Chapter 61: Footprints
Chapter 61: Footprints
The briefing room was quiet without Valerie’s presence. Her TUFF GRANNY mug was absent, Boris the Yeti’s snore was missing, and the room felt smaller without her gruff warmth. In her place, Professor Helena stood at the head of the table, a dossier open before her.
"Valerie’s dealing with some... guild politics," Helena said, her tone making it clear she’d rather be doing anything else. "She sends her apologies and a reminder that if any of you die, she’ll be very annoyed."
Nathan almost smiled. That sounded like Valerie, he had become fond of her way of shenanigans.
Helena slid the dossier across the table. "The Hollow Barrow. A mid Class Tower in the eastern moorlands. Originally a burial mound of one of the many cities that fell two centuries ago. Five floors. Undead enemies. Cursed ground."
She tapped a section.
"But there’s a complication, a little challenge you might face unprepared. The boss on Floor 5 is a Barrow Wight. It can temporarily sever a Climber from their summon. For about thirty seconds, your summon desummons and the mark goes dark. No communication. No manifestation. Nothing."
Nathan’s hand moved instinctively to his summon mark. The warmth of Mirko’s presence pulsed beneath his palm—steady, familiar, reassuring. After the Tower of Ash, after watching her dissolve into green light, the idea of losing contact with her again—even temporarily—made something cold settle in his stomach.
’Master.’ Mirko’s voice was quiet through the link. ’It is only thirty seconds. I have endured worse.’
’I know. That doesn’t mean I want it to happen again.’
’It won’t be the same. This is a mechanic. A test. Not a failure.’
Nathan didn’t answer. He understood intellectually. But the memory was still too fresh.
"We’ll handle it," he said aloud. "We’ll leave at dawn."
---
The Hollow Barrow rose from the moorland mist.
The eastern moorlands were a desolate stretch of grey-green grass and shallow bogs, destroyed buildings claimed by the forests and vines. The horizon blurred by perpetual fog. The Tower itself was barely visible until they were almost upon it... a stone doorway set into the side of a low hill, ancient runes carved into the walls.
Whatever bustling city this was once upon a time, the Tower system had claimed it long ago.
Nathan pushed open the stone door and the portal claimed them into the tower.
Cold air spilled out, dry and ancient, carrying the faint smell of dust and old bones.
The interior was a hallway of packed earth and crumbling stone. Torches guttered in iron sconces, their flames pale and weak, casting more shadow than light. The silence was absolute.
Then the skittering began.
Barrow Rats poured out of the walls like a tide of bone and teeth. skeletal things, their bodies little more than animated vertebrae, their skulls gleaming with a purple-ish necromantic light. They moved in packs of dozens, swarming over each other in their eagerness to reach the party.
"Formation!" Nathan called. [Hunter’s Insight] flared. "Mirko, center. Elise, freeze the left pack. Dillon, right flank. Garrett—"
"I see them!" Garrett was already moving, his mace swinging in a brutal arc. [Impact Strike] crushed three rats at once. Red’s wool hardened into armored plates as the Mad-Sheep caught a fourth on its horns and flung it into the wall.
Mirko’s [Impenetrable Fortress] created a barrier the rats broke against like water against stone. Elise’s [Mana Bolts] froze clusters solid. Dillon’s [Quick Draw] carved through survivors. Nathan’s [Mana Arrows] picked off stragglers, Moonlight humming in his grip.
[Floor 1 Cleared.]
Floor 2 brought the Grave Sentinels—reanimated warriors in rusted armor, bodies of dried sinew and yellowed bone beneath corroded steel. They moved with the slow, grinding inevitability and Dillon’s katana found gaps in their armor. Elise’s Frost Golem froze their joints. Garrett’s mace shattered their skulls. Nathan’s arrows pierced their eye sockets.
[Floor 2 Cleared.]
Floor 3 was worse. The monsters here were the Wailing Remnants. Spectral figures, translucent, barely visible, their forms flickering. They didn’t deal physical damage, but their screams drained mana with every pulse. The party fought in silence, communicating through gestures and the mental link, conserving mana against the constant drain. Elise’s [Mana Bolts] disrupted them before they could scream. Kuro marked them with [Weak Point Sense], and Nathan’s mana arrows dispersed them one by one.
[Floor 3 Cleared.]
The Barrow was oppressive. Cold seeped into bones. Darkness pressed against eyes. The constant moaning echoed through the corridors long after the Remnants were destroyed.
On Floor 4, before the boss chamber, Nathan found something that didn’t belong there.
Footprints in the dust. A discarded torch, its head still faintly warm. Too fresh to be from a previous party... the guild register showed no recent activity. And no guild marker at the entrance meant whoever had been here wasn’t registered.
"Another party?" Garrett asked.
"The prints are too fresh. And there’s no record of anyone climbing this Tower in the last month." Nathan crouched, studying the tracks. Human, roughly sized, but the pattern was odd... too precise, too deliberate. Not the casual stride of Climbers on a mission to clear the tower. But something furtive. "Whoever was here didn’t want to be noticed."
’They were searching for something,’ Kuro observed. ’Or Wanted to do something.’
Nathan straightened. "We stay alert. They might still be nearby."
The party pressed on, more cautious now.
---
Floor 5 was the heart of the Hallow Barrow tower.
The chamber was circular, its walls lined with ancient burial niches. hundreds of them, each containing a skeleton wrapped in rotted shrouds. At the center, on a raised dais of black stone, the Barrow Wight waited.
Tall and gaunt, its body wrapped in grey burial tatters. Its skull was elongated, eye sockets burning with pale blue flame. In its right hand, a staff of twisted bone. In its left, a crown of black iron pulsing with necromantic light.
It spoke. Not in words the party recognized. The language was Unfamiliar but the meaning pressed against their mind.
You bring fire and steel into the house of the dead. You bring summons bound to your will. Let us see how you fare when those bonds are severed.
It surprised them all. It was the first time they had heard a monster speak within the tower. It wasn’t a Rare thing, but this was their first experience anyways. It’s one of the few things tower researcher still research about the towers. Ways to communicate with the monsters.
The Wight raised its staff. Pale blue light erupted from the dais, washing over the party. Nathan felt the magic pass through him: cold, invasive, searching. And then his summon mark went dark.
The warmth of Mirko’s and Kuro’s presence vanished. The steady hum of the bond simply stopped. The mark on his hand was cold and silent.
Mirko and Kuro were gone.
Nathan’s heart lurched. For a single, terrifying moment, he was back on Floor 9 of the Tower of Ash, watching her dissolve into green light...
No. He forced the memory down. This is temporary. Thirty seconds.
"Thirty seconds!" he called. "Fight through it! Elise, status!"
"My mark is dark too. The Frost Golem is gone." Elise’s voice was tight. "Mana Bolts only."
Dillon’s Cloud Serpent had vanished. Garrett’s mark was dark too, Red gone. Both stared at their hands for a fraction of a secon, the same flash of panic Nathan had felt. Then Garrett hefted his mace. Dillon drew his katana. No words. Just action.
The Wight attacked. Its staff swept in arcs of pale blue fire. Nathan dove sideways, Moonlight humming as he loosed a [Mana Arrow]. The shot struck the Wight’s shoulder. Elise’s [Mana Bolt] followed. Dillon’s katana carved across its ribcage. Garrett’s [Impact Strike] shattered its left arm at the elbow.
They fought without their summons. No Mirko to hold the line. No Frost Golem to freeze. No Cloud Serpent to harass. No Red to guard. No Kuro to tag weak points. Just the four of them, their weapons, and the skills they’d honed.
It was enough, barely.