Free Web NovelChapter 36: 36. Eight Days
The days blurred together.
Nathan woke before dawn on Day 1, cleared the Tower of Rusted Blades with both summons before the sun fully rose, and was at the training facility by eight. Kuro reached Level 5 on Floor 3 of the Tower, marking a Spore Crawler’s weak point with such precision that Nathan’s follow-up arrow passed through the gap between two armor plates without grazing either edge.
"You’re getting faster..." Nathan said.
’The weak points are obvious. You are the one who must aim.’
"I’m aware."
’Then aim faster.’
Mirko, in humanoid form, doubled over laughing. But Nathan did not find it as amusing.
That evening, during a second training session, Kuro executed her first solo kill. A Rot Shambler had separated from the pack... a straggler, wounded, its fungal core half-exposed. Before Nathan could draw, Kuro activated [Shadow Meld], emerged from beneath the creature’s own bulk, and drove a precise strike into the exposed core. The Shambler dissolved.
[Ding! XP Gained!]
Mirko’s ears shot up. "Did you see that? Master, did you see that? She did it! My junior executed a solo kill!"
’I am not your junior.’
"You are absolutely my junior. That was incredible. I’m so proud. I could compose a song."
’Please do not.’
"Too late!."
Nathan watched them bicker and felt something warm settle in his chest. Not pride, exactly. Something quieter. Something that felt like the first time he’d watched Lucy fall asleep with Mirko curled against her side.
---
Day 2 brought Dillon’s newest obsession.
He had started calling Kuro "Little Shadow." The nickname had emerged during morning drills, and it stuck with the adhesive tenacity of a man who had no sense of self-preservation.
"Little Shadow, can you mark that construct on the left? The one with the wobbly knee?"
Kuro marked the construct. Then she activated [Shadow Meld] and emerged directly behind Dillon, so close that her whiskers brushed his ear.
’The construct is marked and my name is Kuro.’
Dillon screamed. It was not a dignified scream. It was the scream of a man who had expected a bunny to be ten feet away and had just discovered her breathing down his neck.
Elise turned away, but not fast enough. Nathan caught the faintest twitch at the corner of her mouth, the ghost of a smile, suppressed with military precision.
"Did she just... did you see that?" Dillon demanded, clutching his chest. "She teleported behind me! Like an assassin! Like a tiny, fluffy, judgmental assassin!"
"She’s not an assassin yet," Nathan said.
"Yet. He said yet. That implies she will be. Cross, what are you raising in that apartment?"
---
Day 3 was harder. Nathan chose the Tower of Blackened Briars, a C-Rank labyrinth of thorned corridors and ambush predators. The monsters were faster, smarter, and the environmental hazards... poison thorns that lashed from the walls without warning... kept even Mirko on edge.
Kuro reached Level 6 on Floor 4. She and Mirko executed their first coordinated takedown on the floor boss, a massive Thornheart Treant with bark like iron and roots that struck from beneath the soil.
Mirko activated [Impenetrable Fortress] and charged the Treant head-on, drawing its attention with a war cry that echoed through the chamber. The Treant swung a branch the size of a tree trunk. Mirko blocked it. The impact shook the ground.
While the Treant focused on Mirko, Kuro slipped through its shadow... emerging on its blind side, [Weak Point Sense] flaring. She marked a spot beneath its arm, where the bark was thinnest and the sap pulsed closest to the surface.
’There,’ she said. ’The core node. One shot.’
Nathan charged [Focus Shot] for fifteen seconds, The arrow blazed then He released.
The shot punched through the marked point, through the Treant’s core, and out the other side. The creature collapsed in a cascade of splintering wood and dissipating mana.
Mirko lowered her sword, breathing hard. "That was clean. Very clean. I give it an eight out of ten."
’What would have made it a ten?’
"You could have said ’thank you, Senior Mirko, for drawing the Treant’s aggro so perfectly.’"
’I will never say that.’
"Seven out of ten."
Nathan left them to their argument and gathered the loot.
---
Day 4, and Nathan was coming apart.
Be has tried to hide it but the signs were there for anyone paying attention. His reaction time had slowed by fractions of a second. His eyes, usually sharp and calculating, had developed a slight glaze between calls. He drank three healing potions before noon, and none of them were for injuries.
Kuro reached Level 7 on a routine clear of a D-Rank Tower whose name Nathan forgot before he’d finished extracting. He stood in the cold night air, both bunnies in their small forms, and stared at his status panel without really seeing it.
[Kuro: Level 7]
[Days Until Duel: 5.]
[Levels Until Evolution: 3.]
Three levels. Five days. They were ahead of schedule. He should feel relieved.
Instead, he felt the cumulative weight of every missed night of sleep pressing down on his shoulders like a physical thing.
’Master.’ Mirko’s voice was quiet. ’You need to rest.’
"I know."
’You said that last time.’
"I’ll mean it this time."
---
But he didn’t mean it. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm
Day 5’s morning training exposed everything. The party ran an advanced simulation... mixed enemies, shifting terrain, environmental hazards. The drill they’d been practicing for over a week. The drill Nathan could run in his sleep.
Except today, he missed a call.
Elise was positioned on the left flank, her Frost Golem engaged with two constructs. A third construct materialized behind her... a flanker, fast and low. Nathan’s [Hunter’s Insight] flagged it. His mouth opened to call the warning.
The words came too late.
The construct struck the Frost Golem’s exposed back. Ice cracked. Elise stumbled, her concentration breaking. Mirko had to abandon her position to intercept, which left Garrett exposed, which forced Dillon to cover two angles at once. The formation collapsed. They cleared the wave, but it was messy, and the silence afterward was deafening.
Garrett pulled Nathan aside while the others reset the simulation.
"Cross." His voice was low. Not angry. Worried. "You’re running yourself ragged. Again. We talked about this."
"I’m fine."
"You’re not. You’re grinding two summons, training with us every day, and climbing every night. When’s the last time you slept more than four hours?"
Nathan didn’t answer. Garrett sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Look. I get it. The duel is in five days. Kuro’s almost ready. But if you collapse before we even enter the Tower, none of that matters. You’re our caller. Our eyes. If your eyes are closed because you passed out, we’re all dead."
Elise approached, her expression unreadable but her gaze sharp. "Garrett’s right. You’re no use to us exhausted. Take tonight off. One night. Kuro is Level 7... You don’t have to kill yourself power leveling."
Nathan looked at Kuro. She was sitting quietly on a bench, watching the exchange with those unreadable black eyes. She’d been silent through the entire debrief.
’The ice mage is correct,’ Kuro said through the link. ’One night of rest will not undo our progress. But one night without it may undo you.’
Mirko, who had been uncharacteristically quiet, added: ’Even I agree. And I never agree with resting. That’s how you know it’s serious.’
Nathan exhaled slowly. The exhaustion was a physical weight now, pressing against his ribs, clouding his thoughts. They weren’t wrong. He knew they weren’t wrong.
"Fine," he said. "Tonight, I rest. Tomorrow, we push for Level 8."
Garrett clapped him on the shoulder. "That’s the smartest thing you’ve said all week."
"Don’t get used to it."
---
That evening, the TCA notification arrived simultaneously on all their interfaces.
Nathan was sitting at the apartment table, a half-eaten plate of toast in front of him, Lucy doing homework on the bed with both bunnies curled beside her. The notification chime made him look up.
[Duel Update: The Veiled Colosseum – Special Rules]
He opened it and read it slowly.
[Rule 1: Each party must field exactly four registered Climbers. Summons are permitted.]
[Rule 2: The Tower’s "veil" mechanic will periodically obscure visibility throughout all floors. Coordination and trust are mandatory. Psychological disorientation effects possible on higher floors.]
Expected. They’d been training coordination for exactly this. The veil was the Veiled Colosseum’s signature mechanic... what made it a test of teamwork rather than individual strength.
[Rule 3: During the final floor (Floor 10), only two combatants per party may engage the Tower Boss simultaneously. The remaining party members must remain in designated support zones and may not directly attack the boss. Support skills, buffs, and ranged healing are permitted from support zones. Direct offensive action from support zones will result in immediate disqualification.]
Nathan stared at the screen.
Two combatants. Against Marcus Kade, a Level 51 A-Rank Berserker, plus whatever Derek fielded as his second. Two combatants against overwhelming force.
His plan... the plan he’d been building since the challenge was issued... had relied on overwhelming coordination. All four party members plus two humanoid summons attacking in sync, focus-firing the Berserker before his passive could make him unkillable. The Veiled Colosseum had just taken that option away.
The party link crackled. Garrett’s voice, strained: "Did you all see that? Rule 3? Two of us against that Berserker? We need to talk about this. Now."
Dillon, uncharacteristically serious: "Two combatants. Which two? Cross and Winterhart? I and Cross? We need a plan. A really, really good plan."
Elise, calm but with an edge: "Nathan. Your thoughts?"
Nathan stared at the notification. His mind, despite the exhaustion, was already moving. Two combatants. Himself? No... he was an Archer, a caller, not a frontline fighter. Mirko was a Knight; she could hold the line for him. Elise was a Mage with an A-Rank summon; her burst damage was unmatched. And Kuro... Kuro was Level 7, unevolved, untested in real combat against a human opponent.
Could she reach Level 10 in five days? Could she evolve, claim Shadow Assassin, and be ready to face a Level 51 Berserker on the final floor?
"I need to think," Nathan said. "We’ll meet tomorrow morning. Early. We break this down and build a new strategy from scratch."
"You have a plan?" Dillon asked.
"I have the beginning of one. Give me tonight."
The link went quiet. Nathan closed his interface.
Lucy looked up from her homework. "You have that face again."
"What face?"
"The ’something bad happened but you’re not going to tell me because you think I’m too young to worry’ face." She frowned. "I’m not too young. I’m eleven."
Nathan almost smiled. "Eleven is exactly young enough that you shouldn’t have to worry about duels and Berserkers."
"Is someone trying to hurt you?"
"No one’s going to hurt me." He said it with more confidence than he felt. "I’ve got Mirko. I’ve got Kuro. I’ve got good people watching my back."
"And you’ve got me," Lucy said firmly. "I can’t fight, but I can make toast. Toast helps."
"Toast helps," Nathan agreed.
He crossed to the bed and sat down heavily. Lucy returned to her homework. Mirko shifted to rest her head on his knee. Kuro remained motionless, her black eyes fixed on him.
’You are worried,’ Kuro observed through the link.
"I’m calculating."
’You are worried while calculating. Mirko has told me about this habit.’
"Mirko talks too much."
’She does. But she is also correct about you.’ Kuro’s tail twitched. ’The final floor. Two against the Berserker. You’re wondering if I’ll be ready.’
"Will you?"
’I am Level 7. Three levels from evolution. Five days remain.’ She met his eyes. There was no doubt in her gaze. No hesitation. Just the same quiet certainty she’d worn since the moment he summoned her. ’I will be ready. And when the door opens, the Berserker will not be enough.’
Nathan studied her. The black fur. The white mask. The eyes that saw weakness in everything.
"Are you not scared of him? The level 51? Two full brackets above us?"
’Fear is inefficient, Summoner. I prefer preparation.’ A pause. ’Also, I have seen the way you fight. You do not lose. When the odds are worst, you find the path. I am simply following the path you’ve already seen.’
Nathan leaned back against the headboard. Outside, the Towers gleamed against the night sky... distant silhouettes that had shaped this world for two hundred years. Somewhere in the city, Derek Stone was probably sleeping soundly, confident that his father’s money, his hired mercenary, and now the Colosseum’s rules would guarantee his victory.
He had no idea what was coming.
"Tomorrow," Nathan said, "we push for Level 8. Then the day after, Level 9. Then Level 10. Then evolution."
’Understood, Summoner.’
"Get some sleep. Both of you."
Mirko’s voice was warm through the link. ’Finally, he gives the order he should have given himself days ago.’
"Don’t push it."
’I am simply saying...’
"Sleep."
Kuro closed her eyes first. Mirko followed, curling into her usual spot near the pillow. Lucy had already set her homework aside and was breathing softly, one hand resting on Kuro’s dark fur.
Nathan watched them for a long moment... his sister, his Knight, his future Assassin. Then he closed his eyes and let the exhaustion take him.
Five days. Three levels. One evolution.
And a rule that changed everything.
