The day after next, we were finally set to begin our final approach to where the awoken Monster Lord now dwelled. However, long before we reached the mountain, I gradually moved over to the edge of the large group. The rest of the team moved with me, but when we entered the next copse, I moved away from the group entirely, going now much more south than west. When I was distant enough that it wouldn’t be noticed, I turned up to full speed.
My role in the final part of the proceedings of the 5th Floor had been planned, long before we even set foot in the Landing, to be very different from the rest of Justice.
The Floors which the Federation Alliance had knowledge of hidden piece locations and retrieval methods were the 8th Floor, and the 5th Floor. In exchange for the information on the 2nd Floor’s hidden piece, they gave me the information for the 8th.
In exchange for the information regarding Titled I Difficulty and Qualification, Edwin had granted me Level Beta access to the Fire and Null sections of Grosstin’s prized Area 1 Spell database, and after admittedly slight prodding, the same access to the Water and Null sections for Mewi as well. And even on top of that, the alliance as a whole also granted the team the information on the 5th Floor’s hidden piece.
And the time to go grab it was now. The task had been left to me for two major reasons: I was still one of the better suited members of Justice for doing things on my own, and the Monster Lord’s minions were immune to fire. I may have been able to bypass a great deal of resistance, but the same trait, when tested, did nothing to overcome immunity.
Swiftly and surely, I made my way to my target: the ruined mining site the Monster Lord had first emerged from. In a cavernous chamber at the lowest depth the mine reached, the very site of the Monster Lord’s former slumber, was the hidden piece. An item that Clatenis had personally promised would make the Life Force Shard gem I’d gained on the 2nd Floor look like costume jewelry.
And it would simply disappear when the Monster Lord did, unless it was found by a challenger before that happened. I’d have time to do it—it would take a couple hours from when I’d separated before they’d find the Monster Lord, and for Ilsandre to wear it down would be about another 6, maybe a little less if Justice and the other two teams did a really good job of keeping the minions off of him. Then a half hour for the banishing.
Lower and lower I went, down deep shafts and through twisting veins. Before long, I wasn’t completely confident that I’d find my way back out without a great deal of trial and error—or the use of a Magical Map. I now had 50 of them, which Bruzigan, Mewi and I alike had figured would be enough for the Tower to stop giving me them.
Finally, I emerged into the Monster Lord’s former lair. I lit up the cave by deploying several special, highly effective Mana Lamps that I’d had along in my spatial ring specifically for this part.
With the cave lit, I could see a breathtakingly massive pile of debris at the far end. The Monster Lord had yeeted itself through the mountain, and later on the hole he had made collapsed on itself. I suspected that the item in question wouldn’t be found by digging through it.
After searching for a good while, it turned out to be hidden in plain sight. It was just laying on the ground, nothing else around it in the exact epicenter of the chamber. On first glance, it looked like a cheap, chintzy wooden statuette.
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But it was so, so much more than that.
Gold Grade
Auxiliary Consumable Tool (5 uses)
Slowly emits energy over a period of two years toward a single target, causing racial evolution.
I picked it up. “Racial evolution? What in the world?”
“That’s right, friend.”
I whirled around in an instant, instantly going on guard. I’d seen this guy in the group heading to take on the Monster Lord too, one of only two humans in Golden Blades. He wielded a pair of daggers, and they were reasonably good for a Very Hard challenger. But now, they were coated in a clear yellow substance that gave me seriously dangerous vibes just looking at it.
The man too, was giving off a much more dangerous vibe than I’d seen from him before. My instincts were screaming at me to run—that this wasn’t someone I could beat. Definitely a far cry from my first impression of him.
“That little knickknack, or one very like it, changed my life.”
“You’re...the leader of Golden Blades? Wait, you’ve already cleared this Floor?!”
“Yeah. In fact, that item is the only reason my team and I came back here.
It was more’n 40 years ago, as the Tower stands. I was a lot weaker back then, though most wouldn’t call me weak. When I first came to the 5th Floor, our mission was High difficulty. Had to ensure this charming little town a few dozen miles in from Cradine’s border wasn’t destroyed. That second beast tide...man. You Federation champions must feel real lucky you’re missing it, to say nothing of the rest of the challengers. But since we didn’t have that much to do after that until the Monster Lord was finally taken down, I thought I’d check this place out.” He kept his daggers pointedly at the ready as he began his story, every slightest twitch I made being answered by preparing to attack.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what I expected to find. But I never dreamed of what I did find. Mine was only Bronze Grade, and it took 10 years to work its magic on me. It wasn’t easy, scrimping and saving to buy enough merits from the Federation to last that long without having to clear a Floor. But when it did work its magic, woah mama!
Racial Evolution is the key to a turnaround for us humans, friend. The older, stronger races of the Tower have just about everything but population numbers on us, but Evolution items are able to shift the balance not just to a level playing field, but in our favor!
They may say money trumps strength in Area 1, but for the sufficiently...creative and careful, there are always ways to use the latter to gain the former. Ever since my first evolution, I've been living the good life.
After I used my own Blessed Totem 3 times though, I found it wouldn’t work for me again. Not that using it 3 times wasn’t amazing already. So, I gave one more evolution to my lovely wife, and very recently sold off the last use for enough dough to last us a few hundred years.
Or...so I thought. I didn’t see the safe zones disappearing coming any more than anyone else did. My wife and I agreed that we should join those now putting more effort into climbing the Tower and leave Area 1. So, we got ourselves a proper team together for Very High difficulty and we’ve been grinding for Silver versions of it to raise the whole team to my evolution level since.
Then I heard that the Federation’s champions would be challenging the 5th Floor, and I decided to take a long shot. And when I noticed you’d given the main party the slip, I knew I had ya. But I was very careful not to go anywhere near the thing before you did. The mission difficulty of the one who first reaches it determines the Grade of items like this, see. I didn’t want to sell ya the right to leave this cave alive and unpursued with an inferior product, after all.
Here’s the thing. Federation currency is bumfuck-all first-class worthless in higher Areas of the Tower. So I’m afraid instead, if you want both your life and the totem, I need official Tower currency. Gamma coins that I’ll still be able to convert to Area 2’s currency when I get there.”
He definitely wasn’t bullshitting. That potent poison and the fact that I hadn’t even noticed him before he easily could have had a blade at my throat meant that if he was going to simply kill me and take the totem, he’d have done just that. His need for money was understandable. And this item was definitely valuable enough to put Gamma coins on the table.
“How many Gamma coins we talking?”
“You know how they’re numbered, right? Each lower number of Gamma coin is worth 10 of the next highest. For an item this good...I think 2 Gamma-1 coins is not just a fair price, but a generous discount for the heroes of the Federation.”