The trip takes a little longer than it should have. All because of Ji-a's insistence for him to fight anything they can lay their eyes upon. Whether it be blood draining hounds, talking scorpions, or flame wielding salamanders.

  Fighting the scorpions has been one of Adrian’s weirdest moments ever since he has entered the Tower. The damn thing insisted on telling them jokes, and for some reason neither of them could stop laughing, while being impaled by its stingers.

  Adrian was rolling on the ground for half an hour after the fight, just to stop his stomach and jaw from aching due to the laughter. Pain and misery sometimes seems much easier to handle, than whatever that thing did to him.

  He had also been unable to use his Prison on it. Not due to a stat difference, but more or less from a lack of perspective. Turns out it’s really hard to consider someone bad when they are making you laugh, even when dancing around their stingers.

  The salamander has been one thing Ji-a insisted on as she needed its core. Fighting against flames led to some very bad memories for him. From his avatars who got burned that is.

  Adrian is starting to think that maybe this Upgrade is not such a great idea. He has learned a lot from it, but damn is it depressing sometimes. At least he got some good level ups out of it.

  You have levelled up! Manifold Warden lvl 29

  It is late at night when they finally reach the settlement. The settlement still sparkles with night lights and the ongoing traffic. Caravans move around, handled by bull-like creatures. The chatter hasn’t died down in the night, nor has the shops closed.

  Adrian, Ji-a, and Monkey make their way around the traffic, and avoid getting hit by any bulls, as they search for a place to eat. His avatars have already moved ahead of them and have been searching for a good place. There have been many such good ones, but one of them stands out to his avatars.

  They cannot understand the reason, but this one just feels right.

  He sends the avatars away to map the settlement, while he and Ji-a make their way towards the inn. Along the way he notices that the monkeys seem to have a dominance here as well. He should probably ask Ji-a about this monkey thing.

  As night has fallen over the desert, the average temperature has only fallen sharply, leading to a more chilling night. But as soon as he enters the inn, a wave of warm heat washes over him, melting away the layer of cold from his skin.

  The inn is a small building made out of stones as the other ones, but the inside of it is very much wood furnished. Wooden creaking floors, wooden decorations on the wall, wooden tables and chairs, and even a wooden sculpture of the head of a scorpion hangs on the wall.

  Under normal circumstances, Adrian would’ve appreciated the indoors of the inn, or the sculpture, but right now his eyes instantly zoom on a table among the many in the inn. As if driven by an instinct, they look for something, and find it.

  On a table sits Jarad, John, and Mark, drinking while chatting together.

  Behind him, Ji-a too finds them following his gaze, and yells a ‘Hello Mark’ from the gate itself. Several eyes look at him, some confused Marks among them, but the one they are searching for also finds them and quickly stands up in greeting.

  While Mark talks to Ji-a, he goes to their table to greet the others.

  “How are you doing now?” Jarad asks, “Your soul wound that is.”

  “Almost healed. I don’t even feel it anymore, except the occasional nightmares,” Adrian answers, taking a seat for himself. “And the missing memories.”

  “Oh my god where did you get him!?” Mark interjects, scratching Monkey on his chin. “What is his name?”

  “Monkey, and he just stuck to me for some reason,” Ji-a answers, “I guessed you might still be here. We were actually looking for you, Mark.”

  “Oh! How can I help?”

  “Afterwards, first lemme have some food!” Ji-a drops Monkey on their table, and goes to the counter.

  “What have you guys been up to?” Adrian asks.

  “The church has been helping Mark and John in recovering from the curse the terrorists have placed on them. Unfortunately the process in itself is irreversible, but we can reinforce our own barriers to prevent it from spreading,” Jarad explains.

  So basically brainwash them into not joining the revolution.

  Adrian looks at the other two to note their expressions. Both of them look very indifferent towards it, as if they don’t care about the process itself, but can’t leave because of the archivist.

  Maybe he’s not an archivist anymore.

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “That’s excellent of the church,” Adrian says with a smile.

  “When did you get here? On the third floor?” John asks.

  “Just yesterday night. This morning I found Ji-a at the western settlement, and then we travelled here to get you.”

  “What do you need me for? I would be staying here for a few more days to grind up some levels before leaving for the next floor to my party though, just so you know.”

  “I don’t think it should take much longer. I’m looking for a deserted oases,”

  “Why so?” John asks.

  “I’m actually looking for a Rattler’s core for an ability Upgrade.”

  “Huh, what a coincidence,” John smiles.

  “John has been looking for one too, and that’s why I’m travelling with him for a few days. You are in luck, because we think that we might have some idea on where to find one,” Mark snickers.

  “That is excellent! How much would you charge for the service?”

  “One core of a Silent Scavenger. At least 3 years old,” Mark quotes. Adrian’s brows crease in a question. What is that?

  “It is actually mine and Adrian’s final goal as well. I was planning on delaying it for a while until he can level up a bit and go through some more upgrades, but if both of you are here, then we should be able to do it earlier than I planned,” Ji-a says, sitting back down on her chair.

  “The one we were going to meet is a monster?”

  “A vulture. They are fate readers. They can read the flow of life and death on the floor and locate where the next climber is going to die. The pack leader of the Silent Scavenger is also the floor boss.”

  “That one, yes. I think combining the future reading abilities of the vultures with my long shot will make it much better. Something like Future Shot? Automatic Defence? Weakness spotter? Endless combinations!” Mark exclaims.

  “How were you supposed to get any answers from monsters?” Adrian asks, exasperated.

  “You know, there’s a hidden reward,” Ji-a says, “That whoever deals the last strike on the floor boss gets a clue on how to prevent their untimely death. It’s said to be a very strong gift. Obviously, not many people come out and announce that they got the clue, but enough have talked about it that the rumours spread.”

  “Oh, I did not know about that,” John says, “But what if the destined death is something like old age? What then?”

  “I don’t know the details, I just know that it exists,” Ji-a shrugs.

  Adrian thinks about the hidden reward and decides that it’s a nice one, but he doesn’t particularly need it. Instead, he’s more excited about the future reading abilities the core brings.

  What if he uses it to upgrade his Timer, would he be able to find the time frame for future events? Till now his ability has been a little obsolete in its use, but if he merges the future reading part to it, then it will easily become one of his strongest abilities.

  His Timer has most likely been derived from the Bai Ze, who are considered one of the wisest magical creatures ever. He has honestly been expecting more out of it, but till now hadn’t been able to make much use of it. He doesn’t know if it’s perhaps due to some problem with the Sacrifice itself, or if it just didn’t mesh well with his other Sacrifices.

  Till now he has also been neglecting the ability a bit, but maybe it’s time he starts looking into its future.

  Adrian finally walks out of his daydreaming and asks, “And you think the hidden reward will help us?”

  “It’s worth a shot,” She shruggs.

  The food finally arrives. Ji-a has been kind to him by ordering food for him as well. The other three, having already eaten, did not take any, so the table quickly fell into a more lighthearted chat.

  After dinner they decide to meet the next day, and go to their respective rooms. Sadly they did not have many rooms left, so he and Ji-a took a single one.

  “This is a torture,” Adrian mutters.

  “You tell me. You think I’m too excited about sharing a room with you? I’m sure you snore loudly,” Ji-a snorts.

  They bicker along the way as they enter their room. It is a small one with a single bed, a desk and chair and extra blankets on the bed. There is not even a separate bathroom. They’ll have to share the public one on their floor.

  “I’m taking the bed,” Ji-a says, jumping on the stack of blankets.

  “Hey! That’s not fair! I’m more tired than you.” Adrian complains, trying to lift her off the bed, but she sticks to the bed frames like glue, lifting the whole bed with her.

  Eventually Adrian huffs and puts her down with the bed. Takes one of the many blankets, puts one down to the ground to be used as a mattress, takes another blanket for cover, and falls asleep. Not before giving a last order to one of his avatars still out.

  #

  The next day starts with Adrian hearing Ji-a complain about his avatar scaring her awake when she was deep asleep. It is annoying, but it did get a laugh out of Adrian.

  After freshening up, they go down to find John already there having tea while reading something. They take their place by his side, ordering breakfast and tea themselves.

  Ji-a has been in the middle of telling John about his trick last night, when Mark enters the dining area. They look between Ji-a and Adrian with some sort of expectation, but finds nothing on their faces. Then they move beside him and tries to sniff him.

  Adrian sits there dumbfounded. What is happening?

  Mark’s face falls, as they say, “Aww, nothing happened,”

  “What did you expect to happen!?” Ji-a laughs, drilling her knuckle on Mark’s head as they sit down.

  After that… whatever that was, the four of them finally leave for their adventure, but are unexpectedly joined by Jarad. He says that Mark and John need to be constantly monitored, but Adrian doesn’t believe the man, at least not fully.

  He has an idea of himself. Perhaps the man is using Mark for the same reasons they are, their Treasure Hunter ability, but the treasure he’s hunting for is definitely different than what they are hunting for.

  Mark’s skin turns a touch of blue at the ability’s activation, and after a moment of some calculation that only they can do, the group starts moving.

  Treasure Hunter, as he understands from Mark, makes them feel colder the closer they are to a treasure. The problem is keeping a straight mind at what your treasure is. Considering a pot of gold to be a treasure is easier, for Mark maybe even a chocolate bar would be a treasure.

  The process of hunting for what you want comes from removing those useless signals and focusing on what you want. The mind still wavers though, and oftentimes leads you to places you don’t want to go.

  It takes them the whole day, a whole ton of fighting and a ton of finding random treasures, but they did not find the oases they have been looking for. They did find a few oases, but none deserted enough to house a Rattler. These small oases are small settlements, mostly used as a quick stop usually, and are not prominent enough for the Tower to mention them.

  It takes them two more days before they finally find one. A sense of irritation and frustration seems to emanate from the place in front of him, and Mark’s body is so blue that they look frostbit.

  “Finallly!” Mark exclaims, cancelling the skin and letting their skin get back to normal.

  Yes, they've finally found the fucking Rattler.

  #