It was a little awkward leaving the virtual environment so soon, and over the next 3 days, things only got more awkward. On Bruzigan’s advice, I poured the majority of the 20 AP from the 1st Floor into my Mana Pool, increasing my max Mana to 500, and the rest went to Magic Power. I’d really wanted to increase my Stamina too, but if Bruzigan had asked why, I wouldn’t have been willing to explain my Power of Imagination to him, obviously. Instead, I resolved to use one of my +5 bonuses from the next floor on it.

At the Magic Facilities building, the first order of business was accessing my new spells. Grosstin’s spell library was one of the most complete out of any faction’s, containing over 90% of all spells available in Area 1, so they were of course replete with Fire spells. Bruzigan hadn’t been kidding either when he said that Fire spells had some of the lowest Intuition requirements on average.

As I quickly discovered, there was a reason for that. Most Fire spells were basically slightly different ways of doing the same thing—directly attacking an enemy. Right away, I learned Exploding Fireball, Fire Arrow, and Exploding Fire Arrow. The “Exploding” spells greatly increased damage in exchange for having cooldowns that actually existed.

My nose was kept constantly to the grindstone leveling these spells up from the very start. Bruzigan gave his direct attention to Mewi, but he had someone monitoring me at all times who reported to him if I slacked off even slightly. The most respite I got was when my external Mana battery ran out of juice and needed to recharge from a special generator at the facility, a process which took about a minute.

I knew better than to complain, but seriously. They didn’t even let me take breaks to pee! I had to do my business with special “downstairs equipment” like a slot-machine addict! At least I didn’t need to adjust my eating habits to meet with Bruzigan’s approval—I'd always felt meals should be as efficient as they are enjoyable.

I wasn’t let off the hook at nighttime, either. While my body slept, my mind went back to the virtual realm. It wasn’t long that night before Bruzigan looked in on me. To my relief, he seemed satisfied. “Good progress today,” he said, “You’ve already gotten used to casting your spells with full force. I’d say you’re ready to train together with your fellow teammate, and we should be able to start on team coordination as far as the three of us next week.”

Bruzigan did something to merge my virtual space and the other members’ spaces together. “Anna! I’ve brought the new teammate I told you about. Pause training for now and come introduce yourself.”

A fighting ring that had appeared nearby when Bruzigan had merged the spaces vanished, and a young woman walked up.

My first thought: Woah, she’s smoking hot.

My second thought...

“I beg your pardon, and apologize in advance for my language, but what the flaming, poisoning, raging flying @#$%, is that thing around her neck actually what I think it is? Please tell me I’m wrong and it’s just a fashion statement.”

Bruzigan shook his head. “No, it’s exactly what you think it is. That doesn’t change the fact that she’s our teammate, and she’s decided that the...unorthodox nature of her relationship with Shumba is her business alone, so I must ask that you respect that.”

“All right then, but I’m just shocked that even someone with enough skill and strength to be on the team can have something like that happen to them, it’s asinine!”

Anna’s sudden explosion at this gave MY outbursts a run for their money. “What part of ‘it’s my business’ didn’t get through your head?! Just shut up, I don’t want any of your @#$% pity, flame-brain!”

“Pity? Don’t let assumptions make an ass out of you. Since we’re training together starting now, how about we lead off with a spar so I can show you just how much I pity you?”

“Fine by me!”

It was only later that I realized how pointedly Bruzigan did not stop us. Anna’s skills were the real deal. She clearly had a great deal more experience than me, and her defensive and healing spells gave me a tough time. However, I’d be darned if I’d give her much of a chance to retaliate. At first, I regulated my power, testing the limits of her shielding and healing, then went all out. By the time she was on the floor, I had used over 3/4ths of my Mana.

“You definitely pass as a damage dealer,” she said, “you’re like a flamethrower-slash-machine gun.”

“And trying to take you down with all those defense shield and buff spells you used is like trying to punch out a building. You almost made me run out of mana.”

“Thanks for the good fight. I take back what I said about you pitying me.”

Bruzigan gave a single clap. “All right, now let’s start working on what you can do together.”

As we were left to train on our own again, I couldn’t help giggling. “Lheticus, concentrate!” said Anna as the first wave of opponents for us appeared.

“I’m sorry, it’s just...the whole getting a better understanding of someone by fighting them is such a cliché, you know?”

She snorted. “It is, but I guess there’s something to it after all, flame-brain.” It was said as a term of endearment this time.

After I-hadn't-a-clue how long, Bruzigan gave us a ten minute break that was actually a talking session for “team-building” that he sat in on as well.

“Tell you about myself? Sheesh, where do I start...” I was fretting over how outrageous it would sound that I actually asked, no, begged the Tower to take me because of Mewi, when Anna spoke up. “Well, what family are you from, Lheticus? It can’t be big enough for me to have heard of it, we would have met before...”

“Family? What are you on about?”

“You--you're seriously implying you’re a New Summoned?”

“You mean you’re not? How is that even a thing?”

“No, I’m not. And what’s so strange about that? Here, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.”

She revealed her status, and there, right at the top, just below her name, was “Tower Born” instead of “New Summoned.”

“Jesus,” I failed to stop myself from saying.

“What?” said Anna, in the same haughty tone she’d demanded I not show her pity before.

“I’m sorry, it’s just...people actually procreate, here? They bear children in the Tower, into this crazy, violent world?”

Now Anna looked at me as though even though I was human like her, I was a strange and bizarre alien, which in a very real way I supposed I was. “Why shouldn’t they? The Tower changes people in quite a few ways when they’re summoned, but it doesn’t eliminate sex drive. And the Tower Born only take the Tutorial when they reach a certain age. Those that are born into wealthy families get all kinds of training, so that they’re more ready for the Tower, they get a fighting chance in the Tutorial and even Area 1’s Floors, rather than being thrown into it all of a sudden. Anyway, you still haven’t shown me yours.”

“Oh, right.” I revealed my status.

“You really weren’t born here,” she said, “and you cleared the 1st Floor on Extreme? That’s crazy.”

I grinned and pointed my thumbs at myself. “That’s strange though,” she said, your Innate Trait is blanked out?”

“That’s my business.”

Anna gave me a look, then shrugged. “Seriously though...nobody from the New Summons beats Extreme difficulty. Nobody even tries to. Nobody human, anyway. What gave you that kind of resolve?”

“That’s a longer story than I think we have time for right now,” I said with a look at Bruzigan, “for now I’ll just say that he’s someone who might be joining us.”

“Really? You found us a sixth, Bruzigan? You never told me that.”

“I’m not 100% sure of him yet,” he said, “but at this point, it’s possible. Anyway, it’s true that Lheticus and that candidate are extremely close.”

“Well,” he went on, “I was hoping to tell you more about myself as well, but it’s time to get back to training.”