Chapter Twenty-Six

“No way, that’s bullshit.”

“Makes sense.”

“No weirder than anything else in this Tower. Hey, does this mean that when you said you are certain I can get my arm back, you know there’s a way on a later Floor?”

“Are you feeling okay son?”

“Ah.”

Daphne, Blanik, Metrodora, Unk and Okembe all gave about the reactions he expected, although he hadn’t seen Blanik taking it quite that in stride. He gave a serious nod to Daphne and Unk, the two non-believers, and began to explain in more detail.

“Before I start, I want you to know that I chose you because I believed you had potential and were good people. Whatever you think once I’ve told you this story and my plans, that means that I’m willing to trust you all with the truth.”

Nobody replied, but as he looked over their faces he cursed himself for having to be pushed into revealing this. If it hadn’t been for Blanik, who he hadn’t trusted until he displayed his true colours in Zone 2, he probably would have buckled and done so far earlier. No time for recrimination though, it was time to tell the truth.

“I lived through the Tower once. I was a nobody, an unimportant Climber, but I was there till the end. We’ve talked about where the Tower came from before, and I’m sure you’ve heard thousands of theories. The truth is, in simple terms, aliens use the Tower to test species and decide if they will be destroyed or allowed into the wider world – the Multiverse. It’s a test, and if someone from our species does not reach the 51st Floor by 10 years after its’ first emergence then we will be wiped out.”

Okembe was taking the information with a completely blank expression, not giving anything away, while Unk and Daphne shared confused looks. Blanik was staring wide-eyed as though watching a horror film, and Metrodora was giving a reassuring smile. That last one bolstered him enough to continue.

“We got close. So close. Inches. But we were too scattered, too weak. We spent most of the first 5 years squabbling over who would be the first to do this or first to do that, who had the most impressive Bloodline, who could go to Earth and get on the most TV Shows. Climbers became celebrities, political figures, heroes, but we didn’t work together. By the time we were working as a unit, it was too late. We’d lost many of Humanity’s best Climbers, and too few people had even taken up the call to Climb themselves until it was too late for them to catch up and be useful. Others, like me, had made poor choices out of fear or ignorance early on and ended up with weak builds that limited our potential.”

“So you came back in time to, what, save us?”

Unk’s words were uncharacteristically harsh, and Daphne gave him a shocked look at the tone from the normally jovial man.

“I didn’t mean to, honestly. I found an Item in the battlefield after we failed and it said it could send me back. I thought it was a hallucination or a fake – fake Items were a thing, one of the ways we screwed each other over before we knew we should have been working as a team – but then it activated. I’d have sent someone else back if I could, someone stronger. But that’s why I’ve been Climbing like I have, and why I brought you in. I can’t save Humanity on my own, and if I tried to tell the public what I’m telling you they’d lock me in an asylum and drug me for factoids about the Floors.”

Eventually, he’d answered enough questions to satisfy them. He knew he’d be answering more in the time to come, and he could tell that aside from Blanik and Metrodora, they felt betrayed by his dishonesty. Even Metrodora had asked him if he only saved her because he knew she was an Alchemist.

“No. I had never met any of you in the first timeline. In fact, I think that...well...I think you all died or quit fairly early. Okembe, I think the first time around I wasn’t there when Jackal attacked you. I think you died in the Drake Cave, Met. Blanik, Daph, Unk, Blanik, I’m not so sure about you. Maybe you were there at the end, and I know you have the potential, but so many people were lost in the early years before we knew what we were doing.”

That provoked another round of questioning, but by the time night fell and everyone took their leave to their own respective huts, Will felt like he’d done a fairly good job handling that. He might have to deal with some issues from Okembe and Unk, but the others seemed to believe him and agree that he’d done his best. He felt as though a weight was lifted from his chest, though the prospect of handling similar concerns from the group he planned to meet with in the morning still led to some anxiety.

He was sat in a cobbled together longhouse, which some group had somehow managed to build by combining safe huts. Will had no idea what Skill or Spell they’d used for that, but it was the kind of thing that became more common every day as the Tower filled and the Climber community grew. Sat on his right was Brunjar, and his party were behind him watching. He cleared his throat and forced himself not to shake or say “um” as he addressed the dozen men and women on the other side of the room.

“Thank you all for coming. I’ve met some of you, but not others. If you don’t know me, I’m Pioneer. I’ve been trying to help people out where I can, share information, things like that. The reason I asked Brunjar to call you all here is because he has a much better idea than I do of who in this Tower is a good person and holds influence.”

That wasn’t strictly true, as he cast his eyes across the mass and saw Thousand Sword Arakan fixing him with a superior stare. He’d been selfish and smug, sure, but he had supported Humanity in the end, and he represented the group that would become the Excellent Jade Alliance, a huge and crucial Ascended Clan if Will wanted to civilise the Tower and make Climbing safer. He actually recognised a good number of those in the room. Gunshow Garrick, who’d later become a lynchpin for the Inexorable Advance Guild, Sand Snake Colby and Treasure Dave of the Bold Explorers. Others were new to him, people that Brunjar assured him had the ears of dozens or hundreds, even thousands of other Climbers and people on the outside.

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“My party is planning to assault Zone 4 in the next week, and when we return we will be opening a portal to Floor 4. I have gathered you here to tell you an important piece of information and to offer you a chance to join us when we ascend to that Floor.”

Immediately, the room erupted. Everybody in there was sufficiently competent and powerful that they knew about the Key Pieces by now, but none of the other groups had even two pieces let alone three as far as Will was aware. He waited a moment, and then gestured until they calmed down to continue listening.

“I recently obtained a unique Skill that allows me to gain some information about future Floors early. It is limited, and difficult to control or interpret, but it has allowed me to obtain three of the four pieces for the Floor 4 Key. It has also allowed me to learn that when Floor 4 is reached, the Party Interface will be expanded and we will gain access to the Clan Interface.”

Another burst of conversation, and Will paid particular attention to Colby and Dave as the group debated internally and shouted questions at him that he ignored. He knew that by this point, Dave would likely possess the Divine Oracle’s Sight Bloodline, having acquired it on Floor 2. It granted a Skill that worked very similarly to Will’s description, and he hoped that they would reflect on that and help him spread the legitimacy of this explanation.

“I will be forming a Clan, and looking for Climbers who wish to join me in spreading information and resources, trying to push Humanity to the top of this Tower and protect ourselves from thieves, bandits and over-reaching power structures. I do not expect all, or any, of you to join me though you would all be welcome. In fact, I expect that many of you already represent groups of more than 6 Climbers, and the idea of forming a Clan that can formally associate yourselves into a Tower-recognised group looks like a tempting opportunity. That’s why I’m giving you the chance to come to Floor 4 a week before I release the information on this Floor’s Bosses publicly.”

He laid out the remainder of his plan, and then spent half an hour dealing with the most pressing questions before handing over to Dane and Brunjar to deal with logistics. They’d take this small group, along with anyone in their Party (but not any allies/future Clan members beyond that) to Floor 4, and give them a week to do as they saw fit before publicly releasing the route to Floor 4 and knowledge of the Clan System.

The intention was that, along with Towerfall, he could watch and assist the formation of not only the most useful Clans in the first timeline but the newer ones that could fill the spots better than before. No FCA, no Floor 1000, no Order of Ascension, no wasted space on Floor 10 once they started claiming territory. Even if he didn’t end up with the biggest or most powerful Clan, this would earn him an important place going forwards and allow him to influence Humanity’s Climb as a whole.

His party would Climb, opening new doors and finding secrets to share, and his Clan would spread them and assist the other Clans in civilising the Tower. The Bold Explorers would undoubtedly take up the role of Tower Police, especially if he gave them a nudge or two, and he would do his best to recruit as many useful and high-potential Climbers as he could to fill out his own roster. Once the public announcements of the Tower’s existence and legality were made in a month, the Tower would experience a boom in Climbers that could lead to either a bloodbath or a burst of advancement, and as he rejoined his party to prep for their final mission on this Floor his mind buzzed with ideas and strategies for ensuring the latter.

Aside from the material planning of improving the weaknesses in their gear, designing strategies for navigating the swamp environment of Zone 4 and debating theories on the trigger, a lot of the next few days was spent discussing the past and the future. Will spoke to the group as a whole, to each member individually, and to small subsections of the group repeatedly. He was also frequently pulled away by Brunjar, Dane or some other Climber who wanted to ask him a question about Floor 4 or his “secret Skill”. Still, he understood his party’s worries.

“I’m planning to take a break from active Climbing to work on getting the Clan set up with Brunjar and Dane once we hit Floor 4. I was always going to offer you guys time off then, so don’t feel compelled to stay. None of you signed up to be famous in the Tower or to take this responsibility for Humanity, and I’d never try to force it on you.”

Only Daphne looked phased by the prospect. Okembe had apparently meditated on the issue and decided to forgive Will, Blanik had picked up a sort of begrudging responsibility mixed with hero worship and Metrodora – Kat – had been his rock for months at this point, a constant source of support and confidence.

“Hey, we signed up to be the first to Floor 4, and whatever happens after then I’m not passing up a chance to achieve that.”

Unk put his arm around his niece at that, and Will sent the pair a grateful smile.

“If you want to start wearing masks, now would be the time. I haven’t bothered covering my face, because I don’t plan on returning to Earth and my Earth identity is unimportant now. I can tell you for certain that we’re at most a few months away from cameras and video capability in-Tower, and at that point you won’t just be famous for your pseudonym.”

Daphne looked like she was considering the possibility, but the others just shook their heads.

“So if we’re going to be your lieutenants and help you save the world, is there a salary?”

Will turned to look at Kat with bafflement on his face, only to break down at her mischievous smirk and Blanik’s begrudging transfer of a Tower Coin.

“Got you!”

Another day of planning, and they were ready. Will’s party had accumulated quite a crowd who’d come to see them off as they entered the Zone, and not all of them seemed like they were wishing good luck. He shrugged it off. He was ready to deal with obstacles, it was why he’d started laying groundwork so early. He looked over his crew, taking in their fully geared forms and confident expressions, and led them forwards.

[Okay Chancers, this is it. We’ve got to find the Trigger, end the Bog King and skedaddle. Will.]

Finally, after all the time they’d spent together, when he’d given Blanik a gift and made him an official party member, his group had taken a name. The Clan would be Towerfall, but the party would refer to themselves as the Chancers. It was a play on “second chance”, and Daphne had suggested the idea based on how Metrodora, Okembe and probably Blanik as well would never have lived this long without Will giving them a second chance. He liked the name, even more than he’d liked being a member of the Companions back when he Climbed with John. Thinking of the man still sent a twinge of guilt and loss through him, but as his party strode through the gate and immediately began to laugh and complain about the sludgy ground of the swamp, he felt the loneliness less keenly. He couldn’t have his old friends, but he had already made new ones.