"Forget all the problems, Just take a deep breath and we're going on a trip now..."
Claustrine, Sophia, Bertrand and Shirna just awkwardly listens on the song as Mateo is singing to his heart content while the music plays on his phone. Despite the passion, Mateo clearly doesn't have any talents on singing.
"The music sounds good but..." Beltrand can't finish his sentence.
"Pa-pa, Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa, pa-pa-pa-pa-pa."
The four is whispering with each other as they don't want to hurt Mateo's feelings.
"I starting to regret that we learned about his secrets. Now, he's very comfortble singing alongside the music on his gadget." Beltrand said.
"Maybe we should tell him." Shirna suggested.
"That's a good idea. Maybe you should tell him first." Sophia agrees.
"Me!? No no no no. Claustrine should tell him. You're his first friend right?" Shirna said.
"Sorry guys but I can't just stomach stopping such passion on singing." Claustrine's half assed attempt on avoiding the request.
"How about you Beltrand?" Sophia asked.
"Hey who knows, maybe he can't just sing that specific song very well. Maybe the next song is better."
"BUT THAT'S THE 5TH SONG HE WAS SINGING." Shirna said with such emphasis that he almost said it loudly.
Seconds of silence except Mateo who still singing. Everyone sighs.
"Maybe we just need to wait for him to get tired singing." Shirna admits defeat.
"I can hear you guys."
"EEKKK!"
Everyone is shocked when they suddenly hear Mateo behind them.
"S-s-s-sorry! W-w-we didn't mean to insult you!" Sophia panicly said.
"Hahaha I know. Don't worry, I'm already used on people making fun of my singing." Mateo happily said.
"Phew!" Shirna sighs with relief.
"Is my singing really that bad?" Mateo asked.
"To be honest. It sounds like a Goblin just recently discovered the concept of music." Claustrine's brutal answer.
"Ouch."
"I think I slowly understand why everyone calls you Sharp-Tongue mage in the past." Beltrand said.
"Still better title than "Womanizer."
Beltrand just laugh, Claustrine also chuckle a little bit. If their banter happened in the past like the first time they met each other. It might result in an confrontation.
Perhaps the years of adventuring together slowly makes all of them close friends.
"If people makes fun of your singing? Why you still sing with such ethusiasm?" Shirna is genuinely curious. Mateo thinks for a moment before answering his question.
"Maybe because I also join the fun. And if you and your friends just want to relieve stress by singing in a karaoke, who cares about your voice." Mateo's answer.
"I understand. Just like how sailors or tavern drunkards sings in unison." Beltrand said.
"Exactly." Mateo agrees.
"Anyway, what is a Kara-o-key?" Sophia asked.
"I going to show you once we visit my world. Hayss... That's another promise that I need to fulfill to you guys."
Taking a glance on the clock on his phone. Mateo sees that its already Night time so he decides to take a break and rest for everyone.
After a dinner of fried rice with friend canned meat loaf. Grand Ecstasy spends some time letting themselves fall asleep by talking to each other.
"Mateo, I just realized."
"What is it Trinne?"
"I'm wondering. Since you already told your secret to us. Why you don't just summon the door to your world here right now?" Claustrine asked which caught everyones attention.
"Ohhhh thats a good idea!" Beltrand agrees.
"Can we go sleep on a soft bed?" Sophia imagines the possibilities.
"If that's possible, I should already summoned the door since the reveal and we're spending time on my world right now."
"Hmmm... Fair point." Shirna agrees on Mateo. Sophia frown.
"But why it's impossible? It's your magic right?" Shirna asked.
Mateo pause for seconds.
"To be honest, it's complicated. Also, it's not my magic. That system is a gift from a very close friend of mine."
"Friend of yours? Is that friend of yours lives in your world? Earth doesn't have magic right?" Claustrine asked.
Mateo thinks for a moment then looks to everyone.
"Guys. Do you know the name Fylestacia?" Mateo asked.
The four tries to remember such name but nothing comes out on their mind.
"Never heard of it." Beltrand said.
"Nope." Shirna follows.
Sophia shake her head sideways.
"I don't recall any name like that. Why you asked?" Claustrine's answer and question.
"That's the name of the friend that give me this ability. I thought she came from this world but it seems that I'm mistaken." Mateo's dissapointment after his theory is proven wrong.
"Don't just give up like that. If your idea holds water. We just need to visit the libraries and find a book that have that name written on it." Claustrine encouragement.
"Does it also caught your curiosity?" Mateo asked.
"Yes. I wonder. If magic doesn't exist on your world and someone give you some magic that let you enter our world. She must be a very powerful mage that lives in Grimael. We might found a clue if we read the texts or ask the right people." Claustrine's explanation.
"Oh I like that idea. Promise, I also visit the church's library and ask the the higher-ups about that Fylestacia." Sophia promised.
"I'm going to asked my elders. With their age, they must have a knowledge about Fylestacia if Claustrines theory is correct." Shirna joins the hunt.
"I'm not good with that thing so I just going to give moral support." Beltrand jokingly said.
"Guys... It might be a very grueling search with no guarantee of success. It's best that we just forget about it." Mateo is scared that their effort might go into waste.
"No. As you said, she's a very close friend of yours so we must learn the truth. Also, consider it as payment for all of the help and promise you made for us." Claustrine smile.
At first, Mateo is shocked to see the determination to their eyes but he accepts their offer with a smile.
"Thanks you guys."
The four just smiles as they see their leader happy. Grand Ecstasy spends the night with ease.
The next day, the party happily continues their journey. Belrand, Claustrine, Shirna and Sophia asked curious questions to Mateo who answers them honestly.
"What's the religion of your world?"
"The truth is. There's too many that I can't count?"
"If magic doesn't exist in your world. Why Earth's humans is so familiar with magic."
"Humanity just really like imagining fantastic things like mythical creatures and magic."
"Claustrine said that elf like me also exist in your world."
"Sadly, only in fiction. But the fact the elves really exist in another world is surreal..."
"Is hand-to-hand combat also exist in your world.?"
"They're called Martial Arts in my world and I think you going to like them once you see them."
Despite the barrage of questions. Mateo still enjoys answering his friends' questions. Maybe because its still better than the defeaning silence of the cave.
From what Mateo estimates. Grand Ecstasy is already stranded in the Reverse Tower for 24 days now. With no idea how big the cave system is, Grand Ecstasy can't really fathom how much area they already explored and with so many branching ways. If Claustrine didn't mark their path, there might be a chance that they just going full circles without even realizing it.
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The Partys' moral is still high unlike before thanks for Mateo's decision to reveal his secret. Now, the four always have anticipation and curiousity of what Mateo is going to show to them. And Mateo is willing to follow on their demands.
Another night, another dinner. Mateo opens his Bag of Storage and pulls his laptop. He opens it. Everyone notices what Mateo is doing and surprised to see the thin folder like item on Mateo's hand.
"Another device on your world?" Claustrine asked.
"Yeah. It's called Laptop." Mateo answerd while browsing in his folders .
"Looks similar to the phone. Are they related?" Shirna asked.
"At some aspects, yes."
"Cool. Excited on what you going to show to us." Sophia's anticipation.
"This time we going to watch a movie."
"Watch a moovie?"
"Imagine it like a theatre where you watch people perform but the entire show is already finished and stored in a small device that you can watch anytime."
"Now thats sounds interesting." Beltrand is intrigued.
"But I want to say that it's completely different on how theatre works so just watch and indulge yourself while watching."
After browsing, Mateo finally decides and picks a movie. He asked Claustrine to manipulate a ground to make a small elevated table where he can put his laptop. He face the monitor to the other four who already waiting for him to play a film. So he clicks the play button and sit along side others.
The movie Mateo choose is a Hachiko film. About the real life loyalty of a dog who waits for his owner for years until his last breath.
.
.
.
After a hour and a half later....
"NOOOOOO!!!" Sophia screams followed by crying.
Mateo just watch with amusement. He's surprised that the movie really affects the the four despite most of the thing in the movie doesn't make sense to them. Basically, Mateo also answers the questions they have through the runtime of the movie.
Claustrine tears is already flowing on her cheeks while watching. Shirna tries to wipe his tears while sniffing.
Beltrand meanwhile tries to man up but his eyes is visibly tearing up.
"Atleast hachi is now with his owner." Shirna said.
"Hachi..." Sophia is still sad.
"I'm not crying..."
"Dude. Your eyes is tearing up." Mateo teases Beltrand.
"Shut up!" Bertrand said then he wipes his tears that might flow down if he didn't remove it.
"You really want us to feel pain don't you? You sadistic monster." Claustrine complains. She also starts to sniffle and wipes her tears.
Mateo just give a smile.
"Yup. A monster." Claustrine only words.
After the movie. Grand Ecstasy decides to sleep, except Mateo who preparing his earphones so he can listen to music.
"Hachi... You're in a better place now..." Sophia softly said as she sleep talk. Mateo smiles after hearing Sophia's ramblings.
After picking a song. Mateo quietly hums the song. He don't want to disturb the sleep of his friends. But it turns out Claustrine is not fallen asleep yet and also notices that Mateo is still awake.
Claustrine slowly stand up, walks to Mateo's resting spot and sit beside him. Mateo just watch Claustrine walks closer since he notices that she's waking up. Mateo then removes one of his buds.
"Can't sleep?" Claustrine asked.
"Yeah."
"Something bothering you?"
Mateo gives a deep worried sigh.
"Perhaps telling that problem might help you a little bit."
"Thanks but I think its better if I didn't tell this to anyone. I don't want to lower down the team's morale."
"How about just tell it to me?"
Mateo looks on Claustrine. Despite the dim light of the Mateo's battery lamp, he can clearly see the reassuring smile of Claustrine. Mateo decides to trust Claustrine.
"I wonder if the guild already sent a rescue team for us." Mateo's thought.
"I see... What makes you think that they might don't send any rescue for us?"
Mateo shows the plastic bag of Gold Adventurer's tags to Claustrine.
"Some of the adventurers we saw here are already dead weeks or months ago. I'm concerned that we might get stucked here, waiting rescue for weeks, months or... for eternity."
"I understand your concern. But maybe Graham already told the guild about our disappearance. He's the one that warn us about the anomalies of this tower and he's very concerned."
"Thats true."
"And I can't see the guild ignoring this anomaly. Especially if it was happening in such important place as Reverse Tower."
"But do you think they can activate the teleport mechanism? What if they didn't see the the marks we leave in this cave system? The teleport spot seems randomize right? So they might teleported to a completely different area far away from our path."
"Tsk tsk tsk... You're still the cautious Mateo that I knew."
Claustrine moves closer to Mateo.
"I tell you the truth. The teleport mechanism is only known by us right now. Perhaps, we should rely on their luck on activating it and finding us in this maze of a cave. Is that a good answer?"
Mateo almost laugh but manages to stop himself.
"Thats a very terrible answer."
"Yes Terrible, but that's our only option right now. At this point, its not bad to rely on luck right? We already survived similar deadly situations in the past so this is just easy for us." Claustrine's opinion.
"I guess you're right. There's nothing we can do but to continue moving forward and hope for the best. Haha, It's absurd that it's reassuring to feel negative in this situation.
"Well, its good to know our limits. Being hyper optimistic would surely shatter our expectation and hopes harder once everything goes wrong."
"I guess you're right. Thanks for hearing my concerns Trinne." Mateo smiles.
"You're welcome." Claustrine happily replies. She notices the dangling earphones and gets curious.
"Ah this? Wanna try it?"
Claustrine nods so Mateo adjust the earphone so they can have each buds with comfort. Then Mateo plays a mellow music full of soft instrumentals and vocals.
"You can also hear music only by yourself. Amazing." Claustrine is amaze.
"True. It also makes me immerse myself deeper to the music and forgot the outside world for a while."
The two stay silent and just appreciate the music within few minutes.
"Do you also listen to music to fall asleep?" Claustrine asked.
"Yes."
"Same. But I can only humm the song until I fall asleep. Ahhh... It brings memories." Claustrine softly said then she smiles.
Mateo decides to not interrupt Claustrine's reminiscence and continues to listen to the mellow music.
5 musics later. Due to his sleepyness, Mateo didn't notice that Claustrine is already asleep. Her head is placed on his shoulder and the earbud he give is fallen from her ear.
Mateo then gently turns off his phone, place the phone and earphone on his storage.
"Goodnight everyone." Mateo said then he also go to sleep.
~~~~~°~~~~~
In one of the log cabins in Layer 7, Gilmore is also resting but he can't afford to fall asleep.
Due to strike of bad luck, the defense mechanism in the log cabin he found is already broken courtesy of wear and tear plus lack of maintenance. Partnered by the increasing hostility of the advance layers, Gilmore just can't afford to sleep and he's already awake for 2 days.
Gilmore continues to drink tea while getting warmth on the fireplace. In front of her is a empty bowl.
Gilmore doesn't find anything interesting while he's traversing Layer 6 and Layer 7. And after saving few more fleeing Gold Rank adventurers and asking them about Grand Ecstasy, he's still failed to gather relevant information like where they last seen nor any status report.
Despite the sound of the continious winter outside. Gilmore can still here the chaos of the rampaging beasts. Some are howls and roars of agression and few are what sounds like combat between powerful creatures. Thankfully, the sounds are far enough from Gilmore that he can relax a little bit.
.
.
.
*SWOSH*
The walls of the log cabin suddenly burst open. Within milliseconds, Gilmore manages to destroy a fast icycle the size of human heading on his way.
Using his sword, Gilmore shatters the icycle and now chunks of ice is scattered on the floor. Looking on the hole created by the attack, Gilmore can clearly see a what looks like a big boar.
"Frostbite Boar... "
Frostbite Boar is one of the beast roaming the Layer 7. Known for its thick hide and an ability to snort transparent and sticky fluid that freezes when exposed to the cold. The ability to release a sticky substance is possible by their extra pair of nose hole and a sac containing the fluid which is now propelled by inhaling a huge amount on air, blocking the holes the boar used for breathing and expelling the air in his extra nasal hole containing the fluid in such force that it expels the fluid in considerable distance. An ability that primarily used as self defense and a way to escape from predators.
But, Gilmore notices that the Frostbite Boar is a lot larger and more ferocious. He watches with surprise as the boar slowly release its fluids until forms two long icycles still contained on its nose. Ready to get used as projectiles.
"A new Apex huh?" Gilmore just said as he prepares to defend himself for another long distance shot.
And just like what Gilmore anticipated, the Apex Boar release one of its nasal icycle with such force that it travels so quick a normal person can't easily see the incoming projectile.
But Gilmore dodges the icycle which instead strike the log cabin, destroying half of it. The Apex Boar releases its another icycle when he notices that Gilmore is running on its location.
Gilmore also dodge the second icycle and runs faster, not wanting to waste the opporunity of the Apex reloading its weapon. To Gilmore's surprise, the Apex Boar runs away.
"I will not give you a chance." Gilmore said then he dash even faster to even close the gap. In his mind, the Apex Boar just going to reload and return on attacking him again.
The Boar is fast, but Gilmore is faster and its just a matter of second before he reach the beast. When he finally gets the distance, Gilmore unsheaths his sword and prepare to strike its leg.
But the Apex boar makes a sudden maneuver, facing Gilmore. It release a large amount of sticky fluid. In such close range, Gilmore use the slither of his timing to manipulate the air in front of him, creating a wall of wind the deflects the nasal fluids.
Gilmore's chase is temporarily interrupted. He sees the nasal fluids he deflected quickly solidify into ice. If he didn't manage to evade the attack, it would take a considerable time for him to remove it from his body and makes Gilmore open to more attack.
Watching the Apex Boar continues its escape. Gilmore takes a deep breath and by putting his mana and strenght to his leg, he makes a single strong leap. Easily making the gap closer between him and the Apex Boar.
Then out of nowhere, another beast swoops down in silence and within an instant, the Apex Boar is gone. Already known the culprit, Gilmore looks at the location where the dashing beast ended, only to see a Apex Lowu eating the Apex Boar by ripping its flesh using its sharp claws. A giant raptor with a head of an owl and huge wings that Lowu used to propels itself with a large burst of speed.
Lowu also have a very reflective feathers it used as camouflage. An agile and bulky predator with very diverse arsenal that stalks its target, all of these ability in exchange of the ability to fly that the normal Lowu possesed.
The Apex Lowu finally reaches the core of the dead Apex Boar and gulps it whole. After the meal, the Apex Lowu notices the pressence of Gilmore and change its attention to him.
"Ok bring it on." Gilmore goes into his combat stance.
The Apex Lowu blend itself on the snow and Gilmore observes the surroundings. Watching for the sudden movement in the patterns of bloodied snow.
And Gilmore sees that the snow on his side suddenly distorts and not wanting to waste the opportunity, he decides to wait for the Apex Lowu to attack first and the monster totally takes the bait.
The Apex Lowu leaps when it closed the distance. Its claws are ready to rip Gilmore apart only for him to parry the attack and cut the Apex Lowu's wing in the process.
The beast screech in pain and its blood painted the already bloody smudged snow. Gilmore is ready to end the fight as he still have the view of the Lowu but...
*RUSTLE*
Gilmore hears a rustling sound that gets louder. And feeling the danger, he leaps backwards and at that moment, he sees a huge rolling snowball that moves really fast and it instantly swallowed the Apex Lowu.
"What?" Gilmore is surprised as he didn't remember encountering such thing.
The giant snowball stops and thats where he finally see the culprit of the sudden attack.
At the top of the snowball which is filled with numerous other beast squirming and trying to escape. Gilmore saw a what looks like a giant spider with 4 long legs on its back and 4 shorter legs on the front. The spider release some of its sticky string and coats the snowball, making it more sticky and prevents the snowball on collapsing.
Gilmore finally remembers the beast. Its an Arachroller. But the ones he knows are a lot more smaller which is only 1 foot in lenght. But the ones rolling the 70 feet snowball full of beasts is a 12 feet long Arachroller which only leads to one conclusion.
"Come one. How many new Apex I need to encounter." Gilmore said with annoyance.
But Gilmore notices that the Apex Arachroller doesn't care on his pressence and just continue on maitaining its snowball which makes Gilmore happy. Maybe he can just leave the beast at peace and prevent another unnecessary fight. A win-win for both of them.
So, Gilmore sheath his sword and prepares to leave.
.
.
.
To Gilmores surprise. Suddenly, the snow he stepping in starts to rumble, the Arachroller also seems on high alert and panicly tries to leave.
But, its too late as a abnormaly gigantic Icyatsh leaps from the snow. Its already gaping mouth would surely just swallow him, the Apex Arachrilla, whatever beasts inside the snowball and the surroundings.
"Really?" Gilmore is in disbelief as he can't comprehend that a creature not endemic in the reverse tower with completely different biology to the beast can have an Apex version.
The surprise and speed of the attack doesn't give Gilmore enough time to escape.
"Perhaps, I just going to carved my escape from the inside." Gilmore thought, believing that he would not get crushed inside of the gigantic fish which is probably the biggest cresture he saw inside the reverse tower.*
As Gilmore prepares to accept the challenge. Suddenly, a magic circle appears beneath his feet. The circle is so bright that Gilmore easily notices it especially beneath the Apex Icyatsh's shadow.
The Apex Icyatsh swallows a huge portion of snow and the impact of the fall of its body creates a big cloud of snow that hides the entirety of the Apex Icyatsh.