“John, how are you feeling?” I asked as soon as I was back in the waiting room. The smile on his face was nearly reaching his ears, which was more than I had seen on him since he was a baby. Was it just pleasant to form a core when you didn’t have a bunch of experimental situations happening because of it?

  “I didn’t realize the feeling of being able to do anything that came with this,” John replied moments before Maud wrapped her arms around him in a giant hug.

  “Isn’t it amazing!?” She exclaimed, planting a kiss on him in her excitement.

  “Yeah, it is. I still don’t want anything to do with the Arena here, but I do want to start working on just what I can do with this power,” John replied

  “Good, because we’ve got a lot of cooking lessons in store,” Rabyn said, cutting into the conversation. Which he had every right to, John was now his apprentice, for better or worse.

  “I think I’m ready,” John replied nervously.

  “You aren’t, but that’s fine; no one is. Once we return to your home, we insert your class orb, and then we’ll set about the design and build of our new dining hall,” Rabyn replied.

  “Wait, you’re going to do that yourself?” I asked. Sure, I knew we’d need a bigger kitchen and dining area eventually, but that seemed low priority on Trolke’s list.

  “Actually, when we get back, everyone is helping with construction. I’ve already cleared it with Mel. We need to get this place ready for a meeting since we want to host a big one,” Pryte answered as he joined us, Mel bobbing along and nodding next to him.

  “We’re gonna see just how much ya can build how fast with Trolke’s guidance. It should work yer muscles out pretty well. Maybe start pressing against some of those attribute limits yer likely at. Possibly even break ya through a few, Dave. We ain’t got much time left til floor ten, so we’re gonna spend it breaking all of ya in some different ways,” Mel added.

  “Honestly, good,” I said. The idea of getting some of these buildings up faster was pretty appealing to me, but I wasn’t sure how well-suited we would be to this type of construction. Did Trolke have something that helped there?

  “Glad you’re on board. Let’s get back then,” Pryte said to a round of agreements.

  “Actually, before you leave, I have a message to pass on. Tomthy and his squad are currently at the Creeky Wheel Tavern and were hoping that Dave and his squad would be willing to join them for a celebration. He realized you were competing today and wanted to chat more,” Floor Master said. I wasn’t big on the idea, but at the same time, it was probably a good one. Cementing alliances was important, the construction could likely wait until we finished with that.

  I nodded at Pryte, who had turned to look at me before speaking. “Sounds fun. I think we could all use the break. Alright, everyone follow me instead, and try not to wander off. I don’t need to hunt down anyone at any exotic pet stores, Maud.”

  “Wait, how do you know I would be the one? No, actually, wait, there are exotic pet stores? I want to see one, please!” Maud replied, her eyes going wide. Pryte laughed lightly as he left the room, clearly expecting us all to follow.

  “Let’s follow Pryte and worry about exploring the pet stores of this place another time,” I said, shaking my head slightly to hide my own building laughter.

  “Man, it’s about time I got the two of ya yer first real drinks in the Spire. So stick with me. I’ve got something that’ll make you men,” Mel said loudly to the brothers, with Elicec looking a little shocked by the sudden promise. Cecile, though, cheered it on.

  This exchange gave me my own idea. While I was never the biggest drinker, my dad had made sure to share a drink with me, and that was something I had never done with John. He deserved that right of passage, especially considering how happy he seemed at today’s events. But before we could do that, I’d need to figure out what kind of drinks this place even served. I was too used to Spiral places serving things I liked, and that seemed unlikely to be a constant at actual restaurants. For that matter, how much would this cost? We didn’t really have much in the way of funds.

  “So, uh Pryte, can we afford this?” I whispered to him the moment I caught up.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Can you? No. Can I? Yes. Luckily, this is a good idea anyway for your future alliance. Apparently, they just cleared the tenth floor themselves, which puts their faction in a less precarious spot,” Pryte replied.

  “Huh, that’s even faster than us. I thought Mel was worried about that fast of a climb,” I said, surprised at their strength.

  “They aren’t a brand new faction with zero resources who can’t even field a full squad, but yes, it was surprisingly fast, making their potential alliance all the more valuable,” Pryte replied, stopping in front of a door that reminded me of the elevator in the archives. He pressed a few buttons, and the doors slid open. It seemed like this was exactly the same thing. Everyone piled inside, and a few cramped moments later, the door opened to reveal a room full of loud, jovial giants.

  “Dave!” one of the bigger ones yelled as I stepped out of the elevator.

  “Tomthy!” I yelled back, not really sure what you were supposed to do in this situation.

  “I heard you beat the ninth. Come join us for some food and drink!” the giant continued to roar across the room. Several of the people sitting with him immediately made space at his words.

  “Go mingle. Dave and I will handle this,” Pryte said to everyone else. I made a mental note to find John later for that drink.

  “You know, when we worked together last time, I had no idea you were the faction that had Sanquar. That explains how you’re managing this with half a squad. I bet he has all kinds of secrets,” Tomthy said the moment I sat down.

  “Surprisingly, no, not really. He’s been out of the Spiral too long to really know much about what to do these days, but he is the reason my world isn’t enslaved. So you know, nice guy, at least,” I said.

  “Yeah, the way integrations work tends to be horrible; it took us forever to get out of that. When I mentioned you to Dad, he couldn’t believe my luck that your faction was the one I managed to buddy up to, not that I knew what he was talking about. Honestly kind of still don’t. Was never big on ancient history, but Dad said Sanquar was a big deal once,” Tomthy replied.

  “You know, it’s kind of refreshing to have someone just not really know anything about him for once. He’s kind of been a nonstop figure looming over me since the moment I was in the Spiral,” I replied, reaching for the drink that had been placed in front of me and trying a swig. Surprisingly, it tasted far more like eggnog than any kind of beer. It wasn’t horrible, but not something I’d drink outside of occasions like these.

  “Hah, yeah, I know how you feel. All I ever hear is about how my Dad is either doomed to fail or how someone can sell me something. It’s nice just to share a drink with a friend,” he replied.

  “Speaking of friends. What did your Dad say about some kind of alliance?” Pryte asked.

  “That was part of why I sent the message once I realized you were there. He is more than willing. He was ecstatic about the idea, but he also said we can’t formalize anything until you clear the tenth floor yourself. Apparently, you have some big issues going on faction-wise related to it. He said a lot more legal mumbo jumbo, but that was never my thing, either. But enough of that, eat, drink, have fun!” Tomthy replied excitedly. And that was exactly what we did for the next several hours.

  The food all seemed a lot like turkey, with a pleasant barbecue sauce, and while I managed to get through the first two drinks, I had to pass any anymore if I wanted to be alive enough to have one with John still. They were surprisingly potent, which I supposed they had to be for anyone with any healing abilities. Did healing magic treat a hangover? Considering how rarely I drank, I had a feeling I was about to learn the answer to that tomorrow.

  I managed to excuse myself with words of wanting to check on my son after, leaving Pryte to continue the boasting conversations. They weren’t exactly my thing anyway. There just weren’t a lot of feats of strength to my name yet.

  “Hey John, enjoying this?” I asked after spotting John sitting at the bar talking to Rabyn and sitting down on the other side of him.

  “Honestly, this has been pretty fun. This couldn’t have been what it’s been like before. Maud wouldn’t have been able to shut up about it,” he replied, and considering I had spotted Maud dancing with two giants and holding a strange cat creature moments earlier, I was sure he was right.

  “No, this has been one of the better experiences. The floor went well. The giants still like us, and your core worked out without an issue. Wanna top the day off and share a drink? Seems like the right moment for it?” I asked. Rabyn, as though in understanding, hopped off his stool and vanished into the crowd.

  “Yeah, that’d be great,” he said as the bartender passed us two of the things I had been drinking earlier.

  I raised my mug for a toast. “To making up for lost time.”

  “To a better future,” John added before we both downed our drinks.

  Take four parts sour grumplish, combine them with a kriln’s milk that has been aged for at least two months, and that gives you the first part of this concoction that seems to be a specialty of the Golden Mountain Hammerfists. The next, and arguably much harder step to properly brewing it is to maintain a constant boil for the next week in a room designed to capture all of the vapor, as that will be important later in the aging process. Having tried some of the top-tier years of this drink myself, I can see why it’s such a strong export of theirs. I still prefer the ales of the Undersun, but I would gladly drink Glordiklink any time I was on the planet again.

  Drinking With Jordan Hamsy

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