“Can you fly?” I ask Kristil as the three of us step out the door, locking it behind us.

Kristil grins.  “As though a [Lightning Elementalist] can’t perform such a simple feat.”

She clasps her hands together, feet a bit wider than shoulder-length apart.  And then, with a burst of Etheric energy both bubbling forth and coalescing from outside her body, her form shifts.  No longer can her body be considered that of a human, although it remains roughly humanoid in appearance.  From head to toe, her entire form is cloaked in violet lightning, save for two small bluish specks near the top of the jagged, amorphous mass that resemble eyes.

“[Partial Elemental Transformation],” she says, her voice now tinged with static and echoed with a low-pitched rumble.  “Based on my current path, I should be able to fully transform my body into lightning shortly after I reach my Level 96 ascension.  Then I’ll be able to soar the heavens and be truly free, unshackled from my human body.”

On the one hand, I can truly relate to her desires.  Fighting to be free?  Moving beyond the confines of a human body to better reflect who I am as a person?  I empathize and share both of these goals.  But I don’t agree with the end goal.  Relying on the powers given to us from the System isn’t the same as freedom.  It’s its own slavery.  Enslaved to the dicta of the System, bound for the fate that awaits this continuity once the harvest finally arrives.

I–  I hope that she’ll understand, when the time comes.

“Shall we be off?”  Chloe sprouts her wings, a warm golden radiance in contrast to Kristil’s blue-violet form.

I follow suit with Chloe in hand, Kristil following behind us at a distance of about fifty yards.  Much as I’d like to be able to fly alongside her, the electrical energies she leaves in her wake risk triggering my lightning vulnerability and causing me damage that I’d rather not sustain.  She doesn’t seem to mind, thankfully, and in either case, we only need a few minutes before we’ve crossed midtown and arrived back at the outskirts of downtown, where the Tower Gauntlet awaits us.

And, to my surprise, about a minute after we arrive, right as I’m pulling out Filia from my [Inventory], a group of four people approaches from the ground.  Four people in total: In front are a man who could pass as a priest-in-training, wearing robes much like Chloe’s and a woman about Chloe’s height with absolutely ripped abs on full display, carrying with her a broadsword that looks straight out of a video game.  Behind the maybe-couple is someone in a dark suit of full plate armor whose gender I can’t easily discern and a woman wearing light armor with a quiver and bow at her back.

None of the four— with the possible exception of the one hiding their appearance behind their armor— looks a day over twenty.  All four of them are equipped with an array of decent equipment and accessories and exude enough power to feasibly take on at least the first few floors of the Tower.  And for that, I can’t help but be proud of our generation, stepping up to the plate and forging new paths as adventurers, dungeon crawlers, or whatever moniker they’ve chosen for themselves.

“Psst, Mike,” the swordswoman says.  “Isn’t that?”  She’s doing her best to be discreet about it, but I can sense her pointing at me through [Archangel’s Gaze].

“What, Cora?” the archer says.  “I don’t see what you mean.”

“Mira, you don’t think that blonde looks like the Angel?”

“If by ‘the Angel’, you mean that Angel, then sure, she’s a young blonde woman.  But, uh, she’s missing the two most important features.  And I’m pretty sure she never used a spear before.”

Silently wishing them all the best in their endeavors and not looking for a protracted conversation with an inordinate amount of supplication and idol worship, the three of us make our way past the threshold and into the Tower’s antechamber once more.  I do, however, briefly flash my wings just before the door closes.  Maybe they’ll be inspired to work that much harder, or feel that I’ve blessed them with my presence.  Or maybe, despite not wanting a long, drawn-out conversation at the moment, I do relish the thought of a little bit of fanfare.  Just a little bit, though.

“So, are we going straight to the thirtieth floor?” Kristil asks.  “Or are we going to do a repeat of the earlier floors?”

“We were planning on heading straight up,” I say.  “Based on what information we have, the Tower seems to resist efforts to game it by farming the weaker floors in the hopes of securing better loot drops.  Best case scenario, it allows us to go through it a time or two, and we barely gain Experience from the mobs.”

“Worst case?” Kristil asks.

“Well, hypothetically?  The Tower sics a Level 160 monster on you and wishes you good luck.”

“You’re being facetious, right?”

“She isn’t,” Chloe says.  “We had to evade pursuit by a Level 159 creature over the course of several floors during our last trip in here.  It’s…  Well, I don’t look forward to a repeat of that.”

“Wait, did you just insinuate that the Tower is alive?” Kristil asks.

“We don’t know if the Tower itself is alive, but the System definitely has some degree of alien sapience,” I say.  “And I don’t think it likes me very much.”

Kristil stands unfazed.  If anything, her eyes are even more hardened with determination.  “Well, we might as well get a move on.  I wouldn’t want you fine ladies to hog all the fun and Experience.”

Without further ado, we head to the teleporter, warp up to the twenty-ninth floor, and from there, head up a spiraling, crystalline staircase to the thirtieth.

“Holy… shit,” Kristil says.

The landscape that awaits us is absolutely gorgeous.  Never before have I seen a sky so blue, grass so green and thick and luscious, or waterfalls that flow upward in defiance of the laws of gravity.  The temperature is perfect, a welcome relief from the summertime heat and humidity, and the light breeze that accompanies the clear, perfect sky brings the overall weather from a ten to an eleven.  If not for the fact that we’re in the Tower and are slowly being chased by a very angry Warden, I think I’d like nothing better than to simply vibe for a few hours.

But such is a dim hope.

In front of us, and several miles or so away, is a giant crystal of the purest degree.  Shaped like an octahedron, with a far larger bottom than top, it absolutely swirls with Ether, manipulating the ambient Ether all throughout this floor.  It’s immediately evident that this is our objective here, and so we head out.

“Damn,” Kristil says.  “It’s still so hard to believe that all of this is still part of the Tower.  How in the world does it move us around to all these different places?”

“For all we know, this is just a simulation, trials conducted within an elaborate hypnotic mindscape,” I ask.

“Some sort of virtual reality?” Kristil asks.

“Something like that.  Considering that the System can integrate itself in the entire universe, connect to all of our minds and bodies, and bestow superpowers upon us as we complete various tasks, is it so much of a stretch?”

“I don’t like it,” Kristil says.  “Sounds like we’re all just puppets, dancing to invisible strings.”

Our conversation is cut short by the arrival of our first two challengers.  I’m not exactly sure what they are.  Some sort of hybrid between a Komodo dragon and a small dinosaur.  Quadrupedal, a bit shorter than Chloe, but with a body stretching close to fifteen feet long, not counting the long, whiplike tail.  Their heads are each covered in heavy plates and adorned with horns.  Worse, they’re fast, and they look angry.

“Hmph,” Kristil says.  “My time to shine.”  She draws her bladeless scabbard, the one I gave her some months back, and channels her [Ether] through it.  Her own [Ether] draws more ambient energy around her, coalescing both together into a blade of violet energy that matches the color of her elemental transformation.

I assume a fighting stance, but Kristil raises her left hand, stopping me.  “If I may.  Back me up if I prove unable, but right now, I have something to prove.  That the results of my own efforts these past two months haven’t been meaningless.”

I cast [Etheric Armor] upon her and nod.  “They’re all yours.”

Kristil jumps forward in the only fighting style that suits her.  All offense, no defense.  Vicious swings of her [Energy Sword] coupled with quick, deft movements.  The lizards swing their tails and swipe with their claws.  They bite at Kristil, champing at her with mouths each filled with two rows of teeth, all of them canine-shaped, razor sharp, and if I had to guess, venom-tipped.

And yet, they can’t seem to land a blow on her.  Even with the benefit of flanking maneuvers, Kristil is stupidly fast.  Her body contorts in ways that shouldn’t be possible.  Her muscles twist in ways that, by all means, should cause her muscles to wrest themselves free of her bones and ligaments.  Somehow, thanks to her enhanced [Vitality], however, her body endures the intense acceleration and whiplash she’s subjecting her body— especially her core— to.

The weakness of her fighting style— if it can be called one— is that her defenses look relatively frail, and her offenses are not amazing.  She’s getting numerous slashes in, but they are little more than superficial wounds, unable to do more than scrape against the creatures’ thick hides.  And I think I know why.  The thick layers of keratin and fat and whatever else are serving as natural insulators, shielding them from the electrical energy that she’s trying to impart into their internal flesh and organs.

A part of me wants to intervene, to use Filia’s might to strike them down where they stand so we can move on.  But I do understand the pride and spirit of a warrior.  Serrena showed me as much.  And for this reason, I must honor Kristil’s request, and allow her to continue to hone her Skills and fighting style against foes more powerful than those she’s experienced until now.

“Grr…” she mutters under her breath.  “Can’t seem to break through!”

She twists around, sidestepping another rending bite and raking claw.  But the follow-up tail pierce is aiming right at her chest.  It nearly hits her, but at the last second, just before I’m about to intervene to save her life, she flashes into her half-elemental form, allowing the attack to pierce her plasmic form.  She shows no signs of pain, maybe a momentary shudder as she adjusts to the sensation of having her semitangible body disrupted, before slamming her blade and fist directly into the creature’s mouth, cracking teeth and striking the far more conductive internal mucus membranes.

And this actually has an effect.  Better than an effect.  With the creatures’ skin being so tough and insulating, the electrical energies continue to spark and convulse within the overgrown lizard, bits of electricity arcing out of the small wounds she’d dealt earlier.  With another quick flourish, she pulls her weapon, which had pierced through the top of the first lizard’s snout, out of the same hole in which it entered.  She turns to the second and rushes at full speed, crackles of static in her wake, evading each attack as she approaches.

But she is weakening.  Her movements, previously swift and fluid, are now staggered.  The attack from before, coupled with the force of her blow, seems to have significantly damaged her.

I dare not intervene, though, for the sake of our camaraderie and her pride alike.  Just as she approaches, the creature fires a mass of venomous, likely acidic saliva, which burns upon contact with Kristil’s violet cloak.  But she is unfazed, striking down the monster’s throat, slashing and piercing its weaker internal organs as the creature tries to thrash about in futile resistance.

“Just… die already!” she screams.  A punch to the snout, followed by a burst of electrical energy delivered intranasally, is enough to cause a mass of smoke to billow out of the creature.  A few seconds later, the System notification appears, confirming the kill.  No Experience for me due to my negligible contribution to the fight, but Kristil seems relieved.  Relieved and, upon dispelling her transformation, in pain.

Chloe rushes up to her, casting [Curing Light] upon her.  The magic causes the wound in her torso to start healing and her shallow, pained breathing to deepen and ease.

“Dammit,” she mutters.  “I got… careless.  Didn’t realize they’d be able to force their way through and hit me in that state.”

“Does it usually not work that way?” I ask

“Usually my transformation stuns and blocks enemy attacks.  But I guess they were so resistant to my lightning that that attack got me good.”

“Are you going to be okay?”

“In for a penny, in for a pound.”  Kristil gets up, her wounds having been healed. “It’s not like we can leave here anytime soon.  Besides, I got nearly a full level out of that fight, and I’m not going to let my contributions here today be reduced to a single, humiliating showing.  Come on, now, both of you.  This Tower isn’t conquering itself.”