The next morning, the child didn't get out of bed. He was lost in thought about what he'd experienced throughout the night.
He had a dream about a crystal clear lake, sat on a bench, and was joined by a woman.
The Dream Lady, he called her. He knew nothing about her and gained no answers from their conversation. However, he did not think she was a figment of his mind anymore. She seemed far too real to be a mere thought-inspired phantom haunting his dreams.
'Maybe… a Reward that lets her leap into dreams? I wonder, could there be something that strong?'
If the woman were someone in the tower, he doubted that she was on the same floor as him. She spoke like a person who'd seen more of the tower than just the First Floor.
'She must've been a real Climber. If I meet her again, I'll need to ask more questions.'
He thought about the words she shared before they departed the most. "Cross a lake…" The child muttered to himself.
If there was a lake on the First Floor, it'd be the blood lake he was thrown into upon his arrival. The lake brimmed with pillars of carnage and lifeblood that came up to his knees, and possibly became deeper the further one went in.
He thought back to the sludge he'd seen dragged across the surface of the bone hill, from when he finally escaped the lake. Something large had dragged itself from the lake and he did not meet it, fortunately. However now, he thought about if something larger existed deeper within.
Nothing ever crossed his mind related to voyaging through the lake of ichor. He didn't want to, simply because it was impossible for him. There were no boats in this place and even if there were, horrors far worse than Blood Hounds awaited.
In his present circumstance, there was little information to go off of. Even though he'd attempted to gather information from the inhabitants of the safehaven, he could not be certain of anything.
It was time to organize his findings, what little he knew.
First, the First Floor had changed tremendously from when his father had entered. No. Claiming it changed would not be truly accurate, his father had entered during a period where escape was easier, but he also ended up in a region wholly different from where the boy is now.
Whichever the case, any information given to him by Coward is currently useless, at least right now. He knew that originally, defeating monsters was necessary to unleash a gateway that'd take you to the next floor. However, these gateways have become practically non-existent.
Worthy's theory resided in the notion that the monsters were eating the gateways, and thus their quantity would diminish if a particularly dangerous monster devoured them. More specifically, a monster devouring the monsters who ate the gateways. It'd be akin to a human hiding a stash of valuables, then hiding themselves away too. If the theory was true, then they'd have to face a monster more horrible than anything they've met in the tower thus far.
Currently, the problem resided in finding the beast responsible for consuming all the gateways. There might still be a few ordinary flesh abominations that housed them, but clearly, none of them were nearby.
Which brought him to the final part of his theory: The Blood Lake.
If his dream held any importance, then across the frightening lake, there could potentially be a nest, or even the body of the theorized beast.
'This place is making me lose my damn mind. Seriously, I'm turning into a real lunatic. Every time I try to piece a theory together, it somehow makes less sense. It isn't like the tower is giving me anything to work with either.' Effectively, the child is walking in the dark.
The boy felt like he was closer to becoming Crazy Viper than ever before. By now, he'd come up with ideas that the world would see as profound. Truthfully, he wouldn't listen to himself if his reflection started saying this nonsense to him. The only person that listened to him thus far was Esme, who he hadn't informed about the Dream Lady encouraging him to cross the lake of blood.
'There's no way in hell I'm going anywhere near that lake again.' It was far too dangerous. Following War and staying alive was the most important goal.
Even if he wanted to cross that lake, he had no means of getting across it. So, there was simply no reason for him to risk the voyage. Plus, if War was not going in that direction, he'd be a fool to abandon his greatest asset.
Perhaps if he had a better idea of where he wanted to go, he could use his Reward to travel in a fitting direction. However, the tower was not doing much guiding right now. If he knew the place he wanted to go, perhaps he'd be able to be guided there.
When he first received the Reward, the tower only subtly pushed him into a direction. It was in part due to his instincts and luck, but clearly his Reward played a slight role in his happenings. Now that he could navigate to certain locations, he should've been able to find anything of importance.
Only, he didn't have a clue what was important.
Right now, Worthy only knew he needed to move to another sanctuary. That's where his understanding ended.
The bright side is that he could always find his way back here using his Reward, if he wanted to risk it. Evidently, finding a place he's been to before will be much easier than establishing a vague intention of lifting a bathroom. Instead, he could specifically seek out the Devil Den's Bathroom, which would then point in whatever direction that was.
Assuming he'd been ushered by the tower, it might be possible that it'll lead him somewhere again. Without any indicator, Worthy would be in the blind.
'My only choice is to keep moving.'
He hated this feeling of helplessness. The plan was to enter the tower and climb to the top to have his wish fulfilled, and he felt like he was pushing against an invisible wall.
Sure, he was figuring out how to fight, but fighting was only the first half of his problem. Nobody knew where to go, not even War. When the titanic man woke up from his deep sleep, it's possible he would not know where to go either. The man has aimlessly wandered the hellish world for years, cutting down enemies and opening gateways, all in search of an ancient relic that'd already been recovered.
As a matter of fact, Worthy was willing to bet that the continuous decline in gateways is largely in part because of the man's countless years of massacring beasts.
Running a hand through his messy hair, Worthy laughs. It was a thought that never crossed his mind.
He'd been so dependent on the man that he never once stopped to consider the possibility that his savior was also the person who brought doom to every inhabitant of the floor. Perhaps War had realized it at some point, but did not speak it out loud.
Perhaps that was the reason why he wanted to clear the tower, to make his wish come true in light of his error. To fix his mistake and bring balance back to the floor… No, such a thing would be far too selfless for the Holy Knight. There was nothing wrong with War's personality, but the man had cleared multiple towers before.
It didn't escape Worthy that the man clearly possessed Rewards from before entering the tower. The utility was questionable, but he certainly had a few.
Any wish that War could hope for had been fulfilled already. Bringing back the dead could not have been among those wishes. Priestess Rosaria was long dead, resting in peace. It'd be a disgrace for her Holy Knight to resurrect her, so that was not an option.
'Well, I'm not War Reaver, am I? There's no way I can tell what's going on in that ancient man's head.'
Trust was a fickle thing, but War was the only person who Worthy could put his in. Anything that was happening in the present was not intentional, but instead the indirect result of a man's blind ambition.
In reality, Worthy hadn't been hindered all that much by War's actions at all, even if the theory was correct.
By the time the boy entered the tower, the damage was already done. However, he managed to meet War Reaver and his collective of Climbers well before anyone else. The lack of gateways did make this place dangerous, but no less dangerous than if he needed to fight a monster.
One way or another, he'd have needed to enlist the aid of others to survive. It's just that now, they're guaranteed to have to fight. There was no longer the sliver of a chance a weak enemy existed who could open a gateway to an upper floor
'Still. I feel like I'm missing something…' He was missing something, but didn't have enough pieces of the puzzle to know what the picture was meant to look like.
Lingering in silence for a few more minutes, the child soon decided that sitting in bed pondering the unknown would get him nowhere. He'd already been overwhelmed by the sudden dream in his sleep, now he was tormented by numerous hollow thoughts in his waking moments.
"I… I'm going to take a nice, long walk through this hell hole."