Day Three

I saw my friends eating at the kitchen island by the fridge, with Zack drinking from a bottle in a brown paper bag. They were gathered around a map and talking. Artemis and Clarence were chopping vegetables, Hannah was standing behind everyone menacingly and was the first to notice me.

"Shut up, half my abilities don't work if I'm sober, dude!" Zack said. "I'm not your dude, Zack," Artemis said. "Sure, sorry, but-" Zack said. "Alex." Hannah said. Still monotone and monosyllabic, which was a little odd after seeing her write in a much more usual style in the chat. "Thank fuck. Was it worth it?" Artemis said. "Five people are dead, so, I mean I hope so," I said. "Yeah, well. It's this fucking tower. If we don't take risks now, we'll be dead tomorrow," Artemis said. "I should get to rest. I need to copy some spells over to a new book. Oh, and here," I said, tossing the six-pack of mana potions to Hannah. "Give them to Bjorn," Hannah said. "You share them if you want to, they're yours. I really don't want you starting to eat brains," I said.

"So, your spells?" Artemis said. "Oh, shit, didn't even think of it. I can definitely pass my old spell-book to someone else. Anyone with a point in Arcana should be able to cast at least the first tier ones," I said. "Hell yeah, magic weed wizard gang," Zack said. "Yeah, I'm sure someone could use that. We still don't get a lot of people putting points into Arcana, though we have a few more spells," Artemis said. "I should look over what we have after I sleep," I said. "Might not have an opportunity for that after day 3 starts," Artemis said. "Need to get as much rest as I can. I'm fucking thirty two, four hours of sleep don't cut it anymore," I said. "I don't know, I barely need the four hours with the stat boosts," Artemis said. "You're like six levels ahead of me and didn't waste half of them on Arcana and shit. Anyways, anything I need to know?" I said.

"It was rough for the first few hours after you left. Then we started leading groups out and helping out with clearing classrooms. Eventually they didn't need help, and I went back to organizing," Artemis said. "Been grinding with the boys," Hannah said. "It says in the Journal that the negative effects of alcohol are nullified with the ability," Zack said. "Me and the Journal have different ideas of what negative effects alcohol has on young men," Artemis said. "He's been helpful," Hannah said. "Thank you!" Zack said, too loudly. "It's a good system. Hannah takes their attention, Zack screams and wails on them, and I sit back and play music. It's weird, I was never that good at music back on Earth. Just a hobby," Chimo said. "Bard skills. Feels nice," Hannah said. "It's not just bard abilities. The guitar skill is going up very quickly," Chimo said. "Yeah, Chum said something about that. The experience and skill gain isn't just descriptive, the Journal and the Tower really are making us more powerful," I said. "To what ends?" Chimo said. "I always assumed to make us enjoy violence and murder. But you are making art and being rewarded for it, so what the fuck do I know?" I said. "Sheesh that's dark," Chimo said.

"Hey, stop letting us distract you, get some fucking rest," Artemis said. "I put a few points into Arcana. Can I have your book?" Chimo said. "I'll just copy my spells over real quick. Shouldn't take half an hour," I said.

I sat down to do just that. Nobody seemed to have spare pants, or really any clothes at all. Most of us had, after all, come into the Tower with literally nothing but the clothes on our backs, and all of us had spent nearly two days doing dangerous activities around spiky and/or sharp objects. It wasn't just me, most people's clothes were either magic items from the Tower, ripped to shreds, or, most commonly, some combination of the both.

Copying the spells over took a lot less time this time around, less than even I had expected. Knowledge helped a lot, of course, but the Arcane Theory and Scribing skills were working together with my improved (if still quite bad) agility to let me work twice as quickly as I expected to. I was done within fifteen minutes, and I handed off my spell-book to Chimo. I said Fus and the book flipped open to the page I was thinking of- the Fog spell- and levitated directly in front of me. If I walked, it followed me, always staying about a foot below my face, in perfect reading height. If I spun around quickly, it followed me with a slight delay, but always ended up back where I started. So, that would be fucking useful. I said the activation phrase again and the book flopped back down on the floor.

"Hey, Artemis," I said. "The cupboard in the back right corner from the entrance has been cleared out," she said. "Thanks," I said and went there.

It was a tight, dark space, and even after only having this ability for just over a day, I was already subconsciously learning that dark, cramped spaces were good. Oh what the hell, that was probably the least harmful lesson I was learning. And that was before I started pumping points into Self-Esteem and Intensity. I didn't really have the time to think about how much that would change my personality, but it was uncomfortable. I already had a point in the intensity attribute now, so I kept thinking about how it was changing my behavior. Was I already taking more risks and being more forceful with my opinions? I didn't feel like it, but, at least according to the Tower, I hadn't been a particularly intense person before coming here, so going from one to two wouldn't likely feel very much like an increase.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I sighed and crawled into my hole, and I closed the door behind me. I was unconscious before the healing ability kicked in.

I was woken by the ringing of a school-bell dragging me out of my dreamless sleep in a jolt.

The voice that came through the loudspeakers was a mad thing, male and aged in smooth whiskey and cut with industrial strength methamphetamines. It rang out thorough the Tower in the same volume as the schoolbells, and the head-splitting volume left us all with ears ringing when he was done.

"Good morning, students! This is your principal speaking. But I do not want you to think of me as a part of the faculty. Think of me instead as family. Yes, indeed, think of me as your daddy.

Ah, senseless, brutal violence. I still remember the days when I stood where you now stand, where I still felt that fear and guilt in my bowels, I can remember the pants-soiling intensity of my first real fight. Trust me when I say, that you will remember these very special days of your lives for the rest of your existence.

Congratulations on your survival to Day 3. Congratulations too on exceeding my expectations! My calculations for expected Earthling survival have been exceeded by 3% on average, with some sections of our beautiful school having survival rates as high as 25%! Truly, I have come to admire that Earthling spunk of yours.

You must be curious about the next steps on your journey. The task for this day is simple- ESCAPE! Proceed to the exit, as little less than 24 hours from now this wonderful tutorial area that I am sure you have come to think of as home will cease to exist.

Special congratulations to the 65 people among you who have correctly picked the wizard class. I will be personally following your progress. Good job.

Make sure to explore one of the nearby classrooms with a functional blackboard. Some new information is available for you curious little creatures.

Raise hell, grow strong, and- say it with me- try not to die!" the Headmaster said.

"Fuck you," Artemis said.

I crawled fully out of the cupboard and found that I was fully rested. It must be something with how the healing ability interacts with the stats, or something. I'd slept on a futon a year back for one single night and my neck hadn't been quite right since, until the Tower healed it along with my other aches and pains. The guild was on edge, preparing and packing. Hannah was polishing pieces of her plate armor with a piece of cloth in the corner. Artemis had clearly been interrupted from her writing at a desk and putting on her beat up army surplus jacket. Zack looked like he too had been awoken from a nap, though he seemed to have a harder time coming back to consciousness than I did. The rest of the guild was either putting supplies in backpacks, nursing injuries, and, in one or two concerning cases, staring blankly into a wall.

"Well, that solves the psycho question," I said. "Question?" Hannah said. "I've been wondering if the person who made this place was some sort of a super-human intellect performing an experiment beyond our understanding, or just a fucking psycho," I said. "It's been clear that the fuckface is evil. I don't make a habit of guessing whether evil people are secret geniuses playing stupid, or just stupid. Same result in the end," Artemis said. "It'll matter when we kill him," Hannah said. "Yeah, or just survive inside his little horror movie trap room," I said. "No. When we kill him," Hannah said, "I will kill him." "Right there with you," Zack said, "But, like, we got to get to him." "The principal is supposed to be there for graduation. Maybe we'll see him when we get to the exit. But Hannah, the magic he's used to make this place function, it's fucking impossible," I said. "Doesn't matter how smart he is with a sword in his brain," Hannah said. "Doesn't it though? I've seen you survive things nearly that bad," I said. "Whatever. Maybe not today or tomorrow. But I will kill the bastard," Hannah said. "I'm with Hannah. Though I'm with Alex too in the sense that we don't fuck with him yet," Artemis said.

Chimo returned from outside the Lounge, carrying two large plastic bottles full of water, presumably from the nearby bathroom. He was wearing some sort of a pearlescent white leather jacket, clearly magical and looted while I was out.

"Anyone check the blackboards yet?" he said. "I was just about to get to that," Artemis said. "I think it's mostly just the names of survivors. I didn't stick around to check, but there's names of people on the blackboard now from what I saw from the hall," Chimo said. "I definitely want to check it out. Anything new in the halls?" I said. "Mobs are moving East. Didn't meet anything too scary, but they seemed in a hurry," Chimo said. "Sounds like our theory about something special being to the East coheres," I said. "Yeah. Yeah, I'll get the guild ready," Artemis said. "Take me and Hannah with you, Alex. We're hardest to kill if something goes wrong," Zack said. "I'm not your boss, if you wanna come, come," I said. "We'll go," Hannah said.

I straightened out my hair and put my wizard hat on. I cast the mage armor spell, and took my staff by the hand, and we three left the lounge of the guild to pass into the halls once again.

I followed right behind Hannah and Zack who seemed to have grown pretty comfortable standing side-to-side in a battle formation. I kept an eye behind us, Hannah looked forward, and Zack was mumbling something under his breath pretty clearly not paying much attention to anything. At the very least we weren't instantly disintegrated by some sort of invisible beam or acid as we stepped into the hallway. The dinner-bell throng of the 24 hour bell also didn't come. Monsters seemed not to dare come into these halls nearest the Lounge, presumably because of the regular hunts of the Guild.

We entered a nearby classroom, nearly completely destroyed with nothing but the blackboard remaining whole, and on it we saw tight writing filling up nearly the entire thing.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.