So we saw this noob-bridge, and we figured we’d just haze ‘em a bit. If they threw their weapons over to us, then they needed to get sent back to the Hunting Grounds and rethink their careers, ya know?

Well, we figured we’d show ‘em how to use Barnacles to cross if they stuck it out, or gave us a good cussing, but that’s not what happened.

Before we even knew he was mad, William Oh shot Thomas in the leg with this acidic bolt that nearly crippled him, then he summoned this massive thundercloud, at least a hundred feet across, which turned him into a bolt of lightning and slammed him directly into Richard, our Nuker.

Well, I saw my Party rolling around on the ground, and I knew it was just me and him then. I drew my weapons and gave him a good fight, but he had some kind of Ability that disarmed me….

-          Harry Almsfield, level 8 Climber

After a couple hours in front of the fire, Loth woke up, giving a razor-toothed yawn as he sat up, rubbing bleary eyes and inspecting the surroundings.

“Guess you finally figured out what you needed me for, huh?” Will asked.

“We’re still alive. Fantastic. What did I miss?”

“Met some other Climbers, and they told us where to go to make it to Skyhold.” Will pointed at a rough map of the floating mountains scratched into the dirt.

They did so under duress, so the map was suspect, but Will was fairly sure it matched up with what he saw from the higher vantage point they’d had earlier in the day.

“How much longer will it stay cold?” Loth asked, scooching closer to the fire.

“Five hours, maybe?” Will said, glancing up at the black sky with its odd pinpoints of light.

Loth began picking at the fire, taking coals and putting them in his personal heater, dumping out the previous day’s ash.

“We’re going to have to get moving soon. I’m not sure how long we have before the kaith figure out which way we went.”

Loth nodded, and after an hour or so getting as warm as they could, they started heading to the northwest, trudging along the mountainside in search of another easy crossing.

Halfway through the trek to the other side of the floating mountain, the sun was rising and they were passing underneath a massive stone overhang when a clattering noise caught their attention.

They tensed, but no danger reared its head.

Above was a goat, chewing on its cud as it watched them suspiciously with its odd flat eyes…standing upside down, directly above them on the underside of the overhang, casual as can be, as if it weren’t directly spitting in the eye of physics.

Will could kill it and sacrifice it to his Aspect of the Goat Ability…but upgrade slots were limited by the quality of the Ability, and Aspect of the Immortal Serpent and Aspect of the Uru Drake both seemed like qualitatively better upgrades than Aspect of the Gravity Goat.

They would almost surely be able to house more upgrades than a goat from Floor 2.

Not to mention, further upgrades would be influenced by each upgrade before it. If he got the Immortal Serpent, there was a chance he could push it further towards healing and regeneration. Specifically, regenerating limbs.

And while that wasn’t a cohesive Build by any stretch of the imagination, Will really wanted his hand back.

Will hissed and made a ‘get outta here’ shooing gesture at the gravity goat. It startled, hopping along the underside of the cliff before disappearing above.

“Gravity goat,” Will said.

“Yes, they make good Scout archetype Sacrifices.”

“One of mine, actually.”

“That explains the climbing,” Loth mused as they continued on their way.

Once the sun was fully up, Loth gained some speed, and they made it to the other side of the mountain a little after midday.

In the distance three mountains over, Will could see the faintest plume of smoke. That was their destination.

They used their usual tactic to cross the mountains, but as they got closer to the Stronghold, they saw more and more signs of humans, ranging from abandoned campsites to permanent bridges.

They were rickety rope constructions that made Will question how the caravans could possibly traverse this kind of terrain without breaking the damn things and spiraling down into the abyss.

I suppose that’s what all the extra ropes are for, Will thought as he and Loth cautiously traversed the rickety bridge.

As they got closer to the Stronghold, they began to encounter other Climbers, passing each other with a nod and a hand gently resting on the pommel of their weapons. Will noticed their gazes lingering longer on Loth before they carried on with their business.

“It seems like the camaraderie among Climbers does not cross the barrier of species,” Loth said as they passed the most recent group of Climbers.

“Well, they’re not killing you on sight. That counts for something, I suppose?” Will asked.

“I believe it’s because you are obviously in my employ, they understand me to be a reasonable employer of the handicapped.”

“Are you sure it’s not because they think you’re in my employ?” Will asked.

“Until proven otherwise, I’ll believe what I wish,” Loth said airily.

Will chuckled and took in the sights as they rounded the corner and the Stronghold was suddenly laid out before them.

The Stronghold appeared to be a mine. There was no wall, since the edge of the floating mountain could do anything a wall could do, and better. Instead, a series of ballistae dotted the edge of the mountain, while soldiers patrolled the edges, keeping their eyes open for kaith invasion forces or flying threats.

The ‘mine’ portion of the Stronghold appeared to be where part of the mountain had been sheared away in onion-like layers, revealing solid quartz…or is that salt? Will recalled the caravan mentioning something about salt.

Salt wasn’t easy to get ahold of, and as far as spices went, it was one of the most popular. Everything tasted a little better with some salt. He’d gotten to sprinkle some on his soup once last year.

It made the whole thing taste divine.

Wonder how much it costs at the source… Will wondered, rubbing his chin. If it was cheaper here than outside The Tower, then he could get a sack of it here for only a few gold.

Heck, if I bought a big sack of it, I could resell it piecemeal on the Main Floor for quite a profit. Loth’s bugs could carry five pounds of salt apiece, netting us—

Will smacked himself in the forehead. “That’s just a merchant caravan with extra steps!” Will admonished himself, gaining a curious glance from Loth.

That wasn’t to say they couldn’t do it.

“You wanna snag some salt and resell it for a profit on the way back down?” Will asked.

“I wouldn’t be opposed, but gold isn’t at a premium in the Second Floor, given that gold is one of the principal loot rewards in The Tower. It’s mostly fabrics, fruits, and grains that can’t be looted or grown here that would buy the most salt. Our profit margin wouldn’t be as high. Although, salt is worth slightly more than gold by mass outside The Tower. If salt is worth any fraction less by mass inside the mine, with my insects’ ability to move several tons effortlessly, we would make a tidy profit from sheer volume. This is all assuming we could buy enough to strain their carrying capacity…which I doubt we could afford to do in the first place.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this, huh?” Will asked.

Loth gave him a curious gaze. “No, why?”

Will glanced back at the road. “Huh.”

“CLEAR A PATH!”

Loth and Will glanced behind them and stepped aside as a dozen or so Climbers charged towards them, carrying a palanquin on their shoulders made of solid steel. Each Climber bore the wounds of years of battle, and looked like they could slap the two of them aside with contemptuous ease.

They must be heading to a higher-up floor.

“What’s that?” Loth asked.

“A bus,” Will said as the group passed by. “First time seeing one in person, though.”

“A bus?” Loth frowned.

“Yeah, so sometimes people enter contracts with a Lord. It goes something along the lines of ‘I’ll provide you these rare Sacrifices that will get you this really valuable non-combat Class, and when you come out of your Trial, I have veteran Climbers ‘bus’ you up to the level my Stronghold is on, and then you work for me for ten, fifteen, twenty years or so.’”

“Sounds like indentured servitude,” Loth said, watching the bus disappear into the distance. Will thought he could see silhouettes through the tiny eye-slits on the side of the palanquin.

“Well, it is,” Will said with a shrug. “But generally, once their term elapses, they’ve got very high-demand skills and can effectively charge independent Strongholds whatever they want. There’s probably a handful of them milking Skyhold for whatever it’s worth. The salt mine isn’t on a high enough floor to require a Lord, really.”

“…‘Generally’?”

“They’re non-combat Classes way outside their recommended Floor,” Will said with a shrug. “So…” Will waggled his hand. “Sometimes they get squished. You know, I hear that the stream of powerful non-combat Classes taking over the leadership of lower-floor Strongholds so Lords can go higher is what’ll allow humans to keep pushing further up The Tower.”

“Sounds like propaganda perpetuated by those who would have slaves eager to pledge themselves to their service,” Loth said. “I’m assuming that these non-combat Classes have a difficult time leaving the Strongholds they find themselves in even after their term of service elapses, simply because they are unsuited for Climbing back down. This inability to leave creates an unfavorable bargaining position for them.”

“…What’s ‘propaganda’?” Will asked.

“Propaganda. Noun. Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political point of view.”

“Uuuh…”

“Like that boy you paid to tell stories about you.”

“Ah!”

“Clever that you did that. It attracted my attention. A reputation can be as good as armor in some situations.”

Will thought back to the group that had surrendered after learning his name. I never thought about it that way.

“…That was his idea, though?” Will said.

“How precocious.”

“What’s ‘precocious’ mean?” Will asked.

“Precocious. Adjective (of a child): Having developed certain abilities or proclivities at an earlier age…”

The two of them continued chatting, relaxing as the stream of Climbers became so thick that there was no chance of an ambush by monsters.

They found that sacks full of personal-use salt were available for sale, but without a contract with Skyhold, one couldn’t purchase more than a small amount at once.

Roc down, harvested from their nests, was sold in street vendor stalls, woven into remarkably warm cloaks. They bought one for Loth and a cozy for his barrel, despite the jaw-dropping price tag.

Afterwards, they visited an inn for some food and sleep.

“I shit you not, William Oh can turn into lightning. He’s got some kind of Ability that creates a thundercloud and turns him into lightning,” a man said, waving his beer stein emphatically. “Bang, POW! And he’s on top of you!”

“I heard he’s only got one hand because a witch cast a curse with it. Turned it into a talisman that brings his enemies ill fortune. It roams the world and acts against those who would act against him,” another man said.

“I heard a Nuker shot him in the face with a lightning bolt, and he ate it!” another replied.

“I saw it myself! William Oh was riding the dawnglow as it descended from the sky like a godsdamned Seraph!”

“You old coots are just making shit up to outdo each other!” a younger Climber exclaimed. “If William Oh were here right now, I’d kick the shit out of him, if only to shut you up!”

“Ooh, careful what you say, kiddo,” one of the old salts—he was literally covered in salt powder—said menacingly, wiggling his fingers. “Or else William Oh’s disembodied hand will kill you while you sleep!”

“Horseshit!” the younger Climber said, leaning back in his chair.

Will couldn’t help but notice he had a small dagger in his belt with a distinctive pattern on the handle.

He couldn’t help himself.

Dimensional Storage

8/12 Charges remaining.

“He’s just some bullshit story you idiots made up to make yourselves feel better about being unremarkable. He’s not even real,” the young Climber said, teetering back in his seat, using a hand to stabilize himself while the other downed a pint of beer.

THUNK!

The young Climber’s dagger shot down from the ceiling and buried itself point-first into the wood of the table, inches away from the Climber’s hand.

The group of men stared silently at the dagger embedded in the table for a moment before, as one, they looked up at the empty ceiling above them.

Will’s Phantom Hand was hovering in the air above, waving at them, but none of them could see it.

It really is invisible.

“Is that my dagger?” the younger Climber asked, patting the empty sheath on his waist, eyes widening. In doing so, he lost his balance and toppled backwards, rolling out of his chair.

“Umm…I didn’t mean nothing by the story about you being born of an unholy union between man and monster, Mr. Oh, sir,” one of the old salts said, glancing around the room. “Just a bit of a tall tale, is all.”

Must’ve been something he said earlier. Oh well, in for a penny…

Dimensional Storage

7/12 Charges remaining.

Will snagged some air with Dimensional Storage, accelerated it, then released a bit at a time, creating an errant breeze where there should be none, directly into the man’s ear.

“Nope! Nope, nope, nope, nope!” the old salt said, leaping out of his chair and running for the exit. Will faded into the background as the man passed by, mumbling to himself, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

“Welllp, I’m out,” another Climber said, downing his drink before scurrying out, followed by the rest, leaving the young Climber climbing to his feet, silently inspecting his own dagger protruding from the table.