Chapter 188: The Second Floor
The rabbit sighed like he’d just been forced to deal with paperwork.
And a notification immediately appeared in front of him.
[By submitting 50 cores to Torrac, you agree to pass to the second floor of the tower. Do you wish to proceed?]
"Sure, now I can," Kael said as he was about to pull the cores. But they were immediately deducted from his inventory.
He felt it more than he saw it, the subtle snap of ownership transferring. One moment, the cores were his, the next, they weren’t. No bargaining. No delay. No room for second thoughts.
"Convenient." He said.
Torrac’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t bother arguing. He didn’t need to. The tower wasn’t built for fairness; it was built for function.
"Go, be on your way. And don’t be too happy, the next floor isn’t as simple as this one." Torrac said.
Kael glanced over his shoulder at the street still smoking, at the distant howls and the shifting dots on his minimap, at the way the city itself looked like it was being slowly eaten alive by fire and undead.
"When did anything in the tower feel simple?" Kael said as he was about to walk through the portal, but stopped.
His head tilted as he’d just remembered something mildly amusing. His eyes flicked to the two green dots again, still there, still hovering close enough to be a nuisance.
"Hm, might as well," he muttered and used [Presence]
The world dulled.
Color drained. Sound thickened. The heat didn’t vanish, but it became distant, like it was happening to someone else. His body felt slightly unreal, like he’d stepped half a pace out of existence and left only the outline behind.
His appearance faded, and his body felt like it had become one with the world. His senses turned duller and so did the world, but he was now invisible to those who weren’t looking for him.
The two scavengers blinked, confused, their eyes tracking the portal more than the space where Kael had been. They looked like men who had just watched a coin roll under a table and couldn’t decide whether to crawl after it.
Once Kael walked in, Torrac clicked his tongue.
"Smart bastard..."
The rabbit didn’t say it like praise. He said it like a curse.
He then turned to the other two, who were right next to the portal. "What are you waiting for? Hand over the cores," Torrac said.
The two men flinched like they’d been caught stealing. One of them gave a weak, helpless shrug.
"Euh, I don’t have fifty cores though..."
"Well, better fucking hurry, I’m only going to be here for an hour."
The second one swallowed hard. His eyes darted toward the burning horizon, then back to Torrac, then toward the portal like it was a lifeboat drifting away.
"And what will happen after one hour?" One of the two asked.
Torrac’s expression didn’t change. If anything, it sharpened, like he enjoyed being asked things with obvious answers.
"Won’t take a genius to guess, I’ll go away. For good." He pointed at the skies where the fire pillars of the Ifrit were still raging strongly and moving. Slowly.
The pillars weren’t decorative. They weren’t a backdrop. They were the end of the world for anyone still standing on this floor. Even with resistance, even with gear, there was only so much heat a body could take before it failed in ugly ways.
"That won’t be stopping, though. Better get going."
Almost immediately, a floor global notification appeared, dictating what would happen.
One hour left for the floor to close. Bring the cores, or remain here to be slowly turned to charcoal.
A fitting end for those who didn’t work hard enough and waited for others to do the heavy lifting.
****
The transition did not feel like movement so much as displacement. For a brief moment, Kael had the distinct sensation of his body being stretched thin and folded into something it was never meant to become.
The heat from the previous floor vanished instantly, replaced by a dull, ambient pressure that settled into his bones rather than his skin. When his boots finally met solid ground again, the sensation of weight returned all at once, grounding him in a place that felt far more structured than anything he had seen before.
He did not move immediately. [Presence] remained active, dulling the world around him into something distant and muted. Sounds lost their sharpness, edges blurred, and even the air itself felt less intrusive.
It was not comfort, but it was concealment, and for now that was more valuable than anything else. Kael allowed his gaze to rise slowly, taking in his surroundings with careful attention.
The first thing he noticed was the walls. They were high, reinforced, and clearly maintained, forming a complete enclosure around the area he had arrived in. This was not a ruin reclaimed by time or monsters.
It was deliberate construction, something built with purpose and still actively used. Guard towers stood at measured intervals along the perimeter, though the figures within them lacked any real sense of alertness.
Their posture alone was enough to tell him that whatever this place usually dealt with, it was not urgency.
Near the center of the intake zone, directly in front of the portal he had stepped through, stood two individuals who seemed entirely out of place in what should have been a controlled reception point.
One leaned lazily against a crate, his helmet tilted back just enough to suggest he had been either dozing or considering it. The other stood a short distance away, shifting his weight from one foot to the other with the kind of restlessness that came from boredom rather than readiness.
"This is bullshit," the first one muttered, his voice carrying just enough irritation to break the stillness. He nudged the ground with his boot in a half-hearted motion that lacked any real intent.
The second man exhaled slowly, glancing toward the inactive portal as if expecting it to justify his presence there. "No kidding. Why are we even here right now? Only to suffer?"