“I’m sorry,” Garath said seriously. The loss of the rest of the cows must have been harder for Jebawon than Garath would have guessed, judging by the look on the Tamer’s face. “Who would you like to go next, Jebawon?”
Jebawon took a deep breath to collect himself, then looked around the fire. He looked first at his twin brother, who wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I know a bit about these guys,” he said, motioning at the rest of the group that came from Wyoming. “How about you, Atlas?”
Atlas stood up and slid his hands into his pockets. “Where do I even start, shit… I usually avoid talking about this kind of thing but, hey, you asked. So here goes,” he said, looking almost apologetic to the group in front of him for having to hear what he was about to say. “I’m crazy. Like, certified, bat-shit crazy. The doctors thought I just had bipolar disorder at first, but since then I’ve been slapped with a handful of other disorders. I hear voices sometimes. I see things that aren’t there. I often have suicidal thoughts and urges, but I’ve remained among the living by repeating a mantra in my head. Suicide can wait, that’s what I tell myself. There are still things I want to do before that.” Atlas paused. “Judging by the looks on your faces, I think I’ve overshared already. There’s more, but I think that’s personal enough, right? Right. Sharon, tell me… tell us your deepest secret.”
Sharon looked surprised at hearing her name, but stood up. Garath caught Atlas checking out the Naturist’s butt, then the Mage Smith made eye contact with him and winked. Sharon, oblivious to what just happened behind her back, put one hand under her chin as she considered what to share with the group.
“Alright, here’s something you don’t know,” Sharon said, smiling as she thought back. “When I was young, back even before my bra-burning days in the seventies, I spent a few years running black tar heroin for the cartel.”
Garath choked.
Sharron nodded with a you-better-believe-it expression on her face. “I think I’d like to hear from my fellow healer next. Maimon?”
Maimon stood up as Sharon took a seat. “There isn’t much to say,” the Rabbi started bashfully. “Before the apocalypse, I was an accountant. I finished college a few years ago and was really just starting my career. My dad, rest his soul, got me started at his firm right out of the gate. If I have to share something personal, I guess it would be the frustration of preparing my whole life to be an accountant. To follow in his footsteps. Now, I guess like everyone else, I’m just trying to survive. Everything I learned, everything I studied for years is useless now.”
“That’s pretty rough,” Garath said. “I think we can all identify with that on some level. Thank you for sharing your frustration with us. Who’s next, preachaman?”
Maimon shot Garath a ‘seriously?’ look, then a tiny smile made an appearance on his thin lips and he rolled his eyes. “Let’s hear from our tank.”
Auto stood up and puffed his chest slightly. “I’m happy to share. You guys might not believe what I’m going to tell you, but I actually don’t have an uncle. And it’s not like my uncle died in The Culling or whatever, I’ve never had an uncle. Both of my parents were only children. I was just watching Jackie Chan Adventures when the apocalypse happened and really liked the character ‘Uncle’, so I just kind of rolled with that.” Auto started to sit down as the laughter began to spread around the fire, then the Chimerist sprang back to attention. “One more thing. Sharing your deepest secrets is like rolling in mud. When you do it by yourself, it can be therapeutic but…”
“Auto, wait. I had suspicions but, does that mean you’re seriously just making shit up?” Garath interrupted.
“Well, yeah. That kind of goes without saying, doesn’t it?” Auto replied.
“I guess,” Garath replied. “Thanks for sharing the fact that you’ve just been lying to us this whole time. Who’s up next?”
“One more thing,” Auto said, getting back to his feet and adopting the sage expression he did when he was about to share more words of wisdom from his non-existent uncle. “I’m just kidding… Let’s hear what secrets the Assassin is keeping.”
Warrion looked baffled and just sat there on a rock for a few seconds.
“Warrion? That’s you, buddy. Stand up and share with the class,” Garath told him.
“Hang on,” Warrion said, still looking open-mouthed at Auto. “How the hell do you just make stuff up on the spot like that?”
Auto laughed. “It’s a gift.”
“No doubt,” Warrion agreed, finally getting to his feet. “Secrets, huh? Well, can I trust you guys to keep it between us?” There was a general murmur of agreement before Warrion went on. He chewed on his lip in contemplation when Garath prompted him again to share with the class. Warrion looked like he was desperately trying to come up with something, then took a deep breath and made a face. “Alright, but seriously, don’t tell anyone. I’ve been using Stealth to spy on the bimbo sisters. They do yoga in their underpants every morning.” Warrion’s face was bright red when he finished talking and he hurriedly sat down.
“Perv,” Athios said, shaking her head in disgust.
“Dude,” Auto said, impressed. “Talk about a real-world application for our new Abilities. Too bad cameras don’t work anymore.”
“Right?” Warrion agreed, still red-faced but glad to have a fellow pervert in the group.
Garath looked in disbelief at the Assassin for a few seconds. “Alright, Warrion. When I asked for everyone to share something personal, I was expecting some surprises, but you really got me with that one. That’s like, almost too personal. But I do appreciate you sharing. And also, stop doing that. Obawon, you’re up! Tell us something we don’t know about you.”
Obawon stood up and grinned bashfully, scratching at the back of his head as his knees came together awkwardly. “Okay, well… Auto and Jebawon already know this, but the rest of you probably don’t. I have three nipples,” Obawon said. The boyish Hallowed Knight proceeded to unequip his plate armor to show everyone. “Oh, and also, I can do a backflip.”
“Wow,” Garath said, clearly unimpressed. “That’s it? Warrion just confessed to having zero respect for other people’s privacy. Sharon sold black tar heroin. And all you’re going to share is that you have a third nipple and can do a backflip?”
Obawon smiled even wider, his cheeks red. “I wish I had better secrets too,” he said bashfully. Obawon sat back down between his brother and Maimon. It was then that an unexpected, global prompt appeared to each of them.
Global notification:
The Guild “Heroes of One Thousand Dungeons” has claimed the Dungeon: Dungeon of One Thousand Temples in Kyoto, Japan.
Nine Dungeons remain unclaimed.
***Note: remaining Dungeons have increased in difficulty by 10%.
Someone had done it. Some group of ten had conquered a Dungeon for humanity. Garath was concerned about the increased difficulty, but it firmed his resolve to get to The Tower of Vy’thishrak the next day before anyone else managed to conquer another Dungeon.
Of course, the Japanese did it first. They got everything first. Well, they always get the good anime first. There were probably other things too, but Garath couldn’t think of any.
The group was quiet, their expressions grim.
“That prompt says a lot,” Garath said to his concerned Dungeon team. “But, to me, it says one thing loud and clear. It can be done. And we are going to do it. You are all under strict orders to sleep well tonight, we’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
Chapter Twenty-Six – The Mysterious Lore Keeper
Though he’d initially planned on flying solo south toward The Tower to meet up with Alice before the rest of the group, Athios convinced Garath to bring Auto along. She brought up a good point. They didn’t know for sure that they could trust this Lore Keeper. With only the tip of the sun peeking over the mountains to the east, Garath and Auto took to the sky.
Flying in Osprey form was an absolute delight. The bird of prey was built fo
r high speeds and aerial maneuverability. The gentle morning breeze through his feathers and the dramatically changed landscape below made Garath feel like he was in the middle of an amazing dream, the kind that he was typically woken from before he was ready to let it go.
The farther south they went, the more ridiculous the flora became. Near the Guild Hall, the forest was unbelievably green, and the trees stood thicker and taller than anything Garath had ever seen, but those things weren’t that far out of the norm for the Pacific Northwest. Washington had always been a rainforest with tall trees, dense underbrush, and more greenery than any place he’d ever experienced, but the display beneath him was otherworldly. His reverie was quickly quashed, however, when the remains of the city to the south came into view.
Seattle, as Garath remembered it, was no more. The ruined bridge that led into the Queen Anne neighborhood was barely visible beneath the foliage as they flew past. The buildings that had made the city’s skyline so recognizable were now broken and obscured, covered by vines and moss. The skyscrapers Garath had been so impressed by before the apocalypse were now dwarfed by the local plant life. Any one of the thousands of monstrous trees inhabiting Seattle would have been classified as the ninth wonder of the world only a few weeks before, but even the largest among them was only a sapling compared to The Tower.
It stood in the place that the Space Needle had been, but what he was seeing there now was more akin to a humongous tree than any tower he’d ever seen, though tower it did. Even soaring through the open air above the fairytale forest, Garath couldn’t tell exactly how tall the living structure was. The maze of twisting limbs branched out from the top in a maze of green and brown, nearly as wide as the city of Seattle had been. The trunk had to have at least a half-mile circumference, and he could only imagine how deep the roots must be to hold the ridiculous Tower upright.
*Hey Auto.* Garath pointed his beak toward the massive tree. *Your uncle have any words of wisdom for that?*
Auto was silent for several seconds. *I’m not sure if it’s relevant.*
*Wow,* Garath replied in shock. *That’s never stopped you from sharing before. Just tell me.*
*The only thing that came to mind was something he said about the house my dad bought in L.A. after he left my mom.* Garath could almost hear the smile in the Chimerist’s words. *A big house is like a large woman. Hard to get around.*
*You’re right,* Garath laughed. He was glad that Auto decided to continue with the strange proverbs, even though everyone knew he didn’t have an uncle now. *That’s even less relevant than usual.*
*Don’t blame me, man. You asked.*
They were now in the high-level ‘unsafe’ zone, represented by a red overlay on the World Map. They soared beneath the massive canopy of The Tower of Vy’thishrak, but flew well above the lower canopy to avoid surprise attacks from any hungry creatures living in the unearthly forest below. Alice had told Garath to head to the base of the Tower itself, but she did mention to avoid the slowly patrolling Treant Guardians.
Once near the half-mile-thick trunk, Garath noticed it wasn’t exactly a tree’s trunk in the way he’d come to know one, though it did seem to serve the same purpose. Countless cylindrical strands, each bigger around than a water tower, wove together without harmony, like a bag full of writhing snakes, to make up the vertical structure. A handful of terrace-like openings here and there lead inside the living structure, and he hoped Alice would know which one they had to go through to start their assault on the Dungeon.
Together, Auto and Garath dove at a nearly ninety-degree angle to reach the base of The Tower - also making their way south around the trunk toward the library Alice had been living in. His current form’s improved vision allowed Garath to easily spot the Treant Guardians the mysterious Lore Keeper had mentioned. As they neared the ground on the southeast side of the Dungeon, Garath saw a wide opening in the trunk where the weaving mass of interconnected branches was pulled back like the curtains at a theatre. The opening looked deliberate, and Garath figured that was their destination. There weren’t any Treant Guardians near the opening, so they landed, shifting into their natural forms.
If Garath were asked to describe the cavern, he would say it looked like thousands of dryads had built a shopping mall inside of the Great Deku Tree. The inside of the massive structure was hollow, illuminated by thousands of baseball-sized floating orbs meandering in seemingly random patterns, their phosphorescent light a soft green.
The sheer size of the cavern was unbelievable, and a few unmolested buildings still stood in various places inside the massive tree. The ceiling of the entrance chamber must have been three-hundred feet high, though ceiling was hardly the right word for the tangled mess of thick trunks, branches, and vines. Garath had to assume this was likely just the first floor, one of many. In the center of the circular cavern there was a large, dome-like structure made up of the same twisting limbs. A simple wooden door stood directly ahead of them. Similar, albeit much smaller ‘buildings’ were lined up along the perimeter of the cavern, each with a similar, simple wooden door in the front.
The handful of remaining buildings stood in drastic contrast to the beautiful dark wood of the structures, making it easy to identify the library in which they were supposed to meet Alice. Conveniently enough, a particularly thick root sprawling across the ground acted as a path from the entrance and connected to the large central structure, where smaller roots formed similar pathways to the other buildings.
Garath was amazed to see several recognizable buildings within the cavern that he was certain had been farther away from the Space Needle. Among them, the Museum of Pop Culture, known to the locals as ‘MoPOP’, and their destination, the Seattle Central Library. As they passed a still-working fountain labeled ‘Fountain of Wisdom’ and made it to the doors of the strangely proportioned library that was constructed almost entirely of glass, Garath noticed a note taped near the handles and promptly pulled it off to inspect.
Garath, the doors are not locked. Locate the book spiral. You will find me at the top.
-Alice
“Hey,” Auto said, leaning over Garath’s shoulder to get a look at the note. “What’s it say?”
Garath handed him the note and pulled on the door’s handle. Just like the cavern, the inside of the library was dimly illuminated by the glowing green orbs floating aimlessly. Having never been inside this particular library, Garath was surprised at the beauty of the learning center. The open floorplan of the first floor was more like the lobby of a swanky hotel than any library he’d ever seen. The most surprising thing though, was a working escalator leading down into the parking garage.
“Would you look at that?” Garath marveled.
“Good library,” Auto agreed.
“I mean that.” Garath pointed at the escalator. It was the only functional remnant of human technology that he’d witnessed since the apocalypse. Auto followed Garath’s gaze and raised his eyebrows in shock. “Right?” Garath asked.
The two of them continued past the escalator and through the first floor between book-covered tables until they found a second functioning escalator leading up. With a tentative expression, Garath stepped onto it and smiled. Auto followed behind and they let the modern miracle take them up to the fifth floor. It had been a computer area, from the looks of it, but the monitors were all black. Garath excitedly tried to turn on the closest computer to the escalator, and then tried another when the first didn’t work. He took a second to make sure the computers in question were plugged in before giving up on the idea.
They approached another escalator on the other side of the computer area, this one labeled ‘Book Spiral - floors 6-9’.
When they stepped off the escalator, Auto and Garath were greeted by a thin, waist-high pole holding up a sign with a piece of paper taped over the sign’s original message. The white paper had an arrow pointing left, which was completely unnecessary because every table, chair, and desk that had originally been spread t
hroughout the tenth floor 'Reading Room' had been piled almost ten feet high to the right. There was only a glass wall directly ahead, so the sign pointed them in the only direction they could go anyways. With a shrug, they proceeded into an empty loft. Nearly empty, Garath noted as they continued forward. Near one of the structure's many glass walls that looked out into the cavernous first floor of the Tower, Garath laid eyes on one of the strangest things he'd ever seen.
An octopus was casually using its many arms to hold up nearly as many books, with a few exceptions. Two of its tentacles dipped into water-filled buckets on either side of the octopus before dripping the contents over its head at regular intervals. Another tentacle was turning the pages of five separate books in anything but regular intervals. The single hint that clued Garath into the fact that the ridiculous sight in front of him was the person they were looking for was the nameplate affixed to her head. Everything about this meeting was odd, the octopus’ nameplate itself was no exception. It was unlike any other nameplate he’d seen so far. It had an intricately engraved silver border, and the letters LK appeared next to her name.
Garath and Auto watched in awe as the pages of one book began turning much faster than the others, apparently having captured more of Alice's attention. Knowing she wouldn't be able to communicate with them outside of her human form unless they were in a Party, Garath issued the occupied octopus an invitation.
Alice has joined your Party.
*Can you come back in a moment?* came a monotone voice with only a hint of femininity. The page-turning tentacle continued flipping pages as the octopus turned to face Garath and Auto, its vertically-slitted eyes looking each of them up and down in dispassionate inspection. *I am in the middle of something. Oh. Better yet, here.*
The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) Page 31