"Get up, you pretentious bastard. I know you’re still alive."

William kicked the last wolf, who was lying on the floor, eyes closed and tongue hanging dramatically. He even kept his breath faint. Honestly, his acting was so good that William would’ve known that he was alive if not for the lack of a trial completion notification.

William could’ve just killed him and ended the trial, but he had other plans. He wanted the wolf to surrender. After all, he’d seen how the wolf chewed up Cent’s ass, and he needed shameless bastards like that on his side.

Now caught, the wolf let out a low yelp as pain shot through him from the kick and pushed himself up on shaky legs. He looked like hell, his ass was turning purple from the arrow’s poison, and Cent’s last kick left his ribs cracked.

The wolf glanced up at William with puppy eyes, all will to fight was gone. William tossed him a green Bloom to get better. After taking it, the wolf collapsed, too beat up to even stand.

While the wolf rested, William turned towards Cent, who was in even worse shape. Deep claw and bite marks covered his torso, and his behind was a mess.

William had given him some Lumin dust that he was rubbing wherever he could reach. Lumina took care of the rest.

Lifeless bodies of climbers lay scattered on the floor. Seeing them, something clicked in his mind, ’LOOT! Let’s fucking go, meat, skin, fangs. I’ll buy a special butcher’s knife from the bunny just for this.’ He glanced at the Brute, lying in a puddle of green blood. ’ Not him, though. But that shiny bat? That’s mine now.’

After a while, the wolf’s breathing steadied, and he glanced at William, waiting for his judgment. William eyed him and asked, "Rollie... How do I complete the surrender? He doesn’t look like he would oppose." Instantly, Rollie chimed in with an answer.

[You’ve got to make a ’Blood Pact’ if a Climber surrenders. Just give him a drop of your blood.]

William frowned at the mention of the pact. "Why a pact? I didn’t have to do anything like that when I summoned Cent."

[Those summoned by gacha or with a summon token from the tower merchant come from the Ascension Realm. They’ve already sworn loyalty to whichever lord summons them.]

[Climbers come from a different realm and haven’t sworn any oaths yet, so the pact keeps them loyal. If they have any ill intentions during or after the pact, their heart will go boom.]

"Okay, that’s reassuring, but where is this Ascension Realm? Is it in the tower expanse? And which realm do climbers come from?" William fired off his questions, filling his mind.

[Sorry love, but you don’t have the authority to know that yet.]

"Fair enough. The story was going too clean, needed some cliffhangers anyway."

William turned his attention back to the wolf and nicked his finger on the sword’s edge.

A single drop of blood welled up, unusually thick, a shade darker than red, almost black. Maybe because of his physique. Then he stretched his finger out toward the wolf.

The wolf didn’t hesitate, he came closer and licked the blood from William’s finger. Instantly, a soft white light wrapped around him, then faded as quickly as it came.

The moment the pact was done, two system panels popped up. One belonged to Rollie, who was practically bursting with cheerleader energy.

[Yaaay! Congrats, dear, on crushing your first tower trial!]

The other was the classic blue tower system panel, rolling out a series of trial notifications.

[Congratulations on clearing your tower trial.]

[Calculating your performance...]

[Five Tier One (Low) climbers were killed, and one has surrendered.]

[One Tier One (Intermediate) climber was killed.]

[You have defeated a climber above your rank using foul tactics.]

[Congratulations! You have earned the title: CheapShot.]

[You have defeated climbers while being outnumbered.]

[Congratulations! You have earned the title: One Against All.]

[Calculating other parameters...]

[Final Clearing Grade: A Rank]

[All rewards have been transferred to your inventory.]

Seeing all the trial messages, William blinked in disbelief. He had no clue what criteria the tower used to score him, but hell, an A was more than good enough.

He scoffed at the name of the first title but didn’t care, titles come with effects, and he’d just scored two on his first trial. He was about to dive into his inventory for loot when new messages popped up.

[Neutral Zone unlocked.]

[Tower lords can meet other lords from their region.]

[Warning: Violence in the neutral zone is strictly forbidden. Penalties range from a temporary ban to death.]

[Lords cannot enter the neutral zone during a tower trial.]

William was scrolling through the latest notifications when something made him freeze. His eyes went wide as the bodies of the climbers began dissolving into white particles.

He bolted for the nearest dead Howler, yelling, "NOOO! NOT MY LOOOOOOOOT!"

But before he could reach it, the body vanished. He spun around, every single one was gone.

He stared at the floor for a long time, then let out a low, lifeless chuckle. "Haaah... I really, really, like realllllly wanted to go through the whole butcher experience." He glanced at the green puddle of blood. "Even the damn bat is gone."

He was genuinely pissed. Tempted to just sit and do nothing, but that wouldn’t bring anything back. He sighed and pulled up his status, hoping for a reward to lift his mood.

As the status panel appeared, he immediately noticed a new section: Titles, showing both of his new titles. Next to each was a view option for the full details. He checked CheapShot first, since it had ’unique’ rank next to it.

⟡⟡⟡ 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Title: CheapShot

Rank: Unique

Description: The universe is truly vast. Even goblins don’t play this dirty.

Effect: Cheap shots deal 50% additional damage.

⟡⟡⟡

William read the description and effect, and a crooked smile appeared on his face. "I don’t care what the damn description says. That was clever tactics, hit ’em where they least expect it. Like hell I’m going to stop. Now with this title’s effect, I’ve got even more reason to go low."

Then he opened the second title.

⟡⟡⟡

Title: One Against All

Rank: Uncommon

Description: Numbers don’t matter when you have strength. Make your enemy pay for ganging up on you.

Effect: When outnumbered, you will get +0.5 all stats per enemy, and your teammates will get +0.1 all attributes per enemy.

⟡⟡⟡

William hummed at the title’s effect. Decent enough, and with his luck, he’d always be outnumbered in tower trials anyway. Might as well cash in on it.

Next, he glanced at his TP. After blowing 10 on the arrow trap, he’d been flat broke, but now it had shot up to 250. Not enough for everything he would need for the next trial, but hey, it was something.

Then he scrolled down to the inventory for the real treasures.

⟡⟡⟡

Inventory:

Random Skill Draw (Uncommon)

Random Blueprint Draw (Uncommon)

Random Item Draw (Uncommon)

Floor Expansion Card (Normal)

Nightfang Howler (Fangs x3, pelt x3, Meat 5kg)

Steel BruteStick (Uncommon)

Tier One Core x6

Wood 1500, Stone 1000

3 Days of Food and Water

⟡⟡⟡

[A/N]: Only rewards from the trial are listed here.

The rewards were actually generous, considering the difficulty. The system even tossed him a bit of monster loot, just enough to remind him he’d missed out on the glorious butchering moments.

At least the Brute’s bat made it back into his hands. The resources? Enough to upgrade Cent, Lumina, and the tower core. But the real prizes were the draws. Oh, and there was also a floor expansion card, that adds one more blank floor below the Lord’s floor.

Not waiting another second, he said, "Rollie... draw all three at once."

[Congratulations...]

⟡⟡⟡

[A/N]: Please consider supporting by sending some Power Stones and Golden tickets. Your support means a lot and really helps me continue writing.