Before I could fall into a slumber, Yui came over and quietly asked if we could talk. We walked away from the shelter and stood by the edge of the lake. Standing in silence, we took a moment to appreciate the view. Reflections of the moon and countless stars of the tower’s night sky were mirrored on the water’s surface. Unsure if it was an illusion or projection, but either way it felt real, even knowing that I was inside a giant magical tower.

At least I thought I was. When entering a floor, you walk out of a tower that looks almost identical to the one you entered in Aruni. Moving between floors or leaving the tower also requires you to walk into a similar looking tower that is always located at the centre of the floor. Was I in the tower, or was this another word connected by the tower? Thinking about the possibility gave me a headache. I decided to chalk it up to Magic is awesome.

The tower was not in sight from our location, but the compass I had told me it was currently to my left.

My attention turned to Yui as she turned to face me.

Her dark eyes looked into my own before speaking. “I want to both thank and apologise to you. I’m sorry for what you experienced on your first day in the tower. Miko told me what happened and that you saved her life. Thank you for keeping my friend and team member safe.”

I went to open my mouth, but she held up her hand to forestall me. “That being said, neither of you would have been in that position if I did not allow you to camp that night inside the tower. I should have brought you back to the guild hall. For that too I am sorry. I will endeavour to learn from my mistake so nothing like that will happen again.”

I shook my head lightly. “I think you misunderstood something. You held no sway over my choice to stay on the first floor. I was going to stay there regardless of what you decided. As for the events of that night, I would have rushed into the fray even without Miko there to support me. Things might have ended much worse if not for her.”

“Thank you.” She let out a humourless laugh. “Grandfather said something similar, that I couldn’t stop you from doing whatever you wanted. Never have I experienced anyone refusing me. Growing up where everyone followed my say-so, I thought being the team leader would be easy. Miko, I can understand as we grew up together, but I never would have thought that a fresh to Aruni human would dismiss my instruction… Or maybe I did know, and that’s why I said you could stay, to keep face. Either way, it was a stupid risk and almost caused the death of two of my team members.”

I turned to look at the moon. “Sera found me on the third floor. We talked for a while before she headed back. Did she share anything with you?”

“Yes, Hiro informed me she left after learning the elven faction was looking for you…” Her next words sounded bitter. “Hiro forbade me from listening in to her report once she got back. When I asked why, he said that I was not ready to know yet.” She let out a frustrated sigh. “Ready to know what? Why must he hide so much from me? He is always trying to protect me from everything… So paranoid that he only allowed me to adventure in the tower up to floor five. Like anyone below level twenty could even stand up to me.”

She looked my body over. “Until you that is.” Letting out a sigh, she said, “I’m the one responsible for this team, I’m the one that is meant to lead. How can I do that if I’m not allowed to know what’s going on… Does that make sense to you?”

Sounded like Hiro did not want his great something granddaughter to know about my past or maybe it was just the tower secret. Either way I decided to respect his decision.

Being as vague as possible I said. “It doesn’t. What I can tell you, however, is that I’m strong, Yui. Like really strong. Before I came to this world, no one was my equal in strength, or with the sword, axe, and any other weapon you can think of. For the last two decades of my life, I have been fighting almost non stop with little to no rest.”

She was looking down at the water’s surface. Lifting a hand to her face, she ran it though her dark silky hair. “That sounds horrible... I heard from Jace that there were many wars on earth, that some included child soldiers. I can’t imagine what growing up like that would be like… But he told me that the strength of the strongest person on Earth would only be equal to someone around level eight here.”

I had no idea how to explain my experience to her without crossing some line Hiro wanted her behind. “I was special.” Was all I could think to say.

Yui turned to me. “Special how?”

This is my third world and was a hero stuck in a dead tower for over twenty years in the last one, was what I wanted to say. Instead, I just said. “You will have to ask your grandfather.”

She turned away from me, her body rigid, hands balled into fists.

“Those elves were looking for me, Yui. If Miko and I were not there, then I fully believe none of Torva’s team would still be breathing today. As you saw from the last floor, they are still looking for me, with way more force than before. If not for that night, we would be clueless about their goal and be completely unprepared for them. At least now we know we are in front of them. All we need to do is race through the tower.”

She stood in silence. Giving her time to think, I picked up a flat stone and flung it across the water’s surface. We watched as it skipped across the water several times before sinking out of sight.

“You are right…” she said at last.

“There is something else…” She turned towards me but kept her face aimed at my chest. “After I heard that you were wanted by the Elves, I asked grandfather to separate you from our group. I didn’t know or care why they were after you. I just wanted you and whatever danger you brought, to be gone.” Letting out a sigh, she continued. “But grandfather said no. He said that bad things were coming, and it was much safer to climb the tower with you, than without.”

She looked up and met my gaze. Tears were pooling at corners of her eyes. “I don’t know what’s happening. My family are busier than I have ever seen them, and no one is telling me why. I’m terrified the guild is preparing for war. That is the only thing I can think of. Why else would grandfather become so insistent on me reaching the tenth floor? And who are we going to war against? The Elves? Not a guild, but all of them? We are a strong guild and have the support of the human faction, but we are in no position to go against the entire elven faction and their floating continent.”

Her voice became more frantic as she continued to voice her fears until her emotions got the better of her and broke down sobbing. “Hiro just keeps saying to find you and get to floor ten quickly.”

She no longer looked like the disciplined swordswoman that confidently faced a marathon challenge while under the hostile gaze of thousands of elves. Instead, she looked like a terrified young woman that was left in the dark by her family and tasked to climb the tower with her friends and some stranger who she knew almost nothing about.

Normally I was not one to initiate physical touch, unless it was of the violent nature, but seeing this woman trying to make sense of the world while being kept in ignorance, resonated with something inside me.

Reaching out with my arm, I patted her on the shoulder and said, “There there.”

A loud sob escaped her throat and she threw herself against me. After realising it was not a surprise attack I wrapped my arms around her shaking body and held her as she buried her face into my chest and cried.

“Everything is going to be okay.” I said in what I hoped was a reassuring voice. “Hiro knows what he is doing, and he only wants the best for you, have some faith. He is a hero after all.” She seemed to be calming down a little but I couldn’t be sure from the noises she was making. “Look. I promise that we will make it to floor ten, you’ll see… I’m not sure if I told you this but… I’m pretty strong.”

Her sobs turned into what sounded like a chuckle, and soon the only sound she made was her breathing. She kept her head pressed against my chest and made that wet sniffing noise that marks the end of a crying session. I pushed her away in case she decided to use my robe as handkerchief and gave her my most friendliest of smiles. “There there.”

She turned away and used something to clear her nose. After composing herself she glanced towards me and said a quiet, “thank you.”

“So that was a copy of yourself that you summoned?” She asked as we made our way back to the others.

“Yup, he may look like me, but don’t be fooled. He can be a bit clueless at times.”

She glanced at me from the side of her eye. “No kidding.” From her tone I couldn’t tell if that was a statement or a question.

The next morning before anyone else woke up, and at the insistence of my shadow, I decided to do some morning exercise. As I was going through the slow motions of a two bladed kata designed to train, or in this case, retrain muscle memory, Yui walked out of the shelter. After a minute of watching, she stood behind me and started to mimic my movements with two blades she pulled out of storage. She continued to copy my movements, only fumbling a few times due to the imbalance of her blades, until I reached the end of the flowing move set.

+7 to Dual Wielding skill rank.

“That was amazing.” She breathed out before drinking heavily from a flask of water. “I’m no expert of two weapon fighting, but I was proud of how far I had it ranked. Until seeing that... My skill just increased by four in rank, from just copying your movements. I have never had a skill increase so quickly.”

“Yeah.” I agreed. “Might seem fast, but really, it’s a waste of time. I wouldn’t even be doing this if it wasn’t for that shady prick.”

Yui looked at me like I was crazy. “Who?”

“He means me.” My shadow replied from the roof of the conjured shelter. “He is upset that our ranks did not follow us into this world and so he has to train if he wants me to be awesome.”

I let out a sigh as I conjured a two handed sword to perform another kata with. “I would much rather use this time to train in magic.”

“You are. We talked about this. You are training your most important magical ability.” He posed with hands on his hips and looked up into the sky. “Me…”

The thought of throwing the sword at my shadow passed through my mind. I decided to curse instead. “Piss off.” I yelled as I brought the sword across into the next form.

He let out an irritating laugh. “I’m surprised you have not checked out the new spell.”

The spell! Dropping everything, including the conjured sword, I searched my status.

Quicken

Rank: 0

Cost: 10mp

Description: Targeted creature will have their movement and attack speed increased by 1% per spell rank for 20minutes. Can not target self.

It was definitely a support spell and looked to be quite powerful too. Doesn’t add much at the low ranks but could see it making a huge difference in someone’s combat ability once higher. Wanting to test and increase its rank right away I looked to Yui and my shadow.

+1 to Quicken’s Spell rank.

The spell was quick to cast, and I was able to land it on both my targets in only a few seconds. Grinning I looked up to my shadow.

“Huh, did you know that, you look insane when you are magic happy?” My shadow asked as I started to chain cast the spell.

“So?” Yui asked. “What’s it do?”

+1 to Quicken’s Spell rank.

“It’s just like the book’s description.” I answered. “It increases movement and attack speed.”

“By how much?”

“One percent per rank.”

+1 to Quicken’s Spell rank.

Yui’s eyes widened as she continued to watch me chain cast the spell.

+1 to Quicken’s Spell rank.

I ran out of mana much faster than I expected. Looking at the spell again revealed that the cost was now much higher than a moment ago. It appeared that with every rank there was a large increase in cost. At rank four it was not costing me forty mana to cast.

My shadow at some point during the night had summoned another campstone. I had to admit he could be thoughtful at times.

“Hey, check this out.” My shadow pointed towards the campstone. It sparkled for a second and then broke apart into motes of mana. He gave me a cheesy grin. “I can dismiss now too.”

Letting out a sigh, I summoned another campstone. A jolt of fear ran through me as the stone started sparking. Fortunately, it did not dissipate.

“Damn.” My shadow said sadly. “Looks like I can only dismiss my own spells.”

I would have dismissed my shadow right then and there if I had not spend the last of it on the campstone. Instead of letting myself stew in anger while waiting for my mana to recover, I picked up the great sword and went back to training. I wonder if raising my wisdom would make my shadow less or more of a prick.

My shadow jumped down from the roof and slowly walked around me while watching. “By the way. Nothing showed up last night, but I did hear something large moving across the sands. I was unable to get a good look from the shelter, even after using a few walls to get more height. Fun spell by the way.”

“It’s probably sand pirates.” A yawning Richard said as he stepped out of the shelter.

“Sand pirates!” My shadow said excitedly. “We get to fight sand pirates!”

His words mirrored my own thoughts. I always loved the idea of pirates at sea when I was a kid. Having the chance to see and fight some on sand sounded really fun. I wondered if they had a ship that floated just above the sand or used countless sand creatures to pull a large raft forwards. My imagination ran wild.

Soon Burin and Miko woke up and strategically sat in my field of vision while staring longfully towards me. Their tired but needy eyes bore into me as I moved through the kata.

“Okay, what do you want?”

They yelled out, “Breakfast!” and clapped their hands. Their actions so similar I suspected it was rehearsed.

After a quick breakfast, I dismissed the shelter and we started on our way. Without a better direction to walk in Yui decided that we head towards the tower.

“This floor sucks.” Complained Miko an hour later. “It’s so hot and the sand keeps getting in my fur.”

The sun was bright, but I did not feel the scorching heat as they did. Instead, thanks to my robe, it was a comfortable walk under a warm sky.

“Sir Burin.” Richard called out. “I feel like this would be a fantastic location for you to train your rain spell.”

Miko shook her head. “No way. I don’t want to be hot and wet. The sand will stick everywhere.”

“I can forge ye some ice, if ye like.” Burin replied.

At Richard’s agreement, Burin cast his new spell and a small fountain of water sprouted from the soft sand underfoot. Reaching down, he scooped out a handful of water that formed into a sphere the size of his fist. He wrapped his hands around the sphere and focused. A moment later he removed one of his hands to reveal a frozen ball of ice half the size of the original sphere of water.

Burin offered the frozen orb to Richard. “Here, put there where you like. I condensed it as much as I could so it should last ye a good while.”

Richard took the offered ball and peered at it closely. He placed the ball into his robes against his chest before pulling out a notebook. “Amazing. Thank you, Burin. What spell did you cast to form the water like that?”

“It be my class trait. I can work with water to change its form and shape.”

“Form is shape.” Miko called out from in front of us.

Burin scratched the back of his head. “Ye know, like compressing and freezing and then changing what it looks like.”

“Oh, the density.” Corrected Richard, keeping pace with Burin.

“Aye. That’s it.”

“Can you only increase the density?”

“What do ye mean?”

“Well, I was thinking. What if instead of making a sphere of water denser and changing it into ice. Could you do the opposite and turn it into steam?”

“Ah, well… I have never tried.”

As we had moved some distance, Burin created another fountain and scooped multiple handfuls of water that he placed into his storage. He then took another scoop and focused on it as we continued walking.

Richard watched from his side and provided some guiding words to the dwarf. “Instead of trying to make the sphere larger by pulling your hands away. Try to make it hotter. Think of how water bubbles as it heats up.”

We continued walking for some time as Richard and Burin continued playing with water.

Just as Miko reached the crest of one of the dunes, an explosion knocked Burin and Richard off their feet sending them part way back down the dune we were climbing.

I ran over to Burin and looked him over. The only thing that looked concerning were his hands. They were a bright red. “Are you okay?” I asked.

“I think so, my hands are burning like I just touched the inside of my Da’s forge.” He stated.

Before he could use his hands to push himself up, I grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted him to his feet. “I thought you said your father was a farmer.”

He gave me a strange look. “No self-respecting dwarf home is without a forge.”

I summoned a pair of bandages and wrapped them around his Hands. I hoped the healing would be localised to where they were bound.

Yui was looking over Richard who was now sitting up in the sand, looking a bit confused.

“Something big is coming towards us!” Miko called out from the crest of the dune. My shadow was saying something to her as he was also looked out into the distance.

Trudging up the sandy slope, I looked to where she indicated. In the not so far distance there was a large displacement of sand that seemed to be slowly getting closer.

“Are those waves?” Miko asked. Her description was accurate two giant waves of sand spewed up and outwards from something in the middle.

Burin soon joined us, followed by the others. It was now close enough that we could make out some detail.

“Is that… a mouth?” Richard asked in a tone that seemed way too calm. At the centre of the waves was a dark hole which held small glowing lights inside.

It was close enough now that we could hear the sound of the roaring sand.

“It seems to be coming this way.” My shadow noted. “Maybe we should get out the way?”

“Back down the dune!” Yui yelled as everyone turned around and ran or tumbled down the slope as fast as they could.

I noticed half way down that Richard was still on the crest, calmly watching whatever was heading towards us. I rushed back up to pull him down, but stopped as I got a good look at what was coming towards us.

Just before we were swallowed by the darkness at the centre of the wake of sand, my brain recognised some familiar shapes. Above were the silhouettes of a ship’s sails and mast.

Sand Pirates! I thought excitedly, just before we were engulfed.