Tower Lords: Starting With an EX-Rank Gacha

Loila flicked her hand, and suddenly, five floor blueprint deals popped up in front of William, all neatly lined up in the blue tower system panel.

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Deal: Minotaur Couple

Items:

Stomping Hooves Labyrinth Blueprint

Respawn core

Area Expansion Card (50m)

8500 Stone, 1000 Wood

Description: An ancient labyrinth of stone leading toward a central chamber. The only way out is to defeat the Minotaur couple in the chamber. Spawns 10 Tier 1 (Intermediate) Blazehorn Bulls and 2 Tier 1 (High) Minotaur. Troops can respawn up to 2 times using the respawn core.

TP: 525

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Deal: Watch Your Steps

Items:

Sinking Stones Blueprint

Lava Core (Uncommon)

5200 Stone, 200 Wood

Description: A double-stepped stone path stretches over a lava pool hot enough to vaporize a Tier 1 (High) within seconds and causes severe burns to Tier 2 (Low). Pick right, and you live for another step; pick wrong, and you’re in for an intense hot spring experience. Sixty steps, thirty chances in total.

TP: 590

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Deal: Farmer’s Treasure

Items:

Golden Field Blueprint

Respawn Core

Area Expansion Card (50m)

6969 Wood, 200 Stone

Description: A five-foot-high golden field, paradise for farmers, hell for idiots who can’t read the ’Trespassers die’ every ten steps. Spawns 18 Tier 1 (Intermediate) Strawdians and one deranged Tier 1 (High) Crazy NaturFam. Troops respawn up to 2 times.

TP: 502

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Deal: Spiked Chandlers

Items:

Coral Cave Blueprint

Respawn Core

5500 Stone

600 Stone

Description: A shallow-water cave packed with coral reefs, hiding plenty of spike shooters. Spawns 8 Tier 1 (Intermediate) and 2 Tier 1 (High) Elchins. Troops respawn up to 3 times.

TP: 515

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Deal: Milf district

Items:

Charming Streets Blueprint

Respawn Core

3500 Wood

3400 Stone

Description: Once a flourishing Street of Desire, it was reduced to ashes by the envy of noble maidens. Spawns 39 Tier 1 (Intermediate) Vengeful Milf spirits. Troops respawn up to 1 time.

TP: 600

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William stared at the deals, squeezing every last brain cell for a decision. These were the best blueprints under 600TP, and his wallet was already sobbing in the corner just looking at them.

Every deal here was miles better than the list of previous blueprint purchases, except for the fifth one, which was a hard pass. William didn’t know what kind of ancient perverted grandpa came up with these blueprints, but there was no way in hell he’d be the guy unleashing big-boobed spirits to seduce climbers.

’Hanging Chandler’ was out, too. With troop names like that, it was probably just a mob of oversized sea urchins. William had already seen enough pointy nonsense during the bee hunting. He needed something new.

Now he was down to the first three. Picking only one felt like torture. If he had more TP, he’d have grabbed all three without a second thought.

Floor expansions weren’t the problem. But with a shopping list longer than his entire history of embarrassing moments, he had to settle for just one.

First up, ’Minotaur Couple.’ The classic tower floor cliché. William had seen it in almost every tower novel and game, even the one he was playing before getting dumped into this mess. But why a couple?

There was supposed to be one lonely Minotaur in the center, not a married pair. William scoffed. Even mana constructs had a better love life than him.

The second deal had zero troops, and somehow it was even nastier. It was the only one that could actually fuck a tier two (low) climber. It was pure luck-based, somewhat similar to a famous web series.

The third was a lunatic farmer’s field. On the plus side, it had way more intermediate troops than the Minotaur maze, and five-foot-high crops that would make finding the next floor platform a pain in the climber’s ass.

After twenty minutes of brain racking over the pros and cons, William finally settled on the ’Minotaur Couple.’ The troop lineup was solid and the maze would keep climbers busy long enough for him to plan his next move.

’Watch Your Steps’ was a close second. It could roast tier two (low) climbers, sure, but it was also dangerously close to the 600TP limit. William needed every scrap of TP for the rest of his shopping list. Besides, it wasn’t like Bunny would pull it from the shelves overnight. He could always grab it later.

William closed the panel and glanced at Loila, who, true to form, was chewing on a carrot like a bored rabbit. She always did this when he was picking things out, eyes glazed, watching the grass as if it were growing in real time, while William agonised over floor blueprints.

Loila perked up, carrot halfway to her mouth. "So, you finally made up your mind, or should I show you some more deals?" she asked, eyebrow quirked.

William let out a breath. "Nope. Decision’s made. Just add ’Minotaur Couple’ to the cart before I start second-guessing everything."

Loila grinned. "Really? I figured you would go for the stepping stones. That’s a hot seller among S-rank lords. But hey Minotaur Couple’s a classic. If you’re lucky you might even catch a free Minotaur mating ritual." Her eyes sparkled with mischief, she was clearly enjoying teasing him.

William facepalmed, unable to hide his exasperation. "Oh, for fuck’s sake, Loila, don’t start again with labelling me a pervert. I’ve got a mountain of shit left to buy." He shot her a look that said, ’Enough already,’ then started calling out his shopping list without missing a beat.

There were fewer than three hours until his meeting with Julia; there was no way he was getting late because this bunny ears was somehow in the mood to play.

Over two hours later, he finally finished buying everything he needed. William grinned at the list, as he’d been able to snag everything within budget.

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Technique: Adaptive Mana Breathing (Uncommon)

Description: A mana breathing technique suitable for any race with open mana channels. It includes mana absorption, mana channelling, and mana manipulation (Mage Circle or Aura Star). Effective till Adept Mage or Aura Fighter.

TP: 200

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Technique: Steady Mana Breathing (Uncommon)

Description: Compiled mana technique from multiple human worlds, best start for early stages. It includes mana absorption, mana channelling, and mana manipulation (Mage Circle or Aura Star). Effective till Adept Mage or Aura Fighter.

TP: 300

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Technique: Vanguard Spear (Uncommon)

Description: Spear technique developed by the frontline cavalry. By combining footwork and thrusts, the user builds momentum to advance, delivering quicker, heavier strikes that excel at breaking enemy formations.

TP: 100

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Skill: Light Barrier (Common)

Effect: Generates a shield made of light that blocks up to 20% of physical or magical damage when facing opponents of the same rank, and up to 5% of damage from enemies one minor rank higher. The barrier can also be cast on an ally within 5 meters.

TP: 80

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Skill: Flame Surge (Common)

Description: Unleashes a surge of flames across a 4-meter area, dealing 30% increased fire damage to all enemies caught within its reach.

TP: 70

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Technique: Alternating Blade (Common)

Description: Alternates attacks between both swords in a continuous rhythm, increasing overall attack speed. 10% increased attack speed at low proficiency.

TP: 80

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Deal: Custom

Items:

Tier One Cores x11

Spatial Stone (Low) x3

Barrier Stone (Low) x2

Wooden Hut Blueprint

1500 Stone

1500 Wood

Bonk x2

TP: 436

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There weren’t any decent options for adaptive mana techniques on a budget. The cheap ones either covered absorption and channeling or just manipulation, never the full set. So even if it cost more than he’d like, he had no choice but to add it in the cart.

When it came to his own mana technique, there were a ton of options; one was dirt cheap at 50TP from some apocalyptic world where mana had just awakened.

But most of the budget picks were incomplete and only effective till Apprentice Mage. Only this one was actually complete and had growth potential like the Adaptive technique. The steal was that both of these could convert mana to aura.

There were also affinity-specific techniques, but he didn’t need any of that for now. His physique gives him free rein to use any affinity, and for the initial stages, like casting skill, this technique was enough. These would get in handy when diving deeper into concepts at higher ranks.

Then came the skills and techniques for Lumina, Cent, and himself, and holy hell, that chewed up 90% of his time. The shitty list had hundreds of thousands of skills and techniques from gods only knew how many worlds.

Each one weirder than the last. There was even a spear technique from some titan’s world called ’Meatpicker’, and yeah, it literally taught you how to yank meat stuck in your teeth. He had to refine his search at least 10 times just to get the list under 100.

Out of those, these weren’t the best, just the best he could afford. He really, really wanted something like Explosion or even Fireball, but those were for Adept or Master mages, and he didn’t have any TP left for an illusion skill, so he only ended up with one skill for fire affinity.

Lastly, he had to put together a custom deal to add the rest: monster cores, Vrdyl and Grey were definitely getting upgrades, but after that, there’d only be enough left for one more high upgrade for either Lumina or Nyx. They both got new skills, so he’d probably just flip a coin for the decision.

He also got spatial and barrier stones to build the arena, which was necessary, as well as a hut blueprint for Seabas. And of course, some bonks to keep working on his IronSkin up to intermediate.

The grand total came in at 1791. Loila was grinning ear to ear, bunny teeth on full display at the sight of a big spender. But her joy died fast when William whipped out his 20% off coupon and shoved it in her face. "I want to use this, so what’s my new total?" he said, rubbing his chin like a man who doesn’t know basic math.

The moment her eyes landed on that golden coupon, tower engraving and all, the smile vanished. She shot William a glare, but couldn’t do shit about it. "Fuck those higher-ups. What’s so impressive about getting into the top million in tower games to get 20% off? That’s the thirty-second one today."

William kept a straight face, barely holding in his laughter. Loila clicked her tongue and, with a flick of her fingers, the coupon vanished from his hand. "Tsk! Just give me 1493TP."