"You're joshing with me."

"A seventh Tower? No way."

"..."

"Uh, did you eat any brightly colored berries while you were searching? Neons are known to cause hallucinations, visions, and/or death."

Rayn sighed. He'd had a feeling they wouldn't believe him when he told them what he'd seen. A seventh Tower did sound ridiculous. The Six have been standing alone since...well, no one really knew, but there had only been six for a really long time. For him to come out and say that a seventh had appeared out of nowhere, with no one noticing until now...

Well, even he had a hard time believing it.

But he knew what he'd seen at the burn site. Sure, the one-story building hadn't looked as extraordinary as the other six; it looked rather plain, in fact, aside from the charred...everything. But deep down in his gut, he knew it was something more than just some structure out in the woods.

"I'm telling you, I know what I saw. That wasn't an ordinary building; I'm sure of it," he said.

Lavar scoffed and waved her sword dismissively in the air. "Just like I'm sure the world is round and elves evolved from howler monkeys. It's just not possible!"

"Actually," Vagis piped up, "it was proved in―"

"If I cared," the woman interrupted, "I'd say it. Don't refute my words when I'm trying to make a point."

"S-sorry..."

Saira placed her hand on Rayn's armored shoulder and squeezed it gently before pulling away. He was mildly alarmed to see that the metal was dented in the shape of her hand. "Rayn," the muscular [Medic] said softly, "I'm sure you think you know what you saw, but a building appearing out of nowhere without alerting a [Scout] or [Ranger] of its presence? Highly unlikely. It being a Tower at that is even more unplausible."

"But―"

"Forget about it," Lavar cut in. "Let's just find the stupid monster and go home."

Rayn wanted to argue further until he remembered that the Tower was at the place the smoke was coming from. He smirked at the snarky [Swashbuckler] and said, "Follow me."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Wha-Hey, wait up!"

----------------------------------------

"You're joshing with me."

"A seventh Tower? No way."

"..."

"Uh, did we eat any brightly colored berries while we walked? Neons are known to cause hallucinations, visions, and/or death."

Before the five of them stood a partially burned gate, and a black field of grass, a one-story structure made entirely of plain grey stone. Amazingly, the building looked unharmed despite the damage surrounding it. Rayn gestured in front of him and spoke:

"This is the place where Jan said the smoke was coming from. Everything's pretty charred except for the Tower. And, I don't know how in-depth your knowledge about Tower is, but the Towers are virtually indestructible―at least, on the outside."

Vagis took a few hesitant steps forward and, seeing as nothing jumped out to kill him, started circling the perimeter around the Tower. When he completed the revolution, he looked a bit shaken. "Y-yeah. There's not even a bit of ash on the stone."

Lavar harrumphed. "So? Can't you see that the grass isn't burned close to the T-er, the building? Someone must've put it out before it could burn the place down."

Rayn sheepishly nodded toward his party-member. "I...didn't think about that."

She smirked back at him and said, "No, no you didn't."

Her snarky face quashed any goodwill he'd felt at her observation, but they had other things to worry about. Namely the fact that the grass near the Tower was a little damp. Plus, the air was still a little smokey. Someone had put out the fire, and not too long ago.

Rayn unsheathed his sword and readjusted his grip on his shield. "Anyway, she's right; someone was here before us and we have no idea who. We don't know if they have good intentions, so let's stick together. Be on your guard and make for the Tower."

"Wait," Saira said. "Are you sure it's a good idea to head in there? What if it's an ambush?"

Rayn hadn't thought about that. It was a good thing he'd gathered a party before heading out. Face flushed, he gestured for Vagis to come closer. "Did you sense any traps while you walking around?"

The boy shook his head. "No. A-and I made sure to keep [Sense for Traps] pinging out while I was searching. The perimeter should be clear."

Saira grunted. "Good work, kiddo."

Vagis brightened at her praise until Lavar pointed out he was a low-leveled [Scout].

"If whoever had come here is, like, really good at planting traps, you might not have sensed it," she said.

"Uh...yeah...I guess..."

"So," she pressed on, "since we can't trust some low-leveled noob to keep us safe, I vote we head back to town, tell them what we found, and go about our separate ways."

Rayn's temper flared as the woman continued to speak. Every word that came out of her mouth was just so aggravating. Looking at the dejected Vagis, he felt even angrier. Did she have to be so rude all the time?

"Fine," he snapped. "If you're gonna be such a pain, why don't you just leave? This party doesn't need someone like you."

Lavar scowled. "Someone like me? Someone like me? You think cuz you're three levels higher than me you get to talk down to me?"

"Levels have nothing to do with anything," he shot back. "You're being rude."

"Aw, you're getting mad because I hurt your itty bitty feelings?"

That was it. That was all he could take. Rayn didn't believe that violence solved every answer, but he had pride. And his pride told him that smashing his shield in Lavar's face was a very good idea.

News flash: it wasn't.