Hours passed as Adam sat by the river. Or as close as an approximation to time as he could figure. The nets were in bad shape. He had tried mending one with some extra rope and a knife that were near the gloves and apron. Somehow it looked even worse than when he had started. Adam cast it back into the river. At least he had started to get used to the smell.

Adam made his way to the great hall, it wasn’t as busy as it had been when they first arrived. Although it hadn’t been even close to full then. What was the procedure for getting food anyway? A plate of rolls and some sort of soup was sitting out at one of the tables. Adam motioned to a cloaked figure walking by.

“Hey, sorry I’m new, do we just take the food on the tables, or is there a kitchen somewhere?”

The man gave Adam a quizzical look and kept walking. That seemed kind of rude to Adam but he was a stranger here. Maybe he needed one of those cloaks?

After attempting to talk to the fifth person someone finally pointed him in the direction of the kitchen. A large burly man who looked like he had lost a fight with a bear seemed to be what passed for the head chef. When Adam told him that he didn’t have any money the man asked who Adam’s leader was. Upon hearing Malchus’ name the man grumbled something about “that old hermit” and gave Adam some stew. He explained to Adam that the items they found could be turned in for money within the tower to pay for food and general items. Something that Malchus had neglected to mention.

Adam ate his stew at one of the tables by himself. He watched groups of cloaked figures come and go, some were in pairs and others by themselves. He wasn’t quite sure if this new life was better or worse than life in a small mining town. It was definitely just as boring so far.

A commotion from one of the halls drew Adam’s attention. A throng of people burst in. Everything on the closest table was knocked off and a body was heaved up onto it. Adam got closer and saw Randal and his group surrounding the table.

“Get me a healer or some potions!” Randal yelled.

A man was bleeding profusely on the table. It was one of the men who was with him earlier. People rushed around. The man coughed up more blood and gripped the nearest person’s cloak. He stopped moving just as someone brought a healing potion.

“What is going on in here,” bellowed an angry voice. The head chef stormed into the main hall.

“A man has died, show some respect,” yelled back Randal.

“This isn’t the infirmary,” yelled the chef. He looked at the dead man on the table. “Get this body out of here and clean up my table!”

“How dare you,” cried one of the men behind Randal. His companions restrained him as he tried to lunge forward.

“This is a food hall, people eat here. We don’t need dead bodies and blood contaminating the place!”

“This room was closer,” started Randal.

“I don’t care, your inability to plan is not my problem. You have access to potions, you have access to a healer. Don’t tell me the Varchists have fallen on hard times.”

“Our healer was killed,” Randal yelled. “And we used all of the potions that we brought with us just to survive!”

Adam saw that Randal and the group who had come in with the now dead man looked all beat up. Their cloaks were bloodstained and torn, and several have nasty looking gashes on their faces or arms.

“Well what the hell happened,” demanded the chef.

“What do you think? We were delving a new room and were ambushed by glints.”

“So you were careless,” rebuked the chef.

“All of the signs and glyphs pointed to a simple auxiliary room. Nothing showed that it would be an item hoard or glint storage.”

“Fine, just clean this up,” said the chef, waving his hand at the body on the table.

Randal grumbled something and pointed to two of his men. They grabbed the body on the table and carried it out of the room. Randal bit his thumb and turned to another of his men.

“How quickly can we get another healer from the capital?”

“We could just hire one of the other healers in the tower.”

“No,” Randal yelled and lowered his voice. “I need someone my family can trust, we’re close I can feel it. Didn’t Soren Miden just graduate from the Royal Academy a few months ago with a Rank C in life magic, get him.”

“By Solis Randal his older brother just died on that table, and it’ll take weeks.”

“I don’t care, two weeks is already more time than we can spare,” Randal hissed.

Randal snapped his attention to Adam, noticing that the youth was watching him. He scowled and stormed off accompanied by his men.

Jesus Christ, thought Adam. Someone just died right in front of him. The table was still covered in blood and one of the kitchen staff had come out to wipe it up with a towel and a bucket of water. Maybe Randal had been right before, Adam was too weak to go delving.. Fishing in this weird alchemical sewer of a tower was probably the safer bet.

Adam returned to his fishing tunnel and inspected the nets. There was a new tear in one of them. Something must have slipped through. The thought annoyed him. Not only because it could have been some priceless treasure. But he needed money to eat.

Something caught Adam’s attention bobbing up and down in one of the middle nets. Adam put on the leather gloves and apron and grabbed a retrieval pole. He carefully walked down the worn damp steps along the side of the tunnel until he was parallel with the net. He hoisted the pole over the river and dipped its hooked end into the river. The item was tangled in the net and it took Adam several minutes to get it loose. His arms burned but he managed to ferry the item to shore.

[Broken Wooden Training Mace]

Are you fucking kidding me, thought Adam. He brought the item back up to the top of the tunnel and peeled off his protective equipment. He sat down and rested his back against the wall. This was definitely worse than the mining town.

And so the days passed and then a week. Adam hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Malchus. He spent his time fishing without much luck. And begging for food from the head chef who was becoming increasingly annoyed, but not unsympathetic to Adam’s plight.

“Good you’re still alive,” said Malchus wandering into the sleeping area on the ninth day.

“No thanks to you,” scoffed Adam. “You know you need money to eat in this place.”

“I know I left you some money in the pouch on the table,” said Malchus. He looked over at the empty table. “To be fair I had every intention of leaving it there.”

“Intentions don’t feed stomachs. Where the fuck have you been.”

Malchus looked at the bookcase ignoring Adam’s outburst. Adam did his best to keep his mouth shut and to push his anger back down. Malchus sniffed and turned back around.

“Not a lot to show, a broken mace not even worth a few coppers and a rusty bucket. You know the Varchists fishers pulled a spear out of the quicksilver that only drops from a level 49 raid boss.”

“Oh well that’s good for them. Did you know that I watched one of them die a week ago?”

“People die, that’s why I don’t take you delving.”

“How can you be so glib about someone dying.”

“Do you know how many people I’ve watched die,” said Malchus. His face grew dark for a moment and his eyes looked past Adam. He quickly regained his usual demeanor. “Anyways, I’ll leave some money for you. Keep fishing and forget about delving, I’ll check in on you.”

Adam took the small coin purse that Malchus offered and went back to his fishing spot. Nothing had changed, the nets were empty and the only sound was the roar of the waterfall at the end of the tunnel. Adam relaxed against the stone floor, he had grown accustomed to the dampness of everything. He drifted off to sleep listening to the sound of quicksilver.

The days passed again and then weeks. Adam saw Malchus just a handful of times. He got something to eat from the great hall and then returned to his fishing spot. Nothing. Like a majority of the time.

Wait no he was wrong, something was caught in the middle net. Adam wasn’t sure but it looked like it was sparkling.

He quickly donned the protective gear and grabbed a pole. Hurrying down the worn steps Adam slipped but caught himself. He lined the pole up with the net and began trying to unhook the item from the net. It was stuck fast. Adam readjusted his grip and cursed. The item broke free and began to drift downstream. He lunged with the pole spearing the item with the hook and catching it. At the same moment his feet slipped out from under him on the damp worn stones and he was pitched into the quicksilver river.

Adam kept his eyes and mouth shut and tried to swim to the surface. The apron dragged him down. He tore at it, it was tangled around his neck. Adam clawed at it and was finally able to tear it off. He broke the surface and took a gasping breath. His eyes stung as he opened them. The world was a slick wet silver. It was thick and trying to stay above the surface was a challenge.

Adam was caught by the net at the end of the tunnel, the roar of the waterfall was almost deafening. Quicksilver pushed against him, pinning him to the net. Something hard hit his hand and he grabbed onto it trying to pull himself away. The net gave way and Adam was thrown over the waterfall.

He was suddenly jerked to a stop, part of the net wrapped around his leg. It swung him out of the waterfall and he slammed against the wall next to the waterfall. He managed to grab a handhold.

It took him a moment to focus his vision, the sound of rushing water was absolute. He was staring at a chasm that looked to be miles wide. Dozens of silver waterfalls lined the walls around the chasm. All feeding into a massive lake at the bottom.

Adam raised his other arm, he was clutching a sword, the same one that was caught in the net. It had a long, thick, curved blade made of crystal. A golden radiance seemed to radiate from it.

[Celeste, Illuminated Dreams]

Holy shit it was a named weapon. Adam didn’t know anything about it, but it had to be worth a good chunk of gold. He looked back up toward the waterfall and the opening, he was dangling several yards down.

A roar cut through the din of the waterfalls and vibrated the very bones inside of Adam’s body. The lake began to swirl, a vortex forming a depression in the middle. It was a giant whirlpool over a mile long.

From the depth rose a creature. It looked like a massive metal worm, made of the same quicksilver only solidified. Its maw was lined with tens of thousands of fangs each larger than a man. Quicksilver poured off of its body cascading as waterfalls larger than the ones feeding the lake. Its size was impossible to gauge. It was larger than anything Adam had ever seen before. He remembered standing on the street as a child beneath the Empire State Building, but this creature, this entity, dwarfed even that.

[Leviathan Tendril of Destruction - Level ??]

Adam tried to pull himself up but he couldn’t let go of the wall. His leg was caught in the net and his other hand was holding the sword. Leviathan turned toward him and roared again. The sound hit him like a wave knocking him against the wall. The sword was knocked from his grasp and fell. Adam didn’t have the time or mental clarity to even look at it, he was in survival mode.

He grabbed the wall with his free hand and hoisted himself back upright. He clawed at the wall, his fingers finding purchase on the rough surface. Adam pulled himself up the wall. His hand grasped the edge of the tunnel and he pulled himself up over the lip rolling into the tunnel. He looked back. Leviathan had stopped, but the creature was dangerously close. It filled his whole view of the massive cavern. Slowly it retreated, pulling back into the whirlpool. Adam kept watching it until it had disappeared. He kept watching until the whirlpool subsided.

Adam didn’t go back to the fishing spot. The memory of the monster lurking under the waters etched into his mind. Days went by until Malchus showed back up.

“There’s a fucking monster down there,” Adam yelled the moment he saw Malchus.

“I told you don’t go over the waterfall or you’ll die,” said Malchus.

“Yeah because the fall would kill me, or because of the toxic water, which by the way I took a swim in when I plunged over the waterfall.”

“Also there’s a giant monster down there that eats everything.”

“Are you trying to kill me, is that like your thing?”

“Oh no I want you to live, I’m hoping that you will help me solve the mystery of this tower.”

“By fishing up random items,” Adam scoffed.

“I’m not sure yet, and until I am, I’m trying to keep you safe.”

Adam shook his head. This place was crazy. At least in the small town on the edge of Choras he knew where he stood. Here though, who knew. Certainly not Adam.

The days stretched on and then weeks. Adam still didn’t return to the fishing spot. He spent his days wandering the tower, at least the areas that were marked safe. It all looked the same. He found the place to exchange the fished items for money. Even a library of sorts, although the books didn’t hold his interest. Learning about the mundane histories of this world put him to sleep. The books on skills and magic seemed interesting at first, but he didn’t have the proficiencies required to use them and they were filled with diagrams and concepts he didn’t understand. Even some words he had never learned since coming to this world.

The days kept on and the weeks turned to a month, and then two months. Malchus, when Adam was able to see him, which seemed to amount to once or twice a week. Reassured him that it was safe, relatively speaking as long as he didn’t go over the waterfall. Another faction within the tower not belonging to the Varchists had lost several men to the glints. Which Adam learned were metal monsters unique to the tower like the gargantuan worm below. Which did little to avail Adam’s fears.

Finally it was sheer boredom that drove Adam back to the fishing spot. He slept, he ate, he fished, he listened to stories of delves gone right, stories of delves gone wrong, he exchanged items for money to keep on eating. His life became routine and in its own way ordinary.

~~~~~

Three years later.

~~~~~

“Adam wake up, I need you, it’s time.”

Adam was shaken out of his sleep. He lifted himself up off of the bed with muscles and mind both protesting. He hadn’t slept well and it felt like he had just fallen asleep. A physical buzzing enveloped his right arm and he couldn’t move it. At least his arm had fallen asleep it seemed. Malchus was standing over him.

“What the hell is going on,” asked Adam, trying to wipe the tiredness from his eyes.

“We’ve found a room, you’re coming with me.”

Adam’s eyes shot open and the fatigue and weariness fell away replaced with adrenaline, or perhaps anxiety. His arm was still asleep though and he punched it in an attempt to wake it up.

“You’re taking me on a delve?”

“Yes, come quickly, the Varchists have already assembled a group we need to hurry.”

Adam was bewildered but he followed Malchus. The Varchists never worked with others outside of their own. This had to be big. But why was Malchus bringing Adam along? Nothing had changed with Adam’s stats in three years. He was still a Level 2 with minimum stats and no skills. It wasn’t uncommon for Level 40 people with Rank C and B proficiencies to die when delves went bad.

They hurried through the corridors, going up farther than Adam had ever dared to go, and up even further still. Finally they arrived outside of a set of double doors where a large group of cloaked figures had assembled, there must have been over twenty people.

“So you did make it,” said Randal as they approached. “We were just getting ready to enter.”

“Of course I made it, I wouldn’t want to miss this little excursion of yours blowing up in your face,” quipped Malchus.

Randal’s lip curled and he turned back to the group at large.

“Alright, look sharp, don’t touch anything unless you are one of the dedicated researchers. This room is unique. We’ve never encountered glyphs like this anywhere else in the tower, and we haven’t been able to properly translate them. We think that this room has to deal with the quantity of items in the tower, so it may be some kind of storeroom.”

The assembled group murmured amongst each other. Any room dealing with items was usually guarded by glints. Rooms designated item hoards were particularly dangerous.

“Open the door,” commanded Randal. “Everyone, take your positions, you know your roles.”

The double doors creaked open and a blast of air and dust rushed out. Everyone readied their weapons but nothing came out. Two men entered first, they were scouts. One of them reappeared at the doorway and motioned for the group. They entered the room cautiously.

It looked more or less the same as everything else in the tower at first. The walls were lined with rectangular slabs that looked like obsidian. Beneath them were lines of repeating runes set in identical patterns.

“This looks like some kind of ritual chamber,” said one of the men next to Randal.

Another set of double doors was set against the far wall. A set of glyphs were displayed above it. Several of the men examined them while the group gathered around watching for any signs of danger.

“It looks like the main chamber is behind these doors,” said another man.

The group entered the main chamber. It was empty save for a large obsidian quadrilateral against the far wall like the ones in the previous room. A large wide plinth stood beneath it covered in glyphs. Nothing else stood out in the room. Randal and several of the scholarly members of the group approached the plinth to investigate.

“This is definitely some kind of ritual chamber, we’ve never seen anything like this in the tower before,” said one of the scholars.

“What do we do,” asked Randal.

“I don’t know, we’ll have to check the library. It could take weeks to figure out what this room is for or what purpose it serves in the tower. Maybe longer.”

Adam looked around nervously. Nothing had happened, and so far it was just like walking around the tower. But delves were dangerous and traps and glint attacks were common from what Adam had heard. He watched the scholars who were the only ones actively doing anything. Then a thought struck Adam.

“This looks like a computer,” he whispered to himself.

“What’s a computer,” said Malchus.

Adam turned and saw that Malchus was intently looking at him. In fact Malchus hadn’t really taken his eyes off of Adam since they had entered. Adam had assumed that he was just watching out for him. But he seemed to be studying him.

Before Adam could answer one of the scholars touched a glyph and the obsidian panel came to life. It lit up and a number of glyphs flashed across its surface.

“What did you do,” demanded Randal.

“Nothing, I think,” replied the scholar.

Passageways in the walls opened and glints began to pour into the room. They looked to be made of the same solidified quicksilver as the worm in the lake. Their bodies were geometric shapes, mainly triangles attached to spheres and they were the size of large dogs, walking on four bladed limbs. They reminded Adam of large shiny insects.

“Formations! Prepare for combat,” someone yelled.

The glints crashed into the group. Weapons clanged against metal and magic went flying. It was pure chaos. Adam watched several glints spear a man in front of him, he screamed and was torn apart. Adam backed away clutching at his basic dagger. This was bad, they were all going to die.

Malchus appeared in front of Adam. He kicked one of the glints away and it slammed against the wall, it got back up and scuttled toward him. He blocked an attack from the second one and slashed it with his sword. A large gash opened up in the metal monster but it attacked again. Malchus parried the attack and slashed it again, it fell back and stopped moving. The one that he had kicked leapt at him and Malchus kicked it again sending it back into the wall, it collapsed as well.

Several men were dead but the others had regrouped. Men with swords and shields were in the front holding the line of glints back, healers were healing them. Other men flanked them lashing out with blades, spears, and maces. While mages cast spells into the center of the glint formation. Glints started to die.

It was a brief respite as more glints began to pour into the room. One of the men carrying a shield went down. The momentum of the fight began to turn.

“Arc Slash Tornado.”

Malchus slammed into the flank of the glints, his sword was a blur whipping around in a circular arc. Half a dozen glints went flying cut up into various pieces.

Larger glints entered the room along with a stream of the smaller ones.

“Shield Wall.”

“Raging Vortex.”

“Blazing Inferno.”

The glints were hit with a barrage of skills. An overlapping wall of shields made of light stopped them in their tracks. A swirling tornado of wind picked up the smaller ones and pulled the larger ones into the center of the room. And a billowing jet of fire lit the whole tornado up in a torrent of flames. More spells and abilities were tossed into the maelstrom and the glint horde was reduced to puddles of broken metal.

“Keep it up, we’ve got this!” Randal yelled.

Less and less glints entered the room, until the stream of metal monsters stopped altogether.

“We’ve done it,” said Randal. “Tend to the wounded, gather up the dead.”

A hole opened up in the ceiling and a large roughly humanoid glint dropped down into the midst of the group. It was seven feet tall, it had a triangular head and body with bladed arms and legs.

[Centurion Alpha - Level ??]

“I can’t see its level,” yelled Randal.

The group instantly assumed combat positions. It whirled on a man clad in armor underneath his cloak with a shimmering sword and ornate polished shield.

“Divine Protection!”

A brilliant winged shield appeared before the man and he was cloaked in pure white light.

The Centurion lunged at the man faster than anyone could react. The winged shield shattered in an explosion of light and the Centurion's bladed arm plunged into the man’s shoulder. The light around him faded and he grabbed at the bladed limb crying out in pain. With a quick flick of its other bladed arm the Centurion separated the man’s head from his body.

“Impossible,” yelled Randal.

The Centurion moved as a blur through the group's right flank. It’s bladed limbs slashing and whirling as five men died. Screams erupted as the formation broke.

Malchus appeared before the Centurion and they traded blows. They slashed each other and Malchus jumped back.

“Dash Strike!”

Malchus rocketed toward the Centurion, the tip of his sword pointed at the monster’s chest. It blocked the strike with one of its arms and knocked Malchus away. He went sailing across the room and landed next to Adam.

“Are you okay,” Adam started but Malchus grabbed him and threw him out of the room.

A beam of light slammed into Malchus and the area around him exploded.

“Malchus!” Adam screamed.

The explosion subsided and Malchus was still there, his cloak torn to shreds and singed. The creature was upon him. He blocked a blow and returned the strike, knocking the creature back.

“See if those things on the walls are also computers,” he yelled at Adam. “See if they’ll help!”

Adam turned to the closet obsidian panel and looked at the glyphs beneath it. One of them actually looked like the power symbol. He pressed it and the screen came to life. More screams echoed out of the main chamber as people died.

Adam frantically looked over the glyphs. Nothing stood out. Actually they kind of did. They reminded Adam of a game he had played as a child. One where you captured and battled monsters. There was a species of monster that looked like stylized letters and they were part of an ancient language. These glyphs looked very similar except they were arranged in alphabetical order as opposed to the usual keyboard layout.

He read the screen again doing his best to translate the symbols. It was a menu tree. He navigated with what he assumed were arrow buttons to one called “system initialization” and selected it.

“I’m in, it’s working,” Adam yelled into the main chamber.

He looked into the chamber. Everyone was dead. Aside from Malchus who was still fighting the creature. He was bleeding and his clothes were torn to shreds.

“Shining Cross!”

Malchus' blade was wrapped in pure light and he slashed the Centurion, catching it in its midsection. It was flung across the room slamming into the wall.

“Impact Rush!”

Malchus shot across the room and slammed into the monster. The wall buckled and large cracks spiderwebbed away as pieces of stone broke free and crashed into the floor.

“Is there a way to select items!” Malchus yelled back.

Adam raced through menus. A lot of it didn’t make any sense to him and it was hard to translate the symbols. He selected something called “remove user requirements” but nothing seemed to happen. He selected “enable remote access” hoping he’d be able to hack the monster like a robot in a video game, but again nothing. Finally he found a field called “give item command”.

“I found it,” Adam yelled looking back into the room.

The creature was hovering in the center, bladed spears encircling its back like wings. Malchus was down on one knee, he was bleeding profusely. A ball of energy began to grow above the Centurion.

“I’ve screwed up,” coughed Malchus, blood splattering the ground.

Adam screamed and tried to run to him.

“Stay where you are!”

Adam froze as the energy ball grew bigger.

“Search for an item, Test Object 86A.”

“But I, you…”

“Do it! I’ve searched my whole life to find this information, it can’t go to waste!”

Adam returned to the screen and began punching the name into the glyphs. A floating ball of light appeared before Adam.

[Test Object 86A - an object used for testing.]

“I have it!” Adam yelled.

The energy ball was unleashed as a torrent of raw power that swept through the main chamber as a wave toward Malchus.

“Absolute Protection!” Malchus yelled.

He raised his sword and the wave of energy slammed into a wall of light. Malchus skidded backwards. He dug his heels into the floor and came to a stop holding the energy wave back.

“Use the item!”

Adam looked down at the ball of light in his hand and then back at Malchus.

“Do it now the barrier will only last a few more seconds!”

[Do you want to use this item?]

Adam selected yes. The ball disappeared. Nothing happened. Adam looked up at Malchus but he was smiling at him.

“Save this world,” Malchus said and reached his arm out toward Adam.

Adam reached back.

“Force Teleport!”

Adam’s vision was filled with blinding light as the barrier broke. And then the world around him disappeared.