by I. Felix
"You were mentioned by Katie Boss, another broadcaster. She didn't speak well of you, but then May Kay answered her, and now you two are trending, people everywhere are looking for you. I advise you to start your live chats today to captivate this audience. Also, there are perks for you. Each month, we see how much profit you generated to the company besides your living expenses, and we revert this money into game money, so you'll get a payment here too. Your fans can also buy stuff to help you and send you. So, you can only win by having an engaged audience."
"So that bitch is going around talking shit behind our backs?" Blake said, aggressively, losing his mind. He immediately saw a comment on the live chat:
"WOW, look at what he called Katie. This will be good."
"I'm living for the drama," another comment appeared with a smiley face.
"Finally we'll see something interesting," another comment rolled in. Blake had forgotten that he was being constantly watched since the moment he got there and that he would need to learn to watch his mouth.
Arche, on the other hand, had closed his broadcasting window already and was looking like if he had eaten a sour lemon.
"You'll get monthly data and you can come here at any time for tips and tricks to increase your engagement. If you're not doing that well, you'll be called here to talk so we can see how to solve any issues you might be facing. Any questions?"
"Not really..." Blake said but turned his head to Arche. "Do you have any, man?"
Arche simply shook his head, still looking like he might cry.
"So, you two are dismissed. Good luck with your broadcasting and Sentinel Online thank you for our partnership!" the NPC exclaimed and disappeared.
Blake and Arche walked out of the castle in silence. When they were far enough, Blake looked at Arche.
"What's wrong, man?"
"I'm pretty sure I'll die, that's what's wrong," Arche said, his mouth trembling. "I've never been popular in my life. I can only live an absolutely boring life, that's all. I won't be able to make enough to live here."
"What are you talking about? Are you insane? You have May and me!" Blake exclaimed. "I'd never let this happen to you. You're my best friend and I'll do anything to help you!" Blake said with passion, his eyes sparkling. "It doesn't matter what it takes, we'll dominate Sentinel Broadcasting."
"Thank you," Arche said with his voice trying to hide the tears and the worries. "I just don't know if I'm cut off to this."
"Well, no offense, but you're already here. You have no choice. Don't worry, man. We'll make this game the funniest it can be."
Chapter 21 - Back in the Tower
"Hi, boys and girls. How are you guys doing? Gosh, I suck at that. Don't stop following me! NO, I know what you thought! Smash that like button. So, this is Arche, go follow him too," Blake said to the vlogging camera. Arche tried to smile. "I know it looks like he has a toothache, but he's nice, I promise. This is May. You probably know her. Everyone knows her," he said, getting close to May. "We're going back to the Endless Tower. If you haven't watched the start of this saga, as I sadly wasn't allowed to broadcast before, I'm sure there's a way to go back and watch old videos. So, we were in level 4 and we decided to go away, level up a bit, and come back. Now, we're MUCH stronger, and I can't wait to see what the first boss will be. Keep watching and I'll talk to you soon," he said and turned off the vlogging camera, even though the other cameras were always recording them.
"You're way too good at that," Arche said, a little bit sarcastic, "but I'm so proud of you. At least one of us will survive."
"I told you already that I won't let you die," Blake said, rolling his eyes, while he looked at the statistics. "People are coming, commenting, liking, and I even got my first hate comment."
"Really?" May said, looking worried.
"It's fine. I never was one to please everybody," Blake said. They were walking to get to the entrance of the Tower again. "It says: 'Katie is the best and you two are just noobs trying to hate on her to get attention. Ridiculous., screw you both.'"
"I can't imagine what Katie is doing and saying about us," May said, rolling her eyes. "I'm sorry I brought you into this. It was my problem, not yours."
"Are you kidding? You're the best, May," Blake said. "Don't worry about her. And, besides, speak well or speak ill but speak about me."
"That's a great motto," May said.
"It fits you," Arche said. Blake looked at him trying to figure out if he was mocking him or not. They got in front of the entrance to the Tower. They asked it to generate the instance and they were teleported there. Then, May opened a portal and they entered it. Everything blinked white and like that, they were back on the fourth floor.
"That was much easier than I thought," Blake said. The fourth floor was just a platform in the open sky, with clouds, and a lot of wind. It reminded Blake of the traumatic Tournament and he shivered. The platform didn't seem to have anything else, no monsters whatsoever, but it had something that looked like a cave entrance.
"Well, I guess it's our only way to go," Blake said, while they were walking to get closer to it. "Or we could jump off the platform to see what happens."
"This is literally the worst option. Let's just enter and see," Arche said but looked at May to confirm if it was a good idea or not. May nodded.
"Maybe it's a puzzle and the answer is out there but let's go in and see, maybe we'll be able to even level up a bit," May said. They nodded, following her inside. There was a swirling portal in front of the door, as usual, and they stepped on it. Everything went white and they appeared inside the cave.
When they looked around, they noticed how it was as if the rock walls didn't exist. Even though it was much darker there, the clouds took all the view, so it was basically impossible to see through the fog. It was like being in the midst of a dark cloud in the sky.
They didn't have time to think, as the first monsters started to attack. And it wasn't just some monsters. It was a horde of orcs. They all had green skin, teeth coming out of their mouths, a helmet with two horns, just like something the Vikings would have worn, and a type of ripped leather uniform. They were wearing leather boots and they carried axes. They seemed to be a mix between a zombie and a big pig. Their body was covered with short and thin black hair, which made them furry.
They started using the axes, hitting May, Blake, and Arche. Blake called Oliver, Arche called Dark, May called Bella, and also Valky, that didn't seem very pleased to be awake, but everything was happening so fast that they didn't even have time to talk or make comments. The orcs started appearing more and more and they got the dagger, the hammer, and the sword, respectively, and started attacking with the help of the homunculus. While May killed the orcs with just one slash of the sword, Arche and Blake had more trouble, even though they were getting a nice amount of XP with each kill. May could have handled that with difficulty, as it had too many, almost like if they were inside an anthill made of orcs.
There was also another type of orc. Instead of being made of flesh and bones, it was only bones. It had the same height and width as the regular orcs, being as big as fridges, but this one was made of a red skeleton only. It had rotting meat and the bones looked as if they had just been cleaned from the muscles, as it was still stained with dry brown blood. They were much scarier than the regular orcs, but they also died more easily, as they didn't have flesh to protect them.
The problem was the amount of them. Even May that was in level 183 was having trouble with it as she was trying to tank most of them, so the boys wouldn't die. They both didn't have skills from the new classes but they were actively using the ones they had before. After some time, they also leveled up.
"Oh, now I like this," Blake said, using the rollerblades. It made him attack five times in a row instead of only one. It made him quicker and he was able to get five times more damage than regular. It felt like if someone was grabbing his arms and shaking them violently, in an automatic way. He didn't mind, at least he didn't
have to do anything consciously.
"I like this too," Arche said, throwing the bombs that he was making. Each bomb exploded the orcs in a 5x5 cell range and it didn't hit the human players, which was a magnificent bonus.
May saw that they were being able to defend themselves and also started to use one of her advanced skills.
"When I'm only tanking, I don't have time to do that, but I think now it will be better," she said, a little out of breath from the battle. Her face was a little blushed.
She summoned pikupiku, while Bella covered for her, and mounted fast. Then, the skill Dragon Breath was activated. Pikupiku opened his chicken-like mouse and fire came from it. The fire got in the first orc and started going to the orcs around, like if they were highly inflammable. It was simply the skill effect, though.
"Orc barbecue!" Blake exclaimed, amidst the fire, the smell of burning meat, and the orcs that didn't stop appearing. "We can't stay here forever, though. We have to advance!"
"How? We can barely take one step without being attacked by another horde," Arche said, sounding a bit desperate.
"There has to be a catch. Some part of the puzzle that we are ignoring," May said, while pikupiku kept going with the flames.
"Oliver, use your Shadow property to go explore the place. He'll be able to see if there's anything around and he can displace himself so the orcs won't attack him," Blake said. Oliver finished killing an orc and disappeared, doing exactly as told.
They hadn't had to wait a long time. Oliver was back right after some minutes. He looked happy, like if he had got good news.
"Too bad that he can't talk!" Blake cried out, not understanding the signals.
"I can talk to homunculus," May said.
"What?! And you never mentioned that!" Blake exclaimed.
"Well, I'm full of surprises. I'm a Tamer, remember?" May said. "But I'll need you guys to cover for me while I activate the skill. I don't know if you can handle that."
"Are you kidding me? Of course we can!" Blake said. May looked at him in disbelief.
"It's our only hope," Arche said. "We can't keep like this forever, I think they either respawn instantly as they die or there's just too many damn orcs here."
"Probably both," Blake said. "Just GO, May, we can handle it!"
"Cover me, then," May said and got out of pikupiku, which disappeared into her inventory again. Blake, Oliver, Arche, Dark, and Bella made a circle around May, and she kneeled in the middle. She activated a skill and a little yellow bar appeared on top of her head. The bar was slowly getting fuller, like if she was powering herself up.
Meanwhile, Blake and Arche realized that mission could be almost impossible, indeed. Without May, something like 200 orcs or more started gathering around the boys and they simply weren't strong enough to kill them all.
"COME ON, MAY!" Blake screamed. May was now glowing yellow too however the bar was only half full.
"I told you it took a while! You'll have to hold on!" May exclaimed even though she was looking to the ground, focused.
Something started changing on her too. Something started to grow out of her head. Something triangular and... furry. She was becoming one cat!
"What's that?!" Blake asked.
"FOCUS!" Arche screamed, throwing the bombs.
"Remember Katie's class? I can become one too. But I can switch to it and from it. This is one of the reasons she hates me so much. She gave up her human form forever to become one and I learned how to do it in the switch way with a rune," she said, while her nose was slowing becoming like a cat's nose. A tail was also growing and Arche looked, shocked, at the transformation. Blake was simply desperate. His HP was coming to 35% and the potions were running out.
"WHATEVER IT IS," Blake kept screaming, as he saw his HP decreasing too fast. "MAKE IT HAPPEN NOW!"
"It is ready," May said and her voice sounded thinner, almost like if she was meowing as she spoke. The bar got completely yellow and disappeared. Now she had changed forms and she wasn't even wearing the armor anymore. Now she had regular clothes, a yellow blouse and an overlay on top of it. Her sword had disappeared and she looked like a different person altogether.
"You have to teach me how to do that. Can you become other animals too?" Arche asked.
"Arche, stop looking at May and keep blowing up orcs," Blake said. Arche nodded, fast, like if he had forgotten he was doing something important.
May got to Oliver's level and they started exchanging a series of meowing and growlings that only both of them could understand.
"Blake, he said that there's a big stone in the middle of the level, from where the orcs are coming. We have to go there and break it. Maybe he can break it alone but you could go with him, using the Shadow Hiding and the Roller Blades on the stone," May said. "I'll have to fight in this form, as I don't have enough mana to transform back to human. I said it had big consequences."
"Oh, god. And can you handle all of these works without Oliver and me?" Blake asked. His mana was also rapidly decreasing with each use of the skill and he wasn't sure how long he could handle it. His potions were almost over.
"Just go! We'll be fine," Arche said. Blake nodded.
He got to Oliver's back, even though Oliver hated when Blake did that, and he activated the Shadow Hiding. Oliver seemed to be sure what to do even though Blake didn't say anything. He displaced them and they disappeared and appeared many times, till they got to the middle of the room, without any problems. The orcs didn't seem to see in the dark.
The middle of the room had a giant stone like a crystal. It was dark and emanated dark power. Many orcs were popping out of it, just like sprouts from a mushroom or poops from a bunny. Blake twisted his nose.
He wouldn't be able to use the Roller Blades while he was hiding and he wasn't sure how many orcs he would be able to handle till he finished the crystal off. It seemed pretty hard to break. To make matters worse, he could see the HP of his group, and they were all close to 20% and not coming up.
He tried to use the blow coming out of the shadows. The crystal got a hit of less than 1% and immediately all the orcs spotted him, coming for him. He used the Shadow Hiding again to disappear before they could come.
"This won't work. Oliver, I need you to take May and Arche here. Do your best. I know you can do it. Displace yourself and come. They won't be able to survive it," Blake said. Oliver seemed to understand and did as told. He looked keen on disappearing from there too, as the orcs were coming for him now that they had noticed Blake.
Blake meanwhile started to analyze the crystal, to see if there would be any place that would make it easier to break.
Oliver came back with Arche, and he was going to start displacing himself again to go get May when Blake saw it on the group notification.
May had died.
Blake and Arche exchanged a shocked look but they didn't have time for that. The orcs noticed that they had company and started going after them.
"Arche, use your potions to explode the place where the orcs are coming. I think this will be the only way," Blake said.
"But we'll die with it. It hits people too!" Arche exclaimed.
"Well, May is dead already and we can always come back. Let's finish this the way we started. Together."
Arche nodded. He got the bomb from his inventory. He looked at Blake, ignoring the orcs, and they started counting back...
"Three, two... one..." they counted together and Arche threw the bomb in the crack.
It exploded.
The crystal came to pieces.
And the next thing Blake saw was the notification:
"You Died."
Chapter 22 - The Fox
It took a long time for Blake to go back from Purgatory this time. First, he stayed on the white screen, waiting for the tutorial to load for much longer than normal. He started to suspect that dying would have bigger consequences now that he was more advanced in the game. After the wait, he saw the familiar robot on the familiar island. He didn't ev
en want to stop and try to answer the question. He went directly to the Purgatory. Only that this time he didn’t have Bird Wings left. He wasn't afraid of Purgatory anymore, not after his adventures in the Tower and in the Tournament. Now, it was more of a bummer, a punishment for dying.
He was able to enter the chat and contact May and Arche. They both had solved the riddle and were already in Pruntire.
"How do I go from here?!" Blake asked.
"I don't know, I've never been there!" May said.
"Not once? Not even once? You play this game for like ten years already!" Blake exclaimed, annoyed. He was surrounded by the shadow creatures, the fog was dense, and the day was completely cloudy there. But he didn't care about those things. "I want to LEAVE! And also I want to go back to the Tower to see if we'll be able to face the boss."
"It's just that... all my friends said terrible things about the Purgatory and the things that I read... I was scared and didn't want to go. And after years of playing, the robot can't think about different questions to make me, so I'm fine. But I'll go there to save you," May said.
"How?" Arche asked.
"I know a shortcut to the Purgatory. It's through a place called Niffheilm."
"Just like the Nordic mythology?" Arche asked.
"That's it. You can't go with me, the monsters there are on level 150. One day you might."
"Isn't it the death land or something like that?" Arche asked again, remembering everything that he had studied once about Nordic mythology.
"Hello? Are you there?! I need HELP," Blake exclaimed. May smiled.
"I'm going!" she exclaimed and opened a portal on the ground. She entered it and the portal closed behind her, leaving Arche alone.
Niffheilm was a cursed place with undead NPCs that killed them and sent them directly to the Purgatory. That's what she did to go there.
"Wow, this IS really scary," May said when she appeared beside Blake.
"May!" Blake exclaimed and hugged her. She blushed. "Thank you for coming! How did you get here without dying?"