Will zeroed in on the noise, eyes widening.

The veterans running the bus, people who were vastly overleveled for the Floor, were under attack by…other Climbers?

Will’s blood ran cold as he saw one of the men get bisected in a flash of light, only for his killer to be destroyed by a torrent of raging green fire.

And on and on it went as the bandits and veterans tore each other apart.

Will could see where the palanquin carried by the group that was supposed to meet them here had toppled over, it’s flame-retardant exterior jutting into the ash.

What do we even have that is that valuable? Men didn’t fight to the death for a busload of noncombat classes…even if that could allow a Lord to write them off as dead while establishing a secret Stronghold on the floor from which he could stage an attack on a rival.

Just answered my own question.

A girl’s shriek caused Will’s legs to twitch with urgency. In the distance, Brianna was being dragged out of the iron palanquin, kicking, scratching, and biting. She was hauled out by a scruffy climber with an iron grip on her wrist, a furrowed brow and what looked like very bad teeth.

Will started running.

“OW! Calm down, you little cunt!” The Climber’s voice came into earshot as Will came closer.

Will wanted to hit him with his sling, but at this range…it wasn’t a sure thing that he wouldn’t hit Brianna, as the two were struggling violently less than an arm’s length away from each other.

SHHHH

There was a hissing of torn air as one of the veterans ran past and swung his blade at the kidnapper, who was forced to defend. The attack glanced off his blade and Will saw flashes of neon blue Miasma crackling through the air where their Active Abilities struggled against each other.

The kidnapper lost his footing and was sent tumbling backwards, spinning into the distance, but unharmed.

“Stay in the palanquin!” The veteran ordered, his meaty hand shoving Bri back into the Iron cage before chasing after the kidnapper.

They’re not gonna win, Will thought, continuing to run towards her.

There were only three veterans left, fending off more than a dozen men of nearly equal strength.

It was only a matter of time.

“Where are you going!?” Loth demanded, his voice rising as Will charged into danger.

“Cute baker girl!” Will hollered over his shoulder “Secure escape!”

“They don’t even want us! Why are you…” Loth’s voice faded into the distance as Will arrived next to the Palanquin, peering in through the empty iron door.

A shriek locked up his joints, and a blast of makeup caught him full in the face, only missing his eyes by virtue of his mask’s supernatural clarity.

“Hey,” Will said, scanning the sideways palanquin. The other passengers were unconscious, bleeding from the head where they’d slammed into the side of the transport unexpectedly. Brianna’s own hair was matted with blood, but she seemed lucid enough to try to blind him.

Brianna had a bag of face powder in one hand and a crocheting needle in the other, regarding him with a feral expression, her arm cocked back to deliver a vicious stab. Her expression shifted when she saw his goat mask.

“This isn’t looking good,” Will said, glancing to either side, trying to keep his eyes open for that bisecting flash of light. “You wanna get out of here, Bri?”

“He said to stay in the bus.” Bri said.

“Well, he just died,” Will said, watching the veteran get pinned to the ground by a massive spear, then beheaded by the spear-wielder’s teammate.

“I’ll die too if I stay any longer. Now or never, Brianna.” Will said, offering his hand.

I’ll give you two heartbeats before I cut and run, Will thought.

It only took one.

Bri took his hand and he hauled her out of the palanquin.

“Piggy back ride.” Will said, taking off his backpack and kneeling, grabbing Cold Harvest and looping it through the other side of his belt.

Losing the Gauntlets of speed was a shame, but they were basic equipment he could replace, obtaining a Baker Girl was always going to be Will’s higher priority.

Will grunted as the slender girl locked her arms around his neck.

“Try not to choke me,” Will rasped.

“Okay, what now?” Brianna asked, adjusting her grip as the last Veteran went down.

The surrounding bandits turned to face the two of them with hungry expressions.

“What NOW!?” Brianna demanded.

Will whipped out a bullet with his sling, aiming at the attackers, careful not to hit the girl peering over his shoulder, officially engaging the other Climbers in combat.

He didn’t hang around to see if it had hit: he knew it hadn’t. No veteran who saw a low power bullet like that coming at them would allow it to hit them.

That wasn’t what Will had been aiming for. He just wanted his boots to acknowledge it as a combat encounter.

“Close your eyes and hold on really tight,” Will said as he ducked down behind the palanquin, cutting off line of sight between himself and the enemy.

“Okay, but WHYYYY!!!!”

Brianna’s question turned into a shriek as they blasted off at triple speed.

Boots of Outflanking Active.

5.

Will got halfway to Loth in the first second.

4.

Will arrived at the escape zone and saw that Carrie and Travis had already gained a significant amount of distance while Loth set up their escape route.

“STEP HERE!” Loth shouted, pointing at a spot on the ground before raising his arms for pickup.

Will stepped on it on the way past, picking up Loth as he did.

3.

BOOM!

An explosion sounded behind them as a curtain of ash cut off line of sight, resetting Will’s boots and hiding Loth’s other traps.

“We’re going to have to have a talk about your fixation on bakers.” Loth said, arms crossed, glancing at Brianna, whose legs were threatening to cut off the blood supply to his lower body as she shrieked.

At least she wasn’t choking him.

“Later!” Will shouted as he ran.

Man, carrying two people at a dead sprint is hard. Who would’ve thought?

BANG!

Will heard cries of pain behind him as their pursuers ran into Loth’s traps.

“Use your Amulet.” Loth said.

Will didn’t see anyone nearby, but Loth was probably seeing something he wasn’t.

Will did so.

Amulet of the home field advantage.

5/18 Charges Remaining.

“That way,” Loth said, pointing off to the side, across the softest stretch of ash, towards what looked like a stream-bed.

Will didn’t think about it and just ran.

They came across a wide stream of lava burbling merrily along, cracks of orange-hot stone peeking out from underneath the solid black coating on the surface. It was singing the hairs on Will’s arm even from a stone’s throw away, but thanks to Loth’s coaching, the stream turned to ice as Will passed over it, saving them from severe burns as he sprinted over it.

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“Hide here, cancel the effect.” Loth said, pointing

Will dove behind the raised ledge of baked rock, cancelling the ability.

The heat of the 3rd floor beat down on them again as the comforting ice faded out of existence.

Will dropped to the ground, panting, dropping Brianna into the ash with a squawk.

“Excellent.” Loth said, peering over the edge of their concealment with a tiny polished mirror. “Look.”

He handed the mirror to Will, who peered over the edge of the rock with it.

The explosion of ash settled, revealing the confused bandits.. no, they’re probably a Lord’s Vassals, aiming to steal critical Non-combat classes.

“What happened to us against the Tower?” Will muttered quietly to himself.

“As long as resource scarcity dictates our behavior, that will never be the case.” Loth replied. “Do you see what I’ve done?”

Will scanned the confused Climbers for another second before he noticed.

“I didn’t leave any footprints on the ice,” Will said.

Indeed, the soft ash that had turned into hard ice as he ran by had turned back into soft ash, none the worse for wear.

It was as if Will had never come this direction, and no one in their right mind would expect a low-level like him to have crossed that lava flow without dying.

The high-level veterans were scratching their heads and scanning the surrounding, looking for any hint of where Brianna had been taken. They seemed to sniff around after Carrie and Travis’s tracks for a moment before shaking their heads.

However temporarily, they’d slipped away from high level Climbers.

“Why aren’t you the party leader?” Will whispered.

“Because you wanted it more than I did.” Loth said with a shrug. “Makes no difference to me as long as you’re willing to do as I ask when it matters. That being said, help me set up this tarp.” He said, unfolding a tightly packed piece of waxed cloth. “And it goes without saying, but I’ll go ahead and say it: don’t stand up.”

“Noted.” Will said, and together they unfolded the tarp and began covering it with ash.

“Can I help?” Brianna asked as the two of them worked.

“Make the edges of the ash look undisturbed, if you can,” Loth said, sending Brianna busily to work. “Don’t stray from behind the rock, though.

A minute later, the three of them were huddled under the stiffened tarp, which had taken the color and consistency of the surrounding wasteland.

None too soon, either, as the surrounding ash began to crunch and shift under someone’s feet.

“Thought I heard something out this way.” The voice said, coming around the rock they were hiding behind and standing in front of them.

For a dreadful moment, they held their collective breath, praying that the Climbers didn’t try to stand on their hiding spot, revealing it as flimsy fabric.

“See anything?” Another voice asked.

“…Nah, no sign of ‘em. Let’s keep following the river.”

Crunch, crunch, crunch…

The sound of footsteps through the ash faded into the distance. Will was tempted to let out a sigh of relief, but he couldn’t believe they got away that easily. They continued waiting and listening, the sound of footsteps coming and going several times as the blood red sun, faintly visible through the fabric, began to set on the third Floor.

The temperature under the tarp was sweltering, even before cramming three individuals together in a space the size of a poor man’s bathtub.

Will and Bri were sweating profusely, gradually becoming fused together as their clothes became sodden. Loth wasn’t doing much better, panting quietly out of his mouth, tongue hanging out like a tired dog.

Even with Will’s cloak providing faint whisps of cool vapor, it seemed as though the environment confiscated them with prejudice, as they only lasted long enough to highlight how uncomfortable they really were.

“You’re smearing your scent-ooze on me.” Loth said at a nearly sub-audible whisper. “Ugh, humans are disgusting! Quit it!”

“I can’t shut it off!” Will whispered back. “Why don’t you stop panting like a do-“

Will felt a faint pinch on his ribs as Bri held a finger to her lips.

They froze in place, listening quietly, but no sounds approached. Still, the message had been received.

Eventually the sun sank into the earth granting them a slight reprieve from the oppressive heat. Despite being dim, the sun seemed to provide more heat than on other floors. Will had no idea why that was, he was only thankful it was gone.

Several minutes after the sun had fallen, Loth poked a tiny hole in the tarp and used his mirror to do a full scan of their surroundings.

“Looks clear,” He whispered. “Their search pattern has expanded far enough that we may safely travel inside it.”

“Actually, Loth, can I get some glowbugs?” Will asked, patting the side of Bri’s head, where blood had matted her hair into a stiff knot. “We need to make sure that head wound isn’t going to get worse.”

“It’s not my blood,” Bri said, pushing his hand away, groaning in disgust as they unstuck themselves from each other, sweat-fused fibers reluctantly releasing.

They emerged from the camouflage tarp cocoon, newly hatched denizens of the 3rd Floor. Sticky, and barely alive.

“Ugh,” Will groaned, taking off his shirt and plopped it off to the side, leaving just the Cloak of Misty Escape over his shoulders. Will drew the Relic tight around him, shuddering at the cooling sensation.

“Must be nice to be able to take your shirt off whenever you want,” Brianna said, wistfully glancing at his shirt, her own patterned dress clinging to her form.

“Oh. Uh…Uh…” Will’s brain tried and failed to come up with a reasonable solution.

“It’s fine,” Bri said, waving him off. “I’m okay, it’s just really gross.”

“Gotcha,” Will said with a nod. “Oh, by the way.” He pulled out and offered her the Sickle of Cold Harvest.

“This is a bad weapon. It raises the resistances against it’s own damage type…but it’s better than a rock. Use it if we come up against something mean.”

“I don’t…I’ve…never had any training.” Bri said, holding the weapon at arm’s length like it might bite her.

“The pointy end goes into the other man.” Will said, tapping the tip of the sickle. “There. Now you’ve got the same amount of weapons training that I do.”

“William, I believe you’re underestimating how much of a natural talent you are at dispensing violence.” Loth said. “Also, can I talk to you over there?”

“Sure.” Will followed Loth out of immediate earshot.

“Alright, what’s your deal with bread and baker girls? You got us into a deep hole for a noncombat class that we do not have the infrastructure to utilize right now.”

Will opened his mouth and shut it again. “I never really thought about it.”

“Yes, that’s why I’m asking.”

“If you must know, when I was about ten, there was this older girl in the orphanage who would bake every morning before everyone woke up…”

Will briefly remembered the morning he’d woken up early, seeing Muse standing in front of the window, the morning sun rendering her in silhouette as she carried her buns in front of the window…

“So you imprinted on a baker girl when you were young and she’s the yardstick by which you measure all potential mates?”

“You make it sound so reductive.” Will said sourly. “But yeah, probably. Never thought about it.”

“You understand how deep our problems are right now?” Loth asked.

Will nodded. “What do you think is the best way to survive?”

“They’re going to concentrate their search on the stronghold to the east,” Loth said, musing. “The best chance of us surviving lies on making it to the Stronghold, so they’ll inevitably try and block it off.”

“So what are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we need to find a source of water, and if we can do that…we can stay in one spot, camp out within sight of a Key Site, grind XP, and once the Acclimation is over, we can jump in on a bus as it’s heading up to the 4th Floor. Bypass this mess entirely.

“You wanna just rawdog all of the 3rd Floor!?” Will asked, eyes wide.

“It’s got about the same odds as trying to sneak past a determined search party of high-level Climbers, with the added benefit of allowing us to gain levels and expire on our own terms.”

“You mean succeed on our own terms?” Will asked.

“I know what I said.” Loth responded.

“EEEEK!”

The two of them jumped at a shriek from Bri’s direction.

Bri was standing over a giant snail, about the size of a man. It’s head was lying on the ground, severed by Cold Harvest. Hundreds of thumb-length crystals had emerged from the creature’s skin. The body itself was slowly writhing as it died.

“Are you okay!?” Will asked as he arrived.

“Y-yeah,” Bri said, nodding. “Just surprised when I turned around and saw it oozing towards me. Menacingly.”

“Drink this now,” Loth said, shoving his waterskin in Will’s hand.

“Okay.” Will drank about half and handed the rest to Bri while Loth pulled out a pair of metal tongs from his toolkit and began prying the ice crystals off.

“If this is real ice, we could be looking at our solution,” Loth said, taking the mouthpiece out of his waterskin once Bri was done with it and dropping the crystals in, continuing to pry them off one at a time.

“…Here,” Bri said, kneeling down with Cold Harvest, putting down a napkin from her dress and setting the edge of the sickle against the monster’s skin.

With a smooth sawing motion, she freed hundreds of crystals from the snail’s head, dropping them into the napkin before bundling them up.

The cloth rapidly turned moist from the ambient temperature and began dripping.

“In the waterskin,” Loth said, prompting Bri to pour her ice crystal harvest into the waterproof leather pouch. Loth regarded Bri with a weighing gaze as she stood up.

“Good thinking,” Loth admitted, shaking his bag of ice, which was condensing water on the outside. He ran his finger through the condensed water and tasted it, his expression thoughtful.

“Sometimes a weapon’s description doesn’t cover everything.” She said with a shrug. “It just seemed like the right way to use it.”

“Maybe you’re a natural Climber too,” Loth mused, glancing over at the severed head of the giant snail.

The monster had begun to break down, it’s soft rubbery flesh dissolving into flickers of blue miasma as it shrank, leaving behind an empty metallic shell.

Thunk. A sound came from inside the shell, prompting them to tip the heavy armor over, revealing a breastplate and a handful of gold coins.

“Want some armor?” Will asked.

Bri considered a moment before nodding. “Yes, but if it’s really heavy, I’ll have to leave it.”

She took the breastplate and put it over her head. In the manner of Relics, it changed itself to match her body, shrinking in size.

“Hey, this isn’t really heavy at all! And it’s got Strength and Resistance boosts.”

“Awesome,” Will said, giving a thumb’s up and trying not to laugh at the image of a plate cuirass secured over a faded floral dress.

“How do I look?” Bri asked, flexing.

“Like you’re wearing a cuirass.” Loth said with a shrug. “Let’s get started North.

Half the night into their trek, they came across Carrie and Travis, cooking a giant beetle in its own shell.

“We thought you two were dead,” Carrie said, her gaze lingering on Bri for a moment.

“What a great idea. Skip the loot, dive straight into a free-for all.” Travis added with a bit more sass than Will liked.

“You and I both know no one could’ve predicted that,” Will said, sitting in the ash across the fire from from them, Loth and Bri following . “I can’t help but notice you’re heading North as well.”

“Yeah, well, the closest Stronghold is East, but there’s another past the Key Site north of us.” Travis said, pulling out a map.

“You wanna join our Party for the trip?”

Carrie and Travis glanced at each other.

“Look, we’re willing to travel with you for safety, but we’re not going to join your Party right this moment… because you ran into a suicidal fight within minutes of meeting you, which for us is a bit of a red flag. People don’t just try to get themselves killed where we’re from. But if you make a good impression over the next few days, we’ll consider it.” Travis said.

“Been saving that one up, huh?” Will asked.

“Yeah, I’ve been working on it the whole way here.” Travis admitted with an annoying smirk.

“How about you?” Will asked Brianna.

“Me? Oh, I’m not allowed to join any Parties until I make it to my destination. It’s part of my Contract.” Bri said, shaking her head.

Being in a Party made it easier to coordinate based on their Classes, and easier for The System to calculate contribution and what rewards should be assigned to a group of Climbers, but it wasn’t absolutely necessary, so Will dropped the subject.

“I didn’t know about the northern Stronghold. I guess we’ll be travelling together for the next few days,” Loth said. “…I’ll trade you some water for some beetle.” He held out the waterskin and shook it a bit, sloshing the liquid inside.

“Deal,” Carrie said, snapping off a leg of beetle and trading it for Loth’s waterskin.

“AH!” Carrie gasped in satisfaction after taking a long drink.

‘…Safe to drink’ Loth mouthed at Will, his face hidden from the others by the leg of beetle.

Will patted Loth on the back.

You’re a cunning little bastard.