[Level up! 29 > 30]

  I stand above the corpse of another priest. A real shame, that. Killing so many healers surely will cause trouble for Espiree. But, oh well. It is what it is. They came after me, so they died.

  There’re better people to mourn them, I’ll leave the grieving to those.

  “Whewee,” Opal says with a half-whistle, dragging a bloodied hand through their hair, staining the black with crimson. “That was intense. Didn’t think a buncha old farts could fight like that. Those paladins were fast.”

  Inu gives them a long look. She’s not covered in blood, unlike the others. Instead, the people around her lay dead with hardly any visible wounds. She’s running a vicious, thorns-style build at this point. Getting hit, rebounding people, banking that pain in her [Reservoir], then unleashing it on her enemies all at once.

  When they’re stunned by the crashing wave of pain and fear, a single blow to the head means they’re done.

  “This was… horrible,” she says slowly. “Snow. Can you heal me, please? I think just about every bit of my body is bruised under this armor.” She gives me a small, awkward smile, but I nod, taking her gauntleted hand and pouring mana into [Biological Restoration].

  [Biological Restoration 4 > 5]

  It levels up instantly, the system recognizing the improvements I’ve made after breaking apart some of the healing skills of the priests. They were keeping the paladins alive, turning it into a battle of attrition. When those healing spells stopped working, it was over pretty fast.

  Inu’s flesh knits together, and I move on to do the same for Thatch. He is the most bloody out of all of us. Splattered in it, yet eerily calm. He looks at me, and I pull him into a hug.

  Slowly, his arms wrap around me, and a sob wracks his lips. “Fuck,” he says. “It’s… shit. I feel horrible.”

  “I know.” I squeeze him harder. This kinda hug is cool. He doesn’t see my deadpan expression, just gets a little bit of warmth. I look at Inu, and she nods. Slowly, I let Thatch go. She talks to him instead.

  “It’s the [Rage], right?” she asks.

  Thatch nods, putting his face in his very bloody hands, drawing streaks of scarlet all over his handsome cheeks. “Yeah,” he says. “Yeah. My class helps but… it’s never been so real. So close. I’ve felt it but never… hurt people.”

  Sylves pulls at my sleeve, and I turn to her. She points to a rock outcropping, and I nod. We sit down. She keeps a bit of distance from me, probably knowing that the hug with Thatch took all the closeness I can manage. Well, I could dredge up some more, but this is okay for now. Opal leans against the wall next to us, and we watch and listen as they talk.

  Empathetically, Inu pats his shoulder. “It doesn’t make you less human.”

  “It sure feels like it does,” Thatch says with a sad laugh.

  I tilt my head. That’s something I never got. The obsession with being human. There’s nothing that special about being human, is there? Well, I suppose in this case it’s more being used as “a decent person”. How silly.

  Inu nods quietly, hugging him again. “What about it feels bad?”

  Thatch grinds his teeth. I look, and cast [Suppression] in a wide range. He looks to me, and I nod. “No one except us can hear you.”

  Slowly, shakily, he nods. We’re not his parents, we’re not strangers. As friends, we all know the others are a little messed up, so he can say it, too. Let the image of perfection crack and fall away. He looks at Inu. “It feels right. To embrace it, to break people. I hate that I enjoy it.”

  I stop the smile before it can spread on my face. It’s almost vindicating, hearing it. Thatch, always collected, always calm. Our best negotiator, and the kindest of us, is easy to anger. And that’s okay. I don’t like him any less.

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  Inu just nods, understandingly. “It’s okay. You’re still you, right? You’re in control. You haven’t hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.”

  Sylves nods at that, looking at the corpses again. Almost… hungrily. She has no blood on her, but she, nonetheless, killed them. I think her faerie magic somehow interacted with the blood, causing it to slip off her, or something like that. She’s still wreathed in wind and moonlight, surrounded by a faint smell of rot.

  “Yeah, I guess…” Thatch says, unconvinced. “I don’t wanna be like this all the time. I don’t want that… anger, all the time.”

  “Skills can mutate,” I provide. “If you do it enough, you can probably change your [Rage] into something else.”

  His eyes glint at that. Slowly, he nods. “Yeah,” he says. “I think I’d… I’d like that.”

  I nod, and Inu gives me a small smile. I don’t think he’ll be able to get rid of the anger fully. It’s not like the system skills are granted randomly. Thatch was granted what he got for a reason. Just how Opal got their starting skills for a reason, and I got mine, and Sylves got hers.

  They describe us, in a lot of ways. And Thatch? I’m honestly glad he was just hiding a bit of anger. If that’s everything, then I don’t mind at all. I take a long breath. What could he turn his rage into? I bet he can get something like [Tempered Fury] or similar. And I think Inu can help him with her [Reservoir]. Maybe I can even use [Suppression] on it, and we can work from there.

  Already, ideas bud in my mind. “I got some plans,” I tell Thatch. “Combining or affecting your anger with our skills might help you change it a bit,” I explain, in the same way that when I took apart the healing of the priests, it helped me improve. “Let’s do some experiments when you feel a little more… grounded, yeah?”

  He gives me a smile, and a tired nod. The desperation and despair slowly drips away, revealing a young man who is just exhausted. Drained to the bone. He’s covered in blood, but Sylves can take care of that. I drop the [Suppression], and the click-clack of the ants’ legs on stone returns.

  We won.

  As much as there is grief involved, and as shitty as it feels, we won.

  And the tower knows it. Well, not quite yet, of course, but we have certainly changed the landscape of Espiree. With the church of Respitia significantly hurt in terms of power, the city would change. And the ants would get to claim more territory.

  In fact, since things were so different, there was a real chance for the ants to sweep the city clean after some more growing, though I doubted they would. With Amelie pushing into the centipedes, and Philia so graciously wiping out most of the beehive, it only takes us a few more days to sweep two full caverns clear and have the colony establish more bases in them.

  And then, once we’ve taken that territory, the tower acknowledges it.

  [Ascension Quest completed. Revealing locations of Ascension Wells. Do not Ascend before reaching the first threshold. You have received one minor request.]

  With this and the two I got from the Eyes, I have three minor requests. I could trade them all in for a job ascension, and getting a new job up from enchanter, but I don’t wanna use them on that. I look at the mana maze, at the runes that have appeared after enhancing it with the previous requests, and consider adding more. Or, I could enhance the water generating flask. Or maybe…

  Maybe I should ascend to the next floor first, then make the decision.

  I sigh, just a little bit, as the colony hustles and bustles around us. “You’re staying here, then?” I ask Meg, and she nods. “You too?” I ask Elis, and she nods, too.

  “Yes,” Meg says. “The first floor is not the highest, but it is safe. I wish for my family to make a home here. Perhaps, someday soon I may ascend and start hives across the floors. But not quite yet.”

  “Are the floors actually in the same space, above one another?” Inu asks.

  Slowly, Meg nods. “Yes,” she says. “If we dig upwards for long enough, we may reach the second floor someday. This may be a good option, though it draws the tower’s wrath to ascend without the trial of a well. Anyone who has passed a trial though is free to use mundane means of travelling upwards.”

  “I see,” Thatch says, then gives a small bow. “Then, we thank you for your assistance.”

  Meg laughs, and waves him off with one of her barbed forelimbs. “Do not mention it, please. You helped us. You may be our champions, but we are your chosen colony, and for that, we are grateful.” She dips her head, and Elis mirrors the motion.

  There’s a small smile on my face. “Then, I suppose we shall see each other again, perhaps. Someday. I hope your colony thrives.”

  “And I wish you luck in your climb,” Meg says. “May the tower be ever in your favour.”

  Then, we stand up, and leave. Cavern by cavern, tunnel by tunnel, we leave the area controlled by the colony. The haughty ant that I first met sees us off with a waving of her antennae.

  And then, we’re off, to one of those glowing points of interest. No one from Espiree follows after us, that’s for sure. There are, after all, thousands of ants in the caves behind us. With them at our back, all I need to do is look forward…

  And climb.