Chapter 80 – Questions Without Answers

The journey away from the canyon felt quieter than usual.
Not because they were tired.
Not because they lacked things to discuss.
Quite the opposite.
All four had too many questions.
The problem was that nobody possessed any answers.

The strange crystal creature remained fresh in their minds.
Especially the word it had spoken.
Keeper.

Mira had brought it up three times already.
“What if it was talking to you?”
“It probably was.”
Kael answered while walking.

Mira blinked.
“You admit that surprisingly easily.”

Kael shrugged.
“It looked at me.”
“Fair.”

Aerin rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“But why?”

Nobody answered.
Because nobody knew.

The mysterious man walked quietly beside them.
Unlike Mira and Aerin, he seemed more interested in observing Kael’s reactions than discussing the creature itself.
A habit she had started noticing.
Not in an uncomfortable way.
Just… curious.

As if he was trying to solve a puzzle.
And Kael happened to be the puzzle.

Three days passed.
The floor slowly revealed more of its secrets.
Ancient roads.
Broken structures.
Collapsed underground passages.
Ruins filled the landscape.

Yet what interested Kael most wasn’t the architecture.
It was the pattern.

Every major ruin seemed connected.

Not physically.
Conceptually.

The same symbols appeared repeatedly.
The same circular designs.
The same strange markings she had begun collecting inside her notebook.

One evening she spread her notes across the ground.
Mira leaned closer.
Aerin followed.
The mysterious man sat opposite her.

“You’ve been drawing these for weeks.”
Mira pointed toward one of the symbols.
“What do they mean?”

“No idea.”

“Then why keep drawing them?”

Kael looked down at the notebook.

“Because they keep appearing.”

That was reason enough.

She had long learned something important about the Tower.
Things repeated for a reason.
Patterns existed for a reason.
Nothing appeared randomly.

Unfortunately understanding those reasons was another matter entirely.

The next morning they resumed exploration.
By now they had nearly completed their map of the floor.
Only a few regions remained unexplored.

One of those regions turned out to be a mistake.

A huge mistake.

The area looked harmless enough.
A forest.
Dense vegetation.
Nothing unusual.

Then the trees started moving.

Aerin reacted first.
His sword appeared instantly.

“Those aren’t trees.”

“No.”
The mysterious man agreed.
“They aren’t.”

Roots exploded from the ground.
Massive wooden limbs tore through the forest floor.
Entire trees unfolded into towering monsters.

Mira’s face immediately twisted.
“I officially hate this floor.”

The battle began.

The monsters weren’t individually powerful.
The problem was their numbers.

Dozens.

They emerged from every direction.
Surrounding them.
Cutting off escape routes.

For nearly an hour Team Snail fought continuously.

Aerin’s skill activated repeatedly.
His stamina burned rapidly.
Yet every swing crushed multiple enemies.

Mira remained focused on support.
Healing.
Watching.
Protecting.

Kael moved constantly.
Observing.
Analyzing.
Finding weaknesses.

The mysterious man fought more than usual.
Perhaps because even he realized the situation could become troublesome if ignored.

Eventually the forest fell silent again.

Broken wooden bodies covered the ground.

Mira collapsed against a tree.
Breathing heavily.

“I miss wolves.”

Aerin laughed.
“You hated wolves.”

“At least wolves stayed wolves.”

Nobody argued.

That evening while preparing camp, Kael noticed something strange.
Again.

Not from the monsters.
Not from the shard.

From the floor itself.

The moment she finished placing the final support for their shelter, a sudden gust of wind appeared.

Only around her.

The wind lasted perhaps two seconds.
No more.

Yet it carried something.
A sound.

Almost like a whisper.

Too faint to understand.
Too brief to catch.

Kael immediately looked around.
Nothing.

No reaction from Aerin.
No reaction from Mira.
No reaction from the mysterious man.

They hadn’t heard it.

Her hand tightened slightly.

The Tower again.

Something was happening.
Something she still couldn’t explain.

But unlike before, she no longer believed it was coincidence.

The problem was deciding what to do about it.

Because if she couldn’t understand it herself—
How could she possibly explain it to anyone else?

Days later, they finally completed the map of the thirty-fourth floor.

A rare accomplishment.
Even by Team Snail standards.

Mira stretched dramatically.
“So.”

Aerin looked toward the distant mountains.
“So.”

The mysterious man smiled faintly.
“So.”

All three looked toward Kael.

She closed her notebook.
Examined the completed map.
Then nodded.

“Time to move.”

The entrance test for the thirty-fifth floor awaited.
And somewhere beyond it—
The fifth shard.

Only one piece after that.
One final piece.

The thought alone was enough to motivate everyone.

As they followed the path toward the test area, none of them noticed a figure standing atop a distant cliff.
Watching.

Not a monster.
Not a climber.

A silhouette.

It observed Team Snail for several moments.
Its gaze lingering longest on Kael.

Then it disappeared.
Like mist.

Leaving behind only one quiet sentence carried away by the wind.

“You’re finally getting close.”