Starred Tower: System Misinterpret Book One - A Post Apocalyptic Cultivation LitRPG

by Ryan DeBruyn

  “So, are you going to talk to me finally? Tell me your name?” Veronica asks. Her eyes bore into me, and an uncomfortable tingle runs through my body. I glance at the ladder, but then think better of it. She’s probably right that I will end up in jail if I go walk the streets of the Suburb like this. I should try to avoid the Church’s notice if nothing else. . . I’m not sure how they’d react to someone not following their cultivation method.

  “My name is Jeff,” I mumble as I turn back to her. “Do you have a towel or something I can use to clean off?” I ask and gesture ineffectually at myself. It’s kind of hard to indicate that all of me is currently the problem. “I never thought I’d be wearing this much rot.”

  “I can do you one better, Jeff. How about you come inside and take a shower? I’d prefer not to talk to toilet water,” Veronica states. Her eyes have changed. They’re almost staring and I’m unsure if I remember her blinking. It would worry me if I didn’t know that the girl in front of me was an F-3. If not for that, I’d probably take my chances on the street.

  I nod to her slowly. My eyes narrow when she just turns and walks back toward the cage. That’s it? She’s just going to let me into one of these high-rises? Who or what in the Tower owns something so large anyway? Veronica leads the way back into the now-open gate. The creaking whine sounds again as she closes it behind me while holding her nose due to my proximity.

  “I’m sorry,” I mumble in embarrassment, and she forces a tight-lipped smile in response. The interior of the garden is breathtaking, and not because of the odor I am exuding. The pond has a bubbling fountain and small fish of assorted colors meandering about within. White flowers and a large white tree with hanging yellow fruits line its edge. I use [Identify], and my mouth falls open in shock.

  Mature White Oak [Yellow]

  Rank: C1

  This oak will prevent C-ranked dungeons and below from forming in the area covered by its roots. Once mature, this tree will produce star-fruits that, if consumed, can satisfy the individual’s hunger for an entire day.

  The similarities between this and the Great Oak Acorns I found can’t be ignored, and I wonder if this came out of a higher-level dungeon. I want to keep studying the plants here. Yet a polite cough reminds me that I am following Veronica inside to shower. Couldn’t I just use the water from the pond? I consider for a half-step but realize that I may kill the fish with the level of filth on me.

  I step after Veronica through the large metal door and find myself in a concrete tube that seems to run through the entire center of the building from top to bottom. There is a gray door every two flights of stairs, and Veronica passes three before she opens one and motions me to follow. The change from the gray concrete to the lush red carpet, black and white patterned wallpaper, and large polished oak doors of the new hallway is jarring. It’s like I have walked through a portal, and I glance back as the door clunks shut behind me. Nope, just a door. . .

  “Come on, hurry up, you are dripping that black sludge onto the carpet! There is a guest room just up here that you can use. It isn’t anything fancy, but it will do to get you cleaned up,” Veronica insists and then taps a wristwatch to a pad beside one of the huge doors. The pad chirps happily at her, and the door makes a mechanical thump. She pushes it open and walks inside, and I look around the hallway before following. The fact that they have guestrooms, and the level of fancy I see, means this place must be owned by a guild, right? A small part of me worries about what guild it might be, but another part of me considers if it matters. I need to get clean, and this isn’t trespassing if I was invited. Right? Of course, that brings up a glaring question: Why would Veronica invite me into a guild like this? I shake my head and watch as a large glob of black sludge falls to the floor. I swallow a lump of saliva and hurriedly follow. I can’t just leave now, anyway . . . right?

  On the other side of the doorway is a small room furnished with a couch, armchair, table, kitchenette, and window to the outside. The red carpeting merges into a tile floor at the entryway and then changes back to a gray carpet further into the room. Veronica waits just off of the tile, and has taken her shoes off at the door. She looks at my grime-caked body before wincing.

  “There’s probably no way to keep that disgusting filth off the interior. Just hurry up. There is a bathroom through the bedroom. Go get cleaned up,” she says while pointing through a door off the kitchen. “When you get back, we will talk!” she finishes with a bit of urgency in her voice.

  That wasn’t ominous at all?! My stomach tightens slightly but it’s not like talking is going to hurt me. I think? I hurry off in the direction she indicated and my step stutters. If I hadn’t recently seen a functioning kitchen, I would probably want to stop and stare at the one I am passing through. While the Training Room’s kitchen is larger and better equipped, this one seems to be a perfect fit for the small space it occupies, each piece shrunk in size to fit a space designed for it—and this is a guest quarters?

  The bedroom has a bed easily four times the size of a cot in the Training Room and cushiony in appearance. Part of me wants to sink into the blankets and pillows on display and never get out of the security they seem to offer. I push on into the only other doorway leading from the room and find a fully tiled bathroom. The room contains an individual use shower, toilet, vanity, and one of those bathtub things.

  I turn on the shower and feel cold water greet me. Too bad, it was almost perf—the water begins to warm, and I shuck my clothes into the bathtub and start lathering up with the provided soap. There is a strange bottle at eye level labeled ‘shampoo,’ and I have to read the instructions before I realize I can apply it to my hair. The bubbles it creates are wonderfully distracting.

  Chapter 29

  September 2nd, 151 AR

  Jeff Turle

  I take an hour in the shower and bathroom. A great many problems arise as I clean myself. First, the filth covering my body is extremely hard to remove. When I discover vigorous scrubbing is my best bet, I manage to splash it liberally on all of the glass shower walls.

  When I finish with that, it looks like I’ve tried to paint the glass shower blackish-brown, but I doubt even the most artistic of people would find the odorous smears easy to stomach. So I end up cleaning the glass and tile walls. Finally clean, I step out of the shower to the same horrid stench. I follow my nose to the tub and remember my clothes. I threw them in the tub earlier to clean before I would put them back on. I wrinkle my nose, the task very unappealing. Unwilling to start without wrapping a towel around my nakedness, I search for one but don’t see one on display.

  “Umm, are there any towels?” I call back out to the main area of the guest chamber.

  “I placed one on the bed along with a change of clothes for you. I doubt your others were wearable,” Veronica’s voice calls. “Is it going to be much longer?” she adds and I feel some tightness in my chest due to the rush. I look at my filthy bundle of clothes in the tub and sigh in relief. Thankfully, I don’t have to clean them but unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the tub that holds them. I should’ve just sent them into my subspace right away, but now I’ve created a mess!

  “Uhh. . . no, not much longer,” I call back and hurriedly grab a nearby plastic bag out of a white bin. I place the clothes inside and then seal it before depositing them into my subspace. Then, still naked, I hurriedly clean the tub and then my hands again before heading for the bedroom for the towel and clothes.

  Once I towel off, I notice another issue. I am continuing to circulate the Sun qi, so I continue to sweat impurities to the surface. The filth is coming out at a much slower rate, but it’s still there. The only way to avoid the continued excretion would be to stop the circulation, which would be counterproductive to my goals. Plus, holding this much qi feels terrific in a way that defies explanation. Almost like I can hold out my hand and blast people from my path. It feels like I have literal power coursing through my veins, which I guess I kind of do.

  A bit
of meditation in the shower told me that each vein and artery holds almost twenty drops along its length. I also added more than one hundred drops to blocked inlets along those arteries. Each of these also holds a fraction of pressure, allowing me to keep two hundred and eighteen drops of Sun qi outside my Dantian and the arteries surrounding it.

  Wearing a false smile, I stride into the kitchen wearing a borrowed black shirt and pants that are much nicer than my old pair. I’m just wondering how long it will take until I ‘sweat’ through them. Veronica is sitting on the couch and stands at my entrance.

  “All clean?” she asks with forced politeness, likely wanting to shout at me for the time it took. I nod while refusing to meet her eyes. They still have that intensity to them. Like I am something important that needs to be examined. “What happened to your ears?” she asks.

  “Oh,” I stutter as my heart stops beating, a hand going to both sides of my head with a blush. I mess up my wet hair and manage to cover them both. Slowly I take my hands away from my head and recite, “It’s a birth mutation. I’ve always had them.” Something I was coached thoroughly by Leah to say. Of course, I was coached to never let others see them, and have failed at that. Veronica tilts her head and I see a tiny smile cross onto her lips.

  “Okay, Jeff, why don’t you sit down, and we can talk?” Veronica says, her voice slightly softer than a moment before. Cheeks still hot, I look to the perfectly clean couch before shaking my head.

  “I think I’ll stand if that’s all right?” I stutter. Veronica squints at me before choosing to sit back down and take a sip of the mug beside her.

  “Suit yourself. Why did you run away the first two times I came outside, and how did you know my name?” she asks after swallowing.

  “I’m sorry about that,” I whisper and look down to the floor, my cheeks growing hot. Coughing, I manage to continue. “I should have introduced myself properly the first time. I just thought I might be trespassing on your roof.”

  “Well, you were trespassing, Jeff, but it isn’t my roof. It’s our roof,” she responds with an eyebrow raise before sipping more of the black liquid in the cup. Is that coffee? It sure looks like the stuff Leah used to drink. She was the only one in camp who always had a supply of the stuff. In fact, I think the closest she ever came to hitting me was because I dropped one of her cups on my way to deliver it . . . I think that stuff is really expensive. I swallow a lump in my throat from the level of wealth her casual sipping seems to indicate. How does an F-rated member drink coffee?

  “Jeff, I’d really prefer it if you sat down.” She rolls her eyes when I shake my head again and continues, “No, he still prefers standing. Okay then, well, welcome to the Star Bucks guild,” Veronica says as she motions around herself. “You are inside the Toronto headquarters of the Star Bucks.” My eyebrows shoot up, and I forget most of my embarrassment at her final statement.

  “So this is a guild? I thought all guilds had their primary headquarters in Aresmont?” I question Veronica unashamedly. Guilds have always been an area of interest for me, and the mercenaries, while dreaming of guilds, were often bitter at them as well. Maybe those mercenaries were bitter because they were rejected by guilds in the past. But either way, the lack of straight answers only increased my curiosity over the years.

  Veronica chuckles, which causes a bit of heat to suffuse my cheeks, but I refuse to retract my questions.

  “How can someone know so little about guilds? Almost every living person is a member or prospective member of a guild or group.”

  Yes, everyone did want to be part of a guild because of the benefits. Still, most guilds only took on talented or powerful individuals. I want to ask how she managed the feat at F-3 but manage to hold my tongue. There’s no way I should know her rank by looking at her so I wait for more. After Veronica sees my earnest stare and attention, she sobers.

  “No, there are a great deal of lesser-known guilds who don’t focus in Aresmont. For that matter every guild has multiple headquarters. . .” Veronica begins seeming a little bored. Almost like she has answered this question many times before. “Many smaller guilds concentrate on localized dungeons. The Church, governments, and the top guilds have complete control over the Towers.” She shrugs off a bit of her boredom after that explanation and sighs. “Admittedly, our guild is a bit of a unique case.

  “Star Bucks is one of the only international guilds that work in six of the seven territories. It’s even sanctioned by the larger guilds in numerous ways!” Partway through she seems to catch herself and she changes her tone to something resembling excitement, but if feels forced. Almost rehearsed to me.

  “In fact, the Northern Territory is supposedly the smallest branch, but I’m only able to speculate as to the why. So don’t ask. Our guild operates in a very unique capacity by recruiting young members and training them. The top guilds often send promising recruits to us, where they are trained and run dungeons in a safe environment. Anyone would be lucky to join us. . .”

  The way she finishes sounds the falsest yet. While I can tell she is genuinely happy to be a member—I mean it only takes a quick glance around the guest chambers to confirm that she lives a life I could only have dreamed about before the Training Room—there is still something about her explanation that is setting off alarm bells in my head.

  “So, wait, you’re a guild that is completely subservient to larger organizations?” I ask, trying to pin down the feeling.

  “Not at all!” she exclaims. “It’s more that we have fantastic connections with them. Weren’t you listening? A niche, Jeff. Our leaders say that the top members of the Star Bucks are even allowed to run the Tower. . .”

  That’s when the issue I couldn’t name hits me like a Leporid. She is reciting the information but doesn’t really have any true experience. This is like a pamphlet but given a pretty face and some character. I can see now why her tone oscillated so often, and certain parts felt rehearsed. She’s likely new to this! My head tilts, and I’m about to ask her what’s in it for the Star Bucks to take on low-ranking fighters, but the click of the mechanical door lock interrupts me. Two men in business suits walk in, and Veronica stands up with a giant smile for them.

  “Jeff, this is our branch leader, Darren, and his co-leader, Jacque. They wished to talk to you about joining the ranks of our branch.”

  My brain begins whirring into overdrive as I try to understand what sort of place I just landed in. Leah’s reclusive and secretive ways start to weigh heavy, and I can feel my pulse quicken in my limbs.

  “Does it smell like someone farted in here?” Jacque asks Darren in a French accent.

  Veronica places a hand over one eye and some of her forehead before giving the man a tight-lipped shake of the head. I can honestly say I had forgotten about my activities from a mere hour before with everything that was happening. Still, with the smell brought back up, I take a whiff of the air and can’t detect anything strange, but I do realize I am sweating quite profusely and that my sweat isn’t exactly clean.

  I quickly dive into myself and realize that the qi is being slowly depleted as it continues to clear abscesses inside my arteries. A quick estimate based on that consumption rate tells me I will lose approximately one drop every ten minutes to the effort. Still, two hundred and eight drops circulate outside of my Dantian and River artery. The renewed wonder of that forces my eyes to fly open, and I regard the situation from a new perspective. What would the Star Bucks guild think when someone cultivated on their rooftop for the last four hours?

  The answer that comes to mind surprises me. They think I am a powerful cultivator that is worthy of recruitment. If this were a few weeks ago, I would probably leap at the opportunity in front of me. Right now, I have the Training Room and my teammates to think about.

  I missed a bit of unspoken interaction between the three, but Jacque is flushing when I tune back in. The other leader, Darren, opens his mouth to speak.

  “Sorry for my co-leader. He doesn’t recogni
ze the smell of hard work,” Darren explains with a weak smile. “Still, the smell is a little overwhelming, so would you mind if we had this conversation in one of the meeting rooms?”

  My brain is buzzing as I search for possible ways to extricate myself from this situation. Should I claim I am already a member of a guild? No, with the Star Bucks’ supposed connections, they would probably discover my falsehood within a day. A possibility comes to me, and while I have to admit it is a bit of a tale, it mostly utilizes the truth.

  “I apologize. While I appreciate the offer to join your guild, I don’t have time to hear the proposal today,” I announce in my best attempt at gentlemanly speech. “I was actually on my way to the market and then the church to pay the first installment of some restitution I owe.”

  “Restitution?” Veronica gasps. “You’re a criminal?”

  I fight my urge to wince and force a smile onto my face instead. “In the eyes of the Church? I’m afraid so,” I respond politely. Then, to Darren, I add the coup de grâce. “If you were willing to pay off my remaining debt, I would be happy to consider your offer of membership.”

  The man’s nose wrinkles in apparent distaste and likely disgust from the horrible odor I am giving off.

  “We thank you for your time today, Jeff,” Darren blurts out before issuing his orders. “Veronica, please walk with me. Jacque, please show Jeff the exit.”

  I feel an intense chill run down my spine. When did they hear my name?

  Overkill? Definitely.

  I wince as I walk away from the building. Not only did I likely just burn a bridge with the Star Bucks, but I also just lost my out-of-the-way cultivation spot. How bad are those two things? Certainly, I can recover, but I really wish I had more time to speak with Veronica before the leaders showed up. Maybe I could have gained something from Star Bucks membership. Too late to fret about it now, though.