Chapter 297

Primal (III)

Cain was relentless in his questioning of the eleven men as they made their way through the darkness. After all, the more he knew about the world the better it would be in the long run. Even if he could live out the power fantasy this far on the fringes, the rewards for staying here would be proportional. He didn’t come here to sight-see and spend years doing nothing. In fact, unlike most people here, he wanted to spend the least amount of time possible while raking in the best rewards he could.

As such, he was in a hurry even if he didn’t seem the part. Staying on the fringes wasn’t in his plans, and even going to the nearest settlement here was merely as means of learning more about this place and seeing the general way in which the world is ran.

He quickly learned that people here navigated through something they called ‘Chaos’ Compass’ -- very imaginative, he mused -- and, unlike the normal compass which used a planet’s natural magnetic fields to orient, this world’s one used the flow of invisible energy. The invisible energy ordinarily flowed north-west-- as for why, none of the eleven could even venture a guess-- and so they adjusted the compass slightly as to point out the north.

The problem was that it had the tendency of being inaccurate, depending on the compass. While a degree or two missed on short distances weren’t awful, any larger discrepancies over larger distances meant that, sometimes, people ended up miles upon miles from where they intended to be.

Luckily, the group here had been to Attasha settlement before so they didn’t need to completely rely on the compass. Every few miles, they looked for the landmarks they were familiar with and adjusted their course. Because of the nature of the world, however, it was actually far more exhausting to traverse. The lack of natural light had an impact on psyche, especially Cain who was yet to adjust properly. Because of it, they took short breaks every few hours, and camped every ‘night’ for at least five-six.

“Wow, your world is only on the Ninth Floor?!!” Xalt exclaimed in horror. The group naturally ended up chatting about their homeworlds as well as the Towers on them. “That’s... insane! How did you even get a Chaos Bead that early on?! It shouldn’t be possible!”

“Quest reward,” Cain shrugged, realizing himself that it was a bit insane. “In all fairness, you lot are far weaker than I anticipated. What floors were you on?”

“Ah, it’s not really that strange,” Xalt explained with a bitter smile. “Most of us are third-fourth generation Conquerors. On my world, there is an agency of sorts that operates the inter-dimensional pockets--you can basically rent a Chaos Bead for a sum. The last time I was home, we had reached 91st Floor I believe. However, the progress has been quite slow since most people have been focused on worlds like Primal World, increasing their strength in the anticipation of the future.

“All the same,” Xalt added. “You... you do not belong on the Ninth Floor. At least you wouldn’t on my world.”

“Same.”

“Yup.”

“Eh, I’m a bit of an anomaly,” Cain shrugged. “Got lucky early on with some quest rewards and snowballed, as they say. I’m quite shocked at the 91st floor, though,” he added honestly. “Must have been hard.”

“Quite,” Xalt sighed. “The last few Guardians took decades each to take down. Especially the 90th Floor’s Guardian. It took us nearly sixty years to defeat her. And even then, we just defeated her--couldn’t even kill the bitch.” Cain’s eyebrows twitched considerably. Was... was it really that bad? Maybe... maybe they’re just a bad world? No, wait, they’re leagues ahead of us since they got to 90th floor. Shit, what the hell?!

“What was the raid size?” Cain asked.

“Hmm,” Xalt took a moment to think back before replying. “Around eight thousand quad-Awakened and two penta-Awakened, I believe. I’m not too sure, since only rumors about it ever made it out.” Cain cringed inwardly; merely hearing the words ‘quad’ and ‘penta’ next to the ‘Awakened’ made his soul shrivel up. It worried him because, in truth, Earth didn’t have a quad-Awakened Conqueror by the time of his return. And there wasn’t that large of a gap in floors--less than 20--between the two worlds.

As such, he had no means of even visualizing the differences between the thrice-Awakened and above. They were likely astronomical, but he couldn’t be certain. Nonetheless, if even that level of prowess was barely enough to eek out a victory against a Guardian on the 90th floor, wasn’t Earth screwed? He barely had enough confidence to reach thrice-Awakened within a decent timespan, and anything beyond that was, at the moment, merely a pipe dream.

This, more so than anything else, further ignited the fires within him that urged him to bleed this world dry of anything useful he could find. Inevitably, he knew, he’d hit a plateau of what he could do on his own--but while there were things he could do by himself, he’d ensure others would keep up. So far, it was at the cost of strengthening himself, and his journey here was the first ‘selfish’, so to say, decision he’s made, but he knew it couldn’t be something he’d rely on forever.

One man’s strength, after all, wasn’t infallible. Even if he was a diverse fighter who could fight at range and in melee, as well as provide support, he had his limitations. He couldn’t tank--he couldn’t be the front that shields the others. He couldn’t heal them and bring them back from the brink of death. He couldn’t do many other things, all of which were expressly necessary for the Tower-climbers to have.

What made Xalt’s words resonate with him even more, however, was the sheer scale of the raid. Though Cain knew that he wouldn’t be able to get away with 20-man raids forever, and already had Rick bringing up the newcomers for the future, he never expected the numbers to hit thousands--especially at such high-tier Awakenings.

Sighing inwardly, he knew that after his return back to Earth, everyone would have to be kicked into high-gear. This meant going to other Towers and wiping them dry of any must-have opportunities. It also meant slowing down the climb since he suspected Emma, Senna, and others would push relentlessly while he was gone to try and catch up with him as much as possible. He suspected them to actually break out through the 20th floor, perhaps even higher, and undergo their Second Awakenings.

He’d already left Emma and Senna with some basic instructions so they can relay them to others in due time, so he wasn’t terribly worried. The stronger they were when he returned, the better off his plan would be overall.

Nonetheless, he couldn’t slack off. If he had any remote notions of eventually beating the Tower, he knew that he was arriving on the cusps of making that decision--whether he’d dedicate his life to beating it or not. Thus far, he largely delayed it because of Lana, one of the main reasons he stepped out of the Tower for years. He didn’t want her to grow up without a family, but, soon enough, she’ll have grown up enough, and he’ll have to make that choice.

If he dedicated his life to clearing the Tower, others would have to do it too, and that was no small ask of them, especially someone like Kramer who had a young kid to raise. There’d be no more room to skirt around the edges since the length of time they’d stay in Tower would increase to years and years.

“What’s wrong?” Xalt asked suddenly, noticing Cain’s frowning expression.

“Nothing,” he replied, shaking his head. “Just realizing there’s a long journey ahead, still. None of you went past the fringes, right?”

“Hah, no,” Xalt scoffed. “Even slightly ahead once nearly killed me. Chaos Resistance is impossible to come by, even here. Right, what’s yours?”

“... low,” Cain expertly evaded the question, knowing that the number would likely shock them beyond any help. “Enough, I think, to push me slightly past the fringes. What’s the best you guys have gotten as rewards here? Don’t worry, I am no thief--well, most of the time, anyway.”

“Even if you were,” one of the other men replied. “You’d have nothing to steal. Most of the rewards around here come from consuming Crawlers’ Cores which increase our stats somewhat. We aren’t even certain of the number, just that our strengths keep growing stronger. I heard that there was someone who lucked into learning a Classless Skill a few years back, though I don’t know if it’s true. Really, most rewards come from further in, where there’s a greater diversity of native life.”

“Good to know,” Cain said, finishing off a can of beer. “How long till we’re there?”

“Three-four days, at our current pace,” Xalt replied, packing and standing up, realizing it was time to move. “And if we don’t encounter any other groups.”

“Hoh?”

“Usually, near the settlements, there are roaming groups--”

“--thieves.”

“--right, thieves.”

“Yeah, I have some experience,” Cain mumbled.

“Didn’t you say you weren’t a thief?”

“Anyway.”

“Khm, anyway. If we’re lucky, we can avoid them, but it would slow us down since we’d have to scout ahead, take alternate routes--”

“Nah, don’t worry about that,” Cain shook his head. “Just beeline toward the settlement. If we’re lucky, people will intercept us and I can gather a few more folk on our side so we’ll look like a proper army.”

“...”

“Heh, General Cain. Y’know, my group back home never called me a General. Despite how well I was leading them.”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“G-General Cain...”

“Yes?”

“Should we go?” Xalt’s eyebrows were twitching while Cain’s smile beamed. What a hateful fucker...

“Haha, let’s go, let’s go! Early is the day!”