《I Just Want A Break From This Stupid Tower》


 Chapter 1 - Here We Go Again

    My mind.. my soul... They''re tired...


    Even when my body continues to move forward I¡¯ve become exhausted mentally from years of never-ending stress...


    Of course, I cannot express such emotions. The moment that some of my emotions manage to leak out, that thing cuts it off... after all a hero doesn''t need to feel emotions, a hero only needs to continue marching forward, swinging his sword at Humanity''s enemies.


    I¡¯m tired.


    As morbid as it¡¯d sound, I''ve tried to take my own life several times before...


    but it keeps stopping me... Preventing me from getting what I want...My body is too tough to die and even when I¡¯m asleep it keeps me safe from danger.


    At one point I thought that after all of this I would finally be free... finally, be happy.


    I had friends helping me through my journey, but even they were eventually left behind by the hero that was growing stronger every second.


    The more time passes the more I realize that I¡¯m no longer human... at least not in a conventional way.


    I no longer need to sleep, eat, or even piss. My entire body has been made into a perfect machine to climb the tower...


    What floor was I on again..? Three hundred? Four? I can''t remember..


    what I do remember is I¡¯ve long passed the last human settlement in the tower. All that I''ve found are demons, and ruins of previous civilizations.


    Demons... That''s what the humans of this world call them- to me they just look like humans with horns and different skin, even in a fantasy world like this discrimination is still a thing.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Apparently, Demons originally lived in Gaia along with all the other races, but their king who was an all-powerful wizard tried to become a God himself made this tower with his near-limitless magical power making a pseudo alternate world.


    The gods that saw this felt threatened by the king''s powers that were slowly creeping up to near godlike levels and decided to stop him once and for all, banishing the king''s soul to the void where nothing, not even gods could exist.


    And as a warning banished the king''s entire race into the tower that he made along with their empires riches.


    At first, that was the purpose of the tower, a prison for the Demon race, but not long after, the Gods got bored and played cruel games with the tower''s inhabitants.


    They summoned unthinkable monsters that would wipe out the world outside the tower numerous times just to see the Demons cower in fear... but they didn''t, they fought back the waves of monsters and grew stronger, using that new gained strength to climb the tower that they were imprisoned in... but where there¡¯s power there¡¯s greed, and some of the Demons decided to climb down the tower instead, eventually reaching bottom-most floor that leads to the outside world.


    The moment they stepped out they met fierce resistance against the now highly religious people of Gaia that were taught from birth that the Demons were the enemy and must be eliminated... and so they fought.


    This war lasted for years until the humans were pushed back into their capital cities, the demons who grew in strength due to the tower overwhelming the humans and their allies with brute strength.


    Desperate, the humans prayed to their gods for help... and this is where I come in... Well, my predecessors at least.


    The heroes were God''s solution to the demon crisis, they would summon those with powerful souls from other worlds and bless them with tremendous strength.


    Each god sent a representative to help push the demon race back to the tower, even the god of death and pestilence had one albeit being a bit twisted due to their patron¡¯s personality


    Even with their tremendous god-given strength it still took years of fighting to finally push the demons back into the tower, finally ending the decades-old war.


    And now we¡¯re here, nearly 30 years after the war where the humans have started sending heroes and adventurers into the tower to gain riches and power all under the guise of ¡°reclaiming¡± lost land from the demons.


    I¡¯m sick of climbing..sick of fighting.. sick of.. people. I just want this to end...


    As I say that I¡¯m met with a giant of a man- er, demon. It looks like they''ve given up on sending their armies to fight me and instead decided to send in the elite to try and stop me.


    Just from his horns that twisted around his head with a black luster, I could tell that he was strong... at the very least stronger than anyone I¡¯ve faced before.


    As I raise my sword I let out one more exhausted sigh... Here we go again.

 Chapter 2 - Its Him!?

    Ugh... my head hurts... and it''s dark... Wait... my eyes were closed.


    I was asleep? That hasn¡¯t happened in... a while. More importantly where the hell am I?


    Looking around it looks like I''m inside of a pretty big tent, big enough to fit this bed that I was laying in...


    A bed? But I was high up in the tower, how the hell am I on a bed right now? What the fuck happened...


    Oh. Right.


    I lost.


    I went into the fight with too much confidence in my strength, that giant demon whooped my ass so hard that I passed out... and...


    I look down to see a missing arm, my right arm to be precise. The moment I and the giant demon clashed his giant sword that was even taller than me moved at a blur... it was so fast that even with my superhuman reflexes I couldn''t see it properly.


    After losing my dominant arm and my weapon it was pretty obvious how the rest of the fight was going to go.


    Only after a few exchanges, I was on my knees from losing so much blood.


    So that means I¡¯m at a demon encampment? Either that or I somehow made it back down to Gaia.


    Either way, I need to get up and- UGH


    The moment I tried to stand up my legs gave way and I fell to the dirt floor.


    What''s wrong with my body... It feels so weak...


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    While trying to figure the cause of my weakness out I hear a loud rumble coming from my stomach, it looks like I was just starving... wait.


    STARVING!?


    That''s right... I feel so hungry, I haven''t felt hunger in such a long time. Food. Where can I find some food?


    I desperately drag my body around the large tent looking for food, going as far as to dig through the small boxes near my bed.


    Luckily I found some dried meat hanging on a nearby rack, not even thinking of what the meat was from.


    After eating the entire rack of dried meat I finally felt full, a bit too salty but at the very least my stomach isn''t eating itself from the inside anymore...


    As I was in the middle of monologuing I hear footsteps coming from the outside, immediately reaching for the nearest pointed object, the stick from the drying rack, as a makeshift weapon.


    I was surprised, to say the least when a girl came through the tent¡¯s flaps, a human girl no less!


    Was I really saved by humans from all the way up in the tower? Impossible...


    ¡°Oh, you¡¯re awake.¡±


    She¡¯d mutter in surprise, not at all bothered that I was pointing a sharpened stick at her


    ¡°Brother wanted to talk to you as soon as you woke up, come.¡± She¡¯d say with a gesture of her hand.


    Should I follow? Well yeah, I need to say thanks at the very least for the ones that saved me...


    I followed the girl outside, only to be greeted by even more humans who were casually walking around the tent city doing their day to day activities.


    To confirm my suspicions I looked up and saw three Suns, the only way to separate the worlds inside the tower from the world outside, so that means there¡¯s a human settlement this far up the tower? Amazing.


    The farther in we go the more diverse the crowd becomes, from humans to harpies, heck even a few dwarves are in the mix, this is the most diverse group of people I''ve seen in a long time...


    After all I was summoned in the Empire of Gaia, a nation named after the planet itself, they had a belief of human superiority over other races and treated their summoned as demi-gods... of course that only counts when the Summoned was in agreement with their beliefs, when I saw demi-human slaves in their markets being sold as products I let my displeasure known to everyone around me, this, in turn, made the higher-ups, mainly the bishops and the pope himself decide that my attitude was too unruly and had to be fixed through ¡°Re-education¡±.


    They held me down and cast a ritual spell which was a slavery marker that was amplified by a hundred, it changed me completely and stripped away my identity, All I could think about was climbing the tower and following orders...If I tried to disobey my mind was attacked with an intense headache.


    Speaking of which, I haven''t had a single headache the entire time we were walking through the tents...


    My thoughts were interrupted once more as we finally reached our destination, a massive tent that had different flags displayed in front of it.


    At first, I wasn''t expecting much from the visit with the leader of the village but now I can''t wait, someone who could manage a village this high up the tower must be extremely powerful.


    The girl that lead me here simply bowed her head and gestured for me to go in, I guess I have to go in alone? Sheesh, this reminds me of a job interview back home.


    As I enter the tent, the first thing that greeted me was the smell of herbs paper, lots of it.


    A small mountain of scrolls was placed on top of a large table in the middle of the tent, and in front of the table itself was the very same giant that took my arm.

 Chapter 3 - Lesson Learned

    Color me surprised...


    After I saw the giant demon in the tent I immediately thought of the worst possible scenario, running out of the tent and screaming at the top of my lungs to get the villagers attention so that they could run and get to safety, only to be looked at like I was an idiot...


    Damn it... this has got to be one of the most embarrassing moments of my life.


    After calming down, I finally got to sit down and talk to the giant demon, who was the chief of the tribe of half-demons.


    Yeah, you heard that right. Half demons.


    A few of the first generation summoned decided to live the rest of their lives in the tower along side the demon race.


    After a few generations it eventually gave everyone in the village a similar look to humans, aside from a few differences such as tiny horns or different colored eyes due to how prominent the summoned¡¯s genes were, aside from how they looked they also inherited their strength, or at least a portion of it making all the inhabitants marginally strong compared to other tower dwellers.


    I¡¯d say it¡¯s similar to how many of the past summoned married into royalty, hence making the nobles of the different countries stronger in comparison to the average folk due to the blood of outworlders in their veins.


    So you could say that summoned are a hot commodity... well, aside from me of course. You don''t want to be anywhere near someone who tried to convince people to dump their backward way of thinking and move onto things like democracy and the freedom of slaves.


    Ah, I guess most humans from the earth that were transported here had the same issue in varying degrees... I just got the worst of it haha...


    Anyways back to the chieftain¡¯s story, he told me that his ancestors passed down an ancient magic ritual to relieve me of the hero curse put on my body. He also apologized for how he obliterated my arm and explained that he couldn''t risk doing the ritual with me awake and still able to fight.


    No wonder I felt so free, I didn''t take notice until now that I¡¯ve been feeling and expressing emotions that I haven''t had access to for years, an arm is a small price to pay for my freedom...


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.Sad to say there isn''t any magic to regrow limbs, at the very least I don''t have access to a


    healer strong enough to regrow it. I''ve heard of magic elixirs that might do the trick but the chances of me finding any are pretty slim.


    Aside from the curse, he told me that I was the first in centuries to reach this high into the tower that they¡¯re aware of, at least from the people of Gaia.


    He wouldn''t tell me anything specific but I can safely assume that the demon race has climbed much higher than this floor, It¡¯d explain the Chieftain¡¯s strength.


    Afterward, he gave me back what''s left of my equipment. My armor was in tatters after the fight but somehow my beloved sword survived, albeit with a few scratches here and there.


    Although due to its length I imagine having trouble using it in the future... actually I¡¯d imagine having trouble with using any weapon in the future due to the nature of my injury... losing an arm is rough but it was also my dominant arm, I¡¯ll have to go through a lot of re-training to get enough strength to continue climbing the tower...


    Wait...


    Climb?


    I¡¯m free from the curse, I don''t have to climb this stupid tower anymore...


    Being hit with the realization I almost jumped out of my seat and started dancing on the spot, of course, I resisted the urge but I thanked the demon chief repeatedly, he was surprisingly quite timid and kept saying that it was nothing and it was something anyone would do.


    Of course, I tried to give him gifts in exchange, I even went as far as to offer him my sword but he refused all of it.


    In the end, I refused to leave the village without paying him back, I thought he¡¯d be more annoyed but he wasn''t he was happy that I told him I¡¯d stay...


    This guy is way too nice for his good, or maybe he''s just nice to me because he whooped my ass...?


    Either way, the chief wanted to celebrate my decision with a small party, I say small but the entire village was in on it and it turned out becoming more like a festival.


    The food and drinks were amazing the meat was from high-level cattle raised in the tower itself, and the ale was brewed by one of the half dwarves in the village.


    Speaking of drinks me and a few dwarves from the village decided to have a drinking contest, it wasn''t much of a contest since the lingering effects of the hero¡¯s blessing made it hard for me to get drunk- I thought I was victorious until the chief himself sat next to me and asked to complete...


    I learned a lesson that night... Demons are good at drinking.