Chapter 91

With Nyle in on the fun, and the plan much easier than expected, we went with our original quota, and killed a grand total of 29 stone golems, instead of 23. It was more a game, than actual work. The two of us would get the attention of stone golems and have them move closer to Lyn. Then, she would shoot the golem’s heads, dislodging the spheres, and knocking them to the ground. Once that was accomplished, Nyle and I would collect the heads, and then throw them at stones. Towards the end, we were lining our golems up across from one another, and then rolling our respective golem heads towards the frozen bodies of the other.

By the end of it, with twenty-nine golems killed, we managed to learn the creatures could drop a small variety of items. Every single one of them dropped Golem Stone and Golem Powder. We had also managed to collect a total of seven golem cores, meaning about one in four dropped those. And two had dropped gems of a different sort. One, a blood red gem called a garnet, and the other a brilliant purple called an amethyst. Both of those were listed as lesser versions and were each no bigger than my thumb. Still, anything other than golem stone or powder was exciting, and I was eager to see what exactly the cores and gems could be used for. A trip to the Miner’s Guild, and perhaps Jewelers Guild, would be in order tonight.

Now, we had enough essence to reach level twelve, with an additional six essence that could be used for level 13. With our goal reached, we turned, with new levels of excitement, towards our next task for the day. Leaving the Tower, safely, and reaching the Cathedral. Sadly, Lyn had also informed us she’d need more arrows, for the next floor. Each golem had taken at least a single arrow, and the first, had taken her ten. Every shot, every impact, had resulted in the destruction of the arrow, meaning she’d lost nearly forty arrows. Previously when she used arrows on the first and second floor, she could recover a good number of arrows from the monsters. Especially because the Tower’s magic would instantly separate the arrows from the creature’s bodies when you absorbed them into your inventory, limiting the risk of breaking the arrows by trying to dislodge them from the dead body.

There was no saving a shattered arrow though. And whether from the pure toughness of the stone, or the increased force with which Lyn’s 11 in dexterity was allowing her to fire her bow, not a single one of the missiles had survived impact against the golem’s heads. She’d started the day with eighty arrows and was down almost half. Arguably that could be enough still, for us to reach our goals, but we all agreed it wouldn’t be wise to risk it. Lyn was an archer, through and through. And an archer wasn’t really useful, without arrows.

Running downhill, back towards the Portal to the second floor, was a much easier way to travel than the uphill climb. Still, the mountainous floor was not without danger. We had to be careful as we ran, worrying again about the sometimes slick and unstable ground that existed past the tree line of the tall mountains. Additionally, running downhill was dangerous in its own way, as it made it harder to stop if you got going too fast. It was extremely easy to lose control of your own momentum, and that was dangerous. Even more so when the path before us would occasionally just disappear into a steep drop or cliff face. As we neared the trees, that particular risk became even more dangerous. The trees themselves made an area appear safe, and yet, sometimes hid the very cliffs against which they grew.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A few close calls, scrapes, and a broken arm that I had to heal as a result of not stopping soon enough and smashing into a tree…hard, and we made it to the Portal to the second floor. Whether thanks to Wyll and the Hunters, or some other divine luck, we didn’t run into any of the other monsters on the floor, during our entire race to leave the floor.

From there, it was an even easier time back out of the Tower. Our map allowed us to navigate the fastest route possible across the second floor to the first, and likewise from the first out of the Tower. Occasionally as we ran through the floors to leave the Tower we’d cross people, Climbers and Non-Climbers alike. All were focused on their particular jobs at hand though and did little more than offer us smiles and nods.

Given the number of individuals we did pass, and the routes we were taking, I had no doubt it was more from the efforts of others, than luck itself, that had seen our travels safely. The groups that traveled from the first floor to the fifth, accompanied as they were with members from the other guilds, had done extremely thorough jobs at killing any monsters that would have normally posed a threat to that direct path. Through that interaction, and perhaps through the design of the Tower itself, the most traveled paths just felt ‘safer’ than the wild portions of the floors.

A fact that I worked on mentally as we finally exited the Tower. Was it on purpose? Did the Tower direct its monsters, its creatures, to stay clear of the paths that the masses used? Considering the strengths of the groups, especially ones climbing higher and higher, the most heavily traveled areas would be pointless for the monsters of the lower floors to move towards. They may still pose threats to low level Climbers like my group, but against a large number of Climbers, or even just a large number of people in general, the monsters of the lower floors wouldn’t be able to do much. Especially if they traveled solo, or in small groups.

It made more sense for the Tower to spread its monsters out. To keep them away from gatherings of Climbers, that would quickly make short work of the creatures. If the Climbers wanted to group up and clear a floor, there’d be no stopping them, sure. However, they’d still have to work for it. The Tower, I was certain, was sentient. There was no way it wasn’t. What that meant though, still eluded me. You could anger the Tower. You could win its favor. The Tower did things that were logical, calculated. But why? For what purpose?

I pushed the thoughts from my mind as we reached the Cathedral. For now, those weren’t problems to consider. For now, it was time to level, and get back into the Tower. We had another two floors to explore, and three more levels to gain, before the end of the day. There’d be time for thinking, pondering, and theories, later. Right now, was the time for action.