“How is that supposed to fix anything? And how am I supposed to do that?” Adrian sighs.

  “Crushing your own mind would surely count! Keep faith. Dying is not that difficult. You just let go of all resistance, let the blade deep into your heart, and wait for the sweet sweet release of death to come and claim you. If anything, I bet it would feel better than living. In the last moment before you are swallowed by the darkness, you’ll feel relief beyond this wor-” Adrian stops Ji-a from going on her tirade, as he asks.

  “And how am I supposed to crush my mind without dying myself?”

  “Booo. Are you sure you don’t wanna try dying?” Ji-a looks at him with her puppy eyes, as if more eager for his death than he himself.

  “No.”

  “It must suck to be as boring as you,” Ji-a snorts, before relying, “Well there are always artifacts sold in the bazaar that might help you do that. Something like this might be a little expensive and a lot harder to find, but spend a day or two at the bazaar, and you might find what you are looking for. Of course, if you have the funds, that is.”

  “But how could I or any form of magic artifact cursh someone’s mind? We can’t use mind magic, remember? No one can. The Tower forbids it.”

  “The mind is essentially connected to the brain, so should you deal immediate damage to the brain, their mind will instantly be crushed and then the person too, in a few minutes,” Ji-a replies.

  “Minutes?”

  “An Awakened Soul can keep living for a while even after complete destruction of their mind. Honestly, killing someone is really the ritual, except you must destroy their mind in a much more swift and oppressive manner.”

  Adrian digests the information for a while. Basically he has to completely overpower someone and kill them in a few seconds, or find something which can do it for him.

  “Hmm. Well I don’t have much funds except a few cores that I could sell. I might have to go hunting a few times tomorrow and find enough cores to get the artifact in one go,” Adrian plans, standing up from the ground.

  Every step he takes leads with a squelching noise. Wet socks over wet shoes, over wet floor.

  Ugh.

  He looks over at Ji-a, and she’s standing completely dry, smiling innocently.

  “Do you not get wet from water anymore or what?”

  “Of course not silly. It’s an ability,” She replies.

  “Can you dry me too?”

  “Only if you say please.”

  Adrian considers simply leaving away at that, but as soon as he takes a few more steps, he realises that he’s in hell either way. At least be in hell with dry socks and clothes.

  “...please can you dry my clothes?” He asks as nicely as he can.

  “Of course I will! You don’t have to plead like this. Jeez,” She says, moving closer to him. Her hand touches his chest, and then power runs through her arms. Maybe it was the increasing Mind stat, but he definitely felt the precursor to the ability.

  Can I feel it from a distance at higher levels?

  He doesn’t get to think much about it because suddenly a vacuum tugs at all the water in his clothes, and in an instant, his clothes are left drier than they have ever since they entered this godforsaken humid floor.

  Dry socks too. The comfort in small things.

  “Let’s go back for now.” Adrian says, tip-toeing away from the wet ground. Ji-a nods, and they instantly head back. Fortunately, nothing comes to hunt them in the dead of the night, and they don’t go to disturb something.

  Reaching the border of the clearing, they split up, going their separate ways. Adrian quickly and stealthily enters their room by creeping through the window. He dissipates the clone, and falls asleep, the tiredness from the nightly excursion catching up to him.

  #

  The next day, Adrian is unfortunately woken up by Leah early in the morning. He delays her as much as he can, but is eventually finally yanked out of his bed by a hulking Matthew. Then he proceeds to yank Buren as well.

  Under Leah’s glares, they both go to wash up, and head down to have breakfast together.

  My luck that others are already done. Adrian sighs and orders some bacon and eggs with sweet bread, along with a bottle of cold water.

  They sit together in awkward silence while the food arrives.

  Adrian is playing with partial summoning of his avatars, summoning them through his hand, but only a hand. It doesn’t take much mana, only a single point, so he continues the experiments.

  The sight of another hand, or an ear, or a head, emerging out of his hand all of a sudden is a creepy sight to behold, but Adrian ponders on how he could make it useful in the future.

  “Can you stop that already? It’s weird,” Buren complains.

  “I’m learning to use my powers. That’s not a sin,” Adrian shrugs.

  “Yes but killing my appetite has to be one.”

  “You should use your powers more, you know. You’ll only learn more and more interesting things about them the more you use them,” Adrian says.

  “Oh I’ve been using them plenty, my friend. How many channels do you think I have in this room? How many do you think,” His voice comes to steeping low, as he stretches to whisper in Adrian's ear, “How many do you think I had last night in our room?”

  Adrian looks at the guy in a new light. He had imagined that if anyone were to catch him, then he’d have the least chance. But perhaps he has underestimated their scout.

  “I am not gonna rat you here,” His voice goes back to his normal cadence, as he sits straight at his seat, “I honestly don’t care about what you do at night. You can be visiting every brothel here, and I still wouldn’t give a shit about it. All I want to know is that you’re not selling our team away just because you don’t like us.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “I don’t hate you guys, Buren. And I’m not selling you out to anyone. If I did, it’ll be very apparent, and the clan will remove me instantly, if they don’t kill me already,”

  “Is death the only reason you are not selling us, or that we used to be friends?” Buren asks with a raised eye. Fortunately for Adrian, the food decides to come at that instant. The next few minutes are spent eating in strained peace.

  As Adrian is about to leave the table after eating, Buren says, “What happened to Martin was bad, but you know how things are. You can’t hold us for it, you know. We won’t understand what you wanna say if you don't say anything,”

  Anger surges within Adrian, and he is about to yell, and tell how he feels about it all, and shake the guy until he can puke everything he ate. But then he controls himself. Pushes down the anger and all the hate to a place unknown.

  Buren might not be as loyal as Matthew, or Leah, but he’s still a chatterbox. Adrian could never trust him, and he doesn’t want to.

  He turns around and walks away.

  After breakfast, they all gather in their room and discuss plans for this floor, which boils down to a few points.

  First, that they’ll be staying here for a while, hunting and using the money to buy better equipment, and artifacts which suits their build.

  Second, they’ll reach at least level 25 before even thinking about leaving the floor. Adrian is already almost halfway there, so he’s quite happy with his progress.

  I was quite lucky last night. I could’ve stumbled upon something truly dangerous by mistake, or ignorance. I need to level up quickly, and upgrade my abilities to feel more secure.

  And lastly, they’ll look more into the Tower Quest, and if it’s something within their level, then they’ll take part in it. Matthew was very vocal about this point, but Leah kept his temper under control.

  Then they hunt for the rest of the day, sticking close and only going after opponents they believe they could defeat. Adrian meets an aggropelter which pelts them with stones and tree branches from a distance, its aim unnaturally good.

  Adrian and Matthew team up together to block its attacks–mostly it was Matthew–and finally a few of his avatars send it tumbling down the tree where they kill it together.

  They also find a few mindless hunters–they are crazy demon-like beings who pounce at anyone they see with no restraint. They are fast and always move in a herd–which Adrian helps ambush with his avatars, and then are finished by Leah’s crazy mode.

  Adrian takes a mindless hunter’s core and wonders what would happen if he used it with the greed core from the malora.

  “Upgrade detected for Avatar:

  “Your avatars can revive up to one time as long as they are fighting someone. The upgrade strips them of their emotions and consciousness, and can no longer be communicated with. Your greed moves them towards anything you want in a wild rush.

  “Ritual for the upgrade:

  “Use your avatars to defeat 50 living creatures at once.”

  The ritual is certainly easier than dying, and won’t leave him with trauma for a long time, and the revival option during a fight is also pretty good, but it also robs him of one of the greatest uses of his avatars.

  Their coordination. He has been wanting to use them as more than just avatars he can use to do small things and to fight. No, he has much bigger plans. Many lives condensed into one. For that, his current recipe is perfect.

  That evening he spends a long time going through the bazaar searching for the artifact he needs. He talks to a lot of store owners, and comes to the conclusion that he’d have to commission one if he wants that specific artifact.

  Adrian talks to Michael and the others about it that night as they sit watching the beautiful night sky, when Finneas pipes up about how his brother knows a creator on the second floor, and he told Finneas about him, should any need arise.

  Finneas agrees to take him with him tomorrow morning.

  The next day, Adrian quickly leaves the inn after greeting the rest of his team, and meets up with Finneas at their inn.

  The creator that he knows is willing to make the item for him, and can be done as soon as today if Adrian is willing to pay a small premium. He is willing, very much so. Everyday that he goes to bed ignorant about what is happening around him feels like a noose slowly tightening around his neck.

  He needs this upgrade to send his avatars to shit he doesn’t wanna do. To be able to take more risks without dying because of it.

  The day proceeds in a lot of anxiety and restlessness, but eventually night arrives. Adrian makes sure to hunt as many as he can to earn as much as he could. He has been a little short of the price the creator asked, but by night, he believes that he has an equivalent amount in cores.

  Finally as the day stretches into a night, he farewells his party and goes to find the creator.

  “I did make what you wanted, but due to security concerns I can only make it a one-time-use item. You must understand that even if you are vouched for by Finneas, I can’t hand something like this to anyone without feeling a sting in my conscience,” The creator says. He’s a big man with huge arms, but a calm demeanour.

  Adrian frowns as he looks at the item in his hands. It looks like a spider with eight sharp legs spread around its main body. There are runes etched over it, but they are hidden in ways that he cannot understand them. Perhaps a way for Creators to not get their wares copied by competitors.

  A card comes with the artifact, explaining its characteristics.

  Mind Crasher.

  (One-time-use item)

  50 mana charge.

  Embed it in a skull to completely crush the brain and mind along with it. It can only be used once and it takes 5 minutes for the artifact to function, so use it properly. Don’t put it on your dick.

  This is precisely what he needed, although the restrictions are very tight. And the joke very bad.

  “Was there a need for the last part? Do I look like someone who will do that?” Adrian asks, displeased.

  “What do I know kid? I’ve seen far too many crazies in my time who will put anything up there. I can only warn you,” The creator shrugs.

  Adrian sighs. “At least I’ll get a discount due to the one-time part, right?”

  “Of course!”

  Adrian still has to part ways with a lot of his cores, but everything is worth it as long as he can complete the ritual and upgrade the ability.

  By the time Adrian leaves the store, the night has fully descended upon the floor, the stars twinkling in the sky brighter than ever. Instead of heading back to his inn, Adrian climbs the tree and finds the tallest place that he could to enjoy the scene for a while.

  There are also a few more people seated a little distant from him. Among them, Adrian finds a familiar face so he goes to sit by her.

  “You found it!?” Ji-a asks as she looks at the spider-like artifact in his hands.

  “Yes. Now I just need to find someone I hate enough to use this on, and then drive it into their head. It should be easy, right?”

  “Who cares about that bullshit, just sit back and enjoy the stars,” Her voice slurs a little, her body swaying. Adrian suddenly notices the smell coming from her.

  “Are you drunk?”

  “You should be too! Today is a good day!” Then she brings out some more bottles and pushes them towards him. Adrian considers rejecting but then realises that since he’d be sleeping after this anyway, some couldn’t hurt. Today is indeed a good day after all.

  Still he creates a few avatars just in case to guard them, takes the bottle from Ji-a, and lets the hot bitter drink pass through his throat. Conversations flow from there, as does the alcohol. Adrian slowly starts to free up more and more. The wall which seems to be between him and the world slowly crumbles, and for the first time in a long time he truly feels like he belongs somewhere.

  Then Adrian looks at the stars in the sky. They don’t have these outside, and he has been getting more and more obsessed with them as time passes by.

  His vision moves and blurs, the alcohol taking over him. The stars too blur, but then something else happens. They blink out.

  Adrian blinks his eyes a few times, rubbing them with a free hand, and looks up again. Few more stars blink out. He stands up carefully, stumbling a bit, but his avatars keep him standing. Beside him Ji-a too stands up.

  More and more stars blink out. Their rate seems to be increasing. Around him panic is starting to settle in, and he can’t understand what is happening.

  The stars seem to be going out faster and faster, and in just a few moments, all the stars are gone from the night sky, leaving a dark sky behind.

  The next moment, chaos breaks out.

  #