"Okay, Oro. I've done everything I can. You should be able to use your arm, but… I can't say the pain will ever go away. The nerve damage is likely permanent. The most I can do now, after so much time has passed, is occasionally help you with the pain. Pain killers would've been more viable than that momentary fix, though."
"Ha! Don't lose sleep over, Esme. This fat bastard can use a little bit of pain once in a while. It's good for his health."
"Yeah? I've got a mouth that can speak for itself, you sly prick! How about you go make sure our lovely wall doesn't get a hole blown through it by that spear thrower, huh?"
"Thankfully, all those Knights are really good at doing the job I was doing, with twice the efficiency! Now that we've gotten some structure, I'm finally able to take a break. You can't begin to understand how terrible it is trying to compete with that thing. Especially now that it's begun throwing two spears instead of one."
Oro rolled his eyes, scoffing as Taivat shifted the focus onto himself. "Right, right. I'm sorry that your defensive power is being used so defensively, o' venerable Taivat." Feigning formality, the round man cackled at his own humor.
Grinning from ear-to-ear, Taivat laughed at his friend's humor too.
Despite their banter, Taivat was truly happy to see that his friend had been healed by Esme. Oro had been left worse for wear by Asteria's attack. She'd completely torn the limb from his body, and if not for Hiel's quick thinking, the man might've bled to death long before Esme could recover and get to him. There were other healers who quickly tended to him once they were transported.
Shockingly, Esme possessed the most potent healing ability out of all of them. All the rest could do was delay or potentially seal the wound. In Esme's case, she had expended enough effort to regrow the limb overtime. Unfortunately, that still had its limits.
Although a new limb had taken the place of the one he lost, Oro was not freed from the agony he'd been subjected to. As a matter of fact, the regrown limb constantly tormented him, sending throbbing, agonizing sensations through the point where the limb had grown from. Nerve damage. He'd been subjected to it at the worst time, but he was grateful to possess the limb again.
Worthy didn't speak it out loud, since there was not an opportunity he could think of where it'd be fitting, but he was glad the man was alright too. Having seen how much he suffered on the trip across the city, and how he was targeted because of his ability to discern Furfur's thralls, it left an unsatisfying taste in the child's mouth. Oro was the only other person who'd noticed that Asterie was strange, and he suffered the consequences for it.
'It's a shame she can't heal mental injuries. That fight… Man, I can't remember what memories I lost for the life of me.'
Worthy had lost two memories, according to Alice. He hadn't gotten the opportunity to ask her what those two memories were. Also, he had no means of determining if her avatar could recall the lost memories either. She could've merely been aware of the vacancies in his mind where slots of memories used to occupy. Regardless of the method she went about learning these things, it didn't matter in the present. Worthy had no means of communicating with Alice.
Influenced by the divine ichor of the Lord of Hope, Worthy's mind had undergone tremendous changes in a short span of time. He wasn't equipped with the facilities to practice manipulating his mind, nor did he think he would be able to. However, he did know that a great capacity for learning came as a result of indirectly taking in the blood through his Reward.
Collecting knowledge and enlightening himself was easy, much easier now than it'd been before. With his heightened senses and new mental capabilities, he was able to grasp the situation even if no one told him. The rumors being spread, as well as War's own words, proved to the child that there was really nothing more that they could do in regards to their situation.
>>><<<
Circumstances improved after the first few days of the city traveling.
The neverending wave of monsters didn't retreat. However, the number of overall abominations had clearly dwindled considerably with the loss of the closest mountains producing the monsters. Now that the most among them were taken care of, the Climbers managed to find time to regroup and go over everything that happened. Heavens knew that the thousands of men and women that were abruptly transported into a fight for their lives needed it.
At first, people were rightfully upset. They had been in the middle of things before getting transported. Some of them stubbornly believed that they were getting close to escaping, had it not been for them being transported to the Prime Settlement.
Quickly, the reality of their situation dawned upon them and put an end to those ignorant thoughts. There was nothing at all for them to find out there in the wasteland. Every unnecessary battle they took in hopes of seeking out a gateway was for nothing, and any life they lost while doing so was for naught. There was not an easy way of taking all that in, but they didn't have a choice now.
None of them knew the reason behind their sudden transportation was Worthy. He had no intention of explaining that to anyone either.
Expectedly, the Climbers eventually came to terms with their new situation, though. They'd been transported, but everyone ended up in the same location. This was more beneficial to them than searching for parties to climb together with.
There had never been a combined force this massive in the history of the tower. A Prime Settlement, a city, was moving and going towards the final gateway of the First Floor. Whatever rested ahead of them would be dangerous. Collaborating would be mandatory, because being alone would mean dying to whatever horrible wave of beasts were going to come next.
Moreover, more importantly than the fact that they were together, they all had the same goal in the end. Climbing. Everyone who was still alive entered Aciago Tower for the purpose of reaching the top and having their wish fulfilled. People that entered to flee from others would still need to climb higher if they sought to be safe. It would be moronic to hide from those hunting you in the first place that your pursuers would end up. Even if they didn't appear in the same region of the floor as you, they'd find you eventually.
War and the Knights were able to establish a flow of order, and the surviving members of the previous council that existed in Middle Town—which was primarily composed of veteran Climbers that realized they were trapped sooner than others—were in charge of assigning housing.
There were also many supernatural things in the city, which were still being discovered. Nobody had ways of explaining the way that some buildings suddenly grew unbearably cold and had no choice but to evacuate them. Likewise, other buildings were supposedly moving around irregularly. A shop that once rested on the far east side of the settlement reappeared at the center at some point.
'Burdens.'
Worthy did not have to take much time to theorize the cause of the paranormal discrepancies in the city. It was the fact that now, every wraith contained in the tower was let loose. Presumably, as they consumed more and more of the divine ichor from the abominations the walls absorbed—just as Worthy and the Stone Titan did—they would become far more animated and corporeal.
>>><<<
This led back to the present. Some of the people Worthy was familiar with had gathered together to chat.
Even Robert, the nobleman that the boy hated, was present beside Esme. Worthy didn't quite know why, but apparently, he wasn't hanging around his noble friends.
He assumed they'd died during the defensive effort, or were killed after becoming thralls. That was improbable though. If anything, they might've been killed by thralls instead, being resistant to the enthrallment thanks to War's influence.
'Well, they can also just be alive. That's a preferable alternative, even if I hate everything those schmucks stand for.'
Someone finally regarded Worthy, who was standing some distance away. It was Taivat, whose handsome face looked ever so slightly exhausted from his duel against the thrower of the bone spears. "Hey, bud. You… You're a little bigger, aren't you? It looks like you've put on more weight."
Worthy tilted his head, a frivolous look of skepticism growing. "Wow. Y'know, there's a lot of other unique ways you can call somebody fat."
The man sharply exhaled and raised his hand over his mouth.
"Yeah. Yeah, I suppose there are. So, how did a scrawny kid like you get so fat so fast? If there's somebody with a weight control Reward, please, don't hide your connection."
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I don't know anybody with that kind of ability." Worthy laughed a little.
He had no intention of sharing his new ability with the group. The reason was simple; they would grow to distrust him. Maybe it would not be immediate, but it could lead to complications later down the line. Someone mysteriously turning up dead could be pointed at him, presumed to be trying to fulfill his desire for power.
Or, they could just become uneasy around the child. Knowing he reaped rewards from killing people could lead to some distrust.
Steering clear of any suspicion was the best choice in his eyes. Trust was going to be important from now on. Although everyone had the same objective—escaping the First Floor—that didn't mean they'd all be willing to follow the same paths to fulfill their tasks. Some would lead bloodier lives than others, while others wouldn't have what it takes to end another human life.
Worthy didn't know how he felt about ending people's lives. Killing another person didn't seem like that big of a deal before, but now that he'd been around so much death, a new idea was in his mind.
'No point worrying about it now.'
Worthy raised his hand, "I'm going to go walk around. I'll take up a post on the wall tonight, so I want to see if there's anything cool lying around before then."
The others nodded and saw the child off.
He certainly did want to find something fun.
The boy was looking for something supernatural.