Chapter 127
“The Tower.” Part 6
“Yes! I am now level 17!” Koden shouted, full of enthusiasm with his arms raised high in the air, while a smirk came across Kalysto’s face at the sight of it.
But Koden’s joy did not last long.
“And I finally made it to level 20," replied Rita with a half-smile. with a half-smile full of superiority as she laid her eyes on him.
“You had to ruin it, didn’t you?” Koden growled, lowering his arms and turning to her with a scowl, but the fire mage just arched an eyebrow in response, amused at how easy it was to piss him off.
“Guys, this isn’t the best time to fight! Assign points and let’s get out of here! We’d better conquer this tower before they send another group to catch up with us!” Kalysto intervened, pulling out the strength crystal she had just gained from her inventory and without letting the others see what was inside her fist. She looked down.
Absorb! She thought. And although she was excited about her recent victory and the extra points she acquired by leveling up and with the crystal in her hand, she couldn’t help but worry about her situation. What if next time I’m not strong enough to face the boss on the next floor? Or the one on the twentieth floor?... Or even worse, the one on the thirtieth? Although from a distance, the tower didn’t seem to have more than thirty floors, there was nothing that could assure her that there were no more levels to overcome before they managed to conquer it and escape.
[Does the user wish to absorb this skill crystal?]
[YES/NO]
Yes!
[Congratulations! The user has acquired 5 points of strength!]
“Right! If ten knights from the duchy or the other kingdom come, we’d be screwed!” Commented Rita.
“But those people were also defeated by the boss of this floor. If it wasn’t for Kalysto, we would have died too!” Refuted Edward.
“But there were several warriors of level 40 and above in Bhallys’s kingdom. If they fought together, they could defeat him, that or a powerful fire mage, since he seemed to be resistant to ice.”
“Is that why he was able to split yours? I haven’t seen any other monster do it," Gabriel interrupted, but Edward intervened, not allowing Kalysto to answer his question.
“And how come you can also summon fire?“ he asked, annoyed. “I thought you were an ice mage and now it turns out you’re a wizard! Why didn’t you ever tell me?” he questioned, hurt by her lack of trust in him.
“I’ve been a wizard from the start," she answered, looking him in the eye, annoyed by his attitude. “You never bothered to ask me and just assumed I was just an ice mage. I just never bothered to correct you," she added with a shrug.
Status window! She thought, ending the conversation.
[Status window]
[Name: Kalysto Luna
Age: 21 years old
Race: ---
Level: 31
Fatigue: 97
Class: Saintess (Heroic)
Professions: Enchantments
Title: Champion of the fairies (avatar of ?????) (?????? of the ??????)
Affiliation: Kingdom of Bahram
HP: 1520/3160
MP: 25/2854
DMP: 2800
Strength: 81+55
Vitality: 90+80
Agility: 107
Resistance: 93 +110
Intelligence: 89 +100
Charisma: 10
Luck: 20
???: 50
Status: exhausted.
Available points: 3 ]
She immediately allocated her 3 free points to agility, fearing she wouldn’t be able to counter an upcoming boss. Leaving her agility at 110 points.
How is it possible that even with all the extra points I get as a saintess, I still have a hard time defeating these monsters? There was definitely something there that didn’t quite fit. Who made this place? And why would someone design it not to be conquered? Although inside, it looked like nothing more than a bunch of caves connected through magical portals, the external construction of the tower was too elaborate not to be the result of someone’s work. To destroy humanity once the monsters manage to escape from the tower? Or is it to make sure that no one gets the treasure hidden here?
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
But the most particular thing about all that, is that the guy the fairy queen feared, plus whoever created the tentacled portal, were not the only ones creating or bringing monsters, the goddess Mhiralla did it too.
And if the tower was created by the goddess Mhiralla, as well as some of the monsters of this world, why create something that would be almost impossible to defeat...? But no matter how much she thought about it, it didn’t make any sense to her. Why create them in the first place...is it a way to keep the human population in check so that there would be no overpopulation? But if it really was that, it meant that she was a much crueler goddess than people thought.
However, there was a huge gap between the levels of the monsters outside the tower, where most of the ones Kalysto had fought inside the human kingdom were below level 15 and the ones coming from the portals, which were around level 30.
And if my memory serves me correctly, the main reason why no one can escape the continent by sea is because the sea monsters are above level 150... it’s as if they don’t want anyone to escape from here.
But while Kalysto was struggling with the huge discrepancy between the monsters’ levels, she forgot how annoying and persistent Edward could be.
“What other things have you been hiding from me?” he questioned, approaching her.
“What?” She asked as she looked at him, blinking in confusion at the sudden claim. Realizing that she had lost the thread of the conversation because she had been too deep in her own thoughts, completely forgetting about the outside world. “Edward, I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you but I remind you that you are neither my father, nor my boyfriend. And you’re not my boss either!”
“But we’re friends!” He defended himself. “Besides, I saw how you healed Koden’s wounds! And if you could heal others, why didn’t you save the people of those villages that were infected with the black plague? You could have prevented their deaths!” He reproached her, feeling betrayed and annoyed at the ever-growing collection of things he didn’t know about her, even though she knew practically everything about him.
Drops of spittle spurted out of his mouth and some of it landed on Kalysto’s face, who took a step back in disgust.
“If you’re having trouble handling this situation after seeing some of our captors die, find another way to blow off steam because I’m not about to be your punching bag. Just like I’m not interested in saving the world... If you want to play the hero, go ahead and do it, but count me out because I’m not going to go save you," she replied, trying hard not to yell at him. Although she was dying to do it.
“But if you can do it, then why...?” But Kalysto did not allow him to continue.
“Now we have much more important things to worry about, like getting out of here before those monsters come to kill us,” then she turned around, looking at the rest of the group and ignoring Edward completely. “And let’s face it, if we could reach the group that entered before us, it means that others can reach us too! Besides, if we found so many monsters on the path that they were supposed to have already cleared in order to advance to the boss room of each floor and reach this one, it means that every so often more monsters will come out again! Either they’ll be recreated like in a video game or they’ll just come out of hiding. Either way, we have no way of knowing, and I’m not staying around to find out!” Then she looked at Edward- “If you want to stay, you are free to do so, but if you are going to follow me, remember the rules I set before. And I’ll add one more,” she commented, this time looking at Koden. “I can no longer help you level up. From now on, I will kill as many monsters as I can. And if you want to hunt, secure your prey before I kill it.”
And without further explanation, she turned and walked towards the portal that appeared on the other side of the cave.
“Ice daggers!” She whispered before going through it. Her silhouette was lost in the blue light until it vanished completely.
What awaited her on the other side, was not what she expected.
[Warning! The user has entered the eleventh floor of the dungeon!]
Meanwhile, on the tenth floor, the rest of the heroes began to argue.
“What the hell is wrong with you, Edward?” Koden scowled, approaching his friend.
“She’s the one who’s wrong! Can’t you see?” he alleged, pointing to the lonely portal. “How could she be so heartless as not to help those poor people and leave us here on our own?”
“Did you hit your head or did your brain cells go to a party?” Rita growled at him. ”In case you haven’t noticed, most of us would have died more than once by now if it wasn’t for her, so stop questioning her every two seconds! She’s not your damn servant!”
“But if we don’t help them defeat the demon king, they won’t return us to our world!”
“Edward, they never intended to send us back in the first place," Koden assured him calmly.
“What?” Confusion shone on the frightened young man’s face. “Why would you say something like that? I’m sure Marquis Milo or one of the court magicians can...!” Rita’s laughter muffled the rest of his sentence.
“You’re actually a lot more naïve than I once thought! It’s either that or you’re a complete idiot!”
“Hey, there’s no need to insult me!“
“Milo doesn’t even know how to send us back because such a spell doesn’t exist!” The blonde shouted at him.
“What? That’s not true, you’re lying!”
“Is that true?” Gabriel questioned as everyone’s attention was on the young girl.
“While you were all enjoying the last party, Kalysto, Koden and I infiltrated the library and Milo’s study. We even found the notes on his research on how to perform a hero summoning. And there he says that sending us back is impossible.”
“Wait! Don’t tell me you guys were the ones to blame for the library fire?” Rita’s face turned red before she raised her chin rebelliously.
“So what if I was the one who set the fire?”
“Oh, Rita, I didn’t know you had a wild side!” Gideon smiled coquettishly at her, giving her a lust-filled, up-and-down look. “When you’re done playing with Oscar, you can come and see me anytime.”
The murderous look Oscar gave him for his comment went unnoticed by the blond, but not by the fire mage, who tossed her hair back with a half-sideways smile.
“Is that true?” Gabriel questioned with his face as pale as a cloud in midsummer.
“We even found an old story, where they say that a hero of the past, after defeating the enemy kingdom of those who summoned him, became so powerful that he killed the king and took the princess as his wife," Koden interjected. “But some time later, she poisoned him. Since then, every time a kingdom summons a hero, they always poison him using a special flower to which all of us who come from another world are allergic.”
“What are you talking about?” Oscar questioned with concern.
“Didn’t it ever seem strange to you that despite the way they treat us, they are always very careful to change the flowers in the vases in our rooms and on the table where we all sit down to eat every day?”
***
A gentle breeze blew across Kalysto’s face, tousling her hair as the warmth of the sun caressed her skin.
The clear morning sky welcomed her as the lush wheat-colored grass, so tall that it reached her navel, covered several kilometers around her.
What is this?
Four mountains could be seen in the distance and a few trees completed the landscape of a beautiful but vast open field.
Aren’t I still supposed to be inside the tower?
At that instant, a huge notification window opened before her.
[Mission: Find and eliminate the 120 kobolds inhabiting the valley of Terris.
Time: 40 minutes.
Reward:
Luck +2.
Charisma +1
Key to the chamber of the 11th-floor boss.
Warning: if the user is not able to complete the mission in the designated time, her heart will stop beating.]