I kneel above a guy whose nose I just broke.
A dozen eyes stare at me, now slightly wider than before. My headphones are off again, because I at least had the courtesy to ask the bastard what he was thinking. Then he tried to pat me on the shoulder and say it wasn’t a big deal.
So I punched him. Hard enough to knock him out of his chair and send him sprawling onto the floor.
“What’s your name?” I ask the scithian.
His wings chime in pain, crystals tinkering against the stone floor as he gives a small groan. “Irv,” he grinds out. Nodding to myself, I identify him again.
[Stoneshifter, lv. 51]
“So, Irv,” I say slowly. “Let me guess. You just recently crossed into a new threshold. Got your mantle. Felt like a hotshot, huh? Big deal? That’s awesome, man. I’m happy for you,” the words leave my mouth. “And then you saw us come in here. And you were probably wondering about why I didn’t leak any mana, right?”
Blinking in terror, he nods. And I nod as well. “See, that’s okay. I can even forgive trying to identify me. I get it, I do. But then you tried to touch me. And, really, I apologize for hurting you. I’m picky about my personal space. Here, let me just-”
I reach out, and a tendril of mana leaves my hand, stitching his nose back together, pleasantly fixing the break. It takes a lot of mana, but these days, my vessel is consistently full, even as I keep some skills active permanently. “There you are,” I say, and Irv touches his nose in wonder.
“By the Tower,” he says with a small gasp. “You’re-”
“Shhh, I’m nothing at all. I’m someone who minds their personal space and their privacy. So, keep this in mind, yeah?” I lean in closer. “Don’t bother me when I’m wearing these.” I point at my headphones, then rise to my feet again, walk over to my table, and sit down.
Opal snickers, leaning back in the chair. “Zero to one-hundred real quick, huh?” they ask.
I shake my head slowly. “Just efficient.” We watch as Irv gets up from the ground, and sits back down at his table, a little shell shocked. But when the others there ask him, or when the eyes follow me, he doesn’t say anything. Just moves back to his drink quietly. People now look at me with a lot more respect, and the barkeep comes, bringing me some water to drink.
As she places the cup down in front of me, she eyes me up and down once. “You ain’t a flob, are ya, kid?”
Tilting my head, I ask back. “What’s a flob?”
She chuckles at my question. “And a poorly informed kid at that. Floor-born. Flob. People who were born on any given floor.”
“That feels like it’d be rude to say,” Inu notes, and the old woman just shrugs.
“It is,” she says. “But it’s also true. If anyone doesn’t wanna be seen as a flob, they can climb down, start the pilgrimage from the bottom, or simply fight hard enough to earn their levels and be worthy of their floor. I’m a flob, too,” she admits easily. “Go on, inspect me if ye want.”
[Hearthward, lv. 44]
Despite her words, she’s strong. Stronger than the average person outside. I nod at her for a moment. “We came up today.”
“Oooh, very new to the floor,” she says with a snicker. “Well, here’s the first lesson. Keep me floors clean. Rain washes things away outside, so fight there if ye must.”
That seems reasonable, so I nod. “Understood. Sorry.”
She tilts her head at that, crossing her arms in surprise. “Huh. Surprisingly calm about things, are ya?”
I shrug, and turn back to my water, drinking some more. “Anything else we should know?” I ask her.
“Name’s Zinc, climber. Pay me, and you’ll be dry, housed and fed. That’s all.”
“How do people usually make money here?” Thatch asks curiously. “We have jobs, of course. But can we just… sell things? Are there taxes? Are there-”
I’m already beginning to zone out as he asks things about the nitty gritty. No way I’m dealing with any of that. Opal notices instantly and snickers at me, as Zinc nods along to his questions. “Jobs are good. You can sell anything, yeah. A tenth of what you make goes as tithe to the guard. ‘Course, they only take things if they find ya. But I recommend playin’ nice.” The old woman crosses her arms again, tapping her foot. “For climbers, of course, ye can always scale a monolith.”
Monoliths. “Minor Towers?” I ask, repeating a phrase that I somewhat remember.
Zinc slowly nods at that. “Yeah. Monos for short. They’re little challenges you can do. Linked to ascending to the higher floors, too. You’ll see once you enter someone,” she says with a knowing smile. “Shouldn’t be too long.”
And then, before we can ask anything else, she waves a hand and walks back behind the bar. I sigh softly, put my headphones back on, and focus inwards.
[Vessel Construction 1 > 2]
[Class up! Vesselsmith 0 > 1]
Cracks spread through my vessel, and then my class levels up. And that’s the first strong reminder I get about why it usually involves heart stats.
See, the heart stat might have knitted my screwed up attempt at vesselforging back together before dumping even more mana inside it. But now? My cracked vessel is suddenly forced to grow, as yet more blinding power pours inside of me, growing my store of mana even further. I have to double down on my attunement loop to keep it inside, even as the skin above my heart cracks.
Kuro quickly laps up the blood, keeping it from staining my clothes, which is really rather nice. I breathe slowly, mending the cracks in my vessel, and then healing my skin back in place. Then, once it’s all settled, I use [Vessel Construction] once more, straining, pushing the boundaries of what I can do. Once more, I bleed.
Then I do it again.
- - -
Evening comes. We only have one room, sharing it between all of us. There’s bunk beds, and Opal very swiftly claims the top bunk with a teleport. For my part, I pick a corner bed, where I can tuck myself away. One by one, we find our places, and then I notice the window.
And instantly, I see why Zinc told us to look out of it. And I spot the monolith instantly.
Compared to the rest of the buildings, it looks different. It’s a tall, sleek thing that looks to be made from a smooth plane of greyish metal, narrowing towards the top. There is just one in this ring of the city, and I find myself staring at it for a long moment.
Thatch notices, then follows my gaze. “Whoa,” he breathes, his eyes glowing telltale emerald. “Holy fuck.”
“What do you see?” I ask.
“So many runes. So much mana, so- ah!” he cries out for a second, as blood drips from his eyes and he flinches away. For a moment, he holds his face, then chuckles. “Okay, ow. Not doing that again.”
Very gently, I reach out and cup his face, healing the wound. The crack along the length of his iris mends, torn bits of flesh knitting back together. He smiles for a moment, and thanks me.
Then, I look at the monolith again, alongside all the others. And to me, it looks completely inert. I see no runes, no mana pouring off of it… nothing. And that’s the scariest part, isn’t it? Not a drop of mana leaks from the monolith. Instead, it just stands there, humming away ominously.
And I can’t help but wanna see what’s at the top of it.
Drawing in air through my teeth, I give it a long stare. “You’re smiling,” Inu says quietly, and I nod.
“Thought so,” I say, the smile widening a tiny bit further. I want to know. I want to know so badly what’s at their top.
[Ascension Quest: The Rings. Earn tokens to unlock access to the higher rings of the city. Tokens can be earned by initiating ascension trials, enacting significant changes upon the city, by winning them off true inhabitants of higher rings, or finding them in monoliths.]
And finally, the way up reveals itself. And with it, there is one more notification. In the distance, far higher in the city, centered across the innermost ring, an enormous Eye appears above the castle that towers over even the monoliths. An enormous Eye that is looking right at me.
[Respitia the Pure has her eyes on you. She “politely” welcomes you to her city, promising you all the hospitality you have earned from her position as steward of Downpour, reigning over the fifth to ninth floors.]
And at that, I almost laugh. Well, dang. Guess my time in this city just got a little bit more interesting.
But fine. If Respitia wants to stop me, she can give it a try. I’ll just climb anyway. I’ll climb to the tops of the monoliths. I’ll climb to the innermost ring of the city. I’ll master vesselforging, I’ll become even stronger, faster than they can keep up with, and I’ll work on my dozens of mana-based projects.
A feral grin appears on my face as I look around the room. There’s so much to do, and I couldn’t think of any people I’d rather be doing it with. We share one more round of smiles as I tell them of the notification, and we all make up our minds.
There’s climbing to be done.
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