As the body disappeared with the usual disappearance of a smoky trail, what was left behind was not just one–but two books.
Two books with the same extremely charged power coursing through their covers and pages. Zeke couldn’t forget it even if he tried–they were Epic-rarity skill books.
To both Zeke and Mikella, finding Epic Rarity skill books again wasn’t so surprising, considering their last experience in the last tower with the same mini-boss. It was clear that the towers were going through a pattern, with the mini-boss being a sort of power-up when defeated in order to either face the final boss, or if you were a beginner, to escape with the last spoils. It was the same for Zeke and Mikella, who had to escape their own final boss rather than facing it. With Clara in their care, it wasn’t even worth mentioning the loss of valuable loot when it came to their lives.
However, for the veteran adventurers tagging along with them who knew nothing about the value from defeating a mini-boss, it truly tested their resistances for temptation.
And they all failed–badly.
“Epic-rarity skill books!?” Saang screamed, pure greed and want in her eyes as the other two in her party began to show off the energy of children finding rare and valuable trading cards. “I call dibs!”
“Fuck you, that’s invalid!” Hamil shouted harshly.
“Guys! Guys! Easy!” Kote, the only one seemingly in control, shouted at them. “Our image is breaking apart!”
“Fuck our image! They’re mine!” Saang said incredulously with no hesitation.
After a bit of tug-of-war between their greed and their reputation for their new members, they managed to calm down enough to read what the valuable books can do.
Unlike the last skill book where it seemed appropriate with the theme around the dungeon, these skill books were truly something to fight for. One skill was a powerful healing skill capable of healing a wide radius. Though it only healed them of their afflictions and diseases, such a skill would be invaluable to any hospital-based areas and hazardous zones where a plague might be around, and according to Zeke’s studies, there were quite a few hazardous countries out there with some serious pandemics.
The other one is a utility-type skill. It allows a person to not only view at such a far-away distance, they can accurately make a superficial guess on one’s stats and skill build. At least to a certain extent. Zeke can guess that any scout would drool for this type of skill, and considering its high rarity, it’s bound to make any army succeed with such a thing in their hands.
Zeke decided not to focus on the aspect that these towers can give away such powerful skills that, in the wrong hands, can severely hamper any country in this world. Instead, they focused on whether they should learn this type of skill or not.
According to their past experiences, they can possibly gain a new skill slot to earn another Acquired Skill. Both Zeke and Mikella, regrettably, swallowed an orb that let them add another slot. If they want to, they can learn these skills for themselves. But when Zeke thought about it, he decided he didn’t want either of the skills, and neither did Mikella.
Both of them had their builds planned out, to an extent. Zeke knew his Restoration can easily clear anyone of their disabilities, and he knew that taking on another healing skill that has a wider range would be pointless. He can just heal anyone with his own field with runes. The same goes for the scouting thing. He didn’t need to scout, and he preferred to get more skills that goes in line with his close-combat style of fighting.
As for Mikella, neither of the skills suited her. The scouting type of skill might be, but she decided to trust in her own instincts rather than worry incessantly over an enemy that might have higher stats than her. As for the healing, though that did cross his mind, seeing Mikella ruthlessly throw out the wide healing skill got him to remember that she’s the type to go all in with her hands than with magic.
That led the veterans to consider learning the skills themselves, or keep them in for sale later. They all decided, surprisingly, to sell it off to the Skill Repository, a governmental facility that holds and sells various skill books, one of the very few sanctioned buildings that allowed others to come in and buy whatever Acquired Skills they wanted. As one expected, even just visiting the place requires severe documentation and heavy surveillance, as the value of the building might even eclipse most of the important facilities of the country, if not the entire country itself.
Once that was over with, and deciding to warn the others about the potential rewards should they clear the dungeon, they continued on after recovering their resources a bit, keeping their eye out for any more potential threats. Though after moving forward for so long, the location around them changed gradually over time. The acrid stench of the acidic river ran high as they all seemed to continue flowing as if towards the center of where they were heading. They weren’t sure how, but it felt as though all the rivers that they have seen so far seem to be consecrating straight towards the north where they were heading.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Though the path seemed obvious now, it still had been several hours since they left the former campsite. Some discussion had to be made to pass the time, and thankfully it went better than expected.
“So, how are you two feeling?” Saang asked, something that had apparently been waiting as the other two veterans listened.
“I’m feeling good,” Mikella answered, as though she knew this was coming. “Mentally, though, I’m tired. I just want this stupid tower to be destroyed for good. If you’re worried if I’m going to lose my mind over this, don’t worry–I got this.”
Saang nodded as though it was expected. Then, her sight landed on Zeke. He had to take a moment, knowing that the Tempest Wind deserved an honest answer.
“...Honestly I’m still a little shaken. I knew this wasn’t our responsibility, not really, but it still hurt to see them like this. But that’s why I want to clear this tower too. Not only to fix Arcelot of the mana issues, but to just get rid of this tower and all the memories in it. I don’t ever want to let this tower get another moment of existence.”
He felt those words were a little too deep for his liking, but a helpful nudge from Mikella followed by a cute wink made Zeke believe in himself some more. That was also enough for the veterans as they looked ahead, assured that everything would turn out fine for them.
That good-natured feeling disappeared when they spotted the rivers that were slowly aligning with each other finally converging to a single point. The air was bathed in a hot steam from all the acid filling up what looked like an entire lake’s worth of burning liquid. It bubbled and sizzled endlessly, and the smell was so intense that it nearly brought a migraine.
The color of the lake was near transparent except for a bit of sickly green, yellowish spots and in some of those points, blots of red hid within. After everything Zeke has seen in this dungeon, he thought that those blots were originally creatures that accidentally went too far into the lake, and ended up taken.
As for how that was possible, Zeke would hazard a guess considering that beyond the lake was only a large mountain like cliff at the end, showing nothing else.
Beyond that cliff, Zeke could surmise what he was seeing as ‘the edge of the map’. While there was still the same sky and swamp overhead, the look of it felt like seeing a wall that was painted meticulously rather than the actual thing. It was completely surreal, as though the ones who created this wanted to trick people into believing there was more to it. But in truth, it was just too jarring, and Zeke would gladly call out the laziness in the design if this was a video game.
Considering that this was made by literal gods, however, he only became that more disturbed.
“What the fuck is that?” Kote said, cursing with widened eyes. “How is that even possible? I can’t even see where the true sky and the fake sky meet up.”
Zeke took a closer look at what Kote was describing, and now felt more chills after seeing that where they met up was, indeed, hard to figure out. He can definitely see the true sky, the bits of sunlight from the fake sun pouring down at them, and made out the fake sky where the light that was clearly not of the sun was shown instead. It was so strange that it made his head split up in confusion.
“Guess we shouldn’t expect this dungeon to end in a natural way,” Hamil stated. “Though, I’m hoping this is the actual end, is it? What’s your take, guys?”
“It’s definitely the end,” Zeke said, his face turning more somber. “And this is where we face the Master of the tower.”
“You said before that there was a gate here that got you out. But I don’t see it anywhere,” Hamil asked, taking another glance around the scene but as he said, there was nothing magical like the portal they once entered through.
“It’s possible that it’s only available for the original otherworlders that were sent here,” Zeke stated, putting his thoughts into order. “The last two towers didn’t show an exit for us either. We had to either make our own exit, or it just… well…”
“Blow up in our faces,” Mikella said, which wasn’t exactly what Zeke wanted to convey as the veterans showed concerned expressions. “But if something like that happens, we usually get a warning.”
“From the system?” Saang asked, but Zeke was unable to say. Mentioning Zoan would just bring more complication to an already stressed situation.
“In a sense,” Zeke answered, getting Mikella to play along with a nod. “For now, we gotta–”
Zeke was about to mention the lack of protective barriers for the battle ahead before the boiling liquid at the lake suddenly started to bubble more than usual. A torrent of blistering pops echoed out at the center, getting everyone to get into their combat stance before the burning liquid exploded from the center, a massive figure revealing through the wall of acid that cascaded across the entire lake.
It had a crimson, near purplish coloring across its leathery skin, the shape of the head resembling that of an octupus, except that the top half was pointy enough to be considered a weapon of its own right. Large tentacles, all of them school bus-sized, slithered out of the acid with no care at all, almost splashing the burning substance everywhere across the swampy area. The trees melted from the cascade of acid droplets as the giant creature spread all of its coiling tentacles around itself, all eight in total.
The head had yellow eyes the size of truck tires, a strange blot of black at the center. More tinier tentacles were on its mouth, opening to reveal several rows of jagged yellow fangs.
From its appearance, it roared at its intruders as its name displayed itself once Zeke Identified it.
Catastrophic Kraken, Level ???
“Get ready!” Zeke shouted, getting everyone to stay on guard. “It’s Master-Rank! Fight to survive!”