Chapter Thirty
Arakan and Dao of the Excellent Jade Alliance. Colby and Dave, along with the rest of the Bold Explorers. Garrick, Suqot, and the other future heads of the Inexorable Advance Guild. They were far from the only “celebrity” Climbers that had joined Will in the shade of a cliff within Zone 2 for the portal to the 4th Floor, but as his eyes passed over the few dozen people he found the sheer number of recognisable individuals mind-boggling. Not everyone in front of him had been important in the first timeline, and he didn’t know who among them reached Floor 4 before his intervention, but he was amazed at how his changes hadn’t stopped most of the future S Rankers he knew to be operating in the Tower at this time from ascending to positions of importance.
It made sense, honestly. John had once argued that to be an S Ranker you needed more than just Skill, you needed Luck and Backing. Arakan was arguably the world’s greatest swordsman before the Tower even emerged, he came across several early rewards including the growth Item sword he’d eventually be famous for wielding, and he had the entire Chinese Government funding him in return for his oversight of their Clan. With only one or two of these aspects, S Rank was out of reach. Will had demurred, and as he looked over the crowd waiting to travel to the 4th Floor he felt as though his stance was vindicated.
“I’m telling you, it’s not just luck and backing, and it’s not even really skill necessarily. I think they’re special. There’s something, something different for each of them, that gives them the ability to reach heights the rest of us couldn’t dream of. Even if you took away the luck, even if they didn’t have the backing, they’d still have Climbed to the top of the heap. People like that do in every system.”
Given that he was currently in the top 10 or so Climbers in terms of making progress towards S Rank, exclusively because of the cheat of future knowledge, and yet he was still being competed with by people truly exploring the Tower for the first time, seemed to prove the “unique” aspect of the thing. No two S Rankers had been alike, even in the first go around. Each of them had found their own personal path to greatness, and gone on to be a pillar of Humanity’s Climb. And now Will himself was among them. The thought dazed him slightly, so shook the idea from his head before he cleared his throat and spoke up.
“Right everyone, like I said. No fighting, no arguing, just form your Clans, do your initial exploration, and then you can come back and get your forces. This portal will be open for two days, and in three-and-a-bit weeks when the Tower goes public, I’ll put out the information on the Clan System and how to reach Floor 4. You’ll have the headstart, so please don’t waste it and please don’t use it against anyone else. Everybody ready?”
Cheers greeted him, and he gave them all a broad smile as he lifted the completed Floor Key into the air above his head.
According to Brunjar, who he’d formally asked to be his head of Recruitment and Personnel, there were around three thousand Climbers who’d already expressed a desire to join up with Towerfall. It wouldn’t be the biggest Clan, even despite his reputation. The Excellent Jade Alliance would be the biggest thanks to the mass support of the Chinese Government and the eventual cooperation of several other Asian nations, and despite the fact he’d tried to weed out anyone related to Jeremy or Luke, the FCA would likely form in the next few weeks if not today and start bribing Climbers en-masse. He’d pushed up the timeline, but hadn’t broken it.
Still, until the Ascended Clans were determined on Floor 10, that was manageable problem. 3 or 4 of those slots in the first timeline had been occupied by people who wasted the benefits or hurt Humanity more than they helped, and though he wasn’t sure he’d be completely able to stop that from happening at all this time round, the group that were about to get first-pick of the recruits seemed a lot better than he remembered from before.
He held the Floor Key in front of himself, channelling a tiny amount of Mana into the square icon and watching it crumble into glittering dust. A few feet in front of him, with a sound like a huge zipper opening, a vast purple portal tore its’ way through space. Undulating and oscillating like the Floor 1 Portal, it was almost nostalgic for Will. Reflecting on how far he’d come and how quickly he’d done it, it was hard not to feel proud. The Ogre Boss that had nearly killed him back then would barely cause him to break a sweat, and instead of being carried through this portal he was about to be the first Human to step through it.
“Here we go!” He called, setting his Recall Sigil for this Floor to ensure an easy return journey then stepping forwards and letting the portal take him up.
You have Cleared the [3rd Floor] of the Tower.
Rewards:
2000 Tower Coins
1 Skill Point
Clan Functions Unlocked
+3 All Stats
You have achieved the First Clear of this Floor. Choose one of three rewards.
1. Temporary Safe Zone Token [A]
Allows for the designation of an area up to one-mile-squared as a safe area for a period of 3 months.
2. Sigil of the 3rd Floor Conqueror
Allows free travel to and from the 3rd Floor without use of the Recall Sigil. Grants improved loot chance, +5 All Stats and Hidden Event sense on Floor 3.
3. Item Upgrade Token [B]
Can be used on any Item of C rank or lower to Upgrade it’s rank by one. Single Use.
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Welcome to the [4th Floor] of the Tower. To Exit this Floor, locate and complete the Exit Dungeon.”
He took the Temporary Safe Zone Token without even bothering to look at the other options. The Floor Conqueror Sigils could be useful, but only if the Floor was worth farming, which Floor 3 emphatically was not. The Upgrade Token was tempted, especially with Shout being damaged beyond usability currently. Raising it to D Rank would instantly fix it, and if he held on to the Token even longer it could save even more time.
But that wouldn’t help Humanity as much as the Token, which would let him set up a safe area for Towerfall and any Clans willing to agree to his terms to base themselves. That would be their waypoint, their recruitment station, and the hub for their meetings and interactions, and by the time it wore off they’d be higher in the Tower and have the resources to make safe areas just by wiping out monsters in a location.
Stepping onto the stone ground of the Floor, he looked out over the strange abandoned city environment of the Floor and smiled. Although all of the buildings on this Floor were half-ruined and empty of all but the most basic furniture, a lot of people would gravitate here for the safety of numbers and familiar territory. Of course, all of the really useful stuff on the Floor was outside of the centre, in the varied wilderness around the city.
Every Floor would grow as more Climbers reached it, with new events and dungeons spawning at the same time, but even before that happened this Floor was bigger than the last 3 by a significant amount. Even after they Cleared it people would be finding secrets here for years – and that was Will giving them a head-start to find the most famous ones. Finding the Exit Dungeon, if he didn’t make the location public, should take the others a pretty significant amount of time, but the progression from 5-10 would speed up substantially. Of course, once he felt the Clan was stable enough, he’d be hitting Floor 5 himself and starting the race for 10 anyway. As he grinned at the idea, his pondering was broken by the sounds of other people arriving, spawning in behind him.
“Hey, this is different!”
“So come here and I’ll use this Clan Interface thing to add you.”
“Think there are other people on this Floor then, since there are buildings?”
Chatter erupted, a dozen conversations simultaneously bursting into existence as the crowd began wandering around the Spawn Area, messing with the Clan Interface and discussing Clans and alliances in hushed tones.
“There are no safe areas within the City limits according to my Skill, by the way, so you’ll want to get set up somewhere outside. Anyone who wants to join Towerfall, let me know and I’ll add you to the Clan.”
Will called out and allowed the seven or eight people who’d decided to forgo forming their own Clans to approach him. Opening the Clan Interface, he navigated it easily.
CLAN MENU
Name: Towerfall
Leader: Pioneer
Sub-Leaders: Okembe, Trucker_1972, Daphne, Metrodora, Blanik
Ranked Members: Dane Sharp, Brunjar Winterwolf
CLAN OPTIONS – Ranks, Membership Options
It was a small start numerically, but he quickly nominated Brunjar and Dane as Lieutenants and gave them permissions to add others to the Clan using the Ranks menu.
“There will be a lot more options once we hit 10 and upgrade to an Ascended Clan, but this will do for now. Let everyone know that we’ll support them with resources, information and Coins as best we can, but until we’ve got enough members and enough of a foothold on the first 4 Floors to start farming we won’t be able to provide that much in terms of material goods. Once we get things going, we’ll work out pay and taxes and things.”
Brunjar, with his twin passions of organisation and social interaction, was positively salivating at the prospect of running the Clan, and Dane gave Will a firm nod as well.
He made certain to speak to everyone he’d brought to the Floor, making sure they were all okay and asking them to consider allying with Towerfall in the coming months and years. Some were non-committal, with both Dao and Arakan giving him vague waves of the hand when he asked them to share information and not attempt to monopolise resources that could be used by other Climbers.
That was to be expected. Most people, even in the first timeline, had generally agreed with those principles, but there were always those who refused or tried to be selfish. He could deal with that, as long as he kept Towerfall strong and worked with the better members of the Climber community. Julian was amazed at how far Will had come, and actually let him know that although the UK Government was aware of his identity, they had decided not to share it with other countries or use it against him. He’d expected the first part, but the second was a nice surprise. It didn’t make a huge difference, although it did mean he’d be safer when he returned to Earth.
“Hey, Pioneer, can I talk to you?”
Will turned to the source of the voice, and saw Colby approaching.
“Alright mate, what can I do for you?” He asked easily, shaking the man’s hand and nodding to Dave, ever present a step behind.
“We were going to start our own Clan, start expanding the Party cause we’ve got a few people we know who’d join.”
Will nodded, since that had been what he’d expected. The Bold Explorers had been the first Ascended Clan in the initial timeline, and had ended up as the Tower’s main source of lawkeeping and defence.
“Are you sure that’s okay? I mean, we agree with what you’ve been saying about unity and working together, especially the stuff about protecting weaker Climbers and making the lower Floors safe to traverse. Is it not fishing in the same pond if we make separate groups though?”
“Holy Shit. Sand Snake Colby and Treasure Dave are asking if they can join my Clan.”
He was steadily getting better at dealing with insane moments like this, things that made the person he’d been before his second chance cry like a 12 year old girl meeting her favourite popstar, but suppressing the delighted noise that bubbled in his throat caused him to cough.
“It’s up to you. We’d be happy to have you in Towerfall, hell I’ll rank you up along with Dane and Brunjar, but if you want to build the Bold Explorers into a Clan then go ahead. Friendly competition helps push us all higher faster.”
He had similar conversations with a few others, and as everyone began to disappear back to Floor 3 and return with larger groups, the Floor became a hive of activity. Will left the Safe Zone Token with Brunjar to scout a location for, dismissing the Clan Interface as he saw the number of members swelling dozens at a time as parties signed up. He found a quiet corner of one of the ruined buildings and led the two party members who’d accompanied him away from the hubbub.
“Well, we did it. Towerfall is a go.”
“So what now?”
Will found that despite all of the planning he’d done for this moment, he still wasn’t quite sure how to answer that question. Stop the FCA forming to exploit Climbers. Get to Floor 10 and become the first Ascended Clan. Get his Bloodline and Elite Class. Get those things for the rest of the party. Spend time with Kat outside of the constant combat of the Tower. There were hundreds of things spinning through his mind as he regarded the two most constant allies he’d had during this first few months of Climbing.
“We Climb.”
As always, Okembe cut through with simple and meaningful words. Will nodded, mutely, embracing Metrodora and giving the Kenyan a grateful smile.
“I know a bunch of secrets on this Floor, so while we wait for the others and need to stick close to Brunjar for the sake of the Clan, what say we go exploring? I know a few Dungeons nearby that will be worth a trip.”
And so the trio began to plan, missing their allies but motivated by the prospect of continued growth. They’d come a long way in a short time, but there was still much, much further for them to go. At least they’d be going there together.