Runebound Reverse Tower of The Dead-Chapter 125: A Small Respite

"Oi, get out now, no need to stay in hiding like little rats," Kael shouted loud.

The shout echoed off broken walls and open windows. It was risky. It was also effective. Kael didn’t like negotiating with shadows. If someone wanted to watch, they could at least do it with their face visible.

A couple of people peeked out of their hidings. A few didn’t.

Kael watched the ones who revealed themselves and filed their posture away. These weren’t beggars. These were Sun Clan bodies, the kind that lounged when they should have been hunting. Their eyes weren’t fearful. They were assessing, greedy in that lazy way that came from wanting reward without effort.

"Oh, it’s Peter and Kael. They’re back..." One of them said. But his tone didn’t sound too pleased.

The displeasure wasn’t about relief or worry. It was envy. Kael recognized it immediately. The kind of tone someone used when they saw you return with food while they stayed warm.

"Why are we staking out the main road to the clan?" Kael asked.

He didn’t ask politely. He asked like he already knew the answer and wanted to hear how they justified it.

"Ah, been seeing a bit too many Snakes lately. Today especially with that contract and all, they’ve been wandering our territory. So, you guys got anything good on you from your hunt?" The man asked.

The question landed too quickly, too eager. The explanation was just garnish. The real meat was the last part.

Kael could almost see the man’s hands itching to reach into their sides.

"What does it matter to you?" Kael asked.

Kael’s voice stayed level, but his gauntleted hand flexed once, slow. Not a threat yet. Just a reminder that he wasn’t the kind of newcomer you pushed around for fun.

"You see, new guy, I’ve been busy protecting the base, and we didn’t get a chance to go out and hunt. So how about you share a bit of the spoils, so the boss doesn’t get too prickly, you know what I’m saying?"

The man smiled as he said it, like he expected Kael to laugh along. His logic was flimsy and he knew it. "Protecting the base" meant sitting on a broken chair and watching the street. "Didn’t get a chance" meant didn’t want to risk a bite. And the boss being "pricky" was just a convenient excuse to shake down someone returning tired.

Kael felt the disgust welling down his throat. The Sun clan members were being lazy slobs. Not willing to risk their own lives to get cores, and wait in line for others, ’newbies’, or exploitable fools to take cores from them.

He didn’t let the disgust show on his face. Showing too much emotion was also a kind of weakness. He just let his eyes go colder.

"I got nothing to give you. And if you want to try, you might as well come down here and take it." Kael said as he clenched his gauntlet.

The gauntlet made a subtle sound as it tightened, metal shifting slightly. It wasn’t dramatic, but it was enough. Kael didn’t need to show fire. He only needed to show willingness.

"Oi, why so serious," The man said. "It was just a joke man."

The retreat was immediate, cowardly. The man’s smile stayed, but it was thinner now. People like that loved "jokes" when they thought you were too weak to answer back.

"Let us pass," Peter said.

Peter’s voice surprised even Kael. It came out colder than before, with that authority tone that didn’t belong to a man who had been screaming on spider silk an hour ago. Peter wasn’t brave, but he understood hierarchy, and he was close enough to the boss to make these clowns hesitate.

And when they saw him interfere and take Kael’s back unlike what they would expect they reluctantly stepped aside with faces that promised resentment later. Kael clocked it and didn’t care. Resentment was common. Action was what mattered, and right now they weren’t acting.

"Lazy fucks," Kael spoke softly. But not soft enough to not be heard.

He wanted them to hear it. He wanted them to carry that sting back into the base. Not because it would change them, but because it would remind them he wasn’t eager to be liked.

Yet none of them dared ask him what he said. They knew he was different, someone who had a talent that the boss needed. Trying to haze him would only bring them trouble, it was a good attempt, but that was all, an attempt.

Kael didn’t relax until the main road bent and the base came into view, hidden inside its crumbling complex like a bruised fortress. Even then, he kept his eyes moving. A fight didn’t need to happen in the street. It could happen at the gate.

The two continued moving past the buildings and reached the base soon enough.

The gate looked more solid than most things in this city, patched with repaired metal and salvaged wood. It still felt temporary, like everything else here, but it was a boundary, and boundaries mattered. Most of it Kael’s own work and repairs.

Peter headed first to talk with the man at the gate. "Where’s the boss?" he asked.

The guard leaned forward slightly, peering at them like he expected blood or a corpse trailing behind. His eyes flicked to their hands, their bags, then back to their faces.

"Not back yet, you guys are done already?"

"We got some materials and loot, we’ve done our share. But," peter said as he looked up, "Is it just me or is the night coming rather fast."

Peter’s gaze lingered on the sky as he spoke. The light had shifted again, dimmer than it should have been. Not full dusk yet, but leaning toward it with uncomfortable speed.

"We had the same thought, day is becoming shorter I hope the night is the same..." the guard expressed his worry as any normal human would.

It was a weak hope, but it was hope. Kael didn’t share it. The Tower didn’t shorten one thing without making sure another thing got worse.

Kael walked inside after Peter was allowed in, "Got a room, a private one where no one would bother me?" He asked.

He didn’t ask as a request. He asked like someone claiming space. After today, Kael wasn’t sleeping in a random ditch, or in a place he couldn’t trust the people of. Where hands could reach into his inventory when he slept. He needed a door. He needed control.

"Most rooms in this complex building are empty, take whichever one you like, lock it behind you so no one bothers you, I’ll go and trade some of these cores for now."

Peter didn’t wait for permission. He was already thinking of profit. He wanted to trade before the boss returned, before the clan started sniffing around, before night forced everyone into their hiding holes.

"Aight, I’m off," Kael said as he locked his eyes on a room on the third floor. It’s high up that he won’t be caught off-guard if someone were to come in on him since he can see them from the minimap.

The mini-map was better when you had distance. Someone climbing stairs showed up earlier. Someone creeping down a hall gave you a wider margin. Kael didn’t want to be surprised.

The interior smelled like sweat, old cloth, and stagnant air. Bodies lounged everywhere, some talking quietly, some sleeping, some staring into nothing like the Tower had already hollowed them out. Kael ignored them the way you ignored trash piles on a street. Not because they weren’t people, but because they weren’t relevant to his survival right now.

He soon reached the room he had his eyes on. It was overlooking the inner terrace of the complex building and was also away from the rest of the clan members.

Kael liked that. Fewer footsteps. Fewer chances someone "accidentally" wandered into his door.

The room itself wasn’t much to look at.

Broken chair, a bed that had better days. A table that thankfully was still standing and a door that had a broken lock.

It was poverty disguised as shelter, but it was still a room, and rooms could be improved.

Kael closed the door and pulled out the hammer, a couple taps to the lock made it correct itself returning to proper function.

The lock clicked back into alignment like it had never been broken. Kael appreciated Brokk’s hammer for moments like this, the quiet practical power of making the world behave the way it should. The door felt more real now, less like a suggestion.

He then locked the door behind him and pulled out the fire imbued axe.

The weapon sat in his hands with quiet weight, edge still faintly warm. Kael’s eyes traced it like an engineer tracing a faulty part, already thinking of improvements and ways to make it... different.

"Alright, unfortunately you’re useless as tit on a boar. So how about we change you up a bit," Kale held up the hammer. Ready to for another upgrade.