by I. Felix
Level 16
- Hiding: 1
- Double Attack: 5
- Improve Dodge: 1
- Steal: 6
- Envenom: 1
- Detoxify: 1
- Slide: 1
Shadow Hiding
- Strength: 2+7
- Agility: 9+7
- Vitality: 2+7
- 1ntelligence: 2+7
- Dexterity: 5+7
- Luck: 2+7
“Pretty strong too,” Blake said, smug, pointing at himself with his thumbs. They laughed at his expression and voice tone.
“Now, how will we find a healer?” Arche asked. “Open a chat box?”
“I was thinking that we could get a shortcut to that. As you know, I’m terrible with finding groups, I can never fit well,” May said.
“Wait a minute, me too!” Blake exclaimed. “Everybody finds me too weird or too annoying.”
“I don’t even need to comment about myself, do I?” Arche asked. He was definitely the most introverted there.
“We’re a bunch of misfits, that’s why we fit together. We’re underdogs,” Blake added.
“Yeah. So, I was thinking that instead of a PERSON we could get a Contractor,” May said.
“What’s that?” Arche asked, interested, already opening the database icon so he could search for it.
“It’s a monster that you can contract and they will walk with us and help us. We can contract a healer. We pay them and they work for us. It can get pretty expensive but I think it’s worth it.”
“A monster...?”
“Yes, but they’re almost like NPCs, even though they have more intelligence than most NPCs and they are free to do as they please. They can’t be played by us, humans, but they are almost like computer-controlled players that can level up, have their own goals and objectives.”
“And where do we find one?” Blake asked.
“Right here in Pruntire, there’s a contractor’s store,” Arche answered, as he was searching in the database. May smiled.
“Follow me!” she said and they started walking from the central plaza to one of the stores around it. They entered one of the lateral streets that led them to a much less crowded part of the town. There, they found a small wooden door, where they entered.
The inside was different from the other stores that they had been at. It looked almost sketchy. It was dark, with few tables, and the place was full of different monsters drinking and eating. Blake and Arche looked around, impressed, but May simply kept walking to the counter in the back of the room.
A normal NPC was there. He was a big guy with a prominent belly and it read “Contract Dealer” on top of his head.
“We want to hire a Healer,” May said.
“We have these ones available,” the NPC answered and a list appeared in front of their eyes.
- Femoloer – Level 3 – 50 coins
- Skiggould – Level 83 – 500 coins
- Valkyria – Level 99 – 5000 coins
“We’ll want the Valkyria, please,” May said. Arche and Blake looked impressed.
“Do we have that much money?” Blake whispered.
“Well, I’m going broke, but who cares?!” May exclaimed, happily.
“If you say so,” Blake said. Arche handed her his coin bag.
“It’s not much but it can help,” Arche said. “There’re like 200 coins there.”
“That’s very kind, thank you,” May said. Blake looked at him and frowned.
“Here’s mine,” Blake said, almost in a competition.
“Thank you,” May said, finding it funny.
“Here’s your Contract. You’ll be hiring a Valkyria for your objective. She will be with you for the duration of your quest. After that, failing or completing it, the contract will end. Please, sign here,” the NPC said and handed her a feather pen. May signed it.
The Valkyria came from one of the tables where she was sitting and drinking.
The boys had to hold back not to say anything.
She was enormous. Over 6 feet tall and she floated above the ground. She was wearing a white armor, including the helmet. She had big white wings, and she was carrying a giant flaming sword. The flames were blue. She looked so powerful that the boys started trembling.
“Hello. I’m Valkyria. I’ll be with you for the duration of your quest,” she said, formally.
“I’m May. This is Blake, and this is Arche,” she said, smiling.
“May I ask you what’s the quest we’re going after?” she asked.
“Yes. We want to complete the Endless Tower.”
When May said that, many faces turned their direction and the Valkyria looked shocked.
She did something no one was expecting.
She started laughing so hard that the cups in the bar started reverberating.
“The Endless Tower? Are you SERIOUS?!” she asked, laughing, loud.
“Hey! What’s wrong with that?!” Blake exclaimed, frowning, but she still laughed.
“You won’t last two floors there,” she said, laughing so hard she bend down and held her own stomach.
“See? That’s why I’m terrible with groups,” May said, rolling her eyes. The boys also looked impressed, they never saw May acting like that.
“Whatever. Let’s go, losers. We’ll end this in thirty seconds and then I’m back to the bar to drink even more,” the Valkyria said. “BTW, you can call me Valky.”
Blake and Arche exchanged another surprised look.
“I thought she would be super formal and polite,” Blake murmured to Arche, who nodded in agreement.
“This is really weird, and she’s a monster, you know?” Arche murmured back.
“I hope you two aren’t gossiping about me!” Valky said, turning to them with rage in her expression.
“No! No, ma’am!!” Blake almost screamed and she started laughing hard again.
“It will be a very, very long, endless tower, indeed,” Arche said, sighing.
Chapter 11 – Entering the Tower
To enter the Tower, they had to go back to the first island where they had started, Ozladi. The ocean blew the breeze there and it invaded the place with a beachy feel and a delicious kind of smell. The smell of summer, vacations, adventures, the smell that only the beach can create. The boys were kind of nervous, May was very excited, and Valky didn't say anything but her sarcastic face showed it all.
They followed to the center of the island, which also had a central plaza, with many stores around. The center of it had a big rock, like a landmark of something historical and important.
Blake could never imagine that was where they were heading.
May talked to the stone. It turned out to be an NPC of some sort.
"Do you wish to enter the Endless Tower Instance? Party required. No minimum level. Beware: extremely hardships to be faced inside," the notification popped up in front of their eyes.
May selected yes.
Everything went white for a second and in the next second, they were on another island. It was much smaller than Ozladi and completely empty. It was in the middle of the ocean and the sky there was completely clouded, dark. The ocean seemed angry like it wanted some revenge. The waves were crashing violently on the small island that they were. There, they could see another rock in the middle of the island.
May, as the leader of the party, went there again and talked to the rock.
"Generate Endless Tower? You can still go back," the notification read. Once again, May selected yes.
Everything started shaking like an Earthquake. The island felt like it would break in two. Blake and Arche fell on their butts, Oliver meowed loudly and jumped on Blake's lap, Dark started jumping around Arche, desperate, and the Bella, the gryphon, screamed in a very loud noise. May continue on her feet, as she knew what was going to happen, and Valky laughed and kept flying. She didn't care about any of that commotion.
The earthquake had a clear reason: in front of the small island, slo
wly like a drill cutting through stone, emerged a tower. It started thin and kind of small and started getting bigger and wider. It continued upwards, getting higher and higher, till the top of it disappeared in the clouds and the group could only see an endless - as the name said - tower, so big that it covered their view of the horizon. It was entirely made out of stone, it had no windows or doors besides the main front door, but it had one hundred floors, undoubtedly.
The front door creaked and slowly started to get open, like a door in a haunted castle of a horror movie. They couldn't see anything on the inside, it was completely black. A swirling light portal was in front of the door and they knew they would enter and not leave it for a long time.
"Is there any way to go out of the Tower before we finish it?" Arche asked May, who smiled.
"Only if we die," she said.
"Dying is never good," Blake said, remembering that annoying tutorial part.
“I can also create a portal somewhere,” May said.
They all took a step forward and entered the tower.
Everything went white and when the environment appeared again, they were in a dark chamber. It had some torches that lit the place, small halls, some stairs, then another hall, and they could see more stairs. The walls were decorated with intricate golden ornaments, some statues of monsters like a minotaur, and things like that. The floor was stone but it was also ornated in gold, like the rest of the chamber. It felt chic, expensive, and interesting. The golden reflected the fire, so it gave a yellowish vibe to the place. Many torches made it very bright inside.
Also, they couldn't see the door anymore. There wasn't any way to go back. They couldn't see any monsters in front of them, the hall and the stairs were empty. They all exchanged puzzled looks but kept going.
Blake almost screamed when he tripped on something.
It was an egg.
"The first floor is... all eggs?" Arche asked, looking around. The chamber was completely silent except for their steps. "It doesn't seem to be any monsters here because... there aren't any monsters here!"
"It's monsters eggs. Different kinds..." May remarked. "I can see Endri eggs, that's a type of ant-monster, Dragon eggs, Larvae eggs..."
"There are SO MANY!" Blake exclaimed, loud, breaking the almost sepulchral silence that was inside the chamber. "There must be like... one hundred eggs in here?"
Valky laughed. They turned to face her but she didn't seem to care.
"Let's start cleaning the place. It's the only way," May said, sighing. "Let me turn in the broadcasting first."
Blake and Arche got silent. May activated the camera icon and a transparent camera appeared in front of her face. Her voice changed to become much thinner and high-pitched, almost like a child's voice. She widened her eyes for them to seem even bigger, she put a finger in her mouth, and Blake was sure that she was trying to be sexy in a lolita type of way.
"Heeeeeello, my lovelies!" she exclaimed to the camera. "We are here for the A-D-V-E-N-T-U-R-E! Can you believe it? These are my FRIENDS! And I even have a Valkyria! How exciting is that? Follow along our journey! The first floor is full of... ugh... EGGS! I wonder if we can fry some, hihihiih," she laughed in a fake way. Then, she turned off the camera and got back to her normal self. Blake and Arche were facing her, frowning.
"What? I need to engage my audience. Don't judge, soon you two will have to do the same," she said. Blake continued confused but Arche remembered the talk that they had. He knew that Blake wouldn't have any problems captivating an audience but he couldn't say the same for himself.
"Anyway, let's kill!" Arche exclaimed and stepped on the closest egg, which was as small as a butterfly's cocoon. It exploded in green slime and a rock got in the place as loot, that Arche collected.
"1x Coal," the notification popped up.
"Maybe we'll be able to get a lot of loot from here," he said.
Blake was stepping on every egg he was seeing just like someone would be stepping on cockroaches. He had his arms up, he was jumping from one foot to the other, while stepping on stuff, and exclaiming every time one of the eggs exploded. Oliver, the cat, thought it was a great idea to do the same, so he was attacking the closest eggs, that exploded before he could have enough fun with them, so he got to the next. Dark was doing a bunch of buttheads in different eggs, that exploded with the same kind of noise of popping pimples.
"It doesn't matter how much we kill. Every time we kill one, another one appears," Arche said.
"I thought that too!" May exclaimed, worried.
"Hey, May, can I borrow pikupiku?" Blake asked. May was also stepping on eggs. Bella, the gryphon, had a slight advantage, as she could use a fire skill. The fire was frying many eggs at once.
May conjured pikupiku, the ostrich-like mount. Blake got to its back and slapped its butt. The pikupiku screamed in a bird's way and started running amok in the chamber. Blake started laughing like crazy, trying to hold on to the pikupiku's back, while Arche looked with raised eyebrows and an open mouth.
"Yas!" May exclaimed. Blake screamed, laughed, and held to the pikupiku's back, which was running in circles and screaming.
"It looks like a headless chicken, even though headless chicken can't obviously scream!" Blake remarked.
Everything was fun and games till Blake accidentally ripped one of the feathers of the pikupiku.
Pikupiku wasn't happy after that.
It shook its back till Blake couldn't hold on anymore and the boy fell on his back with a loud thump. The pikupiku was still mad and started to flap its wings with absolute madness in its red eyes.
The wings produced a type of skill that made the ground reverberate and all the eggs started popping at the same. It was much more effective than what they were doing, stepping one by one.
"Blake! Keep the pikupiku angry!" Arche exclaimed.
"I really think it wants to kill me!" Blake exclaimed, scared, protecting his face with his arms, as the pikupiku was still doing the flapping movement and neighing with its body leaning back, just like a horse.
"It doesn't matter!" Arche exclaimed.
"Hey!" Blake exclaimed.
"There!" May pointed. There was one egg, bigger than the others, in the middle of the second hall, after the second stairs, that was producing more eggs just like a mushroom that released spores. "It's the source! Let's kill it!" May exclaimed and rushed there, with her sword in her hand.
A skill name appeared on top of her head. Mortal Explosion. The sword went down with such force that the boys opened their mouths in awe. The egg exploded in a red flash of light and a sign of CRITICAL appeared on top of where the egg laid before being killed.
All the eggs popped at the same after that.
"Nice!" Blake exclaimed and forgot for a second that pikupiku was still very mad at him.
"Easy, boy, easy," May ran there, calming pikupiku down. She patted his back and ran her hand through his feathers. "Here," she got a type of food from her inventory. It looked like a giant piece of blue cheese. The pikupiku devoured it without hesitation. "Good boy," May said. Blake got up and went away from pikupiku as fast as he could.
After some seconds, the bodies disappeared, only the loot remaining in place. There were some eggshells, more coal, and even some slime.
"The coal is very good for your class," May told Arche. "You need it to make gear."
"So, help me collect it all!" he exclaimed. They spent a few minutes getting the most of the items that they could.
"So, the first floor was pretty easy. I mean, there was the problem of the eggs reproducing like bunnies, and the problem that Pikupiku wanted to kill me, but, besides that, so far so good," Blake said. "How do we get away from here now?"
"Now, that's the problem," May said. "Besides killing all the monsters on the floor, we have to find the way out."
"What do you mean? Isn't there a door or something?" Blake asked, frowning, looking around.
"Do you see any door, genius?" Valky asked, sarcastic.
"My contract is for healing. You didn't need healing, which was very impressive," Valky answered again. She was still floating and flapping her own wings but she didn't seem to need any type of rest.
"Oh, damn," Blake said, getting up in a jump. Arche and May exchanged puzzled looks but followed him. He went to one of the statues that were on the wall. It was on the second stairs, leading to the next level. This statue was of a justice type of figure, one that was blindfolded and was holding a scale. The problem was that the scale was pending for one side because it had something that looked like scissors on top of it. The scissors were locked with a lock.
Blake held it and the scale came back to be balanced. As soon as this happened, the statue moved back, automatically, and in the place, there was an opening, full of spiderweb. The spiderweb looked too sticky, like if it was covered in slime that came out of the eggs. It was impossible to pass without cutting it.
"The scissors might be for that," Blake said.
"Genius," Valky remarked. Blake rolled his eyes.
"How will we open it?" Blake asked while Arche got the scissors.
"There has to be a key somewhere," Arche said, logical.
"Use your hammer. The Large Blow," Blake said. Arche looked at May, like asking if that was a good idea. May shrugged.
"Okay, why not?" Arche asked. He put the scissors with the lock on the ground, aimed very well at the lock, got his new hammer, and thought about activating the skill. Like usual, he felt himself being propelled forward with an invisible force that was guiding him, and the hammer hit the lock with an enormous type of blow.
The lock fell open.
"WOW!" Blake screamed. "I didn't expect it to ACTUALLY work!"
"Me neither, to be honest," Arche said, getting the scissors. He got near the spiderweb and tried to cut it.
They were all unconsciously waiting that it wouldn't happen but it did. The spiderweb started being destroyed like a kid's play.