Orden turned to Vera next. “Well, if Jin is going to be pointlessly evasive, I suppose Vera is next.”
Vera shrugged. “Not much to say. Sunstone, for what little it’s worth. I’m just an Analyst. I can rapidly gather and process sensory information. Makes me good at reading through data and remembering it, but I’m not much of a fighter. Most practical skill in the tower is probably finding hidden passages, items, and that sort of thing.”
That made some sense. It sounded similar to a Diviner, but more focused.
We spent a moment in contemplation, each of us assessing the other members of the group, before Derek finally broke the silence. “We ready to do this?”
“Ready enough,” I replied. “I hope.”
***
Another two hours later, six of us stood outside the tower.
Sera and Derek were bristling with energy, looking eager to get inside.
We each signed a paper with the Soaring Wings at the gate.
Under Professor Orden’s instructions, Vera used a false name on the paperwork. If there really were government agents that didn’t want her going into the tower, we couldn’t afford to have them find out and send someone after us.
After signing the paperwork, I excused myself briefly to find a public washroom before we entered the tower.
While I was very close to losing my lunch over the teleporting, that wasn’t why I needed a washroom. In truth, I just needed a private location.
Closing the door, I found a utility closet large enough to stand inside, and removed the rod that was connected to my return bell. It wasn’t an ideal location, but I’d completely forgotten to ask Professor Orden where to put it. I didn’t want Derek to know about the retreat method, so I couldn’t ask while the whole group was together.
At least I’d have a way out of the tower, even if appearing here would be a little bit awkward.
Realizing that I wouldn’t be alone again for a while, I checked my book. No reply yet. Unfortunate, since I was in dire need of any additional information I could get.
With that, I made my way back to the group.
“Everyone ready?” Professor Orden asked.
We gave her a series of affirmative replies.
“Good.” Professor Orden turned to Derek, handing him a jeweled ring.
He accepted it with a frown. “What’s this?”
“Just an emergency measure. Focus some gray mana into it if you need to get us out. If I’m incapacitated, we’ll need another way to teleport out of here.”
Guess I’m not the only one thinking about emergency escapes.
I wondered if it worked exactly like a bell. The ring was too small for me to see the runes on it.
I turned my head to Orden. She gave me a nod and a grin.
I nodded in return.
And with that, the six of us stepped into the tower.
Chapter XX — Serpents
I found myself inside a circular white room, four tremendous support pillars forming a square within the circle. The pillars reminded me of where I’d first encountered Katashi. That was my destination now. He said he’d find me there, although I didn’t know if he’d be waiting there (doubtful) or simply check in at some point to see if I’d arrived.
It would have been nice to have a way to just contact Katashi and tell him to come pick Vera up at the entrance, but based on his prior behavior, I expected that any deviation from the plan was likely to antagonize him.
I considered using the book to contact the Voice of the Tower again and now that I was inside, but the Voice had been clear that I wasn’t supposed to let Professor Orden know that the book existed. This was a bad enough situation that I was tempted to do it anyway, but I decided against doing it immediately.
I did have the Jaden Box, but I didn’t have anything strongly connected to him that I could use to try to summon him...and I already knew that summoning a visage was a terrible risk.
Could I stick my branded hand in the box and use that as a summoning focus if I needed to? Maybe, but I didn’t know if I had to close the box’s lid, and I didn’t feel like losing my hand unless I really needed to. That sounded rather uncomfortable.
The others appeared around me. Fortunately, whoever designed the teleportation function for the tower entrance was apparently smart enough to have figured out a way to make sure we didn’t appear right on top of each other.
I glanced around the chamber as the others oriented themselves.
The room was about thirty meters across. Next to us was a single large door that looked just like the one we’d entered through. An exit? Was walking back out of here really going to be that easy? There hadn’t been an immediate exit during the Judgment, but that was meant to be a single trip.
If climbing the tower was more about learning how it worked and entering and exiting repeatedly over the course of years, it made sense for it to be somewhat easier to get back out.
There were two doors on the oppose side of the room, near what I was picturing as the northeast and northwest pillars. The “exit” door was right between the southern pillars.
I was already presuming too much. I turned toward Derek and jerked a thumb toward the door. “Is that an exit?”
He nodded. “Yep. It’s not like a Judgment. We can walk out any time, as long as we can make it safely back here.”
Professor Orden snapped her fingers, drawing all of our attention. “Listen up, children. I know that for many of you, this is your first experience climbing the tower. Now that we’re here, we need to discuss our strategy.”
I nodded. “That makes sense, but is there a time limit in this room?”
She shook her head. “This is what we generally call a ‘landing room’. There are several within the tower. Each tower entrance has one, and each time you reach a new level of the tower you will often find one. It’s a safe room; you can stay in landing rooms more or less indefinitely without consequences. If we were going up, we would most likely be using landing rooms to sleep every few levels.”