40. Oops, Did I Just Wake a Dragon Blood God? Blood-Dragon God? Bloody Dragon-God? Godly Dragonblood God... Something Like That.

8 days until the festival. Council in session……… Proposal to view the shortlist of Tower-generated alternative festival ideas: accepted.

* The Great Slime Rodeo: a wild and wacky event where residents compete to ride the largest and most dangerous slimes they can find. Rejected. Reason: too much fun, not enough danger.

* Treasure hunt: a mysterious treasure map is discovered and residents must work together to find hidden treasure scattered throughout the floors. Rejected. Reason: treasure costs too much mana to generate.

* Battle Royale: a massive battle where residents must fight to the death using only items looted from mobs. Rejected. Reason: REDACTED are too REDACTED to generate.

* Tower shift: rearrange floors. Decision postponed until after the inter-floor REDACTED.

* The Grand Bazaar: a massive market opens in each designated habitation zone, offering rare and powerful items for sale and trade. Rejected. Reason: preservation of REDACTED‘s bottom line.

* Initiate a second time loop: rejected. Reason: overdone. Not enough return on first time loop.

* End first time loop early: REDACTED.

* REDACTED

* REDACTED

* REDACTED

* REDACTED

The Council shall REDACTED.

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I awoke to the sound of someone clearing their throat. I groggily looked around my room, spotting Pyro’s grinning face.

“Ugh. What do you want, buddy?” I asked, clearing the crusties from my eyes.

“Time ta earn yer’ rent, boy!” He said with feigned anger.

“The fuck’s it now?” Sure, he knew I’d do almost anything for him, but did it really have to start so early?

The Geomancer’s grin widened at my question. “You’ve got you some people ta transport.”

As I was led out of my room, Pyro filled me in. It turned out that Pyro had been making full use of his new geomancy ranks, leveraging every ounce of his new upgrades and focusing on speed. Construction speed, that is. The crazy bastard had been tirelessly expanding a network of tunnels that spanned from the Slums to near our own base. He had even built a mini version of our compound, equipped with a single small tower that served as an air intake, a lookout point and slime defense as the little buggers swarmed to fill the unoccupied space.

Pyro brought me to the storage area, then shifted a shelf, revealing a smooth dark tunnel. We walked for a few minutes down the secret passage out of our base until the tunnel abruptly ended. My friend passed me his small light crystal, freeing his hands for his theatrics as he tapped a pattern on what looked like bricks carved into the wall.

“Open says me,” Pyro said, giggling. Actually giggling. I rolled my eyes, refusing to indulge him as he used his geomancy to shift the wall. I squinted against the light streaming into our dark tunnel. We emerged in a carbon copy of the base we had just left, just much smaller in scale. As Pyro closed the tunnel behind us, I gawked at the steady stream of people filtering into the base from a large tunnel across from ours.

“Pyro… What did you do?” I gestured feebly to what seemed like a few dozen refugees trying to escape the Slums with the little belongings they had.

“I told ya. I tunneled from here to the Slums. Wasn’t gonna make a direct line to our base. Duh.”

“And we’re going to…” I trailed off, cocking an eyebrow.

“Ferry em! It ain’t an army, Théo. Not ours, at least. Some’ll stay here, others’ll go back. Ain’t my business, ain’t my problem after that.”

I roleplayed as a fish for a while, my mouth opening and closing repeatedly without much sound coming out. Finally, I gave up. It was a good enough plan. Maybe not perfect, but it was better than sitting around and hoping for a change. It wasn’t as if I knew how to run an army, nor did I want to try. I… I groaned as I clued in to what Pyro had said.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m going to have to shuttle people for days, aren’t I?” I could already feel the headache forming.

Pyro’s smile turned teasing. “Keep yer’ hands and feet inside the slime walls at all times, folks!” He brought me topside, showing me the new and improved tower structure. It was equipped with a small gangplank and some retractable rope ladders, letting people avoid the chimney-like structure’s defenses as they lowered themselves down into the slimes below. I rolled up my non-existent sleeves and got to work, summoning Slimey and preparing to babysit some green horns.

It was almost as bad as I thought it would be. It was absolutely, mind numbingly, headache inducingly boring. BUT, it was also profitable. I walked groups back and forth between the new base and the portal to Floor 2, making sure that nobody got hurt. At the same time, Slimey slurped up a loot orb or two per trip, increasing my wealth by tiny increments. I broke up the monotony by disregarding spatial common sense, opening loot orbs on the fly instead of waiting to be back in my room. It helped in a few ways, actually.

Firstly, it gave me something to look forward to. A pair of pants here, a few coppers there, a slime card… It all came together, doing wonders for my mental health. Secondly, it was good for morale. I had no use for extra clothing, so I passed some around my group as we walked. In turn, my passengers opened up without fail, babbling excitedly about what classes they wanted, how the Slums were doing and how Pyro and Josh had worked together to set up the entrance to the tunnel leading to the second base, equipped with its customary enhanced blades to deter the swarm.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I had my doubts about the tunnel, but, like I had resolved earlier, it was better than nothing. What if someone got pissed at what we were doing and collapsed the tunnel with people in it? Or came in and got classes just to wreak havoc? I shook my head as I stepped onto the circle ringing the portal to Floor 2 for the fifth time. Just keep escorting, just keep escorting…

“This is awesome!” A man exclaimed as he stepped back through the portal, throwing back his long hair and basking in the dim sun. Hasan, I thought his name was. I just smiled back as I rested, leaning against the portal archway.

“I know Milos vouched for you guys, but it was honestly hard to believe, even coming from him. How many people are you letting through?” He asked. “I’ve got family I can bring, they’ll be so much better off with classes.” When I just shrugged tiredly, he cupped his hands in front of himself and concentrated, doing the mandatory furrowing of the brows. White light coalesced in his hands for a moment, growing brighter, before disappearing all at once. I peeked over, much more interested in what he had conjured. He walked over to me and held out what looked like a small red gelatinous cube covered in white powder. Probably sugar?

“Here,” he said, holding out the sweet to me. “My skill says this will slowly regenerate your health. I don’t know if that works on fatigued muscles or whatever, but you look like you need a pick-me-up.

I gratefully, albeit gracelessly, accepted the offered candy and popped it into my mouth. The exterior was starchy and not nearly as sweet as I thought. Ok, not sugar. The sweet itself was, indeed, sweet, as well as quite chewy. It tasted like the essence of an entire cherry tree, condensed into a single tiny cube of flavor. It was delicious. Not good enough to betray an entire Floor’s worth of friendlies to an ice witch, but very tasty nonetheless. Instantly, my body felt stronger. I felt invincible. My feet felt like they shed ten pounds as their soreness fled. I felt lighter in a way that I hadn’t even known was possible. I wasn’t necessarily energized like when I popped a slime pot. It was better. Much better. I was still a little mentally tired, but I felt as if I could run the rest of the day without feeling the slightest discomfort. I bounced on the balls of my feet, feeling like a whole new man. Hasan’s skill was a game changer.

“How many of those can you make?” I asked excitedly. The middle-aged man shrugged, a smile lighting up his face.

“I have no idea. I can try a few more and see if it tires me out?” He offered. I accepted immediately. He managed to conjure another seven pieces of candy before stopping, a bead of sweat dutifully making its way down the man’s forehead to prove that it had taken some sort of toll on him. I greedily stuffed the cubes into Slimey’s storage, offloading a handful of copper coins onto Hasan as payment. The man’s smile grew even larger as he received the coins.

“Is it that good?” He asked excitedly.

“Oh, Hasan. Honey.” I said, feigning a swoon. “If you weren’t already married… Even with that. I’d let you do dirty, dirty things to me for a large supply of those candies.” I burst out laughing at the befuddled looks the rest of the group gave me as they stepped out from the portal to join us.

By the time we reached the shelter of the second base, Hasan had conjured another three candies and had slipped them to me with a mischievous wink. I enthusiastically accepted them, storing them as we walked. When the next group was about to leave, I decided on testing the candies further. I reached into Slimey, drew out a candy and held it out to an older looking lady in the group. She wasn’t necessarily ancient and frail, but she was certainly going to slow us down a bit.

“Hey, a guy in the last group conjured this. I tried one and it took away all of my aches and pain. Try one, please. It should help you get across easier.”

The old woman scowled at me. “Aches and pains? Young man, you have no idea what aches and pains even are. What are you? Fifteen? Eighteen? The only aches you should have are in your pants. Blue balls from being a weirdo virgin in purple pants that gives weird candies to strangers.” With that, she snatched the candy from my hand and popped it into her mouth. The others snickered at my stricken face as she chewed. Sure, the pants were funky, but… The old woman’s eyes flew open, almost radiating light. Her back straightened, her shoulders un-hunched. She seemed to grow about a foot taller as wrinkles and liver spots disappeared. Her hair went from a dull gray to vibrant yellow. She wasn’t necessarily what I would consider young, not like she was transported back in time, but I’d wager those back at home would have a hard time recognizing her.

“I… You…” She stammered, looking down at her hands. Scratch that, she really did look like she had been hit with a time reversal spell. Living a hard life aged a person dramatically, apparently.

“You bitches better keep up, because we’re running the entire way,” she announced, taking off her crusty slippers and digging her feet into the soil before bouncing from foot to foot. I couldn’t blame her. I could only imagine how good it must have felt to have decades worth of injuries and stress cleared in minutes. We set off at a much faster pace than the last few groups. We weren’t running, but it was closer to a light jog than a speed walk. True to her word, the old… Well… The woman kept up her pace the entire way. Arriving at the portal to Floor 2, she bolted inside as soon as Slimey opened his own archway to let the group leave. We had barely spoken for the few minutes that it took to make it to the portal, most of us in shock at how different the woman looked. Hasan would surely be a popular guy soon.

The portal flashed again, revealing the same newly-refreshed woman. She threw back her head and yelled at the sky.

“Oh, Tekky, you bastard. I knew you’d still be alive up there, you scaly bitch.” She was smiling from ear to ear, tears rushing down her face. She stepped up to the slimes surrounding the portal, looking at me briefly.

“Hey, youngster. Can your slime monster surround the portal?” When I nodded at her question, she grinned wickedly. “Delightful. Do it, why don’t you. We’re about to have friends coming over for tea.”

As soon as she raised her hands to the sky, I felt it. It was like a bad case of heartburn. Something, some instinct inside of me, was warning me to get the fuck out of her way. I recalled Slimey, getting ready to surround us, but not daring to do so in case he was in the way of whatever skill she was using.

Wind whipped her hair about her as she yelled up at the sky. “Totec, accept my offering and know that I, Yagmar, your beloved, have sent you this gift. May the entire Tower shudder beneath the weight of your gaze as I ascend to meet you once more. [Totec’s Legacy: Accelerated Harvest], sow fear, nourish it in blood and reap my enemies’ life force!”

Clouds instantly formed in the sky above us. Not just a few, either. The entire immediate vicinity was covered in clouds, blocking out the sky above. They turned from fluffy white to the dark gray of storm clouds, before taking on a red tinge. The mana shooting out of Yagmar and into the sky was so powerful that her hair flew straight up, an almost visible aura of power intensifying around her as she gave it everything she had. I made Slimey spread out around us, terrified at the amount of slimes that would aggro, but fascinated at the display of power. What would she be able to do with a few more rank-ups?

Slimey got into position just in time. Blood red rain shot down from the sky, turning into streaks as they impaled thousands of slimes. The entire floor seemed to rush in on us, but the deluge of what looked like tiny red serpents annihilated everything within fifty feet of us, and every couple of slimes for hundreds of feet out beyond that. Then, it all stopped. The rain had only lasted around six seconds before stopping, a red haze rising from everywhere around us. As slimes died, they shattered into motes of light, but the red haze refused to let the motes dissipate. Instead, the red mist and all of the tiny lights rose up into the clouds above, charging them with power. The clouds condensed, growing brighter than the sun as they shrank down, bathing the entire floor in red.

Then, the clouds shifted, growing more and more transparent, until they looked like mere outlines of red swirling about themselves in the comparatively dark sky above. The ghosts of the clouds transformed into a terrifying serpentine dragon that was all claws, scales and whiskers as it twirled and danced majestically in the sky for a moment before curling in on itself and vanishing without so much as a pop.

Yagmar collapsed to the ground in a boneless heap.