We walked from my apartment towards the tower in the middle of the town. I always had gazes that would venture my direction, but something about walking with a council member seemed to amplify it. A few citizens on the street even snickered when they saw us pass by. I hope they aren't too upset when they realize I haven't been arrested or convicted of anything. Afterall, I technically haven't done anything wrong. Truthfully, I'm unsure whether the deaths of my friends is related to me though.
I'm aware the death rate of people around myself is much higher than those who are unassociated with me. Although, the suicide rate is lower. Perhaps because none of my associates have lived long enough to choose to die.
Some deaths were horrible, some were more normal. Mary and Devin were probably the only deaths that I could naturally call beautiful. Devin had no visible wounds, even when looking with mana. It was as if his heart had stopped upon seeing the sight of Mary's lifeless body, and I found this beautiful. I was also curious what the heart amulet I had created from this incident would be capable of, but there appeared to be no effects when I had put mana into it.
It took some convincing, but by morning Lily had agreed to take my heart as a gracious gift. She might choose to pry the gold off and throw the rest away, considering how the gold would be worth a month's living expenses if sold. But something about the way she took it made me sure she wouldn't sell it. Had it become a magic item, it could have been worth much more than the gold from salvaging it. I'd have to either venture somewhere more dangerous to find that much gold again or earn enough to buy more gold. At the moment, I needed to make more holy swords which required Seraph feathers and gold. I only had two failed prototypes left. If I wanted to go to the Crypt again, I'd need more to be safe.
As we approached the tower, Jeremiah began talking again. "I've contacted some members of our tower team. Most are on the council and are eager to advance to the next level. We can talk terms of the deal once we determine whether you can open the door. The council will also have to approve any request you make."
"Isn't it a bit much to contact your team before I even know what I need to do?" He was certainly moving fast. This only reaffirmed my suspicion that the council would only ever think about conquering the tower. A bunch of obsessive freaks and nutjobs who would stop everything the moment someone thought they could progress in the tower.
"I think even at the stage Mary was at, she could have opened the door. I won't be surprised if you are also able to open it as her teacher." We had reached the tower.
"Looks like the inside hasn't changed at all." I remarked while looking up the large room that was inside the tower. The walls on the inside looked like they were thousands of painted scenes. Some told notable stories from the old world. Some were real such as Gladiators in the colosseum. Some were fairy tales, such as a sword stuck in stone with a sleeping dragon next to it.
"Looks like the inside hasn't changed at all." I remarked while looking up the large room that was inside the tower. The walls on the inside looked like they were thousands of painted scenes. Some told notable stories from the old world. Some were real such as Gladiators in the colosseum. Some were fairy tales, such as a sword stuck in stone with a sleeping dragon next to it.
"Has it been long since you've been inside?" Jeremiah asked.
"Atleast 5 years? The only reason I'd go in is to avoid Halloweek, but I usually spend that time hunting monsters in the forest." We continued down the tower by going through the double door that was near the center of the tower.
The first floor was huge. You could easily fit the whole town inside the first floor. Large fields of various crops covered the land on the first floor. Some were tall like wheat, while others seemed to grow in the ground like potatoes. There were even some fruit bearing trees. There was light coming from crystals on the ceiling, but this wasn't the same as sunlight. I had some theories on how it worked, but the only thing I knew for sure was that the crystals worked like sunlight for plants, but was not sustainable for the sunlight needed for humans. In fact, it was the same as having no sunlight for a human's health.
Once we reached the far side of the first floor, there were two doors. One door led to a set of stairs straight down into the second floor, while another led at an angle to the side of the second floor. Each door was guarded by a single guard with a simple spear and a badge with a star on it. They verified our identites and then let us through the doors. We took the second door and walked circularly around the second floor. We were in a long, circular hallway that seemed almost ethereal. The wall facing away from the second floor was perceived as black, but you could tell it wasn't black. It was as if there was nothing in the space surrounding the floor. It was just a void of emptiness. The floor was a white marble while the ceiling was more of the void. The floor seemed only three or four feet wide, but as I walked closer to the edge, it seemed to grow wider depending on where I was. If I had to guess, the ceiling was 10 feet tall, but I imagine the closer I got to the void, the higher it would seem. Between the hallway and the second floor was a flexible see through wall. The best I could describe it as would be something like an unbreakable bubble. It had wavey colors that shown on it, while still mostly being clear. If you pushed your hand on the wall, it would give a few inches but would never break or allow you to enter or exit the hallway from that wall.
Past the wall was a sea of sand with large jungle trees perching out. These trees and large vines that swung off of them litered the floor to the point where you couldn't see more than five feet inside the forest from the outside. The second level was difficult to traverse, and had a few traps you might find in a labyrinth, but there were no monsters. In fact, the first three floors didn't have any monsters. They were made to prepare the adventurers for the future floors. Each trap might've had weapons or some basic loot to show the adventurer that if they continued they would actually need to use the weapons.
Once we reached the far side of the first floor, there were two doors. One door led to a set of stairs straight down into the second floor, while another led at an angle to the side of the second floor. Each door was guarded by a single guard with a simple spear and a badge with a star on it. They verified our identites and then let us through the doors. We took the second door and walked circularly around the second floor. We were in a long, circular hallway that seemed almost ethereal. The wall facing away from the second floor was perceived as black, but you could tell it wasn't black. It was as if there was nothing in the space surrounding the floor. It was just a void of emptiness. The floor was a white marble while the ceiling was more of the void. The floor seemed only three or four feet wide, but as I walked closer to the edge, it seemed to grow wider depending on where I was. If I had to guess, the ceiling was 10 feet tall, but I imagine the closer I got to the void, the higher it would seem. Between the hallway and the second floor was a flexible see through wall. The best I could describe it as would be something like an unbreakable bubble. It had wavey colors that shown on it, while still mostly being clear. If you pushed your hand on the wall, it would give a few inches but would never break or allow you to enter or exit the hallway from that wall.
Past the wall was a sea of sand with large jungle trees perching out. These trees and large vines that swung off of them litered the floor to the point where you couldn't see more than five feet inside the forest from the outside. The second level was difficult to traverse, and had a few traps you might find in a labyrinth, but there were no monsters. In fact, the first three floors didn't have any monsters. They were made to prepare the adventurers for the future floors. Each trap might've had weapons or some basic loot to show the adventurer that if they continued they would actually need to use the weapons.
This ethereal passageway was available on every floor after the first floor. The only condition to open the second door was that someone had to have beaten the boss of that floor atleast once. For floors without monsters, you just had to reach the end of the floor. Of course, you could beat floors multiple times to receive rewards. You also could only enter a floor from the main door at the beginning. I hadn't found a way to enter a floor from the exit.
We went through multiple floors, each one having an ethereal passageway that looked exactly the same as the previous. Each floor took the same time to walk from one end to the other, around five minutes. However, when looking through the wall at the floor outside, sometimes each step was a normal step, othertimes each step set a mile of scenery flashing before you eyes, as if you had transversed a great distance with a single step. I supposed this was similar to the forests surround areas outside the time. No matter how large an area was, it only took a set amount of time to walk to the next zone, like the Rocky Outpost to The Crypt. Seeing as how this world reflected that of a video game, I'm guessing our new god didn't like walking back to bosses after dying.
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