Chapter 44.

CHAPTER 44.

Amber paused seeing all of the commotion around the camp of elite knights surrounding the tower. She had snuck into the tower, and even though she had met a group knights well into the journey and befriended their captain, Terrel, she didn’t expect for things to devolve like this. The initial plan was to use Terrel’s name and get out of trouble, but this kind of trouble wasn’t one she expected.

And it was all because of a single person.

Amber craned her head back to look at the Primordial Spirit standing at the top of the steps of the tower. Her name was Val’leri, and she was the spirit to enlighten Amber about the higher realm, Ill’hine, about what she had to do now, and give her guidance as well as answer all the questions she had in general.

She was eccentric just like Ax’thra, the Primordial Spirit she first met when coming to this world. Her first friend who had disappeared after being attacked by Dargon of the Arcane Council ⁠— the wretched organization that targeted the gods in the name of research ⁠— and now Ax’thra was in the higher realm.

She had come here in search of answers, and planned to leave quietly, unfortunately that didn’t happen.

All because the Primordial Spirit had said goodbye to her.

“Good luck, and goodbye, see you Amber.”

With those words she vanished back into the tower. Amber didn’t expect this, but if she had known⁠ that the spirit would say goodbye outside of the tower⁠— she probably would have still forgotten that there was a whole encampment of knights waiting there. So she didn’t even blame the spirit.

She watched as the camp scrambled in a panic.

“Did the Primordial Spirit call her friend?!”

“Are my eyes correct or was that the Primordial Spirit of the tower?!”

“Friend? Did she complete the tower in a record time?”

Amber paused as numerous knights gathered, not all of them. Some were too stunned, to talk or do anything, but a large majority of them held their weapons, as if ready to attack at any time. So, instead, she waited as a single knight walked out of the crowd.

He had the same red cloth as Terrel, signifying that he was a captain. However, that wasn’t the reason he stood out, or why Amber had noticed him long before he spoke. No, the real reason he was more noticeable than everyone else is because he was bald, completely and utterly bald with a shining head. He had a long beard and his build was massive, probably the tallest man Amber had ever seen.

[Warrior. Lvl. 134]

And he was much higher level than her. Amber had leveled up all the way to level 119 since arriving at this tower eight months back, but even then, this knight was someone to be cautious of. He walked forward.

“Adventurer, explain yourself!” he said, his voice booming. “While you are a friend of the Primordial Spirit we cannot overlook this.”

Seemingly all of the knights nodded at that, which Amber found it to be slightly uncomfortable and borderline confusing. However, as she looked around she realized something. Someone that was supposed to save her from this situation was missing.

She turned to the knight. “I wish to speak with Terrel.”

“Terrel, huh?” The bald man cocked his head. “He is not here, he is in the capital, how do you know him?”

Amber frowned. “I met him in the tower.”

The man’s eyes narrowed for a moment before he spoke again, “You must be Amber, right? You match the description except for having new armor.”

“Right.”

Amber couldn’t really tell where this was going, or what was going to happen next. But she didn’t want to deal with escaping from the knights or becoming a fugitive or anything like that. Yes, she was friends with Val’leri but the kingdom had relationships with her, so she didn’t even know how much leverage that represented. So she decided she was going to see all of this through.

“Terrel spoke highly of you, and in fact we were planning to welcome you into the camp when you returned, but there is a small problem.”

“And that is?”

And he shook his head. “Before that, I just wish you to know that I am loyal to the king and queen and hold nothing personal against you. But the small problem is the fact that you walked out with the Primordial Spirit.”

Amber nodded. “I got that much at least.”

“Some of us have made it to the one-hundredth floor of the tower, and as you can imagine, we have never met the Primordial Spirit. The spirit only shows themselves to those worthy of her presence, such as the king and queen of Cytel, so here is my question: who are you, Amber?”

“Who am I?” Amber repeated.

Do they think I’m some kind of important person or something?

“Why did the Primordial Spirit meet you, why are you friends with them now?”

Amber blinked. She didn’t know how honest to be, or what was the right thing to do, but she had to say something.

“The spirit found me worthy of their presence, due to my class and abilities, need I say more?” She raised her brow. “As for friendship? Well I just spoke with them.”

Of course, she wasn’t as dumb as to say Val’leri met her because she had the Cube of Stars. The whispering cube that she’d use in the future to request the help of another Primordial Spirit, following Val’leri’s advice.

The knight shook his head. “While that makes sense ⁠— in spite of the lack of information ⁠— you can’t expect me to believe you just befriended the Primordial Spirit through talking, can you?”

“Why not?” Amber was confused.

She had befriended Ax’thra basically that way, just by talking. She had given him nothing of value aside from information about the world⁠— and that information had long been exhausted after the first week. So she couldn’t see why a Primordial Spirit couldn’t be befriended through words.

In response, the knight snorted. “Look, don’t lie to us. We don’t want to have to arrest you, not after everything that Terrel said, he spoke very highly of you. So tell us what you can, tell us about your ascent through the tower, and tell us about what happened with the Primordial Spirit.”

Amber frowned. She didn’t mind telling him all of that, but the knight seemed almost hellbent on getting answers that frankly ⁠— in Amber’s opinion didn’t particularly matter. But then again, she supposed that seeing a Primoridial Spirit was a much bigger deal to them than to her.

I thought all I had to do was not tell anyone the location of this tower and there would be minimal trouble.

She shook her head and just when the knight was going to say something else, another knight stepped forward.

“Volkar, aren’t you going too far?”

The bald man raised his brow. “I’m just doing my job, interrogating a trespasser of the tower.”

“Yes, but she is a friend of the Primordial Spirit!” the knight said, evidently panicked. “That means she is someone of equal status to the king and queen!”

And with those words, the knights began to nod, everyone that was gathered seemed to agree. Somehow the knight they trusted with the questioning had become someone they no longer approved of.

“That’s right Volkar, we can’t just treat her like this!”

“While there may be no repercussions for disrespecting her, I think the king would be displeased!”

“She is a friend of the Primordial Spirit.”

Amber felt slightly confused about what was happening, but at the same time she understood that⁠; again⁠— being friends with a Primordial Spirit was a much bigger deal to them than to her.

The bald knight seemed to be frowning, evidently not wanting to relinquish. Amber did feel like he was just doing his job but at the same time, perhaps normal rules and norms did not apply here. However, after a few moments of being told off the knight nodded to himself, evidently having a change of heart.

He turned to her and spoke solemnly. “I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you. It was improper of me.”

Amber shook her head at that, she didn’t care about being questioned all that much. However, she watched the knights looking at her strangely, almost awkwardly, and realized that perhaps, it was better for her to answer what was asked of her. If it helped foster a good relationship with the knights ⁠— one not based on fanaticism ⁠— then it’d be worth it. It wasn’t as if the information had anything interesting after all.

“It’s fine, I’ll answer your previous questions.”

Volkar’s eyes widened at that. “You really don’t have to⁠—”

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“I will,” she interrupted. “My ascent through the tower was interesting I suppose,” Amber said. “Some rooms lasted weeks evidently wanting to test how long I could fight for.”

The knights slowly nodded, and the bald knight’s eyes in particular widened for a moment as he nodded, intently listening to her.

“Some of the rooms had monsters that were unnatural, some were intelligent, and most of the monsters shared one trait.”

Volkar raised his brow, and after a moment, Amber continued.

“They were all hard to kill, or rather had incredibly high durability,” Amber said. “It wasn’t until I met Terrel and his squad that the tower changed. It became a lot easier for me to deal with in general.”

There was a pause before the bald knight decided to speak, he seemed hesitant now.

“Terrel did say that traveling with you was nothing short of a boon, that all of the floors were special floors, that everything was challenging and that his squad saw great gains,” he said. “However, he also said you asked to be attacked to level your resistances?”

Amber paused at that before slowly nodding.

Some of the knights looked at her weirdly in response, evidently while they had heard that information before they still found it strange.

“I see, Terrel seemed certain that you’d meet the Primordial Spirit, and we called him crazy but looks like we were the ones in the wrong.” The bald man smiled. “Again, sorry for the way I treated you.”

Amber nodded, and the knight continued.

“Though he did say something strange; he said that you declined all invitations of food⁠— did you eat the monsters?”

“Uh…” Amber didn’t know how to exactly say it. “Actually, I didn’t really eat anything for the entirety of my time in the tower.”

Amber expected someone to call bullshit but instead, all of the knight’s eyes widened, including the Volkar’s.

“That kind of skill… no wonder the Primordial Spirit deemed you worthy of meeting them…”

“Unbelievable…”

“No wonder she is friends with a god…”

“I wish I was that strong…”

Amber didn’t know what to say to that, so she just continued dumping information onto the knights.

“Yeah, so I traveled with Terrel for a month, maybe a bit under that, I lost track of time,” Amber said. “They helped me level up my resistances, I saved their lives like once or twice, and that’s about it?”

She couldn’t really remember anything else other than befriending the captain, which was already established.

“As for my encounter with the Primordial Spirit…” Amber pondered. She didn’t really feel like sharing anything.

She wasn’t about to tell them Val’leri wanted to kill her because she was mistaken as a member of the Arcane Council. ⁠Though there was something she could say she suppose. She tilted her head, much to the anticipation of the surrounding people.

“Well, I learned a few new things about the Arcane Council.”

At that, all of the knights paused, Volkar opened his mouth in surprise. “Wait, you know about the Arcane Council?”

“Yeah.” Amber nodded. “I know they were the ones to attack the capital and take the artifacts.”

Of course, she didn’t mention that Terrel was the one that told her that information, but that seemed enough to shock the knights. Who just opened their mouth in disbelief.

“That is classified information…” he said dejectedly. “Why do you even know all of this?”

That… Amber found that question difficult to answer, but she still decided to do so.

“Because they attacked my friend, I wanted to find out more about them⁠—”

“Don’t!” Volkar said in a hurry. “Their power is not something you can imagine, ignore the people that attacked, we have learned information that mosat other kingdoms don’t know.”

Amber raised her brow. “Is that so?”

“They have several members that are incredibly powerful, one of them actually attacked a Primordial Spirit not too long ago. You can’t imagine the level he has reached⁠—”

“Oh, Dargon?” Amber raised her brow. “Isn’t he level 400?”

“What…?” Volkar paused. “You even know that?”

“Yeah.”

He paused, muttering to himself.

“Unbelievable…”

“Oh I also know they have the power to destroy the country?” she raised her brow.

Numerous knights freaked out at that.

“Of course you do.” A sigh Volkar. “Is there anything you don’t know?”

Amber didn’t really know what to say to that, so she didn’t reply. However, the bald knight seemed to be massaging his temples. Meanwhile the other knights present seemed to be blown away. She didn’t know how she felt about everything, but she was glad that there was no animosity from the knights anymore.

“I see,” he finally said before turning to her. “I have one last question if you’d allow me to.”

Amber raised her brow. “Sure?”

“Can you tell me about how you came to this tower and why you came? Hopefully that’s not too much.”

Some of the knights nodded, evidently wanting to know that, perhaps it was morbid curiosity, Amber didn’t know⁠— but she didn’t particularly mind telling them that much.

“I came to this tower looking for the Primordial Spirit but also because a merchant told me it was a trial of strength, and that greatly interested me. So I ran around the forest until I found it⁠.” She tilted her head. “And let me reassure you that I don’t care about telling the Guild.”

“Even if they’d pay you over a thousand gold for the information?” the bald knight asked.

“I don’t have a need for that much gold,” Amber said simply. “Nor do I care about it.”

The knight smiled at that, everyone did. The bald knight stepped forward and extended his hand for her to grab.

“I see, thank you for entertaining my questions. While I still have plenty of them, it’d be rude of me to continue asking,” he said simply before offering his hand. “My name is Volkar, again, sorry for the trouble earlier.”

Amber shook it and that was that, or that’s what she thought, but Volkar continued.

“You know, Terrel spoke very highly of you,” he began. “More than you probably expected, he told tales of your strength, and your abilities in general.”

“Right.” Amber didn’t know where he was going with this.

“He said that you went out of your way to kill monsters, that you rode a monster to death, that you destroyed numerous traps with brute force, and other feats.”

She stared at the knight as he continued.

“And well, I want to test it for myself. I don’t mean a spar, but how about we shake hands again? If you don’t mind, of course.”

“Shake hands again?” Amber blinked at that.

“Yes, we will shake hands and we will use all of our strength, I want to see your strength, and I you’ll see mine if you are curious.”

Amber watched the expressions of the surrounding knights, which showed great interest, and given that she was out of trouble, she figured⁠— why not? She wasn’t going to try too hard, but she figured it was all in good fun⁠. And so, she grabbed his hand.

The man smiled at her. “Ready?”

Amber nodded, and at that moment she felt a heavy pressure from his grip. Though given she didn’t recognize it as an attack to begin with, it didn’t activate Cursed Supreme Momentum, but that didn’t necessarily matter because⁠—

She forced her stamina to increase the momentum of her skill and she bit her tongue⁠— hard. The blood increased her strength immediately and the man’s hand cracked⁠—

“Ouch.”

Amber let go and he removed his hand, flicking it back and forth as if he was in pain. Except, his expression just had a small smile. Though the surrounding knights seemed shocked for whatever reason, finding it impressive.

Amber ignored the reactions and turned to the bald man.

“You weren’t really trying were you?” she asked, raising her brow.

“I wanted to see what you would do, and I can’t say I expected you to bite part of your tongue,” he said, chuckling. “Well, I won’t ask why or what was that sudden burst of strength. Instead…”

And he reached for her hand and pulled her, much to her surprise.

“I welcome you into our camp, in my name, Amber is a guest here now!”

His voice boomed for all the knights to hear. All of the knights gathered cheered, whereas the ones that weren’t looked over with some shock. The announcement attracted the attention of all the people that were present, which Amber found awkward. Some of the gathered knights began to disperse, however new knights also came.

“Is she interesting Volkar?” one asked happily.

“She is,” the bald man belly laughed. “Ah, but remember she is a friend of a Primordial Spirit, so treat her well.”

Amber still wasn’t used to the friend of a Primordial Spirit status but at least the atmosphere had cleared.

She was glad that she had been welcomed into the camp. Though one of the knights that had recently gathered was looking at her weirdly.

Volkar turned to her.

“Welcome to our camp Amber, what will you do now? Will you go back in for round two?”

Amber shook her head. “No, I’ll probably return to Laria.”

“Why not visit the capital first?” he asked.

“Well⁠ I don’t know—”

“I know you,” the knight that was looking at her earlier said.

Amber raised her brow and the man continued.

“At first, I wasn’t sure if it was her but now I’m quite certain.”

Amber was confused. “What are you even talking about?”

“You are the girl that is wanted by the Risnar and Starkell family.” He pointed at her. “The killer of the Risnar’s heir and the kidnapper of Velda Starkell. You are the one that conspired with Liz Starkell to do so.”

Amber paused. I’m wanted?

Meanwhile the knights turned towards her, specially Volkar who simply scoffed.

“Nonsense, how could this girl be wanted? Terrel spoke so highly of her, he even told us all about her oddities. She even willingly told us information she had no reason to share.”

“That’s right!” another knight agreed.

“And she is friends with the Primordial Spirit of all people!” another said.

“No, I think she matches the description with the wanted girl!” a different knight called.

Amber watched as the knights broke into an argument. A large majority were in her side, and those that weren’t were quickly convinced. However, this didn’t really sit right with her, because after all⁠— she had indeed killed the Risnar’s family heir, and she had indeed kidnapped Liz’s sister, but it was for a good reason.

These people were the knights serving in the royal castle, they had more power and authority than normal knights, she could easily be apprehended for her crimes⁠ — if she wasn’t a friend of Val’leri anyway ⁠— but they also had the resources to research and look into things.

And so, Amber made her decision. She made the decision of just telling the truth.

“I did kill the heir of the Risnar family, and I did kidnap Liz’s sister,” she admitted for everyone to hear.

At that moment all of the knights stopped, looking at her in disbelief.

“Back in Laria I am known as the Demonkiller. And I have fought demon cultists before just like the one that tried to sacrifice a woman in the capital sewers.”

Some of the knights murmured about that.

“I think I’ve heard about that.”

“Me too. Aren’t investigations underway?”

“Yeah, but the search is at a dead end now.”

Amber nodded.

“And just like that woman, Velda Starkell was going to be sacrificed in the name of summoning a demon because she was sold by her own family, all in exchange to be part of the inner circle of this organization.”

There was silence once more.

“She was sold to the Risnar family; the Starkell family conspired with the Risnar family to sacrifice their own daughter to the demons.”

Amber took a breath.

“And with her blood they wanted to summon a Flametouched Demon to destroy the Kingdom of Cytel.”