"Ugh..."
Gilmore slowly wakes-up and his first thing he did is to quickly cast a illumination spell, only to find himself in completely different environment. The harsh and cold snowy field is suddenly replaced by same cold but now solid rock and soil.
He quickly understand what happened.
"I see... The circle earlier is some sort teleportation spell. But I didn't knew any record of such spell in the kingdom."
To recover some energy, Gilmore takes a quick break and eat some hard bread partnered by black tea. After that, he proceeds to start exploring the cave system that is new for him.
Several hours of exploration later. Gilmore already understands the mechanics of the cave system. Knowing that there's no dangerous monsters lurking anywhere, he decides on formulating more efficient ways on traversing the branching paths of the cave.
But, Gilmore is concerned on the isolation of the cave system. From his theory, the same teleportation circles must not be capable for long distance travel like city-to-city teleportation and if his theory is correct, the Cave system should be close to the Reverse Tower.
But the thing that makes Gilmore really thinking is theres not even a single cave entrance located or discovered anywhere in the province of Flistan where the Reverse Tower is located. And Flistan is already a well explored area best known as "Green Horns training ground".
If the cave system is truly that isolated. There's a chance that Gilmore is going to get stucked there forever.
His body clock is telling him to sleep so Gilmore decides to rest for the day and continue his exploration tommorow.
.
.
.
The next day is still the same for Gilmore. Just blindly exploring the cave system, eating, drinking.
And the next day, and the day after that. Just the cycle of waking up, eating, drinking, sleep.
And several days later with only instances of the creepy walking blind bats appearing or dead ends that makes Gilmore annoyed.
Then Gilmore realized that he underestimated the cave system. He thought that he might already explored huge portion of it but his perspective change when days of exploration shows him no significant progress.
For Gilmore's mind. The cave system might be bigger than all of the Reverse Tower layers combined.
.
.
.
Another day of exploration, Gilmore finally discovers a new thing in the cave, but it only gives him dread and sadness.
In front of him is a skeletal remains of an Adventurer. Base on the attire and its hair, it must be a female cleric. With the bright light on his lamp, Gilmore notices something shining and after carefully getting it on the skeleton's chest. He finds the Golden Adventurer tag of the fallen cleric.
NAME: Lucilia Nihim
AGE: 20
BRANCH: Flistan
Gilmore feels pain that such youngling's adventure just ended in such cold, isolated place like the cave system. He cleans the tag and put it on his pocket. He pays respect to the fallen the proceeds to continue his journey.
With new discovery. Gilmore learns how the Gold Adventurers went missing, but he needs to learns the mechanics on how the teleportation even happen... Or how to even escape the grueling place he currently in.
There's also his mission of finding Grand Ecstasy and his lifetime quest that passed down to him by his ancestor which the only things that makes Gilmore continue his journey. The cave system might lead him on answering the long time mystery of the tower and his family.
Gilmore finish the day by writing all of his discovery in his journal then getting sleep.
.
.
.
2 days nothingness later, Gilmore discover a very groundbreaking discovery.
"An arrow?"
In the stone wall in front of him is an arrow molded in the stone using manipulation magic that points in a direction.
Gilmore walks to the direction the arrow pointed at and he saw another arrow pointed at the same direction. To ensure that the arrows are not just a fluke, he step backwards bypassing the first arrow he saw and after few steps. He also find the arrow pointing on the direction he previously went.
Gilmore easily realized how the arrow exist. He smiles and touch the arrow.
"Thank you Grand Ecstasy."
With a new clue found, Gilmore is now even more optimistic that he could see Grand Ecstasy still alive as long as he follows the guide they created and after following dozens of arrow. His body clock finally ticks and he decides to quickly have a dinner, then falls asleep early.
~~~~~~°~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Grand Ecstasy is currently watching on Mateo's laptop. The team is currently watching a movie named All Quiet in the Western Front.
"Are you telling me your world have these kind of war?" Claustrine asked with a grim expression as she watches the war machines and humans killing each other.
"To think that a civilization with no magic can be this deadly. I'm amazed and terrified at the same time." Beltrand's opinion.
Shirna meanwhile is seriously watching the film. He was so fixated on whats for him are metal magic wands that shoots what looks like a solid chunk of metals. But he remembers that Mateo's world doesn't have magic.
"Guys... Can we change the moobie?" Sophie suggest. She was feeling uneasy watching the movie that is a representation of a real war. As a cleric, he can't stand watching people falling to such meaningless death.
"Should I change it?" Mateo asked his friends who gives an nod. They thought that they should not watch such negative thing especially in the situation they have right now.
Mateo close the movie and changes the movie into a modern martial arts film.
Half an hour later, the four seems so entertained on the people fighting on what seems like perfect violent dance. Bertrand is more interested to see completely new fighting style.
"Mateo..."
"Yes?"
"Is people of your world fight like these?" Beltrand asked as she watch the acrobatic maneuvers of the actors.
"No no. Just like I said, its just a theatre and the people you see there practice for days to do such elaborate combat stunts. But in terms of real life. Most the martial arts they show doesn't have practical use other than artistic presentations."
"Most? Are you telling me that there's more martial arts in your world?" Beltrand asked, even more interested.
"Yes. Some are not combat oriented, others are truly made for combat just like this one." Mateo said as he points on the actor doing Muay Thai. Beltrand watches the actor do numerous devastating kicks to an unfortunated enemy. The one Mateo pointed seems specialized on using the hard parts of the body like the knee as weapon and targeting vulnerable parts of the opponent.
"Ohhhh... Thats nasty." Beltrand reacts when the Muay Thai fighter gives a powerful high kick to a mob's head, instantly knocking him out.
Sophia, Claustrine and Shirna meanwhile winces as they feel the impact of the kick.
"And your world have more martial arts right?" Beltrand asked.
"Ohh... You seems very interested." Mateo smiles.
Beltrand smirks.
"Hahaha you got me. Yes."
"I see. To answer your question earlier. Yes, there's numerous martial arts to the point that there's also a thing called Mixed Martial Arts tournaments."
"Now thats interesting."
The party finishes watching the movie then decides to sleep so they can continue their travel tommorow.
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.
.
The next day...
Only seperated by a thick curtain. Claustrine is currently waiting for the command from the other side.
"Claustrine. Water please..." Beltrand calls.
Claustrine summons a ball of water above Beltrand which slowly showers down, washing all the soap on Bertrands body.
"Grrr.... So cold!"
Claustrine suddenly stops the pouring and increase the temperature of the water. He manipulates a small portion to her and touch the water and ensures that the water is not so hot that it can cause harm. She continues to pour the water.
"Hot hot hot hot hot! What the!"
"Sorry." Claustrine apologize but she have a satisfied sly smile.
After few minutes, Beltrand exits the makeshift washroom feeling fresh with a towel on his lower side.
"Geez. If you can make hot water, you should did it at the start."
"You know I can't do multiple spells if you want me to continue summoning water right?"
"I know... Still thanks for the water."
"You're welcome."
"Ok next!?" Bertrand shouts then she goes to a secluded spot to dress himself.
"Meeee!" Sophia goes to the curtain with ethusiasm.
"Claustrine... Water please..."
"Okayyy..."
As Sophia washes. Mateo and Shirna are waiting on their turn and to not get bored, they just talking with each other.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"You know guys. I wonder. I didn't even see an instance that we drink the water casted by Claustrine?"
"Are you seriously asked that?" Claustrine hears Shirna's question.
"Of course I am. Even in the most direst situation, we didn't even drink a single drop of water from Claustrine's magic."
"Don't worry. As a human from another world, I also asked the same thing." Mateo said.
Claustrine sighs...
"Did you know the story of the 3rd Humilean Desert Expedition?" Claustrine asked.
"Not heard of it." Both Mateo and Shirna says.
"I gonna summarize the story that happened hundreds of years ago. 3rd expedition gets lost in the Great Humilean Desert and after years, their remains finally found in the new charted areas. Along the remains is a very detailed journal detailing what they dealt with."
"How is that related to my question?"
"Claustrine, water pleaseeeeee..."
"Okayy"
Claustrine cast another water.
"The journal tells how their water supply is now gone and one suggested the idea of using magic to cast water that they can drink."
Beltrand appears now fully clothed.
"What Claustrine is talking about?" Beltrand asked.
"She's telling why we can't drink the magic casted water." Mateo answered.
"Ohhh..."
"At first the party is saved but that's also the few remaining journal entry just tell that they need a constant consumption of magic casted water to remain survive."
"What? They got poisoned?"
"No. Far worse."
"What do you mean far worse?"
"Remember how remains my magic dissapears after few minutes?"
"I remem- wait.... Oh no." Shirna is shocked as he have a gist on what happened.
"An Academia magician in the past makes a risky experiment to himself by only drinking magic casted water just to better understand what the 3rd Expedition went. The moment he become thirsty, he drinks the casted water then after 2 minutes. He become thirsty again then he drinks casted water and he continues this routine. His thirst getting even worse for each time the water dissapears on his body. He only lasted a day before he call it quits when he almost died. Fortunately for him, he also included an assisstant on his experiment."
"I-I think I understand now..."
"Water pleaseeeeee...." Sophia sofly said. Claustrine cast another blob of water.
"Good. Imagine getting in repeated extreme thirst and false relief but each time the thirst gets even worse. And imagine that happening to you for days. That's pretty much what happened to the 3rd Humilean Desert expedition." Claustrine ends the story.
"But I read that a human can last 3 days without water. How the dehydration happens faster when drinking magic casted water?" Mateo asked.
"Dehaydreysyun?" Claustrine asked.
"It's the sitution of slowly losing water in your body."
"Ah I see... Academics also consider the condition like the expedition surely gets water drained due to harsh and hot desert environment. But if the magician already almost dying within a single day when he's in a very safe environment, the Academics assumed that due to the magic caster water mixing with real water in the body, the real water also dissapears thus further accelarating the d-dehy-drasyun." Claustrine explained.
"Well. That's a reasonable explanation."
"How about things desolved in water?" Shirna asked.
"Water pleaseeeeee...." Sophia shouts which Claustrine followed immediately before continuing her explanation.
"They create safer experiments without involving consumption. And after disappearance. Sugar, salt, and tea are left behind as thin layers. Soups becomes dehydrated mix of everything except water, sauces solidified and breads that used magic casted water doesn't even become bread and just turned into lump of coal or solid block of flour mixed with other ingredients due to the water disappearring before even the bread is done baking."
"And the reason why we only use magic to wash things is because we use it to remove something in our body instead of drinking or mixing it?"
"Exactly. Thats why, Magic casted water is only useful in cleaning."
"How about manipulation magic?" Shirna asked.
"Manipulation magic is a different thing as you just manipulating an already existing element in the surrounding like water in the river or soil from the ground. So they don't disappear."
"Makes sense." Shirna's only answer.
"So how do it feels like getting quick lessons from a former Academia student?" Mateo asked.
"Uhmmm I learned a lot on a topic that I don't know.. Thanks for the explanation Claustrine."
"You're welcome." Claustrine happily said.
"Done!" Sophia says after leaving the bath area. She's already have some clothing and just gonna need to wear her robe.
"You always really take your time Sophia." Claustrine said. Her eyes have full of disbelief as its always the case when the party is having a bath time.
"Sorry Claustrine. Its just the soaps from Mateo's world that you lend to me are just too good. Especially the one used in hair. Just look how silky my hair is!" Sophia smugly said while swing her hair by hand.
"Fair enough." Claustrine only said. She remembers the moment when Sophia sees her smooth and silky hair. Sophia is prying her so hard to tell the secret until the moment Mateo reveal when everything finally makes sense to her. Claustrine have no choice but to share the goods.
"Shirna. It's your turn now." Mateo said.
"Okay..." Shirna said then he picks his things then proceeds to go to the bathplace.
"Do you still have energy?" Mateo asked Claustrine as he already used considerable amount of mana.
"I'm fine. As long as I only summon small blobs of water with long intervals. But to be honest, I just want you, Beltrand and Shirna to bath together so I don't use so much time and mana." Claustrine states her opinion.
The party finishes their bath and proceeds to continue their journey.
.
.
.
After some time, Shirna notices something in the distance.
"Wait, what is that?" Shirna said then he poitns on the direction. There, they see what seems lime specks of blue light.
With no answers to their question. Grand Ecstasy walks to the direction and when they get closer, the lights also starts to get dimmer.
"They still emmit light but..." Claustrine said as he takes a closer look on the faint blue light near her.
Understanding the situation. Mateo turns off the modern lamp he was holding and from the instant the lights go out, their surroundings is instantly surrounding by sea of tiny blue lights that looks like the night sky.
From the party's perspective, it looks like they're walking to a tunnel of stars.
"It's beautiful..." Sophia's awe.
"A-amazing..." Beltrand agrees.
"What are those?" Claustrine's curiousity.
"I think those are molds doing bioluminescence." Mateo answers.
"Bayu what?"
"In my world. There's some creatures, commonly the small ones that can produce light that looks like these called bioluminescence. But this is the first time I see it on this world." Mateo explained as he watch the lights who also fluctuates imitating the twinkling stars.
"I see..." Claustrine only words as she saw Mateo fixated on the scenery. Claustrine smiles.
Grand Ecstasy stays silent within seconds watching the beauty before Mateo breaks the silence.
"Do you want to set up a camp here?"
"Of course." -Beltrand.
"Sounds good." -Shirna
The party after having a dinner, just enjoy the scenery. It feels like they're stargazing while getting nostalgic on their past adventures. Grand Ecstasy feels happy that such serene view exist in such dark and maddening environment.
More days passed and Mateo's phone and laptop already shuts down as the battery and the spare power banks he brings are emptied out. Their supplies are also starting to get low.
They already walked vast distance at the moment. Comparable to traveling on different cities.
But their hope still remains until the moment when they finally reach something that might lead them outside of the gigantic cave system.
"A door?" Claustrine said as she observes the simple metal door.
"FINALLY! THE EXIT!" Sophia screams.
"I expected a more grandeur exit. Like you know, huge metal door with intricate details." Shirna's opinion.
Beltrand is already near the door and investigated it.
"It doesn't have any lock mechanism. And pretty much open. Should we enter?"
Mateo gulps...
"Yes."
Beltrand gently open the door and they see what seems like a greatly lit room.
"Claustrine. Check."
Claustrine close her eyes and increase her arcane sense. It only takes a few seconds for her to cast Arcane detection.
"There's a sign of magic but its farther and deeper. I assume that it's a teleportation circle that leads us back to the layers." Claustrine reported.
"Shirna."
"Ok." Shirna replies.
Shirna enters the room with great caution as he was looking for any signs of deadlh traps while the other members just wait outside. After few minutes. Shirna returns with a very concerned look on his face.
"Base on your appearance. I guess the room is strapped to the bone." Beltrand said.
"No. That's not it." Shirna said which raise an eyebrow from Mateo.
"What do you mean?" Mateo asked.
"I think it's better to see it yourselves."
Grand Ecstasy enters the room and after gawking on numerous bookshelves and unknown apparatuses. They finally see the elephant in the room.
"No way..." Beltrand said while looking on the thing in the floor. A slight fear is visible on his face.
But unlike Beltrand, Sophia is shaking. Her eyes is full of dread while she looks on the the thing in the floor that her church fears the most.
"W-Why that thing is e-even here in the first place?!" Claustrine is well versed on the remains laying in floor due to her education. She counts the horns and after counting, her fear increased even further.
Mateo meanwhile. He didn't personally see the being they observing right now but base on the history and all the fear that still lingers to people on this world. The appearance of such being in such location is a big deal.
Surrounded by Grand ecstasy is the 8 feet skeletal remains of a Eight-horned Vielarata. The remains is badly damage but. Their estimate being just its already 2 years ago after its death
And the fact that it was a Eight-horned, a rank that requires few Platinum-ranked adventurers with preparation just to kill one. But there's one question that still lingers on their mind.
WHAT IS THE THING INSIDE THAT SO POWERFUL IT CAN KILL A EIGHT-HORNED VIELARATA?
Grand Ectasy sees the wide entrance to the deeper parts of the room... Yet, they can't even take a single step due to fear. Fear on something that they can't even comprehend yet. With droplets of cold sweat on their face, each one of them look on each other's eyes.
"Should we continue?" Beltrand ask the question.
Grand Ectasy can feel that the exit is inside the mysterious chamber yet they don't have the confidence to confront the whatever the thing is beneath them.
Still, retreating and just staying in the cave complex would just lead them to a hopeless, insanity driven and slow death.
"Should we search this place first? We might found something that can help us." Claustrine suggested but the only reason that she say such nonsense thing is to decrease the tension the party currently have.
Without saying a word. Grand Ecstasy starts to search the area in hopes that they can find any sort of item that might be useful and fighting the unidentified monster. But because the only thing there are stacks of books and other experiment tool, Claustrine is the only one that sees some interesting materials. All of it are made by Julzhihar.
Reverse Tower manuals 1-10
Scroll containing Reverse Tower map with secret areas not known to everyone. But for some reason, Layer 9 and 10 is in the map but the existence of the Cave system is nowhere to be found.
Magic Circle study which Claustrine assumes contain vital information about the Teleportation Circles that transfers them to the area.
And the most intriguing book for Claustrine is the personal diary of Julzhihar himself.
And after further searching. Claustrine finds a book that might help them a little bit. He puts all the other books to her dimensional storage except the new book and proceeds to tell it to everyone.
"Guys. I found something."
"What is it?" Mateo asked.
"Reverse Tower Beast Almanac." Claustrine says the title of the book while showing the front cover to her friend.
Grand Ecstasy proceeds to skim the book in search of anything that can give hints on how to deal with the monster who is capable of killing a poweful Vielarata.
But their search turns out to be in vain...
"No. Every beast listed here are already recorded by the guild except for some Apex variants that didn't discovered yet. This is useless." Claustrine stated.
"Do you think an unique Apex can do it?" Mateo asked while pointing to the remains of the Eight-horned Vielarata.
"No. Not a single chance that it would happen. Even a Four-horned can stomp an Apex if they serious enough." Beltrand says as he remembers the stories of the Vielarata encounters from his time in the knight school.
"I agree with Beltrand." Claustrines says.
Mateo sighs. He proceeds to think for a moment before stating his decision as a leader.
"We going down. That's the only thing we can do."
"Are you sure? How about we just wait for someone to come here? We already put the markers to this direction so it might take a shorter time for rescue to reach us." Sophia's opinion.
"We don't have enough resources to wait for that long." Mateo's response.
Grand Ecstasy stay silent for a moment before giving a deep sigh. Then all of them stand up.
"Ok let's fucking do it!" Beltrand shouts. Trying his best to act tough as he was picking up his sword and shield.
"I-I'm scared..." Sophia's soft voice.
"Everyone is scared, don't worry." Mateo said.
"May the Gods and Goddesses bless us." Sophia's short prayer before preparing her gears.
Claustrine looks on the remains of the Vielarata and decides to pick all the bones and put if on her own Bag of Storage. Then she rips a piece of blank paper on one of the books then writes something on it with his Earthly pen and put in inside of her robe pocket.
"What are you doing?" Shirna saw what Claustrine did and look at her with confusion.
"Don't mind me. I just doing some safekeeping." Claustrine replies.
"Ok." Shirna just ignored it and proceeds to follow the rest of his friends. Claustrine then follows them as they proceeds to walk down the wide staircase leading to darkness.
After a shor while, Grand Ecstasy reach the bottom. At first, they can't see anything and walks aimlessly. But to their surprise, lights starts to appear, surrounding thém one by one and when every light is lit on, Grand Ecstasy sees that they're in what looks like a huge circular arena. Then in the middle, everyone sees a humanoid lightly armored figure.
"Who is that?" Shirna asked.
"Is that... A woman?" Beltrand asked as he can clearly see some curviture and the long hair, but he can't see the face due to the distance.
The figure is standing still facing the party, his sword is planted in front of her and her hands placed at top of it. Like a knight waiting for the opponent.
"Should we ask her?" Sophia's suggestion.
"No. In fact, prepare yourselves for combat." Mateo stated with a grim and serious expression on his face.
"Why?"
"That's... the one who killed the Vielarata above. And from its intimidating aura, it seems like she want us dead." Mateo's cold words that sends shivers to everyone's spine.
Grand Ecstasy quickly switch on their full combat mode. The knightly figure response to their combat stance by pulling his sword to the ground, revealing that it was twice her lenght. The room light gets brighter revealing that it was really woman with long silver hair, bluish skin and clear white eyes with no pupil nor iris. Just pure white. She don't have any expression on her face and just move to her combat stance in a very human yet also clunky manner.