Chapter 93

Refreshed, and a few coppers poorer, we headed back into the Tower. The fresh bread had done wonders to fill our bellies and provided us with more than a small amount of extra energy. The kind baker who’d sold us the bread had even included a honey drizzle atop the brown crust of the fresh, foot long loaf’s he’d pulled from his oven for us. Sweet honey, collected from the bee hives of the first floor, helped soften the crust, and mingled pleasantly with the fluffy, somewhat sour inside of the bread.

Having already completed the trek once today, we made short work as we raced from floor to floor. As before, we found ourselves unmolested by monsters, and ran into very few fellow Climbers, and others on the floors. Everyone was still hard at work, and the day was just about halfway through with regards to the Tower’s hours of operation. I knew, based on how long it had taken us to leave, that to go from the first floor to the third floor would take a good hour or so of running. Meaning, if we wanted to hit level 15 today, we only had less than four hours, logically, to do so. After all, once we got the essence, we’d still need to exit the Tower, before Dusk, or risk being trapped within for the entire night.

After meeting Wyll, who lived in the Tower, that fate didn’t seem too terrible. If we spent the night on the first floor, I had no doubt we’d be just fine. Especially considering what we now knew about the Tower. Our extra levels, of course, helped, but it was the experience of what the floors had to offer that really gave us the confidence to know these lower floors, the ones we’d spent time getting familiar with now, that really would ensure we’d be alright.

However, all of that experience was from the daytime. I had no idea what the Tower was like during the night. I knew it wasn’t an instant death sentence, at least. A lot of higher leveled Climbers spent weeks at a time within the Tower, as they progressed higher and higher in the Tower, facing unknown dangers as they worked to reach their next goals, their next levels, or perhaps a boss. Ryker had mentioned those long journeys required you to ensure you had a great party, not just in skill, but in relationships. Because being trapped in the Tower, with death all around you, was a situation much better spent with friends and people you got along with, rather than people you hated.

I could see myself spending a night in the Tower with Lyn and Nyle. It wouldn’t be a problem. And now that Alax had apologized and seemed to be intent on learning from his previous mistakes, he’d probably be a good companion to spend time within the Tower as well. But if I would have to do such a thing with someone like Hans… well, someone would probably end up dead. Whether through foul play, or sheer exhaustion or misfortune caused by a frayed mental state.

If your mind is weak, misfortune you’ll seek. Commander Phyr liked to say. Usually when he was running us through sleep depravation exercises to push us to our limits, and past them. When you were tired, it was easier to make mistakes. It was also easier to lose control of your emotions. Frustration, lapses in judgement, anger, all could lead to compounding problems that could, and would, lead to death within the Tower. We’d always hated those training sessions, and hated Commander Phyr for putting us through them. Now that I’d spent a few days within the Tower, and learned just how cruel and dangerous it could be though, I was finding a new appreciation for all he’d done for us.

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Though, personally, the fact they’d left SO much untold, annoyed me. I didn’t understand why we couldn’t be taught so many of the things we were just now learning ahead of time. Why everything had to be a mystery. Why we needed to discover things for ourselves, usually in a painful or deadly manner, before we could be taught them, just felt… wrong. And yet, it was another one of those aspects that I knew mulling over wouldn’t do much good. Not to mention, there was a good chance part of these problems, and the pain they’d brought us, could still have been our fault.

That last bit was something I intended to try and figure out after we were done in the Tower again. Which was another reason why we couldn’t afford to get stuck in the Tower overnight. Once we were done slaying monsters for essence and racing towards level fifteen, I planned to spend a good amount of time at the Cathedral. I really wanted to see what the Climber records were like, now that we were actual Climbers. What secrets did they hold, what knowledge? Maybe everything we’d been stumbling around about, was actually in there. Maybe others couldn’t tell us, because we needed to either read it in the records, or experience it ourselves?

At the very least, there had to be some useful information in them, right? They were the detailed records of the greatest Climber’s to ever live. The notes, the observations, of those who’d climbed the highest, grown the strongest, and lived the longest. The Climbers who shaped what it was to be a Climber. Considering the importance of Climbers in society, I had no doubt those records were some of the most important documents in existence. And to access them, it would mean spending time at the Cathedral, and interacting with the Speakers.

I made a mental note to ensure I made a grand offering tonight when we did return to the Cathedral. I had no idea what the monsters on the fourth floor would drop, nor the ones we would need to face on the fifth, to reach level fifteen. However, whatever they were, I figured I could afford to donate their drops to the Cathedral tonight, to ensure the Speakers, and maybe the Tower itself, gave me their continued blessing, as I sought out more knowledge on Climbers, and who, and what, exactly we were. And what the Tower was, and what we’d face in the future.

But before then…

“Shall we?” I asked as we paused before the glimmering Portal, the path to the fourth floor. The next step on our adventure.

“After you,” Nyle said with a grin, motioning towards the shimmering lights. “You are, after all, our tank.”

“Thanks,” I grumbled, drawing my daggers as I prepared for the unknown. I had no idea what waited for us on the other side of that Portal. For all I knew, a monster could be waiting on the other end. It was the fourth floor after all. One of the highest floors non-climbers could go to. And for Climbers proper, well, I knew the ones who’d passed the fifth floor, would have access to their Portal Pendant. Meaning there was no reason for them to do this trek the long way, from the first floor to the fourth. Instead, they could just teleport to the fifth, and head to the fourth floor from there. This very well could be the most dangerous portal to teleport through that we’d come across yet. I didn’t have the time, luxury, nor stats, to not be careful.

“Here goes nothing.” I said with a nod towards my friends, and then, without another moment to waste, I stepped through the Portal.