Aaron opened his eyes eventually and peered around him, but he was still falling. He was not sure how long he fell, but it felt at least like it was a very long time. Nothing changed, his speed falling remained constant thanks to Wind Steps and it was almost boring if his instincts were not screaming at him that he would die at this speed, that he should cling to something. But he ignored that instinct and focused on properly controlling his movement technique.
Then something changed. He was not sure at first what it was, but when he opened his eyes and blinked into the darkness he was sure he could see more than just deepest black. It was subtle at first, but it got slowly brighter, there was no doubt about it. He peered past his feet and eventually saw that there was light underneath him still a long way out, but he could actually see his feet now and that was progress. The longer he fell, the brighter it got and Aaron started to get a better picture of what was happening around him. The tunnel’s wall around him was made out of the same stone like the rest of the tower he had seen so far, it was smooth and unadorned. The circular tunnel he fell down really looked more like a garbage shoot now that he looked at it. But there was no smell or debris so maybe not. He could not guess what the purpose of this tunnel. But maybe once he investigated the light shining underneath him like a beacon, beckoning him closer, he would find out. He realized that there was an actual end to this fall and he would not be trapped forever falling like had dreaded in the back of his mind. He had half expected to be trapped in some weird limbo like when he had drifted in the Nothingness before he had been summoned to the tower. Aaron slowed himself down with wind steps even more and floated down the last few hundred meters until he landed on a stone platform of some sort. In the center of the platform was a glowing dais made out of bright white stone that had been the source of the light he had seen. Curiously he looked around and spotted a horizontal tunnel that curved around a distant bend. The opening to that tunnel looked very similar to the one he had jumped down from.
In the distance, far down the tunnel he could see blue light shine out from around the bend. There was nobody here, everything was deserted and besides the obvious magic of the stone dais it looked like any other tunnel he had walked through in the tower so far. The platform and the dais he stood on top were made out of what looked like white marble and curiously Aaron studied the glowing dais closer. The marble shone like a light bulb and at its top it had a crystal embedded into it, a giant white quartz crystal that shone in bright white light.
Was it a good idea to touch the glowing stone on a marble platform in a hidden tunnel somewhere in a crazy tower made by a crazy wizard? Probably not. But Aaron could not help himself and reached out to the crystal.
As soon as his fingertips touched the stone, he felt a surge of mana inside of it. He drew his hand back in an instant and panted as he took a step back. In the single moment his hand had touched the crystal he had felt more potent and more complicated spells than he had ever felt before. It was like peering into the depths of a super computer for someone who did not understand anything about machines. Confusing, alien and incredibly complicated. He did not really want to fuck with it any more than this, but at least the white crystal had not vaporized him or teleported him to another world or something. Now that he looked at it, the platform and the dais did look suspiciously like an elevator, but he could not be sure. It would make sense for it to be an elevator, but he was not sure if he wanted to pilot the thing without knowing how to. There would be time later to further inspect this thing in depth he hoped. Another question to add to the list for the great master. Aaron did not know how far he had fallen, nor how deep this was, but it felt at least like the bottom of the tower. Or maybe its basement?
Instead of wasting even more time or potentially blowing himself up by fiddling with a contraption he had no idea how it worked nor had even a concept for it, he decided to instead explore the dimly lit tunnel. He slowly, silently walked down the tunnel and renewed the grip on his dagger in his hand. During his fall he had not been bothered by the spell that still constricted him, but now it was starting to get old. He felt for the spell and tried to push out of it or loosen it, or break out like a cartoon character. Nothing worked, but the spell felt weaker than before at least. Only being able to move his forearms felt terrible when he did not know what awaited him behind the next bend. But at least he had escaped the 2nd floor and that alone was cause for celebration. Nobody knew he had escaped and once the big group had stopped camping the scorpion boss for a day they would probably learn of his attempt to break through and Aaron’s hasty retreat afterwards. So they had to assume he was still on the second floor.
Aaron cracked his neck and it felt heavenly not to be thirsty anymore and his head was nice and headache free for once. It looked like the curse had disappeared during his free fall down the elevator shaft, so that was definitively a positive.
He reached the bend in the tunnel and carefully he peered around it. At first he was not sure what he was seeing. Metal bars? But then joy and relief flooded him. This was the cultivator prison! He could barely believe how lucky he had gotten and he quickly walked into the giant hall. He passed by empty cages and the light of the two towering Djinn lamps brightened until he reached the final cages around the massive prison the Great Master was trapped in.
“Aaron, welcome back young one.” the ethereal voice of the great master whispered as if he was talking directly into his ear. Aaron could not help himself and grinned out of sheer relief. He bowed his head and then wiggled his bound arms.
“Apologies Great Master, but I am in a bit of a bind. Would you mind helping me?” Every cultivator had woken from their trance and they all were looking at them now. Aaron’s neck prickled and he felt himself blush at his pun. Sylus stood up and snorted at Aaron’s pun, which released the tension in the room and made Aaron release a breath he had not even known he had held.
“Let me great master, before this student of mine embarrasses himself even more.” Sylus waved Aaron to him and he walked over wondering how the man would help him.
“Seriously, you come back here tattered, stinking and bound in some weak spell a child could dispel. I can’t tell you the shame I feel as your master. Have you at least kept up with your training or do I need to spank you like a little boy?” Sylus hissed to him and gestured him to step closer.
“Sorry I guess? I was a little bit busy surviving being hunted by a few hundred vessels and mages to really care about my appearance, but yes I have kept up with your training regiment. Got some good real combat experience with it as well.” Aaron said and Sylus raised both of his eyebrows.
“Excuses? Really? Well I suppose that is all I can expect from a child, now come closer and let me free you.” Aaron basically leaned against Sylus metal bars and the man reached out and pinched the spell like one would snuff out a candle with his fingers and the spell collapsed instantly.
“Amateur. Such a weak spell. You just wait till I am done with you. If you ever get caught in one of those again I might as well kill myself out of shame.”
The Great Master cleared his throat and Sylus stopped with his tirade and stepped back from the metal bars, his hands raised.
“Apologies, great Master, he will do better in the future.”
“No matter, I am not offended.” the master said with a soft laugh and let his fingers glide through his beard, both his fingers and the beard flickering in and out of existence.
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“It seems you have lived through quite an ordeal since you last visited us. That is unexpected. Please, take a seat, relax and tell me, us, what happened. Indulge an old man with a story from outside of this prison of ours.”
Aaron sheathed his enchanted dagger and then rubbed his arms where the spell had constricted him, while he walked back to the front of the giant cage. He sat down and almost fell on his ass. He caught himself and managed eventually to tug his legs in and sit cross-legged. He was so relieved to be free, to have escaped, all of his tension drained away in an instant. His legs felt weak and he felt so tired he was sure he would fall asleep just sitting there if he let himself go. He took a deep breath, steadying himself before he looked back up to the great master. The soul had hovered closer until he floated directly in front of him on the opposite side of the intricately forged metal bars and sturdy light screens.
“Well, I am not sure what you expected to happen. But you did warn me not to climb the tower beyond level 5 until I could break spells such as the one that got me entangled.”
“Correct, most Cultivators find themselves isolated and unable to find a group, so they have to climb alone, which is much, much harder than in a group. But I honestly did not expect you to start climbing before returning here. The first month was meant to acclimate you to your new environment, find out if you can join a group or not. Then after doing some simple missions in the Town of Beginnings you could return here with the 13 manastones. I hope you brought that much at least.”
Aaron nodded and got his money pouch out and opened it to show them the glow of dozens of manastones and he also showed them the beast cores, he kept in a separate pouch.
“Well that is quite a bit more than I expected you to have, please, explain.”
So Aaron told them what happened from the start, from when he had left the prison and joined the camp of Aspirants, how Aurix had ordered them to kill him, how he had escaped and ambushed his pursuers. How they had hunted him and how he had finally fled to the second floor and how they had trapped him there until he found the secret door and a way back down through that.
“I...have a lot of questions.” Aaron finished and looked up to the great master who looked thoughtful. As much as a ghostly outline in fog could look thoughtful.
“Yes and I will answer some of them, if I can. This Aurix you called him? He is in a position of power in the Town of Beginnings?”
“Yes, he is their mayor.”
“Troubling to have a man who hates cultivators in that position.”
“An overreaction to the previous generation maybe, great master?” Mei asked and the great Master nodded.
“Possibly, it is unlikely for him to come from upstairs. His grudge is probably something one of your predecessors left you behind, young man.”
“I figured as much. But who came before me, if I may ask?”
There was a slight pause and the great master sighed.
“Before you, we still tried to cater to Cultivators wishes and offered them a choice what to pick, who to chose as their master. In the last 50 years there were 3 that came through these halls. Aramir, who followed our scaly friend, Krish’s teachings, but ultimately failed to overcome the allure of them. Hiksek who chose to create an artifact with Mortag’s help. We are not sure what exactly happened to him, just that he one day did not come back to the tower. He was killed and robbed for said artifact we assume, as it appeared at an auction in Ambition later and was eventually sealed as a cursed item. And finally Kyoko, who followed the Courtesans teachings and who was a frequent visitor to this prison until she too one day did not come back as well, about a year or two ago? With that we lost all sources of information about the outside world.”
“So you did not know that they would not welcome me with open arms?” Aaron asked with a hint of sarcasm, but he could not help himself.
“No, before this Aurix came, cultivators would live in relative peace in the Town of Beginnings. There were always groups who did not like Cultivators and would hunt or ambush them, but those were individuals, not the entire Town. I am once more glad to have chosen your abilities for you. I doubt you would have survived otherwise.”
“Yes, the abilities you bestowed upon me are the reason I survived, but that does not make it better to be caught off-guard and hunted down for weeks on end. But I understand, you did not know that they would attack me on sight for being a Cultivator. But why did you not tell me about the elevator? It would have saved me such a lot of hassle, if I had known that it existed at least.”
The great master raised a hand before Aaron could continue and Aaron could hear the smile in the old Cultivator’s words.
“This tower is a barren wasteland for cultivators, but it has been created to train and to challenge anyone. I would be a fool not to take advantage of that fact and you have grown tremendously in the last few weeks. You can’t deny that. More than I had ever hoped you would. The elevator has been created for convenience and for fairness to cultivators by Emnu himself. It can only ever be used to go down to floors below you, never to climb with one exception. Every 10 floors there would be a token you can find behind one of the hidden doors to the elevator that would allow you to use the elevator to climb back up to that level and only that level. Once you reach Ambition I would have clued you in on this secret to cut down travel time to us. On every 10th floor there usually are institutions to train mages and vessels, but the only place for knowledge and training for cultivators is right here. So the elevator was created to level the playing field. But before you berate me further. Using the elevator to climb costs an absurd amount of resources. Manastones in this case. It is not something I would advocate to someone who has barely been a month in the tower, even if you would have reached Ambition already.”
Aaron had to chew a while on that answer. He could not say he liked it that the great master was okay with Aaron walking into danger at every corner, but he understood where the master was coming from. It was a training hell, so why not make use of it? It still irked him that he had almost died because he had not been told something. But this was barely the start of his questions and he continued.
“On the second floor there was a door that blocked the way to the third. On it were pictograms that I had never seen before. But I could read them just fine.” Aaron got one of the potions from his belt and held it up, on it was another pictogram for Health.“How can I read these things, if I have never learned the language for them, how can I discern their meaning?”
“Ah, I wondered when you would realize that. But it goes even further. Are you not surprised that everyone so far has talked in your language to you?”
Aaron blinked. Yeah. Everyone in the tower had spoken English so far. That was slightly disconcerting if that had the same reason as the miraculous ability to read pictograms he had never seen before.
“I have thought about that before. Yes, it seems strange now that you say it, but I had a lot of other problems so I did not really think about it that much before.”
“Indeed. Please to not be rash and remove it, but in the back of your head at your brain stem there is a little bead embedded into your flesh. It is the cumulative effort of 2 Transcendants that followed the path of alchemy and artifice. It translates every language and every written word as long as you find enough of the text for the bead to analyze it or listen long enough to a strange language. The bead was installed into your body before your soul re-inhabited it and every Aspirant, that has been summoned, has it. A whole array of languages common to the tower and its inhabitants were included in the bead’s memory. Such beads are commonly installed in every child at the age of 5 or 10 in the tower and basically everywhere else in the multiverse. It’s one of the cheapest and most crucial commodities and widely traded for. How it is created and how the Multiversal Translator, the official name of it, works nobody really knows. Not me, not Emnu. Only the two great clans the Transcendants left behind know that secret.”
“Wait, so this is cultivator made? I thought Emnu was at war with Cultivators in general?”
“Ah, no. He is at war with some of them and others he is quite happy to trade with for resources he can’t create or harvest himself. The beads do not cost much a piece, which is why basically everyone in existence gets one. Most cultures have a ceremonial or religious celebration for it every year where children get this bead implanted. It is a non invasive procedure, you basically just press the bead to the back of someones head and it melts away and installs itself.”
“So this Multiversal Translator can learn every language that exists? What if you know multiple languages already, do you have to pick one it translates?”
“No, usually one language is dominant over the other and you would still see the languages you know and hear them as they were actually spoken. The mages in the tower have certain spells that will change the beads settings, while the vessels have it integrated into their System Interface, if I remember that phrase correctly. As a cultivator you will eventually get total control over it once you are in the foundation realm, the next cultivation realm beyond the one you are in. You can also decide then if you want to keep it or absorb it. But few people do so, just know you are not stuck with it and you will be able to change its settings to learn new languages in the future.”
Aaron nodded, but really he was just stalling. These questions were important and it was interesting. It explained a lot of things he had been wondering about. But it was not really what he wanted to ask and it was difficult for him to bring up. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath, before he looked back up to the great master who floated there waiting patiently.