The Second Floor

Yulia walks up the steps for what seems like hours listening as the voices speak. She feels proud and it feels like she hasn't had a reason to be proud in a long time. Even the normally mean voice isn't chastising her this time.

"Hmm the tower stretches up into the clouds from the outside, it's top vanishing from view... However, the guardian on the main floor did say that the tower seems to have only ten floors... Somehow... As for... taking care of my bodily needs... I am hoping that won't be an issue, but... it does seem likely that my time here will be measured in days or possibly even weeks, so hopefully I can find someway to deal with that. It seems unlikely the tower wouldn't have some sort of accommodation for such things," she responds, feeling a little embarrassed, talking about this.

"I... Don't know who or what a Friedman is, but at least from my point of view, it's only been a short time since I last heard from you," she addresses the voice, she hadn't come up for a name for this voice yet, she thinks momentarily, "Hmm... confusing voice?" she suggests and then shrugs, "I'll keep working on it... As for Alide... I think you misunderstand. I don't think she expects repayment, at least not literally. I think her concept of repayment is simply that she will get enjoyment of some kind out of providing these services, whether that's... sex... or something else, I don't know... I'd have to ask and I guess she'll be somewhere on this next floor, so hopefully we'll get a chance to see her again," she says and it's obvious as she begins to nervously play with her Scapular that she's quite excited at the prospect of seeing her again.

"I don't know why the little person in a tunic is relevant either! The mean voice brought it up! I also don't know who Zelda is! You people confuse me!" she responds with exasperation.

Yulia sighs happily at further praise from the nice voice, but then hesitates, stopping on the step, "I... Didn't even think about grabbing the sword or shield... I..." she lowers her head, "I don't think I could run back down and grab them?" she says looking down the stairs, she'd only been climbing for a few minutes, but they seem to stretch on forever behind her. "That... Seems like a no. I'm sorry..." she says feeling ashamed for not thinking about it.

She's still a bit glum about her mistake as she answers the remaining questions, "Well... Once I beat this tower. I'll have a cure or vaccine I can bring home to my world. I'd give it to the church and hopefully they'd be able to spread it to the rest of the world and stop the plague. After that I'd I guess just continue to work as a church healer. Helping people in any way I can," she responds and then reaches a hand up to remove the mask and looking at it, "The mask is actually very light. It's hollow and the material is hard, but lightweight. I... Don't wear it while sleeping, but that's more because it could be dangerous, than out of comfort. I could easily hurt myself if I tried to turn over in my sleep or something," she explains and then blushes a bit and places it back on.

"I'm not... shy about showing my face, I'm just... More comfortable with the mask on..." she responds vaguely, "I guess my only hobby is... healing. I enjoy healing people, well most of the time... When it works I enjoy it. There's something about knowing that you're helping people that just... makes me feel great," she responds, "Oh I also like puzzles. If I have free time I like doing puzzles," she adds and nods. Shortly after she reaches the end of the stairs. There's a door at the top of the stairs and there's a word scrawled on the door in messy writing seemingly written in some kind of smudged paint. The word simply reads, "Greed."

Yulia hesitates for a moment before opening the door and stepping through to the second floor. Her immediate surroundings are another rest area, but there's a few key differences, there is a man here. He's a squat ugly figure, with one eye closed, the other is bloodshot, he's wearing a top hat and a fine suit that just looks uncomfortable and unfitting on his disproportionate form. His hands are pudgy with thick, but small fingers and wisps of greying greasy hair slip out from under his hat. He's also standing next to a large wheel. The wheel has sections with writing on them and it appears to be a prize wheel of some kind. Reading the wheel the following "prizes" are available.

Lose a piece of clothing
Gain a piece of clothing
Lose an item
Gain an item
Learn or upgrade a spell
Gain a curse
Upgrade one piece of equipment
Downgrade one piece of equipment

The man gives her a grin, showing off a bunch of missing and rotten teeth, "Welcome chosen. I'm Dreg, I'll be here to help you out during your time on the second floor. You might think you're doing well, but the trials of the tower haven't even begun for you yet. For instance this floor introduces a lovely new element. This rest area isn't safe. There are monsters on this floor that are wandering around. If they find you here during your rest they will do terrible things to you. Of course I'm here for you. If you want to rest I can offer you my protection, for a price. As well I offer you the chance to spin the wheel for a possible great prize, you can spin as many times as you like, but as I'm sure you're aware there are equal odds you'll suffer for doing so," he explains and his voice is raspy. Yulia seems strangely unbothered by the strange man though she seems quite concerned as she looks at the options on the wheel. As well there are two door ways leading out from the room, neither has a door and you can see that both lead to hallways of stone that seem to form a sort of maze. The left doorway has a path going straight to a door as well as left to unknown areas, the right doorway turns to the left and right both paths going out of view.

Other than that the rest area has the same amenities as last time, except the simple straw mat has been replaced with a comfortable looking single bed. There is a small cooking fire, there is a table with alchemical equipment. There is also a small outhouse now in the corner of the area. One can't help but feel like this was a sudden recent addition, possibly brought on, because the tower or whoever managed it realized they had not provided certain required amenities.

(Health: 80%

Mana: 50%

Equipment: Ceramic Beaked Mask, Monastic Scapular, standard bra, Standard Panties, 5 poison gas grenades, 3 healing kits, 2 syringes of poison, 3 syringes of adrenaline, 2 syringes of poison antidote, 1 sewing kit, 1 vial of unknown liquid, 10 ft of trip wire, Makeshift wooden club, 10 days worth of rations, 3 two liter water jugs, 1 half filled 2 liter water jug, 1 health potion, 1 mana potion.

Spells known: Great Heal, Cure, Icicle.

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