Floor 25 - Chapter 1 - The Salt Road

Arriving on the 25th Floor, the first thing that became obvious was the large town gate that hid the town from the labyrinth exit. A large white brick structure, with black timber frames across the building, which set the tone for the town inside.

Market stalls as far as the eye could see, merchants from all floors of Aincrad, selling crystals, potions, items and materials to the players who'd reached this floor, all in the shadows of another building - the Town Hall. An imposing building that covered the town's market, giving it a bizarre feel of both an open air, and an indoor market, the strange feeling exacerbated by the shouting of merchants hawkishly hollering over each other, their voices echoing off the walls. Large timber framed buildings ran either side of the town hall and market, with horse drawn carriages running along a path built down either side.

The reactions from each member of the Concord were slightly different - the most overstated of them being Jet's, who immediately began to act like a child in a toy shop, bouncing between stalls with a dopey grin on his face. Though that was certainly not an easily won position, as Phillia, eager to find a good deal on new equipment or potions as well as any other kind of treasure, had also taken off... but in the opposite direction to Jet.

Koharu and Rain, now left standing there like lemons, looked at each other and sighed. "I'll make sure he doesn't get into any trouble..." Koharu sighed in exasperation, as she headed off after her boyfriend.

"I'll watch Phillia." Rain gave an understanding smile as she took off after the treasure hunter. With any luck, Phillia was still window shopping, and hadn't bankrupted herself (or them) yet...

/-/

"I never thought I'd be feeling nostalgic here in Aincrad..." Jet grinned, as he examined a coat on a nearby stall. Koharu, having a considerably more developed fashion sense than her boyfriend, gave him a look that told him to put it back. Not only was it quite expensive - seriously, 10,000 Col... for a coat!? - but it was almost entirely identical to his normal coat, only in a royal blue colour, rather than purple.

"I thought you hated shopping?" Koharu asked, her eyes drawn to a jewellery stall opposite her as she spoke.

"Oh I do, but this place feels like somewhere we used to visit when I had family in the Midlands. Got the same sort of market town vibe to it." Koharu looked at him in confusion at the statement, "It's really hard to explain." He admitted, as he looked over at the stand his girlfriend was looking at. A collection of jewellery, from rings carved out of wood, to what looked like a sapphire necklace, and everything in between, were up for sale, all for the right price of course.

"Umm, excuse me? How much is this?" Koharu pointed at a pendant on the table. It was a small piece, no bigger than the tip of his thumb, but the amount of work that had been put into it must've been astronomical, given the ornate arrangement of the engraving on its face.

The stall keeper was an elderly gentleman, what little remained of his grey hair, and his hunch attesting to the man having clearly lived a demanding life. His red apron was covered in what he hoped were oil stains, and the clothes underneath looked fairly tatty too. "Ohh, that. It should be 500 Col, but for you, I'll do you a deal - 250 Col, how does that sound?" Yup, definitely a market town, Jet thought to himself, as Koharu happily handed over the 250 Col to the shopkeeper, and equipped her new pendant.

"So, how do I look?" She smiled, as she twiddled with her pendant. There was something strange about it that she just couldn't put her finger on. It felt as if it had just called to her, and she couldn't understand why...

"Beautiful as always, Ko." He smiled back to her, and just like that, her train of thought was derailed as she began blushing furiously and giggling nervously.

/-/

After about an hour, the two groups reunited as both pairs ran out of stalls to examine. Unsurprisingly, both had bought a few things, but rather strangely, neither could actually understand why they'd bought what they had. Koharu's pendant, which had screamed out to her, could at least be rationalised as her having a keen fashion sense, but Phillia's purchase was strange, even by her standards - a bottle of perfume, apparently called Belladonna. She hadn't even smelt it until after she'd bought it, and when she had... Well, it smelled dreadful. An almost burnt and decaying smell, if she had to explain it. Needless to say, she wasn't planning on using it any time soon.

Their meeting point overlooked the cliff that separated the two parts of the town of Emstrey. A large river at the base of the cliff flowed underneath a large stone bridge, whilst greenery filled the background. Looking out over the cliff face, now it looked truly familiar to Jet. To the other girls, it felt as if they were looking at a postcard, and Phillia even looked up, expecting to see the words ''Wish you were here!" floating above their heads.

"So, you want to carry on exploring, or..." Jet asked, but in such a way as to make it obvious that he was going on ahead, even if they didn't want to.

"I thought I heard familiar voices!" Jet, who'd already started walking, turned back as he made out the new voice. To say he wasn't surprised that she'd be here was an understatement; it was a market town, she'd be missing a massive opportunity if she wasn't...

"Lisbeth!" Koharu called out as she turned around to embrace the blacksmith.

"Nice to see you all eager, but is it just me, or do I get the feeling he's not happy to see me?" She accepted the friendly embrace happily enough, but seemed a little put out by Jet ignoring her slightly.

"Nah, he's just being impatient. Something about this being similar to an English town." Phillia explained, as Jet wordlessly pulled a Record Crystal from his inventory, and took a photo of the view.

"Okay, now can we go?" Jet asked again, getting increasingly impatient as he did.

The path to the Wenlock and Low Town was a narrow footpath, built into the cliff side, with just a few strategically placed rails to make sure the unwary didn't plummet to an inglorious death. Becoming a human sized pizza on the footpath below wasn't what most people would've called a heroic demise, especially when the circumstances surrounding it were that of someone pratting around a bit too close to a ledge. For the group, the descent down the hills felt a little familiar, reminding them in part of the 17th Floor, and the trekking required to get anywhere on that floor. Luckily for all of them, no mud was present to give each member a new colour scheme as they ventured to the Low Town, and for that small mercy, they were thankful.

Jet idly thought about how much quicker this would be if the towns had a funicular railway between them, as the town he'd spent time in as a kid had, before his thoughts were interrupted. "So, what crazy adventures have you guys had since I last saw you? Fought a would be king, and his army of never weres?" Lisbeth flailed theatrically, as everyone raised an eyebrow at her.

"Uhh, it's been a week. How fast do you think we get ourselves into trouble, Liz?"

"Between the Knight of the Wind, the Queen of Hearts, and Indiana Jones over there... about thirty seconds." She answered, a look of smug satisfaction on her face, as Phillia gave her a glare that could wither a tree in that span of time…

''Ask a stupid question…'' Jet muttered to himself, as Lisbeth looked towards him in victory. She'd evidently not heard the rest of that phrase, given it ends with ''...receive a stupid answer.''.

''Seriously though, you've all kept well, I see. I've got some interesting information about the Low Town anyway, and that's why I'm here.'' Lisbeth became a little bit more flustered as she spoke. What exactly did she think was in the Low Town anyway?

''Go on then…'' The group asked, all waiting on her answer.

''There's a story about the bath house down there. Apparently, the waters adapt for each and every person, according to their desires... I, uhh, kind of wanted to go, but if, well…''

Jet sighed, and gave Koharu a look. A look that told her that, no matter how much his hormones screamed at him, his presence with the girls would almost certainly lead to him becoming the focus of some third rate true crime podcast where plenty of jokes would be made at his expense. ''Fine, I'll make myself scarce whilst you girls go to the baths.''

''Thank you!" Lisbeth seemed genuinely happy at that, as Jet rolled his eyes. It wasn't like he couldn't find anything to do for a few hours, after all... even if he had to admit, the baths changing to fit the occupant was an interesting concept.

/-/

A long main street ran down the town, with white painted, Regency style buildings running either side, and down a number of side streets. Each house was a large building, far too large for just two people, and probably still a little on the large side for the four of them, if he was being honest, but the appearance of them was something to behold, even if his opinions on the real towns the buildings belonged in were... less than pleasant. Wrought iron railings, painted black, provided a contrast to the off white buildings, whilst many of them had balconies overlooking the town itself.

Passing far enough down the town, the baths took up most of the town's greenery, with the large baths notably being one of the few buildings to actually add any colour to the otherwise monochrome town... even if that colour was in fact beige.

Throughout the afternoon, and after undertaking a series of small quests, he'd developed an understanding on how the town came to be. In the lore of Aincrad, the Low Town had once been the parish of Atcham, a tiny village of no more than fifty people that served a subservient existence to the far larger village of Emstrey nearby. Once upon a time, generations ago, Atcham had been visited by a Lyusulan lord, a sickly man, suffering from a severe case of dying-but-not-quite-dead-yet - it had actually been written in something resembling Latin, but given Jet only knew very small amounts of Latin, that was an easier way of saying it - before the lord had passed on. The cleaner air, the waters of the nearby wells and river Leam, and the salt deposits near the village had proven a miraculous way of helping the ailing health of the lord... right until he passed on, because as it turned out, the salts were riddled with all sorts of natural poisons, which had put a slight kibosh on the residents plans to market the salts as a miracle cure. Very few groups appreciate their products actively killing their users and the inevitable cover up from the lord's death had led to the governors of Atcham being labelled as charlatans, and human devils, by humanity, elves and dwarves alike.

Eventually though, the formation of Aincrad had allowed the two towns to come into their own, as the resources that had put them on the map miraculously been dragged up with them. Precisely how that worked, Jet wasn't sure he'd ever understand, given the water had come from some form of underground spring, but given it involved the actual structure of Aincrad itself... he'd decided just to not think too deeply on it. Applying logic to the structure of the floating castle was a sure-fire way to go mad very quickly, given the colossal mass of dirt, concrete and violations of physics required to keep the damned thing just floating there... Wait, where was he again?

Oh, right. Over the past five generations, development of Atcham had blurred the boundaries between the twin towns, and eventually, the two towns had become one, and the area, now known as Emstrey Low Town had become a resort for the war weary, and the wealthy. Jet had vaguely remembered overhearing an Lyusulan soldier discussing it, back on Floor 3, come to think of it...

The main area, and where he was currently sat, writing out notes in his message window, was known as the Cottage, supposedly after a former founder of the village of Emstrey, and Jet thought idly to himself about whether they'd have the money to move here themselves. It wasn't as if the sordid history was that much of a turn off, really - he lived in Bristol IRL, after all - and so he decided to examine the house prices... ''FRIGGING HELL!? HOW MUCH?!'' However, the extortionate prices were a considerable turn off. Two million Col was an insane amount, especially for a house!

As he continued making notes, throwing the occasional piece of bread to the nearby water fowl and having a philosophical debate with himself over the morality of spending more than most people would ever know for a house, a familiar face appeared in front of him... ''A strange day it is, to find the Knight of the Wind alone...''

''Kizmel!'' Jet responded, taken aback by the appearance of the Dark Elf.

''It's been a while, hasn't it?'' Compared to how she'd looked on the Nineteenth Floor, where they'd last met, she looked considerably more weary. Not battle weary, but tired. Perhaps peace was even more tiring than war… at least one of her messages to Koharu had indicated that there were still certain groups discontent with the peace between the Elves, and he wondered if she'd- no, think pleasant thoughts, he told himself!

He smiled, glad to see her again, even if he couldn't be sure she was taking care of herself. ''Yeah. Just taking a holiday, I assume?''

Kizmel shook her head and sighed. ''Sadly not. Our queen has heard whispers of goings on in this town, so I have been sent to investigate. How are you holding up, and where is everyone?''

''Oh, they're in the bathhouse. I figured being surrounded by a number of friends and my girlfriend, all naked, wasn't going to end well for me... so I went and did some sightseeing.'' He shrugged, as he threw small chunks of bread to a nearby family of ducks.

''Your traditions continue to elude me.'' Kizmel laughed slightly at the knight's sense of modesty. He had ended up in their bath once before, after all, so he needn't be so coy about it, in her opinion.

''Anyway, what sort of weird goings on?'' Jet quickly changed the track of the conversation away from bathing rituals.

''A number of our soldiers reported that they'd suffered the worst nightmares they'd ever had during their stay in the manor here. In itself, not unusual, but that those nightmares ceased immediately after leaving this floor? That I find suspicious...''

''Oh, those sorts of weird goings on...'' He thought back to the Nineteenth Floor, and sighed. He really hoped he was wrong with that conclusion, but he doubted it. ''It's been a while though, Kizmel. We should probably go and look for the girls...'' Jet had messaged the group to see if they were anywhere near done, but to no avail. If he didn't think that entering the bathhouse would be a death sentence, he'd have gone and looked for them himself…

On the other hand, it was still daylight, and would be for the next few hours, so it made some sense to make use of it, especially since they had nothing else to do. It wasn't like there were any other quests in the Low Town now, mainly as Jet had gone and done the smaller ones. He almost felt a little cheated, given he was in the middle of one at the time Kizmel showed up… which had been to feed the ducks. How that was a quest, he would never know! Still though, easy quests meant easy money and quicker levelling, so perhaps he shouldn't be looking that gift horse in the mouth, he thought.

''I feel we should at least do some information gathering before we do. I believe we should start at Harley House though, as that was where our troops had been stationed. Perhaps the owner might know something.''

/-/

As the two knights walked out of the Low Town, to the big residential house, conversation had turned onto how everything was going since the end of the Elf War. According to Kizmel, a new generation of knights were already being trained, and she made it clear that they'd heard all of the legends of the ''Knights of the Wind'', and that one day, they'd likely come after him... either to spar, or for autographs. Jet grimaced at the latter thought, he'd never have imagined himself as anything but a normal teenager in extraordinary circumstances. He daren't imagine it, else his ego would become uncontrollable... ''And of your group? How have you all been faring?''

''Other than on the Twentieth Floor, we've been alright.'' Kizmel noticed Jet's mood went quite sombre at the mention of the Twentieth Floor, and resolved to ask him what had happened there, at some point. His mood soon perked up though, as he interjected again, ''Oh, we've finally got a name now, too!''

''Indeed?'' Kizmel asked, deciding not to pry about the Twentieth Floor. She remembered that Koharu had told her in messages about what had happened, and the arduous nature of picking a name for their little group, along with how none of them could agree on it.

''The Concord.'' Jet spoke proudly.

''An interesting name... I take it that Concord is something in a human language?''

''It's got three or four meanings, but the one it means for us is 'Together'.''

''Certainly a befitting name, I concur.'' Kizmel smiled at him, before turning around as she noticed the gates that towered over them. ''I believe that we are here.''

''Bloody hell…'' Jet looked at the building in awe, and let out a whistle. To say the grounds were massive would be an understatement… They were gargantuan. He was only at the front gates, and yet he could only just make out the main residence from their current position, whilst a number of smaller, yet still huge in their own right, buildings towered above the gates, with a series of columns propping up the balconies on them.

/-/

Inside the manor, the pair headed to a library deep inside. Now inside, the sheer scale of the manor became evident, the height between floors dwarfing even the tallest of people, whilst the distance between the rooms made the walk to the manor feel short in comparison. Eventually, they reached the library, and entered to the waiting lord.

Much like every elder Dark Elf they'd met, the Lord of the Manor was a tall man with long, but fading purple hair, and dressed in considerably more ornate equipment, various engravings adorning his armour, whilst a purple cloak, with golden stitching covered one side of the armour.

''Your honour.'' Kizmel bowed, and Jet quickly followed suit.

''Ah, you must be the knight that our Queen said would be arriving soon?'' The Lord spoke formally, but it was evident that he was exhausted. Bags were obvious below his eyes, and his posture looked far less rigid than any other Lyusulan that Jet had met.

''I am Kizmel, of the Pagoda Knights, your honour, and this is my ally and friend, Jet, a human adventurer, and honourary knight of Lyusula'' Jet raised a hand to his head in salute as he was introduced.

''Ah, it is an honour to meet you... I only wish it were under better circumstances.'' The Lord sat down, and Jet noticed his eyes close momentarily. Longer than a blink, but not enough to be considered as actually sleeping.

Kizmel's voice was enough to snap him from his brief slumber though. ''Your honour, would you mind explaining what has been going on? Hopefully, a clearer picture will allow us to work more effectively in our mission.''

''Very well, you two. Would you care to take a seat?'' Both sat down as requested. ''I believe you already know the history of the town, correct, Lady Kizmel?''

''Indeed I do Sir.'' answered Kizmel, a look of reluctance on her face.

''Good, then there is no need to explain the sordid details. However, you may not be aware that a scientist had made this town his home, some generations ago, as he began his research into a new type of energy - one that would replace the lost magics of old. An energy that was easily renewable, and required little to no damage to the environment to harvest. He called it 'salt', after the appearance it took on when harvested.'' explained the Lord, beckoning to a servant to retrieve a specific book.

''So how did he do this, or is it lost to time?'' Jet asked, ignoring the evident lack of imagination in the name.

''Ah, young adventurer, a good question... he produced a machine under the town, and he would set it off, religiously, at the toll of midnight, and turn it off at daybreak. The machine would harvest the energy overnight, and he was deemed a true hero to the town. ''

''Right, with you so far, but what actually was this 'salt'?'' asked Jet, trying to work out whether this ''salt'' was some form of hallucinogen, or had some form of nasty side effect that could explain the nightmares.

''In our culture, Kizmel, you are aware of the sacred nature of our dreams, are you not?''

''Of course, your honour?'' Kizmel remembered the bedtime stories her parents would read to Tilnel and herself, the stories of the Sandman and how he watched over the dreams of those blessed by the Sacred Tree, and kept the nightmares away, if they truly believed in him. Pleasant stories for children, but with no basis in reality, or so she had thought until now...

''Hang on, this machine harvests dreams?! How!?'' Jet asked in complete disbelief. He wasn't sure whether his disbelief was over the lack of ethics involved, or the ridiculousness of what he'd just heard. A bit of both, if he really thought about it hard.

''Another fantastic question, but sadly, not one we can answer. I can answer what happened when the people of the town discovered this fact, however. The scientist was chased out of the town, without time to disable his machine. I fear that our current problem may be only the beginning of this device's restart procedure, after all these years... our only hope now, is to find the way to turn it off...'' Jet considered just beating the machine with a big hammer, but came to the conclusion that such a method would probably do more harm than good.

''So, where might we find this device?'' Kizmel asked, her face giving away no emotion as she spoke.

''My researchers tell me that the device is below the town somewhere, and we believe the entrance could be around the Wenlock Edge.'' As Jet looked at the hasty notes he'd made, he made one big note... ''Why now?'' This machine had been dormant for ''generations'' apparently, but it chose now of all times to mysteriously become active again without anyone so much as touching it? That was just suspicious, in his opinion...

''We will follow that up, your honour.'' The pair bowed, but were stopped as they left, the lord handing Kizmel a leather clad book. With a purple coloured cover, and golden markings, the slight problem for Jet came in it being written in Lyusulan, a language that he couldn't read. Then again, he had a number of manga written in Japanese, a language he could only barely read, so that was nothing new. Still, he held onto the hope that it contained some pictures of this machine. Maybe they'd hold the key to this mystery...

''I would like you to have these. I understand they aren't much, but they may be all that stands between the people of this land, and the complete destruction of it.'' Jet looked the lord over quickly, and something felt a little off about him. His body language just oozed anxiety, in Jet's opinion - he was looking around the room skittishly, and without anything in them, seemed to be fidgeting with his hands a little too much.

Regardless, the pair headed out of the room, and back towards the main gate. Kizmel broke the silence between them, stating her opinion first. ''Something's wrong about this, but I can't say what.''

''Someone's done something, else why would that machine choose now to become active? Never mind looking for this entrance, without so much as a description of what to look for...'' The phrase ''Needle in a haystack'' didn't even begin to cover that task, and Jet was not looking forward to it either... ''Still, I think we should get back to the others... they'll be wondering where I went, probably!'' He laughed, as they walked across the gardens of Harley House and headed back to the town...