Unconquered Tower

THIRTY-SIX

Taoya grunted in pain as he leaned against the wall of the temporal shack. Even with all the healing elixirs he’d chugged down his body ached in a way it hadn’t since he’d learned to utilize his bloodline.

“Need a body temper that resonates with me.” He’d had the thought a half a million times now, but there was precious little to be bought on the market and what was available sat in the seven figures.

Darren was pacing, striding back and forth with his chin in his hand. Tyler was laid out flat on the ground, practicing her breathing exercises, and Moira had dragged a chair out from somewhere and had a training manual in her hands.

“It’s suspicious, right?” Darren asked, turning on his heel and looking them over. Taoya wanted to dismiss the man’s paranoia, but he couldn’t help but agree with him. Something was going on with Roan.

“His fucking eyes are a different color,” Tyler said from her spot on the ground. Taoya grunted in agreement. It had been nagging at him when they’d met up in the woods but he hadn’t noticed until they’d walked away from the meeting.

“He held himself differently. His words sounded like him, but there was something off about him,” Moira agreed, not looking up as she flipped the page of her manual.

“T, you weren’t with him when he cleaned the corruption, right?” Darren asked for the fourth time.

“No. The explosion detonated and we moved to investigate.” Taoya leaned forward and suppressed a cry of pain as his cracked ribs shifted in him. The hobs had done a number on him, but it was his own bloodline that had done that. Too much energy held for too long.

“We know he has a purifier bloodline. That was confirmed. Can he become corrupted?” Darren muttered.

“Anyone else think it’s suspicious that he somehow achieved that?” Tyler asked. Taoya grunted again, but shook his head, speaking before Moira or Darren could.

“I was there when it happened. The only thing he was doing was not dying. Moira had more to do with him getting that bloodline than he does.”

“Not directly, but come one. Roan’s right, there’s a storyline going on and it involves the corruption. Now, what happened at the boss fight on level one seems fucking weird, but in line with the storyline,” Tyler started, but Moira cut her off.

“No. That did not make sense. The beginning of the fight, but the secondary quest that appeared afterwards had nothing to do with our storyline.”

“Agreed. And Roan was the one to clear it. And now with the corrupted dragon. Are we sure he’s not infected?” Darren asked.

“I don’t think so, but the eyes are weird,” Taoya said. Roan had seemed mostly himself if a bit euphoric. The smaller man had nearly been bouncing as he walked with a smug grin on his face the entire time.

“He changed. I know that,” Tyler refuted.

“Here, it’s the second temper,” Moira said, finally lifting up her manuscript. Taoya squinted and saw dense text full of scribbles.

“I thought you bought the skill?” Darren asked.

“Roan isn't the only one who checks the dead. Found it early on the floor, after the first ambush. But here, the second level of tempering is the bone temper.”

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“It’s his eyes that changed though,” Tyler said.

“Not just his eyes. He’s slightly taller, thicker too. Shoulders, chest, forearms,” Darren said. Perception based bloodline abilities were powerful like that, able to see the differences in someone with ease.

“It’s listed as a side effect. Doesn’t always happen, but it can.” Darren sighed and slunk down, cupping his head in his hands.

“How’d he temper? Even buying the skill you need reagents to do it. We know he has Learn and uses manuals rather than buying them. It takes time, lots of it, to do a level of tempering without the skill,” Darren said through his muffled hands.

“All it needed was a large injection of mana. Reagents that we use to temper have to be balanced so not to kill us, or make us sick like now. He has a purification bloodline,” Moira said.

“Fuck. Is it that simple?” Darren asked.

“No, that’s not simple at all. Simple is he’s infected by the corruption,” Tyler said.

“This is getting out of hand.” Taoya watched the three of them continue to argue in circles, piecing together every shred of evidence they could. Roan was strong and they were all weakened right now. If their council decided to act it would be dangerous for them and they’d just finished laying a friend to rest.

“Why don’t we just ask him?” Taoya cut in. All three of them turned to look at him and he could almost feel Darren’s eyeroll.

“Don’t dismiss it. Darren your perception is good enough you’ll be able to tell if he’s lying?”

“No. I can tell you if there’s indicators of lying. But that’s not a hundred percent accurate,” Darren countered.

“This isn’t accurate at all. We’re all locked in here arguing whether our ally, if not our friend, is infected with the corruption and is waiting to kill us when we open the door.”

“He has command of all the mobs now. And the support folk. He’s not some random anymore,” Darren growled.

“That’s what’s bugging him. Power is shifting and not in his favor. I don’t think he’s looking for a reason to kill Roan, but he’s not trying hard to find a reason to not kill him.”

“None of us are. But we need to know. If he’s corrupted then he’s the biggest remaining threat to us. We can just leave. We have the exit to the floor right there, we don’t have to fight the horde or anything else. In real time we’re going to exit after only an hour and Roan’s going to be waiting for us. You saw how he was looking at us. He knows something is up since we were acting weird.” Taoya paused as he looked over his allies.

“How is this only the second level? This is the type of thing we’re warned about on the upper echelon of floors, not the beginning of our climb. Nothing about this makes sense.”

“We ask him what happened. If he evades or acts weird we kill him. We can’t risk the corruption spreading. Agreed?” It wasn’t Darren but Tyler who pushed for the drastic measures.

“He’s always evasive and acts weird. I want concrete proof before we do anything drastic. Moira, if he is infected, is there anything you could brew that could cure him?”

“Maybe? But I’m not an alchemist. We’d need samples of the corruption and what it does to try to create a cure. Right now, it’s Roan who has the best chance of healing someone who’s corrupted. Which is why I’m certain he’s not corrupted.”

“The amulets purified the corrupted life force on the last level,” Tyler reminded them.

“That was a byproduct of a powerful vitality natural treasure. Not the corruption itself,” Moira argued.

“I agree with Taoya. We get proof. He’s aligned with us, strong, and his damn bloodline is perfect. If we killed him without properly vetting him, fuck…I don’t think we’d finish this floor let alone the tower,” Darren said.

“If we could kill him,” Taoya reminded them. Darren snorted and shook his head, rising to his full height.

“He’s growing fast, but I’m sure we could deal with him. Everyone, rest and recover. When we come out we’ll check him.”

“Surprised he’s being so generous and not sending the straight kill order. But I wonder, does he really believe it would be easy killing Roan? Or is it still Darren’ own hubris?” Taoya had fought with Roan more than anyone else. Skilled was an understatement and even if his bloodline ability wasn’t easily combat compatible, he was strong and well equipped. It would be a battle that would likely see several of them injured if not dead.