Name: Chariot Crowhaven
Lvl: 24 >> 29
HP: 1741 >> 2097
MP: 42 >> 47
Total Defense: 585
Total Attack: 166
Name: Tanalia Taymore
Lvl: 28 >> 33
HP: 3545 >> 4183
MP: 49 >> 54
Total Defense: 322
Total Attack: 60
Chariot craned her neck up to gaze at the top of the tower.
It stretched high into the sky. It’s walls were smooth and completely solid. There was not one foothold or gap between the bricks. It was almost as if a god had chiseled the cylinder from a large rock, and planted it between the mountain peaks.
Tanalia got a running start, and double jumped as high as she could, attempting to scale the tower. She slipped and fell back to the ground.
“Are you done?” Chariot asked, crossing her arms.
“No, I think I’ll give it one more try.”
“There aren’t any windows or ledges! What are you expecting to grab onto?”
“You never know if there’s an invisible staircase or beam to grab onto.”
Chariot rolled her eyes and approached the open doorway leading into the tower. There was no door, nothing to stop them from entering, just a becking ovular doorway leading into the dark interior. Hargrim had said there were fifteen floors, and standing before the tower now, there was no doubt in Chariot's mind that there were indeed that many. He also said there were puzzles, and monsters likely lurking inside that shift and change when new people enter the tower. On the floors with monsters, it would be better to move slowly and cautiously. There was no telling what kind of monsters were lurking inside, and being too reckless could lead to their downfall. There could be traps on each floor, or the stairs between them. Chariot would have to look out for subtle signs, cracks in the floor, slight dips, odd architectural placements—
Tanalia pushed past Chariot and marched towards the door.
“Hey, hold on!” she said and grabbed her shoulder. “We can’t just rush in, we don’t know what’s in there!”
“And we’ll find out once we do.”
No— Just—” Chariot took a deep breath. “Look, please don’t just rush in. There are only two of us, we don’t have a full party.”
“We’ll be fine, we can manage without Maria.”
“It doesn’t feel safe.”
“And? Should we go back and get her? I thought you told me you were still suspicious of her.”
“I’m… I am, but… I don’t know.”
“Then let’s just do what we were told. We need new weapons and gear for Maria to enchant, so that’s what we’re going to do.”
“Okay, but we need a plan.”
“We rush in, that’s my plan.”
Chariot frowned.
“Besides, my plans work all the time.”
Chariot narrowed her eyes. “Yes, at the expense of everyone else's safety. Just refrain from hurling explosives while we’re in here.”
“What was the point of farming slimes and gunpowder if I can’t even use them?”
“There isn’t. You don’t need them. They’ve caused me enough problems as it is.”
Tanalia waved her hand dismissively and marched into the dungeon. Chariot groaned, balling her fists until her knuckles turned white. She needed to calm down. This wasn’t a time to act irrationally. She took a slow, deep breath, and calmed herself before following Tanalia in.
Entering the tower, the two found themselves in a large, circular room. It was empty, with a perfectly smooth floor, and ceiling. They seemed to blend into the walls with a slight curve where the floor and walls would normally meet. On the other side of the room was another open doorway, with stairs beginning their spiral accent around the tower.
Chariot drew her Crimson Petal, and followed Tanalia as she casually walked in. She paused and looked around.
“Is there just nothing down here?” she asked.
Chariot walked up beside her, standing in the center of the chamber, and looked around. “It doesn’t look like it.”
Tanalia shrugged. “Maybe we’re just lucky. The first floor could just be an entranceway.”
The floor shifted, rocking slightly, and causing both women to hold their arms out to keep balance. A cloud of dust was kicked up the walls, and loose rubble tapped against the solid foundation.
Chariot sighed. “You had to say something?”
“It was going to happen whether I said it or not!”
The floor began to rotate counterclockwise, and the door to the next floor was quickly blocked by a set of iron bars that fell from the ceiling. Slots in the walls slid upwards, revealing skeletons in lost steel armor standing behind them. Their eyes flashed red, mist pouring from their sockets.
Skeleton Knights - Lvl 30
All at once, several of them stepped onto the platform and approached the two.
Chariot spun around to examine the playing field. With the ground rotating, she had to be mindful of her footwork, so as to not get dizzy—
Tanalia dashed forward, almost pushing Chariot out of the way as she swung at the nearest skeleton.
“Hey! Careful!” she yelled before ducking as one of the skeletons swung their sword horizontally. She did battle with them, swiftly cutting down the skeletons that came her way, while Tanalia ran around the room, using the momentum of the floor to propel herself like an arrow at each monster. Their bones rattled and bounced off the stone, and the steel of their armor clattered to the ground. Only when the skeletons lay defeated, did the iron bars to the second floor rise.
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“Look at all the loot we have already,” Tanalia said, picking up pieces of armor, and putting them into her inventory.
“You think this is the armor we’re enchanting?” Chariot asked, doing the same.
“No, but we could always sell what we don’t use and make some money.”
Ascending to the second floor, the duo was met with a puzzle. The floor of the large circular chamber had been chiseled into shallow pathways, from which oddly shaped, heavy stones could be pushed. Lining the walls were slots for the stones to be pushed into, but some had to be flipped or rotated using panels and levers that caused stone pillars to push from the ground and move the oddly shaped stones.
Chariot heaved as she pushed one of the stones, letting out tired gasps and grunts. "I could use a little help!" she growled "You're doing fine," Tanalia said, pacing around the chamber, and examining the stones. Chariot lost track of how much time they spent in the puzzle chamber, but after what felt like an eternity, they managed to slide all the oddly shaped stones into the correct slots. The door to the next floor opened, but Chariot needed to take a break. Her arms and back were killing her.
The pattern only repeated as they ascended to the higher floors. The third floor was filled with stone columns, and undead ghouls that groaned and wandered aimlessly, but when in their sites they turned ravenous and vicious.
Aimless Undead - Lvl 30
Chariot took a few scratches as she tried to keep some of the hoard from attacking Tanalia while she was distracted just one at a time, but the damage was minor. She was able to kill enough of them to help her level up again.
Name: Chariot Crowhaven
Lvl: 29 >> 30
HP: 1988/2097 >> 2038/2169
MP: 47 >> 48
Total Defense: 585
Total Attack: 166
The fourth floor was another puzzle involving spherical keys needing to be rolled into special slots in the right order. When it came to the fifth floor, however…
Chariot climbed the spiral stairway along the wall of the circular tower and stepped onto the fifth floor. Sitting in the middle of the chamber was what Chariot could only describe as a demonic toad. It’s back was humped like a camel, oozing out a profusely toxic-smelling liquid. It’s eyes were wide open, and it had a set of sharp, jutting fangs. It’s feet were clawed, and the ground was slick in moisture.
“What the hell is that?” Tanalia said as she entered beside Chariot.
Froggmud - Lvl 35
Chariot pushed Tanalia out of the way as the Froggmud opened its mouth, and shot its tongue out like an arrow. Chariot was struck in the chest, and sent flying back threw the doorway. She was slammed against the back wall, dropping her sword, and was hurled forward as the tongue retracted, taking her with it. She screamed as the warmth of the frog's mouth enveloped her. The air turned moist, and the surface around her was soft and malleable. She flailed, trying to get a grip on anything, but her fingers would only slip on layers of mucus and slime and whatever else was sticking to her hand.
Chariot gagged as she desperately tried to climb her way out, but as the Froggmud started moving, she was thrashed around inside its mouth. Soon, the warm torchlight of the chamber flooded her, and she was spat out, propelled like a cannonball into Tanalia. She collapsed against her, pinning her as she groaned and leaked muscas and sludge onto her.
“Get the hell off me!” Tanalia forced Chariot off, causing her to roll onto the ground groaning. “Bleh, what is all this stuff?”
“Shut up,” she groaned and slowly got to her feet.
Tanalia launched herself again at the Froggmud, slashing viciously with her elven dagger, and chipping away at the beast's health bar.
Chariot ran back for her sword and picked it up. Ooze and mucus ran from her fingers and onto the grip, making it more slippery. Regardless, she regained her composure, and marched over to the monster, aiming her sword at it. Vines burst from the ground and coiled around the Froggmud. It croaked and struggled against it’s binds. With it restrained, Chariot cast {Arc Slash} and cut into the Froggmud's skin. A putrid smell emanated from it that finally sent Chariot over the edge. She hurled, stumbling back as the smell assaulted her nostrils.
Tanalia double-jumped onto the Froggmud's back and stabbed her dagger repeatedly at it. It croaked in pain, before finally breaking free of its restraint, throwing Tanalia off of it.
Chariot wiped her mouth of any remaining vomit, before flicking away the residuals and charging at the monster. She drove her sword into the beast, and as she unleashed a series of deep, powerful cuts, she was able to chip the Froggmud’s health bar done to nothing. It let out one final pained croak, before exploding into a shower of monochromatic polygons. A pile of loot was left in it’s place.
A chime echoed through Chariot's ears as she leveled up again.
Name: Chariot Crowhaven
Lvl: 30 >> 31
HP: 908/2169 >> 958/2240
MP: 38/48 >> 48/49
Total Defense: 585
Total Attack: 166
Chariot breathed a sigh of relief and fell to her knees. She could smell her breath, even over the stench on her, and she hated it. The smell was going to linger with her long after this dungeon was clear. She considered stripping everything off and burning it, but then again, she needed the armor. Before returning to Hargrim, she was going to wash up, that was for sure. She pulled a greater healing potion from her inventory and gulped it down. Her HP jumped back up to {2078/2240}.
“Oh, what’s this?” Tanalia said.
Chariot pivoted, panting.
Tanalia had picked up a set of curved blades. The handles were quite long, with short guards, and oddly shaped hilts, almost like mirroring slots. Tanalia held the swords together, and pressed the hilts together, snapping them together to form one weapon, a twin-bladed sword.
“Woah,” Chariot muttered and stumbled over.
“Fancy,” Tanalia said with a grin. As she played with the weapon, an ethereal string, glowing as blue as sapphire, appeared between the tips of both swords, forming a bow. Tanalia pulled at the string. It was solid, and sturdy, almost as if it were real, but as she took apart the weapon, it disappeared.
Edgecaster
Damage: 60
Perk: Weapon can swap between bow form, and duel blades form.
Chariot stood, her mouth slightly agape. Simply staring at the weapon reminded her of the Serpent’s Blade Maria had gotten from the Pythor King. At least now they all had a unique weapon of some kind.
Tanalia shifted through the pile of loot, picking up monster parts. “I don’t see anything else in here we could get for Maria.”
Chariot sighed and rose back to her feet. “Right… Maria.”
Tanalia paused and glanced back over at Chariot. “Are you really still stuck on that?”
“You’re not?” she said after a brief pause.
“No, I’m not. Not like you are.”
“She’s the demon king's daughter! That’s not something I can just easily ignore. She lied to us!”
“Everyone lies, Chariot!” Tanalia shouted.
Chariot fell quiet, taken aback.
Tanalia sighed and stood up from the loot pile. “Everyone is untruthful. That’s never going to change. People will lie to keep secrets, protect others or themselves, they’ll lie for the fun of it, they’ll always lie.”
“I can’t stand it,” Chariot said. “People should be truthful—”
“They aren’t! I lie! I’ve lied to you about things, people like about everything. Think about it this way. She could have lied to us about it even after The Ringleader revealed it. She could have tried to convince us it was a trick he employed, maybe he gave her that marking while the three of us were unconscious… but she admitted it to be the truth. She trusted us enough to admit that secret once we found out. I’ve just been giving it a lot of thought recently. Maria doesn’t seem like a bad person.”
“We don’t know if she’s still putting on an act.”
“I don’t think she is. You’re too suspicious. Back on that bridge where the Oxfell guards tied me up, she could have kept walking and left me behind. But she bargained with them to set me free.” Tanalia cupped her wrist, rubbing it gently. “I don’t like rope, not being able to move. It makes me feel helpless. She helped me out of that situation, and yes, I know I put myself there, but she still helped me. Maria may be the demon king's daughter, but I believe her when she says she isn’t like him. I think she’s being honest and truthful when she says she wants to help people. She’s sincere, she actually cares for people. You know that.”
Chariot glanced away.
“I believe her when she says she grew up far from here. She doesn’t know anything about this world, or the system! I believe her. I didn’t at first, it took me some time to think about it, but I believe her.”
“I know…” Chariot whispered. “Before I was with you two I had joined the Kingsguard in Castlebourne. I wanted to keep people safe, I wanted to… well you know all that already. It hurt me when I left. The other Kingsguard had accepted a bribe deal from the Thieves Brotherhood, allowing them to operate in the streets for an exchange of profits. Almost everyone took the deal, and those who didn’t, were either beaten until their legs didn’t work anymore, or executed, and framed as traitors. I was lucky to get out of there. But I didn’t want to stop helping people who I knew couldn’t defend themselves. When I met Maria, she had the same desire as me. It felt like… like I had actually found a partner.”
Tanalia had fallen quiet.
“I know you’re right,” Chariot admitted. “Maria’s a good person.”
“It’s not who they are, but what they are that defines someone,” Tanalia said.
Chariot raised an eyebrow at Tanalia. “Yes. You’re right.”
“I’m always right,” she smirked.
Chariot scoffed, and let out a light-hearted chuckle. “Sure. It’s just… going to take me a bit of time to accept it all.”
Tanalia shrugged. “With how long we’re taking in this dungeon, I’m sure you’ll have an eternity to think it over. While I’m on it, are you ready to keep going?”
Chariot nodded. “I am. Well… actually I need a moment to rest.”
“Don’t take too long. We still have a long way to go.”