It was still early afternoon, so Tormacc made his way to Curtain’s office to meet with Stella. He ended up waiting a few hours, as she was meeting with someone else when he arrived, but soon enough he made his way to her office.

“Valued customer Tormacc, right?” Stella said. “Come have a seat while I pull up your information.”

Stella spent a few minutes tapping on her buttons before turning back to him.

“It seems you survived the Shard successfully. Congratulations! So what can I help you with today?”

“I have quite a few questions, but since you brought it up, I actually wanted to talk about the Shard I was just in. I think you might have undersold its difficulty.”

Tormacc then briefly went over some of the things he experiences on the Shard, stressing the points that differed from the information Stella had given him and talking about how the Shard was dangerous even for people of Zedna’s skill. Stella stayed mostly silent during the story, tapping away on her buttons, but she did ask a few pertinent questions, seeking clarification for some parts that Tormacc hadn’t thought were important. After the story was done Stella paused in thought, digesting everything Tormacc had told her.

“I’ll have to confer with my seniors,” Stella said, “but you might be on to something. Truthfully, this is the first time I’m hearing about the mountains dividing the Shard into two. If you’re right about it, it’s possible that we were only getting our information from one side, meaning the mortality rate of the Shard is much higher than was previously assumed. I’m guessing that in light of the new information the rating of the Shard will change from a three to at least a conditional four.”

It was gratifying hearing Stella confirm his suspicions. The booklet of information Stella had given him had a rough description of how hard a level three Shard should be, and based on that description crossing the mountains clearly leveled it up from three to four. But since not everyone would have to cross the mountains perhaps Stella was right and the Shard wasn’t a true level four.

“I have to thank you on behalf of Curtain for the information, valued customer Tormacc. In thanks for providing it to us, this session will be free of charge and all processing fees will be waived. Please use our services to your heart’s content during your current stay in the First City.”

Free services was certainly good news. He definitely had a lot of things he wanted to ask Stella, but before that he wanted to know the current portal situation.

“When I came out of the exit portal from the Shard there seemed to be a crowd of people moving towards the three Shard portals. What is that all about? Is there a particularly good Shard available now?”

“There is. One of the best in fact. It’s commonly called the Sealine Shard, and is one of the best level two Shards out there. There are a few Shards that have their own cities and civilizations in them, and the Sealine Shard is one of them. As you know, people are unable to live long-term in the First City unless they have a job here, whether that is working as a city guard or working in a shop, everyone else has to pay an ever-increasing tax, making staying here for extended periods of time untenable. Most Shards are like the one you were just on: desolate places devoid of civilization. For those who want to live among others, going to one of the few Shards with actual cities is the only option.”

“Can you tell me what the Shard is like?” The Shard sounded interesting, but he still wanted to hear more before he made up his mind whether to go there or not.

“Certainly valued customer Tormacc. The Sealine Shard is a water-based Shard, with a main island situated near the center of the Shard that has a majority of the civilization and a series of smaller islands situated throughout the Shard, some with people living on them and some without. Although some sort of water-based skills are useful to live there, as there is a great deal of treasure in the depths of the sea, the Shard is still appealing for those who want to settle down in a city and have no interest in treasure hunting. In particular those who are older and have grown disillusioned with trying to climb The Tower usually try to settle down somewhere like the Sealine Shard, and it’s those same people who also help keep order.”

“So there’s a city with a bunch of superpowered pacifist grandpas and grandmas?”

“Precisely,” Stella said. “Here in the First City the city itself keeps the peace through the hiring of guards, but in the Shards there is no such force, which is why whoever creates a city needs to guarantee its safety and prosperity. While there are still plenty of people actively trying to climb The Tower there, Shards like the Sealine Shard are sometimes called retirement Shards. And anyone who tries to make trouble in a retirement Shard doesn’t last long.”

It was an interesting concept, and thinking about it more, it made sense for people to eventually grow tired of fighting. Tormacc had only been in The Tower for less than two years, but how long would he be willing to continue fighting? It seemed far away now, but he could imagine a time in the future where he would want to settle down, especially if he reached old age.

Tormacc had a few other questions for Stella about the Sealine Shard, and everything she said confirmed an idea he felt germinating ever since she told him about the Shard.

“I have some other questions,” Tormacc said. “I mentioned that one of my party members had an elemental build where she focused mainly on the right side of her Fate Wheel but went down an elemental path on the left side. Is something like that common?”

Stella nodded. “It is. While specializing offers the most rewards, as people get to higher tiers in their Fate Wheel choosing a sub-specialization to support their main focus or cover for weaknesses is a common choice. Elemental skills are a good choice for this, as you can use them on both the right and left sides of the Fate Wheel.”

“I already have some water-based attunement,” Tormacc said. “You mentioned water-based skills would be useful in the Sealine Shard, so I was thinking about going full-in on that build path.”

“A solid choice,” Stella said. “It’s early enough in your build that getting a few additional water augmentations should influence your Fate Wheel further in that direction and offer you more powerful skills. With the options of entering the Sealine Shard I can fully recommend pursuing a water element build.”

They spent some more time talking about potential options Tormacc could take for increasing his water attunement, and after Stella inspected the loot he brought back they eventually settled on two things: getting a Water Attunement Potion and making another trip to see Kaz Ehen for another ritual. The reagents needed for the ritual and the potion were both fairly expensive, but thanks to Zedna’s generosity he had the wealth to spare. Most of the storage devices she gave him didn’t have anything truly valuable in them, but they did have Coin.

Coin was only valuable in the First City, but it could be used for trade on a Shard even if it was not able to be redeemed until you left the Shard. Most people carried their Coin with them into the Shard instead of leaving it in their account in the First City. Most robberies ended in violence with one side perishing, so leaving their Coin in the First City didn’t do much good, as if they were dead they couldn’t spend it anyway so it made sense to keep it on their person in case of a trade opportunity. So while there wasn’t anything particularly valuable from the storage devices, that or Zedna took the valuables before she gave them to him, the storage devices did give him enough Coin to cover his current costs.

Tormacc spent another few hours talking to Stella, during which he gained some more basic information on how The Tower worked; things he had questions about and weren’t included in the guidebook, like how swarms of weak monsters were often deadly. There was still a lot he didn’t know, but at least now he knew enough to start asking questions to fill in the gaps in his knowledge. Before he didn’t even know where those gaps were, but now he was beginning to find out.

After Stella answered his questions he left his Coin with her so she could procure the reagents for the ritual and the Water Attunement Potion. If he had tried to find the potion on the open market it would have been difficult-to-impossible, and even if he could find one it would be likely be drastically above market price. For rare items like that you needed connections to buy them.

The portals to the Shards had just changed yesterday, meaning he still had plenty of time to complete his business. Perhaps he could have spent more time talking to Stella or browsing through books, but Tormacc ended up spending the next few days relaxing. After his time in the Shard he felt he deserved it, and while his body could withstand an extreme amount of pressure, his mind was still mostly Humen, and as such, making sure he maintained his mental health through rest and relaxation was important.

During his exploration of the leisure activities in the First City he came across something he had never heard of before: video games. It was a marvelous invention, allowing him to explore worlds like The Tower behind the safety of a screen. It was a real eye-opening experience, and through video games he came to learn of a whole new scientific world he had previously been oblivious to. He found out that was common in The Tower, with many races having so called “backwards” technology. While it was unlikely he could bring these new ideas back home to his people, as everything he heard seemed to point to the fact that people stayed in The Tower for life, he still eagerly explored these new technologies for his own enjoyment.

He also found time to enjoy a meal out with Kaz Ehen, the bear-man ecstatic to have a repeat customer. It was a good feeling, being able to talk to people without the omnipresent threat of danger looming large in the background. He enjoyed his time in the Shard with Athra and Zedna, but the conversations he had with them seemed to lack the same kind of substance of those he was able to have now in the First City, although that could also have something to do with their personalities: Athra a naturally taciturn person and Zedna a bit aloof from the power dynamic.

But all good things must come to an end, and eventually it was the second to last day of the portal to the Sealine Shard being open, so with the ritual finished and the Water Attunement Potion ingested it was time for Tormacc to turn his attention to his Fate Wheel. He had a grand total of 37,814 Essence along with two White Spheres and a Blue Sphere, and he aimed to spend all that Essence before he entered the Shard. The only question was what to spend it on.