Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

"What do you mean by forces already searching for him?" Misha tightened her grip on the blanket pooled across her lap.

King rested his head on his front paws. [That is something I am not allowed to answer nya.]

Misha stared at him. She had finally managed to pry open one secret, only to discover three more hiding behind it.

"Of course. Another secret." She slumped against the headboard and dragged one hand down her face.

King closed his eyes and resumed licking his paw. [Your family seems unusually fond of them nya.]

The annoyance helped. Not much, but enough to keep her from sinking into her grief.

Another question had been bothering her since the siege. One she had been too exhausted to ask before. Now that King had started answering her questions, even poorly, she had no intention of letting him escape.

"Why did that Floor Quest appear in Genesis?" Misha lowered her hand and fixed him with a look.

King released a long, silent sigh. Master had warned him that his older sister possessed an endless supply of questions. He had assumed that was an exaggeration born from sibling irritation. It was not.

"Settlement floors are supposed to be safe," Misha continued before he could pretend not to hear her. "Monsters aren’t supposed to enter the city. There weren’t even monsters outside Genesis before the siege."

King slowly opened one golden eye.

"Caleb said something about outer interference and an unknown external force," she added. Misha searched his face, although reading the expression of a cat remained a skill she had not yet mastered. "What did that mean?"

[You ask inconvenient questions at inconvenient hours nya.] King lifted his head just enough to glare at her.

"It’s not even midnight."

[Every hour is an inconvenient hour unless food is involved nya.] King turned his head away with royal disdain.

"You’re not actually a cat though."

King’s golden eyes narrowed into thin slits. [I am a sovereign creature assuming a feline shape. Do not reduce me to a household pet nya.]

"You sleep on pillows and complain when meals are late." Misha gestured toward the cushion he had claimed as his throne.

[Royal habits nyauh.] King raised his chin.

"King."

His ears flattened. For several seconds, he refused to acknowledge her. Then he rose with all the reluctance of a ruler being summoned away from an important state affair. He stretched one front leg, then the other, extending every claw before leaving from the pillow to the windowsill.

Rain crawled through the glass beyond him, breaking the reflection of his golden eyes into thin, distorted lines.

[Settlement floors were never safe nya.]

She slowly lowered her arms. "What?"

He sat with his tail curled around his paws. [The Tower was not designed to provide cities, markets, academies, or convenient little shops. They began as intervals between trials. Once the floor was cleared, the survivors were allowed to remain for a limited period before continuing their ascent nya.]

"And then?" She shifted closer to the edge of the bed.

[When a new group of Raiders entered, the floor was meant to reset nya.] King’s reflection stared back at her from the window.

Misha’s expression tightened.

[The First Generation refused to leave immediately nya,] King said, his claws lightly tapped the wooden sill. [They built camps, then camps gained walls, the walls attracted people who had no intention of climbing further.]

Misha had already heard pieces of that history, though no one had explained what the Tower itself thought of those settlements.

"But monsters couldn’t cross the settlement boundary. There were no monsters outside of Genesis," she told him once again.

[That’s because Master altered the boundaries nya.] He looked back at her.

Misha straightened herself. "He made the settlements safe?"

[Safer.] King corrected her without hesitation. [Do not confuse the two nya.]

He lifted one paw toward the rain-streaked glass. [After obtaining administrative authority, Master froze the reset cycle of every established settlement nya. He redirected monster routes, moved spawn zones beyond populated boundaries, and placed sanctuary protocols around residential districts.]

Misha thought of the city before the siege. None of them had known their peace existed because Caleb had edited the Tower’s system.

[Mandatory Floor Quests could no longer activate within settlement floors nya. The Tower still permitted trials beyond them, but the cities themselves were removed from the normal reset cycle.]

"And the Four Families benefited." Her gaze sharpened as Tobias’ warning surfaced in her mind.

King glanced at her. [Greatly nya.]

Something unpleasant entered his voice.

Her gaze drifted toward the bedroom door, suddenly more aware that she was sitting inside a Faust residence.

"Should I trust Elyes then?" Misha lowered her voice despite knowing the walls were probably thick enough.

King tilted his head. [That is not the same question as asking whether House Faust can be trusted nyauh.]

"Does he know about any of this?"

[Not everything.] He began cleaning the fur between his claws.

"How reassuring."

[You are the one who followed him home nya.]

"He was in a wheelchair." Misha looked at him as though this should explain everything.

[And yet he still managed to abduct you into wealth.] King’s chest puffed slightly. [Impressive nya.]

"He didn’t abduct me." Grabbing the nearest pillow, she pulled it onto her lap. "Anyway, then what happened during the siege?"

King turned back toward the rain. [Someone removed the sanctuary protocols nya.]

"The unknown external force?"

[An Administrator from another Tower.]

Misha’s eyes widened. For several seconds, she only stared at him.

"There are other Towers." The possibility should not have surprised her as much as it did.

Every comic she had ever read eventually revealed another Tower somewhere else whether it was on another country or by continent. It revealed another system, another world with a worse problem waiting beyond the current one.

Her mind immediately began producing possibilities faster than she could reject them.

King looked over his shoulder. [Did you imagine all of existence had been constructed specifically to inconvenience you nya? Do you suffer from protagonist syndrome?]

Misha’s eye twitched. "As far as I can tell, I’m more like a supporting character surrounded by people stronger than me. The protagonist could be anyone... most likely my brothers."

[So you’re aware nya nya.] King nodded solemnly.

She gripped the edge of the pillow before she could throw something else. "So how many Towers are there?"

[No one inside this Tower knows nya.]

"You know." Misha watched one of his ears twitch.

[I know enough not to count them aloud nya.]

Misha waited but King did not continue so her gaze slid toward the pillow on her lap.

His pupils narrowed at her. [Violence will not improve my memory nya.]

"It might improve my mood." She drew the pillow back.

[Your aim remains poor.] King’s whiskers lifted in what looked suspiciously like a smirk.

She threw it anyway.

King vanished from the windowsill and reappeared on top of the wardrobe. The pillow struck the glass and slid harmlessly to the floor.

He looked down at her. [As I said nya.]

Misha glared up at him. "Get down!"

[No.] He began licking one paw with infuriating composure.

"Then explain why another Administrator attacked us."

King settled near the edge of the wardrobe, visibly pleased with his superior position. [They did not attack you directly nya.]

"They sent an army into Genesis."

[The army was already part of the floor.] King’s tail flicked behind him. [The foreign Administrator simply issued a restoration command nya.]

"You mean like a reset?"

King lifted his chin, apparently delighted that she had managed to follow. [Yes. Master’s changes were unauthorized nyauh. The settlement protections, your recruitment, and several other changes were layered over the Tower’s original framework.]

"My recruitment?" She went completely still.

King’s expression became carefully blank.

Misha knew that look. It was the same look Caleb used as a child whenever something in the kitchen broke while he happened to be standing nearby.

"What did he do?" Misha’s voice dropped.

King looked away. [The Tower issues one invitation. Only one nya.]

Cold unease crept along Misha’s arms. "But Caleb sent me another one."

[Yes. He sent you a second nya.]

"Meaning?" She tilted her head in confusion.

[Meaning your invitation should never have existed nya.]

The rain sounded louder after that. It tapped against the window in uneven bursts, filling the room while Misha tried to understand what he had said.

King jumped down from the wardrobe and landed on the desk without disturbing the papers stacked there.

[Your original invitation expired. Under normal law, the Tower would never contact you again nya.]

Misha’s mouth opened, then it closed. She remembered the window appearing before her. Her second chance.

[Master forced the System to recognize another invitation nya. He altered the recruitment record, inserted your name into a closed sequence, and disguised the entry as part of the original process.]

"T...That sounds... illegal."

[Extremely nya nya.] King sat straighter, pride returning to his posture.

Misha frowned at him. "You sound pleased."

[Master committed a violation considered impossible even among Administrators nya. A degree of admiration is appropriate.]

"What about Mateo?" She couldn’t help but ask. "Is he also in this?"

King went still for only a second. He turned toward one of the ink bottles and examined his reflection in the dark glass. [We were discussing your recruitment nya.]

"No, you were discussing my recruitment." She stood from the bed and approached the desk. "I’m asking about Mateo."

[And I am declining to encourage your habit of abandoning one subject before fully understanding it nya.]

"What happened to him?" Misha planted both hands on the desk, forcing him to look at her.

[He entered through a legitimate invitation nya.] King moved his gaze to the papers beneath his paws.

"That isn’t what I asked." Misha leaned closer.

[I am aware nya.]

"Then answer me."

[Your older brother’s circumstances are unrelated to the second invitation.] He lowered his voice. [That is all I am permitted to say nya.]

Her chest tightened as she dug her fingers into the edge of the desk. "Is he alive?"

King’s golden eyes met hers. Something softened in them but it disappeared so quickly she almost convinced herself she had imagined it.

He stepped over her hand and moved toward the other side of the desk. [Just know that he is waiting as well nya.]

Misha opened her mouth again.

[The foreign Administrator.] King abruptly looked toward the window. [You asked what they discovered nya.]

The change in subject was so shameless that Misha almost laughed.

"You’re terrible at redirecting conversations." She crossed her arms.

[And yet the conversation has been redirected nyauh.] King jumped from the desk onto the back of the nearby chair.

Misha stared at him for a few seconds. She wanted to keep pushing, every part of her demanded it. Still, she recognized the stubborn angle of his ears.

"Fine." She returned to the bed and sat at its edge. "What did the foreign Administrator discover?"

[They detected an impossible second invitation but they did not identify who received it nya.]

"So they don’t know it was me."

[Not yet nya.]

That final word did nothing to reassure her.

King continued, [Master concealed your identity beneath corrupted recruitment data nya. To anyone examining the record from outside, the second invitation appears as an administrative anomaly without a confirmed recipient.]

"Then why did they reset the entire Tower?"

[They did not know which alterations were connected to the anomaly. Once they detected the unauthorized recruitment sequence, they traced other deviations from the Tower’s original design nya. The settlement protocols were the largest and easiest to identify.]

"And my skill?" Misha asked, her hand moving unconsciously toward her chest.

King’s tail went still. [They have not discovered its full nature nya.]

Misha stared at him, her stomach turned. "So if they find it..."

[They will understand that the second invitation did more than recruit an unauthorized Raider.] King jumped from the chair and crossed the floor with silent steps. Then he stopped in front of her. [They will know it produced a custom character configuration nya.]

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