The streets around Doreen’s were chaotic. Hunters and civilians worked side by side, loading carts with dead Carapax that stretched all the way to the harbor. Metal rang out, voices blended in a low hum, and crab shells shattered beneath heavy boots. People grabbed anything useful—shovels, carts, even metal buckets brimming with spiny crabs. The ocean waves boomed in the distance, while seagulls wheeled above, their cries sharp against the noise. The breeze brought some relief, but the sun’s heat made everything stink of crab.
“Oh wow, it reeks out here,” I said, covering my nose and mouth as Felix, Cassie, and I retraced our path back to the Tower. Felix seemed to struggle with the smell too, but not as much as I did. Maybe he was just used to it.
Cassie took a deep breath and shrugged. “Smells like a crisp morning to me! Bad luck having your sense of smell.”
“That’s a lot of dead crabs” I said.
“After you took out the big one, my brother made his way to the tower and raised the alarm. Then this.” Cassie motioned to the street. “We’re pretty good at dealing with them now.”
Nearby, a mousy red-haired Gaian woman carrying two buckets of crabs tripped—on a crab, of course—and fell, her load scattering with a crash. We rushed over. Felix and I gathered the fallen crab parts while Cassie helped her to her feet, offering a smile.
“Hey Katie! Were you headed to the Courtyard for processing? We’ve got extra hands. We can take them for you,” Cassie said, glancing back at us.
“Oh… uhh… I can take them. I need the... the money...” Katie said hesitantly. She was covered in white dust. Was that flour?
Cassie nodded and reached into her vest. “Of course, no problem. We’ll buy them off you,” she said, pulling out a few small blue coins, along with a larger red one. “Besides, the Breaker over there just got patched up. He could use the workout.”
I sighed inwardly, caught between annoyance and resignation. Of course, Cassie would volunteer me without asking. Still, I couldn't exactly argue—not after everything that had happened.
Katie took the coins, staring at me with a blank expression.
“B-Breaker?” she repeated, her green eyes widening. “Oh. Oh! I can’t take your money, please—take it back. Thank you so much for what you did, Breaker. If I had more time, I’d love to hear the story.” She tried to return the coins, but Cassie sidestepped her attempt with a smile.
The woman turned to me, her nerves gone. “Please, I’m Katherine. I run a small bakery off the harbor, two streets over. We were mostly left alone by the Carapax… they don’t seem to like sweets…” She paused, then seemed to remember herself. “Oh… I’m sorry. Please—at least stop by later. We’re handing out bread all day to those in need after the attack. These coins will get us plenty of flour, so you’ll have an audience there!”
I glanced at Felix, who was snickering, feeling my face heat at the sudden attention.
“I… Yeah, uh… Hrgh!” I began, but was interrupted as a heavy weight dropped onto my shoulders, forcing me down to a knee. Once I steadied myself, I looked to see a bucket of crabs on either side. A wooden board rested on the back of my neck, with the buckets fastened to each end.
“Holy—this thing weighs a ton,” I said, feeling the tension in my shoulders and back as I lowered it. The crabs were heavier than I expected. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it caught me off guard, my muscles straining. “Who…” I turned around to see Cassie, her grin mischievous.
“We've got two months, no slacking off!” she said before running—very quickly—towards the tower. She was gone.
I glanced at Felix, who simply shrugged at me, then looked at the makeshift carrying yoke Cassie had fashioned from a broken pole. The tower was only about a kilometer away, but those buckets were damn heavy.
I looked at Katie, who gave me an awkward smile. She had been carrying at least sixty kilos of crabs, but for what? To sell? I looked around, noticing the carts people were pulling, sacks thrown over shoulders, makeshift yokes—everyone was carrying as much as they could in the same direction. No horses, no cars, no magic. Just people helping to clean up the city.
Moving back under the yoke, I strained as I stood up with the payload, my bruised ribs throbbing in protest. It wasn't too bad once I was under it since the pole was doing most of the work.
"Okay. I guess I gotta get these guys to the Courtyard then. I'd love to visit your bakery, Katie. Maybe we can swap recipes, a long as I don’t have to knead dough," I said with a smile. "Plus, I'd love to tell you all about how I single-handedly saved the city. Preferably over drinks."
Wait. Where did that confidence come from?
Katherine's eyes widened slightly, her expression shifting from a polite smile to one of surprise.
Holy fuck, I just said that out loud. That was supposed to stay in my head, but it just came right out. Katherine's nervousness snapped back into place, her fair skin turning a deep shade of red.
"Oh—I… how very… um… that would be… nice," she stammered, practically running away from me up the street.
My cheeks burned as Felix clapped me on the back with a hearty chuckle.
"Well done, Ben. I think I have a lot to learn from you!" He laughed, and we started back on our path to the Tower.
"It's not that," I said as we walked. It wasn't actually that hard to keep up. "It was just a thought—I didn't mean to say it. I'm not usually that… uh… forward. I think it might have something to do with my Bravery rune." I still wasn't used to casually referencing magic.
"Magic or not, you were standing there with muscles rippling, barefoot, asking her out for drinks. It was the right time to say it,” He was still grinning at me.
I glanced down, realizing I'd forgotten to put shoes on again. I wasn't even sure where they were—probably buried in my room.
"I need to get some shoes," I said, my embarrassment easing a bit. "But Diana said I was completely out of mana. I think I've figured out how to activate the spell—sigil, whatever you've been calling it—but I don't feel it now. I honestly feel completely normal. Mana is needed for runes, right?"
"You've been without mana your whole life, Ben. It makes sense you feel normal. I feel sick if I use up everything," Felix replied. "It's pretty impressive that you've formed and mastered a spell, though. Sigil is the more official term for Runebinding effects, but most people just call them spells."
I nodded. "But I don't feel like I'm… empty. How can I even tell?"
Now the load was getting heavy and we were headed uphill. Sweat was starting to drip down my face.
"You know, your bravery spell is so impressive I totally forgot. Of course you'd have no idea how to manipulate mana. Let's grab a few mana pearls from these crabs. We'll get less money, but that's on Cassie. We can use them in a room in the tower to teach you."
We rounded a corner—or rather—we rounded the corner and it took my brain a second to catch up to seeing the aftermath of the exploding Brine Tyrant.
Thick layers of blue and green goo coated the cobbled streets, stone facades, and even the street carts and stalls along the rocky thoroughfare. Entire chunks of the street had been smashed into rubble by the large crab when Erik and I were fighting.
In the center of it all, towering like a macabre monument, sat a massive, intact fiddler claw, leaning against a building. Eying it as we got closer, I was able to fully take in its sheer size. The thing had to be four meters long—maybe more. The runes that were etched into it somehow were blackened, leaving only a yellowish red shell everywhere else. A crab absolutely could not get that big on Earth—not even close. The Brine Tyrant could have easily hunted elephants for sport.
Monster Hunters were everywhere, armed with rags, large metal scraping tools, and jars of white powder were being dumped everywhere in an attempt to scrub off the goo. The shift in scent was jarring—one moment it was sickly sweet crab smell, the next it was salty and earthy like a briny ocean.
Further up, in the epicenter of where the explosion happened was a Sentarian in gold-trimmed azure robes, their hand outstretched in a complex mudra. A high-pressure spray of water shot from their long skeletal fingers like a fire hose, slicing away the blue goo from the buildings like a magical pressure-washer. Their movements were slow, concentrated, and deliberate, as if the creature was painting with the water rather than cleaning.
It was producing water from thin-air from a point just in front of its fingers and I swore I could see a symbol just through it, something familiar. I could see a Water rune. It was screaming at me that was what it was. But the second half of the spell was a wild tangle.
“Soul-water?” I said staring at the creature’s outstretched hand.
“You have a good eye, Ben. I think that one is called Current. Its not quite ripping a hole in the spirit realm like Chas, but many think it should be a tier three spell because it contains a spirit-based rune.” He said, seeming genuinely impressed.
As we moved past the Sentarian through a gentle mist of cool water from the spray I felt refreshed. Almost like the water was cooling their air around us intentionally to keep the goo from stinking. Felix gave me a sideways grin. And I realized this was the first time I had seen magic being used the way I had expected. This Sentarian was creating a fire hose from nothing but magic. I stopped to stare just to watch them work.
The spell didn’t scream concepts or ideas at me like others, but instead just seemed to represent the water’s willpower.
“And spirit related runes are harder to use because they can have a mind of their own?” I said, noticing a few hunters glancing towards me, some even pointing.
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“Usually. And sometimes unpredictable like your Bravery spell,” I turned to see Felix facing me with a smirk. “You’re a lot smarter than you look, man. You’d make an interesting Arcanist.”
“Arcanists, Strikers, Guardians,” I said as we continued into the Courtyard in front of the tower. It was absolutely packed with people, both civilians and hunters breaking down crabs, pulling mana pearls, and exchanging for coins. All the crab carcasses were then throw into a bin, and carried by other hunters into the tower. The noise was a dizzying mix of cracking shells and loud bartering.
“That’s right!” Felix yelled back over the din. “I’ll tell you about them later if you want! Move aside, Breaker coming through!”
The bustle of the Courtyard was immediately cut in half, many eyes turning towards me, some even giving me that fist-out-to-the-side Monster Hunter salute I had seen Erik give to Elara. My cheeks burned from embarrassment as the busy Courtyard seemed to split down the middle towards a table near the Tower’s stairs. Cassie looked back at us through the new corridor.
“What good’s an Accolade if you don’t use it!” Felix said, walking casually over to greet Cassie. I followed quickly behind and the roar of the Courtyard picked up again.
Dropping my payload in front of the table I sighed with relief as I stood up, free of the weight.
"Took you long enough," Cassie said.
"Oh, he had to flirt with Katie first," Felix said casually. "I think he's even gonna get a date out of her."
"Wait, Katie Summers?" Cassie frowned. "You wasted no time, Ben—shit. Do I not do it for you? Don’t like us big girls?"
I blinked. "What? I—uh, it was my magic... I think," I said and Cassie punched me in my already bruised shoulder.
"I'm messing with you! I have nine brothers, I'd fold you in half," she said. "Good job with Katie, though. She needs to get out of her bakery more."
To prove her point, Cassie lifted both buckets with one hand onto the table and said to a confused-looking Aldertree man, "I'd like some money, please."
"Actually, can we pull three pearls out for Ben?" Felix said. Cassie eyed him.
"But I paid for them, Felix," she said.
"Yes, and Ben did all the work. He's bone-dry, Cassie, and needs to learn mana manipulation," he tapped his wrist out of habit. I realized that bracer device was gone. Did he have it when I met Elara?
Cassie looked at me, considering Felix's point.
"Fine, but he's buying the first round back at Doreen's," she said. "He's the Acolyte."
"I don't have any money..." I started, but Cassie had already grabbed a leather pouch from the man and tossed it to me.
"You can pay me back when Nana gets that core processed," she said.
"Does everyone call her Nana?" I asked. "She doesn't really strike me as the, uh... Nana type, I heard Doreen call her Dina…" I added, recalling Diana's casual demeanor and foul mouth. But she did have a kind of cool-grandma feel to her, I suppose.
"No idea why Doreen always calls her that, they have known each other a long time. And Nana’s mostly those of us who grew up in the city," Cassie said as she led us up the Tower steps. “She’s saved everyone’s ass at least once. ”
“Because she’s a healer?” I realized. And Cassie nodded.
“Broken bones, cuts, bruises, stupid shit you do as a kid—you know? Add in Monster Attacks and we get banged up a lot,” She sounded so casual about it.
“And healing medicine isn’t free,” Felix added.
“Yeah when am I going to get some of those… guys?” I had to catch up.
We entered the citadel through a set of double doors and the murals on the ceiling immediately caught my attention again. Now that things were less rushed and the windows were wide open, I could take in the scenes on the walls and ceiling as we walked to the main desk. One mural showed a sea serpent destroying an island city with giant towers connected by sky bridges—was that La-Roc? People were everywhere, but most seemed like hunters and not many civilians except for those helping carry bins full of crabs somewhere.
As we arrived at the desk, a bald Gaian man in multicolored robes looked up to meet us. He wore heavy makeup, bright magenta powdered on his face from his cheekbones up to his thick black eyebrows.
"Miss Winters," he said cheerfully. "How may I help you today?"
"Mornin' Gary! Is there a meditation chamber open downstairs? The Breaker here could use some quiet time," Cassie greeted.
"Of course, his Acolyte status grants him complimentary access, but you'll need a source of mana if you don't want to pay," Gary said, producing a small stamp. "Your passes, please." He motioned to the desk, and we all produced our little booklets. He stamped each in turn. "There's an open one for initiates on the twenty-first floor. Be sure to let my brother know when you're finished."
"Wait, twenty-first from the bottom or the top?" I asked.
Gary simply smiled. "Yes. That's correct."
I scowled at the answer. "Huh?" was all I managed before Cassie dragged me to the second floor, Felix close behind.
"Don't think about it too much or you'll get all turned around," she said. "Twenty-first floor. Let's go." We set out through the hallway leading down into the tower.
"It's kind of strange, this place is an inverted tower, right? You still call it a Tower even though the building is just a hill and a citadel," I said as the halls turned to familiar white marble and alabaster stone. The air seemed to take on that electrical hum that I now recognized as mana.
"It depends on where you're standing," Felix said. We continued down a few flights of stairs. "From the city, sure. But from the adjunct... well, you saw the actual tower."
"The adjunct?" I asked. "The jungle down there?"
"Yeah, exactly," Felix said. "The lobby is part of the tower too. It's the Grand Staircase that starts to get confusing."
"How far down does it go?" I asked. What I saw down there was amazing, and even to Felix and Cassie, it seemed fantastic.
"There are theories that..." Felix began, but was cut off by a loud groan.
"Ugh, Felix, no one wants to hear all the bullshit theories about a pocket world. No one knows, right? Good," Cassie said.
Oh... that actually helped. The tower was a gateway to a pocket world? Bigger on the inside. A wild, yet familiar concept from stories—it was magic.
"Got it," I said, and Felix looked at me sideways. "We had similar stories about something like that. One of my favorites was about a Doctor who flew around in a box that was a giant ship inside."
Now both of them were giving me the side eye.
"Humans are weird," Cassie said.
"Fascinating is the word I'd use," Felix said.
The halls were long and there didn’t seem to be any markers or signs. I did realize how far Elara had dragged me, though, when we finally reached a more recognizable part of the Tower—the Atrium.
Felix walked to a railing, looking up and down as if counting the floors.
"Shards and stars," he said suddenly. "How are we on the fourteenth floor?"
I blinked. We hadn't gone down that many stairs—just a few small stairwells and long hallways. Above us, dozens of sprawling floors loomed, with massive chains holding large chandeliers that cast light in all directions.
"Ah, I'm so sorry," a voice came from behind us. It was Gary. Wait, did Gary have a mustache? "It seems the twenty-first floor is being a bit shy today. If you'll follow me?" he said, motioning for us to follow.
"How did you get down here so fast, Gary?" I asked.
"Ah, you must have met my brother Garreth at the desk," he said. "I'm Garrick."
"Of course you are," I said, nodding sagely. "My mistake. The luxurious mustache should have been a dead giveaway."
"Have you met?" Felix asked as we followed Garrick.
"Oh no, but it's so obvious," I said with a grin.
Garrick turned to a wall and tapped it. The smooth marble rippled and then opened like a set of double doors. Behind it was a bustling hallway, several people of all shapes and sizes standing around having conversations. We stepped past Garrick and through with a familiar static feeling, and that was it. Behind us, the way we came was just more hallway, all evidence of the doorway we had walked through vanished.
"The twenty-first floor, young Acolyte. Please, this way to a room." Garrick startled all three of us from behind.
The people standing around us were clearly all initiates in some capacity. Many of them didn't have rank insignias and some didn't even wear the Monster Hunter uniform.
"Oh look, the Headmistress' Son, the Nepo-Baby, and the Human," said one dark-haired Gaian man. Wow people already knew about me? Diana’s gossip couldn’t have moved any faster on Social Media. The guy had similar angular features as Marco but was clearly much younger Maybe a relative? He had long black hair and was wearing black robes. Two of his lackeys chuckled and nodded in support. "Of course they get special treatment. We've been waiting for a room for hours."
"Acolyte or Breaker, Dorian. Take your fucking pick—Ben's done more in a day than you have in your whole shit-stained life," Cassie scowled at the three guys, and they actually backed up. "And you call me a Nepo-Baby one more fucking time, Dorian Graves..." She sneered his name. "Your Daddy can't save you in a dueling ring."
“My father earned his position, Cassandra Winters,” He basically spat her name out in response.
There was a lot to unpack there—Cassie had one hell of a temper, which was honestly not a big surprise. But the angular-faced kid with long black hair, black robes, and a permanent scowl was named Dorian fucking Graves? Someone was messing with me, right?
I laughed. I couldn't help it. The tension in the room turned to confusion as all eyes were on me.
"Haha, I'm sorry, I needed that. Thank you, Dorian. Never change your hair," I said, walking in front of Cassie with a sudden need to interpose myself between them. "I'm Ben Crawford," I said, sticking my hand out.
"I know," Dorian replied with a scoff.
"I've been getting that a lot lately," I said with a smile, lowering my hand. The kid scoffed again. It sounded exactly like the last one—like it was a default reaction. I’d bet this guy was a real joy to be friends with.
"Come on, it's been a long day. We have better places to be," he said and spun, his cape—yes, he had a cape on—billowed with the movement.
It was hilarious.
Cassie was staring at me, her expression hard to read.
"Come on, those guys are just idiots," Felix said as he opened a door to a sitting room. "They've been poking Cassie for months. They're a nightmare to work with on a job if you get paired up with any of those three."
Cassie nodded and we followed Garrick to a door with everyone being uncharacteristically quiet.
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The room was much smaller than the one we had been in yesterday, but it was still large enough to hold pretty much any kind of rest-surface imaginable. Mats on the floor, large chairs, plush couches, even a long chaise-style lounge that looked like it was meant for sleep. Why couldn't I just stay here and not in Doreen's?
Felix closed the door behind us, and when I looked back, there was no longer a door. He noticed my look and nodded.
"Oh, we can leave whenever we want. It's just so no one can bother us during meditation," he demonstrated by putting his hand on the wall, and a door just seemed to shimmer back into existence. When he took his hand away, the door disappeared once more.
"Do not disturb, huh?" I said, and he shrugged.
We all made our way to a couple of couches in the middle of the space and I could hear gentle music coming from... somewhere.
“So mana.” Felix said as he sat. “Its the fundamental energy that exists in all living things. It hardens the body and connects to your soul, Your soul, in turn, uses it to manifest your understanding of a concept in the form of runes. Does that make sense?”
“No?” I said—eyebrows raised. “My soul? Like actual soul… They exist?”
“Ben, you were just in a spirit realm. Why wouldn’t they?” Felix replied and Cassie snickered as if it was obvious.
“What?” I said, dumbfounded. I imagine my face looked the same way it did when they found me.
Cassie seemed to notice. “Damn, Felix that’s a lot. Right now, Ben, you’re using mana on an instinctual basis. In order to control it you’ll need to find that spot in your mind where the mana goes. The gateway.”
“…To my soul.” I said.
Felix nodded in affirmation. “You’ll need to meditate frequently in order to maintain the connection. Its why Dorian and his pals were here.” Felix said.
"Souls or not, that guy was a fucking prick. Doesn't matter where you are in the universe," I said, motioning back to the door.
"A... prick?" Felix asked. Cassie seemed curious too.
"Oh? Not a term here? Like... a penis so small it's like a pin-prick?" That was it, right?
Cassie's eyes went wide. All sense of her previous demeanor completely exploded into laughter.
"Yes! Curse words from another world—from Earth even! Felix—you're a fucking prick. Dorian Graves is a fucking prick Yeah, that feels really good to say."
Felix frowned, clearly not impressed. "I don't think—"
"No, no, Felix," I interrupted, a grin spreading across my face. "You have to say it now. It's two out of three, we can't just leave it there. What would Nana think?"
Felix sighed and ran his hand through his short hair, but there was the hint of a smile tugging at his lips. "Fine. Dorian is a... fucking prick. Better?"
Cassie pumped her hand in the air. "Fuck yeah! This is the best thing that's happened in ages. Felix, we've officially graduated to Earth swearing."
I leaned back, chuckling. "See, Felix? You're already learning from me. You’ll have a date with that red haired girl in no time."
“Who? Not Katie!” Cassie asked.
“The one who was so excited to discuss Felix’s theories on compression and weather?” I replied.
“Oh Natalie!” Cassie said eyes going wide. “Those two have been doing that dance for a long time.”
Felix rolled his eyes, but his smile grew a little wider. Was he blushing? It was hard to tell with bronze skin. "Alright, alright. We’re supposed to be here to help Ben learn to sense mana, remember? Not talk about my friends."
Cassie nudged Felix with her elbow. "Sure, but he returns the favor with swearing lessons."
Felix shook his head, a resigned smile on his face.
"Stanley’s not going to be happy."