Tower Story -- Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Everyone ignored him as the Adventurers rushed to either the walls surrounding the city or took off outside of the gates before they closed.  Bax followed the latter for a moment and no one remarked on his presence as he passed through gates that he had a feeling would be closing any second.  He looked off into the distance, past all of the fields that he’d worked in the day before, seeing nearby field workers sprinting back to the city from where they had been working when the alarm had been raised.    

At the very furthest of his vision, where the forest surrounded the last fields located as far as could be from the town, he could see even more workers out there, likely from a different shift from the ones that were nearest.  His eyesight couldn’t see into the trees too well, but based on where every other Adventurer was looking, he had a feeling that the dungeon break had come from that direction – and that the monsters that had spilled out of said dungeon were near.  If they were too near, then it was doubtful that these workers would get back in time – especially as it seemed that the Adventurers were only deploying themselves a little ways outside of the walls instead of rushing to save them.  On the one hand, his research in the Co-op told him that this was the right strategy, as it would allow the Parties out front to have the additional coverage from those on the walls; getting too far from them would only needlessly endanger the Adventurers, isolating them from their backup.

On the other hand, they were also abandoning the field workers to whatever fate would befall them if they couldn’t run fast enough back to town.  Having been one of those field workers, if only for a shift, as well as being mostly Humans in the group out there, he couldn’t help but feel that the Adventurers were making a mistake.  Logic be damned, he wasn’t going to let any of them die like he had the day before – especially when he could do something about it.

Besides, if he resolved this crisis himself—and quickly—he could go back to the Guild building and fulfill his purpose in going there that morning.  Sure, it was partially selfish on his behalf, but overall it would benefit everyone if this was done before anyone died.

Slinking along the walls and moving as fast as he could, he ran perpendicular to the fields as he aimed for the forest that surrounded the large swath of flat land on each side.  Once he was largely out of sight of the walls and the people looking out from them, he unleashed his full speed, practically disappearing from the field he was pushing through as he arrived at the trees, turning toward the threat as he tore through the forest with everything he had… 

…which was quite a lot.  In only a few seconds, he was even with the last fields, so he took a turn so that he was in the forest at the edge, out of sight of anyone who might be looking from the direction of town.  It was just in time, too, as he could hear the sounds of large bodies crashing through the trees, cracking some of them, while others were only scratched-up somewhat. 

As he leapt forward, he found the leading edge of a monster wave that had apparently emerged from a dungeon break.  While he had the presence of dungeons confirmed as soon as he arrived at the Adventurer’s Guild building, he didn’t necessarily know where the nearest ones were located; either this was a powerful new one that hadn’t been noticed before this, or it was one that had been ignored for entirely too long, but either way, the monsters were stronger than he expected.

Scaled Spikers

Level: 30

Highest Stat: Endurance

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

The Scaled Spikers looked like oversized buffalos that were covered in scales and had spikes extending from its knees, a dozen all over its back, two in its rear, and a huge one on their head that made them seem like they were some sort of deformed unicorn.  They were strong, but not overly so; their biggest strength was their Endurance, as their scales made them resistant to many different attacks, and the natural armor also helped to reduce the damage they took from magical effects. 

They were also pretty stupid and while they could get up to a fairly good clip when they charged forward, they had difficulty turning both while they were running and when they had stopped entirely.  Their entire attack pattern was to simply run into anything in their way, using the spikes on their body to kill everything within their field of vision, which was fairly narrow.

Them being between Level 29 and 31, based on a few quick Identifications, was concerning, because when a dungeon broke and monster flowed out to attack the nearest settlement in a wave, what typically emerged was on the low end of Levels compared to what was found inside the dungeon.  Therefore, a dungeon that had monsters that ranged from Level 10 to Level 25 would typically only have monsters around Level 10 to 12 emerge if the dungeon overflowed.  For this dungeon to have monsters emerge that averaged Level 30, then it was possible that the Level range for the dungeon itself could be top out at Level 45 – or even higher.  At least, that was what he learned in the Co-op Archives.

Given that he’d only seen the Guildmaster – and likely his Party – at Level 30, this could be a huge problem for them.  It was entirely possible that there were stronger Parties elsewhere that could be called in, but it was almost impossible for those that were already here could handle it.

Even this wave of monsters, which he immediately started to thin out as he jumped from Spiker to Spiker, using his fists to obliterate the heads of the monsters as he moved down the line, would’ve been a challenge for those in defense of the town to defeat.  Because these things couldn’t turn very well, and were stupid enough not to use any advanced tactics, they could do it, but getting through their scaly exteriors would be time-consuming for the Adventurers – which could end up with someone making a mistake and getting killed.  While he wouldn’t cry overly much if Killix or that Orc that he'd met the day before, Granok, were those that died, he’d rather not any of the others risk themselves.

Bax moved so fast around and ahead of the charging Spikers that they barely advanced 20 feet from when he first spotted them before the first wave was destroyed, their heads bashed in.  All told, he counted 25 of them that he’d killed within seconds, but he heard something else coming toward him in the far distance.  From his research, he knew that as time went on and dungeons became stronger and larger with subsequent higher-Level monsters, breakouts could feel nearly endless with dozens of waves, but based on how early it was in the cycle, he doubted there would be more than 2 or 3 waves.

That proved to be true as he went toward the strange hooting/roaring that he heard approximately a half-mile away, leaving the corpses of the Scaled Spikers behind to slowly fade away; looting them wasn’t a priority right now and could be done quickly after the crisis was resolved.  When he arrived at the next wave, he found that they weren’t more Spikers, but something else entirely.

Grey-Furred Bearboon

Level: 32

Highest Stat: Unknown

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Very High

Strangely enough, he hadn’t ever seen these Bearboons in the Keepers’ Tower, so he didn’t have much information about them.  What they looked like, however, was a mixture of an 8-foot-tall baboon and a bear; it had the lengthy arms of a baboon as well as the Dexterity to match its maneuverability as it swung through the trees, while also having the musculature of a grizzly bear, along with its deadly claws and jaws.  It was also fully covered in a stiff grey fur that appeared to be fairly durable, giving it an extra bit of protection from attacks.  Not nearly as much as the scaled exterior of the Spikers, but still better than bare skin.

They hoot-roared – which was an insanely odd sound – when they saw him approach, and as they were largely traveling by swinging from the branches of the trees, he was forced to jump up to them.  The first one he about to punch in the face managed to move just quickly enough to land a claw on his brand-new shirt, ripping a large tear on its sleeve – and he saw red at the destruction of his clothing.  He hadn’t been angry at them before, but now that one of them had torn something he’d just bought the day before, he accidentally took his frustration out on that initial monster.

Bax punched it so hard that it exploded from his impact site with its head, sending a shower of gore in all directions, including all over him and his clothing.  As he landed, he couldn’t help but see that his overreaction had essentially ruined all of his clothes as they were now stained with so much blood he wasn’t sure it would come out clean if he washed them, as well as dirtied him up more than a little bit.  His experience in the tower had proven that even though the bodies and most of the gore disappeared, sometimes the blood would linger based on how much there was. 

He could only sigh and hoped it wouldn’t be that bad, but he also reminded himself that he had spare clothing in his internal inventory in case it didn’t.  Resolved not to worry about it for now, he decided that he might as well take advantage of being covered in such a mess to go all out on the others without worrying about being neat.

The hoot-roars quickly turned into screams of pain as the other Bearboons focused on him, swinging toward him as if they were going to attempt to swarm him with their numbers.  Needless to say, it didn’t work, as it simply made it much easier to let them throw themselves at him on the ground, striking out at them with punches or even kicks – after removing his new boots so that he would absolutely destroy them with a single kick – as they arrived.  He punched a few of them so hard that they went flying, smashing into and through multiple trees as their bodies were broken apart.  He winced once when he accidentally hit one back upwards, breaking through the treetops as it went flying somewhere he couldn’t immediately identify, and he could only hope that no one back near the town could see far enough to notice it happening. 

In the end, there were only 20 of the Bearboons, which also made sense based on his research; the monsters had been a slightly higher Level than the Spikers, and subsequent waves typically had fewer individual monsters as a result of that fact.  It didn’t always happen like that, but the statistics said that approximately 95% of dungeon breaks followed that model.

When Bax finished off the last of them, he stood still in the middle of the relatively silent forest around him and listened for more anywhere.  It took him about 10 seconds of intently listening before he heard what he was fairly sure what was yet another wave, so he took off toward where he could hear the flapping of heavy wings just over the tree tops.

Crap.  I hate flying monsters. 

The problem he had with them was that he didn’t exactly have any real range to his attacks.  Most of the time, when he’d faced flying monsters in the Keepers’ Tower, he’d had to wait for them to fly down and attack him directly; if that didn’t work, such as when he fought a few different ones that had long-range attacks and wouldn’t fly down any closer, he’d had to try jumping toward them if they were low enough to reach, or he would have to throw whatever he had at his disposal at them and hope he got a lucky hit.  Fortunately, the ones that flew high and had long-range attacks weren’t common, and there were only 2 Floor Guardians that had those qualities throughout all of the Floors, so it hadn’t bothered him too much.

When he felt that he’d arrived fairly close to where he could hear them above the treetops but couldn’t see them quite yet, he jumped up a tree and rapidly climbed it, inadvertently tearing his pants in the process.  Damn it!  These clothes are going to be completely ruined by the time I’m done here.  Ignoring the additional damage, Bax was quickly up at the top of the tree he’d climbed, and could finally see the third wave of monsters that came from the dungeon breakout.

Stone Geckoyles

Level: 35

Highest Stat: Endurance

Weaknesses: Blunt Weapons

Danger Assessment: Very High

Seeing 15 Stone Geckoyles flapping their extremely wide wings, necessary to hold the weight of their large, stone, gecko-shaped bodies up in the air, he groaned at the sight.  Being stone, the Geckoyles were quite durable but slow, and he wasn’t sure if anything he threw up at them would do enough damage to kill them in one shot.  He might have great Strength and Dexterity, but that didn’t mean he had the best aim; throwing things hadn’t necessarily been something he’d ever been good at back on Earth, and that seemed to translate to his new existence as a Level 1,302 Keeper.  He was certainly a lot better than he was back then, but he couldn’t throw a paperclip and shave the wings off a fly like a superhero with spectacular aim could reportedly do; that being said, he could hit the broad side of a barn – perhaps even break a window in said barn.

Thankfully, it seemed as though his appearance at the top of one of the treetops was enough to get their attention, and with a grinding sound of stone-on-stone, he could hear their focus turn to him almost as one.  The whoomp of their massive wings fluttered the leaves beneath them as they swooped toward him, and he smiled as beckoned them on.  This is much easier than the Tower was; these monsters seem to act slightly differently from what I remember.  They were more defensive and many times strategized to stay away from me, but these ones just come right for me.

The whole change of tactics made it easier for him to kill them, of course, but in some ways it was a hassle.  Case in point, when the Geckoyles converged on him nearly at the same time, he was able to smash 3 of them into rubble with swift punches, but his precarious position on top of the tree didn’t afford him much leverage, meaning he was unbalanced when they crashed into him.  After the impact knocked him off, Bax felt a few of the extremely rough, stony, lizard-like bodies of the Geckoyles wrap around him and attempt to squeeze him to death while tearing him up, like a Boa Constrictor mixed with a cheese grater.  While they couldn’t actually hurt him, as his Endurance was too high for such attacks, his already torn clothing was shredded into scraps.

Guess I won’t be having them repaired like I hoped.

Crashing through branches on his way down to the ground, weighed down by a few tons of stone wrapped around him, Bax strained to get leverage to escape their constricting entanglement.  He could hear some cracking as he flexed his muscles, but the Geckoyles were so tightly up against him that it didn’t seem to do all that much.  He was basically in a straight-jacket made of stone, and while he was fairly sure he could eventually force his way out, he had no idea how long it would take; in the meantime, it was possible that the other Geckoyles not currently trying to kill him would keep moving toward town, where they would attack the Adventurers there – and potentially kill them, given that most of the monsters were around level 35.

Fortunately, he was saved from having to worry as he hit the ground with a BOOM, and the impact was enough to crack and loosen a few of the bodies around him, giving him just enough leverage to snap the torso of one Geckoyles in half.  Before they could rearrange themselves to keep his arms trapped by his sides again, Bax quickly smashed the remaining stony monsters wrapped around him, freeing himself and seeing that he was essentially naked again.  Annoyed, when the other Geckoyles dove down from above the treetops to finish him off, he starting picking up handfuls of the rubble around him and chucked it at the incoming monsters.  He didn’t have to aim too much because there were so many targets and mixed with the quantity of stone pieces within reach, he was able to throw the projectiles out at such speed and strength that it was like a shotgun blast that tore chunks out of the Geckoyles that had them crashing to the ground when their wings were clipped.

Many of them hadn’t died when they crashed down, but they didn’t survive much longer once he got among them.  Less than a minute after he first spotted them, the last of the Geckoyles collapsed in a pile of jagged stone, and Bax blocked out the sound of stone knocking against stone as the piles he left in his wake settled.  Cocking his head to the side, he listened for any sound of another wave on its way, but he couldn’t hear anything.  To be sure, he kept traveling toward where he thought the waves were coming from, and likely the dungeon itself, but after about 10 minutes and traversing many miles, he didn’t see any other threats heading toward town.

He also couldn’t find the dungeon that they’d originally come from.  From his studying of the Archives, he knew that the location of dungeons should act like a beacon to those sensitive to the energy of the world, but he didn’t feel a single thing.  While the books he’d read hadn’t mentioned it specifically, he suspected it had to do with his low Unity stat; he could barely connect with his own internal Mana and energy, so why would he be able to connect to the energy of the world?  It was yet another reason why he needed to up his Unity stat.

Despite not being able to find the dungeon, he wasn’t too worried about more waves coming from the same dungeon anytime soon.  Once they overflowed and sent out waves, it took a significant amount of time – something like 6 months to a year – for them to be able to accumulate enough monsters to do such a thing again. 

When he felt that the area was now as safe as it could be, at least from any more monster waves from the current dungeon breakout, he started making his way back to the sites where he’d fought and killed the Geckoyles, Bearboons, and Spikers.  It was easy enough to quickly pick up and store the items from the Geckoyles and Bearboons, at least the ones that he could find, when he started to reach the area where he’d stopped the Spikers, he heard voices nearby. 

Looking down at his current state of complete undress, he retreated and put on some of his spare clothes, as well as his boots once again just in case someone was near enough to see him.  While he couldn’t see himself directly, he could also sense that his face and hair were dirty from all of the carnage and the fight with the Geckoyles, so he decided to leave the loot from the Spikers there and retreat for now.  As he worked his way back to town via the forest to the side of the fields, he surreptitiously made his way to the river, slipped out of his clothes again, took a dip in the water to wash himself, and then got back out.  Another brief run back into the forest helped to dry himself off, and then he reclothed himself before making his way back to the town via the river gate.

Fortunately for him, almost everyone around the walls was looking in the opposite direction, and while he saw dozens of Adventurers still standing in defense, it appeared as though many of them had gone toward where the monsters had been coming from earlier – which was likely why he heard voices near where the Spikers had died.  Bax also assumed they were checking out why they hadn’t seen any waves of monsters, and it was possible that if they’d had a Task to go along with it, they were confused as to why it had been completed.

  Therefore, while a few people saw him slip into town, not a single one of them ever considered that it was the Level 2 Human who had stopped the threat to the town – which worked out exactly as he had hoped.  In the meantime, he made his way toward the Adventurer’s Guild building, wondering how long it would take for things to get back to normal so he could finally complete his objective in going there that morning. 

Even if the disturbance lasted a little longer than he hoped, at least now he was first in line and wouldn’t have to wait for a spot along the counters to free up.  With that thought in mind, he entered the building a few minutes later, walked over to the line he’d been standing in earlier behind Killix’s Party, and settled in to wait however long it was going to take for the Guild workers to come back so that he could finally join.