The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

The morning starts as usual. I wake up and head to the bathroom to splash some water on my face, then I grab a cranky Trinity from her nest of pillows on the floor and sit down to cultivate. She calms down once the oum starts flowing, but in the time between picking her up and then, she manages to give me a small scratch. It heals quickly under the influence of my oum, but it's still annoying.

She's getting better though. My training is paying off. I think. She knows how to sit, mostly. Well, she knows how to sit when I'm holding food, but it's progress. She also knows her name now, though she pretends not to whenever she's doing something she knows she's not allowed to do.

I think she's still holding a grudge against me for what I did to Jinlan. I often see her sniffing around the ground where she used to set him down to eat. It's mildly concerning how much she seems to like eating human flesh, but at least she hasn't started going after living ones. Yet. I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

Once we finish, I stand up, and she jumps away to stretch and find something to destroy. I walk over to my closet and pull it open, looking at my options. The construct butler, who I've decided to name Henry, can clean clothes in seconds, meaning that so far, I've been able to wear my preferred black every day, but I think I'm going to switch it up today. I prefer black, so if I'm going to make a public appearance as the Phoenix, I should be wearing something else so that it doesn't become my signature, and I can wear it when I'm trying to go incognito.

The closet has a pretty wide assortment of colors for the exact same boring outfit, which I thought was pretty dumb at first before I figured out that Henry could alter clothes. And when I say "alter," I mean dismantle and reassemble into something completely different. He can even change the colors. I have no idea how that works, but I'm going to take advantage of it.

I grab one at random and bring it to the kitchen where I summon Henry. It takes about ten minutes, but eventually we end up with something I'm happy with. Something that's both eye-catching and tasteful. It's red with swirling gold patterns and a fiery bird embroidered on either shoulder. Originally I wanted it on the back, but my hair is too long and completely covered it up, ruining the effect. I could just do my hair up to show it off, but I think having it loose and reaching down past my waist will stand out more than any hair style I can come up with.

The outfit is a bit tighter and shows a bit more skin than the normal robes, but not to the point of being suggestive. It's also surprisingly comfortable. The regular robes are already pretty comfortable, but apparently, Henry can even alter the texture of the fabric somehow, and when I asked him to make it softer, it became softer.

The time it took to make the clothes cut into my usual tai chi-like routine, but I run through the most important parts, finishing right as I hear the knock on my door indicating that Vanessa has arrived to escort me to breakfast. I answer the door to find her waiting with Jacob and Katherine, and all of them are rendered momentarily speechless by my outfit. Katherine is the first to recover.

"You're not wearing black?" she asks.

"Not today."

"What's the occasion?"

"I'm going to beat some people up."

"...Oh."

My dilemma from when I woke up lasted all of five seconds before I came to a decision. Honestly, it wasn't even a real dilemma. The ginseng will definitely be useful, and hunting those mammoths and other animals sounds interesting, but as Ganyu said, my nickname is going to attract a lot of attention. I need to make a statement. The ginseng can wait, especially since I'm probably not strong enough to get to it as I am now.

Also, my rank has been slowly falling this past week since I haven't really done anything. That Yuri Fillipov guy even managed to pass me yesterday. According to Jacob, he got ahold of a foundation pill and formed his core, and then immediately went on a Quest and hunted down a couple of those black wolves. I can only assume he accepted sponsorship from someone.

Anyway, I don't really care that much. Unless his sponsors stuff him to the gills with cultivation pills to force him to higher levels, he won't be able to compete with me, and they won't do that if they're not stupid. Not that I ever wanted to compete with him. I just think it would be a little weird if the highest-ranked earthling isn't me.

"It looks good!" says Jacob, finally recovering from his own stunlock.

"Yeah!" says Vanessa. "How did you get those clothes though?"

"The construct butlers can alter them," I say. "Anyway, I'm hungry. Let's eat."

"Mrraw!" says Trinity in agreement.

I walk past them toward the lift, and they follow behind a moment later, whispering with each other about how I'm different today.

On the bottom floor, we grab our food and sit down at one of the tables, soon joined by a few others. The quiet girl, whose name is Jenny, is one, and Timmy the homeless man who I should really stop thinking of as "the homeless man" is another. Over the past week of classes and meals, our Batch has started to split itself into friend groups, and the four of us from the top floor of the dorm, Timmy, and Jenny make up one of them. The no longer shirtless jogger, whose name is Mike, has another group, and Thomas, the plain man I met in the labyrinth, has another. A few people remain alone, like the gloved hitman who wanted to play rock paper scissors during the first trial, and the woman who ripped a man's throat out with her teeth.

During the meal, I remain mostly quiet as usual, but I practice for my public persona by adopting a more intentionally aloof expression, as opposed to my normal wallflower one. It seems to work pretty well, since I'm getting a lot more stares than usual.

The lesson this morning is about the history of the Hatep family. It's kind of interesting, but Ganyu isn't the greatest lecturer when it comes to history, and his obvious dislike of the Hateps colors the content, so it's hard to tell exactly what to believe. He talks about their many charity programs throughout the years and how they are the best healers in the Tower, but he also goes into gratuitous detail on two times when some of their members were caught doing large-scale experimentation on the sentient races of the Tower. He puts extra emphasis that there were 100,000 years between the two incidents, and it's been just about 100,000 years since the most recent. I don't think anyone misses his not-so-subtle implication that they could be doing it again right now.

After that, when we take a break from the lecture to jump to the practical section, I take my leave. Kat tries to follow me, but thankfully, Vanessa manages to convince her not to, which I'm grateful for. From what I've learned of Kat lately, she would be quoting whatever I say at the spars for days, and that would be annoying.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

I leave the dorm with a confident stride, with Trinity right next to me, her head held high, mimicking my confidence. The group of people hanging around the dorm is mostly gone at this point, having gotten a decent handle on the residents of our dorm already, but there are still a few, and all of them turn their eyes to me.

"Ah, it's been a while," says one, stepping toward me.

"I'm busy, Josh," I say.

"Ah, close!" he says, falling into stride beside me. "My name is Josheron, but I'm flattered you made an effort to remember me."

"I said I'm busy, Josh," I repeat, speeding up. "If you don't have anything important to say, go away."

"Well, that's rather rude of you."

"And it's rather rude of you to keep following me after I've expressed clear disinterest," I say, stopping and turning to face him. "If you don't have anything to say to me, either go away, or make yourself useful and go tell your boss that if they want my attention, they should come to me directly."

His mouth opens and closes a few times, momentarily unable to find the words to say.

"I can't believe-" he starts angrily

"I don't care," I say, turning away.

I leave him behind, and this time, he doesn't follow. I notice that the other totally normal Climbers who just happened to be near Phoenix Hall and within earshot of that conversation are sharing quick glances, and one of them turns to run off in a different direction, probably to deliver a report.

About ten minutes, once I've made it to a busier part of the city, I spot someone I recognize buying some kind of weird green fruit at a market. I immediately make a beeline toward her.

"Bella?" she asks when she sees me approaching.

"Hana," I say. "I have information. Are you buying?"

"Oh! Yes!"

"How much will you pay for information about my affinity?"

"10,000," she says quickly. Too quickly.

"30,000," I counter.

"What? That's way too high!"

"No it's not. And if it's more than you can afford, I can always go find someone else to-"

"Alright!" she says. "But quietly. And on the condition that you don't tell anyone else for two hours."

"40,000 then," I say, holding out my hand.

She bites her lip, glancing around at the other information gatherers around, then reluctantly grabs my hand.

"Pleasure doing business with you!" I say, verifying the credits have reached my account before leaning in close and whispering in her ear. "Life and Transmutation."

"Thank you!" she says, pulling away.

"Also, I'm going to be putting on a little demonstration in the northern sparring hall," I say loud enough for the others around to hear. "It should be good entertainment."

"Got it!" says Hana. "Alright, I'll see you later."

She drops the fruits she was still holding and sprints away. A few of the others in the crowd also start running away. To honor their efforts, I slow my pace moving forward, and by the time I reach my destination, there's already a small crowd forming. Most of their gazes are hostile, which is exactly what I was hoping for. A newbie taking the name of an Ascendant and then declaring that they would be putting on a "demonstration" in the sparring hall probably ruffled a few feathers. I'll have no shortage of opponents.

I have to admit that I'm getting a little excited. I haven't done anything like this in a while. I'm looking forward to finally getting a chance to move my body around, and I've been enjoying the arrogant and unrefined act so far. Plus, this will probably bump the timeline forward on the other forces of the Tower making their offers to me, so I can take care of that too.

I walk into the building without acknowledging the others, instead heading for a table where two constructs sit.

"How can I help?" one asks when I approach.

"I'd like to issue a challenge," I say, reciting what Ganyu told me to say. "Open to anyone below 2 star, bar none. Standard shielding. No restrictions. And I want it to go live immediately."

"Of course," it replies. "Your challenge is now live."

I look up above it at the wall, where a board of all public challenges is set and see mine at the bottom. I smile and turn around to find a young man in somewhat fancier robes facing me with a smile as a half dozen goons spread out around him. He reminds me a little bit of Josheron with his moderate handsomeness and overconfident aura. He's a late 1 star, and he has a symbol on his breast that I think I recognize as belonging to one of the Tower's Ascendant forces, though I can't remember exactly which one.

"Hello, Ms. Phoenix," he says genially. "You're new to the Tower, right?"

"I am," I confirm.

"My name is Handel Axian," he says. "You may have heard of my family in your Lessons. It's one of the Ascendant forces. I just wanted to say that you might not be aware, but I believe you are making a mistake right now. You are indeed talented, but you don't understand the Tower just yet. If you cancel your challenge and change your nickname right now, you can plea ignorance, but if you don't, I'm afraid you're setting yourself up for a rude awakening."

"No, thank you," I say.

"As I said, you're new to the Tower. You may have gotten a bit lucky so far, but this isn't the planet you grew up on. You don't understand the magnitude of what you're doing right now, and you'll only end up hurt if you continue."

"If you want me to change my nickname, why don't you make me?"

There are a few gasps from onlookers, and Handel's smile vanishes.

"Well, let no one say I didn't warn you," he says. "I don't see a reason to step in personally for this. Would anyone else care to teach this lost soul a lesson?"

A burly man with a cocky smile steps forward immediately. "I'll do it."

He steps forward toward the desk and holds his ring hand out to the receptionist. A moment later, I feel a small jolt of oum from my own ring, and when I pull up the Information tab, it shows me a notification that my challenge has been accepted, and that we are to go to Arena 13.

As we walk, I size up my opponent. He's only Early 1 star, just like me, though it looks like he's close to breaking through to Middle. From the way he moves, it's clear that he's well-trained and has some talent, but nothing about him jumps out to me as being extraordinary. He'll make a decent demonstration, I guess.

The people in the crowd around are all chatting excitedly, and I hear a few people placing bets. Surprisingly, my odds don't seem too bad. I would have thought that being an outsider, they would discount me a bit more, but I guess not. Is it my sword? I hear a couple people talking about it, so maybe.

The public arenas in the sparring hall are more or less just pits dug into the ground, which is great, because that means that spectators can easily see what happens inside. There are some private ones in the back as well for if I ever want to do some actual sparring, instead of just demonstrations.

As soon as we reach Arena 13, I hop over the low fence around it and land inside. It's about fifteen feet down, but a bit of oum to reinforce my legs makes that distance nothing. This earns a few murmurs from around, and sensing the atmosphere, my opponent turns from the stairs he was walking toward and copies me. He lands just as easily, which is kind of disappointing. It would have been funny if he hurt himself trying to copy me.

As soon as I enter the pit, a thin film of oum surrounds me. It's thin as tissue paper, tight against my body like a second skin, and doesn't hinder my movements at all, but I can tell it's far denser than anything I can produce at the moment. I don't see even a peak 2 star being able to hit harder than this could handle.

I start stretching as a new construct appears in the center of the arena, instructing me and my opponent to stand on opposite sides. The other man draws a sword from a sheath on his hip, and grips it with both hands, and I mirror him as the construct calls for the match to begin and steps away.