If the Tower was brutal, cold and a Gothic nightmare, then the FDAM briefing room was a psychological one. Voro has been sitting in a very nice, soft leather chair for hours.
A camera at the corner of the white walled room recorded his every blink, heart monitor clipped to his finger, thermometer next to his face and even a blood collecting machine at the table.
"Now, let`s go over the 2nd floor again Mr. Van" white coated lead woman analytic readjusted her glasses from the other side of the long table "When you say 'boss', what exactly was that?"
"As I said before" Voro now readjusted the equipment hooked to him "The boss was a monster at the end of the Hold. He was named by the system and the system called him a Floor Boss. I told you this before"
"mhm mhm but what exactly was it" She kept only scribbling in her notebook
"He was named Krog, and he was a bigger goblin , with a bone mace/hammer/staff and a few armor plates. That`s all. And you fucking know it"
Voro picked up a piece of paper with his own drawing of the monster, depicting...a very crude drawing of a big green man. A loud beep on his heart monitor went off
"Please stop being bitchy Hunter 9-1 and answer the questions to your best knowledge"
"I. AM." Beeeeeep
"Sure sure, now then, what did he do to you"
"Well, he tried to kill me, what else do you think monsters do"
The scientist looked at him over her glasses
"Sorry. He did nothing to me as I defeated him before he could harm me"
"And that happened how exactly if , as you said before, 'small goblins bit me a few times', and he clearly was bigger?"
"Its called skill " Voro replied really degrading and leaning away from her.
No beep now
"And that would be....what?
"Well.....my skill mostly. And [Dash] of course"
The conversation went for a looooong time
With questions about goblins, the castle, what Voro did, how he did them, how he survived, what changed with him, bosses, skills, system, Tower.....skills, monster weapon, goblin physiology, other creatures in there, the "shaking" time, the door, appearing-disappearing.
Basically every. single. thing.
And with the assumption from Voro, that one of the machines was a lie detector, he mostly told the truth. He only "forgot" to tell some information
Like dissecting a goblin.
His 2 new items that they regarded as normal accessories.
Or the fact that he spend his last 3 days wiping out goblins in cold blood.
Some things were better left unmentioned.
And after a whole day at the concrete bunker they called they their office building, Voro left with hunger and tears in his eyes. Not only was the interrogation long, but his "meal" tasted like melted plastic on minced cardboard.
"They...massacred the meat....HOW COULD YOU" he was shouting at the building when he left to eat some proper dinner - bus,clean up, get some proper clothes and go to the best place he knew - Hot hot Gulu gulu in china town.
One of his more loyal clients or course.
"IRASHIA.. oh helo Mista Vane. " The owner welcomed him like an old friend "You buy or you sell"
"Buy. Usual please. AND DON`T burn the meat again Akaza"
"Yesir, your food coming up"
Voro sat down at a corner table and waited patiently for his Dim sums with roasted pork.
Riiiinnggg Rrrrring
Thorne was calling him
"What do you want man, they just let me go"
"Nothing much sips I just need you to disappear again for a while"
"Sure, why not. When and for how long?"
"Graves wants to 'inspect' your home tomorrow, so....today."
"..."
".....and I don`t take no as an answer..."
"Give me something better as provisions and I can leave for a few days"
"You like Indian food?"
"If you want me to shit on the Tower? Sure, I`ll take extra spicy"
"Army provisions it is. Be at the site at 8. The Sanitation team will be there too so, wear something appropriate for Tower exploration"
"Sure thing boss" and Voro hung up just when the dumplings arrived
"Thank you pokes one very much Akaza"
"no problem sir Vine" and he left to the kitchen
-------------Later that day--------------------
Voro got out of the car with his newly acquired clothes, since the leather set was too sweaty today, he got a new dark training clothes from FBAM with a tactic vest on top. Backpack was replaced by a waterproof bag on his back and an additional belt went on his hips.
Throwing knives were now proper knives, not butter or scaling knives, but just projectiles.
But the kitchen knives stayed as main weapons.
He walked to the guards, showed them the card and now, no problem, he got in, walked past many tents and workers, guards and scientists and just went straight to the Tower.
He rang Thorne, who was at the observer platform with some white coated man, chatted and joked a bit, but after a brief discussion and phone end, he got a thumbs up from him.
Voro touched the Tower, familiar sight showed up again with the 4th floor challenge question
Of course, Voro disappeared soon after that.
Thorne nudged the guy beside him
"See? And you just couldn`t believe a hundred twelve men saying this to you."
"Shut up Thorne" The guy took off the spyglasses of his face "You said to me, and I quote 'He`s a magician man, he just vanishes in white light'. Who would believe you???"
".....Now don`t get mad"
"Aw come on. Who`s dumb enough to believe in magic like..AH"
"Yup"
"That makes sense"
And he went back to spying on the Tower, while Thorne went for another cup of coffee.