Climbers are held as heroes but we are only people trying to better ourselves while overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Davies - Head of Climber Academy

"Great hero we have summoned you in our great time of need,” a royal voice rang out. “We request that you…that you…My goodness why are you covered in so much blood?”

Welcome to the Eternal Tower Floor 6 Hard!

Goal:

1) Notify the prince of the ambush - incomplete

2) Help the prince escape from the ambush - incomplete

Time limit: 14 days

Note: time dilation in effect.

I looked down and realized I was covered in blood. There was a fairly good chance it was all my blood too.

“Ah, yes. You summoned me when I was in the middle of…something.”

“We do understand this is an inconvenience,'' said a man who looked like a king. “While it may not be possible, we can attempt to return you to your previous location, if this interruption disenclines you from providing assistance.”

He looked over to several wizards surrounding us. None of them said anything but judging from the look on their faces it was likely that they did not want to argue with this man or deny his words. Or it could be that they didn’t want to upset me since I was drenched in blood.

“No, it's quite alright. There's no need to send me back.”

I severely doubted the Tower would let them, but I wasn’t willing to let them even try. I wanted nothing to do with the treant. There was no way I was going back to Tinder City or what was left of it. Which begged the question of where was I and what was I summoned for? I reviewed the goals of the floor that didn't fully answer my question.

“Do you mind telling me why I was summoned?”

One of the wizards stepped forward taking charge.

“Great hero, we have summoned you for our kingdom is in dire need of your assistance. The first prince has departed to explore a dungeon in a neighboring kingdom and we recently learned of an enemy plan to ambush and kill him after he enters the dungeon.”

So the guy who looked like a king was a king. Wisdom stat for the win.

“And what country is this?:

“We are in Pallidus, the capital city of the country of Marcosia. I am the head wizard, Philip. This is His Royal Majesty; The Glorious King Under the Stars; Protector and Guardian of the Land of the Chosen.”

Blah, blah, blah. The wizard continued to drone on with titles for the king and I started to quickly tune out his voice. I don’t think he actually provided a name for the king at any point in the several minutes of him spouting titles. Perhaps this was one of the weird royal things.

Despite royal oddities, I knew of the city. This was the capital city of the country in which Tinder City and Wingate resided. I had never been to the capital, but now it made sense that I could understand them. My translation skill clearly continued to benefit me. Eventually, the wizard stopped talking and looked to me for a response.

“I see. I will find this prince. What direction did he leave and how long ago?”

“His Highness left 16 days ago traveling northwest to the Heartfeld Kingdom. Just across the border is a dungeon that many royals have used to train. From here it should take seven days on horseback to reach the dungeon. As such we have an armed escort waiting for you. As His Highness was not in a hurry to reach the dungeon, the royal party will likely not arrive for several more days."

There had to be a catch. If the time limit for this floor was two weeks and all that was expected of me was to reach the prince and oversee the guards protecting him, I should be able to easily complete the goal in half that time. Perhaps the time limit was a trick. Maybe the extra time was to lull me into a false sense of security. If I delayed rushing to meet the prince due to the generous time limit, I may be too late. Either way I would not be taking the escort that was offered. Either something would slow down the escort or the escort themselves would be part of the assassination plot. It would be just like the Tower to have the guards attempt to delay or kill me.

“I understand. As the prince already has a head start, it would be best if I were to leave right away.”

“Pardon me, Your Majesty and Sir Hero,” said a soft femenine voice. “Would it not be best if I were to inspect the hero and ensure he has no wounds that would limit his ability to swiftly travel?” I turned to inspect the speaker and found a young woman dressed in a red and white robe standing off to the side. I could not make out any of her features as she had the hood of the robe pulled up covering her head.

“Right you are a priestess,” Philip the wizard answered. “Before you go, we will have the healing priestess ensure your health.”

With no further fanfare I was ushered out of the room and found myself following the priestess down a corridor. As we moved I looked behind me to see Philip the wizard following.

“If it is not impolite, do you mind telling me what level you are, Sir Hero?” asked the old wizard.

“I'm level 59.” I saw no point in hiding my level. They wanted a hero or else they would have just sent a party of knights to go secure the prince.

“How is that possible for someone as young as yourself? Even I, the King's personal magician, have only reached level 30.”

“Sorry but that is my secret.” Like I would tell him about cultivation. He was probably behind the prince’s assissination plot.

“Is there anything I can do to convince you to share some information?” Yep, he was definitely not trustworthy.

“I will think about it,” I lied as the priestess guided me into a new room and shut the door barring the magician from entering.

“Let's get this started,” she said.

I decided to just let her take the lead as I wanted to get over this quickly.

First she stripped me out of my armor and checked my body for any lasting injury. This was something I was glad to do prior to setting out anyway. I needed to change into a spare pair of clothing and attempted to clean the blood from my armor. Luckily the two health potions seemed to have fixed all the major damage and as we talked my health points continue to recover.

She confirmed my knowledge that she was aware of my HP and its regenerate rate. She then mentioned that there were limitations to using the status screen and HP indicators. In some cases there could be nerve damage even when the bones were repaired and the HP returned to full. In severe cases the nerve damage could lead to paralysis or loss of function.

She started by having me bend, stretch, and flex in different ways. Her eyes watched my body movements closely, paying attention to my muscles but she had a stressed look on her face as I followed her commands.

“Sir Hero, I feel it would be best if we wash the remaining blood and debris from you. I can not fully evaluate you as you are.”

It was a sensible request as even stripped out of my armor there was still plenty of grime and blood covering me. She walked me to the corner of the room where a tub sat. I thought she would leave the room and let me bathe by myself, but to my surprise she stripped me out on my clothes and poked me until I hopped into the tub.

I turned to ask for a cloth to wipe myself and found she had pulled off her robe. Under her robe she was wearing revealing underclothes and nothing else. Now uncovered she was revealed to be a stunningly gorgeous woman. Knowing it would be rude to stare, I looked away. As I sat in the tub and she started to scrub at my body, I looked around and realized that the chamber we were in had a bed in the corner and a small table off to the side.

“Priestess, what kind of room is this?” It seemed large for what I expected of an evaluation room for patients.

“Sir Hero, this is my bed chamber.”

“Isn't there a different room that could have been used for the exam?” I felt bad about all the blood and grime I had dragged into her room. Stripping out of my clothes and armor had spread quite the mess on her clean floors.

“Perhaps? I don't understand the issue though. This room fits our purpose nicely.”

I guess it was very practical. She quickly finished scrubbing most of me clean. During that time I had sat in the tub covering my private bits so I was surprised when she reached down to clean them as well.

“I think I can clean those myself.”

“Sir hero, it's important that I check all nerve function. It would be a shame if your body didn't work appropriately.”

Well she was a healer priestess, I guess this was fairly clinical for her. I spread my legs apart and she carefully cleaned me and had me stand to dry.

Stepping out of the tub she took a towel, carefully drying me from the top down. As she moved to my lower half she knelt in front of me. I tried to look away and think of something to distract myself from the beautiful young woman kneeling in front of me but I couldn't help being aroused by the situation. I wanted to make some excuse for my arousal but before I could say anything she reached out and grabbed me and made it very clear that she appreciated it.

“I'm sure they would let you delay your departure for a day or two that if I said you needed a little bit of time to rest,” she said in a sultry tone.

What was going on with all these women in the tower? I am good looking enough but I felt like every woman was throwing themselves at me. First Kelly and now this healer priestess were very forthcoming with their sexual desires. Perhaps women in this county were more forward than back home.

“I think I better be on my way,” I said, trying to be as polite and direct as possible. I didn’t wait for a response and quickly moved away and pulled out new clothes from my bag.

“Are you sure? Is there nothing I can do to take your mind off of things?” Once she finished speaking the rest of her clothes fell off her as if by magic.

“I am quite sure,” I said.

I was not sure. I may be many things but I was no saint. A beautiful naked woman was more than tempting. If it wasn’t for the time limit and my previous thoughts that this floor was trying to delay me I would consider it.

The abrupt end to my relationship with Kelly had left me in emotional disarray but the past month of fighting monsters had cleared my head. I was now fully convinced that the Tower was not real and was nothing more than a realistic dream. And I was fine with a sex dream if one came along at the right time. But this was not the right time.

I quickly put on my clothes. The priestess did not seem to take my denial personally and used a spell to clean my armor. As soon as we stepped into the hall we were greeted by the wizard, who seemed to have not moved since the door was slammed in his face.

“That certainly took long enough,” he said.

“I wish it could have taken longer,” the priestess responded quietly.

“Are you satisfied that he is healthy?” asked the wizard.

“He is healthy but I can not say that I am satisfied.”

“Were there abnormalities with your examination?” asked the wizard concerned.

“As I stated: he is more than healthy. In fact all five of his stats are higher than I can ascertain through my magical examination.”

“Interesting,” said the wizard. “If you were to guess, what is the highest stat level your ability would enable you to see?”

“I should be able to see up to stats up to 120. All five of them appeared only as ‘unknown’ when I examined him.”

“You two know I am right here?” I asked. I felt like a horse about to be sold with how they were discussing me.

“Just academic curiosity,” said the wizard. “Thank you priestess, I will lead him from here.”

As we moved away from the priestess I thought over their words and something didn't make sense.

“Wizard, you mentioned five stats, but I have six.”

“That is interesting. Everyone in our world only has five stats: strength, agility, endurance, intelligence, and wisdom. Perhaps heroes have different stats than we do.”

“You mentioned that if I needed anything you would be happy to provide. You wouldn't happen to have any writings or books on the stats. Such as general information”

“We can stop by the royal library on our way out and I will see if I can find you a few books. I feel it goes without saying, but those are the property of the kingdoms and as such you will need to return them.”

“Of course,” I said. I would be keeping them. This world was not real. If the world was not real there was no reason to return the books.

The library was huge and easily contained tens of thousands of books. It must be well organized as a wizard was able to walk over to a section and quickly grab a couple dozen books.

I was tempted to sit down and read for a bit, but I didn't want to waste any more time. First the priestess, now books. The tower really knew how to delay me. Instead of reading the books I put them in my bag and we quickly moved on.

A handful of minutes later I was in a courtyard surrounded by a dozen knights. Surprisingly I recognize these knights. I didn't know any of their names, but I was very confident they were the same knights I fought when that wizard tricked me into swapping mana signatures. At least they look somewhere similar but they were missing the manic glean they contained when fighting me in the past. Once more the Tower proved that none of this was real.

“Good morning Sir Hero. I am Sir Gregor of the second knight regiment. The king has my honor bound oath. As such I will be helping you find and protect the prince.”

I was very familiar with the knights’ honor bound oaths. Is because of that damn magical contract that the knights fought to the bitter end when I had been tricked by the wizard on the third floor. Thanks to that same wizard's knowledge, I knew that the spell forced the knight to carry out the King's orders with very little wiggle room in the line of their duties. I was once more around a group of people that I had killed in the past. I had already planned to leave my escort behind but this just solidified my thoughts. Traveling with the knights would just be too awkward.

“So the kingdom in the north has the dungeon?” I asked getting down to business.

“That's right Sir Hero. The dungeon is popular among young noblemen to gain experience and level.”

I had been putting off using the skill crystal I gained from completing the last floor, but I quickly popped it in my mouth and upgraded the map hoping it would enable the map to display further distances.

Skills: Enhanced interactive map

Creates a map in your field of vision. Settlements, points of interest, hidden treasures, and quest locations will automatically appear on the map. Waypoints or directional indicators will appear leading to quest locations. Friend and enemy current positions will be marked within 500 feet. Activation: mental thought to open map.

Wow, that was even better than I expected. Looking over the miniature map in my field of view, I could see an arrow in the corner directing me to what I intuitively knew to be the dungeon.

Examining the map more closely, I could not find the hidden reward. It must be on the journey to the dungeon or at the dungeon itself.

“Thank you, Sir Gregor. I will head towards the dungeon and meet you there.”

The knight scoffed at me, but I didn't give him any time to say anything else as I quickly ran out of the courtyard. I found myself in a large city and while I was tempted to update my armor and sword I didn't see the point as I had easily overcome everything in my path to this point.

Running out of the city, I followed the arrow toward the dungeon even though it led me off the road.