After my refreshing nap and another quick trip to the bathroom, I emerge feeling like a new man.
A glance at the other side of the room tells me that everyone is a bit grumpy and impatient, but I ignore them for a little while longer while I head back over to my bed and pull up part of my Status.
[Status of Sebastian Bet]
Pillar Difficulty: Death is Certain
Floor 2: The Silent Castle
Time Used: 06:20:22:41
Time Left: 2183:03:37:19
Level: 11
Body (BDY): 17
Mind (MND): 14
Agility (AGI) : 12
Power (PWR): 29
[Unallocated Points: 0]
Class: Undecided
Form Association: Undecided
Skills:
Emit [Lvl 9]
Polarize [Lvl 1]
Fixation [Lvl 3]
Mana Control [Lvl 7]
Infuse [Lvl 5]
It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since I was on Floor One, yet for some reason, I feel like it has already been days.
Being a bit selfish, I might have ran a little experiment in my sleep to confirm a few things. Primarily, I wanted to see if my increased PWR stat and natural radiation production would affect them in the time I was sleeping.
The matter of how I killed the goblings on Floor One while unconscious is still an unknown for me, as I had previously thought they were poisoned to death by the strange energy rolling off my body. After a few hours of sleep, it would seem my predictions might have been a bit off though, as I was sure that my PWR stat of 29 being blasted in an enclosed space for an extended amount of time would produce some visual symptoms from the others in the room if it was actually as dangerous as I had thought.
Beyond a bit of sweat, it would seem that the group is showing no signs of any radiation poisoning or anything of the like. It could be a matter of level differences, exposure time, or some other reasoning, yet I do not bother myself with the possibilities for now. The mystery of how exactly I killed the goblings will remain as much for now, as I really only wanted to confirm if my extended presence would result in long term issues for the others.
With the safety of the people nearby partially certified, I carefully scoop up the sleeping kitty nearby and cradle him in my arms while I finally make my way over to the other side of the room where the rest of my new ‘squad’ is waiting. They look very sweaty and annoyed, so I graciously restrain my skill while adopting the most innocent expression I can muster.
“Alright, let’s get this meeting started.”
…
Hours pass as I officially meet the group, and we compare our experiences and information about The Pillar. I am pleasantly surprised by how forthcoming the group is when it comes to sharing everything they know, but I guess it is fair given the fact they don’t really know much more than I do. Their trip through Floor One and the couple of days they spent on Floor Two are different from my own, but it doesn’t seem like they were able to gain much more information than I could from the entire experience.
Vince told me about their time on the first floor, with some of the others speaking up every now and then to fill in any gaps that were left out from his pretty bare-bones report. It seems that all of them were just as lost upon arrival to The Pillar as I was. One of the girls from earlier, I think her name was Kathryn, said that she had been in the middle of prepping an IV for a patient when she was suddenly sitting the cave and cuffed. This part was unsettling to me, as she described the entire experience as if she had simply just blipped and was in a completely different position and location. I even went further and asked if any of them had felt anything weird or received one of the System messages before the transport, but they all collectively agreed that this was not the case.
Vince picked up the story again after that, and apparently Sandra was the one that had discovered the Status screen first and freed herself using a skill of hers called . I don’t betray anything on my face, but I internally connect the dots between the cold metal and mysterious ice trails that I found throughout the floor. It would seem that I owe Sandra a little of my respect after all. I glance at her after the mention of her heroics, but she is glaring at the floor for some reason.
After that, it seems that they escaped from the cave using a variety of other skills and the help of Sandra’s . Once they had found themselves in the forest, it was a group effort to fight their way through the rest of the floor over the course of five days before finally finding the valley, and consequently, the entrance to Floor Two. It would seem that many were not fit for the violence and difficulty of The Pillar, so the majority of them were killed by goblins during their journey. Upon hearing this, I can see Vince eyeing me as if waiting for me to say something. Instead, I give a quick shrug and decline to mention that I had run into some of the bodies of the other fallen group members. I had already found the mortality rate of Floor One to be suspect when they mentioned it, but I don’t betray my suspicion and instead focus on the rest of their story.
According to their replay of Floor One, most of the goblins they fought were handled through smaller teams and match-ups of skill. I am pleasantly surprised to hear they were able to come up with such a strategy, but when I asked about how they decided, the other girl that was standing with Kathryn earlier: Nikki, said that “Mr. Army Soldier over here decided for us,” while gesturing at Vince. I couldn’t help but smirk at that, as I had pegged him as a military man within the first minute we spoke. They also mention the minotaur several times, saying that the mysterious ‘bulldozer’ saved them a couple of times when they were outnumbered by the goblins. I ask them to elaborate about their experience with the ‘bulldozer,’ but they don’t seem to know much else other than that it was present on the floor.
They finished their story with Henry: the cowardly older guy I saw earlier, calling Vince and Sandra ‘heroes’ due to them basically carrying the rest of the group with minimal support from the others. Hearing that only the two of them were called out, I suppress the urge to ask what their skills are and instead follow up with my experience of Floor One.
Without going into too much detail, I explain how I woke up in the cave alone and eventually how I was able to make it to Floor Two. I’m fairly awkward during the conversation due to my lacking experience in human interaction, but I think it is pretty obvious that I am omitting information when I tell them about my time on Floor One. Sometimes, I do it so shamelessly that I will not even finish talking about something before moving on to the next topic. I can tell it annoys Sandra, but Vince doesn’t seem unperturbed as he listens intently.
Eventually, I get to when I discovered the identity of the mysterious beast that lurked on Floor One. There were a variety of reactions when I explained my experience with the Rogue Exterminator and its absurd level. Most began at surprise before turning into varying levels of disturbed grimaces as I went into grim detail of how the minotaur rampaged through the monster encampment and killed the rest of the goblins. It gets bad enough that I am forced to surrender Pawl to act as a comforting presence for the young boy: Benny, as he cries upon hearing how scary the minotaur was.
When I am done, everyone goes silent for a moment to absorb the information shared. I ask a couple of questions in regard to some things I had been wondering about The Pillar itself, but instead of answering, Vince gestures at the younger guy I saw wringing his hands during our first conversation.
“Angus has been scrolling on the Forum while you were sleeping and found some interesting information in regard to the overall purpose of The Pillar. I told him to wait to tell us until you were awake. I didn’t want to leave you out of any of our future planning.”
I am pleased with the knowledge that they are thinking of me as a member of the group now, so I keep quiet and listen. Letting go of any remaining questions floating around in my head, I dedicate my full attention to Angus. The kid still seems somewhat nervous, but overall excited to share what he found. I respect his bravery in speaking up in front of an audience, as I personally could never do so at his age.
“Uh, hi I’m Angus! It’s nice to meet you, Sebastian. Or should I call you Seb? Sorry if that is too weird, I just heard Wade say it earlier and thought you preferred it. Do you prefer Seb? You can call me Gus if that is cool-”
Vince motions somewhat impatiently at Angus to get to the point, but I interrupt before he has the chance to say anything.
“It’s nice to meet you, Angus.” I walk over to him and offer a hand to shake, “Feel free to call me whatever you want, I don’t mind at all.”
The younger boy’s brown eyes light up and he grabs my hand with both of his. We share an awkward shake as it seems Angus is a bit too excited, but I don’t mind as I reciprocate before breaking off and letting him finish what he was going to say. As I head back to my spot next to Wade, I can see a grin in his eyes, but he says nothing. I watch as Angus pulls his screen up for reference before continuing.
“Like I was saying, I had been looking through the Forum and found some interesting things that I think could shine some light on what’s going on. I know a lot of us haven’t gotten the chance to really look into our reward from clearing Floor One, but I think the Forum is a lot more important than we had previously thought. It’s not just a communication hub for us to talk to each other when we’re separated, but rather, it is a huge platform for us to talk to everyone that is in The Pillar.”
Everyone leans forward in their respective positions at Angus’s claim. He lets the information settle in for a second before going on.
“When you first open the Forum, we automatically joined a thread for our group. And as you all saw, Vince named our thread ‘Squad Five’ because we were the fifth thread to appear on the starting screen. So far, no other threads have opened since we made ours. What is interesting though, is that our starting screen doesn’t encompass every thread on the Forum. If you command the Forum to go to the server list, then you will see a wall of other servers. Everyone do me a favor and pull up your Forum so you can see what I’m talking about.”
Following his instructions, I quickly open the Forum’s base screen.
[Forum]
< Server: Death is Certain >
*[General] – Open
[Group One] – Locked
[WTH is this] – Locked
[Team Three] – Locked
[No plebs] – Locked
[Squad Five] – Open
I saw this screen beforehand when I first joined our group’s thread, so I remember the other four threads that Angus mentioned. I’ve had some practice with similar forum-based interfaces back on Earth, so I get the general gist. Taking his advice, I mentally command it to back out of this server, and I am met with a new screen.
[Forum]
< Server List >
*[Cross Difficulty General] – Open
[LOS Difficulty] – Locked
[NOR Difficulty] – Locked
[HAR Difficulty] – Locked
[DIC Difficulty] – Open
The setup is familiar and I recognize the server I was just in, but the other servers immediately catch my eye. I want to find it funny that our difficulty is actually called ‘DIC’ difficulty like I had joked about previously, but I am honestly too interested in the other servers to bring it up.
“Angus, when you were looking through the Forum, did you find out what the other acronyms stand for?”
“Yes! I even found out that they rank in descending order, so if it wasn’t obvious before, our difficulty is the hardest of them all. The easiest is LOS which stands for ‘Low Overall Seriousness.’ The next is NOR and it means ‘Not Overly Risky.’ Finally, HAR is short for ‘Humans are in Real Danger.’ I know the names sounds kind of odd, but when I was in the cross-difficulty server, I had multiple people swear that that’s what each acronym actually stood for.”
This time, it isn’t me who speaks up, but rather Sandra.
“You said you have already looked around in the cross-difficulty server? Did anyone have any information about The Pillar itself?”
Angus hesitates for a second and looks conflicted.
“Yes. That is actually what I wanted to talk about most of all.” Running a hand through his curly brown hair, Angus clears his throat awkwardly before continuing. “According to everyone I spoke to from the lower difficulties, The Pillar was created by the Gods. Apparently, the entire objective of The Pillar is to appease them as ‘players’.”
No one really says anything for a minute.
“It gets worse too. Based on what I could find, everyone who wasn’t in DIC difficulty didn’t start on Floor One.”
A wave of disbelief works its way through the room before it is gradually replaced by anger. I’m no different from the rest, as I can’t believe what I’m hearing right now. I decline to say anything though, as I can easily tell by the look of quiet despair on Angus’s face that he still hasn’t mentioned the worst part yet. The others seem to know this as well, and slowly the attention is back on the nervous teenager.
“Um…So instead of starting on Floor One like we did… all of the other difficulties started on what they called… Floor Zero: The Tutorial.”