The ding made me grin, our masters have finally made a decision. To think it would take them this long after the final trial’s conclusion.

Well even if they had finished, I would’ve simply delayed the reveal as Sailhin seemed to have quite a bit of information to share, interrupting it would only make things more bothersome in the future.

“Long time no see Alcoroth,” Yaron’s voice broke up slightly before they manifested next to me.

“Yes, well if master” Ydarros’s name came out muddled, “oh, it seems we are still quite limited in the verbiage we can use. Then…. The Seventh, Second and Third took their time solidifying their decision.”

“Master didn’t take his time, The Second and Third were simply arguing over their choices.” Yaron said.

“Master was not arguing over any sort of decision, she was simply dealing with how to give her gift,” Terothyn asserted arriving quite suddenly as well.

“That’s quite the inaccurate way to describe what occurred,” Silion corrected.

“Quiet down for now,” I said and slid up on the notification in front of me.

Quartz was already exhausted by having to ignore just me at times, it was clear he wouldn’t last much longer. The First, Fourth and Sixth had made their decisions during the trials, and they had arrived much sooner. The past few floors weren’t the best for his mental state. I controlled myself but the others were quite talkative among themselves. Alathein was also respectful and did their best to quiet the other two.

Though there was something else bothering Quartz aside from the conversations he needed to ignore. It was only a few floors ago that he had reacted quite strangely to the challenge. We had gotten this far without too many things stalling his climb, I wouldn’t want to make things worse. The young master was quite attached to him, I doubt he would allow me to simply drag him along to clear things. So, for the goal ahead of us, it would be best to get rid of the others as soon as possible.

The other avatars were busy staring at the notification that simply read that the rewards were loading.

The notification of the Monarch’s choices popped up and I put it just to the top right of my vision. Another useless pop up, the others could just tell me the master’s choices. Though, I can’t not acknowledge this is only occurring this way due to our method of managing our interference with the tower.

The installed system is quite outdated, and our tower model was not made to be running for this long. All things considered, it’s quite surprising that it’s even lasting as long as it has been. The time has been useful only with regard to it giving me the chance to study it, as well as its manual, and find cracks in the system to take advantage of. If the tower had been cleared sooner, we wouldn’t even have to be dealing with it.

Even manipulating Quartz’s system identification was only possible in a dungeon. The dungeons themselves have evolved past being connected to the tower at this point, giving my administrative powers fewer limitations.

Just getting the others here was quite irritatingly indirect. It would have to be done through Quartz’s summoner list, and then once the introductions are done, I’ll revoke their link with him and insert them as the avatar’s supervisor. They wouldn’t be able to interfere directly, merely be able to watch things progress.

But there’s a limit to how many summons that Quartz is allowed to have within the system, so I had to briefly interfere with the current contracts that are technically in place. Contracts that Quartz isn’t aware of, because they aren’t for him in the first place. Having them doesn’t impact him in any way, it’s only for the young master at the end of the day.

The way that the vassals visit is quite similar to the way I made it possible to have my master visit Quartz. Each of the summons, within the system’s instructions, have a controllable aspect of their summoned appearance. If I trade the summon’s line for one of the others, in a functioning, newer system the summon would only appear as the different outer appearance. It was intended to be used to allow a summon, say Mypheryn to appear as a smaller version of himself.

But the system fails to compute a being’s soul. So, if I were to place ‘Yaron’ instead of ‘size decrease by…’, it glitches and Yaron is summoned instead. The only difference was that when my Master bestowed a visit upon Quartz, he manipulated his own appearance on his own only revealing himself when Quartz recognized him to not be me.

Over all, the system has just been running for far too long, and the beings within the tower have evolved past a point where the system can exert complete control over everything. It is really well past time for this tower to be cleared.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

To manipulate the system, even to this extent though I had to manage to gain administrative access, and that meant reading through the purposely long instruction manual received with the tower. The key sequence to access the command alteration panel was so illogical that it’d be hard to imagine it being accidentally triggered.

After keying the sequence in I made it to the black screen with a blinking line prompting an input. I confirmed the system’s acceptance of the appearance changes, and then typed out the visibility setting change so that it wasn’t just Quartz that was able to see us.

Before sending in the command, I tapped his shoulder.

“The others will see us momentarily, and you can leave the table.”

He nodded ever so slightly, and I sent the command forward.

And as expected our sudden apparition was a surprise. Though, Dodger’s priority of food and her brother saved her plate from being messed up. She managed to pick up her plate and hold a protective arm in front of Brick, while the others just stood up reaching for weapons they didn’t have on them, causing the table to nearly topple over.

Alathein stopped the food from making a mess though, so Quartz, who was the only one who hadn’t gotten up from his seat, was able to continue eating.

“Apologies for the sudden arrival, avatars, the system is quite restrictive even with our status,” they said and floated all the food back onto the table “please sit down and continue eating, we are not here to harm you in any way, simply to elaborate on some things and a few of us still have our gifts to bestow upon our Monarch’s choice.”

I gritted my teeth at the obnoxiously polite tone they chose to take. Despite knowing them for thousands of years, their smooth talking never failed to annoy me.

“What are you talking about?”

The young master was struggling in Brick’s arms, attempting to reach out to Tharyll. I had restricted his ability to see us initially knowing the others wouldn’t be able to contain themselves.

Tharyll grew to his full size and stepped over to the young master, “young master it is so great to see you.”

“Quartz? What’s going on?” Brick signed with one hand since the other was holding onto the young master quite firmly.

“Brick let him take Fluffy, they wouldn’t shut up about not being able to say hello. And Tharyll’s been here the longest,” Quartz grumbled.

Brick was still hesitant. Being protective of the young master was by far Brick’s best quality, I couldn’t fault his dedication to it.

“Brick, it is a pleasure to meet you. My master was quite pleased with the care you’ve shown the young master and was eager to select you.” Tharyll stated his hands still outstretched.

Brick lifted the young master up and passed him into Tharyll’s arms. The young master’s face was elated, and he hugged Tharyll tightly.

“Quartz, who are these people?” Sailhin asked, “how are they even here?”

I put a hand on his shoulder and looked at her “I will do all the explaining, Quartz is tired from dealing with the others.” I let go of his shoulder, “why don’t you head off to the bath, we’ll take care of the young master.”

He shoved a couple spoon fulls into his mouth before getting up.

“Quartz?!” Sailhin said astounded.

But she didn’t actually try to stop him, and he was able to leave the kitchen. I’m sure I would find him later, passed out on his bed, or in the basement.

“I thought you guys pieced things together by now,” I commented, we were well aware of their theories on what had been happening to them as we had sat in on their conversations when Quartz wasn’t around, “Quartz will not be able to answer your questions well. That’s what we’re here for.”

“That’s what you’re here for Alcoroth,” Yaron corrected, “we are simply here to bestow our gifts before returning. Having too many of us here will cause more problems than solve them in the future.”

Yaron took the young master from Tharyll’s arms and smiled at him before accepting his hug.

“Why don’t we all sit in the living room to discuss things?” Alathein suggested, “and I believe a slight explanation before discussing the gifts would help things move along better.”

“No, we’ll stay right here,” Sailhin said, “and Alcoroth was it?”

I nodded.

“Yes, we did put a few things together, mainly that the past six floors were a set of trials that seemed to be catered to our specific skills. We also know that Mezu isn’t the source of Quartz’s healing ability.”

Paeris surprisingly spoke up as well, “The mana awakenings that Lefty, Brick and I received were also suspicious. And the fact that Fluffy was with us during those trials where he would normally be attached to Quartz at all times, if possible.”

This slight change in his personality was quite welcome.

“I’ve never heard someone call a gift suspicious,” Maf said raising his eyebrow.

“Anyone would be suspicious of gaining mana they had never been able to use before, and I’m sure Brick’s awakening was even more confusing all things considered,” Tharyll laughed slightly.

I sighed, having them all here was starting to get to me as well, and it hasn’t even been that long. Things should be cleanly explained, that won’t exactly be easy with all of us here.

“As I said earlier, I’d prefer to present my master’s gift and then return. Tedious explanations like these do not interest me.” Yaron said.

“Says the person with the needlessly complicated gift,” Terothyn snickered.

“Giving her options was my master’s choice, and is your gift not dependent on her choice anyway?”

Sailhin interrupted the bickering I didn’t miss, “If we accept the gift discussion before an explanation, who will stay to explain things?”

“Alcoroth and I will remain.” Alathein said.

While they were the best choice, I wasn’t too eager to have them stay here.

“Would we be blindly agreeing to something in return for the gifts.”

Maf smirked, “Even if they were payment in an agreement, three of you have already received gifts that cannot be returned. Even if it were a choice, would you really leave your party members to finish the task on their own?”