Chapter 383: The Chest
Kael was still sitting near Andre’s forge when Yenna’s message appeared in front of him.
[How’s the climb going?]
He considered how much detail that question deserved before typing the shortest truthful answer he could manage.
[Cleared Floor 11.]
Her response appeared almost immediately.
[I noticed. Anonymous record, ridiculous contribution score, and a Unique Solo Clear. Who else was I supposed to assume it was?]
Kael smiled. The Tower continued concealing his identity, yet accomplishments of that scale remained difficult to hide from anyone who knew what to look for.
[You could have assumed it was someone more responsible.]
[I considered that. Then I saw the contribution score and knew it had to be you.]
Kael accepted the point and changed the subject.
[Where are you?]
Yenna took longer to answer this time.
[Moving. Slowly, before you ask.]
[That’s impressively vague.]
[It’s also the answer you’re getting. Don’t start worrying about my Floor.]
The warning had the opposite of its intended effect. Yenna only told him not to worry when she had already decided he would object to whatever she was doing.
[Are you still in Vanitas?]
[No. I got out.]
Some of the tension left Kael’s shoulders. Yenna had spent far too long trapped inside those damned Floors, and anything beyond them had to be an improvement.
[Good. Are you injured?]
[Nothing important.]
That meant yes. Kael knew her well enough to translate, though he also knew pushing immediately would only make her more evasive.
Before he could decide how to approach the question, another message appeared.
[Where are you?]
[Community Floor 2. Andre is rebuilding some of my equipment.]
[Again? What happened to the last set?]
Kael glanced at the new Malachor gauntlets and the shadow-dark coat hanging nearby.
[My old gear developed structural disagreements with a Death Knight.]
Yenna’s reply took several seconds.
[How did you even fight a death knight? Even I haven’t seen any yet...]
[Shit luck.]
[So after you broke your gear, you punched the Death Knight anyway.]
[Successfully.]
He laughed under his breath. Andre glanced over from the other side of the workshop, where he was repairing something Kael had stopped trying to identify twenty minutes ago.
"What’s so funny?" the dwarf asked.
"Talking to a friend, don’t worry about it."
Andre grunted and returned to his work.
Kael chose not to dignify that with an answer. By the time he looked back, Yenna had sent another message.
[I can’t come down there.]
His smile faded.
[Sun Clan?]
[Mostly. They’ve increased patrols around the lower Community Floors since the last incident, and there are more people watching the transit points. They finally realized I can move between certain Floors more freely than they thought.]
Kael remembered the hunters pursuing her, the bright-red name floating above her head, and the Sun Clan members waiting for an opportunity to corner her. Community Floor 2 had once offered them enough freedom to meet without drawing attention. That safety had apparently disappeared.
Another message appeared.
[I wouldn’t mind seeing that river again, though.]
Kael knew the place she meant. They had met near that river before either of them understood what they were getting involved in. Kael had known little about Yenna beyond the danger implied by her red name, while she had understood even less about the unusual version of the Tower into which he had been thrown. The river belonged to a simpler time, brief as it had been.
[It isn’t worth the risk right now.]
[I know. If someone follows me, they could discover you’re involved.]
That possibility concerned him more than being attacked directly. Kael could probably survive another group hunting him, provided the Tower gave him enough room to maneuver.
[Stay away from the lower Floors until the patrols thin out. We’ll find somewhere else to meet.]
[You’re becoming very bossy.]
[I’m trying to keep you alive.]
A longer pause followed before Yenna sent another message.
[You’re actually all right, though?]
Kael looked around the forge. His equipment had been rebuilt, his bones were no longer broken, and no Death Knight was attempting to crush his skull. By his current standards, that qualified as excellent health.
[I’m all right.]
[Actually? I don’t want the version where you leave out three injuries because they stopped bleeding.]
[Actually. Andre repaired the equipment, and I’ve recovered from the fight.]
[Good. In that case, contact me occasionally before the Tower announces that you’ve done something insane.]
Kael frowned at the accusation.
[I contact you.]
[You disappear for weeks. Then a record notification appears, and I have to guess whether you’re alive, unconscious, or trapped somewhere trying to punch your way through a wall.]
[That system has been efficient so far.]
[Kael.]
He could almost hear the warning in her voice.
[Fine. I’ll send messages more often.]
[I’m serious. Call me, message me, complain about Andre, or tell me you found another cursed weapon. I don’t care what it is. Just let me know you’re still alive.]
Kael stared at that message longer than he expected. The request sounded simple, though the concern beneath it was impossible to miss.
[The same applies to you. "Moving slowly" and "nothing important" do not count as useful updates.]
[That seems unnecessarily specific.]
[Deal?]
Another pause followed.
[Deal.]
Kael leaned back against the wall. There was one subject neither of them had mentioned yet, although he had known from the beginning that Yenna would eventually ask about it.
She did not keep him waiting much longer.
[Have you learned anything about getting back out?]
His smile disappeared.
The Tower had allowed him one return to Earth after the first ten Floors. He had been given a single month outside before it dragged him back, and everything he had learned suggested another opportunity would only come after ten more clears.
[Nothing new. I believe the interval should be every ten floors.]
[So Floor 20?]
[Floor 20 should give me another month.]
[Should?]
[Nothing in this Tower has earned absolute confidence.]
[Fair. If you find another method before then, will you tell me immediately?]
[Immediately.]
[Thank you.]
Kael already understood the reason for her urgency. Anastasia, Yenna’s younger sister, remained outside the Tower. She was vulnerable in ways Yenna could do nothing about while trapped inside, and she mattered enough that Yenna had trusted Kael to help her.
Another message appeared.
[And Kael, don’t forget what you promised me.]
There was no need to ask what she meant.
[I haven’t forgotten Anastasia. I said I would help her, and I will.]
The response took several seconds.
[I know. Good luck with the next Floor.]
[Try not to murder anyone before I get there.]
The three dots indicating a response appeared, vanished, and appeared again.
[I’ll try not to murder anyone who doesn’t deserve it.]
[That qualification isn’t reassuring.]
[It wasn’t supposed to be.]
The conversation ended there. Kael dismissed the window and remained where he was for several quiet seconds before releasing a slow breath.
Floor 20 still felt distant. Floor 11 alone had thrown a Lesser Death Knight at him, and he doubted the next nine Floors intended to become kinder. Worrying about his eventual return while sitting on Community Floor 2 accomplished nothing, however. He had more immediate matters waiting for his attention.
Kael opened his inventory and was greeted by the disorganized results of refusing to discard anything that might one day become useful. Monster materials shared space with spare equipment, Runes, tools, food, potions, and broken components whose original purposes he could no longer remember. Andre called it hoarding. Kael considered it responsible preparation conducted without any meaningful system of organization.
As he searched through the collection, his attention settled upon something he had somehow neglected since leaving Floor 11.
The reward chest.
Kael pulled it from his inventory and allowed it to drop onto the workshop floor with a heavy thump. Andre looked over again, already wearing the expression of a man who expected his afternoon to become more complicated.
"What have you dragged out now?"
"My Floor reward."
Andre set down his tool and stared at the chest. "Ya’ve had that the entire time?"
"I had equipment to repair."
"And ya didn’t think to open the large Epic chest sitting in yer inventory?"
"I was busy."
Andre swept one hand toward the workshop. Destroyed wires covered one table, crafting notes covered another, and several failed Rune experiments had left permanent marks in the floor. A repaired workbench stood near a scorch mark Kael still had not explained.
"Aye," the dwarf said. "Yer schedule has clearly been overwhelming."
Kael ignored the sarcasm and crouched beside the chest. The Tower had awarded it after the fight against the Lesser Death Knight, whose arrival had transformed the challenge through outside Causality. The altered Floor had allowed no surrender, retry, or escape. Kael had been required to defeat the Death Knight or die trying.
He had earned a Unique Solo Clear, achieved one hundred percent contribution, and established a new record. The chest represented part of the Tower’s compensation for surviving all of it.
[EPIC FLOOR REWARD CHEST]