Tower of Paradise

Chapter 23: The tower of Paradise (2)

[You can only leave after meeting the conditions]

[Mission begins: 'Goblin Extermination']

When I finally could open my eyes, I found myself in an unknown place I had never seen before.

An intense glare pierced my eyes, making me instinctively frown. I felt a tingling in my eyes and my vision was trembling rapidly, as if I were making a high-altitude flight.

Fortunately, the motion sickness soon disappeared, allowing me to observe my surroundings with greater clarity.

The humid air felt heavy in my lungs, thickened by the smell of wet earth and dust, and my mouth was full of the taste of iron.

I found myself in a corridor running in a straight line. The walls, built with hard stone, extended on both sides.

The corridor stretched into darkness both left and right, decorated with lit torches placed sporadically in metal sconces. The flames seemed to be constantly on the verge of extinction, but remained lit, providing a dim but constant level of light in all directions.

The lighting was so scarce that I could barely distinguish objects a meter away. Beyond that point, everything merged into darkness.

How many people would have been deceived by this fantastic appearance, not knowing that it would lead them to death.

The Tower of Paradise was a place where everything could happen: trust, deception, faith, desire, desperation, joy, love, hate, fear... All of that converged here.

People had always gathered or united to climb it, since attempting it alone was, frankly, an exceptionally stupid and painful form of suicide.

My heart was beating rapidly, betraying my nervousness.

—It's just the first floor.

I muttered to myself, although I knew that courage was irrelevant in this place. Only someone completely unhinged, someone who didn't care about living or dying, would dare to enter alone and without skills into the Tower.

The trials varied from the second floor, but the first level's test was determined by its difficulty.

I had to acknowledge my fear of dying in vain, driven by my own greed. The darkness terrified me, and my mind was plagued with fragmented memories of my past.

Despite everything I had lived through until that moment, I still didn't feel mentally prepared. A bitter smile drew on my lips; I knew that more time would not have solved anything.

Entering the Tower alone and without skills... my fear was completely natural. I had no other option, I was a greedy bastard after all.

Reason and logic were screaming that this was suicide, but I had to believe in my survival skills.

This is the only way to strengthen myself quickly.

—Rrrrrrr......

The guttural sound it emitted made my blood run cold.

—Oh...

I mumbled while dragging myself across the floor, trying to quickly wrap my wounded arm to stop the bleeding.

The goblin didn't give me time to recover; it launched itself at me again, who was still in shock.

Its speed was impressive, nothing like what I had imagined.

I nervously swallowed saliva while rolling on the floor, knowing that at this rate, I would definitely end up dead.

By a stroke of luck, I tripped on a rock while rolling. My survival instinct activated, lifting my body and moving my hands to grab that rock firmly. I ran towards the goblin, letting out a desperate howl.

I threw the stone with all my strength, making the goblin's head bleed with a repugnant crunch.

The impact made it stagger when it screamed and fell to the ground, creating a perfect opportunity to finish it off.

—Die, die, die!

I desperately hit it with the same rock, thinking only of surviving.

Humans had always depended on tools.

—Die... bastard...

The monster continued fighting, making noises and trying to get up.

The more the goblin screamed, the more anxious I was to hit it with the stone.

Sweat and blood ran down my face while I hit, and hit, with all the strength I could gather.

The hardness of the rock overcame the resistance of its head, crushing it forcefully with blunt trauma. Blood gushed out, and with a slight growl, the goblin finally died.

A moment later, a vaguely familiar voice resonated in the air.

It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.

[You have killed a goblin (G)]