Chapter 28
Suddenly, Leon’s vision went dark, and he stopped running. He looked around, but saw nothing. Then, a white text floated in front of him.
Welcome to: Tower of Katastroph
You have entered the Tower of Katastroph in Pura for the first time and will soon land together with your group in the special lobby for level 1.
This is where you will discuss strategies and make yourselves ready for the level.
Once you enter the first floor, a guide will tell you about your objective(s).
Good luck, Warrior.
When the text faded, Leon found himself in a brightly lit square room with a modern-looking setting of white, smooth walls and three red soft chairs standing on a black rug. Two gigantic monitors sat mounted on the wall, displaying text and numbers.
Status of Current Playthroughs
Level
Active Players
Killed Players
Completed
2
0
0
0
3
7
1
2
4
12
3
1
5
22
2
4
Leon looked at the second monitor.
Time for Current Playthroughs
Level
Playthrough closes in
Time left to enter
2
47 hours 26 minutes
27 hours 26 minutes
3
36 hours 15 minutes
26 hours 15 minutes
4
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
1 hours 33 minutes
ENTRY CLOSED
5
24 hours 58 minutes
9 hours 58 minutes
“So this is what it looks like inside the tower,” Ava said.
Leon turned toward her. She and Hert stood with their backs to a white wooden door with a golden handle, and a black “1” sat on the top of the frame.
“Wow,” Hert said, ogling the monitors. “Never thought I’d see digital stuff in this world. Except for the status windows and whatever.”
“Yeah…” Leon said, shifting his eyes back to the screens. “But I wonder why the first level isn’t there.”
“It’s probably because the first level is special,” Ava said. She stepped forward to get a closer look. “One has died on the third level.”
Leon swallowed. “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Are we ready to head inside?”
“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Ava said. She took out her staff.
“I never wanted this,” Hert mumbled as he took out his hammer and shield.
With those words, Leon stepped forward and pressed down the handle.
INITIATING INTRODUCTION TO LEVEL 1
*******
A brown-skinned woman in a long blue robe with white straight hair stood before them in an empty white room. She stretched her arms wide. “Welcome, Players, to level one. I am your guide and will explain how scaling the tower works, and why this first level is so—” She stopped. “How did a Scab get in here?”
“She’s a player,” Leon said, automatically.
The woman frowned, creating deep wrinkles between her eyebrows. “That’s not possible.” She stepped forward on bare feet and circled Ava, looking her up and down. “How did you get the title?”
”I…” Ava wet her lips. ”I…”
“Ai, the tutorial guide, put it on her,” Leon said.
The woman stopped to look at him with eyes so dark they were almost black. “I see.” She mumbled something that sounded like “low-level-arrogance” and waved her hand over Ava.
She sighed. “There. Now you’re back with the title you should have, but I can’t give you the points you should have gotten. I’ll bring up the unofficial title to our manager.” She patted Ava’s head with thin fingers. “I’m sorry for the inconvenience.”
Leon’s eyebrows shot up. “Inconvenience? She—”
Ava stepped forward and grabbed the woman’s hands. “Thank you. Thank you, so so much!”
The woman forced a smile and pulled her hands free from Ava’s grasp.
“We are here to make things difficult to encourage growth, not hinder it. And you have the toughest challenge we’ve ever set up in front of you, based on how busy you’ve been and on recent events. It isn’t in our interest to kill players or hinder their progression; our interest lies in strengthening them. And for a player to be hindered in such a way… it’s a waste. No matter the reason behind it.” Then she smiled at Leon. “Or maybe it’s fate. I also have bets on you.”
Leon stood with his mouth ajar. Why did these guides look at them like toys? She’d just ripped away a title from Ava, like it was nothing, when she had suffered the consequences of the title for a year. More. And she had lost so many status points because of it, too.
The guild blinked. “Did something I said upset you?”
Leon bit his tongue, even though he wanted to shout. There was no logic in pissing off a guide who could make their lives even more miserable when she’d already stated that they had a challenge ahead.
“Why do we get the highest difficulty?” he said with a trembling voice. “I thought the difficulty got determined based on how long one has been in Gaitol.”
“Ah, yes.” The woman tapped a finger on her full lips. “I can see why you would interpret it like that. Ai boasted about how she’d sent an overpowered monster your way and what she then told you. She thought she was funny, but she actually did you a huge favor, you know?”
“How?” In the corner of his eyes, he saw Hert back away.
The woman chuckled. “Great segue into what I’m here to tell you. You see, the first level of the tower is completely unique in three ways.” She held up a finger. “Floor one is something one could call part two of the tutorial. To see what knowledge you’ve gained.” She held up another finger. “The second one is for you to see what you fight for and why you should grow stronger. That one’s pretty personal.” The woman popped up a third finger, then cupped her hand around Leon’s cheek. Her touch was freezing. “The third is to see what effort should be put into you by the guides, to help you find your destined path.”
Leon stepped back. “What does that even mean?”
The woman moved her lips to one side and put her hands on her hips. “You’ll see, soon enough. Just remember this when you feel in danger—the more you endure, the more valuable gifts you stand to gain.” She clapped her hands once. “You will meet a guide on each floor who will tell you the goal or goals of each play through. Once you’ve finished the tasks, you can head to the end of the level. When you’re there, you will have completed the floor, your status will reset, and you can proceed to the next one, or head back to the city. That is true for this level as well, except that you can’t enter the second floor just yet.”
“The door has disappeared,” Hert said. “There’s nowhere to go!”
Leon looked around. Hert walked along the wall, feeling the paint for edges.
“Oh, didn’t you read the instructions?” the guide said. “You can’t exit the first floor once you start it, not until you beat it. Then, provided you wish to continue to climb the tower, you can raise your level and head into floor two and upwards.”
“B-But you said that we’re going to have the highest difficulty! I don’t want that. Let me enter a different one.”
“Tsk. Be quiet. There’s more information, and you don’t want me to forget to mention it because you want to escape. You can’t.” She snapped her fingers and a brown, empty box appeared on the lower right side of Leon’s vision.
Mini-map unlocked!
The mini-map will track your steps as you venture into the different floors in the tower. Once you’ve mapped ten playthroughs, the mini-map will update and start to track visits to dungeons and other mappable areas outside the tower.
Command: activate/deactivate mini-map
Cost or cooldown: N/A
“Use this to guide you around the tower floors. It will show the path you’ve treaded, chests you’ve found but not looted, and other useful things like that. Monsters won’t be visible on the map, except for when a skill says so. You, Leon, have gotten pretty close to unlock it. You just haven’t found the trigger.”
Leon frowned and opened his mouth, but Ava spoke first. “You still haven’t explained why we get a high difficulty.”
“Oh, no. Not a high one. The highest we’ve put out,” the guide said. Her cheeks flushed and her smile radiated. “You’ve done well, and you’ve attracted attention from more than one guide who wants to see how you fare. Now it’s time for you to head inside.”
A black tunnel appeared behind her, and it crept closer to them, overtaking the white walls.
“Your goal for this level is to open twelve chests. Once you’ve completed that goal, you can go to the portal. There you will get a reminder. Once you’ve stepped through it, you will find the loot if you’ve killed all monsters, a reset status, and a prize, based on what you’ve lived through. I’ll repeat this; you cannot exit the floor before you’ve lived through opening the twelve chests and walked through the portal, and if you don’t open the chests within a certain time, they will start to open themselves. Good luck.”
She dimmed and disappeared as the tunnel spread out over half of the room. Hert pressed his back against the wall and held his shield up in front of his body. Ava grabbed at Leon’s arm, pulling him toward her.
“We can’t go back,” Leon said, staring at the blackness. “We’re in this, whether we like it or not.”