The Tower of Emnu

Mars Ventros watched Iris try and recreate the martial art Aaron used. The small marbles the Cultivator had lost were capable of being controlled with simple button presses. How? Nobody could tell him what or if anything happened in the little marbles, but the very lifelike illusions they summoned were more than a bit frightening. They reacted somehow to attacks from the holder of the marble, even dodged said attacks, but their own attacks did not hurt anyone. They were luckily just an illusion. When the holder of the marble was hit by one of the illusions the "game" was over and the illusion dissipated. But Iris had been able to figure out how to access some of the information in the marble, not just the lifelike illusions. She said it was like dreaming of something, while being awake. Sadly Mars himself had been entirely unable to activate any of the marbles himself. Whoever had built these things was fiendishly clever and his nature as Vessel made it impossible for him to interact with the marbles in any way nor with its illusions. He could stand in one and it would not react at all.

In short this was entirely useless to him. Iris had tried very hard to learn the martial art that was displayed to her, but to no avail. She could not recreate even a single "stance" as she had called it. It was a disappointing and yet predictable outcome. Cultivation artifacts were apparently like all artifacts that were found in the tower. Unyielding in their purpose of obfuscating the treasure they really were. Maybe over years someone might be able to gleam something from these marbles, but as Iris had told Mars in no uncertain tones: Aaron would want them back and he would go looking for them when he returned.

Mars had weighed the potential gain with the risk of an irate killing machine combing through the first floor and decided it was not worth it. So this little experiment would come to an end soon. He still wondered how the man had gotten these artifacts. Or maybe they were lost relics? There was no information, not just little, but no information at all about what happened when a Summoned walked through the door to learn Cultivation. None of the Cultivators had ever talked about it even once and that was suspicious. Even mages, who were rather tight lipped about the origins of their power had eventually given up all of the information.

He knew exactly what would happen to a summoned choosing to become a mage. First, every summoned mage had killed another Aspirant to be allowed to become a mage in the first place. Be it through guile, or martial prowess, none of the Summoned mages were weak because of that. If the information was correct he had gathered over the years as an information broker, then a Fragment of Emnu himself would teach the Summoned their first spell. It was difficult to believe and maybe just hyperbole, but it was almost certainly true. Few actually realized who had taught them their spells, but a few mages had recognized the depictions of the Lord of the tower later as the man who had taught them magic.

It was a well kept secret, one of those things people did not just spread around. Few mages ever talked about it out of shame of killing someone and Mars had to admire the ruthless spirit of the Lord of the Tower. His summoned few who were chosen to be the leaders of the tower's denizens were all murderers. They had killed and they would do it again eventually. Sadly magic was not only given like this. The vast majority of mages in the Tower had been born with the gift and had learned to use it in schools or from their families. The amount of incompetent mages who had never lifted their hand in anger was a staggering number in Ambition alone. Upstairs it was said to be similar, but because of the constant battle between floors there mages were much more martial than the old mage families in Ambition.

A knock made Mars look up and Tex hurried into the room and whispered into his ear.

"The Cultivator is on his way here. His identification badge has been used at the front door."

Mars eyebrows rose and he hurried over to Iris.

"Aaron is back, quick Iris give me back both marbles."

Iris blinked out of her trance and was at first reluctant to part with the small round marbles until she had blinked the illusions from her eyes. She gave him the two cores and Mars had just enough time to place them on his desk before Aaron entered his office without much preamble. He did not knock and he looked terrible. He had clearly been in a fight, a bloody one from his torn clothes and Iris gasped at Mars side. The young man's gray eyes took in the room with one glance, before he nodded to Iris and turned to Mars.

"We have a problem Mars."

Mars sighed and stepped behind his desk before he sat down to give himself time to think. The "we" might be hyperbole, but Aaron did not seem the type to exaggerate often.

"You look like you have been in a fight. What happened?"

"You are expecting a group from Ambition who will take your crystal dust in the next few days, am I right?"

Mars frowned and nodded.

"Yes? What about them?"

"Well they just crossed the fifth floor, noticed me hunting and one of them, a scout with a freakishly strong skill that allows him to see everything in a two mile radius identified me as a Cultivator. That would not have been much of a problem, but I wanted to nip this problem in the bud and confronted them."

Mars frown deepened and he felt a headache coming for him.

"What did you do?"

"I asked them nicely to forget that they saw me and they seemed amenable to the offer since they did not want to be followed around on account of their illegal and valuable cargo they would bring soon. But when I turned around to leave, one of their men attacked me with a sacrifice skill."

It was Mars turn to gasp as he gaped at Aaron who showed them the long rip in his clothes that was still marked with crimson, turning the dark fabric sticky and even darker than before.

"A sacrifice skill?" Mars asked to clarify. Still not really believing what he heard.

"Apparently that is what it is called. The man moved so fast I could barely see him. After that things escalated. I killed three of them and three of them escaped with an emergency teleport. But I managed to track them down on the other side of the fifth floor and I trapped them there without any of their equipment. Sadly the scout of theirs managed to escape me entirely."

Mars listened to the wild tale he would not believe anyone else. Take on the Half Moon Gang caravan on his own after having taken a sacrifice skill? That was simply unbelievable. But as Mars studied the man in front of him he had to believe every single word. It was not the first time Aaron had defied expectations.

"The scout managed to escape?" he asked while his mind tried to parse through the information and he considered what this meant for his future plans.

"Yes he used an enchanted cloak's spell that allowed him to vanish into a pocket dimension apparently. I had no idea that was even possible and by the time I questioned the survivors of our little skirmish the Scout in question must have been long gone."

"Sanctuary." Mars murmured and nodded. One of the few enchantments that were brought down to Ambition from upstairs. It was entirely useless in combat. But people in his line of work used it to enchant closets and chests so they could vanish themselves or make some cargo or valuables vanish. It was a useful thieves tool. What was better than to entirely vanish for a few hours when someone came to kill or tax you?

"Is that was the spell is called?" Aaron asked and Mars nodded.

"It has a time limit and you can not move at all while in Sanctuary. If you know what it is it only prolongs the inevitable. Its also usually impossible to tell what is happening outside so its a gamble to reappear."

"Well this scout can see through the sanctuary out into the world with his powerful scouting skill. I think that guy is coming down here to ask for your help. Or more likely he is going to demand it."

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Mars nodded again and his frown deepened. It was a bad time for this to happen. In a year this might have been good news. Now though? He was not ready to confront the Half Moon Gang. Would not be ready until he had an airtight plan to get his family out of their clutches. Only then would he bring war to them. His schedule had accelerated as he had found a new, safe way to Ambition, but his troops were not ready yet to face the hardened criminals of Ambition on their home ground. For a bit he thought about allowing the scout to order him around and rescue the people Aaron had apparently kept alive. He looked at the man with his identification skill that gauged someone's strength and it almost glitched out. He blinked rapidly. Aaron had made a leap in strength that was no joke. He went from 'dangerous to deadly' to 'uncertain to survive the encounter'. The catch all category Mars had made for the skill impression he had gotten for everyone slightly stronger than him. No wonder he had destroyed that caravan single-handedly. If he had recovered from an injury during that fight as well, then he was fairly certain Aaron would tear him apart if they ever clashed one on one.

No, even with a fake rescue he was certain the HMG would want revenge or would want him to remove Aaron. They were a vengeful bunch, especially under their current leader.

"You did not take their spirits?" he asked because he could not sense any class on the young Cultivator.

"Turns out they were too fat for me. I need to… level up so to say until I can absorb spirits of their size." Aaron explained and shrugged. He walked forward with a single glance to the ceiling where Mars protective enchantments were hanging inert and stepped in front of his desk.

"I see you found my cores." Aaron said with a smirk and pocketed the two marbles. "Thank you for your cooperation on that matter."

"Of course. It is the least we can do."

Aaron smirked at that and then turned serious again.

"So...what is your plan?"

"You took all of their equipment?" Mars asked, a hint of an idea forming in the back of his head.

"Yes, without their enchanted armor and weapons they are much less likely to run off to go up or cross the fifth floor." he explained.

Mars nodded slowly and sat down behind his desk.

"Well...I might have an idea if you can bring the equipment to me. We would need to send a team to recover the survivors and the corpses as well, so they could bring the equipment with them."

"What is your plan?" Aaron asked again and Mars smirked and leaned forward.

"Tell me Aaron, what do you think of a little performance?" he asked before he told him his idea.

Aaron listened to the rather convoluted plan and frowned, but little would depend on him. His presence was all Mars wanted. He considered it and then shrugged.

"Sounds rather complicated for you to execute, but on my part I am fine with it."

"Excellent. I will give you a good price for the recovered equipment once we are done."

Aaron waved his comment away.

"Sure, I actually brought most of it with me and I can bring it here shortly."

Mars paused a moment before he nodded and turned to Iris.

"Do you know the Warehouse on Trexium street?"

Iris who had stood nearby quietly listening nodded.

"There is a warehouse there that belongs to us behind a Bakery." Mars continued.

"I know the Bakery." Iris said and Mars smiled.

"Good. Bring the equipment there once you get it" he turned to look at Aaron. "I will deal with the scout and the preparations. It will take around 4 days for one of my teams to extract the people on the fifth floor. So in four days at noon I want you to be back here, if that is fine with you?"

Aaron hesitated and then nodded. This had went much better than he had anticipated. Mars had been really quick to capitalize on this new opportunity. But Aaron guessed this was one of the reasons why he was the Boss of this floor. In many ways it felt to Aaron like he was running the Town, not Aurix, who did not seem to do anything.

He turned to Iris.

"I would like your help to run some errands unless you have some work to do for Mars?"

Iris looked to Mars who nodded.

"Sure, take her with you. I would recommend not to come anywhere close to my office for the next few days though. If that scout's sensory ability is really that strong its for the better you are far away from here."

Aaron nodded and turned to Iris who gave him a smile and followed him out of Mars office.

"I will be here in four days." he said and then left with Iris in tow. Once they were out of the Alchemist guild hall they walked across the government plaza.

"I need some materials, metal bars to be precise." he said.

"Yes, I remember, do you want me to lead you there or do you want to...change first?" Iris asked looking at Aaron.

"Oh, right. I was in a bit of a hurry. Err…" he looked around for a spot to change.

"Follow me." Iris said and lead Aaron to a clothing store where Aaron changed outfits. He had the clothes with him and did not need to buy something, so it was quickly done. When Aaron was more presentable and did not draw eyes while walking on the street, Iris lead him to her warehouse and brought him to a section where raw ores and metal bars were stacked. Aaron studied the metals and Iris explained him what was what.

"Most of these ores are mined here on the first floor. Few people know that there is a mine here, but its only very basic metals. Copper, iron that kind of stuff. The higher grade materials that could be used for enchanting come from Ambition. I only have one metal bar each of those due to price constraints and because I did not know what you wanted."

"I think this will be plenty." Aaron said and filled his bag of holding carefully with the metal, ran out of space and put the rest in a sturdy reinforced jute sack. It did not weigh as much as he had feared and so he shouldered that rather easily.

"I will be back in a few hours with the armor, where can we meet?"

Iris hesitated and thought for a moment.

"How about your...shelter in the woods? I can bring a cart and you have no risk of alerting this scout you told Mars about."

"That sounds great." Aaron said and then smirked at her.

"So...how much did you learn from the two memory cores?"

Iris looked to the floor and then shrugged.

"Almost nothing. I can't get it right, no matter what I tried to do."

"Show me."

"What here?" Iris asked, looking around the warehouse and up to Aaron.

"We are alone here and its your warehouse paid by my money. I can't think of a better place in the Town for this kind of thing. So show me."

Iris hesitated and then got into the first stance of the Rejuvenating Fist. Or at least she tried to. It was a pale imitation of the real thing and Aaron was tempted to correct her immediately. It was almost painful to see her try to go through the first few punches. There was no force behind it, no tension and nothing moved within her body. Iris did not have Qi or magic or anything. She could not feel when it was working and yet… This was undoubtedly the Heavenly Kata. A bad rendition of it, but still. After a minute or so Iris stopped and looked to the ground.

"Its not very good, I know."

Aaron studied her for a long moment, before he asked.

"Do you actually want to learn this?"

Iris looked up to him, beautiful, hardened from the world and the fate she had fought against. A woman who had sacrificed much for her family and had not bent or broken. She did not answer immediately. She asked instead:

"Can I?"

"I am not sure, I would have to get permission I believe and you might be hunted for what you would become if I teach you. I was attacked today by a stranger I had never met before just because of what I am. The choice to become a Cultivator in the Tower is choosing to go through hell and purgatory to get to anywhere. But as far as I understood it, yes, normal people who are neither mage or Vessel can become Cultivators."

"You don't understand. Living in the Tower without powers is hell. Normal people vanish or die every day. Nobody holds Vessels or mages accountable for what they do to us. Law and order is for them, not for us. The only thing we can do is try to find a niche, a spot where we are in nobody's way. And the Town is civilized in comparison to other places. I…"

"Iris, really think about what that would mean. If you become a Cultivator climbing the tower is the only way to stay safe. Your family would be in danger. People would use them to get you to do what they want. Listen, I am not opposed to it. But you really have to make sure you know what you are getting into. Not aging sounds nice and for a loner like me its not really an issue. But you will survive your own grandchildren. Or that of your sister. Cultivators are not immortal, but we live for a very, very long time. So please, only consider this if you are ready to leave behind your family, your friends and loved ones. Because even if I could make you into a Cultivator, I don't think the same applies to your family."

"Why?"

Aaron sighed.

"Well, I don't think I have ever told you, but making normal people Cultivators has been tried before. There was a cult or religion that turned people into Cultivators a few hundred years back. Emnu was not fond of it and it all led to a rebellion. The gap, that floor 30 and 40 are unlivable, is the result of that rebellion. I might be able to make a few people into Cultivators, but more than that and the Lord of the Tower himself might act against it out of fear of a repeat in history."

Iris stared at him like he had grown a second head.

"How do you know all of this?"

"I can't tell you that, but I do. Listen Iris, it is possible and I am willing to try. But you have to be sure of the consequences. So please think about it. I will be back in an hour at the shelter."

Aaron said and walked out of the warehouse, leaving a slack jawed Iris behind.