Tower Story -- Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Leaning up against the pure-white marble column next to him, Bax stared at the closed, gold-plated, and beautifully carved doors in front of him.  The cold marble floors under his feet and pressing against his upper shoulder didn’t affect him at all, thankfully, though he could still feel it; the same went for the ambient temperature in the vast, stark hallway that he’d just traversed to get to this point.  He was thankful that extreme temperature changes didn’t bother him, as he was wearing a loincloth made from crudely stitched-together material that he’d picked up over the last year of clearing one Tower Floor after another. 

His original clothing hadn’t lasted more than a few weeks, and while he had the scraps of his shirt, pants, underwear, socks, and even shoes inside of his inventory, he’d had to make his own “clothes” – which was how he ended up wearing a monster-skin loincloth that covered him so he wasn’t flopping around everywhere.  He hadn’t bothered replacing anything else, even his shoes, because his feet were durable enough to travel over red-hot spikes if they had to, and he’d gotten used to being without over the last few months.

“It’s almost over.  Just one more fight and I’m done.”

At least, he hoped so.  Checking his APPS one last time, he verified that he had not only completed 49 Floors, but his Task for Floor 50 only had one more thing to complete.

Current Tasks:

Keepers’ Tower Completion – [49/50 Floors Cleared]

[Challenge] Keepers’ Tower Floor 50 – Locate and eliminate 50 Demonic Floor Guardians (Complete)

[Challenge] Keepers’ Tower Floor 50 – Locate and eliminate the Tower Guardian Aberration

He just had to kill the Tower Guardian – though this was the first time he’d seen one of his Tasks with a Guardian labeled as an Aberration.  Every single Floor up to this point had assigned him “Challenge” Tasks, and this one was no different – only with the extra one with the Tower Guardian.  While he hadn’t been in the Tower every second over the last 12 months or so, as he’d gone back to the Co-op to rest for nearly a day every month or so, as well as to restock his supply of food from the Meal Hall, he had been constantly fighting and killing monsters while he was inside. That, and he had been running at full tilt in between killing Floor Guardians – and it still took him this long to reach the top Floor. 

The first Floor had actually been the easiest Task up to that point, as all he’d had to do was look around for any area that even hinted at holding a Floor Guardian nearby, and he was able to finish off the required 200 in less than 2 days.  The hardest part, he’d found, was actually locating them, as sometimes when he thought he’d found where they should be, he’d had to backtrack and take another look to find a hidden passage in a mountainside, or was looking at the wrong section of a swamp that all seemed to look the same to him. 

After the first Floor, the Task requirements became more specific.  Instead of a flat 200 Floor Guardians, he had to locate and find a varied number of fewer Floor Guardians that fit a theme, such as ones that were aquatic in nature or were over 20 feet tall when standing up.  That made it harder to find his targets, and he ended up killing hundreds of other Guardians each Floor after searching for ones that fit the theme, meaning that he actually exceeded the first Floor’s quota significantly by the time he was done. 

However, because he killed so many monsters and Floor Guardians, his inventory was full of all sorts of weapons and armor, as well as materials, than he – unfortunately – couldn’t use.  Or he could, but he didn’t want to deliberately destroy them for no reason, as his own body had proved to be strong and durable enough to handle everything the Tower had thrown at him.  He figured that he would be able to trade the majority of them away once he got to a world after completing the Keepers’ Tower, and hopefully find something that he could use in return.

But now, after finding and destroying 50 “Demonic” Floor Guardians on Floor 50, which unlike the devil-like Vaneshta he’d met in the Co-op, were horrific and nightmarish amalgamations of flayed flesh, shadows, and too many claws and gaping mouths full of arm-sized teeth to count.  He killed them as quickly as possible by employing his usual method of simply punching them so hard that they exploded; they were so disturbing that he even thought twice about waiting until their bodies disappeared to get their loot – but ended up staying, as he didn’t want to leave anything behind.

As for the environment that he’d walked to once he reached Floor 50, it had been an enormous labyrinth constructed of white marble and gold, which he’d been making his way through for the last 2 weeks.  Fortunately, with how fast he could run and his perfect memory that was able to create a mental model of the passages he’d traveled through, he was able to find his way around it easily enough.  It also helped that, unlike the size of the other 49 Floors, Floor 50 was only about half the size of the state of Texas, or perhaps a little smaller; if he’d had to go through a continent-sized labyrinth, he thought that he would’ve been there for months, if not longer.

Now, though, he was standing in front of the one door that he’d encountered in his travels that he couldn’t open.  Until he finished his other Tasks, at least.  When he first saw the large, ornate golden doors and pushed on them, he’d gotten a notification that he didn’t have access to them until all previous Tasks were completed; with them finally done, all he had to do was enter the room and be done with the entire Tower.

Yet, he hesitated.  Not because he was scared of what he would face past the doorway, but due to a worry that, even though he thought he had done everything needed for him to progress past this point, he would walk up to the door and it still wouldn’t open.  If that happened…

…he wasn’t sure what he would do.  The loneliness of being the only one alive in the Co-op and in the Tower—as monsters didn’t count in his book—and with no one to talk to was starting to get to him.  It had only been a little over a year since he’d when forcefully taken away from Earth, and the only thing that kept pushing him forward had been the goal of completing the Keepers’ Tower.  With the culmination of that goal in front of him, he honestly wasn’t sure how he would react if he was suddenly denied achieving the last Task.  Just the thought of having to go back to the Co-op and wait for thousands of years made him mentally flinch at the possibility of such a thing being necessary.

“No use delaying it any longer,” he spoke out loud to himself, a habit that had become increasingly common over the last year.  “Just do it, already.”

Pushing off from the marble column, which he could hear crack a little from the force of his movement, he took deliberately slow steps toward the golden doors, taking his time until he stood just in front of them and within reach of his hands.  With a deep breath, he let it out and touched the warm, carved gold of the door.

You must complete all previous Tasks in order to proceed—

All previous Tasks are complete!

Access to the Tower Guardian is granted.

There was a click inside the doorway that indicated that it was now open for him, and he took another breath in relief as he pushed it forward.  It was an extremely heavy door, and required more strength than he expected for it to swing ahead of him, but it was nothing before his powerful body.  Nothing thus far had even come close to matching him as far as speed, strength, and durability, and he expected this final battle to be no different.

Once the door was open a few feet, Bax slipped through as it started to close again, allowing it to slam shut behind him.  He didn’t really care all that much, however, as his attention was on the environment ahead and around him, as it appeared to be an enormous throne room that reminded him of those period-piece movies about knights or the nobility from medieval times, complete with rich, vibrant hanging tapestries along the walls, elaborate golden candelabras with thousands of lit candles illuminating the room, and a wide, deep-purple carpet running from the entrance to the end of the room nearly a half-mile in the distance.

In short, this was not what he expected.  He hadn’t encountered anything like this so far in the Tower, nor did he read about something like this in any of the Tower books inside the Co-op Archive.  He knew that the Tower constantly changed so it wasn’t the same from cycle to cycle, but this was enough of a deviation for him to be slightly wary.

He became even more wary as his sharp vision saw what he thought was the Tower Guardian at the other end of the throne room, sitting on a throne, of all things.  It wasn’t a normal throne made of stone or wood, however, but one that appeared to be constructed of the bones of numerous types of creatures and even sapient people – and it was massive, at least 100 feet tall from the dais it was positioned on to the top, which was essentially a bunch of large leg bones with skulls piercing their sharp endpoints. 

Sitting on the throne was an odd figure, which for all intents and purposes looked like a knight in full matte black plate armor, covering it so completely that he couldn’t see whatever was beneath it.  It was odd, however, because it wasn’t quite humanoid in appearance; instead, it had no head on top of what he would normally classify as its shoulders, but instead had arms vertically surrounding its torso like the rays off a picture of a sun, each of them ending in a black blade that he estimated were 20 feet long. There were no hands holding these blades, as they seemed to simply be part of the arm itself, and they all pointed toward him as soon as he stepped in the room.  In addition, instead of a pair of legs, the Tower Guardian had 6 of them arranged in a circular formation, and while they were relatively stubby compared to its long arms, each of them were still taller than Bax’s entire body.

But the creepiest thing about the monster ahead of him was the single, 5-foot-wide, black and red-pupiled eye in the middle of its chest that was staring at him from such a distance away. 

Without even thinking about it, as such a thing became automatic over time, Identification went off.

Scythere the Hell-Warped Bladestronomicon (Tower Guardian -- Aberration)

Level: Unknown

Highest Stat: Unknown

Weaknesses: Unknown

Danger Assessment: Unknown

For the first time since he’d discovered it, his Information ability returned nothing to him.  Well, almost nothing; he got its long-winded name and a confirmation that it was what he was seeking to kill, but that was it.

Bax took a step forward onto the wide purple carpet, but as soon as he did, the Tower Guardian abruptly stood up from where it had been sitting on its throne.  Before he could take another step, Scythere was on the move, practically flying toward him as it moved its legs to cover the distance, moving faster than anything he’d ever encountered.  Somehow, it was almost as fast as he was when he was going all-out, so he knew that he had to take this fight seriously. 

Flinging himself to the right just as a half dozen blades crashed down where he’d been standing, he had to throw himself flat on the floor as a follow-up attack swept over where he’d landed.  Pushing himself off with enough strength to crack the marble underneath him, he narrowly avoided another swipe of a dark blade as he twisted in the air, but he was forced to kick off a second blade that looked like it could cut him in half if he allowed it to hit him.  While he had yet to be hurt by anything in the Tower, something told him that this Tower Guardian being an Aberration meant that it was actually dangerous to him.  Nothing he’d faced thus far had been over Level 120, and that was only on the current Floor; if he had to guess, at least based on how fast and strong Scythere seemed to be, then this final Guardian could be almost near his own Level.

It was a sobering thought.

But he wasn’t about to back down in the middle of a fight because it was actually fair; instead, he was more determined than ever to kill it and finally get away from the Co-op and the Keepers’ Tower.  Either he succeeded here and left, or he would fail and die; either prospect was preferable to retreating and being too scared to try again in the future, being forced to wait for thousands of years before help arrived.

Kicking off the blade slammed it into the ground with enough force to cut deeply into the marble flooring, and it took the Tower Guardian a half-second to withdraw it.  When the monster finally did, Bax could see that the blade had been cracked on the end, showing that it wasn’t made of an impossibly durable material.

Unfortunately, he was in no position to take advantage of when the blade was stuck, as he was still in the air moving away from the armored monster, but it gave him an idea.  The main danger that Scythere posed to him was the blades that seemed to have minds of their own.  As such, as the massive Guardian moved to intercept him before he could land, he started following their trajectory as they aimed to cut him in half, and twisted so that he was facing the assault squarely.  With his fists and his legs, Bax punched and kicked each blade that came close to him, using his high Intellect to predict where they would be and aim his defensive blows on the safer flat areas of each weapon.  With each blow, he could hear whatever material it was created from crack, and he knew he was getting somewhere.

Just as he was about to land, however, the Tower Guardian seemed to coordinate its previously haphazard attacks – which would’ve been devastating against a slower opponent – and attacked him all at once with 6 separate blades.  Panicking, he managed to hit 4 of them with precise blows, finally shattering one of them completely, twisted to avoid blade number 5 that swept past his right side, but was unable to do anything at all to the last weapon.

Pain shot through his chest as the massive black blade hit him from the left side, directly into his ribs underneath his arm.  The world flashed by as he went flying down the enormous throne room, all while it felt like his entire upper torso had been crushed.  A brief glance at his APPS showed that the one blow had taken nearly half of his Health away, and while his Health Regeneration would have him fixed up in a few minutes, he didn’t have that much time to wait. 

He hit the ground and rolled, which only seemed to aggravate the injury; it felt like he had nearly been cut in half, but when he looked down, he only saw a large cut on his side, which leaked blood profusely, but his ribs also looked like they had been crushed along the side as well.  It hurt to breathe, which he was fairly certain meant that something had pierced his lungs—likely a piece of his ribs—but he couldn’t worry about that now.

Rolling to his feet after coming to a stop was a painful experience, but he managed it just before the Tower Guardian arrived, attempting to finish him off.  He was somewhat pleased to see that, in addition to the blade he’d shattered with one of his fists, the one that hat actually hit him was gone as well; it appeared that simply hitting him was also a poor idea if it cared about the durability of its blades.

With only 4 blades left to try and slice him apart, Bax knew he had a chance.  Using his speed on the ground was much easier than trying to dodge everything in the air, so he used his maneuverability to avoid most of the attacks completely, while also striking out at one of them with his fist.  The blow was excruciating because it stretched his chest in a way that exacerbated his injury, but he pushed through it, knowing that he couldn’t succumb to the pain.  It was worth it, however, as he ended up shattering yet another blade in the process – which brought his bladed targets down to 3.

Seconds later, he’d destroyed yet another blade, and then a few seconds after that, there was only 1 remaining.  Instead of attacking with it, Scythere changed tactics and attempted to kick and stomp him into paste, but Bax used every bit of his Dexterity to dodge in between the enormous legs, wincing in agony as he kicked them in return. 

They were made of an even harder material than the blades.  His feet throbbed from the kicks he delivered, and he immediately knew that this wasn’t the way to take this thing down; instead, he turned his attention to the eye staring at him from its chest.  As he attempted to jump at it, he was nearly swatted out of the air by the last remaining blade, but it turned aside at the last second before he could punch and shatter it; it also moved away from him as it correctly guessed his intention, and he was forced to dodge or kick off numerous feet that attempted to smash him into the floor. 

Another few attempted to get close to Tower Guardian proved to be ineffective, as it was fast enough to move out of the way of any of his telegraphed attacks, and it was now on the defensive with only a single blade left to work with. 

“This isn’t working,” he mumbled to himself, even as he had to dodge yet another stomp by Scythere, aggravating his wound yet again.  A quick glance at his Health showed that he was actually taking more damage as he moved around, as the injury was severe enough that the actions he was taking to bend in different ways while also attempting to attack was making it worse.  At the current rate, even if all he did was avoid the attacks coming at him, he thought that he might just outpace his Health Regeneration completely.

It was time to change things up.

Thankfully, he was able to think quickly on his feet, so the next time a foot attempted to stomp on him, he flung himself to the right, where he landed among the pieces of a shattered blade from earlier.  As he flipped over them, doing a half-cartwheel of sorts – as he had trouble lifting his arms fully above his head because of the pure pain such a move brought with it – he grabbed a pair of blade shards on his way up.  Ignoring the edges cutting into his palms and his fingers, he immediately whipped both arms forward, launching the shards at the eye of the Tower Guardian with enough speed and strength for them to become a blur even to him.  Even so, he despaired for a moment when the Guardian’s blade intercepted the first shard, but it hit with enough momentum that both shattered.  Fortunately, the shattering process left the way open for the second shard to keep going.

There was a split-second when he thought he saw Scythere’s eye open wide in surprise, but it was too late for it to do anything about the projectile coming for it.  There must’ve been a transparent protective bubble or something around the eye, because when the shard hit it, both of the shard and the protective bubble seemed to detonate, sending fragments of both into the eye itself, shredding it in an explosion of black-colored gore that fountained out in a display worthy of Las Vegas.  Thankfully, Bax was able to move out of the way before being covered in it, but he was still able to see as the Tower Guardian collapsed as the strength in its legs gave way, before falling on its back.  A few seconds later, it stopped twitching and lay still.  Panting in relief, he didn’t actually believe it was dead until he got the notification.

You have killed Scythere the Hell-Warped Bladestronomicon (Tower Guardian -- Aberration)

– Level 999!

For this feat, you have received 1 Experience!

Huh?  That thing was only Level 999?  But how?

He answered his own question a second later as he thought about it, kneeling in his own blood that was finally slowing to a trickle as it flowed out of his body.  Monsters were naturally stronger than an equivalent person of the same Level; if it had been closer to his Level, then he likely would’ve been so far outmatched that he wouldn’t even have a chance.  What normally made the difference between people and monsters was that people could choose a Class, which closed the gap significantly, like a power multiplier that was hard to achieve with stats alone. 

In other words, despite the Tower Guardian being over 300 Levels beneath his own, he was lucky to be alive.  It had been stronger and more durable than him, and only luck had allowed him to survive the battle. It had almost been faster than him, and he could only shake his head at the thought that its Dexterity was probably one of its lowest physical stats.  If it had been even a little bit faster than it was, then he likely would have been cut apart or smashed into the floor at this point.

His musing was interrupted by another notification.

Congratulations!  You have managed to fulfill the requirements for the Keepers’ Tower Completion Task. Do you wish to continue any training as a Keeper before you are sent to your assigned world?

Smiling through the pain in his hands and side that thankfully started to fade as his body started to heal itself, he said, “No.”

Keeper’s Tower Completion Task is complete!

All Tasks complete!

Currently evaluating performance and assigning you to an appropriate—

Error! Current Keeper is also a Guide candidate; searching for a Party that has completed all Tasks so that they can shadow them until the end of cycle.

No Parties found! No Parties scheduled to complete Tasks within acceptable timeframe…

Teleporting current Keeper to their designating waiting area—

“Huh?  What does—?” Bax wasn’t able to finish his question as he felt his body being torn apart for a moment and his eyes closed involuntarily as he was momentarily blinded.  When he was able to open them again, he looked around to find himself sitting on the edge of a familiar bed inside of the Co-op.

Too shocked to do or say anything, he looked down to see the last of his outer wounds closing, though blood was still leaking out a little onto his relatively clean bedding.

Until a suitable Party can be found, Keeper Baxtonille will be held until one is available. 

Prepare for Stasis.

“Wait!  No--!”

That was all he was able to get out before something seemed to freeze around him and he collapsed backwards on his bed.  He couldn’t move anything as his body wouldn’t respond, despite him attempting to use every iota of his strength to do so.  Within seconds, even his mind started to become sluggish… before even that was seemingly frozen in time, unable to think or even notice the passage of time around him.