Dragged to the counter, Darrel finally got a hold of his body. He quickly swatted Liam’s arm off his shoulder and complained.

“What are you doing, ‘broke’! Don’t touch me like we’re familiar!”

Luke made a funny look at Liam and Darrel. “For once I agree with the pompous windbag. Liam, don’t dirty yourself touching filth. He’s half crap, remember?”

“I’m not crap, Luke! You’re full of shit!”

A lady walked out of the room behind the counter. “Aren’t you three good friends!”

Darrel and Luke shouted in unison, “we’re not friends!”

The pretty lady smiled and covered her mouth as she chuckled. “You sure? You two sound pretty in sync to me.”

Liam nodded his head in agreement. They definitely were on the same wavelength when they bickered with each other.

“Stop bobbing your bald face, Liam!” Luke reprimanded. Liam ignored Luke, and so did Darrel. Darrel walked past the two friends and proceeded to exchange his list first.

“I’d like to take the items listed here. The sooner, the better. I can’t stand the foul mouth of the bastard over there any longer.”

“Shut it, Darrel.” Luke began to rebuke, “if anyone wants to stay away, it’s me! The stench of shit reeking off you is the worst!”

Darrel glared at Luke, and the lady laughed at the ridiculous argument. However, she complied and grabbed a prepared backpack, swapping the backpack with Darrel’s letter.

Darrel walked past Luke, warning Luke as he side-stepped him. “Stay away from me. I don’t want to catch your stupidity.”

Luke scoffed back, “that’s my line! You’re the one following me! I’m the one that has to deal with your crap! You’re the one that needs to stay away.”

Liam looked at the two, dumbfounded by their forgetfulness. “Guys, we’re spending the next two to three weeks together…”

They both looked at Liam in shock. Again, they responded in unison, “shit!” The two glared at each other in disgust at their synchronized speech.

Darrel stormed off, and after collecting their items, stored in large backpacks, Luke and Liam left the Adonis Guild and headed back to the slum area.

Luke fumed all the way back to their homes. He vented his frustration to Liam. “The audacity! You hear him? He wanted me to take back what I said, but he won’t even do the same!” Luke looked at his house, suddenly remembering an appointment with his parents. “Liam! Sorry! I have to go! I’m supposed to meet my parents for lunch! I’ll meet you at your house tomorrow!”

“Go. Don’t worry. I’ll see you then.”

Liam watched as his friend dashed off, and he walked to his house and unlocked the door. Locking up, he climbed the stairs and entered his room. Ordinance’s voice spoke in his head.

“Master, our plans will have to be modified. Since you will be in the Tower for around two weeks and also attain your second summon during that time, you must construct your second soul house immediately. I advise acquiring as many origin stones as possible to buy a better breathing technique. However, you will not be able to afford a better technique immediately. You will have to use the Lazar Institute’s basic breathing technique, but supplement it by absorbing origin stones. Since we sold off all the previous collections of herbs, we will have to forage for herbs we can trade, and keep herbs that can regenerate in the miniature world. The herbs that regenerate can be harvested and sold daily to the Marketplace. The earned origin stones should then be absorbed to speed up the growth of your second soul house. We will have to hope for luck to be on our side.”

Liam agreed. A better breathing technique could be bought later on. He took the token of the Ivory Tower beside his bed and the dungeon token in his hand, placing them both into the system’s inventory. He also brought along the two large sacks from the previous round of selling herbs. Liam left the house again and rushed to the Wilds outside the walls of the kingdom.

“Ordinance. Let’s harvest as much as we can. We must return before it gets dark and sell them off to Wayne again. Turn on the detection and mapping functions, and highlight anything we can sell.”

“Yes, master. Functions currently active. Highlighting known plants of value in blue.”

The familiar scene lit up Liam’s vision. He went on a crazed scavenger hunt, searching and harvesting all that Ordinance showed him. Liam continued to work as the sun slowly moved across the sky. He returned at sunset with another bountiful harvest. The herbs that could regenerate were kept in his miniature world. After selling his other spoils to Wayne’s store for two mid-grade orgin stones, Liam left for home. He ate dinner with his parents and notified them of his upcoming journey in the Tower. His parents worried about him, but relaxed when they understood Luke and the Vice Guild Master of the Adonis Guild were going along. Finished with dinner, he sat crossed-legged on his pile of bed sheets on the floor of the room.

Taking out the two origin stones, Liam proceeded to go through the motions of the breathing technique from the Lazar Institute. Instead of drawing in the origin energy in the atmosphere, Liam consumed the energy stored in the two origin stones.

Circulating the soul energy in his body, piercing through the stone and slowly pulling the condensed origin energy into his body. Taking in a deep breath, Liam closed his eyes. He followed the foreign origin energy flowing up his arms to his chest and down to his stomach. There the origin energy converted into soul energy, the more usual and preferred source of the body. The energy traveled down his inner thigh to the soles of his feet. He exhaled, and the soul energy flowed up the sides of his legs back through his chest to his neck, finally converging to his soul palace located in his third eye. Within the soul palace, the soul energy condensed and formed a small transparent silver orb.

Liam opened his eyes when he longer felt anything in his hand. He consumed the two mid-grade origin stones.

“Ordinance, how long did the process take, and how much progress did I make on the second soul house?”

“Analyzing… master, would you like the information displayed, or should I verbalize the result?”

“No need for the screen. You can just tell me.”

“Acknowledged. The absorption of the two mid-grade stones took approximately half an hour. Comparing the size of the second soul house to the primal soul house, absorbing two mid-grade stones is equivalent to increasing the second soul house by a quarter of a percent.”

“Two mid-grade origin stones only increased the second soul house by a quarter of a percent? Not even one percent?!”

“Correct, master. At the current rate, assuming we can harvest and sell all the herbs from the miniature world to the Marketplace for around twenty mid-grade stones, at best we can increase the second soul house by five percent daily. However, absorbing twenty stones will take about five hours per day.”

“Can we make it, Ordinance? Those numbers don’t look good.”

“Assuming the three weeks is a round trip, we should reach the fifth floor in approximately ten and a half days, giving you a second soul house of roughly thirty percent the size of your primal soul house. The second soul house will be smaller and therefore can only hold a being capable of fitting that size.”

Liam hesitated. He debated if he should call off the duel, but wondered and doubted he could delay climbing the Tower with the Adonis Guild. They were leaving tomorrow morning, and the predicament made Liam an anxious mess. Noticing Liam’s heightened emotions, Ordinance made a suggestion.

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“Master, you could try asking Luke to reschedule the climb.”

“No. I’m already imposing too much on Luke. He went out of his way to help me. He could lose merit with the Adonis Guild if he keeps bothering them with my requests. I won’t do that to him. I will have to live with the consequences of my actions. We can still find a way afterward.”

“That is true, master.”

“Let’s look at the bag the Adonis Guild provided for the climb tomorrow.”

Liam pulled the backpack at the foot of his pile of sheets and opened it. He searched the bag and found food rations, water canisters, rope, a tarp, flint, a sleeping bag, and some barrier and alarm orbs. None of the items could Liam sell. They were all essential items for climbing the tower.

Liam grumbled and spoke to Ordinance, “nothing more we can do today. I’m going to sleep it off. Good night, Ordinance.”

“Good night, Master.”

Liam was deep in sleep when suddenly he couldn’t breathe. Opening his eyes in distress, he was further alarmed by the large hand pressing the airways of his nose shut.

“Rise and shine, sleepy head!” Luke was messing around with Liam again. Woken up in fright, Liam jerked backward and hit his back and head against the wall. He made an odd croaking noise from the impact. Luke rolled over laughing, enjoying Liam’s reaction to his prank.

“Ugh. Again, Luke? It’s too early.” Liam yawned, and Luke wiped a tear from his eye.

“Worth it every time! Come on! Here. I pulled out some of your clothes and got them ready. I can’t believe you didn’t pack any spare clothes. I’m not sleeping next to a guy wearing the same clothes for three weeks. Nice undies, by the way. Where’d your mom get them?”

“You went through my stuff again? Ha. Nothing new, I guess. You should ask my mom. I don’t know where she got them.”

“Oh, yea! Where’s your dungeon token? I didn’t see it.”

Liam wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t like lying to his friend. “Ordinance, I think I’ll tell Luke that much. At least just the inventory. I won’t reveal the miniature world.”

“As you wish, master.”

A dark crack in space appeared before Liam, scaring Luke. Liam laughed, seeing Luke being the one jump-scared this time. He pulled out the dungeon token from one of his ten slots.

“Ta-da! How do you like my summon’s cool skill?”

“What is that? You pulled your item from thin air.”

“It’s technically not thin air. I think it’s another place. It’s like a storage space, but I can’t put in too much stuff.”

“Oh, put my backpack in too! This is perfect! It’s so annoying carrying both the sword and the bag on my back. How am I supposed to draw my sword with a bag over it?”

“Oh, that’s a good idea! I’ll throw mine in too.” Liam put away the bags and the token. He decided to put in his pile of bed sheets and clothes as well, filling up six of the ten slots.

Liam got dressed, and the two friends fought over food like usual. After a lively breakfast, Liam waved his parents goodbye, and the two walked back to the Adonis Guild. Vice Guild Master Hansel and Darrel were already waiting for them outside the guild’s headquarters.

Darrel complained to the two friends. “You’re both late! And you two didn’t even bring your bags! Is this a joke to the both of you?!”

Luke immediately got into bickering mode. “The jokes on you, dimwit! We have our bags! Unlike you, we don’t have to be a horse and carry them!”

Hansel sighed, dreading the three weeks with the three young men. “It’s too early for this shit! If you have so much energy to argue with each other, I should make you all do some training to use up your excess energy!”

The three went silent, and Hansel continued. “We are still okay with time, but did you two not bring your items? If you didn’t, that would delay us going to the Tower. I won’t let this go lightly. The Tower is serious business. I will punish you two according to guild regulations, if you two truly didn’t bring your bags.”

Liam quickly replied, “we did bring the bags. I stored them away with my summon’s ability.”

Hansel grew curious but still questioned whether Liam lied to get away from punishment. “We don’t know your soul skill because it didn’t dispaly from the Orb of Telling. But how did you know your summon’s ability? It could not be called out to show you. Either your summon tells or shows you its abilities, or you get it evaluated by the guilds. Not many first summons are sentient and capable of speech. How did you know your summon’s skill if it couldn’t come out and show you? What rank was your soul palace?”

Liam started to get a bit worried, but he kept himself composed and kept to the general facts. “I just know my summon’s ability. To answer your second question, I have a medium-grade soul palace.”

Hansel looked at Luke to confirm what Liam said, and Luke nodded his head. “Fine. A good summoner never reveals all their cards anyway. We’ll head to the Tower now. You’ll be sorry if you’re lying. Surviving while climbing with no supplies will be a good punishment in itself. Let’s go!”

The trio was led by Hansel into the Ivory Tower. The unmoving statue of Lady Gwendell once again greeted their presence. Hansel bowed his head, displaying his courtesy. The statue’s eyes moved and glanced down at the three new climbers. However, Lady Gwendell remained silent. Hansel led them to the staircase, spiraling upwards.

Turning around, Hansel asked the three young men, “Did you all bring your tokens of the tower?”

Liam opened his inventory and took out his token. Hansel looked on with interest, seeing Liam’s summon’s ability in action. He pondered what Liam’s summon could be.

“Oh! My token’s in the bag too! Let me take it out real quick, Liam!” Luke said.

Darrel looked at Liam with curiosity and a bit of envy for not having to haul their large backpacks around. Luke never missed out on arguing with Darrel and commented, “now you know the jokes on you, right? Neigh! Neigh! Neigh!” Luke sarcastically laughed like a horse to mock Darrel.

“At least I can carry my baggage like a human, unlike the horse laughing over there.”

The two continued to argue and fight, causing Hansel to step in again.

“Ok. I’ve had it. It’s only our first day! I don’t think I can make it.” Hansle glared at the two and shouted, “Brats! If you want to act like bickering children, then I will treat you like bickering children! Teamwork is crucial to survival in the tower! One wrong move can lead to death. Do you two hate each other enough to want the other one dead?”

There was no response. Luke and Darrel glared at each other but huffed and looked away.

“Guess not. Seems like there may be some hope left. This problem must be squared away now! I will not risk the lives of my team on some stupid squabble. You two learn to respect each other. And there’s no better way than getting you two to know each other. Come here, both of you!”

Liam watched on as Hansel smashed their heads together. The two curled down and rubbed their aching heads. Hansel demanded, “now, kindly greet and tell each other your names.”

They glared at each other, but Luke caved in first. “Hi. I’m Luke. No last name.”

Darrel scoffed, “what the hell?! Peasant. Who doesn’t h…”

Hansel smashed their heads together again. Luke was furious, “why’d you punish me too!?”

Hansel replied, “from now on, if either of you utters anything I find annoying, both your heads will be smashed. If you don’t stop, you’ll both be stupid by the time we return from the tower.”

Darrel's eyes watered, and he acted more properly. “I’m Darrel Summers.”

“That’s a start. Now, you too, Dsyfuctional. Introduce yourself to your temporary team.”

Liam looked at the evil grin on Hansel’s face. He felt that the Vice Guild Master enjoyed beating up the two more than actually guiding them. He gulped and introduced himself.

“I’m Liam Tarliot.”

Hansel nodded his head. He liked the silence and led the three up the stairs to the second floor. Lady Gwendell looked on as they ascended past the ceiling. She chuckled recalling Luke’s display, but she paid exclusive attention to Liam.

“It’s that young man again. I hope the Ruler of Twilight doesn’t do anything strange.”

The three walked up the stairs to the second floor, but no room was in sight. The floor opened up to an enormous blue sky. It was as if they had entered the Wilds outside the kingdom. They stood on the top of a hill of green grass that rolled and folded to the flat plains below. Hansel stepped forth and turned around.

“Lucky for you three, the second floor of the tower only has herbivores. That will change once we climb up that set of stairs way over there.”

The three had to squint to see the small vertical spiral of stairs off in the horizon.

“This floor is simple. We cross through the plains of grass, hunt some game, take their cores, and continue our merry way. Since the purpose of the second floor is to get new climbers accustomed to the tower, we will have the two capable of summoning try out their summons. Dysfunctional, you will try your sword skills with a spare sword I brought along. Here, take it first.”

Hansel tossed a sword in its sheath over to Liam. It dropped with a thud. Liam was surprised and grateful the Vice Sect Master had prepared more for him. He walked over and picked up the sword. It wasn’t as large and heavy as Luke’s sword, but Liam used both hands to control the sword properly.

“Hmmm…you need some work, Dysfunctional. We’ll work on that later. Our goal is to make it halfway through the third floor by nightfall. Time passes the same as outside the tower for the first five floors. Think of it as a tutorial. Everything changes starting on the sixth floor.”

Hansel grinned, “now then, who wants to go first and kill their first beast in the tower? Or should I throw someone down?”