“The world is going to end next week,” a young girl told her father.
“Okay, we won't go anywhere, we’ll stay home where it's safe,” he replied, tucking her into bed. It wasn't that Roldan didn't believe his daughter, but sometimes she said things that didn't make sense to him.
Sarahi had always been gifted, but in the days leading up to the end of the world, she worsened. She had a gift that allowed her to see beyond what normal people saw, and it broke her mind many times, leaving her in pain and agony. In the days preceding the integration, she suffered from convulsions, and she muttered incoherent words. There was nothing Roldan could do but watch his daughter suffer.
As she said, the following week, the world ended and Earth became unrecognisable. Some cities remained intact and turned into safe zones, while others were picked up and transported elsewhere in the world to make room for dungeons, gates, and whatever else corrupted nonsense was now all over the world. Electronics still worked, but they were useless now since a lot of servers, wires, and cellphone towers were destroyed during the reconstruction of the world.
Roldan had been tending to the thrashing Sarahi when the blue boxes appeared, and he ignored them to ensure his daughter was comfortable.
CONGRATULATIONS, INHABITANTS OF EARTH X32175! YOUR WORLD HAS BEEN SELECTED TO BE THE 36TH FLOOR OF THE DEIWOS TOWER!
CORRUPTION OVERWHELMS YOUR WORLD, AND A VOID ERUPTION IS IMMINENT! DUNGEONS, GATES, MAESTRILS AND SAFE ZONES WILL BEGIN APPEARING IN 120 SECONDS!
He had no time to spare as he held his thirteen-year-old daughter down as she trembled and screamed. Roldan carried her into the shrine and chanted his prayer repeatedly.
[Please choose a character:
Filled Slots/Total Slots:
PLAYER CHARACTERS:
2 658 193/1 573 128 296
NON-PLAYER CHARACTERS:
108 564 /6 292 513 184
Total Characters of EARTH X32175:
7 865 641 480]
Steam filled the small shrine as the world outside darkened, and the scent of burning herbs was all over the room. Sarahi's convulsions stopped for a moment, but Roldan continued the chant as it was the only thing he could do for her.
[All Player Character Slots have been filled. You have automatically been assigned the role: Non-Player Character.
You are bound to the 36th Floor, and you are not authorised to climb the Tower.]
[NPC, The Deiwos Clan welcomes you to the Deiwos Tower.
You are on the 36th Floor.
This is a lost world. In order to facilitate your integration more fluidly, the Floor Overlord will inform all NPCs on the 36th Floor of what is expected of them. Please wait until you are addressed.]
Suddenly, there was a blinding light in front of Roldan, and he was no longer in the shrine with his daughter; instead, he was in a large hall filled with humans of all races, and they were all looking around in panic. They were all wide-eyed and shouting, but he could barely hear them. It was almost as if there was a filter muting their voices. In the centre of the hall, on an ornate pedestal, stood a pale-skinned woman with jet-black hair wearing a red robe. He could see the outline of her veins on her skin, and her eyes were an unnatural red.
"El Diablo?" Roldan muttered, wondering if he was in hell and would suffer eternal punishment because he had prayed to false gods for his daughter's survival.
People were moving around and panicking, yet there was no stampede. No matter how closely they moved to each other, they seemed to pass through other humans as if they were holograms. Roldan looked around among the masses for his daughter, but he could not see her. His first thought was that perhaps he had died and would never see her again.
“Silence!” the woman said, her voice filling the entire hall. Surprisingly, silence followed. Roldan tried to move or speak, but found that all he could do was stand still and watch the woman. “Excellent. This is much better than addressing players one by one.”
Frozen still, Roldan’s eyes never left the woman as she began her speech. “Greetings, NPCs. My name is Lady Mira, and I am the Floor Overlord of the 36th Floor.
“Welcome to Deiwos Tower, where the fate of your world rests in the hands of a chosen few. As NPCs, you would typically be left to fend for yourselves after the integration, but being a lost world, the 36th Floor is an exception. Lucky for you, I'm here to give you the information you need to survive until the players arrive. Your world was in danger, threatened by corruption. Thankfully, our great Unrivalled Tower Master saved it, and 19 to 21% of your people were given the chance to become players. These players are the ones who matter most in the grand scheme of things, and you are simply supporting characters in their existence," she said.
More whispers of outrage filled the room, but Lady Mira continued, her voice thundering to silence them. "All adults in this world, that is to say, all people aged 16 or above in your world’s years, will be given access to The Unrivalled’s system. You'll have a map to guide you since your world has changed. As NPCs, you only have one life, unless you choose to align yourself with a deity. The Unrivalled Tower Master will protect all adult humans in this world from any attacks until the first 26 hours are over, so that is how long you have to reach a safe zone. After that, you are on your own." She paused and looked around. “Even players in the tutorial don't receive this level of protection, so be sure to show gratitude to The Unrivalled for her grace. As for the children under 16 years old in your world, don't worry; the Sovereign Authority of The Unrivalled will protect them from being attacked for seven days. Make sure that you protect them after that. Or don’t, all play styles are permitted after all."
Roldan had no idea what was going on, but he was happy about that at least. It made him wonder what kind of monsters the lady was referring to. He listened attentively, needing to understand. This had to be the end of the world that his daughter had seen, and it was what had caused her to spiral and go out of control. He needed all the information that he could get in order to be able to help her, so he fixed his eyes on the woman, not allowing his fear to take root.
"You are unlucky because your world is on the Third Storey with a level cap of 45. Now that’s bad news because it means that there won’t be a lot of low-level dungeons and zones for you, and you may need to wait for players to arrive to claim more territory for yourselves from corruption if you survive the eruption of the dungeons in your world. Thankfully, The Unrivalled will issue all of you with a Class Change Scroll, and for the first seven days, you will be able to gain one random skill suitable for your class for only the small price of 1 silver. Do not waste this chance, because I will tell you now, that the price is a bargain. Do not waste it. All you have to do is place a silver coin into the slot on the blank skill book that you will receive and learn the skill. You should receive them now."
[The Unrivalled Tower Master has bestowed you with a gift.
NPC Starter kit x1]
A backpack materialised in front of Roldan as well as the other people around him. More yelps and screams could be heard, but, thanks to his daughter, Roldan had long since accepted that the supernatural existed. Therefore, as Lady Mira continued, he picked it up and slung it on his back.
"Your comcers will have limited access to the Dent, mainly just the karma store and the 36th Floor forums. You will gain access to the rest once the 35th Floor is cleared and you are fully integrated into the Tower," she said, her body starting to fade. "Oh, and here is a hint, the theme for the Third Storey is conquest. You might want to build your own kingdoms, wall them up for protection from monsters, and level up before the players come up to take over your world and make you their subjects. In that regard, you’re luckier than the 31st Floor because you have time to prepare. Good luck, and praise our benevolent master.”
With that, the woman smiled, her fangs making Roldan recoil a bit, and then he found himself back inside the shrine with Sarahi.
To his surprise, his daughter was fast asleep, and it seemed like she had entered one of her trance states. When she got like that, she would start saying strange things after she woke up. Did she not get transported into that strange hall because she was still under the age of sixteen? Deciding to let her rest, Roldan opened the backpack hastily, eager to see what was inside.
[NPC Starter kit
1 x basic health potion
1 x class change scroll
1 x standard issue comcer
1 x Blank Skill Book
1x Relgte of The Unrivalled Tower Master
1x Tower Rulebook
1 x Relgte of The Deiwos Clan
1 x Zone Map]
He opened the Zone Map first, and the large area he and his daughter were in was green, while the zones surrounding them all over the place were yellow and red. He frowned when looking at the map, as it did not look like the small town in which he lived with his daughter. He wanted to go and see what was happening outside for himself.
Before he went out, Roldan knelt before the altar at the shrine, putting his hands together, and prayed, "Lord Xolotl, please guide me in the wake of the fall of our world. As you have always done, help me find a way to protect my daughter."
He was hesitant to leave her alone. Her whole life, he had always stayed by her side. When she first got sick, he had taken her to Western doctors, who diagnosed her with a mental affliction and gave her medicine that kept her sedated, but her gift kept consuming her from the inside, and he had no idea how to help her. He turned to various religions, and they said demons possessed her or that she was the mouthpiece of a god and she needed to accept her gift in order to control it.
The only thing that worked to both calm her down and keep her awake and alive were the treatments that she received from a curandera that had been recommended to Roldan in Santa Cecilia. The woman was powerful and a well-known believer in the rituals of the ancient Aztecs. She called herself Mama Gloria, and she diagnosed Sarahi with a susto, stating that she was carrying the mark of an ancient god and would become a force of destruction in the future if her susto was not tempered.
Sarahi was supposed to be a twin, but there were complications with her birth, and on what should have been the best day of Roldan’s life, he lost both his wife and his newborn son. According to Mama Gloria, the bad luck of that day continued to plague Sarahi because she too was supposed to die. The great god of twins, souls, misfortune, and deformities, Xolotl, could always use the susto to find her and manifest his power through her.
At the time, Roldan did not believe in any gods, he only wanted the curandera to treat his daughter, so he pretended to agree with her and paid for the treatments. The treatments were done by boiling odd herbs as medicine and filling the room with their steam to sweat out the toxic substances from Sarahi’s body. As part of the ritual, Mama Gloria continuously prayed to Xolotl to temper the power inside the child so that she could grow up to glorify him. Once that was done, Mama Gloria swept the shrine, offering the god gifts as well as sacrificing a quail to him.
To Roldan’s surprise, the ceremonies helped Sarahi to calm down, and she was able to live a relatively normal life, with a ritual being done whenever she had an episode. To better help her, Roldan had trained as a curandero under Mama Gloria. He had built his own shrine to Xolotl under Mama Gloria's instructions and placed it outside his house. It made caring for her easy.
Now, as he walked out of the shrine, he needed to find out where he was. However, once he was outside, he gasped in shock. A slew of empty buildings were on the other side of the road from his house. The buildings seemed to have been pulled from the central business district of a thriving city, as if the entire place, complete with entire blocks of flats, empty shops, banks, and cars on the roads, had been dropped in front of Roldan's house. It was even more creepy because, as Roldan looked around, it started to look as if he and his house were the ones who had been pulled away from Mexico into what looked like a European city's CBD. He shivered, grabbing as much food as he could carry from one of the supermarkets, intending to take it back home.
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Before he could leave the centre, he saw a light somewhere deeper in the streets. He was about to ignore it and go back to his daughter when he felt a strong compulsion to go that way, as if he was being guided by someone. In the middle of the street, there was a pedestal similar to the one that Lady Mira had been standing on. The difference was that this one held a glowing crystal coin instead of a person. Roldan hesitated before he approached it. This was a safe zone, right? It was not going to hurt him.
He reached out and touched the crystal.
[Congratulations! You have found a Hamlet token.]
[Congratulations! You are the only adult NPC inside this safe zone. Would you like to claim this area?
Y/N?]
Roldan hesitated. What did that even mean? In what way did half a city and a house with a shrine look like a hamlet? But he knew that if he did not claim this place, someone else might, and he would end up not having somewhere safe to treat his daughter. This had to be the answer to his last prayer.
“Yes! I'll claim it,” he said decisively. He had been led here for a reason.
[Please name your safe zone.]
Roldan thought for a moment. He wanted a safe place for his daughter, so he said, “Cielo Seguro.”
[Congratulations! You have claimed the hamlet: Cielo Seguro]
[Achievement! You are the third person on the 36th Floor to claim a safe zone.
+150 Karma]
[The Safe Zone: Cielo Seguro has been highlighted on all the maps of all NPCs within a 200-kilometre radius of its location.]
[Achievement! Your safe zone is built around the shrine of the Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan Pantheon god: Xolotl, The Soul Guide of Misfortune.
+ You may receive Sponsorship Challenges from the gods of the Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan Pantheon as well as their constellations 52 hours earlier than other NPCs.]
The Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan Pantheon? Was that what the system called the Aztec gods? Roldan had no idea, but that was the only thing that made sense to him. He hurried back home.
Sarahi remained in her trance for the rest of the day, and later that day, there were a few groups of people of different races standing outside the border of Cielo Seguro. Roldan received a prompt asking if he wanted to let them in, and of course, he did. He only greeted them and showed them where the residential areas were. All the people were looking lost, as if they had been pulled from all over the world and randomly dropped here. They had all headed to this place since it was a safe zone.
Having to manually allow people to stay one by one through the system was already taking time away from him. When he had to control their level of authority, he merely set all of them as guests. He did not spare much sympathy for any of them, he had enough to worry about.
*
Roldan had thought that since his daughter was in a trance, she would be safe for a while, but when he woke up in the middle of the night, she was gone. He ran all over the town searching for her, wondering if one of the new people had taken her, but instead, he felt a pull leading him outside of the safe zone.
He found Sarahi standing in what his map labelled as a level 30 red zone. It was dangerous, but thankfully all NPCs were still within the 26 hours of being protected. Besides, Sarahi was a child, and she had seven days of protection.
“Sarahi!” he called frantically, watching as she stood in a daze next to a large wormlike monster that looked like it could gobble up a hundred children of her size.
Hearing his voice, her eyes became focused, and she screamed, only just noticing the monster. She ran quickly towards her father as the monster watched her hungrily, but there was nothing it could do to her. Roldan hugged her tightly and took her back home.
“That was dangerous, Sarahi. Why would you go there?” he asked her in panic.
The child looked up at him, her eyes turning black, a sign that she was having an episode. “Do you not see them, papi?” she asked.
“See what?” he asked quietly. When she got like this, it was best to be calm and listen.
“The travellers from below who are trying to take over the world. They only know how to fight and be mean to people from here. They don't care about anything except power, and they're trying to ruin everything. They clear corruption while making it grow even more, those awful travellers,” she said, the words meaningless to her father. Was she talking about players?
Roldan held her in his arms as tightly as he could. “Why did you go out there?”
“I heard a voice, papi. The one you and Mama Gloria prayed to. I was alone for a long time, but now I finally heard god's voice," she said with a smile. “He told me that this gift would kill me.”
Roldan stared at her in disbelief. "No. You're not going to die as long as I continue making sacrifices and performing the ritual. Magic exists in this new reality, so you can be healed." The system said that the Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan clan were watching over this place, so they had to help.
“I know you're doing your best, but I finally know what's making me sick. He said it isn't the gift; it's the corruption that gets inside my body thanks to the gift,” Sarahi said calmly, as if it was not her own death she was talking about, her pitch-black eyes eery.
“There has to be a way to stop it!” Roldan said determinedly. “Did the god not show you the way to stop it?”
Sarahi swayed unsteadily, and her eyes returned to normal. Roldan held her up and then laid her down on the bed. “It's impossible. He showed me a place far away for me to reach before the 7-day protection is over. He said I have to pass through a gate and stay there for three years until I can get access to the system. Only then can I get help from Lord Xolotl to control this power.”
“Where is this place?” Roldan asked eagerly, holding on to hope.
“I don't know where it is. Only that it will take over a month to get there, and I might encounter monsters along the way. By the time I reach the Gate, the protection on me will be over, and I won't be able to survive in a Tier 4 Gate,” she said with a defeated voice. “I'm tired, papi, I want to sleep now.”
Roldan held in his grief and tucked his daughter into bed. He looked at the Relgtes he'd been given, looking for anything to help his daughter, but he could not find anything about sustos or marks from gods. He could not read the massive Relgte of The Unrivalled Tower Master in enough time to find a solution, so his best bet was is true and trusted method, to go to the shrine. Only one quail was left, but he did not hesitate to sacrifice it. He knelt before the altar and held the talisman in his hand.
“Lord Xolotl, for years you have protected my daughter from being consumed by the darkness. I don't know if my ceremonies and rituals will work in this new world, but I will do anything to keep her safe. I will give and sacrifice anything so this power doesn't kill her. Please help me get her into that Gate so she can be safe and live a long life, that is my only wish. Please, Great One, save my daughter!” he prayed desperately with tears in his eyes.
[The Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan clan god: The Soul Guide of Misfortune, asks if that is your divine wish.]
The notification startled Roldan but he quickly regained his composure. Divine wish? What was that? If it was a wish, could this god grant it? “Yes, my lord,” he said hopefully.
[The Soul Guide of Misfortune, Xolotl has proposed a Sponsorship Contract for you.
Contract Type: Daeva
For more information on the rules and regulations for Daevas, as well as the specifics of this type of sponsorship contract, please read The Relgte of The Unrivalled Tower Master, Scroll 4: Chapter 3
Accept: Y/N?
Time Limit: 13 minutes]
“Accept!” Roldan said hastily.
[Error! NPC has not read the rules and regulations for Daevas. Before you accept the Sponsorship contract, please read The Relgte of The Unrivalled Tower Master, Scroll 4: Chapter 3]
Roldan grimaced, quickly ran to the house, and opened that scroll. He read the summary of the sponsorship contracts. If the system thought he would change his mind once he knew, it was wrong. His soul was a small price to pay for his daughter's life.
“Accept!” Roldan said.
[Congratulations! You are now the Daeva of The Soul Guide of Misfortune]
[As a Daeva, you are entitled to:
[+ Access to Blessings, Skills, and Power.
+ The ability to host a once-off Descent of your patron deity into your body.
Restrictions:
Upon the deity’s Descent into the Daeva’s body, and using their power to fulfil your divine wish, you will die from the karma implosion. Permanent death will occur regardless of your remaining respawns.
Your patron deity will receive your soul as payment and your body as a vessel for a demon, angel or spirit.]
[Congratulations! You are the first mortal from the 36th Floor to bind to a deity.
+500 karma]
[You have not chosen a class. Your deity has granted you the class: Soul Cleric.
Accept: Y/N?]
[Class Name: Soul Cleric
Rank: Uncommon
Description:
Soul Clerics are devoted healers and spiritual guides, specializing in the healing of the mind, spirit, and body. Their faith and connection to a god of souls grants them unique abilities to mend the deepest wounds and alleviate suffering. With their high mana and mind stat, Soul Clerics are invaluable assets in any party, providing vital support and divine intervention when needed most.]
[You have chosen the class: Soul Cleric]
[You have unlocked the Special Stat: Wisdom (WIS)
Wisdom:
All mortals whose first class is Mage-based start with this stat. Determines the player's insight and intuition. It influences mana regeneration, and may provide slight protection from external mental or magical influences. May enhance spiritual energy and improve resistance against mind-altering effects.
Base WIS starts at half of the Mind Stat and can only be increased from free attribute points.]
[+3 MND, + 2 Special Stat: WIS +1 VIT
This is an uncommon class. On every level up, you receive +3 MND, +2 Special Stat: WIS +1 VIT, and 3 free attribute points.
This class is upgradeable at Tier 5.]
None of that mattered to Roldan, so he only accepted the class to get this over with. All he cared about was his daughter's safety. "You can have my body and my soul. Now, Descend, Lord Xolotl and save my daughter,” he prayed.
[To fulfil your divine wish, The Soul Guide of Misfortune would like to Descend into your body. Accept: Y/N?
Please note: You will suffer from karma implosion once the Descent is over and you will die]
Roldan walked into his daughter's room and held her. He looked at the child in his arms and felt tears well up in his eyes. She would be an orphan at such a young age, but at least she would be alive. In his heart, he knew that she was a special child and the great god Xolotl would protect her because of it. He bent down and kissed her forehead. "Goodbye, mija. Vaya por el buen camino," he whispered, looking at her sleeping form. "Accept."
[Current Faith Level: Daeva Level 1
Descent is limited to (1) minute]
One minute? Would that be enough time for a god to travel a journey that would take a mortal a month? The last thought of a devout father was worrying about his daughter's life.
Roldan's consciousness faded as a negligible fraction of a god's essence manifested inside his body. The essence of Xolotl opened his eyes. He was in the body of a level 1 mortal, so he could not use even one billionth of his power, but for Tier 3 corrupted monsters, it would be more than enough.
Xolotl laughed, looking down at the body. Mortals from lost worlds were so easy to manipulate. All the man wanted was guidance and protection for his daughter, something that Xolotl would have given anyway. Most mortals were unaware of it, but the Deava had the poential to be the most powerful Sponsorship Contract given that they could ask for literally anything in exchange for their body and soul. There were a few restrictions of course, but if Roldan had asked Xolotl for something absurd like to destroy the entire 36th Floor, he would have done it. The Daeva could have asked for anything in the infinite multiverse, yet he wasted his divine wish on something so trivial. What a fool. It was a good thing that Xolotl made sure that the man owned the land his shrine was built on, and thus received the privilege of gaining sponsorships before anyone else. If not, someone else might have offered Roldan a better sponsorship contract, and Xolotl would have lost the seed his constellations had been cultivating for years.
He would not let the child who carried his master’s brand fall into the wrong hands. She was destined for greatness. He was grateful for Mamlambo’s method of creating Daevas by putting their children in danger, it was truly a magnificent plan.
Xolotl would use this to prove that he was a better choice than that traitorous Visage of his master's. He looked at the child he would use to defeat the Deiwos Clan in their own Tower, and placed her in a trance. It would not do for her to find out about her father’s deal.
He had to act quickly because he could feel The Unrivalled One watching him, and she would forcibly pull him out of this body after a minute. He said one word of power, and both he and the child were teleported 500 kilometres away and reached the Tier 4 red zone surrounding the Gate.
In one second, Xolotl reached the entrance to the Gate, and forced it open. Whenever he took a single step, every creature in his vicinity, regardless of level, died. Just as he was about to throw the child inside the Gate, he felt resistance from The Unrivalled One's essence. She knew what he wanted to do and was probably against it. That was why Xolotl had chosen to bring the child into a time-dilated Gate, rather than a time-dilated dungeon because those usually had strict level restrictions while many Gates did not.
"Holy One," Xolotl said, keeping the derision away from his voice. "The child will be safe. She still has three days of this world's time left of your divine protection. Even if she is inside the Gate, no matter how much time passes in there, she will be protected for three of this world's days. Is that not your divine edict?" he asked, as if he were confused when in reality, he was just reminding The Unrivalled of something she already knew. "If you are worried, do not fret, Holy One, my essence will guide the child inside the Gate and protect her as per my Daeva's divine wish."
The resistance melted away, and the child fell inside as Tier 4 monsters roared, and Xolotl closed the Gate, stepping away.
<> the essence of The Unrivalled said sharply, its karma shaking Xolotl to the core. <
Then the essence was gone, and Xolotl could breathe again. This cursed mortal's body had made him feel weak, just as The Unrivalled had intended. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, replenishing his essence with the world's karma and sending some of his essence inside the Gate to guide the child.
As soon as that was done, his essence left the body of the Daeva.
As Xolotl's essence watched the karma imploding inside Roldan’s body from above, the corruption spilt out of the body in a massive blast that destroyed the entire zone. It went on for over 50 kilometres, consuming everything in its path. If Roldan had more karma, or was a demigod, the destruction would have been much worse.
Finally, Roldan Beltran was dead, and both his body and soul belonged to Xolotl.
The essence of Xolotl was pleased now that he had a vessel for the soul of the demon who hated the Deiwos Clan as much as he did. There was no one he would trust more with the first stage of his plan to bring the Deiwos Clan to their knees. His trusted demonic soul would build the entire 36th Floor into a kingdom for him and unite it using the power that the child possessed. She was a good child who listened to her father after all, even if another soul inhabited his body.
Mictlantecuhtli's alliance with The Demon Reaper made Xolotl uneasy, and if he wanted to maintain his ranking in the Ilhuicatl-Omeyocan Clan, he needed to start his plans to take this Tower from the Deiwos Clan, and the 36th Floor was just the beginning.