Ever Upwards

The first breath of fresh forest air was intoxicating. I literally stumbled over my feet from it. The open air and sky belied freedom on a such a base instinctual level that I relaxed muscles I didn't know were tense. Of the first to leave the hotel, only Hannah didn't react in that way, and I knew it ate her up inside. But as I looked around the woods, sparkling sunrise in the droplets of dew in the moss, I could feel nothing but joy, at least for a moment. Before anything else I looked and walked around.

We seemed to be on an incline, though not an extreme one. The woods were hilly, not mountainous but we were clearly at a higher than sea level altitude, as there was a continuous decline in height going East towards the sun. As I looked around I saw mountains behind me- great, rocky alpine spires, reaching into the heavens and topped by clouds.

The Tower was to the South-East of us, and though it was clearly visible and still impossible in how it kept going higher all the way up, without coming down on the other side, it looked narrow and very, very far away. Alright, so, I understand how that description makes no sense, but it genuinely didn't make any sense in real life either. When I looked at the tower, it went up higher than my line of sight. If I tilted my head all the way up, it still kept going. But if I turned around, it wasn't there. So, impossible tower. Maybe the seventh weirdest thing I'd seen this week.

There was a clearing in front of the hotel and that was where all of the survivors were gathering before our final parting. We hadn't explicitly decided that we would all go different directions, but I didn't see it going any other way. Brandt had already made his group stand in straight lines in front of him, while Sophia was fluttering around the disparate groups of her third of the survivors with a nice chat and a hand on the shoulder to every one. They saw the Guild leave the hotel, and both of the leaders of the other groups walked towards us. I looked around, and the, I guess Council of Adventurers, all started walking to meet them in the middle. It took me a half second longer than everyone else to realize we'd all be going together, and so I had to take a couple of half-jog steps to join Artemis and the others.

As we were walking towards the middle of the clearing, and I swear I had made sure to check if they were anywhere nearby, the Monarch of Goblins and that devil whose name I still didn't know joined us.

"This is stupidity. We should stick together. We need order, discipline, training and strategy to win this challenge. Do you still insist on going at it alone," Brandt said. "Well, Officer Brandt, if you could be so kind, would this request mean that you have reconsidered your stance on the leadership structure of our little band of survivors then?" Sophia said. "It just makes sense. I don't want to do this, but I'm the only one with leadership experience in dangerous situations," Brandt said. "We'll always be open for cooperation and alliance. But your sort of discipline isn't the only way to organize a resistance," Artemis said. "Look, we're all on the same side here. In fact, we should stay in touch. When the time comes, we will have to attack together. All together. But I have a feeling that if everyone here tries to stay together we're literally going to see assassinations," I said. "Ah! I vote for that," the devil said. "You mentioned staying in touch, Mr. Vorhal?" Sophia said.

I winced. My party ability only allowed a max of five other people to be in the party, and that was the only way we had found to do straightforward long-distance communication. I had been hoping to actually use it for its intended purpose- to organize tactics and know the locations of my closest friends- but its communications use was once again proving to be the more practical use for it.

"Right. I suppose there is no avoiding it. If you two join my party, I will always know what direction you are in and will be able to contact you. And vice versa," I said. "Smart. Harder to stab each other in the back," Marcus- the new fighter representative- said. I hadn't even considered it, but yeah. If any of us chose to attack the others, we would either know that they are coming and exactly from what direction, or have to leave one of their better assets behind.

"What does this party system entail?" Brandt said. "There are a couple of other small boons, but in this case we would basically be using it as a chat interface. I haven't really found a better communication spell yet, so it seems like a no-brainer," I said.

Eventually everyone agreed, and so my party now consisted of myself, Brandt, Sophia, Artemis, Anna and Zack. I didn't like kicking people off, but this way at least one of the people I care about the most is going to be with someone in the party, outside of exceptional circumstances.

After that there was not much more to say. Everyone wanted for the three groups to merge, but everyone also insisted that it happen under their terms, and none of us were going to accept the other's ultimatum. So it was either fight for dominance or split up. Which lead us to this awkward question.

"So, which way are you going?" I said. "Huh?" Sophia said.

So, I guess they hadn't thought about it.

"I just mean, if we're splitting up, it'd be sort of awkward if we all actually ended up going in the same direction," I said.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work. "Haha, you're so right, just like when you realize you're getting off the bus with an acquaintance and end up going the same way," Sophia said. "You take the bus?" Octavia- the new Specialist representative said. I didn't know her well, and in general she didn't speak much, but I had noticed that she was quite perceptive of other people's language. It could be either impressive or annoying, depending on what she caught. "Ahahaha, anyways, your wizard has a point," Sophia said, dismissing Octavia's question with a laugh. "Why not stay near the hotel?" Marcus said. "It might not be a terrible idea, but, you know, Tower rules," I said, "If you don't go out and do dangerous things, eventually something worse will catch you and kill you." "Could be survivorship bias. There's nothing actually indicating that staying safe and low level is deadly. We have plenty of survivors in the level 10 range who mostly just stayed safe in the first challenge," Octavia said. "Nah, the monsters here will be too strong for them. They'll have to either make big parties or get carried," Chum said. "Ultimately it comes down to this- this Tower is like a game. If it was a game, the more valuable equipment, dangerous monsters and useful resources would be away from the starting area. We shouldn't beeline as far away from here as possible, but we should at least be making our way out," I said. If I framed it like a game, I could sort of make myself believe that it was my place to say anything here. "Well if it's up for grabs, my group will go down-hill to the East. By East I mean the direction where the sun is rising right now," Brandt said. "Any reason?" Artemis said. "Fertile land, clear water, more animals. I want to see a proper farming community formed before the month is out," he said. "And if we wanted it instead?" Sophia said. "I suppose we wouldn't mind going South-East instead. What about you, punk girl?" he said to Artemis.

Artemis took his insult, turned to us, and started discussing ignoring the other two leaders.

"I like mountains. Easier to set up ambushes and to get good ground, caves are good for hiding and stockpiling, and no one can easily send an army after us there," she said. "What about resources," the ranger representative- I genuinely had never heard their name- said. "A shore to a major body of water would be best for food, farming takes ages and fishing is a lot easier to learn than hunting," I said. "I'm down with the mountain idea. We'll find enough stuff somehow," Marcus said. "Will we though? If food becomes an issue, we'll have a hard time," Octavia said. "I don't know. Jessie and James back in the hotel did say that there would be other valuable resources here. Mines seem obvious, maybe we can trade stuff. Hell, they mentioned that there would be people from other worlds here too," I said, "I'm in with the mountain plan." "It has to be unanimous," Artemis said. "Fuck it, what's the worst that could happen," the ranger representative said. "I'm fine with it," Octavia said "Oh, one last thing, before we turn back to the others," I said. "What is it?" Artemis said. "We really need a better title for us than 'blank representative'," I said. "Alex, you can't go around giving people cool titles. That's how dukes happen," Artemis said, and turned around back to the main conversation.

Twenty minutes later I was walking up the hill side by side with Emma and Anna.

"So, for the ranger guy, right, it has to be the Dunedain," Emma said. "What the fuck is a dune dan?" Anna said. "It's fucking lord of the rings innit?" Emma said. "Fine, so Alex is obviously the Archmage," Anna said. "Am not," I said. "It's fine if it's ironic alright?" Emma said. "Yeah, he's the Archmage, 2-1, you're outvoted," Anna said. "So what's Artemis then? The Chancellor of the Exchequer?" I said. "Fuck that," Emma said. "No, she's more like the… Scrollmistress," Anna said. "I mean that's better, but-" I said. "Shh!" Anna said and we stopped immediately.

We were walking through the woods up a hill. The mountains were visible in the far distance, and it was becoming more clear just how far away they were, by how little they seemed to get closer as we walked. The Goblin Market had started out in the same direction as us, but as was ever their prerogative, the Monarch of Goblins had decided that fate needed them somewhere else.

We were arranged in a loose column formation, one to five people walking side by side. It was just about not a random crowd of people by virtue of our scouts scouting ahead, and some fighters staying behind and on the sides, so that an ambush wouldn't immediately devastate our valuable squishies, myself included. I'd cast the improved variant mage armor spell on the Council of Wizards- which is what we'd taken to calling our little section of the Guild- along with 25 fighters that didn't have magical armor from the first challenge.

Anna pointed deep into the woods. We'd felt pretty safe, as there was no significant underbrush here, only ankle-high shrubs and a few fallen logs here and there, but there were hills. I followed to what she was pointing at, and could just about make out a spherical shape that could have been a strange lump of moss, or could have been-

"Ain-Ign-Fier!" Anna shouted, and the goblin hiding behind the hill screamed and died, and that made ten of their buddies that had been hiding from us jump from their hiding places. They each launched an arrow from a shortbow towards our column. Several Guild members screamed out in pain, and I got ready for an engagement, but as soon as they'd let loose a couple of arrows each, the goblins turned around and ran.

"Scouts! Don't let em get away!" Emma shouted.

Our rangers scrambled for our weapons, our mages cast spells. I threw icicles at them, but they were far enough away that I couldn't aim nearly as precisely as in the cramped hallways of the school hall challenge. Zack caught one in a rugby tackle by simply sprinting at it, but there was no way we were getting all of them.

"They know we're here. Let's move, people!" Artemis shouted. Marcus and the ranger leader echoed her call, and I just started hustling in the same direction as the others were moving. We were wizards. We didn't need to be told to get our asses out of the fire.

What had started as a charming hike became a grueling, day-long hustle. We couldn't run all the way- many of us, myself included, didn't have nearly supernatural enough physical attributes, but we still covered a lot of ground. As the sun set into the mountains, all we could hope was that we had moved far enough.

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