I awoke from my uncomfortable rest with a sigh and an arm over my face. After a few moments of letting my drowsiness melt away into the cold stone floor, I rose to my feet and brushed the dust off my uniform. While stretching my body to warm myself up, I considered how I would get back to civilization after escaping the spire. I likely won't be lucky enough to emerge near a city with how many spires there are in the world. I could've been washed away anywhere by the current some time ago. So then, how do I get back?
Iris: "I wonder if you have any ideas, Licht." I asked, which took him by surprise, as he reacted with a start. That was unusual for him.
Licht: "Ah? Huh, about what? Apologies, I was distracted by something else." Licht, distracted? That was certainly unusual. I pushed it aside for the time being and continued with my thoughts.
Iris: "I'm talking about returning to a city. How are we even gonna get there, let alone find one, after we escape the spire?" I said, poising the question once more. He thought about it for some time, and responded as I was leaving through the entrance doors.
Licht: "We could tame a dragon?"
...
The response left me speechless, and frozen with my hands on the doors. After a moment, I left the room, along with my faith in Licht. I suppose that bridge would have to wait until I got there.
~~×~~×~~×~~
It's been a week or two since the time I beat Dura'kahn. I've since passed two more boss layers, and have decided to start and ecology log. Each floor has it's own miniature ecosystem, with a "guardian" of some kind on each side. I have no clue why the world has a system like this, but with each floor there tends to be a kind of theme. Creatures that hunt prey via ambush or status, and creatures that survive through unusual and fascinating methods.
For example, the previous floor had parasitic flora that would attach itself to otherwise normal beasts, 4-legged reptiles with sets of serrated mandibles. The parasitic plants would shoot out seed-like projectiles at the prey of its host, and the reptiles would kill and eat the weakened prey. Any seeds consumed would later be spread out through the floor through the "natural cycle of life".
The prey creatures were insectoids with heavily developed rear legs, thus granting them extreme speed and agility. An ability not gone to waste when escaping packs of predators, while they fed on parasitic plants that hadn't found hosts yet. I too have had to fight my way through predators and prey alike, but for the most part I went unnoticed.
Skulking through floors undetected helped me train the ability, and I've come to get a hang of hiding my presence and detecting others. All the while moving swiftly and soundlessly. On the other hand, Guardians were unavoidable. The creatures I had been calling "Bosses" so far. They stood in a single room between floors, and were significantly stronger than creatures on the rest of the floor.
The only question was, how did they survive, isolated? Well, Licht developed a working theory. For one reason or another, these spires were built, and floors filled with various species, that became locked into their floor. To keep things in order, Guardians were artificially made, representing their following floor. These guardians were creatures made and supported by an ancient spell, and therefore didn't need to "survive".
Then what of Dura'kahn? He seemed to be more than just an artificial being made to protect a dungeon level. Neither of us had an answer to that question, only vague suspicions. And like that It was pushed to the, rather full, back burner. There was too much going on at the moment to worry about grand questions like such.
I got off track, Guardians have been unavoidable thus far. Each time has been a slog, and a close battle. The experience has trained my swordsmanship rapidly, but the fights haven't been easy. They're extremely dangerous monsters that can kill me with one solid blow, so it's been exhausting avoiding every little thing.
It feels like this place is slowly grinding me up, waiting for the moment I'll collapse so that I can finally dissolve. Unfortunately for the Spire, my will is stronger than that. And so, I'm working my way through another alien environment full of slimes and spikes, and creatures with long spindly bodies covered in hard exoskeleton.
The predators on this level resemble large snakes that grew legs. Long, flexible, thin bodies with equally thin legs. They're fairly slow, and completely covered in oddly-formed skeletal plates, acting as armor. To make up for their slow speed, they fire small, pointed teeth filled with paralyzing venom at their prey, and steadily chase them down. After hunting down the prey, they slowly rip it into pieces and eat it bit-by-bit.
I'm guessing that, unlike normal snakes, these can't swallow prey whole due to their bone armor, so they have to store bits and pieces separately. It may be necessary for survival, but they're all the more brutal for it. Of course, I've been able to avoid the same fate, as my uniform can block the venom darts. And they're fairly weak to magic, while exceptionally strong against physical weaponry. I took some plates with me, hoping it would make for good armor.
Though it is a dimensional storage, my bag has begun to get rather full. Aside from the spine-lizards, there were three other creatures on this floor. One is some sort of thick, sentient slime that slowly crawled around the place, and another were floating spike balls. At first I thought of them as alien terrain, like a kind of flora or geological phenomena, but then discovered they were indeed creatures upon closer examination.
They actually resemble something like jellyfish, floating around mostly harmlessly while sucking in mana through a hole in the bottom, surviving and floating purely off magical energy. Meanwhile, every now and then, a grey goop would fall on one, and slowly be absorbed, crumbling away as its lifeforce was seemingly drained. The slimes might be some of the scariest things here, frankly. You can't fight life-sucking goo.
The last were actually somewhat familiar. A Subspecies of Goblin, smaller and thinner than the ones around Gravel District, but these had bony plates in places on their skin, and their heads were more angular. The claws flatter and longer, perhaps to pry and rip armored plates away. Some even used crude bone weapons, which was rather surprising. I avoided killing them for the most part, mostly out of curiosity.
For this floor, Spine-lizards and bone goblins hunted eachother, while grey goo hunted the peaceful morningstars. And yes, I have come to start giving these yet-undiscovered creatures names. I'll have to show this to someone at the guild once I get back. Thankfully licht is a good illustrator, his depictions of monsters are perfectly portrayed, and stylized.
I got to the next guardian after some time exploring the floor, and entered with composure. This time the guardian is a massive snake, with several sets of eyes, and a sail running down the back of it's head. The mouth was just as wicked, full of green spittle and menacing rows of sharp teeth. Yet another fight that spells bad news.
