'Left, left, right, left.'
Waves of energy were produced each time he waved his hands in a certain manner, interacting with a certain part of the magic circle, guiding the invisible strings of energy like an orchestra conductor.
[The Ritual circle is reacting…]
[Completion: 51%.]
The small triangles around the bigger circle were glowing in an harmonic manner, and each time the entire magic circle glowed, the things placed inside of these triangles, along with those circles started vanishing.
The scene was mysterious. If someone was seeing this, they would not believe this was a special ritual that no individual on the lower floors or even the middle floors would know about.
The ritual was part of a special 'dispelling' technique that he had learned on the 90th floor.
He met many people on his journey to the top of that tower and while doing so, he had learned quite a lot of things that helped him clear the floors.
It was never about having higher stats and better skills within this tower. Unless one could solve puzzles, had knowledge about the Laws of the tower, or possessed clear advantages, they could not clear any of the tower floors.
'Almost there…'
[The Ritual circle is reacting…]
[Completion: 78%.]
His advantage was not his talent– he did not possess a blessed talent like Ziggy nor a blessed mind like Iz. What he had was a cursed stubbornness that pushed him forward each time he cleared a tower floor or failed to do so.
The things he learned were useful in this place as well, and from how this ritual was working, he had obtained one of his answers as well.
'The two towers have some connections at least.'
While the names were different, there was something connecting these towers. The technique that existed in the game, the Skills and skill holder that he knew about also existed in this tower as well.
So, both were no different places.
-Ooooooooooooong!
Still, that did not mean he had obtained all the answers that he was here for. The primary reason he came here was to get help from the dwarf elders. And he had not forgotten that.
[The Ritual circle is reacting…]
[Completion: 96%.]
"Almost… there." He looked utterly exhausted, covered in sweat. He had used up most of his energy in the process. All the triangles had vanished along with the things placed within them.
Only the two circles remind now, and even they were glowing with a unique light that seemed somewhat sinister to them.
"Uni." The other offerings were made, only leaving him with one last sacrifice.
"Viv." (Yes…)
Unity looked sad as she came down and hovered over the magic circle.
She looked at her master, longing for a present in her eyes.
It seemed like she did not part ways, however, KiRA's eyes remained emotionless.
He needed to talk with the dwarves and for that…
[{ I'll remember this, master… }]
Unity's sacrifice was necessary.
"I'm sorry, dear."
KiRA shook his head, but he did not look away from her.
He kept looking, his eyes unshaking.
There was nothing he could do about this. For the Ritual to work, she needed to do this.
And the small bird knew her master's will as well.
So…
"Viviiii!"
With a painful expression, Unity picked out one of her golden feathers and let it go… she picked her precious golden feather and sacrificed it to the damned ritual circle.
-Zaaaaaaaaaa…
As soon as the golden feather cascaded down to the ground and fell on the smaller circle within the formation, a bright light exploded from the formation and, at the same time…
-Booooooooom!
A powerful shockwave blasted from the core of the magic circle.
"Viv!!" (Master!)
KiRA had prepared for the impact and strengthened his footing but Unity wasn't as prepared.
"Huup!"
She was almost thrown away but KiRA used his energy sword and caught it like catching something with a whip.
-Ooooooooooooooong!
The two of them were saved.
The magic circle that had taken away their hundreds of thousands was nowhere to be seen now.
[Ding!]
But they knew they had succeeded after seeing the strange translucent dorm above them.
[You have succeeded in performing a
[You have obtained:
He also got an unexpected reward, something he liked quite a bit. However he controlled his urge to play with his new toy and carefully placed it inside his inventory.
[Ding!]
[You are under the effect of the unique barrier
[You will not feel the effects of Status condition: Sleep.]
[You will not feel the effects of Status condition: Exhaustion.]
[You will not feel the effects of Status condition: Passivity.]
[Barrier Effect: 71:59:51.]
"Great. This should be enough."
While Unity was sad to lose one of her precious golden feathers, something she could not recover until she regained a bit more of her strength, the success of the barrier made him happy.
Since he was happy, she was not as sad as she would have been in case of some unexpected turn of events.
She just had a grumpy look as she sat back down on KiRA's shoulder and started cuddling him angrily.
"Anytime now…" He patted her head and caressed her feathers while looking at the two houses before them.
The ritual barrier was a powerful force that not even the blessing of Sloth could overlook. The blessing was far more powerful than the barrier, but the specific opposite natures of both made the blessing much weaker.
The strong Dwarven elders could already resist the effects of the blessing so, with the help of this barrier, KiRA hoped to see them in a much better state.
"Ye the one what done this?" a powerful voice spoke first from the floor above.
The same time as the voice rang, they also saw the window of that house moving back and turning into an opening instead.
"What be yer name and blood?"
The dwarf elder just a foot shorter than KiRA walked out of the opening, stepping out with his large boots, his shirtless body that exposed his bulging powerful muscles that did not make sense on an elder approaching his deathbed, and his now neat long beard.
He wasn't bald, or as short as it was shown in the fiction.
While his race was Dwarven, being from a prominent tribe where the average height of adults was five whole feet, he most certainly wasn't short.
Possessing such muscles only made him look much bigger than KiRA.
"Speak, child."
His forest green eyes were looking directly at KiRA, questioning him without showing any hostility.
They were curious, not uncertain.
They wanted to know who he was so that they could have a chat about how he helped them, however before them, he had to answer the elder standing before him.
As well as the one who was currently walking out of his house with a higher dignity than the one who had jumped down from his window…