The stairs leading to the second floor were very steep, requiring Kain to jump up the stairs using his energy to reinforce his legs. There were about 30 steps on the grand staircase which took very little time to traverse for Kain, especially considering that one step would require a normal human to perform a box jump to climb one stair. At the top of the stairs was a room with many large circular tables scattered about. Some were thrown aside and their chairs broken, while others were left completely unperturbed. The entire scene was covered in crimson blood like almost every other room in the tower, and there were a few holes in the walls that led to more bedrooms and the outside. Luna’s flames flew to the opposite side of the room, near the stairs, where more doors like the ones that isolated the dorm area from the main lobby. A hole in the wall near the left door was cleanly cut and had a counter on it.
‘So! Big brother, what’s this place? I don’t get what this could be,’ Luna slightly pouted at her inability to understand the purpose of the large room.
‘Oh? So the little rabbit that can understand the purpose of creating an army of robots can’t understand this room with such an obvious purpose?’ Kain said with a grin. The only response from Luna was an even deeper pout. At the response Kain chuckled, ‘I’m only joking. You’ve never thought of having a separate room to eat your food in. I think that this place was meant to be like a cafeteria or a diner for the inhabitants of the tower.’
‘So they ate their food here… Why make a room specifically built for the purpose of eating? Can’t you just do that elsewhere?’ Luna asked confusedly.
‘It’s a thing that you would not really get unless it was the norm for you. Food is, for humans anyway, best in a good environment. It just helps people be happy because people like doing it. I think it’s a part of human psychology, but I could be wrong. Humans also like to eat together which, in a place where everyone lives in the same building, might be shown in a communal waiting space.’
‘Sooo… it’s a human thing.’
‘You never know. I think that a part of my blood made you a bit more human than you would be normally, so you may enjoy it.’ Kain said with a warm smile.
‘Hehe, that sounds nice. I don’t know why, but that sounds nice.’
‘I don’t know. Maybe it has to do with my blood; maybe it makes you want to be around me. The whole thing seems pretty magical to me.’ Kain joked.
Luna shrugged, ‘Maybe… It doesn’t really matter to me.’
Kain walked over to one of the upright chairs that were much too tall for him and sat down. He put Luna down next to him and asked concernedly, ‘Shouldn’t that bother you? Shouldn’t the fact that your positive feelings toward me could be an effect of something else, not part of your own mind, have some effect on you?’
Luna scoffed, for the first time in her sentient life, and replied, ‘I don’t know how humans look at it, but I believe that my experiences shaped my personality. I know that I let go of my cautiousness because I feel like I will always have you to protect me.’ She said happily, ‘Besides, what else was there before a while ago? There was my time in the woods and… the…’ She started to cry, stutter, and tremble. The flames that she was controlling began to dim and waver. Kain picked her up and rocked her back and forth, soothing her.
‘Alright, I get it. I’ll be here to protect you. I just want to know if traveling with me makes you happy. I never want to make someone innocent unhappy. That’s why I asked, okay?’ Kain soothed.
Luna sniffled and cried for a bit longer before asking, ‘C-Can we just sit l-like this for a while?’ Kain nodded, moving back a bit to lean against the back of the chair. After a while, Luna finished her statement, ‘I’m pretty much a blank slate. Having someone here to help make me a good person is nice…’ One thing that both Luna and Kain shared was their focus on being a good person. Neither knew if it was just a coincidence or if it was an effect of Luna’s unique form of awakening sentience, but neither cared.
After a while of resting, Luna calmed down after her recollection of the one-eyed monster, and she wanted to explore more of the tower. They moved to the door near the hole in the wall with the counter, which peaked Luna’s interest. She asked Kain, ‘So what do they do in there?’
Kain was still concerned about Luna’s mental health; every time the one-eyed monster was mentioned, she would go into a nervous breakdown. It was not natural because it was triggered by just the mention or thought of the beast. Nothing else about the experience had caused her to become fearful, but the monster and its horde did. Kain was still concerned, but answered her question normally, ‘That room is for cooking food. When we start to travel again, then I’ll show you some basic stuff, but all of the appliances in there are too big. Besides, all of the food has likely rotted in there.’
Luna dropped her fluffy ears, ‘Aww. Well you’ll show me later, so it’s fine. Anyway, what is cooking?’
‘It’s when you heat up food to make it both taste better and be more nutritious. It also removes anything that causes sickness. Remember my speech about food in human culture? This is another part of that. Though, the more I see, the more I feel like these guys are basically human, just bigger… Maybe if I find some small container, I’ll take some blood with me. In the future, we may be able to clone them or something.’ Kain looked around the cafeteria and found no test tubes or bottles. They moved through the door near the kitchen, finding another hallway with 30 or so rooms along the length. At the end of the hallway was another giant door like the one they had just passed through. It was, of course, covered in blood and a few holes in the doors showed the ferocity of the attackers. The only irregularity was the room immediately to the right of Kain and Luna. near the upper middle portion, where the creatures that built the place would consider eye level, was a dusty golden plaque with strange symbols carved into it. Kain, with Mouse still in his hand and Luna on his shoulder, silently opened the door and looked into the kitchen. His caution was for nothing, however, as there was nothing out of place except a few strange cooking utensils that were to be expected of a non-human civilization.
Finding nothing of note Kain left the kitchen and made his way down the hallway, but Luna made a comment before they could make it to the end, ‘What do you think made these people create this tower here?’
Kain paused in his steps and looked around. He saw little decoration in the hallway; other than benches to sit and a slightly bright shade of grey, the hallway was as barren as the first hallway they had seen. But that observation brought another question. Kain subconsciously muttered across the link, ‘Is this what most of their civilization looks like, or is it a tower for use in poor times? Are they this utilitarian as a species, or are they being forced to use such designs for another reason?’
Luna asked for clarification, ‘What’s utilitarian?’ After Kain explained the concept, she gave her thoughts on the matter, ‘I don’t think that they are utilitarian. They had a bunch of little decorations that would not have been used if every member of the species was utilitarian. The sword we found in that one room is a good example.’
Kain looked at her and thought. It made sense, there was the sword, the plants in the front lobby area, the large spaced circular tables being used when straight tables with benches could have worked just as well, even the plaque on the door to the kitchen was made of gold or some other shiny metal. It all pointed to the species desiring more aesthetically pleasing designs. He understood her point and found nothing to contradict it, so he said in a light hearted tone, ‘You’re right. By the way, your analytical side is showing again.’
Luna responded with a hint of pride, simply saying, ‘Good.’ He laughed with her pride and continued down the hallway. He opened the door at the end and found another grand staircase awaiting them. The room only contained the staircase and the opposite wall, with another door going into the other residential zone that they had ignored. Kain scanned the room and noticed something odd about the center of the wall opposite of the stairs. He directed Luna to use all five of her floating flames to help him examine it. It was almost completely identical to the other walls in the tower with the only strange part being the innocuous button on the wall beside it. It was at Kain’s head in height and had little decoration to it.
Kain asked Luna in a bored tone, ‘Do you think it’s a trap?’
‘Why do you sound so bored? This is interesting!’ she hopped onto his head, and pushed the button before he could stop her. Upon pressing the button, the perfectly smooth wall seemed to break into ten perfectly identical rectangular panels connected to each other about 15 feet high and 2 feet across. The panels quickly and silently moved to the closest wall, folding into each other until they were flat against the edges of the new opening. On the outside, a platform extended 20 feet out. A nearly transparent forcefield extended upward and downward, causing a platform to extend near the top of the tower and at the bottom, both the same dimensions as the one in front of Kain and Luna. They stared at the square when two reddish buttons appeared, one above the other. Both had different symbols emblazoned on the front, literally glowing with a cyan light.
Kain sighed, simply saying, ‘Probably not a trap, huh?’
In an accusatory tone, Luna asked, ‘Did you want there to be a trap? This is amazing, why aren’t you excited?’
‘It seems too easy.’ Kain defended, ‘This is a monument to the ingenuity of the former inhabitants of this very tower, yet there has been no difficulty other than the height difference. It just seems that there is something waiting for us at the top of this thing, I don’t know.’
‘We aren’t…’ Luna began to shudder, but calmed herself down before too long, ‘We aren’t the first ones here. Besides, this place seems like it is not some stash of valuable stuff. There can be ruined places without security.’
‘Hmm… You’re right, but still. It just gives me a bad feeling.’ Kain said, scratching the back of his head.
‘You can just choose to be even more careful, you know.’ Luna rebuked.
‘Alright… So, which way? Up the stairs or up this thing? Judging by our current height, it seems that this thing brings us to the fourth floor of the tower, so even after we go through the third floor, our only option would be to go to the same floor this thing is taking us.’ Kain laid out their options, ‘I don’t mind either way, we’re still going to get to the top anyway.’
Luna picked her choice, ‘Let’s go to the top. I want to see the view from up there!’
Kain chuckled, ‘Alright, we’ll go up this thing.’
