Chapter 17: Freedom?

Chapter 17: Freedom?

The ride through the kingdoms vast fields was unbearably uneventful. This was the eighth day already and nothing noteworthy had happened. She stopped in a few villages to refill her provisions on the way and that was it. Riding a horse seriously sucks, Sofia thought, as she pulled on the reins. The sky was overcast and a small drizzle had started falling. And now its raining too! And my ass hurts! Ill get to this tower out there and Im done for the day.

The horse trotted towards the decrepit stone edifice. It wasnt the first building of this kind Sofia had passed by, relics of an era long past. Most people wouldnt go near ruins like these, and thats exactly why I like them.

This tower in particular looked to be in decent shape, the ceiling was even still there, which was a first for such old ruins as far as she was concerned. Maybe I can loot some interesting stuff in there? I hope no one lives here or itll be awkward.

Towers like these were usually built by mages and warlocks, in a bid to flatter their ego and protect the secrecy of their research. It had fallen out of favor with the rise of the magic academies, now they were treated like places best left alone. After all, nobody knew what crazy experiments or deadly magical traps could still be active in there. And most things of value would have long rotted away on the corpse of whoever built the ugly phallic stone pile.

Sofia jumped down from the horse and tied it to a tree near the towers foot.

Lets see what we have here. She circled the tower but found no door. All walls were overgrown by long thorny ivy. There were windows on the upper floors but no entrance in sight near the base.

Whats the deal with this tower, no door? She wondered what kind of psychopath would build a place with no entrance. Is there an underground passage somewhere? Sofia looked around but there weren't many things nearby except large trees.

Wait, the hero, whats his name, Mike? He could teleport through walls, maybe thats what this is, she mused, thinking back to the affable guy in black. Sofia walked around the tower one last time.

Ah, fuck it. She activated her bone armor for the first time since she left the church. Her vision was reduced to two thin horizontal stripes. Oh thats like a bascinet isnt it? I cant remove it but maybe I can open the visor, she thought as she probed the helmet at every angle with her armored hands. Found it! There were latching hooks on both sides under the jaw, after undoing them the visor could be opened by sliding it down in front of the neck. Much better.

The armor was surprisingly waterproof. It was made of an assembly of bone pieces slid one under the other, the rain sliding on it like it was fish scales. It was a clean armor without any unnecessary parts, purely functional, and completely white. Sofia observed her arms and gauntlets. Its not obvious that its bone, it looks more like stone or something like that.

Interestingly, the armor appeared above her clothes but under the backpack and belts.

She propped open the window behind her to let at least some light go through, it took a few seconds for her eyes to adapt to the ambient darkness.

[You have entered the dungeon : Ritual Spire - Lv. 50+]

Really? Hmm thats a good opportunity to try and get to 70 to get two more keywords, it would be nice to fill up my active skills. The thing is, I dont have a weapon and my skeleton is back in Einsen She observed the place she had landed in, the whole floor was a single circular room.

A small table, one chair, a fireplace, bookshelves awkwardly placed against the circular walls, the place was pretty empty and dusty. It all looks old and moldy. At least everything is still holding on. The floor especially is in reassuringly good shape. No spiderwebs anywhere, weird, perhaps its because its a dungeon.

Sofia looked around but there was nothing salvageable, the books even crumbled when she touched them. Guess the stairs it is, up or down? She hesitated right until she looked at the floor below, it was in total darkness. I wonder whats up there. The stairs cracked a bit as she stepped on them. Ill re-activate the slow fall ring Just to be safe. Though the armor doesnt help, no way Im taking it off.

The windows on the next floor werent as dirty and there was already enough light to inspect the place. This was more living space, a large bed collapsed in on itself took up most of the space, along with a bed trunk and two massive wooden closets. Hey! Found a few gold coins, thats like twenty of them, not bad. This dungeons looking pretty peaceful for now.

She searched the place and left for the next floor. Should be the fifth floor I think. Whoever lived here loved their books She thought as she absentmindedly stared at piles and piles of books. There was nothing else there but dust and piled books, ready to crumble at the lightest touch.

This is all trash the paper is like old dead leaves. Literal dust sheets.

She would feel bad about the wasted opportunity of not being able to read them but they were all written in a language she didn't recognize anyway. The words on the covers looked more like wavy scribbles than words using actual letters.

Sofia went up the stairs to the sixth floor. This was a 'richly' decorated desk area. Or what was left of it. There was 'someone' at the desk.

Looks like I found the owner of the place.