[System]
[Welcome to the first floor of the Spiral of Chaos.]
[Floor 1: Sanctuary of the Heavens]
Kealo's pupils widened as he saw this system prompt, but in front of him there was nothing but darkness.
'So it seems mortals can enter the first Floor of the Spiral of Chaos.'
Kealos thought in his mind as he pondered over the information he had read before in the village.
'Floors contain mysteries unknown to mortals, but it's commonly agreed that each floor is extremely huge, containing many supplies but also dangers.'
Kealso thought for a moment before looking at the Floor's name, "Sanctuary of the Heavens." If the Floor has the word Sanctuary in it, it should mean that it's relatively safe to enter. Since it allows Mortals to enter freely on the first Floor, what about the second or third Floor?
Kealos soon dispelled his thoughts as the darkness quickly dispelled, leaving a scene that shocked the breath out of Kealos.
'How did I end up here?'
Kealos knew that he went through a door into pitch darkness but didn't know how he suddenly appeared here, turning around he looked at the direction that he originally came from, and as soon as he did, cold chills ran down his spine.
What he saw was a massive pillar extending to the sky, a dark stone pillar that stood there as if observing every action that was done. But suddenly Kealos felt something wrong, something that he had instinctively ignored for a while.
There was sunlight. Kealos knew for sure that he was in the Spiral, which lay underground, so why was there sunlight? Along with that, he could feel the cool breeze and the bright blue sky hovering over him. Kealos felt deeply confused as he kept gazing at his surroundings.
He seemed to be in a grassy plain, with nothing but nature that he could see in sight; he was all alone by himself on this floor. Kealos' face paled as he suddenly glanced at the distant horizon; he felt his mouth go dry as he glared at thousands of the same massive pillars extending to the sky. Kealos felt a deep shiver in his body as he watched this extraordinary sight.
Surrounding him, there were thousands of the same pillars around him. But around some of those pillars he saw small villages gathering around the pillars. Unlike his, which was completely empty and devoid of life aside from Kealos himself, around the other pillars he could see life.
Conflicted, Kealos didn't know what to do just yet. Thoughts of going back to the surface and exploring the Spiral and floor another day have become apparent. Although Kealos wanted to chase excitement, he was by no means naive. Kealos knew the risk of exploring this area alone; perhaps there wasn't any apparent dangers now, but who knows what could happen in the future
"So the main problem is, how can I get back to the surface?" Kealos pondered to himself
Feeling like the pillar had something to do with this fact, Kelaos slowly walked up to the pillar, examining it and being extremely cautious. Kealos walked around the entire pillar; the size of the pillar was comparable to the size of a house, except that it extended all the way to the sky.
After completely walking around the pillar once, Kealos felt conflicted; there didn't seem to be a door like the one that he came from, nor were there any types of cracks or anything wrong with it. After not seeing anything for a while, Kealos thought for a while before carefully touching it, thinking that something might happen, to his surprise, something did happen.
[System]
[Floor 0: Aloria]
[Floor 1: Sanctuary of the Heavens]
[Floor 2: ???]
[Floor 3: ???]
[…]
Kealos felt surprised as a new tab within the system suddenly appeared, allowing Kilos to see the different floors of this world. Trying to figure out what he could do with this new tab, Kelaos tried clicking on Floor 0 to see if it would do anything.
[System]
[You have selected Floor 0: Aloria.]
[Would you like to advance to the floor?]
[Yes/No]
Surprising Kelaos once again, he found that he could now choose which floor to move to. Quickly choosing yes, the system screen in front of him disappeared as he heard a loud moving sound.
On the stone pillar where his hand was touching, the stone started to part ways; eventually, what was left was a small, narrow pathway for him to walk into the spiral. Summoning his courage, Kelaos slowly but carefully started to walk inside the Spiral.
As he walked further and further inside, the light that was there before slowly started to disappear, and like before, he couldn't see anything, but very soon he felt himself re-entering the same area where he had come from.
Kealos found himself back in the Flat area where he had first entered the Spiral. Looking behind him, Kealos once again saw the same door. But following his original goal, Kelaos chose to walk up the steps instead.
As Kealos slowly walked up the steps, time slowly passed, after a bit, Kealos stopped as he breathed heavily.
"What the hell? How long does this take until I reach the surface?" Kelaos, he said to himself angrily.
Kealos could feel his thighs burning in pain; looking behind him, he could see the endless amount of steps he had already taken, but in front of him there seemed to be even more. Gritting his teeth, Kealos kept on walking up as sweat dripped from his forehead.
…
Troy felt a warm sensation on his face as he slowly opened his eyes. A bright shining light suddenly appeared in his vision as he closed his eyes in pain.
"That's bright; is it already morning?"
Looking around, Troy felt calm before remembering the events that had occurred yesterday, anxiety and pain filling his mind as he breathed in heavily. Tory slowly tried to calm himself down as he looked around the room but found something wrong.
"Kealos woke up already? That's weird; he tends to sleep in…"
Troy slowly stood up from his bed, and as he found some clothes, he threw them on. Walking outside, he walked around the house but couldn't find any signs of jealousy; instead, he found Kayle in the kitchen cooking up some breakfast.
"Good morning."
Troy walked up to Kayla as he talked to Kayla.
Turning around, Kayla greeted Troy with bags under her eyes, clearly not having slept well yesterday.
"Morning, Troy, do you think you could wake everyone else up?"
Nodding, Troy walked out of the kitchen as he approached another room, slowly opening the door.
Inside the room were three young boys. The room was extremely small, only having a small closet where they had their clothes and a triple bunk bed where the three brothers slept.
On the top of the bunk bed was the oldest of the three brothers, Zane Stoneheart, at thirteen years old. Among the three brothers, he was the hardest-working one and the one that didn't mess around as often as the others. Of course that didn't mean he was completely trouble-free, but he didn't get in as much trouble as the others.
In the middle of the triple bunk bed lay Cole Stoneheart; among the three brothers, he was the middle child and was twelve years old. Among the three brothers, he was the one that often didnt talk much and often got made fun of by the other brothers but still caused trouble from time to time.
On the bottom bunk was the youngest of the three brothers, Blake Stoneheart, at ten years old. By far the most energetic and problematic person among the three brothers, but also the most problematic within the entire family.
Troy stood in the room pondering how he should wake the three brothers up. Quickly thinking of an idea, Troy walked over to the triple bunk bed as he cleared his throat and shouted,
"WAKE UP!"
Jumping, the oldest brother sat straight up but accidentally bumped his head onto the ceiling as he winced in pain, clearly confused on what just happened
The middle brother also had a similar reaction to Zane, also sitting up in confusion and bumping his head on the wooden layer of the bunkhead on top of him.
As for the youngest brother, Blake, he was so startled by the sudden shout that he accidentally fell out of bed. Rubbing his back, Blake looked at Troy with glaring eyes as he tried to stand up.
"What do you think you're doing, Troy?" Blake asked with an annoyed tone
"Waking you sleepyheads up, of course." Troy responded with a snort
Without saying anything else, Troy walked out of the room as the three brothers glared at Troy with an angry gaze. After a bit, the three brothers eventually calmed down as they mumbled in anger while getting ready for the day
"I was only going to sleep for five minutes more…"
"Didn't have to wake us up like that…"
"B*stard…"
Walking out of the room, Troy walked back to the kitchen as he talked with Kayla for a bit longer.
"Do you know where Kealos went?" Troy asked while helping make breakfast.
"I thought he was still sleeping like usual. I mean, isn't that what he always does?" Kayla asked back with a confused tone
"That's what I thought too, but when I woke up earlier, he was already gone, which really isn't like him."
Kayla fell silent as she tried to think of where Kealos might have went, after staying silent for a bit longer, Kayla eventually thought of another idea.
"Maybe he went to town to see the village doctor? I mean, he seemed to be pretty shocked with the news that appeared yesterday…."
Kayla's voice trailed off as she reminded herself of the news that the family had received yesterday. Her mood suddenly fell as she fell into deep silence. Because of this, Kayla and Troy finished preparing the rest of the breakfast in silence while each having their own thoughts.
Eventually breakfast was completed right as the three brothers walked out of their room, all dressed and ready to work. Looking around, the three brothers saw Kayla and Troy but didn't see Kealos.
"Hey, where's Kealos?" Zane asked in a confused voice.
"He went off on a small trip to the village." Troy responded while making a small lie, but even Troy himself did not know where Kealos went.
"Thats weird; I've never seen Kealos up this early before…" The three brothers muttered while thinking to themselves, clearly not expecting this first thing in the morning.
As the three brothers eventually sat down, they all had breakfast together as they talked over what they had to do today. For breakfast the family had a simple meal: homemade bread with some fresh-made strawberry jelly that was grown on the farm.
As the family finished breakfast, Troy and Kayla stayed behind to talk while Zane, Cole, and Blake left to work on the farm.
"…"
Troy and Kayla fell silent as they looked at each other for a bit.
"I'll take mom to see the village doctor and get some more information." Kayla said with a grim tone
Troy nodded as he replied back
"I'll go look around to see if I can find Kealos; after that I'll work with him and finish some farm work."
Nodding, the two each made their plans and split up, Troy heading straight for the village while Kayla cleaned up the rest of the table and helped her mother get up.
…
"Thud-thud-thud" The sound of hooves hitting the ground echoed within the silent forest. A group of horses, each carrying a heavily armed person, traversed through the forest.
"How is it looking over there?" An old man asked the person next to him
This old man led the charge, standing proudly with his back straight and his head held high. He had a flag protruding out of his silver armor in the back.
The person next to him, who carried an extremely mysterious artifact, responded immediately
"Commander, it's showing that we are approaching the intended distance. According to our estimations, we should arrive in a couple of hours."
Without responding, the commander looked around before thinking, quickly making up his mind, and shouting to the group.
"We'll pick up our pace and arrive as soon as possible. This is a great opportunity for us to be promoted if we do well on this mission!"
Quickly the words filled the minds of the fellow soldiers as motivation surged in their hearts. Before long all of the soldiers replied in a resounding tone
"Yes, sir!"
…
Within a Spiral, a young man had his hands on his knees as he cursed out in pain.
"What the actual f*ck? Why are there so many stairs? My legs are going to snap before I make it out to the surface…."