Myria was wrecking her brain for a way out of this situation, but it seemed impossible. The entire fight had been impossible. Somehow in all of the chaos the Cultivator had turned their own defenses against them. If they had all been together in one spot they would have had a real chance of defeating him. He was fast, incredibly strong physically, but he could be hit, he could bleed. If he had not taken Trisk's crossbows he would have had much more trouble defeating them. Myria had surrendered because she had heard Orlean scream and Miran had been even closer to death. It was the worst decision she ever had to make. But she needed to save her teammates and she had known a fight with the Cultivator would not have ended quickly and at that point probably not in their favor either.

Now they were done. The Cultivator had them all in his clutches. The hand crossbow still aimed at their backs he would be able to kill one of them before they could even attempt the most basic plan to flee. Myria and Kentris could both wear down or rip through the rope binding their hands in time, of that she had no doubt. But what worried her more for now was Ketris condition. The Cultivator carried him around with ease and she could hear her friend struggling to breathe.

"Please can we take a short break, for Ketris sake?" she asked.

The Cultivator looked at her with his dull gray eyes that felt cold and hard, his face impassive before he looked around and nodded. He set down Ketris and the group crowded around him.

"What is wrong with him?" Ken asked.

Miran knelt down next to the prone form leaning against the wall and studied the man's pale face. It was difficult for him to check his vitals with both of his hands bound, but he managed relatively well. Slowly checking his pulse, his breathing and did a cursory inspection of their friends wounds, if there were any wounds the Cultivator had missed.

"I can't find any injury, it might be something internal." Miran concluded after a good minute of inspection.

"It is not." the Cultivator said from behind them and the whole group stiffened.

"He is waking up again, he can tell you himself." the Cultivator said while he stood in the twilight out of the light of their glowstones. Myria noticed that he did not carry one and that he seemed to meld into the darkness like a ghost. A shudder ran down her spine and she looked away to concentrate on her friend.

Ketris woke up, his eyes bleary, his breathing labored.

"Ketris? How are you feeling? Do you know where you are injured?" Miran asked concerned although Miran himself was shaken from his own brush with death. He and Orlean looked shell shocked. But Miran was their healer, their field medic and he was trained to help his friends even if they were terribly injured. As long as Miran could move, he would help his friends.

"I...I don't…" Ketris started and then his eyes widened. "My class, my class is gone!" He whispered harshly. Ketris words rippled through the group and Myria bowed down and whispered.

"Are you sure? He might have just blocked your interface."

"No...No no no...nooo." Ketris said and there were tears in his eyes.

"Get a grip on yourself." Kentris said and the balding man paused in his despair fueled wailing. He seemed to calm down, his face still pale but now with more color. His shallow labored breath evened out before he spoke with difficulty.

"My class is gone. I don't know how, but its not an interface block. I can't...I can't feel magic anymore. I can barely see it."

"How?" Trisk asked incredulously and the group turned back to look at Aaron who stepped into the light.

"I took it, I told you. Is that so difficult to believe?"

"Yes. Its impossible. A class can not be removed. There has never, in the entire history of the Tower, been a single case like this." Kentris said stoically, looking suspiciously at Aaron.

"Don't worry, you will experience it yourself soon enough. Besides Cultivation is not really an explored path of power in the Tower. Of course you don't know what is possible. You guys know almost nothing about it. Even though your entire purpose is to become Emnu's soldiers to fight Cultivators."

"We know more about Cultivators than you think!" Myria said, giving Ken a kick to the shins to stop him from arguing.

"We can tell you all about what we know about Cultivators, but not for free."

Aaron chuckled.

"You are not really in a position to make deals or demands. You have two more minutes to rest then we continue."

He turned to the boy who had made the crossbows and stepped into his personal space, looking down on him. He pointed the crossbow at his chest, his finger off the trigger and asked.

"You created this crossbow, how do you reload it? I did not find any bolts on you."

Trisk looked up to him and then down to his feet, but he answered.

"Its a skill. They can't be reloaded normally without disassembling them."

"Tsk. Of course it is a skill. I assume there is no way to get a crossbow to have a magazine for multiple bolts otherwise?"

Trisk frowned and then shrugged.

"I don't know how, but it might be possible. The problem is the reloading mechanism of the bow. Without a skill its impossible to make or maintain."

"Pitty, I would have been interested in you making me a crossbow otherwise." Aaron turned around and walked back into the darkness for a few steps, vanishing basically, giving the group the illusion they were alone in the darkness.

Myria thought it was creepy and unnecessary to try and scare them like this. But she did not say anything. Instead she started to strain against the ropes around her hand while Ken stepped in front of her to block the view. There was a sigh out of the darkness and a rock sailed just over Myria's head making her duck.

"Stop that."

Myria frowned and stopped trying to get free for the moment. Her brows furrowed as she thought furiously of a way out. What could she do? Ketris was out of commission and Orlean and Trisk needed their tools to be able to fight effectively. Miran could still use his abilities and she and Kentris were naturally powerful. Their warrior strength would enable them to fight and break free, but not without the Cultivator noticing. He could apparently sense everything they did. Or he had a skill or something for that. Either way she needed to find out the extent of his skill. That was her first objective. From there she would be able to communicate with Ken to coordinate an escape attempt.

"Two minutes are up. Get up. Can you walk fake mage?" the Cultivator asked and Ketris tried to rise, but was too weak. The Cultivator sighed and threw the balding man over his shoulder and gestured the team to move. They started walking, trying not to fall, keeping their glowstones pointed towards their feet. Miran who walked behind Myria whispered:

"What do we do now?"

"I am working on it, unless you have an idea?"

Miran shook his head and they kept walking. For the next twenty minutes or so they walked in relative silence, guided by the Cultivator and Myria tried many things to guess the extent of the Cultivator's senses. But they did not seem to have a limit. He seemed to be absolutely aware of everything any of them did. Myria tried to make Ken do something at the same time as Miran, while she asked a question and the Cultivator had not answered her and told the two of them to knock it off. The Cultivator was getting annoyed by their antics, Myria could tell, but it was all she could think of to get free.

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Ken flinched when someone stepped out of the shadow in a cave, a tall man in heavy armor, a greatsword leaned against his shoulder. The group halted and scrambled back.

"Hey Mortimer, I brought the rest of the kids." the Cultivator said.

"I figured as much, good job, Aaron. The others are sleeping."

"Alright kids, follow the big man in his rusty armor."

"It's not rusty…" Mortimer murmured and gave Aaron a scathing gaze, before he walked past them and into a smaller opening leading the group to a concealed camp site. Myria recognized it as one of the safe, but often occupied camps in the region. But it was quite far away from their camp. How had they reached it that quickly? They had not even encountered any monsters. It was atypical, but that was another sign of the Cultivators exceptional senses. He must have guided them past at least a dozen monster nests. The camp itself turned out to be small, orderly and inhabited by a group of Climbers that looked fairly typical of the lower floors.

A tall slim man in a dark cloak yawned as they entered the camp and he was fully awake within moments.

"Wake up, Aaron is back." he said and the group slowly came out of their few tents. There was a man in leather armor with a sharp axe, the greatsword warrior and what looked like two rogues, a man and a woman and a ranger. The Ranger was clearly the group leader and the woman stretched lazily after crawling out of her sleeping bag.

"I know I complained about having to search them, but I did not mean that you have to strip them to be half naked Aaron." she said with a sneer after she studied Myria's group.

"Better safe than sorry. I did not want to accidentally kill one of them while they are doing something stupid." the Cultivator, Aaron apparently, said.

"Shia, Robin reunite our guests, please." The Ranger said and turned to Aaron.

"Great job, I did not expect you to handle this that quickly."

"These kids have some pretty deep knowledge, killed a gigantic bug nest with some grenades and a volcano. So they were leveling like crazy. It was better to stop them and end this before they did anything stupid."

Myria listened intently to the conversation and studied the men and woman that stood before her. Her threat assessment was that these Climbers were slightly higher leveled Vessels, but with basic classes, so not really capable of doing anything against them, until her eyes landed on the second Rogue. He sat silently to the side, his face concealed with a hood, his Rapier on his lap. He was maintaining the weapon with smooth even movements that gave Myria a shudder of fear. That was not a low leveled Vessel at all. She knew the signs, the impossibly quiet movements, the superhuman smoothness of the whetstone as it evenly sharpened the blade's edge. Her heart sunk. She closed her eyes in resignation.

There was absolutely no way to escape now. She had missed her opportunity. With the Cultivator and a high leveled Rogue they were helpless. None of the ways to deal with people like this while climbing worked because they were already in captivity. She was about to despair when Miran shouted:

"Cloe!" He hurried forwards and Myria followed his gaze. At the back of the camp behind some tents was a metal ring embedded into the wall. Ropes dangled off it and sitting underneath, tied up by the ropes, were Koris and Cloe. Relief flooded through her. Her friends were still alive!

The whole group was guided to the makeshift prison and Koris looked at first relieved and then devastated. Cloe was in tears and hugged Miran.

"Are you two okay?" Myria asked and studied Cloe intently.

"We are alright, they have not done anything to us, besides taking our class." Koris said calmly.

"So...its true?"

"Yes." Koris said with a deep sigh.

"Its the Cultivator who does it, he just touches you and you lose your class."

The man with the axe carried over Ketris after taking the man from the Cultivator and then tied the whole group to the metal ring and secured their bonds one after another. His hands were steady, he had routine doing this kind of stuff and Myria listened to the group Leader talk to the Cultivator.

"So which of them are a problem or have you taken all of their classes already?"

"That boy can turn his skin into metal and the girl is a warrior type. The small kid has some sort of crossbow based engineer class so he might be dexterous enough to free himself. The tall one is a healer actually and can use some limited amount of magic. I took the scroll mage's class first."

"Good, mages are a pain in the ass to guard. I would like you to take care of the healer and the two warriors next."

"Yeah I will get right to it, it will take a while to take all of their spirits and I have not slept yet, I think I will take a nap after absorbing this spirit." the Cultivator said and the Ranger nodded.

"Of course. Good job, Aaron. How long do you think will it take to absorb all of their spirits?"

"A few days probably."

"Fair enough."

"Oh yeah, you should send someone to take what you want from their camp. They have plenty of alchemical ingredients and other valuables. But some of it might be dangerous to handle."

"I will send Shia and Mortimer if you can show them the way."

"Sure let me absorb this spirit first and then we can go."

"Great."

Myria sat back against the wall of the cave, her mind racing. But she did not see a way out. The high level rogue was looking at them, his eyes concealed under his hood, but she was sure he was looking at her. Anything she could try was pointless against him and the Cultivator. If it was true and someone could actually steal a Vessel's spirit? Then this was huge news. Terrifying news. If her superiors on the 52nd floor heard that they would probably send a strike team down to kill this man instantly. But Myria had no illusions of their chances. If the Cultivator fought them he would die for sure, but the Tower was too large and the Cultivator too sneaky. Even if he hid just on the fourth floor they might never find him. The implications of his ability were earth shattering.

If it was truly a removal of spirit then it meant no Vessel was secure anymore. The problem with Cultivation and why it was outlawed on the upper floors was that it did not need talent, it could be taught. Everyone could potentially become a Cultivator and that was not something the Republic or any other organization of the Tower liked. Myria had never really looked too deeply into Cultivators. There was simply no need. The few Cultivators that still lived were enslaved, their power crippled and they were doomed to serve as Elevator wardens. She knew intellectually that Cultivators as the enemies of Lord Emnu himself must be able to become powerful. But she had never seen or met a Cultivator even half as strong as a Vessel, not to say anything from mages. Until she met this man.

There was a chance his existence would be important to the Republic, that her eye witness account would be invaluable and she clung to that hope. Because it looked like there was no way out of here. She had been defeated. Which meant in due time they would have to give uncomfortable answers and she was not sure if whoever held them captive in the end would be satisfied with the answers she was allowed to provide in case of an emergency. And even if she said nothing, she could not know that none of her teammates would crack under the pressure. If they were ever set free and managed to get back home the next problem would be that her superiors would not believe her that they said nothing. It was an impossible situation for her and she did not want her family to suffer for her actions. She was entirely out of ideas what to do.

Ken leaned against the wall next to her and sighed.

"So what now, boss?"

"Now we think about how much we can tell without being killed when we get back home." Myria said forcing herself to be calm.

"You don't think we can do anything now?"

"No, not with the Cultivator or that high leveled Rogue around."

"Ah...he is high leveled? I could not tell."

"Moron." Myria said, but it was gentle and not really meant as an insult.

"You...you think we can get back home?" Koris asked from the side and Myria smiled at him.

"I hope so. Everything we have learned says that the contact in the Town of Beginnings is trustworthy. But it seems like we have to amend that slightly, considering he sent a group to hunt us down."

The leader of the group holding them captive stepped in front of them and even Miran and Cloe looked up from their tearful reunion.

"Mars Ventros, the boss of the red-light district and my boss is a trustworthy man. My name is Roger and this is my team."

"Attacking and abducting people is not in any of the treaties." Myria said coldly.

"It is not, but you started it."

"Excuse me?"

"One of you threw a grenade at a group from the 51st floor and the resulting monster rush killed one of that group."

Orlean blanched and shook his head. "I missed...I…"

"It was not the grenade but the monsters who did it. So technically its not a declaration of war. But its very, very close. If...when that group reaches their home it could certainly be seen that way."

"It would not, but even then this is not your concern."

"It is, because that group from the 51st floor came to us to ask for our help in righting this wrong. They wanted us to hinder you from climbing so you will miss the next Expedition. Which is a very mild response to the death of one of their members, don't you think?"

"This...but that is still not right. You cannot interfere, that is why the treaty exists."

"So I am told. The argument was that not doing anything was akin to aiding you and interfering either way."

"That goes against the spirit of the treaty." Kentris said firmly.

"Maybe, but not against the writing of it. Either way you will be allowed to resume climbing in due time, in 2 years or so."

"And until then we are what? Prisoners?" Trisk asked.

"Guests, guests who will have been robbed of your powers to ensure...compliance."

"How much did they pay you for this...favor you are doing for them?"

"I do not know, honestly." Roger said.

"But after your classes have been taken we will escort you back down to the first floor where my boss can answer all of your question."

"And ask us some questions in return." Koris said bitterly.

"What you tell is up to you. I am sure you want to be cooperative. Being a guest of the red-light district can be very pleasant or not, depending on your level of cooperation. Until then though, please don't try to flee. While we have been asked to take you alive, accidents do happen."

"We understand." Myria said, trying not to curse.

Myria had no option but to pray that she would find a solution to all of this, but for now she was out of ideas.

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