Unconquered Tower

EIGHTEEN

The second time the guardian was much easier. A clean fight from beginning to end with Darren providing perfect timing on their rotations until the creature was standing on splintered legs. Taoya landed his charged attack to send it to the ground while everyone else piled on afterwards. It was the work of less than ten minutes and Roan couldn’t help the grimace as he got the alert and saw how much this time had earned him.

A measly fifty credits. That’s what he got for not pushing forward to land the final blow. Instead it was a group effort as there was no chaos for Roan to take advantage of. In the end the groups went back to farming the hallways with a few keeping an eye on the remaining coffins.

The independents had come out as well and every single hallway was being farmed while a team stayed ready to fight the emergent guardians. It left Roan with nowhere to grind and collect money without standing in a line.

“Aside from the coffins. Just go ask Taoya for a hand and split the reward with him. It’s better than standing around and just waiting for your turn.” The big man was leaning against a wall near the entrance to the safe room talking with a few of the other trained tower climbers.

Harris was one of them. The man stood on both feet as if not a few hours ago he’d been screaming with a forearm sized piece of bone shrapnel in his legs. The clink of the potion bottles in his pocket was a reassuring sound.

“Taoya, could I have a moment of your time?” Roan asked as he got to the knot of fighters.

“Of course! They were just going back in to watch the entrance. Make sure nobody gets any weird ideas again,” Taoya said and the group nodded as they turned and headed in without another word.

“So, what is it you need?” Taoya asked as the silence between them stretched out, closing in on uncomfortable.

“These coffins. There’s a bounty on them. You and me, we haul them in and split the reward. With the ten percent going to the association,” Roan proposed. Taoya pursed his lips in thought before he shuffled next to one of them. He had to grunt to move the heavy coffin, but he managed to do it.

“It’s going to suck moving these. How much is it?” Taoya asked.

“I don’t know. The compendium said there’s a bounty on them though, so something.”

“We do the first one, me and you. If the money is good, we sweat it out. If not, we get others to do it for a flat knowledge fee,” Taoya suggested. Roan couldn’t move the coffins by himself and didn’t know anyone else who he could even ask.

“That’s fine.” The two of them grunted, cursed, and proceeded to make a scene as they lowered the nearly twelve foot tall coffin to the ground.

“Taoya was understating how much this sucks.” Twelve feet of thick wood was not light. Both of them were strong men, with Taoya having an advantage of being part supernatural. Sweat soaked both of them as they hauled the heavy coffin through the portal, landing flat on their backs as the nausea seemed to have doubled on their way through.

“What the hell,” Roan groaned, rolling to his hands and knees as he tried to keep from vomiting.

“Good question,” Taoya said as he got to his feet, weaving slightly and waving off Harris and the rest of the guards. It took several minutes for Roan to recover, about twice as long as it took Taoya.

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“Blessed. They’re all blessed. Doesn’t matter. You can…shit,” Roan’s thought came to a stop as he hurled what was left of his lunch. The nausea immediately disappeared by the time he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Your idea, your honors. See how much we made,” Taoya offered as he took a few tentative steps away from the slick pile of sick.

“Finally found his weakness,” Roan muttered under his breath as he grabbed the coffin and accessed the marketplace.

SELL: COFFIN COLLECTION ARRAY (POOR GRADE) Y/N?

MARKET PRICE: 250 CREDITS

AUCTION: 10% OF FINAL PRICE

“It’s worth the effort,” Roan said as he sold the coffin and smiled as the funds hit his bank account.

“How much?” Taoya asked as he started back toward the portal.

“Two-fifty.”

“I get the next one and you the one after that?” Taoya asked as they walked through the portal. The extreme nausea wasn’t there this time and Roan wondered why it had affected them so much when they’d done it with a coffin.

“That works,” Roan said absent mindedly while they started to lower the next coffin to the ground. Nobody had been injured yet and the pile of scrap material was growing as skeletons died in great numbers. It wouldn’t be long before the next of the guardians awoke.

“What was this thing called? A collector array? And it said that they gathered life energy to awaken the guardians. But it’s all corrupted. Would it still gather energy without the monster in it?” Thinking through what caused their nausea made the work easier as they hauled the heavy piece through the portal again.

Without a stomach full of half digested protein bar, the return nausea wasn’t as severe. While Taoya went through the process of selling it, Roan checked over his marketplace tabs. Seeing the bank account grow was enjoyable but when he reached his personal stats he paused.

“That’s not right.” His words hung in the air as he wracked his brain, trying to remember what the original numbers had been.

ROAN

STRENGTH: 8

ENDURANCE: 9

SPEED: 7

DEXTERITY: 9

PERCEPTION: 8

INTELLIGENCE: 9

KNOWLEDGE: 6

MANA CORE: N/A

SOUL TEMPERING: N/A

BLOODLINE: N/A

“Strength, endurance, and knowledge. They all went up. Knowledge I get, but the others? Why would they increase so quickly?”

“You say something?” Taoya asked as he walked over. The man’s shirt was completely plastered to his chest, sweat continuing to pour down his face as the man bought a water ration and sipped on it.

“Check your personal stats.” Taoya frowned but his eyes unfocused as he looked through the menus. Roan knew that Taoya’s stats had done something as the man’s eyebrows rose fractionally before settling again.

“A few of mine went up,” Taoya admitted. Roan nodded in agreement as he thought of what that could mean.

“Do you think anyone has used their money to buy points yet?” Taoya asked as he continued to sip water and rest.

“Someone likely did. But…if you gain points by just doing this, that’s a waste of money. A massive waste…” Roan trailed off as he thought of the nature of the tower and the skills and items he’d seen along with the rabbit’s words.

“What if they’re not meant for now. But once we’re stronger and we can’t progress naturally?” Roan asked.

“The price isn’t that crazy. Unless there’s a cap of how many you can buy?” Taoya seemed to enjoy the theory crafting as they caught their breath.

“We need more information. Another compendium?” Roan floated the idea toward the man. An immediate scowl filled Taoya’s face as he shook his head.

“Darren was pissed about that. The coffins will help take some of that heat off of me, but any large purchases right now have to be voted on. Doubt they’ll go for another compendium when we need so much other gear and healing supplies.”

“It was a long shot. Too much money spent on information gathering will lead to dead tower climbers eventually. Still need to find someone to test our ideas out on.” Roan smiled as they walked through the portal as he remembered there were likely other saferooms. Someone had likely figured it out, he’d just have to make friends with them and get the information he needed.