“This is insane!” Hugo cried. “They can’t do this!”

  “Looks like they just did,” Damian said.

  The three of us pleaded with Roan, who raised his hands up in faux surrender. “Hey, don’t blame me. This wasn’t my idea. Though look on the bright side, nobody else is going to have an inventory either.”

  He kept reassuring us, but I was barely listening. For me, this was a huge blow. Out of all of us, I relied on my inventory the most for blood healing. There were health potions, but those weren’t as effective or as fast-acting as the blood was. Plus, now there would be a limit on how much we could carry if it had to stay on our physical person. Every extra we chose to take on would have to be chosen with care.

  The others gave up arguing and moved away to inspect their inventories while I turned to Roan. “So I’m guessing we’re supposed to dump out our entire inventories in this empty warehouse before proceeding?”

  He nodded. “And choose if you want to purchase anything to take with you. I’m sure the shop has a range of backpacks and other fashionable accessories that can complete any Climber’s look.”

  The fact that he was here telling us this meant that he might be able to impart some advice.

  “What’s your suggestion?”

  “For you? Run light, and eat what you kill.”

  It was a little overdramatic, but he was right. The Tower was doing this to make the climb more difficult. Things were going to get harder the further down we go no matter what. I couldn’t take anything for granted, and anything other than the essentials would slow me down.

  I went through my inventory and sorted everything into three piles. There was the ‘essential’ pile. These were things that were non-negotiable, like my sword and cursed knife, which I equipped. The sword came with a scabbard that went onto my back while the knife was sheathed on my belt.

  After that came the ‘maybe’ pile and the ‘junk’ pile.

  Deciding what was essential or junk turned out to be pretty easy for me. Since there’d been no inventory limit, I’d collected all sorts of odds and ends, like whole sets of furniture. It wasn’t for their intended purpose. I’d just fallen into the habit of grabbing anything big or heavy that could be potentially used as a barricade or an obstruction.

  For the next part, I walked further away from the others. They didn’t need to be distracted by the smell when I unloaded the dead bodies I’d stored. Luckily, there weren’t too many since I’d used most of them on the previous floor. Just a handful of enemy Climbers and minor beasts.

  Once I’d dumped those, it was time to consider the ‘maybe’ pile. In it were things like a sleeping bag, a backpack, some spare clothes, and a few health potions in case Damian ever ran out, or if things had gotten really desperate for me.

  The sleeping bag I threw away first. Even if it reached a point where I needed to sleep on one of the floors, I could simply use my cloak. It could be lengthened and shortened at will, which would more than suffice. When it came to the backpack and potions though, I felt stuck.

  What if you need them later? I thought to myself. What if Hugo needs a potion, and I, too confident in my own abilities, had just thrown aside the only thing that could save him in this very moment?

  The questions gnawed at me, until in the end, I took the backpack, potions, and some spare clothes to prevent the potion bottles from rattling around inside. The extra weight was minimal, and I secured the straps tightly so that my movement wouldn’t be hindered. Though it had to go over my cloak, which meant that it might hinder my ability to blend into the shadows, but that was a tradeoff that I was willing to make.

  Roan was pacing impatiently until I rejoined him. He noted the backpack and was surprised by my choice, but also relieved that I’d sorted through my inventory so quickly.

  “I’m done,” I told him.

  Roan glanced at the other two who were still deeply engrossed in their inventories. “Are you sure you don’t want to check out the shop first? You’ve got time.”

  “Is it filled with mediocre gear?”

  He nodded.

  “Then no.”

  If my time sorting through my inventory had been relatively smooth sailing, then it must have felt like a nightmare for Hugo and Damian. For starters, their junk piles were smaller than mine, and it wasn’t because they’d collected less stuff. In fact, I was pretty sure they looted things of little consequence far more often than I did. The other issue was that they both relied on the inventory a lot in different ways. With Hugo’s size, there was little he’d be able to carry himself. Whereas for Damian, he required a diverse array of mechanical parts to build his traps. Compared to them, my blood healing problem was small.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Time was against us though, and they were taking too long. Roan was all about ready to start tapping his foot when I decided to see if I could help speed up the process.

  I walked over to Hugo first. He stood on the floor next to Archer, who was unceremoniously holding open a large duffel bag.

  “I thought you wouldn’t be able to resummon her so fast,” I said.

  Hugo grunted, not taking his eyes off of the inventory screen only he could see. “Happened after the Grade evolution. I can keep her out full time now.”

  “Ah, hence the duffel bag.”

  I leaned over to see what he’d already decided to take with him. “Aren’t you worried it’ll slow her…”

  The duffel bag contained only junk food.

  I took a deep breath and then moved around so that we were face to face. “No.”

  Hugo stopped staring at his screen and met my eyes. “No?”

  I motioned for Roan to come join us. The god took one look in the bag and said, “no.”

  Hugo eye’s pleaded with me. I half raised my hand, threatening to bring Damian to join us, when the crow sighed and had Archer dump everything out. A cascade of snacks piled up around our feet.

  Roan closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. In a tired voice, he said, “Hugo, you’re gearing up to continue a journey through a gauntlet of death-defying challenges, not a nine-year-old boy’s camping trip.”

  Hugo jumped up and flew left across the warehouse. I thought he was just going to sulk, but then I saw the junk begin to pile up in his wake. The most unique of which included several small row boats, paintings of various historical figures, and finally, an entire horse-drawn carriage minus the horses.

  When he returned, he landed on Archer’s shoulder as a way of saying he was still upset over this outcome.

  Roan glanced at Damian who was hunched over a pile of items. “And then there was one,” he muttered.

  I hesitated to get involved with Damian’s process. He was the polar opposite of Hugo. Practical to a fault. Everything he stored had a greater use or function. Most of it relating to the physical traps and chemical concoctions he created. It was a big part of his Class, and like me, the lack of an inventory would severely hamper him going forward.

  Eventually, I came beside him and said, “there’s still some room in my backpack if you want me to take anything.”

  He shook his head. “It’s better that we carry our own stuff. Earlier, Roan said we had to hurry. How much time have we got left?”

  “Not much!” Roan yelled from afar. “Less talking, more trash dumping!”

  A brown satchel appeared in Damian’s hands alongside a few more pouches on his belt. He nodded to me in a way that said he appreciated my concern but that he could handle it himself.

  I left him to it and went over to the shop. There was no need to buy anything, but the robot itself interested me. I tried talking to it. “Hello?”

  The robot raised its head with a rusty creak. “Welcome. Would you like to purchase something?”

  I took a step back. The voice sounded exactly like the Officiator.

  “It’s one of Vhar’s little jokes,” Roan said.

  I nodded. “He’s mocking him.”

  “His memory,” Roan sharply corrected me.

  “Right, spitting on his legacy,” I hastily agreed.

  It wasn’t safe to even allude to the fact that a backup copy of the Officiator had survived after Vhar had destroyed the original. Vhar creating this mockery didn’t make sense to me, and it got me thinking about what his larger plans could be. So I asked Roan.

  “Why did Vhar want to takeover the Tower in the first place? He must have said something to you when you agreed to work together.”

  He stopped to consider his next words carefully. This was not a private conversation. Other gods could be watching us right now, and then later broadcast across the galaxy.

  “He said he wanted the same thing as me, which was to reform the Tower. To turn it back to its original purpose after it had been corrupted for so long.”

  “Its original purpose?”

  He waved the question off. “That’s a conversation for a more private setting. Vhar’s petition for my help was different from ones I’d received in the past. Normally, I wouldn’t have paid him much mind. He was so young. Only around five centuries going by your time. But he knew things. Things someone his age shouldn’t have known, and he was so ambitious. I suddenly had a choice to make. I couldn’t just let him go after all the secrets he’d shared with me. The havoc would’ve been catastrophic. No, I either had to kill him or use him. The latter seemed more convenient at the time.”

  “And now?”

  He made a so-so gesture. “Still undecided. Ending our arrangement bothers me, though I would’ve done the same thing if I were in his position. But he’s my mess to clean up. You shouldn’t worry about him. To him you’re just another Climber. One of many that he’s in charge of.”

  Damian approached with his gear stored away in his satchel and signaled that he was ready. There was nothing left to do but go through the door. I took a step forward and then stopped when I realized that Roan hadn’t moved.

  “You’re not coming?” I asked.

  “Nope. Not allowed. Vhar wants the Climbers on their own for this next part, so I might be out of contact for a little while.”

  Damian arched an eyebrow. “Should we be concerned about the next floor?”

  “It’s pretty standard stuff by Tower standards.” He then specifically looked at me. “But don’t antagonize Vhar if he’s there.”

  “Why are you only telling me that?” I asked. Just because he’d murdered some friends of mine and I’d been casually nurturing the urge slash fantasy of killing him, didn’t mean I’d act on it.

  “I mean it. You were granted a level of curtesy from him before because I wanted you in my service. That curtesy no longer applies. He could kill you on a whim. If you can’t be deferential, then be neutral.”

  I suppressed a flash of disgust. The way he’d casually killed so many people before. The way they’d all just fallen, like somebody had reached inside of them and turned a light switch off.

  Hugo landed on my shoulder. “We’ll make sure Lucas stays on his best behavior.”

  Damian opened the door and stepped through into another hallway.

  “Since when are you the sensible one?” I asked the crow as we walked through.

  “When you get angry, you make bad decisions. It’s like me when I get hungry.”

  The door behind us closed and faded away until the wall was blank.

  “I know I can’t fight back against him.”

  At least not directly, I thought to myself.

  Hugo nodded, seemingly satisfied. Damian had his back to us and hadn’t responded, but I knew he’d been listening. His silence indicated that he approved as well.

  The door at the end of the hallway had the number forty-five on it. There’d be no elevator this time. The next floor was behind that door. Roan had been anxious for us to get to that next floor, so I didn’t waste any more time. I opened the door, and we went inside.