FINAL CORE - Chapter 92 (Patreon)

Chapter 81

(Red and Crystal are exploring the new spirit-world floors)

~ [Red] ~

Uthra, Female, Worker {6}

Location: The Tower, Floor 101

“So what do you think it is?” asks Crystal.

Red turns her head to look at him and then back at the shimmering, magical barrier that makes up the wall of floor one-hundred and one. The uthra narrows her eyes and pokes the wall with a finger. A ripple passes through the wall as if it were water and travels across the surface that looks vaguely like brickwork, if it were made of shimmering glass.

“Fuckery,” reples Red. The two of them wander around the area, looking around.

“Is this really connecting to the spirit world?” asks Crystal. He knocks on a wall. “It feels like it, actually,” explains the uthra, holding his hand against the wall for a while. “Man…”

“Looks like you’re out of a job, Crystal,” remarks Red as she lifts her gaze and watches through the glassy floors as the tower grows another floor in height all by itself.

“We’re really going hard, huh?” asks Crystal. Red nods. “My last dungeon was a rock guy. Just… you know, rock monsters and stuff. Way more bread and butter.” He thinks for a moment. “I wonder what happens when we break through?” he asks.

“You can go back to the waiting room for a new dungeon to take you, since you’re not needed here anymore,” replies Red.

“You’re such an ass, Red,” says Crystal, sighing. “I can’t believe we used to be friends.”

“Right?” asks Red, looking around a corner. “What a waste of my time that was.”

Crystal stops, putting a hand on Red’s shoulder. “It’d break Emerald’s heart if she saw you like this, you know?” He shakes his head. “What about Maroon?” Red hits his hand away. “He’d be mad too if he saw what a mess you are.”

Red glares at him, pointing. “Gods, get off my ass. Fuck Emerald. She’s dead,” remarks Red. “And fuck Maroon, and fuck you too, Crystal.”

“You’re going too far, Red,” says Crystal. “They were nice. You don’t mean that.”

Red turns to look around the corner. “Crystal, I swear to Isaiah, shut your yap before I feed you to the first monster I see here,” she explains.

The two of them watch as strange shapes, made up of prismatic colors, wind their way through the air in the room ahead, entities from the spirit-world that have come into the physical domain.

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Chapter 92

 Obols

Obols are the common currency of our country, as they have been for as far back as we can trace our history. Over time, the look, size, and make-up of obols have changed, but the name has persisted.

Obols are a primarily coinage based monetary system with a wide variety of denominations. The most commonly used coins by the people are the one-obol, ten-obol and fifty-obol coins. There is a large variety of denominations. For larger transactions, such as the purchase of a house or property, ten-thousand Obol coins are available.

If one wishes to release themselves of their burden, they are able to deposit these at a banking institution or, for members of the adventurers’ guild, there.

They are created solely by the central bank of the nation, which oversees the minting process. The intricate magic imbued into each coin prevents forgeries from entering the market, as they are easily identifiable as being fake.

~ Of Obols

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~ [Countess Avoria] ~

Female, Pure-Bred Elf, Noble (Countess)

Location: The Central-City, Castle

How many weeks has it been? Months?

Avoria sits in the room that she has been sequestered to, locked away in the castle. It’s hardly a prison, being a lavish chamber with fine bedding and warm meals that are brought regularly. But even with such luxuries, life becomes… tiresome.

Perhaps that is why she has latched on to the faith of Isaiah?

Given the guarded door of the room that is watched day and night, it, like the cool wind that blows in through the balcony, is the only thing to reach her on nights like this. She rises to her feet, wandering toward the window as she looks out at the city below.

During the eruption of faith that followed the last message of Isaiah, hundreds of people swarmed to leave the city, and she could only watch them from up here as they uprooted their lives, threw everything away, and simply traveled to a distant place.

— The south.

Her window faces towards it, and so, from high up in her perch in the castle, she longingly stares towards it, towards the beacon that she can see even from here. Even if it is only a pinprick — a point that glows like any of the other stars in the night — it is the closest star down on the surface of the world.

They say it is the tower, so she can only imagine what a spectacle it must be to shine with such radiance, even from half-way across the country.

But something is different tonight. The light of the stars above, coming together with the shine of the tower far on, off in the horizon and the glow of the city below, finds itself trapped in a sheen on a smooth surface, the location of which is entirely impossible. It is attached to her balcony, like a sheet of glass laid out flat in the middle of the air, and it simply stretches off into the night.

She touches it. It’s solid.

Oh.

She must be dreaming again.

The woman stares at the sky. Sometimes she dreams about flying away or being carried off. Sometimes she dreams a brave knight will break down her door and ferry her off to a distant place. This is a new one, though.

A cold gust of midnight wind reaches her face, tussling her hair past her eyes, the fresh nip of the late summer night breeze makes her realize that she isn’t dreaming.

With eyes that go wide in a wonder that is usually reserved for the minds of children experiencing the happenings of the world for the first time, Avoria looks at the bridge that stems out to her upper floor balcony, high above the city.

It leads towards the south.

It leads towards the light that sits beckoning her on the distant horizon.

The countess steps up onto the edge of the balcony, standing on the railing, the wind enveloping her frame.

As fate would have it, the door to her chambers opens then, and her attendant steps in. Seeing her standing there, she screams, dropping a platter. The guardsmen outside her door rush in and, seeing her, run towards her, thinking that she is about to jump.

— Avoria closes her eyes and takes a step.

Yes, she’s afraid. What if there is nothing there? She hates her life here, but she doesn’t want to die. But she knows that a life in this place is no different than just that.

Her foot touches glass, she reopens her eyes, and she takes another step and then another.

She runs over the bridge in the sky, turning her head back to look as it dissipates behind her, the guardsmen trying to grasp the air but finding nothing there to touch.

She’s free.

The woman looks down in understandable terror. She’s higher up than any reasonable person really ought to be. But if this is real, if this is actually happening, if this miracle has come to her, then she will place her faith in it.

The woman runs straight towards the brightest star in the night.

Status Applied: [Pilgrim of Isaiah]

• +25% LUK
• +25% MAX-STAMINA
• +1% SOUL-REGENERATION / Minute
• + EXP for every nine steps taken directly towards the tower

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Isaiah

Isaiah sits with crossed legs near the water of the hot-springs, listening to the trickling sound of the water dripping.

The monk sits across from it, and it does its best to learn her art of meditation.

It finds the practice useful.

Often in the past, it has rushed into decisions that have resulted in substantial fallout. So, training the clarity of the mind can only be beneficial, no?

— She exhales. Isaiah exhales. The cycle repeats.

“I’m telling you, chief,” says a voice from the side. “She’s gonna bite it.”

Isaiah opens its eyes, turning its head to Red. She is floating in the hot-springs, where many of the others have gathered. Today is the weekly day of rest.

“I think she’ll be fine,” says Magenta, also sitting in the water. Beige hides behind her, nodding. “All she has to do is walk straight; how hard can that be?”

“Why doesn’t she just fly?” asks Orange, her head popping out of the water. She latches onto Red, who tries to fight her off.

Magenta shakes her head. “Humans can’t fly.”

“Huh?” asks Orange, looking at Magenta. “But… isn’t she like… a special human?” she asks. “That’s why she lives in a castle, right?”

“Yeah,” replies Magenta.

“But she can’t fly, so… what makes her special?” asks Orange, puzzled. “Isn’t she just a normal human who lives in a castle?”

Red pushes her off, and before she can be scolded, Orange shoots down beneath the water, disappearing. Red looks around herself in confusion, trying to locate her to little avail.

“Focus,” says the monk.

Isaiah returns its gaze to her.

— Water splashes everywhere as Orange shoots out of the bottom of the pool, grabbing the meditating monk and abruptly pulling her down into the depths.

Isaiah closes its eyes, trying to focus its breath despite all of the laughing and splashing going on next to it.