William stood before the Luminara Tree, ready to upgrade the tower core. Sure, he could’ve just done it from the grassland, but he wanted to see if there would be any changes.

He’d already fulfilled the troop condition, and the resources were just sitting in his inventory. Still, he hesitated. Spending 100 TP for a minor core upgrade was painful, and after that, he’d be left with just 110 TP, absolutely not enough for the next trial.

All he could do now was hope something good would happen after the upgrade, or else, He’d have to sell another batch of Blooms. With a heavy heart, he said, "Rollie, upgrade Tower Core." The moment the words left his mouth, blinding light swallowed the tree, lingering for a few seconds before spilling across the flower bed.

As the light swallowed the Blooms, the flowers that had been plucked started growing back, and within seconds, fresh Blooms popped up. For the final touches, the Luminara Tree’s branches stretched out, its leaves turning even lusher.

William’s jaw dropped. He found himself staring, not at the tree, but at the Blooms surrounding it. Just moments ago, he’d been fretting over his decreasing TP, but now it was as if Mama Luminara herself had kissed away all his worries. Inside his head, the greedy little goblin was losing its shit, ’TP... TP... TP...!’

The upgrade didn’t end there. The light shifted again, this time, it swallowed William. The greedy goblin’s TP chant in his mind fizzled out, replaced by a gut-punch flash of agony from when he’d gained his talent. He clenched his teeth, bracing for a repeat of that hell, but nothing like that happened. Instead, a gentle warmth washed through him for a few seconds before quietly fading away.

Rollie popped up, showering him with notifications.

[Tower Core: Luminara Tree successfully upgraded to Tier One (Intermediate).]

[Congratulations! Your rank has advanced to Tier One (Intermediate).]

[You have gained 20 unassigned attribute points.]

[Bonus: Due to Absolute Origin Physique’s enhanced absorption of Tower energy, you have received 10 additional unassigned attribute points.]

William’s brain was blowing up. He wasn’t used to things going his way, first the flowers, now the attributes. He didn’t even know how to react to a situation like this. In his mind, he tried to calm himself.

’Okay, breathe. In... Out... In... Out...Haaaaaa.’

It took him a while to calm down, and finally, with a clear mind, he first opened the tower status to check for changes.

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Tier Upgrade Conditions

Wood: 500/500

Stone: 250/250

T.P (Tower Points): 110/300

Tier 1 (Intermediate) Troops: 2/3

Tier 1 (High) Troops: 0/1

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The only change was in the upgrade conditions, which shot through the roof. TP for the next upgrade? Tripled, and it was still just another ’minor’ upgrade. He didn’t care about resources, he had more than enough stashed already. The troop requirement wasn’t an issue as well.

He closed the tower status and opened his own. All his attributes sat at twenty, and now he had thirty unassigned points. He remembered fighting with brute, the main reason he struggled was that bastard’s Strength outclassed his own.

Next was Constitution, which covers vitality, stamina, and endurance. But above all, there was his luck, tainting his balanced attributes with a fat zero. He knew from novels that these special attributes couldn’t be raised with unassigned points, but he still tried dumping all thirty into luck. The number didn’t budge.

He kept doing it until Rollie finally chimed in.

[Are you dumb, dear? Even you know special attributes can’t be increased, and yet here you are, spamming like a bot.]

William stopped right away and muttered, "Well, it didn’t hurt to try. Maybe I could’ve glitched them in."

Now out of his stupor, he started assigning his attributes for real, ten points each into Strength and Constitution, five each into Agility and Intelligence. That familiar warmth spread through his body, then faded away. He checked his status again to see the changes.

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Name: William Hart

Talent: Absolute Tower Gacha (Ex)

Tower Core: Luminara Tree (Expand)

Tower Tier: Beginner Tower (Intermediate)

Troops: Fairies (F-Rank)

Tower Points (TP): 110

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Power Path(s): Tower Cultivation

Tower Cultivation Tier: Beginner (Intermediate)

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Bloodline(s): Grubkin (Expand)

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Titles: CheapShot (Unique), One Against All (Unommon)

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Attributes

Strength: 30

Constitution: 30

Agility: 25

Intelligence: 25

Charm: 100

Luck: 0 (After +10 from Luminara’s blessing)

Unassigned Attribute(s): 0

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Talent

Absolute Tower Gacha (Expand)

(Please check Chapter 6 for the full details of talent)

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Skills: None

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Technique: Trainee Sword Technique (Intermediate)

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Inventory

Same reward items + The ones he got from gacha

Please tell me if I should mention them all again.

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Regional Chat (Expand)

Tower Merchant (Call)

Neutral Zone (Visit)

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William let out a low whistle. "With these stats, if that Brute shows up again in the next trial, I’ll drop him with an RKO." With the upgrades finished, he closed the status and eyed the Blooms. "Time to collect all these sweet, sweeeeet TP." He started walking towards them.

As he approached, Lumina and the Imp emerged from the freshly bloomed flowers, giggling as they made their way over. He gave them a quick pat before asking them to help pluck some flowers. He’d decided to sell half of everything and save the rest for emergencies.

Once finished, he stashed them in his inventory. This time, he’d list them at 3 TP, last time, at 2, they sold way too fast, and it felt like he undervalued them.

Of the items he had, the Howler fangs and pelt were useless. The strap-on? No way in hell he was keeping that shit. Then there was the BruteStick. He seriously wanted to keep it, the thing looked badass, and on top of that, it was enchanted, giving two extra Strength points and one extra Constitution point. If he didn’t need the TP so badly, he’d have kept it as a baseball bat.

Once everything was sorted, he opened the regional chat. The first thing he noticed was that the number of Lords had plummeted, hard. From 100,000 down to 73,397. "What the actual hell, this many dead from just the first trial. And it’s from just one region. Hundreds of millions might’ve died. I just hope those idiots are okay."

Seeing those numbers, a pit formed in his stomach for his friends. Just days ago, everyone was living their normal lives on Earth. Now, millions were dead. He pushed the feeling aside as he couldn’t do anything for them right now and headed to the Regional Market to put his stuff up for sale.

He listed the Blooms at 3 TP each, just like he decided. Then came the Howler fangs and pelts for 5 TP each, and the BruteStick for 65 TP, it is uncommon rank, after all. The one from the bunny was just a common weapon listed at 30 TP.

As for the Strap-On, he had no clue what to price it at. It boosted charm, and some knuckleheads would probably swarm for it, so for laughs, he threw it up for 100 TP.

After that, he checked his private chat, there were over 50 messages from Aunt Julia. He’d been so caught up with the rewards and upgrades, he’d completely forgotten about her. He shot her a reply, and she messaged back instantly. She was in the neutral zone and wanted to meet up.

He finally decided to head to the neutral zone. As soon as he thought of visiting the neutral zone in his mind, a white portal snapped open in front of him, accompanied by a series of Tower messages.

[You may now enter the portal. It will transport you to your Regional Neutral Zone.]

[Only one main troop may accompany you.]

[Other Lords can only view your name. All other details will be hidden.]

[Reminder: All violence is strictly prohibited within the Safe Zone.]

He wanted to flex by bringing Cent with him, but the damn tower system only allowed main troops. So, he called Lumina, who perched on his shoulder with a bright "Kyunn~."

Stepping through the portal, the world flipped. William stared, dumbstruck. "What the hell... Did I just walk into a real-life Anime Expo?"

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[A/N]: Please give some powerstones or golden tickets, it really helps the story to reach more readers and keeps me motivated to write more.