Chapter Thirty-Six - Rapid Climb

We have been climbing for a long time. The best number that I could give us is a week, or seven days. It’s taken us a week to climb approximately thirty floors. I had gotten a notification regarding my tail that the Guardian of the Forest Tail was available to use again. If I were to equip this tail and Olive would use her magic too, it would exhaust whatever mana system this uses with it even though I was told when I was first reincarnated that my mana system was unique and it did not work like that.

Some walls were torn down by the force of enemies which revealed more paths to cut across. We did not have anything like that in our arsenal that would help us take down the walls of the entire floor just to help us find a faster exit.

Anyways, I am thinking that it could take us two or three more weeks to reach the top at the pace we are going and I am not done for any of that. Plus, we have not been able to find any Banks. We keep climbing, but at least we get to eat different types of monster meat every night. We’ve been lucky to find monster variations of animals I am familiar with, so I am brave enough to chow down with my teammates. The Ocean Slugs have eaten a diverse variety of creatures ranging from rabbits to cows. If I had the culinary dexterity that I’ve wished I did, I would’ve made classic American hamburgers for the girls. I probably would want to introduce it as “The Otherworlder Hamburger.” to give it more flair, but the name does not roll off the tongue easily. Better yet to just call it burger. Either way, that’s not what we ate. We ate ground beef with potatoes.

The way Seiko cooks reminds me of reality cooking TV programs where there is elegance and there is speed involved. A race to get the dish out in the fastest amount of time with careful shortcuts. Olive’s cooking style reminds me of video game cutscenes. There are a lot of yummy visuals when it gets to her turn, and the food is full of flavor. I don’t know if I can rank one girl above the other, but they are both leagues ahead of me as I would just rush to use the microwave if this were my world.

Either way, when it comes to finding enemies we either run or fight. The run method is applicable if the enemy is territorial and large. The chances of said creature chasing us beyond are low and it is better to make a run for it to avoid wasting unnecessary energy. Battles are reserved when we get to the territorial beasts which have a higher chance of being food for us. There are also lone humanoid enemies that were just too creepy to be left alone, so luckily in a battle in which all three of us could coordinate and attack with a sheer number advantage were able to take down scary enemies.

This method has helped us save time, but at the same time, we don’t have a clear pathway to where we need to go, it is endless corridors and villain of the day shenanigans. At any point I am ready to smash every ceiling along the way just to find an easier way up.

As if my prayers were answered we passed by a door with a cold blue glow seeping through under the door. I went in first without hesitation which was a dumb idea in case it was a trap. But lucky for me, I did not withstand any harm or attack. I thought it was a Paan room. But it was a security room. There were at least fifty screens embedded into the wall. It was out of place too since this is a fantasy world, but since I am from two worlds it did strike me more as I was trying to fit in the puzzle pieces. Well, there are many Otherworlder’s which explain the blend of culture and technology, for example Seiko’s guns and shopping cart, but something as advanced as a security room would require a web of cables and cameras to operate. I don’t think I saw cameras in any room or hallway that passed through.

“This here is uh, a surveillance room. We can see almost everything that is happening in the building.” I explained it to my friends.

Seiko and Olive look curiously at the monitors as they see a variety of empty rooms and lodged rooms by monsters and humanoid creatures.

Could one of them be the final boss?

“This doesn’t really help since we don’t know what floors these cameras are pointed at.”

“Huh?”

“I just mean that at best, this tells us what to expect up ahead. Do you recognize any of these creatures?”

“Yeah, this one is a glass chimera, and these ones are snow-turkeys. I recognize a few others from Library sessions, but I don’t remember the names.” Seiko points and lists all of her extended knowledge.

“I agree with everything she said. But you did not point to one window.” Olive said.

“Yes, I suppose it’s a new type of creature.”

“Which one?” I ask.

“This one.” Seiko and Olive pointed at a monitor in the sea of center screens.

In the middle of the room, there was a lone person sitting on a chair. They wore what I would categorize as Earth clothing. A long-sleeved shirt and pants. They were barefoot and had long hair hiding their face. This was certainly a human. I peeked closer to the monitor when suddenly the person looked up directly at me. I jumped at the sudden reveal. The monitor was too blurry to make out their mouth, so I could not tell if they were smiling or angry.

This is definitely the final boss. There is no doubt about it in my mind.