Chapter 185: The First Boss Floor in the Tower

“You look like I wore you out all night,” Tanila teased as they rode back in a carriage to the Faction property. “I hope this works out how you think it will.”

Nodding, Max fought back a yawn that tried to make itself known and winked at Tanila. “I could see it in their eyes. The opportunity is too great for them to pass up. You and I both know they will hope in time that they can convince Joshua to join the faction. For now, having someone with that ability and willingness to craft for them is massive. You already told me what it would cost them to hire another crafter with that skill from a different Faction or kingdom.”

Sighing, Tanila tapped her fingers together as she watched Max.

“As long as you don’t do it all the time, and eventually I get a night or date with you, I’ll be fine,” she replied. “However, if you continue to spend all your time crafting items, you might not like how that turns out.”

“I won’t, I promise. Now, we need one more day before we go back to the tower for the boss. Any idea what you would like to do?”

Chuckling, Tanila couldn’t help but shake her head slightly.

“Sometimes you’re a fool. Other times, you’re a genius. I’ll let you take a quick nap, and then I’ll have a list of things we can do tonight with Fowl and Batrire.”

“No Cordellia?” Max asked.

Biting her lip, Tanila waited a moment before shaking her head. I’m not sure we’re ready to have her walking around town with us just yet. Maybe in a few more weeks or more.”

Standing up, Max moved over and sat down next to Tanila, holding her hand. “I’ll take all the time I can have with you”

Max regretted giving Tanila complete control over the evening. Fowl complained multiple times that they had both been fitted for another outfit neither of them felt they needed.

The only saving perk was that with a dimensional storage item, neither of them had to carry the twenty different bags the women had picked up between them.

“Do you all understand what tomorrow will be like?” Cordellia asked as they sat at a table in a private dining room in the faction house. “Unlike any other floor we have been on, the boss floors are unpredictable. Worse yet, unless one brings items for every possibility, you don’t have an idea of what will be there.”

“And it's five days if we have to leave the tower floor before killing the boss?” Fowl asked, frowning at Max.

“If we’re lucky. Sometimes it’s a week,” Tanila replied, studying the two looks both men were giving each other. “We still have to fight to get to the boss. We’ll have to check for clues on the boss based on the creatures on the floor.”

Batrire pounded the table with a fist after Tanila finished speaking.

“What the hell is going on with you two? Why are you both looking at each other like that?”

“It’s nothing,” Fowl muttered. “Just a discussion between the two of us.”

Max nodded and then smiled, turning his attention to the three women who obviously didn’t buy whatever they were selling.

“We’ll be ready for tomorrow. The real question we need to consider is how bad things have to get before we actually choose to run for the exit.”

“Are you planning on us losing?” Cordellia asked, her eyes bulging slightly as her head moved back slightly.

“It’s not that,” Fowl said. “We need to be smart. Tomorrow is the first big challenge we might face. The stuff on the tower floors isn’t anything like the bosses. We all know that, and if we walk in expecting to waltz through everything, we’re asking for problems. Everyone here knows what Tom said.”

As a group, each head bobbed at Fowl’s statement.

“Still, we need to consider this the best chance we’ll get at learning how a boss works,” Max added. “After this floor, each boss in the tower is going to get harder and harder. Tomorrow is the first real test.”

No one spoke as they all considered those words again, the exact ones Tom had spoken.

‘Tomorrow is the first real test.’

The five of them stood outside the tower, waiting for a turn as two other groups were before them.

Max couldn’t help but stare at the group of elves, each of them almost giving off an aura of danger as they waited to enter.

A few of the elves glanced back and nodded at Tanila and Cordellia, but none of them paid the other three any attention.

Between the elven group was a mixed group like theirs: two elves, two dwarves, and one human.

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Fowl and the dwarf warrior in the other group had chatted a moment, each discussing ale and laughing at some joke Max didn’t get even though he heard it.

“You ok?” Tanila whispered, moving close after the elf group had entered the tower.

“Yeah, I'm just lost in thought. I want to make sure we don’t do something stupid.”

Laughter erupted from Tanila, and everyone turned to try and figure out what was so funny from how loud it had been.

Raising an eyebrow, Max gave her a look, and she waved him off. “Sorry, those words coming from you… my how you have grown.”

Smiling, Max nodded and tapped his head. “It’s from the high intelligence stat.”

Rolling her eyes, Tanila motioned to Cordellia, who was shifting nervously from side to side.

“You ok?”

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, their archer nodded. “First boss… I mean, the first actual boss I believe we’ll defeat. I’ve never actually been on a team that could take one down. Too often, we had to run away or choose to not fight it. Now…” She trailed off and motioned to the open tower portal as the second group had gone in. “Looks like we’re going to find out if the sixth time is the charm.”

Fowl started to cough, shaking his head as his eyes bulged. “Six times?!”

“Don’t worry about it,” Max said. “We got this.”

“Good luck today, tower climbers!” the female guard said as the five of them moved up next to the portal.

Max touched it and saw the option for the first three floors. Floor four was still off limits due to having been in it two days ago. The fifth floor was now an option. Selecting it, he vanished first.

“That’s not fun looking,” Fowl muttered as he stood with Max, studying the floor while the women finished getting ready. “A fricking sandbox.”

Max nodded and gazed at the sand that was only about ten yards away. The small piece of stone they stood on led to dunes of sand that seemed to be shifting slightly as a warm wind blew over head stretched on for a while. All around them was a massive mountain that enclosed the environment, flat solid rock that provided no perch to stop the sand that ran right up to it. The sun was a third of the way into the sky, and the heat of it already caused the sand to give off a glassy reflection.

Off in the middle, miles away, was another set of rocks, not as tall as the half-mile-high section around the tower floor.

“It would appear that is the main place to go,” Max said as he pointed. “How bad is traveling in this sand going to be?”

“Horrible,” Cordellia answered from behind. “You two are going to struggle in your armor. The sand will slow down most.”

“Any idea what kind of creatures we might find?”

Cordellia moved up next to Fowl, adjusting her bow a few times, and shook her head. “It could be anything. Just because it’s sand doesn’t mean the monsters here are from a desert. Someone mentioned in a report finding fire elementals once in a dessert. Those things melted the sand as they moved across it.”

“I guess we’ll go ahead and see what we can find. Fowl you stay with them, I’ll scout ahead.”

The dwarf nodded, and both men immediately regretted putting their armor on as the sun beat down on the metal, causing it to heat up quickly.

Standing at the top of a sand dune, Max saw a pack of lizards slowly moving along the sand off to their left a bit away. To their right was a pair of scorpions that were at least as tall as he was.

Motioning for the others to join him, Max pointed at the pack of five lizards, each at least eight feet long, covered with spikes and barbed tails.

“We got lizards or scorpions. Take your pick?”

Batrire cleared her throat, and everyone except Cordellia didn’t look at her.

“Is something wrong with scorpions?”

Their healer nodded at Cordellia, frowning at that question. “I almost died to one. I can’t say I want to dance with one anytime soon.”

“Lizards then?” Fowl asked, pointing at the pack.

“That sounds good. It's a typical fight: pull, root, ice. I’ll root the third, and we can each deal with one while Cordellia and Tanila take care of the rooted ones.”

Fowl grunted and started making his way down the sand dune, doing his best to stay upright as he slid down, his legs sinking past his ankles as he descended.

Both men were sweating as they killed the last lizard. The creatures had been fast, moving on top of the sand with ease.

Max had still easily out-maneuvered and powered the lizard he fought while Fowl tanked and bludgeoned his lizard to death. The women had killed the two that were ensnared, and as the ice prison melted, Max made short work of the last one.

“Not too bad,” Fowl said cautiously.

Nodding, Max turned and made sure everyone was ready before starting to move up another dune to see what was ahead.

“It looks clear!” he shouted from the top of the dune as the others joined him.

“That’s bad,” Tanila groaned. “Too much open space.”

“Maybe they patrol?” Fowl asked, holding his shield over his head for a break from the sun.

“Doesn’t matter, Max replied. “We need to move forward, so I’ll go first. Give me twenty yards and then follow.”

Max’s eyes constantly ran along the sand, wondering what might be on the other side of a dune as he led the way.

“ON ME!”

Spinning around, Max saw three shapes rising from the sand, moving toward Cordellia, who was quickly running away.

“Golems!”

Fowl moved to the creatures that were almost fully formed, massive nine-foot-tall creatures of sand, and slammed his hammer into it. A pile of sand flew out but was quickly replaced by more sand as it swung at Fowl.

A dust storm erupted from where the fist of sand connected against Fowl’s shield. Max knew from the sound that if Fowl didn’t have the ability his new chest piece provided, his dwarven friend would be tumbling across the sand.

“Fire or Ice?” Tanila shouted as she created a spear of ice and sent it at the golem on Fowl’s right.

It pierced the golem's head, slowly moving through the sand before exiting the other side. A hole was there for a moment, but as before, more sand came from its body and filled it again.

Finally arriving at the battle, Max was grateful that Fowl had gotten the chest piece. He watched their dwarven warrior absorb the blows of the golems that came at him.

“How do we kill them?” Tanila called out.

Max started hacking at the creature, his weapon cleaving off an arm of the left golem before it began to rejoin again.

“Gods!” Fowl muttered, spitting out sand from his mouth. “I can’t do anything to them!”

Ignoring the shouts of frustration, Max continued assaulting the golem, cleaving off a limb, smashing the head to dust, and leaving massive gouges missing from the creature. Every strike seemed futile as it only took a few seconds for sand to begin to repair the lost section.

What do we need to do?