The doctor's 'tent', as it was called, was no tent at all.
It was more like an entire hospital compound built under one giant canopy that filled almost half of the chamber. The place had been cleared, all its dangerous inhabitants reduced to giant skeletons thrown in one corner. Huge floating points of light illuminated the entire chamber, leaving no corner in the dark. Luminous insects roamed everywhere, lighting cracks and crevices that those big lights couldn't reach.
Arcen and Zuhara materialized in a crevice in the far corner of the chamber. Zuhara took the next tunneler from there and put it safely in her pocket. As they walked towards the giant tent, Arcen was taken aback by how many people were there.
Almost everyone that he saw had some sort of visible injury. Some wore bandages, some used crutches, some had mushrooms growing on their faces and spikes poking through their chests. This looked like a medic's tent in a weird war zone.
There are hundreds of people here!
He passed by several curious faces. A full mutant Ceph like him was rare anywhere in the world. Most climbers here were hybrids that still had some semblance of their human faces left, unlike Arcen. He saw a couple with cephalopodan mutations in the crowd, but never a full mutant like himself.
The tent was opened on one side like an aircraft hangar, the thick fabric rolled up to the top and held with an array of metal prongs. There were hundreds of makeshift beds inside, built and furnished with material from the tower. They walked through rows and rows of patients towards a gathering of gigantic shapes moving in the left corner.
They were hovering creatures that looked like boo ghosts if they were made of flesh and bone. There were three of them, as large as oak trees. They had spindly, long arms with very long fingers. They stared down at them lazily as Zuhara approached them. Two signs were posted before them, above two makeshift doors with a warm glow coming from the blurred transparent windows. One sign read 'Regular,' and another read ‘Emergency’. The regular one had a stack of numbers on a small wooden table and a waiting area where a bunch of people slouched on the chairs.
One of the ghost creatures extended its spindly hand before them, stopping them from going into the emergency room.
Zuhara paused and grabbed Arcen by the shoulder. She turned him around so that his back was facing the creatures. Then she gestured towards the emergency sign. Arcen felt a gentle tug on his back as the creature ran its long fingers over Isadora's body. Once satisfied, it politely gestured with the same hand towards the emergency door.
“Hello Doc!” Zuhara greeted no one in particular as she opened the door.
“Ah, Come in, Come in!” A creaky old voice came from within.
Inside the emergency room was complete chaos. There were shelves with rows and rows full of bottles, dried plants, dead animals, and harvested organs. The doctor was an old man sitting behind a desk. He wore a metallic brick on his face, like virtual reality goggles. He had a wet black intestine of some creature on his hands. He dropped it and rubbed his hands on his apron as Zuhara approached.
“Zuhara dear? Isn't your appointment in three days?” The doctor asked, turning his head towards Arcen. Jelly went up to greet him, and the doctor patted her cheek very gently. “Who is this and why is he here?” He asked, looking up at Arcen.
“This is a friend. There's a paralyzed girl on his back.”
“Paralyzed, you say?” The doctor stood from his chair, and he instantly grew a foot shorter. He was barely five feet tall. “I need the patient here.” He said, snapping his fingers at the ceiling.
A giant shape in the corner of the room moved. Arcen looked up and almost screamed. He hadn't seen it because he had his eyes on the doctor. There was one of those gigantic ghost things up on the ceiling, hovering above them like a stray helium balloon. It reached towards Arcen with long fingers. The spider threads that sealed Isadora on his back loosened immediately. He felt her warm body slide off him, and the creature carefully placed her on the bed the doctor pointed at.
Arcen felt good having his back exposed to cold air after a long while. He and Isadora had both sweated buckets in their journey here. Her pale body looked red and bruised after rubbing against him for so long.
“Ah, finally!” Arcen said, stretching his stiff joints. All of Zuhara's threads turned to vapor and vanished, finally setting him free.
“Tassi?” Jelly asked, still nibbling on a quarter of her Lollipop. She didn't wait for him to respond. He felt her tiny, cold feet on his shoulder. She settled into his tentacles as if he were made to carry her around.
“You said paralyzed. This one's half dead already,” the doctor said as his ghost lowered Isadora's head carefully onto the mattress. The ghost was gentler than any human could ever be. Isadora basically floated her way onto the bed.
“That's how we found her after a fight,” Zuhara said, circling around to the top half of the bed to take another look at Isadora's battered face.
“Clothes off,” the doctor said, snapping his fingers.
The ghost drew lines around Isadora's body. Fabric fell apart as if her clothes were cut by invisible lasers. The ghost gracefully gathered all of the pieces, folded them neatly, and shoved them into a large garbage bin in the corner of the room. The doctor gestured a twisting motion upwards. The ghost used its free hand to engulf Isadora in a white energy field, lifting her off the bed with ease.
“Ah, I see.” The doctor said, using precise hand gestures to position Isadora so that the back of her head was visible to him. Zuhara's threads that kept her head together dissipated as the ghost ran its fingers above the area. The back of her head was a complete bloodied mess.
“Shave the hair off.” The doctor said, gesturing at Isadora's bloodied head. The ghost reached with one finger and touched the back of her head, scanning back and forth. Hair fell off her head, cut by an invisible force. It cleaned up with other fingers, getting rid of clumps of hair caked with sticky blood. She was completely bald within a minute.
The doctor inspected her head, feeling around the wound with his fingers. Thousands of tiny white tendrils grew from his fingers as he did, exploring the lower half of her skull. Some of them burrowed into her wound, glowing underneath her skin wherever they went.
“This is going to be expensive. She has around one million. Can’t take that anyway, she’ll die from tower sickness. This Procedure is going to take about hundred fifty Gold. Who’s paying?” The doctor asked, pulling his tendrils back from her head.
Shit, I don't have that much!
Arcen wasn't sure if he would spend that much on someone as horrible as Isadora, even if he could afford it. He was just about to open his mouth when the doctor turned to Zuhara.
“I need her age and name. Other details.”
“Her name's Isadora. I think she's seventeen, that’s about all I know.” Arcen scratched his head. He remembered Morgav telling her age when introducing her and her wimpy boyfriend.
“Seventeen? Looked older to me.” The doctor asked, raising an eyebrow. “Price can be lowered by about thirty percent. I have a discount policy for anybody under twenty-one, eighty percent off if under thirteen.”
“Oh, T-that's nice.”
So, kids under thirteen get their asses kicked in these towers?
“She's from Nostrum, right?” Zuhara asked Arcen, reminding him of what he had forgotten to mention.
“Y-yes.”
“Ah. It's all good then. I know Bane Nostrum personally. I'll bill him cash for it.”
“Now that's out of the way, how fixable is she?” Zuhara asked curiously. “We need a contract that only she has to get to a place.”
“She might walk again. It's too early to tell if she'll remember herself. Brain stuff is always unpredictable.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The doctor clapped. “Out now. I'll check with you after I deal with this. Get a number.”
Zuhara sat down in the waiting area after taking a number from the desk. Arcen sat next to her, relaxing into the makeshift cushions. It felt good to sit down on proper furniture after a long time. Jelly had a different reaction. She had nibbled her lollipop out of existence, and she was running around like a maniac, driven insane with the sheer amount of sugar in her one-foot body.
“What are those ghost things?” Arcen asked, watching Jelly running around them. The giants paid no attention to her, remaining as still as statues.
“Just check them out?” Zuhara leaned back on her chair with a groan.
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SKILL ╰︶
????
REVEAL
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╰︶ACTIVATE ︶╯
He used it on one of the ghosts.
╭ ╰︶?? ERITHERIA ?? ︶╯ ╮
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ NAME ╰︶
????
THREE
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SPECIES ╰︶
????
UNKNOWN
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ SENTIENCE ╰︶
????
97%
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ TRAITS ╰︶
????
PASSIVELY OBSCURED
BY A TRAIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ DOMAINS ╰︶
????
PASSIVELY OBSCURED
BY A TRAIT
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
︶╯ AURA ╰︶
????
102,128,117
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
He almost fell off the chair when he saw the number. He couldn't believe his eyes. This ghost thing had more Aura than the Meronolith Queen. There were four of them working for the doctor. Combined, these ghosts had more Aura than Tymon.
Holy shit, what's going on in this fucking tower!
“Hundred million...What the fuck are they?” He whispered to Zuhara, eyes wide in shock.
“Only Doc knows what they are.” She said, completely unbothered. “He's retired now, so no need to worry about them. He's always had them. Never caused any problems.”
“Retired?! But it's only been eight years since Mayday? How do you just retire?”
“Call it what you want. He's not climbing towers anymore. He just sets up his tent and fixes people up.” Zuhara said, loosening some of the straps around her waist. “Some say he knew about towers before Mayday even happened.”
How the fuck is that even possible!
“What?”
“Yeah. I don't know either. Anyway. Nap time for me.” She closed her eyes. “Oh, keep an eye out for Jelly for me, would you?”
“Sure, Oh shit! she's-”
Jelly was trying to climb up one of the ghosts. He stood in a hurry. He didn't want to end up having to deal with any creature with that much Aura.
“Take a walk. Get some snacks, you’ll find some food stalls outside. This might take a few hours.” Zuhara said, sleepily as she wrapped her arms around herself.
Arcen grabbed Jelly off the ghost creature's wispy tail before she could climb any higher. He placed her firmly on his shoulder. “We're going for a walk. You stay there, alright?”
“Jelly!” She said, waving her tiny hands in the air.
“Good girl, Jelly, good girl.”
He nodded at people as he passed, acknowledging everyone who stared at him curiously. People in the doctor’s tent seemed polite and in good spirits. The variety of climbers was rather unexpected. He saw ages ranging from small children to old people who should be in retirement homes. He saw both men and women around the young adult age bracket, but the older ones were mostly male.
He wandered around the tent, looking at random things as Jelly kept babbling nonsense in his ear, hugging one of his largest tentacles like a couch pillow.
In the far corner, he saw someone handling a huge cart full of packages. The man’s outfit looked different, more tactical and military than other climbers who had all sorts of random things strapped all around them. Arcen went up to the man.
“Can I help you, sir?” The man asked, turning around when he overheard Jelly’s endless babbling.
“No, we’re just looking,” Arcen said quickly, with a pleasant smile. “Are you working for the doctor?”
“Yeah, collecting things from other chambers.“ The man lifted a package from the cart. It was a dead ape with glowing orange eyes preserved in a yellow liquid. It had blue mushrooms growing out of its mouth and ears. “Doc needs everything from weird to useful.”
“That one’s useful?” Arcen asked, unable to imagine how this carcass could be of any use.
“No, this one’s weird.” The man laughed, dropping it back into the cart. “You’re weird, too. What brings you here, Mr?…”
Woah. Don’t be racist now.
”Arcen. I just dropped off a dying girl that I…found. What’s your name?”
“Kenneth, nice to meet you.”
They shook hands. Seeing the man up close, Arcen noticed fur on the sides of his neck and a bluish tint to his skin below the chin. His eyes had rounded square pupils and a reflective ring around his irises.
“Jelly!” Jelly joined in as well, putting her tiny hand in.
The man laughed politely, teasing her with a finger.
“Don’t see a lot of Cephs climbing towers, and you’re climbing with your baby?”
“Oh, she’s not mine. I’m just babysitting.”
“Really? I thought she had some Ceph in her. I guess not.”
This guy doesn't know Jelly is a tower creature. He hadn’t used Reveal on her yet.
“Have you seen any other Cephs on this tower?” Arcen asked curiously. He never really met any Cephs outside of work in Helviter fertility department. There weren’t that many of them in New Manning. Kysa used to drive him to a support group after his suicide attempts, but he didn’t make friends with anyone. In recent years, he dated all four Ceph women who showed any interest in him on dating apps. None of them turned out great for various reasons.
“I haven’t seen one up here, but a friend said he saw one on the ground floor with a corpo team a while ago.”
Arcen’s heart raced to his throat. His tentacles curled a little, and he lost all words. He couldn’t connect all the dots right away. This man had met someone from the research camp. He didn't want to keep talking anymore. He picked the right moment to excuse himself, telling him he was hungry for some food. The man kindly gave him the directions to the food stalls outside.
Once outside, he hurried towards a gathering of people in the distance. There was music and the smell of food coming from that direction.
There was a whole creature being grilled on a huge fire in front of one of the stalls, with everyone gathering around with drinks and music. Walking through the crowd, He saw a bunch of people smoking near one of the stalls with an old lady inside.
Time for a goddman smoke.
He went up to the counter and peeked in. The old lady was sitting in the middle of beer cartons and alcohol bottles. There was a shelf behind her packed with cigarettes of brands that he'd never seen. Some of the brands looked hand-drawn and made up.
“One pack, please.” He pointed at the wall.
“Well, which one?” The woman croaked sharply, squinting at him.
“Whatever they're smoking,” Arcen said, pointing over his shoulder at the people outside smoking next to the stall.
The lady grabbed a blue pack off the shelf. “Six Gold, this one.” She said, turning around.
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ GOLD ─╮?
╰ 0 ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
╭────────────────────╮
?╭─ AURA ─╮?
╰ 2,998,505? ╯
╰─────────╮╭────────╯
Ah fuck. I don't have Gold.
“Um, can I pay with Aura?”
The woman scrunched her nose at him and glared. “What do you mean, can you?” She asked suspiciously. “Either you can or you can't?”
“Oh no, I mean. Look, I'm new here. How do I pay with Aura?”
“Finger.” The woman slammed a small box on the counter. It had a dark hole on one side.
“Jelly?” Jelly was already on the counter, trying to lift a small bottle of orange juice. She managed to lift it and hurried back onto his shoulder.
“Paying for that too?” The woman asked suspiciously, pointing a trembling finger at Jelly.
“Y-yes, it's fine.”
“Eight Gold.” She murmured, running her thumb on a dial behind the box. He heard gears clicking into place. He put his forefinger into it and squirmed when the box punctured his finger.
“That hurt! Is it supposed to hurt?”
“Gold doesn't hurt.” She said, taking the box off his finger. She shook the box into a bigger tub under the table, dropping a tiny droplet of gold into it.
The woman gave him the pack of cigarettes.
“Olipop?” Jelly asked, reaching for it before he even opened it.
“No, Jelly. That's not a lollipop!” Arcen shoved the pack into his pocket.
Bad example. I forgot Jelly is a kid!
He found a spot next to the stall with a makeshift wooden chair. Jelly was trying to open her juice bottle with WWE take-down moves. He helped her with the plastic seal.
He pulled a cigarette out while she was distracted with her juice, gesturing politely at a man nearby for his lighter. Lighting his cigarette, he leaned back on the chair, ready to relax and unwind. In his mind, he’d smoked his last cigarette a lifetime ago.
Two drags in, he realized this cigarette hit harder than a cigarette should. The handwritten brands were handwritten for a reason. These were likely rolled by hand, mixing god knows what with tobacco. He didn't care; other people were smoking it just fine.
Halfway through with his strange cigarette, His eyes brushed by someone in the crowd gathering near the grill.
There's no fucking way!
“You!” He yelled, jumping out of the chair. Jelly choked on the orange juice, and the man who lit his cigarette looked at him, bewildered.
Arcen dashed into the crowd, pushing and excusing his way through to confirm what he saw.
The girl turned, staring up at him wide-eyed as his hand slipped off her shoulder.
“Oh!?” She exclaimed, opening her oil-drenched mouth.
What sort of climbing did he do to get bored enough to retire within eight years?
We may never know. (It might take a spin off series)
Next chapter on Friday.
Regular reminder to rate/review if you’re enjoying the ride!
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