Ashley

After fighting the clockworks for a bit, I eventually figure out a good way to deal with them. That being just attacking them from every direction and at a distance. Making sure to stay out of the range of their slowed time myself so that it doesn't harm my reaction speed or attack speed. All while stopping them from even having a chance to escape using the slowed time of my attacks to their advantage.

And once I figure all that out, I finish the rest of them off without much trouble. Leaving the outside of the tower on the island completely barren of monsters.

At which point I focus on the Skill Tree that the timeworn clockworks gave me. Which all have the same root skill across the board.

With that root skill being low grade time mana manipulation.

So I have time magic now. Albeit a minor version.

But when I try to use it, I find that time magic is very difficult. Too difficult to learn in the span of the time I'll be here.

After deciding to leave that for later to learn, I begin to walk around the island, just looking for anything I can use. Like keys or something for inside the tower.

Or just anything that might be of use out here. Since I don't really know much about the inside of the System Tower.

Even Chaos wouldn't tell me about the exact specifics of each floor. And the information on it on the System Forums and the internet in general is censored. Making it so that no one can read it unless they've entered the System Tower before.

And I remember when playing games with Blake the motto he used to always use.

When unsure, be overcautious.

And when I check under the island, beneath the water surrounding it, I find a large key. One around the size of my foot.

The thing is just sitting there on some pedestal within the stone beneath the island.

There we go.

After grabbing that and stuffing it in a storage ring, I move on to finish my search before surfacing again and entering the clocktower. Only to instantly find myself somewhere else the second I step foot inside.

On top of a large gear for some reason.

Like those gears inside of clocks. Not the armor type of gear that you wear.

When I look around myself, I find numerous other gears. With a few of them connected to the gear I'm on and various other gears connected to those. All of which are creating different paths.

But what's most bizarre about this is that there aren't any walls to the clocktower. It's like I'm in a separate dimension entirely or something.

Instead of walls there's just an endless glowing orange light fading in the distance. With a single massive pillar going up and the occasional clockwork gear going around or connected to said pillar.

Huh. Not what I was expecting.

I continue looking around for a bit before noticing some timeworn clockworks appearing on the gears around me. But I deal with them rather easily now that I know how.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Then I just flap my wings and begin flying past the gears, only briefly wondering why they have it set up like this when you can just fly.

That thought is brief because the gears and the pillar all shoot out an orange energy at me which begins to highlight my body for a few seconds before black and crimson sparks snap out of my body, shattering the highlight. And in the process letting me continue flying.

Ah, that's why.

If I had to guess based on what I just saw and what that energy did to me for a split second before Unchained stopped it, the clocktower stops people from flying by reversing time on them and forcing them back to the ground that way. But Unchained stops that from happening to me, thereby letting me fly as much as I want here.

So I completely ignore the path as I fly straight up towards the pillar. With numerous monsters appearing across any gears I get close to.

And while they're at first all timeworn clockworks, they eventually end up branching out to different types of time magic centered monsters. Like Timeworn Clockwork Soldiers. And Timeworn Clockwork Officers.

Which are all quite a bit stronger than the timeworn clockworks, as I can tell from their mana and potential skills alone.

Although they can't really do much against me where I am right now. Seeing as I'm flying.

Unfortunately, I'm going for one hundred percenting this place. So I need to kill every single monster in the Domain.

That's Objective 2 after all.

After a brief pause though, an idea comes to mind.

Hmm…

I shrug and decide to go with the idea before turning on my Gaze of Destruction and focusing on the gears themselves. Just to find them taking damage from my gaze despite earlier attacks that missed targets and hit the gears not even blemishing them. Much less scratching them.

Looks like they're weak to true damage.

In which case, I go ahead and focus my gaze on the connecting points between the gears with monsters on them and those without.

And after destroying said connectors, I feel rather satisfied as I see the first gear I completely destroy the connectors of fall down into the glowing orange abyss below. Following which I get a message from the System about killing the monsters.

Nice!

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Timeworn Clockwork} x21

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Low Grade Time Mana Manipulation, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Timeworn Clockwork Soldiers} x8

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Healing Reversal Bullet, is now unlocked for your usage.}

{You have slain a being while Assimilate is active. You have now unlocked the Skill Tree: Timeworn Clockwork Officers.} x2

{You have unlocked a new Skill Tree, therefore the root skill of the Skill Tree, Mid-Stage Time Mana Manipulation, is now unlocked for your usage.}

I got the mid-stage version now. So that'll help with learning time magic later.

And I wouldn't be surprised if I managed to get the high stage version by the end of this Domain at the very least. So that's something to look forward to.

As for this Healing Reversal Bullet skill? Apparently it will reverse an amount of healing done to the target within the past period of time depending on how much time mana is used to power the skill.

It's an interesting skill to say the least, but not particularly useful unless I'm fighting against a healer. Or someone with a healer.

Or just with healing powers in general.

Anyway, after killing the batch on that gear, I go ahead and begin just destroying the connectors between the gears one after another. Sending numerous gears and the monsters on them falling down into the orange abyss.

All without a single sound being made by the monsters in question other than some rotating gear noises.

Seeing as these clockwork golem things don't have mouths.

And time begins to pass like this as I continue to drop monsters into the abyss while slowly making my way up the tower on my wings. Never actually touching the gears again after first appearing here.

I really like Unchained.

It's a great skill.

Eventually I find the top of the pillar. Where the gears happen to lead. And at the center of the pillar is some sort of large gate.

The gate is clearly some sort of portal, and it is activated. But there's something that I can't help but notice. Something else on top of the pillar.

And that's the sight of some pedestal with a key hole in it.

So without hesitation, I fly over before landing in front of the pedestal as I bring the key out of my storage ring. Then I stick the key into the key hole and turn it.

Instantly making the portal behind me change color from blue to orange.

I'm guessing this was probably the correct way to go about it?

After glancing back and for the between the key and the portal, and even taking the key out to see if it does anything, which it does not, I finally head through the orange portal.

Let's see what else this place has in store for me.