Sand warmed his hand on the bonfire and drank a questionable fruit juice with the other. September and Illi were quite stuck to him for a long time now. Apparently September called Illi his scouter and camera girl. She allowed for the starting of climbs/footage without forcing death or a clear.

  The times before Illi joined were so much more risky. Crude even. Many didn't even bother. Shilling never lifted a finger until she showed up. Thus keeping Illi around was a universal imperative for everyone. A sort of princess of the tower, though she was currently spending her time prodding Sail.

  At one point Sail tried getting around for a talk with Lantern but it never really worked. She was surrounded and being talked to all the time. He looked through the fire and caught her glimpse but Lantern looked away once she saw Illi chatting his way.

  "Yes, we may see a repeat of 8,9,10. I do think Gastin's got it in him. But ahh, the Full Sky Overpass isn't a good type match up for him. We need more combat floors!"

  "Yes, hopefully we can bring out the most in our obsidian climber. A strong asset must equally be protected and used accordingly. A grand magic staff is no used packed away in the royal vault"

  "Since when am I part of an 'us' or an 'our'. Who even said I joined any of you guys or will climb this tower"

  "I understand. Your in a new world parsing things that come in too fast. Do take you time to consider your actions. But not climbing? We are all climbers in this togther. All of us, no matter who we are or where we come from. You possess a double S skill. For the sake of this world and the lives of those who have not suffered and all those who have it is in your interest to climb. I understand the 26th was brutal but its perhaps the most terrifying and brutal so far. The rest are not so brutal. That was simply the theme of such a floor"

  "Are you implying higher floors are going to be easier? I don't have faith in that. Maybe its an exponentially cascading difficulty."

  "Maybe so. But Id say so far its fair to guess that the tower increased the difficultly level by around something like 30% each time. Of course where the difficulty lies is always different. There's no simple solutions any more no matter how the goal may be written. The complexity is a fashion of its new difficultly"

  "And im supposed to just do this for you guys?..."

  "You really don't want to help us?" Illi did a small pleading pout. Sail folded instantly.

  "Well. Fine! I already said i would take a look!"

  "Good work camera girl" September rubbed her bob cut and gave a thumbs up.

  Sail sat with his usual flat expression for a while. The night extended until morning came with no one really coming close to leaving or going anywhere else. Sail was very much tired of the atmosphere but never got an easy chance to leave. This was to continue all week huh. His throat was already dry from talking regardless of how much he drank.

  In the end, he said he was going to go test dash again now it was off cooldown and ran himself all the way back up most of Dampier mountain. He went to sleep in his new room on the third floor of the workshop. After he woke up and made his way back to the cove it was like nothing had changed. Whether the suns were up or down the party was always up.

  A group of mermaids were being brought around in wheelchairs and having breakfast as though the place wasn't a small rave. More accurately, sirens. Last night, Moly had brought a large sphere speaker that was imbued with the voice box of a Tirinus and it was still blasting.

  Returning in the day, Sail passed by another couple of these massive speakers sat in the sand. Somehow the cove afterparty wasn't already flooded with everyone in the whole tower. perhaps there was something going on there.

  "Are you not bothered by the music? You seem quite content."

  "What music?"

  "The one that kind of sounds like alien goop noises mixing with J-pop. Or would it now be Pajan-pop. P-pop in the tower?"

  "I cant hear anything? Maybe its a different frequency?"

  "What about all these people?"

  "You mean the customers?"

  "No, like that guy over there who's head and limbs are just floating about dancing"

  "I don't see anything.. are you ok?"

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

  "Im fine. Its some skill then. You know there's actually a party happening here under the veil of some illusion"

  "Really?"

  "yes, I'll see if I can show you. I have no clue who's doing this."

  "Match?"

  "What's up little Gastin?"

  "Your really getting a work out. You're still going and your energy isn't down at all.."

  "Yes. you should try the Buzzer Berry"

  "Ill pass. What's the deal with all the Sirens not perceiving anything?"

  "Oh, yeah. That's the Covert Room. Its the B rank edition of stealth. So and his brother Sou and his other brother Sow are casting it repeatedly when the others go on cooldown. Its a permanent hidden plane of existence haha. But its stationary to one spot. Unless you talk to anyone outside the skill they'll never know your there. Anyway. Dance." Match dragged Sail like a toy.

  "Im not gonna dance.."

  "You dance or ill burn ya"

  "I'm gonna leave all you lot to die at this rate"

  A head with long ragged hair and a certain sullen face like a malnourished artist floated over.

  "Haha. What's wrong with a touch of dance. You can't be embarrassed after what you've already overcome. You can even use dash to better get down. See it as a exercise in mastering a skill"

  "Good job against that stamp. Reyy, correct?"

  "Yeah" The race glove hand languidly floated over for a shake "It really was nothing versus what you did...To be honest I've been hesitant to speak to you"

  "Really?"

  "Yeah, your pretty neat"

  "well, ok. Thanks i suppose. Can you float your arms as far as you like?"

  "No. Its a fine question. Maybe about 10m or so on a good day. My body is kinda like a floating mix of forces at this point. It may look like i can just do whatever but its actually annoyingly awkward to manage. Ask the other Franks"

  "A Frank is?"

  "My people. We are the ones who live on the 9th floor. We got quite done in during the climb but at the time i was the main boss threat of the floor"

  "my apologises. I thought.. I thought it was a skill"

  "We get that a lot. My skills are a whole other bag"

  "Hmmm, I was just wondering if you could just float over that bridge is all. Maybe there's some setup for it."

  "That would be relaxing huh. Maybe there is.. But i've never found it till now... Though it does make me think. There is no flying skill in this tower. Perhaps the tower will only grant such a thing after this floor is beaten. I figure it curates the skills it offers to not allow cheat skills that break coming floors. The ranking up of my Force Wire may have been prevented because of that bridge not allowing for flying"

  "Yeah thats a reach. Your just annoyed your still a B rank. I suppose your back down to 5th now aren't you Reyy?"

  "And your ass is back in second. Its good to knock you down a peg but another 100 or so pegs would be more preferable" Reyy floated his head and limbs to make a loose figure large enough to look down on Match.

  In the end, Sail took this opportunity to not dance.

  Instead, he spent the day going up to Sirens and asking the triplets of So Sou and Sow to include them in the Covert Room to watch their reactions. The Sirens were really quite cute in a mesmerizing kind of way. Watching them play with the cats you would not think they used to lure them out to sea and drown them.

  Apparently such a thing wasn't intentional and hatchets have been buried. But Rerki seemed to still be mad no matter how many times they apologized.

  'If i were a Siren I'd definitely be worried about eating here'

  Sail for some reason felt drawn into the Sirens and was laughed at for falling for such a thing. Though even still he had a fun time talking with them and messing with them a little. The conversations mostly all fell back on their queen. The siren Aloe. She ranked 5th in the entire tower, now to be 6th.

  Aloe had all sorts of opinions on the state of things in this tower and was apparently quite picky about when she decided to help. Mostly this was an excuse for the main reason which was that she wasn't suited for such land-based tasks. Aloe basically communicated herself through the Sirens and their gossip. The sirens came to discover the nature of the SS rank Gastin and were very much interested and excited to get information.

  They were very adamant about chatting up a storm. They found Sail fascinating and even offered to bring him back to their underwater abode. This kind of attension wasnt so bad. The news of the nature of the 27th floor was surely going to once again make Aloe quite upset.

  The image of her sat in her wheelchair in the face of the Full Sky Overpass made the Sirens get in their feelings.

  It was a different kind of in your feelings versus what Sail was going through right now, a week later. He was in the middle of staring down at such a bridge known as the Full Sky Overpass. A thin bridge that looked as though it would fall any second stretched for miles and miles into the horizon of thick fog.

  The current floating island he was stood on was a small barren place with only a few patches of grass that could hardly fit 50 people.

  He had finally been talked into having a look at crossing this thing joined by Match, Lantern, Shilling, Reyy, Illi and several others.

  Sail had spend his last week lounging around in his new tropical home talking and messing around with the Sirens, Rerki, Shilling and Denim. He practised messing about with skills and played games in the workshop. He went and made the rounds discovering a few different floors on the tower for the first time with September as his main guide. He visited the first floor consisting of Gastione's home and met his sister and mother.

  He was now examining the finished statue formed in his likeness and had an uncanny feeling wash over him.

  A perfect copy of his obsidian state sat dynamically casting a shadow across the crashing waves. The Sirens in the water were quite enthralled and Denim took another picture of the scene with his Rolleiflex 2.8F Twin Lens Reflex Planar. A picture of when Sail turned obsidian again right beside the statue.

  Shilling's name was etched into the plaque below as a co-artist. According to him, he had contributed more than half on this piece and thus his name being a touch smaller was a robbery of due credit. Denim said he was hardly useful. The plaque mainly just said 'Noir Gastin'

  Denim had also gone and created a jacket imbued with the wing of a Battering beetle. Once again flight seemed impossible. The jacket allowed for a gentle hover and glide for 10 seconds or so before returning to free fall. At least Sail figured it looked nice.

  One after the next with Reyy in the lead, the first proper attempt of the climbing of the 27th floor began.

  Sail soon fell of this bridge and died.