When Worthy arrived at Middle Town, the Tower spoke to him again. It delivered a familiar message he'd received once before, and it brought him immense joy, and much confusion.
[Designated Guide, Climber Worthy. You remain steadfast. Yet, you guide no lives.]
The Tower spoke to him in a way that was far too direct. It always addressed people, welcoming them and announcing rewards and whatnot. But, being given a progress report in the middle of the tower, before reaching a higher level, was not something he'd heard of before.
Worthy already came to terms with the reality that his Reward is different from others. So, he did not dawdle over it.
[You have reached Landmark 2: The Accursed Port.]
This part left him confused. As far as he was concerned, the city was collectively called Middle Town. The Devil's Den was not officially named, at least he did not believe it was. Instead, it was a name given to it by people…
Now, he had to reconsider that line of thought. It was wrong, evidently. The tower itself did not recognize the landmark he was standing at as Middle Town. Instead, it called it… The Accursed Port.
Such a ghostly name did not belong over the massive city. It was like a paradise in the middle of a gross, trauma-inflicting wasteland.
So, Worthy was certain that the name given by the Tower was not based on the collective epithet given by the masses. Instead, it could be easily rooted back to the source: The Five Craftsmen. They had named the port themselves, and that name had either become lost or never told.
This meant that any meaning that the name might've had must've been lost in time. Perhaps when they'd entered the place, a harrowing abomination was lurking beneath it. If not that, then it was possible someone had an unreasonable disdain for the people that came to occupy the settlement.
The boy didn't care to think about the implications behind the creator's naming process. Whatever the reason behind its name was, it would be of no importance right now. There was something much more important he needed to see.
[As a reward for reaching Landmark 2, [Guide Initiate] has been upgraded to [Guide Acolyte], Climber Worthy.]
That was it.
[Guide Acolyte], once more, his ability was improved, just as he'd suspected it would be after arriving at the Prime Settlement.
Truthfully, it made him wonder if it'd be possible to visit other settlements, given how many of them there were.
Alas, something told him it would not be a fruitful voyage. It felt like it'd be a waste of time traveling to each settlement one after another, hoping that they too were landmarks. His role as a guide in a tower shouldn't have been dumbed down to the role of a tour guide.
Taking the title literally, he'd need to lead people to their destinations, rather than to every location he can name.
[Reward - Guide Acolyte: It is easy to become lost beneath a sky with no stars. You are blessed with a mind that can conceive a map of the world without being its ally. Paths will find you, so long as you desire to know what path to take.]
Once again, the description was a tad confusing.
The only way to figure it out was to put the power to the test.
Previously, the ability was impressive but limited. He could find things like bathrooms, or the nearest bathroom, easily. Finding the nearest kitchen would also be within his abilities. Sadly, he couldn't do something as impressive as finding a gateway or locating a mystical weapon.
Truthfully, after they'd left the tunnel, he'd attempted to create a thread leading him to one of the Divine Swords shared throughout the group. The results were as expected: nothing. The thread he imagined did not come to fruition, and he gave up on trying anything similar.
[Guide Initiate] could not locate anything holding "supernatural qualities" from what the child could tell. Which, frankly, was rather curious considering the existence of the Devil's Den was paradoxical. The rooms contained in it must not have been on the same level as items enchanted or blessed.
The weapons were called Divine Swords, after all. There must have been more than simple enchantments powering them. Though, that was doubtful. Worthy wasn't well-educated, but he at least knew the reality that the Kingdom had a unique way of forging and gracing weapons with unique qualities. There was likely an intricate, nearly impossible tapestry of runes within the weapons and armors that knights wore.
All of this was to say, his Reward did not have the power to detect and locate things of such otherworldly qualities, heightened to points beyond what any ordinary weapon should be. The existence of those weapons were just as their titles implied — Divine.
However, this time around, as he attempted to pinpoint the location of one of the Divine Swords, imagining the face of one of the Climbers who'd received one after they departed from the eradicated encampment, something new happened. A thread appeared in his sight. In fact, it was so overwhelming because he was seeing more than a dozen in his sight.
It wouldn't have been incorrect for the child to assume he could only create one thread at a time before. Although he never had the need to try one, he knew more than one bathroom existed in a settlement housing hundreds of people. Therefore, when only a lone thread led him to a nearby bathroom, when there were certain to be others of equal distance, this limitation subtly presented itself.
Now, however, that limit seemed to have been removed altogether. In search of one Divine Sword, he instead saw threads stretching through walls, tables, and the ground itself. He was not just seeing one Divine Sword. Because they were all created identically, he was seeing threads leading to every Divine Sword that existed on this floor of the Tower.
And seeing that, it was nauseating. There were not just dozens, there were perhaps a hundred threads stretching throughout the world everywhere he looked.
Aciago Tower was no stranger to Knights. Kingdoms all throughout the world sent their men into any towers they could find in order to empower them, and difficult, dangerous towers created the best results for the fortunate. Within these facts, rested the harsh reality that it was also a graveyard for many of the young men who came here. Even with their supreme fighting prowess, they could fall victim to the unknown variables of the mysterious realm.
'There's… Christ, I didn't even know this many knights existed in the world… They couldn't.'
The more he thought about it, the more the child realized that it could not be possible for so many casualties could be had. The more he looked around, the more the number of threads continued revealing themselves. Threads within threads, thousands of Divine Swords lost or forgotten filling the First Floor. There was no way so many had fallen on one floor of the tower alone, especially not with the existence of Prime Settlements.
Then, a terrifying thought came to the child's thoughts. At first, he dismissed it and thought it to be too absurd. But, as he considered, it became far more possible than his initial theory.
The threads he struggled to perceive weren't solely connected to the First Floor. They were spread about in a way that made it look like the world was crafted by interconnecting strings of the same web.
He was seeing every Divine Sword in the vast tower itself.
And when his mind came to understand that it was seeing well beyond the scope of something that it should not have been gazing through, it collapsed.
His brain throbbed and his mind, momentarily gazing through the webs and into the path that he sought, crumbled beneath the weight of a force so oppressive that it made the might of War Reaver and the titan he battled and created mountains out of look small.
He staggered, inhaled sharply, and clenched a hand around his head.
Nobody was around him to see the soundless scream that escaped his lips, and the threads that became blurs in his vision began to lose their innumerable quantity, working to revoke the vastness that held information well beyond what a child should know.
It was already too late.
A slip, a minor one, exposed the child's mind to the mere concept of the tower's vast expanse.
When he arrived, his instincts told him not to approach. He had not listened, because he had no choice. And that singular, inevitable path led him to where he is now — lying on the ground in his assigned room, beside a bed he had not even gotten the opportunity to sleep in. He writhed in pain that he could not notice, and tears swelled out of his uncontrollable eyes, blinding him in the midst of a state where he was already blind.
Worthy — if he could recognize that name in that moment — fell victim to knowledge.
And as his consciousness faded, persisting far longer than anyone would've expected it to…
A voice whispered to him, unfamiliar.
[You have chosen your path, Climber Worthy. I hope you find what you are looking for.]
He did not know what he was looking for, nor did it look like he would ever. As the threads all faded from his sightless view, so too did his consciousness.