Tower of Paradise

—You're pulling my leg. Why is the drop rate in this building so bad? —Alice exclaimed, raising her fists in the air with evident frustration—. Five rooms in a row and still nothing.

I observed her face, contorted with disappointment, as her energy visibly waned. I could understand her. Despite having explored numerous rooms, our only loot consisted of three measly gold coins we had found at the beginning of our exploration. I walked silently by her side, analyzing our situation. Compared to the challenges we had faced so far, the reward was ridiculously scarce, almost insulting.

To analyze our situation more precisely, Alice had opened six additional rooms, including the one with the evolution minion, but the result had been practically null. In fact, we only found monsters in four of the five rooms, and they were all mere minions, nothing compared to the one we had eliminated in the first room.

Naturally, as long as Alice was by my side, I wouldn’t face great difficulties in combat. However, it was inevitable that both of us would gradually lose our mana over time. This reality worried me, so I decided to propose our next move.

—Alice, we’ve already gone through all the rooms in this hallway. Where are we headed this time?

—Let’s go to the next floor. We’ve already wasted too much time.

After walking for a while, we located the first room after entering the east passage. According to Alice’s discovery, there was only one room in that passage. This meant that if the room was empty, we could safely claim we had completely cleared the first floor.

—That staircase over there is probably the one that leads to the second floor —I heard Alice say.

I turned my head in the direction she was pointing, and sure enough, about fifty meters ahead, there was what appeared to be an access to the upper level.

—Looks like it —I confirmed, quickly assessing the state of the stairs.

We advanced toward the staircase that promised to lead us to the upper floor. As we began to climb, the old steps creaked ominously, as if they were about to collapse under our weight. We started ascending slowly and carefully. To my surprise, the staircase turned out to be longer than I had anticipated. Moreover, as we climbed those steep spiral steps, we maintained a focused silence, each of us immersed in our own thoughts.

—There’s a door —Alice’s voice finally broke the silence from the front—. Reinhardt, get ready. We’re going in now.

Alice spoke calmly and grasped the door handle, opening it wide. To our surprise, the enormous monster we both expected didn’t appear. We were only greeted by a small, empty space.

—Huh? Nothing here? —Alice murmured with visible disappointment.

—I was nervous for no reason —I admitted aloud.

I exhaled in relief, though part of me remained on guard. My instincts told me we shouldn’t let our guard down so easily.

—This floor is different from the first —Alice observed with a thoughtful expression as she examined our surroundings.

—Maybe we can clear the second floor faster than the first —I suggested, analyzing the architecture of the place.

However, compared to the lower level, this one had a malicious air, and even its structure was completely different. The first floor was divided into four sections: north, south, east, and west, with rooms arranged like hallways; the second floor was simply split in half, with two doors separated by a central passage.

I observed the space we were in. The structure was relatively simple: a square hallway with numerous unknown objects accumulated over time. This room also had a side door leading to another passage. In other words, the room had three doors connecting to different corridors.

—In a way, this second floor might be simpler.

—Still, keep your guard up. Let’s start with the left side —Alice indicated with a sigh.

We advanced cautiously while meticulously examining our surroundings. A question had been lingering in my mind for a couple of hours, so I decided to approach Alice to ask it.

—Hey, Alice —I called, thinking about how I should phrase it.

—What do you want? —She stopped walking and turned to look at me. This time, she seemed slightly interested in hearing what I had to say.

—Do we really need to open all the doors on the second floor? —I asked, aware of the strategic implications of my question.

—Why the sudden question?

—I feel like we’re wasting time. Don’t you think it’d be much more efficient to just reach the other side of the hallway and head to the third floor?

What I was suggesting made sense from an optimization perspective. We shouldn’t forget that from the start, this mission had been a race against time: the longer we spent wandering, the more opportunity the evolutionary container would have to develop.

—Are you mentally challenged? —Alice snorted in response, her expression wavering between disbelief and irritation.

—W-what? —I stammered, taken aback by the vehemence of her reaction.

—How can you be sure the stairs are on the other side of the hallway? —She raised an eyebrow, annoyed.

I fell silent and lowered my gaze to the floor. My hypothesis, though logical, lacked absolute certainty. I couldn’t be completely sure of the stairs’ location.

—We’d have to check the whole place anyway if the stairs aren’t there —Alice continued, pointing out a flaw in my plan.

Besides, how could I be sure the evolutionary container was really on the third floor? What if it was hiding in one of the rooms on the second floor? If that were the case, heading straight to the third floor would be a waste of time and resources.

—Oh, I see! I was talking nonsense, sorry —I apologized with a nervous expression, recognizing the weakness in my reasoning.

—It’s fine —she replied simply, resuming our walk down the hallway.

When we reached the center of the corridor, I noticed something strange on the floor that made walking difficult.

—Uh… There’s a bunch of stuff on the ground. It’s awkward to walk —I commented, observing a large, strange circle drawn on the floor with pieces of bricks scattered randomly.

—Be careful, there might be bone fragments —Alice warned with a sidelong glance, her pretty face adorned with a slightly mocking smile.

Perhaps because I had apologized and acknowledged my mistake, her gaze now seemed softer and less aggressive. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that despite her difficult temperament, she was quite beautiful. We quickened our pace slightly and reached the main door in about five minutes.

—There aren’t as many rooms on this floor —Alice observed—. Let’s open the doors in this hallway one by one and then move to the other side’s passage after checking.

—Got it! —I nodded, mentally preparing for whatever we might find.