Jorn stuck his face out of the window, taking in the desolate scenery. As far as the eye could see, it was nothing but dirt and weeds, baking in the light of the unnatural sphere in the sky.

The dirt of the 10th Floor was either sandy tan or red clay, the mountains themselves were striped with the two colors. Studded here and there were bushes and strange rotund plants with spikes called ‘cactuses’.

There was still life here, Jorn found. There were toads the size of horses that buried themselves in dirt and had no compunctions about eating men. There were razor-sharp lizards that raced across the baked earth with unnatural speed, slicing off whatever meal they could find.

There were rams with fleece made of literal clouds, strange, shadow-lurking monsters that preyed on the unwary, sucking their blood when no one was looking, and more.

And they expected Jorn to hunt them.

Jorn. The young man who had only gotten half an apprenticeship before his father keeled over.

This was everything he ever wanted, and it was probably going to kill him. The fuzzy excitement was beginning to give way to the cold hard truth of the moment.

Jorn was half excited, half about to shit his pants in terror.

And this damn priest wouldn’t shut up!

“The thing about Deceivers is that they don’t mean to bring chaos down on the heads of others.” The well-kempt young man said. “To the outside observer, they may seem like heroes or demigods. Fictional beings of great strength, who run the gamut from evil to benevolent, but they are, as a whole, a yoke around the neck of mankind, who shatter our great works and scatter our people to the..”

“Jorn, get your head back in the bus!” Lily begged, her face crumpled as tears formed in her eyes.

Neither of them was listening to the priest of Granesh who had caught a ride up from the 5th Floor along with the other missionaries.

“The escort said your head might get cut off!” Lily whispered, tugging on his shirt. “Or worse, you could get in trouble.”

“Fine,” Jorn groaned, leaning back into the bus an instant before a razor lizard whipped its blade-like tail past his nose.

From her vantage point directly behind him, Lily hadn’t seen it, so Jorn decided she didn’t need to worry about it. She was already panicked enough being on a Floor so far from civilization with no hope of escape.

Best not to tell her he almost died.

He slammed the shutter closed maybe a bit more forcefully than necessary and slumped back down in his seat, scanning his fellow busees.

It was a veritable who’s who of orphanages from the ring. From north to south, there were children of every size and shade, with only their age and status as orphans to unite them.

The northern kids were listening rather intently to the priest’s sermon about Deceivers. Sounded like made up stories to control children to Jorn, but he’d just seen a sheep with clouds for fleece, so…who was he to judge what was possible?

Still sounded off to Jorn’s ears.

There were about forty children, and a dozen adults. Four of those adults were Anna, having met in the center of the Tower after recruiting from the four corners of the Ring.

Jorn had heard and understood Anna’s story about being in more than one place at the same time, but he hadn’t really internalized it until he saw four identical girls operating like a single entity, wordlessly assisting each other making lunch for the three dozen transplanted Specialists.

Thinking of Anna, Jorn glanced over and spotted all four of her giving the priest of Granesh a simmering glare while the priestess of Holdna patted her on the shoulder.

The priest of Lumesh had a cloth over his face and snoring loudly with the priestess of Anaisa slumped up against him, while a priestess of Andover was trying to run a dice scam and being ignored.

The Holdna priestess caught Jorn staring and her gaze flickered to the bow beside him, her expression softening.

Jorn looked away. Father prayed to Holdna and look where that got him.

He settled into silence, throwing an arm over Lily’s shoulder and taking a note from the priest of Lumesh.

Bang Bang!

A few hours later, the porters unceremoniously dropped the bus on the ground and rapped on the side to let them know it was safe to come out.

As one, the occupants stretched and groaned before they filed out of the bus, eager to meet their new Lord.

“Climbers that way, Specialists looking to get hired that way, missionaries over there, commissioned Specialists over here!” Jorn blinked as he heard Anna’s voice from outside the bus.

He glanced behind him at the four Anna’s herding the other kids towards the front, helping them with their bags and making sure their clothes were straight.

One caught his gaze and winked.

Lily latched onto his arm, making disembarking difficult, especially as the glare of the afternoon sun nearly blinded him for a moment as he descended the wooden unfolding stairs.

Jorn blinked through the sudden light and spotted the stream of orphans heading off to the right, where a group of adults were standing.

There was one figure among them that stood taller than the others.

Jorn swallowed his spit and joined the crowd, assembling into a rough line in front of Anna, who stood beside a strange dragon-man, the ponciest looking fellow Jorn had ever witnessed, and a tall young man with an intense gaze.

He had dark hair and bright eyes that seemed to pierce through them, like he was looking through their flesh and into something deeper. He had a blank mask tilted up on his forehead to reveal his face, and a masterwork tomahawk on his belt.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He radiated power, as though the world somehow bent and twisted to his whim. His boots were made of the leather of some exotic monster, and on his hands…

Where are his hands?

“Greetings! My name is William Oh, and-“

“What happened to your hands!?” One of the kids with no brains blurted.

“Oh these? I cut them off.” William Oh said, raising his arms to reveal two fleshy stubs where his forearms had been truncated.

“Why!?” Jorn demanded, discovering that it was his voice this time around.

William Oh briefly met his gaze with a half-smile before he scanned the rest of the commissioned specialists.

“…I was curious to see what would happen if I offered different hands to my Primary Abilities.” He said.

This guy’s crazy. Jorn thought.

“But don’t worry, I used anesthetic and had a friend help out with the procedure.” William Oh said, gesturing to the dragon-man standing beside him. “I’m not crazy.”

If there was one fact that was solidified among the commissioned orphans that day, it was that their Lord was crazy.

“They’ll grow back!” William Oh said, his voice sounding a little desperate.

Anna cleared her throat and nudged William Oh in the side.

“Right. The speech.” William Oh muttered.

“Greetings, Specialists.” He said, beginning to pace along the line of orphans. “You’ve all been given potent Sacrifices that will allow you to become among the most influential in the tower. Once your term of engagement is over, you’ll be counted among nobility wherever you go. Your value will be such that Lords will be forced to humble themselves to request your services.

According to our agreement, your term of engagement is ten years, after which you can negotiate your own terms of employment. Until then I will be responsible for your safety, your food, shelter, and general well-being. You in turn, will be expected to leverage the unique benefits of your Class to support the growth of the Burned Stronghold. I’ll be-”

“Why’s it called the Burned Stronghold?” A kid blurted.

“’Cuz somebody lit it on fire,” Will replied in a dry tone.

“Why?”

“Because they were trying to ensnare me in a logistical nightmare that took three years to wake up from.”

As William Oh paced back and forth along the line of his commissioned Vassals, his feet gradually began to leave the earth.

It seemed that William Oh walked on air as a nervous tick.

“You couldn’t have come a better time, because my Party and I just got new Ability upgrades, so we can all sit down and figure out our Builds together. To that end, I’ve brought the men and women who will be guiding you in your roles and helping you make the right choices for your Build.

The ones with Dryad Sacrifices, over with Anna.” William Oh pointed to where Anna was standing beside a flag with wheat grains on them.

Lily reluctantly let go of Jorn’s shirt and went over to the ‘farmer’ group.

“Guardsmen, those with the Metal Slime sacrifice, over there.” Will said, pointing at where a tall, athletic young woman was standing bearing a halberd.

Half the remaining orphans clustered around the young woman, mostly young men with large builds.

“Logisticians and craftsmen over there.” William Oh said, pointing at a haggard looking man with black hair bearing a notebook and pen.

The remaining dozen children went over to their supervisor, leaving Jorn standing by himself, feeling rather singled out.

“My necromancer can come join me,” William Oh said, looking directly at Jorn and waving him over with his arm. Jorn suddenly felt the eyes of the other 40 children on him as he hurried to stand beside the living legend.

Whether they were staring at him because he was receiving personal attention or because of the ‘necromancer’ reveal, Jorn wasn’t sure.

What the Abyss does he mean, Necromancer!? Jorn thought, eyes wide. Maybe that ominous pearl-thing said ‘seed of undeath’, but…necromancer!? I mean, the Abilities the System offered were pretty weird, but…

“Nice to meet you,” William Oh said, offering his left hand. A moment later, a shimmering blue gauntlet appeared at the end of his truncated wrist, prompting Jorn to shake himself out of his stupor and shake the hand.

“Jorn.” He said, shaking the floating gauntlet.

“Last name?” William Oh asked.

“Hreinnson.” Jorn said, feeling like he was about to be set on a pike for the disrespect of not having a grand enough last name. After all, this guy was crazy.

“Deer-son?” William Oh mused, thumbing his somewhat unkempt beard with the glowing gauntlet.

Those piercing eyes glanced back down at him.

“Did you buy any new Abilities on the way up?”

“Nosir,” Jorn said, shaking his head emphatically.

“What are your primaries?”

Since there was no precedent for Jorn’s Class, Anna had simply told him to pick whatever he felt would be suitable to finish his Trial, and they would sort things out afterwards.

These were the skills he’d taken for his Trial.

Totem Guardian

Active: 5 Charge

Upon slaying a creature, the user may pay 5 charge to create a bone totem.

Toggle: 7 Focus. User may break a totem to summon the spirit within. The spirit has all the abilities of the original, and fights on behalf of the user. Its power scales with the user’s Focus, up to the limit of its original strength. Dismissible.

𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Bone Arrow

1 Charge

Craft Focus/10 Arrows from a single bone. When used against targets of the same species the bone originated from, these arrows ignore a portion of their Resistance. Arrows apply a necrosis debuff. Scales with Focus.

William Oh stared at Jorn for a long moment, and Jorn was sure he was going to kick him out, or maybe just kill him for wasting his time.

“…Yeah, we can work with that,” Was all he said, nodding.

“But it’s not that great.” Jorn said, somehow arguing against himself out of nerves.

“Nobody’s Abilities are great right away.” William Oh called over his shoulder as he turned away. “Now follow me, I’m going to go threaten a priest and then we can talk about your upgrade paths.”

“O-okay.” Jorn said, hustling to keep up with the Lord’s pace.

A minute later, William Oh stopped in front of a small sandstone temple, seemingly prepared for the Graneshian missionary.

“Are you visiting the-“

CRASH!

William Oh kicked the door open and sauntered in, and Jorn hurried to follow behind him, his confusion rising.

In the middle of the room, the priest of Granesh was hoisted into the air, suspended by some kind of invisible rope digging deep into his throat.

“Greetings. My name is William Oh,” William Oh said as he approached the priest clawing at his own neck.

“And your name is Paul Stevens. Born in a little town called Jundale on the east side of the tower, just inside the ring. You Mother can’t stop bragging about you. She says you showed such exceptional piety when you were young that you volunteered to go to a monastery, where you became a high achiever among your brethren. Eventually you were allowed to use a Saint’s Sacrifice to become a missionary Priest, assigned to the 10th Floor, where the infamous William Oh resides. You were given an order to keep an eye on him. Of course, since you are an overachiever, you decided to go the extra mile and try and undermine his authority through the teachings of the church.

“Paul… you know what your family is doing right now? Your younger sister is getting water from the old well behind the homestead while your father prepares firewood to cook dinner. His back is hurting these years, so my spy is helping him with the firewood.”

Will’s eyes widened.

“Oh, now your parents are inviting him to join them for dinner, as a thank-you for helping with firewood.” Will said, his unfocused gaze piercing right through the purple-faced priest.

“Should my man join them for dinner?” William Oh asked. “Or should he do what I sent him there to do?”

“D-Dinner.” The priest croaked, his bulging eyes beginning to flutter.

“Don’t fuck me, Paul.” William whispered as he poked the priest in the chest with his forearm. “Don’t you ever try to fuck me. I’ve got my eye on you, and everyone you love hangs in the balance. Watch. Your. Mouth.”

Whatever invisible rope was suspending the priest released him, and he collapsed to the ground, gasping for air, face rapidly regaining its normal color.

“Alright, let’s get back to it,” William Oh said, ushering Jorn back out into the light of day. “First things first: Let’s introduce you to June, get you a bow and some bones from the local wildlife, and start working on your Sacrifices.”

The Lord seemed to notice Jorn’s shock, pausing to face him mid-stride.

“Me and the church of Granesh have history. You don’t have anything to worry about. Probably.”

Probably!?