"ANYONE. IS ANYONE STILL HERE? GASPIN???"

  'Finally another person!? Alright, wait.. ok here goes, he's quite fast, damn'

  From the side of the youth an obsidian statue anomaly never seen before suddenly came alive and stepped forth.

  "Uhh, hey I..

  "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG"

  In a quick flourish the youth flipped his wrist and rang the bell in his hand. The sound echoed perhaps for miles and brought the creature that had jumped out at him to his knees with its ears slightly bleeding.

  "Oh!, Wait! Gaspin!. Wait that's you right? Oh.. uh sorry sorry. What the hell was that you just did? Oh damn.. Sorry"

  Sail gasped and then grasped his ears. He felt the strong furious pulsing of his heart. Such a sound had pierced through his core and echoed through him like a thousand nails on a thousand chalkboards. So this was the feeling of a psychic attack.. It seemed that by being in ever noir he had earlier managed to hear such an attack as a simple sound just fine.

  "Aggghhh" The pain was quite something and the ringing that echoed through his mind seemed like it was never going to end. While wincing and groaning two palms soon settled around Sail's ears. A gentle white glow came forth.

  "Sooth." the boy muttered

  "Hey Gastin? Gastin can you hear me?? We gotta move, we really gotta go, your alive huh, are you deaf Gastinn? Gaston?"

  "im not deaf". A gentle aura wrapped around Sail turned down the volume of the ringing. Furthermore, it began slightly fighting away at the edges of his anxiety and fear.

  "Good, good. I really ... really thought you were a mob. You shouldn't jump out at people like that!" Through slightly jittering teeth the boy continued "What was that, were you attacked by some .. some medusa like beast? Did they turn you to stone?? Lets get to room 17 and talk"

  The youth pulled Sand up to his feet and dragged him up. He then proceeded to instantly turn and run. Sand, although slightly apprehensive, followed suit. In his heart came a sudden intuition of doubt and the feeling that being easily pulled by the flow of a situation was potentially quite lethal. But even still he jogged behind the youth as they ran down the spiralling hallway for a few minutes.

  "No no, that was a skill"

  "A skill huh, a stone skin type thing? You awakened a new skill, uhh, wow. What does it do? What's the rank, tell me. Also, your name. I forgot it. You joined just yesterday.."

  They ran down the corridor a short while and the youth stopped before a sudden door on the left, slamming it hard open with his foot and running inside. Sail followed suit and the man shut the door fast and pressed on it again several times to confirm it was shut. The door they walked though came out onto a thin balcony that overlooked a large ballroom to the left of them with regal staircases that descended down and around. Scattered across the ballroom was an array of hanging bodies. The bodies were hung upside down with the noose arising from the floor and the legs drifting about pointing to the ceiling, floating about like twisted seaweed. The boy collapsed with his back to a dresser and clenched hard on all the various items in his hands.

  "Did you find Lanturn? Did you uhhh spot the main team?? Do you know where Illi is, is she still here?"

  With about 6 or so rapid questions before he could speak once and about the most horrifying thing he had ever seen in his life sat to his left, Sail once again was in a situation where a cool head was hard fought for.

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  "I.. I dont know. I didn't see anyone.."

  "I see... It been how long now.. Hours?.. ahh... We're finished" The boys spirit sunk as he fell back into a sudden burst of despair. He hung his head into his legs as the fervor of his frightened voice sunk into a helpless mumble.

  "Urrm, sorry but can you tell me who you are again?"

  "Oh wait.. me? You dont know? Uhh, im Shilling. Shilling From the Floor Wanderers first team.... The 7th ranked on the full tower awakener rankings."

  "Right, right. Its just I.. I seem to be suffering from some amnesia and memory loss"

  "Memory loss?"

  "Yeah, i think its probably the result of some ghost's attack"

  "A ghost? Oh you mean one of the ghouls? One has such a power?? A kind of sucking away of ones memory..???" "Ahhgghh, its no good Gaspinn. its no good" The man once again melted into a pool of despair. "This is the end.. I.. Alavine.. Im sorry.. Im so sorry"

  "...."

  "Gaspinn, thank you for being with me in my final moments. Is that even your name? Do you recall??"

  "Yeah i think it was Gastin. That sounds best so.."

  "How much do you remember then Gastin?" Shilling brought his head suddenly back up out of his knees and began talking firm even though tears were still in the edges of his eyes. A loose white pulse echoed around him that temporarily pushed away his despair.

  "I suppose i remember this is the 26th floor of the tower and that I have various skills..."

  "Yes, you had a weapon belt skill i believe. What is the current cooldown?"

  "uhhh, i don't recall. I don't have such a thing now anyway. I must have lost it."

  "You lost a skill? You what? Thats not possible is it? You looked into your tower profile and your saying its not there? Ohh ok, I understand. It is likely that your skill itself has evolved into its next rank and its now slightly unrecognisable as the C rank weapon belt skill it once was. Check if you now possess a B rank skill."

  "A B rank skill evolves from a C rank one huh? Ahh, uhhm.. both my B rank skills seem completely unrelated to a weapon belt.."

  "You have 2 B rank skills! How?? Thats an absurd improvement... You.. What are they? How did you get such a thing?"

  "Like i say, i don't recall. Uhh, but before all that. Can you explain the threats here?" Sail looked over once more at the array of swaying "guests" that were populating the ball.

  "oh right, you .. you have forgotten everything we've been through. How inconvenient. Well then.. right.. the uhh... ghoul who put on such a dispay here has been defeated since this morning. The thousand knots ghoul managed to kill many of us but in the end it was temporarily banished and this room has now been cleared of its core spirit. It should be the most safe room for the rest of the day. All the other rooms have had there ghosts return once banished so the thousand knots will return in time. For now you can go down there without much issue but the food is not real. Its spiritual food."

  Sail looked on blanky not exactly knowing which of his many questions he should ask at this point. He also wasnt sure if his amnesia fabrication was the best choise. It certainly turned the complicated scenario down a touch to better keep things moving along. He wasnt that much against revealing his nature as a reincarnate if it meant the alternate scenario was balancing a lie that might trip him up along the way but he certainly had a base instinct to hide such a thing. Thus he quickly threw out such an amnesia explanation as a middle ground. Naturally, there were other more urgent things to be preoccupied with right now but Sail often thought ahead of himself for better or worse.

  "The hallway we were just in is possessed by the orb ghoul. This first ghoul of the manor is undefeatable thus far no matter what method we have tried. Killing a given one of its orbs will not effect its power or stop its advance. It is best to think of it as a traveling stage hazard of this floor. This hallway is the only path to truly progress forward or backwards within the Ringright Manor and progress throughout its rooms. We are currently in room 17 and the 18th room ahead is where i was just .. returning from. We were forced to retreat back against the velvet scissor that resides there but many including the two of us were seperated and trapped within the servant quarters. Everyone.. everyone was being decapitated and.. we were left to die... Ive finally escaped but.. but the only way to leave... The only way to leave a floor of the tower after challenging it is to clear it ... or through miss Illi's skill... Ahhhh... We were abandoned.. They're all gone.. They all already left...The velvet is coming here.... Its over..."

  Shilling once again became clad in the gentle white aura of the sooth skill and then with a sudden shift in demeanor reached out his hand towards Sail with the aura gently flowing off his fingers.

  "Do you want some?"

  "..."

  "Yes please"

  "Ive got 3 more minutes left"

  "I see".