I awakened to the sight of the Soul Shop for the first time in several centuries.

The Soul Shop takes on the appearance of the viewer’s expectations… in my case a simple buy and sell screen from a Japanese console role-playing game. I felt my lips stretch in a grin as I saw my Soul Point count.

SP: 22,735

As I thought, seeking out a massive meeting of the leylines in a wild area had benefited me greatly. Few had reported similar numbers of initial points, and those that had inevitably rose to the higher Tiers long before humanity’s destruction. It was rumored that a few even made it to the 6th Tier before I screwed things for everyone.

I immediately looked through what was on offer, my eyes moving rapidly through the menus, beginning with Abilities, until I found the one I wanted.

Conceptual Magic: 8,000 SP

Conceptual Magic was a field that normally required a unique talent to obtain, and humans didn’t have it naturally. As far as I knew, only vampires, of the mortal races, had it naturally. Even with vampires, only one in one hundred thousand even had the potential.

I purchased it without hesitation, as there was only one of them in the Soul Shop… one that never got purchased last time around.

I immediately went on to the Bloodlines menu and searched until I found the one I wanted.

Raniel Bloodline: 4,000 SP

I immediately chose the rare bloodline. There were more expensive draconic, demonic, and even angelic bloodlines available, as well as ones of great monsters like the phoenix or gorgon. However, for what I wanted, the bloodline not spoken of in any human myths was far more valuable.

Raniel were a long-dead species of Divine Beast that were infamous for their adaptability and difficulty to kill. While the details were hazy, what I wanted more than anything else was their ability to adapt to trauma and evolve over time. Both abilities were weaker than some of the most costly bloodlines, but those bloodlines needed hundreds of thousands of points. For the cost, it was a deal… and if I managed to build up enough Soul Points before getting to the 2nd Tier, I could always buy something better to add on.

I still had over ten thousand points left… and I’d already fulfilled my initial desires. I moved on to Artifacts and quickly picked an iridescent metallic orb.

Bonded Weapon: 1,300 SP

Bonded Weapons were valued because they couldn’t be destroyed or parted from their owners as long as they were alive. They also grew and evolved with their owner, and they could change form as the owner willed it.

The next was a heavy black hooded cloak with a silver clasp.

Cloak of Misting: 150 SP

The cloak would let me transform myself into mist, at a cost in mana or chi, allowing me to pass through cracks and ignore physical damage for a time. It was a trick but one that I was already fond of.

The next was a set of two rings.

Twin Rings of Holding: 40 SP

Extradimensional storage devices were an absolute necessity for anyone trying to climb the Tiers, and they immediately became rare after the first few months, as the Soul Shop allowed them to run out for each race rather quickly. These were twinned and counted as a single worn ring when calculated against how many enchanted rings an individual could safely wear.

Last in Artifacts was a dozen sets of durable enchanted clothes. They would adjust to my body and would not suffer from daily wear and tear, though combat would destroy them.

I then moved onto Alterations.

I nostalgically looked at ‘Basic Body Enhancement’ briefly before settling on a better version.

Greater Body Enhancement: 1,500 SP

I didn’t think I would regret the purchase, as body enhancements determined the base degree to which your physical abilities could grow through training and hardship. Greater Body Enhancement was the most expensive and powerful of these available on the lower Tiers.

I spent all but a thousand of my remaining SP in Alterations, gaining back all my old resistances, as well as poison and disease immunities. The fact was, obvious vulnerabilities would be a death sentence once I began to stand out. Nobody liked it when someone got too far ahead of the pack.

The last thousand I spent purchasing a number of consumables, including potions to speed up cultivation of either mana or chi, pills that allowed instant recovery from wounds, and two injections of Phoenix Elixir, which could raise the recently-deceased. I only had fifty points left when I decided to briefly go back to the Artifacts section and selected a ‘Horn of Bounty’ for the remaining points, ending my shopping spree.

The shop faded away, now that I didn’t have any points left. My body would be constructed in the 1st Tier once I arrived. Until then… I would sleep.

___________________________________________________________

I opened my eyes… to see another me lying on the ground beside me.

Hmm… so they split us into two people. No wonder I didn’t hear his whining while I was in the Shop, I thought, just a bit bemused. I looked into my internal world to observe my Mind, and I was a bit disappointed to see my buffers hadn’t fully recovered. It seemed it would take time for the instabilities to repair themselves.

My younger self was dressed in a full set of green enchanted steelsilk armored clothing… a product of the Arachnians that was much sought after by ‘dodge tank’ warriors and mages who wanted something that could take enchanted arrows and minor spells without budging. He had the orb of a Bound Weapon embedded in his right wrist (apparently, we both had the same thought on that one), and his hair had gained a feathered texture, turning crimson and white. This told me he had selected the Phoenix bloodline.

I looked at him with my ethereal sight and nodded appreciatively, Greater Body Enhancement and Middle Chi Cultivation… the latter is hideously expensive to actually buy, but it gave the few who managed to buy it a huge head start last time.

Not horrible choices, and they were typical of my younger self’s love of killing as many birds with one stone as possible. Combining chi cultivation with a Phoenix bloodline would let him wield fire magic without mana, and he would easily be able to recover from even the most horrific wounds once he mastered the bloodline. It would also repair his channels if he made a mistake in his cultivation and the Bound Weapon would ensure he would never need to rely on craftsmen for a tool.

The only one of his visible choices I didn’t approve of was the steelsilk armor. The stuff was great on the 1st Tier, but at his level of cultivation, the things it could stop wouldn’t even get past his epidermis. He probably just couldn’t resist the idea of armor similar to that of one of our early favorite fantasy novels being in his hands. I’d felt the same way when I first saw a set myself.

I noted he had the bag form of extradimensional storage… not a great choice, but not a horrible one. It was bound to his soul, so it couldn’t be stolen, but bag devices were easier to destroy than rings or pendants.

Our belongings from the camp were scattered around us, some of them destroyed by the transition. The sword I’d bought had melted into a pool of steel, but it didn’t bother me, since it had only been a backup in case I hadn’t been able to get a Bound Weapon.

The bigger issue was whether I was going to bother splitting our possessions. I didn’t really fancy partying up with another version of myself. However, I didn’t really feel like crippling him by not leaving him with any supplies or equipment.

I really should have considered this as a possibility… but then again, there was no way that fat body of ours could have lugged enough stuff for both of us, I thought with some amusement.

I considered what my younger self would be most likely to need but forget to ask for… and decided with a sigh to leave him the ax, half the rations, and the tent. I would take the shovel, the sleeping bag, and my half of the rations. The idiot would be too lazy to consider digging, and I could just see him gleefully chopping down trees with that perfect body of his the second he got up. He would probably try to build a cabin, give up halfway through (leaving the logs out to rot) and just sleep in his tent. It was something I would have done, and since he was me, I didn’t see any point in trying to convince him otherwise.

I wanted the sleeping bag because I hated the beds in the Tiers… as one moved up the Tiers, sleep became less of a necessity and even getting a basic bed could be hideously expensive, depending on the area. I would much rather have the comfort of our expensive sleeping bag, and my idiot younger self could do with suffering on the ground for a few nights. It would build character.

I found it interesting that I could still feel emotion, even though I was separate from my younger self. I still had ‘clean’ mana, as well… and a lot of it, due to the Greater Body Enhancement. I had to wonder how much my soul was changed that the Tiers saw it as an entirely different person from my younger self.

Oh well… that solves the most annoying of my problems. Having to split my supplies with my bratty younger self is a small price to pay not to be in the same skull anymore, I concluded.

We had been set down just outside the 1st Tier town of Gratziea. I remembered it because it was destroyed in the First Civil Disruption of Humankind, and I had been the one doing the destroying. The town was mostly populated by gnomes, who had refused categorically to climb the Tiers, instead supplying noobs with healing potions, knowledge of local agriculture, and basic weapons that could be used without wasting Soul Points.

There was no punishment for failing to climb the Tiers as a race beyond losing access to potential power. Individuals could and did still climb. However, without a racial support network, climbing past the 2nd Tier was virtually impossible, unless you managed to luck out in the Soul Shop.

I considered going into town… but rejected the idea. Gratziea was a ‘beginner’ town, offering supplies and services for people just starting out. It would be useless for me… especially since a more advanced town was only thirty miles away as the bird flies. I much preferred the idea of heading for Nal.

After distributing our supplies, I left him with the backpack and dropped everything into my right-hand ring before heading out. I drank down the first of the cultivation potions as I walked, concentrating on pulling my ‘clean’ mana into a spiral just below my belly. My enhanced body’s channels were much purer and cleaner than my original body’s, so the process was much easier than I remembered.

I’d decided to go down the path of the mana cultivator again. Chi cultivation was powerful, but the end results were eerily similar down the road. Both were paths to godhood, both provided virtual immortality, and both enhanced the body and mind. The only difference was to what part got enhanced more thoroughly at the beginning, as far as I could tell.

I also swallowed a Bone-Hardening Pill, wincing slightly as the toxins in the pill flooded my skeletal structure with eerie precision, melting my bones and remaking them at the molecular level. Some of the products of the Shop were extremely painful to use, and Bone-Hardening Pills were one of the worst.

I thought ‘Status’ and my page popped up properly this time.

Name: Clephas (warning: Spiritual Mitosis Phenomenon Detected, New Body Created to House Newborn Soul)

Race: Human (Raniel Bloodline)

Age: ???

Skills: Conceptual Magic

Abilities: Raniel Bloodline, Bound Weapon, Elemental Resistance, Stone Skin, Poison Immunity, Disease Immunity, Eldritch Resistance

Soul-Bound Objects: Horn of Bounty, Bound Weapon, Twin Rings of Holding, Cloak of Misting

My lips twisted in a wry smile. Until I actually used or purchased my other skills, they wouldn’t be listed in my Status… which was probably for the best. There were those who could read another’s Status in every town, which would be far too revealing if it showed everything I’d built up in my previous life.

So, instead of forming my weapon into the halberd I’d wielded the most in my previous life, I gave it the form of a spear. I went through a few forms as I walked, twirling and twisting, my mana flowing around the blade as I displayed skills no noob should possess.

Skill Recorded: Spear Adept

Adept was the second-highest rank attainable in one of the mortal realms. Grandmaster rank, as the Tiers saw it, required a concentration of mana in the air that was unavailable in mortal realms. Generally, you only started to see Grandmasters in the 3rd Tier, with a few Saints preparing to rise to the 4th. I’d attained Grandmaster Halberdier in my previous life, but there was a strong possibility I would be forced to ascend by the Tiers if I used it here.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Once that was done, I released my hold on the Bound Weapon, and it flowed down to my right wrist and embedded itself in my flesh painlessly. Now that I’d activated it, it would never again leave my body. If it was knocked out of my hand, it would merge with my flesh until I summoned it forth again.

I needed to test my new body, so once I entered the woods, I concentrated, a wave of invisible, wisp-thin energy flowing in all directions.

Technique Mastered: Sense Hostility

To my delight, I immediately sensed three large Beasts just inside the forest. Instead of waiting for them to come to me, I dug my feet into the soft grass of the meadow and launched myself forward with such force that I left deep divots behind me.

I wanted to laugh as the first of the predators, a young dire wolf, tried to back up to give itself space to react. However, my spear appeared in my hand the moment I came into range, and the tip severed the wolf’s jugular and trachea perfectly without touching the bone.

The beast, instead of moving away from me, toppled over in shock from the sudden loss of blood and breath. The other two, both larger dire wolves, launched themselves at me from the sides. I shifted the trajectory of my spear and dug it into the earth, vaulting myself over it and setting my feet onto the trunk of a tree behind the dying wolf. I plunged feelers of mana out from my feet, anchoring myself to the tree.

Skill Gained: Wall-walking

I briefly dismissed the spear before calling it forth again, plunging it in between the shoulder blades of one of the two other wolves, severing its spine like butter. I then released the weapon before launching myself from the tree trunk and onto the back of the last wolf, placing my right hand on its head.

I concentrated on a single concept and made it flow from my hand as I fed it mana, verbalizing it only when I was certain it would succeed, just as the wolf tried to turn to snap at me, “Boil.”

The results were as hideously effective as I’d thought they would be.

The wolf shuddered, stopping before it could complete its effort to snap at me, suddenly writhing in pain as it collapsed. I leaped off and to the side to watch as smoke and steam began to pour from the wolf’s mouth, ears, and nose. Black blood, steaming hot, burst from its suddenly empty eye sockets as the wolf expired, its brains literally boiled inside its skull.

However, it didn’t stop there. I hadn’t placed a time limit on the spell, so it was now drawing ambient mana to power the effect, draining the area to power what I had ‘insisted’ was the natural law within the poor creature’s skull… that all fluid within it should boil.

That was the horrific power of Conceptual Magic, the reason why it was often referred to as the ‘magic of the gods’. Once you successfully imposed a concept on the fabric of reality with a specific target, it would continue until you either canceled it, it reached a preset time-limit, or there was not enough mana in the area to sustain it.

Conceptual Command Mastered: Boil

The only problem with it was that complex usage required greater amounts of mana and concentration from the user… but I figured that there would be ways to overcome the limitations, if I put in the time to research them.

The key with Conceptual Magic, from what I had learned before my imprisonment from various texts, was to limit the area in which the command was effective and reduce the complexity of the command’s effect as much as possible. That was what determined the initial cost in mana, and it was what made Conceptual Magic so hard to master. Depending on the phenomenon you caused, the price might be significantly higher than you anticipated, requiring that you understand it thoroughly beforehand.

The ‘spell’ had taken a fifth of my internal mana to activate, and it was still draining mana from the area, even though most of the wolf’s internal fluids had already been evaporated into steam. I didn’t think I’d be using that one unless I wanted to terrify enemies into submission, though. It was too slow for the battlefield.

I concentrated on a point four feet away from me and spoke a command, “Ignite.”

A flash of flame flickered briefly as the air ignited, then flared out. I’d only set the command to last for a fraction of a second, so there was almost no mana drain.

Hmm… it seems that the system input the knowledge of how to set time and area of effect properly. I guess there aren’t any obvious hidden ‘jokes’ built into it like there were with Eldritch Gift, I mused. When I first used my Eldritch powers, I’d discovered that some of the knowledge given to me with the gift had been intentionally… skewed. I had to spend years discovering which of the spell equations had flaws introduced to them and where, and the result had been that it took me almost a decade longer to get out of the 1st Tier than I would have otherwise.

I knew now that those flaws were a joke. Apparently, one of the beings responsible for running the Soul Shop loved fucking with mortals, and a lot of his ‘good deals’ had deliberate flaws or defects built into them. It was almost a guarantee with ‘good’ abilities that cost less than 50 SP. I’d even heard of more expensive abilities having similar problems, though I’d never had the rumors confirmed in person.

I remember when I found out that Nyarlathotep’s Seven Tiers avatar was running the place… it explained so much, That particular deity’s odd sense of humor when it had a mortal avatar was infamous for a reason.

I considered what to test next, then placed my hand on a nearby tree trunk before giving another command, “Shatter.”

To my delight, it took less mana than the flame to shatter the tree trunk in precisely the way I wanted it, making it fall immediately opposite to me. It appeared I had more control over the area of effect than I’d anticipated, though the wolf experiment had already indicated that was the fact. I would still need to test the ability as thoroughly as possible, but it seemed to work fine, at least for truly ‘basic’ commands.

Still, it would be a while before I could use it reliably. The concentration necessary to visualize everything involved, not to mention the force of will necessary to force the ‘equation’ into existence was incredible. It tired me far worse than I’d originally imagined. I felt like I’d been running at full speed for hours after only three uses.

The one I’d used on the wolf had been the worst, probably because of Beasts having a certain amount of innate resistance to magic. Direct use on living things would be too costly until I’d managed to master using it fully.

Dire wolves were at the lowest stage of Beasts, ones that hadn’t formed a core or developed any unique abilities. They were just bigger and stronger versions of wolves with a slightly larger brain. Dangerous, aggressive, and persistent. However, they weren’t really a threat to anyone with the proper equipment and training.

I once again searched for hostiles, but apparently my easy slaughter of the dire wolves had driven away the other predators, Even on the 1st Tier, Beasts are rarely stupid enough to go after truly capable fighters outside of a dungeon. The dire wolves probably would have run if I’d revealed myself before entering the forest.

That was going to be a problem in the future. I would have to rely on dungeons to train my abilities, and dungeons were unpredictable in ways that even the most dangerous of warriors would find troubling. Even the ones in the lower Tiers were often insanely difficult to overcome.

I pictured the partial map of the 1st Tier I had seen once and mapped out the locations of dungeons, plotting the course I’d need to take to the nearest one. I intentionally disregarded the noob dungeon by Gratziea, since I could almost guarantee my younger self would gleefully throw himself through its gates the first chance he got.

After I finished my business in Nal, I would have to hit up the intermediate dungeon outside of Latcea, a few hundred miles to the west. It was the only one that wasn’t almost guaranteed to be swarmed by the noobs arriving at the ‘beginner’ towns in the first few years, since it was well outside of the starter zones.

I leaped into a nearby tree and began moving through the treetops, using the ‘forest highway’ with the skill born of half a decade of making my way through the massive Earth-sized forest on the 3rd Tier.

Skill Gained: Tree-Walking

I moved through the trees at a rapid pace, faster than a car would have gone on an open road. My body was capable of speeds approaching those of a race car, if I went all-out, and I could keep up my current pace for most of a day before I would need to rest. Though, with the energy I expended on the wolves and testing my magic, I would probably need to settle down for a nap in two or three hours.

I was patient, though. I would arrive at my destination, and in time, I would pass through the Tiers and confront the beings who toyed with our lives.

I no longer felt the emotions that drove me to make that decision, nor did I suffer from any illusions about what would happen when I did. However, I swore it to those last people I cared for, I swore it on the soul of my mother. I swore it on the graves of all humanity.

So I vowed. So I will do.

__________________________________________________________________

I arrived on the outskirts of Nal three days later, in the early morning. Nal was a small city-state of just over seventy thousand, spread over six massive lake islands and a number of fishing and farming villages on the shores of the lake itself. All were considered a part of the ‘town’, and the largest of the islands, just called Nal Island, served as the center of the town’s administration. Arched bridges of gray stone led from the shores to each of the islands and from the islands to one another. The six islands each served a different purpose. One was an administrative and trading center for the town, one was the center for craftsmen, the smallest one was made up of the militia training grounds and the guard barracks, the second smallest one held the guilds and the town’s academy, another served as a transitional area for ‘climbers’ seeking to rise through the Tiers, and the last was the pleasure district.

The subordinate villages on the shores had defensive walls of stone, and I could see patrols of militia and Adventurers moving along the thoroughfares, looking out for stray Beasts. It was just as I remembered it, before the Asian Alliance destroyed it during the territorial wars between humankind that had erupted before most of us went up to the 2nd Tier.

I winced at that memory, as I was in the force holding the Chinese vanguard off while the townsmen made their escape. The battle for the town had lasted almost four months, with both sides bogged down fighting for every inch of the town. I remembered drinking muddy water to stave off thirst and cooking a fish blasted out of the water when we pulped a boat full of slave soldiers with explosive arrows.

Needless to say, it wasn’t a good set of memories.

Still, I still had distant – but good – memories of drinks in the bars, half-elven beauties in the brothels, and daredevil dungeon dives into the Lakeside Dungeon. The vague figments of emotion that came attached to the memories taunted me with all that I’d lost over the centuries, but I refused to let that taint what feeling remained, diluted as it was.

I didn’t see any humans. Most of the citizens before humanity began spreading into the area were elves, naiads, or gnomes. Humanity spent most of twenty years preparing to rise through to the next Tier, and by the time I’d actually ascended, their half-human children were running around the reconstructed city along with the other races.

It felt odd, since I’d only really gotten involved with the town in the second half of those twenty years. However, I did think it would be more comfortable to wander the town without other humans to drive me crazy with memories lost to another timeline.

I chose to walk at a normal pace toward the town, changing from my fatigues into the more durable tunic and trousers I’d purchased from the Soul Shop, as they looked less out of place. I got some odd looks from farmers and militia I passed along the way, but little more than that. Earth’s humanity were new to the Tiers, but ‘other humans’ had come and gone numerous times in the past, so they were a known factor, at least to some extent. A few small communities still remained, scattered across the lower Tiers.

I reached the guardhouse at the foot of the bridge leading to Nal Island a few hours after I left the forest behind, my boots finding a paved road for the first time since I’d arrived in the Tiers. A dark elf woman in black chain armor with an ironbound truncheon in hand approached me, her beautiful lavender eyes cold and analytical but not hostile.

“Traveler, what is your business on Nal Island?” She asked in a businesslike fashion.

“My race has just arrived in the Tiers, and I wish to make Nal my base for future activities. I was told I need to register with the administration before I can do so...” I trailed off. If it were analyzed later that I’d come straight here only a few days after my race’s arrival, there would be trouble. However, I knew pretending ignorance wouldn’t help my case.

She nodded, “Ah, so the gods dropped another hapless world full of humans into the Tiers, eh? Well, as long as you don’t start any fights and pay your entrance fees to the dungeon, you won’t have any issues with us. Once you are done with the administration, the residential district for Climbers is on the westernmost island.”

The dark elf’s eyes flashed with dark humor at the comment about ‘hapless humans’. Human worlds tended to be ‘dumped’ into the Tiers once a century, and most of the humans of those worlds died on the 1st or 2nd Tiers, never making a real mark on the world before vanishing. Her attitude would probably change when she realized that hundreds of millions of humans had been ‘dumped’ this time around. Most worlds didn’t reach the population saturation ours had before being harvested.

I always liked dark elves… most were found in the higher Tiers, but the ones that remained in the lower Tiers tended to be down to earth and relatively easygoing. Not to mention fun to go out drinking with… though not as much fun as dwarves.

“Thanks for the information. When I’ve managed to gather some coin, I’d love to buy you a drink,” I replied with a grin that was almost real and a wink, much as I would have at the same point of my previous trip through the timeline.

She smirked, “And I might just take you up on that offer. I’d stay away from the mead, though. The stuff we have here can put a dwarf under the table with half a bottle.”

I remembered that mead, so I had to conceal a wince. Last time around, a friend spiked my drink with the stuff, and a tavern had burned down, resulting in massive fines and over three months of ‘volunteer’ labor bringing resources out of the dungeon.

“I’ll heed your warning. Not that I have the money for anything as fancy as mead,” I replied wryly. The Soul Shop didn’t supply coins, but once I sold off some of the more of the objects useless to me (but virtually priceless to those without access to the Soul Shop), I would have more than enough for my purposes.

“Anything to trade?” She asked curiously.

“Five Water-Walker Pills and a single Spirit Walker Potion,” I replied. Both were unbelievably difficult to make, but they were sold cheaply in the Soul Shop, in large batches. I actually had dozens of both, but revealing that would only bring me trouble.

She whistled appreciatively, “That’s twelve platinum right there… you could buy one of the boarding houses in the Climbers’ area for that much coin.”

I nodded, “That’s the idea. I plan to be here for a while, so I’ll need a source of income that doesn’t rely on hunting Beasts if I want to focus on my own growth.”

The third cultivation pill rapidly shoving mana into my channels chose that moment to try to escape my control, and I felt my expression stiffen as I forced it back into the alignment of the technique I favored, Fucking Nyarlathotep and his little jokes… if I were just a normal, inexperienced cultivator, that would have ruined me for life.

I’d finished the blood-tempering pill the previous day, so at least I didn’t have to deal with feeling like my entire body was on fire at the same time. I planned to temper my skin later that night, once I had a place I owned to stay. I didn’t want to have to listen to complaints about massive amounts of dead skin caking the floors, and that particular tempering couldn’t be done while awake.

Body-tempering was an easy, if agonizingly painful, way to grow strong. Normally, it was done by poisoning your body while under the care of a skilled healer, attacking your body bit by bit so that it was remade by the Tiers into a more powerful version of itself. In my case, I was taking a shortcut by taking pills that integrated powerful healing magic and the poisons into a single capsule. Those pills could only be obtained in the Soul Shop beneath the 3rd Tier, and even then, only in the ‘first’ one. Later incarnations would only offer less effective pills or ones that could only be handled by a body that had gone through the first round of tempering.

She raised a brow inquiringly, “Most Climbers love Beast hunting...”

I shrugged, “Beast hunting is all well and good, but it is too easy to get caught up in the daily slog if you have to do it just to keep yourself fed.”

“For someone who just arrived, you are pretty well-informed,” She said suspiciously.

“The Guide, that book in the Soul Shop. There was an entry on the subject near the back,” I replied smoothly. There was indeed, though I didn’t buy it either time. The Guide was useful for noobs, but most of its information was basic or restricted to knowledge of the 1st Tier. I used a friend’s book to fill in the gaps in my knowledge last time.

She nodded suddenly in understanding, “Ah, that thing. A wise purchase. It is of great use for those new to the Tiers.”

I knew that everything I said would be relayed to the town’s council, and they would use knowledge of the new influx of Climbers to prepare to profit off of humanity’s need. Unfortunately for humanity, I wasn’t inclined to do anything about it. Humankind would have to learn the nature of the Tiers, without me smoothing the way for them.