Chapter 135: The Hidden Piece I

Note¹

Kael locked his eyes ahead and pointed.

He picked a building that actually had a dormant dot on the map. Central enough that the group could still watch. Low enough that it wouldn’t take long to verify. He gave them just enough detail to sound convincing, because convincing mattered more than truth here.

“Now I know you’re lying, no shot you can smell which floor it was in,” he said.

Kael shrugged, “You can check if you want.” He wasn’t about to explain how his ’secret’ worked.

“Go and see for yourselves. We’ll need to verify this since we’ll be needing this ability soon.” The boss said as he too seemed to not fully trust Kael, and even if he did he wanted him to prove it for everyone else so they’d at least shut up about it.

“Alright, I’ll be back,” the guy said and rushed forward.

However, he moved like he knew Kael was wrong, rowdy, and noisily.

Kael watched the man’s posture and immediately knew how this would end. People who wanted to prove someone wrong did it loudly. Loudness woke sleeping things. Sleeping things didn’t stay sleeping if you kicked their door. And sleeping things are oftentimes awoken angry.

Kael noticed that the dot was turning brighter.

“It’s breathing is hastening, it must have sensed him, he shouldn’t go in blind…” Kael said.

The rest of the group looked at him like he was talking out of his ass.

Kael didn’t say it for the rest of the group or to help the idiot who went blind. He said it so the boss heard it. So, when the predictable happened, nobody could claim Kael set him up. Kael’s survival depended on controlling narratives, not just fights.

Just then, a loud thud, and the red dot disappeared.

“Blood, goblin,” Kael said, “He killed it… but…”

Kael kept his gaze on the building’s entrance. A disappearing dot wasn’t always clean. A goblin could die and still take a chunk out of you. One bite, one wound, one infection, and you were suddenly a liability.

The man came out, with something in his thigh, a large gaping wound, it looked like the creature inside got a hit before it died.

The injury was ugly, bleeding heavy enough that the man’s pants were dark at the seam. His face was twisted with pain and fury, not at the goblin, but at the embarrassment of being hurt after talking so much.

“Fucker you said it was asleep!” the man shouted.

“Even a hibernating bear would wake up to the noise you were making, don’t blame me for your incompetence.” Kael said.

He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t need to. The words were sharp enough to cut through the group’s murmurs. The man wanted someone to blame. Kael refused to be convenient.

“Just patch it up, once we’re at the shop you can buy a healing potion,” The boss said as he ushered for Kael to walk next to him.

The boss didn’t even scold the man properly.

That told Kael everything about the clan. If you were useful, you got excuses. If you were weak, you got used. That wounded man would still be expected to swing a weapon today, even if he limped.

“If only you didn’t use those runes, you’d have such a good future in the sun clan.” The boss sighed as he looked at Kael.

“You think the Sun Clan exists in this tower?” Kael asked.

The question wasn’t curiosity. It was a knife under the ribs. Kael wanted to know how deep the boss’s delusion went. People who believed in permanent clans also believed in permanent loyalty. Loyalty was expensive in the Tower.

The Boss thought for a second, “Yes, it has to. Many of our members died before, and many of them are probably also climbing this place again. We had leaders and former guild masters. They probably have a base somewhere in this tower as we did in the other… all we need is to survive this floor first and meet them.” He said so with reminiscence and hope. A rare thing to see in this cursed place.

“I see…”

Kael didn’t challenge it. He didn’t agree either. He filed it away as another tool in the boss’s head, another story he told himself so the risk felt worth it.

“You’re one of us. We climb together, the Sun Clan’s goal has always been the clearing of the tower. So once we’re together with our older members, we’ll be able to safely climb up and grow stronger. We need to leave this place eventually it will happen.”

Kael listened and kept walking. The words “one of us” meant “owned” in a leader’s mouth. The boss wasn’t inviting Kael. He was claiming him. Kael kept his face neutral, because showing disgust would only encourage the boss to tighten the leash.

“If it was survival… wouldn’t you think trying the basilisk would be risky?” Kael asked, trying to see what the boss was truly thinking of this dangerous task.

“There is no survival without risk, and allowing a hidden piece to fall in the hands of the snakes is simply foolish. They’ll probably kill us once they get it.”

“And I suppose the same would happen if the sun clan gets it,” Kael intentionally mentioned the sun clan and not ’we.’

The boss didn’t catch on.

“Yes. That’s the way of the jungle.”

Kael’s mouth tightened at that. The boss said it like it was wisdom. It was confession. The boss wasn’t planning a future together. He was planning a future where his side had the bigger knife.

Soon they arrived to the shop to find the Snakes already there. They were buying materials and consumables.

The neon glow of the shop looked almost cheerful against the ruined street, which made it feel more sinister, like a carnival booth selling knives. The Snakes were clustered around the entrance and inside, moving with that practiced confidence of people who liked crowds because crowds hid intent.

They weren’t panicking. They weren’t rushed. That meant they felt secure.

“Looks like the Sun Clan is here lads,” the tank top leader said.

“Petrov, as crass as always. Didn’t even greet us.” The Sun Clan boss said.

“Don’t act chummy we’re here for business. Boys hurry up, we’ll need to be first there.” He said.

The way Petrov said “first” made Kael’s skin prickle. First meant advantage. First meant baiting the basilisk into showing patterns. First meant the other group arriving mid-fight and making “accidents” happen.

“Shouldn’t we hurry too? If they go they might kill the boss…” one of the people form the Sun clan said.

“They don’t know where the boss’s lair is, let them go,” Kael said.

Kael didn’t look at Petrov when he said it. He looked at the streets beyond, at the direction they’d come from, at the way open buildings formed corridors of ambush. He didn’t like this crowd. Too many eyes. Too many minds measuring value.

“And you do?” the same man said.

“Of course,” Kael tapped his nose, “Remember? I got a good nose.”

“Ah…” the man looked at the injured sun clan member and realized that he shouldn’t doubt Kael anymore.

Kael kept walking with the group toward the shop, already thinking ahead. The day was shorter. The Ifrit zone was tightening. The basilisk was still there, waiting. And both clans were smiling too easily for people who claimed they were only here for business.

“Everyone, hurry up, get your upgrades from the shop fast, chop chop,” the boss said in a clap of hands trying to urge his members to get business done fast.

The Snake Clan didn’t wait, they’ve already gathered everything and bought all they needed so they moved first.

“Don’t start crying when you come to a dead hidden boss.” Petrov snorted as he speared the group toward the entrance of the metro system.

Kael didn’t walk inside the shop, he had already bought everything he needed yesterday. And the currency he had left was for paying his ticket out. And some spare change for any emergency he needed.

The rest of the group however spent Cores like they were found on the sides of roads. Some bought stat point, some bought potions, and some bought more weapons as if theirs were not enough. Little did they know that you needed to be alive long enough to cycle weapons.

They don’t know how dangerous the basilisk was, and only Kael had that knowledge. He wasn’t about to warn them, or scare them. After all, he wasn’t yet a member and they weren’t family or friends he needed to help or protect.

Use or be used. And no one knew which was which.

Not longer than ten minutes, everyone seemed ready and geared up.

“Let’s go now,” the boss said as he also speared the group but this time with Kael a step behind.

“Make sure you use that nose well, Kael.”

“Don’t worry about it, just know that my nose is useless once that thing spots us, so you’d better be ready for it…”

“I’ve been to higher floors than you’ve ever seen. I’m always ready and have my guard up.” The boss said.

It sounded like a threat for Kael not to do anything foolish.

’If you had always been on guard… I doubt you’d be in the reverse tower. But, at least now, I’ll see how you fight. Maybe that’ll teach me a thing or two on how rankers climb.’ Kael thought as he marched next to the boss.

To Be continued¹

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