The next moment that the four of them experienced smelled like loam and existed in a darkness gently illuminated by hovering strips of light. Behind the lights there was only darkness.

“Good morning.” The voice was still and small but the quiet and its perfect stereo imaging made its words unmistakable to Duncan and the other three.

“Thanks for entering The Tower. I do hope you’ll stay and make it all the way to the Top. That would be very good for you and for everybody.”

“The top?” said Jesse.

“The Top” said the voice. “Ninety-nine floors after the first you will arrive at the Top. Each floor has its own rules and uniqueness’s to be navigated. Accomplishing this will permit you to move on to the next higher floor.”

“You said uniquenesses?” asked Terry.

“Yes,” said the voice.

“What did you mean by that?” asked Terry.

“Just that,” said the voice. “Each floor will be unique, with its own rules, magic and occasionally it’s own physics.”

“Magic” said Terry as Duncan said “Physics?”

“Yes. Magic, physics, each floor will have its own rules, but nothing that will invalidate the magics you develop or a physics that would be incompatible with your continued existence.”

That sounded like a challenge to Duncan.

“We have the option to leave? We don’t have to stay?” asked Adrian?

“That is correct,” said the Voice.

“We’ll stay. Let’s do it.” said Duncan

“No more questions?” asked the voice.

Duncan looked at Terry.

“Not from me,” said Terry.

Duncan looked at Adrian, who after a pause, and a quick glace to Terry gave Duncan a thumbs up.

Duncan looked at Jesse.

“I’m a little hesitant about it,” said Jesse. “What’s in it for us?”

“Power,” said the still small voice. “If you exit at level 50, for instance, you will have gained immortality, no natural death will take you and by that point.”

“I’m in,” said Jesse.

“We’ll proceed,” said Duncan with a bit of a slur as he subconsciously tucked his thumbs between his pointer and middle fingers for comfort.

“That’s pretty close to record time. Given that all of you are one of the first 120 people to decide to enter one of the 12 towers. You’ll get a supercharged archetype. Given that you’re the first to make it to this tower, I’ll also throw in a freebee. If you lose on the first floor and die you’ll come out alive an well. So you get two chances. First floor only.”

There was silence for a moment. Terry looked at his feet. Duncan and Jesse held eye contact and Adrian looked over at them.

“Good luck”.

With that again everything faded into nothing.

——————————-

This time the transition was like a cold bucket of water to the face. The discomfort amplified by the smoothness of the previous transition.

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They arrived at an octagon platform with clear morning sky overhead. On one end of the platform was a fountain with a relief carving of an open-mouthed beaded man. To the left was what appeared to be a small shop window set into the front of the building and on the end opposite from the fountain was a short set of stairs down to a rough mown grassy platform.

The first thing Duncan noticed after coming to was that was he was perfectly sober.

“You all sober?”

“Stone cold,” said Terry. “Not how I expected to end up the night”

“You’re telling me,” said Adrian.

“Not bad though. My partner’s will be a little worried about me and my files.”

“You’re not that important,” said Duncan.

Terry lowered his gaze and looked at him coldly.

“Well you are, just replaceable. They might not do as good of a job as you. Fine. But someone else will do the work. It will get done. The world moves on without us.”

“Anyways,” said Jesse as he walked over to the shop window. “Let’s go find out what this Floor is about.”

“You’ve arrived,” said the shop keeper who seemed human, but on closer inspection was made of bone China. “First batch I’m serving in this Tower. Pleasure to meet you all I’m Chip.”

“Good to meet you too Chip,” said Jesse. “Would you mind explaining what we’ve gotten ourselves into here?”

“Not at all,” said Chip with a big smile on his face. “You got a game of defend the Well.” He pointed down to a large stone building with step. “See that down there. That’s the Well. You got to defend it from the other team of climbers that is coming to take it. Floor ends when you take theirs or they take yours.

“And when I use the term ‘game’” he continued, “I use comparatively. Don’t get me wrong. They’re coming to kill you to try to take it. First two times you die you get a time out in paradise. Third time and that’s it – you’re dead for good.”

“Uh…,”said Adrian.

“So,” said Terry “They are just going to run here, try to kill us and take it? And we have to fight them off? And if we do we win?”

Chip’s laugh was a big laugh, that sounded a bit like dishes rattling. “Wish it were that easy. See those towers over there, and there, and there? And those two on top of the Well? Those are powered by the Well. If one of the enemy were to try to come in here and attack right away they would lose one of their lives. The well’s pretty much invulnerable until you take down the towers.”

“So we take down the tower’s, then go destroy the Well and if we come across anyone else they have three lives and we have to try to kill them or stop them?

“About right. Here have a scroll of Teleport each and a couple of healing potions. They’ll heal just about anything, but don’t interrupt their healing with an injury or they’ll stop working. The troops are about to start their run. I’ll be here if you need anything. I got lots of things, but you’ll need some Thank You Points, to get anything, so go do some work for the Well and let it thank you. Then let me sell you some stuff.”

The four of them waived to Chip and headed down to where the troops were gathering. There weren’t many of the troops. Duncan thought they looked more like a small band of undernourished fighters.

“Don’t forget to check your skills,” yelled Chip after the band..

“Morning climbers, we’re here to get our glorious death. I’m Iago, that Lago, Liago, Lomo. Nathan back there is the archer for the group.”

“What’s this Chip is saying about skills?” asked Terry.

“Climbers normally get a skill to help them with the tower. If I remember from last time I did this, they just turn inward and think about it.”

Duncan took a moment to examine himself and found he had the itch to pick a target. He went with the feeling and suddenly there were four arrows in the air aiming at a near by tree. Faster than was humanly possible.

“Shit,” said Adrian.

Duncan looked after his arrows in the tree and gestured to go pick them up.

“Don’t even bother,” said Nathan the archer. “Rules of the floor say you cannot get separated from your weapon. For archers that means there’s always another arrow. Might not be that way on another floor.”

“Thanks. Nathan right?” said Duncan.

“Yep,” said Nathan.

“We’ll do our best to keep you all from dying” said Jesse.

“No Sir.” said Iago. “Life is misery. The afterlife is pleasure. You will not be stopping us, or those who come after from our deaths today. You will help us die warrior’s deaths and kill our enemies.

“Death to our enemies” they shouted interrupting Iago.

Nathan leaned over to Duncan’s ear and whispered to him “Don’t worry this is not some hokey-pokey made up thing. We’ve been there before. If you die, you’ll see it too. Death’s a blast.”

“What do you mean those who come after?” asked Terry.

As he finished a siren sounded that drowned out all noise.

“Fresh troops,” Said Iago, “Every thirty-minutes.” Then he turned to the troops and yelled “Today is the day we die!”

“Today is the day we die!” the others shouted back to Iago. And with the shout the troops and their counterparts at each of the other Towers began marching forward at a quick jog.

“That’s a little messed up,” said Jesse.

Terry thought about death being a release and thought about what if there was a paradise afterwards. Dying is battle is a way he had never thought about before.

“Let’s go see what’s up,” said Duncan. “Remember what Chip said and what the Voice said before we got here. Three lives on this floor. And if something goes wrong we will get to exit and try again if we want or go back to the world outside. So let’s think of this as an exploratory run. If we win, we win. If not we can think about what we do it again.

“You trust the voice?” asked Adrian.

“We’re in magic-land,” said Terry. “So, no. But we don’t got any better options right now.”