Chapter 50

Sierra of Dreams (III)

As Cain was getting slightly bored, since it's now been whole 12 hours since Emma, Diya, and Jamal got locked up in whatever world they were in, he decided to explore the surroundings carefully. They looked peaceful, albeit as though struggling somewhat, but not quite ready to 'leave'. As a precaution, he set up three layers of traps around them at fifteen feet, fifty, and a hundred feet distances, and even summoned a pet he hadn't even tested before -- the tiny Phoenix from the Crown of Flames. It really was tiny, sparrow-sized, with a curved beak and a pair of flaming wings.

It cooed excitedly as it flew up and down, eventually landing on Cain's shoulder and rubbings its head against his cheek. Cain looked at the bird bemusedly, since the little thing, for whatever intelligence it had, saw him as its mother or father.

“Guard them,” Cain said and pointed at the trio on the snowy floor. “And keep them warm,” he added as an extra. “I’ll be back in ten or so minutes. If your time runs out, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

"Coo, coo!" the bird nodded excitedly, apparently delighted at having its first task. It flapped its wings and stirred a slight, warm wind by Cain's cheek before flying over to the trio and landing in its midst, its 'expression' turning determined as it cooed loudly, turning its body almost entirely into flames. Cain noticed that half the Mana he spent on summoning the bird was regenerating more slowly now but merely shrugged, letting the bird have its peace.

As far as he knew, there were only weak Voidspawns off the beaten path on top of the Mountain of Dreams, and those were easy enough to take care of that they didn't warrant full preparation. Still, he did charge Body into his senses and remained on the lookout. Overestimating the precision of his 'past knowledge' has already burned him once, and there was no reason to tempt fate.

He hadn't planned on moving too far, and as such only moved in a wider and wider circle, starting at two hundred feet, and eventually planning on going a full mile before retreating. Most everything was covered in thick layers of snow and ice, with natural formations of iced boulders, icicles, and even tiny crevices. Ever so often, he would run into small patches of quagmires, though the dips were extremely shallow, but hadn't frozen over yet for whatever reason.

It was around a four-minute mark that he ran into his first 'opponent' -- a tiny, dog-sized Voidspawn in the shape of an armadillo, with tendrils of purple smoke encasing its hardened exterior and two pairs of eyes looking at him underneath. The tiny creature immediately launched itself at Cain, stirring the frigid winds with its attack, but the latter merely charged Creation and Fire, summoning a ten-feet long mace of fire in front of him and dropping it directly at the creature, crushing its exterior.

Strangely enough, despite the laws of physics being weird and peculiar within the Towers, a lot of ‘common sense’ notions still applied -- especially when it came to fighting. Blunt weapons for armors, shields being an insurmountable advantage, elements in general perfectly interacting with one another, etc. This was, at least Cain believed so, the reason why people adapted to the Towers relatively quickly. The framework of reality was extremely similar to what everyone experienced daily, it was just that the reality within that framework was applied differently in the Towers.

As he inched closer to a twenty-minute mark, he spun around with a sigh and began walking away. As he suspected, there was really nothing here save for the occasional Voidspawn that didn't even put a dent into his level.

By the time he returned, the flames surrounding the tiny Phoenix had died down quite a bit, yet immediately lurched into life once again when the bird saw him. It jumped and flew over eagerly, landing onto his shoulder and rubbing its beak against his cheek, looking at him with strangely human expression, as though asking 'did I do well?'.

“... good job,” Cain mumbled, feeling somewhat strange. “You defended them well...”

"Coo, coo!!" the bird cried out in excitement, beginning to poke his cheek and even digging a few holes that bled temporarily. It didn't seem to notice it, however, as it began rubbing its head right after, smearing the blood everywhere. Cain mulled silently that the expression 'bird's brain' really was apt, but merely chuckled as he walked over and sat next to the group while quickly cleaning up the blood.

The Phoenix didn’t last much longer, crying out in joy over being summoned for the first time and being useful, before snuffing out into a few tendrils of smoke, turning the entire mountain silent again.

Cain casually reached for the cigarette but held back -- grumbling lowly as he put it away and took a deep breath. Ignore the temptation, ignore the temptation...

The first one to wake up, again, was Diya -- almost a whole day since they ‘fell comatose’. As she’d underwent at least a dozen sessions of being doused in sweat and drying, her appearance was a mess -- from the disheveled hair, crumpled clothes, and slightly paler skin. She looked like she was still in the illusion, eyes hollowly looking around, dull in their appearance.

Cain hastily raced over and helped her sit up, taking out a bottle of water from his inventory and helping her to it. She tried to gorge on it, but he only gave her one sip at a time, watching some color return to her face.

Soon after her, Emma and Jamal woke up as well, with Cain acting like mother hen racing around them, helping them up, and giving them water. They were all still very much out of it, mumbling incoherent sentences, swaying back and forth, and forcing Cain to even occasionally use Wind to make sure they didn't fall back down.

Seeing them like this, he felt pained, sighing. I’m pushing too hard... he knew that very well -- after all, while for him most of the fights so far, with the exception of the Nightmare, were relatively easy, for them all fights were battles of life and death. If anyone from his past life were to learn that he was taking rookies who'd never ventured into the Tower before and having them fight enemies twenty-thirty levels up on them, they'd without a doubt give him the title of the 'Scourge' -- someone who exploited young and hopeful by using them as cannon fodder to acquire items.

They were pushing themselves this hard because they wanted to keep up with him, and it pained him. I attribute too much to their talent, he thought, subconsciously taking out and lighting up a cigarette. But I keep forgetting that no matter how talented they are... it can’t make up for their lack of experience.

In the end, talent was like a really nice car -- but no matter how nice of a car it is, if it’s driven by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, it won’t end well. And none of the three really knew what they were doing. They were haphazardly using their skills relying pretty much on the survival instinct alone, they didn’t have any awareness of their surroundings, their resource management was, at best, subpar, and, for some reason, they seemed entirely unwilling to stop him and ask that they first go an easier area to train.

This is a norm for them... while most people in the Tower would meet stronger foes progressively, he’d taken them well past that point -- all they’ve known ever since stepping foot into this place were the creatures of nightmares, monsters that could easily end them if they were not careful. To them, this was the ‘easy area’. Too many variables to take into account, he mused as he watched them slowly coming to. In the Graveyard, I’ll have to train them before we depart for the Quest... levels be damned, they’re just a number anyway...

“H-how... how long... were we out?” Emma asked, appearing gassed, exhausted, and almost too tired to even keep her eyes open.

“Almost a day,” Cain replied gently. “You guys really are morons...”

“What... what were those energies?” Jamal asked. “Every... time I thought it was too much... something would help me...”

“Oh? That? Just some friends I made,” Cain smiled mysteriously, taking a puff of the cigarette. “Helping along. Look around you now, and see the fruits of your labor.”

“...” frowning, the three looked around for a few moments before it dawned on them -- though they saw the shadows and strange silhouettes, they no longer had any impact on them. Similarly, the sounds were gone, as was the sensation of immediate doom. “Damn...” Jamal mumbled, sucking in a cold breath. “What a difference...”

“Y-yeah,” Diya nodded, appearing shook as well. “It’s so... strange...”

“And because you were just so gosh-darned adorable,” Cain clapped to get their attention. “I have some gifts to bestow upon you!”

“...” Jamal and Emma shot him dirty looks, while even Diya looked at him strangely for a moment.

“Khm, khm,” coughing awkwardly, he pulled out the items from the inventory and handed them over. “This should make you a bit happier no?”

“... holy shit!!” Emma exclaimed first, shooting up to her feet and staring at the round, metallic, dark-brown shield in her hands with love-like fervor. “THIS IS MADE FOR ME!”

“THIS IS FAKE, RIGHT?!” Jamal exclaimed right after, his lips stretching into a wide grin. “Jesus Christ...”

“...” though Diya said nothing, the excitement on her face was evident, her eyes shining as she looked at Cain with even more awe and respect than before, so much so that even he was incapable of directly enduring it, quickly looking away as his cheeks flushed slightly red. Aya, aya, I didn’t make that shit, Diya... calm down...

“Happy?” he asked with a crackle, standing up and stretching lazily.

“Okay, be honest, where’d you find these?” Emma asked after the excitement wore off, a worried expression on her face. “Did you go off and do something stupid? Like risk your life?”

“Huh? No, of course not,” Cain quickly shook his head, reassuring her. “Some random old fart walked up to me and offered a trade. I’ve given up quite a few items for those, you know?”

“Ah, yes,” Jamal and Emma looked at him oddly. “A random old man, in the middle of nowhere, just walked up to you and offered a trade where you used some life-saving items. And you totally did not blow them in a fight against some really strong creature. Totally.”

“... uh,” realizing that, indeed, it did sound a bit strange, Cain could only chuckle and scratch his head. “I really am serious... he was one of those friends I mentioned that made it easier for you guys...”

“Oh?” Emma exclaimed. “And he also, out of the goodness of his heart, of course, decided to help us as well? Damn, I didn’t know that Santa was hiding inside the Tower all this time...”

“Maybe the next time he’ll give us a dragon pet,” Jamal chimed in. “No, wait, maybe he’ll even just make us the strongest possible. ‘cause, you know, he’s just that nice.”

“You... you shouldn’t do anything dangerous...” even Diya chimed in from the side, looking at him worriedly.

On the other hand, Cain stood there speechless. How is me defeating some uber-monster more realistic than a random old man walking up to me?!! Just how much goddamn faith do you guys have in me?!!