They made their camp in a small gully two miles away from where they’d been attacked. It had a row of trees growing across the upper banks, so thick that thousands of root ends stuck out of the walls and the canopy blocked out the sky. Sorin was confident nothing of any significant size could come at them from above, which just left the front and back of the gully as possible attack angles. A smart and numerous enemy would hit them from both sides at once, but monsters were rarely that intelligent.

  “We’ll have to do double watches tonight,” Sorin said, “but otherwise this is a good place to camp.”

  Rue gave Nemari, who was still being practically carried in Odric’s arms, a significant look. “I don’t know if we have the manpower for double watches.”

  “We’ll figure something out,” Odric said. “Staggered, overlapping shifts, maybe.”

  “I’m fine,” Nemari said, not that she sounded like she was even in the same neighborhood as fine. “I can keep my eyes open and stare out into the darkness for a few hours, same as everyone else.”

  “Sure you can,” Rue said. “And if I flap my wings fast enough, I can fly.”

  “I think what Rue is trying to say,” Sorin cut in before Nemari could reply, “is that you took the worst injuries in the group, and we all understand that you need a bit more downtime than the rest of us right now. You know if any of us had gotten hit in the opening salvo, you’d be insisting that we take it easy.”

  With the whole team forming a united front against her, all Nemari could do was sigh and give a glum nod. “Fine. In that case, help me limp over to that moss bed. I’m claiming it for the night.”

  Once Odric had her stretched out on the moss, her back propped up against a fallen log, she took a deep, pain-filled breath, winced, and said, “We’ve got about four more days of rations before we need to even think about heading back, and we’ve had an unexpectedly good haul of soulprints already. I could fit one more F-rank in. I think Odric’s full. Sorin? How much space do you have left?”

  Sorin hadn’t really gotten a good look at his soulspace since the manticore fight. Warrior’s Vigilance was E-ranked, though, and his empowered Ice Dart was also E-ranked now, which took up a lot more space than the weaker F-ranks. “I’m almost out of space. If we found a small F-ranked, I could probably make it work, but that would be about it.”

  “And Rue…” Nemari paused to consider. “Two or three F-ranks, or a good E-rank?”

  “Roughly that, yeah. I’d like to get a good active soulprint.”

  “There’s still that Wind Slash,” Odric offered.

  “Nah. Better to sell it and use the danirs on something that fits my build,” she said. “Maybe a stealth soulprint, if I can’t find anything for combat.”

  “Don’t forget the boots,” Sorin pointed out.

  She nodded and lifted a foot to show off the gray leather. “Seems to do what you thought it would, and I’m not sure if it’s all in my imagination, but I feel like I’ve got a bit of bounce in my step, too?”

  “Might be something for jump height, or maybe faster walking speed,” Sorin said as he considered it. It was too bad the boots were too small to fit his feet. If he could have tried them on, he was sure he could identify what they did.

  “So the question is whether we hunt for specific soulprints or just find a good spot to harvest as much anima as we can. I feel like I’ve got Firebolt on the brink of upgrading itself to E-ranked.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Sorin said. “It might be better to head back to civilization for now and pick up some new soulprints instead of doubling down on the ones we’ve got.”

  “Why?” Rue asked. It was clear she was eager to increase her power now that she was finally a real climber.

  Hard to blame her. I think I vaguely remember being that enthusiastic when I was young. Or hell, just a few years ago when we killed the Floor 99 guardian. The afterparty was wild. But they’re all missing something important.

  “Right now, we’re relying on numbers to give us access to all the skills we need to be successful,” Sorin said. “And that’s alright. It’s Floor 1. Things shouldn’t be that challenging. Hopefully, with those three assholes that were baiting monsters on us taken care of, we can have some nice, quiet, easy monster killing.

  “But what if we don’t? What if something goes wrong again? Odric’s the only one with firsthand experience on Floor 1, and, by his own admission, it’s not very much. We’re climbing blind here. We’ve got a few good soulprints and some extra supplies to sell. We should head back in, consolidate our gains, and come back better prepared.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “We will, but why waste the time we’ve got now?” Nemari argued.

  “Because what if that volley had hit Odric instead of you? Who would have saved him? If he’d gone down in the first three seconds, he’d have died. Rue probably would have lived since she only got hit with one spike, but I guarantee you she’d be feeling worse than you do right now. We need to start taking steps to mitigate that kind of risk, and that means getting a few healing soulprints for the rest of us—some utility soulprints to increase our awareness would be good, too.”

  “He’s got a point,” Odric said. “Not to say you’re bad at it, but right now, you and Sorin don’t have the soulprints for anything but killing. I’m our only healer, and Rue’s the only one who can sense monsters coming in.”

  “That’s what our team is supposed to look like,” Nemari said. “Sorin fills the front line to keep anyone else from getting hurt, which he’s been doing very well.” She shot a glance his way. “I don’t blame you for not standing in front of me when that manticore attacked. No one saw it coming.”

  “I can’t believe something like that was living on Floor 1, even if it was a runt.”

  The others exchanged surprised glances. “A runt?” Rue asked.

  “Normally they’re about fifteen to twenty feet long.”

  “Maybe it was a teenager,” Odric said.

  Sorin shook his head. “No, it was fully grown. It had three soulprints on it. That thing’s been around for decades. It was just… small.”

  “Forget about the stupid manticore. It’s dead now,” Nemari said. “Sorin, this is what our team is supposed to look like. This is how climbers work. We need to be leaning into our strengths, not trying to turn everybody into all-arounders. We’ll never get anywhere if everyone is heading in three different directions instead of focusing on group cohesion.”

  God help me, of course she subscribes to that outdated philosophy. I should have known when I saw the team composition.

  The idea that everyone had their individual role and that the team worked together sounded good on paper. But it always led to disaster when something went wrong, usually when the healer got taken out in some unforeseen manner. Redundancy meant slower progress, but it also meant higher odds of survival. Climbing was a marathon, not a sprint.

  “I understand that our soulspaces are limited and that we need to carefully consider what to put in them, but trust me when I say no good will come from overspecialization. Eventually, we’ll be surprised by something and lose Odric, and everything will fall apart from there.”

  “Of course we should get some overlap in specialties,” Nemari said, “but it doesn’t need to be today. I’ll be fine in the morning. We have plenty of supplies. We should use them instead of running home with our tails tucked between our legs.”

  “Something else to consider is this soulprint eyeball,” Odric said. “If Sorin’s right, it’s worth a lot of money. Too bad it’ll only last a few more days before it deteriorates since we don’t have any way of preserving it.”

  Nemari stared at the big healer blankly for a second, then said, “Shit. Fine. You win. We’ll head for the portal hub in the morning. The thing better be worth the hike.”

  “If we don’t get at least five hundred danirs for it, we basically gave it away,” Sorin said. Of course, I’m basing that on what I’ve seen other soulprints priced at. Hopefully I’m not too far off market value.

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Nemari warned. Sorin couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

  He didn’t think anyone else could, either.

  * * *

  Nobody got much sleep that night. They ate a cold meal, and Odric cleansed the poison out of Nemari as often as he was able to. Then Sorin set himself up alone at the north end of the gully while Rue took the south side and the other two got some sleep. Four hours later, Odric took over for Rue.

  Sorin kept watch on his side all night. He needed rest, but with his new soulprint enhancing his stamina, he was a little bit better off than any of the rest of them. Between that and being in a body in the prime of its life instead of one getting toward sixty, he was confident in his ability to pull an all-nighter once in a while.

  Morning light filtered down through a screen of green leaves, and Odric took it upon himself to get breakfast ready, not that there was much to do there. Climber’s rations didn’t need cooking, and Sorin doubted they’d taste any better if anyone tried.

  Of all the things that could be the exact same, why did it have to be the taste of these things? Why couldn’t this version of the tower have rations that’re actually good?

  Sorin wasn’t so lost in his own thoughts that he failed to notice the three of them engaged in a hushed conversation while he sat up at the far end of the gully. It came to an abrupt halt when he stood up and started walking back to the rest of the group, which confirmed the topic of conversation in his mind.

  Hopefully Nemari didn’t change her mind about heading back. I really don’t want to have this argument again now that she’s feeling better.

  But that didn’t come up. The group ate in silence and then shouldered their packs. Conversation was strained, and nobody really seemed interested in trying to force it, so they walked quietly instead. The only time anyone said anything was to question their route and once when Odric pulled them off course to harvest a small cluster of blue-capped mushrooms he said were valuable.

  They didn’t go out of their way to hunt any monsters, but that didn’t mean the day was peaceful. Twice before their lunch break, they were attacked by what appeared to be some sort of large rodent that had bristly fur like steel wire. Sorin killed the first one with a single stroke of his sword, driving the blade deep into the monster’s open mouth when it lunged out of the brush at him, and Nemari set the second one on fire from a hundred feet away.

  “How are you holding up?” Odric asked while they ate.

  “Just a bit tired. Think we’ll make the portal hub tonight?”

  The big man nodded slowly. “Probably, if we can keep up this pace and don’t run into any trouble. The accommodations aren’t anything special, though. And, in its own way, the hub is just as dangerous as being out in the field.”

  “Oh, trust me, I’m well aware that sometimes the biggest danger in this job is other climbers,” Sorin said darkly.

  “Yes,” Odric agreed. “Other climbers are always something to be wary of. Listen, I don’t have anything that specifically restores energy, but my healing ability can relieve weariness in a limited capacity if you need it.”

  “I’m fine, but thanks. You should spend your anima on Nemari. She needs it more than any of us.”

  Odric nodded again and climbed back to his feet, then retreated back to where Nemari and Rue were sitting. It couldn’t have been more obvious that there was a growing divide between him and the rest of the team.