James woke up in an unfamiliar room, shadowed and dim.
"Where am I?"
Last thing he remembered was testing out his new totems to show off for Ivy's new faction friends, and then… Something exploded?
"I've never seen someone obliterate an entire floor so easily. Very nearly ripped a hole in the side of the tower with that display. It'll be weeks before it manages to repair the damage."
James looked around but saw no one. "Pretty cool trick. Now, who are you?"
"An interested party. Your power, your willingness to go to extremes. We need people like you."
"Willingness? I hope you don’t think I did that on purpose.” James grinned. “The cloak and dagger thing is pretty interesting. You must be part of some kind of top secret society, right?”
He thought about Shen Ai’s disappearance. She was likely doing something to help the shop. Then he thought of Ivy and how he’d set her up to have fun and grow in power.
He had enough power, as evidenced by the confirmation given by his mysterious recruiter. He wasn’t here to play like Ivy. He needed to find a way to gain more lifespan for the shop, and he had a few ways now.
He didn’t think the contracts would be the most efficient way, so with that in mind, he thought of the mystery recruiter. A secret society probably had some decent schematics he could use to increase the shop’s ability to make them more lifespan with their deals.
“If this is your way of trying to recruit me, sign me up."
The voice shifted in tenor, from neutral to annoyed. "Your eagerness is not a point in your favor. You do not know anything about me or who I represent. And yet you are so willing to throw your allegiance at me untested?"
"Is it eagerness?” James let the question hang for a moment. “Maybe I’ve seen the other options and haven’t found anything satisfying. Seeing as I can’t detect you and you’re here with me, wherever this is, it’s safe to say you’re not as casual as the others. Instead of eagerness, it may be that you’re underestimating me. I could also be overestimating what you might have to offer, but if that’s the case, you and your secret society wouldn’t be able to stop me from walking away if I really wanted to." He shrugged. “From where I’m standing, we both have a lot to gain. Correct me if I’m wrong.”
For a brief moment, James thought he might’ve scared off the mystery person. When the air shimmered and a figure materialized, he didn’t expect to see an elf.
“Apologies for my earlier rudeness. As you can see, I’m not human. From what little intelligence we’ve been able to gain about you, you are not local to this world.”
“Something like that.” James didn’t want to reveal his ability to almost freely hop to worlds, nor the results of his escapades. After he got over his surprise at the pointy-eared, lithe yet bulky, fantastical being in front of him, he held out a hand. “Name’s James.”
“Haldred,” the elf said as he shook James’s hand firmly. “You are correct to believe we may benefit one another, but before then, you must understand that the people I represent are quite skeptical of the origin of your power.”
“Respectfully, I don’t care about their skepticism. If we can benefit one another, that’s cool. If not, I’ll figure out how to get what I want another way, though I am curious as to what your secret society is, their goals, and what cause they have for skepticism if they’re powerful enough to remain undetected.” James didn’t wish to beat around the bush and waste time.
“It is not that we necessarily remain undetected.” Haldred held up a rectangular block displaying the rankings. Its listing was that of the Destruction faction, the third and final established faction within the tower. “To address your curiosity toward our goals and skepticism, we are not particularly accepted by either of the established factions nor the tower.”
James pointed at Haldred’s ears. “Is it a race thing?”
“If only it was something so arbitrary,” Haldred scoffed. “Should you look hard enough, you will find other races amongst the other factions. Destruction is not exclusively made of elves either, if that’s even something you might consider. Rather, our devotion to our mission brings us together, binds us to a cause, but also exiles the minority of us that support it.”
Based on the faction name, James reasoned the Destruction faction wasn’t liked by either the Ascenders, who wanted to make the tower their new home and reach the peak, and the Expansionists, who wanted to bring the power of the tower into the outside world, because the Destruction faction’s sole purpose was to get rid of the tower entirely. “But why?”
“Do you perhaps know the nature of the tower? Its source of energy that fuels the creation of monsters to be harvested, the cards, the materials used for crafting weaponry and power suits?” Haldred watched James closely.
“The tower leeches off the world. Its structure isn’t self-sustaining for what it offers, and the power has to come from somewhere. You can’t make something out of nothing, after all.” Even the shop couldn’t do that, despite its near-infinite ability to create anything out of lifespan.
Haldred peeled his eyes at James. “Not many people know that. Understanding as much, the amount of power you possess isn’t something easily acquired and surely didn’t come without costing much.”
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“You’ve got that right,” James muttered, thinking about the lifespan he’d spent. “I have my ways. Rather unorthodox, though I’m not opposed to making a deal with those who desire more power. I’m sure a goal like yours requires a hefty investment into the few members of your faction.”
Haldred raised a hand. “We will pass on your offer. Whatever your means, we likely can’t afford, nor wish to partake in.”
Shrugging, James sighed. A wasted opportunity. “Suit yourself. Now, if you’re worried my power might have cost this planet a lot, it didn’t. That’s all I’ll say about where my power comes from, and if it’s not enough, sorry for that. So?”
“Do you wish to join our cause now that you know what it represents? If we are to destroy the tower, you are likely to lose all the power you’ve obtained,” Haldred said, hesitating.
“I won’t, but thanks for worrying about me. As for joining you, I’m certain I’ve agreed once. Is this some kind of test? I don’t like tests.”
“If that is so, please come with me. We must get you enlisted right away.”
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Ivy fell in love with the ELS suit, even if she could barely get it going for more than a few minutes at a time. The power suit and promises of being able to keep it, even after her time with the Expansionists ran its course, got her into their grueling training program.
If it was for the power suit, she’d endure their silly training. Her first batch of training was… exercise. Pure, unadulterated, boring exercise. The whole shebang, a routine created to bore her out of her mind.
From early morning, she worked out with a bunch of other newcomers, ate breakfast, worked out, ate lunch, worked out, ate dinner, and worked out some more. Showers were the last thing before bed.
Her only saving grace was she was always too tired by the end of the days to even notice the time flying by, even if the days themselves were torture.
Once finished, though, she could cross another off her calendar. They’d given her that to keep her quiet, Ivy knew, and so she could track her progress.
It would take months before she got to leave the compound’s special training program that would prepare her for the ELS… unless she somehow found a way to progress far beyond their expectations.
The only requirements for her training were to be able to pass their clearance tests, and unfortunately, she’d failed every single one. Endurance, reaction, coordination, mental processing, adaptability… There were more, and she failed them all.
After the first week, her regular routine involved everything else she’d sucked at and maintained endurance routines, though she’d go crazy if it was more than once a day.
Sighing, she looked at Verox, the engineer she reported to whenever she got restless and wanted to know if any of her efforts were paying off, and groaned. “Are you sure you can’t test my synergy with my beautiful baby? It doesn’t make any sense to do all this,” she waved her hands toward the door flippantly, “inefficient nonsense. If I’m a rider, I should be riding, testing for things that improve my riding, training in the suit.”
Verox pursed her lips. “I will admit, I do think the training regiment is old-fashioned and does subvert time from training in a power suit toward physical upkeep, but the power suits only augment what’s already there. And there’s always the instance where the suit is damaged or the rider expends all energy stores. Can’t be too prepared for what the tower or Expansionists might throw at you.”
Ivy hopped on the only thing Verox said that supported her desire. “Get me out of the normal training. It’s boring. I’m not being challenged. The ELS isn’t a normal power suit, so why should the normies get to tell me how to train. Why don’t you come up with a regiment you think will actually mean something and help me progress towards getting out of this place. Test my synergy with it, you’ll see… I’m good for my word, I’m sure. I felt it when I tested the suit before. It was made for me to take it out into the world. Keeping it here is such a shame.”
Ivy wasn’t the greatest with people, but she could see her words were getting to the engineer. Verox kept shifting her gaze, full of pride, toward the masterpiece she’d poured her soul into.
When the engineer looked toward Ivy, she sighed. “You’re something else. First, you and Abellar take over my project and usurp candidate selection, then you come in here and ask me to do you more favors to skip past all the red tape.” Verox paused, then grinned. “You have spirit, I’ll give you that. If I’m being honest, I don’t think there’s any rider who can handle the ELS, so I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll run your synergy. If it’s under sixty percent, you give up riding with it, finish the standard training, and take a different suit. How’s that sound?”
“There’s no way it’s below sixty percent.” The grin on Ivy’s face shone right as she watched Verox lean back the chair she was in, tapping a button on its side that caused shackles to strap Ivy in place.
“Just a precaution.”
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Zibo had never felt so good in his life. He’d cleared four floors without pausing to breathe, collected more shards than he’d accumulated for months combined, and he still felt as fresh and hearty as if he’d been on vacation the whole time.
By the time he decided to call it a day, he’d thoroughly lost track of time. He left the tower in the early afternoon with its glow outshone by the sun for this brief time.
When he reached his tenement, it was in such high spirits he almost didn’t react when a gruff voice shouted his name. He turned to smile at his landlord, Frane, who scowled back as though personally affronted by Zibo’s cheer.
“You were supposed to pay me yesterday.”
“Isn’t that next week?”
“No, it’s yesterday.” The man held up his wrist to display the date.
Zibo shrugged. “I lost track of time in the tower. It happens.” He tossed the man a pair of Power Fist cards, one common, one uncommon, both with the bronze border of monster types. “That should cover it.”
“No, it’s too late.” Frane looked almost regretful but quickly doubled down on his ire. “You were told this was your last warning. I’ve already lent the place. Turn in your keys, and you can collect your things at the back deck.”
Zibo’s cheer evaporated as his heart dropped into his stomach. “But… Mira?”
Frane snapped the cards into his storage pouch and shrugged. “Not my problem.”
Zibo was hardly aware of the card in his hand as he sprinted across the distance and grabbed the man by his collar. “Where is my sister, you bastard?”
“Put me down, and I might be more inclined to help,” the man choked out, still smugly confident, even in the face of Zibo’s superior power.
Frane had no idea who he was dealing with. A climber’s class levels weren't just a number on a screen.
Zibo had put up with this unreasonable bastard’s demands long enough. With a snarl, he put a fist through the wall. Stone shattered and metal bent. “You’ll tell me now.”
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