“Hey, Micah?” Ryan asked him on a Saturday while they were hanging out in the yard again.

They were taking a break from training right now, and Micah was reading the Beginner’s Guide to the Tower on the ground next to the bench. He’d found a way to hide the book in the sleeve of one of his old textbooks. It wasn’t an exact fit, but it was good enough that people wouldn’t see the book’s title when walking past. Some of its pages had some minor illustrations of the various monsters in the Tower, though, so Micah had to make sure to flip to a page without any whenever someone was behind him.

The guide covered all the monsters from the first and second floors, and most of the common ones from the third as well. But more importantly, it covered the basic principles of climbing, like how to prepare for and behave inside of the Tower, how to fight different monsters, tips on how the different combat types could behave, and so on, and so on.

For example, a basic tip said that if you started in a room with multiple paths, you were supposed to search all of them one by one for the closest monster and then slowly work your way up from there. Monsters were supposed to show up anywhere from the first tunnel and would usually only attack if you stepped inside. They got stronger or more numerous the further you headed in. By checking all your options, you could spend as much time near the exit as possible. It was simply safer.

Micah kind of wished he’d thought of that the first time he went in. He hadn’t seen any Salamanders in his three tunnels, so he went as far as the fourth bend to go looking for one. He might have been able to find one at the first bend of the other two if he’d just checked.

Stupid, he told himself.

“Hm?” he asked Ryan with a slight grumble and flipped the page. No use in lingering on the past. He would just have to do better next time.

The other boy was lying above him on the solitary bench in the yard, resting his eyes against the sun. He used the time at the bathhouse as much for that as he did to train Micah, since Gardener had started pushing him more and more these last few weeks, making him try out different weapons sizes and types, and run laps every session, as well as wear armor and his backpack while he trained. He always showed up sweaty on days like that, and Micah convinced him to take a bath after they were done with training.

He was still trying to figure out how to make a cooling potion. Maybe he should just go and ask Mr. Faraday?

The rest of his time, Ryan spent playing alleyball during break or training Micah in the yard, so Micah could understand his exhaustion. He felt it himself after three weeks of constant exercise, studying, and working. When Ryan wasn’t around, he used a stick he’d picked up in the park to practice on his own.

People had started watching them sometimes, too— Prisha, leaning against the fence and chatting with them, or guests getting fresh air. Some of them would smile, probably because they were amused by the two kids playing with wooden swords at the bathhouse.

Nobody was watching them now, though.

Ryan knew that, and Micah knew that he knew. There was little that got past his [Enhanced Senses] when he was paying attention, after all.

So he didn’t worry when the other boy asked, “Why did you head into the Tower in the first place again?”

“Huh?” Micah looked up from where he sat next to the bench. “To collect ingredients, of course.”

Ryan nodded a little, though it looked awkward since he had his head lying down. “Right.”

That seemed to be all he wanted to know, so Micah went back to reading. Then, after a moment, he looked back up. The question bugged him.

“Why?”

“No reason,” Ryan said and whistled a shrug. Micah had gotten used to his bird singing by now, but he still wondered sometimes which bird even made that kind of noise. He suspected Ryan might have made it up. Could he even do that?

“Hm,” he said as he looked back down to the guide, but now the question was stuck in his mind and he couldn’t let go of it again. The first question, not the bird question. It wasn’t like Micah minded his tweeting.

“When did you get the [Fighter] Class?” he asked.

There was a pause, but then Ryan sighed and sat up, and Micah grinned because he knew he’d won.

“After four weeks of training and some sparring with some other Early Birds,” he said. “I beat one of them who was much further along than me and got it right on the next day.”

“And you’re asking why I went into the Tower because … you’re wondering why I haven’t gotten the [Fighter] Class yet?” Micah asked.

Ryan nodded. “Yeah.”

“But it’s only been three weeks,” he said.

“Yeah, but you’re picking up on sword fighting really—and I mean, really—quickly, Micah. You can already do that form I showed you without mistakes, and I picked a longer one just in case we can’t train so often. Those are forty-two movements, and you never waver. And you were already in the Tower once. And you have a [Warrior Path]. And we’ve been sparring," he sighed and looked at Micah. "I don’t know. I guess I’m just wondering. Aren’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Micah said, feeling a little awkward.

He’d thought things were going just fine if he was being honest. He was used to taking things slow, after all. Just making a healing potion took an hour, and figuring out how to make a new potion could take weeks or even months. Why should being a [Fighter] be any different? He hadn’t expected to pick up sword-fighting in a day.

But then again, Micah had promised Ryan he wanted to go into the Tower again. Maybe the other boy was just getting impatient for that reason?

Micah wanted to go, too, but …

There were questions there, worries that he would rather not acknowledge. If it was with Ryan, it’d be fine though, right?

He remembered his dreams.

“How about we wait another week,” Micah said slowly, a small frog in his throat, “and if I don’t get it by then, we can try going into the Tower again?”

Ryan looked surprised.

“Uhm, that wasn’t where I was going with this,” he said.

“Huh?” Micah asked.

“I thought, uhm, maybe you just aren’t a [Fighter]?” he asked sheepishly, and Micah frowned. He was definitely a fighter. He would literally fight Ryan on this. “I mean like, maybe you’re something like a [Mage] or another combat Class? Like [Ranger] or [Explorer] or, uhm, I don’t know. Maybe [Rogue]? Though Gardener always says there’s something wrong with those, in the head ...”

“Oh,” Micah said, his frown lifting. He hadn’t even thought of that. But how would he even get one of those Classes?

No, that wasn’t what he should be asking, was it?

The important thing was, did he even want one of those Classes? A Class was a big thing, most of them lifelong commitments. His eyebrows sunk back down a little as Micah considered. He’d always imagined himself getting the [Fighter] Class. Well, at least since Ryan had told him to get one before he went into the Tower again. It just seemed … better than the other Classes. A mage could be a [Fighter] just as much as a swordsman could, but a swordsman couldn’t necessarily be a [Mage]. It wasn’t about your fighting style or how you fought, it was just important that you fought, and the Class would help you do that, whatever it was, however it could.

Micah wanted to be a [Fighter] in life. He knew that.

[Mage] or [Rogue] or something like [Archer] … they just seemed too materialistic to him. A mage was someone who used spells, an archer used a bow an arrow, yeah, but what did they use them for?

That question was important. To him, as it should be for others.

“... and I could maybe get you a beginner’s guide on magic,” Ryan was saying above him, and Micah realized he’d drifted off. Again! Why did this keep happening to him? “I could ask Lisa or so. And we have bows and arrows at school, though I barely know how to fire one myself, I’ll admit.”

“That sounds great,” Micah lied, “but uhm, can’t we try getting [Fighter] a little longer? Please, Ryan?”

Ryan stared at him for a moment, and then Micah thought he saw something melt in his dark eyes. Ryan insisted they were green. They were definitely not green. More like black.

“Sure,” he sighed.

“Awesome!” Micah pumped his fist.

“How about we, uhm … spar again until next Saturday, and if that doesn’t work out, I guess we can try … going into the Tower again.”

“Wait, you mean next Sunday?” Micah asked.

“Yeah, sure.”

Micah gulped and looked down at his book again. There was one page in it fairly early on. He’d only caught a glimpse of it before slamming the book shut again. He hadn’t looked at it since, just like its crystal that lay in his chest at home. His heart started beating faster and he mumble, “But not—” before he bit his tongue, hoping Ryan hadn’t heard.

Micah didn’t look up, feigned looking for a page in his book instead.

“Don’t worry, Micah,” Ryan said. “The Salamanders are off limits anyway.”

Screw Ryan for knowing what I’m thinking, Micah thought and then almost chuckled. Hopefully, Ryan also knew that he’d thought that just now.

“Why don’t you turn to page six instead?” Ryan asked, and Micah frowned but did it. He saw something there and wrinkled his nose.

Sewer Rats?

"Do you have everything?” Ryan asked on Sunday after Micah had told him he hadn’t gotten the [Fighter] Class. He came prepared with his own bulging backpack and had told Micah what to pack the day before, just in case— it was basically nothing.

They were going prepared as [Fighters], which meant they had nothing alchemical or magical on them. Especially nothing that Micah had made himself. All he had brought was his small school bag filled with two waterskins and some PB&Js wrapped up.

He wore his work clothes and his regular shoes and had brought some of the money that he’d saved up in the last few weeks. For the entrance fee and for buying socks at the Guild.

Ryan, on the other hand, had brought everything and anything else they might need, including a pair of shin and ankle guards that Gardener forced him to wear during training now, and an actual short sword for Micah. He told him that he’d had to pull in some massive favors from his equipment manager for that.

Micah really was in his debt.

Ryan smacked him on the back of his head when he'd mentioned that.

“Stop thinking about debts.”

They met up in the alleyway next to Prisha’s bathhouse. Micah had gone in early this morning and done some basic chores for Neil before asking him if he could spend the day playing alleyball with Ryan, Lang and some others from his class. The lie hurt, but Micah pushed on through it. Neil happily obliged. This was only the third time he’d asked to leave in four weeks, after all.

Now, they were about to head out the back of the alley when Prisha came rounding the corner with a bowl of trash under her arm.

“Where are you two going?” she asked, sounding surprised.

Micah’s heart almost stopped when he saw her. He was glad he hadn’t put in the shin guards yet. Also, that Ryan was carrying the sheathed swords. He could still talk his way out of this.

“Oh, I already asked Neil if it’s alright,” Micah started, playing the "‘if one parent asks, I already asked the other for permission" card. He hated to use it on Prisha, but at least, he’d actually asked the other parents this time around. “We’re going to go play alleyball wi—”

“We’re headed into the Tower,” Ryan said next to him.

Micah blinked. What—

“What?!” Prisha asked the same thing, dropping her bowl.

“—the fuck, Ryan?” Micah added while he turned on his so-called friend.

“Micah!” Prisha admonished him, but Micah just stared at the other boy, demanding an answer.

Ryan stood there, not even looking embarrassed, or ashamed, or nervous, or flustered … He was calmly staring Micah down. He’d totally done that on purpose!

“Why would you tell her that?”

“You said back then, when we first really met, that you didn’t want to lie to your sister,” Ryan said. “I wanted to spare you from that. This isn’t something worth lying over, Micah.”

Micah’s chest hurt.

“Micah, is this true?” Prisha asked, sounding hurt, and worried, and a little mad. All the things he suddenly felt himself. He couldn’t quite look up to her. Not only because he was ashamed, but also because he was worried if he said "yes", she would start yelling at him again like she had when he came home from the Tower.

Micah didn’t know what to do. He stared at her fallen bowl and chose not to answer at all.

Prisha looked at Ryan instead.

“Ryan, is this true?” she asked him.

“Yes, Mrs. Prisha,” he said, now with a little waver in his voice. “But we trained for almost a month now, and we’ll be together so I’ll make sure to keep him safe, Ma’am. I’ve been going into the Tower for almost two years now, I assure you, I know the place. And we’ll just stick to the first floor, and to the entrance there, and we’ll only fight them one at a time, and …”

“Stop,” Prisha said, holding up a hand. He shut up. “I mean, thank you, Ryan, but I don’t know you. I know you saved Micah, but I don’t know if I can trust you. I’m … sorry. But that isn’t the question right now. The question is why would you even go into the Tower in the first place, Micah?”

“This is something he needs,” Ryan insisted, still standing up for him.

Micah shook his head.

“This is something I want,” he corrected him and hesitated. Just get it over with, he told himself. Lying was so easy, though it hurt. How much worse could the truth be?

“If I don’t go now,” he said honestly, “I’ll have nightmares forever.”

Prisha looked at him, surprised, and Ryan did, too.

“You’re having nightmares?” he asked quietly.

Micah nodded, though it shouldn't come so much as a surprise to them, he thought. He hadn’t gone anywhere near an open fire in weeks.

He stared at his sister, waiting for her reaction. Her eyes seemed to be searching his face for something. He didn't know what. It could all go wrong here, now. She could tell him "no", tell his parents what he had been doing, forbid him from ever speaking with Ryan again. She could do that and Micah would probably have to accept it. Except for the Ryan part. And then he’d spend a year studying alchemical theory and become an [Apprentice] to an alchemist in Westhill, probably Mr. Faraday, and he’d make potions for people who were just as afraid of the Tower as he was.

Or she could let him go. He wouldn’t even need her blessing. He just needed a chance.

Micah didn’t expect her to surprise him with a third option.

She swallowed and said, “I’ll go with you.”

“What?” Micah asked. “You can’t! It’s dangerous.”

“That’s what I’ve been telling you!”

“But still, Prisha, you can’t …” Micah trailed off, wringing his hands looking for words that he couldn’t find.

“No, I’ve made up my mind,” she said.

Micah turned to Ryan with a desperate look on his face. The other boy saw and gave him a brief nod.

“You can’t come with us, Mrs. Prisha,” he said. “Only people with a combat Class or Path are allowed into the Tower. Micah has the [Warrior Path] and I have [Fighter],” he pointed at the both of them and left the statement hanging, as if asking her which Class she had.

Prisha looked desperate, then folded her arms as she looked down on them.

“I have knife dexterity,” she offered. “Hell, I can juggle knives … a little.”

Ryan shook his head.

“You could fill out an application form explaining that,” he said and swayed his head a little, “but that would take weeks.”

Micah was a little amazed by how Ryan could manipulate people without lying. Was it even manipulating when all you did was tell the truth?

“But—” she said.

“Sis, please,” he said. “Ryan knows what he’s doing. Here, look, he even brought me armor and a sword.” He pulled them out of Ryan’s backpack a little for her to see.

“But—”

“Please?” Micah looked at her with the same look he always gave Ryan. He hoped to see them melt, but they didn’t. Instead, they seemed to light up.

“I know!” Prisha suddenly said. “I’ll have Ed go with you! He’s a [Guard], he can keep you safe.”

“Uh, what?” Ryan asked.

Micah didn’t know what to say to that.

“Wait, here,” she said and ran off calling Ed’s name before either of them could stop her.

“Uhm, how many people is she going to tell about this?” Ryan asked, but Micah didn’t know the answer. Hopefully, not too many? If his parents found out … Prisha knew that, right? He crouched down and picked up the bowl that she had dropped, shoving its contents back inside and tossing them in the trash.

Then he walked after his sister. There was one person Prisha would definitely tell.

“Where are you going?” Ryan asked.

“To go apologize to Neil for lying,” he called back. A few steps later Ryan started following him.

They met Neil, Prisha, and Ed in the entrance area and ducked into the kitchen to talk in privacy. Prisha slid the doors shut, too, so nobody would spy on them. Micah apologized for lying, and Ryan asked if Ed had a weapon he could bring.

“I have a baseball bat,” Ed offered. “Made of good wood. And a pair of knuckle-rings. What are we fighting?”

“Giant rats,” Ryan described.

“Ha, I can definitely kill some rats with a bat. How big are they?”

Ryan showed him, miming their size, and Ed said, “So normal-sized, eh?”

Micah frowned. He hadn’t seen rats often before, but he was pretty sure they shouldn’t grow up to be that size. Where had Ed lived before that he called that normal? Or was he just boasting?

… probably boasting.

While Ed went to get his bat, Prisha doted over him and checked their bags to see what they had brought. She packed them some extra cheese and bandages, saying they could maybe use the former for something other than eating. Rats liked cheese, right? It could maybe distract them.

Micah didn’t think Tower monsters ate, although he’d thrown his sandwiches at some of them before because he’d thought the same thing. Was that considered a beginner’s mistake?

“Can you not tell mom and dad about this?” he asked her before they left.

She hesitated, but said, “Of course,” and wished them the best.

Then Micah was headed for the Tower. Finally. He felt both much less and ten times more prepared than he had before. Half because Ryan was with him, half because Prisha knew where he was headed.

They bought Ed and him a day pass at one of the receptions and three pairs of waterproof, sturdy socks, too. Ryan had a slip of paper from his school that he showed them to get a stamp on his arm without having to pay.

Ed asked about the socks, and Ryan explained that the rats were in a massive sewer system. The first floor was flooded with water that was about ankle high. Only the higher floors had sidewalks next to the canals because the water was deeper there. Things hid in it, too.

Instead of dirtying their boots in the water, people headed for the first floor often liked to just took them off and wear a pair of thick socks instead that could keep most of the water out. It wasn’t dirty. A lot of people claimed you could actually drink it since nobody had ever gotten sick from doing so. They'd only upset their stomach because of the smell and the perception of the water being dirty.

Ryan put his shoes and socks in his bag and Micah put his and Ed’s in his own. Then they put on their shin guards and strapped their swords to their belts. Micah considered drawing the blade to test swinging it around, but they were in a crowded area and he didn’t want to be awkward. It was the same reason why he hadn’t asked if they could make a detour to go looking for Garen.

Micah wondered what the old man would think of him now.

It was noon by the time they headed through the tunnel towards the Tower. The morning rush was over, so there were much fewer people about than when Micah had last gone in.

The guards at the end of it checked them, and Micah began to suspect that they preferred to check people with day passes. He looked around, searching for the guard who had spoken to him last time, but he couldn’t find him. It was Sunday, too, and about the same time. He’d thought maybe he would be working today.

“Micah?” the guard in front of him asked when Micah told him his name. “Stranya, right? The dead kid.”

Ed stepped a little closer and crossed his arms when he said that. Micah didn’t check, but he was pretty sure Ed was staring down at the man menacingly.

“Uhm, yeah?” he asked.

“Hm. Tell me honestly, do you have a combat Class?” he asked.

“I have a combat Path,” Micah answered, frowning even though he understood why the guard was asking it. They knew that he’d lied about having one last time. He was asking him directly now to make sure. That meant they did have some kind of truth-detection Skill. Or at least, some of them did.

The man grunted and waved them on through, saying, “Good enough for me.”

The scene beyond there was much the same as last time Micah had been there. People sat on the lawns and studied or trained. Some were carrying stuff around in the shadow of the wall. A group of climbers even jogged past them. Were they doing a whole lap around the Tower? That had to be a few miles, at least.

Micah tried not to look at the entrance portal while they walked up to it. One day, he would come here to do just that. But not today. He didn’t want to get lost in thought again.

Ed, on the other hand, didn’t really seem interested in anything around him. He didn’t seem surprised by the tunnel, or the people, or the guards, the receptions, or even the naked Tower. All the things that Micah had marveled at during his first visit. He just kinda had the look of a relaxed bouncer on his face. If not for him not knowing where to go and what to do, Micah would have thought he’d been here before.

Ryan, lastly, was staring at Micah. Eventually, it made him a bit uncomfortable. The other boy was probably hoping for some kind of reaction. Maybe wonder or fear, or … well, he didn’t know. He couldn’t guess Ryan’s thoughts as well as the other boy could his. Not yet, at least. And Micah had seen all of this before so there was nothing there to react to. Ryan could look away now, he thought.

He didn’t.

Then they stood in front of the portal and Ryan had to look away. Micah waited on him. He didn’t know what came next.

“Gimme a second,” Ryan said and closed his eyes in concentration.

Micah remembered what Garen had told him about school classes and how the teacher’s intent was supposed to guide his students to stay together. Ryan was sort of the teacher here. It might be that he was doing this for the first time and didn’t want them to get separated? Or maybe he’d done it before and it was just really hard. Either way, they waited while he needed a moment. Then Ryan opened his eyes again and nodded.

“Alright, that should do it.”

“Are you sure?” Ed asked.

“No,” he admitted, and turned to them with a sort of shrug on his face. He took Micah’s hand and held it up for Ed to see. “Hold hands?” he asked. “Should keep us together.”

“Here, little guy,” Ed said, holding his hand out for Micah to take. He did, though it was twice his size, and then Ryan pulled them on through the portal. There was a white light. A sense of elsewhere.

Micah found himself standing in a dark place. His feet were submerged in water that slushed with every little move he made. It kind of stunk, too, like a trash can in the summer after rain, and a little bit of wet dogs. He immediately regretted not taking his perfume potion with him. He’d made one a week ago, from riverbed flowers and dried apple slices, but Ryan had told him not to wear it because it might count as an "alchemist" action.

So what if it’s an alchemist action, though? Micah thought to himself. He was both an alchemist and a fighter.

Still, he deferred to Ryan’s better judgment. He hadn’t even known about different people having different requirements for Classes until he'd told him.

“Where are we?” Ed asked behind him and Micah stumbled forwards a bit into Ryan. He stumbled back and found a cold, hard surface next to him reaching upwards.

“Everything’s alright. Give your eyes a moment to adjust,” Ryan told them. “We’re in the Sewers.”

“Smells like it,” Ed chuckled. “Though I’m missing the smell of shit.”

“Nothing to make it in here,” Ryan said with a smile in his voice. Then a grimace. “Still stinks, though.”

“Any monsters?” Ed asked more seriously.

“Not in the first tunnel, no. There’s only one way ahead. I can’t make out the branches yet.”

“Hmph.”

Micah’s own eyes were beginning to adjust. He saw brick tiles forming a stone ceiling above and what looked like moss growing between their ridges. Everything was grey or black, except for the edges where the water met stone. Or was it where it met moss? There, the surface of the water seemed to glow blue ever so dimly. It tinted the world around itself a blue that became darker around the edges.

“Can you guys see the glowing water, too?” Micah asked.

“Yeah,” Ed said.

“That’s normal,” Ryan explained. “The Sewers are different from the Dark. There are sources of light scattered around that make the place seem dim, but not pitch black.”

The Dark? Micah wondered. That hadn’t been in the Beginner’s Guide. Was it on a higher floor?

The thin patches of moss that surround them had been in the Guide, though. It was called Sewer moss and could be sold to alchemists, or eaten to calm the stomach. It didn’t say what alchemists used it for, though.

Apparently, scraping them out of the ridges was too much of a hassle. There were supposed to be large, circular rooms further into the Sewers where the moss covered whole walls.

“How big is the glow itself?” he asked, trying to switch his curiosity to something he could reasonably answer today.

“About a millimeter? It’s just the outline of the water,” Ed offered and Micah nodded. So the blue light looked bigger to him than it did to others.

Normally, Micah knew how most things were supposed to look. He’d only gotten [Essence Sight] when he was eleven, after all. He knew grass didn’t have hands and that other people couldn’t see the patterns of the wind. But inside the Tower, he couldn’t help but wonder. Why not just ask? It seemed like a simple solution, as long as the other person knew about his Skill.

Otherwise, they might think he was crazy.

“So what’s our battle plan?” Ed asked.

“I was thinking you could stay behind us, but keep close,” Ryan offered. “I wanted to kind of herd the rats towards Micah one by one so he can do most of the fighting. In case it looks like he can’t handle one, you can step in, pull him back and squash it.”

“I am good at squashing,” Ed said with a grin.

“Sounds good to me,” Micah offered.

Ryan sighed in relief and Micah smiled at him, then remembered to let go of his hand. It had started to get warmer, too. Micah wondered if Ryan had to concentrate to keep [Hot Skin] down.

The other boy nodded at them and said, “Let’s go.”

They walked a few yards to the end of the tunnel where Ryan listened to check which of the two branching paths they should take. The tunnels were much straighter than the ones in the Salamanders’ Den, too. The brick stones looked man-made and curved after a long stretch. The tunnels were just wide enough for two of them to walk side-by-side and high enough that Ed could walk comfortably. Still, they walked in a line instead.

They took the right, for no reason other than that Ryan preferred it, their feet slushing along the way. Halfway through the tunnel, Ryan stopped them and pointed to a dark lump that sat near the end of it, next to the wall. It seemed to be quivering a little bit.

Was that a rat? What was it even doing there? What did monsters do when they were alone with no climbers around? They didn’t have to eat, he knew, and they didn’t have any predators. And they were born of crystals, so they couldn’t make more of themselves. Those were the big three things for animals, weren’t they? Food, shelter, and reproduction.

Then again, they weren’t animals, were they? They were monsters.

Still, what did that leave them?

“Uhm, it’s kind of small,” Ryan told them. Micah begged to differ. “Ed, uhm, sir, can you stand a bit further back so you don’t chase it off?”

“You can chase monsters off?” Ed asked, sounding surprised.

“Yeah, if we’re too many or too imposing they might run away. Not often, but sometimes they’ll do.”

“Uhm, sure, kiddo,” Ed said and took a few slow steps back.

Ryan gave him a thumbs-up.

Then he led the way further towards the lump of dark, slowly, and Micah followed one step behind.

“Just breathe and remember your forms,” Ryan told him while he drew his sword. “You got this.”

Micah nodded and drew his own blade. It was slightly shorter than the one they practiced with, and yet still heavier. Micah moved it around a bit as he walked, to get a feel for it. He probably should have practiced with it earlier, though.

It didn’t matter anymore. When they were about five meters from the rat, it stopped quivering all the sudden and looked up at them. Then it screeched and sprinted towards them. Micah could hear more rushed slushing behind him, Ed probably, but he kept his eyes on the enemy. It was about as big as his head if he’d have to guess. And it had way too many teeth for a rat. Sharp, pointy teeth. It looked slightly more muscular than a regular one, too.

Halfway towards them, it lept right at Micah’s face.

Micah dodged by stepping to the side and raising his sword up in preparation, but he needn’t have. Ryan smacked the beast down in one clean hit. It hit the ground with a squeal and a splash, and Micah flinched to keep the water out of his eyes. He quickly stepped forward and drove his sword into the beast’s exposed stomach.

It burst into smoke at the same time as Ed arrived, stomping down on nothing.

“Sorry,” he said somewhat sheepishly. “Reflex. Or rather, a Skill ... “

He trailed off, but Micah wasn’t really listening anyway. He stood frozen, watching the cloud of smoke disperse and tried to push down the memory of disgust that he associated with it. His first trip into this place had warped him. He remembered all too well spitting just to get rid of the smoke’s taste, even though it didn’t even have a taste.

He needed to let go.

“Uhm, good job, you two,” Ed said. “That looked easy.”

“Thanks,” Ryan said. “But that really was a small one. Normally, they’re about a foot high and three feet long. Sometimes, they’ll stand up on two legs and stare at you from the distance. Just stare. It’s really creepy.”

“Nice smackdown,” Micah said with a smile when he’d caught himself, and he meant it. Thinking back, that hit from Ryan had been really forceful. His shirt was splashed with water. If he didn’t know any better, Micah might have thought it was a Skill.

Ryan rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, but then bent down and searched the water for the beast’s crystal. It was a lot smaller than the ones Micah had at home and a greyish tan color.

“Lemme see?” Micah asked, and Ryan handed it to him. Ed was keeping an eye on the three tunnels around them while he looked inside.

What he saw were strands upon strands of white, and pink, and dull red overlapping each other and bulging and tearing and reforming again. Larger this time. It looked a lot like leather essence, but it was still alive and growing. All the strands inside were all tinted a slight tan and grey from the crystal’s own glow and the colors quickly mixed into one before separating again.

All around the woven struggle and even in pockets between the strands, Micah saw liquidy globules of the three colors mixed together squishing and bulging and fighting against the strands, fighting for space. Where there was too much damage, tiny familiar droplets of blood spilled out.

And yet, while everything inside the crystal seemed to be fighting for space, there were pockets where there was just nothing. Where there should have been more, but there wasn’t. It reminded Micah of the Salamander chest that stood in his room at home. Did the Sewer Rats have fire essence in their crystals?

“What kind of essence is inside it?” Ryan asked.

“Flesh essence,” Micah answered, and grimaced. Normally, he wouldn’t have minded. It wasn’t much different from actual meat, after all, and he liked eating that. But since he knew these came from oversized rats …

“Huh. Interesting,” Ryan said. That was one way of putting it.

“What now?” Ed asked.

“We go find the next one,” Ryan said simply.

They made their way through the sloshing water slowly, as to not splash each other with their steps. They disposed of the second rat in much the same manner as the first. Ryan told Micah to fight the third on his own. He tried slashing at it while it ran at him, but he didn’t reach far enough. The rat just kind of slipped under his sword tip.

It tackled him and started gnawing at his shin protectors. Micah was infinitely glad that he wore them. Ed appeared then out of nowhere and stomped it into smoke. The fourth and fifth rats were equally wobbly, but by the sixth Micah had learned his lesson and was getting the hang of it.

Sometime around the eighth, they were six tunnels in and the rats started appearing in packs of two or even three.

Instead of facing them, Ryan turned back.

Micah knew why— They had no middle-grade healing potions with them. A bite of those teeth in his neck or even someplace like his wrist or legs could be fatal if they were unlucky. No sense in risking it. They went down other tunnels instead and picked off rats one by one. After the tenth, rats started ambushing them while they fought despite being so close to the entrance.

Ed had no problem squashing those.

Eventually, Micah was fighting on his own while Ed and Ryan ate his PB&J sandwiches—ready to drop them if they needed to—and talked.

“You don’t seem as … disdainful of the Tower as I thought you’d be,” Ryan said.

Micah tried to listen, but it was pretty hard with a rat dodging left and right in front of him; never really getting close enough for him to attack it. Ryan had warned him not to go on the offense because the beasts were quicker than they were. One wrong lunge and he’d have a seventh scar to add to his collection.

“I don’t hate the Tower,” Ed said. At least, his deep voice traveled. “I understand how the city relies on it. I occasionally buy things from the Garden markets myself. I just don’t think going into the Tower to make a living off of fighting monsters is a good thing.”

“What, because of the risk?” Ryan asked.

“No. Well, yes. Rather, because of the risk to your heart,” Ed said, and Micah almost stumbled in surprise.

He would have laughed if there wasn't a giant f-ing rat in front of him. At least, it sensed his hesitation and went on the offense. Finally, Micah thought.

“Laugh and I will dunk you headfirst in this water,” Ed grumbled.

“I’m not laughing,” Ryan said. “I’m just … what did you mean by that?”

Ed sighed. “My Nana always told me only sad people go to fight monsters.”

That wiped the grin off Micah’s face. He finished the rat off. When he turned back, Ryan didn’t look so happy either.

“I see,” he said.

“Hey, it’s just my opinion. I mean, I have everything I need. My work, my family, my friends, even a girlfriend who will hopefully be family one day. I spend my free time having fun and playing baseball outside the city. I don’t need anything else to fulfill me. Climbers … I feel like no matter what they do, they still do.”

Ryan was frowning then, choosing to say nothing.

Micah collected his crystal and headed back.

“It’s just something to keep in mind,” Ed said with a shrug.

“Yeah, thanks …”

Micah felt much the same.

“Why is there a tail hanging from that one?” Ed suddenly asked, pointing at his hand, and Micah almost flung the crystal away in fright.

There was a rat trail still clinging to the crystal by a thin, glowing thread. He slowly held it up to his face and saw that the thread itself was made of a sort of crystal, too. More like dried honey than glass. It led into the tail where it grew thicker and got slight ridges.

Wait, was that its bone? Made of growling crystal-like stuff?

“Oh!” Ryan said and stepped closer. He leaned down a bit to see for himself. “You found a monster part.”

“A what now?”

“You know how there’s unmade and fully-made?” he asked. Micah nodded. “Well, in school we learned that unmade kind of grow into fully-made over time. And if you catch one that’s almost there and kill it, the crystal will retain some of its body parts based on what’s closest. They’re supposed to be even rarer than the fully-made themselves.”

Micah squinted at the rat tail hanging from a thin thread and moved his hand to tug it off. He could always use it as an alchemical ingredient … he guessed?

“Don’t!” Ryan warned him. “If you rip it off it’ll begin to rot, just like most fully-formed do when you cut out their crystal.”

Micah stopped an inch away from the string.

“Oh,” he said and held the crystal somewhat more carefully. “What do I do?”

“Here, you can put it in the pouch of my backpack. It should be safe there.”

Micah did just that and thanked him.

Ed was just looking at them with that same neutral look on his face.

“Remind me to not drink any of your potions, Micah,” he said and hesitated. “Or even put on my skin.”

“Will do.” Micah grinned.

They killed three more rats before Ed and Ryan ran out of sandwiches and they called it a day. Micah was exhausted by then and could barely keep up his form. Ryan said he didn’t want him to risk making a sloppy mistake because of that. When they headed out, it was beginning to grow dark and they headed home to offer a full report to Prisha and Neil.

Micah was surprised by how much Ed complimented them on their behavior.

“They were as safe as they could have been,” he said— Aside from the missing health potions, Micah thought but didn’t say anything. “And they earned sixteen small crystal shards that I understand Micah needs for potions?”

He looked at Micah then, and Micah nodded from where he sat at the small kitchen table. He didn’t know what he could use them for yet, and he was a bit worried because they were so small, but yeah, he’d figure something out.

“You could sell them, too, to earn money. And I bet Micah will be able to sleep better tonight.”

Micah nodded again.

“It honestly didn’t seem like that big a deal,” Ed said and shrugged. “You know, as long as they stick together and don’t fight any of the rat packs.”

Prisha and Neil were standing next to each other and frowning down at them. Ryan looked like he was trying to look proper, and Micah just tried to look … something. He didn’t know what. Inside, his heart was pounding. He’d left the Tower sweaty, wet from the water, and exhausted after slaying twelve rats. He only had some shallow grazes on his arms from where he’d scraped along the Sewer walls. None of the rats had hurt him. Would that really be enough for [Fighter]?

Prisha just said she was glad that he was safe. Nothing beyond that. Nothing about whether or not Micah would be allowed to go into the Tower again, and nothing about whether or not she would tell their parents, either.

She said goodbye to Ryan when Ed was done, and that was the other boy’s time to leave, whether he wanted to or not. Micah walked him out again and said goodnight. He went home himself a bit later.

In bed, he felt nervous. It took him what felt like hours to fall asleep.

The next morning, he didn’t get the [Fighter] Class, didn’t get a Skill, or level up. Nothing.

Ryan did.

[Fighter level 6!]

[Skill - Lesser Charisma obtained!]

He frowned. Were fighters supposed to get charisma?

Ed did, too.

[Guard level 20!]

[Skill - Sense Enemy obtained!]

When he next saw Micah at the bathhouse, he immediately scooped him up into a crushing bearhug and said he’d drink any potion he ever made.

It helped a little in improving Micah’s mood.