Chapter 129 – Hannah, where the fuck are you?
[Hannah]
Hannah bit down in frustration as she scanned her surroundings. A special sort of migraine was coming that she hoped she would no longer have to deal with. The Jack Atlas migraine.
Over the past year Jack had been subdued, reserved, motivated, smart even. Losing Sarah and killing Rodeo seemed to really have had an impact on him. He was more focused and harder working than Hannah had ever seen him.
Now Hannah was realizing he was probably just bored.
Hannah had contingencies in the event they got separated and couldn’t advance to the second floor together. It was a plan so simple she didn’t think Jack could possibly forget it. Just sit, wait, and try not to cause any chaos. She had clearly been tricked into believing he could behave himself. It seemed as if he was just bottling up all the chaos he wanted to cause and was waiting for his first unsupervised moment to let it all out. Hannah rubbed at her temples, her migraine growing as she revisited the stories she had heard since arriving on the second floor.
“I’m going to kill him,” she mumbled.
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” she said, collecting herself. “You sure this is the spot?” Hannah glanced over at the dingo that was walking behind her. One of the many races that climbed the Tower was the Clawsworn. They could be categorized as any mammal with fur that had anthropomorphic features. Not to be confused with the lizard people or bird folk, those were something else entirely. This particular information dealer she had hired happened to be a dingo.
“Yes,” Blu nodded, sniffing at the air.
Hannah glanced around at the wanton destruction that had taken place at the western gate. Other adventurers were filing in from the desert and lining up outside the gate, some piecing through the remains of what looked like a rather large camp. Others split off into groups and forming parties to go hunt the moonlight beasts. Hannah ground her teeth in annoyance.
When she first arrived on the second floor she had been unceremoniously dropped near the northern gate. She didn’t find any signs of Jack there after waiting a day, so she moved along the outer walls of the city clockwise towards the eastern gate.
Had I just picked the other direction I probably could have found him, she complained inwardly.
She hadn’t been in much of a rush. The fact that no one could get in the city Hannah had initially considered a good thing. If she couldn’t get in, Jack couldn’t get in. It wasn’t until she arrived at the southern gate after several days of hanging around and searching for Jack that she had come across Blu, an information dealer.
Blu had already earned his entry to the city, and would come out to sell information, news, and tips to the people outside the gates. Mostly humans and other newly integrated races to the Tower were his customer base. Other more established races had their own workarounds for the Tower Geas she had found. She initially blew the dingo off, but when she overheard him telling another adventurer about the assassination attempt at the western gate she quickly found herself shelling out AP.
“There was an assassination attempt on Elera, Daughter of the Summer Sun,” he told her, like it was supposed to mean something.
Summer elves were one of the many variations of elves that existed within the Tower, they were also one of the more established races, having been in the Tower for several thousand years now. After some prying from the dingo, she learned they had a young scion known as Elera who was making her climbing debut. From what Hannah could gather, she was some sort of genius who had the backing of her entire clan. There was a lot of chatter that she would be a hopeful candidate for making it well past the fifteenth floor, and maybe even conquering the Tower itself.
“And who tried to assassinate her?”
“The Black Centipede,” Blu said, his wolf-like eyes going hard. “Although it appears to have been a botched attempt. She is fine and safe within the city limits.
“And the assassin?” Hannah felt the migraine coming on.
“He got away” Blu growled. He didn’t seem to like the Black Centipede one bit. “But not before killing one of the arbiters and breaking into the city.”
Armed with that information, Hannah hired Blu to take her to the western gate and show her where the fight took place. With any luck Jack might still be lurking around she convinced herself. During the walk over she learned all about the arbiters. They existed as sort of an ambiguous police force of Broken Moon city. It was hard to keep any sort of law in a city that was very literally designed to be constantly at war with itself, but the arbiters did a pretty good job if Blu was to be believed. Best Hannah could make out, the arbiters seemed like a neutral force designed by the Tower to throw a wrench into everyone’s master plan to take over the city. When asked, Blu couldn’t point to any law they actually upheld. They just seemed to work at the behest of whoever controlled the sector they policed, and served at the whims of the city's mayor, Lord Mortimaxx.
“So how bad is it killing an arbiter exactly?” Hannah asked Blu. The dingo didn’t respond at first. He was focused on the line leading out of the city gate. There was some sort of commotion going on.
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“Hey,” she snapped trying to get his attention.
“Not good. It’s an easy way to earn a bounty,” he said, turning back to Hannah.
“Wait. So there’s a bounty on this guy? Do you know who it is?”
“Yes. I checked the quest board inside the city before coming out. His bounty is already posted. A human named Jack Atlas. Wanted for killing an arbiter and breaking into the city. There is also another bounty on his head placed by the summer elves. They are paying much more, although they have requested him alive.”
Hannah felt her teeth cracking she was so angry. It had barely been a week and Jack had already managed to earn himself two bounties. She knew the man didn’t have a subtle bone in his body, but it was like he wanted to die or something.
Hannah closed her eyes and let out a long, angry sigh trying to put together a plan. She needed to get inside the city, and fast. That meant buying her way in. Going rate for a beast heart was about fifty million AP. She had the funds but that would clean her out completely. She gripped her fist tighter. She was going to work Jack like a dog until he paid her back every fucking point. Hell, she might just kill him and collect the bounty herself.
That thought gave her pause. She could turn him in, collect the reward, and then break him out. They had done something similar once before back on Earth. She pushed that idea to the back of her mind to revisit later. She glanced at Blu who was again staring at the line of people. It was growing shorter by the second.
“What’s going on?” Hannah asked.
“I’m not sure,” Blu admitted, his eyes narrowed. “I think… Maybe there isn’t an entry fee anymore? Let us check.”
Hannah nodded and the two walked towards the quickly shrinking line. A small band of orcs were in front of them with a sour look on their faces, arguing amongst themselves.
“Two months in that cursed desert chasing after those rotten beasts, and the second we get in line it’s free? I told you our luck is cursed. We should have just waited.”
Several other orcs nodded in agreement.
“Excuse me,” Blu stepped up to the orcs and they all gave him dangerous looks. Blu just glared back, unbothered by the orc’s nature. “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“Someone killed off the Tortuga’s leader and took control of the first sector. It’s free to get inside now.”
“Who?”
“Do I look like an info broker? Find out yourself, dog,” the orc spit.
Blu’s ears pinned to the back of his head, and he let loose a low, guttural growl that caused the small band of orcs to brandish their weapons. The line started moving again before a fight broke out and Hannah felt a small tinge of disappointment. She needed to blow off some steam. Plus, she had some new abilities she wanted to try out.
As they approached the massive gate Hannah pressed her hand against it, and a notification appeared.
Broken Moon City Sector Six
Controlled by Faction: Hannahwherethefuckareyou
Faction Leader: Jack Atlas
Entry Fee: N/A
Enter sector six of Broken Moon City? Y/N
Hannah let her head hit the gate with a loud thud, a long, annoyed sigh escaping her once more. She was going to kill Jack.
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[The Tower – Floor Three]
[Kilgor]
Kilgor sat at the center of his once great lodge, rubbing at his broken tusks. They were aching more than usual these days, a painful reminder of memories best forgotten. His long gray trunk slithered along the floor and removed the lid of a large storage pot to his left and slid inside. He let loose a sigh as it hit the bottom in search of the contents of the pot. He was out of wine. He pulled back his trunk and leaned against the wall, the rotten wood cracking under his tremendous weight.
He stared at the destitute halls of his lodge that once teemed with great hunters who feasted on the blood of ancient mighty monsters. One failed kill was all it had taken to ruin everything. Bonds forged through the trials of a great hunt shattered in an instant as though made of nothing more than glass. He desperately wanted to forget his failures, but his mind was simply incapable of the task.
The doors opposite him swung open with a groan and Kilgor turned to stone as he stared at the would-be intruder. Finally, you’ve come to finish me off, came an errant thought.
Kilgor scrunched his eyes as a tiny little human stepped into his domain. He pushed back his hooded mage coat of blue as he took careful steps through the lodge. The human looked ragged, scruffy, beat down and tired. His eyes were hard but meticulous, weighing and measuring everything they fell on. His eyes even scanned Kilgor himself, but quickly moved on to his harpoons that hung along the wall, not realizing the unmoving elephant wasn’t actually made of stone.
Kilgor let his trunk slither across the floor and wrap around the unsuspecting boy tightly. The human disappeared in a puff of blue energy, reappearing several feet back and pulling out a sword that was all too big for him to handle. Kilgor watched with some amusement as blue ticking clocks sprung up to life all around the human. Kilgor breathed in deep through his trunk, pulling in whatever spell the boy had created and swallowing it for himself. He tasted the stolen mana.
Time mana. Very interesting, Kilgor thought with another inspection of the human.
“What brings a little chronomancer to my lodge?” Kilgor asked, his deep rumbling voice shaking loose debris from the rafters above.
The human inspected Kilgor for a long second before putting away his sword.
“So, you’re Kilgor?” The human crossed his arms and was now thoroughly inspecting him.
“What is it you want little one? Why have you disturbed my halls?”
The human looked up, his meticulous eyes turning earnest.
“You’re Kilgor… The Dragonslayer?” he asked again.
Kilgor stood up from his spot against the wall, his cloak falling to the ground and revealing his six arms, fists clenched and ready to grind the human to nothing but dust.
“Not anymore. Leave at once or face my-“
“Teach me” the human interrupted, falling to his knees and begging.
“Please. Teach me how to slay a dragon.”