The first safe zone of the Tower looked like a city that couldn't decide what it wanted to be.
Buildings of varying architecture clustered together without logic: stone towers next to glass structures next to wooden lodges that shouldn't have survived whatever weather this dimension threw at them. Streets wound between them in patterns that made geometric sense only if you squinted and gave up.
Climbers filled every available space. Some wandered in shock. Others had already claimed corners to rest, their eyes hollow with the particular exhaustion of surviving something they weren't ready for.
Dante found an empty alley behind a structure that looked like a blacksmith's shop and sat down with his back to the wall.
Dax and Lena followed.
"So what now?" Dax asked. His arm was still bandaged from the insect creature on Floor 1. The wound would need proper treatment soon.
"We rest, recover, and Floor 2 opens in twenty-four hours."
"And then?"
"Then we climb."
Lena shook her head. "You make it sound simple."
"It is simple, but not easy."
She studied him with those calculating eyes. "You still haven't explained how you fight like that."
"You still haven't explained why you're asking questions you know I won't answer."
A moment of silence. Then, unexpectedly, Lena laughed.
"Fair enough." She settled against the opposite wall. "I'm going to sleep for about twelve hours. If anyone tries to kill me, wake me up first."
Within minutes, she was out.
Dax stayed awake, watching Dante.
"I killed someone tonight," he said quietly. "The sixth guy. The one I was grappling with. When we were rolling around, I got his weapon free and I..." He trailed off.
Dante waited.
"I hit him. Kept hitting him. Even after he stopped moving." Dax's voice cracked. "I couldn't stop. It was like something took over. And when it was done, I felt... nothing. Just relief that I wasn't dead."
"That's normal."
"It doesn't feel normal."
"It will."
Dax looked at him. "Is that supposed to be comforting?"
"No. It's just true." Dante met his eyes. "First kill breaks something in you. The version of yourself that couldn't do that, couldn't take a life, that version is gone now. You're someone new. Someone who survives."
"And if I don't want to be that person?"
"Then you leave the Tower. Go back to Earth. Live whatever life you can manage as an unawakened. There's no shame in it."
Dax was quiet for a long time.
"My dad was a climber," he said finally. "He made it to Floor 12 before a drake tore him apart. I was eleven and Lena was thirteen. We watched Mom work three jobs to keep us fed because no one compensates families for dead climbers."
He clenched his fists.
"I'm not doing this for glory or power or any of that crap. I'm doing it because the Awakened get paid real money, enough to take care of people."
"Then stop questioning yourself and focus on surviving." Dante closed his eyes. "Your reasons don't matter to the Tower. Only your results."
---
Dante didn't sleep but meditated instead, running mental exercises while his body recovered.
The safe zone's ambient noise faded to white static. His awareness turned inward, to the System interface that flickered at the edge of his consciousness.
[Status update available]
He opened it.
[Name: Dante Graves]
[Class: Irregular - Undefined]
[Level: 3]
[Str: 14 (+3)]
[Agi: 17 (+4)]
[Vit: 13 (+3)]
[Int: 18 (+2)]
[Per: 17 (+2)]
[Wil: 22 (+3)]
[Skills]
[Recursion - ???]
[Deja Vu - Active, Lv. 2]
[Residual Memory - Passive, Lv. 3]
[Phantom Step - Active, Lv. 1] *new*
[??? - Locked]
[??? - Locked]
Three levels from one floor since the kills and the hidden objective he cleared while the others weren't watching contributed to that. His stats were climbing faster than they should.
The new skill caught his attention. [Phantom Step]. He remembered acquiring it on Floor 5 in his original timeline. Getting it this early changed things.
He tested it with a pulse of will directed at his legs and felt the sense of movement without motion.
The skill activated. For a fraction of a second, his body became translucent, weightless. He felt like he could step through the space between moments.
Then it ended.
[Phantom Step]
[Grade: Uncommon]
[Effect: Brief phase-shift allowing evasion of physical attacks]
[Duration: 0.3 seconds]
[Cooldown: 45 seconds]
[Note: Duration and cooldown improve with skill level]
It was short and limited, but in combat, a third of a second could mean the difference between death and survival.
He dismissed the window and returned to meditation.
---
Eight hours later, the safe zone had transformed.
What started as an emergency refuge was now a functioning marketplace where climbers traded resources, shared information, and formed alliances. The entrepreneurial ones had already set up stalls selling gear salvaged from Floor 1.
Dante walked through the crowded streets alone. Dax and Lena were still sleeping, and he needed information.
The largest gathering was near the zone's center, where a raised platform served as a makeshift stage. A man stood on it, tall and commanding, with the bearing of someone used to being obeyed.
"Floor 2 is a survival test," he announced to the crowd. "Seven days in hostile wilderness. Teams are essential. Solo climbers have a 15% survival rate. Teams of four or more push that to 60%."
Dante listened from the edge of the crowd.
"I'm forming an expedition. Fifty climbers, coordinated, with rotating watch schedules and shared resources. Anyone interested, see my recruiters."
Reasonable strategy, the kind of thing that would work for most climbers.
Not for Dante.
He moved on.
The information brokers had set up in a quieter section of the zone. Small booths manned by people with calculating eyes and prices for everything. Dante found one that looked less predatory than the others and sat down.
"What do you want to know?" The broker was a middle-aged woman with grey-streaked hair and the scars of someone who climbed far enough to earn them.
"Floor 2 hidden objectives. Known locations of valuable resources. Creature distribution patterns."
She raised an eyebrow. "That's detailed information. Costs accordingly."
"Name your price."
They negotiated. Dante paid in the currency Floor 1 dropped, glowing crystals that the System designated as [Mana Fragments]. When it was done, he had a mental map of Floor 2 that would have taken weeks to acquire through exploration.
"You're not like the other newbies," the broker observed.
"No."
"Advice? Don't stand out too much. The Tower notices. And so do the people in it."
"I'll keep that in mind."
---
He found Elliot Crane on the way back.
The golden boy had claimed an entire building as his headquarters, and climbers streamed in and out, all wearing the same expression of grateful devotion. Elliot stood at the entrance, shaking hands, remembering names, making everyone feel seen.
Their eyes met across the crowd.
Something flickered in Elliot's expression, maybe recognition, interest, or suspicion. He was too good at masking his reactions for Dante to be sure.
Elliot smiled and raised a hand in greeting.
Dante didn't respond. He walked past without breaking stride.
'Not yet. You don't get to know what's coming until it's too late.'
Behind him, he felt Elliot's gaze follow him through the crowd.
The game was already starting.
---
Dax and Lena were awake when he returned, eating something that vaguely resembled food from a vendor's stall.
"Where were you?" Lena asked.
"Gathering information." He sat down and shared what he learned about Floor 2: the terrain, the creatures, the hidden opportunities.
Dax listened with growing concern. "You got all this in a few hours?"
"I know how to ask the right questions."
"Or you already knew and you're pretending you just learned it."
Dante looked at him. "Does it matter?"
"...I guess not."
Lena was studying the mental map he sketched on a piece of scrap paper. "This is detailed. If it's accurate, we could clear the floor in half the time."
"It's accurate."
"How can you be sure?"
"Because the source had a reputation to protect, and lying to customers is bad for business."
Also because he lived through Floor 2 already and the information matched his memories. But that wasn't something he could explain.
"So what's the plan?" Dax asked. "We stick together? Find more teammates?"
Dante considered. In his original timeline, he climbed Floor 2 alone, nearly died three times, and took the full seven days to clear, but this time could be different.
"We stay as three for now. Small group moves faster. We can recruit selectively if we find the right people."
"And what makes someone 'right'?"
'Loyalty. Competence. The kind of person who won't sell you out for profit or power.'
"I'll know them when I see them."
---
The twenty-four hours passed quickly.
When the gate to Floor 2 opened, the surviving candidates lined up for entry. A total of 1,847 of them had cleared Floor 1, and the question was how many would make it through the next trial.
Dante watched the crowd. Most were exhausted, some were injured, and a few had the hollow look of people who did things to survive that they couldn't forget.
He recognized that look and had worn it himself.
[Floor 2: The Proving]
[Objective: Survive for 7 days]
[Secondary: Reach designated extraction point]
[Difficulty: Moderate]
The gate pulsed. Candidates began moving through.
Dax took a deep breath. "Here we go again."
"Scared?"
"Terrified."
"Good. Keep that. It'll keep you alive."
They stepped through the gate together.
The next floor swallowed them whole.