Quest Complete:

  Kill 100 Alabaster Wolves: 100/100

  Quest Complete:

  Kill the Alabaster King:

  1/1

  Rewards: 1 Free Skill, Bronze Chest x 6

  Rewards will be distributed upon return to current home city.

  Fayde and her family looked over the quest update on the card. There wasn’t a mention of rewards when they looked at the quest as it updated over the last week. Was this normal or another bonus granted to them by the ring? Fayde heard a faint chuckle in her head when she thought up the question, confirming that her sentient engagement ring was still pulling on invisible strings to improve their chances. She was happy and also confused about the free skill reward, and even more excited about the bronze chests. There were six of them, one for each member of her family. Hopefully they would get some good stuff from the chest. She looked over her family. Lith, Trevor, Matia, and Guidry laid together splayed out on the black and dead grass.

  “Thank the gods that’s over!” Lith proclaimed. “I’m whopped.”

  “Same.” Announced Trevor

  “Me too.” Said Guidry.

  “Ditto.” Matia agreed.

  As they were complaining about their sore bodies and depleted reserves, the body of the Alabaster King started to shift and move. Fayde redrew her swords while Enki charged another mote while the rest rushed to their feet. Hadn’t they just killed this thing? Yes, they had. The quest card confirmed as much. So why was it still moving? They watched as the chest of the Alabaster King moved violently up and down. They could barely hear sloshing, popping and crunching sounds coming from its chest, like something was trying to break its way out. By now Lith and the rest of the family had gotten to their feet, not truly prepared for round two but not willing to let their family face a challenge alone.

  The crunch sound became louder as the portion of the beast’s chest, closest to where the heart would be, began to heave upwards. It looked like a dull spike was being driven through its body. It sank down once more before shooting back up again, picking up the body of the fallen Alabaster King several feet before it landed back on the ground with a thud and splattering blood, viscera, and bone fragments all around them. Floating above the corpse was a baseball-sized sphere of alabaster stone. It looked like a larger version of the Alabaster Cores they were tasked with collecting earlier on the level. They had collected the last one shortly before the Alabaster King was born. Without a moment’s hesitation of breaking free the core flew directly at Matia faster than any of them could react. Matia barely had time to raise her shield before it passed straight through her shield and into her body. Her body was wracked with pain, greater than any of the cores before had caused, as she screamed. Her skin felt like millions upon millions of fire ants were biting her all over.

  “Matia?” her father said as he tried to cast balm on her. The skill fizzled in his hand, the switching places with one of his copies draining a large portion of his available mental energy, leaving him unable to use his Cleansing Balm skill. “Hang on baby girl.”

  Fayde and Lith each held one of her hands as Matia lay on the ground yelling and writhing in agony. She had cast off her frozen stone armor when the wolf died and had barely even started manifesting it again when the body of the wolf began moving again. The parts she had managed to form again had already fallen off of her and began to melt and sink into the blackened soil. Her skin was turning white as small stones started to grow from her. At first, they feared that she was under some form of petrification from the cores, but the stones quickly fell away only to be replaced by more. Helplessly they watched as layers of stone formed and fell away from their daughter. The stones became smaller with each shedding before it began to fall away from her skin like dead flakes of dried skin. The pain on Matia’s face began to lessen as the shedding slowed and eventually the pained look and screams stopped as Matia’s appearance became that of an Alabaster statue, perfectly preserving her appearance.

  “Matia?” Fayde called trying to rouse her daughter. “Baby girl?”

  There was silence for a long moment. The air around them seemed ominous and cold. Then Matia took in a gasp of air as she used her parents’ arms to help herself sit up.

  “Holy fuck!” she yelled.

  “Are you ok my baby?” Fayde asked as she put the back of her hand to her daughter’s forehead like she was checking for a fever. Her skin wasn’t cold like Fayde expected her stony appearance to be. Instead, it felt warm, like Matia’s normal body temperature.

  “No! Absolutely not. It left like my skin was being melted layer by layer with some kind of acid.”

  “Come one.” Said Lith. “Stand up and we’ll do a once over.”

  Matia clutched her breastplate. “I’m not taking off my clothes in front of you dad, that’s fucking weird.”

  Lith’s face turned confused and mildly disturbed. “I’m not asking you to take off your clothes. You, your mother, and your sister can do that back at the house. I’m going to check your mobility and acuity.” He stood holding onto her hand and placing the other on her elbow to help her stand up. “Now come on Ms. Porcelain Doll.”

  “Porcelain Doll? What are you talking about?”

  Lith looked over at Fayde, who was so pale from lack of sunlight she was practically a ghost. “You’re whiter than your mother now.”

  “What?!” Matia looked at her previously moderately tanned hands. They were pale white and as smooth as carved stone. “My tan!” she exclaimed. “I look like a ghost!”

  “Yes, but a beautiful ghost.” Lith said reassuringly. “Make all the male ghosts say ‘wooooooooh’.”

  “You’re not funny.” Matia said with a glare.

  Enki wiped the smile from his face. “Hey, Matia. Check the skills on your class card. Maybe your skin is an active skill.”

  Matia summoned her card to her hand with hope in her heart.

  Enki’s assumption was correct. The three question marks that previously held a spot on her skill list now read Alabaster Skin. She could feel a slight draw on both her mana and stamina being infused into her skin originating from a place that was both inside her body and not. With focused thought, Matia cut the flow of both mental and physical energy to the skill’s place on her chest. When she opened her eyes, her hands were back to their normal tan tone.

  “So? What does it do aside from making you a statue?” Guidry asked.

  “It boosts my toughness of my skin, like an exodermal armor.”

  “Nice! Now you don’t have to wase time and energy on making that ugly frozen stone armor.” Trevor exclaimed.

  “Hey! I like my armor. It’s great training for my manipulation skills.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Well, the deactivation seemed painless and seamless.” Said Lith. “Hopefully activating the skill again will be the same and we won’t have to wait a minute while you shed stones.”

  Matia shivered at the recent traumatic memory. She would rather avoid that kind of pain again. The world suddenly faded to black as a parchment appeared before them. They were back in the portal’s void between floors.

  Floor Complete

  Would you like to continue or return home?

  Floor 2     First City

  The tower took its time giving them the option to progress. Perhaps it was waiting for Matia’s skill to finish forming before returning to town? Fayde walked over to the parchment and put her finger to ‘First City’. The parchment had changed to say ‘Returning to First City’ as it remained in front of them.

  A moment later, a scene different from what they remembered appeared before them. Outside of the gates surrounding the portal were people and houses. The people were running around followed by Allum. Groups were standing outside of their homes talking and showing off their weapons. The variety of weapons on display was astonishing and as varied as the ethnicity of people in the area, although there were far too many Katana held by non-Asian people for Lith’s liking. He wasn’t the biggest fan of cultural appropriation. Before Fayde and her family could go investigate what was happening, another parchment appeared before her, thin time with a quill.

  Please Enter Group Name for Floor Ranking

  x

  Fayde took only a moment before deciding on a name for her family’s group. She didn’t know exactly what the Floor Ranking was for sure, but it implied that there would be a list of positions for how far one climbed the tower. As far as they knew, they were the first people to exit the portal, and this was confirmed as Fayde wrote the name of their group.

  “New Floor Ranking. Group: Par Ma’at has reached first position." A voice from all around them. It was the same monotone feminine voice that had instructed them with the Allum, and everyone around the portal’s gate were now looking at them. Several of the groups by the homes surrounding the gate started moving towards the portal pavilion, leaving the rest to murmur in huddled masses. The groups that approached didn’t enter the pavilion, but waited outside, staring at them with questioning eyes.

  “Hands are off their weapons.” Lith noted.

  “Assuming non-hostility?” Fayde questioned.

  “Assuming they want information. No telling what they’ll do for it.”

  “Think their numbers will match up to our breakthroughs?” Trevor asked.

  “That group? We could probably take them.” Fayde answered confidently. “The entire city? I’d rather avoid that simply on morals.”

  “Let’s hope our return doesn’t cause a riot then.” Said Lith. “When did they even arrive? Have more people gone through the portal yet?”

  “They have questions, and we have questions. Might as well go exchange information.” Fayde answered.

  They approached the gate where the large group stood on the other side. Several people from the group looked at each other before two people stepped forward. One was a tall white man with blonde hair and blue eyes in full plate armor. The other was a man of African heritage, equally as tall with beautifully twisted locks of hair and with armor comprised of a mix of leather and metal.

  “Hello there.” started the white man. “My name is Nathaniel Jackson. If you don’t mind, my group and I have a few questions for you.”

  “We do mind actually.” Fayde immediately felt something off about the man. His voice a nasty shade of green that reminded her of green and envy. “We just got done fighting wolves for a week straight. We’re tired and in desperate need of a shower.”

  “A week?” said Nathaniel, momentarily losing his composure. He collected himself, clearing his voice before continuing. “You’ve been in the tower for a week?”

  “Did you not hear what she just said?” Lith pressed. “We are tired and in need of a bath. Kindly get out of our way.”

  Nathaniel was still at a slight loss for words. The entire populace of the city had only been here for about half an hour but these six had been here for a week. They were a trove of information in comparison to everyone else. He had to get them to talk to him immediately before another group got their hands on them. He would have every advantage with them on his side. Looking into the man’s brown eyes however, he began to second guess himself. His irises were so dark that they were indistinguishable from the pupil, yet they seemed to radiate a barely controlled rage. His tan skin spoke of many hours spent working in the sun. He couldn’t know much in the way of how the tower worked. The woman next to him, however, was different. She had eyes of silvery blue and pale skin. Perhaps she would be more amenable after she cleaned the blood and grime from her.

  “Are you going to move?”

  The woman phrased it as a question, but it came off as a demand. He quickly moved out of the way and the crowd behind him parted as well, except the other man who had stepped forward. He stood there unmoving, looking slightly down at them. Lith was tall, but this man was even taller, if only by a few inches.

  Lith motioned with his head from his family to go ahead of him to the house. He faced the man as they moved past himself and the group of people.

  “Hi. Lith.” Lith said as he extended his hand for a shake.

  “Marcell.” Said the man not moving his hand to shake Lith’s. “Your hand is bleeding.”

  Lith looked down at his right hand. He had completely forgotten about the small holes in his hand from the fur of the Alabaster King. He was aware of the stinging sensation his hand felt, but it wasn’t too bothersome at the moment. Maybe he was too tired or was still full of adrenaline. Or maybe the pain was less than what his sciatica used to be, and this level of pain wasn’t enough. He had recovered enough mental energy to use his mending skill again, but when they saw the people around the pavilion he decided that me might have to save the energy for something else. Thankfully it hadn’t come to that yet. Besides, it felt less gruesome than it seemed, to him at least.

  “Ah, yes sorry.” Lith said as he turned his open hand into a first and presented it. “How about a fist bump then.”

  Marcell lightly tapped Lith’s fist with his own. He expected Lith to wince but got no reaction. Was something wrong with this man, Lith? He had plenty of questions for the man. What type pf class would allow him shrug off having several holes in his hand?

  “Does your group not have a healer?”

  “I am. Why?” Lith crossed his arms, smearing some blood on the underside of his left arm.

  “Why haven’t you healed yourself?”

  “Oh!” Lith laughed. “I haven’t recovered enough mental energy to use my healing skill.”

  Marcell motioned to one member of his party. “Julius.”

  A young man in white robes stepped forward. His hair was short and very curly. Nathaniel recognized the boy as the one who started the conflict with the young man from his own group. What was his name? Vincent?

  “Can you heal his hand?” Marcell asked.

  “Yes Marcell” the young man answered.

  Julius walked up to Lith as a green light emitted from his hand. Lith raised his hand towards Julius for him to heal. As Julius hand waved over Lith’s, he felt warmth flow through his body. He could feel the small holes in his hand close up, stitching together the muscles and blood vessels. Lith flexed his hand as the warmth faded.

  “Thank you, Julius.” Lith said with a smile. “What’s the name of your Allum?” He addressed Marcell. “I will send mine, Anthropo, when we are done washing and resting. We can talk at length then, before we go back into the tower.”

  “Bas’set.” Marcell answered. “We will look forward to that meeting.”

  “My Allum’s name…” Started Nathaniel

  “I don’t recall asking you for your Allum’s name.” interrupted Lith. He stared at Nathaniel for a moment, as if daring him to speak again.

  “Surely it would be best to share your knowledge with as many people as possible?”

  “Sure, I’ll tell Marcell here. If you want that information you can talk to him about it or wait for him to tell others and get it from them. I’m not going to explain everything a million times to everyone in this city. I’ve got a tower to climb.”

  “Then we can hold a city-wide meeting…”

  “Pass. Too many people and my voice isn’t loud enough to make sure everyone can hear it.”

  “But...”

  “Will you just stop? Talk to Marcell after or just wait for someone else to get back from the portal. I’m not wasting my time on you.” Lith turned away from Nathaniel and back to Marcell. “I’ll talk to you later man.” Lith offered his fist to Marcell again and received another fist bump from the man as one side of his lip curved into a grin. Marcell put a bit more strength into the fist bump now that Lith’s hand was healed and could feel how firm his body was. Lith moved his fist over to Julius and got another fist bump from him as well. He walked away, putting his pointer and middle fingers to his outer brow before flicking them away from his head to make a peace out motion, leaving the group.

  “Tremel. Dante. Make sure he gets home unharrassed.” Marcell ordered the two party members in heavy armor and shields. They nodded before jogging to catch up with Lith. Marcell looked over to Nathaniel with the smirk still on his face. “Let’s go.” He said as turned to head back to their home.

  “Why you!” Nathaniel said as he balled his fist and crossed the distance to strike at Marcell. Before his fist could hit, two hands intercepted it. One was from Marcell’s Allum, Bas’set. The other was, surprisingly, from his own Allum, Draug.

  “Combat is not allowed outside of the tower combat zones and Arena.” Both of the Allum said in unison.

  “And that is why I’m not wasting my time on you.” Lith said from afar. He had turned around, the crowd still leaving an open path between them all. Tremel and Dante were flanking him, shields between Lith and the crowd. “Disappointing.” Lith turned around and started moving back towards his house. Bas’set released its grip on Nathaniel’s wrist as Marcell and his group walked away, leaving Nathaniel and his group fuming as they were abandoned by everyone else in the crowd.