The Phoenix [Cultivation, Reincarnation, Tower Climber]

With Bella gone, the mood in the rest of the group was odd. Vanessa wasn't sure on the first day, but as the hours without Bella around stretched on, it became more and more obvious. Their teamwork wasn't suffering… but it wasn't improving either.

With her position at the back of the group, Vanessa was able to watch over everyone else, and around noon on the second day, she thought she had pinpointed the issue. It was Jacob.

He wasn't doing anything bad, but it was clear he wasn't entirely happy, and Vanessa had an idea why. While he hid it well, he was a deeply competitive person. He hated losing. And recently, he had taken quite a few "losses."

First, he took second place to Bella in their Batch. There wasn't anything that could be done about that, but even so, he probably wasn't thrilled. Second, he found out that he was actually third place of those from Earth, with that Yuri Filippov person taking second. Then Kat had beaten him to forming her core. Then, Vanessa had gotten private lessons from Bella while he kept getting brushed off. Then, just as he was reclaiming his position as second best in the Batch, Bella returned from her trip, and assigned him to a supporting role in their group's battle formation.

Individually, he could have handled any of these things. Even together, he could keep it under control when Bella was around to keep an eye on him. But now that she was gone, he was slowly losing more and more of his cool.

Still though, he wasn't actually doing anything wrong. Yet. Vanessa doubted any of the others had noticed anything wrong. It was very subtle, after all. He was just taking a bit more charge of the group than usual. Pushing them a bit further than they were comfortable. Not enough to make things overly dangerous, but enough to make it challenging. Objectively, that was fine, since they all wanted to get stronger, so they needed the challenges, but Vanessa could tell that his ambition was gradually growing into recklessness.

There were other cracks in the group dynamic too. None were as concerning as Jacob's spiral, but they could snowball if left unchecked. June was reticent, and pretty rude when she was annoyed. Kat chafed under the semi-rigorous structure of the group. Jenny's confidence was non-existent. Al was fifteen years older than any of the others, and didn't quite fit in with the group, and his refusal to share anything about his background made it difficult for the others to trust him.

And Vanessa had no idea what to do about any of it.

This was why she didn't like larger groups. No matter who was in them, they always had problems like this. Many of them managed to work through the problems to become a proper, harmonious friend group. Many others inexplicably continued to exist despite such problems. The rest broke apart, and often in ugly ways.

Single relationships were better. Ones that weren't dependent on anyone else. Vanessa could handle those. It was easy to figure out what she needed to do to maintain those relationships. With groups though, people who should have been friends often ended up as enemies due to something that would never have been an issue if it weren't for a third party coming between them.

Even so, despite all that, Vanessa still didn't want their group to break apart. Beyond the immediate issue of a schism while they were out in the dangerous wilderness, she just wanted to stay friends with everyone.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?"

Vanessa turned to see Kat had fallen back to walk with her. They weren't that far behind, but as they travelled, the group had taken to slightly splitting up, with Kat, Al, and June occasionally running ahead to scout, or checking out things to the side, while Vanessa took up the rear to keep an eye on everyone else. It wasn't a formation that was conducive to talking, but it was necessary to be able to locate and react to threats in time. It also happened to mean that if they talked quietly, the others wouldn't hear them, and Kat's volume was much lower than usual.

"Nothing," said Vanessa.

"Really?"

"Nothing important."

"Huh. Well, I just wanted to ask, how did you get so good with the bow? Didn't we start learning at the same time?"

"My uncle taught me a few things back on Earth," Vanessa explained.

"Then why'd you tell the instructor you were a beginner."

"That was back when I was like six. I barely remembered it. But it came back to me pretty quickly…"

"Oh, that's nice. I wish my uncles taught me anything. They just tried to take all my money instead."

"What?"

"Yeah, I'm an orphan. My parents were rich, and they passed everything down to me. My uncles wanted a piece of the pie, so they kept doing things to try to get their hands on it. Fortunately, my grandpa managed to fend them off until I got to adulthood and I could claim it all properly."

"Oh."

"Yeah, it kinda sucked. But Grandpa was great. He died just a couple months ago. Honestly, that's kinda why I'm here. With him gone, there wasn't anything left tying me to the world. I ran away from home. Donated most of my money away so my uncles couldn't get to it. I was just wandering in the street when the Tower showed up, and I figured 'fuck it, let's check it out.' And now I'm here."

"...I see."

Vanessa wasn't sure how to respond. Fortunately, Kat didn't leave her stuck in that position for any longer.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Sorry for trauma dumping all of the sudden," she said. "I just kinda wanted to tell someone. I thought about doing it the other night when Al asked everyone why they were here, but then it was my turn, and I just couldn't say it. I bet you already knew that though."

Vanessa had indeed noticed that Kat was hiding something, though she didn't think much of it, because everyone was. No one had been entirely truthful that night.

"I figured you probably wouldn't do any weird gossiping or turn weird around me," continued Kat. "I mean, Bella likes you, so you've gotta be doing something right, right?"

"Ah, she doesn't like me," said Vanessa. "She just tolerates me. Or she tolerated me. I was useful back on Earth. Here though…"

"Nah, she definitely likes you. You're the only one she's helped with cultivation."

"But that's only because I begged her."

"If I begged her, would she help me?"

Vanessa was silent. She wanted to say "yes," but she didn't actually believe that. Bella didn't like it when people asked her for things. Vanessa wasn't even sure why she had been so desperate that night, and in retrospect, it was strange that Bella had not only agreed, but had gone above and beyond in her answer.

"See?" said Kat.

"Even so, she's not gonna let me Climb with her," said Vanessa.

"Why do you wanna Climb with her?"

"...It's complicated."

"Fair enough."

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Vanessa spoke again.

"I'm an orphan too," she said.

She didn't continue, and Kat didn't respond. Another minute passed before Vanessa started talking again.

"My mom died when I was really young. I don't really remember her. After she died, my dad became an alcoholic. I spent most of my time with my uncle. He was an alcoholic too, but at least he didn't hit me."

"Oh," said Kat softly.

"My uncle was a depressed drunk. Well, he was probably depressed when he wasn't drunk too. But when he was drunk, he would ramble on about how pathetic he was, and how if his wife wouldn't have left him if he was just more competent. I lost track of how many times he told me 'don't be like me.' He took good care of me though after I-" Not yet. "After my dad died. I worked hard in high school to get a full ride scholarship, and then at my graduation, he was crying for me. And then a week after I moved into the dorms, the day before classes started, I learned that he had died of alcohol poisoning. He was dead for three days, and no one checked on him until the neighbors complained about the smell."

A tear rolled down Vanessa's cheek, and Kat looked concerned.

"Hey, if you don't want to-" she started.

"That whole week I was in the dorm, Bella was there too," continued Vanessa. "I greeted her once when I got there, but she basically ignored me, and then we never talked after that. She just laid in bed reading all day while I was out and about, trying to make friends and getting ready for my first semester. When I heard about my uncle, I was crying all day and all night. I thought I would annoy her, but she never reacted.

"I ended up sleeping through my entire first day of classes, and I thought I was screwed, but when I woke up, Bella was back in her bed as usual, and there was a copy of all the syllabuses on my desk. That whole week, I was a bit out of it, but Bella always left her notes out for me to look over when I missed class. And then when I started going to class normally, I found out that she didn't even take notes usually. She only took them for me."

"Really? She did that?"

Vanessa nodded. "After that, we still didn't talk much, but we would study together and grab food sometimes. I was working so hard in high school between maintaining my GPA and working part-time for spending money that I didn't have any time for friends, so Bella was really my first friend. The first one since I was a kid, at least."

"So that's why you wanna Climb with her?"

"I guess. It sounds kinda silly now that I say it out loud. She was nice to me once, and now years later, I'm still trying to cling onto her."

"No, it makes sense," said Kat. "I think. I mean, it makes sense to me."

"She definitely doesn't see me the same way though," said Vanessa. "And I'm pretty sure I'm not gonna be able to go with her. I haven't completely given up, but… Well, I don't think I'm very useful right now."

"Well, is it the end of the world if you don't get to go with her?" asked Kat. "I mean, you can always just catch back up to her later."

"Catch up? To her?"

"Well, she has to stop at some point," said Kat with a shrug. "That point might be the very top of the Tower, but she can't keep going forever."

"What if I don't make it to the top though?"

"That's a loser mindset. You are going to make it. So am I. So is she. And we'll all hang out and have fun once we're there."

"That's easy for you to say."

"Nah, come on. I'm only ahead because I got a sponsor. You're just as good as I am. If you get a sponsor too, you'll catch up in no time. I keep telling Jacob the same thing, but he's been really stubborn about working on his own."

Vanessa didn't respond. Thirty seconds passed before Kat opened her mouth to speak again.

"If you really want to Climb with Bella, you could always try to guilt trip her."

"What?" asked Vanessa.

"Just tell her all the stuff you just told me. Your family's all dead, she's your first friend…"

"Why?"

"I mean, she seems to be weak to that kind of stuff. She helped you back on Earth, she helped you here, she helped all of us with our teamwork, and now she's playing mom for Timmy. I bet if you trapped her in a room and started telling her your backstory and crying and stuff, she'd agree to help you."

"No," said Vanessa after hesitating just a moment too long.

"I mean, it might work. If you're that desperate to Climb with her…"

"No. Even if it would work… I don't want to do it. I don't want to drag her down. I want to be useful, not dead weight."

"Fair enough," said Kat with a shrug. "Just tossing the idea out."

Vanessa was about to respond when the hair on the back of her neck started standing on end. She froze mid-step, and Kat stopped a half-step later.

"What is it?" whispered Kat.

"We're being watched," said Vanessa.

She couldn't tell from where, and she wasn't even sure if that's what she sensed, but the more in-tune she got with oum, the more she tended to trust her instincts. They had always been good, but since she formed her core, they felt supernatural sometimes.

"Let's go," she said, grabbing Kat by the wrist and jogging forward to the others.