Spire stood looming over them as Lucas finally woke up. The giant wooden building that touched the sky was in a shape of the big cone, top of the tower gently touching the endless blue expanse. Averting his gaze from their next challenge, Lucas quickly thought over the appropriate time of the day, deciding it will be morning seeing as he just woke up, and he certainly didn’t have some sort of internal clock. With that decision made, he decided to get up and announce that he is awake.

“Good morning, people. How long was I out?”

“Hardly morning, youngling. If we were outside it would be a bit over midday” John was the one to respond.

“Lucky for me, we aren’t outside” Lucas flatly responded.

John snorted and went back to his business. The rest of the party looked like they also just woken up, with the exception of Maraya, who was still asleep.

“She deserves the rest” Lucas begrudgingly thought, part in jealousy that he wasn’t the main star of the last battle and part in general animosity he felt towards her. And by the look of it, animosity was mutual. Emptying his head, he sat down to eat more of the bland rations. As others gradually came to their senses, including Maraya who woke up some fifteen minutes later from the rest, they started discussing their approach to the last challenge. This time, Lucas happily noted, they weren’t speaking about giving up. However, dread he felt was still going strong, his performance in the last battle, where he was borderline useless certainly didn’t help alleviate the feeling. He hoped his new skill would help to make him useful again, and was half mind to demand more down time for more training. What was holding him back was that he had neither inspiration nor any glaring hole he needed feeling, indicating that he would probably waste a lot of time for some minor gain, at best. He did briefly broached the subject, however, and incredulous looks rest of the team cast his way was enough for him to backpedal on it. Soon they were underway, and once again, everything was unnaturally still. Lucas decided to not look gift horse in the mouth and enjoy some more downtime, ignoring the nagging voice in the back in his head telling him he is afraid of what is coming next.

“You are awfully quiet” Michael approached him, a telling sign he’s new demeanor didn’t go unnoticed.

“Just enjoying the peace and quiet. Battles here are pretty intense, even for my liking” Lucas earnestly responded his friend.

“Is the mighty Lucas afraid? Want to go back into forest to kill some low level boars?” Michael immediately started shit talking.

“No, unimaginable loot still awaits me, and besides, girls back home are tired of boar killers. They crave dashing adventurers who climb the tower to save the princess” Lucas responded in kind.

They crossed the remaining distance engrossed in small talk, Lucas feeling that a little bit of his worries alleviated. When they arrived at the massive doors that led to the spire, a horn was blown from somewhere inside. The doors swung open with unbelievable speed for something so massive, and a volley of projectiles went flying towards them. Everyone started evading or blocking, entering the hallway from where dryads where firing at them. In a short battle that ensued, the party made short work of them and continued to climb the spire. As they were advancing, Lucas managed to sneak a peek at the interior design. It was extremely luxurious, every inch of the wall covered with tapestries and paintings that showed scenes from the history of dryad race. All kinds of statues and other sculptor’s work where standing right next to the wall, and for the first time Lucas saw some other material beside wood and plants on those figures, which probably meant that they were looted from one of the worlds they conquered. The stroll wasn’t all peaceful, as they were ambushed a number of times, but after two intense battles that preceded, mook dryads weren’t causing them much trouble. Traps, on the other hand were causing issues. Michael found him skewered one time by the arrow trap, Maraya was poisoned yet again when she activated a pressure plate that dropped a poison cloud from ceiling, and John narrowly avoided falling into the bottomless pit when they opened the wrong door one time. Hannah was their salvation, each and every time reacting quickly and healing the worst from all traps that struck them, while one of her new skills allowed her to dispel poison before it managed to do any lasting damage.

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Just as they were settling into something of a routine, they found themselves at the crossroad. Before them lay three paths, unmarked and without any clue to where they led. According to John, they are somewhere in the middle, where the spire began narrowing, meaning that only one path leads them to their goal. Nobody knew what would happen if they choose the wrong path, but they had a feeling nothing good will came out of it. They decided to send John to scout ahead, on account that he was only one with access to the stealth skill and of he went to the path on the right. The rest of them settled in to wait, but they were soon attacked by another host of dryads, which they dispatched just as John came back.

“That path is a giant maze” he quickly noted and then went in the middle one.

The rest of them were once again attacked and just as before, quickly dispatched the enemy. As far as Lucas had figured, those dryads were meant to ambush them from behind while they were exploring the path and dealing with any threat there. Deciding to rummage through the equipment left by the dead dryads, Lucas started moving. Much of armor were borderline useless to him, but he did manage to find a one interesting sword.

“Gladius of the Viridi

This gladius was made from a tree native to Viridi, aged two thousand years by mutation, which made its bark extremely hard and durable. Sharpen in the process of wood shaping, this sword can withstand even the heaviest assault.

+2 Strength

Durable”

“I fucking hate using gladius” Lucas thought to himself while deliberating whether to use his newfound sword or to stick to his rapier. Even though it didn’t have any bonus stats, rapier felt as the extension of himself. On the other hand, one time he use the gladius he managed to cut himself all over and had to be dragged back home when he lost his balance mid-swing while fighting a particularly nasty Scorpobear, a mix of scorpion and a bear. Evoking that memory was what decided the issue for Lucas as he pocketed the gladius on his belt and went back to the other party members. They passed the time talking when suddenly John emerged, smiling.

“This is the one. Let’s go” he said and continued to elaborate as they went after him “there is massive underbush which slows you down, scratching you with thorns that carry poison. It guards a platform that serves as an elevator. There is a puzzle to unlock it, but from what I seen, it is just a sudoku with some ten tables”

“I fucking hate puzzles” Lucas responded. The rest of party hadn’t answer anything, and soon enough, they saw a giant sea of grass and bushes John spoke about. They started their journey towards the platform, a lot of curses flying into the air as thorns pierced their skin and injected the poison. Once again, Hannah shone and cured every little ailment, sometimes even ignoring herself.

“She is about to become hot stuff when we get back. She had really grown her skill” Lucas mentally noted as they were about to finish the annoying trek. They settled on the platform and Lucas demonstratively went into the opposite corner from where the puzzle stood, mentally yelling at the System how much he hates puzzles. System, of course, didn’t answer him back.

“Try to finish it quickly or I’m done” Lucas shouted from his corner, immediately regretting his tone when the rest of the party looked at him angrily. He quickly muttered and apology and went back to sulking in his corner. After some time, a lot of curses shouted from the people that were actually trying to solve the puzzle and collective effort from all of them, minus Lucas, they were going up.

“Let the fun begin” Lucas shouted happily.