Sunday cos and goes far too quickly, and now again on Monday morning, I stand in front of the towering starscraper that appeared in the middle of downtown so three months and a week or so ago. It’s early— only a few minutes after seven— but it’s also nearly an hour after dawn. In other words, it’s bright outside, and late enough that there’s a flock of crows cawing overhead. It’s also already a little warr and muggier than I’d consider ideal.
As always, I’m joined with Chloe, my best friend, my bonded partner, and the love of my life. As the other two mbers of our party touch down, we take a mont to cast our enhancent spells. My [Angel’s Grace] upon Chloe, and Chloe’s [Saintess’s Blessing] upon . At our current levels, each spell lasts close to an hour and a half, and I’m fine sacrificing a couple of minutes of that duration in exchange for a bit of ti to regenerate [Ether] in the more plentiful outside world.
Today, we’re also joined by two very tall, broad, and muscular armored won. Alana Morris, fair skinned, with short blonde hair in a bit of a pixie cut. And Jasmine Wilson, tan complexion with long brown hair, ticulously straightened out and tied back into a tight bun. She’s Alana’s junior by a year and a half. Her ntee in the Army and now fellow [Valkyrie]. The two of them very clearly have sothing going on between them romantically, although even now they refuse to specify the exact nature of their relationship.
There’s a certain irony in how we look as we step into the Tower’s entrance hall. Chloe is absolutely waifish, easily the shortest of us four. And while I’m of average height for a woman, I’m absolutely dwarfed by the two won just ahead of us. Despite this, however, Chloe and I are every bit a match for them in terms of combat capability.
In that respect, the System has actually made things a little more fair. No longer are people relegated to being more or less physically capable based solely on winning or losing the genetic lottery. Anyone, regardless of size or appearance, can prove a fierce combatant more than capable of defending themself.
“Pretty creepy atmosphere in here,” Jasmine says. “I’ve seen it once before, and my assessnt of the environnt hasn’t changed a bit.”
“Really?” I ask. “It feels calming. Relaxing, even. It’s the one place in this deathtrap where the monsters don’t co.”
“But, like, really, Sera? If this is your idea of relaxing, I don’t want to know what you think is scary.”
“Every floor after this. That, and the Warden. The Tower Warden is what I consider absolutely terrifying.”
“Okay, point to you on that one. If you’re talking about that ghastly-looking thing Laney and I saw on the fourth floor, you are absolutely right. Never again. Nope, nope, not even once!”
“You actually saw it?” Chloe asks.
“Laney?” I ask Chloe. “Does Alana call her Jazzie-Jazz?”
“I dunno. You don’t call
Clo-Clo. Even if I would find it cute and endearing.”
“You really want
to start calling you Clo-Clo?”
Chloe contemplates, as though she’s seriously considering it. But she only gives
a coy smile without answering.
“As much as I’m loath to speak more about it, we did,” Alana says. “It looked sothing like a hybrid between a ghost and a balloon, with a jingling chain around its waist and a massive scythe in its arm. I couldn’t tell how big it was at the distance we saw it, but like hell were we going to get any closer to that abomination. Still think it was close to ten or so feet tall.”
“We ready to get a move on?” Jasmine asks. “The less ti we have to spend in this miserable place, the better!” She shivers for emphasis.
With no objections, we head into the teleporter. The usual prompt appears, and in a blur and a brief spat of dizziness, we’re whisked away to the fifteenth floor.
These rest floors, consisting of nothing but a small hallway, a teleporter, and the staircase to the next floor, still feel so… out of place. Above us and below us both are perilous traps and vicious monsters seeking to push us to our absolute limits, to either grow stronger or die trying. But here is just a quiet place with nothing but our thoughts and party mbers to accompany us.
I hand over the [Shining Sword] to Jasmine, as it’s a significant upgrade to her [Simple Greatsword]. I can still use my [chanical Arm Cannon], on top of swords and maybe spears as well, but the [Valkyrie] variants Jasmine and Alana have aren’t compatible with guns.
“What do you think will be on the next floor, Sera?” Jasmine asks.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” I say.
“Humor .”
“Hmm… We’ve encountered such a variety. The ninth floor was a volcano, and the fourteenth was an arctic tundra in the middle of a blizzard.”
“Ew, no, thank you!” Jasmine says.
“It wasn’t pleasant. But this ti around, I’m thinking it’ll be sothing historical and mythological. If I were a betting woman, I’d tentatively guess ancient Egyptian.”
Before we can banter any further about it, we’re up the stairs and onto the sixteenth floor. And I never in a hundred years would have even conceived of such a fantastical landscape. It’s not wholly dissimilar from the Sky Island Dungeon, in that we’re definitely sowhere up in the sky. But I don’t see any ground down beneath. It’s just sky, clouds, floating platforms, and… more sky and clouds and floating platforms all the way down.
The island we’re on isn’t particularly large— maybe the size of a gridiron football field, though shaped in a smooth ellipse instead of a rectangle. I jump up, trying to gauge the relative gravity here compared with back on Earth— Earth outside the Tower, anyway. And it seems to be about the sa. Maybe a few percentage points weaker here. Not enough to fly without a Skill— which we all four do.
“I guess we follow the path?” Alana asks.
Sure enough, there’s sothing resembling a path ahead in one of the directions available to us. Less a ‘path’ and more ‘a collection of platforms each within jumping distance of the last, which together vaguely seem to be leading sowhere.
“Can we take a mont, first?” I say.
No one objects. I switch to the omnidirectional view of [Archangel’s Gaze], wondering if perhaps I’m missing sothing. Maybe an errant platform off in the opposite direction, one containing valuable treasure? We hardly saw any treasure during our most recent trip here, and I’d love to rectify that this ti around. And sure enough, as I walk along the periter, I catch a glimpse of a platform underneath our starting platform.
“Be right back,” I say, flying down to the chest.
I do my standard mimic protection protocols, poking the chest a few tis to make sure it isn’t going to grow legs and try to eat . Having convinced myself that I’m good in this regard, I open the chest, revealing a pair of beautiful silver greaves. I’m not sure if I could wear them, and even if I could, I think one of our two [Valkyries] could make better use of them still.
There’s also a small pouch inside, cream-colored, with the tint of [Ether] all about it. It’s sealed shut with a thick drawstring, and all together cos out to about the size of a small wallet. I go ahead and take that as well, before making my way back up and onto the main platform.
“Are you sure you don’t have so sort of [Treasure Hunter] class?” Jasmine asks. “I know Laney said you were so sort of gunner and spellcaster class, but I honestly don’t know how you would have thought to look down there for sothing like that.”
“Do you want the greaves?” I ask her. “I’m good for right now in terms of equipnt, and I doubt Chloe’s class is compatible with heavy armor.”
Chloe shakes her head.
“Then sure,” Jasmine says. She begins suiting them up, slipping her old ones into the large pack at her side. Each of us has one— Chloe’s and mine smaller than Alana’s and Jasmine’s. And while our heightened [Strength] makes carrying and even fighting with it less ‘debilitating’ and more ‘annoying’, it’s still a pri target. Items can get misplaced or destroyed or even stolen in the heat of battle, sothing I especially don’t want to have happen with our [Level Apples] or gemstones.
I look through my own pouch. In addition to the [Last Resort] brooches Chloe and I still have attached to our armor, I also have two sapphires of [Create Water], a ruby of [Create Fla], an erald of [Create Air], and two opals of [Curing Light]. I hope not to use those last two, since that’d an that Chloe either got kidnapped, incapacitated, or drained of her [Ether]. But having so way to heal her from a near-death situation is ideal so we don’t have to rely on her [Rekindling Feather].
Chloe’s [Bulwark Ring] is now being worn by Jasmine, who has a second accessory slot. She and Alana are our frontliners, with
in the rearguard and Chloe well-defended in the center. In this regard, at least, our team is a bit better balanced than last ti, where we had only one true frontline fighter. All in all, I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to make a lot of progress.
And progress we make. With all four of us having a flight ability, most of the challenge of the sixteenth floor is negligible. A lot of platforming, including so tricky narrow pathways, so long jumps over a massive death pit, so platforms that look like they’d likely break apart and crumble. Not sure why they’d fall down only after they break apart; maybe they have so sort of [Antigravity] glyph that breaks apart and deactivates?
It takes barely ten minutes before we reach the boss of the floor. And it’s a chira, in the classical sense. Two heads— one of a lion, the other of a goat. Body of so sort of quadrupedal beast, wings of a dragon, tail of a serpent, sharpened to a fine point at the tip. As soon as we touch down on the large island, flas erge from the periter, slowly closing in as the chira attempts to rain death from above.
From ti to ti, the chira swoops in, touching down and attempting to rake at us with its four massive claws. Were we to play along with the carefully choreographed fight the System had prepared for us, we would have been caught in a race against ti. We’d have to balance our offense and defense, making sure we dealt enough damage to the chira when it drops down, making itself that little bit more vulnerable, all while trying to keep the encroaching flas at bay.
But, instead, thanks to our flight abilities, the fight turns into a simple battle of attrition, one which we easily and quickly overco. A small part of
wants to be upset; this is supposed to be our big challenge to overco. We’re supposed to gain loot and Experience and be power-grinding our way toward Level 64. And another small part of
wants to be upset that we didn’t end our previous trek through the Tower in such a calm, thermally-comfortable, and almost relaxing environnt.
But I know this is but a brief respite, the calm before the storm, the warm-up before we walk into hell. Comnsurate with the rather easy fight, our rewards are rather lackluster.
[You have defeated a Chira (Level 40). You have gained a boosted 12,500 Experience.]
[Level: 44; Experience: 1,259,600; To Next: 81,920]
[Current Stats: [Health]: 5,694 / 6,005; [Ether]: 3,842 / 4,348]
[Current Stats: [Strength]: 101 (Base: 56); [Speed]: 95 (Base: 53); [Vitality]: 167 (Base: 93); [Mind]: 241 (Base: 134)]
There actually is a treasure chest on this floor. A couple of regular-sized [Ether Canisters], a few healing tinctures, and… a handkerchief-sized piece of cloth. We divide the goods equally among ourselves, Alana claiming the cloth for reasons I don’t understand. I also take the opportunity to open the pouch from earlier, being thoroughly surprised by what I find.
[[Experience Pouch]: Contains 10,000 Experience. Item consud when used.]
“Chloe, be on the lookout for more pouches like this,” I say. “It literally contains Experience. And again, let’s make sure we’re not telling anyone about these.”
“Agreed. Even if we didn’t have to fear Lindsey’s wrath on this, I still think she’s right.”
Having inford Chloe about the contents, I consu the pouch, watching my numbers tick up for seemingly no discernible reason.
[Level: 44; Experience: 1,269,600; To Next: 71,920]
As they do, I get an odd sensation, as though I’m fighting battles in the center of my mind, storing the muscle mory and the brief soreness of battle directly into my body in the process. Such a weird sensation, but I’m not sure what else I could have expected out of such a wondrous item.
And with all that taken care of and everyone feeling fresh and ready for more, we head up to the seventeenth floor.
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