Gin awoke to someone yelling and slapping his face. His [Awareness] scanned the cave, and everyone was still alive. The hidden space was still there, but nothing else happened. Gin opened his eyes to Lara, smacking his face.
“Walker, walker, wake up.”
“I’m up, I’m up, what’s happened?”
“Well, You just survived a giant fireball to the face.”
Gin rose to his feet. On reflex, he had wrapped himself in his [psychic field of Awareness], saving his clothing; he only had one clean pair left. He was immune to fire but still felt like a truck hit him.
Ryn hid by the cavern. Lara picked him up and whispered that his father and Ecil were waiting for him back at the village. Gin placed his back to the wall and carefully approached the opening to the hidden enclosure.
His [Awareness] scanned for more traps, but only one thing shone a Mana signal by the entrance: a wand jammed inside a crack across the opening. The trap wasn’t very sophisticated, but still deadly.
Glowing symbols surrounded the wand. Gin waved his hand around and waited, but nothing happened. He made his arm bigger. He picked up a large piece of rubble and launched it into the crack, holding the wand aloft. The stone crashed above the wand. Gin frowned because he missed where he was aiming.
He tried again, this time throwing a bigger stone. The wand shook and fell. Gin waited, and then he stepped into the chamber. The chamber was more like a cobble-together room stuffed with books on different types of monsters. The words were in a different language. There was also a book on meditation and an amulet. Gin opened his spatial compartment and tossed the book inside. Lara walked into the chamber.
“Did you find anything good?”
“Just a few books and this.”
Gin handed Lara the amulet while he searched for another hidden compartment.
“Tell me about why you couldn’t talk about this floor.”
Lara stared at the amulet.
“This floor might be the most important in the Tower of Mnepires. I think it was twenty years ago. There was a [Journalist] who came into the Tower. She became some [Rogue] infiltration type. Anyway, various groups used to disappear after entering and completing this floor. Many people thought she died, but after two years of studying this floor, she wrote detailed information. All the people who disappeared on this floor killed everyone before they entered the door to the third floor. They would complete the quest and then kill everyone, taking everything they can. This floor has one goal: to find out who you are and how you would treat the people you should protect. Some adventurers kill their teammates, but they get to the next floor and end up on a different path in the Tower. They never come back.”
“OK, so this floor is a kind of test. What would you do if you could get away with murder type of thing?”
“Exactly.”
“It kills murderers and what but I’ve killed before.”
“Outside the tower?”
Gin shook his head in a firm no.
“Were you fighting for your life?”
Lara gave Gin a knowing smile as if he had finished her thought.
“After you complete this floor without harming an innocent, you get a floor based on your fighting style and ability. It separates your team and puts you in a situation based on your skill and spells that you never incorporate into your fighting style. No one ever knows what’s behind that door.”
Listening, Gin searched for footprints until he found a hidden niche under the leg of the ramshackle desk. It was a journal, and unlike the books he had found before. He could read the words. He opened the book to the last notes.
“If you are perusing these words, I have likely departed from this life, or I cannot return to the ground level without first conquering this Tower. I am Millionna Metsk, and this marks my final entry. I sincerely hope that my messages have reached those outside, for it is time for me to embark on the ascent of the Tower in earnest. All that I have left behind is now in your possession. If you intend to undertake the challenge of this Tower, then seek me out. However, should I have met my demise, I urge you to pay a visit to my former abode still and inform my family that I departed content, having met my end while pursuing my passion.”
“This journalist was her name, Millionna?”
“Yes, damn, I was trying to remember her name Millionna Mask or something like that.”
“Metsk.”
“Hey! So you know who I was talking about.”
Gin held up the notebook, and Lara’s eyes opened.
“You found one of her journals!”
“Yeah, I think it was her last one.”
Lara grabbed the notebook and opened it, grinning while flipping through the pages. Gin looked inside the compartment and found a short sword and three rough clear stones that looked handmade with different shades of color: blue, silver and clouded white.
Gin placed them on the table and pulled out a shoebox-sized ornate black box with golden fillagree. He opened the box filled with items. There were glasses, a Rope, a torch, and a waterskin. They were all tagged. Gin read, Never ending Rope, ever burn torch sunstone, self-refilling waterskin—spoon of the water finder. Gin stared at the spoon for a few seconds and laughed.
Lara was frowning while reading Millionna’s letter when she heard Gin laughing. He rolled over on the floor, full belly laughing.
“What? What is it?”
“It’s, it’s a magic spoon.”
Lara shook her head.
“Let’s talk about the fourth floor. Oitchester City is the trade city for those who plan to climb higher or stay. On the fourth floor, you trade your gold for Tower credits and can buy anything with credits. When we first went to the fourth floor, we had little money to buy anything.”
“How do people make money on the fourth floor?”
“You can hunt monsters and trade in their body parts for credit. The fourth floor is a way station for the Tower of Mnepires and several other Towers. It’s like a whole world up there. That is why you have to be careful. This Tower may kill mass murderers, but the other Towers don’t have such a function. In the Tower store, you can buy skills, meditation techniques, and beginner spells and change or add body parts or race changes. I might get something similar, but if you don’t have any credits, you’ll have to leave the City’s safety to hunt monsters, but not everyone is hunting.
Monsters.”
“So things get even more fun, huh? I mean, I’m sorry about your friends.”
Lara looked up, surprised that he remembered that she mentioned her friends dying on the fourth floor. After what she had said, it wasn’t hard to figure out that other adventurers killed them.
“It was a long time ago.”
Gin didn’t plan to kill people, but yet again, not everyone plans for that to happen. His fight with the Guard in Ekril’s death was unintentional. Gin reminded himself that it was a mistake and tried to move forward. Checking out that store, he could get a spell against enemies who used arrows or water-breathing ability because drowning was one of the worst ways to die. It was good to plan what the Tower could throw at you. Mnepires the Tower of the deep. If he killed an innocent, this is where his journey would end.
“I met a few adventurers in Ekril; they said they were Gold rank. Where does a rank come in?”
“That’s from the outside of the Tower. There are bronze, silver, gold, diamond, named, and mortal shell stages—beginning, med tier, pro, master, Named-rank, and mortal shell demigod. A Named rank adventurer’s name alone can change the tide of a battle. Two named ranks can reshape a city in battle.”
“Are named ranks those who defeated a tower?”
“No, they’re called Immortals or demigods, wondering gods who challenge the most dangerous Towers. I’ve never met one, so I can’t tell if they are real. I have met a named rank called Sterbeth Stoutsteel. He came to the capital to meet the king. He was so tall that he had to ride a Rhingori. His Aura was so powerful that it felt like a heavy wind through the City.”
Gin felt mystified that he might be able to see or even become one of those fantastic people. Immortality? Those are the types of things people typically read about in books, and now he may have a chance to become one. This new world is his new life Gin grinned. He stood and waved the spoon in the air.
“Sim sim salabim.”
Lara ducked and waited. After a few seconds, she glared at Gin, stood, walked out of the caves, and froze. Gin opened his spatial compartment and tossed half of everything he found inside. Before he climbed any further, he had to figure out what exactly [psychic field of Awareness] could do because it was doing more than his intuitive understanding of its functions. He just used it to block a giant fireball, not that fire could burn him, but that it was something he could use.
“Walker. Look.”
Gin looked outside the dilapidated study into the cavern and saw what Lara was staring at. It was a cacoon on the wall above the bodies of the empty Fewgel corpses. It was Ada. She was growing again at that moment. Her mind touched his for options of what she should become. Gin’s mind went to different types of animals. He could think of crabs, spiders, and snakes. Then, he paused.
“No, I don’t want to be the one to decide what you become. Think of all the fights we’ve been through and what you could have done differently. You already have something in mind, so go for it. I’ll be here when you get out.”
They left the cavern. Gin gave Milllionna’s old study one last look and felt sad at the possibility of her being dead. Lara said that no has heard from her, and many presumed her to be dead. To Gin, if she was on the second floor studying the Dungeon, there was a good chance he would have planned his way to the top. Mili sounds like a genius, so she is most definitely still around. After exiting the underground cavern, the whole village awaited them. They began to cheer and scream.
“Thank you!”
Ecil ran forward with a square crystal.
“This is an affinity stone. It will show.”
She looked back towards Calak, and he nodded, smiling.
“Well, your Affinity. Put your hand on it.”
Gin smiled and put his hand on the stone. The stone’s color began to shift until it became brown, red, and green, and it became blue. Ecil frowned. Calak opened his mouth. Ecil raised her hand.
“I know this. That’s amazing. You have four affinities.”
She paused, and her eyes turned white. Gin stepped back and looked around. All of the villager’s eyes turned white. Behind her eyes, Ecil was no longer there. She lifted her hand, and a brownish-green stone appeared. Then she handed Gin the stone, and in the blink of an eye, everyone returned to normal, smiling as if nothing had happened.
“What am I supposed to do with this?”
Ecil made a face.
“Eat it. It tastes like dirty, but it awakens one dormant ability for each Affinity.”
Gin turned to Lara.
“What the heck was that?”
“Sometimes the Tower acts through its inhabitants. You’ll get used to it. They won’t know what happened and will ignore you if you tell them.”
Gin stared at the people talking to each other and smiling. The word NPC came to his mind, making him frown in helplessness. He choked back the sadness and tried to move on.
“What Affinity did you get? Why haven’t you used your ability?”
Lara smiled and held up her Axe. A slight wind moved around the weapon.
“I’ve been using it this whole time except with the flowers. I think it’s because I need to focus on using my ability. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have been able to dodge my Axe.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Gin grinned and nodded.
“Kick my ass, got it.”
Lara shook her head. Gin stared at the stones, his eyes closed briefly, and then he stumbled.
[Spell burning mist obtained]
[Spell healing touch obtained]
[Spell earth spike obtained]
[Spell heat vision obtained]
Lara caught him.
“Sorry, I forgot about that happening.”
Gin stood and shook off the faint feeling.
“What spells did you get?”
Gin read off all four spells and Lara smiled.
“That’s impressive. Very few warriors get a healing spell. You’d do well to try to upgrade it.”
Gin turned to see Calak standing there, and he jumped. Cal smiled self-deprecatingly.
“I would like very much to thank you for saving my family. I fear if it were not for you here and now, my life would be forfeit. Ryn and Ecil would only be able to see me in their memories.”
Calak bowed low.
“This father thanks a son and a hero in his eyes.”
Gin felt the sincerity in all his words and speechlessly bowed. By the time he looked up, Calak walked away. Ecil hugged him in a ball of hair.
“Thank you!”
She turned and ran to catch up to the villagers, and slowly, the village and its people disappeared.
“This is so.”
Lara wiped a tear away and smiled.
“Strange?”
“Sad. Those people are like ghosts. They replay the same event repeatedly.”
Lara stepped forward.
“Or the Tower recorded an event from somewhere in the world, and these lovely people are still growing and enjoying life. Don’t dwell on such things. Accept them in their moments because I am sure you will see worse in this Tower.”
Gin took in her words as he stared at the empty field where the farm used to be. A giant door opened with a translucent light, and at the top, the door said twelve hours counting down. Lara hesitated.
“Well, it looks like my door is here.”
Gin turned to see a different door, which was smaller with less glimmer.
“I thought you would climb with me for a second there.”
“I’ve had enough time to think about it, but I think it’s time I moved on from this Tower. No, I’ve had enough of this Tower. I think it’s time to return to my old guild and maybe see the rest of the world. Thank you for saving my life.”
“What about the men who killed your friend?”
“Our paths will cross one day, and then I’ll kill them.”
“Wait, this is yours.”
Lara looked at her share of all the loot Gin had found so far.
“No, it’s yours. I have all the gold I need.”
Gin reached into the bag and tried to hand Lara Millionna’s notebook. Lara frowned.
“When you find this Millionna. I want you to throw it back into her face and tell her that she should be the one to tell her family that she was going to Climb this damn Tower by herself. I’m sorry. She was too afraid to leave the Tower and tell her family that she might die climbing. I think she’s still alive, so you find her.”
Lara shook her head.
“That letter pissed me off.”
Gin nodded and then shrugged.
“I don’t know. I think this Millionna was afraid they would talk her out of it.”
Gin looked up into the sky, watched the clouds move, and felt the wind and the sun’s warmth on his face.
“This all feels so real.”
“I don’t know her, so I can’t disagree. It’s time to go before I change my mind. Whenever I get to this floor, I think the same thing.”
Lara chuckled.
“I’ll leave you a message at every adventurer’s guild I visit. When you conquer this Tower, you might join my gold-rank team.”
“What level is a named rank?”
“Above level one hundred and fifty.”
Gin sighed.
“I’m already stronger than I ever thought.”
Lara shook his hand but Gin pulled her in for a hug. Lara laughed and waved as she stepped through the portal. Gin sighed.
“I might try to make some new friends.”
He sat and then began practicing. His claws heated up when he focused on the memory of his hands burning, but what if he pictured himself holding the flames? His fingertips began to burn a subtle red. The color began to grow slowly. He wouldn’t have time to create a fireball slowly in the middle of a fight. Gin closed his eyes, and the warm air filled his lungs. Then he imagined the heat flooding into his arms and through his fingers. The fireball came to life like a torch.
“OK, this is cool.”
He looked around, but there was nothing but brown grass, which was very flammable. The fire was also famously uncontrollable. He snuffed out the flames and, using his claws, dug a giant circle. He made fireballs and tried to focus on his creation speed. For hours, he worked on the speed from ten seconds down to five seconds. He couldn’t get it to manifest any faster than five seconds. After the fire, Gin gets down to business with the one ability that has aided him since he teleported to Gol.
[psychic field of Awareness] With this ability, he could see in the dark, seeing everything around him in the length of a gymnasium. Nothing could get close to his Awareness, and he used it to shield himself in the cavern.
“Now, what else can you do?”
Like the first ball, he focused on his palm and condensed all the psychic field into one ball. Unlike the fire, Gin felt the full grasp of the ability he condensed and condensed. It was like folding a giant sheet the length of a football field inch by inch. He decided to pull faster and faster until the field slowly became visible, a translucent glowing blue ball of psychic energy. It wasn’t hard to hold it together.
He wasn’t physically holding the ball. His mind held it together. He then imagined the ball was a sword. Like molding Plato, the ball of energy slowly stretched and then exploded like confetti. Gin felt his awareness return to how surprised he was; he tried again, but this time, he imagined a translucent sword without attempting to condense his field. A subtle outline of a sword came into existence Gin could see a faint blue tint to the sword. He poked it with one finger and it popped like a bubble. The next time, he tried something smaller, like a knife, but the knife failed. Frustrated, he took the knife from his bag and then used his field to form around the weapon and lift it. The knife floated in the air. With his mind, he pushed, and the knife launched far in the distance and slammed into the ground. Gin stood
“Moment of truth.”
He pulled the knife back, and he felt the blade flip. He held up one finger, and the knife stopped in mid-air.
“Oh, baby!”
He raised his hand in the air and screamed.
“Telekinesis? What!”
After a few minutes of playing tag with the knife, Gin had a new idea. He couldn’t create any substantial weapons, but what about a needle? He created one Needle and held it for an hour as he filled his chest with warm air and exhaled, trying to get down the creation of the fireball to one second after surpassing four seconds. The Needle held steady
Gin created more needles like school of fish. He took a breath and waved his hand. More than a thousand needles showered the grass like rain.
Gin grinned and began to think. Suppose he was fighting multiple monsters spread throughout the area. It would take him a second to create twenty needles, but if he worked at it daily, that number could rise higher. The needles were as thin as glass but as long as a pencil. The smaller they were, the more he could create.
He fell into Kata against multiple opponents. For hours, he practiced with [Earth spikes], [Burning mist], [Edge walker], and [Quickstep] skills. Gin looked at the time, and the door said eight hours. He sat down sweating. He’s been training on and off for six hours.
There was one more thing he wanted to try, but first, he wanted to check on his friend. Gin walked into the cavern, and everything looked the same except for the cacoon. The cacoon turned red like his arms. Gin pulsed a psychic energy of concern. The cacoon has yet to respond. Gin closed his eyes and used his Telekinesis to lift himself off the ground. He opened his eyes because it wasn’t hard. It was like breathing.
“Who needs wings when you can fly? This is cheating.”
Gin laughed as he drifted through the air in the cavern. He remembered Valiah’s advice to imagine what he wanted to become, and Gin thought Needle would be excellent.
The ability he had was some telekinesis that can create constructs. The energy also gave him a field of control. He reached for a rock, and the rock lifted without doing much. Gin’s ability could lift rocks behind his opponent or use a knife and stab his opponent. But Gin liked close contact fighting until he faced a powerful mage. Gin decided not to be a lazy fight. He wanted the challenge. He wanted everything his opponent could give in a fight. Backstabbing was just not him. The thought of a wave of enemies made his blood boil in excitement. He wanted them to try and bury him. He was going to claw his way to the top. A manic grin appeared as he closed his eyes and mentally fought monsters. He wasn’t sure if he was ready to fight and kill people.
Then he heard a crack. Gin looked up at the cacoon as it slowly opened. Like an egg, the cacoon shattered like glass.
Gin watched as a creature the size of a golf cart pushed out of the cacoon. Ada landed on her side, and even though she was short, she was as wide as a table. Gin observed and realized that all the animals she had eaten Ada incorporated into her body- the lobster’s Tail? The claws and teeth of a Trench Lurker, but Gin had no idea where she got the wide-body shell. It wasn’t any monster he killed.
Ada slowly stood and looked around. She spotted Gin and turned in a circle like a big dog. Ada had six big muscular legs. She was the complete opposite of what she looked like before. Ada slowly walked up to Gin. She had no eyes, but Gin felt the mental nudge.
“You look amazing, girl. You ready to cause some chaos?”
Her lobster tail shook, and she sent him a mental image of food. Gin laughed.
“Sure, I still have some Rat meat in the spatial compartment.”
Gin dropped a dead Rat in front of her. Ada sniffed it and looked away.
“I’m sorry, but that’s all I have except for my food. I’m out of that, too.”
Gin’s stomach growled, and he looked down at the Rat. Ada ceremoniously walked away.
“Never say never. Isn’t that right, girl?”
Ada plopped down on the ground. She growled in ascent.
Gin got to work boiling water and skinning the Rat. He made a few rules for himself, and one was to only go to the next floor after resting and eating, as his master always said.
“Eat when you can, sleep when you can, shit when you can because when shit hits the fan, you might end up shitting in your pants.”
To old Ray, it was a saying about being ready for all eventuality, but to Gin, it was inappropriate and funny. Now, he’s living by those rules. If he went to the next floor and ended up in a situation that took away time to rest or eat, he could quickly starve or miss a step from lack of rest and die because of exhaustion. After eating, Gin and Ada stepped out of the cavern and into the gate to the third floor.
Gin landed on a white platform. He looked up into the white walls and, moving the platforms, ascended to a doorway in the side of a wall. Gin looked down to see a shadow the size of a whale. Ada immediately tried to dig into the wall, but the wall wasn’t of stone. Gin lifted ada with his Telekinesis and jumped to the next platform. The platform he was standing on fell, and Gin decided it was best to keep going. The wall opened, and water began to rain on the platforms he left behind. Gin jumped faster. He stepped once on each platform while using his Telekinesis to propel himself forward. Carrying himself was easy, but a passenger like Ada made things more difficult.
From a distance, the doorway looked strange, but on closer inspection, the entrance seemed like it was for giants. Gin stared into the dark hall. His Awareness picked up nothing, but he tended not to sense a trap until it was triggered. Gin materialized a long Needle to stab the tiles ten feet away, and the wall exploded. Gin continued slowly moving down the hall, triggering several nasty traps; a section sprayed acid and another was a pit trap with water that led back to where he came from. A blade cut half his Needle, and Gin created a new one and stepped where the traps had already been triggered.
The hall led to a small room with seemingly no exit. Gins [Awareness] washed through the room, absorbing all the information. There were writings on the wall on second perusal. Gin realized they were in some order. Gin studied the walls and then used [Decipher script]. After an hour, he realized they were numbers in a different alien language.
The problem was that Gin didn’t find any clues on how to solve the problem. The numbers seemed random until he saw the odd numbers, and the fifth number in the sequence was. Based on how the Tower wrote the numbers, the third line on the second layer was missing from that number. Gin just had no clue as to where to write the last number. His [Awareness] swept over a tiny bump in the wall that grew out of nowhere.
Gin stood and touched the area, pushing and prodding, and then he used his claw and scratched the missing number into where he thought the door might be. The door seemed to heal itself and glow a pale blue, and then it opened. A second door opened in the ceiling. Gin didn’t sense anything inside the room in the ceiling, but the door he opened wasn’t empty. Gin stepped into the room, and there was a large stone block shaped like a Y. Gin stared at it.
“OK, another puzzle.”
He sat and let his [Awareness] study the walls, but this time, there was nothing, but his mind kept going back to the door in the ceiling. On his way out of the room, he opened his spatial compartment, kicked the block inside, and realized the room was filling with water. Gin hopped into the upper room. This time, the numbers were inside the door on the other side of the room. Gin charged into the door, and Ada slammed into him, squishing him against the door, except the door didn’t open. He used his claws to dig into the door, but the door healed itself.
“I hate death trap puzzles!”
He studied the numbers. This time, he understood the numbers. Every time he looked at the numbers, he understood them better. This time, three numbers needed to be included. He went into the first room and found the numbers. He then scratched the numbers into the door. The square section of the door opened. Gin grinned at his spatial compartment and struggled to lift the stone block. Ada pushed up from the bottom; Gin pushed the stone block inside the opening and then twisted.
Another door in the ceiling opened, and Gin and Ada climbed through it. The room above was the size of a gymnasium and filled with tubes. The path beneath the puzzling tubes was clear, but Gin knew it wasn’t so easy. He slowly checked for traps. He used the Needle he created to stab the ground five feet before him as he walked across the hall. Simultaneously, Gin studied the tubes, searching for the following predicament. Once he reached the next door, he saw the Key to the door hanging in the tube at the end of a long sequence of twisting and turning tubes. He howled his frustration to the Tower.
“Fuck!”
Gin used his Telekinesis, which was easy for larger objects like a knife because he needed more time to manipulate them. he created a string, but this time. He took his time focusing and zeroing in on the Key. The Key floated through the tubes in spiraling and circular patterns. Despite the easy walk, the situation took longer, and the room began to fill with water up to his knees. While struggling with the Key, the first time the string popped, it would return to its original position if he dropped it. If the Key touched a tube, it would return to its original position. The other problem was that the tubes were incorporeal.
Mentally exhausted, Gin pushed his ability to hold the keys until they finally fell into his hand through the tube’s exit. By the time he finished, the water had reached his chest.
“If I had gills.”
Gin held his breath, turned the keys, and Ada swam through the door to the shore of a massive pond with a surface completely hidden by duckweed and giant waterlilies. The bright pink flowers and lily pads led across the dark, foggy Lake to a door on a tiny island. Then Gin’s [Dangersense] left when he heard a woman scream for help. Gin’s head snapped up, and he noticed the moon far in the distant sky. He listened for the sound, but it didn’t repeat. Gin peered deep into the fog. The door stood large above the Pond, announcing its presence. So far, nothing has been straightforward.
He assessed his situation. The floating rock might be the safest way across the Lake. He could try to swim across a foggy Pond in the middle of the night in a world with monsters. Drowning could have been a more fun way to go. A new type of energy he’d never felt before pulsed, but it wasn’t from the Lake. It was from up the hill in the forest with trees sixty inches wide and as tall as redwood. Gin slowly turned and squinted, and the shadow of the trees moved. Like a loud heartbeat, a creature from the forest thumped. Through his [Awareness], the sound delivered a wave of energy that crashed against his mind.
The sound surprised Gin as it disoriented him for a second. He didn’t know up from down. The sound wave pulsed twice this time and crashed into his body and mind. Gin fell to his knees, drowning. My head was doing backflips. More sounds joined, but this time, it was Ribbit, Ribbit, rabbit, a chorus of noise in his head. Ada lay on the floor unconscious and Gin felt himself spiraling. It was like being pushed down a hill, and every time he began to rise to his feet, someone pushed him, and then there were more people and more hills. A never-ending Cascade of his head tumbling. Gin clinched his fist tight enough to draw blood. He looked up, and a giant frog the size of a minibus stood before Ada. Ada dug a hole beneath the frog.
Gin had to do something. He needed to feel something else, something that could ground. Gin jammed his claws into his palm. His mind clicked into place, and he lifted his arm to sense the new energy. The frog jumped high in the sky, leaving its crystal core behind. Gin heard a thump of meat and stone in the forest.
He raised a [force wall], and the combined sound wave of the monsters pushed him back, but he held the force wall together and pushed back, screaming.
“Fuck. you!”
Gin cast the [earthspike] spell and his needles into the forest. He inhaled, filling his lungs. Then, he pushed the heat into his arms, and his claws began to glow a deep red. He activated [Quick step] and barreled into the bushes.
Gin’s claw dug into a frog, and he spun a frog’s tongue and crashed into his former position. The frogs jumped in the trees, but with [edge walker], he ran up the side of the tree and jammed his claws into its gut. Another frog spat a glob of green liquid that melted through the tree. Gin jumped and used [Fire flash], setting the tree on fire. He turned as a frog fell from high in the trees, and he used a [Hammer punch], and he felt the bone break around his fist.
Gin looked around, and all the frogs were either dead or gone. He fell to his knees. He sensed something falling from trees high above him. Ada slammed into the monster frog. It kicked and bucked to get up until its limbs stopped moving. Ada dug her way out of the forest floor and sat, pulsed him a question of feast.
“Leave all the ones that are at least a little intact.”
In the dark gloom of the forest, inside the mangled and bloody body parts of the frogs among the blue crystals, Gin found two new types of crystal. It was a red crystal, but this time, he felt it was for his body and not his mind. A white crystal that He absorbed the red crystal and physically felt his body grow slightly more prominent, tougher, and more robust. He wanted to absorb the white crystal but didn’t know precisely what it did.
The energy from the crystal filled him with new life. He stood and looked at the Pond, and his [Dangersense] still rang in the back of his mind. He stared at the water.
“Summon [lesser psy Niralfin]”
Gin chided himself for not knowing precisely what the Niralfin did when summoned. The creature appeared through a portal, drifted through the sky, and twisted and circled him. The Niralfin was at least thirty feet long, had an orange fin and dull silver scales, opened its mouth, sporting two rows of sharp teeth, and hissed. It mentally nudged him.
“Show me what you can do. Are you ready, Ada?”
Ada stared into the Pond and let Gin follow behind at a run on the giant waterlily leaves that felt like stone beneath his feet. While running, Gin realized the water lily flowers had the same energy as the red stone. Gin Stopped, and his [Dangersense] began to ring louder. Then he heard a woman scream for help.
“Help me, please. I’m drowning; help, help.”
The voice seemed to have submerged, and then he heard it again.
“Help me!”
Inside the fog, Gin noticed the pink dress and the silhouette of a woman thrashing in the water. The thing was that she seemed to be drowning in place as if she was jumping. Even though the second went by, she never submerged again as if she was waiting for him, yet she was not drowning. Gin snatched one of the water lilies, and then the screaming stopped like a pause to a broken record. There were no bubbles, just silence.
Gin looked further out, and the woman was gone. He snatched another flower and another. A waterlily appeared out of nowhere, but through his senses, this flower lit up like a pyre compared to the rest. Gin would look into the Pond every few seconds and wonder if she was real because his [Dangersense] was starting to give him a headache.
Gently, he snatched the last lily, and suddenly, he was underwater, and the lily was wrapped around his arm, pulling him deeper. Gin fought the urge to scream and tried to cut off the lily with his claw. He began to swim back to the time of the Pond, but the water shifted as if something significant had moved. Gin Swam and tried not to look back, but he felt it coming. Whatever it was gained on him, he made his hand larger. He imagined webs between his fingers to catch and push the water. He gained speed while he was rising. The Nirlfin dove past him, and a psychic wave exploded beneath him.
The creature howled, the Pond ripped with thrashing, and Gin felt the Nirlfin disappear. His head breached the water’s surface as he inhaled. The creature pulled him back in, and Gin’s eyes opened wide. He reached for air as he was pulled into the deep. Gin struggled to fight against his baser instinct to breathe. He reached down to get free and gazed into the pitch-white pupilless eyes of an elephantine monster of nothing but pink flesh and mouth. Its antenna-like appendage wrapped around his stomach and squeezed. Gin finally inhaled. Cool water filled his lungs. Gin closed his eyes and waited for the end. Feeling no pain, his claws stabbed into the monster’s eye, and Gin exhaled.
“What big eyes you have.”
The monster screamed, and Gin’s claws began to burn into its sclera, digging into its eyes through the viscous fluid. He held on while the monster thrashed in the Pond. The monster slammed against the bottom of the Pond, but Gin, with an unmatched ferocity, carved a path through the beast’s eyes and kept digging until his claws hit bone. Like digging through concrete, his claws burned, ripping a hole through its skull until he felt its brain pulsating.
He cast [fire flash], and the monster’s thrashing redoubled as it bucked and slammed against the floor of the Pond repeatedly until the monster’s thrashing slowed. Its guttural roar turned into a pained howl as Gins tore its brain. His assault took its toll, and its body began to float.
Gin pushed his way out of its head. He looked into the Pond at his reflection and tore his shirt off. His [Claws of Aecatas] grew from his elbow to his fingers, but in his reflection, the red skin of his new hand grew over his shoulders to his neck, where three lines on each side of his neck resembled tattoos, which Gin recognized as gills.
“I hope this city has a library or someone who knows this Aecatas?”
The monster’s body floated by the gate while Gin searched for its crystal core. The monster was nothing but a giant head and Finn with an appendage resembling a pink ball of flesh. He cut off the appendage and then saw it. Its crystal core was the size of a basketball, and he also took its heart. Gin placed it in his spatial compartment and plucked as many waterlilies as possible.
He spent an hour eating, resting, and checking the monster books for any of the monsters. He realized that the numbers from the puzzles were similar to the words in the book, and after three hours of using [Decipher], it all clicked into place. There were multiple types of giant frogs and Lake monsters. Until he finds something similar to the monster. It was called Lullaby Verdrink except that monster fed on fear. He stared at the corpse and wondered if that was a weaker version of the same monster. He wondered what he could have done differently and if he could replicate what the frogs did to his equilibrium with his psychic ability, some kind of confusion effect. He was mentally exhausted but had no intention of sleeping with frogs lingering around, so Gin and Ada entered the door to the fourth floor.