I had five unconscious humans collapsed on the ground, and even though I'd played with the light around them, prevented them from moving or even breathing with the very air around them, and had a glowing orb decend through the roof and hopefully blind them, I had no Idea what to do.
What I'd already done was mostly to mess with them, make them understand that I had the power here, that being an asshole and preventing someone from climbing higher went against the rules. I was pretty sure they understood that already, or would once they woke up, but I wasn't sure if that was enough. The five people might just ignore the warning, or even setup something outside of my tower to get a monopoly on climbing it. Besides, I didn't even have a clear grasp on what my rules were, so how could I expect someone to obey them if I suddenly did something just because I didn't like what the humans did.
One of the people started to stir, slowly waking up and looking around. The moment they remembered what I'd done became clear in an instant. The person scrambled to their knees, crossed their arms across their chest, and bent down until their forehead touched the ground. They looked like they were praying, though I didn't know what god they might have in a world of mana. It didn't dawn on me until they took their blade from their back, and sliced it across their wrist, letting blood and mana flow out of their body.
I had this big plan, to create a world of my own, to become godlike in my power to make the world a better place. Thing was, I was practically omniscient, capable of seeing anything I understood and concentrated on, I was practically omnipotent, capable of moving nearly everything I could sense. To the people who wandered my tower, to whom I'd given the ability to create water out of thin air, and heal the wounds of the dying. In their eyes, I already might be God, or at least something similar.
In my head, it sounds so... stupid. I'm me, the person who was enjoying a nice day, reading a book on my soft bed. Sure, I had no real body, and could move molecules however I wished, but every human was the same. They could move anything they could understand with their mana, just like I could, only their eyes and fingers are too large to truly understand something so small.
Only it made perfect sense. If I'd seen a tower taller than some mountains construct itself in such a short time, been given tattoos that create water and fire, or even been frozen in place with the air around me, I wouldn't have known what to think. A god is a perfectly reasonable explanation for that, for what I already was.
The rest of the people started to wake up while the first one was bandaging their wrist. That reminded me, I needed to make sure they understood not to prevent people from climbing higher. I couldn't think of anything really appropriate at the moment, so I simply dissolved the chains they had used, and the loot they'd found from the floor. I'd need to ask Oliver to make sure nobody was doing anything similar outside of the tower.
The people started to argue about something, but it stopped when the one who had cut his wrist showed their wrist. It seemed to make perfect sense to the others, and they decided to leave the tower, starting the long decent down to the first floor. A thought occured to me. Why had the person cut their wrist in the first place. It probably had something to do with the prayer, something like a sacrifice. But if they wanted to donate something to me, they could have just used their tattoos. And it didn't seem like something made up on the spot, instead being something they might have done before.
Then I remembered something that had happened a while ago, when Testy had gone somewhere, and a bunch of mana started flowing to me through the tattoo. Something clearly hadn't liked it, and had thrown Testy away. so far the humans I'd met didn't mind losing their mana, and besides, why would a person throw Testy away instead of pulling their mana away from Testy's hand if they didn't want it stolen. Except... I'd mentioned how I really wasn't anything special... Well maybe I wasn't the only "god" in existence. Maybe these other "gods" got mana the same way I did in my early days, via blood, death, and things living in my domain.
I really needed to have Oliver scout the surrounding area more. I wasn't entirely sure if my suspicions were correct, it could've been a human who'd unwillingly given me a bit of their mana, and the five people might've gotten the message and not wait outside of the tower to prevent anyone but themselves from entering, but there was a chance. I'd lose nothing by having Oliver check how wrong I was. And I couldn't have possible monopolies or murderous vampire deities nearby to ruin my reputation, now could I?
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
But that'd have to wait, as Testy had finally reached the fourth floor. Maybe their group would get to see everything I'd done with the floor.
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The room came to a stop, and the door Infront of Evelyn slid open to reveal a void. Or more accurately, there was no light source in the room. Audrey brought a flame to existence above his palm, bright enough to light the entire room in dimly visible light. It was circular, with five doors around the room, each with a different symbol etched into them.
Evelyn, along with her friends, recognized all the symbols in an instant. They were the runes for water, fire, air, earth and lightning. Other than that there were five simple bowls on pedestals, with the same symbols inside of them.
"... Should we open the door? I don't think there's anything immediately dangerous here," Evelyn stated. Nothing in the room moved, or even seemed like it was a trap, other than the doors and pedestals.
"Not yet. The Doors could have anything behind them. Maybe check for clues in the room, or try something with the bowls before we open anything." Audrey said.
The bowls revealed nothing, even when they filled them with what the runes in them showed, the stuff would vanish. It was oddly mesmerizing to watch the stone erode to dust that fell right through the bowl, though the air suddenly bursting in flame wasn't a nice surprise.
Eventually, they agreed to finally open the doors, deciding to start with the air one, because how could air be dangerous. When they pushed it open, it revealed a small room the size of a closet, with a new door that had two encircled runes joined together by a line, on one side, and on the other, a new rune with a vial of powder in front of it and a broom leaning against the wall. They could barely take in everything they saw before all three of them were blasted across the room with a gust of wind.
Evelyn landed on the ground, hard, and with enough momentum to roll across the floor until she reached the wall on the opposite side. Michelle wasn't far from her, but Audrey had managed to stop himself from sliding, and was now frantically looking around for a second sudden attack. Problem was, their enemy was invisible. Audrey suddenly went flying across the room for a second time, and crashed to the wall before falling to the ground with a thump.
They needed to see the enemy and their attacks, so Evelyn decided to blast powder snow in all directions. Near the open door, Evelyn noticed a few snowflakes get caught in a ball of what must've been wind the size of a head, as the snow rapidly spun around in a circle instead of drifting to the ground. Then a few of the gently falling snowflakes got caught in something that was rapidly moving towards her and Michelle. "Watch out!" Evelyn shouted as she jumped to the side, "We can see it with snow!"
Evelyn and Michelle let out more blasts of fine snow, to keep the ball of wind in sight, while attacking it with everything they had. It wasn't until Michelle shot a cone of fire at the thing that something happened to it. Evelyn hadn't known that blowing on a fire would make it burn hotter.
The fire erupted with the wind fueling it, turning into bright blue tongues of flame, before Evelyn and Michelle lost sight of the wind ball. All the snow had evaporated into steam, and the resulting temperature was almost unbearable.
In a panic, both Evelyn and Michelle blasted snow in all directions, in hopes of cooling down the room and seeing where the enemy was. Only nothing was revealed in the room, except for one of the five bowls that now had flakes of snow swirling around invisible streams of wind.
The moment they realized it was safe, Michelle ran next to the unconscious Audrey with Evelyn in tow. Michelle was frantic, opening Audrey's eyelids to see if they were responding, checking if he's breathing, and making sure he had a pulse.
"I'm pretty sure he has a pulse Michelle, he's breathing, there's nothing to worry." Evelyn said as Audrey's chest rose, though a bit of uncertainty laced her voice. But she did know one way to make sure. Audrey opened his eyes the moment before Evelyn splashed his face with cold water.
"What- why! You possessed by the tyrant, Evelyn?" Audrey sputtered in annoyance at the apologetic Evelyn, "what happened? My head hurts."
"Some sort of air golem was behind the door. We threw snow everywhere to see it, and destroyed it with fire. Made a nice explosion. Can you walk?" Michelle said.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Audrey said, before he formed a fistful of snow and pressed it against the back of his head as he stood up. "How much mana you have left?"
"You sure you're up for continuing?" Evelyn asked.
"Sure. Maybe we can figure out why it was fire that defeated air, and what can defeat the whatever's behind the rest of the doors. Or maybe we can see what's behind the door in the small room." Audrey said giving a slight nod, and wincing faintly thereafter. "If it's something we can't handle, we can retreat to the moving room."
Michelle sighed, "Are you certain? I have enough mana, Evelyn too... probably, so it's up to you. But we're going to need a plan if we're doing this." Audrey nodded in response, this time not wincing, and together they formed a plan. But before enacting it, they decided to check the broom, new rune, and the door with two connected runes for anything that might be of use.