Chapter 476

"Was that easier than it should be?" Arthur muttered, the next morning. Limping along after Jan and the Bomoh, exhausted with only a small trace of energy within him, the wound on his leg still healing even after the application of the salve that the shaman had applied, he still could not help but voice that thought.

“Not too bad…” Jan said, shrugging her shoulders. “But we passed one Tower, remember?”

“Right…” And the people who had written about how hard it was going to be with fewer personnel probably had not adjusted the difficulty based off that expectation. Most coming in would be thinking of it based off their own experiences, as beginner tower climbers and as individuals who had not cleared a Tower as yet.

Even the experienced Tower climbers might not have the advantage that Arthur and Jan had of being part of a Clan. Most of those who wrote and supplied information on the public forums were independent Climbers, as it was generally discouraged by those in Clans to provide such information to the public.

Only the government sponsored Climbers would provide that information, and were – supposedly – mandated to do so. It worked better in other countries, of course, places less corrupt. Here, the ongoing rumor were that the information coming out from the government side was either tainted or just incomplete, a surprising amount of forgetfulness happening among those Climbers.

“Okay lah.” Arthur sighed, running a hand through his hair. “How much longer do you think we have to walk?”

“Until we reach our goal,” Bomoh Umi replied, looking at Arthur like he was dumb.

“I know but…” He trailed off, sharing an amused and exasperated glance with Jan over her head. There was no way to explain that they expected to be transported away at some point. The general equivalent of a cut-scene happening.

Then again, maybe the bomoh was right. After all, it would happen when it would happen. All they could do was keep walking.

 

***

 

The transition between one moment and the next, the flicker of time when mists swallowed them and spat them back out was over before they could truly register it. Arthur and Jan looked at one another, their grips tightening on their weapons as they lingered in the shadows of the upper edge of the balcony overlooking the hall below, the underground hallway ill-lit by the candles and torches that littered the sides.

Not that it blocked Arthur’s vision, not after the buff the bomoh had provided him. She still stood by his side, staring down too; leaning against her cane as though she was exhausted. As she should be, having walked for two days without pause as per the storyline. It amused him a little, the way she went from being unflagging and unstopable in her movement earlier to complete exhaustion, and all it took was a single cut scene.

It reinforced the idea that she was not - like the rest of the non-player characters, the denizens of the Tower - entirely real. Or normal, at least. It made questions of those Climbers who claimed to be given a second chance even more prominent, how much of those individuals were just implanted memories. Thoughts of another figure, broken and discarded.

It was not something Arthur could puzzle out. He was certain there were others who looked into such things, but like higher math, protons and neutrons and quarks and foreign exchange currency flows, it was for someone with a lot more schooling, time and probably, money than what Arthur had access to.

He was, while not a complete meathead, very much more practical. His goal was to improve his skills as a Climber, and such things weren't as important as being able to harness his cultivation and skill techniques better. Certainly not when he had a whole Clan to work on.

"How long you think we kena wait?" Jan whispered to Arthur from her place opposite the bomoh.

He glanced at the old woman who gave a minute shake of her head. He shrugged in answer to Jan, then chose to speak further. "It's not clear. We have to wait for them to be pretty far into the ritual-"

"When they have committed to casting, but before they complete," Bomoh Umi said, clarifying his point. "We must wait, to be certain that my idiot apprentice and the rajah have committed to breaking this taboo. Once they have, then we can act." She sighed. "If we do so before, we will not have the evidence necessary."

If they did it before, they would find themselves overwhelmed by the guards, Arthur knew. A few of the more impatient Climbers had tried to stop the ritual before it began but  only one ever managed to survive. Even then, the idiot had been stuck in the Tower, passing on his warning to others before he died on his second attempt to clear the Tower via a different route.

Other stories, of those who had done - or intended to do - the same indicated that any who interrupted before the bomoh recommended it were just overwhelmed by the guards who were still in the room. It was only when the king and the bomoh beneath were far into the ritual that the guards were sent out and barred from coming in.

At that point, only a dozen or so individuals - the Tunku and other loyal servants - would be present. Only then would it be possible.

In the meantime, as the groups wandered back and forth beneath, clad in long batik tunics, colourful in the muted way that traditional batik clothing was engineered, little songket hats on their heads, perched precariously, Arthur and Jan could only wait. More importantly, he kept an eye on their weapons, the majority carrying kris by their side, the traditional wavy knife-sword weapon of the South East Asian warrior.

Similar to his own, really, though Arthur hoped that theirs at least were not cursed.

The voices below were low murmurs, the group moving back and forth. Bomoh Umi was muttering quietly under her breath, detailing the individuals below. Arthur ignored most of it, knowing it was all flavor text. This was the last level – all they had to do was keep her alive to break the ritual, and then, when it backfired; kill the giant ghost that came out. After that, they could run minor errands all they wanted, hunting down secondary ghosts and cultivate.

Easy-peasy as these things went.