Chapter 19

...

[Floor 2 – Day 27]

[Total Days in Trial: 68]

There was only one city left now, and in the distance, opposite of the mountains, I could see that dark clouds had formed.

Horrible and ominous, they covered the sky, blocking out the light. Sometimes, I could hear thunder, rumbling and powerful, as flashes of lightning dropped from the sky. Those came like spears of electric light: quick and precise, not jagged and branching like those I remembered from storms on Earth. Each one ripped open the clouds as they struck down, but the darkness quickly reformed behind them once they ceased.

I wondered if those bolts were striking unknown targets. Perhaps, those were a different kind of Miracle.

[Status]

Name: John

Attributes

Class: Disciple – Skills: 4/7

Titles:

Perks:

Strength:

15

-

Lesser Analysis

Dexterity:

13

Archery 8

Constitution:

19

Resist Poison 15

Intelligence:

10

-

Wisdom:

13 [+2]

Meditation 6

Lesser Heal 4 - (Miracle)

Wise man of the Mountains

Charisma:

10 [+5]

-

Ambitious [ACTIVE]

I had begun to prepare for the worst.

What was coming, was happening on a scale I could barely wrap my head around. The battle taking place in the distance was huge, and the storm seemed to have swallowed up the sky. Whatever was raging in the distance, was beyond anything I could handle. My attributes may have improved, but I knew it wouldn’t be nearly enough for what was approaching.

A bag was packed. I filled it to the brim with supplies. There were dried meats that I had painstakingly cooked, smoked, and dried. I did the same for thin cuts of vegetables, as well as biscuits that had been formed from a paste of ground flour I'd found in storage and carefully baked on an iron pan into crude clumps of bread. I took dried berries and nuts and plants from the garden, chosen by their ability to travel well, as well as mushrooms I'd been taught were safe to eat.

If the final city fell, who was to say the demons would be stopping there?

No, I knew that the floor wouldn't let things end so easily. They would come here, eventually, and when they did: I needed to be long gone. By the time the trouble made its way down the road, I had to make myself scarce.

So, I prepared.

I felt capable enough, considering my health. I couldn’t take the risk of staying anywhere near the approaching danger, and fighting demons sounded like an incredibly stupid way to die, but I could travel. I was ready to march off towards the mountains. Perhaps I could repeat my venture on the first Floor, and begin to climb.

To distract myself from my growing sense of anxiety, I continued to check into the Status Menu and the Global chat, but there was nothing new to learn.

The Global messages continued, with little variation. "RunnerGunner" continued to update, in much the same manner as before. None of the new messages posted had additional information. Those global broadcasts were quietly connecting all the lives in the [Trial] through their regularity. All those other people that were probably in similar struggles to my own...

The Status manu continued to show my progress, but it was nothing incredible. Certainly not to the point where I would feel confident fighting demons. The best I would be able to do is lob a few arrows in their direction, and I had a feeling that wouldn't be nearly enough to kill a demon. If it were that easy, cities wouldn't be falling.

So, time passed, and I spent my days in a blur of preparation.

Then, at last, came the fateful messages.

[SECONDARY QUEST]

[DEFEND THE CITIES: PROGRESS 0/1] [QUEST FAILED]

[SECONDARY QUEST ENDED]

That was that.

Without waiting any longer, I took the bag and stepped out to the road.

Behind me, the small church and gardens I had called home, fell away as the bricks of stone stretched out ahead of me. My bag was filled only with the essentials. I did not take the armor, for it was quite heavy and I had a long way to travel, and I did not take any of the books either. I couldn't read them, and I had doubt they would be of value to me. All I took apart from food and basic supplies, were the rusted sword I’d found in the locked room, and my bow. The arrows rattled in my quiver, as I stopped and offered a silent prayer for the Priest.

I hoped that they had found peace in their final actions. I hoped that they had not died in pain, and that they had left this life feeling they had made a difference.

Although I wasn't a particularly religious man, and I knew very little of the God of Light the Priest had prayed to: as the Priest's disciple it only felt right to pray. Bowing my head, I offered the quiet thoughts up, palms placed together as I stood in the center of the road for as long a moment as I dared, before I began marching down the road towards the mountains once more.

I resolved myself to go as far as I could, as my steps grew countless, and my meditative breathing continued.

Weak as I was, my Attributes carried me. My Strength was abnormal for my muscles, and the breathing technique kept me focused. Though it was not yet useful for heavy exercise, it worked well with my enhanced Strength, and together I found I could manage at a steady pace. Not a jog, but at the speed of a brisk walk, as I felt the Mana in my body circulating synergistically with the motions. My legs assisting the beating of my heart, as I pressed on.

The miles fell away and I continued down the road. I could see that the condition for the stone blocks that made the borders began to fall deeper and deeper into disrepair the closer to the mountains I came. Off to the side of the road, I could see building that had long since collapsed and been overgrown. Small structures, not unlike the church I'd stayed, or lean-tos, that no longer held roofs, set beside what what have once been recognizable as fire-pits.

Soon, I was walking not on a road, but on a trail, marked only by the occasional stone. The stones had been replaced by dirt and gravel. The maintenance of the road was so neglected, that many of the set blocks that formed it, were now buried.

Still, I did not stop.

Through the night, I continued, until I couldn’t help but rest for the fear of losing track of the path. With my eyes, I found the moonlight was not enough. Yet, my sleep was fitful at best, and first thing in the morning, though, I continued. Barely willing to sleep, before pressing on with the coming dawn.

As I reached the mountains, though, I found something strange.

I could go no further.

My legs could move, my feet could find purchase, yet I could not ascend towards the distant snow-capped peaks. I could not continue towards the path which lead to them.

There they rose, a distant path winding up their slopes, yet I could not reach them.

Gently, I was being pushed back.

I had come upon the edge of the world, it seemed. As I pressed against the strange barrier with an open palm, I reflected what it meant. To come upon the edge of the 2nd Floor... It seemed I had finally reached the farthest point by which I was allowed to travel.

Turning off the trail, I began to walk through the forest beside it. Careful in my steps, I continued on, finding much the same: I could not approach the mountains. Still, I could continue in some sense. Off the road, and onto far more difficult terrain. Through underbrush, over roots, I made my way through the forest, heading what I deemed a relative North. I made my way into the wilderness, until finally, I stopped.

There was a pond.

Beautiful, peaceful, so very well hidden in the wild: it waited in a trickling silence, fed by a stream running from one of the mountains. With crystal clear waters, deep and perfectly isolated, miles from the road, and ever farther from civilization...

I could not take my eyes from this odd, hidden, gem, placed at random along the very edge of the world.

Perhaps, I decided, this was it. For I could have kept walking, I knew, but I was very tired. I was hungry, and I was growing weak.

I’d done all I could. Stalled for as long as the [Trial] would allow me, and perhaps then some.

It was time to stop.

To wait.

To survive.