83 - Take it Easy

After successfully setting Rebirth, I lay down and sleep for quite a while. I’m not sure how long it is, but I wake up feeling more refreshed than I have in a while. Hanna is waiting for me with platters of steaming food in front of her, as if she knew exactly when I was going to wake up. Well, she probably did. She is a Life specialist.

“Good morning,” she says. “Breakfast?”

My stomach growls in answer, and I get up and sit across from her. We eat in relative silence until I’ve had my fill, which is more food than I usually eat. That’s probably not good.

“How long was I asleep?”

“A few days.”

“How many is ‘a few?’”

“I honestly don’t know. I haven’t really paid much attention to day and night in the past few hundred thousand years. I don’t really sleep anymore, and we’re currently underground. I’d guess close to three?”

“Doesn’t that mean I missed registration for the Tournament?”

“The Tournament? Oh, right, Sam did add something like that. Hold on, I’ll ask.”

She looks vaguely upward, and if she does anything with her oum, I don’t sense it. A few seconds later, she looks back down at me.

“Yes, you did miss registration. And Sam says he can’t bend the rules this time, since it’s related to the Floor itself, and not just the Legacy.”

“...I see.”

“Well, it’s not really a big deal,” continues Hanna. “There are more, right? And you know better than any of the other Climbers that a few weeks is nothing in the grand scheme of things.”

“Yeah…”

It really isn’t, but I also told a few people I would participate, and now I’m not. Jin Hayou will be disappointed. I could still get back in time to watch it, I guess… but if I did, what about Hanna?

“If I leave to go watch the Tournament, where will you go?”

“I dunno,” she says, shrugging. “Out. If you’re worried you won’t see me again, don’t be. We probably won’t see each other again on this Floor, but that’s only because the rules of the first Floor are unique. I’m free to go almost wherever I want, whenever I want. I can visit you. I probably won’t too much, since too much interference from higher powers spoils Climbs, in my opinion, but we’ll still see each other pretty regularly. Once every decade or two, maybe?”

So if I leave now, I won’t see her again for another decade. It’s not really that big of a deal, but if I go to the next Floor soon, that means that not only will I be without her, I’ll be without any of the others from this Floor either. Alone again.

Well, it’s not like I’ve got a time limit. As she said, a few weeks is nothing. I can just wait until the next Ascension Test in 7 weeks. Or maybe the next Tournament in 13. It’s not really a big deal. I knew this coming here. Still, I’d be lying if I said I was expecting not to have a choice. The first trial took me a week. I figured the second and the third would be similar, and that I would be aware of the Tournament and its deadline. Sleeping through it wasn’t something I planned on. 

Oh well.

“How long are you gonna stay here?” I ask Hanna.

“Until you leave,” she says. “I was gonna meet with someone else in a couple months, but if I can’t make it, he won’t mind. He understands how Legacies work. He might just wait until I show up anyway.”

“I don’t know about a few months…” I say. “But I wouldn’t mind staying a little longer.”

“What’s wrong with a few months?” she asks. “It’s not that long, is it?”

“No, I guess not…”

“Besides, I’m sure we can find plenty of things to talk about. We should both have a lot of stories.”

I do have plenty of stories, though I don’t think I’ve ever actually told them to anyone. I couldn’t trust them. Can I trust her? Probably. She’s already immortal and knows about my own immortality. Why would she care? But even then, I’ve never done anything like this. I’m not even sure where to start.

Fortunately, she seems to sense my thoughts, and launches right into a story of her own about a time when she accidentally embarrassed some powerful criminal organization and ended up on the run for five Floors until she found a secluded cave that she could rest and cultivate in before emerging to wipe them all out. I’m still not quite ready after that story, so she starts another about a time when she went out on a little excursion post-Ascension, and tried to mess with a random man while in disguise. She spent an entire month doing it, only to find out that the man was the Wanderer and he had been doing the same to her.

That reminds me of a story of my own from a life where I worked as a spy, and ended up deep undercover, only to find out that my cover story husband was also a spy working for an insurrectionist group. That life didn't last much longer, since we both got caught and assassinated soon after, but it was one of the few times I truly laughed.

With that dam broken, we go back and forth, trading stories for so long that I lose track of time. A week passes. Then another. We don’t talk the entire time. I take breaks to cultivate and sleep, and she goes off to talk with Sam a couple times. The Tournament goes by without my notice, as does the upcoming Ascension Test, and then a few more weeks after that. Apparently, a few new Batches arrive while I’m gone. Most are from Earth, but there are a few Tower natives as well. Or so Hanna tells me. She’s getting her news from Sam, who is still not allowed in the Legacy room with us.

As the next Tournament approaches. I do start to get a bit restless though. As relaxing as my time has been down here, I’m getting anxious for some reason. I want to go out and do something. I ate the next segment of the Seven Color Star Fruit and am approaching Middle 2 Star. I could easily brave the northern regions and possibly find that Snow Ginseng for Trinity. 

Aside from that, I’ve already outgrown this Floor by quite a bit. I want to see what the upper Floors are like. I want to cultivate in the higher oum density. Especially on the way higher Floors. Hanna describes the difference in oum density between here and the upper floor like the difference between gas and a neutron star. Even by the 30th Floor, it’s enough that non-cultivators would die just standing there. 

And I also can’t deny that I’m curious how the others are doing. Vanessa should be close to reaching 2 star, right? The others probably too, since they got the very generous Starter Quest rewards.

About two and a half weeks before the second Tournament, I tell Hanna some of my thoughts.

“Well, if you want to leave, then leave,” she says. “I’m not gonna stop you. I’ll see you again soon anyway. If you want to stay, I’ll stay, but if you want to go, I don’t care.”

“Then I’m going to go,” I decide.

I may have missed the last Tournament, but I think I want to make this one. I could wait a bit longer for the Ascension Test, I guess, but I don’t see why. There’s nothing left to do. I’ll get back in plenty of time to go back to the north, and after that, all that will be left is to go up. Waiting around would just be wasting time.

“Well, then have fun. Want some snacks for the road?”

“Yes.”

Hanna’s snacks are delicious. 

She takes me back into her void beast’s realm, and I pick out a few fruits and cookies to take with me. I only intend to take a few of each, but she gives me boxes and boxes of them. I can’t even protest because she has a literally infinite supply. Plus, my own voidspace is significantly bigger than it used to be, so storage space isn’t an issue. Something interesting that I’ve learned is that it’s completely possible to open another voidspace inside an existing one. I would have guessed otherwise, but it’s very convenient because I can just transfer the boxes directly without needing to ever actually carry them.

“My friend is going to be on the 11th Floor,” says Hanna when we re-emerge. “I’ll just wait for you there.”

“Alright.”

“But don’t rush things just to meet me. Remember, my timescale is different than yours. If you keep me waiting for 20 years, that’s nothing.”

“Right.”

“And don’t forget to have fun.”

“I’ll try.”

“Now get out there and go show the Tower who’s boss!”

“Alright. I’ll see you later then.”

“Yep! See you when you get to the 10th Floor! Bye!”

“Bye.”

Faster than I can blink, the room warps, and suddenly, it’s empty again. There is no trace left of Hanna. Her furniture, her food, and even the crumbs and mess we may have left a bit of lying around is gone. A moment later, Sam appears.

“So what was the 3rd challenge?” he asks.

“Make her laugh,” I lie. 

Hanna told me not to tell him. It’s some kind of immortal prank where she’s trying to make him go as long as possible without finding out. I personally think she’s cheating, since anyone who fails will probably fail before they even know what the challenge is, and anyone who succeeds will have her telling them not to tell him. It’s a bit unfair for Sam. And also mildly amusing watching him narrow his eyes, trying to figure out if I’m telling the truth or not.

“No, that’s a lie. I can’t picture you doing that.”

I shrug. “Believe whatever you want.”

“Are you leaving now?”

“No, I’m going to stay here forever.”

“Hmmm, maybe she’s grown to like dry sarcasm?”

“Maybe,” I agree. “I’m going now. Unless you have something important to say.”

“I’ll give you something good if you tell me what the challenge is.”

“No you won’t.”

He’s not allowed to. Hanna told me that.

“I will.”

“If you don’t have anything real to say, I’m going now.”

I start walking toward the door, but stop when he calls out again.

“There is one thing,” he says. “I heard a rumor that a certain Stray is going to be participating in this upcoming Tournament.”

“...Which one?”

“Good luck!” he says, disappearing.

Well, that’s interesting. There are only two that could mean. Either the Stray King has finally decided to move on, or the Stray Princess. Those are really the only two Strays I’m aware of, so it has to be one of them. I’m curious to see which it will be, though either of them might hinder my plans. I’ll need to push to Middle 2 star if I want to stand a chance. I wish he had told me this before I left, because otherwise, I would have stayed a bit longer and eaten the next piece of the fruit. Oh well. I can just do that in my room anyway.

It’s finally time to get out of the cave. I haven’t seen the sun in… almost 3 months now. Wow. It’s been a while since I went that long without even seeing it through a window. That hasn’t happened since that one time I decided to see how long I could stay in a dark cave without going insane. The answer was long enough that I got bored and left, but it took a while to reach that point.

Anyway, I’m finally leaving. I’m gonna register for the Tournament, then head north to see if I can find a Snow Ginseng, and then… well unless I lose to the mystery Stray, I’ll be heading up to the second Floor. I’m feeling a little excited.