The next hour was one of the most surreal Will had ever experienced, even weirder than entering the Tower for the first time. He used the internet, made himself a microwaveable pizza, and pinched himself several dozen times. Several times, he caught himself just staring out of the window of his flat at the dirty London alleyway it overlooked, as if waiting for the image to ripple and recede as Tower-caused hallucinations always had.

So far, he’d decided to just assume everything he remembered was accurate and roll with it. He’d checked the date and time, and it matched. 19th December, 2022. 3 Months since the Tower first emerged and whispers hit the internet about the strange location and its’ mystical properties. The website he’d been looking at when the time travel happened was the same place he’d first heard these whispers, months before world Governments acknowledged the Tower and the number of Climbers went through its’ first big boom. Thanks to a mostly wasted life on the internet, he was in a number of esoteric and occult forums along with sites dedicated to rebellious political ideologies, conspiracy theories, hacking and the like. One of these sites had been subject to a short-lived spam attempt that drew him to Spiresidechats, a place dedicated to collating and documenting everything about this mysterious Tower and the people who had managed to enter and survive to tell the tale.

Most of the information was either faked or barely useful at all, but it had been enough to spark his interest, and by the time the first big boom happened he was obsessed. This time, he wouldn’t wait another year out of fear and complacency. This time he’d enter as soon as possible and start Climbing. He’d have to, if he wanted to save Humanity.

The beginning stages of a plan started brewing in his head, but he was startled from the process by a knock at his door. With a jolt, he remembered this day the first time around. Sara had come over just after he found the website and they’d had a massive argument because he was supposed to be looking for better work.

“Shit, the bitch!”

That thought made him remember how their relationship had ended, the event that caused him to get over his fears and enter the Tower in the first timeline. She’d broken up with him the day he lost his job, and revealed that she’d been having an affair for months. In fact, she’d said that the affair started right around this time.

“Hey, Will, you in there?”

Her voice called out, and his heart sank. Yep, it was definitely Sara. Fighting and killing in the Tower, watching friends die and the world be torn to shreds by an alien force, had generally allowed him to get over the emotional attachment or impact of his relationship. Still, now he had to figure out what to do about her so he could enter the Tower and not end up on the missing persons’ list.

“Coming!” He called, closing his laptop and the notepad on which he’d started to sketch out some goals for the coming months. He hurried to the door and let Sara in, a pulse of anxiety coming from what he thought was a long dead part of his chest at the sight of her face. He hadn’t seen her for years in the first timeline. She’d never entered the Tower, unless she was one of the few that survived the 5 Year Disaster and entered as a refugee not a Climber. As she tried to give him a kiss, he dodged it slightly and gestured towards his sofa with a twisted expression.

“Hey, what’s up?” She asked, voice full of innocent curiosity, as she dropped her bag and got comfortable.

“I think we should break up.” He blurted, unable to think of a better way to broach the topic that wouldn’t cost him hours of time. He had lives to save! Her feelings would have to be the less important priority here.

He didn’t get the reaction he was expecting. She didn’t cry, or act confused. Instead she immediately started screaming in anger, lobbing all the same insults and accusations from the first timeline and revealing just how long she’d been building them up.

Honestly, it was a blessing. It stopped him from feeling bad about dropping it on her like this, and let him shuffle her out of the apartment much quicker. One down, one to go. Once he was free from work, nobody would give a shit if they didn’t see him for a few days. He’d have to do a bit more to justify the longer trips, but he expected to be able to achieve his goals by the start of the New Year.

Much like how he wasn’t really bothered about Sara, since he knew it was doomed anyway, he also wasn’t broken up about quitting. It had been the plan anyway, and only laziness had stopped him seeking something less soul destroying years ago. Now, though he felt the burden of responsibility, he also felt the freedom of purpose. His boss wasn’t particularly sad to see Will go, given that he was secretly plotting to downsize and fire Will anyway, and even graciously waived the notice period and simply offered to pay the final 2 weeks salary. That taken care of, he sat back down and went over the last few things he needed to consider before entering the Tower.

Should he try and get in contact with John? The idea was tempting, but he dismissed it for a few reasons. It wouldn’t be the John he remembered, not without the experiences in the Tower they’d shared. Hell, without John entering alone in a few months and spending time as a solo Climber, he wouldn’t even be the John that Will had met on Floor 5 and started having those experiences with. On top of that, Will didn’t exactly fancy loading up a long dormant Facebook profile and trying to locate a person who could get him the phone number of someone who, in this timeline, he hadn’t spoken to in almost a decade. No, better to wait. If John followed the same path as before, he’d be fine for over a year and would arrive safely on the 5th Floor. Will could worry about helping his old friend and trying to rebuild the relationship then.

Will sat and pondered for another few hours, once again scouring the internet to build his plans based on the current state of affairs, until he had his core goals written out in front of himself. There were dozens of pages of notes beside these goals, half scrawled out in barely legible shorthand and the other half crossed out with large heavy lines. It had taken a while for him to realise that the Coin’s description of preserving his memories meant that he wasn’t likely to forget anything, even the little details he didn’t realise he remembered. That meant he didn’t need to waste the time writing it all down, and could take things as they came.

1. Get stronger. Become S Rank. Contribute.

2. Find High Rankers. Recruit and Ally.

3. Trustworthy Party. Form a Clan on Floor 4. Reach Floor 10 and Acquire Ascended Clan Token.

4. Prevent the 5 Year Disaster. Clear Floor 25.

5. Save Humanity. Clear Floor 50.

As obvious as these basic goals were, seeing them in black and white on the paper of his notebook made it all the more real. He had just over a year to accomplish the third, and the first two would be a constant process. The last ones were the big ones though, the ones that were totally non-negotiable. Whatever he did, he had to be constantly thinking about those two goals. Save Humanity. From the 5 Year Disaster, and from failing their Climb. He hadn’t been able to do anything the first time, but now he wasn’t doing it alone. He had the combined knowledge of millions of Climbers in his head, and other than the few thousand that would have already entered the Tower by now, he had a head-start on the rest of Humanity when it came to exploiting it.

“I’ll do this. For everyone. John. Kristoff. Boris. Tribulation. Sara, even. For all of the people I don’t even know. I have to.”

With those words, Will’s mind was at ease. He ate a final meal, got a good night’s sleep, and woke up fresh the next morning to begin his Climb.

The Tower would wipe whatever he was wearing and replace it with basic Tower clothing when he entered, so he made sure he wasn’t wearing anything nice as he stood in his living room and focused. He’d probably not be returning and wearing any of this stuff much if at all anymore, but it was the principle of the thing. Last time, he’d lost a great t-shirt thanks to missing the warnings online. Even though it had been public knowledge for almost a year when he entered, the Tower was still shrouded in rumour and misinformation unless you had the money or connections to get the real truth. That was one of the things that had stunted his own growth, leading him to poor decisions and missed opportunities.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

He closed his eyes and pictured the Tower in his mind, letting the huge monolith come to the centre of his minds’ eye and hover there. He thought of entering it, of Climbing, of reaching the top. A second passed, and then he felt it. The hook in the stomach, the jerking motion, and the flash of light. His eyes opened again, and he grinned at the familiar sight.

“Welcome [William Sutton] to the Tower. Please enter a Pseudonym for the Leaderboards if you do not wish your real name to be visible to others.”

He did, swiping away his name and replacing it with “Pioneer”. That had been one of the early terms for Climbers, before Climber became the accepted verbiage by everyone. He’d always liked it though, and he wasn’t planning on using his own name openly quite yet. This time round, once the Leaderboards activated he planned to be on them, and having that attached to his real name straight away may not be the best idea. Better to be safe.

“Please select a Base Class. Each option will determine what Skills, Spells and other abilities you will qualify for as well as your choice of Subclass and Elite Class. Make this selection carefully, as you will not be allowed to alter it. Each option also comes with one of three Base Gear Packs containing some gifts to assist you in the opening stages of your Climb.”

He nodded, remembering well this situation the first time he’d experienced it. He’d known sort of what to expect, but had still panicked and ended up essentially flailing through all of the starting choices. This time, he already knew exactly what to select.

He chose to take Fighter as his Class. Better than Caster in the first few Floors when just a few extra combat Stats could make all the difference, and since he was aiming for a Fighter/Caster Subclass it had to be one or the other. That was where the similarities with his past self ended, however.

The Skill list popped open, as he was allowed to choose his starting Skill from the list. Most were grayed out, unavailable this low in the Climb, but he navigated easily to the one he wanted. Skipping over Catch and Riposte [D] and just before Crushing Blow [C], nestled right where most people would miss it. Conditioning [F], a Skill nobody looked at twice until after Will had been Climbing for a month. That was when Gunshow Garrick finally convinced enough people of what he’d been saying for years, and the New World Foundation released a report. Turns out, though it started at F, it was able to go all the way to S Rank and people had been missing out on hundreds of points of physical Stats by ignoring the Skill.

He understood why people didn’t realise for a while. Unlike many of the other Skills on the list, this one didn’t seem to be that helpful. In fact, all it did was make movement and physical activity harder, which most people didn’t view as a great bonus on Floor 1 when they had Base Stats and no idea what to expect inside. Only someone very clever, or someone with a lucky hunch like Gunshow Garrick, would have realised from the description alone that this one Skill could do more for a physical-based Climber than any other. What was even better was that the sooner one took the Skill, and the more they trained with it, the more the effects would be felt. By the end, Will had managed to get his hands on the Skill and level it to B Rank, but he knew that almost all the S Rankers had at least Masterful Conditioning [A] if not Perfect Conditioning [S] in that final battle. It wouldn’t be enough, but it was a better first step than he’d made initially.

He grabbed the Base Gear Pack that materialised, and quickly searched through it. Along with the basic canteen, rations, rope, matches etc it also held a mail shirt and simple open helmet as well as a large circular disk the size of his palm.

“I’ll take a sword please. Scimitar, not the regular straight one you stick people with if they don’t specify.”

As he spoke, he snapped the disk in half and watched as it morphed into a simple steel scimitar in the air. He caught it before it fell, and gave it a practice swing. Nothing amazing, and he’d be replacing it as soon as he could, but for the first Floor at least it would do. He hadn’t used a blade like this much in the first timeline, not with his basic Knight Class, but he had trained a lot with whoever was around in the final days of the Climb and picked up enough that with the right Stats he knew he’d be fine. Plenty of A and S Rankers didn’t have prior experience in their weapon of choice on day one, even if a few did have previous talents.

“Your initial selections are complete. Please step forwards to enter the First Floor. On this Floor, in order to Climb, you must locate one of the Exit Portals and defeat its’ Guardian.”

The soft robotic voice of the Tower itself spoke up as he looked over his sword and put on the basic armour, and he gave it a dismissive wave.

“One second, I’m just going to check my Sheet and then I’ll go.”

William Sutton/Pioneer[F]

Class: Fighter

Strength: 11

Endurance: 11

Agility: 10

Reflex: 9

Mind Power: 3

Mind Depth: 4

Skills: Conditioning [F]

Oof, that was rough. His Sheet in the final battle hadn’t been anything world-shaking, but it was better than this. Without the +2 Strength and Endurance bonuses from Fighter, he would’ve had a below average score in three of the six Stats! At least this time round he knew that a 3 and a 4 in MP and MD was actually average and slightly above average respectively. Not the 10+ that someone like Archmage Suqot would probably have had, but better than he’d thought. Apparently they were much lower on average in humans than the physical Stats, and it had taken a while for research to reveal that fact. Overall, he was nothing special. Mediocre, an average person in basically every way. Maybe a little bit more potential than some, but likely to fade into the background in most situations. It would be up to him to use his knowledge and the skills accumulated over a former lifetime to change that fact.

He took the first step and felt himself get yanked once more, opening his eyes to a wide open expanse of grass. Birds tweeted, a permanently large and yellow sun gleamed like it was always noon overhead, and a cool breeze wafted towards him rustling the treetops of the distant forest in his eyeline. The outer ring of the 1st Floor, a deceptive paradise. He’d need to start moving immediately, if he wanted to avoid the trick of this Floor.