With the majority of his time spent staring aimlessly in his Soul, those three days had passed by like a suffocating exhaustion.
Of course, there were always some complaints and his own challenge of trying not to strangle the Climbers, but he had managed to endure through the shifts.
Not only did he barely learn anything about responsibility, he had also learned that Climbers saw human workers like him inferior. For some reason, they all shared a similar derogatory tone when they spoke to Jace as if he wasn't integrated with the Soul just like them.
Climbers fought monsters for a living, serving as humanity's greatest protectors while mundane humans in Pensula resided with peaceful lives with their family and friends. It felt like a disgrace to their Soul, letting it collect dust and refusing to see the potential in their power.
For Jace, he could hardly bother with other people's beliefs about the Soul. The three days only seemed longer because they decided the need to share their perspectives on life.
It was like scraping plates to his ear.
And when things turned physical, he recalled one Climber tried to fight him for the offer of an unfair price or just because the auburn boy had an attitude. But Mister Finch had stopped the Climber, apologizing for his behalf before anything else could escalate.
But Jace knew he was practically twice the Level of these people. If they were descending into lower Safeworlds like Pensula, there was a chance that Jace was the most powerful Climber here.
Yet, his purpose and greatest obstacle was to become a service worker for bargaining Climbers.
'Not anymore! I'm free!'
Jace closed the windows on each side of the shop, hanging his apron along the wall and pounded his fists on the counter. The third day was finally over.
Mister Finch dropped a small, bulky bag of coins next to him.
"This is goodbye, then."
Jace opened the small bag, finding not gold, but chromed coins in a spectrum of colors. These were the currency of the higher set of Floors. He wrapped it back tightly and turned to the old man.
"If you had this much money, why did you settle so low in the Tower? Wouldn't you earn more with the proper Climbers?"
Mister Finch hung his apron and said back:
"I choose to be here not by income, but my own will. This is my world to live in. I can't ask for anything else."
Jace stuffed the bag underneath his shirt.
"I guess the Soul has made you crazy, too. Also, don't go around thinking I'm your pampered son when I get out of here."
Mister Finch walked over and patted him on the arm.
"Do you know where to go?"
Jace tiredly groaned.
"You told me about a hundred times and drilled it into my head. Of course, I know where to go. Are you trying to remind me again?"
"If you may."
"I use the Port Crystal to Sun Valley, I find the woman named Agnes, she illegally forges—"
"Not illegally, but it is far less tedious than what the administration requires."
"So, illegally."
Mister Finch patted his arm again with a squeeze.
"You find the woman named Agnes, then what after?"
Jace continued his telling of the plan.
"I find the woman, I get my license, I buy some food, new armor, some weapons, maybe a new house along the way, and ascend the Tower."
"That's odd. I don't remember telling you to indulge the money in those other materials."
"You gave me enough money to last months, do you seriously think I would live like a peasant with that?"
"It seems your lessons about responsibility have not been fruitful."
Jace snorted a laugh for the first time in his life.
"If your lessons about responsibility means to hold myself back from strangling other Climbers, then it worked."
Mister Finch squeezed his arm again.
"I see, but you are missing one important detail about your journey."
Jace pretended to look around the room in confusion.
"I'm missing something?"
"The Bypass. Can you remember why I have given you the Bypass?"
"To also illegally traverse in the Tower? Hey—ow! Goodness, old man, did you invest your only Soul Point into STR?"
Mister Finch gripped his arm harder.
"Jacey-boy, the woman Agnes is not one to be trifled about, especially in empty hands. You give her the Bypass as a service, do you understand?"
Jace pried off the old man's hands.
"Sure, whatever."
Before he could forever leave the shop, and this world, the old man called to him with one last request.
"And what do you say?"
Jace turned around at the door.
"Say what?"
"Have you no appreciation for your elders?"
"Oh—thanks, I guess."
Mister Finch nodded, smiling with wrinkles stretching across his face.
"Be kind to your Soul."
Jace indifferently shrugged, closing the door behind him as he waved the final goodbye to the old man. He certainly didn't deserve the generosity, nor did he deserve an escape from his commercial fate on the second Floor, but this was his way of fighting back.
If it meant pulling on the heartstrings of an old man, then so be it, he wanted to return back to becoming a Climber.
He wanted to strengthen his Soul again.
Some time later, he slumped back into his bed in the crappy inn. He would have to wait until morning for the Portkeepers to be active. It was a stupid rule though he forgot to consider they were workers as well, assigned with their own line of shifts in the Tower.
He rested his hands behind his pillow, staring at the ceiling taped in cheap decorative paper, and inhaled the smell of old wood.
'I'm not going to sleep, am I?'
He turned his head over, facing the nightstand next to him.
On the surface was a singular oil lamp, sitting beside a lonely and small health potion. The moon somehow found its way through his window and shined alluring light into the vial, presenting him with a new idea that had enticed the rotting feeling inside him.
Jace rested back on his pillow, pulling his right hand into view.
Had his (Ring of Haste) always glimmered like this?
He dropped his arm over his eyes and sighed.
'I'm not that crazy…no—seriously, I won't do it.'
But his Soul had opened by itself, almost like answering to his desire, and magnified the lines of the Relic.
He mistakenly peered one of his eyes around his arm and read the Relic's description once again.
[Description: Simple things bring simple promises.]
He groaned, angrily flinging his hands through his Soul, and dismissed the transparent window as he sat up.
"Erin, what did you do to me?"
With another round of groans, he rubbed his face and strapped on his old gear. He had never had the chance to analyze the amount of damage his leather armor had taken, but he imagined the ripped and tears made him appear as someone far from a Climber.
He hid his Tower funds underneath his cuirass and pocketed the small potion. Then, he walked out of his cheap inn and towards the nearest Port.
With a few turns across avenues and corners, while avoiding the commoners and roaming guards ushering in the law of curfew, he reached it without any issues.
The night was easy to mask his figure, especially with his prominent agility, none of the other humans noticed him creeping around.
He carefully stepped inside the circle of engraved runic symbols, sitting alone and quietly among the night. The only thing could be heard was the doubt of his own breaths.
And maybe some hesitation.
Jace pulled the Bypass out of his pockets, studying the tattered paper again.
'How…does this work?'
He waited for a few minutes, staring blankly at the runic paper without any purpose.
'Don't tell me I need a Skill for this to activate…how embarrassing, seriously."
He smacked his lips, waving the paper through the air as if that was a way of asking the Port to collaborate.
Then the runes of the Port began to glow, same as the Bypass, and surrounded the lone Climber in a familiar hum.
Jace was first startled, but he said clearly through the humming air:
"Seventh Floor, Hailfen."
The sound of the hums turned distorted, an uncanny sound to how it usually was.
[Soul detected.]
[Beginning ascent.]
He dismissed any concerning thoughts, figuring that the Bypass must have had a different reaction towards the illegal ascendence of the Tower.
But whoever Agnes was, that woman wasn't getting her deal. Jace said he wanted to be alone and never once obliged to the old man's request. He was going to be a new Climber his own way, without anyone else's influence.
The Port Crystal to Sun Valley was just his starting point. Not before he would return the Relic to that girl who was infesting his mind the past week. She was going to be the last thing to cut away from his pitiful shell of the past.
'If she's not in Hailfen, then I'm keeping it. It's my Relic, after all…right?'
Then the lights, instead of shimmering, flashed into his eyes and consumed his Soul entirely.
[Process successful.]
[ClimberJace has ascended into the 77th Floor, Cavern of Devils.]