"It Seems Nexus here was spot on with his analysis of the Runic Inscription, or at least in how the Tower would look upon completion," Erik said as he glanced over the edge of our little stone pillar refuge.
"Glad to know I was doubted; it makes it that much sweeter for me when I prove to all the naysayers who doubted me how correct I am." Rolling my eyes, I lifted my leg up, causing everyone to flinch.
"Now, if you guys would all please prepare yourselves, I’m dropping this thing; you lot have mooched off of my kindness for long enough," my words came down like a hammer on most of the lower-ranked Returners, as all it took was a brief look to notice we were almost 200 feet in the air, not really that high for people whose bodies were reinforced by particles, but still a significant height to fall from.
At worst, there would be a few broken ankles or legs and nothing as drastic as someone dying, unfortunately.
Without saying another word, I stomped my foot down and instantly transformed the solid pillar back into dirt, causing everyone, myself included, to freefall down toward the ground.
Mind you; I didn’t forget to retrieve every spec of particle-infused soil and store it back in my armor or inventory on the way down.
’DAMN IT TAY, A LITTLE WARNING WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE!" Brenden howled as he somersaulted in the air, head over heels.
’I agree with your brother; this was a little abrupt, don’t you think?’ falling casually as if it were nothing to him, my father somehow stayed perfectly straight, unlike my brother.
’I didn’t want to say it, but I’m running low on particles; this way, people will just think I’m a little rude instead of weakened by hours of sustained Skill usage.’ Sneakily, I took out a bottle of particle water and downed it all in one gulp before drinking up the remaining contents of my camel pack and storing it away right before I landed on the ground.
Meanwhile, my brain subconsciously took note of my descent, and the instant my feet touched down, I was surprised to realize the Inscription had eroded away 271 feet of the Earth’s Crust.
THUMP THUD
"AHH MY BACK,"
"GET OFF ME YOU BABY HIPPO!"
"Heh, that tracks," I grumbled while catching sight of my brother sprawled out with Sonas lying on top of him; it appeared that on the way down, the annoying guy had grabbed hold of Brenden and used him to cushion his landing.
’Hm, you’re going to be attached to me from now on if I’m not careful…aren’t you,’ Stretching out my arms just in the nick of time, a blur of pink landed in a princess carried directly in my arms before I released her and allowed Piniki to collapse to the ground butt first.
"Hey, Didn’t anyone ever treat you to be kind to girls? How could you just drop me like that!" Jumping to her feet and immediately getting in my face with messy hair falling in front of her eyes, Piniki complained, causing me to snort and walk away.
"Wait! Where are you going? Get back here!" She screamed as I ignored her and began the long walk over toward the Mountain.
’It seems Erik is more interested in the Undead Tower than I originally thought; he didn’t make any small talk or anything and instead hit the ground running.’
’Can you blame him? Stillwater is a fairly large organization; if the Tower works as you say, I can understand why, considering how 99% of Stillwater are Non-Returners.’ Staying back behind for a moment so that it didn’t look like we were working together, my father began giving his analysis.
’If he is somehow able to turn them all into players, there’s a strong possibility that he will come out on top instead of the USAHA by the time the first particle acclimation completes."
’Yeah, that makes sense, Dad, but Taylor, what about us? What are we going to do? I hope you don’t plan on making us jump into the Tower right this instant because I’d like to actually ENJOY my childhood this time around instead of always being stressed out over basic kid shit.’ Finally freeing himself from Sonas’s clutches, Brenden didn’t bother joining us. Instead, he went around with Piniki and issued first aid to anyone who had gotten hurt during the fall.
’Don’t worry; we aren’t going into the Tower for a few years, so there’s literally no point, at least not now; first and foremost, I want us to max our stats with our Circulation Skills ahead of time, then once we are ready we can go, that way, even with the increase in difficulty we won’t have much issue on our climb.’
’For now, I want you guys to stay back and join the rescue effort, Dad; when the time comes, we need to go look for a new car since…the forerunner technically became part of the Tower.’
’Let me guess, you’re gonna brainwash some unsuspecting Salesman into giving it to us for dirt cheap, no questions asked.’ He responded while getting some of his buddies together to explore the damaged area.
’We will get there when we get there; for now, I am going to examine the Tower Entrance and keep tabs on Erik and those other people who vanished, primarily the greedy bastards I targeted earlier.’
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’Alright, be sure to check in with us at some point; it’s going to get pretty messy now; the chaos brought about by the Inscription drawing in resources is like the combined damage from multiple back-to-back hurricanes. Do you want us to hide our Hero titles or…’
’It’s fine, the world already knows; it has been almost a day since Columbine began, so I don’t doubt there were more than a few Returners who got the jump on introducing the world to Heros and Villains; you guys know how to handle the public, just take Brenden as your Temporary sidekick or something.’
’Whose a fucking Sidekick?’
’You, now be useful, and stop being a baby,’ unfortunately, that was the last thing I heard from the mental connection as I moved out of range from Brenden and Dad.