Chapter 468

Being cast between floors continued to be a pain and a half, the vertigo that caught him as he was displaced always throwing his inner off just a little. On habit, Arthur cleared the area before him with a slight sweep of his spear as he stepped aside, scanning the surroundings as he regained full sight and sense of balance.

As expected, they – he and Jan – had been transported to a rough longhouse structure to begin their next floor. What was surprising, was the other individual waiting for them, seated on the long table that dominated the log longhouse; soaring beams on either side and a walkway looking down onto the central portion of the house on either side. Sleeping alcoves against the walls made up the ground floor, and Arthur knew there would be more up near the walkway, reserved for the VIPs.

“What are you doing here?” Arthur asked, wandering over to take a seat beside their surprise guest.

Casey smiled. “Waiting for you.”

“I thought you were doing another quest chain?”

“I am.” She tapped the table. “Which is why we need to talk.”

A sudden premonition of dread ran through Arthur, as he recalled vague talks of branching and conflicting quests. He let out a low groan, as he took a seat beside Casey, somehow knowing that the ‘easy’ next couple of floors was going to be a mess. Which, really, was just about typical.

 

***

 

Funnily enough, the sixth floor was tiny – or a series of tiny floors – since you could not exit the building itself. The entire floor and quest was done in the same longhouse, though it had a tendency to expand a little to suit the needs. It was also not empty, with dozens of individuals drifting in and out. Some were somewhat ghostly, like the servants that had made up the palace in the previous floor; non-NPCs that managed the longhouse and cleaned up after them; but many more were ‘normal’. Full individuals that they had to deal with, whilst they waited.

Meeting their respective party members, individuals who in the storyline they had been traveling with for the first time was jarring. For example…

“Come here…” A hand reached out, grabbed hold of Arthur’s waist and dragged him over, Only a shift in positioning stopped him from landing on the man’s lap, which made the big, burly and smelly companion frown. “What’s wrong, Arthur? You weren’t objecting that much, last night.”

“Firstly, there was no last night to talk about.” Arthur raised a finger, pointed it at him. Remembering a little, what happened when someone broke the script too much, he added. “Secondly, you need a bath. Maybe two.” He sniffed, wrinkled his nose. “As do I.”

Jan, not far away, was smirking into her cup, trying not to crack up laughing. He knew it was amusing and a justifiable come-uppance. Like much of the Tower, some mistakes were made, people were shoe-horned into roles – correctly or not – and you had to roll with it.

Still, he was not about to be sexually harassed by an NPC, even for the quest.

“Fine, fine. But later, sweet cheeks.” Pushing up, Bjorn left, leaving Jan curled over, a head resting on the table as she struck it futilely in an attempt to muffle and control the laughter rolling out of her. Casey seemed better able to handle the matter, but that might be because she was busy handling her own amorous companion.

“How did you mange to seduce the waiter?” Arthur grumbled, after said waiter had left.

“Some of us have charms.” Then, after a moment, she added. “You’d find, if you spent any time trying, that there’s quite a lot of options available. They might be forced into roles, but they also have significant leeway.”

“I recall.” Recollections of a massive pile of dung that had been the last floor of the previous Tower rose up, the way the dead Climbers had twisted the orders to suit them. He ignored the look of sympathy that Casey sent him, since she only had the barest ideas of his own unfortunate change. Instead, he tapped the table, bringing her attention back to him and the conversation they had before they’d been so rudely interrupted after he had returned from getting himself a drink. “So. You’re basically saying, your goal is to kill us?”

“Stop the team from retrieving the bomoh, yes.” She inclined her head upwards, to where Bjorn had gone and the other three members of their party – all NPCs as best they could tell. “If I kill enough of your people to make the quest a guaranteed failure, I win.”

“And that number is…”

“At least half.”

“That’s good, lah.” At the look they shot her, Jan clarified. “Then, she no need kill us.”

“Doesn’t help that the Tower doesn’t expect us to survive the next floor if we don’t have more help,” Arthur said.

“Yalah, but maybe…” Jan trailed off.

“Maybe?”

“I don’t know. I thought you the smart one?”

“That’s Mel.”

That got a choked moment of laughter from both the girls, while he shrugged a moment later. “It’s not great, no. But she isn’t wrong. Still, maybe we should talk about what happens if you fail this floor.”

“If I fail…?”

“We need me to go onto the next floor.” He waved a hand around. “No building or administrator to find here. I’ll check, but I am pretty sure this is a no building floor. Same as next one for sure.”

"Maybe for you," Casey said, arms crossed. "I might get a place I could put physically."

"Yeah, I wonder how..." Arthur frowned, since everyone started in different locations for this floor. He ran through the options he had read about, shook his head after a moment. "No, I'm pretty sure there's no new buildings. You might - should - get sent back to the palace. Or, if you mess up, there's a branch option where you have to run a different errand. One where you're forced to betray your employer."

Casey shifted, looking quite unhappy about that. 

"What?" Jan asked, beating Arthur to it.

"I don't like failing."

"None of us do, but it makes the most sense. My failure condition is-"

"Us," Jan said. "Our."

"Right, sorry. Our failure condition is worse. We either have to run the next quest with fewer people, which is really difficult; or worse, we don't even get that far and have to return to the floor below." This was one of the few recursive floors, where failure ended with them going backwards. Except, this time, they would have to face someone in battle as a duel was enacted the moment they returned. 

"I know. You're sure I don't have to go back though?" Casey said.

"You tell me. You read the wiki too," Arthur said. 

Casey let out a long sigh. Before she could say anything further though, a scream rose up around them, drawing their attention.  Arthur's eyes narrowed as he noted the location, even as he snatched his spear free from the table beside him. 

It seemed they'd dallied too long and the floor quest had begun.