Fourth floor and the Intruder

Waking up I put on my armor I had taken off to sleep more comfortably I then say,

"Go to fourth floor."

Arriving I am in an extravagant sitting room with 4 other people and a man in front of us dressed as a servant with a worried look on his face, he appears to be quiet scared and nervous as he says his words with a slight stuttering.

"W-we w-welc-come you to-o our estate investigators all the rooms are available to you and you can use whatever you need to solve who killed the previous master of the house. If you have any questions you may ask me." 

Looking at the other I hear the tower say,

---You are at an old estate where the previous owner has been murdered on his 78th birthday, your job is to find and have enough evidence to back a conviction on someone, if correct the person with the correct one will get one revival token, if you convict a innocent but have enough evidence to pin it on them you will be awarded ten tower coins, all other answers will count as failures.---

There are two women and three men in our group so we decide to separate and investigate individually, with no combat required we don't even bother introducing ourselves before we part ways.

I go up to the servant and ask him, "May you lead me to the room of his death as well as the body so that I can investigate that while my colleagues go get statements from the other staff."

Relaxing at my statement somewhat he remains silent as he leads me to the room of the death and the body is still on the ground, going up to the body first I begin a routine inspection of both the physical state of the body but also a mental scan of his mental energy veins.

His mental energy veins are slightly tight despite having been dead for at least a day, I turn to the servant and ask, "At what time did someone discover the body and how?" 

"He was looking at the bookshelf when he collapsed this morning, the servant saw this and tried to help but it was already to late." The servant replied.

"I'm sorry you said this morning, I believe you meant yesterday morning correct. Based off the coolness of his body and the limpness of the muscles he must have been dead for at least 24 hours." I ask to make sure that he was speaking the truth.

His eyes widen in horror as he stares at the body realizing why I was confused at his statement.

"This morning, definitely this morning." The servant is somewhat shaking.

"I appear to now have to find the true room he died in and what could have happened in that room, I would like to request that all maids and cleaners be suspended to prevent any from cleaning up the true murder scene. All the rooms that each maid has cleaned since yesterday morning is to be written down beside which maid or cleaner cleaned the room." Nodding his head the servant rushes out to release the order.

Looks like it is a black mental energy user who has corrupted their energy on purpose to be able to control and manipulate the dead, they are hard to find due to looking like normal unawakened people. 

I will have to get a list of who is or is not awakened in the house once the servant returns, they can pretend to be unawakened but once they release mental energy it will be easy to identify.

Looking through the rooms one by one I spend an hour just checking the upper east part of the home, returning to the room we appeared in I contemplate how to find the person as fast as possible when something odd catches my eye.

I look at the floor and notice that there is another set of footprints pushing into the carpet, it is on the other side of the couch as though trying to hide behind it, a message from the tower appears in front of me.

[You have discovered the hidden mission hidden intruder, find out what the intruder wants and kill them if need be, a revival coin will be awarded for this task once completed.]

Someone else is most defiantly in the room, grabbing my spear from behind me I say, "show yourself and tell me why you are here, if you are here peacefully then there is no need to worry as long as you didn't kill him it will be easy to tell if we do a mental energy test."

I see a man slowly appear in front of me, he has a gaunt face a terrified look on him, he appears to be near tears and shaking like a leaf.

"I-I-I am here b-b-because of of of." He appears unsure of what to say exactly.

"As long as you are truthful I have no reason to hurt you unless you are here to hurt someone." I try and reassure him.

"It may sound insane but I was on the fourth section of what we call the maze when a problem happened a  spacial tear happened due to a massive monster showing up and next thing I knew I was here, I was already hidden to lower the chance of the beast attacking me when it happened so I showed up that way." I realize something quickly, this man is like me, from another world.

Looking to make sure no one else was here I look at him and say, "You are currently in another worlds version of your maze called the tower, you can understand me cause the tower has an automatic translation to anything inside it. I need to know if you have any idea on how to send you back and if not what you want me to do." An alert from the tower came.

[You have discovered the origins of the Intruder, as he is non hostile he will be allowed to attempt integration, failure to succeed integration will see him removed from the world, one revival coin is rewarded]

I look at him and tell him what I had read just said.

He appeared to be both saddened and slightly happy at that, even if he can't return home he at least won't face certain death either. 

Although I am unsure of what integration meant as long as he was similar enough to the being of this world it should be good enough, I could integrate and I had an entirely different energy system in me along with the mental energy.

"What type of energy do your people use, as long as it is similar enough to this world it should be able to pass the integration recruitments." I say.

"We use a energy in our head to connect with our energy veins to allow increased body control and body enchantments." Similar to my own I think, meaning it should be more than able to integrate in the world with no problem. Beaming at him I feel a certain amount of companion ship at the similarity of our situation.

So with that out of the way he disappears again and I head back to investigate the murder, after getting a list of who is awakened I check the awakened first to make sure they aren't trying to trick us before looking at the non-awakened list.

Slowly we mark off who was not here yesterday, along with what rooms will be unlikely to have had anything happen in them.

43 suspects and 23 rooms are all that are left as there were always people who were grouped together when moving and they didn't see anything that happened, it takes at least five hours to resurrect a body to allow for complex movements and responses like talking and eating so as long as a they were never alone long there was a reasonable alibi for most of the 200 people in the mansion around the time of death.

Although some where servants there were 50 guests who spent the previous night and 160 people who were in and out of the house for the party thrown for his birthday, he threw the party the day before so as to spend time solely with his family the day of.

Most had alibis that made them unable to have done it as some who spent the night did not do so alone, leaving only 15 servants and 28 guest who theoretically had time to kill him and resurrect him the afternoon.

The rooms had to be where no one entered for a long period of time alone and no one else enter the room for several hours after.

Looking at the remaining 23 rooms another 15 can be crossed of from the list as they are carpeted, meaning that the runes needed for such complex resurrection would have left scorch marks and make it easy to tell the room had been the one used.

With only 8 rooms that could have been used and 43 suspects we begin to look at what person could bring in the required items and not look to suspicious, many of the guests last night were awakened and the owner was also an awakened so having the items around is easy and not to suspicious for it to be in their hands but if someone was too involved in transporting the materials then it could be a red flag.

Looking at testimonies on who the last to do item delivery or had items like that with them some time in the past week, past that time and the items required would no longer work.

I notice something off about the delivery item list, the item Jericho Rose required for this type of enchanting is not on the item list, meaning someone had to bring it in separately and that would most likely be the link to finding the killer.

The others who where with me had inspected the body not long after me but most of them do not appear to know anything about this type of ritual, they know he was dead and revived but do not appear to realize the amount of things that truly marks off the list of rooms he died in and suspects. 

  This is not a team required task and I see no reason to tell them anything, they were all clearly ones who went combat or support based and so never studied anything like this before.

I am now down to only 37 suspects as the 6 of the women with enough strength to do this had there menstrual cycle during this week and this ritual can't be done then do to the energy conflictions brought by expunging an attempt at life and bringing one back.

8 rooms, 37 suspects left.

  Finally I request to have those left perform body checks to look for the common signs of bulging veins around ones heart when using this type of thing.

All but three agree to the check, the three to refuse sight that we had no way to prove they did it so they had no reason to cooperate with such a humiliating act, the three remaining are all guests who visited the night for his party.

We check whether any of the three had been known to bring or have Jericho Roses, one of the men were known for growing them but they were in a death period due to a massive drought in the mans territory and the Jericho Roses require must be in full greening period for the ritual, I speak with him to know if any of the other two had asked him for some.

Bart Jole had asked him for one before the drought set in three months back, I go to him look him in the eyes and say, "If you don't agree to a body check you will be sentenced and convicted of murder, you have until the end of the hour to decide if your pride is worth your reputation."

He agrees to a body check, he is clear of all signs for this type of ritual but before leaving the examination room he tells me, "Bellow asked me to look after one of his Jericho flowers for a while, I brought it with me to give it back to him. He has the flowers and the motive, as he owed the old man nearly 3,000 marks and no way to pay him back, the old man said if he didn't pay it back by this evening he would be forced to bring in the police."

Going to the man who owned Jericho roses I say, " either allow a full body search or you will be convicted of murder, or give us a reason the woman who has not been searched is the killer."

He refuses a body search but says, "Julia is his ex-wife he intended to write her out of the will since the child they had together died last year in an accident, she also has access to the house and went to find the old man last night to try and extort some money, she asked me for some of my Jericho plants leaves for transplant purposes."

"You realize if she agrees to a body scan you are the last remaining person who had the time, motive, and required items to kill him and you will be given a body scan by force to completely convict you, if you have anything else to say do so now." I tell him.

"I dabble in some less then proper drugs that lead to similar effects found on those that do these rituals, so if you check me there will be raised veins over my heart." He admits, I get a blood sample from him to get tested for drugs and head to the ex-wife.

"If you let us do a body check you will no longer fall under suspicion, otherwise you will be convicted of murder." I tell her, she refuses, I wait for the drug test and it comes back positive.

"You have lost your right to refuse the body check and will now be force to do so." She has raised veins over her heart, and a blood test for drugs comes back negative.

I say, "Moly Janest is the killer."

---You have successfully convicted the right killer, rewarding a revival coin, you will now be sent to the next floor when ready---

[hidden task intruder is undergoing integration, please wait before attempting next floor]

The man appeared in my room before he began to convulse, his body expanded and contracted as I watched in horror.

The screams stop and I stare at his chest that has ceased to rise and fall, he was dead.

[The intruder has failed integration, do you wish to keep the body or dispose of it?]

  Shaking in terror I can't think at all.

[D you wish to keep the body or dispose of it?]

I finally hear the tower and think, why did he fail to integrate, that hadn't occurred with me at all so what was different. "Keep the body" I rasp out, I need to know what caused this so I put the body in the spacial pouch  Lucien gave me to store emergency supplies in. 

I am to mentally disturbed after seeing that, it had taken me two days to finish investigating the murder and after that there was no way I could think straight enough to go to another floor so soon, I leave the tower the day after I entered it and head to my dorm room. The tower tutorial is a basic requirement check as well as specialization, the rest check if you truly know how to put that knowledge to use, first floor is a free for all hunting to allow those with more niche specialty's like tracking and monster knowledge to stand out.

Next is second floor where you are meant to test your deception and poison/traps ability but I decided to ignore that with a straight out fight.

The third floor is a test of teamwork, information gathering, and to test front line defenders/barrier people. Finally the fourth floor is to tests ones ability to put to use the knowledge in runes and enchanting, as that is what truly allows one to find the suspect.

Each floor tested slightly varying fields of expertise and strength, as you can bulldoze the tests if you are strong enough up until the fourth one.

The fourth one is a test to make sure there is brains to ones brawns and is sure to trip up those with heavy combat specialty as without at least anatomic knowledge you won't even know when he died and will directly rule out the right suspect from the get go.

  Sleeping in my dorm I have nightmares of the mans death and imagine how easily it could have been me in his place.

Why was it so different? Why did he go through that horrific thing and yet I had no such trouble?

Was it because he did it through the tower? But integration must take place for all those who enter a new world or the Tower would not make it a requirement if you don't need it to enter a world.

I am unable to stay asleep, I get up and write a letter to both Lucien and Nilan about this event, I attach the spacial bag to the letter and place a runic protection on it to make it so no one but they can open their respective letters.

I know I should continue making use of my time properly but I can't relax or properly rest, so the week after the test I had meant to spend in the tower was instead spent sparring in the practice hall trying to waste my energy and make my self stop thinking. I even begin the process of Mental energy forging of a fire ingot in the morning to exhaust myself so I can sleep at night.

Finally Monday rolls around and I get the notice I had officially advanced to the graduating class and that I will begin classes the following week with them.

I am still having trouble sleeping and so keep up my previous weeks practice style when Friday rolls around and a knock on the dorm room is heard late afternoon before bed, opening the door Lucien and Nilan stand there with serious faces. I turn to Thomas and say, "I have something to do I may be gone this weekend." I follow them to a town house only a mile from the school.

Going into the house I feel the wards set in and look at them.

"The body you sent me has signs of energy from different worlds attempting to fight each other which led to the mans body being unable to bear the horrific injuries and die." Nilan says.

"You never went through this process because you didn't have another worlds energy in you, the chances of a person surviving such integration is essentially zero, if not for your lack of energy beyond your own you would most likely have died. Though those who have yet to begin cultivating will be able to survive it but most likely it is not possible for those who have formed any type of energy core as the core will be directly destroyed in the process." Nilan continues.

'One more score for my cultivation' I think darkly.