Worthy, Esme, Robert, and Cross were assigned their own respective rooms. Out of consideration for his young status, the innkeeper gave Worthy a rather small room, one that was rarely used.
It's not common to see children in this place.
In his lonesome, Worthy finally has time to rest and think about the things he's learned, all within his first day here.
He'd woken up in a vast lake of blood, in a wasteland similar to what his father warned him about. After escaping the lake, he found the remains of a battle and followed the trail to the poor attempt at a man-made structure. Within that structure, he saw a Holy Knight and his companions fighting against a unique breed of flesh monsters. Swooping in like a vigilante, the child discovered the power behind his fully-charged knife and severed the head of one of the hounds with disturbing ease.
After joining the Holy Knight and his group, the boy learned many things. He learned terminologies such as 'Prime Settlement' and 'templates'. Invaluable information was bestowed on him, despite his own intellectual shortcomings.
There were many contrasts between what he experienced and what his father saw. Coward fought mindless beasts and was lucky enough to find a group that hadn't a need for a settlement—or rather, they'd not gotten lucky enough to find one. Battling a powerful foe opened a gateway that allowed them to go to the next floor.
Meanwhile, Holy Knight War led his group to a sanctuary hidden within a mountain of carnage. A secret passage leading underground, created by some of the Five Craftsmen, an elusive group that forged the safehouse where he now resides.
By some twist of fate, he encountered the mother of the criminal underworld's overlord. Haul, even in her old age, is just as terrifying as her reputation entailed. Many factors saved his life a few hours ago, when the woman was contemplating popping his head open with her bare hands.
'What did she mean…?'
Currently, the child was lost in thought, recounting the words the old crook said to him before they departed:
"You've got the best chances at getting to the highest floor."
Although it was his objective, Worthy hardly understood how to exploit his Reward, which should be guiding him through the tower most conveniently.
'Sure, on paper, it looks like I'm well-equipped to climb, except none of that's accounting for a harsh truth. There's no fuckin' gateways open here. Not a single gateway on this floor is open, because you need to fight some kind of boss monster to make one.'
The first step to escaping the First Floor is by locating a specific monster that'll unleash a gateway once it's defeated. The difficulty is that the number of gateways has been increasing more and more over the years.
Asking around, Worthy learned more useful information from the veterans who've been trapped on this Floor for a long time. War hadn't kept track of time, as he was unknowingly wasting his life searching for something that didn't exist in the tower, so he was practically oblivious to the steadily declining number of gateways.
According to some climbers, even when they'd bring groups of people to fight massive, powerful beasts, no gateway was made. Some parties that set out managed to find one and move ahead, but they were much luckier than everybody else.
None of it made sense to Worthy, though.
'Gateways open from defeating the strong monsters, yeah. But, if beating the monster causes the gateway to open… There shouldn't be a reason that the number of gates is declining.'
Recalling the massive imprint of blood he saw on the hill, Worthy shudders. Perhaps if he'd continued ahead, he'd have unknowingly been walking into the face of a powerful flesh monster that would have assimilated with him. Maybe if he was lucky, he'd have fought it and somehow opened a gateway to the next floor… 'Nah. That's not realistic at all.'
Flesh monsters, which assimilate with prey, spawn gateways…
'...Maybe they assimilate with gateways, or something. That shouldn't be too far-fetched, right?'
Thinking back to his conversation with his father, there was something awfully strange about Floor 1. Nothing on the floor made sense to the child. Floor 2 was a wasteland brimming with intelligent monsters that, according to his father, were much worse than the mindless ones on this floor. Furthermore, despite brimming with hunters that could stalk and drag a human away at night, there were gateways to be found. Then, once he reached Floor 3, there was one awaiting him immediately.
Obviously, it is an intended design for those who enter Aciago Tower to at least find gateways sooner or later, since every floor comes with its own milestone reward.
'This floor shouldn't be this dangerous. With everything I've understood, that much I can say confidently. Dad said something on this floor was messing up his Reward—how is it fair for the tower to tamper with the Reward it designated to someone? There had to be something else.'
There are pieces to a puzzle falling around Worthy, but the boy has no idea how to assemble them. He was fed information about the tower, but none of it was enough to gauge whether his theory had a backbone or if it was just the rambling of a toddler. Maybe a little of both would suffice.
'After I rest, I'll ask Ms. Esme or Mr. Reaver about my idea. Maybe the monsters really are eating gateways.'
Pushing the theories into the back of his mind, the brown-haired child finally lays back on his bed. The mattress was comfortable, much more comfortable than anything he's slept on before. His body is practically pulled into a hug by its softness, easily pulling the child beneath a tidal wave of drowsiness and fatigue.
The slum-rat, in this hotel underneath a mountain, finds the best sleep of his life.
>>><<<
[Designated Guide, Climber Worthy. Marry your eyes to your trail.]
His sleep, unfortunately, is interrupted by a dream.
Imagery pops into his mind, sudden flashes that came too abruptly for him to fully analyze the glimpses of.
They're visions, perhaps premonitions to be more precise.
He sees himself walking with a group through a crimson valley, right between a canyon much larger than the one he'd walked through hours before.
Gleaming arcs fly through the air, with a powerful outpouring of blood following and accumulating on the ground, creating a pool of blood thick enough to drown a person.
From underneath the tank of ichor, a hand breaks through the surface, crawling at the ground in hopes of finding its way out.
Eventually, the child and another person stare ahead at a titanic, blood-colored moon in the middle of the sky.
Finally, there is nothing. The visions come to an end.
[You have reached Landmark 1: The Devil's Den.]
[As a reward for reaching Landmark 1, [Guide] has been upgraded to [Guide Initiate], Climber Worthy.]
>>><<<
The next morning, Worthy was shot out of his slumber, eyes wide with excitement. Not only was he feeling refreshed, but a sudden realization about his Reward, [Guide], and its evolution left him jovial.
Remembering the thoughts he had when he first brought forth the information about his Reward:
[Reward - Guide Initiate: Your initiative has been noticed by the towers. 'Lost' is an alien concept to a pathfinder who leads others. When in doubt, you may always guide oneself to mundane places. ]
Just like the first time, the description about the Reward's capabilities are relatively vague. However, it no longer mentions the ability being subconscious. Excitedly, an idea pops to life in the child's head: he envisions himself wanting to reach the nearest bathroom.
He'd not been to the bathrooms here, assuming they have one, so he wished to see if he could be led to places he'd never been to before.
Leaving his room, he walked in what first looked like an aimless fashion. He walked past a few people, giving a friendly wave to faces he'd not seen before.
He was going… somewhere. Step after step, the child finds himself attracted to the far end of the hallway.
The light in the air seems to create a thread in his vision. Worthy saw a difference in the luminescence at the center of the room compared to all around him.
The fiber of light led him to a door.
Opening the door, on the other end, he saw a ceramic bowl protruding from the ground. A toilet, if a rather questionable one, stands in front of him.
"I… I actually made it to the bathroom." He didn't mean to speak out loud, but no one was around to hear him anyway.
When he arrived, he was only following his instincts. Although he was given a Reward that claimed to be willing to guide him, it had the condition of proving one's worth to the towers. At the time, Worthy didn't know what that meant, but now he understood it clearly. By traveling and finding 'landmarks' or 'milestones', his Reward will get upgraded more and more.
'I wonder if…'
Experimenting with its limitations, the child tried to create a thread to the nearest gateway.
After several seconds, there was no alteration in the surrounding lights at all. 'Figures.' He'd only reached one landmark, so it made sense that he wouldn't be able to get something as great as finding the gateway to the next floor immediately. Truthfully, it'd be an invaluable ability entirely, which would place him in danger if anybody found out.
Worthy can envision Haul kidnapping him in his sleep and holding him at knife-point, demanding that she be taken to every gateway on every floor.
He can even imagine the coward, Robert, trying something similar… granted, this assumption is obviously too harsh for someone that hadn't wronged him in any way. 'I guess he's a coward, but not a kidnapper or child murderer.'
His hatred for nobility aside, Worthy couldn't deny the danger he'd find himself in if his Reward became popular. Sharing this information with anyone carefreely would put a target on his back. One he's not going to be able to handle unless he has the backing of the Holy Knight, War Reaver.
In fact, the knight was the first person who Worthy sought out after testing his Reward.
No matter where he looked, he couldn't find any signs of the Holy Knight anywhere in the inn. He checked the front lobby area, then the lounge where he'd met Haul. There was no sign of the human tank.
"Need help finding anything, kid?" A familiar voice reaches out to Worthy.
Turning to its source, he finds the short, stocky man that'd opened the door for them during their arrival a few hours ago. Instead of being behind the door, he was now leaning on the counter of a bar, where various drinks were nestled tightly together on shelves behind him.
"Yeah, I was looking for Mr. Reaver. Have ya' seen 'im?" Since the man asked, the boy didn't see any reason not to inquire about the Holy Knight's whereabouts.
Grimacing, the apparent bartender has only bad news to share with the boy. "Ah… I'm sorry kid, but if you've got anything to tell Reaver, it'll need to wait for… Hell, probably a week."
Eyes widening, Worthy carried a gaze of disbelief. What could this man ever be talking about? "Why…? He went back out into the wasteland without bringing any of us?"
The bartender shakes his head, dismissing the idea of betrayal from the child. "No, no. He didn't leave you guys or anything like that. He got a room and decided that he was going to sleep in. The big bastard's hibernating."
"H—Hibernating?!"
War sleeping in for seven days made a lot of sense, once Worthy stopped to think about the pieces of information he'd collected. The man had been in this tower for decades on a fruitless quest, fighting enemies to the point that he'd stop sleeping for days on end, only stopping to rest once every few months. Though he was one of the most powerful men in the world, War certainly needed sleep just like any other human. More so than anybody else in this tower, even.
This brings forth a new issue. The only person who Worthy trusted was the Holy Knight. Esme and Cross were both nice, but they didn't know each other well enough to suppress the distrust in the slum-raised child's heart. For seven days, he'll need to learn the lay of the land without any chance of the knight saving him.
'Shit! …It isn't like I came into the tower with the intention of a Holy Knight carrying me to the top floor. I need to pull my own weight, that's the only way.'
Seven days wasn't a long time, in the grand scheme of how long it took for some people to climb to just Floor 5 of the tower.
'Dad & Hope might not have seven days.' But, Worthy couldn't afford to laze about at all. He'd be no better than the mother he spoke so harshly about if he kept his family waiting needlessly.
Going into the wasteland alone isn't the wisest idea ever. Most importantly, he won't have a clue how to get back in.
Even if he can be guided to the door, there's no telling if he can get the door to open. This is the first thing he'll need to learn: how parties regularly go in-and-out of the settlement without breaking through a thick wall of meat and pulling the lever inside.
'In seven days, I'll uncover every mystery about this place. There's no way in hell I'd just be content sitting on my ass!'