Arcen woke up when a foot landed on his face. Karla nudged him couple more times with her heel and stormed off yelling orders at others. Morgav returned as they were getting their backpacks ready. He was much more lively than before.

  “Listen up. We’re going to go to a floor in four hundreds with a shortcut!” Morgav said, clapping for everyone’s attention.

  “A shortcut that goes that high?!” Karla said, with a gasp.

  “No way that’s real,” Leyland said, agreeing with her.

  “It better be. Because I’m going to kill that fucking octopus if it isn’t there,” Morgav said, extending his hand towards Arcen. Everyone stared at him in surprise. Even Gareth. He’d not had a chance to tell Gareth about the deal that Morgav struck with him in exchange for the black egg. He nodded slowly at Gareth, raising an eyebrow.

  We’ll talk about it later!

  “To go four hundred up, everyone needs more than one and a half million Aura by the end of the day!” Morgav said, emphasizing every word. “Keep at least half of what you get in Gold. We’ll meet on the twenty-third floor and we’ll share Gold to bring everyone to the same level.”

  “You heard the boss!” Karla said, snapping her fingers. “Pack it up!”

  “I’m taking the two idiots with me,” Morgav said, pointing at Gareth and Arcen. “Don’t slow me down. You’ll regret it.”

  Everyone left the cave shortly after. Jackson, Isadora and Leyland went separate ways. Morgav walked with Karla towards the next chamber. Arcen and Gareth followed behind them closely.

  As they walked, Karla paused at the black water pond where large creatures were roaming between the trees. She broke into a run, hopped across the pond in two steps and vanished beyond the trees. White light erupted from beyond the trees, cracking sounds echoing like a series of thunderbolts.

  In the momentary glimpses they got from each flash of light, Arcen saw Karla only twice. She was dashing around the creatures like a mosquito as lightning bolts electrocuted them. At one point, he saw her rip into one of their necks and falling with its shuddering body.

  “Hurry along now,” Morgav said, clapping his hands nonchalantly.

  Gareth kept watching Karla with his mouth wide open. Arcen had no idea she was that powerful. He’d already defeated her and eaten her. Someone who could take down a pack of huge animals in seconds. He didn’t really have any idea how powerful he had been back then.

  I need that king. If I had it, no one can mess with me!

  This powerlessness was eating him from the inside. So far, he was at the whim of anyone who knew more than him. It started with the oily girl, and it ended with Morgav. He’d had little to no say in anything that happened in between. He was used and then discarded. He was currently being used, surely to be discarded yet again. Strangely, the King was the only one who took him along for the ride. King needed him as much as he needed it.

  I should’ve stomped on these fuckers when I had the chance!

  Karla’s thunderous noises and lightning strikes vanished as they moved on to the next chamber following Morgav. He took them through a winding path, occasionally killing a creature or two with a swipe of his hand. He was more powerful than Karla, just brushing creatures aside with casual ease.

  After about ten minutes of just walking, they arrived at a chamber where a veil was on the ceiling, connecting to the floor above. There was a small makeshift ladder someone else had used to climb up. They arrived at the first chamber on the twenty-second floor. It was full of strange ruins.

  Gareth looked completely terrified. “This is why I was stuck on twenty-one!” he said, his voice shaking.

  “What’s in here?” Morgav asked, using Radiate as he did. A bright floodlight came into existence above them, lighting all their surroundings. They were just at the floor entrance and surrounded by dead climbers and their bloodied gear. “Ah, interesting,” Morgav said with a smile.

  Creatures screeched from all corners of the chamber as Morgav used another Radiate, much brighter this time.

  “Y-you’re pissing them off! We have to run!” Gareth said, taking a step back.

  “Stay exactly where you fucking are or I’ll kill you myself,” Morgav said through clenched teeth. Gareth froze.

  “Don’t get in the way. I’m going to take everything.”

  Morgav readied his right hand, flexing it at the wrist. The creatures dashing towards them were way bigger than Arcen thought, as large as gorillas but nimble like raccoons. The ground shook as they rushed forth, sharp fangs clattering.

  Oh, fuck no!

  Arcen almost jumped back down to the floor below through the veil. Morgav stepped on Arcen’s toes before he could. He flipped his fingers in a circle. Arcen had no idea what the man used. All the creatures fell into strips of meat and bone, trees fell apart like ribbons and rocks shattered. It was almost like the Storm of Scythe from Norm, but circular and expanding outwards. It spread all the way to the far walls of the chamber like a ripple in still water.

  The creatures fell silent around the third ripple, turning into even smaller pieces.

  There’s no winning against this guy.

  Morgav had just sliced an entire tower chamber to pieces with a single swipe of his hand. He was trouble even if Arcen had the King.

  “Like I said, stay exactly where you are,” Morgav said, looking over his shoulder as he took his heel off Arcen’s foot.

  Turning back around, he pointed his forefinger at the center of the chamber. Sliced carcasses beneath it rose off the floor and flew to the top. They rolled into each other and formed a small ball of flesh that only grew as more pieces floated to the top, rotating around it as if it had its own gravity well.

  “This one’s going to be good,” Morgav smiled, walking towards it. They followed him as rivers of blood and flesh flowed towards the center of the chamber. It gathered all the dead creatures into a grinding ball, turning them into thick paste watered down with blood.

  Standing under it, Morgav raised his hand with his palm pointed towards it. The flesh sphere grew smaller, squeezing itself. Gold gathered at the bottom, filtered through the blood and flesh mass above it. The flesh sphere lowered itself. Morgav touched the dripping gold with his hand. It coated his skin, spreading hungrily as it covered him all over. He’d gathered about a forearm’s worth of gold from the creatures that he killed in this chamber.

  “Not as much as I thought,” he said, shoving his gold covered fingers into his mouth. He had no reaction to eating Gold. “Meat to Gold ratio is never good on these floors... ”

  This wasn’t enough?

  “How much more do you need?” Arcen asked, unable to hold his mouth.

  “Maybe twenty of these. I’m not sure,” he said, snapping his fingers. The flesh sphere fell apart into a meaty sludge at the center of the chamber, blood washing up their legs as ground meat reached up their ankles like red mud.

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  Morgav walked casually to the next chamber and ‘opened’ it with the same move he used to annihilate the first one. Trees fell, rocks shattered, and screams filled the cold air. Three large creatures remained standing after his barrage ended, battered and groaning. They were as large as houses, lumbering giants that looked like flattened bears. Morgav paid no attention to their screams.

  There’s a lot more creature here.

  Morgav sat on a rock as the surviving creatures waded towards him through debris. He created the flesh sphere again. As it gathered all the carcasses. He swiped his hand at the nearest bear-like creatures screaming at him. Its face vanished, ripped to shreds in a single move. He did the same thing to the other two, and their huge bodies rolled towards the center, towards the sphere, which was now the size of a house.

  Soon, a pool of gold gathered at the bottom of the sphere like honey squeezed out of a sponge.

  “Fucking hell, man…” Gareth said, his hands trembling. He’d been speechless in the last chamber. They were both terrified of the scale and sadism Morgav treated all living things with. The man could just as easily make meatballs out of them. “This is wrong, man! I know it’s the towers, but this…”

  Arcen gestured for him to shut up. Morgav could hear every word, and pissing him off is the last thing they wanted. Morgav threw them a warning glance over his shoulder as he walked towards the flesh sphere.

  “Harvest is good this time!” he said, changing his bored demeanor with fake excitement.

  He’s calling this harvest?

  Although he made Gareth shut up, Arcen knew this was wrong. It had nothing to do with killing things. He himself had killed a monkey child with no second thoughts to end its suffering. Gareth wasn’t beyond killing any creature. Morgav was completely different. To him, every creature was like bait fish or worms, worse than livestock, less than grass. He was simply mowing the lawn.

  Gareth stared as the big ball of flesh kept growing above him, trembled and looked down. His eyes were glazed over with terror.

  These two are worlds apart from each other.

  Arcen sighed as Morgav gathered an entire arm’s worth of gold from the flesh sphere. Towers were more terrifying than he ever thought they would be. He was still only twenty-two floors up. He had nine hundred something left to go if he was climbing. He couldn’t even imagine what horrors awaited on the higher floors.

  Morgav swallowed Gold and smiled at them.

  “Coolest contract ever, right?! Flesh Moon for the win!”

  “Y-yeah,” Arcen said, trying to be polite. He kept imagining his own corpse twisting and grinding into this flesh moon if he offended Morgav. Gareth kept his mouth shut, his eyes on the floor.

  They followed Morgav for the rest of the day, unwilling audience to his carnage across chambers. Ironically, it was the easiest thing ever. There were no threats anywhere. Walking was the only thing they had to do, sometimes wading through bloodied mud and debris.

  The ‘Harvest’ was not the same in every chamber. The first two were lucky strikes compared to the rest. Flesh Moon required a lot of flesh to make a moon with. Some chambers didn’t have creatures large enough, or in enough numbers to feed it. One of the last chambers was entirely inhabited by a swarm of insects. They passed by without doing anything there.

  Morgav didn’t seem to tire at all. Arcen’s legs gave out from under him a couple times by the time they got to the seventeenth chamber. Gareth helped him walk, but he was barely holding himself together as well. By the twenty-first floor, Morgav had been disappointed eighteen times in a row and was in a bad mood.

  “Come here,” he said, gesturing at them with his gold covered hand. This chamber had yielded about three fingers’ worth. Once they were near, he grabbed Arcen and shoved his gold finger into his mouth. Arcen felt sparks flying through his body as if he was electrocuted. The fatigue vanished immediately.

  Gareth protested, but Morgav didn’t wait for him to turn away. He grabbed and shoved his finger in Gareth’s mouth as well.

  “Fucking keep up. You’re wasting my time!” Morgav said angrily.

  They followed him for six more chambers with the newfound strength from Gold that he shoved in their throats. The seventh chamber was slightly different. It had serpentine creatures the size of school buses just idling around a stream of water.

  Definitely don’t wanna go there.

  Arcen hesitated, walking slowly. These things looked like snake-crocodiles. Gareth had a more neutral reaction. Morgav had none. He walked between the giants with no care in the world.

  “What’s that?” Morgav said, squinting at something to his left. “Hurry along! You fucks!” Morgav yelled when he realized they were fifty meters behind him.

  Arcen gritted his teeth, his heart at his throat as he passed by a sleeping snake. Gareth caught up with Morgav and frowned, staring in the same direction.

  “Looks like someone set up camp?” Gareth said, hands at his waist.

  Arcen saw it when he eventually got there through the gaps between the snakes. There was a hut made of huge, dried Lilly pad-like leaves floating in the calmer waters of the stream.

  “This is too early to meet any tribes.” Gareth said. “Usually happens around three hundredth floor, not down here.”

  Tribes!? That’s a thing?

  “What sort of tribes?”

  “Like halfway sentient ones. They make things, villages, settlements. They don’t appear in twenties, though. Only towards the top.”

  Gareth turned towards Morgav. “Should we check it out? Could be someone in there.”

  “Don’t bother. I’m taking the chamber, anyway.” Morgav lifted his hand.

  Arcen caught one glimpse of the hut before Morgav unleashed his destructive ripple. A blue tarp flew as the hut collapsed. Arcen gasped. That wasn’t a tent made by tower creatures. It looked like something a climber would’ve made for themselves.

  “Hey isn’t that a camping tent?” He said, nudging Gareth. His face twisted when he saw the sliced blue tarp.

  “STOP!” Gareth yelled at Morgav. It was too late. The first wave of cuts had already disturbed the sleeping snakes all around them. Loud sounds echoed as they roared in pain, their bodies crushing everything as they writhed on the ground. Somewhere in this chaos, Arcen heard distant screams that sounded like people.

  “Uh oh. Did I hit something?” Morgav paused for a moment, cupping his ears.

  Is that someone?

  Arcen strained his ears. It was hard to hear over the dying creatures. He heard a loud scream somewhere to his right.

  “T-that’s someone else!”

  “STOP THIS!” Gareth yelled again. Morgav ignored him and swiped his hand again in a hurry. The second ripple silenced the chamber, finishing off all the snakes and burying whoever that screamed. Morgav didn’t use flesh moon right away this time. He started walking scattered debris looking for whoever that he just killed.

  Gareth followed him angrily.

  “Oops!.” Morgav rubbed the back of his head, standing over a bloodied mess near the shore of the stream.

  “Oh, dear God!” Gareth stumbled, covering his mouth.

  Arcen saw it last. It was two people sliced like pieces of steak where they were hiding. Their corpses were unidentifiable, like a raw meat salad with skin and bones mixed in. If it wasn’t for their clothes and armor, they would’ve been just like any other creature that Morgav obliterated.

  “That happened,” Morgav said, crouching over them. He grabbed a stick and prodded the mess, looking for something.

  “I told you to stop!” Gareth yelled, tears in his eyes.

  “And I did it, anyway. Keep whining about it, see where that gets you.”

  “C-can’t you bring them back like you did your team?” Arcen asked, trying to remain neutral. He didn’t want to make this psychopath lash out at them.

  “I’m not going to. They’re not from a guild. So why bother?” Morgav said, staring at the corpses after sifting through their belongings.

  What does that have to do with anything!

  “Why not?” Arcen asked, nudging Gareth with his foot to stop him from yelling at Morgav.

  “I had like twenty million Aura when I came here. It cost almost all of that to bring those four fuckers back from the dead. Cost even more if you count four out of seven uses of that contract. You don’t wanna know how much that contract cost me to get in the first place!”

  His revival contract is limited?

  This was new information. Arcen had thought all contracts could be used as long as there was enough Aura to pay for it. If Morgav was this pissed about having to use his revival contract, it had to be limited in its number of uses. The oily girl’s contract had to be similar. The power to revive the dead would’ve made towers so much safer if everyone had unlimited access to it.

  Morgav had said it cost him four to five million each to bring his friends back. If he could remember correctly, the oily girl said she could only use her contract once, and it had been ‘very expensive’. These could very well be the same contract.

  The Flesh Moon appeared at the center of the chamber, dragging the dead snakes towards it. It was going to be the largest one Morgav created so far.

  “W-wait. I can use the contract with my Aura!” Arcen said, trying to keep the sliced corpses from slithering away towards the Flesh Moon.

  “What, trade my contract to you?” Morgav said with a scoff.

  “I’ll bring these two back, trade them back to you. I can’t steal it. You can kill me if I try that!”

  Gareth looked up. “Please give him the contract if you’re not going to bring them back!”

  Morgav smiled at them, his eyes turned to slits. “Like you gave your Worm Pit one to him?”

  Shit! How does he know that?!

  Gareth stared at him, eyes wide in shock.

  “You fucks seem to think I was born yesterday,” Morgav said, frowning at them. “Take my revival contract and put me in a fucking pit. What a plan. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

  Morgav kicked Arcen out of the way, letting the sliced corpses tumble towards the Flesh Moon, which was now as large as a semi truck. The strips of flesh and streams of blood spiraled into it, leaving only the pieces of fabric and other debris behind.

  Arcen stood off the bloodied soil as Morgav raised his palm at the Flesh Moon. Their plan had been discovered. Waiting for the opportune moment had backfired. Gritting his teeth, Arcen brought up the Worm Pit, shaking his hand wildly at Gareth to start running away.

  Now’s the fucking time!

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  WORM PIT

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