Chapter 399: The One Who Walks With Silence

Kael knew they were close to the exit before he saw it. The air cooled first, carrying the smell of wet earth and trees through the stale mixture of smoke, damp stone, and blood. Farther ahead, a narrow strip of moonlight crossed the tunnel floor beneath a tangle of roots.

Several captives noticed it at the same time. Nobody cheered or called to the people behind them. They simply began walking faster, helping one another up the gradual incline as though the light might disappear before they reached it.

Kael adjusted the unconscious man across his shoulder and followed.

Roots had broken through the old masonry, and moss covered the stones near the opening. Whatever engineers had constructed this end of the passage, nobody had maintained it in years. The neglect had concealed it well enough that someone could walk past without realizing a tunnel lay beneath the trees.

The first prisoner crawled outside. Others followed, reaching back through the opening to help those who struggled with the climb. Kael waited near the rear while the injured were passed forward, then ducked beneath the final stone arch.

Tall trees surrounded them. Through gaps between the trunks, he could make out the goblin city in the distance, its upper watchtowers and sections of the outer wall pale beneath the moonlight.

No horns sounded. No bells rang, and no soldiers poured through the gates.

Kael helped lower the injured onto the grass, easing the unconscious man from his shoulder last. Once the man was settled, he turned toward the city again. A faint stain against the night sky suggested smoke still rose from somewhere inside, although the palace itself was hidden.

The goblins knew about the fire. By now, they might have discovered the empty cells as well. Their king’s death, however, remained undiscovered.

Kael checked his mini-map. The red target marker had vanished, and no warning had appeared to announce that hostile awareness had reached its maximum.

“Keep moving away from the tunnel,” he told the captives. “We need some distance between us and the entrance.”

Several obeyed immediately. Others stood beneath the trees, staring around them as though they no longer remembered what to do without walls on every side. One woman knelt and pressed both hands into the grass.

Kael looked away and returned to the tunnel entrance.

He dragged a fallen branch across the opening, then gathered loose stones and brush around it. The obstruction would do little against anyone coming from inside, but it made the exit harder to notice from the forest.

The woman who had spoken to him in the dungeon watched from several paces away.

“Will they follow us?”

“Eventually,” Kael said, pulling another branch into place. “There aren’t any alarms yet. If they knew their king was dead, we would hear something.”

She listened, her arms wrapped tightly around herself. Insects stirred in the undergrowth, branches shifted overhead, and someone coughed behind them. Nothing carried from the city.

Kael would probably receive a system notification before he heard the horns, but she did not need that explanation.

“What happens now?” she asked.

He pointed deeper into the forest. “Don’t stay near the tunnel. Once everyone can move, keep heading away from the city.”

“Where should we go?” the woman asked.

“I don’t know what’s beyond these woods,” Kael admitted. “But we need to put the city behind us first.”

She nodded slowly. That much required no explanation.

The Tower chimed before he could say anything else.

A large interface appeared in front of him.

[FLOOR 12 CLEARED]

[MISSION COMPLETE]

[High-Value Target Eliminated.]

[Successful Exfiltration Confirmed.]

[Final Performance Evaluation in progress…]

Kael stopped moving as the results appeared.

[Confirmed Detection: 0]

[Infiltration Alarms Triggered: 0]

[Unnecessary Hostile Casualties: 0]

[Unnecessary Civilian Casualties: 0]

[Target Elimination: Successful]

[Identity Exposure: None]

[Exfiltration: Successful]

“So the fire didn’t count,” he murmured.

Apparently, the Tower distinguished between discovering a burning dungeon and discovering the person responsible for it. Nobody had confirmed an intruder, and he had escaped before the assassination became known.

He appreciated that distinction considerably.

[PERFORMANCE EVALUATION COMPLETE]

[PERFECT CLEAR]

Kael’s eyebrows rose. He had expected a good result, but apparently setting part of the palace on fire had still left room for perfection.

Another panel opened beneath the first.

[Perfect Infiltration]

You entered fortified hostile territory without confirmed detection.

You infiltrated the royal palace without exposing your identity.

You eliminated the designated High-Value Target without raising an assassination alarm.

You successfully departed the hostile territory before discovery of the target’s death.

[Additional Evaluation]

The Goblin King’s corpse will not be discovered until the following morning.

No surviving witness can currently identify the assassin.

The Goblin Kingdom has failed to determine the method by which its ruler was killed.

Kael reread the line about the following morning.

Tucking the bastard into bed had bought them considerably more time than expected. He looked toward the distant walls and allowed himself a small smile.

“Sleep well.”

The interface shifted before he could examine the rest.

[ADDITIONAL FLOOR EVENT RECORDED]

[Prison Break]

You discovered captives who were not included within your assigned mission parameters.

You voluntarily released the prisoners held beneath the Goblin Palace and assisted in their successful escape.

[Surviving Prisoners: 100%]

Kael looked past the window.

Everyone who had still been alive when Kael opened the cells had made it out.

He watched the woman kneeling in the grass finally lift her hands, then returned his attention to the interface as another notification appeared.

[CAUSALITY OF ACTIONS RECORDED]

His expression sharpened at the wording. He did not think the Tower meant Causality in the sense Torrac had described, although he read the following lines carefully.

[Your actions within Tower Floors may alter future Floor conditions.]

[Individuals saved, killed, empowered, displaced, allied with, or antagonized may influence future Trials.]

[Political, military, territorial, and social conditions may persist beyond the Floor in which they originated.]

[Future Floor parameters have been adjusted.]

Kael went back to the beginning and read it again.

He had suspected a connection between Floors Eleven and Twelve. The architecture alone made it difficult to dismiss the possibility that both belonged to the same civilization or history.

The Tower was now confirming something far more troublesome. What he did inside one Floor could change the conditions waiting in another.

He looked toward the city.

The king was dead. His prisoners were free, and the kingdom would wake the next morning without a ruler or anyone to blame for his death. Whatever followed might still matter when Kael encountered this place again.

So might the people standing beside him.

A captive he had helped carry through the tunnel could become someone important. The king’s death might weaken the city, strengthen a rival, or leave a more dangerous ruler in his place. Kael could reach another Floor and find himself dealing with a war he had helped start without knowing it.

“So the Floors aren’t isolated,” he muttered.

He thought back through the challenges he had already completed. There had been people, factions, arguments, and decisions he had stopped worrying about the moment the completion window appeared.

Perhaps the Tower had continued keeping track after he stopped.

“That’s probably going to bite me eventually.”

At least he had avoided slaughtering his way through this city. Hostile territory and a mission target would have given him enough excuses to treat every guard as something to kill, but the rating had encouraged discretion.

He had made a responsible decision for the sake of better rewards. He could live with that.

Another line appeared beneath the notification.

[Future interactions influenced by this event will not always be announced.]

Kael stared at it. “You’re only explaining this once, then.”

The system offered nothing further.

From now on, completing the objective would leave him with other things to consider. Who had survived, which factions he had helped, and who might remember what he had done could all affect the next challenge. Even a record or a victory might attract attention he would have to deal with later.

He glanced toward the prisoners again. A moment ago, he had been wondering what would happen to them after he left. Now there was a possibility he would find out.

The interface vanished, and Kael waited for his rewards.

Currency would have been welcome. An achievement for the perfect infiltration would have been better, particularly if it came with useful attributes.

Instead, an almost empty window appeared.

[The One Who Walks With Silence has taken notice of you.]

Kael stopped.

He read the title twice, finding nothing beneath it that explained what had noticed him. There was no name, rank, or classification.

He had spent part of the day listening to a warning about attracting exactly this sort of attention.

“The hell is this now?”

A second line appeared.

[The One Who Walks With Silence was pleased by your performance.]

Kael frowned at the word pleased.

Ulsal had noticed him as well, but that relationship had involved considerably less approval.

The Guildmaster’s explanation returned to him. Powerful beings tended to keep watching someone for one of two reasons: the person had proved exceptional enough to remain interesting, or had managed to make something powerful hate them.

Ulsal had already dealt with the second possibility. Apparently, Kael was now attracting the other sort of attention too.

The Tower chimed again.

[DIVINE OFFER RECEIVED]

[The One Who Walks With Silence asks whether you wish to receive their Blessing.]

[ACCEPT]

[DECLINE]

This offer had come directly from whatever had been watching him. It had seen him cross an enemy city, enter a guarded palace, kill a king in his own bed, and leave without anyone discovering who had done it.

Something about that performance had pleased it enough to offer him power.

Kael looked toward the sleeping city, then back at the window.

The Guildmaster’s warning was still only a few hours old. He had barely had time to consider what divine attention meant before another being decided to make itself known.

“So this is how it starts,” he murmured.

Until now, a god’s interest had meant interference he had no say in. This one was offering him a choice. He could accept a blessing and perhaps a patron, becoming involved in the same affairs as the champions, Constellations, and gods watching the Tower.

He still did not know whose invitation he was considering.

Kael kept his hands at his sides and read the two options again. Somewhere beyond the Floor, The One Who Walks With Silence was waiting for his answer.