Chapter 74 – Echoes Above

The thirty-first floor turned out to be much larger than Team Snail had expected.
The invisible bridge had only been the beginning.
Beyond it stretched valleys filled with giant trees, rivers wider than roads, and creatures that seemed to belong to an entirely different world than the lower floors.
Even after several days of exploration, Kael’s map remained unfinished.
Which annoyed her.
Not because she disliked the work.
Because she liked understanding things.
The more she climbed, the more she realized how little she understood about the Tower.
And lately, the Tower seemed determined to remind her of that fact.

Three days after crossing the canyon, Team Snail encountered another group of climbers.
It happened unexpectedly.
Aerin was scouting ahead when he suddenly returned at full speed.
“People.”
Mira immediately stood.
“Friendly people?”
“I don’t know.”
“That’s not comforting.”
Aerin scratched his cheek.
“They haven’t attacked me yet.”
“That is slightly more comforting.”

When they finally met, both sides stopped several meters apart.
The other team consisted of six climbers.
All adults.
All experienced.
The youngest looked older than Kael.
The oldest had enough scars to make Aerin stare.
Unlike most teams they had encountered before, these climbers didn’t laugh.
Didn’t mock.
Didn’t smirk.
Instead, they looked surprised.
One of them narrowed his eyes.
“You’re Team Snail.”
Mira sighed dramatically.
“Here we go.”
To her surprise, the man shook his head.
“I thought you’d be weaker.”
Aerin grinned.
“I get that a lot.”
“No.”
The climber studied them carefully.
“I mean much weaker.”

The conversation remained polite.
Short.
Professional.
The way climbers often spoke on higher floors.
Less pride.
Less boasting.
More caution.
Everyone up here had survived long enough to understand how dangerous the Tower truly was.
One wrong mistake could erase years of experience.

Before leaving, one of the older climbers offered a warning.
“Be careful ahead.”
Kael looked up.
“Why?”
The climber hesitated.
Then answered.
“Something is changing.”
That got everyone’s attention.
“What kind of change?” Mira asked.
The man shook his head.
“We don’t know.”
His expression darkened.
“Monsters are moving strangely.”
Aerin frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means creatures that should stay in one region are appearing in another.”
The climber looked genuinely troubled.
“We’ve never seen it before.”

The warning remained in their minds long after the team departed.
Especially Kael.
Because she had already noticed unusual things.
Rules changing.
Patterns shifting.
Tests becoming inconsistent.
And the strange creatures that seemed to appear only around her.
The pieces were beginning to form a picture.
Unfortunately—
She still couldn’t see the whole image.

Two days later, they found another mystery.
A ruin.
Ancient.
Massive.
Buried beneath roots and stone.
Unlike the ruins on lower floors, this one appeared intentionally hidden.
The entrance was almost impossible to notice.
Aerin only found it because he accidentally kicked part of a collapsed wall.
Mira immediately became excited.
“There could be treasure.”
“There could be monsters.”
“There could be treasure monsters.”
“That’s worse.”

The ruin descended deep underground.
Their torches illuminated faded carvings covering the walls.
Most had become impossible to read.
Time had erased them.
Yet some symbols remained visible.
Kael carefully copied them into her notebook.
The mysterious man watched her work.
“You always do that.”
She didn’t look up.
“Do what?”
“Write things down.”
“Things are easier to remember when they’re written.”
A faint smile appeared on his face.
“You say that every time.”
“Because it’s true.”

The deeper they traveled, the stranger the carvings became.
Not monsters.
Not battles.
Not heroes.
Instead, they showed people.
Thousands of them.
Standing beneath a giant sphere floating above the sky.
Mira tilted her head.
“What’s that supposed to be?”
Nobody answered.
Yet something about the image felt familiar.
Especially to Kael.
She couldn’t explain why.
But her eyes kept returning to the sphere.
Again.
And again.
And again.

Eventually they reached the center of the ruin.
A circular chamber.
Empty except for a single stone monument.
At first glance it seemed ordinary.
Then Kael noticed something.
Written near the base.
A sentence.
Ancient.
Barely readable.
Yet somehow she understood it.
Not perfectly.
Only fragments.
But enough.
Her expression changed.
“What?”
Mira immediately noticed.
Kael stared at the words.
“…Nothing.”
That answer convinced nobody.

After everyone went to sleep that night, Kael secretly opened her notebook.
She copied the sentence again.
Carefully.
Word by word.
Then stared at it.
The translation wasn’t complete.
But parts made sense.
The Tower remembers.
That much she understood.
The second line was harder.
Most of it had been destroyed.
Only a few words remained.
…waiting for…
…its owner…
Kael stared at the sentence for a very long time.
Then slowly closed the notebook.
She told herself it was meaningless.
Just another ruin.
Just another mystery.
Yet sleep came much later than usual.

Meanwhile, far away from Team Snail—
In the real world—
The rumors had changed.
Again.

A crowded guild hall buzzed with conversation.
“They’re dead.”
“No confirmation.”
“It’s been months.”
“So?”
“So nobody spends that long in the Tower.”
A nearby climber snorted.
“They’re Snail.”
The table erupted into laughter.

Not everyone laughed.
One older climber quietly listened from a corner.
A former explorer.
Someone who had once reached the twenty-third floor.
Someone who knew how dangerous the Tower truly was.
Eventually he spoke.
“They’re alive.”
The table turned toward him.
“How do you know?”
“The guild licenses.”
That answer silenced them.
Nobody could argue.
If Team Snail had died, the guild would know.

The old climber took a sip of his drink.
Then smiled slightly.
“You know what’s funny?”
“What?”
“Everyone keeps assuming they’re weak.”
The room became quiet.
The old man looked toward the Tower visible through the distant window.
A giant shadow stretching into the heavens.
Then he chuckled.
“If they’re still alive after all this time…”
His eyes narrowed.
“…maybe we’ve all been wrong.”

Back on the thirty-first floor, Team Snail remained completely unaware of the growing discussions surrounding them.
They spent another week exploring.
Training.
Learning.
Growing stronger.
Just as they always had.
And somewhere ahead—
Far above them—
The thirty-fifth floor waited.
Along with another shard.
And answers that none of them were prepared to receive.