YM778.TV Chapter 9: The survivor
"That\'s a problem," Litha said. "I can\'t show you around without touching on the Codex. Since you are a novice and didn\'t pass through floor 103– where the basics are taken."
"Very well. We will all share our Codex; this way, there won\'t be any issues, right?" issues raised her brown.
Jael shrugged. "That\'s fine."
Temur clapped. "Before you start all that we should get out of here. We don\'t know if there are still members of the cult, we don\'t want to be caught after we kill their priestess."
"Let\'s see if we can get our things," Litha said.
But instead of going to the tunnel as Jael expected, Litha crouched before the woman, her hands outstretched but then she paused and looked at him. "Come here. Loot her."
Jael blinked. "I should steal from her?"
She didn\'t flinch. "If that\'s what you want to call it. She kidnapped us and would kill us, but she\'s the one that\'s dead now, so yes, \'steal\' from her if you want to. Just do it."
He started from the front pocket and then her side ones, doing his best not to get blood on his hands. His stomach rolled but he firmed his gut. \'Am I not the one that said I want to climb the Tower? Well, then I should get used to this
He found nothing in her pockets, the only place she had anything valuable was on her left finger. A black ring with a small stone set in the middle.
A spatial ring. Jael had heard about it before and it\'s so expensive back on earth that only the billionaires have it.
Litha nodded in satisfaction. "Good. That\'s a spatial ring. Anything you found inside is yours, but let\'s check first for our things."
They found their spatial rings in what was stored inside the Priestess ring. And some other things– thirty bronze monster cores, ten Iron, and two silver. Weapons and ritual spellbooks.
Litha looked at it and shook her head in disgust."She should have more than this. Maybe this is not their real base."
Jael put everything back in the spatial ring but he left one book that caught his attention. \'The Book of Chaos and his devourers"
He opened it and looked through it; most of it was how to worship Chaos and what was needed for sacrifice. He read aloud. "Five hundred souls needed to call one of the Devourers. They are the guardians sent before to cleanse and make way Chaos itself..."
Jael closed the book. He looked at the others. "Didn\'t she say she wanted to call one of the Devourers?"
"That\'s what she said." Temur nodded.
There was silence as they looked at each other, and then Litha stood."let us see the ritual place, and then we\'re off."
On their way, Temur stopped to loot the body of the Iron rank and the bronze still at the edge of the altar pit before they climbed down the steps that led down into the pit. A large pot was sunk into the ground and it was there that a boiling pot of blood was.
Bodies were piled high around the pot, but most of the bodies were in the pot, floating. Most of them nonhumans. Jael looked away from it, looking at anything but the bodies with dull eyes.
"The Tower Guards and the GUV won\'t be happy about this," Temur said, mouth set in a straight line. "We must get out of here as fast as we can." Even as he said that he began to loot the bodies close to him.
Litha snorted and joined him. "Take only monster cores. The Global Union Federation sure won\'t like it with all the pressure the guilds are putting on them. To think the missing people on the 102 floors ended up here."
"And you Jael! Start looting, too; it\'s not as if they can use the materials again. And the GUV will take everything anyways."
That caught Jael\'s attention as he also began to loot the bodies, he knew about the GUV, an association made up of representatives from all over the countries on earth. They are in charge of floors 103 to 100 and anything Tower and dungeon-related on Earth – which means they are in charge of who climbs the Tower or not.
"Mmmmuh!"
Jael recoiled from the body he was checking, it was alive. "The fuck!"
Temur and Litha were there immediately, with daggers in hand, but there was no immediate threat. In front of them was a bound and gagged boy of about the same age as then.
"A survivor," Jael said, his pulse thundering in his ears.
With a swipe, Litha cut the rope binding his hand and legs but left the power-suppressing cuff untouched. "Who are you?" She demanded.
The boy is a human and smiles, relieved. "I\'m so happy to see you; I thought they were going to kill me as they did the others!"
"When were you taken?" Temur asked gently.
"Five? Six days ago? Do you have food? I\'ve not been fed for days!" He struggled to sit up.
"We don\'t have food." Litha blamed herself for not checking for survivors. Her abilities are straightforward, but they give her flexibility that isn\'t available to others. She straightened and closed her eyes and felt with all her senses at once. She listened to the flow of mama in the area.
Apart from the four of them, there\'s no one else with a beating heart in the pit. Wait...Litha shivered. Then she listened again, and her eyes snapped open; she turned to the others. "We have to get out of here fast. Whatever they are trying to summon it seems they succeed or something because I can feel life from that pot!"