Ray stared at the vista. He had always wished to visit the Alps and vacation in the Swiss countryside. The views there were breathtaking. This was similar.
Green-clad mountains tipped with a cap of snow and occasionally blanketed by dark forests. Waterfalls plummeted off several mountainsides, all joining together into one river that cut a valley in the middle of the range. The air was chill, crisp, brittle. Every breath Ray took fogged in front of his face, though he didn’t feel that cold.
Ray waited for a while. No sounds came. No one talked to him. When he started feeling a little uncomfortable, as though he was being scrutinized like a specimen in a lab, he spoke out.
“Hello?” That was always a good beginning, right? “I can tell you’re there, you know. You’re the Mentor.”
No answer again. Maybe the Paragon couldn’t hear him?
Or maybe the Mentor considered him not worth responding to. The Marauder had said that—she?—was apathetic. She wouldn’t care. She didn’t share the same kind of curiosity that the other Paragon had. Although, she was observing him.
Well, only for a moment. The presence was beginning to fade. It seemed Ray really hadn’t been worth her attention for long.
“Huh,” Ray said. “You’re a lot like what the other Paragon said you would be. I didn’t want to believe him, but…”
That made the presence freeze. It returned full force, all the overbearing pressure once again condensed to Ray’s exact location. The weight almost made him feel like bowing.
“What other Paragon, mortal?”
The voice came from somewhere far off to his side, the words appearing alongside a boulder crashing down a mountainside. Was that really a she? The Marauder might have said so, but the voice definitely didn’t sound feminine. Then again, why would any Paragon even care about such things?
“I met the Marauder before I met you, Mentor,” Ray said. “He said you wouldn’t care.”
Several trees fell farther off. “Why would anyone care about some insignificant new Denizen in some distant corner of the Omniverse?”
“He also said you were kind of pathetic.”
The Marauder had said apathetic, but hey, Ray had just removed one letter. By accident. He wasn’t really lying.
The presence sharpened. All around Ray, the mountain range started cracking. Fissures and craters spread like wildfire, an invisible giant breaking the earth itself in its rampage.
“You say it so blithely, little mortal…”
“I am merely reporting what I heard,” Ray said. He wasn’t sure where to look, so he just kept his eyes fixed forward. “As I didn’t want to believe them, I wanted to find the truth for myself. So, here I am in your presence, Mentor.”
“Hmph. That upstart.” That last word was accompanied by a small avalanche crashing down about half a mile away. “He truly believes that he stands apart simply because he sees things differently.” A giant splash erupted in the big river in the middle. “New ones always need to be brought to heel.”
Ray nodded in agreement. “He was quite smarmy and arrogant.”
“Of course he was!”
Good. Now that Ray had the Paragon’s attention, it was time to redirect conversation to the lines he needed to accomplish his goal.
“I think he wants to make use of us all,” he said. “That’s why he got in touch with me. That’s why he let me get a hold of your Tower Node. I don’t trust anything he says for a second.”
“Well, insignificant though you are, at least you have significant sense. The Marauder is a jumped-up thief playing at being one of the mightiest in all the worlds.”
“I don’t want to be his pawn, willingly or unwillingly.”
“You may worry about being a pawn when you are less insignificant, mortal. There is nothing he can do to you.”
Could she cut it out with the insignificance? It was definitely annoying. “Perhaps. I’m sure you know better than me. But in this case, I got the sense he was trying to build something from the ground up, if you know what I mean. Play a hand even in the littlest of leagues, so that when it’s finally time for the main plot, his gambit will already be fully built up.”
There was no immediate response from the Mentor this time. Maybe Ray had finally showed her how the Marauder was indeed trying something different compared to other Paragons.
The impression Ray got that most, if not almost all, were happy to ignore new Towers and their new Denizens. They were weak. Of that, there was no doubt.
Ray was only level 13. Almost everybody else was weaker than that. He wasn’t even half as strong as the Floor Lord at level 27. And all that just on the First Floor. How much stronger would the Floor Lords of higher floors be? Wild to think how things might scale, but also, he could totally understand why Paragons wouldn’t bother with anyone so early on.
But a Paragon actively assisting someone to increase their strength? Making sure they surpassed all the Floors’ challenges and reached the top of the Tower? In time, that Paragon would have a hand-crafted tool of a Denizen at their disposal.
So, if anything, the Marauder was being smarter than the rest of his ilk. Something that the Mentor was slowly realizing, even if she believed the chances of Ray surviving and succeeding to realize her counterpart’s goal were slim.
But at the same time, she couldn’t forget that she had been insulted by the Marauder too.
“You are right be wary, little mortal,” the Mentor said with a crackle of lightning far overhead. “You do not wish to be controlled.”
Ray nodded with absolute sincerity. “The only one controlling me will be me.”
“To that end, you should attempt to steel yourself against mental incursions.”
“Do you know how I could do that?”
“There is no simple answer.” A heavy wind blew against him, threatening to send him tumbling down the mountainside. “But exploiting a weakness is always something that works.”
There was a different tilt to the Mentor’s words now. They weren’t causing massive destruction in the surrounding environment any longer. Instead, they held a slightly patronizing tone. Like that of a teacher who obviously knew better than the pupil.
“A weakness,” Ray said. “A weakness for the Marauder…”
“For a thief, the greatest weakness is knowledge. A robber can only steal what exists in his reality. Remove the existence of a thing from his knowledge, and a thief will never be a problem.”
Ray blinked. That was an extremely simple but potentially powerful tip. Except— “My last interaction suggested he knows a lot. I don’t know how to apply this.”
“You have a point from which you can start, little mortal. Use the opportunity to discover what you must do on your own. You will find what you need, or you will become a pawn. Simple.”
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Despite the continued patronizing tone, Ray could hear the glee in the Mentor’s voice. In her mind, she had just gotten one over the Marauder. She had set her adversary’s pawn on a path that would go against the Marauder. Of course she would be happy.
The presence started fading again. Ray scrambled to find any last-minute concerns or questions.
“Is it really because of this insignificance that you don’t bother with new Towers and new Denizens?” Ray asked. “Is it only because people like me just aren’t strong enough?”
Despite the receding presence of the Mentor, her voice was still loud as a storm. “I am a being who exists in a far higher plane than you, little mortal. What limited ways I could impose my will is not worth bothering with. Even this connection is tenuous and fleeting.”
Good. That confirmed what the Marauder had said about being unable to mess with Ray directly, even if the Paragon had wanted to.
“Thank you for the assistance, Mentor,” Ray said, not forgetting to be polite.
“Farewell, little mortal. I will grant you a parting gift. A small expression of my power. Use it well.”
Ray’s curiosity was piqued for just a heartbeat before the gift appeared. A set of visions, just like what the Marauder had gifted him. Great. So useful.
Although, what he saw was intriguing.
The first scene depicted a ragged man stealing something glowing from what looked like a grave.
In the next moment, they were in a cavern where a large battle was taking place. The same man, now dressed in armour, waited off to the side while others fought. His back was to Ray so he couldn’t see the face. He appeared to be waiting for some sort of opportunity.
The scene shifted before Ray could see just what the man ended up doing. This time, the subject of he visions was in a cloak that obscured his features. And he was running. Shouts rang after him, weapons and abilities fired in his wake. But they never caught him. The man got away.
Just like he did in every scene that followed. No one ever caught the thief.
Didn’t matter when he stole from an emperor. Didn’t matter when he thieved from a god. He was never caught.
Until he stood at the peak. Ray wasn’t even sure what he was looking at. It felt like he was in space, standing in the middle of a void and watching the stars wheel by. There was a gigantic disc of light underneath him, its centre darker than anything he had ever witnessed.
A supermassive black hole.
And into this hole, something fell from the man. A tiny, tiny part of him, a fragment of his being not unlike dead skin flaking off a person to form dust. A fragment that yet glimmered, resembling a glowing crystal. Like a Tower Node.
“—discover what’s on the other side,” Ray said.
Ray was back in the real world. In fact, going by the way he had completed his sentence, it was like he had never left. No time had passed.
[New Personal Achievement—Dungeon Establisher!]
You’ve set up your first dungeon that you can run and control. You are well on your way to becoming an entrepreneur within the Sytem’s architecture.
Reward
* The next Tower Node will reveal itself to you once you are within its vicinity
* 2% of rewards cultivated from the dungeon will return to you
* Reputation: +20 Savvy
[New Personal Achievement—Pantheon Politician!]
You’ve not only met your second being from a higher plane merely a day since your first, you have also set them against each other! Beware that your meddling doesn’t backfire.
Reward
* 1 Accessory: True Mana Bracelet
* Reputation: +15 Hallowed
[Reputation Threshold Crossed]
For reaching the 25-point threshold, your Hallow removes the Mana cost of your first True Mana spell used in an encounter.
Hallow to next Threshold: 30/50
“You okay, Ray?” Maya asked.
Dory peered at him. “You’ve got a weird look on your face.”
Ray schooled his expression. “Yeah, I’m fine. Uh, what were you saying? Just got lost in thought.”
“What’s that in your hand?”
Damn it, nothing missed Dory’s scrutinizing eyes.
“Uh, I just got an achievement for setting up the dungeon. So, now I have this.” He lifted the bracelet, inspecting the intricate design of waves carved on its side. “Need to figure out what it does.”
They were clearly curious, especially Dory, but they had more important matters to tend to. With Tyler and Dory’s help, Maya soon had people looking into the dungeon.
Since Ray’s part in the proceedings was mostly done, he decided to retire for the time being. He needed to try to make sense of what the Mentor had told him, plus check out his rewards from his latest achievements. Those dungeon-establishing rewards especially had been rather strange.
Time to decide what lay head for Ray.
----------------------------------------
Kredevel reached the centre of the First Floor around the same time that the new humans did. Except, these people didn’t seem concerned about the only reason any human should be here in the first place. They didn’t want to advance to the Second Floor.
They wanted something else. Something only the Floor Lord could provide them.
At least, that was what the rumours suggested. Kredevel hadn’t been able to talk to them, nor was he able to get to their presence enough to decipher their true intentions.
Lastiel accompanied the humans, always making sure they never got too close to any of the other Sylvans. That just made Kredevel frown harder. What in the world was the Sylvans’ de-facto second-in-command doing with a rabble of new Denizens?
Kredevel put them out of his mind and focused on his real goal here.
The moment when Ray had told him to move was still plastered across his mind like a bloodstain. Whenever he closed his eyes, he could see the Growth-Mana-empowered spear shooting through the heavens straight for his location. If he had been a few heartbeats slower, he would have been eradicated.
“I am bored, Kredevel,” the Floor Lord said when he saw Kredevel entering the audience chamber.
The room was quite large. It would have been grand too, but the aeons had reduced the splendour of the Everair to colourless murals, faded gold tiles, and cracked statuary and pottery. Still. Kredevel could appreciate it in his mind’s eyes. Or could have.
If not for the scene of the devastating spear raining down destruction overtaking it.
“Greetings, Floor Lord.” Kredevel dropped to one knee in front of the strange, cracked throne that Olgolair had taken for his official seat. “No humans to torture today?”
Olgolair either missed or ignored the sarcasm in Kredevel’s words. “Alas, no. Maybe they received a warning about what happens to the idiots who come here with injured Brighthorn, so the new ones are all far too careful.” The Floor Lord harrumphed. “Although, it is a bit suspicious that they all use the same strategy.”
“The same strategy, lord?”
“We’ve had over ten new Denizens ascending to the Second Floor since that man we had some fun with. And every single one of them have brought in a Brighthorn that was sleeping.”
“Ah. Not a terrible strategy.”
“It’s boring. But it is effective.”
Of course, they would have checked to make sure the Brighthorns were indeed merely sleeping and nothing worse had been done to them. That was the only reason the Denizens would have been allowed to advance to the Second Floor without suffering the same as the man who had gotten his limbs ripped off.
But that wasn’t any of Kredevel’s concern. He was here for one thing only.
“Floor Lord.” The change in Kredevel’s tone, from subservient to sharp, made Olgolair look at him directly. “Did you send your great spear flying in to destroy the target I was to seek?”
“I did. You should have seen it. Do you not recognize my power, Kredevel?”
Such a simple statement. If there was even a moment’s consideration that Kredevel might not just have seen it, but might have suffered because of it, the Floor Lord didn’t give any indication he cared one whit.
“I did, lord,” Kredevel said. “I was barely able to get away.”
“And what of the target? Was he obliterated?”
Not a moment’s consideration whether Kredevel had any difficulty whatsoever. “I cannot confirm, unfortunately, Floor Lord. I was forced to make a rapid evasion and in the chaos—”
Kredevel found himself lying on his back, his face smarting with a vicious sting. He tasted blood. Ah, so he had been struck. Kredevel hadn’t even seen the Floor Lord use Growth Mana to extend his reach.
“You fail me again, Kredevel,” the Floor Lord said. “It is becoming unforgivable. Do you not understand that you should have ensured that pest died? I was expecting you to come here with chunks of his charred flesh as proof that he was no more.”
With an angry mutter, the Floor Lord turned away.
Kredevel felt within him a seeping coldness clasp and take over everything. Slowly, he got to his feet. “If I had failed to evade, Floor Lord, how would you have received any news of whether you had succeeded or not?”
“What sort of an idiotic question is that? If you had been stupid enough to die, then I would simply send in someone more competent. Now, how are you going to correct this?”
“I will return whence I came,” Kredevel said. “And I shall not return till I have completed what I set out to accomplish.”
As Kredevel walked away, he felt the Floor Lord’s scouring gaze on his back. But he didn’t turn, and he held himself proud and upright. He did catch Lastiel leading the humans with the red cloth around their arms to the Floor Lord, but he decided not to concern himself with them.
In fact, he wasn’t about to concern himself with his fellow Sylvans any longer.
Kredevel had always known his real future lay higher up the Tower. The real opportunity for growth, the real challenges he would be encountering.
As the race sent to run the Tower and its challenges, the Sylvans weren’t supposed to encounter and take on the myriad trials the Tower provided. No, they were for the Denizens they were “shepherding”. Sure, it seemed to be a loss for the Sylvans, but they had other means of growth. Other ways to make themselves stronger.
Kredevel washed his face with enchanted water, addressed the small wound at the corner of his mouth, and came to his final decision. He was done here.
It was time to take on the Tower as a true Denizen.