40 hours had passed since the ascension had begun. Within this time, Adirth and Evelyn had reached the 58th floor and found it was nearly identical to the 59th, and tackled it much the same. They found themselves in a similar situation when they found a Horror Dragon on the floor, but this time, Evelyn had hardened herself enough to perform her more powerful light spell, making the creature reel and screech. Giving them a moment from its relentless charge to climb the walls quickly to get out of the path of the rampaging beast and watch the Horror Dragon rush headlong into the dark. From then on they found their strategy to avoid conflict with Horror Dragons easily. Which allowed them to ascend their way up multiple floors until they reached the 55th floor, and found themselves in a whole new world.
They found themselves exiting the staircase incredibly quickly now, yet they weren’t ready for what the depths hold. In front of the duo was a city lit up with strange crystals that let off a soft yellow glow. This city was made of smooth yet matted and cracked gray stones. The city had countless buildings and towers that reached high. The area felt much more open and more lit as everywhere had yellow crystal lights that dispersed the light to become soft enough to not be harsh on the eyes, yet left no shadows on the streets. In the very center of the city was a giant tower that towered well over all other buildings by sheer magnitudes as it reached the ceiling.
Evelyn was the first to break the silence, “Incredible”.
Adrith began to adjust his armor, Evelyn took notice as she asked, “What are you doing?”
“Getting ready to do some running” Adrith spoke in a manner of fact manner. Evelyn looked at him as she asked, “How long will we be running?”.
Adrith shrugged as he continued, “At the speed you can move, a few days”.
Evelyn looked to Adrith absolutely dumbfounded, she had been struggling for the past 40 hours with her stamina constantly being drained and her mind constantly being exhausted. Now he wanted to run for multiple days straight. Adrith looked at Evelyn as he asked, “What? Something wrong?”
“I’m not running until I get some sleep”, Evelyn said as a set hard line in this situation, she was not going to move until they at least rested.
Adrith began to mull over the situation, they had to move quite a bit, and they could not risk being slowed down.
Adrith nodded as he said, “That actually sounds like a good idea. We’ll head down the stairs a bit and try and sleep there”.
Evelyn looked to Adrith as if she was about to say something, yet she held her tongue, “Okay, let’s”.
The two began to head down the stairs again, with Evelyn being the first to lie down. The jagged and angular stone was uncomfortable, yet it was enough more comfortable than sleeping among bones. Evelyn was the first to sleep, she had found she had somewhat more peaceful sleep here, she couldn’t explain it, it felt as if the dark presence that was surrounding her down on the 60th floor was not very present where they were. Evelyn felt it for the first time, the feeling of being restored by her new physical abilities as an Awoken. It felt exhilarating, the lightness she felt was almost euphoric as she awoke from her sleep the moment her being was restored.
“That was a good sleep actually,” Evelyn said as she began to get up and looked towards Adrith, “It is now your turn, I’ll keep watch”.
Adrith shook his head, “We have no time. I haven’t used anywhere as much energy as you had”.
Evelyn looked to Adrith somewhat concerned, “You should sleep, it might be one of the few chances we get”.
Adrith shook his head as he stood, “We’ll have spent too long on these levels. If we don’t get moving then we will be found by the creatures of these levels and we’ll be in more pain than just dying”.
Evelyn looked now very concerned, “What’s here?”
“Truthfully? I’m not 100% sure of everything on these levels. I don’t know everything about them, but I do know that there are creatures here that can turn the soul into a corrupted Vengeful spirit, those Vengeful spirits, and multiple shapeshifting creatures that take the forms of objects to eat you, and even creatures that will try and attack you in your sleep and take control of your body”.
Evelyn looked on in shock, “Okay, so where are we running to?”
Adrith began to make his way back up to the entrance of the staircase and pointed directly to the tower, “We will be running to the tower and climbing it from within”.
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Evelyn nodded her head, “So we will enter there and continually climb up out of the depths”.
Adrith shook his head, “Sadly not. We will be climbing up to the next floor. Then we will exit the tower and there will be 4 towers, any one of them will allow us to get to the next floor, then the next level will have 8, and this will constantly be happening until we reach the 50th floor”
Evelyn nodded her head as she asked, “Why are the towers increasing as we go up?”
Adrith shrugs, “No clue. I didn’t make the place, all I know is that each tower will have a strong monster within that we will need to get around somehow. Let’s think of that rather than thinking about why the dungeon is built like it was”
Evelyn took a breath in, she could not even fathom how he could say everything he had with such a calm voice. Nonchalantly dropping that they will need to face a strong monster on every floor at a minimum to just make it to the next floor. “Well, if we can get around enemies, we should aim to do that”
Adrith nodded his head as Evelyn continued, “I do have a spell that allows me to fly, will that work?”
Adrith thought for a second and nodded, “It can, you will need to fly low because the creatures that are our real worries can attack from range”
Evelyn let out a sigh as she cleared her throat and then began her chant,
“Hear me, oh shooting star that flies through the night into the unknown, answer me”
“Hear my request, oh ferry me away into the unknown so I may find my way, answer my wish”
“Hear my plea, lift me into the stars where I can never be chained again, answer my desire, Wishing Star”
Golden light began to pour from Evelyn’s wand as she began to move the wand like a conductor's stick in an orchestra. The golden light fell to the floor like thousands of falling stars as a small platform began to form in front of her. The size seemed enough for one person, yet that seemed not to bother her all too much as she continued to chant. It was not until the end she finally came out of her trance that she noticed the size, “Oh, well, this hasn’t happened before. I guess I never thought about another riding with me”.
Adrith stood there speechless as he watched Evelyn perform her magic, his helmet hid much of his amazement, so much so that if it wasn’t there his mouth would have been easily seen completely agape. It had been only in Adrith’s youth did he ever saw the performance of a multi-stage incantation. Many combat magics he has seen during his time were single-staged or short-handed incantations, things much more suitable for combat and travel. Yet the beauty of a spell like this made all the skill and power of them seem, somehow, inferior. It took a moment for him to break his silence as he said, “That should not be a problem, I’m quite quick”.
Evelyn looked at him as she said, “You know I can perform another incantation to change the size?”
“I understand that” Adrith quickly answered, “However doing so and carrying the both of us will be quite taxing, possibly making it where you won’t be able to keep your spell up for long enough”.
Evelyn nodded as she asked, “So with this, how long do you think it will take us to make it through these floors?”
Adrith nodded to himself as he began to hold up his hand in front of him and started to think about the distance. Evelyn had to know what he was thinking about, “What are you doing?”
“Getting an estimate of the distance between here and the tower”,
Evelyn nodded as she then continued, “And you’re doing that with your hand?”
Adrith lightly tossed his head from side to side as if he was thinking, “Yes, knowing how to estimate with things around you is important for cartography”.
Evelyn nodded as she then asked another question, “So what it the new verdict of your speed? You said something like a few days for us to make it from this floor to the 50th, what is it now? 2 days? 1 Day?”
“Since I know we can move faster, this floor will be the longest, so somewhere in the 2-hour mark for this one. If I can keep my speed and pace, then we can probably make it out to the Depths in about, I’d say, 6 hours?”
Evelyn was stunned, “6 hours? How?! If we move too fast won’t we have like a monster horde or something follow us and then we die?!”
Adrith shook his head, “No, this floor and the floor below seem to be split by a staircase entrance much similar between the 59th and 60th floor. This means we will not need to worry about Horror Dragons, which was my biggest worry. The only thing we need to worry about is that the monsters of this level will try and follow us, but as we rise, we can constantly keep going up and the monsters will be funneled by each of the tower’s doors and staircase. That allows us to make sure we aren’t followed by a giant horde we can’t outrun”
Adrith then shrugged as he said, “Besides, the moment we hit the 50th floor, we’ll want some of the monsters to be following us”
Evelyn had an incredulous look on her face as she asked, “Why?”
Adrith nonreassuring answered, “Eh, you’ll find out if we can get to that point”.
Evelyn shook her head, she wished he would tell her more, however, she also is starting to see a constant string of things. Adrith knows something, he will either keep it secret out of not knowing she doesn’t know, or if it is not important and will cause unneeded worry, he’ll keep it to himself. For Evelyn, it worried her what was he expecting on the 50th floor, however, she would at least trust him that he knew what he was doing.