Return of the Tower Conqueror

  When the Blades Fall (IX)

"Alright, rest for an hour, and we'll finally clear the room!" Cain exclaimed, much to the joy of Jamal and Senna who collapsed onto their backs, breathing heavily.

Diya hurried over once again and healed them, restoring their haggard appearances. However, their tattered clothes and the sickly bloody tunnel surrounding them that almost looked like a scene from a horror movie spoke volumes to what they had gone through.

Emma joined right after, her appearance no better than the two's, lying flat down, gasping for breath.

Cain looked back onto the cross-section and nodded in satisfaction, a pleasant smile on his face. After three days of almost non-stop training, they finally managed to consistently reach the center and even dig the plant out into the open view -- all with just the three of them, a remarkable feat even in Cain's eyes. Their progress is kinda scary...

In reality, it was the selection of training -- something that the current world was entirely unfamiliar with. Over time, as the better and better regimes for Conquerors continued developing, the timeline of how long it takes a new Conqueror to improve would grow shorter and shorter.

Even within that frame, however, the three stood out -- especially Senna. Cain's memories once again flashed back to the last timeline, and who that girl ended up becoming in the end. What separated her from most other Superstars, however, was that she never partied up -- not even to use others as cannon fodder. If there was some monsters he couldn't defeat alone, she would grow stronger until she could and come back.

That hardly made her a saint, however, as she would relentlessly murder anyone she came upon during her hunts, likely because she was afraid of her position being leaked. At some point, it got so bad that she wiped out an entire raid party during a live stream, and warned that if anyone spoke to her, they'd find themselves headless as well. That earned her one of the many nicknames she would come to own, 'Untouchable'.

Even with that, there were countless people willing to risk their lives to get the footage of her fighting -- and even with her meticulously murdering everyone who tried... a few slipped through the cracks. Only two videos were ever released of her fighting and were more than enough to cement her as the best 'cover-flanker' in the entire world. Her accuracy, yet insane punch behind her skills, her erratic movement, ability to control a whole army of weapons independently... she almost appeared specifically manufactured for the role.

Despite her not even touching the stratosphere of that level just yet, he saw the flashes of that brilliance in her -- the glimpses of who she has the potential to become. Even Diya's overall talent paled in comparison, causing him to sigh inwardly.

In many ways, 'talent' when it came to Conquerors was an abstract notion -- a compendium of countless variables used to attempt to project people's ceiling. Stats, Traits, Skills, the speed at which they improved, personalities... even something as woefully unquantifiable as luck was used as a part of the equation. Sometimes, the projection was correct -- and sometimes... it was wrong.

Cain had his own evaluation of the four in his party -- and, even then, he'd still somehow manage to underestimate Senna, all things considered. She'll probably Awaken well before the other three... in the event she chose to stay, he knew it would also be difficult for others, especially as the time progressed. Their skill mastery would start to stagnate, they'll not only have him to weigh against but also Senna, someone who joined the group last. Oh well... I'll cross that bridge once we get there...

The break seemed to pass quickly as Emma, Jamal, and Senna stood back up, groaning. Though Diya continued to heal them, and there was technically nothing wrong with their bodies, their minds were a completely different story.

"Alright, we do it the same as the last time,��� Cain said. "I'll take Diya airborne and observe from above, providing support. You guys do your thing."

"You won't help?" Jamal asked, his expression dropping.

"I need to rest... I'm really tired..."

"FROM WHAT?!!" Emma, Senna, and Jamal asked in unison.

"From saving your lives about eight billion times over the last three days?"

"..."

"..."

"Move out!"

"Aye, aye..." the dispirited responses nearly made him chuckle while Diya glanced at him with a strange look in her eyes.

Charging Wind, he wrapped it around her and himself, taking to the sky while the trio began walking toward the center.

Tentacle-like vines would sprout from the ground at seemingly random intervals, yet unlike just a few days ago, all three nimbly and precisely dodged them, not letting any even as much as scratch them.

They easily reached the center and started digging with attacks, simultaneously baiting out tentacles to help the process along. Within ten minutes, a gaping hole stood at the center, revealing a strange-looking plant anxiously slapping its 'arms' about.

The plant's greatest strength was its ability to attack stealthily; once exposed, it was no more difficult than an ordinary animal, which caused all the more disappointment to Emma, Jamal, and Senna when they realized a single attack by the latter completely eradicated it. The disappointment was largely in themselves, that it took them so long to dispatch this thing, 'dying' likely at least two hundred times in the process and needing to be saved by the arrogant guy looking at the whole scene above with a bemused expression.

The three climbed out of the hole and stood by the edge as Cain and Diya landed next to them. Cain glanced over into the pit where he saw the unrecognizable 'body' of the plant dissected into thousands of pieces. That's a grudge I wouldn't wanna be a target of...

He glanced at Senna who shot him a warning glare, causing him to chuckle and shake his head.

"Why didn't it drop anything?" Jamal asked. It's a plant dude...

"Let's go," Cain said instead of answering, leading them to the solitary passage and back into yet another cylindrical tunnel.

By now, even Cain was getting sick of them. However, at the very least, this one wasn't covered in blood from top to bottom.

This tunnel was also much shorter, its exit visible from its entrance. Cain didn't stop at all as he crossed the threshold, but Emma, Diya, Jamal, and Senna paused and stood on the edge. Cain glanced back at them and nodded; for now, at least, they won't be tossing themselves into things without any thought beforehand.

Luckily, however, this was one of the 'free rooms', so to say, of the palace. It had no traps, it had no foes, it had nothing but a massive statue of a man holding a sword with his hands in front of him, the blade's tip digging into the ground. Unlike most things around, however, the statue wasn't cast out of gold -- but seemingly ordinary stone instead.

The man wore heavy, plated armor, and a crown on top of his head. It was a fairly unique crown, something that Cain failed to notice when watching a video. It was extremely thick, laden with only one gem at the front, and was half-ringed in shape. The strange part of it was that it didn't rest on top of man's head, but rather over his eyes, almost like a blindfold.

Cain walked up slowly and stared at the plaque at the bottom, etched onto the sword itself that dug further down into the ground. Eeh? I can't read it? Oh... right... I don't have a Language skill.

It was a bit frustrating, but there was nothing he could do about it. From what he recalled, the plaque merely named the man and had some generic line about a 'hero' and a 'savior'. In the grand scheme of not only the Palace, but the entire Graveyard itself, neither the statue nor the man played a role, so it was likely a remnant of the age that passed so long ago it was pointless to dwell on it.

Two more rooms... Cain glanced at the solitary passageway waiting for them on the other end. There were precisely two more rooms until the boss fight, and he truly wanted to speed through them as it would mean that the party would retain some residual readiness for the battle, but rushing through those two was highly dangerous, even if he took the entire burden of carrying the four with him.

It wasn't because the rooms had too many traps or were strange in their make, but because they actually had enemies to fight -- golden statues made in the image of an army, as far as Cain could recall the lore. They weren't particularly strong or difficult to handle, but there were around two hundred of them in total across both rooms, which meant that defeating them quickly was impossible.

It was also not advisable, as there would be no rest once they were cleared, and the boss would have to be engaged right after. Even clearing just one wasn't an option as the statues from the other room would come out and attack. Stamina is the biggest factor while facing that construct, Cain mulled inwardly. I can't have 'em gasping for breath one minute into the fight. Tsk, it's so annoying not to have any pots... haaah, I wish somebody would shoot right up to the fifth floor so people would have access to Secondaries...

"We'll camp here for a day," he said as he sat down onto the ground, leaning against the blade. "No training, no nonsense, just rest. Rest. Rest. Rest. I don't even want you to think if possible -- just rest until you feel like you're at your peak, okay? Okay. I'm gonna take a nap now, so don't bother me."

"..." the four merely glanced at him and shrugged, somewhat accustomed to his random eccentric bouts. Similarly, they began taking out sleeping bags while Diya hurriedly placed some Mana Traps around the perimeter, quickly joining the others and snuggling into the comfort of the bag. The mental exhaustion was too much for them, and tiredness soon overwhelmed them, sending them into the world of dreams.