The compass started guiding them upwards on day four of their journey across the House of Corrosion. While Little Wing was able to kill vast swathes of monsters, everyone else stepped up to assist with their own relics pulled from both Corvayne's haul and wandering monsters.
The towers became more sparse before they found a stairway to the next floor or layer of the dungeon. The dominant feature was a serene looking ocean of pine green acid, punctuated by waterfalls from a green sky so dark it was nearly black. Rusted structures stuck out of the goop, remains of what looked like a huge military base or factory.
Unlike most of the ruins they had explored before this one was very functional once they were far enough above the calm sea to enter the large flat buildings. The interiors had pumps moving fluid around, conveyors carrying parts, and a host of robotic protectors fighting with sawblades, pistons, high pressure water lasers, regular lasers, and slug throwers.
By the time the group passed an area, it tended to just be pitted with laser fire, the insane swarms of monsters around Little Wing clearing entire rooms until they hit snipers, which required Corvayne to instead take point. Lady Blood Claw's trees seemed to have some of the elements of the Watcher's capes, which let him infiltrate across open industrial yards, acid deltas, and vast tilted bridges over what had became a viscous flow of corrosive goo. As they got closer to the stairway the terrain became a more stark divide between impossibly beautiful buildings turning from chrome to rust as they sank into the green mucus flow.
There was only one 'boss' whom took up the only platform Corvayne could find approtching the tower that his compass seemed to finally consider their destination, a forty foot tall single eye'd squid who started emitting intense psychic pressure in the ten seconds before the swarm of tiny ships from Little Wing turned it into swiss cheese.
The next stair up put them in an emerald spire, green crystallized acid burning anything that touched the walls or floor, the air more acrid than before. Had they not been eating a variety of acicid monsters and gaining resistance, it probably would have killed them on the first step in, regeneration or not. Instead, they had enough time to dig and find a lantern that cast shadows, nullifying the effect but also blinding the group aside from Corvayne.
Which turned out to be fine. He coaxed Lady Blood Claw to form a sphere of wood through [[Unity]]. He guessed that she was in a state like the one that had taken Wick before, in some kind of stupor from perhaps low Quitesence. Or perhaps putting herself to sleep to try to evade the pain of so many roots and branches constantly growing from her.
Corvayne wasn't going completely blind on this, as he sometimes would leave the shadows to scout, but the compass gave them a path through the incredible tall hallways that avoided the dense clusters of monsters that infested rooms between the winding emerald halls. Corvayne saw that there were lifts that looked like they required some substance to power, given a metered tank next ot each sitting at empty, but his compass guided them to stairway up after rolling their wood ball up two long corkscrew ramps between floors.
He expected another two floors, but was pleasantly surprised when they arrived at hall of emerald statues, on stands in a vast dark cathedral filled with dark water or acid. The only path was a broad central bridge with a treasure chest standing on a raised podium, then the room terminated in a singular door with 'Exit' over it. The chest, the focus of the main light shining in, was like a ruby with strands of bright pink gum in it.
There was a delay as they tried to find a boss, guessing the statues would come alive. They did not, nor was the chest a mimic. It almost upset Corvayne, it flew in the face of everything he knew about the Tower.
Stepping onto the bridge, twenty statues lit up, then all but three faded. One was very bright, the rest were just dimly lit.
Corvayne opened the chest and found another red orb that just fell into his hand as soon as he even thought about trying to drop it, as well as a starry sewing needle and piles of materials that looked to be slightly higher quality version of butchered monster parts. A pair of cowboy boots made of black liquid that could change forms was very popular with the girls, them deciding to paper-rock-scissors for it, and there were also snacks for the monsters – huge bones made of a blue metal that Fred and Betty happily started fighting over with themselves, hydra-like eyeless heads snapping and trying to pull the bone away, while the rabbit started going insane trying to get at a banana. Corvayne tried to stop her but at both the rabbit and Bayou looking at him, he gave it to the creature. It wolfed it down to nothing in no time flat. Thankfully, no fruit-dubbed horrors appeared after that, and they got ready to move back out into the tower.
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"We may be on floor 45." He said as he started to step through the door and stopped.
"If I pass out, I'm just selecting powers."
He heard Lepin cry out "Did you just say select-" and he fell like a meteor into his mindspace.
The drop this time was massive, clouds swirling out of the way to reveal the stone gates sitting on blue-purple-red dirt islands, surrounded by thorns. Standing up, he saw the Lightning Wraith look at him, electric armored form radiating energy. "SOON. THE CHAINS LESSEN. DON'T NEGLECT YOUR QUESTS."
It popped off into the air, leaving Corvayne looking around. The plaza looked... way too large at the moment. It felt like it took three minutes of walking to cross the island to where Gylwin was sitting, reading something. She snapped the book closed and turned her red eyes to him.
"It seems you were busy. You have gathered a commendable amount of essence."
"Do I have enough to improve my Compass, Gravity and Shadow powers? All at once?"
She coughed into her hand/claw. "You can do that multiple times."
He considered it. "I'll Raise them all twice, then... How far can I push [[Growth]] and [[Understanding]] with what's left?"
"Even split of essence, eleven levels in [[Understanding]], six in [[Growth]].
"Can I go with five and five then, a new pact [[Organized]]?"
"Yes. You have enough for a new pact at five. Keep in mind the more spread out you are, the bigger the thresholds are for new pacts to combine with old ones. A web spun too large falls apart."
He figured that was to stop someone from pacting six hundred words all at level 5 to try to combine them all in an ability salad. Or it was just as Gylwin's image in his mind said – the ability needed essence to grow.
He felt the abilities slotting in, his improved [[Understanding]] giving him some hints that he was going to get a boost to finally learning more weapon abilities. His shadowy hands locked in his shielding as a real move rather than something he had been cobbling together as a off the fly way to save himself, well as added more power to his limbs. He handed one the starry knife and it took a few jabs experimentally.
Gravity in the same way solidified using the ability to walk on walls while also giving him fine tuning. There was something else too, as he looked around his mindscape it felt like he had... momentum? It might be something to try with [Leap Strike] or [Orbital Bombardment].
His compass was more of the same, improving he guessed range and refining it's path... hopefully not dragging him into acid clouds.
Organization was still tickling his head as he woke in a leafless wood, looking downhill at a creek valley, dried leaves crinkling as he sat up. His compass was pointing pretty much straight ahead.
A moment later his families feelings rushed at him, the languid connections snapping into place. Preshe asking where he was, Gylwin reporting everything was okay and glad he was, Spears and Bell both irate they didn't hear from him, and Mosh and June sending assurances they were okay but clearly dealing with some injuries. Even Kirae could be felt, a faint pulse of annoyance. Probably that they had all gotten captured trying to save one person. A real 'Slug Gangster Fortress' situation.
Organization gave him the film name but he waved it away. He turned back and looked over his party. Little Wing stepped forward and started removing the gear, handing Corvayne the set of extremely overpowered equipment.
"It was fun, but I do not feel Karma towards it." He said, wincing. Everything with what he was saying felt off.
Lepin was looking at him. "Cultivating with a broken set of spirit roots, figures you are going mad. We should get him to a spirits healer right away."
"I cannot submit myself to a doctor without revealing everything. Lepin, can you please overlook this lowly cultivator? For... a week."
Bayou heard this and Corvayne didn't need unity to see her stiffen, then surge into action, asking Fred to help him onto the beast's back. "Don't be stubborn! I see burn marks like bruises under your skin."
Corvayne guessed that was something like Mister I but with more booze.
Her command wasn't a bad idea, Corvayne could see the young man was steaming in places under his simple robes, and he was pretty sure the gray fabric had blood that had seeped through from aberrations going on internally. Corvayne was pretty sure Little Wing was holding back on another advancement to his cowtivation. There was a sense of resignation. It sort of set his first destination.
"Before I get roped into jail, I'm going to go see Preshe. She is... my adopted daughter." Might as well admit it. "Little... Spur. Come with me."
Lepin hopped on Betty, giving the beast's twisting branching necks a gentle pat.
Corvayne looked up at her. "Don't you have to... report in or something?" Unspoken was 'report us' as besides Bayou, whom probably now could be promoted out of the stables, both him and Little Spur were likely in trouble for running off. The woman lifted her hat a bit and then offered a hand to help him up. He settled in behind her, Lady Blood Claw pulling her vines in at [[Unity]] requesting it, the same as it was now feeding Corvayne's potential directions to the monsters.
Bayou herself was on Betty, holding the jade tablet her dead ex had. It looked to Corvayne that she was tapping in a number starting with 4, sitting behind Little Spur and holding the rabbit in her lap.
Lepin turned back. "I went up two full ascensions to well into Whisky Soul Realm now. My old boss is buried somewhere in that muddy creek, and technically our job was to catch you and bring you back to the sect if you ran. Which I did. Way I reckon it, I can stroll in and get my promotion any time today."
There was something else there, but Corvayne let it slide. Instead, he sent his compass to show him the way to Preshe.