Kael stepped past him, but the irritation in his chest itched out through his mouth anyway.
"Why ask why I ca late when there were others here..."
The guard’s expression hardened like a door being locked.
"Stop being a smartass and go." The guard said.
Kael didn’t push it. He’d spent a year under a master who punished backtalk with bruises that lasted days. A guard’s attitude didn’t even register as a threat. It was just noise. He wasn’t afraid of him, nor would he ever do. But it was still irritating.
Kael didn’t bother with the man anymore and walked in.
The hall was long, stone-paved, and looked more like a large prison than a fortress.
The air inside was colder than outside, not from the weather but from the way the stone held chill. Torches lined the corridor in pairs, casting long shadows across the floor. The walls had marks too, old scratches, gouges, dents, signs that people had gotten angry here before. Or desperate. Or both.
But it was understandable; this was ant to funnel in the people who wanted to clear the floor and allow the guilds full control. So not many could enter at once, and also stop any from leaving if they need to, even monsters.
The whole thing looked like a very expensive cage with locked gates from both sides.
Several steel gates were risen allowing Kael to pass through until he reached a large circular hall.
The corridor opened into it like a throat widening into a stomach. The sound changed the instant Kael stepped in, footsteps echoed differently, higher, sharper, like the room wanted every sound to be heard.
There was one large tal gate that a bunch of adventurers were standing before. A fortified one, but it didn’t look like it had any way for a person to close it. It was a push gate, and it looked closed right now.
The adventurers, however, were all looking hesitant and worried.
Kael didn’t need a special eye to read that posture. People who were confident didn’t hover. They didn’t keep shifting their weight. They didn’t keep glancing at the gate like it might open and swallow them.
All of them had guild emblems on their armor. And since Kael didn’t have any and didn’t want to be recognized, he imdiately put on his Spartan helt. Covering most of his facial features.
The helt settled with a familiar snugness, leather tight against skin. His breath ward the inside imdiately. The world narrowed slightly through the visor slit, but the tradeoff was worth it: anonymity bought safety.
The rest of the adventurers noticed him late, but soon didn’t pay him any mind. He was wearing sothing strange, yes, but without a guild emblem, it was probably just trash.
Trash didn’t get recruited. Trash didn’t get hunted by guilds. Trash didn’t get targeted until it did sothing impressive. And Trash rarely ever did anything impressive.
Kael intended to do the opposite of impressive until he was past this place.
"We’re gonna stay here all night? Who’s going in now?" one of the guards said.
His tone had the bored irritation of soone assigned to a post where people died slow and paperwork piled up fast.
"We’re strategizing, man, give us a mont!" one of the adventurers said.
The guard sighed like he’d heard the word "strategizing" a thousand tis right before soone scread and bled out.
Kael was close enough that he couldn’t help but ask, "What’s taking them so long to go in?"
The guard turned his head toward Kael, eyes scanning the helt, the lack of an emblem, the stance. A solo with a permission slip was unusual enough to bother asking about.
"Who are you?"
"Just a solo climber."
The guard’s eyes widened a fraction, then he looked Kael up and down again, like the answer didn’t match the body.
"Damn, and you could afford the entrance..."
"Permission slip."
The guard clicked his tongue again, a sound Kael was starting to hate.
"Ah. They sent you to die, man. This isn’t an easy floor. Go get a guild first, get stronger, and get rid of that trash you’re wearing, you’ll die."
Kael didn’t reply imdiately. The warning wasn’t mocking; it sounded... almost honest. Like the guard had watched enough bodies get dragged out that he’d started tossing out advice like scraps, just in case one person listened and didn’t beco another ss to clean.
"Why? Sounds like you’re hiding a dragon or sothing in there." Kael said, suspicious.
The guard snorted.
"No, it’s a hobgoblin." The man said.
Kael blinked once, slowly. He’d killed goblins on the first floor like they were rats. Hobgoblin sounded like "bigger rat." Not "all of you shaking like you’ve seen a god."
"Everyone got their panties in a twist because of a hobgoblin?"
The guard didn’t laugh. That alone answered Kael before the words did.
"Well, it already killed seven adventurers today... so," the guard said.
"I see..." Kael thought for a second, then saw an adventurer approach the gate.
The man moved like soone forcing confidence into his spine. He rolled his shoulders once, adjusted his grip on his weapon, and stepped forward as if montum could carry him past fear.
The gate opened for him, and he walked in.
The tal door didn’t swing politely. It separated just enough to swallow him, then closed again with a weighty finality that made the room feel smaller.
"It’s a solo fight?"
"Yeah, this one is a one-on-one; it’s very difficult for so classes and easy for others. But that’s not why most are hesitant." He said.
Kael’s eyes narrowed behind the helt. If it wasn’t the difficulty, then it was the aning. The thing people never said out loud: the fight wasn’t just a fight. It was a test.
The door closed behind the climber, and soon a large countdown screen showed up.
Numbers lit the air above the gate like a hanging judgnt. Seconds waiting to be written. A tir that didn’t care if you lived.
"The weak die, and the strong only go in there to break records." The guard said as he pointed to the side, "Look there, you see that guy?"
Kael followed the gesture.
A large board, mounted like a trophy wall, had several nas on it.
He imdiately recognized the first few nas.
Leonard.
And Mathew.
And the fourth na, Yenna.
"Holy shit," Kael’s eyes opened wide.
Even behind the helt, the shock hit him. That na didn’t belong on a random board in a random fortress. That na belonged to stories. To broadcasts. To people arguing online about whether she was blessed or cursed.
"You get it? Leonard had set the record of forty six seconds. No one had broken it yet."
Kael barely heard the "forty-six seconds." His eyes stayed on the na.
"No, that na! Yenna, that’s Yenna the Berserker, no?"
The guard nodded, like he’d heard that sa reaction before from other earthlings and other fans and other fools who thought legends didn’t die.
"Ah yeah, a lot recognize it, she’s apparently dead..." The guard said.
"Damn."
Kael’s stomach sank in a slow, heavy way. Dead. Not retired. Not missing. Dead. The tower of Trials ate legends, and it spat them here, in the Tower of the Dead.
"I guess you’re also one of them?" he asked.
Kael tore his gaze off the board with effort, focusing back on the guard.
"One of whom?" Kael asked.
"The ones she killed, the whole damn tower is searching for her. Bitch killed like half of them. But she never showed up again after having her na placed here."
Kael’s breath caught for half a beat.
She wasn’t just a na on a screen for him anymore. She was a contender of this tower. She killed many to get to where she was, only to fall short and start again at the bottom here. But seeing her na among the highest ant one thing. She was still powerful. She was still dangerous, and many were still after her.
Then the gate opened again, ripping thought away with tal and dread.
"Tsk, guess another failed attempt."
And suddenly a gigantic hand showed up, holding the corpse of the very man who just walked into the room.
The hand wasn’t human. Too large, too thick, too casual. It held the body like a broken doll and tossed it out without effort.
It threw the corpse away, empty of anything that could be called flesh or organs. Bones and torn clothes clattered on the floor.
The sound wasn’t just disgusting, it was dry. Like the man had been hollowed out and thrown away. A few people flinched. One adventurer took a half-step back without realizing it.
The tal door then closed again, waiting for the next challenger.
Kael stared at the floor where the corpse had landed, then at the closed gate, then at the board again.
"... I thought you said that there was a hobgoblin there..."
The guard’s mouth twisted into sothing that wasn’t quite a smile.
"Yeah, that’s a Reverse Tower’s hobgoblin..."
Kael exhaled slowly.
"Shit..."
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