Ray wanted to stop screaming, but that might have been difficult. With all the shaking and scorching sparks scouring everywhere, he might accidentally bite his own tongue off. Things were bad enough already. He didn’t need that too.

The Third Floor Lord’s scythe of crimson lightning had been devastating. Ray could still hear the haunting, gargantuan shriek from the Eternal Guardian. While Ray and Gritty hadn’t been hit hard, their gigantic avian ride had taken the brunt of the attack and suffered greatly. It had lost control of its flight and was now plummeting hard.

Plus, some of the red sparks were striking Ray and Gritty too. Every strike sent a jolt of pain ricocheting through him like a bouncing hot nail.

No. No. Ray had to get a hold of himself. He hadn’t come this far, hadn’t arrived all the way to the Third Floor, to end things like this.

He tried to focus. If he could only get off a Mottling Spirit—

The crash threw both Ray and all his ideas of self-preservation completely out. He found himself flying out of the Guardian’s grasp. The quickest of summon of Soaring Wings with Primal Spiritcraft was all that made sure he didn’t hit the rocky ground hard enough to break half his bones.

Still. Ray groaned out as he crashed down. He was pretty sure his shoulder and his entire left side was badly bruised. Probably had some fractures too.

“Gritty?” Ray coughed in the dust. “You alright?”

He didn’t receive a reply, which was worrying. She had better be alright.

Groaning once more, Ray forced himself to his feet. Oh, yes. Something was definitely broken.

Fuck the Floor Lord.

[Floor III]

Welcome, Denizen, to the Third Floor of the Tower of Forging. Having overcome the challenges of the Tower so far, here you can realize your ambition and impress your legend into eternity. Please review your Objectives and proceed as you see fit.

Calculating objectives based on [Path of Lifeblood Chaos] and [Tower Conqueror]…

Objective 1: Win the Immortalizer Tournament [0/1]

Objective 2: Defeat a Gargant [0/1]

Objective 2: Defeat 2 Heiromatons [0/2]

Objective 4: Defeat 4 Duo-bosses [0/4]

Objective 5: Clear 5 dungeons [0/5]

Objective 6: Defeat all enemy teams [0/???]

Objective 8: Win a Gold-star bid at the Immortalizer Tournament Auction [0/1]

Hidden Objective 1: Find 3 Tower Nodes [0/3]

Hidden Objective 2: Defeat the Paragon’s incursion [0/1]

Personal Objective 1: Sell 2 treasures at the Immortalizer Tournament Auction [0/2]

Personal Objective 2: Dethrone the Tower Lord [0/1]

Denizen, go forth and reach the peak of the Tower of Forging!

Ray had to pause as he stared at the list of Objectives. It was natural that he couldn’t fully figure out what every one of those meant. But his eyes were drawn inexorably to the very last Objectives.

Well, it appeared the System itself wasn’t messing around about what he needed to accomplish.

Figuring he’d worry about his Objectives later, Ray tried to see where exactly they had landed. His footing was unsteady. It wasn’t just because of the uneven ground. There was a strange shaking, like a constant earthquake. No. He frowned. It was almost like the ground was constantly sinking. Getting away from him.

He blinked. Ah, shit. The ground was sinking. He was sinking. Whatever they were on, wherever they had landed, things were really, really unstable.

“Gritty?” he called again into the dust, hating the slight panic in his voice.

“I’m fine,” she said from somewhere farther off.

Ray slowly walked over to where he heard her voice. She did sound fine at least. A small relief that only one of them was injured. Waving his hands through the dust to clear the grainy clouds away, Ray got a better look at where they had landed.

It was another of the islands he had seen when he had first arrived on the Third Floor. The bounds were easily visible on multiple sides. On the sides the edges weren’t visible, they were blocked from his sight by huge ruins. He didn’t recognize the architecture. Not the pseudo-medieval ones that the mimics had used, not the ones of the Everair from the First Floor.

“Over here,” Gritty said.

He turned to spot her. Then swallowed.

She was closer to where the Eternal Guardian had come down. And the Guardian did not look good.

As Ray approached, he took stock of the various wounds on the huge creature. The cloak that normally adorned it had been ripped all over, as well as the feathers and flesh underneath. A heavy burned stench filled the air. Ray grimaced at the livid wounds on the Guardian’s chest, arms, and legs. Its eyes were closed. He couldn’t even tell if it was still alive.

A quick look at it with Primordial Gauge confirmed that it was. Ray sighed in relief. He wouldn’t have been able to see its status if it had been dead.

“Our ride is out,” Gritty said. She even looked fine, mostly, besides some bloodied grazes and the grey dust covering her. “Maybe for good.”

“Poor thing.” Ray looked up at the clouds. “That asshole is going to pay.”

“He was waiting for us. Basically spawn camping. Asshole is an understatement.”

Ray looked at her critically. “You okay though?”

She nodded. Her choppy hair had so much dust, it made her look like a grandma. “Forget about me, you’re the one who needs medical attention.”

Ray grunted. He recalled getting some potions back on the Second Floor. That felt so long ago, now. Had he gotten it on Cliff Two, or Cliff Three? He couldn’t even tell anymore.

Thankfully, peeking into the inventory space of his Bag of Holding quickly brought them up. Ray smiled. He had known they’d be useful one day. While the best cure to diseases and injuries was not getting them in the first place, having potions just meant he could suffer a few without too much worrying.

“I’ll be alright,” Ray said. He tapped his feet on the ground. On the sinking ground. “Do you feel it? It’s, uh, not stable at all.”

“Oh, yeah. We’re on one of those islands and it did not like us crash landing like that.”

“Hmm, yeah.” Ray could see the chain of events. They had crash landed hard. He didn’t know the mechanics of what kept these islands afloat, but he had a suspicion their landing had disrupted those mechanics and now the whole island was sinking. “We need to get off. Soon.”

The question was how. They were falling. The island had no obvious connection to anything else. They did occasionally see other islands and rocks passing by, but they were all too far away and moved on too quickly to be of any use.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

No obvious solution presented itself, so they decided to take things step by step. As Gritty was the less injured of them, they decided she would go exploring.

Meanwhile, Ray took out another few potions and tried to tip the contents into the Eternal Guardian’s mouth. He had no idea if it would help, and he was definitely hoping he wasn’t accidentally poisoning the Guardian, but he didn’t have better ideas. Plus, he felt bad about its suffering. He had to do something.

It didn’t look like it had helped much. The Guardian’s wounds didn’t look that different to his untrained eye, though it did look like the bleeding was stopping. Maybe. He wasn’t sure.

Gritty had only stepped away for a minute, when Ray’s senses went off.

[Warning!]

Primordial Gauge indicates your presence has been detected by Sanctuary [Tier 6]. Some effects of Sanctuary have been nullified by Primordial Guage.

Ray twisted around. A warning like that meant someone else was here. He was about to warn Gritty, but she had come to a stop too. When he followed her gaze, he found the source of the warning. How nice of the fellow to just walk out on his own.

He was a grizzled guy. His face was half-hidden by a patchy red beard and unruly auburn hair. The armour he wore was finely made, though caked with grime and dust.

Ray frowned. Grey dust. Just like the ones daubing Ray and Gritty. This guy had been here a while.

“Who are you?” Gritty asked. “What are you doing here?”

One of her arms was raised, blood swirling threateningly around her hand. Ray had to admit it looked pretty badass. Edgy, but still cool.

“I can’t believe my eyes,” the man answered in a voice rusty with unuse. There was a note of disbelieving wonder in his voice. “Actual people. No. Fucking. Way.”

Ray supposed he could understand the man’s surprise. Depending on how long he had been trapped on this little island with its ruins, the suddenness of seeing a couple of people crash land along with a gigantic monster was probably making him wonder if he had gone mad or not.

He tried using Primordial Gauge on the guy but got a familiar warning.

[Warning!]

Primordial Gauge has been blocked by Amulet of Blindness and Sanctuary [Tier 6].

Well, that was a bit annoying.

“Hey buddy.” Gritty’s voice was low and dangerous. “I asked you a question. Explain yourself. Now.”

The man took a deep breath. Then he shook his head, like he was clearing the wonder out of his mind. “My name’s Marcus. I’ve been on this island for… I don’t know, weeks now? Maybe days, actually. Time is really hard to tell when there’s no day-night cycle, you know. But who are you and what are you doing here?”

“How the hell did you get here?” Gritty asked.

Marcus frowned at having his question ignored, but he answered anyway. “I got past the Second Floor of my Tower, the Tower of Scouring, and got an opportunity to get to the Third Floor of a different Floor. One that was harder, but also had better rewards. So I came here, and got into the Immortalizer Tournament, but got eliminated and ended up here.”

Ray recalled the ticket he had received as a reward for completing the Objectives of the Second Floor.

“You got eliminated from a tourney,” Gritty said. “And ended up here?”

Marcus flushed. Now his whole head was red. “That’s the price you have to pay. For losing.”

Ray was having trouble making sense of some of the things he was hearing. Still. He tried not scratching his head too much. “Alright, let’s back up a bit. My name’s Ray. That’s Gritty. We just got on the Third Floor too, but we crash landed here after an altercation.”

“Altercation?” Marcus asked.

Gritty frowned at him. “Don’t go giving any old rando your name.”

Ray waved his hand at both their interjections. “Not important. I got my list of Objectives so I’ve got some of the context of what’s going on. I understand there’s a tournament and an auction going on here. But I don’t know the specifics. Like, who’s holding it and why, who’s participating, what are the rewards. Things like that. But I’m guessing you do.”

Marcus looked between Ray and Gritty, his eyes somewhat evaluating. Ray wasn’t sure he liked that look. The guy had come to them with a mixture of disbelief and gratitude.

Now he looked like a potential scammer.

Though, maybe it was partly their own fault. Gritty had been a mixture of aggressive and suspicious from the get-go, while Ray himself hadn’t been much better. Small surprise that Marcus took a dim view of them.

“If you know about it, that means you got a ticket for entry, don’t you?” Marcus asked.

Gritty shifted, turning even more suspicious. Ray decided to speak before she made things even more tense.

“We do,” he said. “I’m guessing you want it?”

Marcus, just as perceptive as Ray had noticed, looked a little surprised. “You almost sound like you wouldn’t mind me taking it. You don’t want to get into the tournament?” He frowned. “The hell did you get in your Objectives?”

At the idea of giving the ticket up, Gritty turned sharply to Ray. “Wingman!”

He ignored it. “I don’t mind giving you the ticket in exchange for information. But you need to tell me everything I want to know.”

“How can I trust you’ll keep your end of the bargain?”

Ray couldn’t recall just how many times he’d had to go through this exact scenario of people—including himself—being worried about others not keeping their end of the bargain. But that also meant he’d had a lot of experience navigating through this exact scenario.

“You know what this is?” Ray asked, summoning up the Tower Node of the Fleshcrafter.

“Wingman,” Gritty hissed.

Marcus stared at it. “You got Tower Nodes?”

“Yep. Now, I’m guessing you don’t want a Tower Node more than a ticket back into the tournament, right? So here, you can hold onto my Tower Node, and if I don’t hand over the ticket after I’m satisfied with everything you can tell me, then you get to keep it.”

With a push of Ray’s will, the Tower Node stayed out even as he stepped back. This invited Marcus to come forward and “claim” the Node.

“I see,” Marcus said, staring at the writhing flash trapped in the transparent top half of the Tower Node. Then he frowned at Ray again. “But why don’t you want to get into the tournament?”

Ray grinned. “I’ve got bigger goals in mind. Now, tell me everything you know about the tournament, the auction, what happened when you first arrived on the Third Floor. I want all the details so don’t skip anything.”

Marcus took a deep breath. Then he started his tale.

He came to the Third Floor an indeterminate time ago. It was practically impossible to tell how much time had passed since he had first step foot on these floating islands. Ray gave up after like a minute of trying to piece it together.

The more important detail was the fact that he had arrived here. On the exact island they were all standing on just then.

Ray wasn’t interested in his mechanism of arrival—Marcus’s Tower didn’t provide anything so fanciful like riding on the Eternal Guardian, just used a plain portal instead. What he was really intrigued by was the fact that this island hadn’t been ruined all the time. There had been other tournament participants, there had been Sylvans, other races too.

And there had been a dungeon here as well.

“Other tournament participants,” Gritty said. “Like other people? Denizens?”

“Not always,” Marcus said. “Rarely, actually. I wasn’t the first one from my Tower to reach come here, more like the seventh as far as I know. There are probably a few people from other Towers too. But the vast majority were either more Sylvans or even other races.”

Made sense to Ray. He and Gritty were the first of their Tower’s people to arrive on the Third Floor. He couldn’t imagine that there were that many people from surrounding Towers coming here.

Which meant the number of Denizens who could participate in this tournament would be tiny. So the Tower Lord, who was the one who had established this tournament plus auction business, would be seeking participants from other places. His own Sylvans, no doubt. And, as it sounded by Marcus’s account, other races as well.

Maybe there were Holdstar here, or even more Halftyr. He supposed he would find out.

Marcus went on and explained that the tournament was basically a series of dungeon crawls, with each dungeon holding a treasure in its final room. These treasures could then be sold in the Grand Auction House that had been set up near the Tower Lord’s headquarters.

The winner of the tournament would be the team or individual to acquire the first Mana Eye.

“What’s a Mana Eye?” Gritty asked.

“Wait,” Ray said, a little panicky. “It’s basically a timed thing? Because it sounds like people have been already doing this, so there’s got to be a bunch of people who’ve already acquired a large amount of the funds.”

Marcus nodded grimly. “A Mana Eye is like the highest amount of condensed Mana you can get. It’s worth about a thousand Mana pearls, which are each worth a hundred Mana shards, which—”

“Which are worth…” Ray paused. “Actually, I never calculated. I want to say one shard is equal to ten crystals.”

“You’re right. One shard is worth one crystal. They go up by a factor of ten. But the dungeon treasures aren’t always of equal value. I don’t know how much they go for, but some are pricier than others.”

Marcus explained how the Tier 24 dungeon he had been trying to get through to the end had wiped out his team. They hadn’t been anyone he had formed actual bonds with. Just another woman from a different Tower and a member of a different race called the Ryous. Marcus himself had barely escaped out of the dungeon alive.

Ray wasn’t surprised to hear that. The strongest dungeon he himself had conquered was only Tier 15. To get through a dungeon that was Tier 24 sounded like something potentially even beyond him.

There was a lot Marcus didn’t know. He had no idea where exactly the Tower Lord’s HQ was. He didn’t know the ceiling of what kind of foes they might face, either against other teams or as monstrous obstacles within dungeons. Ray didn’t blame the guy, even if Gritty frowned disapprovingly. Marcus had only been here for a short time and attempted just one dungeon.

“So, is that enough?” he asked, looking hopefully at Ray. “Do I get the ticket?”

Gritty thankfully remained silent and impassive this time.

Ray nodded. “Yeah, I’m satisfied. Mostly. One last thing—you know how we’re supposed to register and enter the tournament as participants.”

“Yeah, I’m familiar with the signup process. In fact, I’ll show it to you for free.” Marcus looked up. “If we can get to one of the islands that’s still hosting an active dungeon.”

“Leave that to us.”

“Oh yeah? Alright, then. There’s some particulars about the auction that I don’t really remember cause I didn’t get that far anyway, but they want tourney participants.”

Ray smiled. Which meant they shouldn’t really be having any trouble getting into the tournament, at least.

“Alright, then.” He brought out the Immortalizer Tournament Auction Ticket. Marcus’s eyes widened and even turned tearful once he accepted the little gold paper. “There. All yours.”

He clasped it like Ray had saved his baby from a burning building and just handed him the infant. “But what about you? What are you going to do?”

“Don’t worry about me.” Ray tore off a piece of fabric from his raiment. He winced a bit at the frayed condition of his sleeve, but ah, whatever. Then he used some Mimic Mana and brought out another Tower Node, that of the Augmenter this time. It took no time at all to make the torn piece of dark cloth look exactly like the ticket. “There. All done.”

Marcus gawked. “Wha—how?”

Ray winked. “We’ve all got our secrets.”

His attention might have mostly been on their new accomplice, but he didn’t miss Gritty rolling her eyes and mouthing “show-off.”

“Now all we need is to get off this damn island,” she said.

Ray looked back at where the Eternal Guardian was resting. Its injuries made him grimace. “Come on. Let’s see if we can heal our big buddy over there.”