The second storey was completed. We didn’t halt, instead putting stone after stone. By the time the third storey was done, I realized that it was already noon the next day.

When the night had eloped with yesterday, and their child—the morning—acquired wrinkles, I had not even noticed.

After the third storey was done, the construction became far more challenging, the reason being that it took so much time to transport the slabs all the way up, even with the monsters working in unison. Mantures would have been useful. But few of them had responded to my call. I assumed most of them had retained their neutrality somehow.

Pook injected fresh urgency in me with a new notification.

Only one hour remains!

Unless the tower is completed within this hour, you shall be expelled from the quest!

And not just that, the tower must meet the conditions for the great Tower of Oddity. It must live up to the name. Unless it does, then too you will be evicted from the quest!

We were working on the fourth storey now, and I realized it was just plain impossible for us to get the remaining storeys done in such a minuscule time frame.

Eviction was imminent. Unless I gave up the privileges.

Pook was only too happy to accept my sacrifice.

Previously endowed privileges are now forfeited, as per your wish! No longer can you think anything to existence or make it vanish likewise. You can also no longer change which parts of the game world are merged with the mist world too.

The game world forest that had been at the perimeter of the construction site was replaced by the mist following this message.

Tower building is speeding in one… two… Now!

My god, did things speed up. No less than 100x. Monsters zoomed all about the tower, so fast I couldn’t distinguish one from the other. Work equivalent to one hour was being done in a couple of minutes. I drew in a breath as a strange dumb confusedness descended my mind. The slightest movement I made would create a haze in my vision.

Pook kept dropping his notifications at intervals.

Half an hour left.

–Fourth storey done. Work on fifth commences. Further acceleration of tower building.

Fifteen minutes left.

–Fifth done. Sixth begun.

Five minutes remaining.

–The last slab was in position!

Everyone’s speed resumed normalcy, so that it felt like emergency brakes had been pushed in a racecar doing 200 miles per hour. I collapsed to the floor, my head whirling.

The monsters sighed together in relief, marveling at the great tower which rose hundreds of meters into the air. The superstructure was complete. The job was done. Some eviluns lay sprawled on the floor in exhaustion, while others were leaning against their companions.

Congratulations!

You have completed the basic structure of the Tower of Oddity! I am impressed!

As such you have qualified for the second leg of the quest!

The monsters and I gathered outside the tower. From inside the building a white jacked up figure strolled out. It was Pook. He raised his arms to the air. A magical flare encompassed the great Tower of Oddity, twisting and spiraling upwards the monument.

As the light dimmed, we saw that a great change had come over the tower.

It sparkled now as though it were made of diamonds, not of blocks of stone. There was a steady light coming from the inside of the tower and I presumed that the interior too had undergone a makeover.

An announcement filled my vision.

You are now in the second leg of the quest, in which you must protect the tower.

It is not yet certain whether an attack would come at all. But you must keep vigilance. You shall be notified in the event that the enemy does come. For now, enter the great Tower of Oddity that you have helped build. Explore it. I shall be your guide. Come, come with all your friends. Experience the great tower of Oddity!

Pook beckoned at all of us. When we reached him, he curtsied.

“This is the very first ‘level’ of the Tower of Oddity,” Pook explained as we entered through the main door.

My jaw dropped. Pook had bewitched the interior to look like a picture-perfect woodland scene. Inside the previously bare ground floor, trees grew in abundance, little birds were tweeting, and there was even a miniature sun that filled the place with light. Lazy clouds floated above. It was like we had come to some new dimension, not a tower.

“I thought we built a tower,” Fono commented, rubbing his eyes with his fists.

Pook shot him a look.

“Of course it’s a tower!” he told him. “It is the grandest tower there ever is and there ever will be! It is the tower of Oddity!”

A half wall stretched from near the main door. It ran along the same lines as what I guessed were the sides of the tower. While plants grew on both sides of the wall, and it seemed like you could jump over the wall into a limitless world beyond, something felt amiss.

“Can we cross it?” I asked Pook, pointing at the half wall.

Pook shook his head.

“You cannot,” he said. “It is the limit of the tower of Oddity. Nothing exists past it in truth. Everything you see beyond is just an illusion. Now let me take you to the steps that lead to the next level in the tower.”

Pook guided us through the interior forest. I noticed that there were certain stones scattered here and there. Glittering marble spheres with some kind of a fluid inside them. I picked up one.

“What stone is this?” I asked Pook, holding it up.

“It is one of the many stones of sacrifice that you will find in every level of the tower except the topmost supreme level. With a stone like this you can make a sacrifice and in return you can ask for something. The value of your sacrifice will dictate the kind of things you get in return. In short, you are not going to receive a diamond for a strand of hair, perhaps a small twig.”

We came to a tree. It was very much like any of the other trees, nothing special about it, until Pook pointed at the base of the tree. There was what looked like a small door, just a few centimeters in height. Anyone would have easily missed it despite coming very close to the tree, since the door was so tiny.

“The first level of the great Tower of Oddity is also known as the Level of the Tree,” Pook said. “And the reason behind that is this tree, with the small door at its base. Just touch it,” Pook said to me.

I bent down and rubbed my finger against the door. It opened inwards. The tree transfigured into the stairway that led to the second level. We had built that stairway.

Judging by the part of the half-wall that I could see, I tried to make a brief idea of the part of the ground floor where we were. But I realized that the tree was not at the same spot where we had put up the stairs leading to the first floor. It had changed positions.

“You can go up to the next level with these stairs,” Pook said. “And so can the attackers. When the storming of the tower commences, this tree will be relocated to some obscure place. Your job would be to find it and prevent the attackers from reaching these stairs. If they do, then they will conquer this level. The moment anyone of them gets to the second level, you will all immediately find yourself in the second level too. Then your job would be to prevent the attackers from discovering the stairs to the third level. Why don’t you climb up the stairs?” Pook asked me.

I was the only one to climb up. There was a door too at the top of the stairs. And when I opened this door, I found myself in the second level, except that Pook and the others were already waiting for me there.

There had been a sun in the first level. But it was a night effect in the second. A cute small moon and stars were in the simulated sky.

“Welcome to the second level,” Pook said. “Now come with me.”