B2 Chapter 9: Hell in Paradise (Patreon)

Warm salt water splashed into my mouth, and I awoke with a jolt.

The water made me gag, and I sat up, coughing as I tried to spit it out. The ocean tide receded and then rolled back in to splash my already wet clothes as I looked around in confusion. The last thing I remembered was going through the portal with Eloise. Now I found myself lying alone on a beach, with a clear blue sky and the warm sun shining down on me. The palm trees and vegetation past the beach presented the place as a luscious tropical paradise.

I immediately distrusted it.

The System must have separated all of us as we went through the portal, but for what purpose, it was impossible to say. Though it likely had some specially prepared challenge waiting for me on this floor that it preferred I tackle alone.

I stood up and checked myself over. My knife was still sheathed on my hip and my cloak was undamaged, though its dampness irritated me. I wrung the heavy wet fabric out and let it sit in the sun to dry while I checked the rest of my inventory. There I discovered another problem.

Even though I’d killed a lot of those beetles outside of the tower, Persephone was always there to confiscate the blood before I could. And after she’d changed strategies to almost killing me over and over again, I was forced to use up most of the blood I’d collected from my tower excursions. In fact, I was shocked when I saw that I only had one vial left of monster blood.

I told myself not to worry. The tower is never short on monsters that bleed, and I’m sure this new floor will provide plenty of opportunities for me to stock up.

Aside from my diminished blood stores, there was an addition to my inventory that I didn’t recognize. At first glance, I thought it was a loot box until I brought it out and saw that there was no button on it to press. It was just a rectangular, polished wooden box, but it turned out to be a polished wooden box. Opening it revealed a black metal bracer with four opal shaped black gems evenly spaced around it.

*Item identified* [Blood Reaver’s Cache Bracer (Rare: D-Grade)] – A gift from Samara that she hopes you will find useful in your tower climb. This piece of armor was crafted for blood-based classes to store blood for use in combat. The gemstones on the armor will accept and perfectly preserve any blood they absorb, though storage space is limited, and it is recommended more for combat than healing.

Excited, I put it on my right forearm straight away.

This was great. Finally, I would no longer have to awkwardly summon a blood vial from my inventory, open said vial, and then draw the blood out. With this bracer, I could now instantly bring a blood weapon to my hand once the gems had been filled.

I brought out my last remaining blood vial to test it out by placing a drop on one of the gemstones. The blood was absorbed instantly but my connection to it remained. I poured the rest of it out and sensed that this one gemstone was close to full.

So the bracer can hold a little over four vials worth of blood, which explained why the message emphasized using it for combat. Especially considering how much blood I often go through for healing myself. I’d have to make a mental note not to touch the blood cache for healing, though with enough pain and injury, it will be a hard temptation to resist. That tradeoff was more than worth it though for being able to instantly summon blood weapons.

Despite the isolation, I now felt optimistic about my chances as I moved away from the beach and went further inland towards the jungle. A week and half of time had passed, which meant that Hugo and the others had likely progressed several floors further down from the one I’m currently on.

If the System had deposited me on the tower’s highest unexplored floor, then it meant that this was floor 94. Considering the most powerful creature on floor 95 was level 30 and that I was now level 53, this whole floor should be a cakewalk.

The current plan was to kill a few creatures here to fill up on blood vials and then hit the stairs and keep exploring floors until I found Hugo and the others.

I drew my knife as I crept through the jungle. I was confident in my strength and speed, but that didn’t mean that I was invulnerable. A lot of my power came from being able to heal and regenerate from my wounds with enemy blood. If I sustain heavy injuries without getting fresh blood, then I’ll die like anyone else.

The jungle was dense and even though I tried to tread softly; I wondered if I was still making too much noise when suddenly a creature fell on my back. It went from silent to a furious, screeching ball of fur as it dug its claws into my back. I gasped, before grabbing the thing and throwing it past me.

I was so busy looking for monsters on the ground that I failed to consider those up in the trees. A moment later and a System message informed me of what I was dealing with.

*Beast identified* [Jungle Shanker Monkey (Common)] Level: 60 – A ferocious tree dwelling species of monkey that lives in warm climates and favors drop attacks. They can hook their claws into the base of a tree and wait for hours before falling on their prey.

The shanker rolled harmlessly to its feet and screeched at me again. Now that it was in front of me, I could see how it resembled a monkey with its brown fur and bodily structure. It was small, barely rising taller than my knee, and yet it didn’t appear intimidated by my size at all as it bared its teeth at me.

My back was bleeding, but it wasn’t enough to form a weapon from and I was hesitant to use the last of the blood within my bracer in case I needed it for emergency healing, so I stuck with my Viper Fang knife and waited.

Predictably, it charged at me while howling. I stood my ground, and then at the last possible second, I dove to the right of it while slashing out with my knife. The shanker was faster than I anticipated and nimbly avoided the attack as we passed each other.

Damn, these things are agile.

I recovered quickly, getting to my feet, and readying myself for the next attack. I’d considered my dexterity to be good, but this thing was putting me to shame. Fortunately, I knew that I was stronger from its first falling attack, so the best way to win now was to get my hands on it.

The Shanker charged again and once again, I stood my ground.

It must have sensed something in my stance because its behavior changed. It stopped short and took a tentative swipe with its claws instead of diving at me. I dodged the first swipe, but the second caught me by surprise and tore into my leg.

I cried out and backpedaled. The shanker sensed weakness and moved in for the kill. It opened its mouth, drooling, as it leapt at me. My empty hand shot out and caught it by the throat in mid-air. I activated Heart Strike and stabbed with my knife.

It didn’t work. The monkey’s skin was too tough and my kunai barely penetrated so that only a thin trickle of blood came off. I’m not strong enough. Even if some poison got into its bloodstream, it wouldn’t be much, and I don’t know if I can keep fighting with it long enough for the poison to actually take effect.

I tried to pull what little blood I had drawn into myself, but the connection was weak and little healing occurred. Worse still, the monkey had a thick neck that I couldn’t choke. While I held it, it slashed at my knife hand and knocked my Viper Fang out into the brush somewhere.

The shanker screeched again and for the first time I heard echoing screeches of agreement in the distance. More monkeys were coming and coming fast. I threw the monkey aside and sprinted back towards the beach, hoping that they wouldn’t try to swim after me. The thought of getting into the water scared me after Persephone had attacked me as a shark, but not as much as the certainty of being eaten alive by the monkeys.

I made it to the beach and ran up to the water’s edge.

There was more screeching and howling as the monkeys approached the beach, but no matter what, they wouldn’t set foot on the sand. Something about the beach scared them enough to stay off of it.

Once I realized that they would come no closer, I stood and watched them. There must have been about twenty of them now, all angrily posturing and daring me to come at them. After half an hour, the monkeys eventually grew bored and retreated deeper into the jungle.

I might have been a trick or a ploy, but I wasn’t foolish enough to test it out. Things weren’t looking so good for me. My last knife was in there. The only weapon I had left was the blood stored in my bracer, and if I didn’t find a way to see to my wounds, then I’ll be forced to use it for healing.

I went through my inventory and found some clothes I’d taken when looting goblins and zombies. Most of it was dirty and unusable, but I salvaged what I could. Temporarily, I formed a blood knife and cut the clothing into makeshift bandages. It wouldn’t help against infection, but it would staunch the bleeding. As long as I was quick about it, then the healing magic in the blood wouldn’t fade and I could put it back into the gem. It was only prolonged outside exposure that seemed to rob it of its healing potential.

After bandaging myself, I set out on a new path by walking along the beach. It was tougher than it sounds. My lower leg injury had gotten the worst of it and without the adrenaline of the fight, I walked with a painful limp. With the jungle being what it is, I decided sticking to the beach was best to see if I could find some sign of civilization or an elevator door.

After three hours of walking around the beach, I came upon some blood stains in the sand and realized that they were my own.

A frustrating realization became clear to me.

This entire floor was a small tropical island, and I appeared to be the only one on it with limited supplies, almost no weapons, and monsters that far out leveled me.

I snorted. Cakewalk my ass.