After our brief dungeon crawl, we set off to the tower the following morning. I has now become experienced enough to not need to rely on my party completely for self defense. Also my Phylactery has grown a bit more in size and an intricate pattern emerged on it. I think it is growing as I do, because I am essentially a monster. Monsters grow differently from humanoids. Any experience a monster gain is split equally among its monster and job class. I would be a level 10 Cleric now if it wasn’t due to me being a lich...

[Cleric (Mistral) LV.5]

[Lesser Lich (Holy) LV.5]

”Here it is, the almighty tower said to be the cause of death for the Karantian civilization. Ominous, aye?”

Izumi suddenly blurted out as we arrived at the entrance of the tower. The girls looked up in awe at how tall the tower was. The tower was as tall as a 100 floor skyscraper back at Earth. It made me wonder how the hell they managed to build this without any modern engineering.

”According to the lore I read, this massive tower is where the three main experiments were performed. Lichdom, vampirism and finally true cheating death. Well, the last one is stretching it because all the undead here lost their souls.”

I felt pretty smart as i regurgitated information from the books he had me to read. But I compiled it so it was easy to understand. Still doubting the intelligence of the other girls.

”Woah, sister Lotus is smart.”

Nyaya and Seris said in amazement while looking at me. Yeah, they are idiots. But I like them anyway. It is not like I can choose my company, so I will have do my best to like my situation.

”On the entrance floor we can at best only face the remains of servants and maybe the stray beast or two. But floors beyond that we should expect heavy resistance. There may be undead still in their armor.”

I continued with my information dump. Izumi seemed to be the only one fully taking it all in. The girls looked as if they were in a daze. He snapped his fingers to get them to wake up from their daydreaming.

”Focus girls. Ready yourself for combat as we enter the tower.”

We snuck into the entrance level of the tower without any issue. Even though we heard the sound of rattling bones and shuffling we did not encounter any undead. It is as if the undead have managed to shut themselves in behind doors.

As we entered the main stairway of the tower, we heard of human voices again. Wasn’t this place and the dungeon supposed to be abandoned?

The main stairway of the tower had a diameter of 50 meters. The stairs themselves had a width of 15 meters and had gentle enough slopes for horse carriages to be able to traverse them. From the bottom you couldn’t see the ceiling of the tower. And in the middle of the stairway was a elevator looking mechanism. But due to not having been in use for centuries it was not in any condition to work. It was a sad state of affairs for someone who actually have used elevators.

”Why haven’t the guys in the dungeon reported back yet? The boss is gonna be pissed if they slack off again.”

”Hey, why do you care?”

”Yeah, those guys are fucking pricks. The girls they took last time? They refused to share them.”

”Oi, shut your traps, idiots!”

The sound of four guys bickering was heard in a lit up room, past the stairway from us. It seems the two bastards we executed was with them.

”It has been a long time since I had some action with a girl. My hand is having to work overtime now.”

”Is fucking all that is on your mind these days?”

”Shut your fucking gob! All you do is get drunk!”

It seems like two of them are now bickering. And with that the other who had been quiet, now went outside. They prolly was sick of their companions shit. After a minute they started smoking from pipes.

”Hey, master. What should we do?”

Nyaya asked Izumi in a hushed tone.

”It would be troublesome for them to live. Let’s ambush those two outside first.”

And with that command Nyaya equipped her bow and nocked an arrow. Seris and I prepared offensive spells and waited for Izumis command to do a synchronised attack.

”How long are they gonna bicker inside there?”

”Hell if I know!? Once they are done le- GAAAAARGHHHH!”

The bandit looking fellow cried out as a arrow hit him in the back. His companion did not get much chance to reach either once his body slumped down. In an instant he got simultaneously hit with a smite in the shoulder and a magic missile in the stomach. The commotion outside alerted the two bandits inside.

”What the fuck is going on out there?”

”Shit! Our buddies are dead!”

With a panicked look the bandits warily investigated the area around their dead fellows. They had nocked arrows on their bows in order to be ready to fire at any moment. They split their attention on opposite sides in order to find the culprits.

”Come out! We know you are here!”

”That’s right, come out and we will make your deaths quick!”

Still noisy and confident, despite having two our their friends killed right in front of them.

”[Divine Shield]”

I chanted and a golden transparent heater shield which was about the size my torso hovered in front of me. The bandit which looked in our direction then fired an arrow at me. With a noise which reminded of metal scratching metal the arrow harmlessly fell onto the floor.

”Fuck you! Hey, bro. The bastards are over here!”

His bandit friend then looked at me and fired his arrow as well. But it had the same result as the previous arrow. Now that they are forced to reload their arrows, both Izumi and Nino sprung into action. With a frightening speed they shortened the 30 meter distance in a few seconds.

With a slash going from head to crotch, Nino bisected a bandit cleanly vertically in the middle. Tons of blood and gore spewed from the gruesome attack. Meanwhile did Izumi first stab the other bandit in the chest, only to follow up with a horizontal attack aimed at the neck. He cleanly beheaded the other bandit.

”I think I will never get used to this.”

I said as I overlooked the carnage the warriors in our party caused.

In the aftermath of this battle we looted the hideout for anything useful. It looked like there was only food and booze, with a few coins interspersed. Nothing of any real value. The reason to why we haven’t found any wandering undead is because of the bandits who had taken residence here. One mystery solved, I guess.

”I wonder where the rest of the bandits are. They mentioned a certain boss.”

This was a question I thought needed answers. Izumi looked like he thought about it, but then stopped.

”What we need to concern us about is the artifact. Any bandit that comes between it will simply be killed.”

It seems like he answered my question. Oh well, we still got a quest. Bandit hunting can wait.

We then started ascending the long winding stairs. From the looks of it, it would take several days to ascend to the top. If we do not find a faster way to ascend that is. Maybe if we find books or scrolls, a faster way can be found.

”How about we go up one floor and look for books and documents? May find a faster way up then, master.”

I asked Izumi who looked worried at the enormous staircase going up. He then looked at me and nodded.

”I got no better idea myself, let’s go up one floor then.”

We then spent about 30 minutes going up the very gently sloped staircase. Once we finally got up we all were exhausted. Even the well trained Nino showed signs of exhaustion.

”I.. Hate... Stairs...”

With a final step I collapsed and panted heavily on the entrance to this floor. Despite leveling up I am NOT suited for physical exertion.

The entrance to this floor had a twenty meter wide platform going from the stairs down to the stairs up. And in the wall stood a entrance similar to the one in the dungeon. Main difference was that it was properly lit by magical yellow lights. It looks like the lights was made with alchemy and absorbs magic from the surroundings in order to keep them lit. A hunch I got after wolfing down a beginners book for alchemists during the trip to here.

For the better part of ten minutes we spent time recuperating, until Izumi signalled that we should proceed into the floor entrance. Our party cautiously opened the door and checked for any enemy activity. Since we found nothing we went in but kept the door open. Inside there was a ten meter wide hallway which semed to loop around the tower. A dank smell of stale water and dust was prominent. In regular intervals stood closed wooden doors embedded into the walls, in various states of decay. Also the hallway was lit with the same magical lights from outside.

”This hallway sure looks creepy.”

Izumi commented as he scanned for where to even begin our search for information.

”Just take one direction, the hallway will loop around even if we find nothing.”

I took the initiative and decided to go left. Everyone else just shrugged and just went with me. After ten minutes I heard the sound of rattling bones on the opposite side of a door. If anything it should not be looted because of the living bones.

”Do you hear that?”

Asked Seris whose keen elf senses picked up the bone rattling. I nodded in her direction.

”Yes, I heard it loud and clear. Seems like my listening got better since becoming a lich.”

Those pointy ears are not just for show. I sneaked toward the door from which the noise origined from. I had Nyaya as backup in case something bad happened.

I opened the door slowly and peeked into the room. The room was dark except for the small slit in the wall where the red morning sun shone in. In the strand of light on the floor I saw a silhouette of a ribcage and skull. Then suddenly I heard a metallic object fall onto the stone brick floor in the dark. The silhouette of a skeleton then slowly turned around, and I saw two glowing red orbs of light staring right at me.

The skeleton started cackling madly and slowly with long steps stepped toward me with its arms hanging limp. It was like out of a horror movie from Earth, but now I am in one. I quickly slammed the door shut and wedged my foot under it in the gap.

”Shit, shit, shit! They are nothing like the skeleton I first met in this world!”

I cried out, then the door started making loud banging noises. And then even more sounds of rattling bones was heard inside. What the holy hell is this room?

The rest of the party then ran and assisted me. Izumi and Nino pushed me away and blocked the door. I then ran and stood beside Seria and Nyaya and readied my smite spell.

”This better be worth it!”

Izumi cried out and slammed the door open. In the same move Nino used her blunt side of her axesledge to send the surprised skeleton backwards. It hit three skeletons prone along its brief flight, before it shattered its skull against the wall.

What we saw now inside the room was now at least twenty skeletons in different conditions. From pristine to missing half its body. All the skeletons started cackling like mad and put their arms forward in order to more easily be able to grab us.

Before they could start moving Seris threw in a empowered fireball into the crowd of skeletons. The sound of a cacophony of bones shattering and hitting the floor echoed inside the room. Afterwards I unleashed a barrage of smites into the room. At least six smites got sent into the room and hit five skeletons which immediatly perished. Their red eyes simply got snuffed out and their bones fell harmlessly onto the floor in pieces.

Now with ten skeletons perished the rest of the skeletons jogged towards us. Three was about to grab onto Nino but she used her weapon to smash in the skull of one, and Izumi used the blunt end of his sword to crack another skull. The surviving skeleton managed to grab Nino but she overpowered it with brute strength, and threw it back into the room while knocking out several surviving skeletons.

Seris took this opportunity to cast another fireball into the room. It is easy to say that no skeletons stood standing after that. I really hope we did not destroy any books though...

At the end of the battle the entire room and even the hallway outside the room was littered with broken bones and skulls. We made quite the mess, hehe.

”Phew, that was exciting.”

Izumi sounded quite happy after this fight. Guess he did not mind fighting off a small horde of skeletons. I then conjured a light to follow me while I explored the room.

After checking out the room properly it looks like the purpose of it was to house test subjects for the immortality experiments. I guess even prisoners wasn’t spared from the wrath of gods. I figured it out from all the documents lying about with names of people, and what crimes they have committed. One book stood out from the rest though.

”...by order of the high lord Yglar the Third of the Frostdottir family, the project; ’Wheel of Life’ is now accepted, and is granted funding.”

Wheel of life... Then I saw in the book a sketch of the end product. It looks pretty darn similar to the enormous wheel I saw in the afterlife. Is this what Izumis client is after? Or clues in order how to make it again, yet on a smaller scale? So many damn questions!

”I found a lead. At least...”

Izumi was deep in thought as I told my party of the findings. The girls looked around the room for anything important meanwhile. I returned to reading every document and book I could get my hand on.

After spending the better part of an hour in the room we headed out into the hallway again. We spent all the time until lunch looking through each room tha was along the hallway. Most of them were empty, or had old decaying furniture inside. Some had a skeleton or two but they were quickly dispatched.

After we had lunch, we continued exploring this floor until a door different from the others appeared within our sight. It was made out of metal and had a metallic frame around it. When we got close enough to read it said this on the front; ”Equipment Storeroom”. That piqued the interest of Izumi who love shinies.

It took a minute or so to get in because the door was rusted shut. But the brute strength of Nino made it easy. As we got in we saw mummified remains with the clothes still on them. Somehow they had not been turned into undead with the rest of their doomed civilization. The room was properly lit with several magical lights. And it was outfitted with several shelves made out of bronze. On the shelves there was everything from crates, ropes, stone bricks, various metal ingots, magical stones to weapons.

There was two things catching Izumis eyes though, whom is a seasoned treasure hunter. One was a staff with a golden gemstone on it and the second thing was a crate labeled ”Elevator Spare Parts”. How convenient.

He handed the staff to me and immediatly the gemstone started to glow. My Phylactery started to glow as well. What the hell is this staff? After a few minutes of swinging the staff around, and interacting with the gemstone I somewhat got the hang of what he had given me.

”You look confused, Lotus. [Appraisal: Projection]”

[Appraisal: Holy Staff]

Description: This golden blessed metal staff is encrusted with a gemstone which come from the realm of gods itself. Which make this staff exceedingly rare. It is said that the gods themselves made these staves, in order to help clerics and priests in the party of heroes to defeat the Demon King.

It is said that the staff will only work when it finds a worthy owner. The main sign is that its gemstone starts to glow, and over time its powers will be unlocked.

Effects:

Soul Link: Lotus

Amplify Holy Damage LV.1

Amplify Healing LV.1

”Well, if this isn’t a flag then!?”

I cried out in disbelief while looking at my new staff. This is too damn convenient. Is Mistral, my patron god testing me!? Or is it that shitty god who put me in this world!? Izumi had a very amused look as he saw my outburst.

”You know, you are cute when you are mad.”

I looked at him and pouted. Shut up you little shit!

”This is going too well, we are gonna be jinxed so damn hard!”

Then I continued my ranting until Seris picked me up and smothered me with her grand mountain valley.

”Now take it easy, Lotus~” Seris said softly with a smile.

Sounds of muffled grumbling was heard meanwhile she patted my head. Nyaya and Izumi burst out into laughter. This scene was too absurd for them to be serious. After a while it got so hot inside her bust, that I got dizzy and then fell asleep. Took a while for her to notice it. Then she just handed my snoring body over to Nino so she could carry me.