The Great Magical Mishap

Chapter 6 - B. Adguy

"Welcome to Billboard Tower sir, how can--" the receptionist stopped as she recognised the infamous pointy hat. "Ah, you must be Master Wizard Harrold and Sir Patricklus the Great. Sir B. Adguy has been expecting you. Feel free to take the executive elevator up to the mansion level, that'll be the top levels, number 5. I will notify him of your arrival."

Pat and Harrold were at a loss for words. In fact, they had been at a loss for words ever since they arrived in Güldenfurt. The journey after their well earned and totally intended victory over the kraken had taken several gruesome days. Not gruesome due to the journey, but mostly because the pair accidentally knocked over most of the remaining food supplies during the fight. The sailors had been more than happy to pass their share to their saviours on the first day, but they soon grumbled as much as their stomachs did. Of course, none of them dared anger a wizard capable of conjuring bolts of lightning and therefore ignored their hunger. Harrold had considered if he should tell them the truth. Unlike the sailors, he didn't ignore the musings of his stomach, and quickly decided keeping the truth to himself was the best option. Sharing a boat with fearful, yet annoyed, sailors had been quite unpleasant, especially since said boat could fall apart at any moment. Both Harrold and Pat had been eager for solid ground under their feet. The city of Güldenfurt wasn't exactly what they had hoped for.

The city was imposingly large and busy in every possible way. First of all, the city stood upon a massive square hill. It almost looked like a giant block of dirt, seemingly placed on purpose to raise the city up. Harrold couldn't really tell why they would need that, as the city itself was already by far the largest and highest he had ever seen. Towering above all else were the Opposing Towers. One was the white and golden Güldenfurt Tower, owned by Guldo Güldenfort himself and home to the government of the city. The other tower was dark, covered from head to toe in large billboards, neon signs and antennas, giving it a somewhat grimy and cheap appearance. People usually referred to it as Billboard Tower which eventually replaced whatever the long-forgotten and less accurate original name was.

The towers were at opposite sides of the city, but that wasn't the only reason people referred to them as the Opposing Towers. The owners of the towers were in a constant struggle to hold the title of tallest building in the world. They started out flamboyantly, sometimes even resorting to adding multiple floors at a time to beat the record. At a certain point finding uses for these floors became more difficult than actually building them. Many construction companies moved to the city thanks to the consistent source of work. The towers eventually required so much constant maintenance that both sides had to stop adding floors and instead moved on to the more petty options, like placing a flag on top of the tower and afterwards lengthening the pole of said flag. The towers now both look ridiculous in their own way. Many economists consider them the primary reason for the incredible growth of the city. Harrold could only agree, given that half the city worked in the towers and the other half worked on the towers. Any less maintenance and the monstrosities would likely collapse out of misery.

Making their way from the docks to the tower had been easy enough. The entire flow of the traffic guided you towards the towers automatically, clear proof of just how influential they were on the development of the city. The pair hailed from a large city, by anyone's standard, but that didn't prepare them for this oversized and somehow functioning anthill. They were still flabbergasted by the time they arrived at the reception, and equally flabbergasted when they entered the gold-coated executive elevator. The entire left wall of the elevator was covered in buttons, each representing their own set of floors. They had long given up on offering a button for each individual floor. After searching for a minute, Harrold pressed the top levels button. Someone had written 'tippity' next to it. He walked over to the other end of the elevator to press the '5'. The elevator went up straight away, beginning its, unbeknownst to the two gentlemen inside it, two-hour journey.