Chapter 6

The rest of my time spent on the first floor went smoothly. I didn’t encounter any more monsters, and I avoided the various livestock, focusing solely on finding the portal. After perhaps another thirty minutes of aimless wandering, I found it. It was atop a slight hill I’d initially climbed seeking a better view of the floor. To my surprise, atop the hill was a small stone altar, and the gleaming runes depicting the portal. They looked almost identical to the ones that had shimmered on the ground of the Tower when we’d arrived, though these pulsed with a faint blue light.

The altar itself had crude carvings etched into them, which were easily read even from a distance.

Second Floor Portal

I grinned at that and spared only a single moment to look all around, seeking any signs of my fellow recruits. In the distance I could make out a few shapes that seemed too large to be goblins, meaning they were likely my peers. But no one was close enough to identify. How many had already made it to this point, I didn’t know. And I wouldn’t, until this climb was done.

“To the next floor.” I said softly, a smile playing on my face as I stepped into the runic circle. I closed my eyes, focusing on the flow of magic around me. Something connected in my mind to the circle, as if the magic of the floor was asking if I wished to teleport. I confirmed my intent, and felt the tingling of magic. I opened my eyes just long enough to notice the runes flashing intensely, massive pillars of light growing all around me, encircling, before everything disappeared. I felt a sudden lurching, as if I’d been suddenly jolted, and then, as the world rematerialized to my eyes, I was no longer atop the hill. I was no longer on the first floor. I’d done it. I’d passed through to the second.

The first noticeable difference on the second floor was the temperature. The first floor had been pleasantly warm, with a slight breeze. Everything had been green and vibrant. This next floor was hotter, with a strange heaviness to the air that indicated moisture. Everything was still green, but the variety of plants and wildlife I could see were different.

Additionally, the trees I could see all around had stark differences to them. On the first floor the trees had white or dark brown trunks, only two or three feet around, with large branches with small leaves. The trees on the second floor dwarfed those of the first, with massive bases that seemed to fan out, with snaking wooden tendrils sprouting downwards from them into the ground. Their leaves, high above were large and heavy, far grander in size than the counterparts on the previous floor. From the first to fifth floor, we’d been taught, the Tower provided different climates, to encourage a variety of basic needs and materials for the people outside.

The people who frequented the second floor, called it the Chocolate floor, due to the abundance of special fruit that somehow, bakers were able to turn into chocolate. I scanned about, wondering if those trees would be further within the much darker mass of trees. The fruit from the cocoa tree, as they called it, would be worth gathering if I could do it easily on my way to the third floor.

“Helllppppp.” I heard the scream of terror from within the woods, drawing my mind away from the thought of chocolate, and back to the present. The second floor was more dangerous than the first. And the third would be more dangerous than the second, and so on. Judging by the scream, one of my fellow recruits was learning that lesson the hard way.

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“You’re on your own.” I mumbled to myself, as I took off towards the trees…in the direction of the cries for help. While it was true, we weren’t allowed to aid each other during the first climb, it didn’t mean I couldn’t go observe how my fellow recruit was faring. In fact, I had no intention of helping, but was curious to see just what was causing a climber to scream out in such fear. We’d spent eight years training, and this was only the second floor. There was no reason why anything should illicit such a response.

I held my shield at the ready, sword in hand, as I made my way into the forest. The heavy density of the leaves above kept much of the light from trickling down, making this area even darker than the forest on the first floor. My eyes, akin to the darker world outside of the Tower, were grateful for the dim light, and quickly adapted. I realized as I moved deeper within that my eyes had been squinting much of the time on the first floor. Now that I no longer had to squint, I felt relief. My eyes had been strained much more than I realized.

Rustling, crashing, and the sound of shouts, screams, and cries, some human, some feral, told me I was getting close. I slowed my approach, drawing up alongside a massive tree trunk to duck down behind its base. I watched then and waited.

“Ahhhhhh,” the cry was closer, less than a hundred yards before me. Or at least, that was my best guess. Within this dense forest I’d begun to notice sound carried differently. Still, I looked in the direction of the sound, and a few moments later, the cause of the sound was made clear.

It was a recruit, just like I’d figured, though he was from a different squad than Nyle and I, meaning I’d not spent much time getting to know him. I was pretty sure his name was Alax, though I wasn’t certain. Either way, it was painfully clear he was in bad shape.

His left arm hung limp at his side, blood oozing from it in various places. His shield straps were visible, but the wooden shield itself was missing, save for a splintered fragment that protruded from his arm. His sword was held in his hand, though considering he was running away, it wasn’t doing him much good.

Even from this distance, I could see his eyes, wide with fear and pain. Blood dripped down his face, and the more I watched him, the more I realized he had a variety of other injuries as well. Whatever was chasing him, whatever he’d been fighting, had taken its toll on him. I stayed low, not wanting to risk him seeing me. In his wild state of panic, I didn’t know if he’d remember the rules of the Reaping. And I wasn’t about to risk angering the Tower by intervening.

“Somebody,” he whimpered as he continued closer towards my tree. If I had to guess, he was heading back to the portal, perhaps intending to flee back to the first floor? “Help me,” his foot caught on a root, and he fell, crashing hard on his injured left arm. His sword fell from his fingers as he hit the ground. He didn’t try to stand up, instead he lay there on the ground, his sobs muffled by the dirt.

I held my breath, staying completely still, as movement behind him caught my attention. A massive humanoid figure, covered in black fur, shuffling on knuckles the size of a human, made its way towards the recruit. Its eyes narrowed as it looked down at the crying man. It opened its mouth and snarled, revealing two massive fangs, as it created a mighty fist. It slammed the fist down, and the sound of bones breaking filled the air. The force of the blow crushed my fellow recruit, and he wasn’t even able to let out a final cry of pain. Then, with one last blow, as if to confirm its kill, the creature turned and left, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

I let go of my breath only then, the tightness in my chest instantly releasing as I sensed the danger leaving. Then, I glanced back at my fallen companion, just in time to watch his body glow, and disappear. The only trace of his plight, his presence, was the recruit-shaped indent in the black soil, stained with the red of his blood.

“As the Tower wills it.” I said in prayer for him. His time as a recruit was done. The Reaping had claimed a recruit. Was it the first fatality? I didn’t know. There was no way to know. All I could do now though, was continue on my way. For that, was what it meant to be a climber.