***Authors Note***

Very tired. Cannot do anything but a cursory proofread. Sorry for any mistakes, bring em up and I'll get them in the morning.

Day 33.2

The central Deed, now that it had smashed into the ground, rotated ominously, locking into its resting place. The glowing beam of light intensified, bringing with it an increasing amount of mana. And the Floor Controller bathed in its, his face condensing with more and more clarity. His eyes remained closed, but the tattoos grew an ugly red, like an infected rash.

“Kekeke, not so smart now, are you two? Step away from my crystal or I will annihilate you. Honestly I’ll do it anyway, but if you come this way, you might be able to stand on this platform. All who stand here can access the infinite mana, so struggle, approach! See if you can survive-!”

BOOOM.

Ignoring the Floor Controller, Jester just punched the crystal again. Which of course, incensed the Floor Controller who started bellowing and pointing, huge crashing waves of mana flowing from him. The small animals made of the black mist hissed and chittered and squeaked. Then they began running, weaving amongst each other as if they were part of a huge, cohesive unit that was bent on overrunning us.

Imagining the discomfort that so much of that mist could cause, I grimaced. I briefly considered Wind Blades, Automated Air Armor, and ice knives in turn, but discarded each. There were simply too many. I spared Jester a glance, but he was still singlemindedly balling his fists and smashing the crystal, which seemed to be very close to shattering.

The Floor controller raised his arms, forming a huge sword of amorphous black smoke above his head. Extending 10 m, the sword shot forward towards Jester, its color a deeper and darker black than the animals that were approaching.

I raised the indigo ice spear, stabbing experimentally at the animals approaching. But of course, they passed right through it, throwing themselves at me and digging their strange mana incitement into me with their bodies. I could feel the energies growing close to uncontrollable within me as they dispersed themselves on me, but for now Other Me was able to maintain control of my mana.

But I had only been attacked by about a dozen of the animals, the rest flowed like a wave towards Jester and the crystal. The sword streaked past, homing in on him as he scuttled around, trying to use the crystal as a shield. It swerved to avoid hitting the crystal, but was still able to cleanly sink into Jester’s body.

He shuddered, convulsing for several seconds, likely due to the pain. In that time, the army of small animals flooded closer, more springing into being near the Floor Controller. Gritting my teeth, I leapt towards the platform. Although infinite mana wouldn’t solve all of our issues, it would certainly help dealing with the Floor Controller.

While Jester struggled with his inner mana surges, I prepared mana blades to cut to pieces any small animals that attempted to stop me.

But they just parted in front of me. Instead, a huge, looming shadow bear came into being in my trajectory. It’s paw blurred, smashing into me, a veritable explosion of that mist soaking my body. The mana I had prepared to cast wind blades dispersed in sparks and bangs, going wild.

The Floor Controller began to laugh. “Now, how wonderful to reduce you two to the vermin that you are. I will torture you for a long time, savoring the-”

BOOOOOM.

The Floor Controller was knocked forward, almost off the central platform, only managing to hold on my falling to the ground.

A bolt of lightning had struck him in the back. Looming behind him was a figure in midnight robes, wobbling and leaning heavily on his staff. His robes were wet with blood and oil, and laying on the ground behind him was the remnants of the golden golem that accompanied him. It appeared as if the golem had wrapped his body around the mage, using his frame to absorb most of the force from the fall.

I shivered. I had enough trouble with the typical descent that I experienced. It was hard to imagine the amount of force that hit them as their hurtling path downwards was brought to an abrupt stop. No wonder most of the golem’s body was now warped to look like a pancake.

“This Deed… is still mine.” The midnight robed figure’s voice boomed out imperiously. Taking advantage of the Floor Controller’s divided attention, I summoned quite a few tiny wind blades, cutting my way through the small animals, skirting around the bear.

“Kekeke, you think I’m afraid of you, challenger? You are out of your league!” Another horde of shadow animals was summoned, leaping towards the robbed individual. He raised his hads and summoned a humming cloud in front of him. From that cloud, dozens of tiny lightning bolts shot out, exploding the approaching animals in small pops.

Then the robed figures raised his hands, summoning fist fulls of lighting, and began to throw it.

“You are but the boss of the 3rd Floor. Surrender and I will preserve your soul crystal. Resist…. And I will crush you.” The small cloud in front of him grew larger, spewing more bolts even faster. He raised his hand and unleashed a blast of lightning.

I worked my way closer.

“Impudent!” The Floor Controller screamed, summoning a dozen mist bears. They ran forward, their arms raised, shielding themselves. Perhaps due to the way they were created, they were much more adept at surviving the lightning bolts, and were able to push much closer to the robed figure’s side of the central platform.

Even more concerning for the creature in the midnight robes, sheltering behind the bears were hundreds of tiny mist beasts, waiting for their chance.

The robed man clapped both hands together and a blast of lighting surged forward, ripping a huge hole in a bear’s midsection, causing the rest of it to collapse. The cloud started going into overdrive, bolts of lightning thrown everywhere. The robed figure began to smoke, strangely, a burning smell filling the air.

-Perhaps it’s a side effect of channeling so much mana. The Floor Controller looks pretty worse for wear too.

I looked, and sure enough, the Floor Controller’s closed eyelids were twitching. The tattoos were the angry red of a fresh burn.

Still, more shadow creatures continued to surge into the path of the lightning bolts, and although the blasts of lightning were enough to destroy them, there were far too many for each to be shot individually. Growling, the robed figure dropped his staff and swayed, barely standing. But he cupped his hands and began summoning and extremely powerful seeming golden lightning.

But the Floor Controller seemed to have been waiting for something like this, and once more executed the complicated hand gestures. “Inversion!”

This time, up didn’t become down, right became down. I seemed to have grown slightly more accustomed to the shift, because it only took me a split second to recover, forming a platform of air beneath me. I landed lightly, glancing around.

Jester seemed to have finally recovered and was now clambering up the wall/ground back towards the crystal. The Floor Controller was floating ominously, still producing more black mist beasts.

The midnight robed figure faired the worst, but luckily, even in death the golden golem protected him. Although most of the metal body had been flattened, there was still a small bit of its arms sticking out. Reaching out wildly, the robed creature grabbed the same arms that had previously saved him from being crushed by the force.

“Die!” The robed man pointed and unleashed the charged golden lightning, which rushed forward, obliterating most of the shadow animals that were hopping around, unaffected by the gravity change.

All the other black mist, including the small animals harassing me, were summoned back to the Floor Controller’s body, coating him in a huge orb of shadow. The golden lightning smashed into it, a huge wave of powershooting outward.

I raised my arms, but still my left forearm was shattered. The air platform shuddered and failed, overwhelmed. There were about 4 seconds of freefall before the energies started to calm down, and I was able to place another air platform beneath me.

After the clash, the golden light slowly died, while the black mist was reduced to a feeble veil that covered the floor controller. The robed man urged his thunder cloud forward, but before it could approach, the mist swelled around the Floor Controller, soon obscuring him completely.

“Kekeke, is that all you can manage? You had such access to the mana, I’m surprised this is all you amounted to. But to make sure… how about we play another game? Belt switch!”

I blinked. The blue light I had so long been accustomed to flickered, died, and then returned as red. The robed figure’s belt also turned red.

“Hahaha, harming another with anything created by mana or skill now will earn you death… now what will you do-”

While the Floor Controller was speaking, I catapulted myself through the air towards him. My eyes blazing, I raised my arms and simply charged through the huge fog bank that was around him, relying on my sense of sound to guide me to his position.

My ears did not lead me wrong; my spear tackle took him in the mid section, smashing him down against the floor/wall. My hands blurred, my broken forearm barely slowing me down. One hand flexed and slashed at his throat. The other stabbed into his chest and ripped out his heart. Then, for good measure, I crushed it.

His body shuddered, and then stilled. The world flipped back to normal. As I was raising his heart goop up to my lips to devour, it turned into motes of green light and flew away. I sighed, disappointed.

Congratulations! You have vanquished a Floor Controller! Currently calculating gains...

-This seems familiar.

I looked to Jester, and sure enough, he was approaching the crystal. The robed individual coughed feebly, and my eyes noticed the flecks of blood that he sprayed on the edges of the hood shrouding his face.

But then I frowned.

-What can he do now that his belt is blue?

Jester soon let me know. He bowed his hands and executed an extremely rapid series of hand signs. Signs that looked…

-Quite similar to the Floor Controller’s

“Soundless Ohm. All that is shall soon be not.”

Everything within 10 m of him, including the crystal, disintegrated.

Warning! Provided system has encountered a fatal error. All gains for vanquishing floor controller lost. A hard reset of the system has failed. Descent of the Outer Rim keys has slowed. Opening of the Gate has been delayed. The Gate will open in 12 hours. Disengaging control measures.

Around all of our waists, the belts that had so long tormented us snapped off and fell to the ground, useless. In the wake of their fall, a small body appeared, looking like an extremely feeble version of the Floor Controller, no longer dressed in his monochrome striped clothes, but simply rags.

His eyes were finally open, the entire eyeball a wet red color. “What did you do?!?!”

“Restored your mortality,” Jester said calmly, his grey mask hiding his facial expressions completely. “And now it is time to accept your fate, and die. Gravity We-”

“ABSOLUTE SILENCE!” The Floor Controller yelled, and immediately, all sound was cut off.

Jester shook his head. Leaping backwards. When his feet hit the ground, no noise emerged. I glanced around. The moment was surreal. The Floor Controller was holding his stomach, seemingly cackling with laughter. He gestured, summoning a dozen more shadow bears, who soundless stalked towards Jester.

Jester executed another complicated series of hand signs, pointing at one of the bears. The air distorted, and the black mist dispersed. But more calmly walked forward, heedless of their comrades death.

I hesitated, then walked past the two’s duel and stood on the central platform. They were so busy shooting spells at each other that the didn’t even notice.

The feeling was hard to describe at first. The warmth of the sun, or the heat on your hand when held up to a fire. But then the heat climbed. It wasn’t a heat of the body, but rather the soul. I could feel it filling me, begging to be used. And as I hesitated, I felt my physical body filled with increasing amounts of discomfort, that I suspect would soon turn to pain.

The pain wasn’t an issue, but the underbelly of the mana flooding me, just a taste, filled me with a hesitation. It was poignants and violent, calling for blood. It was an echo of that crimson liquid, locked on the other side of the gate, begging to be reunited with the mana that it would allow it to act its terrible will on the world.

And I loved the feeling. This is what I wanted. The joy of slaughter. A grin covered my face. The damn broke, and I began spending the mana.

1000 Corpse Hunters were summoned around me, covering the majority of the central platform, only leaving the small area with the robed figure and the remnants of his golem free. I watched the soundless battle between Jester and the Floor Controller for a few moments, enjoying the sight of Jester struggling. Then I pointed, imposing my will on my undead minions.

They raced forward. Death flies on silent wings.

Other me conjured a luminous mist around me, the exact opposite of the black mist of the Floor Controller with lunar affinity, filling the nearby area with it. But then I turned to the first notification.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Summon Lesser Dead Lvl 6”. Mana costs slightly decreased. The effectiveness of reanimate has slightly increased. Durability of undead is slightly increased. You may now summon Ghosts.

Curious, I summoned a few hundred ghosts. Their spectral bodies filled the nearby air, long ragged cloaks hanging from their shoulders. Some of them were human, but others were Tellites, and other, even stranger races that had tentacles and feathers.

For whatever reason, a tiger beastman ghost caught my attention, and I beckoned it forward. It floated soundless towards me, its spectral eyes extremely unnerving.

-Obviously it’s soundless, whatever spell he used killed the sound.

-Shut up, other me, and focus.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Affinity Lvl 2”. Effectiveness of skills out of the sight of the moon increased. Effectiveness in daylight slightly increased. Mana costs have decreased. Condensed moonlight’s damage has increased.

-See? I’m focusing.

I reached out a hand, strangely gentle, feeling the pressure to be solemn in this silent world. When my hand touched the ghost, a strange chill ran through me. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

-Ah, this is a skill we need sound for.

-Hum.

I turned to look at the battle occurring between Jester and the Floor controller. My corpse hunters were about to be upon them, but Jester’s body had grown limp, completely submerged in that strange black mist. The Floor Controller seemed to be cackling. One of the corpse hunters bit deeply into his calf. Another smashed into his shoulders.

As soon, as he was touching, the spell shattered; the corpse hunters howled as the small black mist animals attacked them, seemingly only incensed by the pain they caused.

“What?!?! Where did these-”

“Unholy Bestowal!”

Unholy Bestowal used! This nameless Ghost has received a great blessing based on the race “Warden of Glacier and Moon”. Due to high power of the race, imparted bestowal’s power reduced by 90%. The Ghost has evolved into “The Geist of the Cold Moon”. Intelligence, Wisdom, and Agility of the ghost have vastly increased. Growth rates for Vit, End, and Str are increased. Growth rates of Agi, Int, Wis, and Perception are vastly increased. Learned skill “Chilling Hand”: wounds inflicted by the Geist shall emit a cold energy, eventually freezing the entire body if not healed. Learned skill “Eye of the Moon”: The Geist has gained some small amount of Sight, allowing it to see and hear events that occur far away, both in location and in time. Learned skill “Descent of the Moon”: Can be used once a month. Darkens the sky and summons a moon, granting a 50% increase in stats to the Geist.

The tiger beastman swelled, the color of his spectral body becoming more blue and muted. He began to breath, long, lingering clouds of chill lingering in the air. He ghosted forward, grasping his hand and destroying all of the small black mist animals.

The Floor Controller backpedalled furious, seeking to open some distance between the army of Corpse Hunters and himself. He made the now familiar gesture. “Inversion!”

I recovered immediately. I took a moment to consider whether saving the corpse hunters was worth it, but decided I didn’t need them. Instead, it took but a gesture to send the ghosts shrieking forward. Leading the pack was the Geist, seemingly simply floating, but all of the black mist near him was destroyed. Their spectral bodies were completely immune to the shift in gravity, and they soon surrounded him, annihilating his swiftly dwindling supply of black mist animals.

Other Me’s continued dedication made me grin.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Affinity Lvl 3”. Mana costs have slightly decreased. Level of detail in condensing moonlight increased. Moonlight can be maintained in its condensed state for slightly longer. Moonlight now rapidly increased mana regeneration.

The Floor Controller’s red eyes gazed at me hatefully as the ghosts approached. “You think this is enough? I have lived for centuries! I once climbed the tower! I ascended! Your tricks are nothing. ABSOLUTE STILLNESS.”

Everything stilled, all movement gone from the world. Immediately, black mist began to swirl above the Floor Controller’s head. Half a second late, I realized that I could still manipulate the lunar essence, and poured my focus into summoning more.

His black mist resolved itself into a huge arrow, shooting towards me. I created a shield, angled away from the arrow so it deflected, most of the force going elsewhere. Still, my shield cracked slightly from the blow.

If I could have smiled, I would have. I formed a fist of moonlight and smashed it towards the Floor Controller, who created a net of black mist and wrapped the fist up. I was suddenly a dozen knives, and the Floor Controller made 100 black tentacles, wiggling towards me.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Our two powers struck each other, huge shockwaves spreading across the arena. He was pressing forward, pushing my lunar essence back towards where I was. But I couldn’t help but notice that the strength of his black mist was rapidly decreasing. He hastily pressed forward, desperate to finish this quickly, but I just deflected his force, remaining defensive. Sooner or later…

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Affinity Lvl 4”. Mana costs vastly decreased. A small amount of condensed moonlight can be maintained at all times. Natural moonlight increases healing and aids in concentration. Skills can be improved and learned more quickly under moonlight.

Again and again he smashed, but my rapidly improving moonlight deflected it all. In a last ditch effort, a huge palm of black mist rushed towards me, but I created a giant spear of moonlight that rushed to meet it. As the spear approached the palm, I used air affinity, spinning the spear, creating a huge whirlwind behind it, driving it forward.

With a huge crash, the spear ripped through the palm, the black mist dissipating. I could see the panic in the Floor Controller’s eyes as my moonlight spear rushed towards him as he was frozen by his own spell, and likely completely out of mana.

‘True, you might be stronger,’ I thought, looking at the Floor Controller. ‘But I’m the one who survives today. It was foolish to so easily give up your infinite mana.'

The whirling spear struck him in the chest, ripping a huge hole in his body. Bits of him splattered around in the surrounding area. The world burst back into gory motion.

Congratulations! You have earned enough experience to reach Lvl 20, however, due to the circumstances of your race, you are unable to do so. Please see the Ilium on Floor 4 for details.Warning! You have severely crippled the functioning of a Tower Floor. This is your second warning. Solicitors on the same floor as you will know your location at all times.

-Uh…

-Those things all sound really bad. I can’t even level up?

Jester, who had gotten back up after I had killed the Floor Controller, this time for real, hobbled over to the Floor Controller’s side. Almost gently, he shut his eyes. Then Jester turned back to me.

“Thank you. You did me quite the favor by killing him. And in exchange, I shall give you a bit of advice right now, and then help you with what’s coming.”

“Wha-”

“Come down off the central platform. As quickly as possible.” Jester said, hands folded behind his back.

Pausing, I considered Jester before me. I didn’t know anything about him, he had led me around like a fool this entire floor, and he had encouraged me to commit an act that made me receive another warning. Now, some group called the solicitors would know my location while on the same floor.

At the same time, my skills experience quite a boost down here. And I didn’t think it likely that Jester was to blame for my inability to reach level 20.

Still, I didn’t think-

Jester snorted making another complicated hand gesture. The world shifted, and I appeared next to him. “Fool. Although you are right not to trust me, this is not the time to dilly-dally, we have company.”

With a strange sense of deja vu, I watched as a streaking comet shot down, crashing into the central platform. The platform itself fractures, several large chunks falling down, down the hole and into the strange mind below.

A figure slowly stood, seemingly completely unharmed from its fall. A figure with eyes sewn shut.

“Ah, Qwata, you made it.” Jester said brightly.

Qwata surveyed the area, taking in the ghosts, floating around. Then he turned to face us two. “Two individuals with warnings… I have never considered myself lucky, but I am glad I was the one who came. You will be in my care for a long time, Jester.”

"A solicitor isn't supposed to let things become personal." Jester said reprovingly.

Qwata just smiled as he began to walk towards us.