As his mother said, Matthew and his team are waiting for him outside.

  He knows both of them who are in his team. He used to play with them as kids, and although their contact has lessened a lot as they grew old, he still knows them well enough. Leah and Buren.

  The scene of Matthew and the others waiting for him brings back old memories. Times when they were just kids and Martin, Matthew, Leah and Buren would come to his house and holler from below to come play.

  Those were indeed the good days. Now Martin is dead, and Matthew killed him. Indirectly, but Adrian would forever hold that death over his death. Even so should the guy gain a conscience for what he has done to his old friend, he will still not forgive him.

  “Hey, long time no see,” Adrian says.

  “Long time indeed,” Leah replies.

  “We’ll be seeing too much of each other from now,” Buren says and looks at Matthew with regret in his eyes, “Can’t we take some cute girl instead? We have none!”

  “Now now Buren, what did I say about speaking nonsense? You are gonna make Adrian uncomfortable,” Matthew says calmly.

  “What about my feelings?” Leah interjects.

  “Mmhmm,” Matthew hums but does not respond.

  “How am I supposed to spend the hard nights in the Tower, if not within the arms of a beautiful woman who understands me and can take care of me,” Buren says, feigning hurt as his eyes sparkle.

  Matthew and Buren argue for the sake of arguing for another few minutes as Adrian uses that moment to gauge his ‘most probable’ party members.

  Buren is as he remembered him to be. Short, squeaky, horny, and very normal looking. Even earlier, he had an easy time getting mixed up in the crowd, but somehow he is having a little bit easier time blending in the surroundings.

  His non-stop blabbering keeps him very much on focus though, otherwise Adrian imagines it might be much easier for him to get lost.

  Leah in turn looks very much the same as he remembered her, except for the change in her hair colour and eyes. Initially blonde with green eyes, she now bears short black hair, and grey eyes. She strikes a dashing pose, a charm around her which wasn’t there earlier.

  She looks a lot like a leader than Matthew. At least from where he stands.

  “Did you get demon blood?” Adrian asks.

  “I sure did. Akhlut,” Leah replies.

  “Aren’t they famous for having two forms? Can you switch between two forms too now? Are you a furry now?” Adrian asks.

  “No,” Leah chuckles as she says, “I mean yea, I do have two forms, but I’m not a furry. You’ll see.”

  “So am I part of the group now?”

  “Do you not want to be?”

  “It doesn’t really matter if I want it or not. My mother won’t allow me anyway,” Adrian says with a shrug.

  “Why do you need to listen to your mother anyway? You know that you’re stronger than her, right? And will only get much much stronger in the coming future,” Leah looks at him with confusion in her eyes.

  The same question, Adrian sighs. He unconsciously thinks about Ji-a who had asked him the very same question. Adrian idly wonders where she is and what she’s up to.

  “It’s not that simple,” He shakes his head.

  “Is it not? Well I won’t pry then. But welcome to the party anyway!” Leah exclaims. Atthose words, Matthew and Buren finally stop their fighting, and look over.

  “How have we already decided that he’s part of us? We don’t even know his abilities!” Buren complains.

  “I think we should talk about it a little before deciding, no?” Matthew says.

  “What’s there to think about? We already know he has a cloning ability, which will be very useful in straight combat or any miscellaneous task. You both don’t have any straight fighting power, and I can’t always be fighting, so him.”

  While the other two munch on her words, Adrian looks at her and asks with a wry smile, “I assume I revealed it when I was drunk?”

  “Yes. Yes you did.”

  Adrian shakes his head in defeat.

  “So you're coming, right?” Leah asks and nudges at Matthew. The boy in turn flashes him a grin and sends an invite.

  Do you wish to join Matthew Meany’s Party?

  Adrian understands why it is his party, and not Leah’s, although the latter appears more like a leader. Matthew is being raised to be the next military head of the clan, and it’s only right if the boy has a party, instead of being part of someone else’s.

  It is already surprising that they are letting him choose his own party members, instead of putting him through a destined team. Perhaps this too is a test. A test of his acumen at choosing people, and being successful even with a random team.

  You have joined Matthew Meany’s Party!

  Adrian sighs in regret.

  The only real point of being in a party are the abilities which only act on people the Tower recognises as part of your party, and exp distribution when you are hunting monsters. It is said that for every party member, the Tower distributes 10% extra exp. Meaning 110% exp would be distributed between two people according to their contribution.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  So in his case, 140% exp would be distributed between the 4. It’s a nice incentive to form parties, but still worse than going alone where you’d gain full 100% exp.

  “Now that we are a party, do you mind telling us about your other abilities, my liege?” Buren says in a sarcastic tone.

  “Well, I can do this,” Adrian says, focusing hard on considering the air around him to be an enemy that he needs to capture and when the smell around him becomes foul and every touch of it on his skin is annoying, then he knows that now is the time.

  Adrian snaps, and with the trademark yellow sparks, the prison forms on top of his hand.

  “Ooh,” Matthew says as he leans forward to peer in, “Is it like a shield? How did you get a tanker ability?”

  “It’s a prison, actually. Not a shield. Well, it can technically work like a shield if I place it right and there’s someone holding it, but it takes a lot of focus to conjure one on the go, unless I’m imprisoning someone or something in it.” Adrian explains.

  For some reason, he feels a touch of pride at them being so excited about his abilities.

  “Very cool indeed,” Matthew nods.

  “You have weird abilities,” Leah jokes.

  “Guys guys guys, how are we not considering its economical use? What if we can bring living magical beasts out, and sell them to the butchery? We’ll be swimming in cash in no time!” Buren exclaims. Adrian can almost see gold coins imprinted in the man’s eyes.

  Matthew pats the small guy on his shoulder, looking extremely proud. Of course he’d be interested in the idea. The military always asks climbers to bring live beasts to them to find more and more methods to easily dispatch them.

  Also the military itself is a very expensive department. This will be a very great way for him to showcase his ability to earn money and contribute to the cause.

  Adrian decides in his heart that he needs to become strong quickly enough. Much faster than Matthew. The guy is a fanatic, and he just might sell him to the clan, forever bound to bring them magical creatures.

  I should’ve seen this coming. He curses internally.

  “What about the last one?” Buren asks with money in his eyes.

  “Oh it’s a dud. It just tells me time,” Adrian shrugs. He is not going to give them more chances to turn him into a money bag. A skill like Timer? They might just have him sent to the apothecaries to test their herbs and determine if they are fresh enough, and how fresh they are.

  “Oh,” Their faces fell.

  “It’s okay. Not everyone gets to be awesome after all,” Buren pats him on his arm, too short to reach the shoulder.

  I’m gonna kill this guy someday.

  Duds are not unheard of. Some people choose sacrifices which don’t inherently match too well and end up with an ability which doesn’t do much.

  “What are your abilities?” Adrian asks.

  It is once again, Buren, who takes the turn to flaunt how amazing his skills are.

  One of them makes it easy for him to blend in the crowd, and only works with people around. The other allows him to place channels on dead objects to spy from them. His last one is a little complicated.

  As he explains, if certain conditions are met, then he can teleport to the back of his enemy, and hit them a devastating blow.

  Adrian nods his head in amazement. He does have good abilities with good potential for upgrade. He does feel a bit salty that most of his abilities seem to scale with Mind and Mystic, just like his own.

  Matthew speaks next, also a bit excited to talk about them.

  His first ability allows him to stack small shields inside of him to create a bigger shield which he can deploy only once before he has to start the stacking again.

  The next two are common tanker type abilities. One allows him to transfer a certain amount of damage into solid earth, but the definition of earth depends on the Tower; the last allows him to soak some damage from his party members.

  Good powers. Adrian can see him become a very valuable tank in the future. Especially with a few more secondary abilities, and a few upgrades to his primary ones.

  Leah meanwhile, is a bit shy to reveal her powers. He can understand the sentiment.

  Her first ability allows her to transform into a demon. Very understandable.

  The transformation basically resets her stat distribution, giving her a more long range speciality, but also a crazy deposition which only wants to fight short range. In the long range, she can also use armaments made of gems she consumes when transformed. Very expensive power as well.

  The last one allows her to buff and debuff when in her normal form. A standard leader type power.

  While the introductions are going, they also move towards the Tower. Today is not gonna be the first day Adrian enters the Tower as an official climber, but some preparations still need to be done.

  Adrian would love to enter the Tower today, but sadly he has used up almost all of his mana points while practising, and going in like this will be suicide. It is more or less the same reason with others too.

  “It is so fucking crowded!” Buren curses as they wait in a long line in front of the shop.

  “It only makes sense. Everyone needs a Blood Pouch,” Leah shrugs.

  “Why do we even need it exactly?” Buren asks. This time it is Matthew who looks at him like he’s questioning all his choices, before explaining.

  “Blood Pouches are necessary because they can automatically collect blood from the enemies you defeat and can store a large amount of it as well! We need to treat that blood with our mana before sacrificing to the Tower after defeating the floor boss if we want to go to a higher floor.”

  “Oh yeah! I remember hearing about it.” Buren says, then frowns as he asks, “Wouldn’t the amount of blood we need be higher and higher every floor. Can the pouches expand infinitely? Or do we need to buy more?”

  “Not really,” Matthew thinks for a while before replying, “If I remember correctly, high grade pouches can be bought on the floor, so we’ll worry about it when we reach the second floor.”

  Buren nods and finally quietens down. Only for a minute though, because his chatter starts once again only a few minutes later. While he and Matthew entertain each other, Adrian moves a little to the side with Leah who also frowns in annoyance. Them and the several people ahead and behind them in line.

  After about an hour of waiting in line, they finally each get a Blood Pouch. Each of them cost quite a bit, but thankfully Matthew has the necessary cash.

  The Blood Pouch is just a red pouch with runes on it, depicting it to be an artifact. There is also a hook on the top to hook it across your clothes. Adrian hooks it across the loop in his pants.

  Adrian tries to read the runes, and although he hasn’t really ever pursued them religiously, he still has studied them a bit when taught in earlier classes. A general understanding that they mean ‘storage’, ‘infuse’, and ‘care’ comes to him.

  Pretty neat.

  With the initial preparations done, they all head back home. A night of restlessly laying in the bed later, the next day they congregate in front of the bridge. Adrian brings his blade, his bag–which is now full of food and water and medicines–and stands before the bridge.

  All of it feels so similar, and yet so different.

  They cross the bridge together like a party, and yet Adrian finds it hard to call himself one of them. But despite the alienation, he is just as excited to be in the Tower. Finally, finally he can start on this journey.

  As they reach in front of the Tower, a red gate materialises.

  With a beating heart, and an excited smile, Adrian jumps in.

  #