The next day, the family was awoken to a system announcement.

“New Floor Ranking. Group, Fracture, has reached second position.” Came the monotone feminine voice.

Someone else had exited the portal, and it only took them two days to complete their first-floor trial. Lith quickly made sure the rest of the family was up, wake, and getting their armor donned. He quickly donned hos own robes and armored sleeves with Anthropo’s help before fulling everyone’s waist packs with dried meats and hard tack. As they came downstairs, the family took one of the bound leather pouches and tied them to their waist.

“Everyone ready?” Fayde asked.

The family nodded, a determined look in their eyes. If they wanted to maintain their lead on the Floor Ranking, they would have to constantly climb the tower. Completely skipping breakfast, they left their house for the portal just outside their door. Around the gate was a mass of people. The gathering reminded them of when they exited the portal, but now they were the outside observers. They made their way through the crowd, some people moving out of their way while others had to be asked or pushed out of the way with Matia’s increased strength. As they made their way to the front, they could see several people laying on the ground, and not all of them were moving.

“Shit.” Lith said as he made his way to the front of their party.

He was practically running through the crowd of people who just looked on in shock and horror. When he made it to the front of the crowd, he could see five bodies laying on the ground. Two of them were in full plate armor and Lith assumed they were Heavy Warriors. Another wore leather armor with a quiver on their back and a bow laying to their side, an Archer. The last two, and the only ones still loving were a man a woman. The man wore the blue robes of a mage, while the woman wore the white robes of a healer.

He pushed out of the crowd and over to the two still moving people, a charge of Heal already manifesting in each hand. He tapped the mage and healer, releasing healing energy into them and glancing at their wounds as he moved onto the three unmoving bodies. They had minor wounds but must have expended the majority of their stamina and mana completing the combat floor. As he approached the Archer, his stomach turned. His leather armor had been pierces straight through on each of his limbs with one of his legs and both arms ripped off and laying on a mock appropriation of how a person would lay. Several places on his body looked like they had begun to be eaten, including his skull, which was now leaking blood and brain. Lith forced himself to turn away. Not even his regeneration spell would help him bring that person back.

Lith moved towards the heavy warriors. One of them was a lost cause like the archer. They had puncture marks all over their body, and it looked like their head had been bitten off. The second of the heavy warriors was weakly gurgling on their own blood. His eyes were wide in pain. His shield arm was laying off to the side of him, ripped off much like the archer’s body. A stream of blood was leaking from the bottom of his breastplate and Lith could see a golf ball sized puncture between his neck and shoulder. Charging up another Heal, Lith rolled the man to his right side to help him breath as he coughed up more blood, finally gasping properly for air. As the man coughed and gasped, Lith ran to his left arm where it laid next to the man. He grabbed it by the bicep when it was severed and returned to its owner, placing his other hand where the limb would attach. Lith channeled Regeneration as he pushed the two ends of the severed wound together. The man began yelling as bone, muscle, skin, and nerves were reconnected slowly as the spell took effect. He was still riding the high of the healing spell Lith had just cast, but having his limb forcefully rejoined must be an altogether new level of pain. Lith was surprised the man had the energy to yell with how much blood was on the ground, but after a moment the man went silent.

Something had changed in the spell as the man went unconscious. When Lith began casting, he could feel a draw on his mana as well as the man’s own vital energy aiding in the reattachment of the arm. But as the man’s yelling stopped, Lith felt the flow of vital energy from the men stop, and a pull on his own start. His body began to ache as he flooded the man’s limb with mana and burned his own health to mend the arm back together. He could feel the bone coming back together, the strands of muscle stitching back together, the cells of the skin regrowing, and blood vessels connecting. By the time he finished mending the arm back together, Lith’s mana was completely tapped dry. He felt like he had just finished fighting the Alabaster King again.

Lith rolled the man onto his back and checked his breathing. It was shallow, and his mouth was covered in his red blood, but the man was breathing. Lith reached his hand to the man’s neck and felt his pulse. It was slow and very weak, but the man had a pulse. Lith sat back relieved. He had saved the man from the brink of death. It had taken everything he had, but the man would live.

“Lith?” Asked Fayde as she joined him, kneeling down next to him. “Is he…?” She trailed off.

“He’s alive.” Lith said. “He’s just unconscious.”

“And the other two?” She asked, looking over to the mangled and headless bodies of the archer and other heavy warrior.

“DOA. There was nothing I could do for them.” He said somberly.

He looked back to the two he healed earlier. One, the medium warrior woman, was sitting in a fetal position with the mage man kneeling next to her, his hand resting on her shoulder. Lith’s heart was relieved that three of the five people survived, although he still felt sick from the horrible state of the other two members of Fracture.

This was the second group to exit the portal, and the first group to have casualties. If it weren’t for his arrival and fast action, there would only be two survivors. It set the tone for the tower going forward. Even with a healer in the party, surviving the tower would be a grueling experience. But wasn’t this the reality of their world now? People would die as they sought strength, power, and influence. Who knew how many more people would die before they faced some semblance of peace if that was even in the cards for them anymore.

Trevor, Enki, Matia, and Guidry were still standing in the crowd. They looked like they would be sick. Then Lith noticed Julius and Marcell make their way to the front of the crowd. Julius immediately ran forward and checked on the man and woman. Marcell moved towards himself and Fayde.

“Lith, what happened?” Marcell asked.

“I don’t know.” Lith started explaining. “We rushed to get ready and by the time we got here the crowd had already formed. I healed the two Julius is talking to before checking on the rest. The archer and one of the heavies are dead. This one is alive but knocked out. Not sure when he will wake up.”

“What was the yelling about? What did you do to him?”

“I used a spell to reattach his arm. The pain is what caused him to yell.”

Marcell nodded and looked over to the two dead bodies, a disgusted frown on his face which was starting to look a shade of green. Bas’set and a few other Allum were entering the portal area.

“We’ll take the survivors to the compound and make sure they are taken care of. Good job saving his life.” Marcell said as he offered a hand to help Lith stand. Lith took it gratefully.

“By the way, Marcell. This is my partner, Fayde.” Lith said making a long overdue introduction. “Fayde, this is Marcell, leader of The Golden Wings of Ra.”

“Nice to meet you Fayde.” Marcell said as he extended his hand for a shake.

“A pleasure to meet you as well Marcell.” Fayde said as she took his hand and shook it. “And thank you for looking after them.”

“Of course. They have suffered enough. We will see them back to health. Whether they want to try taking on the tower again will be up to them.”

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Lith nodded somberly.

“We’ll come and check on them after we get back from the second floor.” Fayde said.

“You’re going now?” Marcell asked. “So soon after this situation?”

“Not much of a choice.” Lith said as he took out some dried meat to chew. “We can’t wait around. We either climb or we don’t. The only way through is up.”

“Trevor, Enki, Matia, Guidry, let’s go.” Fayde called her their family. They took a moment, weighing the decision of their mother and grandmother before leaving the group of people around the gate and headed towards the portal.

“Time to get back to it.” Lith said shaking Marcell’s hand.

“I’ll be taking a group in shortly after we get these people sorted back at the compound.” Marcell said. “Take care of yourselves.”

“See you when you get back.” Lith said.

“Not If we make it back first.” Marcell answered with a smile as he motioned for several of his men and their Allum over.

Lith and Fayde joined their children and grandchild at the portal before entering together. Back in the void between the floors they were greeted by a familiar system screen.

Welcome back to The Tower of Tumult

Last Floor Cleared: 1

Next Floor: 2

Destination:

Ruinous Research Lab

The second combat floor was called Ruinous Research Lab. It was a half sunken city of an island, completely disconnected from any larger land mass. They were buffeted by hard rain as soon as they arrived. Dark clouds crackled with heat lighting, which occasionally struck one of several tall spikes that reached up into the skies. The ground beneath them vibrated slightly when the lightning hit. As they looked around, another system screen appeared.

Repair or Destroy the Research Base:

0/1

“Well, I’ll be damned.” Lith started. “A half sunken floating city.”

“Seems pretty advanced.” Fayde commented.

“So is the system only based on magic or science?” Matia asked. “Like mom said, this place is pretty advanced.”

“Who’s to say magic isn’t just science we don’t understand yet.” Lith offered.

“Didn’t you just get a spell skill?” Guidry asked.

“Yeah.” She responded.

“Give it a try.” Guidry said with a smirk.

Matia focused on the inborn knowledge of the summoning spell. She didn’t have a book like Lith or Guidry. Focusing on the spell, she was flooded with information, and she watched as the spell activated in accordance with her will. She felt the pull on her mana as it became faint lines on the ground around her. She watched as the lines formed distinct patterns and formations that, in her mind, had indistinct correlations to concepts. Stone, life, magic, bipedal, strong, feminine, and servant. Each of these concepts were varied in size and scope but worked together to make an intrinsic whole. If one part were reduced or given more or even missing, the fundamental concept of the spell would change. Thinking on these concepts, an image formed in her mind of what the golem would look like. It was tall like her father, feminine like her mother, but strong as both. A stalwart defender. A woman in medium armor bearing a shield in each hand made completely of stone appeared not only in her mind, but also began manifesting from the ground in the middle of the summoning circle.

Lith whistled. “Well done kiddo. Knew you’d be an exceptional artist.”

“Now do you see what we mean?” Asked Guidry.

“Yeah, I guess.” She replied.

“We should start looking around.” Fayde said as she looked at the city before them.

“Can we wait for the rain to end first?” Enki asked.

“Don’t think that’ll be happening anytime soon.” Trevor said as she pointed at one of the spikes that protruded from a distant building. “I think the base is using the storm to power itself.”

“So, it’ll automatically be destroyed if the storm ends right, by sinking into the sea?” Enki looked up hopefully as lightning continuously struck the spikes that reached up into the sky. He let a moment pass as he looked at the rusted buildings, the heavily weathered grounds, and the endless storm cover sky. “It’s not going to end, is it?

“Embrace the suck.” Lith said as he opened his arms wide to embrace the rain before they started to move into the city.

They had arrived at the edge of the floating island in what appeared to be a mud field, so it took them a few minutes to walk into the city proper from where they had appeared. Most of the buildings seemed to be residential houses with a few shops and restaurants dotted about the place. It didn’t take them long to find their first enemies. Crawling out from one of the storefronts came a human sized crab.

“Think refinement got rid of my seafood and shellfish allergies?” Fayde asked.

“I’m still out of mana for the next while, so let’s play it safe until we get back home.” Lith answered.

Drawing their weapons, they engaged the crab, who was clacking it’s claws together. Its friends inside the building soon joined the fray. They were apparently using the buildings as their new watery homes. Lith, Trevor, and Enki had the hardest time with the crabs. While Enki’s upgraded arrows could easy penetrate the hard chitinous shells, either they lacked the destructive capability to do any real damage, or the internal organs of the crabs were too small despite their increased size that an arrow failed to hit critical areas. Lith, being out of mana, was unable to inflict the crabs with Enfeeble. While his increased attribute boosted strength did allow him to physically contend with one crab at a time, he had to remain aware of the pincers that could likely still sever his limbs. Of the three, Trevor was faring better than her father and brother. She was able to keep the claws at bay with Blade Flurry while slowly cooking the crabs alive with Burning Slash, although the improvised crab boil was slow going and a serious drain on her mana.

Fayde, Matia, and Guidry, however, proved a more effective pairing with their new skills. Fayde’s ability to quickly move around the battlefield as well as her Dominating Aura allowed her to outmaneuver the crabs, dissecting them joint by joint. By the end of her sprees, the city was littered with perfectly broken down crabs by the dozen. Matia and her summoned Golem proved the most resilient to the crab’s powerful claws. They both would tank the bashes and crushing grasp before using their own strength to smash the crabs to pieces. Guidry proved the most effective in their current environment. Between his Spark Bolt, Calamity Field, and the storm raging above them, the crabs never stood a chance. He fried one crab after another with terrifying efficiency.

Hours later, they had cleared out most of the city before arriving at the centermost building. It was also the tallest building in the entire city, three times larger than the tallest apartment like complex, and topped with one of the lightning rods that were still protecting the city from the storm above.

“Any chance we can stop for a bite before we continue?” Fayde asked as she eyed one of the crab’s pincers with a ferocious hunger.

“Big piece like that?” Lith inquired. “I mean if you want bland and flavorless meat, we can ask Trev to hit it with her fire attack a few times. That might cook it.”

Fayde looked hopefully at her daughter.

“Umm…” she said nervously.

She really didn’t want to use her short swords to carve, cut, and cook giant crab. But it had been years since she had shellfish of any kind since she developed her allergy. She let out a sigh before swinging her blade at the crab, infusing some mana into it. Flame wreathed her blade before leaving it in an arc. The flames lapped the claw of a crab that Matia’s golem had recently smashed open. The meat sizzled and charred as the heat from the flames cooked the crab. Lith motioned with his hand for Trevor to give him one of her short swords. Flipping the blade around and holding it by the flat, she handed one of her short swords to her father figure. Lith took the sword by the hilt before moving to the freshly cooked carcass of the crab. He flicked the sword in a downward arc before wiping it on his water soaked pants leg. Now sure that the blade was clean enough, he knelt down and began to carve the cooked meat away from the raw. As always, Lith carved a sliver of the meat off for himself to sample first. He wouldn’t allow his personal Goddess’s palette to be soured by foul tasting food. He could tell that the meat would be chewier if he were going by his unleveled attributes, but his Strength apparently also translated to his jaw strength. The flavors were adequate for being flash fried. It was still juicy with distinct sweet seafood and umami notes. He would have preferred to use some other seasonings to add savory notes, but it was passable for their current circumstances.

“Here.” he said as he offered the steak sized chunk of crab to Fayde and returned Trevor’s short sword to her in the same manner he received it.

Fayde accepted the chunk of delicious meat before biting directly into it. She was in heaven. It had been years since she even dared to enjoy food they jokingly labeled as ‘death’. The sweet juices of the crab cascaded down her throat and chin as she tore into it as if she herself were a vicious animal. Tears began rolling down her cheeks.

“It’s so fucking good.” She spoke before digging into the meat again.

Lith smiled and chuckled as he watched Fayde thoroughly enjoy her meal. He put his hand out to Trevor for a low high five.

“Good job, kiddo.” He spoke.

“I’m glad she can enjoy seafood again.” Trevor said as she slapped Lith’s hand, completing their typical scheming ritual.

A moment later, however, Fayde was grabbing at her throat as she choked. Had the refinement not gotten rid of her anaphylactic reaction to shellfish?

“Fayde?” Lith said as he charged up Balm as he held his partner, releasing the spell into her. He had expected the effects to be near immediate, but she was still coughing, and her eyes were becoming bloodshot. Could his spell not treat anaphylaxis?

“Mom?!” Trevor shouted. Had they just accidentally killed their mother and partner?

Matia walked up to her mother and slapped her with an open hand in the abdomen. A chunk of crab meat flew out of Fayde’s mouth before Fayde drew in a breath of air.

“She was eating too fast.” Matia stated, as if she could tell the entire time.

The rest of the family let out a breath they had been holding while Fayde was choking. No more anaphylaxis.

‘Thank all the Gods.’ They collectively thought.