Chapter 40
I loved teleporters that I placed, owned, and controlled.
I did not love teleporters made by strangers. Don’t speak to strange men at the playground, and don’t step into strange teleporters. It was common sense.
I recognized the statues on the opposite end of the room: Each of my wives was depicted standing proudly with their chins high. Purity, Solara, Invia, and Podni were represented in perfect detail.
I knew the final floor of the tower would be a challenge, but I had expected a battle and not some kind of mind-fuck.
How did the tower know these were my wives?
How did the tower know to put these statues right here at this moment?
What if I had been someone else? Would they too see my wives, or would they get their own personalized emotional torment to conquer?
Stepping into strange teleporters was a bad idea, and those statues filled me with a deep sense of dread.
But Abaddon was still coming for me. I had to beat the tower.
The fire had gone out in the night, plunging the bunkhouse into sharp, stinging cold. My nose and my ears had gone numb, and I knew that swinging my legs out from beneath the blanket would invite that frosty pain to spread across the whole of my body.
But it had to be done. Braving the cold and rebuilding the fire was the only option.
Gods, I forgot how fucking sore I was.
Screw this. The guild hall would be warm, so I dressed, hurriedly crossed the snowy gap, and stepped into a room that was toasty warm. Yes, that was better.
“You slept in later than usual,” Mirko said, putting a finger in his book to hold his place. “There's some bacon and bread left if you want some.”
“Thank you.” I happily grabbed a plate from the guild counter. "I'm giving myself a day off.”
“Wise decision. You should impart that wisdom on the young ones. Took me the better part of a day to convince that one to take a rest.” Mirko gestured at a stick-thin boy sitting at one of the tables with his back to us.
He had a hot bowl of soup and an open book.
“You hear that, Brenin? Even the best in the business believe in taking breaks!”
The boy turned. “Yes, sir, I-Oh gods, you’re Byron of Zaglis aren’t you?”
I nodded.
He popped to his feet and wiped his hands on his pants on his way over to speak to me.
“It’s an honor to meet you, sir. What brings you to Lopav?”
“Like anyone else,” I replied. “Wanted to get some training in.”
I heard myself speaking the words, but I couldn’t remember forming those thoughts. My awareness felt separate from my body, like I was watching my life instead of participating in it.
“Well, it’s a pleasure to have crossed paths with someone as accomplished as you, sir. If you need anything while you’re in town, I’d do any amount of work if it earned me a lesson or two.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“Of course.” The boy dipped his head. “Thank you for being so kind.”
“Good kid,” Mirko said softly so as not to be overheard.
“Works hard, doesn’t complain, but is a shit adventurer.
I know this isn’t the life for him, but I can’t convince him to quit.
You ever run into young guys like that before?
I’d happily take your advice if it means keeping him from getting killed. ”
“Maybe he’s a late bloomer,” I suggested.
“I wish that were true. He doesn’t have that killer instinct. Instead of fighting his heart out when things get tough, he wilts. He doesn’t want to or mean to, and he hates himself every time after, but he still does it. I’m worried the first floor is going to be the end of him.”
“Can’t save them all,” I said.
“Yeah, I suppose that’s true.”
“Any suggestions on how to spend a day off in Lopav?” I asked.
Mirko laughed. “In the middle of the winter? You can drink, or you can drink. Ha! Or the library, but ours is pretty small.”
“I'll try the library.”
“Suit yourself.”
The snow came down hard enough that I worried I could get lost, but right when I considered turning back, the gold glow of a library window appeared ahead of me.
I pushed inside, shut the door, and stomped my boots before I realized I wasn't alone.
“Sorry,” I said sheepishly, waving awkwardly to a dark-haired girl with a stack of books in front of her.
She had been in the dungeon a few times, I realized.
Right. She ran with that family of clerics and priests.
She had a sister who was almost as hot as she was.
Something about the ultra-religious girls made me want them even more, like knowing that my dick was about to corrupt them forever made the act all the sweeter.
Rather than say anything, the girl simply pursed her lips and nodded for a second before dropping her eyes back to her reading.
I didn't really have a topic in mind, but I found myself in front of a shelf on classes and unlock paths. My build was well beyond what any of the guidebooks covered, but I still found a childish joy in reading these books. Refreshing myself on the early levels was also good for the women I mentored, I told myself. Yeah, this wasn’t juvenile daydreaming. This was business.
I opened the book, and a footnote about the antipaladin class caught my attention. A wave of dizzying deja vu struck me. I gripped the edge of the table to steady myself.
Why did this place feel wrong? Like I had been here before, but shouldn't be here now.
“Are you okay?” the girl asked.
“I think I'm just tired.”
“I have seen you in the dungeon a bunch. Do you always do runs alone?”
“Pretty much,” I said.
She frowned. “I'm Purity. If you wanted, I could ask my dad about you joining our runs. I don't think he'd mind.”
“I don't think Godfried would be happy about that idea.”
“You know my father?” she asked.
No, I didn't.
But I did.
How did I know this girl’s father?
The door to the library opened, and Brenin stepped inside, shivering from the cold.
The girl blushed when she saw him. “I was worried you weren’t going to make it.”
“Almost didn’t,” the boy said, chuckling. “You know… I was thinking that some hot cocoa sounded nice for a day like this one. Would you, uhh… Would you want to come get some with me?”
Purity’s blush spread, her whole face going red as she jerked her eyes back to her book.
She seemed embarrassed, but I don’t know why she was worried about him seeing that.
Brenin, meanwhile, looked so nervous he might faint.
I doubted he was picking up on many cues with so much of his brainpower devoted to remembering to breathe.
Brenin seemed nice enough, but wintering in Lopav was a lonely affair. Purity should be mine for the season, I decided.
“I have a counter for your crawl offer,” I said. “If you really wanted to level, you could run with me. There’s a lot more experience to gain in a party of 2 instead of 4.”
“What level are you?” she asked. Brenin glanced between us. She still hadn’t responded to his offer, and he could feel the moment slipping away from him.
“Level 35.”
Brenin’s eyes bugged out. “Really?”
“Yeah.”
“You might be the strongest person I’ve ever met,” Purity said.
“So, what do you say? Want to jump up a few levels in a day?”
Purity closed her books. “Thank you for the offer, but I’m going to stick with my family.” She turned to Brenin. “I’d love some cocoa.”
She put on her jacket and followed Brenin out of the library.
How did that single-digit twig outmaneuver me? I was letting myself get rusty up here in the mountains. I needed to be in a city surrounded by women and opportunity. That was a more natural environment for me.
The snow looked like it had blown over, so I went looking for a new distraction, soon finding myself in the town’s general store.
The equipment here was mediocre at best, and I wasn’t likely to find a unique item lost among such low-grade weapons and armor, but I had nothing else to do.
“Welcome to my shop,” a woman’s voice behind me said. “Can I help you find anything?”
The owner was a slightly older woman with a tight pixie cut.
Her skin still looked as sweet as fresh cream, but her age had added a tension to it, a sort of life-earned toughness.
Small wrinkles formed at the corners of her eyes and lips when she smiled, and her knit sweater did a poor job of hiding the hard nipples at the ends of her fantastic breasts.
“I think I just found what I was looking for,” I replied.
“You’re not the first big-time adventurer to come through here. You’re handsome, no denying that, but every one of you comes in here thinking I’m one of the items for sale.”
“I’m that transparent, huh?”
She nodded. “Let me know if I can find you anything.”
As the shopkeeper walked away, I admired her strong ass. The curve balanced nicely with her chest, and her cheeks looked powerful, like they were built from years of climbing stairs with heavy boxes in her arms.
Missing the mark twice in a row stung. When was the last time I had this much trouble getting a woman to notice me?
Killing stuff always made me feel better. I didn’t have a ton of gear on me, but I had my sword and a character sheet filled with broken stat points. I could realistically solo the whole Lopav dungeon if I really felt like it.
And right then, I did. The guard at the back gate waved me through the moment he recognized me, and I descended the steep trail to the cavernous entrance of the dungeon.
As soon as I crossed the threshold, I found myself sitting at a table in the Flowst chapter of the Dungeon Brawlers.
For an instant, the memory of being in Lopav a moment ago attempted to flee from my mind, but I clung to it like the details of a dream.
I focused, and I repeated the moments I just experienced, yet the tug persisted. My brain longed to forget.
A tall, stringy man appeared next to me and wrapped his knuckles on the table. “Sorry to keep you waiting like this,” he said. “Trina was supposed to get in today, but it looks like her caravan is running behind. Would it put you out to push our meeting until tomorrow?”
“No, that’s fine. These things happen.”