“Thanks, love,” I said and kissed her nose. “Make sure not to do anything stupid.”
I exited the safe zone and entered the large open area where the boss should have been waiting, but he was nowhere to be seen. No, something was off. A gigantic shadow lay on the ground around me, but no light came from—above?
I looked up and scrambled to lunge back as a massive blob dropped from overhead. It slammed into the ground and sent a shockwave in every direction, sending me back into the safe zone.
“The hell is that thing?” Melina screeched. “It looks like a damn pudding!”
“Pudding or not, that thing almost flattened me,” I hissed. “Time for payback!”
I ran back in, raised my halberd, and slammed it down against the living slush. To my surprise, the blade didn’t do any damage and even got stuck inside!
I didn’t waste any time and used Fortress. A single spot appeared where I could place the tower, so I did. A massive flame erupted from the fiery orb and struck the gelatinous blob. It released a high-pitched noise that shook the entire floor, and made right for the tower, but new flames kept pouring out of the orb and stopping the blob in its tracks as it melted and evaporated. Within half a minute, a good third of it was gone, and no matter how hard it fought to get close, the flames were just so violent and hot that it stood no chance. Sure, I’d seen what elemental weakness looked like with the spider, but this? This was something far worse.
Achievement Unlocked:
TOWER RAIDER – Clear the 50th tower floor
REWARD: Time allotted to stay in the Tower is doubled.
The reward wasn’t anything I was interested in. With a little luck, I’d only be doing this whenever people needed new floors to conquer. It was one of those things where one could say I was neglecting my duty, but fuck it. I didn’t care at all.
“Did you get any loot?” Melina asked from the safe zone.
“No, just an achievement that doubles my time in this place.”
“Sucks.”
“Tell me about it,” I muttered and walked back over to her.
“We are done here?”
“Unless you want to do anything else, yeah.”
“No. I think we should be tackling that second place as soon as we can and get your other tower operational. We’ll need it to kill the next target.”
I let out a sigh, already imagining how many people would be dying because of my choice of staying alive, but then again, they would die anyway once the Zanoxian could fight once more.
“I want to go back and have some time off. Just the two of us. You up for it?”
I nodded and gave her a warm smile. Some downtime and Melina beside me were the only things I needed. It would have been good if Scar and Lana could be with us, but it wasn’t meant to be. I still had no idea what it was all about other than that our bodies weren’t able to sustain their physical forms, which sounded like bullshit to me. I think it was just one of the things they did to make it harder for me.
We teleported to the first floor and walked over to the Operator. I wanted to make sure that we weren’t missing out on any new items. I opened my tower points as we walked over to the Operator to see how much I had managed to save up.
TOWER STATS
NAME: Viktor
Cleared Floor: 50
EARNED POINTS: 42,891
BOOTH OWNER: 1, 2, 3
“Ranker!” the alien creature said. “It has been a long time since you last visited!”
“Operator,” I replied and nodded by way of greeting. Melina leaned in on the counter and flashed the Frygan creature a big smile. “Do you have anything interesting in store after hitting the fiftieth floor?”
“Oh, do I have a treat for you!” An image flashed in front of my eyes, and I had a single option to choose from.
OPERATOR 1st Floor
NEW ITEMS AVAILABLE AFTER
UNLOCKING THE 50th FLOOR:
GACHA BOX OF CHOICE: 25,000 Points
(Allows the user to choose a random item
necessary to upgrade a skill or equipped item.)
My heart skipped a beat. I stopped and stared at the notification floating before my eyes. It wasn’t anything I would have thought of ever laying my eyes on, as it was basically a cheat, but there it was.
“Can you elaborate on the Gacha box of choice?”
“Certainly. What do you want to know?”
“What kind of items are inside?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. Maybe you could rephrase your question?”
“Then how about telling me if I could get a necessary item to create one of my towers that belong to the Fortress skill?”
“Certainly—wait, no. This is a box that gives you upgraders, not ingredients for creation.”
I gritted my teeth and then shook my head. There was no way that anything would come easy to me, so I shrugged it off and accepted the box nonetheless. I didn’t have anything else I could buy, as I’d already bought every stat upgrade scroll. It was one of the reasons why my stats were much higher than the last time I came here.
“Do you want to open the box right here?” the Operator asked. “I’ll make sure that everyone is notified after you open it. We’ll even give you grand fireworks!”
“Once I open it—”
“You have to use it. You can’t cancel the transaction.”
“No, then I don’t want to use it right away. I’ll use it once I’ve got all my towers created so I can upgrade one of them right away.”
“And what about an upgrader for your weapon? You get all necessary ingredients to upgrade a single item you have equipped, no matter what it is.”
Melina’s and my eyes met for a brief instant. I frowned and opened my mouth to speak, but I remained quiet. No, I wasn’t going to use this, not yet at least.
“I’ll stow it away for later.”
“But you can’t remove it from the tower, Ranker. I’ll have to charge you a storage fee.”
“Wait, what? Why can’t I store it in my subspace?”
“Because the item is too powerful to be taken out of here. When you decide to use it, you know where to find me.”
“And how much does it cost?”
“The fee is ten points per day.”
I let out a deep sigh that told him perfectly how I felt. He had me all worked up, thinking I would need to spend thousands of crystals, and then it was just ten points a day.
“Alright. You can deduct the amount for half a year.”
“Thank you, Ranker. I wish you a nice stay.”
The box disappeared from my hands and reappeared behind the Frygan, or more exactly, it appeared on a pedestal that also appeared out of nowhere. Awakened who were milling around and doing nothing or were shopping noticed the box first and started pointing at it.
“Oh, fuck. Let’s go,” I muttered just as the first person turned toward me. I grabbed Melina’s hand and pulled her toward our personal portal. I pushed through the throng of people and activated it. Seconds later, we appeared in the inn’s garden.
“Why are you so flustered?” Melina asked as she threw herself at me and interlocked her hands around my back. “You’re allowed to enjoy your fame, you know? Especially since you don’t abuse it.”
“Yeah, that’s a good one,” I muttered. “I don’t abuse it too much, you mean.”
She shrugged. “You’re right, you abused it, but only because it was necessary. See, sometimes difficult decisions need to be made. Especially when you have a bunch of idiots who want to use others for their own benefits.”
“Enough. Let’s think about something much more beautiful.”
“Oh? And what’s that?”
“You and me.”
I finally returned the hug and kissed her forehead. She was more beautiful with every passing day, and I couldn’t stand knowing that it would all end one day, one way or the other.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
“Do I have to?
”
“Yeah, I think you do,” she whispered. “Either here or in our room.”
I snorted and nodded. “You’re right, love. There’s something that’s been weighing on my mind for a while now, but only recently did it become unbearable.”
“Oh? What’s that? The Zanoxian?”
“No, not him. What if I win and I get an offer from the Gods to return home?”
Melina froze, and so did I.
“What will you tell them?” she replied barely audibly.
“Whatever I choose, you’ll be part of it. Do you think that’s acceptable?”
She nodded weakly. “As long as you—”
“Never. Don’t even think about that, alright? I’m never leaving you. Only death can separate us.”
She huddled her face up against my neck, and I felt a dampness form against my skin. She was crying. Shit, that hadn’t been my intention, but it was something we needed to address.
“Do you want to rest before we set out to gather the second orb?” she whispered through ragged intakes of breath.
“Yeah. I think we could use a nice bath and a good night of rest.”
“Promise? I want the afternoon just for us.”
I nodded. “Give me thirty minutes to check up on the others real quick, and so I can tell them not to bother us.”
“I’ll prepare the bath, then, first.”
I made my way to the military building. Several groups of soldiers milled about outside, but they weren’t doing much from what I could see.
“Where’s your superior?” I asked the nearest soldier.
“Sir? He’s inside. Colonel Herrion, I mean, sir.”
I nodded and put up my hand. I was sick of the sir this and sir that. I wasn’t in the army, so it bothered me to a degree. Not just because of that but because it made me feel… old—ish? Maybe. Whatever.
I walked inside and found Herrion standing next to a blackboard. He was writing something down that I didn’t bother reading.
“Herrion?”
“Oh, Viktor. Thanks for getting rid of those… annoying flies back in Sylmar.”
“It was nothing, don’t worry.”
“Alright, then what brings you here?”
“Just checking up on you. Seeing if you’re having trouble with the awakened. We got hundreds of people coming through every day, so I just wanted to hear your thoughts on it.”
“I don’t have much to say, Viktor. Everything is quite peaceful, and people are respectful. They follow orders, but no one’s really doing anything to bother them.”
“Keep it up, then. I’ll be unavailable for the next few days, and when I’m back, I need to prepare for the second attack. I’ll have to lure another rifter out so I can kill them.”
He nodded, and his expression turned sour. It wasn’t something he liked to hear. If I had to be honest, I wasn’t looking forward to it either.
“Keep an eye out, that’s all. Get some crystals from Mark and have your new batch of soldiers absorb them. I want them at rank four by the time I’m back.”
“What for?”
“So they can stand their ground, Herrion. You don’t want the hunters to be rank four or five and your soldiers at rank one or two. Who will listen to their orders?”
He let out a sigh and nodded. “You’re right. I’ll get to it, Viktor. Thanks.”
“Sure thing. Do you need anything else?”
He shook his head. “No, not right now. I’ll need some new gear, but we need to move further in if we want better gear, and as you said, we can’t do that yet.”
“I’ll gift you something when I’m back, alright?”
His eyebrows rose, and he nodded, then stood at attention and snapped me a salute.
Mark was busy working on his rifle. It had become a monstrosity over the last weeks, but I couldn’t hold it against him. A single shot could break the tyranitaur’s shield and cause decent damage to the beast’s health points. It was more of a passion project for him, but we were in no delusion that if something happened to me, he would have to step up and help. That was why I’d been investing heavily in him. He was about to hit the second realm, so there was that.
“More modifications?”
He nodded. “Hell yes! I came up with a way to reduce recoil so I can use it while running or walking.”
“Oh? How did you do that?”
“I built a shoulder mount. I use it whenever I go out, and it’s counted instead of shoulder armor.”
“Right,” I muttered. “You made things from scratch?”
He nodded. “I sure did, but it’s taken me weeks to make something barely stronger than bone armor rank stuff. And this is something only specialists like me can use. Not that you’ll ever need it.”
I let out a deep sigh and nodded. He was right, so there was no use in getting annoyed by not having invested money into it. What’s more, I barely did anything about my life skills or anything else that provided buffs. Sure, they were good buffs for when you were just starting out, but with my Health sitting at over five thousand, I didn’t need that fifty-point bonus.
“Help Herrion’s new group of soldiers. Get them some gear and crystals. I want them at rank four or five in a week’s time.”
“Are you staying out that long again?”
I shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. We need a day to get there by foot, and depending on how it goes, we might sleep a few nights. Maybe I get stuck or die. Who the hell knows?”
“Fuck, man, we don’t want those kinds of negative vibes, alright? Bring back the second tower so we can have a duel or something.”
I snorted and shook my head. “You’d probably die from a single one of my attacks. Don’t even try.”
“Pfft! I can—alright, I’ll let you go just this once,” he muttered. “When are you going out?”
“Tomorrow. I want to have some time off with Melina today. Bath, some food, sleeping, and stuff like that.”
“Stuff like that, huh?” He winked.
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever, man. Enjoy your—whatever you’re doing.”
Chapter Ten
“Are you sure you want to go and kill the pit boss again? It was pretty close last time,” Melina asked as we stood at the entrance to the deep cavern.
I had no idea if it had even respawned yet since big monsters needed longer than the small ones. Still, I needed a lot more ingredients to make a full armor set. At least one pit boss, two if I was unlucky.
“Yeah, I do,” I replied and took in a deep breath.
It was stuffy down there and reeked of poison fumes, so I needed one good breath of fresh air before I committed. I pulled the pit boss halberd from my subspace and grinned. It was time to have a rematch and give the bastard a chance to take my life. I stopped and rethought my strategy. I had a big-ass bow now, one that could deal some real damage to its shield, so I switched weapons and glanced over at Melina, winked, and made my way into the darkness.
Being the second time I was going down, I knew it was just a straight tunnel. I made good progress and stopped for a second when the brighter moss came into view. It was close by, but now that the fire orb was gone, the pit boss might as well be at the entrance.
Melina almost stumbled into me as she ran. I caught and steadied her.
“Why are you running?” I whispered. “That thing is just up ahead.”
“Spiders! A lot of them behind me!”
I cursed and shook my head.
“Run for the pit boss, and hope he’s still in his corner!” I snapped and pushed her along. I grabbed a single arrow and nocked it as I targeted the first incoming spider. It was big, it was ugly, and it was fast.
I activated Arrow Shower, and several ethereal arrows appeared to both sides from the one physical arrow, a rank three. The sound it made by clashing its bladelike feet against the stone ground almost made me let go, but I waited until the last moment and released. A literal arrow shower struck the first spider and several others that rushed i
n close behind. Their bodies disintegrated from the power behind the attack and struck even more behind them.
To my dismay, the damn things disappeared immediately. I had hoped to make a small barricade that would buy me half a minute or so, but they just kept coming. I turned around and bolted after Melina. She wasn’t nearly as fast as I was, so I caught up before she burst out of the tunnel and into the large cavernous area.
“Fortress!”
I selected a spot near the entrance and watched in amazement as bursts of flame shot from the orb and incinerated the spiders as they rushed one after the other, not even stopping for the flames. They died as soon as they entered, but that wasn’t my greatest concern, no, the pit boss was. To my surprise, it stood in the same corner it had the first time we came here. I pulled up its stats just to make sure we weren’t getting into something we couldn’t handle. They were the same as the first time. I grinned and nocked a single arrow but held it relatively loosely in my hands.
“Here,” Melina said, already anticipating what I was waiting for.
Her buffs washed over me one after the other, giving me so much more than I deserved. She was a good woman, a faithful and honest woman. The fact she’d turned out just like I needed her was… yeah, I had no doubts about it. Krajolik had played a role in that, I was sure.
“Thanks, love. Now let’s see what the pit boss has to say this time around when I hit it with my Shadow Hunter.”
I waited several seconds after the last spider died, just to make sure I wouldn’t be caught off guard, and took up a position far away from my tower, but close enough that the boss would be hit by the tower.
Damage Notification:
You have inflicted 23,481 damage to Pit Boss.
Flames washed over the spider as it skittered toward us, stumbling over its own legs. I was caught off guard by the damage, as it didn’t make any sense, but then again, maybe the bow was calculated differently than the halberd.
Shaking myself from my reverie, I nocked another arrow and placed it in one of its eyes.
Crossroads: A LitRPG Cultivation Series (Towers & Rifts Book 3) Page 8
