The eighth floor wasn’t as hot as the seventh, but it managed to feel more uncomfortable due to the humidity. The mangrove forests reminded Bunty of the third floor where he met Gwyneth, but there were no hardened elevations in sight. While it had been spring on the past level, it was mid-summer on the eighth. Bunty struggled to take his first breath after passing through the gate. Gwyneth looked just as uncomfortable when she followed. Oss, on the other hand, appeared unphased by the heat.

Neither of the pair trusted the man. Gwyneth, of course, asked a dozen questions regarding Explorer but Bunty kept the information to himself. He wasn’t sure how much Oss knew about his connection to Explorer and wanted to talk to Gwyneth away from prying ears.

If Oss hadn’t helped Gwyneth take down the pick-axe wielding Climber, she wouldn’t have agreed to have him along at all. When he and Bunty decided to stop their fight, she was still struggling with her opponent. The pickaxe’s earth manipulation spells grounded her lightning, and he had better martial prowess as well. Combat, travel, and the heat had drained Bunty to empty. So, Oss stepped in. He approached the man from behind and swung the bone-club into the back of his skull, crushing it. Instead of giving Gwyneth the time to process what had just happened, the trio rushed through the gate to the eighth floor.

“I trust you, Bunty, but if we’re to carry on together, I need to know what just happened back there,” Gwyneth said once they found a tavern with a private room. Oss paid the landlord with a Core, ensuring they’d receive food, drink, and privacy. “What the hell happened with the party back there? Why were you with them? What the hell—”

“That’s too many questions,” Oss said, interrupting her. “How about we take turns asking questions and answering them? I don’t have the memory span, you see.”

“Fine. Why are you, a god-damned bounty hunter, now assisting us? Cores don’t come cheap, and you just handed one over to the damn landlord like it was nothing.” Gwyneth’s lamp manifested floating next to her head, and sparks crackled from the metal. “Help me trust you, Oss, or I’m going to fry you like I did your swimmer friend.”

“First of all, I’m not a bounty hunter,” Oss replied. He glanced at Bunty. “Edgar Boleyn offered employment to a pair of ambitious Climbers if they could bring him your head, Bunty Sen: the lizard augmenter and the pickaxe-man that I killed. Their spirits give them extraordinary tracking abilities. Linda got your scent from the dried blood on his spear. Farukh got his second Core from a sandworm. So, he couldn’t just detect footsteps from a mile away but differentiate from one another. They were hiring a party to help them bring you down safely.” He paused to sip his spiced coconut rum but put the mug down when Gwyneth’s spirit crackled once more. “That’s all there is to the story. Our mutual friend, Explorer, asked a favour of me and led me to Linda. So, I used them to find you.”

“Why did you attack Bunty then?” Gwyneth demanded, staring daggers at Oss. “You could’ve put the pickaxe bastard down and then spoken to us.”

Oss shrugged. “I wanted to see the big deal is. Bunty has the attention of one of Gaia’s children and has earned a nobleman’s wrath. I wanted to see whether he’s worth the trouble.” He met Gwyneth’s gaze with a calm, collected look on his face. “Just because one of Gaia’s children asked a favour of me doesn’t mean I’m going to bend over backwards for him.”

“I still don’t trust him, Bunty,” Gwyneth said, not breaking eye contact. “We should kill this man and find the FTF.”

Oss laughed. “Just because I’m sitting here listening to you doesn’t mean I’m worried about your lightning, miss,” he told Gwyneth. “It will hurt, but my bones can bear it. You, on the other hand, will not survive the aftermath. It will result in Bunty attacking me to avenge you, though, and I’d rather not kill him.”

“I’ll be honest, Oss,” Bunty said. “None of what you’ve said so far has been particularly reassuring. What’s your purpose in the tower? How do you know Explorer?”

“My purpose?” Oss smirked. “Climbing, of course. One doesn’t need much else. As for how I know, Explorer? It’s conceited to think you’re the only one to have befriended any of Gaia’s children. My connection to Explorer is nobody’s business but my own. The question is: do you want my help or not? I’ll assist until I get bored of you or your purpose goes against my goals.”

Gwyneth looked at Bunty questioningly, and he didn’t know what to tell her. “Just climbing?” he asked Oss. “You can’t be in the tower just for the hell of it. C’mon, mate. Give us something more to work with.”

“You can consider it a rite of passage if you will.” Oss’s hand hadn’t left his club throughout the conversation. To Bunty, it didn’t look like he was preparing for an attack, though. Oss touched it the same way a child holds his toy when uncomfortable. “I climb to prove my strength and collect the bones of powerful beasts. That’s my purpose in the tower. Is that good enough?”

“For now.” Bunty nodded along with Gwyneth’s sentiment.

After spending the night in the local inn, the trio started their journey into the eighth floor’s swamps. Oss didn’t like the day’s delays. Apparently, Edgar had set the bounty covertly and not paid a lot as an advanced fee. Employment in the Boleyn house must’ve been the real prize. Bunty hoped that meant the lordling was trying to keep his actions quiet. If not from the public, his sibling, at least. As a result, he’d struggle to set multiple teams after him, or his funds of the act were limited.

Either way, Oss stated his intention to leave the interval as soon as possible. He didn’t like the idea of being in a party, not just pursued by a spoilt lordling but a noble house too. Once in the next interval, the DeLawneys would struggle to chase Gwyneth. Edgar would need to invest heavily to send bounty hunters after them too.

Independent organisations had set up guide services around the floor. Bunty couldn’t afford one, but he didn’t need anyone showing him around thanks to the compass. The guidebook’s notes would successfully help them avoid danger too. Unfortunately, a boat was vital for traversal around the floor. Bunty ended up using Slimeskin. Creating a three-person canoe used up almost emptied his inkwell. He only had enough reserves for a gauntlet or a couple of tentacles. He was about to start searching for an oar when Oss came to the rescue.

Gwyneth had asked their new companion about his spirit, but the strange man had skirted the question. He just stated that it had to do with the moulding, shaping, and hardening of bones. Oss finally displayed his skills by transforming his bone-club into an ore. He closed his eyes and held the weapon with both hands while humming. Bunty thought Oss was praying at first. Then the bone lost its polished sheen. Oss rolled the club’s lower half between his hands, making it skinnier and longer. It reminded Bunty of playing with softened clay. Once the length of bone had doubled in length, Oss flattened the thick rounded bit, forming a paddle. Then they were ready to go.

“It’s not a beast or plant spirit,” Gwyneth whispered. Bunty hoped that the sound of the local fauna and Oss paddling was sufficient to drown out their conversation. “He could have a tool we can’t see, or it could be a type of elemental spirit we’ve not seen before.”

“An elemental spirit that lets him reshape and change the density of bone?” Bunty asked, staring at the water. “His spirit is twice upgraded, at least. I imagine his spirit would give him more power than that—”

“It could be augmentation. Think about it. That weapon of his is almost bigger than him, and I bet it weighs a figurative tonne. Yet he wields it with ease. The bone vest, epaulettes, and shin guards have to weigh a fair bit too. Oss has more stamina than either of us, though. It could be that the elemental spirit augments his body too.”

“That would mean the elemental spirits aren’t limited to the Greek elements.” Bunty furrowed his brows thoughtfully. He was starting to understand why Gwyneth found the topic of spirits so fascinating and was downright obsessed with it. After pouring over the books in the Boleyn library, Bunty thought he was knowledgeable in the subject. The more he climbed and spent time with Gwyneth, the more ignorant he felt. “I thought Alexander’s lightning was a variant of the air element. Perhaps there’s more to it.”

Gwyneth nodded. “There’s a reason we know a lot about plant and tool spirits but not a lot about elemental-types. Their occurrence since the first Climbers entered Gaia has been sparse. I bet there’ve been more than the half-a-dozen recorded individuals.” She sighed. “I’m sorry about what happened to Alexander. Most of the time, when an elemental spirit emerges, they become a brilliant asset to humanity’s progress. Their emergence always leads to us breaking through bottlenecks and ascending to new intervals. As a result, they’re celebrated. It doesn’t make sense, you know. Sure. The Boleyns will gain a fair bit of power from it, but Alexander could’ve benefited every house by taking down one of the guardians in the higher intervals. It doesn’t make sense why anyone would want to kill or cripple him.”

“It doesn’t make sense,” Bunty stated. “It doesn’t make any sense at all. I don’t understand why they didn’t just kill Alexander. They beat him within an inch of his life. According to Baba, it’s lucky that Alexander survived.” He shook his head. “I don’t get it. Edgar didn’t have a hand in it. Given the timeframe, he couldn’t have orchestrated the attack. Besides, I reckon it would’ve taken him some time to get used to his spirit. Whoever attacked Alexander didn’t care whether he survived or not. Perhaps they wanted to damage him enough to ensure he never became a significant threat.”

“It sounds like something the DeLawneys would do.” Gwyneth chuckled. “I swear these nobles are so caught up in their power struggle. They forget why new Calcutta was born.”

“Humankind’s petty struggles are infuriating, to say the least,” Oss said, making the pair jump. He grinned. “While in the tower, never make assumptions regarding another’s senses. You never know what gifts Gaia might’ve given them.” He took a break from paddling and sat cross-legged at the back of the boat. “Your nobility has the right idea, though. The world outside is limited, while the ark’s resources are bottomless. Gaia placed it here to ensure humankind survives and excels but doesn’t kill the world while at it.”

“We wouldn’t kill our world—”

“In the past hundred or so years since steam-power became a thing, humankind has been cutting down the wild to expand their settlements and numbers.” Bunty found it odd how Oss said the word ‘humankind’. It was almost as if he didn’t consider himself one of them. “Wouldn’t it make sense to move into the ark and live within it? It’s not easy at first, but safer in the long run.”

“You certainly have an interesting point of view,” Gwyneth stated. “Where are you from, Oss?”

“Shouldn’t we be discussing your spirit, instead?” Oss asked. “Your display earlier was far from impressive. You need to round out your spirit if you intend to climb past the third interval.”

Gwyneth narrowed her eyes, glaring at Oss. “You’re right,” she replied. “We don’t know where to start, though. I need a Core that will enable telekinesis or metal manipulation. The guidebook doesn’t talk of anything of the sort in this interval. I was hoping to find a shaman or spirit caller and add to my pool of spells.”

“That’s a bad idea. Your martial prowess is lacking, and you can’t afford multiple spells drawn from the same source. Enhancing the lantern’s body for offence or defence is the only way you’ll survive and make it past the next interval.”

“The guidebook—”

“Relying on guidebooks is no way to climb,” Oss said, interrupting Gwyneth. He grinned. “We hunt and prove our worth to Gaia. She, in return, rewards us with strength, riches, and glory. Your books won’t feature the most powerful beasts anyway. The beasts you want tend to stay away from the hubs and gates, feasting on stray Climbers and local rivals.”

“Where would we go about finding such a beast?” Gwyneth asked.

“We don’t have the time for hunting,” Bunty said. “Our best bet is climbing to the tenth floor and looking for a candidate there.”

“It’s a good thing you have me then.” Oss put his paddle back in the water. “I can sense a powerful set of old bones not too far from us. Let’s go kill it!”

“The only creatures around here are the mangrove crocs and ankle snappers.” Bunty leafed through the guidebook, looking for alternatives. The only option he spotted was the Metal-Maw Sharks, and they were far from the FTF controlled gates. “We can’t afford to deviate that far off course.”

Oss tried snatching the guidebook from his hands, but Bunty managed to keep it out of his reach. “What did I just say about the guidebooks? They’re pretty much useless. Don’t write off crocks or snappers, though. When snappers age, they learn how to extract iron from their prey’s blood and weave it into their shell and bones. A couple of them learn how to control the metal in their body too. If the crocs feast on too many sharks, they adopt the metal teeth and occasionally get protrusions along their spines too.” Oss pushed the boat away from the trees using the paddle and then pushed it along through the murky waters. “A hunter needs to understand his prey if he’s to succeed.”

Following Oss felt like a bad idea, but Bunty found himself taken aback by the man’s speech. He looked like a brute, but his ideas felt surprisingly coherent. The bit about Gaia’s Ark being home for humanity felt in line with Neer’s thought process before he passed. Bunty met Gwyneth’s eyes, and she appeared as hesitant as him. Her hostility towards Oss seemed to have lessened, though. Gwyneth’s academic expertise was Cores, not Gaia’s fauna. His Core development analysis and its connection to a creature’s diet and hunting patterns must’ve intrigued her.

“Take us to these old bones you sense, Oss,” Bunty said after a moment’s silence. He didn’t completely trust the man yet—the blatant avoidance of questions didn’t help either. Much to Bunty’s surprise, Gwyneth didn’t protest. Perhaps she, too, found his views and hypothesis fascinating. The chances of Oss killing them or handing the pair over to the Boleyns were low too. He had plenty of opportunities to kill Bunty and capture Gwyneth but hadn’t yet.

The compass’s arrow shifted from the direction they were heading and started to bear right as Oss paddled. The guidebook showed another FTF settlement in the direction, though. It was much further away from the one they initially targeted. If Oss’s senses failed them, they’d still have a nearby gate for ascending to the next floor. It concerned Bunty that the said settlement was in the middle of nowhere, though, and a lot of untamed wilderness lay between them.

As the boat headed deeper into the floor’s wilderness, it surprised Bunty nothing had attacked them. As a matter of fact, he saw nothing but critters too small or weak to pose a threat. Occasionally he’d sight a feline shadow on a distant tree branch or hear movement in the water, but nothing attacked them. Gwyneth kept her eyes peeled too, and she didn’t spot any threats either. Oss, on the other hand, remained relaxed and nonchalant. Bunty had read that most predators preferred avoiding superior threats. He couldn’t help but wonder whether they sensed something similar from Oss.

When the canopy overhead got too dense, Gwyneth brightened her lamp to chase away the darkness. Oss thanked her and continued paddling. They encountered vine curtains as they ventured away from the routes marked on the map, and Bunty had to hack them away with his axe. Within an hour, the water got too shallow for the boat. Bunty made Slimeskin coatings for his and Gwyneth’s boots and then dispelled the vessel. They’d have to continue on foot for the rest of their journey.

Several hours had passed since Oss took control of their destination. Bunty no longer knew where they were. The map suggested they were somewhere halfway between when they agreed to follow Oss and the next FTF settlement. The compass pointed behind them, though, suggesting they’d have to backtrack to reach the closest safe gate.

With the boat dispelled, Bunty had enough Slimeskin for his usual summons. For the time being, he settled on a spear for Gwyneth and one gauntlet. Oss watched him curiously as the summons manifested.

“Your spirit isn’t powerful in terms of offence or defence, but I’ve never seen anything so versatile before,” he stated. “Given your choice of Cores, I understand why Explorer is so taken with you. I’m intrigued by how you’ve utilised the spirit thus far.”

“In all honesty, I was stumped when I first got it,” Bunty replied. “I couldn’t figure out how to achieve inanimate summons with liquid as the medium. Getting the Slimeskin was Gwyneth’s idea.”

“Creatures with ice-shaping abilities are rare in the first couple of intervals.” Oss looked at Gwyneth. “Your understanding of Cores is impressive, but you’ve still got a long way to go. Cores for predators evolve depending on their prey.”

“What’s your source for that hypothesis, Oss?” Gwyneth asked. “There’s no literature out there to confirm that claim. “

“Experience,” he replied and didn’t discuss the matter further. Instead, he raised a finger to his lips, signalling the pair to remain silent.

After reverting the massive bone to its femur-shaped club form, Oss closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. He held the bone-club in both hands, turned it upside down, and eld the weighted bit to the ground. Gwyneth looked between him and Bunty, an eyebrow raised. “Meditation?” She mouthed at Bunty. He shook his head in response.

“I can feel it,” Oss said after a minute of silence. “The bones haven’t moved in a while.”

“What does that mean?” Gwyneth asked. “The beast is dead?”

Oss shook his head. “No. The bones are alive. They haven’t moved in a long time, though. Perhaps it’s injured.”

Oss led the way, guiding the pair through a thick brush. The ferns were thick, but Bunty didn’t hack through them. Their approach took much longer than necessary, but none of them wanted to make a peep and wake the slumbering creature. Even if it didn’t have a Core, Gwyneth could use, old beasts’ body parts could smell for a small fortune. It probably won’t be as valuable as the ice spiders’ eyes but would still fetch them a neat amount.

If it was a crocodile, Oss detected, perhaps they could use the hide to make Gwyneth’s protective clothing. New Calcutta’s leatherworkers had the skills to turn the ugliest of materials into masterpieces. A coat or protective vest would make the tower a safer place for her. He cared for Gwyneth and feared her getting injured during every battle. He alone struggled to hold the opponents’ attention. Now that he had Oss, perhaps he could spend less time worrying about her safety.

The canopy and boulders obscured the sun’s light, making it impossible to keep track of time. Due to the humidity, Bunty had stuffed his shirt into his satchel and probably his pocket watch with it too. No matter how hard he tried, he could no longer find it. The random rays of orange light it was late in the day. Bunty didn’t want to get caught out by a predator once darkness fell. Fortunately, Oss found their objective within the hour.

The trio chanced upon an ancient old temple. The local vines and creepers had covered most of the building, but no trees grew within six feet of it. As they got closer, the trio felt blasts of warm air blowing out of every opening in the stone. It explained why none of the local flora covered it. The blasts came every few seconds, and a light hum follow it. It took Bunty a moment to realise that it was breathing.

Oss took the lead entering the structure, and Gwyneth illuminated it for him. The group found themselves in an oval room of titanic proportions. Stairs lead down to a large field covered in tall grass. Rows of stone platforms surrounded it, and their height suggested they were once used for seating. An opening in the roof painted a patch of the grass is a soft late-afternoon glow while the rest sat in darkness. Gwyneth’s lamp illuminated a curious bump in the middle of the field, and Bunty was sure it was their target. The wind leaned away from the dome with every air-blast and then leaned towards it during the hum.

After a short discussion, Oss agreed to take the lead. He didn’t carry any metal, and the lightning spires wouldn’t stick to his club, so the man headed in alone. Bunty followed him closely while Gwyneth brought up the rear as usual. She prepared an attack spell, and Bunty manifested his second gauntlet. Once everyone was in position, Oss raised his bone-club high above his head. Much to Bunty’s surprise, the white weapon glowed with crimson light, and similar lights came off the bones on Oss’s clothes.

“Is that an augmentation or a spell?” Bunty wondered out loud. Gwyneth didn’t have an answer for him, unfortunately.

The bone’s glow got so bright that its light threatened to drown the lamp. Then Oss swung the club down onto the dome sticking out of the grass. A sickening crack sounded through the room, and then the structure rumbled. At first sight, Bunty had assumed they were dealing with a turtle as big as a wagon. When the ground under their feet rumbled, Bunty realised he was wrong. The grassy ground parted and shook, almost throwing Gwyneth off her balance. She dug the spear into the ground to remain still.

A tortoise as tall as an elephant rose out of the ground. The bones had mostly stopped glowing, so its giant green eyes glowed in the lamplight. It was seven feet wide and almost three times as long. Its massive limbs would easily crush a grown man’s torso in a single step. Oss didn’t retreat, though. His club had retained a part of its crimson light. He swung it down again, and this time, Bunty heard two cracks. One from the monster’s shell and another from Oss’s weapon. He jumped backwards just as the tortoise spun much faster than a creature of its size and weight should before snapping at the air with a monstrous beak. It tapered into a hooked triangle from the monster’s square jaw. Best of all, it carried a dull iron sheen. Perhaps Oss wasn’t talking out of his arse after all.