While the two were resting, Alice decided to open a portal to her room, then checked on the replicator’s fragmentation progress while lying on her bed.
[Pseon Armor]
[Fragmentation progress: 70.51%]
[Pseon Tendrils]
[Fragmentation progress: 34.12%]
[Pseon Fluid]
[Fragmentation progress: 7.66%]
She raised her eyebrow at the percentage numbers, then she focused at the third item.
[Fragmentation process hindered due to low skill level]
[Complete replication unavailable, no source of divine energy detected.]
Then, she focused on the second item, and a copy of the first notification appeared in front of her eyes. It appears she could only use the armor for now.
Well, at this point, it looks good enough. The material would give her something to work with and take her one step closer to figuring out the situation, though it might be a good idea to ask a visitor to collect some scrap metal from outside her territory for more variety. She decided to note that for later consideration.
Next, she thought about the third floor.
Right now, it was almost like a giveaway floor with a puzzle that is on the easier side. At first, she considered putting more enemies in there, but as of now, the three fights have proven to be too much for the visitors, and the first team of four was only able to clear the first and second fights.
Then, another idea came to mind.
She went to the puzzle floor, then she tried to order the floor to create a room that allows for faster healing. To that end, she ordered the tower to imbue the floor and walls with a weaker version of Elliot’s greenish light.
To her surprise, at first, the tower attempted to execute the order, then it stopped.
[Insufficient information. Floor effect imbuing failed]
Insufficient information?
In response to her thought, another notification appeared.
[Collect more information on healing skills to imbue the effects into a floor]
… Oh.
She decided to add observation of healing skills to her to-do list.
The moment her tower-linked senses felt the two calling her, Alice opened a portal and dropped down to the first floor. The two seemed much better after an hour or so of rest, their wounds mostly gone while Clara’s complexion was no longer pale. Vincent was silent, his eyebrows furrowing, seemingly deep in thought. A part of her was curious, but there was no way to make him answer anything as of now, and she decided to keep the questions to herself.
“Okay, I’ll open the door to the second floor, then.”
With a crisp snap of her fingers, the second floor was now accessible. Alice smiled a bit at the small spectacle. She walked up the stairs first, followed by the three right behind her. As the three saw the construct, Alice stopped, then looked at them.
“This will be your second challenge,” Alice said, pointing at the two still immobile enemies. “Unlike the previous enemies, they do have some resistances to certain attacks, which you will find out later, though they’re less cooperative than the other two enemies. Well, that’s pretty much it. Whenever you’re ready, just like before, walk past where I am standing now.”
The two looked at each other, and then they nodded, a simple gesture that only enhanced the mutual understanding behind their gaze.
“We’re ready.”
Alice nodded, and glanced at Vincent, her slitted eyes conveying a silent order for him to not interfere. However, he seemed to not notice it. Although he was physically here, it was like his mind was somewhere else.
The two seemed to not notice, and Alice walked to the side, pulling Vincent along just in case. He did not even fight the gesture - it was as if he was unaware of everything else.
“Hey, Vincent?”
“Ah! I—“ the man shook his head, sighed, and rubbed his forehead. “Sorry about that. I was… a bit distracted.”
“Don’t worry about it. Do be careful, though. This place is not exactly the safest. If you want, I can escort you to the first floor, or outside. I can guarantee that there won’t be any enemies within my territory, and if there is any, I guarantee that I will know.”
“No need for such theatrics, I can watch and dodge,” Vincent said, while waving his hand. Now his expression looked a bit more relaxed, though Alice could sort of sense that he was not quite there yet. “Don’t let them get hurt,”
Alice nodded, and went back to watching the two. While she was distracted, the two had already started the battle.
With a couple of summoned wind and water spirits, Clara distracted one of the constructs while damaging it bit by bit, while the other pair of wind and water spirits assisted Amelia. Whenever the shieldbearer tried to slam her light shield, she gritted her teeth, the rock construct clearly shrugging off her attacks while each attack from the enemy was enough to hurt her.
The earthen construct raised its fists, intending to slam it down towards Amelia’s already fragile protection.
“Stop!”
Clara commanded the spirits distracting the other construct to move towards Amelia. Then, she raised her hand as the spirits began to glow, their wispy bodies bathed with power.
[Spirit Order - Whirlwind Sickle]
[Spirit Order - Bubble Prison]
The wind sickles slashed the construct’s arms clean off, causing the rocks that made them to fall off from the sheer force before they manages to reach Amelia’s shield. Then, the two was engulfed in a massive water bubble. Smaller bubbles kept forming within as the two constructs struggle to break free, grinding down the rocks into nothingness the more it moves.
“Amelia, you okay?” Clara ran towards her partner. Despite her clear exhaustion, she was still concerned about her partner as she checked Amelia’s body for wounds.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“I’m okay, Clara, no need to worry. Thank you, though,” Amelia smiled. Although she did seem appreciative, something about her smile felt off, as if she was trying to hold back something else. “Ah, it’s not over—“
Alice focused on the two constructs, then she tapped on her connection with the tower.
“With my authority as the Defier of this tower, I order you. Stop.”
The two constructs froze right as the bubbles disappeared, and then, they were reabsorbed. Alice felt a trickle of the energy used to summon the creatures return back to her.
“I think it is too dangerous to continue, but I count this as a win. You two have displayed good teamwork, though, Amelia, you have to get stronger. Clara is both your attacker and support, and you need to protect her with everything you could. If she ends up getting taken down, you will have a hard time.”
“Yeah, I… I understand.”
“As for you, Clara, you do need to work on your energy consumption. How many times can you use your [Spirit Order]?”
“It depends on how many spirits I have active. My limit right now is four, and I can use [Spirit Order] on each of them once. Each spirit takes energy to maintain, so as long as I have energy, I can keep them summoned. If I summon less, I’ll have enough to cast more [Spirit Order] on them.”
“I see, then it’s just a matter of training yourself.”
Alice looked at Amelia, and seeing her sullen expression, she added.
“Don’t be too discouraged, getting stronger is why you two are here, after all. Let’s go, the next floor won’t have anything you have to fight, I promise.”
Alice ordered the tower to open the way to the third floor, leading to the previous puzzle. “This is an easy puzzle, so no hints. Take it as a break. After you finish this, you’ll get your reward.”
The two of them nodded, then they started inspecting the area.
“You’re really not out to hurt her, huh? I suppose I have to say thanks,” Vincent suddenly spoke up. “I… am sorry for my earlier treatment of you.”
“She’s right, you know. I don’t exactly know what is going on outside, but from what I saw from here, it’s bad enough.”
“Why not try going? With that power of yours, I think venturing out for a bit wouldn’t be a risk,” Vincent asked.
“That’s the problem, really. I can’t. I have no clue why, but something prevents me from leaving, so all I know is from visitors.”
“If all Defiers can’t leave, that explains why that owl bitch just threw everyone out when those masked people decided to strike…” Vincent muttered. “Okay, fine, that aside, we made a deal. After they clear it, I’ll tell you what I know.”
The puzzle was on the easier side, and the two managed to clear it within less than an hour. With that, the door to the treasure room opened, giving the two access to their rewards. At first, Alice had the thought to reduce the rewards, but decided against it at the end, since the two did fight against the two constructs, after all.
Just like before, Alice gave them a quick explanation of the spirit stones and the stats function, before leaving them to discuss amongst themselves. She glanced at Vincent, then asked, “About those replicator…”
“Yes, I know. Show me the thing again.”
Alice ordered the tower to retrieve the corpse again, then placed it in front of her.
“Yeah, I only saw this for a moment, but I’m sure. I saw these creatures coming from ruined work centers, in particular the R and X Incorporated buildings. Hell, I ran from there at the beginning of this mess. There aren’t that many of them, but one is troublesome enough.”
“Yeah, they could summon any creatures they managed to get a hold of, right?”
“Yeah, that’s it, but from when I fought them, it’s usually a gamble on whether the creatures it spews are almost the same as the originals or just a cheap copy. Did those creature appear here as well?”
“Not in here, it was just hitting the barrier over and over, so I fought them.”
Alice glanced at the two, and saw they had already gotten a bit stronger. A check on their status screen revealed they have gotten 25 spirit stones each, but only converted around 10 to increase their stats while keeping the rest.
“Congratulations, you two. If you want, train here again some other time. I’ll try to improve the challenges later.”
“Thank you, Alice,” Clara nodded. “We’ll come back later.”
“Now, as for you, do you want to try? Of course I will adjust the difficulty and rewards for you,” Alice glanced at Vincent. “In the end, you can get points, too.”
“Not today, but I’ll keep that in mind. If I bring some important, can I get increased rewards in exchange?” Vincent asked with an amused smile.
Alice rolled her eyes, then answered, “Yeah, sure, if it’s worth enough, I’ll give you extra.”
“Alright then. As a freebie, I’ll tell you something. There was a bunch of masked people wearing all black looking for trouble with another tower’s administrator. I stumbled on one tower, then the next moment I was thrown out, so I’m not sure what these masked men want.”
“Heh, okay then,”
“With that, I’ll take my leave. The two seems to be capable of looking out for themselves. Clara?”
“Yes, Dad?”
“Take this.” Vincent conjured a small handgun and handed it to Clara. “If you get in trouble, fire this weapon.”
“Dad…”
“You’ve gotten stronger. If you have any problems or want to come back for any reason… wait at our usual place, okay?”
Clara shook her head to clear up her thoughts, then the next moment, she smiled. “Okay.”
With that, Vincent left the territory.
Now, only Clara and Amelia was left. The former walked up towards Alice, then said, her expression complicated. “Ah, Alice… thank you for earlier.”
“For what?” Alice raised her eyebrow.
“For, well, letting me try to stand on my own. I am tired, sure, but it was freeing. It felt satisfying to accomplish something.”
“Ah, well,” Alice shook her head, trying to bury a thought that came to mind. “Don’t worry about that. Come back when you’re up to it, okay?”
The two nodded, and Alice escorted them to the territory’s edge with a portal.
Now, without guests, everything went quiet again.
She decided to use the downtime rearrange her territory a bit. With a thought, the forest terrain changed, splitting into two clear paths lined with soft soil and rocks. In one, she added the wolves as an enemy, but in the other, she decided to add another type of enemy. She looked through the summoning interface, searching for a creature.
[Summon Basic Arachnid]
With her order, a furry, black spider around as tall as her torso appeared. A quick check revealed the spider possesses a mild poison that could cause continuous damage for a set period of time. Though it was on the weaker side, the creatures were capable of surprising speed, her guess confirmed as Alice ordered the spider to run around the place.
Then, she ordered it to stop and summoned another creature for comparison.
[Summon Basic Slime - Fire]
Now that she could concentrate better, she was able to pick the element she wanted. She ordered the slime to attack, and it shot out a glob of sticky, glowing red-hot liquid that bored a hole onto the ground. Seeing the ground’s state and considering the potential agonizing wound, she decided not to use the slime for now and ordered the tower to recycle the energy.
This time, she recovered most of her spent energy.
She looked through the basic summon options, and tried another one.
[Summon Basic Snake]
Contrary to her expectation, the summoned snake was not… an enlarged version of its normal counterpart. It was an ordinary-looking snake with distinctive red, yellow, and black band-like patterns. Its venom level was high enough to be a threat, but it will not wear off over time.
Alice has no desire to sacrifice her visitors, and she decided not to use it for now.
She felt the spent energy return to her, leaving just the sole spider. She decided to summon four more of them to guard the other path, making sure there was no intersection between the path leading to the two different enemies.
Then, she focused on the tower itself. As it stands, all visitors would be subjected to three consecutive battles in a row, with the earthen elemental construct as the most difficult one. However, the way the floors are arranged made it so the lower floors have a wider room, and it would progressively get more narrow as the floors went up.
It would present a problem if visitors have to contend with two tough enemies while on a narrow floor.
After all, it was part of the reason why she decided to put the easy puzzle on the third floor.
“Why not limit the movements of the enemies in some way?” Vuer asked, while appearing next to her. “If the summoned creatures’ movements were restricted, the visitors would just need to dodge.”
“Oh, right. Wait, this is actually kind of worth trying.”
She opened a portal to the second floor, wiped everything within the room, then opened a portal to the third floor.
First, she returned the room to its empty state, then with her orders, cube-shaped openings started to form all over the walls. She focused on the openings, and summoned a few creatures.
[Summon Basic Slime - Wind]
[Summon Basic Slime - Plant]
She felt energy seep out from herself and coalesce into tiny slimes chilling inside all rhe openings. The slimes were all either pale green or deep leaf green, with the latter having a single sprout with a pink flower on its head.
“Vuer?”
“Hm?”
“If it is possible, can you control the slimes to stay where they are and release their skills in random intervals? Don’t let them get out of their place at all.”
“Sure, but where are you going with this?”
“Watch.”
Alice took a deep breath, then, she dodged to the side, avoiding wind slices and spiky vines lashing towards her. She dashed forward, avoiding more attacks from multiple directions, while heading towards one of the slimes. She jumped up and grabbed one with a harsh yank, her claws digging into the creature.
Within a moment, the creature went limp, its body oozing sweet-smelling sap.
She tossed it to the ground, and dodged more attacks, heading towards another slime.
This time, she targeted a wind slime, and the wounds from her claws made it deflate, turning the creature into something that looks like a deflated balloon.
“Stop, Vuer.”
With that, the attacks stopped, and Alice tilted her head, avoiding one last wind slash.
“Oh, this is interesting,” the dragon reappeared in front of her. “You plan to make them do this dodge-and-hunt game?”
“Considering how the visitors we get can’t fight the elemental constructs, I think this will be a great compromise. They can skip this one, and I’ll open the door to the rewards, but if they do this, they get additional spirit stones as a bonus. Let’s make it… two per slime killed?”
Alice did a quick count, and saw there were around 20 slimes, all placed with no discernible patterns. She decided to keep it that way.
“I see how that method is more friendly for the visitors,” Vuer nodded, “it’s less of a challenge, but it’ll be useful for dodging and defense exercise.”
“I plan to adjust the amount of slimes as needed, maybe adding more depending on how many people comes at any given time.”
Now, it was time to work on the puzzle. She needed something that pose minimal risk to allow the visitors some time to relax, while not being too easy.
However, when she was about to work, her senses picked up two people entering the place.
She decided to recreate the previous puzzle template, then opened the tower interface. On the screen, she saw Izabel and Valerie standing in front of the newly created branching path. They were carrying a medium-sized cloth bag with them.
Without hesitation, she opened a portal to meet them.
“Ah, it’s you two. Did you come to train?”
“Oh, hey there, Alice. Yeah, I do, but also, I came to…” Izabel shook her head. “I just finished my business, and I figured out that I should come visit. Well…”
“Hey, Izabel, there is no need to be that tense,” Valerie said. “Alice, we came on behalf of everyone else to say thanks, and well, give you this.”
“… This is really late, but I’m sorry for how I treated you,” Izabel added, her voice almost too low to be heard.
“It’s alright. Water under the bridge,” Alice nodded. “So, what is this?”
Alice opened the small bag, and found a pack of sliced bread and a jar of strawberry jam, complete with a knife to spread it. There were also some fresh water bottles.
“We both found some supplies still remaining in our homes,” Valerie explained, “The molecular food generator is no longer usable, but we both love cooking by hand, so we were able to scrounge up something quick. It’s not fancy, but I hope you like it.”
Alice went silent for a moment, then she smiled.
“Thank you, both of you. Then, why don’t we eat together?”
“But it’s for you—“
“No buts, sit here.”
She altered the ground nearby just a bit and let soft grass grow on the area, before sitting and looking at the two. “Tell me about what you saw outside.”