Chapter 464

The next few floors often followed a theme, building upon the ‘story’ that had formed around the theft of the orang utan artifacts and altars. In the third floor, after getting enough dust to banish them from the surroundings; the group had to venture outwards to acquire another ritual component. These were various cane like grasses, picked when they were on the younger side and not the full towering fields. That made the job somewhat harder, as the group were forced to search the undergrowth for such specific growths.

Yao Jing – surprisingly – grew to be one of their best pickers, his eagle eye understanding of what to look for from years working as a gardener and landscaper in the real world giving him an advantage. Uswah was not far behind, mostly because she could slip around through the various ghostly branches reaching for her with little care; allowing her to cover more ground than the team.

In fact, cutting their way through the undergrowth was half the problem. The spirits of the forest took quite the offense at them cutting their way through, but at the same time, the density of the surrounding forests made it near impossible for most to search at a decent speed without laying down a path of destruction.

Balancing how much to cut down, when to retreat before the swarming, grasping canes and stick-like guardian spirits attacked them was the entire point of the Tower. Arthur took part, since the team had to rotate who could be on duty, while the others waited in the makeshift huts of the third floor, allowing the accumulated aggro to fall away.

Because of the density in the cane forest around them, and due to their desire not to increase their overall aggro too fast; Arthur had given up on his spear and shifted to utilizing his kris and fist for the most part. He had tried the machete but found that utilizing Imbue Strike with a punch was just as effective, if not more, than anything else.

The only thing that frustrated him was that it put his continued study of the Beating Stick technique back, as he could not progress that technique without actually, you know - beating people.

In addition, and somehow he thought it was rather fascinating how she had it on-hand, he was now spending his 'off time' sacrificing to his newly acquired spirit by reading through dry textbooks on management practices, supply chains, project management, theories on corporate governance and more. At first, it had been simple summarised papers, but somehow; every time he finished a particular book, he would find another - thicker - work waiting for him.

Casey seemed to thrive on making him suffer; or perhaps it was Lam who was the one who delivered the works more often than not. She was just the one who questioned him on what he remembered, and sent him back to studying the books again if he was not able to answer her insightful questions.

Rick was no help, snickering along at the questions but never answering any. 

The third floor was nasty, but mostly because of how long it took for the Durians to get through it. It did give the team time to work on their own techniques, to pull energy into their bodies and layer more strength which was a factor that most of the team were grateful for. That was about the only negative about going fast through here, that they had less time to empower ourselves - but the goal right now wasn't self-empowerment.

Not till the team had hit the higher levels at least.

The fourth floor had us running more errands, this time to ghostly sections all across the floor, through separate pathways that formed only for each individual. It was an obstacle course of jumps, leaps, highwire acts, crawling through tiny tunnels and wayfaring through twisting mazes; all of them filled with traps, monsters and the occasional puzzle. Since they were all forced to take individual pathways to deliver our messages, the Clan building on that floor was more of a general marker at the start, a small place to rest; put your feet up and cultivate before dashing in.

Arthur had to admit, the fourth floor was probably his favorite floor thus far. Without the pressure of others around him, with his new skill techniques and ability to kill the hantu that challenged him when he failed the puzzles; he was only mildly, pleasantly challenged by the obstacles and monsters. 

A good workout, unlike the slog that had been the previous floor.

Seven Cloud Steps was probably his most important tool here, and after reviewing the cultivation manual again; going through the written notes and making a few more notes – a surprising benefit of the spirit was it; or perhaps just the renewed study – with new insights. After which, he had run the course, the entire process taking multiple days as he got lost twice, fell once – not far, just thirty feet and picking up a broken ankle – and killed numerous spirits.

Not all of them ghosts, since the toyol – toddlers with pale skin, corded muscle and red glowing eyes – were a constant harassment. They only attacked when they thought they had the advantage – in numbers or by surprise – but would constantly attempt to steal from Arthur as he traveled, popping out of tiny holes in cliffsides or sneaking up on him as he rested.

They constant harassment was frustrating, but at least the toyol gave shards; which the rest of the hantu rarely did.

To Arthur’s surprise, he was not the last to exit; coming out onto the fifth floor early with only Mel and Rick waiting for him. Setting up the Clan building on the fifth floor was interesting, since there were no preset buildings to buy. Indeed, the entire fifth floor was just a single – very large – residence; a palace that reminded him more of the French Versailles with expansive, highly manicured gardens, splotches of foliage and manmade mazes than anything resident to Malaysia.

As a Clan, he ended up being given a plot of land in the fifth floor’s version of the petite trianon; a tiny village of buildings handbuilt by the Climbers. Together, with Mel and Rick’s help, they marked off the land with guidesticks and string before beginning to erect a building.

That, not surprisingly, came with its own share of arguments.

“We need to dig in to create foundations!” Rick said, arms crossed; half his body in the hole he had dug.

“There’s no earthquakes here!” Arthur said. “There’s no point digging deep foundations. A foot and some trees put into it would do.”

“And I’m telling you, green wood won’t cut it.”

“Well, we can cut more wood for later, but we should have something built!”

“Which is why we should just build a hut,” Mel cut-in between the pair, throwing her arms up. “And then have someone do it for us properly.”

“Like who?” Arthur waved his hand around, indicating the lack of Climbers on this floor. The fact that the vast majority of Climbers just chose to either stay in the palace in one of the rooms offered to them, or passed on, was not exactly loss to him. “I need to get the building in place for the System, but it obviously isn’t needed here. Even the Chin’s didn’t bother.”

“If you do something, do it properly,” Rick pointed out.

“Says the man who doesn’t study!”

Rick snarled, leaning into the spade they had borrowed. Single spade, since none of them had any with them. There was no point – being Climbers, there was no reason to defecate – so there was no reason to bring a separate shovel into the Tower. If they needed to dig in, the parang did a good job of softening the earth up and then, a hand or the edge of something large would do for the rest.

“Just because you didn’t study-!”

“Kenapa kamu bertengkar lah?” Uswah, slipping out of the shadows, caught the pair arguing. Rick, of course, frowned heavily as he tried to parse the Malaya.

“We’re arguing because he won’t listen!”

“Because I’m right.”

“And is that the way you’re going to play it? I thought we agreed, I’m the boss!” Arthur snapped.

“Whose wrong! And I’m trying to make sure we do it right.”

Uswah looked at Mel who shook her head. Arthur knew he was being a little unreasonable, but it bothered him that Rick swanned around, acting as though he knew better. That he should be in charge, as though his choices would be the best. Not understanding or caring about their constraints.

He opened his mouth to continue arguing only for a hand to land on his arm, making him turn to stare at the young woman. She frowned up at Arthur for a moment, taking her hand from his arm to touch his chin and turning it slightly. He let her, confused by the way she was looking at him before she nodded almost to herself.

“Come.” She said.

“But…!” He pointed to Rick.

“Do you really want to be digging?”

That brought him up short. Either way, digging the earth in was going to be a lot of work and not something he was looking forward to. He didn’t mind doing it, but…

“Come. Ada sesuata kita mesti binca.”

Surprised by the woman’s insistence, Arthur let himself be led away. Curious what Uswah, his little Malay ninja, mentor and friend, had to say.