Chapter 68: Finishing a Floor (Patreon)

Hugo hopped from side to side on his marker, psyching himself up for the fight. “Welcome to your final nightmare,” he said to the frozen statue.

The marker he was on turned white and the statue came alive. Unlike the others, it remained on its pedestal and pulled an arrow from its quiver. Hugo took flight just before the first arrow could hit him. When the second arrow came, he had to dive to avoid it.

This was bad. The archer statue was quite accurate, and new arrows magically appeared in their quiver each time that they used one. Hugo wouldn’t be able to dodge forever. Unlike the rest of us, however, the hole in the wall that led outside could be a potential means of escape. The only downside is that we’d remain trapped until he returned.

More arrows came. When one got too close, Hugo suddenly multiplied and became four identical black crows flying in different directions. The statue couldn’t tell which was the real Hugo and haphazardly began taking aim at different ones. It was an excellent use of his remaining Corvus Commandos spirit summons and I’d never seen him raise them in such a controlled manner before.

It was a great diversionary tactic, but it wouldn’t last. Hugo needed to fight back, but all he had was his Ostorox summon and it was far too bright in the room with that hole in the wall. It needed to be darker. Much darker. Like… if a shadow had come over it.

That was it.

I closed my eyes and reached for my Heart of Darkness ability that I’d gained from defeating the void spawn. It should allow me to create a shadow large enough to close the hole. As I focused, I felt a small piece of darkness form in my hands. It almost moved like smoke and as soon as I opened my eyes, it slipped through my fingers and vanished.

The archer scored a direct hit with an arrow. The three of us not fighting winced and held our breath until we saw that it was a spirit summon.

I went back to building the shadow in my hand. It was so slippery, so instead of trying to tightly control it, I nudged it mentally. It was more like letting it just exist and then imagining my own mind creating wind to move the shadow. Even with me looking at it, the small piece stayed in the center of my hand.

Okay, that was the easy part. Now for one of the harder ones.

I pushed the shadow off of my hand and made it float towards the wall. As soon as it was no longer physically touching me, I felt this tangible connection remain between us like an invisible wire. The more I pushed it further out, the more taut the wire became. Eventually, pushing any further was painful, but I had to. Getting halfway wasn’t enough and Hugo needed me.

I redoubled my will and pushed until the thing reached the hole.

*DING!* [Heart of Darkness] has increased to Level 2 – This increases the size and distance that shadows can be manipulated by 20%.

That was a relief. I focused on the shadow until it grew larger. Slowly, the room grew dimmer and when Elise finally noticed what I was doing, she shouted, “Hugo, use the void spawn!”

Hugo did just that while the statue was distracted by the final crow summon that it had yet to hit. Ostorox’s floating form silently appeared behind the statue, going from a ghostly blue to completely solid. Its tentacles shot out and wrapped themselves around each statue limb. The void spawn then lifted it into the air and pulled it apart like it was a toy.

Suddenly, all of the markers turned white and then stopped glowing entirely. We’d done it.

Hugo made the Ostorox raise all of its tentacles up in the air in triumph before dismissing it. “Yes! I got two levels from that,” he said.

I released my heart of darkness shadow and felt my legs buckle. Hemi and Elise grabbed me before I could fall. Both frowning with concern.

“It’s okay,” I said. “It just took more out of me than I realized.”

They wanted me to rest, but I couldn’t be certain that the danger was over.

A part of the stone wall shifted, revealing a doorway. This time Elise took the lead as we followed it into a much smaller chamber where a black orb sat on display. All of us felt nauseous as soon as we’d entered the room and it was clear that it was emanating from the orb. We could all feel it. This was also likely the source of whatever was keeping the rams away.

“Maybe we should head back?” suggested Hemi. “We could find a way to climb up to the hole.”

I shook my head. Even if we could somehow stack rocks to climb up in a way that wouldn’t collapse under our feet, it would take forever. Plus, we came here to clear a level, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.

I strode forward and felt the nausea turn to dread. This thing made me terrified and every inch of my body was screaming at me to run away. But those were just messages. Just thoughts and feelings that I could ignore. It couldn’t force me to act.

I pushed onwards and placed my hand on the orb.

*Item identified!* [The Zenyx Orb of Terror (Rare/Unique)] – There is only one of these in the tower and you have it. Congratulations, others who clear this floor after you won’t be so fortunate. The holder of this item is immune to its effects and can be wielded to project a paralyzing emotional attack that can incapacitate people and even devastate the psyche.

As soon as I’d put it into my inventory, the others visibly relaxed and we received a new message.

[Congratulations. You have cleared Floor 95.]

*DING!* Class: [Blood Reaver] has reached level 22.

*DING!* You have earned a basic restoration potion.

*DING!* You have earned 150 experience points.

Everyone smiled as they received similar messages. It had been hard, but we’d managed to clear the floor and gain some levels and points in the process. Moreover, as we’d taken on a harder floor, the System was now providing us with greater rewards and an incentive to keep going. The potion was there to encourage us to tackle another floor. The others were amazed by their point totals since they’d all received the same as me. I did, however, feel bad about taking the orb for myself, but as soon as I explained its description, none of the others were keen on taking it. As long as I didn’t use it around them, then they said they were fine with me holding onto it.

Two mystical doorways opened up. One led to the small underground room where the elevators and Staircase door were and the other led to the top of the temple stairs.

I chugged my restoration potion, which brought me back to my peak self and then allocated the stat points between dexterity and perception. Before heading through the temple stair door, Elise stopped me.

“Wait, where are you going? We finished the floor,” she said.

“It’s not finished for me yet,” I replied.

I strode through and was back outside at the top of the temple. I looked back and was relieved to see that the spatial doorway hadn’t closed once I’d gone through it. The others looked through the other side with concern but, understandably, did not join me. They’d all seen the empowered ram and even with their level increases, they weren’t strong enough for it.

I understood that some or all of them thought me mad, but I just couldn’t leave it behind. Of course, I could have always returned to this floor via the elevator once I’d grinded to a higher level, but that felt wrong. I didn’t want to keep returning to the same floors to train, and I knew that if I left this floor now, then I’d never return to it. All I cared about was constant progress and a new floor to tackle. Coming back here later would feel like a lateral move.

I drew my sword and then, after a moment’s consideration, my knife. Apprentice Swordmaster was great for dueling against another bladed opponent, but I wasn’t sure how much good it would do against beasts.

I quickly moved down the stairs and over the first hill when I stopped. The field was littered with ram corpses. At first, I wondered if another party had used the stairs and done this. But on closer inspection, all of them appeared to have been crushed or trampled. The source of the devastation then calmly walked over the hill. It soon spotted me immediately and snorted in irritation. A little voice in the back of my head told me that I was making a mistake and that I should go back.

The empowered ram started galloping towards me and the time for choice was over.

*Beast Identified* [Empowered Azure Sky Ram (common)] Level 30.