The Tower

" Oh, Shit!! Are you the player Atlas?" Marcus said as he looked at James in shock.

Upon Marcus' arrival, one could consider the thought of whether Marcus was intuitive as he made himself out to be. After careful observation of the events that have taken place since his arrival, two flaws could be identified.

First of all, it has been established that logically a person who will most likely be moving from place to place should not have a blindfold on.

James for the sake of looking cool decided to have his Soul Limiter in the form of a blindfold as we already know.

Upon his arrival, a person like Marcus with his sharp perception did not ask why a normal person who will go through a lot of combat have a blindfold on, which might hinder their combat ability.

The blindfold should have prompted Marcus to ask but somehow he unconsciously ignored it.

Secondly, he didn't check James' player ID. With the way James clowned him when he found out about his player ID it came as a surprise why he didn't check James' ID to reciprocate the injustice he had suffered at his hands.

"Haha, how can a person like you with your lean stature dare to pick the name 'Titus'? This is so ironic. Haha, I can't stop laughing. It is like calling me Silver with my healthy natural blonde hair." James said gloatingly as he "looked down" on Marcus.

Marcus could vividly remember the day he gave James his in-game avatar name. This prompted a five minutes laughing session for James. This was one of the most genuine laughs he had in all his three lives.

All this could be said to be one of the contributing factors to the relationship that James had developed with Marcus.

In Zero Evolution Online, everything worked on intent. Just staring at a person did not mean their status screen will be revealed. There must be intent behind the gaze to make that a possibility.

Somehow, the first thing to come into mind when Marcus met James for the first time in the game was not to check his status screen.

The Status screen provided the basic information for every player. This provided a means to link achievements to players based on their avatar name.

With the hopes Marcus had for James, it was illogical for him not to find information about his avatar name that could link to any future achievements.

He may have subconsciously not expected anything special from James this early on which might have prompted that decision.

All this would add up to buff an argument meant to question Marcus' intelligence.

Marcus and James might very well be among the very few highly intellectual people of their race but they commit blunders that question that intelligence. These mistakes just reaffirmed how human they were even with their supposed talent and potential.

This might prompt the importance and essence of evolution because evolution leans towards the perfection of oneself until one can survive on themselves where perfection is paramount.

Marcus stared at James in shock as he repeated his question once again.

" Oh, Shit!! Are you the player Atlas?"

Due to how unresponsive James was, Marcus decided to finally do what he needed to do all along....with intent he gazed at James in hopes of checking out his stats....all that came out was nothing.

"Hey, why can't I see your stats? Are you Atlas?" Marcus said in disbelief. He had a hard time believing James.

Marcus did have the feeling that James will be special and perform terrifying feats based on his intuition. But to be so vastly superior to his potential was never factored into the equation.

After reading through the gaming manual, Marcus was assured that receiving 500 world fame points even for a dangerous level dungeon was a lot unless it was on the first try.

When Marcus first heard the system announcement about the player Atlas he clearly remembered that stinging pain of inferiority.

He never met the player in question but that player somehow affected his emotions at that time.

Marcus knew that if he had been the first to come in contact with the dungeon it will be near impossible for him at that time.

Even after receiving that, he knew it will take about two to three tries before he could hope to achieve the Atlas character's feat.

But to have known the person and had a somewhat close relationship with the person, who he somehow admired for being extraordinary left him in reverie.

"Yes, I am Atlas. I have an object that can hide my status screen and don't feel inferior I cleared that dungeon by luck...." James said in a half-serious half joking tone.

The victory was heavily influenced by luck. He knew without the sudden interference of his mysterious soul magic he would be facing the system punishment for failing the dungeon.

Without the timely awakening of those soul skills and his first time magic spell, he may very well be behind the level of the current player base.

Even till now, he didn't have a full grasp on the new skills he managed to learn in preparation for the dungeon run.

The Infinity Cross Tower might very well be the place for him to seek answers and further hone his skills in preparation for their big world boss fight.

"Don't be modest. Luck or no luck, it will take some level of capability to pull off what you did. After your feat, there have been a lot of players that have tried only to fail on numerous occasions" Marcus replied as the fire in his eyes lit up brighter than ever. His determination was stoked as he set James as his target.

"I guess. So it's decided. We head towards the tower and complete the quest before anything else. Mind you, don't underestimate this because the world boss fights ahead. This is an S-class quest after all." James reminded Marcus as he seemed to underrate the deadliness and unexpected turn of events presented by an S-class quest.

"Yeah, do not worry. You are not the only one that has a few tricks up their sleeves." Marcus smirked mysteriously.

" Come to think of it, don't we need some experienced healer to accompany us for the quest? As you just said, no matter how simple this may look, it is an S-class quest after all."

"I thought you will have some potential candidates to recruit for the guild. Do you have any information on any healer that has a credible reputation in the game? No matter how strong our defense, a healer will be of great help for any unforeseen events."

" You think I don't know that? But getting a healer that will be able to help with our current situation will be near impossible. I have not heard of anyone outstanding enough to be on the recruitment list"

Surprisingly, just like the Earth before the Extinction, the members of the major families could awaken elements that were general in that particular family.

That is, if family A, as a major family has an affinity with the ice element, most of its members have the likelihood to have an affinity with the ice element. But the affinity grade will vary from one member to another since it all boiled down to individual talent.

The Lightfield Family with the affinity of the wood element had become a major faction heavily relied on by other players of the game.

Even though they had major problems with skills just like everyone else, they were after all a major family in a major country.

The process and organization that took place for them to secure a position as one of the best healer forces currently in-game just proved how they remained on top of the world hierarchy for so long.

With organization and sharing of information, simple healing spells had been generated with the knowledge imparted to every family member.

With the knowledge present, the work done to generate such simple spells was reduced by 25%. With all these changes, over the past fifteen days, one would see healers around the street which increased productivity drastically.

Anyone with the Lightfield Family guild emblem was treated specially due to their presence and influence on the completion rates of dungeon and gate runs.

Even though he did not have any direct or blood relationship with any member of the Lightfield Family, Andrews happened to awaken the element that the family was known for in the game.

With the awakening of his SSS-grade wood element, Andrew's position in the family shot up to the roof.

Even though he was part of the Lightfield Family, he was only in the branch family due to his mom marrying a low-born in the family. His mom was super sexy and all but trying to reach higher for more horny men with higher standings was impossible.

Men that fitted this description wanted women of the noble class and would not even deign to give her any attention.

But with his current talent, he may very well be below only the children of the leaders of the Lightfield Family in terms of status.

This may come as a surprise how a new game could determine the status of an individual in the outside world so easily.

With the way the world worked whereby wealth was the key source of strength for any individual or faction, the power margin between the Lightfield Family had changed dramatically.

But with the level of importance the world placed on this new game and how it shifted the general economy of the world, that much was very well expected.

After the launch of the healer force by the Lightfield Family in Zero Evolution Online, their stakes in their businesses shot up to the roof since they had extra money from their guild activities to reinvest in other avenues.

Before all this virtual game saga, the five major families in the Northway country were in a stalemate whereby one could not exert its influence and dominion over the other.

But with the influx of resources which could be translated into money, the power gap that had remained closed had finally opened a bit. Just a bit but this was a first of its kind since the power struggle had stabilized many years ago.

This, therefore, provided the answer to the question:

How could all these affect Andrews' status in the family?

With his talent, he would be among members of the younger generation at the helm of the Lightfield Family since talent translated into the easier ability to gain strength compared to others.

In Zero Evolution Online where only the strong ruled, talent in the magic arts was paramount. That strength brought about resources. Now that Andrews had the talent to gain that strength he will be included since his presence meant more resources for the family.

Truth be told, he was divined by Bella to receive a unique class and should have been on James' recruitment list but with their relationship, it was damn near impossible to recruit him.

" I guess we just have to make do with what we have. Just make sure to remain alive till we complete the quest." James said

A person who planned to break away from the strings of fate surprisingly decided to just do the opposite by leaving his safety upon chance and any other unreliable variables.

" No, we can't do that. Even if we somehow clear the tower without any healer, we will not be able to do the same for the world boss."

"I....." James was about to refuse when Marcus cut him off.

"No. After using the Cardinal Spatial Tool to get to the location around the tower, we can look for a relatively skilled healer before we start the tower trial. The quest is not going anywhere after all." Marcus said as he stood up signaling for them to depart.

" Okay, if you say so" James stood up as he brought out the teleportation tool.

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Thank you AkosiRen2323 for your continuous support by voting with your power stones.

(A/N: As I said earlier, bear with me if all other explanations apart from the dialogue seemed irrelevant. All this serves as a means to an end.)