The final walk to the tower without being assaulted from above was a surprisingly pleasant thing. An unexpected benefit of the change to my mana was an increased ability to push away the frozen mana in the air. The closer I got to the tower itself, the more brutal the cold winds blew against me. Fear of retaliation from above slowly ebbed, but I kept my eyes upwards and my head on a swivel nonetheless.

  Before too long though, no matter where I turned my head, all I could see was the incredible structure before me. The blizzard was muted somewhat in this area, the astounding height and width of the incredible pillar acting as a barrier from the elements. Speaking of, In the distance, I saw a few elementals take physical form and prepared myself for battle. Yet they didn’t approach, making themselves known early and simply watching my walk up to the tower.

  Interesting.

  I didn’t attack them, though I was sorely tempted to chase the final level of Grade Zero. Without seeing aggression from the elementals, it was easier to leave them alone. Once I defeated the final claimant, these creatures would be the bulk of the populace within the Tundra area. While I wasn’t sure they contained any true intelligence, even now, it was better not to sow grudges. For all I knew they were avoiding me due to the growth in my aura in the last hour, and not because I had absolutely whooped whatever guardian was trying to keep me away from the majestic tower.

  Each step towards the place brought more of it into sharper detail and if the frigid air didn’t make respiration uncomfortable, the sight would have taken the rest of my breath away. I had taken to barely inhaling to limit the amount of disagreeable mana which found its way into me but that protection fell away as each new sight made me gasp over and over.

  From a distance, the tower had been little more than a silhouette which split the world in two vertically. The largest of its features had become apparent as I got closer, such as the fact there was a pair of massive doors at the base and windows in places. When I reached the point that I could truly make out the depth and details before me, I had to stop my approach just to marvel. I only noticed that my reaction was so pronounced when I found myself wiping away quickly freezing tears at the sight.

  I was not a student of architecture, so I didn’t have the words to describe what I was seeing or why it affected me so profoundly. In true full view, patterns and reliefs were beginning to become visible on the stone which the tower was built from. Yet, I didn’t get the sense these carvings were the act of a crafter but something more natural. The swirls and patterns were beautiful in a way I had never experienced before. It was as though a piece of some higher level of reality had been dragged down from heaven itself and placed on the filthy mortal soil. Its existence was a blessing and an act of great heresy.

  My instincts screamed that something was wrong as I began to get exaltant.

  Believing in myself as I sensed a level of strangeness, I used a more active portion of the Mind Palace. Created from the Mental Fortress skill which had protected my mind from outside forces, I hadn’t truly lost that functionality on the alteration. I was glad for that now as my mind cleared a little upon sending some mana towards the skill. I felt Tag begin to take notice, tearing his attention away from the concepts stolen from the storm mana and facing the tower alongside me.

  I looked at the strange, gargantuan tower with newly cleared eyes and frowned. A literal fog still clung to the place but my high Perception easily pierced such obfuscation. Higher up, thicker clouds did block my view however. That wasn’t my issue, though. The beauty I had sensed was still present, but I found that it no longer held the same sway over me. For a moment there, I had been ready to drop to my knees and pray to the monumental building.

  “There’s Spirit all over the place,” Tag informed me as an explanation for the exultation the mere sight of the building had given me. “It’s like the tower itself is built from mixing stone and Spirit together at a base level. That’s… insane. I don’t think it’s meant to be a defence or trap, though.”

  That had been my first thought. “What makes you say that?” I asked. To me, it seemed a simple enough idea. If the sight of my headquarters was enough to brainwash someone looking at it, then I wouldn’t have to do much fighting. The idea wasn’t massively appealing to me when I considered it, though.

  I quite liked fighting, actually.

  “I’m not sure, it’s just… it would be a lot of effort to go through.”

  “Making stone out of Spirit does sound like it would be difficult,” I agreed with the voice in my head. I couldn’t even begin to wrap my head around how one would take the completely formless energy created from intent and soul growth and turn it into something physical. “So, it’s just a passive effect…”

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  “Yep. Which means you really were just that taken with the appearance you started crying. I had no idea we liked art so much.” I felt Tag shrug from inside the Mind Palace and shut down his side of the connection as punishment. The echoes of his laughter helped me crush away the last of the doubts the second layer of defence had caused to bloom within me. Tag was likely right that causing reverence enough to stop me in my tracks wasn’t intended as protection, but that just the base of operations for my final enemy was so daunting by accident didn’t make things much better.

  So what, Tag’s fading chortles seemed to say. I felt that he had returned to picking apart the last of the storm mana I had remaining, having documented the strangeness of the tower and deciding it was irrelevant right now. The decisiveness of my magical mirror was a barrier for my mind against the beauty of the tower as I closed the final distance and stood before its massive doors.

  I had considered climbing in a window, but that was the hopeful planning of someone very far away. Up close it was clear even getting into the tower was going to be a serious challenge. The lowest windows, ostensibly on the “ground floor,” were easily hundreds of metres up the walls. The carvings I had been able to make out from far away were reminiscent of a set of ancient pictographs I had seen once upon a time. At a great distance, they had appeared as intricate shapes and graphs.

  Up close, the carvings were deep gouges of incredibly smoothness. Ignoring the revulsion which rose in my throat at the irreverent act, I had tried to climb the beautiful lines with little success. There were more than a few shapes which climbed upwards but I couldn’t get a grip on any of them. Only after falling a fourth time, almost reaching my destination, did Tag take mercy on me.

  “Use the boots you idiot,” he complained, having watched me make a fool of myself. I gulped and didn’t respond. I just did as I was told. I had used the effect to keep myself level during some of the fighting in the tundra. Ironically, despite that, the magical ability of my wonderful shoes did slip my mind. It may have been embarrassing in the moment, but I was generally much more grateful to the boots for simply being comfortable and warm at all times. As my mana entered the soles and I quickly scaled the nearest wall, I promised to remember my items more often.

  Entering the threshold, the cold did not immediately disappear. However, the mana within it was much less pronounced and with a few quick cycles of my own energy, I finally felt warm for the first time in about a week. Having clambered into the closest window to the front doors, I was unsurprised to find myself in an entrance foyer. Of course, the scale of the room was beyond anything I could have imagined before seeing it.

  A truly massive space was laid down, with found visible exits leading further into the ground floor. It wouldn’t have made sense for “normal” sized rooms to fill the tower, but it was still hard to wrap my head around the distances at play. I guessed there to be about a kilometre of space between myself and the main staircase which dominated the room. I wasn’t too excited about climbing the building sized stairs but I expected my quarry to be at the very top of this ostentatious place.

  While low on furnishings, the same wonderful engravings were found all over the floors, walls and ceilings in sight. I would have to be careful walking around or I could twist my ankle easily, potentially even falling into the deeper cuts. Without a shred of caution, I jumped from the window and entered freefall for just long enough to feel a little fear. I impacted the floor with a loud thud which resonated in the quiet space.

  I winced as the vibrations caused a few icicles to fall around the room and waited with bated breath for the incoming retaliation. None of the previous claimants had been particularly friendly, so I doubted my presence in the tower was welcome. Yet, after a minute or two of worried hesitation, I breathed a sigh of relief. No alarms seemed to have been tripped as the returning silence stretched on.

  Then, I took a single step further into the room.

  Quest Received!

  Dungeon Quest - Trial Tower Takedown

  Those who enter the Tower of Alonyx are either invited or unwelcome, and you find yourself among the latter. Created with an intent to challenge their station, the craftsmanship of the tower begets further Creation. Powerful elementals call this place their home, and they protect it valiantly.

  Only once the five elemental generals have been defeated will the seal to Alonyx’s Spire be broken.

  Generals Remaining - 4

  Reward: Random Aspect

  I barely had time to register that I had received a quest before I was forced to close the window and dodge the incoming projectile. Having flashbacks to the battle outside, I reacted quickly as the room began to fill with elementals. There was no playing around this time, no limiting myself as I went all out from the start. I could tell mostly from energy alone that these were “standard” elementals and not one of the generals with an entourage. Though more than a dozen level thirty elementals appeared before me, I knew this was just a greeting.

  Still, despite their numbers they didn’t stand a chance. Once the dust settled and silence returned to the entry room, I opened the Quest window and glared at it for a short while. I was glad to see that I had apparently been fighting one of the generals earlier, and that I had destroyed it in the battle. It explained why I received a level from that kill, while this large room of enemies had barely moved the needle. My new achievement had stretched the requirements for my levelling once again, and I felt them clearly after the battle. However, that wasn’t my issue. My problem came from the name, which reminded me of only one name I had seen in the past.

  Alonyx, huh?

  Didn’t that seem like it was possibly the name… of a dragon?