The 83rd floor was jungle-themed.
With killer monkeys, murderous parrots, fatass hippos, and a downright atrocious climate, it was a wonder how I managed to even get myself to enter.
The humidity and aromas were just too much. It was probably a mana-induced part of the dungeon as it made breathing difficult.
"Why is there so much mud?"
I suppose Darv didn't get too much mud as Mica and Olfred's gaits increased in stride, doing their best to avoid stepping in the mud.
Still, I couldn't say it was a jungle.
Jungles didn't exist in Dicathen, so it would be tough having to explain what it was and why I knew of it. Jungles were records included about the past Earth when they still had real trees, not the artificial stuff but real trees.
Anyways, building off my experience in traversing the forest during rainy days, I walked through the jungle with little to no trouble. Varay summoned ice shards or flowers of ice to tear through mana beasts.
We decided it would be fun if we each tried to solo clear a floor on our own.
Each floor's difficulty was equivalent to that of an AA or S rank dungeon, so it made for a challenge.
First up was Varay, and, as she was the closest to reaching the white core, she swept through the dungeon with ease, dominating anything with her ice magic.
It was an incredible display of power. Her ice was different from the ice magic I had seen before from human mages. It held an iridescent quality to it like it was a sparkling gem filled with all the colors of the perceivable spectrum.
In under 2 hours, she managed to clear the entire floor with nothing but ice.
All that remained now was the boss.
"...Do you need help?"
Alea had a concerned face.
The grippo, a gorilla with a hippo's head, wasn't that big, but its more compact size made it that much more of a threat.
Looking to be about twice the size of a typical hippo, it being so small gave it greater speed.
"No."
Still, the mage seemed confident.
Nodding, Alea backed off.
Varay stared at the dungeon boss, its eerie black eyes staring into her grey ones. Then, like an invisible
The grippo made the first move.
Dashing forward at a terrifying speed, it opened its jaws, revealing multiple sets of serrated teeth.
Varay fired a frost ray, freezing the inside of the grippo's mouth. However, the beast effortlessly broke through it by simply closing its mouth.
Reaching the end of its charge, it closed its mouth down on Varay, who remained unmoving.
—!?
However, rather than biting down on human flesh, the grippo's eyes widened when it found itself flung into the air.
A pillar of ice had shot it into the air.
"...Huuu."
Watching the grippo get back up, seemingly unfazed, Varay sighed, white whisps of air escaping from the sides of her mouth.
Then, like a scene out of a science fiction movie, starting at her feet, ice began to rise. It covered her body and became a suit of armor, a cape of water cascading down from her back.
Whipping her arm to the side, a sword of ice appeared immediately.
All in all, the armor looked like stalhrim, the mythical enchanted ice.
"...Verglas Armament."
"?"
"That's the name of the spell."
I nodded and stared in awe of the beautiful armor.
Perhaps... I could do something similar.
I took out a little notepad and jot down the idea before returning my attention to the fight.
After summoning Verglas Armament, it became a physical fight.
She swung her sword and would watch it shatter before summoning a different weapon. I watched with sparkling eyes as I observed her seamless transitions between weapons. What combinations were optimal, and how balance and potential energy could be optimized.
After about 8 minutes of continual battle, Varay claimed victory after summoning and throwing an icy spear into the back of the grippo.
**
Floor 84th was claimed by Alea before anyone could say a word.
It suited her.
With the floor filled primarily with earth golems, the plants she conjured were more than enough to weasel their way into the cracks of the rocks and tear them apart. For the ones she couldn't kill this way, she used the sword she conjured to dismember them.
"So..."
"?"
Olfred walked up to me.
"I heard you were raised by Ms. Alea?"
"Er... yeah, I was raised by..."
I raised my voice so Alea could hear it.
"Ms. Alea!"
"Pft."
Aya stifled a chuckle, and Alea tripped.
"Anyways, yeah. I'm her adopted little brother."
That was the official explanation. The circumstances of my birth were considered classified because of the possible ramifications of a human living and giving birth on elvish territory so, it was covered up saying a human child was found abandoned in the forest.
As there wasn't any way for someone to refute the report, that was what was regarded as fact.
Still, a few people, such as Virion and Alduin, knew of the truth.
"I was found in the forest after being abandoned."
"I see..."
"...?"
Olfred seemed to fall into thought, and seeing how deeply he was pondering, I wondered what was going through his mind.
Well, that's not any of my concern.
*
Alea quickly slaughtered the boss by running and planting various seeds into the earth golem.
She then conjured the seeds to grow immediately, causing them to sprout into massive trees, trees like the ones in Elenoir.
She won so easily as a matter of suitability.
**
The 85th floor was covered by Bairon.
It was a simple cave system mostly occupied by wardens.
Bairon easily blasted his way through, and I got to see some extremely impressive spearmanship.
I discreetly took a few notes on form and movement for later study.
I mean, it couldn't hurt to try.
He defeated the boss in a long battle lasting 15-20 minutes. Lightning shattering and destroying anything and everything.
It was a useless waste of energy, but a different person would've respected him for his assertion of male dominance.
**
The 86th floor was flooded with magma by Olfred.
The volcanic-themed floor was practically a playground for the mage.
Using magma to incinerate or to pull apart any mana beasts, the boss was also highly suited to the old dwarf.
The magma salamander had a sac of magma inside it which is used to attack. However, Olfred could control this as it wasn't magically generated magma, but magma that it drank.
So, Olfred used it, with considerable effort, to tear apart the mana beast from the inside.
**
Floor 87 was cleared by Mica.
Populated by various flying insects, Mica could easily use gravity magic to pin the lightweight monsters down.
Lightweight subjectively, of course.
"...Ew."
She said after smashing in the boss's skull.
"Good work."
I threw a towel.
After the 82nd floor, I realized that there was an overabundance of towels in my bag.
As to how this occurred, I could only send suspicious glances at Alea and Aya. Still, they turned out to be useful with cleaning off the blood and guts of the monsters.
"...How do you have this many towels?"
"That's what I wanna know."
Mica gave me an inquisitive glance.
"Mica thinks you're young."
"...Well, yeah."
I shrugged.
Not exactly much to deny there. I'm literally 10 years old.
"Too young."
"...?"
"Why are you working like this? If Mica could do what she wanted, she wouldn't be here."
"Ah..."
Well, she had a point.
"Same reason as you."
I smiled.
"It's work."
**
The 88th floor was conquered by Aya.
Easily assassinating the bumbling tyrant grizzlies with all kinds of tricks, the floor was cleared with a sub 1 hour.
The boss died before it even saw what was coming.
"Let's take a break."
After the floor was clear, we decided to take a break.
We've been continuously for 7-8 hours now.
"...Oh right, shouldn't there be loot? Like artifacts?"
I looked over to Bairon, who happened to have a lot of answers to my questions.
"No. The Tower is rumored to take any and all treasures or artifacts from any floors down to a final treasury at the bottom of the Tower. If that's actually true, no one knows. All we know is that there's never been any record of artifacts."
"Oh."
Spreading out a sleeping bag, I decided to sleep. For real, this time since I was next up for clearing the floor.
"Asher?"
I turned over.
"What?"
It was Alea.
"...Are you okay?"
"? Oh, right, yeah. I'm fine. Just tired."
That was a good question.
I mean, a 10-year-old, no matter how much of a "talent" he was, was still just 10 years old. It was concerning seeing him trek endlessly for 6 hours through multiple extreme climates and then lie down. Out of context, it sounded like I was gonna go kick the bucket.
Still, my endlessly refilling vat of mana wasn't something to laugh at.
"Good night... or day..."
Muttering, I tried to fall asleep but that sweet state of consciousness didn't come.
I silently sighed.
"...Is he asleep?"
"...?"
I then heard someone's voice.
"Probably."
Alea.
"...Is it really alright for a child like him to be doing stuff like this?"
...Varay?
"Probably not. At his age, he should be hanging out with friends and drinking."
Olfred.
"Drinking? He's 10. Even I didn't drink until I was 15."
Bairon.
"Mica drank for the first time at 13."
Mica, go figure.
"I drank for the first time when I was 7."
Aya, which made sense considering where she came from.
"...You all started so early. But yeah, he should be out having fun, but he's doing this thing. I don't know why he wants to do it but..."
Okay, correction Alea, I don't want to do this.
I work cause it's my job now.
"...He does what he loves, and that's enough for me."
...
"Aww, come here." (Aya)
"Ew, no."
I stopped listening after that. I began thinking instead.
Was what I was doing... what I loved?
I stared at the grassy ground.
Fighting was fun, and I absolutely relished the feeling of it, but that was it. Just because someone loves the feeling of being drunk doesn't mean that they love the alcohol (I mean, it gives liver cancer and junk).
I started this whole thing for the sake of Grey, and in the end, this thing didn't give us anything but bitter feelings.
I mean, heck, I died because of it.
...But...
A different thought came up.
...At the same time...
I suddenly felt sleep come after me, like a hound that had finally caught up to me.
...I couldn't imagine my life without it...
Sleep was almost upon me, and I managed to eck out one last thought.
...And it's made me who I am.
**
"...sher!'
Huh?
"...Up! Asher!"
I shot my eyes open.
"W-whuh—!?"
I was going to ask what was going on, but I couldn't.
My vocal cords refused to be strung.
My eyes were serenaded by the perhaps the most sublime display in the history of Dicathen was happening before me.
The space in front of me was warping. The remaining floors changing into triangular shapes, slowly but powerfully floating into the air.
"W-what!?"
I turned to see Mica suddenly floating into the air.
"What in the—!"
All the mages began floating, and then, with the sound of something popping, they disappeared into thin air.
"..."
I blinked, trying to process everything I just saw, but the sound of things setting into place caused my attention to turn.
I turned to look at nature's marvel before me.
"...Wow."
Eventually, a small exclamation escaped my lips.
However, I quickly snapped out of my daze and began observing my new surroundings.
Despite being in a cave, the area was brightly lit by enormous clusters of magic crystals occupying the cavern walls.
Occupying the shaft was a massive piece of pizza-shaped modern art, each slice containing a different biome: some being dense forest and others being swampland, and they were all floating. Evenly placed in a circular pattern but floating at varying altitudes.
Everything, however, was what one would consider "extreme."
For example, the mountainous slice was filled with what would be closer to cliffs and plateaus with gargoyles and cliff skimmers.
Upon further observation, each slice's altitude was the same as it would've been if it were still a normal tower.
"So that means..."
The entirety of the bottom floor was water and counting; that would be the 100th floor of the Tower.
"...An ocean theme."
I then looked around my own surroundings.
"...Oh."
It was... beautiful.
A lush, emerald expanse that could compete with the Elshire Forest.
Except, the trees were much closer together, and it was dark inside.
"...!"
Immediately, Instinct screamed at me, and I activated Materialization and jumped as high as possible.
Mysteriously, the trees seemed to get taller with me.
"...Oh, my lord, is that supposed to be a spider?"
Below me was a wholly fantasized, massive spider the size of a car.
"Fall!"
Still, I was a step ahead.
A stake fell from the sky and skewered the mana beast.
I silently landed on the tree branch and popped a bottle, activating Absolute Concealment. I needed time to organize my head.
The rest of the mages were gone.
The most likely answer was that they were teleported.
Though improbable, what was happening was already impossible, so I was willing to bet that they had teleported.
Where I had no idea, but if I had to guess, they were probably on the other slices. I was on the top-most slice, so I needed to scale down to the—
I stopped.
Who said anything about scaling?
I smirked, a plan etching itself into my brain as motes of mana began rising from me.
Step 1...
I stared at the dark forest.
...Blow this place to bits.
—KRABOOOOOMM
A/N: Finally, the exposition is over and the plot advances.
Thanks for reading!
Rua