Chương 7: Chapter Seven: Saferoom

SEVEN Roan woke up. Which was a surprise to him as he had thought he was dead. Fragments of the last few hours he'd been awake came in flashes as he winced to himself. Embarrassment washed through him but he shoved that aside as he took in his surroundings. Sunlight— real, yellow and clean— streamed around him. The smell of flowers filled his nose and as he shuffled to the side he felt the soft texture of thick grass beneath his back. It was the absence that truly took him by surprise. There was no pain.

His myriad of injuries he'd endured fighting his way through the crypts weren't screaming at him. Ankle, scalp, the multiple cuts to his torso, all of it was gone. Even his insufferable thirst had been sated, though he knew that wouldn't last long.

"He's awake!" Moira called and Roan turned to see the healer not far from him. A tree grew from the ground and she sat against it, the shade of it helping cover him and others seated around it.

"Where?" Roan asked, his voice a croak as he swallowed hard to clear it. He slowly sat up, careful not to pull anything as he looked over his body. Someone had removed his coat and tattered shirt, the two ruined garments in a pile next to him. His pants had been turned into shorts and his wounded legs had bandages wrapped around them.

"The safe room between levels," a new voice said and from behind the tree came Darren and Taoya. There were others Roan sort of recognized, those who had fought or been called to aid Moira or Taoya in their mad dash. All of them were covered in identical bandages as he was, limping or moving stiffly as people settled around him.

"Go through the notifications, it'll be faster," Darren said. Roan nodded, but looked them over before he did so. He wasn't one of them, not some well-trained and connected sect or college student. They all seemed to know each other, had connections and familiarity that he couldn't match. Taoya's open, honest face reassured him. If they had wanted to stab him, then they would have done it while he was unconscious. Or not even carried him through the crypts. FLOOR 1.

01 SAFEROOM LEVEL 1 CLEAR RATE: 9 % LEVEL 2 OPENING IN: 44 HOURS ACCESS MARKET? CURRENT BALANCE: 250 CREDITS Roan frowned as he stared at the balance. He had a hundred-twenty points before the battle on the boulevard. He had to scroll through his alerts to find where the infusion of funds had come from. Seven more of the inferior skeletons in the fight and then he saw what the second rank skeletons had been.

POOR GRADE SKELETON (x3) 20 CREDITS Each of those skeletons he'd killed in the second hallway had been worth double the originals. He didn't like the look of the clear rate for the level though. There was no way the tower would offer them a reward for that poor of a performance.

"Who, uh, undressed me?" Roan asked as he pushed the alerts away.

"That'd be me. I'm a trained medic," Moira said, squatting on her heels as she looked him over with a clinical eye. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Access the market and look at medical supplies. You had two inferior healing potions as well as one inferior bandage. Just for your information," Moira said with a stiff smile. Roan winced as he opened up the market for the first time. His mouth slowly dropped as he looked over the screen that filled his vision. Tabs. Hundreds of tabs that lined the top of the screen, each one of them a category. Food, armor, weapons, supplies, schematics, books, skills, and more.

Roan looked for the medical supply tab and clicked on it with a single thought, his will all he needed to open the category. The screen in his mind's eye populated with a list. Thousands of lines of it, small and hardly able to be read, shooting downward faster than he could ever hope to read.

"There's a search function. Just look at inferior grade, it's the only thing we can afford right now," Moira said. Roan nodded as he thought of the tool and quickly changed the category to inferior medical supplies only. He winced as he saw the costs spawn in front of him. When he focused on the item he wanted it magnified along with a short description of the item.

INFERIOR HEALING POTION 50 CREDITS WILL HEAL MINOR WOUNDS AND PROMOTE ACCELERATED HEALING INFERIOR MEDICAL BANDAGES (3 FEET) 30 CREDITS WILL STAUNCH BLOOD AND CLEANSE WOUNDS. ONE TIME USE ONLY"One hundred-thirty credits to heal you all the way up. Or at least off of death's door," Moira said when she saw Roan wince. Over half of the acquired credits he'd earned killing the skeletons to heal himself. He looked over the field and saw all the people lying in the grass under the shade of the tree.

Lots of them looked worse than he was himself.

"I'll pay you back. More supplies?" Roan asked, his soul grating under the thought of owing someone a debt.

"Not now. Everyone is healed up, but before we leave I would like some," Moira said before someone groaned in the lines of wounded, drawing her away.

"I am Darren Osweiler and you already met Taoya. Who are you? Most of us, we know each other or of each other at least," Darren said pointing his hand at everyone resting on the hill. Roan looked further on and saw that the fields, hills, and trees stretched out as far as he could see and there were plenty of others resting as well.

"Roan. I'm a local."

"Nice to meet you, Roan. You're skilled," Darren said. Taoya nodded in agreement and Roan couldn't help but notice the man looked drained, worn out from the fight.

"My skill, it is exhausting to use to the degree I did. In a day or so I will be mostly recovered as long as I eat and sleep," Taoya said, seeing Roan's concern.

"I had a good teacher. A tower climber who settled in the region," Roan explained and the two men nodded along. It was a common enough story to be heard. Those who had survived and climbed a tower settled into quiet anonymity, living on the spoils they'd managed to bring out of their towers.

"We're forming a team of the survivors. Just working to keep everything organized and we think you'd be a good fit. With a bit of armor and some other goods you'd be able to be a massive help," Darren said, Taoya nodding behind him in agreement.

"How much is the armor and weapons? I still need to buy food and water and need to look over everything else the market has to offer. I can't give an answer till then," Roan said, trying to avoid being roped into the group. It'd undoubtedly be safer, but he'd lose his chance of moving on his own, of exploring the tower and seeing what the rabbit had meant.

"Expensive. I don't know what your balance is, but they are pricy. You can sell what you collected as well, but the prices of selling directly back to the market are terrible and there's nobody in the auction rooms yet," Darren said and Roan's mind spun with possibilities as he nodded. He looked at his folded up jacket and thought of the goods he'd managed to find and wondered how many credits they'd be." These guys need to fuck off so I can look this over and think."

The thought wasn't gracious, but Roan needed a few minutes to think and figure out his strategy.

"Can you give me a couple hours to figure everything out?" Roan looked at the ticking clock that was winding down that was right next to their poor clear rate. There had to be a way to improve that score, they wouldn't lock the next level to keep them trapped without a way to farm the lower floors.

"Yeah, that's not a problem. We have a few more people to check on," Taoya said, patting Roan on the shoulder before trudging away with Darren right behind him. Roan sighed in relief and started to stretch, feeling the tightness of his muscles slowly relaxing as he thought over what he needed to do. Just like when he stood in the rabbit's office, what he needed was information. Muscle memory guided him through his stretches as he opened up the market and began to dive through it to see what it had to offer.