Chapter 52 – When Normal Feels Abnormal

Cam's Tower experience had already been exceptional, by most standards- not so much in loot drops, but just in the sense that nearly every Floor had been so much more than he had expected.

Floor 1 was kobolds, the most difficult possibility for someone's first trip into the Tower. Floor 2 held monsters he had never heard of, a Hidden Boss, and a ridiculously tough Boss fight to end it... Floor 3 wasn't as big of a challenge, but seeing a Puzzle Floor so early was strange in its own right. With a Floor 4 swarm to cap off everything he had been through already, he had no idea what to expect next.

So, when Floor 5 turned out to be goblins, he started looking for the twist.

Goblins were similar to kobolds in a number of ways; A smaller monster, around three feet tall on average, and usually not very skilled at fighting, the greatest danger they presented was in numbers. With kobolds, one had to be wary of traps, but with goblins, traps were much less common- though goblins tended to have a higher chance of shamans, and the added challenge of stealthy goblins being more common...

Fighting their way through the goblin cave wasn't much of a challenge; Cam and his clones simply followed their usual method of moving slowly and having Eron scout ahead, choosing their fights carefully to avoid alerting too many enemies- goblins were much more likely to run away screaming when a fight looked to be lost, increasing the risk when trying to tackle larger groups...

To say nothing of the fact that, after the low XP from a Puzzle Floor and a Swarm Floor, Cam was once more at the same Level as the Floor...

While Cam and Eron did most of the fighting, Mero's job was simple: keep an eye out for the twist they expected was coming after so many weird Floors.

But no twist came. No Hidden Boss. No secret Loot Chests. No unknown enemies. Just goblins, and fairly normal loot. The Floor was so normal... that it actually felt a little weird to them.

But at least they got some more loot, though that was actually more normal as well. No high rarity drops, or fancy accessories. Just... common and uncommon armor and weapons, with the occasional good drop.

Even the Boss was fairly normal, being just a Goblin Warchief; It was tough, and strong, and came with a few minions to help it... but it wasn't ridiculously strong. With Eron keeping the Boss busy while Cam and Mero quickly took down the minions, it was almost disapointingly normal. Even the Ability they harvested from it, Cleave, was well known and commonly seen among Classers- not to say it was a bad Ability, as it made a weapon attack strike two nearby targets, but it wasn't odd like so many other things had been so far.

Floor 6 was a swamp, filled with snakes, alligators, and giant mosquitos. Challenging, but still a common layout for the Tower. Unfortunately, the only Abilities they found on the Floor were Constrict and Death Roll, neither of which were particularly useful to him.

Floor 7 was an open plain with hyena like humanoid creatures called Gnolls, another monster type that Cam had heard about; More challenging than the kobolds and goblins, but still just a straight fight with few complications beyond being careful not to get overrun. Thankfully, he was able to grab a useful Ability from them, Intimidating Howl, that reduce the Strength of nearby enemies by ten percent... though it also had the downside of being a loud howl, so using it would require some careful thought.

Floor 8, Myconids. While they looked strange, the mushroom people were well known; Slow and resilient, the biggest challenge when facing Myconids was their shamans, which typically had spore based spells... Unfortunately for the Myconids, the monsters were particularly weak to fire; Being two Levels up on the Floor, Eron practically soloed it using Fan the Flames.

Fortunately for Cam, the Myconids had a useful Ability for him to harvest: Lesser Toxic Spores, Cam's first ranged AoE spell... and, technically, his first true DoT(damage over time) spell.

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Floor 9... Frogs. Technically, Giant Two-Striped Frogs. Frogs were an unusually common Tower monster, with numerous variants having been documented... and these large, poisonous frogs were already known to Cam. And also disliked by him, as the only Abilities he found on the Floor were Poisonous Skin and Tongue Bind, neither of which were appealing to him- even if Poisonous Skin was technically usable by him, he would rather not waste his cooldown on an Ability that would only work when enemies touched his skin... especially since he was wearing armor that mostly covered him.

At least clearing so many normal Floors had gotten him past Level 10, and earned another Perk... Though, unlike the first time, his choices were less extreme... even if one of them was the obvious choice: Upgrading his BigBunni to a Bigger Bunni, raising its Level to one below his.

It wasn't fancy, or as overpowered as his previous options were, but with him always being up a Level or two on the Floors, it put the Bunnis on par with his enemies, and expanded his effective team from three to six!

Though, funnily enough, it didn't actually make the Bunnis any bigger...

"I'm not the only one that is starting to get nervous over how normal everything has been, am I?"

"We're the same person, so of course you're not the only one!"

"You know he's only voicing his concern as a means of trying to alleviate the building worry, right?"

"Don't be a downer, Mero! Of course I know!"

"How the hell did I produce clones that are so different from each other?" Cam rolled his eyes at their bickering; he knew part of it was just the usual banter... but Eron and Mero genuinely were much more different than he expected. While Mero could laugh and joke sometimes, she was much more serious... and Eron did almost nothing but joke.

It wasn't really surprising that the banter always seemed to have an edge between the two... except it was, because they were still the same person. Just... different aspects of him, he guessed.

"At least we got some more armor for all of us, even if it is all... kind of trash." He sighed, glancing at their new equipment. It was all useful, sure, but none of it was anything special.

Five Floors, all cleared without too much challenge and no surprises... but the loot drops were equally bland. Basic armor, a few basic weapons- which was good, especially for Mero, as she needed almost every armor slot filled... but nothing really special dropped.

"Eh, it balances out, though. I mean, our first few Floors had so much crazy loot that surprised us that we were bound to be a little disappointed by 'normal' loot!"

Eyeing the drab looking leather armor the covered Mero- and Eron, as most of his armor slots had still been empty before-, Cam could only sigh in agreement. It wasn't bad, exactly, just... normal armor drops, offering a few points of armor each, perfectly acceptable as filler pieces until they found better... it was just a little disappointing after their earlier luck.

Though he consoled himself by remembering that higher Rarity equipment was, by definition, rarer, and he shouldn't expect it to pop up constantly... even if it kind of had on the first few Floors.

"Maybe that's another reason why a lot of groups move slower: they're looking for better drops." He shrugged, as there was still a lot of things he didn't know... possibly because the Families and Guilds didn't bother sharing the information around.

Maybe it was because they didn't care about spreading it out to people that were unlikely to Awaken. Maybe they were just dicks. Maybe it was both. He couldn't say for sure.

"Hey, at least we finally found some arrows!" Eron laughed, gesturing at the quiver Mero now wore. "Even if they are kind of crappy, and there's only twenty of them... It's something, right?"

"Yeah, it's something..." Cam shrugged, still feeling off about something. Everything had been just... too normal for these Floors, and, after the earlier Floors- and his own oddities-, that just felt... weird.

And it made him worried about the next Floor; After all, every tenth Floor was supposed to be special. More difficult, or weirder... because it was after those Floors that climbers gained an Augment.

With how weird some of his Floors had been, he wasn't sure what they would find next.