Is it very moral of me to prey on injured people? No, no it is not. And yet, I do it.

  The guilt sinks into that apathetic hole in my chest. I don’t care. Not really. I try to be moral, to do good, because it’s the right thing to do. But, at the same time, in order to keep myself and my companions safe, I need the tower’s help.

  The first person I heal buys me a book on enchanting. The second one upgrades the mana core I have with me to store more energy. That way, when everyone else pools their mana into the core, I can absorb it and heal a third person, making them upgrade my mana maze even further.

  My training tool grows again, the box taking on an almost golden sheen. The runes on the sides expand and grow in mesmerizing patterns, almost invisible inlays as the tower’s favour graces the item. I don’t ask for any requests that the rest of my team owns, and instead study the booklet on runes.

  [Inscription Introduction]

  It holds some amount of essence, I’m sure. I can feel it when I read the runes. The way my understanding grows. Like hitting milestones in my job, but fainter. A gentle kind of learning.

  Really, the booklet isn’t impressive. It’s a handful of terribly basic runes. But, at the same time, it’s more than I’ve ever had. Explanations, rather than randomly trying to pierce together what certain shapes do. I’d been brute forcing a language. Now I had a dictionary - a really crappy one, but a dictionary nonetheless.

  One by one, our party members trickled through. Clone girl also walked by, though she ignored me other than a short glance. Richard left with Jess, unharmed. Dar and Thatch, both wounded, but not too terribly so. Bay and Kuro, who quickly slinks into my shadow again.

  I look at our engineer. “Know how to charge up headphones yet?” I ask.

  She shakes her head.

  I tap Thatch. “Tell them I’ll heal anyone who donates a pair of headphones.”

  He holds back a snort, and nods, even though he’s grinning in amusement. Still, he brings his hands to his mouth, and yells. “Healing if you can provide headphones! Other electronics work too! Phones, ipods, powerbanks, anything that needs charging!”

  “You’re brilliant,” I say, at the same volume as usual.

  “Thanks,” he says. He smiles again. I do, too, knowing that he needed it. Something silly to worry less.

  And now, I’m doing something good. Surely, taking someone’s headphones isn’t as bad as taking their requests from the tower. Maybe. Probably.

  More healing, more time passing… and then, the ascendancy well vanishes. I get up, and pour some water over myself from the refilling phial, washing bits of blood that got onto my single remaining arm away. “Okay. Sylves, you’ve briefed everyone on what we know?”

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  “Yepyep!” the fairy girl confirms. Again, she’s back to her usual antics, floating in the air, laying on the side, her single arm comfortably supporting her head.

  “Good. We all have the same quest?”

  “Sure do,” Opal replies calmly.

  “Good. Then let’s get the hecc outta here,” I say, smiling. There’s a thundercrack in the distance, and I can see the sky darkening just a bit above the fog. So, we book it. Head off into the distance of the second floor. My new boots step down softly on the grass, and I face the horizon.

  Let’s see what we’ll find.

  - - -

  We get clipped by the tail end of the storm.

  It’s loud and huge and rumbles over the world, dimming it. The eyes in the sky are devoured by the thick veil of fog and dark clouds. We run, but the howling winds find us anyway.

  Sylves tries to hold them at bay, but they’re strong and constant. I [Suppress] them, and still they howl in my ears, making it impossible to hear the others. The winds are strong enough to have knocked me off my feet before integration, even with two people dampening their effects.

  Then, the sheet of rain hits us.

  Calling it rain is generous; it’s more like sleet. A mix of tiny icicles, lancing through the air and stabbing my skin like needles, and wet, heavy globs of snow and water. Within minutes, we’re soaked and freezing. Jess casts balls of fire near us to keep us warm, but the pelting rain slams into them, making them look like pathetic candleflames.

  The floor beneath our feet turns to muck, and my boots are sucked down into it with every step, making it exponentially harder to walk. The light is sucked from the world, until it’s turned a dull grey of sleet and wind. We can’t talk, can barely see.

  Thunder rumbles its way over to us every few seconds, carried on the wind. Great spears of bright lightning tear the cloudveil asunder, lancing to the ground in a rumbler of power. I can feel the muck shake beneath my feet, but still, we trounce on, walking as fast as we can. The world rumbles, and it’s all wind and snow, for hours.

  Until it isn’t.

  At a moment’s notice, the wind turns, and the storm is carried away. I breathe a sigh of relief, rubbing my freezing stump of a shoulder, trying to get the blood flowing in it. The flame near me brightens, and I give Jess an appreciative nod.

  Usually I prefer the cold. I should learn some elemental skills, too. Another thing to add to the list, I suppose. I’m glad that the storm pulled away, though. Having gotten caught up in the middle of it sounds like a nightmare.

  Middle of it. Eye of the storm. A small smile blooms on my face. What would be in the middle of a storm like that? Surely, some kind of reward for aspiring climbers. Surely. Probably.

  I wanna test it out.

  Not yet, though. My skin is still all pins and needles, heating back up after the relentless torrent. At least none of us were incinerated with lightning. Richard ate a ton of the sleet, so she is ready to spit a freezing typhoon at the next person who looks at us funny, too.

  But there’s nothing, yet. The second floor feels remarkably… empty, really. I wonder why that is. The tower clearly has capabilities of creating fully fledged creatures from mana, like the goblins and such that were created for the integration of Earth. So, why is this place so bland?

  Sure, the storm has swept through here, but at the same time… it seems strange, frankly.

  Two days later, when the hunger starts moving from horrible to unbearable, I am starting to think I know why. It’s trying to starve us out.