The night's sleep was much needed. The mana over-saturation I'd been putting myself through had greatly strained my mind, maybe even my soul, over the past weeks in a way that made my every thought ache.
Think a headache, but worse--and no, I wasn't just describing a migraine. It was weirder feeling than that; it was like having a dull echo going throughout every piece of you.
I reached up to wipe my wavy hair from my dream-heavy eyes. The sleeping roll that was wrapped around my bare body slipped down to expose the still-humming runes that were glowing faintly along my collarbone.
Hopefully all the discomfort would be worth it; there'd been a lot of pain involved in unlocking the five, tiny runes that I hardly even noticed after all my training, but that I could still feel pulsing with stored power if I reached out to them.
If there were other people acting as players in the System, then I really doubted most of them would been pushing themselves as hard as I'd been.
I didn't think I was special or anything, but Gwen had a point when she'd called me obsessed; though obsessive was probably a better adjective to fit me.
I'd always been that way too.
In my old life on Earth, I'd hidden my long hours hitting the books and practicing sports with an upbeat attitude and a shy, party-girl persona.
Makeup had hidden the bags under my eyes. Ibuprofen had dulled the ache in my limbs, along with the sore limp of overtraining that everyone at my college would've seen otherwise.
Wrap all of that up in a happy voice, that was honestly mostly just my personality anyway, and no one was ever the wiser about how hard I was always pushing the envelope of my health.
Mostly no one, anyway.
But it wasn't a bad thing I didn't think. Not really.
I'd been trying to get a handle on balancing my health with my compulsion to tackle my chosen obsessions.
That was where the relaxing with friends had come in, beyond just trying to keep up the front of being a normal, laid back girl; I'd forced myself to network and not just be out of touch--because I'd made that mistake before and I'd really hated being lonely like that.
Still, where I'd always found my joy, where I'd always been truly happy, was in progressing and being better than I was the day before in whatever passions had caught my interest for the day, week, or year.
I removed my hand from my face and stretched out my shoulders and arms.
My eyes glanced over to the elegantly beautiful panther who was relaxing by the opening to our shared tent.
Still, regardless of everything I'd been thinking, I'd felt how serious Gwen had been when she'd warned me about taking it easier the night prior.
The panther could feel my thoughts; not read them, but feel them. I'm pretty sure she'd caught me as I was slipping over the line into sacrificing my mental health for a goal.
It'd been a while since I'd done that, but now that the brain-pulsing of over-exertion had mostly left my mind... it was easier to reflect on how she might've been right.
"Morning, Gwen," I said aloud to the cat.
The feline's right ear twitched.
"Good morning, Claire," she said aloud and then began to stretch herself, her massive maw yawning cutely as her hind legs lifted her flank into a flexing.
I smiled; the panther was ferocious, intelligent, and beautiful. But, like any cat, she could still be adorable.
She'd also slid firmly into the role of acting as a check on my mental health.
We were in a crazy, alien, and ridiculous situation. Reality didn't make sense anymore.
Gwen kept me grounded.
Yes, I needed power. Yes, I still thought the runes were a good idea.
But I respected the panther's opinion enough to take her advice to back off a little and rest.
She was both an outside viewpoint on how I was acting and also, thanks to our mental connection, the closest thing to a objective subject matter expert on my spiritual makeup that there was.
"You ready to get going?" I asked. "Sleep good?"
Gwen shook the sleep off of her fuzzy face. "Very."
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Camp never took too long to pack up. The System's implemented inventory made cleaning up little more than a process of selecting dialogue options and storing away our many, collected niceties and necessities.
Our path to the tower was clear. The Ringed Citadel had only one defined avenue of approach: a massive, stone carved section of steps that led down into the verdant grassland below the canyon ring we'd slept on.
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It was only when Gwen and I started to walk down the steps that we noticed the huge carvings that had been chiseled out of the rockfaces that rose as you descended the too-big steps.
The carvings resembled the golems we'd faced, but were much more artistic in their existence. Whereas the automatons had seemed much more utilitarian, perhaps only touched by a tenth of the artistry that had graced the creation of the rock carvings we now looked upon.
Scenes of what seemed to be anthropomorphic kings, queens, and mathematicians, along with warriors of some lost history traced the steps.
"This place is beautiful," I said to Gwen, feeling a lot less morbid and angry than I had the night prior. "But it just feels... sad? I can't really place it."
"Almost like all of this was meant to be something important, but it isn't?" Gwen built upon my thoughts. "Like all this had a purpose to the people who used to live in this place."
"Yeah," I answered as my eyes linger along the carved scene of what appeared to be some sort of hawk-faced magician, or maybe astronomer, opening his hands to release a sea of endless stars into the sky above him from out of his robed sleeves. "Just like that."
My face grew more serious. "Do you think the golems even killed all those people, Gwen? It looks like they were built in the image of whoever made this place. And I don't think a killer like that would make art this... what's the word... sentimental."
I felt the panther's mind turning over my words. "So why would they be breaking down the cities then?"
I paused, struggling to put the ominous floating feeling that was forming inside my chest into words. "Maybe it's just another of Cowagin's corruptions, turning the golems against their masters. Or maybe they're just trying to put an end to everything that was destroyed by disassembling the cities and putting them to rest with their people; different cultures see death differently. It could be a thing."
"They did attack us though," Gwen added. "And I'm assuming the System wants us to fight whatever is in that tower."
"Right," I agreed. "Honestly, I still have no real idea what's going on in this Dungeon. Galadhel put a lot together for me, but it was like the Ruler had hidden most of the truth from her too. What I'm most interested in isn't even a good fight; not anymore. I want to know whatever it is that this world is hiding from us. I want to know just why we're here."
"We might find that in the tower:" the panther offered, "answers."
"Or more questions. There's only this ruler and then one more to go. Then I'm pretty sure we're going to be pointed at the big bad himself. Either way we're bound to figure something out," I replied.
Gwen growled. "As long as we fight for those answers."
My face put on an expression equivalent to a casual shrug. "No reason we can't enjoy that too."
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The tower floated in the middle of the lake, a great monolith of silvered artistry; and the closer we got, the more I could feel the mana coming off of it in waves.
It was an odd sensation. Almost like there was a gravitational aura of mystical energy coned around the physics-defying structure, one that seemed to suck in power from the atmosphere.
Unlike the great wall we'd encountered, the tower was much more like the canyon carvings in that it declared proudly to the world that it was built not solely for the sake of utility.
Great reliefs depicting even greater scenes, that were more gorgeous than eve what we'd seen on the steps leading us to the Ringed Citadel, were carved into the almost living-looking metal of the tower.
The lake surrounding the Citadel was entirely calm as well and as clear and blue as perfection itself, though it did glow slightly with a strange humming.
Despite it being set above the water of the massive lake itself, there was no bridge that led into the Ruler's sanctum.
Rather the widest of the great, hovering rings of constructed silver that surrounded the structure floated right on the edge of the shore. Floating stairs then connected it to the next largest ring and then on-and-on, until one reached the highest ring that seemed to allow entrance to the metallic tower.
An angular arch, guarded by two cloaked and towering statues of the same color of the rest of the tower, beckoned me and Gwen onto the hovering rings and the path that would no doubt lead us to the Eastern Ruler.
"Those things are pretty, a lot prettier than the brass golems, but I'm betting they can still move," I said aloud.
"Whoever made them definitely seems like they were a better craftsman than whoever made the other ones," Gwen agreed.
"Which probably means they're stronger," I replied, putting into words our shared worry.
"I'd be willing to bet on it," Gwen said and growled low.
"There's nothing wrong with farming a little more loot before we get to the top," I offered; as I began to stretch out the shoulder of my left arm. "Every little bit helps."
I felt Gwen's battle lust growing over our shared connection. "I can feel myself getting closer to an evolution."
A bit of excitement peaked in my chest. "Really?"
Gwen purred. "Every fight gets us a little closer."
I smiled. "Then let's get a little closer. Ready?"
"Yes," the panther said and started to prowl forward towards the open archway.
I followed behind and stretched out my fingers. At my will, mana began to pool freely in each of my palms.
As we walked forward, I brought my two hands together and, with a practiced pull, drew the fiery length of my [Raging Blade] out from my non-dominant fist, flicking the inferno-formed sword out to my side as I did so.
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Unlike the other automatons, the hooded guardians didn't whir or whine when they moved. Their arms and halberds simply descended with a beautiful grace as we approached, the weapons crossing to block our way.
I didn't hesitate, however. The moment I saw them move, I had already summoned a runic grenade into my hand.
The spell-formed stone, my flame magic emblazoned upon its face, was whipping out of my grasp and connecting with the cat-like face of the hooded guardian before it had even fully lowered its weapon.
The stone sensed my intent and, upon impact, exploded with a violent, concussive force.
Caught in the moment of its first movement, the sculpture faltered and stumbled back. Its halberd fell from its grasp and its hand could only resort to grabbing with force upon the archway it stood in front of, its powerful fingers cracking into the silvered stone, to prevent itself from falling into the deep lake below.
My vision focused upon the casual way in which the guardian's fingers had pierced the untouchable looking metal of the archway. It was stronger than the other golems had been and much more nimble.
As I observed it, the hooded creature looked upon me. Its carved eyes flashed a powerful blue.
My own eyes grew wide and only just barely shot towards to the fallen halberd in time to see it twitch with an aura of the same mystical color.
As I felt [Accelerate Adrenaline] instinctively jumping into my bones and muscles, the monsters' name boxes finally populated within my vision.
[Hooded Gatekeeper, Level 30 Elite.]
[Hooded Gatekeeper, Level 30 Elite.]
Elites? As Gatekeepers?
Well, the difficulty curve had certainly just shot up.
I was thinking all of this, just as the now-floating halberd closed ninety-nine percent of the gap between me and it faster than I could ever hope to move on my own.