After relaxing in a hot bath I felt much more human. It seemed we spent a total of three days in the tower. That was much longer than anticipated. Sometimes when I was in a dungeon it felt like time flowed differently. Maybe that was something I could ask the system about.
Even with the progress we made together as a team, it still felt like we were far away from saving Kei. My first instinct was to jump into the dungeon immediately, but that would only get one of us hurt. I needed to avoid that possibility or I might end up in the same situation as Kei.
I don't trust the figure behind the system and I wouldn't put it past them to make my task of saving my party members even harder. Everything felt like it was starting to spin out of control. Wasn't my original objective just to survive this time around?
Was it because I never formed any attachments in my last life that I wanted to protect the ones I had in this one. It was with this mindset that I stumbled outside of my apartment with my pack slung across my back. It was like the dungeon was calling me to it.
Have I become some kind of danger fanatic now? The hunters of this life were much stronger than my last. I could just bide my time outside the dungeon and live until I died. Just ignore the dangers that lurked in the towers.
What kind of person would that make me? There goes my subconscious again. My stupid moral compass. It didn't matter that I had seen people die in front of me more times than I liked to remember or the bone chilling fear of facing death over and over again. Even though I had experienced it once.
My boots still marched their way to the entrance of that damned tower and made their way to the lobby and the teleportation circle. There was seriously something wrong with me as I approached the blinking screen and the familiar blue text appeared before me once more.
[Good. I see you felt my summons.]
I glared at the screen before me. So the backbone I thought I had finally grown was just some skill this person had to force me into the tower. Did that mean I would never be able to escape this fate?
[You really are amusing, my dear.]
Can it read my thoughts too?
[Rude. I do have a gender you know. I am decidedly male. Handsome, too.]
"Great, he is modest as well."
The screen blinks without revealing any new text. I guess he was going to ignore my sarcasm in that last comment.
"If you called me here, what do you want?"
[I'm bored. Go back into a tower.]
"Are you kidding me?"
[No, go in.]
"I can't. My armor isn't ready yet. You would be really bored if I died. Just wait."
[Your armor is ready. Go get it and then enter the tower.]
That was ridiculous. Dyno said it would take several days to finish. There was no way that my armor and weapons were already ready.
[I sped up time for you. Now neither of us have to wait.]
I stared at the screen with my mouth wide open. Just in case, I checked my phone and the time and date were different. How was this possible?
[I'm great, right?]
"I was going to go for arrogant, but…"
[So much cheek for someone who wants to save their friend. Shall I just leave him to his fate then?]
"No! Fine, I will do as you say. Please allow me the chance to save my friend."
[I knew you were the right choice. I await your next adventure, Hunter.]
I rushed out of the room and hurried to Dyno's workshop. In reality, three days had passed, but in my mind it was still the same day as when I left the tower last. This felt like some new form of torture.
Did this guy think that our lives were some kind of game? At least my body didn't feel fatigued as it did before. It also worried me that he could just summon me to the tower with no resistance on my part. What kind of power was that?
I was still no closer to answering the mysteries of the towers and who was behind them. I now knew that I could not run away from my task. This made things simpler. If I had no choice but to go into the tower then I would have to at least make sure I didn't die in there.
"Oh, you are back. I was just about to message you about your equipment being ready. Are you that eager to get back to hunting?"
Dyno looked up at me confused from where he stood behind the usual counter. I wanted to explain that I had no choice, but it seemed a mysterious voice was stopping me from speaking about it.
"I guess I was ready to get back to it."
My voice fell flat, but Dyno didn't seem to notice. He pulled my armor and weapons out from behind the counter and laid them out for me.
"Use the changing rooms then and move around in them. I added reinforcements to the armor and changed out the scratched portions. Looks a little like patchwork, but it will get the job done. If you bring me more materials I can do a better job."
I thanked Dyno for his hard work and tried on my armor. It kind of reminded me of a quilt my grandmother had on her bed when I was a young child. The quilt was a bunch of different colors and the fabric was all stitched together to make a greater design.
The armor wasn't quite as intricate as that, but in the end it didn't really matter what my armor looked like so long as it did its job. That is, it kept me alive. I tried moving about in it and did a series of jumps and leaps in the open part of Dyno's workshop.
Dyno whistled when he saw me in action. I looked away in embarrassment. I had noticed that ever since we had left the wetland floor my movements were swifter and I was lighter on my feet. It was strange to feel the effects the towers had on us.
"You are really turning into quite the swift fighter. I will keep that in mind for the future. Oh, Clay sent these potions up before he crashed. He was muttering something about how he could not wait for the batch of materials you would bring him next."
I stared at where Dyno pointed and noticed a giant crate in the corner. Wait… did he mean that all of that was from Clay?
"He also sent over a document that described all the effects and all the materials he used to make them. This is the list he gave me to give you to find if you find anything else."
Dyno handed me a thick stack of papers. I looked at him in disbelief, but he just shrugged his shoulders. Another stack was added on top.
"These are the materials I want as well."
"You have got to be kidding me."
"I could just send it through the association app in the future if you want. They created a special tab for crafters and those that have exclusive relationships."
"Yes, let's do that in the future."
I was impressed with the continued ingenuity of the association and keeping up with hunters and the new advancements. Or rather the strides they made to make hunting easier and more user friendly.
I pulled out my phone and downloaded the app on the spot. Once I put in my information, the two new requests from Clay and Dyno were already waiting for me. I guess the stack of papers was there to convince me to use the app. It's a good thing I don't insist on everything having a paper trail.
"The lists of items you two gave me is insane. Do you even realize how many different towers I would need to go to even collect all of these materials?"
"Look, no one else goes to as many towers as your party does. We are just asking that, if you do happen to go back to those places, you collect a few hundred… No, I mean whatever you can. Payment guaranteed."
I sighed at the obviously demanding request. A lot of these materials were from when Mat and I went around searching for a tower that would not be too hard for Callie. It would be difficult to travel back to them while she was still building her foundation.
"Fine, but don't expect a lot of these for some time. Callie isn't strong enough to enter most of these yet."
"Of course. I appreciate your business. Those materials we didn't get to last time… Are they still available?"
"Oh right. I almost forgot about that."
I spent another hour going through the exchange with Dyno and he even picked out a bunch of stuff for Clay as well. It seemed that Clay was still reluctant to meet customers face to face, but he had agreed to sign an exclusive contract with us.
After wrapping up all that business, it felt like I was missing something incredibly important. Oh, right. I was supposed to go back into the dungeon!