The trio raced up the spiraling stairs, chasing after Vice Guild Master Hansel through the sky of the second floor. Liam haggardly walked out of the staircase. Fatigued and not paying attention, he bumped into Luke upon entering the third floor. However, Luke was not bothered as he looked around at the new surroundings.
The air was humid, and giant trees towered into the sky. Their thick branches were full of leaves, dimming the grounds of a lively jungle. Sounds of beasts rang from afar, and Hansel spoke out to his team.
“Alright, we won’t be doing anything except reaching the relatively safe spot claimed by the Adonis Guild. We should be the only ones here today, so we can fully relax. Follow me. Don’t get lost or trapped by the vines and vegetation. Oh! And also be careful of the man-eating plants. You won’t die right away from the gastric juices, but I don’t want to see any of you uglies naked! Follow me in a single file line, and there shouldn’t be any danger. I’ll keep away any curious creatures for now. Let’s move!”
Hansel slowed his speed to allow the tired three, who just climbed a staircase to the sky, enough time to follow. Liam was in front of Luke, who warily observed the surroundings from the last spot in the line.
The jungle was dense in vegetation. However, that was it. The group met no beasts as Hansel let out his higher-stage soul energy. He cut down the plant growth in his path. After moving through the jungle for a while, he brought them to a clearing. The area of the clearing led to a cliff, high above the jungle continuing down below. The three marveled at the expansive third floor. The jungle seemed to stretch into water and continued endlessly. Hansel pointed back to the area they came from and then to a narrow ledge, zigzagging down the vertical drop of the overhang.
“Alright, we will collect supplies first. We need to go down that ledge to a cave dug out in the walls of the cliff by the Adonis Guild. The guild also dug out a movable boulder inside to cover the entrance. We can rest easy later tonight. Now, let’s gather some dry wood before the sun sets and make some dinner!”
Hansel looked back at the three and continued telling the three orders. “I will temporarily let out my soul energy. That should be enough to keep away the dangers, but always be on guard. You three will go together. Have one or two watching the surroundings while the others take care of their business or search the area. If you need to relieve yourselves, make sure not to go to the stream nearby! If I find out I drank anything unholy, I will make you wish you were dead! Make sure to collect and boil the water before drinking it. Return when you’re finished or before the sun sets. The dangers heighten after dark, but the boulder should protect us from most creatures of the jungle. Dismissed!”
Hansel walked off towards the ledge leading to the cave. He was going to ensure no hidden surprises were lurking inside their safe spot. Liam, Luke, and Darrel cautiously moved back into the jungle to search for firewood. Darrel looked at the two, who immediately scoured the grounds for herbs and usable firewood, and sighed. “We need to have a plan. Someone has to be on the lookout in case of any dangers.”
Luke looked up at Darrel and grinned. “Oh! Thanks for volunteering! Liam and I can look for the firewood. You better do a good job as the lookout!”
Darrel argued back, “when did I volunteer?! We should take turns!”
“Have you ever picked and touched firewood before? Do you even know what is usable and what is not?” Luke retorted.
Darrel went silent as he never had to deal with the small minor chores. His family hired others to manage the daily necessities such as cooking and cleaning.
Liam asked Darrel, “do you want us to show you?”
Luke sarcastically joked at Liam’s question, “the rich and noble Darrel harvesting firewood? Liam, his soft delicate hands would be pricked and bleeding. He’s going to complain to his daddy dearest that he’s allergic to such lowly work.”
Darrel surprisingly did not counter-argue with Luke. Instead, he asked Liam, “if you would show me, then I am willing to learn.”
Luke questioned if some creature possessed Darrel. “Who are you!? What did you do to the pompous asshat we all hate!?”
Darrel rolled his eyes and again asked Liam for guidance. “What will it be, are you going to show me what to do or not?”
Luke pushed Liam aside and grinned at Darrel. “Oh, I’m going to love this!” Luke puffed his chest and tilted his head, giving a smug look at Darrel. “Decided to turn a new leaf, Darrel? You should have been like this sooner! You would have been much more likable! Ok! Let your elder brother-disciple here show you how it’s done!” Luke grinned and pushed Darrel forward. “Move it, little brother! Go! Fetch me a stick! Pick a light one! The lighter ones have less water content and therefore are drier.”
Darrel glared at Luke and looked pleadingly back at Liam, but Liam gave him a helpless shrug. “Dammit, Luke! I’m not your dog! I’m taking you with me, Liam!”
Liam was pulled away by Darrel, but Luke still ordered Darrel around. They went around and gathered dried twigs into a bag Darrel brought along. Liam kept an eye out as his two party members bickered and collected the twigs and herbs in the area.
Luke kept ordering Darrel, “now dig me a hole! I need to take a number two!”
However, that was the final straw for Darrel. “You wretched poor bastard! Just because I was trying to get along with Liam doesn’t mean I want to get along with you! Dig yourself your own hole! I’m waiting here with Liam!”
Liam huffed, “Fine! Give me a cleansing orb! The guild forgot to supply us with some. How did they expect us to clean our dirty bodies out in the middle of the jungle? I saw you had a bunch in your bag.”
“You should have prepared that much yourself! How were you going to clean yourself after taking a dump?! Were you planning on using leaves?!”
Luke and Liam nodded to each other as if it was common sense, but Luke was trying to take advantage of Darrel and use up his supply. He wanted Darrel to use leaves too. “Hand it over, or I go right here in front of you two!”
“You uncouth peasant! Here! Take it! Get out of my sight!”
“Give one to Liam too! You said you were trying to get along with him, right?!” Luke quipped while snatching the orb off Darrel’s hand.
Darrel was fuming at Luke, but he gave an orb of cleansing to Liam as well.
Luke laughed and smiled. “You’re not so bad after all, younger brother-disciple. No peeking!” Luke said and turned around and left to take care of his business.
Darrel complained to Liam. “How can you stand the annoying bastard? He’s too much. I can’t go without a moment of being angry at him!”
Liam chuckled and responded, “he's honestly a good guy and fun to be around. You’ll see.”
“Ha! I doubt that,” Darrel scoffed and changed the subject. “Do you think we have enough firewood now?”
“Yea, we should head back unless you guys need water. I still have drunk any of mine.”
“Me neither.”
The two continued to make small talk, not knowing Luke sneaked up behind them. He crouched and quietly tugged their arms from the back. The two jumped in fright, thinking a beast attacked them. Luke laughed as he ran back to the cliff with Liam and Darrel angrily chasing from behind.
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They met Hansel back at the clearing. Hansel quipped sarcastically at the three. “Welcome back, little kids! Did you have fun on your field trip? Oh. Wait. You’re not kids, but climbers of the Ivory Tower.”
His face turned furious, glaring at the trio. “What the hell were you three thinking, making so much noise in the unknown dangers of Tower?! If I was not using the aura from my soul energy, you would have brought out all the beasts in the area! You were supposed to find wood to make dinner, not try to become dinner! Fools! Come here!”
Hansel grabbed Luke and Liam by the neck and wrapped them into his chest. He grabbed Darrel next and slammed all three of their heads together. All three flinched from the pain. This was the first time Hansel slammed Liam into the skull of the others. He collapsed, disoriented and seeing stars. Hansel continued to lecture them.
“Let this be an important lesson. If you want to live long traversing the Tower, stop trying to call out for the beasts to eat you. Now! Let’s eat. I’m starving.” Hansel grabbed the bag of firewood from Darrel and led them down to the cave in the walls of the cliff.
“I checked all the rooms in the back, and no beasts are taking our little safe spot as a temporary shelter. I’ll start cooking. Dysfunctional. Take out the meat of two buffalo. I’ll grill those and some frog legs for dinner.”
Liam opened his inventory and took out the meat as requested. Hansel started a fire with the wood collected and the flint, provided by the guild. Hansel told stories of his journey in the Tower as he seasoned the meat. They ate, and all enjoyed a pleasant meal.
The sun set, and darkness covered the third floor of the tower. After putting out the fire, Hansel moved a large boulder and covered the entrance of the cave. Small streams of light from the moon outside streaked through the small open crack above the boulder. Hansel spoke to the three.
“There are enough rooms in the back for you each to have your own. We’ll be resting for the night. You can do whatever you want. However, I recommend using this time to use your breathing skills until you fall asleep. There’s more concentration of origin energy in the Tower.”
The three left and split into their chosen rooms in the cave. Liam specifically chose a room as far as possible from the others. He absorbed all the low-grade origin crystals given by Hansel and taken from the frogs. Soon afterwards, he heard Luke lightly snoring in another room. Thinking he was in the clear, Liam used his soul skill. “Seal of Space!” He called out and swiftly moved into his miniature world. However, he was not aware that Hansel felt his presence disappear.
Hansel rubbed his chin in curiosity and whispered to himself, “maybe Sal was onto something. Dammit! Why is she always right?! There’s definitely more to that Liam than he shows. You’ve hidden well, young Dysfunctional, but you’re still too green. You’ve walked yourself into my hands, and now I’m not going to let you go. You’re going to join us.”
Liam was unaware of Hansel’s thoughts as he madly plucked the leaves of the herbs that regrew in the plot of his 10’x10’ field. He knew he needed to be fast to not draw the attention of the others, but he didn’t know it was already useless. Finished collecting all the herbs available, he exited his miniature world and spoke to Ordinance in his head. “Let’s sell these and the frogs on the Marketplace.’’
“Yes, master. Accessing Marketplace now…”
Ding!
System function: Marketplace
Requesting items to be sold on the Marketplace… Analyzing prices for similar products…
Ordinance asked Liam, “Master, since we’re in dire need of origin stones, I recommend selling eighty percent of your items a little under the market price and the remaining at the market price to determine how quickly they sell.” Liam agreed and Ordinance responded, “proceeding to sell eighty percent for a total of sixteen mid-grade stones and the remaining for two mid-grade stones… Listing the frog meat at 2 low-grade stones… master please place the items into the screen.”
Ding!
The window screen appeared and Liam placed the items on the screen until he was finished.
With nothing left to do, he used his breathing technique to absorb the origin energy in the Tower. Ordinance notified Liam that absorbing the energy in the Tower was a time and a half more efficient, but it still paled in comparison to absorbing the origin stones. Regardless, with no other options, like absorbed the ambient energy until he fell asleep on his sleeping bag.
Hours passed, and an appetizing smell of seared bacon wafted into Liam’s nose. His rumbling and hungry tummy woke him up from his sleep. A plate of fluffy buns, sunny-side eggs, and seared buffalo bacon floated by the side of his face. Luke laughed at the drool dripping off Liam’s mouth.
“I suspected I could wake you up with the smell of food. Come on, sleepy head! Get up! Were you up last night again? You’re such an exemplary student.”
Liam sat up and stretched his still semi-tired body. “Is that plate for me? How’d you get buns and eggs?”
“You know what? Darrel isn’t so bad. At least when he’s not being an asshole. He shared his breakfast supply with everyone. I’m going to take yours to the entrance. You better get dressed quickly, or else I’m eating all of this!”
Luke laughed as he dashed off. Liam jumped up and quickly changed his clothes and took out his morning supplies, but he didn’t have a sink. He didn’t want to just brush his teeth and spit out the water in the cave, so he bagged everything and left his toothbrush out. Running to the entrance, Luke faked a bite of his food, but he laughed at the glaring Liam and gave Liam his share. However, Luke was slick and he tore off a piece of the bacon, swallowing it whole. Darrel looked on, bewildered at the two friends fighting over food. He was then surprised at how their fighting became wrestling, and finally laughter. Darrel wondered why he felt envy over their friendship, but he scoffed at the ridiculous thought. He interrupted the two’s chatter and asked, “did you guys want to go wash up before we leave? I’m going to wash up, and Vice Guild Master Hansel wants us to go together.”
Liam responded, holding his toothbrush out. “Yep, I do! I couldn’t properly finish getting ready in the cave. We all should go.”
Hansel added, “make it quick. We still have a long way to go. The third floor is larger than the second. It will take us a whole three days to get from this point to the end of the floor due to the change in terrain. We have to be careful from this point. We’ll camp out by other safe points on the way to the fourth floor. This time, you three must work as a team.”
Hansel no longer let out his soul energy, and let the three take the lead further down the zigzagging ledge to the bottom of the cliff. They walked into the heavy vegetation of the jungle, but it was oddly quiet. Suddenly, the sounds of rushing footsteps reverberated from across where the group stood. The howls of wolves echoed into the surroundings. Hansel jumped up into the tree and observed how the group would react.
Luke and Liam looked at each other. They had ventured into the Wilds before and were aware of how wolves operated. Seeing Darrel uncertain of what to do, Luke pulled Darrel back, and the three ran back to the walls of the cliff. Luke and Liam took out their swords, and Darrel imitated their reactions. However, he called out his summon in panic. Molt stood by his master’s side, wary of the oncoming footsteps, closing in on their position.
“Darrel, remain calm.” Luke seriously stated. “It’s a pack of wolves. They’re keen to smell. Hidden attacks will not be as effective. If they’re anything like the wolves from the Wild then we should be able to fend them off ourselves.”
However, the wolves of the Tower were nothing like the wolves in the Wild. They were much larger in size and stronger. The pack of green-furred wolves attempting to surround their prey failed, but they still outnumbered the group, three to one.
Seeing the larger-sized wolves, Luke debated if he should call out his summon. But Ordinance spoke to Liam to advise his friend not to.
“Master, your group should go up the ledge and attack from higher up.”
Liam agreed with the proposal and pulled the other two to the ledge.
“Let’s go back up and attack from the higher ground. The wolves are too large and can’t climb the narrow ledge. We would face less injuries while going all out in a ranged attack.”
Luke and Darrel agreed and the three went up the ledge with Molt picking up the rear. The green wolves noticed and rushed forward, ready to jump up at the three. But Darrel quickly commanded Molt to use Flame Breath. Molt shot out black flames like a flamethrower, scorching the incoming wolves. The wolves caught in the flames, rolled on the ground in agony, slowly devoured by the flames. The others of the pack were wary, but they didn’t run away.
Liam rushed up and out of range before using Stone Barrage. Rocks and boulders emerged out of the cliff face and rained down at the remaining wolf pack. Darrel continued to have Molt breathe fire on wolves, and after a few more collapsed, the rest of the pack ran away.
Hansel came down where he observed from the tree, and pointed out his suggestions to the trio.
“I recommend you three get to know your own skills and each other better. Although you came out of this predicament in decent shape, you might not have needed to retreat at all.”
He looked at the dead wolves, and commended the three.
“The results were still decent. No injuries for four dead wolves out of the nine. Let’s keep going. We need to make it to the next safe point.”