Chapter 106 - Cave Tower
Thinking about it for a moment, he expected whatever was blocking flying to be located in the centre of this place. With this in mind, he began walking through what appeared to be a collapsed medieval society on sandy ground.
As he walked, he kept testing the limits of how the lack of flying worked. He could manifest Psyhands and move them around. Thoughtform objects also could float around, but as soon as he stepped on them or tried to lift himself, he got the error. Since picking up rocks or weapons with the Psyhands worked fine, he tried a secondary logic with using rope; the rope could be carried around, but as soon as he tried to lift himself off the ground, the error returned. Even if he tried to climb the hovering rope, it just fell to the ground.
It didn't take long before he started seeing more of those black-skinned creatures; they were surprisingly varied, some were incredibly muscular with tiny wings, others were more lithe with wings large enough to support flight, and there were a myriad of variants between them.
None of them were flying, even though it looked like they should be able to. As Sam walked closer towards the light in the ceiling, the air grew heavier, and the density of the creatures rose. The place looked like a city, and the layout and building remains suggested a sprawling and successful city. But now there were only ruins. Were these creatures the original inhabitants? Perhaps they were the cause of this? But if so, why would they ground themselves like this?
As he walked around, his Radar kept him informed of anyone coming too close, but 35 meters/114 ft wasn't as far as one would expect when trying to keep hidden.
There were many questions without answers, but none of this mattered much as Sam was surprised by realising something.
The Veyrathi had found his footprints.
Having turned around as a small group pinged on his Radar, he saw them squatting near his trail of footprints in the sand. This place didn't have a lack of footprints, but the sand, in places, was moist or viscous enough that it held footprints well enough to separate their bare feet and his bootprints.
"Ewha tar ethes eprint, sthe yloo kstrang." The one crouching to inspect the prints spoke to the others.
Mentally cursing, Sam instinctively manifested Psyhands and tried to lift himself again.
[ Flying is not possible in this area.
Source: Local influence. ]
Holding back the wish to disappointingly click with his tongue, he instead took to enter a nearby stone building, which had several stone floors connected with a crude, mostly collapsed, staircase. It was better than letting them follow the prints right to him and would at least give him a chance.
As the place was missing a lot of walls, there was plenty of sand on the first floor, though at least it was loose enough, making boot identification impossible. He took the staircase and did his best to step close to the wall where he expected it to be the strongest.
This worked perfectly well, and he found himself on the second floor in one of the side rooms after knocking the sand off his shoes and clothing as he ascended the stairs.
"Ethe ylea di nher."
He could hear voices from the first floor; he couldn't understand a word, but he heard someone speaking. It seems they had followed him into the building. He was still invisible, and there were no footprints on this floor; he felt confident in his hiding ability like this.
"Esprea dou."
It didn't take long for them to come up and investigate, but sitting silently in a corner had the four who came up completely miss him.
"Tnothin gi nher." One of the smaller ones stated back to the others outside of the room, having them enter as well.
The large buff one entered last and, disappointingly, shoved one of the smaller ones.
"Sth efuc, kwastin gou rtim elik ethi." It blurted out something in an annoyed tone. The smaller one looked like he was intending to defend himself verbally, but with a stern look from the large one, he stopped talking. The group left shortly after that, going up to the third floor for a few long minutes before going back down to the ground floor.
Sam could see them through a window, or rather a fallen hole in the wall, they were arguing as they walked on, disappearing behind some of the ruined walls in the distance.
Finally relaxing, Sam went up to the third floor. he wanted a moment to rest, look around and gather his thoughts. Since this place was already considered empty, he felt like it was a good place to do just that.
It wasn't that he had a problem taking them out; the group could be killed out in a second or two, but that could alert others to this place. And as it was now, they had confirmed that there was nobody here. The drawback of this is that they might share the weird footprints with others, but it was worth the danger for now.
Taking the moment to eat and drink a little, he had plenty of food and drink hoarded from the people who attempted fate during the boss fights, as Players often brought stuff like that with them. He looked around through the windows and fallen walls around the third floor, getting a better lay of the land.
It was different seeing things from a little height, and this much closer into the city. There was a large tower further into the city, looking like it was under the hole in the cave ceiling. It looked very populated from this distance, but he felt this was where he needed to go.
Not being able to float himself around, he would have to walk on foot, which would lead others to him easily. He considered walking barefoot to mask himself, but he had no idea what creatures, debris, or pointy objects might be hidden under the sand. On one hand, his Defence could keep him well protected, but as it didn't stop anything from actually landing or making contact, he could step on something and get infected or worse. Another idea he had was to make a footprint out of Thoughtform objects and kind of attach that to his foot, but he dismissed it as too complicated for what it was worth.
He didn't want to cut his invisibility or be found, as that mind-affecting thing would be massively problematic if it triggered on him while he was alone. He could tank a surprising amount of damage, but... not the over 10 thousand he could do now.
Right now, he had only one thing on his mind: surviving this place. To do that, he needed to get out. Since this place was more or less circular in design, the centre was as far away from all sides, so there was no value in trying to go around. He just needed to follow any non-main road and hope for the best.
Moving back down the stairs, he continued towards his goal. At least he hoped that he was in the centre; he didn't know for certain that the flying inhibitor was there, but it felt like the best spot.
Weaving between ruins, he tried to maintain a certain distance from the locals he sensed with the Radar, steering clear of the sand that might reveal his footprints. Appraising everyone he came across, he made sure of how dangerous they were before he risked anything. He didn't see any of the smaller individuals with the mind-controlling ability.
Suddenly, he found that he had made it into the heavily populated area surprisingly easily. However, it seemed like it might not be as easy going forward from here. Sam was only a few blocks away from the central tower, and though there were more of the locals in this area, he could get a better look at it now.
It reached no more than 5, perhaps 7 stories tall, with the upper floor looking like an outside area with remnants of railings and supports for a roof, more than an actual inside area like the others. Since any remaining ruins of other buildings didn't reach more than 3 floors, it was easily twice as tall as anything else. Having a tapered square shape with a sizeable base, it stood as a centrepiece of the whole cave. Several walls had fallen, opening up for a scenic view from the inside. Sam could see several stairs being barely present, but they looked to be in use and should work if he needed them. Still not knowing where he needed to go, this was still a guess more than anything.
The demon-looking people around talked in words still unknown to Sam, some walked about doing various things, such as building things out of debris or just talking. Others were on their knees in front of the tower, revering it like a holy symbol. He could see several individuals moving on the various floors, and they were entering and exiting the ground floor doorless entryway.
As he was thinking how to get over there unnoticed, there were too many of them, but as he did so, he realised something. Why did he stop himself from doing the camouflage thing with his feet? It might have been dumb, but there was no reason not to try, right?
And, as he thought of that, he also wondered why he didn't at least attempt with the mask when he was the dungeon boss. He had plenty of time to get something while he was waiting to be transported, or he could just have covered his face or obfuscated his identity... He had several ideas on how to do that with a mask, invisibility or otherwise, but why didn't he?
Yes, based on what Mercer hinted, he could probably have been identified anyway, but there was no reason not to try, right? So... why didn't he?
The Tower System had forced him to do things against his better will before, not considering the mind control that killed Mercer, or the Taunt ability he fell for... The System was already nudging and tempting Players, so... was this an extension of that? Creating drama for the Entity entertainment?
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The more he pondered, the more he realised that he could be nudged or guided through things. Things he might have been reluctant to do before, like how he somewhat gave up at the start of the fight with Mercer. Not to mention how fast he wanted to get back into things, even after the traumatic things he had been through, how he had been neglecting getting defensive items and only focused offensive. Even the safety-focused Janik looked like he might have been affected, wanting nothing but safety for Sam, but slowly nudging him on more and more.
He didn't like this feeling, and even more so, he didn't like that he decided to put these thoughts aside to focus on what he was doing... But he did, and before he realised it, he had taken a few steps into the sand.
"Ether' e ssom ethin gher." A voice stated through the others.
Sam's derailed completely as he felt someone come into the range of his radar, turning towards it, he didn't even get time to react before he saw a hulking figure's attack being deflected by manifested Thoughtform Shields.
He suddenly felt very happy about having set that Triggered Manifest before.
Sam barely confirmed the attacker's stats before jumping away for some distance.
[ Veyrathi Bonecrusher
Level: 73
STR: 78
DEX: 52
VIT: 66
SPT: 10
HP: 4964 / 4964
Damage: Rending Maul 730 / Groundsplitter 664 / Skullrack Smash 763 / Terror Howl 498.
Defence: 300
Abilities: HP Boon, STR Boon, VIT boon, Rending Maul, Groundsplitter, Skullrack Smash, Terror Howl. ]
Though as soon as Sam landed in the sand, the Veryathi closed the distance with a single step before attacking again.
The shields manifested like before, but since the attack was wider, it just pushed the shields. They slammed into Sam's body, and the momentum carried through, sending him rolling along the sand.
[ Armour, Defence 260 has lowered the damage. ]
[ HP: 156 / 570 ███░░░░░░░ ]
Though the Barrier had recharged, it wasn't active as all the Aura Points were assigned to the Radar. Sam tried getting up, but couldn't move, something the bodybuilder took advantage of and speedwalked towards him in the sand. Sam's Psyhands didn't manifest; he couldn't do more than watch and Appraise.
[ Skullrack Smash: Delivers a skull-crushing blow that stuns for 1 second. ]
In less than a second, the Bonecrusher stood above Sam and was delivering a powerful punch down towards where he lay, and there was no way he could move fast enough to avoid this attack. Even if he manifested Psyhands in time, he wouldn't be able to move himself fast enough.
Suddenly, Sam found himself standing upright a short distance away.
[ Flash Step Shoes used. ]
"Holy fucking shit, that was close," he commented to himself, forcing the demon's gaze to snap towards him. "Had you been just a split second faster, I'd probably be creamed."
However, it was too late for it to do anything now; Sam was no longer stunned and could again act.
And act he did.
Remaining invisible for now, taking out a potion, he manifested the remaining of his Psyhands and weapons as normal, the 300 Defence rating on his opponent didn't do much against the 108 weapons headed at him. Even with the 10 points assigned to his invisibility, the combined damage, critical hits, triggered and elemental effects went deep into the mid-9000's damage. He chugged the potion at the same time.
[ HP: 441 / 570 ████████░░ ]
[ Barrier 175 / 175 ██████████ ]
A powerful splash of purple, golden streaked, blood-stained the sand as he fell. Sam didn't wait for the others to react but started running for the central tower. He just needed somewhere with solid ground to hide properly.
Only a few seconds later, the remaining locals had taken to following him, seeing the steps in the sand come from nowhere, they identified where he was easily enough. But he had an easy way to avoid being attacked.
Suddenly, as he ran, he stopped but used some Psyhands to keep faking running ahead. Everyone kept focusing on the nonexistent Sam running ahead. Moving the Aura points into the Barrier, he moved all remaining Energy into range to fake running further.
This worked surprisingly well; attacks hit sand, and they continued to jump, pounce, shout things, cast spells and all around wreck where he was supposed to be. Then, after it finally reached his maximum range, considering that he's holding Invisibility, he shortened the range and repeated the effect, but en masse. Creating many pairs of fake feet, he ran back and forth in random directions, which was to let him run at the same time, aiming for the central tower.
"Mno wther' e sman yo fthe?" Someone shouted with a confused expression on their face.
Since he had already led them aside, there was minimal attention towards his actual movements, mainly due to the confusing chaos around the fake steps. It let him get to the central tower with surprising ease, to the point that Sam felt it was almost too easy.
Having entered the tower, he didn't need to move far before the sand was no longer in the way. He could stop with the fake steps, letting them look to the best of their ability outside as he finally took a breather.
The inside of the tower had a few pieces of stone furniture, mainly made out of stacked pieces of stone, more than anything practical. There were no cupboards, no shelves, nothing of actual interest looking to be from this location originally. The only things that appeared to be made out of debris.
Now that Sam relaxed a little bit, keeping an eye but largely ignoring the individuals coming into the room he was in and searching, he took a moment to control his breathing and activate Vital Recovery. Like before, he didn't like how he 'had not thought of this before', as he had plenty of time when resting, but... He realised he had not been acting with his mind lately, if that was him being arrogant and falling into a habit, or the System messing with him, he didn't know. But he didn't like it.
It didn't take long for his health to be back to max, having wasted the earlier potion, he didn't consider it a waste, after all, it was a security net more than anything. But now that he relaxed and took the moment to breathe, he felt an odd pressure around him, like how you feel higher pressure in your ears, and he felt something across his whole body. It wasn't painful or uncomfortable, just sort of... there.
The first decision he had was to just get off the first floor; he could take some time and look around as he did. Even though the first floor had several large rooms, the walls that still stood didn't do much to hide how empty everything here was, which felt oddly strange. Though the whole place was inside a cave, he hadn't seen a single place where one could relax, sleep or anything. He wasn't sure if this was inside a dungeon still, or if it counted as 'outside' in the sense that they were properly sapient like Dia and the other creatures he had seen in Aetheria and on Earth.
Moving the Aura Points back to the Radar, he walked out of the little side room he was in, to the stairs in the back corner of the tower. Everyone was outside looking for the group of invisible creatures, at least based on the commotion, so he didn't have anyone in the way when he made his way up the stairs.
As soon as he came up the stairs everything changed. He came up into a large room with two doors. There were furniture, actual wooden chairs and tables. Things on the walls which looked like pieces of cloth that once had some symbols on but long since faded.
In the middle of the room, kneeling on a small circular carpet no larger than a large step, was one of the local creatures. She was wearing a thin white dress, though somewhat worn, it looked remarkably well maintained compared to everything else here.
Since she looked different from the others, for one, she was the only one clothed he had seen so far, he decided to appraise her.
[ Target cannot be appraised. ]
To Sam's further surprise, she lifted her head and looked him straight in the eyes.
"Uh' e swaitin gfo ryo."