When Sir Henry walked through the gates of the village on the first floor, he found himself confronted by Hawkwood and the archer Tom. Hawkwood’s patented fox-like smile was plastered across his face, looking like the proverbial fox who had gotten into the hen house.
“Sir Henry Strathfield as I live and breathe,” Hawkwood said before slapping the knight on his shoulder.
“Looks like you beat the other two here, how was your entrance run?”
“Not bad, I got the goblin woods, Goblin King variant,” Henry said with a shrug. That drew Hawkwood’s eyes to the artifact now sheathed at Henry’s hip in place of his usual longsword, the old blade now thrust through his belt to dangle behind like a steel tail.
“Not a bad run at all, looks like a worthwhile reward, I was only rewarded with Tower Stones, got the spider den, we’ll hold off and wait for Eric and John to join us, if they’re not back before the sun in here reaches its peak we’ll assume they didn’t make it and power on.” Cold but reasonable, it was the reputation Hawkwood had and Henry knew there was nothing to be done if the men didn’t arrive.
Their fears were unfounded as both men joined them in less than an hour, each with a reward in hand and ready to find a berth for the prince within the village. As they entered they found that the village was well named. It was rustic in style with an old style long hall made of logs with a thatched roof, exactly the kind of thing their forebears in England would have had a couple centuries earlier. Rude lean-tos were erected down the main thoroughfare where people hawked their wares. Some were human men and women, be they leatherworkers, cutlers, armourers and bladesmiths, but some took the form of the Seed’s denizens. For Henry they all appeared as angels, men and women seemingly made of molten gold with wings of the purest white feathers, when he pointed this out Hawkwood noted he saw them as Succubi with red skin and horns, while Tom saw them as merely scantily clad whores like those in Southwark on Cheap side in London.
That, Henry decided, was a philosophical question for another time, they quickly found a hut that was free and Hawkwood paid the one Tower Stone fee to hold it. With that, Eric made a run for the portal and to send word to the prince, there were no frenchmen waiting here on the first level to ambush him. With that taken care of Henry took a walk around the street, he saw what was being offered, but with no Tower Stones to his name there was no chance of purchasing anything from the Seed Denizens’ tables. Not that there was anything particularly worth buying at this stage, first floor artisans made nothing that would outperform armour from Milan or Brescia, and so Henry made his way to the gate, where he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.
Hawkwood met his eye as they looked over the forest eaves that sat only a scant twenty feet from the gates.
“If you’re planning to head out for a second challenge I won’t stop you, we’re going to be the tip of the Prince’s spear for the first three floors, he’s going to be relying on us for intel and to keep an eye out for the french,” as always when the man spoke he seemed to have more meaning than his words would imply, but what it was Henry could not discern.
“I’ll head out and try to clear the remaining challenges I need, once that’s done I can head straight for the second floor,” he turned and met John’s eyes.
“I can’t shake the feeling that something bad is about to happen John,” he shook his head.
“There’s something not right in the air, you know what I mean?”
“I feel it too,” Hawkwood answered.
“It’s not like they told us it would be this whole place just feels off, it’s not a battlefield I’m used to, but the abilities sure help, did you want to share your Aspect?” The older man raised his brow in question.
“I suppose I should share first, [Aspect of the Avaricious Captain], not perhaps the most noble Aspect, but it suits me well enough.” Henry allowed a snort to escape him in answer.
“Yeah not the worst, I got [Aspect of the Knight], pretty self explanatory.” Henry answered.
“Well go sir knight, go and reap more rewards and power,” Hawkwood said with a chuckle and slapped the younger man’s shoulder.
“I’ll see you when you return.”
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Meanwhile outside the Tower the square was in a bout of controlled chaos. John had fallen to a knee before the Prince and his advisors as they all drank a cup of wine.
“Your highness, Hawkwood has secured our berth in the first village and reports no French activity, all members of your vanguard accounted for and ready to begin the run towards the second floor.” He reported.
“Excellent, let’s move, helms and gauntlets on, everyone to enter now, quick as you like gentlemen.” The prince clapped his hands together and armed himself in his darkened harness, leading his chosen knights of the Garter to the portal.
“See you all at the village,” he said and saluted his friends, before diving through the glowing rift in reality.
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Henry marvelled at the blade in his hand as he stood over the corpse of another [Armour Golem]. The creatures were durable, animated suits of armour, but they were no match for Caliburn’s edge. He’d heard the gods had received legendary artifacts from their first challenges, but even an Epic artifact cleaved through First floor foes like they were butter. Conventional wisdom said a sword could not cut through plate and yet the supernatural qualities of this blade combined with his constantly increasing strength as his body absorbed more essence, meant he could have cut down an old oak with a single swing and barely noticed the resistance.
It had taken barely half an hour for him to clear his second challenge, a small watchtower filled with kobolds whose scales had proven even less resistant to his blade than the [Armour Golem]s had. Now he was on the cusp of his final victory on the first floor. A collection of five Tower Stones clattered in his belt pouch, more than enough to secure a second floor house for the Retinue’s use. The Tower’s own currency never fluctuated like the coin markets of Europe, and the prices charged remained steady, he shook his head at the useless thoughts and powered on through the small Keep he found himself in. Squat and square it was two floors with a battlement on the roof, nothing out of the ordinary. The animated suits of armour had so far been the only foes and they were normally considered a challenging foe due to their durability.
Artifacts made all the difference in the Seed and Henry was learning that lesson first hand. It was not uncommon to find an artifact in a reward, where his blade was uncommon was that it was a known, named weapon. That meant it was a replica of an existing weapon that had been seeded specifically for him, and the fact it was Epic grade meant that the once King, Arthur, was still alive and in the Demigod stage of advancement, which meant a minimum of floor seventy-six, an unfathomable climb for most humans in this day and age. It also meant a long climb for Henry if he wanted answers. Once more shoving those thoughts to the back of his mind, Henry focused on the approaching pair of golems. An epic artifact would not save him if he got careless and allowed a blow through, the golems would tear him apart if he let them.
He cut mezzano at the first golem and lashed out with one steel clad foot to kick the other down the hall. A rush of essence confirmed the death of the first golem he had bisected, the second was done when he drove the blade through its visor. His essence gains had been on another level compared to what he now realised was a paltry amount in his entrance challenge. He had to admit that the palpable feeling of growth was intoxicating, better than any wine he had ever drunk. With the heady sensation pushing him forward he strode up the staircase before him to where he could almost feel a large collection of essence that had to be the guardian of this challenge.
What greeted him was an open war room, complete with a table covered in maps that seemed to blur if he looked too closely at them, along with three suits of armour that appeared to lean over the table lost in apparent study. One suit was particularly ornate with the pauldrons shaped like the heads of roaring lions and the visor of its helm raised into a face that held a neutral expression of unnatural stillness. All three turned to meet his eye as he entered the room and took up their weapons to strike.
Henry raised his blade in salute before advancing on the golems, he cut again and unleashed his newly upgraded [Chivalrous Lightning]. A streak of blue energy cut across the room to slam into the ornate golem before bolts of the same power jumped to the other two in a cacophonous blast that left the smell of ozone heavy in the air. The new ability took a significantly larger amount of his stored energy to use, the single cast left him panting and feeling drained, but he was rewarded by the flanking two golems falling to the ground as smoking husks, only the obvious guardian remained standing, though one arm had melted to slag metal and its reactions were much slowed by the blast.
A passing step brought Henry close on the melted side of the golem, and a quick thrust from off the line straight to the face plate ended the fight within heartbeats of its beginning. Three quick steps brought him to the table and the glowing reward, his hand closed on the light and it dispersed to reveal a scroll.
You have slain [Golem Commander]
Essence dispersed
You have received [Scroll of Invitation]
Sealed by the hand of the once King, Arthur Pendragon, present this scroll to the portal to the third floor to receive an audience with the Demigod Arthur.
That quickly solved one of Henry’s problems, now he just had to complete the second floor to get his answers. With a shrug he placed the scroll in his pouch and walked through the exit distortion that appeared at the back of the war room.
Once more Henry found himself on the dirt path that led out of the forest directly into the village twenty feet away, and even from this distance he could see the collection of people gathered in the main square before the portals. Hawkwood knelt before the Prince and it was obvious the Prince was knighting the man for his leadership of the vanguard, Henry smiled, he may not agree with or particularly like the man, but he was deserving of the accolade for every service he had provided the crown. He watched as Sir John Chandos placed a plaque belt on the man’s hips and Jean de Grailly, the Captal de Buch, buckled spurs to Hawkwood’s feet.
“Arise now, Sir John Hawkwood, a knight of England, with my personal thanks for your many years of exemplary service.” the now Sir John rose and bowed to the Prince, before catching sight of Sir Henry out of the corner of his eye, his red moustache rising as he smiled.
“Your highness, it appears Sir Henry has arrived victorious and ready to conquer the second floor in your name.” Henry’s heart rose, Hawkwood always repaid service in turn and bringing him to the Prince’s notice was a surefire way to earn Henry approval in turn. Henry was beckoned forward, bowing in turn as he entered the Prince’s presence, the young man looking his liegeman over in thought, also taking note of the blade at Henry’s hip.
“Ah Sir Henry, I see you have been well rewarded in your adventures,” The prince said with every show of good faith, though Henry didn’t miss the dark shadow that passed through the man’s eyes. It was a mix of anger, fear and perhaps sorrow. Still Henry could not allow such worries to show on his own face in the presence of the Crown Prince of England.
“I have had some luck, your highness, with your permission I’d like to head straight for the second floor and continue the climb, I will prepare the way for you.” The prince nodded in understanding.
“Of course Sir Henry, you demonstrate true knighthood and we all aspire to such prowess, do not let us keep you,” Edward’s smile was genuine as he laid a hand on Henry’s armoured shoulder.
“I should like to speak again when we meet you on the second floor.”
“At your command my Prince,” Henry said with another bow. At a gesture from the Prince and nods of approval from Chandos and de Grailly, Henry walked to the portal that led to the second floor and held out a single Tower Stone as payment, before he was sucked through the aperture to his next challenge.
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The prince stared at his departing knight, he was genuinely happy for the man who was spear-heading their climb, but his mind was overwhelmed by what the Tower had already revealed to him. The pain of his Aspect was like a sore tooth and he couldn’t help but prod it, once more bringing the words back that had so shocked him upon his first kill.
Aspect Unlocked [Aspect of the Fallen Prince]
[Aspect of the Fallen Prince]:
Your destiny is written in the cosmos, across the multiverse they whisper of the Black Prince, doomed to never ascend his father’s throne. Overcome by disease and decay his once noble bearing hunched and his strength decayed, filled with rage at the injustice. Decay and Undeath are your Domains and the fifth floor awaits you with a throne of your own.
Never could he have suspected such an awful fate, he was Edward of Woodstock, the very peak of chivalry in the known world, and yet these words condemned him as some monster, even his abilities tormented his soul with their darkness.
Ability Unlocked: [Decaying Strike]
Ability Unlocked: [Raise Corpse]
Ability Unlocked: [Vortex of Disease]
How could he wield such evil and remain a knight? Let alone the prince of England. Edward shook his head in despair, what was to become of him?
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There was less freely available knowledge about the second floor to the outside world, it was part of an agreement the old gods had come to millenia ago on how the Seed should be used. The first floor was heavily documented, the second merely had details of the growing intelligence of foes and that there were now traps that would appear. The third floor had even less available advice and by the fourth floor nothing was known. Even the stories of the higher floors, such as Gilgamesh’s battle with the Great Dragon, were highly suspect in that there was no way to verify that such a foe existed on that floor, it was entirely possible the gods just wanted to mess with the mortals and boost their own egos.
Still, Sir Henry was glad he had the warning he did for the second floor as he materialised in a hallway just in time to see a great stone ball on a chain swing towards him. He dived to the side and let the powerful missile pass where it promptly shattered against the wall behind him sending shards of stone in every direction. He had no time to rest as a trio of what looked like goblins but with red skin and better armour advanced on him. They spread out to come at him from all sides, their long spears held at the ready and their short tusks bared. Henry drew his sword into a rising cut as he had been taught and pushed the first spear offline before the second slammed into his breastplate with serious force, deforming the metal so that a fist sized divot pressed into his ribs, while he cut down into the third spear to drive it into the stones of the floor. Stepping past the spearheads he thrust overhand into the foe whose own thrust had hit the flagstones and ended it in one blow, while his back cut ended the central monster’s attacks.
The one that had struck him from the left had back stepped and thrust again this time glancing off the right of his breastplate and sweeping away. Using this opening Henry dashed forward and cut fendente, over his own shoulder and down through the maille and muscle of the monster’s shoulder, driving down to the hip so that the beast spilled blood and entrails across the flagstones.
You have slain [Hobgoblin Sergeant]
You have slain [Hobgoblin Sergeant]
You have slain [Hobgoblin Sergeant]
Essence Distributed
Just as he read the words the wave of essence slammed into him stronger than ever. Henry was forced to his knees as he felt the weight of the second floor essence as it flowed through his body like honey, thick and viscous. His muscles were no longer content with simply hardening and growing denser, now they grew in size and he could feel his body straining against the armour that encased him. With a quick grunt he unbuckled his breast and back plates and allowed it to fall to the flagstone in a loud clank. Damaged as it was he would not be wearing it again, hopefully he would find new armour in this challenge or on this floor at the least. His maille was tight on his shoulders but not so much that it would restrict his ability to cut across his body, though with how dramatic this new, better essence was in its changes he knew that would not last either. The power was even more intoxicating though as he felt his body surging with new strength, he relished this new challenge. The enemies were a true threat to him now, faster and stronger by an order of magnitude than their first floor brethren, but so too were the rewards, now instead of just the final guardian reward, the hobgoblins at his feet dropped Tower Stones as well, two stones apiece went into his belt pouch, with any luck he’d find a dwarf on this floor who could replace his armour.
First he had to clear this entrance challenge. He followed the hallway deeper and quickly learned that if he saw a flagstone with less mortar between it and those beside it, it was a trigger stone for another one of the swinging boulders. After two more of these he was confident to walk ahead, his eyes perpetually roving the ground. Another trio of the sergeants had confronted him and been burnt to a crisp with his lightning ability, and it was gratifying to notice that the energy required was no longer so debilitating as it had been on the first floor. Without his breastplate to take a blow Henry was unsure he’d survive a thrust getting through, and so he focused on his defence, collecting more stones as he cut down hobgoblins.
After his third pack of the hobgoblins he came across a fresh enemy, this one was clearly in charge of the patrol and was taller than Henry himself with great slabs of muscle packed onto its grey hide. It carried a long handled dane axe and bore great black horns that curved like those of a ram on the side of its head. Henry drew and threw his rondel dagger in one fluid motion at the face of an advancing hobgoblin, causing it to raise its hands in shock to ward the blow, it mostly worked with the spike of steel only driving into its palm, eliciting a scream of pain from the red beast.
More lightning fell on the enemies, burning the hobgoblins and leaving their commander with a smoking black hole through one shoulder. The larger beast roared as a red glow suffused its muscles and it swung the axe one handed. Henry fell back under the assault, avoiding the no doubt deadly blow as he realised a very crucial fact about level two challenges; the monsters could have abilities as well as increased intelligence.
“I will kill you where you stand outsider!” The beast roared, Henry’s eyes widened at the words, the first he had heard from a beast of the Tower. It twirled the long axe like it weighed nothing and drove the head towards Henry in a raging frenzy. Henry knew he couldn’t keep stepping back, he waited for the next blow to descend before striking up and over his right shoulder in the posta di fenestra leaving his point on line with the monster’s face and driving forward through its eye to spear the brain, just as it slammed its weapon back down.
Henry was not slow, in fact for such a large fighter he was considered quite fast, and to his credit he was so deep in the monster’s guard that the axe head missed him by more than a foot. Unfortunately for Henry the haft of the weapon was by no means harmless. With its dying gasp the monster brought its weapon cracking down and the haft slammed into Henry’s shoulder and with the distinct sound of something snapping, the knight crumpled to the ground. The shoulder was his best armoured body part with two layers of maille and a spaulder, but that did nothing for his abused collarbone that had definitely broken.
Henry screamed. His first real wound of the second floor, and it could not be worse. His right arm hung uselessly by his side and pain radiated outwards from his shoulder like a hot brand. He groaned aloud as he unbuckled his sword belt. A quick loop around his right wrist and doing the buckle around his neck functioned as a sling. His blade could function one handed but it was awkward, his hand choked right up on the hilt so that the top of his gauntlet pressed into the stone of the guard.
You have slain [Orc Berserker]
Essence Distributed
Ability Unlocked: [Dragon’s Hide]
Trait Unlocked: [Dragon’s Blood]
The blood of dragons flows through you, resilience received from Essence gains increased by 150%
Once more the Essence flowed through him in a tidal wave, he felt the bone begin to knit itself back together, though once the rush ended it had not completed the process. His shoulder remained tender, though the pain of the break had reduced to an aching throb rather than the burning inferno it had been. That was as nothing to the new notifications he had read, his new ability was fairly self explanatory, he knew it would allow him to grow scales across his body more durable than his armour for a limited time, a welcome change, but that was nothing compared to the trait. Traits were not unknown and for the most part they showed up in one in every hundred climbers. Rumour had it several of the gods had bloodline traits that allowed them to grow stronger much faster than most expected.
It meant without any doubt now though, that Henry was no longer human. Traits were a hotly debated topic in the outside world. Were they innate to a person or a reward from the God Seed itself, did it merely awaken through Essence accumulation or did the Essence create it? Whatever the case it meant the changes would not stop here for Henry as he took on more Essence his physical body would begin to express the bloodline. Perhaps Arthur would have answers once he reached that point, but for now he still had to complete this challenge and not die, a much more difficult task now that he only had one working arm. With the death of this patrol though his pool of energy had grown and he knew his abilities would be needed more than his technique with a blade.
The next patrol fell to his lightning, two quick cuts left them too burned to resist, even the orc that was with that group hadn’t been able to withstand a second hit. It also showed that even two uses didn’t unduly stress Henry’s reserves, which brought a grin to his face as he continued to limp down the hallway avoiding the trigger stones. On his fourth patrol led by an orc he purposefully stepped on a trigger and watched as the trap detonated on the orc’s back and sent the hobgoblins flying with razor-like shards of stone slicing through them. They were trivial to kill after that, with their tendons cut and sprawled on the flagstones.
The hallway seemed to never end, just one long tunnel leading to who knew where. The further he advanced, the more numerous the patrols and trap stones became. After what felt like hours he came upon a room. Unlike what he expected though, this was no Guardian room, instead it was a gatehouse style room with a pair of bunks on one side of the room and a small, square table a pair of orcs were playing what looked like cards at. Reacting quickly, Henry unleashed his lightning infused strike into the distracted orcs and lunged forward to put his point through the back of the first orc’s skull. He followed this up with a fast back cut that came down on the other orc’s cheek, relying entirely on the power of the artifact that severed the orc’s head in half.
More essence suffused his body and he felt himself continuing to heal , still he collected the Tower Stones the orcs dropped and looked around the room, he found another pair of stones in the beds and a locked chest underneath them. The lock was a fragile thing that fell apart with one cut from Caliburn. Inside he found a ring.
You have received [Ring of Storage]
This ring holds a dimensional storage space of ten feet by ten feet by ten feet. You may store any inanimate objects you like within.
Much like traits, dimensional storage items were well known, unlike traits they were very common for climbers and considered the mark of a true climber. Some received their first storage item on the second floor, though most didn’t get theirs until the third or even fourth. Henry watched in wonder as the simple gold band with its sapphire gem slid over the finger of his gauntlet, magically resizing itself to fit snugly, before fading from view. With a thought, Henry moved his stones from his belt pouch to his ring, smiling as he felt safer, the chance of running into another climber on the second floor was low but not zero like the first floor. Convinced he’d found everything of value in the watchhouse, Henry moved to the door at the far side from the hallway he had come through.
Stepping through the door, he realised his information on the second floor was lacking in another key area. Taking in the sight of the gargantuan castle he was in, and the squadron of orcs down in the courtyard, Henry was forced to admit that the challenges on the second floor were much, much bigger than those he had cleared on the first.
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For the first time in nearly a century, Jason Arimnestos, the third of House Corvaxae, turned his full attention to the readouts from the seed. His brow furrowed as he read the information coming through. He had changed somewhat since the day he first planted the seed upon this earth, his shoulders were broader and his hair had hints of grey, with a beard that now covered his lower face. The power that radiated from him was palpable, Thor had been true to his word and had carried him through the fiftieth floor. Against the god’s advice he had then undertaken the challenge to earn his Hero title, and he had succeeded. He knew it meant he would eventually be promoted by the Corps and he would need to start training his successor, but he had a dozen children all champing at the bit to be the next hereditary captain of the Argo.
All such thoughts were far from his mind as he saw who had finally entered the God Seed, his first officer, Leonidas, approached with trepidation.
“So it happened then?” He asked his captain. Jason met his friend’s eye with a sad nod.
“We knew it would, we also allowed enough information to spread amongst the upper echelons to warn of his coming.” Jason answered.
“The Black Prince has entered, it’s a shame he’s so cursed, he’s a decent sort as far as royalty and nobility go.” Leonidas said wistfully. Jason raised an eyebrow.
“You know I’m considered pseudo-nobility myself within the Corps Leonidas.”
“And a fine man you are too sir,” Leonidas said with a wicked grin.
“I hope Arthur knows what he is doing, this challenge could either strengthen the earth or cost them everything.” Jason’s brow descended like a thundercloud as he considered the ramifications of what was to come. When the prince fell, it would fall to his own men to prevent the calamity that would come of it, and it was no guarantee they could. He had seen this exact same sequence of events play out countless times on a hundred worlds, and on a dozen of those, the strength of humanity had failed and an unending wave of death and decay had consumed the earth. He took note though, that there was one anomaly this time around that hadn’t appeared on his other experiences of this trial. Perhaps Arthur knew more than Jason himself did.
