I answered as if it were obvious, saying, “This matches my thoughts, floor 65 has a few undead, one with peak strength, and the other with agility, they are the only obstacle.”
Wasting some time dealing with two peak level 1 undead is safer than provoking a level two.
I moved first out of habit, now more than fear.
But instead of continuing down, I went up.
Just a few floors.
62 → 63.
The floors above us were sparse. The red clusters were far away from the doors; the strategy works, as these zombies are not wild but dungeon guards, so they won’t be roaming around, unless they have a reason to.
63 → 64.
I noticed a red dot behind the floor door; with a slight frown, I checked its stats as usual.
?SYSTEM PANEL?
IDENTITY: Level 1 Guard of Hollowlight Tower
RACE: Undead
CLASS: Physical
STATS: DEF: F (40%)/ MP: F (0%)/ FOCUS: F (0%)/ STR: F (30%)/AGI: F (60%)/ LUCK: F (0%)
My frown eased. I told Lilith to take care of it quietly while I went up
Lilith looked at Vorn's fading back with resentment, ‘If you move your muscles as much as your brain, my life would be much easier.’
64 → 65.
The number above the landing came into view like a small mercy.
On the map: two red dots on this floor, exactly like what I had said.
After waiting a couple of minutes for Lilith to finish her business, she finally arrived with the same impassive face.
Out of courtesy, I asked, “Do you need a few minutes to rest?”
To my surprise, she actually nodded and sat down on one of the stairs.
She sat on the stairs, posture perfect even in rest.
The faint glow in her left palm painted her face, cheekbones, lashes, and the calm line of her mouth.
Her hair fell dark and heavy, swallowing the light instead of reflecting it.
For a second, my brain did something suicidal.
It stopped thinking of survival.
It started noticing her.
Lilith’s eyes slid to me. “Why don’t you fight?”
As i heard these words i cussed in my mind, but i knew that acting time has arrived.
My face became cold and expressionless; the air grew heavier as I looked at Lilith. I expressed no anger.
After the tension grew enough, I said with a tone that could cut steel, “I don’t kill. I decide where killing happens.” Not an explanation, just a fact.
Just as I said this, a horrifying mana surge reached me, enveloped me, as if I made any wrong move, death would be my only way out.
My face remained expressionless as I looked at Lilith.
‘Please don’t kill me, please don’t kill me.’
What Vorn didn’t know was that Lilith was just as terrified, because the same mana wave enveloped her.
‘This is D-grade MP. How the hell did he become a level 3 mage? This is impossible.’
…
In less than a minute, the mana wave disappeared, and I thanked my stars for Lilith’s mercy.
As I turned my head so I wouldn’t provoke Lilith any further, I received a system notification.
After searching for a while, a thought popped into my head as I opened Lilith’s system panel.
? SYSTEM PANEL WINDOW ?
?PERSONAL?/ITEMS/SHOP/CHAT/TRADE/GIFTS/RANKING
NAME: Nightworn
RACE: Devil
CLASS: N
STATS: DEF: F (0%)/ MP: F (0%)/ FOCUS: F (0%)/ STR: F (0%)/AGI: F (0%)/ LUCK: F (12%)
ALLOCATION: 0
Recruits: 1 (expand)
_
Expanding to see her details
_
NAME: Lilith
RACE: Devil
CLASS: Mage
STATS: DEF: F (10%)/ MP: F (61%)/ FOCUS: E (99%) LIMIT/ STR: F (1%)/AGI: F (10%)/ LUCK: F (1%)
LOYALTY: Loyal
NOTE: Due to your recruit’s perception of your strength, her respect for you has risen.
NOTE: Mana tier is limiting focus.
Vorn, ‘WTF’
…
After a few minutes that felt like hours, Lilith got up and looked at me, calm as always, as if what happened before had never occurred.
On the map, the two red dots weren’t near the door. They were together, closer to the center of the floor, taking then out together will be difficult for Lilith but a must.
“Both in the middle,” I said quietly.
Lilith didn’t look at me. She didn’t ask why I wasn’t coming.
The faint glow in her left palm swallowed itself down to almost nothing. Nexus masked, her silhouette slid into the broken hallway as if the darkness had accepted her.
I stayed at the stairwell door with the pipe in my hand and the map in my eyes, watching the two dots as Lilith got closer.
I took a peak at their status and was a little worried, 'after all from a number point of view Lilith is losing like crazy, however she do have a record for killing four level two zombies, so everything should be fine.'
?SYSTEM PANEL?
IDENTITY: Level 1 Guard of Hollowlight Tower
RACE: Undead
CLASS: Physical
STATS: DEF: F (47%)/ MP: F (0%)/ FOCUS: F (0%)/ STR: F (25%)/AGI: F (99%)/ LUCK: F (0%)
______
?SYSTEM PANEL?
IDENTITY: Level 1 Guard of Hollowlight Tower
RACE: Undead
CLASS: Physical
STATS: DEF: F (80%)/ MP: F (0%)/ FOCUS: F (0%)/ STR: F (99%)/AGI: F (10%)/ LUCK: F (0%)
As i was thinking the fight has already started.
The agile one shifted first, fast, and sharp, as if it had tasted her presence without seeing her.
Lilith raised one finger.
A needle made of mana flashed from her fingertips.
The runner dodged sideways, and the needle missed by a breath.
The undead didn’t wait for her to attack again as he ran at her in full speed, all teeth and growls.
Lilith didn’t cast big spells. She couldn’t afford the noise.
She moved one step, then another short, and precise, like she was stepping through pre-written lines to dodge.
The strong one surged behind the runner; with a swing, it would end everything.
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Lilith snapped a fiery thread glowing red toward its throat.
It struck.
And didn’t finish.
Its defense is too strong, Lilith frowned.
The thread only left a shallow line, and the brute only staggered for a moment.
The runner lunged again.
Lilith’s thread met it, this time not as a strike, but as a hook.
She caught its momentum for a fraction of a second and redirected it into the brute’s fist as she dodged.
Flesh hit flesh.
A crack echoed, the sound of bone breaking, followed by a scream, too loud.
On the map, distant red dots twitched toward Floor 65.
Lilith didn’t flinch. Her face stayed calm, her thoughts coldly to end it
As the brute threw the runner to the ground like a piece of trash, Lilith made a loop of mana and lunged toward both of their necks.
From now on, no sound.
The brute swung at her again, and Lilith slipped, snapping out in a tight sequence, a spike, one at the runner’s ankle, one at the runner’s jaw.
The runner tried to dodge, but he was already injured. He tried to scream but failed as the loop around its neck tightened.
He only managed to doge the one his his face, but was injured again, this time in his ankle.
She finished him with a needle that pierced his head.
One red dot blinked out, disappearing.
The brute roared, but only a low sound came out, then charged straight at her.
Lilith didn’t waste mana on its armor.
She waited for him to charge just to dodge calmly as he turned toward her with only a few feet of distance between them, she touches his forehead with her finger, and both remained still for a moment before he fell to the ground, lifeless.
As I watched the second dot vanish, I entered the floor.
After meeting Lilith, I breathed a sigh of relief.
The map was changing.
Red dots were drifting toward the sound.
Holding the pipe at its end with one hand and with the other end over my shoulder, I looked calm and composed as I said, “Countless undead are coming, including the level two; we need to go.”
As we passed through the door to stairwell C, I jammed the pipe into the hinge gap.
Then we descended, fast and quiet.
Stairwell C breathed differently, a steady draft crawling along the steps, warm and dry, carrying the faint sting of smoke; it wasn’t the thick poison of Stairwell A, but still evidence of what had happened in this tower.
Dots converged on floor 65, slow at first, then faster, responding to the crack, the thud, the brief scream that shouldn’t have escaped.
Red dots sliding up the Stairwell, approaching the landing we had just entered.
Weak.
Exactly as expected, no strong presence guarding Stairwell C.
But weak undead were still making noise
I stopped two landings below 65 and pressed my palm lightly to the wall.
The concrete was warmer than it should be. I thought of Stairwell A’s ghost as I shivered.
Lilith stopped behind me, her left palm glowed faintly, as the light caught soot smears on the wall.
Above us, below us, they were coming toward the floor 65 door we’d jammed.
We must go down and fast before they notice us, as for the ones we meet, Lilith must kill them quietly.
As they walked downward, a needle flashed from her fingertip and sank into the brain of each undead they met.
Bodies began to gather beneath their feet as they descended.
63
62
61
The air got warmer as we descended.
The draft shifted suddenly, a warm current slid down the steps; the smoke entered my lungs as I had the urge to cough.
However, Lilith didn’t cough; she didn’t even blink wrong.
Her control over her own body made mine feel disobedient by comparison.
Just as I was complaining, I noticed something a few floors down. The survivors on floor 42 were moving frantically, and as they were the only green thing on the map, every move they made was obvious.
I stopped without meaning to.
Lilith, who was in front of me, clearing the road ahead this time, stopped as well and looked at me.
“What is the matter?” she asked.
“The survivors moved oddly,” I said quietly.
As I paid more attention to their floor, I noticed an undead close by, with what it looks like three survivors trying to stop it from entering.
So I checked on its stats quickly.
?SYSTEM PANEL?
IDENTITY: Level 1 Guard of Hollowlight Tower
RACE: Undead
CLASS: Physical
STATS: DEF: F (5%)/ MP: F (0%)/ FOCUS: F (0%)/ STR: F (20%)/AGI: F (10%)/ LUCK: F (0%)
If multiple ordinary people gang up on it, they might have a chance of killing it, but from the look of it, they are too afraid to do anything.
“They’re still alive,” I added, “ but if we don’t reach them soon…”
I didn’t continue, but my meaning was obvious.
In response, she only gave a small nod.
I sighed inwardly. What would you expect from a homicidal maniac?
Honestly, I would love to save them. After all, they were in civilized society before the apocalypse; they loved and hated, had families and friends, and saving them would be benefiting me as well.
Using her newfound loyalty, “they alive is more beneficial to us than dead,” I said calmly, “let’s make haste.”
We descended again.
Fast.
Quiet.
With Stairwell A’s heat ghost at our backs, Floor 65’s convergence behind us, and twenty green dots on Floor 42 beginning to move like the first tremor before a scream.
