Consulting Alide

The decision is almost unanimous that they should head back to the Mercantile district and find Alide. The train begins moving and this time everyone is ready for the sudden lurch, especially Maple who presumably used the train often when the city was active. They arrive back in the Mercantile District and head out the front entrance. The area outside is a long street lined with buildings and ending at a megastructure with the slightly ominous banner listing it as the "ultimate megastore" aside from that the other buildings on the street seem to be mostly restaurants and service shops.

"When the Megastore opened most of the other stores just kind of closed up, I mean if there's a place selling every good you can imagine, if you're also selling goods, you just kind of seem redundant, the only places that stayed open where places that offered things the megastore couldn't like services and fast food or dining experiences, well and the specialty shop there," Maple explains and points out the one goods store seemingly still open, which of course Yulia is unsurprised to see is marked with a now quite familiar symbol of a coin.

They head there immediately and indeed find that within Alide is waiting. Seated at her desk like normal, "Heya Yulia! Glad to see you! Feels like it's been forever, but it hasn't actually been that long," she says with a small smirk.

"Hello, Alide! Good to see you, before we get down to business we had some questions," Yulia states and Alide gives her a gentle smile.

"Of course. If it's something I am allowed to answer, I will gladly do so," she explains.

"Apparently I'm the first chosen to ever end up on this floor, do you have any idea why?" Yulia asks.

"Well that's a bit of a secret, but I can give you somewhat of an answer. The floors the Tower sends the chosen to aren't arbitrarily picked. The chosen is sent where they are likely to face danger and possibly overcome some sort of challenge. Not every floor of the Tower is in peril at all times and it would be somewhat boring if the Tower delivered the chosen to a floor where everything was fine and peaceful so, the floors are chosen based on which ones are currently suffering some sort of danger. For instance, the beast plaguing the Forest and Caves, the Old Mind threatening the Depths, the war in Calumia being manipulated by Stephen, things like that. Whether the Chosen actually fixes the problem or not doesn't matter as long as there is some sort of threat. After all you were not the first chosen who ended up in the Depths and plenty of others just failed to deal with the Old Mind, either ending up dead or just bypassing the floor without ever confronting him and the same is true of various other floors. So, if you're the first chosen to end up here then you can extrapolate why that might be," Alide explains.

"I see... Alright, I heard in Calumia about a previous chosen named Elena, who was very powerful, she's intrigued me, do you know anything about her?" Yulia asks.

Alide seems to stiffen and then sighs, "she was a wonderful person and it's tragic what happened to her. She was a lot like you, at least when you first arrived. She didn't want to hurt anyone and she stumbled quite a bit at the beginning. I remember being there for her the first time she got violated by a monster, she wasn't sure she had the strength to go on and I helped her continue. Eventually as you've heard and as most know she became a true **** to be reckoned with. Most of the stories told in the tower make her seem like she was untouchable from the beginning, but she wasn't it took her a few floors to truly become the one spoken of with awe and of course she made it to the final floor. The legends also say she never killed anyone, but that's not true unfortunately, she did kill monsters. Like you she killed every one of the wandering floor monsters on her way to the top floor. The first one being the same one that had taken her innocence, after that and at my urging she killed all the wandering monsters, the tower is better off without them, even knowing they'll be replaced, each one dead is a boon to this world," Alide says and then sighs, "at the end though she couldn't bring herself to kill the final wandering floor monster. It had been a friend to her, but it was a traitor and it killed her and it will do the same to you unless you harden your heart. All the wandering monsters deserve to die, there are no exceptions," Alide says looking Yulia square in the eyes and Yulia feels a strange intensity. She swallows and nods and Alide sighs.

"I know you'll succeed where she failed," Alide adds and then smiles, "anything else?" she asks.

"We wanted to exchange these items for rewards," Yulia says and places the Leech Mask and The Blade of Envy on the desk.

"Hmm... Alright," she says and passes her hands over them, they vanish replaced with a dome shaped glass helmet and a cutlass with a red tinted blade, "there you go, as well of course you still have full use of my shop," she responds waiting to see if they'd like anything else.

(Health: 100%

Mana: 100%

Inventory: 2 poison gas grenades, 3 healing kits, 1 syringe of poison, 1 sewing kit, 1 vial of strong aerosolizing aphrodisiac, 8 days worth of rations, 3 two liter water jug, 1 health potion, 5 mana potions, 6 vials of Semen, 4 arrows, Quiver, 1 sack of cooking ingredients (Apples), Ash's Quiver, 6 charm arrows, Smithing Ingredients (3 steel ingots), 1 sack of cooking ingredients (Vegetables), Grenade Launcher, Grenade Bandolier with 3 grenades, Smithing Ingredients (1 silver ingot), 12 silver throwing knives, twenty feet of Spidersilk rope, 1 sack of Cooking Ingredients (Fish), an Onahole, a shard of Illustone, Gloves of Harvest (-3, heal for all damage dealt), modest two piece swimsuit, Binding Bandages, golden bangles, silk gloves, Siren Queen's black heavy armor, black bikini bottoms, Dome Helmet, Blood Tinged Cutlass.

Yulia's Equipment: Simple black one piece swimsuit(currently removed). Ceramic Beaked Mask, Reinforced Monastic Scapular, standard bra, Standard Panties, Ornate Rapier (-3), Silver Staff (-2 added to the effect of all spells), A tarnished Silver Ring of clear mind (warded against demons and angels, can bind a Demon or Angel), Cloak of Turbulent Waves (immunity to ranged attacks and offensive magic), Demon Horn Hairband (-2 to all ice magic).

Spells known: Great Heal (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 25%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 12%)

Great Cure (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

Energize (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 25%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 12%)

Icicle (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

Masterful Unlock (Lvl 2, Mastered, Cost: 10%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 5%)

Repair (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 5%-20% depending on factors, Cost currently halved rounded down: 2%-10%)

Undermine (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 25%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 12%)

Life Drain (lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 2% per 1% Health healed, Cost currently halved rounded down: 1% per 1% Health healed)

Blizzard (Mastered, cost: 5%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 2%)

Lightning Strike (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

Identify (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 10%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 5%)

Fireball (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

**** Lance (Lvl 1, mastered, Cost: 15%, Cost currently halved rounded down: 7%)

God's Light: (Mastered, cost: none. Passive ability. Fully heals mana and health outside of combat)

Fetish: Bondage Rank: 3, Masochism Rank: 3, Lesbian rank: 3, Submission Rank: 3, Incubating Rank: 1, Large Insertions Rank: 2, Degradation Rank: 2, Exhibition Rank: 1, Anal Rank: 2.

Status Effect: Permanent increase to physical attribute. Combat level raised to medium

Atrophied: Permanent Decrease to Physical Attribute. Combat Level lowered to weak. (Countered previous Permanent Increase)

Faithless: Yulia gains no effect from support spells cast on her, but offensive spells cast by her double in effectiveness. Lasts until faith is restored or replaced.

Psychosexual Break: In order to deal with her trauma, Yulia has begun to subconsciously fetishize her experiences.

Deflowered: Virginity Lost, sexual experience changed to: Inexperienced, non-virgin.

Companion: Cherchiel, Goma, Martin, Isalia, Lri, Lemiel.

Cherchiel Health: 100%

Cherchiel Mana: 100%

Cherchiel Equipment: Ultra Durable Spear( -5, -10 with Boar Mask), Ultra Durable Shield (-5, -10 with Boar Mask), Solanium Reinforced Bodysuit (add -1 to all physical actions, Staff (-1), God's Favour (Halo. Prevent **** one time), Bikini(currently removed), Boar Mask.

Cherchiel Status Effect: Divine Grace. Combat Level raised to High

Goma Health: 100%

Goma Mana: 80%

Goma Equipment: Ritual Knife of Escaping Threads (-1, -3 with boar mask, automatic -5 when being used against tentacles, webs or other binding methods), Hunting Horn (-2 for each ally affected), Reinforced and Nethicite Augmented Thick Hide Outfit (Negate most physical damage,), Swim Trunks (currently removed), tentacle dagger (-3), Scepter of Still Waters.

Goma spells known: Heal (Mastered, 15%), Puppet (Mastered, 10% per active command)

Goma Status Effect: Atrophied: Permanent Decrease to Physical Attribute. Combat Level lowered to weak.

Pregnant: Starting to visibly show her pregnancy. Combat Level already as low as it can go. No further effects at current.

Isalia Health: 100%

Isalia Mana: 100%

Isalia Equipment: Isalia's Sword (-3), Masterwork Trident (-3)(Unequipped), Isalia's Shield (-3), Black Leather Armor (becomes invisible in complete darkness), One Piece Swimsuit (Currently removed).

Isalia spells known: Life Drain (lvl 1, Unmastered, cost: 5% per 1% Health healed)

Isalia Fetish: Submission Rank: 1, Domination Rank: 1.

Isalia Status Effect:

Lri Health: 100%

Lri Mana: 100%

Lri Equipment: Twin Daggers (-3), black swimsuit, Veil of Hidden Depths.

Lri Status Effect:

Lemiel Health: 200%

Lemiel Mana: 200%

Lemiel Equipment: Angel Soldier Uniform, Visor, twin magic blades (Summoned, -10, take 5% mana to summon)

Lemiel Spells Known: Angelic Rays (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 20%), Heavenly Soothing (Lvl 1, Mastered, cost: 25%), Retribution (Lvl 1, Unmastered, cost: 100%, unusable, triggers automatically at 0% hp if Lemiel has enough Mana to trigger it), The One True God's Judgment (Lvl 1, Mastered, Cost: 100%), God's Light (Mastered, cost: none. Passive ability. Fully heals mana and health outside of combat)

Lemiel Status Effect: Divine Grace. Combat level raised to high.

https://forum.chyoa.com/threads/the-tower-of-voices-voting-thread.3460/ )