<It looks like the human forces already won,> Samantha said, not bothering to hide the disappointment as we approached the battlefront.


    It must have been a short battle.  The Metan defensive line had clearly fractured, and the Metans had fled in a dozen different directions. Several Aviatons on the human forces’ side were chasing down the Metan foot soldiers, while the main force of the human forces was now surrounding the city we had escaped from.


    Samantha landed the Aviaton before we reached the human forces, and we jogged the majority of the way under our Invisibility Cloak.


    Above us was a warship defending the human forces around us, almost identical to the warship we had just destroyed.


    The warship had smoke billowing out from a few sections of its hull, but it was still floating, and its shield glowed vibrantly.


    Finally, I was able to follow the mini-map’s icon to the human General.


    There were a series of tents that were just a half mile away from the Metan city, and I headed that direction.


    Samantha took off our Invisibility Cloak as we neared the General’s encampments.


    <During wartime, there are often scouts on the lookout for anyone who is cloaked,> Samantha explained. <It’s best not to raise any alarms unnecessarily.>


    “Imperial Shadow Jarek Novak, with a confidential report for General Nowa’s ears only,” Samantha said.


    It took a few minutes, but soon enough, we had our audience with the general, passed her the Information Crystal, and the world disappeared around us.


    <hr>


    When we appeared in the Infinite Tower’s lobby, we stood there, frozen, for a second, before I realized that Samantha was giving me back control.


    As I walked towards the store front, I felt the deep soreness of a dozen different internal injuries.


    It was hard to process everything that had happened in the last “mission.”  Instead of challenging five floors of E-rank monsters, we had entered a realistic scenario in the Atropos Schema’s history, broken into a secure laboratory, raided a bank, had a high-speed chase through a Metan city, destroyed a warship, stolen multiple UFO-like aircrafts, and returned that intelligence to the general of the human forces.


    Well, maybe “we” wasn’t the most accurate pronoun.


    In the process, I had gained a C-rank sword, a C-rank wand, C-rank boots, hundreds of Mana Crystals, dozens of Mana Orbs , and an Aviaton.


    Of course, nothing I gained through the missions or floors were things that I could take to the real world.  I would have to buy things from the Infinite Tower Store if I wanted to take things to the real world.


    The massive lobby was once again empty, and I walked up to the counter excitedly, pouring mana into Luck before touching the mana crystal in front of me.


    <You should sell three Mana Orbs,> Samantha said. <That should be guaranteed to put you in the top 1% of sales to the tower for an E-rank floor.>


    The old holographic man behind the counter simply raised an eyebrow at the sight of the two mana orbs.


    “Congratulations, challenger,” he said, showing me a rare smile behind his long beard. “You have a total of twelve achievements. This is extremely uncommon, for someone who has only completed one mission and five floors.”


    I immediately started perusing the list of missions available. Honestly, I was tired after that first mission, but it was clear to me, after that first mission, that fighting missions instead of going through five floors at a time was a much more effective way to gain points and equipment.


    If I chose to fight the next five floors, I would fight increasing numbers of D-rank creatures—something that I could easily do, since I had a C-rank sword and my own flying ship.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Looking at the available items in the store, it felt distinctively pathetic to see that I could only buy D-rank equipment after all the trouble I had been through, especially considering I currently had a C-rank sword in my hand.


    <You should buy the D-rank Aviaton Blueprint,> Samantha said. I scrolled through frantically, almost unbelieving, until I found it.


    <This is where your Luck pays off,> Samantha said. <Between your heightened Luck, and the numerous flying achievements you earned, this is more or less the best reward you could expect.  Normally, I would be opposed to spending any of your points on anything D-rank, but this is a strategic asset that could save thousands of lives back on Earth. It easily has the value of a C-rank item.>


    Thinking about buying something reminded me to look at my current number of points.


    Before challenging the mission, I had 710 points.  I had gained a thousand points for completing the mission, and then another 500 points for everything I had sold.


    The conversion from sales to points was infuriating. Three mana orbs, valued in the real world at over 100 million coins each, provided me with just five hundred points…


    <It’s the best you could expect,> Samantha said. <500 points is the most you can bring in for sales every time you visit the store.  You’re looking at it backwards.  If you clear enough floors, then you would be able to buy an A-rank item with just a few thousand points.  This is game-show currency, it’s not real money. 500 points is actually a lot.>


    So I now had 2,210, and I spent 1,300 of that to buy the D-rank Aviaton Rune Pattern Blueprint.


    <This is actually a huge shame,> Samantha said. <If I had an inkling that you would have access to a blueprint like this, I would never have suggested you learn to make a C-rank Personal Shield, or a Mana Cannon.  This is a composite blueprint, which includes a D-rank Mana Cannon, a D-rank Shield, Antigravity Rune Patterns, Propulsion Rune Patterns, and highly complex “circuits” as well that allow for small amounts of automation.  Normally, this overlap would be essential for a Rune Master to be able to specialize and understand what they are doing. But since I’m here, this overlap is a waste of resources, and we could have specialized in other things.  If only this rune pattern wasn’t so damn useful.>


    With our points down to 910, I could barely afford the cheapest of the D-rank equipment available, and nothing else that I could afford looked anywhere near as interesting.  I could taste the lure of the Infinite Tower.  If I hold on to my points, then the next time I appear at the store, I would have at least 1410 points, which would barely be enough to by one of the cheaper of the C-rank weapons.  Then, if I were to complete the C-rank floors, then I would near 2000 points, which, if the pattern held, would be the cost of a B-rank weapon.


    I switched back to view missions available, since I was resigned to saving the rest of my money for a while longer.


    There were a total of twelve missions, the cheapest mission costing one Achievement, and the most expensive costing twelve.


    <This is where we need to be careful,> Samantha said. <None of the missions will be easier than fighting 100 D-rank individuals who are all level 39. As the cost increases, so does the difficulty of each mission, and the corresponding reward.>


    Should we just pick a one or two Achievement mission? I asked. We barely made it out of the last mission alive.


    Samantha laughed. <The last mission was hard because you didn’t have equipment, and because we were targeting achievements, not just clearing the mission.  If we had rushed directly to the Information Crystal, we likely could have reached there before the magician who was defending it got there. We could have planned out a path to avoid anyone over level 100, and we could have escaped out the lab before the army and the general arrived.  It would have been easy enough to leave the city, and we could have completely circled around the armies and approached the human army from its flank or rear.   It’s fair to say we definitely took the hard route.>


    <That said, as far as I’m aware, nobody has ever successfully challenged a mission costing 10 Achievements or more,> Samantha said.  <And we have to remember, this is a game. Challenging a mission isn’t just about achievements, as you hopefully noticed, it has the added benefit of helping us gear up for our next mission or floor.  The moment I saw that we would be joining a war, it was obvious that we would be able to loot a lot from the battlefield.>


    <The mission costing three Achievements is a courier mission across a monster-infested wasteland,> Samantha said. <No loot, so we’re not doing that one.>


    <The mission costing four Achievements is a bodyguard mission, which isn’t really in our skillset. The best fit for a mission like that would be the Ursal we fought on the warship.  We also want a bit more freedom to move around.>


    <So we should go with mission costing five achievements,> Samantha continued.


    I took a look at the mission Samantha was talking about.


    Fey Assassination:  The Human Empire has been steadily losing the war against the Fey Clans. Fey General Viya Asar has led her troops deep into Human Empire territory, and many fear this may spell the end of the Human Empire.


    Your mission:  Assassinate Fey General Viya Asar.


    An assassination mission didn’t seem that difficult.  I had complained, earlier, that Samantha was trying to turn me into an assassin, and for better or worse, I felt well-equipped to do the job.  I still had the Invisibility Cloak, and we could just sneak up to her using Spiritual Traveler, and then Samantha could use Soul Explosion repeatedly until she died.  That doesn’t sound too hard.


    Samantha laughed. <That’s because you’ve never heard of General Viya Asar.>