How to Clear the Tower

We rested for a little bit a few hours later into the journey. We sat by the side of a beautiful, clear river that ran down the side of a small mountain.

I was glad I bought new footwear before we left, utilising the last of the money I had for it, as the route we travelled on was quite difficult and uneven. My old shoes would have been completely useless on the rocks as we half-climbed, half-circumvented the mountain.

I took out my canteen, filled it with the freshwater from the river, and looked at the vista through an opening above the trees. It was breathtaking, and for a quick moment, I forgot about all the bad things I had recently experienced and was thankful that I was able to even travel to this point and see the view.

As I sat on a rock by the edge of the river, Saizo knelt down next to me and washed his face with the river water. I waited till he was done and was refilling his own canteen when I spoke.

"So how does the Crimson Tower Quest work?"

He wiped his face with his shirt and sighed, "well, probably best if Mobito told you about it himself," he turned to look at the man, "how about it Mobito?"

The adventurer was sitting on some grass and leant up against a tree, "the tasks are relatively simple, they're just a test of your capabilities as an adventurer, really."

"Okay," I leant in a little bit to make it obvious that I was interested. Mobito noticed that and continued.

"Task one is a basic test of your agility, endurance and quick thinking," Mobito started as he looked at a personal Window with the information that he gathered from completing the Crimson Tower Quest before, "once we enter the Tower, we are transported into an ever-changing maze. Our only goal is to get out."

"Why is it testing your endurance and agility and all that?" I asked.

Mobito made air quotation marks, "because a monster is hunting us in the maze."

"A monster?" I asked hesitantly.

"Well, no one really knows what kind of thing it is, because those who've seen it, usually end up failing the first task," Mobito explained.

I feigned naivety as I turned to Saizo with what I hoped was a believable scared face, "you can die in this Quest?"

"You can die in any Quest," Nato butted in. He was sitting on a boulder, wiping the blade of his sword clean. It wasn't dirty before, but I noticed that it seemed to be a habit of his to wipe his great sword when he could.

"Yeah, you could die in any Quest, that's why you have to be quite careful as an Adventurer," Saizo explained.

"Yeah, we're like one of the most dangerous professions," Nato chuckled, "'cause we actually run towards dangerous situations."

"So how are we supposed to complete the first task?" I turned back to Mobito.

"There is an exit point somewhere in the maze. It's randomised after every batch of Users enters the Tower, but we get notifications from Paradigm as we get closer and closer to the exit point. It just depends on whether or not we're on the right pathway at any given moment. It's a little bit tricky, but not impossible." Mobito explained.

"And what about the 'monster'?"

"We get notifications about it too. That's where the quick thinking comes in, how well you respond to that much information coming at you is very important," Mobito continued, "pull up your map function."

I did as he told me, and saw that on the map, there were three other points of interest blinking softly near the blinking point of interest that represented me, and realised that they corresponded to the other three members of the Party.

"We'll use the geolocation function to determine the general whereabouts of each other when we get split up upon entering. We'll use that to help us get back together, and then I'll lead the Party to the exit point since I'm used to doing this task." Mobito explained.

"So as long as we don't get caught by the 'monster', then we'll be fine?" I asked.

"Exactly," Mobito nodded, "the second task — like the first — is once again simple and tests your fighting capabilities as well as your endurance—"

"We're not getting chased by another monster, are we?" I joked lightly.

Mobito did not appreciate my interruption, he studied me with a serious gaze, "no. This time, we just have to fight off zombie mobs."

"Zombies?" I asked, unfamiliar with the word.

"Soldiers back from the dead. They might not be too skilful, but their numbers are nothing to joke about. This task will be like your Goblin Solo Dungeon, but instead of multiple waves, the zombies will come at us in a steady stream." Mobito said.

I opened my mouth to ask my question, but Mobito knew what I was about to ask.

"To complete the task, we need to find the source of the spawning zombies and get rid of it. Sometimes it's a necromancer, sometimes it's a cursed item of some sort." Mobito said, "like the exit point in task one, we will get notifications as we get closer to the source."

"I'm guessing, we're going to move around as a group for this task as well?" I asked as I looked at the three men.

"Exactly," Saizo spoke up, "you just have to focus on not getting hurt. Zombie-sickness is terrible and it's quite easy to get if you're not careful."

"Your job is just to stay alive and uninfected," Nato said bluntly, "simple, right?"

I gritted my teeth as I stared at the man's shit-eating grin. I had to remind myself that right now was not the time to do anything and that an opportunity to serve him his well-deserved justice would come up during the Crimson Tower test. The fact that we get separated at the start of the first task, seemed to be the perfect moment to deal with Nato, so I was hanging on to that hope.

"What's the third task?" I struggled to ask without sounding too angry.

Luckily, it seemed like Mobito didn't notice, he swiped through his information as he answered, "the third task is to sacrifice something substantial. Every one of us needs to do it for the Quest to be complete, so it's best to think about what to leave behind now since the other two tasks won't leave too much time to think."

"Substantial?" I asked again.

"It could be anything, but there has to be a personal connection to you. For example, it could be something important to your survival, like your hunting dagger, a weapon you've obviously grown accustomed to. Or it could be sentimental, like a photograph or a letter from your family. It just has to take a toll on you." Mobito explained.

"What's this task supposed to test?" I pondered.

Mobito didn't answer straight away, he seemed to be deep in thought. Nato moved on to sharpening his great sword, while Saizo seemed to be organising his inventory.

Saizo spoke up first, "nobody knows, right?"

Mobito shook his head, "there's no concrete answer. A theory suggests that it tests an Adventurer's priorities; how there might come a time when a User has to sacrifice something substantial for the greater good," Mobito paused as he thought for another example, "another theory believes that it's all part of Paradigm's — and in particular, the Crimson Tower Quest's — ecosystem of some sort."

"How is that—?" I started.

Nato shuffled to turn his great sword around to sharpen the other side, "nobody knows how Paradigm works kid. Nobody knows what powers it, what provides it with the weapons that it sometimes hands out for a Quest, with the money that it has as a reward. It just exists. You don't have to think too deeply about it. Just accept it."

I watched the three men go about their business, disappointed with the answer that I was given, and then gave up.

"So, what are you guys planning on sacrificing for the third task?" I asked curiously.

"Whoa, the kid wants to jump right to the end," Nato chuckled condescendingly, "the first two tasks ain't so easy, you know?"

"Well, isn't that what you're for?" I quipped back as my temper rose again, "the dumb strongman who's only good for his brawn and not his brains?"

I could feel the tension thicken in the air as everyone focused their eyes on me. Nato had stopped sharpening his great sword abruptly and glared at me with angry eyes.

Nato leant his sword down next to him against the boulder he was sitting on, brushed off the thin metal flakes and stood up, as he continued to glare at me.

He made his way over to me, and I stood up and got half into a defensive stance instinctively.

"Nato…" Mobito called out calmly with a slightly amused but tense voice. His colleague raised his hand up in a show of understanding but continued to make his way to me.

The muscled, bald man stopped in front of me and looked down at me. His eyes were still pierced daggers into my soul before he started to speak in a low, confident voice.

"Lookie here, the wimp-ass, crippled, shit-stain-eyed, little kid has got a little bite to his attitude," Nato spoke in a derogatory manner.

Shit-stain-eyed? What kind of food has he been eating to get hazel-coloured poo?

Nato punched me in my left shoulder and guffawed. Although the punch was not a serious hit and was supposed to be one that you do with your friends, because of our size difference, it still stung quite a lot. I winced and rubbed my shoulder as Nato turned around and made his way back to his great sword.

"This kid has grown on me, dammit." Nato laughed as he got back to sharpening his great sword.

I could see Saizo relax, he had been quite visibly tense, and although Mobito was also a bit cautious about what was going to happen, he seemed to have relaxed too.

After I rubbed my shoulder for a bit more, I sat back down on the rock near the river, "but seriously, you said that we should think about what we're going to sacrifice now. So, what are you guys going to sacrifice?"

I looked at Nato and pointed at his great sword, "you gonna leave that behind? That seems quite important to you."

Nato laughed again, but not as hard now, "fat chance I'm going to sacrifice Yaruo. I've had her for decades now."

The word 'decade' and the look on Nato's face triggered a deep, repressed memory in me as I was transported back to when I was five and on the night that my parents died.

As a young boy, I had been very protective of what others said about my family, and even though the memory wasn't perfectly vivid, I remembered the anger that I felt as I rushed forward and lunged at the dark figure that seemed to tower over me, wielding a massive great-sword that seemed to stretch for forever.

I remembered a whoosh and a blast of air as the shadowed figure swung the blade down and I lifted up my left arm in an attempt to block the blow before I snapped back into the present.

"What's wrong with the kid?" I could hear Nato ask.

Saizo had stood in front of me, and had both his hands on my shoulders. He looked at me with worried eyes, "are you okay Ryuu?"

I blinked as it took me a second to realise that I had daydreamed the memory, "no, yeah. I'm sorry about that, I'm okay."

"What happened to you just now?" Mobito spoke up.

I struggled to find the right words to answer, "I just remembered about something…during my time at the orphanage, that's all." I patted Saizo's hands to assure him that I was okay. He let go of my shoulders and made his way slowly back to where he was sitting.

"What happened?" I asked the party.

"I was talking about Yaruo and answered your question when you had this frozen and dead look in your eyes kid. It glazed over and everything," Nato answered.

"You tensed and stared at nothing," Saizo contributed.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mobito asked.

I nodded at Mobito, then turned back to Nato, "I must have missed your answer, I don't remember what you said. What are you going to sacrifice?"

Nato sighed as he grabbed a beat-up, old locket that he kept in the inside pocket of his top. It had a pretty faded picture of what I assumed was a family.

"You have a family?" I asked, with a little bit more shock than I intended.

"Well, had is more accurate," Nato mumbled. For the first time, he showed an emotion that was not anger or suspicion. It was genuine sadness.

"Seems like the locket means a lot to you. Are you sure you're fine with that?" I asked.

He growled in disapproval first before he answered, "this is why I ain't the biggest fan of this shit Quest. The money's good, but the third task is bullshit."

I didn't say anything, it didn't feel right to say anything.

"No, it's fine. It's been a long time since, and nobody is able to fix up the locket anyway," Nato sighed as he finished sharpening his great sword with one final glide, "Mobito's been trying to get me to move on anyway."

"You make it sound like I've been forcing you to," Mobito smiled kindly at his colleague.

"For the record, it ain't like that," Nato informed Saizo and then glanced at me, "he ain't forcing me. I'm agreeing, it's just been hard to let go."

Nato rested his great sword against the boulder next to him carefully, "it's hard when it's the last piece that you have of 'em, you know?"

Saizo and Mobito nodded understandingly. It was hard for me to admit, but I also understood. The existence of Kei's letters in my Inventory made me uncomfortable as I imagined that I would also find it difficult to get rid of the letters if Kei were dead.

After a quick moment of contemplative silence, Mobito spoke up, "I'm giving up some of my money."

That surprised me, and before I could ask him to explain, he started talking anyway.

"To an independent Adventurer like us, money is really important to our survival. I have never been really attached to any of the weapons I've used in the past, not even this rapier that I'm currently using is anything special," Mobito lifted up his sheathed rapier, "but money is always constant, and is always important. So, every time I do this Quest, I give up my money."

"That surprisingly makes a lot of sense," I mumbled. I turned to Saizo, "what about you?"

"I'm similar to Nato," Saizo said as he took out a piece of paper from his Inventory, "this is a letter from when I was away on my first long Quest from my ex-wife."

"I didn't know you were married."

"It's a long time ago," Saizo chuckled softly as he placed the letter back in his Inventory, "way before I met these idiots. Before I met you."

I suddenly felt a lot of guilt drop on me, "I'm sorry I pushed to go on a Quest so much."

He shook his head and smiled sadly at me, "no, it's okay. It's been a while since I did a Quest like the Crimson Tower, I probably need this kind of emotional pain to finally get a significant breakthrough of some sort."

The mood had soured a bit, and to salvage it I spoke up after a moment of silence, "I'm probably going to sacrifice my hunting dagger."

Saizo nodded while the other two men kept listening quietly.

"It's getting a bit old and scratched up, and I could easily buy a new weapon with my share of the Quest gold reward," I explained with an awkward chuckle at the end.

There was another short moment of silence before Mobito stood up, straightened his clothes and cleared his throat, "well, I think that was a long enough rest, should we continue?"

We all mumbled in agreement as we gathered our respective belongings.