Chapter 196

The Setup On Floor 210

(Alilian and RaSean)

“Do you think she will even stop here?” RaSean asked, the weight of having to stay in the Arcanarus Tower for yet another day weighing on him. While his regeneration was more than capable of dealing with the slow necrotic rot that overtook everyone living who entered the tower, he still couldn’t help but feel the slow drain that this realm had on his psyche slowly withering away at him. He and Alilian had been here for six months, well in the tower for that time. From there they took a train ride to the great world tree Yggdraspirit. Then from that point onward it was all giant airships that would be able to rise to the two hundredth floor.

Once he and the team made it to floor two hundred, that’s when they went up as a team. Each had their own tasks that they were assigned. RaSean and Alilian were dropped off here at floor 210 to farm reputation so that they would not be constantly attacked while they waited for the prize. A prize that almost everyone was gunning for a chance to meet, but only their country had the resources, manpower, and foresight to plan out this elaborate honey trap.

“Are you kidding, it seems like this entire section was created just for her. I mean think about it, two rival factions of Mages against Cultivators who test their might in a monthly tournament to prove strength and dominance. If she wouldn’t stop here, then where would she stop?” Alilian asked.

Hearing that RaSean just nodded his head as he couldn’t argue against that assessment. That was the rationale for the two of them breaking off here in the first place, while the rest of the team kept climbing upwards.

After a few moments RaSean finally spoke. “Any word on the target?”

“She is moving.” Alilian stated.

“She is?”

“Yes, we have confirmation coming in that the team has been able to climb up from the maximum level. They are now at floor 257.”

Hearing that, RaSean paused, then realized, “that’s pretty close.”

In his mind he did the math. With the Tower controller rising, the maximum floor that the team could get to would be fifty levels above the highest floor the Tower controller reached. Meaning that if the advanced scout team could reach floor 257, then the Tower controller had to have at least reached floor 207, which placed their target within just three levels of their own floor.

“When did she start?” RaSean asked.

“About three hours ago.” Alilian replied.

That was the other problem with this task for RaSean, in that Alilian had a constant feed of information being fed to her from the outside, which got astronomically more expensive inside a Tower or Dungeon. Given this cost, to streamline the process only two people were given feeds, Alilian and Yeromeah, the leader of the advanced scout team.

Suddenly, RaSean felt a twinge of apprehension as he realized that they were close. Then realizing the speed that the target was rising, he understood one thing.

“She is flying?”

“Yes, she is technically cheating, but we all know that after this floor, the cheat of flying will not be as easy.”

Hearing that RaSean again nodded, remembering how the floating lakes of mana infused water, and ponds of poisonous Qi water were everywhere around, making flight nearly impossible. At least this was the floor that everyone in their exploration team had to stop their flight upwards and focus on climbing the tower the way the world apparently wanted.

“Are you sure she will stop here? I mean this is a rather large floor.”

“This was the perfect spot to set up a hotel. Additionally, we are one of the few places that allows you to sign up for any portion of the battle contests, and are a stone’s throw away from the tournament complex itself. Relax, we have this.” Alilian said, as she reassuringly placed her hand over RaSean’s own.

Tingle.

RaSean felt the familiar surge of calming energy flow through him. This was one of the odd spells that Alilian had picked up along her journey, one that made her a perfect plant for their intended target.

The goal of this whole multi-million gold coin campaign was simply to meet the target on friendly terms. That was it, nothing further. No ulterior motives, just meet, establish contact and end the relationship on a seemingly friendly note.

This on its own should be relatively simple, as all accounts of the target state that she is charming, friendly, with a bubbly personality. There was also the disclaimer that noted that she was exceptionally brilliant, particularly when it came to the use and practical applications of Magic and Qi, and if she noted any form of deception she would grow weary almost instantly.

Thus began the campaign and training program that had been established for not just them, but the whole team as well. Then more and more incentives would be handed out for each additional time any member of the team managed to meet the target and once again end the meeting on a pleasant note.

There was one major stipulation that had been put in for the entire team, but especially for RaSean who had apparently developed a bit of a reputation as a lady’s man. Namely, he and no member of the team was to approach the target in any type of romantic way. This made his current task tougher, but not completely unmanageable.

At first RaSean thought that this was because one of the country’s higher ups had taken a liking to this particular target, only to find out that this stipulation of no romantic interests was based solely on the age of the avatar the user was controlling, as she was apparently still a minor, despite becoming highly recognized for her magical potential.

With this revelation, RaSean only became even more intrigued by this potential target. Clearly she had either found something, or gained some forbidden magical item that would allow her to gain such notoriety so quickly. Then smiling to himself, he realized that getting this magician to enter into the tournament would be perfect to see what she was truly capable of, as the tournament’s field had a way of deactivating the effects of items. Meaning that once a participant entered the battle arena, it was only their skills and abilities that would be measured. Which was a huge part of why RaSean particularly enjoyed watching the tournaments, there were so many powers and abilities that were on display that it was impossible to name or identify each nuance that went into each attack.

Peak Martial grandmasters would use exploding fists that glowed in different colors of the rainbow with each strike. While magicians would cast spells that seemed to rip apart the very fabric of reality. Then the top mage would square off against the top cultivator in a winner takes all final championship. The warriors almost always won. There were only a few exceptions, the mage cast trap spells that would capture the cultivator long enough to be blown apart by an instant attack spell. Or the mage would create an illusionary copy of themselves and get lucky enough that the warrior would try to attack the illusions, while the mage fired off a deadly attack. Those were the only two victories that RaSean saw from the mages and those were months ago. In the six months that RaSean had been here the totals had been four wins for the cultivators versus two wins for the mages.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Given how powerful this mage candidate allegedly was, RaSean felt that this mage might just have a chance. Though there was also the off chance that the mage might try to sign up for the cultivator side, given how strong they apparently were as well.

Given this description, RaSean pictured a short buff magical dwarf person.

“Oh shit,” Alilian hissed as she stood up from her seat, and began straightening her formal dress that she wore for her hostess role for this hotel.

“What?” RaSean asked, suddenly jumping to his feet and cleaning up his own rumpled butler’s uniform as well.

“She’s here.”

“She is? But wasn’t she three floors away?”

“Apparently, she saw something that got her attention and decided to come here quicker.” Alilian stated.

Hearing that, RaSean did remember a note that stated the target could use Teleportation magic to move quickly if they wanted. That was another no go for their mission, particularly if they wanted to be paid for this whole operation, as the target could apparently Teleport large distances in the blink of an eye. If that happened, keeping track of her would be nearly impossible.

Jingle.

With that the door opened, revealing the most beautiful creature that RaSean had ever seen. She was short, but floated weightlessly in the air, perfect angel wings propelled her forward. She wore a black one-piece uniform that looked like it was made of silk and finer materials. Her skin was a light blue that could only speak of being stuck here in the spirit world for centuries.

In his mind, RaSean had seen the fairies that ran the library on the two hundredth floor, and who protected the library at all costs. Looking at this person before her, it was clear that she was like them, but likely a different faction entirely, that and this creature was clearly royalty of some kind for this newly discovered faction.

This new character complicated things, as supposedly the target would land on this floor shortly, but they couldn’t very well turn away royalty. Not if they wanted to be able to keep their operation running smoothly, something they only needed to do until contact with the target was made, but something that would invariably be cut short if they managed to anger royalty. RaSean had heard about this sort of thing, where the world throws in random complications, while you are trying to meet specific people.

Realizing that this was likely a test of some kind, RaSean decided to try to intercept the royal fairy queen, who all but radiated magic. That was the other thing, as this character was clearly a fairy as they all but radiated unbridled magical power. Just as RaSean was about to move, he noticed that a small blue eel-dog creature seemed to float swim next to the fairy queen. Pausing for only a moment, RaSean scanned the area to see if other guards were coming for this member of royal society, but seeing that none were coming, assumed that the lack of personal guards was mitigated by the eel attack dog thing.

With that realization, RaSean decided to be careful with his approach.

“Your grace, to what do we owe this unexpected visit?” RaSean asked, slightly playing up the fact that he was putting on airs for the newest arrival, and by doing so will hopefully be able to get the dialog going. From his past, he assumed this might be a fetch quest that turns out to be a way to get him to enter himself into the tournament as a representative of the fairy queen’s faction. Just thinking about it, this would prove to be more cumbersome than he expected, and was already sighing at the idea of having to shew away this member of royalty in a polite but dignified manner. Yet, he was not prepared for what happened next.

“What is your problem?” The fairy queen asked, turning her head from RaSean to face Alilian, “is he always like that?”

“You must excuse him, he is extremely nervous as he is waiting for an important person to arrive.” Alilian said, her tone denoting that there was something that RaSean should be picking up on, but RaSean could not understand the undertones.

“Oh, I get that.” The fairy queen said, in an almost relaxed tone.

Something about this queen was throwing RaSean off. Actually, no, everything about this fairy queen was throwing RaSean off.

“Can you tell me who you are looking for, and I can tell you if they are already here.” The fairy queen stated.

Hearing this, RaSean felt a slight form of apprehension. He knew the lore of working with fairies, that taking so much as the smallest gift might be tantamount to giving them part of your soul, or worse being bound to an unimaginable favor. Though, RaSean was curious as to just what the fairy queen would do to find someone.

“Is this some form of search magic?” RaSean asked.

“Something like that.” The Queen responded.

Given the evasiveness of the statement, RaSean knew he would not take up the exchange of an unbound favor. Though he was still curious about this search magic, particularly as he had never heard of this particular style of magic before.

“Out of curiosity, how would you cast such a spell?” RaSean asked.

Hearing that the light blue ears of the queen twitched as she suddenly looked intrigued by the question, meaning she had not really put any true thought into the search spell at first.

“Good question. Well for starters, we have to figure out who exactly are you looking for? Are they living or a spirit from this realm?” The queen asked.

Hearing this, RaSean paused, wondering just how the queen knew this? Apparently, the queen saw something on RaSean’s features as she instantly laughed and shook her hand dismissively as if somehow also able to read his thoughts.

“Don’t worry, nothing crazy like me reading your thoughts or anything. No, I just figured since you two were the only ones who were clearly alive on this floor, that it would stand to reason that the person you were waiting for was also living as well.” The queen stated.

This was when Alilian came forward to assist. “Very astute observation, but how would you search for them using magic?”

Pausing for only a moment the queen bit her lips together in a clear sign of obvious contemplation, then thinking for a moment, she moved her hands, but then paused as she began muttering to herself. “No, no point in creating two different spells, just lace them both together like so.”

Whoosh!

Suddenly a surge of energy passed over and through RaSean as he felt like his insides were about to be shaken free. There was so much power in that spell that for a moment RaSean thought he was being attacked by some fierce wind spell. Only to realize that he was able to keep his feet under him.

“What was that?” RaSean blurted out, losing his character as the butler as he felt his heart race at the sudden surge of energy that had just pulsed through him.

“That was a magical search spell. I can search for both living and spiritual beings with that spell, kind of fun.” The queen said, tilting her head to the side.

“Tha, that…” Alilian began to speak, but found herself stuttering.

Seeing the look of shock on Alilian’s face, RaSean involuntarily took a step towards her, in order to comfort her. “Are you okay?”

All Alilian could do was nod her head, but then she turned her head to focus on the queen.

There was a look on Alilian’s face that was hard to describe, and RaSean realizing that this whole dilemma had gone on for too long, decided to refuse this random quest from the fairy NPC, consequences be damned.

“Look I’m sorry, but we can’t have you going around casting random spells like that in here. We are going to have to ask you to leave.” RaSean said in as polite of a tone as he could.

“Oh, yeah.” The queen said, looking around as if suddenly realizing that she was in a hotel casting random high powered spells that could cause severe damage. “I apologize.”

Then reaching down she grabbed her pet guard eel, which quickly seemed to blend into her skin in less than a second, before she disappeared completely.

Poof.

A cloud of glittery dust floated up from the ground, and then slowly seemed to evaporate in the light. Only after seeing the cloud evaporate, and see how quickly the queen disappeared did RaSean realize he made a huge mistake.

This was further confirmed by Alilian who screamed out, “no, no, please wait!”

But it was already too late as the fairy queen that was just here had already left.

Silence.

There was a long moment of silence, as both RaSean and Alilian both were lost in deep thought. Seeing the expression on Alilian’s face RaSean knew exactly who that person was.

“So that was…” was all RaSean got out before Alilian just nodded.

“Yep.”

Knock, knock.

The was another awkward pause, and RaSean was just about to say something, when he heard a slight knocking on the door.

“Uh, come in?” RaSean stammered out, never experiencing anyone just knocking to enter an Inn.

With that the door opened once again revealing the same fairy queen, who looked just as elegant and beautiful as before, though now there was a deeper look of contemplation on her face.

“Sorry to bother you all again, but could I ask one question?” The target asked, never stepping beyond the threshold of the Inn’s door.

“Uh sure, anything.” RaSean stated, being the first to recover and try to stand back up to his regal bearing as a butler.

“Can I asked why you called me your grace earlier?”

Hearing that, RaSean first thought about lying, but then decided that being honestly true was the only way to go here. Given her powers and how mysterious she allegedly was, there were likely ways the powerful woman before him could detect if he was lying anyways. With that in mind, he decided to speak openly and honestly.

“You must forgive me. When I first saw you, I thought you were a fairy queen from a sect of fairies that we had never interacted with before. I also, apologize if I came across as rude, as I didn’t want to get drawn into a seemingly random feud between factions of fairies.” RaSean answered.

Hearing that the target, just nodded her head and muttered just loudly enough for RaSean to hear. “Well at least this time I was considered to be a queen. That means that I am moving up in the world.”

Just before RaSean could respond to that comment, the floating girl with angelic wings nodded, then said, “thank you for answering honestly.”

“Any…”

Poof.

Just as RaSean began to speak back, to try to continue the dialog with the enigmatic target, she had once again disappeared.

This time the door just remained opened, while the two conspirators looked at each other.

“What do we do now?” Alilian asked.

That’s when RaSean trying to break the sudden tension that was clearly all his fault asked.

“Do you think we can claim our bonus by putting us down as having had two cordial meetings?”

"Probably not." Alilian stated.

With that, RaSean just sighed as he figured that would be the case, though he did hope for a moment. Just when the two were going to write off the whole scene and cut their losses, they both saw a world message that would negate any chance the two had at having an easy write off where they stated nothing eventful happened.

Because not two moments later they, just like everyone received a world announcement that would forever change the world.

World Announcement: Congratulations to Cassiopeia Spiritlight for singlehandedly discovering and inventing a new form of magic.