by I. Felix
"So we'd have to choose who would go unless we want to face each other," Blake told Arche.
"You should go," Arche said.
"Me?! Inteligence questions? Are you kidding me?" Blake asked while they were still climbing the painful steps.
"I think we could help you," May said. "We can communicate through chat, and you have the best chances in the combat area. Merchants are more of a Crafter class than a combat class, like Thieves."
"So, you guys are really saying that we should leave the Tower, level up in this Tournament with its prize, then, change classes and come back?"
"Yeah!" May exclaimed, smiling.
"Sounds like a plan," Arche said. "We'll have to face the first Boss on level 5, and I don't think we can do it the way that we are now. We are too weak still."
"Okay," Blake shrugged. "How can you do the Saving Point stuff for the portal?"
"We'll have to finish climbing or go back," May said. Blake looked up to the infinite amount of stairs.
"Let's keep going, then. I don't go back," Blake said. Arche nodded. May shrugged.
They had a plan.
To say that climbing the stairs was easy would be a lie. They kept going up till they couldn't feel their legs anymore. Then, they sat down to rest, only to have to keep climbing the painful way.
The time was passing and they were sure there had been some hours of climbing, however, they still couldn't see anything close to the finishing line. They only kept going and going, till there was no more strength to continue, so they had to sit down again.
"We're doing this wrong, I'm sure of it," Arche said. "There's no way any creature could live here with these stairs. There must be something that we are missing. This should be like a puzzle."
"Maybe there's an elevator somewhere," Blake joked. He was red, sweaty, and had his eyes closed. Even though they had no stamina bar, they still could feel the tiredness of being a human.
"Elevator? That's..." Arche said, thinking. "I'd say ridiculous, but maybe you're right. See? No creatures are climbing these stairs. There must be a way."
Rya poked Arche. They all looked at her smiling face. She started skipping to one of the carved chambers inside. They followed her.
So, they saw it. The veins of the tree. And, inside it, like blood cells inside a human body, there were the creatures, coming up and down through the veins.
Chapter 15 - The Card
They looked at the creatures entering and going away from the vein thing with their mouths open, surprised, impressed. It had no doors but the walls of the veins were like jelly, they just needed to get close, push to enter, and then the stream would get them going up or going down.
"Do we need to... breathe?" Blake asked May. "Like, we don't need to eat, drink, sleep, go to the bathroom, which I definitely do not miss, but do we need to breathe? If we enter somewhere full of water like those pipes there, will we die?"
"To be honest, that's another thing I don't know," May confessed, blushing a little and then smiling her cute anime-girl smile. "I never tried to stay underwater long enough to find out. All I know is that the only way we’ll be able to enter those veins is because of Rya. Normal human players can’t do stuff like that."
"Do you guys still want to do that?" Blake asked, looking unsure. "I'm not sure if I'd like to die asphyxiated."
However, Arche didn't answer. He stepped forward, held Rya’s hand, and his body started glowing green, like if he had got some blessing. He put his hand through the jelly wall. It easily got in the vein. The liquid inside was a color of light green. Then, Arche stepped inside the rest of his body. Immediately, he was prompted upwards, in the fast tide. May and Blake looked at each other, a little desperate, and they rushed there, to follow Arche. They couldn't see the boy anymore.
May held Rya’s hand too and entered first. She was sucked too. Blake closed his eyes and went second, this time getting Rya on his lap, so she wouldn’t stay behind. The liquid felt like slime but he could barely pay attention at that. It was like going in a rollercoaster, too fast, making his heart jump to his mouth and his brain twist, his stomach knot, and his world crumble as he couldn't control anything, not even his breathing.
He couldn't feel the oxygen nor his lungs but he also wasn't suffocating as he had expected before. It was in an in-between state of not-breathing but not suffocating.
The creatures that were also inside the veins were pulled upwards and downwards by his sides like bullets, and he had to keep hugging Rya so he wouldn't lose his arm when one of these creatures darted by his side.
He had no idea where he would stop. He wished they had thought about this better. He could see May above him but Arche was nowhere to be seen. It was difficult to see anything with the liquid on his face and how fast they were going.
So, he just closed his eyes again, actually enjoying the rollercoaster sensation but trying to fool himself to think that he wasn't as dizzy and nauseous as he actually was.
Out of nowhere, he felt himself stopping and stepping on something. He opened his eyes and saw that he had been thrown into a platform. It was still green everywhere, still full of slime, and the walls of the place were transparent like the jelly walls of the veins, but now he wasn't moving anymore. He looked around and saw that a bunch of different veins ended up there like...
"A heart?" he asked. May was by his side and she was smiling.
"I can't believe it. We are in the Heart of the Tree of Life," she said, mesmerizing. They also saw Arche, standing in the center of the place. The creatures around them all were walking, normally, choosing different veins to enter to get to their location. But the three of them were hypnotized by the place.
They went to the place where Arche was and saw what he was staring at.
In the middle of the heart, floating, there was a golden sphere. It looked mechanical, in a steampunk way. It beat getting bigger and smaller, just like a pulsating heart. It was beautiful, like a very expensive jewel, and it felt sacred, like if it irradiated energy that made them want to bend down and cry.
"Look at that. It's the Heart of Nature..." May whispered, almost unable to pronounce the words. "I heard the legends but I never thought I'd see that here."
"It's so beautiful," Blake said, also surprised at how his voice was barely out. He never used to get impressed with anything like that, but looking at that heart made him want to cry.
"It's like if Life itself pulsated from it," Arche completed. "I have goosebumps. How is that possible? How's that happening inside our brains? This was supposed to be only a game."
"Maybe it's more than that..." May whispered. Then, she opened her inventory and got three cards from there. The cards looked beautiful, they had a universe draw on their back and they were golden. It was empty in the front, being only a black card. "I want to see one thing..." she said and pointed one card at the Heart.
One light seemed to come from the Heart to the card. It was only a small dot of light but it moved around the card, almost as if it was drawing on it.
After it finished, the card had changed. It was now glowing and the black part had a drawing of a steampunk golden hear, seeming that it was almost made of metal.
"I can't believe it. We got the Card of the Heart of the Tree. Do you have any idea how rare and valuable this item is?" May said, almost unable to pronounce the words from how shocked she was.
"Yeah? I want one too!" Blake said. May handed him one of the black cards and he did the same as she had done. He reached out with the card to the direction of the heart and the dot of light started drawing on the card. Arche, then, also got the card from May and did the same.
"1x Card of the Heart of the Tree," Blake saw the notification popping up. Then, he opened the information tab of the item.
"The Heart of the Tree is very difficult to find, and you did. +100% HP, +10 each stats."
"+100% HP?! This will make me indestructible!" Blake said, with widened eyes. May could barely nod. She looked extremely shock
ed.
"Almost no one knows how to reach the Tree of Life. It changes place, as the legend says. Also, to get to the Heart, you’d need one pet like Rya, they’re the only ones that can enter inside the veins of the tree. Rya is not a common pet, to get her, they’d need a Golden Strawberry like mine. And they would have to have one of the Blank Cards, which is also rare by itself. I only got it after level 110 in a very hard quest. All of that without any information from the database."
"Thank you so much," Arche said, analyzing his card. "This is very impressive."
"You're welcome," May said, also looking at her card like if it was the most valuable thing she'd ever touched. "This is soulbond. It means that once you merge with it, you can't remove it anymore to sell it or anything. I'll, for sure, merge mine, but feel free to decide what to do with yours."
"I have no doubt," Blake said. "This is a no-brainer. How do we merge?"
May demonstrated by touching her own card on her chest, putting her hand there. Her hand started shining and the card seemed to go from the skin of her chest to her inside, slowly disappearing. A golden aura appeared around her feet for a second before disappearing.
"Wooooow," Blake exclaimed. "My turn," he said and did the same. He placed the card on his chest and a notification popped up in front of his eyes.
"Do you wish to merge with the Card of the Heart of the Tree? This process is irreversible. Yes/No."
Blake didn't think twice to activate the Yes.
He felt the card being sucked inside his soul. It was weird, almost as if the air of his lungs got stronger out of nowhere and his stomach decided to become like a vacuum cleaner. Then, when it was complete, the golden aura appeared around him.
"This is INSANE," he said, looking at his HP bar. It had duplicated its side, now going almost to the middle of his vision.
"And you, Archie?" May asked, looking at the boy that was still staring at his card.
"I don't know. I think I'll wait. Did you say this item is incredibly valuable? So, we could get a lot of money for it, right?"
"Are you thinking about SELLING yours?!" Blake asked, unable to believe what he was listening to. Arche frowned.
"Yes. We need money and we could get enough to guarantee our survival till the end of time. That sounds pretty good to me. I don't plan on making my career here combat-based. I don't want to have to kill monsters forever to level up. I'd much rather be a Crafter and a negotiator."
"But..." Blake tried to think about something to argue about but he knew how Arche was when he decided something. "Okay, man. You do whatever you want," he said.
Arche put his card on his inventory and smiled.
"This is amazing. And look at that," he pointed at one of the veins behind the Heart. It had a swirling portal in front of it. "I guess we got to level 4 of the Tower."
"Let's advance there, save our Saving Point, and then leave to go to the Tournment. With this card, Blake should be able to win with his eyes closed."
They went to where the portal was, stepped on it, and the white light appeared, changing the environment around them. When they opened their eyes, they were in a much different place. It was like if they had reached the top of the tree. They were on a platform, with nothing but the sky around them with the clouds, and some stairs that climbed up to the sky. They couldn't see any monsters there.
"I just saved a portal here. So, now, let's go," May said, reaching her hand out and a portal appeared on the ground. They all entered the portal, May being the last one, and, everything went white.
It was very weird to notice that they were out of the Endless Tower again.
They were in a city where they could see the sky, no walls were limiting their view, and there was a bunch of other players, going on about their lives.
The city was all made of white parallelepipeds, it had some stairs to the main plaza, some stores, and a Kefri NPC. They could also see a big building in the center of the plaza. It wasn't as full as Pruntire but there were a lot of players there with different equips and mounts, going about their lives.
"What's that tower?" Arche asked, analyzing his surroundings.
"No more towers, please!" Blake exclaimed.
"That's the Castle," May said. "The Tournament takes place there. We'll need to apply and then Blake can go, start his journey."
"While I might try to sell this card," Arche said. "It will be great for us to buy new gear after we change classes."
They walked to the Castle. There were some wooden tables there with different NPCs sitting, holding some papers. They looked like people that would be in a conference, signing up the participants. There was a queue of people waiting to be heard.
"Gosh, this sounds more difficult than it looks," Blake said. "There’s like fifty people here. Are they all waiting to enter the Tournament?"
"You bet they are," a girl in front of them said, turning around. She had short pink hair, eyes the color of ruby, and the pupils of a cat. She was wearing an outfit that Blake hadn't seen yet, a small dress with puffy sleeves, and she had pointy teeth. On her head, there were two cat ears and Blake couldn't tell if they were real or some kind of weird headgear.
"Wow, what are you?" Blake asked. The girl laughed.
"I'm a Durem, and you?" she answered. Blake kept confused and looked at May for guidance.
"It's one of the Beastkins classes, the only ones that we players can join. She's part cat," May said, looking impatient.
"Oh, who do we have here?" she asked, looking at May. "May! How's it going? Got those subscribers back?"
May didn't answer, just rolled her eyes.
"Come on, May. Are you still angry with me?"
"What did you do?" Blake asked, frowning, getting irritated already.
"I just told the truth. I think our viewers deserve that."
"Katie thought it was a great idea to tell the world that I was depressed. She said that I hated the game and that I wanted to kill myself," May said, angry, and Blake could see tears in her eyes. "It was when I started getting severe hate. People unsubscribed, saying that I was ungrateful, spoiled, that I lived the life that thousands of people outside the game desired."
"Isn't that true?" Katie said and licked the back of her hand, just like a cat would do. She didn't have normal hands but cat paws too. "The people that follow you deserve to know that you're not a cute princess, like everybody thinks. They deserve to know that you're a depressed and ungrateful bitch."
"How dare you?!" Blake exclaimed. Katie looked at him, surprised, Arche raised his eyebrows, and May also looked like she wasn't expecting that. "Don't you dare say that! You have no idea what you're talking about! Everybody has the right to be depressed and choose to live. If she was suffering, you should have helped her!"
"I helped her by telling everybody the truth!" Katie said with the same irony in her voice. Blake had to brace himself to not punch her.
"You have no right to say that," Blake said.
"Yeah? So make me stop," Katie said, giggled, and turned to face forward.
"I will beat you down on the Tournament, I don't care what you say!"
"Good luck with that," she said, not turning around.
"It's okay, Blake," May whispered. "This was a long time ago before she even got reborn. She used to be an Archer when I was a Mage. But as I was more popular and got more sponsors from the viewers, I got better items and got to reborn earlier than her. She was just jealous."
"No one can talk to you like that," Blake said, still so angry that he was puffing. "I'll show her!"
May felt tears in her eyes again.
"Thank you..." she whispered.
"Of course. I know how it is to feel depressed. When you see no reason to keep going. And if your viewers stopped following you because of that, good for you. They weren't worth it."
"Next!" the NPC called. Katie was signing some papers with another NPC and she smiled with that ironic face at Blake, who frowned. "Do you wish to enroll in the Class Tourn
ament? Your level is 25, so you'll fight against 20-30 players. You'll have to solve five floors of challenges by yourself. After you enroll, you may not give up, only upon death. Do you wish to proceed? Yes/No."
Blake selected Yes.
"You may proceed to the Castle, where the testing will begin."
"I will win this. For us," Blake told his friends.
“Blake, wait,” Arche said. “Here, I made these potions for you with the items you gave me. This one is extremely powerful, it’s like a bomb. Be careful, it might explode you with it, though.”
“Thank you, man,” Blake said, before turning around and entering the Castle with many other participants.
Chapter 16 - The Tournament
Blake entered the big castle, looking back at his friends for one last time before he could see them again. He was always very dependant on Arche, from school times to his time at the company where they worked. If he didn't know one answer, he knew he could trust Arche that he would help him with whatever it was that he needed. He felt lonely without him there. He still had Oliver, that was back in the inventory, and he knew they would chat still but it wasn't the same.
However, he took a deep breath, determined to win that thing. The inside of the castle was very dark, the only light that entered came from small windows near the ceiling. It was all empty too, except for the columns inside that sustained the building. There were some people there, even though he couldn't see Katie anymore. The most impressive part was the middle of the great entrance hall. It was a circular room, with the floor made of pink tiles. There was a ring of light illuminating the place and the people that were still in the hall were stepping inside of it and disappearing right away, being teleported to start the challenge.
Blake knew that's what he should do, so he went right away there, stepped on it and everything went white around him.