Two days after Laurence woke up in bed, he finally began moving about like a normal human being again. He had been sorely injured after the fight with the golems, and even if they had not injured him everywhere the small amount of hits that he had taken was extremely damaging. It was telling that they were an impressive set of combat units, even if they were a bit stupid.
He had no allusions about his performance in the fight. It was sloppy, and the only reason he was able to survive was because he played off the simplicity of his enemies. If he had been fighting with two enemies who were smarter then he likely would not have had such good prospects, nor come away from the fight with so little damage to himself. It was disconcerting, but it woke him up to the fact that he really needed to improve once more if he wanted to have any hope of continuing to climb without just relying upon his skill with creation. He needed to be stronger. He needed to be smarter. He needed to simply be better.
His arm was completely healed but he was still slightly weak from the amount of his life force that had been forcibly drained by the healing method that Yun had used. It was a rougher method than he would have employed; bandaging up Laurence’s arm with sigils that drew out his vitality would heal him but reduce his life span. For a wound like his arm it would only cost him a month or so off the end of his life, but if it had been something more serious it could have cost him years of his life. It worked, and even the most virulent disease or horrifying poison could be cured if you did not mind losing a decade or so off the end of your existence.
That is not to say that Yun’s method of healing was bad in Laurence’s eyes. He just simply thought that the idea was pre-emptive, and should have only been used by someone who had the eternal vitality of the Immortal rank. For an Immortal, the glyphs would simply make their vitality work thousands of times faster for a short period of time, and was actually a necessity for later climbing within Babel. For that reason alone practitioners of Creation were valued, as they could create talismans that could be carried about and applied to wounds, only burning out after weeks of constant use.
Laurence quickly met up with his friends and began planning their journey from here on in. It was obvious that they would have to go back into Biqiril and continue their journey from there, but it would be hard to avoid the fact that they would be heading out from the core of a massive explosion that likely changed the shape of the entire kingdom forever. Laurence was only just beginning to realise how much power the books gave him and his friends. He could not help but wonder what he would be like when he had complete mastery of two of the books, if not three or four. His first real task was to ascend to Heaven as fast as he could, as well as complete more of his own fighting style. His plans did not entirely mesh with everyone else’s however. For the first time in his life he was not willing to move on and meander his way through the tower.
“Look, all I am saying is that we are not strong enough to be comfortable on the later floors. What is so wrong with us holding back slightly and consolidating our strength before moving on?” he said.
“Because it is simply not like you, Law. You leap before looking. You’re fearless”. Jim replied. Jim was the main advocate of moving on. In his mind, the quicker they left the eleventh floor, the better. “The twelfth floor won’t be as bad as the eleventh, and we have Yun if things get awful. He’s going to be miles stronger than almost anyone we come across before at least the twenty-fifth floor. Come on, man! Live a little!”
“Look, I just don’t think it’s a good idea”. Law brushed his fringe out of his eyes and looked at his friend. It was odd for him to be on the opposite side to Jim, he could not help but feel that he was in the wrong because of it, but his weakness irked him. “Fine,” he said after much thought. “I’ll agree to moving. I intend to make as much use of the time we have training, though. We need to all be better, as Yun won’t always be around when we need him. Any one of us might be away, so we all need to expand on our weaknesses and cover each other’s bases. We don’t need to all be amazing at everything, but we do need to all be at least okay at everything”.
“Sounds like you need to be better at speeches,” Jim replied, laughing. “I get your point though. Let’s not rest on our laurels. We’re all climbing the tower to be better, so let’s do just that”.
The rest of the group nodded in agreement, but Laurence could not bear to stay sat down for a moment longer. He stood up and nodded at Yun before walking out of the room, confident in the fact that his brother would follow in short order.
After getting out of the winding pathways within the mountain base of theirs, Laurence began walking down the mountain, looking at the scenery that Yun had formed for his world. It was beautiful, in its own odd way. Twin suns hung in the sky, passing over the plane and lighting the verdant grasslands around the mountain like ruddy gods, watching over all they surveyed. The trickling streams that came off the mountain top built up into rivers that seemed to disappear off far into the distance, presumably somewhere where there was a lake or sea, far out of the eyes of anyone living. A fledgeling forest seemed to spring up near the horizon, with deep green trees that broke up the flat line cutting the ground and sky of the creation in front of Laurence. One day, Laurence had no doubt, this world would be populated with rich and far reaching tribes of people, but today it was still quiet.
He looked out as he walked, and behind him the ground began to raise up into perfectly flat intersecting squares, etched with runes that seemed to reflect the sunlight, sparkling and swaying with splendor. Before long there was an arena behind Laurence, with a thin barrier of light surrounding the four corners. As he began walking round the corner of the now complete stage, foot deep lines of rock shot out of the ground, until there were five concentric rings around the stage that worked as steps up towards the stage itself. Each one had runes of repairing, restoration and strengthening on them, to make the stage as tough as possible. He walked on and sat down, waiting for his brother.
Yun showed up after about fifteen minutes and looked at Laurence for a long while before finally hopping onstage and summoning his needle. He smiled and raised it, pointing it at Laurence without question, simply understanding the mind of the young man in front of him. Laurence summoned his hammer and performed the same action as Yun, before he began to spar with his friend.
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