Leo felt depressed as he slouched over his desk, his head slumped on his arms. An un-fitting posture for the captain of guard house three, but the night had demanded a momentary break in composure. "I'm sick of these drunk bastards," he told himself, as he had done many times before. The room was empty, other than largely imposing white lion and he let out a long sigh.

It had been two hours since Leo had left Sarah and the cells downstairs had already found themselves full. With more-than a few hours remaining until light once more shone over the land, Leo was worried that the other guard stations wouldn't be able to take any of the drunks off his hands this time. It's not only his own cells that are overcrowded come morning after all.

"A good thing?" He remembered the words of the woman he had led around town. A strange one for sure, yet Leo couldn't help but let out a dry chuckle at her naivety. He gazed out the window and wondered what she was up to that very moment.

'I wonder how long she has left to live?' Seeing as though Sarah wasn't from the city, she wouldn't know that the once small and insignificant Ale for All guild had been nowhere to be seen last year. In the span of eight short months, however, they had put all the previous Ale Association guild out of business, even the members. It was complete domination. Since then, the numbers of alcohol-related crime and the already-high volume of foot traffic passing through the cells on a nightly average had been rising at a steady rate.

Every time the mind-wandering captain looked at what the work he should have be doing, Leo's mind drifted back to the small woman with green eyes. She felt like a foreigner to him and not because she was new to the city, but due to the fact that she knew nothing about keeping your status secret.

'I thought everyone guarded their status. She even told me that she has four titles. What the fuck is that about!? Who the hell has four titles? Someone who's dying, I suppose. Still, I wonder if she'd like to have dinner with me?'

The smell of something burning is picked up by Leo's keen senses which interrupt his pleasing thoughts. "That must mean Barry's here," he sighed. If he could, he'd keep the Magma Golem separated from the rest of the drunks. Unfortunately, the cells that house the more-violent criminals aren't big enough to acomodate his size.

'At least the magic-dampening cells in general population keep him from setting the building on fire, but that doesn't protect the other inmates from his inebriated state. I should just retire. That would be nice. I don't know what I'd do with myself, but it does sound nice.'

Looking at the paperwork stacked around him, Leo stood up and left his office. Even though he wasnt on duty, Leo didn't have much going on in the sense of a personal life and due to such he spent most of his spare time playing catch up with the ever-growing pile of reports he abhorred.

"Fuck it." He said to no one in particular, putting the paperwork off once again as he made his way down the corridor. "I'll go see if they need a hand downstairs. It's not as though I want to be in the thick of it, but it's better than reading through that shit. Either that, or I could go try find miss Kemp again?"

New faces migrated to Grower every day, contributing to the already swollen population and adding more problems to the already-overworked guard captain's plate. As he made his way down the staircase, Leo picked up a faint scent and took a deep breath. The stench of death from the woman met by chance still lingered inside the guard house and a smile crept across his face.

'I wonder if she'll visit me?'

His grin continued even after Leo had entered the cell containing the inebriated magma-man Barry. A day off meant nothing in a city that had as many problems as Grower did and the Leo much preferred to be in the thick of it. Or anywhere else Jo that happened to be miles away from his paperwork.

⊶⊶⊶⊶⊶✞⊷⊷⊷⊷⊷

"I am sorry for the hardships you have had to endure, Master. It does not sound like you have had it easy."

'Don't worry about it. It's not like any of them were your fault. What about H.B?'

"H.B?"

'Yeah. It's simple, short and easy to remember.'

"Thank you, Master. From now on, I shall be known as H.B."

'Cool. It's a lot easier than saying Book of Souls all the time. That's for sure. Speaking of souls. You've still got two left, right?

"Yes, Master."

'Ok. Let's see what's left to spend them on them.'

[Tower of Death - Level 4]

Current floors: 3

Sacrificial souls: 2

Features need to advance: 2

Features available: 2

- First Floor Challenge (1-4)

- Second Floor (2)

'There's no point in creating another floor seeing as how the first one isn't complete yet. That only leaves one option.'

Selecting the first-floor challenge, a new list appeared .

[Challenges (1-4)]

- Vitality

- Strength

- Endurance

- Dexterity

- Intelligence

- Wisdom

'So challenges are based on stats. Does that mean blessings will be the same?'

Sarah had a much easier time activating the draining rune than she did the flow rune, but she had already garnered a slight understanding into how they worked by that point. After finally cleaning days worth of death off her body, most of it a mental perception rather than physical physical dirt and grime, Sarah reluctantly left the bath.

Taking two towels from the shelf, Sarah used one to dry her hair and the other was wrapped around her body. She then sat back at the edge of the pool with her feet in the water and tried to select Intelligence from list of challenges. Nothing happened.

'Why isn't there a manual for this shit!' She complained before remembering that she could Identify literally everything. 'I need a slap sometimes.'

[Intelligence (1-4)]

- Create a trial with a maximum soul count of four in the Intelligence category. Anything you can imagine, the tower will create. Blessings will be awarded after successful completion of the trial. You can only assign one challenge to the first floor and a total number of three guardians.

'Oh my god. Was that helpful information? I think my next death might be a heart attack that's brought on by shock.' Sarah joy was interrupted her eyes landed on the wet clothing shed removed. The dirty-green outfit had been soaked after she had ran through the rain with the children and Sarah was reluctant to put it back on. Not that she could walk around naked.

"Master?"

'I'm OK. Sarcasm isn't your strongest suit either, I see. Still, what's a guardian? Are they like Solus?' Sarah got up hung the wet clothes on the railing.

"You currently have three guardians, Master. Sebastian and the two unnamed, undead, children."

'The children are guardians? But they're just kids.' Sarah thought about the two children she had turned into undead.

'How can they be guardians when they're smaller than me?' She was wondering what could wear while imagining the small children fighting grown men. Sarah only had one other item of clothing, however, and she was reluctant to even take it from the ring.

"It is not a matter of size master, but status."

Unable to refute the statement, Sarah was curious about their future growth now that they were dead.

'Yeah, but how do they get grow now that they're dead?'

While Sarah questioned H.B, she withdrew the necromancer robe from her ring and examined it. Contrary to what she had assumed, the robe was not green. It was, however, whiter than white and was almost radiating in her hands.

[Robe of the Necromancer - Rare - Part of a two piece set: Improves Necromancy by 100%. Increases natural regeneration by 100%. When concealed beneath the hood, you will become unnoticeable to prying eyes and detection spells. Self cleaning.]

"They grow through the undead class you bestowed upon them. Master, I think it would be a wise decision to read through and accustom yourself to the status menus again. Not only your own, but the tower's and the guardians too. Information is vital in obtaining victory and staying alive, or so I have heard."

Sarah felts a little berated at H.B's words as she put on the necromancer outfit. She didn't know using create undead would grant them a class in the process. She chastised herself afterwards too, seeing the amazing bonuses that the robe provided.

'Wow, I look really good in this! Holy shit. And I wouldn't have been noticed by Leo if I had been wearing this earlier. Even though it is quite dazzling so I'm not sure how that works. Plus, I suppose that meeting him wasn't a bad experience. I did find out some things about the city thanks to that.'

[Outfit of the Necromancer: 2/2 - Boost all stats by 100%. Boost Necromancy by 200%. Increase mana regeneration by 200%]

[Congratulations! You have been awarded a new title: Necromancing Till I Die]

'Are you fucking joking me!?'

[Necromancing Till I Die]

- There is no turning back now! Dark magic flows through your veins from an ancient order of evil sorcerers. Use their magic to avoid death and live a long life creating eternal sorrow for those who wish ill upon you. +5 to all stats. A specialist skill has been unlocked: Amplification of Death.

[Amplification of Death]

- All death related magic is boosted tenfold. Death around you will not be able to escape your sight.

"Are you ok, Master?"

"No. These stupid titles are taking the piss out of me and I feel as though this world is blatantly forcing me to be a necromancer. It's death, death, death, death, death. All the fucking time and I'm sick of it!" Venting her fury, Sarah couldn't help but scream it all out.

She left the bathroom and returned to the master room, grabbing the remaining meat from off the shelf before heading out through Solus.

"Master. You look most impressive." The compliment had come from Sebastian, but it only earned him a quick nod of appreciation as his master's mouth was full. Stopping only for a quick drink from the waters of sin, Sarah made her way down to the first floor. It wasn't lost on her that she'd not spoken to anyone since leaving the bathrooom.

'I need money.'

As the last sliver of meat disappeared down her throat, Sarah realised she was going to have to find a way to replenish her empty shelves.

'Ok. I suppose it's time to test this challenge thing out then. I swear I need some proper sleep when this is done.'

Bringing up the tower menu, Sarah went back into the section that counted the challenges. This time, she focused on the board game Sebastian and Solus had been playing and the image in her mind came to life. Ghostly objects appeared around the room bringing the pieces she had been imaging to life.

'Awesome.'

After gaining a slight understanding over how to set the trial, Sarah decided tried to try and alter layout. It was much easier than she had thought it would be. The grid, almost spanning the entire floo, had changed to take on a checkered pattern. Pawns, rooks, knights and bishops, stood in place around the King and Queen opposing their counterparts on the opposite side of the board. The pieces themselves were almost as tall as Sarah was, which would make for one very interesting game.

Once she had finished, Sarah was shocked at how easily she had just created a life-sized game of chess. Just as the tower had said, everything that she thought of had taken shape.

[Congratulations! You have successfully created your first trial. Because the trial is set as a two-player game, only one guardian be set to administer this trial.]

- Set guardian Y/N

- Set blessing Y/N

That was what she had been waiting for. No one so far had been able to give Sarah the information on how to grant blessings. The only thing she knew was that it had been done through challenges. She chose yes on the blessing option and a new list appeared.

[Trial of Chess]

Blessings available:

- Intelligence +1

- Intelligence +2

- Intelligence boost 5% (24 Hours)

- Intelligence boost 10% (12 Hours)

- Intelligence boost 15% (1 Hour)

'I finally find out what blessings are and all I can think is pfft. What sort of shitty buffs are they? Is it because it's only the first challenge. That's got to be it, right? I hope it is because I need money for food. Hopefully, people will be happy to pay for the chance to increase their intelligence. What do you think, H.B?'

"I believe that regular people find it harder to come by status points than you do, Master. That said, it could work."

'OK, let's do it.' Sarah set Sebastian as the guardian of the challenge. His class as Game Master was more than fitting and the undead children had yet to do anything other than what they were told. She then went downstairs to talk to Ariel.

"Hello, Master."

"Hey, Ariel. Do you have anything that I could make a sign with?" The receptionist asked what her master needed and after hearing the details, told Sarah to leave it to her. Sarah was slightly apprehensive at leaving such an important task in someone else's hands, but sleep deprivation was an actual thing and she could barely keep her eyes open as it was. Thanking Ariel, Sarah went back upstairs. Each step a challenge in its own right.

'Ahem. Mrs. Universe.? I could really do with knowing how to teleport. I know that's a staple skill in fantasy tropes and if you would so graciously send someone my way to show me how it works that would be swell. Thanks.'

Sarah was chuckling all the way to her room. She hadn't slept since the first time she had died as death naps were not counted. Crashing onto the bed, sleep took over Sarah the moment her head hit the pillow.