It's been a week and a half now since the start of Mateo's leveling grind. Now, he's facing another orc who rushing towards him, its tusks pointed and eager to impale its target but the sight doesn't scare Mateo and remains steadfast on his position.
The orc sprints towards Mateo and with a full intent, shifts his head upward to make its curved tusk swing and hook Mateo. Yet the attempt is futile as Mateo dodge the tusks and stand between the two ivory spikes which he hold with full stop.
"HYAAAAAA!!"
The two have a contests of strenght. The ork conitinues to push and even attempted to lift Mateo but Mateo's core remains strong as he match the Orc's strenght.
Until Mateo feels the rush of strenght the orc use is now slowly waning off. Without hesistation, he turned the tides and instead lifted the orc on its tusks to the monster's disbelief.
With a scream, Mateo swings the orc and throw the monster to a nearby tree. Its back hit the trunk badly and the orc is clearly injured.
The orc wobbly stands up and face Mateo. Mateo respond to the hostility by wielding his blade.
"Leveling really increases my strenght huh? Amazing."
The orc gallops and make a ground slam with its fist but Mateo shows great footwork dodging the powerful blows of the agitated beast.
The orc makes a horizontal arm swing aimed to bash Mateo's head yet Mateo just duck under the ork and prepared his sword.
A flurry of slashes unleashed around Mateo, cutting the Orc sever times. The orc flinches due to the sudden attack and steps back.
Yet Mateo follows and stab his sword directly into the orc's chest.
Mateo makes a twisting motion on his hand as he hold his blade still embedded to the beast, flipping it aggresively. The monster is now spinning in the air rapidly and landed to the ground with a nasty thud.
An absurd new ability of Mateo that can cause extreme disorientstion to an enemy. Mateo himself can't understand how such bizzare skill even work but his assumption is Mana is definately involved.
Once the blade is embedded to an enemy, Mateo can just twist his blade and it can cause an enemy to recieve a force that makes the target spin.
The orc clearly disoriented and damaged to the barrage of attacks can't even stand up at all and Mateo finish the hunt with a decapitation.
Mateo stares on the beheaded orc before doing his routine.
"Status!"
The familiar windows appeared in front of Mateo and he see the Decimate and Corkscrew skill in cooldown.
"The skills also have cooldowns? I glad I realized this mechanic early." Mateo have a sigh of relief as he can imagined a doom scenario where he tries to cast a skill only for it to fail which lead to a sudden death.
But Mateo also feel annoyance.
"You made a an incomplete and absurd system Revto." Mateo mumbled.
Mateo then focus his attention to the info screen and squint. He feel disatisfaction as the ork kill only increased his EXP by 2%
Mateo close her windows and look at the surroundings. He feel a eerie silence on the swamps as his gaze span to the damp place.
The rate of the orcs sightings are also getting fewer for each day despite Gardus Swamp is a safehaven for the orcs. Yet he notices something bizzare as his hunt continues day by day.
Everytime they left an dead orc, the next day. The corpse is gone. Mateo estimated that he already killed a 100+ orcs yet he didn't spotted any pieces of their remains.
At first he assumed that scavenger monsters just do what nature intended but such assumptions are still in doubt as the complete banishment of dead orc is an anomaly, alongside the fewer and fewer monster appearance deep in the Gardus Swamp.
Mateo stares on one of the trees. He notices that unsual tilt the tree have.
"Mateo what's wrong? You seem very serious?" Sophia's question as she walk behind Mateo.
"Do you notice something unusual Sophia?"
Sophia thinks for a while, trying to remember anything.
"Hmmm... Nothing noteworthy."
Mateo ponders further. He now feels unease after noticing the details. Following his instincts, Mateo reaches a conclusion.
"My EXP gain here is slowed down so much. Perhaps it's time to change location."
"Finally. A change of place. Staying on this muddy swamp for a long time is starting to wear me down." Sophia is delighted knowing that she never risking getting stained by mud again.
Mateo sheaths his sword and starts to walk away which Sophia follow behind.
"Where we should go next?" -Sophia.
"I want to go on a place with lot of diversity of monsters. So I can stay and get EXP longer."
"Hmmm... A place that can fit that critaria is Savagery Forest Mateo."
"It's too early for that."
"How about dungeons? Reverse Tower is like a perfect place for you to begin with."
"Hmmm... Reverse Tower huh?"
Mateo sees the Reverse Tower a good place. But Mateo shakes his head.
"Reverse Tower is not a choice as the surface layers are always filled with adventurers that monster count there are always lower. Also, I'm still too weak for the Gold Rank Layers and... I kinda feel tired always going to Reverse Tower when I just visited it weeks ago."
"Fair enough. How about the other dungeons?"
"Same reason. It's always filled with Adventurers and I don't want to compremise their quests just for me to Level up."
"Very considerate of you." Sophia smile.
"Our options now is Humilean Desert to the East and the Dragons Crown Alps to further North West. Once we choose a place, we going to spend the rest of our days staying there.",
"Can we choose the alps?"
"Why Sophia?"
"I always hate staying on sand for a very long time. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere inside my clothes." Sophia's irritated words.
Mateo scoffs and almost chuckle but he fights the urge.
"What's funny Mateo?"
"N-Nothing. Well then, lets return home and prepare for our expedition. Maybe we should also bring stuff from Earth."
"Ohh! Ohhh! What do you have in mind?"
"So many really. Stuff that can make our stay there more comfortable."
Mateo and Sophia safely leaves the Gardus Swamp. From the place where they left behind the dead orc, the ground moves and deforms as a patch of mud is seen moving in great speed. The trees caught on its movement got tilted as the soil holding their roots got disturbed forever.
The moving mud patch reach the dead orc and what happened next can be either describe as a natural phenomana as the carcass slowly sinks to the mud pit who now also act as a quicksand or a beast scavenging a free food.
After the dead orc submerged into the depths, the mud pit moves again, leaving the place muddy and murky on its path.
~~~~~~°~~~~~~
REVERSE TOWER - LAYER 5
"Yaaaaawnnn!!!"
The gate costodian that guarding the entrance for Layer 6 stretches his body. It's another uneventful day for him as there's no people enter the lower layers again after the failed expedition.
He's bored and in the rut as he only staring on the dark stone hallway with no significant thing that can amuse him even a bit.
"What a calm day." He thought.
He picked a jar of dried grapes and start to delicately munch on them.
"Sour..."
He complain but still glad as it's still a stimulation for a very boring work he have.
As the guard enjoys his sour treats. His dark room suddenly got illuminated by an unknown light source.
"W-What?!"
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
He look below and under him is a magic circle which shine even brighter until the light engulfs the place with a flash.
As a fast the light spreads, it also as squick to disappear. With a blink of an eye, the hallway is dark again but the guard is nowhere to be seen.
.
.
.
The guard slowly opened his eyes only to see a familiar place. The row of makeshift stalls scattered everywhere selling essentials for adventureres are visible and the sun shines bright which he can clearly feel its heat.
The guard knows that he's now outside of the Reverse Tower.
"B-But how?" He mumbled in confusion.
He look around and see more people around him. They're adventurers in equally bewildered state as him.
"But I still didn't get my loot!"
"W-What happened?!"
"There's a magic circle below me and suddenly, we're outside." One of the mages reported.
"Fuck! My equipment!" A naked and wet adventurer shouted in anger. Not giving a damn that he's naked.
A small and floating magic circle appear in fron of the naked adventurer and from it, an assorment of clothes, armor, a sword and BoS fall downs to the ground. The magic circle then banish
"Huh? Wait... Fuck!" The naked adventurer hastely picks his clothes and wear some pieces as fast as possible.
The adventurers continues to questions reality while the guard is staring on the Reverse Tower.
It's now inside a transparent blue barrier. Blocking anything from the outside to enter.
The guard only have one thing to do. He sprint towards the guard station outside of the tower.
"Hey what happened there?!" The station guard asked.
"I have no idea. Right now, just prepare the messenger falcons. Send the guild and the kingdom a message. State that this is an emergency."
The station guard agrees and starts writing reports on the papers while the other picks the large messenger falcons on their cages. After putting the messeges to the falcon's bag, the huge birds takes flight with a zoom as the guards watch with worry.
.
.
.
A day later.
"I see... This is really concerning." Hilgurd commented before puffing on his cigar.
Hilgurd, Kiana and Gilmore are standing just outside of the reverse tower, meters away from the blue barrier.
"After those monsters, now this. What Reverse Tower truly is?" Kiana squint her eyes.
Behind them are just few of their trusted companions. Just joining them for support.
"Stand back everyone. I will try to attack it and see if it can be damaged." Hilgurd's warning.
"Are you sure about that Sir Hilgurd?" Kiana question the decision as dealing with unknown variable after everything that happened inside the tower is concerning.
"It's better to test that so we can think of a proper counter-measure." Hilgurd's confirmation.
He opened his BoS which is just a leather pouch tied to his belt. On the pouch, Hilgurd pulls his weapon.
The long handle appears, then a decorated silver guard and finally. A broad, long and thick blade follows on the rest.
With a cool effortless swing, Hilgurd place his greatsword on his shoulder. A thick and heavy slab of metal but he carrying it like it's just a mere stick.
"Just be prepared on whatever happen next." Hilgurd's proposal.
"Ok." Gilmore respond as he pull his sword with his single remaining arm. Kiana just also follow and pull out some daggers from her coat.
Hilgurd go on his combat posture and with a brutal downward swing containing all of his strenght and weight of the sword, he slams his weapon directly to the barrier which make a loud clang sound.
Particles of the magic barrier splashes once the blade hits it yet there's no visible damage on the magival shield.
"Hmmm?"
Hilgurd is amused. He amped up his assault by increasing his power using mana boost then proceeds to give continues strike on a single point of the barrier. Magic particles rains down and dissipates for each brutal strike Hilgurd made.
After the barrage. Hilgurd halt and observe the barrier. He stab his greatsword to the ground and take a puff on his cigar.
"It's tough but I think it's safe."
"A barrier not only wistanding but also recieving no damage from Hilgurd is a feat." Gilmore's opinion.
Kiana walks closer to the barrier and touch it with his hand after seeing it only tanking the attacks.
"This barrier is like created with sole intention of complete defense. What's more concerning is I can't compare it to any defensive magic I known. This one have a completely different magic composition." Kiana's opinion while observing the magic.
"I feel like the Reverse Tower is alive after all of these anomalies."
"I reach the same conclusion Sir Gilmore." Kiana agrees.
"What's our next move now Mr. Hilgurd. This matter would surely affect the guild right?" Gilmore's concerned question.
"If the tower doesn't want us to enter, I guess we have no choice. All we can do is just watch and prepare for whatever happens next."
"We can also report this to the Academia and make them review this magic." Kiana's proposal.
"That's also good. Well then, let's return home and report this to the higher ups."
The three leaders walks away.
"Do you think it's something we should worry about?" Kiana asked.
"I don't think so. The Laffy have the courtesy to teleport everyone includin theirn gears outside of the tower before shutting it down. I say it's more like they're done of us tresspassing."
Kiana laugh on Gilmore's comment.
"I can't blame them." Kiana agrees.
"Also, the tower plotting neferious is contradicting on everything its done." Hilgurd added.
"Well that's also a great point." -Gilmore.
Hilgurd gives instructions to the station guard before they travel back into Nattunia kingdom to report their observations.
The closure of Reverse Tower is a huge lost to the adventurers. Not only that they lose a secure source of materials, new adventurers also locked out of a safe training area for combat and survival skills. Now adventurers can only go in the wilds for quests like Savagery Forest which is a lot riskier and unpredictable.
~~~~~~°~~~~~~
DRAGON CROWNS ALPS
A haired eagle is soaring the sky above the moutainside and its sight is focus on the snow field below. A giant avian who possessed most characteristics of an eagle except that it's 1.8 meters tall with a 9 meter wingspan, it doesn't have feathers but instead replaced by thick snow white fur and its wings are more akin to what bats possessed which make the eagle bizzare compare to its relayives.
The flying monster is a bird of prey who relies on its strenght, body weight, and extreme diving speed that rivals the speed of most animals. Combination of traits that makes the haired eagle an excellent ambush predator for the unsupecting enemies below.
The eagle spotted something on the white snow. Its eyes widen and the focus make it see the dark speck below.
It's a wall ram, the hervibore is seen trying to walk away but something is preventing it on doing so. Something that seems tied on its huge horns curved in front, forming a wall.
Still. The haired eagle only see the animal as easy prey and proceeds to do its routine. Starting to shape its body for better aerodynamics while diving down. In the air, the eagle looks like a white missile descending with incredible speed.
Until the haired eagle reach an optimal height for striking. It spreads its body, the talons already clawed and pointed towards the wall ram, ready to snatch the easy food.
Only for the ram to suddenly got yoinked to the side and got replaced by a white nylon rope lasso already open and ready to recieve the eagle's foot.
A perfect catch. The rope tightens and pulls. Causing the eagle to crash on the snow.
The eagle knows something is wrong and flies away, only for it to struggle mid flight after the white rope prevents the bird from escaping.
Following the white rope ends leads to Mateo in white survival jacket and winter gear pulling the long line. Clumps of snow still placed above his head and shoulder. A result of him hinding under the snow pile and waiting for the haired eagle to strike. On the other end of the rope is the wall ram trying to escape the chaos unfolding behind.
The eagle, Mateo and the wall ram are now in a tug of war. The eagle flaps its wings the hardest, Mateo while gritting his teeth pulls as hard as he can to prevent the bird to escaping and the ram just basically doing anything to survive.
Mateo feels the eagle losing its strenght, a result of using flight on the contest of power. With a loud grunt, Mateo makes a powerful tug.
The bird lost the battle and crash to the snow once again. It knows that the only chance of survival is too fight the human who pinned it to the ground. It spreads its wings and makes a loud shriek, an attempt to make himself intimidating.
Yet the only affected is the wall ram. Mateo with the rope on one of his hand dashes forward with the sword on the other. The haired eagle respond in kind and rush towards Mateo.
The eagle slams its talon to Mateo who dodged its sharp claws. Seeing the human closing under him, the eagle leaps backwards and tries to peck him.
Only for his beak to get parried as Mateo continues to walk forward, jumps close to the bird's chest and....
A flury of slashes got unleashed close around Mateo, slashing the eagle in different spots and causing agonizing pain which make the bird shriek. Blood painted the snow around including Mateo's coat yet the fight continues.
The haired eagle flap its wings, causing a strong gust of wind to send Mateo away from him but Mateo counteracts by tightening his grip on the rope before he completely swept away. Then also using the rope as a boost as he pull it to launch himself back to the eagle.
The eagle slightly pulled by Mateo and have no choice but to flap its wings again. But it's too late as Mateo already reached it and stabbed the eagle's chest.
The entire bird got flipped aggressively and landed terrible to the snow. Disoriented, it thrashes around and swing its talons in a attempt of fighting back. Mateo parries the strike that would hit him while dodging the others, as he do it. He also sending counter slashes which all reach the eagle.
The bird attempts to fly away to distance itself to the enemy. But before he even flap its wings.
SLASH!
Its left wing falls the snow. Decapitated by Mateo's precise strong slash.
The lose of its wing cause anguish to the eagle who make a defeaning screech. With only fight to death in mind, the eagle swings its talon sideways which Mateo avoided by ducking extremely low.
The he leaps and slash the eagle's neck with one clean swing.
Blood sprays as the eagle squirms and tumbles. Before finally falling down to the snow, taking its last breath away while painting the snow red.
Mateo catches his breath after the intense battle. He see his jacket got smeared by few droplets of blood which he tried to remove by scrubbing it with clump of snow. It only manage to remove some as it still leaves a faint red mark.
"Status!"
The windows appear and Mateo smiles after seeing he leveled up by 2 levels with just a single kill, making him level 29. After closing the windows by swiping it to the side, Mateo then carve some cuts of meat to the haired eagle. He's so careful so he can't smear his clothes with blood.
After getting good meat which he put to a seperate normal bag instead of BoS. He left the rest of the carcass for nature to deal with as Mateo leaves with the wall ram and haired eagle meat on the tow.
~~~~~~°~~~~~~
In the safe and calmer spot in Dragons Crown Alps lies a modern medium-size tent and the tied wall ram casually munching on a pile of purple grass.
Mateo enters the tent and he got greeted by the warm air and Sophia playing a game on her phone but she stops when she see Mateo.
"Mateo. Welcome back!" Sophia's equally warm greeting with a smile.
Inside of the tent is two single person futon, pillows and sleeping bags. Meters apart to each other.
In the middle is a small gas stove attached to a 2 kg LPG tank, around it are assortments of utensils.
In the corners and side are the baggage of both Mateo and Sophia, full of necessities like clothes.
And in the one of tbe corner is the barrier totem set by Sophia as protection against outside threats.
Mateo removes his jacket after feeling the warmth inside the tent and he sit on his bedding.
"Feeling better now Sophia?"
"Yes. Sorry if I can't join you in fighting." Sophia sadly apologize.
"Don't feel sorry. There's nothing we can do if you suddenly get sick."
"Thanks. By the way How it went?" Sophia asked.
"Good actually. Two levels in a single hunt." Mateo answers as he prepares the kettle by scooping some snow outside and compacting to be out tightly inside the kettle.
"Wow that's great really! Looks like you can level up faster here!"
Mateo comes back inside the tent, opens the gas stove and puts a kettle with snow in it.
"It's not an easy hunt Sophia. That kill requires me to prepare in advance and make sure the battle is in my favor. I can't fight any monster here in a direct confrontation."
"But that's just in the beggining. Once you achieve few levels, you can now fight monsters face-to-face just like your previous fights." Sophia's reassurance.
"In theory, yes. But it's not ok to be complacent. Monsters here are in completely different level."
"That's also true."
"If I want to fight in equal footing witht he monsters here. I need your buffs."
"Then I will you to the best of my abilities." Sophia promise with conviction.
The two waits for the water to boil and when the kettle whistles loudly, Mateo turn off the stove. He then open his BoS and pull a bullalo cup nodles.
"What flavor do you want Sophia?"
"Seafood, spicy." Sophia answer with a smile.
After preparing, the two just wait for the instanst noodles to cook.
"If you finish leveling in this area. Do you think you can now join and match us? Like before?" Sophia's casual question.
"I think it's close. Not par but good enough that I can join and contribute in the fight."
"So basically. Helyna?"
Mateo laughs on Sophia's comparison.
"I guess that's the best way to describe it."
In the Nattunian town plaza. Helyna sneeze.
"But that's a good thing as I can level up even faster by fighting powerful enemies clearly out of my league alongside you all. I just need to be sure that I would not die by doing so."
"I just gonna focus on protecting you then."
"Don't have a bias."
"But that's exactly my role as the cleric is. Choosing crucial priorities." Sophia reaffirms her stances. Mateo just smile and admire her dedication.
Mateo give the seafood cup noodle to Sophia while he pick his own. Then the two proceeds to enjoy the hot dish that warms their core.