Dharen found himself back in the Waiting Room, slightly dazed, though in much better shape than following his previous teleportations. He collected himself relatively quickly. The divine aura did much to alleviate the aches and pains of battle, and even took the edge off of the exhaustion of the past two sleepless nights. It had been a simple enough matter to find his way out of the valley after the abominations disappeared, though the lack of sleep did whittle away even further at Dharen’s desire to persevere. He realised with chagrin that the soulseed he had collected had disappeared; considering his personal items had not been taken into the floor, he supposed it was no surprise that nothing was taken out. In the next moment, words scrawled across his vision.
Dharen froze. Though the rewards were exciting, one thing in particular held his attention. The Faceless One was connected to the Tower and the Progenitors. Nevermind the weird string of gibberish, it was clear that there was some link. It was certain. Dharen felt his resolve to push himself past his limits and defeat the Tower’s challenges swell. Now, it was not only power that he could receive directly from climbing the tower.He could also receive knowledge. The one clue that he held to his past was being held tantalizingly close.
Though intrigued by the idea of the Tower Shop, he was too eager to take in the power contained in his new soulseeds. Even more so now, as he felt a shiver of anticipation at the thought of growing stronger and reaching new heights in the Tower. Of finding new answers.
Dharen gathered his soulseed rewards from the Waiting Room’s small wooden chest. Thinking to absorb both soulseeds at once, he hefted one in each hand. Considering the time limit on the start of the previous floor challenge, he figured it was prudent to move quickly. He clasped the mid-grade seed in his right hand. The luminous crystal’s edges dug into his skin, etching lines that nearabout glowed like veins of magic. In his left, the low-grade crystal performed its own lesser performance.
With intense focus, Dharen brought his mind to bear on the captive crystals. He pressed, exerting his will upon them. As he did so, his hands clenched in turn. The energy within the soulseeds grew increasingly volatile, becoming tiny maelstroms contained within the confines of crystalline prisons.
The crystals cracked. The tumultuous energy, seeking freedom, rushed forth. It was corralled by Dharen’s single-minded focus, kept within barriers of devised through his will. The energy slammed into the flesh of his hands with a chaotic vigor, slicing through skin and innervating his veins. The energy of the mid-grade seed was a step faster than the other. Harder to control, it bucked and frothed, rebelling against him. But with nowhere else to go, it spilled ever deeper into his flesh. The power flowed up his right hand, collecting in a whorl at the golden-red Seed of Triumph on his wrist.
The whirling energy grew faster and faster. Dharen cried out in pain as the burning power singed his veins. Even so, the ever-growing warmth radiating from his personal soulseed crescendoed. He let out a scream as it burned its way through his very being. And then, mercifully, it stopped.
Strength and vitality flooded through his body, but Dharen had no time to pay any mind to the changes flooding his body. No longer distracted by the agony from the mid-grade energy rushing through his veins, he turned his attention back to guiding the power of the low-grade soulseed.
The low-grade energy jabbed sharply at his flesh, but appeared to have difficulty breaking its way inside. It twisted and roiled in the thin space between the cracked soulseed crystal and his palm, Dharen’s suddenly enhanced Vitality creating a sturdier barrier of flesh.
Slowly but surely, the power of the soulseed wormed its way past. Flooding his veins, it twisted as it was pulled along the currents of his body. The energy traveled through his left arm, a river of burning, incandescent power that sent tremors through his muscles. Just as it coiled past the joint of his shoulder, it was met with a fiercely growing chill.
That chill became greater and greater, rivalling the soulseed’s rampant energy. The bitter cold and searing heat twisted and coiled around one another. Dharen was beset by alternating states: The veins of his left shoulder had become a battlefield. A frozen tundra against a blistering desert.
As he continued to sweat and strain, the two energies warred on. They spun in an intricate dance, one moment chasing and the next running away. Finally, an equilibrium was reached. The excruciating energies vanished. A moment later, Dharen felt a surge of agony as focused energy burned a hole in his shoulder from the inside out. He watched, horrified, as a shadow from within stretched tendrils to the surface. The tendrils abruptly calcified, leaving behind a tiny gem of roiling, effervescent shadow embedded in the skin of his shoulder.
For the second time in a span of thirty minutes, Dharen froze. He was both level 2 and level 1 at the same time? And what was that about a Seed of Fear? As more information revealed itself, his jaw continued to drop, eventually warring with the floor for a battle of supremacy. A few minutes of catatonic shock later, he managed to finally pull himself together and gently caressed the crystalline surface of the newly-found soulseed upon his shoulder. He grinned. Well, that’s an interesting development.
