I Reincarnated as the World's Worst Healer-Chapter 74: The Guardian of the Inverted Tower (1)

When Ebony mentioned their next destination, her companions fell silent. None of them had ever heard of an inverted tower before.

"That sounds dangerous... How do we get there?" Daniel asked, worry in his eyes.

"To enter the inverted tower we have to be on the lowest floor. Since this tower only has two floors, we’re already on the lowest one, then—"

"None of that. We’re not going anywhere until you recover properly, this isn’t negotiable," Lucian said, interrupting the girl.

"I understand your concern, ears, but we can’t keep waiting. We have to move before the army gets here... Actually you said three days have already passed, that’s too much... Has no one entered yet?"

At Ebony’s question, the two boys looked at each other, as if debating whether to tell her the truth or keep it secret.

"Idiots... Tell me what happened," the blonde said, crossing her arms. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

"Well... The raid team actually arrived yesterday. They went up to the next floor. They invited us to join them, but we decided to stay," Daniel said, avoiding her gaze.

"What!? They already went up a day ago? Then it’s worse than I thought. If they defeat the lord of this tower I have no idea if the passage will still be there or if we’ll have to wait. I don’t even know if it’s active right now. Let’s hurry!"

Restless, Ebony stood up from the floor and hurried to inspect the wall of the circular room where they were trapped. Suddenly a system message appeared in front of her.

[- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -]Do you wish to exit the Central Tower?[- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -]

"Not happening!" Worried, Ebony ignored the system and began touching the rocks in the wall, searching for one that looked different.

"Hey Ebony, calm down. Even if we can’t enter the inverted tower right now, it’s better for you to recover... You had mage’s sickness and we had to give you a lot of healing potions to save you... You need to rest."

Lucian said as he approached and placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder, but her response was an angry glare.

"Screw you, idiot! We can’t keep wasting time... Not even—" Ebony tried to finish her sentence, but the dizziness overcame her resistance and she collapsed to the floor.

"I told you... I’ve been through it before, it’s not something that goes away easily," the elf said as he offered his hand.

But she, annoyed, sighed and stayed seated on the floor trying to recover her strength.

"(Damn it... This is bullshit... It’s not like going down into the inverted tower is urgent...)"

"(But if we don’t do it now and the shitty kingdom that hired us takes control of this place, we’ll have to kill whatever floor boss they install before we can go down... And that’s basically declaring war on a damn country)"

Annoyed, Ebony tried to silence her thoughts, since they were making it harder for her to recover from the dizziness. However, it was undeniable that she had no choice but to keep going down or risk never returning to that place.

"I trust you..." the blonde said quietly, so softly that her friends couldn’t hear.

"What did you say?" Daniel asked, raising an eyebrow and leaning in.

"I said... I trust you. I know you’ll take care of me if we go down... because we won’t have another chance. To go down we have to conquer the lowest floor of the tower. That means if the government takes control of this tower... well."

"We’d have to face them... I understand...," Lucian said, stroking his chin while trying to think clearly.

"I guess we don’t have much choice. We’ll deal with it once we get down there," Lucian added, offering his hand to the girl again, this time with a more determined look.

With a sigh, Ebony accepted the gesture and stood up with difficulty, scanning the walls carefully without moving too quickly around the room.

There was no sign of any special marking, until suddenly she found a rock among all those forming the tower, one that had a small symbol with an arrow pointing toward the floor.

"I think this is it... Lucian, touch it and try to imbue it with magic," the blonde ordered while holding her head, the dizziness still clouding her thoughts.

The green-haired elf immediately followed the request and, touching the stone with his hand, infused it with his magic. It began to glow.

Suddenly, Ebony, Daniel, and Lucian all received a system message.

[- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -]Congratulations, you have discovered the door that leads to the Inverted Tower! This place is filled with mysteries and dangers that no mortal has faced for over a thousand years.Do you accept and descend into the Inverted Tower?[- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -]

The three friends looked at each other, accomplices in their shared ambitions, nodding before gathering their belongings and saying in unison:

"I accept."

Suddenly the three friends vanished from the place.

...

After a moment of darkness, the three friends woke up in the middle of a stone room exactly like the previous one.

"What the hell? Did we go back?" Daniel asked, confused.

"Nothing like that, idiot... Look," Ebony said as she sat on the floor and pointed to a door sealed with stones and another one that was open, but whose stairs descended underground instead of going up.

"I see... So this is like the first floor of the Inverted Tower, right? And that sealed door must be the one that leads back up to the central tower, which means we won’t be able to go up," Lucian said with concern.

"Yeah, but don’t worry. The Inverted Tower has the same number of floors as the tower above, so we really don’t have to go down very far. This adventure will end soon."

Ebony said this before standing up and, carrying the giant backpack, sighing as she began walking toward the stairs that descended into the darkness.

"(I see... That’s why she was so desperate to enter here, even making a deal with the army... If we came back later there would be more floors to clear...)" Lucian thought before following the blonde and stopping her immediately.

"Hey idiot, stop pretending to be tough. The backpack is heavy and you know it. You should rest and let us carry it," the elf said as he held the girl’s shoulder.

After a sigh, the blonde allowed her companions to carry the backpack, with Daniel taking it first. Trying to act tough, he bore the weight without complaining.

The group began descending the stairs. With every step they took, torches lit up one by one, illuminating their path.

After several meters of descent, the group reached a carved wooden door. It had embedded gems and emanated an incredibly strong magical presence.

"Are you sure about this?" Lucian asked while trying to sense the presence on the other side, but he had never felt anything like it before.

"Yes, I already told you I am... Now you’d better get ready... The guardian of the Inverted Tower isn’t just anything...," Ebony said before pushing open the solid oak door and stepping into the darkness.

When everyone entered, they saw nothing but darkness, until suddenly dozens of torches lit up, revealing a gigantic chamber filled with gold, jewels, and weapons everywhere.

But in the middle of the largest pile of treasure they saw a white rabbit with red eyes.

"Welcome, unfortunate players... Welcome to my lair and to your grave," the rabbit said in a deep, chilling voice.