Chapter 139: Questions
“First are the simple ones,” Yuki says, smiling. “Do you intend to slaughter weaker climbers than you for fun, sport, minor grievances or similar? Do you intend to cause massive casualties?”
I snicker at that question and easily shake my head. “No, I don’t intend to.”
Yuki nods. “There is some leniency on crushing the weak. If they start things, you may strike back, within reason. But if their actions are in defense, and especially if their potential is high, do not nip a flower before it buds.”
“Like how Respitia tried with me? Or Flamando?” I ask, tilting my head.
Again, my clone nods, pale hair bobbing in the motion. “Yes, precisely. It attracted the Tower’s Wrath. They were displaced and punished. Ezekiel’s party was penalized, and you were granted additional preparation time. It was a fair challenge, and had they been less arrogant, you may have died. But it was made to be fair.”
“Seems reasonable. I don’t intend to kill people who don’t deserve it,” I say calmly.
“How far do you intend to pursue vendettas?” Yuki asks.
That makes me think for a little while. “Well, it depends,” I say slowly. “If someone’s just gonna be rude to me, I’ll ask them to stop. Or leave. But if someone tries to kill me-”
“Like Vincent?” Yuki asks, head tilted to the side.
My lips press into a thin line. “Yes, like Vincent. I intend to be merciless. Well… that’s wrong. I can forgive trying to kill me,” I say easily. “I cannot forgive disrespecting my boundaries, or trying to kill my friends.”
Yuki simply nods in assent. “As expected. How very efficient.” The last word is laced with meaning. The avatar’s hands reach out, grabbing more papers, filing through them. “Something more simple. Do you believe you will control your powers well enough to avoid collateral damage?”
I shake my head. “Not completely,” I say. “Collateral is a little inevitable, isn’t it? Especially once I’m over level hundred, or two hundred… But I’d say my build is generally geared to minimizing destruction.”
Once more, Yuki nods. “Indeed. Then, do you intend to honor any and all verbal agreements you make?”
“Hecc no,” I snicker. “I will lie. Almost inevitably. There are truths I do not want to mention.”
“How very honest,” the avatar notes, looking at me with a glint. “Are you lying in this evaluation?”
“No,” I shake my head easily. “There would be no purpose.”
“Reveal your full familial history to us,” Yuki suddenly demands, leaning forward. Pressure settles on me, and the walls of the room suddenly seem tighter. I can’t breathe, and my stomach clenches.
“No,” I shake my head. My face stays perfectly calm, poised. I know it’s a question meant to enrage me, meant to incite me, to test my anger and whether I can control it. And knowing that makes me less angry. It turns it from a probe, like when Jess did it, into more of a pathetic jab. I’m not so weak.
Yuki hums at my response, nodding slightly, noting something down. “Your rage is tempered. Would you call yourself a good person, Snow?”
At that question, for the first time, I faintly smile. “No,” I say again. “But I try to be.”
“Adequate,” Yuki says, waving a hand. One of both hands. For the first time I note that the clone has two arms to my one. “Would you describe yourself as violent?”
I tilt my head, then slowly shake it. “No.”
“Would you describe yourself as honorable?”
“No.”
“Would you describe yourself as kind?”
“No.”
“Would you describe yourself as cruel?”
I hesitate for a moment, then shake my head again. “No.”
Yuki regards me with a calm stare, then, finally, nods. “Are there any questions you have for the tower?”
“What is the purpose of this test?” I ask, instantly.
At that, the avatar smiles. Not a kind, gentle one like before, but a vicious grin. “The Tower must be fair,” Yuki says. “Because mediocre people can make it reasonably high, and excellence will be snuffed out by them. Reducing the degree of excellence snuffed out has proven to produce more excellent climbers.”
“Does that mean talented ascendants get treated with more leniency?” I ask.
Yuki’s grin widens. “They are treated with more attention.”
Instantly, the meaning is clear. And as I get it, I can tell Yuki knows. That attention isn’t always good. I have attention, yes. The Deceptive Manipulator and Respitia are attention. The Master of Suffering is attention. They help me as much as they hinder me. Some want to raise me higher just to see me break.
I look at Yuki. “The higher they climb…”
“The further they fall,” the clone replies with a grin.
There it is. The thin line between careful raising of talent and the absolute callous disregard for life and happiness that the tower shows. Feeling like I got a small glimpse into its motivations, I go to ask another question, but Yuki raises a hand before I get to it.
“No more. Your thoughts have revealed much to the Tower. You are worthy, Snow Okiyama - Ion. You are worthy to climb. To ascend. You are worthy of the authority you have plundered, and worthy of the requests you will gain.”
Then, that other version of myself gives me another nod, and the whiteness consumes the simple room again. It creeps in from the edges of my vision, and the last thing I see are those pale eyes, staring at me. And then, the challenge finishes.
[Challenge completed. Ascend.]
[Additional note: standard procedure dictates partial memory erasure. Conflict with user’s skill-profile. Memories preserved for use and party. Bribe of one lesser request in order to keep information of ascendancy trial secret. General knowledge - questionnaire - may be shared.]
I blink at the notification, and smile in acceptance. “I won’t talk about my interview, don’t worry.”
[Affirmative. Bribe applied. You have received one lesser request.]
[Congratulations!]
[You have made it to the fifth floor! For your performance in the ascendancy well, you have acquired 2 minor requests.]
I smile faintly as I climb up the stairs and emerge on the other side. The glowing gateway behind me shimmers as the others step through at nearly the same time.
In front of me is the fifth floor - but not only the fifth. I can see the sixth, seventh, eight, and ninth floor, too.
The ground in front of me is made from carved rocks. The sky above is positively drenched in clouds. The winds tear at my clothes as I stare at tall spiralling buildings, ornate and beautiful. So much so that the system alerts me.
[You have made it to Downpour. The city that houses the next five floors of the tower. Good luck.]
I stand on a floating island - rings upon rings of floating islands, in fact. And between the gaps, the long fall down… leads all the way to the fourth floor, where the boneyard awaits. “I guess now we know where all the corpses fell from,” I note. Then the storm starts.
Chapter 140: Downpour City
I find that Downpour is rather adequately named. Almost instantly when we arrive, the sky splits open, spewing rain and wind in droves. Kuro responds immediately, and despite that, my hair is drenched before the cloak weaves a hood to cover me. Despite that, I just laugh and face the sky.
Rain. It’s cold, but not freezing. Probably because of my enhanced heart. I can feel the blood pumping through my veins, my magically enhanced body fighting off the chill. Next to me, Opal closes their trenchcoat for perhaps the first time in her life, while Sylves stands - hovers, I correct - completely untouched by it. Richard, Thatch and Inu just kind of get drenched, and I snicker a little at that.
The tough girl I call my best friend brushes her drenched, dark hair from her face and shoots me a glare with no heat behind it. “C’mon,” she urges. “Let’s find an inn.”
With that said, she stalks ahead, and I look around us. We are at an entrance to the city, and there are guards watching over said entrance. Knowing how rude it is, I don’t brush my senses against them, just feeling the mana that spills from them.
Curiously, it seems that neither of them have an attunement loop. Their levels seem… low-ish. In the 110s? 120s? Something like that. I can’t imagine them being much higher. But what’s most interesting is the way that I can feel their authorities.
When we approach, they flare them. And the two spheres of influence even combine, pressing down on me. Not… painfully, but more in a testing manner? I flex my authority in response, and efficiency allows me to operate at 100% capacity despite everything.
I can feel that their aura should have stopped me from casting, should have weakened and slowed me, perhaps? I tilt my head as we walk up, and Thatch does the talking. Both the man and the woman, both of them feryran, I note, seem rather charmed by him, and soon let us inside.
Quietly, I lean over to Opal. “Unfairly handsome bastard,” I whisper.
Instantly, the echo knight snickers, pressing a hand to their mouth to hold back a laugh. “So unfair,” they whisper back, tone tinged with amusement.
Thatch rolls his eyes at us with a smile. “I can hear you, you know?”
“Ah dang,” I say, my tone entirely deadpan. “Well. You’re unfairly handsome, y’know?”
“Downright cheating,” Opal adds with a grin.
Instantly, Thatch’s face flushes. He gives a small huff, and a sigh, and looks forward again. “Where are we even going?” he says, trying to change topic.
Mercifully, Inu lets him do so. “To an inn?” she suggests. “Somewhere safe to stay. This place looks… rough?”
And she’s not wrong. It does look rough. Being inside the city is very different from the outside. The houses here are cramped, most of them poorly thatched and leaking, and tons of them are half-ruined, even. Blown apart by casual crashes of powers, I imagine?
My eyes drift across them, and the half-hopeless people hanging out in the slums… and then my eyes narrow. The mana that comes from these people is too low. Far, far too low. In suspicion, I even [Select] one of them, making the tether as small and weak as I possibly can, hiding it to the best of my ability.
[Zoof, lv. 33]
I blink. The number is too low to have climbed up here. They have no authorities, no mantle. I feel confused. Climbing up here was so hard… how did they make it here at this level?
“You think there’s a way to climb faster?” Sylves asks with a whisper. “One to bypass the restrictions?”
“Wouldn’t that draw the Tower’s Wrath?” Opal returns right away.
Inu shakes her head slowly. “It would,” she concedes. “But I’d wager some people do it anyways. Maybe there are hidden mechanics to help people climb faster if they make concessions? Time spent on floors… but I think the answer is simple.”
“Kids,” I say, instead of her, my eyes widening. “These are the kids of climbers, having grown up. They were born on this floor.”
Thatch furrows his brows, stomping through the water-slick cobblestone streets. “And the tower didn’t send them down?”
“They’d have to pass descendancy trials,” Sylves says with a shrug. “And the fourth floor… well, it seems like it’d be a lot more hostile to low-levels.”
“So they gather here,” Richard says, looking around. “Wet, hungry, poor, and yet better off than as a skeleton.” I see a shiver run through the hiy’ht at that thought, her six eyes glancing at the dregs. They’re moving all about, grunting, but the mass of people isn’t exactly dense. The… I can’t help but call them slums sprawl out far.
Rubble is carted away in wooden and metal containers, tossed onto heaps. Amateur earthmages move to fix the buildings, only for some to break even worse. I see at least one adult trying to steal candy from a kid - something I quickly put a stop to with [Suppression].
The faintest wink of mana exits my vessel. The man is less than half my level. Making him slow enough for the red-haired kid to dart away barely takes effort. For the first time, I realize the gulf between me and those weaker than me.
It’d take eight levels of supremacy to match my power stat for someone who went all in on it. For someone with a balanced build… I could match a level 15 or 20 warrior in a fist-fight. I blink at that thought. “How bizarre,” I whisper to myself. It’s the first time I notice that the world around me is beginning to be just a bit more fragile.
The mana density on this floor is higher than the fourth, though, and I can see the way that wears on the weaker inhabitants. They don’t have the luxury of suppressing their mana like I do; they need it as a shield against the elements. Downpour doesn’t just mean rain. It means wind, probably sometimes hail, and even mana.
I can feel it when I look for it. The way the raindrops carry the liquid. The way they sting my skin. Someone weaker than me, someone like the floor-borne, might need a barrier. Not just passive mana, but an actively maintained barrier.
My thoughts drift on the topic for a little while longer until Thatch finds an inn, books us rooms, and we head inside. The building is in decent shape, if a little cracked, and the roof a bit leaky. There are two buckets collecting the rain in the common room, but at the same time, there’s a fire crackling in the hearth, and the walls are solid enough to keep the wind out.
There’s a quiet kind of susurrus to the common room, people talking in whispers. They’re all wearing heavy cloaks, the kind that keep the rain off them, and drip it onto the tavern floor. At least the stone has channels, allowing the water to drain back out. The innkeep is an older woman, greying hair across metallic skin. Feryran, I guess.
A moment passes in peace as we find a table, all sit down, and I put on my headphones, zoning out the noise. For the first time in a while, I let myself feel safe.
Then, someone’s senses brush up against me. It’s the first time I properly feel it, and it sends a small shiver of discomfort down my back. Sighing loudly, I get up from the table again, grabbing onto the tether of mana that touched me.
Apparently, someone here doesn’t know a lot about manners.
Chapter 141: Work and Money
I kneel above a guy whose nose I just broke.
A dozen eyes stare at me, now slightly wider than before. My headphones are off again, because I at least had the courtesy to ask the bastard what he was thinking. Then he tried to pat me on the shoulder and say it wasn’t a big deal.
So I punched him. Hard enough to knock him out of his chair and send him sprawling onto the floor.
“What’s your name?” I ask the scithian.
His wings chime in pain, crystals tinkering against the stone floor as he gives a small groan. “Irv,” he grinds out. Nodding to myself, I identify him again.
[Stoneshifter, lv. 51]
“So, Irv,” I say slowly. “Let me guess. You just recently crossed into a new threshold. Got your mantle. Felt like a hotshot, huh? Big deal? That’s awesome, man. I’m happy for you,” the words leave my mouth. “And then you saw us come in here. And you were probably wondering about why I didn’t leak any mana, right?”
Blinking in terror, he nods. And I nod as well. “See, that’s okay. I can even forgive trying to identify me. I get it, I do. But then you tried to touch me. And, really, I apologize for hurting you. I’m picky about my personal space. Here, let me just-”
I reach out, and a tendril of mana leaves my hand, stitching his nose back together, pleasantly fixing the break. It takes a lot of mana, but these days, my vessel is consistently full, even as I keep some skills active permanently. “There you are,” I say, and Irv touches his nose in wonder.
“By the Tower,” he says with a small gasp. “You’re-”
“Shhh, I’m nothing at all. I’m someone who minds their personal space and their privacy. So, keep this in mind, yeah?” I lean in closer. “Don’t bother me when I’m wearing these.” I point at my headphones, then rise to my feet again, walk over to my table, and sit down.
Opal snickers, leaning back in the chair. “Zero to one-hundred real quick, huh?” they ask.
I shake my head slowly. “Just efficient.” We watch as Irv gets up from the ground, and sits back down at his table, a little shell shocked. But when the others there ask him, or when the eyes follow me, he doesn’t say anything. Just moves back to his drink quietly. People now look at me with a lot more respect, and the barkeep comes, bringing me some water to drink.
As she places the cup down in front of me, she eyes me up and down once. “You ain’t a flob, are ya, kid?”
Tilting my head, I ask back. “What’s a flob?”
She chuckles at my question. “And a poorly informed kid at that. Floor-born. Flob. People who were born on any given floor.”
“That feels like it’d be rude to say,” Inu notes, and the old woman just shrugs.
“It is,” she says. “But it’s also true. If anyone doesn’t wanna be seen as a flob, they can climb down, start the pilgrimage from the bottom, or simply fight hard enough to earn their levels and be worthy of their floor. I’m a flob, too,” she admits easily. “Go on, inspect me if ye want.”
[Hearthward, lv. 44]
Despite her words, she’s strong. Stronger than the average person outside. I nod at her for a moment. “We came up today.”
“Oooh, very new to the floor,” she says with a snicker. “Well, here’s the first lesson. Keep me floors clean. Rain washes things away outside, so fight there if ye must.”
That seems reasonable, so I nod. “Understood. Sorry.”
She tilts her head at that, crossing her arms in surprise. “Huh. Surprisingly calm about things, are ya?”
I shrug, and turn back to my water, drinking some more. “Anything else we should know?” I ask her.
“Name’s Zinc, climber. Pay me, and you’ll be dry, housed and fed. That’s all.”
“How do people usually make money here?” Thatch asks curiously. “We have jobs, of course. But can we just… sell things? Are there taxes? Are there-”
I’m already beginning to zone out as he asks things about the nitty gritty. No way I’m dealing with any of that. Opal notices instantly and snickers at me, as Zinc nods along to his questions. “Jobs are good. You can sell anything, yeah. A tenth of what you make goes as tithe to the guard. ‘Course, they only take things if they find ya. But I recommend playin’ nice.” The old woman crosses her arms again, tapping her foot. “For climbers, of course, ye can always scale a monolith.”
Monoliths. “Minor Towers?” I ask, repeating a phrase that I somewhat remember.
Zinc slowly nods at that. “Yeah. Monos for short. They’re little challenges you can do. Linked to ascending to the higher floors, too. You’ll see once you enter someone,” she says with a knowing smile. “Shouldn’t be too long.”
And then, before we can ask anything else, she waves a hand and walks back behind the bar. I sigh softly, put my headphones back on, and focus inwards.
[Vessel Construction 1 > 2]
[Class up! Vesselsmith 0 > 1]
Cracks spread through my vessel, and then my class levels up. And that’s the first strong reminder I get about why it usually involves heart stats.
See, the heart stat might have knitted my screwed up attempt at vesselforging back together before dumping even more mana inside it. But now? My cracked vessel is suddenly forced to grow, as yet more blinding power pours inside of me, growing my store of mana even further. I have to double down on my attunement loop to keep it inside, even as the skin above my heart cracks.
Kuro quickly laps up the blood, keeping it from staining my clothes, which is really rather nice. I breathe slowly, mending the cracks in my vessel, and then healing my skin back in place. Then, once it’s all settled, I use [Vessel Construction] once more, straining, pushing the boundaries of what I can do. Once more, I bleed.
Then I do it again.
- - -
Evening comes. We only have one room, sharing it between all of us. There’s bunk beds, and Opal very swiftly claims the top bunk with a teleport. For my part, I pick a corner bed, where I can tuck myself away. One by one, we find our places, and then I notice the window.
And instantly, I see why Zinc told us to look out of it. And I spot the monolith instantly.
Compared to the rest of the buildings, it looks different. It’s a tall, sleek thing that looks to be made from a smooth plane of greyish metal, narrowing towards the top. There is just one in this ring of the city, and I find myself staring at it for a long moment.
Thatch notices, then follows my gaze. “Whoa,” he breathes, his eyes glowing telltale emerald. “Holy fuck.”
“What do you see?” I ask.
“So many runes. So much mana, so- ah!” he cries out for a second, as blood drips from his eyes and he flinches away. For a moment, he holds his face, then chuckles. “Okay, ow. Not doing that again.”
Very gently, I reach out and cup his face, healing the wound. The crack along the length of his iris mends, torn bits of flesh knitting back together. He smiles for a moment, and thanks me.
Then, I look at the monolith again, alongside all the others. And to me, it looks completely inert. I see no runes, no mana pouring off of it… nothing. And that’s the scariest part, isn’t it? Not a drop of mana leaks from the monolith. Instead, it just stands there, humming away ominously.
And I can’t help but wanna see what’s at the top of it.
Drawing in air through my teeth, I give it a long stare. “You’re smiling,” Inu says quietly, and I nod.
“Thought so,” I say, the smile widening a tiny bit further. I want to know. I want to know so badly what’s at their top.
[Ascension Quest: The Rings. Earn tokens to unlock access to the higher rings of the city. Tokens can be earned by initiating ascension trials, enacting significant changes upon the city, by winning them off true inhabitants of higher rings, or finding them in monoliths.]
And finally, the way up reveals itself. And with it, there is one more notification. In the distance, far higher in the city, centered across the innermost ring, an enormous Eye appears above the castle that towers over even the monoliths. An enormous Eye that is looking right at me.
[Respitia the Pure has her eyes on you. She “politely” welcomes you to her city, promising you all the hospitality you have earned from her position as steward of Downpour, reigning over the fifth to ninth floors.]
And at that, I almost laugh. Well, dang. Guess my time in this city just got a little bit more interesting.
But fine. If Respitia wants to stop me, she can give it a try. I’ll just climb anyway. I’ll climb to the tops of the monoliths. I’ll climb to the innermost ring of the city. I’ll master vesselforging, I’ll become even stronger, faster than they can keep up with, and I’ll work on my dozens of mana-based projects.
A feral grin appears on my face as I look around the room. There’s so much to do, and I couldn’t think of any people I’d rather be doing it with. We share one more round of smiles as I tell them of the notification, and we all make up our minds.
There’s climbing to be done.