Tower of Avarice: A LitRPG story

"My oh my! You've all proven worthy of your place on the highest Floors of the Tower of Avarice! But this challenge will be like none other you have ever endured! You will need to survive in the harshest of environments. From the most blistering heat to the deadliest cold. You will be entering into a realm where the very air itself conspires against you!"

The Apostle spread his arms wide as if he were embracing the vast, unseen forces that awaited them. The gold threads of his gaudy and excessive clothing gleamed under the lights that lined the courtyard where they were assembled.

"No longer can you rely just on sheer strength or magical prowess. Even your wit alone will not be enough. No weapon can defend you from the cold when your hands are frozen stiff, and no mind will stay sharp when the heat warps your very thoughts."

"Here, Endurance is King and only the mask you wear can protect you! Adaptation is queen, and you are mere mortals with masks of borrowed divinity!"

The Apostle paused as he relished the anticipation of his announcement of what the next challenge would be.

"The landscape will shift beneath your feet; the rules will bend when you least expect it. One moment, you will all be clawing through glaciers with air so cold it will freeze your lungs. The next, you will stumble into a desert so merciless that the sun itself will strip the flesh from your bones."

"The only thing that will carry you through this next challenge is your will to survive. But remember, the more you take from the mask you wear, the more you risk losing it all!"

With a flourish of his cloak, the Apostle lifted his hand high into the air as his voice rang out.

"Steel your hearts and steady your hands. The trial begins now!"

The world around them trembled, and in a flash of light, the mask-wearing human disappeared from sight. Everything around Mathew was covered in a white fog, and a roaring sound filled his ears.

Mathew stumbled forward as his boots sunk into shifting dunes of black sand. The heat struck him like a hammer the moment he arrived. It was a wave of suffocating air that made every breath feel like he was inhaling fire. The sun overhead was impossibly large, a bloated sphere of red that cast searing light upon the ground.

His mask burned against his skin, the material absorbing the unbearable heat yet offering no protection from it.

The landscape stretched endlessly in every direction; it was an ocean of obsidian that shimmered in the light like crushed glass. The dunes rolled in waves with peaks that curled, unbroken by any structure or tree.

There was a stifling stillness, and the sky above his head was a sickly orange. Despite the fact that there was nothing around him, Mathew's vision was reduced by the wavering haze of heat rising from the sand.

Mathew felt a sharp prick from all over his skin before sweat gushed from his pores, only to evaporate almost immediately as the heat stole the moisture straight from his body in an instant. There was no life in this desert; there was nothing but the black sand and the red sun overhead.

"We need to move, find some shade." Mathew said, his voice steady despite the heat. He turned to look at the others behind him. Greg and Alivia had been transported along with him, with the former standing and staring at the desert with a hand shielding his eyes, while the latter had removed one of her boots and was tapping the bottom in order to get sand out of it.

"Agreed. But I doubt we'll find an oasis here, and I don't see any shade nearby." Greg replied as he slowly assessed the horizon.

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Alivia scoffed as she put her boot back on her foot and trudged up beside the pair.

"I don't expect that bastard Apostle to make things easy on us. Chances are there isn't a drop of water in this entire desert, and you can forget about shade. He was serious when he said it was a test of endurance." Alivia scowled and shook her head.

"He also said the environment will change as we travel. I don't know about you both, but I prefer the cold to the heat." Greg replied with a grin.

"This way." Mathew interrupted the pair as he pointed out a direction that cut around a few of the larger dunes. Drawing on the power of his mask and ignoring the presence within that was slowly regaining its strength, Mathew put one foot in front of the other and led the group forward.

The heat slowly grew worse, growing from uncomfortable to unbearable. The air seemed to thicken, making it difficult to breathe. It burned their lungs and scraped their throats raw. The sun hadn't moved an inch from its place in the sky despite time passing.

The black sand beneath their boots began to change until it no longer felt like grains of sand but molten embers that radiated enough heat that they could feel it in their legs. Even the soles of their boots began to smoke slightly, and only the remaining magical enchantments kept them intact.

From one step to the next, the temperature doubled, and Mathew was forced to reach for more power through the mask he wore. It surged into him like an icy current, dulling the worst of the heat and sharpening his focus so that he could keep moving.

But as he did so, the presence within grew stronger as well, and Mathew could hear faint whispers, and dark shadows appeared out of the corner of his eyes, disappearing when he looked.

More concerning still, Greg and Alivia had grown quiet.

Greg walked stiffly beside him, his shoulders tense and his eyes flicking to the side every so often as if he were searching for something that wasn't visible to the others. Aliva kept pace with them, but there was something off about the way she moved.

Aliva had been the most resistant to the Mask's influence amongst the trio, but now she was walking with her head tilted slightly, as if she were listening to something only she could hear. Mathew watched her mouth move silently, her expressions changing as she did so.

"Are you both alright?" Mathew asked. Greg flinched and looked away as he shook his head.

"Yes. It's nothing. Just the heat is getting to me." Greg responded evasively.

"It feels like my brain is boiling in my skull." Alivia complained.

They were all struggling, and the power they were drawing upon was the only thing keeping them alive, but it came with a cost.

How much further could they go?

The shift came without warning. One moment, the suffocating heat was pressing down on them. The next, a violent gust of wind roared across the desert, stirring up the sand and carrying it into the sky. The scorching heat was replaced by a brutal, biting cold that sliced through their clothing and seared their flesh worse than anything the sun had accomplished.

The black sand beneath their boots hardened, turning into solid ice, and the landscape shifted. The dunes collapsed and were replaced by jagged, uneven ice that stretched to the horizon. The wind howled and the sun, which had been looming overhead, changed colour and became a white moon.

The orange sky darkened into a night without any stars, and only the pristine moon provided light. It was as large as the sun had been, but it hung above them with a similar oppressiveness.

Mathew couldn't help but gasp as the air was ripped from his lungs. It wasn't natural; it didn't just freeze but devoured. It clawed at the flesh, slipping beneath their clothing and sinking into their bones.

Greg fell to one knee, his foot having been embedded into the ice up to his ankle. He placed his hand against the ice and channelled the power from his mask, the glowing energy melting it enough to free him.

"I was wrong. I prefer the heat." He joked as he stamped his foot to try and recover some of the warmth he had lost.

They forced themselves onward, their bodies growing stiff and their movements slow and mechanical. Each step was a battle against the wind that never stopped, only shifting direction in an attempt to knock them down.

The glacier would shake with tremors that split the ice apart, revealing yawning chasms of darkness that they would be forced to traverse. They had to move cautiously as a single misstep would send them into the ravine without a bottom.

But the challenges never ceased. Chasms were replaced by mountains whose peaks were obscured by clouds. As they climbed, the temperature rose and the rain began to fall. Each drop felt as heavy as the mountain they were traversing, bruising their skin and leaving cuts behind.

Each challenge required them to pull more power from their masks, and the whispers grew in volume as they did so. Not content with just seeing shadows, all three began to see things that were no longer there, and no one could trust their eyes any longer.

When the world returned to normal, and they completed the challenge, the Apostle greeted them with a smile.