Neo went first.
The stairs curved upward from the second floor, white stone giving way to darkness and old torchlight as he and Snot climbed in silence. The sounds from below faded little by little until even the strange pull of that cold white brazier felt far away.
At the top, the space opened.
Both of them stopped.
The next floor was enormous.
It didn’t feel like the floor beneath it. The chamber below had been simple, almost bare. This one stretched out like the ruin of a dead palace folded into the tower’s shape. Platforms rose at different heights around the interior, connected by short staircases, broken landings, and long strips of pale stone. So levels had half-collapsed walls. Others opened into narrow walkways running along the inner curve of the tower. Black roots had pushed through cracks in places, but not enough to swallow the old grandeur. The whole floor carried that sa ancient whiteness as the rest of the tower, only here it looked worn, trampled by ti and violence both.
And they were not alone.
Vagabonds.
A lot of them.
Figures in ragged armor and filthy cloth stood across the different levels, so leaning against broken pillars, so facing nothing at all, others frozen in the middle of paths as if they had stopped walking and never resud. Rusted blades. Split shields. Spears with blackened tips. The sa kind Neo had fought before, only many more.
Snot stared for a mont and muttered, "That is... quite a few."
Neo kept his voice low. "Yeah."
At the center of the floor, a broad staircase rose higher than the others, built to draw the eye. It led toward the next level above.
Their path.
Between them and those stairs waited the Vagabonds.
The good part was obvious enough after another look.
They were slow. These looked weighed down by age itself, by ruined armor, by whatever curse had left them dragging through the tower instead of rotting where they fell. Their movents carried no urgency. They turned late. Shifted late. Walked with the heavy drag of things that had forgotten speed a long ti ago.
Neo’s mouth moved faintly.
’Good. If they were fast too, this place would be much more annoying.’
Snot followed his line of thought quickly enough. "We don’t kill all of them, right?"
"No." Neo kept watching the nearest cluster. "Only the ones in our way."
"That’s the most beautiful thing you’ve said all night."
Neo ignored him and started forward.
The first level beyond the stairs from below opened into a broad platform of cracked white stone. Three Vagabonds stood there, far enough apart that at first they looked harmless, almost decorative. One carried a rusted sword hanging loose from one hand. Another had a bent spear. The third wore half a breastplate and dragged an axe across the floor when it shifted.
Neo had seen that trick before. Rooms and floors pretending to be empty until you committed yourself to the wrong stretch of ground.
He moved anyway.
One step. Two.
The nearest Vagabond reacted.
Its head lifted first. Then its whole fra followed, tal scraping softly as it dragged the sword up and began turning toward him with all the dead reluctance of sothing pulled back into purpose.
Neo didn’t wait for the thing to finish rembering how to fight.
He surged forward.
Gravebite rose in both hands, Beast Strength flooding briefly into his arms, and the sword’s toothed edge tore across the Vagabond’s neck before the corpse had even settled into a guard. The blade bit deep. Bone cracked. Half the head turned with the strike, hanging badly for a breath before the body collapsed.
[Soul-Window]
[You have slain Ragged Duelist - Vein Core.]
The other two woke properly at that.
Snot went left at once, daggers in both hands, slipping in with none of the fear he had shown on the cliff. One of the Vagabonds thrust the spear toward him with miserable slowness. Snot moved around it almost lazily, cut inside its reach, and opened the thing’s throat with one knife while the other drove under the arm gap.
The body folded with a clatter.
Neo t the axe-wielder head-on. The Vagabond brought the weapon down in a heavy, crude arc that would have been dangerous if it had possessed anything close to speed. Gravebite intercepted the haft, ripped through the rotten wood and into the thing’s chest, and dragged downward hard enough to open the corpse nearly to the waist.
[Soul-Window]
[You have slain Ragged Duelist - Vein Core.]
[Soul-Window]
[You have slain Ragged Duelist - Vein Core.]
Neo consud the Soul Cores without breaking stride.
[745/1000]
They moved up the short stairway to the next level.
From here the floor felt even larger. He could see more of its structure now: staggered platforms rising in uneven layers toward the center, side paths half-hidden behind white pillars, and narrow drop-offs between so levels where the stone had broken away and left ugly gaps in the floor. It really did feel like sothing out of an older age, a place built for processions, ceremonies, or power, then left to dry out beneath the weight of centuries.
More Vagabonds began stirring in the distance.
Too many to enjoy.
Neo kept the pace asured. "Five," he said. "That’s all."
Snot gave him a side glance. "I’m touched you think I’d count that high."
"Try."
They reached the next stretch of broken paving, and two Vagabonds there turned toward them almost together. One carried a shield so ruined it looked like a cracked plate dragged out of a grave. The other wore a ragged cloak over old mail and had a long, narrow sword in hand.
Neo angled toward the swordsman.
The thing’s blade ca in low and late. He stepped around it, drove Gravebite across the Vagabond’s ribs, and the teeth of the sword chewed through rusted rings and old flesh alike. The corpse staggered. Neo’s second strike took the head.
Snot dealt with the shield-bearer less elegantly but with more enthusiasm, kicking the thing’s knee in hard enough to break its posture before planting both daggers through the gaps in its ruined helt.
[Soul-Window]
[You have slain Ragged Duelist - Vein Core.]
[Soul-Window]
[You have slain Ragged Duelist - Vein Core.]
[749/1000]
Snot wiped one dagger against the cloak of the dead swordsman and glanced toward the broad central staircase ahead. More Vagabonds were stirring now on the upper levels, turning with that sa miserable slowness before starting their way down toward the noise.
"Should we keep farming?" he asked.
Neo dismissed the Soul Window and shook his head.
"No. We’ve already spent enough ti in here."
Snot frowned. "What?"
Neo tilted his head slightly toward the upper dark, then toward the way they had co. "If we stay much longer, dawn will catch us inside the tower. I’m not interested in finding out how many questions Byron or the grey-hair starts asking if we stroll back into camp after sunrise."
Snot’s expression soured at once. "Argh, right. Right." He dragged a hand down his face and looked back the way they had co, already offended by the mory. "And I still have to cross that devil’s path again..."
That drew the faintest curve at Neo’s mouth.
"You’ll survive."
"That’s easy for you to say," Snot muttered. "You climbed that wall like so mountain rat."
Neo started toward the central stairs with Gravebite still in hand.
"Co on," he said. "Let’s see what’s above before you start crying again."
Snot stared at his back for a beat, then snorted and followed.
"You really are a dickhead, Neo."
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