Episode 1: Open the Doors of the Tower of Dreams That Suddenly Rises (1)

1

A spider, half organic, half mechanical, crossed the field of wild red flowers. It could still move, but it wasn't in good condition. Cables grotesquely hung from its abdomen like organs. Well, it might not be a living being anymore, but undoubtedly, those were its entrails. Entrails on the verge of spilling out.

The spider didn't take long to find its prey.

A knight in armor, not so shiny, rather covered in dust, worn by exposure to the sun. Just like the corpse enclosed within. The spider climbed onto the corpse and slid up to the helmet. It lifted one of its legs, thin and sharp as a blade, to pierce the eye. He knew that was its target, but Caim didn't allow it.

He gave it a good kick.

The force of the impact made it fly. As it fell, it got lost in the dense field of flowers, but it didn't matter. The blow had been enough to make it explode. It wouldn't move anywhere or harm anyone anymore.

Caim sighed as he looked at the objective in front of him. Finally. After so much time, finally. Caim's body was covered in a long and worn leather coat, his toughened face seemed to be made of leather too, equally worn. The only things shining on him were his bright blue eyes and the revolver bullets on his belt.

"Disgusting!" Those words didn't come out of his mouth. Yonah took a step forward and stood by his side.

Despite the long journey, exposed to the relentless sun day after day, she hadn't tanned. On the contrary, she still strangely remained pale.

The word "paleness" might suggest fragility, but there was nothing further from the truth in this case. Her sleeveless shirt exposed the muscles of her arms. Not an exaggeration like the muscles of people who had nothing better to do than train and inject strange substances, but the muscles of someone who fought to survive day after day, in shape, just like Caim.

"I didn't know spiders scared you."

The mocking response didn't come from his lips, although it was the first thing that came to his mind, but from Victoria's, his other companion.

"Spiders don't bother me, but that's not a spider; it's a mechanical abomination."

Caim wasn't saying anything for a very simple reason. The voices of people who had accompanied him on this long journey reached him as if from another world. He only had eyes and ears for the prize at the end of the road, although this long journey had been nothing more than the first step.

What prize? Well, the Tower, of course. The Tower.

"Yeah, right, your face isn't covered in cold sweat or anything."

Caim unsheathed the ancient sword and raised it. Its blade caught the sunlight and directed it towards the door because that was the only thing here, a door floating in the middle of the field. People called it a Tower despite that. Despite that no one knew how many floors it had or what was at the top. He almost... didn't care.

Directing the light with the sword, the door opened before them.

"Do they hurt?" Victoria asked. "You keep touching your horns."

Caim lowered his hand from his horns.

"I didn't even realize. Yes, but they usually do. I don't think it's anything special," he lied, but it was a white lie. He did believe it wasn't something worth worrying about. They had more important things at hand.

He and his group crossed the threshold, finally entering the Tower that was the precipice on which the world teetered. Immediately, he felt a strange presence, as if someone or something were watching him. His head started to ache as if it were about to split in two, and he fell to his knees.

"What's happening to you?" It felt like his horns were growing, but touching them, he found that it wasn't so. There was no apparent explanation for this pain. And then... Something incomprehensible floated in front of his eyes.

Caim, welcome to the Game.

Level 1

HP: 200/200

MP: 10/10

Game? What game, assuming this wasn't a hallucination? For him, it wasn't a game but a mission that would change his life. Level one... Maybe that meant they were on the first floor, but what were the other letters and numbers? He had no clue, so he couldn't even begin to guess. Fortunately, that wasn't the only information on the screen. The rest was clearer.

Strength: 1

Constitution: 1

Dexterity: 1

Agility: 1

Intelligence: 1

Wisdom: 1

Charisma: 1

Resistance: 1

It was like an insult. Caim was stronger, more intelligent, and more everything than that. But at least he could understand that it made sense for everything to start at the baseline if the "game" had started when he entered the Tower and not a second before. So HP and MP must be measuring something about him too, but why were they the only stats not marking one? In the end, even though the rest of the information was clearer and more direct, he only got more confused about the problem he had stuck at the beginning.

"Caim, say something already. You're starting to worry me," Yonah said.

"Just starting?" Victoria asked. "He moves his eyes as if he's seeing things that aren't there."

"You have so little tact, woman." Caim clicked his tongue.

"Yes. That's correct. That she has little tact, and that I'm seeing something you aren't."

Silence.

"Well, we're off to a good start," Victoria said. "Great."

"I didn't say that what I'm seeing doesn't exist. Does that seem so strange to you, with all the talk about this Tower?"

Victoria shrugged; she had to admit he was right.

"Should that worry us less... or more still?"

Good question.

2

Caim explained what had happened to them. Well, he read the text that refused to disappear. He couldn't explain shit to them because he didn't understand it himself.

"If this is something you get by entering the Tower, why hasn't it happened to us?" Yonah asked.

"Yeah, what's up? Male privilege, the sausage hanging between your legs?" Caim made a face. The woman had no filter. He was a man, but he didn't speak so vulgarly. He didn't like hearing other men talk like that either, and maybe he was a bit old-fashioned, but hearing a woman speak that way bothered him especially.

He would never say it to Victoria's face, though, or she'd hit him with her mage staff.

"Maybe it's because of my horns," Caim said.

A somber expression crossed both of their faces. It was understandable; those horns were the main reason he embarked on this journey. Even Victoria knew how to handle things seriously when needed.

"So, you think your hypothesis was correct," Victoria said.

"Well, I have to believe it, don't I? Why else would I have come this far?"

"Good point. You're right."

"You don't seem very happy," Yonah said.

"I'm mainly worried. For all of us."

Caim got up from the ground. Everyone had sat down to hear his story. He reached out his hand towards the floating words in front of his vision, no matter how he moved, in a blue box.

His hand went through the 'box.' Nothing happened. Would he always have to deal with this 'box' obstructing his view when in the Tower? It would be a hindrance in the undoubtedly many fights that awaited them, a constant annoyance.

There should be a way to make it disappear, shouldn't there?

"What are you doing?" Yonah asked.

"I'm trying to make it disappear, at least for a while. It would be a distraction, big or small, when we're in danger. The important thing is that it's a distraction."

"Why not try giving the command?"

"Just say it, disappear, hide, something like that?"

"Well, give it a try. Disappear. Hide."

The box disappeared.

"Oh, wow."

"Did it work?"

"Yes, you had a great idea. The problem now is that I don't know if it was the first or the second word that worked. I mean, it could have taken a while to work. Well, it doesn't matter. I guess I should be more concerned about not being able to bring it back, if these numbers are important to conquer the Tower."

And they would be. They had to be. It couldn't be a coincidence or random. The message had been very clear, delivered as soon as he and his companions had crossed the threshold of the tower: welcome to the Game.

For him, it was no game, but it was true that he had come here to win, no matter what.

"Well, at least it's the first abnormal thing we've encountered," Victoria said.

Yeah. It was tempting fate just thinking about it, but the first floor of the Tower was quite normal for now. A stone corridor with marble pillars here and there.

When they entered, he felt something watching him, but the weight of that presence had faded.

He wanted to tell himself that he had imagined it, but deep down he knew that wasn't true; the truth couldn't be so convenient. That's why he had bitten his tongue, not telling his companions about it. He hoped not to regret that decision eventually.

He hoped there really was nothing to worry about there.

If there was a problem after all, he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

They advanced through the stone corridor cautiously. As he had said, no one had returned to tell the tale. In fact, they had no idea what they would find on the first floor of the Tower, let alone its heights. They had nothing but dreams and hopes.

Nothing less?

He shouldn't belittle it that way. Those dreams and hopes had been enough to help them get this far, when so many others had perished on the way to the Tower.

Caim wielded his sword ahead, Victoria her staff, like any mage (from Yonah's paleness, she looked more like a white mage, but that's how things were). Speaking of Yonah, she hadn't drawn her weapon yet.

They couldn't know that another one of those mechanical spiders was on the ceiling, crawling stealthily behind them like a scavenging bird waiting for a weary traveler to collapse so it could feast once they finally breathed their last.

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Even if they had seen it, it wouldn't have changed much, but at least they would have been more prepared for what was coming. Perhaps they would have anticipated it.

A wooden corridor that seemed endless, a succession of pillars and nothing more, no human or inhuman traces.

Until it appeared without warning, as if it had been there from the beginning.

A giant spider blocking the view of what was on the other side of the corridor, although it was probably just more stone bricks. The corridor twisted like the shell of a snail, forcing them to constantly turn the corner. This meant they couldn't always see what was on the other side.

But how was it possible that this monstrosity had approached so close without them realizing it?

Caim tightened the grip on his sword.

Yonah gasped. Her famous reaction time wouldn't serve her now; she was paralyzed by fear.

And Victoria...

She didn't waste time; she turned around and ran like the devil. But she wasn't being logical either, driven by the impression of the moment.

Where was she running?

The corridor was identical; she couldn't retreat to a better position.

Still, Caim imitated her and pulled Yonah, grabbing her arm, urging her to follow. The contact was enough to break the paralysis. He didn't have to drag her by the arm or hand; none of that.

He heard the spider running behind them.

With its eight legs and hundreds (yes, hundreds) of burning blind eyes covering most of its enormous and monstrous body. The corpse of that knight, was it from someone who had come this far and had backed down only to die alone in the field of roses?

And they... would they share the same fate?

Would they be another group of adventurers to suffer a horrible and senseless death?

No.

No!

I refuse, he thought.

The spider was too fast despite its size. They wouldn't be able to put a reasonable distance between them no matter how fast they ran. The logical thing was to turn around and face the creature, even if every fiber of his being screamed not to. Because he didn't like spiders too much, at least not of that size.

He turned around, pivoting on his heels, unsheathing the sword with the same motion.

Yonah and Victoria were ahead of him.

As a result, he was the only one who fell.

Indeed. The ground beneath his feet collapsed, and Caim fell into the abyss.

He would have sunk if he hadn't reacted quickly, plunging the sword into the wall. He continued sliding down for a while, sparks flying far and high, bouncing against the walls, but eventually, he stopped.

"Caim!"

"I'm fine! I'll manage."

They had managed somehow, even when things seemed hopeless. Things weren't even that bad. For now. The spider chose that moment to poke its head out of the hole.

"God, why does it need so many eyes?"

Victoria acted, shooting ice at the beast's face. It exploded, rapidly blooming like an ice sculpture on its face. It seemed as if an ice sculpture had grown on its face, but it didn't hinder it for too long; it shook its massive head, and the sculpture shattered.

It gave them only a few seconds, but fortunately, Caim knew how to make the most of them. With the help of the sword, he climbed to the edge and set his feet back on the ground. He was glad that neither of the two had approached to try to help him. If they had, he would have told them to stay back. It was too dangerous when they still didn't know what the creature could do, aside from crushing them, hitting them with its enormous body, and presumably shooting webs. It was a spider, no matter how horribly mutated it was.

Caim stepped back, more to distance himself from the hole than anything else. The first thought that crossed his mind to defeat the enemy was to make it fall into the hole, but he dismissed it just as quickly.

Why?

Simple, the damn thing was too big. At most, it would cover the hole.

Although he supposed that in the best case, its enormity would enlarge the hole, and it would end up sinking into the abyss.

Yeah, well, but he wasn't counting on that. It didn't seem like a feasible plan.

"Caim? Any plan?" Victoria asked.

Caim tightened the grip on the sword handle.

"Don't you dare die. I need you," he said.

"Very touching, but that's not a plan. Oh, what the hell?"

She said that because the spider finally showed that it could shoot webs, like any self-respecting spider. Not from the rear end, though, but from its mouth. It created a web, blocking the hole.

He didn't understand why. It should be able to cross without any problems even if it hadn't done that.

Well, at least the abomination had basically allowed them to make the first move. Caim rushed at the beast, climbing up one of its legs and jumping towards its face, using the leg as a springboard. Trying seriously not to think about what he would feel when his boots touched those eyes, which was inevitable, given their number.

Caim firmly planted his boots in uncharted territory and told himself he could vomit if necessary when this was over. He thrust the sword into the forehead of that abomination against nature.

"You're incredible," Yonah said.

Victoria shot more ice, waving her staff. She didn't say anything, of course. There were incantations, but those were for practice. Any mage attempting to waste time reciting incantations on the battlefield would die before they could blink.

In academies, they learned to only need to recite them mentally.

The speed of speech and the speed of thought. The difference was more than obvious.

Victoria was an extraordinary mage. They were all extraordinary, or they wouldn't have come this far.

Yonah crossed the hole through the web, and one of her feet got stuck inside. The spider seized the opportunity to hit her with one of its legs...

But it went through her as if she wasn't there because she wasn't. She had only left a clone in her place.

Yonah joined the offensive, attacking the monstrous giant spider from behind. An ice structure grew near him, embedded in the spider's body. It had missed him by a hair. He let out a sigh of relief. Caim leaned on it to jump, returning to the ground.

One of the legs brushed his hand, drawing blood. Caim didn't let go of the sword, and he barely reacted to the pain. What caught his attention with a nearly imperceptible dilation of his pupils was the appearance of that box again.

HP: 245/250

Even an idiot would understand after that. The letters had to be an abbreviation for the percentage of health, perhaps. If it reached zero, the game would end.

The great and horrible game of life.

Well, that's a step forward, he thought.

The giant spider shot more web, coiling around the blade of his sword. It weighed so much that he struggled not to let it touch the ground. If he was careless, it would trap him in a web like any other insect and devour him without a trace.

More importantly, it would devour his companions, his friends.

Who were not to blame for anything.

Whose only mistake would have been to accompany someone like him on his journey.

Caim slid on the ground, narrowly avoiding another attack. At the same time, the leg that attacked him this time (it never lifted too many off the ground to maintain balance) grazed its own web and cut it, freeing his sword. It had been planned, but he couldn't say he hadn't been lucky.

Luck, especially not having to do something stupid like shooting his own sword or taking the time to pull out a knife, of which he had plenty hidden on his person. Risking being torn to shreds before he could do it. An instant could irreversibly change the course of a battle. So a few seconds felt like minutes.

He got up quickly, executed a spinning attack. One of the spider's legs flew off, crashing into the wall, spreading a tar-like black fluid on the ground, its blood.

Too easy, he thought.

And, of course, it wasn't that easy. In the blink of an eye, the leg grew back, and as if nothing had happened, it flew towards his eyes.

Caim dodged it, but even if he hadn't been able to, Victoria would have saved him, reacting quickly, freezing the leg and sticking it to the ground as soon as the ice grew enough.

He hit it, making it shatter into a thousand pieces, and confirmed that it didn't regenerate this time. Of course, it wouldn't have done it as quickly, but it was at least a step forward.

"Let's go, Victoria."

Caim and Yonah attacked the giant spider, each on their side. Caim, for now, was only using his sword. Yonah wielded a dagger in each hand. One might think that he should have chosen the group so that each covered something different, but first of all, he hadn't chosen anything. He had simply accepted the help he received.

Secondly, Yonah and he having a similar role wasn't a weakness. On the contrary.

Fighting together, their strength multiplied by two, while Victoria could cover any gap with her magic. They made a good team. Of course, they made a good team. Otherwise, they would have died halfway. They wouldn't have even dreamed of getting this far!

Victoria froze the spider's legs from a safe distance, and they broke them one after another without fail. Only one blow was needed. They couldn't fail.

They worked quickly, but it was still surprising that not even the first one they had destroyed had regenerated yet.

Was it possible that it could no longer do so, not with the pieces of the legs scattered everywhere? Its body being ruined irreversibly bit by bit.

It sounded convenient, reason enough not to count on it. But for now, they would stick to the same strategy; they had no reason to change course. For now.

After losing almost half of its legs, the next thing to go was its balance.

The spider collapsed. Caim pushed Yonah to prevent her from being crushed, and he jumped backward, performing a somersault, covering ten meters in an instant.

The monster roared furiously, emitting sounds halfway between human and animal. Therefore, they were sounds that didn't belong in this world. A chill ran down his spine.

But he didn't hesitate, didn't stop or slow down for even a second.

He thrust the sword into its forehead again, using both hands to push it deeper. Its tar-like blood dripped onto him, sticking his clothes to his body.

It spat more web. From so close, he never had a chance to dodge it, although he tried anyway. All he achieved was to be thrown a few inches farther than he would have if he had stayed still. Oh well.

His flight was stopped by the pillar he hit, leaving him breathless.

Of course, the web left him with crossed arms and his body against the pillar.

"I didn't have time. Damn."

If he had been able to push the sword a bit deeper, reaching the beast's brain, he would have won. He had stayed so close to the enemy, knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge its retaliation, counting on being fast enough. And he had been wrong. That was all.

HP: 200/250

Caim swallowed.

He had hit it solidly, unlike the graze from the previous time, and now his body hurt, yes. But had it really been that bad? He still had another two hundred points. It was a lot, but it was easier to keep fighting, ignoring his body's protests when he didn't know exactly how close to death he was.

Knowing it number by number was ominous, a countdown to his death.

Victoria prepared several icicles, forming them out of nowhere and making them float in front of them. They were like bullets. She took advantage of that while the spider was busy with Yonah and Caim, trying to free herself.

It didn't take long for her to come to the conclusion that she wouldn't get very far without help. The web was too tight. It restricted her movements to the point where she couldn't even move the sword up and down, cutting the bindings slowly.

Victoria shot her 'bullets'.

The spider rejected each and every one of them, shooting a web ball that wrapped around them and stopped them, making them fall into the darkness at the bottom of the hole. Yes, they took the covering web along with them.

"Give me a hand, will you?"

"Your wish is my command, boss."

Victoria approached enough to set the web on fire. Caim's heart rose to his throat. For a moment, he wondered if she had gone crazy, but then she grabbed the web where the fire hadn't reached yet and pulled, tearing it easily now that it was burning. The risky tactic hadn't left him burning like a bonfire, although it had come close.

"Thanks."

"That's what I'm here for. Oh, and what you said earlier, the same goes for you. Don't you dare die, okay? If you die, I won't forgive you," she said with a smile and warm tones in complete contrast to her hostile words.

Caim nodded and went back into action. He knew. He understood perfectly. None of them could fail here, when they had barely started.

He had been scared for a moment, but in reality, there was nothing to fear. They had the numerical advantage; they were stronger and faster. The spider was mutilated and on the ropes. And it still had two hundred lives.

However he looked at it, they had the upper hand.

They just had to keep going like this. It was that easy. They didn't even have to change anything or make a special effort. Maybe they would get hurt, but this would end quickly.

Yonah hadn't stopped, although she was alone. The spider was a dangerous enemy. However, it was an easy target and not very fast. That's why Yonah could, literally and figuratively, run circles around it. That had been true even before it lost most of its legs.

Caim didn't want to get complacent and tempt fate. However, the outcome of the battle seemed assured.

There was only one problem. The spider was regenerating. They had to end this quickly, before it undid all the progress so far. And, as before, Victoria was essential.

The layer of ice she spread on the floor made the spider lose its balance and finish falling, even though it had regenerated two of the already severed legs. Somehow, the ice slowed down its regeneration drastically. He didn't have to know the reason; he just had to know how to take advantage of it.

They descended on the giant spider like hawks. As if they were the predators and the monster from the worst nightmares of humanity the prey.

It turned out not to be far from the truth.

At this point, the roles had decisively reversed. Caim had to dodge a few clumsy swipes, but that was it; he could easily deliver the coup de grâce, finishing what he had been doing before getting caught in the web.

He didn't feel at ease until the spider stopped moving. He doubted it possessed enough intelligence to play dead and wait for an opportunity to counterattack.

Caim sighed in relief.

It hadn't been bad. In fact, the fight could have been much worse.

"We did it," Yonah said.

"It wasn't that difficult, thinking about it. In fact, I'm the one who got the most injured."

"You usually are," Yonah said. "You always insist on taking too many risks."

"Sorry."

Yonah gave him a half-hug, wrapping her arm around his neck, placing a hand on his shoulder, and pulling him towards her.

"I'm glad that once again, you've lived to tell the tale. Dumbass."

The celebration...

"Oh."

It was abruptly cut when he realized that a dark tentacle was protruding from his chest. The spider's corpse was darkening, more tentacles coming out to pierce him.

Yonah tried to free him, cutting the tentacles with her daggers, and Victoria tried to protect both of them with a barrier of magical energy.

But it was too late.

The tentacles impaled him all over his body. Caim didn't feel pain or fear of death, just the strange sensation that something was flowing into him. In any case, it was enough to make him collapse.

Seconds before losing consciousness, in a state where he couldn't even comprehend the voices of his friends, the last thing he saw was another message.

Boss: [Abyssal Broodmother] defeated.

+100 XP Level 2 reached.

Skill: [Spider Human] unlocked.

Open the Doors of the Tower of Dreams That Suddenly Rises (1): FIN