Chapter 27

...

[Floor 3 – Day 34]

[Total Days in Trial: 116]

[Status]

Name: John

Attributes

Class: Disciple – Skills: 4/7

Titles:

Perks:

Strength:

15

-

Lesser Analysis

Dexterity:

16

Archery 16

Constitution:

23

Resist Poison 23

Intelligence:

10

-

Wisdom:

16 [+2]

Meditation 13

Lesser Heal 12 - (Miracle)

Wise man of the Mountains

Charisma:

11 [+0]

-

Ambitious [INACTIVE]

[Floor 3 - Minimum Clear Condition]

[Complete 20 E-Rank Quests: 19/20]

[Floor 3 – Secondary Conditions:] [Complete 10 D-Rank Quests: 9/10]

On the brightside: I was right about the Quests leading towards something epic.

The downside... I was right about the Quests leading towards something epic.

I was really not cut out for this.

"WHO DARES TO SUMMON THE GREAT BERL OF TEN THOUSAND CIRCLES?" The magical creature within the ruins screamed in rage, as we fought for our very lives.

"Steelbeard! Why in all the Gods did you tamper with my summoning rune! Are you so drunk you can't even watch your step?" Alastrum the Majestic shouted, as he raised his staff high above his head. Then, he brought it down with a mighty sound. Glowing patterns shook the air, all of them fixing themselves upon the ruined stone walls of the hidden keep, binding the growing mass of magical energy in place.

"Ha! I just didn't know it was all so bloody fragile!" Steelbeard laughed, as he swung his hammer through a spectre of ghostly light. The ghost howled as it shattered under the passing force. "Now finish the spell already, before you lose that giant hat of yours!"

"If it were as simple as that, I'd have done it already, you giant oaf!" Alastrum hollered back, red-faced with anger.

"YOUR PUNY LIVES ARE FORFEIT! I AM ENDLESS! I AM ETERNAL!" The voice boomed, as the entity thrashed in an effort to escape.

"John! A little help?" Gulther's shout alerted me that I should be doing more than staring.

"On it!" I answered, letting an arrow fly. My shot whipped through the air, cleaving another ghostly form, just as it took shape. "There's more appearing, to your left!" I warned, resisting the urge to eye the exit instead.

What had I been thinking? Why the hell was I even here? To those questions, I could only marvel at my reckless stupidity.

The last few Quests hadn't been particularly dangerous, and they'd gone quick. With that progress spurring me on, I'd been drawn deeper into the world the 3rd Floor seemed to offer. Even as the signs of some ominous and approaching danger started raising flags, I'd still been more than happy to keep going. The Adventuring life had really begun to appeal to me, you see. Waking up and heading out to take on a new day: To make more coin, to learn new things, and to enjoy the camaraderie of my new Adventuring buddies. Yet, the mystery of what the 3rd Floor might really be hiding, was what really kept dragging me farther in. With every new job, there was an additional piece of information, tempting me to continue just a little further.

I hadn't gotten more Attributes through these. At least, not in the way I had when I received Charisma. But I was picking up useful knowledge. Gulther had shown me a few moves with the sword I could practice. While I wasn't very good, I made sure to memorize them to the best of my ability, and with them I had begun to feel less like I was swinging a sharp baseball bat, and more like an actual weapon. I learned about magic, too. Not how to do any of it, unfortunately, but I picked up a little more detail on a subject. From the secretive Wizard, who had been hiding his identity early on: Alastrum the Majestic was hardly a willing teacher. Yet, I managed to pry a few details as we went about our Questing. My small amount of Charisma was barely a benefit at all, but once he learned I could use a Miracle, his own arrogance seemed to be enough to get him talking.

Spells, he had impatiently explained, were power that was constructed entirely by their users. They were built from the ground up, formed with mana from scratch, every time. In this sense, they were very different from simply paying whatever lump-sum of mana a Miracle cost, and then recieving something that was already "prepared." If his analogy was to be believed, it seemed to me that a Miracle was much like a pre-made mold. Where, in comparison, a spell was more like a constructed machine: built piece by careful piece, through delicate control. There were no shortcuts when spellcasting, and to use magic you needed a well-trained mind, and decades of practice and knowledge. This was a fact that made Mages far superior to "dim-witted fools and their borrowed religious parlor tricks."

Or, at least that was what Alastrum the Majestic repeatedly stated.

I did my best not to take offense. In fact, I was extremely curious about how it all worked. What he'd told me, had made the possiblity of spending some of my next free Attribute points on Intelligence seem much more reasonable. I was very tempted, if only just to see what it might be like. Enhancing my mind felt like a strange, dangerous, and yet fascinating, concept...

Of course, then I got side-tracked and I wasted half a day chasing some random talk I'd heard about a "Health" potion. My time left was really winding down, and it had seemed worth the gamble if it turned out to be something amazing that might be able to extend my stay. So, when I finally managed to barter for an old potion that a trader just happened to have in stock, my disappointment was immeasurable. Potions, it turns out, do far less than my Miracle. The expensive bottle of red liquid was intended to be poured on an open wound, and was almost entirely pointless for anything else...

And that was pretty how it went. I was being strung along by just "one more thing." One more piece of a puzzle, or interesting bit of knowledge I might want to chew on. One more Quest, for one more bag of coins...

What I'm trying to explain, is that you don't simply walk into an ancient ruin with a crazy Wizard, who is hell-bent on getting everyone killed by some murderous, undead, spirit. This sort of thing happens gradually. Often, I imagine, with a false sense of "Eh, nothing went wrong last time" providing that nice blanket of security, to cover up any thoughts that could have pointed out how stupid you were being.

So it goes: I was in a crypt beneath the ruins that lay north of the town Greywalk. I was fighting for my life with a pair of Adventuring fools, lead on by the previously-mentioned Wizard, who seemed to be dead-set on defiling this ancient burial ground with every bit of magic he had available. Which was a lot of magic. Phantoms were coming out of the woodwork, arcane energy was whipping like a storm, and I was entirely not prepared for any of it- even before the Wizard started summoning whatever the hell that was.

"CURSE YOU WIZARD! CURSE YOU!" The Berl of Ten Thousand Circles screeched, as the bindings visible in the air constricted around it. "YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!"

"There's too many!" I shouted, breathing heavily as I launched another arrow at a ghostly figure. My shots didn't seem to hurt the awful things much, but at least they dispersed them for a few moments. "I think we need to retreat! We're going to be overwhelmed!"

"Retreat? Don't underestimate me, youngling!" Alastrum threw his staff forward, and the runes he'd made ripped themselves free of the walls, taking flight to orbit about the raging elemental of darkness that was taking shape. "I shall have my answers!"

"YOU WOULD DARE CONFINE ME?" The darkness fought back, taking on a form of empty eyes and gnashing teeth. "YOU WOULD DARE TO TEMPT FATE?"

"I dare, you wicked thing! I dare to seek the knowledge of this world! I dare to claw greatness from the Gods! I dare to seek out the answers you are hiding!" Alastrum shouted, glowing with arcane energy as his voice seeped into the magic around him. "Now answer me! Speak, ye who has seen beyond! Speak of the age approaching! Speak of the ruin that the Tower of Mages has forseen!"

"I should have just turned in the E-Rank quest." Under my breath, I cursed to myself. My arms were moving on auto-pilot, as I continued letting arrows free. At this point, I was barely bothering to check if they hit their targets. My body could barely keep up, even with Attributes I gained helping me along. "Oh, I am so stupid." I muttered, as I let another arrow fly. "So, so, stupid..."

This was the kind of thing that legends were made of. And I was 100% not what legends were made of. I knew that I could seriously die at any moment, and yet I was still getting a little caught up in this. Somehow, a small part of me still wanted to see where this was going.

The phrase "Curiosity killed the cat" kept coming to mind.

"MORTALS... YOU SEEK ANSWERS TO QUESTION THAT SHOULD NOT BE ASKED." As the magical bindings afixed themselves in more stable patterns, the elemental energy had condensed. The entity behind that barrier, set thick claws at its containment. The form of those horrible things were visible, digging in deep as the spell around them warped. "YOU SEEK THAT WHICH I CANNOT GIVE."

I watched as those same claws began to cut further. Where they found purchase, the magic barrier which surrounded them began to crack: splintering with thousands of tiny fractures that branched out across the air.

Slowly, it was cutting through.

"He's going to break free!" Gulther shouted, his sword flashing through the air as he spun, slicing down yet another spectral entity that sought to stop us. If we weren't all about to die, I would swear he was showing off. "End it, Wizard! Banish him! We don't have time!"

"Submit!" Alastrum pressed on, as he demanded. "ANSWER ME!"

"AND TELL YOU OF WHAT? THAT IT HAS ALREADY BEGUN? THAT YOU WILL BE PASSED THROUGH THE CRUCIBLE OF THE GODS? THAT YOUR WEAK BODIES AND WEAKER SOULS, WILL BE GROUND TO DUST?" The Berl of Ten Thousand Circles laughed, voice echoing as the magic containing it began to groan and creak. "YOUR PRECIOUS TOWER HAD DOOMED YOU! THEY HAVE REACHED BEYOND THE HEIGHTS OF MORTALS! AND NOW?" The barrier began to break, pieces coming away and dispersing under the tremendous energy. "NOW COMES JUDGEMENT!"

Oh, it looked mad. The magic barrier was not going to hold. I could see that Alastrum's staff was sparking, and the crystal mounted on it looked like it might explode. As I tuned towards another ghostly figure that had appeared, I reached for another arrow- and found I was almost out. This was my last one.

"We need to go!" I hollered. "We need to retreat!"

"Fine! I'll handle this, alone! Steelbeard, use the Scroll!" Alastrum commanded, setting his back into holding his staff against tremedous force. The crystal atop it glowed even brighter in resistance. "Go, and tell the Magic Tower what has happened here today!"

I saw Steelbeard throw his hammer, destroying one final spectre, before he grabbed Gulther and rushed towards me. Dropping our comrade at our feet, his meaty hands pulled free a piece of rolled parchment from a case on his belt, and then ripped it open.

Something audibly "Cracked" as he did so.

"Good luck, you crazy bastard!" Steelbeard roared, as a very different kind of magic began to distort the light and space around us. "We owe you one!"

I watched the epic battle between wizard and spirit rage on, but soon it shifted. The battle was being swept away by thousands of colors and stars. Constellations hummed and glowed, as we stood still, yet flew. No longer here, nor there, but within an expanse of everything and nothing. The world creaked and bent as pressure hit me, pressing in on all sides until my ears popped and my skull screamed.

And then, we crashed down.

We were back. The familiar scenery of the Guild hall formed around us, and the voices of people hollering in panic came with a horrible ringing in my ears. Our fellow Adventurers swarmed us, pulling broken chairs and tables out of the way.

It was over.

"Ping."

Quest Completed!

[Floor 3 - Secondary Condition - Updated!]

[Complete 10 D-Rank Quests: 10/10]

"Is everyone alright?" Gulther asked from where he lay on the floor, breathing heavily.

"I'm fine." I answered, vision still spinning. "Just dizzy." Grasping around for my possessions, I found my bow was missing. As was my sword... No, wait. They were nearby, as was my bag...

"An herb-picker to the end, eh John?" Trying my best to sit up, I saw Steelbeard holding what was left of my bag. The fabric was ruined beyond repair, and most of the contents had spilled on the floor: including the bundle of herbs I'd been holding onto.

"Wait a second." I panicked, as I realized what he'd found. "I was holding onto those for a reason-"

"Are you alright? What happened? Why did you use a scroll?" Anna had come out from behind the counter, accepting the bundle from Steelbeard as he stood up. "You expect me to believe all this happened while herb picking?"

"Oh crap." I didn't have time to stop him.

I heard the Menu "Ping."

Quest Completed!

[Floor 3 - Minimum Clear Condition - Updated!]

[Complete 20 E-Rank Quests: 20/20]

"Alastrum the Majestic found what he was looking for." Steelbeard continued, ignorant of my look of disbelief. "We need to send word to the Tower before-"

The ground seemed to tremble. The floorboards creaked, and mugs went rolling off tables, as I felt a familiar sensation that I couldn't quite place, settling down overtop of me. As I looked up in surprise, it seemed that everyone else felt it too, because a hush fell over the room.

"There's something in the sky!" Shouting rose up, only this time it had nothing to do with us. Instead, people outside the building were yelling.

The doors to the Guild Hall burst open as Steelbeard rushed out, looking up. His beard seemed wild, as his eyes grew wide.

"Ping."

[Floor 3 – Task Completed]

[Standard Bonus awarded] [+1 Free Attribute Point]

The Menu was rattling away, rapidly updating. I could feel myself fighting against the odd pulling of my consciousness that came with the shifting of one Floor to the next. There was no way I could win, but I still had a little time.

I had to know.

With great effort, I tried to stand up. I felt weak, and keeping my balance was difficult. My vision seemed distorted, as the system messages were practically humming now, blocking my sight as quickly as I could push them away. In the back of my mind, I almost felt as if something was lifting me up and leaving my body behind. Still, managed to stumble towards the door. Outside, I could see people were pointing at the sky, all staring at something.

If I could just make it a few more steps, I could see-

"Ping"

[Additional Bonuses awarded]

[Secondary Condition – Complete 10 D-Rank Quests] - [+1 Free Attribute Point]

[Hidden Condition – Complete All 10 Secret Quests] - [+1 Free Attribute Point]

[Title Awarded – Adventurer's Spirit]

[Maximum Additional Bonus – Reached]

[Title Awarded – Ambitious] – [Pending]

[Title Already Awarded!] – [+1 Free Attribute Point]

[Floor 3 – End]

[Floor 4 – Beginning]

I didn't make it.