TS6 - Chapter 41

Quickly, Kat checked the time on her smartpanel.  A little bit after five o’clock.

“I’m sorry Lieutenant Turner,” she said, turning to look the nervous looking soldier in the eyes.  “If they are deploying forces like that, I am going to have to activate a contingency plan, and that means leaving this spot.  I can basically guarantee that they will be sending the bulk of their reinforcements here to try and trap and kill me.  Shareholder Donnst had a good idea with using your remaining grenades to set up mines and booby traps, but I don’t know if that will be enough to actually stop one of those pillars, let alone five.”

The man nodded, resignation settling over him.

“We will hold here as long as we can,” he replied.  “I would just ask that you make sure that my family is taken care of if I can’t withdraw in time.  I know all of us have company life insurance plans, but every security officer has heard stories about money being deducted for medical care, search and rescue efforts, and-”

“If I survive and you don’t, your family will get twice the face amount,” Kat said, clapping a hand on his forearm.  “The same goes for everyone else here.”

“That said,” she continued shooting him a smile.  “I’m a bit of a cheapskate so I would appreciate it if you didn’t take me up on that offer.  Stay alive.  That’s an order.”

The Lieutenant smiled back, and Kat turned away, making eye contact with Belle before she motioned with a flick of her head toward the doorway they’d taken to get into the fabrication room.

After they got a couple hallways away, Belle spoke up.

“Contingency plan?  I hadn’t heard that we had anything of that nature available.”

“It’s not a GOOD plan,” Kat hedged, “and it only became an option after I noticed that the alien hover tank had an honest to God stallesp in it.  That means that the stallesp have, unsurprisingly, broken their non-interference pledge and we can appeal to Clan Ahn for them to step in and help.”

“If we can contact them,” Belle said thoughtfully.  “Last I checked all communications outside of your primitive little hand radios have been jammed.  We would need to send out another messenger and it appears that Millennium is eager to plant its boot on our collective throats at the moment.  I doubt anyone is going to be able to make it out of this facility in one piece.”

“Not if they’re awake, no.”  Kat agreed.  Belle raised a single eyebrow in reply.

“Dorrik, Kaleek and I have been taking drugs to induce sleep early,” Kat continued.  “We usually meet up around six pm every day so that we can have enough time to challenge two dungeons per day as often as possible.”

“That’s only an hour away,” Belle observed thoughtfully.  “I take it you’re suggesting that we find a safe place for you to take your medication and fall asleep so that you can contact Dorrik and alert him that we need support?”

“Yes,” Kat replied.  “We’ll need to go to my bedroom to pick the pills up, but there’s no way I’m going to stay there.  Millennium almost certainly has a partial floor plan for the complex.  If I disappear they’re going to have to assume that I’m hiding in my suite.  I think the plan would be for us to hole up in one of the concealed security stations where you can watch over me while I enter the Tower of Somnus.”

“You would trust me like that?”  Belle asked, her voice guarded.  “I have been trying and to some extent succeeding in my effort to let my guard down around you, but that is destined to be a long and fraught journey.  If I were in your position, I’m not sure I could take that step.”

“Yet,” Kat answered.  “You aren’t ready to take that step yet.  As for whether I trust you like that?  Yes.  You’ve come a lot farther than you think.  You’re still a shark in human skin when the moment is appropriate, but I’ve noticed the difference even if you haven’t.  At some point your attempts to make small talk have stopped being forced.  You’re actually enjoying yourself now.”

“I never thought I’d be having this conversation with you of all people,” Kat continued with a chuckle, “but don’t let yourself be held back by your past.  Your actions as an executive didn’t taint you so much that you are unworthy of friendship.  You deserve healthy and happy relationships with your friends, and I can tell that you think of Whip and I that way.”

There was a moment of silence, the only sounds the distant gunfire and the sound of padded feet on the compound’s metallic floor.  Finally, she responded, her voice a lot quieter and more thoughtful than Kat was used to.

“I prefer to think of myself as a leopard in human skin actually.  It’s much more dignified.  Still, thank you Kat.  I will have to process how much this exactly means to me, but I can say with confidence that it matters a lot more than I expected it to.”

A second later, she was back to normal, her voice as polished and practiced as ever.

“It would be an honor for you to stand guard while you call for help.”

“Just try not to get any more plasma burns,” Kat replied, “healing those up is a bear.  If someone starts shooting at you while I’m out of commission, try to make sure you only get hit by conventional bullets.”

“I will keep that in mind,” Belle said dryly.  “Do you have any more requests?  Perhaps I should destroy a couple of those flying tank things while you are getting some beauty rest?”

Kat smiled.  There was something freeing about being able to banter freely with Belle.  It wasn’t quite as natural as her conversations with Heather, Emma, or Whippoorwill, but it was getting there.  There were only one or two final knots of resistance that needed to be untied and everything would finally be in its right place.

It took the two of them about fifteen minutes to raid Kat’s suite for the pills they would need to induce sleep early, and another fifteen to find one of the hidden security rooms hidden inside the walk-in freezer of one of the executive level kitchens.

This time the room was a little larger.  There were four chairs and two inert consoles as well as a little room for the agents assigned to the observation room to walk back and forth.  Kat didn’t waste any time, setting herself up in one of the comfortable office chairs and popping the pills that would send her off into the Tower.  The last thing she saw before she drifted off into sleep was Belle standing over her, a look of contemplation and concern on the older shareholder’s face.

When Kat opened her eyes again, she wasn’t in an adventurer’s hall.  Instead, she stood on a familiar stone pillar, bright emptiness stretching in every direction around her as she did a quick circuit of the room.

A cough drew her attention to the right.  There, in a spot she had absolutely scanned and seen nothing, floated two massive dragons, one red and one a deep blue bordering on the realm of ultraviolet.

“You seem to be in a bit of a predicament.”  The red dragon’s deep voice seemed to make the air vibrate around her.  “I have done a little more investigation into these silly ascension rituals performed by the younger races, and it would seem that your opponent is cheating.”

“He has been cheating from the beginning,” Kat replied, shrugging.  “He started younger than me, had more resources than me, and actively relied upon the help of an interested race for years before I even began to press him.  Now here he is, doing the same thing all over again.  I know things look rough, but I have things in motion that should be able to beat back this army of his.”

“But it will not help you achieve the twenty fourth level in time,” the red dragon observed.

Kat opened her mouth, ready to bluster back before she caught herself.  There was no need to brag and posture here.  The truth would have to do.

“No, it will not,” she responded.  “I can’t think of any solution but challenging the floor guardian early.  It is not my first choice, but-”

“That would cut your potential short,” a sharp feminine voice interrupted as the blue dragon leaned closer, its sinuous neck closing the gap in between them in the blink of an eye.  “That is an unacceptable cost.”

“Unnacceptable or not,” Kat said, squaring her shoulders and putting some steel in her spine, “it is the only option available to me so I’m going to take it.  It will create some weakness and vulnerability, but I will work my way through it and overcome it.  I don’t have any other choice.”

“It is not the only option,” the blue dragon responded imperiously.  “That is an unacceptable choice so I will not let you make it.  Instead you will-”

The red dragon cleared its throat, silencing its companion.

“My friend,” the red dragon began, bobbing its head toward the blue dragon, “had a strong reaction toward you after you saw her true form in the special dungeon I had made for you.  After she had a chance to review your exploits, she is as interested in your potential as I am.  Of course, you will probably fail.  In all likelihood you will die or your growth will stall at some point, but unlike almost every other sapient we have encountered, you have the mettle to actually graduate from the Tower.”

“Now,” he continued, “I am not going to tell you what you have to do.  I will tell you that it would be spectacularly foolish for you to skip dungeons in this fashion.  In fact, if you were to do so, I would advise terminating your avatar once you have stabilized your homeworld and restarting from scratch.  That said, it isn’t your only option.”

He stopped, letting the moment drag out.  Eventually, Kat sighed.

“I am assuming that this is the point where you want me to ask what my other options are?”  She asked, crossing her arms.

The red dragon seemed to smile while its blue companion shifted impatiently.

“Together the two of us can manipulate the rules of the tower more than I could manage on my own.  We cannot break the rules entirely, but we could make an opportunity for you.  Face the floor guardian of the twenty third floor alone, and you will reach the twenty fourth floor but you will also have the right to descend back to the twenty third floor and complete your unfinished dungeons there.”

Kat blinked.  That… that was actually a major change to the Tower, but still-

“That sounds like suicide,” she observed.  “I watched Dorrik try to challenge a floor guardian on his own, and it almost killed him despite the fact that he’s one of the strongest warriors I know.”

“It is not suicide,” the blue dragon said.  “The Tower does not provide chances that its residents cannot take advantage of.  The goal is to test you, not to break you.  The floor guardian will not be easy to beat.  I would be disappointed if it was. It will test you like nothing else.  Despite that, this fight will be possible for one with your skills and abilities.  It would be foolish of you not to take this opportunity.”

Slowly, Kat nodded.  The dragon was right.  It would be foolish.  She opened her status.

There were plenty of upgrades since the last time she had inspected her stats.  Massive increases to all of her attributes, a new spell in Light II, and enough improvements to her Gravity Domain to transform the ability into something that she could use directly as a weapon, picking up and crushing smaller and weaker opponents like they were empty aluminium cans.

Despite all of that, Kat couldn’t help but think of what she couldn’t earned by continuing to challenge dungeons.  More than thirty attribute points could easily be the difference between life and death.  On top of that, she could feel that her Gravity Domain was ready to evolve.  Who knew what benefits Evolved Gravity Aura II would bring her?

All of these were achievements that would’ve made her challenging the floor guardian more manageable.  Not that trying to solo a floor guardian would ever be manageable.  Even challenging a guardian with three people was enough to earn bonus rewards.  Attacking it solo was absurd.

But the alternative was waiting for her friends and begging for help.  The second that Clan Ahn stepped in, her struggle with Mr. Jackson would be under a microscope and unless someone could convince the samurai to step aside, there was no way for Kat to have the man assassinated.  She would need to ascend to the twenty fourth floor early and that meant weakening herself forever.  Worse than that, it meant weakening her friends.

The idea of selling her dreams and those of her companions that helped her climb and scrape her way out of the corporate gutter for immediate and temporary benefits tasted bitter in her mouth.  The blue dragon was right.  That wasn’t an option.

It didn’t matter if she died in the process.  A half measure like that ran directly counter to who Kat was and what she expected from herself.  It was selfish of her to put humanity itself on the line against her stubborn pride, but taking a step back here was simply a compromise that Kat couldn’t make.

“I’ll do it,” she said, squaring her shoulders  “send me-”

Kat didn’t get a chance to finish her sentence.  The pillar underneath her blinked out of existence, dropping her from the sky.

She suppressed her immediate reaction to catch herself with her gravity domain.  The bright light that surrounded the dragons faded, revealing a wide and lightly forested landscape below.  Unsurprisingly, directly in front of her, a tower stood straight and tall without a visible top, overlooking the forest.

A twist of gravity began pulling Kat toward it.  As she drew closer, the details of the tower became clear, quickly confirming her suspicions.  A staircase.  This was her ticket to the twenty fourth floor.  To triggering the final showdown between her and Mr. Jackson.  To protecting her friends and family from the stallesp mega corporations, vicious predators that would make their terrestrial counterparts seem like the goats and ponies of a children’s petting zoo.

Kat tweaked her gravity further, accelerating herself even faster toward the base of the tower.  The air whistled past her as she dropped, brisk and cold as it grabbed at her hair and clothing, tugging and whipping as if trying to pull her back, to stop her from challenging an enemy that was so far above her.

The ground around the staircase rumbled, revealing the guardian.  A tree covered hill shifted, eyes opening in its side as it stared upward at Kat’s plummeting form.  More trees moved as the dirt rippled, revealing a huge mouth studded with teeth made from natural stone and crystal directly beneath her.

A manic grin twisted Kat’s face.  This was it.  Time to prove whether the architects’ strange interest in her was warranted.

Do or die.

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