Floor 2, The Fork in the Road

When I opened my eyes, the arena above the lava came into view. The same place as the first floor.

Across from us, a dozen orcs stood waiting in formation.

One orc paladin in plate armor.

One orc mage in black robes.

Two orc warriors in chain mail.

Eight orc soldiers in leather armor.

I swept my eyes quickly over the enemy line. Two seconds were already gone. No time to waste.

The layout looked similar to the first floor at a glance — except now there were a mage and warriors added to the mix.

No assassins or archers, though. The only ranged threat was the single mage.

This was my first time facing a mage. I had no idea how it might attack, so I'd have to be careful.

Plan: take out the warriors first, then deal with the soldiers. And if the paladin wanted to hold off his big entrance like the one on the first floor had, I wouldn't complain.

I turned my gaze to Dobby standing behind me.

Dobby was leaning a greatsword bigger than his own body against the ground, his face frozen with fear.

On the first floor, the enemies hadn't attacked Dobby first — probably because he was a goblin like them.

Would the same hold true here? Probably not. The enemies were orcs this time, twelve of them.

Fighting while protecting Dobby would be hard.

Up until now, having a disciple had been a blessing. Right now, though, it just felt like dead weight I hadn't asked for.

So... what do I do?

Damn it. What else can I do? I protect him. That's it.

I couldn't just leave Dobby out in the open, banking on the slim, unlikely chance that these things would ignore him.

With the refreshed message, I took a step forward.

Planting myself in front of Dobby, I pulled my shield up to my chin and gripped the mace tight in my right hand.

Alright. Come at me.

...Why aren't they coming?

The orcs hadn't moved an inch. They just stood there. Confusing. What was going on?

The orc paladin in the center seemed just as thrown, glancing around in a panic.

"Attack! Attack, you fools! In the name of Kar-lein— gahk!"

Suddenly, the orc warrior standing behind the paladin drove a greatsword straight through his neck.

Crimson blood came gushing down through the seams of the paladin's gleaming silver plate armor.

"Grraaah... khh."

The warrior twisted the greatsword free from the collapsing paladin's body and fixed me with burning eyes.

What? What the hell is going on? Why is he killing his own teammate?

"...Liberator."

The orc warrior rasped out the word, then dropped to one knee. Like falling dominoes, the rest of the orcs followed him down, kneeling and facing me.

"The Liberator! We greet the Liberator!"

The kneeling warrior cried it out again, his voice trembling with emotion.

Liberator? Me? I had no clue what was happening anymore.

"Kkiik! Karakshi!"

"Karakshi?"

At Dobby's words, my eyes dropped to the mace in my hand. Lightning crackled along its surface.

I'd taken it from the orc great warrior Karakshi, sure enough.

'They did call it a hidden mission.'

I didn't know why, but it seemed that defeating Karakshi let you skip the boss room entirely.

No wonder they said it would be too hard.

So this was the second floor's hidden piece.

Huh? That's strange.

On the first floor, they'd clearly said achievement points would be settled before I was moved to the Waiting Room.

That was why I'd scrambled over to grab the shield, come to think of it...

Kugugugung—

The moment the message updated, the arena shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck.

I hastily ducked low and steadied my swaying center of gravity.

Behind the orc ranks, a massive boulder came surging up through the lava.

The Floor 2 boss room had just ended. So why was there a bridge now?

Orc Liberator? An elective hidden mission?

Apparently the equivalent of a chained quest in a game. Honestly, I wasn't exactly sure how it all worked.

'The one thing I do know is that clearing it counts as clearing Floor 3.'

All of this had come from Dobby and the lightning mace — from two hidden missions cleared.

Hidden missions were hard to find and hard to pull off, but the rewards were guaranteed.

'Will I be able to find a hidden mission on Floor 3 too?'

I'd found them on Floors 1 and 2, but neither had come easy.

On the first floor, it had been thanks to my own bleeding heart. On the second, thanks to Dobby.

Frankly speaking, the odds of stumbling into a hidden mission on Floor 3 weren't great.

So the only real question was whether I could clear the hidden mission 'Orc Liberator'.

It was a mission linked to Orc Great Warrior Karakshi.

Karakshi had been hard enough. A mission chained to him would almost certainly be harder.

Watching the nagging alert and the shrinking timer reminded me of the time I hadn't chosen the status window.

Back then, too, there had been the pushy message and the countdown...

— Elective Hidden Missions are generally more difficult than standard Hidden Missions.

The message that had flashed by moments ago suddenly resurfaced in my mind.

Generally. If it was generally difficult, then for me, maybe it wouldn't be.

'Hard to trust, this Tower of Trials.'

The Tower was never forthcoming. Not with Dobby, not with Karakshi.

It always seemed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be trying to trick us.

If I'd let Dobby die, or taken the right path because of the trap, I never would have found the hidden mission.

The pressure to open the status window in the first-floor Waiting Room had been a deception too.

Fine. Let's do it. High risk, high return anyway.

Clearing the hidden mission would work in my favor. There was no guarantee I'd find another one on Floor 3.

"Let's go."

The orcs remained kneeling, utterly motionless.

"Kkiik! Goblin! We go!"

I ignored the dwindling time and started walking toward the far side. Dobby scrambled after me, dragging his sword along the ground.

Just as I thought — another of the Tower's games.

Crossing the boulder bridge over the lava, I walked through a corridor of stone walls and encountered not a single trap.

Instead, the path split in two.

Down the right fork stretched a passage much like the one we'd been walking.

Down the left fork... an orc bigger than Karakshi was holding up an enormous round boulder.

Both legs braced back as if shoving the rock upward, the muscles of his arms swollen to bursting.

It wasn't a slope but flat ground, and yet the giant orc strained against a giant boulder — and neither the rock nor the orc budged even an inch.

It was a scene I couldn't make sense of.

'Does the boulder roll even on flat ground?'

It was possible. I'd already seen plenty of inexplicable sights inside the Tower.

If that boulder could roll even on level ground, then the moment the orc let go, we'd be in danger too.

'That orc probably isn't an enemy.'

It was purely a gut feeling, but the air around him didn't read as hostile.

So what was this hidden mission, 'Orc Liberator'?

The alert window offered no explanation at all.

No instruction to kill anything, no task to complete.

Just in case, I approached deliberately, letting my footsteps be heard.

At the sound, the giant orc turned his head just slightly, glanced at me, and turned his gaze forward again.

Unlike before, no alert window appeared.

Orc Great Warrior Karakshi hadn't come with an explanation either, but at least his name had shown up...

"...Li...bera...tor."

A cracked, rough, parched voice.

The orc spoke in a rasp that sounded like what you'd get after decades of never opening your mouth.

What on earth was a "liberator" supposed to be?

Back in the boss room, those orcs had called me liberator while running a sword through their own paladin's neck.

Had these orcs, like the goblins, lost their god? Was I supposed to help them too?

"...Could you hold... this up, for a moment? I... would like to rest... a while."

The orc's voice trembled, as though he were fighting with everything he had just to hold the boulder back.

It was a pitiful sight — but I had no intention of taking that thing off his hands.

He probably wasn't an enemy, but who knew what kind of mess I'd be signing up for.

"Who are you?"

"Fa... rak... tus."

"Are you an enemy?"

"No."

"Then couldn't you just let go of the boulder and duck down the other fork?"

"If... I do... I lose... everything."

"What does that mean?"

Farakus gave no answer.

Lose everything? What was that supposed to mean? Couldn't he just get out of the way?

The more I thought about it, the stranger it seemed. He only needed to drop the rock and take the other path.

And the reason he needed me to hold the boulder in his place was that he'd "lose everything"?

Was Farakus, along with this whole "liberator" business, just another trial the Tower was laying out for me?

Using the good faith of those orcs from moments ago as bait?

"Why should I trust you?"

Still no answer.

I glanced at Dobby, wondering if he might offer some insight, but Dobby had clamped his mouth shut as though something had struck him, staring at Farakus in silence.

"Dobby?"

He didn't answer either.

What was this? Why had both of them suddenly gone quiet?

"Could I go check the right path first, and then come back and take the boulder from you?"

My mind spun fast. If the answer was to not help him, then there'd be no need to come back.

But if it was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the opposite — if I was supposed to help Farakus —

Could I go down the right path and make it back within forty minutes?

Dobby and Farakus both stayed silent, as if under some spell. It felt like the Tower had engineered this situation deliberately.

This fork was a crossroads with no way back.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

'Left, or right.'

Whether the hidden mission succeeded would hang on my choice.

Every now and then, a moment comes when something simply feels certain. And this was that moment.

"That boulder — you want me to hold it in your place? It looks heavy."

"...Fuck."

Right. I'll hold it. If Farakus attacked me, I could always dive down the other fork.

Carefully, I stepped up beside Farakus and laid my hands on the boulder.

No weight yet.

I stole a glance at Farakus, and a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

Damn it. Please don't let this be the wrong choice.

The instant Farakus cautiously released his grip — a crushing, colossal ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weight bore down on me. Every muscle in my body locked tight.

A weight I could barely hold through sheer, desperate effort.

Even turning my head to the side or parting my lips took everything I had.

Since Farakus — bigger than me — had strained like that too, the boulder's weight probably shifted to match the limit of whoever was holding it.

Damn it. Now I understood why Farakus's voice had trembled so badly.

"My thanks, Liberator."

In a voice worn completely hoarse, Farakus spoke with unmistakable relief.

I wanted to ask how long he planned to rest, but I couldn't open my mouth. One wrong move and I felt like the boulder would sweep me away.

"A moment. Just a moment. Hold it just like that. Do not let go. Absolutely do not!"

Farakus's voice was desperate, pleading.

"Child of Fenrike, we go."

"Kkiik!"

Go? Go where?

My head was spinning. For an instant I nearly lost ground to the boulder. I poured strength back into my whole body.

Separate from all that, I could hear Farakus's and Dobby's footsteps receding clearly down the right-hand fork, ringing sharp in my ears.