Adrian shifts uncomfortably to the side, taking half a step back from the fall before him.

  The Tower is just beyond it, so close and yet so distant. Adrian wonders if he uses his avatars to catapult him further, then could he make the jump? The answer is most probably no. At least not yet.

  He looks down. The deep live darkness which engulfs it is still the same. Just as intimidating as it was before it awakened, promising death for anyone who so dares to fall into it. A part of Adrian wants to do just that and see what happens. A rather rational part also feels the same, just to defy everything his clan stands for, but then the fear takes hold and he steps back.

  It has been almost 10 days since he woke up in the dungeon, and in that time has recovered almost completely. His soul doesn’t ache every time he uses his skills or moves his body too much.

  In his perception, he can feel someone walk beside him, though not with an intent to push him off the cliff. Judging by her facial expressions though, perhaps meeting her here was a bad choice.

  The choice is already made.

  “They finally let you out?” Adrian asks, looking at Leah who stands beside him now. She stands a little further away, as if she is cautious of him. She looks a bit weary; tired and sad perhaps.

  “They couldn’t keep me locked up for long without deciding to kill me instead,” Leah shrugs, “Matthew will be there for a while more.”

  “He’s the one the clan has been relying on to lead the military once he levelled up. Must’ve been a terrible blow to them when they learned what happened to him,” Adrian says.

  “Hmm,”

  “What about Buren?”

  “He got out a while ago. He has never been a focus for the clan, until he joined us.”

  Adrian hums in response, as they both stand there in silence, the atmosphere quickly turning awkward.

  “So how was life the-”

  “I’m sorry Adrian,” Leha sputters, holding her hands over her face, “But why did you call me here? Are you suddenly interested in the well-being of your ‘party’?”

  Adrian doesn’t say anything. Leah continues.

  “Am I supposed to believe that you actually care about us, now that we’re suddenly ‘corrupted’ like you?”

  Adrian looks at her with disbelieving and questioning eyes.

  “The others can’t feel it, but I can tell, Adrian. I’ve seen that look in your eyes for years. It never made sense to me all this time, but now-..now that I’m one of you it makes so much sense. That alienation, that fake smile, that act to always make yourself believable and that you’re not a threat here.

  “I can see it, Adrian. I’ve felt it in the last few days. Where everyone looks at me like I’m suddenly a monster. My own parents look at me with mild disgust, and it’s excruciating. It’s-..it’s just not fucking fair!” Leah hisses, her voice stuttering in between sobs.

  “You see this?” She pulls up her sleeve to reveal a tattoo. It’s a halo made just above her wrist. “They marked me to show that I’m actually innocent, Adrian. They marked me. Like I’m a fucking slave.”

  Leah turns away, hiding her tears as she says, “I won’t tell anyone about you, but this is more from pity for Martin, than you. Please-..please just leave us alone after this,”

  Then she walks away, a single message floating in front of him as he looks at her back. It’s a small back, it looks so weak like a single tree stuck inside a tornado.

  You have been kicked out of Matthew Meany’s party.

  #

  Adrian is packing his bags. His blade strapped to the sheath by his waist, his artifacts already on him, and with the last of the clothes safely tucked inside his backpack, he’s ready to enter the Tower again.

  It’s in the middle of the night, an unusual time to enter the Tower, but there are no rules against it. Day and night work the same way inside though, so he’ll be waking up in the Tower in the middle of the night. It’s a little dangerous, but he believes he can keep himself alive until the day arrives with his skills.

  The only reason he is leaving now is because he doesn’t wanna explain to his mother why he’s solo climbing, and what happened to his party.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Quietly opening the window of his room, he gives a one last look behind him, and then jumps out, landing deftly on his toes.

  Keeping to the shadows, he starts to make his way out of the neighbourhood before someone sees him and starts raising doubts about him sneaking away like a thief.

  After a couple minutes of weaving between alleys, he finally reaches the bazaar. There are a few guards as expected, but Adrian doesn’t hide now. He walks out in the open, moving towards them, when something suddenly moves. All of a sudden there’s someone behind him.

  Adrian is about to move, when the figure behind him goes, “Boo!”

  Adrian steps back and finally looks at the figure, his blade in hand for any altercation. It’s Buren. Somehow he has sneaked up on hi- Ah must be the teleport skill.

  “I could’ve hit you, you know,” Adrian sighs, putting away his blade.

  “It would’ve been difficult for you. My Kinesthetics is pretty high,” He says.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “Just came here to say bye to a friend.” A short silence fills the area as Adrian takes in his words.

  “We don’t have to make it dramatic. You fucked up, I’ve probably also not been very friendly when you joined in. Perhaps that made a certain impact on how things went. I’ve spent many days since then wondering if maybe I could’ve changed anything, but well it was perhaps meant to be like this. The team we were never meant to be.

  “You don’t have to feel guilty or worried either. Live your life. Me and Leah will find someone else to take your place. We’ll rest for a while, wait for Matthew to come out, and then go adventuring again. Just like we always planned to do.

  “You’ll also be there in the tower somewhere. Climbing towards your own fate, perhaps with some new friends, or alone. Perhaps we’ll meet someday again. It’s all good. Just remember me in a better light than I shed in the beginning days.” Buren smiles and turns around.

  “Goodbye, old friend,”

  “Goodbye. And thank you.”

  Buren waves his hand without turning back and walks away. Adrian looks at the spot he has stood for a while more; thinking, internalising everything. A wave of unknown emotions rises within him, but he doesn’t know what to do with them, so he focuses, going to the place where things are so much simpler and so less complicated.

  He turns around and walks away too.

  #

  You have entered the first floor: Perfect Day.

  There are no settlements on this floor.

  There are around 10 floor bosses, scattered across the plains. Each once killed takes 2 hours to respawn, with random placement.

  You have already completed this floor and are permitted to skip the floor if you want. Do you wish to move to the 2nd floor?

  “Yes.” Adrian says.

  A red gate materialises in front of him, and over the Faced Flowers, disturbing them a little, but nothing more than a little breeze. A sudden urge to pluck all the plants and burn them all comes to Adrian, but he stowes it away and walks into the gate.

  He opens his eyes among the forest, like nothing has ever happened. Much stronger now than he used to be, and with the pendant around his neck, he doesn’t fear the local fauna or the humidity as much, so he takes his time walking to the settlement.

  He could’ve skipped the floor and gone directly to the 3rd as well, but there is a part of him that really really wants to know what the reset has done to the floor.

  Adrian sends a few of his avatars in the wild to either scout around him–because becoming too complacent in the Tower is the trick to a quick death–as well as to find some specific cores he has in mind. If things go as well as he thinks they will, then he may be able to upgrade one of his skills while he’s here.

  A few hours of casual walking later, Adrian finally hears the hollers again. The treehouses are already up, with people inhabiting it too. The Tower opened around 3 weeks ago, so almost a week after the whole debacle.

  As he walks into the clearing, the first thing he notices is the lack of the wall or the groove marks to represent that a wall ever stood there. The next thing are the giant trees.

  It’s the same as when he first came here. The same giant trees, the same architecture atop it, and the same bazaar below it. If anything, the number of people is a little low, but that too will fill up in a few days.

  Adrian walks through the bazaar, looking for any familiar shops. He does find some. The creator he commissioned the Mind Crasher from is still here. The guy from the artifact shop has set up a shop too. Life seems to have gone back to where he left it all. Except a lot of familiar faces are now missing, dead even.

  Adrian books a room in the inn he stayed while he was here, but the owner is different, and so are the staff. Adrian walks into his room, and lays down, focusing on the sensation of his avatars, as he spends hours manipulating them.

  As night falls, he wakes up and walks out of the room. Above the stars twinkle just like they used to.

  Everything feels so eerie, so similar, and yet in some ways different. Even the stars, are they really the same, or are the ones who died twinkling now?

  Adrian jumps and moves through the branches, climbing higher and higher to the highest branches. His spot is here too. He lays down to admire the stars, expecting a certain annoying woman to come in a few mins to annoy him again.

  Hours pass like this but no one appears. Adrian sighs. Eventually, it’s his avatars who come to him, holding the cores he has been looking forward to. Poison core, and Water core.

  Upgrade detected for Prison:

  Suspend a poisonous liquid inside your Prison to torture your prisoners. The poison suspended would be based upon the poison’s you know the composition of and have injected in your body.

  Ritual:

  Swallow 5 different types of poison and survive.

  A harsh ritual, but something very useful. Thinking about it already makes him happy. Now he’ll have a way of dealing damage to enemies even when inside the prison.

  Sadly, he doesn’t have the necessary poisons on him right now. He can probably buy them right now, but the third floor is known for its poisons. It will be infinitely better for him to get some there. It’ll be cheaper, and more effective.

  I just hope I won’t die from them.

  With nothing left to do, Adrian stands up from his seat and dispels his avatars. A red gate materialises in front of him, leading to the 3rd floor. With a sigh, and one last look at the floor beneath him, he steps in.

  #