Chapter 42

Tower Conquerors (II)

Stepping up near the Tower, Cain realized that a semblance of order had finally been restored -- several walls were rounding the Tower's entrance with guard posts and 'check-in stations', and rows upon rows of people waiting to be allowed inside. From a quick glance, Cain realized that among the armed guards, there were at least thirty that entered the Tower, though he couldn't estimate their levels.

Thanks to Rick, the four of them didn't have to line up and wait for hours at a chance to enter, and instead moved to the side and backdoored it -- a practice that would end relatively quickly as the number of people waiting to enter the Tower fizzles out. After all, most people, once inside, would end up spending months and even years before leaving, so the rows wouldn't be anywhere as bad as they were at the very start.

“... you sure about this?” Rick asked as they moved past the last wall and neared the Tower’s entrance. “If you guys can’t find anyone, I could come with you this time as well...”

“It’s fine,” Cain smiled faintly, reassuring him. “Appreciate the holy sacrifice, though.”

“Haah...”

“Don’t worry about it,” he reiterated again. “You just take care of the stuff on the outside, and leave the Tower to us.”

“... you guys got all the items?”

“Yup.”

“What about the rations?”

“Packed and ready.”

“Do you have enough water?”

“Dude, quit yapping like you’re our mother,” Cain sighed, glancing at the old man strangely. “We got this.”

“... somehow, hearing you say that, I feel even less reassured...”

“... I’ll ream you in the ass so hard you’ll fly into the sun.”

“If you reamed me anywhere as hard,” Rick said with a grin. “You wouldn’t send me anywhere, and would instead turn me into a bomb that would explode into millions of pieces.”

“... alright, all this talk about reaming each other is making me uncomfortable,” Emma joined in. “Let’s go.”

“Ah, look at her being jealous,” Cain said, grinning. “Isn’t she adorable?”

“She left.”

“Ah, crap! Alright, see you in a few months, old man!”

“Stay safe!”

Cain raced over and joined Emma, Jamal, and Diya as they entered the Tower under the envious and angered gazes of those still waiting. They weren’t the only ones to enter, another group of roughly twenty entering by their side, looking at their small group strangely. After a brief hush-hush discussion between themselves, one of the men who appeared to be in charge walked over toward their small party.

“Hello,” he greeted them with a smile. From the looks of it, he appeared to be in his forties, already graying, though the muscular body barely hidden beneath the vest and the somewhat loose clothes spoke otherwise.

“Hello,” Emma replied as she donned the role of the leader of the group, with Cain and Diya hanging in the back and Jamal standing next to her.

“Are there only the four of you?” the man asked.

“Yes.” Emma nodded.

“If you’d like... you can join us,” the man said. “Though most of us are newcomers, we also have six people, myself included, who’d already been in the Tower. It will be much safer.”

“...” Emma didn’t say anything, stealthily glancing at Cain who merely shrugged, but then remembered they had a destination in mind. Emma, however, seems to have already realized it. “Thank you for the offer, but this isn’t our first time either. We also have a destination in mind.”

“Ah? Is that so?” the man exclaimed softly and smiled right after. “Very well. Sorry for bothering you. Best of luck to you!”

“Same.” Emma said as the four of them moved forward under the strange and faintly angered gazes of the much larger group. They dipped toward the north-east, heading toward the open plains that spilled into a ring of jagged mountains.

“Ah, they’ll follow us, won’t they?” Jamal mumbled softly.

“Yup...” Cain nodded.

“Emma... you didn’t need tell them we have a place to go...” Diya joined as well. Only now did Emma realize what she had done, slapping her forehead softly.

“Goddamn, I’d totally blanked! Wait, what should we do?” she asked Cain.

“Nothing,” he shrugged. “We’ll just lose them in the Mountain.”

“How?” Jamal asked.

“... by just walking down the right road,” Cain smiled mysteriously. “Don’t worry too much about it. Be on the lookout if someone needs help.”

“Are you sure this place we’re going absolutely needs five people to enter?” Jamal asked.

“Yup,” Cain nodded, sticking to the lie he told the man beforehand. “I accidentally ran into it, and the notification window popped up saying I needed four more people to move past the barrier.”

“Oh,” Jamal nodded. “Hopefully, we’ll run into someone good... I still can’t believe any of the people Rick pinned didn’t pan out...”

“Do you think guys with base stats like you are everywhere?” Cain glanced at the man with disdain in his eyes. Everyone in this party, except for him, had insane stats. Even if he was nearly fifteen levels above them, he barely etched out in a couple of them -- and that was with his relatively amazing titles and items.

“What were your base stats like, anyway?” Jamal asked, quickly realizing he’d stepped on the landmine and shutting up, speeding up slightly to catch up to Emma, leaving behind Diya alone with Cain. The young girl panicked, glancing between the ever-darkening Cain and the floor.

“S-Stats don’t matter,” Diya said softly. “You--you are the best, Mr. Cain. I’m sure that you will have better stats than all of us combined soon!”

“... Diya.” Cain mumbled.

“Y-yes?”

“You’re sweet,” his smile was pained as he gently tapped her head. “But boy, you do not know how to cheer a guy up.”

“U-uh...”

"Hey, don't bully her just 'cause your ass is insecure," Emma called out from the front. "There are two paths here. Which one?"

“Either,” Cain shrugged. “From what I recall, the dip leads to a fairly long ravine. It’s mostly bereft of monsters, and the few it has are somewhat annoying. The other path, I think, leads further out into the plains. There are a lot of wolf-like monsters there, I believe.”

“The ravine it is,” Emma said as she strayed to the right, into a somewhat narrow, descending path between the parting dirt. “I can’t see anyone following us. Are you guys sure they will?”

“At least a few of them looked to be former or even current military,” Jamal said. “They should be able to just follow our trail rather than us.”

“Aah, sorry guys.” she apologized, sighing.

“No worries,” Cain added as the four grouped closer together, slowly descending almost a stair-like path that seemed eerily man-made. “I expected as much.”

“Don’t push it.”

“...” Cain chuckled while Diya and Jamal looked at the two strangely.

“Are you two always like this?” Jamal asked in a dubious tone.

Just before Cain could answer, a distant cry for help startled the four. Emma and Jamal rushed off immediately, taking up the front, while Cain and Diya followed behind slowly, the former coating the two in Wind and quickening their descent.

The bottom of the path spilled out into a tall ravine, six further paths emerging in-between the behemoth-like, gray, jagged cliffs.

By the time Diya and Cain reached the bottom, they saw that Jamal and Emma were already in a full sprint toward a small group of three that were currently surrounded by nearly a dozen corpses, some human, some monsters'. Besides the corpses, there were two creatures currently hot on their tail.

“... Spikers?” Cain mumbled softly, recognizing the creatures -- it was part of a group that would eventually come to be called ‘cross-mutants’ as the creatures that were the of the group bore striking resemblance to a combination of two animals on Earth. In this case, it was a strange combination of a viper and a hedgehog.

The creatures, Spikers, were around fifteen feet long, fat around the ‘neck’ area, thinning out toward the tail. What separated them from the ordinary vipers, besides the girth and length, were the three rows of spear-tipped spikes that ran the length of their backs. Those closer to the head were on the taller end of things, good twenty inches, while those on toward the tail came down to finger-sized.

“Watch out for poison,” Cain warned aloud. “And tail swipes. Bless them both,” he then turned to Diya who, even before he said anything, had already raised her wooden staff -- an item that Rick procured for her -- and poured Mana into it, turning it into a gold-laden projection thrice the size. A pair of golden pillars descended upon Emma and Jamal who just passed the fleeing group of three, ramming themselves toward the creatures.

A hiss and a screech accompanying the booming sounds of the collision as Emma spiked the one on the right with a full-brunt strike of her massive warhammer, while Jamal shot off a ten-feet tall array of bladed starlight that forced the creature to coil defensively.

The ensuing winds blew the fleeing three into the air, uncontrollably flying, as Cain sprinted over and charged Wind within his fists, slapping them together and dissipating the blowback force carrying the trio, gently helping them land on the group. All three were bloodied and clearly terrified, quite a few bone-deep gashes decorating their bodies.

“Heal them, Diya,” Cain called out as he focused back to the front where he saw Emma and Jamal easily dispatching the two creatures. After all, despite their terrifying appearance... the creatures were only level 8 as far as Cain was aware. The two corpses quickly joined the rest, though it was clear by the state of dismemberment that their deaths were the least peaceful of the bunch. “You guys alright?” he then turned to the shaking trio on the floor who all shocked expressions on their faces as they felt their wounds vanish one by one soon after the golden light bathed them.

“Y-yes...” one of them, a young-looking man, replied absentmindedly. “Thank you...”

“Don’t worry about it,” Cain smiled faintly. “If you go up that path,” he pointed behind them. “You’ll wind up close to the exit.”

“Hey,” Emma and Jamal returned, the former carrying a fairly large spike in her hand, examining it. “They dropped this.”

//Tender Fang(C-) Weapon

Level 6

+3 to Strength

+1 to Agility

5% chance to inflict Poison(E) on a successful hit//

“You three can have it,” he tossed the item next to the trio as not only did it not suit any one of the four of them... it was also... bad. “Be careful. Don’t stick around for too long.”

“Y-yes...”

Regrouping, the four headed through a central path as Cain informed them it didn’t really matter as they all led to the same exit, leaving behind the flabbergasted trio who stared at their fading backs for quite some time.

“Anyone leveled up?” Cain asked just in case.

“Nope.”

“Nada.”

“N-no...”

“Thought as much,” he sighed. Emma was currently Level 24, closest to his own, while Diya was 19 and Jamal was 20. They should be able to get 30 by the time we get there... I should also hit 40... we might even be a bit too strong for it... “How are the new items, Diya?”

“A-ah? G-good. Really good,” the young woman said, wrapping her arms tightly around the staff. Cain found it strange that she didn’t hold it in her inventory, but figured it was just a quirk. “My healing is much better, and I now have almost 3000 Mana.” Cain felt his heart ache as soon as he heard the number. After all, despite having fifteen levels on her, and fairly good items, plus titles increasing his main stats... he wasn’t even close to 2000, let alone 3000, capping at 1408 for the moment. Unfair!! This is bullshit! Fuckin’ Towers, just randomly assigning stats and shit... fuck you...

“U-uh... Mr... Mr. Cain, is everything alright?” Diya asked as she noticed the change in his expression.

“Khm, don’t worry about it, just had some acid-something-whatever,” he replied quickly. “Good, the more Mana you have, the more you can heal. Good. Really... really good.”

“... t-thanks?”

“...” Cain looked away, incapable of withstanding the pure innocence in the girl’s eyes, and the sort of admiration she held toward him that put him in an awkward spot. Calm down, C’. Their numbers are insane. Most people are like you. They are just freaks. Yes, that’s it! You’re the normal one -- they’re just insane. Yup... alright, let’s repeat it for about a thousand times till I actually believe it...