Aaron woke up with a blinding headache. He opened his eyes and saw shadows move on the ceiling of the cave he was laying in through the water. It looked like ghosts fighting each other. His hurting brain made up many different shapes of monsters and demonic faces in the flickering shadows. It took him a few moments to come to his senses entirely, to remember what happened. His ears were still ringing and yet other than that and his headache, he felt fine. Then he started to remember. The giant volcanic rock, the strange humanoid. The scream that knocked him out. He shot up out of the water, his fists balled, Wind Steps covering him in an instant, when he spotted the source of the shadows.

  Mortimer and Robin were standing close to the mushroom underneath the glowing rock and were arguing about how to safely remove the thing. Shia knelt next to a prone form, playing with a dagger. Aaron had still trouble making sense of what he was sensing, but all the urgency and tension melted from his body when he realized the prone shape next to Shia was the corpse of the creature. It was dead. He turned his head and spotted Roger, who was in the water. peering down the tunnel they had come in from with his speargun, while Stab drifted by his side. Aaron calmed himself, but his heartbeat was still hammering in his head, echoing the pounding headache he still had.

  The two warriors finally decided how to remove the mushroom and once they had they worked quickly as they removed samples of all things growing in the cave, before going back into the water. The bubble over their mouths was very much a problem here. They could not breath in the air bubble. Shia was studying the monster, or rather what had killed it. It was a chest wound that had done it in. A pool of blood surrounded the creature and Shia had Aaron’s dagger in her hands, testing its sharpness.

  “I hope you plan on giving that back.” Aaron said and they all turned to him, too busy to notice him surfacing.

  “Of course. Just...admiring it.” Shia said with a smile, but Aaron had seen her eyes shift to the side. She might have stolen that dagger, if he had not woken up so soon.

  Roger turned towards him and asked.

  “Are you alright?”

  “Yeah, that thing had a sonic attack or something like it. It was not very sturdy, but I am kind of vulnerable to that kind of attack, so it knocked me out.” Aaron explained, not holding anything back. It was obvious from his condition after all. He jumped out of the water and got a better look at the creature as he stood over it. Shia handed him his dagger and Aaron sheathed it. He did not tell them that this had been a close thing. The creature could have killed him, if he had not luckily hit it with his dagger. His desperation move had succeeded, but that did not make Aaron much happier.

  If such a situation would have happened back in his old life, a close shave with death, he would have changed his approach and taken precautions to ensure this would not happen again. Now, here in this damned tower, there was not much he could do. He knew this vulnerability of his would persist until he reached the next major realm and got properly powerful. But as he reflected on his failures he could also see that the group might have helped him. Or maybe not. If they had been with him he was certain they would have been hurt much more than he was. His lack of a ranged attack again struck him as the biggest tactical downside to his fighting style. He could have ambushed the creature easily otherwise. This rotten Siren was basically a glass cannon. It could do a lot of damage, but it was weak to being damaged itself. A shot from Rogers speargun would have put it down without much trouble.

  Aaron needed to be more tactical about things. Take less chances. But he had been caught up in the feeling of power he had gotten soaring through the ocean like a rocket. He would need to be more careful going forward. Training was good, but this had been a big mistake. He turned towards the group that had finished harvesting everything useful from the cave, including a bit of the glowing rock and the mushroom the Siren had been guarding. Slowly Aaron walked back towards the water.

  Once he was back under water and had taken a deep breath he said:

  “Let’s continue.”

  Roger hesitated and then shook his head.

  “Lets rest up for today. We can continue tomorrow. This cave is ideal to rest after you killed that thing. We will post a guard in shifts and then we should be fine.”

  “Oh hell yeah, we can grill some fish without it getting soggy!” Shia said happily and went over to Robin, who had the grill strapped to his back.

  Aaron hesitated and then shrugged. If they wanted to rest, that was fine by him. He settled down in a corner and started to meditate, while the rest of the group started to make the cave and its little lagoon more comfortable. They had plenty of stuff in that net they had dragged with them but they decided to fish some more, since they did not want to eat the samples. Roger went out of the cave and came back with 5 relatively big fish that looked fairly appetizing besides their blind eyes and many teeth. They set up the stove in the cave itself and prepared the fish on the grill. Which was basically a portable oven.

  As Aaron’s heart calmed and he felt his cool returning to him, he found the idea to rest up and recuperate a lot better. He did not really like it because it gave him time to ruminate and second guess himself. But the ringing in his ears vanished as he cultivated and that made him feel much better. Less irritated and on edge. His senses being hindered in any way that was out of his control felt like torture and when his ears stopped ringing and he could listen to the lava flow inside of the rock he felt more like himself again. Compared to the ringing in his ear Aaron barely noticed the pain of cutting himself, but the group gave him shocked looks. It was the first time the entire group had witnessed his cultivation method and they all were fairly shocked about him cutting open his hand and absorbing manastones.

  “The guy is literally absorbing money.” Mortimer said with a shake of his head.

  “Him cutting himself is more of a concern to me.“Roger said under his breath. But Aaron ignored them and continued until it was time to eat and he joined them for a short meal. It was fried fish wrapped in magical kelp and not the worst thing he had ever eaten before. But the meat was not perfectly cooked. It was bad enough that Aaron vowed to make sure their next meal would be prepared by him. He could at least roast something to perfection.

  When he moved over to his training regiment, the whole group watched him as he stretched and then started doing the katas. He decided to make use of the cave and its space filled with air. Aaron was not sure how it could sustain itself, but he suspected the mushroom was responsible for it somehow. Then again, he could not breathe this air either way. So it could be some gas and not air and he would not know. He spent 5 minutes out of the water and then returned. Did one or two rendition of the katas in the water and then went back out again.

  “What exactly is the purpose of this?” Mortimer asked with a frown as Aaron went back out to dry land.

  “Not sure.” Shia said as she drifted on her belly on the water. She was much more comfortable with Aaron’s quirkiness.

  “He is adapting his fighting style to the environment.” Stab said and the group glanced at him, like always when he said something. It was rare after all.

  Aaron had a few repetitions left over when he heard that comment and studied Stab for a moment before he figured asking could not hurt.

  “How about it Stab, care for a sparring match?”

  The Rogue looked up out of the water and frowned. His features looked ordinary, if a bit on the older side. But with the hood over his head they could not see if he had gray hairs yet. Either way Stab was the strongest of this group without a doubt.

  “What are the rules?” he asked.

  “Nothing much, nothing lethal, you can use real weapons. I will use my fists.”

  Stab’s frowned harder before he shrugged and walked out of the water. He stopped a few meters away from him and drew his Rapier with one smooth motion.

  “When do we stop?”

  “On surrender I would say is the best idea.”

  Stab raised his eyebrows and then his body shifted. From the relaxed stance with the Rapier to the side he turned towards Aaron, his rapier in front, the sharp tip pointing directly at Aaron. His body was taut and ready, but his shoulders still seemed relaxed. There was no indication what he would do next, where he would attack and Aaron appreciated his skill and mastery of the weapon. He had seen a fencing match before, but he had never had any real idea how much skill it required to be good at it. Either way, hitting first while also being allowed to be hit seemed like a very stupid way of fighting, so he had disregarded the whole discipline as useless. Now he was not so sure anymore. Aaron himself was in the stance of the rejuvenating fist, but one of his hands was a palm already, ready to defend and deflect the blade if necessary.

  Aaron moved first, stepped forward without Wind Steps to test the waters and in that instance he felt something pierce his shoulder. The pain was sharp, fresh and instantaneous. Stab had moved, faster than ever before and had stabbed his shoulder with ease. Aaron moved to slap his blade away with the other hand, although the pain was building up and it was becoming pure agony. But before his hand could reach the blade, Stab stepped back, his blade following as it left his body and the man returned to the initial stance as if had nothing happened. Only the blood on the tip of his rapier told of what had really happened.

  Aaron had to laugh as he moved his shoulder, wincing in pain for a moment, before his regeneration could deal with the issue. What an attack. It had been too fast for his eyes to catch. A smooth, perfect motion extending the Rogue’s reach once Aaron had come close enough into his range. It had been masterful and if they had fought for real, Aaron would have died right here and there. If the Rogue had targeted his eyes or his heart, either would have been debilitating and Aaron would not have been able to survive the follow up. Yet another reminder that he was not strong enough yet. Aaron cleared his mind as he resumed his stance. Wind Steps were activated and Aaron turned serious.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Aaron moved first again. But this time he moved through the air in a leap. Stab shifted his blade and stabbed again. But this time the slight shift in his posture had given Aaron enough time to evade the strike mid air. He halted his momentum as the attack went over his head and then Aaron resumed, coming in close. Stab stepped back, brandishing his blade as he made two quick cuts, cutting off Aaron’s path to get inside of the man’s reach. Aaron kept coming. He dodged below a strike and stepped in quick, only for Stab to move just as quickly backwards as he struck. His Rapier moved quick, its thin blade barely visible and Aaron kept dodging it.

  That was all that happened for the next 5 minutes. Aaron kept coming, kept moving, kept evading the strikes without ever actually coming close to the man. But slowly and surely Aaron got used to the speed of the weapon and the man. He started to parry and block strikes with the Unceasing Palm kata. Which turned the cat and mouse game into a real fencing match. The old Rogue’s technique was otherworldly. Each parry or block was an opening for the man to use some technique on Aaron. It felt like the blade had eyes and a life of its own as it sprung up, vanished from his line of sight and attacked him from every conceivable angle.

  But then Stab jumped back twice and raised his hand. Aaron paused and noticed the man was sweating now. Stab walked back into the water and took a deep breath. Oh right. Aaron had barely noticed that he had not been able to breathe. It was quite honestly not much of a detriment to him. But he too went and dunked his head under water to take a few deep breaths.

  “Not bad old man.” Aaron said with a smirk.

  Stab snorted, but did not deign his comment with an answer. He just sat down in the water and breathed.

  “What the fuck was that?!” Shia asked them both, before she glanced at Roger.

  “Did you see anything that happened?”

  “Some.” Roger said, looking at Stab with much more respect.

  “That is it! Stab you are banned from playing cards or dice with us! I could barely see a fraction of what you two just did in that fight.”

  “How is your shoulder?” Stab asked Aaron, ignoring Shia entirely.

  “Good, that was a hell of an attack though. Never seen anything like it.”

  Stab nodded.

  “You are better against monsters.”

  Meaning that he was exceptional at taking down people. Aaron could see that. This man was a perfect assassin and in a fight he would probably cleave through enemy groups with ease. His speed allowed him to negate a lot of things. Aaron, who had relied on his own speed and maneuverability foresaw that he would never win against the man if he could not get used to his speed. If he could counter the speed somehow he might have a chance to win. But every time he had put the man into a bad position during the short fight his blade had stopped him from getting closer. So in the end he had to be able to neutralize his attacks first, before he could move in and punch. The speed advantage was too much to overcome if he did not play his cards tactically. He guessed a single punch would be enough to knock the man out though. He was unlikely to be very sturdy. But Aaron could not catch him, for now.

  “Want to go for another round?” Aaron asked and Stab looked him up and down and then shrugged. He walked out of the water and Aaron followed him.

  The fought for half an hour with frequent brakes to take a breath and Stab seemed to relish the fight just as much as Aaron. At first it was a helpless contest and Aaron took more than one sharp and painful reminder of mistakes he made. But slowly and surely over time Aaron got used to the speed. He dodged less and blocked more with his palms. Training his Unceasing Palm kata like never before. But while Stab was faster than Aaron, he did not have his endurance or regeneration. After the half hour of intense combat Stab stepped back and walked to the water.

  “Enough.” he said and Aaron bowed.

  “Thanks for the fight. It was illuminating.” Aaron said sincerely. Stab was panting once he was under water again and Aaron could smell his sweat. He was clearly at the end of his rope endurance wise, while Aaron was still fresh. He did not really get tired anymore. Which gave him the edge over time. But once more he had seen what Vessels could do when they had a lot more levels under their belt. Aaron was used to people from the first floor, but he was sure, fighters like Stab were much more common in Ambition.

  Aaron balled his fists as he continued to finish his last Rejuvenating Fist kata, relaxing his muscles and finishing his training for the day. After fighting with Stab he was more determined than ever to become stronger. If he mastered the Unceasing Palm kata, or at least got more proficient in it, he would be able to negate a speed advantage. He doubted there was someone who could overcome him physically otherwise. There might be Vessels who became much stronger than him, but he doubted they would be fast enough to ever come close to actually hurting him. But Rogues focused on speed would always be dangerous.

  With a sigh he settled down on the rocky floor under water and just breathed slowly and calmly for a few moments. The rest of the group had turned to maintenance of their equipment, now that the entertainment of watching Stab and Aaron fight was over. He could still hear them talk among another though.

  “Did you know about Stab?” Shia asked Roger, who just shrugged. Shia gave the team leader a scathing glare, before she pouted.

  “I lost a months pay to him in dice. You should have told me.”

  “You should always expect people like us to cheat.” Roger said with a small smile.

  Robin bit into what looked to Aaron like a piece of jerky and whispered to Mortimer.

  “Now we have two monsters in our group.”

  Mortimer held his greatsword out of the water and let a sharpening stone slide along the edges of the blade as he sharpened the weapon.

  “That is good no? Better on our side than against us.”

  “I suppose you are right. But its just not natural. Like I get Stab, he is a veteran, probably climbed up to challenge the gap. But the Cultivator? He hasn’t been here for more than a year, right? How does that work?”

  “I don’t know Robin, why don’t you ask him?”

  “Are you mad? He will probably stab me in the face.”

  Aaron chuckled.

  “No I won’t, if you have a question, go ahead and ask. Although I can guarantee my answer will satisfy your curiosity.” he said loud enough for Robin to hear.

  The warrior flinched and Mortimer chuckled to himself. Robin looked a bit embarrassed and then he turned to Aaron and asked.

  “So how does this cultivation stuff work?”

  “Hmmm, its difficult to explain. But its basically in the name. Cultivation. It means to help something grow, to take care of something. In my case its power. We call it Qi and its a bit like magic, just...denser I suppose? I grow this power inside of me and it makes me stronger, slowly, but surely.”

  “You grow your power? Like literally grow something?”

  “I do not actually grow a plant or anything. I...accumulate. I am not sure if you know this, but the entire tower is filled with magic. Its everywhere, it flows through the tower like a big river, never ceasing. Mages become stronger by harnessing that energy, right?”

  Robin gave a tentative nod.

  “I think so, that and learning a bunch of spells.”

  “Right. So Cultivation is similar. Instead of using the magic all around us, I absorb it, I turn it into Qi and accumulate it. The more I have, the more powerful I become.”

  “Okay, but Cultivation is supposed to be slow. You are stronger than anyone I have ever heard of after a year in the tower, no matter what they were.”

  “That is because I rely on strong techniques. Hmm imagine them like spells I use and learn. Same concept. The more I master them, the more powerful I become.”

  “So the whole stopping mid air and diving through the ocean like a bolt fired from a crossbow is a spell?”

  “Like a spell. Works differently, but yeah I guess in principle you are correct.”

  “That’s a bloody strong spell then. Where did you get it?”

  Aaron smiled and shook his head.

  “That I can’t tell you.”

  The whole group had listened in on their conversation and Shia asked curiously:

  “So if they are like spells, can people learn to do things like you do?”

  “Sure, but they need Qi for most of it and as far as I have understood it, Vessels and Mages are incompatible with Qi. And vice versa. I can’t learn any magic.”

  “Well shit, if I could fly like you do I would trade in my rogue class in a heartbeat.” Shia said with a smirk.

  “I can take away someones class, but I do not know if you could become a cultivator.” Aaron said with a smirk of his own.

  “Its forbidden.” Stab said severely.

  “What is?” Roger asked, while everyone stared at the old Rogue.

  “Learning Cultivation. The gap is a memorial for what happens if people do.” Stab said gravely and Aaron remembered the story of the gap. Who had told him? The great master? They had tried to escape before and had broken the Tower, escaping the ordeal, although many of their fellow prisoners died. It had all started by starting a religion or something? He could barely remember it had been that long ago he had been told that story. So much had happened. But either way the escape went wrong in some horrible way. The gap was what was left over from the disaster. 30 floors of treacherous wilderness. Untamed and uninhabitable.

  “I was just joking.” Shia said into the uncomfortable silence.

  “Either way I can’t teach anyone how to become a cultivator. I do not know how.” Aaron said with a shrug.

  “But you are a Cultivator.” Robin said with a frown.

  “Yeah and mages don’t all know how to turn you into a mage.”

  “Well because you can’t just like that, or everyone would be a mage.” Robin said with a chuckle.

  “Emnu can do it though.” Shia said and Mortimer snorted.

  “Lord Emnu is a god, of course he can turn you into a mage.”

  “Oh here we go again.” Shia said and rolled her eyes.

  “Lets not argue over religion.” Roger said and Mortimer snorted again, but they fell silent.

  “Looks like you had that argument before. How long have you been a group?” Aaron asked.

  “A few years. We are one of the districts climber groups, most criminals don’t really want to challenge the tower, we do though.” Roger said proudly.

  “Its better than sitting on our asses or being muscle in the casinos.” Shia said and floated back to the surface looking down on them.

  “Hmm, you don’t seem that different to the groups I have seen so far. Well except that there is no mage among you.”

  “For good reason, right Roger?” Shia said with a smirk.

  Roger sighed as Aaron gave him a look.

  “I killed the bastard of a mage that was my team leader. Its why I am with the district. We all are criminals. Shia is a thief. Robbed half the guild elders before she had to stop. Mortimer here got thrown out of Emnu’s army, had a disagreement with his sergeant that ended bloody and Robin, well he can tell you himself.”

  Robin snorted.

  “I was trying to pick up this girl in a bar one day, then this big asshole comes in and pushes me aside. We had words, long story short it ended in an honorable duel. I won, he died. But the asshole’s father was a guild elder, so I got branded a murderer and here I am. I don’t know why you guys find it so funny.”

  “You literally dueled to the death over a girl and you can’t even remember her name.” Shia said with a chuckle.

  “It was 10 years ago!”

  “She also ran away when the asshole died so he got nothing.” Shia said with a deep chuckle.

  “You got caught because you were wearing a stolen dress Shia. You are one to talk.”

  “How could I have known the dress was special?”

  Aaron smiled while he listened to the group banter. They clearly were very familiar with each other. It was a strange feeling. Sitting here with this group and being accepted. Tentatively, but still. They were a good group. Experienced and confident. He wondered if things had turned out like this if he had not been isolated right from the get go and hunted. Many things would have been different. But in the end he could not change the past, just move forward. He was not entirely comfortable letting his guard down with these guys yet. He was more than aware that they had been sent with him to keep an eye on him and that they would, no matter how friendly they were. His stomach growled and Aaron stood up.

  “I am gonna hunt me some proper dinner. Those few fish were not enough. Be right back.” Roger nodded to him and he dove out through the narrow tunnel until he was back in the open ocean. None of the fish appealed to him down here. Especially in the darkness where only the glow of the magma shone any light into the darkest blue imaginable. Aaron looked up and dove straight upwards with Wind Steps. It was time to find some real dinner.