58. Visitors From Another Tower

A week went by smoothly, during which I trained some boss slimes to the original portal to Floor 2, as well as a second portal Thwain discovered while scouting. Frankly, it wasn’t difficult to spot the thousands of goblin spearmen rushing about the floor. Pyro, for his part, focused on creating a safe road to Floor 2, playing with stretching and narrowing the dimensions of the safe zones to get the most out of our pooled points.

In the meantime, Josh ran experiments and increased the guild’s roster. One of his experiments involved purchasing rather expensive skill crystals from the Festival shop and trying them out on non-combatants or more eager climbers. Clocking in at a good ten grand apiece, the crystals came out in the same colors as loot orbs, most of them being common-gray and a few turning out uncommon-green, with the theorized existence of rare blues or higher rarities, though it was only speculation.

I was tempted to absorb a skill crystal, but held off for the moment. Common skill crystals gave either a mild acidic touch or acid resistance, with no known way of guaranteeing the acquisition of either skill. The few uncommon skill crystals that were consumed granted one person a ranged acidic attack, while another obtained an activatable, moderately strong, short-term resistance to corrosion, and a third gained increased flexibility. Each volunteer admitted to feeling a slight strain in their core when absorbing a skill crystal, though it seemed to lessen over time. One enthusiastic climber passed out after absorbing three consecutive crystals and was still nursing a migraine four days later. Unsure if three was the magic number for skills per floor, of shop-bought skills total, or if they just had to be spaced out to allow for your core to grow, I opted to postpone any skill absorption until I knew more or until I found a rare skill crystal that I couldn’t refuse.

I devoted some time to having Slimey plug the goblin leaks to increase his size and power, fueled by their generous donations of organic matter. I also blasted my necklace’s protection to keep me safe from slimes while practicing my swordplay against goblin spearmen. The results weren’t great. Goblin spears weren’t overly long, so reach wasn’t as much of an issue as if I were training against fully-grown human spearmen, but reach wasn’t my problem. My piss-poor reflexes and nonexistent technique were the problem. I summoned Rella and tried mimicking her movements, but I had absolutely zero talent for swords. I was clumsy and slow, but I kept at it, going so far as to have Slimey use his bulk to create an arena to let me fight goblins individually.

With only a single goblin to tackle at a time, I grew closer to semi-competent, as opposed to the absolute hindrance that I was before. My training was interrupted, however, by Thwain landing on the portal archway. He looked both worried and excited, the latter of which being an emotion that I had rarely seen on my friend’s face as of late.

“What’s up, dude?” I asked, looking up at my friend. He flexed his wings and nodded eastward, towards nothing in particular.

“Someone’s farming slimes over that way. They’re good. Scary good.” Thwain softly juggled a pistol, his eagerness peeking through.

“Nobody we know?” I wasn’t great with names, but anyone farming slimes at a rate that Thwain thought was impressive must have shown signs before today. Maybe it was someone from the original Blood Oats, or from another gang. Well, what used to be a gang. Between the establishing of “The Guild,” the half botched raid on the Church, and the Festival, there weren’t many remnants of the old gang system. The inhabitants of the Slums hadn’t completely turned over a new leaf and converted to the lives of monks or anything, but a clear hierarchy, the loss of many lives and the scramble to secure the Slums against the slimes doused most of the internal conflicts that had always plagued Floor 0. Still, if they were already sending veterans to farm Floor 1, they must be more than holding their own.

Thwain shook his head, shattering my assumptions. “No chance.” His smile grew a little wider. My brows knit together. It was almost concerning seeing him so happy over such a thing. “They aren’t human. They’re some sort of tentacle monster… Thing.”

My mouth dropped open and I impersonated a fish for a few seconds while trying to figure out how to respond. Eventually, I landed on the basics.

“Where did they come from? Are they - what? Are they hostile?” Tentacle people. I had a hard time believing it. I had heard of strange monsters, like bull-people, demons and dogfolk, but never tentacle people. Come to think of it, how and why would they be farming slimes? If they were from so far up the Tower that even rumors of tentacle people hadn’t reached the Slums, they shouldn’t be able to survive the lower mana density of the lower floors.

“They’re just going to town on some slimes. I figured I’d come get some backup before saying hello,” Thwain said with a shrug.

‘Tentacle monster’ wasn’t all that far off of a description, it turned out. I approached on foot, having learned my lesson from the last group that I had disastrously approached while inside of Slimey. I made my summon wait within a few seconds of sprinting away while Thwain flew above me.

A bipedal tentacle monster stood, patiently waiting for me to approach. They wore loose-fitting dark purple robes of a material that looked thick enough to be used as a blackout curtain in an eccentric mansion. Their attire complemented well enough their washed out blue skin and seemed to be flexible enough to let their two tentacles move freely from where they snaked out from around their shoulders. They clasped their hands in front of themselves and gave a slight tilt of their diamond-shaped, leathery, hairless head. Meanwhile, slimes exploded by merely approaching too close. Any slime that came within five feet of the figure instantly burst into motes of light.

I stopped around fifteen feet out and inclined my head as well. “Uhhhh hi. I’m Théo,” I said very not-lamely. I raised my hand in a small wave, then pointed up at Thwain and introduced him as well, feeling dumb the entire time. I wasn’t even sure if we spoke the same language, but I was glad I hadn’t been attacked. That was a plus, for sure.

A tentacle rose in a mimicry of my wave. “I am Shlorp, shon of Shlep, of Clan Shee. Your Tower ish virtually free to enter peashfully, and far lesh abrashive than the catfolk Tower.” They spoke with a weird bubbly gurgle and what might be a lisp.

“Ah. Cool. Yeah. You’re a visitor... From another Tower…” It came out as more of a question than a statement, but I could only process so fast. Shlorp nodded to me in confirmation.

“Alright, Shlorp. How did you gain ‘peaceful’ access to our Tower?” Thwain asked, coming to my rescue. Right. That was a good segue. A great follow-up, actually.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Shlorp held up a tentacle before elaborating. “Apopogiesh. My name ish Shlorp, not Shlorp.”

“Shhhlorp?”

“No. Shlorp.”

“Slorp?”

“Preshishely.”

I resisted the urge to scratch my head in confused exasperation. “So, how did you, errr, enter our Tower, Slorp?” I asked.

“The Shacred Shacrifishal Feshtival of Convergensh, of coursh. Your Tower coshtsh a tenth of the next cheapesht Tower, ashide from the catfolk Tower.”

I nodded repeatedly as if it all made perfect sense. “Right. Right. And how long can you vishit our Tower? Like, is there a time limit or…” I cringed slightly at my slip-up, but Slorp didn’t so much as comment on it.

“One week, which ish coming to a closh shoon. But I could have left early if I wanted. Did you not buy an information mishive on inter-Tower travel? You should.”

“Alright. And, well, if it’s so cheap, why haven’t we seen more… people… from other Towers until now?”

Slorp’s expression grew dark, which was quite effective for a tentacle monster. “You transhfer to an equivalent floor, sho there might well be more travelersh, jusht higher up in the Tower, but I doubt there are many. I am shimply here becaush I am desperate enough to take the rishk. There are… rumorsh… that your Tower’sh daysh are limited. One of the larger Towersh ish preparing an invashion, and your Tower ish quite eashily ashailable. Worryingly-sho, in fact. Many of my clan believed the cheap entry fee to be another shcam. I took the rishk and came here, and farmed your shlime monshters for a week. I musht admit, I would come back and bring more of my clan if I could ensure we wouldn’t be caught in the croshfire. Alash…” Slorp regretfully waved around at nothing, as if the death of our Tower was a foregone conclusion.

We took our turns grilling Slorp, trying to squeeze as much information as possible from them, but they were dodgy with any further information about the apparently impending Tower invasion. They did confirm, though, that their Tower worked in a similar fashion to ours, but with water levels that had to be traversed. Each floor had a combination of puzzles and monsters, more often than not requiring a climber to be able to breathe under water for extended periods of time. To be honest, it sounded like an absolute nightmare. The most influential of their clans, naturally, had the most efficient methods of solving each floor’s puzzle. Slorp’s clan, however, had neither secrets nor ressources, so they were here to try and obtain some sort of edge that would help.

We also exchanged information on how our Towers gave classes and skills. Slorp, actually, had neither. In their Tower, climbers had to go through a sort of initiation or coming of age ceremony that used a crystal pillar that identified an elemental strength. From there, the individual’s clan did their best to train them in the manipulation of that element. Slorp demonstrated what they considered to be a paltry control of water by manipulating razor thin whips of water to clear huge half-circles of slimes, killing dozens with each swing. They also slowed down the hundreds of water droplets orbiting their body to show how they had protected themselves from slimes all week.

More than impressed, I showed Slimey to Slorp and explained how we obtained our classes by clearing Floor 1 of the Tower. Slorp became giddy and eagerly asked where they could find a portal to Floor 2. Apparently, they only had a few hours left in our Tower and wanted to risk ascending to Floor 2 to see if they could also obtain a class.

Shocked, I looked up at Thwain. “Do… Does that even work like that?” I asked, unsure.

Thwain shrugged. “The other inter-Tower travelers didn't tell me if it worked or not. Dunno.”

“Other travelersh?” Slorp asked, raising a tentacle in what seemed to be curiosity.

“Nah, he’s just kidding. You’re our first,” I clarified. Slorp exploded in a full-bellied guffaw. It was quite disturbing, actually, instead of reassuring. It sounded like a mix of an old sailor’s laugh and a draining tub. You know, when the water’s almost all gone and the drain starts calling for blood from the depths.

“Well, there’s only one way to see if it actually works. This way, my tentacled friend.”

Slorp did, indeed, survive their entry into Floor 2. Barely. We fought our way through goblin spearmen and I entered first to clear the other side. As soon as they appeared, Slorp slammed to the ground, convulsions violently wracking their body. Thwain appeared a moment later and looked confusedly between me, Slorp and the sea of goblin spears assaulting Slimey.

“Grab ‘em and bring ‘em back through,” I called out, gesturing to Slorp and the portal. “They’ve already entered Floor 2, it should be fine to bring them back. I don’t think Slimey can hold much longer.”

Thwain nodded and grabbed Slorp, disappearing with a flash of the portal. I rushed forward as well, bringing Slimey with me. My summon’s physical defense had improved quite a bit in the last week while farming goblin spearmen, but he was far from strong enough to play the part of a permanent defensive structure. Well, in Floor 2, at least.

When Slorp awoke, I breathed out a sigh of relief. Thwain leaned in, his gaze boring into the otherworldly stranger’s wild eyes. Two blue tentacles probed around frantically for a moment before calming down. Eventually, Slorp sat up gingerly, then sprang up excitedly.

“Initiate of the Depthsh!” Slorp exclaimed, flinging their hands into the air in sheer ecstasy. They motioned for me to let them at the slimes, and I gladly parted Slimey slightly to allow Slorp access to Floor 1’s vermin infestation. The tentacled traveler raised their arms and tentacles and swayed as if dancing, praising the sky above. Mana gathered before them, forming thin lines of deep blue that made up a magic circle that filled itself in with intricate patterns of runes separated by concentric circles. Then, they brought their arms back and pushed forwards. A tidal wave roared out of the magic circle, spreading out and sweeping through slimes, devouring everything within a few dozen feet. Thwain and I clapped and cheered, ooh-ing and ahh-ing in appreciation at the obviously water-based class. Slorp beamed with pride, clapping their hands and tentacles together like an excited child.

“Thish ish far shtronger than I wash ekshpecting! You shaid I could gain more power by merely ashending another floor? I beg of you, accompany me acrosh to Floor 3! Between my water manipulation and my new clash, I am sure I can more than hold my own.” Slorp was so enthusiastic that I felt myself drawn into their enthusiasm. I cocked an eyebrow at Thwain and he shrugged back.

“May as well grab Pyro and sprint across. He told me earlier that he bought some sort of permanency array for his structures within guild-owned territories, so he’s itching to travel. Goblins are a little trickier than when I first crossed, but we’re a lot more capable, too, so it should be fine. Probably.” With that, Thwain spread his wings and sped off into the distance while I chatted with Slorp, going over the details of his new class.

Pyro and Thwain arrived before Slorp had finished gushing over their class and two skills, Tidal Bore and Puddle Jump. It turned out that their second skill allowed them to quasi-teleport from one puddle to another, though there were distance and depth requirements. Once the other two arrived, they both shared some shop-bought and Josh-enhanced equipment around, ensuring that we were as protected as possible before heading out. I squirmed slightly, hating how uncomfortable new gear always was. I tried pushing the thoughts away, seeing as the alternative would be to wear suboptimal gear. A few blisters were, indeed, far better than a spear through the thigh.

When everyone gave the go-ahead, we swarmed the portal and stormed Floor 2.