Day 25

***POV Change***

“Kat, is this really necessary? We don’t have to commit to a administrator now, we can wait for the 9th or 10th floor. And his current capital is so low! Why commit so soon?” Diver leaned forward, spreading his hands in a gesture of pleading.

Kent sat in the corner of their room, cleaning one of his many knives. But Ketlia could tell that Kent’s thoughts were just as confused.

She considered for a moment reaching out, just to get a sense of Kent’s, but decided against it. Kent’s skill that allowed him to detect the source and details of a skill used against him were extremely troublesome. Since her ability to read minds had evolved, she was more hesitatent to share her new power.

Her pure-hearted companions would likely turn away from her if they knew what it could do.

Looking at Diver, Ketlia just smiled. “It is, but I agree it’s close. Just come to the sponsored luncheon with me, we will talk it over a bit more with Gillette, meet some other administrators. It might even be fun.”

***POV Change***

After a bit of light exercise, chasing down scorpions for food, I walked out of the cave and pointed at the sky. “Explode.”

Essence rushed through me, fueling the Lesser Air Affinity. The sky remained still. The only noticeable change was the notification, and a strange sense that someone was laughing at me.

All Essence used at once! Max essence +1.

-So he really could restrict our use of essence. How is that fair?

-It likely isn’t. I can’t decide if it’s the work of the tower itself, testing challengers on specific attributes, or whoever is running this is just obscenely powerful.

-...it really gets your blood pumping, how powerful some people here are. I want to fight them.

-You will get us both killed like this. Get back to training, idiot disciple.

Due to that sensation yesterday that I was close to a breakthrough, after doing the basic exercises for each stance I focused my effort on obtaining the Air Stance. A quick check of the belt revealed 8 hours remaining of green light.

-Or 7 hours. Or even less.

Whipman had told me that I wasn’t ready for the attacks, so I only knew the two “steps” that formed the basis of the wind stance, the long step and the short step. A long step dodged by altering your position. A short step dodged simply by rotation, as you stood still.

So for two hours, other me lifted stones with air affinity, zigzagging them in crazy patterns of attack towards me. The long step came to me pretty naturally, and I easily used light steps to criss-cross the cave, avoiding all of the attacks. The short step was more of an issue, and I basically just stood still and wiggled or hopped around in a circle, spinning wildly.

-That’s wrong.

I punched the floor.

-I know that, but I don’t know WHY. Dammit, we probably need Whipman to proceed any further.

-Well, there’s that, or… why don’t we put some pressure on ourselves.

***POV Change***

Jen fussed with her flower print yellow skirt, casting anxious glances at the immaculately dressed Kettle.

Sighing inwardly, Kettle said. “Jen, you look wonderful. What’s the big deal? It’s just a bunch of administrators and some challengers that they are courting. Just think of it as a free meal, don’t stress over it.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Jen grumbled. But she fell silent as Gillette appeared, his eyes glowing briefly as he looked at Jen. Then he blinked, his gaze returning to normal.

Smiling at the two women, he said, “Ready to go to the party?”

***POV Change***

-Two scorpions dropping in on your head from above, one tail strike coming towards the back of your left calf, and another leaping at you from the right side.

-Got it

Stillness. Layers.

Fear.

When the scorpion strike was about to land on my calf when I moved, twisting subtlety to the side, the stinger pushed away by the motion. The two scorpions falling from above, who had been aiming for my shoulders, also missed when I twisted. I leaned back, allowing the leaping scorpion to sail past me harmlessly.

I used a long step then, crossing another 10 m in the crowded tunnel. Scorpions hissed furiously and leaped towards me.

Looking around, I realized I had entered into a larger, open area. I just hadn’t noticed because every surface was crawling with scorpions. Although I was slightly worried that I would hit by a stinger, the poison would incapacitate me, and then I would be torn to shreds, that threat was exactly what I needed right now.

My mind focused to a razor’s edge. Adrenaline raged through me like a rampaging Greater Infernal in New York City, filling me with energy. My heart was an engine, driving me recklessly forward with its slowly more rapid beats.

-The on your left side, aiming with stingers, four leaping from the front at various angles, another two from shallower angles from the back… should we just reactivate Tiimeless Perception? This is growing tedious

-Maybe, but…

I sidestepped, then spun, duck, and twisted. The stingers only struck rock and each other. The leaping scorpions flailed ineffectually at the air. Grinning, I stood.

-I’m definitely getting better.

-Perhaps. But still-

A huge dark shape dropped from the ceiling, landing right next to me. I twisted, but for some reason neither I nor other me had seen it coming. A huge, vicious red scorpion, the size of a van spat a glob of venom at me. Moving to the side to avoid it, my eyes narrowed.

It was only then that I realized that the venom had been a feint to get my balance slightly off, and strike. The tail darted forward, faster than I thought was possible. My eyes struggled to stay with it. It was aiming directly for my heart.

What was wind? It was light, and it was howling. It was in layers, and it was fear. It worked at the margins. The smallest crack let wind into a space. That crack was what I needed right now.

With a fraction of a second before impact, my foot touched the ground from my dodging the glob of poison, restoring my balance. Every ounce of energy I had I threw into a pivot, my left shoulder pulling backwards.

The tail drew a scorching line across my chest, arcing down to my hipbone, where it skidded off and stopped ripping apart my body. The pain was manageable, but the force caused me to stumble slightly.

Feeling a creeping numbness spreading from the wound, I made the decision to commit; I didn’t have time to play around with this scorpion with a portion of its venom circling through my veins. As it withdrew its stinger, I used a long step to land directly in front of the scorpion’s head. I raised my hand high, intending to viciously stab downward, maiming its brain.

The Cutting Wind-

-YOU NEED TO DODGE.

My eyes flicked upwards. The tail had somehow pulled back faster than I had approached, and was now halfway down towards me.

-Dodge?

That Cheshire smile twisted my face.

-I think not.

Using the remaining mana I possessed, I used Air Affinity to brute force the tail to a stop, slamming against its momentum with a brick of hyper compressed air. So compressed that the aerodynamic design of the tail wasn’t able to overcome it. My hand streaked down to strike, but somehow the scorpion managed to react, shifting to the side. I cursed as my blow shattered part of its face and cut off its right claw limb, but left it alive.

It leapt backwards into the air while shrieking in pain, and I used a long step to give chase, rapidly catching back up.

But it took a single blink of mine for the tail to have returned to its starting position and was now shooting down towards me, as I was jumping towards it.

My eyes narrowed. Fear. An emotion that all possessed in various amounts. But there was a very specific amount that beyond which, function would widely decrease. Despair and panic would set in. Death would near.

So the trick was knowing the edge past which you could not go, and riding that. The same was true with wind.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill Cadence of Wind has evolved into “Wind Stance Lvl 1”: The lightest and swiftest of the stances, evade capture and catch your opponents off guard, slipping in through even the most careful defense.

I saw it, that thin membrane of air that surrounded the scorpion’s tail as it shot towards me, and I twisted around, using that slight amount of air resistance to aid my dodge. I floated past, as light as a feather. Once more I raised my hand to stab into its brain.

But the scorpion swiped with its remaining claw, forcing me to block with my right arm. At the last second I changed my mind, allowing the claw to smash into my side. Using that moment, I wrapped my right arm around the claw and squeezed, crushing it.

-You idiot, why do you keep taking your attention away from the tail?

I looked up, and sure enough, it was speeding towards me. I started grinding my teeth.

“You… I’m so tired of your fucking shit.”

My eyes stretched to their limits, the blur resolving itself into a tail. I felt that thin layer of air around the tail, examining it.

Then, my rage channeled through my body in a flood of fire, burning away the stiffness resulting from the poison and filling my body with wrath.

Thunder stance: Clear Sky, Sudden Bolt.

My left had surged upward snatching the tail out of the air, stopping it dead. My arm trembled as the scorpion struggled to pull back its stinger, but it was too late.

“Oh no, you won’t get away that eas- Hey!”

The scorpion voluntarily twisted, snapping off the front portion of its stinger in my hand, and began skittering away. I was about to use a long step to follow when, abruptly, the light coming from my belt switched to yellow.

-Uh…

I fled the cavern, sprinting back up the tunnel from when I came. In that 10 seconds, sparing no effort for speed, I managed to make it back to an area that seemed relatively safe, and adopted a comforted standing position.

The light turned red.

“Hahaha!” The voice boomed out. “I was going to give you a free day, but I sorta got bored~ Don’t worry though, I’m not going to do what I pulled last night again- I’ll free you with 5 minutes left! That’s plenty of time to kill someone of your own race. As long as you are close to the town still, heehee.”

-...Is it my imagination, or…

-No, he’s totally laughing at us specifically.

A scorpion rounded the corner. Glaring at it, I summoned a wind blade and threw it at it. Unfortunately, the 12 mana I used wasn’t enough to make a wind blade strong enough to break its carapace, so it walked up to me, prancing and hissing.

Right as it was about to strike, it leapt to the side, spinning and snapping its claws.

I stood there, still. After the floor controller could keep me from spending essence, I truly feared he could kill me if I moved during the red light portion.

The scorpion rubbed its head with its claw, seemingly confused. After a moment of hesitation, it walked up to me and stabbed me with its stinger. I gritted my teeth as the tip barely penetrated, and it began pumping poison into my bloodstream.

It poked me with its claws.

It defecated on my shoes.

It climbed up my legs, lifted my shirt, and crawled up my bare chest.

Only when it was on my face, peering directly into my eyes with its beady bug eyes did I finally have enough. I neatly sliced him in half.

-How was that neatly? You cut slashed yourself in the face with a wind blade. You are bleeding.

-No I’m not. Tis but a flesh wound.

-So now-

Three more scorpions walked into the part of the hallway I was standing.

-...

-...

***POV Change***

The knight in glossy golden armor shifted his huge hammer on his shoulders. “You heard me, girly. I challenge you. Let’s show these administrators who really deserves to be sponsored. You might be hot shit for a human, but once you start competing against the rest of the tower-”

Annoyed, Ketlia reached into the brute’s mind and pushed.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” the knight collapsed into a weeping ball of misery, his mind shattered. Ketlia turned away before it became a scene, and saw something that made her laugh instinctively.

A blob of green slime, wearing an over-starched yellow skirt. It was the first time since coming to this crazy place, hell, probably even months before that, that she had laughed so truthfully, that Ketlia soon found herself bent over, holding her stomach and slapping her knees. When she had regained her composure, she walked over to the slime, which was standing awkwardly by the food table, sipping on a brown drink.

Ketlia almost burst out laughing again when she saw how the liquid remained within the slime’s body in bubbles, suspended. Then she had a thought. Could the world really be that small of a place?

“Jen? Hello, I’m Kat. Gillette sent me over to make sure you were okay.” With a delicate touch, Ketlia reached into Jen’s mind.

Jen trembled, looking up at her. “What? Oh, no I’m fine. You are a friend of Gillette’s? He really is so popular…” The slime trailed off and looked across the ballroom.

Skeletons and Imps, Tellites and Luos, Bird people and tiger kin, draconians and dryads mingled, eating and drinking. In the corner, Gillette was being thoroughly questioned by Diver and Kent. Ketlia rolled her eyes.

“You’re a human right?” Jen’s question caught Ketlia by surprise, and she chided herself for losing focus so easily.

“Yes, is it that easy to tell?” Ketlia turned back to Jen, only to find that the slime was morphing, her body shifting.

Eventually, they settled into the arms, bust, shoulders, neck, and head of Ketlia herself, cast almost perfectly in green slime.

“That.... is an interesting trick.”

“You think so? Thank you. I tried really hard to look human for a while, but then I realized it didn’t matter.” Jen shifted again, her features thinning, her body becoming more bony and slender, settling into a woman’s face with glasses. Then the face shifted again, becoming broader, male, slightly scarred where the flesh of his ear was ripped, ragged hair, the twisted and hungry smile of a wolf.

Ketlia froze. “Who...where did you see that face?”

Jen collapsed back into a blob. “You know Predator?”

Predator. That word drove Ketlia to dig into Jen’s mind, peering through her memories. She watched as he slowly gathered an undead army. She watched as he crushed a Tellite using a forbidden magic, a giant hawk, and then finally a strange glowing child. She listened in as a bespectacled woman, the same whose face Jen had assumed, made estimates of Predators stats and skills following that fight.

Skills letting him control air and summon undead. An aura that crushed the will of any being whose level is lower than his.

Stats of Vit and Str being over 65 with 95% certainty. Int and Wis over 100 with a 99% certainty. A mana pool over 1000.

Without a word, Ketlia turned away from Jen and walked directly across the ballroom.

“-Good….bye…?” She heard Jen sigh behind her, returning to her brooding. But Ketlia was calculating furiously. Were those predictions right…? When she had left the Marsh area, and had displayed her increased skill levels, the personnel had taken an interest in her and sent her to a prep area. She had gained 8 levels in 14 days. Kent she had found in the marsh area, but it was in the prep area that she met Roland and his wondrous power. It was there that they had learned to work together.

But…

Ketlia brought up her own stats.

Name:Ketlia StoneLevel:17Race:HumanMana:230/430Vit:14End:8Str:15Agi:12Dex:17Int:39Wis:46Willpower:63Luck:7Spiritual Sensitivity:51TitlesSoul ConduitSpirit MediumPuppeteerThe White SpiderMind ReaderSkillsAstral Perception Lvl 7Astral Interference Lvl 5Mind Shock Lvl 3Mental Poison Lvl 7Lesser Illusion Lvl 4Irresistable Will Lvl 6Mind Influencing Lvl 2

“That man…” she whispered, looking at her paltry stats with envy. Not only his physical, but also his more spell related stats had surpassed her by so much? They could not tarry here. They needed more of a head start.

She reached Gillette, Kent, and Diver. “I’m sorry, but we just don’t have time. We need to begin heading up, and we need to start now. I trust you don’t mind the haste, Mr. Gillette?”

Gillette gave her a long look. Then he nodded slowly. “Fine. I agree to be your administrator. The rushed departure works for me as well. Tonight, I will make preparations, and tomorrow, I will come for you. Be ready.” He walked away. Although Ketlia was disturbed he accepted so simply, she elected to just be grateful for the moment.

Diver was pulling his hair out. “What was that? You didn’t even press him about his capital, or experience-”

“I suspect you did that enough,” Ketlia said wryly, walking towards the door. The two men fell into step behind her.

“Why?” It was the first time Kent had openly questioned her methods, so she took it seriously-

“Is it because of that person you are searching for?”

Ketlia was glad that she was facing away, so Kent didn’t see her face twitch. “...Yes.”

Diver frowned, looking at his feet.

“Is he really that far ahead of us?” Kent inquired.

Ketlia thought about the stats. Maybe she had more titles…? It was hard to hope that she had more skills, based on all the things she had seen him do in Jen’s memories.

“...Yea, more than I had imagined possible. Not in floors, but…” Ketlia looked up at the golden statues that flanked the main doors. “In terms of strength, he’s in an entirely different league.”

‘I can seize power on my own. I’ve done it. I don’t need to be protected anymore,’ Ketlia thought to herself. She shivered. ‘Not by a man.’

***POV Change***

-DAMMITTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!

I was using air affinity to float myself across the desert, racing light an out of control freight train back towards where I thought the town was.

After I had killed those three more scorpions, all of which stung me, I was getting profoundly woozy. So much so that I worried I wouldn’t be able to handle anyone half competent that I stumbled into, even if I made it to town in time. Then other me suggested we find someone while we were both frozen, and kill them with a wind blade. To accomplish this, I let about 100 mana come back, then used lesser air affinity to float out a mana potion and poured in on my face.

Infuriatingly, only about half got into my mouth. But that was enough to use lesser air affinity to pinch myself up, and float my still body out, and then accelerate it across the desert. When I was close to running out, I floated another mana potion out of my belt and poured it out. When I was floating on my back like this, the efficiency rate was much higher, about 80%.

-You need a napkin, man.

So now I just needed to-

SLAM.

I cracked into something, other me quickly taking over the body and keeping me still. Landing on my back, I realized I had crashed into someone sitting on a rock, knocking them off. They sprang up, furious.

“Hey!”

Then they froze. Then they aged visibly, withering to nothing, and then turned into dust.

“Air boy, that doesn’t count as your kill~ You just made me kill them. Thanks though, I very much enjoyed it. You humans take rules too seriously.” The voice whispered, likely just to me.

-Not a human, asshole.

Then I floated off.

I had gotten very close to the city, so I twisted and floated upright, bobbing in the air. I readjusted to the laying to pour another in my fast. With an inward grimace, I realized it was the last of the ones Kettle had given me.

-You have been pretty wasteful with those lately.

I bobbed closer, nervous. I did feel much better physically, but still…

-Over there.

I looked where he indicated, and saw a woman sitting behind the cactus line. Delighted, I created a windblade and cut her head off. With a sigh of relief, I settled on the ground, not willing to waste anymore mana until the red light switched off.

Although now that I thought about it…

-Other me?

-No, you’re right. Based on the timer, it should have ended by now.

-How long?

-...Around 5 minutes.

Then the voice boomed out again. “Hahaha, whoops, this time I forgot to switch the red light off when I promised. Sorry guys- Oh, wait.”

The voice paused. “I suppose everyone to whom it really mattered already died because the day just ended. So I don’t even need to apologize! There are 499 people remaining! Hahaha, see you tomorrow.”

The light from the belt switching to green.

Sitting up, I rubbed my neck.

-Tomorrow’s going to be rough.

-Because everyone realizes what the voice is like, and they are going to start killing people as soon as possible.

-Should we go after the source of the voice? Try killing him?

-Not without knowing the level of his strength. Besides, even if he lied about 20 people being able to survive, we just have to kill everyone else and be the last one. Then, and only then, if the voice still refuses to let us move on, we challenge him blindly. And slit his cocky throat.