Yui decided that we would move towards the tower. “Since we no longer have a dedicated healer, it’s better if we stay within the mapped area near the tower. We can collect any floor gems that drop on the way and use the tower to move upwards.”

Miko kicked a loose pebble, sending it into the fog. “Oh, so like normal climbers.”

This had to be the most boring floor yet. There was nothing interesting to look at, just dry grey dirt and fog. The only break from the monotony of the place was the occasional withered tree. Also, I was not sure if it was from the fog or just the floor but there was a slight echo to every sound we made. I did not notice it when we first entered the floor from the mazer hole, but it was becoming more noticeable the more we traveled.

“Aye ye sure we are going the right way?” Burin complained after an hour or more of walking.

We were walking a close formation, making sure to keep each other within sight. But the fog was so thick that Miko was just a blurry shape to me from the rear. Yui stood next to Miko with Burin and my shadow behind them. I was at the back of the group.

“It’s still pointing forwards.” Miko stated as she checked the compass.

“It’s the same for mine.” Yui added.

Burin shuddered. “Just aint right, this place. Feel like we are being watched or something.”

My shadow clapped him on the back. “Really? I don’t feel anything… Apart from mind numbing boredom.” He held out an open bag to Burin. “Popcorn?”

The silhouette of Yui turned towards the group. “Can you be serious please. You need to take the tower more seriously. We are in uncharted areas, you did not forget what happened on the last floor, did you?”

“The sand pirates, how could I forget? I’m the one carrying the loot for that by the way.” He pointed to the bag on his back. “Would be great if zombie pirates show up. This place definitely has a zombie pirates kind of feel to it.”

“Ye really like pirates.” Burin commented.

“You don’t? I wonder if a zombie would sound the same. Instead of yarr, It would be Garr!” His last word echoed around us, bouncing in the fog.

“Garr.”

“Garr..”

“Gyarr…”

“That’s not creepy at all.” Burin muttered. “Did that last one sound different to you?”

“Just keep moving.” Yui said, turning back and taking a step closer to Miko. “And maybe try to be a little quieter.”

My shadow readjusted the bag of pirate loot on his back, and we continued forwards through the thick fog.

At some point we had fallen into silence, the only sound being that of our own footsteps echoing around us. After a while I noticed a change to the echo. It sounded like there were many more footfalls than what our own party could produce. It was faint, almost unnoticeable, but I was sure I could hear something out there in the fog.

I whispered through the party link. “I hear something.”

Everyone stopped moving and cocked their heads, listening to our surroundings. After a while the footsteps were more prominent. The fog messed with the sound and prevented me from identifying the direction.

“Miko?” Yui’s voice questioned through the party link.

It took a handful of seconds before she responded. “I can sense them. That way, coming towards us.” Miko pointed in front of us, slightly to the left.

Yui moved and positioned herself behind Miko. “Get into formation. Miko, how many?”

“Three. Maybe it’s Richard and the two sisters?”

Once everyone was in formation towards the direction Miko indicated, Yui placed her hand on the hilt of her sword and called out.

“Identify yourselves!”

There was a scream of “Wah!” which echoed around us before going quiet. No footsteps or voices. It was eerily silent. I was sure this place was a nightmare to travel through at night.

“Who’s there?” Someone called out, male by my guess. “We are climbers. Lost.”

“Lost, are we?” My shadow said in a deep sinister voice. “How… Unfortunate.”

“Oh Gods!” A new voice cried out, also male and very panicked.

Burin punched my shadow’s elbow. “Ass.”

“Quiet.” Yui sent through the link.

My shadow hunched over chortling and snorting, doing his best to contain his laughter.

“It’s a demon!” Cried the panicked voice. There was the sound of hurried footsteps followed by a collision.

“Ren you fool!” said the first man.

Yui spoke with a raised voice. “I’m sorry. That was one of my team. We are also climbers. What Guild are you with?”

“We are part of Moonlit Orchid… and you?”

“Ex-Terra.”

“Oh, the human guild. That’s good. Can you help us? We are terribly lost.”

Yui glanced towards us and spoke through the link. “Be ready for anything but don’t act before I say so.”

She then replied to the other group. “Okay, just keep walking in the same direction you were before.”

The group slowly appeared before us. They were just dark silhouettes to me from where I was but there appeared to be four people, not three like Miko reported. Likely missed because the fourth was being carried on the back of one of the others.

Miko let out a gasp and raised her shield. “Elves!”

Burin pulled out his sabre and started forming a spell in his free hand. “Murdering bastards!”

“Wait! Please!” The closest one called out, hands empty before him. “We mean no harm and have not killed anyone.”

Yui had yet to draw out her sword but stood in a ready position. “Are you with the glade?”

“Ah, Yes,” His next words were rushed. “B-But we are not searching for the reincarnated human. We heard there was nightmare willow somewhere on this floor, south of the tower… We were hoping to use the current events to quietly collect some seeds… Without the other guilds noticing.”

“Did they say Ex-terra?” The second elf said. “Wasn’t he…”

“Shut up Ren! Are you trying to get us killed?” The elf meant to whisper but it was loud enough to echo around us.

He fake coughed, which did nothing to cover the echo, and turned back to Yui. “I’m sorry. This is our first time in this tower and our compass doesn’t seem to be working at all… Are you heading back to the tower by chance? Could we join…”

“No.” Yui said flatly. “Under the current situation, I’m sure you can understand why. I can give you a compass that does work however.”

“I understand… And yes, that would be most welcome. In exchange can I offer you some moonlight dew?”

Miko relaxed her guard and stretched out her arm “Yes! That would…”

“No.” Yui cut in. “But thank you for the offer.”

“Who would drink that piss?” Burin whispered to my shadow.

Miko’s arm fell back to her side. There was an awkward silence as Yui handed over the compass.

“So…” Miko started. “What happened to your friend?”

“We uh, walked into a hoard. Fortunately, they didn’t manage to fully surround us. Unfortunately, our ranger was badly bitten.”

My shadow’s head perked up. “Bitten? Did he just say he was bit? I knew it was zombies!”

“Uh.. Yes but not just zombies, there were skeletal knights, undead hounds, and some ghost mages. I would take care, it’s hard to notice anything creeping up on you here.”

As if his words were that of a summoning, a long mournful wail echoed out around us.

Burin shuffled in place and looked at my shadow. “Uh, that was not you again, right?”

Yui glanced around. “Miko?”

“Nothing yet.”

“How far can you sense now?”

“Ten metres.”

“Okay, you lead, move forwards and if you sense anything let us know.” Yui then spoke to the elven team. “I wish you luck, but I can’t have you traveling with us.”

We moved forwards, walking past the team. As I got closer, I could see that they had a rope tied to each other’s waists. “Nice idea, but if something big grabs one of you, it has all of you.” I commented as I walked by.

The wailing echoed around us constantly over the next hour, sometimes seemingly all around us, and other times far away. One of those times, where I thought for sure they were far to our right, Miko called out through the party link.

“Infront! Too many to count.”

Yui spoke next. “Try to avoid them if you can. Everyone, get ready if we can’t.”

We moved as quietly as we could as Miko guided us within the thin fog. The fog itself was getting thicker and I started to see glowing lights floating around us. The sound of feet stomping and shuffling was coming from every direction, it was almost deafening.

After a while Miko suddenly changed direction and slowed our pace down.

“We are surrounded. We are in a small pocket, but they will notice us soon.”

“Good.” Said Burin. “All this avoiding is making my nerves go crazy. We should just fight.”

“There are hundreds, maybe thousands.” Miko replied. “I can’t tell with this damned fog blocking everything.”

There was a scream in the distance. The hoard around us replied with wailing and screaming of their own.

“Incoming from our left!” Miko called through the party link.

A mass of humanoid shapes started moving past us on either side as more appeared directly in front of us.

“At least those Elves are good for something.” Said Burin as he flourished his sabre.

I stretched my neck and shoulders, readying myself for combat.

My shadow summoned a large two handed sword. “Finally. Let’s kill some zombies!”

Deciding I wanted to make the first move, I summoned a spearbolt and launched it over the group’s head, into the fog in front of us.

As the spearbolt traveled forwards, it pushed aside the fog, letting us glimpse down a clear tunnel of carnage.

Experience gained.

Experience gained.

Experience gained.

Experience gained.

Experience gained.

There were a lot of undead creatures moving towards us. The gap created by the fallen was quickly filled with more undead.

Things got messy fast. The team’s formation was focused on whatever was in front of us, and worked amazingly well… When faced with a force from in front. However, the large number of undead did not only come at us from the front, but the sides, and the rear… The formation quickly became useless. The orderly coordinated team soon turned into an uncoordinated mess. It was a brawl that pushed the team to act independently while keeping awareness of each other.

It felt a little too much like home for me. Surrounded by an unknowing amount of creatures, only instead of darkness there was fog. I summoned walls behind us, somewhat blocking one direction, and launched spearbolts into any shambling shape around us. Buin, Yui, and Miko made good use of their melee weapons, striking down countless undead that started to pile at our feet. My shadow took care of the blind spots that were missed by the others.

Those glowing lights I saw before turned out to be some kind of explosive wisp. As one got close to us, I targeted it with a spearbolt. After witnessing the satisfying explosion, I decided to focus on their destruction.

The fight lasted a good while, allowing us to get a strong benefit from the summoned campstone placed down. I started getting bored of just using spearbolt so started summoning every weapon I could think of to launch outwards… and just like I surmised, whipbolt was just as pathetic as I thought it would be. It only managed to kill one creature before becoming useless. While spearbolt was the best, swordbolt, hammerbolt, and shurikenbolt turned out to be pretty effective as well.

With the amount of spells flying around, it started becoming easier and easier to see around us. I had run low on mana multiple times and had to slowdown my spellcasting. Occasionally a large shadow, towering above the hoard would appear in the fog and trudge towards us and I decided to save my mana for taking them down. I was considering letting one get close for the three to play with, but decided against it as they looked to be at their limit.

We didn’t manage to clear the entire hoard, their numbers were seemingly endless. Instead, the hoard of undead started to thin out as they continued to move past us, until eventually we were left alone.

“Well, that was fun.” My shadow stated happily. At some point he replaced his two handed sword with a scythe he had looted.

“Where did ye get that?” Burin asked while trying to catch his breath.

My shadow stabbed the base of the scythe into the ground next to him and looked over the long curved blade. “From some skeleton, sitting on some other skeleton… Shall we loot?”

Yui dropped to one knee, keeping herself propped up with her sword in the ground. She spoke through heaving breaths. “Slowly… and stick… together.”

Miko plopped down next to her. “I think… I’ll rest too.”

My shadow turned to me. “Looks like that leaves us.” He conjured a bag into his free hand. “Let’s see who finds more.”

I kicked the head of a nearby zombie. It broke from the body and bounced away into the fog. The mass of dead undead around us looked a bit gruesome, but nothing I hadn’t experienced before. Summoning my own bag, I joined my shadow, reaping the dead.

“Suck it, three bags!” My shadow proclaimed, dropping three summoned bags worth of loot.

“Hah, only three?” I replied, I thought you would do better than that.

My shadow tried to peer around me and estimate the amount I held. “Oh yeah, what about you then?”

Flashing a grin, I pulled the bags from behind my back and dropped them between us. “Four bags.”

“What!? You clearly cheated. You used the sprite spell, didn’t you?”

“Of course, why would I not use magic?”

“Arghh! I can’t use that spell. Whenever I cast it, it just seems to fail.”

I held my chin in thought, said, “Hmm, well… Sucks to be you then.” I laughed at my shadow’s expression.

Miko stepped over and looked inside one of the bags. “I’m sure if Richard was here. He would have known why…” She let out a sigh. “Most of this is trash, how many floor gems could you find?”

I nudged one of the bags with my foot. “Two, they are in there. Talking about Richard, is anyone hurt?”

My shadow tossed a purple gem into the air, letting it fall back into his hand. “Was anyone bit? I don’t think things will end well if someone is bit. Oh, and just one gem from me.”

Yui came to stand around the bags with us. “A few cuts and bruises but the regen from your firestone seemed to be enough to heal them.”

“So, we are one short.” Said Miko as she fished out the two gems.

“I’m sure we will find another.” I motioned to one of the giant undead creatures. “Those big things had them.”

Burin was nearby, slumped over. Enjoying a post battle nap.

“Should we rest a bit?” I asked.

Yui looked over to the sleeping dwarf and frowned. “Just until his stamina reaches half, then we move. This place is not exactly safe.”

I nodded. “Yeah, this floor is not as fun as the others. While we wait. Shall we check out the loot?”

Turns out most of it was trash not worth picking up in Miko’s eyes. The only things she deemed worthy of keeping were coin and a few of the weapons. There was a scythe that my shadow had been playing around with during the battle, three swords, and two spears. Apparently, they dealt some extra magical damage and left a cool ghostly image when channeled with mana.

Miko let out a groan as she tossed the last items into the discard pile. “Seriously, what is with you and picking up so much trash?” She pointed to my shadow “And you are still carrying around that useless bag of pirate loot. Just throw it away already.”

“No way.” My shadow stated to Miko before turning to me. “You understand right? It might be trash but these are memories.”

I could see where he… I was coming from. My collection of magical and interesting items was lost when I came here. It’s likely all those items were now part of Manteli’s collection. Not that I minded. None of those items held any pleasant memories for me. I personally would not have selected a bunch of rusty hooks, swords, and sabres and instead selected a more magical item to represent the experience, but since I was not the one carrying the stuff, I did not care.

I nodded. “Memories of a better time.”

Miko let out a frustrated growl. “You call being swallowed by a giant ship of sand pirates a better time?”

She looked exhausted, like she could fall over at any moment. Her eyes were wide and a bit manic. Our perspectives were different. For her it had been a rough few days, feeling trapped with the only way through was facing an insurmountable challenge. Apart from a little panic attack, I never felt like I was in any real danger.

My shadow moved over and placed a hand on Miko’s shoulder. “Yes. Exploring a giant magical ship that moved across a sandy desert. Facing challenges with friends and sharing in good loot… It’s a thousand times better than what I… we have come to know.”

I pulled out my own tower compass from my pack. As I was checking the direction we needed to move, running steps and wailing could be heard.

Miko’s head snapped to her left and I moved to stand in front of her. The team was exhausted and were in no condition to fight.

Miko stood up with her shield and weapon in hand. Yui appeared next to me, and my shadow stood in front and to the side.

The sounds grew louder until, breaking through the fog, appeared the elves we had met.

“Oh, thank the seed mother!” One of them cried out and collapsed in front of us.

The other elf managed to stop themselves before tripping over their companion.

Yui took a step forward. “Make a move and it will be your last. Why have you followed us?”

The one that did not fall spoke through panting breaths. “I’m sorry. We got caught and just ran. Please… We lost Eva and Krenli. We will die if we don’t join you.”

Her eyes hardened. “I’m sorry but we can’t trust you.”

He collapsed onto his hands and knees. “I beg you. Do you need floor gems? We will wear mana cutters and we won’t tell anyone we saw you… and, and we can help you…” He looked at me before continuing. “I have extra floor keys and we can tell you what we know about you. You can use it to sneak past the others! Please… I don’t want to die here.”

Yui relaxed her posture and turned to look at me. “What do you think?”

“You’re the team leader… but it couldn’t hurt to bring them.”

She let out a sigh and nodded.

Scratching my cheek, I asked. “What’s a mana cutter?”

One of the elves pulled out what looked to be a collar and offered it towards us. “Here take it.”

Yui took it and looked it over. “Manaplants make use of them. While worn it cuts a person off from their mana and channels it into the grid. However, they can also be used to cut a climber off from their mana and abilities. A favored item for slavers.” She glared down at the elves. “What are you doing with one?”

The elf lifted his hands to the air. “Th-they were told to use them if we found…” His eyes glanced to me. “But only if he refused! I never planned on using them, I swear!” He nudged his fallen companion. “Tell them Ren!”

“Y-yes. We only came here for some seeds. We were told it was outside the red zone… We were not even looking for the reincarnated human.”

Yui watched them for a few seconds before sighing. “Fine… If you make any sudden movements…”

“Yes! Thank you!”

Yui stepped closer and after collecting the floor gems we needed, closed the collar around the elf’s neck. She then took a small metallic square from the device and placed it into her storage. The other elf, Ren, offered his own collar and Yui repeated the action.

“I’ll give you back the keys once we are close to the tower.”

They both relaxed and after sharing a look, sighed and let out a small laugh.

“Miko, how are you?” Yui asked.

“I’m okay, just tired.”

“Can you walk? I want to move away from here.” She gestured to the two elves. “I don’t know what they might have pulled in this direction.”

I walked over to the still sleeping Burin and lifted him onto my back.

My shadow let out a chuckle and took the tower compass from me. “I’ll take the front.”

As we walked, Yui asked the elves about me. The only thing they knew was that the new seer wanted me in exchange for some great magical treasure. Each clan part of the glade wanted to be the one to find and bring me back for the reward. They knew that I was some hybrid of conjurer and could launch summoned items with force and create an illusion of myself. I was in a group with four others. That a tower knight had been accompanying me until recently, and I was wearing the dark grey robes of atonement.

We moved through the fog, slowly. Miko and Yui were on their last legs, they almost tripped a few times but refused to stop and rest. I think the only thing they were able to focus on was the back of my shadow. The two elves walked in front of me and looked to be just as tired as the others. After what felt like hours of walking, a red wall of light appeared in the fog before us.

“The border.” The elf, Ren, said.

“We are saved.” Said the other.

The two elves looked to each other, hugged, and started laughing.

Yui called everyone to stop. “Reigner, you should change your clothes.”

Agreeing with her, I took off my dark grey robes and put on the robes of shifting sands. The robe shifted around me when I first put it on, forming around to best suit my body. It also formed a hood that I could pull over my head.

She then looked at my shadow. “And you should…” She nudged her head towards me.

“Right. I’m going to go scout a bit in front.” My shadow stated. “Hold this will you?” He handed me the heavy backpack filled with pirate loot before moving into the fog. A handful of seconds later, he snuck behind me and merged with my actual shadow.

The red wall turned out to be a series of tall stone towers with lights affixed to them. It was still foggy on the other side, but it was thin enough to see a good twenty meters ahead. A clear improvement.

Someone yelled out in the distance. It sounded angry and I could have sworn it sounded like my name. I couldn’t tell what direction it came from, as like everything else, the fog caused sound to bounce and echo around us.

Miko’s ears twitched back and forth. “Did anyone else hear that?”

Burin shifted on my back. “The murderous cry of my noble steed’s name? Aye, I heard it.”

Craning my neck to look behind me, I saw a smug looking Dwarf. “How long have you been awake for now?”

“Mmm not long. An hour, maybe two.”

I dropped him.

“Was that Zelphar?” Miko asked, worry in her voice.

A large orange bloom appeared in the distance to our right, beyond the red boundary, followed by the sound of an explosion.

“It’s him” Said one of the elves in a shaky voice. “If he finds us like this, he will surely kill us.”

“How far is the tower from the boundary?” Yui asked the elves.

“N-not long. Maybe a few hours walk.”

Yui nodded. “Miko?”

“I’m fine.”

Yui turned to the elves. “Want to break from us now or continue further?”

The elves looked at each other. “W-we will continue until the next marker.”

Yui nodded and we started moving.

We walked for another hour and another wall of light stood in front of us. This one yellow.

Yui made us stop again and unlocked the mana cutters from the elves.

“We should be close enough now that you can make it back safely on your own.”

The elf rubbed his neck. “Thank you. The generosity of your actions will be shared down my lineage.”

Yui stepped forwards. “You will not share our encounter with anyone.”

“Uh… Yes... I will abide by your wishes.”

Yui pointed to our left. “Walk in that direction for five minutes before heading towards the tower.”

They nodded and walked away.

We watched them until they disappeared into the fog. Yui then collapsed down onto one knee.

Miko reached her first. “Yui, are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m just… tired.”

Miko laughed. “Working too much on speed and not enough on endurance.” She looked at me with a small smile on her face. “Can you?”

“Sure.” I walked over and picked up Yui, she was much lighter than Burin.

“Wait no!” Yui cried out after realizing what was about to happen. “I just… need a moment.”

Burin got to his feet and reached out towards me. “Ah! My steed!”

“I’m okay for a while yet.” Said Miko. “You need the rest. Just enjoy it.”

Yui felt tense as I repositioned her to my back. She flinched as I hooked my hands behind her back, feeling her soft yet firm… body. After a few seconds, she relaxed, and after a few more her head rested against my shoulder. She fell fast asleep, her breath tickling my neck as we made our way to the tower.