickly before he stabbed his sword through the serpent’s tail. The tip of the serpent’s tail stopped dripping lava as it solidified and fell off. Belial frowned.

Killing this thing is going to be too easy, I’ll have to play with it a little.

He backed off from the serpent and waited for the monster to attack again. He continued to dodge its attacks and made little cuts on the serpent, just deep enough to solidify and freeze the serpent’s skin. After 15 cuts, the serpent could hardly move as most of its body was frozen. Belial walked up to the monster with his sword on his shoulder, stopping only inches away from its face. The monster hissed in anger as it tried desperately to bite at him but couldn’t. Belial tilted his head and a grin appeared on his face. He took his sword with one hand and sliced the monster’s head clean off.

Shink!

The head plopped on the ground, the mouth still gaping open. He quickly sliced open the monster and searched for the gem. When he found it, he noticed it was quite a bit larger than the other ones he had. He hopped off the serpent and made his way over to the white circle. As he walked into the circle, he thought how he could easily finish the next floor. His eyes were overcome with white light and when he could see again, he found himself in an endless desert.

“Hey, I thought I had the choice to leave the Tower after I finished a floor!”

He yelled at the sky, laughing.

Belial looked around, there seemed to be nothing stretching on forever.

This Zenith just loves putting me in hot, unbearable climates. That’s okay, Zenith. I see it as a challenge.

Belial sneered and marched his way into the desert. He walked for an entire day before coming across a small sandstone shrine. The inside was small. It only contained a flowing pool of crystal-clear water and some sort of stone statue depicting a beautiful woman with a large pair of wings coming out of her back. He decided that he was going to make this his base so he could search the desert then come back here and rest. He spent two weeks scouring the desert, occasionally finding monsters to kill. One day he came across a scorpion monster and killed it before chopping it up into pieces to bring back to his base. After eating he drank some of the water from the pool and noticed that his TowerCard had lit up. He looked at it and saw that he had acquired a new skill.

Wind Goddesses Wrath- Emits a gale of wind from the weapon the wielder is holding. LV.1

Fascinating!

Belial thought to himself thinking of ways he could abuse the skill’s power.

The next time Belial came across a scorpion monster he plunged his dagger into the monster’s back and used his new Wind Goddesses Wrath skill, injecting the gale of wind inside the monster. The air-filled the monster quickly and it exploded, sending chunks of it flying in every direction.

One day after walking for hours searching the desert, he felt a strong breeze hit him. He turned his head and saw what looked like a sandstorm with a monster in the middle of it. The monster had glowing amber eyes as it watched Belial approach.

“You’re just the beast I was looking for!”

Belial watched as the sandstorm came right for him. He charged right into the sandstorm, shielding his eyes in an attempt to see. He couldn’t see anything, so Belial took out his dagger and flung it blindly into what he assumed to be the center of the storm. Suddenly, the sand came crashing down and Belial saw the monster laying belly up with the knife embedded into its chest.

I guess it pays off putting most of your points into luck.

Belial laughed hysterically before a small white circle appeared on the ground before him.

“Was that really the boss? You’re really not going to challenge me are you, Zenith?”

Belial shouted at the sky.

“Hopefully, the next floor isn’t as much of a disappointment.”

Belial huffed as he walked into the circle.

This time, he was in a burning forest.

Ugh, I’m getting tired of hot places.

The 3rd floor was even larger than the desert floor. It took him over two months to clear the third floor. Twice as long as it took him to clear the first two floors. He killed thousands of monsters as he leveled up and earned new skills. When he finally got to the boss fight, the monster was tougher than the other bosses he had fought, but that wasn’t saying much. He still killed the boss only receiving a few bruises.

Okay, I’m bored now.

Belial yawned as he stepped inside the circle after he killed the boss. This time he found himself in a brick room. Outside of the room, he found a shop. The shopkeeper took his TowerCard and told him that he had earned 10,000 Lumis. He looked at the giant sword that he had.

Eh, I only need a dagger. Having this great sword makes fighting way too easy.

He dropped the giant sword onto the table.

“I’d like to sell this.”

“Oh, I don’t usually have anyone at such a low level try and sell such high-quality weapon.”

The blue-haired clerk eyed Belial down.

“And?”

Belial apathetically responded to her.

“I can offer you 200,000 Lumis for it.”

The shopkeeper replied in a monotone voice. Belial nodded his head and then he saw potions to his right.

“What are those?”

Belial asked.

“Those are health and anima potions. They restore your health and anima so that you are more likely to survive.”