"Am I… dreaming? Did we really do it?"
Ran looked at the open gate in disbelief, even rubbing his eyes to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. It was truly shocking; they had failed, and yet the result was clear as day.
They could now leave. Well, they could leave to the next floor.
"Ann pinch me to make sure I'm not dreaming," said Ran before he immediately regretted speaking. He didn't even finish speaking before a pinch so strong attacked his side. The pain was so intense, it spread across his body like fire, causing a tear to stream down his hidden face.
"Yep, not dreaming. Not dreaming at all."
Without bothering to wipe the tear away, Ran was the first to stride on over to the entrance to the staircase, while the rest followed behind.
Just to be safe, Ran used his foot to test the waters, or the staircase in this… case. Once everything was clear, the whole group excitedly ran up the stairs, putting pretty much everything they experienced over the past two or so hours in the back-burner.
Reaching the second floor was a breeze, with no traps or cracks to break any one of their mama's backs. But the second floor wasn't as simple, for what lay ahead were nothing but holes.
Literally.
On the floor of the second floor, which was made of floor, the group saw three pathways. Each one was dark as night, and the more they looked at them, the more they felt sucked into them.
Yet, when everyone was thinking of ways to determine which path to take, Bob suddenly stepped forward. With his eyes closed and a concentrated look on his face, he walked to the entrance of the second path.
His two pairs of ears twitched occasionally, as if he was listening to something.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
No one else heard this. But since Bob did, this became a point of interest and he got their attention before pointing at the dark hallway ahead.
"What, you think this is a good way to go through?"
"Yes… I heard noises coming from this path."
Being "interrogated" by a woman, Queenie, made him a bit uncomfortable, but he pushed through it. He even led the group through this path, showing an increasingly high level of reliability.
And soon enough, within a few seconds, they could hear the faint, occasional, thumping too. Not only that, it would get louder and louder as they neared the end of the hallway, closer to the source of the sound.
The hallway itself was pretty empty, like the rest of the floor, except for strands of black runes that ran along the walls and ceilings. This went for the first floor as well; they were like electrical wires as they seemed to help pass energy throughout the tower.
At the end of the hallway was a glittering silver door, and embedded at the center was a dull red orb. And when they walked close enough, they accidentally stepped on what appeared to be a pressure plate controlled by runes, causing the dull orb to come to life.
It suddenly glowed with a red light and at the center was an orange core. The core swiveled a little before abruptly locking onto the group, as if it was looking at them.
"Uh… is it looking at us?"
No one answered Ann as they were all busy slowly stepping back, as if they were in the presence of a predator.
But before any of them could react, a wave of light shot out from the orb as it descended upon them.
One by one, they were scanned by the red light, and each time it finished scanning, the orange core revolved inside the orb, as if it was rolling its "eye". This was followed by an obnoxious err sound. It was like a buzzer.
But… and I think you know where I'm going with this, when it landed on Ran, there was a different reaction. Because of course it would. What, you think Bob is going to be the one who's "different" out of the rest? Or even Fluffy? Come on now.
It scanned him head to toe, just like the others, but what was different was that the orb suddenly turned green. This was also followed by an obnoxious sound, though this one was less so.
Then, as if nothing happened in the first place, the giant door opened with a click. It swinged open slowly, but what they found inside once it opened fully… fully opened their eyes.
…
The room inside was crescent shaped, and the walls were filled with shelves. The shelves held not books, but crystals. These blue crystals, similar in appearance to quartz, were placed onto little stone pedestals, and those were then laid onto the red wooden shelves. The crystals flashed with black runes every so often, and looking across the room, there were at least a few hundred of them.
In the center of the room was a well from which came the jet of soul juice. It continued from the river to the first floor, the second floor, and if one looked up, it even went up to the third floor.
But all this wasn't what shocked the group into silence. Rather it was this:
Just in front of the well was a creature.
A toad. A giant one.
In fact, there were two of such toads. And they were… "hugging".
Okay no, they were indeed mating.
They were having sexual intercourse.
The good 'ol corkscrew.
Pile driving.
Jack hammering.
Oh how about suplex? No? How about pedigree?
…
Okay yes, they were having sex, as in fucking, I don't know why you keep mentioning you creep.
But this was actually unrecognizable to the group at first. Until came the secretions and off-putting smells. Occasionally, they would move and cause a thump as well.
Immediately, Bob regretted ever coming here and turned away to walk back out. Unfortunately, behind him was Ann and he dared not even face her, not even pass by her. He could only sigh before turning back.
Fluffy was actually quite interested however. And if she studies hard enough, in the future, she could even be a zoologist.
Ran could be said to have an even weirder reaction. He literally cried. He sang praises and hymns in his heart for he has now seen true love, making him weep silently as he felt all kinds of beautiful emotions.
Ann by comparison was meh. She was more bored than anything else, plus, she thought the toads moves and positions were all off. Queenie was pretty much the same, uncaring.
But all in all, even I can say that I almost regret making these characters. Like, I don't know why I wrote these reactions in the first place. To fill more word count? To make my characters more fleshed out personalities? Just to make myself look weird? All the above?
… Yes.
"Peppy! Oh my gosh, what are you even doing here, I was so worried about you!"
Shirley, however, seeing her beloved giant toad, couldn't help but run towards it. She was just about to pick it up when she remembered what was happening, and disgustingly put away her open arms.
"I… I'll let you finish first…"
Peppy, however, seeing her, almost freaked out. His eyes seemed to dilate and he had anatomically incorrect facial expression that told of unparalleled shock. It was like a kid being caught having their hand in a cookie jar.
His desire was immediately quenched, and he forced itself off of his mate. It was quite hard (?) since his fingers were pretty much stuck completely onto his mate, not to mention all the secretions.
When he finally unmounted, his eyes locked onto Shirley like she was the devil; luckily he doesn't exist here. His expression was that of annoyance, whatever that would look like on a toad.
He croaked once at her, as if he was telling her off, before walking off to the side where he closed his eyes. The female toad was now left in an awkward position. She could explain herself to Shirley that it was not what it looked like, but it was probably just better to book it and let the guy handle it.
Of course, in reality, they were just normal toads and I, the author, was pretty much just personifying them for lackluster humor. Obviously, they were not filled with souls.
But before any of the two roads could react, a flood of water-like soul juice came upon them, cleaning them of all substances. The juice then dispersed, where it was secretly absorbed by the tower, after which a crystal flashed silently.
Now completely clean, Shirley took them both into her huge grasp, holding one in each arm like they were luggage.
"Yes, let's go! Now I have two toads! I can even start a whole farm of them. Ya hear that Peppy, you're going to have so much more fun with Missus now!"
Hearing her overenthusiastic voice, Peppy quickly paled, and he knew his life had now changed from one luxury to one of never-ending labor-intensive workouts. He could even die, just as some of his brothers did; he should've known better than to fall into a honey trap that goes by the name of Missus now.
Even the female toad, Missus, could help but struggle helplessly in Shirley's iron grip. Her rippling muscles didn't allow for any one of these slippery fellas to slip from her grasp.
"So… this was where Peppy was? How could he have even gotten here in the first place?"
Queenie was now suspicious and voiced out her concerns, and everyone pretty much agreed. The fuck was Peppy doing here!? Well it was obvious, he was lured here by this female, woman, toad!
So, this toad, Missus, was the mastermind! But… looking at her, indeed, how could she be the one behind all this? She was just a toad.
But now that this side quest was basically complete, they had to exit this tower in search of new adventures. The front gates were closed, so they could continue to go up the tower, where they'll hopefully find something to leave with.
With the intention to leave, the staircase in the middle of the wall was clear to them. And seeing it wasn't blocked, they continued onwards, now equipped with two more toads.