Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

After Wrik selected the Decrypt option, the crystal cube opened as a hole appeared in it. Wrik guessed it was the spot to put in the ruby. As he did that, and infused enough mana into it, the cube lit up again with blue light. 

[The Encryption is verifying the User Identity. Please wait a moment.]

[Verification confirmed. User is Wrik Everknight, the person this encryption was obliged to.]

"What is happening?" Anton asked. He could not see the message appearing in Wrik's omega widow, but he could guess Wrik was reading something.

"Wait a moment," Wrik said as he continued reading the notification.

[Proceeding to raise the security level of User Wrik Everknight to level 4.]

[The Level 4 Encryption on the account of User Wrik Evernight will take a couple of minutes. Please wait patiently.]

Wrik became bewildered. He could see it was raising his security level to level 4, but he didn't know why. Why would Lucas leave something like this? And the encryption was only happening in his Omega account. Anton was still clueless as before about what was happening.

The E.T.A finished in two minutes as the notification continued.

[Positive. User Wrik Everknight's security level has been raised to Level 4.]

[The current encryption is offline. User Wrik Knight can enable it whenever he likes.]

"What does that mean?" Wrik muttered. He could guess some benefit of the higher security level, but that was nothing concrete. He needed some details about it to confirm it. But he did not have the time to ponder long as an image of youth appeared above the cube.

"Hello, Wrik, and Ton if you are listening too," the youth said.

He was in his early twenties, with golden hair and a fairly handsome face. The golden hair and exterior had striking resemblances to their aunt Anna. Well, as it should be, it was her son, after all. The hologram image was none other than Lucas—their brother, who left for the tower without even saying a word to them. The current Lucas was taller than he used to be, even much muscular. He had always been the one among the three that work hardest on fitness.

"If you are hearing this message, then that means you guys chose the Tower," Lucas said smilingly on the hologram. "Well, I am not that surprised at that. How is it? Do you like it here? Well, I know you would not like it here. Well, if your answer was uncertain or the opposite, then that means you have not completed the first test yet. I won't say much about it. You guys need to experience it to understand."

Wrik picked up something from the phrases, but chose to rest that thought for now. It was not time for it yet. 

Lucas sighed, saying, "I really miss you guys."

Shaking his head twice, Lucas continued, "Wrik, I know you have a few questions about what just happened a moment ago. To say it in one word the level four encryption will help you to hide certain things from the Omeganet. It would be quite handy in many circumstances. Though you still need to be careful about using it, but don't worry, I left a proper explanation about it in the ruby. You can read it later." 

"What is he talking about? Anton asked. He had no clue about the matter, so it was natural to ask.

"I will tell you later," Wrik said, and gestured to the tiny hologram of Lucas. 

"We only have one encryption of this level left, so I decided to give it to you, Wrik. Well, one is enough for an entire group if you use it properly."

"Now, What I am going to tell you is a top-secret," Lucas said. Even though it was a recorded message, it looked like he was staring at the two of them straight. "You should not discuss it with anyone other than you two. Am I clear?"

Wrik looked at Anton, who squinted his nose before giving a nod.

"Alright then, first start out with Rita Inistler. It was the person who invited you two. As you may have learned, the tickets I have sent you were quite special, and I have no way to get my hands on them and that's when she came in. You guys don't need to be worried though, she could be said as related to our family. I can only say that much for now."

Wrik frowned, and so did Anton, but they did not have time to ponder on it as Lucas continued on his monologue. 

"Another matter. Do not search for her," Lucas said sternly. "You would not be able to find her, so it's better for you to wait for her to contact you. By the way, she left you guys with a hefty amount of credits as well, which could be of some use to you. It will drop just now." 

The moment Lucas finished saying that a message appeared in front of Wrik, almost made him smile silly.

[500000000 Omega credits have been credited to user Wrik Everknight.]

Wrik gasped for breath and heard Anton ask. 

"What happened? I got nothing. What about you?"

"Five hundred million," Wrik muttered, counting the zero's behind the five.

"What?"

"It is the amount that was just credited in my omega account," Wrik said. "Five hundred million omega credits."

Anton sucked in a frigid breath. 

"Don't get too excited though," Lucas continued. "Even though it is a hefty sum, it is only omega credits. Apparently, the council has tight security on omega points, so it would cause some issues to send them yet. Well, half a billion of Omega credits is a fair sum. It could be helpful to you guys till the twentieth floor.

"Now Wrik and Ton, with all these I left information about some tasks as well. Some of them were quite burdensome, some were quite deadly. The data was encrypted. Only Wrik had the access to open it. I won't pressure you to complete any of the tasks, all are totally on you."

Wrik furrowed his brows and decided to check what Lucas was talking about. He opened the window where the data was stored. A few tabs were opened immediately.

[INFO ON OMEGANET]

[INFO ON USING THE ENCRYPTION]

[GUIDE ON THE MAHA TOWER]

[GALA (10th Floor)]

[RAVANKA (20th floor)]

[EDEN (30th Floor)]

As far as Wrik could tell, those are the names of the cities in the tower, apart from the guides that were. Apparently, on every tenth floor, there was a big city, though he did not know the name of all he heard about Gala and Ravanka. Gala was the city where Byul used to live, and he heard about Ravanka from Evan.

"I left the data and the task in folders with the name of places," Lucas said. "You might check that out, now."

Wrik already did, so he waited for Lucas to continue, while Anton did not question this time. He knew all his questions would be answered later.

"You can see. I only left data till the thirtieth floor. Still, it was more than enough. By the time you guys reach the 30th floor, I might be able to meet you. For your information, when I recorded this message, I was in Ravanka, the twentieth floor.

"Well, let's not talk about that. Now I am going to unravel an enormous secret to you guys. A secret only very few people knew in the tower. Even mentioning this to anyone would lead to prison or death. So be sure to seal your lips well. And don't worry about me, my account is encrypted as well. The council would not get the tail of things if I do not want to let them know." 

Wrik frowned again. He anticipated what secret Lucas was about to unravel. As far as Wrik knew, Lucas would not mention anything like this if it was not severely important.

As the two of them anticipated, Lucas said again in a slow, quiet tone. 

"Wrik, did you see? The name of the city I left behind is on 10th, 20th, and 30th, while there is a city on the very first floor is missing. I intentionally did that, cause you will need to know nothing about it. You will understand after knowing the name of the city." Lucas paused for a second. "You very well know its name, though. Elania."

"What? That means . . ." Wrik startled even though he was expecting something huge. But he did not expect that. And the next words from Lucas confirmed what he was thinking.

"Yes, Elania is the city on the very first floor of the tower." Lucas continued. "We never came to the tower. It's just a big fat lie. Not just us. Nobody had entered the tower in the first place. We are living inside of it all of our lives without us knowing."

___________

End of the Chapter: The Lie. 

Next Chapter: Rigged.

This was the midpoint, counter attacks begin from the next chapter.