The Tower of Emnu

Melissa walked out of the guards barracks with a deep frown and a whole bag of shards poorer. The “fine” for holding up a guard patrol had been exceptionally steep and she was down to 5 shards for the rest of the month. She would have trouble just buying food. But the alternative had been a visit to Aurix in the evening to “explain” herself. She would rather starve than visit that man after hours alone at his home. Aurix would get away with almost anything with his high rank, seniority and only the guild and its elders had any power to make the man see reason. But why should they see reason in her or in Lisa’s case?

She had practically forced a guard patrol to release a prisoner. Illegally detained or not. Only her status as a mage protected her from any more legal ramifications. The “courts” of the Tower were nothing like the legal system back home as flawed as that had been. Personal Power mattered above all here and then came personal status. A guild elder was practically impossible to prosecute because they were one, usually powerful vessels or mages and two because they usually formed the jury in court cases and there was no exception for when they were indicted themselves. It was pure corruption and Melissa was glad she did not have to deal with it for now.

But she feared Aurix would not stop in his pursuit of Lisa. Ignoring the problem would not work. There were few options. The first option was to keep going with her current strategy by trying to be invisible and not give Aurix any openings. But that was only a measure to stall time. Eventually Aurix might grow tired of waiting and would force the issue. Or he might leave them alone. It was a vague hope she had clung to these last few weeks, but it still was only a temporary solution. If she wanted a permanent resolution she would have to rebuild her group and stay out climbing for most of the time until they reached Ambition and could shift their operations there. That was the best option by far, but she was not sure she wanted to do that with the Cultivator lurking in the lowest levels of the tower. Still she did not make herself any illusions that she could beat him as she was right now. The reports indicated that the Cultivator had been ambushed, almost killed but had still managed to kidnap one of the group coming from Ambition that now lead the manhunt. If he could do that while half dead Melissa had no chance in hell to kill him.

Going up to Ambition was her best play, because the other options to appease Aurix were either giving Lisa to him, which was no option at all or going to Aurix herself. Sacrificing herself... No, no she could do this another way. Rebuilding her group was the first step either way.

Chris had managed to get most of the potential recruits for her group to come to the training ground. Melissa had been too busy dealing with Lisa’s mess to find them herself. Lisa had been very apologetic when she had woken up the next day, but that did not make the situation any less bad for them.

Melissa entered the Army Base and walked past checkpoints uncontested. The soldiers on duty just waved her through without even taking a second look.

‘Perks of being here every day.’ She thought to herself as the same army sergeant stopped a group of people who tried to follow her. She ignored the argument behind her and walked past the new army recruits training in small groups.

When she arrived at the training ground 3, Lisa was already there, fiddling with her bowstring, stepping from one foot to another.

“Hey Lisa.” Melissa said, waving to her in greeting and looked around the empty training ground.

“Are we the first to arrive?”

Lisa looked up, spotted Melissa and looked back down, her face stricken with guilt and she quickly nodded.

“Yes, I was here first.” she paused for a moment looking at Melissa and then lowered her head again.

“I am so sorry Melissa, I have never had alcohol before and they were playing some great songs in the tavern. I must have gotten carried away.”

“Its alright, you don’t have to keep apologizing for it, but did the innkeeper really call the guards on you?” Melissa said, waving away any concerns the young woman might have. She would try to tell her off not to do that again, but she did not want to make Lisa feel even worse than she already did. That did not help anyone.

“I don’t know. Its all a bit blurry, but one of the men kept ordering me drinks and they tasted so sweet and all… I never really…”

“What?”

“Nobody ever paid attention to me back home. Especially not the guys… So…” Lisa blushed deeply and Melissa put a hand on her shoulder.

“Listen, this is a dangerous world we live in, that man might have just wanted to sleep with you, or he had even more nefarious things in mind. You are pretty, don’t sell yourself short and don’t drink if you decide to sleep with someone, make the decision with a clear head.”

Lisa nodded quickly and then raised her head and looked past Melissa. Melissa turned around and saw a small group of people had arrived and were cautiously looking around the empty training ground. They were lead by a woman in very basic armor, a cuirass style plate armor piece, a helmet and gauntlets, all of which seemed to have come from different sources. They looked mismatched and second hand. But the woman was tall, dark haired and imposing as most warrior type vessels. She noticeably straightened when she noticed Melissa’s gaze. Besides her walked a dark skinned man with a short buzz cut in simple clothes and a long wooden staff with a strange ornament on top. From the distance it looked like a piece of scaled skin pinned in place by a spike that protruded from the end of the staff.

Behind them walked a man with a shield and sword, his stout build and height marked him as a warrior just like the woman, but where the woman was confident, the man slunk after her with little poise and he clutched the strap that held his shield on his back a bit too tightly, clearly nervous. The last member of the group was a small man, with a crossbow slung on his back that seemed almost as tall as he was. He was blonde and looked around with a sneer on his face.

Melissa straightened and nodded to the woman and waited until they approached her. She closed the gap for the last few steps and held out her hand towards the female warrior.

“Hello, my name is Melissa, I am a mage.”

The whole group flinched at the word mage and they gave each other looks, but the warrior still shook her hand.

“Gloria, I am a...warrior. Rare class. This is Jacob, a witch doctor, Rick our front line warrior and Marvin, Crossbowman.” Gloria said, pointed to each of their members as she introduced them.

“I am glad to meet you in person. How long have you been in the tower?”

“Around 6 months.“ Gloria answered, but Marvin interrupted her before she could continue.

“So what is this all about? Instructor Balefield told us to come here, mage. Here to gloat? Put us in our place?”

“Marvin! Shut up.”

“What? Gloria look at her, she clearly thinks she owns this place.”

Melissa raised her eyebrows and cleared her throat, stopping the argument in its tracks.

“I did not come here to gloat or anything like that. Instructor Balefield has told me of your recent problems and I have a proposition for you.”

“What kind of proposition?” Jacob asked in a deep, clearly accented voice. It sounded vaguely South African if she identified the accent correctly. Which was interesting. It meant the man did speak English before coming here. Accents were really only ever translated correctly by the Blessing of Language if they were spoken as is in a language one understood. Another clear indication that this group came from Earth. The first indication had been that Gloria shook her hands. That was not a custom anywhere but Earth apparently.

“As you have probably realized by now it is almost impossible to become group leader as a vessel. It is a social taboo in the tower that is rarely if ever broken. Which means as you are right now you are barred from information and various guild services. I want to offer you to join my group, or rather form a new group with me.”

Gloria frowned deeply, but before she could respond Melissa continued.

“Instructor Balefield told me about the trouble you had with the other teams. You lost your mage, your leader to the Cultivator and it was by the hands of the other groups in the manhunt. I agree it is a really terrible thing that happened, but ultimately the Cultivator is to blame.”

Marvin spat out at her feet, his sneer replaced by a deep frown.

“Making excuses for your mage buddies huh?”

“No, I am not, I think it is inexcusable, but the Cultivator took your friend hostage did he not? The same happened to me and my group.” She pointed to Lisa standing close by, her head bowed still. “This is Lisa, a ranger, when she had just walked out from under the symbols she was kidnapped by the Cultivator. In response to that the manhunt started and when my old group and me came to free her, the Cultivator ambushed us.” Melissa could feel her throat tighten as she continued. The wound felt still so fresh even though a few months had passed.

“He killed my entire team and I only survived…because he thought I was dead.” She tilted her head up and showed them the clear discoloration on her throat. The thin white line was clearly visible even on her pale skin and the whole group fell silent as they stared at her.

“I know what it feels like to lose a friend. But I never blamed Lisa for her unwitting role in the ambush. She is just as much a victim of the Cultivator as you are. I know it must have been hard to lose your friend and leader and then be told you could not continue as you are and have someone else lead your group. Its not fair, but I promise you I will listen to you and take your concerns seriously. I am reforming my group not just to climb the tower, but to grow stronger until one day we can hunt down the Cultivator and kill him for his crimes.”

Melissa put as much fervor into her words as she could and then looked each of the 4 potential recruits in the eyes.

“I will avenge my teammates and I think in this we have the same goal.”

For a long moment the group did not say anything, instead they looked at each other and then Gloria gave her a pained smile.

“We have given up on revenge on the Cultivator. He is too strong. You were not part of the manhunt right?”

“No, only at the start, but I have read the reports, he is very strong, but his progress is slow, we can out level him and eventually we will be strong enough to kill him, together.”

“I would love to believe you, but after what we have seen.” Gloria shook her head. “He just toyed with us. There were more than 300 climbers who hunted, cornered him and he still got away and killed a few of us. He attacked us in the night out of the darkness like a ghost. You can’t hear him and he can fly. Its just not fair.”

“He can’t fly. He just jumps really far.” Lisa said into the awkward silence.

“He is a monster, but he is just one man. If we become strong together and make a plan to take him down, he will die.” she said confidently and tightened her grip on her bow.

“I agree, that is my groups purpose and even if you don’t think it can’t be done, what about when we all hit lvl20 or lvl30?” Melissa asked and she could see Gloria waver, Marvin looked like he was ready to leave, but he did not move. Jacob looked thoughtful. Only the so far silent member of the group, Rick looked determined and nodded.

“I think they are right, guys.”

“Rick?”

“We have been sitting on our ass for the last month it feels like and yeah the tower sucks. Just because we are Vessels we are banned from so much stuff. But with her help that changes over night. I want to become stronger, I want to avenge Garry. He did not deserve what happened to him and I don’t want to be stuck down here.”

Jacob nodded in approval. “Well said Rick.”

The man blushed and looked away, but it seemed like his words had struck a nerve and Gloria nodded although she did not look happy about it.

“Well...alright then. But we will need some time to try you out as our leader. We don’t know you, no offense, but how do we know you are a good leader or a powerful mage?”

Melissa felt a weight fall off her shoulders, if they considered her at this point, then she had a good chance of convincing them. She smiled and straightened.

“Well that is what we are here for, to demonstrate our powers to each other, to learn our abilities. Then we will spar a bit against each other to get a feeling for what everyone can do and only then we can decide if this works out for all of us. Besides you four there will be two more people coming with even more experience in the tower than me. But I’ll introduce them later. For now could you tell me exactly what class you have and what abilities and your stats?”

“That is kind of sensitive information, you know?” Marvin said and looked distinctly uncomfortable.

“It’s alright Marvin.” Gloria said. “I am a Level 5 [Spirit Guardian], rare class, I have 2 active abilities, [Blessing of Strength] and [Blessing of Speed], they increase your physical attributes related to that stat and I can cast them on up to 10 people for one minute. They are not doing that much yet sadly. I also have [Toughness] that makes me, well tougher. Its equivalent to a Constitution buff, but it actually makes my body tougher I think. Its kinda vague in its description. My stats are….” she waved in the air, probably opening her status menu all Vessels had access to and sometimes Melissa envied them for the quick access to information.

Strength – 13

Dexterity – 10

Constitution – 14

Mental – 13

“My buffs scale with Mental sadly, so I had to put some extra points in them.” Gloria said as she told them her stats.

“Interesting, a rare class gives 6 stat points a level?”

Gloria nodded. “Me and Jacob kind of lucked out because of that.”

Jacob smiled. “It was an unexpected boon. I am a lvl 5 [Rogue Enchanter], also a rare class. I am not really a witch doctor, but I plan to become a proper debuffer. My abilities work a bit like voodoo curses though.” he said with a gap toothed grin.

“My curses have a fairly hefty cooldown, but they are effective already. I have [Curse of Slowness] and [Feeble Ray], they reduce someones speed and can even make them sick. Feeble Ray especially messes with someones sense of balance in the inner ear I believe. It makes monsters a lot easier to hit, evade or kill. It can be cast on up to 10 enemies. But the cooldown is 5 minutes each sadly. I also have [Sacrifice] which will reduce the cooldowns on my active abilities when I hurt myself.” The man looked a bit uncomfortable as he said that and then told them his stats.

Strength – 10

Dexterity – 15

Constitution – 10

Mental – 15

“I also have an ability called [Curse] that allows me to make my curses more effective against one specific enemy or a type of enemy.” he pointed at his staff and at the spike there with the bit of skin impaled.

“This is a snake skin, makes my curses more effective against the snakes on the second level.”

“Does that [Curse] work on one individual or just species?” Melissa asked.

“Both, it will be much more effective if I have a piece of flesh of something or someone. But it will also increase the efficiency to all of the same kind. So if I took a lock of hair from you for example the curses would work especially well on you, but also on all other humans.”

“You two really synergize with each other. That is really rare.”

Jacob looked at Gloria and he smiled. “It was a happy coincidence, but one we tried to create.”

“Really? How so?”

Gloria took a deep breath and said:

“Its the builds we always played in DnD together. Me as buffing Cleric or Paladin, Jacob as debuffer, witchdoctor or control Mage, Rick as frontline and Marvin as Ranger and ranged damage dealer. Before we came to the tower. We were all driving to a big DnD convention. Garry was our Mage and DM when we played our private games.” Gloria laughed softly and shook her head.

“At first we thought we had been reborn into one of our campaigns. But reality turned out so much worse.”

“I am so sorry. I think I understand why Garry’s death has rattled you so especially if you knew him from before.” Melissa said and could not imagine having people from her old life die here in the tower. Still there was something interesting about this group because they had build themselves to model game characters. She had never played DnD herself, but she knew roughly what it was about. She knew most of the archetypes at least, but her knowledge did not go much deeper than that.

“So you want to be a Paladin, Gloria?”

Gloria smiled sheepishly and nodded.

“I have told you its impossible because there are no gods in this world giving you divine favor or powers:” Marvin said with a roll of his eyes.

“I know, but when I chose this class I did not know that. Emnu resurrected us, if that is not a godly power, then I don’t know what is.”

“We have talked about this, he is just a very powerful mage. That is it.”

“I know that now, but you know...back then we all thought we were in a DnD game, you included Marvin.”

The blonde man scoffed and looked away. Melissa ignored this little exchange and moved on to the next member of the group. So far they looked to be around lvl5 and fairly strong, but not strong enough to go through the hurdle on the 5th level of the tower.

“What about you, Rick?”

The man looked down and then said softly.

“I am not that strong. I am a lvl 5 [Warrior] with 2 active skills, [Shield Bash] and [Perfect Parry]. I have [Shield Mastery] and [Protection] as passives that make it easier to block strikes for people close to me. Its a basic class, so my stats are not that great.

Strength – 13

Dexterity – 10

Constitution – 12

Mental – 10

“I hope I can evolve my class into a [Bulwark] at lvl10, but that seems very far away for now.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit Rick, [Shield Bash] might be common, but [Perfect Parry] is not. Its OP as fuck. Rick can tank for all of us without problem because of it. Its only on a 15 second cooldown and makes him block a strike perfectly out of almost any position.” Gloria said almost gushing over the warriors skill. Rick looked distinctly uncomfortable about it and looked away.

“All I do is block, it does not really help anyone.”

“It helps a lot Rick, you should have more confidence in yourself.”

Melissa nodded.

“A good defensive warrior can carry teams through some of the roughest patches of the Tower, I would be glad to have you in my team for sure.” she turned to Marvin.

“What about you?”

“What about me?” he asked back, glaring at her.

“Are you gonna tell me your skills?”

“No. Fuck off.”

Gloria sighed. “Ignore him, he is really a nice guy underneath that brusque exterior. He is a [Crossbowman] with [Quick Reload] and [Sure Shot] as active abilities and [Tracking] as a passive scouting skill. He is dexterity based and quite good with that crossbow.”

Marvin cursed slightly and stared at Gloria. “I also have [Quick Swap] you always forget that. It allows me to swap to a different weapon almost instantly or swap a bolt quickly.”

Melissa nodded and went over the groups composition in her head. They had 2 front line classes, one purely defensive, the other a support who could buff the rest of the group. That along with a complimentary debuffer and a ranged attacker for damage. No wonder Chris had recommended them, this was just like the teams he praised. Synergy was everything. But they were missing some pieces for the whole picture to come together. They needed a dedicated damage dealer, like her, a Scout like Lisa or Mercucio, although she was not sure they would need that thief anymore. They also needed an anchor, someone who could hold the team together. In ten more levels Rick might become that as a [Bulwark] or [Juggernaut] when the amount of damage he could take reached new levels, but for now he was too weak. Vera would be the anchor for their team, a rock in to take the brunt of the damage.

“Alright, very interesting. I think I can work with this. Our team will have some problems with damage, but I suppose that is why I am here. Lets start with some simple drills. What formation are you moving around with?”

“Formation?”

“Yes, like how would you move through the jungle on the second floor?”

That made the group look at each other and Melissa raised her eyebrows.

“You don’t have that? Okay, very basically, you want Rick in the front, then Jacob and Marvin with Gloria bringing up the rear for moving through hazardous environments.”

“What? Why do you want me in the back? I am still a warrior.” Gloria protested.

“Because the enemy can come from any direction and the back of the group can easily become its front.” she paused in her explanation and looked up. Vera had entered the training grounds with a man in tow. He was medium height, had brown hair and wore a fancy vest and trousers. He looked like a dandy on a stroll in town and when Vera stopped in front of them she gave the man a little push that made him stumble forwards.

“Hi, Melissa. Brought the Thief you wanted. He tried to get away twice, which is why I am late.”

“Thanks Vera, everyone, this is Vera, who is going to be our front line warrior and this guys name is Mercucio.” she held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Mercucio looked around and then shook her hand after a bit of hesitation.

“I must protest this treatment so early in the morning. It is an outrage to be forced to come here to... Wait why am I here?”

“To join my team if you want to.”

“Well I decline. I don’t do well with teams. Our differences in philosophy are too glaring. I am a free spirit, a gentleman in a world of rubes.” Mercucio gave Vera a hard stare and was starting to move away, but Melissa cleared her throat.

“I know you are a Thief and wanted by the guard, but I don’t care. Balefield told me you are one of the best fighters in the Town with that Shortsword of yours.” Melissa nodded towards the weapon hanging on the man’s hip, looking more ornamental than anything else.

“I need someone fast, really fast and stealthy too if possible.” Mercucio paused and then turned back to Melissa.

“For what purpose? I don’t suppose you want to steal something precious?”

“No, I want to kill someone.”

“Oh.” Mercucio seemed actually surprised and yet his posture was still defensive as if he was about to move away. He still asked: “Might I ask who that unfortunate soul is to have incurred your wrath? An Ex-Lover perhaps?”

“The Cultivator.”

“The...the...what?” Mercucio chuckled. “You can’t be serious.”

“Dead serious. It is why I have reformed this group. All of us have lost someone to the Cultivator and we will level and climb the tower until we can destroy him. But I have fought him and the others were part of the manhunt. I know how fast he is. We need someone who can keep up with him in speed and Instructor Balefield thinks you are the right man for the job.”

“Even if I am fast enough to pose a threat to the Cultivator, I can’t fly and my sword, even though deadly does not have the range to pick a flying devil out of the sky, my dear.”

“He can’t fly, he just jumps really high and can change his direction mid air.” Melissa said and crossed her arms before her chest.

“Oh yes, of course that makes it so much easier.” Mercucio said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Vera dear, you can’t tell me you are on board with this...this foolishness?”

“As a matter of fact I am. You are stuck down here just like me, Merc, don’t pretend otherwise. How long can you escape the Guard? How long until you make a mistake or piss off someone from the Red-light district? You know nobody wants to have you in their team, just like me.”

Mercucio opened his mouth to respond, but then closed it with a sigh.

“Very well, you are right.” he conceded. “But this...I mean look at them, they are still babies.”

“Beggars can’t be choosers.” Vera said with a shrug and then nodded towards Melissa.

“And she is way more dangerous than she looks.”

Mercucio eyed Melissa and then sighed again exaggeratedly, before he nodded. “Fine, I’ll join your little group, but..”

“No buts, Thief. I don’t care about your past, but if I am to become your leader then you will have to obey me. There are some rules I want everyone to know and understand. Rules that will get you kicked out of the group without any argument no matter where we are in the tower.” Melissa said harshly.

“First, no sex on expedition. No means no and if I hear about any of you just touching someone without consent no matter where or when I’ll kick you out faster than you can blink. Keep it in your pants.” Melissa gave Mercucio, Rick and Marvin a glare each and then she eyed the Thief once more, pinning him with her eyes.

“Any loot recovered, any valuables, herbs, pelts, natural resources or in general anything and everything recovered from a Climb will be collected by me after a Climb and the proceeds will be split by me in equal parts and distributed on need, not want. If I find anyone stealing or merely “forgetting” to turn in something after a Climb you are out, instantly.”

“Third, I am more than open to suggestions and knowledge about the Tower, especially if you have already been there, but in a fight, my word is law. If I tell you to retreat, you retreat, if I tell you we fight, we fight. No arguments. We will fight together, as one and if we argue and bicker among each other while we are in danger it will kill us. You are free to complain or give criticism after a battle, during camp or after a Climb. I am not the most experienced leader and I will rely on you more than you might be used to. But again, in a fight, we fight as one under my lead. Understood?”

Vera actually smiled and gave her a “Yes, mam.” followed by Lisa who still stood a bit to the side, looking nervously at their new group. Gloria’s group had mixed reactions, Jacob and Gloria seemed a bit put off, but they nodded as well. Rick had his head lowered, but Marvin looked really uncomfortable, but nodded when Melissa stared at him. Mercucio was the last one and he too sighed and gave his ascent.

“Very well, your rules are clear, would it help if I told you my reputation as a thief is entirely overblown?”

Vera snorted. “No its not, don’t pretend Merc.”

“Would you stop calling me that Vera, my dear. I am not any mercenary where that would fit. I am a gentleman thief and not some sellsword.”

“If you say so, Merc, I might consider if you stopped calling me dear. So what now, Melissa? Or should I call you captain?”

“Melissa is just fine, Vera. Now we will have some friendly sparring with each other.” She pointed to a rack of sparring weapons of all kinds, blunt weapons that a thick coating of paint over them that had been applied over and over, giving them a weirdly artistic look.

“The paint can be washed out easily. 3 hit rule sparring. The first one to 3 hits wins. I assume you all have done that before.” Everyone but Lisa had and so Melissa took her to the side and explained it to her properly.

“Stay in the ring and do your best. The blunt tipped arrows with paint are a bit heavier than regular arrows so its gonna mess up your aim a bit. Do not be discouraged if you lose a lot.”

Lisa nodded and gave her a smile. For the next hour or so Melissa’s new group watched the sparring while she kept score. The results were not that surprising. Reigning as the absolute champion was Vera. She was strong, fast, took all hits on her shield and her spears range ensured nobody could do anything to her. Her footwork was beautiful and she reminded Melissa a bit of a Hoplite with how she fought. Second place was unsurprisingly Mercucio. The thief was really fast and most melee matches with Gloria or Rick he had fought just with his sword and had given them a humbling show of skill.

Third place was a surprise though as it was actually Lisa who took the spot, although she was the least leveled of them all. Lisa’s strategy in her first match had been to get used to the arrows weight and evade and run away the whole time. She was quick and it sometimes felt like she had eyes on the back of her head. She had mastered moving and shooting in such a quick time Melissa had been awed by it, just like the rest of the group. She easily hit Gloria, Marvin and Jacob, but was outclassed by the shields of the two warriors and the speed of Mercucio. Rick was fourth place, as he was really good blocking shots and attacks. He was good with his blade as well and gave Mercucio an actually interesting technical fight until the Thief decided to speed up a bit and overwhelmed the warrior. Marvin was third from the bottom only beating Gloria and Jacob, but his fight with Lisa had been quite entertaining with both of them trying to dodge the others shot and succeeding for a surprising amount of time.

Gloria and Jacob came dead last, which made both of them look mortified. But Melissa told them not to worry, their abilities were entirely team based and in team scrims they would shine. After the duels had ended and everyone had gotten a snack and something to drink, Melissa demonstrated her own power by sparring everyone in the group in succession.

It was not close. She started with Vera and peppered her with blunt tipped Hailbursts that made the woman take cover behind her shield and try to rush her, only to run into a wall of fire. When she pushed through even that, Melissa was not there anymore and sent a Hailburst in her side. Mercucio came next and this time the man showed them his true speed and stealth ability. He simply vanished at the start and Melissa conjured a ring of fire around her before she started to saturate the entire arena with blunt magical shrapnel. She got him quickly and the Thief looked very put out at the result. The rest of the fights were even more one sided. Marvin and Lisa came the closest to defeating her as their ranged weapons were usually too fast for her to dodge, Melissa had to keep moving erratically while casting, but she had trained for that a long time ago and was more than a little adept at that now.

“Now you see why Duels are so bad against mages.”she said after the last round had concluded.

“We have the power to saturate an area with magical projectiles and we are not as immobile as you might think. But at the same time if the area is not confined to the ring, then Mercucio, Lisa and Marvin beat me all if they can outrun me and keep shooting.”

She explained some anti mage strategies to explain to them what to look out for and how to help her. For the rest of the training session she went over their formation. Vera at the front with Lisa behind her, then Gloria and Jacob, Melissa herself and Mercucio as her guard, Rick and Marvin as their rearguard. It was getting dark when they finished up and set a time for the next day to go on a first little hunt together.

“We’ll cull the wolf population a bit, there have been casualties recently and its good training, especially for staying in formation. Great work everyone and thank you so much for joining my group.”

Melissa was dead tired as she watched Mercucio arguing with Marvin over something while a dejected Gloria and Jacob walked off. both of them had taken their losses in the sparring hard, but Melissa had tried to explain to them that they were support classes for now and that their buffs and debuffs would be the linchpin in their team strategy. But that was hard to accept when they had lost almost every round except to each other. Vera stepped next to Melissa and nodded to her.

“That was a good training session, Melissa.” she paused for a moment. “Thank you for taking me.”

“Its a pleasure to have you, you are really strong. But who bursts through a wall of fire like that in a sparring match?” Melissa complained, but Vera just grinned.

“I have good armor and I wanted to see what you would do.”

“Well I hope I didn’t look too bad.” Melissa said with a wry smile, but Very shook her head.

“You were great. I really like what you are doing so far and I think we will be able to do great things together.”

“Thanks. That means a lot coming from someone as experienced as you are.”

Vera waved her praise off and said her goodbyes and then only Lisa was left, stepping to her side, like a quiet shadow.

“What do you think?” Melissa asked and Lisa looked at her slightly confused.

“About what?”

“Our new group.”

“Oh… I like them. They are strong. But I...I don’t feel that strong, even though I won in those spars.”

“You will level, you will become stronger. Believe in yourself, your strategy works and you will be invaluable as our scout.”

Lisa smiled and gave her a small hug.

“Thank you Melissa. For everything”

“Don’t thank me yet. What comes next will be hard work and it will be dangerous. Climbing the Tower always is. Make sure you are prepared.” Lisa nodded and looked determined for once, her guilt forgotten.

“I will be.”

Melissa left the training grounds with her in tow. It was a good start, but now came the really hard part. Leveling and climbing together. She would have to do the logistics of food, potions and supplies and she knew if they did take in a good haul hunting they would not have the shards to pay for any of that. Still this felt like a new beginning. Like the start of something great. Yet she knew unless she herself became stronger they would not make it to Ambition any time soon.