Chapter 294

The Calling

Cain stared gingerly at the ‘reward’ he was given as means of apologizing. It was a small, fingernail-sized sphere, its inside wholly black save for two swirls of silver that orbited around the edges. To likely everyone else in the world, this little sphere was utterly useless--and would be for years to come--yet, for him, it was probably the best reward he could have been given.

The sphere had no name and it had no information window--it was one of those few items that seemed to exist outside the Tower’s scope--and, in Cain’s past life, it took over a decade for the sphere’s use to be discovered. The reason he knew was that it was a global phenomenon, with the top players offering trillions in items’ worth for whoever could unlock the sphere’s secrets. It didn’t start out that high, but, over the years, more and more items pooled in until the reward wasn’t even worth picking up since you’d end up dead immediately after.

Eventually, the sphere was ‘solved’ by a newbie who stumbled his way into a previously-undiscovered dungeon on the 13th floor where he found a mural depicting how the sphere was used. Even still, nobody knew what it was--just how it was used.

Some few months later, the ‘secret’ was out-- the sphere led through a sub-dimensional tunnel into another world. This wouldn’t have rattled the cages as much were it not for the fact that the world existed outside of the Tower’s reign--this meant that, while everyone kept their levels and strength and such, the world beyond didn’t support item activations, stats, status windows, anything and everything that made the Tower unique.

Furthermore, despite being labeled the ‘death row’ for how difficult it was, it would turn to be the best spot to grind for extremely strong ‘items’, even as people grew through the floors due to the world’s nature.

Everyone began at the very outer edge and forged their way forward toward the center. Inevitably, though, they ran into an issue--an issue that Cain would have as well were it not for the broken ring in his possession... Chaos Resistance. Everyone naturally had a very small amount of Chaos Resistance--just enough to exist within the Tower and move through the spatial tunnels, and just enough to wander about the very edges of the other world. However, even a foot further in meant instant death--and the deeper they went, the higher the requirements were.

Cain had already mused upon acquiring the ring that it would undoubtedly allow him exploit one particular stat on it. The heavily-unprecedented 1% to Chaos Resistance would allow him to venture miles into the Primal World. But the reason why he wasn’t losing his mind over it was that he simply didn’t know how to get there--or, rather, he didn’t know where to find a sphere to take him there. Nobody ever publicly stated where exactly they got the sphere, even long after its use had been deciphered.

And yet, here it was, laying still in the palm of his hands. He could go there now, go years before anyone even knows what this thing is, long before anyone else steps foot into the Primal World. But there was one issue: he would have to go alone. Even if the sphere had the ability to transport multiple people, which it didn’t, he still couldn’t take others due to the fact that they could only survive on the very edges. And surviving there wasn’t worth the rewards.

Furthermore, beyond just going there alone, he’d be gone for a long time--spheres usually have recharge timers, and the lowest were still in the seven-eight months range, while the longest could take years. There was hardly a way to speed up the process.

This was also why the expeditions into the Primal World were mostly once-in-a-lifetime thing, and why people sold the spheres once they returned. Beyond just taking so long, it was also extremely taxing and beyond difficult, and even if the rewards were amazing...

Sighing, he realized he was being pulled out, quickly finding himself back in the silver-winged city. Once again, a choice lay bared before him--either go alone... or hold himself back. If he went, he’d likely stay there for years. He didn’t know anything about the Primal World, meaning he couldn’t just go there and gobble up the rewards. He’d have to investigate from roots to figure everything out.

Others would be perfectly fine on their own. But that wasn’t the issue. It was the same conundrum that he’d be facing ever since his return. As a Thief, he was supposed to rush forward and leave others eating his dust... but he didn’t. One way or another, it all worked out, but a good lot of it was pure luck. He always felt that pull, like he was balancing himself on a fine ledge--a pull to take just one extra step forward. If he did, he’d leap.

Instead of the full step, he’d only take a half--and even still, find himself in circumstances well beyond the scope of what he should have been facing. He somewhat made it harder on himself and others by the push-and-pull, often tossing them into the battles they had no business fighting.

Sighing, he shook his head and put the sphere away. He had a choice--it didn’t mean he immediately had to choose it.

He walked the streets of the city casually for a while, playing back the fight in his head and looking for where he could have fought better. There were few points, however--not because he had mastered fighting, but because of the way he usually fought. He wasn’t about to regress back to the way be fought before Awakening; if that was the choice, he wouldn’t have chosen to become a Spellweaver at the end of the day.

As such, there was little he could have done in melee, especially because the woman, or whatever, he fought was fine-tuned to be glued to him. Normal fights weren’t like that and he was confident in being able to gain distance against virtually everyone.

Eventually, he found his way to the far front of the city where a surprise waited for him--Emma. She was sitting on a wall, reading a book, hunched forward slightly.

“Far and away,” Cain approached from the side and spoke. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve seen today!”

“... a thing?” Emma glanced at him, putting the book away. “I’ll have you know, you’re the one with a thing.”

“Why do you insist on ruining my romantic moments?”

“Because the moments you consider romantic are, in fact, extremely creepy,” she said. “I’m just saving you the wrong internet fame.”

“No, no, no, I distinctly remember you being very charmed by those supposed creepy moments,” Cain said, sitting next to her.

“You forget that I was a naive, heart-strung fourteen-year-old girl who didn’t know any better,” Emma replied. “Even if you literally took your dick out and started waving it at me, I’d have probably considered it romantic back then.”

“... the fuck are you saying? You’d have chopped the little fella off in the heartbeat. I think you have a very, very warped memory of how you were as a kid.”

“Oh? How so?”

“You think you were this fresh-made-out-of-glass girl who had stars in her eyes for me,” Cain said. “But you were a bad bitch, girl.”

“I was a... bad bitch?” by now, Emma was barely holding in her laughter.

“Hell yeah. Me notwithstanding, do you remember how you treated other boys? Like that poor sod Rickie who dared ask you out? And when you said no, he tried getting a bit handsy so you literally broke his fucking wrist?”

“Tsk, the bastard deserved it.”

“I ain’t staying he didn’t,” Cain said. “I’m just saying you weren’t the type to take shit from people.”

“I took shit from you.”

“Eww.”

“Yeah, felt it the moment I said it.”

“... and, you really didn’t,” he said. “In fact, you were very keen on pointing out my shortcomings. Like when we were having sex--each time, I’d pour my heart out, but every time you were like ‘let’s to this next time’ and ‘let’s make it like this’. I wanted to cry, woman.”

“Pfft, ha ha ha, idiot, I was doing that ‘cause I thought you’d get bored, ha ha ha,” Emma laughed gently, slapping his shoulder. “I didn’t yet discover that a teenage boy cannot grow bored with sex. So, I looked it up online and learned that you’re supposed to try new stuff in the bedroom. I didn’t realize that it meant after the ‘old’ stuff had gotten boring.”

“... man, we grew up different, didn’t we?” Cain chuckled, sighing after as his expression turned somber.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“I’ve an opportunity,” he said. “A big one.”

“... as big as your balls?”

“Bigger.”

“O, wow, that’s big.”

“Stop making me laugh, this is serious,” Cain reprimanded ‘sternly’, barely holding back his laughter. “But there is a catch.”

“There always is with big opportunities,” she said.

“... I’d be gone.” Cain glanced at her. “For a long time.”

“... how long?”

“Months, at minimum,” he said. “Years most-likely.”

“...”

“Tell me what to do,” he looked at her pleadingly.

“You know that I can’t do that,” she replied, caressing his hair gently. “Besides, you already know what to do.”

“...”

“Where is it?” she asked.

“That Primordial World I was telling you about,” he said. “I found the sphere. Well, not found. I was given it as a reward.”

“Holy shit!” Emma exclaimed. “That’s amazing! I figured we were literally tens of floors away from that shit!”

“Yeah, I was pretty shocked as well.”

“... years, huh?” Emma mumbled after a long silence. “Have we ever been apart for years? I feel like, even after the divorce, we still saw each other a decent amount.”

“...”

“Oh, right,” she said, remembering he’d spent two decades on his own prior to all of this. “Sorry. But, yeah, I can’t imagine it.”

“Then I--”

“There’s an eternity ahead of us, I realized,” Emma said suddenly. “I know it’s a big-brain concept that I don’t get completely, but I get it enough. One day, I will want to retire from this place, Cain. Go somewhere far away from it, with you, and live out our lives. But, for now... I love being here. Everyone does, really. Even with all the grim and grime, we feel like we belong here. Not to mention we’ve all known for a long, long time, especially Senna and I, how much you were holding back... because of us.”

“...”

“I think you can afford to be selfish this once,” she said. “And aim for the stars. Besides, it’s not like we’re going to be fiddling about with our thumbs up our asses. Before you go, you’ll neatly list out at least twenty extra floors and all the Guardians on them and how to beat them. And we’re gonna enter the race with you. And if you lose, boy, you will never live it down, Mr. Thief who got bested by noobs. Well, since we’re gonna be parting soon, let’s just go back home and screw like rabbits for a while. I can’t have you cheating on me with some hot space babes.”

“...” Cain’s smile widened for a moment before he abruptly leaned in and kissed her. There was no one quite like her, he mused, feeling the tiny sparks alight his lips stills, even after all these years, and likely many more to come...