Day 37

***POV Kettle***

Kettle popped a small red cherry into her mouth and bit carefully, her tongue spinning the fruit while her teeth expertly shaved away the flesh, leaving only the core. But the tactile satisfaction she experienced was quickly forgotten as she once more looked at the terminal in the center of her desk.

Predator had won. Again. He had successfully surpassed the floor. He was moving on to the parts of the Great Tower that were supposed to showcase talent, not suppress trash. He would now have a chance to grow even more powerful. Predator and herself could….

Kettle frowned.

She spat the core out, aiming for the trashcan, but missed. The gooey pit rolled a bit on the carpet before coming to a stop.

Furious with herself, Kettle leaned over and picked it up, placing it directly into the bin.

...yet…..

Why did she feel so empty?

Maybe it was the blinking indicator on the terminal that reminded her that Gillette was persistently trying to speak with her. To make sure that she remembered the promise that she had made to him, to make sure Jen didn’t rise up with Predator and his group as an Administrator.

And his icy demand should she fail….

Kettle shivered, her eyes wandering out of her office to the small chamber in which her mother and sister worked, monitoring Kettle’s other bets. Scanning thousands of challengers for any chances of greatness.

Within each of their bodies sat a small bomb, that Gillette could trigger should Kettle refuse to comply.

Sighing, Kettle forced herself to run through the scenarios that were likely to result from her gifting the insurance to Whipman. Ultimately, she could only conclude that if things were left alone, there was only a small chance.

She dragged her fingers across her desk. But if she interfered… But that would mean that Predator…

With a shake of the head, Kettle leaned back in her chair. What was she doing? Didn’t she kiss him? Didn’t she think that she had finally found a boy that could keep her attention? And now she was considering….

But Predator didn’t keep her attention the way he used to, only a short few weeks ago. Maybe it was that she now had his stats. Maybe it was that she knew his skills, and was starting to understand how he leveled.

Or maybe, and most disturbingly, it was because she had inwardly started to believe he couldn’t be defeated. There was no more tension. Without the tension, she couldn’t stay focused.

Then an idea struck Kettle. She slowly smiled.

“All I have to do… is to take Predator down.”

It would solve Gillette’s gripe, and also… if she used the vast information she had gathered on Predator to spawn a plan to bring him down, she would likely shake this certainty that he would survive. Kettle’s plans always came to fruition. She glanced around at her austere but tastefully expensive office, allowing herself a small smile.

She knew how to arrange things.

If Predator survived then, well, that tension would likely be back. And if he didn’t…

At least she would know, one way or the other, whether she cared about him.

A strange, burning sensation filled Kettle’s stomach, and she covered her mouth with her hand and looked at the ground so she wouldn’t see her reflection in the mirror opposite her. So she wouldn’t see the strange woman using her face.

‘Honestly,’ Kettle thought to herself, her thoughts giddy, and her mouth still twitching, ‘This is the most romantic thing I could do for Predator. This is the only way to find out the truth.’

***POV Whipman***

The mood at the table this morning was morose. A group of them had cobbled together enough scraps of shattered wood to form a low table, and now they were preparing to break their fast in cold silence. After the battle all of yesterday, and Predator’s expression as he rummaged amongst the still, yellowing bones of one of their companions…

Predator always seemed to carry danger along with him, a thick and deadly capability was always present in his powerful body. But the strange bleakness in his expression as he surveyed the wreckage of Yellow Bones’ body….

It left Whipman shivering.

The Haeugh was in charge of cooking food, several murlocs in small frilly aprons borrowed from Jen hurrying about as they prepared whatever it is that they would be eating. It was perhaps an oversight on Jerry’s part, to allow the Murlocs be the ones to make food for the living, because obviously both dead murlocs and skeletons weren’t hungry, but Jerry was wounded and slightly concussed, and all that was important was that there was a lot of food for when Predator finally arrived.

It was a strange moment for Whipman, because he was simultaneously feeling hollow and fearful, an aftershock of the battle, and filled with delighted wonder at his gains during the fight. If he could combine further techniques…

But than an image of a field of scattered bones and Predator’s bleak gaze deflated his mood once more. They had lost a lot last night, even though they had won. It had made Whipman realize that although Predator was almost unstoppable, and their leader, he was strangely innocent.

Most came to climb The Great Tower for a chance to gain money and recognition after they acknowledged the costs of the endeavour; they would likely die without having accomplished anything. That was even more true for anytime they went to the Tower with companions.

But in that bleak darkness that filled Predator’s gaze, Whipman knew intimately that Predator had expected them all to survive.

Ashni’s harrumph interrupted his musings. “We were victorious. Moodiness simply dishonors the price the fallen have paid to earn that honor. We should celebrate.”

The Haeugh, his hugely fat murloc body quivering, gurgled his acknowledgement. Ashni looked at him distastefully, then folded her arms and glared at the rest of them.

Sighing, Jerry finally lifted his gaze. “...Ashni’s right. We won. We should enjoy the moment. You two,” Jerry indicated Ashni and Whipman. “Will be leaving with him soon, correct? You need to reach the 10th floor before there is another Path Boss floor. When do you depart?”

Ashni waved her hand vaguely, while Whipman shrugged and said. “Whenever Predator is ready I guess. He needs to snap out of this funk.”

“Which shouldn’t be a problem.” Jen bounced through the door, her green slime body affixed with a bright yellow bowtie. “Predator is talking excitedly among those big bones. At least he isn’t glaring around anymore.”

“Perhaps he has simply gone insane,” Ashni said darkly.

Whipman chuckled in spite of himself. “What does that say about us, who follow him?”

This earned him a dark glare from Ashni, and he cleared his throat awkwardly. Luckily, the conversation was interrupted by a dozen or so aproned murlocs walking in, carrying several large platters covered in silver bowls.

“...This seems…” Whipman said, considering the ornate platters and trying to find a delicate way of stating it. “...excessive.”

The Haeugh began giggling and burping excitedly in his murloc language.

“What he’s saying,” Jerry translated dutifully, “Is that the… uh… the translation is roughly spear who bears eggs… is correct. We should celebrate. We are victorious.”

Ashni's complexion began to fall as she considered the word choice. The Haeugh continued, and Jerry began to frown uncertainly. “....he also says that the… landseasky balll…? Oh, I think he means Jen… has inspired his people with her garments and that…. This meal was made to honor her.”

On cue, several of the murlocs stopped and spun around, showing off their aprons. Ashni put her head in her hands, but Jen seemed very pleased, bouncing up onto the table.

“Well isn’t that delightful? You guys always give me so many reasons to forget how fishy you smell. So what did you make for me?”

Creating a tentacle of green slime, she reached over and pulled the top off to reveal the dish beneath.

There was a moment of silence, then the noise of Jen dropping the lid to the ground, where it clattered for several seconds before stilling.

Ashni snorted, not even attempting to disguise her laugh as anything else. Sitting in the center of the silver platter was a mound of green jello. The size and color was identical to Jen.

Jen wiggled in shocked. The vibrations of the table caused the jello to wiggle, mirroring her moves.

With a theatrical gesture, one of the cooks, who Whipman was beginning to assume was the head cook, removed his apron and tied it around the jello, making it look remarkably like Jen.

“That…” Jen mumbled rolling across the table. “That’s um…. Very nice… and now we are supposed to eat it…. Oh, oh oh…..”

Defeated, she slumped off the side of the table and into a chair, her body hidden from sight. Several other people sitting at the table were no longer able to hide their smiles. Jerry seemed to find it especially amusing, holding his belly.

Before anything else could happen, Predator walked in, along with Turnip who was fiddling with his bow.

Ashni stood immediately. “Predator. You’ve…. Regained yourself?”

Predator snorted, his muscles rippling as he reached up and petted a small black creature on his shoulder.

Blinking, Whioman realized he had completely overlooked the strange thing earlier. It was made of small black bones, and had 10 legs, seemingly made of finger bones. It also had a long tail that was currently curling around Predator’s neck, and a skull for a head. The right eye socket glowed dull red, while the right was completely empty and dark. Inwardly, Whipman couldn’t help but think it was the kind of bug that you would have nightmares about encountering in a dark, dusty corner of your dwelling.

“Apparently the battle was just what Yellow Bones needed, to evolve into this, Black Bones. Ha, and to think I was worried…”

Shrugging, Predator turned his attention away from the small Black Bones to the group. “So? What’s the plan now? When do we need to head up?”

“Whenever you want,” Jen said, her voice morose and muffled by the table as she remained slumped in her chair. “We have as long as a week to remain here or move up, before you will be automatically sent to the 6th floor.”

Grinning, Predator reached out to pat Jen on the head. “Good, because I want to spend a few days experimenting with some things. We’ve advanced pretty quickly without having the chance to train, and I-”

The jello, which was still wearing one of Jen’s aprons, splattered as Predator pressed down on it.

Gasping, Turnip pushed wispy hair out of his face to get a better look, and then stuttered out, “W-w-what have you-u d-done….?”

“You’ve killed Jen.” Jerry said, his fingers in a vice grip on his side.

Predator looked with wide eyes down at the smashed jello for several seconds before Jerry lost it and erupted in laughter, ruining the illusion.

***POV Predator***

I perused my stat screen, thoughtful. Not really looking at the stats exactly, but I was very focused on the skills I had available.

-When you look at the list, it seems like a lot, but….

I considered Sneak Attack and Silent Attack, muttering, “A lot of fluff too…”

It only took a few seconds after Jerry burst out laughing, the prick, for the situation to be explained. Jen was as depressed as I had ever seen her, but I was focused in a new direction. The fight with Shemara taught me two things. First, the rage stat was incredibly powerful.

-And basically impossible to rely on...

Secondly, that while my stats seemed to me to be high, they weren’t all that important when compared to some of the skills that others possessed. Only by increasing my skills to that level would I be confident enough to continue advancing in the tower.

-The irony being that skills wouldn’t have done shit against her, because she could cancel them all within that area…

-Shut up, other me.

So now I needed to decide how I was going to use the next week to train. An obvious choice was to focus on mastering all of the stances, but while I was doing that, Other me needed something to distract him from being negative.

-Hey, don’t be rude. What if I come up with a really powerful technique, thinking in my free time?

-...unlikely is putting that outlook optimistically.

In terms of skills I wanted to improve Raise Lesser Dead, Air Affinity, Ice Affinity, and Lunar Affinity were at the top of my list. Behind those general ones, I wanted to continue to improve Wind Blade and Automated Air Armor. I couldn’t deny though, that if I could invent analogous skills to those for Lunar and Ice affinity, it would greatly expand my repertoire.

-Still. Shemara…. Was strong.

We both stilled for a second, considering how close the fight yesterday was. It wasn’t just that we had almost failed in the challenge, I realised that I had been close to dying. And allowing everyone who followed me to die along with me. My hands slowly curled into fists.

Fury +1

The notification brought out an awkward chuckle from me. Truly, an unreliable path to strength. But when it has time to get going….

-Of course it also makes you incredibly dumb. You exposed yourself to that highly concentrated liquid Heart Murmur poison. Your body was rotting away beneath you before you skill leveled up and was able to combat it.

Shaking my head, I put that thought out of my mind. It worked out. So I moved forward.

“Your face is scrunched up like a disapproving mother-in-law. What are you thinking about?” Ashni sidled up, her arm still in a sling from yesterday. Unlike myself, most people needed some time to recover from injuries, which was another reason I ultimately decided to remain here for the extra week.

“Deciding which of my mana using skills to train...The problem is how quickly mana is spent. Do you know any methods for recovering mana more quickly?”

Ashni shrugged. “Mana is a useless resource. Nothing is as deadly as a spear in capable hands. ….But I do know that most frail bodied mages have meditation techniques that makes gathering mana more simple. But without a teacher… why bother trying to learn?”

I paused, considering.

*****

While Other Me continued to shift between the stances of the Earth Cadence, focusing on the resentment and the way it grows and calcifies under Whipman’s guidance, I experimented with my other main spells.

Air Affinity was versatile and useful for a supporting role, allowing me to gather wind and compress it both into platforms and blades. While the degree of sharpness it could reach was incredibly high, the amount of damage it could deal against heavily durable opponents was limited.

I gritted my teeth. My time fighting against that metal skinned dick proved that. I could escape easily enough, but Air Affinity didn’t allow me to injure him at all. I was forced to rely on the brute force of my body for that. Still, it was exceptionally useful, and would be one of my main focuses.

For today, I set aside Raise Lesser dead. I would begin expending all of my mana on that every morning starting tomorrow, but for now I wanted to get a greater feel for my spells.

Ice Affinity was another great addition, but as an extra way to control the opponent, rather than enhance my own movements. Although I used Ice Affinity to create daggers to throw, that was another skill that was only useful against weaker opponents. As the people I would face would possess higher stats, the less useful such measures would be.

-Hey, can we switch? This is really getting tiring. And boring.

Without missing a beat, other me and myself switched, each filling in for the other during the activity.

The downside of Ice Affinity was that it was still lesser ice affinity. The mana costs were high, and although it would increase in level faster than the other skills, that would still take a significant amount of time.

Ultimately, Lunar Affinity was what I wanted to work on improving the most. The sharpness of Wind Blades was important, but I wasn’t sure how much more they could be improved. Similarly, although I believed Automated Air Armor could be useful, being too injured wasn’t a problem. My body was naturally tough enough that it wasn’t really necessary. I needed more power, not survivability.

While other me continued in the Earth Cadence movements, I summoned lunar power, a thick, glowing mist appearing around me. My control wasn’t the best, but I could feel how most power was contained in the substance. I condensed it briefly, forming a glowing, pearlescent hammer, smashing it into the ground.

The ground cracked instantly, deep ravines webbing outward, earning me the ire of Other Me as he was forced to adjust his stance.

Grinning, I admired the power of the attack as the hammer dissipated back into the glowing mist. This was probably my best bet to create a powerful attack, but I wasn’t sure of the shape.

Experimenting, I formed an axe, some shurikens, a lance, and a giant seal, trying to find the most cost effective method to create a weapon of the lunar power. Mana usage was a huge issue, as maintaining the physical form of the lunar power was incredibly draining. Once I figured out what the image I wanted to use was, I believed that I could repeatedly form that until I developed a skill for that form.

At least, that was the idea. With a grunt, I let the lunar mist dissipated, my mana pool almost empty. Truly, I needed a larger mana pool. The balance stat was useful, but I would probably roll my current growth rate away to try and find something with a larger mana focus.

Practicing the cadences would make my attacks more powerful with the same stats, but if I wanted to improve my skills in time for the upper floors, I would need a larger mana base. I grimaced. And I would need to somehow get experience on this floor to level. Would it be better just to wait until I headed up further…? At the very least, I could gather a large amount of biomass.

With my mana expended, I listened more closely to Whipman’s instruction on the Earth Cadence, trying my best to not become annoyed at my lack of progress.

*****

Several fruitless hours later, I sat, gazing at the sinking sun.

What weapon best epitomized the lunar affinity trait?

“It’s… borrowed light. A cool power. Something not its own but… a reflection.”

I paused, ruminating on that idea.

Whipman, who had finished training me, and then had started experimenting with his own strange new move, walked over, covered in sweat. “Ready to head back to the path for dinner? The Haeugh says he won’t make the Jen Jello again.”

Snorting, I shook my head. After the strange shock wore off, the way the strange food made Jen react was a little amusing, but I didn’t really want to lose this train of thought right now. Biomass could wait.

After a shrug, Whipman departed. I waved my hand, lunar mist rising from the ground. At night, the lunar mist was even more magical seeming, as if the wisps of energy were lit from within by glowing pearls.

“A reflection, huh…” I muttered, pressing my will upon the lunar mist, flattening it into a thin layer. A mirror.

I frowned at the fuzzy reflection of the ground that could be seen in it. I had planned on not using it on myself at first, mostly out of caution, but angling the mirror just made the image waver. I tilted it back towards me, looking at my fuzzy and distorted reflection.

With my eyes narrowed, I began to adjust the mirror of moonlight, making the right side of my face not so pudgy. As the focus narrowed and my jawline became more angular, I lost focus on the rest of the reflection, and my nose ballooned outward.

Sighing, Other me stepped in, addressing that issue,but my chin began to creep downward, elongating and curving slightly.

I received a notification, and then the mirror disappeared.

Congratulations! Due to your actions, your skill has changed to “Lunar Affinity Lvl 5”. Slightly easier to maintain condensed version of Lunar Affinity. You are able to summon a larger amount of lunar mist. Mana costs are slightly decreased.

My mouth twisted. The mana costs would be helpful, but it currently wasn’t enough. All of my mana had been depleted. So now…

Feeling foolish, I settled down into a cross legged seat, closing my eyes. Ashni had said it was foolish to try meditation without a teacher, but…

10 minutes passed as I sat there.

….maybe I should try breathing….?

10 more minutes passed as I focused on breathing.

-Maybe think about mana?

Furrowing my brow, I thought about mana.

-....how does one think abou mana?

***POV Kettle***

Gillette rubbed his chin. Apparently taking Ketlia and her two companions to the 10th floor had agreed with him. While he had always been well dressed, he now exuded a chilling confidence that gave all in his presence pause.

It was as if some covering within him had been removed, and you could feel in his gaze a lust for blood.

“You think this will work?” Gillette asked dubiously, looking at the detailed plan that Kettle had laid out for him.

Kettle nodded.

Gillette made a curt gesture. “But he will arrive-”

“He is delaying a week, to train.” Kettle answered smoothly. It was slightly concerning, because anytime Predator focused on something he seemed to overcome her projections for him, but that just made Kettle more excited. “In that time, my team will ascend past the 5th floor and rush to meet you. At that point, our two teams can join and lay the trap.”

“And you are not… concerned at how he will react to this? It is a provocation.”

Kettle’s heart fluttered. “That’s why it will work.”

It took a lot of effort to not hiss the words out. Her heart was pounding. She had always considered herself a balanced person, but now… why was the thought of hurting Predator making her salivate?

Gillette leaned back. “And your team? Can they make it? Can they carry their own weight?”

Sliding several folders across the desk, Kettle smiled. “See for yourself. Some of them…. Have a proven track record of frustrating Predator. I trust they will be sufficient.”

Gillette scanned the papers provided, chuckling to himself.