The Heavenly Martial Empress Returns: An OP Xianxia Returnee LitRPG

Chapter 9: Max Level & The Tower

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We continued our exploration after hunting the wolves for a little while. We came across a new open gate while exploring the forest, which was of a green color. This gate poured a lot of Goblins, the same ones I had slain before, so they were fairly easy prey. We slew them all, making sure to see the progress of my mother and my sister’s new cultivation abilities, and then crushed the boss, another Hobgoblin, although a Shaman this time.

And, well, rinse and repeat two more times, and my level was now fifty. To repay my mother and my sister for having welcomed me back into the family and for simply existing and making my life happier, I let them take the treasure chests. They got a few pieces of equipment and some potions, which they said they were going to save for future dungeon raids. My sister, after having slain the third boss we fought, a C-Rank Yeti King, gained system status.

I wasn’t too happy about the System parasitizing her, though, so I did the same trick as before and extorted an Administrator to give her a Privilege and let her “wear” the system instead of full integration. I couldn’t do the same with my mother right now, as she had fully integrated with it. But maybe once her soul grows strong enough to take on the backlash of tearing the system apart from it, I could do it too.

Anyways…

Ding!

[You have slain the [Yeti King (C Rank)] Dungeon Gate Boss!]

[Level Up!]

[Your Level has increased from Level 49 to Level 50!]

[All your Stats have increased. You gained Bonus Stat Points and Skill Points.]

[You have reached Max Level. You can now choose a Class inside of the Tower once you complete the Tutorial.]

[You gained +11.000 Credits.]

[The Level of several Skills has increased.]

[You received the Title: [Boss Slayer]!]

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[Boss Slayer]

Title Requirements: Slay five or more Boss-type Monsters alone.

Effects: Increases Damage against Boss-type Monsters by +30%, take -10% less damage from Boss-type Monsters.

A Title given to true Boss Slayers, You’re on a roll! Keep going!

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Another useless title, but I guess it is still nice.

I took a peek at my "status," or, well, this ever-growing piece of Etheric Equipment, as I like to call it.

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[Name]: [Katherine]

[Race]: [Human?]

[Titles]: [The One Who Folded The System] [Dungeon Gate Keeper] [Undefeated] [Talent Seeking Guider] [Apprentice Chef] [Boss Slayer]

[Class]: [None]

[Level]: [50/50]

[Mana]: [600/600]

[Martial Power]: [500]

[Strength]: [260]

[Agility]: [260]

[Vitality]: [260]

[Intelligence]: [260]

[Dexterity]: [260]

[Classless Skills (6/6)]

[Premium Player Privilege (SSS): Lv1] [Kicking Strike (D): Lv5] [First Aid (D): Lv6] [Mirage Veil (A): Lv5] [Cooking (D): Lv6] [Basic Swordsmanship (C): Lv5] [Family Bond (D): Lv4]

[Magic Skills (5/6)]

[Partial Spatial Manipulation (B): Lv5] [Mana Manipulation (C): Lv7] [Healing Golden Light (B): Lv5] [Photon Essence Manipulation (A): Lv5] [Cursed Flames (B): Lv4]

[Class Skills (0/0)]

[Locked]

[Stat Points]: [250]

[Skill Points]: [250]

[Credits]: [55.000]

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Not bad, more mana, which means I can continuously create a bit more Primordial Essence as well! A few more golden dews were produced today. A dew drop would usually take a month back in Murim, but I can make them daily here.

Anyway, these other stats do seem to work, and over time, bit by bit, it feels like their strength is stacking on my already supremely powerful body. A bit only, but a bit on a being such as myself is still quite a lot.

Above all, this Martial Power Stat is strange; it is not growing like the other Stats and has remained at five hundred. Do I need to do something else to increase it?

“Hey, Clide.”

[…]

“Do you want me to drag you back?”

[“P-Please, everything but that! I had no idea you could even do that! Even when I didn’t log into the System! J-Just what kind of entity are you?!”]

“Answer my question, Clide. How do I increase the Martial Power stat?”

[“A-Ah, that Stat… It increases with a lot of physical exercise, fighting, and healing. It is only one of many Hidden Stats that can only increase through specific methods!”]

"Interesting. Tell me about the others."

"Please, I can’t do that; I am not permitted to reveal all of these secrets. My boss is seriously looking at me right now. His big, red eyes are really angry. I am giving so much attention to just a single person so…”]

He wasn’t lying.

“I see, this boss of yours, can I talk with them?”

[“I-I wouldn’t… recommend it. But perhaps you could hear something if you let the Gods speak to you again like before, master Katherine.”]

He calls me Master now. Good boy.

“Alright~”

I quickly disabled my invisible veil and allowed the gods to speak once more.

[Several Tower Gods are furious against you for having ignored them for so long!]

[Some of them are deeply offended by what you’ve been doing with the System.]

[The Tower God {Spawn of the Abyssal Chaos} glares at you with hateful red eyes.]

[It proclaims that you will be punished for abusing the goodwill of Administrators.]

[Be careful when you enter the Tower…]

“Oh my, what a dull threat. Is that it? Wait, are you Clide’s boss?”

[The Tower God {Spawn of the Abyssal Chaos} invites you to the tower if you want to talk with them.]

“Alright, if you’re so eager to invite me inside…” I laughed. “Is there any other Tower God who wants to say something? If you’re only going to give me empty threats, I might as well just not hear them; your pathetic words can’t hurt me.”

[The Tower Gods that despise you only hate you even more now!]

[They have begun plotting your demise the moment you step inside the Tower.]

However, a few Tower Gods find you very interesting. If you can show them that you truly meant what you said, they are willing to reward you for taking care of the Gods they despise.]

“Oh? So all of you aren’t allies, huh? Interesting… Killing gods for other gods, am I a mercenary now?” I laughed. “I haven’t killed any of you yet; be a bit more patient, please.”

It was incredible how quickly they believed I could kill them instead of taking all I said as just bullshit. I suppose that my strength alone has proven that I am quite competent, as a world-class Class Hunter and all. Perhaps every World Class Hunter gains the attention of the Gods like this.

“So this tower thing, mother, how does it work?” I asked her. “Is the one we see from here the only one on the entire planet?”

“No, there’s only a single tower, but there are many entrances across the world. They emerge as those huge, black spirals. People tried destroying them before; I remember one being nuked. But nothing happened to them; they’re completely indestructible.” My mother said this while butchering a magic core from a monster carcass, as if it were something normal for her now.

“I see. How do they deal with players overflooding the useful dungeons and such? Or taking away all resources?” I wondered. “Remembering Murim, it was always utter bloodshed everywhere some place with a large quantity of treasures was found; in just a couple of days, there would be nothing left after the Immortals battled to get everything from it.”

“A-Ah, well, no, it is a bit different here. Materials and resources appear endlessly, I believe. They just take some time to grow.” She said. “About the Dungeons of the different floors, it depends. Dungeons usually have many entrances and are gigantic. Monsters respawn rapidly, and some floors are as big as entire worlds of their own. So the number of people that enter is never enough to overflow everything. And that’s without considering all the Tower inhabitants themselves.”

“Haven’t you noticed some weird people in the street’s somethings, big sis? Like overly pale women with red eyes and pointy ears, or people with tall frames, blonde pointy ears, and wooden armor. Sometimes you see tall, muscular, green-skinned people too. Or other times, they got animal traits.” Said my sister. “Those are tower inhabitants. When they become players themselves, they can also visit our world and the other worlds on the tower’s floors.”

“Perhaps I didn’t notice because I am so used to Murim’s myriad of different races.” I laughed. “But you’re right, I do remember some non-humans walking around. How amazing! How has the cultural exchange been so far?”

“Err, well, it depends. Not so good most of the time. They don’t like talking about their worlds and only come to Earth to buy our technology and food.” Said my sister. “Sometimes to also hunt monsters.”

“Some of them really like our food, especially everything that is processed or packaged.” My mother said, “And well, they also love phones, computers, video games, movies, and so on.”

“Hahaha, I guess I can relate to them in that regard.” I laughed out loud. “Oh well, now that I am here, I might as well do this a third time too."

I waved my hand as I touched the Dungeon Gate that was slowly closing, grasping its inner spatial pillars and then tearing apart a piece of it, extracting it completely.

Crack, crack…!

CRASH!

The sound of broken glass reverberated across the entire forest for the third time today. This was the third time I extracted a fragment of a Dungeon Gate, which appeared in front of me as a miniaturized sphere containing a small world. This one showed a snowy forest of sorts.

I combined it with the jungle dungeon where the goblins came from and the riverine dungeon where the other monster we hunted came from. A larger sphere was formed in an instant, containing the combined landscapes.

“H-How are you even doing that?” My sister wondered.

“Oh, this? It is easy! You simply have to learn how to manipulate space and close a gate, and then you get the Title. I think Yanisse might have it.” I wondered. “Maybe…”

“It’s incredible; you can somehow... make your own dungeon?” My mother wondered.

"Oh, not at all, but maybe if I combine enough fragments..." I said. “For now, it is just a piece of space containing a large quantity of leftover Mana, which I will be absorbing over time to refine it and produce more Primordial Essence.” I placed the sphere made of three Dungeon Fragments inside my Inventory. “Hmmm, should we continue? Perhaps I could close all the Dungeon Gates here in a couple of hours.”

“Wait, stop; don’t do that, dear.” My mother stopped me. “You’ve taken enough; if you end up taking away all the dungeons, won’t you make the other hunters upset? This is a “newbie training ground.” After all, very weak people often come here to level up because the tower’s first floor is usually quite hard.”

“Oh, right! I guess I should be more considerate with the little mortals, isn’t it?” I laughed. “Though I could simply not care, I sympathize with you, Mother, and also with hunters like you. So I will listen to your advice and not take everything for myself. My bad, it is just a bad habit from Murim.”

“I-It’s fine, honey, as long as you get it.” She smiled, patting my shoulders. “Alright, can you store the rest of the things for us?”

“Of course.” I nodded, waving my hand and storing the rest of the monster carcasses inside my Inner Realm. “It's still rather early today! I want to go explore the tower. Do we need to take a plane there?”

"Usually, yeah, the tower entrance might seem close to here, but it is very far away. Located near Canada, actually.” My mother said, “It usually takes a day of flight to get there. You also need to manage some documents and…”

“What a waste of time. Why must I play by these mortals’ rules? Mother, sister, come with me. We are all going to the tower now.” I said, opening a portal to my Inner Realm. “Enter my Inner Realm for a bit; once I am there, I’ll let you out.”

“E-Eh? Really? Is this even legal?” My mother wondered nervously.

“Don’t worry, Mom ~ Let Big Sis spoil us a bit~” Ruby was relaxed after trying out her new powers. Her fire and darkness techniques were quite deadly.

Her palms unleashed explosions of black flames, similar to my own, weakening foes easily. Based on power alone, she already had the talent of an A Rank, and my mother had much more.

Mother’s abilities evolved tremendously; her Mana Shield could now generate shields of hardened magic metal that could take on hits from B-Rank monsters like nothing.

Above all, she could summon Metal Aura Swords from her Ki Aura, slashing and slicing foes with ease. And as if things weren’t amazing enough, her palm attacks released explosions of blinding light, blinding and damaging foes.

Her healing abilities were still developing as I taught them to her, but she was already on her way to becoming an S-rank at minimum. But is that it? No, I won’t stop until my mother and my sister become world-class Class Hunters as well.

Or even beyond that.

“Alright, thank you for understanding.”

Once both were inside my Inner Realm, I kicked the ground and left a huge crater behind, blazing with flames and molten stone. I flew high into the skies, as high as I could, and set my gaze on the Tower.

I kicked the skies once, my body zapping through the heavens and splitting every cloud in my path. I arrived in front of the tower in a split second, generating a shockwave as I stopped moving right in front of it.

The structure was made of a black metal of sorts. By using my special eyes, I could detect that the metal itself was anchored to a spatial pillar.

I see, it is some sort of Space-Time Attribute Divine Formation! It is indestructible for these mortals because their attacks can’t possibly move pillars of space.

Not even Yanisse’s magic could, most likely.

“However, if it’s like this, I don’t even need to use the entrance.”

I tapped the black metal very gently while releasing waves of Primordial Essence. Cracks spread in mere seconds, which I controlled and formed into the shape of a door.

Crack, crack…!

CRASH!

The tower shattered. Something humanity was never able to accomplish was done by me in just a split second. Well, it was a rather unguarded Space-Time Divine Formation. The ones from the Venerables were a million times stronger.

“Now…”

BAAAM!

I kicked the cracks and opened a spatial door for myself, revealing to me a swirling mass of blue energy. The people making a long line to enter right below me could only watch in utter disbelief as the tower was finally shattered by nobody else but me. I noticed many were filming, but I didn’t care.

I passed through the portal I opened, and I noticed the crack slowly closing behind me. I guess they were desperately trying to stop the destruction I caused. Oops, my bad.

Once I passed through the portal, I felt a spatial disturbance. Something was trying to drag me somewhere else. Perhaps that “Tutorial” of sorts, or something.

“I want to do that Tutorial too, for the sake of it. But I will go there willingly; I won’t allow anybody to force me to do as they please.”

I released my Primordial Intent; a shockwave of rainbow light was unleashed from my body. The force dragging me down immediately came to a halt, as I was able to see where I was. It was a pitch-black space, full of stars and distorted masses of colors. It slightly resembled the Cosmos, but at the same time, it was an inner space of sorts within the tower. This might be the space between each floor.

“W-Why…”

I heard a monstrous groan. I looked up to find a mass of black tentacles with countless red eyes. He definitely didn’t look human at all—some sort of alien creature or something. Oh, I remember him now. He’s my good friend.

“Clide! Is it you?”

“W-Why did you…?! How did you?! T-This is…!”

He was having a panic attack.

“Calm down; I just want to enter the tower without waiting in line. A Primordial Immortal such as I doesn’t need the assistance of anyone to move around. I go wherever I please, understand?” I said. “Now, can you show me around? Is this the space in between floors?”

“Y-Yes, it is! It is not a place a human could ever survive! Yet you’re completely okay?! How can you even breathe here?!” He groaned, his long black tentacles wiggling. “More importantly, you need to do the Tutorial first! It’s the Rules of the Tower! Please, please, master! If you don’t do this, they’re going to kill me for being a failure!”

“Hmm, I suppose you have helped me enough, huh? Very well, I shall do you a favor and do the Tutorial now.” I nodded. “Teleport me there then.”

“Thank you so much!” He cried, tears coming from all his eyes.

FLASH!

I wanted to explore more, but Clide looked tremendously worried about his own life, and I worried a bit too. So I decided to go along with the “rules of the tower” for a bit.

The moment I was teleported, I found myself standing inside an ancient-looking temple of sorts, made of gray bricks.

There was a single corridor in front of me, but my aura could easily detect anomalies in the walls. Numerous traps were set there, waiting for an unsuspecting fool to step on them and be swarmed by an assortment of deadly projectiles.

Ding!

[Welcome to the Tower, Player Katherine!]

[As you have entered the Tower for the first time, you must first complete the Three-Part Tutorial of the Tower.]

[The Tutorial Difficulty will be adjusted based on your Total Stats, Skills, and Innate Power.]

[Calculating your innate Power…]

[ERROR]

[Player’s Power is incomprehensibly high; it cannot be calculated.]

[Reinitiating procedures…]

[Setting up the maximum level of difficulty ever available.]

[Tutorial Difficulty: Infernal+++]

[The First Tutorial Phase has begun; please complete the {Walk Through Fire} Trial by running across the trap-infested corridor and reaching the end of it.]

[The Tower God {Spawn Of The Abyssal Chaos} laughs, saying you should have never entered the Tower!]

[He says you should prepare yourself for the most agonizing Tutorial in existence.]

[He assures you that you will not walk alive out of it.]

“Is that so?”

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