Part 1: The Currency of Violence
The massive sinkhole was silent, the Rock-Eater Wyrm having retreated to digest its meal.
Elian led his team to the end of the canyon, where a colossal stone gate stood embedded in the red rock. It had no keyhole. It had no handles.
Instead, a massive stone face protruded from the center, its mouth open in a hungry grimace.
Above it, glowing red letters spelled out:
[SATISFY THE TOWER.]
"So," Roger asked, spinning a stolen dagger on his finger. "Do we have to dance? Tell a joke?"
"It wants Tribute," Valen recalled the announcement. "Does it want gold?"
"The Administrator said the Tutorial was boring," Elian reminded them. "He doesn't want money. He has infinite money."
Elian reached into his inventory. He pulled out a handful of metal insignias.
They were Guild Tokens. Specifically, the 47 tokens looted from the Dynasty raiders they had just fed to the Wyrm.
"He wants drama," Elian said. "He wants proof that we are predators, not prey."
Elian walked up to the stone face.
"You wanted a show?" Elian whispered to the carving. "Here are the tickets."
He tossed the handful of Dynasty tokens into the open mouth.
Clatter. Clink.
The stone jaw crunched down. It chewed.
A low, rumbling hum emanated from the gate. The eyes of the stone face lit up with a malevolent red light.
[Tribute Accepted.]
[Quality: High (Massacre).]
[Status: Entertained.]
GRRR-CHUNK.
The massive doors groaned and split open, revealing a swirling vortex of white light.
"See?" Elian smirked, adjusting his gloves. "The Tower loves a bully. Let's go."
Part 2: The Laser Tag
[Welcome to Floor 15: The Crystal Caverns.]
They stepped out of the light and immediately squinted.
The world was bright. Blindingly so.
They were in a colossal underground cavern, but it wasn't dark. Every surface—the walls, the floor, the ceiling—was covered in massive, jagged crystals ranging from translucent white to deep sapphire.
Bioluminescent moss created light, and the crystals reflected it a million times over. It was like standing inside a kaleidoscope.
"Shiny," Titan whispered, reaching out to touch a wall.
"Don't touch it," Elian warned. "It's sharp enough to cut through plate armor."
"Caelum," Elian signaled.
The blind elf tilted his head. "I hear... humming. High pitched. Vibrations."
"Crystal Golems," Elian identified. "They don't punch. They shoot concentrated light. Lasers."
As if on cue, a cluster of crystals on the far wall detached itself.
It formed a jagged, humanoid shape about ten feet tall. Its core glowed with intense white light.
[Monster: Prism Golem (Level 16)]
ZZZ-PEW!
A beam of superheated light shot from the Golem's face.
It wasn't aimed at them. It hit a crystal mirror on the wall, bounced off at a 45-degree angle, hit another mirror on the ceiling, and then came slashing down toward Valen's head.
"Shield!" Valen shouted.
Titan raised his massive tower shield.
HISS.
The beam hit the shield. It didn't clang; it burned. The metal glowed red hot instantly.
"Hot! Hot! Hot!" Titan yelped, but he didn't drop his guard.
"We can't get close!" Jax shouted, dodging a refracted beam that sliced a boulder in half. "If we move, we get sliced by the reflections!"
"Roger!" Elian barked.
"Can't shoot!" Roger yelled back, ducking behind a stalagmite. "My bullets will ricochet off the armor! It's diamond-hard!"
Elian scanned the room. The Golems were essentially tanks made of mirrors. Physical attacks would bounce. Lasers pinned them down.
"Lyra!" Elian commanded. "Break the glass!"
Lyra, who was hiding behind Titan, peaked out. "Me?"
"Frequency!" Elian shouted. "Find the resonant frequency of the crystal! Shatter it!"
Lyra's eyes widened. She grabbed her lute.
She didn't play a song. She plucked the high E string and twisted the tuning peg, bending the pitch higher and higher.
HMMMMMMMM.
The sound was excruciating. It wasn't music; it was a sonic drill.
The crystals on the Golem's body began to vibrate.
HMMM-CRACK.
A spiderweb fracture appeared on the Golem's chest.
"Now!" Elian roared.
"Roger! Sonic Dust!"
Roger fired a specialized round right into the crack Lyra had created.
BOOM.
The sonic explosion expanded inside the crystal shell.
SHATTER.
The Golem exploded into a million shimmering shards of harmless glass.
"Nice tune," Roger laughed, reloading.
"My ears are bleeding," Jax complained, rubbing his head.
Part 3: The Hall of Reflections
They pushed deeper.
With Lyra's "Singing" weakening the structural integrity of the monsters and Titan acting as a living mirror to deflect beams, they carved a path through the cavern.
After an hour, they reached the center of the floor: The Hall of Reflections.
It was a massive dome made entirely of perfectly polished silver crystal.
In the center, floating on a pedestal of raw diamond, was a fist-sized gem that swirled with liquid mercury.
[Hidden Piece: The Geode of Reflection.]
[Rank: Epic.]
"That's it," Elian said, eyeing the prize. "Luna needs that for the Guild Hall. It can cloak our base by bending light around it. Invisibility for a building."
"It's unguarded?" Seraphina asked suspiciously. "That seems... easy."
Elian walked toward the pedestal. He looked at his reflection in the floor.
His reflection looked back.
Then, his reflection smiled.
Elian wasn't smiling.
"Contact!" Elian shouted, leaping backward.
His reflection didn't mimic him. It stepped out of the floor.
It was a perfect copy of Elian, but made of grey crystal. It held a crystal version of The Reaper's Edge.
Around the room, reflections of Valen, Titan, Jax, and the others pulled themselves out of the mirrors.
[Trap Activated: The Mirror Match.]
[Defeat Yourself to proceed.]
"I hate this floor," Jax groaned, dodging a dagger slash from his crystal twin.
"Don't fight your own copy!" Elian ordered, parrying a heavy strike from Crystal-Elian. "They know your moves! Switch targets!"
"Switch?" Valen asked, blocking a crystal sword.
"Titan! Swap with Jax!"
Titan charged at Crystal-Jax. The crystal rogue tried to stab Titan, but the dagger shattered against the massive shield.
Jax vanished and appeared behind Crystal-Titan. The crystal tank was slow. Jax drove his dagger into the knee joint.
CRACK.
"Roger! Take mine!" Elian shouted, sliding under a massive swing.
Roger aimed at Crystal-Elian.
"With pleasure, Boss."
BANG.
The bullet hit Crystal-Elian in the eye. It shattered.
The team dissolved into a chaotic dance of mismatched opponents. The mirrors couldn't adapt to the sudden change in matchups.
Within two minutes, the Hall was filled with broken glass statues.
Elian walked to the pedestal and grabbed the Geode of Reflection.
[Item Acquired.]
"Clear," Elian announced.
He looked at his team. They were cut, bruised, and Lyra was nursing a headache, but they were grinning.
"We looted the Dungeon, defeated the Trap, and got the Base Upgrade."
"What's next?" Titan asked, kicking a shard of his own face.
Elian checked the map.
"Floor 16 is a lava zone. Pack your summer clothes."
He turned to the exit portal.
"But first... we send a message to Thorne."
"What message?" Roger asked.
Elian held up a single, shattered crystal finger from the Golem.
"We tell him he owes us 47 guild tokens."