Tower of Gods End. Chapter 3 (Patreon)
Content
But Headon gave no answer as my form and the Flood Dragon's were covered in a dark lightning and my lips twitched as we were zapped away from the first floors testing grounds.
'The testing grounds... This is crazy.' I thought as I took in my surroundings as I was being sent to the Second Floor of the testing grounds. As, as I looked around in the swirling insanity around me as I and my familiar was being sent through the dimensional barriers between the floors I could see so much that it boggled my mind.
Large cosmic rays of light that when I focused on them, I could see great and powerful figures creating the stream of light from within as they brute forced their way between the floors of the Tower of God. I saw horrors that made my eyes hurt that trailed after those rays of light that haunted the dark spaces between the floors.
As I took in the surroundings I realized that the Tower of God itself was like the inverse of a pyramid, the first floors seemed smaller but the higher floors above me got larger and larger to account for the more powerful people within the floors.
But my observations ended as with a loud thrumming noise I felt the mind of my Flood Dragon Familiar touch my mind, and I looked over with the draconic serpent turning smaller as it curled around my shoulders making me smile at how convenient that was.
"You will get food very soon don't worry," I whispered to her, with the flood dragon tiredly nodding against my form as she relaxed. And with a crackle of the same dark lightning that had sent us to the next floor I was for a split second blinded as I fell a couple of inches and my feet hit solid ground as I took in my new surroundings.
A blue sky filled with light clouds and a beating hot sun was above our heads. And surrounding us was thick tall fields of grain that came up to my chest height with large rock outcroppings breaking up the view of endless fields.
I smiled wryly as my familiar leaned down and its mouth snapped onto one of the plumes of grain gently whispering in the wind and then retched out the fluff-covered seeds and looked back at me pitifully. "You eat meat almost certainly. Why are you trying to eat some weird grain." I whispered as I patted her head while thinking that I needed to give this Flood Dragon a name and after a moment I decided on an easy dragon lady name as she was already clearly a more relaxed dragon.
"Fine, I will call you Grea." I whispered and I felt our bond become closer with more of her mind closing in on mine with her thoughts and feelings becoming ever clearer to my own.
But before I could investigate the Familiar bond in greater detail a loud crackling noise rumbled through the surroundings making me stiffen before a loud voice spoke out. "Testing testing! He ha yo do. Yes, welcome Regulars to the Second Floor of the Tower of God! This floor will be tested to see if you simply are worthy of climbing the tower to begin with. So let us get the test started!"
The voice had a higher pitch to it, so I couldn't tell if it was actually a man or a woman doing the test... But to be fair I had no idea if they were even remotely human. However, my thoughts weren't going anywhere as the voice continued.
"The test is extremely simple, in total on this floor there are three hundred similar tests going on right now. In each of these instances of which you all are within one of those. There are five thousand Regulars currently, you all have until tomorrow to cut down that number to two hundred. Should that number not be reached... Shinsoo beasts will be released that will easily cull your numbers to that level."
My lips turned into a frown as I considered that information as this was clearly very dangerous especially for me as this floor unlike the last one in which Headon was trying to cheat wasn't flooded with Shinsoo for me to manipulate easily with my water manipulation abilities.
To say nothing of how I didn't even have a decent weapon at all.
I took a deep breath as the voice continued. "The test will stop the moment your numbers reach the required with your forms being shrouded in a temporary protection mechanism while the Shinsoo Beasts are summoned away from the testing floor for the next segment should it be needed. You can also check the current number of survivors on your Pockets as well. Good luck!"
With a rumbling sound that sounded like some underpaid store employee slamming down the intercom phone, I could tell the test had officially started... Though I didn't get a fucking Pocket from Headon because he was an asshole!
'Alright first-' I was thinking about my moves but a loud rustling of the thick bush work surrounding me I turned towards the source and a massive man that was nine feet tall with dark skin and horns growing out of his head rushed towards me with its fingers extending in huge claws. "Die brat!" The demonic-looking Regular roared as it swiped down at me but I just smiled wryly as I felt Grea uncoil around my shoulders.
And Grea shot from my shoulders with her form fully growing to her full size in but a couple of moments from her meter-long form to her fifteen-plus meter Eastern Flood Dragon form that slammed into the man face first with her mouth closing in his chest and his ribs audibly snapping with wet crunches as she swiftly dispatched him by dragging his upper body across the ground while gnawing at him.
Which all but instantly tore his chest in half with the man not even able to scream as Grea took a couple more chomps that made me a bit queasy before she swallowed the Regular clothes and all.
'Well... That will fill her stomach for a bit.' I thought with a mild shudder as Grea happily spun in the air as she swam through the air under her own power back to towards me with her form shrinking as she did so. However, I quickly ducked down low into the grass with her curling around my neck as I remembered that people could be armed with high-end guns and such on these earlier floors.
And a large flood dragon eating someone could easily get people's attention so I laid down in the thicket as I slowly breathed and worked to summon up my Shinsoo and water manipulation abilities. But there wasn't really much water in these endless fields and the Shinsoo of this floor was fucking bone dry, to say the least.
I was right as a softer rustling rang out as someone was walking through the thicket in my direction as they went towards where they probably saw Grea take on her full form that was easily caught above the flat endless fields of grain.
'Probably need to get to a stone outcropping. The rock will have shade and thus will get me out of this heat and I am sure there won't be any decent food or water in this test. Maybe in the shade of the rock outcroppings, I can pull up some water out of the ground?' I thought before my thoughts were proven correct as a distant loud banging noise followed by a zipping noise rang out with a thudding noise as someone or something fell to the ground as the gunshot from the source of the banging noise hit home.
"Ok... Time to cheese some things." I muttered as I began carefully collecting the thick stems of grain around me. Thankfully I was wearing a hoodie so I could stick the stiff stems of the grain into my hoodie and after like twenty minutes I had made a really shitty Ghillie Suit so I would be less noticed in a dark blue hoodie walking through straight brown and golden fields of grain.
-
I carefully and quietly made my way to one of the nearby rock outcroppings and once I got there I could feel Grea sending me a thought of comfort as the Regular was being digested in her stomach and she was feeling the comfort of nutrition entering her deprived body.
Which was just awesome if it wasn't for Grea sending me a feeling of scents of nearby Regular's and her asking if we could go eat them... With her offering to 'share' the food with me.
Thankfully I was able to assuage her feelings as the fields of grain thinned out around the rock outcroppings and in the shade the ground was indeed softer and with a couple of movements delving into the chi movements of Avatar-style water bending I pulled a good bucket worth of water from the ground for Grea to drink while I boiled my own portion before drinking it once it cooled down a bit.
After a moment of thought, I acknowledged that killing people got me literally nothing so the best bet for me was to just chill out and keep safe while everyone ran around like a murder hobo so I took a deep breath as I called upon the thin Shinsoo in the air to merge with some water I pulled up to enhance some ice that I froze as I began hollowing out a small cave in the sandstone rock outcropping that broke rather easily to the enhanced ice drill I made.
"Not at all in the theme of the test... But that sun is beating down on us like a hammer and there isn't any decent water or food sources. To say nothing of how people are going to probably be hunting for others during the night if they have any survival knowledge anyway." I muttered to myself as I wondered if I would run in Bam, or any of the other canon characters of Tower or God.
Or hell, according to my sponsor people for universes I would recognize that was able to get the Tower's attention would also be here. So who knows who I would run into.
I relaxed in my hidden cubby hole I made sure to make a sharp hard to fit into a bend in its design, so that way if anyone found the crack-like cave they would think that it just ended just a couple of feet in the cave.
And I have left alone as I dozed in the much cooler darkness of the cave with Grea taking the chance to relax and also regain her physical strength after getting a bit of a meal but not after a long while I heard the damned intercom open up.
"Ahem ahem! Just a news update as apparently, some people don't even have a Pocket due to several recruiters slacking off or trying to make some quick credits. There are currently nine hundred and fifty... No forty-nine Regulars now! Please hurry up and deal with the last few hundred of you all. As the Shinsoo beasts can sniff you out very easily when dawn breaks!"
'Hmm the proctor knows a lot of us are rightfully just staying out of the slaughter as there is nothing to be gained... And is now subtly trying to get us to move. I wonder what happens should the Regulars come together and just kill off the Shinsoo Beasts they use to try to cull us?' I thought curiously but I shook my head as that was going to be an issue for later.
"Damned proctor." I muttered as I petted Grea as already after like four hours after my previous test and the stress of this test. I was getting fucking hungy and I knew there wouldn't be any food until after this test unless I was willing to eat another test taker... Which I wasn't!
A loud rumble rang out from outside my cave making me stiffen but nothing resulted of it making me huff and thus for the next few hours Grea and I just relaxed until dark had fallen and Grea sent me a clear message through our minds. "More food?" She mentally asked with hints of her original hunger leaking through as the single test taker wasn't nearly enough to fill her up after probably weeks of starvation.
I bit my lower lip and sighed as I got out of the little cave with Grea sending me the feelings of directions of scents she could pick up in the distance.