“I guess we do,” Sorin said. “What are we going to do about it?”

  He wasn’t ready to even attempt to climb solo. Maybe with a good defensive soulprint and some self-healing, he might have considered it. As it stood, if the team was breaking apart now, he’d have to go find some new recruits. Annoyingly, that would mean needing to redo his planned route. It had focused heavily on enemies that Nemari would do well against.

  “I have no idea what you’re going to do. We’ll go back down to Floor 0 and find another front-liner who isn’t going to get us killed.”

  “Oh?” Rue said. “We will? When did we decide that?”

  Nemari faltered and shot her a confused look.

  “I don’t remember agreeing to anything,” Rue told her.

  “I’m the group leader!” Nemari protested.

  “Maybe I’ll just leave the group if you’re going to kick out the guy who’s carrying us.”

  This is weird. I thought she didn’t like me. She’s always watching me like she’s expecting me to attack her. If anything, I would have thought her brother would be the one to calm Nemari down.

  But Odric just sat there, looking deeply unhappy while keeping his mouth shut. Whatever his opinion on this apparent rift in their new team, he wasn’t going to volunteer it. Instead, he focused on his stew and peered off into the distance while he slowly chewed.

  “He’s not… Look, I’m not saying he’s not a good fighter, just that he’s bringing trouble down on us. I thought we agreed on this!”

  Maybe I don’t even want to work with this team if they’re going to have secret meetings about me. Communication breakdowns after less than a week on Floor 1 don’t bode well for the future. But… fuck. Even getting to rank 2 would give me enough space to round out my kit with all the basics I need to cover. I could work with them for another week if it meant getting shit taken care of.

  “We didn’t agree on anything. You pissed and moaned about getting spiked by that manticore and tried to blame it on Sorin. Didn’t you think there was a chance you might get hurt while you were climbing?” Rue was practically shouting by the end.

  “Of course, I knew there was a chance! I’m trying to mitigate risks here! And Sorin is a huge question mark. He won’t tell us anything about himself, and he’s already caused us trouble.”

  “You know, your argument doesn’t make sense,” Sorin said. He knew it was the wrong thing to say if he wanted to calm everyone down, but he found himself growing annoyed with the fight. “You either trust me, or you don’t. If you trust me, then telling you that there shouldn’t be any more problems is good enough. If you don’t trust me, then what would be the point of answering these questions? You wouldn’t be able to confirm I was telling the truth anyway.”

  Odric chuckled softly in the background. When both Nemari and Rue spun to look at him, he just said, “Sorry, thought I saw something off in the distance.”

  “What the hell does that even mean?” Nemari snapped.

  But Odric just shoved another spoonful of stew in his mouth. Smart man.

  “Ignore him,” Rue said. “This isn’t about Od. It’s about your paranoia. Bottom line, we all knew Sorin was weird. We all knew we were taking a chance on him. Nothing’s changed except you got hurt by a monster that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise encountered, but which we fucking killed. That thing is legendary on this floor, and now it’s fucking dead. Oh, and when I say, ‘we,’ I mean, ‘Sorin,’ because he basically fucking soloed it.”

  “This time!” Nemari said. “It was a risk before because we didn’t know. Now we do. What happens when some rank 15 climber drops on our heads? He gonna save us from that, too?”

  “I don’t even know anyone at rank 15,” Sorin said.

  It was true. Rank 15s were so far beneath him—or at least who he used to be—as to be completely forgettable. Anyone under rank 50 wasn’t really worth dealing with, not for the kind of challenges he faced at the top of the tower. Even then, if he was going to talk to someone that weak, it would be a specialized craftsmen who was literally the best in the whole tower in their narrow fields.

  “That’s not the point,” Nemari told him.

  “It kind of is,” Sorin argued. “Your point is that you think some high ranking climber is going to come down here and fuck us up. I’m telling you now, that’s not going to happen.”

  “And I’m supposed to just take you at your word?”

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  “Why not? You were before.”

  “Nem,” Odric said. “There’s such a thing as being overcautious.”

  “Don’t you dare try to pull that on me,” she snarled at him. “Don’t you dare try to act like I’m the one being unreasonable here. If this is how you two feel, why didn’t you say something before?”

  “You were in such a hurry to run off and send your letter, you didn’t give us much of a chance,” Rue said. “Not that you much cared about our opinion. You’re the leader, right?”

  Fucking. Ouch. The guilt knife dug deep with that one. Wait, do I actually feel bad for Nemari now?

  Their team leader looked stricken. “Rue…” she trailed off. “That’s… Was I really that bad?”

  “Not most days, but since the manticore? Yeah, a little bit.”

  Sorin decided to take a hint from Odric and kept his mouth shut.

  “I’m sorry,” Nemari said softly. “I was just trying to do what’s best for the team.”

  Rue shook her head. “No, you were scared and letting that stop you from thinking things through. You knew Sorin was a risky addition to the team, but how can you look back at what we’ve accomplished in a week and say it wasn’t worth it?”

  Should I be offended by this? I feel like I’m supposed to be. Well, fuck it. It’s not like I’m not using them, too.

  “Nemari,” he said. Both women turned to look at him. “Why don’t we finish Floor 1, and if you still don’t trust me by the time we kill the floor guardian, we’ll go our separate ways? It should only take a week or so.”

  “That would be… maybe not a record, but impressively fast for a group that isn’t being escorted by a higher ranked climber,” Odric said. “Are you that confident?”

  “Assuming what I got from the Climber’s Union is accurate, yeah, I think we can do it,” Sorin said. “I plotted a route with this team’s capabilities in mind.”

  Nemari was wavering now, her earlier conviction gone the moment it sank in that the rest of her team wasn’t behind her. In truth, Sorin couldn’t blame her for her fears. They were entirely rational, but he didn’t think the truth would make her feel better. He still didn’t understand what had happened himself.

  “I still want to know why you lied to us about your soulspace,” Nemari said.

  “I didn’t. Whoever told you otherwise is mistaken. If you want the truth, I don’t understand what happened to me either. I really don’t have a better answer for you.”

  And telling you more about how I used to be rank 100 in a different tower would just get you calling me a liar again.

  Nemari looked at the other two. “I don’t like it.”

  “I’d like to hear his plan for the rest of the floor before we make a decision,” Odric said.

  “I… suppose that wouldn’t hurt anything.”

  The rest of this floor, Sorin promised himself. Then I’m going to think long and hard about whether I want you around. You’ve mostly been dead weight anyway.

  That wasn’t necessarily fair. They’d done fine for rank 1 climbers. It was just that Sorin was used to working with people who were more than capable of handling themselves in any situation, including facing down the truly powerful monsters that lived on the upper floors. He’d done a lot of reminding himself to temper his expectations, and he was a bit tired of it.

  If his planned route worked, though, he’d be done with Nemari in a week. He could deal with her for a few more days. Maybe he’d swipe Odric from the team when he left. Rue would probably want to come along, too. Maybe it wouldn’t be worth it. I’m sure there are other healers.

  “Alright, this is what I came up with,” Sorin said, forcing himself to be calm and personable.

  * * *

  “That’s actually a pretty solid plan,” Odric said.

  The four of them stood in a circle around a map Sorin had drawn in the dirt with a stick. It was a wide loop, probably thirty miles or so, designed to hit four different locations. Each spot had its own objective, one which Sorin hoped could be completed in less than a day. Of course, there was always a bit of luck involved in that sort of thing, so he was estimating a full week instead of just four days. It wasn’t like they were on an actual schedule, but there was a practical limit to how much weight they could carry in supplies. If the climb went on much past a week, they’d be foraging for food.

  Begrudgingly, Nemari nodded. “It would be nice to test out my new soulprint on something like that, plus there’s a lot of value in farming those monsters. Defensive soulprints always sell well.”

  Sorin turned to Odric. “Speaking of defensive soulprints, were you able to find anything?”

  “There were a couple of options. Decided to just get as many danirs as possible for what we had. Easier to split four ways, and you can pick out the soulprint that best fits your build. I’ve got your share in my pack.”

  “How much is it?”

  Odric thought for a moment. “A bit over a hundred danirs. One-twenty, maybe?”

  “You got five hundred and some total for all that junk?” Sorin asked, surprised.

  “Almost two hundred came from the… uh… liberated supplies we decided not to keep for ourselves.”

  “Really? Who knew those assholes were that rich?”

  Then again, that one guy did have a set of magic boots. Even if the enchantment on them is weak as shit, that’s still pretty extravagant for a rank 1 climber. Maybe I should be worried about more trouble coming from that direction if they had some kind of sponsor. He frowned at the thought. Either way, the solution is to keep climbing until I’m too strong for anyone to fuck with.

  “Does the team fund have enough to cover supplies?” Nemari asked.

  “For a week climb? Sure. We’ve still got leftovers from our run getting here. It won’t be anything fancy, but basic rations are easy enough.”

  Everyone made a face at that, but nobody uttered a word of complaint. Those were more for emergencies, anyway. Odric was a surprisingly decent cook, so much so that he was on permanent cooking duty now. That didn’t seem to bother him at all, but Sorin suspected it had more to do with how bad the rest of the team was at cooking. Just thinking about that meal at Nemari’s family restaurant was enough to turn his stomach.

  “Then let’s resupply and let Sorin do his last-minute shopping. We’ll head out in a few hours.”

  I guess she’s just going to pretend like that whole outburst never happened. Okay then, fine. I’m a professional. I don’t need to like someone to work with them, at least for a week. God, I miss my old team.

  Sorin collected the heavy pouch of danirs and dumped them into his own purse. “I’ll be back soon,” he said.

  “I’ll go, too,” Rue told him when he started to leave. “Got a few danirs of my own to burn through. Can’t spend it if you’re dead, right?”

  “Yeah…” Sorin said slowly. He knew an excuse when he saw one. And just what do you want that you can’t talk about in front of the rest of the team?