3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . Glint counted down calmly as he stared down his opponent across from him. The usual ugly green hue of his opponent faintly glimmered as his opponent sized him up the same way.
Glint took a deep breath as an expression of subtle amusement crept across his face. It was his favorite part of the day.
Ah. There it is.
The familiar scent of bloodlust.
It began. Again.
The Goblin Orc rushed at him, the large club in its arms swinging wide as the braindead mob monster ran at him like clockwork. Then, it reached Glint once more.
Glint pivoted on his left foot and spun rapidly, gripping his sword’s hilt with two hands in the same motion. A whoosh of air breezed by Glint’s flank as he barely dodged the falling club that decimated the spot he had been standing moments before.
In the midst of the rising dust, a faint white glow suddenly connected with the silhouette of Glint’s blade. Glint took one quick breath and lowered his stance.
Heavy Cleave
x
Heavy Cleave
x
Heavy Cleave
Faster than the human eye could blink, three beautifully placed strikes quickly flashed out from the sword and connected with the left abdomen of the hulking goblin. A pain-filled cheikkkk echoed from the orc as each successful hit drew splashes of murky emerald that mixed well with the dull gray underfloor of the cavern.
The monster dropped to its knees in a deathly stupor, conveniently baring its neck as if offering itself up in defeat. Glint took a glance and flicked his sword once, an action he had repeatedly performed many times before.
The orc burst into a flurry of resplendent rainbow shards that flew into Glint as a tower message popped up.
Goblin Orc defeated
Loot: 1x monster crystal (B-Class)
The tower is pleased with your accomplishments!
Glint stared blankly at the tower’s system message, his eyes fixated on the tiny letters that had once brought excitement to his life. To a Pilot, climbing the tower’s floors and accumulating wealth was one of the greatest joys to be had. In fact, it was all he had known for the first 18 years of his life.
Glint gave a half-grunt of acknowledgement as he dismissed away the sycophantic message with a flick of his hand, cleaning his blade in the same motion as green droplets splattered across the ground. There was no need to read the same stupid message that popped up everytime.
The first few times had been intriguing, but a couple thousand times of the same thing would dilute the excitement of anything for anyone.
Even for a manic grinder such as himself.
He picked up the palm sized green-tinted crystal that was neatly resting where the Goblin Orc had been kneeling moments ago. Glint couldn't help but let out a weary sigh as he conjured up his item pouch. Honestly, the action felt pointless, but he also didn't want to leave a perfectly good crystal on the ground.
At the end of the day, he was still a Pilot at heart and Pilots never left loot behind.
A small satisfying clink rang out from the pouch as the item dropped into the bottomless spatial depths of his bag. Like clockwork, a perfectly timed announcement appeared in front of Glint’s eyes.
According to the item counter message that just went up, he was now on his 3330th B-class crystal.
But to be honest, he didn’t care about the crystals anymore. Especially not after stacking 3333x C and D-class crystals.
Not like they are worth anything anyways, at least, not down in this fucking hellhole of a prison. He thought to himself.
Here he was, surrounded by four walls made out of the tower’s strongest material, Greystone. His only comforts down here were few and far between.
A makeshift bed made out of some creature’s stiff fur. Not much but it got the job done.
A basin sized-hole that magically refilled itself with water. Likely part of the Tower’s doing.
A simple stone table that magically provided him with food. Potatoes and bland chicken. Also, likely part of the Tower’s doing.
An armory rack that housed his sword and shield. Glint didn’t like using the shield though. He never found it to fit his fighting style. It encumbered him too much in battle and he enjoyed moving light on his feet.
An array of Greylight torches that forever burned around the massive square prison, illuminating the topless walls and the Door.
But this wasn’t any plain old Door.
A Door made out of Greystone taller and wider than ten men stacked whichever way dominated the miserable cavern. It had to be the grandest piece of architecture Glint had ever bestowed his eyes upon. In fact, it was the only thing that Glint found impressive no matter how many thousand times he saw it. And he hated himself for it,
“Hell, it makes even the royal palace Door back in Idleheim look like a joke. If the historians from Fischer Hall knew about this, it would undermine their entire lifetime of records,” Glint laughed out loud to himself.
The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
As far as Glint understood, the Doors served as interim portals between the Tower’s floors and were unlockable by completing a series of tests and there were some exceptions to this case.
But if it were as simple as a lock and key situation, he would have been long gone by now.
The true jailor was not a killable entity, but the Tower itself.
Freedom was just a door away. It was ironic really.
Glint dismissed the item message and made his way back to his shoddy bed of furs, crashing down on it without much care. He tilted his gaze upwards, staring up into a spiraling void. Darkness stared back, as if taunting him to say something. This staredown contest was nothing new. They always had one every time he defeated the Door guardian.
It had become a comforting routine of sorts…somewhat.
Minutes stretched by until Glint finally threw up a hand, masking his eyes from the unrelenting abyss.
“HAHA fuck!” Glint loudly swore. A grin of raw frustration stretched across the man’s half-hidden face, accompanied by beads of sweat that rolled down his temples. It was impossible to look up for too long. It would drive anyone mad. At least he held it a second longer this time…he hoped.
Glint let out a heavy breath.
So far it wasn’t looking good. The record was now 0-9996.
“Guess even 27 years isn’t enough to beat you huh…” Glint mumbled into the open air. His words reached deaf ears yet they seemed to hang momentarily in the air. Sometimes he liked to believe someone was listening in. It helped him deal with the loneliness.
Or maybe it was all in his head…
Suddenly, a wave of exhaustion flowed through his body. This always happened after every fight. It was like his body already knew what to do. This was also part of the Tower’s doing. The sleep helped him with rejuvenation and also sent him to the next day.
In the beginning when he first went through this, Glint thought the Tower was making him repeat the same day over and over.
Water and food stayed replenished. His sword and shield did not collect rust and was always polished to the highest degree on the rack. And he had not aged a single day. He knew that much by checking his reflection every day using the water. His raven-black hair and nails consistently stayed the same length and he never grew stubble.
But the crystal count always went up. And so did the guardian’s class after he had finished his first 3333x stack of D-Class crystals. And it did once more after the C-Class stack. Now he only had 3 more kills until completing his B-Class stack. In all likelihood, the guardian’s tier would go up again. Not that he was concerned about it.
Based on that, Glint guessed he was not stuck in a loop, but rather an infinity prison where time stood still. The Tower only moved him towards the next cycle once the guardian died. He hypothesized that after every guardian he killed, the Tower made him sleep till the next day in order to reset the floor.
Or he was just wrong about everything.
But one thing was certain. Every time he opened his eyes, the same guardian would be waiting for him in front of the Door along with the same message.
But he was getting close. Even without seeing it, he could recite the contents of the Door’s message. How could he not, it had been seared into his mind from the very first moment he had defeated the first guardian. In a resplendent display of color, the Tower had presented him with a quest that loomed over him every day.
Door of Desires: The Origin
Failure is the mother of Success. But it is also the twin sister of Insanity. The definition of Insanity is to repeat the same thing over and over, but expect something different to happen each time. To climb the Tower of Desires means to chase after Insanity. Honored Adventurer, will you overcome Insanity or be consumed by it first? The Tower eagerly awaits your decision.
World Quest: Desire of Insanity
Clear Conditions: Defeat the Lord of the Flies, Vers the Insane
Rewards: Unable to calculate
Accept
Yes/No
That was all there was to it. Nothing more nothing less. Of course he had accepted the quest. With shaking hands and a dry throat of course. He had no idea what would happen once he accepted the quest. Would this Vers guy instantly appear? Was he signing an early death certificate? Why were there no rewards displayed? None of it made sense.
But what bothered Glint the most were those two words-
World Quest.
Every child born in the tower knew the importance of World Quests.
500 years ago, the first inaugural World Quest was given to a man by the name of Killum Basar. No one knew how or where this man came from. All that was known was that the day Killum Basar cleared the World Quest, the Tower announced a global message to every person.
The world event known as The Great Expansion—a transformative occurence that would irrevocably reshape the lives of all those who existed within the Tower.
On that fateful day, two pivotal incidents unfurled, forever altering the destiny of the Tower's inhabitants:
First, the sprawling metropolis of Idleheim materialized upon the Tower's tenth floor, a magnificent creation that represented the zenith of architecture and grandeur, a complete juxtaposition to the cryptic Tower itself.
Second, a colossal Door manifested upon the very same floor located in the center of the city.
In the aftermath, the secrets of the Tower slowly started to unravel. After Killum Basar, three more World Quests were provided by the Tower. Those who cleared World Quests came to be known as Creators, acknowledged and favored by the Tower. With each Creator, a new section of Idleheim emerged, birthing a fresh royal bloodline. Predictably, a brief but fierce war erupted in Idleheim as each Creator vied for the Royal Throne.
However, Killum Basar wasn't merely the First Emperor in name—he also wielded unparalleled power. It took him less than ten moon cycles to quell the turmoil and subdue his rivals. The Basar family rose to prominence as the foremost royal bloodline and continued to wield unparalleled power and influence to this day.
The three other royal bloodlines possessed similar influence to each other, but coveted specific resources only obtainable in their territory of the floor. Basar allowed the three other defeated Creators to maintain their portion of Idleheim, but levied heavy tax penalties on their families for the next 500 years.
However, despite the significance, meaning, and power behind the World Quests, there had been no new revealings in the past two centuries. So why was the Tower revealing this information to him now?
None of it even made sense. The Tower always provided set conditions and set rewards. But in this case, there weren’t even any clear directions or an applicable award provided.
But as Glint's thoughts were churning in a sea of confusion, time was not on his side as that's when the first goblin spawned. Having discovered his weapons were no longer with him, he was forced to confront his primal instincts, dispatching the creature in a gruesome display of violence and raw determination. That was also the first time he had killed a monster with his bare hands and teeth. Glint shuddered as he remembered how the oily flesh coated his tongue when he tore the creature’s ear apart. The taste had been nothing but short of foul. Thankfully, the armory rack had appeared the next day.
Another wave of exhaustion violently rocked him again, dragging him back from his visceral memory. The Tower was getting impatient with how long he was resisting sleep. He knew what would happen if he closed his eyes. It was the same dream every time. Or maybe it was better to call it a nightmare.
“But it's important to remember than to forget,” Glint softly whispered to himself through half-lidded eyes. He could already feel the tendrils of fatigue creeping into his limbs. Sleep beckoned. And his demons awaited him.
No. He would never forgive them.
No. This unfortunate situation was not his fault.
No. He would escape.
No. Never give up.
No. Never forgive.
Never.
And then darkness washed over him, dragging Glint once more to face the same hellish dream.