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Amber | Chapter 36.
🕑 Added 2024-03-07 05:18:16 +0000 UTCChapter 36.
Terrel had just cleared the fiftieth floor with his squad, when they saw a door open. It was a strange thing, while not all the rules of the tower were known, he knew that a door opening to a different route could mean multiple things: one, the group in that route had left the tower. Two, the group in that route had died. Three, both floors had been cleared at roughly the same time— interlinking them.
While Terrel did not know which of the three was it, or if it was something else, after a day of rest they decided to investigate. First thing they noted was that no corpse was present, not even the one of the boss monster. The monster hadn’t respawned, which meant that the kill happened recently.
However, the remains of the battle gave everyone pause. After all, the room had been completely destroyed. It looked as if the room had been melted during the battle.
His reaction, like the rest of the group, was pure shock.
“Whose squad would be capable of this…?” he asked.
“Maybe Volkar’s while being in a rush?” Brent, the vice-captain answered. “But it doesn’t make sense, they are not even present in the camp at the moment. Plus if it had been a group we would have known — the camp would have known — it has to be a person… but…”
Brent didn’t need to finish that thought, but everyone nodded knowing what it represented.
“Didn’t the back entrance close six months ago?” a man asked, he was quite new in the squad.
Terrel and everyone turned in the direction of the voice. His name was Percy, and he had joined the knights just a couple of months ago. He was a talented mage. Not only that but he was in his early twenties; a rookie by everyone’s view. Which is why Brent immediately scoffed.
“That happened six months ago, whoever it was, they are probably long dead.” He shook his head. “However, it is undeniable that there was someone here, someone of higher level than all of us.”
“And either they have left the tower or have continued climbing,” Terrel stated simply.
Everyone nodded at his declaration, and then there was silence. It was time for Terrel to make his decision; to try to meet whoever was climbing or leave it to someone else.
The royal family kept the tower rather secret, however they wouldn’t execute those that trespassed into it, rather; they would either try to buy the silence of those that trespass or try to recruit them. That was the standard procedure. Of course, sometimes neither of the two things were possible, and that was when things got ugly.
If news of the tower spread, it would become an adventurer attraction after all. Though, considering how little outside visitors it had, it hadn’t been a problem yet. However, now it was Terrel’s turn to fulfill that duty; if the person hadn’t left the tower yet anyway.
After taking a deep breath, he spoke.
“Let’s continue ascending through this route.”
And in response, the rest of the knights nodded.
* * *
They ascended the unusually long flight of stairs to find a white room, and it was completely destroyed. In the middle a white monster laid, it was burning, and it was dead.
“What the fuck…” Brent was the first to speak. “This is a special floor…”
Terrel and the others nodded. This floor wasn’t like the normal ones in the tower, they were meant to be a true challenge to the group or individual that was passing. And yet— the monster had been absolutely annihilated. Taking into account the tower floor, Terrel assumed the dead monster had to have been level 110.
And yet, it was defeated just like that. Judging by the sheer amount of blood stains in the room, Terrel could only guess that it had been a painful death for the monster. He couldn’t think of any way that an individual of around this level could do this, which meant:
The person traveling must be over level 120, if not 130… He gulped at the thought.
His job had just gotten a whole lot harder.
Terrel wasted no time and told everyone to continue going up the floors. They had to get to the bottom of this.
While he was sure that his squad had numerous thoughts, Terrel hoped that the person had already left.
* * *
They continued ascending the floors with great caution, but the tower had yet to respawn the monsters or restore the traps that had been taken, which made everyone all the more wary of the strength of the individual that was or had been here. And that was because they saw what the person was capable of.
A lot of the floors had still burning fires, and others had soot from the fires that had once been present. Some of the monster corpses remained, and every single one of them was marred with disgusting and awful wounds. It looked as if they had been slashed thousands of times and torched alive.
And finally, there was the fact that almost every single floor was special. While special floors weren’t that unique in themselves, the fact that there were so many of them, could only mean that the tower welcomed whoever was the individual passing.
Terrel and the group stared at a carbonized forest, some fires burned in the distance. They could also see the corpse of the monster that had been in this area. Just like all the other ones, it had died in a brutal fashion— except this one seemed to have taken more damage than normal.
“Are you sure we should continue…?” a knight asked apprehensively.
Brent was the one to reply. “It is our duty as knights to ensure the secret of the tower is kept, and the likelihood of the person being an enemy of the kingdom is almost none.”
“But what if they are—”
“Then don’t be a coward!” Brent bellowed at him. Everyone turned to look at the vice-captain, who started to gesticulate with his arms. “We serve the queen and king of Cytel, it is our duty to fulfill their orders! We are not blind fools, we have an escape plan and a designated messenger in case we are all in danger!”
Terrel didn’t necessarily agree to Brent getting this upset, but what he was saying was true, and so he just let it play out, but prepared himself to intervene if it took a bad direction. The vice-captain faced the knight.
“If you do not wish to serve the king and queen then why are you even here?”
The man was shaking, and Terrel sighed. The direction changed way too fast.
“I am just… afraid,” the man answered.
Brent frowned and Terrel stepped forward.
“That’s enough, we have to keep moving. And as Brent said, we won’t throw our lives in vain should the worst situation happen — which it won’t — an individual this powerful bearing grudges against the kingdom would have raided the camp as soon as they arrived.”
He shook his head.
“Let us stop being paranoid and move on.”
He was met with reluctant nods, and moments later they continued onto the next floor.
* * *
The royal family had made use of the tower for a very long time, while Terrel wasn’t aware of the specifics, they had a special deal with the Primordial Spirit that owned the tower, in order to allow the knights to nurture themselves and grow stronger. Thanks to this deal, they could easily bring supplies into the tower and stay for months. Those that weren’t knights had no such advantages, which is why it was almost unheard of for an adventurer to make it to the fiftieth floor— and yet the person they were looking for had made it past that.
Terrel held a torch in his hand as they walked through a completely demolished trap floor. He didn’t understand why every single trap had been destroyed, but it made traveling through it infinitely easier. That said, it also made everyone infinitely more tense. It was far from normal behavior— all the person’s kills were far from normal.
And so, as they traveled the floor, all of them remained on guard.
“What level do you think this person is…”
“They have to be at least 130…”
“No, they must be over 150…”
Of course, aside from Percy, Brent and him, the rest of the knights were nervous so whispers were inevitable, and perhaps desirable to alert the other person of their presence. Terrel felt like they were getting close to the trespasser, just one more floor probably.
His eyes narrowed and he turned the corner only to see a woman sitting down a couple of meters away from him. She had a sword that looked as if it had just been taken out of the forge, and her armor was in utter tatters.
For a moment he shivered— they had found the person— and then Identify went off.
[Warrior. Lvl. 108]
She was a level 108 warrior; about their level. All of the knights had the exact same reaction, jerking before relaxing. And Terrel, of course, knew what he had to do. He slowly approached the woman who was looking at him strangely.
“Where is the person that cleared all the floors?” he asked. “The one that entered the tower with you.”
The woman raised her brow, evidently confused. “What do you mean?”
Terrel was about to clarify but the woman continued before he could say anything, pointing at herself.
“I am the one that cleared all of the floors.”
* * *
Amber watched the knight blink in slow motion, all of the knights did. She wasn’t wary of them given none of them had hostility towards her, though was what she had said that strange? She didn’t understand it. She took in their levels.
[Warrior. Lvl. 107]
[Mage. Lvl. 105]
[Warrior. Lvl. 109]
They were all around her level. The leader — the man that had approached her — had been the highest level one, while all the knights dressed the same, he had a red cloth at his waist. While a different one had a blue cloth. Amber figured they signified their ranks. The leader shook his head.
“I believe you are misunderstanding what I am saying,” he said.
Amber looked at the man that looked slightly older than Thieney and felt confused.
“Aren’t you asking who was the one to slay all the monsters in the previous floors and clear the traps on this floor?” Amber asked.
The man slowly nodded.
“Then that is me, unless that gets me in trouble; in that case that was definitely not me,” Amber stated simply.
The man blinked, and at that moment the knight with the blue cloth— a blonde man that looked as old as Thieney stepped forward and walked past the leader.
“Do not play with us, adventurer. Just because the king and queen are merciful doesn’t mean we cannot drag the information out of you—”
“Brent,” the leader coldly called and the man froze. “That is enough.”
The man, Brent, paused. “Y-Yes Captain.”
Ah, he’s the captain. Amber looked at the rest of the knights and deduced the one that had just threatened her was the vice-captain. Even though he spoke menacingly, once more; she didn’t feel the intent to hurt her anywhere coming from him so she didn’t feel wary.
Finally, the captain approached her again.
“This is a very important matter, you see; this tower isn’t meant to be public knowledge so it is important we can talk to all the parties involved,” he explained.
Amber nodded. “So, I won’t get handcuffed or arrested or anything?”
“No.” He shook his head. “However, I do hope for your cooperation in telling us who entered with you.”
“I am alone.” Amber sighed. “I’ve been in this tower for six months now.”
The capitan frowned, and so did the vice-captain? Amber wasn’t too sure but she watched a knight ask from behind; he had a staff on his hand.
“Are you perchance the person that snuck into the back entrance of the tower six months ago?”
“Yes…” Amber agreed, her voice low.
The captain looked at her with scrutiny and then turned gesturing at everyone. Amber watched as the knights left elsewhere, except— one stayed behind. The man with the staff, rather than follow after them he approached her and leaned on the wall next to her. He had black hair and black eyes; his complexion was on the pale side.
“Why did you stay behind?” Amber asked.
“They are probably having an audience about whether what you said is true or not.” He shrugged. “I personally see no point in being there when I can be talking to you.”
Amber rolled her eyes at that and decided to ask. “What are the outcomes of this audience?”
“Well, I don’t actually know.” The knight frowned, thinking. “I think their main priority is mainly ensuring you don’t go and babble about the tower to the Guild, and the other is finding out if you really are alone or not. As for anything else, I don’t know.”
“I have no interest in talking to the Guild about this.”
“Why not? What if I give you my special permission?” He winked and Amber shook her head, almost groaning.
Is he serious?
In response, the knight chuckled.
“My name is Percy, but you can call me Percy, whichever suits you better,” he said, smiling.
“They are the same thing.” Amber had to suppress a sigh, she didn’t like this man, Percy, and to believe this was her first human interaction in six months.
“If you say so.” Percy shrugged. “So what brings you here? How did you even find this place?”
“I ran in a straight line inside the forest and eventually saw it.” She shook her head. “As for what brings me here? Well, I heard this is a trial of strength so I am here for that. So does the royal family have a deal to train knights here or what?”
She kept any questions in regards to the potential Primordial Spirit to herself.
“They do,” he responded, smiling. “However, we aren’t any knights but the knights that serve inside the royal castle, we respond to the queen and king directly.”
“Huh, I see.”
Not exactly what I expected, so everyone here has direct ties to the royal family? she thought. So, showing the cube is either a really good or a really bad idea.
“By the way, I never got your name. What is it?”
“Amber.”
The man blinked. “Strange name, but it sounds nice.”
She shook her head at what he said. While Percy could be a nice way to glean information about the capital— or more importantly about what happened during the attack on the royal vault, she decided that it was too soon to ask about that. She didn’t know if it was public information.
For a moment she felt tempted to leave the knight and head to the next floor, but Cursed Supreme Momentum had ended. She sighed and reached for her dagger, the man blinked and pulled his staff, but all Amber did was cut herself.
Her skills refreshed and she burned the blood on the palm of her hand— instantly evaporating it— a moment later the cut quickly closed.
“What are you doing?” he asked tensely.
Amber put the dagger back in its sheath and met the man’s gaze. “Do you think I was the one to clear all the floors or that there is someone else?”
Percy blinked and hesitated. The man looked at her all over, then his eyes landed on the Flamecursed Sword. The ground surrounding it was charred black, but no flames had been ignited.
“I think… you are telling the truth…” he finally said.
Amber nodded. She hoped that that would make the man stop his advances — if they were even that — she wasn’t interested in doing any of that yet, and she wouldn’t certainly chose this man even if she was.
Finally, after a few seconds Percy sat down not too far away from her.
“You aren’t going to return to see the meeting or whatever?” Amber asked.
“No, I think it’s kind of pointless,” Percy replied. “While I am still skeptical of your claims, I think the only real solution is to continue climbing the tower and see for ourselves, only then will the truth be revealed.”
“Huh, right.”
So I have to wait to see what they end up doing…?
Well, she was fine with that. So long as they didn’t tell her to leave the tower anyway.
* * *
During the meeting, Percy was missing, but Terrel just let him be in favor of having a productive talk, choosing to listen to everyone’s opinions in regards to the strange young woman they had just met. One of the knights had a rather peculiar one.
“Maybe she is a lure for her master, so she will lead us to him…”
“Nonsense!”
He shut that conversation rather quickly, but it was important for Terrel to hear what everyone had to say. And in the end, everyone believed that she was lying. That she had come with someone else and that this other person had gone into hiding. But Terrel had a feeling that that wasn’t the case.
He remembered the woman’s sword, the ground around it was charred— it reminded him of all the burn marks he had seen on all the floors. Not only that but the young woman herself looked feral, for lack of a better word. Her hair was a mess and covered with flakes of ash, while her face looked clean aside from some scorch marks, Terrel had a weird feeling about her.
Her presence too felt a lot bigger than normal people.
Finally, he concluded the meeting.
“I have heard everyone’s opinions and I believe what I initially suggested is the best option,” he stated simply.
The three knights in the meeting reluctantly nodded, except for one— Brent, the vice-captain. The blonde man stepped forward and spoke in a hushed whisper.
“No, absolutely not. When have you heard of this happening before?” he asked.
Terrel shook his head. “Never, but I never got taught how to deal with trespassers and this is my solution,” he began, explaining. “If she is alone and telling the truth then it will be good for us, and if she is lying there is only one way to find out. Worst case scenario we dismiss her and tell her to exit the tower. The knights outside will take care of it.”
Brent raised his hand. “But she is an adventurer and we are knights, unlike an adventurer, we are here to serve the queen and king and nothing more—”
“And for that, we must grow stronger,” Terrel said. “Which is why this is our best choice.”
The vice-captain reluctantly nodded. While Terrel thought he was quite a hot-headed guy, he also knew that Brent was incredibly loyal to the kingdom and his people. Not only that, but Brent was actually a kind-hearted person, he had seen him in the past donate food or do charity work, though it was a shame that most knights here did not know that side of him.
Terrel looked at the vice-captain.
“It will be fine, I will take responsibility.”
The man nodded, this time slightly more convinced. And with that, they headed towards the young woman. She was still in the same spot, except that Percy was near her. Brent shot him a look which made him quickly rejoin the formation. Then, Terrel approached.
“I assume Percy told you about what we usually do?”
“That you don’t want me to tell anyone about this and stuff…?” she asked. “Yeah.”
Terrel nodded. “Alright, skipping that there is a question I’d like to ask you.”
The warrior raised her brow. “What is it?”
Terrel met her gaze and spoke.
“Will you join us in climbing the tower?”
And she blinked.
Comments
terry
All instanses of "actually" => delete. Thanks for writing, very entertaining so far. Hopefully there i a plot with a proper ending and just not endless powerups.
Mugsy
Yeah it would be kinda weird for her to agree, cause since the 50th floor she hasn't really been struggling and probably wouldn't take kindly to people lowering her experience gain unless the floors get harder because of them joining. Or I guess on a much more human level she just wants to chat because she hasn't seen anyone in six months but so far only the captain is really making a good impression to her.
