Spike was pretty sure Tammy was salivating as she stared at the amber and blue crystal. “And… and I get to use all of it?”
“That’s right,” Sandra said. “We need gear to tackle the next boss badly. We lost an entire ten floors of stuff. Can you hook us up?”
“Course.” Tammy leaned up and rotated her arm. “I’m pretty sure I can make some nice stuff for each of you with this.” She rubbed the end of her hammer against her face, pacing before her foundry. "I'll just turn that… And…"
Spike tugged at Tammy's pants lightly. "Sorry, but you mean you can get us all ten floors, right now?"
"Huh? No, but if you keep hunting like this, no problem! Just think of it like--"
"--Farming," finished Tabitha. "We're tower farming, outside the tower. Get us the best you can, Tammy. The better it is, the easier it'll be to get more, faster. We all want to get to the top of that tower."
Garble let out a weary sigh. "Figures, more farming." Still, he didn't argue the basic idea. "Hey, Tammy."
"Yeah?"
"Can you tell when we have enough stuff to be worth ten floors? That'd be kinda good."
Tammy threw her hammer where it landed on a hook in an expert toss. "I've gotten better at it! You all keep bringing me so much amazing material… I know you all feel like you're coming a long way and you are don't get me wrong." She turned her hands towards herself, fanning imagined heat. "But I am too! I feel like way more of a smith than I was before you all showed up."
The party and smith prepared for their own departure, when Tammy leaned over to Sandra. “Don’t look, but there’s a lurker. What’s he waiting for?” Sandra turned to look, and at the edge of the smithy lurked Tomás.
Sandra waved her hand. “No no, he’s with us. He uh… inadvertently gave us the hook up for this round of monsters. Oh and uh… well we have to ask you if you are willing to work for him a little too, as compensation.”
Tomás entered the conversation, completely sensing that discussion had turned to him. “Hopefully if it’s not too much trouble, that is.” He gave a glance over the work that Tammy had been doing. “It probably isn’t cheap, getting work from a smith like you, now.”
Tammy giggled. “Now, it’s much better but I still have a way to go.”
Tomás’s smile broadened. “Now, even if you can put down your own skill, you have to admit your forge has definitely come a long way.” He then leaned over and said in a lower tone. “Although I would not put down your own skill, if I were you.”
Tammy laughed again, this time more nervous. “I’ll keep that in mind, I suppose I can do a little work on the side, but I’m pretty sure my team comes first.”
“Of course, of course, and in fact,” He turned to the rest of the party. “I think they have some more work to do for me.”
Tabitha, who had been only observing the conversation, took notice. “Huh?”
“Come now, chica, how do you think you’ll be finding more monsters of that caliber?” He wagged his finger. “You can’t just wander around and find it. Now I, on the other hand, have both the information and the connections to the people who know where more are. You can keep wandering, or you can take bounties I use, for a… modest finder’s fee.”
“Well,” Tabitha looked around, a little bit of shock coming down. “I mean uh… I guess” she looked to her party for help, all of which seemed to be looking fine, with Spike from the back giving her a thumbs up. “I mean… if everyone else is good with it… yeah, I guess we can work together again.”
Tomás smiled like this was the plan all along.
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A delay, just a delay… "We can do this." It wasn't Spike, but his sister. Twilight pumped a hoof for good measure, not that anyone but Sandra could hear her.
Sandra smiled at the enthusiasm. "Twilight says we should try again."
Spike wobbled a hand. "Tammy says we're just on the edge, like we farmed normally, but you felt that. Maybe we should edge on the safe side for this one. We're so close to the top." Warnings danced in his mind. "Let's not take chances we don't have to."
Garble shook Spike's shoulder from above. "As interesting as some of these, whatever, manamerges get? I want to finish this."
Smolder shook her head, patting her front as if to get rid of dust. "Besides, that Thom guy's doing his part, but I still hate that he's basically mooching off our skills. If we're gonna farm more, I say we find another way to do it that isn't hooked on him."
Stolen story; please report.
“We could stop whenever we want, I think,” Tabitha said. “He’s good to work with, holds up his ends of the bargain and such.” She looked back and forth. “I think whomever he works with with whatever organization knows he isn’t doing the work himself.”
“So do you want to keep going up or not?” Spike said.
“I think we should give it a try,” Tabitha said. “If we’re as tough as we think we are, we can all escape from the fight, and if we are tougher, we beat him.”
The little dragon sighed. “I guess I’m the only one who thinks we should stay back.”
Garble slapped him on the back a little too hard. “Don’t worry about it, we can waste more time out here later.”
Smolder was caught in a giggle, and the party in general started up.
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Tabitha opened the door this time, catching the huge fist with her shield as the fight immediately began basically in the summoning room itself.
“You kept me waiting,” the ape said as he lunged forward, a disciplined punch being shot at several nearby party members. “I had thought you had some sense and gave up.”
“We don’t have sense!” Garble said.
The ape didn’t stop, but did chuckle. “Is that so?”
“Garble!” Smolder yelled, barely dodging another punch.
The difference of their new equipment became rapidly known. The ape's strikes, while powerful, couldn't put them to the ground in one strike. Their own attacks, as annoyingly untelling, had become more than angry gnats against the skin.
The fight had become tough, but not impossible. And that was all the difference they needed, turning the battle slowly towards their side as they chipped away at their opponent's resolve.
"I knew this wouldn't work," groused the ape as it clapped two hands together to catch Garble's blade, even if Smolder was already rushing in to carve open a line in the opening created. "But I'm just the first. Not the worst."
"Leave the rhymes alone," called Garble, wrenching his blade back with an arc of red from where it cut across the palm of the creature. "Ain't got time for a moan. Sit down and die."
When they landed the last blow, Spike with a charged blast of holy magic, the ape grunted more with annoyance than death, and it evaporated into bits of gear and supplies to take back. Tabitha was already nodding at it. "Good… job everyone. Grab it!" And so the looting began, the party needing no further prompting to clean the floor of everything they could get their hands on.
What came next was a surprise. A recall point. Smolder squinted at it suspiciously. "Too nice." She hiked a thumb at the door leading to stairs that went upwards. "Bet the next one's even harder?"
Garble lifted his shoulder with a wry smirk. "I bet the next one ain't even a monster."
Sandra gasped with alarm, her hands coming together to cling to one another. "You're probably right! We're past playtime. It's time for more than tests of combat readiness. We passed that, with the ten floor skip."
Spike, however, just looked around. Where was the man that would be here, what did he call himself? Logos? Last time he showed up the moment they cleared the boss, but on this boss he did not. Well, he wasn’t quite sure if more conversations were going to help. Spike had run out of things to ask him a while ago.
He continued to move too, picking up what seemed to be a very nice healer staff, nice that they don’t have to melt it down either, and the party headed to the next room.
Where a big cheesy banner saying “Happy 90th Floor!” was draped across the portal, and the robed man stood underneath it, with a party hat on and a popper in his hand, which he pulled, sprinkling confetti with a pop. “Congratulations.”
“Oh,” Spike said, very unsurprised. “There you are.” Everyone else was frozen, staring at the man.
Right until they moved. “Wait, Spike,” Sandra said. “Is this… the man you’ve been talking to?”
The rest of the party murmured and gaped at the man, who responded instead, “Indeed I am, you’ve finally ascended high enough that I can project myself to all of you, instead of just the small one.”
"I'm not small," he got out in a low grumble, arms crossed across his chest.
Smolder advanced on the man. "So you're the guy behind all this!"
Garble cracked his knuckles, a look of cocky violence spreading as he considered what was the best possible way to start. "Good on ya fer comin' to us."
"And this is why I spoke to him." His eyes went not to Spike, but to Sandra. "You've come such a long way. To think you struggled so long to even gain access to the tower, and now you race towards the finish line."
“Yeah.” Garble reached for his sword. “But we can take a detour to beat your ass.”
“Now now” The man seemed unphased, looking to Garble briefly. “I’m not here to fight, I’m here to talk.”
“So what?” Garble made good on unsheathing his sword. “You’re the source of all of this, aren’t ya?” He positioned his sword, and started moving forward. “It’ll be easier like this!” He slashed at the man, his blade going straight through. There wasn’t even a swoosh of interrupting some ethereal form.
The man paused, watching for Garble’s reaction, and continued, “As I was saying, You have all done such a wonderful job, and there’s only ten more floors and to go, and you’ll all be able to do what you want!” He gestured to Garble, “Go home.” To Tabitha. “Get glory.” And to Sandra. “To fix everything.” He backed up and held his hands up at his sides. “You’re all so close, and I’m looking forward to it so much.”
Smolder snarled. “But this is your fault.”
“I am compelled by rules that all of us have to follow, little miss orange dragon.” The man walked up closer. “Decades ago somebody made a wish that drew in their family, this is just the consequences of that.”
“But you brought us here.” Spike said, not being able to help himself. “That wasn’t in any rule. And I bet it’s not in the rules per se that Sandra has to suffer for what her parents did.”
The man’s faint smile didn’t waver. “Well, perhaps there were things that could have been changed.”
“So then what’s your plan?” Sandra said. “You answer a question every ten floors, right? So just ask it right out, what are you going to do with us at the top?”
The man put on a mock pout. “You want to give away the plot right before the end? That’s no fun.” He began to float up into the air and the smile came back. “Well, I’m sorry if you’re going to be disappointed in the answer, but it will be vague. I can’t just give away all the plans, but I can tell you the basic gist of it.”
He pointed down at Sandra. “I will tell you what to wish for, and you will wish for it, giving everyone here what they want.”