Solomon's Crucible 96. The Climb (Patreon)

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Solomon was past the point of trying to blend in with a crowd or look like an innocent pedestrian. He stood beside the door leading to the stairwell and unclipped himself from his dad's hiking backpack. A bit of extra work with his one hand soon had the backpack off and sitting on the floor in front of him.

While he was at it, he went ahead and took off his coat, laying it across a couple chairs in the hopes that it would dry. He also pulled off his shoes and socks. He needed to move as quietly as possible. Worst come to worst he could brave the rain in his shirtsleeves and trust on the system to see him through any medical consequences. To give himself a chance to pull this off he needed to avoid the guards for as long as possible.

Of course, just in case he did run into an alert guard, he needed to be ready. 

He pulled the rifle out and double checked to make sure that it had stayed relatively dry before slinging it over his shoulder. He took a pair of pipe bombs and after a moment of consideration attached them both to his belt. He put the next two pipe bombs into his inventory. The extra ammunition couldn't go into his inventory since it hadn't been made with system materials, but it was stored in a separate carry pouch that he could sling across his body.

Once he was squared away, Solomon put his dungeon light away in his inventory. The room fell into darkness, save for a faint light coming from the window set into the door leading to the stairs. He took a deep breath, then reached forward and gently pushed the door open.

Thankfully, it moved without too much fuss. Solomon poked his head out, confirming the quick peek he had taken before. Only a small section of the stairway would be visible from the lobby, but there was no avoiding it.

He stepped out onto the lower landing. He held the door behind him, making sure that it closed softly. After the door shut, he ran his fingers along the pipe bomb on his belt for a second before grabbing his hatchet and pulling it free. Tossing a bomb at the guards might be satisfying, but it probably wouldn't be wise.

He took the stairs one step at a time, craning his neck to make sure that he wasn't exposed to view. Step by step, he reached the landing at the halfway point without incident. He took two more steps, then paused. The next step would put him in view of the lobby.

Solomon judged the distance one last time, then started taking the steps two at once. The cool concrete under his feet provided decent grip, and he made the most of it. The soft patter of his feet on the steps was the only sound he could hear. He raced up to the landing, pivoted, and kept running up the next set of stairs.

He reached the next half landing without hearing any shouts of alarm. Not quite willing to trust to luck, Solomon stopped and crouched down, looking back. He set his hatchet down on the ground and unslung his rifle, bringing it to bear on the small section of the lobby that was visible from above.

He waited for a few minutes before he decided that he wasn't going to have to shoot any curious guards. Letting out a soft sigh of relief, Solomon stood, slinging his rifle back over his shoulder, and took his hatchet back into his hand. He moved quietly and carefully up to the next floor, where he found the door leading off of the stairwell to be shut and only darkness showing in the window.

After a moment's hesitation, Solomon kept climbing. He didn't want to have to search every floor in detail in order to find Kanmi, and he had a gut feeling that the invaders would have wanted to imprison him as high up and far from the exits as possible.

He moved up the steps at a steady, silent pace. One more flight, then two, then finally the only way to keep going up would have been to break through the locked door to the roof. At each landing Solomon had stopped to take a peek through the window, but each time he saw nothing but darkness.

The top few steps and the final landing were shrouded in darkness. He could still see just enough to keep going, though, so he left his light in his inventory. He wasn't sure where the light was coming from, at this point, though he chalked some of it up to the improvements to his vision that he had purchased through the system.

The doorway leading out onto the top floor had a window set into it, just like the others. Looking through it revealed nothing, just like the others. Solomon gripped his hatchet in his hand, then used his hook to press down on the handle and pull the door open.

He was shocked to see the dim silhouette of a person leaning against the wall on the other side of the door. Not as shocked as the guard, though. Solomon yanked the door fully open and stepped through, taking note of the red armband in passing before swinging his hatchet at the guard's exposed neck.

The guard was still just coming awake when the axe hit home with a spray of blood. He reached up and scrabbled weakly at the weapon buried in his neck, but the telltale signs of system healing only showed up around the very edges of the wound once before the man slumped over, dead.

Solomon looked around the room. The sleeping guard seemed to have been the only one on duty, though he could barely see the far side of the room. 

He yanked his hatchet loose, giving it a quick wipe on the guard's shirt before returning it to his belt. A frisk of the dead body came up empty. The man had his armor and sword and dagger, but nothing convenient for Solomon's purposes like a key or a map of the nearby guard posts.

That was alright. Solomon had his own map leading him to Kanmi. He'd just have to find the guards on his own.

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