Chapter 48: Light at The End of a Dark Tunnel

“What am I gonna do now, I don’t even have other runes to use,” Kael said, voice low as he stared down the street. The question wasn’t rhetorical. It was a real inventory problem. He thought about the Anchor Rune immediately, because it was still sitting there in his storage like a brick tied to his future.

That one was definitely not something he wanted to use. It was a muzzle dressed up as safety, and the Tower had already shown him how permanent decisions became cages.

The only way for him now to progress is either use weapons like swords and bows, but he already knows that he never wielded any of such through his life, and it’ll only be a hassle to try and learn where his life is on the line.

A crowbar was one thing. A crowbar was honest, leverage, blunt force, practicality. A sword required technique, stance, timing. A bow required patience, precision, muscle memory. Learning any of that while monsters wanted him dead was like learning to swim by being thrown into a storm. He’d survive by accident or not at all.

Magic was no longer an option, and the hammer he has on him would probably end up absolutely useless if he faces something like the Basilisk.

Brokk’s Hammer was powerful, but it was a tool, not a shield nor a sword. It could keep his gear alive, maybe even upgrade it later, but it wasn’t going to stop a hulking nightmare with a gaze and a body built like ruin. Just remembering the Basilisk’s weight and movement made Kael’s stomach tighten, the way it had flowed through space like it didn’t need to respect the same physics as everything else.

The other way is to use his body… He is relatively strong, even before coming to the tower, the daily work in construction helped him build dexterity and strength that is slightly above the average human. But that was not enough here in this tower.

He had strength, sure. He had stamina. He had the kind of endurance that came from hauling and lifting and working when you didn’t feel like it. But the Tower didn’t care about “slightly above average.” Slightly above average got you killed just as easily as below average. The Tower rewarded extremes.

The only way to grows stronger is the way he dislikes the most. The thought sat there with a sour taste, because he already knew what it implied. Runes. Forced changes. Permanent alterations. The Tower’s version of growth wasn’t training. It was surgery without anesthesia.

“I need to probably find more runes first,” he thought. The thought wasn’t hopeful. It was resigned. It was the voice of a man realizing that if the boat had already left, he might as well learn how to row.

[Locating close lost Runes!]

The notification scared Kael as the map immediately propped up in front of him. It wasn’t the message itself that startled him, it was the way it arrived, sudden and confident, like the map had been waiting for him to think the right thought so it could respond.

His eyes widened slightly, and he felt his breath catch in his throat as if he’d accidentally triggered something dangerous.

***

[Found 6 Runes in the First floor of the Reverse Tower!]

[Do you wish to have an itinerary pathed to you toward the closest Rune?]

***

“What the… this is absolutely broken!” Kael only then realized, his mind catching up to the implication with a rush that made his hands tremble again. The map wasn’t just a minimap. It wasn’t just enemy detection and safe routes.

It was a treasure locator. It was a cheat sheet printed directly from the Tower’s own notes. He’d assumed “golden” was just a fancy descriptor for quality. Now it looked more like a category error: the thing wasn’t expensive, it was disruptive.

The price of a billion soul core was probably too little for a map like this. It not only locates enemies and allies, it can even find treasures. What sort of broken shit is that? He couldn’t stop his shaking as he realized that he was actually extremely lucky right now. Lucky in the ugliest possible way, lucky because the Tower had misread him, because the system had priced him like a nobody and handed him something that could bend the entire floor. His luck wasn’t clean. It was a glitch in the Tower’s assumptions.

The tower which had logged him as alive, and gave him a wrong estimation for the price of the map now came in extremely handy. It was nothing short of a stroke of luck, but it was good luck still. He didn’t smile, not really. It felt too early to celebrate. But his breathing steadied a fraction, and the cold panic that had been riding him since the goblins eased into something closer to sharp focus.

“What’s the rarest rune on the first floor?” Kael asked, words quiet as he watched the map. Even asking felt surreal. Like he was speaking into a menu and expecting the universe to answer politely.

***

{Currently the Rarest Rune in the first floor is… [ᚱ- ᚦᛖᚩᛋᛏᚩᚱ]- [Epic] Darkness Rune… can only be obtained by slaying the [Dark Basilisk of Getava]}

**

“Ah, that’s the hidden piece I found earlier in the subway…” Kael thought for a second, and the memory of that encounter tightened his throat.

That wasn’t going to be possible now. Sure, he is physically stronger, but just remembering how that hulking mass of destruction was moving back then was enough to dismay any foolish ideas of going and attacking it right now.

Strength didn’t matter if the opponent lived in a different category. That thing moved like inevitability, and Kael wasn’t interested in donating his newly upgraded body to prove a point.

“What’s the easiest Rune to Obtain right now?” Kael asked next, choosing practicality the way a starving man chose bread over a feast he couldn’t reach.

***

{Calculating…[ᚱ -ᚠᚣᚱ] Rune of Fire. Basic Rune.}

{Drawing itinerary toward: [ᚱ -ᚠᚣᚱ] Rune of Fire.}

***

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