“So, why did she make us leave? Did you get cleared for second year?” Gray asked as soon as Dorian walked out of the combat room.


    “Yeah, she cleared me,” he puffed up his cheeks and blew out the air shifting his features into that of intense thought. “she never told me what to do next though… go to Admin”?


    “You need to choose a specialization and choose classes based on that, aside from the general courses that everyone needs to take. Why did she make us leave?”. Tella said from his other side, bringing back the question Gray asked.


    “What do you two specialize in?” he asked, dodging it again.


    “Scouting and burst damage for Telly and control burst damage for me.” Gray answered for both of them “what about you, any thoughts”?


    “I only know about damage, scout, and support – I’ve never heard of those class types before”.


    “Neither did we, we learned about it in party structure class. The ones you said are general groupings, the best parties match up like puzzle pieces, each one brought for a purpose”. He stopped for only a moment before continuing “But they’re able to shift roles if needed… well for the most part. See me? I just do damage”.


    “What about the “control” part then?” Dorian asked


    Gray scratched his head awkwardly as he said it, “yeah I kind of funnel them around with damage… go this way for get hit, stay there or get hit, you know”.


    Tella made a noise, “You never told us what you can do, Dorian.” She was trying to find a different way to ask why they were kicked out without asking why they got kicked out… again. Gray had been talking so much that Dorian almost forgot she was there and winced when she brought it up again.


    “Well, I can” he remembered the Climbers Guild’s Director’s words and choked his own back, “I’ll tell you guys later, I… well I have to keep them a secret for now”. He quietly mumbled, looking around for anyone near him. It was weird, he didn’t really get why he had to hide them, wouldn’t being a Nu-whatever be a good thing? The way Kentwood looked at him though put the fear of the high floors in him.


    Gray raised an eyebrow looking around for whatever Dorian was looking for, seeing nothing he scrunched his face up, thinking. “Alright then,” he said with a bit of incredulousness in his voice. Then, trying to put it behind him, he smiled “head to administration I guess”? Dorian and Telly agreed, and they headed that way.


    He started his semester in the second year with his friends, the classes he had were a mixed bunch – ‘Special’ Combat Training and Basic Floor Knowledge were his favorite by far, party structure was fun also. He got to fight in one of the classes even though he had to go to a special room and train with people that knew who he was, what he was, and not with the entire class. After a week of this he had to practically beg Kentwood to let Gray and Tella in on the secret. They tore into him EVERY day about why he couldn’t train with them; It killed him to keep secrets from them, especially such big secrets that affected their future also.


    Oliver relented and had Telliman train them as a trio until two or three more members could be vetted and brought up beside them. After a discussion with some of the other Numen, one that Dorian was not invited to, even though it was about his own future. He thought that was pretty cool… he didn’t care about his own future or anything.


    They decided that putting together a team of people his age to mesh with his power would be the best way to get him used to using his powers and bonding with his teammates. That was his combat class, the ‘special’ combat class. He didn’t know what anyone else in the school could do because he’d never seen, hell he’d never even met any of the other students. He didn’t care to.


    Basic Floor Knowledge sounded, well, basic, and Dorian thought it would be boring, but he was delighted to find out that it was so much more. They learned about the different types of known monsters, weak points, their attacks and resistances, it was more advanced that the title suggested.


    They even showed the class what different kinds of monster poop looked like, what each one likes to eat and its sleeping habits for tracking. It was so much to take in and they hadn’t even started the section on what the known floors looked like, their size, and which parts were unexplored. He looked ahead in some of his books and bought more on the subject. The floors were different worlds in themselves, each one unique with its own history, the thought of exploring them made his body tingle.


    Unique monsters and ruins, treasures unknown, booby traps to dodge and disable, countless sights to see. His heart raced faster and faster with excitement; his brain tried to keep up with the explosion of the images of landscapes he imagined he would see in person. He couldn’t wait to start climbing and exploring. After daydreaming through another class, Gray, Tella, and Dorian had just walked into the combat room for training when they saw three people arguing animatedly, a mirage like haze around them.


    “Who’s that?” Gray asked.


    “No idea, they look like they’ve got a privacy bubble on,” Tella answered. “There are three of them and that looks like Instructor Telliman… who are those other two though”?


    “One of them is Alder Glassus… I’d never forget those hands, the way they’re shooting around right now is exactly how he looked when he tried to grab me. The other must be Director Kentwood”. Telliman’s lithe form lifted an arm and pointed, the other two stopped and Alder shot from the bubble.


    “DORIAN! Dorian, my boy, my sweet Numen, come, let me-“he was moving way too fast for the way his legs stumbled over themselves. It was more a deranged scuttle forward than a run, his hands were shooting forward like grasping claws.


    “ALDER!” Kentwood yelled as the bubble disappeared, he was putting a marble-like item into his pocket while striding forward after Alder. “If you lay a finger on that boy without his permission I’ll take your lab, do you hear me?!” he was spitting mad.


    “Oh, Oliver, I wasn’t going to grab him!” the manic look in his eyes told a different story, the way he could barely hold back his claws was also a good indicator.


    “You can’t send them in this early.” Telliman said sternly, bringing up the rear. Oliver closed his eyes and exhaled deeply.


    This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    “It’s over my head, Stella”.


    “Oliver, are you serious? They’re kids, they’ve fought dummies and each other, decimation, man, we haven’t even given them their combat mid-term let alone the final”.


    “But the reports you’ve written.” Alder’s hands stroked the air in front of Dorian as if he rubbed the boy’s cheek. “They sound like he can handle himself; the first floor should be easy for these three. The twins are strong, Dorian shores up what they don’t have –“ he paused for only a moment, “a healer and someone to take hits from the front would make this team work quite nicely. Yes, very nice. I’ll have to look at the registry”.


    “You don’t have the authority to pull the registry, for this very reason, do you remember? You used it to find Focuses that were intriguing and showed up at people’s houses trying to KIDNAP them!” Oliver closed his eyes and took two very deep breaths. “Alder, please, get the fuck out of here”. Alder didn’t hear or didn’t care to follow the order. “Telliman, show Glassus, the door, please”.


    Stella grinned as manically as Alder and lifted an eyebrow in victory, when Alder seemed to register the words he froze and slowly turned to face the stern woman. “Now, Stella, you don’t have to – I’ll walk, so don’t –“ he didn’t finish his sentence as a huge gust of wind flung him away from the group, sending him rolling to the door.


    “I do love when you let me do that, Oliver”.


    “I know, Stell. Now, I will actually go look at the registry and see what I can do. A vanguard and healer.” Oliver shook his head in resignation as he walked away.


    “What the heck is going on?” Gray blurted out when the intense awkwardness faded an iota.


    “You’re going into the tower.” Instructor Telliman said flatly, turning around and shouting at them to follow.


    “Wait, what?”


    “We haven’t even finished half the year!”


    “Why are we going in so early?”


    All three of them protested at the same time, making Telliman close her eyes and squeeze them tight. “When you were reported to the council as the tenth Numen, they took a vote, the stupidest vote I’ve ever heard of.” She shook her head angrily. “They want you to go in as early as possible, they think your Focus can get us over the 97^th floor quicker”. Dorian stopped moving, stopped breathing, he stopped mid-swallow and choked.


    “97^th?” he spluttered, “no I can’t go up there yet, I’ve never even been in the Tower”.


    “You’re not going to the 97^th immediately, they want to evaluate you on the first floor. You’ll have an Instructor with you, but they will be instructed to keep you all alive, not to do the mission or fight for you”. She turned and looked at them, just now seeing the twins and their pale faces. None of the three looked like they were breathing; Stella summoned a small breeze and let it brush over the three, coaxing them to breath slowly.


    “Will it be you?” Tella asked, “Are you coming with us”? Telliman looked pensive and bit her lip.


    “They don’t want it to be me, but Oliver is trying his best to change that”. Gray was uncharacteristically quiet; his eyes were glazed over, and he stared at the floor.


    Telliman, Dorian, and Tella discussed until Gray interrupted them with a single word – “When”?


    “As soon as they find you two more members and train you together for a week… a month max, maybe two”. Tella and Dorian were silent and Graytis put his tongue on his upper lip and nodded with a deep breath”.


    “Come on, we have work to do.” Stella ordered as she turned and led them deeper into the training room.


    “I know we’ll have an instructor with us but is this really ok?” one of the new members, Estel, had asked to the room. Her and Tella had changed into most of their armor before coming into the boy’s locker room to finish the rest so they could talk to them. They had waited for the boys to get their clothes on, of course, but caught another glimpse of Dorian’s scars, both girls still winced when they saw it. Estel and Jenson had both been briefed on the situation, Dorian’s powers, the whole shebang. They had trained together for two weeks, one more over the previously stated two; it was all Oliver could get.


    Estel wore her bronze looking armor, gray accents running through it, a shield on her back and a sword on her hip. Her blonde hair was braided, and she dropped it into the back of her breastplate, so it didn’t swing around or let an enemy grab it. Her green eyes looked around the room to see who would answer first.


    “I don’t know, but I’m kind of excited.” Jenson said while he tied up his boots. He wore enchanted clothes but not a robe, games always put casters in robes and that was just silly. What if you had to run? What if you had to crouch or swim, it would billow out. It was impractical. He never liked robes anyway, he did however, have a staff. Classic caster weapon. It was leaning on the wall next to him made of some kind of metal or dark wood.


    “We haven’t even completed second year; you should be scared as hell!” Gray said, not being able to hold back. Gray had been different since he first learned that they were going into the Tower early.


    “What’s with you, Graytis? You’ve been acting weird all month, “I know we’re going in early, but we work well together, we’ll have an instructor even if it isn’t Ms. Stella. We’re gonna be fine”. Tella was the one who answered her brother.


    “Huh, what’s with me? We’re going into the Tower a whole year early, we’ve been a party for two weeks, none of us have been in actual combat. It’s just, I’m nervous you’re my family,” he glanced at the two additions and chuckled with only a small smile, “and my friends. I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt”.


    “I said we’ve got the Instructor to protect us if anything goes wrong. Oh, and we have Dorian”.


    Dorian’s face paled and he swallowed hard, he’d never used his barriers to protect anyone but himself, except for practice where Instructor Telliman was going slow for me to learn. Could he catch a weapon heading for someone from far away? Would be fast enough, would his aim be on? Gray’s words started his own mind racing; They had practiced, but in real combat, real life, nothing happens as you want it to.


    He hated that they just assumed he could do everything because his Focus was special, it only got worse after they started training with him and saw how proficient he was. They were constantly joking that they wanted to get trapped in a training room for a year with their own Focuses. They didn’t know how much pressure they were putting on him, if he fucked up… that was someone else’s life in danger.


    “Yeah, I’ll do my best.” He responded flatly.  “Hey, everyone…” Gray looked up from tying his boot, then straightened when he saw how serious Dorian was. Then Dorian looked at Telly the same way, then Jenson, and finally, Estel.


    “Listen, I know you’ve seen me do things in combat training that were… special, I won’t deny it, but I’ve never been in real combat, I’ve never seen blood other than my own, this isn’t… I’m not going to let you die, I’ll use my body if I have to, but this isn’t… AH!” He let out an angry breath, frustrated, trying to swallow the lump in his throat and force out what he needed to say. “Look this isn’t practice, it’s real. Real.” His eyes bore into theirs “if, if I fuck up, we die, you die, I die. Just don’t rely on me as much as you think you can”.


    He winced and tilted his head knowing what he said was confusing, he put a hand up to stop Gray from talking “I mean, right now you’re thinking, it doesn’t matter what happens, we’ve got the instructor also- “Gray laughed and turned to tie his boot again, Dorian got angry and was about to yell at his idiot friend before Gray interrupted him.


    “We’re climbers, well training to be Climbers, jackass. We know the danger. You’re our support, we know you support, NOT “do everything””. He finished tying his boot and smiled wide at Dorian while standing straight, “don’t worry, man, we’ll pull our weight, just watch our backs if we drop it”.


    Estel smiled and punched Dorian’s shoulder “I’m the vanguard, I’ll be taking the damage, thank you very much”.


    “You can make a mistake or two, just make sure I’ve got mana before you do anything too crazy” Jenson added into the convo. Tella just smiled and nodded at him reassuringly.


    Dorian took a breath that made him feel wholly lighter; they were right, they had trained just as hard as he did. Decimation, they had one whole year worth of schooling more than him. He forced a smile and nodded back to his team, then turning to finally finish checking his own gear.