Chapter 7: The Tower of Twilight

The echoes of footsteps reverberated against the stone of the corridors. Not a word was spoken between the players that were hoping to reach the top of the tower. Known as the Twilight Tower, it was considered a dungeon that was held random monsters that could be of any level. Rumours spread across the world that there was a way out of the game at the top of the tower; others believed the creator of the game awaited them at the top. Regardless of what others thought or believed, Wolfy and Mariya had different plans for entering the tower.

Wolfy and Mariya – along with the other two from their guild – were after a rare drop from a monster that would give a great boost to all the guild stats. The problem was finding the one monster that held the item. Being unique for guilds, there was only one copy of the item and there wasn’t anyway to replicate it. This meant that if Wolfy and Mariya used the item for their guild, they would not be able to use it for another guild.

“So, what monster are we looking for exactly?” Himorogi asked.

“The ugly one,” Mariya joked.

“That doesn’t narrow it down.”

“We actually have no idea as to what monster will drop the item. It could be any high-level monster or even a low-level monster,” Wolfy said.

“And on any floor, right?” Scyilia asked.

“That’s great. So, we just go through all one-hundred floors and kill every monster here,” Himorogi said as she twirled her guns impatiently.

Mariya looked back to Himorogi and smiled.

“We are the best players in this world, don’t worry, we’ll find it.”

All of them stopped as the sound of hoofs echoed from down the corridor. It was a sound all of them had heard many times before. They quickly readied their weapons and spells. Mariya ensured to a handful of buffs on the others and looked over to her brother. He only nodded as he shifted into his wolf form after downing an energy drink to increase his speed. Once they were ready, all of them watched the end of the hallway as the sounds drew closer.

From out of the shadows appeared a being of bones clad in black robes. His crimson red eyes glared through the darkness at the party before him. Mounted atop his horse that was as black as mid-night, it snorted as its forward foot grazed against the cobblestone floor.

“All right, is everyone ready to do this?” Mariya asked.

“I was ready the second we entered this dungeon,” Himorogi said with a smile.

#

As the headless rider took its last breath, Mariya noticed a small golden ring fall to the ground. No one said anything as they watched Mariya pickup the ring. Turning to the rest of her guild mates, she smiled cheerfully.

“Well everyone, we did it.”

“What stats does the ring give us exactly?”

Mariya waved her hand and navigated to the ring from the inventory. She noticed the ring granted all members of the guild an increase in all stats by fifty as well as a ten percent boost to experience.

“You’re going to love this,” Mariya said as she put the ring on her left ring finger.

“Wow, no negative effects and more experience per kill, I’m okay with this,” Scyilia said.

“And now, we’re one of the strongest guilds in the game,” Himorogi said.

Mariya smiled and placed her hand on Himorogi’s shoulder.

“We were already the strongest.”

“So, what’s the plan? We going up to a higher floor?” Scyilia asked.

A low growl escaped from Wolfy as he maintained his wolf form. The others quickly turned to the direction that Wolfy was looking at only to see nothing but darkness. Himorogi readied her weapons as the others prepared for battle.

“I don’t think we can take another battle. We should use a Ferrystone to return to the guild,” Mariya said as she checked the status of the party.

Wolfy returned to his human form and looked over to his sister. Pulling out a stone from his inventory, he waited for his sister to do the same. After using her stone, a bright light engulfed her body and within a few seconds she had disappeared from sight. Himorogi and Scyilia quickly used their stones while Wolfy did the same once he was certain his sister was safe. For a brief moment, he could only see a blinding white light before he found himself in the city’s resurrection cathedral of the last major city they had visited.

“I don’t know about you guys but that was fun,” Himorogi said.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if you were about to die,” Scyilia said as she downed a vial of red liquid.

“Now that we have the guild ring, we should focus on what to do next,” Mariya said she headed for the exit.

“We could go after the other guild artefact,” Wolfy said as he followed beside his sister.

The others followed behind as Mariya thought about what to do. She knew the party would be willing to fight after they gathered up more supplies and Reaper Stones. Still, she wanted to think about things and give the others time to rest before they entered the tower again to go after the other rare guild item that was similar to the guild ring that she wore. All of them headed down the street of the city for the guild.

“For now, all of you should take a break and rest. We will head back to the tower in due time.”

“In that case, Scyilia and I will gather up the materials to craft more Reaper Stones and other items we need.”

“My brother and I will discuss the recruitment of members for our guild.”

Mariya entered the guild building and headed for the main room. Letting out a soft yawn, she turned to her brother.

“You sound tired.”

“Even though we’re in this game, our bodies still require sleep. Maybe I should sleep for a few hours before we deal with the other guild duties.”

“Sounds like you should sleep, sis.”

“Yeah, I think I will. You plan to sleep this time, bro?”

Wolfy yawned and took a moment to stretch. In truth, he had been tired from staying up for countless nights without any sleep. His body was finally starting to shut down, even if tried to ignore it like it was nothing.

“I think I’m fine,” Wolfy said with a smile.

“You’re a poor liar, nii-nii.”

Entering in one of the guild’s bedrooms, Mariya looked over to Wolfy.

“I know you have insomnia,” Mariya said as she sat down on the oversized bed that could hold ten people.

Wolfy jumped onto the middle of the bed and laid back as he stared up at the ceiling.

“We could sleep together. That would be nice.”

Mariya laughed as she laid down next to her brother and closed her eyes.

“What’s so funny?”

Wolfy thought about what he had said before his face turned a shade of red.

“Wait! I didn’t mean it like that!”

Mariya gently patted her brother’s head.

“I know. It made me laugh though.”

Mariya cuddled her brother gently.

“I’ll sing you a song in Spanish to help you sleep. How’s that?”

“That would be nice.”

Mariya smiled and began to sing a song in a calm voice. Even if her brother couldn’t understand the words being spoken, she noticed that he had instantly drifted off into the world of dreams. She could only hope the dreams that he would have were sweet – even lewd dreams were better than any of the nightmares that would creep up in his head.

“Sweet dreams, nii-nii.”