A person can change at different paces. Some may even say they can never change. But, let’s be honest, the reason why some can never change, is because they’ve gone through so much shit, that the one thing that’s holding them, if it disappears, there will be no change, they will just die.
“Mirai… how have you been… I don’t know how long it''s been, I’m sorry for leaving for so long.”
Mirai recited her alphabet and interpreted, [It’s okay]
“It isn’t… cause… well, I did improve… by a lot… and I’m happy about that… just that… now I’m stuck here, my entire body… I can’t even move it. It aches so much that I am so bothered to even scream at the pain.” Callan said with a deadpan expression.
“Well, at least I have clothes now… so I won’t look like a dead man someone found at a beach.” Due to the excessive use of his magic, Callan’s body was not able to handle the amount of magic that he exerted so frequently.
“I wanna see my stats so bad, but like, did my stats increase? Minus 3 for all of them… well, if you still remember my previous one.”
[Yes]
“Yes… for… remember or it increased.’
Mirai said a two-letter word just for simple convenience, [Up].
“So it increases, that means you remember it too, okay, I guess for someone like you who has lived for so long, it makes sense you have some good memory, well you probably have perfect memory.”
[Yes]
“So envious. You know Mirai, I always told myself, if I ever reincarnate or maybe get 3 wishes from God or a genie, I’ll ask for only three wishes. First. Perfect memory. It’s self-explanatory, it would be… as its name, perfect. Second was a perfect body. This one is kinda complicated, I wanted to fit so many things for one wish, not getting sick, having a good face, having a fit body, or like talent for that fit body to easily come by. The third was very simple. I just wanted to be happy, so I’ll wish I was good at socializing.”
Callan let out a huge sigh, his body was still in a lot of pain despite fainting and then waking up for he didn’t even care how long. He reminisced about his past life, having a hard time even remembering anything. “I have such a bad memory… I hate how I can’t remember Earth anymore… I lost all my stories Mirai… I lost my kids… I lost… what made me… I changed… and I don’t like it.”
Callan lay on the ground for hours, venting about his problems to Mirai, problems that he had a problem to say. Callan never had a good memory, it was a good question on why, but he just didn’t, that was the explanation he wanted to believe.
It was like one phrase, the phrase “The worst feeling ever, is when you want to cry, no tears come out.” It was like that. Callan forgot his problems, well, okay, fine, he was in another world already so his problems should just disappear, like he’d always done, forget them, he had.
But, they do say, you never realize how important a person is until they die and completely disappear from your life. That was the feeling, it was disgusting, doesn’t it sound so much better to have solved your problems, not successfully run away from them?
The white void didn’t help Callan’s mentality in any way. “It’s so boring, it''s so pointless, I wish I just really died. Sorry if this hurts to hear Mirai, but I really don’t care anymore. I don’t care if you die when I do… don’t need a rest too… if there was an afterlife, I’ll accompany you… it’s better than this place… it’s better than living.”
Staring at Callan, Mirai didn’t even feel hurt from hearing that. Callan already had his entire life on the line this entire time and having someone else life hang with yours… that was completely overwhelming. It didn’t help… that… it couldn’t even be changed, it was definite, and a higher power told Mirai that.
As much as she wanted to have someone beat the endless tower so that at least someone, even if it wasn’t her, could avenge every single one of her friends… that… she killed. She killed them… its worse to see someone suffer… more than killing them.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Callan was hurt ‘cause of his responsibility to Mrai’s life, and she is hurt that her own life is making someone suffer. Life is endlessly complicated, your reason for suffering could be suffering cause of you. So what was the point? Invalidate your emotions again just so you wouldn’t be a reason… maybe yes.
“Well, I’m sorry about that Mirai. I didn’t mean it. I’ll… work hard… I’ve already gone insane, this tower has already made me insane. Remember that Mirai, this tower made me insane, it was not you. So please, don’t be accountable… I’ll try my best… cause that’s my life now, I’ll just have to live with it.”
A few days passed, and the white void was completely quiet the entire time. Callan slept to avoid the awkwardness. One day, after he woke up, he started to feel his feet and moved his toes a little bit. He moved each one of his fingers and even tensed his muscles. It took a few days, but Callan was finally healed. His mana didn’t feel like it was back to normal, but his body definitely was.
He turned his head to Mirai, knowing full well she was already aware he was awake. “Can you sleep Mirai?” He asked.
[No]
“Hmph.” Callan smiled and turned his head back. “Then, you''re lucky. Because you won’t feel the hardest thing about sleeping. It''s hard to stand up in the morning.”
Callan stretched his entire body like a star and yawned. “Even if the floor feels like it''s stabbing me, now after a long time… it’s like an ant is biting me. It’s still annoying… but I don’t feel much pain anymore… that was good, I needed to make that disappear anyway.”
Callan leaned his entire body to the left, squishing his arm on a sharp tile. He placed his right hand back to the ground in front of him and slowly made his way up from the ground. His spine bent down.
“I just… wanna sleep… like forever.. and ever… but I gotta work… because the fifth floor is very soon, and I have a very bad feeling about it.”
Callan walked up to his status screen and checked it.
[Callan Satchel]
[Level: 7]
[Strength: 41]
[Agility: 39]
[Endurance: 35]
[Magic: 45]
“Wow… I’m… kind of flabbergasted at just how little my stats increased after so long. I trained for God knows how long, yet my stats only increase by around 5?” Callan slapped his head and shook his head.
“Time, please.” His reaction had thrown off the previous numbers after seeing his time have a completely giant change.
[309:57:38]
“What??” He yelled at the top of his lungs. Callan jumped up and down, waving his hands. “This may not be a lot of time considering what I spent on the fourth floor, but how the hell did this happen? Mirai… what happened?”
Callan wanted to regret his question after the halfway point of Mirai’s explanation. She went on and on rambling on what happened, occasionally making Callan’s eyebrows stretch due to his confusion about the letters being said.
But, after she had explained the tower leveling up the difficulty due to Callan’s exploit of spending too much time training, he completely understood the situation. “Oh… wait, then… does that mean the previous floors updated too?”
[Yes]
“Can I get levels again?”
[No}
“Ughh… pointless. Hah… well, okay.” Callan turned around and looked at the floor he was lying on. “It didn’t even get teleported.
Callan took a piece of stone in his inventory, just around the height of his knees. He carved it into a smooth half-circle top gravestone and etched a few letters on it. He carried the gravestone and laid it next to Mirai.
“Mirai… I just thought about it… when someone dies, the entire white void resets too doesn’t it… maybe that’s why I can’t see anything they have built in this place.”
[Yes]
“Well… thank God I’m the last one… so this grave never disappears.” He kneeled in front of the gravestone and caressed it. “Rest in peace… you were the best… to ever exist.”
{R.I.P.}
{Ester}