We continued to advance for a long time, going deeper and deeper into the thickness of the forest. Now, the only sound was the rustling of the leaves under our feet, accompanied by that strange tingle in the air that I could not explain... but which he felt more and more clearly.
That's when Pearl broke the silence. "The mana in this area is felt... "different," he said, frowning slightly. More chaotic. It comes from the left... as if a whirlpool were swallowing him.
Sam didn't hesitate too much. "Then let's go that way.
We changed direction, and as we went along, the feeling intensified. It was like walking against an invisible current, a constant pressure that didn't exhaust the body, but it did keep the mind on alert.
I was surprised to see a gate too big to be in the middle of the forest, decorated with elegant engravings reminiscent of the entrance of an ancient palace; But something didn't add up.
The door seemed transparent, but not an illusion; It was as if I was there and, at the same time, I wasn't. The forest background could be seen through it, but its contours, reliefs, and undeniable sense of presence were overwhelming.
I stared at her with my mouth barely open. Is that it? I murmured without realizing it, my voice barely a whisper.
Pearl looked at me and, noticing my astonished expression, let out a little amused laugh. Don't worry, it's normal even I'm surprised.
He moved a little closer to the door and calmly explained, "That's a metaphysical door. In reality, it does not exist in physical form... but it does exist. It is created by the mana of the Tower.
I blinked, trying to take it in. exists and does not exist?
"The Tower works like this," he continued. This door can lead to different places inside it. But it is not unlimited.
He held up a finger, as if marking an important rule. "For example, a dungeon or a treasure room on the first floor can't take you beyond a certain limit. Normally, at most, to areas close to the twentieth floor. The same happens with those between the twentieth and fiftieth floors, and so on.
He paused and smiled with a hint of embarrassment. "Although I'd be lying if I said I knew for sure," he admitted. I've never gone beyond the twentieth floor.
I looked at the door again; It didn't seem threatening, but it didn't seem like something to be taken lightly either. I swallowed: if I crossed that threshold, there would be no turning back.
Sam and Pearl approached the door around the same time. I stood a little behind, watching them in silence. They both seemed completely focused. Sam swept over the prints, as if he could read something from them, while Pearl closed her eyes for a moment.
A few seconds passed that felt eternal.
Then Pearl opened her eyes and frowned slightly. "Wait a minute..."
He reached out to his side and pulled out a thick book, bound in dark leather. From its appearance and the faint glow that ran through the letters engraved on the cover, I assumed it was some kind of grimoire. Pearl opened it and began to turn pages quickly. The sound of the paper was the only thing that broke the silence of the forest. Minutes later, she stopped at a particular section and began to read carefully, muttering to herself.
When time seemed endless, Pearl finally looked up and looked directly at Sam; He didn't say anything at first, but his expression said it all: a mixture of amazement and confirmation.
Sam's eyes sparkled, and even Pearl, who normally kept her calm, looked distinctly excited; At that moment I knew: they had hit the target.
Sam turned to me and suddenly let out a loud laugh. He laughed heartily. Without a doubt, Eryon is a lucky charm.
I froze, his words took me by surprise.
"We've done many quests and expeditions," he continued, still laughing, "but on the first one we do with you—we found a treasure room!"
His laughter was so exaggerated that it reminded me of a gambler who, after losing everything, risked the last thing on the number eight and suddenly recovered his losses at once. Sam finally calmed down and looked at the rest of the group, though the smile was still stuck to his face.
"I suppose there will be no objection to entering," he said, with a dangerous gleam in his eye.
Vicky smiled excitedly.
Erick nodded, clutching his rosary.
Pearl closed the grimoire carefully, her expression clearly satisfied.
I swallowed hard and nodded too; We had already come too far to back down now.
Pearl was the first to move. He reached out and knocked lightly on the door. The instant his fingers made contact, that which previously seemed to exist and not exist at the same time became solid. The surface rippled like water and then became anchored to the real world.
"Ready," Pearl said calmly.
Sam nodded and pushed; The door opened without resistance, and as he crossed the threshold, the world changed.
White lights came on one after another, as if someone had activated an invisible mechanism; No one knew where they came from, they were just there, lighting everything up. In front of us stretched a very long, wide, elegant corridor, with tall columns and walls decorated with ancient reliefs, more like the interior of a royal palace than something hidden inside the Tower.
The group advanced with cautious steps. The echo of his footsteps resounded in the absolute silence of the place. They walked for a long way, so much so that I began to wonder how deep it went, until finally we stopped in front of another door.
This time there was no doubt: it was huge, heavy, and far more luxurious than the last, covered in gold engravings, gem-encrusted and symbols that seemed to breathe mana. Everything in it screamed only one thing: here was a treasure waiting.
Sam and Pearl did not keep the rest waiting. They both pushed the big door at the same time.
When it opened, a blinding light exploded from the inside.
*****
—¡…!
Eryon reacted reflexively and covered his eyes with his forearm. The glow was so intense that it felt like it burned his eyes. It took several seconds before he dared to spread his fingers a little.
When he finally could see, a knot of disbelief and amazement blocked his throat; There were no words capable of encompassing what his eyes witnessed.
The place in front of them was gigantic, a treasure room straight out of legend: mountains of gold coins stretched across the floor, reflecting the light in thousands of sparkles, while gems of every imaginable color glittered among fine decorations, statues, goblets, ornamental weapons, and chests overflowing with unknown objects.
And in the background rose a great mountain of crystals, radiating a light that seemed almost alive.
A chill ran through Eryon; he vaguely remembered seeing those crystals in the brochure: used as a source of energy, special currency, and high-value material inside the Tower.
Eryon couldn't help but choke on his saliva; That was not just a stroke of luck, but a treasure capable of changing entire lives.
For several seconds no one moved; The whole group stood completely dumbfounded, as if their brains refused to accept what their eyes saw. The glitter of the gold, gems, and chests seemed unreal, almost offensive from so exaggerated.
The first to regain his senses... or rather, to lose it completely, it was Sam.—WOOOOOO!! He shouted with pure emotion.
Without thinking twice, he ran out into one of the mountains of gold and plunged both hands into the coins, lifting a large handful that he dropped again and again, laughing like a child.
That was the signal.
Vicky laughed and imitated him.
Pearl let out a suppressed laugh, but ended up getting closer as well.
Erick murmured a quick prayer... and then he went after them.
For an instant Eryon hesitated, a second that felt eternal, as if everything around him was holding its breath waiting for his next move.
Then, emotion caught up with him; He walked over to a mountain of coins and let them slip through his fingers. The metallic sound, the real weight of gold, all confirmed that he was not dreaming.
For a long time, the place was filled with laughter, exclamations and the constant jingle of metal.
After a long time, when fatigue and reality began to set in, Sam was the first to calm down; He took a few deep breaths and raised his hand.
"Good, good! Sam said, raising his hand. Calm, calm.
He gathered the group in front of the room and pointed to the back, where the huge mountain of glass stood. "Although I would love to take all this with me," he continued, with a mixture of ambition and pragmatism, "you have to think with a cool head.
His eyes shone with a mixture of excitement and lucidity. And not just any guy... seem to be of superior quality. I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure that mountain is worth more than all the gold and gems in this room put together.
The group held their breath, trying to imagine the immensity of that wealth.
Sam smiled, elated. "So let's fill the bags to the limit." If we do this right... We won't have to worry about money in this life or the next.
There was not a single objection; Greed, or perhaps necessity, brought them together. They all headed to the back of the room and began to put away as many crystals as they could, emptying their backpacks of anything that wasn't strictly essential.
Eryon took out the goblin parts stored away without hesitation.
Erick put his rations aside.
Pearl reorganized her pockets quickly, her efficiency remarkable.
And Vicky, after a second of hesitation, threw all her bolts to the ground to make room.
The sound of glass crashing against each other filled the room, a tinkling sound that was music to his ears.
As Eryon filled her backpack to the limit, barely able to close it, a recurring thought invaded her mind: her sister's face. And, for the first time in a long time, a twinge of hope dispelled the darkness I had always felt when imagining the future.
Fatigue came suddenly, like a tide after euphoria. They all remained seated or leaning against chests and columns, breathing heavily, but with smiles that did not fit on their faces. Backpacks and bags were overflowing with mana crystals; some could barely be closed, and others were tied with improvised ropes, barely holding their valuable contents.
"Never," Sam said between laughs and gasps, "I had carried something so heavy..." and so beautiful at the same time.
Vicky slumped down, her arms dangling. "If I die right here..." at least I'll die rich.
Even Pearl, normally so composed, had a little messy hair and an expression of genuine satisfaction. Erick stood leaning on his rosary, muttering something that sounded like gratitude.
Eryon watched them in silence. I'd met them just a few hours ago, and it still felt... strange. I couldn't quite explain it, but there was something warm about that moment, in that group: different people, with different lives, who had inadvertently ended up sharing something huge.
For the first time, Eryon thought that maybe it wasn't bad to have company, that maybe sharing the road wasn't a weakness, and that even... they could become friends.
His mind traveled further, to a future that had always seemed unattainable: his healed sister, walking freely, living a life without debt, without injustice, without pain. For the first time, that future didn't seem like an absurd fantasy.
"Good," Sam said at last, rising to his feet with effort. Time to leave before the Tower decides to charge us interest.
One by one, they all got up, adjusted the straps of their backpacks, and headed towards the exit of the treasure room. Every step was heavy, but no one complained. They advanced through the great hall, the echo of their footsteps mingling with the soft tinkling of the glass they carried.
And then...
Something changed.
*******
A shiver ran down my spine, as if the air had suddenly become denser and more oppressive. The lights in the room flickered for just a moment. Did you feel it? I murmured, my voice barely audible.
There was no noise to announce his arrival, nor a warning to give time to react. It was a brutal apparition, like a tasteless joke that comes too late to laugh.
The light in the room dimmed, not all at once, but with an insidious slowness, as if an invisible hand were slowly pulling down the switch.
"There's something with us!" I heard Vicky's scream, but her voice broke short.
He was next to me, literally, inches away from me, but I didn't even have time to turn my head. A disgusting, damp sound, like a balloon full of flesh exploding, echoed through the air.
And Vicky... He was gone.
Where his body had been, only remains remained. Hot blood splashed my face, burning my skin; Fragments of flesh and blood fell to the ground with muffled sounds, the abrupt end of their existence. My mouth opened, but the scream was drowned out in my throat.
Then, with blurred vision, I saw something flying through the air: a body... or what was left of it. It was Erick. His torso was horribly shattered, spinning unnaturally before crashing to the ground.
At that moment, I felt the air escape from my lungs. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't move; My whole body froze, turned into a statue of terror, trapped, unable to react.
I heard screams, voices torn by panic, drowned out by the deafening buzz in my ears, it sounded like Sam and Pearl's voice.
"Run!"
"What the devil—?!
I don't know what they said exactly. My mind was in shock, every word fading into incomprehensible chaos, unable to process the horror unfolding before my eyes.
So... BOOM.
A deafening roar shook the air and vibrated to my bones. I felt the impact before I understood it; something invisible and monstrous threw me with enormous force. I shot off, rolling across the ground as the world whirled uncontrollably around me, engulfed in a spiral of pain and confusion.
I got up with a terrible effort; Pain and shock clouded my vision. Still, I could make out something on the floor: a pair of legs covered by stockings and shod in slippers.
The upper half of the body had simply disappeared. It took my mind a moment to process what I saw... And then an icy, piercing thought pierced my consciousness, striking me with the brutality of reality.
There, at that precise moment, simply... I stopped thinking.
In the distance, blurry, I made out Sam running towards me. For a moment I saw him clearly: his face distorted, his mouth open, shouting a warning that would never reach my ears. Then he looked to his side, and his expression changed completely: pure, raw horror, a total surrender to the barbarity that surrounded him.
I followed his gaze for just a fraction of a second... And what I saw made my blood run cold: huge, twisted, completely unnatural claws. They belonged to no creature I had seen before, not even the most horrible illustrated nightmares.
They moved with an unbeatable speed, a lethal burst that completely surprised him. Sam didn't have time to react.
The claws tore him apart. It was not a clean blow, but a brutal outburst, as if something was piercing and tearing him at the same time. His body separated into several pieces in the air, the scene etching into my eyes like a curse, an image I could never erase from my mind.
My mind emptied completely. I tried to move. I tried to run. But my body, treacherous, did not respond, paralyzed by an unknown fear.
By a cruel joke of fate—or perhaps by the paralyzing fear that consumed me—I tripped over my own feet and fell to the ground pathetically, my body a useless mass.
At that instant, I heard a horrible tear, I felt no pain at first, just the strange sensation of being shot, my body flew out of control and violently crashed against one of the walls of the room.
The impact took my breath away, a silent groan choked in my chest, and I fell on a pile of gold coins that clinked under my weight.
Everything was spinning: the ceiling, the lights that flickered with an almost macabre insistence, the scattered gold that now seemed like a cruel mockery. I lay there, stunned, as a cold, icy certainty made its way into the depths of my being.
I'm going to die.
Interestingly, I didn't panic. Instead, a heavy, exhausting resignation settled deep within me.
So... A face appeared in my mind pulling my mind out of the spiral of pain.
I remembered my younger sister. His frail body in the hospital bed, breathing weakly. His small hand clinging to mine... an image that contrasted brutally with the annihilation that surrounded me. One certainty hit me hard: without me... she would die alone.
Something inside me, a spark of will that flatly refused to accept it.
I gathered what little strength I had left and tried to stand up. My arms trembled, my back screamed in pain, an agony that ran through me from head to toe... but my legs did not respond. Nothing. It was as if they had ceased to exist, as if they had vanished into thin air, leaving my body completely powerless.
My heart skipped a beat, an icy blow that made my blood run cold. It took a few eternal seconds before he could move his neck, turning it with supreme effort. I swallowed, fear finally catching up with me in all its magnitude, and I slowly lowered my gaze, my breath stuck in my throat.
There were no legs, there was nothing; everything from the waist down just didn't exist.
For an instant, my mind refused to accept it, as if it was enough to blink for the world to return to its place. But the throbbing pain, the chill that ran through my body, and the slimy, clammy feeling beneath me were all too real.
The shock hit me late, the fear came later, crushing, devouring, but with it, a new resolution.
And yet... I didn't want to die like this. I didn't want to disappear like everyone else, torn to pieces, meaningless, without justice, without having achieved anything.
So I did something pathetic, something gross, and I started crawling.
I dug my fingers into the golden coins and dragged my body forward with an iron will. Every movement left a hot trail behind me, an imprint of my agony. I knew I looked horrible, I knew I was futile, a hopeless struggle against the inevitable.
But I continued, inch by inch, advancing towards the exit of the room, my only objective, without shouting or asking for help.
At some point, tears began to fall without me being able to stop them, sliding down my face and mixing with the blood, forming salty and metallic grooves.
He did not cry out of fear, but out of hatred.
I hated my own weakness, my broken and useless body; he hated the injustice of this cruel world, and he hated this accursed Tower that had devoured, without reason or mercy, the first people he had considered comrades.
Vicky. Erick. Pearl. Sam.
Undeserved, ridiculous, cruel deaths.
As I crawled, the air changed. I felt something huge approaching from behind, its overwhelming and tangible presence, crushing me like a vast, lethal shadow. Every instinct in my body screamed danger, even though I no longer had the strength to react, only to feel pure terror.
My vision began to blur and the edges of the world became blurred, as the force slipped away from me with every second and the end felt imminent, an icy whisper spoke in my ear.
So... I'll die this way, I thought, letting resignation return.
But then I saw my sister's face again, alone, waiting for me, trusting that I would return.
"No," I muttered with the last thing I had left of my voice, my throat scraping. No... yet...
With one last pathetic desperate attempt, tearing a will from the bowels of hell, I activated my ability.
The status window appeared in front of me, shaking and distorted, one last system message flashing; My eyes could barely focus, but I managed to read one last line, burning into my mind just before the shadow fell on me:
Ability: ??? activated.
And then... everything turned white.