Return of the Tower Conqueror

  Ways of the Odd (IV)

There was an awkward silence persisting between the two groups that stood rooted in place as Cain vanished. One could almost touch it, yet nobody quite dared. In the end, Emma sighed and took a deep breath, realizing it was back to her once again with him gone. She walked up to Kramer's group and stopped in front of them, observing each member individually.

"We'll go back to the city together," she said. "If that's okay with you."

"Of course," Kramer quickly nodded. "I... I first want to apologize."

"For what?"

"For hitting on you. If I had known--"

"You shot your shot," Emma interrupted him, shrugging. "Nothing wrong with that. Come on; I'm sure this place will soon be swarmed. I don't wanna be here when that happens."

Everyone could agree on that, at the very least, quickly moving from the top, sticking to the narrow and winding alleyways and the cover of the dying night. They moved in much smaller groups, each roughly a hundred feet behind, following the path Diya had mapped out for everyone. It took them roughly an hour to finally exit Albadesh City and emerge back into the molten lake, moving up toward the surface.

By the time they emerged, it ought to have been dawn, but because of the thick layers of ashen clouds, the world around them appeared still to be in the night.

"Can... can I ask you something?" Kramer walked up to Emma with a pensive look on his face as the two began walking up front with the rest following behind, separated into two distinct groups.

"Sure," Emma said.

"Cain... how strong is he?" Kramer asked.

"..." Emma turned silent for a moment as she glanced sideways, meeting the man's eyes. She didn't find any ill will in them, just pure curiosity and even a bit of nervousness. "I don't know." she replied after a while.

"H-huh?"

"With him, you'll learn," she added. "It's not about his strength. But the ability to control everything that happens. Besides, you've caught the same glimpses we did. You should have a general idea."

"... that's the thing," Kramer sighed. "I am absolutely confident in our Elementalist. I think he's one of the best, if not the best. Yet... he can barely conjure up 4 Elements at once, and that's if he gets lucky. Cain... Ryu said Cain conjured up... seven. And not just once. But time and again, in addition to conjuring up several of six-elements-skills at the same time. There's nothing... nothing to compare that to."

"You shouldn't get too caught up in your illusion of him," Emma chuckled lightly. "He's a lazy bum, a jackass, and a first-ballot hall of fame asshole. He'll put up a front, but if you let that front mesmerize you, you'll become like our healer."

"What about her?" Kramer asked curiously.

"She takes every word he utters as though it was gospel," Emma sighed. "And that... well, if I'm being honest, there's likely nothing more dangerous in the entire world than that. This unholy place included."

"Spoken like a true wife." Kramer spoke without meaning to, immediately regretting his words. "I--"

"Ha ha ha, I guess so, yeah," Emma laughed, contrary to his expectations. "Yeah, there's gotta be someone to keep him grounded. Tell me about your group. How'd you guys got up there?"

"Ah, it's hardly a fancy story," Kramer chuckled as he pulled out a candy-bar from his inventory, unwrapping it speedily and with great expertise. "We arrived on the second floor about a month ago. Like most, we remained around that big-ass city, hoping we'd be let in or something. No such luck. Then, we hear a rumor that 'the Greedy Seven' had announced that the way into the city was to slay a strong creature in one of the surrounding regions and bring its head."

"Oh."

"And we headed this way. We realized something was off a few days in," Kramer chuckled. "There was nobody else here. I mean, sure, rivers and pools of lava were strange and dangerous, but for there to be nobody here? Eh. Anyway, we reached the edge of the lake, and our Prominent -- uh, one of the classes from the Brazilian Tower -- 'read', so to say, that there was a city at the bottom. By the time we arrived, we saw that soulstorm rifting above the city so we headed over to check it out -- which is when we met up with you guys."

"What group do you belong to?" Emma asked suddenly.

"... we belonged to Lander's," Kramer replied with a bitter smile.

"Who's that?" Emma asked.

"A daddy's son," Kramer shrugged. "And the one that tried going after Rick Garcia a few times."

"Oh? So, that was you guys?"

"Us? No, no, trust me -- we had no contact whatsoever," Kramer quickly said. "We spent most of the time since the Towers fell inside them, only ever coming out to recoup and resupply. We only ever even became a part of his group because... we didn't know what was going on. We thought we'd need protection, money, homes."

"And now you don't?"

"No," Kramer shook his head. "Our strength is our protection. And the Tower... is our home."

"Wow, that's kinda depressing."

"H-huh?"

"Do you know," Emma said. "That we've spent as much time inside the Tower as we did resting outside of it since it fell?"

"What?!"

"Hm," she nodded. "This place... changes you, slowly. You realize you're craving to fight, to be here, rather than out there. It's dangerous. So, we always take at least a month or two break on the outside."

"... what do you do? Train?" Kramer asked, still in disbelief.

"Nope, just fuck around," Emma shrugged. "This last break, I went to the spa at least thrice a week. I don't think Cain left the apartment more than twice. And others are either playing games, drinking, watching movies, or taking naps."

"..."

"I know it's hard to take in, especially considering you probably know who we are," she chuckled. "But... it works. Don't let this place consume you. Or your friends. There's more to life than just fighting all the time."

"..." Kramer fell silent for a moment, looking at her. Even through the mask, he could see she was being honest. Even still... it made no sense. They were all so strong... they were the group that cleared the first floor, the group that likely tops every other in the Tower. Yet... to hear that they spent over three months of the six that passed on the outside... was insane. It was a punch akin to a lightning bolt.

"Don't go there," she suddenly jolted him out of his thoughts, smiling at him gently. "You'll understand it when Cain comes back. We have this uniquely bad luck... that gets us to places and into fights that we have no business being in or fighting. How do you think we ended up on top of that place?"

"... how?" Kramer asked.

"We were doing missions in the city, randomly, and saved some enslaved groups," Emma said. "And, among them was a particularly perky girl that we all took a liking to, so we decided to let her follow us. Because of her, we got a quest the moment we entered the Lake that then led us to the city. In the city, we randomly ran into Taima -- that young-looking boy -- when Cain went to join the army. He then told us of the King's plans and practically forced us to go fight him. Do you think we planned out any of that?"

"..."

"The same thing happened when we cleared the first floor," Emma added, interspersing some white lies to make it a bit easier. "We were just supposed to be fighting a normal dungeon boss. Then, Cain gets dragged off as the highest-level of us to fight alone, and the rest of us get tossed at the floor boss. With such bad luck, we have to rest. Otherwise, we'd likely set this whole place on fire because of frustrations."

"... hah," Kramer chuckled bitterly, taking a bite of the bar. "Bad luck... you wanna talk about bad luck? On the first floor, we accidentally entered some Ancient Ruins. Ryu literally fell down a hole and we fell one after another trying to help him. We were stuck there, in the labyrinth of the same hallways and chambers for at least two months. On the brink of collapse... we reached the end. We got a quest. 'Purify the Ancients'. Suddenly, the whole hall shook, and these eight giants stood up from the floor. Eighty feet tall, each. Our weapons barely did a squat. A day... two... three... fight, fight, fight... six of us ended up dying. Four quit the group. Our rewards? Just a stupid title or something. No items, no levels, no new skills... buuut, we became 'Heroes'. I guess we took a wrong lesson from that," Kramer added, sighing and lowering his head. "We believed that in order for that to never happen again... we had to fight, all the time. Get better items. Gain more levels. Learn our classes better. Get more useful skills."

"..."

"Your group lose someone?" he asked.

"... yes." Emma replied. "A young boy. Very early on."

"Hurts, don't it?"

"Like hell."

"I... I don't want to lose anyone in my group," Kramer added. "It's my job to keep them safe."

"... ah, so that's why you joined us," Emma suddenly realized, chuckling. "Not the whole fanatical obsession with Cain."

"Ha ha, partly both, if I'm being honest," Kramer said. "When I saw him fighting... I realized... he's just like me."

"Huh?"

"Somebody who would take that hell on all by himself isn't doing it for glory or levels or skills, I'm afraid," he added. "And I was even more convinced when I met him." he glanced at her for a moment, a strange look in his eyes, but said nothing. "You're right. While his strength inspires... something else about him draws. I hope you'll be inviting us to your parties when it's time to leave this place, though."

"Of course," Emma chuckled. "The more the merrier. Your group... is lucky to have you."

"No," Kramer shook his head, glancing back stealthily. "I'm lucky to have them."

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