Return of the Tower Conqueror

  Elypso (II)

Cain opened his eyes abruptly, his gaze shifting forward where he saw a darting, crimson-dyed array of a dagger flying toward him and the rest of the group. He extended his arm and gently suffocated it, quickly standing up and stretching, prompting others to do the same -- it was the signal. Daniel had cleaned up the front and it was now the time to walk inside.

After quickly packing up, the group darted over the still-warm sand, scaling the front wall and meeting with Daniel atop the ramparts.

"Good job," Cain spoke out in a hush. "That was rather quick."

"And easy," Daniel added. "I've tried mapping out the optimal path toward the central building," he added, pointing toward a distant, tall, tower-like construct that seemed inconspicuous enough at the first glance as it wasn't that much bigger than the buildings surrounding it. However, a deeper looking revealed a pattern in which everything else was erected -- in concentric circles, orbiting the central building. "But... it's really irrelevant. It's like every road is exactly the same."

"..." 'cause they are. Cain, though, kept this to himself -- even if he could realistically excuse it with his Talent, 'Perception'. Nonetheless, there was no need for him to say anything as nobody in this group was that dumb; after Daniel's analysis, others slowly confirmed it.

"Yup," Senna nodded with a frown. "It's like the damn thing was constructed by copy-pasting every other building."

"It's an engineering marvel," Jamal said. "Goddamn, this shit would be difficult to execute even in our modern world."

"Well, access to magic nullifies whatever advantages we have in terms of technology, no?" Emma said before raising a question they all had subconsciously begun asking themselves. "Why are the 'worlds' inside the Tower so... fantasy-like? I mean, sure, access to magic would likely make technological progress slower as there is less need for the convenience of the modern gadgets, but the progress itself is natural. So, even if slow, every magical world should, in theory, end up resembling ours to a certain extent -- just with every tool and gadget being amplified by the factor of magic." Cain shuddered as her eyes quickly darted at him, though she held back from asking the question.

In truth, there were all manner of 'worlds' here -- those technologically comparable to Earth, and even the sci-fi-like behemoths. It's just that, as others have theorized in Cain's previous life, earlier floors presented 'younger' worlds. It was difficult to really call them 'worlds' as they were nowhere near large enough, but the consensus was that a good deal of what made a floor the living biome was self-contained. So to say, majority of living things weren't predisposed to actually transporting between the floors.

As such, it was theorized that there was the 'pace of development' that varied floor-by-floor; for instance, second floor was already ahead in technology from the first, actually, by the virtue of having what was essentially a metropolis, albeit a vertical one, with the first floor only having quasi-cities at best.

However, as Cain never held much interest in the 'theories of the Tower', he knew only what he picked up from either occasionally listening the 'news' or hearing from other Conquerors. For some -- a lot, actually -- the nature of the Tower and how it defies every known law of physics became far more lucrative than whatever adventures the Tower itself held.

The group descended the ramparts as Cain ripped himself from the distant memories; knowing this wouldn't benefit anyone which was why Cain chose to just keep it all to himself and let it be discovered naturally. He suspected it would be at an accelerated pace due to his interference, but it would still likely take years if not a full decade for the world to catch up to his rather haphazard knowledge of the Tower as a natural phenomenon.

Daniel still took the lead with the others following silently behind; approaching the first building, Daniel dipped into stealth and snuck inside the building, leaving it roughly a minute later, some bloodstains apparent on his armor while a frown remained etched on his forehead.

"All normal, still," he reported. "Four in total; three men and a woman. But their normal-combat-health-values were twice those of the guards that were on the wall. If we look at the fortress as one, big concentric circle... it's possible that with each 'layer', so to say, health values double. We're likely talking hundreds of thousands for normal mobs by the end of it." Nothing that bad, Cain held back a smile. The reason why the health values were inflated like this was specifically because they could be killed in one hit by even decently-skilled Assassins. As such, the 'outside bandits' only became troublesome if the group just charged in mindlessly. Otherwise, they effectively may as well not even exist.

"In the next house," Cain prepared to 'suggest' something as to mask the fact he already knew it would work. "Bring someone else with you inside and see whether they can also one-shot them but without the stealth. If possible, we can speed up this whole thing considerably."

"Uh, sure," Daniel nodded. "But what if Jamal fucks up?"

"--dude, why?! I done nothin' to your ass!"

"You once said I look like I came straight from the 'peak 2008 MySpace'."

"... and you once asked me why I wasn't making millions playing basketball."

"And I stand by that."

"Why?! Just 'cause I'm black I'm supposed to be able to hoop?!"

"You're six-five," Daniel spoke casually. "Built like a fuckin' truck despite barely working out, can jump like a fucking rabbit, and I've seen you sprinting. You just had to be able to even remotely shoot a three to be making millions."

"You--"

"Is this really the time?" Cain interrupted, his eyebrows twitchy. "Fine, Daniel is a raging racist, Jamal. And, Daniel, Jamal is a grandpa whose jokes reached their peak when Obama was still a president and, just like my life, have been on a downward spiral ever since. Now, can we focus on the task at hand?"

"..."

Following a few stiffened laughs, the group moved forward and, just as Cain 'expected', Daniel and Jamal confirmed that the latter could easily kill with one hit as well. As such, they spread out and rushed out in pairs, with Cain taking on the newcomer, Yuki, who was still living in a slight haze. After all, this group was casually joking while inside the 'dungeon' full of enemies, seemingly not even taking it seriously. However, it was to be expected from the group led by the 'Phantom'.

"So, Yuki," Cain spoke softly as he made quick work of four men by a simple Skill -- manifesting a tiny needle of pure energy and driving it through their brains. "Tell me about yourself. What's your story? Did you live the life of the classical manga harem protagonist where a platoon of girls all with distinct hair colors begged to jump on your dick but you worked hard on safekeeping your virginity like a true man?"

"..."

"Sorry, was that racist?"

"No, just... very specific," Yuki grinned lightly as the two existed the building. "And, I'm afraid, very inaccurate too. I grew up in Tokyo," he added with a sigh. "And spent most of my days either in school or worrying about it. Had two older brothers who were miles smarter and more motivated than me which, well, didn't do much to make me love the 'freest days of our lives'."

"Ah, you mean, just like how American high-schoolers aren't spending their days partying and having sex with the hottest and oldest high school girls ever in the history of every high school despite every teen movie depicting just that, manga isn't the most accurate source of lifestyles?"

"Man, you have the ability to complicate everything... I barely followed that..."

"I barely followed it and it was my brain who thought it up," Cain shrugged as the pair dipped into another building. "However, I still feel like you're too normal."

"H-huh?"

"You fit into the group too well," Cain elaborate. "Which means you have to be fucked-up, one way or another. Considering you hid it so tightly this long, I'm worried it's some really fucked-up shit."

"..."

"You disagree?"

"Strongly!!" Yuki fired back.

"No, wait, you're a therapist--that's the answer."

"What's the answer to what?!"

"All therapists are by nature fucked-up."

"Apologize to all of us, right now!"

"I mean," Cain looked at the boy as he finished off five more bandits. "What kind of a lunatic can actually stand to listen to other people bitch and moan over insignificant horseshit all day long? I can barely tolerate my daughter bitching about her math lessons and I love her more than anything else in the world."

"I know you're testing me," Yuki said. "But if that's even partially true... it's the saddest thing I've ever heard in my life."

"Then you haven't heard enough stories about Emma's and my marriage yet," Cain said with a grin. "Just give it a listen and I guarantee you'll change your mind."

"... I still can't figure out what happened," Yuki said. "You guys seem like you were made for each other in the literal sense."

"Well, you try tolerating a mumbling drunkard who'd rather spend every cent of his pay on booze than his daughter's birthday present, and the 'why' might just appear. Anyway, that was the last one on our route."

"H-huh? But we only had, like, three houses?"

"And that's the benefit of hanging out with the leader," Cain winked. "You get to offload a lot of work on your minions."

"..."

"Fine, servants--"

"Don't."

"Oh, wow, look at the Mother Theresa over here..."

"Please... just... just stop.."

"Fine. Let's regroup with the others," Cain chuckled and ruffled the boy's hair much to the latter's silent protest. "And get some sweet loot. You sure look like you could use some."

"... you literally have like 2 items equipped!! What the fuck dude?!"

"Ah, at last," Cain suddenly smiled strangely and freely, startling Yuki. "Got you to crack. Seven-outta-seven."

"... that wasn't your goal."

"Sure was."

"... just... no..."

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