Evening Game

Ethan sat on the dining table while chewing a sandwich. A lamp from above, pouring light into the otherwise dark kitchen. Fiona looked at him, looking slightly annoyed for some reason, but she didn’t say anything. She instead showed him her laptop screen. It was only five in the afternoon, the clock in the down right corner told him that.

“As expected, not much info.”

She showed him a presentation with some pictures.

“A group of four managed to go to the tower’s tenth level. They were all high-level like us, but were slain by the boss guarding the stairs.”

“So it continues past level ten?”

“Yer brain dead if you assume it stopped there. Even IF, and only IF, it indeed stops there, you still need to pass the boss.”

A team of four…

“Oh, that team of four didn’t even reduce the first quarter of the health bar.”

“Is it that difficult?”

“A drastic jump from the previous level, that’s for sure.”

Fiona pressed on the keyboard, showcasing the interior of the building. The insides looked like a series of long, winding tunnels with dull gray brick walls. Some of the photos contained pictures of high-level monsters. A table showed all of the monsters that had been recorded, and after it a map of all ten levels.

“I went inside to confirm some of this data myself. Managed to reach level three without issue. The difficulty jumped from there.”

The tower gave more rewards compared to all the other regions. It came with an increased difficulty as well. A lot of experienced players challenged the tower for those reasons, but the fact that none went past level ten concerned him. The tower extended far into the skies, so if they couldn’t pass that level, how would any of them have the chance to reach the top?

And they weren’t just talking about a single level, but an entire tower. It would take time to scale the complex, and climbing while defending themselves would surely be tiring. With all of that before him, the endeavor felt helpless. He was sure there was more than one way for Chione to meet her sister. At the end of the day, they were family, so there must be some other way.

“Yer giving up?”

“Huh?”

“It looked like that.”

“You know what I’m going through?”

Ethan asked while pointing at himself. Fiona crossed her hands and shook her head.

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

Ethan smirked.

“No, I’m not.”

He said nonchalantly.

FireRock wouldn’t.

“Anything else?”

He asked, and Fiona brought her attention back to the presentation. She turned the laptop around, the screen facing her way. She had put a lot of her personal notes in there, Ethan momentarily seeing them. She read through them, her eyes going through every text she put on them.

“Nope. As I said, not much info on that thing.”

It was truly an object of mystery. Why did the developers put it in there? What purpose did it serve? If they really wanted to make a challenging area for players to play in, would they really need to make it into a tower in the center of a town, that not only looked entirely different compared to its surroundings, but also rose up that high into the sky? It was more of a sore compared to an actual attraction.

“I’ll tell you if anything else came up. For now, head to Technologia.”

“Technologia…”

Ethan opened his messaging app and was about to message Chione, wanting to ask her whether Calista had departed or not. Calista’s friend actually arrived the night before, after Ethan went off. Chione had messaged him about it.

He searched for Chione’s contact, only to realize that he was supposed to message him as FireRock and not Ethan. He switched apps and sent her a message.

“This is the user id. He’s a friend that played in the tower before, level eight.”

Fiona turned the laptop back toward him, this time showing the in-game name along with appearance.

“Thegreatmason9?”

It couldn’t be him, could it? Ethan’s phone suddenly vibrated. He opened it, reading the message sent in by Chione, saying that they would be heading to Technologia that very evening. He replied with a question, asking Calista’s friend’s username. He raised his eyebrows at the reply. Ethan typed in a reply before rising from his chair.

“I’m going to cook.”

He said before turning to the kitchen. Fiona didn’t reply and instead continued fiddling with her laptop.

Ethan had asked Chione to meet him at his apartment, or inn, to be precise. By the time he arrived in the front lobby, she was already waiting for him, playing with an invisible screen in front of her. She leaned back on the brown couch that decorated the lobby, seemingly uninterested in her surroundings.

She lifted her eyes toward Ethan and moved slightly to the side, giving him some space to sit down.

“I got the info.”

“The tower?”

Seeing that he wouldn’t sit down, she rose from her place and the two walked out of the building. They followed the crowded streets of Adastra, weaving through the crowd.

“The likelihood of reaching the top, assuming there is a top, is very low. The highest now is on the tenth level.”

“Any chance of that being the last level?”

“Don’t know.”

If that was the last level then there should be no reason for the developers to put such a high tower into Adastra, it served no purpose. At the same time, he wished that it was indeed the last level. If four high-level adventurers couldn’t defeat it, then how could he possibly win?

“Is there no other way?”

He asked. While he refused to say that he was giving up, if there was any other way, even something slightly easier…

“There is.”

“Then?”

“I just feel this is the best way to reach her.”

“Right.”

Playing the game she made, showing that Chione was dedicated, may reach her. If she could reach her by conventional means, then she wouldn’t be here in the first place. Ethan could somewhat understand. There were times when he, too, wanted to use things that he believed to be his right to get what he wanted, but those easy ways out won’t reach their hearts.

“We’re heading to Technologia.”

Chione glanced at him while tilting her head.

“The person Calista’s going with… He fought in the tower before.”