章節 14: The Four
The journey of An Byul to the trial of Maha Tower was a tough one. She was merely a petty thief in the residential area of the tower a month ago, battling every day with desperation. But her life changed when a fair lady named Rita Inistler came to her humble shack . . . The lady offered her something that most would kill to have; an opportunity that only about a few thousand have each year. Yes, the opportunity to climb the tower.
Byul never even dreamt about that. She barely wanted to have a pleasant sleep with a full belly each day without worrying about the next. She thought her life was already rough enough. How harder can it get? It was until she fought against one of these creatures—known as Infectors.
Before that, all she had to face were petty thieves like her or the patrols. If you compare these two with this horrifying creature, it would be comparing a harmless kitty to a dreadful Hyena. She would go against a dozen thieves but one of the infectors.
It wasn't as if she knew nothing about them, Rita Inistler—her inviter, had taught her about them, how to battle against these infectors for an entire week. But it was still overwhelming for her. A week was not enough to overcome the disadvantages she had over all the years. Yet, she survived, still breathing, after killing half dozens of those in the encounters she had in a couple of days.
Yes, it was hard, harder than most of the things she encountered in her seventeen years of life. Don't count seventeen years as short, only she knew what she faced in this period. 'I had to survive four more days,' she mumbled, looking at the setting sun on the horizon.
She looked back and found the brown-skinned—she first met in the Trial was eating his fill, leaning against a tree. His name was Kevin. He didn't talk much, but she found him quite reliable. Though a bit hot-headed at times. Another man was sitting beside him in casual clothing. In contrast to the large and tall figure of Kevin, he's short about by two heads.
'Well, I'm in better conditions than him, ' she thought. Apparently, this guy came here accidentally. She couldn't believe it when she heard his tale: he found the ticket from a pawnshop, but that was not that crazy. The crazy thing was that guy—Jacob thought the trial would be the next day as he was teleported while he was in the streets, buying groceries. Most of all, he knew nothing about the Trial. Talk about carelessness.
And the other person, Michelle was her name. She had a beautiful figure, with crimson red hair and a diamond-shaped face, with freckles. Her complexion showed the immaturity that Byul had left since she was thirteen.
Byul could tell that she was from a high house or had a decent clan behind her, not the wealthy merchant of a clan, but the one specialising in pioneering the Tower type. The first day her conditions were quite severe, Michelle herself took care of more than half a dozen Infectors. She would have been fine if she just ran away, but she chose to help the poor fellow—Jacob and got her abdomen wounded. It was still healing after she applied the meds from the emergency kit, but she was in a foul mood after the first day.
"Are we going to venture there?" The man with the casual clothing—Jacob asked.
He was talking about the entrance of a substratum region—they found today. Byul wanted to say no, but looked at the others. Kevin, the brown-skinned guy, didn't answer and continued to chew the dry jerky. He didn't bother to talk on most of the occasions.
"Maybe later," Michelle sighed, looking at her injury. She was enthusiastic about advancing in the substratum region, but the injury stood in the way.
"I just wanted to survive for the next four days," Byul whispered.
"What's after the four days?" Jacob asked, with confusion on his face.
"You don't even know that?" Michelle asked.
"What?" Jacob's face reddened. "I already told you, I came here without knowing anything, I never even thought about climbing the tower in the first place."
"And yet you have an innate ability," Michelle continued.
Jacob couldn't help but shrug. If he knew, wouldn't he have come more prepared?
Byul raised her eyebrows at the last statement. This was the first time she was hearing this. Not about innate ability, but Jacob having one. She has one too, though she couldn't use it on most occasions.
"Do you know how rare it is to have an innate ability and one at that of your level?"
"Actually, I don't." he blushed.
"Talk about foolhardy." Michelle's comment made him even more reddened. "Let me enlighten you then. If we just take the Mahasayers, then it's between 0.44% - 0.48%. So only one among two hundred Mahasayers has an innate ability. And not even 0.01% of the humans are Mahasayer. Now you can calculate how rare it is."
Jacob looked unimpressed by what she said. He ran the number through his head and his eye became large. The numbers finally hit him.
"So, what's your ability?" Byul asked and both of them looked at her. "If you don't mind."
"Well, there's no harm in telling you, it's called [Archer of Lore]" Jacob said without much hesitation.
"And looked at the silly guy, what he has chosen as his weapon?" Michelle laughed out. "It's a twin Katana, the one that deals with close combat."
"What would I have chosen," Jacob yelled. "I haven't even picked up a bow in my entire life."
"And you didn't look like a guy who even picked up any katanas too," Michelle continued. "You know, you could learn the basics of archery in a few hours with the help of your ability?"
"Yeah, I heard it's easy to learn something if your innate ability leans in that direction." Byul chimed in.
"Well, I didn't know that as well," Jacob stood up. He was tired through all the blushing. He opened his mouth again. "So what's after four days?"
"After four days, the first phase of the Trial might conclude," Michelle answered.
Jacob's expression brightened a bit, hearing that. He stood up and looked towards Kevin. "Hey, big guy? What're your plans?"
Kevin drank a good portion of the water and looked towards everyone in the group. He finally opened his mouth. "I'll search for two of my colleagues. I'm sure you have something like that as well."
Byul nodded in response. She had two colleagues as well. Though she didn't know them personally, her inviter told her specifically to look for them. While Michelle only shrugged her shoulders.
Jacob sighed. "Then I would like to stay with you until then if you don't mind."
Kevin nodded in return. And Michelle and Byul followed. It would be better if they had more people they could trust a bit.
"Well then, let's survive four more days." Jacob's expression turned for the better after seeing their approval.
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